9/2/2023 0 Comments Medieval artNevertheless their style and appearance changed in order to be more compatible with theology. įortunately for art and history, not everyone agreed with Tertullian and Augustine and the use of images persisted. Augustine cannot reconcile these lies with patterns of divine truth and therefore does not see a place for images in Christian practice. A painting of a cat is not a cat, but the artist tries to convince the viewer that it is. An image lies because it is not the thing it claims to be. An actor on a stage lies because he is playing a part, trying to convince you that he is a character in the script when in truth he is not. In his Soliloquies (386–87), Augustine observes that illusionary images, like actors, are lying. Augustine of Hippo, was also concerned about images, but for different reasons. Augustine: Illusionary Images are LiesĪnother influential early Christian writer, St. In the end, Tertullian asks artists to quit their work and become craftsmen. Arguing fervently against artists as Christians, he acknowledges that there are many artists who are Christians and indeed some who are even priests. In this text, he argues that all illusionary art, or all art that seeks to look like something or someone in nature, has the potential to be worshiped as an idol. Tertullian, an influential early Christian author living in the second and third centuries, wrote a treatise titled On Idolatry in which he asks if artists could, in fact, be Christians. Tertillian Asks: Can Artists be Christians? The use of images in religious ritual was visually compelling and difficult to abandon. Nevertheless, many early Christians were converted pagans who were accustomed to images in religious worship. Early Christians saw themselves as the spiritual progeny of the Israelites and tried to comply with this commandment. When God dictated the ten commandments to Moses on Mount Sinai, God expressly forbade the Israelites from making any “any graven image, or any likeness of any thing that is in heaven above, or that is in the earth beneath, or that is in the water under the earth” (Exodus 20:4). The illusionary quality of classical art posed a significant problem for early Christian theologians. After all, a statue of a god or goddess in the ancient world was believed to embody deity. Some of these sculptures, such as the Aphrodite of Knidos by Praxiteles, were so lifelike that legends spread about the statues coming to life and speaking to people. Artists sculpting the images of gods and goddesses tried to make their statues appear like an idealized human figure. Praxiteles, Aphrodite of Cnidos, Roman marble copy after fourth century Greek original (Palazzo Altemps, Rome)Ĭlassical art, or the art of ancient Greece and Rome, sought to create a convincing illusion for the viewer.
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