idle speculations

RSS Feed Homepage

Articles: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7

The Altar of Holy Blood
2008-05-13 20:00:00
Tilman Riemenschneider (ca. 1460?1531)Heilig-Blut-Altar (Holy Blood Altar), (1501-1505)St. Jakobus ChurchRothenburg ob der Tauber, Franconia, Bavaria The altar was commissioned so as to hold a relic of the Precious Blood.The altar shows the Last Supper, the arrival of Jesus in Jerusalem and the scene at the Mount of Olives.

Angels with Candlesticks
2008-05-12 20:09:00
Tilman Riemenschneider (ca. 1460?1531)Two Angels with Candlesticks c.1505Carved limewood with traces of paintVictoria and Albert Museum, London The candlesticks were made for the tiny church at Wolferstetten.

Saint Matthias the Apostle
2008-05-12 19:56:00
Tilman Riemenschneider (ca. 1460?1531)Saint Matthias, c. 1500?1505Limewood; H. 104.5 cm (41 1/8 in.), W. 32 cm (12 5/8 in.), D. 19 cm (7 1/2 in.)Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Skulpturensammlung Riemenschneider was active in Würzburg from about 1483 until 1531. He was one of the first sculptors to abandon polychromy (the application of colour to sculpture) on occasion. He made a conscious decision to leave visible his favoured material, limewood.St Matthias was present when St. Peter called on the faithful to select an apostle to replace the traitor Judas (Acts 1:15-26). He was a witness to the Resurrection (Acts 1:21-22). He was chosen by casting lots between him and Joseph.After selection he was identified as apostle with the other eleven apostles.

Remedios Varo
2008-05-10 19:53:00
Remedios Varo (1908-1963)Hacia la torre /Toward the Tower 1960Oil on Masonite 123 x 100 cm.MonterreyRemedios Varo (1908-1963)Ascensión al monte análago/ Ascent To Mt Analog, 1960.Oil on Masonite 67 x 31 cm.México Remedios Varo (1908-1963) was born in Spain.When young, she travelled throughout Spain with her father, a hydraulic engineer. She was educated in Spanish convent schools.She moved to Paris where she became involved within the Surrealist movement. She was one of the few female Surrealist artists. She incorporated many scientific ideas into her paintingsIn 1942 she moved to Mexico City with her husband, Benjamin Péret, to escape the Nazi occupation of France.Her meticulous and multivalent paintings have long been celebrated in Mexico, her adopted home.This year is the centenary of her birth.

Westminster Cathedral
2008-05-10 14:02:00
Mgr Mark Langham at Westminster Cathedral , London is stepping down as Administrator of Westminster Cathedral, to take sabbatical leave before starting in a new post later in the yearThe new Administrator is Fr Christopher TuckwellBloggers will know him from his excellent website Solomon, I Have Surpassed Thee.In his time he has done a great deal to move the Cathedral forward and to secure its future. He will be missed.

Interior of St. Etienne du Mont
2008-05-10 11:06:00
Émile Antoine François Herson, 1805-1873Interior of St. Etienne du Mont 1864Watercolour and gum heightening with gouache highlights over graphite underdrawing on paperHeight: 18.1 cm, width: 25.5 cmThe Walters Art Museum, Baltimore

Pentecost: The Spirit and the Eucharist
2008-05-09 22:33:00
Giovanni Battista Tiepolo 1696 - 1770Saint Paschal Baylon's vision of the Eucharist 1767Oil on canvasHeight: 63.6 cm; Width: 38.7 cmCourtauld Institute of Art Gallery, London Saint Paschal Baylon (or Pascal Baylon) (24 May 1540?17 May 1592) was a Spanish friar. His feast day is 17th May.He was born in Aragon, on 24 May 1540, on the Feast of Pentecost. He was called after the Spanish phrase for the Feast of Pentecost.He spent his youth as a shepherdHe joined the Reformed Franciscan Order (Alcantarine Reform) as a lay brother. He chose to live in poor monasteriesA mystic and contemplative, he had frequent ecstatic visions.Pope Leo XIII proclaimed Saint Paschal Baylon, the "seraph of the Eucharist", Patron of eucharistic congresses and all contemporary and future eucharistic associations.Pope Benedict XVI explained the link between the Spirit and the Eucharist thus:"12. The Paraclete, Christ's first gift to those who believe, already at work in Creation (cf. Gen 1:2), is fully presen...
More About: The Spirit

The Problem of Evil
2008-05-09 21:04:00
Odilon RedonL'ange déchu (1890-95) (The Dethroned Angel)Paint on canvas H. 24 ; L. 33.5Musée des Beaux-Arts, Bordeaux John Habgood, formerly Anglican Archbishop of York, reviews the book Out of Eden: Adam and Eve and the problem of evil by Paul W. Kahn in this week`s Times Literary Supplement.The review is entitled: The sanctity of evil - Is the capacity for evil one of the defining characteristics of our humanity? A book which begins with the sentence “Evil makes us Human� must surely compel attention. This is no ordinary account of what is usually meant by the problem of evil, where the main emphasis is on justifying the ways of God to man.Instead, Paul W. Kahn’s aim is to explore the nature of evil itself.He interprets it, not just as doing or experiencing bad things, but as “a way of being in the world�. Evil, he claims, is about making ourselves the source of our own meaning, a meaning inevitably negated by death, the certainty of which gives urgency and depth to t...
More About: Problem

Frances Richards
2008-05-08 22:37:00
Frances Richards 1903-1985Pentecost, from The Acts of the Apostles 1929Intaglio print on paperimage: 190 x 140 mmon paper, printTate Gallery, London
More About: Frances

Little Gidding
2008-05-08 22:27:00
Jacopo Caraglio (Printmaker; c.1500 - 1565)The Pentecost 1520-1539Engraving on paper 380 millimetres x 265 millimetresThe British Museum, London ?The dove descending breaks the airWith flame of incandescent terrorOf which the tongues declareThe one discharge from sin and error.The only hope, or else despairLies in the choice of pyre of pyre?To be redeemed from fire by fire.Who then devised the torment? Love.Love is the unfamiliar NameBehind the hands that woveThe intolerable shirt of flameWhich human power cannot remove.We only live, only suspireConsumed by either fire or fire.?--Section IV, Little Gidding, ?Four Quartets?, by T. S. EliotWritten primarily in the first half of 1941, the poem was both aided and hindered by the German air raids on London.

Gregorian Chant -
2008-05-07 20:09:00
Rendition of part of the "Dies Irae": "Ego sum Ressurectio,"
More About: Chant

Mary Berry
2008-05-07 19:10:00
Dr. Mary Berry and the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge meeting with Pope John Paul II in Rome The obituary section of The Times reported today on the death of Sister Mary Berry, CBE, musicologist and nun, who died on May 1, 2008, aged 90.Musicologist, nun and don of the University of Cambridge, Mary Berry was hugely influential in reviving Gregorian chant in Britain and abroad."Through the Schola Gregoriana of Cambridge she promoted the teaching, study and performance of Gregorian liturgical music within a 2,000-year-old tradition of Christian song and, after the sweeping changes generated by the Second Vatican Council in the mid-1960s, she preserved the chant and kept it alive at a time when the old certainties were falling all around her. ...In 1938 she was received into the Catholic Church by the Bishop of Liège before graduating with a music degree from Cambridge.Then war broke out. When she was nursing with the Red Cross, her calling took a deeper turn. In March 1940 she joined ...

Fifth Marian dogma ?
2008-05-06 21:46:00
William Bouguereau born 1825 - died 1905La Vierge au Lys/ The Virgin of the Lilies. 1899Oil on canvasPrivate collection Cardinal Telesphore Toppo (former president of the episcopal conference of India) and four other cardinals are asking the Pope to proclaim Mary "the Spiritual Mother of All Humanity, the co-redemptrix with Jesus the redeemer, mediatrix of all graces with Jesus the one mediator, and advocate with Jesus Christ on behalf of the human race."Zenit presents a Q and A session with the Cardinal. In particular he stresses the commitment of many bishops and archbishops worldwide to the promulgation of the new dogma.
More About: Marian , Dogma

Charity
2008-05-05 19:55:00
Jacques BLANCHARD 1600 - 1638La Charité 1633Oil on canvas: H. : 1,1 m. ; L. : 1,36 m.Collection de Louis XIVMusée du Louvre, Paris On 4th April 2008, Cardinal Paul Cordes, president of the Pontifical Council Cor Unum spoke to the spring meeting in Leeds of the Bishops' Council of England and Wales. The theme of the talk was Pope Benedict's first Encyclical Letter Deus Caritas Est (God is Love).The official text of the address has now been published by Zenit.The full text can be accessed here.One of the main themes of the talk is that the main burden of responsibility for its implementation in dioceses and parishes is placed squarely on the shoulders of the bishops.He also talks about the origins of the Encyclical: how it came to be drafted and why the Encyclical marks a "shift in paradigm" in regard to the basic guidelines for a "spirituality" of those working in help-agencies."This rooting of the Church's engagement in God was undoubtedly one of the deepest motivations that led ...
More About: Charity

The Spirit and St Jerome
2008-05-05 11:26:00
Jacques Blanchard (b. 1600, Paris, d. 1638, Paris)Saint Jérôme écrivant (St Jerome writing) 1631-1632Oil on canvas 114, x. 77 cmMusée de Grenoble, GrenobleJacques Blanchard (1600-1638)St Jerome 1632Oil on canvas,57 1/4 x 45 5/8 inches (145.5 x 116 cm)Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest In the comparatively small number of works left to us by Blanchard, there are a number of commissions of paintings of the great Church Father and Doctor, St Jerome.St Jerome is of course a common theme in religious painting. But these paintings are different from the run of the mill depictions of St Jerome. One notable feature of the paintings is the characterisation of St Jerome: the size, power, energy and passion of the man. This is not a frail intellectual ascetic. This is a Jerome impelled and driven by the Holy Spirit .Of the painting now in Budapest, one critic has written:"One of the best works of the painter who was called "the French Titian". The composition and the colours manifest the influence o...
More About: The Spirit

Pentecost 3
2008-05-05 00:49:00
Jacques Blanchard 1600-1638La descente du Saint Esprit/ The descent of the Holy Spirit [May 1634]Oil on canvasChapelle des Fonds Baptismaux,La cathédrale Notre-Dame, Paris "We celebrate the great feast of Pentecost , in which the liturgy has us relive the birth of the Church, according to what St Luke narrates in the book of the Acts of the Apostles (2: 1-13).Fifty days after Easter, the Holy Spirit descended on the community of disciples - "with one accord devoted themselves to prayer" - gathered with "Mary, the mother of Jesus" and with the Twelve Apostles (cf. Acts 1: 14; 2: 1).We can therefore say that the Church had its solemn beginning with the descent of the Holy Spirit.In this extraordinary event we find the essential and qualifying characteristics of the Church: the Church is one, like the community at Pentecost, who were united in prayer and "concordant": "were of one heart and soul" (Acts 4: 32). " BENEDICT XVI: Saint Peter's Square, Pentecost Sunday, 27 May 2007...

Pentecost 2
2008-05-04 11:32:00
L' église Saint-JacquesGrenobleAnne Tiessé b.1940Le PentecôteFrescoL' église Saint-JacquesGrenoble The Church of Saint-Jacques was renovated. The artist Anne Tiessé was the artist commissioned for the renovation. She lives in Grenoble.The Church`s website is here.The artist`s website is here.
More About: Pentecost

Francisco Pradilla y Ortiz: Joanna (Joan) the Mad
2008-05-03 19:40:00
F. Pradilla y Ortiz : 1848-1921Doña Juana La Loca (Showing Juana [Joan ] the Mad holding vigil over the coffin of her late husband, Philip the Handsome)1877Oil on Canvas 340 x 500 cmMuseo del Prado, MadridF. Pradilla y Ortiz: 1848-1921La reina doña Juana 'la Loca', recluida en Tordesillas con su hija, la infanta doña Catalina/ Queen Joanna [Joan] the Mad in seclusion in Tordesillas with her daughter Princess Catalina 1906Oil on canvas 85 cm x 146 cmMuseo del Prado, Madrid Francisco Pradilla Ortiz (July 24, 1848?November 1, 1921) was a prolific Spanish painter famous for creating historical scenes. He was also a master of the landscapeIn 1878 he submitted his painting Doña Joanna of Castile (or Juana la Loca) to the National Exhibition in Spain and was awarded the Medal of Honour.He traveled, mostly in Italy, portraying local themes and people. In 1897 he returned to Madrid as the director of the Museo del Prado.His total output was well over 1,100 worksPradilla did several represent...

St Francis Borja
2008-05-03 19:29:00
Francisco José de Goya y Lucientes (March 30, 1746 ? April 16, 1828)San Francisco de Borja y el moribundo impenitente/ St Francis Borja at the Deathbed of an Impenitent (1788)Oil on Canvas 350 x 300 cmMuseum of the Cathedral of Valencia, Valencia, Spain Mengs was called to Madrid in the summer of 1761 to serve as first court painter to Carlos III.In 1774, Goya moved to Madrid. There, he studied with Mengs, who had called him there to study with him. He clashed with his master, and his examinations were unsatisfactory. Goya submitted entries for the Royal Academy of Fine Art in 1763 and 1766, but was denied entrance. It took a long while for Goya to establish himself as a recognised artist after this. But he did.Mengs had great influence over the practice and theory of art in Spain, particularly in the years following his death in 1779. A Spanish edition of his writings was published in 1780. At the time in Spain his writings were described as "the catechism of good taste and the cod...
More About: Francis

Johann Joachim Winckelman and Mengs: the Apostles of German Neo-Classicism
2008-05-03 17:13:00
MENGS, Anton Raphael(b. 1728, Aussig, d. 1779, Rome)Portrait of Johann Joachim Winckelman 1761-62Oil on canvas, 64 x 49 cmMetropolitan Museum of Art, New York Both Mengs and Winckelman were Catholic converts. Both resided in Rome. Both attained high positions in the Establishment of Rome.Winckelman was librarian first to Cardinal Archinto, and then later, to Cardinal Albani in Rome, and also in charge of the latter`s antiquities. Albani was one of the leading eighteenth-century collectors in Europe. Thus, Winckelmann was one of the principal figures in circles interested in classical antiquity in the city.Winckelman is now celebrated as the Father of Modern Archaeology and Art History.Winckelmann used his scholarship as a tool in the construction of a theory. He argued that a modern artist could become great only by imitating the works of classical Greece. Only by this means could he acquire a more perfect knowledge of beauty than was possible by studying nature itself.He said: ?The...
More About: German , Apostles

Descent of the Holy Spirit
2008-05-03 11:12:00
Anton Raphael Mengs 1728 - 1779Descent of the Holy Spirit 1751Oil on canvas 46 x 25,5 cmHermitage Museum, St PetersburgMengs, a Classical artist, was strongly influenced by the ideas of the German scholar of the Ancient World, Johann Joachim Winckelmann (1717-1768).He was the leading German painter in the second half of the 18th century and exceptionally popular across Europe.Mengs, one of the creators of Neo-Classicism, called upon the artists of Europe to return to "the simplicity and nobility of beautiful antiquity".Daniel Webb in Inquiry into the Beauties of Painting (1760) attempted to summarise Mengs` theory of beauty thus:"Beauty was the perfect expression of an idea, since art was above nature. The ultimate aim of painting lay, therefore, in selecting beautiful subjects found in nature, purified of all imperfection."

The Ascension
2008-05-02 22:55:00
Anton Raphael Mengs (1728-1779)Christi Himmelfahrt 17529,30 m x 4,20 mKathedrale St. Trinitatis (Katholische Hofkirche) Dresden The Ascension is a national holiday in Germany. It is known as Christi Himmelfahrt.In Germany, it was the custom for the priest to lift high a crucifix after the reading of the Ascension Gospel.The link between the Cross and the Ascension is implicit in Jesus' words when he says, And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself. (John 12:32)In 1750 Mengs was commissioned to produce three altarpieces for the Dresden Hofkirche, including the commission for the Ascension (installed 1766 in situ) for the main altarWhen chosen to paint an 'Ascension of Christ` altarpiece for Dresden?s catholic church, the artist took himself to Venice in order to study Titian?s 'Assumption'.Titian had a profound influence in Mengs` work.It is shown in his book regarding works from antiquity and the Renaissance: Riflessioni sopra i tre gran pittori Ra...

Elihu Vedder
2008-05-01 21:16:00
Elihu Vedder, (1836 ? 1923)Dominicans (Three Monks at Fiesole) 1859 caOil on canvas cm 29,5 x 24,1The Fine Arts Museums, San FranciscoElihu Vedder (1836 ? 1923)Roman Landscape, c. 1900Coloured chalks on green wove paper, 16.3 x 31.8 cm (6 3/8 x 12 1/2 in.)The National Gallery of Art, Washington DCElihu Vedder (1836 ? 1923)The Sorrowing Soul between Doubt and Faith, ca. 1887Oil on canvas. 16 x 21 in. (41 x 53 cm)Johnson Museum of Art at Cornell University, Ithaca, New YorkElihu Vedder (1836 ? 1923) was an American symbolist painter, book illustrator, and poet, born in New York City.He completed his studies in Italy. He first visited Italy from 1858 until 1860. At the end of the Civil War he left America to live in ItalyHe visited England frequently, was much interested in the Pre-Raphaelite movement, becoming a friend of Simeon Solomon, with whose work his own has affinities. On his first visit to London in 1870 he met Watts and admired the work of Rossetti, Alma-Tadema and Leighton.

Consolatrix Afflictorum
2008-04-30 20:51:00
Pascal-Adolphe-Jean Dagnan-Bouveret (1852-1929)Consolatrix AfflictorumOil on canvasPrivate collectionDagnan pursued the academic mastery of finely drawn figure compositionsHe made his reputation with large figure paintings based on scenes from real life in rural France.It would appear that Dagnan achieved his effect of lifelike immediacy with the help of photographs, a common practice in nineteenth-century painting but one that artists did not always admit.He often turned to religious subjects, treating them as genre scenesMadonna and Child was a theme which he painted on a number of occasions. He stressed the beauty of maternity.

The Coarbs of St Moluag
2008-04-30 20:17:00
Niall Livingstone, younger of Bachuil, (now Clan Chief) carrying the Bachuil Mor, the pastorial staff of St Moluag, with the Rt. Hon. Dr George Reid, the Presiding Officer of the Scottish Parliament "Titles" are no longer "in". However they are reminders of tradition: many are good traditions.Some titles are ancient: older than the Nation State. The Coarbs of St Moluag is one of the oldest titles in Britain: possbly the oldest. It hearkens back to the Dark Ages: when a missionary saint started to evangelise the Picts in Scotland in the sixth century AD.The Times belatedly reported the recent death of Alastair Livingstone of Bachuil. He was the holder of what is thought to be the oldest title in Britain: the Coarbs of St Moluag and the "Hereditable Keeper of the Great Staff of Saint Moluag.".He was also Baron of the Bachuil and Chiefs of MacLea.The Livingstones, originally known by the Gaelic name MacLea, are one of the oldest clans in Scotland.Saint Moluag, (c.530 - 592),] (also kno...

St Catherine of Siena
2008-04-28 22:57:00
Girolamo di Benvenuto 1470-1524 The Death of St Catherine of Siena c.1500-1510 Tempera on panel 32 H ; 25 L Musée du Petit Palais, Avignon Catherine arrived in Avignon on June 18, 1376, and was received by the Pope, Gregory XI. Gregory had been ready to go back to Rome with his court, but the opposition of the French cardinals had deterred him. Catherine urged him to return and end the seventy-four-year residence of the popes at Avignon. In her letters to Pope Gregory, she is blunt and forthright. But she calls him "Babbo". (An Italian child`s name for father: "Daddy") On September 13, 1376, he set out from Avignon to travel by water to Rome, while Catherine and her friends left the city on the same day to return overland to Siena. Aged only thirty three, she suffered a stroke in Rome on April 21, 1380 Eight days later she died surrounded by her "Famiglia", including Monna Alessa Dei Saracini. Her body is in the Minerva Church, in Rome but Siena has her head enshrined in St. Do...

Preparations for the Procession
2008-04-27 18:32:00
Jehan Georges Vibert (1840-1902)Preparations for the Procession Oil on canvasPrivate collection

Un Scandale [A Scandal]
2008-04-27 18:29:00
Jehan Georges Vibert (1840-1902)Un Scandal e [A Scandal]Watercolour, pencil and gouache on paper30 x 21 1/4 inches (76.2 x 54 cm)Private collection
More About: Scandale

The Church In Danger
2008-04-27 18:27:00
Jehan Georges Vibert (1840-1902)The Church In Danger Oil on panel29 x 22 7/8 inches (73.7 x 58.4 cm)
More About: The Church

The Missionary's Adventures
2008-04-27 10:36:00
Jehan Georges Vibert [1840-1902]The Missionary's Adventures Oil on wood; 39 x 53 in. (99.1 x 134.6 cm)The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York A monk is recounting his adventures of his work in the Missions. He has been injured in the course of his work.A copy of The Martyrdom of Saint Bartholomew by Ribera hangs on the wall.It was painted at the time the Third Republic was actively pushing for the separation of church and state. It seems to make the state's case.Vibert describes the scene thus:In the novel, Death Comes for the Archbishop by Willa Sibert Cather (December 7, 1873 ? April 24, 1947), the Prologue scene is inspired by this painting."It was a painting, by the way, that made the first scene of that story [Death Comes for the Archbishop] for me. A French painter, Vibert, one who did a precise piece of work in the manner of his day, called 'The Missionary's Return'"(Small, Harold. "Willa Cather Tells 'Secret' Novel's Title." San Francisco Chronicle 26 March 1931)