Art's Last Bow

When they hear ‘Biblical Easter art’ many people imagine yawn-worthy saccharine angels or moralizing pictures out of a children’s Bible. If that’s how you imagine Easter art, think again. Throughout many hundreds of years, the Easter story, as told in the New Testament, has been an inspiration and an artistic challenge for numerous painters. In fact, most of the great painters from the Renaissance up to the Post-Impressionists have painted at least one version of the Crucifixion during their careers. If one Biblical painting looks much like any other in your eyes, here’s a selection of Easter paintings that are different. Together with the stories that inspired them, these paintings focus on the human elements in the Biblical account of Christ’s death and resurrection. Not on chubby little angels playing lutes. Baroque Graveyard Scene by Rembrandt's Friend Why did the Jewish religious leaders resent Jesus so much that they had him arrested for blasphemy and crucified? Accor...

“The Ninth Wave” is a stunning Romantic seascape. It was painted by one of the most famous marine artists in the history of art. Ivan Aivazovsky was an Armenian painter, who lived and worked in the Russian Empire, creating over 6,000 seascapes during his lifetime.  “The Ninth Wave”. 1850. Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky Who Was Aivazovsky? Ivan Konstantinovich Aivazovsky (1817-1900), was one of the most famous painters of the Russian Romanticism. He was Armenian, born Hovhannes Aivazian, and he grew up in the Black Sea port of Feodosia, Crimea. Aivazovsky became one of the leading marine painters of the 19 th century. His amazingly vivid seascapes made his hometown Feodosia famous across the Russian Empire and beyond. In fact, he was one of the rare Russian painters to have an exhibition in London in 1881. After completing his education in St Petersburg, Aivazovsky travelled all over Europe, including Italy. He was later appointed the official painter of the Russian Navy, ...