(LifeSiteNews) — On this episode of Faith and Reason, sacred artist and provost of Pontifex University David Clayton joins John-Henry Westen and Deacon Keith Fournier once again to discuss the struggle between creating beautiful sacred art and naturalistic art that stirs up the passions, applying Pope John Paul II’s Theology of the Body to art, the need to rediscover sacred art in our time, and more.
Westen opened the episode by asking Clayton about the difficulty of creating beautiful sacred art without inciting lust.
Clayton explained that the early Church barred nudity in art, as was often seen in ancient Greek works, not to deny the beauty of the human body but to discourage concupiscence and lust.
Then, in the 15th century, prominent artist Leon Battista Alberti reintroduced the Greek style of painting.
“The reason they introduced it was because they had this flawed, in my view, flawed belief that it was good to provoke an erotic response because they believed that if you could then redirect that, that would be the basis of creativity,” Clayton said.
“Now, I say nonsense, but that’s what that’s what they believed. And you get people saying that sort of thing today, and that’s how it became part of the canon.”
Clayton then clarified there were some occasions where naked bodies were painted, such as some paintings of the Baptism of Our Lord or paintings of Adam and Eve.
“But even then, you have, shall we say, judiciously placed tree boughs. They’re aware there are certain parts you shouldn’t look at,” he said.
Then Clayton explained that Pope John Paul II later called for the painting of original man, who was naked without shame. But he emphasized that what the pontiff was calling for was idealistic art, like that of Michaelangelo, not naturalistic nude art as we often see in the modern world.
“Michelangelo painted in a highly idealized form, it’s not naturalistic, it is idealized … This is what John Paul II (said): ‘If you’re going to represent the human form, it must be idealized. He criticizes very strongly naturalistic representations of art, which is what actually began, ironically, after Michelangelo, everything went highly naturalistic,” Clayton said.
“Most of the artists today who say they’re painting the art of the Theology of the Body are doing so in the style of 19th-century realism, which is absolutely not what we want to see. … If you’re going to do that and paint them nude, I might as well take my clothes off now. The reason that that’s wrong is the same that we don’t walk down the street naked; it’s undignified. We’re talking about fallen people viewed by fallen people,” he added.
For more discussion on creating beautiful sacred versus modern naturalistic art and more, tune in to this episode of Faith and Reason.
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