Careful Thought

This is one of my favorite pieces, though not much is known about it.  It’s called, “Entry of Christ into Jerusalem,” and the Wiki entry says it’s from:

Museum for Byzantine Art (Inv. 1590; acquired 1889; from the collection of Sir Andrews), Bode Museum, Berlin.

The description says,

Entry of Christ into Jerusalem (central panel from a triptych), Constantinople, 10th century; ivory

Again, I’m continually amazed at God-given talents.  God is a creative God, and, in fact, Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.”  So God is creative, and because we were made in his image, it’s not surprising that we have inherent creativity within us.

Technorati Tags: art, faith, faith in art

Tags: art, faith, faith in art

I haven’t had a “Faith in Art” post in quite awhile, and I think this piece makes up for the long hiatus.  This is The Crucifixion by Tintoretto (Jacopo Robusti), painted in about 1565.  The painting is in the Scuola di San Rocco in Venice.

What strikes me about this work is the artist’s depiction of day-to-day life in the midst of one of the most important events in human history.  Here’s what Art Archive has to say:

The scene is a vast one, and although Christ is on the Cross, life does not stop. To most of the people gathered there, what takes place is no more than a common execution. Many of them are attending to it as to a tedious duty. Others work away at some menial task more or less connected with the Crucifixion, as unconcerned as cobblers humming over their last [shoe]. Most of the people in the huge canvas are represented, as no doubt they were in life, without much personal feeling about Christ. His own friends are painted with all their grief and despair, but the others are allowed to feel as they please. The painter does not try to give them the proper emotions.

Among this multitude he allowed the light of heaven to shine upon the wicked as well as upon the good, and the air to refresh them all equally.

Here’s a great link to a more detailed description at Patum Paterium.

Technorati Tags: art, faith, the Crucifixion, Tintoretto

Tags: art, faith, the Crucifixion, Tintoretto

Besides St Valentine’s Day, today is the 211th anniversary of the Battle of Cape St. Vincent, in which the British navy under Admiral Sir John Jervis (later Earl St. Vincent) thrashed the pesky Spaniards.  From a page created by St Vincent College, Gosport, UK:

At the battle [Jervis] led a squadron of 15 sail against a numerically far superior Spanish fleet. He fell on them off the southern coast of Portugal as they were running for Cadiz and divided their line into two parts. From his flagship, HMS Victory he ordered his ships to tack in succession and prevent the gap from being closed. Nelson, last but two in the line, saw that this manouevre would not be completed in time and made a quick decision to turn his ship, HMS Captain into the gap. He took on seven Spanish ships, including the Santissima Trinidad, the largest ship in the world and two other ships, the San Nicolas and San Josef. Through a hail of pistol and musket fire he led boarding parties onto both and captured both.

By nightfall four ships had been taken and ten others crippled. Admiral Jervis was generous in his praise of Nelson who was knighted (KB). Commodore Nelson was to fly his flag as Rear Admiral Sir Horatio Nelson - the promotion had been approved before the battle but Nelson did not hear of it until after St. Vincent.

The painting is Thomas Luny’s Engagement Between Sir George Rodney and the Spanish Squadron.  (Actually, the full title is Engagement Between Sir George Brydges Rodney and the Spanish Squadron, Commanded by Don Juan de Langara, Near Cape St. Vincent, January 16, 1780), painted in 1782.

HMS Bienfaisant [pictured left foreground], captained by J. MacBride, having got up with the Spanish ship San Domingo, engaged her with such vigor that she blew up and every man perished.

Technorati Tags: Admiral Sir John Jervis, Battle of St Vincent, Nelson, San Nicolas, Thomas Luny

Tags: Admiral Sir John Jervis, Battle of St Vincent, Nelson, San Nicolas, Thomas Luny

This piece is Christ Carrying the Cross, by Tiziano Vecellio (Titian).  The artist painted this in his elder years (1570-1575), which were painful because of the loss of his friends, family and patron.  It is said that, “In his late works Titian’s signature style became increasingly loose, until, as described by one of his students, he painted “more with his fingers than with the brush.”

From the Web Gallery of Art:

The elderly Titian’s final years are marked by the anguish of personal tragedy. The year 1556 saw the death of his close friend of thirty years, Pietro Aretino. In 1558 Charles V died in the solitude of the monastery of St Yuste; sentiments of gratitude and respect had long bound Titian to his old patron. A year later his brother Francesco died — a trusted and unobtrusive collaborator on countless painting projects. The effect these losses had on Titian is clear in some of his letters to Philip II but his paintings remain the most eloquent testimony of his distress in these years.

Technorati Tags: Christ Carrying the Cross, faith, faith in art, Titian

Tags: Christ Carrying the Cross, faith, faith in art, Titian

This is a print called the Three Crosses by Rembrandt, currently held by the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam.  According to their website:

Rembrandt’s greatest and most dramatic print is the Three Crosses, a work which has all the power of a painting. It shows the deepest point of Christ’s suffering: the moment of his death on the cross at Golgotha. Massive beams of light slice through the darkness that the Gospels relate descended on the entire country. The light focuses on Christ, the two murderers who were crucified beside him and the crowd round about. Rembrandt made several versions of this print. This is an impression of the third state.

Technorati Tags: Rembrandt, Three Crosses

Tags: Rembrandt, Three Crosses

This painting (on the left) is by one of my favorite artists, the Italian baroque master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, better known simply as Caravaggio.  It’s entitled The Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew.  The painting displays the artist’s trademark realism and stark use of lighting.  It’s also unusual in that it recently came to light again after years of neglect.  The British Royal Family has long held the painting (for almost 400 years), though it has lain unseen in a storeroom at Hampton Court for decades. 

From the (UK) Telegraph:

Years of grime, varnishing and zealous over-painting to cover up damage convinced generations of art historians that it was of little merit. It was recently valued at “a few tens of thousands of pounds”, mainly because Charles I’s stamp was on the back.

The painting was bought by Charles I in 1637 and after being sold with most of the Royal Collection during the Commonwealth, it was re-acquired by Charles II.

Misattributed as a copy of a Caravaggio by an unknown hand, it was valued in thousands rather than millions.

The painting is taken from the scene in St Mark’s Gospel where Christ, with Peter and Andrew while they are fishing at the Sea of Galilee, says to them: “Follow me and I will make you become fishers of men.” Unusually, Christ is shown without a beard. The Royal Collection has dated it to between 1603 and 1606 when Caravaggio worked in Rome.

(The restored painting is on the left.)

Technorati Tags: Calling of St Peter and Andrew, Caravaggio, faith in art

Tags: Calling of St Peter and Andrew, Caravaggio, faith in art

This is another Tintoretto, called Christ Before Pilate. It was painted in 1567 at the Sala dell’Albergo in Venice, one of a series of the Passion of Christ the artist painted at that location.  From the Web Gallery of Art:

In a very fine and measured luministic web the figure of Christ, wrapped in a white mantle, stands out like a shining blade against the crowd and the architectural scenery. He is centred by a bright ray of light and stands tall in front of the hypocritically bureaucratic judge that is Pilate, who is portrayed in red robes and as if sunk in shadows. Certainly taking up the idea of Carpaccio in his St Ursula cycle, Tintoretto portraits the old secretary at the foot of Pilate’s throne. He leans against a stool covered with dark green cloth and with great diligent enthusiasm notes down every moment, every word spoken by the judge amid the murmurings of the pitiless crowd which obstinately clamours for the death of Christ.

Technorati Tags: faith in art, Pilate Before Christ, Tintoretto

Tags: faith in art, Pilate Before Christ, Tintoretto

Tintoretto (real name - Jacopo Robusti) was a Venetian who painted his Last Supper in 1594.  The artist was an admirer and a probably student of the master Titian.  This painting, like most of Tintoretto’s, shows an incredible use of muted colors.  It was also an unusual work in its almost casual blend of the ‘real world’ and the supernatural.

Technorati Tags: faith in art, Last supper, Tintoretto

Tags: faith in art, Last supper, Tintoretto

This is Ecce Homo (Behold the Man) by Antonio Ciseri, and it’s another of my favorites.  Ciseri was born in Ronco Sopra Ascona in Switzerland and trained in Florence under Niccola Benvenuti. His religious paintings are reminiscent of Raphael in style and composition.  He painted many works under commissions from churches in Italy and Switzerland.  Ciseri admired and learned much from his Italian Renaissance predecessors.

The subject is Pilate’s presentation of Christ to the crowd as described in John 19:1-5:

“Pilate then took Jesus and scourged Him. And the soldiers twisted together a crown of thorns and put it on His head, and put a purple robe on Him; and they began to come up to Him and say, “Hail, King of the Jews!” and to give Him slaps in the face.

Pilate came out again and said to them, “Behold, I am bringing Him out to you so that you may know that I find no guilt in Him.”

Jesus then came out, wearing the crown of thorns and the purple robe. Pilate said to them, “Behold, the Man!”

Technorati Tags: Antonio Ciseri, Ecce Homo, faith in art, Pilate

Tags: Antonio Ciseri, Ecce Homo, faith in art, Pilate

This week’s image is another Caravaggio. The painting is Supper at Emmaus (See Luke 24:13-35) from 1598. Caravaggio was an against-the-grain type of painter in that he refused to paint his subjects (particularly his religious subjects) using traditional conventions. Here, Christ is shown as a robust, un-haloed, well-fed, beardless young man. Unlike the artist’s Incredulity of St Thomas, in this painting he does not show the resurrected Christ with the marks of crucifixion.

(HT: Malaspina - Lecture on Baroque Art, Russell McNeil, PhD)

Technorati Tags: Caravaggio, faith in art, Supper at Emmaus

Tags: Caravaggio, faith in art, Supper at Emmaus