Art & The Religious Context
Every religion has its own approach to art.
A comparison between different traditions can offer an illuminating
insight into the varying religious outlooks and theologies.
Jewish attitude to figurative art is influenced
by the Third Commandment, which prohibits the making of graven
images. During the Biblical period this meant that no free-standing
sculpture or figurative image was found in a religious context,
but figural art was employed for secular purposes. Only at
this time did Jewish art flourish as the expression of a religious
and political unit. After the Diaspora Jewish communities
largely adopted and adapted the art of the pagan, Muslim or
Christian societies of which they became part, and their achievements
are to be searched out in those civilizations.
In Islamic religious art there is also an aversion
to figural representation, except in contemporary Shi'ism.
Figural art does exist in the general cultural environment
of the lands where Islam is the dominant faith. However, it
is virtually never used in an orthodox religious building,
and certainly not in the context of the Qur'an. Instead, Arabic
calligraphy developed as an art form both to communicate and
symbolise faith, together with patterns and designs based
on geometry and the arabesque.
The Christian doctrine of the Incarnation led
to a very different approach to religious art. Despite the
Jewish origin of the Christian faith, the human form of the
Son of God was essential to Christian belief and its representation
became established in early Christian art. Different iconoclast
movements never managed to destroy this focus, and it remains
central to most religious art in both eastern and western
Hindu art in general focuses even more on the
figural. Hindu temples are alive with sculptures depicting
deities in their different incarnations and illustrate the
myths in which they act out their cosmic and earthly roles.
A more striking contrast to the aniconic emphasis of Judaism
and Islam is difficult to imagine. A further significant distinction
from Judaism, Christianity, and Islam is the importance given
to a female aspect of divinity, an essential component of
a cosmic dualism based on complementary opposition.
Buddhism also generally relies on figural representation,
although Mahayana Buddhism often uses aniconic symbols to
evoke the Buddha. The life of the Buddha was depicted in sculptural
reliefs from earliest times, while images of the Buddha provide
the focus of worship for millions of his followers today.
Like Buddhism, Jainism denies the existence of a creator god,
and in its purest form its worship concentrates on images
of naked jinas, or liberators. The Sikh religion focuses again
on a holy book written in Gurmukhi script, the Guru Granth,
which is the centre of worship.