The Religious Print Joanna Reiling Lindell
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THE RELIGIOUS PRINT JOANNA REILING LINDELL RELIGIOUS ART HAS HELD OUR fascination and devotion of Christianity. Because the Thrivent Collection primarily for centuries. Art with religious subject matter has comprises works on paper, this catalogue concentrates told us stories about who we are, what we believe, on the artistic media of prints and drawings. and what we feel. As visual and emotional beings, we have often found art to be as perfect an expression Printed images are important in the history of art and as possible of God’s grace and beauty. Whether from have a distinct history separate from other media. a natural human yearning for spirituality or due to the Invented in northern Europe during the fifteenth century, influence of organized religion in culture and society, Western printmaking offered a new and efficient way much art throughout the history of human civilization to make and reproduce visual information. Book has been religious. Prior to the early modern period illustrations, along with text, could be quickly and in Western history, a great percentage of art was consistently created with a printing press, rather than religious; as secular imagery became more pervasive by painstakingly hand-copying each page. Printed in Western art from the sixteenth century onward, images were affordable and more accessible to a some types of religious subject matter did decline broader segment of the population, especially those but by no means were diminished or overcome by unable to purchase or even see paintings or illuminated secular art. Religious imagery has even been fervently manuscripts. The popularity of printed images quickly renewed in later centuries, and secular and religious increased, and as early as the sixteenth century themes are often combined in an intriguing interplay. collectors began accumulating both secular and religious By retelling familiar biblical stories through the visual prints. Printmaking offered early modern artists an arts, poetry, or literature, Christians continually reassert opportunity to be recognized as stylistically innovative and redefine their beliefs about their place in the outside the older disciplines of sculpture or painting. world and their sense of spirituality. After all, religious Albrecht Dürer, for example, was an excellent painter, stories are essentially about origin and culture as but his extraordinarily skillful woodcuts and engravings much as devotion, and great value can be gleaned make him truly exceptional in a survey of Western from nonreligious components of religious art as well. art. Similarly, in the seventeenth century, despite the Many different cultures and religions in the history of fame of his painting, Rembrandt van Rijn was able to the world have expressed their beliefs through art; achieve in his etchings a level of spontaneity, whimsy, this catalogue and the Thrivent Financial Collection of and emotional drama and intimacy that surpassed Religious Art focus on Jewish and Christian themes. nearly all previous printmaking accomplishments. The history of the religious print, including shifts in The Thrivent Collection represents a significant gathering function, meaning, and execution, is a complex topic in the United States of solely religious works on paper that cannot be fully explored in this brief survey. and paintings from the thirteenth through the twentieth Faithful Impressions highlights works from the Thrivent centuries, simultaneously preserving and sharing the Collection to illustrate aspects of this rich history.1 rich, varied history of Western art, religion, and culture as much as theological and spiritual tenets. Amassed Through the centuries, source material for artists from eight centuries, the collection’s more than eleven producing religious subject matter was diverse. The hundred works delight and inspire. Through them, primary source has long been the canonical Scriptures, we can trace interesting trends, stylistic and cultural the accepted collection of Holy Scriptures in the developments, and, above all, the enduring messages Christian church. The exact canonical Scriptures The Religious Print | 1 changed through time as books and materials were clear definition of an original print. The Print Council added or removed for political and theological reasons. of America published the pamphlet What Is an Original The Old Testament (also called the Hebrew Bible) and Print? in 1961, which outlines the following criteria: the New Testament compose this historical source called the Holy Bible. Different translations of the Bible An original print is a work of art, the were used in different regions and at different times. general requirements of which are: Apocryphal and noncanonical writings and tradition • The artist alone has created the master image constitute another major source of religious subject in or upon the plate, stone, woodblock or other matter. Over the centuries the Bible developed from material, for the purpose of creating the print. more books than are included in the accepted canon. Books and stories not in today’s Bible would have • The print is made from the said materials, been familiar to many Western artists; such stories by the artist or pursuant to his direction. were widely known and believed, and the church even taught them at times. Passed down through oral • The finished print is approved by the artist.3 tradition, they became deeply ingrained in society and would have been known to many individuals at This definition should not exclude the fact that any given time. One important example, The Golden printmaking can be a collaborative process that may Legend or Legenda Aurea by Jacobus de Voragine, was involve more than one person. The artist may not always a medieval sourcebook first published around 1260 directly participate in the creation of the matrix, the C.E. that compiled centuries of existing and detailed block or plate, but the conceptual intention of the artist oral tradition and writings about the lives of the saints. and the work’s content should be of an original nature.4 This book, and its stories, was immensely popular for hundreds of years and was reprinted multiple times in The original print has the potential to be a powerful, several languages. Many religious prints derive their personal object. To hold a piece of paper in one’s subject matter directly or indirectly from The Golden hand, or gaze on it in a book or album, can elicit a Legend, since accounts of the lives of the saints were close connection. The subject depicted on paper can not included in the accepted canon of Holy Scripture. be tangible and solid but also intimate — seen only by the eyes of one particular viewer, or small group of Individual artists and their patrons are another source viewers, in a given moment. Because of this personal of religious art through commissions. The church has and individual relationship, works on paper can be very historically been the primary patron for the design and influential and persuasive communicators of ideas. execution of such art, which often decorated churches. Admiring a glorious stained glass window in a vaulted Wealthy, elite members of society also became cathedral or examining a large-scale painting or fresco significant historical sponsors of religious art. Whether is often moving and fulfilling, but the immediacy of the paintings, sculpture, stained glass, frescoes, mosaics, or experience of enjoying a print or drawing is altogether works on paper, ecclesiastical and private commissions different. The touch of the paper; the faintly sweet, of religious art have long expressed and been sometimes musty scent; thick ink settled permanently intended for spiritual devotion, theological teachings, into the richly textured or feather light paper — all advancement of technical skill, and aesthetic enjoyment. of these sensual qualities enhance the viewing of a work on paper. Prints delight for their aesthetic, visual THE ORIGINAL PRINT qualities; inspire with their myriad meanings and Original prints differ significantly from the photographic interpretations; and astound with their intricate, stunning reproductions most common in our contemporary technical qualities. Collectors have been captivated by era.2 Printmaking has long embraced new technology, this nuanced and varied media throughout history. often with highly positive results, but in response to widespread misconceptions and questionable practices Prints and drawings also appeal for their accessibility. related to “prints” after the advent of photographic Prints are available to viewers not only in a physical, reproduction, organizations devoted to the practice touchable sense but monetarily as well: they have always and study of original prints attempted to specify a been more affordable and available for more people The Religious Print | 2 to view than other media. Essentially pieces of paper, Gutenberg. By the end of the century, hundreds of prints are likewise highly transportable; they are capable cities and towns across the continent had printing of expressing an idea or image (religious or otherwise) presses. The intense growth in printed literature was across the world simultaneously. Although religious aided by the concurrent development of humanism, a subject matter is highly important in the history of art philosophical and intellectual movement with Italian and Christianity, the religious print or drawing was never origins that migrated to Germany by the late fifteenth only about religion or theology.