Art During The Protestant Reformation

A challenge to the Church in Rome

In fine art history, the sixteenth century sees the styles we call the High Renaissance followed past Mannerism, and—at the end of the century—the emergence of the Baroque style. Naturally, these styles are all shaped by historical forces, the most significant existence the Protestant Reformation'southward successful challenge to the spiritual and political power of the Church in Rome. For the history of art this has particular significance since the apply (and abuse) of images was the topic of debate. In fact, many images were attacked and destroyed during this period, a miracle called iconoclasm.

The Protestant Reformation

Today there are many types of Protestant Churches. For example, Baptist is currently the largest denomination in the United States but in that location are many dozens more than. How did this happen? Where did they all begin? To understand the Protestant Reform movement, we need to get dorsum in history to the early on sixteenth century when there was merely ane church in Western Europe – what we would now call the Roman Catholic Church – under the leadership of the Pope in Rome. Today, we call this "Roman Catholic" considering at that place are so many other types of churches (ie Methodist, Baptist, Lutheran, Calvinist, Anglican – you become the idea).

The Church building and the state

And then, if we become dorsum to the year 1500, the Church building (what we now telephone call the Roman Cosmic Church) was very powerful (politically and spiritually) in Western Europe (and in fact ruled over significant territory in Italy chosen the Papal States). But there were other political forces at work likewise. In that location was the Holy Roman Empire (largely made upward of German speaking regions ruled by princes, dukes and electors), the Italian city-states, England, too equally the increasingly unified nation states of France and Spain (among others). The power of the rulers of these areas had increased in the previous century and many were broken-hearted to accept the opportunity offered by the Reformation to weaken the ability of the papacy (the office of the Pope) and increase their own power in relation to the Church building in Rome and other rulers.

Go along in mind too, that for some time the Church building had been seen as an establishment plagued by internal power struggles (at one point in the late 1300s and 1400s church was ruled by iii Popes simultaneously). Popes and Cardinals often lived more than like kings than spiritual leaders. Popes claimed temporal (political) besides as spiritual ability. They commanded armies, made political alliances and enemies, and, sometimes, fifty-fifty waged war. Simony (the selling of Church offices) and nepotism (favoritism based on family unit relationships) were rampant. Clearly, if the Pope was concentrating on these worldly issues, there wasn't every bit much fourth dimension left for caring for the souls of the faithful. The corruption of the Church was well known, and several attempts had been made to reform the Church (notably by John Wyclif and Jan Hus), but none of these efforts successfully challenged Church practice until Martin Luther's deportment in the early 1500s.

Lucas Cranach the Elder, Martin Luther, Bust in Three-Quarter View, 1520, engraving, 10 x 14.4 cm (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston)

Lucas Cranach the Elder, Martin Luther, Bosom in Iii-Quarter View, 1520, engraving, ten x fourteen.4 cm (Museum of Fine Arts, Houston)

Martin Luther

Martin Luther was a German monk and Professor of Theology at the University of Wittenberg. Luther sparked the Reformation in 1517 past posting, at least according to tradition, his "95 Theses" on the door of the Castle Church in Wittenberg, Deutschland – these theses were a listing of statements that expressed Luther's concerns virtually certain Church practices – largely the sale of indulgences, only they were based on Luther'south deeper concerns with Church doctrine. Before we go on, detect that the word Protestant contains the word "protest" and that reformation contains the word "reform" – this was an effort, at least at showtime, to protest some practices of the Cosmic Church and to reform that Church,

Indulgences

The sale of indulgences was a practice where the church acknowledged a donation or other charitable work with a piece of paper (an indulgence), that certified that your soul would enter heaven more quickly by reducing your time in purgatory. If y'all committed no serious sins that guaranteed your place in hell, and you died before repenting and atoning for all of your sins, then your soul went to Purgatory – a kind of fashion-station where you finished atoning for your sins earlier being allowed to enter heaven.

Pope Leo X had granted indulgences to raise money for the rebuilding of St. Peter'southward Basilica in Rome. These indulgences were being sold by Johann Tetzel not far from Wittenberg, where Luther was Professor of Theology. Luther was gravely concerned near the fashion in which getting into heaven was connected with a fiscal transaction. Simply the sale of indulgences was non Luther's only disagreement with the institution of the Church.

Faith alone

Martin Luther was very devout and had experienced a spiritual crisis. He concluded that no matter how "skillful" he tried to be, no matter how he tried to stay abroad from sin, he still plant himself having sinful thoughts. He was fearful that no matter how many good works he did, he could never exercise enough to earn his identify in heaven (call back that, co-ordinate to the Catholic Church building, doing good works, for example commissioning works of art for the Church building, helped one gain entrance to sky). This was a profound recognition of the inescapable sinfulness of the human condition. After all, no thing how kind and proficient we try to be, we all detect ourselves having thoughts which are unkind and sometimes much worse. Luther found a way out of this problem when he read St. Paul, who wrote "The but shall live past faith" (Romans ane:17). Luther understood this to mean that those who go to heaven (the just) will get there past faith alone – not by doing good works. In other words, God's grace is something freely given to human beings, non something we can earn. For the Catholic Church on the other hand, homo beings, through proficient works, had some agency in their conservancy.

Scripture alone

Luther (and other reformers) turned to the Bible as the only reliable source of educational activity (every bit opposed to the teachings of the Church). The invention of the printing printing in the middle of the fifteenth century (by Gutenberg in Mainz, Federal republic of germany) together with the translation of the Bible into the vernacular (the common languages of French, Italian, High german, English language, etc.) meant that information technology was possible for those that could read to learn directly from Bible without having to rely on a priest or other church officials. Before this time, the Bible was available in Latin, the ancient language of Rome spoken chiefly by the clergy. Before the printing press, books were handmade and extremely expensive. The invention of the printing press and the translation of the bible into the colloquial meant that for the first time in history, the Bible was available to those outside of the Church. And at present, a directly relationship to God, unmediated past the institution of the Catholic Church, was possible.

When Luther and other reformers looked to the words of the Bible (and at that place were efforts at improving the accuracy of these new translations based on early on Greek manuscripts), they found that many of the practices and teachings of the Church building nearly how nosotros achieve conservancy didn't friction match Christ'southward teaching. This included many of the Sacraments, including Holy Communion (as well known as the Eucharist). Co-ordinate to the Cosmic Church, the miracle of Communion is transubstantiation – when the priest administers the staff of life and wine, they alter (the prefix "trans" ways to change) their substance into the body and blood of Christ. Luther denied that anything changed during Holy Communion. Luther thereby challenged 1 of the primal sacraments of the Cosmic Church, one of its central miracles, and thereby one of the ways that human beings tin can achieve grace with God, or salvation.

The Counter-Reformation

The Church initially ignored Martin Luther, but Luther'south ideas (and variations of them, including Calvinism) speedily spread throughout Europe. He was asked to recant (to disavow) his writings at the Diet of Worms (an unfortunate name for a quango held by the Holy Roman Emperor in the High german urban center of Worms). When Luther refused, he was excommunicated (in other words, expelled from the church). The Church'southward response to the threat from Luther and others during this flow is called the Counter-Reformation ("counter" — against).

The Council of Trent

In 1545 the Church opened the Council of Trent to bargain with the bug raised past Luther. The Quango of Trent was an associates of high officials in the Church who met (on and off for eighteen years) principally in the Northern Italian town of Trent for 25 sessions.

Selected Outcomes of the Council of Trent:

The Quango denied the Lutheran thought of justification past faith. They affirmed, in other words, their Doctrine of Merit, which allows human beings to redeem themselves through Skilful Works, and through the sacraments.
They affirmed the existence of Purgatory and the usefulness of prayer and indulgences in shortening a person's stay in Purgatory.
They reaffirmed the belief in transubstantiation and the importance of all 7 sacraments
They reaffirmed the authority of both scripture the teachings and traditions of the Church
They reaffirmed the necessity and definiteness of religious art (see below)

The Council of Trent on religious art

At the Council of Trent, the Church too reaffirmed the usefulness of images—but indicated that church officials should be careful to promote the correct employ of images and baby-sit against the possibility of idolatry. The council decreed that images are useful "considering the honor which is shown them is referred to the prototypes which those images represent" (in other words, through the images we award the holy figures depicted). And they listed some other reason images were useful, "because the miracles which God has performed by means of the saints, and their salutary examples, are set earlier the optics of the faithful; that so they may give God thank you for those things; may order their own lives and manners in fake of the saints; and may be excited to adore and beloved God, and to cultivate piety."

Violence

The Reformation was a very violent period in Europe, even family members were often pitted confronting 1 another in the wars of organized religion. Each side, both Catholics and Protestants, were often absolutely certain that they were in the right and that the other side was doing the devil's work.

The artists of this menstruum – Michelangelo in Rome, Titian in Venice, Durer in Nuremberg, Cranach in Saxony – were impacted past these changes since the Church building had been the single largest patron for artists. And fine art was now being scrutinized in an entirely new way. The Cosmic Church was looking to see if fine art communicated the stories of the Bible effectively and clearly (encounter Veronese's Feast in the Business firm of Levi for more on this). Protestants on the other hand, for the almost function lost the patronage of the Church and religious images (sculptures, paintings, stained glass windows etc) were destroyed in iconoclastic riots.

Other developments

It is also during this period that the Scientific Revolution gained momentum and observation of the natural earth replaced religious doctrine as the source of our agreement of the universe and our place in it. Copernicus up-ended the ancient Greek model of the heavens by suggesting that the Sun was at the eye of the solar system and that the planets orbited effectually information technology.

At the same fourth dimension, exploration, colonization and (the oft forced) Christianization of what Europe called the "new world" continued. By the stop of the century, the world of the Europeans was a lot bigger and opinions about that world were more varied and more uncertain than they had been for centuries.

Please annotation, this tutorial focuses on Western Europe. At that place are other forms of Christianity in other parts of the world including for case the Eastern Orthodox Church building.

Additional resources:

Bizarre art, an introduction

An Overview of the Reformation (BBC)

Smarthistory video, Introduction to the Protestant Reformation: Setting the phase

Smarthistory video about Martin Luther

Smarthistory video about the varieties of Protestantism

Smarthistory video on the Counter-Reformation