Essay Question #4

ESSAY 7a 
ESSAY TITLE: Faith and Belief
QUESTION: Is Art in any way, an intrinsic part of, or a primary factor in religion or religious expression and if so, how did it specifically play a part in the development of Christianity?

PART 1:

SUMMARY: I experienced a lot about the images that were used to make it easy on people to want to be a part of Christianity.  The art ended up playing a big big role in how people looked at Christianity.

REASON: This question was asked because art and religion go hand in hand.  Every religion has art that reflects it and Christianity was possibly the most influenced with art.

PURPOSE: I believe that I was asked to answer this to show me that art and religion play a big role together and without one there might not be the other, they need each other to survive.

DIRECTION: The direction of this has me questioning what I think about Catholics using Apollo to make Jesus, the thought still blows my mind.

IMPRESSION: I never would have thought that most of the images that I looked at were almost copy cats of other images from other religions.  The thing that shocked me the most was the two sculptures of the Good Shepard, one of Apollo and one of Jesus, but they both looked the same.

PART 2:

Believing in something has been around since the dawn of time, people have always wondered about a higher power(s). Art is a huge part of religion, there is no doubt in my mind that its a primary factor. It shows the stories of what happened and lays it all out for the person believing in such a religion. Sometimes it even gets to the point where the art is what ends up backing up the writings. Nothing is taken for granted, even down to the colors that are used on clothing, and the types of materials or paints that are used to show their devotion to their God/gods. All of these things play a big part for when Christianity comes on the scene.
"Christians believe in one God that manifest in three persons- the Trinity of Creator-Father, Son, and Holy spirit..."(Art History, 4th Edition, M. Stokstad/M.W. Cothren, p.222). This is shown through the art of Catholicism as well as in the texts, because at the time when Christianity came to be, there were already other religions that were dominate, so Catholicism had to come up with a way to get supporters, and in my believe that was through images and art. Making images similar to what people were used to at the time would make them want to be involved with a new religion. Lets take Mary for an example...

This picture shows Mary in a robe that is not typical for her, usually shes wearing blue but in this case it is more of a purple-blue, and purple is the color of royalty. In this image as you can see above she is holding baby Jesus. The mother and child symbol becomes one of the most powerful and shown images of Christianity. Christianity was officially called a religion by the public in 313(Art History, 4th Edition, M. Stokstad/M.W. Cothren, p.222) They both also have an aura around their heads to show that they are divine. This image is very Eastern influenced, as you can see from the robe Mary is wearing. Even the gold background is no mistake. Everything that was done to the image was done on purpose by the artist. Even baby Jesus is doing his hand symbol that continues to show up throughout his pictures. Although this hand symbol is not original, it is actually taken from the sun god Apollo that was a Pagan god. So now Catholicism is taking images from Pagan worship and adding them to their art to make it more reliable. Also art was a huge role because not a lot of people knew how to read, so they were told stories and looked at images. Images were just as they have always been, powerful.

"For Early Christians, he became the good Shepard."(Art History, 4th Edition, M. Stokstad/M.W. Cothren, p.222) And this was true but yet again another time where the Christians used art to influence people, Apollo was also known as the Shepard. There are even two statues from different times, you wouldn't know what one was Apollo and what one was Jesus. So as you can already tell art played a big role in religion especially in the development of Christianity. "The Earliest surviving Christian art dates to the early third century and derives its styles and images from Jewish and Roman visual traditions."(Art History, 4th Edition, M. Stokstad/M.W. Cothren, p.222)

"In this process, know as syncretism, artists assimilate images from other traditions and give them new meaning. The borrowings can be unconscious or quite deliberate."(Art History, 4th Edition, M. Stokstad/M.W. Cothren, p.222) So as the religion itself became more and more popular so did the art that reflected it. For example I remember when I was young and in church that the stations on the cross were always what I looked at before my Mother had me follow along with her in the book. "For example, orant figures-worshipers with arms out-stretched in prayer-can be pagan, Jewish, or Christian, depending on the context of which they occur."(Art History, 4th Edition, M. Stokstad/M.W. Cothren, p.222) So the Christians used their art to get ahead of the competition, and become the number one religion, by making people feel comfortable. It seemed the it was also everything people wanted to hear, a God that was promising a personal salvation.(http://www.jesusneverexisted.com/melange.html) "Perhaps the best-known syncretism image is the Good Shepherd. In pagan art he was Apollo or Hermes the shepherd, or Orpheus among the animals, or a personification of philanthropy...Such images, therefore, do not have a stable meaning, but are associated with the meaning(s) that a particular viewer brings to them. They remind rather than instruct."(Art History, 4th Edition, M. Stokstad/M.W. Cothren, p.222)