The Last Communion of St Jerome

Sandro Botticelli - The Last Communion of St Jerome - c. 1495 - Tempera on panel, 34,5 x 25,4 cm - Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (click photo for larger image)This small panel was intended as a private devotional picture. It was probably commissioned by the wealthy wool merchant Francesco del Pugliese.

The subject of the work is the moment in which St Jerome receives the sacred Host from the hands of his companion, St Eusebius, for the last time before the former's death. The painter has opened one of the walls of the hut and has depicted the events in a bare room covered with wickerwork.

According to apocryphal tradition, the saint died in a monastery close to Bethlehem. The painting, which is designed for the observers spiritual edification, presents an exemplary view of the saint's modest way of life.

Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi, known as Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510) was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th century, when he was rediscovered by the Pre-Raphaelites who stimulated a reappraisal of his work. Although he is now regarded as one of the great painters of the Renaissance, his style echo’s both the medieval and International gothic styles.

You can read more about Botticelli HERE on What About Art?

Did You Know?

The Olympics wasn’t always about abs and doping scandals; art used to be an Olympic event. The founder of the modern Games, the Baron Pierre de Coubertin, was enamored with the idea of the true Olympian being a talented artist and sportsperson. Thanks to him, between 1912 and 1948 medals were given out for sporting-inspired masterpieces of architecture, music, painting, sculpture and literature.

The Archangel Michael

Juan de la Abadia - The Archangel Michael - c. 1490 - Wood, 127 x 78 cm - Museu Nacional d'Art de Catalunya, Barcelona (click photo for larger image)The archangel Michael was, like St. George the dragon-killer, one of the typically warlike saints so greatly approved in the age of chivalry. The Bible tells us that he fought with Satan for the body of Moses and we can read in the Apocalypse how he defeated the dragon with seven heads and ten horns. St. Michael was therefore looked upon as one of the principal patrons of the Church who, having overcome Satan, could protect all innocent souls from the Devil.

This painting illustrates the somewhat provincial style of Juan de la Abadia of Huesca. The heritage of the Trecento can be seen in the delicate, feminine countenance of the saint and the brilliant tints of the wings, but blended with it is the elegance associated with the International Gothic style. The figures are somewhat lifeless and the artist's limited knowledge of anatomy may be seen in his representation of the soul; but the carefully arranged pattern of the floor creates the illusion of space, indicating that the artist was aware of the later developments of Gothic art and was to some extent influenced by early Renaissance art. Despite what some might see as flaws, it’s a beautifull painting.

Juan de la Abadia (active 1470-1490 in Huesca was a Spanish painter in the gothic Spanish-Flemish style. His other known works include Santa Catalina (1490) in the church of la Magdalena de Huesca, now lost, the Saviour from the hermitage of Broto, now at the Museum of Zaragoza and the Santo Domingo in Almudévar (Huesca), after which he was known as the Maestro de Almudévar until identified by the art historian Ricardo del Arco.

James Ensor: Master of the Grotesque

James Ensor - Death and the Masks - 1897 - Oil on canvas - Musée Royal des Beaux-Arts de Liège (click photo for larger image)Artist James Ensor (1860-1949) was a major figure in the Belgian avant-garde of the late nineteenth century and an important precursor to the development of Expressionism in the early twentieth. In both respects he has influenced generations of later artists. 

In the work featured here, Ensor imparts lifelike qualities to the skull of Death in the center of the work featured here, with its chilling grin, and to the masks of the people; the mask becomes the face, and yet it is still a mask that tries to cover up the spiritual hollowness of the bourgeoisie and the decadence of the times. 

The crowded composition suggests that this is a pervasive problem and that the painting is the artist's critique of contemporary society. Ensor had an interest in masks because his mother owned a souvenir shop selling such articles as these papier mache masks worn at carnival time in Belgium. Ensor desired a return to the "pure and natural" local carnivals and festivals of his native Belgium with a view toward creating cultural unity, but realized that tourism, commercialization, and industrialization would prevent that from happening. 

Ensor was also heir to the whole Northern tradition of caricature, the grotesque, and fantasy, as seen in the work of Hieronymus Bosch and even Pieter Bruegel.

Quote of the Day

"I owe you the truth in painting and I will tell it to you” - Paul Cézanne