01 Contemporary Interpretations, Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion, with footnotes #10

Javiera Estrada, United States

Goddess of Beauty

Collage

Size: 60 H x 36 W x 2.5 in

Private collection

Aphrodite is the Greek goddess of love, beauty, pleasure, and procreation. She is identified with the planet Venus; her Roman equivalent is the goddess Venus. Myrtle, roses, doves, sparrows and swans were sacred to her.

Aphrodite was created from the sea foam produced by Uranus's genitals, which had been severed by Cronus. In Homer's Iliad, however, she is the daughter of Zeus and Dione. In Greek mythology, the other gods feared that Aphrodite's beauty might lead to conflict and war, through rivalry for her favours; so Zeus married her off to Hephaestus. Despite this, Aphrodite followed her own inclinations, and had many lovers — both gods, such as Ares, and men, such as Anchises. She played a role in the Eros and Psyche legend, and was both lover and surrogate mother of Adonis. More on Aphrodite 

Javiera Estrada was born in Mexico in 1981 and moved to the United States in 1989. Her childhood was heavily influenced by her training in classical piano and violin, which continues to inspire her aesthetic today. She attended Santa Monica College. Estrada’s broad scope of work is a reflection of memories that she has shaped into her reality. A multifarious artist, Estrada’s creative expression encompasses traditional photography alongside mixed media. Her mixed media works are a comment on the natural cycle of decomposition and reflected through the deconstruction of the image. Estrada has exhibited in galleries in the United States, Europe, and Asia. Her work is part of private and corporate collections internationally. In 2014 she won Art Slant’s Juried Competition, was a 2015 finalist for the Emerging Focus Competition and is the 2017 winner of the ND Awards Fine Art Category. Estrada made her first short film in 2017 entitled, The Dream, which was selected in Best of Shorts at the Carmel International Film Festival. Estrada currently lives and works in Los Angeles. More on Javiera Estrada

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01 Works, RELIGIOUS ART - Interpretation the bible, With Footnotes - 109

Adriaen Isenbrant (1490 - 1551)

The Stigmatisation of Saint Francis 

Oil on oak panel

43 x 30 cm.; 16 7/8  x 11 7/8  in.

Private collection

The Stigmatisation of Saint Francis. Two years before the great Saint Francis of Assisi died, and when he was forty-two years old — one year after he had built the first crib in honor of Our Lord — he went off to a lonely mountain called Mount Alvernia, to prepare himself by forty days of fasting and prayer for the feast of Saint Michael, the greatest of God’s angels. On the feast of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Saint Francis received in his hands, feet and side the Sacred Wounds from Our Lord’s own body. Never was a saint more beautifully loved by Jesus than Saint Francis of Assisi. The wounds Jesus gave him stayed in his hands, feet and side, and continually bled for two more years, until he died in 1226. More on The Stigmatisation of Saint Francis 

Adriaen Isenbrandt (or Adrien, Isenbrant, Ysenbrant, Ysenbrandt or Hysebrant; between 1480 and 1490 – July 1551) was a Flemish Northern Renaissance painter, who from documentary evidence was clearly a significant artist of his period, but to whom no specific works can be clearly documented. As hypothesised by art historians, he ran a large workshop specializing in religious subjects and devotional paintings, painting conservatively in the tradition of Early Netherlandish painting. He was believed by Georges Hulin de Loo to be the same person as the anonymous Master of the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin or Pseudo-Mostaert. Other art historians doubt that any works can be reliably attributed to him, and the number of paintings attributed to him by major museums has been in decline for many decades. More on Adriaen Isenbrandt

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01 Paintings, RELIGIOUS ART - Interpretations of the Bible! by The Old Masters, With Footnotes # 47D

Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi) (1571–1610 Porto Ercole)

The Martyrdom of Saint Ursula, c. 1610

Oil on canvas

Height: 154 cm (60.6 in). Width: 178 cm (70.1 in).

Palazzo Zevallos, Naples

Saint Ursula (Latin for "little female bear") is a Romano-British Christian saint. Because of the lack of definite information about her and the anonymous group of holy virgins who accompanied her and on some uncertain date were killed at Cologne, they were removed from the Roman Martyrology and their commemoration was omitted from the General Roman Calendar when it was revised in 1969.

Her legend, probably not historical, is that she was a princess who, at the request of her father King Dionotus of Dumnonia in south-west Britain, set sail to join her future husband, the pagan governor Conan Meriadoc of Armorica, along with 11,000 virginal handmaidens. After a miraculous storm brought them over the sea in a single day to a Gaulish port, Ursula declared that before her marriage she would undertake a pan-European pilgrimage. She headed for Rome with her followers and persuaded the Pope, Cyriacus, and Sulpicius, bishop of Ravenna, to join them. More Saint Ursula

According to legend, Saint Ursula traveled with her eleven thousand virgins to Cologne, where the chief of the Huns besieging the city fell in love with her. When she rejected his advances, he killed her with an arrow. In this depiction, Caravaggio places the two figures improbably close to each other, maximizing the contrast between their expressions: Ursula’s perplexed gaze at the agent of her martyrdom; the tyrant’s conflicted reactions of rage and guilt. Caravaggio includes himself as a spectator, straining for a glimpse, while another figure thrusts his hand forward in an abortive effort to prevent the saint’s execution. The exaggerated contrasts between dark and light seem not merely a dramatic device but a symbolic allusion to sin and redemption, death and life. More on this painting

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (29 September 1571 in Caravaggio – 18 July 1610) was an Italian painter active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between 1592 and 1610. His paintings, which combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, had a formative influence on Baroque painting.

Caravaggio trained as a painter in Milan under Simone Peterzano who had himself trained under Titian. In his twenties Caravaggio moved to Rome where there was a demand for paintings to fill the many huge new churches and palazzos being built at the time. It was also a period when the Church was searching for a stylistic alternative to Mannerism in religious. Caravaggio's innovation was a radical naturalism that combined close physical observation with a dramatic use of chiaroscuro which came to be known as tenebrism (the shift from light to dark with little intermediate value).

He gained attention in the art scene of Rome in 1600 with the success of his first public commissions, the Martyrdom of Saint Matthew and Calling of Saint Matthew. Thereafter he never lacked commissions or patrons, yet he handled his success poorly. He was jailed on several occasions, vandalized his own apartment, and ultimately had a death sentence pronounced against him by the Pope after killing a young man, possibly unintentionally, on May 29, 1606. He fled from Rome with a price on his head. He was involved in a brawl in Malta in 1608, and another in Naples in 1609. This encounter left him severely injured. A year later, at the age of 38, he died under mysterious circumstances in Porto Ercole in Tuscany, reportedly from a fever while on his way to Rome to receive a pardon.

Famous while he lived, Caravaggio was forgotten almost immediately after his death, and it was only in the 20th century that his importance to the development of Western art was rediscovered. More Caravaggio

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01 Works, RELIGIOUS ART - CONTEMPORARY & 20th Century Interpretation of the Bible! With Footnotes - 27

Ramon Martinez

Female Christ

Photography

Private collection

Female Christ is first and foremost, an artistic and experimental project. As we do not necessarily want to recreate the reality due to historical purposes, after all this is simply a message which must prevail. When you see the suffering and the agony of a woman on the cross, you also see her weakness, sensitivity, fragility, sensuality, courage and even her beauty! This is a one of a kind message despite our difference. More on Female Christ

Ramon Martinez. 'I work with experimental art in video, photography, 3D art, 3D animations, etc. about the subject the crucified female Christ. I've started my art project since early 2005 and I've named my art project 'Passion Of A Goddess'. I want to explain the reason for my art project: 'Many artists during the past 2000 years have been interested in the picture of a crucified Jesus. One of the reasons is probably that this subject offers a lot of symbolic value as well as possibilities to manifest different expressions. Although the question raised is why these artefacts are always male? In a few cases, Jesus portraiture as a female raise negative consequences from the conservative parts of the church. The idea that God can only be a man is an idea created in a society with male dominance. I would like to develop the idea that giving God a sex is not honest. These believers of the idea that God can only be represented as a man disregard the female half of the world's population. And also its in my belief that a woman has greater ability to give love than a man. Christ represents the great love.' My art project tries also, to fight religious intransigence that tries to coerce the freedom of expression and individual freedoms recognized in The Universal Declaration of Human Rights.' More on Ramon Martinez

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01 Works, RELIGIOUS ART - Interpretation of the bible, With Footnotes - 154

Ángel Zárraga (Mexican Painter 1886 - 1946) 

Votive Offering [Saint Sebastian], c. 1912 

Oil on canvas, 

Height: 1,850 mm (72.83 in). Width: 1,345 mm (52.95 in). 

Museo Nacional de Arte, Mexico City, Mexico

A votive offering is one or more objects displayed or deposited, without the intention of recovery or use, in a sacred place for broadly religious purposes. Such items are a feature of modern and ancient societies and are generally made in order to gain favor with supernatural forces. Some offerings have apparently been made in anticipation of the achievement of a particular wish, but in Western cultures from which documentary evidence survives it has been more typical to wait until the wish has been fulfilled before making the offering,] for which the more specific term ex-voto may be used. Votive offerings have been described in historical Roman era and Greek sources, although similar acts continue into the present day, for example in traditional Catholic culture and, arguably, in the modern-day practice of tossing coins into a wishing well or fountain. The modern construction practice called topping out can be considered as an example of a votive practice that has very ancient roots. More on A votive offering

Saint Sebastian (died c. 288 AD) was an early Christian saint and martyr. Sebastian had prudently concealed his faith, but in 286 was detected. Diocletian reproached him for his betrayal, and he commanded him to be led to a field and there to be bound to a stake so that archers from Mauritania would shoot arrows at him. "And the archers shot at him till he was as full of arrows as an urchin is full of pricks, and thus left him there for dead." Miraculously, the arrows did not kill him.

Sebastian later stood by a staircase where the emperor was to pass and harangued Diocletian for his cruelties against Christians. This freedom of speech, and from a person whom he supposed to have been dead, greatly astonished the emperor; but, recovering from his surprise, he gave orders for his being seized and beat to death with cudgels, and his body thrown into the common sewer. A pious lady, called Lucina, admonished by the martyr in a vision, got it privately removed, and buried it in the catacombs at the entrance of the cemetery of Calixtus, where now stands the Basilica of St. Sebastian. More St. Sebastian

Ángel Zárraga (y) Argüelles (b. Victoria de Durango, August 16, 1886 – d. September 22, 1946) was a Mexican painter, born as son of the physician Dr. Fernando Zárraga and his wife Guadalupe Argüelles in the Barrio de Analco of Durango. While he visited the Escuela Nacional Preparatoria in Mexico City, he made first contacts with the artistic and intellectual scene, and studied at the Escuela Nacional de Bellas Artes (ENBA). His family enabled him a study trip to Europe in 1904, where he visited and exhibited in Spain, France and Italy. He also visited courses at the Royal Academies for Science and the Arts of Belgium.

In 1906 he exhibited some of his pictures in the Museo del Prado, and in 1907 in an exhibition of the ENBA. He participated in the 1909 Biennale di Venezia and exhibited in the Salon at the Piazzale Donatello, Florence. In 1911 he moved to France for good, and he only returned once at the outbreak of World War I for a short time.

After 1921 his work was influenced by Cézanne and Giotto. He also painted murals at the Château de Vert-Cœur and in the Cité Internationale Universitaire de Paris, and decorated the Mexican embassy in Paris, where he also exhibited at the Salon d'Automne, as well as in New York. Concerned over the collapse of the international art market he lost his sponsors and became depressive. During World War II he returned to his home country in 1941, where he painted murals at the Club de Banqueros and at the of the Catedral de Monterrey. He died after suffering from a pneumonia.  A museum of contemporary art was named after him. More on Ángel Zárraga

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03 Works, RELIGIOUS ART - Today, January 7, is Saint Lucian of Antioch's Day, With Footnotes - 166

St. Lucian, Martyr

Saint Lucian of Antioch (c. 240 – January 7, 312), known as Lucian the Martyr, was a Christian presbyter, theologian and martyr. He was noted for both his scholarship and ascetic piety. A Christian theologian-martyr who originated a theological tradition at Antioch that was noted for biblical linguistic scholarship and for a rationalist approach to Christian doctrine.

In his principal work, Lucian analyzed the Greek text of both the Old and New Testaments, creating a tradition of manuscripts known as the Lucianic Byzantine, or Syrian, text. By comparative study of the Greek and Hebrew grammatical styles in their Semitic background, Lucian proposed to limit the symbolical interpretation characteristics, whether expressed directly or metaphorically.

Such analytical methods influenced Antiochene theological formulations by Lucian’s students and colleagues relative to doctrines on Christ and the divine Trinity. More on Saint Lucian

Martyr Lucian the Presbyter of Antioch

Although he was only a priest, sometimes Saint Lucian is depicted in the vestments of a bishop. The Stroganov Guide for Iconographers was published in Russia in 1869, based on a 1606 manuscript. There Saint Lucian is depicted wearing a phelonion and holding a Gospel.

According to Suidas, Lucian was born at Samosata, Kommagene, Syria, to Christian parents, and was educated in the neighbouring city of Edessa.

At Antioch, Lucian was ordained presbyter, leader of the local Christian congregation. Lucian's vita (composed after 327) reports that he founded a school. Scholars see him as the first head of the School of Antioch.

He fell under suspicion for heresy, and was excommunicated. Lucian was later reconciled with the Church either early in the episcopate of Cyril, or under Cyril's successor Tyrannus.

During the persecution of Maximinus Daia, Lucian was arrested at Antioch and sent to Nicomedia, where he endured many tortures over nine years of imprisonment. He was twice brought up for examination, and both times defended himself ably and refused to renounce his Christian faith.

His death is uncertain. He might have been starved to death. Another, more likely, possibility is that he was beheaded. The traditional date ascribed to his execution is January 7, 312, in Nicomedia. 

There is a late tradition of uncertain origin that he had been drowned in the sea and that his body was returned to land by a dolphin.  More on Saint Lucian

Minology of Vasily II, Constantinople, c. 985

Martyr Lucian

 Vatican Library

The Menologion of Basil II is an illuminated manuscript designed as a church calendar or Eastern Orthodox Church service book (menologion) that was compiled c. 1000 AD, for the Byzantine Emperor Basil II

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01 Works, RELIGIOUS ART - Today, January 6, is Saint André of Montreal's Day, With Footnotes - 165

Saint André Bessette

André Bessette, C.S.C. (9 August 1845 – 6 January 1937), more commonly known as Brother André, and since his canonization as Saint André of Montreal, was a lay brother of the Congregation of Holy Cross and a significant figure of the Roman Catholic Church among French-Canadians, credited with thousands of reported miraculous oil healings associated with his pious devotion to Saint Joseph.

André was born near Montreal, Canada. Orphaned at the age of twelve, he was forced to support himself working as an unskilled laborer in the textile mills of New England.

In 1867, André returned to Canada. The pastor of his parish noticed the devotion and generosity of the young man. He decided to present Alfred to the Congregation of Holy Cross in Montreal. Although he was initially rejected by the order because of frail health, Archbishop Ignace Bourget of Montreal intervened on his behalf, and in 1872, Alfred was accepted, and entered the novitiate of the congregation, receiving the religious name of Brother André, by which he was known for the rest of his life. He made his final vows on February 2, 1874, at the age of 28.

He was sent to the brother’s Notre Dame College in Montreal. Because of his lack of skills and because he could hardly read or write because of his erratic schooling due to his poor health he was assigned all kinds of menial tasks such as janitor, sacristan, laundry worker, messenger, etc., but foremost of which was being doorkeeper

He served for the next 40 years as the doorkeeper and, along the way, gained a reputation as a healer. When students fell ill, they came to Br. André and together they prayed to St. Joseph, the patron saint of Canada.

Largely uneducated, always a sickly, 5-foot-3-inch brother is the first canonized Holy Cross saint. Known for his generosity and credited with many miracles, especially benefitting the sick and the poor, he was popularly known as the “Miracle Man of Montreal.” He was also quick to attribute any miracles or graces to the intercession of Saint Joseph.

Bessette was declared venerable in 1978 and was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1982. Pope Benedict XVI approved the decree of sainthood for Blessed André on 19 February 2010, with the formal canonization taking place on 17 October 2010. More on André Bessette. 

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01 Works, RELIGIOUS ART - Today, January 5, is Saint Telesphorus' Day, With Footnotes - 164

Sandro Botticelli, (1445 –1510)

The Pope SS. Telesforo, c.  1481

Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Rome 

Saint Telesphorus, (died c. 136); feast day January 5), pope from about 125 to about 136. Telesphorus is said to have been a Greek, possibly from Calabria. Successor to St. Sixtus I, he was the eighth pope and a witness to the persecution of Christians by the Roman emperor Hadrian. In his four filiations, he created thirteen bishops, fifteen priests, and eight deacons.

He is considered the first pope after St. Peter to be martyred, possibly due to conversions caused by his preaching, and is commemorated in the Greek and Roman churches. He is the only 2nd-century pope whose martyrdom can be verified. Some pious Christians removed his body after execution, and placed it near that of Saint Peter, in the Vatican  necropolis.

The tradition of Christmas Midnight Masses, the celebration of Easter on Sundays, the keeping of a seven-week Lent before Easter and the singing of the Gloria are usually attributed to his pontificate. More on Saint Telesphorus

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, known as Sandro Botticelli (1445 –1510), was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. He belonged to the Florentine School.  Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century; since then, his work has been seen to represent the linear grace of Early Renaissance painting.

Botticelli was born in Florence. He was initially trained as a goldsmith. There are very few details of Botticelli's life, but it is known that he became an apprentice when he was about fourteen years old. By 1462 he was apprenticed to Fra Filippo Lippi; many of his early works have been attributed to the elder master, and attributions continue to be uncertain. Influenced also by the monumentality of Masaccio's painting, it was from Lippi that Botticelli learned a more intimate and detailed manner.

By 1470, Botticelli had his own workshop. His work was characterized by a conception of the figure as if seen in low relief, drawn with clear contours, and minimizing strong contrasts of light and shadow which would indicate fully modelled forms.

In the mid-1480s, Botticelli worked on a major fresco cycle for Lorenzo the Magnificent's villa near Volterra; in addition he painted many frescoes in Florentine churches. In 1491 he served on a committee to decide upon a façade for the Cathedral of Florence.

Botticelli never wed, and expressed a strong disliking to the idea of marriage, a prospect he claimed gave him nightmares. More on Sandro Botticelli

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01 Works, RELIGIOUS ART - Today, January 4, is Saint Dafrosa's Day, With Footnotes - 163

Pietro da Cortona

St. Dafrosa of Acquapendente, c. 1640

Oil on canvas

Height: 187 cm (73.6 ″); Width: 119 cm (46.8 ″)

Musée Comtadin-Duplessis, Carpentras

St. Dafrosa of Acquapendente was married to Saint Flavian; mother of Saint Bibiana and Saint Demetria. Martyred in the persecutions of Julian the Apostate. 

She left her home in Seville to emigrate to the head of the Empire with her family in search of a better life.  Her husband, Flaviano, died a martyr in Rome. Being married to a Christian she was condemned to exile. On her return, Aproniano, a Roman senator, imprisons her as he planed to re-marry her with a man named Fausto, hoping that she might re-think her faith. Instead, Dafrosa instructed Fausto in the Christian faith, she baptized him. He ended up dying a martyr as well. As his body was exposed to the dogs, Dafrosa retrieved him and gave him a Christian burial. This led her to martyrdom on 4 January 362 in the persecutions of Julian the Apostate. She was decapitated. More on St. Dafrosa of Acquapendente

Pietro da Cortona (1 November 1596/7 – 16 May 1669) was born Pietro Berrettini, but is primarily known by the name of his native town of Cortona in Tuscany. He was the leading Italian Baroque painter of his time and, along with his contemporaries and rivals Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini, was one of the key figures in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture. He was also an important designer of interior decorations.

Cortona worked mainly in Rome and Florence. He is best known for his frescoed ceilings such as the vault of the salone or main salon of the Palazzo Barberini in Rome and carried out extensive painting and decorative schemes for the Medici family in Florence and for the Oratorian fathers at the church of Santa Maria in Vallicella in Rome. He also painted numerous canvases. Only a limited number of his architectural projects were built but nonetheless they are as distinctive and as inventive as those of his rivals. More on Pietro da Cortona

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01 Works, RELIGIOUS ART - Today, January 2, is Saint Gregory of Nazianzus' Day, With Footnotes - 161

Gregory the Theologian

Fresco from Kariye Camii, Istanbul

Gregory of Nazianzus ( c. 329 – 25 January 390), also known as Gregory the Theologian or Gregory Nazianzen, was a 4th-century Archbishop of Constantinople, and theologian. He is widely considered the most accomplished rhetorical stylist of the patristic age. As a classically trained orator and philosopher he infused Hellenism into the early church, establishing the paradigm of Byzantine theologians and church officials.

Gregory made a significant impact on the shape of Trinitarian theology among both Greek- and Latin-speaking theologians, and he is remembered as the "Trinitarian Theologian". Much of his theological work continues to influence modern theologians, especially in regard to the relationship among the three Persons of the Trinity. Along with the brothers Basil the Great and Gregory of Nyssa, he is known as one of the Cappadocian Fathers.

Gregory is a saint in both Eastern and Western Christianity. In the Roman Catholic Church he is numbered among the Doctors of the Church; in the Eastern Orthodox Church and the Eastern Catholic Churches he is revered as one of the Three Holy Hierarchs, along with Basil the Great and John Chrysostom.

He is also one of only three men in the life of the Orthodox Church who have been officially designated "Theologian" by epithet. 

The Church of England celebrates Gregory's Holy Day, on 2 January, as a "Lesser Festival". More on Gregory of Nazianzus

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01 Works, RELIGIOUS ART - CONTEMPORARY & 20th Century Interpretation of the Bible! With Footnotes - 26

Marina Abramović, Serbian, b. 1946

The Levitation of Saint Therese, 2009

Single flatscreen video installation

Private collection

The Original Flying Nun – St. Teresa of Avila:

St. Teresa of Avila (1515-1582) was a Doctor of the Catholic Church. This was no small or insignificant title. A Doctor of the Church is a saint whose writings have been of great advantage to the entire church, no matter which century they are read in. Of thousands of Catholic saints, there are only 33 Doctors of the Church. Teresa’s contribution was her writing and teaching on prayer. She was the founder of the discalced Carmelite nuns.

Teresa’s levitations occurred during times of deep prayer. She regarded her levitations as chastisement from God. When she would feel like God was going to levitate her body, she would lie down on the ground and ask her sister nuns to sit on her and hold her down. She continually begged God to stop causing her to levitate in public. More on St. Teresa of Avila

Marina Abramović, Serbian, b. 1946•  Working in a wide range of media, Marina Abramović is best known for her provocative performance works, employing her own body as both subject and medium. In an early performance entitled Rhythm 10, Abramović repeatedly stabbed the spaces between her fingers with a series of knives, effectively testing the relationship between the mental and physical, and reinterpreting the concept of rhythm. Between 1976 and 1988, Abramović collaborated with German photographer and performance artist Ulay to create performance works that explore such binaries as male and female, active and passive, through the execution of repetitive, exhausting, and often painful actions. Abramović has continued to work independently since then, staging performative works that increasingly demand viewer involvement, such as her MoMA retrospective, “The Artist Is Present,” in which museum visitors could sit down across from Abramović at a table and engage in a silent exchange with the artist. More on Marina Abramović

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01 Works, RELIGIOUS ART - Today, January 2, is Saint Basil's Day, With Footnotes - 161

Pierre Subleyras,  (1699–1749)

The Mass of Saint Basil, c. 1746

Oil on canvas

Height: 137 cm (53.9 ″); Width: 79 cm (31.1 ″)

Collection

Metropolitan Museum of Art

Basil of Caesarea, also called Saint Basil the Great (329 or 330 – January 1 or 2, 379), was the Greek bishop of Caesarea Mazaca in Cappadocia, Asia Minor (modern-day Turkey). He was an influential theologian who supported the Nicene Creed and opposed the heresies of the early Christian church, fighting against both Arianism and the followers of Apollinaris of Laodicea. His ability to balance his theological convictions with his political connections made Basil a powerful advocate for the Nicene position.

In addition to his work as a theologian, Basil was known for his care of the poor and underprivileged. Basil established guidelines for monastic life which focus on community life, liturgical prayer, and manual labour. He is remembered as a father of communal monasticism in Eastern Christianity. He is considered a saint by the traditions of both Eastern and Western Christianity. More Basil of Caesarea

Pierre Subleyras (November 25, 1699 – May 28, 1749) was a French painter, active during the late-Baroque and early-Neoclassic period, mainly in Italy.

He left France in 1728, having carried off the French Academy's grand prix, which provided scholarship for study in Rome. In Rome, he painted for the Elector of Saxony, Frederick Christian, a "Christ's Visit to the House of Simon the Pharisee", (later engraved by Subleyras himself), this work procured his admission into the famed Roman artists guild, Accademia di San Luca.

Cardinal Valenti Gonzaga next obtained for him the order for Saint Basil & Emperor Valens (also known as the Mass of St. Basil, (above) .

He was a remarkably incisive portraitist. The pope himself commanded two great paintings, the "Marriage of St Catherine" and the "Ecstasy of St Camilla", which he placed in his own private apartments.

Subleyras shows greater individuality in his curious genre pictures, which he produced in considerable number. In his illustrations of La Fontaine and Boccaccio his true relation to the modern era comes out; and his drawings from nature are often admirable.

Exhausted by overwork, Subleyras tried a change to Naples, but returned to Rome at the end of a few months to die. More on Pierre Subleyras

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, and The Canals of Venice, And visit my Boards on Pinterest

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

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