Art Comparison Essay Research Paper Comparison between

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Art Comparison Essay, Research Paper Comparison between The Vishnu Temple of Srirangam and The Royal Abbey of St. Denis People are in many respects unique animals: they can create culture as no other animal can. As an aspect of this culture, they construct images for worship and admiration as well as icons for pleasure and practice. The former represents religion, and the latter art. In the various expressions of religion such as rituals, ceremonials, shrines, magical cults and worship, art is necessarily included. Both the temple and the cathedral represent a combination of religion and art; and their roots go back to a very remote past, in fact to the earliest stages of men s career on earth. People have built temples and churches of different kinds and worshipped in them

in some manner since that time. The Temple of Srirangam is situated in the southern tip of India and is the largest temple complex in all India. It is surrounded by seven rectangular enclosures, a sacred symbolic number. The temple has been enlarged many times over thousands of years and its original date of founding is unknown to archaeology. It is being estimated that most of the temple complex standing today was constructed between the 14th and 17th centuries. The Abbey of St. Denis has originally been founded in the 7th century by the Frankish King Dagobert in honor of Denis, the patron saint of France. In the 12th Century, a Benedictine monk named Suger started a renovation of the Carolingian Abbey Church that would turn out to be a major event in the history of

architecture. Gothic was born. The Srirangam temple was meant for the welfare of the nation. It preserved cultural and spiritual values among the masses. This also meant emotional integration of the nation. In short, this temple was a sacred religious institution where all the faculties are utilized for mutual harmony and welfare. Though it was built for the benefit of the whole community, it was also an expression of the devotion and piety of the ruler. It was thought that by building a temple the patron would always have peace and wealth. As royal abbey, St. Denis was a symbol of royal power, and what was done to it added to the glory of both the Monarchy and France. Thus its renovation was a political as well as an architectural and religious event. Abbot Suger was in a

position to recognize this fact and never hesitated to identify the best interests of the King, France, the Church and God. He was also never short of advancing and glorifying himself. The temple of Srirangam is a symbolic presentation of the various forces of nature – worldly as well as divine. The temple is the focus for all aspects of everyday life in the Hindu community – religious, cultural, educational and social. Both the temple and the abbey represented a place where God may be approached however the temple of Srirangam was much more designed to dissolve the boundaries between man and the divine than the royal abbey of St. Denis. The Hindu temple developed over two thousand years and its architectural evolution took place within the boundaries of strict models derived

solely from religious considerations. Therefore we can assume that the architect of the temple of Srirangam was obliged to keep to the ancient basic proportions and rigid forms. Abbot Suger s approach was quite different. After being promised, that [] through this memorial we should earn the prayers of succeeding brothers for the salvation of our soul; and through this example we should arouse in them a zealous commitment to the proper maintenance of God’s church [] , he pursued the economic advantage of St. Denis with energy, imagination and opportunism. His own self-esteem played a considerable part in the rebuilding of the abbey. He thanked God for having him granted the honor of reconstructing St. Denis and made allowances for money to be spent on a celebration in memory of