What is religion and art briefly. The relationship between art and religion. The art of ancient Russian icon painting

The simplified etymology of the word “religion” elevates this concept to the Latin religio (conscientiousness, reverence, piety, shrine). Another etymological meaning of this concept seems more accurate, indicating the Latin verb religare (re-ligare, that is, to reconnect, connect, restore a lost connection). In other words, religion is not just the endowment of something sacred meaning, but participation in God, personal self-determination, communication and connection with God, which fills human life with deep meaning and real rationality.

Religion necessarily contains both a personal element and an organic (conciliar) element, which in itself is a guarantee against mystical self-will and morbid fantasy.

The main functions of religion: social-organizational, consolidation, normative and compensatory can be realized only in one way: to use the collective spiritual energy of society in the most active way to create a universal paradigm of being, so that later it can just as effectively save it for many centuries, force cultural subjects voluntarily set certain boundaries for their innovative activities.

The core of any religion and religiosity in general is faith, more specifically, faith in the supernatural, which especially clearly reveals its traditionalizing properties, especially when compared with knowledge; In comparison, faith forms extremely stable attitudes towards the world and people, which, moreover, do not require objective verification.

At the dawn of mankind, religion was the main spiritual form of culture. Through religious faith man creates a special sacred space as the basis for animating the surrounding world and representing it on three levels: the level of the sky (the space where the gods live), the level of the earth and the level of the underworld (the kingdom of the dead). The religious idea of ​​a three-level space of existence is being transformed in all religions of the world.

Early forms of religion include animism, fetishism, and totemism. Religion as a cultural form consists of three main elements: religious knowledge, religious cult and religious ritual. In early forms of religion, ritual and cult were practically carried out in forms of magic. The magical ritual of “controlling the weather” served to unite the tribe, clan, and mobilized its vital forces.

The main form of religious knowledge is myth. The spiritualization of nature and the deification of natural elements reveals to us already in primitive culture the faces of great deities who received further development in world religions.

Culture is a special mechanism of social inheritance that ensures the continuity of human spiritual existence. It is immaterial, extraphysical, extrabiological and in its essence organically merged with religious experience.

In the cultural system, the problem of the relationship between art and religion occupies a very prominent place. Students, and listeners of various audiences, are interested in the essence and relationship between these two cultural phenomena.

Art and religion two various shapes social consciousness, reflection of reality. Art is a specific kind of practically spiritual exploration of the world. In this regard, art includes a group of varieties of human activity: painting, music, theater, fiction, etc., united because they are artistic and figurative forms of reproducing reality. In a broader sense, the word “art” refers to any form of practical activity when it is performed skillfully, masterfully, skilfully in an aesthetic sense. Fantasy in art by its nature belongs to fantasy of the first type. It contributes to a deeper and more complete achievement of reality, real human characters and social relations. She does not recognize the real existence of fantastic images, the supernatural. Religious fantasy belongs to the second type of fantasy. It necessarily includes faith in real existence supernatural powers. Belief in the existence of the supernatural is main feature any religion.

Both art and religion are characterized by an emotional attitude towards the object. But aesthetic feelings arise in the process of human interaction with reality, with nature, and religious experiences are aimed at objects that do not really exist, at the supernatural.

Art and religion differ from each other both in their role and in their essence and social functions. Art reflects reality in artistic images, is one of the most important ways aesthetic development of reality. The role of art in public life is enormous.

Any profound reorganization of social relations, from antiquity to the present day, is prepared with the active participation of art. In its historical development, it rose to ever higher levels of humanism, striving to create an image of a person free from suffering and tragic delusions. Religion sought to affirm the eternity of human suffering and instill obedience and humility, promising illusory bliss in the other world.

The complex process of interaction between art and religion, which dates back to very ancient times, acquired the most systematized form at the level of interaction between art and the world religions of Christianity, Buddhism and Islam. The principles of using art for one's own purposes differ in each of these religions.

So, for example, in countries where Christianity was widespread, religious art was mainly fine, while in countries where Islam spread, it was decorative and applied. Any work of art that does not fit into religious understanding was condemned by the church as sinful. She, as far as it was in her power, prevented the revelation of the values ​​of earthly existence, earthly joys, the awakening of moods and optimism. Laughter and jokes, says John Chrysostom, come from the devil, and not from pain. Religious intolerance towards “playing and dancing” became increasingly acute. Exceptions were not allowed under any circumstances. Playing, singing, and dancing were not allowed “neither in houses, nor on the streets, nor in marketplaces” (markets, squares).

As you know, Russian song has a very long history. Long before the introduction of Christianity in Rus', Eastern Slavs musical traditions have already developed. Music, ritual and everyday, lyrical and warlike, labor and satirical, permeated the entire life of our distant ancestors. Foreign travelers of those times never forgot to especially note the passionate love of the “Russians” for song and dance.

Music, closely related to all manifestations folk life, was declared a product of sin and evil, destruction for the soul, “a demonic obsession.”

When analyzing the relationship between art and religion, it is necessary to pay attention not to such a concept as “religious art”.

As is known, religion and art in the course of their historical development not only interacted, they penetrated each other, intertwined with each other, merged, forming “religious art.” And church ministers and church organizations, in turn, sought to include art in the system of religious worship.

Religious cult is the most important element of any religion. No religion can exist without a cult, and art acted as an element of the cult, it was called upon to serve it. A cult, in all elements of which works of art are used, should inspire a person with the beauty of the heavenly world.

The inclusion of religious cult in the system had a significant impact on both the content of art and its form.

The main content of cult art became images of supernatural beings: spirits, gods, etc. The artistic form was considered by clergy only as a means capable of arousing in people an emotional attitude towards mythological images and confirming their belief in the existence of the supernatural. All those works of art that are included in the system of religious worship and perform certain functions in it can be called religious art.

In the process of historical development, art gained more and more relative independence, and art gradually emerged that was not directly related to cult. Already in ancient times, light architecture, painting, sculpture, and literature developed.

Professional artists who are not associated with religious organizations are appearing. But in the Middle Ages, when religious ideology became dominant, the development of secular art was significantly slowed down. During the Renaissance, there was a rapid development of non-church art. Many artists and writers of this era created works commissioned by secular rulers and rich people.

Canonical religious traditions cease to have a determining influence on their creativity. If in the Middle Ages almost all painting directly served the church (icons, frescoes, etc.), then in the subsequent era, so-called easel painting with religious content appeared outside the church. The secular, non-religious orientation of the artistic works of the Renaissance masters is recognized by theologians themselves. Among the great artists of this era, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and others, religious subjects, themes and images often appeared only as a unique way of embodying purely secular, earthly content.

The source and goal of artistic creativity is recognized not to be union with God, but the earthly life of man with its joys and sorrows. As is known, when the humanists of the Renaissance, expressing the energy, love of life and confidence of the young bourgeoisie, proclaimed the slogan of their activity “I am a man, and nothing human is alien to me,” in the field of art this led to the creation of works where the earthly man became the center of attention, and human problems

The plot and images of a work of art do not in themselves make it religious. A work of art is religious only when the artist, through art, affirms the reality of the supernatural world and interprets man as a weak and sinful being.

An artist who in the past created works related to religion could not help but introduce into his creation something that was of a secular, non-religious nature.

Many prominent figures the arts of the New Age carried out the orders of the church, religious subjects inspired many masters: Rembrandt, Velazquez, A. Ivanov, Bach, Haydn, Mozart and others, although they, as a rule, were no longer concerned with the religious theme, but with the transmission of human experiences through religious subjects, earthly passions and conflicts.

It should be noted that the art of music has a tremendous power of emotional impact on the minds and hearts of people.

Figuratively speaking, music speaks to a person in its inherent aesthetically beautiful artistic language, without the need for tedious, fruitless edification of people’s moral feelings, it gives a person certain moral feelings of people, a certain emotional-positive charge, awakens in him everything good and bright. In the art of music, the artistic mastery of reality is manifested, as in any other form of art. Religion is closely connected with architecture, or the “mother of all arts,” as it was once called, and with decorative and applied arts. In the images of church architecture, both art and its religious purpose merge into organic unity.

Under the auspices of church architecture, almost all types of art are united: church painting, church music, religious sculpture, poetry, applied and decorative arts, design, etc.

It should be noted that church buildings were originally multifunctional in purpose.

For example, the multifunctionality of the architecture of Russian ancient “winter” churches was expressed, first of all, in the fact that the refectory (dining room) was often 23 times larger in area than the church itself.

The refectory in them was primarily a “secular” room and served the public needs of the parish population.

It was a place for peasant gatherings, where various economic issues, legal proceedings were resolved, royal decrees were announced, officials were elected, etc.

In terms of their historical, cultural and artistic merits, the monuments of religious architecture of the past are unequal and their value is determined by completely earthly characteristics.

The masterpieces of ancient religious architecture most harmoniously and holistically reflected the era, embodied in their images the worldview of the people who created them, their ideas about beauty, high level mastering the aesthetic properties of building materials.

It is known that the magnificent monuments of Muslim architecture, mosques, minarets, mausoleums of sheikhs and other saints, were built by the best professional master architects. The details of these monuments are doors, portals, walls, windows, mihrabs, etc. decorated with magnificent ornamental carvings and artistically designed inscriptions by famous stone and wood carvers who achieved high professional perfection in their craft.

Mimbaras (pulpits for the preacher in the mosque) were commissioned from unsurpassed masters of artistic wood carving. Theological literature was beautifully decorated by virtuoso masters-ornamentalists; it was copied by calligraphers who devoted themselves to achieving the heights of mastery in artistic writing.

Thus, analyzing the essence and relationship, the interaction of the two cultural phenomena of art and religion, we can come to the conclusion that this interaction throughout history was conditioned by many objective circumstances, that both religion and art from the very beginning of their existence played and are playing a huge role in the life of society, in shaping people’s views on the world, worldview.

Religion forms its own picture of the world, and art forms its own; however, both create in their own way a unique world of cultural traditions.

Religion seems, in the words of F. Engels, “... nothing more than a fantastic reflection in the heads of people of those external forces that dominate them in their Everyday life, a reflection in which earthly forces take the form of unearthly ones.”

But there is something in common between them: in both art and religion, human imagination occupies a very important place. Artistic creativity is impossible without fantasy, however, its role in art is fundamentally different from its role in religion. DI. Pisarev wrote that there is a dream that arouses activity in a person, leads him forward to achieve real goals, mobilizes his feeling and will. And there is a different kind of dream that relaxes a person, leading him away from reality.

The problem of the relationship between religion and art can be studied in different aspects. It is possible, for example, a historical and art historical study of their relationship in certain eras, in certain cultures. The relationship between religion and art in certain eras is analyzed in a number of works by scientists on the history of art. For example, in the works of N.A. Berdyaeva, B.A. Rybakova, E.B. Tylor, J.D. Fraser and others. Various aspects of the problem of art and religion were considered by such historians and philosophers as A.V. Gorsky, A.V. Kartashev, P.A. Florensky.

In modern Russian literature, many different publications are devoted to these aspects. The explosion of public interest in this topic at the present time is not accidental: it is with art that many associate the revival of Russia, and the revival of art with religion.

Scientists do not have a consensus on the relationship between art and religion. The first cultural concept is theological, or religious. Almost all of its representatives declared religion to be the basis of culture. This point of view was fully expressed by the famous English ethnographer J. Fraser. He believed that “all culture comes from the temple.”

This approach is opposed by another - atheistic, which generally excludes religion from the concept of culture, considering them to be different phenomena, opposing each other. The origins of such views go back to the “Enlightenment concept” (Holbach, Helvetius, Diderot, La Mettrie, Feuerbach, etc.). According to it, religion opposes spiritual progress. Feuerbach believed that religion arises “only in the darkness of ignorance, need, helplessness, lack of culture” and, therefore, therefore contains elements that are significantly opposed to education.

Generalizing, theoretical works on the problems of the relationship between religion and art are few in the scientific research literature. These include, first of all, the works of Professor E.G. Yakovleva. Doctor of Philosophy Ugrinovich D.M. in his theoretical essay, he examined the key theoretical problems of the relationship between art, religion and atheism, showed the social origins of art and religion, and explored their interaction in primitive society. In their works one can find both points of contact and certain differences in the interpretation of certain issues. Such discrepancies are quite understandable, according to many scientists, since the problem of the relationship between religion and art is very complex and multifaceted and has not yet been sufficiently studied. Its scientific solution can only be the result of the efforts of many researchers.

There are as many definitions of the essence of religion as there are of culture. From the position of modern philosophy, religion is derived from the Latin word relegio - piety, piety, shrine and gives the following definition: “Religion is a worldview and attitude, as well as corresponding behavior determined by faith in the existence of God; a sense of connectedness, dependence and obligation in relation to the mystery a power that gives support and is worthy of worship."

In understanding religion as a cultural phenomenon, an explanation of its origin and functions plays an important role. These subjects are of particular interest to sociology, psychology and philosophy of religion. Religion as an integral sociocultural phenomenon is studied by a special philosophical discipline - religious studies.

In the sociology of religion, there are two leading trends in understanding its essence. One goes back to the French philosopher E. Durkheim (1858-1917), who saw in religion a system of collective ideas that contribute to the unity of society and the maintenance of its integrity. Thus, the consolidating function of religion was put forward as the main one. Another direction developed within the framework of “understanding sociology” under the influence of the ideas of M. Weber (1864-1920) and considered religion as a motive of social action, directing human activity towards specific life goals: political, economic, ideological, etc. This is how the understanding of the goal-setting function of religion took shape.

The psychological aspect of the search for the essence of religion also focuses on the compensatory function. Religion seems to be a way of making up for human powerlessness before nature, society and in relation to himself. It promotes internal harmonization of the personality and achieves this as a result of emotional unloading, catharsis (from the Greek katharsis - cleansing), mystical cleansing of the soul from layers of sensuality and physicality.

In a philosophical vein, from the point of view of spiritual tasks, religion is understood in the aspect of its ideological, moral function. It perceives (worldview function), explains (worldview), evaluates (worldview) and provides meanings (meaning creation, moral function) the entire body of knowledge and meanings that are developed in various fields of activity.

In contrast to mythological consciousness, religion produces order in the “vertical direction,” spiritually elevating everything that is valued, giving everything a special sacred meaning. This procedure defines a special space of culture, a pole, the tensions of which are localized in the earthly world and the heavenly world. This is where a person is placed with his main life problem, experienced as a fundamental internal contradiction. The philosophy of religion formulates it as a contradiction between the essence, the world of the sacred in man and his existence in the manifest physical world, where he needs salvation and protection. As a result, for a person, the importance of the emotional attitude to the outside world, excessive trust in it and worldly motives is reduced, and in general the role of nature in the human mind is limited. The main attention is transferred to some higher object that goes beyond the scope of human existence and understanding. The ultimate goal of man's religious efforts is his salvation. It is understood as the complete overcoming of lack of freedom and alienation, conceived as physical and moral evil, and can act in the most different forms. For example, as faith in a supreme gift from God, as salvation through the church, in the form of mystical revelation or loving piety, as moral improvement and ritualism.

The object of religious relations recognized as a shrine was at first some existing object, an animal endowed with supersensitive properties. He was worshiped, he became a fetish. Since a person wanted the object of worship to provide the effects he (the person) needed, magic developed, witchcraft rituals and spells arose.

This is how the belief arose that the soul exists independently, separately from the body. This belief is called animism. Therefore, the further development of religious relations led to the division of the world into two - the really existing and the otherworldly, supernatural. Later, more complex religious systems arose and were formed. World-class religions, i.e. the most widespread - Buddhism, Christianity, Islam - were formed together with feudal society.

Religion and art have common origins and roots. The origins of art are in human practice, in that side of it where human initiative finds its manifestation. For freedom of creativity is an expression of developing and deepening labor activity, in the process and result of which a person creates tools of labor, masters the world around him, deepens communication with others like himself, realizes himself, his capabilities, and aesthetically masters the world.

As society developed, polytheism and national religions arose (Judaism, Hinduism, Shintoism, Confucianism, etc.). A classic example of polytheism is the ancient Greek and Roman religions with numerous pantheons of gods.

In the world historical process, different religions play different roles. The most noticeable, as indicated, is carried out by those of them that are usually called world-wide in terms of the number of believers: Buddhism, Christianity, Islam. It was these religions that showed maximum adaptability to changing social relations and went far beyond the territory where they originally arose.

The historical fate of all three world religions, despite the diversity of their historical environment, has something in common. Originating initially in one specific ethnic cultural environment, each of these three religions subsequently spread widely throughout different countries, getting into different conditions, adapting flexibly and simultaneously influencing them. This circumstance alone speaks volumes from the point of view of the interaction of these religions and the art of different peoples.

One of the symbolic forms of culture that masters the world through a system of images is art. It characterizes a person’s ability to artistically express his inner world. In order to become publicly accessible, an artistic image must have a recognizable form, but at the same time not lose its uniqueness. In every era, with every artist and in every art form, it always acquires a different, unique sound, despite the fact that the artist relies on stable rules and fundamental visual motifs. So, the language of art is unique, it is always a mirror of the individual soul, and art itself is a field of experimentation, a refuge of geniuses who create new forms and rules. How most emotional look human activity, art is characterized by dynamism, acute reaction to the variability of the life world, rapid change of assessments, styles, and means of expression.

In art, like in no other field, the artist is encouraged to go beyond the canons. True, it is impossible to talk about the absolute freedom of an artist’s creativity, because he is a derivative of his culture.

Art should be elevated and accessible at the same time. It reflects in artistic form the world of feelings of contemporaries, the state of social consciousness as a whole. Art is based on its own criteria, the main ones being beauty and harmony. Art establishes proportions, the proportionality of a person with the world, taking the concept of beauty as a standard and giving it almost sacred meaning. The words of F.M. are known. Dostoevsky: "Beauty will save the world." Art is always associated with a certain sensory form, appeals to contemplation or imagination and is disinterested in nature. In art, beauty is the main artistic value, conditioned by the expression of humanistic ideals.

Thus, art not only describes life, but also gives its assessments to it, using not so much the criterion of reliability and identity, but rather the criterion of plausibility. The power of art lies not in blindly copying reality, but in presenting it in a special light. This is achieved by removing the artist from life within the limits in which he can constructively connect the real with the imaginary and thereby clarify his relationships with the environment, transfer the unconscious aspects of these relationships into the mainstream of consciousness.

Art in modern world, like all other spheres of culture, is undergoing a radical restructuring.

Art dies not on its aesthetic surface, but in its core, which it has in common with the structure of the human soul. Symptoms of dying are: exhaustion of imagination, dehumanization of the hero, displacement of high feelings by pragmatic calculation.

Based on this, art is understood as aesthetic skill and the works created thanks to it. They are distinguished from natural objects by the man-made nature of their execution, and from works of science and technology by the figurative, emotional structure of the content.

Religion and art have the following relationship.

Literary and religious monuments. The study of the history of religion is based largely on the study of religious monuments, which are convincing examples of the connection between religion and art.

By religious monuments we mean, first of all, cult monuments: monuments of religious art (painting, music), religious literature, religious architecture, the creators of which actually pursued cult goals.

Having a functional nature, many religious monuments are at the same time achievements of world culture. Brilliant architects, artists, masters of fresco painting, icon painters, and composers took part in their creation. Thus, religion had a huge influence on the development of all types of art, and, consequently, culture in general. The history of culture has preserved many literary and written religious monuments, including the most important Vedas, the Bible, and the Koran.

The Vedas are the oldest monument of Indian religious literature, developed over many centuries (end of the 2nd - beginning of the 1st thousand BC). The Vedas consist of four collections:

• – Rigveda - hymns of mythological and cosmological content;
• – Samaveda - chants, repeating texts of the Rigveda and supplementing them with ritual and ceremonial instructions;
• – Yajorvezha - description of Vedic rituals, rules of sacrifice;
• – Atharva Veda - magic spells and formulas. On their basis, the Vedic religious tradition developed, many images and philosophical concepts that were later included in such religious philosophical systems, like Brahmanism, Hinduism, Jainism, Buddhism.

The Koran is a monument of Arab-Muslim and world culture. According to legend, the compilation and editing of the Koran began under the supervision of the first Arab caliphs, using records made under the Prophet Muhammad.

The Koran, according to Muslims, is God's direct speech to people, in which he instructs them in the true faith, warns sinners of eternal torment, and promises eternal bliss to the God-fearing. The Koran contains the foundations of Muslim theology and law. In worship, only the Arabic text of the Koran is used, since the meaning of the revelations is distorted when translated into other languages.

The Koran contains stories about the origin and structure of the world, the creation of man; Provisions of a socio-legal nature occupy a large place. The Koran allows us to trace the influence of ancient Arab tribes and other peoples of the late 6th - first quarter of the 7th centuries. for the development of the culture of other peoples.

The most important monument of Christian literature is the Bible, created in 1 thousand BC. e. The book called "The Bible" has the subtitle "The Book of the Holy Scriptures of the Old and New Testaments", which shows that it is not a single book, but a collection of books: there are 77 of them (including non-canonical books Old Testament).

The Old Testament - the first part of the Bible considered by Judaism and Christianity as Holy Scripture - contains 39 books recognized as canonical. In addition, there are 11 more books in the Old Testament that are not recognized as canonical (Tobit, Judith, Jesus son of Sirach, Maccabees).

The original text of the New Testament is in ancient Greek. New Testament is a part of the Bible revered as sacred scripture by Christians. The name is associated with the doctrine of a new agreement between God and people through Jesus Christ, includes 27 books: the Gospels (Matthew, Mark, Luke, John), Acts of the Apostles, 21 Epistles of the Apostles, Revelations of John the Theologian, Apocalypse. The content of the Bible text is diverse and very heterogeneous. Its individual parts were written at different times; they appeared gradually over the course of a millennium. The original text of the Old Testament was written in Hebrew (very few fragments are in Aramaic).

The art of ancient Russian icon painting. Picturesque images were not alien to the culture of pagan Rus'. But it was with the adoption of Christianity that new types of monumental painting came to Rus' - mosaics and frescoes, as well as easel painting - icon painting.

Icon is the Greek word “eiken” converted into Russian, which means image, image, imitation. Icon painting originates from Hellenistic portraiture. In particular, the so-called Fayum portraits of the 1st - 3rd centuries played a big role here. AD They got their name from the Fayum oasis in Lower Egypt, where they were found. Fayum portraits were painted on boards with wax paints (encaustic). The oldest surviving icons, Coptic and Byzantine, were made using the same technique.

An icon is a “book for the illiterate”; it is considered by the church not as identical to the deity, but as a symbol, mysteriously connected with it, and therefore giving a spiritual connection to the “original”, i.e. penetration into the world of the supernatural through a real world object. Therefore, iconography has its own metalanguage.

Byzantium not only introduced Russian artists to a painting technique that was new to them, but also gave them an iconographic canon, the immutability of which was strictly protected by the church. Orthodox Church never allowed icons to be painted from living people and demanded strict adherence to the canon, which established those features of iconographic images that separated the “high” (divine) world from the “down” (earthly).

The convention of writing was supposed to emphasize in the appearance of the persons depicted on the icon their unchanging essence and spirituality. Therefore, the figures were painted flat, motionless, and a special system of depicting space (reverse perspective) and time relations (timeless image) was used. The conventional golden background of the icon symbolized divine light. The entire image is permeated with this color; the figures do not cast shadows, since there are no shadows in the Kingdom of God. Orthodox theologians called icons “theology in colors” and saw in them a means of directing the thoughts and feelings of believers to “heavenly things.”

Another feature of iconographic images is their symbolism, accessible and understandable to a medieval person, but requiring certain knowledge from us. This art is deeply symbolic, every detail is a symbol, if you miss it you can lose the meaning of the whole phrase.

Religious art concept

A conversation about religious art should begin with a clarification of this concept. In Soviet art history literature, unfortunately, there are no clear definitions of religious art, although many prominent researchers use this term2. Therefore, we will try to find out the main features of this concept, that is, to determine the criteria that allow this or that work of art to be considered religious.

First of all, a general methodological question arises about the legality of using the concept of “religious art” from a Marxist position. Naturally, the legality of this concept is ultimately determined by an objective entity.

1 See, for example: Alpatov M.V. Andrey Rublev. M., 1972; Alpatov M.V. Sketches on the history of Russian art. M., 1967, vol. 1; Lazarev V. N. Byzantine painting. M., 1971, etc.

by the expression of the phenomenon itself, i.e., religious art. For any thoughtful art historian, the existence of such a phenomenon as religious art does not raise the slightest doubt. Religion and art, in the course of their historical development, not only interacted, they penetrated each other, intertwined, merged, forming those unique phenomena in the history of culture that we denote by the term “religious art.” Religious organizations sought to subjugate art. , put it at your service, include it in the system of religious cult.

No religion can exist without a cult, that is, a system of special actions with the help of which religious people try to influence the supernatural objects of their faith - spirits, gods, etc. Cult actions involve the creation of a special environment, different from everyday life, saturated with religious symbols and images of supernatural forces and beings. Already at the dawn of human history, in primitive society, cult actions included many aesthetic components, as discussed in detail in the previous chapter.

In ancient polytheistic (polytheistic) religions that arose in a class society, the very system of artistic images and means of aesthetic influence was woven into rituals and served the purpose of forming religious images, myths and ideas among those praying, and maintaining intense religious feelings and experiences in them. These are, for example, in Ancient Egypt majestic temple structures, sculptural images of gods and pharaohs, reliefs on the walls exalting the exploits of the pharaoh gods, their power and wisdom.

Such are the numerous Buddhist temples in the East (the most striking example is the famous Boro-bodur in Indonesia), where, with the help of a complex system of spatial solutions, sculptures and reliefs, the basic ideas of Buddhism were embodied in symbolic and allegorical images: suffering as the essence of earthly life and a gradual departure from sensual aspirations, “self-deepening” as the only path from earthly suffering to nirvana.

Here art acted as a religious function: it was an element (side) of a religious cult and was called upon to serve it. This, of course, does not mean that such works of art did not have and do not now have aesthetic value. On the contrary, their aesthetic value is preserved even when their religious functions die out. Thus, today we admire ancient Egyptian cult images, although the religion of that era has long disappeared. Borobodur attracts the attention of tens of thousands of tourists, most of whom are far from Buddhism. At the same time, it is possible to correctly understand and comprehend such works of art only on the basis of studying their content and functions in the cult system of a particular religion.

Thus, we come to a definition of religious art, which is based on a functional feature. In this sense, we can call religious art those works of art that are included in the system of religious worship and perform certain functions in it.

It should be emphasized that the inclusion of religious cult in the system had a significant impact on both the content of art and its form. The main content of cult art was images of supernatural beings:

spirits, gods, etc. The artistic form was considered by clergy only as a means capable of arousing in people an emotional attitude towards mythological images and affirming their belief in the existence of the supernatural.

This definition, although important, does not exhaust all aspects of the problem of religious art. In the process of historical development, art gained increasing relative independence. Already in the era of slavery and feudalism, art arose that was not directly related to cult. In ancient times, secular architecture, painting, sculpture, and literature developed. Professional artists who are not associated with religious organizations are appearing. The Middle Ages significantly slowed down the development of secular art, but did not stop it. The development of non-church art was especially rapid during the Renaissance. Many artists and writers of this era created works commissioned by secular rulers and rich people. The content of their works is becoming more and more diverse, the form is becoming more free and original. Canonical religious traditions cease to have a determining influence on their creativity.

But under these conditions, the problem of religious art takes on a new side. Although art may be functionally unrelated to a religious cult and not directly related to it, it is capable of preserving religious content, i.e. artistic means affirm religious ideas and ideas. So, for example, if in the Middle Ages almost all painting directly served the church (frescoes, icons, etc.), then in the subsequent era, easel painting with religious content appeared outside the church. If

In the Middle Ages, the “lives of saints” played an important role in literature; nowadays, in capitalist countries, novels, novels and short stories are published, saturated with religious and mystical ideas and sentiments.

Consequently, today there is not only religious art included in the system of cult (let's call it religious art in the narrow sense of the word), but also religious art that is not directly related to the cult, but has a religious ideological orientation. (Let's call it religious art in the broad sense of the word.)

The question of the criteria for classifying a particular work of art as religious is relatively simple when it comes to religious art;

it becomes significantly more complicated if we move on to works not related to the cult. Obviously, one or another work of art cannot be classified as religious art just because its theme, plot, and images are borrowed from religious mythology. In the art of the peoples of Europe, we know many works of painting, sculpture, and literature that use individual plots and images of biblical mythology, but in their ideological orientation and worldview they are very far from Christianity. For example, among the great artists of the Renaissance - Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and others - religious subjects, themes and images often acted only as a unique way of embodying purely secular, earthly content.

Let's look from this point of view at the famous " last supper"Leonardo da Vinci. Soviet art critic V. Lazarev believes that this plot attracted the artist “not with its dogmatic content; but with the opportunity to unfold it before the viewer

a great human drama, show different characters, reveal the spiritual world of a person and accurately and clearly describe his experiences. He perceived the “Last Supper” as a scene of betrayal and set himself the goal of introducing into this traditional image that dramatic element, thanks to which it would acquire a completely new emotional sound.”1

We find the same earthly content, alien to religious ideas, in the works of other significant masters of that era. Although Michelangelo borrows in most cases the images and themes of his works from Christian mythology, the content of his creations, their pathos and ideological orientation are not only far from Christianity, but sometimes even oppose it. Michelangelo's sculptures and paintings breathe titanic power; at their center is a struggling, thinking and suffering man in all the violent boiling of his passions. There is no place for Christian humility, obedience and meekness.

It is curious that the secular, non-religious orientation of the artistic works of the Renaissance masters is also recognized by theologians. One of the theological dissertations recently defended at the Moscow Theological Academy stated that paintings on religious themes by Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo and other artists of that era do not meet the tasks of church art and cannot be considered as its examples.

Even the image of Christ can be interpreted by the artist without religious ideas ny positions. In this regard, it is enough to point out famous painting I. N. Kramskoy “Christ in the Desert” and a number of paintings by V. D. Polenov, where in the guise of Christ it is not God who appears, but an ordinary one

1 See: Lazarev V.N. Leonardo da Vinci. M., 1952, p. 49-50.

a person who thinks deeply and painfully experiences the suffering of the people around him.

Thus, neither the plot nor the images in themselves make a work of art religious. What makes it religious is the general ideological orientation, the general meaning. If an artist, through the use of art, affirms the reality of the supernatural world and interprets man as a weak and sinful being, entirely dependent on the supernatural, this work is religious.

It should be recognized that the application of this general position in the course of a specific analysis and evaluation of a particular work of art seems to be a very difficult task. Art, as a rule, is not perceived unambiguously by different people, since its artistic and figurative system is very complex and multifaceted. Not all the depths of a work of art are accessible to every viewer, reader or listener. In addition, for evaluation

Certain works of art are always influenced by subjective tastes, predilections, likes and dislikes. Therefore, when assessing the ideological meaning and ideological orientation of certain works of art, not only disputes are possible, but also sharp differences, including among specialists. However, despite all these difficulties, the general evaluation criterion seems to be beyond doubt.

Any religious art, naturally, has a religious ideological orientation. However, religious art is also religious in a specific, functional sense, since it acts either as an object of worship (an icon in a church) or as a means of implementing religious actions (organ music, choir singing, etc.).

In the following presentation, we deliberately limit our analysis to cult art, that is, religious art in the narrow sense of the word.

The relationship between religion and art is fundamentally different from the relationship between religion and science. Intersecting in the field of cognitive activity, religion and science often come into conflict with each other due to the divergence of the principles of religious and scientific knowledge. Science is theoretical knowledge obtained with the help of abstract categories, it strives for an objective reflection of reality. Religion and art are united by the fact that they represent the spiritual and practical mastery of reality through sensory-visual images, based on a person’s subjective, value-based attitude to the world, colored by emotional experiences. The relationship between religion and art in the history of culture has always been extremely close; it is more difficult to separate them than religion and science.

The development of human thinking went from simple sensory images and sensations to artistic and figurative ideas. Artistic-imaginative thinking turns out to be earlier in the history of mankind than abstract-logical thinking, the appearance of which is associated with the so-called “Axial Time”.

In the depths of the undivided figurative mythological consciousness, religion and art are born as parts of ancient mythological and ritual syncretism. Apparently, this was a time when religion was not yet fully religion, and art was not art in the modern sense of the word. Myth was a form of artistic and figurative exploration of the world, within which religious ideas were recorded in images, reproduced in dance and ritual, enhanced by musical rhythmic accompaniment, and consolidated in architectural structures.

For a long time in the history of human culture, it was impossible to separate art and magic, hunting and religious ritual, profane and sacred. Philosophy and science were born by overcoming myth, rejecting it; religion and art arose within a mythological integrity and co-

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kept memories of this unity. All religions known to us have used artistic images in one way or another to express their ideas. For example, adherents of the ancient Vedic religion did not create temples, plastic or pictorial images of their gods, but used the power and expressiveness of the poetic word in the hymns of the Rigveda and in the spells of the Atharvaveda. Buddhism, despite its rejection of the physicality of the earthly world as the embodiment of suffering, turns to plastic arts to create an image of Buddha and perpetuate his memory. Islam, while maintaining a ban on anthropomorphic images, actively uses geometric patterns as a reflection of the beauty of the world and the wisdom of God.

Many religious traditions have viewed art as an analogue of divine creativity. This idea is especially clearly presented in Hinduism, in the doctrine of Maya, in which it is interpreted not only as “an incomprehensible Divine Power that makes the world seem to exist apart from the Divine Reality; in its positive aspect Maya is also the Divine Art that creates all forms. Just as the Absolute objectifies, through its Maya, certain aspects of Itself or certain possibilities contained in Itself, so the artist realizes in his work certain aspects of himself; he projects them as if apart from his undifferentiated being. This is the analogy between Divine Art and human art - in the realization of oneself through objectification"171. In the Christian tradition, God is also often understood as the Great Artist who created the world according to the laws of beauty and gave these laws to the world.

This kind of likening art to divine creation fed ideas about the special role of art in the world. On the one hand, art was viewed as an integral part of religion, even as its quintessence; it was represented as prayer, the highest religious ritual, and a way of approaching God. This is the problem -

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In this new field, H. Sedlmayr’s concept of “the history of art as the history of religion”172 appears, which reflects the idea that art is a form of human communication with the sphere of the divine and that true art is only that which is involved in a religious cult. He comes up with a bold, breathtaking assumption that the history of art, understood in this way, is close to occupying “a predominant position among the mental sciences.” In fact, only religious art was called art, religious experience came extremely close to aesthetic experience, religion itself became in some way art. Thus, for G. Chesterton, D. Newman, S. Peguy, Catholicism was “the most poetic religion.”

On the other hand, in the Romantic movement, art was seen as a phenomenon as important and essential as religion, or even declared to be a religion itself. The Romantics created a cult of creativity and the creator. The creative process was viewed as something transcendental; the creation of a work of art was likened to the process of divine creation, regardless of the theme or plot. Notable in this regard are the words of Goethe, who was the greatest authority for many romantics: “Religion has the same relationship to art as any other of the highest interests of life. It must be considered only as material, completely equal in rights with the material supplied to art by other aspects of life. In the same way, faith and disbelief are by no means the criteria by which works of art should be perceived. On the contrary, completely different human strengths and abilities are needed to perceive them. Art should serve the very organs with which we perceive it. A religious subject can also be good material for art, but only if it provides something universally human.”173 Chapter 3. Religion in the system of the cultural universe

Bearing in mind the close, complex and sometimes polarly assessed relationship between religion and art that existed in the history of human culture, we will try to present them as two different cultural phenomena.

Religion itself general view can be defined as a special way of organizing the spiritual experience of humanity, which is based on the belief in the existence of a supersensible reality that has power over the earthly, sensory world. It is no coincidence that religious experience is often described as “a feeling of dependence, taking the form of a sense of creatureliness, a sense of one’s own insignificance and transience in comparison with that which rises above all creations. a feeling of religious awe and powerlessness before the “mysterium tremendum” (unheard-of mystery). And, finally, this feeling of longing for a transcendent being who enchants us.”174 This description of religious experience, made by Rudolf Otto (1869 - 1937) in the book "The Sacred", has received great fame and recognition in modern religious studies. The feeling of dependence and submission is recognized as one of the main ones in a person’s relationship to the supersensible world.

Art is a way of figuratively mastering reality, that is, a way figurative expression their people internal states and relationships with the environment through shaping, a kind of “modeling of cultural situations with the help of figurative substitutes for reality. Such “projective” reproduction and change of the living environment makes real activity more effective, since, firstly, it does not allow people’s attention to the routine aspects of everyday life to fade, and secondly, it allows us to identify new connections and opportunities contained in this environment”175 .

Art can simulate any cultural situation and convey different shades of emotional state

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of people. This can be either a “feeling of dependence and submission” generated by religious experience, or a feeling of triumph from a sense of dominion over the world. The artist himself may also experience different feelings: a feeling of freedom and creative joy, when the “shaping” coincides with the plan (remember: “Oh, Pushkin, oh, son of a bitch!”), and a feeling of powerlessness, one’s own worthlessness, when this does not succeeds.

The ontological aspect in the relationship between religion and art was analyzed by D.M. Ugrinovich in the widely known book “Art and Religion”176. He identifies two sides in human practice, without isolating which, in his opinion, it is impossible to correctly understand the social origins of both art and religion. One side of human practice expresses and records the degree of domination of people over the objective world, the other - the domination of objective conditions of life over people. “Facts indicate that the beginnings of art and the original religious beliefs arose simultaneously. Although the emergence of the rudiments of art and the first magical beliefs required general epistemological prerequisites (a certain level of development and imagination, an elementary ability to abstract and generalize), the social needs that gave rise to them are fundamentally different from each other. Artistic creativity arose on the basis of the successes of people's labor and production activities, as a result of an increasingly deeper mastery of the properties of things, the ability to give surrounding objects the forms necessary for people, to identify their objective qualities (symmetry, harmony, rhythm, etc.). The beginnings of art, therefore, are associated with that side of human practice that acts as a manifestation of human freedom.”177

The emergence of religion D.M. Ugrinovich connects, on the contrary, with the limitations of human practice, the inability of a person to constantly ensure the desired result Chapter 3. Religion in the system of the cultural universe

efforts, the “blame” for which he places on some external, supersensible forces. “Consequently,” the author concludes, “religion is associated with that side of human practice that records the lack of freedom of people, their dependence on the spontaneous forces of the surrounding world”178. More precisely, religion is associated with ideas about the dependence of the sensual, profane world on the supersensible, sacred world.

E.G. draws attention to several aspects of the difference between religion and art. Yakovlev, a famous Russian esthetician who paid a lot of attention to the problems of the relationship between the religious and the aesthetic179. He also proceeds from the recognition of the existence, especially in the early stages of history, of artistic and religious integrity, identifies a number of common points for art and religion, but also records their opposition.

Thus, the epistemological perspective of considering the relationship between the religious and the aesthetic, in his opinion, most clearly reveals both their emotional community and their opposition in ultimate goals. “In art, an artistic image is the result of “overcoming” vague intuitive reflection, the result of transforming an impulsive emotion into an emotional-rational integrity. Moreover, the very process of creating an artistic image presupposes the organic interweaving of the rational into the artist’s aesthetic attitude towards the object of his creativity”180. Aesthetic emotions are “smart emotions”. In creativity, the artist’s emotionality (intuition, affect, ecstasy) is intertwined with rational aspects expressed in the plan, plot, and plot. The artist’s worldview, beliefs and emotionally charged personal attitude towards the world lie at the basis of artistic creativity.

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In a religious attitude towards an object, on the contrary, “the element of a vague premonition of it” dominates. Almost all world religions orient believers to the fact that a work of art is an image that is not in all respects similar to the prototype, it is an “unlike likeness” that does not reflect what is essential in a real object, but only reminds of it. A believer transfers sensory figurative impressions not to the level of logical conclusions, but to the sphere of principles of religious faith and dogmas. “The epistemological significance of the religious canon lies in the fact that it makes it possible to transfer vague emotional reactions immediately to the level of rigid, solid religious ideas, bypassing the path of creative imagination”181.

Thus, the Christian church, using art as a means of powerful aesthetic and psychological influence on believers, supported and consolidated in tradition those techniques that create the impression of unreality. Light flowing from under the soaring dome, golden backgrounds and halos, static, motionless figures of saints “floating” in airless space, illuminated by the fluctuating flames of candles, polyphonic singing, sounding in a special way under the arches of the temple - all these are the constituent elements of the most powerful “symphony” , called by P. Florensky “temple action”182. The purpose of this temple action, all the elements of which were carefully selected over many centuries until they formed this ensemble, harmonious in composition, powerful in terms of aesthetic and psychological impact, is to evoke in all those present similar feelings of openness to the “heavenly world”, a feeling of contact with it, “ascension” to God, merging with him. In this case, strictly religious problems are solved by means of art, the essential property of which is the ability to simulate situations. Chapter 3. Religion in the system of the cultural universe

The artistic image - the main result of artistic creativity - represents reality as a holistic, sensual, infinitely rich world. Through art, people gain specific, varied knowledge about various aspects of life. This knowledge is not rationalized and reliable, as in science, but it more holistically and fully reflects the world of people. It is no coincidence that last years We are seeing the phenomenon of using literary text instead of scientific text to more fully reconstruct a historical era, as Umberto Eco does in his novels. Art has information redundancy or unlimited information content. A true artist in his work reflects the world much more fully than he initially plans (an example is the novels of M.A. Sholokhov), this is what makes the artist a “tuning fork of the era”, and his work an “encyclopedia of life”. That is why great works of art are “read” anew with each new era; they are multifaceted and inexhaustible in the meanings they contain: religious, philosophical, political, social, aesthetic.

In the case when art is used to convey religious ideas, to reflect the heavenly world, its unlimited information content is narrowed and canalized by religious dogmas and the canon. Everything is aimed at creating a predetermined result, at evoking planned reactions and associations in the audience. This narrows the possibilities of art and demonstrates the service nature of its use.