Pope Benedict XVI Meets with Artists in Sistine Chapel
(21 Nov 09 - RV) Pope Benedict XVI on Saturday met with hundreds of artists, speaking
about the role of beauty in today’s world. We have this report...
Full
Text of Pope Benedict XVI's Address to Artists
Meeting with Artists
(Saturday,
21 November 2009)
Dear Cardinals, Brother Bishops and Priests, Distinguished
Artists, Ladies and Gentlemen,
With great joy I welcome you to this solemn
place, so rich in art and in history. I cordially greet each and every one of you
and I thank you for accepting my invitation. At this gathering I wish to express
and renew the Church’s friendship with the world of art, a friendship that has been
strengthened over time; indeed Christianity from its earliest days has recognized
the value of the arts and has made wise use of their varied language to express her
unvarying message of salvation. This friendship must be continually promoted and
supported so that it may be authentic and fruitful, adapted to different historical
periods and attentive to social and cultural variations. Indeed, this is the reason
for our meeting here today. I am deeply grateful to Archbishop Gianfranco Ravasi,
President of the Pontifical Council for Culture and of the Pontifical Commission for
the Cultural Patrimony of the Church, and likewise to his officials, for promoting
and organizing this meeting, and I thank him for the words he has just addressed to
me. I greet the Cardinals, the Bishops, the priests and the various distinguished
personalities present. I also thank the Sistine Chapel Choir for their contribution
to this gathering. Today’s event is focused on you, dear and illustrious artists,
from different countries, cultures and religions, some of you perhaps remote from
the practice of religion, but interested nevertheless in maintaining communication
with the Catholic Church, in not reducing the horizons of existence to mere material
realities, to a reductive and trivializing vision. You represent the varied world
of the arts and so, through you, I would like to convey to all artists my invitation
to friendship, dialogue and cooperation. Some significant anniversaries occur around
this time. It is ten years since the Letter to Artists by my venerable Predecessor,
the Servant of God Pope John Paul II. For the first time, on the eve of the Great
Jubilee of the Year 2000, the Pope, who was an artist himself, wrote a Letter to artists,
combining the solemnity of a pontifical document with the friendly tone of a conversation
among all who, as we read in the initial salutation, “are passionately dedicated to
the search for new ‘epiphanies’ of beauty”. Twenty-five years ago the same Pope proclaimed
Blessed Fra Angelico the patron of artists, presenting him as a model of perfect harmony
between faith and art. I also recall how on 7 May 1964, forty-five years ago, in
this very place, an historic event took place, at the express wish of Pope Paul VI,
to confirm the friendship between the Church and the arts. The words that he spoke
on that occasion resound once more today under the vault of the Sistine Chapel and
touch our hearts and our minds. “We need you,” he said. “We need your collaboration
in order to carry out our ministry, which consists, as you know, in preaching and
rendering accessible and comprehensible to the minds and hearts of our people the
things of the spirit, the invisible, the ineffable, the things of God himself. And
in this activity … you are masters. It is your task, your mission, and your art consists
in grasping treasures from the heavenly realm of the spirit and clothing them in words,
colours, forms – making them accessible.” So great was Paul VI’s esteem for artists
that he was moved to use daring expressions. “And if we were deprived of your assistance,”
he added, “our ministry would become faltering and uncertain, and a special effort
would be needed, one might say, to make it artistic, even prophetic. In order to
scale the heights of lyrical expression of intuitive beauty, priesthood would have
to coincide with art.” On that occasion Paul VI made a commitment to “re-establish
the friendship between the Church and artists”, and he invited artists to make a similar,
shared commitment, analyzing seriously and objectively the factors that disturbed
this relationship, and assuming individual responsibility, courageously and passionately,
for a newer and deeper journey in mutual acquaintance and dialogue in order to arrive
at an authentic “renaissance” of art in the context of a new humanism. That historic
encounter, as I mentioned, took place here in this sanctuary of faith and human creativity.
So it is not by chance that we come together in this place, esteemed for its architecture
and its symbolism, and above all for the frescoes that make it unique, from the masterpieces
of Perugino and Botticelli, Ghirlandaio and Cosimo Rosselli, Luca Signorelli and others,
to the Genesis scenes and the Last Judgement of Michelangelo Buonarroti, who has given
us here one of the most extraordinary creations in the entire history of art. The
universal language of music has often been heard here, thanks to the genius of great
musicians who have placed their art at the service of the liturgy, assisting the spirit
in its ascent towards God. At the same time, the Sistine Chapel is remarkably vibrant
with history, since it is the solemn and austere setting of events that mark the history
of the Church and of mankind. Here as you know, the College of Cardinals elects the
Pope; here it was that I myself, with trepidation but also with absolute trust in
the Lord, experienced the privileged moment of my election as Successor of the Apostle
Peter. Dear friends, let us allow these frescoes to speak to us today, drawing
us towards the ultimate goal of human history. The Last Judgement, which you see
behind me, reminds us that human history is movement and ascent, a continuing tension
towards fullness, towards human happiness, towards a horizon that always transcends
the present moment even as the two coincide. Yet the dramatic scene portrayed in
this fresco also places before our eyes the risk of man’s definitive fall, a risk
that threatens to engulf him whenever he allows himself to be led astray by the forces
of evil. So the fresco issues a strong prophetic cry against evil, against every
form of injustice. For believers, though, the Risen Christ is the Way, the Truth
and the Life. For his faithful followers, he is the Door through which we are brought
to that “face-to-face” vision of God from which limitless, full and definitive happiness
flows. Thus Michelangelo presents to our gaze the Alpha and the Omega, the Beginning
and the End of history, and he invites us to walk the path of life with joy, courage
and hope. The dramatic beauty of Michelangelo’s painting, its colours and forms,
becomes a proclamation of hope, an invitation to raise our gaze to the ultimate horizon.
The profound bond between beauty and hope was the essential content of the evocative
Message that Paul VI addressed to artists at the conclusion of the Second Vatican
Ecumenical Council on 8 December 1965: “To all of you,” he proclaimed solemnly, “the
Church of the Council declares through our lips: if you are friends of true art,
you are our friends!” And he added: “This world in which we live needs beauty in
order not to sink into despair. Beauty, like truth, brings joy to the human heart,
and is that precious fruit which resists the erosion of time, which unites generations
and enables them to be one in admiration. And all this through the work of your hands
. . . Remember that you are the custodians of beauty in the world.” Unfortunately,
the present time is marked, not only by negative elements in the social and economic
sphere, but also by a weakening of hope, by a certain lack of confidence in human
relationships, which gives rise to increasing signs of resignation, aggression and
despair. The world in which we live runs the risk of being altered beyond recognition
because of unwise human actions which, instead of cultivating its beauty, unscrupulously
exploit its resources for the advantage of a few and not infrequently disfigure the
marvels of nature. What is capable of restoring enthusiasm and confidence, what can
encourage the human spirit to rediscover its path, to raise its eyes to the horizon,
to dream of a life worthy of its vocation – if not beauty? Dear friends, as artists
you know well that the experience of beauty, beauty that is authentic, not merely
transient or artificial, is by no means a supplementary or secondary factor in our
search for meaning and happiness; the experience of beauty does not remove us from
reality, on the contrary, it leads to a direct encounter with the daily reality of
our lives, liberating it from darkness, transfiguring it, making it radiant and beautiful. Indeed,
an essential function of genuine beauty, as emphasized by Plato, is that it gives
man a healthy “shock”, it draws him out of himself, wrenches him away from resignation
and from being content with the humdrum – it even makes him suffer, piercing him like
a dart, but in so doing it “reawakens” him, opening afresh the eyes of his heart and
mind, giving him wings, carrying him aloft. Dostoevsky’s words that I am about to
quote are bold and paradoxical, but they invite reflection. He says this: “Man can
live without science, he can live without bread, but without beauty he could no longer
live, because there would no longer be anything to do to the world. The whole secret
is here, the whole of history is here.” The painter Georges Braque echoes this sentiment:
“Art is meant to disturb, science reassures.” Beauty pulls us up short, but in so
doing it reminds us of our final destiny, it sets us back on our path, fills us with
new hope, gives us the courage to live to the full the unique gift of life. The quest
for beauty that I am describing here is clearly not about escaping into the irrational
or into mere aestheticism. Too often, though, the beauty that is thrust upon us
is illusory and deceitful, superficial and blinding, leaving the onlooker dazed; instead
of bringing him out of himself and opening him up to horizons of true freedom as it
draws him aloft, it imprisons him within himself and further enslaves him, depriving
him of hope and joy. It is a seductive but hypocritical beauty that rekindles desire,
the will to power, to possess, and to dominate others, it is a beauty which soon turns
into its opposite, taking on the guise of indecency, transgression or gratuitous provocation.
Authentic beauty, however, unlocks the yearning of the human heart, the profound desire
to know, to love, to go towards the Other, to reach for the Beyond. If we acknowledge
that beauty touches us intimately, that it wounds us, that it opens our eyes, then
we rediscover the joy of seeing, of being able to grasp the profound meaning of our
existence, the Mystery of which we are part; from this Mystery we can draw fullness,
happiness, the passion to engage with it every day. In this regard, Pope John Paul
II, in his Letter to Artists, quotes the following verse from a Polish poet, Cyprian
Norwid: “Beauty is to enthuse us for work, and work is to raise us up” (no. 3).
And later he adds: “In so far as it seeks the beautiful, fruit of an imagination
which rises above the everyday, art is by its nature a kind of appeal to the mystery.
Even when they explore the darkest depths of the soul or the most unsettling aspects
of evil, the artist gives voice in a way to the universal desire for redemption” (no.
10). And in conclusion he states: “Beauty is a key to the mystery and a call to transcendence”
(no. 16). These ideas impel us to take a further step in our reflection. Beauty,
whether that of the natural universe or that expressed in art, precisely because it
opens up and broadens the horizons of human awareness, pointing us beyond ourselves,
bringing us face to face with the abyss of Infinity, can become a path towards the
transcendent, towards the ultimate Mystery, towards God. Art, in all its forms, at
the point where it encounters the great questions of our existence, the fundamental
themes that give life its meaning, can take on a religious quality, thereby turning
into a path of profound inner reflection and spirituality. This close proximity,
this harmony between the journey of faith and the artist’s path is attested by countless
artworks that are based upon the personalities, the stories, the symbols of that immense
deposit of “figures” – in the broad sense – namely the Bible, the Sacred Scriptures.
The great biblical narratives, themes, images and parables have inspired innumerable
masterpieces in every sector of the arts, just as they have spoken to the hearts of
believers in every generation through the works of craftsmanship and folk art, that
are no less eloquent and evocative. In this regard, one may speak of a via pulchritudinis,
a path of beauty which is at the same time an artistic and aesthetic journey, a journey
of faith, of theological enquiry. The theologian Hans Urs von Balthasar begins his
great work entitled The Glory of the Lord – a Theological Aesthetics with these telling
observations: “Beauty is the word with which we shall begin. Beauty is the last
word that the thinking intellect dares to speak, because it simply forms a halo, an
untouchable crown around the double constellation of the true and the good and their
inseparable relation to one another.” He then adds: “Beauty is the disinterested
one, without which the ancient world refused to understand itself, a word which both
imperceptibly and yet unmistakably has bid farewell to our new world, a world of interests,
leaving it to its own avarice and sadness. It is no longer loved or fostered even
by religion.” And he concludes: “We can be sure that whoever sneers at her name as
if she were the ornament of a bourgeois past – whether he admits it or not – can no
longer pray and soon will no longer be able to love.” The way of beauty leads us,
then, to grasp the Whole in the fragment, the Infinite in the finite, God in the history
of humanity. Simone Weil wrote in this regard: “In all that awakens within us the
pure and authentic sentiment of beauty, there, truly, is the presence of God. There
is a kind of incarnation of God in the world, of which beauty is the sign. Beauty
is the experimental proof that incarnation is possible. For this reason all art of
the first order is, by its nature, religious.” Hermann Hesse makes the point even
more graphically: “Art means: revealing God in everything that exists.” Echoing
the words of Pope Paul VI, the Servant of God Pope John Paul II restated the Church’s
desire to renew dialogue and cooperation with artists: “In order to communicate the
message entrusted to her by Christ, the Church needs art” (no. 12); but he immediately
went on to ask: “Does art need the Church?” – thereby inviting artists to rediscover
a source of fresh and well-founded inspiration in religious experience, in Christian
revelation and in the “great codex” that is the Bible. Dear artists, as I draw
to a conclusion, I too would like to make a cordial, friendly and impassioned appeal
to you, as did my Predecessor. You are the custodians of beauty: thanks to your talent,
you have the opportunity to speak to the heart of humanity, to touch individual and
collective sensibilities, to call forth dreams and hopes, to broaden the horizons
of knowledge and of human engagement. Be grateful, then, for the gifts you have received
and be fully conscious of your great responsibility to communicate beauty, to communicate
in and through beauty! Through your art, you yourselves are to be heralds and witnesses
of hope for humanity! And do not be afraid to approach the first and last source
of beauty, to enter into dialogue with believers, with those who, like yourselves,
consider that they are pilgrims in this world and in history towards infinite Beauty!
Faith takes nothing away from your genius or your art: on the contrary, it exalts
them and nourishes them, it encourages them to cross the threshold and to contemplate
with fascination and emotion the ultimate and definitive goal, the sun that does not
set, the sun that illumines this present moment and makes it beautiful. Saint Augustine,
who fell in love with beauty and sang its praises, wrote these words as he reflected
on man’s ultimate destiny, commenting almost ante litteram on the Judgement scene
before your eyes today: “Therefore we are to see a certain vision, my brethren, that
no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived: a vision surpassing
all earthly beauty, whether it be that of gold and silver, woods and fields, sea and
sky, sun and moon, or stars and angels. The reason is this: it is the source of
all other beauty” (In 1 Ioannis, 4:5). My wish for all of you, dear artists, is that
you may carry this vision in your eyes, in your hands, and in your heart, that it
may bring you joy and continue to inspire your fine works. From my heart I bless
you and, like Paul VI, I greet you with a single word: arrivederci!
Je
suis heureux de saluer tous les artistes présents. Chers amis, je vous encourage
à découvrir et à exprimer toujours mieux, à travers la beauté de vos œuvres, le mystère
de Dieu et le mystère de l’homme. Que Dieu vous bénisse! Dear friends, thank you
for your presence here today. Let the beauty that you express by your God-given talents
always direct the hearts of others to glorify the Creator, the source of all that
is good. God’s blessings upon you all! Sehr herzlich grüβe ich euch, liebe Freunde.
Mit eurem künstlerischen Talent macht ihr gleichsam das Schöpferwirken Gottes sichtbar.
Der Herr, der uns im Schönen nah sein will, erfülle euch mit seinem Geist der Liebe.
Gott segne euch alle. Saludo cordialmente a los artistas que participan en este
encuentro. Queridos amigos, os animo a fomentar el sentido y las manifestaciones
de la hermosura en la creación. Que Dios os bendiga. Muchas gracias.