The largest exhibit of Tintoretto’s work outside of Italy is now on display in the National Gallery, and well worth a visit. Here’s a little info about the famous painter…. Tintoretto, like most artists, needed patrons, and of course the church was a major patron of the arts in his day, and equally clearly they wanted religious paintings. Here’s a couple of examples…. This last painting is his earliest, and it is interesting to see how his skill evolved over... Read more

Probably the two most technically skilled Impressionists were Monet and Renoir, and for good reason two of the most famous painters of the last 150 years. Here are some of their best efforts. First, Monet, and then the final picture of the little girl in blue is a very famous painting by Auguste Renoir. Compare these paintings and see what you think. Renoir lived until 1919, living through WWI, and he had the benefit of having many Impressionist predecessors from... Read more

See below…… This trip is first come, first serve, as we will only be doing one bus load— so the first 40 to sign up get to go!! Tour Hosts: • Dr. Ben Witherington & • Nancy L. Dumas MAY 23-JUNE 13, 2020 The Genesis to Revelation Tour Covering Old Testament and New Testament Sites Egypt – Israel – Turkey / MAY 23-JUNE 13, 2020 Tour Itinerary: May 23 Sat Depart Atlanta – Fly Cairo Take the non-stop direct TK... Read more

Perhaps Monet’s most famous paintings are the some 15 paintings he did of the West Facade of Rouen Cathedral. Two of these hang in the National Gallery and they date to 1894. You can see how much the picture changes due to the change in the light. Impressionists asked the phenomenological question— Is the color in the lighting, or is it in the object that is lighted, or some of both? By the turn of the 20th century Monet had... Read more

Here’s a help post by NT colleague Larry Hurtado. See what you think……. BW3 Text-Collections and an Emergent NT Canon A recent survey of the contents of Christian manuscripts from the first three centuries focuses on identifying which texts were combined in the same manuscript: Michael Dormandy, “How the Books Became the Bible: The Evidence for Canon Formation From Work-Combination in Manuscripts,” TC: A Journal of Biblical Textual Criticism 23 (2018): 1-39. (TC is an open-access and online journal: available... Read more

One of my favorite early Manet paintings is ‘the old musician’ (1862) above. But Manet was also already pursuing some still life paintings, for instance here—- Oysters on the half shell. There is something incongruous about that gorgeous gold frame, around mundane oysters. Compare that to the 1879 painting of George Moore in Manet’s garden…. More like the later Impressionistic work is this study of a watering can. As is the haystacks painting below from 1882… Read more

Now that’s a million dollar smile! BW3 Read more

Some of the lesser known Impressionists are some of the most interesting, for example Seurat and Pissarro. In general they tend to be more abstract in their renderings, and in the case of Pissaro he’s using a pointillistic technique. This is a seascape from Port-en-Bessin in Normandy done in 1888. Contrast that with this seascape by Pissarro in 1890. But Pissarro was also quite capable of being more ‘representational’ as this painting of the Fence from 1872 shows. Read more

Ann and I both love the Impressionists, and I will devote several posts to the Gallery’s fine collection. These painters almost never do religious paintings, and even when for example they paint a cathedral, what they are really interested in is the effect of changing light on the cathedral. Impressionism in general is all about the light and lighting. It is meant to create an ‘impression’ on the viewer of the color and light that they see reflected off all... Read more