New! Titian Preparing to Make His First Essay in Colouring by William Dyce – Catholic Art Print – Archival Quality

The subject of this painting is the artist Titian pondering his subject, Our Lady. He is considering, what is the proper way to color her? Titian (Early 1500s-1576) was an Italian Renaissance painter, one of the most important of his day and still world-famous even now. Contrary to post-modernist opinion, artists have always considered their relationship to the subject of their art, and the resultant work is a mingling of the two, artist and subject, kind of like a conversation, in which the viewer is included too.

In this sense, art is also somewhat like prayer: Our prayers do not bounce off our ceiling, unheard, but involve us with the ears of Heaven, and those in Heaven respond in some way, and so our prayer is a mingling, a supernatural conversation. They in Heaven are the subjects of our contemplation and attention, or as shown in this painting, our art, and we are their subjects, in several senses of the word.

William Dyce (1806–1864) did many paintings of Jesus, Mary, and the Saints. This one is wonderfully meta, as he is contemplating both Titian contemplating Mary, but he is also contemplating Mary herself, as well as bringing us into the contemplation via beautiful art. Mary’s presence is symbolic in the painting, of course, which is just gray color, as she would be in the actual scene, where her figure is just gray stone. Symbolic, but not graven as the iconoclasts assert. Sacred images can help us be mindful of Mary, and Jesus, and help us draw closer to them by looking at them and thinking about them, just as saying their names can help us draw closer.

Sorry for hewing away from the painting; I’ve just been ruminating lately against the post-modernists and the iconoclasts. As for William Dyce, he was heavily influenced by Italian painters, and produced a huge body of work, some of it neo-classical in theme, much of it Catholic. He did this one between 1856-1857. We carry several of his pictures in our shop and hope to list several more.

Thanks for your interest in our Catholic art.

** 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

You might also enjoy original Catholic Art and Jewelry by me, Sue Kouma Johnson, here on Etsy at www.Etsy.com/shop/TreeOfHeaven

Also, check out our Catholic Quote shop, where we are pairing authentic quotes from Saints with Art: www.Etsy.com/shop/CatholicQuote

“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 Sue Kouma Johnson – Classic Catholic Art.