This site offers a personal exploration of great paintings, mainly in the field of religious art. Click on 'rationale' below for more on the background to the site. 

   Below are links to the thematic studies tackled so far. There are also studies on individual works of art, and on art in context in Italy and in the U.K.
  Comments on the site are very welcome; please send to the address below. To avoid spam, the email address is not directly linked.

All images used on the site are ones widely available on the Internet. Should copyright have been inadvertently breached, please contact the site editor at the address below.




     

                                                        Rationale for the site                                                   

 


Themes in religious painting:

 The life of the Virgin and the childhood of Jesus

  The Passion and Resurrection of Christ

 
The Shepherd and the Lamb

Legends of the saints: St. Jerome, St. Anthony, St Ursula,  St Mark and Venice,
John the Baptist        St Thomas of Canterbury
 St Swithun of Winchester    St Wilfrid

The great cover-up: Masaccio and Michelangelo

The Legend of the True Cross

The Art of Angels

Giotto and the Franciscans

Abraham and Isaac


 The story of Jonah

Giotto and Dante
 
Miraculous Paintings

New! The work of Francesco di Giorgio Martini

Studies of individual artworks: 

Duccio, Margarito of Arezzo, The Augustine Gospels.
  Titian's Bacchus and Ariadne
The Benedictional of Aethelwold 

Carolingian and Mayan art: a comparison.
The Franks Casket
The Pala d'Oro in San Marco, Venice.
The Font of the Duomo in Verona.
The bronze doors of the Basilica of San Zeno, Verona.
The Cortona Polyptych by Fra Angelico

The Armadio degli Argenti by Fra Angelico

The Dionysus mosaic in the House of Aion, Cyprus
The Codex Amiatinus
 An altarpiece in Modena Cathedral.
The Alfred Jewel
New! The Grabow Altarpiece by Master Bertram

  Sacred Places: art in context 

Explorations of sacred places in England, Italy, and the Holy Land.

New! The Way of St James to Santiago de Compostela