Cathedral, interior (altar seen from aisle.) Cathedral in Renaissance style, but a heavy construction built on crumbly ground. Pius wanted to obtain maximum amount of light inside...
Cathedral, interior. Cathedral in Renaissance style, but a heavy construction built on crumbly ground. Pius wanted to obtain maximum amount of light...
Facade of cathedral, from loggia of town hall, with Piccolomini palazzo to side. Cathedral in Renaissance style, but a heavy construction built on crumbly ground. Pius wanted to obtain maximum amount of light inside it, by facing windows south...
Facade of cathedral, with well by Rossellino in foreground. Cathedral in Renaissance style, but a heavy construction built on crumbly ground. Pius wanted to obtain maximum amount of light inside it, by facing windows...
The World: Appearance, front of man, and Reality, decayed rear of man.An example of Boethian philosophy, which Brewer, p. 177, describes as follows: "" Mind is superior to matter, and true reality is different from worldly appearances...
God's blessing on the poor, while devils preside over rich man's feast. Social criticism. Poverty. The mob that destroyed the Savoy palace had some reason to feel that their anger was righteous.
Stained glass virgin and child. In best 14c stained glass, a movement away from stiffness and sytlization; instead, one can detect a growing realism and delicacy of feeling, as here in the intimacy which the artist has conveyed between mother and...
Courtier talking to monk, with devil pricking his cloak. Courtier may wish to pursue ideals of monk, but lifestyle of court, its preoccupation with appearance, status and acquisition of wealth, exposes him to prickings of devil's fork. Aristocracy....
. Songe de Verger is a treatise dealing with relationship between ecclesiastical and secular power, especially between papacy and king of France. Written in Latin, it was translated into French in 1378 at order of Charles V. The writer uses dream...
The illustration here is by Jean Le Noir, disciple of Pucelle, although probably done near or after death of Pucelle in 1334. Notice peasant dance in bottom border, and the pensive shepherd in right margin.
Europe in China
Europe came to China in force during the 16th c. (the few Franciscans and traders who had penetrated there before left hardly any trace.) The Portuguese led the way and reached China from basis in India and Malacca. Their first...
Bernini, the Cathedral Petri, St Peter's, Rome
Trevor-Roper, in his introduction, p. 12, points out that ""[t]end of the [sixteenth] century brought renewed confidence [among Catholics], for it was then becoming clear that the...
The ""Satire Menippee"" attacking Spanish Catholic intervention in the wars of religion, cast Philip II in the role of the organ playing Spanish charlatan, advertizing on the parchment behind him his miraculous drug...
The Catholic counter-Reformation under Henri IV was led by Cardinal Berulle, painted here by Philippe de Champaigne. The mystical movement which has led to this period being called le siecle des saints, owed much to the impulse of Berulle, the...
Monsieur Vincent--St vincent de Paul--showed a sensitive response to the sufferings of the poor (which he shared), and founded charitable institutions. The most lasting were the Lazarites and the Filles de Charite, who still flourish. This picture...
The Lord's Vineyard by Lucas Cranach II, 1569
According to this allegory by Cranach the Younger, the Lord's vineyard will prosper now only under the Lutheran Church. On the left Catholic bishops, priests and monks destroy the vines, burn the...
A new kind of saint was called into being by counter-reformation. In contrast to sober, thrifty moral virtues recommended in north, Jesuit propagandists of the southern Netherlands put all the emphasis on miracles, on the sacraments, on divine...
Protestantism in the Netherlands
Charles Wilson, in his chapter on a divided Netherlands in Trevor-Roper, p76, points out that Philip II of Spain, after his succession in 1555, ""strove to impose Catholic conformity on his subjects...
The Inquisition itself had been introduced from Spain into Spain by Ferdinand and Isabella as a means of ensuring political unity. During the reign of Ph II and his successors it was used both against Jews and Muslims whose conversion was...
The Escorial
The Escorial meant many things for Ph II--a place for his court, a great church, a monastery to which he could retire from the stresses of the world, and a tomb--for himself, his imperial father, and his successors.
