04 Works, Today, March 19th, is Saint Joseph's Day, With Footnotes - #77

Philippe de Champaigne, 1642–43

The Dream of Saint Joseph

Oil on canvas

 209.5 × 155.8 cm.

National Gallery, London.

Philippe de Champaigne (26 May 1602 - 12 August 1674) was a Baroque era painter of the French school.

Born in Brussels of a poor family, Champaigne was a pupil of the landscape painter Jacques Fouquières. In 1621 he moved to Paris, where he worked with Nicolas Poussin on the decoration of the Palais du Luxembourg under the direction of Nicolas Duchesne, whose daughter he married. After the death of his protector Duchesne, Champaigne worked for the Queen Mother, Marie de Medicis, and for Richelieu, for whom he decorated the cardinal's palace, the Dome of the Sorbonne church and other buildings. He was a founding member of the Acadèmie Royale de Peinture in 1648.

Later in his life (1640), he came under the influence of Jansenism. After his paralysed daughter was allegedly miraculously cured at the nunnery of Port-Royal, he painted the celebrated but untypical picture Ex-Voto de 1662, now in the Louvre, which represents the artist's daughter with Mother-Superior Cathèrine-Agnès Arnauld. Champaigne produced a very large number of paintings, mainly religious works and portraits. Influenced by Rubens at the beginning of his career, his style later became more austere. He died in Paris. More on Philippe de Champaigne

Joseph is a figure in the Gospels, the husband of Mary, mother of Jesus, and is venerated as Saint Joseph. In both Catholic and Protestant traditions, Joseph is regarded as the patron saint of workers and is associated with various feast days. 

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

St. Joseph with the Christ Child

Oil on canvas

Private collection

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (born late December 1617, baptized January 1, 1618 – April 3, 1682) was a Spanish Baroque painter. Although he is best known for his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of paintings of contemporary women and children. These lively, realist portraits of flower girls, street urchins, and beggars constitute an extensive and appealing record of the everyday life of his times. More on Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

Pope Pius IX declared him to be both the patron and the protector of the Catholic Church, in addition to his patronages of the sick and of a happy death, due to the belief that he died in the presence of Jesus and Mary. In popular piety, Joseph is regarded as a model for fathers and has also become patron of various dioceses and places.

Juan de Valdés Leal , (1622–1690)

 Coronation of Saint Joseph

Oil on canvas

166 x 250 cm

Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla

Juan de Valdés Leal (4 May 1622 – 15 October 1690) was a Spanish painter and etcher of the Baroque era. Born in Seville in 1622, he became a painter, sculptor, and architect. By his twenties, he was studying under Antonio del Castillo in Córdoba.

Among his works are History of the Prophet Elias for the church of the Carmelites; Martyrdom of St. Andrew for the church of San Francesco in Córdoba; and Triumph of the Cross for la Caridad in Seville. He became friends with Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, who had a very different style; Leal tended to paint somber and dramatic subjects, while Murillo's style was peaceful and serene. After Leal returned to Seville in 1656, he and Murillo founded the Seville Academy of Art.

Several of his paintings treat the subjects of vanitas, transience and mortality. Two examples are In ictu oculi ("in the blink of an eye") and Finis gloriae mundi ("end of the world's glory"), painted for the Charity Hospital in Seville. More on Juan de Valdés Leal

Several notable images of Saint Joseph have been granted a Canonical coronation by a Pope. In popular religious iconography he is associated with lilies or a spikenard. With the present-day growth of Mariology, the theological field of Josephology has also grown and since the 1950s centers for studying it have been formed.

According to the New Testament, Joseph was the father of James, Joses, Jude, Simon, and at least two daughters. More on Saint Joseph

Johann Friedrich Overbeck

The Death of Saint Joseph, c. 1832-1836

Oil on canvas

100.2 cm (39.45 in.), Width: 75.7 cm (29.8 in.)

Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland - Basel

Johann Friedrich Overbeck, (born July 3, 1789, Imperial Free City of Lübeck—died Nov. 12, 1869, Rome), Romantic painter of Christian religious subjects, who was leader of a group of German artists known as the Nazarenes, or Lucas Brotherhood (Lukasbund).

In 1806 Overbeck entered the Academy of Vienna, where, disappointed in the academic approach to teaching, he and Franz Pforr in 1809 founded the Lucas Brotherhood. They sought to revive the medieval artists’ guilds and to renew the arts through Christian faith (in 1813 Overbeck joined the Roman Catholic Church). For artistic inspiration they turned to Albrecht Dürer and to Italian Renaissance art, particularly the works of Perugino and early Raphael.

In 1810 the Lucas Brotherhood went to Rome. Their style was characterized by precise outlines; clear, bright colours; and an emphasis on Christian symbolism. Communally, the brotherhood executed the frescoes 

As he advanced in years, Overbeck’s painting became pallid and stereotyped. Yet these late works greatly influenced Christian devotional art of the 19th century and the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His more vital early pictures and drawings, however, were rediscovered and appreciated early in the 20th century. More on Johann Friedrich Overbeck

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