Spiritual beliefs

WORLD OF ARTWORLD OF ART

CHAPTER

EIGHTH EDITION

World of Art, Eighth EditionHenry M. Sayre

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

All rights reserved.

Spiritual Belief

21

Learning ObjectivesLearning Objectives1 of 21 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 ObjectivesLearning Objectives2 of 22 of 2

3. Characterize sacred space.4. Explain why abstraction is particularly

suitable for representing spiritual matters.

IntroductionIntroduction1 of 31 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.


• 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.


• 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 DivineConnecting with Spirits and the Divine1 of 71 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.


• 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.


• 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]


• 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.


• 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

Brooklyn Museum of Art. [Fig. 21-3]


• 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]


• 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 FormGiving Gods Human Form1 of 61 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.


• 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]


• 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' 5-1/2".

National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C.Andrew W. Mellon Collection, 1937.1.24. Photo © 1999 Board of Trustees, National

Gallery of Art. Photo: Jose A. Naranjo. [Fig. 21-7]


• 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.


• 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.

Pieter Saenredam, Interior of the Choir of St. Bavo's Church at Haarlem.1660. Oil on panel, 27-7/8 × 21-5/8". Worcester Art Museum, Worcester, Massachusetts.

Charlotte E.W. Buffington Fund, 1951.29. Bridgeman Images. [Fig. 21-8]


• The Islamic faith believes that God (Allah) is never to be represented in human form.

• Allah is referenced only in calligraphy by any one of his 99 names. For instance, the center of the star from

a calligraphic scroll containing verses from the Qur'an features the name al-Shafi (the Healer).

Calligraphic scroll (detail), Syria or India.14th–15th centuries. Ink, watercolor, and gold on paper, full scroll 14-3/8" wide, 26' 3"

long. The al-Sabah Collection, Dar al-Athar al-Islamiyyah, Kuwait. [Fig. 21-9]

Sacred SpaceSacred Space

• To enter a sacred space is to find yourself in a place where the normal concerns of daily life are suspended.

• Architects and artists have responded to the challenge of creating this unique environment and investing it with symbols of the faith.

The KaabaThe Kaaba1 of 31 of 3

• A pilgrimage is common to many of the world's religions.

• Those of the Muslim faith are required to participate at least once in their lives in the annual pilgrimage to Mecca known as the Hajj.

• One of the rituals of the Hajj is to walk seven times around the Kaaba.


• Muslims believe the Kaaba is their place of origin, the site of the first "house of God."

• Beginning in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries, images of Muhammad began to appear widely in illustrated manuscripts.


• Muhammad Placing the Black Stone on His Cloak, from Rashid al-Din's Jami al-Tawarikh (Universal History) depicts a key story in the history of the Kaaba and the Muslim faith.

The Kaaba, center of the Haram Mosque, Mecca, Saudi Arabia.© Ahmed Jadallah/Reuters/Corbis. [Fig. 21-10]

Muhammad Placing the Black Stone on His Cloak, from Rashid al-Din's Jami al-Tawarikh (Universal History), copied and illustrated at Tabriz, Iran.

1315. Illuminated manuscript, 5-1/8 × 10-1/4". University Library, Edinburgh.© Edinburgh University Library. [Fig. 21-11]

The Japanese ShrineThe Japanese Shrine

• In Japan, the three sacred shrines of Kumano are considered places of physical healing—depicted in a hanging scroll dating from around 1300.

• The Kumano shrines are dedicated to the kami of the three Kumano mountains, Hongu, Shingu, and Nachi. Kami are the spirits that are embodied

in the natural world.

Kumano Mandala.Kamakura period, ca. 1300. Hanging scroll, ink and color on silk, 4' 4-1/4" × 24-1/4". The

Cleveland Museum of Art.John L. Severance Fund, 1953.16. Photo © Cleveland Museum of Art. [Fig. 21-12]

The Hindu Pilgrimage PlaceThe Hindu Pilgrimage Place

• In the Hindu religion, pilgrimages to sacred spaces are especially important to spiritual life.

• Many pilgrimage sites include elaborate temples and shrines, such as the Kandariya Mahadeva Temple.

• But, it is the location itself that is first and foremost sacred.

Kandariya Mahadeva Temple, Khajuraho, Madhya Pradesh, India.Chandella dynasty, ca. 1025–50.© Neil Grant/Alamy. [Fig. 21-13]

The Pilgrimage ChurchThe Pilgrimage Church

• Throughout the Middle Ages, it was likewise customary for Christians to go on religious pilgrimages to holy places or sites containing sacred objects.

• The Church of St. Sernin, in Toulouse, France, housed the relics of Saturninus St. Sernin.

Nave, St. Sernin, Toulouse, France.ca. 1080–1120.

© Bildarchiv Mondheim GmbH/Alamy. [Fig. 21-14]

The Native American Mission ChurchThe Native American Mission Church1 of 21 of 2

• The sacred spaces of many contemporary Native American cultures are more complex.

• The Native American cultures of the Southwest never comfortably assimilated Western religion.

The Native American Mission ChurchThe Native American Mission Church2 of 22 of 2

• The decorative program of the Church of San Jose at Old Laguna Pueblo has the altar and retablo, or altarpiece ensemble, created by an artist known as the Laguna Santero.

• Pueblo and Christian traditions are unified in the design.

The Laguna Santero, Retablo and high altar of the Church of San Jose, Old Laguna Pueblo, New Mexico.

ca. 1780–1810.© Julien McRoberts/DanitaDelimont.com. [Fig. 21-15]

Spirituality and AbstractionSpirituality and Abstraction1 of 51 of 5

• One of the more powerful scared spaces in the U.S. is the Rothko Chapel in Houston, Texas.

• It functions both as a nondenominational sanctuary and an all-enveloping work of art.

• The Rothko Chapel consists of 14 paintings.


• Rothko had long believed that his paintings offered people something akin to a "religious experience."

• He thought of the painting and the chapel as an imaginative space into which the viewer was invited to enter.

Mark Rothko, Rothko Chapel, Houston, Texas.Opened 1971.

© Arcaid Images/Alamy. [Fig. 21-16]


• The belief that abstraction could offer the viewer a religious experience was first articulated by the painter Wassily Kandinsky.

• He felt a picture was a sort of sacred space that induced in viewers the same feelings they might experience when entering a church. This can be seen in Composition VII.

Wassily Kandinsky, Composition VII.1913. Oil on canvas, 6' 6-1/2" × 9' 11-1/8". Tretyakov Gallery, Moscow, Russia.

akg-image/Erich Lessing. © 2015 Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. [Fig. 21-17]


• In 1985–86, Brice Marden began a series of paintings based on the poems of the ninth-century Buddhist hermit Cold Mountain.

• He adapted the calligraphic structure to the flow of a kind of restrained Jackson Pollock-like line.

Brice Marden, Cold Mountain 6 (Bridge).1989–91. Oil on linen, 9 × 12'. San Francisco Museum of Modern Art.

Purchase through a gift of Phyllis Wattis. 99.367. © 2015 Brice Marden/Artists Rights Society (ARS), New York. [Fig. 21-18]


• The paintings are meant to reflect something of the spiritual reverence for nature.

• The painting represents a kind of spiritual quest that may lead to enlightenment.

The Critical ProcessThe Critical ProcessThinking about Art and Spiritual BeliefThinking about Art and Spiritual Belief• Bill Viola explained that, in The

Reflecting Pool he was trying to get at the original notion of baptism in a way.

• Viola explores similar themes in his Room for St. John of the Cross.

Bill Viola, The Reflecting Pool.1977–79. Still. Video, color, mono sound, 7 min.

Bill Viola Studio LLC. Photo: Kira Perov. [Fig. 21-19]

Bill Viola, Room for St. John of the Cross.1983. Video/sound installation. Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles.

Bill Viola Studio LLC. Photo: Kira Perov. [Fig. 21-20]

Thinking BackThinking Back1 of 21 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.

Thinking BackThinking Back2 of 22 of 2

3. Characterize sacred space.4. Explain why abstraction is particularly

suitable for representing spiritual matters.

Art & Photos

Spiritual beliefs