Judith and Holofernes: The Story Behind Art’s Most Shocking Beheading
Judith and Holofernes is one of the bloodiest stories in the Bible, and one of the most painted. A beautiful…
The Samson and Delilah Story: Hero, Love, and Hair
The Samson and Delilah story is one of the most dramatic tales in the whole Bible: a hero with the…
10 Religious Paintings by Pieter Bruegel the Elder
Pieter Bruegel the Elder is remembered first as the great painter of peasants, of hunters in the snow and dancing…
Bruegel’s Tower of Babel: Two Survivors, One Lost
The Tower of Babel is the most famous painting by Pieter Bruegel the Elder, the leading Netherlandish painter of the…
The Fallen Angel by Alexandre Cabanel: Lucifer’s Tears
The Fallen Angel (in French, L’Ange dechu) is one of the most haunting religious paintings of the nineteenth century, made…
The Hail Mary Prayer: Full Text, Meaning, and the Art It Inspired
The Hail Mary prayer in English and Latin, its meaning, and the paintings that show it line by line, from Fra Angelico and Simone Martini to Raphael and Caravaggio.
Adam and Eve Paintings and the Loss of Paradise
Adam and Eve paintings through art history, from Durer and Cranach to Titian, Rubens, Hans Baldung and Gustav Klimt, with the meaning of the apple, the serpent and the fig leaf.
Psalm 121, My Help Comes from the Lord: Full Text (KJV) and Meaning
My help comes from the Lord. Psalm 121, the pilgrim psalm, through Christian art: the Songs of Ascents, the Keeper who never sleeps, and the angel who guards the traveler.
Psalm 91: Full Text (KJV), Meaning, and the Prayer of Protection
Under his wings: Psalm 91 through Christian art, from Christ treading the beasts at Ravenna to the guardian angels of Cortona and Verrocchio.
The Prayer of St. Francis: Full Text, Meaning, and the Saint in Art
The peace prayer of St Francis, make me an instrument of your peace, through Christian art. Its true origin, the saint behind it, and masterpieces by Giotto, Bellini, Zurbaran, Caravaggio and El Greco.