The Twelve Days of Christmas - Day 6

Title: Creator of Heaven and Earth
Artist: James B. Janknegt
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 90 X 60 cm
Date: 2010
Location: Property of the artist.

On the sixth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, six geese a laying...

The six geese a laying are said to represent the six days of creation. In this painting by Texas native James B. Janknegt, the six days are represented in an arc around a depiction of the Holy Trinity:

- Day 1 - God created light and separated it from the darkness, calling light "day" and darkness "night."
- Day 2 - God created an expanse to separate the waters and called it "sky."
- Day 3 - God created the dry ground and gathered the waters, calling the dry ground "land," and the gathered waters "seas." On day three, God also created plants and trees.
- Day 4 - God created the sun, moon, and the stars to give light to the earth and to govern and separate the day and the night.
- Day 5 - God created every creature of the seas and every winged bird.
- Day 6 - God created the animals to fill the earth. God also created man and woman, blessed them and gave them every creature and the whole earth to rule over, care for, and cultivate.

The Twelve Days of Christmas - Day 3

Title: Holy Trinity
Artist: Hendrick van Balen the Elder
Medium: Oil on panel  
Size: tbd.
Date: c. 1620s
Location: St. James' Church, Antwerp.

On the third day of Christmas, my true love gave to me three french hens...

Three French Hens would most likely be representative of the Holy Trinity. The Christian doctrine of the Trinity teaches the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead. In this painting Hendrick van Balen the Elder, a Flemish Baroque painter, has depicted the three in their traditional guises: God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the Holy Spirit as a dove.

Trinity Pietà

Title: Trinity Pietà
Artist: Master of Sankt Laurenz
Medium: Oil on oak panel
Size: 23 x 16 cm
Date: 1415-30
Location: Wallraf-Richartz Museum, Cologne.

Trinity Sunday, a moveable feast also known as Holy Trinity Sunday, is celebrated a week after Pentecost Sunday in honor of the most fundamental of Catholic beliefs - belief in the Holy Trinity. As expressed in the Athanasian creed (ascribed to Saint Athanasius, c. 296-373), “There is, therefore, one Father, not three Fathers; one Son, not three Sons; one Holy Spirit, not three Holy Spirits; and in this Trinity there is nothing first or later, nothing greater or less, but all three Persons are coeternal and coequal with one another, so that in every respect, as has already been said above, both unity in Trinity, and Trinity in unity must be venerated.”

The Man of Sorrows in the arms of God the Father with the Holy Ghost between them both is often termed a Trinity Pietà. The depiction is more common in French and Burgundian court painting from the end of the fourteenth century onwards. In this example, the Man of Sorrows is flanked by four angels, with two of them holding the Flagellation column, the scourge, the stick with the sponge and the lance. The panel is attributed to the Master of Sankt Laurenz (St Lawrence), the pupil of the Cologne Master of St Veronica. It is also assumed that this small panel was the left wing of a diptych having, on the right, a Mater Dolorosa.

The Trinity with the Dead Christ

Title: The Trinity with the Dead Christ

Artist: Ludovico Carracci

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 173 x 127 cm

Date: c. 1590

Location: Pinacoteca, Vatican.

According to the Trinity doctrine, God exists as three persons, or hypostases, but is one single divine nature. Some faiths profess that, in addition, the second person of the Trinity — God the Son — assumed human nature as Jesus, so that he has two natures (and hence two wills), and is really and fully both true God and true human. As stated in the Chalcedonian Creed: “truly God and truly man, of a rational soul and body”.

In this painting Lodovico managed to express the transcendent in terms of great intimacy and sincere humanity, qualities that were to be indispensable in the formation of artists such as the young Guercino. The subject, very unusual at the time of the Counter-Reformation, goes back to a purely medieval iconographic idea. Instead of the traditional, hierarchical representation of the Trinity, Lodovico combines this theme with a scene of the Pieta, in which Christ is received into the Father's arms rather than those of the Virgin.

Ludovico (or Lodovico) Carracci (April 1555 – November 1619) was an Italian, early-Baroque painter, etcher, and printmaker born in Bologna. The Carracci was a family of Bolognese painters, the brothers Agostino (1557-1602) and Annibale (1560-1609) were cousins of Lodovico, and were prominent figures at the end of the 16th century in the movement against the prevailing Mannerist artificiality of Italian painting. Lodovico was by temperament a fairly shy person who never found real success, unlike his cousin Annibale. Lodovico left Bologna only for brief periods and directed the Carracci academy by himself after his cousins left for Rome. His work, at its best, is highly personal and has a passionate and poetic quality.

Gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost

Title: Gift of the Holy Spirit at Pentecost

Artist: Unknown

Medium: Illuminated manuscript

Size: 33.6 x 22.6 cm

Date: 586

Location: Laurentian Library, Florence.

From Acts of the Apostles 2:1-4: “When the time for Pentecost was fulfilled, they were all in one place together. And suddenly there came from the sky a noise like a violent wind, and it filled the entire house in which they were. Then there appeared to them tongues as of fire, which parted and came to rest on each one of them. And they were all filled with the Holy Spirit and began to speak in different tongues, as the Spirit enabled them to proclaim.”

The iconography of Pentecost is usually very consistent, with either St. Paul or St. James the Just being substituted for Judas Iscariot. One variable is the inclusion of Mary among the disciples, which is wholly reasonable as the previous chapter of Acts says that she was among the disciples who gathered in the upper room following the ascension of Jesus. Therefore, most depictions include her, and, like this one, most center on her. She is depicted with a long oval face and a bright halo; the style of the apostles belongs to a more ancient art tradition, reminiscent of Roman mosaics.

This illustration is one of several from the Rabbula Gospels, a 6th century illuminated Syriac Gospel Book. One of the finest Byzantine works produced in Asia, it is distinguished by the miniaturist's predilection for bright colors, movement, drama, and expressionism. The miniaturist obviously drew some of his inspiration from Hellenistic art (draped figures), but relied mainly on the ornamental traditions of Persia. The Gospel was completed in the monastery of ‘Beth Mar John’ at ‘Beth Zagba’, in what is now northern Syria. It was signed by its scribe, Rabbula, about whom nothing else is known. Rabbula may have belonged to a group of scribes from Edessa who worked the area in the 6th century. In a long scribal note (fol. 292r–v), he named the others responsible for preparing the manuscript, but unfortunately omitted specific mention of its illuminators.

Baptism of Jesus

Title: Baptism of Jesus

Artist: Unknown

Medium: Mosaic

Size: 210 cm diameter

Date: c. 500 AD

Location: Ravenna, Italy

The Baptistery in Ravenna, Italy was erected by the Arian Ostrogothic King Theodoric the Great toward the end of the 5th century or the beginning of the 6th century. In 565, after the condemnation of the Arian cult, this small octagonal brick structure was converted into a Catholic oratory named Santa Maria. Within the baptistery are four niches and a dome with mosaics, depicting the baptism of Jesus by Saint John the Baptist.

Jesus is shown beardless and naked, half-submerged in the Jordan. On the right, John the Baptist is depicted wearing a leopard skin while on the left stands a pagan god in the guise of a white-haired, old man. He is the personification of the river Jordan. Above, the Holy Spirit in the form of a dove sprays lustral water from its beak. As described in Matthew 3:16: “And having been baptized, Jesus went up immediately from the water, and lo, opened to him were the heavens, and he saw the Spirit of God descending as a dove, and coming upon him,”

The intricate work covering the dome of the baptistery appears to have taken the artists several years to complete as can be clearly seen from the different colors of the stones used to depict grass in the mosaic.

Holy Trinity

Title: Holy Trinity

Artist: Jusepe de Ribera

Medium: Oil on canvas

Size: 226 × 118 cm

Date: 1636

Location: Museo del Prado, Madrid.

The Christian doctrine of the Trinity teaches the unity of Father, Son, and Holy Spirit as three persons in one Godhead. In this painting Ribera has depicted the three in their traditional guises: God the Father, Jesus the Son, and the dove of the Holy Spirit.

Ribera was a great exponent of Caravaggism, and his rise to prominence in Naples further entrenched Caravaggism as the dominant mode there. With the Holy Trinity, however, he had moved further from Caravaggio's example, lightening his palette and increasing the painterliness of his brushwork. Ribera still employed the distinct shift between light and dark, most notably around the figure of Jesus, which allows the nimbus around God the Father to radiate.

Jusepe de Ribera (January 12, 1591 - September 2, 1652) was a Spanish painter and printmaker, also known in Spanish as José de Ribera. Almost nothing is known of his training in Spain, although it is possible, as some experts have suggested, that he had some contact with Francisco Ribalta. In Italy, where all his mature work was done, he was known as Giuseppe Ribera or Lo Spagnoletto, "the Little Spaniard". By 1644 he was so renowned that he was knighted by the pope.