In Brideshead Revisited, Waugh tried to tie specific trends in modern art to the general decline of culture, against which Catholicism stood as a bulwark. This essay examines the conversion of Charles Ryder that interacts with his, and Waugh’s,...
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Index theologicus der Universitätsbibliothek Tübingen
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In Brideshead Revisited, Waugh tried to tie specific trends in modern art to the general decline of culture, against which Catholicism stood as a bulwark. This essay examines the conversion of Charles Ryder that interacts with his, and Waugh’s, reaction to modern art. Parallels are drawn with the conversion of Saint Augustine. The essay concludes that Waugh’s critique of modern art theory is superficial, and ignores the relationship between Christianity and modern art. This relationship is explored through the work of Joseph Masheck. The history of pictorial flatness is traced through religiously inspired art and is seen to be in continuity with modern art such as the black paintings of Ad Reinhardt. Saint Augustine’s theology of art as a means rather than as an end functions in Brideshead Revisited as a way to reconcile Waugh’s Catholic and artistic intentions.
