01 Religious Icon, Saint Christopher with the head of a dog, with footnotes #42

Unknown iconographer

 Saint Christopher with the head of a dog, Greece, 18. Century

Tempera on gesso, the Background gilded

27.5 cm x 22.5 cm. 

Private collection

In the Eastern Orthodox Church, certain icons covertly identify Saint Christopher with the head of a dog. Such images may carry echoes of the Egyptian dog-headed god, Anubis. Christopher pictured with a dog's head is not generally supported by the Orthodox Church, as the icon was proscribed in the 18th century by Moscow.

The roots of that iconography lie in a hagiographic narrative set during the reign of the Emperor Diocletian, which tell of a man named Reprebus, Rebrebus or Reprobus (the "reprobate" or "scoundrel") being captured by Roman forces fighting against tribes dwelling to the west of Egypt in Cyrenaica and forced to join the Roman numerus Marmaritarum,. He was reported to be of enormous size, with the head of a dog instead of a man, both apparently being typical of the Marmaritae. He and the unit were later transferred to Syrian Antioch, where bishop Peter of Attalia baptised him and where he was martyred in 308. It has also been speculated that this Byzantine depiction of St. Christopher as dog-headed may have resulted from a misreading of the Latin term Cananeus (Canaanite) as caninus, that is, "canine".

The late 10th century German bishop and poet Walter of Speyer portrayed St. Christopher as a giant of a cynocephalic species in the land of Canaan who ate human flesh and barked. Eventually, Christopher met the Christ child, regretted his former behavior, and received baptism. He, too, was rewarded with a human appearance, whereupon he devoted his life to Christian service and became an Athleta Christi, one of the military saints. More on Christopher with the head of a dog

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01 Religious Icon, Christ Pantocrator, with footnotes #41

Unknown artist

Christ Pantocrator

SILVER GOLD PLATED OKLAD

9 x 7,5 cm

Private collection

In Christian iconography, Christ Pantocrator is a specific depiction of Christ. Pantocrator or Pantokrator, usually translated as "Almighty" or "all-powerful", is derived from one of many names of God in Judaism.

The Pantokrator, largely an Eastern Orthodox or Eastern Catholic theological conception, is less common under that name in Western (Roman) Catholicism and largely unknown to most Protestants. In the West, the equivalent image in art is known as Christ in Majesty, which developed a rather different iconography. Christ Pantocrator has come to suggest Christ as a mild but stern, all-powerful judge of humanity. More on Christ Pantocrator

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01 Religious Icon, Simone Martini's Annunciation with St. Margaret and St. Ansanus, with footnotes #40

Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi

Annunciation with St. Margaret (Maxima) and St. Ansanus, c. 1333

Tempera and gold on panel

305 cm × 265 cm (120 in × 104 in)

Uffizi Gallery, Florence

The work is composed of a large central panel depicting the Annunciation, and two side panels with St. Ansanus (left), and female saint, generally identified with St. Maxima or St. Margaret, in the right, and four tondos in the cusps: Jeremiah, Ezechiel, Isiah and Daniel.

The Annunciation shows the archangel Gabriel entering the house of the Virgin Mary to tell her that she will soon bear the child Jesus, whose name means "savior". Gabriel holds an olive branch in his hand, a traditional symbol of peace, while pointing at the Holy Ghost's dove with the other. The dove is descending from heaven, from the center of the mandorla of eight angels above, about to enter the Virgin's right ear. In fact, along the path of the dove, viewers see Gabriel's utterance: ave gratia plena dominvs tecvm ("Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee."). 

Mary, sitting on a throne, is portrayed at the moment that she is startled out of her reading, reacting with a graceful and composed reluctance, looking with surprise at the celestial messenger. Her dress has an arabesque-like pattern. More on this work

Simone Martini and Lippo Memmi

Detail; with St. Margaret (Maxima) and St. Ansanus

St. Maxima was a house servant and nanny to a family of imperial nobility in ancient Rome. She was given responsibility for caring for the family’s son, Ansanus, and she secretly baptized him as a child and raised him as a Christian.

When he was 19, Ansanus’ own father denounced him as a Christian during a persecution. Ansanus boldly admitted his faith, and both he and Maxima were beaten and scourged; Maxima died from these wounds. Ansanus survived, and escaped Rome and fled north. 

As he traveled, he told those he met the good news of Jesus Christ, and baptized so many people in the region near Siena that he became known as Ansanus the Baptizer. He was finally captured and beheaded by order of the emperor. More on St. Maxima and St. Ansanus

Simone Martini (c. 1284 – 1344) was an Italian painter born in Siena. He was a major figure in the development of early Italian painting and greatly influenced the development of the International Gothic style.

It is thought that Martini was a pupil of Duccio di Buoninsegna, the leading Sienese painter of his time. According to late Renaissance art biographer Giorgio Vasari, Simone was instead a pupil of Giotto di Bondone, with whom he went to Rome to paint at the Old St. Peter's Basilica, Giotto also executing a mosaic there. Martini's brother-in-law was the artist Lippo Memmi. Very little documentation of Simone's life survives, and many attributions are debated by art historians. According to E. H. Gombrich, he was a friend of Petrarch and had painted a portrait of Laura. More on Simone Martini

Lippo Memmi (c. 1291 – 1356) was an Italian painter from Siena. He was the foremost follower of Simone Martini, who was his brother-in-law.

Together with Martini, in 1333 he painted what is regarded as one of the masterworks of the International Gothic, the Annunciation with St. Margaret and St. Ansanus (above), probably mainly working on the two saints. He was one of the artists who worked at Orvieto Cathedral, for which he finished the Virgin of Mercy ("Madonna dei Raccomandati"). Later he followed Martini to the Papal court in Avignon, where he worked until the mid-14th century. After his return to Siena, Memmi continued to work until his death in 1356.

Memmi's famed artwork, La Madonna della Febbre was the first venerated image of the Blessed Virgin Mary granted with a Canonical coronation by a Pope on 27 May 1631. The image has long been since held miraculous and is enshrined at the Sacristy chapel of the Blessed Sacrament inside Saint Peter's Basilica in Rome. More on Lippo Memmi

 

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05 Icons, Henry Zaidan's Saint Mary of Jesus Crucified, with footnotes #80

Henry Zaidan

Saint Mary of Jesus Crucified

AI Generation

neural.love

Mariam Baouardy (Arabic: مريم بواردي, or Mary of Jesus Crucified, 5 January 1846 – 26 August 1878), was a Discalced Carmelite nun of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. Born to Palestinian Greek Catholic parents from the town of Hurfiesh in the upper Galilee, later moved to I’billin, she was known for her service to the poor. In addition, she became a Christian mystic who suffered the stigmata, and has been canonized by the Catholic Church.

Henry Zaidan

Saint Mary of Jesus Crucified

AI Generation

neural.love

Henry Zaidan

Saint Mary of Jesus Crucified

AI Generation

Available at DeviantArt

October 25th is the Feast of Our Lady of Palestine, the Patroness of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem (EOHSJ).  The EOHSJ is one of just six Catholic orders recognized and protected by the Holy See. The mission of the order is to protect and preserve the presence of Christianity in the Holy Land.

Henry Zaidan

Saint Mary of Jesus Crucified

AI Generation

Available at DeviantArt

Along the Gaza border, the flowers, which look like poppies, have been crowned with their own festival. It's been a major economic engine and source of local pride for nearly two decades, bringing hundreds of thousands to a little-visited and conflict-scarred part of Palestine.

Henry Zaidan

Saint Mary of Jesus Crucified

AI Generation

nightcafe

Mariam Baouardy (Arabic: مريم بواردي, or Mary of Jesus Crucified, 5 January 1846 – 26 August 1878), was a Discalced Carmelite nun of the Melkite Greek Catholic Church. Born to Palestinian Greek Catholic parents from the town of Hurfiesh in the upper Galilee, later moved to I’billin, she was known for her service to the poor. In addition, she became a Christian mystic who suffered the stigmata, and has been canonized by the Catholic Church.

Her path to canonization solidified on 6 December 2014 with the recognition of a final miracle needed for her canonization. In the consistory of 14 February 2015, Pope Francis announced that she would be canonized on 17 May 2015; she was canonized at the Vatican. More on Mariam Baouardy

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints, 365 Days, and Biblical Icons, also visit my Boards on Pinterest and deviantart

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

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05 Icons, Henry Zaidan's Our Lady of Palestine, with footnotes #79

Henry Zaidan

Our Lady of Palestine

AI Generation

playground

October 25th is the Feast of Our Lady of Palestine, the Patroness of the Equestrian Order of the Holy Sepulchre of Jerusalem (EOHSJ).  The EOHSJ is one of just six Catholic orders recognized and protected by the Holy See. The mission of the order is to protect and preserve the presence of Christianity in the Holy Land.

Henry Zaidan

Our Lady of Palestine

AI Generation

Available at DeviantArt

Our Lady was first invoked under this title by the Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem as he entered the Cathedral Basilica of the Holy Sepulchre and consecrated the diocese to Mary on July 15, 1920. He asked her protection over the homeland of the Holy Family because of the ancient and growing tensions that had been threatening its people for generations.

Henry Zaidan

Our Lady Queen of Palestine

Armageddon hath trodden the virgin of Gaza as in a winepress

AI Generation

Available at DeviantArt

Along the Gaza border, the flowers, which look like poppies, have been crowned with their own festival. It's been a major economic engine and source of local pride for nearly two decades, bringing hundreds of thousands to a little-visited and conflict-scarred part of Palestine.

Mary Queen of Palestine, seated on a wooden thrown, staring ahead, Holding in her arms a model of Jerusalem, Silver oklad in relief with polychrome enamel in cloisonne decoration with stylised red poppy blossoms.

Henry Zaidan

Our Lady of Gaza

AI Generation

neural.love

The Holy Family Church of Gaza City is the only Catholic church in the Gaza Strip, State of Palestine. The parish includes a school which provides a Christian education to children in Gaza, and it works closely with the nearby religious congregations of the Missionaries of Charity, Servants of the Lord and the Virgin of Matará, and the Rosary Sisters. The Missionaries of Charity care for the elderly and disabled, and the Rosary Sisters operate a school. The community is served by priests from the Institute of the Incarnate Word. More on Holy Family Church, Gazanull    

Henry Zaidan

Our Lady of Palestine

AI Generation

neural.love

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints, 365 Days, and Biblical Icons, also visit my Boards on Pinterest and deviantart

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

I don't own any of these images - credit is always given when due unless it is unknown to me. if I post your images without your permission, please tell me.

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01 Icon, Mariotto di Nardo di Cione's Stations of the Cross, Nothing has changed in over 2000 years, with footnotes #79

Mariotto di Nardo di Cione

Stations of the Cross

Officina di Santa Maria Novella

"Again, my son fell, and again my grief was overwhelming at the thought that he might die. I started to move toward him, but the soldiers prevented me."  

The Via Dolorosa (Stations of the Cross) is a processional route in the Old City of Jerusalem. It represents the path that Jesus took, forced by the soldiers, on the way to his crucifixion. The winding route from the former Antonia Fortress to the Church of the Holy Sepulchre—a distance of about 600 metres (2,000 ft) is a celebrated place of Christian pilgrimage. The current route has been established since the 18th century, replacing various earlier versions. It is today marked by 14 Stations of the Cross, nine of which are outside, in the streets, with the remaining five stations being currently inside the Church of the Holy Sepulchre. More on the Stations of the Cross

Mariotto di Nardo di Cione, (active 1394, Firenze, d. 1424, Firenze) was an Italian painter. He was the son of the sculptor Nardo di Cione (active c. 1380) and was probably trained by his father. Realizing his talent for painting at a young age, Mariotto established himself as a painter of frescoes and panel paintings and an illuminator of manuscripts. He was in great demand for public and private commissions. Early in his career, he became the principal artist for the cathedral in his native Florence. Following suit, most of the important churches in Florence also commissioned frescoes from him, and religious orders commissioned him to paint illuminated manuscripts. He worked in Santa Maria Maggiore and at Orsanmichele.

Mariotto's interest in sculpture and his almost obsessive rendering of plastic form in painting remain constant factors in his style, which is easily identifiable and markedly different from that of his contemporaries. He worked in a conservative style with a capacity for clear story-telling, without ornament or fantasy. More on Mariotto di Nardo di Cione

Please visit my other blogs: Art Collector, Mythology, Marine Art, Portrait of a Lady, The Orientalist, Art of the Nude and The Canals of Venice, Middle East Artists, 365 Saints, 365 Days, and Biblical Icons, also visit my Boards on Pinterest

Images are copyright of their respective owners, assignees or others. Some Images may be subject to copyright

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