The stories behind the paintings

She stands on a crescent moon held up by an angel, her hands joined in prayer, her head bowed, wrapped in a blue-green mantle scattered with gold stars. Behind her, a full body of golden rays bursts out like a flame. In the four corners, small scenes tell how this image appeared. This is the Virgin of Guadalupe, painted in New Spain around 1700 by an anonymous artist of the Mexican school: a copy of one of the most venerated images in the Americas, made to carry a miracle far from Mexico City. Here we look at it in a new frame as well: a vintage poster with a border of roses and white lilies. Vintage religious art poster by Sapiens Verbum after Virgin of Guadalupe , Mexican school, c. 1700. Available from the Sapiens Verbum print shop. 🖼️ Get the vintage poster → Quick facts Artist: Anonymous, Mexican school (New Spain) Title: Virgin of Guadalupe , with the four apparitions Date: about 1700 Subject: The image of Our Lady of Guadalupe venerated at Te...

The Child holds a string. At the end of it, a goldfinch waits with a red mask and charcoal wings, as if the next second of the painting might be a tug or a flight. Giovanni Battista Tiepolo’s Madonna of the Goldfinch (about 1767–1770) is a late, quiet canvas from a painter famous for ceilings the size of weather. Here the drama shrinks to a veil, a blue mantle, and a bird that Christian viewers already knew as a sign of the Passion: the goldfinch that feeds among thorns. Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Madonna of the Goldfinch, c. 1767–1770. Oil on canvas. Source: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. Accession 1997.60.1. Open Access / Public Domain. Print available from the Sapiens Verbum shop. 🖼️ Get this painting as a print → Quick facts Artist: Giovanni Battista Tiepolo (1696–1770) Date: c. 1767–1770 Medium: Oil on canvas (62 × 49.5 cm) Collection: National Gallery of Art, Washington, D.C. (1997.60.1; West Building, Gallery M32) N...