Possible future paintings

http://www.ranker.com/list/the-8-most-brutal-deaths-of-saints/ivana-wynn

Martyrdom The Coloring Book

This is great. Wish I'd thought of it!

by Hallie Fryd, illustrated by Julia Gfrörer

http://zestbooks.net/martyrdom/

The Myth of Persecution (book)

For future reference http://www.salon.com/2013/02/24/the_myth_of_persecution_early_christians_werent_persecuted/?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=socialflow

Reblogging-The 10 most disturbing inhumane painful torture devices of the middle ages

http://www.secretsofthefed.com/the-10-most-disturbing-inhumane-painful-torture-devices-of-the-middle-ages/ Ouch

Peter of Verona

Today's Saint is Peter of Verona (1206 – April 6, 1252), I just read about Peter this morning, first on wikipedia then on other websites. When I saw his picture on wikipedia I thought to myself; "wait..what's that on his head?"

Google image search proved too good to be true..I realised I couldn't possibly make this image more grotesque or funny than the paintings that already exist of him. Briefly; Peter joined the Order of the Friars Preachers (Dominicans) and was considered a threat by Cathars who disapproved of his teaching; mainly that the Cathars were doing it wrong. So they hired an assassin to get rid of him.

This from Wikipedia: "According to legend, Carino struck Peter's head with an axe( although many paintings show a large knife)..... Peter rose to his knees, and recited the first article of the Symbol of the Apostles (the Apostle's Creed). Offering his blood as a sacrifice to God, he dipped his fingers in it and wrote on the ground: "Credo in Unum Deum". The blow that killed him cut off the top of his head, but the testimony given at the inquest into his death confirms that he began reciting the Creed when he was attacked."

Check out LOLSAints, a blog after my own heart to see more. More info on the various depictions of Peter here.

I don't know what the ''Shh'' gesture is for..maybe he's trying to indicate he's got a splitting headache?

I had to include this great photo, too good not to share

The Martyrdom of Saint Pancake

From The Daily Mash


Millions Remember The Martyrdom of Saint Pancake




;)

The Daughter of Judah

A bit of a departure from the norm here. This was done as a contribution to the excellent Book of Genocide blog: wherein artists interpret and illustrate allocated passages from the Bible.





I got this, from the lamentaitons of Jeremiah;

The LORD hath trodden under foot all my mighty men in the midst of me: he hath called an assembly against me to crush my young men: the LORD hath trodden the virgin, the daughter of Judah, as in a winepress.

I did a little research on Jeremiah and on the various interpretations of this passage.

Jeremiah is usually depicted as an old bearded man , hunched in a dungeon with a haunted, worried expression and this is what I had in mind when initially started sketching.

Then I read a little more

A few interpretations suggest the 'virgin daughter of Judah' is a either a city or the Jewish people- there is also an interesting story of Judah mistakenly having sex* and bearing twins with his daughter in law- whose bloodline eventually spawned a certain Jesus of Nazareth

Scandalous!

*well she was dressed as a harlot at the time, she was punished by burning, he got off scot free.

Anyway, here is the "daughter" being crushed as in a wine press by the lord

Website update

I've added a sketches section to my main website

have a look

http://www.pullingpictures.com/

Stuff Catholics like

Thanks to Pennycake for this great link:

Stuff Catholics Like~Patron Saints of Scary Stuff

This blog is about stuff Catholics like. Some of the stuff, like felt banners, Catholics shouldn’t like but do for reasons they will have to explain to God.

The purpose of this blog is to take a light-hearted look at Catholic things in a way that can be educational to Catholics and non-Catholics alike. If you tend to be easily "hurt" or "offended", this is a good place to get over it.

Saint Valentine

Though his death is not as bizarre or macabre as some of the others I've done I thought it appropriate to include St Valentine on this , his feast day.

St Valentines was not one but many martyred saints. There are at least eight bodies and one head that have all been recognised as the remains of Valentine.

The Valentine I've depicted was a priest in Rome, first mentioned in the Nuremburg Chronicle.
he was arrested and imprisoned by Claudius II for preaching Christianity. The story goes that Claudius took a liking to the prisoner until valentine made the mistake of trying to convert him to Christianity. He was ordered to be beaten(or stoned) to death. When this failed he was finally beheaded.


Reading up on him there are many suggestions as to the origins of the traditions associated with him.

Some versions of the story claim that as he faced the gallows Valentine wrote a note to the daughter of his jailer signing it "From your Valentine".

It's been suggested that the association of Saint Valentine with lovers is as a Christian replacement for the pagan Lupercalia and a medieval belief that birds chose their mates on this day.

He is often depicted with roses and birds, as I have done.

I painted this rather quickly when I remembered that today is his feast day.

I might have missed it, but I couldn't find any reference to expensive chocolates or teddy bears in any of his origin stories.

Lucy in Bizarre Magazine

Meant to post this a while ago

I've only got eyes for you

Here's an interesting one.


This painting of St Barabra/Paraskevi of the Greek Orthodox Church's is so similar to that of traditional depictions of Saint Lucy that I wonder if somewhere along the way their stories got blurred. Although their histories are quite different, both refer to their imperviousness to pain and torture and it's not everyday you see a girl with a pair of eyes on a serving dish...


St Barabra








St Lucy

St Bartholomew

St Bartholomew one was of The 12 Apostles of Jesus.

He preached in India and in Greater Armenia, where he was flayed and beheaded by King Astyages.
In India, which was considered the end of the world, he lived in a temple to an Indian idol apparently and the idol was possessed by a demol, Astaroth.

Another devil described Bartholomew as:

"And the devil said to them: He hath his hairs black and crisp, his skin white, eyes great,
his nostrils even and straight, his beard long and hoar a little, and of a straight and seemly
stature. He is clad in a white coat, and a white mantle, which in every corner hath gems of purple
and precious stones therein. And it is sith twenty-six years that his clothes never waxed old ne
foul."

Unwashed clothes- that seemingly never got dirty..which is just as well for his beautiful nostrils.

He is often depicted wrapped in his flayed skin or holding his skin in his hands.

Christian traditional has three stories about Bartholomew's death: "One speaks of his being kidnapped, beaten unconscious, and cast into the sea to drown. Another account states that he was crucified upside down, and another says that he was skinned alive and beheaded in Albac or Albanopolis, near Bashkale, Armenia." ^[13]

The account of Bartholomew being skinned alive is the most represented in works of art, and consequently Bartholomew shown with a large knife, holding his own skin (as in Michelangelo's Last Judgment), or both. Bartholomew is also the patron saint of tanners.

More information on his martydom here

How Bizarre

Nice to see this stuff mentioned in the readers art section of the current issue of Bizarre magazine!

Saint Blaise

Saint Blaise (or Blasius)


Blaise was an Armenian Bishop who was martyred by being beaten, attacked with iron carding combs, and beheaded. He is often depicted showing the implements of his torture, the iron carding combs. These have been misinterpreted, predictably enough, and he has become the patron saint of the wool trade(!). The similarity of the torture devices and the wool carding tool are pretty obvious- have a look here. In the book Tortures and Torments of the Christian Martyrs there is mention of a similar device, an iron currycomb which was used to tear the flesh.

The Jewish encyclopedia also mentions this method in the tale of the Ten Martyrs: "The third victim was Akiba, whose flesh was torn off with a carding-implement."

I imagine these implements would have a similar effecton the flesh as Freddy Krueger's custom made gardening gloves, hence my dishevelled interpetation of Blaise here.


The legends attributed to Blaise are many, he was said to live in the woods curing wild animals, and he is regarded as a patron saint of wild animals by some. He was also said to have walked on water among other miracles.

Blaise, according to legend, saved a boy from choking on a fish bone and he has subsequently become associated with a cure for throat ailments. Crossed candles are used for the blessing of throats on the feast day of St. Blaise, which falls on February 3, the day after Candlemas on the Catholic calendar of saints.


"Per intercessionem Sancti Blasii liberet te Deus a malo gutteris et a quovis alio malo." (May God at the intercession of Saint Blaise preserve you from throat troubles and every other evil)

Tortures and Torments of The Christian Martyrs

I've just received this in the mail. It's a study on the torture techniques used on early Christian martyrs.. a nice bit of light bedtime reading.

It features medieval engravings depicting the various methods that were used in the early days of Christianity. The perpetrators were amazingly inventive and astonishingly cruel in their methods.

This book is meant to be a serious work on the history of torture but this revised edition has an appendix featuring illustrations from contemporary artists like Peter Bagge and drawings by convicted serial killers like Charles Manson and John Wayne Gacy. I'm in two minds if this is a good idea or not but , given the theme of this blog who am I to criticise?

Theobald

There are lots of stories of religious persecution and cruelty in Ireland's history. During Henry VIII's rule all "Popery" was ruthlessly suppressed. According to one account, Theobald (de Burgo or Burke), a Dominican Friar and a group of like-minded catholics went to Dublin to 'maintain the Popes' supremacy'. All were horrifically tortured and put to death. ( some of these might make an appearance later..)

Theobald himself had his heart torn from his still living body.

And here he is(-- sorry it's late , I cant think of anything more to say about him right now...)

Saint Agnes

Poor little Agnes..sentenced to death by burning, her captors were vexed to find the wood would not light.

So they cut her head off instead.

She's often depicted holding a lamb..no real significance , it's just that her name sounds a bit like "lamb" in Latin-- really! (that's what wikipedia says anyway)

I just liked the paintings I've seen of this virginal little girl with a great big gash in her throat.
So I just swiped the idea.

In some images she is seen with a dagger in her throat--come to think of it that would have been much better!

might come back to this one..

St Joan of Arc

Joan of Arc- another very familiar image. Commander of the entire French army at 17, executed by the British at 19. Famously portayed in film by Ingrid Bergman( mmm) and also Milla Jovovich (mmmm mmm) amongst others.

But when I think of her I don't think of injustice, misogyny, a peculiar soldier girl from France from the history books..

No.. I think of this pop song by OMD from the 80s..

I'm sure Joan would be thrilled

Saint Sebastian

Sebastian, martyr, human pin-cushion, gay icon..

There are many, many depictions of this saint and the one thing that strikes me is that he seems to know a photo-op when he sees one; making luurve to the camera like Jonathan Rhys Myers.