Religious art is a visual representation of religious ideologies and their relationship with humans. Sacred art directly relates to religious art in the sense that its purpose is for worship and religious practices. According to one set of definitions, artworks that are inspired by religion but are not considered traditionally sacred remain under the umbrella term of religious art. More on Religious art
Raphael, 1483 – 1520
The Miraculous Draught of Fishes, c. 1515-1516
Bodycolour on paper on canvas
320 × 390 cm
Victoria and Albert Museum, London
Pope Leo X commissions Raphael to design ten draperies for the lower parts of the walls of the Sistine Chapel. In 1515-16 Raphael creates the cartoons for the wool and silk draperies to be manufactured in Pieter van Aelst's workshop in Brussels. Seven cartoons survive today, and are kept in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. Four draperies show scenes from the life of Peter, the other six of Paul's.
This cartoon shows the Lake of Gennesaret, better known as Lake Tiberias or the Sea of Galilee. Peter, still known as Simon at the time, has been fishing all night, but has caught nothing. Jesus asks Peter if he can address a crowd from his boat. Afterwards Jesus tells Peter to throw out his nets, which he does. When he hauls them back in, he is stunned to find them full of fish. Peter immediately joins Jesus, soon after followed by his mates James and John. More on this painting
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
Raffaello
.jpg)
Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi) (Italian, Milan or Caravaggio, 1571–1610 Porto Ercole)
The Denial of Saint Peter, c. 1610
Oil on canvas
37 x 49 3/8 in. (94 x 125.4 cm)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Denial of Saint Peter. Standing before a fireplace, the apostle Peter is accused of being a follower of Jesus. The pointing finger of the soldier and the two fingers of the woman allude to the three accusations recounted in the Bible as well as to Peter's three denials. The composition is reduced to essentials. The soldier's helmet is taken from a precise model of the early sixteenth century, thus breaking down the fiction of an imagined past. More The Denial
Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi) (Italian, Milan or Caravaggio 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 on Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio
Attr. To François Venant
Crucifixion between the two thieves
Oil on oak panel
34 13/16 X 47 5/8 IN. 88,5 X 121 CM
Private collection
Estimate for €4,000 - €6,000 in Oct 2018
François Venant was a Dutch painter; born in Midellburg in 1591 , buried in Amsterdam on17 March 1636.
François Venant was part of a group of artists called pre-rembranesques, that is to say painters before Rembrandt.
17th century French school,
Christ in front of Pilate
Oil on canvas
92 1/8 X 87 IN. 234 X 221 CM
Private collection
Sold for 5,460.00 € in Mar 2017
John 18:28-40. Then the Jewish leaders took Jesus from Caiaphas to the palace of the Roman governor Pilate. By now it was early morning, and to avoid ceremonial uncleanness they did not enter the palace, because they wanted to be able to eat the Passover.
17th-century French art is generally referred to as Baroque, but from the mid to late 17th century, the style of French art shows a classical adherence to certain rules of proportion and sobriety uncharacteristic of the Baroque as it was practiced in Southern and Eastern Europe during the same period.
In the early part of the 17th century, late mannerist and early Baroque tendencies continued to flourish in the court of Marie de' Medici and Louis XIII. Art from this period shows influences from both the north of Europe and from Roman painters of the Counter-Reformation. Artists in France frequently debated the merits between Peter Paul Rubens and Nicolas Poussin.
There was also a strong Caravaggio school represented in the period by the candle-lit paintings of Georges de La Tour. The wretched and the poor were featured in an almost Dutch manner in the paintings by the three Le Nain brothers. In the paintings of Philippe de Champaigne there are both propagandistic portraits of Louis XIII' s minister Cardinal Richelieu and other more contemplative portraits of people in the Jansenist sect. More 17th-century French art
Gortzius Geldorp, LEUVEN 1553 - 1618 COLOGNE
THE VIRGIN IN PRAYER
Oil on oak panel
62.8 x 47.8 cm.; 24 5/8 x 18 7/8 in
Private collection
Estimated for €3,500 EUR - €4,000 EUR in Dec 2022
Gortzius Geldorp (1553–1618) was a Flemish Renaissance artist who was active in Germany where he distinguished himself through his portrait paintings. Geldorp was born in Leuven. Geldorp first learned to paint from Frans Francken I and later from Frans Pourbus the Elder.
Geldorp became court painter to the Duke of Terra Nova, Carlo d'Aragona Tagliavia, whom he accompanied on his trips. He travelled to Cologne with the Duke who was participating in peace negotiations with the Dutch Republic. Geldorp stayed in the city while remaining a companion of the Duke on his travels. In 1610 Geldorp took over the seat of Barthel Bruyn the Younger on the city council of Cologne. Geldorp was a successful portrait painter working for the aristocracy and other prominent patrons. More Gortzius Geldorp
Andrea Vaccaro, NAPLES 1604 - 1670
THE PENITENT MAGDALENE
oil on canvas,
oval 89 x 73.5 cm.; 35 x 29 in.
Private collection
Mary Magdalene provides a lens to view the role of the feminine in religion and culture over the centuries. She has been variously portrayed as a wealthy benefactress to Jesus and his followers, as a prostitute, as an apostle, as an ascetic, as a contemplative, and as Jesus' companion. In these various roles, she is viewed as an individual, and her individuality allows an exploration of the feminine in Christianity. Her life is reflected not only in the New Testament descriptions of her but also in the Gnostic Book of Mary and the Gnostic Gospels found at Nag Hammadi in Upper Egypt. In the New Testament Gospels, she is identified as the privileged person who found the empty tomb and to whom the resurrected Christ first appeared. Earlier in the Christian Bible, she is described as among the wealthy women who provided material support for Jesus' teaching. In the Book of Mary, she is said to be the most beloved among the disciples and is described there as the female apostle. In the Nag Hammadi Gnostic Gospels, she is referred to as a leader who went forth along with the other disciples in the Book of Thomas and as companion to Jesus in the Book of Philip. More Mary Magdalene
Andrea Vaccaro (baptised on 8 May
1604 – 18 January 1670) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period. Vaccaro was in his
time one of the most successful painters in Naples, a city then under Spanish
rule. Very successful and valued in his lifetime, Vaccaro and his workshop
produced many religious works for local patrons as well as for export to
Spanish religious orders and noble patrons. More Andrea Vaccaro
Guido Cagnacci, (1601–1663)
Martha blames Mary for her Vanity, c. after 1660
Oil on canvas
229 × 266 cm (90.2 × 104.7 in)
Norton Simon Museum, Pasadena
This is no ordinary representation of Mary Magdalene, who became a follower of Christ and later, a saint. Traditionally shown holding a skull and contemplating her morality, here she lies almost naked on the ground, begged by her virtuous sister Martha to abandon her sinful life of vice and luxury. Virtue, a blond-haired angel, chases out Vice, a devil who bites his hand in anger as he turns for a last look at the Magdalene. The painting is a celebration of the triumph of virtue over vice, but Cagnacci takes obvious pleasure in describing worldly temptations – in particular, the attention he lavishes on the expensive costume, beautiful shoes, and jewellery scattered across the floor. More on Martha blames Mary for her Vanity
Guido Cagnacci, (January 19, 1601 – 1663) was
an Italian painter of the Baroque period, who produced many works characterized
by their use of chiaroscuro and their sensual subjects. Cagnacci was born
in Santarcangelo di Romagna, near Rimini. He worked in Rimini from 1627 to
1642. After that, he moved to work in Forlì, where he would have been able to
observe the paintings of Melozzo.
In Rome he may have had an apprenticeship with the
elderly Ludovico Carracci in Bologna. His initial output includes many
devotional subjects. But moving to Venice under the name of Guico Baldo
Canlassi da Bologna, he dedicated himself to private salon paintings, often
depicting sensuous naked women from thigh upwards. In 1658, he traveled to
Vienna, where he remained under patronage of the Emperor Leopold I. He
died in Vienna in 1663. More Guido
Cagnacci
Unknown
Unknown woman, formerly known as Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury,
circa 1535
National Portrait Gallery
Blessed Margaret Pole, Countess of Salisbury (14 August 1473 – 27 May 1541), was born August 14, 1473. She was the Countess of Salisbury and she was distantly in line for the throne of England. Being a possible successor to the throne called for danger. She was only three years old when her mother died and a few years later her father died as well.
When Margaret was about eighteen years old, she married a distant relative, Sir Richard Pole. Her marriage was a happy one. She had five children; one of them became a cardinal and later, Archbishop of Canterbury. In 1505, Margaret was widowed.
Then, years later, she became godmother and governess to Princess Mary, daughter of to King Henry VIII and Catherine of Aragon. When King Henry wanted to divorce Catherine of Aragon, Margaret’s son, Cardinal Reginald Pole, spoke out against the decision. The entire Pole family was against the divorce.
The king found this insulting and threatening. Because the family was against his decision, they were exiled from the court and stripped of their titles. No longer was Margret a governess to the young princess.
Eventually, she was taken to the Tower of London. And two years later, she was beheaded. Two of her sons would soon die for the same cause.
On December 29, 1886, she was beatified by Pope Leo XIII along with other English martyrs. Her feast day is May 28, the day she died in 1541. She was around seventy years old. More Blessed Margaret Pole
Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints, 365 Days, and Biblical Icons, also visit my Boards on Pinterest and my art stores at deviantart and Aaroko
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.
Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting
expenses.
If you enjoyed this post, please share with
friends and family.
Thank you for visiting my blog and also for
liking its posts and pages.
Please note that the content of this post
primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources
online.
