As soon as the Reformation Churches were getting the accession of many political rulers, the Catholic Church had to define what would be its strategy to keep its political, social and religious power, as its usual conduct wasn’t stopping the massive population – mainly in northern Europe – to convert themselves into the renewed Christianity.
Martin Luther (1483-1546) was inspirational and the 95 theses against the current Catholic dogma were the base for the other schism churches. In one of the theses, Luther defended the iconoclasm and to abolish the use of images, whether in painting, or sculpters, inside the temples. Suddenly, all reformist churches have gotten rid of all images, keeping the essential inside. The act was taken to keep the rituals as much closer of the original Christian ones, because of the excessive use of symbols were a way to subvert the real belief. Therefore, the gospel has become the highest symbol for the Reformists, as it truly kept God’s words. All saints and even the Virgin Mary were banished in worship, keeping the Jesus figure as the center of the rituals.
On the other hand, the Catholic Church was still powerful, because the biggest Empires were still under its “mantle”. And those Empires (mainly Spain and Portugal) have split the new colonies between them. Allying the keeping its believers and conquesting new followers, the Vatican has launched the Counterreform.
It aimed to diminish the distance between the institution and the people and incorporated the translation of the Bible to other languages, as the Reformists did. But studying the Pre-Columbians Civilization and their relation with polytheist-religions, the Church has found a fertile ground to spread its words and convert the citizen of the New World. So it kept All Saints' devotion and the Virgin Mary’s as well because this could be syncretized with their previous beliefs. And the use of images could even increase the dialogue between the Church and new followers, as they worshiped images before. So the following Popes have commissioned the new trend Baroque artists to promote the sculptural and painting arts inside and outside Europe.