The Goddess Ceres set in a Garland of Flowers, Oil on Canvas

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Attentive observer, may I challenge you to find some unusual elements in this panel painting? One detail has to do with the symbolic use of color, the other with a later adjustment of the image. Indeed! The Blessed Virgin is not dressed in her usual sky blue cloak, which refers to her purity, but in a red robe. During the Late Middle Ages and early Renaissance, the Virgin often wore such a red garment to refer to the Passion of Christ. After all, the blessing Christ child with his orb would shed his blood for the redemption of mankind. The second strange element catches the eye when one looks closer at the little Jesus. It appears that he was originally depicted completely naked, but got on a transparent loincloth over time. In the past there were several times when nudity in art was subject to some form of censorship. For example, the supervision of Christian art was strongly encouraged by the Council of Trent (1545-1563). This assembly was dealing with the inner-ecclesiastical reform of the Roman Catholic Church. One of the important theologians who followed the council’s guidelines was Joannes Molanus (1533-1585). He did not consider the nakedness of the Christ Child to be edifying and pointed out that children could be endangered in this way. He may have been referring to the dangers of paedophilia. During the 19th century, puritanism emerged. A famous example of a moral preacher was Pope Pius IX...

Willem Muys was a Dutch, 18th-century painter of history pieces, portraits and cabinet pieces. Above all, he appears to have been active as a painter of ‘wallpaper’. Until the mid-18th century, ‘wallpaper’ was not painted on paper but on coarsely woven linen. Wealthy citizens had their mansions or country estates adorned with ‘wallpaper’ with landscapes, exotic birds or chinoiseries. Willem Muys mainly painted ‘wallpaper’, which means that few of his works have been preserved. They are hardly represented in public collections. The works of his sons, Nicolaas en Robbert, both painters, are a little less rare. The painting with Rebecca and Eliezer...

Preparation for Carnival: a three day festival of insatiable eating, drinking and carousing that preceded the forty days of Lent, a period of penitence when the pious drank only wate...

The portrait represents a man, estimated to be 60 years of age, standing turned to the viewer's right, looking at the viewer with a commanding expression. He has a moustache and beard and wears a high fur cap. He wears a brown mantle over a whitish shirt and, over it, a heavy gold chain...

As the Dutch painter Philips Wouwerman often did, this artist painted travellers stopping at an inn or a farm. One of the men got off his horse to urinate against the facade of the building. The motif of a peeing man was far from an exception in Dutch genre paintings...

The work is a so-called ‘Tüchlein’; also referred to in the archives as ‘drap peint’ or ‘drap de peintre’. This term is used to denote paintings made with watercolor on canvas or panel. The technique is a product innovation from the 15th century and was intended to offer a cheaper alternative to the expensive woven tapestries. This way of working had advantages over panel painting. The painting went faster and the artist was also able to work in a larger format. Often several pieces of cloth were sewn together to get a large surface. The disadvantage was that the colors were duller than those of a panel painting. The Dutch text in Gothic script under the scene betrays that the painting was made in the Burgundian Netherlands. The Tüchlein is part of a series on the life of Saint Egidius, a saint of Greek origin who lived in the 8th century. The legend in old Dutch describes the scene: “Dar nar als hye over mer wolde vare(n) vnd sich gans van der werelt keren dvt schyff v(er)loyst … van des wreedes sturm vnd syner wirdynen kvnt van des kalden ..”. The text speaks of Egidius’ plan to sail away and the raising of a fierce storm. According to the legend, he saw how people almost died because of the storm. He would have muttered a prayer and the storm would have calmed down. One of the places in the Burgundian Netherlands where Saint Egidius was venerated, was Bruges. An archival document from 1486, more specifically an official report drawn up by order of the official of the Archdiocese of Reims, mentions that miracles and healings took place in the Saint-Gilles Church in Bruges when people touched the relics of Saint Egidius. It is quite conceivable that such situations gave rise to the commission of Tüchlein by church administrators. Since the canvas is executed in the style of early Netherlandish painting...

Tomasz Kozlowski is a Polish artist, born in 1983 in Piotrkow Trybunalski, He lives and works in Lodz. He studied at the faculty of textiles and fashion of the Fine Arts School in Lo...

Tomasz Kozlowski is a Polish artist, born in 1983 in Piotrkow Trybunalski, He lives and works in Lodz. He studied at the faculty of textiles and fashion of the Fine Arts School in Lo...

Sanjay Soni - Parivena Oil & Acrylic on Canvas, 36 x 48 inches, 2018 Born in 1971 in Delhi. A self-taught artist who through his paintings,portrays his emotions in the most profound...