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Saint of the Day: January 2nd About the Image: Saints Basil the Great and Gregory Nazianzen were fourth-century bishops who became saints and doctors of the Church for their devoted defense of the faith. They were known for their close friendship and their efforts to combat the Arian heresy, which...
About the Image: The image depicts a statue of the Apostle Jacob, part of the sculptural decor of Saint Isaac's Cathedral in Saint Petersburg, Russia. This majestic statue, created in the 19th century, is a representation of the religious and historical significance that apostles hold within the Christian...
About the Image: In the sixteenth century Antwerp, a major trade metropolis, became one of north-western Europe’s leading art centres. Among its many painters’ workshops were a number of studios that worked closely with one another. For want of a better name, the respective artists are collectively known as...
About the Image: The artwork in the image is a ceiling fresco titled "Child Jesus Teaches in the Temple," created by Josef Christian Heimgartner in 1920, located in St. Gallen, Switzerland. This piece is a vivid example of early 20th-century religious art, rendered in a neoclassical style that...
About the Image: This ivory piece is one half of a 'panaghiarion,' a case designed to enclose the 'panagia,' bread dedicated to the Virgin in an Orthodox worship service (compare Walters 71.257-258). The relief carving is in the composition known as the Hospitality of Abraham,...
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: The image showcases a section of a stained glass window, presumably from St. Mary's Catholic Church in Greenville, South Carolina. This stained glass piece depicts the Virgin Mary clothed in blue, holding the Christ Child, a common representation in Christian iconography known as "The...
About the Image: George from Lydda (a town in Palestine) served in the Roman army and became a saint through the martyrdom he suffered on account of his Christian faith. The popular legend about his defeat of a dragon symbolizes the victory of piety over sin and of good over...
About the Image: This is a photograph capturing the Sanctuary of Our Lady of Lourdes, specifically the Basilica of the Immaculate Conception, also known as the Upper Basilica, in Lourdes, France. Built above the grotto where Saint Bernadette Soubirous saw the Virgin Mary, the Basilica was completed in 1876. The...
About the Image: The brothers Jacob H. and Philipp Schiff were members of one of the old Jewish families in Frankfurt. Jacob H. Schiff was eighteen when he emigrated to America, where he became a very successful banker. He contributed most of his considerable fortune - some 100 million dollars...
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...
What is a Rorate Caeli Mass? A Rorate Caeli Mass is a traditional Catholic liturgy celebrated just before dawn in Advent as a devotion to the Blessed Virgin Mary. The Mass is only lit by candles, symbolizing Mary's role in bringing the Light of the World into the...
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...
