Golden Legend – dr richard stemp

Lent 31

I can’t believe it’s a year since I started this blog – more on that below, but if you want to celebrate this anniversary by reading, or re-reading (if you’ve been with me all that time) the first entry, it was Day 1 – The Rape of Europa. But for now, I want to concentrateContinue reading “Lent 31”

Lent 24

I have often wondered about this group of exiles – I’m never entirely clear where they are supposed to be, or what they are doing there. They form no part of the narrative with which I am familiar, and so, from my point of view, they are open to interpretation. However, their identity is not.Continue reading “Lent 24”

An Advent Calendar – 20

‘Joseph’ – Oh, Joseph! Poor Joseph! Always off to one side, half in the shadows, but with so much responsibility. Of course, the bible says next to nothing about him – apart from the fact that he was of the house of David, and was thought to be Jesus’s father. So almost everything we knowContinue reading “An Advent Calendar – 20”

An Advent Calendar – 13

‘Shepherds’ – This is the first of two days of Shepherds. Today I’m not interested in the two in the foreground – well, the foreground of this detail, anyway, they are quite a way back in the painting. Leaning over the wooden fence, we can tell they are shepherds because they are poorly dressed, withContinue reading “An Advent Calendar – 13”

An Advent Calendar – 2

Angels Angels have just as much as a right as the star to be present at the Nativity. They are mentioned in all four gospels, as it happens, although Mark only mentions them when Jesus is tempted by the devil, and John has one stirring the waters of the pool of Bethesda, and more appearingContinue reading “An Advent Calendar – 2”

109 – Death and Resurrection

Giotto, The Lamentation over the Dead Christ and The Resurrection, c. 1305, Scrovegni Chapel, Padua. I know – the whole idea of ‘Scrovegni Saturday’ was blown apart weeks back when I first failed to hit the deadline, but never before have I been early. So welcome to the first, and presumably only, ‘Scrovegni Friday’. I’mContinue reading “109 – Death and Resurrection”

108 – The Crucifixion

Giotto, The Road to Calvary and The Crucifixion, c. 1305, Scrovegni Chapel, Padua. And so we begin the final chapter in the epic that is the Scrovegni Chapel, and to give you a better sense of where we are, I have found an image of the whole of the North Wall – clearly taken fromContinue reading “108 – The Crucifixion”

Day 73 – Mary

Giotto, Stories from the Life of the Virgin, c. 1305, Scrovegni Chapel, Padua. Welcome back to Scrovegni Saturday – we’re well into the story. Joachim has been rejected from the temple, and as William Caxton put it back in 1483, ‘And then Joachim, all confused for this thing, durst not go home for shame’ (POTD 66). Meanwhile, Anna is waitingContinue reading “Day 73 – Mary”

Day 66 – Joachim and Anna

Giotto, The Story of Joachim and Anna, c. 1305, Scrovegni Chapel, Padua. Time to get going with the stories! From the past few weeks we know, when looking down the chapel towards the altar, that the Last Judgement (Picture Of The Day 38) is behind us, with the Virtues at the bottom of the walls on our rightContinue reading “Day 66 – Joachim and Anna”

Day 51 – The True Cross

Giambattista Tiepolo, The Discovery of the True Cross, Gallerie dell’Accademia, Venice. Just over a week ago I talked about Verrocchio’s lively bozzetto, or Model, for the Funeral Monument for Cardinal Niccolò Forteguerri (Picture Of The Day 42), and I mentioned that a bozzetto could be any type of sketch (or model) that an artist creates as part of the development of a newContinue reading “Day 51 – The True Cross”