Christian Art

by Rowena Loverance

Palm mats and pilgrim tokens, manuscript illuminations and church frescoes, gold and enamel reliquaries and papier-mâché figurines, Russian icons and Mexican What makes these works of art Christian? And what, as such, distinguishes them from other works? These are the questions at the center of this book, which is at once a sumptuously illustrated survey of Christian art over time and across the globe and a probing study of what "Christian art" really means, how it functions, where it arises, and whom it serves. Rowena Loverance draws extensively on the vast international collections of the British Museum, with its remarkable examples of Christian art in the fourth-century Roman empire, the meeting of Eastern and Western art during the Crusades, Christian missionary art and its reception in sixteenth-century Africa, India, and Japan, and twentieth-century Christian popular art from Latin America and Oceania. The Museum's collections of decorative arts yield original and lesser-known Christian iconography, allowing the author to show how Christian and other artists have responded to a variety of visual traditions. Within the European convention, the book considers the assaults of post-Renaissance scientific and philosophical discoveries and concludes with an assessment of the current state of Christian art at the beginning of the twenty-first century.

Genres: Art, Religion

248 pages, Hardcover

First published March 26, 2007

About the author

Rowena Loverance is the head of e-learning at the British Museum, a Visiting Research Fellow at Kingâe(tm)s College London, and the coeditor of the Bulletin of British Byzantine Studies.

Reviews

[CF · Rating 4 out of 5]

An interesting look into the long history of Christian and religious-influenced art. This book not only details a brief description of the periods, such as Byzantine and Renaissance, but also outlines the author's favourite pieces and different types of art showing the point, such as regional sculptures from African nations and post-modern etchings.

Rather than taking the reader through a journey of art periods, this book takes the reader on a journey through the Christian soul; what it feels like to connect to the artworks presented on a higher level, and what it means to be Christian or a religious devout in the modern world.

The author also delves into different art such as Islam and Buddhism influenced, and see how the different faiths can cross paths in the history of the world. I really enjoyed this.

[Suzanne Kittrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoughtful book on how artists can express their faith through images and how this influences others faith. This is not a Catholic book but a book that covers all Christian denominations. It also talka about what imagery will be used in the 21st century with all the multi-faceted ways to communicate - camera phones, the internet, instant communications - how will that play a role in religious art?