In the "Children's Room" (south of the sanctuary)
The Presentation of the ChildJesus in the Temple, thought to be a
work of the school of Murillo. Bartolome Esteban Murillo (1617-1682) was a
Spanish painter of chiefly religious subjects. The altarpiece is inscribed
"Claudio Ridolphi 1560 1644" and is probably a memorial piece.
Note: Key letters below refer to the letters on the location diagram
In the Sanctuary
- Flight of the Holy Family into Egypt.
Artist unknown.
- Circumcision ofJesus.
Artist unknown.
- Christ Meets
the Sorrowing Women. Artist unknown.
D – E. On the south wall is the coat-of-arms of Cardinal McIntyre,
Cardinal-Archbishop of Los Angeles at the time Bishop Ward became pastor
of St. Timothy's. On the north wall is the coat-of-arms of Bishop Ward. These
murals were painted by Miss Isabel Piczek, whose stained glass windows, mosaics,
and murals appear in numerous churches in the Southland. These most recent
additions to the decorative art of the church provide visual reminders of the
friendship and guidance these good men have given to the parish.
In the Nave
- A copy by Thomas Lawless of a highly stylized portrait of St.Timothy, the
original of which, a miniature, is believed to be in Rome. St. Timothy was an
early convert. He was a companion of St. Paul and eventually became Bishop of
Ephesus. In his day, he would not have worn a miter or rich vestments, nor
would he have carried an elaborate crosier.
- G. Copy by Thomas Lawless of Andrea del Sarto's Madonna of the
Harpies, Uffizi Gallery, Florence, Italy. The Mother and Child are
shown with St. Francis and St. John the Evangelist. Note the book in St.
John's hand, his emblem as an evangelist. The "harpies" guarding the
pedestal were, according to Greek mythology, creatures with a woman's head and
trunk and a bird's wings, tail, and talons. Their function was to lead souls
to another world, and that is possibly the reason they are occasionally shown
as decorative accents in Renaissance paintings.
- St. John the Baptist Artist unknown. St. John was the first to hail
Christ as the "Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world." In
his ministry, John wore a leather girdle about his loins and an
overgarment of camel's hair. For this reason, even when John is portrayed as a
child, he is often shown wearing a camel's hair garment.
- The Crucifixion.
Artist unknown. This is thought to be a
fifteenth-century Aragonese or Catalonian work.
- Mother and Child. Artist unknown. The Mother, richly robed, carries
flowers in her right hand and displays a necklace with pendant cross. The
Child is shown with crown and orb symbolizing his kingship.
- Copy by an unknown artist of Raphael's Madonna of the Goldfinch (1506),
Uffizi Gallery, Rome. Mary is shown with John and Jesus as children. Because
the goldfinch, one of which can be seen in the right hand of Jesus, eats
thorns, it was considered symbolical of the crown of thorns and, by extension,
Christ's passion as a whole. The book in Mary's hand recalls the prophecy of
Isaiah.
- Copy by Thomas Lawless of the upper portion of Raphael's Transfiguration,
Pinacoteca, Munich. Jesus is shown transfigured, with Elijah on his right
and Moses, carrying the tablets, on his left. Below James, Peter, and John,
witnesses to the Transfiguration, cringe on the ground in fear and awe. This
was Raphael's last work. He died on Good Friday, 1520, at the age of 37. On
Holy Saturday, he was laid out in the place where he had worked. At his head
was placed the still unfinished Transfiguration. His assistant Vasari,
who later completed the painting, said that the sight of the dead man and the
living work "filled all who saw them with poignant sorrow."
- Copy by Thomas Lawless of Raphael's Sistine Madonna, Gemaldegalerie,
Dresden, Germany. This noble painting, the most celebrated of all Raphael's
Madonnas and the first to be painted on canvas, portrays St. Sixtus' first
glimpse of heaven. The curtains, symbolical of the "veil" between
heaven and earth, open to reveal to the kneeling Sixtus, the Mother, and Child
with St. Barbara on their left. In the original, Barbara's symbol, a tower,
appears between her back and the curtain. Here, the tower is difficult to
perceive. Sixtus, however, is very clearly portrayed, in fact, so clearly
portrayed that scholars have recognized the figure as an obvious portrait of
Pope Julian II, Raphael's patron and friend.
The two cherubs at the bottom have been reproduced on the U.S. Postal
Service "Love" stamps for 1995. USPS describes the cherub on the
left, which is used on the l-ounce stamp, as "a whimsical cherub
contemplating the enigma of romance." Although the description is
obviously inappropriate for the cherub viewed in the context of this painting,
it does indeed seem apt when the cherub is viewed on a "Love" stamp.
- Blessed Virgin with the Infant Jesus and
St. John the Baptist. Artist
unknown. The Virgin carries a banner marked Ecce Agnus Dei. (Behold the
Lamb of God). St. John kisses the foot of Jesus.
- St. John the Baptist, St. Elizabeth, the Infant Jesus,
and Mary. Artist unknown. Here and often in other Renaissance paintings,
St. John, as herald of the Messiah, is shown pointing toward Jesus.
- Copy of the figure of Mary in Bartolome Esteban Murillo's Immaculate
Conception, circa 1665-1670, Prado, Madrid.
- Copy of Guide Reni of Bologna's St. Michael Slaying the Devil, Capucin
Church of Santa Maria Della Concezione, circa 1626-1627, Urban VIII,
sponsor.
Vestibule
According to the magazine California Living September 25, 1983,
Burton Frederickson, curator of paintings at the Getty Museum, has identified
the large painting on the east wall as a representation of the Madonna and Child
with St. Lawrence, St. Francis and the painting's donor family. Although there
is no record of the artist, Frederickson's educated guess is that it is a work
of Monenico Campagnola, an early·sixteenth-century Paduan painter.
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