A Philosophical Dimension of Imaginary Pilgrimages in Visual Art

December 3rd 2009

A Philosophical Dimension of Imaginary Pilgrimages in Visual Art


The painting Trowbridge discusses (Hans Memling’s Scenes from the Passion of Christ, 1470) in his presentation represents an annual celebration in the 15th century, which is the procession of Bruges on the Biblical dramas displayed on the city street. The imaginary pilgrimage tradition came to sight to serve religious purposes. Pilgrims used special guidebooks to assist them in imagining the religious dramas at different holy sites. They also used the books to say the prayers they thought required to receive ‘’ the indulgences promised at each location’’ (Trowbridge). The tradition of imaginary pilgrimage that Trowbridge expresses in his presentation titled "Envisioning Jerusalem in Bruges: Theater, Art & Devotion in the Late-Middle Ages”, raises deep philosophical questions regarding the external world and the notion of time and place.

Since the series of dramas bound together in the painting did not occur in the same place or in the same sequence of time, imaginary pilgrimages suggest the possibility of crossing the boundaries of place and time. In this sense, I can say that those pilgrimages reformulated or redefined the notion of time and place to enable them to experience the religious dramas and transcend the restrictions of place and time. Those pilgrims imagined themselves in places in which they could not be in real life and imagined themselves living in times in which they could not live in their lifetimes. In other words, the pilgrim’s imagination overpowered the limits of time and place. From this, I infer that those pilgrims had a different view of the external world including place and time, which is worth examining here.

To be involved in an imaginary pilgrimage indicates that the pilgrim believes in the first place that his perception of the external world is what makes it the way he believes it is. He should believe that the way he perceives those religious dramas as truly happening in the same time he is envisioning them is what makes them truly happening in that time. If one does not perceive a glass in the room he is in, he will not believe that the glass is there because according to him it does not exist at all. The same thing applies to imaginary pilgrimages when pilgrims experience being in a place that their physical bodies are not actually in and being in a past period that they cannot live in. Because the pilgrims perceive the events through their imagination, they do believe in the existence of them. This perception makes the events true to them according to Descartes’ philosophy ‘’ the things we conceive very clearly and very distinctly are all true ‘’. (Descartes 33)

On the other hand, this brings up Hume’s claim that our belief in the external world is not rationally justified. Imaginary pilgrimages encourage pilgrims to ignore the actual external world of their time and place, and create an imaginary external world that becomes true because they perceive it. Surprisingly, here I find Descartes’ claim that ‘’things we perceive clearly and distinctly are all true’’ asserts Hume’s claim that our belief of the existence of the external world is dependent on our perception of its existence. According to Descartes, because those pilgrims perceive those religious dramas ‘’clearly and distinctly’’ they are true even if they don’t exist in the pilgrims’ external world which supports Hume’s claim of the irrationality of our belief in the external world.

It is quite incredible to find Descartes and Hume conversing about metaphysics on a frame of a painting from the15th century art.

Works Cited

Descartes, Rene'. Discourse on Method. Indianapolis/ Cambridge: Hackett Publishing Company, 1998 Translated by Donald A.Cress.

Trowbridge, Mark. "Jerusalem Transposed : A Fifteenth-Century Panel for the Bruges Market ." Journal of Historians of Netherlandish Art 2009: Vol 1 .Issue 1.