<em>'Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question</em>', by Grace Cossington Smith
art, Australian artist, biblical, Blake Prize, devotional art, Giotto (c.1266-1337), Grace Cossington Smith (1892-1984), Masaccio, Matthew, painters, religious art, Renaissance art, scripture, Tommaso di ser Giovanni di Simone (c.1401-1428), Tribute Money.
This painting by Sydney artist Grace Cossington Smith derives its title,<em>'Then one of them, which was a lawyer, asked him a question'</em>, from Matthew, Chapter xxii, verse 35. Although better known for her paintings of domestic interiors, this is one of two biblical works Cossington Smith painted for entry into the newly established Blake Prize for Religious Art in the early 1950s. Influenced generally by Renaissance artists such as Giotto, whose paintings she had seen in Italy, Cossington Smith used Masaccio’s '<em>Tribute Money'</em> (from the Carmine in Florence) in particular as a model for this painting (see Bruce James, <em>Grace Cossington Smith</em>, Roseville, Craftsman House, 1990, p.135). It featured alongside a number of Cossington Smith’s other works as part of an exhibition titled <em>Grace Cossington Smith: A Retrospective Exhibition</em> at the National Gallery of Australia in 2005.
Grace Cossington Smith AO OBE (1892-1984)
National Gallery of Australia, accession no. NGA 1976.1059
1952
National Gallery of Australia
Oil on canvas on paperboard painting, 59.1x86.3cm
Bouguereau’s Virgin and Child
art, artwork, child, Christ Child, crucifixion, devotional art, devotional, gaze, halo, icon, infant Jesus, Madonna, Mary, nostalgia, religious, religion, religious art, SA, South Australia, virgin, Virgin Mary, William Adolphe Bouguereau (1825-1905)
This work by William Adolphe Bouguereau was acquired by the Art Gallery of South Australia in 1899 with funds from the Elder Bequest. It depicts the Virgin Mary, clothed in a dark green dress with gold trim and seated against a backdrop of rich gold cloth, holding the infant Jesus on her lap. The child’s arms are outstretched in a crucifixion pose. Although this painting dates from the nineteenth century (1888), it is strongly reminiscent of devotional religious art from the medieval period. The colours and composition are generally similar to those employed by medieval artists, while Mary’s downcast gaze and the use of gold circles to represent halos recreate more specific motifs that were common in medieval representations of the Madonna and Child.
Bourguereau, William Adolphe
Art Gallery of South Australia
1888
Art Gallery of South Australia
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Oil on Canvas, 176 x 102.8 cm