Christians are not new participants or important benefactors of visual art that transcend time and culture. They produce works often reflecting deep spiritual truths, which are theology, storytelling and worship in image. Art has been the tool of religious communication, of biblical exposition, and of edification since the beginning of Christianity. In the early Christian period’s mosaics, frescoes and illuminated manuscripts, there is a deliberately nuanced marriage of artistic genius and theological depth.
Symbolism is a staple of Christian visual art, where artists express multivalent messages. Fish, lambs and doves all frequently show up as images of Christ, sacrifice and the Holy Spirit. These icons were particularly important during times of persecution when Christians lacked any official means of public demonstration. Catacomb paintings, for example, were not only decorations but also quiet affirmations of resurrection promise.
In the Middle Ages, the church was the sole funder of the arts, commissioned great cathedrals, sculptures and stained-glass windows. These were not just buildings, they were liturgical tracts in stone and flame. Stained-glass windows, especially, broadcast the Bible to largely non-literate congregations, using light itself as a means of divine education. The Gothic, its great arches and carved details, communicated God’s divinity and power.
In the Renaissance, Christian visual artists re-established what it means to be artistic: Michelangelo, Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael. Renaissance artists married humanist values with religious themes and played with the relationship between divine and human. Michelangelo’s ceiling at the Sistine Chapel illustrates this perfectly, in that it shows how vast God’s creation was, and how human beings fit into it. And so, too, was a new emphasis on realist authenticity and anatomical precision, on the incarnation of Christ as fully divine and fully human.
Christianity’s union with visual art did not end in Europe: it exploded across the globe, taking up new cultural spaces. Latin America, where indigenous themes combined with Christian imagery, created their own artistic forms – in the complex forms of mission churches and church artefacts. Nor did Ethiopian Christian art, its unique design and colours provide us with a window into the localisation of the religion, an expression of the culture of its believers while remaining grounded in universal Christian ideas.
New risks and new horizons were presented to Christian artists in the contemporary age. The rise of abstract and conceptual art stretched the visual possibilities of religion. Artists like Georges Rouault and Marc Chagall rode this trend, making new uses of modernist artmaking to approach spiritual issues. Their writings were often about the human condition, suffering and salvation, riffing on gospel wisdom as much as they addressed the contemporary conversation of art.
Christians working in the visual arts continued to create in the 20th and 21st centuries by using new media and technologies to get their message across. The internet, photography and mixed-media installations were all tools for tackling religion in a world of flux. These modern texts are often at the crux of issues of social justice, environmental care and human worth, expressing a broader appreciation of the gospel’s message for today.
It is also possible for Christian artists to work with non-Christian audiences, expressing their works outside of the church. By playing on subtle symbolism, universalism and evocation, these artists invite viewers to ponder higher issues of life, virtue and transcendence. And in so doing they provide a dialogue between sacred and profane art.
The Christian visionary has not abandoned community or collaboration. : Christian artists can show work and talk to each other about faith and creativity through art groups, galleries and organisations. These platforms inspire collective purpose, wherein artists are challenged to push the limits of culture but never lose their spiritual core.