Art as an expression of the sacred: a meditation on liturgy and sacred Art

By the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, we are invited to take inspiration from the art and architecture of the Christians of the First Millennium. Under the premise that the symbolism of the Christian temple rests on the analogy between the temple and the Body of Christ, this communication aims to understand how Christians, from the fourth century, after the Edict of Milan in 313, conceived the architecture and art on the walls of their temples. In the Old Testament (Exodus 25), Moses receives from God the order to build two tents, the two are separated by a veil, the Letter to the Hebrews (Heb 8,9,10), takes up the request made to the prophet, interprets and explains all the liturgy according to which the temple is born. From there, demonstrate with citations and slides how the churches of the First Millennium were interiorly decorated and understand their theological coherence, based on biblical and conciliar texts, letters of the Popes Pius XII, Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI. To expose the art and literary work of two contemporary sacred artists: the Brazilian Claudio Pastro (1948-2016) and the Slovene Marko Ivan Rupnik (1957), and put in focus the attributions necessary to the artists of the present time who propose to carry out this work in the churches.