The Visual and Material Cultures of Protestantism

I. Sixteenth Century: The Protestant Reformation

Franz Hogenberg, engraving of Dutch iconoclasm, 1566, Cologne, Germany

Lucas Cranach the Elder, altarpiece and predella, 1547, Wittenberg, Germany (Lutheran) Augustin Hirschvogel, etching of the raising of Lazarus, 1545, Vienna, Austria

II. Seventeenth Century: Puritan Restraint

William Mumford, gravestone with soul effigy, 1697, Newport, RI (Puritan) Assorted soul effigy gravestones, ca. 1650-1750, New England (Puritan)

Joshua Lincoln, colorist, Old Ship Meetinghouse views, 1682, Hingham, MA (Puritan)

III. Eighteenth Century: Moravian Visual Piety

Johann Valentin Haidt, “First Fruits,” 1747, Herrnhut, Germany (Moravian) Johann Valentin Haidt, “Lamentation over Christ’s Body,” 1758, Bethlehem, PA (Moravian) Johann Valentin Haidt, “Thomas Doubting,” 1758, Bethlehem, PA (Moravian) J. Rod. Holzhath Sculprit, copperplate engravings of “Prostration” and “Pedalavium” from the Zeremonienbüchlein, 1757, Germany (Moravian)

Assorted side wound cards in watercolor, ca. 1730, Herrnhut, Germany (Moravian) Mariane von Watteville, side wound devotional watercolor and needlework, ca. 1750, Herrnhut, Germany (Moravian)

IV. Nineteenth Century: The Flowering of Protestant Visual Culture

Shakers

Hannah Cohoon, “A Bower of Mulberry Trees” ink and watercolor spirit drawing, 1854, Pittsfield, MA (Shaker) “Heavenly Tree,” ink and watercolor spirit drawing, 1855, Pittsfield, MA (Shaker) Watercolor trance drawing, ca. 1850, Pittsfield, MA (Shaker)

Mass Reproduction and the Power of Persuasion

Alexander Anderson, assorted American Tract Society wood engravings, ca. 1820s and 30s, New York

George Gilbert, assorted American Sunday-School Union wood engravings, ca. 1820s and 30s, Philadelphia “Certificate of Contribution” wood engraving, American Tract Society, 1849, New York

John Alexander Adams, electrotyped engravings from the Harper and Brothers Illuminated Bible, 1846 [1843 – 1866], New York Currier and Ives, “Jesus on the Cross / El Salvador del Mundo” lithograph, 1872, New York Currier and Ives, “Baptism of Jesus Christ” lithograph, ca. 1870, New York

Currier and Ives, “Record of Birth and Baptism” lithograph, 1866, New York Currier and Ives, “The Autumn Cross” lithograph, ca. 1870, New York Thomas Nast, “The American River Ganges” in Harper’s Weekly, 1871 (Anti-Catholicism)

Images from nativist convent exposés, ca. 1830-1845, London and Boston (Anti-Catholicism)

Abolitionist engraving “Whipping a Slave,” American Tract Society, ca. 1850 J.V. Himes, Millerite prophecy chart, 1843 (Millerism/Adventism)

God in Nature

Thomas Cole, “Lake with Dead Trees (Catskills),” 1826 (Episcopalian) Thomas Cole, “View in the White Mountains,” 1827 (Episcopalian) George Inness, “Passing Clouds,” 1876 (Swedenborgian) George Inness, “Trout Brook,” 1891 (Swedenborgian)

Home Book of the Picturesque steelplate engravings, 1852 Frontispiece from geography schoolbook, 1885

Photography

Before-and-after photograph of Tom Torlino (Navajo), ca. 1880, Carlisle, PA Before-and-after photography of Woxie Haury (Cheyenne), 1897, Pacific Northwest

V. Twentieth and Twenty-First Centuries: The Battle of Kitsch and Highbrow

Hollywood Religion

Aimee Semple McPherson performance photographs, ca. 1910-1935, Los Angeles, CA (Pentecostal) Postcard of Angelus Temple, ca. 1920, Los Angeles, CA (Pentecostal) Copy of The Bridal Call, 1925, Aimee Semple McPherson, editor, Los Angeles, CA (Pentecostal)

Fundamentalists

E.J. Pace, “Ancestor Worship,” 1922 (Fundamentalist) E.J. Pace, “The Descent of the Modernists,” 1922 (Fundamentalist) Jack Chick, Assorted Tracts, 1961 – present (Fundamentalist)

Jon McNaughton, “One Nation Under God,” 2009, Utah (Tea Party Mormon) Jon McNaughton, “One Nation Under Socialism,” 2012, Utah (Tea Party Mormon)

The Gentle Art of Warner Sallman

Warner Sallman, Head of Christ, 1940 (based on 1924 drawing)

Warner Sallman, Head of Christ reproductions on tape measure and brooch, ca. 1950

“Respectable” Protestants

John Singer Sargent, “Triumph of Religion” mural cycle, Boston Public Library, 1895-1919 Mark Rothko, “No. 8,” 1952 (praised by Alfred Barr Jr., Presbyterian) Mark Rothko, Rothko Gallery, featuring “No. 61” in rust blue, Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles, CA

Race and Gender

Fred Carter, “Jesus Praying in the Garden,” 1987 Dreadlock Jesus Buddha Jesus

Edwina Sandys, “Christa,” 1975

Further Reading

Koerner, Joseph Leo. The Reformation of the Image.Chicago: University Of Chicago Press, 2008.

McDannell, Colleen. Material Christianity: Religion and Popular Culture in America. New Haven: Yale University Press, 1998.

Morgan, David. Protestants and Pictures: Religion, Visual Culture, and the Age of American Mass Production. New York: Oxford University Press, 1999.

Promey, Sally M. “Pictorial Ambivalence and American Protestantism.” In Crossroads: Art and Religion in American Life, edited by Alberta Arthurs and Glenn Wallach, 189–231. First Edition. New York: The New Press, 2001.

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?? Frontispiece from geography schoolbook, 1885 ??