Religious influence on art

Religous Influence on Art

Art has been significantly shaped by religious values through the ages, considering that the spiritual nature of religious concepts served as a perfect tool to inspire artists. Most artists who employ religious ideas while they devise their creations are interested in putting across their faith through art and in influencing the public in adopting spiritual attitudes in their relationship with society. Many individuals relate to how artists paint using their spiritual personality, with their material personality only being used with the purpose of giving shape to their thoughts. Some artists are likely to close their eyes before actually starting to create art, as this provides them with the opportunity to reach their spirituality easier.

Through considering supernatural concepts present in religious teachings, artists are enabled to create artwork that is as unique as possible. The fact that supernatural motifs are an essential part in the process of creation makes it possible for them to detach themselves from the material world and attempt to create art that expresses spirituality through its perfection. One can even say that spirituality fed some of the greatest works of art created through time.

Jones, Cheslyn; Wainwright, Geoffrey and Yarnold, Edward eds., the Study of Spirituality (New York: Oxford University Press, 1986)

Kuspit, Donald, "Reconsidering the Spiritual in Art," Retrieved February 17, 2012, from the Blackbird Website: http://www.blackbird.vcu.edu/v2n1/gallery/kuspit_d/reconsidering_text.htm

McCray, Linda, 'A Brief History of Spiritual Art," Retrieved February 17, 2012, from the EnvisionChurch Website: http://www1.georgetown.edu/centers/liturgy/envisionchurch/45498.html

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Von Ogden Vogt, Art & Religion (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 1921)

Religion played a major role in assisting some of history's greatest artists not only through feeding their thoughts, both also through financing some of the greatest artworks that have ever been created. Religious individuals commissioned artists with the purpose of having them create artwork in accordance with particular religious ideas. It can even be said that the relationship between artists and religion contained ideas related to marketing. Artists like Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo had no other choice but to work for religious persons in order to be able to make a living.

Although there were a series of patrons willing to pay for artwork, the influence of religion and the fact that religious people had access to a wide range of resources made it possible for them to have the authority and the means to force artists to create works that expressed religious concepts.

Brent Plate, S. Religion, art, and visual culture: a cross-cultural reader, (Palgrave Macmillan, 2002)

Chilvers, Ian, the Oxford dictionary of art, (Oxford University Press, 2004)

Lancaster Spalding, John, Religion and art: and other essays, (Ayer Publishing, 1905)

Martland, Thomas R. Religion as art: an interpretation, (SUNY Press, 1981)

Spector, Jack J. The Murals of Eugene Delacroix at Saint Sulpice, (Rutgers University Press, 1985)

Many artists focus on putting across moral messages through their works and religion provides them with a great deal of material to use in their works. These people acknowledge the ethical aspect of religion and combine it with a series of artistic concepts with the purpose of providing the public with teachings meant to assist them as they try to differentiate between right and wrong. Although there is much controversy concerning the topic of art and its moral relationship with religion, it is only safe to assume that artists who have their thinking governed by morality are concentrated on creating works that instruct viewers in regard to attitudes that they need to employ in order to be moral.

Numerous artists have made use of religious principles as they devised ideas to use in their work. "It is no wonder, therefore, that so much of the finest art of history has religious meaning, from the Parthenon and Chartres to the Taj Mahal and Rothko Chapel, from the Divine Comedy and Paradise Lost through the German Requiem to the Brothers Karamazov" (Dutton 230).

Bermudez, Jose Luis, Art and morality, (Routledge, 2003)

Dutton, Denis, the art instinct: beauty, pleasure, & human evolution, (Oxford University Press, 2009)

Widdows, Heather, the moral vision of Iris Murdoch, (Ashgate Publishing, Ltd., 2005)

Even though there are many individuals who promote the belief that art should not be associated with religion, people appear to ignore the fact that religious concepts can functions as catalysts strengthening the relationship between man and the divine. Art practically represents the best that humanity can give birth to and it should be recognized for the fact that it assisted people in achieving progress ever since the Ancient era. Individuals in Ancient Greece and artwork produced during the period provide a succinct account regarding people's thinking at the time. Religion influenced individuals in adopting particular attitudes and it inspired them in creating artistic work.

Religious societies have traditionally expressed lack of support concerning idolatry. Even with that, idolatry is largely responsible for the fact that religions can relate to a background and because society holds artifacts that provide information concerning religion before the current era. By using religious themes, artists in the Ancient world managed to put across messages that had a positive effect on people and on society as a whole through the fact that it provided them with instructions regarding the lifestyles that they needed to appreciate in order to feel good about who they are.

Gardner, Ernest a. Religion and Art in Ancient Greece (London: Harper & Brothers, 1910)