Famous Catholic of History

it was a churchman, Nicholas Copernicus, who first advanced the contrary doctrine that the sun and not the earth is the centre of our system, round which our planet revolves, rotating on its own axis. His great work, "De Revolutionibus orbium coelestium", was published at the earnest solicitation of two distinguished churchmen, Cardinal Schömberg and Tiedemann Giese, Bishop of Culm. It was dedicated by permission to Pope Paul III in order, as Copernicus explained, that it might be thus protected from the attacks which it was sure to encounter on the part of the "mathematicians" (i.e. philosophers) for its apparent contradiction of the evidence of our senses, and even of common sense. He added that he made no account of objections which might be brought by ignorant wiseacres on Scriptural grounds. Indeed, for nearly three quarters of a century no such difficulties were raised on the Catholic side, although Luther and Melanchthon condemned the work of Copernicus in unmeasured terms. Neither Paul III, nor any of the nine popes who followed him, nor the Roman Congregations raised any alarm

Galileo and Foscarini rightly urged that the Bible is intended to teach men to go to heaven, not how the heavens go. At the same time, it must not be forgotten that, while there was as yet no sufficient proof of the Copernican system, no objection was made to its being taught as an hypothesis which explained all phenomena in a simpler manner than the Ptolemaic, and might for all practical purposes be adopted by astronomers. What was objected to was the assertion that Copernicanism was in fact true, "which appears to contradict Scripture". It is clear, moreover, that the authors of the judgment themselves did not consider it to be absolutely final and irreversible, for Cardinal Bellarmine, the most influential member of the Sacred College, writing to Foscarini, after urging that he and Galileo should be content to show that their system explains all celestial phenomena — an unexceptional proposition, and one sufficient for all practical purposes — but should not categorically assert what seemed to contradict the Bible, thus continued:

I say that if a real proof be found that the sun is fixed and does not revolve round the earth, but the earth round the sun, then it will be necessary, very carefully, to proceed to the explanation of the passages of Scripture which appear to be contrary, and we should rather say that we have misunderstood these than pronounce that to be false which is demonstrated.. in 1637, five years before his death, he became totally blind — or that he was refused burial in consecrated ground. On the contrary, although the pope (Urban VIII) did not allow a monument to be erected over his tomb, he sent his special blessing to the dying man, who was interred not only in consecrated ground, but within the church of Santa Croce at Florence.

Columbus was unquestionably a man of genius. He was a bold, skilful navigator, better acquainted with the principles of cosmography and astronomy than the average skipper of his time, a man of original ideas, fertile in his plans, and persistent in carrying them into execution. The impression he made on those with whom he came in contact even in the days of his poverty, such as Fray Juan Perez, the treasurer Luis de Santangel, the Duke of Medina Sidonia, and Queen Isabella herself, shows that he had great powers of persuasion and was possessed of personal magnetism. His success in overcoming the obstacles to his expeditions and surmounting the difficulties of his voyages exhibit him as a man of unusual resources and of unflinching determination.

Columbus was also of a deeply religious nature. Whatever influence scientific theories and the ambition for fame and wealth may have had over him, in advocating his enterprise he never failed to insist on the conversion of the pagan peoples that he would discover as one of the primary objects of his undertaking. Even when clouds had settled over his career, after his return as a prisoner from the lands he had discovered, he was ready to devote all his possessions and the remaining years of his life to set sail again for the purpose of rescuing Christ's Sepulchre from the hands of the infidel.

At the beginning of Book III he relates the great maritime expedition which Kublai Khan attempted against Zipangu (Japan) and which ended in defeat. Then he enters the Indian seas and describes the great island of Java and that of the lesser Java (Sumatra), Ceylon, in connection with which he speaks of the Buddhists and their reformer "Sagamoni Borcam" (Khakamouni). From here he goes to the coast of "Maabar" (Coromandel) and gives a full description of India. He mentions the existence of the island of Socotra and the large island of Madagascar, in connection with which he speaks of the regular currents of the Strait of Mozambique and relates the legend of the Roc, the fabulous bird of the voyages of Sinbad the Sailor. He concludes with information concerning Zanzibar, the people of the coast of Zanguebar, Abyssinia, the Province of Aden, and the northern regions where the sun disappears for a period of the year. The "Book of Marco Polo" was soon translated into all European languages and exercised an important influence on the geographical discoveries of the fifteenth century. Christopher Columbus had read it attentively and it was to reach the western route to the lands described by Marco Polo that he undertook the expedition which resulted in the discovery of America.

Known as Albert the Great; scientist, philosopher, and theologian, born c. 1206; died at Cologne, 15 November 1280. He is called "the Great", and "Doctor Universalis" (Universal Doctor), in recognition of his extraordinary genius and extensive knowledge, for he was proficient in every branch of learning cultivated in his day, and surpassed all his contemporaries, except perhaps Roger Bacon (1214-94), in the knowledge of nature. Ulrich Engelbert, a contemporary, calls him the wonder and the miracle of his age: "Vir in omni scientia adeo divinus, ut nostri temporis stupor et miraculum congrue vocari possit" (De summo bono, tr. III, iv). The influence exerted by Albert on the scholars of his own day and on those of subsequent ages was naturally great. His fame is due in part to the fact that he was the forerunner, the guide and master of St. Thomas Aquinas, but he was great in his own name, his claim to distinction being recognized by his contemporaries and by posterity. It is remarkable that this friar of the Middle Ages, in the midst of his many duties as a religious, as provincial of his order, as bishop and papal legate, as preacher of a crusade, and while making many laborious journeys from Cologne to Paris and Rome, and frequent excursions into different parts of Germany, should have been able to compose a veritable encyclopedia, containing scientific treatises on almost every subject, and displaying an insight into nature and a knowledge of theology which surprised his contemporaries and still excites the admiration of learned men in our own times. He was, in truth, a Doctor Universalis. Of him it in justly be said: Nil tetigit quod non ornavit; and there is no exaggeration in the praises of the modern critic who wrote: "Whether we consider him as a theologian or as a philosopher, Albert was undoubtedly one of the most extraordinary men of his age; I might say, one of the most wonderful men of genius who appeared in past times" (Jourdain, Recherches Critiques). Philosophy, in the days of Albert, was a general scienceembracing everything that could be known by the natural powers of the mind; physics, mathematics, and metaphysics. In his writings we do not, it is true, find the distinction between the sciences and philosophy which recent usage makes. It will, however, be convenient to consider his skill in the experimental sciences, his influence on scholastic philosophy, his theology. Roger Bacon and Albert proved to the world that the Church is not opposed to the study of nature, that faith and science may go hand in hand; their lives and their writings emphasize the importance of experiment and investigation. Bacon was indefatigable and bold in investigating; at times, too, his criticism was sharp. But of Albert he said: "Studiosissimus erat, et vidit infinita, et habuit expensum, et ideo multa potuit colligere in pelago auctorum infinito" (Opera, ed. Brewer, 327). Albert respected authority and traditions, was prudent in proposing the results of his investigations, and hence "contributed far more than Bacon did to the advancement of science in the thirteenth century" (Turner, Hist. of Phil.). His method of treating the sciences was historical and critical. He gathered into one vast encyclopedia all that was known in his day, and then expressed his own opinions, principally in the form of commentaries on the works of Aristotle.

Italian poet, born at Florence, 1265; died at Ravenna, Italy, 14 September, 1321. His own statement in the "Paradiso" (xxii, 112-117) that he was born when the sun was in Gemini, fixes his birthday between 18 May and 17 June.

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He was the son of Alighiero di Bellincione Alighieri, a notary belonging to an ancient but decadent Guelph family, by his first wife, Bella, who was possibly a daughter of Durante di Scolaio Abati, a Ghibelline noble. A few months after the poet's birth, the victory of Charles of Anjou over King Manfred at Benevento (26 February, 1266) ended the power of the empire in Italy, placed a French dynasty upon the throne of Naples, and secured the predominance of the Guelphs in Tuscany. Dante thus grew up amidst the triumphs of the Florentine democracy, in which he took some share fighting in the front rank of the Guelph cavalry at the battle of Campaldino (11 June, 1289), when the Tuscan Ghibellines were defeated by the forces of the Guelph league, of which Florence was the head. This victory was followed by a reformation of the Florentine constitution, associated with the name of Giano della Bella, a great-hearted noble who had joined the people. By the Ordinances of Justice (1293) all nobles and magnates were more strictly excluded from the government, and subjected to severe penalties for offences against plebeians. To take any part in public life, it was necessary to be enrolled in one or other of the "Arts" (the guilds in which the burghers and artisans were banded together), and accordingly Dante matriculated in the guild of physicians and apothecaries. On 6 July, 1295, he spoke in the General Council of the Commune in favour of some modification in the Ordinances of Justice after which his name is frequently found recorded as speaking or voting in the various councils of the republic. Dante's vehement denunciation of the ecclesiastical corruption of his times, and his condemnation of most of the contemporary popes(including the canonized Celestine V) to hell have led to some questioning as to the poet's attitude towards the Church. Even in the fourteenth century attempts were made to find heresy in the "Divina Commedia", and the "De Monarchiâ" was burned at Bologna by order of a papal legate. In more recent times Dante has been hailed as a precursor of the Reformation. His theological position as an orthodox Catholic has been amply and repeatedly vindicated, recently and most notably by Dr. Moore, who declares that "there is no trace in his writings of doubt or dissatisfaction respecting any part of the teaching of the Church in matters of doctrine authoritatively laid down". A strenuous opponent of the political aims of the popes of his own day, the beautiful episodes of Casella and Manfred in the "Purgatorio", no less than the closing chapter of the "De Monarchiâ" itself, bear witness to Dante's reverence for the spiritual power of the papacy, which he accepts as of Divine origin. Not the least striking testimony to his orthodoxy is the part played by the Blessed Virgin in the sacred poem from the beginning to the end. It is, as it were, the working out in inspired poetry of the sentence of Richard of St. Victor: "Through Mary not only is the light of grace given to man on earth but even the vision of God vouchsafed to souls in Heaven."  The poet's own son Pietro Alighieri, declared that, if the Faith were extinguished, Dante would restore it, and it is noteworthy today that many serious non-Catholic students of life and letters owe a totally different conception of the Catholic religion to the study of the "Divina Commedia". The power of the sacred poem in popularizing Catholic theology and Catholicphilosophy, and rendering it acceptable, or at least intelligible to non-Catholics, is at the present day almost incalculable.

Of both Milton and Shakespeare it was stated after their deaths, upon Protestant authority, that they had professed Catholicism. In Milton's case (though the allegation was made and printed in the lifetime of contemporaries, and though it pretended to rest upon the testimony of Judge Christopher Milton, his brother, who did become a Catholic) the statement is certainly untrue (see The Month, Jan., 1909, pp. 1-13 and 92-93). This emphasizes the need of caution — the more so that Shakespeare at least had been dead more than seventy years when Archdeacon R. Davies (d. 1708) wrote in his supplementary notes to the biographical collections of the Rev. W. Fulman that the dramatist had a monument at Stratford, adding the words: "He dyed a Papyst". Davies, an Anglican clergyman, could have had no conceivable motive for misrepresenting the matter in these private notes and as he lived in the neighbouring county of Gloucestershire he may be echoing a local tradition. To this must be added the fact that independent evidence establishes a strong presumption that John Shakespeare, the poet's father, was or had been a Catholic. His wife Mary Arden, the poet's mother, undoubtedly belonged to a family that remained conspicuously Catholicthroughout the reign of Elizabeth. John Shakespeare had held municipal office in Stratford-on-Avon during Mary's reign at a time when it seems agreed that Protestants were rigorously excluded from such posts.  A document, supposed to have been found about 1750 under the tiles of a house in Stratford which had once been John Shakespeare's, professes to be the spiritual testament of the said John Shakespeare, and assuming it to be authentic it would clearly prove him to have been a Catholic. The document, which was at first unhesitatingly accepted as genuine by Malone, is considered by most modern Shakespeare scholars to be a fabrication of J. Jordan who sent it to Malone (Lee, Life of William Shakespeare, London, 1908, p. 302). It is certainly not entirely a forgery (see The Month, Nov., 1911), and it produces in part a form of spiritual testament attributed to St. Charles Borromeo. Moreover, there is good evidence that a paper of this kind was really found. Such testaments were undoubtedly common among Catholics in the sixteenth century. Jordan had no particular motive for forging a very long, dreary, and tedious profession of Catholicism, only remotely connected with the poet; and although it has been said that John Shakespeare could not write (Lee, J.W. Gray, and C.C. Stopes maintain the contrary), it is quite conceivable that a priest or some other Catholic friend drafted the document for him, a copy of which was meant to be laid with him in his grave. All this goes to show that the dramatist in his youth must have been brought up in a very Catholic atmosphere, and indeed the history of the Gunpowder Plot conspirators (the Catesbys lived at Bushwood Park in Stratford parish) shows that the neighbourhood was regarded as quite a hotbed of recusancy. Taking these facts in connection with the loose morality of the Sonnets, of Venus and Adonis, etc. and of passages in the play, not to speak of sundry vague hints preserved by tradition of the poet's rather dissolute morals, the conclusion seems certain that, even if Shakespeare's sympathies were with the Catholics, he made little or no attempt to live up to his convictions. For such a man it is intrinsically possible and even likely that, finding himself face to face with death, he may have profited by the happy incident of the presence of some priest in Stratford to be reconciled with the Church before the end came. Thus Archdeacon Davies's statement that "he dyed a Papyst" is by no means incredible, but it would obviously be foolish to build too much upon an unverifiable tradition of this kind. The point must remain forever uncertain.

As regards the internal evidence of the plays and poems, no fair appreciation of the arguments advanced by Simpson, Bowden, and others can ignore the strong leaven of Catholic feeling conspicuous in the works as a whole. Detailed discussion would be impossible here. The question is complicated by the doubt whether certain more Protestant passages have any right to be regarded as the authentic work of Shakespeare. For example, there is a general consensus of opinion that the greater part of the fifth act of "Henry VIII" is not his. Similarly in "King John" any hasty references drawn from the anti-papal tone of certain speeches must be discounted by a comparison between the impression left by the finished play as it came from the hands of the dramatist and the virulent prejudice manifest in the older drama of "The Troublesome Reign of King John", which Shakespeare transformed. On the other hand the type of such characters as Friar Lawrence or of the friar in "Much Ado About Nothing", of Henry V, of Katherine of Aragon, and of others, as well as the whole ethos of "Measure for Measure", with numberless casual allusions, all speak eloquently for the Catholic tone of the poet's mind (see, for example, the references to purgatory and the last sacraments in "Hamlet", Act I, sc. 5).

A Spanish author, born at Alcála de Henares, Spain, in 1547; died at Madrid, 23 April, 1616. Of Cervantes it may be most truly said that the narrative of his life is no less fraught with interest than the most exciting novel of adventure. 

The events of Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra’s remarkable life played out against a backdrop of Spain’s “Golden Age.” The Hapsburgs ruled. Gold from the new world was pouring in and, after 800 years, the Moors were finally driven out. The faith of Christendom was crumbling while Spain stood firm. It was the age of Velasquez, Zurbaran, Ribera, and El Greco. The great royal monastery of San Lorenzo de El Escorial was conceived and constructed. King Philip II was king of Spain, Portugal, Naples, Sicily, and even England and Ireland through his marriage to Queen Mary I. His empire extended to territories in all of the known continents including the Philippine Islands, named after him.

Of all of the great authors that we read, Miguel de Cervantes Saavedra might have had the most eventful life. He went to sea and fought with Muslims and pirates. He served important functions in ecclesiastical and royal courts. He was a tax collector, a frustrated pioneer, and a literary giant. He was imprisoned by both Christians and infidels. And did I mention pirates? It occurred to me that he should have been dubbed “the most interesting man in the world,” rather than the pretender in the Dos Equis beer commercials.

Don Quixote in the Mountains, Honoré Daumier (1808–1879)He was born into a poor family in Alcala de Henares, Spain, in 1547, on the feast of St. Michael the Archangel. When little Miguel was five years old his father was temporarily imprisoned for not paying his debts. Financial struggles haunted Cervantes throughout his life and he ultimately died in penury. But he was an enterprising young man and, at the age of 21, with no university training, he managed to acquire a position in the entourage of an Italian prelate and traveled to Rome. This appointment seems especially timely, as it allowed him to escape a warrant for dueling. At the time the normal punishment would have been exile and the loss of his right hand.

After several more years of military service, Cervantes decided to return to Spain in 1575, but his ship was overrun by corsairs, and he was held prisoner for five years in Algiers. His friendship with Don Juan turned out to be unfortunate in this circumstance, since it gave his captors an inflated sense of how much ransom to demand. Over several years he tried again and again to organize an escape. After one such attempt he was condemned to 2,000 lashes but remarkably survived. When another plot was discovered, Cervantes turned himself in to protect his co-conspirators. He insisted that he alone bore responsibility and was condemned to death, though it appears that this was merely a ploy to terrorize him into revealing the names of the others involved. Finally, in 1580, he was ransomed by his family through the labors and generosity of Trinitarian monks.

Back home he briefly worked as a legate for Philip II to newly annexed Portugal. In 1584 he married Catalina de Salazar in Esquivias, La Mancha, and also welcomed an illegitimate daughter, Isabel de Saavedra from another union. In 1587 he was assigned as a royal requisition agent, gathering provisions for the Spanish Armada. He requested, but was not granted, a post in the West Indies. In 1592 he was charged with fraud and briefly jailed. In 1594 he became a tax collector in Austria. Unfortunately, financial mismanagement landed him in prison for several more months, though he was eventually cleared of all charges. In July 1613, he joined the Third Order Franciscans, then a common way for Catholics to gain spiritual merit. His final years were spent in poverty and ill health. He died in April of 1616 — 10 days before William Shakespeare.

During this remarkable life Cervantes found time to write one of the most astounding works in the history of literature, The Ingenious Hidalgo Don Quixote de la Mancha, which Dostoyevsky called “the final and greatest utterance of the human mind.”

He received the best part of his early training in a school at Madrid conducted by the cleric, Juan Lopez de Hoyos. Despite sundry affirmations to the contrary effect by this or that biographer he does not seem to have attended any of the universities then flourishing in Spain. However, as was the case with many of the leading Spanish spirits of the age, he had early an opportunity to perfect his training by a sojourn in the land where the movement of the Renaissance had begun, for when but twenty-one years of age, he became attached to the suite of an Italian prelate who was on a mission to the Spanish Courts. With this ecclesiastic, later Cardinal Acquaviva, he went to Rome. Once in Italy he doubtless began straightway to familiarize himself with Italian literature, a knowledge of which is so readily discernible in his own productions. He did not find the service of the cardinal to his liking, for in a short time he was figuring as a simple volunteer among the Spanish troops that played a part in the campaign against the Turks. He fought bravely on board a vessel in the great battle of Lepanto in 1571, and was shot through the left hand in such a way that he never after had the entire use of it.

When his wound was healed he engaged in another campaign, one directed against the Moslem in Northern Africa, and then after living a while longer in Italy he finally determined to return home. But the ship on which he was making the trip back to Spain was captured by Corsairs, who took him, with his fellow captives, to Algiers. There he spent five years, undergoing great sufferings, some of which seem to be reflected in the episode of the "Captive" in "Don Quixote", and in scenes of the play, "El tratode Argel". Unsuccessful in several attempts at an escape, he was at last ransomed just when he was in great danger of being sent to Constantinople. Had he really been taken there the world would probably be now without its greatest novel, the imperishable story of the Knight of La Mancha. Back once more in Spain Cervantes is said but on no too certain evidence, to have spent a year or two in military service. However that may be, he was certainly engaged in literary pursuits from 1582 on; for about this time, a love affair--his attachment to Catalina de Palacios whom he soon made his wife--gave the impulse to the first literary work to bring him public notice. This was the "Galatea" a pastoral romance after the manner already established in the peninsula by the "Menina e moca" in Portuguese of Bernardim Ribeiro and the "Diana enamorada" of Jorge de Montemayor. It is inferior to the "Diana" and as artificial as most works of its kind, still it exhibits a certain power of inventiveness and some depth of real emotion on the part of its author.

Fra Giovanni da Fiesole, known as Blessed Fra Angelico, was an early Renaissance painter. After joining the Dominicans in 1420, he began illustrating manuscripts and choir books, beginning each new work with a prayer. His religious altarpieces, paintings and frescoes exploited color for spatial and emotional effect. Fra Angelico, meaning “angelic brother,” decorated an entire Florentine monastery and two Roman chapels. Notable works include his “Annunciation” and “Descent from the Cross.” He declined an appointment as archbishop of Florence and was officially beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1982. Art students often leave written prayers near his tomb in the Church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva in Rome. He is patron of artists.

Fra Angelico was an Italian painter of the early Renaissance who combined the life of a devout friarwith that of an accomplished painter. He was called Angelico (Italian for "angelic") and Beato (Italian for "blessed") because the paintings he did were of calm, religious subjects and because of his extraordinary personal piety. Originally named Guido di Pietro, Angelico was born in Vicchio, Tuscany. He entered a Dominican convent in Fiesole in 1418 and about 1425 became a friar using the name Giovanni da Fiesole. Although his teacher is unknown, he apparently began his career as an illuminator of missals and other religious books. He began to paint altarpieces and other panels; among his important early works are the MADONNA OF THE STAR (1428?-1433, San Marco, Florence) and CHRIST IN GLORY SURROUNDED BY SAINTS AND ANGELS (National Gallery, London), which depicts more than 250 distinct figures. Among other works of that period are two of the CORONATION OF THE VIRGIN (San Marco and Louvre, Paris) and THE DEPOSITION and THE LAST JUDGMENT (San Marco). His mature style is first seen in the MADONNA OF THE LINEN WEAVERS (1433, San Marco), which features a border with 12 music-making angels. In 1436 the Dominicans of Fiesole moved to the convent of San Marco in Florence, which had recently been rebuilt by Michelozzo. Angelico, sometimes aided by assistants, painted many frescoes for the cloister, chapter house, and entrances to the 20 cells on the upper corridors. The most impressive of these are THE CRUCIFIXION, CHRIST AS A PILGRIM, AND TRANSFIGURATION. His altarpiece for San Marco (1439) is one of the first representations of what is known as a Sacred Conversation: the Madonna flanked by angels and saints who seem to share a common space. In 1445 Angelico was summoned to Rome by Pope Eugenius IV to paint frescoes for the now destroyed Chapel of the Sacrament in the Vatican. In 1447, with his pupil Benozzo Gozzoli, he painted frescoes for the chapel of Pope Nicholas in the Vatican, are SCENES FROM THE LIVES OF SAINTS STEPHEN AND LAWRENCE (1447-1449), probably painted from his designs by assistants. From 1449-1452 Angelico was prior of his convent in Fiesole. He died in the Dominican convent in Romeon March 18, 1455. Angelico combined the influence of the elegantly decorative Gothic style of Gentile da Fabriano with the more realistic style of such Renaissance masters as the painter Masaccio and the sculptors Donatello and Ghiberti, all of whom worked in Florence. Angelico was also aware of the theories of perspective proposed by Leon Battista Alberti. Angelico's representation of devout facial expressions and his use of color to heighten emotion are particularly effective. His skill in creating monumental figures, representing motion, and suggesting deep space through the use of linear perspective, especially in the Roman frescoes, mark him as one of the foremost painters of the Renaissance.Fra Angelico (original name Guido di Pietro) - Fra Giovanni da Fiesole and Beato Angelico - an Italian painter, florentine school, illuminator and Dominican friar.

His legacy passed directly to the second half of the 15th century through the work of his close follower Benozzo Gozzoli and indirectly through the production of Domenico Veneziano and Piero della Francesca. Fra Angelico was undoubtedly the leading master in Rome at mid-century, and had the survival rate of 15th-century Roman painting been greater, his significance for such later artists as Melozzo da Forli and Antoniazzo Romano might be clearer than it is.

Sacra conversazione

He who wishes to paint Christ's story must live with Christ - Fra Angelico

In art, a sacra conversazione meaning holy (or sacred) conversation, is a genre developed in Italian Renaissance painting, with a depiction of the Virgin and Child (the Virgin Mary with the infant Jesus) amidst a group of saints in a relatively informal grouping, as opposed to the more rigid and hierarchical compositions of earlier periods. Donor portraits may also be included, generally kneeling, often their patron saint is presenting them to the Virgin, and angels are frequently in attendance.

The term is often used as a title for paintings to avoid listing all the individual figures, although the trend in museums and academic art history is now to give the full list. The name, which only appears as a title retrospectively in the 18th century, has been explained with reference to "their rapt stillness of mood, in which the Saints, scarcely looking at one another, seem to communicate at a spiritual rather than a material level". In Italian the term is perhaps used more often and more widely than is usually the case in English, for example covering in aria compositions in the tradition of Raphael's Sistine Madonna where the Virgin and Child hover in the air well above the saints.

Donatello (DONATO DI NICOLO DI BETTO BARDI), one of the great Tuscan sculptors of the Renaissance, b. at Florence, c. 1386; d. there December 13, 1466. He was the son of Nicolo di Betto Bardi, and was early apprenticed to a goldsmith to learn design. At the age of seventeen he accompanied his friend Brunellesco to Rome, and the two youths devoted themselves to drawing and to making excavations in their pursuit of the antique. Half the week they spent chiselling for a livelihood. Brunellesco’s occupation was architecture; Donatello, though understanding the inter-relation of the two arts, always, whether in conjunction with Brunellesco or, as later, with Michelozzo, made sculpture paramount. It is hard to place his work chronologically. While still a mere boy, he carved the wooden crucifix in Santa Croce, Florence. On his return from Rome to Florence he was engaged for years on the statues for Giotto’s belfry and the buildings then in progress. For the Campanile he did “The Baptist”, “Jeremias”, “Habakkuk”, a group representing Abraham and Isaac, and the famous “David” called the “Zuccone” (Bald-head), so lifelike that Donatello is said to have himself cried to it, “Why don’t you speak?”; for the Duomo, “St. John the Evangelist” and “The Singing-gallery”; for Or San Michele, “St. Peter” and “St. Mark”, and the “St. George”, which he executed at the order of the Guild of Armourers—Donatello’s most ideal and perfect work. The socle-relief of “St. George and the Dragon and the King of Cappadocia’s Daughter” is absolutely Greek in simplicity and plastic beauty. Other fine reliefs are the bronze doors for the sacristy of San Lorenzo; the medallions for the ceiling; and the “Annunciation” in the same church, with its noble figures of the Blessed Virgin and the archangel. In the Loggia de’ Lanzi is the somewhat ill-proportioned roup of “Judith and Holofernes”. The marble “David” in the Bargello, uniting the delicacy of the adolescent “Baptist” of Casa Martelli with a classic fashion of wreath-bound hair, seems a link between two of the phases in Donatello’s development. Purely Renaissance and yet conceived in the antique spirit are the “Amorino” (Cupid) and the bronze “David” of the National Museum, Florence. Both are instinct with life and the potent vitality of youth, jubilant or contained. Pope John XXIII, a personal friend of the sculptor, died in Florence, 1419. Donatello made his tomb, a recumbent portrait-statue in the baptistery. In the Duomo of Siena he performed the same office for Bishop Pecci. In Siena also he made several rare statuettes and reliefs for the christening-font of San Giovanni. At Prato, for the open-air pulpit of the Duomo, he carved the casement with groups of playing children (putti). He is believed to have been in Rome again in 1433. A tabernacle of the Blessed Virgin in St. Peter’s is said to be by Donatello, and also the tombstone of Giovanni Crivelli in Santa Maria in Ara Coeli. In 1443 he went to Padua to build the choir-gallery, and remained there some ten years. First he carved his “Christ on the Cross”, the head a marvel of workmanship and expression; then statuettes of the Blessed Virgin, St. Francis of Assisi, St. Anthony, and other saints; also a long series of reliefs for the high altar. While in PaduaDonatello was commissioned to make a monument to the Venetian Condottiere (General) Gattamelata (Erasmo de’ Narni), and he blocked out the first great equestrian statue since classic times. The last known statue of Donatello is “St. Louis of Toulouse” in the interior of Santa Croce.

Donatello became bedridden in his latter years, and some of his works were completed by his pupils. Piero de’ Medici provided for him. Donatello had always been lavish with his fellow-workers and assistants, and took no forethought for himself. His character was one of great openness and simplicity, and he had an ingenuous appreciation of his own value as an artist. Unassuming as he was, his pride of craft and independence of spirit would lead him to destroy a masterpiece at one blow if his modest price were haggled over. He was buried beside his patron Cosimo de’ Medici in the church of San Lorenzo in Florence. Donatello was a thorough realist and one of the first modelers with whom character and personality in the subject meant more than loveliness. His Apostles and saints were generally close likenesses of living persons. He had a vivid faculty for individual traits and expression and a method of powerful handling that makes it impossible to forget his creations. In such figures as the “Baptist” and the “Magdalen” of the baptistery of Florencehe apparently studied emaciation for its anatomic value. His busts of contemporaries (such as that of Nicolo da Uzzano, “Youth with Breastplate”, etc.) look like casts from life. One of the most graceful pieces is the “San Giovannino”, a relief of a child, in sandstone, in the Bargello, Florence. Minor works are the “Marzocco” (original in the National Museum, Florence)—the lion, the emblem of Florence, with the fleur-de-lys florencee shield—and the Martelli escutcheon on the staircase of their house.

Donatello - Donato di Niccolo di Betto Bardi - was an Italian Renaissance artist best known for his sculptures such as the striking bronze figure of David now in the Bargello museum of his native Florence. 

Other works by Donatello which influenced later artists include his marble Saint Mark for the Orsanmichele in Florence, the shallow bronze relief panels for both the baptistery of Sienna and the altar of Sant' Antonio Basilica in Padua, and the Gattamelata equestrian statue in Padua. 

Donatello was particularly interested in both classical sculpture and linear perspective and both of these approaches influenced other Florentine artists in the 15th century CE during the opening phase of the Renaissance known as the quattrocento.

Disappointed by the response to his hand-carved crucifix, the sculptor said: "If it were as easy to do a thing as to judge it, my Christ would not look like a peasant; but take some wood yourself and make one.”

Donatello’s Santa Croce crucifix was pursued through vivid realism and by making the sculpture “movable” so it could be taken down from the cross and used during the celebration of Holy Week. Donatello used pegs on the underarms to make arms movable, an innovation that would not have been tolerated during the Byzantine period. This way, his work becomes not just “figurative” but also “performative.”

But Donatello does not completely lose the focus on the divine aspect of Christ. Rather, he mixes elements of human suffering—blood running down from the crown of thorns — with perfectly sculpted features such as the arms and legs. This way he represented the co-existence of God and man in the figure of Christ.

Michelangelo was an Italian sculptor, painter, architect, and poet of the High Renaissance born in the Republic of Florence, who exerted an unparalleled influence on the development of Western art. Considered to be the greatest living artist during his lifetime, he has since been described as one of the greatest artists of all time.

Along with Leonardo da Vinci and Raphael, Michelangelo is regarded as one of the three giants of the Renaissance, and a major contributor to the Humanist movement. He was a master at depicting the body with such technical accuracy that marble was seemingly transformed into flesh and bone. His adeptness with human emotionality and expression inspired humility and veneration. The psychological insight and physical realism in his work had never been portrayed with such intensity before. His Pieta, David, and the Sistine Chapel have been maintained and preserved and continue to draw crowds of visitors from all over the world. His lifetime achievements give credence to the title commonly bestowed to him of Il Divino (The Divine)

The Sistine Chapel had great symbolic meaning for the papacy as the chief consecrated space in the Vatican, used for great ceremonies such as electing and inaugurating new popes. 

The Twelve Apostles was planned as the theme — ceilings normally showed only individual figures, not dramatic scenes. Traces of this project are seen in the 12 large figures that Michelangelo produced: seven prophets and five sibyls, or female prophets found in Classical myths. The inclusion of female figures was very unusual though not totally unprecedented. 

Michelangelo placed these figures around the edges of the ceiling and filled the central spine of the long curved surface with nine scenes from Genesis: three of them depicting the Creation of the World, three the stories of Adam and Eve, and three the stories of Noah. These are naturally followed, below the prophets and sibyls, by small figures of the 40 generations of Christ’s ancestors, starting with Abraham. 

The Italian artist born Michelangelo di Lodovico Buonarroti Simoni in 1475 rarely appears to have been of his own time. At 20 or 21, Michelangelo passed off a sleeping cupid he'd sculpted — now lost — as an ancient Roman statue. Nearly a decade prior, he had painted "The Torment of St. Anthony" (today in the collection of Kimbell Art Museum in Fort Worth, Texas), which suggests a much older artist's perhaps life-weary perception. The absurdist collage of demons worthy of Hieronymus Bosch — who here tug at the Egyptian monk's hand, there appear poised to smack him with cudgels and surround him and threaten to plunge him to his death — are terrifying. But more menacing is the saint himself. His expression, circumscribed by his halo and long white beard, indicates a man who has literally seen it all; no wonder he won't yield to the infernal temptation.

But this painting too has artificially aged, albeit in a metaphorical manner. The young artist copied an engraving — made just prior to or the year of Michelangelo's birth — by German artist Martin Schongauer. Again, the young artist channeled a more mature posture.

Yet, as he grew older, Michelangelo faced a different scenario. Rather than the work appearing too old, the artist became that himself.

"One of the tragic things about Michelangelo is that he lives practically twice as long as the life expectancy in the Renaissance: almost 89 years, where the average age is 40 to 45," said William Wallace, distinguished professor of art history at Washington University in St. Louis and author of a forthcoming book on Michelangelo, which will be his eighth on the artist. "He outlived his entire family and almost every one of his friends."

Wallace's late mentor, Howard Hibbard, a longtime Columbia University art historian, once quipped of Michelangelo, "He started dying at about 40 and did it for 50 years."

That meant Michelangelo, whom Wallace calls "hugely devout," spent a lot of time thinking about death, which brought him closer to his faith, Wallace said. A profound religious sense emerges in many of Michelangelo's poems, part of a body of the artist's work about which many people likely know little.

"When people think about Michelangelo, they first and foremost think of the Sistine ceiling. Then they probably remember, 'Oh yeah, he did the David and the Pietà,' " Wallace said. "They realize, 'OK. He's a painter and a sculptor.' Most Americans forget that he's also one of the world's most important architects. He built St. Peter's, after all."

"The Torment of St. Anthony" by Michelangelo, circa 1487-88 (Kimbell Art Museum)

It's rare for Americans to be aware of Michelangelo's poetry, and his drawings come even further down on the list of works of which they're aware, according to Wallace. The latter are the focus of an exhibition titled "Michelangelo: Divine Draftsman and Designer," on view through Feb. 12, 2018, at New York's Metropolitan Museum of Art.

"The drawing show opens a window onto all the different facets of this multisided creative individual, who works on both the left and right side of the brain, which is incredibly unusual," Wallace said. "Certainly, the only way we are going to see Michelangelo's architecture in America is through his drawings."

Foremost in Michelangelo's architectural repertoire was St. Peter's, to which he devoted the last three decades of his life. Even in his 70s and 80s, Michelangelo knew he'd never see the project, which took 150 years, completed.

"We speak of that church as his, because he had such a profound and strong effect," Wallace said. "It was the salvation of his soul. That was what he was seeking. It wasn't the glorification of himself or of art."

In his letters, Michelangelo said he couldn't leave Rome, even as people tried to lure him back to Florence to die in his hometown. He indicated leaving Rome would be a sin, said Wallace, who sees a "very nice parallel" between the elderly Michelangelo working on a church he wouldn't be able to see and Moses leading the children of Israel to a promised land he'd never be permitted to enter.

Basilian Fr. Thomas Rosica, CEO of the Salt and Light Catholic Media Foundation in Canada, has long regarded art as an important tool for teaching, preaching and ministry. In particular, he is inspired by Caravaggio and Michelangelo.

"When Michelangelo was on his deathbed, his students at his bedside wailed, 'Michelangelo, how will Rome ever get along without you?' " Rosica said. "To which, it is reported, Michelangelo faintly waved his hand to the window, with its vision of his sculptures and architecture, and whispered, 'Rome will never be without me.' "

The Metropolitan Museum exhibition catalog frames things differently. "Although he spent the last 30 years of his life in Rome, to the end his love was for Florence, his patria (homeland), and all things Florentine," it records. "In Rome, he surrounded himself with Florentines, many of whom were political exiles."

The artist repeatedly, even two days before his death, instructed his nephew and close friends to bury him in Florence, the catalog adds; Michelangelo's tomb, in fact, is in Florence's Santa Croce.

Another tomb that is well-documented in the exhibit is that of Pope Julius II, a preliminary drawing of which is in the Met's collection. The pope commissioned Michelangelo to create the tomb eight years before the former's death, and it was intended for St. Peter's. But, after the pope's death, a new contract needed to be signed with his heirs in 1513, as other projects had sidetracked the artist.

The pared-down final tomb was completed in 1545 at San Pietro in Vincoli, "far away from the papal majesty of Saint Peter's Basilica," the Met notes.

Given the length of Michelangelo's life, and the tendency of some commissions to linger for decades, Wallace thinks of Michelangelo as having lived through three ages of religion.

"He was born in a time when there was only one religion in his mind, in everybody's mind: It was the universal Catholic church; everything else was heresy," Wallace said. "He lived long enough to watch [Martin] Luther and Henry VIII break away from the church, and suddenly the sense of a universal church was under attack. But then he also lived long enough to watch the church fight back through the Counter-Reformation."

The Sistine ceiling relates to the era of the universal Catholic Church, while the "Last Judgment" and St. Peter's itself relate to the Counter-Reformation, said Wallace.

"The greatest affirmation of Catholic faith is the church," he said. "For the last 18 years of his life, Michelangelo is devoted to building the greatest church of Christendom."

Wallace allows that Michelangelo, particularly in his friendship with one Vittoria Colonna, who died in 1547, adopted a new kind of thinking about the church that was potentially radical, although not Lutheran per se. Michelangelo came to realize that the church was partially corrupt and needed reforming. He associated with others who didn't necessarily want to overthrow or abandon the church, but who wanted to chart a more spiritual path.

"Michelangelo is very attracted to these people, because they are intellectuals," Wallace said.

The artist and Colonna exchanged gifts, both writing and artwork, which they understood to be spiritual in nature, the exhibition catalog notes. In one, Michelangelo wrote, "I could make something by my hand, but then, having recognized and seen that the grace of God cannot be bought, and that to have it with discomfort is a grave sin, I say the fault is mine, and I willingly accept these things."

She wrote to him, in part, "I had the greatest faith in God that he would grant you a supernatural grace to make this Christ, and, when I saw it, it was so wonderful that it surpassed all my expectations in every way."

A much more contentious relationship existed between Leonardo da Vinci and Michelangelo, fueled by the former's jealousy, according to Wallace. And some of the fascination with secrets allegedly embedded in the former's work — of the Da Vinci Code flavor — have swirled around Michelangelo, too, as in a 2009 book, The Sistine Secrets, which claims that the artist hid bold attacks on the Catholic Church in his Sistine paintings.

Wallace dismisses those readings.

"Michelangelo is not mooning the pope, and he's not mad at the pope. This is the holiest place in all of Christendom," he said. "He's not painting for himself. He's painting for the pope and for God. He's painting the holiest stories."

Why, Wallace wonders, would it take 500 years to see these hidden symbols, if indeed Michelangelo had concealed them?

In fact, according to Wallace, things would have happened in the opposite direction for Michelangelo, who wasn't sufficiently educated to read the Bible in Latin.

"Michelangelo is working in the place with the smartest theologians in the world. When he comes to the point of having to say, 'My gosh. I need to paint Daniel.' Or, 'I need to paint Zachariah. I know a little bit, but who is Zachariah?', he goes and he talks to some theologian in the Vatican and said, 'Please tell me more about Zachariah,' " Wallace said.

"What's remarkable is that he listens to some very learned theologian, who probably has read the Torah and really understands this literature and history, but then he visualizes it."

Peter Paul Rubens - Flemish painter who was the greatest exponent of Baroque painting’s dynamism, vitality, and sensuous exuberance. Though his masterpieces include portraits and landscapes, Rubens is perhaps best known for his religious and mythological compositions. As the impresario of vast decorative programs, he presided over the most famous painter’s studio in Europe. His powers of invention were matched by extraordinary energy and versatility.

His profound stylistic influence would span over three centuries from van Dyck to the Impressionist Renoir. In Italy, he influenced Baroque painters Pietro da Cortona and Luca Giordano. In Spain, he befriended and influenced Velazquez and in England, Thomas Gainsborough and Sir Joshua Reynolds. The 19th century French Romantic painter Eugene Delacroix wrote that Rubens "...carries one beyond the limit scarcely attained by the most eminent painters; he dominates one, he overpowers one, with all his liberty and boldness."

As stated by his biographer, Samuel Edwards, "...he is known to have produced more than three thousand works of art, doing all or the principal portion of each himself..."

I'm just a simple man standing alone with my old brushes, asking God for inspiration - Peter Paul Rubens

Rubens takes on a very specific genre in this artwork - that of still life flowers along a religious theme (a style closely related to the Bruegel family). The combination of this with the figurative skills of this artist results in a truly stunning artwork which can now be viewed at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich, Germany as part of a large collection of his work.

Religious flower still-lifes are a special category, first developed by the Fleming Daniel Seghers, a pupil of Jan Brueghel the Elder. However, this can be traced back to Rubens's Madonna in Floral Wreath (with the collaboration of Jan Brueghel the Elder). This represents a picture within a picture with an authoritative religious significance, encircled by a floral arrangement and cherubs. 

Unlike Seghers, however, Rubens did not quote Mary and Jesus as historical traditions or pictorial relics. Instead he preferred to give the impression that they were physically present, even though the motif of a picture within a picture would have been ideally suited for illusionist stylization.

Peter Paul Rubens was born in Siegen, Westphalia, on 28 June 1577. He was named after Saints Peter and Paul, on whose feast day he was born. His father, Jan Rubens (d. 1587), was a lawyer and magistrate from Antwerp who, because of his Calvinist faith, had fled the Spanish-occupied city and moved to Cologne in 1568 with his wife, Maria Pypelinckx (d. 1608). Jan Rubens was banished to Siegen in 1577 because he had an affair with the wife of Willem of Orange, leader of the Dutch revolt against Spain. Rubens' mother remained with her husband, and after his death she returned to Antwerp with Rubens and his older brother, Philip (1574-1611).

Rubens converted to Catholicism and entered the Latin school of Rombout Verdonck, where he received training in the classics. He also worked as a page for a nobleman, an experience that probably taught him the courtly manners that were so important for his future career. Rubens became a master in the Antwerp Saint Luke's Guild in 1598 after a period of training with three different teachers: his distant relative Tobias Verhaecht (1561-1631), Adam van Noort (1562-1641), and Otto van Veen (c. 1556-1629). Van Veen's classicizing style and interest in emblematic literature were particularly important for the young artist.

Rubens left for Italy in 1600 and remained there until 1609. He quickly entered into service with Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua. It is not certain how he attained this position, but he may have been recommended by Van Veen, who, as court painter to the Spanish governor in Antwerp, Archduke Albert, and his wife, Isabella, would probably have met the duke in 1599 when he visited the city. In Mantua Rubens painted a number of portraits of the ducal family, but of greater consequence was the opportunity to study and make copies of the artistic treasures in the Gonzaga Collection, among them frescoes by Andrea Mantegna and Giulio Romano (c. 1495-1546) and Raphael's cartoons for the tapestry series of the Acts of the Apostles. Rubens also traveled to churches and palaces in nearby Venice to study works by Titian, Tintoretto, and Veronese.

Even though he was attached to the Gonzaga court, Rubens was allowed to travel extensively and undertake commissions from other patrons. He visited Rome in 1602, where he painted three works for the Church of Santa Croce in Jerusalem, a commission he received from Archduke Albert. While in Rome he was able to study classical sculpture as well as works by Raphael and Michelangelo. In 1603 the duke of Mantua asked Rubens to serve as a cultural envoy to the court of Philip III of Spain. On behalf of his patron, Rubens took a number of official presents, including some paintings, and remained at the Spanish court for eight months. His artistic talents were quickly recognized by the powerful duke of Lerma, for whom he painted an impressive equestrian portrait (Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado).

Upon his return to Mantua, Rubens received an important commission from Vincenzo Gonzaga: three paintings in honor of the Holy Trinity for the choir of the Jesuit church in Mantua, on which he worked between 1604 and 1605. In 1606 he was in Genoa, where he received commissions for a large altarpiece of the Circumcision for the Jesuit church and several portraits of the Genoese aristocracy, including Marchesa Brigida Spinola Doria (NGA 1961.9.60). During a second stay in Rome (1606-1608), Rubens lived for a while with his older brother, Philip, a promising scholar and jurist. As one of the favorite pupils of Justus Lipsius (1547-1606), Philip was deeply immersed in the neo-Stoic philosophy espoused by his mentor and was instrumental in introducing his brother to a sophisticated circle of humanists, antiquarians, and scientists. Rubens seems to have found his real milieu among these intellectuals but was compelled to leave it behind in October 1608, when he was suddenly called back to Antwerp because of his mother's death.

Rubens returned to Antwerp at a time when the city was experiencing a period of peace and prosperity as a result of the Twelve Years' Truce (1609-1621) with the Dutch republic. His talent and ambitions were quickly recognized, and he soon established a large workshop to assist him in executing his numerous commissions. Rubens often indicated his compositional ideas with drawings and oil sketches, which his assistants reproduced on a larger scale. Many of Rubens' most important compositions were large altarpieces in which he expressed Counter Reformation ideals that had developed after the Council of Trent. He also established close working relationships with other important masters, including Jan Brueghel the Elder, Frans Snyders, and Jacob Jordaens (1593-1678), and a talented young pupil, Anthony van Dyck. In 1620, for example, Van Dyck assisted Rubens with the execution of ceiling paintings for the Jesuit church in Antwerp.

After Rubens returned to Antwerp, his most important patrons were Archduke Albert and Isabella, who, in 1609, named him court painter and granted him the privilege of living in Antwerp instead of Brussels. During the 1610s he also received commissions for altarpieces from well-known connoisseurs in Antwerp, among them Cornelis van der Geest and Nicolaas Rockox. Among his many commissions from foreign patrons was a tapestry series on the life of Decius Mus, which was ordered by Genoese merchants residing in Antwerp (see Decius Mus Addressing the Legions, NGA 1957.14.2). The duke of Lerma in Spain and Wolfgang William, count Palatine of Neuburg, in Germany were also his patrons. As Rubens' international reputation grew during the 1620s, he received major commissions from, among others, the dowager queen of France, Maria de' Medici, and George Villiers, the duke of Buckingham.

Though Rubens pursued a very active professional life, he was also a dedicated husband and father. In 1609 he married Isabella Brant (see her portrait, NGA 1937.1.47, by Sir Anthony van Dyck), daughter of a prominent burgher and sister of his brother's wife. In 1610 Rubens purchased a large house on the Wapper, near the fashionable promenade of the Antwerp Meir, and, in the course of seventeen years of marriage, their home became one of the most distinguished residences in Antwerp. In 1611 Rubens began an extensive remodeling of the house, creating comfortable living quarters for his family, a spacious studio space, a semicircular gallery inspired by classical architecture to house his growing collection of paintings, sculpture, and curiosities, and an extensive garden. Proclaiming that this house was a temple of art were grisaille paintings on the facade depicting various mythological scenes and a triumphal arch at the entrance to the garden that was crowned with full-length statues of Minerva, goddess of learning, and Mercury, god of elegance and reason. By all accounts, Isabella was an excellent companion and loving spouse, whose unexpected death in 1626 was much lamented by her husband and their two children.

Despite the tragic death of his brother in 1611, Rubens continued to deepen his involvement with classical learning and his contacts with humanist circles throughout Europe. He wrote in Latin, English, French, Italian, and Dutch and maintained extensive correspondence with a number of scholars, notably the antiquarian Nicolas-Claude Fabri de Peiresc. Rubens also collected antique sculpture and cameos. In 1618 he exchanged a number of paintings, including Daniel in the Lions' Den (NGA 1965.13.1), for Sir Dudley Carleton's collection of ancient marbles.

Paralleling Rubens' unrivaled artistic stature in Europe was his increased involvement in politics during the 1620s. After the death of Archduke Albert in 1621, Rubens became a close adviser to Archduchess Isabella in her efforts to establish a stable political environment after the end of the Twelve Years' Truce. Rubens made a number of trips for political purposes, including one to the Dutch republic in 1627 and an extended trip to Spain in 1628. While in Spain, Rubens looked carefully at the Venetian paintings in the Prado and El Escorial and made a number of copies of works by Titian, which greatly influenced his later style of painting. The king of Spain, Philip IV, eventually asked Rubens to serve as a peace mediator between his country and England. Rubens succeeded in his mission and was knighted by the English king, Charles I, for both his political activities and his artistic prowess. While in London from 1629 to 1630, Rubens painted a number of important works for the king, as well as a portrait of the family of Balthasar Gerbier, with whom he had stayed (NGA 1971.18.1).

Shortly after returning to Antwerp in 1630, Rubens married Hélène Fourment, the fifteen-year-old daughter of a prosperous tapestry merchant. Although he continued to serve as adviser to the archduchess until her death in 1633, he did not pursue any more diplomatic missions for her or her successor, Cardinal Infante Ferdinand. In 1635 Rubens acquired the country estate Het Steen, where he spent the last years of his life with his young wife and their children. He painted a number of landscapes during these years that reflect his great love of nature and his awareness of the classical ideals of Arcadian existence most fully expressed in the writings of Virgil.

Rubens died at the end of May 1640 and was buried in the Church of Saint Jacques in Antwerp. A stone tablet in Rubens' memorial chapel is inscribed with an epitaph composed by his friend Jan Caspar Gevaerts: "Peter Paul Rubens . . . who, among the other gifts by which he marvelously excelled in the knowledge of ancient history and all other useful and elegant arts, deserved also to be called the Apelles, not only of his own age but of all time." [This is the artist's biography published in the NGA Systematic Catalogue]