Francesco Podesti (1800 –1895), the skilled painter and portrait artist, was entrusted with the task of realising a work to commemorate the proclamation of the dogma of the Immaculate Conception in the Vatican. The work was to be frescoed onto the walls of the Borgia Tower, in a room that is adjacent to Raphael’s Fire […]
In this month of September, we celebrate the memorial of the Most Holy Name of Mary and, in the city of Rome, there is a magnificent Church dedicated to her name in the Trajan Forum. In 1683, the news of the siege of Vienna arrived in Rome and this brought with it the expectation that […]
The Battle of Vienna is a huge, imposing oil canvass that stands 9m by 4.5m in the John Sobieski room of the Vatican Museums. The masterpiece recounts the ending of the Turkish siege of Vienna by the Catholic army led by the Polish King, John Sobieski, on the 11th September 1683. The polish painter, Jan […]
Christmas is the ideal time to contemplate the Lord’s birth through one of the most beautiful works of art: the Nativity by Barocci. Frederico Barocci (1530-1612), is one of the most important mannerist painters of the 16th century who applied an extraordinary use of colour, characterised by warm colour shades, to his artistic work. The […]
Pietro di Cristoforo Vannucci, better known as Pietro Perugino (1450-1523), was an Umbrian painter of the High Renaissance who realised the exceptional fresco entitled ‘The Handing of the Keys to St Peter’ between 1481/2 in the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Rome. The fresco forms part of a series of mural decorations that gave the Sistine […]
The 26th July is the feast of St Joachim and Anna, Jesus’ grandparents, and therefore we wanted to turn our attention to this Roman parish dedicated to Saint Joachim which is adorned with remarkable beauty and has been entrusted to the Redemptorist Father’s since 1898. In 1878, when the Ripetta bridge was built and the […]
The Temptations of Christ (1480-1482) Botticelli, Sistine Chapel St Luke’s account of the temptation of Jesus in the desert is the Gospel reading on the first Sunday of Lent and it also signals the start of the penitential itinerary that will lead us to Easter Sunday. The representation of the devil as a tempter is […]
“The celestial woman had black hair that protruded from a green mantle that flowed down her body from head to foot. Below the mantle she wore a white robe tied around the waist with a rose coloured sash ….”I am who I am in the Divine Trinity. I am the Virgin of Revelation.” With these […]
Just below the main altar in the splendid Basilica of St Mary Majors, Rome, it is possible to venerate the precious relic of Our Lord’s crib. The relics are protected in an elegant crystal reliquary in the form of a manger which is supported by four golden angels. It is closed by a lid […]
The first “living” crib was created on Christmas Eve 1223 in Greccio, Italy. Here, St Francis of Assisi, wanted to relive the happy Bethlehem night in which the Almighty God was born, wrapped “in swaddling clothes and placed … in a manger” by His mother. (Lk 2:7) To create this profound experience, he made […]