Christ the Saviour (Pantokrator), 6th century, Encaustic on panel, 33 1/16 × 17 7/8 in (84 × 45.5 cm), Saint Catherine’s Monastery, Mount SinaiBELIEF IN THE SUPERNATURAL AS A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION
The religious impulse has been the motivating factor for a vast number of works of art. Most tribal art appears to have a religious or devotional intention, and much ancient art revolves around religious practices. Western art was largely religious until the Renaissance and wasn’t dominated by secular art until the nineteenth century. Indeed it might be possible to argue that the respect that is accorded to artworks in the contemporary world is part of the legacy of artworks as a focus of devotion. We might infer, therefore, that the making of images in tribal societies is an expression of a universal human drive to externalize and thereby control forces that remain mysterious and perhaps threatening.
In some cases, religious images become so closely identified with their subjects that the popular audience has difficulty separating the two. Thus the intense veneration of some works of art, including many Christian icons and sculptures, that become objects of worship in their own right. Such works are sometimes associated with miraculous cures, visions, and other supernatural occurrences.
Religious imagery often tends to the iconic and the symmetrical. The colossal heads of Easter Island, the beautifully simplified sculpture of Cycladic art, the Great Sphinx of Giza, or the myriad statues of the Buddha exhibit symmetry or near symmetry. Clearly humans infer a quality of presence from symmetry that relates to our own symmetrical construction. The quintessential Christian image of Christ on the Cross is also close to symmetrical.
In more sophisticated art, religious imagery often concerns itself with the depiction of the stories and myths associated with a particular religion. In Western art, artists of the Baroque era, particularly those associated with the Counter-Reformation, found new ways to project religious feeling. Carravagio (1571–1610) deployed highly theatrical lighting and a stark realism to draw his viewers into well-known biblical scenes. Sir Peter Paul Rubens (1577–1640) deployed scale, movement, and spectacular rendering to project a sense of dazzling richness and splendor to make his altarpieces compelling for a popular audience (see page 93).
See also: Symmetry on page 187
Christ the Saviour (Pantokrator), 6th century, Encaustic on panel, 33 1/16 × 17 7/8 in (84 × 45.5 cm), Saint Catherine’s Monastery, Mount Sinai
Emil Nolde (1867–1956)
The Burial, 1915, Oil on canvas, 38 3/16 × 45 1/4 (97 × 115 cm)
In an increasingly secular twentieth century, some artists were still motivated by religious feeling. Here Nolde deploys the newly-forged language of Expressionism to re-imagine one of the key scenes of the New Testament.
Gandhara Buddha, 1 st to 2 nd century CE, 43 in (110 cm)
