DOI article:
Laskowska-Hinz, Sabina: Who are our gods?: The iconographic, religious and cosmic commentary on William Shakespeare's The Tempest by Wojciech Siudmak (1978)
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.59533#0053
52
SABINA LASKOWSKA-HINZ
6. Deisis, 12th century, an icon from St. Catherine’s Monastery Sinai
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?cu-
rid=85744 [accessed: 02.10.2020]
PROSPERO
And mine shall.
Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling
Of their afflictions, and shall not myself
(One of their kind, that relish all as sharply,
Passion as they) be kindlier moved than thou art? (5.1.17-24)
In both cases, Prospero listens to the requests of those who ask for compassion and forgiveness for oth-
ers. Nevertheless, all iconographical associations with Jesus, the holy Sacraments and Christianity in general
are undermined and jeopardised once the motif of the enthroned divinity is questioned. Thus, Kott’s comment
about Prospero-god gains significance:
A great magician, whom the elements obey, at whose command graves [open] and the dead rise, who knows how to
eclipse the sun and to hush the winds, rejects the magic wand and renounces power over human fate. He is now an
ordinary mortal, defenceless as everybody else.30
In the poster, the rejection of the divine nature seems to be marked by a profound modification of
the traditional motif. The introduction of the cosmic elements directs the viewers’ attention towards either
space-related or humanistic interpretations of the character.
30 Kott, Shakespeare Our Contemporary..., p. 240.
SABINA LASKOWSKA-HINZ
6. Deisis, 12th century, an icon from St. Catherine’s Monastery Sinai
Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?cu-
rid=85744 [accessed: 02.10.2020]
PROSPERO
And mine shall.
Hast thou, which art but air, a touch, a feeling
Of their afflictions, and shall not myself
(One of their kind, that relish all as sharply,
Passion as they) be kindlier moved than thou art? (5.1.17-24)
In both cases, Prospero listens to the requests of those who ask for compassion and forgiveness for oth-
ers. Nevertheless, all iconographical associations with Jesus, the holy Sacraments and Christianity in general
are undermined and jeopardised once the motif of the enthroned divinity is questioned. Thus, Kott’s comment
about Prospero-god gains significance:
A great magician, whom the elements obey, at whose command graves [open] and the dead rise, who knows how to
eclipse the sun and to hush the winds, rejects the magic wand and renounces power over human fate. He is now an
ordinary mortal, defenceless as everybody else.30
In the poster, the rejection of the divine nature seems to be marked by a profound modification of
the traditional motif. The introduction of the cosmic elements directs the viewers’ attention towards either
space-related or humanistic interpretations of the character.
30 Kott, Shakespeare Our Contemporary..., p. 240.