Did you know the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1911? Before it was taken, it was not widely known outside the art world. Historian, James Zug, said it wasn’t “even the most famous painting in the gallery, let alone in the Louvre.” Yet, during the two years it was gone, more people […]
Category Archives: Being Human
February
07
Thank You for the Thorn
posted by laurieetta
If you’ve been following me at all, you know that Caravaggio is one of my favorite artists. This particular masterpiece is entitled, “The Crowning of Thorns” and is one of two pieces that he did on the subject of the torture of our Christ. Caravaggio, like many other Renaissance artists, often used sculptures as models […]
January
27
A Slow Fade
posted by laurieetta
A while back, I became fascinated with a story written by Oscar Wilde called, “The Picture of Dorian Gray.” It is the tale of a young, naïve man who becomes terrified of losing his good looks. His ego leads him to have a large portrait made of himself which celebrates his handsomeness. In his desire […]
January
21
I will not abandon you
posted by laurieetta
This past summer when I visited Rome, I could hardly contain myself as I looked up at the Sistine Chapel, gazing wide-eyed at Michelangelo’s masterpiece. I had just finished a book called, “Michelangelo and the Pope’s Ceiling,” by Ross King which explored the artist and what was happening to him, his peers and the country […]
January
17
Bending in Love
posted by laurieetta
There may be no more significant description of how God relates to his people than the Hebrew word, “hesed.” This word is used throughout the Old Testament, and one of the challenges of translating it is that it is hard to find an English word with exactly the same meaning. Hesed has been translated into […]
January
06
The Word Made Flesh
posted by laurieetta
Imagine a children’s Bible where some of the stories are illustrated. Perhaps stories like Adam and Eve and Noah and the flood. Now imagine a Bible that contained a separate illustration for every few sentences. But it didn’t stop there. It also contained another text that interpreted the Bible text with more illustrations of that […]
January
02
A Father’s Love
posted by laurieetta
If you are reading this, it means you survived yet another Christmas. Congratulations! We have just celebrated the birth of Christ so it may seem a little premature to highlight a painting of Jesus as a little boy, but the more I looked at this painting, the more I fell in love with it. This […]
December
06
His Master’s Voice
posted by laurieetta
Anyone over a certain age will recognize this painting entitled, “His Master’s Voice.” The dog’s name is Nipper, a name he got by occasionally playfully nipping the back of visitor’s legs. Nipper was a mixed-breed Jack Russel Terrier born in 1884 in Bristol, England. His original owner died penniless in 1887 and the owner’s siblings […]
November
29
More About Angels
posted by laurieetta
Last week, we looked at a guardian angel depicted as an elegant winged protector of children. This week I thought it would be fun to look at another familiar depiction of angels. Most everyone is familiar with these two chubby-cheeked cherubs painted by Raphael around 1514. What many don’t know is that they are part […]
November
25
To Guard You in All Your Ways
posted by laurieetta
One of the regular readers of these devotions jokingly asked me to do a study on the well-known but not highly artistic tapestry of dogs playing poker. Maybe someday. He also emailed me this painting the other day, saying, “The image of this print popped in my mind today. My Grandma had this image hanging […]
Recent Comments