THE PURPOSES OF RELIGIOUS ART
Many people would argue that the main purpose of religious art is to represent the
divine; i.e. display holy truths. However, there are other purposes that could be seen as
going beyond this basic foundation for religious art:
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Education
Propaganda
To inspire the audience and observer
The expression of the personal faith of the artist
To reflect the status and / or beliefs of the sponsor
EDUCATION
In various religions, religious art has been used to educate observers of stories and ‘truths’ related to their
belief. Here are examples from two religions:
Christianity: ‘The Poor Man’s Bible’ is a term used to
describe the art found within Churches and also
Cathedrals. The art is used to illustrate the teachings within
the Bible. These artworks are usually in the form of
carvings, paintings, mosaics and stained glass windows.
In some churches it is only the stained-glass windows that
illustrate stories, however in other churches the architecture
is decorated with a complex narrative.
Literacy was not common amongst the majority of people
until recent times – and it is notable that in many cultures it
was places of worship that offered education to the poor.
And so while the poor were not able to read, art objects like
stained-glass windows offered a way for them to
understand the religion and learn about it.
Furthermore, today Bible stories are often presented pictorially in children’s books to help young Christians to
gain understanding of their faith, and to help them to visual the stories held within the holy scripture.
Hinduism: The ‘Ramayana’ is an ancient Hindu epic that tells us about Prince Rama’s quest to rescue his wife
Sita from Ravana. The compilation of the original text is dated from around 400 BCE to 200 CE. It is one of the
most significant works of Ancient India and has helped influence Art and culture in the Indian Subcontinent and
also South East Asia.
The story of Rama and his quest has been retold in many ways such as in poems and also dramatic versions by
India’s best writers. It can also be found in various forms of visual art: as narrative sculptures on the walls of
temples, dance dramas and even shadow puppet theatres. This allows artists to draw out and express the essence
of the epic in different, innovative and unique ways. While much of the ancient examples of scripture that have
been passed down through the centuries have pictorial images accompanying them, some versions of the
Ramayana are told in a purely pictorial form. As with the ‘Poor Man’s Bible’, the benefits are that people of
different languages, or those that art literate can gain understanding of the story, and furthermore, they can
appreciate the grandeur of the tale.
There are also many examples from pop culture, where fiction has been used to educate audiences about a
religion:
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The narrative of Mel Gibson’s film ‘The Passion of the Christ’ (2004) is based on the structure provided
by the Stations of the Cross, and provides a visual representation of the last 12 hours of Jesus’ life. The
movie was a massive box office hit at a time when (outside of America, at least) the popularity of
Christianity had dwindled significantly.
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J.D. Salinger’s ‘Franny and Zooey’ (1961) draws on the mysticism of various religions, from the Eastern
Orthodox church’s Jesus Prayer to Buddhist aphorisms, to tell the tale of two siblings confronting their
spiritual crises in the modernity of post-war America. The extent to which Salinger was successful in
educating a young audience on such mysticism was found in many of his readers searching out ‘The Way
of the Pilgrim’ (the book that the character Franny is obsessed with in the novel), sparking a sudden boost
in the spiritual handbook’s sales.
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Jack Kerouac’s ‘The Dharma Bums’ (1958) tells the tale of Kerouac, Gary Snyder and Allen Ginsberg’s
spiritual exploits and adventures in Buddhism. Following the huge success of ‘On the Road’, ‘The Dharma
Bums’, as with Salinger’s work, helped to bring an understanding of Eastern faiths to a massive audience
of young Americans – in this case, through its association with the Beat generation’s aesthetic and lifestyle
of backpacking, late nights and wild music.
PROPAGANDA
Religious art has also been used as propaganda, across cultures and throughout the centuries.
Propaganda is a concerted set of messages aimed at influencing the opinions or behaviours of large
numbers of people. The word ‘propaganda’ comes from the Catholic idea of propagating (spreading) the
faith.
The Art of the Crusades: In the 1260s, Humbert of Romans, former master general
of the Dominican order, wrote an instruction book, De predicatione crucis, for aspiring
preachers of the crusades (the religion–driven military campaigns of Christian
Europe). In this book, Humbert suggested to prod men ‘promptly to wage this
important war,’ and recommended that preachers should refer to works of art. He
argues that examples of the illustrious deeds of their predecessors ‘are painted on the
walls of the palaces of the nobles, where many knights are accustomed to gather’;
preachers should note these paintings ‘to stir [the knights] to similar deeds.’ Similarly,
he continues, ‘the deeds of the soldiers of Christ are painted in the church, and
recalled in the Scriptures, and cited again by preachers to rouse the faithful.’ (What he
is referring to in this last quote are the images of persecuted Saints, martyrs who died
for their faith).
Iranian street murals marking the ‘Islamic Revolution’:
After rebels overthrew the Shah of Iran for what was initially a popular revolution,
the walls of many buildings and streets were painted with propaganda murals.
However, since Islam theology insists on only non-figurative art, much of this
propaganda cannot be considered ‘religious art’ (many depict the revolutionaries
or American iconography linked with military evil). However, this example on the
left is a good demonstration of how non-figurative religious art can be used for
propaganda. The geometric shapes and symmetry found in traditional Islamic art,
here frames a gun painted with the colours of the American flag (the overthrown
Shah had headed a puppet government supported by the U.S. for its financial
interests.)
Propaganda posters of Right-Wing Christians in America: While America is
meant to be a secular country (no Religious Studies is taught in high schools for
that reason), many right-wing Americans aim to claim the country as Christian.
Former presidents such as George W. Bush and Ronald Reagan have made much
of this appeal to Christianity to gain votes. Furthermore, this mixture of politics and
religion goes both ways, with fundamentalist Christians attempting to put forward
America as God’s country, and asserting that U.S. military dominance is one and
the same with the world-wide dominance of their religion.
There are also examples from pop culture, where fiction has been used to subversively spread a faith:
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C.S. Lewis’ ‘The Chronicles of Narnia’ books have been accused by some, including atheist children’s
author Philip Pullman, as being Christian propaganda. While Lewis regularly took part in theology debates,
the issue is that many children are unaware that the ‘Chronics of Narnia’ are strongly based in Christianity.
It can be seen as subversive propaganda as it seen to embed Christian values in those who are too
young to challenge such views. Others say that it is an outdated and misleading version of Christianity.
Pullman described the novels as ‘representing everything that is most hateful about religion’, that it is
‘propaganda in the service of a life-hating ideology,’ ‘blatantly racist,’ ‘monumentally disparaging of girls
and women,’ with a ‘sadomasochistic relish for violence.’
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When the recent film adaptation came out many U.S. right-wing Christians saw the educational, and
propaganda, value offered by the story: The Mission America Coalition was ‘inviting church leaders around
the country to consider the fantastic ministry opportunity presented by the release of this film’. The
president's brother, Jeb Bush, the governor of Florida, organized a scheme for every child in his state to
read the book. While Walden Media, co-producer of the movie, offered a ‘17-week Narnia Bible study for
children’.
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Here are some of the links between the story found in Lewis’ fiction and the Bible: Aslan represents Christ,
who is humiliated in his self-sacrifice and later resurrected. The White Witch is Satan tempting Edmund,
who is Judas. Peter, one of the children, represents the wise Christian.
TO INSPIRE AUDIENCE AND OBSERVER
Much religious art carries an evocational and invocational function that inspires
observers through the inducing of religious experience, however, religious art can
inspire an audience through how the image relates to the observer, or in its very
presence – the artistic skill involved and its magnitude.
Inspiration through relevance to a community: we have looked at examples such as
‘Jesus of the People’ by Janet McKenzie, the youthful black Jesus in a b-boy pose (right), as
well as the various Jesus images from ‘The Christ we Share’ collection. The latter contained
Jesus depicted in an aesthetic relevant to the culture in which the art was created, for example
an Indian artist painting Jesus as a guru – drawing on both the mystical Christ of the gospels
and the heritage of mysticism from that country. Much as we saw with the Day of the Dead
festival, such art can be inspiring to those from the relevant community as it allows for a
believer’s cultural identity to coincide with a religion that came from elsewhere (often through
colonialism) yet also constitutes a major part of their identity.
Inspiration through artistic skill and magnitude:
The famous statue in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, is called the statue of ‘Christ the
Redeemer’ (left). The statue depicts Jesus standing upright with his arms
outstretched to either side, supposedly representing welcoming arms. The statue is
38 meters high, and the span of the statue from finger tip to finger tip is an incredible
28 metres. At the bottom of the Jesus statue there is also a small chapel which can
accommodate around 150 worshippers.
It is located at the top of the Corcovado Mountain and is 710 metres high up. The
statue’s position complements its inspirational function as it offers breath-taking views
of the city such as downtown Rio, the bay, Sugarloaf Mountain and the Copacabana
and Ipanema Beaches.
Perhaps the most obvious example of inspirational religious art, though, is the Sistine Chapel. Michelangelo
painted 12,000 square feet (1,100 m2) of the chapel ceiling between 1508 and 1512. He resented the commission,
and believed his work only served the Pope's need for grandeur (making this an example of religious art that has
the purpose of reflecting the status / belief of the sponsor). However, today the ceiling is widely believed to be
Michelangelo's crowning achievement. Furthermore, Botticelli’s frescos, such as ‘Christ giving the Keys to St.
Peter’, added further fine detail to the chapel.
THE PERSONAL EXPRESSION OF THE ARTIST
Religious art can also be an expression of an artist’s personal relationship with their faith and the divine.
This can be sometimes challenging or controversial as an individual believer’s take on religion does not
always correspond to the traditional art favoured by a religious organisation.
Contemporary Islamic calligraphy art: As you can see, such art is quite
challenging in terms of the theology of the faith. It pushes non-figurative art to its
very limits. The image is not technically an image of a person since it is actually
Arabic written in highly stylised form of calligraphy that allows for shapes to
appear. The Arabic calligraphy here translates as ‘there's no God but Allah and
Muhammad (pbuh) is his messenger’. Which is a defining statement and belief of
Islam.
Arabic calligraphy was around for centuries but in that time it was simply used for
writing in modern society today Arabic calligraphy proved to be so beautiful that it
is defined as art.
Architecture and its decorative work – a question of intention: We looked at three artists who created
distinctive artwork for architecture such as monasteries and chapels – Fra Angelico, Matisse and Rothko (see your
sheet ‘Ambiguous Purposes of Religious Art’ for deeper detail on these artists in relation to various purposes of
religious art). While Fra Angelico was commissioned (asked by his Dominican Order’s church leaders) to create
the artwork for his monasteries, his highly details, unique and expansive frescoes showed his personal passion for
his faith. In the 15th century he created over fifty frescos (paintings on plaster walls) in the monastic cells and
communal spaces of the Convent of San Marco in Florence; the most extensive programme of convent
decoration ever carried out.
Henri Matisse too created a very unique chapel, permeated by the colours and stylised
pictorial forms that he was known around the world for. A great departure from the
usual images one finds in Christian places of worship, his Chapelle du Rosaire in
Vence, France, incorporated his unique aesthetic in everything from the building itself,
to the stained glass windows, murals, crucifix, altar, pews, confessional door and
vestments. His Stations of the Cross are also unique in that rather than being displayed
as 14 separate images placed along the walls, here the different stages of Jesus’
journey to crucifixion and burial are merged into one composition in which the
observer’s eye had the move along the amalgamated image, rather than the body.
Pere Coutourier – a monk who was the leading Dominican authority on contemporary art at the time – suggested
that Matisse was invoked to create the Stations in such a way: ‘The artist quite naturally became its principal
actor; instead of reflecting the tragedy, he has experienced it and this is how he has expressed it.’ But it is hard to
tell whether this is the case. When an artist who has been secular his entire life suddenly decides to create a
religious artwork (Matisse was in his eighties at the time), it is difficult to tell whether this was a true invocation or
more a last grand statement from an aging artist.
The same could be said for Mark Rothko, who while not as old at 67
years, committed suicide two days before his own chapel had been
dedicated (made holy and opened to the public). Rothko’s Chapel in
Houston, Texas, drew on the nature of early Christian architecture:
octagonal shapes, symmetry and wholeness; a form which complemented
his plain, perhaps desolate even, artworks for which he was renowned.
Singular images in which he attempted to capture ‘both the finite and the
infinite’, his paintings were very precise in their refusal to entertain
traditional narratives or even images.
The question is raised as to whether Rothko was using his expression to create a unique sacred space for religion
(as would be suggested by his use of early Christian architecture) or whether he was creating a sacred space for
his own art. For Rothko, saw an opportunity to have his art seen in an appropriate context: his paintings in an
isolated environment, away from other distractions and other art, so they could receive their proper regard (quiet
contemplation) and their proper regard (as sacred objects themselves). One of his studio assistants commented:
‘you had to make a pilgrimage to see his icons… it was very important to him that you make an effort to see them,
that they not be just accessible. These were religious experiences which you had to bring yourself to.’
There are also examples from pop culture, where fiction has been used to express an artist’s personal take
on faith:
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As mentioned earlier, the narrative of Mel Gibson’s film ‘The Passion of the Christ’ (2004) is based on the
structure provided by the Stations of the Cross. However, the film takes a much more explicitly violent and
gory take on the Way of the Cross, Jesus’ final 12 hours – even Tarantino was impressed! Some criticised
it for the amount of blood and gore, but others appreciate the more realistic portrayal of the crucifixion,
since traditional religious artwork often depicts Christ in a graceful pose upon the cross (however, this may
be due to the iconophile theology, where Christ is both God and Man, and therefore should be represented
as both, rather than merely human – even in his suffering). Also, Gibson’s film was controversial for its
depiction of Jews as being partly to blame for Jesus’ death – the Catholic Church officially released a
statement in the 1970s that attempted to rid Christians of the notion that Jews killed Jesus that had created
an environment of anti-Semitism for centuries.
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Another example of a controversial take on Jesus’ story is ‘The Last Temptation of Christ’. A novel
written by Nikos Kazantzakis, first published in 1951, it follows the life of Jesus Christ from his
perspective. The novel has been the subject of a great deal of controversy due to its subject matter, and
appears regularly on lists of banned books.
The central thesis of the book is that Jesus, while free from sin, was still subject to every form of temptation
that humans face, including fear, doubt, depression, reluctance, and lust. By facing and conquering all of
man's weaknesses, Kazantzakis argues in the novel's preface, Jesus struggled to do God's will, without
ever giving in to the temptations of the flesh. In 1988, Martin Scorsese made an equally controversial film
adaptation of the novel.
REFLECTING THE STATUS / BELIEF OF THE SPONSOR
(ART THAT IS COMMISSIONED BY A RELIGIOUS ORGANISATION)
This is when religious art has been commissioned by a religious organisation (church leaders / imams,
community groups etc.) The people who create the artwork can be secular (as is the case with most
famous examples of such work), though the question is also raised in traditional religious artwork (as
mentioned previously with Michelangelo’s apparent resentment at creating the Sistine Chapel).
Secular artists creating religious artworks: We have already looked at Matisse and Rothko as examples of
secular artists creating religious artworks, and the question as to the intention of such work. Yet some of the most
interesting and well-known of twentieth century religious artworks have been created by secular artists.
A religious contemporary artist commissioned to create religious art:
A famous example of a contemporary religious artist being commissioned to create religious art is Marc Chagall. A
Jewish painter associated with various key art movements and renowned for his figurative art, Chagall’s stainedglass windows for the Synagogue of the Hadassah-Hebrew University Medical Centre (1962) are unique and
expressive of his modernist style. The floors and interior walls of the synagogue are made of Jerusalem Stone, and
the Synagogue is illuminated by a hanging lantern and by sunlight which streams through the magnificent Chagall
Windows.
Marc Chagall dedicated his work and faith in Judaism. He presented his work as bringing ‘my modest gift to the
Jewish people, who have always dreamt of biblical love, of friendship and peace among all people; to that people
who lived here, thousands of years ago, among other Semitic people. My hope is that I hereby extend my hand to
seekers of culture, to poets and to artists among the neighbouring people.’