Jan Brueghel’s Sermon on the Mount
June 12th 2026
“The Sermon on the Mount” Jan Bruegel the Elder, 1598, J. Paul Getty Museum, Los Angeles. This is Brueghel’s painting of the Sermon on the Mount. A large crowd has gathered in a clearing at the edge
O’ Kelly’s Mass in a Connemara Cabin
June 6th 2026
“Mass in a Conemara Cabin”, Aloyius O’Kelly, 1883, National Gallery of Ireland A young priest gives the final blessing at Mass. He wears white vestments, and an image of the Sacred Heart in the background suggests that the Mass may
TRINITY WITH CHRIST CRUCIFIED
May 30th 2026
Christ’s heart is just below the centre point of this painting and the asymmetrical distribution of colour is complemented by the symmetry of the composition. Of course, no human hand can really depict the Trinity. As Jesus says in the
Giotto’s Pentecost at Padua
May 22nd 2026
“Pentecost”, Giotto di Bondone, 1305, Capella Scrovegni, Padua. Giotto frescoed the walls of the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua with 38 scenes drawn from the life of Christ, the Virgin, and her parents, Joachim and Anna. He arranged them in chronological
Zurbarán’s Immaculate Conception with Saints Joachim and Anne
May 16th 2026
“The Immaculate Conception with Saints Joachim and Anne”, Zurbarán, 1638-9, National Galleries of Scotland. Although the dogma that Our lady was conceived with our original sin was not defined until 1854, in Zurbarán’s Seville it was widely believed and some
ZURBARÁN’S VIRGIN OF MERCY OF LAS CUEVAS
May 8th 2026
“The Virgin of Mercy of Las Cuevas”, Francisco de Zurbarán, c.1644-55, Museo de Belles Artes, Seville. This work was painted for the sacristy of the Carthusian monastery of Santa María de las Cuevas just outside Seville. It was intended to
TITUS THE ARTIST’S SON
May 2nd 2026
“Titus, the Artist’s Son”, Rembrandt c. 1657, The Wallace Collection, London. This portrait, which Rembrandt made of his son, Titus, is generally dated to about 1657, which would make Titus 16 years old. Titus was the only one of four
THE GOOD SHEPHERD
April 24th 2026
Statuette of the Good Shepherd, 18th Century reworking of a figure from a late 3rd or 4th Century sarcophagus, Vatican Museums. To our Christian eyes, this figure of the Good Shepherd carrying the sheep on his shoulders surely derives
CARAVAGGIO’S SUPPER AT EMMAUS
April 18th 2026
The Supper at Emmaus, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, 1601, National Gallery London. Caravaggio painted this for the wealthy art collector, Ciriaco Mattei. In the Palazzo Mattei, the naturalism of this work would have been striking and perhaps most significantly, it
THE DOUBT OF ST THOMAS AT SAN DOMINGO DE SILOS
April 11th 2026
“The Doubt of St Thomas”, late 11th Century, Lower Cloister, Real Abadía de San Domingo de Silos, Burgos, Spain. This relief carving, entitled “The Doubt of St Thomas”, comes from a corner pillar of the lower cloister at the Abbey
