Sky Arts
3 x 55 minutes
2008
DVD R0 (PAL)
5060033838891
Also available for download and streaming

Art of Faith I

Art of Faith I is a sumptuous high-definition visual experience exploring the architecture and art of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam. The three 55-minute films, presented and narrated by the broadcaster, John McCarthy, visit many of the greatest and most significant religious buildings, exploring how the passions and complexities of religious beliefs have been expressed in architecture.

Filmed for Sky Arts and looking back over the last 3000 years, the series provides an insight into how we have celebrated art through faith. With contributions from architects, scholars and worshippers, the films explain the buildings’ genesis, laying down the brush strokes of the sites’ design, whilst looking at the shared elements and contrasts between religions and the aesthetics of the places of worship.

Judaism examines the origins of the synagogue – the Greek word for the Jewish house of prayer – which is obscure yet seemingly ancient. The earliest identifiable synagogue buildings date only from around 70 CE when the Romans destroyed the Second Temple in Jerusalem. In the centuries since Jews have built synagogues – shuls – in Yiddish right across the Old World and the New, almost always employing variations of a singular layout but displaying an extraordinary eclecticism in decoration and detail. This film visits one of the earliest synagogues on the mountain fort of Masada, the Gothic Old-New Synagogue in Prague and nineteenth-century houses of worship in Budapest, Liverpool and New York, as well as Frank Lloyd Wright’s masterpiece, Beth Sholom, near Philadelphia.

Christianity looks at the diverse range of Christian worship and asks: what do these special places reveal about those who built them and those who created extraordinary artworks for them? What feelings do they prompt in those who work and worship there now? And how do these extraordinary buildings both shape and respond to the faith that is affirmed within them every day? In Britain, we’re familiar with thousands of parish churches, all different and distinct but almost all variants of a single pattern. But across the world, there’s an astonishing variety of buildings, ancient and modern, humble and grand, that are sacred to Christianity. These include Saint Catherine’s monastery at the foot of Mt Sinai, San Vitale in Ravenna, the cathedrals of Durham and Chartres, St Peter’s Basilica, and the beautiful chapel decorated by Henri Matisse in Vence, France.

Islam explores how millions of Muslims around the world glorify Allah when they pray five times every day. But for their obligatory prayers, although they must have clean clothes and a clean body, and to face towards Mecca, Muslims do not need a mosque; prayer may be offered alone. Yet for nearly fifteen hundred years Muslims have built mosques both modest and grand. The film highlights how very different mosques across the world express the fundamentals of Islam and looks at the stories of other buildings of the faith, like madrassas – the religious schools – and mausoleums. Locations include the Dome of the Rock in Jerusalem, mosques in Kairouan and Cordoba, both the Haghia Sophia church and the Blue Mosque in Istanbul, the Taj Mahal at Agra, and the madrassas of Samarkand.

Art of Faith I is available on DVD or for download or streaming, as a series of three programmes or individually, or as part of the Art of Faith complete series.

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‘To the holy city of Byzantium’ October 21, 2008