Once I was a clever boy learning the arts of Oxford... is a quotation from the verses written by Bishop Richard Fleming (c.1385-1431) for his tomb in Lincoln Cathedral. Fleming, the founder of Lincoln College in Oxford, is the subject of my research for a D. Phil., and, like me, a son of the West Riding. I have remarked in the past that I have a deeply meaningful on-going relationship with a dead fifteenth century bishop... it was Fleming who, in effect, enabled me to come to Oxford and to learn its arts, and for that I am immensely grateful.


Thursday, 15 August 2024

The Assumption of the Virgin


Today is the Solemnity of the Assumption of the Blessed Virgin Mary.

File:Domenikos Theotokópoulos, called El Greco - The Assumption of the Virgin - Google Art Project.jpg
 
The Assumption of the Virgin
El Greco  1577-9
Image: Wikimedia Commons

In the era of the Catholic Reformation this subject was a very popular choice for commissions to artists and they responded with enthusiasm and expertise creating soaring figures and swirling draperies, and the dramatic interplay of light and clouds.

 Amongst the earliest of these was El Greco with his first commission in Toledo in 1577-9. This for the church of Santo Domingo el Antiguo. At that time he was still very much under the influence of both Titian and Michelangelo and had not yet evolved the unique style that became his hallmark. The history of painting, now in the Art Institute in Chicago, is set out by Wikipedia in the article Assumption of the Virgin (El Greco)

I wish a joyful feast of the Assumption of Our Lady to all my readers.


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1 comment:

Zephyrinus said...

A Very Happy Feast, John.

Welcome back.

15 August 2024 at 10:26

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