The National Gallery’s Religious Art– Part Two

At first glance, you might not realize this famous Vermeer painting is a work of religious art…. but look carefully. Notice the woman holding a scales in her hand… and behind her on the wall… a painting of the Last Judgment. The woman is thus depicted as reflecting on her ultimate fate or destiny.

From the studio of Rembrandt (with the same sort of use of light and shadow as the master himself) comes a painting of the lowering of Christ from the cross. This is Dutch and from the 17th century, done in oils.

Here obviously is St. Peter, from the studio of Peter Paul Rubens in the 17th century.

To me, the most unexpected and interesting painting of a religious sort is this one…..
This, believe it or not, is the repentant Magdalen, once again misrepresenting her as a prostitute. Notice as well the skull on the desk…. the death’s head as it was often called. Mary was no Jerome, so the skull has a different symbolism here. This painting is by the French artist Georges de la Tour in the 17th century.