Caravaggio – Conversion on the Way to Damascus
This represents the conversion of Saul of Tarsus. He was a Roman, big on persecuting the Christians. In this painting he is temporarily blinded by the light of Christ and hearing Jesus words, which admonish him for his persecution. Saul became St Paul one of the early and most important apostles. His writings were the foundation for the New Testament.
Caravaggio was paid 300 scudi for this painting. Which was a pretty good chunk of change in its day. At the time a painters assistant might make about 30 scudi a year. The Scudo may have been worth about 75¢, but it converts to more than 20 times that in today’s currency. One hundred years before, Leonardo was paid about 100 scudi for a painting and Michelangelo was paid 200-450 per statue.
To see the original: https://bit.ly/2EqfuYX
Caravaggio – Conversion on the Way to Damascus – 1601
Santa Maria del Popolo
Johannes Vermeer – The Art of Painting
Although Vermeer began as an art salesman, he considered himself more of a painter. He only worked on commission and did not produce more than two or three paintings a year. This allowed him to provide for his wife and their eleven children. For this reason he only produced 45 works. Only 35 still exist.
Considered the most iconic of Vermeer’s existing masterpieces. The Art of the Painting has had a rough ride in the last century. In 1935 Andrew Mellon sought to purchase the painting from its Austrian owners for $1 million, but failed. In 1940 Adolf Hitler acquired the painting for considerably less. It was to be hung in his Fuhermuseum, which was never built. Instead it ended up in a bunker in an Austrian salt mine where it waited out the war. It was one of many masterpieces of art that were rescued by the US Army Monument Men division. Link to original: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Art_of_Painting
Johannes Vermeer - The Art of Painting – 1666
Kunsthistrisches Museum, Vienna
Claude Monet - The Japanese Footbridge and the Water Lily Pool, Giverny
I was honored that the Monet Foundation Giverny used the Santa Classics version of the Japanese Bridge for their holiday card to their sponsors in 2016. The Philadelphia Museum of Art used it for a holiday post in 2017 and got over 10,000 views.
Monet spent much of the 1890s cultivating a garden, complete with a pond, water lilies and a Japanese footbridge, on his farmhouse property in Giverny. He did it just so he could paint beautiful motifs. This is one of the 18 paintings he did of this view. The Japanese footbridge can be found in museums all over the world. This version was from the Philadelphia Museum of Art. See the original: https://bit.ly/2VOWNFb
Claude Monet – The Japanese Bridge and Water Lily Pool, Giverny – 1889
Philadelphia Museum of art
Anthony van Dyck – Charles I in Three Positions
Van Dyck, who had been appointed the principal painter of Charles I, was asked to paint the king from three sides. The portrait was sent to the sculptor Bernini in Rome, who had been commissioned by Pope Urban VIII to make a bust of King Charles. The Pope wanted to give the bust to Charles’ catholic Queen Henrietta in an attempt at reconciliation with the Church of England. The final sculpture was a big hit with King and queen, but sadly it was destroyed in the Whitehall Palace fire 1698.
To see the original: https://bit.ly/2mwBrfT
Anthony Van Dyck - Charles I in Three Positions 1635-1636
Royal Collection (Buckingham Palace)