06 works, Today, November 30th, is Andrew the Apostle's day, his story, illustrated #333

Caravaggio  (1571–1610)

Detail; The Crucifixion of Saint Andrew, c. 1607

Oil on canvas

Height: 202.5 cm (79.7 in); Width: 152.7 cm (60.1 in)

The Cleveland Museum of Art

Andrew the Apostle was an apostle of Jesus, according to the New Testament. He is the brother of Saint Peter. He is referred to in the Orthodox tradition as the First-Called.

According to Orthodox tradition, the apostolic successor to Saint Andrew is the Patriarch of Constantinople.

Andrew the Apostle was born between AD 5 and AD 10 in Bethsaida, in Galilee. The New Testament states that Andrew was the brother of Simon Peter, and likewise a son of John, or Jonah. He was born in the village of Bethsaida on the Sea of Galilee. 

Caravaggio, (1571–1610)

The Calling of Saints Peter and Andrew, c. 1603 / 1606

Oil on canvas

Height: 140.1 cm (55.1 in); Width: 176 cm (69.2 in)

Buckingham Palace

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (29 September 1571 in Caravaggio – 18 July 1610) was an Italian painter active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between 1592 and 1610. His paintings, which combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, had a formative influence on Baroque painting.

Caravaggio trained as a painter in Milan under Simone Peterzano who had himself trained under Titian. In his twenties Caravaggio moved to Rome where there was a demand for paintings to fill the many huge new churches and palazzos being built at the time. It was also a period when the Church was searching for a stylistic alternative to Mannerism in religious. Caravaggio's innovation was a radical naturalism that combined close physical observation with a dramatic use of chiaroscuro which came to be known as tenebrism (the shift from light to dark with little intermediate value).

He gained attention in the art scene of Rome in 1600 with the success of his first public commissions, the Martyrdom of Saint Matthew and Calling of Saint Matthew. Thereafter he never lacked commissions or patrons, yet he handled his success poorly. He was jailed on several occasions, vandalized his own apartment, and ultimately had a death sentence pronounced against him by the Pope after killing a young man, possibly unintentionally, on May 29, 1606. He fled from Rome with a price on his head. He was involved in a brawl in Malta in 1608, and another in Naples in 1609. This encounter left him severely injured. A year later, at the age of 38, he died under mysterious circumstances in Porto Ercole in Tuscany, reportedly from a fever while on his way to Rome to receive a pardon.

Famous while he lived, Caravaggio was forgotten almost immediately after his death, and it was only in the 20th century that his importance to the development of Western art was rediscovered. More on Caravaggio

Both he and his brother Peter were fishermen by trade, hence the tradition that Jesus called them to be his disciples by saying that he will make them "fishers of men". 

Duccio di Buoninsegna, Sienese, c. 1250/1255 - 1318/1319

The Calling of the Apostles Peter and Andrew, 1308-1311

Tempera on panel

 42.7 × 45.5 cm (16 13/16 × 17 15/16 in.)

National Gallery of Art and Sculpture, Washington DC

This small panel was part of the Maestà, one of the most important masterpieces in the history of Western painting. The monumental Maestà was a two-sided altarpiece that dominated the main altar in Siena’s cathedral for nearly two centuries. 

Simon Peter and Andrew were both called together to become disciples of Jesus and "fishers of men". More on this work

Duccio di Buoninsegna (1255–1260 – c. 1318–1319) was an Italian painter active in Siena, Tuscany, in the late 13th and early 14th century. He was hired throughout his life to complete many important works in government and religious buildings around Italy. Duccio is considered one of the greatest Italian painters of the Middle Ages, and is credited with creating the painting styles of Trecento and the Sienese school. He also contributed significantly to the Sienese Gothic style.

Where Duccio studied, and with whom, is still a matter of great debate. Many believe that he studied under Cimabue, while others think that maybe he had actually traveled to Constantinople himself and learned directly from a Byzantine master.

Little is known of his painting career prior to 1278, when at the age of 23 he is recorded as having painted twelve account book cases. Although Duccio was active from 1268 to about 1311 only approximately 13 of his works survive today. More on Duccio di Buoninsegna

The Byzantine Church honours him with the name Protokletos, which means "the first called". Thenceforth, the two brothers were disciples of Christ. On a subsequent occasion, prior to the final call to the apostolate, they were called to a closer companionship, and then they left all things to follow Jesus.

Unknown artist

Saint Andrew erecting the cross on the hills of the Dnieper River; a prophecy of the city of Kiev

The Radzivill Chronicle

Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg.

I have no further description, at this time

The Radziwiłł Chronicle is one of the Old East Slavic illuminated manuscript held by the Library of the Russian Academy of Sciences in Saint Petersburg. It is a 15th-century copy of a 13th-century original. Its name is derived from the Princes Radziwiłł of Grand Duchy of Lithuania who kept it in their Nesvizh Castle in the 17th and 18th centuries. More on the Radziwiłł Chronicle

The Christian history of Ukraine holds that the apostle Andrew preached on the southern borders of modern-day Ukraine, along the Black Sea. He travelled up the Dnieper River and reached the future location of Kyiv, where he erected a cross on the site where the Saint Andrew's Church of Kyiv currently stands, and where he prophesied the foundation of a great city.

Unknown artist

Detail of the St. Andrew Altarpiece, c. 1420-30

Made in Catalunya

The Cloisters, New York City

Andrew preached in Scythia. the lands north-east of Europe and the northern coast of the Black Sea. The Chronicle of Nestor adds that he also preached along the Black Sea and the Dnieper river as far as Kiev, and that from there he travelled to Novgorod. Hence, he became a patron saint of Ukraine, Romania and Russia. Andrew also preached in Thrace, and his presence in Byzantium is mentioned in the apocryphal Acts of Andrew. According to tradition, he founded the See of Byzantium, later Constantinople and Istanbul, in AD 38, installing Stachys as bishop. This diocese would later develop into the Patriarchate of Constantinople. 

Mattia Preti, (1613–1699)

The crucifixion of St Andrew, circa 1651

Oil on canvas

Height: 133 mm (5.23 in); Width: 97 mm (3.81 in)

Art Gallery of South Australia

Mattia Preti (24 February 1613 – 3 January 1699) was an Italian Baroque artist who worked in Italy and Malta. He was appointed a Member of the Order of Saint John.

Born in the small town of Taverna in Calabria, Preti was called Il Cavalier Calabrese after appointment as a Knight of the Order of St. John (Knights of Malta) in 1660. His early apprenticeship is said to have been with the "Caravaggist" Giovanni Battista Caracciolo, which may account for his lifelong interest in the style of Caravaggio.

Probably before 1630, Preti joined his brother Gregorio in Rome. In Rome, he painted fresco cycles. Between 1644 and 1646, he may have spent time in Venice, but remained based in Rome until 1653. 

During most of 1653–1660, he worked in Naples, where he was influenced by  Luca Giordano. One of Preti's masterpieces were a series of large frescoes, ex-votos of the plague depicting the Virgin or saints delivering people from the plague.

Having been made a Knight of Grace in the Order of St John, he visited the order’s headquarters in Malta in 1659 and spent most of the remainder of his life there. Preti transformed the interior of St. John's Co-Cathedral in Valletta with a huge series of paintings on the life and martyrdom of St. John the Baptist (1661–1666). 

Preti was fortunate to enjoy a long career and have a considerable artistic output. His paintings, representative of the exuberant late Baroque style, are held by many great museums. More on Mattia Preti

Andrew is said to have been martyred by crucifixion at the city of Patras in Achaea, in AD 60. The iconography of the martyrdom of Andrew shows him bound to an X-shaped cross.

Caravaggio  (1571–1610)

The Crucifixion of Saint Andrew, c. 1607

Oil on canvas

Height: 202.5 cm (79.7 in); Width: 152.7 cm (60.1 in)

The Cleveland Museum of Art

For in formation on Caravaggio please see above

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.

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06 works, Today, November 29th, is St. Saturninus Bishop of Toulouse's day, his story, illustrated #332

Unknown artist

St. Saturninus, c. 12th century

St. Saturninus, the first bishop of Toulouse, is in the center

Altar frontal, wood
Museu Nacional de Arte de Catalunya, Barcelona

St. Saturninus was a disciple of St. John the Baptist and became a follower of Christ. Later he was consecrated Bishop by St. Peter and was sent as a missionary from Rome to the Pyrenees Mountain area. He became the first Bishop and Apostle of Toulouse, France.

Unknown artist

St. Peter sent out apostles to spread the Word of Christ

St. Saturninus became the first Bishop of Toulouse

I have no further description, at this time

St. Saturninus fixed his episcopal see at Toulouse. He converted a great number of idolaters by his preaching and miracles. He assembled his flock in a small church; and that the capitol, which was the chief temple in the city, lay in the way between that church and the saint's habitation. 

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. (1571-1610)

He assembled his flock in a small church

The Calling of St. Matthew, c.1598-1601

Oil on panel

322 cm × 340 cm (127 in × 130 in)

Location San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome

Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (29 September 1571 in Caravaggio – 18 July 1610) was an Italian painter active in Rome, Naples, Malta, and Sicily between 1592 and 1610. His paintings, which combine a realistic observation of the human state, both physical and emotional, with a dramatic use of lighting, had a formative influence on Baroque painting.

Caravaggio trained as a painter in Milan under Simone Peterzano who had himself trained under Titian. In his twenties Caravaggio moved to Rome where there was a demand for paintings to fill the many huge new churches and palazzos being built at the time. It was also a period when the Church was searching for a stylistic alternative to Mannerism in religious. Caravaggio's innovation was a radical naturalism that combined close physical observation with a dramatic use of chiaroscuro which came to be known as tenebrism (the shift from light to dark with little intermediate value).

He gained attention in the art scene of Rome in 1600 with the success of his first public commissions, the Martyrdom of Saint Matthew and Calling of Saint Matthew. Thereafter he never lacked commissions or patrons, yet he handled his success poorly. He was jailed on several occasions, vandalized his own apartment, and ultimately had a death sentence pronounced against him by the Pope after killing a young man, possibly unintentionally, on May 29, 1606. He fled from Rome with a price on his head. He was involved in a brawl in Malta in 1608, and another in Naples in 1609. This encounter left him severely injured. A year later, at the age of 38, he died under mysterious circumstances in Porto Ercole in Tuscany, reportedly from a fever while on his way to Rome to receive a pardon.

Famous while he lived, Caravaggio was forgotten almost immediately after his death, and it was only in the 20th century that his importance to the development of Western art was rediscovered. More on Caravaggio

In this temple oracles were given; but the devils were struck dumb by the presence of the saint as he passed that way. 

Jean-Louis Bézard

The martyrdom of Saint Saturnin, c. 1830–1834

Oil on canvas

375 x 482 cm

 Church Notre-Dame du Taur, Toulouse

Jean-Louis Bezard, born on November 25, 1799 in Toulouse and died on November 3, 1881 in Paris,  was a neoclassic French painter.

Jean-Louis Bezard wass known as a religious painter. He was a student of Pierre-Narcisse Guérin and François-Édouard Picot at the School of Fine Arts in Paris . He won the second prize in the Prix de Rome competition in 1825 and the Grand Prix ​​de Rome in 1829 for a painting on the theme of Jacob refusing to deliver Benjamin .

After his stay at the Villa Medici in Rome, he pursued a career as a painter of history and religious subjects. He produced a series of paintings commissioned by King Louis-Philippe to decorate the French History Museum in Versailles.

He was also a portrait painter. The painting of M. Chibourg and his grandson painted in 1828 can be found in the Museum of Fine Arts in Blois. More on Jean-Louis Bezard

The priests spied him one day going by, and seized and dragged him into the temple. declaring that he should either appease the offended deities by offering sacrifice to them, or expiate the crime with his blood. Saturninus boldly replied: "I adore one only God, and to him I am ready to offer a sacrifice of praise. Your gods are devils, and are more delighted with the sacrifice of your souls than with those of your bullocks. How can I fear them who, as you acknowledge, tremble before a Christian?" 

The infidels, incensed at this reply, abused the saint with all the rage that a mad zeal could inspire, and after a great variety of indignities, tied his feet to a wild bull, which was brought thither to be sacrificed. 

Richard de Montbaston

Martyrdom of Saint Saturnin
Legenda Aurea, c. 1290

Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence

Richard Montbaston was a copyist in Paris in the late 14th  century. From his workshop came out in particular the Roman of the rose , illuminated by his wife, Jeanne.

Having sworn in the booksellers' oath in 1338, Richard de Montbaston is mentioned as a "bookseller" in the colophon in the Life of the Saints . On the other hand, his wife, Jeanne, took the oath of the booksellers in 1353 as illuminatrix and libraria , which gave rise to speculations according to which if Richard had the title of copyist and was indeed the owner of the workshop, he it would be impossible to attribute to him the illuminations of his manuscripts and that they should be due to his wife, Jeanne, although her work is not documented in any surviving manuscript. More on Richard Montbaston

The beast being driven from the temple, ran violently down the hill, so that the martyr's scull was broken, and his brains dashed out. His happy soul was released from the body by death, and fled to the kingdom of peace and glory, and the bull continued to drag the sacred body, and the limbs and blood were scattered on every side, till, the cord breaking, what remained of the trunk was left in the plain without the gates of the city. 

Marc Arcis

The martyrdom of Saint Saturnin, c. 1720 

Gilded lead altarpiece of the main altar
 Basilica Saint-Sernin, Toulouse, France

Marc Arcis (1655–1739, Toulouse) was a French sculptor. He trained the painter Antoine Rivalz. He produced busts for a galerie des Illustres in Toulouse between 1674 and 1677. In Paris, he took part in the interior decoration of the église de la Sorbonne and produced works for Versailles. After 1690, he based himself solely in Toulouse, decorating several chapels and the churches of Saint-Sernin and Saint-Étienne there. More on Marc Arcis 

Two devout women laid the sacred remains on a bier, and hid them in a deep ditch, to secure them from any further insult, where they lay in "wooden coffin" till the reign of Constantine the Great. Then Hilary, bishop of Toulouse, built a small chapel over this his holy predecessor's body. The martyrdom of this saint probably happened m the reign of Valerian, in 257. More on St. Saturninus Bishop of Toulouse

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.

11 works, Today, November 28th, is Martyr Stephen the New's day, his story, illustrated #331

Santo Peranda, (1566-1638)

The Martyrdom of St. Stephen

View this image in full resolution

Church of San Stefano, Venice, Italy

The canvas is done in Peranda's usual grand style, full of energy yet carefully composed to balance the half-circle of light enclosing the heavenly figures and the luminous triangle described by the Father, Son, and Stephen, who wears a dalmatic such as would be worn by deacons of the artist's time. More on this work

Sante Peranda (1566–1638) was an Italian painter of the late-Renaissance period.

He was a pupil of Leonardo Corona and later Palma il Giovane. Also known as Santo Peranda. He painted a Descent from the cross for San Procolo in Venice. He painted The defeat of the Saracens for the Ducal Palace of Modena. He painted the Gathering of the Manna for the church of the San Bartolome. In 1623 he finished Glorious Mysteries for the church of San Nicolò in Treviso. Among his pupils were Francesco Maffei, Matteo Ponzone, and Filippo Zaniberti. More on Sante Peranda

The Holy Monk Martyr and Confessor Stephen the New was born in 715 at Constantinople into a pious Christian family. His parents, having two daughters, prayed the Lord for the birth of a son. The mother of the new-born Stephen took him to the Blakhernae church in honour of the Most Holy Mother of God and dedicated him to God.

Unknown artist

Synaxarion of the Holy Confessor Stephen the New
I have no further description, at this time

During the time of the emperor Leo the Isaurian (716-741) there began persecution against holy icons and against those venerating them. With the support of the emperor, the adherents of the Iconoclast heresy seized control of the supreme positions of authority in the empire and in the Church. 

Unknown artist

BYZANTINE ICONOCLASTS, c. 1066

Emperor Leo the Isaurian and the Iconoclasts rubbing out an image of Christ. Left Council of Constantinople, 815. Illumination from a manuscript psalter made in the Monastery of Studios, Constantinople.

Persecuted by the powers of this world, Orthodoxy was preserved in monasteries distant from the capital, in solitary cells and in the brave and faithful hearts of its followers. The Orthodox parents of Saint Stephen, grieved by the surrounding impiety, fled from Constantinople to Bithynia, and they gave over their sixteen year old son in obedience to Blessed John, who asceticised in a solitary place on the Mount of Saint Auxentios. Saint Stephen dwelt more than 15 years with Blessed John, having devoted himself totally to this spirit-bearing elder, and learning monastic activity from him. Here then Stephen received the news that his father was dead, and his mother and sisters had taken monastic tonsure.

Unknown artist

Saint Stephen the Younger, c.1651

Fresco

Church of Agios Georgios, of Vounos, Kastoria.

Saint Stephen the Younger is depicted as a Magnificent Monk, having next to him the chronographer Saint Theophanes of Syriani, who recorded the life and martyrdom of Saint Stephen. The two holy Confessors are shown holding among themselves a small portable image of Christ, indicative of their praiseworthy and successful struggles for the final restoration of the sacred icons.

After a certain while his teacher, Blessed John, also died. With deep sorrow Saint Stephen buried his venerable body, and by himself continued with monastic effort in his cave. Soon monks began to come to the ascetic, desiring to learn from him the virtuous and salvific life, and there gradually emerged a monastery, the hegumen of which was Saint Stephen. At forty-two years of age Stephen left the monastery founded by him, and he went to another mountain, on the summit of which he dwelt in deep seclusion in a solitary cell. But here also soon gathered a community of monks, seeking the spiritual guidance of Saint Stephen.

Unknown artist

Miniature from the 9th-century Chludov Psalter with scene of iconoclasm

Iconoclasts John Grammaticus and Anthony I of Constantinople

Chludov Psalter; Moscow, Hist. Mus. MS. D.129) is an illuminated marginal Psalter made in the middle of the 9th Century. It is a unique monument of Byzantine art at the time of the Iconoclasm, one of only three illuminated Byzantine Psalters to survive from the 9th century. More on the Chludov Psalter

Leo the Isaurian was succeeded by Constantine Copronymos (741-775), a still more fierce persecutor of the Orthodox pious, and still more zealous an iconoclast. The emperor convened an Iconoclast council, to which came 358 bishops from the Eastern provinces. However, except for the archbishop of Constantinople Constantine, – illegitimately raised up onto the patriarchal throne by the power of Copronymos, not one of the other patriarchs bothered to participate in the council, thus making it all the less able to usurp the term "oecumenical". 

Unknown artist

Argument about icons before the emperor, in the Skylitzis Chronicle, c. 13th century

This council of heretics, at the instigation of the emperor and the archbishop, described icons as idols, and proscribed anathema on all who venerate icons in the Orthodox manner, and it described icon veneration as heresy.

Unknown artist

Monastic Martyr and Confessor Stephen the New

I have no further description, at this time

Meanwhile, the monastery of Saint Stephen and its hegumen became known of in the capital. They told the emperor about the ascetic life of the monks, and the open encouragement of icon-veneration and therein the rebuff to the persecutors of Orthodoxy.

Sebastiano del Piombo, (1485–1547)

The slandered nun courageously denied guilt

Martyrdom of Saint Agatha, c. 1520

 Oil on panel

Height: 127 cm (50 in); Width: 178 cm (70 in)

Pitti Palace, Florence

Sebastiano del Piombo (c. 1485 – 21 June 1547), byname of Sebastiano Luciani, was an Italian painter of the High Renaissance and early Mannerist periods famous as the only major artist of the period to combine the coloring of the Venetian school in which he was trained with the monumental forms of the Roman school.

His nickname derived from the lucrative Papal appointment as Keeper of the Seal, which he held from 1531. Never a very disciplined or productive painter, his artistic productivity fell still further after this, which committed him to attend on the pope most days, and travel with him. He now painted mostly portraits, and relatively few works of his survive compared to his great contemporaries in Rome. This limited his involvement with the Mannerist style of his later years.

Having achieved success as a lutanist when young, he turned to painting and trained with Giovanni Bellini and Giorgione. When he first went to Rome he worked with Raphael and then became one of the few painters to get on well with Michelangelo, who tried to promote his career by encouraging to compete for commissions against Raphael. More on Sebastiano del Piombo

They tried to entice Saint Stephen into the Iconoclast camp, at first with flattery and bribery, then by threats, but in vain. Then they slandered the saint, accusing him of co-habiting with nuns. But his guilt was not proven, since the slandered nun courageously denied guilt and died under torture and beatings. Finally, the emperor gave orders to lock up the saint in prison, and to destroy his monastery. 

Unknown artist

Byzantine pillar-dweller
I have no further description, at this time

Then the emperor gave orders to exile the saint to one of the islands in the Sea of Marmora. The monk settled into a cave, and there also soon gathered his disciples. After a certain while the saint left the brethren and took upon himself the exploit of pillar-dweller. 

The emperor then gave orders to transfer Saint Stephen to prison on the island of Pharos, and then to bring him to trial. At the trial, the saint refuted the arguments of the heretics sitting in judgement upon him. 

The emperor gave orders to take away the saint to prison, where already there were languishing 342 elders, condemned for the veneration of icons. And In this prison Saint Stephen spent eleven months, consoling the imprisoned. 

The emperor, – having learned that in prison the saint had organised a monastery, sent two of his servants to beat the saint to death. When they went to the prison and beheld the face of the monk shining with a Divine light, they fell down on their knees to him, asking his forgiveness and prayers, but they told the emperor that his command had been carried out. 

Peter Paul Rubens, (1577–1640)

The Martyrdom of St Stephen, between 1616 and 1617

Oil on canvas

Height: 437 cm (14.3 ft); Width: 278 cm (109.4 in)

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Valenciennes, France

Sir Peter Paul Rubens (28 June 1577 – 30 May 1640) was a Flemish Baroque painter. A proponent of an extravagant Baroque style that emphasized movement, colour, and sensuality, Rubens is well known for his Counter-Reformation altarpieces, portraits, landscapes, and history paintings of mythological and allegorical subjects.

In addition to running a large studio in Antwerp that produced paintings popular with nobility and art collectors throughout Europe, Rubens was a classically educated humanist scholar and diplomat who was knighted by both Philip IV of Spain and Charles I of England.  More Sir Peter Paul Rubens

But the emperor learned the truth and he resorted to still another lie. Informing his soldiers, that the saint had intentions to topple him from the throne, he dispatched them to the prison. The holy confessor himself came out half the way to the furious soldiers, who seized hold of him and dragged him through the streets of the city. They then threw the lacerated body of the martyr into a pit, where they were wont to bury criminals.

On the following morning over Mount Auxentios there appeared a fiery cloud, and then an heavy darkness descended upon the capital with a fierce thunderstorm, which struck at much. More on Holy Monk Martyr and Confessor Stephen the New

Unknown artist

Vita scene from the Life of St Stephen of Sourozh, c. 17th-century

Russian icon

22.8 x 19.6 cm

Private collection

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.

06 works, Today, November 27th, is Saint Onuphrius' (ابو نفر‎‎)day, his story, illustrated #330

Unknown artist

Detail; St. Reverend Onufrey Vel, c. date 18-early 19's

Russian miraculous icon of Onuphrius 

The Great Transfiguration Convent, the village of Golovchintsy, Khmelnitsky and Starokonstantinovskaya dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Onuphrius or Onoufrios lived as a hermit in the desert of Upper Egypt in (Upper Thebaid) the 4th or 5th centuries. 

Diocese of Egypt (Dioecesis Aegypti) ca. 400 AD

Onuphrius was one of the Desert Fathers who made a great impression on Eastern spirituality in the third and fourth centuries, around the time that Christianity was emerging as the dominant faith of the Roman Empire.

Francisco Collantes (1599–1656) 

Saint Onofre, Around 1645

Oil on unlined canvas

170 x 108 cm.

Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

Francisco Collantes (1599–1656) was a Spanish Baroque era painter.

Collantes was born in Madrid but sought influence from Jusepe de Ribera and the Neapolitan School. He was also influenced by 16th century Venetian painters and was renowned for his landscapes and biblical scenes.[1]

His works included The Burning Bush (c. 1634) which is now at the Louvre, Agar and Ishmael which is now at the Museum of Art, Rhode Island School of Design, in Providence, and The Vision of Ezekiel, Saint Arnulph and The Fall of Troy (about 1634), all three now at the Museo del Prado in Madrid. More on Francisco Collantes

According to Saint Paphnutius the Ascetic' account, he met Onuphrius when he undertook a pilgrimage to study the hermit way of life and to determine whether it was for him. Wandering in the Egyptian desert for 16 days, on the 17th day Paphnutius came across a wild figure covered in hair, wearing a loincloth of leaves. Frightened, Paphnutius ran away, up a mountain, but the figure called him back, shouting, “Come down to me, man of God, for I am a man also, dwelling in the desert for the love of God"

Cuzco School, 18th Century

Saint Onuphrius

Oil on canvas

53.3x64.4 cm 

Private collection

The Cuzco School (Escuela Cuzquena) was a Roman Catholic artistic tradition which originated following the 1534 Spanish Conquest of the Inca Empire and continued during the Colonial Period in the sixteenth, seventeenth, and eighteenth centuries. Though based in Cusco, Peru (the former capital of the Inca Empire), the Cuzco School extended to other cities of the Andes, present day Bolivia, and Ecuador. Today it is regarded as the first artistic center that taught European visual art techniques in the Americas. The primary intention of Cuzco School paintings was to be didactic. Hoping to convert the Incas to Catholicism, the Spanish sent religious artists to Cusco who created a school for the Quechua peoples and mestizos. Interestingly, Cusquena art was created by the indigenous as well as Spanish creoles. In addition to religious subjects, the Cuzco School expressed their cultural pride with paintings of Inca monarchs. Despite the fact that Cuzco School painters had studied prints of Flemish, Byzantine, and Italian Renaissance art, these artists' style and techniques were generally freer than that of their European models. More on The Cuzco School

His hair and beard reached to the ground. This does not normally happen – the beard reaches a certain length and grows no further. His beard, related the Saint, grew to his feet in one day to cover his nakedness when the clothes with which he had come to the desert fell away. All the hairs on him were as white as snow and his entire appearance glowed, sublime and

awesome. 

Fra Angelico,  (circa 1395 –1455)

A large monastery in the Thebaid

Scenes from the Lives of the Desert Fathers (Thebaid), c. 1420

Tempera on poplar wood

Height: 738 mm (29.05 in); Width: 1,050 mm (41.33 in)

Museum of Fine Arts, Budapest

Fra Angelico (born Guido di Pietro; c. 1395 – February 18, 1455) was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance, described by Vasari in his Lives of the Artists as having "a rare and perfect talent".

He was known to contemporaries as Fra Giovanni da Fiesole and Fra Giovanni Angelico . In modern Italian he is called Beato Angelico; the common English name Fra Angelico means the "Angelic friar".

In 1982, Pope John Paul II proclaimed his beatificatio in recognition of the holiness of his life, thereby making the title of "Blessed" official. Fiesole is sometimes misinterpreted as being part of his formal name, but it was merely the name of the town where he took his vows as a Dominican friar, and was used by contemporaries to separate him from others who were also known as Fra Giovanni. 

Vasari wrote of Fra Angelico that "it is impossible to bestow too much praise on this holy father, who was so humble and modest in all that he did and said and whose pictures were painted with such facility and piety." More on Fra Angelico

Unknown artist

Onuphrius is in the middle band on the right shown talking to Paphnutius

The Thebaid fresco in the Pisan Camposanto

Unknown artist

Detail; Onuphrius is in the middle band on the right shown talking to Paphnutius

The Thebaid fresco in the Pisan Camposanto

Turning back, Paphnutius talked to the wild figure, who introduced himself as Onuphrius and explained that he had once been a monk at a large monastery in the Thebaid, but he wanted to live alone. He left his monastery and went to live near a city, sustaining himself by the work of his own hands (he was a weaver). Once a woman came to him with an order and he fell into sin with her. Having come to his senses, the fallen monk went far into the desert, where he patiently endured tribulation and sickness. When he was at the point of dying from hunger, he received healing in a miraculous manner.

In the orthodox rite, Onofre would have been a virtuous young woman who, in order to preserve her virginity from a ferocious persecutor, prayed that God would transform her into a man , which was granted to her. Then he went to live as a hermit in the desert of Egypt, living naked and having only his long beard covering his parts.

Battistello Caracciolo, (–1635)

St Onophrius, circa 1625

Oil on canvas

Height: 180 cm (70.8 in); Width: 116 cm (45.6 in)

Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome, Italy

Giovanni Battista Caracciolo (also called Battistello) (1578–1635) was an Italian artist and important Neapolitan follower of Caravaggio.

His initial training was said to be with Francesco Imparato and Fabrizio Santafede, but the first impulse that directed his art came from Caravaggio's sudden presence in Naples in late 1606. Caravaggio had fled there after killing a man in a brawl in Rome. His stay in the city lasted only about eight months, with another brief visit in 1609/1610, yet his impact on artistic life there was profound.

Caracciolo, only five years younger than Caravaggio, was among the first there to adopt the startling new style with its sombre palette. He is considered to be the solitary founder of the Neapolitan school of Caravaggism. 

In 1607, he painted the Immaculate Conception for the Santa Maria della Stella in Naples. It is considered to be his first documented Caravaggesque painting.

In 1612, he made a trip to Rome. A work showing the influence of this visit, and especially that of Orazio Gentileschi, is the Liberation of Saint Peter (1615), painted for the Pio Monte della Misericordia, to hang next to Caravaggio's Seven Works of Mercy painted for the same church. By this time he had become the leader of the new Neapolitan school, dividing his time between religious subjects (altarpieces and, unusually for a Caravaggist, frescos) and paintings for private patrons.

He died in Naples, in the few days between creating his last will, on 19 December 1635, and 24 December 1635, when it was opened and read. More on Giovanni Battista Caracciolo

but who had now lived as a hermit for 70 years, enduring extreme thirst, hunger, and discomforts. He said that it was his guardian angel who had brought him to this desolate place and delivered him a Host every Sunday."  Onuphrius took Paphnutius to his cell, and they spoke until sunset, when bread and water miraculously appeared outside of the hermit's cell.

They spent the night in the prayer, and in the morning Paphnutius discovered that Onuphrius was near death. Paphnutius, distressed, asked the hermit if he should occupy Onuphrius’ cell after the hermit’s death, but Onuphrius told him, "That may not be, thy work is in Egypt with thy brethren." Onuphrius asked Paphnutius for there to be a memorial with incense in Egypt in remembrance of the hermit. He then blessed the traveler and died.

Unknown artist

St. Reverend Onufrey Vel, c. date 18-early 19's

Russian miraculous icon of Onuphrius 

The Great Transfiguration Convent, the village of Golovchintsy, Khmelnitsky and Starokonstantinovskaya dioceses of the Russian Orthodox Church.

Due to the hard and rocky ground, Paphnutius could not dig a hole for a grave, and therefore covered Onuphrius’ body in a cloak, leaving the hermit’s body in a cleft of the rocks. After the burial, Onuphrius’ cell crumbled, which Paphnutius took to be a sign that he should not stay. More on Saint Onuphrius

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