Abstract
David H. Price's In the Beginning was the Image: Art and the Reformation Bible provides a sustained study of the role of biblical art in Renaissance humanist culture, and in particular, the ways that the visual image impacted the Protestant imagination and interpretation of Scripture throughout the Renaissance period and beyond. Renaissance artists like Albrecht Durer, Lucas Cranach the Elder and Hans Holbien, he argues, were at the forefront of theological and biblical development at the time, contributing to both the biblical form (how it was physically printed and visually received) and meaning (how the Bible was interpreted and applied). Unifying these artists were a concern for scholarship as an authority in biblical interpretation, biblicism as a dominant framework for understanding the application of biblical ideas to political and social normativity, and more generally, the value of the visual arts as a valid form of theological discourse in an increasingly iconoclastic Protestant culture (p. 8).
We are often led to believe that Protestants eschewed the use of the arts from the start, but Price shows how clearly that is not the case. The Protestant church certainly reflected a wide variety of visual concerns as they understood the Bible and Christian worship/discipleship from an increasingly individualistic perspective. But even if aesthetic pressure in the worship environment remained (for instance, Calvin's clearing of the worship space from visual imagery), Price traces the ways that Protestants allowed artists to inform their reading and interpretation of Scripture from the start. In fact, when the arts interacted directly with the Christian Bible, Protestants welcomed visual insight and interpretation. In this way, Price's book pushes against popular misconceptions of the relationship Protestants had to the visual arts by investigating the clear role of biblical art for Protestant culture and society.
This relationship was significantly affected by the role of the printing press not only on the visual arts but also the proliferation of the biblical text. The relation between text and image was solidified in the print movement, and publishers capitalized on the visual image in order to sell books. Practical matters of concern aside, publishers also realized the significant role that images could play in the reception of the text. The images produced by popular artists at the time, like Durer, Cranach and Holbein, were not simply didactic, illustrating the biblical text as a secondary interpretive tool. On the contrary, the images often functioned in a primary role as biblical interpreter, guiding readers into an encounter with the text that deepened Christian understanding and insight of the Word of God. Thus, Price traces the relationship not primarily of art to theology per se, but of art to hermeneutics. And while it would become overly messy to try and disentangle these too far, the latter speaks to a primary Reformation concern—the ability of the reader themselves (and in many cases the artist on behalf of the reader) to interpret and understand the text.
Two major realities can be seen in this regard: (1) the role of the Bible and its scholarly interpretation on Protestant artists, and (2) the role of artists as biblical interpreters, and the increasing role that images served in providing an interpretive paratext for the Reformation reader. As to the first, Price traces the way that Durer was heavily influenced by biblical scholarship at the time. This can be witnessed in his ongoing study of the figure of St. Jerome, the patron saint of biblical interpreters. Durer's depictions of Jerome show his humanist growth as an artist, the first from 1492 revealing medieval illustrative tendencies as they relate to space and cultural iconography while his latter paintings and illustrations depict a thoroughly Renaissance-inspired interpretation of the saint, as in his engraving from 1514 of Jerome in his study and the later 1521 painting where the lion has been removed in favour of more philosophical references (pp. 18–35). In these we see scholarly biblical interpretation as a central focus for Durer's imagination. But Durer also performs the role of biblical interpreter, as witnessed in his book Apocalypse, the first printed book by a visual artist in history, which includes fifteen full-page woodcuts illustrating the book of Revelation. Here, his images provide theological insight to the text while also conveying commentary on culture and society at the time.
Price's book makes several important contributions to the field of art and theology/biblical studies. First is his emphasis on the Reformation as a theological, political and cultural revolution that was proliferated through the visual arts. Through a close engagement with the visual arts, Price addresses topics such as the standing social order, anti-Semitism, Protestant-Catholic relations, domestic life, and more. This book is not just a primer in art during the Protestant Reformation, but more importantly, shows the ways that artists had a hand in shaping culture and place in ways that continue to impact us today.
Second, Price shows the role that humanism played on the Protestant imagination as it came to both theological interpretation of Scripture as well as the approach to the arts in relation to the Bible. I have read no other book that details the manner in which humanism framed the experience of art and theology in the Protestant North that is better than this.
Finally, while much is written on the topic of art and theology, the particular relationship between visual art and biblical interpretation remains an under-developed area of the discipline broadly known as ‘theology and the arts’. It is not that such studies don't exist (see, for instance, Heidi J. Hornik's work on visual art as Christian reflection and biblical interpretation), but Price deserves praise for the way that he provides a sustained engagement with artists of a particular time and place in order to show not only their particular historical contributions, but also the possibilities for visual art as it relates to biblical interpretation more broadly. This, however, is where Price could have gone a bit further in the conclusions drawn from his larger study. I would have liked to see an appendix or conclusion, at least, which took more of an aerial view of the topic in light of what we learned from the previous 330 pages. This, I think, would not only legitimize the value of such a book for the broader disciplines of Biblical studies and Christian theology, but also allow readers to imagine the possibilities for contemporary visual art as it relates to the Bible and Christian culture.
To this end, I will offer a couple of reflections in this area. First, Price's study provides a good framework for addressing the role of the image as cultural and biblical interpreter. What if the church renewed its visual imagination to include the work of contemporary artists who interpret the Bible in new ways? For instance, could the paintings of Kerry James Marshall which recast the Genesis narrative in light of our racial condition (see They Know that I Know, 1992 or The Lost Boys, 1993) or the works of Titus Kaphar in his 2020 exhibition ‘The Evidence of Things Unseen’ provide a space to reimagine biblical interpretation of theological anthropology in the twenty-first century? While the contemporary visual art world stands at far remove from the printing industry of the sixteenth century, I wonder if the church might find creative ways to engage visual culture as a form of biblical and theological education.
Second, what can we learn from Price's study about the cultural and political impact of biblical interpretation for the contemporary world? The visual arts of the Renaissance and Reformation were often used as social propaganda, cultural commentary on Catholic-Protestant relations, and motivators for both domestic and political life. And as Price shows, they did so primarily as they engaged the biblical text directly. At this time, pictures functioned to communicate specific ways of imagining the biblical message for life in the world. We might reflect on the ways that we see this dynamic taking place today (perhaps in the use of screens and video which combine image and text in Christian worship?), while envisioning the role that images might continue to play in our wider cultural exchange within the world through a biblical lens. It seems that the dynamics at play in the Renaissance and Protestant Reformation might continue to influence our ways of imagining and developing the relationship between the Bible, society, the individual and the artist for years to come.
Even without such contemporary application, Price's book remains a compelling contribution to the field of theology/biblical studies and the arts, especially as it relates to the Protestant imagination and practice. Understanding the history of the Protestant relationship to both the Bible as interpreted text and visual art/artist as biblical interpreter provides a meaningful and significant step in the right direction as the church continues to navigate its biblical influence and understanding in an ever-changing cultural milieu.