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Showing posts with label christian art. Show all posts
Showing posts with label christian art. Show all posts

Monday, 17 March 2025

Artlyst - Siena: The Creative Achievement Of Christendom

My latest exhibition review for Artlyst is on Siena: The Rise of Painting, 1300 ‒1350 at National Gallery:

"... this exhibition opens up another world, a world of devotion and worship that, given the beauty and wonder of these works, we will certainly wish to revisit and maybe even seek to recapture. ‘The Telegraph’ rightly billed this exhibition in advance as Christian art becoming the National Gallery’s next smash hit. That is so, as what this exhibition principally reveals is the immense creative achievement of Christendom and the evolving nature of that achievement."

For more on Saint Francis see here, Fra Angelico see here, Donatello see here, Cranach and Dürer see here and here, Michelangelo, Leonardo and Raphael see here and here, and Caravaggio see here and here.

My other pieces for Artlyst are:

Interviews -
Monthly diary articles -
Articles/Reviews -

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Staples Jr. Singers - You Got To Believe.
Posted by Jonathan Evens at 14:03 0 comments
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Thursday, 21 April 2022

Winefride Wilson: Christian Art since the Romantic Movement

I've recently read 'Christian Art since the Romantic Movement' by Winefride Wilson. I found the book in a secondhand library sale.

The book, which was also published a 'Modern Christian Art' begins with the Romantic Movement. Winefride surveys the turbulent spirit of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century art and shows how the expressive artists of the twentieth century owes an unrecognized debt to the traditional Christian artists of earlier centuries. She discusses paintings and sculpture, emphasizing the important figures in this century: Graham Sutherland, David Jones, Eric Gill, Sir Jacob Epstein and many others. In separate sections, the author treats architectural trends, work in metals, ceramics, textiles and stained glass.

The book covers: The downfall of reason; Nostalgic brotherhoods; The age of revivals; Preaching boxes and true principles; Religious painting and European movements; Two centuries of Christian sculpture; A fantastical Spaniard and some contemporaries; Bright pavilions; and The precious arts.

The book is one of the most comprehensive I have read and is written in a polemical style that maintains the reader's interest throughout, even when one may not agree with the stated perspective. Winefride lectured widely and was the art critic for The Tablet. A former President of the Society of Catholic Artists, she was made one of the first Papal dames in 1994. She was taught the art of silversmithing by her husband Dunstan Pruden and joined the Guild of St Joseph and St Dominic in 1975.

I experienced a sense of frustration in finding this book as Winefride is not someone I have seen referenced previously despite having being widely read on the topic of Modern Christian or Sacred Art. The fact that her book is more comprehensive than many on this subject demonstrates the extent to which institutional memory is commonly disregarded in this field.

Eric Newton, for example, was another excellent earlier writer in this field who is relatively rarely cited. Newton's 'The Christian faith in art' is well worth a read. Like Winefride Wilson, Newton was also an artist. In a similar vein and from a similar period, 'Christianity in Art,' published in 1959, by Frank and Dorothy Getlein is also worth reading. 

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Bob Dylan - Caribbean Wind.
Posted by Jonathan Evens at 22:50 0 comments
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Saturday, 19 March 2016

Sabbatical Art Pilgrimage: Latest ArtWay report

My latest Church of the Month report for ArtWay focuses on Coventry Cathedral.

'Coventry Cathedral was the first major opportunity in Britain to combine contemporary religious art and architecture. [Basil] Spence wanted the cathedral to be, in his own words, “like a plain jewel casket with many jewels inside”—that is, a simple framework that houses a trove of high-quality artworks, which he wanted done in a modern style. His approach to commissioning art for the church was synchronous with that of the Dominican friars Marie-Alain Couturier and Pie-Raymond Régamey, who sought to revive Christian art in France by appealing to the independent masters of their time, as well as that of Canon Walter Hussey in Britain.'

This Church of the Month report follows on from others about Aylesford Priory, Canterbury Cathedral, Chapel of St. Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face, Hem, Chelmsford Cathedral, Église de Saint-Paul à Grange-Canal, Lumen, Notre Dame du Léman, Notre-Dame de Toute Grâce, Plateau d’Assy,Romont, Sint Martinuskerk Latem, St Aidan of Lindisfarne, St Alban Romford, St. Andrew Bobola Polish RC Church and St Mary the Virgin, Downe, and St Paul Goodmayes, as well as earlier reports of visits to sites associated with Marian Bohusz-Szyszko, Marc Chagall, Jean Cocteau, Antoni Gaudi and Henri Matisse.

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Eric Bibb - Don't Ever Let Nobody Drag Your Spirit Down.
Posted by Jonathan Evens at 17:29 0 comments
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Friday, 25 April 2014

An Artist and the Saint: Manzù and Roncalli

Angelo Roncalli turned 'his four and a half year pontificate into one of the most important of the 20th century and earned legions of admirers as the down-to-earth "Good Pope John".'

The Guardian reports that, 'On Sunday, before a crowd of hundreds of thousands in St Peter's Square, Pope Francis is to canonise this popular Italian pontiff alongside John Paul II, recognising them both as saints.'

'Often described simply as Il Papa Buona, the friendly pontiff who went walking around Rome and endeared himself to ordinary people in much the same way as Francis today, John XXIII is regarded by his admirers as one of the most courageous and important popes in history. Roncalli, who had spent much of his career as a Vatican diplomat in countries including Bulgaria, Turkey and France, called the Second Vatican Council (Vatican II) in 1962 and died less than a year later. But the process of change he set in motion outlived him, proving key to the church's ability to retain a degree of relevance in the modern age.'

In a piece of serendipity I am currently reading An Artist and the Pope by Curtis Bill Pepper. The artist and Pope in question 'both came from Bergamo in Italy but there the affinity seemed to halt, for one was the beloved Pope John XXIII and the other was a Communist bereft of his religious faith was the famous sculptor Giacomo Manzù. Yet Pope John, discerning the man beyond the atheist, commissioned Manzù to make his portrait bust, and despite all the artist's misgivings, there developed between them a warm and deeply significant friendship which drove Manzù to achieve the remarkable bronze Doors of Death for St. Peter's in Rome - the first new doors for the cathedral for 500 years.'

The door 'has large modelled panels that depict the deaths of Mary and Christ, as well as lesser panels that show the deaths of saints and ordinary people.  Vatican officials were wary of Manzù’s communist politics and criticized his refusal to temper his unflinching depiction of death and human suffering with a more spiritual theme. Particularly shocking was his depiction of a cardinal looking at a man being crucified up side-down, a reference to the execution of fascists after WWII.'

Commissioning Manzù is an example of the policy advocated in France by Marie-Alain Couturier and Pie-Raymond Régamey and in Austria by Otto Mauer of seeking to revive Christian art by appealing to the independent masters of the time. The book is a fascinating expose of the difficulties encountered, even at the very heart of the Roman Catholic Church and despite the significant support of Pope John, Don Giuseppe de Luca and Monsignor Loris Capovilla, in pursuing this policy.

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Sixpence None The Richer - Amazing Grace.
Posted by Jonathan Evens at 20:20 0 comments
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Thursday, 27 March 2014

The Greek of Toledo - The Time Gatherer

The commemoration of the 4th Centenary of the death of El Greco will be a landmark for the history of both the painter and the town of Toledo; the gathering of works by the artist programmed for 2014 will get together most of his artistic production, coming from all parts of the world. There will be three big exhibitions showing works by the artist, which are the centre of the wide programme of El Greco Year, set mainly in Toledo.

The Greek of Toledo exhibition will present the Cretan painter within his Toledan setting and milieu, as a leading figure in an artistic and cultural scene of trans-national and plural character, always seeking to explain his work within the context of the activities pursued by the artists who worked for Philip II and Philip III in Toledo or in Madrid.

The El Greco and Modern Art exhibition organised by El Prado Museum aims to highlight the important influence that El Greco's work had on the origins of the most radically modern painting approaches, beginning with Édouard Manet and Paul Cézanne. Of special importance is the analysis of El Greco's influence on Picasso and the origins of Cubism, as well as the decisive inspiration that the Cretan artist's work provided to the different Expressionist movements that emerged throughout the twentieth century in Europe and America.

Between Heaven and Earth aims to explore the way the influence of El Greco can be felt in the work of twelve contemporary artists that are currently creating and that are clear witnesses of the influence of his art, still alive in contemporay art.

Those that love El Greco's work are likely to also likely to appreciate The Time Gatherer by Patrick Pye, which is an extended meditation on the work of El Greco: "Here is a critic who can lead you to a deeper appreciation of El Greco precisely because he himself deeply practices what he writes about." "The essay's depth is enhanced by being written by a practising artist, himself, a man of faith who faces, though in a modern context, precisely the same questions that El Greco faced and an artist who has been admiring and pondering El Greco's work over many years."

The book "explores the way in which El Greco's faith and theological vision becomes real in the context of his painting. It is a beautiful essay, continually illuminating about how an artist resolves that fundamental issue of religious painting: how do I represent a reality, a mystery that ultimately transcends all representation? how do I point to, evoke that reality effectively in paint? how have others so resolved it and how can I?"

Pye writes of El Greco's influence on modern art: "The rediscovery of El Greco did not come from Christians, but from the Romantics, the last people who tried to hold sense and sensibility together. Then he was discovered by the Post-impressionists, who were trying to create a new visual language. They saw in him the Old Master who had the greatest sensitivity to real problems of formal language as the artist understands them. It remains for our generation to place him squarely in the tradition of European Christian art."

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Vangelis - El Greco.
Posted by Jonathan Evens at 23:23 0 comments
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