LETTER OF HIS HOLINESS
POPE JOHN PAUL
II
TO ARTISTS
1999
To all who are passionately dedicated
to the
search for new “epiphanies” of beauty
so that through their creative work as
artists
they may offer these as gifts to the world.
“God saw all that he had made, and it was very
good” (Gn 1:31)
[Pope John Paul II is writing to free spirits like Gene here. Artists like Gene see the world differently. The world needs them.
There is some very good stuff in here.]
The artist, image of God the Creator
1. None can sense more deeply than you artists, ingenious creators of beauty
that you are, something of the pathos with which God at the dawn of creation
looked upon the work of his hands. A glimmer of that feeling has shone so often
in your eyes when—like the artists of every age—captivated by the hidden power
of sounds and words, colours and shapes, you have admired the work of your
inspiration, sensing in it some echo of the mystery of creation with which God,
the sole creator of all things, has wished in some way to associate you.
That is why it seems to me that there are no better words than the text of
Genesis with which to begin my Letter to you, to whom I feel closely linked by
experiences reaching far back in time and which have indelibly marked my life.
In writing this Letter, I intend to follow the path of the fruitful dialogue
between the Church and artists which has gone on unbroken through two thousand
years of history, and which still, at the threshold of the Third Millennium,
offers rich promise for the future.
In fact, this dialogue is not dictated merely by historical accident or
practical need, but is rooted in the very essence of both religious experience
and artistic creativity. The opening page of the Bible presents God as a kind of
exemplar of everyone who produces a work: the human craftsman mirrors the image
of God as Creator. This relationship is particularly clear in the Polish
language because of the lexical link between the words stwórca (creator) and
twórca (craftsman).
What is the difference between “creator” and “craftsman”? The one who creates
bestows being itself, he brings something out of nothing—ex nihilo sui et
subiecti, as the Latin puts it—and this, in the strict sense, is a mode of
operation which belongs to the Almighty alone. The craftsman, by contrast, uses
something that already exists, to which he gives form and meaning. This is the
mode of operation peculiar to man as made in the image of God. In fact, after
saying that God created man and woman “in his image” (cf.
Gn 1:27), the
Bible adds that he entrusted to them the task of dominating the earth (cf.
Gn 1:28). This was the last day of creation (cf.
Gn 1:28-31). On
the previous days, marking as it were the rhythm of the birth of the cosmos,
Yahweh had created the universe. Finally he created the human being, the noblest
fruit of his design, to whom he subjected the visible world as a vast field in
which human inventiveness might assert itself.
God therefore called man into existence, committing to him the craftsman's
task. Through his “artistic creativity” man appears more than ever “in the image
of God”, and he accomplishes this task above all in shaping the wondrous
“material” of his own humanity and then exercising creative dominion over the
universe which surrounds him. With loving regard, the divine Artist passes on to
the human artist a spark of his own surpassing wisdom, calling him to share in
his creative power. Obviously, this is a sharing which leaves intact the
infinite distance between the Creator and the creature, as Cardinal Nicholas of
Cusa made clear: “Creative art, which it is the soul's good fortune to
entertain, is not to be identified with that essential art which is God himself,
but is only a communication of it and a share in it”.(1)
That is why artists, the more conscious they are of their “gift”, are led all
the more to see themselves and the whole of creation with eyes able to
contemplate and give thanks, and to raise to God a hymn of praise. This is the
only way for them to come to a full understanding of themselves, their vocation
and their mission.
The special vocation of the artist
2. Not all are called to be artists in the specific sense of the term. Yet,
as Genesis has it, all men and women are entrusted with the task of crafting
their own life: in a certain sense, they are to make of it a work of art, a
masterpiece.
It is important to recognize the distinction, but also the connection,
between these two aspects of human activity. The distinction is clear. It is one
thing for human beings to be the authors of their own acts, with responsibility
for their moral value; it is another to be an artist, able, that is, to respond
to the demands of art and faithfully to accept art's specific dictates.(2) This
is what makes the artist capable of producing objects, but it says nothing as
yet of his moral character. We are speaking not of moulding oneself, of forming
one's own personality, but simply of actualizing one's productive capacities,
giving aesthetic form to ideas conceived in the mind.
The distinction between the moral and artistic aspects is fundamental, but no
less important is the connection between them. Each conditions the other in a
profound way. In producing a work, artists express themselves to the point where
their work becomes a unique disclosure of their own being, of what they are and
of how they are what they are. And there are endless examples of this in human
history. In shaping a masterpiece, the artist not only summons his work into
being, but also in some way reveals his own personality by means of it. For him
art offers both a new dimension and an exceptional mode of expression for his
spiritual growth. Through his works, the artist speaks to others and
communicates with them. The history of art, therefore, is not only a story of
works produced but also a story of men and women. Works of art speak of their
authors; they enable us to know their inner life, and they reveal the original
contribution which artists offer to the history of culture.
The artistic vocation in the service of beauty
3. A noted Polish poet, Cyprian Norwid, wrote that “beauty is to enthuse us
for work, and work is to raise us up”.(3)
The theme of beauty is decisive for a discourse on art. It was already
present when I stressed God's delighted gaze upon creation. In perceiving that
all he had created was good, God saw that it was beautiful as well.(4) The link
between good and beautiful stirs fruitful reflection. In a certain sense, beauty
is the visible form of the good, just as the good is the metaphysical condition
of beauty. This was well understood by the Greeks who, by fusing the two
concepts, coined a term which embraces both: kalokagathía, or beauty-goodness.
On this point Plato writes: “The power of the Good has taken refuge in the
nature of the Beautiful”.(5)
It is in living and acting that man establishes his relationship with being,
with the truth and with the good. The artist has a special relationship to
beauty. In a very true sense it can be said that beauty is the vocation bestowed
on him by the Creator in the gift of “artistic talent”. And, certainly, this too
is a talent which ought to be made to bear fruit, in keeping with the sense of
the Gospel parable of the talents (cf.
Mt 25:14-30).
Here we touch on an essential point. Those who perceive in themselves this
kind of divine spark which is the artistic vocation—as poet, writer, sculptor,
architect, musician, actor and so on—feel at the same time the obligation not to
waste this talent but to develop it, in order to put it at the service of their
neighbour and of humanity as a whole.
The artist and the common good
4. Society needs artists, just as it needs scientists, technicians, workers,
professional people, witnesses of the faith, teachers, fathers and mothers, who
ensure the growth of the person and the development of the community by means of
that supreme art form which is “the art of education”. Within the vast cultural
panorama of each nation, artists have their unique place. Obedient to their
inspiration in creating works both worthwhile and beautiful, they not only
enrich the cultural heritage of each nation and of all humanity, but they also
render an exceptional social service in favour of the common good.
The particular vocation of individual artists decides the arena in which they
serve and points as well to the tasks they must assume, the hard work they must
endure and the responsibility they must accept. Artists who are conscious of all
this know too that they must labour without allowing themselves to be driven by
the search for empty glory or the craving for cheap popularity, and still less
by the calculation of some possible profit for themselves. There is therefore an
ethic, even a “spirituality” of artistic service, which contributes in its way
to the life and renewal of a people. It is precisely this to which Cyprian
Norwid seems to allude in declaring that “beauty is to enthuse us for work, and
work is to raise us up”.
Art and the mystery of the Word made flesh
5. The Law of the Old Testament explicitly forbids representation of the
invisible and ineffable God by means of “graven or molten image” (
Dt
27:15), because God transcends every material representation: “I am who I am”
(
Ex 3:14). Yet in the mystery of the Incarnation, the Son of God becomes
visible in person: “When the fullness of time had come, God sent forth his Son
born of woman” (
Gal 4:4). God became man in Jesus Christ, who thus
becomes “the central point of reference for an understanding of the enigma of
human existence, the created world and God himself”.(6)
This prime epiphany of “God who is Mystery” is both an encouragement and a
challenge to Christians, also at the level of artistic creativity. From it has
come a flowering of beauty which has drawn its sap precisely from the mystery of
the Incarnation. In becoming man, the Son of God has introduced into human
history all the evangelical wealth of the true and the good, and with this he
has also unveiled a new dimension of beauty, of which the Gospel message is
filled to the brim.
Sacred Scripture has thus become a sort of “immense vocabulary” (Paul
Claudel) and “iconographic atlas” (Marc Chagall), from which both Christian
culture and art have drawn. The Old Testament, read in the light of the New, has
provided endless streams of inspiration. From the stories of the Creation and
sin, the Flood, the cycle of the Patriarchs, the events of the Exodus to so many
other episodes and characters in the history of salvation, the biblical text has
fired the imagination of painters, poets, musicians, playwrights and
film-makers. A figure like Job, to take but one example, with his searing and
ever relevant question of suffering, still arouses an interest which is not just
philosophical but literary and artistic as well. And what should we say of the
New Testament? From the Nativity to Golgotha, from the Transfiguration to the
Resurrection, from the miracles to the teachings of Christ, and on to the events
recounted in the Acts of the Apostles or foreseen by the Apocalypse in an
eschatological key, on countless occasions the biblical word has become image,
music and poetry, evoking the mystery of “the Word made flesh” in the language
of art.
In the history of human culture, all of this is a rich chapter of faith and
beauty. Believers above all have gained from it in their experience of prayer
and Christian living. Indeed for many of them, in times when few could read or
write, representations of the Bible were a concrete mode of catechesis.(7) But
for everyone, believers or not, the works of art inspired by Scripture remain a
reflection of the unfathomable mystery which engulfs and inhabits the world.
A fruitful alliance between the Gospel and art
6. Every genuine artistic intuition goes beyond what the senses perceive and,
reaching beneath reality's surface, strives to interpret its hidden mystery. The
intuition itself springs from the depths of the human soul, where the desire to
give meaning to one's own life is joined by the fleeting vision of beauty and of
the mysterious unity of things. All artists experience the unbridgeable gap
which lies between the work of their hands, however successful it may be, and
the dazzling perfection of the beauty glimpsed in the ardour of the creative
moment: what they manage to express in their painting, their sculpting, their
creating is no more than a glimmer of the splendour which flared for a moment
before the eyes of their spirit.
Believers find nothing strange in this: they know that they have had a
momentary glimpse of the abyss of light which has its original wellspring in
God. Is it in any way surprising that this leaves the spirit overwhelmed as it
were, so that it can only stammer in reply? True artists above all are ready to
acknowledge their limits and to make their own the words of the Apostle Paul,
according to whom “God does not dwell in shrines made by human hands” so that
“we ought not to think that the Deity is like gold or silver or stone, a
representation by human art and imagination” (
Acts 17:24, 29). If the
intimate reality of things is always “beyond” the powers of human perception,
how much more so is God in the depths of his unfathomable mystery!
The knowledge conferred by faith is of a different kind: it presupposes a
personal encounter with God in Jesus Christ. Yet this knowledge too can be
enriched by artistic intuition. An eloquent example of aesthetic contemplation
sublimated in faith are, for example, the works of Fra Angelico. No less notable
in this regard is the ecstatic lauda, which Saint Francis of Assisi twice
repeats in the chartula which he composed after receiving the stigmata of Christ
on the mountain of La Verna: “You are beauty... You are beauty!”.(8) Saint
Bonaventure comments: “In things of beauty, he contemplated the One who is
supremely beautiful, and, led by the footprints he found in creatures, he
followed the Beloved everywhere”.(9)
A corresponding approach is found in Eastern spirituality where Christ is
described as “the supremely Beautiful, possessed of a beauty above all the
children of earth”.(10) Macarius the Great speaks of the transfiguring and
liberating beauty of the Risen Lord in these terms: “The soul which has been
fully illumined by the unspeakable beauty of the glory shining on the
countenance of Christ overflows with the Holy Spirit... it is all eye, all
light, all countenance”.(11)
Every genuine art form in its own way is a path to the inmost reality of man
and of the world. It is therefore a wholly valid approach to the realm of faith,
which gives human experience its ultimate meaning. That is why the Gospel
fullness of truth was bound from the beginning to stir the interest of artists,
who by their very nature are alert to every “epiphany” of the inner beauty of
things.
The origins
7. The art which Christianity encountered in its early days was the ripe
fruit of the classical world, articulating its aesthetic canons and embodying
its values. Not only in their way of living and thinking, but also in the field
of art, faith obliged Christians to a discernment which did not allow an
uncritical acceptance of this heritage. Art of Christian inspiration began
therefore in a minor key, strictly tied to the need for believers to contrive
Scripture-based signs to express both the mysteries of faith and a “symbolic
code” by which they could distinguish and identify themselves, especially in the
difficult times of persecution. Who does not recall the symbols which marked the
first appearance of an art both pictorial and plastic? The fish, the loaves, the
shepherd: in evoking the mystery, they became almost imperceptibly the first
traces of a new art.
When the Edict of Constantine allowed Christians to declare themselves in
full freedom, art became a privileged means for the expression of faith.
Majestic basilicas began to appear, and in them the architectural canons of the
pagan world were reproduced and at the same time modified to meet the demands of
the new form of worship. How can we fail to recall at least the old Saint
Peter's Basilica and the Basilica of Saint John Lateran, both funded by
Constantine himself? Or Constantinople's Hagia Sophia built by Justinian, with
its splendours of Byzantine art?
While architecture designed the space for worship, gradually the need to
contemplate the mystery and to present it explicitly to the simple people led to
the early forms of painting and sculpture. There appeared as well the first
elements of art in word and sound. Among the many themes treated by Augustine we
find De Musica; and Hilary of Poitiers, Ambrose, Prudentius, Ephrem the Syrian,
Gregory of Nazianzus and Paulinus of Nola, to mention but a few, promoted a
Christian poetry which was often of high quality not just as theology but also
as literature. Their poetic work valued forms inherited from the classical
authors, but was nourished by the pure sap of the Gospel, as Paulinus of Nola
put it succinctly: “Our only art is faith and our music Christ”.(12) A little
later, Gregory the Great compiled the Antiphonarium and thus laid the ground for
the organic development of that most original sacred music which takes its name
from him. Gregorian chant, with its inspired modulations, was to become down the
centuries the music of the Church's faith in the liturgical celebration of the
sacred mysteries. The “beautiful” was thus wedded to the “true”, so that through
art too souls might be lifted up from the world of the senses to the
eternal.
Along this path there were troubled moments. Precisely on the issue of
depicting the Christian mystery, there arose in the early centuries a bitter
controversy known to history as “the iconoclast crisis”. Sacred images, which
were already widely used in Christian devotion, became the object of violent
contention. The Council held at Nicaea in 787, which decreed the legitimacy of
images and their veneration, was a historic event not just for the faith but for
culture itself. The decisive argument to which the Bishops appealed in order to
settle the controversy was the mystery of the Incarnation: if the Son of God had
come into the world of visible realities—his humanity building a bridge between
the visible and the invisible— then, by analogy, a representation of the mystery
could be used, within the logic of signs, as a sensory evocation of the mystery.
The icon is venerated not for its own sake, but points beyond to the subject
which it represents.(13)
The Middle Ages
8. The succeeding centuries saw a great development of Christian art. In the
East, the art of the icon continued to flourish, obeying theological and
aesthetic norms charged with meaning and sustained by the conviction that, in a
sense, the icon is a sacrament. By analogy with what occurs in the sacraments,
the icon makes present the mystery of the Incarnation in one or other of its
aspects. That is why the beauty of the icon can be best appreciated in a church
where in the shadows burning lamps stir infinite flickerings of light. As Pavel
Florensky has written: “By the flat light of day, gold is crude, heavy, useless,
but by the tremulous light of a lamp or candle it springs to life and glitters
in sparks beyond counting—now here, now there, evoking the sense of other
lights, not of this earth, which fill the space of heaven”.(14)
In the West, artists start from the most varied viewpoints, depending also on
the underlying convictions of the cultural world of their time. The artistic
heritage built up over the centuries includes a vast array of sacred works of
great inspiration, which still today leave the observer full of admiration. In
the first place, there are the great buildings for worship, in which the
functional is always wedded to the creative impulse inspired by a sense of the
beautiful and an intuition of the mystery. From here came the various styles
well known in the history of art. The strength and simplicity of the Romanesque,
expressed in cathedrals and abbeys, slowly evolved into the soaring splendours
of the Gothic. These forms portray not only the genius of an artist but the soul
of a people. In the play of light and shadow, in forms at times massive, at
times delicate, structural considerations certainly come into play, but so too
do the tensions peculiar to the experience of God, the mystery both “awesome”
and “alluring”. How is one to summarize with a few brief references to each of
the many different art forms, the creative power of the centuries of the
Christian Middle Ages? An entire culture, albeit with the inescapable limits of
all that is human, had become imbued with the Gospel; and where theology
produced the Summa of Saint Thomas, church art moulded matter in a way which led
to adoration of the mystery, and a wonderful poet like Dante Alighieri could
compose “the sacred poem, to which both heaven and earth have turned their
hand”,(15) as he himself described the Divine Comedy.
Humanism and the Renaissance
9. The favourable cultural climate that produced the extraordinary artistic
flowering of Humanism and the Renaissance also had a significant impact on the
way in which the artists of the period approached the religious theme.
Naturally, their inspiration, like their style, varied greatly, at least among
the best of them. But I do not intend to repeat things which you, as artists,
know well. Writing from this Apostolic Palace, which is a mine of masterpieces
perhaps unique in the world, I would rather give voice to the supreme artists
who in this place lavished the wealth of their genius, often charged with great
spiritual depth. From here can be heard the voice of Michelangelo who in the
Sistine Chapel has presented the drama and mystery of the world from the
Creation to the Last Judgement, giving a face to God the Father, to Christ the
Judge, and to man on his arduous journey from the dawn to the consummation of
history. Here speaks the delicate and profound genius of Raphael, highlighting
in the array of his paintings, and especially in the “Dispute” in the Room of
the Signatura, the mystery of the revelation of the Triune God, who in the
Eucharist befriends man and sheds light on the questions and expectations of
human intelligence. From this place, from the majestic Basilica dedicated to the
Prince of the Apostles, from the Colonnade which spreads out from it like two
arms open to welcome the whole human family, we still hear Bramante, Bernini,
Borromini, Maderno, to name only the more important artists, all rendering
visible the perception of the mystery which makes of the Church a universally
hospitable community, mother and travelling companion to all men and women in
their search for God.
This extraordinary complex is a remarkably powerful expression of sacred art,
rising to heights of imperishable aesthetic and religious excellence. What has
characterized sacred art more and more, under the impulse of Humanism and the
Renaissance, and then of successive cultural and scientific trends, is a growing
interest in everything human, in the world, and in the reality of history. In
itself, such a concern is not at all a danger for Christian faith, centred on
the mystery of the Incarnation and therefore on God's valuing of the human
being. The great artists mentioned above are a demonstration of this. Suffice it
to think of the way in which Michelangelo represents the beauty of the human
body in his painting and sculpture.(16)
Even in the changed climate of more recent centuries, when a part of society
seems to have become indifferent to faith, religious art has continued on its
way. This can be more widely appreciated if we look beyond the figurative arts
to the great development of sacred music through this same period, either
composed for the liturgy or simply treating religious themes. Apart from the
many artists who made sacred music their chief concern—how can we forget Pier
Luigi da Palestrina, Orlando di Lasso, Tomás Luis de Victoria?—it is also true
that many of the great composers—from Handel to Bach, from Mozart to Schubert,
from Beethoven to Berlioz, from Liszt to Verdi—have given us works of the
highest inspiration in this field.
Towards a renewed dialogue
10. It is true nevertheless that, in the modern era, alongside this Christian
humanism which has continued to produce important works of culture and art,
another kind of humanism, marked by the absence of God and often by opposition
to God, has gradually asserted itself. Such an atmosphere has sometimes led to a
separation of the world of art and the world of faith, at least in the sense
that many artists have a diminished interest in religious themes.
You know, however, that the Church has not ceased to nurture great
appreciation for the value of art as such. Even beyond its typically religious
expressions, true art has a close affinity with the world of faith, so that,
even in situations where culture and the Church are far apart, art remains a
kind of bridge to religious experience. In so far as it seeks the beautiful,
fruit of an imagination which rises above the everyday, art is by its nature a
kind of appeal to the mystery. Even when they explore the darkest depths of the
soul or the most unsettling aspects of evil, artists give voice in a way to the
universal desire for redemption.
It is clear, therefore, why the Church is especially concerned for the
dialogue with art and is keen that in our own time there be a new alliance with
artists, as called for by my revered predecessor Paul VI in his vibrant speech
to artists during a special meeting he had with them in the Sistine Chapel on 7
May 1964.(17) From such cooperation the Church hopes for a renewed “epiphany” of
beauty in our time and apt responses to the particular needs of the Christian
community.
In the spirit of the Second Vatican Council
11. The Second Vatican Council laid the foundation for a renewed relationship
between the Church and culture, with immediate implications for the world of
art. This is a relationship offered in friendship, openness and dialogue. In the
Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et Spes, the Fathers of the Council stressed “the
great importance” of literature and the arts in human life: “They seek to probe
the true nature of man, his problems and experiences, as he strives to know and
perfect himself and the world, to discover his place in history and the
universe, to portray his miseries and joys, his needs and strengths, with a view
to a better future”.(18)
On this basis, at the end of the Council the Fathers addressed a greeting and
an appeal to artists: “This world—they said—in which we live needs beauty in
order not to sink into despair. Beauty, like truth, brings joy to the human
heart and is that precious fruit which resists the erosion of time, which unites
generations and enables them to be one in admiration!”.(19) In this spirit of
profound respect for beauty, the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum
Concilium recalled the historic friendliness of the Church towards art and,
referring more specifically to sacred art, the “summit” of religious art, did
not hesitate to consider artists as having “a noble ministry” when their works
reflect in some way the infinite beauty of God and raise people's minds to
him.(20) Thanks also to the help of artists “the knowledge of God can be better
revealed and the preaching of the Gospel can become clearer to the human
mind”.(21) In this light, it comes as no surprise when Father Marie Dominique
Chenu claims that the work of the historian of theology would be incomplete if
he failed to give due attention to works of art, both literary and figurative,
which are in their own way “not only aesthetic representations, but genuine
'sources' of theology”.(22)
The Church needs art
12. In order to communicate the message entrusted to her by Christ, the
Church needs art. Art must make perceptible, and as far as possible attractive,
the world of the spirit, of the invisible, of God. It must therefore translate
into meaningful terms that which is in itself ineffable. Art has a unique
capacity to take one or other facet of the message and translate it into
colours, shapes and sounds which nourish the intuition of those who look or
listen. It does so without emptying the message itself of its transcendent value
and its aura of mystery.
The Church has need especially of those who can do this on the literary and
figurative level, using the endless possibilities of images and their symbolic
force. Christ himself made extensive use of images in his preaching, fully in
keeping with his willingness to become, in the Incarnation, the icon of the
unseen God.
The Church also needs musicians. How many sacred works have been composed
through the centuries by people deeply imbued with the sense of the mystery! The
faith of countless believers has been nourished by melodies flowing from the
hearts of other believers, either introduced into the liturgy or used as an aid
to dignified worship. In song, faith is experienced as vibrant joy, love, and
confident expectation of the saving intervention of God.
The Church needs architects, because she needs spaces to bring the Christian
people together and celebrate the mysteries of salvation. After the terrible
destruction of the last World War and the growth of great cities, a new
generation of architects showed themselves adept at responding to the exigencies
of Christian worship, confirming that the religious theme can still inspire
architectural design in our own day. Not infrequently these architects have
constructed churches which are both places of prayer and true works of art.
Does art need the Church?
13. The Church therefore needs art. But can it also be said that art needs
the Church? The question may seem like a provocation. Yet, rightly understood,
it is both legitimate and profound. Artists are constantly in search of the
hidden meaning of things, and their torment is to succeed in expressing the
world of the ineffable. How then can we fail to see what a great source of
inspiration is offered by that kind of homeland of the soul that is religion? Is
it not perhaps within the realm of religion that the most vital personal
questions are posed, and answers both concrete and definitive are sought?
In fact, the religious theme has been among those most frequently treated by
artists in every age. The Church has always appealed to their creative powers in
interpreting the Gospel message and discerning its precise application in the
life of the Christian community. This partnership has been a source of mutual
spiritual enrichment. Ultimately, it has been a great boon for an understanding
of man, of the authentic image and truth of the person. The special bond between
art and Christian revelation has also become evident. This does not mean that
human genius has not found inspiration in other religious contexts. It is enough
to recall the art of the ancient world, especially Greek and Roman art, or the
art which still flourishes in the very ancient civilizations of the East. It
remains true, however, that because of its central doctrine of the Incarnation
of the Word of God, Christianity offers artists a horizon especially rich in
inspiration. What an impoverishment it would be for art to abandon the
inexhaustible mine of the Gospel!
An appeal to artists
14. With this Letter, I turn to you, the artists of the world, to assure you
of my esteem and to help consolidate a more constructive partnership between art
and the Church. Mine is an invitation to rediscover the depth of the spiritual
and religious dimension which has been typical of art in its noblest forms in
every age. It is with this in mind that I appeal to you, artists of the written
and spoken word, of the theatre and music, of the plastic arts and the most
recent technologies in the field of communication. I appeal especially to you,
Christian artists: I wish to remind each of you that, beyond functional
considerations, the close alliance that has always existed between the Gospel
and art means that you are invited to use your creative intuition to enter into
the heart of the mystery of the Incarnate God and at the same time into the
mystery of man.
Human beings, in a certain sense, are unknown to themselves. Jesus Christ not
only reveals God, but “fully reveals man to man”.(23) In Christ, God has
reconciled the world to himself. All believers are called to bear witness to
this; but it is up to you, men and women who have given your lives to art, to
declare with all the wealth of your ingenuity that in Christ the world is
redeemed: the human person is redeemed, the human body is redeemed, and the
whole creation which, according to Saint Paul, “awaits impatiently the
revelation of the children of God” (
Rom 8:19), is redeemed. The creation
awaits the revelation of the children of God also through art and in art. This
is your task. Humanity in every age, and even today, looks to works of art to
shed light upon its path and its destiny.
The Creator
Spirit and artistic inspiration
15. Often in the Church there resounds the invocation to the Holy Spirit:
Veni, Creator Spiritus... – “Come, O Creator Spirit, visit our minds, fill with
your grace the hearts you have created”.(24)
The Holy Spirit, “the Breath” (ruah), is the One referred to already in the
Book of Genesis: “The earth was without form and void, and darkness was on the
face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the face of the waters”
(1:2). What affinity between the words “breath - breathing” and “inspiration”!
The Spirit is the mysterious Artist of the universe. Looking to the Third
Millennium, I would hope that all artists might receive in abundance the gift of
that creative inspiration which is the starting-point of every true work of
art.
Dear artists, you well know that there are many impulses which, either from
within or from without, can inspire your talent. Every genuine inspiration,
however, contains some tremor of that “breath” with which the Creator Spirit
suffused the work of creation from the very beginning. Overseeing the mysterious
laws governing the universe, the divine breath of the Creator Spirit reaches out
to human genius and stirs its creative power. He touches it with a kind of inner
illumination which brings together the sense of the good and the beautiful, and
he awakens energies of mind and heart which enable it to conceive an idea and
give it form in a work of art. It is right then to speak, even if only
analogically, of “moments of grace”, because the human being is able to
experience in some way the Absolute who is utterly beyond.
The “Beauty” that saves
16. On the threshold of the Third Millennium, my hope for all of you who are
artists is that you will have an especially intense experience of creative
inspiration. May the beauty which you pass on to generations still to come be
such that it will stir them to wonder! Faced with the sacredness of life and of
the human person, and before the marvels of the universe, wonder is the only
appropriate attitude.
From this wonder there can come that enthusiasm of which Norwid spoke in the
poem to which I referred earlier. People of today and tomorrow need this
enthusiasm if they are to meet and master the crucial challenges which stand
before us. Thanks to this enthusiasm, humanity, every time it loses its way,
will be able to lift itself up and set out again on the right path. In this
sense it has been said with profound insight that “beauty will save the
world”.(25)
Beauty is a key to the mystery and a call to transcendence. It is an
invitation to savour life and to dream of the future. That is why the beauty of
created things can never fully satisfy. It stirs that hidden nostalgia for God
which a lover of beauty like Saint Augustine could express in incomparable
terms: “Late have I loved you, beauty so old and so new: late have I loved
you!”.(26)
Artists of the world, may your many different paths all lead to that infinite
Ocean of beauty where wonder becomes awe, exhilaration, unspeakable joy.
May you be guided and inspired by the mystery of the Risen Christ, whom the
Church in these days contemplates with joy.
May the Blessed Virgin Mary be with you always: she is the “tota pulchra”
portrayed by countless artists, whom Dante contemplates among the splendours of
Paradise as “beauty that was joy in the eyes of all the other saints”.(27)
“From chaos there rises the world of the spirit”. These words of Adam
Mickiewicz, written at a time of great hardship for his Polish homeland,(28)
prompt my hope for you: may your art help to affirm that true beauty which, as a
glimmer of the Spirit of God, will transfigure matter, opening the human soul to
the sense of the eternal.
With my heartfelt good wishes!
From the Vatican, 4 April 1999, Easter Sunday.
(1) Dialogus de Ludo Globi, lib. II: Philosophisch-Theologische Schriften,
Vienna 1967, III, p. 332.
(2) The moral virtues, and among them prudence in particular, allow the
subject to act in harmony with the criterion of moral good and evil: according
to recta ratio agibilium (the right criterion of action). Art, however, is
defined by philosophy as recta ratio factibilium (the right criterion of
production).
(3) Promethidion, Bogumi
l, vv. 185-186: Pisma wybrane, Warsaw 1968,
vol. 2, p. 216.
(4) The Greek translation of the Septuagint expresses this well in rendering
the Hebrew term t(o-)b (good) as kalón (beautiful).
(5) Philebus, 65 A.
(6) JOHN PAUL II, Encyclical Letter Fides et Ratio (14 September 1998), 80:
AAS 91 (1999), 67.
(7) This pedagogical principle was given authoritative formulation by Saint
Gregory the Great in a letter of 599 to Serenus, Bishop of Marseilles: “Painting
is employed in churches so that those who cannot read or write may at least read
on the walls what they cannot decipher on the page”, Epistulae, IX, 209: CCL
140A, 1714.
(8) Lodi di Dio Altissimo, vv. 7 and 10: Fonti Francescane, No. 261, Padua
1982, p. 177.
(9) Legenda Maior, IX, 1: Fonti Francesane, No. 1162, loc. cit., p. 911.
(10) Enkomia of the Orthós of the Holy and Great Saturday.
(11) Homily I, 2: PG 34, 451.
(12) “At nobis ars una fides et musica Christus”: Carmen 20, 31: CCL 203,
144.
(13) Cf. JOHN PAUL II, Apostolic Letter Duodecimum Saeculum (4 December
1987), 8-9: AAS 80 (1988), pp. 247-249.
(14) La prospettiva rovesciata ed altri scritti, Rome 1984, p. 63.
(15) Paradiso XXV, 1-2.
(16) Cf. JOHN PAUL II, Homily at the Mass for the Conclusion of the
Restoration of Michelangelo's Frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, 8 April 1994:
Insegnamenti, XVII, 1 (1994), 899-904.
(17) Cf. AAS 56 (1964), 438-444.
(18) No. 62.
(19) Message to Artists, 8 December 1965: AAS 58 (1966), 13.
(20) Cf. No. 122.
(21) SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium et
Spes, 62.
(22) La teologia nel XII secolo, Milan 1992, p. 9.
(23) SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Pastoral Constitution on the Church
in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 22.
(24) Hymn at Vespers on Pentecost.
(25) F. DOSTOYEVSKY, The Idiot, Part III, chap. 5.
(26) Sero te amavi! Pulchritudo tam antiqua et tam nova, sero te amavi!:
Confessions, 10, 27: CCL 27, 251.
(27) Paradiso XXXI, 134-135.
(28) Oda do m
lodosci, v. 69: Wybór poezji, Wroclaw 1986, vol. 1, p.
63.
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