WH Auden argued in an essay on the fall of Rome that “One may like or dislike Christianity, but no one can deny that it was Christianity and the Bible which raised western literature from the dead.” Elaborating, “A faith which held that the Son of God was born in a manger, . . . . Continue Reading »
Like many artistic and intellectual movements, Modernism challenged its immediate predecessors by reaching back to earlier artistic forms. Diane Apostolos-Cappadona notes, for instance, the decisive influence that Grunewald’s Isenheim Alterpiece had on Picasso, and on the Guernica in . . . . Continue Reading »
In his essay in A Broken Beauty , Gordon Fuglie offers this description of The Art World: It “is in truth a comparatively small and elite cultural entity. It takes itself very seriously, is adequately funded if not always wealthy, and is narrowly self-defined and, as a consequence, . . . . Continue Reading »
In his Rembrandt, Life and Work (Landmarks in Art History) , Jakob Rosenberg argued that Rembrandt rejected the classicist ideal that beauty had to be fully controlled with clearly bounded lines. He notes that “for Rembrandt the essence of truth about man and nature lies in the ultimate . . . . Continue Reading »
Barth described theology as “an act of penitence and obedience” that works through “an attitude of prayer.” And he kept that Lenten image of theology before him by hanging a copy of the Isenheim Altarpiece over his desk. Matthew Boulton explains this in his God Against . . . . Continue Reading »
In the highly sensible opening chapter to his Creator Spirit: The Holy Spirit and the Art of Becoming Human , Steven Guthrie asks what makes “art” seem “spiritual” to so many people. Many, he notes, find that art is spiritual because both “art” and . . . . Continue Reading »
Robert Solomon concludes an article that analyzes the reasons given for condemning kitsch with this defense of the emotions associated with kitschy art: “it seems to me that the real objection to kitsch and sentimentality is the rejection (or fear) of emotions and, especially, certain kind of . . . . Continue Reading »
In a fascinating discussion of Enrique Martinez Celaya’s painting Thing and Deception in his God in the Gallery: A Christian Embrace of Modern Art (Cultural Exegesis) , Daniel Siedell quotes Martinez Celaya’s comments: “I chose a seemingly banal image, a chocolate bunny rabbit . . . . Continue Reading »
Exodus 20:4: You shall not make for yourself a carved image—any likeness of anything that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth; you shall not bow down to them nor serve them. Many read the Second Commandment as a prohibition of . . . . Continue Reading »
In her essay “On Interpretation,” Susan Sontag argues that interpretation that seeks the “meaning” of a work of art is always destructive. She says, “It is always the case that interpretation of this type indicates dissatisfaction (conscious or unconscious) with the . . . . Continue Reading »
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