The Medieval Christian was a common target for the Church's visual propaganda machine. Contributors included famous artists and sculptors including: Michelangelo, Raphael, Leonardo, and Donatello (whose work, of course, lead to Master Splinter's naming of the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles.
The Sistine Chapel , Michelangelo's masterpiece is an obvious example of propaganda. In order to effectively teach the Gospel to those who were by and large illiterate, the Church turned to works of art such as this one.
The Creation of Man is depicted is this censored picture.
The Last Judgment is obviously supposed to impart fear and awe into the viewer.
Another artist by the name of Perugino also played a part in the Sistine Chapel and painted the Consignment of the Keys which depicts Jesus giving His power over to Peter, and shows the crowds stoning Jesus in the background.
Raphael also played his part in teaching the Medieval Christian through art. His Marriage of the Virgin shows how God brought Joseph and Mary together by supernaturally making his staff bud.
We see the Church's teaching in French painting, as well. Here is a picture of the Last Judgment, showing the redeeming side of Jesus.
This is The Epiphany by Giotto di Bondone which tells the story of the baby Jesus.
Another form of art was plates. Pictured here is David and Goliath from the David Plates of the Second Cyprus Treasure which depicts the decapitation of Goliath and the protection God gave David over the giant.
Another popular form of art was sculpture. Here is another depiction of David and Goliath's fight but shown from Donatello's sculptural perspective.
In the same vein, Michelangelo also created the probably more popular David.
Finally, the Church would often use drama to teach their people. One such story is the pageant, "A Christ-taken prisoner."
A very handy introduction to good range of themes in Christian art. Actually, the pagent wasn't called "A Christ Taken Prisoner," that's just the title given to the historical document that describes one particular event that took place during a passion play.
http://jerz.setonhill.edu/resources/PSim/seville.html
You might want to check out my website devoted to a paricular medieval pageant, the York Corpus Christi Play.
http://jerz.setonhill.edu/resources/PSim
Posted by: Dennis G. Jerz at January 31, 2004 11:44 PMI enjoyed your presentation. You really had a connection with aesthetics and art. Actually, a lot of the paintings you presented I would have otherwise never seen. I have gone and looked at the pictures again, and was able to relate what you said to the paintings. I'm glad you fixed the link to The Last Judgement. I was wondering what your thoughts are on this painting since now I can see it? It helps for me to see the paintings before i put your thoughts to it.
Posted by: Rachel H at February 10, 2004 06:51 PMI really liked your presentation. It reminded me of last semester in my Hebrew scriptures class. If only I had seen pictures to describe what the heck was going on in the bible. :-) Anyway I always thought it was funny that they always depict David as this young puny little child faced up against this big huge giant man. It was just metaphor. David was just a farmer(or whatever he happened to be) he was young 20 years or so, and he faced off against the general of the Philistines. I just thought I should point that out. Keep up the good work!
Posted by: Allison W at February 11, 2004 07:01 PMI really enjoyed this presentation. It is so interesting to see the different paintings and compare them to the stories they are associated with. I did not feel the art work on the plate accurately depicted the Biblical story of David and Goliath. I remembering sitting in a Sunday school class as an 8-year-old girl and seeing pictures of this. Obviously, in those pictures, Goliath's size was very exaggerated. However, I do think there was truth in these depictions. However,the artwork on the plate depicting this fight between David and Goliath portrays them as being about the same size. This plate kinda takes away all the fun of the story.
Posted by: Jamee at February 12, 2004 11:17 AM
