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Way of Beauty
Hail Mary, full of grace
by Fr. Anthony Giambrone, OP For Maurice Denis (1870–1943), the vocation to create sacred art was clear from his youth. At the age of 15, with a sense of destined conviction, he wrote the following words in his journal: “I have to be a…
Life Reigns over Death
by Fr. Anthony Giambrone, OP Around the turn of the 20th century, a burst of creative energy was transforming the artistic landscape of western civilization in revolutionary ways. In countries such as France and Poland, where both the…
‘Let thy face shine’
Pictured above: Madonna and Child, 1907–08 (tempera on panel) by Marianne Stokes (1855–1927) Mary beheld the face of God in her own arms. When she gazed down upon her child, God looked back at her. What an extraordinary mystery! Countless…
The mystery of the Epiphany
Blasco de Grañén, a Spanish artist from Zaragoza in the kingdom of Aragon, painted Nativity in the 15th century to depict the Magi adoring the Christ Child. Presumably it was created as one panel in a much larger retablo, an elaborate…
The Light of the World
The Nativity of Jesus has been inspiring Christian art since Christian art first began. One of the most primitive Christian images, in fact, dating back to the third century and found in the Catacombs of Priscilla in Rome, is a picture of…
St. Michael, protect us!
The art known as Gothic began in the middle of the 12th century in France. It had nothing whatsoever to do with the Gothic language or the Gothic ethnicity; the name Gothic was first used as an insult by its detractors. The aesthetic ideas…
Jesus to Matthew: ‘Follow me’
Certainly one of the most gifted and original painters of all time, Caravaggio (1571–1610) was also a moral shipwreck of the first order. The dramatic play of shadows that is the characteristic mark of his style somehow reflects the…
Jesus to all of us: ‘Take and eat; this is my body’
In addition to elaborate or even simple processions, one way in which many Catholics have expressed their devotion toward the feast of Corpus Christi is through works of art. If one were to look at Christian art throughout the centuries,…
Heart of love
Few introductions to the history of art recount — and still fewer museum exhibitions today display — the remarkable productions of a movement called Les Ateliers d’art sacré. Unlike so many of the masterpieces that we enjoy today in the…
A triumphant vision of the Church in Rome
"Moses" by Michelangelo in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli in Rome.