09 works, Today, August 15th, is the Dormition of the Virgin Mary day, her story illustrated #227

James Tissot, (1836–1902)
What Our Lord Saw from the Cross, between 1886 and 1894
Gouache over graphite on gray-green wove paper
24.8 × 23 cm (9.7 × 9 in)
Brooklyn Museum

Jacques Joseph Tissot (15 October 1836–8 August 1902), Anglicized as James Tissot, was a French painter and illustrator. He was a successful painter of Paris society before moving to London in 1871. He became famous as a genre painter of fashionably dressed women shown in various scenes of everyday life. He also painted scenes and characters from the Bible. More on James Tissot

Hanging on the Cross in agony, Jesus remembered His Mother, and indicating the Apostle John He said to her: Woman, behold thy son. After that, He said to John: Behold thy mother. And so, providing for His Mother, He breathed His last…

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02 works, PORTRAIT OF A LADY, Simone Leigh’s Las Meninas, with Footnotes. #70

Simone Leigh
Las Meninas/ Lady-in-waiting, c. 2019
Terracotta, steel, raffia
Private collection

Simone Leigh (born 1968) is an American artist from Chicago born to Jamaican parents who works in New York City. She works in various media including sculpture, video installation and social practice. Leigh has described her work as auto-ethnographic, and her interests include African art and vernacular objects, performance, and feminism. Her work is concerned with the marginalization of women of color and reframes their experience as central to society. More on Simone Leigh

Simone Leigh’s Las Meninas seems to be a take off on Diego Velázquez’s painting of the same name from 1656, see below. Diego Velázquez was the leading artist of the Spanish Golden Age. Las Meninas’s enigmatic composition raises questions about reality and illusion, and creates an uncertain relationship between the viewer and the figures depicted. Because of these complexities, Las Meninas has been one of the most widely analyzed works in Western painting…

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16 Works, Today, June 6th. is Diego Velázquez’s day, his story, illustrated with footnotes #155

Velázquez, Diego Rodríguez de Silva y
The Spinners, or the Fable of Arachne, c. 1655 – 1660
Oil on canvas
Height: 220 cm.; Width: 289 cm.
Museo del Prado, Madrid

Traditionally, it was believed that the painting depicted women workers in the tapestry workshop of Santa Isabel. In 1948, however, Diego Angula observed that the iconography suggested Ovid’s Fable of Arachne, the story of the mortal Arachne who dared to challenge the goddess Athena to a weaving competition and, on winning the contest, was turned into a spider by the jealous goddess. This is now generally accepted as the correct interpretation of the painting. More on this painting

The talented mortal Arachne, daughter of Idmon, challenged Athena, goddess of wisdom and crafts, to a weaving contest. When Athena could find no flaws in the tapestry Arachne had woven for the contest, the goddess became enraged and beat the girl with her shuttle. After Arachne hanged herself out of shame, she was transformed into a spider. The myth both provides an aetiology of spiders’ web-spinning abilities and is a cautionary tale warning mortals not to place themselves on an equal level with the gods. More on Arachne

Diego Rodríguez de Silva y Velázquez (baptized June 6, 1599 — August 6, 1660) was a 17th-century Spanish painter who produced “Las Meninas” (See below) and many renowned portraits as a member of King Philip IV’s royal court…

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09 works, Today, August 15th, is the Dormition of the Virgin Mary day, her story illustrated #227

James Tissot, (1836–1902)
What Our Lord Saw from the Cross, between 1886 and 1894
Gouache over graphite on gray-green wove paper
24.8 × 23 cm (9.7 × 9 in)
Brooklyn Museum

Hanging on the Cross in agony, Jesus remembered His Mother, and indicating the Apostle John He said to her: Woman, behold thy son. After that, He said to John: Behold thy mother. And so, providing for His Mother, He breathed His last.

John had a home on Mount Zion, in Jerusalem, in which the Theotokos then lived. She dwelt there to the end of her days on earth. By her prayers, kind guidance, meekness and patience, she greatly assisted her Son’s apostles…

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07 Works, Today, July 19th, is Saints Justa and Rufina’s day, their story in art #200

Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, (1617–1682)
St. Justa and St. Rufina, between circa 1665 and circa 1666
Oil on canvas
Height: 200 cm (78.7 in); Width: 176 cm (69.2 in)
Museum of Fine Arts of Seville

Saints Justa and Rufina are venerated as martyrs. They are said to have been martyred at Hispalis (Seville) during the 3rd century. The two saints are highly honored in the medieval Hispanic liturgy.

Their legend states that they were sisters and natives of Seville who made fine earthenware pottery for a living, with which they supported themselves and many of the city’s poor. Traditionally, they are said to have lived in the neighborhood of Triana. Born of a poor but pious Christian family. During a pagan festival, they refused to sell their wares for use in these celebrations. In anger, locals broke all of their dishes and pots. Justa and Rufina retaliated by smashing an image of Venus…

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