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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: 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: 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. 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. 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: 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.’ 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’. 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: 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. 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.’