World off art 8th edtion by henry m sayre chapter 21

WORLD OF ART
EIGHTH EDITION

CHAPTER

21

Spiritual Belief

World of Art, Eighth Edition
Henry M. Sayre

Copyright © 2016, 2013, 2010
by Pearson Education, Inc. or its affiliates.
All rights reserved.


Learning Objectives
1 of 2

1. Compare the ways that different faiths
have attempted to access spiritual
states, and describe the role of art in
these practices.
2. Outline some of the difficulties faced
by various religions in giving their
deities human form, and describe
some strategies for overcoming these
problems.

Learning Objectives
2 of 2

3. Characterize sacred space.
4. Explain why abstraction is particularly
suitable for representing spiritual
matters.


Introduction
1 of 3

• In 1768, when Captain James Cook
sailed from England one of the most
distinctive art forms that Cook and his
crew encountered was tattooing.
• One of the crew captured the tatooed
face of a Maori warrior.
• Tattooing is an aspect of complex
sacred and ritual traditions found
throughout the Pacific Islands.


Introduction
2 of 3

• The islanders believed that many
individuals, places, and objects were
imbued with mana.
• A person might increase their mana by

skillful or courageous acts, or by
wearing certain items including tattoos.
• Among the Maori, the most sacred part
of the body was the head, and so it was
the most appropriate place for a tattoo.


Introduction
3 of 3

• Their design mirrors the human form
and is meant to celebrate it.
• The Maori thought of the tattoo as art.
• Since the earliest times, the artist's
ability to create has been associated
with Creation itself.
• Art represents a higher realm of
experience that communicates that
higher realms might exist.


Sydney Parkinson, Portrait of a Maori.
1769. Wash drawing, 15-1/2 × 11-5/8", later engraved and published as Plate XVI in
Parkinson's Journal, 1773. British Library, London.
© British Library Board, Add. 23920, f.55. [Fig. 21-1]


Connecting with Spirits and the Divine
1 of 7

• The spiritual life of many of the world's
peoples is informed by the belief that
the forces of nature are inhabited by
living spirits—known as animism.
• Other polytheistic faiths believe that
the divine takes multiple forms,
represented by multiple gods and
goddesses.


Connecting with Spirits and the Divine
2 of 7

• In the world's monotheistic faiths, one
God is the creator and transcendent
power of the world.
• Nontheistic faiths do not have deities,
but followers cultivate a spiritual
practice that will allow them to
ultimately experience transcendence.


Connecting with Spirits and the Divine
3 of 7

• Art plays multiple roles in the attempt
to connect with the spirit world and
attain spiritual states of being.
• The ancient San people of Africa
attempted to connect with the spirits

residing in nature through the rock art
that survives in open-air caves.


Wall painting with giraffes, zebra, eland, and abstract shapes, San people, Inanke Cave,
Matobo National Park, Zimbabwe.
Before 1000 CE.
Photo: Christopher and Sally Gable © Dorling Kindersley. [Fig. 21-2]


Connecting with Spirits and the Divine
4 of 7

• The concept of animism is also central
to the spiritual lives of the Pueblo
peoples of the American Southwest.
• Most Pueblo people believe that they
originated in the womb of Mother Earth.
• The Pueblo believe that kachina spirits
manifest themselves in performance
and dance.


Connecting with Spirits and the Divine
5 of 7

• Kachina dolls made for sale, however,
are considered empty of any agency,
power, or even significance.
• The icons/images, that adorned the

walls and ceilings of Byzantine
Orthodox churches beginning in the
seventh century CE were believed to
help the faithful communicate with the
divine.


Kachina doll (Maalo), Hopi culture.
Late 19th century. Wood, pigment, feathers, fiber, and string, height 11-1/2". The
Brooklyn Museum of Art.
Museum Expedition 1904, Museum Collection Fund, 04.297.5604. Image courtesy of


Connecting with Spirits and the Divine
6 of 7

• The Christ from the Deësis mosaic in
Hagia Sophia in present-day Istanbul is
an example.
• The idea that an image could play a
role in spiritual practice developed in
Buddhism as well.


Christ, from Deësis mosaic.
13th century. Hagia Sophia, Istanbul.
Photo: Ayhan Altun/Altunimages. [Fig. 21-4]


Connecting with Spirits and the Divine

7 of 7

• The representation of the Buddha in the
frontispiece of the Diamond Sutra is an
invitation to contemplate the writings
within, which consist of a collection of
the Buddha's sayings.


Frontispiece, Diamond Sutra, from Cave 17, Dunhuang.
Printed in the ninth year of the Xiantong Era of the Tang dynasty, 868 CE. Ink on paper,
woodblock handscroll. British Library, London.
© British Library Board, Or. 8210/P.2, frontispiece and text. [Fig. 21-5]


Giving Gods Human Form
1 of 6

• The ancient Greeks installed sculptures
of the gods in temples and monuments
and worshiped them as cult images or
idols.
• The Greek gods thought like humans,
acted like humans, and spoke like
humans in the many myths.


Giving Gods Human Form
2 of 6

• The Greeks believed that as long as
they did not overstep their bounds and
try to compete with the gods the gods
would protect them.
• The nearly 7-foot-high bronze statue in
the Archeological Museum in Athens
reveals a great deal about how the
Greeks thought of their gods.


Zeus, or Poseidon.
ca. 460 BCE. Bronze, height 6' 10". National Archaeological Museum, Athens.
Ministry of Culture Archeological Receipt Fund, 15161. © Marie Mauzy. [Fig. 21-6]


Giving Gods Human Form
3 of 6

• The Christian idea that Jesus was the
Son of God made flesh found multiple
styles of expression in works of art.
• In The Alba Madonna, Raphael perfectly
balances both aspects of Jesus' being.


Raphael, The Alba Madonna.
ca. 1510. Oil on panel transferred to canvas, diameter 37-1⁄4 in., framed 4' 6" × 4' 51/2". National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.
Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.24. Photo © 1999 Board of Trustees, National

Giving Gods Human Form
4 of 6

• At the start of the Protestant
Reformation, Ulrich Zwingli instituted a
program of iconoclasm in which
churches in Zurich were purged of all
religious images.


Giving Gods Human Form
5 of 6

• A painting by Pieter Saenredam of a
church dedicated to St. Bavo, in
Haarlem shows a typical Dutch
Reformed interior stripped of all
furnishings, its walls whitewashed by
Calvinist iconoclasts.