Woman Holding a Balance by Johannes Vermeer, 1664 To view this image on a smartboard click here . Finally, I realized that love includes every vocation, that love is all things, that love is eternal, reaching down through the ages and stretching to the utmost limits of the earth. – Saint Thérèse of Lisieux Catechetical ministry involves ongoing discernment of God’s loving initiative and the human response of faith to God who reveals. This dimension of catechetical activity is brought to life in an exquisite masterpiece painting titled, Woman Holding a Balance, by the 17 th century Dutch master artist... Read more
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Articles Under: Catechizing with Art
William-Adolphe Bouguereau, 1890 To view the artwork Click Here. William-Adolphe Bougueressau worked throughout his life creating art that portrayed scenes from Holy Scripture. He was trained in the École des Beaux-Arts, the French Academy of Fine Arts, and won the Prix de Rome after only four years of studying painting. Bouguereau’s work consists of over 800 paintings and focuses on classical and religious subject matter. We can appreciate his mastery of technique in this painting of “The Holy Women at the Tomb,” set on the morning of Christ’s resurrection. It illustrates well the mystery of the resurrection and is a... Read more
To view "The Crucifixion" image, click here ; then click on the download button, then on the double underscore symbol to download a high resolution version for your smart board. To view the "Chist in Limbo" (aka The Harrowing of Hell) image, click here and do the same. An Anonymous Renaissance Master, 1550-1575 “Just as Moses lifted up the serpent in the desert, so must the Son of Man be lifted up” (Jn 3:13). “And when I am lifted up from the earth, I will draw everyone to myself” (Jn 12:32). The anonymous artist who painted these two images was... Read more
Becoming a friend of Jesus To view this image online click here . In the Gospels, the sisters Martha and Mary are described as friends of Jesus. In his masterpiece, “Christ in the House of Martha and Mary,” the Dutch master Jan Vermeer paints an extraordinary image of the Gospel scene when Jesus enters the home of his friends. Vermeer’s image offers us a powerful visual homily on what it means to be a friend of Jesus, an invitation that is implicit in all catechetical activity and is the goal of the spiritual life. A special guest In the tenth... Read more
J.R.R. Tolkien’s monumental fantasy novels, The Hobbit (1937) and The Lord of the Rings (1954-55), have a great deal to teach about friendship. Many readers first encounter these works in adolescence, when our first encounters with friendship are forged—and, unfortunately, tested and maybe broken—by fallen humanity. But even if we first came to Tolkien in adulthood, we can recognize the appeal of his stories to the notion of fellowship. The appeal lasts not only because the book presents shining images of stalwart friendships among its characters, but also because the book itself can be a friend in moments of friendlessness... Read more
To view this work of art on a smart board click here. Jacopo Comin, who is known to us as Tintoretto, was born in Venice in 1518. He came by the name because his father was a fabric dyer (a tintore ) and the young Jacopo, who started his painting vocation by daubing colors on the walls of his father’s workshop, was given the title “little dyer,” or tintoretto . He also acquired the title of “Il Furioso” for his “furious” and energetic approach to image making, which places him at the end of the High Renaissance into the style... Read more
To view image on a smart board click here. Put Out Into the Deep – The Call of Missionary Discipleship Missionary discipleship begins and grows in union with the person of Jesus Christ. This reality of faith comes to life in vivid color and dramatic movement in this the 16 th century large-scale masterpiece painting titled, The Miraculous Draught of Fishes, by Venetian artist, Jacopo Bassano. Completed in 1545, Bassano’s canvas is a visual catechesis on the source and inspiration of missionary discipleship as it finds rich and varied expression in the Christian community. “Duc in altum”— “put out into... Read more
To view this artwork on a smart board click here. King René of Anjou, a fifteenth century nobleman, commissioned the French Renaissance painter, Nicholas Froment, to complete an image of the Virgin Mary for the Carmelite Church at Aix-en-Provence in southern France. The king requested that the triptych include two side panels depicting himself and his wife Jeanne de Laval, which would accompany the center panel of the Virgin. The center panel is a complex narrative that features Mary as the subject. It provides us with a rich set of visual experiences that help us to know not only who... Read more
To view this image on a smart board or other computer projection technology click here. “God is the author of Sacred Scripture,” and “God inspired the human authors of the sacred books.” [1] These catechetical truths are brought to life in a masterpiece painting titled, “Saint Jerome and the Angel,” from the National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Completed around 1625, this ethereal image is the work of the French Baroque painter, Simon Vouet. His masterful use of color, light, and line offers a visual catechesis on the power and beauty of God’s Word in the life of Saint Jerome,... Read more
…that you, rooted and grounded in love, may have strength to comprehend with all the holy ones what is the breadth and length and height and depth, and to know the love of Christ that surpasses knowledge, so that you may be filled with all the fullness of God (Ephesians 3:17-19). A Unique Image with a Back-story Can an artist reveal the reality of heaven, the identity of God, and the glorious, eternal Queenship of Mary the Mother of God all in one image? This was the challenge set before Enguerrand Quarton, the Early Renaissance artist, in 1453, when Jean... Read more