Religion & Art
When looking at religion and art, I have decided to engage with the changes in its representation through different periods of time.
Religion was seen as primarily spiritual but also as a visual representation of the ideas and emotions. To own pieces of art connected to religion was seen as linked to high status.
During the Renaissance art began to show authenticity and to investigate the human experience to deliver, some might say, truth and more recently artists began to take it further into a space that is more of the present attitude to rebel against religion.
For this I will primarily use three art pieces.
When looking at art in Christianity these images would tell stories that reflect the times expressed through use of colours and the spaces that these works are placed. Religious art was not just about art it was about wealth and status and showing that through colours such as lapis lazuli which was more expensive than gold and ultra-marine. It came from Afghanistan and you would have ground it down .Blue was a high status colour and inlaid with gold it represents heaven and the divine .
Italian artist Giotto was the artist that that did breath taking beautiful art that was placed in Scrovegni Chapel. This scene used two of the expensive paints Ultra marine blue that at the time was more expensive than gold. Building such a place showed status and wealth but this also showed your respect for god in painting him in such a magnificent way. You would go into this space and be in a state of surrender as a place of peace, respect and ceremony .
The Last Judgment Giotto 1306
When looking at the birth of Venus there is purity an innocence
displayed. The water and the sky represents a closeness to god which some may say is heavenly, as she stands on a shell. The lady is attempting to cover up her body. There are also two angels on her left hand side and I think they are with her meaning they support her with flowers, floating down her side I do not see anything from them that says to stop the display. She covers her private place with her hair although at the same time she stands there without a care. It is Clear there are outer forces disturbed by this display of flesh
When looking at Sandro Botticelli, The Birth of Venus. 1485,
Gilbert and George Shitty
Looking at this end of symbolism within religion and art its non- sacred although it is created in an harmonious kind of way. The blue is different from the traditional marina blue as it resembles the blue that came from the gas chambers in concentration camps in Germany. The cross is made of poop and naked images of them both. This deviates from the sacred and the display of beauty inside the chapel where GIOTTO painted those 37 scenes in relation to Christ. This was made to shock, to provoke awful feelings. Using shit in any image would have you turn your tummy but to place within this images gives a a strong statement
