Christian paintings

## Contents

* 1 Brief history of Christian paintings
* 2 Petite Gallery of Christian paintings
* 3 See also
* 4 External links

## Brief history of Christian paintings[edit]

The early Christian paintings were the wall frescoes of the Catacombs of Rome. The earliest works tend to employ Christian symbols (e.g. bread, wine, or the fish symbolizing Jesus)... The Early Christian period also includes the earliest known European illuminated manuscripts. [1] The imagery of the catacombs consisted of cryptic, if not hermetic, symbols of the salvation of the soul: orans figures, parable incidents, Old Testament parallels such as Noah in the Ark.  [2]

* Adam and Eve fresco.

* Good Shepherd fresco.

Cristo en la cruz y St. Luke by Francisco de Zurbarán.

According to legend, St. Luke the Evangelist was also the first Christian painter, and had painted the Virgin Mary from life. As a consequence he was the patron saint of painters. [3]

* Luke's icon

* St. Luke handing the icon painted by him to the Mother of God

* The Holy Virgin (detail). Part of a holy Crucifixion; painted in the middle of the XIIth c.

Rueland Frueauf the Elder, The Annunciation, ca. 1495.

Paolo Veronese, Baptism of Christ.

During the Middle Ages and the Renaissance, The Roman Catholic Church and The Orthodox Church supported the production of sacred art; outstanding painters were Giotto di Bondone, Hans Memling, Pietro Perugino, Albrecht Dürer, Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael. In the Medieval painting it was the Byzantines who determined how to depict human figures... the driving concern of the Byzantine style is the awe-inspiring presentation of holy figures, and to this end they are portrayed in hieratic (stiff and formal) postures, halo-crowned and serene of expression. [4] The Renaissance; "The fact is that at no period was religious artistry so fruitful; no other has bequeathed to us so many altarpieces, oratory pictures, Madonnas and saints. It was the age of countless pictures for pious confraternities, and it is quite probable that the artist, who was so often a member of the confraternity, infused something of his heart into his work." [5]

The Crucifixion, 14th century.

In Modern Times main Christian painters were, among a long list, El Greco, Nicolas Poussin, Francisco de Zurbarán, Anthony van Dyck, Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Cristóbal de Villalpando, Miguel Cabrera and Salvador Dalí. One who succeeds in arousing emotion is Eugene Delacroix, whose "Christ on Mt. Olivet" (1827), "Descent from the Cross" (1834), "Good Samaritan" at Mantua, "Christ Stilling the Tempest" (1849), and especially his Chapel of the Angels in the church of St. Sulpice (19th century), are examples of immortal passion and poetry. Ibidem Delacroix painted fourteen versions of the story "Christ Asleep during the Tempest while crossing the Lake of Gennesaret".

* Delacroix, Christ on the lake Genezareth.

* Delacroix, The Good Samaritan.

* Delacroix, St. Michael Defeats the Devil, in the Chapel of Angels.

* Joseph von Führich, Waldesruh, 1835.

* Pierre Puvis de Chavannes, Christian Inspiration.

Christ in the Garden of Gethsemane by Heinrich Hofmann.

Heinrich Hofmann (1824 - 1911) painted four of the most famous Christian works; his painting, Christ in Gethsemane (1890), is one of the most copied in the world. Warner Sallman (Chicago, 1892 – 1968), a Christian painter, made The Head of Christ, a well known portrait of Christ of which more than 500 million copies have been sold. [6]

The Head of Christ by Warner Sallman, 1941.

## Petite Gallery of Christian paintings[edit]

* Padre Eterno by Jose Maria Velasco.

* The Rest on the Flight to Egypt by Anthony van Dyck.

* The Holy Family on the Steps by Nicolas Poussin.

* The Kiss of Judas by Giotto di Bondone

* La Dolorosa by Cristóbal de Villalpando.

* Dispute Over the Sacrament by Raphael.

* Our Lady of Guadalupe

* The Vision of St. Bernard by Pietro Perugino.

* Aparición de San Pedro a San Pedro Nolasco by Francisco de Zurbarán.

* Rosary feast by Albrecht Dürer.

The Last Judgement by Hans Memling.

## See also[edit]

El cofrade de San Miguel by Saturnino Herran.

* History of painting
* Painting Galleries
* Famous Bible paintings
* Christian art
* Virgin Mary gallery
* Hagia Sophia
* Christmas Paintings

Nativity Scene by Anton Raphael Mengs.

The Eternal Father painting the Virgin of Guadalupe attributed to Joaquín Villegas.

El Greco, The Holy Trinity, 1577.

## External links[edit]

The icon of the Trinity by Andrej Rublëv.

* Religious Painting Catholic Encyclopedia.
* Art and the Bible.
* Sacred Images:Statues and Other Icons.
* Christian Masterpieces
* Coptic Christian Paintings

Crucifixion, Coptic painting.

The Seventh Plague by John Martin.

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, The Return of the Prodigal Son, 1667-1670.