Transcending Time: Religious Art from Gothic to Gospel

Time is seemingly always being measured and constantly passing by us, but rarely is it felt.  Due to time’s slippery and almost undefinable nature, it is important to get multiple perspectives on the topic.  In reading the many essays of White Chapel’s Time, authors like Boris Groys and Augustine of Hippo methodically tried to define the most important aspect of time itself, the feeling and perception of it while in the present.  Groys states the importance of always being “with time” rather than “in time,” referencing the importance of savoring a singular moment (Groys, 2013, 152). Augustine focuses on the broader and more traditional notion that all of time can be divided up.  However, most interestingly, he claims that the only instance that time cannot be divided up is in the present moment (Augustine of Hippo, 50, 2013). Following some of the principal notions that these authors set, time is defined by the surreal feeling of itself by a person in a small collection of moments, while still retaining the property to be quantifiably accumulated and measured as the years pass by.

Time exists in all different scales and experiences and sometimes makes us feel a certain way.  Whenever someone goes looking for time, they will usually never find it. Time shows up when we forget about it for a brief moment and get lost in what is around us.  The spaces we are in, the things we hear, and the things we see can cause us to feel so intensely that we get lost in that moment. However, remarkably, this feeling is not unique to just us in the modern day, but has been felt by all people from when humanity started until the present day.  This microscopic event that is us forgetting time for only a moment has been the most timeless and universal feeling throughout centuries of living. Today, our society is saturated with art, many pieces of which will have no effect over the state of one’s being, however, traces of the timeless artifacts that cause one to feel lost in the moment still exist.  It can be most easily felt and found in the art that has endured the longest. Whether seeing Michaelangelo’s Pieta for the first time or standing under the arches of Notre Dame, something has driven pieces of art like these to be preserved for centuries. More modern art pieces will try to employ the same qualities in their composition as their contemporaries did and successfully create that same sensation of losing yourself for a moment, however, only time will tell if these same pieces will go a step further and last for centuries, not only awing individuals for brief moments but entire peoples for generations.  To draw from the greatest and most consistent collection of art that has inspired and lasted throughout centuries, there is no other place to look than in Religion.

Religion has purveyed every culture of humanity throughout centuries.  Sought after for a variety of nuanced reasons by many different types of people, one thing that all religion has in common is a body of art made in its name.  Religion holds an interesting position in terms of time because it has lasted for as long as people have needed something greater than themselves to cling to. Because of its longevity it has collected a body of art that spans centuries, however, we’ll find in common that no matter how great a scale or duration of time we will look, each art piece tries to establish the same timeless, awe inspiring feeling at the small scale of a moment.  This leaves art that transcends both scales of time, making it through centuries just to take us away for a few moments. Nonetheless, modern art works have only proven themselves on the latter, taking us away from the smallest, breathtaking scale of time, possibly closer to that whom we are praying to or even just closer to ourselves.  

    Religious architecture requires the entirety of our body to be immersed in the space that surrounds it.  There are several ancient and modern Christian and Islamic pieces of architecture that have transcended time and bent the perception of it when experiencing it at the micro scale.  In a recent article recounting his visit to the modern Tabassum’s Bait Ur Rouf Mosque, Fabrizio Arrigoni describes the main hall of the mosque as “bare, cubic, and powerful,” and she also goes on to talk about the extremely calculated letting in of light (Fabrizio, 2018).  The focus on having little to decoration in a place of worship and strictly focusing on pure, hardcore form begin to reveal the fundamentals towards creating a transcendental space. Discussing more about minimalist architecture and in agreement with Arrigoni, Jin Baek goes into detail about the christian artworks created by Japanese architect Tado Ando, specifically the Church of the Light.  He describes the main force guiding Tado Ando’s work as “Shintai”. This proves to be illuminating in seeing how religious architecture elicits the indescribable, timeless feeling as Tado Ando himself describes “Shintai” as “a union of flesh and spirit” and “the totality of the human being”(Baek, 2009). Keeping in mind that the Church of the Light is a single prism with a cross slit facing the sun to let light in, it is clear that Tado Ando knew how to achieve “shintai” with very few ingredients.  Baek also makes sure to stress Ando’s firm stance to not include any figurative elements in his architecture (Baek, 2009). This minimalist and anti-figural, modern architecture starkly contrasts with the way in which traditional, gothic cathedrals like the Notre Dame create the shocking awe that causes time to freeze for a moment. The construction of Notre Dame took place in a time period where religion controlled the very fabric of society and could easily consolidate funds for massive and expensive structures.   Wim Swaan goes into detail about the friezes being adorned with the figures of historical kings, holding historical meaning in much of the details seen in the cathedral(Swaan, 1985, 117). The pictures of Notre Dame’s interior chosen by Swaan capture the lofty ceilings, adorned sculptures, and hundreds of square feet of stainless colored glass(Swaan,1985, 113). It is clear that when comparing Notre Dame to Ando’s Church of Light, and even the Bait Ur Rouf Mosque that the Notre Dame far outweighs both in grandeur and decadence, however, when looking at the core characteristics of each, “shintai” is achieved in all of them.  If the purpose of each building is to make someone feel closer with God and get wrapped up in the smallest scale of a never ending moment, then each building is successful due to its ability to follow the basics of morphing an atmosphere. Despite each mosque, church, and cathedrals’ wildly different scale, each transforms the given space and despite their minimalist or grandiose nature. As beloved as Notre Dame’s ornamentation and figural representation everywhere in the cathedral is, it is proven to be not crucial in creating the timeless feeling of a moment since minimalist, modern structures create the same feeling with a quarter of the material and no figural representation.  Although architecture can create that same timeless and transcendental feeling as we look at it through minimalist form and structure, other art forms in the name of religion such as sculpture still heavily rely on detailed and figural representation in modern times.  

     Sculpture is most successful at achieving transcendence when it follows a similar set of principles that wholy architecture does. For sculpture to transcend time on a smaller scale to create that timeless moment of awe, it needs to be physically massive and emotionally inspiring.  Religious sculpture transcends time only when it is represented fully figuratively and accurately depicts its subject matterScale is only sometimes relevant in the successful creation of a religious space as Tado Ando’s church is successful even at its small scale, however for sculpture, the scale is crucial in aweing the viewer.  In looking at Michaelangelo’s Florentine Pieta on display at the Vatican, Catseby Leigh describes Michaelangelo as knowing “that man is the cosmic point of intersection between the realms of matter and spirit”(Leigh, 2017). This is an extremely similar concept to Tado Ando’s concept of “shintai,” and Michaelangelo creates his Pieta to have the mother and Jesus’s scale be extremely large and their emotions be extremely expressive.  Materiality is also crucial as the Florentine Pieta is carved from a slab of Carrara Marble (Leigh, 2017). Michaelangelo’s sculptures transcend time in the small scale of viewing and the large scale of preservation due to the emotion expressed through his figural representation and his combination of size and materiality. Directly comparing this sculpture to the modern day phenom of the massive Tian Tan Buddha shrine in Hong Kong, the same core principles that caused the Florentine Pieta to transcend time on the small scale of viewing and the large scale of preservation apply to the Buddhist Sculpture.  According to a 1993 newspaper article from the Toronto Star, they state that the Tian Tan sits at “half the height of the statue of liberty” and had “10,000 worshippers thronged on the Island”(Toronto Star Newspaper, 1993). It cannot be known whether this sculpture will transcend centuries since it was erected only a few decades ago, however, it achieves the power to draw the masses and create the timeless moment of shock by the viewer due to the sheer scale. Since it is almost always a God that is being depicted in religious sculptures, the larger than life size contributes to the representation of one figure being greater than all men and taps into the spiritual yearning that the audience may seek in that religious setting.  It is straightforward in approach to discern which physical characteristics contribute to the transcendence of time in physical art forms like architecture and sculpture, however, a new criteria is created when observing something intangible like music.  

Religious music’s intangible qualities still have to follow the notion of connecting a person’s body, mind, and spirit, however, its means of doing so do not rely directly on physical characteristics.  Nevertheless, spaces in which traditional religious music is played such as churches indirectly contribute to the physical reverberations and sensations that can cause a person to feel that transcendent loss of time at the small scale of a moment.  This does create some linkage between architecture and music in the quality of space and atmosphere that is created among the combination of both, however, when looking at religious music in the modern day, the actual space in which the music is played is not always as crucial as the content and connection that it has to a listener.  In examining Kanye West’s newest album Jesus is King, Mark Richardson describes the lyrics and genre as being inspired by Black Gospel Music (Richardson, 2019). Looking further at the emergence of Black gospel church music, Robert Marovich states that it was the Great Migration of black people from the South to the North after the abolitionist movement that created the genre of music.  That it was an outlet for black people to express themselves and their grievances in a society that still didn't accept them(Marovich, 2015). The form and qualities of the music undoubtedly caused a person to be lost in a singular moment as Gospel music was sought out for due to its ability to distract and take away from the feeling of time dragging on as they were surrounded by a society that refused to accept them.  However, despite Gospel music’s roots coming from the African American community more than a century ago, it is listened to by large masses of people today from all types of backgrounds. Gospel music is still thriving today as superstar artists like Kanye West spread their take on the genre and the masses enjoy listening to it, however, it gains its power to transcend time through the emotional, spiritual, and historical connection that it is tied to an entire community with.  Religious music is only as powerful as the connection it has with the people and its ability to nurture their mind, body, and spirit. Although looking at a greater span of time, Medieval Chritisan Hymns are form of religious music that does not particularly cause their audience to transcend a single, aweing moment. Carl Bear and Sarah Johnson’s claim that it is important to sing these hymns in order to “reclaim a connection with medieval Christians”(Bear and Johnson, 2018). However, if something has to be “reclaimed”it wasn’t powerful enough to have created a moment that transcends time for people on a small scale or lasted long enough to have been preserved on a large scale, despite the historical significance that the specific music might have had. 

Looking at time through the lens of religious art and architecture has revealed the many scales in which time can affect an experience.   The simple, unexplainable moment of awe that many religious pieces of art can incite has the ability to alter the perception of a singular moment.  However, even though a building or artwork may be specifically preserved throughout the years in the name of God and that religion’s faith, it is the time altering feeling that the space or art instills in the viewer that truly makes it transcendent in the moment and for generations.