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By Robert Sungenis
When we look at a painting, what do we see? Do we merely see beautiful portraits and breathtaking landscapes, or is there a deeper meaning behind each painting? Were artists such as Leonardo da Vinci or Vincent Van Gogh painting only to express their artistic talents, or did they have something profound to say about the world?

When we look at a painting, what do we see? Do we merely see beautiful portraits and breathtaking landscapes, or is there a deeper meaning behind each painting? Were artists such as Leonardo da Vinci or Vincent Van Gogh painting only to express their artistic talents, or did they have something profound to say about the world?

It has been commonly understood by experts that art tells two stories. First it tells the story represented by the picture itself. It can be a portrait, a landscape, a biblical scene, a magnificent cathedral, and just about anything that the artist desires to paint. We appreciate the fact that man has the ability to reproduce, often to exact likeness, what he sees in the world around him.

Second, and probably most important, the painting tells us about the philosophy, the theology, the culture and even the personality of the painter and his times. Hidden within almost every artwork produced by the famous artists is a commentary on life itself, often a deep commentary. Although we must hasten to add that not every artist who sits down to paint is attempting to give a philosophical message, it is the major players in the world of art, the da Vincis, the Rembrandts, the Van Goghs, the Picassos, who led the way in painting for a purpose - to make a statement about life. Lesser known artists were merely caught up in the style and meaning the great masters set for them.

For example, Leonardo Da Vinci (1452-1519) was one of the greatest painters the world has ever known. Although he became world famous for capturing perfect dimensions in his portrait of the Mona Lisa, little known is that da Vinci spent much of his artistic talent drawing charcoal sketches of the human form in order to capture the "soul," - not the soul in the spiritual sense, rather the inner essence, the universal man. Da Vinci was a deep thinker. The meaning of man's existence touched him profoundly. Moreover, as a philosopher, da Vinci was on an unrelenting quest to find the proper balance between what is known in philosophy as "universals and particulars" and to depict this philosophical relationship in his paintings and sketches. It is said that he became quite despondent when he was not able to achieve either of these plateaus.

This essay will help you see what was behind each of their works of art. Although man has been making art since the dawn of time, we can only focus on the last millennia. Even then, we can cover only a small representative sampling of the thousands of art works available.

Art of the last millennia is filled with many contrasts and comparisons. For example, the huge, rigid and saintly figures of the Byzantine period (400-1400) are far different than the grotesque and demonic figures of Modern Art (1900 - Present). Between the Byzantine and Modern there are many other movements, such as the Renaissance (1400-1600) and the Baroque (1600-1800), each with its own distinctive form and philosophy.

Within each of the four major groups, there are subgroups, such as Romanesque (1000-1200), Gothic (1100-1400), Mannerism (1500-1600), Classicism (1600-1700), Rococo (1700-1800), Neo-Classicism (1750-1850), Romanticism (1750-1900), Realism, Impressionism, Post-Impressionism (1850-1900), Expressionism, Cubism, Surrealism (1900-Present).

The Byzantine Period

Starting our analysis with the Byzantine period (400-1400), we have a form of art that is definitely cast into the Christian mold. Since the church held sway in the period of the Middle Ages, the art of Europe and many parts of the east was financially supported and inspired by the Catholic Church. As such, Byzantine art was more or less confined to representing the doctrines and moods of the Church. The object of art was the institution as opposed to the individual, although this would surely change in later periods. Byzantine art did not portray family or city life as we would understand it today. Only late Byzantine art, the Gothic period, provides the first glimpse into the city, but then only to magnify the presence of the great Gothic cathedrals. [D].

In this period there are some striking characteristics. The reason is not precisely known, but the art of the Byzantine period is very abstract, that is, it had little resemblance to actual material things. It was concerned more with concepts. The abstraction in Byzantine art grew out of the church's practice to put both practical and spiritual life into symbols. Much of the populace was uneducated, and thus the Church displayed the meaning of life through symbolic representations in art. The artist was not concerned with historical events as such, nor with archeological accuracy, but with dogma in the credal statements. The mystique of Mary, the saints, the sacraments, transubstantiation and the allegorical method of biblical interpretation, were all subjects of symbolic art designed to fathom the mysteries of the supernatural.

One method of achieving the abstract effect was to flatten the subjects of the painting. This gave the impression of de-materialization, an image with no substance. This can be seen readily in Figure 1, Christ Pantocrator. The abstraction is enhanced by the unnatural rigid lines throughout the painting, e.g., the draperies around the chest, the hair, the beard, and the face. The attempt here is to show an immortal and transcendent Christ (D).

Another distinctive characteristic of Byzantine art is the isolation of individuals. We can see this, for example, in the various sculptures of cathedral facades. Figure 2 shows the casts of David, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Simeon, and Figure 3 those of Melchizedek, Abraham, Isaac, Moses, Samuel, David. These figures are not interacting with one another, and they are almost bodiless. Each has his own significance and representation. This is quite different from the biblical figures painted by Rembrandt (Figure 4). The angel, Abraham and Isaac are of full figure, and each is engaged in an intense role. Rembrandt has even gone to the point of making the angel grasp the hand of Abraham, while Abraham covers the eyes of Isaac, neither of which are stated in the biblical account. To say it in another way, Byzantine sculpture is more concerned with the allegorical and pre-figurational relationship of the biblical characters than their personal relationships. The Byzantine sculpture is purely objective while the Rembrandt painting is purely subjective (D).

As with all sculpture on the facades of buildings in the Middles Ages, they told a story to the people who observed them. The artists had very strict rules for the presentation of their images, otherwise known as iconography. These rules were understood by the people of that day, so much so that they could read the walls of a cathedral as we read a book today. This is no better represented than the facades of the Cathedral of Chartres in France. (See Figures 5, 5a and 5b). The walls are so detailed, ornate and filled with images that it could be said that Chartres presents the entirety of man's experience.

The last major aspect of the Byzantine can be seen in almost every piece of art in this period. A purely philosophical concept, nevertheless, a major influence during the Middle Ages, was the philosophical dominance of grace over nature. Since the Church governed the social, political and economic spheres of life, along with its high ecclesiastical prerogatives, it is only natural that grace would hold sway over nature throughout this period. This dominance can be seen in the portrayal of human figures. The figures, mainly deified personages, are very large compared to the backgrounds upon which they are superimposed.(Sc)

The Romanesque Period (1000-1200)

A sub-period in the latter end of this era is Romanesque art (1000-1200). This art, although still dominated by the thought forms of the Middle Ages, showed a marked shift in some respects from formal Byzantine art. Probably due to the popularity of the Italian and Spanish mystics, Romanesque art portrayed the mystical and the ecstatic. Although much of the same rigidness from the Byzantine era persists, there is more intersection of lines and movement of characters in Romanesque art. Figure 6 shows a scene in the Bury Bible of the 12 century of Christ and Moses speaking to the people. There is a flowing motion to the characters and an intimate interaction between them. The facial expressions are intense. Romanesque art had a fascination with human eyes. They are almost always wide and attentive. This can be seen in the Romanesque depiction of Christ Pantocrator from the 12 century (Figure 7). The intensity of the painting would well define the fervor of the mystics of that day.

The Gothic Period (1100-1400)

The next sub-period is Gothic art (1100-1400). Opposed to the mystical style of Romanesque art, the Gothic period reintroduced the non-mystical. As noted, Romanesque art had been highly influenced by the monasteries which housed the famous mystics of the day. In the Gothic period, there was a shift to real life situations. As a result, there was a growing sense of the dignity of man. Since the popularity of secluded monastery life had lost ground to the more urbanized dwellings of city churches and great cathedrals, naturally, the art of the time followed suit.(D)

The shift away from the mystical in the Gothic period was due in large part to the developing philosophy of Thomas Aquinas. Prior to Aquinas, philosophy and theology were dominated by the Platonism or Neo-Platonism of Augustine. The emphasis was on the universals, and thus the spiritual, heavenly or ethereal things. Life was explained with reference to the "ideal" image, not the real image. With the discovery of an Aristotelian library in the middle east, Aristotle's "particularist" philosophy became prominent in the late Middle Ages. This philosophy concentrated on the details and specifics of life, things in themselves. Aquinas incorporated much of Aristotle's thought-forms and methodology, even in his explanation of church doctrines and theology (e.g., transubstantiation and natural law). As a result of Aquinas' incorporation of Aristotelian thought-forms, man began to have a greater appreciation of nature and the natural. As we will see later, the focus on nature was taken to greater heights, or we might say, taken to the extreme, in the Renaissance, a level that certainly would have displeased St. Thomas.

But even in shifting toward the portrayal of the natural and real life situations, the Gothic figures remained static in their geometrical proportions. These same mathematical concepts influenced the transcendental geometry of the High Gothic cathedral. Neither their sculpture or their paintings flowed with natural movement. The human figures were drawn based on abstract mathematical concepts. This can be seen in The Kiss of Judas (Figure 8) by Giotto (1267-1337). Things are not portrayed as completely real even though there was a shift to a portrayal of real life situations. Things were expressed through intuitive notions of reality without exact factual similarity. This philosophy dominated the late Middle Ages and was known philosophically as nominalism. In the same vein as the anti-Platonic concepts of Aristotelianism, nominalism held that universals are mere words (i.e., "nominal"), having no basis in reality or objective counterpart.(B)

The Nativity Scene at the Grabower Altar by Master Bertram, Figure 9, shows some of the effects of this nominalistic trend. First we see the rigid and impersonal geometrical proportions, but there is also an attempt to portray the real life situation by minimizing the abstract qualities of the Byzantine period. In addition, the painting is definitely non-mystical.

The war between nature and grace was just beginning. Such dramatic shifts in philosophy take time to develop. It wasn't until the Renaissance that nature began to overtake grace, and thus the human figures became much smaller compared to the vast landscapes that enveloped them (B). The grace side of the equation was still surviving in many areas, however. This is seen, for example, in the enormity of the human figures in each of the artworks, in addition to their being placed in more or less make-believe backgrounds and landscapes. Figure 10, the Flight into Egypt painted in 1308 by Duccio di Buoninsegna, shows the predominant human figures placed in a toy-like landscape, with tiny stone mountains, round trees and a golden sky.

Before we leave this period it should be noted that Mary has a special place in the art of the Byzantine, Romanesque and Gothic periods. Mary captivated art like no other figure, especially portrayals of her as the Madonna with her child. In each piece of artwork in these periods, Mary is presented as the gentle and serene motherly, beckoning the viewer to seek her intercession. Mary had such a profound influence that even when Descartes (1596-1650) formulated his famous cogito ergo sum ("I think therefore I am") as the foundation of autonomous man's certainty, he made a pilgrimage to Mary to thank her for giving him the knowledge.(R) Paintings of Mary are so common in almost every period of art, it could be said that depictions of her serve as a gauge to determine the spiritual condition of the people. As we shall see, in the later periods when nature overtook grace, the art, by increasing steps, attempted to demote Mary off her medieval pedestal.

The Renaissance Period (1400-1600)

The Renaissance extended from 1400-1600. It is broken into two periods: the Low Renaissance and the High Renaissance. The High Renaissance contained the more popular artists, such as Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and Raphael.

The Renaissance was a time of a great flowering for art, even as the name suggests. This flowering was due in part to a surging middle class in politics and culture. As opposed to the prominence of the institution in the Byzantine era, the Renaissance placed importance on the individual. As a result, thousands of individual portraits were painted, of every class and culture, including children. The paintings were intimate, not abstract. We can see this, for example, in the portrait of Contessa Nani by Paola Veronese (See Figure 11). In addition, portraits of Mary and Christ showed Christ as a real baby rather than the miniature adult of Middle Age art. By this time also, the Renaissance had transferred the Byzantine's abstract symbolism and the Gothic's nominalistic geometry into portrayals of real human figures in their proper dimensions. This is especially seen in the exquisite and detailed sculpture of David by Michaelangelo (See Figure 12), along with the exact human proportions and enigmatic expressions of da Vinci in the Mona Lisa (See Figure 13).

The reason this dramatic _expression of reality took place was due in part to the new belief that the mysteries of life could be solved by empirical investigation. As Aquinas opened the door for investigation into the particulars of life, so man began to look at nature with keen analysis. The introduction of perspective and the third dimension in painting showed that man was beginning to understand the mechanics of nature. This led to a decrease in the mystical and supernatural elements, and was replaced by man's expression of himself in concrete terms. (Mc)

But this expression of man also presented its problem to the Renaissance artist. Whereas the Byzantine artist meant his art to be a symbol of a truth deeper than the eye could see, the Renaissance artist's penchant for realism limited his ability to create art with symbolic meaning. This problem was especially acute for biblical scenes. Would the artist make the picture historically accurate or would he embellish it to bring out deeper meaning? Many artists simlyp abandon painting biblical scenes due to this tension. Rembrandt, as we shall see, was one of the few who tried to overcome the problem.

In any case, within the humanistic flowering of the Renaissance came the surge of nature over grace. Prior to this, the Catholic Church had penetrated into all areas of society and was an overwhelmingly powerful force in keeping antagonistic elements from becoming non-Christian and autonomous. But with the Renaissance and Reformation, the division between church and state was becoming quite noticable. This can be seen readily in two paintings by Jan Van Eyck (1370-1441). The first, The Ghent Altarpiece (Figure 14), depicts the first real landscape in the history of painting. Going from human figures to landscape was indeed a dramatic shift in art's philosophy. Landscape symbolized the dominance of nature over grace. The dominance is accentuated as we see the bishops, who represent grace (lower frame) in the corner of the painting, while the landscape overwhelms them.

Van Eyck is also famous for his painting, The Virgin and Child with Chancellor Rodin (See Figure 15). Although the quality of this painting is immediately obvious, it is also noticeable that Mary no longer captivates our vision with her tremendous size. The Chancellor is of equal stature and has no problem sharing the same room with her. Once agin, this shows that grace has lost ground to nature. (Sc).

During the Renaissance, artists struggled with the philosophical questions of the time. For example, the attempt by the philosopher Casanus to balance the infinite with the finite had tremendous influence upon Leonardo da Vinci, as did the Neoplatonists, Cosimo and Ficino. Leonardo was constantly trying to capture the universal in his drawings. Contrary to popular opinion, da Vinci did not paint much, but spent his time filling notebooks with these drawings attempting to capture the "soul" - not the soul in the spiritual sense, but the essence of man. As a Neoplantonist, da Vinci would not merely paint a woman or a landscape, rather he would attempt to paint the universal woman or landscape - one that stood for all women and landscapes. The best critics say that Leonardo knew he failed in this attempt. Italian philosopher Giovanni Gentile says regarding da Vinci:

Hence, the anguish and the innermost tragedy of this universal man, divided between his irreconcilable worlds, leaves in the mind an infinite longing, made up as it were of regret and sadness. It is the longing for a Leonardo different from the Leonardo that he was... (Leonardo da Vinci (New York: Raynal and Co, 1956, p. 174)).

This failure is best portrayed in his despondent "soulish" self-portrait done at the end of his life (See Figure 16).

Other paintings show the same surge of nature over grace, often dramatically so. At times this was accomplished by a repudiation of grace, as seen in the two paintings of the Madonna With Child by Lippi (1406-1469) and Fouquet (1416-1480). In the first (See Figure 17), although Lippi paints an inviting picture of a beautiful Madonna holding a baby, everyone in his home town of Florence knows it is really a portrait of his mistress. To identify the Madonna with the ill repute is indeed a severe blow to grace. Even more obvious is Fouquet's painting of the Madonna with one breast exposed, which is, in actuality, a painting of Agnes Sorel, the mistress of the king of France (See Figure 18). It is not difficult to see the degradation of the Madonna depicted in this painting. This is especially so since the exposure of private flesh was practically unheard of before the Renaissance. The nature side of the equation is now overwhelming grace. (Sc)

Raphael also understood the philosophical tension in the Renaissance, a tension, as we noted, that began when Thomas Aquinas reintroduced Aristotelian thought-forms to compete with Platonism. In his portrayal of Plato and Aristotle, Raphael shows the tension between Platonism and Aristotelianism. In his The School of Athens (See Figure 19), one observes Plato on the left with hand raised pointing to the sky, while his book and feet also assume a vertical position (representing universals). Aristotle, on the right, has his hand level with the surface as are his book and feet (representing particulars). This painting has become the definitive work in expressing this philosophical tension.

Because of this tension, the Renaissance started to break apart at the hands of the artists that helped it grow. In Michelangelo's painting of the Sistine Chapel, rules of proportion and perspective that had just been developed using Aristotelian forms, were slowly being defied. Like Leonardo, Michelangelo realized that he could not capture the real essence of things as they were in themselves. Hence, a trend toward distorting the images began, which was an attempt to strike back at this philosophical tension. This is why many of Michelangelo's human figures often seem over-stuffed, as noted, for example, in The Prophet Jonas (Figure 20) and many other paintings and sculptures.

One of the more remarkable Renaissance attempts to show the prominence of man is Botticelli's painting Adoration of the Kings (1475). Figure 21 shows several things. First, the face of the man staring at you in the lower right hand corner is the artist himself, Botticelli. He apparently has no trepidation about putting his self-portrait in the famous biblical scene, thus giving a symbolic representation of the esteem of mankind. As if this were not enough, the "three kings," seen conversing with each other in the lower left hand of the picture, are Bottecelli's employers, the Medici family. Their insertion symbolizes the power and wealth of man. Lastly, the man holding the feet of the baby Jesus is an unknown figure, yet he thrusts himself forward and meets God face to face. This shows the importance of man in his own eyes, even when confronting the Almighty.

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