PHOTO OF THE WEEK: Belgian Altar Screen

BIBLE NEWS: Biblical Art Museum Closing

The Bible has been inspiring artists of all kinds since the beginning of its history, and it continues to serve as a muse today.  But that doesn't mean that Biblical art can find donors to keep museums open.  The Museum of Biblical Art in Manhattan is closing due to lack of funds to support the necessary space to showcase masterpieces.

If you think religious imagery has no place in modern art, consider Barnett Newman’s paintings Adam and Eve. Newman translates the Bible’s first man and woman into red vertical columns in fields of purple-brown: the nude portrayals of these inhabitants of Eden by earlier artists such as Albrecht Dürer become lines of stark abstraction. This is not the only echo of Genesis in Newman’s art. His entire aesthetic of sublime power suggests God giving the 10 commandments to Moses or dividing the waters from the earth. Newman’s Broken Obelisk might be an image of the destruction of the temple or the fall of Babylon. In his cycle of shockingly austere paintings The Stations of the Cross, he turns to the New Testament story of the Passion.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK: Illustrated Bible from 1864

ART OF THE WEEK: Peter & John Heals the Blind Beggar

A fresco by Masolino.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK: Pentecost in Stained Glass

Modern stained glass depiction of Pentecost and the giving of the Holy Spirit from St Aloysius' church in Somers Town, London

PHOTO OF THE WEEK: Bible Covers as Art

BIBLE NEWS: Jewish Artists Inspired by the Bible

The Bible has inspired great art for thousands of years, and a new book traces the impact of the Bible on Jewish artists in particular.  Both faithful followers of Judaism and secular decedents of Abraham use the scriptures as a lens thru which to express themselves and interpret life.

Baskind notes that even artists noted for irony and satire, such as Jack Levine and Larry Rivers (born Yitzroch Loiza Grossberg), produced ardent visual interpretations of the Tanakh. The former artist set out to paint a tribute to his late father in “Planning Solomon’s Temple,” depicting his father as Shlomo and himself as Hiram, both labeled with Hebrew inscriptions above their figures. Unlike Levine’s usual oozingly curvaceous figure drawing, a style suited to his oft-decadent subject matter, the two figures are depicted on a single plane, in an archaic visual statement echoing Christian-inspired works by the fauvist painter Georges Rouault. Whereas Levine’s Hiram is generally seen as the royal architect and king of Tyre, who sent building materials and laborers to construct the Temple of Solomon in Jerusalem, Baskind plausibly argues that Levine may have painted himself as a different biblical Hiram, an artist who was the son of a Tyrian who cast bronze and made decorations for Solomon’s Temple.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK: A Denarius

This last year, we talked quite a bit about the denarius - a coin worth about a day's wages. Did you ever wonder what one looked like? Very possibly like the photo below.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK: Houghton Chapel Mural

Some of you know Coach Matt and Coach Mark are alumni of Houghton College. This is a photo from a mural at the college campus, showing the progression of Church history.

PHOTO OF THE WEEK: Bible Truck

For some, the Bible is art.  For others, bringing the Bible into art (and onto their vehicles) is a way to express their individuality.  (For a bonus, check out the Bible Scooter.)

PHOTO OF THE WEEK: Stained Glass from Mission to the Sailors in Australia

Click thru for an interesting historical write-up on this mission.

WEEKLY COMIC: O, DaVinci

(Just in case someone doesn't get this one, click here.)