IDLE SPECULATIONS

Montini on Art 1931

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 20 Jun 2015 18:54:00 +0000

Eliseo Fumagalli 1887 - 1943

Design for The Annunciation for The Church at Maccio

1931 - 1932

Acquarelle on canvas

77 cm x 56 cm

Museo Valtellinese di Storia ed Arte, Sondrio

Eliseo Fumagalli 1887 - 1943

Design for The Adoration of the Shepherds for the Church at Maccio

1931 - 1932

Charcoal and pastel on canvas

197 x 186 cm

Museo Valtellinese di Storia ed Arte, Sondrio

Eliseo Fumagalli 1887 - 1943

Design for The Crucifixion for the Church at Maccio

1931 - 1932

Charcoal and pastel on canvas

360 cm x 308 cm

Museo Valtellinese di Storia ed Arte, Sondrio

The First World War, the economic dislocation and political disappointment at the Peace Treaties, D`Annunzio, the rise of Fascism , mass emigration all led to political, economic, cultural and religious changes in Italy in the 1920s and 1930s

Destruction of the past. Worship of the future were two themes

In July 1931, a new religious magazine was published: Arte Sacra

The full title of the magazine shows what it was about: «Arte Sacra. Rivista trimestrale dell’arte sacra di oggi e di domani»

A young Monsignor, Giovan Battista Montini was on the editorial Committee.

The Committe published a "Manifesto"

In the first edition Monsignor Montini wrote and published an article entitled "Su l`arte sacra futura" (“On sacred art of the future”)

At the time he was the Chaplain of FUCI the Italian Catholic Federation of University Students

He rejected the demons of the Italian art movement called Futurism

Futurism was the first of the right-wing avant-gardes

He made a distinction between "modernity" and "modernism"

He disapproved of Modernism

He was hopeful of modern artists coming up with catechism for artists in the modern age

He wrote:

“[S]acred art faces the supreme problem of expressing the ineffable ... [and through sacred art one should] initiate oneself into mysticism, and to reach with the experience of the senses a reverberation, a flutter of the invisible Light ...

One can also see how and where true sacred art is born: from the devout and believing, prayerful, wishful artist who watches in silence and goodness, awaiting his Pentecost....

I think it is the task of our Christian artists to prepare with their works a state of mind in which our spiritual unity, now torn apart, is pieced together in Christ; unity, I say, that reconciles in due harmony the impression and the expression; the interior and the exterior world; spirit and matter; the soul and the flesh; God and man”

For Montini, the artist and art had to have as its motivation: L’omnia instaurare in Christo - to be valid and authentic

He rejected the idea of art for the sake of art

After the First World War and the subsequent ecoonomic and political dislocation, the young Montini was following in the steps of the theologians of art who were debating or discussing the theology of art: Jacques Maritain, Jean Guitton, Simone Weil, Pius XII and in the Italian sphere Mario Sturzo

The Italian priest, publisher and intellectual Don Giuseppe De Luca was sharply critical of the article, illustrating the deep divisions in Italian society and the Italian Church of the time

De Luca and Bargellini were the promoters of a rival magazine Frontespizio which from 1929 to 1940 was the principal Italian magazine for the arts in the Italian Catholic world

It was only later that Montini and De Luca corresponded and perhaps came to an accomodation, an agreement that there should be an insistence that religious values, both in art and in literature , which had been lost should remain autonomous in relation to the political power of the time

Églises en péril

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 09 Jun 2015 20:11:00 +0000

The Church of Saint-Jacques d’Abbeville in the course of being demolished

One of the great concerns of the French art history web magazine La Tribune de l'Art is the threat to the destruction of the patrimony of France by the destruction of church buildings in France which recently seems to have stepped up a gear or three

Both local and central government in France seem determined that such vacant buildings should simply be demolished

Slowly (maybe not so slowly) but steadily the environment in France will be devoid of church buildings as well as the sound of bells

It is but a symptom of a much deeper malaise

Here are twenty three of its articles on "Églises en péril"

And 216 articles on French government policy

Old buildings are expensive to renovate and maintain

With dwindling congregations and less or no private revenue, the charge of the upkeep of French ecclesiastical buildings has to fall on the state

The Combes administration in 1905 passed the loi du 9 décembre 1905 concernant la séparation des Églises et de l'État for state secularism: a type of church-state relations, hostile to organised religion and totally unlike the American concept of the First Amendment

Emile Combes boasted of taking office for the sole purpose of destroying the religious orders. He closed thousands of what were not then called 'faith schools

Among other things the law provided that all religious buildings were property of the state and local governments and that the government put such buildings at the disposal of religious organisation at no expense to these, provided that they continue to use the buildings for purpose of religious worship

Saint Pope Pius X led the resistance in Vehementer Nos (11th February 1906)

This was followed by his Encyclical Gravissimo Officii Munere on 10th August 1906

Now the attack on religion is not direct but indirect and much more subtle

It comes from within and without

Secularisation is most evident in the modern arts and in modern institutions

Religious art is displayed in modern secular art galleries and museums in an environment which strips religious art of its meaning, significance and power

The appropriation of religious imagery, ritual and language for secular purposes is most evident in the arts, politics and public life in general

But religion has in its turn appropriated wholesale secular imagery and language for religious purposes

Now the church buildings - the husks of a religious life and culture - are being obliterated

Gradually the collective memory of Christianity is being removed from life in France and other parts of Western Europe

Popular paganism now holds sway

In 1906, liberals and the intelligentsia thought that the French Church should accomodate itself to the new French laws and join "cultural associations". Members of the French Academy thought so and publicly said so. They earned the title of the "cardinaux verts".

Pius X rejected this approach in Gravissimo Officii Munere and has earned opprobrium in certain circles ever since

But his approach was successful and was set out in Vehementer Nos.

He said:

"You know the aim of the impious sects which are placing your heads under their yoke, for they themselves have proclaimed with cynical boldness that they are determined to "de Catholicise" France.

They want to root out from your hearts the last vestige of the faith which covered your fathers with glory, which made your country great and prosperous among nations, which sustains you in your trials, which brings tranquillity and peace to your homes, and which opens to you the way to eternal happiness.

You feel that you must defend this faith with your whole souls. But be not deluded - all labour and effort will be useless if you endeavour to repulse the assaults made on you without being firmly united.

Remove, therefore, any causes of disunion that may exist among you.

And do what is necessary to ensure that your unity may be as strong as it should be among men who are fighting for the same cause, especially when this cause is of those for the triumph of which everybody should be willing to sacrifice something of his own opinions.

If you wish, within the limits of your strength and according to your imperious duty, to save the religion of your ancestors from the dangers to which it is exposed, it is of the first importance that you show a large degree of courage and generosity. ...

As for the defence of religion, if you wish to undertake it in a worthy manner, and to carry it on perseveringly and efficaciously, two things are first of all necessary: you must model yourselves so faithfully on the precepts of the Christian law that all your actions and your entire lives may do honour to the faith you profess, and then you must be closely united with those whose special office it is to watch over religion, with your priests, your bishops, and above all with this Apostolic See, which is the pivot of the Catholic faith and of all that can be done in its name.

Thus armed for the fray, go forth fearlessly for the defence of the Church; but take care that your trust is placed entirely in God, for whose cause you are working, and never cease to pray to Him for help."

Poussin and Religion

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 03 Jun 2015 20:59:00 +0000

Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)

La Vision de sainte Françoise Romaine: The Vision of Saint Francesca Romana

c. 1657

Oil on canvas

120,7 x 101,8 cm

Musée du Louvre, Paris

Over three quarter of Poussin`s paintings have religious subjects

This has come as a surprise to some art historians who see him as a Classicist mainly concerned with pre-Christian Rome and Greece

The Louvre presently has an exhibition on Nicolas Poussin (1594 – 1665) and his religious works: Poussin et Dieu

On the face of it the exhibition is to mark the 350th anniversary of the artist's death in 1665

The exhibition tries to review possible Christian readings of Poussin's painting and one of his signature features: his merging of the antique and Christian notions of the sacred

Poussin’s religious paintings have been studied far less than his secular works, largely due to the image of the artist that some art historians (in particular Anthony Blunt) have created

The result is often to see his works as works of the intellect and only fully appreciated through intellectual lenses

He resided in baroque Rome, in the period that followed the Council of Trent.

According to Cardinal Gabriele Paleotti's Discorso, the proper purpose of religious art was: 'il dilettare, l'insegnare, e commovere'

Teaching may have been one purpose but as Paleotti pointed out the senses, interest and emotions of the spectator were also to be engaged

In addition to straight forward religious themes, he also used religious motifs in his mythological works.

For Blunt, Poussin is the great Stoic. Animated by great passion which is concentrated by serious intelligence, reason and the will

« Le Peintre philosophe ... le maître du classicisme» who painted the « paysage idéal »

That is an element of his work but not the whole story

This painting of Saint Francesca Romana (1384 – March 9, 1440) is usually categorised as a commission as indeed it was - for Cardinal Giulio Rospigliosi (the future Pope Clement IX)

The work was commissioned to celebrate the ending of an outbreak of the plague in Rome in 1656 - 7

Poussin’s niece and sister-in-law died in the outbreak in Rome

In 1656, the plague killed about half of Naples' 300,000 inhabitants. It was the worst disaster to strike the kingdom and city of Naples in the 1600s

Compared to Naples and Southern Italy Rome had had a very narrow escape

St Francesca or St Frances was known by the people of Rome as "the Advocate of Rome"

Her intervention had been sought to end the plague and by 1657 the virulence of the epidemic had substantially decreased and it looked as if it was about to be eradicated

There are two possible interpretations of the work according to the Louvre catalogue

First, the Saint is appearing to a Roman lady or Carmelite (possibly Anna Colonna Barberini, founder of the convent and the Carmelite cchurch of Regina Coeli in Rome at this time) who is beseeching her to intervene and entreat the end of the plague

The alternative but far more likely explanation is that St Frances on behalf of the City of Rome is the one who is kneeling and appealing to Our Lady to entreat her Son to end the plague

This is probably more likely as the figure of the Virgin is based on the cult of the city of Faenza to the Beata Vergine delle Grazie

She is the patron saint of Faenza under the title Madonna delle Grazie

Faenza’s Beata Vergine delle Grazie emerged during the plague epidemic of 1410, when a woman named Giovanna de’ Costumi prayed to the Virgin for her city’s liberation

The Virgin Mary appeared to her, opened her arms in the manner of the cruciﬁed Christ, and, while breaking the arrows she held in each hand

Hence the posture and the arrows in Poussin`s painting

The cult grew again in Faenza in 1630 and it would seem that the city was spared from the plague

The cult spread to Rome and Cardinal Giulio Rospigliosi was a member of the Confraternity of the Beata Vergine delle Grazie

This interpretation fits in with the idea of the painting being an ex voto

Arrows ? A classical reference.

Apollo was the pagan God who among other things brought plague through firing arrows

In Homer's Iliad I, 39, Apollo shoots the arrows of plague at the Greeks for nine days: “with a face as dark as night, and his silver bow rang death as he shot his arrow in the midst of them.”

Apollo's many epithets included “Smintheus,” associated with mice and rats, both as their exterminator, but also as the bringer of the plague.

We see the angel chasing Apollo or his minion away like a giant mouse or rat back into the earth or ground whence the mice came

The mouse in ancient times was a symbol of prophetic power because it was thought mice were inspired by the exhaling coming out of the ground.

Here we see Mary surrounded by clouds or fumes like an Ancient Prophetess prophesying the end of the plague to the saint. No tripod. She dispels the fumes coming from the ground which the ancient sibyls relied on to prophesy. She overcomes the ancient pagan dispensation of evil soothsayers who scurry off stage right

The role of Mary as Prophet is seen in the New Testament in Luke 1:26-55- in the Canticle of Mary at the Visitation

We see it also in Lourdes and Fatima

In the background of the painting we see scenes of the plague and an archangel putting to flight a monster who personifies the Great Affliction

The scene is set in imposing architecture marked by classical pilasters framing a large arcade.

The scene is Rome

The figure of the Plague has the features of the Gladiator carrying a dead child and another, (based on the ancient statues in the Farnese collection now in the Archaeological Museum in Naples).

As for the reclining woman, she is based on the Baroque statue of St. Cecilia of Maderno in the Church of Saint Cecilia in Rome, a greatly popular Roman site and shrine

The cult of Faenza becomes a cult of Rome

Mary is seen in her role as the mediatrix of Grace between human and divine. A Jesuit theme and certainly not Jansenist

Saint John Paul II once said:

"As the liturgy and Christian piety demonstrate, the Church has always held devotion to Mary in high esteem, considering it inseparably linked to belief in Christ. It is in fact based on the Father’s plan, the Saviour’s will and the Paraclete’s inspiration."

(General Audience Wednesday, 5 November 1997)

The importance of "popular piety" has always been emphasised by the Church. Pope Francis wrote in Evangelii Gaudium:

"Popular piety enables us to see how the faith, once received, becomes embodied in a culture and is constantly passed on. Once looked down upon, popular piety came to be appreciated once more in the decades following the Council. In the Exhortation Evangelii Nuntiandi, Pope Paul VI gave a decisive impulse in this area. There he stated that popular piety “manifests a thirst for God which only the poor and the simple can know” and that “it makes people capable of generosity and sacrifice even to the point of heroism, when it is a question of bearing witness to belief”. Closer to our own time, Benedict XVI, speaking about Latin America, pointed out that popular piety is “a precious treasure of the Catholic Church”, in which “we see the soul of the Latin American peoples”.

During the outbreak the Pope, Alexander VII stayed in the Quirinal

With the Congregazione della sanità strict health preventive measures were adopted and enforced

In July 1656, most of Romes distinguished artists and architects were invited to take up residence on the barricaded grounds of the Quirinal Palace

However Poussin appears to have stayed with his beloved wife Anne-Marie and his extended family

It would have been a fraught and anxious time to say the least

During the plague the Pope expressly entrusted the city to Our Lady

And during the plague time Poussin executed another work to Mary: The Annunciation (1657) which is in The National Gallery in London

Some have called it his greatest work

Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)

The Annunciation

1657

Oil on canvas

106 x 104 cm

National Gallery, London

It is an austere work as one might expect in a time of plague which theologians of the time attributed to the effects of Original Sin and the Fall of Man

It has been suggested that the picture was intended to hang above the tomb of Poussin's patron, Cassiano dal Pozzo (1588 - 1657), in the church of Santa Maria sopra Minerva, Rome.

Another possibility is that it was painted for Pope Alexander VII and for his private chapel at the Quirinal

Mary has a yellow shawl. Yellow was the colour which the Jews in Rome were compelled to wear at that time to distinguish them from other Romans

Rather ironically, Poussin used "Naples Yellow" (lead antimony yellow) a pigment of unusual origin with a touch of tin for the colour

In the 17th century, Naples yellow was a native earth associated only with Vesuvius and its environs as part of an attempt by makers to throw off how it was made

This is quite definitely a Mary of the Jewish faith

She is reading The Old Testament - the Word of God

It is soon to be given to her the choice to conceive The Word

She is meditating on it. She is praying

Or as said by Luke, she is pondering

The scene is narrated in Luke:

"In the sixth month the angel Gabriel was sent by God to a town in Galilee called Nazareth,to a virgin engaged to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David. The virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said, ‘Greetings, favoured one! The Lord is with you.’ But she was much perplexed by his words and pondered what sort of greeting this might be. The angel said to her, ‘Do not be afraid, Mary, for you have found favour with God. And now, you will conceive in your womb and bear a son, and you will name him Jesus’ (Luke 1.26-31).

Anthony Blunt argued that the work borrows from The Ecstasy of St Teresa sculpted by Bernini for the Coronaro Chapel in Rome

But the love here bears no trace of the erotic love depicted in Bernini`s work

We see agape

We see a Lady filled with Grace, that concept whose discussion led to a rupture in Christendom and whose debates were filled with hate and bitterness spilling over and developing into devastating conflicts which wracked European Christendom in the beginning of the 17th century

The conflagrations and wars were not about Grace but territory and treasure, The material, interest and power not spirit and certainly not about love and service.

In the painting we see Mary is seated like the Seat of Wisdom and over her is the Holy Spirit, that person of the Trinity whose acts are " those in which Love excels"

Perhaps this image brings to mind Scripture:

"That which is born of the Spirit, is spirit" (John iii., 6).

"Send forth Thy Spirit and they shall be created, and Thou shalt renew the face of the earth" (Ps. ciii., 30).

Unlike one of Fra Angelico`s Annunciations, this Annunciation is a lean spare and powerful statement of the essential meaning of that most mysterious and most important event when Mary assented to the will of God and the countdown to Man`s redemption began

Dispute on the Trinity

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 31 May 2015 18:22:00 +0000

Andrea del Sarto (1486 - 1530)

Disputa sulla Trinità / Debate on the Trinity

1517

Oil on wood panel

232 x 193 cm

Galleria Palatina e Appartamenti, Palazzo Pitti, Florence

The saints in contemplation are Saints Augustine, Laurence, Peter Martyr, Francis, Sebastian and Mary Magdalene

It was commissioned for the Peri Chapel in the Chiesa di San Gallo in Florence

The Peri family had distinguished itself in republican service. The so called "inventor" of opera Jacopo Peri (1561 - 1633) was (to be) a member of this family

In 1529 when the church was destroyed in the Siege by Charles V, it was transferred to the Church of San Jacopo de' Fossi in Florence where it stayed for about 100 years before falling into the ownership of the Medici family

The Church of San Gallo was with the Augustinian Order hence the significance of St Augustine and one of St Augustine`s great field of study: The Trinity

The models for the work are two works by Raphael: The Disputa of the Eucharist (1508) in the Stanze Vaticane and his Ecstasy of Saint Cecilia (1514)

Del Sarto produced two other works for this Church: the Annunciation and Noli me tangere (1510)

One sees the Trinity and a variety of saints of different times, situations and backgrounds but all of major importance

In De Trinitate, VIII, 8, 12, Saint Augustine wrote:

“If you see charity, you see the Trinity”

As Pope Leo XIII said (see below), the worship paid to the saints and angels, to the Mother of God, and to Christ Himself, finally redounds to the honour of the Blessed Trinity.

In Divinum Illus Munus, (1897) Pope Leo XIII with reference to St Augustine tried to explain some aspects of the Catholic Doctrine of the Trinity:

"The Catholic Doctrine of the Blessed Trinity

3. Before We enter upon this subject, it will be both desirable and useful to say a few words about the Mystery of the Blessed Trinity.

This dogma is called by the doctors of the Church "the substance of the New Testament," that is to say, the greatest of all mysteries, since it is the fountain and origin of them all. In order to know and contemplate this mystery, the angels were created in Heaven and men upon earth. In order to teach more fully this mystery, which was but foreshadowed in the Old Testament, God Himself came down from the angels unto men:

"No man bath seen God at any time; the only begotten Son, who is in the bosom of the Father, He hath declared Him" (John i., 18).

Whosoever then writes or speaks of the Trinity must keep before His eyes the prudent warning of the Angelic Doctor:

"When we speak of the Trinity, we must do so with caution and modesty, for, as St. Augustine saith, nowhere else are more dangerous errors made, or is research more difficult, or discovery more fruitful" (Summ. Th. la., q. xxxi. De Trin. 1 L, c. 3).

The danger that arises is lest the Divine Persons be confounded one with the other in faith or worship, or lest the one Nature in them be separated: for

"This is the Catholic Faith, that we should adore one God in Trinity and Trinity in Unity."

Therefore Our predecessor Innocent XII, absolutely refused the petition of those who desired a special festival in honour of God the Father. For, although the separate mysteries connected with the Incarnate Word are celebrated on certain fixed days, yet there is no special feast on which the Word is honoured according to His Divine Nature alone.

And even the Feast of Pentecost was instituted in the earliest times, not simply to honour the Holy Ghost in Himself, but to commemorate His coming, or His external mission.

And all this has been wisely ordained, lest from distinguishing the Persons men should be led to distinguish the Divine Essence. Moreover the Church, in order to preserve in her children the purity of faith, instituted the Feast of the Most Holy Trinity, which John XXII. afterwards extended to the Universal Church.

He also permitted altars and churches to be dedicated to the Blessed Trinity,and, with the divine approval, sanctioned the Order for the Ransom of Captives,which is specially devoted to the Blessed Trinity and bears Its name.

Many facts confirm its truths.

The worship paid to the saints and angels, to the Mother of God, and to Christ Himself, finally redounds to the honour of the Blessed Trinity. In prayers addressed to one Person, there is also mention of the others; in the litanies after the individual Persons have been separately invoked, a common invocation of all is added: all psalms and hymns conclude with the doxology to the Father, Son, and Holy Ghost; blessings, sacred rites, and sacraments are either accompanied or concluded by the invocation of the Blessed Trinity.

This was already foreshadowed by the Apostle in those words:

"For of Him, and by Him, and in Him, are all things: to Him be glory for ever"(Rom. xi., 36),

thereby signifying both the Trinity of Persons and the Unity of Nature: for as this is one and the same in each of the Persons, so to each is equally owing supreme glory, as to one and the same God.

St. Augustine commenting upon this testimony writes:

"The words of the Apostle, of Him, and by Him, and in Him are not to be taken indiscriminately; of Him refers to the Father, by Him to the Son, in Him to the Holy Ghost" (De Trin. 1. vi., c. 10; 1. i., c. 6).

The Church is accustomed most fittingly to attribute to the Father those works of the Divinity in which power excels, to the Son those in which wisdom excels, and those in which love excels to the Holy Ghost. Not that all perfections and external operations are not common to the Divine Persons; for "the operations of the Trinity are indivisible, even as the essence of the Trinity is indivisible" (St. Aug., De Trin., I. 1, cc. 4-5); because as the three Divine Persons "are inseparable, so do they act inseparably" (St. Aug., i6.).

But by a certain comparison, and a kind of affinity between the operations and the properties of the Persons, these operations are attributed or, as it is said, "appropriated" to One Person rather than to the others.

"Just as we make use of the traces of similarity or likeness which we find in creatures for the manifestation of the Divine Persons, so do we use Their essential attributes; and this manifestation of the Persons by Their essential attributes is called appropriation" (St. Th. la., q. 39, xxxix., a. 7).

In this manner the Father, who is "the principle of the whole God-head" (St. Aug. De Trin. 1 iv., c. 20) is also the efficient cause of all things, of the Incarnation of the Word, and the sanctification of souls; "of Him are all things": of Him, referring to the Father.

But the Son, the Word, the Image of God is also the exemplar cause, whence all creatures borrow their form and beauty, their order and harmony. He is for us the Way, the Truth, and the Life; the Reconciles of man with God. "By Him are all things": by Him, referring to the Son.

The Holy Ghost is the ultimate cause of all things, since, as the will and all other things finally rest in their end, so He, who is the Divine Goodness and the Mutual Love of the Father and Son, completes and perfects, by His strong yet gentle power, the secret work of man's eternal salvation. "In Him are all things": in Him, referring to the Holy Ghost."

Francesco Hayez (1791-1882)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 30 May 2015 19:37:00 +0000

Francesco Hayez (1791-1882)

S Michele Arcangelo Traffige Il Drago/ St Michael Archangel Slays The Dragon

1839

Oil on canvas

Parrocchia Sant'Andrea Apostolo, Iseo, Brescia

Hayez was the most important figure in the transition from Neoclassicism to Romanticism in Italian painting

His Romantic leanings come out mainly in subject-matter rather than in technique,

He trained in Rome in the circle of Canova and Ingres.

He painted religious, historical, and mythological works in a vein owing something to Delacroix and Delaroche, and Ingres

Ferrari wrote of the picture of St Michael:

".. Ecco uno Spirto / Velocissimo scendere dall’etere / Col dardo in mano fiaccator possente / Dell'altero Satanno: oh son divine / Quelle angeliche forme!"

Below is the depiction of the Gospel of John (8: 3-11) in what might appear to be somewhat in the style of the German Nazarenes:

Francesco Hayez (1791-1882)

Christ and the Woman Taken in Adultery

1841

Oil on canvas

43.2 x 53.9 cm

Walters Art Museum, Baltimore

In the next year we find another work depicting Samson`s defeat of the Lion now in Florence

Francesco Hayez (1791-1882)

Sansone e il leone atterrato

Samson and the Lion thrown to the Ground

1842

Oil on canvas

210 x 162 cm

Galleria d'Arte Moderna, Florence

The full title of the work is:

Sansone, atterrato un giovane leone, medita di farlo in brani, provando così il dono della prodigiosa sua forza

The work was commissioned by Ambrogio Maria Martiniano Uboldo (1785 - 1865) and then exhibited at the Brera

Uboldo was a patron of Hayez. He was a soldier under Napoleon and then under the Austrians

A great part of the income in terms of his Will was left for a Hospital for the poor

The work has a martial feel

The last religious masterpiece by Hayez was one of Christ in the Passion:

Francesco Hayez (1791-1882)

Ecce Homo

c.1870 - 4

Oil on canvas

128 cm x 210 cm

Galleria dell’Accademia Tadini di Lovere, Brescia

It was done while not in good health

However it was point of honour to complete it

He had promised his grandson

It was, he wrote a "puntiglio di mantenere la promessa che ho dato a mia nipote di fare avere il dipinto l'Ecce Homo pei primi del venturo Agosto".

Saints Flora and Lucilla

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 27 May 2015 21:03:00 +0000

Master of Saints Flora and Lucilla, active ca. 1300 - 1340

Saint Flora

ca. 1310

Tempera on panel

90.4 x 55.4 cm

Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Ct

Master of Saints Flora and Lucilla, active ca. 1300 - 1340

Saint Lucilla

ca. 1310

Tempera on panel

90.3 x 54.4 cm

Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven, Ct

The cult of Saints Flora and Lucilla was strong in Tuscany especially around Arezzo

They appeared to have died martyrs` deaths circa AD 260-265 during the reign of Gallienus

They were two sisters who were virgins who were martyred along with Eugenius, Theodore, Antonius and another 18 companions

Their feast day was 29th July until their names were expunged from the Roman calendar in 2001 on the basis that their stories were probably a medieval legend

About AD 851 their relics were taken from Ostia to Arezzo by John, Bishop of Arezzo where he placed them in a Benedictine abbey

He later built a church on the Titano (Torrita) hill overlooking the town and an abbey to house the remains

The church (La Badia delle Sante Flora e Lucilla)was rebuilt in the 1560s by Vasari

The presbytery is dominated by the monumental altar built by Vasari (a native of Arezzo) for the chapel of his family in the parish church of Santa Maria in 1563 and moved here in 1865.

A masterpiece of baroque artifice is the false dome, painted on canvas by the celebrated Jesuit brother Andrea Pozzo (1642-1709) in 1702 and placed above the main altar

In the 9th century their stories were memorialised in The Passio. however it simply copies verbatim the stories of other saints and martyrs with some insignificant changes

The relics are still in the Badia but housed in the altar dedicated to Saint Rita.

The cult did spread throughout Tuscany and also into France and Spain

Here is a Mannerist version of the Baptism of St Lucilla by St Valentine by da Ponte:

Jacopo Bassano (Jacopo da Ponte) (1510-1592)

St Valentine Baptizing St Lucilla

1575

Oil on canvas

183.5 x 129.5 cm

Museo Civico, Bassano del Grappa

Bassano has conflated a number of stories and produced a parable on Light

Lucilla as painted is the daughter of a Roman noble who seeks Baptism from the hands of St Valentine

She is blind

On being baptised her sight is restored

Valentine and Lucilla are subsequently martyred

As might be expected from an artistic master of the Veneto and pupil of Titian the light effects in the painting dazzle the viewer reinforcing the theme of the painting

By the early 1560s Bassano freed himself from Mannerist preoccupations, returning to a new objectivity and classicism with compositions based upon the unifying power of light.

In Baptism we become Children of God, the brothers and sisters of Christ, the Light of the World

Out of the darkness Lucilla will step into the Light and will never be the same again

A religious man and a painter of many religious works, da Ponte is said to have stated:

"Sono di fede et religione cristiana, e chi si ingana, suo dano” ("I am of the Christian faith and religion, and if somebody believes the contrary, he is wrong and it is his problem")

The Whitsun Cassone

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 22 May 2015 19:41:00 +0000

Italian School

The Whitsun Cassone

Oil on panel

81 x 198 cm

Campion Hall, University of Oxford

Campion Hall in Oxford was established by the Society of Jesus in 1896 as a private Hall of the University

It has many treasures

This cassone is but one

A cassone (or forziere) was a type of decorated wooden dowry chest from central Italy, used extensively from the end of the fourteenth, through the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries.

The construction and decoration of cassoni closely parallel methods used for contemporary altarpieces

It took about a month to paint a cassone front

According to Vasari, the Florentine Apollonio di Giovanni di Tomaso (1414 – 1465) specialised in the painting of such cassoni

Their decoration changed from painted design in the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries to carving (sometimes partially gilt) in the second half of the sixteenth century.

This cassone depicts the descent of the Holy Spirit at the First Pentecost or Whitsunday as described in the Acts of the Apostles, 2: 1–4.

Mary is at the centre of the gathering of the Apostles and disciples in Jerusalem

"1 When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together.

2 And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a strong driving wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were.

3 Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them.

4 And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim"

However there are some differences

The setting is in the open air and not in a house

The tongues of fire are not yet on the people assembled

The scene is the one before the first proclamation (or kerygma) by St Peter of the messianic significance of the death and resurrection of Jesus:

"Exalted at the right hand of God, he received the promise of the Holy Spirit from the Father and poured it forth, as you (both) see and hear ...

Therefore let the whole house of Israel know for certain that God has made him both Lord and Messiah, this Jesus whom you crucified."

Pius XI Art Historian

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 22 Apr 2015 21:47:00 +0000

Fra Antonio da Monza (active 1492/1503 )

Pentecost

1492 - 1503

Miniature on Parchment

33,5 x 27,7 cm

Albertina Museum, Vienna, Austria

Pope Pius XI (Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti) (31 May 1857 – 10 February 1939), was Pope from 6 February 1922 to his death in 1939.

Before he became a diplomat, he was a scholar of no mean repute

He was at the Ambrosian Library (the Biblioteca Ambrosiana) in Milan, from 1888 to 1911. He was made Prefect in 1907

In 1911, at Pope Pius X's invitation, he moved to the Vatican to become Vice-Prefect of the Vatican Library, and in 1914 was promoted to Prefect.

While in Milan, he transcribed and published codices and rare archival documents. He reordered the Library of the Certosa di Pavia, the Library and the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana,as well as the Museo Settala

He recovered and restored the codices and manuscripts of the Chapter of Milan Cathedral which had been damaged by fire

As Pope he founded the new Vatican Pinacoteca, in a special building near the new entrance to the Museums. He also founded the Missionary-Ethnological Museum in 1926, arranged on the upper floors of the Lateran Palace before it was moved elsewhere

Occasionally one comes across articles and works from his early period in Milan

There was an interesting debate in which he took part concerning the Lombard miniaturist and Franciscan Fra Antonio da Monza (active about 1480 - 1505)

His Pentecost (above) is now in the Albertina

It was for a Festmissale for the then Pope Alexander VI, the Borgia Pope whose features also adorn the work. The choir books were a gift by the Pope for Santa Maria in Aracoeli and the Observant Franciscans within the Church

Fra Antonio appears to have been a member of the Observant Franciscans

Antonio's artistic style was influenced by the art of Leonardo da Vinci. Scholars have attributed several liturgical books, as well as some miniatures in the Sforza Hours and in Antonio Minuti's Life of Muzio Attendolo Sforza, to him. Minuti was a notary and chancellor to the Sforza family

Here are some works where positive attributions to him have been made

Antonio da Monza (active about 1480 - 1505)

Initial R: The Resurrection

From Introit for Easter, Gradual: Ms. Ludwig VI 3 (the Ludwig Aracoeli Manuscript,)

late 15th or early 16th century

Tempera colours, gold leaf, and ink on parchment bound between original wood boards covered with brown leather

64.1 x 43.5 cm (25 1/4 x 17 1/8 in.)

The J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Antonio da Monza (active about 1480 - 1505)

The Crucifixion

c. 1492 - 4

From The Christmas Missal of Pope Alexander VI Ms. Borg. Lat. 425, folio 38v

Missa in Nativitate Domini Nostri Iesu Christi, hora tertiarum Pontifice Maximo celebrante

Gouache, ink, and gold on vellum,

46.5 x 32.4 cm

Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana. Vatican

The work and identity of Fra Antonio da Monza was only revived by researchers in the late nineteenth century, but little is known about his life or career

He is a mysterious figure

Art historians have attempted to piece together the oeuvre of Fra Antonio da Monza or cited individual works as successful examples of hybrid compositions

One of these historians was the great German art historian Paul Kristeller (1863 - 1931) not to be confused with the great Columbia University scholar of the Italian renaissance, Paul Oskar Kristeller (1905-1999). {But of course they often are and the works of the earlier are often shown as works of the latter)

Kristeller as one of the leading art historians of the Italian Renaissance became interested in Fra Antonio

In 1901 he published a monograph Fra Antonio da Monza, incisore in Rassegna d'arte I (1901), pp 161-164 and wondered whether on the basis of two hitherto unattributed prints he discovered in Milan whether Fra Antonio had also been an engraver and printer

The evidence he adduced was slight and unconvincing but his view was taken up by some art establishment figures such as S. Arthur Strong, Librarian to the House of Lords and at Chatsworth, Sir Sidney Colvin (Keeper of the Department of Prints and Drawings at the British Museum) and Arthur Mayger Hind (later Keeper of the Department of Prints, British Museum)

They also prayed in aid the views of the Biblioteca Ambrosiana and Monsignor Ratti

This seems to have been the final straw

In 1912 Monsignor Ratti published his counterblast: Achille Ratti: A. Frate da Monza incisore? - Contributo alla storia delle arti grafiche milanesi . In: Rassegna d'arte XII (1912), pp 133-139

He poured cold water on the idea, demolished the reasons given for the attribution and clinically advanced reasons why on the basis of the existing evidence Fra Antonio could not have been the engraver

Why the bother ?

Possibly a number of reasons can be envisaged

He wanted the truth to come out and be established according to the hard facts and evidence and be established in a positive rational way and not on the basis of pure subjective opinion and reverie

The thesis which he attacked ignored the possibility or even probability that around 1500 there was in his beloved Milan, his beloved Lombardy a mature and thriving market for art filled with mature and sophisticated artists and their customers

For Kristeller was firmly of the view that the peak of Italian woodcut was to be found in Venice and Florence and that outwith Rome and Naples there were no local schools of woodcut in Italy

Of course he also wished to guard the academic reputation of the highly regarded Biblioteca Ambrosiana

Here is his article with the illustrations:

A work of great erudition and scholarship but both are lightly worn by the very learned author

This was written before the time when academics had research assistants and students who did first or second drafts

One notes the pointed ending with the Classical allusion

The reply came from Kristeller in his Die Lombardische Graphik der Renaissance. Berlin: Bruno Cassirer, 1913. - in a large passage and a footnote:

The First World War put an end to the debate

However in the 1940s and beyond Father Ratti`s view held sway and Kristeller`s was overruled

St Teresa de Jesús 2015

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 19 Apr 2015 11:11:00 +0000

Anonymous

Canonisation of St Teresa in Rome 1622

17th century

Oil on canvas

165 x 211 cm

Museo Carmelitano Teresa de Jesús. Monasterio de la Anunciación de Nuestra Señora. MM. Carmelitas Descalzas. Alba de Tormes, Salamanca, Spain

The ceremony of canonisation took place on March 12, 1622 in the presence of Pope Gregory XV

In front of the Pope is depicted his nephew Cardinal Ludovico Ludovisi who was the promoter of the cause of canonisation

Gregorio Fernández 1576 - 1636

Saint Teresa de Jesús

Circa 1615

Polychrome statue

160 x 74 x 75 cm

Santuario de Nuestra Señora del Carmen Extramuros. Valladolid

Gregorio Fernández (1576 – 22 January 1636) was a Spanish Baroque sculptor of the Castilian school of sculpture

The most important collection of his work is in the National Sculpture Museum in Valladolid

He moved to Valladolid which was then the court of the Kings of Spain , between 1601 and 1606

Another sculpture of the saint by the sculptor is preserved in the Museum:(below)

Gregorio Fernández 1576 - 1636

Saint Teresa de Jesús

Circa 1625

Polychrome statue

172 x 103 x 85 cm

Museo Nacional de Escultura, Valladolid

The work was commissioned by the Convento de Nuestra Señora del Carmen (Carmelitas Calzados), Valladolid around the time of the canonisation of the saint

In her left hand she holds an open book inscribed, in which the name of her confessor, Pedro de Alcántara is included.

Here we see the dynamic saint but also one who meditates and writes

Luca Giordano (1634 – 12 January 1705)

The Transverberation of Saint Teresa

Circa 1664

Oil on canvas

202 x 157 cm

MM. Discalced Carmelites. Penaranda de Bracamonte, Salamanca

This work was commissioned by the Spanish diplomat Don Gaspar de Bracamonte 3rd Count of Peñaranda (c.1595 – December 14, 1676) for the Convent of the Incarnation of Discalced Carmelites of Penaranda de Bracamonte (Salamanca) where the work still resides

The Neapolitan Giordano was nicknamed 'Luca fa Presto' (Do it quick, Luke) by his contemporaries because of his enormous output and versatility.

He studied in Naples, Rome, Florence and Venice where he copied works by Tintoretto and Veronese whose style clearly influenced this composition.

The work commemorates the famous event which happened to the saint in 1559 at the Monastery of the Incarnation in Avila

All images (except from the Museum) are from a websie of an important Spanish exhibition to celebrate the the 500th anniversary of the birth of Mother Teresa of Jesús: "Teresa de Jesús, maestra de oración" Teresa of Jesus - Master of Prayer

The exhibition is organised by the Foundation of The Ages of Man, the Castilla y León and the Discalced Carmelite Order, in collaboration with other institutions and organizations who have carefully prepared for this important year in the cities of Avila and Alba de Tormes: the places where she was born to earthly life and eternal life.

More than 200 works of art and literature from all over Spain will be sent for the exhibition

The 91st General Chapter of her Order will also begin in Ávila on May 3

Here are two more images from what will prove a landmark exhibition:

Doménico Theotocópuli “El Greco” (1541-1614) (attributed to)

The Holy Face

Circa 1577-1580 / circa 1600

Oil on canvas

46 x 86 cm

Convento de las MM. Carmelitas Descalzas de Jesús Crucificado (antiguas Capuchinas del convento de la Purísima Concepción), Toledo

Alonso Cano (1601 – 3 September 1667)

St John of God

1653-1657

Oil on canvas

140 x 110 cm.

Archivo-Museo San Juan de Dios. Granada

The saint, dressed in the black habit of the Order, kneeling in profile, holds a crucifix

His head is tilted and illuminated with pallor mortis

He is on the point of human death and on the threshold of eternal life

The scene is a Transitus

He died on March 8, 1550, his 55th birthday, in Granada.

John was canonized by Pope Alexander VIII on October 16, 1690,

In a letter John wrote:

"If we kept before us the mercy of God, we would never be deficient in doing good, while strength was in us. For, when we make over to the poor, out of the love of God, what he himself has given us, his promise is that we shall receive a hundredfold in eternal happiness. That indeed is a fortunate and happy way of gaining a profit!

Who will not give over whatever he has to this best of merchants! He administers our business himself, and begs us with outstretched arms to turn to him and weep for our sins, and become servants in love, first for ourselves, and then for our neighbour.

For just as water extinguishes a fire, just so does charity blot out our sins.

So many people come here that I very often wonder how they can possibly be provided for. But Jesus Christ provides all things and feeds everyone. Many of the poor come into this house of God because the city of Granada is large and very cold, especially now in winter.

There are now more than one hundred and ten people living in this house, including the sick, the healthy, the servants and pilgrims. Because the house is open to everyone, it takes in all manner of sick people. There are people with useless limbs, the maimed, the lepers, the dumb, the insane, paralytics, and some who are suffering from cancer. Others are afflicted with senility, and there are many children, as well as the innumerable travellers and pilgrims who arrive here, and whom we provide with fire, salt and water, as well as pots to cook their food.

There is no charge made for all this, but Christ is our provider.

So, I am working here in debt, and I am a captive for the sake of Jesus Christ.

Often I owe so much that I dare not go out, in case I am seized for my debts. And when I see so many of my brethren in poverty, and my neighbours suffering beyond their strength, and oppressed in mind or body by so many cares, and am unable to help them, it causes me exceeding sorrow.

But I trust in Christ who knows my heart.

Then I say, ‘Accursed is the man who puts his trust in men, and not in Christ alone.’ You will be separated from men, whether you like it or not. But Christ is faithful and is with us always, and he provides all things. We are right to give him thanks. Amen."

St John of God Cartas y Escritos 18-19; 48-50

Léon Joseph Florentin Bonnat (1833-1922)

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 17 Apr 2015 21:26:00 +0000

Léon Joseph Florentin Bonnat (1833-1922)

Job

1880

Oil on canvas

161 x 129 cm

Musée d'Orsay, Paris

Renowned as a portrait painter, the great academician Bonnat also was responsible for a number of powerful religious works of which Job is but one

As a child he lived in Madrid and under the tutelage of Charles Sarvy, his maternal uncle, he developed an appreciation for the Spanish Old Master paintings by Velázquez, Murillo and Zurbarán

He spent three years in Rome from 1858 after winning Second in the Prix de Rome. Here he seems to have been profoundly influenced by Michelangelo

Some of his finest religious works are from this period

In 1868 he embarked on a voyage to the East with Gérôme and acquired a reputation as an Orientalist

The theme of Bonnat`s work in the painting above is the terrible and distressing Complaint of Job in Job 3

"1 After this, Job opened his mouth and cursed his day.

2 Job spoke out and said:

3 Perish the day on which I was born, the night when they said, “The child is a boy!”

4 May that day be darkness: may God above not care for it, may light not shine upon it!

5 May darkness and gloom claim it, clouds settle upon it, blackness of day affright it!

6 May obscurity seize that night; may it not be counted among the days of the year, nor enter into the number of the months!

7 May that night be barren; let no joyful outcry greet it!

8 Let them curse it who curse the Sea, those skilled at disturbing Leviathan!

9 May the stars of its twilight be darkened; may it look for daylight, but have none, nor gaze on the eyes of the dawn,

10 Because it did not keep shut the doors of the womb to shield my eyes from trouble!

11 Why did I not die at birth, come forth from the womb and expire?

12 Why did knees receive me, or breasts nurse me?

13 For then I should have lain down and been tranquil; had I slept, I should then have been at rest

14 With kings and counsellors of the earth who rebuilt what were ruins

15 Or with princes who had gold and filled their houses with silver.

16 Or why was I not buried away like a stillborn child, like babies that have never seen the light?"

At first blush this Job could be a portrait of St Jerome or of Saint Antony in the Desert

But here, Job no longer blesses God or pretends to accept his fate without complaint.

Job insists that he has done no wrong, and yet, "The arrows of the Almighty are in me, my spirit drinks in their poison; God's terrors are marshalled against me." (Job 6:4)

Pope Benedict XVI ended his encyclical Deus Caritas Est with a reflection on Job`s situation and plight:

"38. Certainly Job could complain before God about the presence of incomprehensible and apparently unjustified suffering in the world. In his pain he cried out:

“Oh, that I knew where I might find him, that I might come even to his seat! ... I would learn what he would answer me, and understand what he would say to me. Would he contend with me in the greatness of his power? ... Therefore I am terrified at his presence; when I consider, I am in dread of him. God has made my heart faint; the Almighty has terrified me” (23:3, 5-6, 15-16).

Often we cannot understand why God refrains from intervening. Yet he does not prevent us from crying out, like Jesus on the Cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46).

We should continue asking this question in prayerful dialogue before his face: “Lord, holy and true, how long will it be?” (Rev 6:10). It is Saint Augustine who gives us faith's answer to our sufferings:

“Si comprehendis, non est Deus”—”if you understand him, he is not God.”

Our protest is not meant to challenge God, or to suggest that error, weakness or indifference can be found in him. For the believer, it is impossible to imagine that God is powerless or that “perhaps he is asleep” (cf. 1 Kg 18:27). Instead, our crying out is, as it was for Jesus on the Cross, the deepest and most radical way of affirming our faith in his sovereign power. Even in their bewilderment and failure to understand the world around them, Christians continue to believe in the “goodness and loving kindness of God” (Tit 3:4).

Immersed like everyone else in the dramatic complexity of historical events, they remain unshakably certain that God is our Father and loves us, even when his silence remains incomprehensible.

39. Faith, hope and charity go together. Hope is practised through the virtue of patience, which continues to do good even in the face of apparent failure, and through the virtue of humility, which accepts God's mystery and trusts him even at times of darkness. Faith tells us that God has given his Son for our sakes and gives us the victorious certainty that it is really true: God is love!

It thus transforms our impatience and our doubts into the sure hope that God holds the world in his hands and that, as the dramatic imagery of the end of the Book of Revelation points out, in spite of all darkness he ultimately triumphs in glory.

Faith, which sees the love of God revealed in the pierced heart of Jesus on the Cross, gives rise to love. Love is the light—and in the end, the only light—that can always illuminate a world grown dim and give us the courage needed to keep living and working.

Love is possible, and we are able to practise it because we are created in the image of God. To experience love and in this way to cause the light of God to enter into the world—this is the invitation I would like to extend with the present Encyclical."

Perhaps another famous German put it more succinctly when he combined the words of Job (Job 19:25) and St Paul (1 Corinthians 15:20):

" I know that my Redeemer liveth, and that He shall stand at the latter day upon the earth.

And though worms destroy this body, yet in my flesh shall I see God.

For now is Christ risen from the dead, the first-fruits of them that sleep."

(Handel, Messiah, Part III, 45)

Here are some more of Bonnat`s works on Old and New Testament themes with some of them on dark themes of human despair and grief but also on faith, hope and love triumphant

Léon Joseph Florentin Bonnat (1833-1922)

Adam and Eve Finding the Body of their Son Abel

c 1861

Oil on canvas

173 x 250 cm

Musée des Beaux-Arts, Lille

Léon Joseph Florentin Bonnat (1833-1922)

Samson's Youth

1891

Oil on canvas

210.8 x 252.7 cm

Private collection

Léon Joseph Florentin Bonnat (1833-1922)

The Resurrection of Lazarus

1857

Oil on canvas

112 cm x 145 cm

Musée Bonnat, Bayonne

Léon Joseph Florentin Bonnat (1833-1922)

The Good Samaritan

Oil on canvas

247 x 172 cm

Musée Bonnat, Bayonne

Léon Joseph Florentin Bonnat (1833-1922)

Christ on the Cross

1874

Oil on canvas

227 x 159 cm

Petit Palais, Musée des Beaux-Arts de la Ville de Paris, Paris

(Note. The last painting has an interesting history. The work was commissioned in 1874 for one of the court rooms of the Cour d’assise du palais de Justice de Paris. However with laïcité in 1904/5 it was taken down and put into a store room of the Museums of the City of Paris

Human justice was to supplant divine justice and mercy.)

An Armenian Monk Teaching His Pupil

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 15 Apr 2015 19:22:00 +0000

Grigor Khlat'etsi (1349-1425)

Grigor of Khlat (Akhlat) Instructing his Pupil, Self-portrait

From The Four Gospels Illuminated

1419

Vellum; 23.5 x 16 cm

Inv. Nr 3714 Fol. 14v

Matenadaran, Erevan

The 1700th anniversary of Armenian Christianity in 2001 was a notable milestone in the history of the Christian Church.

It was commemorated by an Apostolic Letter by Saint John Paul II

He wrote:

"Seventeen centuries ago, dear brothers and sisters of the Armenian people, this shared conversion to Christ took place for you. It is an event that has deeply marked your identity, not only personally but as a community, so that we are entitled to speak of the "Baptism" of your nation, even though Christianity actually reached your land much earlier.

Tradition attributes its origins to the preaching and work of the holy Apostles Thaddeus and Bartholomew.

With the "Baptism" of the Armenian community, first received by the civil and military authorities, the people acquired a new identity that was to become a constitutive and inseparable part of Armenian life.

It would no longer be possible to think that faith did not figure as an essential element among the components of this identity. For Armenian culture itself would receive an extraordinarily powerful impetus from the proclamation of the Gospel: its Armenian aspect would give a profoundly characteristic note to this proclamation, which would eventually be a driving force for an unprecedented development of the national culture.

The invention of the Armenian alphabet, a decisive factor for the stability and definition of the people's cultural identity, would be closely associated with the Baptism of Armenia, and would be desired and conceived as a true and proper vehicle of evangelization, even more than as a way to communicate concepts and information.

The new alphabet, the work of St Mesrop-Masthoc", in collaboration with the holy Catholicos Sahak, would enable Armenians to receive the best features of Syrian and Greek spirituality, theology and culture, and blend them all in an original way with the specific contribution of their own genius.

The conversion of Armenia, which occurred at the dawn of the fourth century and is traditionally dated to the year 301, made your ancestors realize that they were the first officially Christian people, well before Christianity was recognized as the religion of the Roman Empire."

There were many exhibitions commemorating the event including one entitled Treasures From The Ark: 1700 Years of Armenian Christian Art

The fascinating catalogue of the exhibition can be as a .pdf file from downloaded from the website of The Getty Publications Virtual Library

The catalogue has many interesting essays, images and entries

Of the above image, we read:

"Provenance: Copied in the Monastery of Tsipnay, under the shelter of the Church of Holy Nshan and St Stephen by the weary and thoughtless scribe Grigorvardapet in the Armenian era 868 (1419) ,during the catholicate of Poghos (II Garnetsi, 1418-30) and reign of Kara Yusuf (d. 1420), for the priest Yohannes.

Grigor was born around 1340—5 in Khlat, son of Dser, hence his nickname Dserents.

Grigor of Khlat (Akhlat) was one of the leading teachers of the late fourteenth and first decade of the fifteenth century. The devastating raids of Timur [ Tamerlane] that started in 1386 continued until 1426, the year when Grigor was martyred for not denouncing his Christian faith.

The scribes of Armenian manuscripts copied in the Akhlat record:

'He [Tamerlane] made the Armenian homeland like a desert bishops and vardapets [celibate priests], monks, priests — took to flight and wandered about in foreign lands and became strangers.'

In 1427 a monk from the Monastery of Medsop' complained that Mass had not been celebrated for six years.

A large collection of Armenian manuscripts was destroyed. For the first time since the ninth century there was a decline in the number of manuscripts produced.

T'ovma Metsop'etsi (1378-1446) in his History of Tamerlane and His Successors twice mentions Grigor, who in spite of having to move from monastery to monastery, for 55 years copied manuscripts, 'day and night with restless vigilance'.

Arak'el Baghishetsi (c. 1340 - 1454) confirms this observation by adding that:

'he copied every hour,summer and winter, autumn and spring, night and day, at home and outside, in the monastery, in the village and in town. And thus not only when he was young but also in ripe old age, until the day of his martyrdom.'

And what was his purpose?

' He copied and sold [manuscripts] and gave the proceeds to the poor', and 'encourged all vardapets and monks to do the same'.

Grigor started copying manuscripts at an early age. In 1415 in a manuscript he copied in Jerusalem he states,

'I am sixty-six years old and a monk for forty-eight years and these sermons [Yachakhapatumchark', attributed to Saint Gregory the Illuminator] I have not come across in my country' [Mat. mss. no. 8775, fol. 315r]. ...

The miniature exhibited is unique in Armenian iconography.

Grigor, having been the founder and instructor in the primary monastic schools at Medsop'ay, Tsip'navank' and Tat'ew (1409- 10), is here represented seated on a high chair.

He has in his left hand a rod, and a small black board in his right hand on which is inscribed the words

'Blessed is the man who [never follows the advice of the wicked or loiters and does not take the path of sinners]' (Psalms 1: 1).

In front of the monk stands a student, hands folded close to his chest like a sinner; and behind him slightly to the right sits, cross-legged on the floor, another figure, holding fresh rods, which the master would require for punishment.

Another interpretation would be that the novice standing in front of the monk has strayed from the 'right path' and the teacher is reminding him of the famous words of the Psalmist: 'Blessed is the man...'.

The role of the Gospel was to guide Christians away from wickedness by accepting the virtuous precepts of the Gospels.

This interpretation is supported by the next miniature on fol. 15r, which presents the sponsors of the manuscript sitting facing each other.

The sponsor Yovhannes holds the Gospel while his father, the priest Daniel, is preparing himself with open arms to receive the manuscript, a source of 'light and salvation'."

Saint Grigor Narekats‘i (Gregory of Narek) : Doctor of the Church

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 12 Apr 2015 20:05:00 +0000

Grigor Narekats‘i (Gregory of Narek).

Գիրք աղօթից (Book of Prayers).

Constantinople: Tparan Astuatsatrean, 1763.

Near East Section, African and Middle Eastern Division, Library of Congress

Scenes from the Life of Grigor Narekats‘i

Hakob, Armenian Patriarch of Constaninople. Մեկնութիւն աղօթից եւ երբողինաց սրբոյն Գրիգորի Նարեկացւոյ հրեշտակական վարդապետ (Commentary on the Prayers and Lamentations of Grigor Narekats‘i Divine Vardapet).

Constantinople: Norakazm Tparan, 1745.

Near East Section, African and Middle Eastern Division, Library of Congress

Grigor Mlichetsi also called Skevratsi (c. 1150-1215)

Grigor Narekatsi Prostrate before Christ

From Grigor Narekatsi Matean Oghbergut'ean (The Book of Lamentations)

1173

Vellum

15.4 x 11.5 cm

Fol. 177v Inv. Nr 1568

Matenadaran Institute of. Ancient Armenian Manuscripts, Erevan,

Saint Grigor Narekatsi, (950 - 1003) (Armenian: Գրիգոր Նարեկացի) Doctor of the Church, was a member of the Monastery of Narek on the shores of Lake Van, wrote his Book of Lamentations, commonly known as the Book of Prayers or Narek, in 1002.

It comprises 95 elegiac poems each beginning with the words 'From the depths of the heart a conversation with God', and it gives expression to the mystical meditations of a deeply religious and fervent man, endowed with rare poetic gifts.

The third image above is from a manuscript which is the earliest dated copy of his work, which also includes the Life of St Grigor, compiled by Archbishop Nerses Lambronatsi (1153-98)

Grigor Mlichetsi, the scribe, is known to have copied five manuscripts between 1173 and 1215, of which four were done in the scriptorium at the Monastery of Skevra under the hospitality of Nerses Lambronatsi

Armenia was the first country to recognise Christianity as the official state religion in 301 AD, twelve years before Constantine's decree granting tolerance to Christianity within the Roman Empire. Ever since, Armenia has claimed the privilege of being the first Christian nation

Pope Francis formally proclaimed St Gregory as a Doctor of the Church at the same time as commemorating the 100th anniversary of the Armenian Genocide

Of the new Doctor he said:

Saint Gregory of Narek, a monk of the tenth century, knew how to express the sentiments of your people more than anyone. He gave voice to the cry, which became a prayer, of a sinful and sorrowful humanity, oppressed by the anguish of its powerlessness, but illuminated by the splendour of God’s love and open to the hope of his salvific intervention, which is capable of transforming all things.

“Through his strength I wait with certain expectation believing with unwavering hope that… I shall be saved by the Lord’s mighty hand and… that I will see the Lord himself in his mercy and compassion and receive the legacy of heaven” (Saint Gregory of Narek, Book of Lamentations, XII).

Your Christian identity is indeed ancient, dating from the year 301, when Saint Gregory the Illuminator guided Armenia to conversion and baptism. You were the first among nations in the course of the centuries to embrace the Gospel of Christ.

That spiritual event indelibly marked the Armenian people, as well as its culture and history, in which martyrdom holds a preeminent place, as attested to symbolically by the sacrificial witness of Saint Vardan and his companions in the fifth century.

Your people, illuminated by Christ’s light and by his grace, have overcome many trials and sufferings, animated by the hope which comes from the Cross (cf. Rom 8:31-39). As Saint John Paul II said to you,

“Your history of suffering and martyrdom is a precious pearl, of which the universal Church is proud. Faith in Christ, man’s Redeemer, infused you with an admirable courage on your path, so often like that of the Cross, on which you have advanced with determination, intent on preserving your identity as a people and as believers” (Homily, 21 November 1987).

This faith also accompanied and sustained your people during the tragic experience one hundred years ago “in what is generally referred to as the first genocide of the twentieth century” (John Paul II and Karekin II, Common Declaration, Etchmiadzin, 27 September 2001).

Pope Benedict XV, who condemned the First World War as a “senseless slaughter” (AAS, IX [1917], 429), did everything in his power until the very end to stop it, continuing the efforts at mediation already begun by Pope Leo XIII when confronted with the “deadly events” of 1894-96.

For this reason, Pope Benedict XV wrote to Sultan Mehmed V, pleading that the many innocents be saved (cf. Letter of 10 September 1915) and, in the Secret Consistory of 6 December 1915, he declared with great dismay,

“Miserrima Armenorum gens ad interitum prope ducitur” (AAS, VII [1915], 510).

Byron and the Armenians

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 11 Apr 2015 19:52:00 +0000

John Constantine Aivazovsky

(1817 - 1900)

Byron visit the monks of the Mekhitarist Congregation . The Island of San Lazzaro, Venice (1899)

Oil on canvas

133 x 218 cm

National Gallery of Armenia, Yerevan

On 26th August 1717, the Venetian Senate, having examined the terms of the offering of the Order of Mendicant Friars, (the Mekhitarists) granted the island of San Lazzaro to Mekhitar of Sebastia and his monks in perpetuity

It is one of the world's prominent centres of Armenian culture and Armenian studies

It has been described as "one of the Armenian diaspora's richest enclaves of culture"

Byron retired there to study the Armenian language and culture during his visit to San Lazzaro between 1816 and 1817.

He immersed himself in the language

On 2 January 1817 he wrote to his publisher:

To Mr Murray, Venice Jan 2, 1817

“The English reader will probably be surprised to find my name associated with a work of the present description [The Armenian Grammar] , and inclined to give me more credit for my attainments as a linguist than they deserve.

“As I would not willingly be guilty of a deception, I will state, as shortly as I can, my own share in the compilation, with the motives which led to it. On my arrival at Venice in the year 1816, I found my mind in a state which required study, and study of a nature which should leave little scope for the imagination, and furnish some difficulty in the pursuit.

“At this period I was much struck—in common, I believe, with every other traveller—with the society of the Convent of St. Lazarus, which appears to unite all the advantages of the monastic institution, without any of its vices.

“The neatness, the comfort, the gentleness, the unaffected devotion, the accomplishments, and the virtues of the brethren of the order, are well fitted to strike the man of the world with the conviction that ‘there is another and a better’ even in this life. (…)"

A Taste of Franciscan Art

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 09 Apr 2015 19:35:00 +0000

Bartolomeo della Gatta ( born Pietro di Antonio Dei) (1448 - 1502)

San Francesco riceve le stimmate; St Francis receives the stigmata

1486-1487

Tempera on panel

186 cm x 162 cm.

Pinacoteca Comunale, Castiglion Fiorentino

In 1468 Pietro di Antonio Dei of a good Florentine family took holy orders, probably in the Camaldolese monastery of S Maria degli Angeli, Florence, in which his brother Nicolo had already entered.

In 1470 he was in Arezzo at the convent of S Maria in Gradi (not Santa Maria degli Angeli as reported by Vasari) and had the adopted name of Bartolomeo ('della Gatta' apparently refers to his fondness for a female cat).

He spent most of the rest of his life in Arezzo, where he became abbot of S Clemente in Arezzo

The building of Santissima Annunziata in Arezzo was directed by Bartolomeo della Gatta and, after his death, by Antonio da Sangallo the Elder.

He became one of the most original interpreters of Piero della Francesca.

Most critics regard him as an eclectic and versatile artist greatly influenced by artists of different styles from Perugino, Signorelli, Piero, Pollaiuolo and Verrocchio . But he had an absolute mastery of the technique of drawing

The work above was commissioned for the Franciscan church of San Francesco in Castiglion Fiorentino

Here we see the passionate religious feelings of the two friars - St Francis and his companion, Leone - totally immersed in the vision of the Seraph and the Stigmata. The setting is La Verna on the Feast of the Exultation of the Cross in September 1223

We also note the broad backdrop of the Apennine forest, described with realistic attention to the rough rocks, the sparse vegetation and trees and of course the owl who appears to be looking away from the Vision

But above all we note the light and the exultation as if the whole of God`s Creation animate and inanimate had been transformed:

"in cui il Monte della Vernia parea ch’ardesse di fiamma isplendidissima, la quale risplendeva e illuminava tutti li monti e le valli d’intorno, come se fusse il sole sopra la terra"

The Galleria dell`Accademia in Florence presenly has an exhibition on Franciscan art. It is entitled L’arte di Francesco: Capolavori d’arte italiana e terre d’Asia dal XIII al XV secolo - Franciscan Art

Masterpieces of Italian art and Asian lands from the 13th to the 15th centuries

The exhibition illustrates the flowering of art – painting, sculpture and the sumptuary arts – directly related to the Franciscan movement between the 13th and 15th centuries.

At the same time, it endeavours to highlight the Franciscans’ astonishing achievement in spreading the gospel throughout Asia, from the Holy Land to China

The works of art were commissioned either by Franciscan friars through their most prestigious churches and convents, or by private citizens who nurtured a special devotion for the saint and his immediate followers

Here are some of the other exhibits in the exhibition in Florence:

Maestro del dossale di San Giovanni Battista

San Francesco e quattro storie della sua vita : St Francis and four stories from his Life

c 1270

Tempera on wood panel with gold leaf

173 x 83 cm

Museo d’arte sacra, Orte

St Francis looks haggardly thin

He is holding a book. Either the Gospels or his Rule

His hand rises in benediction as he looks out at the viewer

On the top left is the scene at La Verna

On the top right is the Sermon to the Birds

On the bottom left is his preaching in Alexandria when he met a rather bemused Sultan

On the bottom right is the recollection of a miracle wrought after his death

The Franciscans were given the Church of Sant`Angelo in Orte in 1259 and the work was commissioned for that church sometime in the 1270s

A century later (1366) it was transferred to the Franciscan church of San Tedoro alla Rocca in Orte

Neapolitan school

St Bernardine of Siena

1465-1475

Oil on panel

Sala Capitolare, Monastero di Santa Chiara in via Vitellia, Rome

This work shows the passion of the man

What it was that communicated to the crowds who flocked to hear him preach

Images of the great Franciscan preacher and saint Bernardine of Siena abound. Here , here and here.

The price of his stock is low at the moment but will rebound

He was canonised in 1450 scarcely six years after his death

Maestro di Figline (active 1315-1335 circa)

Madonna col Bambino in trono fra sei angeli, sant’Elisabetta d’Ungheria e san Ludovico di Tolosa

Madonna and Child enthroned with six angels, Saint Elizabeth of Hungary and St Louis of Toulouse

1317 - 1320

Tempera on wood panel with gold leaf

298 cm. x 175.5 cm.

Collegiata di Santa Maria Assunta, Figline Valdarno,

The artist known as Maestro di Figline was active during the first half of the fourteenth century. He was one of the greatest painters of the time and was almost certainly a member of the Franciscan Order

Here we see a reminder of the great devotion of the Franciscan order to the Blessed Vurgin Mary in what seems to be an almost Sienese work

His works can be found in Tuscany and Umbria

His best known work is probably his Crucifixion of 1320 which hangs in Santa Croce, Florence and which has recently been restored.

Figline Valdarno llies just outside Florence and it is thought that the Madonna and Child was commissioned for a Franciscan church in the town, the Chiesa di San Francesco

The Museum is extremely under-rated (as is the town itself)

It is one of the “piccoli grandi musei”

Ramón Casas y Carbó

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 05 Apr 2015 19:50:00 +0000

Ramón Casas y Carbó 1866 - 1932

Garrote vil

The Public garrote

1894

Oil on canvas

127 x 166 cm

Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía, Madrid

The work depicts the public execution of a prisoner, Aniceto Peinadore, aged 19 years held in Barcelona in 1893

He had been convicted of murder

The garrote or garrote vil was the principal device used for capital punishment in Spain

Ramón Casas y Carbó 1866 - 1932

Pati de l'antiga presó de Barcelona (Pati dels «Corders»)

Courtyard of the old Barcelona prison (Courtyard of the 'lambs')

1894

Oil on canvas

60,5 x 73,5 cm

Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona

The artist depicts the location of the public execution when all have departed

Ramón Casas y Carbó 1866 - 1932

Corpus. Sortida de la processó de l'església de Santa Maria del Mar

Corpus Christi. Departure of the procession to the church of Santa Maria del Mar

c 1896 - 8

Oil on canvas

115,5 x 196 cm

Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona

In 1896, an anarchist attacked the Corpus Christi procession, which had left the Church of Santa Maria del Mar of Barcelona, killing twelve people and created panic in the city

Anarchist bombings like this took place in Catalonia and had taken place in the Gran Teatre del Liceu four years earlier

They were turbulent times and Ramón Casas y Carbó was one of those who memorialised their times

After the recounting of the Passion and the Crucifixion, it is apposite to recall the recent words of the Pope

Pope Francis addressed the delegates of the International Association of Penal Law in October 2014:

"In mythology as in primitive societies, the crowd discovers the evil powers of its sacrificial victims, who are accused of the misfortunes that befall the community. This dynamic is not lacking in modern societies either.

Reality shows that the existence of the legal and political instruments necessary to address and resolve conflicts is not a sufficient guarantee to prevent some individuals from being blamed for everyone’s problems.

Civic life, structured around an organized community, needs rules of coexistence, the wilful violation of which demands appropriate redress.

However, we are living in times in which, as much as in some political sectors as by certain media, public and private violence and revenge are incited, not only against those responsible for committing crimes, but also against those suspected, whether proven or not, of breaking the law.

In this context, a widespread conviction has taken root in recent decades that public punishment can resolve the most disparate social problems, as if completely different diseases could be treated with the same medicine.

This is not so much about trust in some social function traditionally attributed to public punishment, as about the belief that it is possible that such punishment can obtain those benefits that would demand the application of a different type of social and economic policy as well as social inclusion.

Scapegoats are not only sought to pay, with their freedom and with their life, for all social ills such as was typical in primitive societies, but over and beyond this, there is at times a tendency to deliberately fabricate enemies: stereotyped figures who represent all the characteristics that society perceives or interprets as threatening.

The mechanisms that form these images are the same that allowed the spread of racist ideas in their time."

The Morning of the Resurrection

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 04 Apr 2015 16:56:00 +0000

Sir Edward Coley Burne-Jones, Bt 1833–1898

The Morning of the Resurrection

1886

Oil paint on wood

845 x 1511 mm

Tate Britain, London

Mary Magdalene visits the empty tomb, where she encounters the resurrected Christ, accompanied by angels.

When the painting was first exhibited at the Grosvenor Gallery in London it was accompanied by the following:

"St John Chapter XX, v 14, "And when she had thus said, she turned herself back, and saw Jesus standing, and knew not that it was Jesus."

Edward Burne-Jones was close to a group in London called The Souls which included many of the most distinguished English politicians and intellectuals.

One of them was Alfred Lyttelton whose first wife was Octavia Laura, daughter of Sir Charles Tennant, 1st Baronet.

Lyttleton married Laura in 1885. She died in 1886 on the day before Easter within days of giving birth to their only child, a son

Burne-Jones inscribed a personal memorial or 'oblation' to her in the lower left-hand corner of the painting

His widow, Lady Georgiana Burne-Jones (1840-1920) wrote in her Memorials of Edward Burne-Jones (1906 edition, Volume II pages 166 - 7):

"On Easter Eve this much-loved creature {Laura] died.

" It is the sorrowfullest ending," he wrote, "poor, bright, sweet little thing. I dread knowing any more of people, or watching in a stupid unhelpful way the calamities that rain upon them." And, a few weeks later, " I have no clear idea of a memorial to that little darling, but I should like it.

I like praise of the dead, and keeping Saints' days and holy days for them. I did make one very little oblation which I made so obscure that no one has discovered it it is on the left-hand corner of the Resurrection picture at the Grosvenor only the words

" In Memoriam L. L. Easter 1886.'"

I didn't want it to be obtrusive and am glad no one has seen it. And I have schemed a memorial tablet for her if it is ever needed; perhaps I may carry it out and set it up at home, for we all loved her dearly."

He did make a tablet, employing in its execution a kind of material and workmanship quite new to him. It was a bas-relief in gesso : " durable as granite and enduring till the Judgment Day,"

He described it.

"It is eight feet high, and is an effigy of a peacock, which is the symbol of the Resurrection, standing upon a laurel- tree and the laurel grows out of the tomb and bursts through the sides of the tomb with a determination to go on living, and refusing to be dead."

This was left pure white and put up in a church, but for ourselves a cast was made which Edward painted in full, deep colour, and we kept it in the entrance hall at the Grange.

There was much beautiful lettering on it, beginning with the words Non est hic, sed surrexit, and below was a Latin inscription made by Dean Church, one of the many who had loved her.

The Lamentation

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sat, 04 Apr 2015 14:51:00 +0000

Lubin Baugin (c. 1612 – 1663)

Déploration du Christ

Lamentation over Christ

Oil on canvas

130 × 103 cm

Musée du Louvre, Paris

Baugin was appointed Maître Peintre in the Guild of Saint-Germain-des-Près in 1629, but from 1636 onward he spent many years in Italy.

He painted religious works and has earned the nickname "Le Petit Guide" (Little Guido) because he was strongly influenced by Guido Reni.

His reputation has recovered during the 20th century after being unjustly forgotten and undervalued

In this work, the painter emphasises the relationship and status of both Christ and his mother Mary

This was the point emphasised by Pope Francis in his homily at Castel Gandolfo on 15th August 2013, the Feast of the Assumption:

"[T]he mystery of Mary’s Assumption body and soul is fully inscribed in the resurrection of Christ.

The Mother’s humanity is “attracted” by the Son in his own passage from death to life. Once and for all, Jesus entered into eternal life with all the humanity he had drawn from Mary; and she, the Mother, who followed him faithfully throughout her life, followed him with her heart, and entered with him into eternal life which we also call heaven, paradise, the Father’s house.

Mary also experienced the martyrdom of the Cross: the martyrdom of her heart, the martyrdom of her soul.

She lived her Son’s Passion to the depths of her soul. She was fully united to him in his death, and so she was given the gift of resurrection.

Christ is the first fruits from the dead and Mary is the first of the redeemed, the first of “those who are in Christ”.

She is our Mother, but we can also say that she is our representative, our sister, our eldest sister, she is the first of the redeemed, who has arrived in heaven."

Christ on the Cross - The Crucifixion

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 14:05:00 +0000

Christ on the Cross (Chapter XXIV)

From Speculum humanæ salvationis

Mid 14th century

Manuscript on parchment

33,5 x 22 cm

Karlsruhe 3378, [80]76

Badische Landesbibliothek, Karlsruhe

The Speculum humanæ salvationis [The Mirror of Human Salvation] was composed in the first quarter of the fourteenth century for the use of preaching monks and clerics,

It was widely used in the late Middle Ages.

There exist today more than 350 manuscripts in Latin and translations into Dutch, French, German, English, and Czech.

Toward the end of the fifteenth century there was hardly a library in northern Europe that did not possess an example.

The original author of the work which to remain anonymous "out of humility"

The author may have been Ludolphus of Saxony (c. 1295 – 1378), a Dominican who later joined the Carthusian Order in 1340 and wrote the Vita christi

Here in this narrative of the Crucifixion we see the foretelling of it in the Old Testament and in particular Nebuchadnezzar's Dream Of A Tree Cut Down in Daniel 4

7 “These were the visions I saw while in bed: I saw a tree of great height at the centre of the earth.

8 It was large and strong, with its top touching the heavens, and it could be seen to the ends of the earth.

9 Its leaves were beautiful, its fruit abundant, providing food for all. Under it the wild beasts found shade, in its branches the birds of the air nested; all flesh ate of it.

10 In the vision I saw while in bed, a holy watcher came down from heaven

11 and cried aloud in these words:

‘Cut down the tree and lop off its branches,

strip off its leaves and scatter its fruit;

Let the beasts flee from beneath it, and the birds from its branches,

12 but leave its stump in the earth.

Bound with iron and bronze,

let him be fed with the grass of the field

and bathed with the dew of heaven;

let his lot be with the beasts in the grass of the earth.

13 Let his mind be changed from a human one;

let the mind of a beast be given him,

till seven years pass over him.

14 By decree of the watchers is this proclamation,

by order of the holy ones, this sentence;

That all who live may know

that the Most High is sovereign over human kingship,

Giving it to whom he wills,

and setting it over the lowliest of mortals.’

15 “This is the dream that I, King Nebuchadnezzar, had. Now, Belteshazzar, tell me its meaning. None of the wise men in my kingdom can tell me the meaning, but you can, because the spirit of the holy gods is in you.”

Christ leaving the praetorium

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 03 Apr 2015 06:40:00 +0000

Gustave Doré 1832 - 1883

Le Christ quittant le prétoire Christ leaving the praetorium

1867-1872.

Oil on panel

600 × 900 cm

Musée d'art moderne et contemporain, Strasbourg

Gustave Doré 1832 - 1883

Le Christ quittant le prétoire Christ leaving the praetorium

Brush and brown wash heightened with white gouache on paper

35 x 49,5 cm

Musée d'Art moderne et contemporain de la Ville de Strasbourg

He called the painting his life`s work or masterpiece

It is monumental in its scale and composition

While working on it he had to leave Paris in 1870 because of the Siege during the Franco-Prussian War and the Comune and its aftermath. Fortunately it survived

He made two other versions. One is in Nantes and the other is in South Carolina

The Museum in Strasbourg built a special room for its viewing so that it can be seen to its best effect

Unappreciated by French critics, Doré went to London where he and his works were feted

While at the Great Exhibition, he met George Grove and Frederick Kill Harford (1832 - 1906) a Minor Canon of Westminster Abbey. Over dinner in Sydenham, they mused over art and the depictions of the Passion and Crucifixion

They noted that there many works on two themes: Ecce Homo, where Pilate shows a scourged Christ to the crowds only for the crowd to ask for mercy for Barabbas; and Christ carrying the Cross

"Pilate, wanting to release Jesus, addressed them again; but they kept shouting: “Crucify him, crucify him!” A third time he said to them: “Why, what evil has he done? I have found in him no ground for the sentence of death; I will therefore have him flogged and then release him”. But they kept urgently demanding with loud shouts that he should be crucified; and their voices prevailed. So Pilate gave his verdict that their demand should be granted. He released the man they asked for, the one who had been put in prison for insurrection and murder, and he handed Jesus over as they wished "(Luke 23:21-25).

"And when they had mocked him, they stripped him of the robe, and put his own clothes on him, and led him away to crucify him" (Matthew. 27:31)

But none on the theme "in between": Christ coming down from the balcony to the place where he would take up his cross

The idea appears to have been that of Harford. The idea seems to have inflamed Doré`s interest and imagination as he started work almost immediately and carried on for about ten years on this work

Harford appears to have advised quite substantially on the theme and the tone

Harford was also a poet, hymn writer, and amateur musician.

The temple and statue on the right were inspired by the end of Hanover Square in London where there is the neo classical Church of St George`s (where Handel worshipped) and before it a statue of William Pitt the Younger

He knew London well as can be seen from his book London: A Pilgrimage

Christ is the centre of the work

All lines intersect at his head

He is in white and he is illuminated and illuminates the dark scene and setting

He is the only one who is looking at the denizens who compose the mob

Pilate stands dressed in purple at the top of the stairs of the praetorium

On the stairs are Caiaphas, Ananias and Alexander and they are rejoicing

At the bottom of the stairs anguished and distraight are his mother Mary, holy women and John who is comforting Mary Magdalene

Judas is in the crowd with a horrific grin

The soldiers are pushing against the crowd. The features of the crowd show every emotion: curiosity, compassion, pain, hatred, satisfaction

Doré`s reputation as a "preacher painter" was in the last third of his career, following his famous illustration of the Holy Bible in 1866. Soon after, he began many spectacular religious works intended for the Gallery in London he co-founded in 1867-1868, the Doré Gallery .

Jesus Washing Peter’s Feet

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Thu, 02 Apr 2015 20:11:00 +0000

Ford Madox Brown 1821–1893

Jesus Washing Peter’s Feet

1852–6

Oil paint on canvas

1168 x 1333 mm

Tate Britain, London

Ford Madox Brown 1821–1893

Jesus Washing Peter’s Feet

1857–8

Medium

Watercolour on paper

394 x 448 mm

Tate Britain, London

Ford Madox Brown 1821–1893

Sketch for ‘Jesus Washing Peter’s Feet’

c.1851

Ink and graphite on paper

73 x 89 mm

Tate Britain, London

Ford Madox Brown 1821–1893

Sketch for ‘Jesus Washing Peter’s Feet’

1852

Graphite on paper

171 x 200 mm

Tate Britain, London

The scene is described in John 13: 1 - 20

The Washing of the Disciples’ Feet.

1 Before the feast of Passover, Jesus knew that his hour had come to pass from this world to the Father. He loved his own in the world and he loved them to the end.

2 The devil had already induced Judas, son of Simon the Iscariot, to hand him over. So, during supper,

3 fully aware that the Father had put everything into his power and that he had come from God and was returning to God,

4 he rose from supper and took off his outer garments. He took a towel and tied it around his waist.

5 Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist.

6 He came to Simon Peter, who said to him, “Master, are you going to wash my feet?”

7 Jesus answered and said to him, “What I am doing, you do not understand now, but you will understand later.”

8 Peter said to him, “You will never wash my feet.” Jesus answered him, “Unless I wash you, you will have no inheritance with me.”

9 Simon Peter said to him, “Master, then not only my feet, but my hands and head as well.”

10 Jesus said to him, “Whoever has bathed has no need except to have his feet washed, for he is clean all over; so you are clean, but not all.”

11 For he knew who would betray him; for this reason, he said, “Not all of you are clean.”

12 So when he had washed their feet [and] put his garments back on and reclined at table again, he said to them, “Do you realize what I have done for you?

13 You call me ‘teacher’ and ‘master,’ and rightly so, for indeed I am.

14 If I, therefore, the master and teacher, have washed your feet, you ought to wash one another’s feet.

15 I have given you a model to follow, so that as I have done for you, you should also do.

16 Amen, amen, I say to you, no slave is greater than his master nor any messenger greater than the one who sent him.

17 If you understand this, blessed are you if you do it.

18 I am not speaking of all of you. I know those whom I have chosen. But so that the scripture might be fulfilled, ‘The one who ate my food has raised his heel against me.’

19 From now on I am telling you before it happens, so that when it happens you may believe that I AM.

20 Amen, amen, I say to you, whoever receives the one I send receives me, and whoever receives me receives the one who sent me.”

The episode occurs in John at the place of the narration of the institution of the Eucharist in the synoptics.

In the version in the gilded frame of 1857 - 8, the artist has simply highlighted verse 5:

"Then he poured water into a basin and began to wash the disciples’ feet and dry them with the towel around his waist"

The act of washing another’s feet was one that could not be required of the lowliest Jewish slave.

The verse is an allusion to the humiliating death of the crucifixion.

It symbolises cleansing from sin by sacrificial death.

As can be seen from the sketches, originally the figure of Christ was depicted as half clothed

Originally too the painting showed the same.

An outcry ensued when first exhibited at the 84th exhibition of The Royal Academy in London in 1852

The painting remain unsold until Ford reworked the figure into robes

But there was more to the rumpus than simply the half naked figure of Christ

The artist, art critic and pre-Raphaelite Frederic George Stephens (1827 – 9 March 1907) was the man who posed for the figure of Christ

Ford`s sketch of Stephens as Christ is also in the Tate

Stephens was so disappointed by his own artistic talent that he took up art criticism and stopped painting. He claimed to have destroyed all his paintings in 1850 before the creation of this work

Ford Madox Brown 1821–1893

Title

Study of F.G. Stephens as Christ for ‘Jesus Washing Peter’s Feet’

1852

Graphite on paper

292 x 343 mm

Tate Britain, London

There is another portrait of him in the Tate by Holman Hunt

He was later Keeper of the Prints and Drawings in the British Museum

Other members of the pre-Raphaelites posed as Apostles

The second apostle on the left is William Michael Rossetti who later married Lucy Madox Brown, daughter of the painter

The blonde fellow in the centre is the poet Charles Bagot Cayley, and next to him on the right is Dante Gabriele Rossetti

Walter Howell Deverell is the figure of St John

The Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood (later known as the Pre-Raphaelites) was a group of English painters, poets, and critics, founded in by William Holman Hunt, John Everett Millais and Dante Gabriel Rossetti and later joined by others

It was founded in that great year of 1848 - the European Year of Revolutions when it was thought that the whole of Europe would rise up in rebellion against the forces of Conservatism epitomised by Prince Metternich of Austria

Karl Marx and Friedrich Engels, working in London, had written The Communist Manifesto and published it in German in London on February 21, 1848

In Britain violence, and petitions of the Chartist movement came to a head with their peaceful petition to Parliament and meeting on Kennington Common in London on 10 April 1848

Like 120 years later it was a time of youth, energy and enthusiasm, a casting off of an old order and cast of mind

From their house journal The Germ: Thoughts towards Nature in Poetry, Literature and Art it can be seen that their thought went beyond a return to Quattrocento Italian art

They had more than a whiff of the Anglo Catholics and the Oxford Movement

Like Tractarianism, the PRB were for a rejection of liberalism and latitudinarianism in favour of the traditional faith

It is no coincidence that the period saw a crackdown on the Anglo-Catholics. The country was to be racked by the Gorham judgment which began its long progress in 1847 when Gorham was recommended for Brampford Speke but rejected by his Bishop

The State through the Privy Council rendered its decision in March 1850

See: Gorham against the Bishop of Exeter [1849] EngR 892; (1849) 2 Rob Ecc 1; 163 E.R. 1221 (2 August 1849)

Gorham against The Bishop of Exeter [1850] EngR 460; (1850) 15 QB 52; 117 E.R. 377 (25 April 1850)

The Anglican Church in England had let the practice of the Mandatum or Washing if Feet fall into desuetude in the 18th century (except for some ordinations) and this was the position until recently

It was and is a long standing practice or discipline in the Catholic Church.

It was for some Protestant tastes too sacramental and Catholic. It was blasphemous

John Calvin had ridiculed the annual re-enactment by the Catholic Church on Maundy Thursday:

"The Papists boast that, by Christ’s example, they observe the forty days’ fast, or Lent.

But we ought first to see whether or not he intended to lay down his fast as an example that the disciples might conform to it as a rule. We read: nothing of this sort, and, therefore, the imitation of it is not less wicked than if they attempted to fly to heaven.

Besides, when they ought to have followed Christ, they were not imitators, but apes.

Every year they have a fashion of washing some people’s feet, as if it were a farce which they were playing on the stage; and so, when they have performed this idle and unmeaning ceremony, they think that they have fully discharged their duty, and reckon themselves at liberty to despise their brethren during the rest of the year.

But — what is far worse — after having washed the feet of twelve men, they subject every member of Christ to cruel torture, and thus spit in Christ’s face.

This display of buffoonery, therefore, is nothing else than a shameful mockery of Christ.

At all events, Christ does not here enjoin an annual ceremony, but bids us be ready, throughout our whole life, to wash the feet of our brethren and neighbours."

Eventually the members of the PRB grew up and developed and went their separate ways

The establishment of course later embraced them and their views became mainstream, the new orthodoxy

But some of them still retained that initial impulse and which is memorialised in this early work and the early works of the Pre-Raphaelites

One of the antiphons for the washing of feet on Maundy Thursday is Ubi caritas.

The opening words sum up the antiphon: "Ubi caritas et amor, Deus ibi est." (Where there is Love and Charity, there is God)

It is thought to date from the sixth century

Ford Madox Brown`s vision seems also inspired by this ancient song of the Church

Here the antiphon is performed in the ceremony at the 2011 Wedding of Prince William and Catherine Middleton (in a setting by University of Aberdeen Professor Paul Mealor)

Spencer`s Last Suppers

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Wed, 01 Apr 2015 19:46:00 +0000

Sir Stanley Spencer, R.A. (1891-1959)

The Last Supper

1920

Oil on panel

91.5 x 122 cm

Stanley Spencer Gallery, Cookham

Sir Stanley Spencer, R.A. (1891-1959)

The Last Supper

1922

Oil on panel

14½ x 23½ in. (36.8 x 59.6 cm)

Private collection

After his war service in the First World War, Spencer returned to his pre-war preoccupation with religious paintings set in the familiar surroundings of his home village of Cookham.

Before the war his paintings reflected what he felt were his feelings of perfect bliss

Now he felt anxious

He tried to recover the old feelings

He wrote:

"My ideas were beginning to unfold in fine order when along comes the war and smashes everything. When I came home (from the war) the divine sequence had gone. I just opened a shutter in my side and out rushed my pictures anyhow. Nothing was ever the same again"

On learning that the artist needed a peaceful place to stay and space to work, the Slessers invited him to use their house, "Cornerways," Bourne End, near Cookham.

The Last Supper, 1920 is one of Spencer’s best known religious works. It is set in Cookham, in one of the deeply atmospheric malt houses that had ‘staggered’ Spencer’s imagination, according to his brother, Gilbert.

It was painted for a private chapel of the prominent Anglo- Catholic and lawyer politician, Sir Henry Slesser. (He converted to Catholicism in 1946)

It certainly is a strange scene

Christ holds bread cut into two like an opened book in his hands. He looks intently (or sceptically?) at the disciple (John?) who is bending over with wavy hair to inspect the bread. Wine is nowhere to be seen.

The apostles` feet do not match up with the bodies. There are eight pairs of legs shown

In a letter of 26 May 1922 from Petersfield he wrote:

'I am doing a thing which you will dislike and justly. It belongs to my hosiery department. You will see I had four ideas, two of moments in the Last Supper and two of Christ with the soldiers and they were so consecutive and processional, I had to do them. They came out of their shell so nicely ...'

In the Last Supper painted in 1922, we see the sense of 'homeliness' but in medias res drama within the homely setting: Christ and the disciples are seated on chairs which closely resemble those found in 'Fernlea', the Spencer home in Cookham but the figures and chairs are in disarray

Christ has just announced his imminent betrayal

However at the lower end of the table, some of the disciples still lounge comfortably as they have not heard him

Many of those who actually fought in the Great War found that their faith increased and deepened especially those who were Catholics

This seems to be the conclusion reached in Patrick J. Houlihan`s new book Catholicism and the Great War: Religion and Everyday Life in Germany and Austria-Hungary, 1914–1922

Here is a brief extract:

Passover

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Mon, 30 Mar 2015 20:09:00 +0000

Meester van de Inzameling van het Manna (active c 1460 - 1470)

The Offering of the Jews

1460 - 1470

Oil on panel

69,5 x 51,5 cm

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen, Rotterdam

This painting was part of a larger altar piece, of which two sections have been found

The painting depicts people of the Jewish faith sacrificing a lamb during the passover in a synagogue.

The red illustration on the altar shows the murder of Abel by his brother Cain

The death of the innocent Abel prefigures the sacrificial death of Christ on the Cross

The 1906 Jewish Encyclopedia on the term "Sacrifice" (or "Offering") is most instructive:

"[Sacrifice is] the act of offering to a deity for the purpose of doing homage, winning favour, or securing pardon; that which is offered or consecrated. ...

Under Moses, according to the Pentateuch, this freedom to offer sacrifices anywhere and without the ministrations of the appointed sacerdotal agents disappears. The proper place for the oblations was to be "before the door of the tabernacle," where the altar of burnt offerings stood (Ex. xl. 6), and where Yhwh met His people (ib. xxix. 42; Lev. i. 3; iv. 4; xii. 6; xv. 14, 29; xvi. 7; xvii. 2-6; xix. 21), or simply "before Yhwh" (Lev. iii. 1, 7, 12; ix. 2, 4, 5), and later in Jerusalem in the Temple (Deut. xii. 5-7, 11, 12). ...

The sacrifices treated of in the Law were, according to tradition, the following: (1) the holocaust ("'olah"); (2) the meal-offering ("minḥah"); (3) the sin-offering ("ḥaṭat"); (4) the trespass-offering ("asham")—these four were "holy of holies" ("ḳodesh ha-ḳodashim"); (5) the peace-offerings ("shelamim"), including the thank-offering ("todah") and the voluntary or vow-offering ("nedabah" or "neder").

These shelamim, as well as the sacrifice of the first-born ("bekor") and of the tithe of animals ("ma'aser" and "pesaḥ"), were less holy ("ḳodashim ḳallim").

For the 'olot, only male cattle or fowls might be offered; for the shelamim, all kinds of cattle. The ḥaṭat, too, might consist of fowls, or, in the case of very poor sacrificers, of flour. For the trespass-offering, only the lamb ("kebes") or the ram ("ayil") might be used. Every 'olah, as well as the votive offerings and the free-will shelamim, required an accessory meal-offering and libation ("nesek"). To a todah were added loaves or cakes of baked flour, both leavened and unleavened....

To bring peace to all the world is the purpose not merely of the peace-offerings, but of all sacrifices (Sifra, Wayiḳra, xvi. [ed. Weiss, p. 13a]). It is better to avoid sin than to offer sacrifices; but, if offered, they should be presented in a repentant mood, and not merely, as fools offer them, for the purpose of complying with the Law (Ber. 23a).

God asked Abraham to offer up Isaac in order to prove to Satan that, even if Abraham had not presented Him with as much as a dove at the feast when Isaac was weaned, he would not refuse to do God's bidding (Sanh. 89b).

The sacrificial ordinances prove that God is with the persecuted. Cattle are chased by lions; goats, by panthers; sheep, by wolves; hence God commanded, "Not them that persecute, but them that are persecuted, offer ye up to me" (Pesiḳ. de R. Kahana 76b; Lev. R. xxvii.).

In the prescription that fowls shall be offered with their feathers is contained the hint that a poor man is not to be despised: his offering is to be placed on the altar in full adornment (Lev. R. iii.).

That sacrifices are not meant to appease God, Moses learned from His own lips. Moses had become alarmed when bidden to offer to God (Num. xxviii. 2): all the animals of the world would not suffice for such a purpose (Isa. xl. 10). But God allayed his apprehension by ordaining that only two lambs (the tamid) should be brought to him twice every day (Pes. 20a, 61b). "

See also the Encyclopaedia on the Passover Sacrifice and the Seder

"[Seder (The Passover at Jerusalem):

The term used by the Ashkenazic Jews to denote the home service on the first night of the Passover, which, by those who keep the second day of the festivals, is repeated on the second night.

The Sephardic Jews call this service the "Haggadah" (story); and the little book which is read on the occasion is likewise known to all Jews as the "Haggadah," more fully as "Haggadah shel Pesaḥ" (Story for the Passover).

The original Passover service, as enjoined in Ex. xii. 1 et seq., contemplates an ordinary meal of the household, in which man and wife, parents and children, participate.

The historical books of Scripture do not record how and where the Passover lamb was eaten during the many centuries before the reform of King Josiah, referred to in II Kings xxiii.; it is related only that during all that long period the Passover was not celebrated according to the laws laid down in the Torah.

In the days of the Second Temple, when these laws were observed literally, the supper of the Passover night must have lost much of its character as a family festival; for only the men were bidden to attend at the chosen place; and the Passover lamb might not be killed elsewhere (Deut. xvi. 5-6).

Thus, only those dwelling at Jerusalem could enjoy the nation's birthday as a family festival. There is no information as to how the night was celebrated during Temple times by the Jews outside the Holy Land, who did not "go up to the feast."

The destruction of the Temple, while reducing the Passover-night service into little more than a survival or memorial of its old self, again brought husbands, wives, and children together around the same table, and thus enabled the father to comply more closely with the Scriptural command: "Thou shalt tell thy son on that day."

Palm Sunday 20 March, 1212

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Sun, 29 Mar 2015 18:02:00 +0000

Michel I Corneille dit Le Vieux (Michel I Corneille, dit) 1602- 1664

La distribution des rameaux

1664

Oil on canvas

316 x 200 cm

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Nantes, France

The old name for this work is La distribution des rameaux - The Distribution of Palms. It was thought that it was St Geneviève receing palms on Palm Sunday

Now the experts have had a rethink

It is now called: La vocation de Sainte Claire d’Assise - the Vocation of St Clare of Assisi

Inspired by the works of Thomas de Celano, the first biographer of St Francis of Assisi, the artist shows St Clare as a young girl following the advice of St Francis. Dressed in her finery, she went to Church on Palm Sunday (20 March, 1212) to receive a palm directly from the hands of Pope Innocent III himself

That night she proceeded to the humble chapel of the Porziuncula, where St. Francis and his disciples met her with lights in their hands.

Clare then laid aside her rich dress, and St. Francis, having cut off her hair, clothed her in a rough tunic and a thick veil, and in this way she vowed herself to the service of Jesus Christ.

A work with a similar theme is by the artist in the Cathedral of Saint-Flour: this time of Saint Agnes of Assisi, O.S.C., (1197/1198 – 16 November 1253), the younger sister of Saint Clare of Assisi and one of the first abbesses of the Order of Poor Ladies.

Michel Corneille (c 1603 - 1664)

Vocation de la bienheureuse Agnès d’Assise

Vocation of Blessed Agnes of Assisi

Oil on canvas

316 x 228 cm

Cathédrale, Saint-Flour, Haute-Auvergne

Sixteen days after her elder sister Saint Clare ran off to join the group set up by St Francis, Agnes ran off to the Benedictine Monastery of St. Angelo where St. Francis had brought her sister, and resolved to share Clare's life of poverty and penance

The Birth of St. John The Baptist

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Fri, 27 Mar 2015 19:56:00 +0000

Artemisia Gentileschi (1593 – c. 1656)

The Birth of St. John The Baptist

1635

Oil on canvas

1.84m by 2.58m

Museo del Prado, Madrid.

In 1630 Artemisia moved to Naples, then Europe's second largest city – second only to Paris – and the largest European Mediterranean city, with around 250,000 inhabitants

It was a major cultural centre during the Baroque era, being home to artists such as Caravaggio, Salvator Rosa and Bernini

For the first time Artemisia started working on paintings in a cathedral, dedicated to San Gennaro nell'anfiteatro di Pozzuoli (Saint Januarius in the amphitheater of Pozzuoli) in Pozzuoli.

It was during this period she painted Nascita di San Giovanni Battista (Birth of Saint John the Baptist)

It is thought that she may have died in the devastating plague that swept Naples in 1656 which killed about half of Naples' 300,000 inhabitants

The work was one of six paintings commissioned representing the History of St. John the Baptist made for the Cason del Buen Retiro, the Madrid residence of the Viceroy of Naples

It is an important work

The feast of The Nativity of St. John the Baptist anticipates the feast of Christmas.

The Nativity of St John the Baptist is one of the oldest festivals of the Christian church, being listed by the Council of Agde in 506 as one of that region's principal festivals, where it was a day of rest and, like Christmas, was celebrated with three Masses: a vigil, at dawn, and at midday

It follows the narrative in Luke 1

Elizabeth is in bed, after giving birth, assisted by a servant, and Zechariah, in front of them, is writing something.

All the relatives and neighbours are saying that the name of the newborn should be Zechariah, after his father

Struck dumb nine months previously for doubting the message of Gabriel, Zechariah pens the final judgment on a tablet, "His name is John." in accordance with what he was told

He regains his speech

The name "John" is derived from the Hebrew name Yohanan (יוֹחָנָן), "Graced by God", or Yehohanan (יְהוֹחָנָן), "God is Gracious".

Inspired by the Holy Spirit, Zachariah prclaims a prayer now known as the Benedictus (also Song of Zechariah or Canticle of Zachary):

"The Canticle of Zechariah.

67 Then Zechariah his father, filled with the holy Spirit, prophesied, saying:

68 “Blessed be the Lord, the God of Israel, for he has visited and brought redemption to his people.

69 He has raised up a horn for our salvation within the house of David his servant,

70 even as he promised through the mouth of his holy prophets from of old:

71 salvation from our enemies and from the hand of all who hate us,

72 to show mercy to our fathers and to be mindful of his holy covenant

73 and of the oath he swore to Abraham our father, and to grant us that,

74 rescued from the hand of enemies, without fear we might worship him

75 in holiness and righteousness before him all our days.

76 And you, child, will be called prophet of the Most High, for you will go before the Lord to prepare his ways,

77 to give his people knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins,

78 because of the tender mercy of our God by which the daybreak from on high will visit us

79 to shine on those who sit in darkness and death’s shadow, to guide our feet into the path of peace.”

80 The child grew and became strong in spirit, and he was in the desert until the day of his manifestation to Israel."

(Luke 1: 67 - 80)

Like Mary’s canticle, it is largely composed of phrases taken from the Greek Old Testament and may have been a Jewish Christian hymn of praise that Luke adapted

Saint John Paul II on 1st October 2003 devoted one of his more lengthy talks to the Canticle

He said:

"The text is solemn and, in the original Greek, is composed of only two sentences (cf. 68-75; 76-79).

After the introduction, marked by the benediction of praise, we can identify in the body of the Canticle, as it were, three strophes that exalt the same number of themes, destined to mark the whole history of salvation: the covenant with David (cf. vv. 68-71), the covenant with Abraham (cf. vv. 72-75) and the Baptist who brings us into the new Covenant in Christ (cf. vv. 76-79).

Indeed, the tension of the whole prayer is a yearning for the goal that David and Abraham indicate with their presence.

It culminates in one of the last lines: "The day shall dawn upon us from on high..." (v. 78).

This phrase, which at first sight seems paradoxical with its association of "dawn" and "on high", is actually full of meaning."

Annunciation: Gabriel to Zacharias

noreply@blogger.com (Anonymous) — Tue, 24 Mar 2015 21:29:00 +0000

Niccolo di Giacomo (c. 1325 – c. 1403) (known also as Niccolò da Bologna)

Gabriel announces to Zacharias

From Missal said to be of Clément VII and Urban V

Tempera, gold, and ink on parchment

c. 1370

Avignon - BM - ms. 0136, f. 245

This is the miniature in the initial "N" in the Introit for the Vigil for the Birth of St John the Baptist in a Missal for Pope Urban V and which then came into the possession of the antipope Clement VII

The Introit is an extract of Luke 1: 13

The work is that of the Italian miniaturist Niccolo di Giacomo (c. 1325 – c. 1403) (known also as Niccolò da Bologna)

The same subject is seen in the following works:

Gabriel announces to Zacharias from the initial "F" in the Gospel of Luke

From Walafrid Strabo Gloss on the Gospel of Luke

Ink on parchment

c. Middle 12th century

Cambrai - BM - ms. 0344, f. 003

Walafrid Strabo (or Strabus, i.e. "squint-eyed") (c. 808 – 18 August 849), was a Frankish monk poet and theological writer.

Of his prose-works the most famous is the "Glossa ordinaria," a commentary on the Scriptures, compiled from various sources. The work enjoyed the highest repute throughout the Middle Ages.

Andrea Pisano c 1290 - post 1348

Annuncio della nascita di San Giovanni Battista a Zaccaria

c. 1316

From The South Doors, Florence Baptistry

Gilded bronze panel,

60 x 54 cm

The Baptistry of the Duomo, Florence

Of the three world-famed bronze doors of the Baptistery in Florence, the earliest one that on the south side was Pisano's work; he started it in 1330, finishing in 1336.

In 1340 he succeeded Giotto as Master of the Works of Florence Cathedral

Hubert Cailleau (c. 1526–1590)

Gabriel announces to Zacharias from the initial "I" in the Nativity of St John the Baptist in the Gospel of Luke

From Antiphonaire à l'usage de l'abbaye Sainte-Rictrude de Marchiennes

1569-1570

Douai - BM - ms. 0121, f. 204

Hubert Cailleau (c. 1526–1590), was a French historical and miniature painter and stage designer, who flourished at Valenciennes.

Cailleau produced a number of rich works for the Abbey Saint-Rictrude

On one of the books he produced he wrote:

« Ce livre que fit faire don Jacques le Grandt, abbé de Mânes (Marchiennes), fut illuminé à Valenciennes par moi, Hubert Cailleau, au dernier an de mon adolescence»

Chapter 1 of Luke presents parallel scenes (diptychs) of angelic announcements of the birth of John the Baptist and of Jesus, and of the birth, circumcision, and presentation of John and Jesus.

In this parallelism, the ascendency of Jesus over John is stressed: John is prophet of the Most High (Lk 1:76); Jesus is Son of the Most High (Lk 1:32). John is great in the sight of the Lord (Lk 1:15); Jesus will be Great (an attribute, used absolutely, of God) (Lk 1:32). John will go before the Lord (Lk 1:16–17); Jesus will be Lord (Lk 1:43; 2:11).