This site's editor-in-chief is a Catholic husband, father, and author. He loves sharing the Catholic faith through art and graphic design. Check out his prayer books and coloring books on Amazon.com
Stories of Christ’s childhood and adolescence became increasingly popular during the Counter-Reformation because they were easily understood by a broad public. Rather than taking a story from the Bible, Zurbarán appears to have invented this subject, in which Jesus pricks himself on a crown of thorns he is weaving,...
In the Roman Catholic Church, candles are at times placed before a statue of Jesus, of the Blessed Virgin Mary, or of some other saint. Often, in older or traditional churches, this will be before a bye-altar. A votive candle signifies literally that the lighting is done in fulfillment of...
According to the Gospel of Luke, an encounter between the Virgin Mary and her cousin Elizabeth is one of mutual rejoicing, as both women are pregnant. The composition of this image–originally drawn by Theodor Rehbenitz in 1820–is unusual in combining both German and Italian features of Renaissance art....
The artist covered the sides and reverse of this panel with a thin layer of gesso (a type of plaster), allowing the texture of the rough wood to remain visible. He then painted it to resemble porphyry, a beautiful and valuable stone. Source [https://www.clevelandart.org/art/1924.199]...
In a photograph taken 21 May 2015, and made available by Make It Kenya, a man holds a bible while others claps their hands in prayer during rehearsals ahead of Kenya and Africa's first Roman Catholic beatification ceremony. Final preparations are being made to host thousands of worshippers,...
The bearded, elderly Saint Paul, dressed in a toga as an ancient Roman, sits with a pen in his right hand and an ink pot in his left. Pausing from writing his book, the Epistles, he looks up to heaven for divine inspiration and lifts up one foot to rest...
This small devotional picture by an anonymous 17th-century Venetian artist drew his composition from Guido Reni's large St. Andrew Led to Martyrdom fresco in Rome's Church of San Gregorio al Celio. The CMA painting portrays the central image of Reni's 1608 fresco by Reni....
This photo shows Central African Republic women wearing headscarves and standing outside the Bangui cathedral. Bangui is the capital and largest city of the Central African Republic. As of 2020 it had an estimated population of 889,231. It was established as a French outpost in 1889 and named after...
The Bible in Pictures(published in Dresden in 1852-60), Schnorr von Carosfeld's most famous work, included 240 woodcut illustrations and took him some forty years to complete. This drawing illustrates a passage from the Old Testament, when the prophet Elijah implores God to heal a widow's...
Not all subjects are easy to identify. This museum long thought that the subject was the Greek philosopher Heraclitus, largely because tears are part of the standard representation of this ancient thinker. However, ter Brugghen omits the other crucial key to identifying Heraclitus--a globe over which he weeps. Instead, the...
This photo was taken at the Third Annual Nellie Grey Mass sponsored by the Paulus Institute at St Mary Mother of God Church in Washington D.C. during the 2015 March for Life.Nellie Jane Gray (June 24, 1924 – August 13, 2012) was an American anti-abortion activist who founded the...
Enthroned side by side, Christ as Savior of the World blesses his mother Mary, crowned Queen of Heaven for her divine maternity. In return, Mary bows her head in prayerful devotion, appealing for the redemption of humankind. The development of early printing methods during the 15th century offered more people...
Bernat Martorell was the greatest painter of the first half of the fifteenth century in Catalonia in northeastern Spain. Depicted here is the most frequently represented episode from the popular legend of Saint George, in which the model Christian knight saves a town and rescues a beautiful princess. Conceived in...
Saint Joseph's Catholic Church, located at 812 Poplar Street in Macon, Georgia, was listed on the NRHP on July 14, 1971. The church is located in the middle of Downtown Macon and takes up one block. It is operated by the Roman Catholic Diocese of Savannah. The towers...
Ecce Homo are the Latin words used by Pontius Pilate in the Vulgate translation of the Gospel of John, when he presents a scourged Jesus Christ, bound and crowned with thorns, to a hostile crowd shortly before his Crucifixion. The original New Testament Greek is rendered by most English Bible...
The liberation of the apostle Peter is an event described in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 12 in which the apostle Peter is rescued from prison by an angel. Although described in a short textual passage, the tale has given rise to theological discussions and has been the subject...
The Church of St. Louis of the French (Italian: San Luigi dei Francesi, French: Saint Louis des Français, Latin: S. Ludovici Francorum de Urbe) is a Roman Catholic church in Rome, not far from Piazza Navona. The church is dedicated to the Virgin Mary, to St. Denis the Areopagite and...
The liberation of the apostle Peter is an event described in the Acts of the Apostles, chapter 12 in which the apostle Peter is rescued from prison by an angel. Although described in a short textual passage, the tale has given rise to theological discussions and has been the subject...
This loosely painted sketch is the preliminary design for an altarpiece in the Church of Saint Ulrich, Vienna. Mary and Joseph have brought the infant Jesus to the temple to be inducted into the Jewish faith; the aged priest Simeon cradles the infant in his arms, turning his gaze to...
PEARL HARBOR, Hawaii (July 25, 2018) Lt. David Hammond, assistant command chaplain of the amphibious assault ship USS Bonhomme Richard (LHD 6), recites a prayer during Roman Catholic Mass in the ship’s chapel. Bonhomme Richard is currently underway in the U.S. 3rd Fleet area of operations. (U.S....
Welcome to another newsletter. I hope you had a wonderful week! Also, happy Independence Day! May you experience wonderful cook-out food, fireworks, time with family—and most importantly—time with God. Letters If you want to share your thoughts, ideas, comments, concerns, and art here in the newsletter please reply...
This image was originally by Andrea Mantegna, who was court artist to the Gonzaga family in Mantua for forty-six years, shows Saint Andrew cleverly stepping into our space, and features Mantua's most revered saints. Supposedly Saint Longinus carried two relics to the city: some earth on which Christ&...
Saint Paul and Saint Sirus are panel paintings likely from the same large altarpiece. Panel painting was a lengthy process that required many steps. The panel is a plank of wood that was prepared with many layers of gesso, a glue-size-chalk substance that forms the white base layer of the...
The Scala Sancta (English: Holy Stairs, Italian: Scala Santa) are a set of 28 white marble steps that are Roman Catholic relics located in an edifice on extraterritorial property of the Holy See in Rome, Italy proximate to the Archbasilica of Saint John in Laterano. Officially, the edifice is titled...
