Visual Art is like literature in symbols, while literature describes context and scenario with alphabets and word associations, art communicates through images. Writers are at the mercy of their skill to create the most vivid imagery through their words, and an artist is only as good as their ability to convey their inspiration through a visual medium.

What an Egg Dreams, 2019

Calvin Foreman

All images can provoke thought if they can create an association to the viewer. They activate a center of awareness associated with the reaction as if they were looking at the thing itself, acting like mirrors and portals into the depths of your personality.

The Crucifixion ca. 1675

Bartolomé Estebán Murillo

What can be said of the quality a religious painting can only be said insofar as the artwork is able to truly capture the spirit of the myth, as our ability to describe any image is dependent on our limited language to portray what we experience. That saying, language and imagery are inseparable, as images communicate emotion and perspective, language communicates thought and definition.

Religious imagery has always been known to be particularly powerful in captivating the soul. Religions provide a large body of images which allow us to envision the relationship between us and the divine, according to the tradition.

Religions and their imagery only work when the person in question believes in the reality behind the image, or is able to fill the images with experiences and emotions of their own putting their emotions within the machinery of the belief system. Everyone has a devil and an angel figure in some way, and religious systems have been an aid in our past giving us maps and mental weapons to deal with what we aren’t fully aware of within.

Jung considered the ‘archetype’ (a class of subconscious mental constructs) of the mother to be the most important, along with the father and child, two of which are well illustrated by the characters of Mary and Jesus:

‘Madonna And Child’, 17th Century

Sassoferrato

It’s fashionable to reject religion and mythology as fictitious or for children because of our material understandings, but what we lose is greater than the perceived freedom we receive when the models and symbols we use in our lives to motivate us are left within the realm of trivial entertainment.

Our thoughts and reactions are anchored on images that surround our minds like a cocoon, or like chalices for the waters of passion. Our minds keep memory of images that represent something we desire, and they are brought out when the associated desire is again activated. Images can also trigger craving centers to simulate an experience, such as in the art of film-making or theater, where an actor is only as good as their ability to convince the audience that what is happening on the screen is real to make your self – association with the character as seamless as possible.

Some of the most prominent human phobias are toward creatures which were common predators and threats to our evolutionary parents, such as snakes and spiders. Children develop fears and an enhanced sensitivity to detecting these things regardless if they’ve had a personally traumatic experience with them, or live in an area where they are common.

To Carl Jung (Psychologist, Psychiatrist, Journalist (1875–1961), they depend on what he called “archetypes” or faces of the inner personality which serve as the points of desire and our deep emotions. Archetypes are passed down through ancestral memory, or through what Jung called the “collective unconscious” the pool of common images and associations passed down through the human species that contains remnants of symbols known by our distant ancestors.

All that being said, you can see the power of images to unlock and manipulate energies from the mind. All political and cultural movements are based on an ideal image of the world they fight for, or the negative things people want to erase. Religion has been the primary pillar in culture due to the prophet’s knowledge of the attractions of the soul and our deepest wishes and insecurities, giving us ritual and methods of prayer and meditation designed to heal our wounds that aren’t as easily seen on the surface.

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