'Religious Art:' Kitsch, Schlock, and Masterpieces

Guido Reni's Assumption of Mary, oil on silk, 642, currently in the Alte Pinakothek, Munich.

On my way to becoming a Catholic, I ran into treasures like Michelangelo's Pietà and Caravaggio's Crucifixion of St. Peter.

I also ran into some truly dreadful mass-produced kitsch and schlock.

'Our Lady of the Cosh?'

One particularly egregious example showed Mary with her arms stretched out, head back, eyes pointing in different directions: apparently just after she'd been coshed: or possibly after one too many margaritas.

Decades later, I recognized Guido Reni's Assumption of the Virgin as the original of that appalling image. My guess is that someone with mediocre skill made a line drawing based on the painting, distributing printed copies: which in turn served as samples for even lower quality printings.

Eventually, I learned to distinguish between unattractive devotional aids and the devotions themselves. As a young man, I had trouble distinguishing between the medium and the message: and I still won't buy some of the junk that passes for 'religious art.'

Art and Faith

Like science and technology, creating art is part of being human. It isn't, or shouldn't be, an end in itself: but creating art can be a good thing. (Catechism of the Catholic Church, 2293, 2501)

As for 'religious art,' I don't think that folks who can afford original paintings framed in gold with pearl inlay are more 'spiritual' than folks at my end of the socioeconomic scale. My household decorations are more along the lines of Currier and Ives: mass-produced pictures; plus a few hand-crafted items.


By the front door: a sort of crucifix.

I've been over this sort of thing before. Fairly often:

• Art
  • "Art and Being Catholic"
    (July 15, 2012)
  • "Men, Women, Differences, and Equality"
    (May 2, 2012)
    Particularly
    • God, Michelangelo, and Commodore Perry
    • God Does Not Look Like Charlton Heston
  • "Angels, Art, and Aliens"
    (February 15, 2012)
  • "Religious Art in the Home: We Like It"
    (August 31, 2010)
  • "Art, Catholic Teachings, and This Catholic"
    (August 9, 2010)
• Wealth
  • "Getting a Grip About Poverty, Wealth, and Amos"
    (July 28, 2013)
  • "Malignant Virtue and the Monkees"
    (April 13, 2013)
  • " 'Neither Ethically Neutral, nor Inherently Inhuman' "
    (June 4, 2012)
  • " 'The Scandal of Glaring Inequalities' "
    (February 27, 2012)
  • "Wealth, Poverty, Stereotypes, and Snidely Whiplash"
    (March 8, 2011)

More about Guido Reni's work:

• "Guido Reni's Painting of the Immaculate Conception"
  Howard Hibbard, Professor of Art History, Columbia University, Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin 28 (1969)
  (from http://www.metmuseum.org/pubs/bulletins/1/pdf/3258470.pdf.bannered.pdf (August 17, 2013))