summary of the depiction of christ in protest ant art

8/6/2019 Summary of the Depiction of Christ in Protest Ant Art

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Ilze Krisane

SUMMARY OF THE DEPICTION OF CHRIST IN PROTESTANT ART

The main idea of the iconoclasm was to destroy images, because of the tradition of the

Catholic Church to treat them as live and possessing holy qualities. In reality people went from one

extreme to anther - by destroying paintings and crucifixes, they treated them as if they were livepeople of flash and blood: images were flogged, or ordered to drink, or otherwise mocked. The

rituals of violence against crucifixes sometimes unconsciously echoed the events of the passion

itself, making even destruction of sacred art to become some kind of ritual.

Mob by religious uprising destroyed everything in their way not analyzing. Revolutionary

feelings overtook human ability to judge own action and riots were transferred from the clergy and

the institution of Roman Catholic Church to nearby parish churches and everything in them.

Karlstadt in his works often criticized external means of the piety. In such way, he hoped to

raise the importance of the Word. This kind of glance back at early Christian focuses on the liturgyand the Bible itself found its own way in the art of the early modern period. It was expressed as the

written texts and the quotes of the Holy Books in the paintings of Protestant art. Often text was used

to explain the picture, in order no misunderstandings to appear, which could later lead to the

emergence of legends and myths, as it happened with Catholic Church.

As all Protestants at the beginning of the reformation thought, Karlstadt demonstrated strong

opposition to the use of paintings and other expressions of art in church as means of education,

showing an example or leading to prayer and meditation. As puritanically tended priest, he

considered that the physical pleasures sidetracks attention of parish and art as the means of pleasure

can wake in humans only negative emotions.

Luther's position on images underwent several changes during the course of his life. These

changes reflected the development of his views on worship and the need for a sacred space for

communal worship. Although at the beginning of the formation of the Reformist thought he spoke

about abandonment of art for religious needs, than after the destruction of images in Wittenberg, he

distanced himself from the actions of the iconoclasts.

For Luther the basic dichotomy involved in the question of images was not that between spirit

and flesh, as it was for the Zwinglians, but that between salvation by faith and salvation by works.

The solution for Luther and his followers was a reformation in art that corresponded to a new wayof considering the cross.

The cross of Christ was at the center of Luther's theology. The cross and Christ moved from

the background of the Medieval Age tradition of Catholic Church to the front of the Protestant

theology and art of the new age. The crucifix became the source of the piety and godly wisdom.

By Luthers concept, art had three main functions which were relatively important in

instructing the parish for their everyday and religious life. It was pedagogical, spiritual, and

exemplary functions, which were interlinking one with another.

Luther's theology also strongly emphasizes the cross as God's victory over the devil, sin, and

death. In art Christ is shown victorious even if the painting or carving is representing the

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crucifixion, because He is the symbol of the Gods almighty and love. And by this kind of art people

are encouraged to have faith and be obedient.

Calvin was influenced by early Protestant works, where Luther set in the idea of the

corrupted nature of art. But in comparison with Luther, Calvin stayed to this idea that images are

useless in religious piety. And although he was against using images in churches, his ideas and

theology influenced the development of sacred art.

Calvin strictly noted, that according to any kind of art, people can impersonate only things or

beings observed by the eye. Therefore the depiction of God was strongly forbidden, as pure

fabrication of our sinful imagination, but, as Christ had the flash and blood as all human beings, the

crucifixes were not prohibited, although Calvin did not support any kind of sacred art.

But comparing with Luthers theology, Calvin concentrated more not on the crucifix, but

other realms as blood. That is brightly visible in Protestant art, as Christs body is often harshly

molded and bleeding, that in different situations brings different symbolic meaning to the whole

piece of art. Blood is considered to be the main symbol as the price for our sins.

Bloody and crucified body of Christ is not the only peculiarity of the Protestant art. The face

expression of the Son of God shows great pain of damnation. Calvin argues that it is the pain of

human body. Rather, he agonized in anticipation of the pains of hell. The calm and elevated look of

Jesus in Catholic traditions of passion is changed by Christs face marked by sufferings on the

cross.

Although the look of Christ in some cases can be even disturbing because of the blood and

wounds, and pain; in reality in pieces of art Jesus looks clean and untouched by all sorts of mockery

He had endured before the crucifixion. Calvin explains it as the works of the ungodly to carry outthe divine purposes, while remaining untouched by their evil acts.

In the scenes of Golgotha Mountain viewers can observe several events of different moments

of the narrative depicted in one painting or carving. It could be explained by Calvins attitude

towards salvation: it is the completion of the work of salvation that is the sign of the new life and is

given us.

The main problem in analyzing works of art is in fact that Protestant artists were born or

even had been raised and taught by Renaissance thought. It is just natural that early Protestant

paintings had a lot in common with Renaissance art and its elements. Art was gradually changingand symbols of new religion slowly were introduced in art.

The primary topic is the place of the cross in salvation, as seen in theology and art.

Theologically, it involves the doctrines of sin, justification, redemption, and other religious topics.

Similarly, the subject raises attention to the aesthetics as well, including the place of art in society

and the way it communicates, and its relation to conceptual thought.

Protestants refused the free flight of the imagination as the source for the religious art. Gods

Word could only righteously lead an artist in the process of creation of the art which later inspired

parish and priests. Topics of the sacred art were carefully chosen from the most important scienceof Holy Scripts looking from the theological point of view.

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Although sacred art may be used instrumentally, to convey a specific religious message, arts

in general have their separate lives, in which patrons, consumers, locations, talent (or lack of it),

tradition, materials, techniques, etc., play an important role, quite apart from the message that

religious art least ostensibly serves. And money played one of the most important parts of the

creation of art, because art (especially paintings) was a very expensive piece of prosperity. Not all

could afford it, even if they wanted. Therefore artists were forced to paint not what they reallywould liked to or would preferred to, but instead what was the order of the patron or other noble

and at the same time rich men.

Reformation art as the Reformation itself had a lot of different phases and types. Some of the

artists found themselves in the middle between churches of different religions and concepts of art.

Durers art as transitional reformation art must be placed first of all within the context of

Renaissance humanism. His education showed his priorities in art. Durer made two trips to Italy,

including a special journey to Bologna (in 1507) to learn the secrets of the art of perspective. That

is brightly seen in his carvings in Engraved Passion, where a lot of painters attention is paid to

precise depiction of human body, putting emphasis on each and every smallest detail as muscles and

wounds.

He was also inspirited by Northern Humanist thought and it is possible that he also knew the

works of the neo-Platonist Ficino, which were available in Nuremberg. Various concepts form

different parts of Europe came into Germany and slowly went into the direction of the Reformation,

before the idea of the Reformation itself was formulated.

Although there were a lot of medieval traditions and Catholic Church symbolic elements in

his works, the influence of the Northern Humanistic thought through the interpretation of the Holy

Scripts was introduced. In his carvings the Small Passion (1511) Christs expression of face is

changed from traditionally esthetically exalted as in Renaissance paintings to flinched in pain. In his

carvings the Large Passion (1498) Durer in scenes of passion slowly turns from Mary as a central

object and puts Jesus and his sufferings in the middle of painters own art.

Durers success as an artist gave him entry into a high level of society in Nuremberg. He was

named a member of the city's Great Council, and associated with educated and cultured members of

the gentry. He studied languages, and was able to read Latin. His best friend was Willibald

Pirckheimer, a well-educated humanist; it was he who introduced Durer to the classics, and

informed him about philosophy and archeology. Durer was probably employed by the humanistEmperor Maximilian I because of humanistic qualities as well as for his technical skill.

And although most of his paintings and carvings were made before Reformation, Durer is

considered to be semi-reformist painter, because a lot of his works gained recognition from Luther

and later were printed as illustrations in reformist books of Gods Word and the Gospels.

Lukas Cranach as one of the most important painters in postulation of Protestantism art, by

the time of the Reformation, he was a famous and rich man, one of the leading citizens of the city of

Wittenberg, where he was a court painter to the Duke-Elector of Saxony, who later became Luther's

protector. He had as well close relationships with Luther himself.

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Cranach supervised the printing of Luther's propaganda booklets, designed woodcuts for the

German version of the New Testament, and painted Protestant princes and reformers. Most

importantly he worked with Luther and under his influence to create a new style and subject matter

to fit the new reformed approach to faith. Ideology and art went hand in hand. Art was not

abolished, but served as means of help in Protestant sermons by visualizing theological concepts.

It is especially vivid in Lukas Cranachs group of several versions of a painting of the

crucified Christ with the converted centurion what was made in the course of the years 153639. It

is considered that these paintings introduce new symbolism of Reformist church and Protestant art.

In the composition of the passion the place of Mary is taken by centurion who represented secular

power and usually was patron of Protestant Church or the painter. In Cranachs case the face of the

centurion bears a similarity to portraits of the Elector of Saxony, Cranach's patron.

Depiction of a human body did not have esthetic function, but served symbolic representation

of persons inner world. In paintings like by portrayal of criminals who were crucified together

with Christ, the good one is figured as thin, pleasantly looking man with calm face expression,

but the bad one is represented as heavy, angry looking man with face expressing suffering. It was

representing the power of penance of the sins and redemption.

By his works, Cranach tried to reduce the importance of Virgin Mary as the individual saint.

In paintings of passion as Crucifixion (1503) Mary is shown not alone under the cross or with

other woman like Mary Magdalena or Anna, but with Josef, symbolizing sacred instance of

marriage and woman main role as wife and mother.

Altarpieces stepped back from Renaissance tradition of capturing the beauty of a moment and

tried to combine the whole story in one picture. Bright example is different variations of Cranachs

perception of The Law and the Gospel or also called as The Justification of the Sinner; one of

them made in 1539. It covers subject starting with the Fall of Adam and Eve and finishing with the

Resurrection of Christ. It covers the whole history of the sin and salvation from it. It is the main

topic in Reformist theology as well.

The most famous work of Cranach was Wittenbergs Altarpiece The Last Supper and Scenes

from the Life of Martin Luther in Marienkirche. It represents Luthers idea of the ideal sacred

institution, which works in the same way as Christ with his apostils. In the lowest panel he shows

the service of Luther, where between the priest and his parish is only Christ, no other mediator.

Church in the background is depicted bleak and plain and the parish is attentively looking at Jesusin front of them. Luther in this painting stands in a pulpit with the Bible in front of him and with

one hand points to bleeding Son of God. Nothing draws attention away from the most important in

the ceremony and liturgy Christ.

Cranach considered that his power of painter was a gift from God; therefore he was helping

Luther to bring people closer to the understanding of Gods will and commandments by using his

talent of painting. This idea was depicted in Cranachs sons - Lukas Cranach the Younger - painting

Weimar Altarpiece, where he portrays his father standing next to the cross of Christ between John

the Baptist and Luther and the blood of Jesus stream on Cranachs the Elder forehead as a symbol

of the Gods blessing.

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RECOMMENDED READING LIST

1. Christensen, C.C. Art and the Reformation in Germany. Athens: Ohio University Press. 1979

2. Coulton, G.G. Art and the Reformation. New York: Cambridge University Press. 1953.

3. Dixon, C.S. Protestants: A History from Wittenberg to Pennsylvania 1517 1740. Oxford:

Wiley-Blackwell. 2010

4. Heal, B. The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Early Modern Germany: Protestant and Catholic Piety,

1500 1648. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2007

5. Kreitzer, B. Reforming Mary: Changing Images of the Virgin Mary in Lutheran Sermons of the

Sixteenth Century. New York: Oxford University Press. 2004

6. Michalski, S. The Reformation and the Visual Arts: The Protestant Image Question in Westernand Eastern Europe. London: Routledge. 1993

7. Viladesau, R. The Triumph of the Cross: The Passion of Christ in Theology and the Arts, from

the Renaissance to the Counter-Reformation. New York: Oxford University Press. 2008

8. The Cambridge History of Christianity: Reform and Expantion 1500 1660. Ed.: Po-Chia Hsia,

R. New York: Cambridge University Press. 2007.

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summary of the depiction of christ in protest ant art

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