Insights of humanism, a movement in Catholic theology, drove the Renaissance and created a whole new visual language, Dominican Fr. Marius Zerafa told The Catholic Register as he toured the exhibition Revealing the Early Renaissance at the Art Gallery of Ontario. The humanist images of the Renaissance galvanized the Church and Western society.

The AGO exhibition of early or proto-Renaissance works highlights the contributions of Giotto, Pacino di Bonaguida and other early Florentine masters. A distinguished art historian and scholar, Zerafa studied in Florence and has plenty to say about the importance of 14th century Florentine art.

In the decades leading up to the Black Death in 1348 a relationship was forged between the Church and art. Art became the Church’s foremost instrument of evangelization. Now in the era of New Evangelization, the Church is reopening channels to the art world by sponsoring a pavilion at the Venice Biennale – an event often called the Olympics of art.

The Register has partnered with Salt and Light Television to create a video presentation in which Zerafa discusses humanism, the Renaissance and the Church’s opening to the art world. It is available inside our digital newspaper, found online at catholicregister.org/digitaledition.

That vital partnership between art and Christianity, formalized at the Council of Trent, fell away in the modern era, from about the French Revolution on, Zerafa said.

“There’s been a lot of religious kitsch produced but there’s been a sort of wall between real art and Christianity,” said Zerafa as he toured the Revealing the Early Renaissance show. “And I think it’s a great thing that the Church is calling back the artists and now in an official way by taking part in the Venice Biennale, which is an important event.”

Though there’s nearly 800 years between Giotto and this year’s Biennale, Zerafa asks us to look at Renaissance art with modern eyes.