“The Liturgy,” said Jacques Maritain in his essay Art and Scholasticism, “is the transcending and super eminent type of the forms of Christian art. The Spirit of God in Person fashioned it, so as to be able to delight in it.”
To this end the Church celebrates the Liturgy “in a holy environment in which architecture, sculpture, paintings, icons, and stained glass, [among other delightful things,] lend an ambiance that speaks of the mystery of God and divine transcendence on the one hand, and the unity of God with the worshiping community on the other,” states the Catechism for Adults.
Two weeks in a row my mum and I recently visited two local museums to take in some art, especially their Italian and religious art works. The first week our stop was the Getty Center in Los Angeles where we thoroughly enjoyed the wonderful works on view that week. Nothing, however, moved me beyond marveling at how lovely they were and buying postcards of a couple especially nice pieces later in the gift shop. Things took a decidedly different turn the following week while at the Norton Simon Museum in Pasadena.
Not having any particular plan of attack we were simply moving from room to room when we finally reached the last room in the north wing. After looking at several paintings on the far wall I turned to look at what was behind me. I was moved. Standing in front of me was Saint Ignatius of Loyola by Peter Paul Rubens. I do not know why, but I was grasped.
We see beauty because our intelligence takes delight in some way and we respond from the center of ourselves, the center where God resides within us. We can’t explain it, but we know when we have been moved, have been filled with joy. “The beautiful is essentially delightful,” Maritain simply stated. Captivated by this painting I simply delighted in its beauty—and later 3 other paintings by different artists in the south wing had a similar pulling effect on me.
Taken as I was with Rubens painting (and the other 3) I would have driven back out to the Norton Simon the next day, but I was exhausted from our very long outing and didn’t believe that would be a good combination with Friday traffic. Needing to do something I instead opted to look at Maritain’s essays I had book marked back during Christmas break. I had come across them in the Thomas Merton book I was reading then, and still hadn’t gotten around to reading any of it.
The essays were a bit more scholarly then I was prepared for that morning in my exhausted state to derive the most benefit from them. Still I did enjoy reading through “Art and Beauty” and “Christian Art,” and it got me to thinking how art affects us and how we can allow art to encapsulate an experience of the transcendent and bring us to a knowledge of God, loving him more.
Art, in all its various forms, encourages us to think and evaluate ourselves as created beings, to be drawn to something beyond ourselves. Religious art in particular has as one of its aims the task of drawing us up to God, to be caught up into God, to be grasped—just as I had been the day before. Through religious art we additionally can learn and know the truths of our faith and draw from the wellspring of goodness our faith gives us through letting a painting, stained glass, or statue be a visual Lectio Divina if you will. With several museums and many beautiful Catholic churches so close to us with a rich selection of religious art it is so easy to grow in faith via art and architecture in places you might not have considered before, as well as through Scripture or a good spiritual book. Not only will you have captivated your senses through viewing this local art in person, you hopefully will delight more in the Liturgy as you let the artistic surroundings during Mass help draw you into the celebration that is taking place. As Maritain said, “The beautiful that is connatural to man is the beautiful that delights the intellect through the senses and through their intuition. Such is also the beautiful that is proper to our art, which shapes a sensible matter in order to delight the spirit.”
Take time this summer to enjoy some artistic outings at our own local museums, churches and the like, so as to delight in the beautiful and grow in faith.
Please see link below to read Jacques Maritain’s Art and Scholasticism. I’ve set it to the essay “Christian Art,” and from there you can read the rest of the essays.
God’s love causes the beauty of what he loves, whereas our love is caused by the beauty of what we love - Jacques Maritain
6 July 2015