Renaissance artists created Christian masterpieces but sometimes just to get paid!

THE GUARDIAN
By Jonathon Jones

Seeing is believing … Is all holy art that holy? Photograph: The National Gallery

UNITED KINGDOM - What is it like to live in a world where everyone is religious? From the dark ages to the end of the 17th century, the vast majority of artistic commissions in Europe were religious. Here are two contrasting examples from the National Gallery. Zurbarán's painting of St Francis in Meditation (1635-9) is a harrowing and profoundly spiritual work. This is a true Christian masterpiece. But compare it to Carlo Crivelli's painting The Annunciation (1486) in the same museum. Crivelli's picture is a feast for the eye. Potted plants, a peacock, elaborately decorated classical buildings – and is that a gherkin just added in at the front of the scene? – add up to a materialistic cornucopia of visual interest. What is the religious function of such detail? Is Crivelli a Christian artist? Not in any sense that is meaningful today. He loves the things of this life, not the next. [link]