Fine Art Friday - Ingres and David

Terry of Idle Speculations has written a very interesting and revealing post entitled Rome and a Tale of Two Artists.

The artists referred to in the piece are Jean-Auguste Dominque Ingres and his friend François-Marius Granet. However, what peaked my interest was the following:

Unlike his teacher, David, Ingres did not involve himself in politics

I do not remember knowing that Ingres had been a pupil of artist Jacques-Louis David. Could it be that I forgot?

It has been many years that I studied art history in college. Back then I was intrigued by David's subject matter, especially the visually disturbing yet intriguing Death of Marat. It is in recent years that the beauty of Ingres' masterpieces have touched my Catholic heart.



There is a comparative study at the Royal Academy of Arts of the above painting and the portrait of Napoleon below.

Napoleon in his Studies at the Tuileries

Picture source for the painting below of Jean-Auguste Dominique Ingres' Pius V is another blog I will soon be adding to my side bar Hallowed Ground

Pope Pius V

Jeanne d'Arc
Picture source for the above Ingres' painting here There is also good information on the artist and painting there too.

Our Lady of the Eucharist

Virgin of the Adoption

Story of a Book Cover

Ed shares the story of his son and a very special book cover

Saintly Quotes - Friendship Bears Fruit Both in This Life and the Next

Picture source

In human life nothing holier can be desired, nothing more useful sought after, nothing is harder to find, nothing sweeter to experience, nothing more fruitful to possess than friendship. For it bears fruit both in this life and the next, showing forth all virtues in its sweetness and in its strength destroying vice. It softens the blows of adversity and moderates elation in prosperity.

Without friendship there can be hardly any happiness among humans; they may well be compared to animals if they have no one to rejoice with them in good fortune or sympathize with them in sorrow, no one to whom they can unburden themselves in time of trouble, or with whom they can share some especially uplifting or inspiring insight.

Alas for anyone who is alone and has no one to lift him up when he falls. Without a friend one is indeed alone. But what joy it is, what security, what a delight to have someone to whom you dare to speak as to another self; to whom you are not afraid to admit that you have done something wrong, or shy of revealing some spiritual progress you have made; someone to whom you can entrust all the secrets of your heart and with whom you can share your plans.

St. Aelred of Rievaulx

Shared by Sue

Saintly Quote - Suffering With Joy

When we suffer anything for Christ's sake, we should do so not only with courage, but even with joy.

If we have to go hungry, let us be glad as if we were at a banquet. If we are insulted, let us be elated as though we had been showered with praises. If we lose all we possess, let us consider ourselves the gainers. If we provide for the poor, let us regard ourselves as the recipients. Anyone who does not give in this way will find it difficult to give at all. So when you wish to distribute alms, do not think only of what you are giving away; think rather of what you are gaining, for your gain will exceed your loss.

And not only in the matter of almsgiving, but also with every virtue you practice: do not think of the painful effort involved, but of the sweetness of the reward; and above all remember that your struggles are for the sake of our Lord Jesus. Then you will easily rise above them, and live out your whole lifetime in happiness; for nothing brings more happiness than a good conscience.

St. John Chrysostom

Shared by Sue

Saintly Quote - The Essence of Love is Humility

I understood too that the love of our Lord is revealed in the simplest soul who offers no resistance to His grace as well as in the most sublime soul. In fact, since the essence of love is humility, if all souls were like those of the learned saints who have illuminated the Church by the light of their teaching, it would seem as if God would not have very far to descend in coming to their hearts. But He has created the baby who knows nothing and whose only utterance is a feeble cry; He has created people who have only the law of nature to guide them; and it is their hearts that He deigns to come down to, those are His flowers of the field whose simplicity delights him. In coming down in that way the good God proves His infinite greatness.

Just as the sun shines at the same time on cedar trees and on each little flower as if it was the only one on earth, so our Lord takes special care of each soul as if it was His only care.

St. Thérèse of Lisieux

Shared by Sue

St. Joseph - Protector of the Family

Because Saint Joseph was the representative of our Heavenly Father on earth, because he acted as Christ's father in His life on earth, he is the divinely appointed head of the Holy Family. The Holy Family of Saint Joseph, The Blessed Mother and the Son of God is the beginning and the model for the great Family of God, His Church here on earth. In this way, Saint Joseph is father to all of us.

A model for fathers, Saint Joseph is invoked as a protector of the family. A carpenter by trade, he has been declared the patron saint of all working people, of craftsmen and of the poor. He is the model of a perfect Christian life and the patron of a happy death. His patronage also extends over the Mystical Body of Christ, over the Christian family, the Christian school, and all individuals who in their need appeal to his charity and powerful intercession, especially at the hour of death.

Saint Joseph, pray for our fathers, husbands, sons and brothers.

Shared by Sue

Act Of Faith And Adoration Before Holy Communion

MY LORD Jesus Christ, I believe that Thou art truly present in the Blessed Sacrament. I believe that in Holy Communion I shall receive Thy sacred body and Thy precious blood. My faith in Thy real presence in the Holy Eucharist is firmly founded on Thy word, O eternal Truth. My Saviour and my God, with the angels who surround Thy altar-throne, I bow down in humble adoration before Thy Majesty.
Amen.

Thank you Sue

Those Who Foster in the Hearts of Children Indifference to the Blessed Virgin Mary

Consider the Blasphemies of those who openly seek to foster in the hearts of children indifference or contempt, and even hatred for our Immaculate Mother.

With all the power at his command, the Archfiend wants to deny the Virgin the opportunity to use her children as agents of grace. To achieve this end, he would first render her maternal womb infertile, barren, robbing her of those future conduits of grace, performing, in effect, a spiritual abortion. What he would like to do is completely deprive the Holy Spirit of any future means of sanctifying the Chosen by corrupting the children and turning them away from her, and even against her. This is the terrible iniquity which is the fourth sin and the fourth stage in this conflict between Mary and Lucifer announced in Genesis, “I will put enmities between thee and the woman, and thy seed and her seed;” (Gen. 3:15).

Removing little ones from her side before they can be nurtured into fully-developed enlistees in her cause, the Devil would strip her of her Motherhood and deprive the Holy Ghost of this conduit of grace. By negation, this crime confirms the truth of our Faith whereby we believe that the Sanctifier does indeed save souls through the spiritual maternity of His Immaculate Spouse.

St. Maximilian Kolbe affirmed this belief in his typically concise manner: “Till the end of the world it will be the task of the Holy Ghost to form the new members predestined to glory in the Mystical Body of Christ”. As St. de Montfort shows, “this task is carried to completion with Mary, in Mary and through Mary.”

How many souls will be cast into Hell in the future because of this sin?

Shared by Sue

Saintly Quote - Hating No One

Two things are required of us, here and now: to acknowledge our sins and to forgive others; the first, so that the second may become easier. For someone properly aware of his own behavior and its shortcomings will be the more forgiving to his fellow humans. And that does not mean forgiveness in words merely, but from the heart, lest in our resentment we turn the sword on ourselves. The more he has injured you, the greater the forgiveness of your own sin, in consequence.

Let us take care that we hate no one, so that God may still love us; so that even though we may be owing him a thousand talents he may yet be generous and merciful to us.

Has someone offended you? Be merciful to him, then; do not hate him. Weep and lament for him, but do not show aversion. For it is not you who have offended God, but he; you will do well to put up with it.

Recall how Christ was content to be crucified— and yet shed tears over those who did it. That must be your disposition also: the more you are wronged, the more you must lament for the wrongdoers. For it is we who profit from this— and greatly— but not they.

St. John Chrysostom

Shared by Sue

Catholic Schools Must Strive to form Saints

In his column in the Catholic Key, Bishop Robert W. Finn from the Diocese of Kansas City–St. Joseph emphasized that “Catholic schools exist for a supernatural purpose:” to assist students in developing virtue on their path to ‘eternal salvation.’

Catholic schools must strive to form saints, says bishop