Trent could not have been clearer. Images were permitted in churches to instruct the faithful and confirm their faith. And bishops should approve only those commissions and depictions that would serve such purposes. Late in 1563, the council\u27s twenty-fifth and final session explicitly advised that stories of the mysteries of our redemption . . . in paintings and other representations enable visitors to reflect on articles of the faith challenged at that time by Protestants less well disposed to the use of images. Trent, to be sure, issued guidelines. Nudity was frowned on. Ambiguity ought to be avoided. Scriptural stories should be presented simply, as they had been told. The council aimed to answer reformers\u27 complaints and to counter Reformation iconoclasm. Prelates in attendance echoed Pope Gregory I\u27s sanction of images—his characterization of art as scripture for the illiterate—while instructing artists on their religious obligations. And no bishop took the council\u27s decrees on images more seriously than did Gabriele Paleotti, who attended the last session before returning to his see of Bologna
