Catholic paintings from the Baroque period.
Details: This dreamlike painting shows Jacob’s encounter with an angel on his journey home to Canaan. Jacob had sent his family and servants ahead to meet his twin brother Esau, along with his best livestock to be given as a peace offering. Left alone in the night, Jacob met...
Details: This scene is the moving conclusion of the story of Tobias, the young man at the right. It addresses the themes of family devotion and trust. Tobias’s father sent him on a long journey to retrieve family money. The angel Raphael appeared as a relative, offering the traveler...
Details: The Book of Tobit (/ˈtoʊbɪt/) is a 3rd or early 2nd century BCE Jewish work describing how God tests the faithful, responds to prayers, and protects the covenant community (i.e., the Israelites). It tells the story of two Israelite families, that of the blind Tobit in Nineveh and...
Details: Cavallino worked in Naples where he was not well known during his lifetime, but was alert to the work of contemporaries whose innovations he transformed with extraordinary delicacy and charm. The adoration of the shepherds is a traditional subject, but here Cavallino shows it in a new light. The...
Details The largest painting ever done by Caravaggio and the only one he signed. The subject of the painting is the execution of John the baptist. According to the gospels Herod Antipas, Tetrarch of Galilee and Perea, had imprisoned John the Baptist. Herod was so pleased by the dancing of...
Details This is a very popular subject for painters. The oldest depictions are from the 10th century and has been popular ever since. According to Legenda sanctorum or Legenda aurea, this story took place in Libya at a fictional city. Near the city a dragon dwelled which devestated the countryside....
Details A painting by the Dutch artist Abraham Bloemaert (1564-1651). The painting shows a scene from the Biblical book of Genesis (Genesis 42:1-17). Joseph, son of Jacob and Rachel, was sold into Egyptian slavery by his brothers. In Egypt Joseph came into the service of Potiphar, the...
🙏🏽Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to help keep this site free!Image Description0:00/0:451×Image Details ‘St. Cecilia’ was created in c.1610 by Guido Reni in Baroque style. Saint Cecilia (Latin: Sancta Caecilia) was a Roman martyr venerated in Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican, and some...
🙏🏽Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to help keep this site free!Image Details A half-figure of Mary, with folded hands, looking up to the right. After an original by Guido Reni. A Madonna is a representation of Mary, either alone or with her child Jesus. These...
🙏🏽Please Subscribe or Donate to help keep this site free! Image Details ‘The Penitent Magdalene’ was created in 1635 by Guido Reni in Baroque style. Reni created an idealized, as well as classical style influenced by ancient sculpture and by the Renaissance artist Raphael (1483-1520). This influence is visible...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Raphael is an archangel mentioned in the Book of Tobit and in 1 Enoch, both dating from the last few centuries before Christ. In later Jewish tradition, he became identified as one of the three heavenly...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! ‘St Cecilia’ was created in 1606 by Guido Reni in Baroque style. Saint Cecilia, is a Roman martyr venerated in Catholic, Orthodox, Anglican and some Lutheran churches, such as the Church of Sweden. She became the...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! This large altarpiece was in the artist's studio when he died, and parts of the composition appear incomplete. Some figures lack color, and Reni never finished the wooden structure. The silvery ground layer appears...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! 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...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! The Adoration of the Shepherds, in the Nativity of Jesus in art, is a scene in which shepherds are near witnesses to the birth of Jesus in Bethlehem, arriving soon after the actual birth. It is...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! According to all four canonical Gospels, immediately after the Last Supper, Jesus took a walk to pray. Each Gospel offers a slightly different account regarding narrative details. the anguish of Our Lord in the Garden of...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! The subject of Saint Peter’s repentance was a popular one in the 16th and 17th century in Catholic countries like Italy and Spain. The Catholic Church wanted to promote the idea of repentance to the...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Ribera painted many half-length images of saints for Catholic patrons, most likely for private worship. Here he rendered the hermit Saint Onophrius—unkempt, wearing a loincloth of leaves—with great realism: dirty fingernails, hollowed cheeks,...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! In this work the artist creates a strikingly beautiful pair of figures whose serene poses and serious facial expressions project an aura of sadness without sentimentality. The Virgin is seated on a stone bench holding the...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Jerome, (c. 342–420) also known as Jerome of Stridon, was a Latin priest, confessor, theologian, and historian; he is commonly known as Saint Jerome. Jerome was born at Stridon, a village near Emona on the...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! According to the ancient Martyrologies, Margaret was the daughter of a pagan priest named Aedesius. Her mother having died soon after her birth, Margaret was nursed by a Christian woman five or six leagues (6.9–...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Saint Ursula is a legendary Romano-British Christian saint, died on 21 October 383. Her feast day in the pre-1970 General Roman Calendar is 21 October. There is little definite information about her and the...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! In early Western Europe, markets developed close to monasteries, castles or royal residences. Priories and aristocratic manorial households created considerable demand for goods and services - both luxuries and necessities and also afforded some protection to merchants...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Aloysius de Gonzaga was an Italian aristocrat (1568–1591) who became a member of the Society of Jesus. While still a student at the Roman College, he died as a result of caring for the victims...
