11 works, Today, July 30th, is Martyr Mamas' day, his story thru art #211

Elder Hadji-Georgis

Saint Mamas Martyr of Caesarea

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

The Holy Great Martyr Mamas was born in Paphlagonia, Asia Minor, in the third century of pious and illustrious parents, Theodotus and Rufina. The parents of the saint were arrested by the pagans for their open confession of their faith and locked up in prison in Caesarea in Cappadocia.

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, (1618-1682

Saint Mamas mother St. Rufina of Caesarea, c. 1665

Oil on canvas

Height: 93 cm (36.6 in); Width: 66 cm (25.9 in)

Meadows Museum, Dallas, Texas

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (born late December 1617, baptized January 1, 1618 – April 3, 1682) was a Spanish Baroque painter. Although he is best known for his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of paintings of contemporary women and children. These lively, realist portraits of flower girls, street urchins, and beggars constitute an extensive and appealing record of the everyday life of his times. More on Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

Knowing his own bodily weakness, Theodotus prayed that the Lord would take him before being subjected to tortures. The Lord heard his prayer and he died in prison. Saint Rufina died also after him, after giving birth to a premature son. She entrusted him to God, beseeching Him to be the Protector and Defender of the orphaned infant.

Elder Hadji-Georgis

Saint Mamas Martyr of Caesarea

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

Elder Hadji-Georgis (1809–1886) was one of the greatest Elders of Mount Athos during the nineteenth century.

In the face of Hadji-Georgis, people saw a divine radiance and they easily opened up their suffering hearts and were healed. Everyone spoke with wonder and reverence about the Elder. Greek and Slav Athonite monks recognized him for his asceticism and the sanctity which he dispersed and radiated on Athos.…

It is not important that our Church still has not declared him a Saint in order to give him a halo. That which is very important is the radiant life of the Elder, his simple and innocent, silent example. He was full of virtues and divine strengths, which he offered together with himself in order to help his fellow man.

He performed miracles, he saw divine visions, and he also had the gift of spiritual perception. He had an abundance of grace from God.… When his holy relics were disinterred, an indescribable fragrance exuded from them.” — Elder Paisios

God heard the dying prayer of Saint Rufina: a rich Christian widow named Ammia reverently buried the bodies of Saints Theodotus and Rufina, and she took the boy into her own home and raised him as her own son. Saint Mamas grew up in the Christian Faith. His foster mother concerned herself with the developing of his natural abilities, and early on she sent him off to study.

The boy learned easily and willingly. He was not of an age of mature judgment but distinguished himself by maturity of mind and of heart. By means of prudent conversations and personal example young Mamas converted many of his own peers to Christianity.

Daniel Voshart

Emperor Aurelian (270-275)

Presumed portrait 

PBA Auctions

The governor, Democritus, was informed of this, and the fifteen-year-old Mamas was arrested and brought to trial. In deference to his illustrious parentage, Democritus decided not to subject him to torture, but instead sent him off to the emperor Aurelian (270-275). 

Francesco dei Franceschi, Italian, Venice, documented 1445–1456

Saint Mamas before Aurelian, ca. 1450

Tempera on panel

47.9 × 35.6 × 3 cm (18 7/8 × 14 × 1 3/16 in.)

The Yale University Art Gallery.

Francesco de' Franceschi (fl. 1443 – 1468) was an Italian Renaissance painter. His exact dates of birth and death are not known.

Not much is known about Francesco de' Franceschi's except through his works. He primarily painted religious-themed works for church commissions. His style shows influence from Michele Giambono, and it is possible that he collaborated with Antonio Vivarini in Venice. An altarpiece which was most likely from a church in Padua or Venice and now is in the Museo Civico, Padua (1447) has been attributed to him. Two panels St. Mary Magdalen and St Catherine of Alexandria are located in the Ashmolean Museum. More on Francesco de' Franceschi

The emperor tried at first kindly, but then with threats to turn Saint Mamas back to the pagan faith, but all in vain. The saint bravely confessed himself a Christian and pointed out the madness of the pagans in their worship of lifeless idols.

Fra Filippo Lippi and workshop, 1406; died 1469

Saint Mamas in Prison thrown to the Lions, c. 1455-60

Predella Panel

GroupThe Pistoia Santa Trinità Altarpiece

Egg tempera, tempera grassa and oil on wood

27 x 39.5 cm

The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square, London

This large altarpiece – one of the few in the National Gallery which is almost complete – has had an eventful life. It was commissioned in 1455 from the Florentine painter Francesco Pesellino, and is his only surviving documented work. He died in 1457 and it was finished by Fra Filippo Lippi and his workshop. We know a lot about how and why it was made from the records of the confraternity who commissioned it.

From 1465 it sat on the high altar of the church of the Holy Trinity at Pistoia, but in 1793 the confraternity was suppressed and the altarpiece was taken apart, with the main panel sawn into pieces, and dispersed. Most of it was gradually acquired by the National Gallery and the altarpiece reassembled. More on this work

Fra' Filippo Lippi, O.Carm. (c. 1406 – 8 October 1469), also called Lippo Lippi, was an Italian painter of the Quattrocento (15th century). He was brought up as an unwanted child in the Carmelite friary of the Carmine, where he took his vows in 1421. Unlike the Dominican Fra Angelico, however, Lippi was a reluctant friar and had a scandalous love affair with a nun. The couple was released from their vows and allowed to marry, but Lippi still signed himself "Frater Philippus". His biography is one of the most colourful in Vasari's Lives and has given rise to the picture of a wordly Renaissance artist, rebelling against the discipline of the Church. 

From about 1440, however, his style changed direction, becoming more linear and preoccupied with decorative motifs. Lippi is associated with the form of tondi, a format he was among the first to use. Another formal innovation with which Lippi is closely associated is the "sacra conversazione" - his Barbadori Altarpiece is sometimes claimed as the earliest example of the type.

Filippo Lippi was not dedicated to the study of nature firsthand; instead, he depended largely upon painted and sculptured prototypes, and his figures are often inorganic and unanatomical,

Lippi was highly regarded in his day and his influence is seen in the work of numerous artists, most notably Botticelli, who was probably his pupil. Four centuries later he was one of the major sources for the second wave of Pre-Raphaelitism. More Fra' Filippo Lippi, O.Carm

Infuriated, the emperor subjected the youth to cruel tortures. They tried to drown the saint, but an angel of the Lord saved Saint Mamas and bade him live on a high mountain in the wilderness, not far from Caesarea. Bowing to the will of God, the saint built a small church there and began to lead a life of strict temperance, in exploits of fasting and prayer.

Unknown artist

St. Mamas milking deer to make cheese to feed the poor

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

Soon he received a remarkable power over the forces of nature: wild beasts inhabiting the surrounding wilderness gathered at his abode and listened to the reading of the Holy Gospel. Saint Mamas nourished himself on the milk of wild goats and deer.

The saint did not ignore the needs of his neighbors. Preparing cheese from this milk, he gave it away freely to the poor. Soon the fame of Saint Mamas’s life spread throughout all of Caesarea.

Unknown artist

Saint Mamas, accompanied by a lion

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

The governor sent a detachment of soldiers to arrest him. When they encountered Saint Mamas on the mountain, the soldiers did not recognize him, and mistook him for a simple shepherd. The saint then invited them to his dwelling, gave them a drink of milk and then told them his name, knowing that death for Christ awaited him. The servant of God told the servant of the Emperor to go on ahead of him into Caesaria, promising that he would soon follow. The soldiers waited for him at the gates of the city, and Saint Mamas, accompanied by a lion, met them there.

Unknown artist

St. Mamas being thrown into the flames

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

Surrendering himself into the hands of the torturers, Saint Mamas was brought to trial under a deputy governor named Alexander, who subjected him to intense and prolonged tortures. They did not break the saint’s will, however. He was strengthened by the words addressed to him from above: “Be strong and take courage, Mamas.”

Unknown artist

The Martyrdom of St. Mamas the Great Martyr

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

When they threw Saint Mamas to the wild beasts, these creatures would not touch him. Finally, one of the pagan priests struck him with a trident. Mortally wounded, Saint Mamas went out beyond the city limits. There, in a small stone cave, he gave up his spirit to God, Who in the hearing of all summoned the holy Martyr Mamas into His heavenly habitation. He was buried by believers at the place of his death. More on Martyr Mamas

Jean Cousin, (1500–1589)

St Mammes and Duke Alexander, c. 1541

(according to the inscription woven into the bottom of the present tapestry; strictly speaking, however, it should be Aurelian)

Tapestry

Height: 440 cm (14.4 ft); Width: 450 cm (14.7 ft)

Louvre Museum 

Jean Cousin (1500 – before 1593) was a French painter, sculptor, etcher, engraver, and geometrician. He is known as "Jean Cousin the Elder" to distinguish him from his son Jean Cousin the Younger, also an artist.

Cousin was born at Soucy, near Sens, and began his career in his native town with the study of glass-painting under Jean Hympe and Grassot. At the same time, he studied mathematics and published a successful book on the subject. He also wrote on geometry in his student days. In 1530 Cousin finished the windows for Sens Cathedral, the subject chosen being the "Legend of St. Eutropius". He also painted the windows of many of the noble châteaux in and around the city.

In Paris Cousin continued his career as a glass-painter, and created his best-known work, the windows of the Sainte-Chapelle in Vincennes. He subsequently devoted himself to painting in oil, and has been claimed as the first Frenchman to use that new medium. 

He was also an illustrator of books, making many designs for woodcuts and often executed them himself. The "Bible", published in 1596 by Le Clerc, and the Metamorphoses and Epistles of Ovid (1566 and 1571 respectively) contain his most noted work as an illustrator. He also created sculptures. In addition to his early writings on mathematics, he published, in 1560, a treatise on perspective, and, in 1571, a work on portrait-painting. During his life Cousin enjoyed the favour of and worked for four kings of France: Henry II, Francis II, Charles IX, and Henry III.

He died at Sens, but the date of his death is uncertain. More Jean Cousin 

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07 Works, Today, July 19th, is Saints Justa and Rufina's day, their story in art #200

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, (1617–1682)

St. Justa and St. Rufina, between circa 1665 and circa 1666

Oil on canvas

Height: 200 cm (78.7 in); Width: 176 cm (69.2 in)

Museum of Fine Arts of Seville 

The sisters are represented with the palms of martyrdom and with clay pots alluding to their status as ceramic vendors. In their hands they hold the tower of the cathedral of Seville , La Giralda, because according to tradition they avoided it's collapse in the earthquake of 1504.

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (born late December 1617, baptized January 1, 1618 – April 3, 1682) was a Spanish Baroque painter. Although he is best known for his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of paintings of contemporary women and children. These lively, realist portraits of flower girls, street urchins, and beggars constitute an extensive and appealing record of the everyday life of his times. More on Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

Saints Justa and Rufina are venerated as martyrs. They are said to have been martyred at Hispalis (Seville) during the 3rd century. The two saints are highly honored in the medieval Hispanic liturgy.

Seville, Published 1597

Their legend states that they were sisters and natives of Seville who made fine earthenware pottery for a living, with which they supported themselves and many of the city's poor. Traditionally, they are said to have lived in the neighborhood of Triana. Born of a poor but pious Christian family. During a pagan festival, they refused to sell their wares for use in these celebrations. In anger, locals broke all of their dishes and pots. Justa and Rufina retaliated by smashing an image of Venus.

Paolo Veronese (Caliari)

The Martyrdom of St. Justine, c. 1573

Oil on canvas

112 cm x 102 cm

 Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Paolo Caliari, known as Paolo Veronese (1528 – 19 April 1588) was an Italian Renaissance painter based in Venice, most famous for large history paintings of both religious and mythological subjects, such as The Wedding at Cana and The Feast in the House of Levi. With Titian, who was at least a generation older, and Tintoretto, ten years older, he was one of the "great trio that dominated Venetian painting of the cinquecento" or 16th-century late Renaissance. Veronese is known as a supreme colorist, and after an early period with Mannerist influence turned to a more naturalist style influenced by Titian.

His most famous works are elaborate narrative cycles, executed in a dramatic and colorful style, full of majestic architectural settings and glittering pageantry. His large paintings of biblical feasts, crowded with figures, painted for the refectories of monasteries in Venice and Verona are especially famous, and he was also the leading Venetian painter of ceilings. Most of these works remain in situ, or at least in Venice, and his representation in most museums is mainly composed of smaller works such as portraits that do not always show him at his best or most typical.

He has always been appreciated for "the chromatic brilliance of his palette, the splendor and sensibility of his brushwork, the aristocratic elegance of his figures, and the magnificence of his spectacle", but his work has been felt "not to permit expression of the profound, the human, or the sublime", and of the "great trio" he has often been the least appreciated by modern criticism. Nonetheless, "many of the greatest artists ... may be counted among his admirers, including Rubens, Watteau, Tiepolo, Delacroix and Renoir". More on Paolo Caliari

Unknown artist

Tortured on the rack

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

The city's prefect, Diogenianus, ordered them to be imprisoned. Failing to convince them to renounce their faith, he had them tortured on the rack and with iron hooks. This method also having failed, they were imprisoned, where they suffered from hunger and thirst.


They were then asked to walk barefoot to the Sierra Morena; when this did not break their resolve, they were imprisoned without water or food. Justa died first. Her body, thrown into a well, was later recovered by the bishop Sabinus. Diogenianus believed that the death of Justa would break the resolve of Rufina. However, Rufina refused to renounce her faith and was thus thrown to the lions. 

Briton Rivière, (1840–1920)

Una and the Lion

Oil on canvas

Private collection

Briton Rivière RA (14 August 1840 in London – 20 April 1920 in London) was a British artist of Huguenot descent. He exhibited a variety of paintings at the Royal Academy, but devoted much of his life to animal paintings.

Briton was educated at Cheltenham College and Oxford, where he took his degree in 1867. For his art training he was indebted almost entirely to his father. His paternal uncle Henry Parsons Rivière (1811–1888) was also a noted watercolourist.

His first pictures appeared at the British Institution, and in 1857 he exhibited three works at the Royal Academy, but it was not until 1863 that he became a regular contributor to the Academy exhibitions. 

Early in his career, Rivière made some mark as an illustrator. He was elected an Associate of the Royal Academy of Arts in 1878, and a Royal Academician in 1881, and received the degree of Doctor of Civil Law at Oxford in 1891. More on Briton Rivière 

The lion in the amphitheatre, however, refused to attack Rufina, remaining as docile as a house cat. Infuriated, Diogenianus had Rufina strangled or beheaded and her body burned. Her body was also recovered by Sabinus and buried alongside her sister in 287 AD. More on Saints Justa and Rufina

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

Santa Justa, circa 1665

Oil on canvas

Meadows Museum, Dallas, Texas

For Bartolomé Esteban Murillo see above.

Diego Velázquez

Santa Rufina, circa 1629-1632

Oil on canvas

Height: 79 cm (31.1 in); Width: 64 cm (25.1 in)

Hospital de los Venerables, Seville, Spain

Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (baptized June 6, 1599 – August 6, 1660) was a Spanish painter, the leading artist in the court of King Philip IV, and one of the most important painters of the Spanish Golden Age. He was an individualistic artist of the contemporary Baroque period. In addition to numerous renditions of scenes of historical and cultural significance, he painted scores of portraits of the Spanish royal family, other notable European figures, and commoners, culminating in the production of his masterpiece Las Meninas (1656).

From the first quarter of the nineteenth century, Velázquez's artwork was a model for the realist and impressionist painters, in particular Édouard Manet. Since that time, famous modern artists, including Pablo Picasso, Salvador Dalí and Francis Bacon, have paid tribute to Velázquez by recreating several of his most famous works. More on Diego Velázquez

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

Unknown artist

King Fernando III of Castilla, c. 13th century

I have no further description of this artwork at this time

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

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, (1617–1682)

King Ferdinand III of Castile, c.1671

Oil on canvas

Seville Cathedral 

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (born late December 1617, baptized January 1, 1618 – April 3, 1682) was a Spanish Baroque painter. Although he is best known for his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of paintings of contemporary women and children. These lively, realist portraits of flower girls, street urchins, and beggars constitute an extensive and appealing record of the everyday life of his times. More on Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

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

Moors and Christian Battle of Marrakesh, 13th Century

Cantigas de Santa Maria

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

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

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

Oil on canvas

Senate Palace, Madrid

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

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

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


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

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

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

The Surrrender of Seville to Ferdinand III

Oil on canvas

H 63.5 x W 136.5 cm

The Bowes Museum

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

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

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

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

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

Virgilio Mattoni de la Fuente 

Las postrimerías de San Fernando's

Alcazar de Sevilla

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

04 Works, Today, March 19th, is Saint Joseph's Day, With Footnotes - #77

Philippe de Champaigne, 1642–43

The Dream of Saint Joseph

Oil on canvas

 209.5 × 155.8 cm.

National Gallery, London.

Philippe de Champaigne (26 May 1602 - 12 August 1674) was a Baroque era painter of the French school.

Born in Brussels of a poor family, Champaigne was a pupil of the landscape painter Jacques Fouquières. In 1621 he moved to Paris, where he worked with Nicolas Poussin on the decoration of the Palais du Luxembourg under the direction of Nicolas Duchesne, whose daughter he married. After the death of his protector Duchesne, Champaigne worked for the Queen Mother, Marie de Medicis, and for Richelieu, for whom he decorated the cardinal's palace, the Dome of the Sorbonne church and other buildings. He was a founding member of the Acadèmie Royale de Peinture in 1648.

Later in his life (1640), he came under the influence of Jansenism. After his paralysed daughter was allegedly miraculously cured at the nunnery of Port-Royal, he painted the celebrated but untypical picture Ex-Voto de 1662, now in the Louvre, which represents the artist's daughter with Mother-Superior Cathèrine-Agnès Arnauld. Champaigne produced a very large number of paintings, mainly religious works and portraits. Influenced by Rubens at the beginning of his career, his style later became more austere. He died in Paris. More on Philippe de Champaigne

Joseph is a figure in the Gospels, the husband of Mary, mother of Jesus, and is venerated as Saint Joseph. In both Catholic and Protestant traditions, Joseph is regarded as the patron saint of workers and is associated with various feast days. 

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

St. Joseph with the Christ Child

Oil on canvas

Private collection

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo (born late December 1617, baptized January 1, 1618 – April 3, 1682) was a Spanish Baroque painter. Although he is best known for his religious works, Murillo also produced a considerable number of paintings of contemporary women and children. These lively, realist portraits of flower girls, street urchins, and beggars constitute an extensive and appealing record of the everyday life of his times. More on Bartolomé Esteban Murillo

Pope Pius IX declared him to be both the patron and the protector of the Catholic Church, in addition to his patronages of the sick and of a happy death, due to the belief that he died in the presence of Jesus and Mary. In popular piety, Joseph is regarded as a model for fathers and has also become patron of various dioceses and places.

Juan de Valdés Leal , (1622–1690)

 Coronation of Saint Joseph

Oil on canvas

166 x 250 cm

Museo de Bellas Artes de Sevilla

Juan de Valdés Leal (4 May 1622 – 15 October 1690) was a Spanish painter and etcher of the Baroque era. Born in Seville in 1622, he became a painter, sculptor, and architect. By his twenties, he was studying under Antonio del Castillo in Córdoba.

Among his works are History of the Prophet Elias for the church of the Carmelites; Martyrdom of St. Andrew for the church of San Francesco in Córdoba; and Triumph of the Cross for la Caridad in Seville. He became friends with Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, who had a very different style; Leal tended to paint somber and dramatic subjects, while Murillo's style was peaceful and serene. After Leal returned to Seville in 1656, he and Murillo founded the Seville Academy of Art.

Several of his paintings treat the subjects of vanitas, transience and mortality. Two examples are In ictu oculi ("in the blink of an eye") and Finis gloriae mundi ("end of the world's glory"), painted for the Charity Hospital in Seville. More on Juan de Valdés Leal

Several notable images of Saint Joseph have been granted a Canonical coronation by a Pope. In popular religious iconography he is associated with lilies or a spikenard. With the present-day growth of Mariology, the theological field of Josephology has also grown and since the 1950s centers for studying it have been formed.

According to the New Testament, Joseph was the father of James, Joses, Jude, Simon, and at least two daughters. More on Saint Joseph

Johann Friedrich Overbeck

The Death of Saint Joseph, c. 1832-1836

Oil on canvas

100.2 cm (39.45 in.), Width: 75.7 cm (29.8 in.)

Kunstmuseum Basel, Switzerland - Basel

Johann Friedrich Overbeck, (born July 3, 1789, Imperial Free City of Lübeck—died Nov. 12, 1869, Rome), Romantic painter of Christian religious subjects, who was leader of a group of German artists known as the Nazarenes, or Lucas Brotherhood (Lukasbund).

In 1806 Overbeck entered the Academy of Vienna, where, disappointed in the academic approach to teaching, he and Franz Pforr in 1809 founded the Lucas Brotherhood. They sought to revive the medieval artists’ guilds and to renew the arts through Christian faith (in 1813 Overbeck joined the Roman Catholic Church). For artistic inspiration they turned to Albrecht Dürer and to Italian Renaissance art, particularly the works of Perugino and early Raphael.

In 1810 the Lucas Brotherhood went to Rome. Their style was characterized by precise outlines; clear, bright colours; and an emphasis on Christian symbolism. Communally, the brotherhood executed the frescoes 

As he advanced in years, Overbeck’s painting became pallid and stereotyped. Yet these late works greatly influenced Christian devotional art of the 19th century and the paintings of the Pre-Raphaelite Brotherhood. His more vital early pictures and drawings, however, were rediscovered and appreciated early in the 20th century. More on Johann Friedrich Overbeck

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