Art and beauty have been cornerstones of the Catholic tradition. Since the earliest days of the faith, artwork has had a central role in evangelization. One just has to look at the Sistine Chapel, or gothic cathedrals, and stained-glass windows to feel pulled into the Christian story. Throughout Catholic history, it has often been the artist who has been the greatest evangelist.
Liz Lev, renowned Art Historian, spoke to EWTN Vatican, “From the very beginning the question is, ‘How do we communicate this great message, this great revelation?’ And of course, we have the scriptures, and we have the liturgy, but very early on the Christians understood that art would be a very powerful form of communication.”
On Friday, December 1, the EWTN Vatican Bureau decided to explore “How art can inspire faith and missionary activity” by hosting the latest edition of Roman Nights inside the Vatican City Walls.
Andreas Thonhauser welcomed participants in the evening, “It’s my privilege today to host you, to guide you also through this evening, we decided on a topic which has grown especially very close to our hearts over the last months. ‘Treasures of Art and Faith.’ Also, because we collaborated with the Vatican museums not far from here.”
To unpack the pivotal role art plays in sharing the faith three panelists were present. Liz Lev, an American Art historian who has given tours and pilgrimages of the Vatican and Rome for over 25 years.
Liz Lev noted, “The beauty of the work of art is the hook and then this possibility of, ‘I want to know more’ and then revealing that underneath it there’s this great vision of redemption, of humanity, of salvation. That really makes the work shine.”
Reverend Professor John Wauck, of the Pontifical University of the Holy Cross in Rome was also called to speak on the spiritual significance of sacred art. He said, “Going into a church is, for anyone as a believer or non-believer, it ought to be a transforming experience. There’s a wonderful phrase in Henry Adams’s book, Mont Saint Michel and Chartres, where he talks about how Saint Thomas’s Summa is the greatest church ever built by man and the Gothic cathedrals are the best expression of that. So, there’s the intellectual church and there’s the architectural church. And when you step into Saint Peters, you’re stepping into Catholicism.”
Also, on the panel was EWTN’s very own documentary filmmaker, Anthony Johnson, who shared with the audience the impact visiting the Vatican Museums had on him as a young man. “When I went there for the first time,” he said, “at 19 years old, I was a little bit dumbfounded by the fact that the Vatican had all these ancient sculptures. Not that they were all Christian, so to say, but it was not strange, but it piqued my curiosity as why we as Catholics would collect things that are not a part of Catholicism. And it’s this appreciation for humanity and for all creation, which is what I learned from that.”
Throughout the evening, the great Catholic tradition of art and beauty were summoned repeatedly. The Vatican Museums serve as that repository of spiritual and artistic treasure meant to be shared with the whole world. Of all the pieces of artwork gathered in the Museums, one echoed more than all the others: the Sistine Chapel.
“What makes the Sistine Chapel so amazing and why it’s so successful,” Liz Lev explained, “is that at the end of the day, whether the people in there realize it, in this incredible series of paintings which show the beginning and the ending of human history. It brings every single person together in that space. And then there’s a sense of what is our purpose? What are we for? And there it is in the same room, The Last Judgment. So, it really the most extraordinary space. And what makes it so wonderful is that there’s only one religion. There’s only one belief system that could have produced that room, and it’s the Catholic faith. It’s ours.”
This article was edited by Jacob Stein.
