I can worship religious art without believing in God

For centuries, religious artists like Zurbarán and Caravaggio have created ecstatic, hallucinatory work that can move even a staunch atheist like me

Atheism has never come up with anything like the art of 17th-century painter Francisco de Zurbarán, who created a pure and intense religious visual language. I find his images uniquely appealing at Easter – even though I don’t believe in his, or any other, god.

Zurbarán worked in Seville in the days when this Andalucían city created its renowned Holy Week rituals. In his painting Agnus Dei, a trussed lamb, bound for death, symbolises Christ. In The Apostle Saint Peter Appearing to Saint Peter Nolasco, the supposed founder of the Catholic church, appears to a Christian visionary.

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