A. Of the essential nature of Christian art. 1. Of the art faculty.
a. The relation of the Church to art per se. Kise of a Christian art.
b. Relation of Christian art to the art of clas-
sical antiquity.
c. Emancipation of art from the Church at the
end of the Middle Ages. Relation of Protestantism to art.
2. The artist.
a. Relation of the artist to the Church office :
(1) In Christian antiquity ; (2) In the Mid- dle Ages : (3) since the close of the Mid- dle Ages.
b. The training of the artist : (1) His relation
lo the antique ; (2) his relation to nature ; (3) schools and guilds.
c. The individuality of the artist.
3. Art works.
a. The synthetical division : (1) The material
and its treatment; (2) the idea and its embodiment.
aa. The language of art. Symbolism.
hb. Art composition.
b. The analytical division : (1) Autoptics ; (2)
criticism andhermeueutics of art-works. B. History of Christian art and art-works.
1. Chronology and geography of art.
2. The various species of art.
a. History of architecture.
b. History of the graphic arts.
3. Art monuments.
a. Civil monuments with Christian characters:
(1) Coins; (2) consular diptychs. 6. Private monuments: (1) Monuments of do- mestic life— gems, rings, etc.; (2) sepul- chral monuments.
c. Ecclesiastical mounmeuts : (1) Architect-
nre, cemeteries, churches, cloisters; (2) vessels of the churches; (3) ornamenta- tion of churches — mosaics, paintings, etc.
d. Monuments of ideal or free creative art. C Christian art ideas.
1. In architecture: symbolism of architecture.
2. In the graphic arts.
o. The development of the scope and range of Christian representation.
b. The content of Christian representation:
(1) Monumental exegesis; (2) monnmen- lal history of the kingdom of God; (3) monumental dogmatics and ethics.
c. Practical utility of Christian representa-
tions.
Explanation and Justifcaiion of the foregoing Synop- sis.— (I.) In the first branch. 1. If wc discuss the har- mony of art with the Cliristian Church, and its real- ization therein, the first thing to be examined is the essential nature of that art itself, both generally as a necessary subject of the activity of the human mind, as well as specially how it accords with the genius of Christianity itself. However, the problem here is not the same as in the art archaeology of classical antiquity, since early Christianity holds an entirely different rela- tion to art. It is similar to its relation to philosophy. Neither art nor philosophy was originated by the Church, but both had already passed through all stages of a great development. The Church found art already occupying human thought, and its rise and historj' are presupposed. By this art the early Christians were as much attracted as repelled. This conditions the de- pendence of the earliest Christian art on the antique — most especially in technical treatment, but also to some extent in spirit and motive ; so that this comes to be a constitutive element in the discussion, just as in the earliest history of doctrines we must carefully note the influence of the Greek (specially the Platonic) philoso- phy. On the other hand, the independence of Christian art is shown even in the presence of the antique. Spe- cially those peoples who subsequenth^ appeared upon the stage of history, and received contemporaneously their culture with Christianitj', have develoi)ed from the first a characteristically Christian art; since the final grounds of art antiquity are found in the nature of man itself, and to these we must at last return. This art activity likewise takes direction among a people to that extent that the period of the perfection of Chris- tian art may be delayed by means of its connection with a development so influenced by the models of antiquity. At the same time another sphere of art lite of universal interest will be liberated, and attain to an independent value. According to this view, the subjects that per- tain to the essence of Christian art, as springing from a
MONUMENTAL THEOLOGY 556 MONUMENTAL THEOLOGY
general art susceptibility, demand a preliminary discus- sion.
2. The essential nature of art from its objective side discussed, it is necessary to pass to the suhjectire ele- ment, the interest in which part will depend upon the personality — specially the gifts and endowments — of him who" devotes himself to the service of art and i the Church. In this connection, the first question that meets us is the personal and official relation of the art- ist to the Churcli. At the beginning we find the strange contrasts tliat heathen artists became interested in Chris- tian works of art, while also Christian artists became martyrs. After a period of untrammelled art develop- ment had elapsed, at length, during the Middle Ages, botli science and art fell under the exclusive superin- tendence of monks and priests, until the transference of art to the laity introduced the new asra. In this coiniection must also be discussed the question of the culture of artists, and the diffusion of those important guilds, partly industrial, partly ecclesiastical, by whose means the flourishing period of art in the later mediaeval period was ushered in. Here, as elsewhere, progress is connected with the individudl and his work, and the measure of this progress is determined by investigation of the condition of the individual. In the study of the development of doctrines and the organization of the early Church an acquaintance with the Christian fa- thers is of fundamental importance. In monumental theology, the history of artists corresponds to patristics in the history of doctrines and ecclesiastical polity; yet in an inverse chronological order, since the most noted names of the Christian fathers are found at or near the organization of the Church, while the names of the most renowned masters of art are associated with the conclu- sion of the ^liddle Ag&s and the dawning of the modern epoch. With the exception of a few noted architects, the names of artists hardly appear at all in Christian antiquity. So completely was art merged in the (jen- trul interest of the Church that imlividmil service is al- most forgotten. In the later Middle Ages the guilds effected a like result, so that the names of the architects of those most wonderful works that stand at the very acme of perfection are entirely wanting. Subsequently to the 13th and 14th centuries, however, in the depart- ments of sculpture and painting, the individuality of the arti.-t again asserted itself, and art pursued its high mis- sion in a most noteworthy union of free endowment and tlic oliserTance of organic a-sthetic laws.