Jean Cocteau's Religion and Occultism: A Multiple Study Based on Text and Iconographic Analyses

Research Project

Project/Area Number	23652069
Research Category	Grant-in-Aid for Challenging Exploratory Research
Allocation Type	Multi-year Fund
Research Field	European literature (English literature excluded)
Research Institution	University of Fukui
Principal Investigator	MATSUDA KAZUYUKI 福井大学, 教育地域科学部, 教授 (50239026)
Project Period (FY)	2011-04-28 – 2015-03-31
Project Status	Completed (Fiscal Year 2014)
Budget Amount *help	¥1,170,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000、Indirect Cost: ¥270,000) Fiscal Year 2013: ¥260,000 (Direct Cost: ¥200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥60,000) Fiscal Year 2012: ¥650,000 (Direct Cost: ¥500,000、Indirect Cost: ¥150,000) Fiscal Year 2011: ¥260,000 (Direct Cost: ¥200,000、Indirect Cost: ¥60,000)
Keywords	コクトー / 教会美術 / 壁画 / 日記 / オカルト / 異端 / 図像解析 / フランス文学 / 図像学 / 仏文学 / キリスト教 / 異端思想 / マグダラのマリア
Outline of Final Research Achievements	In the last decade of his life, Jean Cocteau, who was regarded as anti-Catholic, decorated four Roman Catholic chapels. The aim of this study is to better understand his ambiguous relationship to Catholicism through text and iconographic analyses of the enigmatic images painted on the walls of these chapels. It wasn't easy to understand exactly what they mean, but after careful consideration, we came to this conclusion: there is a possibility that Cocteau employed heterodox and occult symbolism in his supposedly Roman Catholic art, which demonstrates his ambivalence toward Catholicism.