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By Ruth Barbara Burns Department of Art History and Communication Studies Mcgill University, Montreal August 2005 a Thesis Submi

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By Ruth Barbara Burns Department of Art History and Communication Studies Mcgill University, Montreal August 2005 a Thesis Submi READING RACE IN WESTERN CHRISTIAN VISU AL CULTURE: TRACING A DELIRIUM FROM RENAISSANCE ART TO THE CHRIS OFILI AFF AIR AND CONTEMPORARY RELIGIOUS CINEMA by Ruth Barbara Burns Department of Art History and Communication Studies McGill University, Montreal August 2005 A thesis submitted to McGill University in partial fulfillment of the requirements of the degree of Master of Arts in Art History. © Ruth Burns (2005) 1 Library and Bibliothèque et 1+1 Archives Canada Archives Canada Published Heritage Direction du Branch Patrimoine de l'édition 395 Wellington Street 395, rue Wellington Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Ottawa ON K1A ON4 Canada Canada Your file Votre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-24854-6 Our file Notre référence ISBN: 978-0-494-24854-6 NOTICE: AVIS: The author has granted a non­ L'auteur a accordé une licence non exclusive exclusive license allowing Library permettant à la Bibliothèque et Archives and Archives Canada to reproduce, Canada de reproduire, publier, archiver, publish, archive, preserve, conserve, sauvegarder, conserver, transmettre au public communicate to the public by par télécommunication ou par l'Internet, prêter, telecommunication or on the Internet, distribuer et vendre des thèses partout dans loan, distribute and sell th es es le monde, à des fins commerciales ou autres, worldwide, for commercial or non­ sur support microforme, papier, électronique commercial purposes, in microform, et/ou autres formats. paper, electronic and/or any other formats. The author retains copyright L'auteur conserve la propriété du droit d'auteur ownership and moral rights in et des droits moraux qui protège cette thèse. this thesis. Neither the thesis Ni la thèse ni des extraits substantiels de nor substantial extracts from it celle-ci ne doivent être imprimés ou autrement may be printed or otherwise reproduits sans son autorisation. reproduced without the author's permission. ln compliance with the Canadian Conformément à la loi canadienne Privacy Act some supporting sur la protection de la vie privée, forms may have been removed quelques formulaires secondaires from this thesis. ont été enlevés de cette thèse. While these forms may be included Bien que ces formulaires in the document page count, aient inclus dans la pagination, their removal does not represent il n'y aura aucun contenu manquant. any loss of content from the thesis. ••• Canada Abstract Reading race in Western Christian visual culture: tracing a delirium from Renaissance art to the Chris Ofili affair and contemporary religious cinema Ruth Barbara Burns This thesis examines the role of the Manichean dualism, the pervasive colour symbolism of white as good and black as evil. It looks at the manifestation of this symbolism in representations ofChristianity, and the subsequent implications for race and racism in Western society. Through images of Jesus Christ and the Virgin Mary, 1 posit that the Western conflation ofholiness with whiteness is a primary means through which whiteness retains hegemony. 1 argue that Renaissance painting has had a pivotaI role in privileging the white body through its hyper-whitening ofboth Jesus and Mary. Both figures emerge as improbable ideals of male and female whiteness, demonstrating the anxiety around the intersection of race, gender and religion. 1 am primarily interested in Mary and how the canon of Western art has didactically laid out the terms ofher representation as a means of controlling the female body, dependant on the disavowal and whitening ofher body. The privileging of religious Renaissance art results in the continued infection of the construction and reception of the Virgin's image as an ideal figure offeminine whiteness. As such, 1 analyze the lasting effects of the whitening of her image in the controversy surrounding the display of Chris afili' s The Holy Virgin Mary (1996) at the Brooklyn Museum of Art, as weIl as her representation in Hai! Mary (1985) and The Passion ofthe Christ (2004). These readings attempt to draw out the specious nature of the Manichean dualism of black and white, aiming to help in the creation of a space for alternative readings of race through the eyes of hegemonic society. 2 Résumé Lire la race dans la culture visuelle chrétienne occidentale: tracer un délire (manichéen) à partir de l'art de la Renaissance jusqu'à l'affaire Chris Ofili et le cinéma religieux contemporain Ruth Barbara Burns Ce mémoire examine le rôle du dualisme manichéen, le symbolisme de couleurs répandu du blanc représentant le bien d'un côté et du noir représentant le mal, de l'autre. Il aborde la manifestation de ce symbolisme à travers les représentations du Christianisme et de ses implications pour la notion de race et le racisme dans la société occidentale. À travers des images du Christ et de la Vierge Marie, je soutiens que la fusion de « sainteté» avec « blanchitude » est un des principaux moyens par lequel le blanc conserve son hégémonie. J'affirme que la peinture à la Renaissance ajoué un rôle crucial pour privilégier le corps blanc à travers l'hyper-blanchiment de Jésus et de Marie. Ceux-ci émergent en tant qu'idéaux improbables de la blanchitude mâle et féminine, démontrant ainsi l'entrecroisement entre race, genre et religion. Je suis surtout intéressée par Marie et par la façon dont le canon de l'art occidental a défini de manière dialectique les termes de sa représentation - une représentation dépendante à la fois de la blanchitude et de la pureté. De privilégier la peinture religieuse de la Renaissance a comme résultat une infection continue de la construction et de la réception de son image comme figure idéale de la blanchitude féminine. Après avoir établit la montée du dualisme manichéen dans l'art de la Renaissance, j'analyse ses effets durables en Amérique du Nord contemporaine à travers la controverse qu'a suscité l'exposition de l' œuvre The Holy Virgin Mary (1996) de Chris Ofili au Brooklyn Museum of Art. Je lis dans cette controverse une réaction à la création d'une Marie non-hégémonique, autrement dit non-blanche, dans l'œuvre de Ofili. Je lis aussi dans les films Je vous salue, Marie (1985) et The Passion ofthe Christ (2004) des lieux où Marie est définie en tant que féminité purifiée, celle-ci à la fois définie à travers, et dépendante de, sa blanchitude. Ces lectures tentent de déstabiliser la nature réconfortante de ce dualisme manichéen entre noir et blanc, créant ainsi un espace pour une lecture autre de la race à travers les yeux d'une société hégémonique. 3 Acknowledgements There are many people who have contributed to the writing of this thesis. 1 would like to thank my supervisor Professor Charmaine Nelson, whose mentorship inspired me to tackle the difficult subject ofwhiteness as a race. 1 am deeply grateful to my family who has been an incredible source of support and love. Thank you Mom, Dad, Carolyn and Cameron. 1 would also like to thank my friends (you know who you are) who listened and helped me as 1 grappled with the ideas presented here. Thank you to Professor Ting Chang for her support throughout my undergraduate degree and pushing me to pursue graduate studies. Thank you to the McGilllibrary staff and to Karin, Maureen, Vincia and Susanna for their administrative support. AIso, a special thank you to Carolyn, Shane and Vera for their late night editing. 1 couldn't have done this without you. 4 Table of Contents Abstract ................................................................................................... 2 Résumé ..................................................................................................... 3 Acknowledgments ....................................................................................... 4 Introduction: the white bodies of Jesus and Mary ............................................................... 6 Colour symbolism and race in Western visual culture ............................................... 8 Critical whiteness studies and the field of Art History ............................................................ 14 Chapter one: Race-ing Christianity: white and black in Renaissance art ....................... 20 The racialization of Christianity .............................................................................................. 23 Laying the foundations for a Manichean Delirium ................................................................. .31 The rising cult of whiteness in Venetian painting .................................................................. .36 Art Historical mis-readings of race: Ignoring race in Venetian painting ................................ 39 Benign justification of atrocity: The black Magi' s gift of Africa to Europe .......................... .41 Conclusion ................................................................................................43 Chapter Two: A challenge to whiteness: Chris Ofili's The Holy Virgin Mary ................ .45 The Controversy ...................................................................................................................... 50 Idealized white femininity: The intersection of race and gender in the Virgin Mary ............. 59 Comprehending The Holy Virgin Mary: Blackness, elephant dung and pornography ............ 70 Chapter Three Race and Christianity in cinema: Encounters with the white holy body ......................... 78 Biblical films and the canon of Art History ............................................................................. 80 Shining light in film: A motif of Christian 'goodness' and spiritual transcendence
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