Edwin Stößinger Zur marxistischen Beurteilung religiöser Kunst

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Marxist art scientists, despite their atheistic attitude, did not consider religious art to be worthless. They certainly appreciated a number of religious works of art despite all the sharpness of their criticism of religion. In contrast to representatives of the Proletcult movement, they dealt with religious works of art in great detail.

This monograph presents selected judgments on works from three types of fine arts: architecture, painting, and sculpture. The limited subject area is thus about sacred architecture as well as religious painting and sculpture.

In the first part, terms, criteria, theoretical positions and special art movements and conceptions are clarified. In the second part, not only works from all world religions are discussed in a passage through art history. The spectrum studied extends far beyond that. Works of art with references to magic, old cults and various mythologies are also included in a very broad understanding of religion. The analysis begins with cave paintings and ends with judgments on religious works of art from the 20th century.

The approach of Marxist art historians and critics was often universal-historical and encyclopedic. This resulted in a voluminous body of art-historical literature that is unlikely to be continued in this way. One of the main interests of Marxist art historians was the search for the heritage of humanist traditions in religious art. Their starting point was socialist realism. Against this background, the question of objectivity in their judgments of religious art is also problematized. Possible propagandistic intentions in religious works of art and also in the judgments of Marxist authors are also the subject of the present study.

In some respects, the present book is a largely self-contained history of religious art, insofar as it was embedded in a Marxist framework of judgment. The present analysis also shows that the reappraisal of Marxist art history is not yet complete.

Reading this book may open up new perspectives for art historians, art and religious educators, theologians and interested laypeople with regard to well-known works of art. Discoveries of previously unknown works from the field of religious art are also possible.