Guidelines for Sacred Art to Be Placed in Catholic Church

This is a long essay in which I explore how we might create something that as yet does not exist - a canon of sacred art for churches of the Roman Rite; and a set of principles that will guide united states on how to accommodate them in a coherent schema that is integrated with worship. (For a deeper agreement of the place of art in the Church, I recommend Pontifex University'due south Main's in Sacred Arts, which is open for registration.) I present this essay in v themes later on an introduction:

1. Scripture
2. The texts of the liturgy and an examination of how the Byzantine liturgies relate their liturgical texts so every bit to inform the approach taken in the Roman Rite.
3. Liturgical Action - how we tin change the way we worship, in accordance with existing rubrics and Tradition then as to appoint with visual imagery more direct.
4. Catechesis - how we teach congregations to understand what they are seeing so that it they are able to appoint with the art naturally during the form of their worship.
5. Architecture - consideration of how the architecture ought to reflect

Introduction

Anyone who has ever read a book on Eastern icons will know that the Byzantine Catholic and Orthodox Churches accept a well established way of arranging the icons in their church. Not only are there clear directions on who or what to pigment and what style to pigment it in, they also know exactly where they are supposed to put each slice of sacred art in their churches. Furthermore it is clearly understood how each image relates to every other, and how each person ought to engage with each piece of art in the form of the liturgy itself.

So for case when the Ukrainian Catholic National Shrine of the Holy Family in Washington DC put out a call for icon painters, a couple of years ago, they did and then in accord with this tradition. In my understanding, the rules are non absolutely rigid; nigh Eastern Rite churches will accommodate to this while accomodating some aspects that are detail to the church community - the patron saint of the church building for example.

What should we practice in the Roman Rite? I know of no established schema with anything like canonical condition. The Church's guidelines, (for example, the GIRM, Catechism Law and in the United states of america a booklet produced past the bishops chosen Congenital in the Living Stone) offer suggestions as to the broadest principles for choice of art, but aside from asserting the centrality of the crucifixion and images of Our Lady and the saints we are offered by trivial specific regarding what images particularly are appropriate. I practise non quarrel with the single word of these documents, but I do think we need more than.

This being so it then it raises the question: what might the ordering principles exist for establishing such a schema be? Tradition and the innate sense of what is advisable would have guided the patrons in the past, and for centuries this worked well. Now things are different. We have had our own iconoclastic period which has left united states of america disconnected from tradition in so many ways and I retrieve that now some analysis of basic principles and a look at past practices would help us to reestablish a proper ordering of the images in our churches,

My promise is non that a set of rigid rules will exist drawn up, but rather a set of more detailed principles and recommendations by which a blueprint of art can be fatigued up that would exist in accord with tradition, would reflect accurate liturgical praxis and would also be particular to the congregation for whom it is primarily intended. I could imagine a whole series of different schema might develop that are all consistent with these principles.

We can accept heart in this from the case of the Eastern Church building, which did much scholarship in the 20th century to reestablish the iconographic tradition as a living tradition and to nowadays a coherent account of traditional practices. As a outcome in a relatively short time church architecture and art is flourishing in the Eastern Rite so that in Byzantine Cosmic and Orthodox Churches today, in that location is the self confidence and know-how to create churches and art that are as splendid as whatever in the past. We can practise this in the Roman Church building also if nosotros wish to.

Here are the points that occur to me. The following is presented every bit start not an exhaustive analysis - rather information technology is a starting point from which I hope a give-and-take might develop:

First we need a written report of scripture so that we understand the Old Testament types and the New Testament basis of the sacraments and the liturgy. This will focus especially on the Rites of Initition - Baptism and Confirmation - and the Eucharist.

Second is a study of the texts and meanings of the words of the Rites and particularly the Mass and, in the context of the Mass, I suggest, the Roman Catechism. This is what volition create a characteristically Roman template.

Third is to study the example of the Eastern Rites and run into how their imagery is continued to the Divine Liturgy with a view to agreement how this can exist done well in the W as well. While we do not desire just to re-create an iconostasis template, in that location is much to be learned past studying the principles by which it is ordered.

Fourth, in the low-cal of all of the above, nosotros should written report the examples of past Roman churches and then that nosotros can understand why things were done every bit they were. This is not e'er like shooting fish in a barrel as images are moved and replaced over time. Perchance ancient mosaics and wall paintings are the about reliable indicators of by practice in this regard.

Fifth is liturgical action: we need to re-develop a mode of participating in the liturgy that encourages engagement with art in harmony with the highest end to which our worship is directed, and so that the fine art actually influences our Faith through the activity of worshipping God.

6th is to explain what we are doing and make any symbolism obvious and easily understood, not obscure. The goal of fine art is to reveal truth, non to mystify or create mystique unnecessarily.

Seventh is compages - we should understand how the compages ought to be in harmony with the church's role, primarily, as a place for worship; and secondarily and continued to that, to display art that supports that worship.

one. Scripture

I take recently attended a series of online scripture courses that are designed to connect the traditional imagery of the Church to its scriptural roots and to the liturgy. This has been an heart-opener for me. The books that the course relied upon, apart from the Bible, were, The Bible and the Liturgypast Fr Jean Danielou; and Baptismal Imagery in Early Christianity by Robin Jensen and the Canon of the Cosmic Church.

As role of that course it became clear to me that there is a need for general re-ordering of the rites of initiation and so that Baptism, Confirmation/Chrismation and their culmination in the Eucharist are understood and connected in people's minds. Information technology will exist difficult to create a pattern of art ordered to these, if their pregnant is misunderstood past virtually people who go through information technology because of this misplaced guild. We take but heard about how this change was instituted in the Manchester NH diocese by His Excellency, Bishop Libasci. I understand that there are now 11 dioceses in the U.s. which accept done this.

Also, it seems to me, these rites would exist ameliorate done in connection with regular Sun liturgies rather than quietly on a Saturday morning (as they still are for adults at the Easter vigil). So the whole community of the parish will welcome a new member into the body of Christ and exist re-catechised each time these and the Mass are historic. This is how an effective and ongoing mystogogy - a deepening of the mysteries - might happen.

The art will teach people about the meaning of these sacraments by giving a pictorial commentary on what is happening and for much of this, scripture will be the source. There is hardly a passage in the Former Attestation that in some way doesn't anticipate what happened in the New, and there is so much of the New that relates in some mode to these three sacraments.

It is often said that the images of traditional churches, for case the stained glass windows of gothic churches, and were intended equally scriptures in images - finer Bible lessons for those who cannot read. I doubt this. Images in churches should be chosen not to directly our attention to the Bible, simply rather to focus our attending on the liturgy. The goal of art in a church is to give understanding well-nigh what happens in the church primarily - the worship of God. Certainly many of the imagesarerooted in scripture, and those who understand what they are seeing would know and understand scripture too; but art reflects scripture, because the Bible is, fundamentally, a liturgical document;that is to say, that the books of the Bible, peculiarly in the case of those in the NT, were written to be read and heard in the context of the liturgical celebration of their intended audience. (For more than on this, encounter the contempo publications of Rev. John Paul Heil, Chair of NT at Catholic University, DC). Furthermore, it contains the design for the sacraments and the Christian life which is lived in its fullest in the liturgy. The scriptural art is in church building, therefore, not to instruct us in scripture as an finish (unless y'all are protestant). Rather, it is to offer an alternative account of the aforementioned truths which are in the Bible and are relevant to the liturgy.

And that is why one volition come across in addition many images which are liturgical, merely not scriptural. For instance the many of the images of saints such as those referred to in the Roman Catechism or whose feast days are celebrated. Their presence through the yr tells u.s. that they are worshipping with us in the heavenly liturgy and reflects the pattern of feasts and commemorations inside the liturgical agenda when they will be a focus for prayer. As well images relating to many feasts are a visual accounts of a theology which is more than than a strict narrative of a biblical passage and will be derived from other aspects of Tradition also.

This being so, i might ask why practise I stress scripture and so strongly ,why non just catechise directly on the significant of the liturgy? The respond lies in identifying our worship every bit a living out of the story of conservancy that scripture tells. As mentioned a couple of weeks ago, I recently read Fr Robert Taft's volume,The Liturgy of the Hours in East and W, in which he makes the signal that in society to profit from praying the liturgy as a whole, including the Hours:

...1 must be a person who prays and whose life is penetrated with the Scriptures. The Bible is a story of God'southward ceaseless calling, drawing, gathering and of his people's constant waywardness. And the Fathers and monks of the early on Church, in their meditation on this always-repeated story, know thatthey were Abraham,they were Moses.They were called forth out of Egypt.They were given a covenant. They knew the wandering across the desert to the Promised State was the pilgrimage of their life too. The several levels of Israel, Christ, Church, usa, are e'er at that place. And the themes of redemption, of exodus, of desert and faithful remnant and exile, of the Promised Land and the Holy City of Jerusalem, are all metaphors of the spiritual saga of our ain lives. (p. 371)

In my opinion it has been the general disability of creative Catholics to connect this grand drama that is revealed in scripture and the liturgy to each personal story lived out past not-Catholics in wider order that is so much of the crusade of the general separation of contemporary culture from the culture of Faith. This divide is described by Benedict 16 in the Spirit of the Liturgy and if we are to accept his assay, has existed for nearly 200 years at least.. Every aspect of human activity and hence the culture tin potentially be penetrated, to utilise Taft's word, by the scriptures but people tin't give away what they haven't got. Artists, dramatists, composers and writers demand to be catechised and so that they grasp this and are able to infuse their work, albeit evidently or subtly, with this message so that it connects with those whom nosotros wish to evangelize.

Within the books of the Bible, there should exist a special accent on Genesis:

Among all the Scriptural texts about creation, the start three chapters of Genesis occupy a unique place. From a literary standpoint these texts may have had diverse sources. The inspired authors have placed them at the beginning of Scripture to express in their solemn language the truths of cosmos - its origin and its end in God, its order and goodness, the vocation of human being, and finally the drama of sin and the hope of salvation. Read in the light of Christ, within the unity of Sacred Scripture and in the living Tradition of the Church building, these texts remain the master source for catechesis on the mysteries of the "beginning": creation, fall, and promise of salvation.(CCC 289)

Creative person, patrons and priests, therefore, must empathise the ultimate terminate of both scripture and holy images in the liturgy. When this is done then the church can be adorned, flooring to ceiling (including both floor and ceiling) with images that are united to the worship of God. There is no distraction if it is all derived from and points to the liturgy. At that place is a identify for non-liturgical, devotional art, as well, simply it should never be such that it dominates or detracts from that which is directly connected to the liturgy. It was the overabundance of devotional imagery in the period earlier the Quango, I suggest, that led to a desire to strip much of the art away. Unfortunately this was overzealously implemented!

In regard to the place of scripture, consider the schema for the baptistry in Florence for instance. It is Romanesque, built in the 11th and 12th centuries. The building itself is octagonal which reflects the symbolism of Christ as the 8th twenty-four hours of cosmos. It is adorned with sybolic geometric fine art and in the interior the dome has a circuitous schema that reflects the bibilical types of the sacrament.

Program of the mosaic ceiling : 1. Concluding Judgement. 2. Lantern. 3. Choirs of Angels. 4. Stories from the Volume of Genesis. 5. Stories of Joseph. half-dozen. Stories of Mary and Christ. 7. Stories of St. John the Baptist.

This is only part of it, for the doors of the Baptistry - perchance even more famous than the building they were made for - also reflect a whole series of scenes from the Erstwhile and New Testament. You lot can read almost this on the Wikipedia entry for the Baptistry, from which all the above images come from. There is more than data on how baptistries in the early Church were decorated from Robin Jensen's excellent volume Baptismal Imagery in the Early Church.

I do not suggest that the baptistry should always be a separate building, merely it should at least be a carve up place, peradventure close to the entrance of the church, so that after baptisms there might be, perhaps, a procession to the primary body of the church.

At that place are equivalent types and narratives rooted in scripture that could be the basis for imagery for Confirmation - for example those relating to the Holy Spirit; and to the Eucharist besides and these, especially the latter, should adorn the master body of the Church.

ii. The texts of the liturgy

As I write this I accept but returned from a brusk visit to the Norbertine Canons Regular at St Michael's Abbey in Orangish County, CA. I was talking nigh this topic with them and one of their seminarians made the signal that the Roman Catechism ought to be a crucial. I realised that this is the text, perhaps more than any other, that will characterize the Roman liturgy and will contribute its distinctive imagery, differentiating it from other Rites. The saints and the particular OT archetypes referred to in the text could be portrayed pictorially. For case here is a 6th century mosaic of the three sacrifices, Abel, Melchizadek and Abraham which is at Sant'Apollinare in Classe in Ravenna.

three. Looking East - Study of the Byzantine Churches.

I suggest that the schema for iconostases should exist studied in such a way that we can understand how they are formed by the liturgy. I would exist looking at the images contained and as well their relative positions and then that it enables the worshippers to interract with saints portrayed and be engaged with the mysteries represented.

To take just 1 instance that was pointed out to me recently by Melkite priest, Fr Sebastian Carnazzo of St Elias Melkite Catholic Church building: at the centre of the iconostasis are the Royal Doors which are opened periodically during the Divine Liturgy. On these will be, typically, icons that bear witness the Declaration.:

By this Mary, the Mother of God becomes the portal, so to speak through which the Give-and-take is made flesh. The image above is a modern example which is at a church in St Petersburg, and which is based on a 14th century Greek image (with the addition of peacocks which symbolize eternal life). When the doors are opened, we run across the chantry so the two are connected in our minds. I found the image below of Holy Ressurection Melkite Catholic Church in Columbus, Ohio. The large paradigm of the Mother of God, now behind the altar reinforces the bespeak that her Son is between usa. There is no epitome of the Easter Resurrection itself, the Ressurected Christ is visible however, and is seen with the eyes of Faith on the altar.

4. Study the Western tradition in the light of what nosotros learn.

In parallel with this study nosotros should wait at examples of schema of the W, where they exist, and wait for similarities and differences and try to account for them. Consider at present, for example, the Ghent altarpiece from the 15th century. This is a reredos and and then in contrast to the in a higher place, it would have been situated backside the altar and non in front of it.

Nevertheless there are similarities. It besides has doors. When airtight information technology looks similar this:

So we see that here too the Annunciation is the dominating epitome. Likewise as the prophets and patrons, in that location are St John the Baptist who saw proclaimed the Lamb of God and St John the Evangelist who described the moment in his gospel.

When the doors of the reredos are opened then this is the scene is revealed

Simply as with the iconostasis the doors open to reveal the altar with the lamb, except this is presented pictorially and then as to highlight what is happening in front of it, on the altar in the church. We at present see Our Lady as the Queen Female parent and John the Baptist flanking Christ in Celebrity, who is the 'image of the Father'. For a more detailed analysis of this you can run across my article on the Ghent altarpiece in the Adoremus Message of  March 2016. Incidentally, find how, tiptop left and peak right nosotros have the sacrfice by and the killing of Abel, in monochrome.

Two of the Marian anthems sung after Compline, for Appearance (and Christmas to Epiphany) and Lent, the seasons of anticipation of the coming of the Lord and of his Resurrection speak direct of Mary as the doorway - the door of morning, and heaven'south gateway. I wonder if this connectedness was made with this painting by the congregations of 15th century Ghent?

The reredos volition not have been the only set of images in the church. Most probable a rood screen was in front of the altar and that will accept had the crucifixion. This highlights one difficulty of studying past schema - paintings are moved or destroyed and then we don't know what was there originally. Mosaics might be the best indication we take. We know only too well today, that churches are constantly re-ordered and if you lot look at many information technology will very likely offering an array of art which reflects the favorite devotions and gustation of the last pastor or patron and volition not exist an indication of tradition.

5. Liturgical action

One thing that has e'er struck me about the way that Eastern Rite Catholics worship is the more active date with the images during the liturgy itself. Attending sways to left and right as the Mother of God or Christ or the Patron Saint are addressed through their icons.

Many Roman Catholics practise not have the facility of worshipping in conjunction with images in the manner that one might see in an Eastern liturgy. I don't know what is crusade and what is upshot hither. It might be that the style of worship for a long time - the concluding couple of centuries perhaps - has been such that there is so little engagement with the fine art that there has been little point in having many liturgical images; or it might be that the accent on devotional imagery in churches has meant that the liturgy itself has becone disengaged from its surround because at that place was less and less to opportunity engage with art during worship.

Regardless of the reason, we have a situation today where even if great care is taken to cull cute, loftier quality art, and even if the liturgy is celebrated well, in that location is rarely a connection between art and worship. The art and architecture becomes at all-time a cute backdrop which creates and temper that is appopriate to what is going on, rather than an integral part of a beautiful and gracefully liturgical 'machine' in motion.

I suggest that idea needs to be given to how we tin adapt the commemoration of the Mass so that there is greater date. Clearly this needs to be done with care and I would hesitate myself to brand many suggests equally to exactly what could exist done during the Mass itself. I would rather leave that to liturgical specialist.

I exercise offer a few throughts for consideration, however. For example, the  Eastern practise of putting out an icon of the Feast of the 24-hour interval and readings could be adopted so that all see it as they come into the church building. And so, perhaps on processing in and out of the Church this could be incensed and venerated. The homilist could reinforce this past referring to the image - 'this is why we venerated it when we came in' and 'this is why we volition when we go out'. Furthermore at that place could be processions round the church building building itself before or after Mass at which the images appropriate to the liturgical calendar are venerated and incensed. Congregations would develop the habit of noting which images were appropriate to any particular day and those thoughts would be with them during the Mass proper so that at the mention of, for instance, the saint of the day during the Collect they would instinctively plow to look at the paradigm.

I take pointed out in the past how I do not see how any artist can realistically expect to paint art that connects with prayer if he is not habitually praying with art himself. With this in mind I take tried to develop the habit myself during Mass of turning to confront the statue or painting of the saint at the moment he or she is named audibly. Similarly, if nosotros are addressing the Male parent in prayer, as in theOur Father, I try to call up expect at the image of Christ, so that I address my prayer to the Father through the Son, the 'image of the invisible God', in the Spirit.

I take an icon corner at home and then that when I pray the liturgy of the hours, I practice and then in conjunction with visual imagery. The book, the Petty Oratory was written so equally to develop in lay people this habit of engaging with visual imagery in the context of the liturgy in the promise that they might afterwards bring this habit with them when they pray the Mass.

Catechesis

At that place is something else that I would ask from artists and patrons. Don't make the symbolism of your fine art obscure. Liturgical art is supposed to clarify, not mystify. If someone e'er wrote an article on the subconscious meaning of my art (while being flattered that it should merit such interest) I would likewise be dismayed. I don't want meanings to be hidden. I want them to be apparent. Then artists, I say to you give as much information every bit yous tin can on the painting to instruct people as to why it is there. This goes against the grain for many artsy creative types. In my feel they don't like giving explanations on the significant of their works, preferring to go along information technology hidden behind a shroud of mystery and ambiguity in order to maintain an aura of intellectual aloofness. I say in this context, we desire clarity and transparency. If necessary, add together script to the paradigm in the spoken linguistic communication of those who volition encounter it; and supply an caption to the patron. For example, write scripture quotes, or at least, references and titles non just of the prototype as a whole, just also of its constituent parts. Take just one small example - this wonderful painting of the Baptism of Christ which is appropriate for a baptistry:

There could be possibly, for the modern Roman Cosmic congregation fifty-fifty more than script I suggest. The axe and the tree are there to reflect the words of John the Baptist "And at present besides the ax is laid to the root of the trees: therefore every tree which brings not forth adept fruit is hewn down, and cast into the fire." (Matt three:ten). Peradventure the biblical reference, at least, could be placed next to the symbol. Also the personifications of the River Hashemite kingdom of jordan and the Blood-red Bounding main are at that place to connect this moment to the parting of the Ruddy Sea and the parting of Jordan when Joshua (an alternative translation of the proper name Jesus) entered the Promised Land. These events are the bookends of the flight from Arab republic of egypt and then are continued to each other and to this outcome, which is the fulfillment of that journey. The names Ruddy Body of water and River Hashemite kingdom of jordan could be written next to them; equally well, perhaps as a reference to Psalm 113:i-vii:

1 When Israel came out of Arab republic of egypt, and the sons of Jacob heard no more than a strange language,

ii the Lord took Juda for his sanctuary, State of israel for his own rule.

iii The seas fled at the sight they witnessed, astern flowed the stream of Hashemite kingdom of jordan;

iv up leapt, like rams, the startled mountains, upwardly leapt the hills, like yearling sheep.

5 What ailed you lot, seas, that you fled in terror, Hashemite kingdom of jordan'due south stream, what drove thee back?

6 Why did you jump upwards like rams, y'all mountains, leap up, y'all hills, like yearling sheep?

7 Let globe thrill at its Master'south presence; information technology is he that comes, the God of Jacob,

8 who turned the stone into pools of water, the flintstone-stone into a springing well.

Then people are more than likely to understand that the earth thrills because by his Baptism, Christ has sacramentalized, so to speak, the spring waters that eminate from the rock, which is the Church, and by which our baptism will purify equally nosotros die spiritually with Christ, to exist spiritually resurrected, in Christ, in Confirmation.

If y'all await at details of the Ghent altarpiece, in a higher place, for instance, you lot volition find many painted excerpts from scripture. I suggest that today's Cosmic needs more than assistance than his 15th century counterpart...I know I do! So today we should see more writing on our pictures, not less.

As a result potentially, every fellow member of a parish church would become a catechist and an evangelist who could requite the neophyte or  company a tour of the church building through which, by referring to and explaining the images, he would be explaining the essential elements of the Organized religion.

Architecture

Recently I was given a caption of the design of the gothic cathedral at Salisbury in England in which information technology was pointed out that it was unusual for a non-monastic church to have a covered cloister. It was at that place, I was told considering of the special nature of the Sarum liturgy, which originated in Salisbury (Sarum being the sometime proper noun for Salisbury). It had many processions and the curtilage was the place of procession - a covered walkway built with the English rain in mind! It occurred to me that as liturgical action develops so every bit to engage art, this will not but effect the mode of art, the content of the images and the combination of images we run across in churches, it volition also affect the architecture of newly built churches just as the Sarum liturgy affected the design of this gothic cathedral. Maybe if processions are the fashion, we might encounter a re-emergence of the cloister or covered walkway. then nosotros could have a planted garden of Eden in the quadrangle. People would see it as they proces into the church where they will be greeted with a pictorial, architectural and musical rendition of the New Jerusalam and paradise restored. Alternatively we might see new but liturgically authentic architectural developments that narrate our historic period that are previously unimagined.

For those who are interested in knowing more than, the curriculum of Pontifex Academy's Masters in Sacred Arts is designed with these principles in mind. The Pontifex MSA gives its students the scripture knowledge and agreement of liturgical principles in relation to visual imagery by which, we hope, the new schema will emerge.

Appendix: existing guidelines on art.

The GIRM

318. In the earthly Liturgy, the Church participates, by a foretaste, in that heavenly Liturgy which is historic in the holy city of Jerusalem, toward which she journeys as a pilgrim, and where Christ is seated at the correct hand of God; and past venerating the memory of the Saints, she hopes 1 mean solar day to have some share and fellowship with them.[131] Thus, in sacred buildings images of the Lord, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, and of the Saints, in accordance with most aboriginal tradition of the Church, should be displayed for veneration by the faithful[132] and should be so bundled so as to lead the faithful toward the mysteries of religion celebrated there. Care should, therefore, be taken that their number non be increased indiscriminately, and moreover that they be bundled in proper gild and then as not to depict the attending of the faithful to themselves and abroad from the commemoration itself.[133] In that location should ordinarily be only ane prototype of any given Saint. Generally speaking, in the decoration and arrangement of a church, as far equally images are concerned, provision should be made for the devotion of the unabridged customs as well equally for the dazzler and dignity of the images.

Canon Law re Sacred Images, 1186-1190, here.

In the Us: Congenital in the Living Stone., Chapter Three

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Source: https://www.thewayofbeauty.org/blog/2017/06/creating-a-canon-and-schema-for-art-for-the-churches-of-the-roman-rite

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