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The
Seven Sacraments |
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Seven Sacraments. Of the Christian sacraments
- acts conferring grace. Protestants generally recognize two,
Baptism and Communion, and Catholics seven which comprise, in
addition, Confirmation, Penance (Confession), Extreme Unction,
Holy Orders and Matrimony, the last two still being at the time
of writing mutually exclusive. They are seen on medieval fonts
and as altarpiece cycles in early Netherlandish painting, where
the subject seems to have had greater appeal, at least until
the 17th cent. In the art of the Counter-Reformation their portrayal
flourished, a reaction to Protestantism that denied the sacramental
validity of penance, and which parted doctrinally from the Catholic
Church on the interpretation of the Eucharist. Hence the popularity
at this period of themes of penance such as St Peter weeping,
or the kneeling Magdalen. The Last Supper was now treated as
a communion of the apostles, and representations of the Virgin
and certain saints on their deathbed receiving the last communion
found favor. The Eucharist was even depicted in the form of
a Roman Triumph, with a monstrance borne on a chariot. Poussin
treated the sacraments as seven separate paintings, four of
them based on the New Testament: The Baptism of Christ, The
giving of the keys to Peter (Holy Orders), The Magdalen anointing
Christ's feet (Penance), and the Last Supper (Nat. Gall. of
Scotland, Edinburgh). (Hall, Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols
in Art, 1974, p. 279) |
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Life
of Christ |
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Moses |
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Apollo |
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Bacchus |
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Venus |
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