May 7, 2007

Global Seminars & Invited Speaker Series

SACRED ART AND CONTEMPORARY ART

Uses and conservation of the temple and sacred art

D. Alfonso Rodríguez G. de Ceballos

The form and structure of the space, not to mention the equipment and furnishings of the Catholic church, have been adapted, since its appearance in the fourth century, to the administration of the sacraments, to the repose required for prayer, to the promotion of worship and devotion and, in general, to the development of the liturgical rites. These fundamental requirements, determined by the use and the different functions of the Christian church, have remained unalterable, although adapted to the variations demanded by the different epochs and served by the different artistic languages. The Second Vatican Council promoted a new form of liturgy more adapted to our times by means of which the Christian people could be more participative in worship. But it ordered to respect, through wise decisions that have been later glossed and made explicit both by the new Code of Canon Law and by the pastoral guidelines of the various dioceses, the spaces, images and liturgical furnishings of the ancient temples as a reminder of a way of expressing the liturgy different from that of today, distinguishing between the peremptory conservation and respectful restoration of those temples, and the new churches that would be built in the future, where architects and artists were left free and their creativity was stimulated to give new form to the new demands of the renewed liturgy. The lecture examines the abuses and excesses that have been committed many times in the restoration of old temples, abuses that have nothing to do with what is legislated in the various documents on this subject emanating from the ecclesiastical authority.
 

Anonymous engraving, "Papist Church", XVI century.

Anonymous engraving, "Reformed Church", 16th c.