idle speculationsidle speculationsA series of postings on subjects I like-Catholicism, history, art, Italy,and whatever grabs me at the time 
Articles
Pope to visit Britain 2010
2009-09-24 01:06:00 Pope Benedict XVI will visit Britain next year following an invitation from Prime Minister Gordon Brown, a government source said on Wednesday. It would appear that the visit will be a State Visit and not simply a "pastoral visit" as Pope John Paul II conducted many years ago. One hopes that there will be official confirmation of this soon: as well as an idea of his itinerary. More About: Pope
Father Joan-Gilabert Jofré and Nuestra Señora de los locos e inocentes
2009-09-22 23:44:00 Joaquin Sorolla y Bastida 1863-1923 El padre Jofré protegiendo a un loco/ Father Joan-Gilabert Jofré protecting a mentally ill man 1881 Oil on canvas 154 x 205 cm Diputación de Valencia. Valencia. Spain Nostra Dona Sancta dels Folls Innocents e Desamparats (Nuestra Señora de los locos e inocentes), Valencia On Friday, February 24, 1409, Father Joan-Gilabert Jofré, (June 24, 1350 ? 1417) a religious Mercedarian Father was on his way from the convent of the Plaza de la Merced to the Cathedral of Valencia. The principal activity of the members of the Order of Mercy, founded in the year 1218 by Saint Pedro Nolasco, was to rescue Christians who were prisoners of the Muslims. Father Jofré was supposed to give the sermon at the Cathedral two days later. On his way there, probably on the street of Martín Mengod, the ancient street of the silver workers, next to the church of Santa Catalina, a great uproar caught his attention. A group of children were hitting and making fun of a me...
Entry into Carmel
2009-09-22 20:39:00 Mount Carmel, Looking towards the Sea Print 1846 After William Henry Bartlett (1809- 1854) Published by Fisher, Son & Co (publisher/printer; British; 1821 - 1848; fl.) Print made by William Floyd (1836 ? 1877) The British Museum, London The Grotto of Elijah, Mount Carmel, Israel St Thérèse describes in this Letter her feelings and reactions before entering Carmel. It was written in 1887, shortly before Thérèse entered Carmel: ?MY DARLING LITTLE MOTHER [Agnes of Jesus],?You are right when you tell me that every cup must contain its drop of gall. I find that trials are a great help towards detachment from the things of earth: they make one look higher than this world. Nothing here can satisfy, and we can find rest only in holding ourselves ready to do God's will. My frail barque has great difficulty in reaching port. I sighted it long since, and still I find myself afar off. Yet Jesus steers this little barque, and I am sure that on His appointed day it will come safely t...
First Communion and Confirmation
2009-09-21 21:06:00 Eugène Carrière (French, 1849?1906) The First Communion Oil on canvas 25 3/4 x 21 in. (65.4 x 53.3 cm) The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York Jules Breton 1827-1906 The Communicants (The First Communion) 1884 Oil on canvas Private collection Henri Alphonse Laurent-Desrousseaux (1862-1906) First Communion Oil on canvas 92.08 cm (36.25 in.), 72.71 cm (28.63 in.) Private collection By the time of the Renaissance, most Roman Catholics did not receive First Holy Communion until the start of adolescence, when they were about eleven years of age. This changed in 1910 when Pope Pius X (now Saint Pius X) lowered the age for receiving First Communion to the age of reason, reckoned to be about seven years of age. In his Quam Singulari decree on First Communion, Pius wrote: ?It is clear that the age of discretion for receiving Holy Communion is that at which the child knows the difference between the Eucharistic Bread and ordinary, material bread, and can therefore approach the a...
A Letter of Counsel from Saint Thérèse of Lisieux
2009-09-20 23:34:00 Lorenzo Di Credi 1459-1537 An Angel Brings the Holy Communion to Mary Magdalen about 1510 Tempera on wood, 51 x 38 cm Christian Museum, Esztergom In a letter to her cousin Marie Guerin, Thérèse then aged only 15 years advised her about the necessity of frequent Communion. Her cousin had confided in Thérèse that because of scruples and her conviction that she had greatly sinned, she would refrain from Holy Communion. Pope Pius X after reading this letter declared it ?most opportune? It will be recalled that he was the Pope who made it possible for more frequent Holy Communion and for Communion for children. Someone once described Saint Thérèse of Lisieux as ?a religious prodigy?. The letter would appear to give support to that view. How many spiritual advisors are able to deal with scruples in such a confident and self assured manner ? The letter is dated 1888: ?Before you confided in me, I felt you were suffering, and my heart was one with yours. Since you have the humili... More About: Letter
Pope Leo XIII meets two Saints
2009-09-20 21:55:00 Pope Leo XIII in 1898 St Therese describes her attendance at an audience with Pope Leo XIII. She summons up the courage to ask him to intervene to allow her to enter Carmel. Her father, now Blessed, also meets the Holy Father. But one really wants to know what exactly did Pope Leo XIII think of this strange young girl who would not let go of his knee and who was dragged off by the Swiss Guard. "We spent six days in visiting the great wonders in Rome, and on the seventh saw the greatest of all?Leo XIII. I longed for, yet dreaded, that day, for on it depended my vocation. I had received no answer from the Bishop of Bayeux, and so the Holy Father's permission was my one and only hope. But in order to obtain this permission I had first to ask it. The mere thought made me tremble, for I must dare speak to the Pope, and that, in presence of many Cardinals, Archbishops, and Bishops! On Sunday morning, November 20, [1887] we went to the Vatican, and were taken to the Pope's private... More About: Saints , Pope
St Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face
2009-09-20 19:08:00 The Community doing the laundry 1895 The Community in the fields July 1896 Here we see the Doctor of the Church, St Thérèse of the Child Jesus and the Holy Face , doing the laundry and working in the fields. At the same time she was doing and writing what Pope John Paul II called ?her doctrine [which] is at once a confession of the Church's faith, an experience of the Christian mystery and a way to holiness.? For some reason it is difficult to imagine other Doctors like Saints Jerome, Augustine and Thomas Aquinas in similar scenes. Not long after she died on 30 September 1897, Pope Pius X declared that she was "the greatest saint of modern times". Benedict XV, praised the knowledge of divine realities which God granted to Thérèse in order to teach others the ways of salvation Pius XI underscoring her special divine enlightenment and described her as a teacher of life. He considered Thérèse of Lisieux the "Star of his pontificate? after he had beatified and canonised her. ...
Giovanni Bellini and St Francis in the Desert
2009-09-20 13:26:00 Giovanni Bellini (c. 1430 - 1516) St. Francis in the Desert , 1480 Oil and tempera on poplar panel 49 in. x 55 7/8 in. (124.46 cm x 141.92 cm) Henry Clay Frick Bequest The Frick Collection, New York The theme of seclusion is more common in paintings that depict the retirement of saints During the early Renaissance, the cult of saints became "more intense and passionate" than ever throughout Europe Giovanni Bellini is an important figure in the early representation of the hermit saints in solitude Bellini's portrayals of St. Francis and St. Jerome were among the first examples of the subject, in which the theme of solitude is created through a physical division from the external world The painting`s true subject is somewhat elusive. It used to be known as ?St Francis in Ecstasy?. Now it is called ?St Francis in the Desert? St. Francis of Assisi (1181/82?1226), founder of the Franciscan order, is believed to have received the stigmata ? the wounds of Christ's Crucifixion ? ...
St Ambrose and Reading
2009-09-19 18:59:00 Matthias Stomer (Amersfoort, 1600 - Sicily, after 1650) Saint Ambroise/Saint Ambrose Circa 1633-1639 Oil on canvas 110 x 130 cm Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rennes, Rennes St Augustine, in his Confessions [Book Six, Chapter Three] has a curious anecdote which bears on the history of reading: ?When [Ambrose] read, his eyes scanned the page and his heart sought out the meaning, but his voice was silent and his tongue was still. Anyone could approach him freely and guests were not commonly announced, so that often, when we came to visit him, we found him reading like this in silence, for he never read aloud? St Augustine wondered why St Ambrose read silently and was not even moving his lips. He puts forward some reasons: "Perhaps he was afraid, that if he read out loud, a difficult passage by the author he was reading would raise a question in the mind of an attentive listener, and he would then have to explain what it meant or even argue about some of the more abstruse points." The impli... More About: Reading
Paradiso, St Bernard of Clairvaux and Deus Caritas Est
2009-09-19 15:15:00 Philippe Quantin (c. 1600 -.1636) Saint Bernard éc rivant/Saint Bernard writing Oil on canvas H. 181.1 ; L. 120.4 Musée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon The work was originally commissioned for the Church of the Collège des Godrans, in Dijon. It was seized by the French State in 1799 Francisco Ribalta 1565- 1628 Cristo abrazando a San Bernardo/ Christ embracing St Bernard 1626 Oil on Canvas 158 cm x 113 cm Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid Christ leaves the cross for an instant in order to embrace Saint Bernard, founder of the Cistercian Order. The scene is based on one of the saint's mystical visions, drawn from one of the most popular religious books of the Baroque era: Pedro de Ribadeneyra's Flos Sanctorum or Book of the Lives of the Saints, published in 1599. The painting, one of the triumphs of Spanish Baroque, was probably originally commissioned for the Charterhouse of Porta Coeli in Valencia The Inferno and Purgatorio carry the reader along entertainingly; the Paradiso by comp...
A Most Sublime Prayer
2009-09-18 22:49:00 Philipp Veit (1793-1877) Fresco cycle in Casa Massimo, Rome: The Empyreum (with at the centre Dante being led to the Virgin Mary by St Bernard of Clairvaux) 1817?1827 Casa Massimo, Rome In the final stages of Dante`s Paradiso, Dante approaches the Empyrean, a heaven of pure light beyond time and space. Beatrice, his guide in Paradise until then now returns to her place There appears instead a new guide for the final stage of the celestial voyage: Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-53) Bernard shows Dante his last vision of Beatrice, who has resumed her throne among the blessed. Across the vastness of Paradise, Dante sends his soul's prayer of thanks to her. Beatrice smiles down at Dante a last time, then turns her eyes forever to the eternal fountain of God. Bernard, the most faithful of the worshippers of the Virgin, promises Dante the final vision of God through the Virgin's intercession. Accordingly, he instructs Dante to raise his eyes to her throne. Dante obeys an... More About: Prayer
Monastery Landscapes
2009-09-18 00:16:00 Joseph Anton Koch 1768-1839Monastery of San Francesco di Civitella in the Sabine Mountains 1812Oil on panel, 34x46 cmThe Hermitage, St. Petersburg Alexey Savrasov. (1830-1897)Monastery Gates. 1875. Oil on canvas. The Russian Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia. In his recent study of art displayed in contemporary American homes, David Halle discovered that landscape pictures are the first in popularity in all various social classes he surveyed. Importantly his study shows further that almost all the landscape pictures he sampled are about "a sedate and tranquil nature" with few or no human figures, and that people's general reason for preferring landscapes to other genres is "above all the tranquillity of the subject matter," because "they are 'calm', 'restful'; they offer 'solitude' and 'quiet'; they soothe." (David Halle, Inside Culture: Art and Class in the American Home (Chicago, 111.: The University of Chicago Press, 1993), pp. 59-72) Without doubt, as Halle himself has c... More About: Landscapes
Cloisters
2009-09-17 21:54:00 The St Gall Monastery Plan (?an architectural plan for an ideal monastery ?)AD 825 -830(Dedicated to Gozbertus, the Abbot of St Gall from 816-36)Roll of parchment made of five pieces sewn together (ca. 77cm. by 112 cm.)Stiftsbibliothek Sankt Gallen, Switzerland Cluny II and its Monastery, according to Excavations and the Dimensions of the Farfa Consuetudinary (1043).(J P Conant) The cloister was the heart of a monastery. It was a covered walkway surrounding a large open courtyard. It gave access to all other monastic buildings. It was also a passageway and processional walkway, a place for meditation and for reading aloud. It was the site where the monks washed their clothes and themselves. One fascinating interpretation of the architectural symbolism intrinsic in the layout of the buildings surrounding the cloister is by William Durandus (13th c.) in his Rationale Divinorum Officiorum according to which the church building symbolises the Church Triumphant and the claustrum signifi...
The singing of Psalms and the Divine Office
2009-09-17 20:32:00 Gradual--Use of Saint-Michel de Gaillac, Near Albi, before 1079. Manuscripts Department, Western Section, Lat. 766, ParchmentThe Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris Psalter-Hymnal of Saint-Germain-des-Prés, Paris, middle of the 11th century. Manuscripts Department, Western Section, Lat. 11550, ParchmentThe Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris Arundel 83 f. 55v Musical notation, heraldic decoration and DavidFrom the Howard Psalter (Arundel 83 I) showing the incipit of Psalm 80 ("Exultate Deo"). In the initial 'E', a seated king plays bells. In the border, hybrids hold trumpets bearing the Fitton and Freville arms, and other hybrids play musical instruments. c. 1310 - c. 1320Parchment 360 x 235 (250 x 165) in two columnsThe British Library, London The Last Judgement in The Winchester Psalter ('St Swithun Psalter')Ink and pigments on vellum1150Cotton MS Nero C IV f.39rLength: 32 x Width: 22.1 centimetresThe British Library, London(The Psalter was probably used by Hugh of Blo... More About: Office , Psalms , Divine
Blogging
2009-09-08 22:28:00 I shall be on holiday. Blogging will be intermittent (if at all) for the next ten days
The Long Lost Diptych
2009-09-08 22:02:00 Lorenzo Monaco 1370-1425Diptych: Madonna of Humilityc. 1420Panel, 22,8 x 17,8 cmThorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen Lorenzo Monaco 1370-1425Diptych: St Jeromec. 1420Panel, 32 x 18 cmRijksmuseum, Amsterdam The Diptych as perhaps once seen Both panels (now hundreds of miles apart) originally formed a diptych: the Madonna of Humility in Thorvaldsens Museum, Copenhagen; the St Jerome in the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam. They are meant for private devotion. It is believed that the diptych of St Jerome and the Virgin was used as a visual aid by a learned monk in the monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence, where Lorenzo also lived and for which he made many works of art. The devotional theme of the Madonna of Humility ("Madonna dell'Umiltà") arose in the late 13th century, spreading across Italy during the next century and becoming particularly popular in cities such as Siena. From Italy it spread to other countries including Spain, where it was widely accep... More About: Lost , Long
Mary: What`s in a Name ?
2009-09-07 22:14:00 Melchior Broederlam (active 1381-1409)The Annunciation (detail)1393-99Tempera on woodMusée des Beaux-Arts, Dijon We know her as Mary : "26 And in the sixth month, the angel Gabriel was sent from God into a city of Galilee, called Nazareth, 27 To a virgin espoused to a man whose name was Joseph, of the house of David: and the virgin's name was Mary." (Luke Chapter 1, verses 26-27) The name of "Mary" seems to have attracted a great deal of scholarly attention See: Maas, A. (1912). The Name of Mary. In The Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Retrieved September 7, 2009 from New Advent Wikipedia on Mary (mother of Jesus) states: "Mary (Aramaic, Hebrew: ????, Mary?m Miriam Arabic:????, Maryam), usually referred to by Christians as the Virgin Mary or Saint Mary, was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee, identified in the New Testament [Matt. 1:16,18-25] [Lk. 1:26-56] [2:1-7] as the mother of Jesus of Nazareth. Muslims also refer to her as the Virgin Mary or Syeda...
Sta Maria degli Angeli. Florence
2009-09-06 20:24:00 Don Simone Camaldolese active c.1378 to 1405CHRIST IN GLORY, in an initial B on a leaf from a choirbook (c. 1380s) Psalter (Psalm 109, Dixit Dominus domino meo)Manuscript on vellum514 x 382mm (leaf), 128 x 138mm (initial). Private collection Originally from Siena, Don Simone was a Camaldolese monk at Sta Maria degli Angeli in Florence His near contemporaries there were Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci and Lorenzo Monaco, who is thought to have been partly trained by Don Simone This leaf carries Psalm 109, Dixit Dominus domino meo, the first Psalm for Sunday Vespers Note the acanthus leaves of pink, green, blue, grey, yellow ochre and orange Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci (1339-99)Leaf from a gradual with an initial S (1392-1399 )Water-based pigments, gilding and ink on parchmentHeight 575 mm x Width 400 mmHeight 420 mm (written space) x Width 265 mm (written spaceThe Victoria and Albert Museum, London Silvestro dei Gherarducci (1339-99) illuminated works not only for Santa Maria d...
The Birth of the Virgin
2009-09-06 14:01:00 Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci (Italian, 1339?1399)Initial G with the Birth of the Virgin , ca. 1375From a gradual created for the Camaldolese monastery of Santa Maria degli Angeli, FlorenceTempera, gold, and ink on parchment; 11 1/2 x 11 3/4 in. (29.2 x 29.8 cm)The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York This initial G was the first letter of the Introit to the Mass for the feast commemorating the Birth of the Virgin. As a Camaldolese monastery, it would be expected that the inspiration was similar books from the mother house. The iconography is not Florentine but Siennese. Note the walls and ceiling, the delicacy of the details in each figure, the lilies in the border, and the figure leaving the room. The leaf comes from a series of choir books made for the use of the monks of Santa Maria degli Angeli, a Camaldolese monastery in Florence, of which Don Silvestro was a member. He later became prior in 1398 The importance of the scriptorium was noted by Vasari in his Vita of Lorenzo Mon...
Pius VI and Viterbo
2009-09-06 11:26:00 Print made by Pietro Bonato 1765/6-1820/7After Luigi Scotti (Active c 1800)Life of Pope Pius VI / S.S.Pio VI. baccia la mano dell'incorotto corpo di S.Rosa in Viterbo/Santa Rosa of Viterbo Has Her Uncorrupted Hand Kissed by Pope Pius VI c1800Print386mm x 468mmThe British Museum, London Viterbo has seen many Popes in its long history. Sometimes they resided more in Viterbo than in Rome A number of Popes are even buried in Viterbo and conclaves to elect new Popes were held in the city. It is truly a Papal city. Pope Pius VI (1717-1799) reigned during a period of reform, instigated by Joseph II, which restricted papal power. He failed to save his territory from capture by Napoleon, and died a prisoner of the French army. Pope Pius VI was escorted out of Rome on 20 February 1798 and began his exile. This print shows Pope Pius VI kneeling at tomb of St. Rosa, surrounded by nuns of Viterbo abbey. Santa Maria Rosa is the patron saint of Viterbo. The legend of Santa Rosa (1235-1252) is...
Vatican succumbs to attack by Italian Government
2009-09-06 00:11:00 Dino Boffo, the editor of the Catholic newspaper 'L'Avvenire', meets Pope Benedict XVI in 2005 The Times reports that an Italian Catholic editor who has been the subject of a sustained media attack by supporters of Silvio Berlusconi for criticising the Prime Minister's "immoral" lifestyle stepped down Dino Boffo, editor of Avvenire, the newspaper of the Italian Bishops Conference (CEI), said his name had been besmirched "for days and days in a war of words which has wrecked my family and stunned Italians". He said the "defamatory" attacks by Vittorio Feltri, the editor of Il Giornale, the newspaper owned by the Berlusconi family, had "violated my life" and amounted to "a desire to desecrate which I could not have imagined existed". Mr Feltri, who is leading an aggressive "counteroffensive" to "unmask" critics of scandals in Mr Berlusconi's private life, had unearthed a 2004 incident in which Mr Boffo paid a fine for alleged telephone harassment of the wife of an unnamed man... More About: Government , Vatican
The Virgin and St Jerome
2009-09-05 17:26:00 Francesco Fontebasso 1707-1769The Virgin Mary Appears to St JeromeOil on canvas, 30 x 22 cmMuseum of Fine Arts, Szépm?vészeti Múzeum , Budapest, Hungary Francesco Fontebasso was one of the most prolific and well known followers of Sebastiano Ricci, with whom he had his earliest training, and also of Giambattista Tiepolo Fontebasso was a renowned fresco painter, and received many important commissions from both within Italy and abroad. Indeed, from 1761 - 62, he worked in St. Petersburg for Catherine II, Empress of Russia. Before he left for St. Petersburg, in 1755, he became a founder-member of the Accademia Veneziana, of which he was appointed president in 1768. Fontebasso interpreted the theme of the Holy Virgin accompanied by angels appearing to the penitent St Jerome in the desert on a number of occasions In this version, St Jerome finally finds peace in death, lying on the matting with a cross on his breast. St Jerome had a great devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary...
David Roberts 1796 - 1864
2009-09-05 15:12:00 David Roberts 1796 - 1864View of Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives 1855 Oil on canvas 55(H) x 93(W) The Government Art Collection, United KingdomDavid Roberts 1796 - 1864Chapel of the Annunciation, Nazareth c. 1839Watercolour and white heightening on paper 23.5(H) x 34(W) The Government Art Collection, United Kingdom David Roberts 1796 - 1864Jerusalem from the Mount of Olives with Pilgrims Entering from the River Jordan 1842Oil on canvas 84.1cm x 153cmNorfolk Museums and Archaeology Service, Norfolk, England David Roberts 1796 - 1864St Katherine's Monastery with Mount Horeb 1839Watercolour, over graphite 499mm x 352mmThe British Museum, London Print made by Louis Haghe 1806 - 1885After David Roberts 1796 - 1864Caiphas looking towards Mount Carmel, April 24th 1839Tinted lithograph with hand-colouring610 x 425 mmThe British Museum, London St Jerome wrote:"The Greek historians are understood so much better when one has seen Athens, and the third book of Virgil [of the Aeneid] when... More About: David
The Open Book
2009-09-04 22:46:00 Vincent van Gogh 1853-1890Still Life with Bible or Open Bible 1885Oil on canvas 65 cm (25.59 in.), x 78 cm (30.71 in.)Van Gogh Museum, Amsterdam Van Gogh was the son of a parson After 1876 he felt a vocation for the church and began to study theology, but gave this up. He became a lay preacher in England and later became involved in missionary work in Belgium. He then volunteered to work as a preacher among the miners of the Borinage. After dismissal from this also, he began to draw seriously in 1880. Open Bible depicts a large gold-leafed family Bible open to Isaiah 53, a small tattered copy of a French realist novel, Emile Zola?s Joie de Vivre (Joy of Life) and a snuffed-out candle in the background Isaiah 53:3-5, foretells the suffering of Christ as the sacrificial lamb Van Gogh?s father had died a few months before Van Gogh continued to study the Bible even after abandoning his ministerial calling. Paul Gauguin, who lived with van Gogh in Arles from October through December of... More About: Book
Pilgrimage and more
2009-09-04 20:32:00 Giuseppe Bottani (Italian, Cremonese, (1717?1785)The Departure of Saints Paula and Eustochium for the Holy LandOil on canvas38 3/4 x 22 1/2 in. (98.4 x 57.2 cm)Gift of Mr. and Mrs. Edward A. Friedman, in loving memory of Milton Friedman, 1991The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York The painting is a modello for an altarpiece for the church of Saints Cosmas and Damian, Milan, dated 1745, and painted in Rome. The altarpiece is now in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan. A widow at 31, Paula consecrated her household to an ascetic way of life, together with similar groups of noble Roman women. St. Jerome was their spiritual director. With her eldest daughter Eustochium, she followed Jerome to the Orient in 385, she visited Palestine and the monks of Nitria under his guidance, and in 386 settled in Bethlehem, where she used her wealth to construct a convent for nuns, a monastery for monks, and a guesthouse for pilgrims. Jerome, Paula and Eustochium lived in the adjacent caves, which one ...
The Embarkation of St Paula Romana at Ostia
2009-09-03 23:52:00 Claude Lorrain 1600-1682Embarkation of St Paula Romana at Ostia1637-39Oil on canvas, 211 x 145 cmMuseo del Prado, Madrid Left: Claude Lorrain 1600-1682 Coast scene with the embarkation of St Paula, record of a painting in Paris, Louvre, No 318, from the Liber Veritatis Pen and brown ink, with brown wash; on blue paper 197 millimetres x 257 millimetres The British Museum, London Right: Claude Lorrain 1600-1682 Coast scene with the embarkation of St Paula, record of the painting in Madrid in the Liber Veritatis Pen and brown ink and grey-brown wash, heightened with white, on blue paper 263 millimetres x 199 millimetres The British Museum, London This work was commissioned by Philip IV, King of Spain, for the decoration of one of the galleries in the Buen Retiro Palace In the front there are two stone tablets with the following inscriptions: IMBARGO STA PAVLA ROMANA PER TERRA SANTA and PORTUS OSTIENSIS A (AVGVSTI) ET TRA (IANI). Following her conversion, the noble Roman ...
Saint Jerome with Saint Paula and Saint Eustochium
2009-09-03 20:52:00 Francisco de Zurbarán 1598 - 1664 and WorkshopSaint Jerome with Saint Paula and Saint Eustochium, c. 1640/1650Oil on fabricOverall: 245.7 x 173.5 cm (96 3/4 x 68 5/16 in.) framed: 264.2 x 192.4 x 9.5 cm (104 x 75 3/4 x 3 3/4 in.)Samuel H. Kress CollectionThe National Gallery of Art, Washington DC It was not only in Italy that there was devotion and veneration accorded to St Jerome. His life and works attracted a following and great influence in Spain especially through the Hieronymites Zurbarán painted a series of paintings in the late 1630s for the Hieronymite monastery of Guadalupe on the Life of St Jerome and Saint Paula, and her daughter Saint Eustochium. This is one of them In this painting the white and brown habits of the saints are those worn by the Hieronymites Saint Paula (347?404) was a widow in Rome and had four daughters Blaesilla, Paulina, Eustochium, and Rufina, and a son named Toxotius. After the death of Blesilla, Paula and Eustochium left Rome to follow the monas...
St Jerome and Meditation
2009-09-02 22:29:00 Caravaggio, ( Michelangelo Merisi ) (b. 1571, Caravaggio, d. 1610, Porto Ercole)St Jerome in Meditation 1605-06Oil on canvas, 118 x 81 cmMuseum of the Monastery of Santa Maria, Monserrat (Museo del Monasterio de Santa Maria). "In reality, to dialogue with God, with his Word, is in a certain sense a presence of Heaven, a presence of God. To draw near to the biblical texts, above all the New Testament, is essential for the believer, because "ignorance of the Scriptures is ignorance of Christ". ... Truly "in love" with the Word of God, he [St Jerome] asked himself: "How could one live without the knowledge of Scripture, through which one learns to know Christ himself, who is the life of believers?" (Ep. 30, 7). The Bible, an instrument "by which God speaks every day to the faithful" (Ep. 133, 13), thus becomes a stimulus and source of Christian life for all situations and for each person. To read Scripture is to converse with God: "If you pray", he writes to a young Roman noblewoma...
Sainte-Anne-La-Palud
2008-06-10 19:15:00 Eugène Boudin 1824-1898Pardon de Sainte-Anne -La-Palud 1858Oil on canvas 91.5cm x 151.5cmMusée Malraux, Le HavreCharles Cottet 1863-1924Femmes de Plougastel au Pardon de Sainte-Anne-La-Palud 1903Oil on canvas 120.5 x 160.5Musée des beaux-arts, Rennes Saint Anne is the patron saint of Brittany.One of the biggest pardons in Brittany still in existence is that of St Anne at Sainte-Anne-La-Palud.The Pardon centres around the Sea.Eugène Boudin (July 12, 1824 ? August 8, 1898) was one of the first French landscape painters to paint outdoors.Boudin was a marine painter. In 1857 Boudin met the young Claude Monet who spent several months working with Boudin in his studio. The two remained lifelong friends. Monet later paid tribute to Boudin?s early influence. Boudin joined Monet and his young friends in the first Impressionist exhibition in 1874.He was one of the most important precursors to Impressionism.Charles Cottet (1863?1925), French painter, was born at Le Puy-en-Velay and died in Pari...
Yvonne Jean-Haffen
More articles from this author:2008-06-09 22:18:00 Yvonne Jean -Haffen (October 1895- November 1993)Pardon at Notre-Dame de la Clart 1975Painting on acrylic and canvas . 50, x 73Maison d'artiste de la Grande Vigne, DinanYvonne Jean-Haffen (October 1895- November 1993)Dévotion des pèlerins 1932Pencil on paper 13,x 19Maison d'artiste de la Grande Vigne, DinanYvonne Jean-Haffen (October 1895- November 1993)Après l'office, la foule devant l'église 1925-1935Gouache on board 49 x 31Maison d'artiste de la Grande Vigne, DinanYvonne Jean-Haffen (October 1895- November 1993)Arrivée du pardon à St Samson 1945Pencil on paper 24 x 32Maison d'artiste de la Grande Vigne, DinanYvonne Jean-Haffen (October 1895- November 1993) was a Breton artist who had many skills: painting, drawing, ceramics.She embraced life in Brittany and its culture after her marriage. She depicted pardons, landscapes and seascapes.In 1937 she and her husband purchased la Grande Vigne, near Rance and Dinan. During the second world war 1940-45 la Grande Vigne became ... 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 |
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