The artist, image of God the Creator
 1. None can sense more deeply than you
artists, ingenious creators of
beauty that you are, something of the pathos with which God at the dawn
of creation looked upon the work of his hands. A glimmer of that
feeling has shone so often in your eyes when—like the artists of every
age—captivated by the hidden power of sounds and words, colours and
shapes, you have admired the work of your inspiration, sensing in it
some echo of the mystery of creation with which God, the sole creator
of all things, has wished in some way to associate you.
That is why it seems to me that there are no better words than the text
of Genesis with which to begin my Letter to you, to whom I feel closely
linked by experiences reaching far back in time and which have
indelibly marked my life. In writing this Letter, I intend to follow
the path of the fruitful dialogue between the Church and artists which
has gone on unbroken through two thousand years of history, and which
still, at the threshold of the Third Millennium, offers rich promise
for the future.
In fact, this dialogue is not dictated merely by historical accident
or
practical need, but is rooted in the very essence of both religious
experience and artistic creativity. The opening page of the Bible
presents God as a kind of exemplar of everyone who produces a work: the
human craftsman mirrors the image of God as Creator. This relationship
is particularly clear in the Polish language because of the lexical
link between the words stwórca (creator) and twórca
(craftsman).
What is the difference between “creator”
and “craftsman”? The one who
creates bestows being itself, he brings something out of nothing—ex
nihilo sui et subiecti, as the Latin puts it—and this, in the strict
sense, is a mode of operation which belongs to the Almighty alone. The
craftsman, by contrast, uses something that already exists, to which he
gives form and meaning. This is the mode of operation peculiar to man
as made in the image of God.
In fact, after saying that God created man
and woman “in his image” (cf.
Gn 1:27), the Bible adds that he entrusted to them the task of
dominating the earth (cf. Gn 1:28). This was the last day of creation
(cf. Gn 1:28-31). On the previo us days, marking as it were the
rhythm
of the birth of the cosmos, Yahweh had created the universe. Finally he
created the human being, the noblest fruit of his design, to whom he
subjected the visible world as a vast field in which human
inventiveness might assert itself.
God therefore called man into existence, committing to him the
craftsman's task. Through his “artistic
creativity” man appears more than ever “in the image of God”,
and he accomplishes this task above all in shaping the wondrous
“material” of his own humanity and then exercising creative dominion
over the universe which surrounds him. With loving regard, the divine
Artist passes on to the human artist a spark of his own surpassing
wisdom, calling him to share in his creative power. Obviously, this is
a sharing which leaves intact the infinite distance between the Creator
and the creature, as Cardinal Nicholas of Cusa made clear: “Creative art, which it is the soul's good
fortune to entertain, is not to be identified with that essential art
which is God himself, but is only a communication of it and a share in
it”.(1)
That is why artists, the more conscious they are of their “gift”, are led all the more to see
themselves and the whole of creation with eyes able to contemplate and
give thanks, and to raise to God a hymn of praise. This is the only way
for them to come to a full understanding of themselves, their vocation
and their mission.
The special vocation of the artist
2. Not all are called to be artists in the specific sense of the term.
Yet, as Genesis has it, all men and women are entrusted with the task
of crafting their own life: in a certain sense, they are to make of it
a work of art, a masterpiece.
It is important to recognize the distinctio n, but also the connection,
between these two aspects of human activity. The distinction is clear.
It is one thing for human beings to be the authors of their own acts,
with responsibility for their moral value; it is another to be an
artist, able, that is, to respond to the demands of art and faithfully
to accept art's specific dictates.(2) This is what makes the artist
capable of producing objects, but it says nothing as yet of his moral
character. We are speaking not of moulding oneself, of forming one's
own personality, but simply of actualizing one's productive capacities,
giving aesthetic form to ideas conceived in the mind.
The distinction between the moral and artistic aspects is fundamental,
but no less important is the connection between them. Each conditions
the other in a profound way. In producing a work, artists express
themselves to the point where their work becomes a unique disclosure of
their own being, of what they are and of how they are what they are.
And there are endless examples of this in human history. In shaping a
masterpiece, the artist not only summons his work into being, but also
in some way reveals his own personality by means of it. For him art
offers both a new dimension and an exceptional mode of expression for
his spiritual growth. Through his works, the artist speaks to others
and communicates with them. The history of art, therefore, is not only
a story of works produced but also a story of men and women. Works of
art speak of their authors; they enable us to know their inner life,
and they reveal the original contribution which artists offer to the
history of culture.
The artistic vocation in the service of
beauty
3. A noted Polish poet, Cyprian Norwid, wrote that “beauty is to enthuse us for work, and work
is to raise us up”.(3)
 The theme of beauty is decisive for a
discourse on art. It was already
present when I stressed God's delighted gaze upon creation. In
perceiving that all he had created was good, God saw that it was
beautiful as well.(4) The link between good and beautiful stirs
fruitful reflection. In a certain sense, beauty is the visible form of
the good, just as the good is the metaphysical condition of beauty.
This was well understood by the Greeks who, by fusing the two concepts,
coined a term which embraces both: kalokagathía, or
beauty-goodness.
On this point Plato writes: “The power
of the Good has taken refuge in
the nature of the Beautiful”.(5)
It is in living and acting that man establishes his relationship with
being, with the truth and with the good. The artist has a special
relationship to beauty. In a very true sense it can be said that beauty
is the vocation bestowed on him by the Creator in the gift of “artistic
talent”. And, certainly, this too is a talent which ought to be made to
bear fruit, in keeping with the sense of the Gospel parable of the
talents (cf. Mt 25:14-30).
Here we touch on an essential point. Those who perceive in themselves
this kind of divine spark which is the artistic vocation—as poet,
writer, sculptor, architect, musician, actor and so on—feel at the same
time the obligation not to waste this talent but to develop it, in
order to put it at the service of their neighbour and of humanity as a
whole.
The artist and the common good
4. Society needs artists, just as it needs scientists, technicians,
workers, professional people, witnesses of the faith, teachers, fathers
and mothers, who ensure the growth of the person and the development of
the community by means of that supreme art form which is “the art of
education”. Within the vast cultural panorama of each nation,
artists
have their unique place. Obedient to their inspiration in creating
works both worthwhile and beautiful, they not only enrich the cultural
heritage of each nation and of all humanity, but they also render an
exceptional social service in favour of the common good.
The particular vocation of individual artists decides the arena in
which they serve and points as well to the tasks they must assume, the
hard work they must endure and the responsibility they must accept.
Artists who are conscious of all this know too that they must labour
without allowing themselves to be driven by the search for empty glory
or the craving for cheap popularity, and still less by the calculation
of some possible profit for themselves. There is therefore an ethic,
even a “spirituality” of
artistic service, which contributes in its way to the life and renewal
of a people. It is precisely this to which Cyprian Norwid seems to
allude in declaring that “beauty is to
enthuse us for work, and work is to raise us up”.
Art and the mystery of the Word made flesh
5. The Law of the Old Testament explicitly forbids representation of
the invisible and ineffable God by means of “graven or molten image”
(Dt 27:15), because God transcends every material representation: “I am
who I am” (Ex 3:14). Yet in the mystery of the Incarnation, the
Son of
God becomes visible in person: “When
the fullness of time had come, God
sent forth his Son born of woman” (Gal 4:4). God became man in
Jesus
Christ, who thus becomes “the central point of reference for an
understanding of the enigma of human existence, the created world and
God himself”.(6)
This prime epiphany of “God who is
Mystery” is both an encouragement
and a challenge to Christians, also at the level of artistic
creativity. From it has come a flowering of beauty which has drawn its
sap precisely from the mystery of the Incarnation. In becoming man, the
Son of God has introduced into human history all the evangelical wealth
of the true and the good, and with this he has also unveiled a new
dimension of beauty, of which the Gospel message is filled to the brim.
Sacred Scripture has thus become a sort of “immense vocabulary” (Paul
Claudel) and “iconographic atlas” (Marc Chagall), from which both
Christian culture and art have drawn. The Old Testament, read in the
light of the New, has provided endless streams of inspiration. From the
stories of the Creation and sin, the Flood, the cycle of the
Patriarchs, the events of the Exodus to so many other episodes and
characters in the history of salvation, the biblical text has fired the
imagination of painters, poets, musicians, playwrights and film-makers.
A figure like Job, to take but one example, with his searing and ever
relevant question of suffering, still arouses an interest which is not
just philosophical but literary and artistic as well. And what should
we say of the New Testament? From the Nativity to Golgotha, from the
Transfiguration to the Resurrection, from the miracles to the teachings
of Christ, and on to the events recounted in the Acts of the Apostles
or foreseen by the Apocalypse in an eschatological key, on countless
occasions the biblical word has become image, music and poetry, evoking
the mystery of “the Word made flesh”
in the language of art.
In the history of human culture, all of this is a rich chapter of faith
and beauty. Believers above all have gained from it in their experience
of prayer and Christian living. Indeed for many of them, in times when
few could read or write, representations of the Bible were a concrete
mode of catechesis.(7) But for everyone, believers or not, the works of
art inspired by Scripture remain a reflection of the unfathomable
mystery which engulfs and inhabits the world.
A fruitful alliance between the Gospel and
art
6. Every genuine artistic intuition goes beyond what the senses
perceive and, reaching beneath reality's surface, strives to interpret
its hidden mystery. The intuition itself springs from the depths of the
human soul, where the desire to give meaning to one's own life is
joined by the fleeting vision of beauty and of the mysterious unity of
things. All artists experience the unbridgeable gap which lies between
the work of their hands, however successful it may be, and the dazzling
perfection of the beauty glimpsed in the ardour of the creative moment:
what they manage to express in their painting, their sculpting, their
creating is no more than a glimmer of the splendour which flared for a
moment before the eyes of their spirit.
Believers find nothing strange in this: they know that they have had a
momentary glimpse of the abyss of light which has its original
wellspring in God. Is it in any way surprising that this leaves the
spirit overwhelmed as it were, so that it can only stammer in reply?
True artists above all are ready to acknowledge their limits and to
make their own the words of the Apostle Paul, according to whom “God
does not dwell in shrines made by human hands” so that “we ought not to
think that the Deity is like gold or silver or stone, a representation
by human art and imagination” (Acts 17:24, 29). If the intimate reality
of things is always “beyond” the powers of human perception, how much
more so is God in the depths of his unfathomable mystery!
The knowledge conferred by faith is of a different kind: it presupposes
a personal encounter with God in Jesus Christ. Yet this knowledge too
can be enriched by artistic intuition. An eloquent example of aesthetic
contemplation sublimated in faith are, for example, the works of Fra
Angelico. No less notable in this regard is the ecstatic lauda,  which
Saint Francis of Assisi twice repeats in the chartula which he composed
after receiving the stigmata of Christ on the mountain of La Verna:
“You are beauty... You are beauty!”.(8) Saint Bonaventure comments: “In
things of beauty, he contemplated the One who is supremely beautiful,
and, led by the footprints he found in creatures, he followed the
Beloved everywhere”.(9)
A corresponding approach is found in Eastern spirituality where Christ
is described as “the supremely Beautiful, possessed of a beauty above
all the children of earth”.(10) Macarius the Great speaks of the
transfiguring and liberating beauty of the Risen Lord in these terms:
“The soul which has been fully illumined by the unspeakable beauty of
the glory shining on the countenance of Christ overflows with the Holy
Spirit... it is all eye, all light, all countenance”.(11)
Every genuine art form in its own way is a path to the inmost reality
of man and of the world. It is therefore a wholly valid approach to the
realm of faith, which gives human experience its ultimate meaning. That
is why the Gospel fullness of truth was bound from the beginning to
stir the interest of artists, who by their very nature are alert to
every “epiphany” of the inner beauty of things.
The origins
7. The art which Christianity encountered in its early days was the
ripe fruit of the classical world, articulating its aesthetic canons
and embodying its values. Not only in their way of living and thinking,
but also in the field of art, faith obliged Christians to a discernment
which did not allow an uncritical acceptance of this heritage. Art of
Christian inspiration began therefore in a minor key, strictly tied to
the need for believers to  contrive Scripture-based signs to express
both the mysteries of faith and a “symbolic
code” by which they could
distinguish and identify themselves, especially in the difficult times
of persecution. Who does not recall the symbols which marked the first
appearance of an art both pictorial and plastic? The fish, the loaves,
the shepherd: in evoking the mystery, they became almost imperceptibly
the first traces of a new art.
When the Edict of Constantine allowed Christians to declare themselves
in full freedom, art became a privileged means for the expression of
faith. Majestic basilicas began to appear, and in them the
architectural canons of the pagan world were reproduced and at the same
time modified to meet the demands of the new form of worship. How can
we fail to recall at least the old Saint Peter's Basilica and the
Basilica of Saint John Lateran, both funded by Constantine himself? Or
Constantinople's Hagia Sophia built by Justinian, with its splendours
of Byzantine art?
While architecture designed the space for worship, gradually the need
to contemplate the mystery and to present it explicitly to the simple
people led to the early forms of painting and sculpture. There appeared
as well the first elements of art in word and sound. Among the many
themes treated by Augustine we find De Musica; and Hilary of Poitiers,
Ambrose, Prudentius, Ephrem the Syrian, Gregory of Nazianzus and
Paulinus of Nola, to mention but a few, promoted a Christian poetry
which was often of high quality not just as theology but also as
literature. Their poetic work valued forms inherited from the classical
authors, but was nourished by the pure sap of the Gospel, as Paulinus
of Nola put it succinctly: “Our only
art is faith and our music
Christ”.(12) A little later, Gregory the Great compiled the
Antiphonarium and thus laid the ground for the organic development of
that most original sacred music which takes its name from him.
Gregorian chant, with its inspired modulations, was to become down the
centuries the music of the Church's faith in the liturgical celebration
of the sacred mysteries. The “beautiful” was thus wedded to the “true”,
so that through art too souls might be lifted up from the world of the
senses to the eternal.
Along this path there were troubled moments. Precisely on the issue of
depicting the Christian mystery, there arose in the early centuries a
bitter controversy known to history  as “the
iconoclast crisis”. Sacred
images, which were already widely used in Christian devotion, became
the object of violent contention.
The Council held at Nicaea in 787,
which decreed the legitimacy of images and their veneration, was a
historic event not just for the faith but for culture itself. The
decisive argument to which the Bishops appealed in order to settle the
controversy was the mystery of the Incarnation: if the Son of God had
come into the world of visible realities—his humanity building a bridge
between the visible and the invisible— then, by analogy, a
representation of the mystery could be used, within the logic of signs,
as a sensory evocation of the mystery. The icon is venerated not for
its own sake, but points beyond to the subject which it represents.(13)
The Middle Ages
8. The succeeding centuries saw a great development of Christian art.
In the East, the art of the icon continued to flourish, obeying
theological and aesthetic norms charged with meaning and sustained by
the conviction that, in a sense, the icon is a sacrament. By analogy
with what occurs in the sacraments, the icon makes present the mystery
of the Incarnation in one or other of its aspects. That is why the
beauty of the icon can be best appreciated in a church where in the
shadows burning lamps stir infinite flickerings of light. As Pavel
Florensky has written: “By the flat
light of day, gold is crude, heavy,
useless, but by the tremulous light of a lamp or candle it springs to
life and glitters in sparks beyond counting—now here, now there,
evoking the sense of other lights, not of this earth, which fill the
space of heaven”.(14)
In the West, artists start from the most varied viewpoints, depending
also on the underlying convictions of the cultural world of their time.
The artistic heritage built up over the centuries includes a vast array
of sacred works of great inspiration, which still today leave the
observer full of admiration. In the first place, there are the great
buildings for worship, in which the functional is always wedded to the
creative impulse inspired by a sense of the beautiful and an intuition
of the mystery. From here came the various styles well known in the
history of art. The strength and simplicity of the Romanesque,
expressed in cathedrals and abbeys, slowly evolved into the soaring
splendours of the Gothic.
These forms portray not only the genius of an
artist but the soul of a people. In the play of light and shadow, in
forms at times massive, at times delicate, structural considerations
certainly come into play, but so too do the tensions peculiar to the
experience of God, the mystery both “awesome”
and “alluring”. How is
one to summarize with a few brief references to each of the many
different art forms, the creative power of the centuries of the
Christian Middle Ages? An entire culture, albeit with the inescapable
limits of all that is human, had become imbued with the Gospel; and
where theology produced the Summa of Saint Thomas, church art moulded
matter in a way which led to adoration of the mystery, and a wonderful
poet like Dante Alighieri could compose “the sacred poem, to which both
heaven and earth have turned their hand”,(15) as he himself described
the Divine Comedy.
Humanism and the Renaissance
9. The favourable cultural climate that produced the extraordinary
artistic flowering of Humanism and the Renaissance also had a
significant impact on the way in which the artists of the period
approached the religious theme. Naturally, their inspiration, like
their style, varied greatly, at least among the best of them. But I do
not intend to repeat things which you, as artists, know well. Writing
from this Apostolic Palace, which is a mine of masterpieces perhaps
unique in the world, I would rather give voice to the supreme artists
who in this place lavished the wealth of their genius, often charged
with great spiritual depth. From here can be heard the voice of
Michelangelo who in the Sistine Chapel has presented the drama and
mystery of the world from the Creation to the Last Judgement, giving a
face to God the Father, to Christ the Judge, and to man on his arduous
journey from the dawn to the consummation of history.
Here speaks the
delicate and profound genius of Raphael, highlighting in the array of
his paintings, and especially in the “Dispute” in the Room of the
Signatura, the mystery of the revelation of the Triune God, who in the
Eucharist befriends man and sheds light on the questions and
expectations of human intelligence. From this place, from the majestic
Basilica dedicated to the Prince of the Apostles, from the Colonnade
which spreads out from it like two arms open to welcome the whole human
family, we still hear Bramante, Bernini, Borromini, Maderno, to name
only the more important artists, all rendering visible the perception
of the mystery which makes of the Church a universally hospitable
community, mother and travelling companion to all men and women in
their search for God.
This extraordinary complex is a remarkably powerful expression of
sacred art, rising to heights of imperishable aesthetic and religious
excellence. What has characterized sacred art more and more, under the
impulse of Humanism and the Renaissance, and then of successive
cultural and scientific trends, is a growing interest in everything
human, in the world, and in the reality of history. In itself, such a
concern is not at all a danger for Christian faith, centred on the
mystery of the Incarnation and therefore on God's valuing of the human
being. The great artists mentioned above are a demonstration of this.
Suffice it to think of the way in which Michelangelo represents the
beauty of the human body in his painting and sculpture.(16)
Even in the changed climate of more recent centuries, when a part of
society seems to have become indifferent to faith, religious art has
continued on its way. This can be more widely appreciated if we look
beyond the figurative arts to the great development of sacred music
through this same period, either composed for the liturgy or simply
treating religious themes. Apart from the many artists who made sacred
music their chief concern—how can we forget Pier Luigi da Palestrina,
Orlando di Lasso, Tomás Luis de Victoria?—it is also true that
many of the great composers—from Handel to Bach, from Mozart to
Schubert, from Beethoven to Berlioz, from Liszt to Verdi—have given us
works of the highest inspiration in this field.
Towards a renewed dialogue
10. It is true nevertheless that, in the modern era, alongside this
Christian humanism which has continued to produce important works of
culture and art, another kind of humanism, marked by the absence of God
and often by opposition to God, has gradually asserted itself. Such an
atmosphere has sometimes led to a separation of the world of art and
the world of faith, at least in the sense that many artists have a
diminished interest in religious themes.
You know, however, that the Church has not ceased to nurture great
appreciation for the value of art as such. Even beyond its typically
religious expressions, true art has a close affinity with the world of
faith, so that, even in situations where culture and the Church are far
apart, art remains a kind of bridge to religious experience. In so far
as it seeks the beautiful, fruit of an imagination which rises above
the everyday, art is by its nature a kind of appeal to the mystery.
Even when they explore the darkest depths of the soul or the most
unsettling aspects of evil, artists give voice in a way to the
universal desire for redemption.
It is clear, therefore, why the Church is especially concerned for the
dialogue with art and is keen that in our own time there be a new
alliance with artists, as called for by my revered predecessor Paul VI
in his vibrant speech to artists during a special meeting he had with
them in the Sistine Chapel on 7 May 1964.(17) From such cooperation the
Church hopes for a renewed “epiphany” of beauty in our time and apt
responses to the particular needs of the Christian community.
In the spirit of the Second Vatican Council
11. The Second Vatican Council laid the foundation for a renewed
relationship between the Church and culture, with immediate
implications for the world of art. This is a relationship offered in
friendship, openness and dialogue. In the Pastoral Constitution Gaudium
et Spes, the Fathers of the Council stressed “the great importance” of
literature and the arts in human life: “They seek to probe the true
nature of man, his problems and experiences, as he strives to know and
perfect himself and the world, to discover his place in history and the
universe, to portray his miseries and joys, his needs and strengths,
with a view to a better future”.(18)
On this basis, at the end of the Council the Fathers addressed a
greeting and an appeal to artists: “This
world—they said—in which we
live needs beauty in order not to sink into despair. Beauty, like
truth, brings joy to the human heart and is that precious fruit which
resists the erosion of time, which unites generations and enables them
to be one in admiration!”.(19)
In this spirit of profound
respect for
beauty, the Constitution
on the Sacred Liturgy Sacrosanctum Concilium
recalled the historic friendliness of the Church towards art and,
referring more specifically to sacred art, the “summit” of religious
art, did not hesitate to consider artists as having “a noble ministry”
when their works reflect in some way the infinite beauty of God and
raise people's minds to him.(20)
Thanks also to the help of artists
“the knowledge of God can be better revealed and the preaching of the
Gospel can become clearer to the human mind”.(21) In this light, it
comes as no surprise when Father Marie Dominique Chenu claims that the
work of the historian of theology would be incomplete if he failed to
give due attention to works of art, both literary and figurative, which
are in their own way “not only aesthetic representations, but genuine
'sources' of theology”.(22)
The Church needs art
12. In order to communicate the message entrusted to her by Christ, the
Church needs art. Art must make perceptible, and as far as possible
attractive, the world of the spirit, of the invisible, of God. It must
therefore translate into meaningful terms that which is in itself
ineffable. Art has a unique capacity to take one or other facet of the
message and translate it into colours, shapes and sounds which nourish
the intuition of those who look or listen. It does so without emptying
the message itself of its transcendent value and its aura of mystery.
The Church has need especially of those who can do this on the literary
and figurative level, using the endless possibilities of images and
their symbolic force. Christ himself made extensive use of images in
his preaching, fully in keeping with his willingness to become, in the
Incarnation, the icon of the unseen God.
The Church also needs musicians. How many sacred works have been
composed through the centuries by people deeply imbued with the sense
of the mystery! The faith of countless believers has been nourished by
melodies flowing from the hearts of other believers, either introduced
into the liturgy or used as an aid to dignified worship. In song, faith
is experienced as vibrant joy, love, and confident expectation of the
saving intervention of God.
The Church needs architects, because she needs spaces to bring the
Christian people together and celebrate the mysteries of salvation.
After the terrible destruction of the last World War and the growth of
great cities, a new generation of architects showed themselves adept at
responding to the exigencies of Christian worship, confirming that the
religious theme can still inspire architectural design in our own day.
Not infrequently these architects have constructed churches which are
both places of prayer and true works of art.
Does art need the Church?
 13. The Church therefore needs
art. But can it also be said that art
needs the Church? The question may seem like a provocation. Yet,
rightly understood, it is both legitimate and profound. Artists are
constantly in search of the hidden meaning of things, and their torment
is to succeed in expressing the world of the ineffable. How
then can we
fail to see what a great source of inspiration is offered by that kind
of homeland of the soul that is religion? Is it not perhaps within the
realm of religion that the most vital personal questions are posed, and
answers both concrete and definitive are sought?
In fact, the religious theme has been among those most
frequently
treated by artists in every age. The Church has always appealed to
their creative powers in interpreting the Gospel message and discerning
its precise application in the life of the Christian community. This
partnership has been a source of mutual spiritual enrichment.
Ultimately, it has been a great boon for an understanding of man, of
the authentic image and truth of the person. 
The special bond between art and Christian revelation has
also become evident. This does not
mean that human genius has not found inspiration in other religious
contexts. It is enough to recall the art of the ancient world,
especially Greek and Roman art, or the art which still flourishes in
the very ancient civilizations of the East. It remains true, however,
that because of its central doctrine of the Incarnation of the Word of
God, Christianity offers artists a horizon especially rich in
inspiration. What an impoverishment it would be for art to abandon the
inexhaustible mine of the Gospel!
An appeal to artists
 14. With this Letter, I turn to you, the
artists of the world, to
assure you of my esteem and to help consolidate a more constructive
partnership between art and the Church. Mine is an invitation to
rediscover the depth of the spiritual and religious dimension which has
been typical of art in its noblest forms in every age. It is with this
in mind that I appeal to you, artists of the written and spoken word,
of the theatre and music, of the plastic arts and the most recent
technologies in the field of communication. I appeal especially to you,
Christian artists: I wish to remind each of you that, beyond functional
considerations, the close alliance that has always existed between the
Gospel and art means that you are invited to use your creative
intuition to enter into the heart of the mystery of the Incarnate God
and at the same time into the mystery of man.
Human beings, in a certain sense, are unknown to themselves. Jesus
Christ not only reveals God, but “fully reveals man to man”.(23) In
Christ, God has reconciled the world to himself. All believers are
called to bear witness to this; but it is up to you, men and women who
have given your lives to art, to declare with all the wealth of your
ingenuity that in Christ the world is redeemed: the human person is
redeemed, the human body is redeemed, and the whole creation which,
according to Saint Paul, “awaits impatiently the revelation of the
children of God” (Rom 8:19), is redeemed. The creation awaits the
revelation of the children of God also through art and in art. This is
your task. Humanity in every age, and even today, looks to works of art
to shed light upon its path and its destiny.
The Creator Spirit and artistic inspiration
15. Often in the Church there resounds the invocation to the Holy
Spirit: Veni, Creator Spiritus... – “Come, O Creator Spirit, visit our
minds, fill with your grace the hearts you have created”.(24)
The Holy Spirit, “the Breath” (ruah), is the One referred to already in
the Book of Genesis: “The earth was without form and void, and darkness
was on the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God was moving over the
face of the waters” (1:2). What affinity between the words “breath -
breathing” and “inspiration”! The Spirit is the mysterious Artist of
the universe. Looking to the Third Millennium, I would hope that all
artists might receive in abundance the gift of that creative
inspiration which is the starting-point of every true work of art.
Dear artists, you well know that there are many impulses which, either
from within or from without, can inspire your talent.
Every genuine
inspiration, however, contains some tremor of that “breath” with which
the Creator Spirit suffused the work of creation from the very
beginning. Overseeing the mysterious laws governing the universe, the
divine breath of the Creator Spirit reaches out to human genius and
stirs its creative power.
He touches it with a kind of inner
illumination which brings together the sense of the good and the
beautiful, and he awakens energies of mind and heart which enable it to
conceive an idea and give it form in a work of art. It is right then to
speak, even if only analogically, of “moments of grace”, because the
human being is able to experience in some way the Absolute who is
utterly beyond.
The “Beauty” that saves
16. On the threshold of the Third Millennium, my hope for all of you
who are artists is that you will have an especially intense experience
of creative inspiration. May the beauty which you pass on to
generations still to come be such that it will stir them to wonder!
Faced with the sacredness of life and of the human person, and before
the marvels of the universe, wonder is the only appropriate attitude.
From this wonder there can come that enthusiasm of which Norwid spoke
in the poem to which I referred earlier. People of today and tomorrow
need this enthusiasm if they are to meet and master the crucial
challenges which stand before us. Thanks to this enthusiasm, humanity,
every time it loses its way, will be able to lift itself up and set out
again on the right path. In this sense it has been said with profound
insight that “beauty will save the world”.(25)
Beauty is a key to the mystery and a call to transcendence. It is an
invitation to savour life and to dream of the future. That is why the
beauty  of created things can never
fully satisfy. It stirs that hidden
nostalgia for God which a lover of beauty like Saint Augustine could
express in incomparable terms: “Late have I loved you, beauty so old
and so new: late have I loved you!”.(26)
Artists of the world, may your many different paths all lead to that
infinite Ocean of beauty where wonder becomes awe, exhilaration,
unspeakable joy.
May you be guided and inspired by the mystery of the Risen Christ, whom
the Church in these days contemplates with joy.
May the Blessed Virgin Mary be with you always: she is the “tota
pulchra” portrayed by countless artists, whom Dante contemplates among
the splendours of Paradise as “beauty that was joy in the eyes of all
the other saints”.(27)
“From chaos there rises the world of the spirit”. These words of Adam
Mickiewicz, written at a time of great hardship for his Polish
homeland,(28) prompt my hope for you: may your art help to affirm that
true beauty which, as a glimmer of the Spirit of God, will transfigure
matter, opening the human soul to the sense of the eternal.
With my heartfelt good wishes!
From the Vatican, 4 April
1999, Easter Sunday.
(1) Dialogus de Ludo Globi, lib. II:
Philosophisch-Theologische
Schriften, Vienna 1967, III, p. 332.
(2) The moral virtues, and among them prudence in particular, allow the
subject to act in harmony with the criterion of moral good and evil:
according to recta ratio agibilium (the right criterion of action).
Art, however, is defined by philosophy as recta ratio factibilium (the
right criterion of production).
(3) Promethidion, Bogumil, vv. 185-186: Pisma wybrane, Warsaw 1968,
vol. 2, p. 216.
(4) The Greek translation of the Septuagint expresses this well in
rendering the Hebrew term t(o-)b (good) as kalón (beautiful).
(5) Philebus, 65 A.
(6) JOHN PAUL II, Encyclical Letter Fides et Ratio (14 September 1998),
80: AAS 91 (1999), 67.
(7) This pedagogical principle was given authoritative formulation by
Saint Gregory the Great in a letter of 599 to Serenus, Bishop of
Marseilles: “Painting is employed in churches so that those who cannot
read or write may at least read on the walls what they cannot decipher
on the page”, Epistulae, IX, 209: CCL 140A, 1714.
(8) Lodi di Dio Altissimo, vv. 7 and 10: Fonti Francescane, No. 261,
Padua 1982, p. 177.
(9) Legenda Maior, IX, 1: Fonti Francesane, No. 1162, loc. cit., p. 911.
(10) Enkomia of the Orthós of the Holy and Great Saturday.
(11) Homily I, 2: PG 34, 451.
(12) “At nobis ars una fides et musica Christus”: Carmen 20, 31: CCL
203, 144.
(13) Cf. JOHN PAUL II, Apostolic Letter Duodecimum Saeculum (4 December
1987), 8-9: AAS 80 (1988), pp. 247-249.
(14) La prospettiva rovesciata ed altri scritti, Rome 1984, p. 63.
(15) Paradiso XXV, 1-2.
(16) Cf. JOHN PAUL II, Homily at the Mass for the Conclusion of the
Restoration of Michelangelo's Frescoes in the Sistine Chapel, 8 April
1994: Insegnamenti, XVII, 1 (1994), 899-904.
(17) Cf. AAS 56 (1964), 438-444.
(18) No. 62.
(19) Message to Artists, 8 December 1965: AAS 58 (1966), 13.
(20) Cf. No. 122.
(21) SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Pastoral Constitution Gaudium
et Spes, 62.
(22) La teologia nel XII secolo, Milan 1992, p. 9.
(23) SECOND VATICAN ECUMENICAL COUNCIL, Pastoral Constitution on the
Church in the Modern World Gaudium et Spes, 22.
(24) Hymn at Vespers on Pentecost.
(25) F. DOSTOYEVSKY, The Idiot, Part III, chap. 5.
(26) Sero te amavi! Pulchritudo tam antiqua et tam nova, sero te
amavi!: Confessions, 10, 27: CCL 27, 251.
(27) Paradiso XXXI, 134-135.
(28) Oda do mlodosci, v. 69: Wybór poezji, Wroclaw 1986, vol. 1,
p. 63.
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