Representing Christ, representing the divine

The early centuries of Christianity are virtually lacking any kind of picture. But during the third and fourth centuries, the ban on figurative art inherited from the Decalogue (Exodus 20), and that the Jewish world had interpreted in various ways, is no longer read in such a strict sense. Early Christian art takes up preexisting motifs again and give them a new meaning, or creates new representations to depict him who is true man and true God in one. The iconic image of Christ dead on the cross, appears late. In the early stages, Christians used symbols (such as a fish, anchor, or good shepherd...). In the mosaics of the fourth or fifth century, the figure of Christ appears in a medallion placed at the junction of the two arms of the cross, a symbol of the victory over death. When, around the 5th century, he is stretched on the cross, he is a Christ in glory, a Risen Christ, both king and high priest, crowned and wearing a long tunic. But for Christians, the symbol of the infamous torture also represents the sacrifice that the son of God made out of love for mankind. Gradually, around the eleventh and twelfth centuries, the sacrificial theme takes over and Christ is more and more represented as a suffering man. The dolorism of some depictions leads the Reformed (unlike the Lutherans) to a reluctance towards the crucifix. Since the end of the nineteenth and especially after the two world wars, the crucified man has become an image saturated with meaning. It becomes an embodiment of the suffering humanity that artists appropriate from the fringes of Christian references, be it self-portraits of the artist as Christ, be it the misunderstood clown, or the emblem of suffering humanity in Dix, Chagall, Bacon, Picasso, Dalí...
If the theology of incarnation allowed the image of Christ to flourish in Christian art, the representation of God the father collides more directly with the biblical interdiction. Christian art in the first centuries only depicts God in the form of the son, visible representation of the father, as evidenced by the Byzantine Pantocrator or the Western Majestas Domini (Christ in Majesty, seated on a throne), or possibly by a hand coming out of the clouds. Later, God the Father is also suggested through the Trinitarian interpretation of the three angels in the story of Abraham's hospitality (Gn 18). By the eleventh century, the image of the Father tends to acquire distinctive forms differentiating him from the Son in the representations of the Trinity. The figure of the father as a venerable old man, inspired by the vision of the "Ancient of days" from the book of Daniel (Dn 7, 9) to represent "h[im] who is from all eternity", only grows in importance from the fifteenth century (it was condemned in the East) until the eighteenth century when it declines in the art. It still takes Jovian proportions in the work of some Renaissance masters.

Devotion to the Virgin Mary

In the Orthodox Church, the icon of the Mother of God plays a very important role place alongside Christ's. The worship of the icon relies on the idea that the homage paid to it upon veneration goes on to the prototype, that is to say, the represented person. This occurs in accordance to a principle of translation to the divine that John of Damascus (Discourse on the images, v . 730) brings back to mind. This principle constitutes the premise thanks to which the veneration of icons could be re-established when the triumph of orthodoxy brings in 843 the iconoclastic crisis to an end.
Catholicism places greater emphasis on the veneration of the Virgin Mary than of the other saints. The Madonna is far more present in Christian art than in the canonical texts. Despite the limited number of textual references to her in the Gospels, Mary’s place in Christian devotion and representations appears quite early on. The Council of Ephesus (431) declares her Theotokos (Mother of God), which is expressed illustrated by the throne of wisdom where the Virgin in Majesty is holding her son in her lap. Marian depictions follow the whole Christic cycle, especially the Annunciation, the Nativity and the Childhood scenes. It's during the twelfth century, the era of courtly love, that the turn of phrase Notre-Dame (Our Lady), that has been used to name so many cathedrals, starts being given to her., Some aspects that belonged to the allegory of the Church "Mater Ecclesia" are also being integrated in the figure of the Virgin, especially through the theme of her coronation. Holy among the holy, she condenses the ideal of feminine beauty and maternal tenderness, while the sorrowful figure of the Pietà echoes the increasingly humanized ones of the Virgin and Child. Some representations, such as her assimilation to the woman of the Apocalypse, produce figures of Mary alone, without her son, which will be later criticized for potential Mariolatry. Gradually, she becomes the object of new devotions, which generates a new iconography, such as the delivery of the Rosary to St. Dominic. The Feast of the Dormition of the Virgin as it is celebrated in the East is the origin for the Assumption (15th August) in the West, that has only been recognized as dogma in 1950 but it was already part of medieval piety, as was the Immaculate Conception (the Virgin is free from original sin), a dogma proclaimed in 1854, around the time when the marian apparitions of the Miraculous Medals (1830), La Salette (1846) and Lourdes (1858) occurred. During the first centuries, the Virgin is often wearing dark mourning colors which by the twelfth century tend towards a slightly lighter blue symbolizing the celestial mantle of the Queen of heaven. Baroque art paints her with gold, or golden colors, symbols of divine light, or even red as a sign of divine love and passion. During the nineteenth century, the white, which is a symbol of purity, becomes the dominant color, often complemented with a blue belt, as a reminder of the celestial world, according to the descriptions of mystical visions in the sixteenth century.

Reformation and Counter-reformation

In answer to the criticisms voiced by the Reformation, the Council of Trent takes in 1563 a stance on the worship of relics, saints and images, and reaffirms, echoing the Second Council of Nicaea, that: " the images of Christ, of the Virgin Mother of God, and of the other saints, are to be had and retained particularly in temples […];not that any divinity, or virtue, is believed to be in them, on account of which they are to be worshipped; […]but because the honour which is shown them is referred to the prototypes which those images represent » The clergy is given an educational role to fight against the superstitions and abuses denounced by the Protestants. By its power of seduction, the art of the Counter-Reformation and then of the Catholic reformation seeks to gain the support of the faithful. It shapes images into silent sermons playing on the affects in order to exalt religious sentiment, to suggest the manifestation of the divine, or to help through its action on the senses with the meditation exercises.
Despite the iconoclastic bouts that marked the beginnings of the Reformation, the Protestant position on images is far from unequivocal. If Zwingli or Karlstadt are hostile, Luther sees paintings as neutral objects that can be good or bad depending on how they are used. He particularly enjoys Cranach ‘sworks illustrating the Lutheran theme of Law and Grace (cf. 'History' module, p. 6). Calvin outlawed them from places of worship, but admits that the ability to design a work of art is a gift from God. Also, in Calvinist Holland, a secular art starts developing, fueled by the requests of private patrons. And though secular, this art is awash with religious themes: vanitas, still lives, landscapes, biblical scenes, bare church interiors... The emphasis on reading the vernacular Bible in person as a foundation of the Christian faith turns the Book into a favourite source of inspiration, especially in paintings by Rembrandt which are no longer intended for places of worship.