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In the Beauty of Holiness: Art and the Bible in Western Culture
Beauty and holiness are both highly significant subjects in the Bible. In this comprehensive study of Christian fine art David Lyle Jeffrey explores the relationship between beauty and holiness as he integrates aesthetic perspectives from the ancient Hebrew Scriptures through Augustine, Aquinas, and Kant down to contemporary philosophers of art.
From the walls of the Roman catacombs to the paintings of Marc Chagall, visual art in the West has consistently drawn its most profound and generative inspiration from biblical narrative and imagery. Jeffrey guides readers through this artistic tradition from the second century to the twenty-first, astutely pointing out its relationship not only to the biblical sources but also to related expressions in liturgy and historical theology.
Lavishly illustrated throughout with 146 masterworks, reproduced in full color, In the Beauty of Holiness is ideally suited to students of Christian fine art, to devotees of biblical studies, and to general readers wanting to better understand the story of Christian art through the centuries.
From the walls of the Roman catacombs to the paintings of Marc Chagall, visual art in the West has consistently drawn its most profound and generative inspiration from biblical narrative and imagery. Jeffrey guides readers through this artistic tradition from the second century to the twenty-first, astutely pointing out its relationship not only to the biblical sources but also to related expressions in liturgy and historical theology.
Lavishly illustrated throughout with 146 masterworks, reproduced in full color, In the Beauty of Holiness is ideally suited to students of Christian fine art, to devotees of biblical studies, and to general readers wanting to better understand the story of Christian art through the centuries.
448 pages, Hardcover
Published October 24, 2017
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104 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews
February 2, 2018
If you go to any major art museum you will find significant numbers of art work, often by well known artists, that depict biblical scenes. The birth and death of Jesus are popular, along with his baptism. Pictures and sculpture of the Madonna and Child are ubiquitous. Artists have painted out of religious devotion and popular demand. From Da Vinci to Picasso, art tells a story.
David Lyle Jeffrey has created a wonderful book that tells the story of the role that art plays in conveying and interpreting the biblical story. The focus is on Western Culture, so he explores the art of the Latin Church and Protestantism, from catacombs to modern depictions. The books is beautifully illustrated with full color pictures. Jeffrey speaks of the art, but also of the stories they illustrate and interpret. He speaks of changing visions of beauty and how it is expressed.
One of the major issues that emerges in the book is the way in which artists portray the human body in religious depiction. In
other words, what should we make of the rather regular use of nudity, especially in depictions of biblical figures such as Bathsheba. This became a major issue as the Reformation broke out, with differing mores and expectations.
There is also an interesting chapter that explores "Art Against Belief." Here we see the work of people like Dali and Picasso, who rebel against traditional religion, and yet take up religious symbols events, including the crucifixion, portraying these events in very different manner, even as they throw off traditional notions of beauty. While those images are rather recent, Jeffrey ends with depictions that are more concerned to portray faith in a positive light.
In the epilogue, Jeffrey writes of his intentions with this book: "As we have sen, the annals of Western art bear witness to the perserverant power of biblical narrative to engage the heart, especially by artists whose imaginations have been continuously reformed both by the legacy of earlier Christian art and by reading the Bible." (p. 364). This vision has been well illustrated in the pictures/figures and the words of this book.
David Lyle Jeffrey has created a wonderful book that tells the story of the role that art plays in conveying and interpreting the biblical story. The focus is on Western Culture, so he explores the art of the Latin Church and Protestantism, from catacombs to modern depictions. The books is beautifully illustrated with full color pictures. Jeffrey speaks of the art, but also of the stories they illustrate and interpret. He speaks of changing visions of beauty and how it is expressed.
One of the major issues that emerges in the book is the way in which artists portray the human body in religious depiction. In
other words, what should we make of the rather regular use of nudity, especially in depictions of biblical figures such as Bathsheba. This became a major issue as the Reformation broke out, with differing mores and expectations.
There is also an interesting chapter that explores "Art Against Belief." Here we see the work of people like Dali and Picasso, who rebel against traditional religion, and yet take up religious symbols events, including the crucifixion, portraying these events in very different manner, even as they throw off traditional notions of beauty. While those images are rather recent, Jeffrey ends with depictions that are more concerned to portray faith in a positive light.
In the epilogue, Jeffrey writes of his intentions with this book: "As we have sen, the annals of Western art bear witness to the perserverant power of biblical narrative to engage the heart, especially by artists whose imaginations have been continuously reformed both by the legacy of earlier Christian art and by reading the Bible." (p. 364). This vision has been well illustrated in the pictures/figures and the words of this book.
July 21, 2017
David Lyle Jeffrey’s ‘In the Beauty of Holiness’ represents a lifetime’s scholarship, with the author’s interest in the biblical sources of Christian art evident in his publications as far back as the early 1970s. He humbly states that his is “not a history of art, even of Christian art in the European tradition” but is focused in such a way merely to help illuminate a particular, albeit fundamental, “trajectory for Christian art in the west.”
Even within these limits the breadth and depth of Jeffrey’s review is enormously impressive, encompassing as it does the earliest extant Christian art; the Jewish foundations of, and Hellenistic influences upon, Christian aesthetic theology; medieval cathedral architecture, with particular reference to stained glass windows; Giotto’s alfresco wall paintings; altarpiece paintings by van der Weyden, the van Eyck brothers and Mathhias Grünewald; the impact of the Renaissance and the advent of a more realist northern style; Caspar David Friedrich’s efforts to relocate holy beauty in nature; the attempt to make beauty in art a substitute for religious experience in the work of the Pre-Raphaelites, Gauguin and van Gogh, amongst others; the post-religious scorn of the likes of Munch, Ernst, Dali and Picasso; and the wheel turning full circle with Chagall, Roualt and Arcabas seeking to recover beauty in both an aesthetic and religious sense, so as to return art to the service of meditation and worship. Moreover, although Jeffrey’s focus is on the visual arts he has many interesting things to say on other issues, such as music and poetry. The book is also lavishly illustrated, with almost one hundred and fifty images complementing the text.
Jeffrey regards the Renaissance, rather than the Reformation, as the great discontinuity, writing that, “Until the Renaissance beauty and holiness were intimately conjoined in art for worship, evoking the presence of the holy for believers” but this older vision was in large part fractured by a new aesthetic characterised by competitive acquisitiveness. Moreover, in “the late medieval to the early modern period … biblical subjects and narratives, especially stories with erotic potential … became occasions for an indulgence in beauty ‘for beauty’s sake’ …” signalling “the commodification of sexual beauty and voyeurism.”
In the latter context Jeffrey specifically mentions Massys, Rubens and Rembrandt but, somewhat surprisingly, does not consider Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint Teresa given that Pamela Cooper-White is not alone in questioning whether there is “an element of pornography ... in the translation of one woman’s interior, mystical experience into the concrete medium of marble sculpted by a male master?” This is, however, a very minor quibble. One cannot have everything and if Jeffrey does not really discuss Bernini as sculptor he is certainly discussed as architect.
Earthly life is frail, fragile and transient. Its beauty is fleeting because subject to decay. The Bible promises eternal life, and artists inspired by its message of hope have produced 'immortal' works of art which seek to celebrate the marriage of beauty and holiness. In considering “the long experiment in western European Christendom to dedicate beauty to worship, and art to the development as well as communication of doctrine”, Jeffrey has produced a beautiful book of lasting value.
Even within these limits the breadth and depth of Jeffrey’s review is enormously impressive, encompassing as it does the earliest extant Christian art; the Jewish foundations of, and Hellenistic influences upon, Christian aesthetic theology; medieval cathedral architecture, with particular reference to stained glass windows; Giotto’s alfresco wall paintings; altarpiece paintings by van der Weyden, the van Eyck brothers and Mathhias Grünewald; the impact of the Renaissance and the advent of a more realist northern style; Caspar David Friedrich’s efforts to relocate holy beauty in nature; the attempt to make beauty in art a substitute for religious experience in the work of the Pre-Raphaelites, Gauguin and van Gogh, amongst others; the post-religious scorn of the likes of Munch, Ernst, Dali and Picasso; and the wheel turning full circle with Chagall, Roualt and Arcabas seeking to recover beauty in both an aesthetic and religious sense, so as to return art to the service of meditation and worship. Moreover, although Jeffrey’s focus is on the visual arts he has many interesting things to say on other issues, such as music and poetry. The book is also lavishly illustrated, with almost one hundred and fifty images complementing the text.
Jeffrey regards the Renaissance, rather than the Reformation, as the great discontinuity, writing that, “Until the Renaissance beauty and holiness were intimately conjoined in art for worship, evoking the presence of the holy for believers” but this older vision was in large part fractured by a new aesthetic characterised by competitive acquisitiveness. Moreover, in “the late medieval to the early modern period … biblical subjects and narratives, especially stories with erotic potential … became occasions for an indulgence in beauty ‘for beauty’s sake’ …” signalling “the commodification of sexual beauty and voyeurism.”
In the latter context Jeffrey specifically mentions Massys, Rubens and Rembrandt but, somewhat surprisingly, does not consider Bernini’s Ecstasy of Saint Teresa given that Pamela Cooper-White is not alone in questioning whether there is “an element of pornography ... in the translation of one woman’s interior, mystical experience into the concrete medium of marble sculpted by a male master?” This is, however, a very minor quibble. One cannot have everything and if Jeffrey does not really discuss Bernini as sculptor he is certainly discussed as architect.
Earthly life is frail, fragile and transient. Its beauty is fleeting because subject to decay. The Bible promises eternal life, and artists inspired by its message of hope have produced 'immortal' works of art which seek to celebrate the marriage of beauty and holiness. In considering “the long experiment in western European Christendom to dedicate beauty to worship, and art to the development as well as communication of doctrine”, Jeffrey has produced a beautiful book of lasting value.
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June 27, 2019John Wilson provides a positive review here.
January 14, 2021
Really gorgeous coffee table book with interesting topics; more for general audiences than for research.
December 24, 2017
A very thorough treating of the connection between beauty and holiness, through the centuries of art history.
September 22, 2018
I am very interested in the Bible and art history and this book does not disappoint. I did find it a little long but overall the author gets the point across. I love the inclusions of all of the art work and how the author explains theories around how a lot of art was created based on human belief in the Bible and that the art works were created by both masters of the craft and those just creating art for God. Great good, highly recommended.
Displaying 1 - 6 of 6 reviews