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.

A Month of Miracles - Epilogue

Title: The Trinity
Artist: Lorenzo Lotto
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 170 x 115 cm
Date: 1523
Location: Sant'Alessandro della Croce, Bergamo

John 10:24-30 - The Jews then gathered around Him, and were saying to Him, “How long will you keep us in suspense? If you are the Christ, tell us plainly.”  Jesus answered them, “I told you, and you do not believe; the works that I do in My Father’s name, these testify of Me. But you do not believe because you are not of My sheep. My sheep hear My voice, and I know them, and they follow Me;  and I give eternal life to them, and they will never perish; and no one will snatch them out of My hand. My Father, who has given them to Me, is greater than all; and no one is able to snatch them out of the Father’s hand. I and the Father are one.”

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.

Jesus Christ Yamagiwa Electric Corporation Ltd.

Title: Jesus Christ/Yamagiwa Electric Corporation Ltd.
Artist: Tadanori Yokoo
Medium: Printed four color poster
Size: 73.0 x 102.9 cm
Date: 1974
Location: Various; Edition of 1974.

John 14:1-30 “Do not let your hearts be troubled. You believe in God; believe also in me. My Father’s house has many rooms; if that were not so, would I have told you that I am going there to prepare a place for you? And if I go and prepare a place for you, I will come back and take you to be with me that you also may be where I am. You know the way to the place where I am going.” [...] Then Judas (not Judas Iscariot) said, “But, Lord, why do you intend to show yourself to us and not to the world?” Jesus replied, “Anyone who loves me will obey my teaching. My Father will love them, and we will come to them and make our home with them. Anyone who does not love me will not obey my teaching. These words you hear are not my own; they belong to the Father who sent me. All this I have spoken while still with you. But the Advocate, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in my name, will teach you all things and will remind you of everything I have said to you. Peace I leave with you; my peace I give you [...]”

This poster was used as a window display by an electric light company, and for the simple reason that it was produced in 1974, exactly 1,974 copies were printed. The sacred triangular symbol above the head of Christ is taken from the Tantra Art. As always, Yokoo is perfectly willing to use one religion’s sacred symbol to express the idea of another religion. In Tantrism a triangular shape with the apex pointing downwards represents the feminine creative energy of the universe, yet Yokoo’s inclusion of the triangle here, it has been given no more significance than a Christian symbol representing the Trinity of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Tadanori Yokoo (June 1936) is a Japanese graphic designer, illustrator, printmaker and painter. Born in Nishiwaki, Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, he is one of Japan's most successful and internationally recognized graphic designers and artists. He began his career as a stage designer for avant garde theatre in Tokyo. By the late 60s he had already achieved international recognition for his work and was included in the 1968 "Word & Image" exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Four years later MoMA mounted a solo exhibition of his graphic work organized by Mildred Constantine.

Regarding our friends in Japan, please go to http://blog.givewell.org/2011/03/11/japan-earthquaketsunami-disaster-relief-donations/ for information regarding Earthquake Relief efforts.

Holy Family and Trinity

Title: Holy Family and Trinity
Artist: Jacob de Wit
Medium: Oil on canvas
Size: 140 x 105 cm
Date: 1726
Location: Amstelkring Museum, Amsterdam.

Matthew 2:19-23: After Herod died, Joseph had a dream while he was still in Egypt. In the dream an angel of the Lord appeared to him. The angel said, "Get up! Take the child and his mother. Go to the land of Israel. Those who were trying to kill the child are dead." So Joseph got up. He took the child and his mother Mary back to the land of Israel. But then he heard that Archelaus was king of Judea. Archelaus was ruling in place of his father Herod. This made Joseph afraid to go there. Warned in a dream, Joseph went back to the land of Galilee instead. There he lived in a town called Nazareth. So what the prophets had said about Jesus came true. They had said, "He will be called a Nazarene."

Every unjust empire in history has ultimately fallen, but God's church continues to endure. To oppressed Christians, whether persecuted for their faith or repressed for other unjust reasons, this reminder of the oppressors' mortality is a reminder that all trials are temporary and our loving Father remains in control. The angelic orders to return to the land of Israel because those seeking the child's life were dead explicitly recall Exodus 4:19-20. Jewish readers would have immediately recognized the allusion: like Moses, Jesus had outlived his persecutor and would lead his people to salvation.

This painting, made by a private church just outside Amsterdam, shows the Holy Family (horizontal) and the Trinity: God the Father, the Holy Spirit and Christ (vertical). Christ is the pivot at the centre of the two groups of three. This expresses the theological concept of Christ's dual nature; the human and the divine.

Jacob de Wit (December 1695 –November 1754) was a Dutch artist who painted many religious scenes. De Wit was born in Amsterdam, and as a Catholic, was the first Dutch artist since the 16th century to carry out a good deal of decorative work for Catholic churches. He was also famous for his door and ceiling paintings. He lived on the Keizersgracht in Amsterdam, and many of the buildings on the Keizersgracht still have door or ceiling paintings done by him. Since many of the families who lived in Amsterdam in those days had country villas, de Wit also painted in houses in the fashionable areas of Haarlem and the Vecht river.

... And, as it states in Luke 2:40 “the child grew and became strong; he was filled with wisdom, and the grace of God was upon him.” Amen.

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.

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.