‘Inferno, canto XIII: The Forest of Suicides’ by Fiona Hall
Afterlife, allegory, art, artwork, birds, canto, Dante Alighieri, dogs, epic poem, forest, Giacomo of Sant’ Andrea, harpies, Hell, ‘Illustrations to Dante’s Divine Comedy’, Inferno, journey, Lano, medieval literature, mastiffs, medieval world-view, modern art, Pier della Vigna (c.1190-1249), photograph, poem, punishment, sin, soul, suffering, The Divine Comedy, The Forest of the Suicides, The National Gallery, trees, underworld, Virgil, wounded.
<p>This photographic artwork by Australian artist Fiona Hall belongs to a series titled ‘Illustrations to Dante’s Divine Comedy’. It is held by The National Gallery of Australia and depicts a scene from canto XIII of Dante Alighieri’s ‘Inferno’, the first part of his famous medieval Italian poem <em>The Divine Comedy</em>. Written between 1308 and 1321,<em> The Divine Comedy</em> tells of Dante’s journey through hell, purgatory and paradise respectively, guided at first by the Roman poet Virgil and then by his ideal woman, Beatrice. In canto XIII, Dante and Virgil descend into the second ring of the seventh circle of hell, where people who committed suicide were cast. They come across a thorny, tangled forest of gnarled trees that bleed and cry in pain when they are broken. One of the trees, who identifies himself as Pier della Vigna, a prominent figure at the imperial court of Frederick II, explains to Dante that people like himself who committed suicide were sent by Minos to the wood where they would grow into trees, all the while being wounded by harpies (half woman/half-bird creatures) who would tear and feast on their leaves. They are then disturbed by the sight of two figures running frantically through the forest. The slower of the two, subsequently identified as Giacomo of Sant’ Andrea, takes refuge in a bush, only to be pounced upon by a number of black female mastiffs who ‘rent him piecemeal’.</p>
<p>For an English translation of ‘Inferno, canto XIII’, translated by the Rev. H. F. Cary, see: <a href="http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/dante/d19he/canto13.html">http://ebooks.adelaide.edu.au/d/dante/d19he/canto13.html</a></p>
Fiona Margaret Hall
The National Gallery of Australia
The National Gallery of Australia
1988
The National Gallery of Australia
Photograph, 53.3cm x 61.5cm.
‘The Fight: St George Kills the Dragon VI’ by Edward Burne-Jones
Aesthetic Pre-Raphaelitism, armor, armour, art, artwork, chivalric tradition, chivalry, damsel, dragon, gallantry, George, knight, legend, Myles Birket Foster, myth, New South Wales, NSW, Pre-Raphaelite, Princess Sabra, St George, sword, The Hill, Witley.
This oil on canvas painting by well-known nineteenth-century artist Edward Burne-Jones was gifted to the Art Gallery of New South Wales by Arthur Moon. It is one of seven paintings from a ‘St George and the Dragon’ narrative cycle that Burne-Jones was commissioned to produce in 1864 for the dining room of Myles Birket Foster’s house, The Hill, in Witley, Surrey. Completed in 1866, this is the sixth painting in the series. It depicts an armoured St George slaying a reptilian looking dragon, while a female figure wearing a flowing white gown and a wreath of flowers - Princess Sabra from the legend - clasps her hands and watches tentatively from the sidelines. The deadly threat posed by the dragon, and by extension the valour of the knight in quashing it, is evident from the skull and broken lance lying in the foreground of the painting. Although the legend of St George slaying the dragon is Eastern in origin, it is thought to have been taken back to England by medieval crusaders, where it was incorporated into the chivalric tradition. As the patron saint of England, a champion of Christianity, and an exemplar of chivalric masculinity, St George was a popular subject for Pre-Raphaelite artists such as Burne-Jones, and for the Victorian medieval revival more generally.
Edward Burne-Jones
The Art Gallery of New South Wales
1866
The Art Gallery of New South Wales
Oil on Canvas, 105.4cm x 130.8cm
‘Chaucer at the Court of Edward III’, by Ford Madox Brown
Alice Perrers (1348-1400), anniversary, art, artwork, birthday, Black Prince (1330-1376), Court, Custance, Dante Gabriel Rossetti (1828-1882), Edward III (1312-1377), English language, Geoffrey Chaucer (c.1343-1400), history painting, jester, John of Gaunt (1340-1399), knight, ‘Legend of Custance’, Lute, palace of Sheen, poetry, Pre-Raphaelite, reading, royalty, troubadour.
This large oil on canvas history painting by Victorian artist Ford Madox Brown was purchased (directly from the artist) by the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1876. Subtitled “Geoffrey Chaucer Reading the ‘Legend of Custance’ to Edward III and his Court, at the Palace of Sheen, on the Anniversary of the Black Prince’s Forty-Fifth Birthday”, the painting depicts Geoffrey Chaucer reading aloud to King Edward III and his Court. In addition to Chaucer and Edward III, other fourteenth-century figures featured in the painting include the King’s two sons, Edward the Black Prince and John of Gaunt, and his mistress Alice Perrers. The figure of Chaucer has been modelled on the famous Pre-Raphaelite and Brown’s close friend, Dante Gabriel Rosetti. However, scholars have noted the lengths to which Brown went to ensure historical accuracy in both costuming and facial resemblances, which included consulting and purchasing antiquarian volumes on medieval furniture and dress and also visiting tombs and effigies (see, for example, Angela Thirwell, Tim Barringer & Laura MacCulloch, <em>Ford Madox Brown: The Unofficial Pre-Raphaelite</em>, D. Giles, 2008). Chaucer was a common subject for Ford Madox Brown (and the nineteenth-century medieval revival more generally) on account of his prominent role in popularising the English language (over French and Latin) and his widely-held reputation as the ‘Father of English poetry’. This enabled the Victorians, Velma Bourgeois Richmond has argued, to revere him as a Protestant hero, because “the development of the English language was crucial to breaking the hold of the Catholic Church by the clergy and to the formation of national identity” (Velma Bourgeois Richmond, “Ford Madox Brown’s Protestant Medievalism: Chaucer and Wycliffe”, <em>Christianity and Literature</em>, Vol.54, Issue 3, Spring 2005, p.366). The image was originally designed as the central panel in a triptych entitled <em>The Seeds and Fruits of English Poetry</em>, and was to be flanked by portraits of famous poets such as Milton, Spenser, Shakespeare and Burns.
Ford Madox Brown
The Art Gallery of New South Wales
1847-1851
The Art Gallery of New South Wales
Oil on Canvas, 372cm x 296cm
‘The Marriage of the Arnolfini – After Jan van Eyck’ by Fiona Hall
art, artwork, Bruges, Giovanni di Nicolao Arnolfini, insert, Jan van Eyck, marriage, merchant, modern art, New South Wales, NSW, photograph, portrait, The Arnolfini Portrait, The National Gallery, wedding.
This photographic artwork by Australian artist Fiona Hall was purchased by the Art Gallery of New South Wales in 1984. In the photograph Hall has reconstructed her own version of the scene from medieval Dutch painter Jan van Eyck’s famous 1434 oil painting, “The Arnolfini Portraitâ€, by transposing the figures into a modern setting and replacing their faces. At the bottom of the frame is an insert of the original painting by Jan van Eyck. The figures in van Eyck’s painting are believed to be those of Gionvanni di Nicolao Arnolfini, a fifteenth-century Italian merchant living in the Flemish town of Bruges, and his wife.
Fiona Margaret Hall
The Art Gallery of New South Wales
1980
The Art Gallery of New South Wales
Photograph, 28cm x 35.5cm.
Tasmanian Gothic: artwork by Elizabeth Barsham
Elizabeth Barsham, Pieter Bruegel, Albrecht Dürer, E.M. Christensen, Gothic, painting, Renaissance, tapestry, Tas, Tasmania, Tasmanian Gothic, website, art, artwork
Tasmanian Gothic is the website for Tasmanian artist Elizabeth Barsham (formerly E.M. Christensen). Her work is inspired by such things as medieval tapestries and the Renaissance artists Pieter Bruegel and Albrecht Dürer (according to the ‘just a Tasmanian’ tab).
Barsham, Elizabeth
5 March 2012
Elizabeth Barsham, Tasmanian Gothic
Hyperlink
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
Hyperlink;
Oil on Canvas, 176 x 102.8 cm
St Gertrude’s Chapel Interior, New Norcia
art, artwork, Benedictine, boarding school, Catholic church, Catholic college, Catholic education, chapel, convent school, Gertrude of Hackerborn, Gothic revival style, Helfta, Jesus, Josephite Sisters, Mary Mackillop, monastery, monasticism, monks, neo-gothic architecture, New Norcia, nuns, Order of St Benedict, painting, Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart, Spanish influence, Spanish mission, St Benedict of Nursia, St Gertrude, St Gertrude’s College, St Mechtilde, WA, Western Australia
<p>A view of the chapel interior at St Gertrude’s College, New Norcia. St Gertrude was a thirteenth-century Benedictine nun and mystic in Helfta, Germany. She entered the convent aged only 5 and was entrusted by the Abbess, Gertrude of Hackerborn, to the care of St Mechtilde. In her mid-twenties, Gertrude began having mystical visions and dedicated the remainder of her life to the study and teaching of the scriptures and theology. In the painting on the domed ceiling, she can be seen ascending to Heaven to meet Jesus.</p>
<p>About New Norcia:<br /> New Norcia is a monastic town located 132 km north of Perth in Western Australia. The town is owned and run by a community of Benedictine monks and houses one of only three Benedictine monasteries (for men) in Australia. At its height the monastery housed approximately 80 monks, but currently there are only seven in residence. The Benedictines are part of a religious order within the Catholic Church known as the Order of St Benedict (OSB). Benedictines live in small, largely autonomous communities and base their way of life on the Rule of St Benedict, which prioritises a balance of prayer and work and calls for promises of stability, obedience and a conversion of life. The first Benedictine community was established in the sixth-century in Italy by St Benedict of Nursia (c.480-547).<br /> Originally intended as a mission to evangelise and educate the indigenous peoples of the Victoria Plains, the site at New Norcia was founded in 1847 by two Spanish Benedictine missionaries, Dom José Benito Serra and Dom Rosendo Salvado. Serra’s involvement in the missionary activities at new Norcia decreased following his appointment as Co-adjutor Bishop of Perth in 1849, while Salvado (1814-1900) committed himself wholly to developing the mission and leading the monastic community. He subsequently became the key figure in the first 50 years of New Norcia’s history. He made numerous fundraising trips to Europe, which provided him with the means to purchase books, vestments, artwork and equipment for the community and also to oversee the construction of new buildings. He died in Rome in 1900 and his body was returned to New Norcia. Under Salvado’s successor, Bishop Fulgentius Torres (1861-1914), New Norcia became more like a traditional monastic settlement. An increased focus on education and artistic pursuits led to the establishment of two schools and improvements to many of the town’s buildings. St Gertrude’s opened in 1908 and originally functioned as a convent boarding school for girls. It was staffed by Josephite sisters, the first of whom were to New Norcia by Mary Mackillop at the request of Bishop Fulgentius Torres. The school closed in 1991 and is now used primarily as a venue for school camps. For more information on New Norcia, see the New Norcia Benedictine Community website: <a href="http://newnorcia.wa.edu.au/" target="_blank">http://newnorcia.wa.edu.au/</a>.</p>
McEwan, Joanne
7 January 2011
No Copyright
Digital Photograph; JPEG
St Ildephonsus’ Chapel, New Norcia - Interior
Altar, altarpiece, Art, artwork, Benedictine monks, Benedictines, boarding school, Byzantine style, Catholic church, Catholic college, Catholic education, chapel, De virginitate sanctae mariae, hagiography, interior, Marist Brothers, Mary, monastery, monasticism, monks, New Norcia, Order of St Benedict, painting, saint, Spanish influence, Spanish mission, St Benedict of Nursia, St Ildephonsus, St Ildephonsus’ College, vestment, Virgin Mary, virginity, WA, Western Australia
<p>A view of the chapel interior at St Ildephonsus’ College in New Norcia. St Ildephonsus was a seventh-century monk at the Benedictine monastery of Agli near Toledo. From 657 until his death in 667, he served as the Archbishop of Toledo. One of his works, De Virginitate Sanctae Mariae, is a treatise defending the perpetual virginity of Mary. The painting above the altarpiece in the New Norcia chapel depicts the hagiographical legend in which Mary appeared before Ildephonsus and presented him with a priestly vestment as a reward for honouring her.</p>
<p>About New Norcia:</p>
<p>New Norcia is a monastic town located 132 km north of Perth in Western Australia. The town is owned and run by a community of Benedictine monks and houses one of only three Benedictine monasteries (for men) in Australia. At its height the monastery housed approximately 80 monks, but currently there are only seven in residence. The Benedictines are part of a religious order within the Catholic Church known as the Order of St Benedict (OSB). Benedictines live in small, largely autonomous communities and base their way of life on the Rule of St Benedict, which prioritises a balance of prayer and work and calls for promises of stability, obedience and a conversion of life. The first Benedictine community was established in the sixth-century in Italy by St Benedict of Nursia (c.480-547).</p>
<p>Originally intended as a mission to evangelise and educate the indigenous peoples of the Victoria Plains, the site at New Norcia was founded in 1847 by two Spanish Benedictine missionaries, Dom José Benito Serra and Dom Rosendo Salvado. Serra’s involvement in the missionary activities at new Norcia decreased following his appointment as Co-adjutor Bishop of Perth in 1849, while Salvado (1814-1900) committed himself wholly to developing the mission and leading the monastic community. He subsequently became the key figure in the first 50 years of New Norcia’s history. He made numerous fundraising trips to Europe, which provided him with the means to purchase books, vestments, artwork and equipment for the community and also to oversee the construction of new buildings. He died in Rome in 1900 and his body was returned to New Norcia. Under Salvado’s successor, Bishop Fulgentius Torres (1861-1914), New Norcia became more like a traditional monastic settlement. An increased focus on education and artistic pursuits led to the establishment of two schools and improvements to many of the town’s buildings. St Ildephonsus opened in 1913 as a boarding school for boys. It was staffed by Marist Brothers until 1965, when the Benedictines took over. The school closed in 1991 and is now used primarily as a venue for school camps.</p>
<p>For more information on New Norcia, see the New Norcia Benedictine Community website: <a href="http://newnorcia.wa.edu.au/" target="_blank">http://newnorcia.wa.edu.au/</a>.</p>
McEwan, Joanne
7 January 2011
No Copyright
Digital Photograph