Merry Christmas '22.

Madonna and Child by unidentified artist, late 15th century. Upper Rhenish.

via angelswithgrace, Barnes Collection Online.

Pinky ring.

Harmony (The Three Graces?) by Hans Baldung Grien, 1541 - 1544.

via @arsartisarti.

New year, new moon.

Moon Madness by Alexandre Rzewuski for Tatler magazine, 1922.

via Madame de Pompadour.

Buon Natale 2021!

The Nativity in the Lower Church (Italian: La Natività) by Italian artist Giotto di Bondone, circa 1311-1320. Basilica di San Francesco, Assisi, Italy.

"Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and cometh down from the Father of lights, with whom is no variableness, neither shadow of turning." James 1:17.

Details: tiger print.

La toilette d'Esther by Théodore Chassériau, 1841.

Florinda.

Florinda by Franz Xaver Winterhalter, 1853.

1.

More cherubs.

The Chariot of Venus by François Boucher, 18th century.

Peach tones.

The Birth of Venus (French: Naissance de Venus) by the French artist Alexandre Cabanel, 1863.

Gloria 'n cielo e pace 'n terra!

The Mystical Nativity or Adoration in the Forest, painted by Fra Filippo Lippi, c.1459.

In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God... And the Word became flesh and made His dwelling among us. We have seen His glory, the glory of the one and only Son from the Father, full of grace and truth... For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life. (John 1:1,14, 3:16)

Corno di corallo.

Berceuse (Le coucher)/Lullaby (Bedtime): a young Roman mother holds a naked infant and is gently moving him into his cradle.
William Adolphe Bouguereau (French, 1825-1905).

On a seashell.

1. 2: Unknown.

Putti with flowers.

1. 2.

St. Paul, Albrecht Durer (1514)

St. Paul (First State), 1514, Albrecht Durer
Medium: engraving

"Love is patient and kind; love does not envy or boast; it is not arrogant or rude. It does not insist on its own way; it is not irritable or resentful; it does not rejoice at wrongdoing, but rejoices with the truth. Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. Love never ends... So now faith, hope, and love abide, these three; but the greatest of these is love." -I Corinthians 13:4-8, 13

These very famous words on the attributes of true love which true Christians were and are to emulate, were written by St. Paul in his First Epistle to the church at Corinth.

Skull and Cross

"Cause of our joy, pray for us."

An unexpected structural detail worked into the facade of a very old building in a small private alley in Florence. The buildings around Florence (and even around Rome, for that matter) are full of these little embellishments that often seem to serve a dual purpose: veneration and aesthetic inspiration.