by Bridget Webber

Created on: March 02, 2009   Last Updated: August 03, 2011

It has long been recognised that art can have a unique connection with spirituality. Thousands of years ago cavemen felt that they could somehow summon wilder-beast and ensure good luck when hunting by creating paintings on cave walls depicting the animals, with themselves chasing them.

Aborigines created works of art carved into rocks and painted onto surfaces showing symbols which had important spiritual meanings to them. Also the Egyptians worshiped their Gods and showed their respect for them by painting elaborate works all over the walls, ceilings and floors of their temples.

Hundreds of years ago it became popular for artists to depict religious scenes and icons within their work. The Madonna and child are an image repeatedly painted by famous artists, such as Leonardo da Vinci and the Italian medieval artist Duccio di Buoninsegna.

By using religious subjects within their work the artists hoped to capture the hearts and minds of observers who longed for all that held meaning and which evokes spiritual feeling.

As time passed artists began to use their work to illustrate their feelings. Art became inspirational and personal, both for the artist and the observer. No-longer did artists rely on bringing a spiritual element into their work by depicting well known religious figures. Instead they began to use form and color to convey feelings and emotions.

While some art work with a connection to spirituality sought to uplift and inspire, other great works of art were made to give the observer an experience of pain and suffering on a spiritual level.

While paintings of Jesus on the cross wearing a crown of thorns was clearly a depiction of events that happened to an important person, it was also an illustration of spiritual ideals created out of martyrdom.

The artist Edward Munch created a painting which doesn't use a particular person as central figure, at least not one recognised by most observers. Instead his painting, 'The Scream,' uses a figure in contorted pain and anguish against a sky that is blood red with form and movement.

This type of art perhaps uses its spiritual connection to link with others personal experiences of horror and anxiety, as each observer can study it and come away with a connection between their own hidden feelings and the artists.

Other forms of art are created while the artist is in touch with their spiritual nature during the act of creation. Buddhist monks will sometimes spend many hours creating sand pictures. For them the connection with spiritual aspects occurs while they create, rather than when observers look at the finished article. Their work may depend more on the process of creation, rather than becoming a permanent exhibit.

Other art forms, such as sacred mandalas also come from Buddhist and Hindu cultures. These works of art are made specifically to help the artist and observer to become linked with their inner spiritual world, and the outer spiritual world.

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