03 Paintings, RELIGIOUS ART - Interpretations of the Bible! by The Old Masters, With Footnotes # 70

The Master of the Misericordia

ACTIVE IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 14TH CENTURY

THE MYSTIC MARRIAGE OF SAINT CATHERINE

Tempera and gold on panel, arched top, in an engaged frame

135.3 x 80.2 cm.; 53 1/4  x 31 5/8  in.

Private collection

This imposing painting once formed the centrepiece of a polyptych dedicated to Saint Catherine. It preserves in part its original frame with cusped arch. The lateral compartments remain untraced. 

The Mystic Marriage of Saint Catherine covers two different subjects in Christian art arising from visions received by either Saint Catherine of Alexandria or Saint Catherine of Siena (1347–1380), in which these virgin saints went through a mystical marriage wedding ceremony with Christ, in the presence of the Virgin Mary, consecrating themselves and their virginity to him.

The Catholic Encyclopaedia notes that such a wedding ceremony "is but the accompaniment and symbol of a purely spiritual grace", and that "as a wife should share in the life of her husband, and as Christ suffered for the redemption of mankind, the mystical spouse enters into a more intimate participation in His sufferings."  Catherine of Alexandria was martyred, while Catherine of Siena received the stigmata.

Both Saint Catherines are frequent subjects in Christian art; the scene usually includes one of the Saint Catherines and either the infant Jesus held by his mother or an adult Jesus. Very rarely both saints are shown in a double ceremony (as above). Saint Catherine of Alexandria is invariably dressed as a princess in rich clothes, often with a crown, and normally with loose long blonde hair and carrying a martyr's palm, sometimes with her attribute of a wheel; Saint Catherine of Siena is shown as a Dominican nun in white with a black over-robe open at the front, so it is usually easy to tell which saint is depicted. More Saint Catherine

The Master of the Misericordia

ACTIVE IN THE SECOND HALF OF THE 14TH CENTURY

THE MYSTIC MARRIAGE OF SAINT CATHERINE

Detail, Christ placing the wedding ring on St. Catherine's finger

The Master of the Misericordia was Florentine painter active in the second half of the fourteenth century. His early works show the influence of Taddeo Gaddi and Bernardo Daddi, the dominant artists of the previous generation, but as he developed his style was to prefigure artistic tendencies prevalent towards the end of the Trecento. The artist’s name was coined by Richard Offner in 1958 after a devotional painting of the Madonna of Mercy (Madonna della Misericordia), formerly at the monastery of Santa Maria di Candeli and now in the collection of the Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence.2 He is also sometimes known as the Master of the Orcagnesque Misericordia. More on The Master of the Misericordia

Attributed to Ventura Salimbeni, SIENA 1568 - 1613

THE FLIGHT INTO EGYPT

Oil on canvas

50 1/2  by 38 1/4  in.; 128.3 by 97.2 cm.

Private collection

The flight into Egypt is a biblical event described in the Gospel of Matthew in which Joseph fled to Egypt with Mary and infant son Jesus after a visit by Magi because they learned that King Herod intended to kill the infants of that area. The episode is frequently shown in art, as the final episode of the Nativity of Jesus in art, and was a common component in cycles of the Life of the Virgin as well as the Life of Christ.

When the Magi came in search of Jesus, they go to Herod the Great in Jerusalem and ask where to find the newborn "King of the Jews". Herod becomes paranoid that the child will threaten his throne, and seeks to kill him. Herod initiates the Massacre of the Innocents in hopes of killing the child. But an angel appears to Joseph and warns him to take Jesus and his mother into Egypt.

Egypt was a logical place to find refuge, as it was outside the dominions of King Herod, but both Egypt and Israel were part of the Roman Empire, linked by a coastal road known as "the way of the sea", making travel between them easy and relatively safe. More on The flight into Egypt

Ventura di Archangelo Salimbeni (later called Bevilacqua); (20 January 1568 – 1613) was an Italian Counter-Maniera painter and printmaker highly influenced by the vaghezza and sensual reform of Federico Barocci.

He possibly spent some time, in Northern Italy and then moved to Rome in 1588 to work, together with others, on the fresco painting of the Vatican Library under pope Sixtus V. During 1590-1591, he received a commission for paintings in the Roman Jesuit Church of the Gesù and the Basilica di Santa Maria Maggiore. Salimbeni returned to Siena in 1595. Here he persisted in a Reformist or Counter-Maniera style. 

He is known for detailed preparatory drawings, most of which are now in the Uffizi. He continued to create paintings for churches throughout Italy, including Florence. At the Basilica della Santissima Annunziata di Firenze, he frescoed lunettes (1605–1608) illustrating events in the history of the Servite Order. In the Duomo di San Salvatore, he executed a magnificent John the Baptist.

Around 1600, he got an assignment in Assisi for a fresco of the "Resurrection of Christ" and the "Dying Saint Clare is visited by the pope" in the vault of chapel of San Massimo in the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli.

In 1603, Salimbeni was commissioned to paint frescoes for the church of Ss Quirico e Giulitta, one of the oldest churches in Siena. This period saw a proliferation of new assignments.  The papal legate, cardinal Bonifazio Bevilacqua (1571–1627), who had commissioned Salimbeni's paintings, was so pleased that he invested Ventura Salimbeni with the Order of the Golden Spur, a very selective papal order. He was even authorized from now on to name himself Cavalieri Bevilacqua. More on Ventura di Archangelo Salimbeni

Paolo Caliari, called Paolo Veronese, VERONA 1528 - 1588 VENICE

THE REST ON THE RETURN FROM EGYPT

Oil on canvas

154 x 166 cm.; 60 5/8  x 65 3/8  in.

Private collection

The interrelationship of the five figures is informal, as befits the rural setting: the Virgin, Her head turned to Her right, looks at the left-hand Angel who offers Her a silver plate of dates, while the youthful Christ looks up at Joseph while being watched by the second Angel. The figure group of the Virgin and Child is especially moving: She rests her right hand on His torso, fingers splayed, while He rests his right forearm over Hers, holding a knife between forefinger and thumb, while leaning towards Her so that Their heads almost touch. Joseph is pouring wine and bread sits on a stone table draped with a white cloth, intended to be recognized by the viewer as prefiguring Christ's Passion. More on the rest on the return from Egypt

Paolo Caliari, known as Paolo Veronese (1528–1588), was an Italian Renaissance painter, based in Venice, known for large-format history paintings of religion and mythology, such as The Wedding at Cana (1563) and The Feast in the House of Levi (1573). Included with Titian, a generation older, and Tintoretto, a decade senior, Veronese is one of the “great trio that dominated Venetian painting of the cinquecento” and the Late Renaissance in the 16th century. Known as a supreme colorist, and after an early period with Mannerism, Paolo Veronese developed a naturalist style of painting, influenced by Titian.

His most famous works are elaborate narrative cycles, executed in a dramatic and colorful style, full of majestic architectural settings and glittering pageantry. His large paintings of biblical feasts, crowded with figures, painted for the refectories of monasteries in Venice and Verona are especially famous, and he was also the leading Venetian painter of ceilings. Most of these works remain in situ, or at least in Venice, and his representation in most museums is mainly composed of smaller works such as portraits that do not always show him at his best or most typical.

He has always been appreciated for "the chromatic brilliance of his palette, the splendor and sensibility of his brushwork, the aristocratic elegance of his figures, and the magnificence of his spectacle", but his work has been felt "not to permit expression of the profound, the human, or the sublime", and of the "great trio" he has often been the least appreciated by modern criticism. Nonetheless, "many of the greatest artists ... may be counted among his admirers, including Rubens, Watteau, Tiepolo, Delacroix and Renoir." More on Paolo Caliari, known as Paolo Veronese

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09 Contemporary Interpretations, Olympian deities in classical Greek and Roman religion, with footnotes, 2

BRUSSELMANS Jean, (1884 - 1953)

Mount of Venus, c. 1947

Ink and watercolor on paper

48.5x52cm.

Private Collection

"Mount of Venus," simultaneously a mountain shrine and a figurative reference to female genitals. Medical terminology still calls the pubic area mons veneris. Medieval Europe had mountains of the same name. Pope Pius II said witches met by night on Mons Veneris. More on Mount of Venus

Jean Brusselmans , born in Brussels on 13 June 1884 and died in Dilbeek on 9 January 1953 (Aged 68) , was a Belgian painter .

Brusselmans began his career as an engraver and lithographer, but in 1904 he moved to painting after attending a training course at the Brussels Academy. His early works, from 1900 to 1912 , followed the current realistic that impressionist art of the time. Between 1912 and 1920 , he had a fauve period under the influence of his friends Auguste Oleffe , Rik Wouters and Ferdinand Schirren . Beginning in 1920 , Brusselmans developed his own geometric style.


From 1924 to his death in 1953 , he lived in Dilbeek . More on Jean Brusselmans

Tsanko Tsankov, Bulgaria

The kidnapping Hipodamiya - I

Painting

31.5 H x 35.4 W x 0.1 in

Private Collection

In Greek mythology, Hippodamia, "she who masters horses", was the bride of King Pirithous of the Lapiths. At their wedding, Hippodamia, the other female guests, and the young boys were almost abducted by the Centaurs. Pirithous and his friend, Theseus, led the Lapiths to victory over the Centaurs in a battle known as the Centauromachy.


The abduction of Hippodamia was not an uncommon subject of Western art in the classical tradition, including the sculpture The Abduction of Hippodameia by French artist Albert-Ernest Carrier-Belleuse and a painting by Rubens. More on Hipodamiya

Tsanko Tsankov, 1962, born in Sofia and working in Varna,Bulgaria. In 1988 he graduated from the National Academy of Arts, Sofia.

The energy store of the artistic paint, the use of the golden gilt as a marking credo to the ‘different’, as well as the uncountable and delicate colour shades, put a mark on the advance of the plastic art expression of the painter, emancipated from the excess of particular outlines in the subject. 

The depth achieved through the transparent chase of a multitude of pictorial coats is an expressive proof of the makings of the artist Tsanko Tsankov. This pulsating balanced melodiousness of the aesthete concentrates great part of the vigour of his works, engraving figures and pictures of the antiquity and of the modern times into the present. More on Tsanko Tsankov

William Bouguereau, (1825-1905)

The Oreads, c. 1902

Oil on Canvas

H. 236; W. 182 cm

Musée d'Orsay, Paris

The Oreads are the nymphs of mountains and grottoes (the most well known is Echo), who were said to come out in joyful, lively groups to hunt deer, chase wild boar and bring down birds of prey with their arrows. At Diana’s signal, they would come running to join her, forming a dazzling retinue behind her. More on the The Oreads

With this painting, Bouguereau shows himself to be firmly attached to his ideal of academic painting.This work demonstrate his outstanding drawing skills, capable of capturing all the attitudes and expressions of the human body. The mythological subject also enables him to introduce an erotic element without lapsing into bawdiness. More on this painting

William-Adolphe Bouguereau (November 30, 1825 – August 19, 1905) was a French academic painter and traditionalist. In his realistic genre paintings he used mythological themes, making modern interpretations of classical subjects, with an emphasis on the female human body. During his life he enjoyed significant popularity in France and the United States, was given numerous official honors, and received top prices for his work. As the quintessential salon painter of his generation, he was reviled by the Impressionist avant-garde. By the early twentieth century, Bouguereau and his art fell out of favor with the public, due in part to changing tastes. In the 1980s, a revival of interest in figure painting led to a rediscovery of Bouguereau and his work. Throughout the course of his life, Bouguereau executed 822 known finished paintings, although the whereabouts of many are still unknown. More William-Adolphe Bouguereau

Bart Peeters

Aphrodite

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

Bart Peeters, has been a professional photographer for over 10 years, starting his career in publicity photography and quickly specializing in photography for the jewelry and watch industry. A student of the arts, he spent time in Brussels, Antwerp, Glasgow (Scotland), and Atlanta (USA), fostering his passion for the still image.

His photographs resulted in a professorship in photography at the American InterContinental University in Atlanta, at the photography department.

Peeters has worked for various clients, ranging from the consumer, goods, and services industries, to real estate, to high-end wholesale and the luxury industry. More on Bart Peeters

Bart Peeters

Medusa

In Greek mythology Medusa was a monster, a Gorgon, generally described as a winged human female with a hideous face and living venomous snakes in place of hair. Gazers on her face would turn to stone. She lived and died on an island named Sarpedon, somewhere near Cisthene. The 2nd-century BCE novelist Dionysios Skytobrachion puts her somewhere in Libya, where Herodotus had said the Berbers originated her myth, as part of their religion.

Medusa was beheaded by the hero Perseus, who thereafter used her head, which retained its ability to turn onlookers to stone, as a weapon until he gave it to the goddess Athena to place on her shield. In classical antiquity the image of the head of Medusa appeared in the evil-averting device known as the Gorgoneion. More on Medusa

Bart Peeters, see above

Bart Peeters

Artemis

Artemis was one of the most widely venerated of the Ancient Greek deities. Her Roman equivalent is Diana. Some scholars believe that the name, and indeed the goddess herself, was originally pre-Greek.

In the classical period of Greek mythology, Artemis was often described as the daughter of Zeus and Leto, and the twin sister of Apollo. She was the Hellenic goddess of the hunt, wild animals, wilderness, childbirth, virginity and protector of young girls, bringing and relieving disease in women; she often was depicted as a huntress carrying a bow and arrows. The deer and the cypress were sacred to her. More on Artemis

Bart Peeters, see above

Bart Peeters

Hebe

Hebe in ancient Greek religion, is the goddess of youth. She is the daughter of Zeus and Hera. Hebe was the cupbearer for the gods and goddesses of Mount Olympus, serving their nectar and ambrosia, until she was married to Heracles (Roman equivalent: Hercules). 

Hebe was supposed to have the power to give eternal youth, and in art is typically seen with her father in the guise of an eagle, often offering a cup to him. This depiction is seen in classical engraved gems as well as later art and seems to relate to a belief that the eagle (like the phoenix) had the ability to renew itself to a youthful state. More on Hebe

Bart Peeters, see above

Inge Prader
Recreation of Danaë

Setting was recreated from Gustav Klimt, Danae (1907), below

Disappointed by his lack of male heirs, King Acrisius asked the oracle of Delphi if this would change. The oracle announced to him that he would never have a son, but his daughter would, and that he would be killed by his daughter's son. At the time, Danae was childless and, meaning to keep her so, she was imprisoned in a tall brass tower with a single richly adorned chamber, but with no doors or windows, just a sky-light as the source of light and air). However, Zeus, the king of the gods, desired her, and came to her in the form of golden rain which streamed in through the roof of the subterranean chamber and down into her womb. Soon after, their child Perseus was born.

Unwilling to provoke the wrath of the gods or the Furies by killing his offspring and grandchild, King Acrisius cast Danaë and Perseus into the sea in a wooden chest. The sea was calmed by Poseidon and, at the request of Zeus, the pair survived. They were washed ashore on the island of Seriphos, where they were taken in by Dictys – the brother of King Polydectes – who raised Perseus to manhood. The King was charmed by Danaë, but she had no interest in him. Consequently, he agreed not to marry her only if her son would bring him the head of the Gorgon Medusa. Using Athena's shield, Hermes's winged sandals and Hades' helmet of invisibility, Perseus was able to evade Medusa's gaze and decapitate her.

Later, after Perseus brought back Medusa's head and rescued Andromeda, the oracle's prophecy came true. He started for Argos, but learning of the prophecy, instead went to Larissa, where athletic games were being held. By chance, an aging Acrisius was there and Perseus accidentally struck him on the head with his javelin (or discus), fulfilling the prophecy. More on Danaë

INGE PRADER is an Austrian photographer who recently recreated Gustav Klimt’s masterworks for Style Bible, a part of the Life Ball Charity Event in Vienna, Austria.  

Gustav Klimt, 1862 - 1918

Danae (1907) 

Galerie Würthle

Gustav Klimt (July 14, 1862 – February 6, 1918) was an Austrian symbolist painter and one of the most prominent members of the Vienna Secession movement. Klimt is noted for his paintings, murals, sketches, and other objets d'art. Klimt's primary subject was the female body, and his works are marked by a frank eroticism. In addition to his figurative works, which include allegories and portraits, he painted landscapes. Among the artists of the Vienna Secession, Klimt was the most influenced by Japanese art and its methods.

Early in his artistic career, he was a successful painter of architectural decorations in a conventional manner. As he developed a more personal style, his work was the subject of controversy that culminated when the paintings he completed around 1900 for the ceiling of the Great Hall of the University of Vienna were criticized as pornographic. He subsequently accepted no more public commissions, but achieved a new success with the paintings of his "golden phase," many of which include gold leaf. More Gustav Klimt

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