Art is a reflection of our existence, a language without words that transcends time and space, speaking to anyone who wants to listen.
- It is a bridge between the visible and the invisible, between the concrete and the immaterial.
By Giuliana Donzello | Italy
The divine in art is a broad theme that manifests itself through the representation of sacred figures, the telling of biblical stories, and the use of symbols to evoke the transcendent. This kind of expression has always accompanied human life. It has therefore had various functions, primarily that of representing a bridge between the visible and the invisible over the centuries, teaching theological concepts, celebrating the sacred, and inspiring devotion. From Greek and Roman statues to Byzantine icons and Renaissance paintings, art has explored the relationship between man and the divine, making it tangible through forms and narratives.
Art is a reflection of our existence, a language without words that transcends time and space, speaking to anyone who wants to listen. It is a bridge between the visible and the invisible, between the concrete and the immaterial. Since the dawn of humanity, art has been the means through which man has sought to understand and represent the reality that surrounds him: the sacred and the profane, the divine and the human, the eternal and everyday life.
From the cave paintings of Lascaux to the algorithms of contemporary digital art, every era has had its visual storytellers. Some have attempted to give God a face, others have sought to immortalize man.
It is therefore legitimate to ask whether there really is a dividing line between sacred art and traditional art, or whether, like two sides of a coin, they influence and overlap each other, recounting the same search for meaning in different ways.
Leaving traces of one’s existence, giving shape to thoughts and fears, desires and divinities has always been a human need; however, the first signs of human creativity did not have a simple decorative function: they were visual codes, tools for interacting with the world and, above all, with something which escaped understanding.
The cave paintings of Altamira and Lascaux, dating back to around 15,000 BC, bear witness to an era in which the boundary between art, spirituality, and magic was still blurred. These depictions were linked to propitiatory rituals for hunting, the veneration of animal spirits, or the transmission of knowledge between generations; they were therefore not simply an aesthetic exercise, but a ritual and symbolic gesture.
With the advent of great civilizations, artistic language was transformed to serve two distinct but complementary spheres: the sacred and earthly power. In Egypt, art became a bridge between men and gods. The colossal statues of the pharaohs, tomb paintings, and monumental pyramids were not simply artistic expressions, but tools to ensure the immortality of the ruler and consolidate his divine status.
In Mesopotamia, art had both a religious and administrative function. Ziggurats, stepped temple towers, dominated city-states and served as centers of worship, while bas-reliefs narrated the deeds of rulers and their relationships with the gods.
Assyrian and Babylonian art was not limited to the celebration of the sacred, but also had a propagandistic purpose, exalting the strength and prestige of officials and dignitaries.
In the Greek world, the representation of the gods took on human characteristics. The deities were depicted with perfect, harmonious bodies, according to the canons of kalokagathia, the concept of beauty and virtue. The sculptures of Zeus, Athena, or Aphrodite did not differ in form from the portraits of athletes and philosophers, as physical perfection was considered an expression of closeness to the divine.
The Romans, heirs to Hellenistic culture, developed an art form in which realism and religious symbolism merged in a unique way. The marble sculptures and busts of emperors were distinguished by an accentuated realism that enhanced their personality and political charisma. At the same time, temples, altars, and urban decorations reinforced the link between the figure of the sovereign and the divine sphere.
We can say that art never belonged exclusively to the realm of the sacred or the profane. It was a universal language, a code that served both faith and politics, contemplation and propaganda. In its many expressions, it has always been more than just an image: it has represented a message, a bridge between the visible and the invisible, between man and the divine, between reality and the ideal.
When Christianity became the official religion of the Roman Empire in the fourth century, art took on a predominantly didactic and devotional function. Christian iconography developed to convey theological concepts and recount biblical episodes to a largely illiterate population. Art became an instrument of faith, a vehicle for religious messages, and a means of bringing the faithful closer to the divine. The representation of God and Christ followed symbolic rather than figurative patterns. The mosaics in the Roman catacombs feature allegorical images such as the fish (Ichthys), the dove, the anchor, and the shepherd with the sheep, all allusions to salvation and divine protection. God cannot be seen, but he can be described through signs and metaphors.
From the Byzantine and medieval periods onwards, Christian iconography became richer and more consolidated. Christ Pantocrator, depicted with a stern and solemn face, appeared in the apses of churches, while the Virgin and Child became the focus of popular devotion. Sacred images not only had aesthetic value but also served as tools for meditation and prayer.
Two main strands define Christian art: Byzantine art and the Romanesque and Gothic art of Western Europe. Byzantine art, influenced by Greco-Roman culture, is distinguished by its use of golden mosaics, sacred icons, and stylized representations.
In Eastern churches, such as Hagia Sophia in Constantinople, sacred images are characterized by immobile faces, large eyes, and golden halos, symbolizing divine transcendence. The sacred is distant, immutable, enveloped in an aura of solemnity. Within the early Church, two currents developed: one favorable to images (iconic) and the other (aniconic) linked to the Old Testament conception, opposed to sacred images (aniconic).
In Western Europe, on the other hand, art evolved through the Romanesque and later Gothic styles. Romanesque churches, with their massive forms and decorations carved into capitals and portals, convey a sense of solidity and protection. The sculptures, often rudimentary, depict biblical scenes with strong expressiveness, sometimes with dramatic accents and moral warnings.
With the transition to Gothic, between the 12th and 14th centuries, sacred art reached a new level of monumentality. Gothic cathedrals, such as Notre-Dame de Paris and Chartres Cathedral, developed in height, with stained glass windows that transformed light into color and narrative. Rose windows and ogival windows, decorated with sacred episodes, offered the faithful a vision of the divine through the mystical effect of filtered light.
In addition to its religious function, medieval art was closely linked to political and ecclesiastical power. The major patrons of art were the clergy and the nobility, who saw the construction of churches, abbeys, and frescoed palaces as a means of asserting their prestige. Popes, bishops, and sovereigns financed decorative cycles and monumental sculptures which, in addition to glorifying the faith, served to consolidate their authority. Sacred art thus also became an expression of power.
Parallel to religious art, there was a more secular and profane artistic tradition, widespread especially in feudal courts and castles (tapestries, miniatures in medieval manuscripts, and decorations in noble palaces depicted hunting scenes, knightly tournaments, moments of daily life, and epic stories). But secular art was never completely separate from sacred art: often, in the same illuminated manuscripts, there were depictions of saints and martyrs alongside images of knights and sovereigns. The sacred and the secular coexisted, mixing and influencing each other.
In the 15th century, European art underwent profound changes. After centuries of rigid iconographic patterns, God began to take on a human face. The Renaissance rediscovered the individual, nature, rationality, and the harmony of forms. Art was no longer just a tool of devotion, but also a means of investigating reality.
If the sacred is no longer exclusively linked to religion, and the secular is no longer just a representation of everyday life, perhaps today art is neither sacred nor secular: it is simply art, a means of questioning the meaning of existence, a universal language capable of giving form to the invisible and questioning the essence of human beings.
The central perspective, the use of light and chiaroscuro, and the revival of classical proportions marked a visual revolution. Sacred art was enriched with realism and psychological depth, while secular art explored new subjects: portraiture, landscape, mythology, and science.
Renaissance religious painting evolved radically. Artists no longer limited themselves to representing God and the saints with hieratic and stylized features, but made them alive, human, and expressive.
Consider Masaccio, who in his Trinity (1425-1427) introduced linear perspective into a sacred work, or Piero della Francesca, who in paintings such as The Flagellation of Christ (c. 1460) used mathematical rigor to make the scene more realistic and credible.
Last but not least, Leonardo da Vinci, who in The Last Supper (1495-1498), breaks with medieval staticity and transforms the biblical narrative into a theatrical scene, where the apostles are interpreters of a distinctive emotion. Similarly, Michelangelo, in the Sistine Chapel (1508-1512), paints a powerful and vigorous creator God, far removed from the hieratic medieval image, more like a man than an abstract entity.
Read: Exploring the Divine through Abstract Art
This is not just a stylistic change: it is a theological revolution. If God can take on human form, then human beings are close to the divine. The body is no longer just a vessel for the soul, but a masterpiece of creation, worthy of being studied, painted, and sculpted with the same attention given to saints.
Alongside sacred art, secular art developed that celebrated the individual, the beauty of the earthly world, and scientific knowledge. Portraits became increasingly widespread, symbolizing an era in which man rediscovered himself as the protagonist of history. Secular art was not in opposition to sacred art, but rather its natural complement. Renaissance man was no longer content to look only at the sky, but also wanted to understand the earth he inhabited.
From the mid-16th century onwards, Renaissance harmony gave way to a more restless and complex art. Mannerism introduced elongated proportions, artificial colors, and dynamic compositions, reflecting an era of religious and political tension.
Artists (Pontormo, Parmigianino, and El Greco) reinterpreted sacred art with an expressive and almost visionary style. Figures became distorted, colors became unreal, and sacred scenes took on a more theatrical and dramatic character. This evolution anticipated the Baroque, an era in which art was no longer limited to representing faith but staged it with spectacular effects.
With Baroque, art became powerful, exciting, even sensual; a new expressive language that brought the sacred and the profane to an even more intense fusion, evident in Bernini’s monumental sculptures, where the artist transformed marble into living flesh, movement, and emotion, especially in the famous Ecstasy of Saint Teresa (1647-1652). Or Caravaggio, with his revolutionary painting, immerses saints and sinners in the same dramatic light, making the sacred incredibly real and human, with martyrs and beggars sharing the same flesh and the same pain in works such as The Calling of Saint Matthew (1599-1600) or The Death of the Virgin (1604-1606). Similarly, Rubens, with his dynamic and vibrant style, celebrates the strength and vitality of the human body, both in mythological and religious scenes; see The Judgment of Paris (1636) and The Adoration of the Magi (1624), where he exalts physicality and chromatic richness with monumental figures with tense muscles and opulent garments.
With these artists, Baroque art reached its expressive peak, transforming religion into spectacle and the body into a symbol of spiritual power. There is no longer any separation between heaven and earth, between faith and passion: everything becomes a theatrical representation of the divine.
And modern and contemporary art?
Subtle presence: Contemporary art explores the presence of the divine in a less explicit way, focusing on ultimate questions and personal meditation. Think of the works of artists such as Paul Klee and Kandinsky.
Its role has changed profoundly; while large ecclesiastical commissions once determined artistic trends, today the production of religious works is more fragmented and less influential than in the past. Religious architecture is one of the areas in which contemporary sacred art has found its greatest expression. Modern churches, such as Antoni Gaudí’s Sagrada Familia or Tadao Ando’s Church of Light, experiment with materials, geometries, and plays of light to evoke a sense of the divine without resorting to traditional iconography.
In the fields of painting and sculpture, too, some artists continue to engage with the sacred, often with innovative or provocative approaches. Mark Rothko, with his large monochrome canvases, sought to evoke an almost mystical experience through color and light.
As a result, contemporary sacred art clashes with an increasingly secular world. Whereas in the past the sacred was a central component of visual culture, today its influence is more limited and often confined to liturgical or academic contexts.
The human body, which in the Renaissance was exalted as a reflection of the divine, is now often represented in a more conceptual or provocative way. Even landscape and nature, traditional subjects of secular art, have been reinterpreted in the contemporary era. The environmental art of Christo and Jeanne-Claude and the installations of Olafur Eliasson redefine the relationship between man, nature, and space, creating ephemeral works that interact with the natural world.
In the 21st century, the distinction between sacred and secular art is therefore more blurred than ever. Many contemporary works challenge this dichotomy, exploring the sacred outside traditional religious contexts and reinterpreting the secular in an almost spiritual way, as in digital and immersive art, with its possibilities for representing the sacred, as exemplified by James Turrell’s light installations, Refik Anadol’s digital mandalas, and Team Lab’s visual experiences, which create environments in which visitors can enjoy a transcendent experience, similar to that of Gothic cathedrals or Byzantine icons.
On the other hand, secular art has often absorbed religious themes and symbols, reworking them in a contemporary key. Just think of modern reinterpretations of the Crucifixion, the use of Christian iconography in the films of directors such as Pasolini or Scorsese, or the influence of Eastern spirituality in conceptual art.
If the sacred is no longer exclusively linked to religion, and the secular is no longer just a representation of everyday life, perhaps today art is neither sacred nor secular: it is simply art, a means of questioning the meaning of existence, a universal language capable of giving form to the invisible and questioning the essence of human beings.
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Giuliana Donzello, born on April 25, 1949, in Venice, received a degree in literature and later specialized at the university of Florence (Italy). Since the beginning of her career, she has combined teaching and research activities, collaborating with the Department of History and Criticism of Contemporary arts at the University of Venice and with the Visual arts Sector of the Biennale. She has published several essays on art and numerous articles on educational research, collaborating with specialized journals. She has edited orientation and training situations for miuR and the University of Venice and has been a speaker and trainer at European conferences and seminars on the topics of analog languages and inclusion. Since 2008 she has devoted herself to creative writing. She has received numerous awards. Several of his texts appear in anthologies, journals and dictionaries of contemporary writers and poets.
