Counter Reformation Dbq

Martin Luther was an Augustinian monk who had a spiritual crisis. He deeply wanted to be a good person, but he saw that there was so much corruption in the church. He saw that the priests were doing many immoral things. The priests created something called indulgences where it was stated that anyone could be absolved of their sins by paying money. They would then make multiple offices and continue this scam so that they would get more money from people. Luther saw this and he said this is not what Christianity was supposed to be. He believed that people were supposed to do good to gain the benefits of redemption. Luther believed that everything was dependent on faith, not good work, and that people did not need priests or teachers to access

Therefore, the council of the church met in a place called Trento. They were called to the Council of Trent and they met to respond to the Reformation. This led to the Counter-Reformation, which was a movement of the church to counter the protestant emergence. The Reformation movement shook the foundation of the church and the Counter-Reformation tried to counter these reforming ideas and protest them. The council of Trent laid out a grand vision of what artists were and weren't supposed to do. The text states “In the invocation of saints, the veneration of relics, and the sacred use of images, every superstition shall be removed, all filthy lucre be abolished; finally, all lasciviousness be avoided; in such wise that figures shall not be painted or adorned with a beauty exciting to lust; nor the celebration of the saints ( the council of Trent 1563)”. The council listed that artists should make their art clear and simple, avoiding lavishness and inappropriate images. Luther was excommunicated because of his actions and beliefs, but echoes of the Reformation were seen throughout Europe. Artists started to depict traditional religious subjects in very strange ways, which is referred to as

The church also gets into the upcoming mannerist art where the art is more sexual, and provocative, not the kind of art the church wanted. Artists were pushing the limits and were starting to show lust and sexual art. The church stated that art is supposed to be clear and legible. They didn't want art that would distract from the doctrine of the church. The church wanted certain messages to come across, and they wanted art to be a tool to convey those messages. In 1573- almost 10 years after the Council of Trent, Paolo Veronese painted Christ in the House of Levi, it was a monumental painting, that was 40 feet wide and 17 feet high. It was a painting of the Last Supper. In every monastery, there is a picture of the Last Supper. The council of Trent didn't like Veronese's painting because there were a lot of distracting things going on. For example, Jesus wasn't shown so clearly, and people were drinking. The Counter-Reformation affected artists in the future because it stifled artistic creativity. There were a set of rules artists had to follow to appease the church, and they couldn't add their imagination and creativity to their