a visit with jesus

 Bible Art

Annunciation with Two Kneeling Donors
Artist: Fre Filippo Lippi
 1441-5    Painting

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The Virgin Mary has been interrupted in her prayers and has risen to receive the visitation of the Archangel Gabriel who offers her a sheaf of lilies. The two unidentified men in contemporary dress kneel in the right foreground. The room is richly adorned and replete with architectural details such as arches and Corinthian columns. Mary is painted in her ultramarine robe and with her right hand keeps her place in her missal. She is shown at this moment to accept the lilies from Gabriel which implies that the latter has already delivered the news that she will bear the son of God. The lily in Christian theology symbolized (among other things) Easter and therefore Lippi here is conflating the birth and death of Jesus, as well as the resurrection after his crucifixion. To mark the moment, the holy spirit flies in from the left in the guise of a dove. 

This Tempera on panel is in the  Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, Rome 

Apotheosis of Saint Ignatius
Artist: Andrea Pozzo
 1685 - -94    Painting

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This fresco depicts the triumph of St. Ignatius, founder of the Jesuits, shown left of center in his grey cassock extending toward Christ, who holds a cross in the middle. All the light in the fresco comes from Christ, emphasized both by the golden swirling center and the gradually darkening color palette in the figures at a greater distance. The ray then breaks into four diagonal rays, representing the light of Christianity reaching the four continents of the world, and symbolizes the missionary work of the Jesuits. Also depicted are many Biblical warriors with their foes including David and Goliath, Jael and Sisera, Samson and the Philistines, and Judith and Holofernes. This innovative choice of subject matter reflected the militant Catholicism of the Counter-Reformation and the apostolic zeal of the Jesuits, seeing themselves as "warriors" for the faith.

This Fresco is in the Church of St. Ignatius of Loyola at Campus Martius, Rome, Italy