Universal Principles of Art

71 RELIGIOSITY

BELIEF IN THE SUPERNATURAL AS A SOURCE OF INSPIRATION

The religious impulse has been the motivating factor for a vast number of works of art. Most tribal art appears to have a religious or devotional intention, and much ancient art revolves around religious practices. Western art was largely religious until the Renaissance and wasn’t dominated by secular art until the nineteenth century. Indeed it might be possible to argue that the respect that is accorded to artworks in the contemporary world is part of the legacy of artworks as a focus of devotion. We might infer, therefore, that the making of images in tribal societies is an expression of a universal human drive to externalize and thereby control forces that remain mysterious ...