The Period in Art Known as “The Reformation”
Introduction
The sixteenth century in one century in the past that saw drastic changes in established modes of thinking in Western Europe compared to the 20th century. Initially, there was only one type o Christianity that existed under the authority of the pope in Rome. However, in 1517 Martin Luther, a monk and Theologian in Germany, sparked the protestant reformation. Through his ideas he challenged the pope and the church and declared the authority of individual. During that period in became more possible to for Christians to read the bible in the languages that they spoke. The movement specifically began in the year 1517 after Martin Luther Posted a number of grievances that were termed as the ninety five theses in opposition to the Roma Church. As the spirit of reformation spread in Europe, other leaders such as Ulrich Zwingli in Switzerland and the French born John Calvin and John knox emerged.
The Catholic Church whose structure was modeled upon the bureaucracy of the Holy Roman Empire was incredibly magnificent but internally corrupt. This fueled the formation of reformation, a movement that drove Western Europe to encounter a variety of social, artistic and geo-political alterations as an impact of the conflict within the Catholic Church. This conflict was regarded to as the protestant reformation and the response of the Catholic Church towards the movement was referred to as counter-reformation.
The Period in Art Known as “The Reformation
Reformation was a religious movement that existed in 16th century in Western Europe. The movement led o the split of Christianity between Catholics and Protestants. Reformation led to split between the north and south of Europe, where generally the states in the north became Protestants while those in the south became Catholics (Christensen, 1979).The movement resulted into two main categories of Protestants where one was evangelical churches (this abided to the teachings of Martin Luther king) and the reformed churches that followed the teachings of John Calvin and Huldrych Zwingli. Later the two divisions resulted into four other main wings that caused segmentation in the Christian tradition; this included the Lutheran, Calvinist, Anabaptist and the Anglican.
Reformation, a movement in history that started in 1517 can also be defined as a movement that separated the institutional unity of the church in Western Europe and implemented the third magnificent division of Christianity that is known as Protestantism, which penetrated on the supreme and sufficient power of the bible and on validation by faith alone (Christensen, 1979).It’s typical for evangelical churches to present the reformation as simply the restoration of the legitimacy of the bible after many years of deceitful teaching, which had amplified as the medieval era went on
After it establishment in the early sixteenth century, the movement resulted to an immediate halt to the relative unity that existed for the previous years between within the western Christianity under the umbrella of the Roman Church. The reformation having commenced in Germany due to the response of the immerging sense of corruption and abuse of leadership in the church, rapidly spread through Europe. Reformation revealed an alternative vision of the Christian denomination and lead to the formation and emergence of Protestantism including all the individual divisions. Artistry, especially the use of images became one of the most effectual components for disseminating negative portrayal in the church. So as to popularize the ideas of the reformers, art was revolutionized by the movement.
According to Wisse (2002), the theology of Protestants became centered on personal relationship between the worshippers and the divine. The agenda of the reformation was mainly focused on the individual personal relationship with God that was revealed in the magnitude of the common people and the daily scene that were portrayed in art. According to the Protestants, God created man in his own image and likeness which meant that humanity was perfection. Protestant theology was accompanied by art that strived to depict religious figures and stories that put emphasis on salvation through divine grace and not through individual deeds or by intervention of bureaucracy of the church.
In line with the subject matter, iconic images of Jesus Christ and the scenes from the passion became seldom, just like the portrayals of the saints and clergy. However, the most preferred images and scenes in the art were the narrative scenes from the bible which was followed by the modern moralistic depictions of day to day life. The art also included some scenes that showed sinners who were accepted by Jesus Christ. This was congruent with the perspective of protestant theology that believed salvation came only through one way that was the grace of God
The period in the art that is the reformation, induced a wave of iconoclasm which was also known as the destruction of the religious imagery. All forms of Protestants reflected a degree of violence to the religious images, as idolatry, mostly via sculpture and large paintings. Descriptions from the books and prints became much more acceptable due to the fact that they were much smaller and more personal. The reformation leaders that are Huldrych Zwingli and John Calvin enthusiastically took part in erosion of images from the church through the control of their followers (Wisse, 2002). These two leaders regarded the largest extent of the religious images including plain crosses to be idolatrous
Later Martin Luther( in Germany) who was initially hostile, finally agreed and more over encouraged the display of the latter denied religious artistry in churches as long the Christian would be reminded that this the artistry work represented divine manifestations and are not holy in themselves. Initially martin Luther king had strongly disagreed with use of images. Protestant reformers had initially restricted the utilization of visual arts in church. A wield of iconoclasm brushed through the north. Stained glass windows were broken; images of the saints were torn down while the pipe organs were eliminated from the churches. On the other hand the Catholic Church reacted to iconoclasm via the high-spirited style of art and architecture that was known as the baroque. Until the emergence of the printing press, divine teachings was mainly based upon mural painting, mosaic and stained glass which were mostly common in the Catholic churches (Michalski,1993).
The reformation became the foreseeable result of the initial Renaissance discoveries in science and literature and the visual arts. In the early Renaissance humanist scholars shed novel illumination on an initial literary period. Classical texts in indigenous languages spread, sparkling intellectual dialogues and reanalysis of convectional thought. The diverse effects of Martin Luther great translation of the bible into German and in England of the King James Version was as a result in part to the linguistic education commencement by the humanists.
Renaissance was regarded as the initial step toward revolution in religion, an era known as reformation. There is no doubt that political ideologies in the early sixteenth century was largely associated with the fact that reformation progressed totally and also that it success was undermined in some of the regions in Europe. Despite the fact that the Catholic Church was in great need of reform, it was utterly indispensable for the reformation to lead to the split in the church (Koerner, 2004) The split was largely attributed to political situation where a number of princes had been waging war against the emperor for quit along period of time.
When Martin Luther made a breakthrough and also succeeding unharmed. Other reformers which are Zwingli and John Calvin joined the bandwagon leading into further split of the protestant movement. The reformers did not have a smooth success since there actions fueled civil was in Germany, tyranny in Switzerland, social tumult in France, hounding in England and inquest in Spain and in Italy. The 16th century proved to be a very tough period and the reform of Christian was followed by anything but brotherly love and spirit of forgiveness. However, it is viewed as of the most magnificent revolutions of the western world and that its implications in one way or another can be compared to other magnificent calamities such as French revolution.
Martin Luther steadily endorsed his ideas and consistently printed information that altered the views of the Europeans and their belief in God. Luther enhanced the protestant reformation during the period when the European power began to colonize America. Martin Luther wrote about the splitting political powers from the power of church. He advocated for the idea that the kingdoms were supposed to undertake their affairs on the earth but need not to mettle in matters associated with religion or spirituality. Luther’s view concerning the church and governing authorities succeeded in the establishment of maxims for the split of the church and the state. His work on this subject is one of his earliest printed materials.
The views of Martin Luther enabled the establishment of the doctrine of freedom. Before the era of reformation, people did not have a full opportunity to live lives in accordance with their individual right to choose on what to believe. People were supposed to adhere to implemented order of things from the way they found them at birth. Nevertheless, protestant reformation enabled change by helping individuals realize that they were allowed to worship according to their wish.
Pressure to withhold religious imagery influenced art and also affected many other several decrees beginning from the ultimate session of the council of in 1563. This encompassed short passages on religious image that had considerable effect on the progression of the catholic art during the reformation and Counter Reformation. The church promoted art with sacred or religious content. During reformation art was to be strictly religious and was to be made with the main objective being to promote the glory of God (James,1983) Despite the fact that a number of approaches to religious art were used, stylistic developments passed rapidly across braches of religion. This implied that Rome was in a much nearer touch artistically with protestant compared to the Catholics.
The Italian style of painting with notable exception of Venice developed into mannerism. The extensively complex style concerned a most leaders of the Catholic Church during the immergence of reformation due to the fact that it lacked virtuous appeal. Consequently, immense deviation had augmented between the Catholic Church and the protestant reformer of the north concerning the inclusion and the style of work.
The church felt that pious art in the catholic states mostly Italy had lost its objective of religious subject matter. Its center of attention was based on decorative qualities instead, thereby directing the church to a decree that art was to lead and induce in its narrative presentation. That is was grant a precise presentation of the biblical narrative or saints of life, rather than adding together episodes and imaginary moments and promote devoutness (James,1983). The reforms that immerged from the council of tent in 1563 went ahead to set the basis for reformation and Counter Reformation.
Peter Bruegel of Flanders was the great genre painter of his time who worked for equally the catholic and protestant patrons. In majority of his paintings, even when showing devout scenes, mot pace is given to landscape or peasant life in 16th century Flanders. Lucas van Leyden was another great painter. He was well known for his engravings such as Milkmaid that reflected peasants with milk cows. Bruegels being an accomplished landape painter, frequently painted agricultural landscape. This kind of painting though devoid of religious or classical connotation, lead to emergence to a long line of northern European landscape artists. The courtly style of northern mannerism in the second episode of the century was partly motivated by the desire of leaders in both the Holy Roman Empire and France to find a style of art that would appeal to the followers of the court of elite on both side of catholic and reformation (James,1983)
Protestant theology disapproved subject outstanding in the catholic art other than Jesus and proceedings in the bible such as Mary and Saints were given less attention. This made much of the northern Europe church to virtually come to a close to commission figurative art thereby placing the dictation of the region exclusively within the hands of the artists and lay consumers. The ideas of John Calvin even objected to non pious funerary art which is the heraldry and effigies adored renaissance rich.
Following various decades, Lutheran commissions for a novel altarpieces in point of fact came to an end, and the followers of Martin Luther often had to thrash about to protect their presented art from John Calvin on Lutheran iconoclasm in the second half of the century. Consequently, Calvinist rulers and leaders in the city try to compel their willpower on Lutheran populations in the era of the second reformation that was between 1560 and 1619. A magnificent and disorderly wave of mob destruction of images and church fittings known as the beeldenstorm spread all over the Low Countries (Spalding, 2010). This was the greatest outbreak of the kind which had diverse political consequences.
The protestant reformation groups that did not take part in iconoclasm often chose altarpieces and scenes that reflected the last supper. Through this they enable worshippers to recall the figurative significance behind the Eucharist. This was contrary to the catholic churches that selected crucifixion scenes for their altarpieces in order to remind worshippers of the literal information of the Eucharist.
The protestant reformation movements took advantage of the popularity of printmaking in the north of Europe. With he help of print making the reformation was able to allow mass production of images which were made extensively available to the public at low prices. This facilitated the diversity of visually influential imagery, the reformation was therefore able, as the Catholic Church had been doing since the beginning of the 15th century, to convey the theology to the people and religious edification was brought from the church to the home of the widespread people therefore forming a unswerving connection with the worshippers and divine.
After the initial of the reformation artists in protestant regions painted far less devout subjects for public display. Even though there was a conscious effort to extend protestant iconography of the bible illustration in book descriptions and prints. The reformation artists’ especially Cranach the Elder and Younger and Holbein created painting for churches revealing leaders of reformation in ways that were similar to the catholic saints. In the proceeding years, the taste of reformation art changed from the display in churches of devout scenes, even though some were still displayed in the homes (Spalding, 2010). There was disapproval of large image from the classical mythology, the other revelation of high style during the period. This led to a style that was more directly linked to accurately portraying the present times.
Conclusion
As the power of reformation and Counter Reformation became more prominent and the threat of the Protestants reformation over the Catholic Church diminished, Rome started to reassert its universality to other state globally. The Jesuits who were also referred to as the society of Jesus, sent missionaries to other regions of the world. They used art as a much more efficient mean of articulating the word of God. The Society of Jesus had great impact when they used similar styles of art as those the reformation and the Counter Reformation period. Despite the wide variety of approaches to religious art, stylistic advancements passed about rapidly across religious branches.
With identification of reformer disparagement and approval of their ideology, Protestants have been able to based on their religious beliefs upon the display in art. The Artists compassionate to the reformation established a new gamut of subjects, or became accustomed to traditional one, to depict and place emphasis on Protestants ideas and teachings. More widely the balance of authority rapidly diverted from religious to secular influence in Western Europe thereby initiating a fall in the imagery of the Christian protestant church. For the time being the roman church mounted the Counter Reformation by which they were able to deprecate Lutheranism and reaffirm the catholic doctrine.
Reference
Christensen, C. C. (1979).Art and the Reformation in Germany.” The Sixteenth Century Journal Athens: Ohio UP, 12 100.
James H. (1983). A History of Ideas and Images in Italian Art. John Murray: London
Koerner, J. L(2004). The Reformation of the Image. The University of Chicago Press: London
Michalski, S. (1993)Reformation and the Visual Arts: The Protestant Image Question in Western and Eastern Europe, Routledge,
Spalding, M.(2010). The History of the Protestant Reformation; In Germany and Switzerland, and in England, Ireland, Scotland, the Netherlands, France, and Northern Europe. General Books LLC
Wisse, J. (2002). “The Reformation.” In Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
