06 works, Today, December 18th, is Saints Rufus and Zosimus', day, their story, illustrated #350

St. Rufus, Died - c.107 Statue created - c.1702-1703 Sculptor - Matteo Tomassini

St. Zosimus, Died - c.107 Statue Installed - c.1702-1703 Sculptor - Annibale Casella

Roma Sacra - San Pietro in Vatican

Rufus and Zosimus were early apostles who lived in Antioch and were caught up in the persecutions of Christians under the Roman emperor Trajan. 

Eugène Delacroix,  (1798–1863)

 Roman emperor Trajan

The Justice of Trajan, c. 1840

Oil on canvas

Height: 495 cm (16.2 ft); Width: 396 cm (12.9 ft)

Musée des Beaux-Arts de Rouen

Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix (26 April 1798 – 13 August 1863) was a French Romantic artist regarded from the outset of his career as the leader of the French Romantic school.

 

As a painter and muralist, Delacroix's use of expressive brushstrokes and his study of the optical effects of colour profoundly shaped the work of the Impressionists, while his passion for the exotic inspired the artists of the Symbolist movement. A fine lithographer, Delacroix illustrated various works of William Shakespeare, the Scottish author Walter Scott and the German author Johann Wolfgang von Goethe.

 

Delacroix took for his inspiration the art of Rubens and painters of the Venetian Renaissance, with an attendant emphasis on colour and movement rather than clarity of outline and carefully modelled form. Dramatic and romantic content characterized the central themes of his maturity, and led him not to the classical models of Greek and Roman art, but to travel in North Africa, in search of the exotic. Friend and spiritual heir to Théodore Géricault, Delacroix was also inspired by Lord Byron, with whom he shared a strong identification with the "forces of the sublime", of nature in often violent action.

 

However, Delacroix was given to neither sentimentality nor bombast, and his Romanticism was that of an individualist. In the words of Baudelaire, "Delacroix was passionately in love with passion, but coldly determined to express passion as clearly as possible." More on Ferdinand Victor Eugène Delacroix

As Bishop Igantius' companions on the trip to Rome during the first decade of the second century they stopped at Smyrna in Asia Minor at the time St. Polycarp was the Bishop of Smyrna. 

Unknown artist

Polycarp miraculously extinguishing fire of the city of Smyrna

Church Icon at St Polycarp's Roman Catholic Church, Izmir, Turkey

I have no further description, at this time

Polycarp was a disciple of St. John the Evangelist. After the party of Ss. Ignastius, Ruffus, and Zosimus left Smyrna, they continued through Philippi, in ancient Macedonia, on to Rome, as recorded in Polycarp's epistle to the Philippians.

Polycarp's epistle and other early writings allude to their efforts of spreading the faith in Asia Minor in the same mission field that Ignatius traversed. They were held up as examples for the early Christian communities even before their martyrdom and that they were rightly venerated and emulated as authentic heroes of the faith.

Hans Multscher, (1400–1467)

Christ Carrying the Cross, c. 1437

Oil on fir wood

150 × 140 cm (59 × 55.1 in)

Gemäldegalerie, Berlin

Hans Multscher (ca. 1400–1467) was a German sculptor and painter. He made himself with new artistic styles from northern France and the Netherlands, and became a free citizen of the city of Ulm in 1427. There, he married Adelheid Kitzin the same year. He ran his own business as a painter and sculptor, together with his brother Heinrich Multscher. More on Hans Multscher

It is suggested by some that Rufus was the son of Simon the Cyrenian - the man who carried the cross of Christ for a while.  It is also plausible that Rufus was among those who greeted Paul upon his arrival in Rome.

Eugene Romain Thirion

Triumph of Faith

Christian Martyrs in the Time of Nero, 65 AD

Oil on canvas

89x146
Private collection

Eugène-Romain Thirion, born in Paris on May 19 , 1839 and died in the same city on January 18 , 19101, is a French painter.

In 1860 , Thirion was admitted to the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris. He competed in the Prix ​​de Rome for the historic landscape in 1861 with Mercure and Argus . He first tried to win the Rome Prize for History painting in 1862, and again participated in the competition the following year, without success. Once again a candidate in 1864 , he obtained a second grand prize.

He began a prolific career in history painting and decorative painting. From the 1860s , he was part of the team of artists responsible for decorating the Marquise de la Païva's hotel on the avenue des Champs-Élysées in Paris. At the Salon of 1867 , he presented a large painting illustrating Perseus, and exhibited at the Salon of 1876 his most famous work, Joan of Arc listening to her voices .

He participated in the 1870s in the painted decorations of the Paris Opera , realizing the allegories of the months of July and August. In 1880 , he won the competition for the decoration of the ceiling of the staircase of honor of the town hall of the 12 th arrondissement of Paris and produced a large decorative composition evoking Les Industries du 12 edistrict, education and public assistance. More on Eugène-Romain Thirion

In Rome about the year 107, Rufus and Zosimus were thrown to the beasts in the Coliseum two days before Ignatius was likewise martyred before the crowds of Rome. More on Saints Rufus and Zosimus

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