The Catechetical Review - Communicating Christ for a New Evangelization

Articles Under: Catechizing with Art

Inspired Through Art: The Nativity with the Infant St. John by Piero di Cosimo Free
To project the artwork onto a smartboard click here. Piero di Cosimo is one of the most interesting artists of the Renaissance. His biographer was Giorgio Vasari, the contemporary of Michelangelo who is considered to be the first art historian. Vasari collected stories about the most famous and popular artists from the Renaissance, and his book, The Lives of the Artists , became a bestseller. His narratives are full of personal remarks, perhaps based on hearsay and his own judgment, on the character of both the art and artists themselves. With that as the basis, we come to know Piero... Read more
The Family of Mary at Her Presentation in the Temple
To view and zoom in on image click here . Who prepared the young heart and mind of Mary to respond to God in humble faith with a fiat, her “yes” to the Archangel Gabriel? Where did Mary, the Mother of God, learn to listen attentively to God’s word? The beautiful painting The Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple , by Italian artist Andrea di Bartolo in the first decade of the fifteenth century, offers insight into Mary’s life through one pivotal moment in her youth. This event, of course, is known largely from early apocryphal writings. In this... Read more
Inspired Through Art: Death and the Miser by Hieronymus Bosch, c. 1490
To view Death and the Miser online click here . The artist Hieronymus Bosch is a mystery of Art History. His role in the Northern Renaissance has made him a curiosity who has been admired, copied, and perhaps disdained as a madman. His paintings are fantastical always and religious usually, but religious in a unique, sometimes troubling and psychologically dark manner. He left no written documents or letters that might explain his ideas about painting, but he is mentioned in the archives of the Illustrious Brotherhood of Our Blessed Lady, a Netherlandish religious confraternity. His father was an artist, as... Read more
Inspired Through Art: Anastasis by Fr. Tomas Labanic, 2006 Free
“We are a people of the Resurrection.” These words of St. Augustine, echoed in more recent times by St. John Paul II, call us to live in the hope and joy of Christ’s victory over death. Even in times of suffering, spiritual aridity, or simply the humdrum of everyday life, we have the glorious light of truth to live by: Jesus has redeemed us through his Passion, and we will live forever. The icon of the Resurrection helps unfold the unfathomable mystery of Christ’s victory over death. In the Eastern tradition, the icon of the Resurrection (in Greek Anastasis )... Read more
Inspired Through Art: The Rest on the Flight to Egypt— Caravaggio, 1597
To view the artwork on a smartboard click here . Journeying with the Holy Family In the difficult journeys of human life, we must hope for a way to find consolation amid hardships. That means something different than a weekend away from the workplace or a summer vacation at the beach. The true rest we seek is that which is provided only from a source that transcends nature and suspends time and space, even if for a brief moment. That source is the supernatural grace of God. In the earthly journey of Jesus, a particularly harsh event took place very... Read more
Inspired Through Art: The Virgin of the Rocks
To view this public domain image from the National Gallery in London, click here . Leonardo da Vinci, ca. 1495-1508 This mysterious painting by Leonardo depicts a non-biblical meeting between Our Lady, the Christ Child, and an angel with St. John the Baptist in a rocky grotto. It is the second version of a painting originally commissioned in 1483 to be the central panel of a large altarpiece for the Franciscan Confraternity of the Immaculate Conception in Milan, Italy. While the subject of the Madonna and Child with an infant St. John the Baptist was celebrated throughout the Renaissance, the... Read more
Inspired Through Art: The Meeting of St. Anthony and St. Paul – Sano di Pietro
To view this artwork on a smart board, click here. How important is spiritual brotherhood? For those who are called to the ascetic life, either in a specific monastic order or in a “Benedict Option” community in a neighborhood, the consolation of fellowship with others who share your faith can be a vitally important spiritual aid. For St. Anthony the Abbot, his pilgrimage journey to find St. Paul of Thebes is a story of looking for a brother. St. Anthony’s Journey This image is one of several panel paintings that illustrate episodes from the life of St. Anthony, who is... Read more
Inspired Through Art: Mary, Queen of Heaven and the Blessed Trinity
Master of the St. Lucy Legend, c. 1485/1500 To view the art on a smartboard, click here . "The ultimate end of the whole divine economy is the entry of God’s creatures into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity…even now we are called to be a dwelling for the Most Holy Trinity," teaches the Catechism of the Catholic Church. (Par. 260) The one creature who most uniquely entered into the perfect unity of the Blessed Trinity was the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God. From the moment of her Immaculate Conception to her Assumption and Coronation as Queen of... Read more
Inspired Through Art: After First Communion by Carl Frithjof Smith, 1892
To view and enlarge this image on a smart board click here. Norwegian painter, Carl Frithjof Smith, is not a well-known artist today. Despite his lack of fame, his art is beautiful and worthy of recognition and study. Smith lived and worked for all of his adult life in Germany, until his death in 1917. After studying at the then thriving Academy of Fine Art in Munich, Smith took a teaching position in Weimer, Germany, where he remained for most of his life. His work consists mainly of portraits and genre paintings. Genre painting explores the sphere of a person’s... Read more
Inspired Through Art: The Annunciation Piero della Francesca, 1452
To view this work of art on a smartboard, click here . How does God make order and beauty in the world, and show it to us? Along with glorious sunsets and colorful flowers, there are other ways to know God as the Creator of beauty. In the apparently invisible realm of mathematics, he is not silent; rather he conveys his order and mystery in mathematical forms, contemplated and understood as meaningful and expressive of his Divine Mind. Hidden in plain sight, those embedded forms can be seen inside of nature in things like symmetries, tessellations, crystals, and plant growth... Read more