| Summary: | <p>The Council of Trent re-examined the traditions of the Catholic Church regarding the role of the visual arts in worship. Equipped with a humanistic mindset steeped in Greco-Roman rhetoric, the leading clergy came to value paintings, first and foremost, for their ability to stir the viewers’ emotions, giving rise to a new understanding of religious images. Such a stance, common in early modern Spain, encouraged the employment of images and words as different but compatible instruments that converged to achieve a common goal, making an emotionally arresting impression on the viewer or listener. The Church regarded this strategy as the most effective way of engaging with the laity. </p>
<p>Contemporary printed sermons show how Spanish churchmen developed new styles of preaching based on their understanding of classical rhetoric, which helped them elicit the desired emotional reactions in the context of Catholic liturgy. One such technique, inspired by medieval meditation literature, involved using word painting to summon vivid, emotive images in the mind of the listener. Preachers couched in similar language their references to inner visions and to physical images (chiefly altarpiece paintings but also portable canvases produced from the pulpit unexpectedly), which highlights their perceived equivalence. Such practices became common and shaped the public’s visual culture.</p>
<p>The experience of hearing sermons played a decisive role in the development of religious art. Preachers circulated ideas to which only a small educated elite had access, and did so from a position of authority. As part of a congregation, artists and art patrons absorbed this knowledge, which informed their making and dissemination of new iconographies. A comparison of artistic and oratorical examples as well as theoretical literature from the period reveals that painters and preachers employed similar criteria in judging what type of details and ornamentation were pertinent to a specific painting or sermon. </p>
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