Virge,

I love Bill Viola. SFMOMA did a great show of his work a number of years ago. I was struck by how great an artist he is. In fact, his work was the first video art that really left me satisfied. I started paying a lot of attention to the genre after that show.

Thanks for commenting! I am glad that there are other folks who are interested in these aspects of art!

If you like that kind of art I highly recommend the videos of Bill Viola; he creates fluid, slowmotion minimovies that incorporate powerful Christian themes, although they are not overtly Christian.

At the Met in NYC there is a video of five people seen from the waist up in a tight grouping, wearing clothing that does not mark them from any particular era, although there are a lot of shawls and scarves. He shows them going through a series of emotional extremes which I grasped immediately: this was Mary, the mother of Jesus; Mary Magdelene, and the other Mary, John the Evangelist and Peter, watching Christ die on the cross: anguish, disbelief, sorrow, shock, depression, pity, stoicism -it's powerful viewing and when the whole group started in pain and sorrow I KNEW they were responding to Christ being pierced by a lance.

I agree with you, BTW, about St. Anthony. He made his name in Padua, but he is one of the chief glories of Portugal. I pray the intercession of the Hammer of the Heretics be felt soon.