They Who Gathered Much: Artists, Audiences, and Collectors of Biblical Imagery

This symposium will investigate the intersection of two dramatic shifts in nineteenth-century culture: the reconfiguring of biblical representation amid shifts in Bible historicism, and the emerging markets for buying, selling, and exhibiting biblical art amid a rise of a new middle-class art patronage.

The objective of recent art historical analyses of religious art has been to study the influence of shifting biblical hermeneutics and expanding patronage in order to determine modules of innovation.  Proof of the shift in these spheres was manifested in the growth of galleries, commissions, and the changing role of the church in the middle of the nineteenth century.  Political partisanship also helped to influence biblical imagery, either to support or subvert members of the artistic avant-garde. As secularization became a dominating force at this time, evidence suggests that patronage contributed to reshaping a “modern religious imagery.” Since the Enlightenment, the historical validity and relevance to modern life of the Bible has been a source of intense debate, challenging artists to explore Christian concepts amid competing cultural forces.