23 Religious art

Religious art is artistic imagery using religious inspiration and motifs and is often intended to uplift the mind to the spiritual. Sacred art involves the ritual and cultic practices and practical and operative aspects of the path of the spiritual realization within the artist's religious tradition.

The Arzhang, also known as the Book of Pictures, was one of the holy books of Manichaeism. It was written and illustrated by its prophet, Mani, in Syriac, with later reproductions written in Sogdian. It was unique as a sacred text in that it contained numerous pictures designed to portray Manichaean cosmogony, which were regarded as integral to the text.

Christian art is sacred art which uses themes and imagery from Christianity. Most Christian groups use or have used art to some extent, including early Christian art and architecture and Christian media.

The Conservation of South Asian household shrines is an activity dedicated to the preservation of household shrines from South Asia. When applied to cultural heritage, held by either museums or private collectors, this activity is generally undertaken by a conservator-restorer. South Asian shrines held in museum collections around the world are principally shrines relate to Hindu, Jain, or Buddhist households. Due to their original use and sacred nature, these shrines present unique conservation and restoration challenges for those tasked with their care.

In the practice of religion, a cult image or devotional image is a human-made object that is venerated or worshipped for the deity, person, spirit or daemon that it embodies or represents. In several traditions, including the ancient religions of Egypt, Greece and Rome, and modern Hinduism, cult images in a temple may undergo a daily routine of being washed, dressed, and having food left for them. Processions outside the temple on special feast days are often a feature. Religious images cover a wider range of all types of images made with a religious purpose, subject, or connection. In many contexts "cult image" specifically means the most important image in a temple, kept in an inner space, as opposed to what may be many other images decorating the temple.

Death playing chess is a monumental painting in Täby Church located just outside Stockholm, Sweden. It was painted around 1480–1490, by the Swedish medieval painter Albertus Pictor.

Devotional objects are religious souvenirs, owned and carried by the religious, who see them as imbued with spiritual values, and use them for votive offering. Production and sales of devotional articles have become a widespread industry in the vicinity of various religious sites all over the world.

Adrian Mikołaj Głębocki was a Polish painter, lithographer and art teacher.

Homage to the Highest Power (朝元圖) is a prime example of Daoist paintings in the Royal Ontario Museum collection. The wall painting was created during the late Yuan Dynasty, c. 1271–1368. The painting is colored pigments mixed with clay and plaster. It measures 306.5 cm high and 1042 cm in length. This painting is similar to those found in Sanqing Hall of the Yongle Monastery in Shanxi province. The Sanqing Hall paintings are dated by an inscription to 1325. Based on the strong stylistic affinities, this work can also be dated to the Yuan dynasty.

Islamic influences on Western art refers to the influence of Islamic art, the artistic production in the Islamic world from the 8th to the 19th century, on Christian art. During this period, the frontier between Christendom and the Islamic world varied a lot resulting in some cases in exchanges of populations and of corresponding art practices and techniques. Furthermore, the two civilizations had regular relationships through diplomacy and trade that facilitated cultural exchanges. Islamic art covers a wide variety of media including calligraphy, illustrated manuscripts, textiles, ceramics, metalwork and glass, and refers to the art of Muslim countries in the Near East, Islamic Spain, and Northern Africa, though by no means always Muslim artists or craftsmen. Glass production, for example, remained a Jewish speciality throughout the period, and Christian art, as in Coptic Egypt continued, especially during the earlier centuries, keeping some contacts with Europe.

Johann Lucas Kracker, also Jan Lukáš Kracker or János Lukács Kracker was an Austrian-Czech painter of the late Baroque period. His work consisted mostly of ceiling or wall frescoes and altarpieces.

Waldemar Thisenius Kruse, known as Ole was a Danish-Swedish painter.

Dominique Antoine Jean-Baptiste Magaud was a French painter, muralist and art school director.

Manichaeism has a rich tradition of visual art, starting with Mani himself writing the Book of pictures

The Museo d'Arte Sacra della Val d'Arbia is a small museum of religious art in Buonconvento, in the Val d'Arbia to the south of Siena, in Tuscany in central Italy. It contain a number of paintings by important artists of the Sienese School, among them Duccio di Buoninsegna, Sano di Pietro and Pietro Lorenzetti. The museum is housed in the Palazzo Ricci Socini, close to the parish church of Santi Pietro e Paolo.

Balthasar Riepp was a German-Austrian painter, primarily of religious subjects.

That Which That Orphan Saw is a novel by Iranian author Mohammad Reza Sarshar about the life of Mohammad, the prophet of Islam. Sarshar has attempted to describe the tumultuous and unique life of Mohammad in the novel. Muslims believe that Mohammad was the last prophet and the most complete human being. That Which That Orphan Saw has received numerous awards and has been reprinted many times in Iran. The idea for writing the novel came to Sarshar in 1980 because he believed that there were no valuable life stories about Mohammad available for teenagers. The 8th reprinting was published in May 2013.

The Candle is Lighted, We Can Not Blow it Out refers to a series of engravings featuring a set of Protestant reformers seated around a candle on a table. The central figure is Martin Luther, surrounded by both contemporary and historical Protestant reformers. Opposite him is a group of Catholics trying to blow the candle out. Often the first part of the text is pointing towards the bible, on which the light of the candle is shining, and the second part of the text is somewhat hidden under the puffs of breath coming from the Catholic objectors. Sometimes the candle is labelled "Evangelarium" or Gospels.

The Warsaw Icon Museum is the first museum in Warsaw and the third in Poland dedicated to icons. Located in the Ochota district of Warsaw, Poland, the museum is housed in a former boilerhouse.

Josef Winterhalder the Younger was a German-Bohemian painter belonging to the fourth generation of painters and sculptors in the Winterhalder family. He worked in Moravia, Lower Austria and Hungary.