Quick Takes: Icons and Icon-ish

I spent part of this week at an icon workshop, and thoroughly enjoyed living, breathing, thinking and talking icons with like-minded artists.  In that spirit, this week’s quick takes will be icon-related.

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1.

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Through a post on New Liturgical Movement site I found out about these lovely icons in Dominican House of Studies in Lviv.  For more photos of the chapel, check the Dominican House’s photo set on facebook:

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2.

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“Praying With Paint” is interesting article on the blog of the Catholic Neareast Welfare Association about a Romanian Orthodox nun, Sister Eliseea, and the icons that she paints:

“I’m very connected with God when I do this,” she said, “and God is doing everything through my hand. I can’t paint without prayer. This comes from heaven, from the words of God, and if you can’t pray you can’t call yourself an iconographer. The prayer comes in your heart from God. Through this prayer, God gives me this inspiration. It’s like I’m under his protection all the time when I paint, he’s covering me with his wings. I never know how a painting is going to be. I just start a sketch and it just comes to me.” - source

- Read the whole post on One to One

- Read more about her in A Romanian Renaissance from the January 2012 issue of ONE, a blog of the Catholic Neareast Welfare Association

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Here’s an informative blog post explaining the iconostasis, the icon screen in Orthodox and Eastern churches:

Beyond the basics, liturgically, the iconostasis is equipped with three important entrances: two “deacon” doors (sometimes called “angel” doors), and one central entrance. … sometimes called the Royal Doors or Beautiful Gates, and a curtain. This doorway is used exclusively by clergy for liturgical purposes. These two doors are frequently adorned with icons of the four evangelists (Gospel writers) or of the Annunciation, displaying the Archangel Gabriel and the Virgin Mary. Since these are the gates through which the life-giving flesh and blood of God will enter the nave of the Church to be given to the people, it is fitting that the Virgin Mary is depicted on these gates (or similarly, the Gospel writers who brought us the message of God incarnate).

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In a very real sense, the iconostasis and curtain separate the nave from the sanctuary—the common area from the Holy of Holies. But unlike the Holy of Holies in the Old Testament temple, this Holy of Holies is accessible. We can see it, and in fact, the icons draw our eyes toward it. And at the apex of every Liturgy, God enters the Holy of Holies in his body and his blood, and then condescends to come to us through the Beautiful Gates. And finally, he gives himself to us. - source

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4.

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On May 4, 2013, Pope Francis joined the rosary in St. Mary Major, in front of the icon Salus Populi Romani, which was placed on a special altar for the occasion.  After the rosary, the Pope shared some thoughts about the Virgin shown in the icon:

The whole existence of Mary is a hymn to life, a hymn to love and to life: she generated Jesus the man and she accompanied the birth of the Church on Mount Calvary and in the Cenacle. The “Salus Populi Romani” is the mother that looks after our growth, she helps us face and overcome problems, she gives us freedom when we make important decisions; she is the mother who teaches us to be fruitful of good, joy, hope, to give life to others, both physical and spiritual life.

This is what we are asking of you this evening, Oh Mary, Salus Populi Romani, for the people of Rome, for all of us: give us the grace that only you can give, so that we may always be signs and tools of life. - source

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5.

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Via the online Orthodox Arts Journal: iconographer Vladimir Grygorenko has finished painting the icons in the altar area in a beautiful new church in Euless, Texas.

For more photos:

- post on the Orthodox Arts Journal

-  visit Mr. Grygorenko’s website, www.orthodox-icon.com for more of his work.

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6.

Here’s a hyperlapse tour of St. Petersburg, with many of the beautiful churches and interiors with icons”

Moving through St.Petersburg from geoff tompkinson on Vimeo.

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7.

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Through today’s “Seven Slow Gives” post of Angela Sealana, I learned of this Byzantine-inspired tattoo designed by Paul Soupiset.

more on Paul Soupiset’s work:

- the tattoo post with photo of the actual completed tattoo

- Patheos post

- Paul Soupiset’s site

- another Paul Soupiset tattoo: “Pantocrator Ink”

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I’m linking up with Jen Fulwiler’s Quick Takes post at Conversion Diary.  Head over there for many, many more takes.

Quick Takes: finds, sisters, Dante + more

This week’s Quick Takes are a variety of stories of art, archaeology, history, and religious life.

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                St. Paul’s Outside the Walls, Papal basilica in Rome - source

Last week, right after I wrote about the find in the Vatican fresco of what might be the earliest paintings of Native Americans, I came across a Catholic News article describing many fascinating gems found in the Vatican.  “Under soot: Spring cleaning means sometimes finding forgotten gems” covers several dramatic finds in the Vatican in the past decade - the 2009 find of a 4th century painting of St. Paul, 2010 brought discovery of early pictures of Peter, Paul, Andrew and John, and in 2007 a sketch of Michelangelo with a workman’s notes on the reverse side turned up in a Vatican storeroom. 

In 2005, the legendary tomb of St. Paul was investigated:

Archeologists had always been curious to find out what was inside an enormous marble sarcophagus — the presumed tomb of St. Paul, in Rome’s Basilica of St. Paul Outside the Walls.

Because part of the sarcophagus is wedged beneath building material and opening it would have meant demolishing the papal altar above it, it had never been opened in the 20 or 19 centuries….

Vatican engineers tried using an X-ray, but the 10-inch-thick marble was impenetrable.

Finally a very small perforation was drilled into the marble to insert a small probe and withdraw fragments of what was inside. Experts said they found traces of purple linen, a blue fabric with linen threads, grains of red incense and bone fragments that date from the time of the apostle’s death.

Pope Benedict XVI announced the historic findings to the world on the eve of the saint’s feast day saying “This seems to confirm the unanimous and uncontested tradition that they are the mortal remains of the Apostle Paul.” - source

Read the whole fascinating article

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 - source

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A religious sister in Spain has developed a board game that has become a runaway bestseller First Communion gift:

Sr. Molina said she never imagined the game would become so popular. She made the first version of the game at home with her own printer and the help “of the sisters from my congregation in Cuenca.” “The Joy of the Faith” is intended to help players learn about Jesus and the experience of being a Christian. Players roll dice and answer questions about the Catholic faith to move along the spaces on the board. The game incorporates drawings, gestures and prayers. - source

Possible long-term plans include marketing the game in the United States and Latin America.

read more:

Catholic News Agency story

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4.

                                             - source (Christmas 2012 newsletter, pdf)

The growing community of cloistered Catholic religious community of Norbertine Canonesses moving into their brand new monastery in Tehachapi, California:

As the construction reached the final stages, the Sisters of the mountain were put to work, laying tile and vinyl, making beds and cabinets, installing furniture, even a little plumbing.

All that on top of the daily demands of cooking, laundry, administration, gardening, and animal care. All of it is squeezed in between the the eight hours devoted to prayer each day, four hours of classwork and study, and six to seven hours of sleep at night, and even that broken by midnight prayers.

Construction superintendent Jim Wiener says his time with the Sisters, intimidating at first, has left an indelible mark. “The Sisters are phenomenal. They’re hard-working and dedicated. They show up on time. They’re quiet. They work real hard and they complete their task,” said Wiener.

But, it’s the Lord’s work that comes first, last and always for the Sisters of the mountain. - source

read more:

-  story and video on local news KGET Bakersfield, CA 

-  norbertine sisters website

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5.

                                                     - Botticelli, Inferno, Canto XVIII - source

This week Jonathan Jones wrote a post on the Guardian’s blog, “From Dante to Dan Brown; How artists have portrayed Dante’s Divine Comedy.”  The release of Brown’s latest book, based on the Inferno by the medieval Italian poet, has shone a spotlight on all things Dante, in this case the ways the Divine Comedy has been illustrated over the years.  Jones gives examples of various artists who have illustrated Dante’s epic poetic trilogy, and particularly singles out the work of Botticelli:

When Botticelli set out to illustrate Dante in Florence in the late 15th century, he resisted the lurid imagery the poet may seem to call for. Or rather, while he meticulously records every horror, he uses a calm graphic style that gives his drawings a fresh and direct feel of eyewitness truth. His illustrations are so authoritative that the first time I saw them in an exhibition in Rome, I almost felt tempted to become a Roman Catholic.- source

read:

- the whole post on the Guardian blog

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6.

Have you ever asked the question, “Why can’t we take pictures in art museums?”  If so, check out Art News for an article addressing that exact question, exploring the issues surrounding photography of art by patrons in the age of digital cameras and cell phone photography:

We’re in an age when people take pictures just about everywhere, an act that photography critic Jörg M. Colberg describes as “compulsive looking.” The phenomenon has created a unique set of challenges for art museums, many of which have historically had strict limitations on photography—either for the purpose of protecting light-sensitive works or because of copyright issues. But the ubiquity of digital cameras, along with the irrepressible urge to take pictures, has led many museums to revise their policies in recent years. - source

read the whole thing

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7.

- Germany, 2nd half of the 12th century (London, British Library, MS Arundel 43, f. 80v). source

The British Library has a blog just for its medieval manuscripts collection.  Here’s how the Library describes why it blogs its medieval manuscripts:

Why do we blog? The simple answer is we blog in order to tell you, our readers, about our wonderful manuscripts. We are custodians of world-class collections of ancient, medieval and early modern manuscripts;…

We use this blog to promote our events and exhibitions, most recently our exhibition on Royal manuscripts. We also like to tell you about our various digitisation projects, and to draw your attention to some of our resources, most notably the British Library’s Digitised Manuscripts site and our Catalogue of Illuminated Manuscripts. - source

So there you have it - you can check out the blog posts, and then explore the online manuscripts of one of the finest collections of medieval manuscripts in the world.

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Check out lots more Quick Takes, hosted by Jen of Conversion Diary.

Tuesday Tour: Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh

After a brief hiatus, this week the Tuesday tour is back, continuing with the monastery theme we’ve been exploring in 2013.  Today’s tour takes us to Edinburgh, Scotland and the ruined remains of the medieval Holyrood Abbey.

Holyrood Abbey was founded by King David 1 in 1128, legend has it, as an act of thanksgiving after the king had a vision on Holy Cross Day.  While hunting in the forests east of Edinburgh the king was thrown from his horse when it was spooked by the appearance of a hart.  Although King David was in danger of being gored by the animal, he was saved when a cross appeared between the antlers of the hart.  The word “holyrood” is an ancient term meaning holy cross.

The abbey was built around 1195-1230 for the Augustinian canons who came from the already-established nearby abbey of St. Andrews.

In time the abbey guesthouse became a royal residence and was periodically enlarged.  It stands now, in immaculate condition, as Holyroodhouse Palace, where the Queen of England and the royal family is still in residence on occasion. 

The abbey church suffered waves of destruction in the 16th century wake of the Reformation and is now in ruins, the decline hastened by the loss of its roof in the 18th century.

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 I found it jarring to leave the splendor of the palace tour and step out into the spectacular ruins which share a wall with the palace.  The picture above shows the ruins of the abbey church attached to the well-maintained wall of the palace.

The ruined nave of the abbey church, above.

Interestingly, the church once housed a significant relic very much in keeping with its name:

The abbey church was given a fragment of the True Cross by David’s mother, St. Margaret, which came from Waltham Abbey. The relic was known thereafter as the Black Rood of Scotland. At the battle of Neville’s Cross in 1346, the relic fell into the hands of the English, and was placed in Durham Cathedral. It later disappeared during the Reformation. - source

Note how each of the capitals of the columns above is unique in design.

read more:

-  “Holyrood Abbey, Edinburgh” on the site sacred-destinations.com

-  “Holyrood Abbey; the disappearance of a monastery” available in pdf from Proceedings of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland 128 (1998) from following a link, here.   Here’s the abstract:

“Abstract: Holyrood Abbey was one of the major monasteries of Scotland. Its spiritual function, the celebration of Mass and the spiritual office, stopped with the Reformation parliament of 1560, but the existing Augustinian community remained in place, each canon having a legal right to residence with the monastery and a pension. This paper examines the documentation and archaeological evidence for the structural form of the Abbey over the Reformation period, its relationship with the expanding royal palace within its precinct, and the adaptation of the Abbey church to secular use.”.

Quick Takes: Finds of all kinds

For this week’s Quick Takes the emphasis is on finds, big and small.

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A newly-discovered miniature portrait of Queen Elizabeth 1, found in a house clearance sale and acquired at auction by the National Portrait Gallery in London is going on display in London this Fall:

The piece, which was bought by the NPG for £329,000 at auction last year, will be exhibited as part of a major show, Elizabeth I and Her People, from 10 October 2013.

The portrait is a reworking of the classical story of the Judgment of Paris upon the goddesses of marriage, war and love. The Queen is presented in the guise of Paris, representing both judge and winner, retaining for herself the prize of the golden apple. - source

more:

The Independent ,

- BBC story (includes video clip)

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2.

Did you know that there’s a webcam at the tomb of St. Francis in Italy?  So just in case you can’t see the tomb in person, you can visit virtually.  As an added bonus you can submit your prayer intent via email and the friars will pray for you.

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I was very excited to find this week that 370 titles of publications of the Metropolitan Museum of Art are fully available online, and you can also download them as PDF files for free!  All 370 are listed and described here. These titles are out of print and many of them are extremely expensive on the used-book market.  Subjects range from costume to manuscripts to painting to sculpture, from every era and corner of the world.

Some examples that caught my eye:

The Art of Medieval Spain, A.D. 500–1200
The Metropolitan Museum of Art
(1993)

 

The Cloisters Cross: Its Art and Meaning
Parker, Elizabeth C., and Charles T. Little
(1994)

 

There are many many more!

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4.

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The Tate Britain museum is finishing a major re-hang of its art collection - in strict chronological order rather than by art historical movements or thematic (its previous arrangement) - so its patrons can find the historical connections among the works displayed.  The museum will re-open to the public on May 13:

The re-hang has coincided with the near completion of a long-term refurbishment of the building (the front entrance won’t reopen until November) which allows the gallery to be shaped into an outer ring of 29 galleries – containing the permanent collection – and eight inner areas, focusing on individual artists, works or subjects, that will be changed every spring and autumn. Designated space has also been made for the museum’s major bequests of work by Turner, Blake and Henry Moore.

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While the new Tate chronology runs strictly from the 1500s to today, the layout of the museum will allow visitors to dip into areas as they please. “It’s all part of this lighter touch that lets people choose more what they look at and how they think about it,” says [Chris] Stephens [curator of modern British art and head of displays at Tate Britain]. “Art seems to be the one domain where we still hang on to academic and historical constructs as a necessary way of it being appreciated.” He says that people are not required to know the history of literature and movements before taking a book out of the library, or require knowledge of kitchen sink realism before going to the cinema. “We still have all the historical information available, in many formats, if people want it. But whether it is useful or not, you don’t need to know it to appreciate the pictures. Your response is as valid as our knowledge, and this re-hang presents a sort of release for the artist and their work from this encumbrance of academic protocols. Interestingly, some of the people I’ve encountered who have found it hardest to get their heads round are other curators and historians. But I think the public are going to be fine.” - source

As Penelope Curtis, the Director of the Tate, explains:

A key strength for Tate Britain is that the richness of the collection means that the lens (focused on Britain) is not overly narrow. Chronology has been used as a more neutral method of selection, and by using it as a kind of search tool we have produced what we hope will be a combination of the works that viewers would expect to see, alongside those that they would not.

Such juxtapositions and mixing of genres and styles, of early and late works can be revealing in various ways. This kind of chronological hang is more unusual, as it is properly chronological, in the sense that it follows real time rather than art historical time. Our key aim here was to use chronology as the tool with which curators would make their selection, and then to set it to one side once we were in the gallery, as and when the aesthetic of the hang demanded it.

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I think of the viewer as a kind of time traveller, who will alternate between the ambulant and the still, the long view and the close focus, looking and learning. Most of all I would like to think that this more holistic approach will encourage visitors to get to feel the continuities and to see the relationship of old and new as something to celebrate.

more:

- Guardian article,

- Penelope Curtis, “Time is right to rethink the chronological hang”, in the Art Newspaper

- article in the Daily Mail with several photos

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5.

Staying in the United Kingdom for the next take:

A competition is being held to find the top 10 most beautiful Christian churches built in the past 60 years there:

The Top 10 best churches competition is being held to mark the 60th anniversary of the National Churches Trust. Since 1953 the Trust has provided over 12,000 grants and loans worth £85 million to help fund the repair and modernisation of Christian places of worship.

Claire Walker, Chief Executive of the National Churches Trust said: “As a nation we are rightly proud of our magnificent heritage of historic churches. But there are also many exciting churches which have been built in the last 60 years designed for the changing nature of religious liturgy and practice which reflects modern architecture and design. The challenge of helping people catch a glimpse of heaven has always produced highly creative and imaginative architecture. It will be exciting to discover the best examples of modern church architecture and honour those responsible through the‘ National Churches Trust Diamond Jubilee Architecture’ awards.” - source

more:

Independent Catholic News article

National Churches Trust www.nationalchurchestrust.org

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6.

Here’s an app find for your iPhone or Android device: Wake Up to the Creed app by Little iApps. Available on iTunes and Google Play lets you wake up to a recitation of the creed.  Here’s the app description:

Wake up to the Nicene Creed every morning! During the Year of Faith in 2012-13, the Holy
Father Pope Benedict XVI recommended that every Catholic pray the Nicene Creed daily. The
Nicene Creed was formally established at the Council of Nicea in AD 325. For nearly 1700
years, Catholic Christians have lived and died for these powerful words!

We pray the Creed together every Sunday at Mass, and now you can make it part of your daily
prayer life. This app includes:

- An alarm clock with beautiful chiming bells
- Several reverent readings of the Creed – follow along, or simply listen and enjoy
- Readings with or without background music
- English, Spanish, French, Polish and even Latin! - source

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7.

While while the Vatican was cleaning a fresco from 1494, some background images were revealed that might just be the first European images of Native Americans:

A detail of a fresco by the Renaissance artist Pinturicchio, discovered during restoration work in the Vatican Museums, depicts men dressed only in feathered headdresses who appear to be dancing, and another on horseback.

The painting was completed in 1494, shortly after Christopher Columbus returned from the New World with a detailed description of natives who painted themselves, danced and gave gifts of parrots.

For hundreds of years, the frescoed figures were hiding in plain sight – sort of. They are part of the background in a lunette fresco titled “The Resurrection,” noted for its depiction of Pope Alexander VI, the infamous Rodrigo Borgia, who was elected in 1492.

The detail was obscured by centuries of soot and grime, and came to life only recently when the fresco underwent a careful cleaning by Museum experts. - source

more:

On John Thavis’ post

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For more quick takes visit Conversion Diary.

Ascension Thursday

                                                       - Lorenzo Monaco, Ascension, c1410

Today, Thursday May 9, 40 days after the Resurrection, is the traditional day for the celebration of the Feast of the Ascension.  The ecclesiastical provinces of Boston, Hartford, New York, Newark, Philadelphia, and Omaha will follow tradition and celebrate the feast today, but in the rest of the United States the feast will be observed this coming Sunday, May 12.

Luke wrote two accounts of this event.  His gospel account says:

50 Then he led them out as far as Bethany, and lifting up his hands he blessed them.

51 While he blessed them, he parted from them, and was carried up into heaven.

52 And they returned to Jerusalem with great joy,

53 and were continually in the temple blessing God.   -Luke 24:50-53

In his second book, The Acts of the Apostles, Luke writes:

9. he was taken up before their very eyes, and a cloud hid him from their sight.

10 They were looking intently up into the sky as he was going, when suddenly two men dressed in white stood beside them.

11 “Men of Galilee,” they said, “why do you stand here looking into the sky? This same Jesus, who has been taken from you into heaven, will come back in the same way you have seen him go into heaven.” - Acts 1: 9-11

Here are some links for the Feast of the Ascension:

- images of the Ascension

- the Ascension and Christ’s Feet

- Jimmy Akins on “Seven Things Pope Francis wants you to know about the Ascension”

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Below is a painting of the Ascension by Hans Memling.  It’s one of the “feet” paintings that I wrote about here; Christ has ascended into the cloud to the point where his feet are all are still visible.

Quick Takes: Bells and more

Some weeks my Quick Takes fit neatly into a theme (like last week’s icon quick takes), but other weeks, like the post you’re reading now, there’s no unifying subject, just a collection of links that I found interesting:

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The famous medieval cathedral of Notre Dame in Paris has been stuck with inferior bells for the most recent few centuries, but no longer bears this burden.  In time for her 850th birthday this year the cathedral has received lovely new bells:

Despite its glamour and celebrity, Notre Dame has been saddled with inferior bells since the French Revolution took down the cathedral’s 20 bells in 1791 and 1792, melted 19 of them down to make cannon. Only one survived the Terror: Emmanuel, the great 13-ton bourdon (the lowest and largest of the bells) in the South Tower.

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Emmanuel is considered one of the greatest bells in Europe, but … the four bells Napoleon III had made and installed in the North Tower in 1856 to commemorate the baptism of his son and replace the ones lost during the Revolution, were considered some of the worst.

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The new bells, made using medieval methods like pouring bronze into clay, horse manure and horsehair moulds, are the same weight and diameter as ones destroyed in the Revolution. They ring the same notes but in a lower tone. The idea is to recreate the richness and harmonies of the pre-Revolutionary sound without slavish imitation. The eight smaller bells made by Cornille-Havard are named Gabriel (after the archangel), Anne-Geneviève (after the mother of Mary and Saint Geneviève, patron saint of Paris), Denis (after the saint, first bishop of Paris), Marcel (after the saint, ninth bishop of Paris), Étienne (after the first cathedral church of Paris which was named after Saint Steven, the first martyr), Benoît-Joseph (after recently retired Pope Benedict XVI) Maurice (after the bishop of Paris who laid the cornerstone of Notre Dame in 1163) and Jean-Marie (after Cardinal Jean-Marie Lustiger, archbishop of Paris from 1981 to 2005). They have all been installed in the North Tower.

The ninth and largest bell was made by the Royal Eijsbouts Bell Foundry in The Netherlands. Named Marie after the mother of Jesus and its predecessor, the second largest of Notre Dame’s bells which rang low and proud from 1378 to 1792, this bell has been hung next to Emmanuel in the South Tower. - source

Here’s a video from Palm Sunday 2013 that shows the ringing of the new bells.  The video is long; starting at 58:12 you can hear the bells all ringing together, first Emmanuel, then Marie, then the other 8 smaller bells:

read more:

The History Blog: Notre Dame gets new bells for her 850th birthday (including video of the new bells ringing)

article in Turkish Weekly

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The National Gallery of Art, London’s youtube playlist “Paintings in Focus” has some fascinating videos about paintings in the Museum’s collection.  The videos range from 1 to 5 minutes in length.

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 - Elevation of the Eucharist, detail from the Della Rovere Missal
Italy, Rome, ca. 1485–90. source

The Morgan Library & Museum in New York has an extensive collection of illuminated medieval manuscripts, and is well worth a visit if you’re in Manhattan, especially this summer, because the museum is hosting an exhibit “Illuminating Faith: The Eucharist in Medieval Life and Art,” May 17 through September 2, 2013:

For medieval Christians, the Eucharist (the sacrament of Communion) was not only at the heart of the Mass—but its presence and symbolism also wielded enormous influence over cultural and civic life. Featuring more than sixty-five exquisitely illuminated manuscripts, Illuminating Faith offers glimpses into medieval culture, and explores the ways in which artists of the period depicted the celebration of the sacrament and its powerful hold on society.

The exhibition presents some of the Morgan’s finest works, including the Hours of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese, one of the greatest of all Books of Hours; the exquisite Preparation for Mass of Pope Leo X, which remained at the Vatican until it was looted by Napoleon’s troops in 1798; a private prayer book commissioned by Anne de Bretagne, queen of France, for her son the dauphin, Charles-Orland; and a number of rarely-exhibited Missals. Also on display will be objects used in medieval Eucharistic rituals, such as a chalice, ciborium, pax, altar card, and monstrances. - source

There will not be an exhibition catalog for this show, unfortunately.

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David Clayton, an icon painter, author, artist in residence and lecturer in the liberal arts at Thomas More College in New Hampshire, has written a post on his blog called “Franciscan Liturgical Art; an inspiration for rebuilding the church today.” He uses as his examples the art found in the Basilicas of St. Francis in Assisi Italy:

If we look at the interiors of the churches, for example, notice how much is adorned with geometric patterned art. This suggests to me an deep awareness of the sources of the symbolism that generates such geometry, predominantly scripture and the cosmos. One of the commonly held ideas of Franciscan spirituality is that of an interest in and love of the beauty of the natural world that St Francis inspired. Whatever the truth of this, I would say that as a general principle one could not create such ‘cosmic’ art unless one was able to read the cosmos symbolically and had a deep understanding of how that symbolism and the beauty of the cosmos points us to something greater, to the rhythms of the heavenly liturgy and ultimately to God. - source

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Sacred Stitches - an exhibit of ecclesiastical textiles from the Rothschild collection - is on display at Waddesdon Manor, in England. A book (pictured above) on the subject has been published:

Sacred Stitches [book] accompanies an exhibition that will assemble together for the first time fragments of opulent and unique ecclesiastical textiles drawn from the stored collections at Waddesdon Manor, the astonishing Renaissance-style château that is one of the rare survivors of the splendour of the ‘goût Rothschild’. Dating from c. 1400 to the late 1700s, the textiles were acquired by several members of the Rothschild family, the greatest collectors of the 19th century, who sought the highest quality of workmanship with a keen sense of historical importance.

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6.

Here’s an article about the growing trend in Turkey to turn or return historic churches into mosques, covering the centuries-old Christian art in the process.

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For those of you who have an iPhone or iPad, there’s a new app, Art/y/fact.xn (pronounced “Artifact, Christian”), for exploring the connection between religion and art.  The app was developed by Dr. Eileen Daily, Program Director of the Master of Arts in Religious Education at the Institute of Pastoral Studies at Loyola University Chicago.  Here’s the app’s description:

art/y/fact.Xn is a tool for interpreting and meditating with Christian art. What is the difference between one painting of the Crucifixion and another? Users will be able to figure this out for themselves with the aid of this app. Christian artworks are found in museums, churches, books, magazines and web sites but often users are at a loss to understand the rich meanings of these works. The app offers interpretive tools for artworks about Jesus, Mary, other figures and stories from the Bible, Saints, Angels and Demons. The 100+ articles about themes common in Christian art include Basic Info, a list of What to Look For, and questions that guide General, Personal, and Historical Interpretations of the artworks. In addition, the app provides tools from the worlds of art, history, and theology to help the user dig deeper into the meaning of an artwork. Because a user sometimes wants an inner experience of Christian art, the app also contains six audio meditations. The user selects an artwork to meditate with, plugs in their earbuds, and chooses a meditation that connects to their experience of the artwork chosen. The app is for Christians and anyone else who wants a richer experience of Medieval, Rennaissance, and Baroque art, or the Christian art of any other period. - source

read more:

article on the Servant Leader blog

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Jen of Conversion Diary hosts Quick Takes Friday each week; head over to her post to see Quick Takes from bloggers near and far.

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Quick Takes: Icons and More Icons!

For this week’s Quick Takes, I’m sharing some fascinating links about icons. 

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- image from the artist’s facebook page, via the Orthodox Arts Journal, here

The Orthodox Arts Journal recently featured some astonishingly beautiful miniature icons painted by Evgeny Baranov, a Russian iconographer and jeweler.  I’ve included one of the icons above; click over to the post to see more of the miniature icons, including one stunning sequence of a Virgin and Child icon in various stages of completion.

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2.

                                                    -Photograph: Russian Airborne Force

The Russian army is introducing a church in a box, complete with icons: the mobile Orthodox church can be flown into a location as a flatpack; it is then opened up and functions as a place of worship.  To accompany the church, some Russian priests are receiving parachute training.  Here’s what the Guardian says:

The church could be mistaken for a standard-issue army cabin, taking the form of a khaki-coloured shed on wheels, were it not for the cladding of gilded icons and the majestic onion dome spire sprouting from its rooftop. The mobile prayer room has also been fitted with a “life-sustaining module”, which includes a diesel power source, an air-conditioning unit and a fridge, reported Russia Today.

The chapel is flown in as a kit of parts, delivered via the kind of airborne platform usually used to carry armoured vehicles and other heavy military equipment, and is then assembled on the ground. Within, the gilded interior incorporates crucifixes, bells and icons, as well as a mini theatre – which can be extended sideways with additional wings, thus forming the cross-shaped plan of an Orthodox church. - source

read more:

Russia Today post

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Here’s an article about the Bethlehem Icon Centre, which was established in Bethlehem by a British iconographer Ian Knowles to teach icon painting to natives of the Holy Land.  As Knowles explains:

The Holy Land was, I believe, the place where Christianity first began to shape its own culture. Jerusalem, Bethlehem, the Holy Land… these take us to the heart of the Christian revelation, the places where the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, but which was also, for the 300 yrs between 324AD and 622AD, the spiritual heart of the Roman/Byzantine Empire. My own research suggests that a truly Christian liturgical art came to birth in the Holy Land during the 6^th century when Palestine was the jewel in the Byzantine crown. For a brief couple of hundred years Christians shaped and ruled and populated the Holy Land, and literally it blossomed. …

The situation Christians live in now couldn’t be any more different. Arab Christians are beleaguered; the more able and talented have left,  while the ranks of the senior clergy is almost entirely occupied by foreigners, the monasteries are largely empty and the Christian holy sites are in danger of becoming a sort of Christian theme park. …Bethlehem is, for the first time since the Byzantine era, a city where Christians are a minority. …

Iconography is one lingering strand of that ancient culture that still holds on, just; the vast majority of Arab Christians are either Greek Orthodox or Greek Catholics, where of course iconography is still an intrinsic part of Christian worship. However, as one young Arab Orthodox woman explained to me, they seem part of a foreign Greek or Russian culture, not something that really belongs to the Arab Christians themselves. Furthermore, there are almost no native Arab iconographers of any merit. …

[M]ost local Christians who seek to work as iconographers are left in dire poverty, able only to paint with the poorest materials and with such speed as the quality of the work is mediocre at best. Nor can they afford proper training. It’s a vicious cycle which has debased iconography and added yet another layer of injustice to lives already desperate after decades of occupation.

In response Knowles has set up a school with rigorous standards, and a three-year program so that the students will develop the expertise to become professional painters, able to support their families by their work.  The first class began in August of 2012, with ten students of Catholic and Orthodox faiths.  Knowles expresses his hope for the school:

Perhaps it might just give heart to some of the local Christians, who live just a few miles from the tomb of St John Damascene at St Sabba’s monastery, so that some of their young people will hang on and dig deep to renew their culture and ensure that this most precious art, which belongs to the Holy more than anywhere, can  once again flourish from the sources of the faith ‘once delivered to the apostles’. And then, in turn, the Christian presence of the Holy Land won’t loose its most ancient witnesses, its living stones, but instead find the strength to endure until the end while being a beacon of light and hope to a world which is rapidly losing its faith in Christ.

Here’s the whole article, on the Orthodox Arts Journal.

You can find more information about the Bethlehem Icon Centre and its Icon School at www.bethlehemiconschool.org and it has a page on Facebook.

To see Ian Knowle’s own iconography, see his website:   www.eliasicons.co.uk

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This video about icon painter Archimandrite Zinon is in Russian, with no subtitles, but it’s still fascinating to watch:

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The work of British icon painter Peter Murphy illustrates the development of icons as a living tradition.  His new icon of the Trinity (shown as the Three Angels who visited Abraham in the Old Testament) is painted in the style of the St. Alban’s Psalter, a Western illuminated manuscript of the 12th century.  See the icon and read more in this post on the New Liturgical Movement site.

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The newest addition to my bookshelf is a new book by Aidan Hart, “Techniques of Icon and Wall Painting” and I am amazed by the extensive range and volume of information that it contains.  The Orthodox Arts Journal observes that the book:

is being hailed as the most comprehensive book to date on practicing the art of Iconography.  At 450 pages, with 460 paintings, 150 drawings and covering everything from theology and design to gilding and varnishing, it is a prized possession for anyone interested in the traditional arts.

One chapter “Designing Icons” is being excerpted in the Orthodox Arts Journal - Part Nine is here (and includes links to the previous eight installments

You can find more details about the book on Aidan’s website. 

I ordered the book online from: Liturgy Training Publications and it arrived in a matter of days.

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above:  neo-Coptic icons  at the Coptic Cathedral of St George at Stevenage in England - source

Here are some modern English Coptic Icons, featured on New Liturgical Movement:

English-Egyptian icon painter called Fadi Mikhail. He trained at the Slade art school in London and then did an apprenticeship with an icon painter in California, called Isaac Fanous. His website is here.

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Jen of Conversion Diary hosts Quick Takes Friday each week; head over to her post to see Quick Takes from bloggers near and far.

For more Quick Takes,

Quick Takes: Triumph, Heritage, Hidden Art, and more

It has been a brutal and emotional experience to follow the news this week.  I posted a little meditation on Tuesday, and today I’m taking the distraction route.  In these quick Takes I tried to include bits that are inspirational, uplifting, interesting, or beautiful.

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1.

Last week the President awarded the Medal of Honor posthumously to Father Emil Kapaun .  His life and actions during the Korean War and in a Korean prisoner of war camp were inspirational and heroic.  I was especially struck by “art” part of the story: the 4-foot-high crucifix carried by Father Kapaun’s fellow prisioners when they were released from the POW camp.

source

The crucifix was hand carved in honor of the Catholic priest by a Jewish prisoner Gerald Fink.  Amazingly,  Fink did not personally know the chaplain, having arrived at the camp after Fr. Kapaun’s had died:

Months after Father Kapaun died, a Jewish POW named Gerald Fink, captured after Kapaun’s death, began hand-carving a four-foot crucifix to honor the priest who was so beloved in the camp. It took months, and later cost Fink mistreatment at the hands of Communist guards; the cross is now on display at Kapaun Mt. Carmel High School. - source

Fink carved the crucifix using implements that he fashioned from the metal arches of his military-issued shoes. 

photos here:

- The Wichita Eagle: Soldiers keep Kapaun’s memory alive - slideshow with 7 images of the soldiers and the crucifix

- The Denver post has many photos including color photos of the cross and the handmade implements used to carve it:

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Yesterday, April 18, was World Heritage Day.  According to last year’s information:

18 April is celebrated all over the world by a wide range of organisations and many ICOMOS National and International Scientific Committees. Events include scientific conferences and symposia, exhibitions, photography competitions, excursions, press conferences, the awarding of prizes, releasing press releases, publishing magazine articles and projecting films, among others. - source

While I can’t point you to any of those events, it’s always fascinating to investigate the various sites designated as “World Heritage Sites” - in person is nice, but it’s easy to vicariously explore online.  Here is the list of UNESCO world Heritage Sites, with links to descriptions and photos.

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One of my Quick Takes from April 2013 talked about a Tudor portait that was painted over another printing.  Here are three more tales of what’s hidden under paintings:

- source

In an extensive online article, “The hidden Leonardo,” the National Gallery of London explores, with text and illustrations, its discovery of underdrawing done by Leonardo beneath his famous masterpiece, The Virgin of the Rocks:

When curators and conservators examined Leonardo’s The Virgin of the Rocks, they hoped to find an underdrawing. What they did not expect to find was a completely different design, hidden under the paint.

Conservators at the Gallery used a technique called infrared reflectography to look through the layers of paint and reveal details of the preliminary drawings underneath. - source

read:

- the extensive article (in 5 pages on the museum site)

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New testing has revealed that underneath a 19th century fresco in the Louvre there might be another fresco, from ancient Rome:

Artists, including some of the great masters, sometimes re-used canvases, wiping out the initial image or covered old paintings with new works. They often did this in order to avoid the expense of buying a new canvas or to enhance colors and shapes in a prior composition. Frescoes likewise got a refresh, especially when the originals faded, owners tired of the image on the wall or property changed hands.

The scientists turned to terahertz technology when suspicions surfaced that a hidden image might lie beneath the brushstrokes of a precious 19th century fresco, Trois homes armés de lances, in the Louvre’s Campana collection. Giampietro Campana was an Italian art collector in the 1800s whose treasures are now on display in museums around the world. When Campana acquired a work of art, he sometimes restored damaged parts or reworked the original. Art historians believe that Campana painted Trois homes armés de lances after the fresco was removed from its original wall in Italy and entered his collection.

Jackson said that Campana’s painting in itself is valuable, and the terahertz revelations may have added value by showing that an authentic Roman fresco lies under it. - source

Scientists investigated the fresco using terahertz rays, the same technology behind the full-body security scans employed by airports.  No other investigative technique revealed the underpainting, so to potential for discoveries in the art world is huge:

Says J. Biance Jackson, PhD, who reported on the project:

“No previous imaging technique, including almost half a dozen commonly used to detect hidden images below paintings, forged signatures of artists and other information not visible on the surface has revealed a lost image in this fresco,” Jackson said. “This opens to door to wider use of the technology in the world of art, and we also used the method to study a Russian religious icon and the walls of a mud hut in one of humanity’s first settlements in what was ancient Turkey.” - source

read:

- the whole article at Science Daily, which includes pictures

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5.

The Prado museum in Madrid has restored a rare early 15th century French panel painting of the Agony in the Garden (pictured above), and in the process discovered and revealed the original rare portrait of Louis I, Duke of Orleans, which was had been obscured.  A private owner brought the painting to the museum in 2011 and in the course of investigation x-rays revealed two figures in the lower left corner who had been overpainted: a donor and a patron. 

The patron was fairly easily identified as Saint Agnes - signified by her accompanying lamb.  The HIstory Blog tells the fascinating story of the restoration and identification of the donor figure:

Once liberated from their brown prison, the figures were revealed in all their brilliant glory. The colors were far brighter and richer than the colors on the saints and Jesus. The Donor’s scroll was found to be inscribed with the first words of the Psalm 50, aka the Miserere mei. The decorations on the sleeves turned out to be gold nettle leaves and they looked like appliqué rather than a fabric print.

The nettles were the key to the identification of Louis of Orléans. The nettle leaf was one of the duke’s emblems, one he particularly favored from 1399 until his death in 1407. Inventories of his possessions have survived and the 1403 inventory list “LXV feuilles d’or en façon d’orties,” meaning 65 gold leaves in the shape of nettles. He would have used these to decorate his clothes, like the dramatic fur-lined batwing houppelande the Donor wears in the painting. - source

more:

- the Prado’s site has subtitled videos, here.

- see the article and video at the Art History News blog

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6.

- Barocci, detail from Immaculate Conception, c. 1574. source

An exhibit at The National Gallery of Art, London highlights the artist Federico Barocci and his influence on his contemporaries.  The Herald, a British Catholic Newspaper, says that Barocci’s paintings show the glory of the Counter Reformation:

There are several reasons why one should go to the Barocci exhibition currently on at the National Gallery.

First of all, it is the opportunity of a lifetime to get to grips with this artist. Only two of his works have permanent homes in Britain: this exhibition gathers works from all four corners of the globe, so seeing such a considerable body of the artist’s work all in one place is not something that is likely to recur any time soon. The curators have assembled several canvases and the preparatory drawings too, so that enables us to see how the artist worked. …

The second reason to go is because Federico Barocci is an artist of whom – be honest – you have never heard, and a good artist too. Every now and then there is an attempt to claim that some half forgotten painter is a neglected genius, but in this case it is probably true. - source

read:

- the National Gallery’s page - Barocci: Brilliance and Grace, with slides, video and other resources

-the whole article at the Catholic Herald

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7.

- source

Here’s something that might be fun for you or your family: The National Trust in Great Britain is sponsoring an “I like Rembrandt” initiative:

Share your photos and doodles with us on social media, and we might put them into our bigger picture to create our very own Rembrandt. - source

You can send your original art via twitter or facebook to be part of the project.

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For more Quick Takes, visit this week’s host blog, Camp Patton.

Light in the Darkness - Hope and the Unspeakable

A friend sent me an email today, saying:

I found these thoughts from a Franciscan friar and Thomas Merton moving and insightful.  I think they are important b/c they remind us that Christianity is the only religion whose salvific moment happened in the face of the Uspeakable (evil).  God has confronted that evil and won.  Good to cling to that in the midst of awful [events like the bombing at the Boston Marathon this week]

Then my friend enclosed a passage from a piece by Kathryn Jean Lopez entitled “How Do We Respond? How Do We Live?”:

Father Daniel P. Horan, a Franciscan friar in Boston, recalls the words of Thomas Merton about the “unspeakable” and eternal hope:

It is the void that contradicts everything that is spoken even before the words are said… . It is the emptiness of “the end.” Not necessarily the end of the world, but a theological point of no return, a climax of absolute finality in refusal, in equivocation, in disorder, in absurdity, which can be broken open again to truth only by miracle, by the coming of God … for Christian hope begins where every other hope stands frozen stiff before the face of the Unspeakable [emphasis mine](4-5).

Father Horan reflects:

I thought of Merton yesterday because there are times when our encounter with something so terrible and terrifying pushes us to the edges of the effable, leaving us unable to speak. Such experiences of sin and violence in our world are concrete experiences of The Unspeakable.

[ - read Lopez’s entire piece]

[ - read Father Daniel Horan’s reflection]

May God send his angels to comfort us as he did when His Son faced the world’s Unspeakable evil in the Garden of Gethsemane.

Paolo Veronese. Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane. 1583-84. Oil on canvas, 108 x 180 cm. Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan

Quick Takes: Rijksmuseum edition

Back when I was an art history major in college, my passion was Northern European art of the Renaissance and Reformation.  I dreamed of visiting the Rijksmuseum - the epicenter of Dutch art - some day.  That day finally arrived with a 2010 trip that included Amsterdam, but when I arrived in the city I found that the Rijksmuseum was closed for construction.  You can see the scaffolding and cranes in my photo, above.  We were able to visit one little wing with the “greatest hits” of the museum’s collection all grouped together.   So I saw some Rembrandts, Hals, and Vermeers - all lovely - but there were many other paintings that sadly weren’t accessible.

In fact, the construction was so extensive, and ran into so many snags, that the museum was closed for a total of 10 years!  The building was restored and revamped and the displays reimagined, and finally the grand re-opening is tomorrow, April 13, 2013.

I couldn’t be more excited, even though I’m not likely to return to Amsterdam in the foreseeable future.  In honor of the gala opening of the restored Rijksmuseum today’s Quick Takes are all related to the museum.

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there are a lot of amazing paintings in the Rijksmuseum, but the brightest jewel of the collection is Rembrandt’s Night Watch.  The video below might be the most amazing flash mob ever staged - a special Night Watch flash mob to promote the re-opening of the Rijksmuseum:

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Here’s the Night Watch painting itself hanging in glory in its restored original gallery:

The Night Watch Gallery. Photo credit: Iwan Baan. Image courtesy of Rijksmuseum

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The Rijksmuseum has, in many ways, been restored to its original role as a kind of secular cathedral dedicated to Dutch history and culture.  The History Blog makes the case:

On Saturday Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands will preside over the official opening. Twelve fanfares, one for every province, will greet the queen who will be given an individual tour of the building. At noon the official ceremony will take place in front of the main doors. After the ribbon-cutting, the public will be allowed admission free of charge until midnight. To ensure a steady flow of traffic, visitors on opening day will be taken on guided tours of the collection highlights.

The highlight of the highlights is now and always has been Rembrandt’s The Night Watch. It was returned to its original position at the end of the Gallery of Honor, the only painting that will be on display in the same place architect Pierre Cuypers placed it when the Rijksmuseum first opened in 1885. The reason for this is that the building was basically designed around The Night Watch. It is framed by the architecture of the hall which leads the visitor to it. Rijksmuseum director Wim Pijbes noted at the press preview that “The Gallery of Honor is a kind of basilica that ends not with a Christian display, but a civilian display: Rembrandt’s Night Watch.” 

That was Cuypers’ vision for the museum: a secular cathedral for the arts with The Night Watch, this huge baroque 12-by-15-foot masterpiece celebrating not religious figures or great historical events, but rather Dutch burghers in a volunteer civic militia, as its high altar in the exact center of the museum. - source

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Here’s the official video of the renovation and reopening:

The New Rijksmuseum from Proudfoot on Vimeo.

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The Art Newspaper gives details in its story, Dutch History in Full Color:

When Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands cuts the ribbon at the New Rijksmuseum on 13 April, it will be one of her last official functions before she abdicates at the end of the month. The queen, an amateur sculptor, loves art, so she must have shared the country’s frustration that the main building of the Dutch national museum of art and history has been closed for a decade. Expectations are high for the Rijks­museum to re-emerge as one of the world’s top half-dozen museums.

The museum has 80 galleries, covering 800 years of Dutch culture, so redisplaying the collection has been a complex logistical operation. Only 8,000 of its one million objects are going on show (the same number as before the museum closed), but many will be different and, with 10% additional gallery area, the exhibits will have more space. Only one work—Rembrandt’s Night Watch, 1642—is going back to its original spot.

Taco Dibbits, the head of collections, admits that the curators tend to want to present too much, and that the process of selecting the works has been ruthless. “You have to kill off some of your beautiful darlings,” he says. “Each object has a story, and by telling the story of each object, you get a cultural history of the Netherlands.”

What is revolutionary for the Rijks­museum is that the displays, spread over four floors, will show paintings, sculptures, decorative art and historical objects together, not in separate sections of the building. Wim Pijbes, the museum’s general director, describes the result as a “three-dimensional timeline”.

…
The aims of the project have been to restore the ornate 1885 interiors by Pierre Cuypers, upgrade environmental conditions and security, modernise the displays, add an Asian pavilion, improve the conservation workshops and improve public facilities. - source

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more about the Rijksmuseum re-opening:

essay in the Financial Times:

Art History News

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Even if you - like me - aren’t likely to visit the Rijksmuseum in person any time soon, you can still explore the collection in astonishing detail.

In the months before the museum’s re-opening, the Rijksmuseum made 125,000 digital images of its collection available online for free.  Here’s how Art Daily described the initiative:

Rijks Studio invites members of the public to create their own masterpieces by downloading images of artworks or details of artworks in the collection and using them in a creative way. The ultra high-resolution images of works, both famous and less well-known, can be freely downloaded, zoomed in on, shared, added to personal ‘studios’, or manipulated copyright-free. Users can have prints made of entire works of art or details from them. Other suggestions for the use of images include creating material to upholster furniture or wallpaper, or to decorate a car or an iPad cover for example. To celebrate this digital milestone, the Rijksmuseum is asking leading international artists, designers and architects to become pioneers of Rijks Studio by selecting one work from the collection and using it creatively to create a new artwork. These will be released in the run up to the reopening of the museum. The first work to be unveiled, by Droog Design, is a tattoo inspired by a flower painting in the collection called Still life with flowers by Jan Davidszn. de Heem and Rachel Ruysch from the 17th Century. Taco Dibbits, Director of Collections, said: ”The Rijksmuseum is a museum for and of everyone, and with the launch of Rijks Studio we are excited to share the extensive collection with art lovers around the world using the latest digital technology. We created Rijks Studio based on the belief that the collection of the Rijksmuseum belongs to us all. The collection inspires, we want to unleash the artist in everyone.” - source

This Design Week post shows the tattoo, along with a Volkswagen bus and a silk scarf, all bearing images from the Rijksmuseum.

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this week’s Quick Takes are being hosted by Grace of Camp Patton. Please pray for regular host Jen and her sweet baby boy who’s currently being treated in a NICU.  According to Jen, the long-term prognosis is good but the little guy is having some lung problems right now.