Art history matters because art matters, and art matters because people matter. Art tells us so much about how humans throughout history have behaved, what they have believed, and how they have created in response to their place in the world. How was it made? What is represented in the piece? How has it been displayed and exhibited? How was it received at the time of its making? What were the conscious and unconscious forces at work in creating it? By asking questions like these of artworks, art historians can begin to unearth patterns of how people have creatively considered their existence. By understanding how art has existed historically, we can gain a much richer and more informed view of the world we live in now and in particular the cultures that shape us today.
So, what does it mean to study the history of art as a Christian? We hope this article will give you some pointers to begin thinking about this question.
Working for the wellbeing of creation
Culture is not something that sits ‘out there’ and happens to us, culture is made by us as human beings made in God’s image. We were made by God for this purpose, to be fruitful and to create, to steward and to cultivate. As we do this, we are reflecting something of the character of God – a God who creates an expansive, diverse, and beautifully crafted through His word. It is no accident then that every human society has naturally transformed raw materials into what we could consider to be ‘art’. From early cave paintings to Medieval manuscript illustrations, from Renaissance paintings to screen prints of soup cans, human beings have reliably engaged with their surroundings by making art.
As Christians, we recognize that this is because creativity is an innate echo of the Creator God that formed them. The creation of artwork is a wonderful thing, but we can sometimes miss the importance of being able to successfully understand and look at works of art. Visual literacy, learning to understand the history of art objects, is crucial for many reasons. We live in a visually saturated world, where every aspect of our lives is influenced (consciously and unconsciously) by the images we consume. These images do not spring up out of nowhere but are informed continuously by the images and conventions inherited by artists and culture makers that have come before us.
This is where art historians are particularly important. People trained to interpret and critically analyze artefacts that comprise our visual landscape contribute to our insight into how the arts both shape and interpret our experience of reality. Broadly we might consider that art history is concerned with the core question of what it means to be human – with a specific focus on how this manifests in our visual culture. Art historians also work to preserve the arts, recognizing that the art of the past remains significant in shaping today’s cultures. This preservation of the arts in many ways makes art historians custodians and caretakers of our visual culture, able to set the value structures through which we understand what artworks, questions, and reflections are worth our ongoing consideration in today’s society.
How art historians employ the arts to consider questions about humanity has a significant influence on ongoing narratives about who we are as human beings. There are many differing ideologies that shape the approach to how we undertake the study of the history of art, perspectives from Marxism, feminism, and post-colonialism to name a few. Each of these perspectives are valuable, and pick up a particular set of questions about what it means to be human. However, perhaps what has been missing from the study of art history, at least in recent times, is a robust contribution from a Christian perspective that seeks to locate contemporary conversations about the arts within a Christian worldview.
Worshipping the God we work for
As well as having the capacity to create works of art, we as humanity also can receive, enjoy, and interpret what we see around us. This again is no accident, but a central feature of being made by and for God. When David in Psalm 91 considers the skies around him, he recognizes that their beauty and glory point to a wonderful creator God and He responds in praise.
God has made us to be able to enjoy and evaluate his creative works, and in doing so shows us that creativity is an act of communication. So, as we examine and enjoy works of art, we are opened up to a wonderful historical conversation about the world around us. Art can help to connect us with other human beings across cultural, geographical, and even temporal boundaries – growing together in insight and in the questions we ask about the world.
We might think of the way in which J.M.W Turner opened our eyes to the awesome force of nature and our vulnerability within it, or Van Gogh highlights how light shapes our relationship with reality. We can look at the beauty of the ordinary in 17th Century Dutch Art, or the honesty of everyday life as a person on the margins such as in the work of Outsider Artists like Bill Traylor.
In God’s common grace, he has not shut our eyes completely to the truth and goodness still palpable within his creation. Yes, our ability to recognize the full extent of God’s truth and goodness is damaged by the fall, but it is not altogether removed. To be able to work as an art historian, uncovering the ways in which artists have delighted in the truth and beauty of God’s creation, is a wonderful thing. As we look at the world through the eyes of others, each made in the image of God, we are able to deepen our own appreciation of God’s world in ways we may not have done alone.
However, it is important that we also look at how art helps to see the darkness of reality, namely the effect that sin has had on our relationship with each other, the world, and with God himself. Art can clearly show us the levels of brokenness of a world living apart from God.
Sometimes this occurs in the content of the artworks themselves as we look at works from artists such as Käthe Kollwitz as she highlights the suffering of real people in the wake of a World War. We can look at the commentaries of Ai Wei Wei on political corruption and human exploitation.
But the art world doesn’t only show the sin ‘out there’ in the society around it. Even as we look inwardly and critically at the history of art, we will very quickly uncover the sinful attitudes of the artists that make the work and institutional sin in the voices of those who have shaped the field (and in ourselves too!). We will see value structures that historically prioritized the voices of certain people over others. We will see how our institutions function with inherited corruption in their funding, and questionable priorities in the principles that they rest on. This ought not to cause us to give up on the world of art or the study of its history, but is the reality that foregrounds the necessity of a savior. As Christians joining the art of historical conversation, we can marvel at the creative beauty of humanity, acknowledge and grieve the brokenness, but also praise God for the hope of Christ who is the great redeemer of all creation.
Witnessing to the world
Studying the history of art is rich with opportunities to share Christ with our peers. On the face of it, it might seem difficult. Depending on the department you are in and art historical approach of your lecturers, Christianity is seen in different lights. For some, it is a source of great, but detached, fascination – a place to find beautiful tradition, to consider in the preservation of our cultural heritage, and as something to study in order to contextualise our understanding of certain artworks.
Other approaches to the History of Art can be postured critically, believing the Western Christian heritage to be a source of many of the problems in the study of the history of art – something that has created imbalances of power, discriminatory foundations, and narrow perspectives on ideas of beauty. Both positions raise considered and important questions about the relationship between the history of art and Christianity. What both positions also do is highlight that it is difficult to escape conversations about Christianity and its values, or perceived values when looking at the history of art (particularly in the Western context).
Importantly then, as Christians working in this field of Art History, we are uniquely placed to offer a ‘live’ perspective on Christianity. As we live out Christlike lives that seek to centre Christ in all that we do, we can demonstrate that Christianity is not simply an impersonal, detached historical theory – but has a valuable and credible existence in the world today. If we are convinced that God is the author and creator of this world, then we ought to be confident that as we study the art that materially examines the world he has made, we will see his fingerprints somewhere within the work. We may see a distorted version of God’s world in the sinful hand of man, or we might see glimmers of goodness and beauty of God’s world in the hands of God’s image bearers – most often we will see both in the same piece of artwork.
Even as undergraduates, you will be engaged in meaty conversations about some of the most foundational questions of meaning, purpose, and value within your lectures and discussions. To be able to demonstrate what it means to frame these conversations today as a Christian is a real privilege. We must take this seriously, recognising our need to walk in a humble, thought-through and self-aware way – not ignoring the difficult questions that come our way (even critical ones about the history of Christianity). However, we also have a great responsibility to stand alongside our peers, rooted in a strong sense of the hope of Christ, and ready to engage in conversations that help them see the truth about reality and of the Author of it.
Reflect and discuss
Think: Think back over what you have studied so far in your degree. Where have you seen God's fingerprints? Where have ideas presented to you challenged what you believed to be true?
Live: What do you think your coursemates would know about what is important to you from the way you live? Is there anything you want to change here?
Speak: Are there topics in your subject that are closer to talking about your outlook on life, God or the gospel? Pray for people on your course and for opportunities to share about Jesus with them this term.
Taking it further
- Arts Network Resources
- L'Abri's Idea Library - Theology of Art
- ArtWay.eu Resources
- Redeeming Vision by Elissa Yukiko Weichbrodt
- Bearing Fresh Olive Leaves by Calvin Seerveld
- Why Art Matters by Alistair Gordon
