Sacred art is an excellent method to get a message across. Yet the artist's original motive must be looked at to interpret the true meaning of the created work as intended by the artist, not the construct the individual viewer places thereon.
The individual viewer of an artwork may place a construct thereon, and this is valid for the viewer. Yet viewer interpretation cannot replace the artist's motive - which should be looked at within the culture and context of the artist's time - in order to interpret the true meaning of the created work as originally intended by the artist.
Thus a sacred artwork viewed decades later within an evolved - and thus different societal and religious context - cannot be interpreted with the same lens which was possible at the time of the creation of the artwork.
Sacred art made with pure intention - which was created by an artist from one culture and context - simply cannot be judged decades later without reference to the original time of culture and context. This reflects maturity of artistic reflection.
Art is always moving on. We stand on the shoulders of the giants who went before us. So yes, we may have more options and understanding than previous generations of sacred artists due to the vast array of developed tools presently at hand.
Yet we cannot deny that without the faith, sacrifice, inspiration, toil and tears of previous sacred artists - many of whom gave their lives to teach us what they knew then (and not what we subsequently know now) - we might not have had any faith art at all.
Let us be gracious to previous sacred artists. As we hope and pray future generations will show for our own efforts to reflect the inimitable Glory of God.
The role of sacred art is not to reflect norms of ever-changing fields of societal opinions. The role of sacred art is to reflect the never-changing commands of GOD.
The goal of sacred art is not to invest faith in current norms, which of their essence are mutable. The goal of sacred art is to support individuals to come to faith in GOD the Immutable.
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