THE GOOD SHEPHERD
May 10th 2025
“The Good Shepherd”, Third Century, Catacombs of Priscilla, Rome. This fresco was painted on the ceiling of a burial chamber in the Catacombs of Priscilla in Rome. The male figure in the centre looks like the Good Shepherd from
CRIVELLI’S MADONNA OF THE SWALLOW
May 3rd 2025
“The Madonna of the Swallow”, Carlo Crivelli, about 1430/5, National Gallery, London This painting gets its name from the swallow on the top left. For us swallows are significant as a herald of spring and new growth, but in 15th Century
CIMA’S INCREDULITY OF ST THOMAS
April 26th 2025
“The Incredulity of St Thomas” Giovanni Battista Cima da Conegliano, 1502-4, National Gallery London. This painting should be familiar to anyone who has visited the National Gallery’s Sainsbury Wing. Of course it was not painted for an art gallery, but
HABERSCHRACK’S THE THREE MARY’S AT THE TOMB
April 19th 2025
c. 1470, Nicolaus Haberschrack, National Museum, Krakow. I don’t remember this painting from my visit some years go to the gallery in Krakow where it now hangs. What I remember most about that visit is my own astonishment at
THE WAY TO CALVARY
April 12th 2025
“The Way to Calvary”, from the Orsini Polytypch c.1326-34, Simone Martini, Musée du Lourve, Paris, currently in the National Gallery Exhibition: “Siena the Rise of Painting, 1300 – 1350”. A great crowd pours out through a narrow city gate. There
The Woman taken in Adultery by Guercino
April 5th 2025
“The Woman taken in Adultery”, Guercino (Giovanni Francesco Barbieri) c.1621, Dulwich Picture Gallery Giovanni Francesco Barbieri was known as Guercino because of a squint in one of his eyes. But obviously, with his good eye, he made up any lack
Murrillo’s Return of the Prodigal Son
March 29th 2025
“The Return of the Prodigal Son”, Esteban Murillo, 1667-70, National Gallery of Art Washington. This large canvas was one of a series painted for the Hospital de la Caridad in Seville to illustrate the seven works of mercy. This
Simone Martini’s Orsini Polyptych I
March 22nd 2025
“Angel Gabriel” and “The Virgin Annunciate” from the Orsini Polytypch, 1326-24, Simone Martini, Collection KMSKA, Flemish Community. Four panels of poplar wood, each about the size of an A4 page, all painted on both sides and hinged together so that
St Joseph and the Child Jesus by Juan Martínez Montañés
March 15th 2025
“Saint Joseph and the Child Jesus”, 1610 -20, Juan Martínez Montañés, Real parroquia de Santa María Magdalena, Sevilla. This St Joseph is young, good looking. At 5ft 7, the he sculpture is almost life size. His hair and his
THE TEMPTATION OF CHRIST IN THE BOOK OF KELLS
March 8th 2025
“The Temptation of Jesus”, Book of Kells. folio 202v, late Eight Century Trinity College Dublin. Satisfactory images of Christ’s temptations are very few. How do you convincingly depict the devil? This illustration of Christ and the devil attempts to
