The Word Painted
The Five Books of Moses Illustrated by the Masters
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Excerpt from Chapter One on Brueghel and Ruben’s collaborative masterpiece: The Garden of Eden
“The first garden in the world has haunted and inspired artists throughout the ages, and the seventh-century Flemish painter, Jan Brueghel the Elder, who settled in Antwerp after a trip to Italy, delightedly evokes this garden with almost childlike wonder…In The Garden of Eden, he masterfully brings to life this glorious sanctuary filled with an astonishing array of flora and fauna…In 1606 he had been appointed court painter of Archduke Albert and the Infanta Isabella, governors of Hapsburg Netherlands, so Brueghel was able to sketch in their own menagerie…In The Garden of Eden, Ruben’s command of the human body and dazzling signature brushwork are seen in his powerful figure of Adam and full-bodied Eve, both of whose majestic proportions derive from Michelangelo’s heroic nudes in the Sistine Chapel.”
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About the Book
Art historian Eleanor Pearson DeLorme and her erudite coauthor, Charles Pearson DeLorme, lead us through a virtual gallery of great paintings by masters of Western art: from Rubens and Brueghel’s Garden of Eden to Signorelli’s Testament and Death of Moses. They tell two stories: that of the great story of God’s redemption and that of the lives and times of the masters who labored to portray God’s story, which is, at the same time, our own.
About the Author
Eleanor Pearson DeLorme graduated with honors in art history from Wellesley College, where she taught for 25 years. She received her MA in art history from Harvard. She is the author of Garden Pavilions and the 18th Century French Court (1996) and Joséphine: Napoléon’s Incomparable Empress (2002) which was awarded first prize by the International Napoleonic Society of which she is a Fellow. She conceived, edited, and contributed to Joséphine and the Arts of the Empire (2005). She lives in Needham, Massachusetts.
Charles Pearson DeLorme, Eleanor’s son, is a graduate of Harvard with a major in Romance languages. He collaborated with Eleanor in researching and writing Joséphine: Napoléon’s Incomparable Empress. He was an editor of this book, and the developmental editor for Joséphine and the Arts of the Empire. He lives in Quincy, Massachusetts. He and Eleanor are members of historic Park Street Church in Boston.