New! St. Mary Magdalene – František Urban and Marie Urbanová-Zahradnická – Beautiful Catholic Art

In this beautiful Art Nouveau painting, Saint Mary Magdalene is in the garden where the tomb of her Lord is. She is forlorn, weakened so much she is holding on to the stone garden wall for support. She had been with Jesus since early in his ministry. He had healed her, casting out seven demons according to Luke (8:2), and she followed Jesus to his crucifixion, where she watched her beloved Lord die.

Her heart is broken, and she is looking for his body. What she doesn’t know is that he lives. He has risen from the dead, and in a few short moments he will approach her and speak with her. Her tears of sorrow will be replaced with tears of joy. Mary Magdalene is the first witness to the resurrection and the Catholic Church honors her as the "Apostle to the Apostles" ("Apostolorum Apostola") Her Feast Day is July 22. She is a Patron Saint of women and womanly causes.

This beautiful painting was done for the Basilica of Saints Peter and Paul at Vyšehrad in Prague. The basilica is full of beautiful art, so much so that it receives a lot of visitors as though it were an art exhibition. Most of the art in it is Art Nouveau, which was called Secession in Czech because the artists like Alphonse Mucha were “seceding” from the formal academic art of the time to the colorful, youthful style of the New Art. While Catholic Art Nouveau is rare enough, it is exceedingly rare to have a whole church decorated with Art Nouveau. We would love to go to Europe just to see this church and the handful of others like it.

Most of the paintings in the basilica were done by František Urban (1868–1919) and Marie Urbanová-Zahradnická (1868–1945). František was a leading Czech Art Nouveau painter of religious, allegorical, and symbolist works, known for church decorations, stained glass, and theater curtains. Marie, who was his wife, was a painter and illustrator specializing in flowers and ornament; the couple frequently collaborated on decorative commissions. (wikipedia.com) Let me note, I’ve pondered for a while the yellow autumn colored leaves in this picture of an event that happened in the spring. As symbolists, they likely would have had something up their sleeves other than just pretty color composition. I think it might be referring to the passing of the old order. Just guessing!

** IMPORTANT ** THE IMAGE IS SMALLER THAN THE PAPER! There is a blank border around the image. Approximately 0.5" wide for 5x7, 1.3" for 8.5x11, 1.6" for 11x14, and 1.75" for 13x17 and 16x20. For the two poster sizes, 18x24 and 24x36, we use 0.5" borders. We do this because the ratio of the rectangle of the art almost never matches the rectangle of the paper, and if it did happen to match one size, it would not match the others. Most fine art printers do this because otherwise they’d have to crop the art or warp it to make it fit the paper. The border looks good. It gives the picture a faux matted appearance. There is almost always a little more border either on the left-right sides, or the top-bottom, depending on whether the ratio of the art is wider or taller than the paper.

We make Archival Quality fine art prints:

– Acid-free paper

– Archival pigments

– Cardboard backer for sizes 11x14 and less.

– Above story of the art

– Enclosed in a tight-fitting, crystal-clear bag.

– Rated to last 200+ years without fading if kept dry and out of the direct sun.

Thanks for your interest!

+JMJ+

Sue & John

Lincoln, Nebraska

“In order to communicate the message entrusted to her by Christ, the Church needs art.”

~ St. Pope John Paul II

Original image is out-of-copyright. Descriptive text and any image alterations (hence the whole new image) © by Catholic Art and Jewelry – Classic Catholic.