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Ifa Divination Vessel: Female Caryatid (Agere Ifa)

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Ifa Divination Vessel: Female Caryatid (Agere Ifa)

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This Yoruba ivory divination vessel (agree Ifa), consisting of a bowl supported by a female caryatid, served as a receptacle for the sixteen sacred palm nuts (ikin). Through this medium, Ifa priests communicated with the god of fate, Orunmila, in order to obtain insights into an individual's destiny. The investment in costly material and the high-quality artistry apparent in its design elevate it beyond a mere functional implement. This depiction of a woman bearing an offering in a devotional attitude conveys the notion that it was conceived of as a form of prayer to the divine.

This tribute to Orunmila takes the form of a kneeling female figure, whose legs are folded beneath her. She balances an offering bowl on her head and supports it with raised arms, hands held to either side of it. Her strong, broad torso contrasts with the graceful sweep of her attenuated arms. Her facial features are boldly carved, with deeply incised pupils and three vertical cicatrization markings above either eye. A bead necklace that rests on her chest is her only form of bodily adornment.

Most agree Ifa are made out of wood. The relative rarity of ivory agree Ifa, such as this one, suggests that they were either owned by the highest-ranking Ifa priests or served as the ritual art of royalty. On stylistic grounds, this work has been attributed to the Yoruba ivory-carving center at Owo, located on the far-eastern edge of Yorubaland. Owo's leadership traces its origins to the divine kings of Ife. According to oral traditions, Owo's founding king was one of the youngest sons of the god Orunmila. Owo emerged as a distinctive regional artistic center, specializing in ivory carving. Owos acclaimed were Owo's ivory carvers that their services were sought after by patrons in neighboring regions.

The agere type vessel, which holds and raises the ikin, has been likened to a miniature temple of Orunmila. The caryatid serving as the vessel's base, here portrayed as a kneeling woman, takes a variety of forms including dancers, musicians, and equestrian figures. These subjects at once reflect the diviner's clients' hopes for prosperity and express their gratitude to Orunmila for successful consultations. The female suppliant features in this work is perceived as especially effective in predisposing the gods to act favorably on the suppliant's behalf, and as an ideal means for expressing thanks.

Further Reading:
Henry J. Drewal, John Pemberton III, and Rowland Abiodun, Yoruba: Nine Centuries of African Art and Thought. Exh. Cat. New York: Center for African Art, 1989
Henry J. Drewal, "Art and Divination Among the Yoruba: Design and Myth," Africana Journal 14, nos. 2-3 (1987)
Kate Ezra, Royal Art of Benin: The Perls Collection, Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1992
Alisa LaGamma, Art and Oracle: African Art and Rituals of Divination, New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000, Cat. 15.

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Ifa Divination Vessel: Female Caryatid (Agere Ifa) | Yoruba peoples, Owo group | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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This Yoruba ivory divination vessel (agree Ifa), consisting of a bowl supported by a female caryatid, served as a receptacle for the sixteen sacred palm nuts (ikin). Through this medium, Ifa priests communicated with the god of fate, Orunmila, in order to obtain insights into an individual's destiny.

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Title: Fasting Buddha Shakyamuni

Culture: Pakistan (ancient region of Gandhara)

Dimensions: H. 10 15/16 in. (27.8 cm)

Classification: Sculpture

Credit Line: Samuel Eilenberg Collection, Ex Coll.: Columbia University, Purchase, Rogers, Dodge, Harris Brisbane Dick and Fletcher Funds, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, and Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 1987

Accession Number: 1987.218.5

Samuel Eilenberg American (born Poland), New York (by 1985-1986; donated to Columbia University); [ Columbia University , New York, 1986-1987, sold to MMA]

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Lotus Transcendent: Indian and Southeast Asian Art from the Samuel Eilenberg Collection," October 2, 1991-June 28, 1992.

Barcelona. Casa Àsia. "Divine Presence: Arts of India and the Himalayas," March 15, 2003-June 22, 2003.

Museo Nacional de Antropología, Mexico City. "Las Huellas de Buda," July 19, 2018-October 14, 2018.

Martin Lerner, and Steven Kossak. The Lotus Transcendent: Indian and Southeast Asian Art from the Samuel Eilenberg Collection. Exh. cat. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1991, pp. 84-85, cat. no. 51.

Behrendt, Kurt. The Art of Gandhara in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2007, p. 57, cat. no. 46.

Little, Stephen, Tushara B. Gude, Karina Romero Blanco, S. Seligson Berenfeld, and Marco A. Karam. Las Huellas de Buda (Footprints of the Buddha). Exh. cat. Ciudad de México: Instituto Nacional de Antropología e Historia, [2018], p.96, cat. no. 8.

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Fasting Buddha Shakyamuni | Pakistan (ancient region of Gandhara) | Kushan period | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Title: Fasting Buddha Shakyamuni Culture: Pakistan (ancient region of Gandhara) Dimensions: H. 10 15/16 in. (27.8 cm) Classification: Sculpture Credit Line: Samuel Eilenberg Collection, Ex Coll.: Columbia University, Purchase, Rogers, Dodge, Harris Brisbane Dick and Fletcher Funds, Joseph Pulitzer Bequest, and Lila Acheson Wallace Gift, 1987 Accession Number: 1987.218.5 Samuel Eilenberg American (born Poland), New York (by 1985-1986; donated to Columbia University); [ Columbia University , New York, 1986-1987, sold to MMA] New York.

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New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Enlightening Pursuits," February 28-August 5, 2001.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "The Written Image: Japanese Calligraphy and Paintings from the Sylvan Barnet and William Burto Collection," October 1, 2002-March 2, 2003.

New York. Japan Society Gallery. "Awakenings: Zen Figure Painting in Medieval Japan," March 28, 2007-June 14, 2007.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Animals, Birds, Insects, and Marine Life in Japanese Art," June 26-November 30, 2008.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Landscapes in Japanese Art," June 24-November 7, 2010.

The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Discovering Japanese Art: American Collectors and the Met," February 14 - September 27, 2015.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Japanese Bamboo Art: The Abbey Collection," June 13, 2017-February 4, 2018.

New York. The Metropolitan Museum of Art. "Kyoto: Capital of Artistic Imagination," July 24, 2019-January 31, 2021.

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Unidentified artist | Portrait of Shun'oku Myōha | Japan | Nanbokuchō period (1336-92) | The Metropolitan Museum of Art

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Inscription: There are no eyes on the top of the head There are eyebrows under the chin, This is everything; this is nothing. I also could not become a phoenix. Presented to the Muryoju-in for ------(illegible character) Inscribed by Myoha of Tenryuji

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Images of all kinds

One of the widespread myths about Islamic art is that images of living creatures are banned. It is true that the Qur'an forbids the worship of idols, and "idol" was usually understood in antiquity and the Middle Ages in Europe and the Middle East to mean a painting or statue. For that reason, images of people and animals were almost never depicted in mosques. However, in other settings, there were plenty of images of all kinds. In fact, more figural painting in the Levant has survived from the early Islamic period, roughly the seventh to ninth centuries, than from the immediately before Islam.

In the pre-Islamic period, there were religious paintings inside the Kaaba. Some were of Arabian gods, one showed the Virgin Mary and Christ Child, and others showed trees. The Prophet Muhammad was said to have removed the images of the local gods, but kept the Christian one, since Christ and Mary are also venerated by Muslims. However, all these paintings have since been lost. In fact most paintings from this period are lost, since the medium is vulnerable to deterioration over time-the ones which have survived have done so against the odds.

This essay discusses figurative and non-figurative paintings that have survived in four palaces between the 7th and 8th centuries:

1. Qusayr ʿAmra (Jordan)

2. Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi (Syria)

3. Qasr al-Hallabat (Jordan)

4. Khirbat al-Mafjar (Palestine)

In addition, the essay explores how pigment was used in the 8th-10th centuries to decorate three-dimensional forms in stucco, stone, and wood, and smaller paintings in manuscripts and on ceramic plates.

Painted palaces
Qusayr ʿAmra
The best-preserved early Islamic paintings are from the palaces of the Umayyad caliphs and princes. These mostly date to the first half of the 8th century. Starting with the most impressive, the bathhouse of Qusayr ʿAmra in Jordan was built for the prince al-Walid ibn Yazid. It has an audience hall and a suite of three bathrooms, and the walls of every room are painted with an amazing assortment of scenes.

Some seem to tell stories. In the middle of one wall of the audience hall, a semi-naked woman stands at the edge of a bath. She is watched by a group of men on a balcony, some of whom point at her, and one dressed in a bright blue robe (on the far left) leans forward over the railing to get a better view. A figure stands behind the bather, also gesturing at her, and another woman's head can just be seen above, peering down from a little window. No one is sure what the scene means, but it is full of drama. Perhaps some of the figures were portraits of real people-maybe the man in blue is al-Walid himself-or perhaps they represented more abstract concepts or qualities, in the same way that, for example, the goddess Venus could stand for beauty and love in Roman art.

On other walls at Qusayr ʿAmra are portraits of the patron, and images of kings, wrestlers, hunters, fishermen, dancers, musicians, and mythological characters. There is also a painted star-chart in the dome of the sauna, with the symbols for the Greco-Roman constellations.

There were probably equally varied wall paintings at the Palestinian palace and bathhouse of Khirbat al-Mafjar, based on the fragments remaining, which show pieces of people, animals, and buildings (this palace is discussed more below).
Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi
The palace of Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi (also called Qasr al-Hayr West) was built for the caliph Hisham, and among its decorations were two huge frescos on floors. One of the panels shows vine scrolls, centaurs, and a woman carrying fruits in a cloth: she is probably the classical figure Ge or Gaia, a personification of the Earth. The floor was a very unusual place for painting. The composition looks like a Byzantine mosaic, and it is possible that paint was substituted for as an inexpensive or quicker alternative.

The second floor painting at Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi shows musicians and a hunter on horseback, and is morein its style and content, for example the hunter's flowing scarf headdress was adopted from elite Sasanian fashion.

Palaces like these were usually outside cities, but they were often near main roads and so were relatively easy for their patrons to visit. They would have been used as temporary retreats-holiday homes-and probably also as sites of display, places for the Umayyad aristocrats to entertain and impress visitors. Grand paintings would have helped to create the desired atmosphere of luxury and sophistication.
Qasr al-Hallabat
At another Umayyad site, Qasr al-Hallabat in Jordan, the wall paintings include plant scrolls framing mythical simurghs or senmurvs-beasts with lions' paws and peacocks' wings. Medallions inhabited by little animals and people were also found at the ninth-century Abbasid palatial complex of Samarra, along with some larger compositions such as a pair of dancing women pouring wine into bowls. These later examples show that the art of figural painting continued to flourish in secular contexts after the Umayyad dynasty had ended.

Non-figural paintings in palaces

Moving to non-figural paintings, these could be used to decorate other parts of the same palaces. For example, designs along the dados of walls at Qasr al-Hayr al-Gharbi imitated the patterns of other materials like marble and textiles.

Painted imitations of marble have also been found at early Islamic palaces in Balis and Rusafa in Syria, as well as at Qusayr ʿAmra and Khirbat al-Mafjar alongside the figural designs. In one example from Khirbat al-Mafjar, diagonal striped lines represent the veins in a slab of marble, while the diamond and circle in the center resemble inlaid pieces of expensive multi-colored stones. Very similar designs are found at non-Islamic sites in western Europe around the same time, particularly in the Lombard and Carolingian regions, as well as in much earlier Roman buildings .

Painting in three dimensions

Painting in the early Islamic period-and probably throughout the Middle Ages-didn't just mean flat designs on walls or floors. Pigment was also used to decorate three-dimensional forms in stucco, stone, and wood. There are not many written descriptions of painting from this period, but those that exist often describe the colors as being applied to objects or parts of buildings, and so it is possible that this was the most common use of the medium. Painted stucco statues of soldiers and women holding flowers were found at Khirbat al-Mafjar, and it is probable that stone statues elsewhere were painted.

Pigment does not survive well on moulded stucco, for example the qibla wall of the mosque of al-Fudayn appears today as plain plaster, but it is likely that most panels like this were originally brightly colored. One clue is that the motifs chosen for the stucco-work were often ones associated with color, like the stylized flowers known as rosettes on the qibla wall shown above.

Small, painted objects

The paintings described so far were all large-scale, integral parts of rich buildings. Smaller objects could also be painted, from valuable items such as manuscripts to more mundane ones like ceramic plates. Early manuscripts of the Qur'an were sometimes illuminated with architectural and floral motifs, although more often with geometric ornament.

Developments in ceramic glazing technology took place in the 9th century, and from then on ceramics were painted with a much wider range of motifs. These were often simple versions of the designs chosen for palace walls: birds, animals and mythical creatures, kings, hunters, musicians and dancers, as well as non-figural patterns and script. The metallic yellow-brown was probably intended to imitate gold, such as in a bowl from the 10th century in The Metropolitan Museum of Art. Western European ceramics of the same period are nowhere near as highly decorated, as the potters lacked the knowledge and materials for the glazes.

Other types of objects were almost certainly painted too, but have not survived so well over the centuries.

A culture of paint

Painted ornament in both two and three dimensions was an important part of elite visual culture in the Umayyad caliphate, while during the Abbasid period, innovations in technology brought intricately painted objects into everyday life. Early Islamic paintings were often vivid and imaginative; some reworked classical Greco-Roman or Sasanian motifs, and others were new. Far from being a period of iconoclasm or avoidance of images, this was a time of renewed engagement with the art of paint.
Additional resources Manar al-Athar-for images of archaeological sites Qusayr ʿAmra Abbasid ceramics Ernst Emil Herzfeld (1879-1948) in Samarra (from The Metropolitan Museum of Art) Khirbat al-Mafjar (from The Metropolitan Museum of Art)
Alexander Brey, The Baths of al-Walid at Qusayr 'Amra," Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online, August 28, 2020.

Tawfiq Da'adli, "Reconstructing the Frescoes of Khirbat al-Mafjar," Jerusalem Studies in Arabic and Islam, volume 46 (2019), pp. 247-90.

Eva Hoffman, "Between East and West: The Wall Paintings of Samarra and the Construction of Abbasid Princely Culture," Muqarnas, volume 25 (2008), pp. 107-32.

G. R. D. King, "The Paintings of the Pre-Islamic Kaʿba," Muqarnas, volume 21 (2004), pp. 219-29.

Elizabeth Dospěl Williams, " Craft and Aesthetics in Byzantine and Early Islamic Textiles," Khamseen: Islamic Art History Online, October 19, 2020.

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One of the widespread myths about Islamic art is that images of living creatures are banned.

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Raphael-The Disputation Over the Most Holy Sacrament

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Raphael-The Disputation Over the Most Holy Sacrament

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Being Catholic doesn't mean that I spend all day praying, listening to Christian music, and watching EWTN. When I travel, I visit museums as part of my must-see list. On previous trips I didn't look forward to seeing religious paintings at all, but to my own surprise, they were what captivated me the most.

Some of my favorites museums are the Louvre and the Musée d'Orsay.But if you want to admire Catholic religious art, the Museo del Prado is, in my opinion, the best, because I found the greatest collection of paintings and some of the most famous ones I am familiar with (and Spanish is spoken there, which is a bonus for me).

Religious Art Teaches Us
About Our Faith

It is fascinating to see how the lives of Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the saints have inspired artists for centuries. Such art has inspired men and women to be more faithful to the teachings of our Lord.

It is amazing to be able to visualize the truths Jesus taught through religious paintings made by talented artists; even more, when you contemplate the original images firsthand you can find meaning behind every masterpiece.

If you have been in museums where sacred art is exhibited, you will agree how exciting it is to be in front of religious art that we normally see only in pictures, prayer cards, reproductions, books, and other media. You can stare at these paintings for a long time without getting bored.

The almost supernatural talent of these artists is amazing. Some of my favorites are Murillo, Velázquez, Rubens, El Greco, and Goya. And many of these paintings are gigantic.

This painting is not a religious one, but I just wanted to give you an idea
of the size of some paintings. I am standing in front of "Raft of the Medusa,"
at the Louvre, a 16×24 foot painting by Théodore Géricault.

Without pretending to give you a religious art class, I am simply going to share some feedback on my own impressions and experience of these masterpieces, plus some basic interpretation of twelve of my favorite paintings.

My Top 12 Favorite Religious Paintings and Their Meanings

If you are looking for some divine inspiration in a not-so-Catholic world, let me share some of my favorite religious art, which was painted from the 14th through the 18th centuries. It is hard to pick only a dozen because there are so many magnificent ones that I like just as well, but I managed to select twelve:

1. The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci

First of all, I was surprised that this was not a framed painting, but a mural that measures 15 × 29 feet. It doesn't have the vibrant colors and high resolution that we are used to seeing in reproduced prints.

Da Vinci's The Last Supper is inside the Dominican convent of Santa Maria Delle Grazie in Milan, Italy. In order to preserve this masterpiece the room temperature must be controlled, so a maximum of 25 people can enter the refectory every 15 minutes. They don't let you take pictures, but there is a framed replica outside the main room which you are allowed to photograph.

This painting is about the betrayal of Christ and the institution of the Eucharist. Jesus has just declared that one of the twelve will betray him. Da Vinci depicts the reaction of each disciple to the news. The apostles are arranged in four groups of three with Chris in the center as the focal point with his body in the form of a triangle, symbolic of the Trinity. He provides calmness and stability in contrast to the astonished expressions of the apostles.

Obviously, this mural by Leonardo da Vinci has inspired innumerable Catholics over the course of time, for I have seen a reproduction in almost every Catholic dining room. I think it is the first famous painting that I remember seeing in my childhood.

In addition to the meaning, the sense of depth is one of the details that I admire in this masterpiece; and I learned that Leonardo had no surname and that is why he is called "da Vinci", meaning "of Vinci."

2. Christ Crucified by Velázquez

Here is a serene representation of Christ after death by a Spanish artist from Sevilla named Diego Velázquez. It measures 98 x 67 inches.

Velázquez's Christ Crucified depicts Christ with a body of classical proportions, representing the perfect man, while blood drips slowly from his wounds, down his body and the wood of the cross, transmitting a feeling of solitude, silence, and rest, rather than showing the agony of Christ's passion.

This is definitely a devotional painting that invites silence and meditation.

3. The Adoration of the Shepherds by El Greco

The artist's real name was Doménikos Theotokópoulos, but he is known by his nickname, "El Greco." (He was a Greek with Spanish citizenship). He was born in Crete but lived most of his life in Spain, and it is said that he, more than other painters, was able to capture the Spanish devotion to religion.

His painting, The Adoration of the Shepherds, is in El Prado, and measures 126 × 71 inches. It is one of the most-visited images, as I learned from a tour guide.

It shows us the wonder on the faces of the shepherds as they contemplate the luminous image of the Christ Child, whom the Virgin reveals with great tenderness. The kneeling shepherd, who is adoring with reverently folded hands, might be a self-portrait portraying El Greco's increasing devotion.

If you have seen this painting firsthand, you will agree that the vibrant colors of the figures' garments are one of the features that captivate the most, as well as the dramatic use of light that emanates from Baby Jesus, making the scene look so real.

4. The Angelus by Millet

The Angelus by Millet - Oil on Canvas/ El Angelus de Millet

The Angelus by Jean-François Millet is located in Musée d'Orsay in Paris, and measures 21.9 × 26 inches.

The subject is beautiful: a man and a woman are reciting the Angelus in a quiet field. Because they have paused in the middle of working, all the tools of their labor-a potato fork, basket, sacks, and a wheelbarrow-are right beside them.

Millet said: "The idea for The Angelus came to me because I remembered that my grandmother, hearing the church bell ringing while we were working in the fields, always made us stop work to say the Angelus prayer for the poor departed."

Unless you are a member of a religious order, taking a break to pray and thank God isn't always practical, especially if you work in an office. I work for The Catholic Company, and that is one of the benefits here: employees gather at noon voluntarily to pray the Angelus.

5. The Tears of Saint Peter by El Greco

The Tears of Saint Peter by El Greco - Oil on Canvas
(Las Lágrimas de San Pedro de El Greco)

Saint Peter's humanity really comes through in this painting. It is located in El Greco Museum in Toledo, Spain.

In this beautiful work, Saint Peter's eyes glisten with tears after he has denied Our Lord. Now deeply sorrowful and grieving for his sin, he lifts his eyes to heaven and seeks forgiveness.

In the background, to the left, there appear two small figures of hope: a woman, and an angel. Mary Magdalene represents the repentant sinner, and it is she who will tell Saint Peter that Jesus' tomb is empty. The angel is responsible for announcing the Resurrection of Jesus.

I was moved by this painting and all the symbolism; it is one that I particularly remember from El Greco Museum.

This panel was painted by the Belgian artist Roger van der Weyden. The Descent from the Cross is an early Flemish painting, with almost life-size figures, and is a 86.5× 103 inch triptych located in Museo del Prado, Madrid.

This masterpiece depicts the grief experienced by the Virgin at the suffering and death of her Son. Joseph of Arimathea, Nicodemus, and a third man hold Jesus' body up; Our Lady has fainted, and is being supported by Saint John and some of the holy women who witnessed the crucifixion.

Look at the Virgin's face, which is all pale. The blue of her robes makes a real contrast with her complexion.

Note how Jesus and Mary's bodies are parallel, which points to their "double passion." The expressions of all the men and women are deeply moving.

The emotional impact of the mourners grieving over Christ's body is exceptional. If I have to describe this work in one word: breathtaking.

7. The Immaculate Conception by Murillo

The Immaculate Conception was painted by the Spanish artist Bartolomé Esteban Murillo. There are several works of art with this title in El Prado Museum; this one is nearly 108 x 75 inches long.

The doctrine of the Immaculate Conception holds that the Virgin Mary, the pure vessel that would carry Jesus Christ, was conceived without original sin. The Holy Roman Catholic Church teaches that, from her conception, Mary had been given the graces that are usually bestowed through baptism after a child's birth.

The original painting - Immaculate Conception by Murillo

The depiction of the Virgin Mary in this context is taken from the Book of Revelations, where it describes "a woman clothed with the sun, with the moon under her feet." Unfortunately, the museum of El Prado does not allow visitors to take pictures. This one was taken secretly (mea culpa!) and you can see how majestic it looks with a gold frame.

8. The Disputation Over the Most Holy Sacrament by Raphael

The Disputation Over the Most Holy Sacrament by Raphael depicts a scene with witnesses in both heaven and earth. It measures 200 × 300 inches, and is located in the Vatican Museum. This beauty of this fresco is easy to overlook if you don't know the meaning behind it.

God the Father is standing behind Jesus, who is seated on the royal throne showing the nail holes in His hands; below Him is the Holy Spirit. Jesus sits between Mary, His mother, and Saint John the Baptist, His cousin and forerunner. The three persons of the Blessed Trinity and Mary and John together form a cross.

To the right and left of the Trinity is the Church Triumphant, represented by patriarchs and prophets from the Old Testament as well as martyrs and apostles from the New Testament; they are the "great cloud of witnesses." The figures are (from left to right): Saint Peter, Adam, Saint John the Evangelist, David, Saint Laurence, Judas Maccabees, Saint Stephen, Moses, Saint James the Elder, Abraham, and Saint Paul. They are observing the scene below from their place in heaven.

Below the heavenly scene we see the Most Holy Sacrament, which is the pillar of the Church Militant-the Christians who are still earthly pilgrims. Members of the Church are shown discussing Transubstantiation and the true presence of Christ in the Eucharist.

The painting shows the Trinity and the Eucharist with people both in heaven and on earth, for together we make up the Church.

I like this painting because it gives us a vision of the glory of heaven and the way Catholics pursue it here on earth.

9. The Coronation of the Virgin by Velázquez

In this painting, Mary is placed in the center with Christ on the left, God the Father on the right, and the Holy Spirit between the two, forming the Holy Trinity. It measures nearly 70 x 52 inches and the original work is in Museo del Prado.

The composition forms an inverted triangle, but it also looks heart-shaped. The Virgin Mary is the focal figure, with an attitude of modesty, reverence, and emotion; her right hand placed upon her heart reinforces that idea.

God the Father is painted as an old man, representing wisdom; both the Father and the Son are shown in the act of crowning the head of the Virgin with a garland of roses. The Holy Spirit is portrayed in the traditional form of a white dove. These three persons are presented at the same height, reminding us of the perfect equality within the Holy Trinity. Cherubs are visible at the base of the painting.

The use of blues and violets in their garments, instead of the traditional red, is another detail to catch our attention. Blue symbolizes heavenly grace. The Virgin Mary is often depicted wearing blue. Blue also represents hope, good health, and the state of servitude. Purple colors are always associated with royalty.

For me, this is an awe-inspiring painting, which makes me wonder: why does nobody paint like this anymore?

10. The Virgin of the Grapes by Mignard

The Virgin of the Grapes by Mignard - Oil on Canvas
(La Virgen de las Uvas de Mignard)

The Virgin of the Grapes was painted by the French artist Pierre Mignard in 1640, and is displayed in the Louvre. The size is 47.6 x 37 inches.

In the background, the dark landscape, partially covered by a curtain in the foreground, is in silence and harmony. The Child Jesus looks at us with gentleness from underneath the thin veil of His mother; the veil symbolizes purity. The Virgin's blue mantle alludes to the sky, and the red color evokes her love. The apples could be a sign of Original Sin and the grapes that the Virgin and the Child take into their hands symbolize the Eucharist and the sacrifice of Christ our Redeemer.

Being a mom, I instantly connect with this portrait. There is an expression of great tenderness here. I do have a toddler, and he loves grapes! What else can I say? This painting really inspires me to be a more patient and loving mom, while I live through the stage called the "terrible twos."

11. The Virgin of the Rocks by Leonardo Da Vinci

This is an oil painting by Leonardo da Vinci which is exhibited at the Louvre. It measures nearby 78.3 × 48.0 inches.

"As the name indicates, the scene shows a rocky grotto, where four figures are sitting together on the stone floor in a pyramid form.

To the right the Archangel Gabriel welcomes us to the scene with an enigmatic gaze, pointing to the child-figure of Saint John. With his other hand, the angel supports the Christ Child sitting next to him. At the apex of the pyramid sits the Virgin whose hand is raised, palm-down, over the head of the infant Christ, as if giving him a blessing.

Gabriel's hand, which is pointing to the infant John, forms a horizontal line in the space between the Virgin's hand and the head of Christ, seems to tell us to imitate him, and as if completing an invisible cross. Meanwhile, the Christ Child tiny right arm is raised in a gesture of benediction, aimed at the infant Saint John, who clasps his hands in prayer. The circle is completed by the Madonna who extends her arm to encircle the head of the infant John."

Besides the meaning, the impression of depth in the background, as well as the technique of sfumato, which allows colors to shade gradually into one another, are the features that caught my attention.

12. L'Innocence by Bouguereau

L'Innocence by Bouguereau
(La Inocencia de Bouguereau)

This masterpiece, L'Innocence, was created by the French painter William-Adolphe Bouguereau in 1893. It is the only painting listed here that I haven't seen in person because it is from a private collection. When I look at this image, I see purity and tenderness in the exchange of love between a mother and her child.

I think everybody has their own way of being heavenly inspired. My husband, for instance, finds inspiration by listening to Gregorian chant while he is in the shower (awkward). I am not going to judge; each of us are called to holiness in a unique way.

The use of religious art to inspire a desire for holiness is outstanding. It has helped me to find divine inspiration, not only because the paintings are exquisite, but because of their celestial meaning. They have a priceless essence hard to get in a modern world.

I am inspired by Christian art and its history. I chose my son's name after one of the archangels, and, inspired by its symbolism, I bought a L'Innocence reproduction to be displayed in his nursery. I even decided to have a picture taken of my son and I in a similar pose. (I couldn't get a live lamb, but it's quite close imitation, don't you think?)

Inspired by Religious Art

Please share your thoughts with us! What is your favorite religious painting?

[Read next: Why does the Virgin Mary Have So Many Names, Titles, and Feasts?]

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12 Inspiring Religious Paintings & Their Meanings

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Being Catholic doesn't mean that I spend all day praying, listening to Christian music, and watching EWTN. When I travel, I visit museums as part of my must-see list. On previous trips I didn't look forward to seeing religious paintings at all, but to my own surprise, they were what captivated me the most.

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The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, in Santa Maria delle Grazie, is one of the most famous works in the world, full of religious and artistic meanings.

Leonardo da Vinci's Last Supper is one of the most famous works of art - Christian and non-Christian - in the world. Also known as the Last Supper, it was painted by Leonardo between 1495 and 1499, in the refectory of the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan, commissioned by Ludovico il Moro. The subject represented is the Supper that we remember on Holy Thursday, with Jesus in the centre surrounded by the twelve apostles. The moment of the Institution of the Eucharist is not represented, nor the Washing of the Feet, but the moment following the words of Jesus "one of you will betray me".

The work marks a great change in the history of art, thanks to the expressive style that Leonardo chooses for the subject: the sacredness of the moment is expressed in the most human dimension, through the shocked expressions of each apostle. There are many copies and paintings of the Last Supper, a much-loved subject. Many artists have reinterpreted the work or taken inspiration from it: Leonardo's Last Supper has entered the imagination and homes of many with paintings and prints.

The technique chosen by Leonardo was an example of his experimentation, even if it proved to be unsuccessful: not having followed the traditional fresco techniques, the painting began to degrade after a few decades. Many artists, not all experts, took care of retouching parts of the painting. For this reason, the Last Supper is one of the most restored works ever and has different levels of modifications.

In addition to the restoration work, the Last Supper was subject to numerous interpretations of meaning, some even controversial and unfounded. An example is the idea that gave birth to the novel "The Da Vinci Code" by writer Dan Brown. This interpretation held that the disciple next to Jesus was actually Mary Magdalene and that the message passed through this work that Magdalene had been Christ's lover.

Where is the Last Supper?

Leonardo's Last Supper is located in the refectory of the convent of Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan. The church of the convent had been chosen as the place for the celebration of Mass by the Sforza family. Leonardo, as was his custom, made numerous studies before making the work - for example, the preparatory drawing for the Head of Christ is preserved in the Brera Art Gallery. The restoration and modification interventions were not the only rescue operations of the work: during the Second World War, the work was protected with sandbags mounted on scaffolding to make it survive as much as possible unscathed from the bombings. Now the refectory is the exhibition site of the Last Supper.

Last Supper Leonardo analysis

The numerous analyses carried out over the years have produced different interpretations of the characters and their features. One of the first things to underline is the human dimension of representation. Jesus is represented without a halo and differs from the apostles only in the central and isolated position. The expression on Jesus' face is full of meaning: the eyes are lowered, the lips half-open, to testify the suffering for the announcement just made to his friends. The positions of the apostles express the agitation and upheaval of the moment. The structure of the work is framed by the horizontal line of the table, on which you can see detailed dishes and crockery, and by the architecture in the background. The apostles are distributed in groups of three and each of them is characterised differently in the position.

The apostles at the Last Supper

The group on the far left of the work is made up of Bartolomeo, Giacomo and Andrea. The first two lean out towards Jesus with enthusiasm while the third raises his hands. Emotions are conveyed by the poses, thanks to Leonardo's studies on the human body and the expressiveness of gestures.

In the second group from the left are Judas, Peter and John. Judas is recognised because he carries a bag of coins in his hand and in the agitation he is portrayed while he drops a salt shaker and withdraws. Peter has a knife in his hand, a symbol of his fiery character and an omen of the episode in which he will cut off the ear of the high priest's servant in Gethsemane. He is bent forward towards John, and touches him with one hand, to ask him to ask Jesus who the traitor is. John, portrayed with delicate and youthful features, listens to Peter's words with his head bent towards him.

In the first group on the right next to Jesus are Thomas, James the Greater and Philip. The figure of Thomas is completely in the background and some hypotheses say that it was added later than the original project. James the Greater is portrayed with a strong expression and his position gives the idea of a sudden movement. Filippo puts his hands to his chest with a heartfelt gesture.

The last three apostles, Matthew, Judas Thaddeus and Simon, are represented as they are animatedly confronted with each other, struck by the news just received.

The washing of the feet

Leonardo's work is also significant for the choice of the moment of the Supper to represent. The moment of dinner is interrupted by an event even more important than the revelation of the traitor: that of the washing of the feet. Leonardo's Last Supper is the image we recall when we think of Holy Thursday, but it is the washing of the feet that we see being enacted during the celebrations of Holy Thursday - although not this year.

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The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci - Holyart.com Blog

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The Last Supper by Leonardo da Vinci, in Santa Maria delle Grazie, is one of the most famous works in the world.

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In 2006, the artist Hayv Kahraman moved to the US, then occupying her homeland, Iraq, and began painting a woman who has been a fixture of her work ever since. With parchment-pale skin, a swoosh of raven hair, scarlet lips and strong brows, this figure recalls the characters set against unadorned backgrounds in 12th-century Baghdad's miniature painting, while her apple-round breasts and cool, heavy-lidded gaze suggest a quattrocento nude, rendered with the clean lines of Japanese prints.

It is a composite identity its maker understands well. Kahraman was 11 when she was smuggled out of Iraq during the first Gulf war. Her family settled in Sweden, where she spent her teens; she now lives in Los Angeles. "As an immigrant, I've always felt on the periphery of society," she says.

Watching her mother work as a translator for government agencies, Kahraman saw the demand for refugees to repeat their trauma. "It creates an economy of pain where suffering becomes a currency," she says. "So how do we get unstuck? How do we not only survive but thrive?"

In the past 15 years she has used her painted women to investigate the refugee condition from often surprising angles. The figures have become contortionists; canvases have been sliced up and rewoven into abstract patterns, in an allegory of the fragmented nature of memory, culture and trauma. A recent Covid-centric series interrogated the martial language of immunology, in which the human fortress is seen to be "invaded" or "colonised" by foreign bodies.

Her latest exhibition, Gut Feelings, draws on recent research into the possibility of actively "rewiring" neural pathways through the gut microbiome. "The bacteria in our gut is responsible for regulating hormones like dopamine and serotonin that give us feelings," she says.

It is clear, though, from her work's unsettling tone, that she sees any restorative process as complicated. Beauty is tempered by a jolt of body horror as the women in her paintings strike acrobat poses, entangled in thick, intestine-like nets, or crouch low, passing ropes of lilac guts between them. In small canvases she calls "neurobusts", a woman's body has been fragmented into a bust and displayed on a steel rod like a museum artefact. Sausage-like innards protrude from her mouth. Umbilical cords and blowjobs come to mind. These challenging images make us reflect on what we are taught to consider "normal": "I was brainwashed into thinking anything Euro-American-centric is the ideal," Kahraman says.

The ambiguity that permeates Kahraman's work goes far beyond its mix of the gorgeous and grotesque. Are these female prisoners or nest-builders, nurtured or force-fed? "It's not about erasing the pain and entanglement," she says. "It's about thinking, feeling and working through it."

Body of work - recent pieces by Kahraman

Entanglements With Torshi, 2021
Kahraman has found novel ways to "collaborate with microbes" in her paintings exploring the gut microbiome. The lilac in this painting comes from the Middle Eastern beetroot torshi. "Bacteria permeates the vegetables to create this fermented food," she says. "My mum and I used to paint with it when I was a kid."

Neurobust No 1, 2021 (pictured top)
Kahraman's interest in neuroscience began with the loss of her mother. The artist discovered that one of the last books she had been reading before her death concerned "neurosculpting", the potential for changing neural pathways that were previously considered set. "In the field of PTSD, this is massive," she says. "It was interesting that she, an Iraqi immigrant, had chosen this book."

Beard-Gut-Brain Axis, 2021
Kahraman has begun experimenting with painting on flax, another product of bacteria permeating a plant - and what linen is made from. Linen had a strong association with Venice, "the heart of European aesthetics", she says. "I want to dismantle that."

Entanglements No 1, 2021
The artist typically uses her own body as a model, however she doesn't see her figures as self-portraits. "It's not individualistic; it's more about creating a collective of women," she says.

Hayv Kahraman: Gut Feelings is at the Mosaic Rooms, London, from 25 February until 29 May.

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Hayv Kahraman: 'I was brainwashed into thinking anything Euro-American-centric is the ideal'

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The Kurdish artist draws on Baghdad's miniature tradition, self-portraiture, plant bacteria and neurosculpting for artworks that provoke a gut reaction

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Artist:

Picture:

Painting Name:

Religion:

Made of:

Year:

Explanation:

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Painting Name: The Sarcophagus

Religion: Christianity

Made of: Marble

Year: 359 C.E.

Explanation: This is a large decorated coffin made of marble where Junius Bassus sculpted scenes of both the old and new testaments separated by columns. Some scenes are the Triumphal Entry into Jerusalem, the sacrifice of Issac, Adam and Even in the garden of Eden and more. This piece was created to depict the scenes of Christs life.