This work plays with our expectations of the flatness of the painted surface. Using a technique of gilded gesso, the artist gave Saint Nicholas’s miter and the crowns of the holy figures a raised surface. The Virgin’s robes and the intricate, angled throne also create a sense of...
Mariotto was famous for painting crisp details and the kind of subtle color shifts seen in the angels’ feathered wings and draped robes. These small panels once crowned the upper corners of a large altarpiece made for a church on the outskirts of Florence, Italy (Santo Stefano in Pane). During...
Mary, the mother of Jesus, insists you look her in the eye. She has long inspired intense devotion. Christians believed that a relationship with her would bring them closer to her son, and worshippers identified with her role as a mother. Segna portrays them both as very human and approachable—...
This is a list of my favorite 12 orders of Catholic nuns and sisters in no particular order. This list includes their history, and images of their habits. What is a Catholic Nun or Sister? In the Roman Catholic tradition, there are many religious institutes of nuns and sisters (the...
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About the Image: This painting, "Jesus among the Doctors," attributed to the Master of Mondsee, dates back to around 1500. It belongs to the Late Gothic period, specifically within the Northern Renaissance that swept through Europe at the time. The artwork is remarkable for its meticulous detail and...
Saint of the Day: December 11 About the Image: Today, the Catholic Church celebrates the feast of Pope Saint Damasus I, who served as the Bishop of Rome from 366 to 384. He is known for his contributions to the liturgy and his defense of orthodoxy. Saint Damasus I is...
About the Image: This complex icon composition contains more than one hundred tiny figures. In the center sits Christ, identified as Overseer of All. Twelve scenes from Christ’s life surround the central image. Panels with “choruses” of saints frame the icon, each showing Christ Emmanuel blessing a different group...
About the Image: This textile fragment is a Coptic roundel from the 5th century, an era that reflects the transition from the Late Antique period to the early Byzantine era in Egypt. The Coptic textiles from this period are renowned for their intricate weaving techniques, which include tapestry weaves on...
About the Image: This large Ethiopian Gospel Book was made in the first half of the sixteenth century and is written in Ge'ez, the traditional liturgical language of the Ethiopian Orthodox Church. Containing eleven full-page miniatures, six canon tables, and five elaborately ornamented harags, or headpieces, this manuscript...
About the Image: This is one of twenty-six known manuscripts by the hand of Luke the Cypriot (active 1583-1625), an accomplished Greek calligrapher who worked after the Ottoman conquest of Constantinople (1453). He copied it in 1594 at his episcopal see of Buzau (in Wallachia, now Romania) and soon took...
About the Image: This stained glass window is a vivid representation of the Virgin Mary, which is commonly found in Catholic churches. The technique of stained glass artistry dates back to the early medieval period, with significant developments during the Gothic period, and remains a staple in ecclesiastical decoration. The...
About the Image: This basilica, once a medieval abbey church, is now a cathedral that is historically and architecturally significant as it houses the first structure to utilize all the elements of Gothic architecture, completed in 1144 . The basilica also serves as a necropolis containing the tombs of French kings,...
About the Image: Between 1950 and 1981, the Städel succeeded in reuniting the parts of Elsheimer’s greatest work, which was documented but presumed lost. The modern frame of this domestic altarpiece was reconstructed after sketches made in 1612. While the central panel shows the exaltation of the Cross, the...
About the Image: The artwork depicts the Child Jesus discussing with the doctors of the Law in the Temple of Jerusalem. This painting belongs to a series of twelve artworks depicting the life of Jesus Christ, with their original golden frames, which come from the convent church of La Merced...
About the Image: According to an original inscription on the back, this drawing is an allegory of charity. It belongs to a cycle of drawings of female allegories, a particularly popular motif for the decoration of Venetian villa interiors. Usually incorporated in a moral-theological pictorial programme, they were intended as...
About the Image: This imposing, cruelly exact image depicts the corpse of one of the two criminals crucified with Jesus. Executed in the workshop of Robert Campin in Tournai around 1430 – at about the same time as the Van Eyck brothers’ Ghent Altarpiece – it is all that remains of one...
About the Image: DID YOU KNOW? X-ray fluorescence analysis is a nondestructive technique used to determine the elemental composition of materials. On this leaf it revealed that the dark blue pigment contains azurite. DESCRIPTION All the essential narrative elements—Mary, the infant Jesus, and the three Magi—are tucked into...
Saint of the Day: November 14th About the Image: St. Lawrence O'Toole was born in County Kildare, Ireland around 1128. He was given up as a hostage at age 10 and suffered inhuman treatment until his father intervened. He became a model of virtue and was chosen to...
About the Image: The image features a Byzantine cameo depicting Christ Emmanuel, dating from between 1200 and 1400. Cameos are typically small, carved gems that have been valued as art objects since ancient times. This piece is particularly notable for its representation of Christ as Emmanuel, a title meaning "...
About the Image: This image is a page from a manuscript, specifically featuring an illustration of "Christ Addressing Nicodemus" by Lukas of Cyprus, created between 1594-1596 during the Ottoman period. The artwork is a fine example of Byzantine manuscript illumination, which persisted into the Ottoman era in regions...
About the Image: This image shows a stained glass window of Our Lady of the Miraculous Medal from St. Mary Church in Greenville, South Carolina. Stained glass art, typically found in religious contexts, dates back to medieval times and uses colored glass pieces to create images. This window features a...
Saint of the Day: November 10th About the Image: Saint Leo the Great, a significant figure in the Catholic Church, was born into an aristocratic Roman family in the 4th century and served as Pope from 440 to 461. He earned the distinction of being the first Pope to be...
About the Image: The artwork is a religious sculpture of Jesus Christ on the cross, known as a crucifix, situated within a church. It is a part of Catholic iconography, which is common in many churches around the world. The figure of Christ is typically depicted in a realistic manner,...
About the Image: This vertical-format work shows a view of the Sachsenhausen bank of the Main River and the eye-catching tower of the Dreikönigskirche. Beckmann's flat and his studio in Schweizer Strasse were just steps away from the Eiserner Steg footbridge, whose railing can be seen as a...
About the Image: Its richness of execution and its artistic quality are what make this panel so captivating. It was once part of the predella of an altarpiece – later largely destroyed – from Siena Cathedral. Bulgarini’s retable and three others by Pietro and Ambrogio Lorenzetti and Simone Martini surrounded the...
About the Image: In "Christ among the Doctors" by Matthias Stom, we witness a dramatic Caravaggesque interpretation of a young Jesus engaged in discussion with the elders in the Temple, a biblical scene from Luke 2:41-52. The painting is characterized by Stom's use of tenebrism—...
About the Image: This pendant is one of the most beautiful and technically accomplished personal devotional objects to survive from Byzantium. On one side Christ Pantokrator (Ruler of All) blesses the viewer with his right hand and holds the Gospel book in his left. Christ gazes to the side, acknowledging...
About the Image: Images of the Koimesis, or the Dormition in the West, show the Virgin lying on a bier, while her soul, represented as a baby, is offered by Christ to attendant angels who will take it to heaven. The apostles, led by Saints Paul and Peter, stand witness....
