Saint Athanasius wrote The Life of Saint Anthony to relay the story of a tortured, yet ever faithful soul; his narrative has inspired generations of artists to interpret it in their own ways, taking inspiration from Anthony’s ability to stay strong in the face of temptation. In my paper, I discuss the work of Martin Schongauer, Hieronymus Bosch, Paul Cezanne, Max Ernst, and Salvador Dali to demonstrate how the interpretation of Saint Anthony changes throughout history. The common thread throughout these works is their central theme of battling demons; for the early Northern Renaissance artists, those demons were the manifestations of sin that would take them to Hell. The Post-Impressionists focused on the temptation of lust. The Surrealists saw themselves in Saint Anthony, as they were preoccupied with psychoanalysis and conquering inner demons.
The Ecstasy St Teresa at Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vitoria was based on the Life of Saint Teresa of Avila by herself, which wrote since 1565. Saint Teresa of Avila was born in 1515 Avila in Spain. Giani Loarenzo Bernini commissioned by Federico Baldissera Bartolomeo Cornaro, and he decorated the shallow space at the santa Maria della Vittoria to create the story of Saint teresa as propaganda of the Counter Reformation. Bernini illustrates Saint Teresa’s vision and its source as if divine revelation. Saint teresa and the Angel is sculpture in white arble represents by as variety of effects including sunlight and gilt wood rays. Bernini used painting, sculpture, architecture, and the natural resource of light to depicts her hallucinatory revelation. Bernini created a sculptured picture of Teresa’s Ecstasy, which was itself originally a mental picture as well as a powerful physical phenomenon.
Completed by Ovid in 8 CE before his exile to Tomis from Rome, Metamorphoses is a mythic history of the world and focuses on the transformations of people to inanimate objects, other humans, and animals. Within the Metamorphoses, there are more than fifty tales of rape in its fifteen books. The rape of Caenis by Neptune is one, and focuses on the transformation from female to male. Roman laws on rape were not defined properly, making the victim blamed as the cause of the rape. In the narrative of Caenis and Nepune, Caenis asks to become a man after the rape to save her pride and stature. To visually interepret this narrative, I used a work by Antonio Tempesta and a sculpture based off an engraving by Johnann Sadeler.
The Book of Judith tells the story of a wise, wealthy widow whose determination to liberate her people from the Assyrian army lead to the decapitation of its leader, Holofernes. Throughout the many of periods of art, the story of Judith beheading Holofernes has been a popular subject among artists. The most captivating moment of the story, which many artists choose as their composition, is the moment in which Judith slays the General. The comparison of two portrayals of the heroin, whose style give an unusual approach to the story, are those by Sandro Botticelli and Gustav Klimt. Each artist chooses to depict a similar moment of the story but each portrayal still captures the heroism of Judith. Botticelli’s Judith carries elegance and poise while contemplating her actions. Klimt’s Judith is a semi-nude woman whose determination in the actions taken is seen in her victorious gaze. Botticelli’s representation is more traditional one while Klimt chooses a modern approach.
Before he became a follower of Christ, Paul was a persecutor of Christians. The story of Paul’s conversion comes from Chapter 9 of the Acts of the Apostles within the New Testament and the language varies based on the source. Some versions state that Paul’s companions could hear the voice of God, while others say that the men could not. In my paper, I compare the “Conversion of Saul” by Michelangelo and “Conversion on the Road to Damascus” by Caravaggio. The works differ in their presentation of the story, Caravaggio’s being a more intimate moment while the viewer gets a sense of the entire narrative from Michelangelo’s fresco. With that being said, both artists are able to convey the importance of salvation and redemption which was an important theme during the reformation of the Protestant church during the 16th century.
Each September the Catholic Church commemorates the day upon which a poor friar received, in ecstasy, the physical manifestation of the marks of the crucifixion of Jesus, also known as the stigmata. In 1263, St. Bonaventure himself a member of the Franciscan order founded by Francis, interviewed those who knew Francis and had witnessed the marks he bore on his hands, feet, and torso. Bonaventure’s description of the momentous event in which Francis was visited by a seraph has inspired artists for centuries and with encouragement from the Catholic church, many have attempted to capture the miraculous moment on canvas. This writer will examine two such versions by Michelangelo Merisi Caravaggio and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo to compare both the differences and similarities in their renderings. While Tiepolo’s portrayal is more traditional and holds closely to the narrative, Caravaggio chose to exclude certain objects as well as the presence of Brother Leo, believed to be the only person who was with Francis when he encountered the seraph. Despite the different way each of these artists chose to present St. Francis receiving the marks he bore until his death, Bonaventure’s narrative does not suffer and both paintings beautifully capture the magnitude of the event.
The myth of the Medusa has many forms and aspects, making it a malleable subject for the artists that depict her. In my paper, I focus on two aspects: the monster, as painted by Rubens in 1617, and the woman, as painted by Alice Dreyfus-Barney in 1892. Both paintings focus on the head of Medusa severed by Perseus, as described in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. However, Dreyfus-Barney’s humanizing approach to the subject of Medusa–going so far as to use her own daughter as the model for Medusa’s face–treats the Medusa as a victim. In contrast, Ruben’s Medusa, hideous and surrounded by worms, characterizes her as a monster.
There is much debate about William Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet” and whether or not the character Ophelia’s death was an accident or a suicide. Ophelia goes mad when she discovers that Hamlet does not plan on marrying her, which implies that they already had sexual relations despite it being taboo for an unmarried woman to do so. Because of Hamlet’s decision, Ophelia’s reputation is doomed to be ruined and she goes insane. While having a fit caused by her mental illness when she is sitting up in a tree, it is reported by Queen Gertrude that the branch snapped and Ophelia fell to her death and drowned in the river below. Because of the way she died, the friar did not give her proper burial rights at her funeral because he believed her death to be a suicide and therefor a sin. Many argue that Ophelia’s death was an accident and could not be helped because she was mentally unwell, while others believe she drowned herself in the lake on purpose and should be held responsible for that sin. Because of these two different interpretations, the way Ophelia has been depicted in art varies greatly based on the artist’s view of the play. “Ophelia” by Sir John Everett Millais depicts Ophelia as a very cold looking, dead-eyed corpse floating down a river; it is very frank and grotesque, and her position in the water is comparable to that of a piece of wood floating along a river. The harshness of his depiction of her could imply that Millais believed her death to be intentional. Alexandre Cabanel’s “Ophelia”, however, depicts her falling gracefully from the tree with her beautifully painted face illuminated by sunlight. She is surrounded by flowers and is very much the focus of the composition. Because she was depicted in such a warm and loving way, it could be said that Cabanel believed that her death was a pure accident, and that she belongs in heaven despite the friar believing otherwise in the text.
On the night before he was betrayed, Jesus brought together all 12 of his disciples one last time. At the meeting, he told the gathered men that he would be leaving soon and then proceeded to turn the bread and wine on the table into his body and blood. Jesus also announced that one of the men would soon betray him and many of them rose to their feet in denial. All four gospels — those written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John — include an account of the Last Supper. Each are varying lengths and all give detail about what was said but do not necessarily give details about the setting. Artists, such as Leonardo and Tintoretto, took the religious narrative and interpreted it in ways corresponding to their respective period of art.
The character of Lilith has numerous origin stories, some of which can be traced back to Ancient Mesopotamia. However, they all describe her as a female demon at her core, and my source text solidifies her character the most. In the Alphabet of Ben Sira , Lilith is created to be Adam’s wife, but she sees herself as his equal, as she was born from the same dirt as he. Refusing to lie underneath him during sex, she takes to the air and flees from the Garden of Eden. Three angels are dispatched to track her down, to which she refuses to return. Because of this, Lilith becomes an infant-killing demon. Angela Yarber paints Lilith as a feminist icon and depicts her leaving the Garden, as an act of integrity and empowerment. Kiki Smith, however, chooses to portray Lilith’s character post-Garden. She is a haunting figure that catches viewers unawares but is shaped into such by her circumstances.
The story of Salome is found in the New Testament in chapter six in the book of Mark, written in 42 AD, throughout the story she is never mentioned by name. In summary, the story tells of Saint John the Baptist rebuking Herod of marrying his brother’s wife. He is persuaded by Herodias to imprison Saint John the Baptist. He is eventually beheaded after Herodias requests his head while her daughter is dancing for Herod at his banquet, the head is given to Salome and is then presented to Herodias. I covered the scene where Salome is dancing in front of Herod. I compared The Apparition by Gustave Moreau and The Feast of Herod and the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist by Benozzo Gozzoli. Moreau’s main focus is depicting Salome as a Femme Fatale and giving the scene a dream-like quality showing an apparition of Saint John the Baptist’s head. Gozzoli’s rendition is more straight forward and consistent to the story.
Saint Athanasius wrote The Life of Saint Anthony to relay the story of a tortured, yet ever faithful soul; his narrative has inspired generations of artists to interpret it in their own ways, taking inspiration from Anthony’s ability to stay strong in the face of temptation. In my paper, I discuss the work of Martin Schongauer, Hieronymus Bosch, Paul Cezanne, Max Ernst, and Salvador Dali to demonstrate how the interpretation of Saint Anthony changes throughout history. The common thread throughout these works is their central theme of battling demons; for the early Northern Renaissance artists, those demons were the manifestations of sin that would take them to Hell. The Post-Impressionists focused on the temptation of lust. The Surrealists saw themselves in Saint Anthony, as they were preoccupied with psychoanalysis and conquering inner demons.
The Ecstasy St Teresa at Cornaro Chapel, Santa Maria della Vitoria was based on the Life of Saint Teresa of Avila by herself, which wrote since 1565. Saint Teresa of Avila was born in 1515 Avila in Spain. Giani Loarenzo Bernini commissioned by Federico Baldissera Bartolomeo Cornaro, and he decorated the shallow space at the santa Maria della Vittoria to create the story of Saint teresa as propaganda of the Counter Reformation. Bernini illustrates Saint Teresa’s vision and its source as if divine revelation. Saint teresa and the Angel is sculpture in white arble represents by as variety of effects including sunlight and gilt wood rays. Bernini used painting, sculpture, architecture, and the natural resource of light to depicts her hallucinatory revelation. Bernini created a sculptured picture of Teresa’s Ecstasy, which was itself originally a mental picture as well as a powerful physical phenomenon.
Completed by Ovid in 8 CE before his exile to Tomis from Rome, Metamorphoses is a mythic history of the world and focuses on the transformations of people to inanimate objects, other humans, and animals. Within the Metamorphoses, there are more than fifty tales of rape in its fifteen books. The rape of Caenis by Neptune is one, and focuses on the transformation from female to male. Roman laws on rape were not defined properly, making the victim blamed as the cause of the rape. In the narrative of Caenis and Nepune, Caenis asks to become a man after the rape to save her pride and stature. To visually interepret this narrative, I used a work by Antonio Tempesta and a sculpture based off an engraving by Johnann Sadeler.
The Book of Judith tells the story of a wise, wealthy widow whose determination to liberate her people from the Assyrian army lead to the decapitation of its leader, Holofernes. Throughout the many of periods of art, the story of Judith beheading Holofernes has been a popular subject among artists. The most captivating moment of the story, which many artists choose as their composition, is the moment in which Judith slays the General. The comparison of two portrayals of the heroin, whose style give an unusual approach to the story, are those by Sandro Botticelli and Gustav Klimt. Each artist chooses to depict a similar moment of the story but each portrayal still captures the heroism of Judith. Botticelli’s Judith carries elegance and poise while contemplating her actions. Klimt’s Judith is a semi-nude woman whose determination in the actions taken is seen in her victorious gaze. Botticelli’s representation is more traditional one while Klimt chooses a modern approach.
Before he became a follower of Christ, Paul was a persecutor of Christians. The story of Paul’s conversion comes from Chapter 9 of the Acts of the Apostles within the New Testament and the language varies based on the source. Some versions state that Paul’s companions could hear the voice of God, while others say that the men could not. In my paper, I compare the “Conversion of Saul” by Michelangelo and “Conversion on the Road to Damascus” by Caravaggio. The works differ in their presentation of the story, Caravaggio’s being a more intimate moment while the viewer gets a sense of the entire narrative from Michelangelo’s fresco. With that being said, both artists are able to convey the importance of salvation and redemption which was an important theme during the reformation of the Protestant church during the 16th century.
Each September the Catholic Church commemorates the day upon which a poor friar received, in ecstasy, the physical manifestation of the marks of the crucifixion of Jesus, also known as the stigmata. In 1263, St. Bonaventure himself a member of the Franciscan order founded by Francis, interviewed those who knew Francis and had witnessed the marks he bore on his hands, feet, and torso. Bonaventure’s description of the momentous event in which Francis was visited by a seraph has inspired artists for centuries and with encouragement from the Catholic church, many have attempted to capture the miraculous moment on canvas. This writer will examine two such versions by Michelangelo Merisi Caravaggio and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo to compare both the differences and similarities in their renderings. While Tiepolo’s portrayal is more traditional and holds closely to the narrative, Caravaggio chose to exclude certain objects as well as the presence of Brother Leo, believed to be the only person who was with Francis when he encountered the seraph. Despite the different way each of these artists chose to present St. Francis receiving the marks he bore until his death, Bonaventure’s narrative does not suffer and both paintings beautifully capture the magnitude of the event.
The myth of the Medusa has many forms and aspects, making it a malleable subject for the artists that depict her. In my paper, I focus on two aspects: the monster, as painted by Rubens in 1617, and the woman, as painted by Alice Dreyfus-Barney in 1892. Both paintings focus on the head of Medusa severed by Perseus, as described in Ovid’s Metamorphoses. However, Dreyfus-Barney’s humanizing approach to the subject of Medusa–going so far as to use her own daughter as the model for Medusa’s face–treats the Medusa as a victim. In contrast, Ruben’s Medusa, hideous and surrounded by worms, characterizes her as a monster.
There is much debate about William Shakespeare’s play “Hamlet” and whether or not the character Ophelia’s death was an accident or a suicide. Ophelia goes mad when she discovers that Hamlet does not plan on marrying her, which implies that they already had sexual relations despite it being taboo for an unmarried woman to do so. Because of Hamlet’s decision, Ophelia’s reputation is doomed to be ruined and she goes insane. While having a fit caused by her mental illness when she is sitting up in a tree, it is reported by Queen Gertrude that the branch snapped and Ophelia fell to her death and drowned in the river below. Because of the way she died, the friar did not give her proper burial rights at her funeral because he believed her death to be a suicide and therefor a sin. Many argue that Ophelia’s death was an accident and could not be helped because she was mentally unwell, while others believe she drowned herself in the lake on purpose and should be held responsible for that sin. Because of these two different interpretations, the way Ophelia has been depicted in art varies greatly based on the artist’s view of the play. “Ophelia” by Sir John Everett Millais depicts Ophelia as a very cold looking, dead-eyed corpse floating down a river; it is very frank and grotesque, and her position in the water is comparable to that of a piece of wood floating along a river. The harshness of his depiction of her could imply that Millais believed her death to be intentional. Alexandre Cabanel’s “Ophelia”, however, depicts her falling gracefully from the tree with her beautifully painted face illuminated by sunlight. She is surrounded by flowers and is very much the focus of the composition. Because she was depicted in such a warm and loving way, it could be said that Cabanel believed that her death was a pure accident, and that she belongs in heaven despite the friar believing otherwise in the text.
On the night before he was betrayed, Jesus brought together all 12 of his disciples one last time. At the meeting, he told the gathered men that he would be leaving soon and then proceeded to turn the bread and wine on the table into his body and blood. Jesus also announced that one of the men would soon betray him and many of them rose to their feet in denial. All four gospels — those written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John — include an account of the Last Supper. Each are varying lengths and all give detail about what was said but do not necessarily give details about the setting. Artists, such as Leonardo and Tintoretto, took the religious narrative and interpreted it in ways corresponding to their respective period of art.
The character of Lilith has numerous origin stories, some of which can be traced back to Ancient Mesopotamia. However, they all describe her as a female demon at her core, and my source text solidifies her character the most. In the Alphabet of Ben Sira , Lilith is created to be Adam’s wife, but she sees herself as his equal, as she was born from the same dirt as he. Refusing to lie underneath him during sex, she takes to the air and flees from the Garden of Eden. Three angels are dispatched to track her down, to which she refuses to return. Because of this, Lilith becomes an infant-killing demon. Angela Yarber paints Lilith as a feminist icon and depicts her leaving the Garden, as an act of integrity and empowerment. Kiki Smith, however, chooses to portray Lilith’s character post-Garden. She is a haunting figure that catches viewers unawares but is shaped into such by her circumstances.
The story of Salome is found in the New Testament in chapter six in the book of Mark, written in 42 AD, throughout the story she is never mentioned by name. In summary, the story tells of Saint John the Baptist rebuking Herod of marrying his brother’s wife. He is persuaded by Herodias to imprison Saint John the Baptist. He is eventually beheaded after Herodias requests his head while her daughter is dancing for Herod at his banquet, the head is given to Salome and is then presented to Herodias. I covered the scene where Salome is dancing in front of Herod. I compared The Apparition by Gustave Moreau and The Feast of Herod and the Beheading of Saint John the Baptist by Benozzo Gozzoli. Moreau’s main focus is depicting Salome as a Femme Fatale and giving the scene a dream-like quality showing an apparition of Saint John the Baptist’s head. Gozzoli’s rendition is more straight forward and consistent to the story.