Catholic paintings from the Baroque period.
Details: According to medieval legend, as a girl the Virgin Mary lived in the Temple in Jerusalem, where she devoted herself to praying and sewing vestments. This was a subject particularly popular in seventeenth-century Italian and Spanish paintings, where the little Virgin—devout and busy at her tasks—served as...
Details: At the Passover of most likely 30 or 33, Pontius Pilate condemned Jesus of Nazareth to death by crucifixion in Jerusalem. The main sources on the crucifixion are the four canonical Christian Gospels. Pilate's role in condemning Jesus to death is also attested by the Roman historian...
Details: This impressive picture was clearly inspired by Rembrandt's style of the 1660s and was conceivably painted in his workshop. The broad, uniform application of paint and rather decorative use of strokes and scratches imitate some of Rembrandt's surface effects but fail to achieve his sense...
Details: Saint Joseph's dreams are four dreams described in the Gospel of Matthew in the New Testament in which Joseph, the legal father of Jesus, is visited by an angel of the Lord and receives specific instructions and warnings of impending danger. All four dreams come from the...
Details: The hermit monk turns to nature as a refuge from the temptations of the world. In the silence of his cave, he holds a rosary and meditates on the holy text. His altar is decorated with objects of devotion—the crucifix—stands as a symbol of salvation, the extinguished...
Details: The Venetian painter Sebastiano Ricci traveled from capital to capital—Rome, Vienna, London—producing vast frescoes for princely patrons. Even in this small-scale work, his celebrated elegance, fluid brushwork, and brilliant coloring are on display. The subject here is biblical. A woman caught in adultery has been brought to...
0:00/1:001×Details: The presence of a group of female disciples of Jesus at the crucifixion of Jesus is found in all four Gospels of the New Testament. Differences in the parallel accounts have led to different interpretations of how many and which women were present. In some...
0:00/0:461×Details: St. Ignatius of Loyola was born 1491 in Spain and died 1556 in Rome. He was canonized March 12, 1622 and his feast day is July 31. He was a Spanish theologian and mystic, one of the most influential figures in the Roman Catholic Counter-Reformation...
0:00/0:401×Details: Pope Clement IX, whose original name was Giulio Rospigliosi, was born Jan. of 1600 in Pistoia, Tuscany and died Dec. 9, 1669, in Rome). He was pope from 1667 to 1669. Clement IX served as papal ambassador to Spain from 1644 to 1653 and cardinal...
0:00/0:501×Details: The Assumption of Mary is one of the four Marian dogmas of the Catholic Church. (The word 'assumption' derives from the Latin word assūmptiō meaning "taking up"). Pope Pius XII defined it in 1950 in his apostolic constitution Munificentissimus Deus as...
0:00/0:531×Details: Ludovica Albertoni was an Italian Roman Catholic noblewoman from the Renaissance period and a professed member of the Third Order of Saint Francis. The death of her husband prompted her to dedicate her life to the service of the poor in Rome and she was...
Description0:00/2:331×Details: Christ and St Mary Magdalen at the Tomb' reveals how imaginatively Rembrandt could interpret traditional religious subject-matter. The scriptural source for this scene is the Gospel of St John (20:11-18), who describes in some detail the burial and subsequent resurrection of Christ following...
Study for The Assumption of the Virgin for San Augustin Seville Cleveland Museum of A0:00/0:331×Details: This painting is a sketch for a large altarpiece. The rough, flickering surface, the unusually sharp contrast of hot and cool hues, and the compression of space all characterize the artist’...
Details: Didacus of Alcalá (Spanish: Diego de Alcalá), also known as Diego de San Nicolás, was a Spanish Franciscan lay brother who served as among the first group of missionaries to the newly conquered Canary Islands. He died at Alcalá de Henares on 12 November 1463 and is now honored...
Details The Holy Family consists of the Child Jesus, the Virgin Mary and Saint Joseph. The subject became popular in art from the 1490s on, but veneration of the Holy Family was formally begun in the 17th century by Saint François de Laval, the first bishop of New France, who...
Description The Rest on the Flight into Egypt is a subject in Christian art showing Mary, Joseph, and the infant Jesus resting during their flight into Egypt. The Holy Family is normally shown in a landscape. The subject did not develop until the second half of the fourteenth century. Source...
Details: Joseph's Dream is a 1645 oil on canvas painting by Rembrandt. It was in the Königliche Schlöss in Berlin until 1830, when it moved to the city's Königliche Museum. It is now currently in the Gemaldegalerie, Berlin. It shows Saint Joseph receiving the second of...
Details: Jacob Blessing the Sons of Joseph is a 1656 oil painting by Dutch artist Rembrandt van Rijn. It is said to have almost “a sculptural surface with a translucent glaze over paint”. This piece is housed in the Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister in Kassel, Germany. Jacob Blessing the Sons of...
Details: According to Christian belief, three days after his death by crucifixion, Christ rose from the dead and ascended into heaven. König’s interpretation of this traditional theme employs vivid colors and explosive poses to express the drama of the event. Meticulous brushwork delineates exquisite details, and draws attention to...
Details: Gerard van Honthorst (Gerrit van Honthorst) (4 November 1592 – 27 April 1656) was a Dutch Golden Age painter who became known for his depiction of artificially lit scenes, eventually receiving the nickname Gherardo delle Notti ("Gerard of the Nights"). Early in his career he visited Rome, where...
Details: The shepherd boy, resting with his bucket, milk can, and yoke, guides our eye to travelers in the distance. They are Tobias and the archangel Raphael, whose tale is told in some versions of the Christian Bible. Tobias, a young Jewish man, was sent off by his blind father...
Details: One of the most influential landscape painters of the early modern era, Lorrain was a master of the “ideal landscape,” which combined lush foliage and a tranquil atmosphere with allusions to an idyllic, imaginary past. The intention was to create views more beautiful and harmonious than nature itself. In...
Details: This landscape painting of Jacob wrestling with the angel is by Bartholomeus Breenbergh. Breenbergh was a Dutch Golden Age painter of Italian and Italianate landscapes, in Rome and Amsterdam. The subject, Jacob wrestling with the angel, is described in Genesis chapter32 verses 22–32; and also referenced in Hosea...
Details: One of the most sought-after painters in late 17th-century Rome, Passeri was also a prolific draftsman. The tenderly depicted venerating saint may be identified as Augustine, Bishop of Hippo (340–430), whose miter and crosier are held by two angels, while his numerous writings are represented by the open...
