Modern Sacred Art and the Church of Assy

Rubin, William

doi:10.7312/rubi92028

Cited by 12 publications

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“…The crucifix aroused huge controversy throughout the Church and beyond -hardly surprisingly, as a full understanding of the figure would have required a knowledge of current trends in art and sculpture well beyond that of the average post-war bishop or cardinal. The outcry was orchestrated by conservatives who, William Rubin argues in his magisterial account of the history and artworks of the Church at Assy, 8 focused on this one image in order to express their opposition to the Dominicans' whole programme of reform. At a well-attended public meeting, for example, Canon Devémy was famously ambushed.…”

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Germaine Richier

Pickstone

2007

Theology

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The late 1940s were a time of particular trauma in France as its people slowly came to terms with the Nazi occupation, the guilt of Jewish deportations, the massive settling of old scores that had taken place after the war (collaborators lynched and women who had cooperated with the occupying power tarred and feathered), and the dawning horrors of Auschwitz and Hiroshima.On the other hand, the experience of fighting together in the Resistance had brought together a number of old enemies, as communists and atheists had found themselves side by side with Roman Catholic priests and laity, and there was now a new sense of shifting boundaries, of new possibilities in a country with a spiritual and cultural vacuum at its heart. Who or what would fill the vacuum? A socialist welfare state, as in England? A communist revolution, as in Eastern Europe? An existentialist philosophy of human solidarity in the face of an unheeding universe (Camus)? Or perhaps a religious revival?One major attempt to capitalize on this new openness did indeed come from the Church. A number of radical members of the French Dominican Order sought to create alliances between the Church and previously hostile parts of French society. Two particular initiatives are noteworthy. The worker-priest movement followed the Communist lead by taking priests out of parishes and putting them into factories. And the Sacred Art movement sought to renew the generally sentimental and third-rate art and architecture of most French Roman Catholic church buildings -'the art of St Sulpice'by employing the best artists in France regardless of their faith (or lack of it).Even before the war, there had been the experimental replacement of some of the plain leaded lights in Paris's own Notre Dame Cathedral with contemporary work that had caused a minor scandal at the time (the work was quietly removed at the outbreak of war). After the war, there were a number of significant collaborations with front-rank artists and architects. For example, a new church at Audincourt, near Besançon, boasted stained glass by Léger, and a

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confidence: 99%

Germaine Richier

Pickstone

2007

Theology

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How Divine Images Became Art

Tarasov

2024

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How Divine Images Became Art tells the story of the parallel ‘discovery’ of Russian medieval art and of the Italian ‘primitives’ at the beginning of the twentieth century. While these two developments are well-known, they are usually studied in isolation. Tarasov’s study has the great merit of showing the connection between the art world in Russia and the West, and its impact in the cultural history of the continent in the pre-war period. Drawing on a profound familiarity with Russian sources, some of which are little known to Western scholars, and on equally expert knowledge of Western material and scholarship, Oleg Tarasov presents a fresh perspective on early twentieth-century Russian and Western art. The author demonstrates that during the Belle Époque, the interest in medieval Russian icons and Italian ‘primitives’ lead to the recognition of both as distinctive art forms conveying a powerful spiritual message. Formalist art theory and its influence on art collecting played a major role in this recognition of aesthetic and moral value of ‘primitive’ paintings, and was instrumental in reshaping the perception of divine images as artworks. Ultimately, this monograph represents a significant contribution to our understanding of early twentieth-century art; it will be of interest to art scholars, students and anyone interested in the spiritual and aesthetic revival of religious paintings in the Belle Époque.

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Tarasov

2024

How Divine Images Became Art

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Modern Sacred Art and the Church of Assy

Cited by 12 publications

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Germaine Richier

Germaine Richier

How Divine Images Became Art

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