Week 5 Prompt A

A State Secret by John Petite

The piece makes the argument to me that worldly things are passed off as godly. That the affairs of men are misconstrued as the affairs of god. That personal opinion and self interest are interpreted in some minds as godly mandate and righteous action. The piece supports these ideas with strong imagery. The painting depicts a cardinal seated at a table, red robes flowing down a wooden chair. Official documents are spread over the table and on one end a broad illustrated bible. The cardinal is burning one of the documents and the ashes are falling onto the floor next to a wax seal he had presumable ripped off the document before he burned it. Behind him a novitiate in a white robe is recoiling in horror at the cardinal’s actions.
The cardinals actions are not that of a Godly man. He is using his place of power to conceal things that he interprets as heretical or in opposition to what he believes is the will of God. I can hear the stern justification he give to the novitiate “It is the will of God!” Is it really though? I do not believe so, I don’t think that God would dirty his hands with worldly things that this cardinal is wrapped up in. The piece uses differences in color between the two subjects to support the claims. The cardinal is dressed in red and the novitiate is dressed in white. The symbolism involved in these two colors is very interesting. Though thy sins be as scarlet... tells me that the cardinal isn’t a holy man.
The details of the piece show that the affairs of god are looked over while the affairs of men take center stage. The cardinal’s hands are buried in worldly documents while the illustrated bible is ignored. It is one of the only brightly colored objects in the room, it begs the eye to focus on it. The cardinal’s attention in wrapped up in the document he is burning. The flame on the document seems to symbolize the actual consequences of the course the cardinal is taking. By ignoring the bible, using its presence and influence to cover and legitimize the worldly things he is interested in, the cardinal risks flames himself. The worldly things he deals in will crumble into ashes.
My analysis is like a piece of art because it clams things that it can support with details and interesting facts. For example it shows that the hero has to make a choice to take a risk; grown and develop or to stay where he is and keep the things he has. Then it uses this example to show how that idea of choosing risk or safety is central to adventure. In my analysis I originally asked alot of questions that I did not answer, and I had alot of disconnected comments. I tried to organize my comments into coherent paragraphs and to centralize the questions I want to ask into one or two key statements and then answer those questions and support my answers with research and substance from the game itself. Hopefully this more coherent structure and supporting research has made my piece more aesthetically pleasing and palatable.

500 word criteria