Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! This elegant panel once served as the center of an ivory triptych. Set into an intricate architectural frame that recalls Gothic forms, the figures are carved in three-quarter relief, suggesting free-standing sculptures placed in...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Raphael (God has healed) 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...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Longinus (/ˌlɒnˈdʒaɪnəs/) is the name given to the unnamed Roman soldier who pierced the side of Jesus with a lance and who in medieval and some modern Christian traditions is described as a convert to Christianity....
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! The epitome of an intellectual Christian saint, Catherine of Alexandria is said to have debated the foremost philosophers of her age and converted them to Christianity with her brilliant logic. Her legend recounts that she was...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! The Sainte-Chapelle is a royal chapel in the Gothic style. Construction began sometime after 1238 and the chapel was consecrated on 26 April 1248. Most of the sculpture of the portals was destroyed during the...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! A Requiem Mass differs in several ways from the usual Mass, therefore a unique missal is utilized by priests. Omissions include the use of incense at the Introit and the Gospel, the kiss of peace, lit...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! This is an eastern cross – a medieval patriarchal relic from Jerusalem guarded in this city, at first by the Order of the Temple and later by the Order of Santiago and owns a miracle narrative of...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Saint Helena (AD c. 246/48–330) was an Empress of the Roman Empire and mother of Roman emperor Constantine the Great. She was born outside of the noble classes, possibly in the Greek city of...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! This is an eastern cross – a medieval patriarchal relic from Jerusalem guarded in this city, at first by the Order of the Temple and later by the Order of Santiago and owns a miracle narrative of...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! During the Renaissance, busts of Saint John the Baptist as a boy were commonly displayed in Florentine homes. Saint John’s fine and innocent face and curly hair embody the ideal of youthful beauty at that...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Saints Jerome and Mary Magdalen are two sculptures by the Italian artist Gianlorenzo Bernini. They sit in the Chigi Chapel of Siena Cathedral. The statues were commissioned as part of the chapel by the then–pope...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! The precise date for this early work by Donatello is not known, but between 1408-1415 the artist worked on this large-scale marble figurative sculpture depicting Saint John the Evangelist. Typically depicted as a young...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! David is a life-size marble sculpture by Gian Lorenzo Bernini. The sculpture was one of many commissions to decorate the villa of Bernini's patron Cardinal Scipione Borghese – where it still resides today, as...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Saint Vincent de Paul (1581–1660) dedicated his life to helping the poorest of the poor in France, including abandoned and abused children. About a hundred years later, during the Enlightenment, when the French celebrated scientific...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! This sculpture originally represented a philosopher or a god, and was transformed into St. Peter in the late 16th century by adding the expressive head, hands, and feet in gilt bronze, and a throne. An unknown...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! The Old Testament prophet Jonah is shown with his hands raised in prayer. It is unclear which moment of the biblical story of Jonah is depicted here. He may be praying in the belly of the...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Daniel and the Lion is a sculpture created by Gian Lorenzo Bernini c. 1655–57. Standing in a niche in the Chigi Chapel in the Basilica of Santa Maria del Popolo in Rome, it shows the...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! The statue of the Martyrdom of Saint Cecilia, by Stefano Maderno resides in Santa Cecilia in Trastevere and is one of the most famous examples of Baroque sculpture. Santa Cecilia in Trastevere is a 5th-century...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Angel with the Superscription is a statue by Italian artist Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Originally commissioned by Pope Clement IX for the Ponte Sant'Angelo project, the statue was replaced with a copy and the original...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! The image of Saint Michael killing a dragon comes from the description of an epic battle between good and evil found in Revelation, the last book of the Christian Bible: “And war broke out in heaven;...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Tobias, a young Jewish man, has been sent by his blind father to retrieve money left with a relative. Accompanying him on the journey are his dog and a hired guide who, unbeknownst to him, is...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! Raphael (God has healed) 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...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! The Ecstasy of Saint Teresa (alternatively Saint Teresa in Ecstasy or Transverberation of Saint Teresa; in Italian: L'Estasi di Santa Teresa or Santa Teresa in estasi) is the central sculptural group in white marble...
Please Subscribe or Donate [https://sdcason.com/donate] to Help Keep This Site Free! This grand, epic-sized statue depicts Moses seated regally to guard the tablets written with the Ten Commandments. His expression is stern, reflecting his anger at seeing his people worshipping the golden calf on his return...
