Curated Guides > Basics > The Basics of Religion in Art
The Basics of Religion in Art
For millennia, images have acted as a bridge to the invisible and the transcendent. This Basics Guide provides an overview of the major world religions and their relationship to art and architecture across time and place.
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Relief depicting a triumphal procession into Rome with loot from the temple, including the menorah, panel in the passageway, Arch of Titus, Rome, c. 81 C.E., marble, 6 feet 7 inches high (photo: public domain)
Relief panel with The Spoils of Jerusalem Being Brought into Rome, Arch of Titus, Rome, after 81 C.E., marble, 7 feet 10 inches high
Good Shepherd, Santa Maria Antiqua Sarcophagus, c. 275 C.E., white veined marble, found under the floor of Santa Maria Antiqua, Rome (photo: Steven Zucker, CC BY-NC-SA 2.0)
- Christianity, an introduction
- The Christian Bible
- Biblical illumination
- Early Christianity, an introduction
- Medieval prayer-books
- The life of Christ in medieval and Renaissance art
- The lives of Christ and the Virgin in Byzantine art
- How to recognize the Four Evangelists
- Who’s who? How to recognize saints…
- Architecture and liturgy
Courtyard of the Great Mosque of Damascus (photo: Eric Shin, CC BY-NC 2.0)
- Introduction to Islam
- The Five Pillars of Islam
- Understanding historical images of the Prophet Muhammad
- The Qur’an
- Adorning the Qur'an
- Gold in the Qur’an
- Illumination of the Qur’an
- The Qur’an and the development of Arabic scripts between the 7th and 12th centuries
- Islamic pilgrimages and sacred spaces
- Hajj
- The Kaaba
- Stories of the modern pilgrimage
- Introduction to mosque architecture
- Common types of mosque architecture
Krishna Killing the Horse Demon Keshi, Gupta period, 5th century C.E., terracotta (Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Cosmic Mount Meru (detail), 18th century, East Tibet or China, appliqué and embroidery with silk (The Walters Art Museum, Baltimore)
- Introduction to Buddhism
- The historical Buddha
- How to recognize the Buddha
- Bodhisattvas, an introduction
- How to recognize a bodhisattva
- Pensive bodhisattvas
- Bodhisattva Avalokitesvara: Guanyin
- Maitreya
- The Buddha and Buddhist sacred texts
- The stupa
- Images of enlightenment: aniconic vs. iconic depictions of the Buddha in India
- Four Buddhas at the American Museum of Natural History
- Buddhist meditation and chant
- Bodh Gaya: The Site of the Buddha’s Enlightenment
- Mudras in Buddhist art
- Beliefs made visible: Buddhist art in South Asia
- Buddhist monasteries
- Thai Buddhist monasteries
Mahāvīra preaching to all beings after enlightenment, Manuscript of the Kalpasūtra, Or 13700, fol. 32 verso, 1445 C.E. (British Library)
