ARTH218
The Crisis of the Image
“I shall give you a piece of good advice. Shun the
works of art, which are counted among the riches of the world. Today they are
invented for churches with such art and at such expense that they eclipse the
light of God, [tempting us] to contemplate in them not God but art.”
Girolamo
Savonarola, 1497
“The fact that we have images in our churches is …
against the First Commandment: ‘Thou salt not have strange gods.’ That carved
and painted idols should stand on altars is still more damaging and devilish…
Churches are houses in which God alone should … be worshiped. Why have we had
images painted with satin and damask… and adorned them with gold crowns? …
Statues are hideous, and it follows that we become hideous if we love them.”
Andreas Karlstadt, 1522
“The chief purpose of the Christian artist… is to
attain divine grace by means of his industry and skill… In the case of the
work, … its purpose is not exhausted by the usual resemblance to its object …
but serves the higher purpose of contemplating the eternal splendors in an act
of virtue, to lead people away from vice and to the true cult of God… in which
function, images as the subject of the outward cult must be distinguished from
the inward cult… Thus, while our corporeal eyes gaze at the image, our mind
rests upon the object of the depiction.”
Gabriele Paleotti, 1582
Assigned readings
·
Partridge, p.
9-17, 56-9, 78-101, 136-143
Important names and terms
·
Protestant
Reformation (starts in 1517)
·
Martin Luther
·
Iconoclasm
·
Counter
Reformation
·
Inquisition
·
Council of
·
Society of Jesus
(Jesuit Order)
·
Raphael,
Madonna
of Foligno, 1511-12
·
Raphael,
Sistine
Madonna, 1513-14
·
Titian, Assumption
of the Virgin, 1516-18
·
Correggio, Assumption of the Virgin,
1526-30,
·
Parmigianino, Madonna
and Child with St Jerome, 1527
·
Michelangelo, Last
Judgment, 1534-41, Sistine
·
Paolo Veronese, The
Marriage at Cana, 1563
·
Paolo Veronese, Feast in
the House of Levi, 1573
·
Tintoretto, The
Last Supper, 1592-94
·
Jacopo
Vignola, Il
Gesù, begun 1568 (plan)
Additional
images
·
Lucas Cranach the Elder, Allegory of Law and Grace,
c. 1530
Additional
resources
·
Visit the
Metropolitan Museum of Art’s website section on “The Reformation”
