06 Works, Today, April 29th, is Pope Pius V's day, With Footnotes - #120

Bartolomeo Letterini

Santi Giovanni e Paolo in Venice. Chapel of Pius V

Table altarpiece Pius V 

Santi Giovanni e Paolo, Venice

Bartolomeo Litterini was tactive in the workshop of his father Agostino in San Canciano (Venice). A craft enterprise mainly engaged in the production of devotional works, altarpieces and canvases for the churches of Venice and the Veneto region.
Bartholomew had an introverted character, dominated by the paternal personality and wishes of the clients. The shop was his world. He did not marry.
He hardly ever left Venice, closing his days at almost eighty years "troubled by the sore nerves".
Non-front row painter, he still tried to be present in the culture of his century.
His the first period was "dark", strong dramatic content and a dense naturalism that marked the production for the churches of the Val Seriana, which brought Litterini into contact with the renowned sculptor of Rovetta Andrea Fantoni.

The litterian inspiration then gave way to a lighter and brighter colorism (in the footsteps of Sebastiano Ricci, Pellegrini, Amiconi), to a quieter compositional atmosphere, to a realism in the recovery of the figures that somehow resumed the Veronesian lesson. More on Bartolomeo Litterini

Pope Pius V (17 January 1504 – 1 May 1572), born Antonio Ghislieri, was head of the Catholic Church and ruler of the Papal States from 8 January 1566 to his death in 1572. He is venerated as a saint of the Catholic Church. He is chiefly notable for his role in the Council of Trent, the Counter-Reformation, and the standardization of the Roman Rite within the Latin Church. 

Luis Muñoz Lafuente, (1756–1838) 

Santo Tomás de Aquino, c. 1795

Oil on canvas

Museum of Huesca 

Luis Muñoz Lafuente ( Huesca , 1756-1838) was a Spanish painter and sculptor, a disciple of Fray Manuel Bayeu according to the handwritten annotation that appears in his portrait, drawn by Valentín Carderera.

Lafuente worked for the cathedrals of Huesca and Jaca and especially for Sertoriana University.

In 1798 he received the title of painter and sculptor from the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Luis de Zaragoza for an oil on the theme of Lot's drunkenness and a relief depicting Minerva presenting Sertorio with the plans of the University of Huesca. More on Luis Muñoz Lafuente

Pius V declared Thomas Aquinas a Doctor of the Church.

As a cardinal, Ghislieri gained a reputation for putting orthodoxy before personalities, prosecuting eight French bishops for heresy. He also stood firm against nepotism, rebuking his predecessor Pope Pius IV to his face when he wanted to make a 13-year-old member of his family a cardinal and subsidize a nephew from the papal treasury.

George Gower  (1540–1596)

Plimpton Sieve Portrait of Queen Elizabeth I, c. 1579

Oil on panel

Height: 104.4 cm (41.1 in); Width: 76.2 cm (30 in)

Folger Shakespeare Library

Elizabeth I, Queen of England, depicted with a sieve in her left hand. The sieve alludes to the myth of Tuccia, a roman Vestal Virgin who proved her virginity by carrying water with a sieve.  It was acquired by George Arthur Plimpton in 1930, hence the name.

George Gower (c.1540–1596) was an English portrait painter who became Serjeant Painter to Queen Elizabeth I in 1581. He was a grandson of Sir John Gower of Stittenham, Yorkshire.

His earliest documented works are the two 1573 companion portraits of Sir Thomas Kytson and his wife Lady Kytson, now in the Tate Gallery in London.

Gower is also famous for painting the Plimpton "Sieve" Portrait of Queen Elizabeth in 1579, now at the Folger Shakespeare Library. The sieve that Elizabeth carries signifies the Roman vestal virgin Tuccia, who carried water in a sieve to prove to her chastity, thus representing Elizabeth's status as a virgin queen. The globe over her right shoulder symbolizes her position as the leader of global empire.

Gower was appointed to the position of Serjeant Painter to Queen Elizabeth in 1581. This allowed him to paint most of England’s aristocracy. The post also made him responsible for painted decoration at the royal residences, and on coaches and furniture. Among his works were a fountain and the astronomical clock, both at Hampton Court Palace. He also inspected portraits of the Queen by other artists prior to their official release. More on George Gower

By means of the papal bull of 1570, Regnans in Excelsis, Pius V excommunicated Elizabeth I of England for heresy and persecution of English Catholics during her reign.

Andries van Eertvelt, (1590–1652)

The Battle of Lepanto of 1571, c. 1640

Oil on canvas

88.7 by 169 cm.

Private collection

The Battle of Lepanto  took place on 7 October 1571 in the Gulf of Patras, off western Greece, and was perhaps the most significant sea battle in European history. It was fought between the forces of the Ottoman Empire, under Uluç Ali Pasha and those of the Christian Holy League (a coalition between Venice, the Papacy, Spain, the Republic of Genoa, the Knights of Malta and others) under John of Austria, at a time of growing Ottoman expansion in the west. The victory at Lepanto was landmark in the history of western Christendom, for at one stroke it stemmed Ottoman expansion in the Mediterranean and prevented their influence from spreading west. The battle lasted for 5 hours and involved more than 400 galleys, a dozen galleasses (covert galleys with artillery) and over 60,000 fighting men, an unprecedented array of forces for its time. More on The Battle of Lepanto

Circle of Andries van Eertvelt  (1590–1652)

The Battle of Lepanto, c.1622

Oil on copper

Height: 44.4 cm (17.4 in); Width: 70.8 cm (27.8 in)

Museum voor Schonen Kunsten, Ghent

Andries van Eertvelt (1590, Antwerp – 1652, Antwerp), was a Flemish painter, draughtsman and engraver who was one of the first Flemish artists to specialize in marine art. Andries was born in Antwerp and baptized in the Antwerp cathedral on 25 March 1590. He was registered as a master in the Antwerp Guild of St. Luke in 1609. After the death of his wife he travelled together with one of his pupils, Matthieu van Plattenberg, to Italy. Van Eertvelt is documented in Genoa from 1628–1630, where he lived with his compatriot Cornelis de Wael, who also practiced marine art, in particular the depiction of sea battles. Cornelis de Wael was a long-term resident of Genoa and arranged work for van Eervelt during his stay there.

Van Eertvelt had a very successful career as a marine artists and some of his works were exported to markets in Spain and Portugal. He also had an eager clientele in the Dutch Republic. Van Eertvelt also appears to have engaged in diplomatic activity. He took some letters relating to a possible peace treaty between Spain and the Dutch Republic from Balthazar Gerbier, an Anglo-Dutch diplomat residing in Antwerp, to Constantijn Huygens, the secretary to the Prince of Orange, in the Dutch Republic. More on Andries van Eertvelt 

He also arranged the formation of the Holy League, an alliance of Catholic states to combat the advancement of the Ottoman Empire in Eastern Europe. Although outnumbered, the Holy League famously defeated the Ottomans at the Battle of Lepanto in 1571. 

Fr. George W. Rutler

Battle of Lepanto and Our Lady of Victory

Pius V attributed the victory to the intercession of the Blessed Virgin Mary and instituted the feast of Our Lady of Victory. More on Saint Pius

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, and 365 Saints, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

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