Erika Doss’s new book Spiritual Moderns retells the story of modern art with a more honest look at how religion shaped it.
religious art
Lifelike Painted Statues Reanimate Museum Many Left for Dead
The objects and artists in Gilded Figures are so well chosen and so carefully interpreted that each section challenges divisions and rejects easy tropes.
Uffizi Gallery Director Asks That Religious Art Be Returned to Churches
Eike Schmidt, who has led the museum since 2015, said that “devotional art was not born as a work of art but for a religious purpose.”
The Last Tourist in Assisi
A writer reflects on Giotto, St. Francis, and what it means to have faith amid a pandemic.
Crucified Stormtrooper Sculpture Removed from Historic London Church After Complaints
The sculpture featuring one of the iconic Star Wars henchmen was part of a charity auction exhibition at St. Stephen Walbrook.
After Surviving a Fire, St. John the Divine’s 17th-Century Tapestries Return
After a catastrophic 2001 fire, the 17th-century Barberini tapestries have returned to view at Manhattan’s Cathedral Church of Saint John the Divine.
The Vivid Violence and Divine Healing of Ex-Voto Paintings
The ex-voto painting is a Catholic folk art tradition depicting individual misfortunes that were mollified by divine intervention.
Divination, Geomancy, and the Supernatural in Islamic Art
Over 100 rare objects from the 12th to 20th centuries are used to explore the role of the supernatural in Islamic art at the Ashmoleon Museum in Oxford.
How Anamorphic Paintings Represented the Miracles of the Saints
Which saint you see in this 17th-century painting depends on where you stand.
Two Exhibitions Showcase the Bloody Relics of Hermann Nitsch’s Rituals
Viewers may have seen similar Nitsch installations before, but it is important to re-experience his work, much of which has been long misunderstood by an art world dominated by political theory and formalism.
An Altarpiece in Guatemala Gets a New Life
ANTIGUA, Guatemala — The Cathedral of San Francisco in the colonial town of Antigua, Guatemala, was first built by the Spanish in the 16th century, but it’s as alive today as a center of worship as it ever was.
The Gore and Agony of New Baroque Sculptures at the Met
Baroque Spanish sculpture was long considered gaudy and secondary to the paintings of the same era but that is changing.