05 Works, February 21st is Saint Zachariah's Day, With Footnotes - #51

Ohilippos Gould

Exaltation of the Holy Cross, Emperor Heraclius and Patriarch Zacharias, c. 1494

Mural paintings

Church of the Holy Cross of Ayiasmati

I have not found any information about the artist.

The cross is carried heavenwards by two angels, watched by two groups of figures outside the walls of Jerusalem: one group comprises the people, led by Herakleios, the emperor who recovered the True Cross from the Persians, the other , the clergy, with the Patriarch of Jerusalem, Zacharias, in a a prominent position. More on this Icon

Saint Zachariah, was the Patriarch of Jerusalem of the Church of Jerusalem from 609 to 632. Patr. Zacharias spent most of his patriarchate as a prisoner of the Persian King Chozroes. He is commemorated by the Church on February 21.

The early life of Patr. Zacharias is unknown. He was elected patriarch in 609. During the reign of the Roman emperor Heraclius. The Persian King Chozroes invaded Jerusalem in 614, pillaged the city, and withdrew with the Life-Creating Cross of Christ and many Christian prisoners who were held in bondage, including Patr. Zacharias. Of the captured Christians as many as 90,000 perished.

Piero della Francesca,  (–1492)

Battle between Heraclius and Chosroes, between 1452 and 1466

Fresco

Basilica of San Francesco, Tuscany, Italy

Piero della Francesca (c. 1415 – 12 October 1492), originally named Piero di Benedetto, was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. To contemporaries he was also known as a mathematician and geometer. Nowadays Piero della Francesca is chiefly appreciated for his art. His painting is characterized by its serene humanism, its use of geometric forms and perspective. His most famous work is the cycle of frescoes The History of the True Cross in the church of San Francesco in the Tuscan town of Arezzo.

He was probably apprenticed to the local painter Antonio di Giovanni d'Anghiari. He certainly took notice of the work of some of the Sienese artists active in San Sepolcro during his youth. In 1439 Piero received, together with Domenico Veneziano, payments for his work on frescoes for the church of Sant'Egidio in Florence, now lost.

Piero returned to his hometown in 1442. Three years later, he received his first commission, to paint the Madonna della Misericordia altarpiece for the church of the Misericordia in Sansepolcro. In 1449 he executed several frescoes in the Castello Estense and the church of Sant'Andrea of Ferrara, now also lost. His influence was particularly strong in the later Ferrarese allegorical works of Cosimo Tura.


In his later years, painters such as Perugino and Luca Signorelli frequently visited his workshop. More on Piero della Francesca

Piero della Francesca  (–1492)

Detail. Battle between Heraclius and Chosroes, between 1452 and 1466

Fresco

Basilica of San Francesco, Tuscany, Italy

Artist Unknown

Cherub and Byzantine Emperor Heraclius submitting Sassanid king Khosrau II, c. 1160-1170

Champlevé enamel over gilt copper

Louvre Museum

In 627, after rebuilding his army, Heraclius moved into Persia. Winning a decisive victory at Ninveh, Heraclius defeated Chozroes and compelled the Persian king to return the Life-Creating Cross and the surviving captives, including Patriarch Zacharias. Emperor Heraclius himself carried the Cross on his shoulders into the Holy City.

Miguel Ximénez, (fl. 1462–1505)

Saint Helena & Heraclius taking the Holy Cross to Jerusalem, between circa 1483 and circa 1487

Oil on panel

Height: 173 cm (68.1″); Width: 93 cm (36.6″)

Saragossa Museum,  Zaragoza, Spain

Miguel Ximénez, (Pareja -Guadalajara-, 15th century) was a Spanish Gothic painter. Miguel was documented in Saragossa between 1462 and 1505). He was appointed by Ferdinand II of Aragon's court painter on 11 May 1484 and is known to have influenced Bartolomé Bermejo's work. Also there are similarities between his work and Martín Bernat's. His son Juan Ximénez assisted him. More on Miguel Ximénez

Patriarch Zacharias and the Precious Cross had been held in bondage for fourteen years. During that time many miracles occurred in Persia as a result of the Precious Cross, so that even the Persians said: "The Christian God came to Persia."

Patriarch Zacharias spent his remaining days in peace and reposed in the Lord in 632. More on Saint Zachariah

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05 Works, February 20th, is Saint Leo of Catania's Day, With Footnotes - #50

Unknown iconographer

St. Leo, Bishop of Catania, Sicily

Private collection

Icon with water-gilding on plywood. The wood has been prepared in heat and gilded with gold leaf 24K, in accordance with traditional Byzantine techniques. The icon has been painted with egg-tempera paints for best performance and endurance of colors used. The colors were chosen based on studies and analyses of older icons by renowned iconographers, after ARTIS had first conducted conservation treatments on them. More on this work

Saint Leo of Catania, nicknamed the Thaumaturgus, also known as St Leo the Wonderworker in Sicily (May 703 or 709 – 20 February 789) lived at the time of the first persecutions of the holy icons. He was born in Ravenna to a noble family, and became bishop of his native city. Soon his reputation spread, and he was elected Bishop of Catania in Sicily. As is so often true even today, the city, though nominally Christian, was plagued by superstition and paganism. The holy bishop set about to turn the people away from error: by his prayers he caused a pagan temple to collapse and built a church on its site, dedicated to the Forty Maryrs of Sebaste. 

Unknown iconographer

Saint Leo of Catania

At that time the entire island was under the oppressive rule of a magus named Heliodorus, who used all his magical skills to oppress the people and advance himself. Though he had been taken captive by Imperial order, and condemned to death, he was always able to escape his captors by his occult skills. Saint Leo, who sought the conversion of everyone, did his best to turn the magus to Christ, but to no effect. 

Matteo Desiderato  (1750-1827)

Saint Leo Wonderworker who defeats the magician Heliodorus

Oil on canvas
Height: 410 cm (13.4 ft); Width: 275 cm (108.2″)

Mother Church of Santa Maria di Licodia

Matteo Desiderato  (1750-1827)

Detail; Saint Leo Wonderworker who defeats the magician Heliodorus

Oil on canvas
Height: 410 cm (13.4 ft); Width: 275 cm (108.2″)

Mother Church of Santa Maria di Licodia

Matteo Desiderato ( Sciacca, 1750  or 1752 - Catania, 1827 ) was an Italian painter, disciple of Mariano Rossi.

Very little information on the first years of his life His first news places him in Rome at the workshop of Mariano Rossi , also born in Sciacca and operating for years in that city.

He remained in Rome for a long period, during which he married a member of the small Sicilian nobility, from whom he had a daughter.

He then left his wife and daughter to return to Sicily , where he settled in Catania, the city where he spent the rest of his life and in whose province some of his works are still found, especially in churches of Catania, Acireale and Santa Maria di Licodia.

He was the teacher of Giuseppe Gandolfo and Giuseppe Rapisardi . And again by Luigi Montalto and Sebastiano Lo Monaco. More on Matteo Desiderato

Unknown iconographer

Saint Leo Wonderworker who defeats the magician Heliodorus

One day Heliodorus entered the church during the Divine Liturgy, mocking the Mysteries of Christ. The Saint came out of the sanctuary and, casting his omophorion over the mocker, instantly deprived him of his demonic powers. The Prefect of Sicily ordered the magus to be burnt alive. Bishop Leo went to the stake with him, but emerged unmarked without even the smell of fire upon him, while Heliodorus was burnt to ashes.

Saint Leo's fierceness in defense of the Faith was matched by his love and compassion for the poor and defenseless, for whom he poured himself out unceasingly with prayers, alms and visitation. By his prayers he restored sight to the blind and healed the paralyzed. After his repose, his holy relics, which exuded a fragrant myrrh, were venerated in a church that he had founded in honor of Saint Lucia. More on St Leo

Leo Katansky, his life in 12 hallmarks. 

The patron icon was made for the house chapel of the Yekaterinburg merchants

On the lower field of the icon in the cartouche is the text: “This sacred image was written from the creation of the world in 7327, the month of December, on the 19th day, it was perfect.”

The patronal icon was made for the house chapel of the Yekaterinburg merchants-Old Believers Lev Ivanovich Rastorguev and Pyotr Yakovlevich Kharitonov, items from which in 1921-1922. entered the Uole Museum.

Leo Katansky, his life in 12 hallmarks. 

The patron icon was made for the house chapel of the Yekaterinburg merchants

Center of the icon: St. Leo of Catania

Leo Katansky, his life in 12 hallmarks. 

The patron icon was made for the house chapel of the Yekaterinburg merchants

Hallmarks 2 and 3, Elevation to the rank of bishop, 

Care of the flock

Leo Katansky, his life in 12 hallmarks. 

The patron icon was made for the house chapel of the Yekaterinburg merchants

Bottom row stamps; The taming of Iliodor with the omophorion and the trial by fire of the bishop and sorcerer, Miracles created by Leo: healing the sick, seeing the blind, casting out demons, crushing idols and temples of idols, Miracle of Healing a Bleeding Woman from the Saint's Bed

The icon “St. Leo of Catan, with a Life" (1818, SOCM) was intended for the home chapel of the Yekaterinburg mansion of the Old Believer merchants L. I. Rastorguev and P. Ya. Kharitonov. Perhaps it was the customer of the icon, Rastorguev, who initiated the development of the hagiographic iconography of his heavenly patron. In the centerpiece, against a landscape background with slides, overlooking the fortress walls, city buildings and domes of churches, there is a full-length figure of a Lion with a club. He is wearing a phelonion with a large floral ornament, red vest and shoes, gold omophorion, stole. The icon painters managed to skillfully convey the texture of the tapestry fabric of the phelonion and the gold embroidery of the vestments. The saint is represented by an old man with a long, to the middle of his chest, narrow wedge-shaped beard. With his right hand he blesses with two fingers, in his left on the omophorion he holds an open Gospel with the text (Jn 10.9-10 ). Along the edges in cartouches are hagiographic stories accompanied by lengthy inscriptions. More on this work

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07 Works, Today, February 19th, is The Venerable Mother Philothea's Day, With Footnotes - 49

Venerable Mother Philothea with temple in Athena

The Venerable Mother Philothea of Athens (1589) was born to the prominent Venizelou family, miraculously answering her mother's prayer of many years. Though even in childhood she showed a love for ascesis and prayer, she was much sought-after as a wealthy heiress, and was married at the age of twelve to a rough, violent man. She endured his ill-treatment nobly, and prayed daily for his conversion. After three years, the brutal husband died, and Philothea gave herself entirely to a life of prayer and fasting, living like a hermitess though still in her parents' house. 

When her parents died ten years later, she used her entire fortune to found a convent. Its design had been given her in a vision by the Apostle Andrew, and it was dedicated to him. 

Vision by the Apostle Andrew

Alongside the monastery, she founded a hospital, a hospice for the poor, and schools where boys and girls could receive a Christian education, something obviously not provided by the Turkish rulers.

The Lady Schoolmistress of Athens'—St Philothei the Venerable Martyr

As soon as the monastery was begun, she took monastic vows under the name of Philothea, and she, her own maidservants, and many young women of the city, became the first nuns there. Philothea continued in her boundless compassion for the poor and infirm, whom she visited and tended. She was so free in her almsgiving that more than once the monastery was left without food or other necessities of life, and the sisters began to complain about her. But each time, large donations appeared unexpectedly and saved the community from starvation.

Large donations appeared unexpectedly and saved the community from starvation

Philothea offered asylum and refuge to Christian slave women who had fled their masters to preserve their faith and chastity. This angered the Turks, who surrounded the monastery, seized Philothea, and brought her before the judge. She was told to deny Christ or die, and when she refused was sentenced to death; but some influential Athenian Greeks were able to intervene on her behalf and to obtain her release.

Immediately upon her release she redoubled her prayers, her apostolic labors and her works of mercy, and was soon granted the gift of working miracles and healings. So many disciples came to join her that she established a second monastery. 

Mother Philothea being beaten violently 

Her growing influence aroused the hatred of some of the Turks, who broke into the monastery one night and beat her violently, leaving her half-dead. She bore the effects of her injuries patiently, and after a short time gave back her soul to God in 1589.

Mother Philothea gave back her soul to God in 1589

Twenty years after her repose, a beautiful scent began to issue from her tomb. Her precious relics, venerated at the Cathedral in Athens, remain incorrupt to this day.

Her relics are venerated at the Cathedral in Athens

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05 Works, Today, February 18th, is Saint Alexis Falconieri's Day, With Footnotes - 48

Francisco Herrera the Younger, (1622–1685)

El papa San León I Magno/ Saint Leo Magnus (pope Leo I) (c.390-461)

Oil on canvas

Height: 164 cm (64.5 ″); Width: 105 cm (41.3 ″)

Prado Museum, Madrid, Spain

Francisco Herrera the Younger ("el Mozo"; 1622 - 25 August 1685) was a Spanish painter and architect. He began his career under his father's instruction; but the father's violent temper at last became so intolerable that the youth fled to Rome. For six years the younger Herrera devoted himself to the study of architecture, perspective, and the antique, his aim being fresco painting.

He left to Madrid where he painted a great Triumph of St. Hermengild for the church of the Carmelite friars, and a group of frescoes in San Felipe el Real which was appreciated by Philip IV of Spain, who commissioned him the painting of the dome of the chapel of Our Lady of Atocha, and thereafter made him painter to the king and superintendent of royal buildings. Besides his work in still life he painted many portraits, and while these lacked the vigour which characterized his father's work, they exhibit a greater knowledge and use of chiaroscuro.

Charles II of Spain kept him at his Court and made him master of the royal works. For this king Herrera renovated the Basilica of Our Lady of the Pillar, in Zaragoza.

Herrera died at Madrid in 1685. More on Francisco Herrera

Pope Leo I (c. 400 – 10 November 461), also known as Saint Leo the Great, was Bishop of Rome from 29 September 440 and died in 461. Pope Benedict XVI said that Leo's papacy "...was undoubtedly one of the most important in the Church's history."

He was a Roman aristocrat, and was the first pope to have been called "the Great". He is perhaps best known for having met Attila the Hun in 452 and persuading him to turn back from his invasion of Italy. 

Ulpiano Checa Sanz, (Spanish, 1860–1916)

Invasion of the Barbarians/ The Huns approaching Rome, c. 1887

Oil on Canvas

98 x 170 cm. (38.6 x 66.9 in.)

Private collection

The Huns were a nomadic tribe prominent in the 4th and 5th century CE whose origin is unknown but, most likely, they came from “somewhere between the eastern edge of the Altai Mountains and the Caspian Sea, roughly modern Kazakhstan”. More on the Huns

Ulpiano Fernández-Checa y Saiz (April 3, 1860 – January 5, 1916), known as Ulpiano Checa, was a Spanish painter, sculptor, poster designer and illustrator. He used both impressionistic and academic techniques, and mainly painted historical subjects.

He was born in Colmenar de Oreja, Spain, and exhibited a talent for art when he was a young child. At thirteen, he met Don José Ballesterwho was impressed with his work and decided to bring Checa and his family to the capital to begin his art studies.

In 1873, he entered the Escuela de Bellas Artes de San Fernando in Madrid, followed by study at the Spanish Academy of Fine Arts in Rome [es], where he would paint Invasion of the Barbarians (since lost in a fire) which won the gold medal at the National Exhibition of Fine Arts in 1887. More on Ulpiano Fernández-Checa y Saiz

Raphael  (1483–1520)

The Meeting between Leo the Great and Attila, c. 1514

Fresco

Stanza di Eliodoro, Palazzi Pontifici, Vatican

Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino (April 6 or March 28, 1483 – April 6, 1520), known as Raphael, was an Italian painter and architect of the High Renaissance. His work is admired for its clarity of form, ease of composition, and visual achievement of the Neoplatonic ideal of human grandeur. Together with Michelangelo and Leonardo da Vinci, he forms the traditional trinity of great masters of that period.

Raphael was enormously productive, running an unusually large workshop and, despite his death at 37, leaving a large body of work. Many of his works are found in the Vatican Palace. The best known work is The School of Athens in the Vatican Stanza della Segnatura. After his early years in Rome much of his work was executed by his workshop from his drawings, with considerable loss of quality. He was extremely influential in his lifetime, though outside Rome his work was mostly known from his collaborative printmaking. More Raffaello

The fresco was completed after the death of Julius II (pontiff from 1503 to 1513), during the pontificate of his successor Leo X (pontiff from 1513 to 1521). In fact the latter appears twice in the same scene, portrayed in the guise of Pope Leo the Great and as cardinal. According to legend, the miraculous apparition of Saints Peter and Paul armed with swords during the meeting between Pope Leo the Great and Attila (452 A.D.) caused the king of the Huns to desist from invading Italy and marching on Rome. More on this work

Hendrick Bloemaert, (Dutch, b. ca. 1601–1672)

The meeting of Pope Leo the Great and Attila , c. 1643–1643

Oil on Canvas

191 x 315.3 cm. (75.2 x 124.1 in.)

Private collection

Hendrick Bloemaert (1601 or 1602 – 30 December 1672) was a Dutch Golden Age painter.

Hendrick was the oldest son of Abraham Bloemaert. His brothers Cornelis and Adriaen were also painters. In 1626 he was registered in Rome, but by 1631 he was back in Utrecht, where he registered in the Utrecht Guild of St. Luke.

He is considered an important member of the Utrecht school of Caravaggisti, and was known for his portraits and historical allegories. He was also known for his poetry. More on Hendrick Bloemaert



He is also a Doctor of the Church, most remembered theologically for issuing the Tome of Leo, a document which was a major foundation to the debates of the Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon. The Council of Chalcedon, the fourth ecumenical council, dealt primarily with Christology, and elucidated the orthodox definition of Christ's being as the hypostatic union of two natures, divine and human, united in one person, "with neither confusion nor division". It was followed by a major schism associated with Monophysitism, Miaphysitism and Dyophysitism. More on Pope Leo I

Vasily Surikov  (1848–1916)

Fourth Ecumenical Council of Chalcedon, c. 1876

Vasily Ivanovich Surikov (24 January 1848, Krasnoyarsk – 19 March 1916, Moscow) was a Russian Realist history painter of Siberian origin. Many of his works have become familiar to the general public through their use as illustrations.

In 1859, his father died of tuberculosis so the family were forced to rent the second floor of their house to survive financially. He began drawing while attending the district school and was encouraged by the local art teacher. His first formal work dates from 1862, but his family could not afford to continue his education and he became a clerk in a government office. This brought him into contact with the Governor of Yenisei, who was able to find him a patron.

In 1868, he was unable to qualify for admission to the Imperial Academy of Arts, so he studied at the drawing school of the Imperial Society for the Encouragement of the Arts. 

From 1869 to 1875, he studied with Pavel Chistyakov, Bogdan Willewalde and Pyotr Shamshin, winning several medals. 

In 1877, he received a commission to paint murals at the Cathedral of Christ the Saviour and he moved to Moscow. He chose to remain in Moscow and began the series of historical paintings that would establish his reputation. 

In 1948, on the 100th anniversary of his birth, his estate in Krasnoyarsk became a museum. Two monuments have been erected there, in 1954 and in 2002. More on Vasily Ivanovich Surikov

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01 Work, Today, February 2nd, Christ will meet the Lord, With Footnotes - 33

Meeting of the Lord (Presentation of Jesus at the Temple)

The Meeting of the Lord in the Temple is one of the Great Feasts of the Orthodox Church, celebrated on February 2 and February 15, using the Gregorian Calendar, Julian Calendar, and Revised Julian Calendar. This feast is also known as Candlemas, particularly in Western nations, due to the custom of blessing candles on this day.

In Eastern tradition, it is often called The Meeting of Our Lord and God and Savior, Jesus Christ, because the hymns emphasize the incarnate God, the Lord Jesus Christ, meeting with his people, in the persons of the Prophet Simeon and the Prophetess Anna.

In the Gospel of Luke 2:22-35, Mary and Joseph took the infant Christ to the Temple in Jerusalem. He was received in the arms of the elder Simeon, who then prayed, "Now let Thy servant depart in peace... for I have seen Thy salvation." This was one of the things that Mary "pondered in her heart"—the fact that others recognized that her Son was the Messiah. More on The Meeting of the Lord in the Temple

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02 Works, RELIGIOUS ART - Today, January 16, is the Veneration of the Chains of Apostle Peters' Day, With Footnotes

José de Ribera

San Pedro, liberated by an angel, c. 1639

Oil on Canvas

177 cm x 232 cm

Prado Museum

Saint Peter was arrested on the orders of Herod Agrippa, the Apostle Peter was thrown into prison for preaching about Christ.

His surveillance measures were so severe that, apart from the guards outside the prison gate, two soldiers were constantly next to him. The night before his trial and his conviction, while Christians were praying all night long, an angel of the Lord appeared, the Apostle’s chains miraculously fell off, the gates of the prison opened, and the imprisoned Apostle was released.

The faithful took this chain and kept it as a sacred relic and, thanks to the Holy Spirit, they became a source of healing and various miracles. For this reason, this day was established by the Church as the day of commemoration of the sufferings of Saint Peter and the day of veneration of the Precious Chain. In that way, the faithful honor the Apostle and receive his blessing thanks to their steadfast faith and forbearance.

On January 16, the chains of Saint Peter are brought out for public veneration.  More on chains of St. Peter

José de Ribera (January 12, 1591 – September 2, 1652) was a Spanish Tenebrist painter and printmaker, better known as Jusepe de Ribera. He also was called Lo Spagnoletto ("the Little Spaniard") by his contemporaries and early writers. Ribera was a leading painter of the Spanish school, although his mature work was all done in Italy. 

Ribera was born at Xàtiva, Spain. He was baptized on February 17, 1591. He is said to have apprenticed with the Spanish painter Francisco Ribalta in Valencia. Longing to study art in Italy, he made his way to Rome in 1611. Roman artists gave him the nickname "Lo Spagnoletto".

Very little documentation survives from his early years. Ribera was living in Rome no later than 1612, and is documented as having joined the Academy of Saint Luke by 1613. He lived for a time in the Via Margutta, and almost certainly associated with other Caravaggisti who flocked to Rome at that time. In 1616, Ribera moved to Naples. In November, 1616, Ribera married Caterina Azzolino, the daughter of a Sicilian-born Neapolitan painter, Giovanni Bernardino Azzolino, whose connections in the Neapolitan art world helped to establish Ribera early on as a major figure.

Although Ribera never returned to Spain, many of his paintings were taken back by returning members of the Spanish governing class. From 1644, Ribera suffered serious ill-health, although his workshop continued to produce works under his direction. In 1647–1648, during the Masaniello rising against Spanish rule, he felt forced for some months to take his family with him into refuge in the palace of the Viceroy. In 1651 he sold the large house he had owned for many years, and when he died on September 2, 1652, he was in serious financial difficulties. More on José de Ribera

Giovanni Lanfranco,  (1582–1647)

Liberation of Saint Peter, between circa 1620 and circa 1621

Oil on canvas

Height: 60.6 ″ (153.9 cm); Width: 48.1 ″ (122.2 cm)

Birmingham Museum of Art 

 An unfinished painting depicting the Biblical events of Acts 12:6-7, where Peter is freed from prison by an angel.

Giovanni Lanfranco, also called Giovanni di Steffano or Il Cavaliere Giovanni Lanfranchi (born Jan. 26, 1582, Parma [Italy]—died Nov. 30, 1647, Rome) Italian painter, an important follower of the Bolognese school. He was a pupil of Agostino Carracci in Parma (1600–02) and later studied with Annibale Carracci in Rome. A decisive influence on his work, however, was not just the Baroque classicism of the Carracci brothers but the dynamic illusionism of the dome paintings in Parma by Correggio. Lanfranco translated Correggio’s 16th-century style into a Roman Baroque idiom. Soon after his arrival in Rome (1612), he painted the ceiling frescoes Joseph Explaining the Dreams of His Fellow Prisoners and Joseph and Potiphar’s Wife (both 1615) in the Palazzo Mattei. The frescoes combine techniques and styles learned from Annibale Carracci and from Lanfranco’s own study of Correggio and Caravaggio. Lanfranco’s painting in the dome of San Andrea della Valle in Rome (1621–25) derives directly from Correggio in its virtuoso use of vigorously posed figures floating in the clouds over the spectator’s head. Lanfranco worked in Naples from 1633/34 to 1646, his best known work there being the dome of the chapel of San Gennaro in the cathedral (1641–46). He was a bitter rival of Domenichino, both in Rome and later in Naples. More on Giovanni Lanfranco

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

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