Religion and Art: An Insider Perspective
Issue: Vol 9 No. 3 (2015) Religion, Art and Cognition
Journal: Journal for the Study of Religion, Nature and Culture
Subject Areas: Religious Studies
Abstract:
From my perspective as a working artist, both visual art and the connection with religion it enables, are experienced non-verbally as at once fluid and deliberately ambiguous. An active spectator willing to engage art in the same way may find the emotional and intellectual space needed for her religion to evolve beyond adherence to existing dogmas. Though theorizing is in a sense quite distant from this perspective, when theories are sought to illuminate this approach, it turns out that certain ideas from phenomenology and neuroscience are the ones most capable of doing so.
Author: Regina Coupar
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List of Figures
Figure 1: Botticelli, Sandro. 1477. Madonna with Singing Angels. http://www.wikipaintings.org/en/sandrobotticelli/madonna-with-child-and-singing-angels-1477-1. Accessed: December, 2013.
Figure 2: van Gogh, Vincent. 1890. Vase of Irises. http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Vincent_van_Gogh_-_Still_Life_-_Vase_with_Irises.jpg. Accessed July, 2014 and 1889. Irises, Saint-Remy.
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/3e/Irises-Vincent_van_Gogh.jpg. Accessed July, 2014.
Figure 3: Grüenwald, Matthias. 1512-1516. Isenheim Altarpiece. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Isenheim_Altarpiece. Accessed July, 2014.
Figure 4: Grüenwald, Matthias. 1512-1516. Isenheim Altarpiece (detail enlarged).