The Art of Piety: the visual culture of Welsh Nonconformity

Description

This text attempts to define and understand the visual expression of the most pervasive cultural and social influence on Wales during the 19th and early 20th centuries, an expression that has been largely overlooked, disparaged or ignored by commentators on Welsh Nonconformity. The book presents the use of art in their religion and assesses the influence Nonconformists had on the visual culture of Wales. The book brings together the many disparate types of religious artefacts and ephemera of Welsh Nonconformity, and examines them from art historical, theological and sociological perspectives. It argues that the visual expression of Nonconformist culture was prolific and provided a vital means of maintaining the devotional life of believers and of communicating Nonconformist ideals to those outside the faith. The book also challenges the popular fallacy that Nonconformity had no use for art, and contests the view of certain writers in the 20th century that Welsh Nonconformity was solely responsible for the poor state of art in Wales.