Religious art and sacred art

Sacred art is any qualified artistic production intended for sacred worship.

A distinction must be made between religious art and sacred art. The difference is based not so much on the intrinsic characters of both and the inspiration of each, but on the destiny of the artistic work. There are works of deep religious inspiration that, despite this, are not intended for worship, and therefore, should not be properly considered as "sacred art".

In general, it can be said that religious art is that which reflects the religious life of the artist. The virtue of religion tends to produce in man a substantially internal attitude of love, submission, faith and hope, and above all, worship of God. Religious art must have this same purpose and for this to occur it is necessary that art - preserving its intrinsic characteristic - be subordinated to the purpose of religion.

"Sacred art" is that religious art that has a liturgical purpose, that is, that which is designed to encourage liturgical life in the faithful and which therefore must not only lead to a generic religious attitude, but must be capable of trigger the religious attitude required by the Liturgy, that is, for divine worship.