13 Paintings, RELIGIOUS ART - Paintings from the Bible by the Old Masters, with footnotes, 19

Théodule Ribot (1823–1891)
The Good Samaritan, c. 1870
Oil on canvas
Height: 98 cm (38.6 in). Width: 131 cm (51.6 in).
Musée des beaux-arts de Pau, Pau, France

The Good Samaritan. On one occasion an expert in the law stood up to test Jesus. “Teacher,” he asked, “And who is my neighbor?”

In reply Jesus said: “A man was going down from Jerusalem to Jericho, when he was attacked by robbers. They stripped him of his clothes, beat him and went away, leaving him half dead. A priest happened to be going down the same road, and when he saw the man, he passed by on the other side. So too, a Levite, when he came to the place and saw him, passed by on the other side. But a Samaritan, as he traveled, came where the man was; and when he saw him, he took pity on him. He went to him and bandaged his wounds, pouring on oil and wine. Then he put the man on his own donkey, brought him to an inn and took care of him. The next day he took out two silver coins and gave them to the innkeeper. ‘Look after him,’ he said, ‘and when I return, I will reimburse you for any extra expense you may have.’

“Which of these three do you think was a neighbor to the man who fell into the hands of robbers?”

The expert in the law replied, “The one who had mercy on him.”

Jesus told him, “Go and do likewise.”

Théodule-Augustin Ribot (August 8, 1823 – September 11, 1891) was a French realist painter and printmaker. He was born in Saint-Nicolas-d'Attez, and studied at the École des Arts et Métiers de Châlons before moving to Paris in 1845. There he found work decorating gilded frames for a mirror manufacturer. Although he received a measure of artistic training while working as an assistant to Auguste-Barthélémy Glaize, Ribot was mostly self-taught as a painter. After a trip to Algeria around 1848, he returned in 1851 to Paris, where he continued to make his living as an artisan. In the late 1850s, working at night by lamplight, he began to paint seriously, depicting everyday subjects in a realistic style.

He made his Salon debut in 1861 with four paintings of kitchen subjects. Collectors purchased the works, and his paintings in the Salons of 1864 and 1865 were awarded medals.

Ribot painted domestic genre works, still-lifes, portraits, as well as religious scenes. His preference was for painting directly from nature, emphasizing the contrasts of light and dark. His use of chiaroscuro to suggest psychological states grew from his admiration for Spanish and Dutch baroque masters. Members of Ribot's family are the likely models for many of his figure compositions, in which the subjects engage in humble activities, such as preparing meals or gathering in groups to read to each other. The light draws attention to faces and hands, which emerge sharply from dimly lit surroundings.

Although the realism of Ribot's work aligns him with the most progressive artists of the generation preceding the Impressionists, he was no revolutionary, and his work met with a generally favorable response from the public and from critics.

In 1878 Ribot received the Légion d'honneur. At about this time, in ill health, he stopped painting and moved to Colombes, where he died in 1891. More

Marc Chagall

Loth et ses filles, pl. 9, from Die Bibel, c. 1958

12.38 X 9.75 in (31.43 X 24.76 cm)

Etching with watercolor on Arches paper

Lot is a person mentioned in the biblical Book of Genesis chapters 11–14 and 19. Notable episodes in his life include his travels with his uncle Abram (Abraham), his flight from the destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah, during which Lot's wife became a pillar of salt, and the seduction by his daughters so that they could bear children.

The story, usually called Lot and his daughters, has been the subject of many paintings over the centuries, and became one of the subjects in the Power of Women group of subjects, warning men against the dangers of succumbing to the temptations of women, while also providing an opportunity for an erotic depiction. The scene generally shows Lot and his daughters eating and drinking in their mountain refuge. Usually the background contains a small figure of Lot's wife, and in the distance the city or cities burn. More

Marc Zakharovich Chagall (1887 – 28 March 1985) was a Russian-French artist. An early modernist, he was associated with several major artistic styles and created works in virtually every artistic medium, including painting, book illustrations, stained glass, stage sets, ceramic, tapestries and fine art prints.

Chagall saw his work as "not the dream of one people but of all humanity. According to art historian Michael J. Lewis, Chagall was considered to be "the last survivor of the first generation of European modernists". Using the medium of stained glass, he produced windows for the cathedrals of Reims and Metz, windows for the UN, and the Jerusalem Windows in Israel. He also did large-scale paintings, including part of the ceiling of the Paris Opéra.

Before World War I, he traveled between St. Petersburg, Paris, and Berlin. During this period he created his own mixture and style of modern art based on his idea of Eastern European Jewish folk culture. He spent the wartime years in Soviet Belarus, becoming one of the country's most distinguished artists and a member of the modernist avant-garde, founding the Vitebsk Arts College before leaving again for Paris in 1922.

He experienced modernism's "golden age" in Paris, where "he synthesized the art forms of Cubism, Symbolism, and Fauvism, and the influence of Fauvism gave rise to Surrealism". "When Matisse dies," Pablo Picasso remarked in the 1950s, "Chagall will be the only painter left who understands what colour really is" More

Joaquín Sorolla
Virgin Mary, c. 1887
Oil, canvas

93.7 x 62.6 cm

Joaquín Sorolla y Bastida (27 February 1863 – 10 August 1923) was a Spanish painter. Sorolla excelled in the painting of portraits, landscapes, and monumental works of social and historical themes. His most typical works are characterized by a dexterous representation of the people and landscape under the sunlight of his native land. More

Gaspare Diziani, BELLUNO 1689 - 1767 VENICE

THE FINDING OF MOSES

oil on canvas

121,9x151,5 cm.

Finding of Moses refers to the biblical episode of the finding of Moses as a baby and depictions of the story in art

Gaspare Diziani (1689 – 17 August 1767) was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque or Roccoco period, active mainly in the Veneto but also in Dresden and Munich. His earliest training was in his native town of Belluno with Antonio Lazzarini. He then moved to Venice, to the studio of Gregorio Lazzarini and later that of Sebastiano Ricci. 

Between 1710-1720, he painted a group of eight pictures that included the Mary Magdalene for the church of Santo Stefano in Belluno, and Entry into Jerusalem for San Teodoro in Venice. He also painted three frescoes on the Life of Saint Helena in the Scuola del Vin next to the church of San Silvestro. Diziani’s celerity and technical assurance are evident from preparatory oil sketches, where color has been applied in rapid and spirited strokes. More

Gaspare Diziani (1689–1767)
The Adoration of the Magi, Date 1718
Oil on canvas
Height: 94 cm (37 in). Width: 110 cm (43.3 in).
Museum of Fine Arts (Budapest)

The Adoration of the Magi (anglicized from the Matthean Vulgate Latin section title: A Magis adoratur) is the name traditionally given to the subject in the Nativity of Jesus in art in which the three Magi, represented as kings, especially in the West, having found Jesus by following a star, lay before him gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh, and worship him. More

Gaspare Diziani (1689 – 17 August 1767), see above

Attributed to Gaspare Diziani (1689–1767)

The Adoration of the Magi, c. 1705 - 1760

Oil on canvas

30.5 × 40 cm (12 × 15.7 in)

Rijksmuseum Amsterdam

The Adoration of the Magi, see above

Gaspare Diziani (1689 – 17 August 1767), see above

Gaspare Diziani (1689–1767)

The Adoration of the Shepherds, circa 1755

Oil on canvas

Height: 117 cm (46.1 in). Width: 131 cm (51.6 in)

The Adoration of the Shepherds, in the Nativity of Jesus in art, is a scene in which shepherds are near witnesses to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, arriving soon after the actual birth. It is often combined in art with the Adoration of the Magi, in which case it is typically just referred to by the latter title. The Annunciation to the Shepherds, when they are summoned by an angel to the scene, is a distinct subject. More

Gaspare Diziani (1689 – 17 August 1767), see above

Gaspare Diziani (1689–1767)

Abraham and Three Angels, circa 1735-1740

Oil on canvas

National Museum, Kraków, Poland

Abraham welcomes unexpected visitors to his home. The three men are angels sent to announce that his wife, the aged Sarah, will miraculously bear him a son. Christian tradition interprets the story as the prefiguration of the events to come in the New Testament, and the three angels as the Trinity. It is also an exemplary image of charity: Diziani shows the angels as pilgrims, with Abraham humbly begging them to accept his hospitality. 


Life in the country would often bring people from different families into contact with one another, and the character of Canaan as a natural land bridge between Asia and Africa made it a popular trade route. People living in cities and encampments had a social obligation to welcome strangers. More

Gaspare Diziani (1689 – 17 August 1767), see above

Marc Chagall, ( 24 June 1887 – 28 March 1985)

Three Angels Visit Abraham, Les trois anges reçus par Abraham, c. 1964; France

Sketch and study

32.2 x 18.8 cm

Musée national Message Biblique Marc Chagall, Nice, France

Marc Chagall, ( 24 June 1887 – 28 March 1985), see above


Abraham and Three Angels, see above

Marc Chagall, ( 24 June 1887 – 28 March 1985)

Three Angels Visit Abraham, Les trois anges reçus par Abraham, c. 1964; France

Sketch and study

31.2 x 22.4 cm

Musée national Message Biblique Marc Chagall, Nice, France

Marc Chagall, ( 24 June 1887 – 28 March 1985), see above


Abraham and Three Angels, see above

Marc Chagall, ( 24 June 1887 – 28 March 1985)

Three Angels Visit Abraham, Les trois anges reçus par Abraham, c. 1964; France

Sketch and study

32 x 24.4 cm

Musée national Message Biblique Marc Chagall, Nice, France

Marc Chagall, ( 24 June 1887 – 28 March 1985), see above


Abraham and Three Angels, see above

Marc Chagall, ( 24 June 1887 – 28 March 1985)

Three Angels Visit Abraham, Les trois anges reçus par Abraham, c. 1931; Paris, France

Gouache, oil, paper

49 x 62.5 cm

Musée national Message Biblique Marc Chagall, Nice, France

Marc Chagall, ( 24 June 1887 – 28 March 1985), see above


Abraham and Three Angels, see above

Marc Chagall, ( 24 June 1887 – 28 March 1985)

Abraham and three Angels, c. 1966

oil on canvas

190 x 292 cm

Musée national Message Biblique Marc Chagall, Nice, France

Marc Chagall, ( 24 June 1887 – 28 March 1985), see above


Abraham and Three Angels, see above

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others

Acknowledgement: Sothebys,