Aniconism in Christianity - Reformation and Counter-Reformation

Reformation and Counter-Reformation

Opposition to religious imagery was a feature of proto-Protestant movements such as the Lollards in England, and then became a key feature of the Protestant Reformation, when Protestants preached in violent terms the rejection of what they perceived as idolatrous Catholic practices such as religious pictures, statues, or relics of saints. Andreas Karlstadt was the earliest extreme iconoclast, to be followed by John Calvin and Huldrych Zwingli. The Reformed (Calvinist) churches and certain sects (most notably the Puritans and some of the Baptist churches) completely prohibited the display of religious images, even the cross. Theologians such as Francis Turretin, Theodore Beza, the Divines of the Westminster Assembly, and later Robert Dabney and John Murray, explicitly reject the depiction of Christ, citing arguments drawn from the second commandment, as well as writings of the early church, using "with appalling monotony" the same texts and arguments as Byzantine iconolasts. The Calvinist Westminster Larger Catechism of 1647 asks in Question 109, 'What are the sins forbidden in the second commandment? Answer: The sins forbidden in the second commandment are, all devising, counseling, commanding, using, and anywise approving, any religious worship not instituted by God himself; tolerating a false religion; the making any representation of God, of all or of any of the three persons, either inwardly in our mind, or outwardly in any kind of image or likeness of any creature'.

Apart from official destruction of art, there were outbreaks of violent iconoclasm such as the Beeldenstorm in the Low Countries in 1566. Lutheranism and Anglicanism also removed most religious images and symbols from churches and discouraged their private use. However while portraits of saints were destroyed, portraits of contemporary individuals, including church leaders, were not considered problemmatic, and exist in large numbers, with some "Lutheran altarpieces" even showing leading reformers as the Apostles at the Last Supper. Lutherans and some Calvinists did not object to small religious images, typically of episodes from the New Testament, in the form of prints, and Bible illustrations or picture books, especially those intended for children, were and continue to be widely used in Protestantism, so that in the 17th century, even "the ordinary Puritan enjoyed a Bible with pictures". Elizabeth I of England was one of many Protestants to exhibit somewhat contradictory attitudes, both ordering a crucifix for her chapel when they were against a law she had approved, and objecting forcefully when the Dean of St Paul's put in the royal pew a service book with "cuts resembling angels and saints, nay, grosser absurdities, pictures resembling the Holy Trinity". Many Protestant churches are now considerably more relaxed over the use of religious art and symbols than they were in the Reformation period, though many denominations avoid images in churches, and in the Anglican Church matters such as the use of altar crosses and crucifixes can arouse strong feelings.

Faced with the Protestant challenge to imagery, then far more virulent than it usually is today, the Catholic Counter-Reformation reacted by quietly removing some types of medieval imagery that could not be justified theologically, but otherwise by strengthening its commitment to the use of art and images to promote the Christian message, though tightening up on the detailed content of imagery, which was brought under stricter control by the church.

The virtual end of the production of religious painting in Protestant parts of Europe had the effect of diverting artistic production into secular subjects, especially in Dutch Golden Age painting of the 17th century. While Catholic Europe was still producing Baroque altarpieces in large numbers, the Netherlands produced genre scenes, very often of ungodly behaviour, still lifes, portraits and landscapes. Moralistic messages were often attached to these, though the subject matter often fights somewhat with them. Protestant religious art, mainly in the form of illustrations of biblical events, continued in printmaking and book illustrations, for example in the etchings of Rembrandt, who also painted biblical subjects. In the early stages of the Reformation, Protestant propagandists made vigorous use of images satirizing their opponents.