There are two pieces that are provided. Both pieces come from two artists of the Baroque period for adding their faith and beliefs into their work, one who was a Catholic and the other who was a Protestant.
The first work presented was completed in 1639 by Peter Paul Rubens and is known as “Consequences of War”. Rubens is a very well known artist of the time with a Catholic faith, that would occasionally affect his artwork. However, this oil painting on canvas does not show any signs of Ruben’s faith but rather interpreted as an anti-violence or pro-peace piece. During the time of the creation of this masterpiece, most of the European nation had been suffering from the Thirty Year’s War that affected …show more content…
Van Rijn, or mostly known as Rembrandt, is a very well known artist still today who followed a Protestant faith. He used his faith to present the beliefs of Christianity on the ideas of repentance and forgiveness of our sins. In this oil painting, it shows the appearance of the prodigal son, who is shown repenting to his father, who appears in a red cape. The prodigal son is a parable that Jesus used to teach others on the importance of repenting our sins in order to have forgiveness. In the painting, the two figures stand in the light and their clothes can show the richness of the father and the ragged and poor clothing of the son. In the background of this painting, there are several other figures standing around to witness the repentance of the son to his father. In comparison from the father and son to the other figures residing in the shadows, the contrast in lighting can be interpreted as the homecoming of repentance and forgiveness aside from sin and sorrow. Altogether, Rembrandt wanted to show the importance of repentance and forgiveness of sins based upon his Protestant faith by illustrating a parable of Jesus and using extreme contrasts of dark and