Art, Calvin and the problem of history

It is reckoned that the most successful millennium event of the year has been the National Gallery's exhibition, Seeing Salvation: The Image of Christ.

Not only was the exhibition popular, but so was the accompanying BBC2 series presented by the Gallery's Director Neil MacGregor. Here were seen artists' depictions of Christ as divine king and human baby, as the bleeding Saviour and as the bearded miracle worker. The art displayed contained some of the best the world has to offer.

Now art is a way in which people express their religious views. When Paul was in Athens it was the sight of the artistic works which caused him to realise with new depth the religious beliefs of the Athenians and their seeking after the Unknown God.

Thus the exhibition raised an interesting question. The majority of works displayed were by Catholic artists: how can Protestant artists depict the Christian faith? Is there some way in which their religious beliefs can be explained artistically?

Art and the Reformation

The whole question of art and Christianity came to be debated with ferocity at the Reformation. Prior to the 16th century most artists earned their living through paintings commissioned by the Church. For example, Da Vinci's The Virgin of the Rocks was originally the altarpiece of a Milan chapel and Pollaiuolo's The Martyrdom of St Sebastian was commissioned for a Florentine Oratory. Such a demand had been justified by Pope Gregory the Great's earlier teaching that art would serve the illiterate as books served the literate.

For the Reformers however, such a religious use of art was anathema. Calvin said: 'Let them henceforth not use this evasion, that pictures are the books of the uneducated, because it is plainly refuted by very many testimonies of Scripture'. And commenting on the Eastern Church's more moderate stand, Calvin declared: 'They consider that they have acquitted themselves beautifully if they do not make sculptures of God, while they wantonly indulge in pictures . . . the Lord forbid . . . that one (likeness of God) be fashioned by any craftsmen whatever'.

Subsequently this has led to the popular view that art and Protestantism are antithetical. The situation could be summed up in Erasmus' words from Protestant England in 1526: 'The arts are freezing here'.

Dutch paintings

Yet it was just after the Reformation in Calvinist Netherlands that the 'Golden Age of Dutch Painting' was to occur. It is estimated that between 1640-59 about 1.3 million paintings were produced by 700 master painters. This was the era of Rembrandt, Hals, Vermeer, de Hooch, Hobberma and van Goyen.

If art is in some way reflective of religious beliefs then was there some connection between Calvinism and art after all? The Dutch republic was widely influenced by Reformation teaching, although it should be remembered that the religious tolerance practised allowed people to hold a variety of beliefs. For example, Rembrandt had an eclectic kind of faith drawn from a Reformed schooling, a Catholic mother and personal sympathies to Arminianism and Judaism. And van Goyen was a Catholic although he lived in a Calvinistic part of the country.

The Golden Age saw an unprecedented development in portraiture, landscape, still-life and genre paintings. And if we look a little closer at the paintings then we see reflected something of the theology of Calvin. Not just in the obvious removal of the overtly Catholic images; but in terms of a creating God who by grace transforms even the ordinary into meaningful existence, and who graciously saves the downcast. So 'Seeing Salvation' in Calvinist-inspired art depicted the reality of sin and salvation in everyday life.

Realistic portraits

Portraiture now showed the human person in a realistic way which had not been previously seen. Earlier portraits were stereotypical with a unifit face. Later artists such as the Flemish Catholic van Dyck had painted overly flattering portraits. But from Calvinistic Holland, Rembrandt and Hals painted humanity in all its reality. Frans Hals' Verdonck (Figure 1) depicts an argumentative Mennonite, who was described as being an 'outspoken fellow whose jawbone attacks everyone'. With an illusion to Samson's destroying of the Philistines with an ass's jawbone the man's outspokenness is depicted.

This painting was a bit too realistic for subsequent generations for a beret was added to cover his flowing hair and the jawbone was replaced by a glass of wine. It was only in cleaning in 1928 that the original theme was discovered.

Landscapes

Landscape and seascape paintings show a similar kind of development. As with portraiture just the fact of painting a realistic landscape was revolutionary enough. Previously little had been done in this area. Familiar landscapes, such as Florence, had been included as background scenes to nativity stories. French Catholic artists like Lorraine painted Classical or Biblical scenes, but with an idealised landscape. It was the Dutch artists like van Goyen and van Ruisdal who painted realistic land and seascapes with their dark clouds. The tranquillity of the setting and everyday life was wedded with the threat of storms. There was the reality of sin in a God-ordered universe.

Calvin's doctrine of common grace was to be reflected in the newly developed style of genre paintings. Pieter de Hooch is renowned for his bricks and tiles (Figure 2). In this painting, The Courtyard of a House in Delft, note the women going about their domestic duties. Is it not in the ordinary events of life God is to be served? Through Calvinism there was no longer the distinction between the sacred and the secular. All of life was to be for God's glory. De Hooch also shows a narrow passage which leads out to something hidden from our view which holds the lady's attention. The plaque above the archway gives us more information: 'This is in St. Jerome's vale if you wish to retire to patience and meekness. For we must first descend if we wish to be raised.'

Still life

Similarly, there was also a rapid expansion in still life painting. For example, Haaarmen Stenwyck's still life: An Allegory of the Vanities of Human Life (Figure 3) took as its theme, Ecclesiastes 1.2: 'Vanity of vanity, says the Preacher . . . all is vanity'. The hour glass points to the brevity of human life and the skull to its frailty; the books refer to the passing of human achievements and the musical instruments to those of pleasure.

Along with the realism that came with the Dutch Golden Era there was also hope.

Rembrandt and repentance

Rembrandt is renowned for employing the chiaroscuro effect of contrasting light and darkness. His painting entitled The Woman taken in Adultery (Figure 4) draws the viewer's attention not to Christ but to the woman. Kneeling, she is bathed in light while her accusers are in darkness. Repentance and grace are depicted in a visual way. The viewer's mind is drawn to the theme of divine forgiveness.

A recent biographer of Rembrandt comments: 'We cannot understand the place of religious history painting in the Netherlands . . . until we comprehend the milieu in which it unfolded . . . That place was largely determined by Calvinism, which not only governed the affairs of state but also determined cultural affairs even in those instances where major impulses emanated from Catholic, humanistic or earlier Protestant art.'

Calvin proved to be an inspiration for the arts. He regarded more or less everyone, by the common grace of God, as having some artistic ability: 'But although not all the arts are suitable for everyone to learn, yet it is a certain enough indication of the common energy that hardly anyone is found who does not manifest talent in some art.'

Among those who appreciate art must be the Calvinists, for Calvin said: 'Because sculpture and painting are gifts of God, I seek a pure and legitimate use of each . . . I do not see what they can afford other than pleasure.' And Neil MacGregor had a Calvinistic upbringing.