Venetian School
THE VENETIAN SCHOOL
In the mid 15th century, Venice was a thriving Republic, enjoying a healthy trade economy. Venices prosperity allowed it to support the art and artists. The Republic was filled with decorative artists, architects, and traditional artist guilds. The areas location did not allow much outside influence, permitting the Venetian artists to develop their own style revolving around light and color.
In addition to an emphasis on light, Venetian painters also had a distinctive smooth brushstroke. The artists embraced oil painting for its durability, helping to increase the mediums popularity. The Venetian School was minorly influenced by Mannerism, employing its vivid dramatic aspects rather than the emotion that characterizes mannerist art. The Venetian school was comprised of Renaissance artists, particularly painters who employed aspects of light and color. Founders of the Venetian School were the Bellini and Vivarini families. Other significant artists included Andrea Mantegna, Giorgione, Titian, Tintoretto, and Paolo Veronese.
St Augustine of Hippo
Oil on Board, Absolutely Original and in Good Condition but a little dirty and would benefit from cleaning. Traces of a thin varnish visible. Framed in its original 16th Century Frame.
Measurements Painting: 1Framed 21cm x 24.5cm (approx 8.25 inches x 9.75 inches)4cm x 17.5cm (approx 5.5 inches x 6.75 inches);
Acquired by a Private Collector in the USA
Saint Augustine (354-430)
St Augustine (354-430), one of the most eminent Western Doctors of the Church was born in Tagaste, Numidia (now Souk-Ahras, Algeria). His father was a pagan (later converted to Christianity), but his mother was a devout Christian who labored untiringly for her son's conversion and who was canonized by the Roman Catholic church. Augustine was educated as a rhetorician in the former North African cities of Tagaste, Madaura, and Carthage. Between the ages of 15 and 30, he lived with a Carthaginian woman whose name is unknown; in 372 she bore him a son, whom he named Adeodatus, which is Latin for the gift of God. He considered becoming a Christian, but experimented with several philosophical systems before finally entering the church. From 373 until 382, he adhered to Manichaeism, a Persian dualistic philosophy then widely current in the Western Roman Empire. With its fundamental principle of conflict between good and evil, Manichaeism at first seemed to Augustine to correspond to experience and to furnish the most plausible hypothesis upon which to construct a philosophical and ethical system. However, disillusioned by the impossibility of reconciling certain contradictory Manichaeist doctrines, Augustine abandoned this philosophy and turned to skepticism. About 383 Augustine left Carthage for Rome, but a year later he went on to Milan as a teacher of rhetoric. There he came under the influence of the philosophy of Neoplatonism and also met the bishop of Milan, St. Ambrose, then the most distinguished ecclesiastic in Italy. Augustine was attracted again to and immediately resolved to embrace Christianity. Along with his natural son, he was baptized by Ambrose on Easter Eve in 387.He returned to North Africa and was ordained in 391. He became bishop of Hippo (now Annaba, Algeria) in 395, an office he held until his death. It was a period of political and theological unrest, for while the barbarians pressed in upon the empire, even sacking Rome itself in 410, schism and heresy also threatened the church. Besides combating the Manichaean heresy, Augustine engaged in two great theological conflicts. One was with the Donatists, a sect that held the sacraments invalid unless administered by sinless ecclesiastics. The other conflict was with the Pelagians, followers of a contemporary British monk who denied the doctrine of original sin. In the course of this conflict, which was long and bitter, Augustine developed his doctrines of original sin and divine grace, divine sovereignty, and predestination. The Roman Catholic church has found special satisfaction in the institutional or ecclesiastical aspects of the doctrines of St. Augustine; Roman Catholic and Protestant theology alike are largely based on their more purely theological aspects. John Calvin and Martin Luther, leaders of the Reformation, were both close students of Augustine.
Augustine's doctrine stood between the extremes of Pelagianism and Manichaeism. Against Pelagian doctrine, he held that human spiritual disobedience had resulted in a state of sin that human nature was powerless to change. In his theology, men and women are saved by the gift of divine grace; against Manichaeism he vigorously defended the place of free will in cooperation with grace. Augustine died at Hippo on 28 August 430.
