Praxiteles

Praxiteles has seen pictures of a number of 17th and 18th century churches in French Canada and has formed the impression that their historic fabric (especially their interiors) has survived quite well and was spared the gutting that has become all too much the rage on these shores.

The Basilioque-Cathédrale looks magnificent and it is a relief to see that it has not been gutted.

Note the signs of the Franch preaching tradition with the Tribune for the clergy opposite the pulpit. For the sermon, which could last for an hour, the clergy processed to the tribune and sat there while the appointed preacher produced the goods Рusually in the style in of J-B Bossuet, F̩nelon, Bourdalou and (at the end of that tradition) the Abb̩ Justin McCarthy.

Can the floor of the Basilique be authentique?

On the doctrine and iconography of the Immaculate Conception:

http://www.philipresheph.com/a424/gallery/concept/concept.htm

And Francesco Zurbaran’s version of 1630 with its iconographical dpiction of the elements of the Litany of Loreto – again all according to the canons of the Sevillian school:

And this version by our old friend Artemesia Gentileschi

And some more Biblical meditation for the Cloyne HACK. The fate of Canaanites at the hands of Jael, the wife of Heber the Kentite:

This version by Palma il Giovane

And Titian’s version:

Boticelli’s version of 1468/69:

Another version by the tenebrist Jean de Boulougne dating from 1626:

And in addition to the fate of Philistines, the Cloyne HACK may do well to contemplate the fate of Meades, Parth and Persians. Here we have Caravaggio’s composition on the incident of Judith and Holofernes currently in the Museo di Arte Antiqua in Rome: