The state of liturgical design has reached such an abyssal point that it would seem that one can only hope for a church building to not be horrid.  The fight for generations now has been fraught with so many small obvious design issues (such as a venerable location for the tabernacle) that the sophistication of higher level issues have been entirely put off if not forgotten.  Most Catholics are completely unaware that there are several conflicts and open questions in traditio

Did you know that before the 1800's there were few very bright pigments available, and the ones we did have were either very expensive, toxic, or were light-sensitive vegetable dyes? Let's look at some of the best pigments the modern world has afforded us and see why God has provided us with everything to have beautiful things: very easily and inexpensively Ultramarine Blue : Ultramarine Pigment In the Middle Ages lapis lazuli was imported at great expense from Afghanista

From the 40's till approximately the mid 90's churches clearly went from bad to worse, often 'renovated' only in the worst possible ways.  This was done for reasons to stripe the buildings of their antiquated meanings and usage and install new meanings and usages often foreign or at least novel to the church.  The church was sick throughout the 20th century, and it did what sick things do.  In some ways the errors have been predictable, merely repeating and magnifying the pro

The traditional art and liturgy of the Church is often criticized for chasing after mere aesthetics, that the essence of the faith is not...

Why fine art, 'art for art's sake', is unchristian, materialistically utilitarian, Romantic, and Kantian and therefore should not be pursued.

Often when working on small projects within a church, a single donor is putting forward nearly the entire sum of money for its...

Concerning sacred images, the General Instruction of The Roman Missal (GIRM) makes a small but important note that is often a stumbling...

When designing and redecorating churches, special care must be made to govern the eyes of the people, directing the the viewer in helpful...

Consider how the Medievals recorded their artistic depictions of the apostles: "St. Bartholomew is represented with black and grizzled...

Young students are taught a primative system of categorizing colors, that of warm and cool colors, yellow, orange, and red being warm,...

Not all kinds of decorations are fitting for divine use in church sanctuaries and buildings and no small amount of writing have been made...

Often the public does not have a good measure of what constitutes quality statuary. As the condition of local parish buildings slowly...

The statuary furnishings of a church are usually extremely low maintenance: the occasional feather dusting being all that it takes. ...

It has been believed by color theorists and philosophers of aesthetics since at least the 1800's that a proper harmony of colors lies in...