Secular humanists and artists both pro- mote the toleration of diverse lifestyles. Many artists share with humanists a Viewpoints commitment to science and technology, which form an integral part of their art and their creative process. Artists also share the humanist commitment to free inquiry, believing in the necessity of Humanism and the Visual Arts raising and exploring difficult questions about life, society, culture, and human nature. They have fought for freedom Janey L. Levy to present unpopular questions and viewpoints, even when they may out- am happy to have joined the FREE way of comprehending the world. Mem- rage the majority. This struggle has IINQUIRY staff, though I sometimes bers of the art community often, in the always been difficult, and continues to ask, what am I doing here? That question popular view, experiment with alterna- be so. In these critical areas of liberty has been raised several times and in tive ways of knowing the world, some and free inquiry in particular, artists several forms in the short time since I of which have spiritual and mystical share the struggle with secular came to FREE INQUIRY. After all, I am aspects. Secular humanism stresses both humanists. an art historian, and the visual arts have individual liberty and responsibility to My discussion so far has focused on not occupied a prominent place in the the larger community. Artists seem to the creators of art and their connections pages of FREE INQUIRY. The Secular behave in ways that are irresponsible and with the values of secular humanism. Humanist Declaration that appeared in selfish, without regard for the needs of But what about my field of art history, the premier issue of this magazine makes the community. Their personal lives may which studies the works created by almost no mention of the arts, artists others? Doesn't it just involve looking were not numerous among those who x at pretty pictures, examining the formal endorsed the declaration, and art did not oE qualities and stylistic features of works declared "worthy" by some shadowy, receive serious attention in subsequent Ñ issues of the magazine. Indeed, given the J exclusive (and possibly exclusionary) apparent contrast between the secular group of "experts"? What could that humanist emphasis on scientific method possibly have to do with the concerns and the prevailing popular conception of secular humanism? of artists and the contemporary art Like many disciplines, art history has world, one might reasonably wonder its share of internal disagreements over what the two areas have to do with each the issues that form its proper domain. other. Connoisseurship, that is, the study of Secular humanism believes in critical style, aesthetics, and formal qualities in thinking and the ability of human reason artworks, formed the core of traditional to understand the world, to solve prob- art history and still occupies an impor- lems, and to improve the quality of life tant place in the field. But art history for all. Visual artists, particularly in the involves far more than connoisseurship. late twentieth-century imagination, are It is critical inquiry into not only the notoriously unable to express themselves aesthetic elements, but also the subject verbally, suggesting to many that they matter, the creative process, and the are unable to think clearly, critically, and Sebald Beham, Three Women in the Bath, visual language of imagery, as well as logically. This impression is com- 1548. the relationship between the images and pounded by artists' statements regarding the larger cultural, historical, political, the importance of intuition and emotion appear to lack the kind of ethical and social, and religious context. (I have in the creative process, and by the irra- moral standards humanists value. used the term images here because I tional and emotional qualities people In spite of such contradictions— prefer image—and image-maker—to often find in their work. Secular human- often more apparent or imagined than the more judgmental and value-laden ists embrace the linear process of the real—humanism and the visual arts art.) It requires critical thought and scientific method as the most reliable share important concerns. Both value analysis, the pursuit of knowledge liberty and the pursuit of happiness. In about different times and different Janey L. Levy is associate editor of FREE Eastern Europe and the former Soviet places, and respect for cultural and INQUIRY. Union, artists were among those most individual differences. Some art histo- active in challenging totalitarianism. rians also use highly advanced science 36 FREE INQUIRY and technology to study the physical issues regarding secular and religious appear in significant numbers. Some- properties of artworks as a way of en- authority were deeply intertwined during times these images have biblical or larging our knowledge and under- this period. Many scholars now think classical themes as their nominal subject, standing. that it was the artists' rejection of although clearly the concern is primarily Nuremberg civic authority, rather than with the erotic interest. Other images n future issues of FREE INQUIRY, I their religious ideas, that led to their dispense with such pretense. Prints by Iwill be exploring various aspects of hearing and subsequent expulsion from Heinrich Aldegrever, an artist often images and image-making, with atten- the city. After all, Nuremberg itself associated with the Little Masters, tion to both contemporary concerns and rebelled against Catholic orthodoxy and combine eroticism with attacks on historical study. One such fascinating authority—and by extension against its Catholicism in explicit images of monks instance of artists who resisted political staunchly Catholic emperor—and offi- and nuns engaging in intercourse. In the and religious tyranny in their lives and cially declared the city Lutheran about engravings, the clerics have secluded work comes from sixteenth-century two months after Pencz and the Beham themselves in a wooded area, but have Germany, during the turbulent era of the brothers were expelled. Whatever the been discovered by an armed soldier, Renaissance and Reformation. Three reason for the exile of the "godless who may symbolize secular authority. Nuremberg artists—Barthel Beham The prints seem to condemn not only (1502-1540), his brother Sebald the moral hypocrisy of the clergy, but Beham (1500-1550), and their col- also the whole notion of celibacy as league Georg Pencz (ca. 1500-1550)— contrary to human nature. These became known as "the three godless artists and their images, though painters" as a result of their outspoken removed from us in time and space, rejection of secular and spiritual clearly participated in the struggles authority.' This sobriquet is some- that occupy secular humanists today. what misleading, since the men did The erotic prints by the Little not actually deny the existence of Masters are today among their rarest God.2 But it accurately conveys the (in terms of the number of copies), radical nature of their stance and the perhaps as the result of censorship. intensity of the response it provoked Artists have often been censored and in many of their contemporaries. their work suppressed, removed from In January 1525 the artists were display, even destroyed. They have brought before a board of inquiry in been the victims of religious zealots, Nuremberg as a result of their tyrannical governments, and main- subversive activities. Records of the stream cultural values.5 But this very hearing still survive: history of censorship and destruction of images offers eloquent testimony [Georg Pencz] replies to the question- to their power, and to their links with naire as follows: Does he believe in secular humanist concerns. By stud- God? Yes, he feels that there is a God, ying images and their history, we can but what he should take to be this learn more about who we are and God he cannot say. What does he what it means to be human. I look think of Christ? He thinks nothing of Christ. Does he believe in Holy forward to the opportunity for stim- Scripture as the word of God? He does ulating and challenging discussion on not believe in Scripture. What is his this subject in future issues. opinion of the Sacrament of the Altar? Photo: Ashmolean Museum, Oxford He has no use for it. Of Baptism? He Notes has no use for Baptism. Does he Heinrich Aldegrever, The Monk and the Nun, ca. 15 30. believe in worldly authority and does 1. The best available English-language source he recognize the Council of Nurem- on these artists is Stephen H. Goddard, ed., The berg as lord over his body, his goods, painters," it did not last long. By World in Miniature: Engravings by the German and all that is material? He recognizes November of the same year the artists Little Masters, 1500-1550 (Lawrence, Kan.: no lord but God alone.3 were allowed to return to the city. Spencer Museum of Art, The University of Kansas, 1988). This exhibition catalogue also Many of the images produced by includes reproductions of many prints by these At the same hearing, Barthel Beham these artists—especially their prints— artists. advocated an early form of commun- seem as startling as the views expressed 2. My association of the term godless with the denial of God's existence is based on sixteenth- ism—all property should be divided at their hearings. This is particularly true century evidence such as the records of the equally—and denounced temporal of their engravings, whose small scale painters' hearing, not on twentieth-century defini- authority as no longer deserving the has led scholars to dub the artists the tions of the term. 3. Gerald Strauss, Nuremberg in the Sixteenth respect of men.4 "Little Masters." Frankly erotic images, As these records of the hearing reveal, including explicitly homoerotic ones, ( continued.