Don't Go in the Attic! Wait! No! GO in the Attic!

A 400-year-old painting that might have been executed by Italian master Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio has been found in an attic in southern France.

Eric Turquin, the French expert who retrieved the painting two years ago, says it is in an exceptional state of conservation and estimates its value at 120 million euros (about £100m).

The picture, whose authenticity has not been established, had been left for more than 150 years in a property in the outskirts of Toulouse.

Called 'Judith Beheading Holofernes,' it depicts the biblical heroine Judith beheading an Assyrian general, and is thought to have been painted in Rome circa 1604-05.

Judith, a widow, was said to have seduced Holofernes before getting him drunk and killing him with his own sword. 

Typically for a Caravaggio painting, it is the moment of the greatest dramatic impact - the decapitation itself - that it depicted.

Fitting with his mastery of light and shadow, which the Italian developed into a technique known as chiaroscuro, the painting is dramatically lit from the side to emphasise the facial expressions of the murderer and her maid, Abra.

Mr Turquin told a press conference today that there 'will never be a consensus' about the name of the artist.

Caravaggio is remarkable. He did a lot of Catholic art. Do you see a theme?

Beheading of John the Baptist

David with Goliath

Abraham and Isaac

Crayola Feast of Blessed Fra Angelico, February 18th

A little late, but I saw the video today and wondered if any of Fra Angelico's paintings is on display?

He was known to contemporaries as Fra Giovanni da Fiesole (Brother John of Fiesole and Fra Giovanni Angelico (Angelic Brother John). In modern Italian he is called il Beato Angelico (Blessed Angelic One); the common English name Fra Angelico means the "Angelic friar".
In 1982 Pope John Paul II proclaimed his beatification in recognition of the holiness of his life, thereby making the title of "Blessed" official.Friesole is sometimes misinterpreted as being part of his formal name, but it was merely the name of the town where he took his vows as a Domincan Friar, and was used by contemporaries to separate him from other Fra Giovannis. He is listed in the Roman Martyrology as Beatus Ioannes Faesulanus, cognomento Angelicus—"Blessed Giovanni of Fiesole, known as 'the Angelic' "

The Annunciation

Vasari wrote of Fra Angelico that "it is impossible to bestow too much praise on this holy father, who was so humble and modest in all that he did and said and whose pictures were painted with such facility and piety."

Deposition From the Cross

 What made me think of Fra Angelica today...

Bird is the Word

An interesting story about the unofficial portrait painter of the Vatican...

Shen Jiawei

VATICAN CITY — Artist Shen Jiawei’s paintings of Chinese soldiers during the Cultural Revolution were so popular with Mao’s regime that 250,000 copies of his most famous work were made into propaganda posters and distributed throughout the country.
Four decades later, Shen now has a different patron commissioning his work: He has become, somewhat inexplicably, the unofficial portrait artist of the Vatican. He painted the first official portrait of Pope Francis and recently completed a huge rendition of the second most powerful man in Rome, Cardinal George Pell, the Vatican’s money guy.

Here's the portrait.

Reminds me of....

Always Listen to Your Father

Or you might as well cut of your ear. From Wikipedia: The father of Vincent van Gogh tried unsuccessfully to get his son to voluntarily take treatment for his disorders in Gheel. See the post below about St. Dymphna to find out why!

Self Portrait with Bandaged Ear, Van Gogh

Father Z. Creeps Me Out...AGAIN!

"My friends, the Devil is real. (Pope) Francis sure believes in the Enemy.

Let’s review.
The Devil and the fallen angels hate you.
They have angelic abilities. They never sleep, never tire, are never distracted, have no need to travel from point a to b, and they never miss what you are up to.
Think this through.
Imagine what sort of profile on you some government agency could put together.
Angels, the holy angels and the fallen, have missed nothing of your live since the instant of your conception.  And they never forget anything.
Fallen angels, the enemy, the Devil, can’t literally get into our heads or thoughts or touch our will, but they don’t have to in order to know us really well.
And they hate you.   They hate you.  They hate you.
With relentless malice the “prince of this world” will work to trick you into letting him have some control in your life.  Demons will cleverly and with perfect timing stimulate appetites and passions based on how well they know your proclivities.   They strive to twist your heart and mind away from God in order to diminish even by a little the love everyone will share in heaven as they shine in the magnified glory of the Trinity.
The Devil and other demons are always held in check by God.  They cannot simply have their way with us or the material cosmos around us unless God permits it according to His plan.   But they are devious and tireless.
It is good that Pope Francis talks about the Devil, the enemy of our soul, the prince of this world.
Remember your Guardian Angels.  Call on them to help you.  Remember Our Lady, Queen of Angels. Remember St. Joseph, whom we invoke in his beautiful litany as the “Terror daemonum… the Terror of demons”.

 St. Michael Vanquishing Satan 

Raphael, 1518

Feast Day of Fra Angelico, February 18

Not a saint! Blessed, thanks to a decision by Pope John Paul II, but the term "Fra Angelico" means "Sainted Brother". His real name was Guido di Pietro, but his contemporaries called him "Fra Giovanni da Fiesole" (Brother John of Fiesole). Pope JPII also named Fra Angelico the patron of painters.

Coronation of the Virgin

The Annunciation 

St. Augustine and the Devil

Michael Pacher was a Renaissance painter, and this one is oil on wood. I don't know what it means or why he painted it....but it's pretty cool!

January 25 - The Conversion of Saint Paul

 

Today we contemplate the conversion of St. Paul.

The painter is Caravaggio, considered at one time to be "the most famous painter in Rome." He was a trouble maker - after being inducted into the Knights of Malta, he was eventually thrown out for being "a foul and rotten member." He did two paintings of beheadings - David with Goliath's head, and St. John the Baptist's head on a platter. In both cases, he used his own image as the head. Pretty weird...

Mystery SOLVED!

 

What a break! Peter Paul Rubens was there to paint the scene! It's a chasuble!

Marriage at Cana

 

This work is by Giotto Di Bondone (1266-1337). I'm assuming that's St. John sitting two down from Jesus. He's the only Gospel writer to mention the wedding in his writings.

The Visitation

 

Mary visits Elizabeth, as painted by Domenico Ghirlandaio (1449-1494).

Today's Gospel according to Luke...

"Mary set out
and traveled to the hill country in haste
to a town of Judah,
where she entered the house of Zechariah
and greeted Elizabeth.
When Elizabeth heard Mary’s greeting,
the infant leaped in her womb,
and Elizabeth, filled with the Holy Spirit,
cried out in a loud voice and said,
“Blessed are you among women,
and blessed is the fruit of your womb.
And how does this happen to me,
that the mother of my Lord should come to me?
For at the moment the sound of your greeting reached my ears,
the infant in my womb leaped for joy.
Blessed are you who believed
that what was spoken to you by the Lord
would be fulfilled.”