07 works, Today, December 2nd, is Stefan Uroš IV Dušan's day, his story, illustrated #335

Unknown artist

Tsar Stefan Dusan

Fresco

Decani monastery, Deçan, Kosovo

Stefan Uroš IV Dušan, known as Dušan the Mighty (circa 1308 – 20 December 1355), was the King of Serbia from 8 September 1331 and Tsar and autocrat of the Serbs and Greeks from 16 April 1346 until his death. He enacted the constitution of the Serbian Empire, known as Dušan's Code, perhaps the most important literary work of medieval Serbia.

Paja Jovanović (1859–1957)

The Proclamation of Dušan's Law Codex, c. 1900

Oil on canvas

390x589 cm

National Museum of Serbia

For Paja Jovanović, see below

Unknown artist

 Stefan Uroš III Dečanski of Serbia

I have no further description, at this time

Dušan was the eldest son of King Stefan Dečanski and Theodora Smilets, the daughter of emperor Smilets of Bulgaria. He was born circa 1308, or in 1312 in Serbia, but with the exile Dušan's father in 1314, the family lived in Constantinople until 1320, when his father was allowed to return. In Constantinople he learned Greek, gained an understanding of Byzantine life and culture, and became acquainted with the Byzantine Empire. 

He took a lot interest in arts of war; in his youth he fought exceptionally in two battles: in 1329 he defeated the ban Stephen II Kotromanić during the War of Hum, and in 1330 the Bulgarian emperor Michael III Shishman in the Battle of Velbužd. Dečanski appointed his nephew Ivan Stephen to the throne of Bulgaria in August 1330.

Dečanski's decision not to attack the Byzantines after the victory at Velbazhd, when he had an opportunity, resulted in the alienation of many nobles, who sought to expand to the south. By January or February 1331, 

Advisors turned Dečanski against his son, Dušan, and he decided to seize and exclude Dušan from his inheritance. Dečanski sent an army into Zeta against his son; the army ravaged Shkodër, but Dušan had crossed the Bojana river. A brief period of anarchy took place in parts of Serbia before father and son concluded peace in April 1331. 

XIV century Serbian painter

 Stefan Dečanski and Dušan with church model, middle of XIV century

Fresco

Visoki Dečani Monastry, Serbia

Three months later, Dečanski ordered Dušan to meet him. Dušan feared for his life and his advisors persuaded him to resist, so Dušan marched from Skadar to Nerodimlje, where he besieged his father. Dečanski fled, and Dušan captured the treasury and family. He then pursued his father, catching up with him at Petrich. On 21 August 1331 Dečanski surrendered, and on the advice or insistence of Dušan's advisors, he was imprisoned. Dušan was crowned King of All Serbian and Maritime lands in the first week of September.

The civil war had prevented Serbia from aiding Ivan Stephen and Anna Neda in Bulgaria, who were deposed in March 1331, taking refuge in the mountains. Emperor Ivan Alexander of Bulgaria feared Serbia, as the situation there had settled, and he immediately sought peace with Dušan. 

Paja Jovanović

Wedding of Emperor Dušan", c. 1904

National Museum, Belgrade

Paja Jovanović was born in Vršac, on June 4, 1859. He had the opportunity to see the iconostasis of Pavel Đurković and Arsa Teodorović in the town churches, as well as the works of Jovan Popović. His father took him to Vienna in 1875 when he was 15, where he enrolled in the Academy of Fine Arts in 1877. He finished the Academy of Fine Arts in 1880. In the following period he painted mostly scenes from the life of the Albanians, Montenegrins, and Herzegovinians, which brought him great reputation. In 1882 he was awarded the prize of the Academy and was given the czar scholarship for composition.

He continued his travelling through Caucasus, Morocco, Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Italy, and Spain. A great number of sketches, notes, and studies, along with the collected objects from the life of the common people, will find their place in his famous genre-compositions.

As early as in 1893 he was proclaimed for the member of the Serbian Royal Academy. He was given the task to make monumental historical compositions. After 1905 he devoted himself exclusively to painting the portraits for his rich clientele. 

He made the iconostasis in the "Dolovo" and "Saborna" churches in Novi Sad, which was painted without commission. He spent most of his time in his atelier in Vienna where he settled, and occasionally travelled to Belgrade. In 1940 he was given the title of the honorary citizen of Vršac, and in 1949 he was given the Order "zasluga za narod" of the first category. He lived quietly and lonely, after his wife's early death. More on Paja Jovanović

As Dušan wanted to move against richer Byzantium, the two made peace and an alliance in December 1331. It was sealed with the marriage of Dušan and Helena of Bulgaria, Empress of Serbia, the sister of tsar Ivan Alexander.

Dušan began to fight against the Byzantine Empire in 1334, and warfare continued with interruptions of various duration until his death in 1355. Twice he became involved in larger conflicts with the Hungarians, but these clashes were mostly defensive. Dušan then focused his attention on the internal affairs of his country, writing, in 1349, the first statute book of the Serbs.

To the west, Dušan scored victories over Hungarian leader Louis the Great that gave him eastern half of modern Bosnia. Dušan was also successful against Louis' vassals: he defeated the armies of the Croatian ban and the forces of Hungarian voivodes. He was at peace with tsar Ivan Alexander Bulgaria, who even helped him on several occasions, and he is said to have visited Ivan Alexander at his capital. Serbia became temporarily dominant state between 1331 and 1365.

Dušan exploited the civil war in the Byzantine Empire between the regent of the minor Emperor John V Palaiologos, Anna of Savoy, and his father's general John Kantakouzenos. Dušan and Ivan Alexander picked opposite sides in the conflict but remained at peace with each other, taking advantage of the Byzantine civil war to secure gains for themselves.

Unknown artist

Serb victory over the Byzantines in a mountain pass

Illustrated manuscript of John Skilitsa. XIII century.

The Madrid Skylitzes is a richly illustrated illuminated manuscript of the Synopsis of Histories, by John Skylitzes, which covers the reigns of the Byzantine emperors from the death of Nicephorus I in 811 to the deposition of Michael VI in 1057. 

Dušan's systematic offensive against the Byzantines began in 1342, and in the end he conquered all Byzantine territories in the western Balkans. In May 1344, his commander Preljub was stopped at Stephaniana by a Turkic force of 3,100. The Turks won the battle, but the victory was not enough to thwart the Serbian conquest of Macedonia. Faced with Dušan's aggression, the Byzantines sought allies in the Ottoman Turks, whom they brought into Europe for the first time.

Alphonse Mucha  (1860–1939)

The coronation of the Serbian Tsar Stefan Dušan as East Roman Emperor, c. 1926

Oil on canvas

480 × 405 cm (15.7 × 13.2 ft)

Mucha Museum Prague

Alfons Maria Mucha (24 July 1860 – 14 July 1939), known internationally as Alphonse Mucha, was a Czech painter, illustrator and graphic artist, living in Paris during the Art Nouveau period, best known for his distinctly stylized and decorative theatrical posters, particularly those of Sarah Bernhardt. He produced illustrations, advertisements, decorative panels, and designs, which became among the best-known images of the period.

In the second part of his career, at the age of 43, he returned to his homeland of Bohemia-Moravia region in Austria and devoted himself to painting a series of twenty monumental canvases known as The Slav Epic, depicting the history of all the Slavic peoples of the world, which he painted between 1912 and 1926. In 1928, on the 10th anniversary of the independence of Czechoslovakia, he presented the series to the Czech nation. He considered it his most important work. It is now on display in Prague. More on Alfons Maria Mucha

In 1343, Dušan added Romans/Greeks to his self-styled title "King of Serbia, Albania and the coast". In 1345 he began calling himself tsar, equivalent of Emperor, as attested in charters to two athonite monasteries, one from November 1345 and the other from January 1346, and around Christmas 1345 at a council meeting in Serres, which was conquered on 25 September 1345, he proclaimed himself "Tsar of the Serbs and Romans" 

His premature death created a large power vacuum in the Balkans, that ultimately enabled Turkish invasion and Turkish rule until the early 20th century. While mounting a crusade against the Turks, he fell ill (possibly poisoned) and died of a fever at Devoll on 20 December 1355. He was buried in his foundation, the Monastery of the Holy Archangels near Prizren. More on Stefan Uroš IV Dušan

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

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09 works, Today, December 1st, is Saint Eligius' day, his story, illustrated #334

Sandro Botticelli, (1445–1510)

Miracle of St Eligius, between 1490 and 1492

Tempera on panel

Height: 21.0 cm; Width: 269.0 cm 

Uffizi Gallery, Florence

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, known as Sandro Botticelli (1445 –1510), was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. He belonged to the Florentine School.  Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century; since then, his work has been seen to represent the linear grace of Early Renaissance painting.

 

Botticelli was born in Florence. He was initially trained as a goldsmith. There are very few details of Botticelli's life, but it is known that he became an apprentice when he was about fourteen years old. By 1462 he was apprenticed to Fra Filippo Lippi; many of his early works have been attributed to the elder master, and attributions continue to be uncertain. Influenced also by the monumentality of Masaccio's painting, it was from Lippi that Botticelli learned a more intimate and detailed manner.

 

By 1470, Botticelli had his own workshop. His work was characterized by a conception of the figure as if seen in low relief, drawn with clear contours, and minimizing strong contrasts of light and shadow which would indicate fully modelled forms.

 

In the mid-1480s, Botticelli worked on a major fresco cycle for Lorenzo the Magnificent's villa near Volterra; in addition he painted many frescoes in Florentine churches. In 1491 he served on a committee to decide upon a façade for the Cathedral of Florence.

 

Botticelli never wed, and expressed a strong disliking to the idea of marriage, a prospect he claimed gave him nightmares. More on Sandro Botticelli

Saint Eligius, aka Saint Eloy, (June 588 – 1 December 660 AD) was chief counsellor to Dagobert I, Merovingian king of France. Appointed the bishop of Noyon-Tournai three years after the king's death in 642, Eligius worked for 20 years to convert the pagan population of Flanders to Christianity.

Petrus Christus, (1410–1475)

St. Eligius in his goldsmith workshop, c.1449

Oil and tempera on wood

Height: 85 cm (33.4 in); Width: 98 cm (38.5 in)

Metropolitan Museum of Art,  New York City

Petrus Christus (c. 1410/1420 – 1475/1476) was an Early Netherlandish painter active in Bruges from 1444, where, along with Hans Memling, he became the leading painter after the death of Jan van Eyck. He was influenced by van Eyck and Rogier van der Weyden and is noted for his innovations with linear perspective and a meticulous technique which seems derived from miniatures and manuscript illumination. 

Christus was an anonymous figure for centuries, his importance not established until the work of modern art historians. Giorgio Vasari barely mentions him in his biographies of painters, written in the Renaissance, and near contemporary records merely list him amongst many others. In the early to mid-nineteenth century, Gustav Waagen and Johann David Passavant were important in establishing Christus's biographical details and in attributing works to him.

Christus was born in Baarle, near Antwerp and Breda. Long considered a student of and successor to Jan van Eyck, his paintings have sometimes been confused with those of van Eyck. At the death of van Eyck in 1441, it is thought that Christus took over his master's workshop. Christus purchased his Bruges citizenship in 1444, exactly three years after van Eyck's death.

It is unknown whether Christus visited Italy, and brought style and technical accomplishments of the Northern European painters directly to Antonello da Messina and other Italian artists, but it is known that his paintings were purchased by Italians. It would also explain how Italian painters learned about oil painting and how Northern painters learned about linear perspective.

Christus was made a member of the Guild of Saint Luke and made dean of the guild in 1471. More on Petrus Christus

Eligius was born in Aquitaine, now France, into an educated and influential Gallo-Roman family. His father, recognising unusual talent in his son, sent him to the goldsmith Abbo, master of the mint at Limoges. Later Eligius went to Neustria, the palace of the Franks, where he worked under Babo, the royal treasurer, on whose recommendation Clotaire II, king of the Franks, is said to have commissioned him to make a throne of gold adorned with precious stones.

Pere Nunyes

Presenting the chairs before King Clotaire II, c. 1526-1529

Tempera, oil and gilding with gold leaf on panel

Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

The Merovingian King Clothar III (652-673), shown here as an old man with a crown, asked eligius, who was only a goldsmith then, to make for him a saddle (other stories claim say that it was a throne).

This painting is part of an altarpiece dedicated to Saint Eligius. The altarpiece was commissioned by the Silversmiths' guild for their chapel in the church of La Mercè in Barcelona. The whole altarpiece shows episodes from the life of Saint Eligius.

Pere Nunyes ( Portugal, 15th century - Barcelona, d. 1554 ), born Pedro Nunhes, was a Portuguese painter who arrived in Barcelona in 1513.

Nunyes was one of the many foreign artists who, in the absence of competent local artists, went to Catalonia.  The presence of foreigners and the mobility of artists are consubstantial in the Spanish art of the 15th and 16th centuries. 

Some say that Pere Nunyes could be Michelangelo's "Portuguese servant" than Francisco de Holandaquotes in his biography of the Italian artist. 

Just when he arrived in Barcelona, ​​Nunyes collaborated with Joan de Borgunya , the most requested artist in the city at the time. When he died in 1525, he inherited all the pending orders and work and became its successor. 

He also collaborated with other members of the guild. At an early date, he sought to establish relations with the Neapolitan painter Nicolau de Credença, established in Barcelona since the end of the 15th century; later he will do so with Pere Serafí .

Pere Nunyes, with his partners, became the great dominator of the Barcelona art scene in the first half of the 16th century. The totality of their work is religious; only in some works does it incorporate any historical theme.

As the respect and prestige of the clients was gained, Nunyes obtained a good part of the orders, as Joan de Borgunya had done in her time. They both did "Roman-style" painting but still flamenco-based. More on Pere Nunyes

"From that which he had taken for a single piece of work, he was able to make two. Incredibly, he had accomplished the work commissioned from him without any fraud or mixture of siliquae, or any other fraudulence. Not claiming fragments bitten off by the file or using the devouring flame of the furnace for an excuse, but filling all faithfully with gems, he happily earned his reward."

Raymond Monvoisin, (–1870)

Chlothar II the Young, King of Neustria and King of the Franks, c. 1837

Oil on canvas

Height: 90 cm (35.4 in); Width: 72 cm (28.3 in)

Palace of Versailles

Raymond Auguste Quinsac Monvoisin (May 31, 1790 – March 26, 1870) was a French artist and painter.

Monvoisin was born in Bordeaux. At the age of eighteen Monvoisin fully dedicated himself to painting. He moved from Bordeaux to Paris and was employed at the workshop of Pierre Guérin. He studied in the Académie des Beaux-Arts of France, and his work soon earned him the support of the critics. He was hired by merchants, bankers and other members of the newly emerging middle-class. In 1819 he carried out his first exposition in the Museum of the Louvre. The fame he achieved in his own country earned him the Legion of Honor. After obtaining recognition in Paris, he travelled to Italy where he obtained a scholarship to study in Villa Medici in Rome.

Monvoisin travelled to Argentina and from there to Chile. He received an official invitation from the Chilean government to direct the Academy of Painting. Preceded by his fame, he was introduced to the high-class families of the capital and, in turn, to work as a successful portrayer. 

He dedicated his efforts to many different activities during his stay in Chile. He traveled through the country, invested in mines, and created a ranching estate Along with French painter Clara Filleul, he mobilized the pictorial art in Chile and Argentina. He was elevated to a Knight of the Legion of Honor in 1857, and returned to France in 1858, but his fame had vanished.

He died in poverty in 1870 at Boulogne-sur-Mer. More on Raymond Monvoisin

Clotaire took Eligius into the royal household and appointed him master of the mint at Marseilles.

After the death of Clotaire in 629, his son, Dagobert, appointed his father's friend, Eligius, as his chief councillor. Eligius' reputation spread rapidly, to the extent that ambassadors first sought out Eligius for counsel and to pay their respects to him before going to the king. 

Unknown artist

Clotaire II in treaty with lombards

I have no further description, at this time

His success in inducing the Breton prince, Saint Judicael, to make a pact with Dagobert, at a meeting at the king's villa of Creil (636–37) increased his influence.

Eligius took advantage of this royal favor to obtain alms for the poor, and to ransom captive Romans, Gauls, Bretons, Moors, and especially Saxons, who were arriving daily at the slave market in Marseilles.

Eligius founded several monasteries, and with the king's consent, sent his servants through towns and villages to take down the bodies of criminals who had been executed and give them decent burial. 

Eligius was a source of edification at court, where he and his friend Dado lived according to the strict Irish monastic rule that had been introduced into Gaul by Saint Columbanus. 

He founded in 632 a convent in Paris He also built the basilica of St. Paul, and restored the basilica at Paris that was devoted to Saint Martial. Eligius also erected several fine tombs in honor of the relics of Saint Martin of Tours, the national saint of the Franks, and Saint Denis, who was chosen patron saint by the king.

Unknown artist

Clovis II and Nanthild

I have no further description, at this time

On the death of Dagobert (639), Queen Nanthild took the reins of government, the king Clovis II being a child. During this regency, Eligius launched a campaign against simony in the church. 

Pere Nunyes

Saint Eligius consecrated Bishop, c. 1526-1529

Tempera, oil and gilding with gold leaf on panel

Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

On the death of Acarius, Bishop of Noyon-Tournai, Eligius was made his successor, with the unanimous approbation of clergy and people.  Eligius was tonsured and constituted guardian of the towns or municipalities of Vermandois which include the metropolis, Tournai, which was once a royal city, and Noyon and Ghent and Kortrijk of Flanders."

Pere Nunyes

Saint Eloy baptizes the infidels, c. 1526-1529

Tempera, oil and gilding with gold leaf on panel

Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona, Spain

The inhabitants of his new diocese were pagans for the most part. He undertook the conversion of the Flemings, Frisians, Suevi, and the other Germanic tribes along the North Sea coast. He made frequent missionary excursions and also founded a great many monasteries and churches. In his own episcopal city of Noyon he built and endowed a nunnery for virgins.  More on Saint Eligius

Unknown artist

Saint Eligius, bishop of Noyon, patron saint of goldsmiths and, by extension, of blacksmiths, metalworkers, hardware stores, blacksmiths, horses and, therefore, of farmers, carters , mechanics and garages

I have no further description, at this time

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 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.

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 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

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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.