Author Archives: rpfjacques

As some of us will already be struggling to maintain our Lenten commitments, feeling we have the devil on our shoulders, I thought this painting from the Mexican artist Luis Juárez might offer some encouragement. In the picture, the Archangel Saint Michael hovers over a fallen demon with a satyr’s ears. This is Satan, whomContinue reading “Quis est ut Deus”

To celebrate International Women’s Day I’m sharing Mary Cassatt’s ‘Spanish Girl leaning on a Window Sill’. Between 1872 and 1873, the American artist Mary Cassatt spent six months in Seville at the palace of the Duke and Duchess of Medinaceli, who often hosted friends, foreign travellers and painters. Cassatt, who worked hard and rarely leftContinue reading “The lady of the Casa Pilatos”

Today is the Feast of Saint Thomas Aquinas (c. 1225 – 7 March 1274) the Dominican friar and priest, and one of the most influential philosophers and theologians in the Western tradition. Thomas was born in Roccasecca, near Aquino, controlled then by the Kingdom of Sicily, and in this portrayal of the saint by Antonio delContinue reading “The Angelic Doctor”

For Catholics throughout the world today marks the beginning of the season of Lent, a 40 day period of penance and abstinence in preparation for the celebration of Holy Week and Easter. The 40 days is a reminder of the period that Jesus spent in the wilderness being tempted by the Devil at the beginningContinue reading “The Temptation of Christ”

With the Carnival season about to reach its climax, here is The Harlequin’s Carnival by Catalan artist Joan Miró (1893-1983). In 1924, poet André Breton formed the Surrealist movement, around the time Miró started to focus on dreams and the subconscious as artistic material, fused with his own life experiences and memories. Created between 1924Continue reading “A surrealist carnival”

Following on from the Valladolid shows devoted to the great Spanish masters of polychrome art, this week of posts ends in Madrid with the Prado’s current exhibition that explores the whole relationship between sculptures and painters. The show is titled ‘Hand in Hand. Sculpture and colour in the Spanish Golden Age’ – a reference toContinue reading “Hand in Hand. Sculpture and colour in the Spanish Golden Age”

Luisa Roldán was born in Seville, the daughter of sculptor Pedro Roldán and his wife Teresa de Ortega. She was taught by her father, alongside her siblings, how to draw, utilize clay to shape figures and finally sculpt or carve in wood. She became an apprentice in her father’s workshop. Also working within the workshopContinue reading “The struggles of a woman sculptor”

To celebrate ‘La Día de Andalucia’ I am highlighting works by Luisa Roldán (1652 – 1706). Known also as La Roldana, Luisa is the earliest woman sculptor documented in Spain and recognised for being one of the few women artists to have maintained a studio outside the convents in Golden Age Spain. These works, allContinue reading “La Roldana”

Have you ever thought what it might be like to meet a living saint and perhaps share a meal and a conversation? This was the experience of Doña Guiomar (far left), a wealthy widow who lived in Avila in the mid 16th century. She welcomed into her house leading religious figures of the time andContinue reading “Supper with the Saints”

On 5 Feburary 1597, a group of twenty-six Christians were executed by crucifixion in Nagasaki, Japan. Twenty of them were Japanese, both monks and laymen. Most of the monks were Franciscans, but not all of them. They included the three Jesuits, born in Japan and converts to Catholicism, presented here: the monks Paul Miki (Kyoto,Continue reading “Imágenes Vestideras”