Without the name of the deceased German art historian, I can't comment
on her particular thesis.
I can find no evidence that there was a Church policy for the
mutilation or censoring of pagan art during the period after the
lifetime of Michelangelo. There was, however, a puritanical movement
within the Church, culminating in the Council of Trent, to expurgate
art that treated sacred subjects, and to draw a seperator between
secular and sacred art. This was partially in reaction to
Protestantism, which was rigidly iconoclastic in many regions, and
partially an expression of the reformism within the Church itself
(Protestantism was, after all, initially an internal effort to reform
the Church). The Council, while rejecting iconoclasm, laid down
guidelines for sacred art, some of which banned the display of
genitalia, breasts, and buttocks. Among the more active reformers were
the Theatines, the Order of Regular Clerks, founded in the Italian
city Chieti (Theate), one of whose founders, Giovanni Pietro Carafa,
later became Pope Paul IV (1555-1559). Carafa was instrumental in the
revival of the Holy Inquisition in Rome, and served as its chief. It
was Paul IV who issued the Index of prohibited books, and who proposed
the total eradication of Michelangelo's Last Judgment, and it was only
because of the artist's fame and powerful friends that the compromise
was reached by which the fresco's nudes were repainted by Daniele da
Volterra. Thus, Michelangelo himself became a focus for the
reformists, because he worked on sacred subjects, but there does not
appear to have been a broader concerted effort by the Church itself to
censor secular works. Indeed, the princes of the Church remained
patrons of secular art.
Michelangelo and Censorship
http://www.progettomose.it/eng/pdf/mostra_la_censura_eng.pdf
POPES
Paul IV
http://gallery.euroweb.hu/database/glossary/popes/paul4.html
Catholic Encyclopedia Theatines
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14557a.htm
Modules - Department of Art History
V4* 118 Reformation to Counter-Reformation: the South
http://www.nottingham.ac.uk/art-history/undergraduate/modules/neher/V4118.html
"The Council of Trent and the Visual Arts
Lecture Outline:
One of the underlying assumptions of all art theory in the 16th
century is the neoplatonic assumption of he moral efficacy of beauty.
This metaphysical function of art directly relies on the ability of
beauty to give the viewer access to an exalted level of reality, and
to allow the spectator access to a vision of the divine. There was
never a danger of iconoclam in Italy, in the same way as the Northern
protestants had turned against the use of images. The reasons for this
were that the use of images in the South was not only something which
was deeply engrained into the religious culture, but was also directly
related to humanistic notions, and thus reflected intellectual
preoccupations of the most powerful elites. This perception of beauty
as an essential quality of good art made no distinction between what
sort of beauty the viewer was confronted with, be it pagan, be it a
decorative work, be it Christian, yet it was the Council of Trent who
introduced value judgements to this perception of beauty by spelling
out what type of art would be suitable and decorous.
The one thing the Council of Trent never questioned was the use of
images. Art was needed as a means of spiritual elevation. Complaints
about the ways in which sacred subjects were depicted date to the
1540's; one writer, Ambrogio Catarino wrote that he had seen Some
images so extravagant that you can hardly recognize the human figure
in them …. And elsewhere you see compositions made with so much
artifice that at times among so many improper gestures they ignore the
decorum of the figures, and they do not have any dignity and do not
excite any devotion at all.
[...]
1542 reestablishment of the Roman inquisition. Executive religious
body which could operate independent of secular law courts
On the 3rd and 4th December 1563, during the 25th session of the
Council of Trent, the delegates debated purgatory, and reforms
concerning regulars and nuns. The most famous decree from that day,
though, is the decree on the Invocation, veneration and Relics of
saints, and on sacred images:
'The Holy Council commands all bishops and others who hold the office
of teaching […] that in accordance with the usage of the Catholic and
Apostolic church, received from the primitive times of the Christian
religion, and with the unanimous teaching of the Holy Fathers and the
decrees of sacred councils, they above all instruct the faithful
diligently in matters relating to intercession and invocation of the
saints, the veneration of relics, and the legitimate use of images,
teaching them that[...]they think impiously who deny that the saints
who enjoy eternal happiness in heaven are to be invoked, or who assert
that they do not pray for men, or that our invocation of them to pray
for each of us individually is idolatry, or that it is opposed to the
word of God […][...] Moreover, as the images of Christ, of the Virgin
Mother of God, and of the other saints are to be placed and retained
especially in the churches, and that due honour and veneration is to
be given them; not however that any divinity or virtue is believed to
be in them by reason of which they are to be venerated, or that
something is to be asked of them, or that trust is to be placed in
images, as was done of old by the Gentiles who placed their hope in
idols; but because the honour which is shown them is referred to the
prototypes which they represent, so that by means of the images which
we kiss and before which we uncover the head and prostrate ourselves,
we adore Christ and venerate the saints whose likeness they bear […]
Moreover, let the bishops diligently teach that by means of the
stories of the mysteries of our redemption, portrayed in paintings and
other representations the people are instructed and confirmed in the
articles of faith, which ought to be borne in mind and constantly
reflected upon.; also that great profit is derived from all holy
images, not only because the people are thereby reminded of the
benefits and gifts bestowed on them by Christ, but also through the
saints the miracles of God and salutary examples are set before the
eyes of the faithful, so that they may give God thanks for those
things, may fashion their own life and conduct in imitation of the
saints, and be moved to adore and love God and cultivate piety. […] If
any abuses shall have found their way into these holy and salutary
observances, the Holy Council desires earnestly that they be
completely removed, so that no representation of false doctrines and
such as might be the occasion of grave error to the uneducated be
exhibited.[…] In the invocation of saints, the veneration of relics,
and the sacred use of images, all superstition shall be removed, all
filthy quest for gain eliminated, and all lasciviousness avoided, so
that images shall not be painted and adorned with a seductive charm,
or the celebration of saints and the visitation of relics be perverted
by the people into boisterous festivities and drunkenness, as if the
festivals in honour of the saints are to be celebrated with revelry
and with no sense of decency. Finally, such zeal and care should be
exhibited by the bishops with regards to those things, that nothing
may appear that is disorderly or unbecoming, and confusedly arranged,
nothing that is profane, nothing disrespectful, since Holiness
becometh the house of God. That these things be the more faithfully
observed, the Holy Council decrees that no one is permitted to erect
or cause to be erected in any place or church, howsoever exempt, any
unusual image unless it has been approved by the bishop...'"
Counter-Reformation Art
THE COUNTER-REFORMATION AND BAROQUE ART
http://www.bullis.org/edprograms/socialstudies/Counter-Reformation%20Baroque/counreform.htm
"Art was enlisted to serve the purposes of the church militant, but
that art was rigorously policed according to a system of decorum in
painting which dictated what was and what wasn't acceptable in art. It
was all set out by Cardinal Paleotti in 1584 and reinforced by Carlo
Borromeo, the young, energetic archbishop of Milan who spent time in
Rome. Borromeo gave voice to the new Church doctrines in the manuals
he wrote for architects and artists, as well as for students and
teachers in the many seminaries he founded. Nudity and eroticism were
out, as was anything from the pagan classical past - false gods."
[Note that the manuals of Paleotti and Borromeo were designed as
guides for artists regarding the proper and the improper within the
context of sacred art, not as invectives against profane art.]
The Impact of the Counter-Reformation on Art:
Baroque Art in Catholic Europe (Italy, France, Belgium)
Counter Reformation.doc
http://oak.cc.conncoll.edu/~rwbal/Textbook4Sale/CounterReformation.doc
"1. The Council of Trent: Correct Doctrine, Narrative Clarity and
Religious Content.
To deal with the challenges of the Reformation, Pope Paul III convened
a church council which met on and off for twenty years (1544-1566).
The Council of Trent reaffirmed correct church doctrine on a wide
variety of issues and even accepted a few Protestant complaints by
forbidding the sale of indulgences. Among other things, the Council of
Trent issued guidelines for religious art, asking for greater clarity,
realism, emotional drama, dogmatic instruction, and the avoidance of
genital nudity."
Susanna Bede Caroselli
Rules of Engagement:
The Use of Instinctive Response as a Scholarly Tool
http://www.calvin.edu/scs/125conf/carosel.htm
Forschungsstelle "Westfälischer
http://www.lwl.org/westfaelischer-friede/wfe-t/wfe-txt2-21.htm
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