The Adoration of the Christ Child – Alessandro Botticelli (ca 1500)Ĭatholic religious art has been forever shaped by a group of 15 th century talents known as the Florentine School. It is also interesting to note that the image of Joseph bears a striking resemblance to other works of Blessed Fra Angelico that are identified as self-portraits, thus suggesting that the Prior/Artist may well have looked to Joseph as a patron and example as he served his brother Dominicans. In the foreground just before them, Saint Peter Martyr and the Blessed Villana of the Dominican Order contemplate the scene. Joseph is neither old nor young, but a fitting compliment to Mary. She presents her Son to Simeon as Joseph presents the customary offering. Here Joseph is placed on the same visual plain as The Virgin, standing with her as husband and wife. This scene was painted in a monk’s cell for the purpose of contemplation. The scene is serene, but immediate with warm tones and an earthly setting lacking the gold embellishments Fra Angelico was known to use skillfully in his wealthy commissions. This is one of a limited number of frescoes whose composition and color confirm with some certainty that Fra Angelico executed most of the work himself. The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple, painted between 15 is a fresco by Fra Angelico made for the Dominican convent of San Marco in Florence during the time when the artist was prior there. Of the Dominican painter, Guido di Pietro, known most often today as Fra More impactful and timeless than the warm and immediate images found in the frescoes Of Saint Joseph and the Holy Family began to emerge. The Presentation of Jesus in the Temple – Fra Angelico (ca 1540)Īs the sun was setting on the medieval world, new depictions From this point forward, the flower, most often a lily, became a standard symbol of Saint Joseph in Church art. Joseph was chosen when a dove descended on his rod just as a flower sprouted forth from it. Mary came of age to be betrothed and an angel told the priest to summon marriageable men to the Temple with their rods, where a sign would be given as to which is worthy to be betrothed to Mary. As he presents himself for marriage, Joseph is depicted once again holding the rod this time it is not a symbol of authority, but a testimony to events depicted in the Legend account. In a new vivid realism, Giotto shows us an older Saint Joseph, mature enough to be guardian and protector for the Virgin and her divine Son. In the 13th century, various written and oral apocryphal sources that comprised Church tradition were compiled by Jacobus de Varagine into a widely read work entitled Legenda Aurea or Legenda Santorum ( in English, the Golden Legend.) At the height of the popularity of the Golden Legend, the great Porto-Renaissance artist, Giotto completed a monumental cycle of frescoes on the Life of the Virgin For the Cappella Scrovegni in Padua. As devotion to Joseph increased, the faithful sought details of his life beyond the sparse account found in Holy Scripture. The earliest record of a formal devotional for Saint Joseph in Church comes from France in the year 800. On the right is seen Jerusalem, the place of Jesus’ death and resurrection. In the bottom register, Joseph stands on the left side, in Bethlehem, the city of David, the king from whose descendants, traced to Joseph, Jesus was born. Here he is conversing with the angels announcing Jesus birth and holding not a shepherds staff, but in his left hand a rod symbolizing the authority and responsibility he has just been given. Joseph is young, bearded and garbed as a Roman of status befitting the consort of a queen. On the top register, Saint Joseph can be seen to the right. Jesus is portrayed as a youth or young adult, not as an infant or child. Mary, the Mother of God, is shown as queen of Heaven, enthroned and dressed regally. The arch is decorated with continuous New Testament scenes relating to the early life of Jesus. These extensive mosaics were completed between 432-40 AD. The largest series of early Christian mosaics in Rome are the panels on the triumphal arch and the nave walls of the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore. The decoration of the Early Christian churches, and particularly of the basilicas, was mostly with mosaics.
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