The protestant uprising of the 1500’s considered the use of religious imagery as heresy, and in disagreement to Catholic doctrine, felt an emphasis should be placed an individual’s internal faith rather than through external forms. However, this ideology was rejected by the Counter-Reformation who saw religious imagery as means for prayer and ultimately to be used as a tool for conversion. Subsequently, the convened Council of Trent reinforced the role of art in religion as a “cultivation of piety”, and called “for a type of art that appealed to the emotions of the faithful and dealt with religious episodes in a direct and clear manner”. It encouraged the creation of religious art that appeal to the senses of all who viewed it, and as a consequence,
