Ask 'What are they for?' of objects in a design museum and you get good answers. Cups are to drink from, hats are to wear. In an art gallery, where the relevance of the use such objects may once have had is diminished, the question 'What is it for?' seems obtuse. The function of works of art is, on the whole, to be splendidly themselves. Yet ask the question of the 17th-century Spanish religious paintings and polychrome sculptures that are on show until 24 January at the National Gallery under the title The Sacred Made Real, and you'll find that it is appropriate. The power of these pieces, many of them wonderful works of art, cannot be separated from the job they were made to do.

LRB 3 December 2009 | PDF Download