Christian Art: A Very Short Introduction Very Short Introductions are for anyone wanting a stimulating and accessible way in to a new subject. They are written by experts, and have been published in more than 25 languages worldwide. The series began in 1995, and now represents a wide variety of topics in history, philosophy, religion, science, and the humanities. Over the next few years it will grow to a library of around 200 volumes – a Very Short Introduction to everything from ancient Egypt and Indian philosophy to conceptual art and cosmology. Very Short Introductions available now: ANCIENT PHILOSOPHY COSMOLOGY Peter Coles Julia Annas CRYPTOGRAPHY THE ANGLO-SAXON AGE Fred Piper and Sean Murphy John Blair DADA AND SURREALISM ANIMAL RIGHTS David DeGrazia David Hopkins ARCHAEOLOGY Paul Bahn Darwin Jonathan Howard ARCHITECTURE Democracy Bernard Crick Andrew Ballantyne DESCARTES Tom Sorell ARISTOTLE Jonathan Barnes DRUGS Leslie Iversen ART HISTORY Dana Arnold THE EARTH Martin Redfern ART THEORY Cynthia Freeland EGYPTIAN MYTH THE HISTORY OF Geraldine Pinch ASTRONOMY Michael Hoskin EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY Atheism Julian Baggini BRITAIN Paul Langford Augustine Henry Chadwick EMOTION Dylan Evans BARTHES Jonathan Culler EMPIRE Stephen Howe THE BIBLE John Riches ENGELS Terrell Carver BRITISH POLITICS Ethics Simon Blackburn Anthony Wright The European Union Buddha Michael Carrithers John Pinder BUDDHISM Damien Keown EVOLUTION THE CELTS Barry Cunliffe Brian and Deborah Charlesworth CHOICE THEORY FASCISM Kevin Passmore Michael Alingham THE FRENCH REVOLUTION CHRISTIAN ART Beth Williamson William Doyle CLASSICS Mary Beard and Freud Anthony Storr John Henderson Galileo Stillman Drake CLAUSEWITZ Michael Howard Gandhi Bhikhu Parekh THE COLD WAR Robert McMahon GLOBALIZATION Manfred Steger Continental Philosophy HEGEL Peter Singer Simon Critchley HEIDEGGER Michael Inwood HINDUISM Kim Knott POLITICAL PHILOSOPHY HISTORY John H. Arnold David Miller HOBBES Richard Tuck POSTCOLONIALISM HUME A. J. Ayer Robert Young IDEOLOGY Michael Freeden POSTMODERNISM Indian Philosophy Christopher Butler Sue Hamilton POSTSTRUCTURALISM Intelligence Ian J. Deary Catherine Belsey ISLAM Malise Ruthven PREHISTORY Chris Gosden JUDAISM Norman Solomon THE PRESOCRATICS Jung Anthony Stevens Catherine Osborne KANT Roger Scruton Psychology Gillian Butler and KIERKEGAARD Patrick Gardiner Freda McManus THE KORAN Michael Cook QUANTUM THEORY LINGUISTICS Peter Matthews John Polkinghorne LITERARY THEORY ROMAN BRITAIN Jonathan Culler Peter Salway LOCKE John Dunn ROUSSEAU Robert Wokler LOGIC Graham Priest RUSSELL A. C. Grayling MACHIAVELLI RUSSIAN LITERATURE Quentin Skinner Catriona Kelly MARX Peter Singer THE RUSSIAN REVOLUTION MATHEMATICS S. A. Smith Timothy Gowers SCHIZOPHRENIA MEDIEVAL BRITAIN Chris Frith and Eve Johnstone John Gillingham and SCHOPENHAUER Ralph A. Griffiths Christopher Janaway MODERN IRELAND SHAKESPEARE Germaine Greer Senia Pasˇeta SOCIAL AND CULTURAL MOLECULES Philip Ball ANTHROPOLOGY MUSIC Nicholas Cook John Monaghan and Peter Just NIETZSCHE Michael Tanner SOCIOLOGY Steve Bruce NINETEENTH-CENTURY Socrates C. C. W. Taylor BRITAIN Christopher Harvie and SPINOZA Roger Scruton H. C. G. Matthew STUART BRITAIN NORTHERN IRELAND John Morrill Marc Mulholland TERRORISM Charles Townshend paul E. P. Sanders THEOLOGY David F. Ford Philosophy Edward Craig THE TUDORS John Guy PHILOSOPHY OF SCIENCE TWENTIETH-CENTURY Samir Okasha BRITAIN Kenneth O. Morgan PLATO Julia Annas Wittgenstein A. C. Grayling POLITICS Kenneth Minogue WORLD MUSIC Philip Bohlman Available soon: AFRICAN HISTORY FREE WILL Thomas Pink John Parker and Richard Rathbone FUNDAMENTALISM ANCIENT EGYPT Ian Shaw Malise Ruthven THE BRAIN Michael O’Shea Habermas Gordon Finlayson BUDDHIST ETHICS HIEROGLYPHS Damien Keown Penelope Wilson CAPITALISM James Fulcher HIROSHIMA B. R. Tomlinson CHAOS Leonard Smith HUMAN EVOLUTION CHRISTIANITY Bernard Wood Linda Woodhead INTERNATIONAL RELATIONS CITIZENSHIP Richard Bellamy Paul Wilkinson CLASSICAL ARCHITECTURE JAZZ Brian Morton Robert Tavernor MANDELA Tom Lodge CLONING Arlene Judith Klotzko MEDICAL ETHICS CONTEMPORARY ART Tony Hope Julian Stallabrass THE MIND Martin Davies THE CRUSADES Myth Robert Segal Christopher Tyerman NATIONALISM Steven Grosby Derrida Simon Glendinning PHILOSOPHY OF RELIGION DESIGN John Heskett Jack Copeland and Diane Proudfoot Dinosaurs David Norman PHOTOGRAPHY Steve Edwards DREAMING J. Allan Hobson THE RAJ Denis Judd ECONOMICS Partha Dasgupta THE RENAISSANCE THE ELEMENTS Philip Ball Jerry Brotton THE END OF THE WORLD RENAISSANCE ART Bill McGuire Geraldine Johnson EXISTENTIALISM SARTRE Christina Howells Thomas Flynn THE SPANISH CIVIL WAR THE FIRST WORLD WAR Helen Graham Michael Howard TRAGEDY Adrian Poole For more information visit our web site www.oup.co.uk/vsi Beth Williamson CHRISTIAN ART A Very Short Introduction 1 3 Great Clarendon Street, Oxford ox2 6dp Oxford University Press is a department of the University of Oxford. It furthers the University’s objective of excellence in research, scholarship, and education by publishing worldwide in Oxford New York Auckland Cape Town Dar es Salaam Hong Kong Karachi Kuala Lumpur Madrid Melbourne Mexico City Nairobi New Delhi Taipei Toronto Shanghai With offices in Argentina Austria Brazil Chile Czech Republic France Greece Guatemala Hungary Italy Japan South Korea Poland Portugal Singapore Switzerland Thailand Turkey Ukraine Vietnam Oxford is a registered trade mark of Oxford University Press in the UK and in certain other countries Published in the United States by Oxford University Press Inc., New York © Beth Williamson, 2004 The moral rights of the author have been asserted Database right Oxford University Press (maker) First published as a Very Short Introduction 2004 All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, without the prior permission in writing of Oxford University Press, or as expressly permitted by law, or under terms agreed with the appropriate reprographics rights organization. Enquiries concerning reproduction outside the scope of the above should be sent to the Rights Department, Oxford University Press, at the address above You must not circulate this book in any other binding or cover and you must impose this same condition on any acquirer British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data Data available Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data Williamson, Beth Christian art / Beth Williamson (Very short introductions) Includes bibliographical references. 1. Christian art and symbolism. I. Title. II. Series. N7830.W54 2004 700'.4823—dc22 2004049288 ISBN 0–19–280328–X 3 5 7 9 10 8 6 4 2 Typeset by Refine Catch Ltd, Bungay, Suffolk Printed in Great Britain by TJ International Ltd., Padstow, Cornwall Contents List of illustrations viii List of diagrams xi Introduction 1 1 The Virgin Mary 15 2 The body of Christ 34 3 The saints 48 4 Images and narrative 66 5 Christian art transformed: the Reformation 90 6 Christian art around the turn of the second millennium 110 Glossary 119 References 121 Further reading 122 Index 125 List of illustrations 1 The Good Shepherd, 5 Dante Gabriel Rossetti, Rome, Catacomb of The Girlhood of Mary Marcellinus and Peter, Virgin, London, Tate 4th century 5 Gallery, 1849 23 Photo: © Pontifical Commission Photo: © Tate, London, 2004 for Sacred Archaeology, Rome 6 Jean Pucelle, The 2 Procession with Bishop Annunciation and The Maximianus and Betrayal of Christ from Emperor Justinian, The Hours of Jeanne Ravenna, S. Vitale, d’Evreux, New York, The c. 548 8 Metropolitan Museum of Photo: © Alinari Archives, Art, The Cloisters Florence Collection, Purchase 1954, MS. 54.1.2, fos. 15v 3 El Greco (Domenikos and 16r, c. 1325 26 Theotokopoulos), St Luke Photo: © All rights reserved, The Painting the Virgin, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Athens, Benaki Museum, New York c. 1560–7(?) 11 Photo: © Benaki Museum, Athens 7 Diego Velázquez, Virgin of the Immaculate 4 Clarisse Master, Virgin Conception, London, and Child, London, National Gallery, National Gallery, c. 1618 30 c. 1265–75 17 Photo: © Corbis Photo: © National Gallery, London 8 The Virgin of Guadalupe 14 Simone Martini, (festive car decoration), Funeral of St Louis, Mexico City, 1989 32 (detail of fig. 13) 54 Photo: © Liba Taylor/Corbis Photo: © Dagli Orti/The Art Archive 9 Matthias Grünewald, The 15 Hans Memling, Altarpiece Isenheim Altarpiece, of St John the Baptist and Colmar, Unterlinden St John the Evangelist Museum, c. 1510 38 Photo: © O. Zimmerman/ (open state), Bruges, Unterlinden Museum, Colmar Memling Museum – Hospital of St John, 10 Anonymous Bohemian 1479 57 painter, diptych with The Photo: © Bridgeman Art Virgin and Child and The Library Man of Sorrows, 16 Caravaggio (Michelangelo Karlsruhe, Kunsthalle, Merisi), The Martyrdom c. 1350 44 Photo: © National Gallery of Art, of St Matthew, Rome, S. Karlsruhe Luigi dei Francesi, Contarelli chapel, 11 Israhel van Meckenem, 1600 63 Mass of St Gregory, Photo: © Bridgeman Art Library London, British Museum,1490s 46 17 The Woman of the Photo: © The British Museum Apocalypse and St Michael Killing the 12 The Shrine of St Edward Dragon from The Morgan the Confessor from La Apocalypse, New York, Estoire de Seint Aedward Pierpont Morgan le Rei, Cambridge Library, MS. M. 524, f. 8v, University Library, MS. c. 1255–60 71 Ee.3.59, f.30, Photo: © Pierpont Morgan c. 1255–60 50 Library, New York, 2003/© Photo: © The Syndics of Scala, Florence Cambridge University Library 18 The Crucifixion, from the 13 Simone Martini, St Louis Biblia Pauperum, of Toulouse, Naples, London, British Library Museo Nazionale di (Blockbook C.9 d.2), Capodimonte, c. 1317 53 c. 1470 75 Photo: © Dagli Orti/The Art Photo: © The British Library Archive