Formulaic Art, Superstar Artists, and Mass Production Timeline
This too is an overgeneralization but it raises some of the issues at play in art production through Christian history.
100-300 CE
Mass Production
Most of the Christian art was made in workshops that made mostly Roman art which they adapted for Christian individuals which were a small part of their market.
300-about 1300 CE
Painting - Somewhat formulaic
Icons and illuminated manuscripts are mostly made by monks. Most of the monks use templates – this is what belongs in this kind of painting.
1000-1400 CE
Architecture – Superstar architects
Architecture had been fairly simple until Romanesque in the 1000s and the real stars of Gothic architecture in the starting in the 1100s.
1300-1650 CE
Superstar painters & sculptors (with a little Mass Production)
The idea of the gifted genius is born. Giotto, Leonardo, Michelangelo, Caravaggio.
1650-1850 CE Europe
A few superstars but mostly fairly safe and formulaic in the academies
The Enlightenment is all about reason and empiricism and that influences art as well
1650-1850 CE Everywhere else
Combination of Formulaic & Mass Produced
The European missionaries in Asia, Central & South America and Africa create schools to teach the indigenous people how to create Christian art. A few indigenous artists become Superstars.
1850 CE-present Christian Art
Formulaic and Mass Produced
The industrial revolution makes it much easier to reproduce and distribute images. William Holman Hunt’s Light of the World and Warner Sallman’s Head of Christ were reproduced in huge numbers.
1850 CE-present Other Art
Superstars
Impressionists become Superstars. Then 20th century produces Picasso, Matisse, Chagall, and Warhol among many others.
