I am guessing that most can see that the overall effect of Bougeureau’s style is one a superficial sentimentality which, I would argue, is inappropriate for liturgical art.
Christians Created Abstract Art 2000 Years Before Kandinsky - And Were Better At It!
Sacred number in art: St Matthew’s tells us there are 14 generations from Abraham to David, 14 from David until the Babylonian exile and 14 from the Babylonian exile to Christ. Matthew wrote in Aramaic. In this language, the characters of the alphabet are also used for numbers. This allows for every name to characterized both in letters and numbers. When the letters that comprise the name David are treated as numbers and added together it creates the number 14. This numerical symbolism emphasizes the fact that Christ in a king in the line of David, as prophesied.
Artists and the Kingdom of God
The creative types among us, the artists, and poets, and writers and makers, spend their lives chasing “success.” Success as the world defines it usually involves some mixture of money and celebrity or fame. But for every artist who is able to sell his work for tens of thousands of dollars, there are many more Vincent Van Goughs toiling in obscurity.
To Be At Peace
Who Would Know?
The Arts and Battles in the Holy Sepulchre
The Church and the Sacred Arts – Architecture
The Church and Sacred Art
The Church and the Sacred Arts - Music
When it comes to the Liturgy, what does the Church actually tell us about the role of music, and why guidelines does the Church give us in selecting music?
Of the three sacred arts of art, architecture, and music, the Church has given us the most explicit direction when it comes to music. But as music acts (or should act) in concert with art and architecture, what is said of one can apply to the others.
Liturgical Art and Liturgical Man
Artists and the Church - Benedict XVI
Artists need the Church to remind them who they are and why they are here. They need the refuge of the Barq of Peter to shield them from the work of the Adversary that preys upon their ego and the wants and desires that are common to all people regardless of their vocation. Artists need the Church as much as the Church needs artists because it is in the Church that the Artists finds True Beauty and the meaning of their lives.
The Artists and the Church - John Paul II
Pope Saint John Paul II perhaps understood the sensibility of artists better than most pontiffs. He was, after all, a poet, playwright, and actor himself. His Letter to Artists, written in 1999, deserves special attention among those struggling to find a way to reconcile being an artist with being Christian.
The Artists and the Church - Paul VI
The Artist and the Church Pius XII
The Church and Design Competitions
The Artist and the Church -Trent
While the Council of Nicaea affirmed the validity of the use of sacred images, the Council of Trent defined the role of art in service to the Church. Still, some Protestant circles would not accept sacred art on any terms and a new wave of iconoclasm stripped many churches of their rich heritage of traditional iconography. But the Council of Trent paved the way for a new generation of artists to work with the Church on sacred imagery that would appeal to the people and be faithful to magisterial teaching. This came to be known as Baroque, or the art of the counter-reformation.
The Artist and the Church - Nicaea
"The composition of religious imagery is not left to the initiative of the artist, but is formed upon principles laid down by the Catholic Church and by religious tradition... The execution alone belongs to the painter, the selection and arrangement of subject belongs to the Fathers."
The above quote is often cited as an "instruction" from the Second Council of Nicaea, but this passage is not found in the dogmatic canons issued by the Council. Where does it come from and what does it mean to the contemporary Christian artist?
The Artist as Storyteller
Stories serve us on many levels. They invite us to consider situations by drawing us in, making us part of the story, making us feel like we are experiencing the struggles and challenges of the protagonist first hand. They may teach us small lessons about life or they may invite us to consider ourselves as part of the bigger picture of the story of our salvation.
Looking Forward
God is patient with us. He gives us time. He gives us time to explore our gifts and perhaps even misuse them. But always God is there calling us to discover the proper use of those gifts, to put the past behind us and move forward in our proper work. Whatever your situation is now, whatever mistakes you have made in the past, they are in the past, resolve to put them behind you and go forward, finding the role God has put you here to fulfill.
