This week's research and review includes delving into the earliest Christian art, in preparation for 1000 Years of Christian Art, to be presented through the University of Toronto's School of Continuing Studies later this spring. In The Class of the Gods, by Thomas Mathews, the author explores how early Christians used art as a persuasive tool in convincing pagans to switch teams. Witness Jesus as magical miracle worker! Here he is, reviving the recently deceased Lazarus, using a wand possibly inspired by the staff carried by Hermes, who could perform similar feats, but not nearly so effectively, according to early Christian polemicists.

In Modernity: Art and Ideas we are looking at the wide range of non-traditional inspiration that early Modernists drew from (in the words of Gauguin "Have before you always the Persians, the Cambodians, and a little of the Egyptian. The great error is the Greek, however beautiful it may be…" Kandinsky and other members of the Russian avant-garde admired luboki (Russian popular prints) for their bright colours and simple forms. Kandinsky even tried his hand at glass painting, a traditional folk art form he came across while living in Munich. Apollo Belevedere, move over!