Monthly Archives: Jun 2025

The Latin inscription at the bottom of the painting denotes its links with Rome and the importance of the work, as clearly demonstrated by its place in Ribera’s oeuvre. Born near Valencia, Spain, where he trained, he moved to Italy at an early age. After a fruitful stay in Rome, where he discovered Caravaggism, heContinue reading “Your are the Rock”

To celebrate today’s feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus here is an image of ‘The Adoration of the Sacred Heart with Saints Ignatius Loyola and Louis Gonzaga’ by the Mexican artist José de Páez (1727-1790). Painted around 1770 this devotional image depicts two Jesuit saints kneeling before the Sacred Heart of Jesus. The flamingContinue reading “The Sacred Heart”

To celebrate the Nativity of Saint John the Baptist I thought I’d share these five beautiful canvases depicting the Saint’s life that were commissioned in Naples from Artemisa Gentileschi and Massimo Stanzione. They were painted for the chapel in the hermitage dedicated to the Baptist in the grounds of the Buen Retiro Palace in Madrid.Continue reading “The Baptist’s Birthday”

A new exhibition the Prado puts the spotlight on Guadalupe of Mexico and the first globalised Marian image. The dispatch of her “true likenesses” from New Spain to the metropolis bears witness to the intense relations between families and personalities on both sides of the Atlantic who shared desires, aspirations and sentiments. Through them, denseContinue reading “The Virgin of Guadalupe”

The Feast of Corpus Christi was proposed by St. Thomas Aquinas to Pope Urban IV, in order to create a feast focused solely on the Holy Eucharist, emphasising the joy of the Eucharist being the Body and Blood, Soul and Divinity of Jesus Christ. Having recognized in 1264 the authenticity of the Eucharistic Miracle ofContinue reading “Corpus Christi”

The Embassy of Spain in London is the oldest bilateral embassy in the world, having been established by the Catholic monarch King Ferdinand in 1483 to cement the alliance between Spain and England against their common enemy France. Although the relationship has at times been tested, especially in the century that followed, the Embassy hasContinue reading “Spain in London”

The week after Pentecost contains three ‘ember days’ when many catholics undertake fasts and penance. This ‘summer lent’ has a long tradition in the Church and was known to Saint Jerome, the saint in this image by Jusepe de Ribera. Ribera depicted Saint Jerome, the early Christian ascetic, priest, and translator of the Bible, numerousContinue reading “Ember Days”

On this Pentecost Sunday I thought I’d conclude our El Greco week with this magnificent canvas from collection of the Prado Museum. This work depicts the moment when the Holy Ghost, in the form of flames, rests on the Virgin and the Apostles on Pentecost day in Jerusalem, as is told in the book ofContinue reading “Pentecost”

Ildefonso was appointed archbishop of Toledo in 657 and later became that city’s patron saint. He was especially famed for his book defending the purity of the Virgin, which he was said to have written at her dictation. El Greco represented the saint in a richly decorated room, seated at a writing table furnished withContinue reading “El Greco’s San Ildefonso “

During the Trojan War, the priest Laocoön angered the Greek gods, who sent snakes to kill him and his two sons. The legend became popular after a monumental, ancient marble sculpture of Laocoön and his sons was unearthed in Rome in 1506. Laocoön is El Greco’s only known mythological painting. He set the scene notContinue reading “Laocoön”