When students get bored.

My semester in Rome (way back in the day) was a lot of fun. But after awhile, you see so much art, you do get bored. So I got some friends to pose with the art.

Headless statue(s) at the Roman Forum
New meaning to the term "Art theft"?
Pitti Palace, Florence, Italy
RS

Saint Lucy pic

Just thought I would share a picture I took of a painting above one of the side altars at the Basilica di San Benedetto in Norcia (Nursia), Italy.

Saint Lucy surrounded by Our Lady with Christ Child, Saint Charles Borromeo(?) and another Saint I'm not sure of

I took this picture back in 2001 with a [gasp] film camera.

You can read about her life at the Catholic Encyclopedia entry on Saint Lucy.

RS

Franciscan Cardinal

For Carolina Cannonball, and her new "gazing" theme.

"The Grey Cardinal" by Jean Leon Gerome
I just love this picture of all the French royalty bowing down in honor of the little Franciscan Cardinal, who is completely unphased by all the pomp.

RS

A Real Da Vinci Code?

Interesting theory. I can't imagine Leonardo hid all this in a painting, but if he was that much of a genius, then you never know. (At least it is more plausible than Dan Brown's idiotic worn out cookie cutter plot * ) Discovery has an article about a theory by musician Giovanni Maria Pala who has just written a book about his findings.

A real da Vinci code is indeed hidden within Leonardo's "The Last Supper," according to a book to be published in Italy next week.

But rather than conspiracy theories, the new code points to a hidden musical score, a sacred text and a three-dimensional chalice.

...

The Apostles, represented in groups of three, gave him a hint that the piece should be played in 3/4-time, like much 15th-century music. But it was their hands, always in relation to the breads on the table, that provided the real score — to be read from right to left, in line with Leonardo’s writing.

"I marked the pieces of bread on the table and the Apostle’s hands as music notes. Then I drew a pentagram over the scene between the tablecloth and Jesus’ face. I couldn’t believe my ears when I played the music. It sounded really solemn, almost like a requiem," Pala said.

But there was much more. Pala noticed that the notes, in their position, produced strange symbols — similar to ancient cuneiform script — when united to each other by lines.

Examined by Father Luigi Orlando, a biblical scholar at the Antonianum Pontifical University in Rome, the cuneiform writing turned out to be a sentence written in ancient Hebrew: "bo nezer usbi," which means "with Him consecration and glory."

BTW when they mention drawing a "pentagram" between the tablecloth and Jesus' face they mean the 5 line staff for music.

You can read the whole article here:

Leonardo's 'Last Supper' Hides True Da Vinci Code

and see a quick video here, which may explain it better:

History: Da Vinci's 'Last Supper' Secrets Revealed
(be patient, the video was a bit slow to load and play)

*All his books are the same, the names of the conspiracy and characters are just different. Take a mysterious murder, an "expert" in their field (usually cryptology), hook them up with a (sexy) sidekick of the opposite sex (this will be the "good guys" team), have a conspiracy going on by some unknown or secretive organization (this will be the "bad guys"), said conspiracy will "change the world" in some way, have said good guys trek all over some locale, be it a city, a continent, or the globe, all the meanwhile tracking down a trail of mysterious, coded clues.

RS

Support a vocation

I would like to note a small "advertisement" if you will for the sister of a friend of mine. They are a very strong and large Catholic family from my neck of the woods. Many of the sons and daughters have graduated from my alma mater as well.

She is an artist who has decided to enter a convent and is looking to sell her remaining art. I'll just use a quote her profile from her website:

Paintings by Pan

So I’m off to the convent, folks! After receiving my Bachelor of Arts in Art History from the University of Dallas, my Masters of Fine Art in oil painting from the New York Academy of Art, I set out for Florence to do post-graduate work at the Florence Academy of Art. It was in Florence that I became familiar with the Religious of the Sacred Heart.

This semi-cloistered order, rooted in St. Madeleine Sophie Barat’s Society of the Sacred Heart, houses a community of 15 nuns, the only community in the only house of this new reform order. As every Roman Catholic religious, these nuns take the vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Their special fourth vow is one of education of the youth.

You can view and buy her art at the site above.

And you can always pray for her in her discerment as well.

I'll also add her site in the links on the sidebar.

RS