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Today is the First Passion Sunday, when the season of Lent becomes more even sombre, as catholics leave the spiritual desert and prepare to accompany Jesus on his final journey to Jerusalem. The liturgy becomes starker and the statues and images in churches are covered by heavy purple drapes. Reflecting this mood I thought IContinue reading “Christ after the flagellation”

Today is the Feast of Saint Isidore of Seville (c. 560 – 4 April 636) was a Hispano-Roman scholar, theologian, and archbishop of Seville. The Roman Martyrology tells us that he “shed lustre on his country by his zeal for the Catholic faith”, while the 19th-century historian Montalembert described him as “the last scholar of theContinue reading “The last scholar of the ancient world”

This is one of only seven securely attributed still-life paintings by the Spanish artist Juan Sánchez Cotán. Each one depicts food arranged in a dark, shallow niche. Balanced on the ledge is a curved cardoon, an edible plant related to the artichoke. Hanging on the wall is a type of game bird called a francolin.Continue reading “Golden Age Abstraction”

In the l6th century, the world was believed to consist of four elements: Earth, Air, Fire, and Water. Here, Earth (associated with the season of autumn) is symbolized by the abundance of nature’s produce and by the small figure of Cybele, the ancient mother-goddess of earth and fertility, who rides across the sky in aContinue reading “The Bassano Allegory of the Element Earth”

For one day the penitential character of Lent is lightened with the celebration of the Feast of the Annunciation, the first great act of Salvation History. In this crowded image of the event, by the Hispano-Flemish artist Juan de Flandres, the youthful Virgin sits on a crimson tasseled cushion, wearing a voluminous, long, royal-blue dress,Continue reading “Juan de Flandres’s Annunciation”

Murillo’s rendering of the parable of the prodigal son, taken from Luke’s Gospel (15:11-32) is surely one of the most tender and compelling illustrations of forgiveness and unconditional love. A younger son squanders his inheritance and having reached rock bottom returns home repentant, only to find himself welcomed home with joy in the warm embraceContinue reading “Murillo’s Prodigal Son”

The Feast of Saint Joseph celebrated each year on the 19th March became common in Western Christianity as early as the 10th century and Saint Pope Pius V extended the observance to the entire Church in 1570. The day reminds catholics of Joseph as both a model of fatherhood and a protector of the HolyContinue reading “The Fearful Father”

There are surely few more shocking artistic accounts of Christ’s flagellation than this image by the Mexican artist Juan Correa. Painted in the 1670s, Correa portrays Jesus on his hands and knees, pitifully reaching for his clothes after his bloody whipping at a column, the punishment handed down by Pontius Pilate as the usual preludeContinue reading “The Man of Sorrows”

he Roman Martyrology for 13th March recalls the death in the year 857 of Saint Rodrigo, a Christian priest of Mozarab background, venerated as one of the Martyrs of Córdoba. Tradition states that Rodrigo had two brothers: one was a Muslim, the other irreligious. Once, after his brothers began to fight one another, he attemptedContinue reading “Rodrigo of Córdoba”

For many Christians today is the feast of Saint Gregory the Great, Pope and Doctor of the Church who died on this day in the year 604. As leader of the Church, Gregory kept a close watch over the clergy and encouraged them towards holiness. He used papal money to ransom prisoners and to careContinue reading “The Joy of the World”