Artists: Sebastiano Ricci, Giuseppe de Ribera, José de Ribera, Raphael, Domenico Fetti, Emil Nolde, Arcangelo di Jacopo del Sellaio, Tintoretto, Quentin Metsys, Jose Claudio Antolinez, David Bergen, Jean-Baptiste Greuze, David Teniers, Silouan Justiniano, Marcantonio Franceschini, Pietro da Cortona, David Teniers, Théodore Chassériau, Antonio Pollaiuolo, Ottavio Vannini and Francesco Guarino
Sebastiano Ricci
The Last Communion of Saint Mary of Egypt, c. 1695
Oil on canvas
209 x 142 cm (82 5/16 x 55 7/8 in.)
The National Gallery of Art
Sebastiano Ricci (1 August 1659 – 15 May 1734) was an Italian painter of the late Baroque school of Venice. About the same age as Piazzetta, and an elder contemporary of Tiepolo, he represents a late version of the vigorous and luminous Cortonesque style of grand manner fresco painting. More on Sebastiano Ricci
Mary of Egypt (ca. 344 – ca. 421) is revered as the patron saint of penitents, most particularly in the Eastern Orthodox, Oriental Orthodox, and Eastern Catholic churches, as well as in the Roman Catholic.
Giuseppe de Ribera (1591-1652)
Sainte-Marie l’Egyptienne, c. 1641
Huile sur toile
132 x 108 cm
Musée Fabre, Montpellier
Giuseppe de Ribera (1591-1652)
Sainte-Marie l’Egyptienne, c. 1641
Huile sur toile
132 x 108 cm
Museo del Prado, Madrid
Unlike the Renaissance, which had centered everything on man to the point of making the human body the glorious site of a projection towards the universe, a hymn to universal harmony and the triumph of order, the Baroque s addresses feelings, lyrical and pathetic, to free the imagination, the only one capable of probing the mysteries. It is no longer a question of a glorified body but of a body torn apart by the conflict of water and fire, of the infinite and the finite. More on this painting
José de Ribera (January 12, 1591 – September 2, 1652) was a Spanish Tenebrist painter and printmaker, better known as Jusepe de Ribera. He also was called Lo Spagnoletto ("the Little Spaniard") by his contemporaries and early writers. Ribera was a leading painter of the Spanish school, although his mature work was all done in Italy. More on José de Ribera
Unknown artist
St. Mary of Egypt, 9th century
Fresco
Palazzo Massimo, Rome
The museum's label identifies this fresco as St. Mary of Egypt. It is quite rare to portray that saint in an intact gown. In the Golden Legend, when the monk Zosimus first sees her she is naked and asks him to give her his mantle. But in most images her nakedness is covered only by voluminous hair or by a loose mantle that falls from one shoulder. The scroll is even more unprecedented. More on this painting
Raphael (Italian, 1483–1520)
Saint Mary of Egypt
Oil on Panel
37.8 x 14.3 cm. (14.9 x 5.6 in.)
Private collection
Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (April 6 or March 28, 1483 – April 6, 1520), known as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period.
Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop and, despite his death at 37, leaving a large body of work. Many of his works are found in the Vatican Palace. The best known work is The School of Athens in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura. After his early years in Rome much of his work was executed by his workshop from his drawings, with considerable loss of quality. He was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking. More on Raffaello
Domenico Fetti (ROME C. 1588-VENICE 1623)
Saint Mary of Egypt c.1613-22
Oil on canvas
101.2 x 76.0 cm
The Royal Collection Trust
This is one of a number of pictures of saints by Fetti in similar format, possibly from more than one series. Saint Mary of Egypt is shown in half-length in profile to the left. Her hands are held in prayer before a crude wooden cross and she is dressed in rags. Her left shoulder bare and her grey hair is loose and long. Saint Mary of Egypt was a penitent hermit saint who can be distinguished in pictures by the presence of the three loaves of bread which served as her food in the desert; in this painting the loaves of bread are clearly visible around the base of the cross. More on this painting
Domenico Fetti (c. 1589 – 1623) was an Italian Baroque painter who had been active mainly in Rome, Mantua and Venice.
Born in Rome to a little-known painter, Pietro Fetti, Domenico is said to have apprenticed initially under Ludovico Cigoli, or his pupil Andrea Commodi in Rome from circa 1604–1613. He then worked in Mantua from 1613 to 1622, patronized by the Cardinal, later Duke Ferdinando I Gonzaga. In the Ducal Palace, he painted the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes. The series of representations of New Testament parables he carried out for his patron's studiolo gave rise to a popular specialty, and he and his studio often repeated his compositions.
In August or September 1622, his feuds with some prominent Mantuans led him to move to Venice, which for the first few decades of the seventeenth century had persisted in sponsoring Mannerist styles. Into this mix, in the 1620s–30s, three "foreigners"—Fetti and his younger contemporaries Bernardo Strozzi and Jan Lys—breathed the first influences of Roman Baroque style. They adapted some of the rich coloration of Venice but adapted it to Caravaggio-influenced realism and monumentality.
In Venice, where he remained despite pleas from the Duke to return to Mantua, Fetti changed his style: his formalized painting style became more colorful. In addition, he devoted attention to smaller cabinet pieces that adapt genre imaging to religious stories. His group of paintings entitled Parables, which represent New Testament scenes, are at the Dresden Gemäldegalerie.
His painting style appears to have been influenced by Rubens. He would likely have continued to find excellent patronage in Venice had he not died there in 1623 or 1624. More on Domenico Fetti
José de Ribera (1591–1652)
Mary of Egypt, c.1651
Oil on canvas
88 × 71 cm (34.6 × 28 in)
Museo Civico Gaetano Filangieri
José de Ribera, see above
Saint Mary, also known as Maria Aegyptica, was born somewhere in Egypt, and at the age of twelve ran away to the city of Alexandria where she lived an extremely dissolute life. In her Vita it states that she often refused the money offered for her sexual favors, as she was driven "by an insatiable and an irrepressible passion," and that she mainly lived by begging, supplemented by spinning flax.
Unknown iconographer
Icon of Saint Mary of Egypt, surrounded by scenes from her life
Icon
I have no further description, at this time
Unknown iconographer
Icon of Saint Mary of Egypt, surrounded by scenes from her life, c. 17th
Icon
Beliy Gorod, Moscow
After seventeen years of this lifestyle, she traveled to Jerusalem for the Great Feasts of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. She undertook the journey as a sort of "anti-pilgrimage," stating that she hoped to find in the pilgrim crowds at Jerusalem even more partners in her lust.
Emil Nolde's The St. Mary of Egypt Triptych’s three panels:
The first panel (Below) depicts St. Mary while she was still in Alexandria, practising prostitution, and was very much in sin, snaring men not as much for money but to satisfy her carnal lusts. See the ugly and menacing faces of those who want to devour her body.
Saint Mary of Egypt among Sinners, in the Port of Alexandria, c. 1912
Oil on canvas
I have no further description, at this time
Emil Nolde (born Emil Hansen; 7 August 1867 – 13 April 1956) was a German-Danish painter and printmaker. He was one of the first Expressionists, a member of Die Brücke, and is considered to be one of the great oil painting and watercolor painters of the 20th century. He is known for his vigorous brushwork and expressive choice of colors. Golden yellows and deep reds appear frequently in his work, giving a luminous quality to otherwise somber tones. His watercolors include vivid, brooding storm-scapes and brilliant florals. More on Emil Nolde
Unknown iconographer
Left to Right: Mary leaves home; her life in Alexandria; Mary sails to Jerusalem, detail
She paid for her passage by offering sexual favors to other pilgrims, and she continued her habitual lifestyle for a short time in Jerusalem. Her Vita relates that when she tried to enter the Church of the Holy Sepulchre for the celebration, she was barred from doing so by an unseen force.
Unknown iconographer
Mary stopped by an invisible force from entering the church, detail
Realizing that this was because of her impurity, she was struck with remorse, and upon seeing an icon of the Theotokos (the Virgin Mary) outside the church, she prayed for forgiveness and promised to give up the world (become an ascetic).
Arcangelo di Jacopo del Sellaio, (b. 1477/78, Firenze, d. 1530, Firenze)
St Jerome and St Mary of Egypt
Panel
32 x 11 cm (each)
Private collection
Arcangelo di Jacopo del Sellaio (Florence circa 1477-1530), sometimes known as Jacopo di Arcangel,, was an eclectic Italian painter from the early Renaissance, who painted in the style of the Florentine School. He was a pupil of Fra' Filippo Lippi, with his contemporary Sandro Botticelli, who became a lasting influence on him. It is noted that by 1460, he had joined the Confraternity of Saint Luke in Florence, and in 1473, he is documented to have shared a studio with Filippo di Giuliano.
A number of da Sellaio's paintings for decorative chests survive in collections, such as his Story of Cupid and Psyche. He executed another wedding cassone, The Nerli Cassone, in collaboration with Zanobi di Domenico and Biagio d'Antonio in 1472. His piece now in the Uffizi Gallery, The Banquet of Ahasuerus, was also painted with two other panels, including Esther before Ahasuerus (Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest) for a cassoni.
Da Sellaio's small devotional pieces were well known, several of which depicted Saint Jerome and Saint John the Baptist. He also painted religious works for the church of San Lucia dei Magnoli and the church of San Frediano, both in Florence. More on Arcangelo di Jacopo del Sellaio
Arcangelo di Jacopo del Sellaio, (b. 1477/78, Firenze, d. 1530, Firenze)
Detail; St Jerome and St Mary of Egypt
Panel
32 x 11 cm (each)
Private collection
Emil Nolde's The St. Mary of Egypt Triptych’s three panels:
The second panel depicts her at the Church of the Holy Supluchre in Jerusalem, after having been miraculously prevented from entering into it to attend the service of the raising of the Holy Cross: She sees an icon of St. Mary the Theotokos, and prays and weeps as her sins are made manifest to her soul.
Then she attempted again to enter the church, and this time was permitted in. After venerating the relic of the true cross, she returned to the icon to give thanks, and heard a voice telling her, "If you cross the Jordan, you will find glorious rest."
"I bought three loaves and took them with me on my journey, as a blessed gift. I asked the person who sold the bread: `Which is the way to the Jordan?' I was directed to the city gate which led that way. Running on I passed the gates and still weeping went on my journey. Those I met I asked the way, and after walking for the rest of that day (I think it was nine o'clock when I saw the Cross) I at length reached at sunset the Church of St. John the Baptist which stood on the banks of the Jordan.
After praying in the temple, I went down to the Jordan and rinsed my face and hands in its holy waters. I partook of the holy and life-giving Mysteries in the Church of the Forerunner and ate half of one of my loaves. Then, after drinking some water from Jordan, I lay down and passed the night on the ground. In the morning I found a small boat and crossed to the opposite bank."
The next morning, she crossed the Jordan and retired to the desert to live the rest of her life as a hermit in penitence. She took with her only three loaves of bread, and once they were gone, lived only on what she could find in the wilderness.
For the next 47 years, she lived in the desert, enduring the burning heat of day and the freezing cold of night, having only wild herbs for food. Through extraordinary asceticism, the fire of carnal desire in her was turned into the flame of divine love. She struggled most intensely during the first 17 years, during which she was tormented by mad desires and passions.
David Bergen was a popular fantasy artist in the 1990s, almost nothing is known about David Bergen's career. He was active in the 1970s, illustrating Sphere's H. G. Wells' reprints and the cover for SF Digest (1976), as well as books by Arthur C. Clarke and Samuel R. Delaney. He illustrated See Inside a Space Station by Robin Kerrod (Hutchinson, 1977) and an illustration appeared in The Flights of Icarus (Paper Tiger, 1977). Soon after, he could be found contributing covers to DAW Books in the USA (e.g. Barrington J. Bayley's Star Winds and E. C. Tubb's Incident on Ath, both 1978). More on David Bergen
Unknown iconographer
Emil Nolde (born Emil Hansen; 7 August 1867 – 13 April 1956)
The Conversion
St. Mary at the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, after having been miraculously prevented from entering into it to attend the service of the raising of the Holy Cross: She sees an icon of St. Mary the Theotokos, and prays and weeps as her sins are made manifest to her soul
Then she attempted again to enter the church, and this time was permitted in. After venerating the relic of the true cross, she returned to the icon to give thanks, and heard a voice telling her, "If you cross the Jordan, you will find glorious rest."
Unknown iconographer
Mary receiving the call to the desert: "If you cross the Jordan, you will find rest", detail
"I bought three loaves and took them with me on my journey, as a blessed gift. I asked the person who sold the bread: `Which is the way to the Jordan?' I was directed to the city gate which led that way. Running on I passed the gates and still weeping went on my journey. Those I met I asked the way, and after walking for the rest of that day (I think it was nine o'clock when I saw the Cross) I at length reached at sunset the Church of St. John the Baptist which stood on the banks of the Jordan.
Unknown iconographer
St Mary of Egypt
Book of Hours, 16th century
Bibliothèque nationale de France
After praying in the temple, I went down to the Jordan and rinsed my face and hands in its holy waters. I partook of the holy and life-giving Mysteries in the Church of the Forerunner and ate half of one of my loaves. Then, after drinking some water from Jordan, I lay down and passed the night on the ground. In the morning I found a small boat and crossed to the opposite bank."
Unknown iconographer
Receiving communion at St. John the Baptist church; crossing the Jordan, detail
Tintoretto (1518–1594)
St Mary of Egypt (detail), c. between 1582 and 1587
Oil on canvas
Scuola Grande di San Rocco
Tintoretto; born Jacopo Comin, (October, 1518 – May 31, 1594) was an Italian painter and a notable exponent of the Renaissance school. For his phenomenal energy in painting he was termed Il Furioso. His work is characterized by its muscular figures, dramatic gestures, and bold use of perspective in the Mannerist style, while maintaining color and light typical of the Venetian School.
In his youth, Tintoretto was also known as Jacopo Robusti as his father had defended the gates of Padua in a way that others called robust, against the imperial troops during the War of the League of Cambrai (1509–1516). His real name "Comin" has only recently been discovered by Miguel Falomir, the curator of the Museo del Prado, Madrid, and was made public on the occasion of the retrospective of Tintoretto at the Prado in 2007. More on Tintoretto
Unknown iconographer
Mary (now with halo) in the desert, detail
In Italy, this Mary became associated with the patronage of fallen women much like Mary Magdalene, to whom similar traits were associated. Skulls usually appear inpainting of Mary Magdalene!
Quentin Metsys (1466-1530)
Penitent Mary Magdalen (left) and Penitent Mary of Egypt (right)
(Philadelphia, Museum of Fine Art, John G. Johnson Collection)
Quentin Metsys (1466-1530)
Penitent Mary of Egypt, c.1520-30
Oil on panel
12 1/4 x 8 3/8 inches (31.1 x 21.3 cm)
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Quentin Massys, Netherlandish (active Antwerp), 1466 - 1530
Saint Mary Magdalene, c. 1520-1530
Oil on panel
12 1/4 x 8 3/8 inches (31.1 x 21.3 cm)
Philadelphia Museum of Art
Quentin Massys (1466–1530) was a Flemish painter in the Early Netherlandish tradition. He was born in Leuven. There is a tradition alleging that he was trained as an ironsmith before becoming a painter. Matsys was active in Antwerp for over 20 years, creating numerous works with religious roots and satirical tendencies. He is regarded as the founder of the Antwerp school of painting, which became the leading school of painting in Flanders in the 16th century. He introduced new techniques and motifs as well as moralising subjects without completely breaking with the tradition. More on Quentin Massys
Jose Claudio Antolinez
St Mary of Egypt, c. 1660
Oil on canvas
89 x 62.8 cm
State Hermitage Museum
State Hermitage Museum
José Claudio Antolinez (1635 – 30 May 1675) was a Spanish painter of the Baroque period.
Antolinez was born and died in Madrid. He received his early training at the studio of Francisco Rizi.
His "haughty character and sarcastic personality gained him many enemies among his contemporaries". Some note he played maddening jokes on his colleagues Claudio Coello and Cabezalero as well as Itizi, whom he called painter of wall ornaments, in allusion to the latter's decoration of the hall of comedies in the Palace of Buen Retiro; but also impelled likely by his jealousy at lacking the same skill. Antolinez also painted religious paintings. More on José Claudio Antolinez
For the next 47 years, she lived in the desert, enduring the burning heat of day and the freezing cold of night, having only wild herbs for food. Through extraordinary asceticism, the fire of carnal desire in her was turned into the flame of divine love. She struggled most intensely during the first 17 years, during which she was tormented by mad desires and passions.
David Bergen
Mary
I have no further description, at this time
"My painting of Mary portrays her as she might have appeared some ten years into her solitary retreat. Rather than portraying the Saint Mary of the Church, I wanted to be true to Mary’s humanity, to grant her the dignity of a very human soul living in harsh self-imposed exile from her own kind." David Bergen
Saint Mary of Egypt, c. 1800
Oil on canvas
71 1/2 x 57 1/4 in. (181.6 x 145.4 cm)
Chrysler Museum of Art
This oil on canvas painting features Mary of Egypt, slumped over in a desert cave. She reads, repenting her sins while holding a cross to her chest. A lion, looking as sorrowful as she, attends her. More on this painting
Jean-Baptiste Greuze, (French, 1725 - 1805). After training in Lyon, Jean-Baptiste Greuze arrived in Paris in 1750, where he sporadically attended the Académie Royale. His 1755 Salon debut was a triumph, but the acclamation turned his head. He antagonized everyone, including fellow artists, which later proved disastrous.
While retaining the clear, bright colors and lighter attitude of eighteenth-century painting, Greuze introduced a Dutch-influenced realism into French genre painting and portraiture. Through vivid facial expressions and dramatic gestures, Greuze's moralizing paintings exemplified the new idea that painting should relate to life. They captured the details of settings and costumes, "spoke to the heart," educated viewers, and aimed to make them "virtuous."
In 1769 Académie members refused Greuze membership as a history painter, accepting him only in the lower category of genre, perhaps partly from ill will. Humiliated, he withdrew from public exhibitions completely. During the 1770s Greuze enjoyed a widespread reputation and engravings after his paintings were widely distributed, but his wife embezzled most of the proceeds. By the 1780s, Neoclassicism curtailed his popularity and his quality declined. After enduring poverty and neglect, he died unnoticed, having outlived his time and his reputation. More on Jean-Baptiste Greuze
It was at this time that St Zosimas, a priest-monk was staying at a desert monastery near the Jordan. According to the tradition there, between the start of Great Lent the monks would leave the monastery and wander into the desert, spending the time until Palm Sunday in solitude and prayer. Alone in the desert it was ordained for Zosimas to see St Mary – naked and blackened by the sun, hair as white as snow. Seeking spiritual nourishment, Zosimas begged the apparition for a saving word or two, but Mary fled from him. When he came within ear-shot, Mary, calling Zosimas by name (even though they’d never met), asked him to throw her his cloak that she might cover her nakedness.
Zosimas chases Mary..., detail
Approximately one year before her death, she recounted her life to St. Zosimas, a priest-monk from a Palestinian monastery on the outskirts of Caesarea. When he unexpectedly met her in the desert, she was completely naked and almost unrecognisable as human.
then gives her his cloak, detail
"Why did you wish, Abba Zosimas, to see a sinful woman? What do you wish to hear or learn from me, you who have not shrunk from such great struggles?"
Unknown iconographer
Mary of Egypt, covered in golden hair, being handed a cloak by Zosimus, at the beginning of her suffrage, 15th century
France, Central (Paris) Yates Thompson
Unknown iconographer
Zosimas begging for, and then receiving, Mary's life story, detail
Zosimas threw himself on the ground and asked for her blessing. She likewise bowed down before him. And thus they lay on the ground prostrate asking for each other's blessing. And one word alone could be heard from both: "Bless me!"
"Abba Zosimas, it is you who must give blessing and pray. You are dignified by the order of priesthood and for may years you have been standing before the holy altar and offering the sacrifice of the Divine Mysteries."
Unknown iconographer
Zosimas begging for the story St. Mary of Egypt
Syrian; circa the 1700s A.D.
Icon in paint and gold on wood
The Monastery of Our Lady of Balamand, Lebanon
After a long while the woman narrated her life's story to him, manifesting marvellous clairvoyance. She asked him to meet her at the banks of the Jordan, on Holy Thursday of the following year, and bring her Holy Communion.
After David Teniers the Younger
SAINT MARY OF EGYPT RECEIVING HER LAST COMMUNION FROM ZOSIMUS
Oil on canvas
Private collection
David Teniers the Younger or David Teniers II (bapt. 15 December 1610 – 25 April 1690) was a Flemish Baroque painter, printmaker, draughtsman, miniaturist painter, staffage painter, copyist and art curator. He was an extremely versatile artist known for his prolific output. He was an innovator in a wide range of genres such as history painting, genre painting, landscape painting, portrait and still life. He is now best remembered as the leading Flemish genre painter of his day. Teniers is particularly known for developing the peasant genre, the tavern scene, pictures of collections and scenes with alchemists and physicians.
He was court painter and the curator of the collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, the art-loving Governor General of the Habsburg Netherlands. He created a printed catalogue of the collections of the Archduke. He was the founder of the Antwerp Academy, where young artists were trained to draw and sculpt in the hope of reviving Flemish art after its decline following the death of the leading Flemish artists Rubens and Anthony van Dyck in the early 1640s. He influenced the next generation of Northern genre painters as well as French Rococo painters such as Antoine Watteau. More on David Teniers
St. Mary of Egypt receiving the Holy Eucharist from St. Zosimas
Egg tempera on wood
10 7/8 in. x 19 in.
I have no further description, at this time
Originally from Puerto Rico, V. Rev. Igumen Silouan (Justiniano) obtained a BFA from the School of Visual Arts, NY, and later an MFA in painting from Hunter College, CUNY. He is Deputy Abbot of the Monastery of Saint Dionysios the Areopagite (ROCOR) on Long Island, NY, where he dedicates most of his time to serving the daily cycle and painting icons. His articles have appeared in various publications in the US and abroad. Fr. Silouan is also an editor and contributor to the Orthodox Arts Journal. More on Fr. Silouan Justiniano
Unknown iconographer
Mary receiving communion
I have no further description, at this time
Anonymous (Macedonia or Serbia)
The Communion of St Mary of Egypt, c. 17th century
Tempera and gold on wood
H. 39,5 x w. 25,5 cm
Petit Palais - City of Paris Fine Art Museum
This icon is a faithful representation according to the description of her, written in the 7th century during her life and attributed to Sophronios. Like a “shadow”, her face appears emaciated by fasting and by the harshness of her life, while her body is skeletal. Her white, wool-like hair is sparse, and she is wearing a simple cloak draped over her skin which has been bronzed by the sun. The white highlights are related to uncreated light, a sign of sainthood.
The scene commemorates the meeting with the monk Zosime, who came to visit her at the end of her life. Wearing a priestly stole, he gives her communion, consisting of bread soaked in wine, with the aid of a long-handled liturgical spoon used in the Byzantine church. The saint is opening her mouth to receive the communion which she takes with her right hand. Her left hand folded over her breast hides her nudity in a gesture of modesty.
Monasticism developed from the 4th century onwards in Egypt and Palestine, following the great hermit Saint Anthony, who began the movement and whose life is known to us by the account written by Athanasius of Alexandria shortly after the saint’s death, in 356. Mary of Egypt is one of the rare known female hermits. More on this painting
Unknown iconographer
Mary receiving communion on the banks of the Jordan
I have no further description, at this time
When he fulfilled her wish, she crossed the river to get to him by walking on the surface of the water, and received Holy Communion, telling him to meet her again in the desert the following Lent.
Marcantonio Franceschini
The Last Communion of Saint Mary of Egypt, 1680
Oil on copper
16 3/4 x 21 3/8 in. (42.5 x 54.3 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Mary of Egypt is shown receiving her Last Communion from the hands of the priest Zosimus, following forty-seven years of isolation in the wilderness of Palestine. The picture has a pendant showing the ecstasy of Saint Mary Magdalen (Molinari Pradelli collection, Bologna). It was given in 1709 to Pope Clement XI as a gift of the Senate of Bologna in anticipation of his support for the founding of an art academy in the city. Franceschini’s art strove for clarity of expression and an idealized humanity consonant with the religious and mythological stories that he depicted. More on this painting
Marcantonio Franceschini, (born April 5, 1648, Bologna, Papal States [Italy]—died Dec. 24, 1729, Bologna), Italian painter, a leading artist of the Bolognese school of the Baroque period.
Franceschini worked in Genoa, Modena, and Rome as well as in Bologna and worked extensively for patrons in Austria and Germany. He was made director of the Clementina Academy in Bologna in 1721. Franceschini was the last important representative of the tradition of the Carracci; the works of Lodovico Carracci and Francesco Albani are the main sources of his style. His figures, brushwork, and colouring are not remarkable, but he had a gift for skillfully arranging an elaborate composition and demonstrated considerable talent as a decorator. His paintings in both oils and fresco are numerous, though little known; the most famous frescoes, which were done for the Church of Corpus Domini, Bologna (1687–94), were destroyed during World War II. More on Marcantonio Franceschini
Unknown iconographer
St. Mary miraculously crossing the Jordan River to receive the Holy Communion from St. Zosimas
I have no further description, at this time
Unknown iconographer
Almugavar Hours, Saints Onuphrius and Mary of Egypt and decorative border with flowers, angels, and faunal motifs, Walters Manuscript W.420, fol. 254v
Walters Art Museum Illuminated Manuscripts
This book of hours was produced ca. 1510-1520 for a member of the Catalonian Almugavar family. There are twenty-six full-page polychrome miniatures (three are missing). A significant number of feast days associated with Barcelona help reinforce the Spanish attribution of the manuscript, although the style of the decoration is clearly influenced by contemporary Flemish design. More on The book of hours
Unknown iconographer
The Last Communion of Saint Mary of Egypt
I have no further description, at this time
Abbas Zosimas and Mary of Egypt. 17 c
A.S. Onassis Foundation
I have no further description, at this time
The Communion and Funeral of St. Mary the Egyptian
Fresco on the south wall of the nave in Trinity Chapel in Lublin
I have no further description, at this time
The next year, Zosimas travelled to the same spot where he first met her, some twenty day's journey from his monastery, and found her lying there dead. According to an inscription written in the sand next to her head, she had died on the very night he had given her Communion and had been somehow miraculously transported to the place he found her, and her body was preserved incorrupt.
Pietro da Cortona
Death of Saint Mary of Egypt
Oil on canvas
Pitti Palace
He buried her body with the assistance of a passing lion. On returning to the monastery he related her life story to the brethren, and it was preserved among them as oral tradition until it was written down by St. Sophronius.
Pietro da Cortona (1596 or 1597 – 1669) was an Italian Baroque painter and architect. Along with his contemporaries and rivals Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini, he was one of the key figures in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture. He was also an important designer of interior decorations.
He was born Pietro Berrettini, but is primarily known by the name of his native town of Cortona in Tuscany. He 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 Berrettini
Emil Nolde's The St. Mary of Egypt Triptych’s three panels:
The third panel shows her dead in the last visit of St. Zosimas with the lion that helped Zosimas in digging a grave to bury her.
In iconography, St Mary of Egypt is depicted as a deeply tanned, emaciated old woman with unkempt gray hair, either naked or covered by the mantle she borrowed from Zosimas. She is often shown with the three loaves of bread she bought before undertaking her journey into the desert.
The Life of Blessed Mary of Egypt. Moving counter-clockwise from the upper left we see six episodes in the story of this saint: 1. Some one appears to Zosimus and tells him, "Go to the monastery that lies near the Jordan." 2. During his Lenten sojourn in the wilderness, he sees an apparition and tries to follow, but it runs away. 3. The apparition is the hermit Mary of Egypt, who tells Zosimus to give her his cloak because her clothes have rotted away. He does so, and she tells him her story. 4. The following year he returns to give Mary communion. 5. The year after that, he arrives to find her dead. A lion digs her a grave with its paws. 6. At the very top of the icon, an angel takes Mary's soul to Christ in Heaven. More on this work
Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others
Acknowledgement: Wikipedia, A Reader's Guide to Orthodox Icons, lessons from a monastery, Internet Medieval Source Book,
Emil Nolde (1867-1956)
Death of St Mary of Egypt, c. 1912, by
Oil on canvas
87x100 cm.
Museum Folkwang, Essen, Germany
Emil Nolde, see above
David Teniers the Younger (1610–1690)
Saint Mary of Egypt in the Desert
Oil on panel
height: 22.5 cm (8.8 in); width: 17.1 cm (6.7 in)
Philadelphia Museum of Art
David Teniers the Younger or David Teniers II (bapt. 15 December 1610 – 25 April 1690) was a Flemish Baroque painter, printmaker, draughtsman, miniaturist painter, staffage painter, copyist and art curator. He was an extremely versatile artist known for his prolific output. He was an innovator in a wide range of genres such as history painting, genre painting, landscape painting, portrait and still life. He is now best remembered as the leading Flemish genre painter of his day. Teniers is particularly known for developing the peasant genre, the tavern scene, pictures of collections and scenes with alchemists and physicians.
He was court painter and the curator of the collection of Archduke Leopold Wilhelm, the art-loving Governor General of the Habsburg Netherlands. He created a printed catalogue of the collections of the Archduke. He was the founder of the Antwerp Academy, where young artists were trained to draw and sculpt in the hope of reviving Flemish art after its decline following the death of the leading Flemish artists Rubens and Anthony van Dyck in the early 1640s. He influenced the next generation of Northern genre painters as well as French Rococo painters such as Antoine Watteau. More on David Teniers
Théodore Chassériau (1819-1856)
St. Mary the Egyptian buried by Zosimas, a lion digs her grave
Fresco
Catholic parish church of Saint-Merry in Paris
Théodore Chassériau (September 20, 1819 – October 8, 1856) was a Dominican-born French Romantic painter noted for his portraits, historical and religious paintings, allegorical murals, and Orientalist images inspired by his travels to Algeria. Early in his career he painted in a Neoclassical style close to that of his teacher Jean-Auguste-Dominique Ingres, but in his later works he was strongly influenced by the Romantic style of Eugène Delacroix. He was a prolific draftsman, and made a suite of prints to illustrate Shakespeare's Othello. The portrait he painted at the age of 15 of Prosper Marilhat, makes Théodore Chassériau the youngest painter exhibited at the Louvre museum. More on Théodore Chassériau
St Mary of Egypt is revered by both the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox Churches. She is usually pictured as a wasted elderly woman clothed only in hair, with her three loaves and a lion at her feet.
Unknown iconographer
The Burial of St Mary of Egypt, as related in her Life.
I have no further description, at this time
Antonio Benci known as Pollaiuolo (1431-ca 1498)
Assumption of St Mary of Egypt or Assumption of St Mary Magdalene, c. 1460
Oil and tempera on wood
199 x 160 cm
I have no further description, at this time
Antonio Pollaiuolo (1427-79) was an Italian sculptor, painter, goldsmith and engraver, Pollaiuolo was a master of anatomy, rendering his figurative subjects with unsurpassed skill. One of the great bronze sculptors of the day, known mainly for his mythological sculpture, he was a favourite of the Renaissance Medici family and one of the best known figures in Renaissance sculpture. His most popular works include the two papal tombs for Innocent VIII (1492-98) and Sixtus IV (1484-93), both in Saint Peter's Basilica, Rome.
Born in 1432 in Florence, Pollaiuolo was christened Antonio di Jacopo d'Antonio Benci. He initially trained in goldsmithery before studying sculpture. Antonio's younger brother Piero was also an artist and together they established a busy workshop, producing gold and bronze sculptures, paintings and decorative work. They worked together on so many projects that it has been historically difficult to separate their individual endeavours. The Medici family of the Florence Renaissance - notably Lorenzo Medici - were one of Antonio's main patrons. More on Antonio Pollaiuolo
Roman School, 17th Century
Saint Mary of Egypt borne by angels circa 1620-1625
Oil on copper
22.1 x 17 cm. 8¾ x 6¾ in.
Private collection
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 Painting in 17th-century Italy
In iconography, St Mary of Egypt is depicted as a deeply tanned, emaciated old woman with unkempt gray hair, either naked or covered by the mantle she borrowed from Zosimas. She is often shown with the three loaves of bread she bought before undertaking her journey into the desert.
Ottavio Vannini
Saint Mary of Egypt taken to heaven by angels in the presence of the monk Zosimus
Oil on canvas
cm. 175,5x88.
Private collection
Ottavio Vannini (September 15, 1585 – c. 1643) was an Italian artist of the Baroque period, active mainly in Florence.
Born in Florence to Michele Vannini. He initially apprenticed for four years with a mediocre painter by the name of Giovanni Battista Mercati (possibly the engraver), but he then trained in Rome under Anastasio Fuontebuoni. He returned to Florence to work with Domenico Passignani. He painted a St Vincent Ferrer for the church of San Marco, Florence; and an Adoration of the Magi for the church of the Carmine. He painted the altarpiece for the chapel of the Holy Sacrament in the cathedral of Colle Val d'Elsa. He painted a Tancred and Erminia and an Ecce Homo now in the Palazzo Pitti. He painted a Communion of St. Jerome for the church of Santa Anna.
In 2007, Vannini's 1640 work, The Triumph of David (on loan from the Haukohl Family Collection) hanging at the Milwaukee Art Museum's Early European Gallery was attacked by a person described as having a history of mental illness. It was reported he was disturbed by the image of Goliath's severed head. More on Ottavio Vannini
Francesco Guarino (1611 – 1651, Italian)
Saint Mary of Egypt Raised By Angels
I have no further description, at this time
Unknown iconographer
Saint Mary of Egypt
I have no further description, at this time
Unknown iconographer
The Venerable Mary of Egypt
I have no further description, at this time
Unknown iconographer
The Life of Blessed Mary of Egypt, 19th century
Russian Icon
I have no further description, at this time
Unknown iconographer
Saint Mary of Egypt, Russian, 16th C.
I have no further description, at this time
Unknown iconographer
Mary of Egypt
I have no further description, at this time
Unknown iconographer
Russian icon of St. Mary of Egypt, 18th century
Kuopio Orthodox Church Museum
Unknown iconographer
St. Mary of Egypt
Pinacoteca Nazionale di Siena, Italy
Unknown iconographer
Mary of Egypt missal and book of hours
Lombardy, ca. 1385-1390
I have no further description, at this time
Unknown iconographer
St. Mary of Egypt
I have no further description, at this time
Unknown iconographer
The Last Communion of Saint Mary of Egypt
I have no further description, at this time
Unknown iconographer
The Last Communion of Saint Mary of Egypt
I have no further description, at this time
Unknown iconographer
St. Mary of Egypt
I have no further description, at this time
Unknown iconographer
Holy Venerable Mary of Egypt
I have no further description, at this time
Unknown Sculpture
St. Mary of Egypt, c. 15th century
St. Mary's Chapel. Porch of Saint-Germain l'Auxerrois, Paris
I have no further description, at this time
Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others
Acknowledgement: Wikipedia, A Reader's Guide to Orthodox Icons, lessons from a monastery, Internet Medieval Source Book,
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