The Charter for Compassion
The principle of compassion lies at the heart of all religious, ethical and spiritual traditions, calling us always to treat all others as we wish to be treated ourselves. Compassion impels us to work tirelessly to alleviate the suffering of our fellow creatures, to dethrone ourselves from the centre of our world and put another there, and to honour the inviolable sanctity of every single human being, treating everybody, without exception, with absolute justice, equity and respect.
It is also necessary in both public and private life to refrain consistently and empathically from inflicting pain. To act or speak violently out of spite, chauvinism, or self-interest, to impoverish, exploit or deny basic rights to anybody, and to incite hatred by denigrating others - even our enemies - is a denial of our common humanity. We acknowledge that we have failed to live compassionately and that some have even increased the sum of human misery in the name of religion.
We therefore call upon all men and women ~ to restore compassion to the centre of morality and religion ~ to return to the ancient principle that any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred or disdain is illegitimate ~ to ensure that youth are given accurate and respectful information about other traditions, religions and cultures ~ to encourage a positive appreciation of cultural and religious diversity ~ to cultivate an informed empathy with the suffering of all human beings, even those regarded as enemies.
We urgently need to make compassion a clear, luminous and dynamic force in our polarized world. Rooted in a principled determination to transcend selfishness, compassion can break down political, dogmatic, ideological and religious boundaries. Born of our deep interdependence, compassion is essential to human relationships and to a fulfilled humanity. It is the path to enlightenment, and indispensible to the creation of a just economy and a peaceful global compassion.

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Des usages de la compassion (Le Monde Diplomatique, Décembre 2022)
https://www.monde-diplomatique.fr/2022/12/PIEILLER/65339

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Overview of the Painting "Compassion""Compassion" is an abstract painting created in 2016 by Belgian artist Jan Theuninck. It measures 70 x 100 cm and is executed in acrylic on canvas. Theuninck, born in 1954 in Zonnebeke, Belgium, is known for his minimalist and monochrome expressionist style, often addressing social and political themes such as pacifism, colonialism, and societal issues. His work draws influences from artists like Ellsworth Kelly and Joan Miró.Visual DescriptionThe painting features a bright yellow background with a central, irregular bean-shaped form outlined in thick black paint and filled with vibrant red. Positioned below and slightly to the right of this shape is a small, solid blue circle, evoking a sense of isolation or punctuation. The overall composition is simple and abstract, potentially symbolizing themes of emotion, suffering, or empathy through bold color contrasts and minimal elements. A small signature appears in the bottom right corner.Connection to the Charter for CompassionThe painting is directly inspired by and dedicated to the Charter for Compassion, an international initiative founded by Karen Armstrong in 2009. The Charter promotes compassion as a core principle across all religious, ethical, and spiritual traditions, urging people to treat others with justice, equity, and respect while working to alleviate suffering. The full text of the Charter, often quoted in descriptions of the painting, emphasizes restoring compassion to the center of morality and rejecting any interpretation of scripture that breeds violence, hatred, or disdain as illegitimate. This ties into the concept of "illegitimate violence," referring to acts or speech driven by spite, chauvinism, self-interest, exploitation, or incitement of hatred, which the Charter denounces as a denial of common humanity.Theuninck's pacifist leanings align with the Charter's call for empathy, cultural appreciation, and transcending boundaries to foster a peaceful global community. The artwork serves as a visual manifesto for these ideas, using abstraction to evoke reflection on human interdependence.

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https://web.archive.org/web/20230201165556/https://charterforcompassion.org/belgium

Belgium

Jan Theuninck

(1954- )

Though born after World War II in 1954, Jan Theuninck finds himself writing about the war and its aftermath. A poet and minimalist painter with a strong interest in social and political issues, Theuninck writes under his own name as well as the pen-name, ORC, a name he uses in honor of Raoul Wallenberg. Although Dutch is his mother tongue, he often writes in French. His work frequently appears in poetry journals and magazines internationally.

Shoah

wandering jew, damned jew

and no words on them are forbidden

suspected of crimes and treason

they have been put in jail

they have been tortured and murdered

in the name of an insane idea

and now - more than ever -

who is next, please?

Shoa

juif errant , juif maudit
et nul mot sur eux est interdit
traités de crimes et de trahisons

ils ont été mis en prison

on les a torturés et tués

au nom d’une infâme idée

et maintenant plus que jamais

a qui le tour s’il vous plaît ?

Yperiet

‘s avonds laat

vult een mist

Jde vallei

zonder te beseffen

verstikt hij ons

als een duistere macht

op de velden

liggen onze lijken

en onder het graseen bruine aarde.

Yperite

late at night

a mist

fills the valley.

without knowing

it suffocates

like a dark power.

on the fields

our dead bodies

and under the grass

a brown soil

Zuydcote

the sun shines

on the dune

the bunkers hide

the undesirable

all of them lose

their innocence

lost blood

on the beach

the sea...

guilty!

Auschwitz

burned in the oven

I perished in smoke

the remaining ashes

are deep grey

Red River

the train was too late

by foot it was too far

the river too nearby

the hatred too strong

bullets through your head

river of blood

red Danube

dead Budapest

This poem is about the elimination of approximately 20.000 Jews who fell victim to the fascist Arrow Cross militiamen in Budapest. Today artwork depicted in the wikipedia article is a monument to them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shoes_on_the_Danube_Promenade. Text from the poem, Tyne Cot cut in the corten steel wall of the library in Zonnebeke, Belgium

Tyne Cot

when you left

for the front

you were

living heroes

and now

you are on top

of the hill

where only

poppies

blow..........

Tyne Cot is the largest military cemetery of Commonwealth forces on the continent (WW1), the text is cut in the wall of the library in Zonnebeke, Belgium, a mile away from Tyne Cot : see photo at: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tyne_Cot

Hill 60

poppies blood

on the green grass

on the hills of mud

away they pass

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Hill_60_(Western_Front)

Polygon Wood

like a shrine

you lie

in the middle

of the wood

and warn

of those

who preach

peace

and make

war

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Polygon_Wood

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Frans Masereel

A pacifist in World War I, Frans Masereel, tried to make his art accessible to the ordinary man. His works were banned by the Nazis and widely distributed in Communist countries. But he rejected "political" art and party affiliation, condemning all enslavements, oppression, war and violence, injustice, and the power of money. We present here some of his many works and witnesses.

The painter and graphic artist Frans Masereel was born in the Belgian town of Blankenberghe in 1889. In 1896 he moved to Gent, where he began to study art at the "Ecole des Beaux-Arts" in the class of Jean Delvin at the age of 18. In 1909 he travelled to England and Germany, where he was inspired to create his first etchings and woodcuts.

From 1911 Frans Masereel settled in Paris for four years and then emigrated to Switzerland, where he worked as a graphic artist for various journals and magazines. His woodcut series, which were mainly of sociocritical content and of expressionistic formal concept, gave Frans Masereel international acclaim. Among them were his so-called image novels including "Passion eines Menschen", "Mein Stundenbuch", "Die Sonne", "Die Idee" and "Geschichte ohne Worte", which all date from around 1920. At that time Frans Masereel also drew illustrations for famous works of world literature by Thomas Mann, Emile Zola and Stefan Zwei.

In 1921 the artist returned to Paris, where he created his famous street scenes, the Montmartre paintings. From 1925 Frans Masereel lived near Boulogne-sur-Mer, where he painted predominantly coastal landscapes, harbor views and protraits of sailors and fishermen. During the 1930s the number of illustrated books and individual woodcuts decreased considerably.

In 1940 the artist fled from Paris and lived in several locations in Southern France. At the end of World War II, Frans Masereel was able to resume his artistic work, which had been lying idle for years. He created woodcuttings and paintings. From 1946 Masereel worked for several years as a teacher at the "Centre des Métiers d'Art" in Saarbrücken. In 1949 he moved to Nice. In the following years until 1968 numerous woodcut series appeared, which differed from his earlier "novels in images" as they were no longer based on a continuous narrative but on variations of a subject.

Source: http://www.fransmasereel.com/

Examples of Frans Masereel's Woodcuts

During the Great War, Frans Masereel joined in the fight to stop the war, a hopeless struggle, given the general fervour. Ink drawings and woodcuts were his instruments, and his engravings were brought together in collections Arise, You Dead and The Dead Speak which are unequivocal denunciations of the blood-letting. Masereel simplifies, brutalizes, contrasting black and white. He takes scenes and photographs from the newspapers and in a drawing style all of his own, he takes suffering to unbearable extremes. Or he uses a macabre and fantastic style with two headless bodies carrying their heads on a stretcher, one with a French képi and the other with a German helmet. It is madness everywhere, a madness against which Masereel knows he is powerless.

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Émile Verhaeren

Emile Verhaeren was a Belgian poet, art critic and wrote short stories and verse plays. He was born at St Amand lez-Pueres, NC Belgium on May 21st of 1855.

He studied law at the University of Louvain and while there started a journal, La Semaine, which was suppressed by the authorities as well as the following work Le Type. He was admitted to the bar at Brussels in 1881 but soon began devoting his time to literature, writing in French. He was soon one of the leading figures of the Belgian literary renaissance.

His poetry hovers between powerful sensuality, as in Les Flamandes (1883) and the harrowing despair of Les Debacles (1888). Among his most notable works are La Multiple Splendeur (1906) and the five-part Tout la Flandre (1904-11).

Source: PoemHunter.com: http://www.poemhunter.com/emile-verhaeren/biography/

In this play the Belgian poet, Emile Verhaeren, has voiced his hopes for the regeneration of human society. The city of Oppidomagne is beseiged by a hostile army, and the revolutionists in both armies conspire and revolt. The gates of the city are thrown open, and the end of war declared. A captain in the hostile army is speaking over the body of Hérénian, leader of the revolutionists in the city.

I was his disciple, and his unknown friend. His books were my Bible. It is men like this who give birth to men like me, faithful, long obscure, but whom fortune permits, in one overwhelming hour, to realize the supreme dream of their master. If fatherlands are fair, sweet to the heart, dear to the memory, armed nations on the frontiers are tragic and deadly; and the whole world is yet bristling with nations. It is in their teeth that we throw them this example of our concord. (Cheers.) They will understand some day the immortal thing accomplished here, in this illustrious Oppidomagne, whence the loftiest ideas of humanity have taken flight, one after another, through all the ages. For the first time since the beginning of power, since brains have reckoned time, two races, one renouncing its victory, the other its humbled pride, are made one in an embrace. The whole earth must needs have quivered, all the blood, all the sap of the earth must have flowed to the heart of things. Concord and good will have conquered hate. (Cheers.) Human strife, in its form of bloodshed, has been gainsaid. A new beacon shines on the horizon of future storms. Its steady rays shall dazzle all eyes, haunt all brains, magnetize all desires. Needs must we, after all these trials and sorrows, come at last into port, to whose entrance it points the way, and where it gilds the tranquil masts and vessels.

The Cathedral of Rheims

He who walks through the meadows of Champagne
At noon in Fall, when leaves like gold appear,
Sees it draw near
Like some great mountain set upon the plain,
From radiant dawn until the close of day,
Nearer it grows
To him who goes
Across the country. When tall towers lay
Their shadowy pall
Upon his way,
He enters, where
The solid stone is hollowed deep by all
Its centuries of beauty and of prayer.

Ancient French temple! thou whose hundred kings
Watch over thee, emblazoned on thy walls,
Tell me, within thy memory-hallowed halls
What chant of triumph, or what war-song rings?
Thou hast known Clovis and his Frankish train,
Whose mighty hand Saint Remy's hand did keep
And in thy spacious vault perhaps may sleep
An echo of the voice of Charlemagne.
For God thou has known fear, when from His side
Men wandered, seeking alien shrines and new,
But still the sky was bountiful and blue
And thou wast crowned with France's love and pride.
Sacred thou art, from pinnacle to base;
And in thy panes of gold and scarlet glass
The setting sun sees thousandfold his face;
Sorrow and joy, in stately silence pass
Across thy walls, the shadow and the light;
Around thy lofty pillars, tapers white
Illuminate, with delicate sharp flames,
The brows of saints with venerable names,
And in the night erect a fiery wall.
A great but silent fervour burns in all
Those simple folk who kneel, pathetic, dumb,
And know that down below, beside the Rhine -
Cannon, horses, soldiers, flags in line -
With blare of trumpets, mighty armies come.

Suddenly, each knows fear;
Swift rumours pass, that every one must hear,
The hostile banners blaze against the sky
And by the embassies mobs rage and cry.
Now war has come, and peace is at an end.
On Paris town the German troops descend.
They are turned back, and driven to Champagne.
And now, as to so many weary men,
The glorious temple gives them welcome, when
It meets them at the bottom of the plain.

At once, they set their cannon in its way.
There is no gable now, nor wall
That does not suffer, night and day,
As shot and shell in crushing torrents fall.
The stricken tocsin quivers through the tower;
The triple nave, the apse, the lonely choir
Are circled, hour by hour,
With thundering bands of fire
And Death is scattered broadcast among men.

And then
That which was splendid with baptismal grace;
The stately arches soaring into space,
The transepts, columns, windows gray and gold,
The organ, in whose tones the ocean rolled,
The crypts, of mighty shades the dwelling places,
The Virgin's gentle hands, the Saints' pure faces,
All, even the pardoning hands of Christ the Lord
Were struck and broken by the wanton sword
Of sacrilegious lust.

O beauty slain, O glory in the dust!
Strong walls of faith, most basely overthrown!
The crawling flames, like adders glistening
Ate the white fabric of this lovely thing.
Now from its soul arose a piteous moan,
The soul that always loved the just and fair.
Granite and marble loud their woe confessed,
The silver monstrances that Popes had blessed,
The chalices and lamps and crosiers rare
Were seared and twisted by a flaming breath;
The horror everywhere did range and swell,
The guardian Saints into this furnace fell,
Their bitter tears and screams were stilled in death.

Around the flames armed hosts are skirmishing,
The burning sun reflects the lurid scene;
The German army, fighting for its life,
Rallies its torn and terrified left wing;
And, as they near this place
The imperial eagles see
Before them in their flight,
Here, in the solemn night,
The old cathedral, to the years to be
Showing, with wounded arms, their own disgrace.

Jan Theuninck / portfolio / paintings

Tuesday, August 23, 2016

Civilisation - Jan Theuninck, 2016

Wednesday, August 10, 2016

Compassion - Jan Theuninck, 2016 / 慈悲宪章 - 2016

Jan Theuninck

(1954- )

Frans Masereel

Émile Verhaeren