I like old images of less known saints: sometimes it is a real challenge (and lots of fun) to decipher depictions of now forgotten legends. Some saints used to be popular in past centuries (especially regionally) but they are no longer recognisable to nowadays viewers. That is often the case…
Recently I have been studying iconography of St Mary Magdalene, so this post starts with her. After his resurrection, Christ appeared to Magdalene and that scene is called Noli me tangere (earlier I wrote about this scene HERE). Those are words he said to her – nowadays it is translated…
Federico II Gonzaga, the ruler of Mantua, decided one day that he wants to have a nice summer residence, and he commissioned Palazzo del Te, completed in 1525-1534 by an architect and painter Giulio Romano, pupil of Raphael. I have once mentioned Giulio Romano before, in a post on erotic…
In 2003 a group of wooden churches in Lesser Poland has been inscribed into UNESCO World Heritage List, and among them was also a church of St Michael Archangel in Binarowa. The church in its present form has been built at the turn of the 15th and 16th centuries, and…
Lately in Polish social media suddenly one of the 19th century paintings made a significant appearance: it is “Jewess with Oranges” by Aleksander Gierymski and I decided to write about it here. It is going to be about relation between painting and photography in the 19th century – I have…