Title: His Name is John Artist: Daniel Bonnell Medium: Oil on Canvas Size: 90 x 95 cm Date: c. 2008 Location: Private collection
Luke 1:57-58: The time came for Elizabeth to have her baby. She gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had been very kind to her. They shared her joy.
Neighbors customarily joined in celebrations, and the birth of a son, especially under such unusual circumstances, was seen as special cause for celebration. Though these events are cosmic in their reach, they involve the divinity's personal touch. God has shown his mercy and magnified it to Elizabeth. Those who had shared her pain now rejoice with her. God's mercy expresses itself in concrete, loving action.
Daniel Bonnell (b. 1955) is an American painter and graduate of the Atlanta College of Art. He furthered his studies under the French Dominican Monk Pere Couturier, who usher such great painters as Henri Matisse and Fernand Leger into creating sacred art. His work can be found in several church and private collections, and in several notable publications. Most recently, a number of his paintings were selected to be in the Mosaic Holy Bible, as well in private collections and churches around the world. Further work can be viewed on his website at http://web.me.com/danielbonnell/Image_On_Christ_Exhibition/Home.html.
Title: Visitation Artist: Jacopo Pontormo Medium: Oil on wood Size: 202 x 156 cm Date: 1528-29 Location: San Michele, Carmignano, Florence.
Luke 1:39-45: At that time Mary got ready and hurried to a town in Judea's hill country. There she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby inside her jumped. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she called out, "God has blessed you more than other women. And blessed is the child you will have! But why is God so kind to me? Why has the mother of my Lord come to me? As soon as I heard the sound of your voice, the baby inside me jumped for joy. You are a woman God has blessed. You have believed that what the Lord has said to you will be done!"
In this passage we read of John's very early response; he is a forerunner even as he responds in Elizabeth's womb. This note of fulfillment of the angelic promise comes from one filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb. The fact that Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit as she reports the response indicates how Luke views her response: she expresses the mind of God. This sign sets the mood for the passage, that the basic response to the arrival of Jesus should be one of joy.
Pontormo’s lozenge-shaped arrangement of the four figures represented in the foreground of the painting was probably suggested to Pontormo by Dürer's engraving portraying the Four Witches (1497). Entirely original, on the other hand are the intertwining arcs of arms and fabric that firmly unites the two protagonists whose distinctly enlarged bodies dominate the painted surface. The monumental scene is depicted in a frozen fashion against the background of a roughly painted, funereally gloomy town. The profile portrayal of the two main figures embracing each other with extreme delicacy and exchanging looks of intense mutual affection is set against the rigidly frontal positions of the two bystanders in the background. Immobile, almost petrified, the latter keep their eyes fixed on something outside the scene, revealing their total lack of emotional participation in the event. The age difference between these two women and their facial resemblance with the protagonists invite an interpretation of the two maidservants as the doubles of Mary and Elisabeth. Their expressions convey a rather melancholic tone to the scene's general atmosphere of high spirituality.
Jacopo Carucci (May 1494 – January 1557), usually known as Jacopo da Pontormo, Jacopo Pontormo or simply Pontormo, was an Italian Mannerist painter and portraitist from the Florentine school. His work represents a profound stylistic shift from the calm perspectival regularity that characterized the art of the Florentine Renaissance. He is famous for his use of twining poses, coupled with ambiguous perspective; his figures often seem to float in an uncertain environment, unhampered by the forces of gravity. In some ways he anticipated the Baroque as well as the tensions of El Greco. His eccentricities also resulted in an original sense of composition.
Luke 1:59-80 chronicles that on the eighth day the child was to be circumcised, and they were going to name him after his father Zechariah, but his mother spoke up and said, "No! He is to be called John." They said to her, "There is no one among your relatives who has that name." Then they made signs to his father, to find out what he would like to name the child. He asked for a writing tablet, and to everyone's astonishment he wrote, "His name is John." Immediately his mouth was opened and his tongue was loosed, and he began to speak, praising God. The neighbors were all filled with awe, and throughout the hill country of Judea people were talking about all these things. Everyone who heard this wondered about it, asking, "What then is this child going to be?" For the Lord's hand was with him. His father Zechariah was filled with the Holy Spirit and prophesied: “You, my child, will be called a prophet of the Most High; for you will go on before the Lord to prepare the way for him, to give his people the knowledge of salvation through the forgiveness of their sins...”
Ghirlandaio has made this composition animated by the unusual device of placing the most important group of people, who are standing around Zechariah, off centre. This means that the baby John is in the centre directly under the middle pilaster in front of a magnificent loggia which opens out onto an extensive landscape. Zechariah, whose spirit is undaunted although he is still mute, expresses amazement that a son has been born to him. While he is asked what name to give his son, he writes on his knees 'His name will be John' - all the while staring at his son, who is held by a woman kneeling reverently before him. Many of the other figures, who seem to be wondering whether this could be true or not, watch in astonishment.
Ghirlandaio (b. 1449, Firenze, d. 1494, Firenze) was an early Renaissance painter of the Florentine school noted for his detailed narrative frescoes. His original name was Domenico di Tommaso Bighordi, and he was the son of a goldsmith, his nickname "Ghirlandaio" derived from his father's skill in making garlands. Almost nothing is known about his training as a painter or the beginnings of his career, but on 1 September 1484, Ghirlandaio and his brother Davide signed a contract to paint the apsidal chapel of Santa Maria Novella. Here Ghirlandaio designed not just the colorful stained glass windows, still at their original location, he also created the altarpiece and its back. The vaulting of the chapel contains the Evangelists while on the left wall Ghirlandaio frescoed the stories of Mary, and on the right the life of St John the Baptist.
Location:From “Christ in Art; Or, the Gospel Life of Jesus, with the Bida Illustrations.” by Eggleston, Edward.
About the time of Mary’s departure, as recorded in Luke 1:57, Elizabeth gave birth to a son. Her neighbors and relatives heard that the Lord had shown her great mercy, and they shared her joy.
When Elizabeth bears a son, all those around her hear that the Lord had shown her great mercy. Neighbors customarily joined in celebrations, and the birth of a son, especially under such unusual circumstances, was seen as special cause for celebration. Though these events are cosmic in their reach, they involve the divinity's personal touch. God has shown his mercy and magnified it to Elizabeth. Those who had shared her pain now rejoice with her. God's mercy expresses itself in concrete, loving action.
This illustration is one of the one hundred engravings designed by Alexandre Bida to accompany the text for the book “Christ in art: the story of the words and acts of Jesus Christ, as related in the language of the four evangelists, arranged in one continuous narrative.” The full-page plates on steel and wood were executed by Brend'amour, of Düsseldorf, after the designs of Bida.
Alexandre Bida (1813–1895) was born in Toulouse, France, and was a painter of the Romantic period. He specialized in Orientalism and studied under Eugene Delacroix, but soon developed his own style along with his desire for perfection. As a youth he traveled to work in Egypt, Greece, Turkey, Lebanon, and Palestine. His works gained attention between 1847-1861, and he later illustrated the Bible.
Title: Scenes from the Life of the Virgin: 7. Visitation
Artist: Giotto di Bondone
Medium: Fresco
Size: 150 x 140 cm
Date: 1306
Location: Cappella Scrovegni, Padua.
After the proclamation of the angel Gabriel, Luke 1:39-45 records that Mary got ready and hurried to a town in the hill country of Judea, where she entered Zechariah's home and greeted Elizabeth. When Elizabeth heard Mary's greeting, the baby leaped in her womb, and Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit. In a loud voice she exclaimed: "Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the child you will bear! But why am I so favored, that the mother of my Lord should come to me? As soon as the sound of your greeting reached my ears, the baby in my womb leaped for joy. Blessed is she who has believed that what the Lord has said to her will be accomplished!" In reply Mary proclaimed the wonders of the Lord, and stayed with Elizabeth for about three months before returning home.
In this passage we read of John's very early response; he is a forerunner even as he responds in Elizabeth's womb. This note of fulfillment of the angelic promise comes from one filled with the Holy Spirit from the womb. The fact that Elizabeth is filled with the Holy Spirit as she reports the response indicates how Luke views her response: she expresses the mind of God. This sign sets the mood for the passage, that the basic response to the arrival of Jesus should be one of joy.
Giotto di Bondone (1267,Vespignano - 1337,Firenze) was a Florentine painter and architect. This fresco portrays the pregnant Mother of God and her two companions visiting Elizabeth, who is expecting John the Baptist. The two women embrace in front of the portico. As so often, Giotto places the intensity of the encounter in the exchange of glances. This work was one of several fresco’s decorating the Scrovegni Chapel, named after its donor Enrico Scrovegni of Padua. He had purchased a large piece of land in the area around the Roman amphitheatre, known as the Arena, to build a palace and a private chapel. Of these once impressive buildings, only the single-nave church remains.
Title: His Name is John
