When I find a new member of my favorite painting genre (St. Francis praying), I stand in amazement:
Bernardo Strozzi, St. Francis in Prayer
…I couldn’t find a complementary painting of St. Joseph (for the patron of my other parish). But Jusepe painted this masterpiece of St. Bartholomew:
Jusepe de Ribera, Martyrdom of St. Bartholomew
The sharpening of the knife before the flaying resonates with all the more intensity when we keep in mind the after. (Click HERE for the Sistine-chapel version of the after.)
…Meanwhile, just when I thought we could not find a more discomfiting Edward-Hopper painting, it turns out that the Corcoran has owned one for years:
Edward Hopper, Ground Swell
Somehow, I find Hopper’s preternatural capacity to depict empty meaninglessness strangely consoling.
Father Mark White Blog 
