Music and the Allied Arts-- Visual Art-A

Music and the Allied Arts-- Visual Art-A 

            The visual arts are normally explained as the arts created primarily for people to view.  They include etchings drawings, paintings, sculptures, frescos, photography and various other decorative arts that most often exist in permanent form.  The visual arts have been wonderful representations of spiritual things and wonderful things of God’s creation in the heavens and on the earth.  Multitudes of Bible scenes have been portrayed with the various visual arts. Stained glass windows in churches and cathedrals have depicted the stories told in the Bible to those who could and could not read its wonderful truths.  The visual arts have for centuries been a wholesome way for civilizations to beautify their surroundings.

            Visual arts have been a strong ally to music in more recent decades since advanced technology has made multimedia presentations possible.  Music and the visual arts strengthen each other in the presentation of the scenes and message of the Bible.  The visual arts, when couple with music, have also been a source of secular wholesome entertainment, education and worship.

            Like the other fine arts, the visual arts must be judged individually according to each work’s content.  Each visual representation must be in congruency with that which a Christian believes.  The eye gate is a direct path to the mind.  Therefore, music can only be allied to the visual arts if they are compatible with the changed life principles of a Christian.  There will be differences of opinion about violence, partial nudity, immodest attire, and subject matter of the various visual representations among Christians.  There is also much argument about the inclusion of the famous well-known artifacts such as Michelangelo’s sculpture of David and Gericault’s painting of The Raft of the Medusa. Each music educator will have to make choices of which of the visual arts he or she is comfortable allying with music in the worship service, classroom and concert hall in order to not offend students, parents, administrators, school board members, and the organization’s constituency at large.