A.R. Danziger, Art & Design

I finally completed a painting I've been working on since last summer.  Poster prints on archival heavyweight paper are available here . La Sagrada Família / The Holy family by A.R. Danziger. Acrylic and metal leaf on wooden panel, 30" x 24". This will be hanging up in Holy Family Bilingual Catholic School where my daughter has been flourishing in the school's dual language (English/Spanish) immersion program. It's a very special school; Christ-centered with a family atmosphere. Their motto is: "One family, diverse in backgrounds, united in faith."  I felt inspired to work in a style that represented this vision, so I looked to early Medieval Spanish art which combined so many diverse cultures into something unique and beautiful to serve and glorify Our Lord. The outer border, angels, stars, and background colors were inspired by Mozarabic illuminated manuscripts.  This illustration from a commentary on the book of Revelation has unique decorative eleme...

I finished this painting early this year. This shows Saint Michael the Archangel casting the devil (represented by a dragon) down out of heaven. I painted it using acrylics and metal leaf. I used the style and conventions found in Romanesque period illuminated manuscripts for my inspiration. This was sold at my daughter's Catholic school auction, and I was very honored to find out that a seminarian won it.

Here is another sketch for my upcoming project. This Christ in Majesty will sit in the midst of the 24 elders. I'm glad I worked on small scale copy of an illuminated manuscript before this so I could learn some of the Romanesque style's conventions and apply them appropriately to my current piece. I hesitate to say that mine is a more "naturalistic" or "realistic" representation because those words tend to imply the downplaying of the supernatural and emphasis on the natural world.  I am interested in reviving Western religious iconography (related to but distinct from Byzantine iconography) in the Roman Catholic tradition, and therefore I am very interested in a symbolic representation of supernatural realities. Anyway...

Let's take a look at a few illuminated manuscripts made in England during the Romanesque period: Christ in majesty, spreading his hands in blessing. Winchester Bible, 12th Century The Doubt of St. Thomas. St. Albans Psalter, 12th Century Christ in Majesty from the Westminster Psalter, around 1200 A.D.