24 Facts About Catholic art

Catholic art is art produced by or for members of the Catholic Church.

Catholic art has played a leading role in the history and development of Western art since at least the 4th century.

The principal subject matter of Catholic art has been the life and times of Jesus Christ, along with people associated with him, including his disciples, the saints, and motifs from the Catholic Bible.

The legalisation of Christianity with the Edict of Milan transformed Catholic art, which adopted richer forms such as mosaics and illuminated manuscripts.

Romanesque and Gothic Catholic art flowered in the Western Church as the style of painting and statuary moved in an increasingly naturalistic direction.

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Protestant Reformation in the 16th century produced new waves of image-destruction, to which the Catholic art Church responded with the dramatic, elaborate emotive Baroque and Rococo styles to emphasise beauty as a transcendental.

Much Christian Catholic art borrowed from Imperial imagery, including Christ in Majesty, and the use of the halo as a symbol of sanctity.

Late Antique Christian Catholic art replaced classical Hellenistic naturalism with a more abstract aesthetic.

Byzantine Catholic art became increasingly conservative, as the form of images themselves, many accorded divine origin or thought to have been painted by Saint Luke or other figures, was held to have a status not far off that of a scriptural text.

The Catholic counterblast set out a middle course between the extreme positions of Byzantine iconoclasm and the iconodules, approving the veneration of images for what they represented, but not accepting what became the Orthodox position, that images partook in some degree of the nature of the thing they represented.

In practical matters relating to the use of images, as opposed to their theoretical place in theology, the Libri Carolini were at the anti-iconic end of the spectrum of Catholic art views, being for example rather disapproving of the lighting of candles before images.

At this period the Gospel book, with figurative Catholic art confined mostly to Evangelist portraits, was usually the type of book most lavishly decorated; the Book of Kells is the most famous example.

Anglo-Saxon Catholic art was often freer, making more use of lively line drawings, and there were other distinct traditions, such as the group of extraordinary Mozarabic manuscripts from Spain, including the Saint-Sever Beatus, and those in Girona and the Morgan Library.

Romanesque Catholic art, long preceded by the Pre-Romanesque, developed in Western Europe from approximately 1000 AD until the rise of the Gothic style.

The principal media of Gothic Catholic art were sculpture, panel painting, stained glass, fresco and the illuminated manuscript, though religious imagery was expressed in metalwork, tapestries and embroidered vestments.

Gothic Catholic art made full use of this new environment, telling a narrative story through pictures, sculpture, stained glass and soaring architecture.

Gothic Catholic art was often typological in nature, reflecting a belief that the events of the Old Testament pre-figured those of the New, and that that was indeed their main significance.

Renaissance Catholic art, heavily influenced by the "rebirth" of interest in the Catholic art and culture of classical antiquity, initially continued the trends of the preceding period without fundamental changes, but using classical clothing and architectural settings which were after all very appropriate for New Testament scenes.

Some stone sculpture, illuminated manuscripts and stained glass windows survived, but of the thousands of high quality works of painted and wood-carved Catholic art produced in medieval Britain, virtually none remain.

Baroque Catholic art, developing over the decades following the Council of Trent, though the extent to which this was an influence on it is a matter of debate, certainly met most of the council's requirements, especially in the earlier, simpler phases associated with the Carracci and Caravaggio, who nonetheless met with clerical opposition over the realism of his sacred figures.

Outside these and similar movements, the establishment Catholic art world produced much less religious painting than at any time since the Roman Empire, though many types of applied Catholic art for church fittings in the Gothic style were made.

Commercial popular Catholic art flourished using cheaper techniques for mass-reproduction.

Much of this Catholic art continued to use watered-down versions of Baroque styles.

The Immaculate HeCatholic art of Mary was a new subject of the 19th century, and new apparitions at Lourdes and Fatima, as well as new saints, provided new subjects for Catholic art.