Arsugan Wijayanathan
3149553
VISC 1001 002
Professor Haladyn
Garnet Willis
7 November 2015
Title
Gaspar De Crayer’s painting “The admission of Saint Bernard to the Cistercian Order” is made more authentic by following the views that Saint Bernard had about the church. Saint Bernard had many writings that would change the Cistercian order. Gaspar De Crayer was able to study these writings, and paint Saint Bernard’s admission to the Cistercian Order in a way that Saint Bernard would like and not in a way it may have actually been at the time.
The painting is of two men right outside a monastery. On the top right corner the clouds part away pointing towards the hand of one of the men, One man is dressed in a white robe,…show more content… As a child he was destined for the clergy, so his parents gave him a more special treatment compared to his other 6 siblings. At first he was fairly resistant in because he did not like the abusiveness of the church. He was very criticizing the luxury among bishops and clerics. At the age of twenty two years old he arrived at the New monastery, but instead of following a church career, he followed the Pauperes Chridti, and lived in a forest formed community. There he was able to gain a following of 30 men, a few of the men were married, and when they became monks their wives became nuns. When he returned to the New Monastery he returned with his following, who was very established so they were welcomed as saviors. When Stephan was choosing men from Bernard’s following to be the superior of the Pontingy or to be the Abbot of a different monastery Stephan chose men from Bernard’s group but not Bernard. When Abbot Stephan chose Bernard to be an Abbot, he gave him one condition, and that was that the monastery he would be the Abbot of would belong to the woman of the church, whose husbands that followed Bernard and became monks. When Bernard rewrites scriptures he wouldn’t just copy the writings, instead he would try to find the inspiration of the text. He had very strict rules for the illuminations (illustrations) for the scriptures. The rule was that all
