The Church and Art

Extract

We set out in this essay to make two discoveries. In the first place we have to discover what the Catholic Church has done for Art, and in the second place what, according to the Church, is the relation of Art to Life. The discovery of the practical effect of the Church upon the Arts is of much less moment than the discovery of the necessary implications of Catholic doctrine, for observations upon the fruit of the tree are less important than the knowledge of the tree itself. But as a tree is known by its fruit, so we will attempt to get knowledge of the doctrine of the Church, in the matter of Art and Life, by examining first the artistic product for which the Church may have been responsible. It is true that by examining the artistic product we might, if we conducted the examination with sufficient insight, historical sense, and knowledge, arrive at a true view of the implications of Catholic doctrine, and that, therefore, it would be unnecessary to do more than summarise the results of the examination to discover a Catholic doctrine of the relation of Art to Life. But the artistic product of which the Church appears to be the instigator is so manifold and so various, and the period of time with which the examination would have to deal has seen so many changes and revolutions of thought and manners, that it is better to deal with the matter in two distinct parts, in the first to note simply the material facts, and in the second, not drawing conclusions from the first, to set out, with but brief reference to any examples, the fundamental principles of Catholic faith and philosophy and the resulting æsthetic.