When Western art incorporates the East
Antonio Jose Rubi Before I would like to start the article, I would like to admit, as a Latin Catholic who attends the Latin Mass, I also admire the Byzantine Liturgy of John Chrysostom. I was exposed to the Byzantine Rite at a young age, when I read a book on St. Basil's Cathedral, and the Our Mother of Perpetual Help Icon. I could have attended an Eastern Catholic liturgy, but most are compromised with Vatican II. Look at this painting. It is a depiction of an 18 th century western European art depicting the East and the Orient. The painting shows Empress Catherine of Russia, attending the conversion of Louis of Baden, the wife of her grandson, the future Tsar Alexander I in the Byzantine Russian Orthodox Church. Alexander’s father Paul is also attending the ceremony. What makes it strange is that Western European art, rarely depicts the East, as in the case, the Byzantine Rite, instead focusing on Baroque style art. The Eastern Orthodox bishops, priests and clerics, and one O...