Shadowing Practice: How Do Religions Use Art?: Crash Course Art History #8 - Learn English Speaking with YouTube
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In 1931, James Hampton began receiving visions from God.
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In 1931, James Hampton began receiving visions from God.
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Hampton was a custodian working in Washington, D.C and following his visions started collecting shiny things,
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tinfoil, jelly jars, and old light bulbs.
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He called himself the Director Special Projects for the State of Eternity.
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Hampton's collection grew until he had filled a rented carriage house from top to bottom with carefully selected fragments.
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He worked relentlessly until the array of found and discarded objects became something new,
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transforming the individual pieces into a unified whole,
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a work of art and architecture as ornate and impressive as many cathedrals.
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So what I'm saying is, religious artwork is much more than old churches and paintings of baby Jesus.
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Hi, I'm Sarah Urist-Green, and this is Crash Course Art History.
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You might think that religious art is made for a few simple reasons.
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To honor a deity, proclaim a belief, or maybe inspire practitioners.
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But religious art exists for all kinds of purposes.
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Purposes that are totally diverse, both within and across different religions.
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Like some religious art is practical.
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It instructs followers about an important belief or idea.
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Take for example the artwork in the Egyptian Book of the Dead, made around 3,000 years ago.
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This book is filled with paintings that serve as a kind of map to the afterlife.
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This image from the book shows the post-death journey of a scribe named Huneper.
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He's the one in the white robe, which is not only a super strong look, but also an indication of his clean soul.
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The guide to the right of Huneper is Anubis, the god who oversees passage to the afterlife.
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He holds Huneper's life in the palm of his hand, literally.
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In ancient Egypt, life was represented by that symbol, called the Ankh.
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In the next scene, we see Anubis weighing Huneper's heart.
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If, based on how many wrongdoings he's done on Earth, his heart is heavier than the feather of truth,
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order, and justice, Hunnifer will get eaten by this creature with the crocodile head, named Amit.
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Ooh-ee, this is high stakes, Hunnifer.
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Luckily, his heart is lighter than the feather, so Hunnifer gets to meet Osiris, god of the afterlife, in this last panel.
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And we assume he lives happily ever after life.
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So we see here that the Book of the Dead doesn't just display what ancient Egyptians believed.
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It uses clear imagery to let people know exactly what to expect on the other side.
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It instructs and prepares you for what to do in this life and the next.
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But not all religious artworks are quite so step by step.
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Others are more open-ended, intended to evoke a particular feeling or state, rather than provide a set of instructions.
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Like check out this minimalist rock garden at Ryoanji, a Zen Buddhist temple built in the 15th century in Kyoto, Japan.
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The elements in the garden aren't symbols that can be directly decoded, like how the Ankh symbolized life.
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The meaning of the garden changes from person to person.
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But the feeling of peace and the experience of meditation can be shared.
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Many religious artworks aim to inspire the feeling of awe or reverence, like this lavish 9th century cover of the Lindau Gospels.
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When you pick up this impressive tome, light passes over its gold surface and through the raised jewels,
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reflecting toward the center, where Jesus hangs on the cross.
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This trick of the light was meant to evoke wonder and amazement in its readers, emphasizing the miraculous quality of Jesus' triumph over death.
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But it's complicated.
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People don't always agree on the right way to generate spiritual feelings, even when they believe in the same gods.
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Like to Catholics at the time, the use of fancy materials showed the object's spiritual significance.
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But to the Protestants, especially during the Protestant Reformation, it represented an overindulgence in worldly things.
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The Protestants vibed with art that was a little less… blingy.
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And that's just one of the many disagreements around how one should and should not create religious art.
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But there's really no end to the possibilities for making it.
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Like check out the Rothko Chapel, a meditative space in Houston, Texas that holds 14 massive works by the American painter Mark Rothko.
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The chapel isn't tied to a specific religion, but still manages to evoke spiritual qualities.
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Three canvases hung side by side make up a triptych, a common format in traditional religious art.
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The layered pigment creates an impression of depth, as if you're looking beyond this reality, perhaps into what lies beyond.
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And the shadows of clouds as light streams in from a skylight change the look of the paintings from moment to moment.
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In both this and the Lindau Gospels, we see how powerful the manipulation of light in religious art can be.
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We can't touch or hold light, but we know when it's there.
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This echoes the way that the divine is often described across many different religions and time periods,
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making light a sort of cross-cultural communication tool in religious art.
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Now, religious art is often showcased in sacred venues, places where people gather to worship and be in community.
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But art doesn't just decorate these places.
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Often, the architecture of these places is the art.
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And this has been true for a long time.
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Let's go back almost 2,000 years and and step into the Dura Europa Synagogue, a sacred Jewish space.
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Jewish practitioners entered this room to study the scrolls of the Torah, or the first five books of the Hebrew Bible.
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And the synagogue's walls were almost completely covered with detailed paintings that tell stories from the Hebrew Bible,
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including the story of the prophet Moses and the history of the Jewish people.
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They don't just decorate the space, they create it.
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Or take a look at this Iranian mosque, which was built centuries later in the early 1600s.
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Its intricate geometric designs still mesmerize visitors today.
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But they're not just there to impress.
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They stem from an important Islamic belief that God is unique in being a creator of living things, so we humans should not depict living things in our art.
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This explains why sacred Islamic art is aniconic, meaning it avoids depicting people or animals.
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Artists instead use geometric designs, architecture, and calligraphy, inspiring awe through their perfect repetition and symmetry,
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as well as their scale, and engagement of light, too.
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So in both the mosque and the synagogue, the design of the space itself communicates spiritual beliefs.
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And at the same time, it supports spiritual actions.
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Like, mosques often feature murabs, or prayer niches, which physically point followers in the direction of a sacred shrine called the Kaaba,
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considered by Muslims to be the most sacred place on earth.
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In this murab, a bright color scheme of white, blue, and turquoise represents a heavenly garden,
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with yellow and green accents framing the arched gates of paradise.
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This merging of art and space can happen on a smaller scale too, where the art isn't the building itself, but the arrangement of objects within it.
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Take for example this carving, made by an Ibibio artist in Nigeria sometime in the early to mid-20th century.
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It depicts the deity Mami Wata, a water goddess worshipped by followers of various traditional West and Central African religions.
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Her hair and command of the snake in her arms show her spiritual prowess.
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And as a goddess believed to influence things like wealth and fertility, she's frequently honored with shrines.
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This figure might be placed on an altar alongside offerings like alcohol, perfume, talcum powder, and other valuable goods.
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So the carving doesn't just represent a goddess.
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It's an essential part of rituals used to gain healing and good fortune from her.
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Okay, up to this point, we've explored a number of religious artworks that that have been preserved for generations.
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But not all artworks are designed to last.
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Sometimes, it's just the opposite.
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Like with these sand mandalas made by Tibetan Buddhist monks,
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the process of creating a mandala is a meditative practice that requires extreme precision.
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The monks design an intricate geometric framework and then tap sand through copper funnels to meticulously fill in the lines.
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And then, after all this work is complete, the mandala is brushed away to symbolize that nothing lasts forever.
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Hindus in India have a similar tradition called kolam, traditionally done with rice powder.
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Kolam is displayed in the entryway to almost every building in Tamil Nadu.
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The artists, almost always women, make the designs every morning to welcome Lakshmi, the goddess of wealth and alertness,
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and Budavi, the goddess of the earth.
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These kinds of art are gone within hours, But permanence is not the point.
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The artworks are intended to be both beautiful and fleeting, kind of like life.
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Well, unless you've read the Book of the Dead and have your afterlife all mapped out.
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At the end of the day, you don't have to practice or even completely understand a religion to appreciate the art that comes from its traditions.
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Despite differences in culture, geography, and time period, humans have been asking similar questions for a long time.
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And art has helped us articulate those questions.
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What exists beyond what we can see?
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How can we talk about, imagine, and represent the unexplainable aspects of being alive?
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And how can we make sense of the world, full as it is of suffering, love, family, and everything else?
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Religious art doesn't always answer these questions, but it can make space to contemplate them,
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whether in silent reflection or together in community.
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In our next episode, we'll explore art made about and from nature itself.
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I'll see you there.
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About This Lesson
In this lesson, you will explore the fascinating relationship between art and religion as demonstrated in a variety of cultural contexts. Through the insights provided in the video, you will learn how religious artwork serves multiple purposes, from instructing followers to evoking deep feelings of reverence. You will practice your English listening and speaking skills by engaging with the vocabulary and concepts presented in the transcript. This will aid you in both understanding nuanced discussions on religious art and enhancing your conversational abilities, particularly useful for IELTS speaking practice.
Key Vocabulary & Phrases
- Visions: Experiences where one perceives or sees something that isn't physically present, often associated with spirituality.
- Deity: A god or goddess in a religious context.
- Practical: Useful, functional, or effective in achieving a specific aim.
- Instructs: To teach or provide information about something.
- Evokes: To bring or recall a feeling, memory, or image to the conscious mind.
- Awe: A mixed feeling of reverence, respect, and wonder, often inspired by something grand or sublime.
- Overindulgence: Excessive or inappropriate giving in to pleasure or luxuries.
- Mediate: To provide a space for contemplation or mental focus, often in a spiritual or artistic context.
Practice Tips
As you watch the video, take note of how the speaker, Sarah Urist-Green, articulates her words. Her speech pace is moderate, making it easier for learners to follow along. Try the shadow speech technique, where you pause the video after each sentence to repeat what you hear in your own words. This practice will improve English pronunciation and help embed vocabulary in your memory. Focus particularly on the emotional tones and varying emphases; doing so will enhance your speaking skills significantly.
Additionally, while engaging with the content, create a list of questions or reflections about the art forms discussed. This not only aids in reinforcing vocabulary but can also serve as excellent prompts for practice conversations about art and religion in English. As you learn English with YouTube, remember to express your personal thoughts about how art can inspire and instruct, which is invaluable for practice in real-life discussions.
What is the Shadowing Technique?
Shadowing is a science-backed language learning technique originally developed for professional interpreter training and popularized by polyglot Dr. Alexander Arguelles. The method is simple but powerful: you listen to native English audio and immediately repeat it out loud — like a shadow following the speaker with just a 1–2 second delay. Unlike passive listening or grammar drills, shadowing forces your brain and mouth muscles to simultaneously process and reproduce real speech patterns. Research shows it significantly improves pronunciation accuracy, intonation, rhythm, connected speech, listening comprehension, and speaking fluency — making it one of the most effective methods for IELTS Speaking preparation and real-world English communication.
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