The past few weeks in lockdown have given me an opportunity to delve more deeply into art history in preparing three new essay-length entries for the Schools of Sacred Art section. They showcase works in the Sacred Art Pilgrim Collection, which were created specifically for a popular audience, ranging from posters and satirical prints to illustrated Bibles and Sunday school materials. Few historical eras have so captivated the modern imagination as Belle Epoque France, the “Beautiful Era” spanning the French defeat in the Franco-Prussian War in 1871 and the outbreak of World War I in 1914, so, I had no reservations about stepping back in time from the Collection's benchmark date of 1900 in search of religious art from a period when new printing technologies and liberal press laws led to a boom in illustrated newspapers and magazines. It was an age when the concept of “sacred art” was blown wide open by image-makers, engaged in the struggle for and against the secularization of France, and by artists of the Symbolist movement, who pursued mystical realms beyond scientific facts and religious dogmas. In the gallery in the new French Belle Epoque Illustrations section you can view everything from posters and cartoons (marked by the use and abuse of the sacred!) to sentimentally sweet holy cards and musical scores with Japanese-styled prints. (John Kohan)