As Easter approaches, Christianity’s most important holidays and events unfold at a breakneck pace: Jesus’ Condemnation, Crucifixion, Disposition, and Entombment (all represented in the Stations of the Cross), and Resurrection. It all starts with the Last Supper, when Jesus gathered his 12 Apostles for a final meal, called out Peter as His soon-to-be denier, and basically let Judas identify himself as His imminent betrayer. For centuries, this momentous meal has been captured in art, and I’ve seen it depicted in all kinds of media around the world. Read about the top five depictions of the Last Supper >
Tag Archives: art
Passionate Art From a Passionate Man: Caravaggio’s Best Works
His art was as enthralling as his life. His paintings, always on canvas, were revolutionary. A master of chiaroscuro and realism, Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio ushered in a dramatic new style of art in the late 1500s and early 1600s that mesmerized some and appalled others, but which established him as one of the leading Baroque artists of his era. How he found time to create such an impressive œuvre amazes me: Caravaggio spent much of his time brawling, carousing, and bouncing around the Mediterranean, from his hometown of Milan to Rome to Naples to Malta to Sicily and back to Italy, being imprisoned, fleeing from a death sentence and warrants for his arrest for manslaughter and assault, and being expelled from the Knights of Malta after a membership of only half a year. And he did all of that by the time he died under mysterious circumstances at age 38. He left behind an impressive canon that easily established himself as one of my favorite artists—but one who was nearly forgotten for centuries. Read about my top five works by Caravaggio >
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Let There Be Sight
On the Feast of St. Lucy, celebrated on December 13, followers of the Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, and Eastern Orthodox faiths venerate the Christian martyr who died a virgin at age 21 in 304. Patron saint of the blind and visually impaired, Lucy’s fame spread around the world, from celebratory processionals in Scandinavia to Dante’s Divine Comedy to the naming of St. Lucia in the Caribbean. I had the good fortune to view the saint’s body, enshrined in a glass-front coffin, in the Church of Sts. Jeremiah and Lucy in Venice, Italy, in 2008, but before and after that, I’ve always been intrigued by how she’s treated in art. Read about the top five artistic depictions of St. Lucy >
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The Highest-Quality Art in Norway
One of the world’s most renowned paintings is also one of its most disturbing and mysterious. Almost as famous for its history of thefts as for its quality and impact on the art world, The Scream anchors a tremendous collection of excellent art at Oslo’s National Gallery, Norway’s biggest and best art museum. This one piece alone makes a visit here necessary, but I found so many others that made a wonderfully lasting impression. Read about it >
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Busted: The World’s Best Heads
An artist’s ability to carve a human head and have the result bear an uncanny likeness to the model never fails to impress me. Such busts may very well cause you to do a double-take, as you question yourself whether that is the real flesh-and-blood person, or their image re-created in marble, copper, stone, or whatever other material the sculptor has chosen to employ. Some, of course, rise head and shoulders above the rest. Read about the world’s top five busts >
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St. Stephen Rocks
At last count, there are at least nine St. Stephens, including a Byzantine monk, an English abbot, and a Russian painter and missionary. I’m familiar with only two: Stephen I, the man who united Hungary into one nation a millennium ago and served as its first king for nearly 40 years, and my namesake, the Biblical Stephen who was stoned to death for his faith, thus becoming Christianity’s first martyr. With the latter’s feast day coming up, on December 26, it seems like an appropriate time to take a look at how this Stephen is presented in art—very often, but not always, holding the rocks that were used to kill him. Read about the top five depictions of St. Stephen >
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Marking Mark’s Feast Day
April 25 marks the Feast Day of St. Mark, one of the Four Evangelists who wrote one of the gospels and spread the Word of God. His life mission took him around the eastern Mediterranean, to Cyprus and northern Africa, and his death, in 68 AD, is the stuff of legend. Over the centuries, he has been portrayed as both a young and an old man in just about every form of art imaginable. Read more about the top five depictions of St. Mark >
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Michigan’s Memorable Museums
Michigan winters can often be brutal. For those who prefer not to have frozen appendages while strolling around the excellent Frederik Meijer Gardens & Sculpture Park or the grounds of one of the most beautiful capitols in the United States, the state offers plenty of indoor diversions, including its assemblage of hundreds of museums. They run the gamut, from traditional art and history museums to the bizarre Pickle Barrel House Museum and the astoundingly specific Nun Doll Museum. Scattered around the state, from its southernmost border to the northern tip of the Upper Peninsula, these repositories will reward you with new knowledge. Read about the top five museums in Michigan >
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Seattle’s Asian Art at Its Best
I had spent one rainy day in Seattle, Washington, beneath the city’s surface, wending my way through subterranean streets in the Seattle Underground, followed by a rainy night in my outstanding accommodations, the Sorrento Hotel. More of the same the next day took me indoors to one of the world’s best aquariums and then to one of the city’s top museums, the Seattle Asian Art Museum. This microcosm of Asian art encompasses everything from hanging scrolls to Buddha statues, cosmetic boxes to jade landscapes, that spans a broad range of countries and centuries. Read about it >
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The Eternally Beautiful Churches of Rome
Rome and religion are intrinsically intertwined. Completely surrounding the Catholic mini-state of the Vatican City, the Italian capital has been influenced by the church, and vice versa, for centuries. Italians still go pazzo for Il Papa, and a papal Mass in the Basilica of St. Peter is an unforgettable experience (at least, from what I’ve heard). Of course, getting into one takes a lot of doing, so most of us will have to be satisfied with just popping into a regular run-of-the-mill church that a pope may or may not have visited at some point. But in Rome, that means you inevitably step into a dazzling place that could stand on its own against most museums. Filled with long histories, incredible architecture, and art by some of Italy’s heavyweights, the churches of Rome — and there are many of them — rank among the most beautiful in the world. The first one I entered was so sublime that I needed no further motivation to visit every other one I came across. Read about the top five churches in Rome >
Stephen Travels 