Images of Faith: Expressionism, Catholic Folk Art, and the Industrial Revolution

Abstract

Helena Lepovitz recovers the past in Images of Faith, a history of the folk art from its rise through its decline - from a flourishing cottage industry around 1750 to a minor tourist trade a century later. The author first looks at the ways glasspainting was affected by the Industrial Revolution. Backed by demographic data, her discussion shows how industrialization transformed glasspainting and many other industires of rural Central Europe, Lepovitz also looks at chromolithography, the mechanized graphics process that supplanted glasspainting. Lepovitz then places glasspainting in a cultural context and explains the key role of Catholicism in its popular appeal. Stained glass cathedral windows first inspired glasspainters, and though they produced secular works for markets as far away as America, the most popular subjects remained holy or divine figures and biblical scenes. By focusing on all aspects of glasspainting - the art itself; its producers, distributors, and consumers; and the forces of industrialization that changed the face of Europe Images of Faith tells a story of interest to folklorists and art historians as well as social scientists in fields ranging from economics to popular culture to religion.