Religious Art: Yea or Nay?

[BrianSoddingBoru4]

I certainly do find Renaissance (and later) art to be amazing, religious or non-religious. It's some of the modern art that I find unappealing and I don't really understand what people see in those silly red rectangles or splatters of random dots or toilet stools. I know it gives them weird nice feelings, but fuck if I could feel what they feel.

Couldn't agree more.  I'm sure I could dip several cats in different colours of paint and have their resultant aggravation create something indistinguishable from a Jackson Pollock 'masterpiece'.

Boru

[Angrboda]

I can like religious art. Some of my favorite songs are religious. (See: o' brother where art thou)
Though i think it a false assumption to think Michelangelo or Leonardo da vinci or The likes were religious. They might have been. But they lived in a time in which most of their work was contracted by The church. If there had been other less religious organizations employing them, perhaps The art they made would have been less religious.

Ugggggg, music is different to me. I cannot get into religious music no matter how well the instruments are played. If you are singing a song about humans with super powers or sky heros I cant get into it.

Not even Wagner's "Ride of the Valkyries" ?

[Mr.Obvious]

This is The ultimate showdown of ultimate history...

No, a meteor killing our species, and the sun eventually killing our entire solar system is our "ultimate" history. Claims of Gods are on par with Marvel or D.C. comics, but not much more than that.

Sorry, my bad. It was destiny instead of history.

[Seraphina]

I certainly do find Renaissance (and later) art to be amazing, religious or non-religious. It's some of the modern art that I find unappealing and I don't really understand what people see in those silly red rectangles or splatters of random dots or toilet stools. I know it gives them weird nice feelings, but fuck if I could feel what they feel.

*bold mine
lol That reminds me of a visit I made with my daughter to the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco last spring. While strolling through the galleries, we came upon a toilet bowl. I'm not sure what it was supposed to convey but my daughter said incredulously "Mom, it's a toilet bowl". I just rolled my eyes and we moved on.

There is a lot of incredible art that has religious themes. I remember standing in King's College Chapel in Cambridge, England and looking around me at the design and architecture in amazement. The art in my home is secular but if I dismissed all art that has religion in it, I would miss out on a lot.

-Teresa

[Anomalocaris]

Good art is good art, regardless of whether the motivations had been religious. Where religious art becomes a problem is when kitschy religious junk is passed off as good art because of its theme.

[Nay_Sayer]

My time to shine;      NAY!

Actually I'm fine with art in all it's forms.

[Rev. Rye]

I certainly do find Renaissance (and later) art to be amazing, religious or non-religious. It's some of the modern art that I find unappealing and I don't really understand what people see in those silly red rectangles or splatters of random dots or toilet stools. I know it gives them weird nice feelings, but fuck if I could feel what they feel.

*bold mine
lol That reminds me of a visit I made with my daughter to the Museum of Modern Art in San Francisco last spring. While strolling through the galleries, we came upon a toilet bowl. I'm not sure what it was supposed to convey but my daughter said incredulously "Mom, it's a toilet bowl". I just rolled my eyes and we moved on.

There is a lot of incredible art that has religious themes. I remember standing in King's College Chapel in Cambridge, England and looking around me at the design and architecture in amazement. The art in my home is secular but if I dismissed all art that has religion in it, I would miss out on a lot.

-Teresa

I can remember once going to the Art Instutute on a field trip. They had these chairs in one room, and a guard told me off for sitting in one of them. My uncle had a chair identical to that and he never told me off for sitting in it (and he was a sociopath.) It did not occur to me that they would be putting a chair on display, not roped off or otherwise put in a situation where it would be inconvenient to use it. Fortunately, I don't hold much ill will against them. They have my favourite painting of all time. Feel free to guess what it is (hint: you probably shouldn't have to think too hard about it if you know me or are just looking at this post).

[Antares]

I admired the architecture of the churches I saw in Europe, the Munster Cathedral in Ulm, Germany and the Notre Dame in Paris. These are animist objects I brought back from Nigeria. A Ju Ju stick and a carving of the riverine goddess, Mami Wata:

[url=https://ibb.co/gNWRrm]

[Martian Mermaid]

I definitely appreciate art, religiously motivated or not. Art is meant to have different interpretations anyway. I can appreciate it for reasons other than the artist intended.