Paintings are a reflection of religion Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 750 words

Paintings are a reflection of religion - Essay Example The essay "Paintings are a reflection of religion" discusses the ways several arts works, particularly paintings, have reflected religion or religious situations.Artistic creations, particularly through paintings, are therefore significant for scholars of diverse endeavors. In the study of expressive symbolism the humanist and the social scientist find common ground. According to Trotter â€Å"the themes of religion have provided the content of painting in the West. In gallery after gallery, the great themes of religion are the subject matter of the paintings. The Louvre in Paris, the Prado in Madrid, and even the Hermitage in Leningrad, display countless paintings of the Annunciation or the Crucifixion or the Resurrection.† In this regard, this essay aims to proffer the ways several arts works, particularly paintings, have reflected religion or religious situations. The discourse would present a comparison of how the works selected were different or similar in some elements t hrough concrete examples. The first inquiry is the rationale for painting religious themes. According to Trotter (1987), â€Å"in great periods of painting, such as the Renaissance in Europe, the wealthy who could afford to hire artists often subsidized major religious works as appropriate to the scale of their own palaces and as gifts to religious institutions† (par. 2). This is the reason why Leonardo da Vinci painted â€Å"The Last Supper† in 1498. Esaak (2010) averred that â€Å"his employer requested him to do so. Leonardo worked for Ludovico Sforza.