Posted on 05/02/2021 6:25:21 AM PDT by Hebrews 11:6
It was fun to follow along on your guided tour.
Albion, about your comment on the Caravaggio, I would like to point out that the first printed sheet music made with a printing press was in 1473. Caravaggio painted this splendid scene in the 15th c. As for the stringed instrument we see here, I believe it is a baroque violin which was developed in the 14th c. Before that it was called a vielle. They all have variations of shapes and sounds. We see the vielle in many paintings of the Medieval period, it has a very different and sweet tone.
late 15th c.
OK, time for me to get another cup of coffee. Caravaggio painted that scene almost at the end of the 16th c. Sorry for all my mistakes.
Just paint over it and start again. No problem!
I like #55 by ALEXANDRE-GABRIEL DECAMPS, for (I believe) it gives a realistic, stark view of what the Holy Family had to endure.
I also liked the pooped St Joseph in #60 for the same reason.
But, as Hebrews 11:6 knows, my favorite is #67. When I saw it up close, I noticed Mercer seems to have left clues that St. Joseph is NOT asleep....his right arm is not lying flat, his left-hand fingers don't seem to be resting, and Mercer's brush strokes above the Foster Father of Jesus suggest movement : the head of the Holy Family does not rest, he is alert and on guard, ready to protect his wife and adopted son. He does not recoil in horror from his vocation. He certainly has things on his mind, and the path is undoubtedly hard. But he DOES NOT QUIT.
I'll say it again: let us pray that all fathers and husbands follow this holy model of fidelity to our vocation. The nation - nay, world - would be a much better place.
Keep preaching it, brother!
Dan
A hearty AMEN to that!
Thank you for that music history, dear etabeta! I am a yuuuuge fan of Caravaggio, in spite of his time-traveling. The quality of illumination in that painting is, well, illuminating!
There are artists today who depict Jesus in jeans and a t-shirt, for "relevance." That's what he may have been doing; although since he was called the “Bad Boy of the Baroque”, he may simply have been going for the shock value. Here's a detail from Judith Beheading Holofernes:
And thanks for the link to your Merson thread, with its enlargeable hi-res image.
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