Christ is Risen Alleluia!

Christ is Risen, Alleluia!

He is Risen indeed, Alleluia!

 

Detail from The Resurrection 

Piero della Francesca

1463-65

Image: Finestre sull’ Arte

Looking back to my post for Easter Day last year and also to the fact that it was well received, I have done as I did last year and reproduced Pietro della Francesca’s depiction of The Resurrection, and an giving a link to last year’s article, which I definitely recommend because of its Patristic content, and which can be accessed at Christ is Risen Alleluia!

To supplement that and to provide some reflective and art historical reading about the painting and its survival as readers digest their Easter lunch, chocolate eggs, or relax on Easter Monday, here are three articles about it.

The first is a discussion of the work in its historical context and can be accessed at Piero della Francesca | The Resurrection, Museo Civico, Sansepolcro | Art in Tuscany

The second can be viewed at Travel Notebooks - Finestre sull'Arte

The third concentrates on the near miraculous survival of the fresco in 1944 and can be viewed at HOW ONE MAN SAVED THE "GREATEST PICTURE IN THE WORLD"

 I wish a holy, blessed, joyful and happy Easter to all my readers 

Alleluia!

Traditional Good Friday Chasubles

Yesterday the Liturgical Arts Journal had an article to mark Good Friday about traditional black vestments, as per the usage before Pope Pius XII’s changes in the 1950s. It has some splendid examples of the vestment maker and embroiderers arts in its illustrations. Some are antique, others from the later nineteenth and earlier twentieth centuries. It also includes a folded chasuble, which would only have been used on Good Friday.

The aricle can be seen at Historical Chasubles for Good Friday   

The medieval view of Judas

The always useful website Medievalists.net has an interesting article about how Judas and his fate, as well as an involved biography to shoe just how unsavoury he was, were presented by medieval writers.

Illustrated with illuminations from medieval books it can be accessed at Judas in the Middle Ages: The Making of an Anti-Hero 

Gethsemene by Giotto

Detail of the Kiss of Judas by Giotto, 

1304-6, in the Scrovegni Chapel, Padua

Image: Formae Divinae Wordpress

I think the fresco of the Kiss of Judas is the finest, or most powerful, of these early fourteenth century masterpieces in the Scrovegni Chapel, and one which commands attention and invites reflection and meditation.  

The way in which the lumpen figure of Judas envelops Jesus is striking, signifying the loss of personal autonomy of the Redeemer in the Passion - He is now in His enemies’ power. yet the serenity of expression points to the Divine self-surrender central to the Triduum. 

The website from where I found this image has a meditation on the painting and this central feature which can be read at “The Kiss of Judas” by Giotto

Twenty One Today

Today is the twenty first anniversary of my reception into the Church at the Oxford Oratory in 2005, two days before Pope John Paul II died.

Last year to mark the twentieth anniversary I wrote a long article on this blog about how I came to that decision, together with some reflections on my subsequent experiences. That can be viewed at Twenty years on. 

What I wrote then still holds good, but I think I am now a little more optimistic about the way the Church is going - which is not to deny that a lot needs to be done at parish, diocesan, national and, ultimately,Papal level to get it back properly on track.

On this twenty first anniversary I am not sure if I have come of age as a Catholic - faith is, after all a lifelong pilgrimage, and I did quite a bit of my pilgrimage years before I was received - but I remain sure that I made the right decision.

May St John the Baptist, St John the Evangelist, St Philip the Apostle, St Philip Neri, St Robert of Newminster, St Robert of Knaresborough, Bl. Robert Grosseteste, Bl. John of Dalderby, and St John Henry Newman continue to pray for me.

The Battle of Towton 565

Yesterday, Palm Sunday, was the 565th anniversary of the battle of Towton, fought in the date and feast day in 1461, and hence its fifteenth century name of Palm Sunday Field. It is normally accounted the bloodiest battle in English history, and one of the more momentous.

I have posted about Towton before, as a search on the blog will reveal.

Over the weekend the historian David Grummitt had two open access articles on SubStack about his latest research into the contemporary sources we have for the battles of the Wars of the Roses, and in this case, Towton.

They can be seen at Lord Clifford, the Battle of 'Dintingdale' and Palm Sunday 1461 and at Was the Battle of Towton Fought in a Blizzard?

His articles are well worth signing up to, and his book on the earlier battles of the Wars one I must get round to reading.

Folded Chasubles and Broad Stoles

This being this blog regular readers will expect during Lent at least one article about folded chasubles and B-road stoles, the traditional liturgical gesture for deacons and sub-deacons in this penitential season.

This week the Liturgical Arts Journal has an illustrated article showing three phases in the evolution of these vestments, together with illustrations of the different forms the chasuble and stole have taken. There is also a link to an older article - one I believe I have linked to before on this blog - about the history of these items.

The article can be accessed at Gothic, Neri and Roman: Variations of the Folded Chasuble and Broad Stole 

Reassembling the Altenburg altarpiece

Staying with the theme of statues of Our Lady on this Feast of the Annunciation the Städel Museum in Frankfort recently succeeded to bringing back together the component parts of the Altenburg altarpiece. This lovely piece is dated to the 1320s and originated in the Praenonstratensian monastery for canonesses at Altenburg in what is now western Hesse. It was broken up about a hundred years ago, but has now happily been reassembled and is on display in Frankfort.

 

There is an article about it from The Art Newspaper at Frankfurt’s Städel Museum announces ‘momentous’ acquisition of Altenberg Madonna

Medieval Histories has another account which can be viewed at The Altenberg Madonna

The website of the Städel itself about the altarpiece can be seen at Altenberg Madonna acquired for the Städel

Wikipedia has a brief note about the abbey at /Altenberg_Abbey,_Solms