Category: religion

Titian

Titian, “Polyptych of the Resurrection: St Sebastian”, Oil on Canvas, 1520-22, Santi Nazaro e Celso, Brescia, Italy

In 1520 to 1522, Tiziano Vecellio, known as Titian, painted the “Polyptych of the Resurrection”, also known as the Averoldi Polytych, for the Catholic church Santi Nazaro e Celso, located in Lombardy region of Itlay. The work was commissioned by Alberto Averoldi, the papal legate to Venice. The use of a compatmentally-divided polytych, rather old-fashioned for that time, was likely a specific request from Averroldi. The work was delivered in 1522 and placed behind the high altar, replacing the existing altarpiece by Renaissance painter Vincenzo Foppa.

The five panels in the polyptych are: “The Resurrection of Christ”, “Saints Nazarius and Celsus with Donor”, “Saint Sebastian”. “Angel of the Annunciation”, and “The Annunciation of the Virgin”. Titian unified the panels of the polyptych to a certain degree by chromatic-dynamic, converging the sense of light towards the central scene of the Christ.

The panel showing St Sebastian (bottom right panel of the polyptych) was finished by 1520. Jacopo Tebaldi, the representative of the Duke of Ferrara, was so impressed by the painting when he saw it in Titian’s workshop that he urged his master buy it. Tebaldi offered to pay Titian 60 ducats for this single panel – Averoldi was paying him only 200 ducats for the entire altarpiece. In the end, however, the Duke of Ferrara shied away from making the purchase, probably afraid of annoying the powerful legate Averoldi.

Titian approximates sculpture in the figure of St Sebastian, taking inspiration from one of the slave of Michelangelo’s tomb for Julius II. He shows as much of the saint’s back and front as he can and endows his flesh with a richly tinted marble-like sheen that both absorbs and reflects the light.

Guanyin Bodhisattva

Guanyin Bodhisattva of Compassion, Saint Louis Museum of Art

In Mahayana Buddhism, bodhisattva बोधिसत्त्व is the Sanskrit term for a being with bodhi (enlightenment). A bodhisattva is anyone who, motivated by great compassion, has generated bodhicitta, which is a spontaneous wish to attain buddhahood for the benefit of all sentient beings. A bodhisattva is one of the four sublime states a human can achieve in life (the others being an arhat, buddha or pratyekabuddha).

སྤྱན་རས་གཟིགས་

Guido Reni

Guido Reni, “Saint Sebastian”, 1625, Oil on Canvas, 76 x 61 cm, Aukland Art Gallery, Aukland

Born in November of 1575 in Bologna, a Papal State under Pope Gregory XIII, Guido Reni was an Italian painter of the Baroque period whose works show a classical influence. He primarily painted religious scenes, but also produced works of mythological and allegorical subjects. Reni became a prominent artist of the Bolognese School, headed by painter and etcher Lodovico Carracci, that rivaled Rome and Florence as the center of Italian painting. 

Guido Reni painted the martyrdom of Saint Sebastian several times. There are three other similar posed canvases by Reni in the museums of Bologna, Paris and Puerto Rico. The Auckland Art Gallery’s circa 1625 “Saint Sebastian” is the closest painted to the pose drawn from Michelangelo’s marble statue “Rebellious Slave”. There are, however, differences in this particular canvas: Saint Sebastian’s left hand is shown, his loincloth is smaller, and the landscape contains figures not shown in the other canvases. 

Notes: Guido Reni’s 1625 “Saint Sebastian” was originally in the private collection of the Dukes of Hamilton until its sale to the Aukland Art Gallery. The Duke of Hamilton, created in 1643, is the senior dukedom of the Peerage of Scotland, except for the Dukedom of Rothesay which is held by the Sovereign’s son. Since 1711, the title has been the Duke of Hamilton and Brandon in the Peerage of Great Britain. 

Guido Reni worked on an almost identical copy from 1620 to 1639 but left it unfinished. This is one of many paintings he left unfinished before his death in August of 1642. The canvas, with its slightly different coloring and larger size of 1.7 by 1.31 meters, is now housed in London’s Dulwich Picture Gallery.  

Julius Kronberg

Julius Kronberg, “David och Saul”, 1885, Oil on Canvas, 298 x 220 cm, National Museum of Fine Arts, Stockholm, Sweden

Julius Kronberg received education at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts in Stockholm in the 1860s. A travel scholarship brought him to Paris via Düsseldorf and Copenhagen. He is associated with the Düsseldorf school of painting.

Kronberg stayed in München where he continued studying before settling in Rome in 1877. He was a professor at the Royal Swedish Academy of Arts between 1895-1898.

Asmat Tribe Ancestral Skull

Asmat Tribe Ancestral Skullwith Carved Bone, Feathers, Fibers and Seeds

The first apparent sighting of the Asmat people by explorers was from
the deck of a ship led by a Dutch trader, Jan Carstensz in the year 1623.
Captain James Cook and his crew were the first to actually land in Asmat
on September 3, 1770 (near what is now the village of Pirimapun).
According to the journals of Captain Cook, a small party from the HM Bark Endeavor encountered a group of Asmat warriors; sensing a threat, the explorers quickly retreated.

The Asmat are an Indonesian cannibalistic tribe on the island; Papua. The Asmat live in mangrove vegetation near the sea and rivers, on the south side of the western part of New Guinea. The Asmat venerated their ancestors by decorating and honoring their skulls.  Asmat decorated skulls are displayed in sacred places inside Asmat domiciles.