Advent Calendar 2012

The donkey is an animal both humble and tenacious. It is part of the imagery of Christmas. It heats the Child Jesus in Bethlehem. It goes with the Holy Family in their flight to Egypt. It has inspired many artists in religious scenes or not. This calendar is a tribute to this animal.

SLURL: http://maps.secondlife.com/secondlife/Monastery/193/123/99

http://be-virtual.ch/adventcalendar/2012/AdventCalendar.html

We are presenting details of the paintings. You can find everyday the entire painting on Pinterest: https://pinterest.com/ArriaMarcella/advent-calendar-2012/

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Sleep, the theme of the Advent Calendar

We all spend about a third of our lives sleeping, although the number of hours that everyone needs is different. The proliferation of activities tends to shorten our sleep. Sleep is the theme of our Advent calendar 2011. Relaxing sleep, sleep as rest, sleep the brother of death, sleep of the child, the animals sleep, sleep as weakness time, the time of dream and nightmare, these are the themes that Western painting has treated . In 24 paintings by great masters or lesser-known artists, we can discover this activity that is an important part of our existence.

– Internet: http://www.be-virtual.ch/adventcalendar/

– Second Life (Monastery): http://slurl.com/secondlife/Monastery/188/126/99

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Eternal Woman

The Advent Calendar 2010 was a real success (more than 1000 unique visitors). We have selected paintings from the 19th century. Some of the painters are still famous. Some others are being rediscovered. A good example is Jean-Léon Gérôme (1824 – 1904). He was a French painter and sculptor in the style now known as Academicism. The range of his oeuvre included historical painting, Greek mythology, Orientalism, portraits and other subjects, bringing the Academic painting tradition to an artistic climax. He was very popular. At the end of his life, he made critics against the impressionist. He was then forgotten. But he was well represented in public and private collections in USA. His painting has inspired peplum movies. A big exhibition is now traveling in the world. It is currently visible in the Musée d’Orsay in Paris. It will be in Madrid (Thyssen Museum) in February.
These painters were interested by the representation of the woman. The stars or the night were often seen as women. We are presenting now in the Monastery a selection of painting presenting women from some of the painters of the Advent Calendar under the title “Eternal woman”.

This exhibition will be visible until the 12th February. On 14th February, the Monastery will open its traditional exhibition dedicated to the theme of love. The topic of this year is already selected. We will present you a selection of some famous lovers couples in mythology, litterature and history.

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The Advent Calendar in Internet

The Advent Calendar is also available in Internet. Just follow this URL:

http://www.be-virtual.ch/monastery/adventcalendar/index.php

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Stars, stars, stars

In few days, the traditional Advent Calendar of the Monastery will be open. The theme of this year is “Stars”. A lot of surprising paintings with stars are waiting for you. We will comment some in this blog. Besides the Advent Calendar, you can also visit an exhibition about some of the painters represented in the Calendar.

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Merry Christmas

As last picture, the Monastery’s Advent Calendar presented a Nativity painting from the Barroco period.

Nativity

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First painting of Leonardo

Tobias and the Angel is a painting, finished around 1470-1480, attributed to the workshop of the Italian Renaissance painter Andrea del Verrocchio.
Leonardo da Vinci was a member of Verrocchio’s studio. He may have painted some part of this work, the fish and the little dog. If it the case, this would be the first example of a painting by Leonardo ad Vinci.

Tobias and the Angel

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A stolen painting

The Nativity with St. Francis and St. Lawrence (also known as The Adoration) is a painting from 1609 by the Italian Baroque master Caravaggio .

Nativity with Saints Francis and Lawrence, 1609

The painting was stolen on October 16, 1969 from the Oratory of San Lorenzo in Palermo, Sicily. It is today the most famous unrecovered stolen painting and the FBI continue to list the work on their art thefts listings site quoting its value at $20 million. Worth is a moot point as the notoriety of the masterpiece makes it unsaleable.

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Ponte Sant’Angelo

Ponte Sant’Angelo, once the Aelian Bridge or Pons Aelius, meaning the Bridge of Hadrian, is a Roman bridge in Rome, completed in 134 AD by Roman Emperor Hadrian, to span the Tiber, from the city center to his newly constructed mausoleum, now the towering Castel Sant’Angelo. The bridge is faced with travertine marble and spans the Tiber with three arches.

Castel Sant'Angelo and St. Angelo and Ponte Sant'Angelo (Rome)

In times past, pilgrims used this bridge to reach St Peter’s Basilica, hence it was known also with the name of “bridge of Saint Peter” (pons Sancti Petri). In the seventh century, both the castle and the bridge took on the name Sant’Angelo, explained by a legend that an angel appeared on the roof of the castle to announce the end of the plague.
In 1669 Pope Clement IX commissioned replacements for the aging stucco angels by Raffaello da Montelupo, commissioned by Paul III. Bernini’s program, one of his last large projects, called for ten angels holding instruments of the Passion.

Angel with the lance, Domenico Guidi

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Mystical Nativity

The Mystical Nativitywas painted by the Italian Renaissance master Sandro Botticelli. It is his only signed work, and has a very unusual iconography for a Nativity.

(Detail)

The painting is related to a chapter of the Apocalypse of Saint John, as it is explained in the greek inscription above. It was painted in 1500, in a time of troubles in Italy.

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