The Bob Jones U. Religious Art Collection– Part Three

The Bob Jones U. Religious Art Collection– Part Three September 12, 2019

Francois de Troy (French, 17th century) painted this familiar scene of Jesus at the well with the Samaritan woman (John 4).

Sometimes artists were asked by their patrons to paint a seldom rendered Biblical scene, and such is the case with this very interesting and busy painting of the Wedding Feast at Cana (John 2) by Giovanni Piastrini (17th century) The artist of course takes many liberties. The clothing is the clothing of his own age and imagination, but the artist knows of the tradition of rendering some of the clothes of Mary and Jesus with the blue which symbolizes personal purity. Who knew there was a Greek temple in Cana, seen in the background here. I like the turning of the hostess towards the servants who are pouring water into a purification jar. But the artist couldn’t resist also painting in a silver laver which is more impressive…. and out of the price range of a young family in Cana. See how many dogs you can find in the picture.

This painting of the Good Samaritan helping the man robbed and beaten on the side of the Jericho road is of unknown provenance, but is probably from the 17th century.

Jusepe de Ribera was a late 16th century Spanish artist and here is his rendering of the Ecce Homo (Behold the Man) scene from the Passion narrative (and once again, you must click on the picture for it to turn up right)….

I like the angle of incidence in this painting, but it is not clear what Jesus is holding. His facial expression however is interesting…. and notice the lack of evidence of flogging.


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