04 Works, Today, February 5th, is Saint Agatha of Sicily's Day, With Footnotes - 36

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

The Martyrdom of St. Agatha, about 1750

(Altarpiece from S. Agata, Lendinara)

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1696 - 1770. Born into a wealthy and noble family in Venice, Giambattista Tiepolo was recognized by contemporaries throughout Europe as the greatest painter of large-scale decorative frescoes in the 1700s. He was admired for having brought fresco painting to new heights of technical virtuosity, illumination, and dramatic effect. Tiepolo possessed an imagination characterized by one of his contemporaries as "all spirit and fire." 

A gifted storyteller, Tiepolo painted walls and ceilings with large, expansive scenes of intoxicating enchantment. In breath-taking visions of mythology and religion, the gods and saints inhabit light-filled skies. His ability to assimilate his predecessor and compatriot Paolo Veronese's use of color was so profound that his contemporaries named him Veronese redivio (a new Veronese). 

Tiepolo's commissions came from the old established families of Italy, religious orders, and the royal houses of Spain, Germany, Sweden, and Russia. His frescoes adorn palaces, churches, and villas, and his artistic legacy consists of some eight hundred paintings, 2,400 drawings, two sets of etchings, and acres of fresco. When Tiepolo died at the age of seventy-four, a Venetian diarist noted the "bitter loss" of "the most famous Venetian painter, truly the most renowned...well known in Europe and the most highly praised in his native land." More on Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

Saint Agatha of Sicily (231 AD – 251 AD) is a Christian saint and virgin martyr. Agatha was born at Catania or Palermo, Sicily, and she was martyred in approximately 251. She is one of seven women, who, along with the Blessed Virgin Mary, are commemorated by name in the Canon of the Mass. 

She is the patron saint of Catania, Molise, Malta, San Marino, and Zamarramala, a municipality of the Province of Segovia in Spain. She is also the patron saint of breast cancer patients, martyrs, wet nurses, bell-founders, bakers, fire, earthquakes, and eruptions of Mount Etna.

Sebastiano del Piombo

Martirio de Santa Águeda/ Martyrdom of Saint Agatha, c. 1520

Oil on panel

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

Palazzo Pitti

Sebastiano del Piombo (1485 – 21 June 1547) was an Italian painter of the High Renaissance and early Mannerist periods famous as the only major artist of the period to combine the colouring of the Venetian school in which he was trained with the monumental forms of the Roman school. He belongs both to the painting school of his native city, Venice, where he made significant contributions before he left for Rome in 1511, and that of Rome, where he stayed for the rest of his life, and whose style he thoroughly adopted.

Having achieved success as a lutenist in Venice when young, he turned to painting and trained with Giovanni Bellini and Giorgione. When he first went to Rome he worked alongside Raphael and then became one of the few painters to get on well with Michelangelo. 

In 1531 he became the Keeper of the Seal to the Papacy, and so his new job title of Piombatore.

He painted portraits and religious subjects in oils, and once he was established avoided the large fresco schemes that took up so much of the time of Raphael and Michelangelo. His earlier career in both Venice and Rome was somewhat overshadowed by the presence of clearly greater painters in the same city, but after the death of Raphael in 1520 he became Rome's leading painter. More on Sebastiano del Piombo

Although the martyrdom of Saint Agatha is authenticated, and her veneration as a saint had spread beyond her native place even in antiquity, there is no reliable information concerning the details of her death. According to Jacobus de Voragine, Legenda Aurea of ca. 1288, having dedicated her virginity to God, fifteen-year-old Agatha, from a rich and noble family, rejected the amorous advances of the low-born Roman prefect Quintianus, who then persecuted her for her Christian faith. He sent Agatha to Aphrodisia, the keeper of a brothel. 

Lorenzo di Niccolò Gerini

Martyrdom of St. Agatha

Lorenzo di Niccolò or Lorenzo di Niccolò di Martino was an Italian painter active in Florence from 1391 to 1412. Often erroneously cited as the son of Niccolò di Pietro Gerini, with whom he realized some works, this artist transformed his style from one more reminiscent of Giotto to one more elegant and linear, similar to that of such artists as Lorenzo Monaco. Together with Niccolò di Pietro Gerini, he painted some frescoes in the Chapterhouse of the convent of San Francesco (Prato) and the panel Coronation of the Virgin, once in Santa Felicita. A slightly later work on the same subject for the Medici Chapel in Santa Croce, Florence, dated to 1409 in the predella, today is split between its original location and the Bagatti Valsecchi Museum in Milan. More on Lorenzo di Niccolò Gerini

The madam finding her intractable, Quintianus sent for her, argued, threatened, and finally had her put in prison. Amongst the tortures she underwent was the cutting off of her breasts with pincers. After further dramatic confrontations with Quintianus, represented in a sequence of dialogues in her passio that document her fortitude and steadfast devotion, Saint Agatha was then sentenced to be burnt at the stake, but an earthquake saved her from that fate; instead, she was sent to prison where St. Peter the Apostle appeared to her and healed her wounds. Saint Agatha died in prison, according to the Legenda Aurea in "the year of our Lord two hundred and fifty-three in the time of Decius, the emperor of Rome." More on Saint Agatha of Sicily

Follower of Simon Vouet

Saint Peter visiting Saint Agatha in prison, c. 1624

oil on canvas

149.7 x 176.8 cm.

Private collection

Simon Vouet, (born January 9, 1590, Paris, France—died June 30, 1649, Paris), painter who introduced an Italianate Baroque style of painting into France.

Vouet formed his style in Italy, where he lived from 1612 to 1627. The use of dramatic contrasts of light and shade seen in such early works as his Two Lovers indicates that he began in Rome as a follower of Caravaggio. Works done after 1620, however, display more idealized figures. Vouet’s Time Vanquished (1627) breaks with the tenebrism of Caravaggio, using the more evenly diffused white light that characterizes his later style.

He returned to Paris in 1627 at the request of Louis XIII, who named him his first painter. Thereafter, Vouet won almost all the important painting commissions and dominated the city artistically for 15 years. He exercised an enormous influence with such works as Riches (c. 1630), which was probably part of the decorative program of the château of Saint-Germain-en-Laye. Engravings and surviving panels show that he had studied Italian illusionistic ceiling decoration. His other principal undertakings were in the Hôtel de Bullion and in the palace of the Cardinal de Richelieu at Rueil. More on Simon Vouet

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, 365 Saints and 365 Days, 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.

01 Works, RELIGIOUS ART - Today, February 4rd, is Saint Joseph of Leonessa's Day, With Footnotes - 34

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo  (1696–1770)

Saint Fidelis of Sigmarigen and Saint Joseph of Leonessa, between 1752 and 1758

Galleria nazionale di Parma

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, 1696 - 1770. Born into a wealthy and noble family in Venice, Giambattista Tiepolo was recognized by contemporaries throughout Europe as the greatest painter of large-scale decorative frescoes in the 1700s. He was admired for having brought fresco painting to new heights of technical virtuosity, illumination, and dramatic effect. Tiepolo possessed an imagination characterized by one of his contemporaries as "all spirit and fire." 

A gifted storyteller, Tiepolo painted walls and ceilings with large, expansive scenes of intoxicating enchantment. In breath-taking visions of mythology and religion, the gods and saints inhabit light-filled skies. His ability to assimilate his predecessor and compatriot Paolo Veronese's use of color was so profound that his contemporaries named him Veronese redivio (a new Veronese). 

Tiepolo's commissions came from the old established families of Italy, religious orders, and the royal houses of Spain, Germany, Sweden, and Russia. His frescoes adorn palaces, churches, and villas, and his artistic legacy consists of some eight hundred paintings, 2,400 drawings, two sets of etchings, and acres of fresco. When Tiepolo died at the age of seventy-four, a Venetian diarist noted the "bitter loss" of "the most famous Venetian painter, truly the most renowned...well known in Europe and the most highly praised in his native land." More on Giovanni Battista Tiepolo

Saint Joseph of Leonessa, (8 January 1556 at Leonessa, Umbria, Italy as Eufranio Desiderio, is a saint of the Catholic Church.

It is said that from a young age he showed a remarkably religious bent of mind; he used to erect little altars and spend much time in prayer before them, and often he would gather his companions and induce them to pray with him. In his sixteenth year  he joined the Capuchin reform of the Franciscan Order. He made his novitiate at the friary of the Carcerelle near Assisi.

In 1587 he was sent to Constantinople to minister to the Christians held captive there. He and his companions lodged in the Galata district in a derelict house of Benedictine monks. The poverty in which the friars lived attracted the attention of the Turks, who went in numbers to see the new missionaries. He was very solicitous in ministering to the captive Christians in the galleys of the Ottoman Empire's navy. Every day he went into the city to preach, and he was at length thrown into prison and only released at the intervention of the Venetian agent.

Urged on by zeal he at last sought to enter the palace to preach before Sultan Murad III, but he was seized and condemned to death. For three days he hung on the gallows, held up by two hooks driven through his right hand and foot; his legends state that he was then miraculously released by an angel.

Returning to Italy, he took with him a Greek archbishop who had apostatized, and who was reconciled to the Church on their arrival in Rome. Joseph now took up the work of home missions in his native province. In the Jubilee year of 1600 he gave the Lenten sermons at Otricoli, a town through which crowds of pilgrims passed on their way to Rome. Joseph supplied them with food; he also washed their clothes and cut their hair. 

He died at Amatrice in 1612. More on Saint Joseph of Leonessa

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, And 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.

05 Works, Today, February 3rd, is Saint Blaise's Day, With Footnotes - 33

Pere Fernández, 1519-1521 

Saint Blaise, c. about 1517

Oil on wood

Height: 1 425 mm; Width: 670 mm

National Museum of Art of Catalonia 

Saint Blaisese, was a physician, and bishop of Sebastea in historical Armenia. According to the Acta Sanctorum, he was martyred by being beaten, attacked with iron combs, and beheaded. He is the patron saint of wool combers. 

Follower of Caspar de Crayer (Flemish, 1584–1669) Title:

The Martyrdom of St. Blaise

Oil on canvas

165 x 155.5 cm. (65 x 61.2 in.)

Private collection

Gaspar de Crayer or Jasper de Crayer (18 November 1584 – 27 January 1669) was a Flemish painter known for his many Counter-Reformation altarpieces and portraits. He was a court painter to the governors of the Southern Netherlands and worked in the principal cities of Flanders where he helped spread the Rubens style.

Gaspar de Crayer ooked for opportunity in Brussels. He is believed to have studied under Raphael Coxie, the court painter of the governors of the Spanish Netherlands Albert VII, Archduke of Austria and Isabella Clara Eugenia. He became a master in the Brussels Guild of Saint Luke in 1607. He was a dean of the Guild from 1611 to 1616 and was a member of the Brussels city council in 1626-1627. He remained in Brussels until 1664.

He mainly painted portraits of the elite and Counter Reformation altarpieces for local and foreign churches. His early work is in the trend of he 16th century tradition of Antwerp artists. Typical for this style is the unnatural perspective and the crowding of long wooden figures in the foreground. From 1618 he came under the influence of Rubens. The level of borrowing of motifs from Rubens suggests that he had some form of contract with the workshop of Rubens.


From then onwards, his work was more influenced by Anthony van Dyck, whose emotionally charged interpretation of religious subjects appealed to his sensibility. His work became more dynamic in conception. More on Gaspar de Crayer

From being a healer of bodily ailments, Saint Blaise became a physician of souls, then retired for a time to a cavern where he remained in prayer. He made friends with the wild animals. One day a group of hunters seeking wild animals for the amphitheater stumbled upon Blaise’s cave. They were first surprised and then frightened. The bishop was kneeling in prayer surrounded by patiently waiting wolves, lions and bears.

Andrea Casella

Martyrdom of Saint Blaise, c. 1662

San Rocco church, Lugano

Giovanni Andrea Casella (17th century) was a Swiss-Italian painter active in the Baroque period. He was born in Lugano. He was a pupil of Pietro da Cortona in Rome. He was patronized by House of Savoy in frescoes for palaces in Turin, and known to be active in 1658. He painted in the Veneria Reale some fables, assisted by Giacomo, his nephew. More on Andrea Casella

As bishop of Sebastea, Blaise instructed his people as much by his example as by his words, and the great virtues and sanctity of the servant of God were attested by many miracles. From all parts, the people came flocking to him for the cure of bodily and spiritual ills. He is said to have healed animals (who came to the saint on their own for his assistance) and to have been assisted by animals.

Girolamo da Santacroce, (1480/1485–1556)

The Martyrdom of Saint Blaise

Oil on panel

H 33 x W 30.8 cm

Walker Art Gallery

Girolamo da Santacroce (c. 1480/85 – c. 1556) was a 16th-century Italian painter of the Renaissance period, active mainly in Venice and the Venetian mainland.

da Santacroce was born in Bergamo,  but was active in Venice for most of his career. He became a pupil of the painter Gentile Bellini. On Gentile's death in 1507, he was left in Gentile's will half of the Oriental drawings made be Gentile. Santacroce then most likely worked as an assistant in the workshops of Giovanni Bellini and Cima da Conegliano.

He was a prolific artist and many of his works are signed and dated. He produced many copies after the works of the leading Venetian masters. His work shows the influence of Titian and Palma Vecchio. More on Girolamo da Santacroce

Although the Edict of Toleration (311), granting freedom of worship in the Roman Empire, was already five years old, persecution still raged in Armenia. In 316, the governor of Cappadocia and Lesser Armenia Agricolaus began a persecution by order of the Emperor Licinius and Saint Blaise was seized. After his interrogation and a severe scourging, he was hurried off to prison, and subsequently beheaded. More on Saint Blaisese

Giovanni Antonio da Pesaro  (1415-1477)

The Martyrdom of St. Blaise, 15th century

Oil and tempera on panel

Church of St. Blaise, Venice

Giovanni Antonio Bellinzoni da Pesaro (1415-1477) was an Italian painter of the Renaissance.

Bellinzoni was born in Pesaro. He was taught by his father, and was influenced by Bartolomeo di Tommaso. There is evidence that he worked with his father on a church commission in Gradara (1429), and continued working with him through at least 1437. After his father died, Bellinzoni came into his own right, and was in high demand. He executed frescoes depicting Our Lady of Mercy and Our Lady Enthroned in the Church of the Blessed Sacrament, Saltara. He painted a polyptych found in the collegiate church of Sant'Esuperanzio in Cingoli. He continued working steadily in and around Pesaro until his death in 1477. A biography written about his life won the Salimbeni Prize in 1991 for excellence in the writing of art history on an Italian subject. More on Giovanni Antonio Bellinzoni da Pesaro

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, And 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.

08 Works, Today, February 1st, is Cornelius the Centurion's Day, With Footnotes - 32

Gerbrand van den Eeckhout, (1621–1674)

Vision of Cornelius the Centurion, 1664 (baroque)

Oil on canvas

Height: 94.3 cm (37.1 ″); Width: 126.3 cm (49.7 ″)

Walters Art Museum, Baltimore, Maryland, United States

A dramatic play of light and shadow can add an emotional charge to the depiction of an event. This was the great lesson that Eeckhout absorbed from his teacher Rembrandt van Rijn in the late 1630s and was still using in 1664, when he signed and dated this painting. This is especially effective for representing contact between the human and the divine-here, the appearance of an angel to the Roman centurion Cornelius.

Gerbrand van den Eeckhout (19 August 1621 – 29 September 1674), was a Dutch Golden Age painter and a favourite student of Rembrandt. He was also an etcher, an amateur poet, a collector and an adviser on art.

A fellow pupil to Ferdinand Bol, Nicolaes Maes and Govert Flinck, he was regarded as inferior to them in skill and experience; he soon assumed Rembrandt's manner with such success that his pictures were confused with those of his master.

It is difficult to form an exact judgment of Eeckhout's qualities at the outset of his career. His earliest pieces are probably those in which he more faithfully reproduced Rembrandt's peculiarities. Exclusively his is a tinge of green in shadows marring the harmony of the work, a gaudiness of jarring tints, uniform surface and a touch more quick than subtle.

Eeckhout, unmarried, was also appreciated as art connoisseur, and dealing with poets and scientists. At the end of his life he was living with his sister-in-law, a widow, on Herengracht, at a very prestigious part of the canal. He died in Amsterdam. More on Gerbrand van den Eeckhout

Cornelius the Centurion was a Roman centurion who is considered by Christians to be one of the first Gentiles to convert to the faith

Cornelius was a centurion in the Cohors II Italica Civium Romanorum. He was stationed in Caesarea, the capital of Roman Judaea province. He is depicted in the New Testament as a God-fearing man who always prayed and was full of good works and deeds of alms. Cornelius receives a vision in which an angel of God tells him that his prayers have been heard, he understands that he's chosen for a higher alternative. The angel then instructs Cornelius to send the men of his household to Joppa, where they will find Simon Peter, who is residing with a tanner by the name of Simon.

Domenico Fetti, (1589–)

Peter's vision of a towel with animals, circa 1619

Oil on poplar wood

Height: 66 cm (25.9 ″); Width: 51 cm (20 ″)

80 x 65.5 x 10.5 cm

Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, Austria

Domenico Fetti (c. 1589 – 1623) was an Italian Baroque painter, active mainly in Rome, Mantua and Venice.

Domenico is said to have apprenticed initially under Ludovico Cigoli, or his pupil Andrea Commodi in Rome. He then worked in Mantua from 1613 to 1622, patronized by the Cardinal, later Duke Ferdinando I Gonzaga. In the Ducal Palace, he painted the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes. The series of representations of New Testament parables he carried out for his patron's studiolo gave rise to a popular specialty, and he and his studio often repeated his compositions.

In August or September 1622, his feuds with some prominent Mantuans led him to move to Venice, where he remained despite pleas from the Duke to return to Mantua, Fetti changed his style: his formalized painting style became more colorful. In addition, he devoted attention to smaller cabinet pieces that adapt genre imaging to religious stories. 

His painting style appears to have been influenced by Rubens. He would likely have continued to find excellent patronage in Venice had he not died there in 1623 or 1624. More on Domenico Fetti

The conversion of Cornelius comes after a separate vision given to Simon Peter himself. In the vision, Simon Peter sees all manner of beasts and fowl being lowered from Heaven in a sheet. A voice commands Simon Peter to eat. When he objects to eating those animals that are unclean according to Mosaic Law, the voice tells him not to call unclean that which God has cleansed.

James Tissot, (1836–1902) 

The Confession of the Centurion, c. between 1886 and 1894

Opaque watercolor over graphite on gray wove paper

Height: 16.4 cm (6.4 ″); Width: 27.6 cm (10.8 ″)

Brooklyn Museum

Jacques Joseph Tissot (15 October 1836 – 8 August 1902), Anglicized as James Tissot, was a French painter and illustrator. He was a successful painter of Paris society before moving to London in 1871. He became famous as a genre painter of fashionably dressed women shown in various scenes of everyday life. He also painted scenes and characters from the Bible. More on James Tissot

When Cornelius' men arrive, Simon Peter understands that through this vision the Lord commanded the Apostle to preach the Word of God to the Gentiles. Peter accompanies Cornelius' men back to Caesarea. When Cornelius meets Simon Peter, he falls at Peter's feet. Simon Peter raises the centurion and the two men share their visions. Simon Peter tells of Jesus' ministry and the Resurrection. The Jews among the group are amazed that Cornelius and other uncircumcised should begin speaking in tongues, praising God. Thereupon Simon Peter commands that Cornelius and his followers be baptized.

Francesco Trevisani, (1656–1746)

Peter Baptizing the Centurion Cornelius, c. 1709

Oil on canvas

Private collection

Francesco Trevisani (April 9, 1656 – July 30, 1746) was an Italian painter, active in the early Rococo or late Baroque period.

Born in Capodistria, he was the son of an architect, by whom he was instructed in the first rudiments of design. He then studied in Venice. He moved to Rome, where he remained until his death, in 1746. His brother, Angelo Trevisani remained a prominent painter in Venice.

In Rome, he was supported by Cardinal Pietro Ottoboni. He was also favored with the patronage of Cardinal Chigi. Chigi employed him in several considerable works, and recommended him to the protection of Pope Clement XI, who not only commissioned him to paint one of the prophets in San Giovanni Laterano, but engaged him to decorate the cupola of the cathedral in Urbino. He was employed by the Duke of Modena, in copying the works of Correggio and Parmigianino, and also painted in Brunswick, Madrid, Munich, Stockholm, and Vienna.

He became a member of the Academy of Arcadia in 1712. Trevisani died in Rome in 1746. More on Francesco Trevisani

The reception of Cornelius sparked a conversation among the Jewish leaders of the new Christian church, culminating in the decision to allow Gentiles to become Christians without conforming to Jewish requirements for circumcision. More on Cornelius

Bernardo Cavallino, (1616–1656)

St Peter and Cornelius the Centurion, c. 1640s

Oil on canvas

Height: 102 cm (40.1 ″); Width: 127 cm (50 ″)

Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica

Bernardo Cavallino (1616–1656) was an Italian painter and draughtsman. He is regarded as one of the most original painters active in Naples during the first half of the 17th century. 

Born in Naples, his paintings are some of the more stunningly expressive works emerging from the Neapolitan artists of his day. Little is known about his background or training. Of eighty attributed paintings, less than ten are signed. He worked through private dealers and collectors whose records are no longer available.

One of his masterpieces is the billowing proletarian Blessed Virgin at the Brera Gallery in Milan. Passive amid the swirling, muscular putti, this Neapolitan signorina delicately rises from the fog, the updated Catholic baroque equivalent of a Botticelli's Venus. His The Ecstasy of St Cecilia exists both as cartoon (Museo di Capodimonte, Naples)[2] and final copy in the Palazzo Vecchio of Florence. Finally, his Esther and Ahasuerus hangs in the Uffizi Gallery.

He is thought to have died during the plague epidemic in 1656. More on Bernardo Cavallino

In  Skepsis lived a ruler by the name of Demetrios who venerating the pagan gods. Learning about the arrival of Cornelius in the city, he immediately summoned him and asked him the reason for his coming. Cornelius answered that he came to free him from the darkness of ignorance. The prince became enraged and demanded that Cornelius offer sacrifice to the idols.

The Saint asked to be shown the gods. When he entered the pagan temple, Cornelius turned towards the east and uttered a prayer to the Lord. There was an earthquake, and the temple of Zeus and the idols situated in it were destroyed. They bound the Saint and took him to prison.

At this point, one of his servants informed Demetrios that his wife Evanthia and child Demetrian had perished beneath the rubble of the destroyed temple. After a certain while, one of the pagan priests reported that he heard the voice of the wife and son somewhere in the ruins and that they were praising the God of the Christians. The pagan priest asked that the imprisoned one be released, in gratitude for the miracle worked by Cornelius, and the wife and son of the Demetrios remained alive.

After this the Demetrios accepted holy Baptism. Cornelius lived for a long time in Skepsis, converting all the pagan to Christ. Cornelius died in old age and was buried not far from the pagan temple he destroyed. More on Skepsis

Thumbnail Minology Vasily II

Martyr Cornelius Centurion, Constantinople, c. 985

Cornelius the Centurion and destruction of the pagan temple at Skepsis.

Vatican Library. Rome

The Menologion of Basil II is an illuminated manuscript designed as a church calendar or Eastern Orthodox Church service book (menologion) that was compiled c. 1000 AD, for the Byzantine Emperor Basil II

Saint Cornelius the Centurion and Martyr

Saint Cornelius the Centurion and Martyr

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 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.

05 Works, RELIGIOUS ART - Today, February 1st, is Ignatius of Antioch's Day, With Footnotes - 32

Cesare Fracanzano (1605-1651)

 Ignatius of Antiochie, XVIIe siècle

Galleria Borghese, Rome

"Instigate the animals so that in them I find my sepulcher and nothing remains of my body in order not to be of any burden to anyone, supplicate God for me, that by this means make me become a host for God"

Cesare Fracanzano (1605-1651), a Neapolitan painter who flourished in the 17th century, was a pupil of Spagnoletto. There is in the Museo del Prado a picture by him, representing Two Wrestlers. His son, Michelangelo Fracanzano, who was also a painter, died in France about 1685. His brother Francesco was also a painter. More on Cesare Fracanzano

Ignatius of Antioch (c. 35  – c. 108), also known as Ignatius Theophorus, or Ignatius Nurono was an early Christian writer and bishop of Antioch. En route to Rome, where he met his martyrdom, Ignatius wrote a series of letters. This correspondence now forms a central part of the later collection known as the Apostolic Fathers. His letters also serve as an example of early Christian theology. Important topics they address include ecclesiology, the sacraments, and the role of bishops.

Martyrdom of St. Ignatius

Menologio of Basil II, a. About 1000

Vatican Library

The Menologion of Basil II is an illuminated manuscript designed as a church calendar or Eastern Orthodox Church service book that was compiled c. 1000 AD, for the Byzantine Emperor Basil II (r. 976–1025). It contains a synaxarion, a short collection of saints' lives, compiled at Constantinople for liturgical use, and around 430 miniature paintings by eight different artists. It was unusual for a menologion from that era to be so richly painted. It currently resides in the Vatican Library. More on The Menologion of Basil II

It is said Ignatius converted to Christianity at a young age. Later in his life, Ignatius was chosen to serve as Bishop of Antioch. Theodoret of Cyrrhus claimed that St. Peter himself left directions that Ignatius be appointed to the episcopal see of Antioch. A tradition arose that he was one of the children whom Jesus Christ took in his arms and blessed.

After serving in Antioch for over 35 years, Ignatius was arrested during the persecution of Trajan and sentenced to death in Rome. 

Giovanni Domenico Piastrini (1678–1740) 

Condemnation to death of St. Ignatius by Traiano , eighteenth century

Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica in Palazzo Barberini, Rome

Giovanni Domenico Piastrini (1678–1740) was an Italian painter of the Baroque period, active in Tuscany and Rome.

He learned first skills from his father, Francesco Maria, who had painted in the Annunziata and San Lorenzo churches of Florence. But then traveled to Rome to work in the studio of Benedetto Luti. He painted for the Basilica of our Lady of Humility in Pistoia. He also painted altarpieces for churches in Rome (including Santa Maria in Via Lata) and Pisa. He died in Rome. 

Among his works are a canvas depicting Emperor Trajan condemning Saint Ignatius of Antioch (1710–1716) at the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica in Palazzo Barberini, Rome ; a Marriage at Cana at Bob Jones University Museum & Gallery, Greenville, South Carolina; a Meal of St Phillip Benizi (1723–1724) at the church of Santa Maria in Via, Rome; and a Virgin in Glory with Saints Joseph, Vittoria, and Ranieri for the church of Santa Maria del Carmine, Pisa. More on Giovanni Domenico Piastrini

During the journey to Rome, Ignatius and his entourage of soldiers made a number of stops in Asia Minor. Along the route Ignatius wrote six letters to the churches in the region and one to a fellow bishop, Polycarp, bishop of Smyrna.

 Ignatius himself wrote that he would be thrown to the beasts, and in the fourth century Eusebius reports tradition that this came to pass, which is then repeated by Jerome, who is the first to explicitly mention "Lions". John Chrysostom is the first to allude to the Colosseum as the place of Ignatius' martyrdom.

 Francesco Solimena, (1657-1747)

Saint Ignatius of Antioch

Oil on canvas

Monastery of Santa Maria della Purità, Pagani, Italy

Francesco Solimena (October 4, 1657 – April 3, 1747) was a prolific Italian painter of the Baroque era, one of an established family of painters and draughtsmen. He received early training from his father, Angelo Solimena, with whom he executed a Paradise for the cathedral of Nocera and a Vision of St. Cyril of Alexandria for the church of San Domenico at Solofra.

He settled in Naples in 1674, there he worked in the studio of Francesco di Maria and later Giacomo del Po. He apparently had taken the clerical orders, but was patronized early on, and encouraged to become an artist by Cardinal Vincenzo Orsini (later Pope Benedict XIII). By the 1680s, he had independent fresco commissions, and his active studio came to dominate Neapolitan painting from the 1690s through the first four decades of the 18th century. He modeled his art—for he was a highly conventional painter—after the Roman Baroque masters. Solimena painted many frescoes in Naples, altarpieces, celebrations of weddings and courtly occasions, mythological subjects, characteristically chosen for their theatrical drama, and portraits. His settings are suggested with a few details—steps, archways, balustrades, columns—concentrating attention on figures and their draperies, caught in pools and shafts of light. Art historians take pleasure in identifying the models he imitated or adapted in his compositions. His numerous preparatory drawings often mix media, combining pen-and-ink, chalk and watercolor washes. More on Francesco Solimena

After Ignatius' martyrdom in the Circus Maximus his remains were carried back to Antioch by his companions. More on Ignatius of Antioch

Martyrdom of St. Ignatius , XVIII century

Fiocesan museum, Novara

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, And 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.