Art and morality

It is neither the responsibility nor the purpose of art to make us better human beings.

Francine Prose, What to Read and Why

In the essay called "Ten Things That Art Can Do," found in her book What to Read and Why, Francine Prose also mentions one thing art can't do or doesn't necessarily do, namely "make us better human beings."

Among those things art can do, as itemized by Prose, are to make us smarter, to give us pleasure, to expose us to beauty and to move us emotionally. But can it make us better in the ethical sense?

The lingering idea left with me by the movie Girl With a Pearl Earring is how lacking in moral conviction are the artist Vermeer and the man who so admires Vermeer's paintings that he almost single-handedly supports the artist and his family. Their appreciation of great art doesn't translate into concern for others or, at least in the sponsor's case, even basic decency.

Art, music and literature are taught in most schools for many of the reasons Prose mentions, but moral education is probably not one of them. A person who admires Vermeer is not necessarily a better human being than one who favors a velvet Elvis or a painting of dogs playing poker.

Yet certain questions nag at me. Why were so many cathedrals, church, temples and mosques made to be so beautiful? Why so much religious art? What's the point, if art doesn't make us better human beings?

Perhaps there is one way in which art can make us better, and that is if it is viewed, as one might view  a gorgeous sunset, a rainbow or a mountain landscape, as a sign of God's grace. When we feel blessed by God, inspired by God, forgiven by God, we might, who knows, actually strive to become better human beings, our way of returning God's favor to us.