Defining the sacred in fine art and devotional imagery
Abstract
© 2017 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group. Beginning with a definition
of the sacred as a two-fold process of making things special, which consists of accentuation
and affiliation, this essay proceeds to argue that things are made sacred in devotional
piety and in fine art in parallel ways that configure images within webs of agents.
The two kinds of imagery perform in practices of sacralization that move toward different
ends. The production of aura is at work in each case, but operates with distinct aims.
The essay then presents a historical account of fine art as a modern development tied
to the rise of the nation-state, in which secularization extended to making art independent
of religious institutions and patrons, allowing it to develop in a way that should
be distinguished from devotional imagery. This does not mean that religion withers
in the modern era, but that art developed its own mode of sacralization.
Type
Journal articlePermalink
https://hdl.handle.net/10161/17383Published Version (Please cite this version)
10.1080/0048721X.2017.1361587Publication Info
Morgan, D (2017). Defining the sacred in fine art and devotional imagery. Religion, 47(4). pp. 641-662. 10.1080/0048721X.2017.1361587. Retrieved from https://hdl.handle.net/10161/17383.This is constructed from limited available data and may be imprecise. To cite this
article, please review & use the official citation provided by the journal.
Collections
More Info
Show full item recordScholars@Duke
David Morgan
Professor of Religious Studies
David Morgan is Professor of Religious Studies with a secondary appointment in the
Department of Art, Art History, and Visual Studies at Duke. He chaired the Department
of Religious Studies from 2013 to 2019. Morgan received the Ph.D. at the University
of Chicago in 1990. He is currently Director of Graduate Studies in Duke's PhD program
in Religion. He has published several books and dozens of essays on the history of
religious visual culture, fine art, and art theory. Images at Work: The M

Articles written by Duke faculty are made available through the campus open access policy. For more information see: Duke Open Access Policy
Rights for Collection: Scholarly Articles
Works are deposited here by their authors, and represent their research and opinions, not that of Duke University. Some materials and descriptions may include offensive content. More info