This is a contemporary tempera/gouache on leather painting by an unknown Ethiopian artist. Source: Sacred Art Pilgrim website .
The following is a stained glass window in the Sacred Heart Cathedral in Chiang Mai, Thailand, depicting Adam and Eve being banished from Eden:
Photo by Jost Zetzsche
Stained glass is not just highly decorative, it’s a medium which has been used to express important religious messages for centuries. Literacy was not widespread in the medieval and Renaissance periods and the Church used stained glass and other artworks to teach the central beliefs of Christianity. In Gothic churches, the windows were filled with extensive narrative scenes in stained glass — like huge and colorful picture storybooks — in which worshipers could ‘read’ the stories of Christ and the saints and learn what was required for their religious salvation. (Source: Victoria and Albert Museum )
The Hebrew, Greek, and Latin that is sometimes translated as “ark of the covenant” in English (other English options: “pact chest” [translation by John Goldingay, 2018] or “Coffer of the Covenant” [translation by Everett Fox, 1995]) is translated in various ways:
Mairasi: Anasi Farjora or “Covenant Place” (source: Enggavoter 2004)
Following is an artwork by Sister Marie Claire , SMMI (1937–2018) from Bengaluru, India:
For more information about images by Sister Marie Claire and ways to purchase them as lithographs, see here . For other images of Sister Marie Claire paintings in TIPs, see here.
In American Sign Language it is translated with a sign that combines “box” and the wings of the cherubim on top of the ark (see Exod 25:18 and following). (Source: Ruth Anna Spooner, Ron Lawer)
“Ark of the covenant” in American Sign Language, source: Deaf Harbor
This is a contemporary tempera/gouache on leather painting by an unknown Ethiopian artist. Source: Sacred Art Pilgrim website .
“Miriam-Rose Ungunmerr-Baumann (born 1950) was a member of the Daly River Mission church in Australia’s Northern Territory. When it was being redecorated in 1974 she was invited to paint a series of Stations of the Cross. It is unusual for an Aboriginal woman to paint since this is usually the task of the men, but she accepted the challenge and produced a remarkable series of paintings which, like other Aboriginal art, uses symbols to go beyond external shapes to inner meanings and emotions. The Stations of the Cross were painted in acrylic paint on burnie board.
“Ungunmerr-Baumann explains the symbolism of the Stations of the Cross: ‘The third stop shows Jesus falling for the first time (below). In Jesus’ weakened state the weight of the cross forces him to fall. The patterns on his body show the physical stress he is under. The circles on his head indicate the pain and sorrow locked up inside him. The patterns on the cross show the increasing weight on his shoulders. In the Fifth Station, Simon of Cyrene helps Jesus carry the cross (opposite). When Simon takes hold of the cross, his body merges with that of Jesus. The pattern on Jesus’ head is open: he is giving grace to Simon to strengthen him. When Simon took hold of the cross, something happened inside him: the sun rose inside his head, his mind burst with a new belief, he became a new man. The resurrection had already begun.’ She prays: ‘Jesus you take your heavy cross, It gives you pain. Help all who suffer. Forgive us for the pain we give you and others.'” (Source for this and the image: The Bible Through Asian Eyes by Masao Takenaka and Ron O’Grady 1991)
Orthodox Icons are not drawings or creations of imagination. They are in fact writings of things not of this world. Icons can represent our Lord Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints. They can also represent the Holy Trinity, Angels, the Heavenly hosts, and even events. Orthodox icons, unlike Western pictures, change the perspective and form of the image so that it is not naturalistic. This is done so that we can look beyond appearances of the world, and instead look to the spiritual truth of the holy person or event. (Source )
Orthodox Icons are not drawings or creations of imagination. They are in fact writings of things not of this world. Icons can represent our Lord Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints. They can also represent the Holy Trinity, Angels, the Heavenly hosts, and even events. Orthodox icons, unlike Western pictures, change the perspective and form of the image so that it is not naturalistic. This is done so that we can look beyond appearances of the world, and instead look to the spiritual truth of the holy person or event. (Source )
Orthodox Icons are not drawings or creations of imagination. They are in fact writings of things not of this world. Icons can represent our Lord Jesus Christ, the Virgin Mary, and the Saints. They can also represent the Holy Trinity, Angels, the Heavenly hosts, and even events. Orthodox icons, unlike Western pictures, change the perspective and form of the image so that it is not naturalistic. This is done so that we can look beyond appearances of the world, and instead look to the spiritual truth of the holy person or event. (Source )
Willy Wiedmann, the artist, commented on this picture: “In spite of some difficulty, and unlike Leonardo da Vinci [see here ] I did not set my last supper in a theatrical scene with Jesus in the center behind an elongated table with all the disciples, with two at each end so that that there are 11 seated behind the table. And not like the panel by Juan de Juanes (1623-79) [see here ] in which the six disciples left and right are very dynamic figures. And also not like Martin Schongauer’s Last Supper [see here ] with a slightly shorter table (also incidentally very similar to Juanes in the attitudes of the figures) and two figures seen from the back in the foreground of the panel. Instead I have given the Master the middle place to the foreground, with his back to us to finally leave the controversial Jesus-existential questions unanswered. Slightly symbolically it means that he is leaving his world. The iris color is meant to transfer the rainbow to Jesus, that God once linked to Noah (my kingdom is not of this world). I attempted to present answers that correspond to the characters of each individual.”
Image and text taken from the Wiedmann Bible. For more information about the images and ways to adopt them, see here .
For other images of Willy Wiedmann paintings in TIPs, see here.
Following is a painting by Wang Suda 王肅達 (1910-1963):
Copyright by the Catholic University Peking, China.
Text under painting translated from Literary Chinese into English:
Beginning of the Holy Communion
You have this as food and this is my body.
Image taken from Chinese Christian Posters . For more information on the “Ars Sacra Pekinensis” school of art, see this article , for other artworks of that school in TIPs, see here.
Following is an acrylic on canvas painting by Hanna-Cheriyan Varghese:
Used with permission by the Overseas Ministries Study Center (OMSC) at Princeton Theological Seminary. You can purchase this and many other artworks by artists in residence at the OSMC in high resolution and without a watermark via the OSMC website .
“Hanna-Cheriyan Varghese (1938 – 2009) of Selangor, Malaysia, was the artist in residence at OMSC for the 2006–2007 academic year. She was born to Christian parents, and she remembered her mother taking her to a different worship service every week: ‘My parents encouraged me to attend different churches so that my siblings and I would appreciate the liturgy and traditions of the Christian believers of different denominations. Christians are a minority in Malaysia so we continue to struggle for our identity in a Muslim society. There is no open conflict as such.’
“She always had a passion for painting and drawing. She worked in the mediums of acrylic paint and Batik dye.
“‘All creative work, be it the spoken word, the written word or the sung word, are essentials in praise and worship, meditation, education, inculturation and evangelism. This also includes art and pictures, which is universal seeing.’ Hanna Varghese.” (Source )
