What impact did the Reformation Movement have on visual art? And who were some of the artist during this time?

Answer 1

At first, especially in the Low Countries, the impact was quite literally. Iconoclasts went around the towns destroying all art in the churches.

"Some of the Protestant reformers, in particular Andreas Karlstadt, Huldrych Zwingli and John Calvin encouraged the removal of religious images by invoking the Decalogue's prohibition of idolatry and the manufacture of graven images of God. As a result, statues and images were damaged in spontaneous individual attacks as well as unauthorised iconoclastic riots. However, in most cases images were removed in an orderly manner by civil authorities in the newly reformed cities and territories of Europe."

"Significant iconoclastic riots took place in Zürich (in 1523), Copenhagen (1530), Münster (1534), Geneva (1535), Augsburg (1537) and Scotland (1559). The Seventeen Provinces (now the Netherlands and Belgium and parts of Northern France) were hit by a large wave of Protestant iconoclasm in the summer of 1566. This is called the "Beeldenstorm" and included such acts as the destruction of the statuary of the Monastery of Saint Lawrence in Steenvoorde after a "Hagenpreek", or "field sermon", by Sebastiaan Matte; and the sacking of the Monastery of Saint Anthony after a sermon by Jacob de Buysere. The "Beeldenstorm" marked the start of the revolution against the Spanish forces and the Catholic church."

"Protestant Christianity, however, was not uniformly hostile to the use of religious images. Martin Luther argued that Christians should be free to use religious images as long as they did not worship them in the place of God."

"Reformation Iconoclasm" : http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iconoclasm#Reformation_Iconoclasm

"With recognition of the reformers' criticism and acceptance of their ideology, Protestants were able to put their beliefs on display in art (Christ Blessing, Surrounded by a Donor and His Family, 17.190.13-15). Artists sympathetic to the movement developed a new repertoire of subjects, or adapted traditional ones, to reflect and emphasize Protestant ideals and teaching (Christ and the Adulteress, 1982.60.35; Christ Blessing the Children, 1982.60.36; The Calling of Matthew, 71.155; The Last Supper, 1975.1.1915). More broadly, the balance of power gradually shifted from religious to secular authorities in western Europe, initiating a decline of Christian imagery in the Protestant Church. Meanwhile, the Roman Church mounted the Counter-Reformation, through which it denounced Lutheranism and reaffirmed Catholic doctrine. In Italy and Spain, the Counter-Reformation had an immense impact on the visual arts; while in the North, the sound made by the nails driven through Luther's manifesto continued to reverberate."

Wisse, Jacob. "The Reformation". In Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/refo/hd_refo.htm (October 2002)

Coulton, G. G., "Art and the Reformation". 2d ed. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1953.
Koerner, Joseph Leo., "The Reformation of the Image". Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2004.

"Art became a great source of disagreement between the Protestants and Catholics, and a great disparity emerged between the art produced in the North and South. This disparity sprang from two divergent world views which were revealed in the art each produced."

"Discerning the contrasting world views behind Reformation and Counter-Reformation art requires knowledge of the events that led to the distinction between the two. During the Middle Ages art had focused almost exclusively on religious content, and it often employed symbolism instead of depicting realistic scenes. (For example, the use of the halo over a saint was extremely common during the Middle Ages.) With the coming of the Renaissance much of this changed as humanists—including Michelangelo and da Vinci—began painting realistic scenes which focused on “ideal man” rather than on religious content. Once the Reformation began, Protestant leaders such as John Calvin and Huldreich Zwingli encouraged iconoclastic1 movements, which denounced Catholic imagery as idolatrous and called for its destruction. However, the Protestants did not condemn all art—they chiefly opposed the Catholic religious art, to which Catholics of the time gave reverence."

"This led to the Counter-Reformation, during which the Catholic Church cracked down on any hint of “heresy” and created institutions such as the Universal Inquisition to strictly enforce adherence to the Catholic faith.4 This severity regulated the arts, forcing the Catholic painters of the South to return to the medieval tradition of producing strictly religious art, which greatly distinguished them from the Protestant painters of the North."

"In fact, content was the main contrast between the art of the Reformation and the Counter-Reformation. While Protestant artists occasionally painted scenes from the Bible, they often painted ordinary people performing every-day activities.5 Sometimes they even portrayed simple scenes from nature.6 It was in northern Europe during the Reformation that portrait-painting became popular. These Protestant types of painting, however, stood in stark contrast to the type of painting common among artists in the Catholic South during the Counter-Reformation. Although their works were now more realistic than medieval art and the use of symbolism had decreased, the Catholic artists did not paint common scenes. Instead they graphically portrayed the martyrdom of ideal-looking saints and painted the Virgin Mary and Jesus Christ as ideal humans. Their paintings glorified Catholic traditions, the sacraments, and the saints. Clearly, the content of their work contrasted strongly with that of the northern Protestants’ work."

"Art of the Reformation and Counter-Reformation", Rit Nosotro, hyperhistory.net : http://www.hyperhistory.net/apwh/essays/comp/cw20reformationart.htm

A few examples of art during the Reformation Era:
http://history.hanover.edu/courses/art/346art.html
http://history.hanover.edu/courses/346art.html

Answer 2

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