Art Between Islamic Civilization and Other Civilizations

Art among the Romans and the Greeks was a worldly art. With the advent of Christianity, however, it began to be directed toward the afterlife, and nude statues came to be forbidden. Art turned instead to depicting humanity’s higher impulses and virtuous qualities, such as repentance, martyrdom for the sake of religion, and the endurance of pain and suffering in its cause. In Christianity, art moved toward new subjects, including the glorification of God, the exaltation of the word of Christ, peace be upon him, the celebration of the Virgin’s purity, and the martyrdom of the saints. This became the field of Christian artists, providing them with artistic themes throughout the Middle Ages, until art achieved significant and far-reaching development. Christianity in general regarded the visual arts as a valuable means of educating believers in their faith. Thus, some of its saints declared that artistic images in churches explain to the illiterate what they cannot read in books, for sight was considered more powerful than hearing in its capacity to suggest meaning and exert influence.