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(→Question: Why doesn't the art match details which have been repeatedly spelled out in Church publications?) |
(→Question: Why doesn't the art match details which have been repeatedly spelled out in Church publications?) |
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[[Category:An Insider's View of Mormon Origins]] | [[Category:An Insider's View of Mormon Origins]] | ||
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+ | [[en:Question: Why doesn't the art match details which have been repeatedly spelled out in Church publications?]] | ||
+ | [[es:Pregunta: ¿Por qué no los detalles de partidos obras de arte que han sido enunciados repetidamente en publicaciones de la Iglesia?]] |
Why, then, does the art not match details which have been repeatedly spelled out in LDS publications?
The simplest answer may be that artists simply don't always get such matters right. The critics' caricature to the contrary, not every aspect of such things is "correlated." Robert J. Matthews of BYU was interviewed by the Journal of Book of Mormon Studies, and described the difficulties in getting art "right":
Modern audiences—especially those looking to find fault—have, in a sense, been spoiled by photography. We are accustomed to having images describe how things "really" were. We would be outraged if someone doctored a photo to change its content. This largely unconscious tendency may lead us to expect too much of artists, whose gifts and talents may lie in areas unrelated to textual criticism and the fine details of Church history.
Even this does not tell the whole story. "Every artist," said Henry Ward Beecher, "dips his brush in his own soul, and paints his own nature into his pictures."[2] This is perhaps nowhere more true than in religious art, where the goal is not so much to convey facts or historical detail, as it is to convey a religious message and sentiment. A picture often is worth a thousand words, and artists often seek to have their audience identify personally with the subject. The goal of religious art is not to alienate the viewer, but to draw him or her in.
Notes
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