San Giovanni Battista art show

Here are some pictures from the opening of a St. John the Baptist themed art exhibit in the days around his feast day, June 24th.  Saint John the Baptist is the patron saint of Florence, his feast day is marked by festivities in the city and fireworks at night.   In the exhibit work from first year students, I being one of them, who have continued to do a six month tirocinio or apprenticeship in different bottegas and organizations around the city. The Cardinal of Florence was there for the opening of the show.

 

I did a small oil painting of St. John the Baptist (I posted a picture below) using traditional symbolic elements.  I depicted him holding a banner supported by a rod which reads "Ecce Agnus Dei" or "behold the Lamb of God".  This signifies the role of St. John the Baptist, he is the "voice that cries out in the desert 'Prepare the way of the Lord.'" (John 1: 23).  He is wearing camel hair to signify his penitential life out in the wilderness covered by a red drapery to symbolize his martyrdom.

 

Pictures were taken by Alberto Macherelli, one of the apprentices.  

 

St. Cecilia

Here's a painting I completed a while back of St. Cecilia. My second painting with egg tempera.

Preparatory Drawing

Here's a drawing for an egg tempera painting I'm currently working on:

First Tempera Painting

Here's my first tempera painting and it's preparatory drawing from a few months back. Now I have someone teaching me how to work with tempera, so I'm improving. I am liking tempera painting. Also in the process I am preparing my own wooden panels, which is a satisfying thing to learn. With the painting I'm currently working on I'm preparing my own paint with pigments I buy (with egg tempera it's really easy). I believe it has been valuable for me to learn how to make a painting from "scratch" in this way.

Via Crucis

For our final project of the first year of studies at my school, the students worked on different projects. I was assigned to work with my friend, Fernando, to design and create a stations of the cross, or a via crucis, in terra cotta. I designed several of the stations, helped to build up the figures, worked on the fabric, and did the letters. Fernando designed many of the stations, worked on building up the figures and brought each of the pieces up to a finished state. The stations have now been installed in the new church of Concordia Sulla Secchia, a town in northern Italy that was devastated by an earthquake. To check out some of Fernando's work you can visit his blog.

Pope Benedict on Word and Image

I just came across this today and thought it would be worth sharing. It is Pope Benedict's address at the conclusion of his Lenten retreat. In this brief address Benedict talks about the connection between word and image, through the greek word "logos":

It came to my mind that the medieval theologians translated the word “logos” not only as “verbum” (word) but also as “ars” (art): “verbum” and “ars” are interchangeable. For the medieval theologians, only in the two words together does the whole meaning of the word “logos” appear. The “Logos” is not only mathematical reason: the “Logos” has a heart, the “Logos” is love. Truth is beautiful, truth and beauty go together: beauty is the seal of truth.

You can find the translated message from Zenit here.

Or if you read Italian, here on the Vatican website you can find the original.

As an artist called to share the faith through art, this excerpt is very rich and worth further reflection. Especially interesting is the connection between the scriptures, the "word of God" and sacred art with its themes from the Bible and from Catholic tradition (tradition both with a capital "T" and lowercase "t"). Word and image are complementarity in God's revelation.

St. John's Gospel states:

"In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God." John 1:1

also:

"And the Word became flesh and made his dwelling among us, and we saw his glory, the glory as of the Father’s only Son, full of grace and truth." John 1:14 (my blog url!)

Jesus is the Word of God and the true Image of the Father. Word and image in this sense are complementary and mutually illuminative, together giving a full sense of the same reality, of "logos". It is not suprising then the fruitful marriage between the scriptures and art. Many of the most powerful works of art are born from this marriage.

Marian Sculpture

I think this is about as finished as this sculpture of Mary I've been working on this past year in my sculpture class. Hopefully later I can get some better quality photos as all but one of these pictures is blurry. I haven't taken exact measurements but this sculpture, or study, but it is not very large. I'd say it's several inches over a foot tall.