The Baroque Era and the Eighteenth Century - Essay Example

Discussions-The Seventeenth Century: The Baroque Era and the Eighteenth Century The Seventeenth Century: The Baroque Era and theEighteenth Century Doctrine and rituals comprise of the first prescription set by the Protestant Reformation on visual arts. Doctrines and rituals affected each element of society. Similarly, Protestant Reformation made sure visual arts stuck to these aspects by strictly including their doctrines and rituals in them (Alma, Barnard, and Küster, 2009). Visual artists had to compose works that did not overlook or taint Protestant Reformations doctrines and rituals.

To ensure this, Protestant Reformation monitored all visual arts during this period. The second prescription entailed strict instructions that determined images in visual arts exclusively. To ensure these instructions were adhered to, the Protestant Reformation did not allow open-minded articulation in visual arts. For instance, the Protestant Reformation made visual artists use certain ancient symbols like haloes, thin noses, small mouths, and big eyes. These features were all dedicated to showing the superior senses of Protestant saints.

For instance, haloes signified holiness. The Protestant Reformation did not tolerate the open-minded aspect symbolism of the halo as shared by western visual artists. Similarly, the catholic had prescriptions of visual arts that artists had to follow. First, the catholic used suppression to prescribe the content of their visual arts. More specifically, the catholic randomly tore, broke, and destroyed visual arts that did not portray Catholic beliefs. Numerous fine portraits, landmarks, and ancient artworks in Catholic churches were destroyed because of depicting features of saints and prophets wrongly (Alma, Barnard, and Küster, 2009).

Second, Catholic visual artists who did not conform to Catholic prescriptions were punished. In addition, visual artists who failed to go to public mass were forced out of the city walls within a week. The Council of Trent, which started a new series of prescriptions for a more strict style of visual arts, further stressed the differences between Catholic and Protestant Reformation. I believe religion should be a determining force in the arts. Firstly, diverse forms of art might be more frequently communicating religion than official religious texts.

Religion critiques cannot rightly overlook how this relationship works and what effect religion has on people’s religious principles (Alma, Barnard, and Küster, 2009). Secondly, critiques of the role of religion on earth cannot argue otherwise considering the effects religion has had on art outweigh art that was not inspired by religion. An argument about something that produces a visual work and experience usually focuses on a type of artwork. At the same time, discussing visual art does not assure that religion will be addressed.

Thirdly, not all religions essentially generate an appealing experience in their artworks. For instance, viewers of a painting attempting to figure out its worth before consultation cannot realize any religious influence imposed on its artist quickly. Fourthly, the relationship between religion and art is immense (Alma, Barnard, and Küster, 2009). One can use art used to study the history of religion, its artists, and humanity. Similarly, one can use religion to study contemporary and past art.

This relationship shows the importance of religion on art, particularly in history. Religion should determine art to artists today the same way it did to ancient artists who found it inspiring. References Alma, H., Barnard, M., and Küster, V. (2009). Visual Arts and Religion. New York, NY: LIT Verlag Münster.