Mythology

01 Work, Interpretation of the bible, Florentine School's the Virgin's Annunciate, with Footnotes - #197

Florentine School, late 16th Century

The Virgin Annunciate

Oil and gold ground on panel

86.6 x 67.2cm (34 1/8 x 26 7/16in).

Private collection

Sold for £9,562.50 in 2022

The composition of the present panel is based on the figure of the Virgin from the famous Annunciation of the mid 13th century in the church of Santissima Annunziata, Florence. Painted by a follower of Giotto, it is said that it was completed by a monk called Bartolomeo with the help of an angel. The composition of the Annunciation served as a model for numerous Florentine artists of the 16th and 17th centuries. More on this painting

The Annunciation, also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord, is the Christian celebration of the biblical history of the announcement by the archangel Gabriel to Mary that she would conceive and bear a son through a virgin birth and become the mother of Jesus Christ, the Christian Messiah and Son of God, marking the Incarnation. Gabriel told Mary to name her son Immanuel, meaning "God is with us again". More on Madonna Annunciate

Florentine School was a major Italian school of art that flourished between the 13th and 16th centuries, extending from the Early Renaissance to the crisis of Renaissance culture.

The founder of the Florentine school was Giotto, whose work placed Florence in the foreground of pre-Renaissance art. The work of his successors, who included Taddeo Gaddi and Maso di Banco, developed along the lines he had originated. However, toward the middle of the 14th century conciseness and clarity of form (as seen in the work of A. di Bonaiuti) disappeared, and a tendency toward linear and flat form became prevalent (Nardo di Cione and, occasionally, Orcagna). In the last 30 years of the 14th century a trend toward the international Gothic style prevailed (Agnolo Gaddi and Lorenzo Monaco). More on Florentine School

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01 Work, RELIGIOUS ART, Interpretation of the bible, Adriaen van der Werff's Entombment, With Footnotes - #138

Adriaen van der Werff

The entombment of Christ, c. 1600-1700

Oil on canvas

Width: 54,5, Height: 81,5

Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen

After Christ’s crucifixion, Matthew writes: ‘As evening approached, there came a rich man from Arimathea, named Joseph, who had himself become a disciple of Jesus. Going to Pilate, he asked for Jesus’ body. Pilate ordered that it be given to him. Joseph took the body, wrapped it in a clean linen cloth, and placed it in his own new tomb that he had cut out of the rock. He rolled a big stone in front of the entrance to the tomb and went away.’ (Matthew 27:57-60)

Van ded Werff depicted the dead Christ as an ideal nude. He is laying in the arms of Joseph of Arimathea and surrounded by a number of women including Mary Magdalene, the woman holding Jesus’ arm. Left in the background is the entrance to the tomb. Two figures are approaching on the right. More on this painting

Adriaen van der Werff (21 January 1659 – 12 November 1722) was an accomplished Dutch painter of portraits and erotic, devotional and mythological scenes. His brother, Pieter van der Werff (1661–1722), was his principal pupil and assistant.

At the age of ten he started to take lessons, two years later moving in with Eglon van der Neer, specializing in clothes and draperie. At the age of seventeen he founded his own studio in Rotterdam where he later became the head of guild of Saint Luc. In 1696, he was paid a visit by Johann Wilhelm, Elector Palatine and his wife, Anna Maria Luisa de' Medici. The couple ordered two paintings to be sent to Cosimo III of Tuscany, Anna Maria Luisa's father, in Florence. During the next years Van der Werff traveled regularly between Düsseldorf and his home town. In 1703, he became the official court painter and a knight, when his former teacher and predecessor Van der Neer died. Van der Werff, with a perfect technique, was paid extremely well by the Elector for his biblical or classical (erotic) paintings. In 1705, he painted a portrait of Gian Gastone de' Medici, Grand Duke of Tuscany. In 1716, he lost his job when the Elector died because the treasury was empty.

Van der Werff became one of the most lauded Dutch painters of his day, gaining a European reputation and an enormous fortune. Arnold Houbraken, writing in 1718, considered him the greatest of the Dutch painters and this was the prevailing critical opinion throughout the 18th century: however, his reputation suffered in the 19th century, when he was alleged to have betrayed the Dutch naturalistic tradition. In the Victorian Age people could not appreciate his art, so most of his work went into the cellars of the Alte Pinakothek.

Van der Werff also practised as an architect in Rotterdam, where he designed a few houses. More on Adriaen van der Werff

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01 Work , RELIGIOUS ART, Rembrandt's The Great Deposition from the Cross - with footnotes #197

Rembrandt van Rijn

The Great Deposition from the Cross

Oil on canvas. Relined

158 cm (62.2 in); width: 117 cm (46 in)

The New Hermitage

The Descent from the Cross, or Deposition of Christ, is the scene, as depicted in art, from the Gospels' accounts of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus taking Christ down from the cross after his crucifixion. In Byzantine art the topic became popular in the 9th century, and in the West from the 10th century. The Descent from the Cross is the 13th Station of the Cross.

Other figures not mentioned in the Gospels who are often included in depictions of this subject include St. John the Evangelist, who is sometimes depicted supporting a fainting Mary, and Mary Magdalene. The Gospels mention an undefined number of women as watching the crucifixion, including the Three Marys and Mary Salome. More on Deposition of Christ

In the center of the painting, surrounded by divine rays, there is the large and superior cross, on which Christ met his death. On its crossbars there are still remains of blood as a sign of Christ's torture. The cross is surrounded by six helpers, who bring down Christ's body from the cross with the help of a large white cloth. All of them concentrate on Christ in the center of the scene. Due to his white skin and surrounded by the white cloth he is directly the center of attention of the painting. The corpulent Jewish councilman, Joseph of Arimathia, who wears an oriental robe consisting of a cloak and a large turban, stands to the right and observes the scene. On the right there are two more male observers and next to a repoussoir figure there are Saint Mary Magdalene and Mary, who wears a blue cloak and whose face is hidden. Besides the light center the soft blue of Mary's coat is the only other illuminated spot in the painting. In the foreground a heavy, patterned cloth is kept available in order to wrap Christ into it. In the background on the left there is the destroyed temple of Jerusalem. On the right there is a bone as a hint to the site of Calvary where the cross had been erected on the grave of Adam. However, the entire background is darkened and the motifs are barely recognizable.

Rembrandt emphasises the human and suffering features of Christ Crucified in his version of the subject. An inverted etching of the painting by Rembrandt with minor variations can be dated 1633. The painter of this picture presumably knew that print, possibly he also knew the Deposition from the Cross by Rembrandt himself, and chose it as a model. He was familiar with Rembrandt's Chiaroscuro painting and its dramatic effects as well as with his preference for oriental costumes. More on this painting

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669) was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art and the most important in Dutch history. His contributions to art came in a period of great wealth and cultural achievement that historians call the Dutch Golden Age when Dutch Golden Age painting, although in many ways antithetical to the Baroque style that dominated Europe, was extremely prolific and innovative, and gave rise to important new genres in painting.

Having achieved youthful success as a portrait painter, Rembrandt's later years were marked by personal tragedy and financial hardships. Yet his etchings and paintings were popular throughout his lifetime, his reputation as an artist remained high, and for twenty years he taught many important Dutch painters. Rembrandt's greatest creative triumphs are exemplified most notably in his portraits of his contemporaries, self-portraits and illustrations of scenes from the Bible. His self-portraits form a unique and intimate biography, in which the artist surveyed himself without vanity and with the utmost sincerity.

In his paintings and prints he exhibited knowledge of classical iconography, which he molded to fit the requirements of his own experience; thus, the depiction of a biblical scene was informed by Rembrandt's knowledge of the specific text, his assimilation of classical composition, and his observations of Amsterdam's Jewish population. Because of his empathy for the human condition, he has been called "one of the great prophets of civilization." More on Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn

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08 Works, Contemporary Interpretations of The Bible, William Oxer's The Grieving Magdalene, with footnotes #46

After William Oxer
The Grieving Magdalene 1

AI Generated

nightcafe

Mary Magdalene was a woman who, according to the four canonical gospels, traveled with Jesus as one of his followers and was a witness to his crucifixion and resurrection. She is mentioned by name twelve times in the canonical gospels, more than most of the apostles and more than any other woman in the gospels, other than Jesus's family.

After William Oxer
The Grieving Magdalene 2

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deviantart

After William Oxer
The Grieving Magdalene 3

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After William Oxer
The Grieving Magdalene 4

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The sacrament of Penance had important significance in Counter-Reformation spirituality, and artists frequently portrayed penitent saints as exemplars of religious fervor. Such works were meant to inspire a greater devotion. The popularity of The Magdalene as a subject is also associated with her implied sexuality. Her passive gaze and partially naked body appealed to male viewers, for whom such paintings offered a moralizing context through which to engage with the sensuality of the female form.

After William Oxer
The Grieving Magdalene 5

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deviantart

The Magdalene’s partly exposed breasts and long, flowing hair, would have held erotic connotations for the sixteenth-century viewer. Biographer Giorgio Vasari denied such sexual undertones, and declared that the pictures “profoundly stirs the emotions of all who look at them; and, moreover, although the of figure Mary Magdalene is extremely lovely it moves one to thoughts of pity rather than desire.”

After William Oxer
The Grieving Magdalene 6

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Mary Magdalene's mourning for Christ is a poignant and deeply emotional moment in the Christian narrative. After the crucifixion, she is depicted as one of the most devoted followers of Jesus, filled with grief and despair at his passing. Her sorrow is profound, reflecting not just the loss of Jesus as a leader and teacher but also as a beloved figure in her life.

After William Oxer
The Grieving Magdalene 7

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Her story invites reflection on the nature of grief and the possibility of finding solace and joy even in the depths of sorrow. It speaks to the human experience of loss and the strength of love that endures beyond death.

In her anguish, Mary embodies the themes of loss, love, and hope.

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"William Oxer is not merely a painter; he is a distinctive sensibility, with a poetic vision he explores in many media. His art is affirmative, evocative and forgiving..." Professor Sir Roger Scruton

"William Oxer's paintings represent a strikingly fresh current in contemporary art. His work is experimental, and he is also willing to take on larger themes as well as demonstrating a delight in detail and minutiae. Very few contemporary artists paint so consistently well." Dr David Morley, University of Warwick

In 2017 William was invited by the Royal Society of Arts to become one of their Fellows, which he is honoured to become. More on William Oxer

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01 Work, RELIGIOUS ART - After Gérard Seghers' Christ at the column, With Footnotes - #137

After Gérard Seghers

Christ at the column

Oil on panel

64,5 x 50 cm ; 25 ⅜ by 19 ¾ in.

Private collection

Sold for 7,560 EUR in November 2022

The painting shows the flagellation of Christ following his arrest and trial and before his crucifixion. The scene was traditionally depicted in front of a column, possibly alluding to the judgement hall of Pilate.

This painting may be compared with Preparations for the Flagellation of Christ by Gerard Seghers. Produced for the church of Saint-Michel de Gand, the composition was disseminated in an engraving by Lucas Vorsterman (ill. 1; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam, inv. RP-P-OB-33.014). The author of this painting was clearly inspired by the print: he has shown the same two torturers in the background, but above all he has reflected the composition’s theatricality, created through the play of shadow and light and given further emphasis by the tight framing. Christ’s pale, luminous flesh tones contrast with the brown background as well as with the ruddier complexions of the torturers, giving the divine figure a monumental quality.

However, this is not an exact copy: the movement of Christ’s torso recalls the Flagellation of Christ by Caravaggio, now in the Musée des Beaux-Arts in Rouen (inv. 955.8.1). This exaggerated torsion also adds to the power of the composition, reinforcing its dramatic character. More on this painting

Gerard Seghers (bapt. Antwerp, 17 Mar. 1591; d Antwerp, 18 Mar. 1651) was a Flemish painter of religious subjects, active mainly in Antwerp, where he is said to have been taught by Janssen. He probably spent most of the second decade of the 17th century in Italy (he evidently also visited Spain during this time) and he became one of the very few noteworthy Flemish Caravaggesque artists. By the late 1620s, however, he had fallen under the all-pervasive influence of Rubens (Assumption of the Virgin, 1629, Mus. de Peinture et de Sculpture, Grenoble). Seghers enjoyed a successful career supplying altarpieces for churches in Antwerp and other Flemish cities, and he was also an international art dealer. More on Gerard Seghers

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01 Work, RELIGIOUS ART - Ermanno Stroiffi's Elijah and the widow of Zarephath, With Footnotes - #136

Ermanno Stroiffi (Padoue 1616-1693 Venise)

Elie ressuscite le fils de la veuve de Sarepta/ Elijah and the widow of Zarephath

Oil on canvas

100 x 147cm (39 3/8 x 57 7/8in)

Private collection

Estimated for €8,000 - €12,000 in November 2022

The Bible states that Elijah is a Tishbite from Gilead, who visited King Ahab to give him a message from God that there would be no rain in the land until he declared it. In order to avoid the wrath of the king, God told Elijah to hide by the Brook Cherith where he was fed bread and meat by ravens sent from God.

After a while, due to the drought, the brook dried up so God told Elijah to go to the town of Sarepta and to seek out a widow that would find him water and food. Elijah learns that the widow has a son and between them they only have enough flour and oil for one more meal before they die. Despite this, the widow helps Elijah. Because she did this God caused the flour and the oil never to run out.

After this the son of the woman became ill. And his illness was so severe that there was no breath left in him. And she said to Elijah, "What have you against me, O man of God? You have come to me to bring my sin and remembrance and to cause the death of my son!"

Elijah does not try and rationalise with the grieving woman and takes the son up to his bedroom where he prays to God asking for his help.

Elijah stretched himself upon the child three times, and cried unto the Lord, and said, "O Lord my God, I pray thee, let this child's soul come into him again". And the Lord heard the voice of Elijah; and the soul of the child came into him again, and he revived.

He then takes the child downstairs again and presents him, living, to his mother. This causes her to declare "Now by this I know that thou art a man of God", Elijah therefore "regains his honor and his status." More on Elijah and the widow of Zarephath

Ermanno Stroiffi (Padua, 20 October 1616 – Venice, 4 July 1693) was an Italian Baroque painter and priest. A pupil of prominent Venetian painter Bernardo Strozzi, he created altarpieces, portraits and genre scenes. Stroiffi became a priest in 1647 and in that role he helped to introduce the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri in Padua and Venice

Not much is known about the artist's training. It is known he became an assistant in the workshop of Bernardo Strozzi. Strozzi was the leading painter in Venice in the first half of the 17th century and also a Capuchin monk. Stroiffi was Strozzi's favorite assistant and worked on many of the large commissions which Strozzi received. Stroiffi was also a beneficiary of Strozzi's will.

Between 1645 and 1654 when he was still at the start of his career, Stroiffi travelled to various cities in central northern Italy. One of the cities was Mantua, the historic power base of the Gonzaga family, which was an important patron of the arts. He received commissions from the Ducal court.

Stroiffi became a priest in 1647. He played an important role in the establishment of the Congregation of the Oratory in Padua and Venice. More on Ermanno Stroiffi

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01 Work, Olympian deities, Tiziano Vecellio, called Titian's Venus and Adonis, With Footnotes - #136

Tiziano Vecellio, called Titian, and workshop, Pieve di Cadore circa 1485/90–1576 Venice

Venus and Adonis

Oil on canvas

177.2 x 199.2 cm.; 69 3/4 x 78 3/8 in.

Private collection

Sold for 11,164,000 GBP in December 2022

Venus, as if filled with foreboding about Adonis’s fate, desperately clings to her lover, while he pulls himself free of her embrace, impatient for the hunt and with his hounds straining at the leash. The goddess’s gesture is echoed by that of Cupid, who anxiously watches the lovers’ leave-taking while clutching a dove—a creature sacred to Venus.

Titian’s scene was inspired by the account in Ovid’s Metamorphoses of the goddess Venus’s love for the beautiful young huntsman Adonis, who was tragically killed by a wild boar. Though Ovid did not describe the last parting of the lovers, Titian’s imagining of it introduced a powerful element of dramatic tension into the story.

Venus and Adonis was one of the most successful designs of Titian’s later career. At least 30 versions are known to have been executed by the painter and his workshop, as well as independently by assistants and copyists within the painter’s lifetime and immediately afterward, and the evolution of the composition over the years was highly complex. For stylistic reasons, the Gallery’s version is believed to date from the 1560s. However, technical examination of the underlying paint layers has revealed changes to the composition that suggest the painting may have been begun as early as the 1540s. More on this painting

Tiziano Vecelli or Tiziano Vecellio, or Titian (1488/1490 – 27 August 1576), was an Italian painter, the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno (in Veneto, Republic of Venice). During his lifetime he was often called da Cadore, taken from the place of his birth.

Recognized by his contemporaries as "The Sun Amidst Small Stars", Titian was one of the most versatile of Italian painters, equally adept with portraits, landscape backgrounds, and mythological and religious subjects. His painting methods, particularly in the application and use of color, would exercise a profound influence not only on painters of the Italian Renaissance, but on future generations of Western art.

During the course of his long life, Titian's artistic manner changed drastically but he retained a lifelong interest in color. Although his mature works may not contain the vivid, luminous tints of his early pieces, their loose brushwork and subtlety of tone are without precedent in the history of Western painting. More on Tiziano Vecelli

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01 Work, Interpretation of the bible, JULES JOSEPH LEFEBVRE'S THE RED CLOAK, with Footnotes - #224

JULES JOSEPH LEFEBVRE, French, 1836 - 1912

THE RED CLOAK

Oil on canvas

22½ by 18⅜ in., 57.2 by 46.7 cm

Private collection

Sold for 13,750 USD in October 2019

Jules Joseph Lefebvre (F14 March 1836 – 24 February 1911) was a French figure painter, educator and theorist.

Lefebvre entered the École nationale supérieure des Beaux-Arts in 1852 and was a pupil of Léon Cogniet.

He won the prestigious Prix de Rome in 1861. Between 1855 and 1898, he exhibited 72 portraits in the Paris Salon. Many of his paintings are single figures of beautiful women. Among his best portraits were those of M. L. Reynaud and the Prince Imperial (1874). In 1891, he became a member of the French Académie des Beaux-Arts.

He was a professor at the Académie Julian in Paris. Lefebvre is chiefly important as an excellent and sympathetic teacher who numbered many Americans among his 1500 or more pupils.

Lefebvre died in Paris on 24 February 1911 and was buried in the Montmartre Cemetery with a bas-relief depiction of his painting La Vérité on his grave. More on Jules Joseph Lefebvre

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01 Painting, Contemporary Interpretations of Olympian deities, Esther Sarto's Leda & the Swan, with footnotes #32

Esther Sarto

Leda & the Swan, c. 2023

Watercolour, gouache & acrylic medium on watercolour paper.

43 x 53 cm.

Private collection

Leda and the Swan is a story and subject in art from Greek mythology in which the god Zeus, in the form of a swan, seduces and has sex with Leda. According to later Greek mythology, Leda bore Helen and Polydeuces, children of Zeus, while at the same time bearing Castor and Clytemnestra, children of her husband Tyndareus, the King of Sparta. According to many versions of the story, Zeus took the form of a swan and had sexual intercourse with Leda on the same night she slept with her husband King Tyndareus. In some versions, she laid two eggs from which the children hatched. In other versions, Helen is a daughter of Nemesis, the goddess who personified the disaster that awaited those suffering from the pride of Hubris.

Especially in art, the degree of consent by Leda to the relationship seems to vary considerably; there are numerous depictions, for example by Leonardo da Vinci, that show Leda affectionately embracing the swan, as their children play. More on Leda and the Swan

Esther Sarto is an emerging contemporary artist, who was born in Denmark, in 1992.

Esther Sarto is best known for producing figurative work. Often seen as the contrary of abstraction, figurative art also subsists beyond just a simple representation of reality.

Sarto’s paintings depict a specific world beautified, one where all animals are equal, life feeds into itself and death is just the feeding of another creature of equal import. Sarto uses a soft palette for the harsh nature of her subject matter — the predator and prey are rendered as parallel versions, the meat and egg the same as the mother and child. More on Ester Sarto

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01 Work, Interpretation of the bible, Italian School's Abraham Casting Out Hagar and Ishmael, with Footnotes - #220

Italian School (18th Century)

Abraham Casting Out Hagar and Ishmael

Oil on canvas

55-1/2 x 47-1/2 inches (141.0 x 120.7 cm)

Private collection

Sold for $1,000 USD in May 2022

Hagar is a biblical person in the Book of Genesis Chapter 16. She was an Egyptian handmaid of Sarah, who gave her to Abraham “to wife” to bear a child. The product of the union was Abraham’s firstborn, Ishmael, the progenitor of the Ishmaelites.

After Sarah gave birth to Isaac, and the tension between the women returned. At a celebration after Isaac was weaned, Sarah found the teenage Ishmael mocking her son, and demanded that Abraham send Hagar and her son away. She declared that Ishmael would not share in Isaac’s inheritance. Abraham was greatly distressed but God told Abraham to do as his wife commanded because God’s promise would be carried out through both Isaac and Ishmael.

The name Hagar originates from the Book of Genesis, and is only alluded to in the Qur’an. She is considered Abraham’s second wife in the Islamic faith and acknowledged in all Abrahamic faiths. In mainstream Christianity, she is considered a concubine to Abraham. More on Hagar

Painting in 17th-century Italy was an international endeavor. Large numbers of artists traveled to Rome, especially, to work and study. They sought not only the many commissions being extended by the Church but also the chance to learn from past masters. Most of the century was dominated by the baroque style, whose expressive power was well suited to the needs of the Counter-Reformation Church for affecting images.

The drama and movement that characterized the baroque—in sculpture and architecture as well as painting—can be first seen, perhaps, in the work of Caravaggio, who died in 1610. His strong contrasts of light and dark and unblinking realism were taken up by many artists, including the Italian Orazio Gentileschi, the Spaniard Jusepe de Ribera, and the Frenchmen Valentin de Boulogne and Simon Vouet, all of whom worked in Italy. Other artists carried Caravaggio’s so-called tenebrist style to northern Europe.

The more classical approach of the Carracci and their students Guercino and Domenichino was also an important force in 17th-century painting. It provided a foundation for the rational clarity that structured the work of French artists Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain, both of whom worked in Rome for most of their lives. More on the ITALIAN SCHOOL, (17th century)

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