She was young and illiterate, and had power for less than two years. History — seldom interested in women and usually written by the triumphant — should have forgotten her.
But when she died on a pyre in 1431, she achieved an immortality in art and literature that surpasses all her contemporaries — kings, popes, knights, priests and courtiers.
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She, of course, is St. Joan of Arc, the French teenage country girl who, through her extreme faith, mystic visions and what must have been an astonishing amount of personal charisma, led French troops to a string of glorious victories against the invading English. She was eventually captured and tried for heresy. Her remains were tossed in a river, like so much trash.
While Joan has never entirely dropped out of the public imagination — the first poem about her appeared in 1429 — she is experiencing a revival. The past year saw a major production of George Bernard Shaw’s “Saint Joan” in London, a new musical based on her life in New York and a film about her childhood that premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. A new, critically acclaimed novel, “The Book of Joan,” takes her story into a sci-fi future.
Now, a new photography show at the Loyola University Museum of Art tries to recapture something of the real Joan — or “Jehanne,” as she signed her name. Called “Searching for Jehanne — The Joan of Arc Project,” it features 37 elaborately framed photographs by Chicago-based artist Susan Aurinko.
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And while scores of creative types have crafted all sorts of ideas of Joan (for Shakespeare she was a witch, for Bertolt Brecht she was a labor leader, and CBS made her a contemporary teen in “Joan of Arcadia”), Aurinko has her own version, drawn from Joan’s actual words and the places she lived, fought and died.
“I was not trying to solve the mystery of Joan; I was trying to give it dimension,” Aurinko said from her spacious work-live loft west of downtown Chicago, her photographs arranged around her, awaiting their trip to the museum. “I wanted to allow her to speak now in a way that makes her a little more real to people.”
Aurinko hopes her photographs will connect the viewer to what she considers essential about Joan — her faith, her strength, and her sense of her own destiny.
Joan of Arc. Joan was born in the small French village of Domrémy-la-Pucelle in 1412 in the middle of the Hundred Years’ War, a clash between France and England over the French throne. Her parents were farmers and loyal to Charles of Valois, the French dauphin, or prince.
Joan had her first vision when she was 12, claiming Sts. Michael, Catherine and Margaret told her she should drive out the English and see Charles enthroned.
“‘Daughter of God, go on, go on, go on! I will be your help. Go on!'” she is supposed to have said of her visions. “When I hear this voice, I feel such great joy that I wish I could always hear it!”
At 16, she made her way to Charles’ supporters and convinced them to give her a pair of men’s armor. She cut her hair and led a band of followers to Charles.
“I was born for this,” she was reported to say. “I must be with the dauphin, even if I have to wear my legs down to my knees.” (go to page 2 to continue reading) [lz_pagination]
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