The Tempietto in Rome is at once a reflection of divine order and a monument to St. Peter. It was designed by Italian architect and painter Donato Bramante in 1502 during the High Renaissance, a time when architects sought to give form to the enlightened understanding of life and the universe and transcend the heights…
Behold the Beauty: A Glimpse of a Heavenly Paradise
Rare and sublime, The Cleveland Museum of Art’s 15th-century “Amitabha Triad” features three divine beings central to Buddhist belief. Only a hint of the gilt remains of this once-hallowed Buddhist treasure, yet the deities’ meditative serenity shines on. Each deity is sitting on a lotus-flower throne in readiness to welcome Buddhist adherents to the Western…
The Moral Hero in ‘Knight, Death, and the Devil’
I sometimes wonder what it means to be the hero in one’s own life story. How might we lead a virtuous and dignified life despite hardships? This is not an unusual question in any sense. Cultures across time and in different places have wrestled with this moral question. Albrecht Dürer, the Printmaker Born in Germany…
Canadian Painter Kathy Gillis’s Pure Art and Heartfelt Promises
In 1940, full of love and the innocence of childhood, Kathy Gillis vowed to be an artist. It was a profession her mother, Doris, had once aspired to. Polio robbed Doris of the chance to fulfill that dream, as the virus later spread to Doris’s brain, making her unable to function. Gillis voiced her intention…
The Michelangelo of Wood: Grinling Gibbons
“Stupendous and beyond all description … the incomparable carving of our Gibbons, who is without controversy the greatest master both for innovation and rareness of work that the world ever had in any age,” wrote 17th-century diarist John Evelyn about Grinling Gibbons, the greatest decorative carver in British history. This year marks 300 years since…
American Carpenters’ ‘Gift’ to Notre Dame Cathedral
On April 15, 2019, the world was aghast. People gazed in horror at their screens, and Parisians took to the streets to see for themselves as Notre Dame Cathedral burned out of control. As the fire raged on, French President Emmanuel Macron told AFP, “We will rebuild this cathedral.” More than two years later, the world…
‘The Stoning of Saint Stephen’ by Renaissance Painter Aurelio Lomi
In this study of “The Stoning of Saint Stephen,” the late-Renaissance painter Aurelio Lomi captured the moment of Stephen’s martyrdom. Surrounded by an angry mob pelting him with stones, Stephen doesn’t shield himself. Instead, he’s in awe of all that is above him. He looks up to heaven, where he sees Christ standing next to…
How “The Spinners” by Velázquez Teaches the Consequence of Irreverence and More
It may be hard to imagine, but many well-known masterpieces are not how the artists originally painted them. In the past, paintings were often altered to fit into an interior design where it would be viewed. For instance, parts of both Johannes Vermeer’s “Girl Reading a Letter at an Open Window” and Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’s…
The Dawn Chorus
How often do you get up early during the school year, stroll outdoors, and listen to the birds as the sun comes up? That joyful symphony is called the “dawn chorus.” Those winged songs compose the daily music of life and light. When you allow for time and space, there is so much inspiration in…
The Cathedral Square of Pisa
Piazza del Duomo, Pisa (translated as Pisa Cathedral Square) was conceived in a time when Pisa held a dominant maritime position in the Mediterranean, boasting thriving trade and the largest navy in the sea. The piazza, or square, reflects the city’s flourishing wealth. The four monuments—the cathedral, the baptistery, the campanile (bell tower), and the…
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