Tag: Bible
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01 Work, CONTEMPORARY Interpretation of the Bible! Kasia Derwinska’s Prayer, with Footnotes – #51
I talk to God but the sky is empty. Sylvia Plath Sylvia Plath October 27, 1932 – February 11, 1963) was an American poet, novelist, and short-story writer. Plath was clinically depressed for most of her adult life, and was treated multiple times with electroconvulsive therapy. She died by suicide in 1963. More on Sylvia Plath Kasia Derwinska…
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01 Work, RELIGIOUS ART – Interpretation the bible, Lidia Wylangowska’s Bohemian Angel, with Footnotes – #129
An angel is generally a supernatural being found in various religions and mythologies. In Abrahamic religions and Zoroastrianism, angels are often depicted as benevolent celestial beings who act as intermediaries between God or Heaven and Humanity. Other roles of angels include protecting and guiding human beings, and carrying out God’s tasks. More on Angels Lidia Wylangowska: “My…
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01 Work, RELIGIOUS ART – Interpretation the bible, Henri Fantin-Latour’s Stabat Mater, with Footnotes – 128
The Stabat Mater is a 13th-century Christian hymn to Mary, which portrays her suffering as Jesus Christ’s mother during his crucifixion. Its author may be either the Franciscan friar Jacopone da Todi or Pope Innocent III. The title comes from its first line, “Stabat Mater dolorosa”, which means “the sorrowful mother was standing”. The hymn is…
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2 Religious Icons, Barnaba da Modena and Veneto-Cretan Icons of the Madonna and Child, with footnotes #27
The panel, probably originally rectangular, was cut at the top following the profile of the moldings in relief. Central element of a polyptych. The Nursing Madonna, Virgo Lactans, or Madonna Lactans, is an iconography of the Madonna and Child in which the Virgin Mary is shown breastfeeding the infant Jesus. In Italian it is called…
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04 Icons from the Bible, Mother of God Znamenie, Madonna del Parto, Christ is carrying our cross, Mother of God “Surety of sinners” and the Mandylio, with footnotes, #18
The Icon of the Mother of God, named the “Sign” (“Znamenie”), shows the Most Holy Mother of God seated with prayerfully uplifted hands. On Her bosom, against the background of a circular shield (or sphere) — is the Divine Infant giving a blessing. The Mother of God, known under the name “Znamenie-Sign”, appeared in Rus’ during the…
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01 Work, CONTEMPORARY Interpretation of the Bible! Joel-Peter Witkin’s Ars Moriendi, with Footnotes – #50
Joel-Peter Witkin is known for his grotesquely beautiful photographs that explore themes of death, religion, and the experience of being socially outcast. Witkin stages surrealistic scenes with cadavers, skeletons, and dismembered body parts so they recall Classical paintings and religious imagery. More on this work The Ars moriendi (“The Art of Dying”) are two related Latin texts…
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05 Works, February 20th, is Saint Leo of Catania’s Day, With Footnotes – #50
Icon with water-gilding on plywood. The wood has been prepared in heat and gilded with gold leaf 24K, in accordance with traditional Byzantine techniques. The icon has been painted with egg-tempera paints for best performance and endurance of colors used. The colors were chosen based on studies and analyses of older icons by renowned iconographers,…
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01 Work, CONTEMPORARY Interpretation of the Bible! Jean Jansem’s Lot and his two daughters, with Footnotes – 44
Lot and his two daughters, Genesis 19:30-38, left Zoar and settled in the mountains, for he was afraid to stay in Zoar. He and his two daughters lived in a cave. 31 One day the older daughter said to the younger, “Our father is old, and there is no man around here to give us children—as…
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01 Work, CONTEMPORARY Interpretation of the Biblel, by Roberto Ferri, With Footnotes – #54
Our Prayer Against Evil – Deliver us From Evil-The original language of this passage has the article “the”-i.e. “deliver us from the evil”-the Evil One or Satan. The meaning here is, “deliver us from his power, his snares, his arts, his temptations.” Satan is supposed to be the great parent of evil, and to be delivered…
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01 Work, RELIGIOUS ART – Interpretation the bible, Giacinto Brandi’s Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane, with Footnotes – #131
Gethsemane is an urban garden at the foot of the Mount of Olives in Jerusalem. In Christianity, it is the place where Jesus underwent the agony in the garden and was arrested the night before his crucifixion. Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane refers to the events in the life of Jesus as recorded in the…
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07 Icons, RELIGIOUS ART – Icons from the 14 and 15 Centuries, with footnotes – 5
The arrangement and combination of subjects in this devotional triptych were common throughout the Florentine Trecento and early Quattrocento, a tried and tested formula which found its origin in Bernardo Daddi’s Bigallo Triptych of 1333, in the Museo del Bigallo, Florence. The left wing depicts the Nativity; the right wing shows the Crucifixion. The pinnacles…
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1 Religious Icon, 19th C. St. John the Baptist & Head, with footnotes #24
A winged St. John the Baptist holding a scroll as well as his severed head on a platter, with God the Father above. The wings occupy a large part of the composition and bestow John the Baptist’s body with an otherworldly, celestial dimension. The artist painstakingly delineated the feathered wings in various neutral earthtones with…
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01 Painting, RELIGIOUS ART – Interpretations by The Master of the Figdor St Eustache, With Footnotes # 70 A
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…
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01 Religious Icon, 19th C. Russian Icon, St. Seraphim of Sarov, with footnotes #23
St. Seraphim of Sarovblesses himself before his icon of the Mother of God hanging in the tree above. At his feet are a hat, bread sack, gloves, and axe. The strongly modeled visage as well as the perspectival background suggest that the painter was very much influenced by Western art. The borders are meticulously incised…
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08 Paintings, RELIGIOUS ART – Interpretations of the Bible! by Paul Gauguin, Louis B. Davis, Callisto Piazza, and Dante Gabriel Rossetti, With Footnotes # 56
Lilith, the subject of this painting, is described in Judaic literature as the first wife of Adam. She is associated with the seduction of men and the murder of children. The depiction of women as powerful and evil temptresses was prevalent in 19th-century painting, particularly among the Pre-Raphaelites. The artist depicts Lilith as an iconic,…
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2 Religious Icon, Virgin of the Burning Bush and the Theotokos of Unburnt Bush with footnotes #22
The subject of Our Lady of the Burning Bush is based on the Old Testament prophecy of the incarnation of Christ. Such theologians as St Gregory of Nyssa and Theodoret of Cyrrhus regarded Moses’s vision of the burning bush as a symbol and prototype of the Virgin Mary and the Immaculate Conception. The iconography of…
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08 works, Today, December 28th, is The 20,000 Martyrs of Nicomedia’s day, their story, illustrated #360
Stroganov School is a conventional name for the last major Russian icon-painting school, which thrived under the patronage of the rich Stroganov family of merchants in the late 16th and 17th century. “Stroganov School” owes its name to frequent mentioning of the Stroganovs on the markings on the back of the icons of Yemelyan Moskvitin,…
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09 works, Today, December 25th, is Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthasar’s day, their story, illustrated #357
Andrea Mantegna ( c. 1431 — September 13, 1506) was an Italian painter, a student of Roman archeology, and son-in-law of Jacopo Bellini. Like other artists of the time, Mantegna experimented with perspective, e.g. by lowering the horizon in order to create a sense of greater monumentality. His flinty, metallic landscapes and somewhat stony figures give evidence…
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06 works, Today, December 24th, is Adela of Normandy’s day, her story, illustrated #356
Adela of Normandy, of Blois, or of England (c. 1067 – 8 March 1137), also known as Saint Adela in Roman Catholicism, was a daughter of William the Conqueror and Matilda of Flanders who later became the Countess of Blois, Chartres, and Meaux by marriage to Stephen II, Count of Blois. The couple had ten children…
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09 works, Today, December 16th, is Saint Adelaide of Italy’s, day, her story, illustrated #349
Tracy L. Christianson: “I’m a self taught artist who has loved drawing people for as long as I can remember. While working as a graphic artist /designer, I did portraiture on the side. My future lead me to combining my beautiful Catholic faith and love of portraiture to drawing portraits of the saints. Each saint…