The Decadence of Christian Art

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Where does the decadence in Christian art spring from?

"In art as in everything else, man finds himself faced by the following alternative: he must seek the Infinite in a relatively simple form, keeping within the limits of that form and working through its qualitative aspect, while sacrificing some possible developments, or he must seek the Infinite in the apparent richness of diversity and change, though it must lead in the end to dispersion and exhaustion. The economy of a traditional art can be more or less ample, it can be flexible or rigid; all depends on the power of spiritual assimilation inherent in a particular civilization, environment, or collective vocation."

"At the time of the Renaissance, artistic geniuses suddenly sprang up almost everywhere, and with an overflowing vitality. The phenomenon is analogous to what happens in the soul of one who abandons a spiritual discipline. Psychic tendencies that have been kept in the background suddenly come to the fore, accompanied by a glittering riot of new sensations with the compulsive attraction of as yet unexpected possibilities...Renaissance and Baroque art had a scale of artistic and human values incomparably richer than anything that can be met with today."