The Old Masters often had their individual types of female beauties: perhaps muses or mistresses, who were the models for their Madonnas, Venuses or Dianas. Usually when we see particular type of female face repeated in many paintings of one artist, we tend to assume that it may be a…
Thoughtful angels and sad Madonna
The two angels looking up is one of the most popular motifs of an old masters’ art, present in nowadays’ pop-culture. Everyone has seen those angels – and some people even know the rest of the painting. It is a Sistine Madonna, painted by Raphael. Have you ever had a…
Depressed muse
“Ophelia” is one of the most famous 19th-century English paintings. It was created in 1851-52 by John Everett Millais, and is now kept in the Tate Gallery in London. It depicts Ophelia, a character from Shakespeare’s play Hamlet, singing before she drowns in a river in Denmark. In 1848 John Everett Millais, William Holman…
A story of a dissolute monk who seduced a nun
May 1st is not only an International Workers’ Day. On this day each year in Prato Cathedral there is a presentation of the relic of the Virgin’s Girdle. According to the legend, the Girdle was dropped by the Virgin Mary from the sky to Saint Thomas the Apostle at or around the time of…
A boobie that nursed the Europe.
Whoever watched “Allo! Allo!”, is familiar with the idea of “Madonna with the Big Boobies”. And whoever visited the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp, had a chance to see the real version from 15th century. Depicting Virgin Mary showing her breast is not that shocking – as long…