1960s English Pop Art

Having read the autobiography of Pattie Boyd, wife of George Harrison & Eric Clapton, I ran into this website that showcases the famous Birds of Britain project.

Applying Peirce to Image Interpretation --- Part Two

If we look again at our four categories --- NONE, ALL, UNIQUE and SHARED --- we immediately realize that they are all grappling with a disjunction that is the enumeration of our sources. Recall that we said that Altdorfer is facing the following situation (in the single source case):

Rufus v Arrian v Justin v Schedel v Harlieb v Aventinus

(where v is the usual vel of classical logic, inclusive or): a big disjunction of choices.

Thus, if we see 32k as the number of battle participants on the flag of the Macedonian infantry, we know that it is either Justin or Schedel or Aventinus, but not Rufus, Arrian or Hartlieb.

The problem is that this representation is logically incomplete. What is missing is the precondition that these are in fact all of the possible sources on the Issos battle that Altdorfer could have consulted. So, the more correct logical form would be something akin to (now in sentential representation):

(and  (sourceUsedInCW Altdorfer-Alexanderschlacht-1528 ?X)
  (memberOf ?X (TheSet Rufus Arrian ... Aventinus))
  (not 
     (thereExists ?Y
        (sourceUsedInCW Altdorfer-Alexanderschlacht-1528 ?Y)
        (not (memberOf ?Y (TheSet Rufus Arrian ... Aventinus))))))

Since this construction is so awkward, we usually have syntactic sugar to make this more palatable.

(candidateSourceUsedInCW Altdorfer-Alexanderschlacht-1528 Rufus)

...

(candidateSourceUsedInCW Altdorfer-Alexanderschlacht-1528 Aventinus)

And then some meta-predicate that makes the same point

(completeExtentAsserted candidateSourceUsedInCW)

... most likely in a suitably restricted microtheory context.

While this is inferential successful and will allow us to conclude NONE in the case of the 12k killed Persian foot, or UNIQUE in the case Oxarthes and the Frauenzimmer, it is also historically false. We have in fact no way to know that there are no other historical sources that were available to Altdorfer at that time. In fact, any day a chance find in the Regensburg library, comparable to the one that recently uncovered the Quintus Rufus edition that Aventinus apparently used (cf Wagner-Jehle, Albrecht Altdorfer: Kunst als Zweite Natur, in: Regensburger Studien zur Kunstgeschichte, Bd 17, Regensburg 2012), might reveal another source.

This could directly affect our UNIQUE or NONE queries, or turn an ALL into a SHARED. It might also upend our source dependency analysis in the case of a former SHARED query. 

This is where truth maintenance comes into play. We must at all times be prepared to take this enumerated set extents and re-validate them against the latest state if historical research, and modify our claims accordingly. The specific transformations are as follows (if there is any change, rather than no change):

• NONE into UNIQUE if the new source contains the feature
• UNIQUE into SHARED if the new source contains the feature
• ALL into SHARED if the new source does not contain the feature

Only SHARED would continue as SHARED, albeit potentially influencing the dependency graph. For example, in a situation before Cord Meckseper's Iconography Paper, discussed in Part One, where only Justin's Epitome and Aventinus' Bavarian Chronicle might be in consideration as source for the 32k Macedonian foot, one might be tempted to think that Aventinus used Justin; but the insertion of Schedel's World Chronicle makes opens up new possibilities here.

Alexander in Schedel's World Chronicle

In the World Chronicle of Hartmann Schedel (in German: Schedel, Hartmann / Alt, Georg / Wolgemut, Michael: Das buch der Cronicken vnd gedechtnus wirdigern geschichte[n], vo[n] anbegyn[n] d[er] werlt bis auf dise vnßere zeit, Nürmberg, 1493, digitised by the Bavarian State Library), reports on Alexander the Great as part of the Fifth Age of the World, beginning on sheet number LXXIV with his birth as the son of Philip Perdice.

Schedel reports that Alexander the Great brought 32k foot and 5.5k horse with him (LXXV c1), which Dareios opposed with 300,000 foot and 100,000 horse (LXXV c2). When Darius flees toward Babylon, 62,000 foot have been killed, ten thousand horse, and 40,000 captured. Of the Macedonians, 130 foot and 150 horse were killed. Alexander not only captured the camp with much gold, but also the mother, wife, sister [= which should be the same as the wife, RCK], and two daughters.

Schedel reports that Bersanem and Alexander had a child named Hercules (LXXV c2).

After Darius' flight toward Babylon, then prepares another 400k foot and another 100k horse for the final battle, which Alexander also wins (LXXV c2). Darius first is persuaded to flee, then killed by his own people, and Alexander eventually settles down in Babylon, where he is poisoned.

Schedel makes a mess of the chronology, however, having Alexander in Jerusalem and Sidon before battling Darius, even building Alexandria first (LXXV c1).

Aventinus on Alexander

The Bavarian Chronicles of Aventinus, one of the texts that Albrecht Altdorfer used for his Alexander-Schlacht, one way or another, was published in German in 1526. At this point, Aventinus was already living in Regensburg, having fled there from the anger of the Bavarian duke with assistance of the Bavarian chancellor.

The Digital Library of the Munich Center for Digitalisation of the Bavarian State Library has the scans of the Bavarian Chronicle, based on the edition of Vol IV of the Sämtliche Werke, edited by Sigmund von Riezler and Matthias von Lexer.

For the discussion of Alexander, the important parts are in Book I and range from Chapter 153 to 159.

The important points are as follows:

• Aventinus gives Arrianus and Quintus Curtius Rufus as the main sources, mentioning the Patrons of these editions as Emperor Sigmund for Arrianus and Duke Ernst of Bavaria for the Rufus edition that Erasmus of Rotterdam had overseen (Bk I, Cpt 153, p.337)
• Aventinus disparages Johannes Harlieb's rendition of the Alexander romance, though its patrons had been the Bavarian Duke Albrecht and his wife Anna of Braunschweig, criticizing its adding and deleting as well as its lack of Latin skill (Bk I, Cpt 153, p.337)
• Aventinus gives the number of 32,000 foot soldiers and 4,000 men cavalry both in his overview (Bk I, Cpt 153, p.337) as well as in his description of Alexander defeating the satraps of Darius Bk I, Cpt 157, p.346)
• The role of Alexander in the prophecy of Daniel regarding the four empires is both given at the summary beginning (Bk I, Cpt 153, p.336) as well as reiterated at the end of his biographical sketch (Bk I, Cpt 153, p.340).
• The battle with Darios at Issos is described in Cpt 158 as the First Battle (Bk I, Cpt 158 pp.346-347).
• Aventinus only gives 10,000 horse for Darios, not 100,000, as do many others (Rufus' numbers add to 62k horse, Justin gives 100k, which Schedel probably copied from there), though he agrees with the 300,000 Persian foot that Schedel gave in his Weltchronik (250k if you sum Rufus, 400k in Justin) (Bk I, Cpt 158 pp.347).
• Aventinus does not describe the women at the battle, nor how many men Darius flees with, nor how many were killed, but has Darius escape to Babylon (Bk I, Cpt 158 pp.347).
• Aventinus reports the sack of the camp, the "Wagenburg" as he puts it (Bk I, Cpt 158 pp.347).
• Aventinus does report the capture of the women and family of Darius (Bk I, Cpt 158 pp.347).
• "Captured also Dareios' mother, house wife, son, daughters, the whole women's quarters, maintained it well until his end." (Bk I, Cpt 158 pp.347)
• The "Other Battle" with Dareios at Arbela (Gaugemala) is recounted in Bk I, Cpt 159, pp.350ff. 
• Aventinus reports Alexander's becoming sick and then recovering ((Bk I, Cpt 159 pp.350), then wins the battle and Darios is killed during the retreat, while Alexander takes Babylon (Bk I, Cpt 159 p.352).

Among the more curious points are:

• Aventinus reports that Alexander fought German tribes ("Teutsche") on his northern border of Macedonia, including some Bavarians, who apparently were scared of having the sky fall on their heads only (Bk I Cpt 154-157 pp342-345).
• In reference to Rufus, Aventinus claims that 4k Suebians (with Suabia running all the way down to Poland and Hungary) were at the battle ((Bk I, Cpt 159 p.351).

Because the number of Darios horse was so low, I cross-checked them against an edition from 1580 printed in Regensburg, but the number was the same.

Online Translations for the deeds of Alexander the Great

In my preparations for the talk in Zagreb, I used several online translations of the works of Alexander the Great.

• Plutarch's Life of Alexander, available here, translated by Bernadotte Perrin, Loeb Classical Library (part of the Lexundria project, which has a lot of interesting literature, for example the Muratorian Canon).
• Marcus Junianus Justinus' Epitoma Historiarum Philippicarum, available here, with the Latin text and the English translation of Watson (1853) and the French by Arnaud-Lindet from 2003 (part of the Corpus Scriptorum Latinorum, including interesting people of the Middle Ages and modern times ... though with many broken links).

I also downloaded Arrian ($2.99) for the Kindle from the Delphi Classics people. In the end however, this all would have been less than helpful without two great books on Alexander the Great, both by two Canadians:

• Quintus Curtius Rufus, The History of Alexander, translated by John Yardley, introduction and notes by Waldemar Heckel, in: Penguin Classics, London (Penguin Books), revised edition 2001 (translation), 2004 (bibliography).
• Waldemar Heckel, John C. Yardley, Alexander the Great: Historical Sources in Translation, Oxford (Blackwell Publishing) 2004.

Because of how Reinhart Koselleck interpreted Altdorfer's painting Alexander-Schlacht, I ended up also looking into Niccolo Machiavelli, and his works are largely available through the online library of the Liberty Fund (including the smaller writings in four volumes). 

TEI Markup for paintings

For my presentation in Zagreb, I was experimenting with the surface element in the TEI markup. The only thing that stumped me was how to tell the TEI document that multiple JPEGs represent the same information, possibly at different points of resolution.

Just like that this image

or this image

are both  part of this image

and some things are easier to see in the one and in the other.

Drawing cool Graphs Quickly

In the process of working out how to sketch the knowledge for my DH talk in Zagreb, I found a Graphviz website that allows one to experiment with the DOT material immediately.

WebGraphviz has a type-in box for the graph description and a display area below where a simple click of [Generate Graph] will output the results. I usually keep the DOT Language Guide close at hand in the adjacent tab. GraphViz supports such a rich set of output formats, but unfortunately, Google Slides (nor Blogger) will not handle SVGs correctly ... :P

Here a rather sizeable graph from my presentation for Zagreb.

Mozart, Seraglio and Interest in Turkish Customs

On the face of it, one would be tempted to think that the Western fascination with Turkish culture coincided with its dominance (Treaty of Passarowitz 1718; Treaty of Belgrade & Nis 1739).

Consider Mozart’s abduction from the Seraglio: 

It may have been [Emperor] Joseph [II] himself who suggested the subject of Mozart's new opera [The Abduction from the Seraglio]. The occasion of its premiere was to be the state visit in September [1781] by Grand Duke Paul Petrovich of Russia and his wife. The purpose of the visit -- to negotiate a secret agreement that would allow Austria and Russia to begin carving up the Ottoman Empire [Russo-Turkish War of 1787-1792, with Austrian assistance) -- made the Turkish subject of Belmonte und Constanze especially appealing. According to Nicholas Till, it was "a story that would serve the emperor's propagandist campaign against the Turks." 

Since Mozart did not finish the opera on time, two pieces by Gluck made for the less diplomatically problematic substitute (cf. Mozart Project on KV-384).

But the truth of the matter is that earlier interest had already given us visual feedback.

Codex Vindobonensis 8262, for example, I Turchi, contains images from harem scenes, such as this one, or the Turkish illustrated book of manners from the University Library in Kassel, or the so-called Bremen Album by Lambert de Vos, the Turkish Costume Book (though both of the latter contain images from the Osman possession in Asia minor as well, such as Greek priests or Jewish doctors).

See also the Turkish dress fans' website.

Dr Julius von Schlosser online

Austrian Julius Ritter von Schlosser (1866-1938) was in charge of the k.u.k. kunsthistorische Hofmuseum, and as such well versed in Art History. He published an important set of art historical documents and studies, many of which are now available on the Internet archive.

• Die abendländische Klosteranlage des früheren Mittelalters, 1889.
• Schriftquellen zur Geschichte der Karolingischen Kunst, 1892 (first alternate, second alternate).
• Quellenbuch zur Kunstgeschichte des abendländischen Mittelalters. Ausgewählte Texte des vierten bis fünfzehnten Jahrhunderts, 1896 (alternate).
• (with David Müller and David Kaufmann), Die Haggadah von Sarajewo. Eine spanisch-jüdische Handschrift des Mittelalters, 1898. (alternate)
• Die Kunst- und Wunderkammern der Spätrenaissance : ein Beitrag zur Geschichte des Sammelwessens, 1908. (alternate)
• Lorenzo Ghiberti's [1387-1455] Denkwürdigkeiten (I commentarii) zum ersten Male nach der Handschrift der Biblioteca nazionale in Florenz vollständig hrsg. und erläutert, 1912.
• Die Wandgemälde aus Schloss Lichtenberg in Tirol, 1916.
• Carl Friedrich von Rumohr's Italienische Forschungen, 1920.
• Unsere Musikinstrumente: Eine Einführung in ihre Geschichte, 1922 (alternate).

Schlosser was also a fan and translator of Benedetto Croce, whose writings he translated with permission (see also the dedication in Italienische Forschungen of 1920 to Croce).

• Benedetto Croce, Goethe, 1920.
• Benedetto Croce, Dante's Dichtung, 1921.
• Benedetto Croce, Randbemerkungen eines Philosophen zum Ersten Weltkrieg 1914-1920, 1922.

After the death of Franz Wickhoff, Schlosser and Hermann took over the inventory of illuminated manuscripts of Austria; however, not all of the volumes are available online. The inventory is interesting however, since then Austria included Istria and Dalmatia.

• Franz Wickhoff (Hrsg), Beschreibendes Verzeichnis der illuminierten Handschriften in Österreich,
• Hans Tietz, Band II: Salzburg, 1905.

Markus Buntfuss on Tillich's Aesthetic

Presentation

Paul Tillich distinguishes himself by his qualities of theology, but also his ability to process his experiences and reading productively. By distinguishing between the church theologian and the cultural theologian Tillich basically described himself as hunting for traces of the Divine. Thus Tillich took material from other disciplines as heuristics for the analysis of the modern change of religion. His theory of art and perception are key for his theory of culture. The description of the problems of art and religion in the modern help each other. Art & Society (1952) asks how religious symbols could be expressed in art under the conditions of modernity. Dead symbols cannot be revived, and art cannot use forms that do not support the independent. Similar to the position of modernity in the 18th century, there is no solid tradition nor a solid form palette available. Thus a spontaneous synergy between creativity and religious sensibility can lead to new religious art. This inspirational topic, taken from the genius discussion, is coined as spiritual radicalism for Tillich. This constellation is not just illustrative, but a constitute functional role for Tillich. 

The analysis of religious modernity cannot be analyzed with the modern aesthetic. This line starts with Kloppstock in Pietismus, goes on via Herder and Schleiermacher and Lebrecht-Dewett, and Paul Tillich continues this line. But Tillich participates through rejections in this story, and thereby participates in the spirit of modernity. The avantgarde has to separate itself, esp from the bourgeois, but Tillich wants to understand how to aestheticize religion. Tillich's theory reaches back to Georg Simmel's sketches of an aesthetic religious approach. 

The aesthetic modernity and Protestant Christianity go together in the discussion. Modernity is what Tillich calls Expressionism, and begins at the End of the 19th century. Or one takes the macro-epoch, which can start with the Enlightenment, the French Revolution, or Romanticism. The terminology according to Habermas comes from the aesthetic discussion. The sense of time is modern, and there is a lost epoch and an unretrievable past; there is also an acceleration of the time experience, which are experienced as unstoppable. The claim that there is no alternative to modernity was especially an artistic claim. Only the Frontier of aesthetics is worth living at. Avantgard wanted to be ahead of the Times and prophetic leaders of society.

Tillich replicates this in the sense of rejection the bourgeois notions of art. He wanted an avantgard with a socialistic utopian streaks. The current moment, which Tillich was ready to call a kairos, was thus possibly theological. The only way of showing anything was therefore the holy emptiness. The accelerating time generated a sense for and search of alternate times; this lead to a revival of the eternity feeling. 

An expression of modern freedom is the character of the open, experimental and fragmentary work of art; because it emphasis the artistic genius. Reflexive self-consciousness permits spontaneity. This can be mapped onto the aesthetic effect, so that the receptive act becomes akin to a religious revelatory experience. Tillich calls this the Durchbruch and associates with the Boticelli painting in Berlin. The Durchbruch becomes a topos; the expressionism is tasked with fracturing the existing forms with new contents. This is indeed very modern aesthetically.

Modernity tosses out the kalistethic, so that the beauty is replaced with the investigations into the ugly, disgusting and troubling. The aesthetic of the ugly points to the experience of negativity of modernity. Alternatively, there are alternate modernities, where these contradictions are worked out and put into a relationship. The motive of aesthetic negative is found in Tillich's culture idea. This is coupled with the demonic, where the Schelling notion of Grauen blows up from the depths. There is a general ambivalence, which is prophetic-utopian and in the later works pneumatological, understood.

There is a sense of krisis, due to the radical subjectification, that points to another negativity of Modernity. The rapid changes is a complex field of structural modifications and ruptures. Simmel pointed out the identity threatening elements, and the Frankfurter Institute studied this; Adorno works out an aesthetic of this. But Tillich is anti-natural and anti-bourgeois in this context. 

Modernity is a complex dynamic of secularization and re-sacralization in aesthetics. Art and Religion as well as Kunstreligion were connected by Schleiermacher, but the Kunstreligion is also found in the modern art discourse. Is it is a replacement, or a reformulation of the confessional church into a private religion of aesthetics for the educated. Tillich rejects the Kunstreligion, because it is too 19th-century for him. The Arts have received a massive focus, so that the followers of Kant and Fichte replaced the Church with the Art. WW1 stopped this for Tillich, but that was a common historical narrative then. There were other people (Stefan George, Rainer Marie Rilke, etc ...) who saw this differently. Tillich sees Religion as the symbol for the depth structure of the Unbedingte.

Modern religion and modern aesthetic can be wrappers for Tillich's cultural religion. There is a specific affinity between them, as Schleiermacher noted. Religion loses its explanatory power for the world, and the expressions are transformed into symbolic forms, which hint toward transcendency. In the anthropological turn, the target is either the moral or the aesthetic form of the individual. Tillich worked this option out paradigmatically for the aesthetic. But under the acceleration of time, religion now needs to permanently re-actualize itself and replace its symbol palette; and the liturgical reform attempts underscore this issue. At the end is the holy emptiness, as Tillich noted.

Discussion

• FW had a moral and absolutist interpretation of Tillich; does this interact with the aesthetic approach, or are their overlaps, or do they exclude each other? The suggestion is to use a complementary explication of Tillich; take the second creator of Shaftsbury, which passes through Schelling and others through to Tillich.
• Symbols have a dynamic, but they have a life, and they can end.
• In the degeneration of the normative claims of dogmatics, especially when the sola scriptura breaks apart (e.g. Robert Laus (sp???) and the Psalms of the Hebrews), there is a reach for aesthetic terminology, while the autonomous art of the same time reaches for religious terminology. 

Details

• Markus Buntfuss, Paul Tillich und der ästhetische Diskurs der Moderne.

Angela Opel on Tillich's Aesthetic

Presentation

[Image: Kandinsky, Improvisation 26, 1912, Munich, Lenbachhaus.] {{FN: Tillich used him and showed this picture, which belongs into the German expressionism, but not as much as one would have hoped.}}

Art is revelation of the last reality; art can be religious if it expresses the experience of last sense or last reality. This is handled via his notion of style. The artist makes it possible, to reveal to the observer things that were not understood, known or appreciated before. The interruption of the trusted view of the world is the goal. The aesthetic claim is that the observer needs to step into the work of art. 

Tillich's treatment of works, vocabulary and styles is ideosyncratic, which makes the reception of his take difficult for the art historians. 

In terms of language, Tillich reuses technical languages of the art historians but with a morphed sense. 

[Willem van de Velde, Ruhige See -- Holländische Schiffe gehen vor Anker, 1665-70]

Tillich couples style and motives, claiming that it expresses the theological stance of a time. Style for Tillich implies motives, but that is thinking about it the wrong way. 

[Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Straßenszene, 1913]

The expressive element is important for Tillich, which he enumerates in the styles that he was interested in, brings up the depth of the elements. He then has reasons for how this applies to each style. This differs from the art historical take on expressionism, where colors and line forms and closeness of composition. Sometimes his style claims end up being mannerisms. This skips the meaning that the distortions have. Tillich needed a religious contents which was independent of the picture contents, and chose the style. 

[Caspar David Friedrich, Der Mönch am Meer, 1810]

Only Expressionism in the sense of Tillich expresses the religious ground; but what about Caspar David Friedrich, who was looking for new ways of talking about religion, esp. the landscape. At the End of the 1910s and 1920s, there is such a plurality of geneses of styles that such approaches as Tillich's cannot succeed.

[Gustave Courbet, Steineklopfer, 1849/50]

[Louis-Robert Carrier-Belleuse, Mehlträger, 1885, Musée du Petit Palais]

Tillich has a similar problem with realism (e.g. Steineklopfer). But there is also Naturalism (Mehltäger). Idealism is an elimination of realism, by transcending the reality to improve its depiction.

[Rene Magritte, La trahison des images (Ceci n'est pas une pipe), 1929, Los Angeles, County Museum]

[Joseph Kosuth, One and three chairs, 1965, New York, Museum of Modern Art]

Tillich's work with symbol of the artist is either more or less differentiated than what the art historians do.

[Jacopo Pontormo, Kreuzabnahme, 1525, Florenz, Sta. Felicita, Cappela Capponi]

[Max Beckmann, Kreuzabnahme, 1917 New York, Museum of Modern Art]

Tillich seemed dependent on Georg Simmel, Hartlaubs und von Sydow, which saw in expressionism a restart of religion. 

[Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Strassenszene, 1913]

[Ernst Ludwig Kirchner, Farbentanz I, 1930/32, Ingeborg Dr. Wolfgang Henze-Ketterer, Wichtrach/Bern.]

Tillich's approach also makes it impossible to see the development of the artists, as the comparison of Kirchner's works. 

[Paul Cezanne, Stilleben vor Kommode, 1883/1887, Munich, Neue Pinakothek]

[Fritz von Uhde, Lasset die Kindlein zu mir kommen, 1884, Leipzig, Museum der Bildenden Künste]

Tillich saw less Christian truth in von Uhde than in Cezanne, even if during his life von Uhde was a much awarded and rewarded artist, even receiving a doctorate in theology, h.c., from the University of Leipzig.

[Sandor Botticelli, Madonna mit Kund und singenden Engeln, sog. Raczynski-Tondo, 1646-1485, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie, SMPK]

This picture was very important to Tillich and had given him strength in WW1, and exposed to Tillich something akin to an revelation. 

However, a tondo must show something important (and not the kitchen); it is an devotional painting of the 16th century, since the private devotion requests these images. The fact that the Madonna shows the knees puts her very close, she looks over the audience to the distance, but the Christ child looks at the observer. The angels are in a turn-based song (left are quiet and look at observer, right are moving their lips). The look at the observer invites the observer in.

Tillich works both collage-like and fragmenting. His attempts of art theology cannot be fitted back into the art history. Thus he cannot participate in the art philosophy, and more background there would be necessary. Sometime Tillich simplifies, skips, or misunderstands, and thereby becomes ahistorical. 

[Der Deutsche Werkbund]

All art has a context. Tillich's theology of art has such a context as well. He saw pictures in the magazines in the trenches, as well as the reading of Simmel, Hartlaub und Eckart von Sydow. Already in Berlin up to 1924 does Tillich include art in his lectures.  

In the USA, Tillich lost a bit of the immediate contact to the art world, even though he lectured at the Museum of Modern Art. But there is a gap from 1936 to 1952 that Tillich basically misses, including Rothko, Jackson Pollock, Rauschenberg, etc.

Tillich helped with an exhibit of religious art at the Chicago Art Institute. He was a member of a commission in 1955 that chose 58 depictions of religious art 

[Sog. Hemstedter Crucifix, 1060, Essen Werden]

[Roy Lichtenstein, Engagement Ring, 1961.]

[Tom Wesselman, Still Life, 1963, New York Museum of Modern Art (?)] 

[Robert Rauschenberg, Inside-Out, 1962, Düsseldorf, Kunstsammlung Nordrhein-Westfalen]

These were some of the first times that Tillich got back into the art discussion.

[Willem de Kooning, Woman I, 1950-52]

[Willem de Kooning, Woman Accabonac, 1966]

Tillich wants depictions of something, and this is supposed to be the ungrounded.

Tillich also did not statues, because he could walk behind it, which he thought was not what happened in old Greek Temples.

Tillich did not want to see people objectified. 

[Naum Gabo, Spiral Theme, 1941, London, Tate Modern]

[Jackson Pollock, Number 1, 1948, New York, Museum of Modern Art]

Tillich never discussed abstract art, with the exception of this work by Gabo, which Tillich chose to explain some of his types. 

A synthesis of holy and profane is a helpful stance, even if Tillich was insufficiently versed as an art historian to participate in these discussions. 

Discussion

• The Werkbund noticed that the objects are neither useful nor aesthetic, which William Morris and the arts & crafts movement brought up after the first Weltausstellung. Design wants functional things that are aesthetically satisfying, which helps the person in their self-development, and they need to be affordable (esp. Morris). The Neue Sachlichkeit argues that ornamentation that is non-functional is ethically wrong.
• Tillich saw his efforts as an integrative effort, because he wants to be pedagogical that show this spread across the disciplines. He knew that he was reaching across the boundaries, and it is effective and changes its perspectives; an approach that Tillich used for his systems.
• 
  

Details

Angela M. Opel, Von Botticelli zum Expressionismus ... und fast bis zur Pop Art: Paul Tillich, Bild-/Werk und Kontext.