06 Works, Today, June 30th, is First Martyrs' day, their story in Paintings #181

Jan van Eyck

First Martyrs of the Church of Rome, c. 1432

(The Ghent Altarpiece; wings open)

Oil on wood

350 x 461 cm

Cathedral of St Bavo, Ghent

Jan van Eyck (before 1390 – 9 July 1441) was a painter from the County of Loon (present day Belgium) active in Bruges. He is one of the early innovators of what became known as Early Netherlandish painting, and one of the most significant representatives of Early Northern Renaissance art. He took employment in the Hague around 1422, when he was already a master painter with workshop assistants, and employed as painter and valet de chambre with John III the Pitiless, ruler of Holland and Hainaut. He was then employed in Lille as court painter to Philip the Good, Duke of Burgundy after John's death in 1425, until he moved to Bruges in 1429 where he lived until his death. 

About 20 surviving paintings are confidently attributed to him, as well as the Ghent Altarpiece. 


Van Eyck painted both secular and religious subject matter, including altarpieces, single-panel religious figures and commissioned portraits. He was well paid by Philip, who sought that the painter was secure financially and had artistic freedom so that he could paint "whenever he pleased". Van Eyck's work comes from the International Gothic style, but he soon eclipsed it, in part through a greater emphasis on naturalism and realism. He achieved a new level of virtuosity through his developments in the use of oil paint. He was highly influential, and his techniques and style were adopted and refined by the Early Netherlandish painters. More on Jan van Eyck 

The First Martyrs of the Church of Rome were Christians martyred in the city of Rome during Nero's persecution in 64. They are celebrated in the Roman Catholic Church as an optional memorial on 30 June.

There were early Christians in Rome within a dozen or so years after the death of Jesus, though they were not the converts of Paul. He had not yet visited them at the time he wrote his Epistle to the Romans in 57-58 AD. Paul wrote to a community of both Jews and Gentiles.

Carl Theodor von Piloty, (1826-1886)

Nero Views the Burning of Rome, c. 1861

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

Karl Theodor von Piloty (1 October 1826 – 21 July 1886) was a German painter, born in Munich. In 1840, Karl was admitted as a student of the Munich Academy. A year later acclaimed history paintings were shown in Munich, their realistic depiction of historic subject matter made a lasting impression on him. After a journey to Belgium, France and England, he commenced work as a painter of genre pictures.

But he soon forsook this branch of painting in favour of historical subjects, and produced in 1854 for King Maximilian II The Accession of Maximilian I to the Catholic League in 1609. It was succeeded by Seni at the Dead Body of Wallenstein (1855), which gained for the young painter the membership of the Munich Academy, where he succeeded Schorn (his brother-in-law) as professor in 1856. He was appointed keeper of the Munich Academy, and was a successful teacher. More Karl Theodor von Piloty

In July of 64 AD, the Great Fire of Rome broke out. Largely made up of wooden tenements, fire was a frequent occurrence in the city. Rumor blamed the tragedy on the unpopular emperor Nero, who wanted to enlarge his palace. It is this incident that gave rise to the legend that “Nero fiddled while Rome burned,” which had begun as a rumor. 

Jan Styka

Nero at Baiae, c. 1900

Oil on canvas

Poland, Private collection

Jan Styka (April 8, 1858 in Lwów – April 11, 1925 in Rome) was a Polish painter noted for producing large historical, battle-piece, and Christian religious panoramas. He was also illustrator and poet. Known also as a great patriotic speaker - his speeches were printed in 1915 under the French title L'ame de la Pologne (The Soul of Poland). 

Styka attended school in his native Lwów (Lemberg, now Lviv) then studied at the Academy of Fine Arts in Vienna, Austria following which he took up residence in Kraków in 1882 where he studied historical painting under Jan Matejko. Next he came back to Lwów and opened there a workshop. Here, together with a celebrated Polish historical painter Wojciech Kossak. Later he travelled to Italy for a short time before moving to France where the great art movements at Montmartre and Montparnasse were taking shape and where he would spend a large part of his life. More on Jan Styka 

In fact, Nero was not even in Rome when the fire started, but was at Antium. Still, as a relief to the homeless and fugitive populace, he opened the Campus Martius, the buildings of Agrippa, even his own gardens, and threw up a number of extemporized shelters to accommodate the helpless multitude. The necessities of life were brought up from Ostia and the neighboring municipalities, and the price of grain was lowered. Yet his measures, popular as their character might be, failed of their effect; for the report had spread that, at the very moment when Rome was aflame, he had mounted his private stage, and typifying the ills of the present by the calamities of the past, had sung the destruction of Troy.”

Constantine Flavitsky

Christian Martyrs in the Colosseum, c.1862

Oil on canvas
State Russian Museum

The picture shows the martyrs who will soon be executed for their faith by the Roman authorities. The Roman Empire, would gather people for the public execution of all the perpetrators. The Colosseum was overcrowded when Christians were executed. All the martyrs who accepted the faith and the cross.

Konstantin Dmitriyevich Flavitsky (September 13(25), 1830 – September 3, 1866) was a Russian painter.

His art education was at the Imperial Academy of Arts. He received silver medals from the Academy for drawings and sketches from life. In 1854, he was awarded a small gold medal for his painting. He graduated from the academic in 1855. He received a large gold medal from the Academy. He traveled to Italy (1856-1862) as a pensioner of the Academy.

He returned to Russia in 1862. The following year, he was recognized as an honorary free member of the Academy for the large painting "Christian Martyrs in the Colosseum", made in Rome. At the exhibition in 1864, the painting Death of Princess Tarakanova brought him the title of professor at the Academy of Arts .

The artist died at the age of 35. More on Constantine Flavitsky

Whilst many blamed Nero for starting the fire, the emperor managed to find a scapegoat for the disaster, blaming the Christians, who were believed to be engaged in various wicked deeds. According to Tacitus, “vast numbers were convicted, not so much on the count of arson as for hatred of the human race,”

Herbert Gustave Schmalz, (1856–1935)

Faithful unto Death, c. 1888

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

Herbert Gustave Schmalz (1856–1935) who named himself Herbert Gustave Carmichael in 1918, was an English painter. He is counted among the Pre-Raphaelites.

Schmalz was born in England as the son of a German father and an English mother. He received conventional education in painting, first at the South Kensington Art School and later at the Royal Academy of Arts. He perfected his studies in Antwerp at the Royal Academy of Fine Arts.

After his return to London he made a name for himself as a history painter, with a style influenced by the Pre-Raphaelites and orientalism. In 1884 he successfully exhibited his painting Too Late at the Royal Academy. After a voyage to Jerusalem in 1890 he made a series of paintings with New Testament topics, with Return from Calvary (1891) one of the best known.

After 1895 Schmalz increasingly painted portraits. In 1900 he held a big solo exhibition named "A Dream of Fair Women" in the Fine Art Society in Bond Street.

In 1918, after Germany was defeated in World War I, he changed his name to Herbert Gustave Carmichael. More on Herbert Gustave Schmalz

These martyrs were called the “Disciples of the Apostles” and their firmness in the face of their gruesome deaths were a powerful testimony that led to many conversions in the early Roman Church.

Vasily Sergeyevich Smirnov 

Death of Nero-Detail, c. 1880

Oil on Canvas,

177,5 х 400

Mikhailovsky Palace

Vasily Sergeyevich Smirnov (12 August 1858, Moscow - 17 December 1890, near Golitsyno) was a Russian painter in the Academic style who specialized in scenes from ancient history.

In 1875, he enrolled at the Moscow School of Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. He participated in an exhibition there in 1878, winning a silver medal.

That same year, he transferred to the Imperial Academy of Arts in Saint Petersburg. In 1882, he was awarded the title of "Artist" and a stipend to study abroad.

He went to Italy, via Vienna, and eventually settled in Rome. He moved to Turin, then spent some time in Paris, exhibiting at the Salon. After travelling throughout Northwestern Europe, he returned to Italy.

In 1885, he made sketches at Pompeii, which was the start of his interest in Classical subjects. The following year, he began work on "The Death of Nero", which took two years to complete. It was sent to Saint Petersburg and, after several showings, was bought by Tsar Alexander III.


In 1889, he became an associate professor at the Academy. Sensing the end was near, he decided to return to the family estate. He died while in transit, on the train between Kubinka and Golitsyno. More on Vasily Sergeyevich Smirnov

Threatened by an army revolt and condemned to death by the senate, Nero committed suicide in A.D. 68 at the age of thirty-one.

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04 Works, Today, June 29th, is Apostle Paul's day, his story in Paintings #180

Rembrandt, (1606–1669)

Apostle Paul, c. 1633 (?)

Oil on canvas

Height: 137 cm (53.9 in); Width: 112 cm (44 in)

Kunsthistorisches Museum ,  Vienna, Austria

Rembrandt Harmenszoon van Rijn (15 July 1606 – 4 October 1669) was a Dutch painter and etcher. He is generally considered one of the greatest painters and printmakers in European art and the most important in Dutch history. His contributions to art came in a period of great wealth and cultural achievement that historians call the Dutch Golden Age when Dutch Golden Age painting dominated Europe, was extremely prolific and innovative, and gave rise to important new genres in painting.

Having achieved youthful success as a portrait painter, Rembrandt's later years were marked by personal tragedy and financial hardships. Yet his etchings and paintings were popular throughout his lifetime, his reputation as an artist remained high, and for twenty years he taught many important Dutch painters. His self-portraits form a unique and intimate biography, in which the artist surveyed himself without vanity and with the utmost sincerity.

In his paintings and prints he exhibited knowledge of classical iconography, which he molded to fit the requirements of his own experience; thus, the depiction of a biblical scene was informed by Rembrandt's knowledge of the specific text, his assimilation of classical composition, and his observations of Amsterdam's Jewish population. Because of his empathy for the human condition, he has been called "one of the great prophets of civilization. More on Rembrandt

Paul the Apostle, commonly known as Saint Paul and also known by his Hebrew name Saul of Tarsus, taught the gospel of Christ to the first-century world. Paul is generally considered one of the most important figures of the Apostolic Age, and from the mid-30s to the mid-50s AD he founded several Christian communities in Asia Minor and Europe.

Paul was likely born between the years of 5 BC and 5 AD, in Tarsus. He was a Roman citizen by birth. While he was still fairly young, he was sent to Jerusalem to receive his education. 

Paul persecuted some of the early disciples of Jesus in the area of Jerusalem prior to his conversion. 

Michelangelo, (1475–1564) 

The Conversion of Saul, c. 1542

Fresco

Height: 625 cm (20.5 ft); Width: 661 cm (21.6 ft)

Cappella Paolina, Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican

Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni (March 1475 – 18 February 1564), was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, poet, and engineer of the High Renaissance who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. Despite making few forays beyond the arts, his versatility in the disciplines he took up was of such a high order that he is often considered a contender for the title of the archetypal Renaissance man, along with contemporary rival and fellow Florentine Medici client, Leonardo da Vinci.

A number of Michelangelo's works in painting, sculpture, and architecture rank among the most famous in existence. His output in every field of interest was prodigious; given the sheer volume of surviving correspondence, sketches, and reminiscences taken into account, he is the best-documented artist of the 16th century.

Two of his best-known works, the Pietà and David, were sculpted before the age of thirty. Despite his low opinion of painting, Michelangelo also created two of the most influential frescoes in the history of Western art: the scenes from Genesis on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel in Rome, and The Last Judgment on its altar wall. As an architect, Michelangelo pioneered the Mannerist style at the Laurentian Library. At the age of 74, he succeeded Antonio da Sangallo the Younger as the architect of St. Peter's Basilica. Michelangelo transformed the plan, the western end being finished to Michelangelo's design, the dome being completed after his death with some modification.

In his lifetime he was also often called Il Divino ("the divine one"). One of the qualities most admired by his contemporaries was his terribilità, a sense of awe-inspiring grandeur, and it was the attempts of subsequent artists to imitate Michelangelo's impassioned and highly personal style that resulted in Mannerism, the next major movement in Western art after the High Renaissance. More on Michelangelo

Paul was traveling on the road from Jerusalem to Damascus on a mission to "arrest the Christians and bring them back to Jerusalem" when Jesus appeared to him in a great light. He was struck blind, but after three days his sight was restored he began to preach that Jesus of Nazareth is the Jewish Messiah and the Son of God.

Attributed to Valentin de Boulogne  (1591–1632)

Saint Paul Writing His Epistles, between 1618 and 1620

Oil on canvas

Height: 99.38 mm (3.91 in); Width: 52.38 mm (2.06 in)

Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

Valentin de Boulogne (before 3 January 1591 – 19 August 1632), sometimes referred to as Le Valentin, was a French painter in the tenebrist style. Though little is known of Valentin de Boulogne’s early life, he is considered one of most devoted French followers of Caravaggio. De Boulogne joined a society of foreign artists while in Rome known as Bentvueghels, or “Birds of a Feather.” He also had a close working relationship with Nicolas Poussin, with whom he was frequently compared. Though de Boulogne painted biblical scenes, allegorical images, and portraits, he is best remembered for his genre scenes of merrymaking characters enjoying music, drinks, and games in taverns. These were in part inspired by Bartolomeo Manfredi’s genre paintings, and rendered with Caravaggesque chiaroscuro. Anecdotes report that de Boulogne passed away at his early age after contracting a fever after a night carousing at a tavern. More on Valentin de Boulogne

Thirteen of the twenty-seven books in the New Testament have traditionally been attributed to Paul. Paul's epistles continue to be vital roots of the theology, worship and pastoral life in the Latin and Protestant traditions of the West, as well as the Eastern Catholic and Orthodox traditions of the East.

The letters that scholars agree can be firmly attributed to Paul include seven letters which were written between 50 and 57 CE, while he was conducting missionary work, visiting the churches at Ephesus, Caesarea, Jerusalem, Antioch, and Macedonia.

Enrique Simonet, (1866–1927)

The Beheading of Saint Paul, c. 1887

Ol on canvas

Height: 400 cm (13.1 ft); Width: 700 cm (22.9 ft)

Málaga Cathedral , Málaga in Andalusia in southern Spain

Enrique Simonet Lombardo (February 2, 1866 – April 20, 1927) was a Spanish painter.

Simonet was born in Valencia. His first vocation of childhood was religious studies, but he abandoned it to devote himself to painting. Despite being Valencian and studying at the Saint Charles Royal Academy of Fine Arts of Valencia, he joined a circle of artists in the city of Málaga.

In 1887 he obtained a grant to study painting in the Fine Arts Academy in Rome. Taking advantage of his stay Simonet traveled throughout Italy, visited Paris several times and in 1890 he made a tour of the Mediterranean. He also traveled to the Holy Land. In 1893 and 1894 Simonet traveled to Morocco as a war correspondent.

In 1901 he became professor of Studies and Forms of Nature and Art, at the School of Fine Arts in Barcelona. In 1911 he became a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando in Madrid. Between 1921 and 1922 he was director of the Private Paular for landscapers. More on Enrique Simonet Lombardo

Paul was imprisoned in Jerusalem as a heretic but then sent to Caesarea. Two years later, Paul was to be sent to Jerusalem for trial, but preferred, instead, to be sent to Rome, where he arrived in 60 CE. He spent two years there under arrest. Eusebius of Caesarea reports that Paul and Peter were both beheaded under Nero in either A.D. 64 or 67. More on Apostle Paul,

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Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

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08 Works, Today, June 28th, is John of Damascus' day, his story in Paintings #179

Unknown artist

St. John of Damascus, priest and doctor

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

John of Damascus was a Christian monk and priest. Born and raised in Damascus c. 675 or 676, he died at his monastery, Mar Saba, near Jerusalem on 4 December 749.

Anonymous Catalonian illustrator

Battle of Yarmouk

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

The Saracens are shown with a star and crescent banner, the Byzantines (anachronistically in Crusader era armour) with a star banner. 

When Syria was conquered by the Muslim Arabs in the 630s, the court at Damascus retained its large complement of Christian civil servants, John's grandfather among them.
John's father, Sarjun (Sergius), went on to serve the Umayyad caliphs. According to John of Jerusalem and some later versions of his life, after his father's death, John also served as an official to the caliphal court before leaving to become a monk at Mar Saba, and that he was ordained as a priest in 735.

Unknown artist

St. John of Damascus is depicted with his foster brother St. Kosmas

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

In the early 8th century AD, iconoclasm, a movement opposed to the veneration of icons, gained acceptance in the Byzantine court. Emperor Leo III who assumed the throne in 717 issued his first edict against the veneration of images and their exhibition in public places.

 Otto von Corvin and Wilhelm Held, German School (19th Century)

Byzantine iconoclasm, c. 1880

Medium engraving

This page of the iconodule Chludov Psalter

Depiction rubbing out a painting of Christ with a sponge attached to a pole

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

John of Damascus undertook a spirited defence of holy images in three separate publications. He not only attacked the Byzantine emperor, but adopted a simplified style that allowed the controversy to be followed by the common people, stirring rebellion among the iconoclasts. 

Unknown artist

The caliph then ordered John's right hand be cut off

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

Leo III reportedly sent forged documents to the caliph which implicated John in a plot to attack Damascus. The caliph then ordered John's right hand be cut off and hung up in public view. 

Unknown artist

John asked for the restitution of his hand, and prayed fervently to the Theotokos before her icon

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

Some days afterwards, John asked for the restitution of his hand, and prayed fervently to the Theotokos before her icon: thereupon, his hand is said to have been miraculously restored. In gratitude for this miraculous healing, he attached a silver hand to the icon, which thereafter became known as the "Three-handed", or Tricheirousa. That icon is now located in the Helandarion monastery of the Holy Mountain.

Unknown artist

Icon of the Mother of God “Of the Three Hands”

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

John died in 749 as a revered Father of the Church, and is recognized as a saint. He is sometimes called the last of the Church Fathers by the Roman Catholic Church. In 1890 he was declared a Doctor of the Church by Pope Leo XIII. More on John of Damascus

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Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

 If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

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06 Works, Today, June 27th, is King Ferdinand III's day, his story in Paintings #178

Unknown artist

King Fernando III of Castilla, c. 13th century

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

Ferdinand III (1199/1201 – 30 May 1252), called the Saint (el Santo), was King of Castile from 1217 and King of León from 1230 as well as King of Galicia from 1231. Through his second marriage he was also Count of Aumale. Ferdinand III was one of the most successful kings of Castile, securing not only the permanent union of the crowns of Castile and León, but also masterminding the most expansive campaign of Reconquista yet.

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, (1617–1682)

King Ferdinand III of Castile, c.1671

Oil on canvas

Seville Cathedral 

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

He took as his counsellors the wisest men in the State, saw to the strict administration of justice, and took the greatest care not to overburden his subjects with taxation, fearing, as he said, the curse of one poor woman more than a whole army of Saracens. 

Moors and Christian Battle of Marrakesh, 13th Century

Cantigas de Santa Maria

Ferdinand married Beatrice, the daughter of the King of Germany, one of the most virtuous princesses of her time. They had seven children: six princes and one princess. The highest aims of Ferdinand's life were the propagation of the Faith and the liberation of Spain from the Saracen yoke, hence his continual wars against the them. He took from them vast territories, Granada and Alicante alone remaining in their power at the time of his death. 

Francisco de Paula Van Halen y Gil , (1810-1887)

Detail of "The Battle of Navas de Tolosa", c. 1864

Oil on canvas

Senate Palace, Madrid

Francisco de Paula Van Halen y Gil (3 March 1814, Vic - 11 February 1887, Madrid) was a Spanish painter, known primarily for battle scenes and other historical works.

He began his career in Barcelona, then moved to Madrid, where he enrolled at the Real Academia de Bellas Artes de San Fernando. In 1838, he made his public début at the age of twenty-four.

After that, he found work as an illustrator and engraver for some of Madrid's major magazines. He also edited several collections of lithographs. One of his most popular collections, which was reissued in the 1950s, was Función de Toros.


In 1851, he was named a court painter for Queen Isabel II and was elected a member of the San Fernando Academy. His work for the Queen included the creation of scientific drawings for the Museo Nacional de Ciencias Naturales and one of his two best-known battle paintings. Many of his other paintings are on display in the Royal Palace. From 1860, he was a frequent participant in the National Exhibition of Fine Arts. More on Francisco de Paula Van Halen y Gil 

In the most important towns he founded bishoprics, reestablished Catholic worship everywhere, built churches, founded monasteries, and endowed hospitals. The greatest joys of his life were the conquests of Cordova  and Seville. 

Francisco Pacheco del Río, (1564–1644) (circle of)

The Surrrender of Seville to Ferdinand III

Oil on canvas

H 63.5 x W 136.5 cm

The Bowes Museum

Francisco Pacheco del Río (bap. 3 November 1564 – 27 November 1644) was a Spanish painter, best known as the teacher and father-in-law of Diego Velázquez and Alonzo Cano, and for his textbook on painting that is an important source for the study of 17th-century practice in Spain.

He was born at Sanlúcar de Barrameda, and moved to Seville at a young age. He was a student of Luis Fernandez, and did much of his learning by copying works of the Italian masters. He visited Madrid and Toledo in 1611, studying the work of El Greco, then returned to Seville and opened an art school.

Pacheco's school emphasized the academically correct representation of religious subjects, not least because he was the official censor of Seville's Inquisition. His own work reflects those constraints.

In addition to material on iconography, materials and technique, Pacheco's Arte de la pintura (1649) includes valuable biographical information on Spanish painters of the time. More on Francisco Pacheco del Río

He turned the great mosques of these places into cathedrals, dedicating them to the Blessed Virgin. He watched over the conduct of his soldiers, confiding more in their virtue than in their valour, fasted strictly himself, wore a rough hairshirt, and often spent his nights in prayer, especially before battles. Amid the tumult of the camp he lived like a religious in the cloister. 

Virgilio Mattoni de la Fuente 

Las postrimerías de San Fernando's

Alcazar de Sevilla

Ferdinand, who lifted himself from the bed, knelt on the hard marble tiles, and placed a rope he had prepared around his neck as a sinful penitent. Thus, contrite and humiliated, King Ferdinand laid down his royalty before the Divine Royalty of Jesus Christ.

Virgilio Mattoni de la Fuente (1842–1923) was a painter of post-romantic realism and a central figure in the modern Andalusian school of painters.

Mattoni trained at the Provincial School of Fine Arts in Seville from 1856 to 1868. Among his teachers were Eduardo Cano de la Peña, recognized for his historical paintings and winner of the National Exhibition of Fine Arts of 1856, and Joaquín Domínguez Bécquer, another representative of the Sevillian pictorial school of the second half of the 19th century. He completed his studies at the Chigi Academy in Rome, between 1872 and 1874.

He returned to the Santa Cruz neighborhood of Seville and opened a studio there. In 1886, Mattoni was named a member of the Royal Academy of Fine Arts of San Fernando de Madrid. In 1887, he was chosen as a faculty member of the Painting Section of the Provincial School of Fine Arts of Seville which became part of the University of Seville. In 1917, Mattoni was appointed Director of the Academy of the Applied Arts. More on Virgilio Mattoni de la Fuente

He founded the University of Salamanca. Ferdinand was buried in the great cathedral of Seville before the image of the Blessed Virgin, clothed, at his own request, in the habit of the Third Order of St. Francis. His body, it is said, remains incorrupt. Many miracles took place at his tomb, and Clement X canonized him in 1671. More on Ferdinand III

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

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

I do not sell art, art prints, framed posters or reproductions. Ads are shown only to compensate the hosting expenses.

 If you enjoyed this post, please share with friends and family.

 Thank you for visiting my blog and also for liking its posts and pages.

 Please note that the content of this post primarily consists of articles available from Wikipedia or other free sources online.