Transcript Yoko Ono said “the spirit of art is to express the truth

Yoko Ono said “the spirit of art is
to express the truth”. But is art
always true?
Learning objectives
• To investigate the Reformation and the effect of
the reformation on Christian Art.
• To evaluate the purpose of religious art with
regards to propaganda.
• To reflect on how much religious art may have a
similar purpose today.
Learning outcome
• To produce a teaching aid that will help enable
revision, on Religious Propaganda.
What do you
understand
by the term
Reformation?
The Reformation?
• To understand what went on with the
Reformation, first you need to complete
the Christianity time line.
• You may find this difficult, so you need to
work well as a group to complete the
task.
Why complete the
Time-line?
This provides you with some
simple background of where
Christianity had been, and where
it was headed before we look in
more detail at what occurred
during the ‘Reformation’
It’s clear to see that there are two significant changes in
Christianity.
The first was called the Great Schism when the Orthodox
Church and the Catholic church split and went their separate
ways.
The second is what is known as the Reformation, when some
Christians, lead by Martin Luther protested against certain
aspects of the Catholic Church, earning the name Protestants.
With Henry VIII’s help, the Church of England was formed.
The Reformation?
• Your Second task is to complete arrange
the information on Henry VIII
into the correct order.
• Why?
• The full effect of the Protestant activity
was not truly felt until the reign of Henry
VIII and understanding some of his history
can help us understand the reasons
surrounding the changes.
But what was the Reformation?
• From the time line we know that the ‘church’
started off in ...
• Again, we can see that the Orthodox Church
broke away in ...
• Then we have the Catholic Church established
in the West.
• It is not until ... that breaks begin to occur in
the Catholic Church and other denominations
are formed.
• We also know that Henry VIII also played a big
part in these changes.
But how did that final
section occur? What was
the Reformation?
• Basically, what I want you to understand by
this concept, is that the Reformation,
basically means, in the UK, the
reformation, or reforming, of the Church
and State.
• We went from a strongly Catholic country,
with the Pope as the head of the Church, to
Protestant with the King as head.
The English Reformation
• Quickly then:
– The English Reformation was
really enabled by the desire of
Henry VIII to divorce his wife
Katherine of Aragon and marry
Anne Boleyn.
– Due to the Catholic belief that
divorce was wrong, the Pope
rejected Henry VIII’s wish and so
Henry decided to do it himself.
– He made himself head of the
English Church and declared
divorce to be legal.
– But it is still not as simple as
that!!!
The English Reformation
• The vast majority of English people
were annoyed at how the Catholic
Church appeared to use them as a
source of money.
– You had to pay to get married
– You had to pay to have your child
baptised, and if you didn’t he or she
could not go to heaven.
– You had to pay to bury
someone in consecrated
ground, if you didn’t the
devil took their souls!
Henry’s Threat
• Henry VIII was made Supreme
Head of the Church by an Act of
Parliament in 1532 but the
country was still Catholic, all
that had changed was that the
Pope no longer had any power.
• However, many of the country’s
rich and influential were
Catholics, and the most wealthy
were the monasteries where
the monks lived. This made
them a threat to Henry.
So what did he do?
• Henry’s action towards the Monasteries still
scars the landscape today. He decided to shut
down all the monasteries, the idea being they
were to dissolve away like sugar does in hot
liquid, leading to the term ‘Dissolution’.
Dissolution
• Henry needed the dissolution to appear
legal, so that it would be backed by the
public. So he sent government officials to
check up on what the monks were doing.
But how does any of this relate
to Religious Art?
• If you remember from our earlier work on the
didactic purpose of Religious Art, Pope Gregory
argued that art was a tool for education to the
masses who could not read.
• This was no less true for the Protestants. They
needed to use art to spread a message to the
people of England and ensure their thoughts and
opinions were accepted.
• Look around the room for two people you have not
worked with before. (working in 3’s)
Propaganda through Art during
the Reformation
• In your three’s, look at the prints by German
Protestant Lucas Cranach in front of you. They are
based on Martin Luther’s ideas and principles.
• Complete the 12 steps task.
• Analysis task:
– What messages is the artist/art giving?
– What do you think an ordinary English person
would think of them?
– What do you think of them? Are they successful in sending
out a particular message? Are they too complicated?
– How do you think they helped the Protestants?
Sharing your thoughts
• Analysis task:
– What messages is the artist/art giving?
– What do you think an ordinary English person
would think of them?
– What do you think of them? Are they successful in
sending out a particular message? Are they too
complicated?
– How do you think they helped the Protestants?
Propaganda through Art during
the Reformation
• Now compare the artwork produced
by Lucas Cranach, to the five
other pieces.
• In your three’s, prepare a teaching aid you can
use for revision later. It should:
– Define the purpose of propaganda in religious art,
think; why it is there, what it is trying to do, who is
it trying to reach?
– Explain what is going on in all the artwork.
– Explain why Religious propaganda was necessary in
the Tudor period.
Art during the Reformation
• What is important to recognise, is that most art before
the Reformation tended to have some religious
connotations. Whether it was symbolism or other wise.
The belief that it should represent God’s work in the
world.
• However, some Protestant’s saw this as flawed,
believing that since God created everything, then
everything they painted, sculpted, etc, was a reflection
of God’s work. So there was no need for any Religious
connotations.
• This meant there was a large shift in artworks after the
reformation, with more focus on private lives and
individual work.
However ...
• The Catholic Church did not merely allow for this
character assassination. Instead it launched a counter
attack known as the Counter-Reformation.
• The Great Inquisition in Spain came about due to a
Papal desire to keep all to the ‘true faith.’ Although
originally aimed at Jews, with the outbreak of
Luthernism, the focus fell on would be Protestants.
• In England the only re-emergence of Catholicism as a
strong power was the short reign of Queen Mary, Henry
VIII’s eldest daughter, who as a Catholic sought to
return the country to the ‘true faith.’ This ended with
her death, and the succession of Queen Elizabeth I.
The Artwork!!!
• You have two pieces of artwork.
• One is Protestant Reformation Art, the other Catholic
Counter Reformation.
• Work out which is which, explaining why.
• Read through the information on the sheet about the
artwork:
– What do you notice?
– Why has the work been done in that particular way?
– Is there a true difference
Why does it matter?
What is the point?
• For our unit we are looking at the Nature and
Purpose of Religious Art – in other words what
and why.
• To understand Religious Art today, it is
sometimes better to look back to the past and
see how it came to exist the way it does today.
• We focused on the major shift caused by the
Reformation, now we need to consider it’s
influence today!
Religious Propaganda today
• Is there such a thing as modern Religious
Propaganda?
• For your homework, I would like you to
research modern Christian Propaganda. An
example would be the American Minister and
the Qur’an issue.
• If you have any concerns about this homework,
please come and see me in private.
Learning objectives
• To investigate the Reformation and the effect of
the reformation on Christian Art.
• To evaluate the purpose of religious art with
regards to propaganda.
• To reflect on how much religious art may have a
similar purpose today.
Learning outcome
• To produce a teaching aid that will help enable
revision, on Religious Propaganda.