Art

The following are some basic selections of works of art to enter more deeply into the Catholic tradition and to gain greater cultural literacy. This list is a work in progress and I will continually add content and will blog about these works. Please post your ideas at the bottom of the page.

Literature

• The Song of Roland
• Dante, Divine Comedy
• Chaucer, Canterbury Tales
• Cervantes, Don Quixote
• Alessandro Manzoni, The Betrothed
• Sigrid Undset, Kristin Lavransdatter
• Georges Bernanos, Diary of a Country Priest
• Graham Greene, The Power and the Glory
• Flannery O’Connor, Short Stories

Drama

• Shakespeare, all plays; suggestions to begin: King Lear, Hamlet, Merchant of Venice
• Pedro Calderon de la Barca, Life Is a Dream
• Corneille, Le Cid
• Racine, Phèdre
• Oscar Wilde, The Importance of Being Earnest

Music: Great Mass Settings through the Centuries

• Guillame de Machuat, Messe de Nostre Dame
• Josquin, Missa Pange Lingua
• Palestrina, Missa Papae Marcelli
• Tallis, Mass for Four Voices
• Byrd, Mass for Five Voices
• Vivaldi, Gloria
• Bach, Mass in B Minor
• Mozart, Great Mass; Requiem Mass
• Haydn, Nelson Mass
• Beethoven, Mass in C Major
• Gabriel Fauré , Requiem

Music: Other Religious Pieces

• Biber, Sonatas on the Mysteries of the Rosary
• Bach, St. Matthew Passion
• Mozart, Laudate Dominum; Ave Verum Corpus
• Allegri, Miserere
• Tomas Luis de Vitoria, Tenebrae Responsories; Lamentations of Jeremiah
• Henry Purcell, Te Deum and Jubilate Deo
• Pergolesi, Stabat Mater
• Elgar, Dream of Gerontius (based on Newman’s poem)
• Arvo Pärt, In Principio

Classic Hymns to Memorize

• O Salutaris Hostia and Tantum Ergo (for Benediction)
• Salve Regina and Marian antiphons for the seasons
• Be Thou My Vision
• Holy God We Praise Thy Name
• Immaculate Mary
• Come Holy Ghost
• Main hymns for Advent, Lent, and Easter

Large Scale Narrative Paintings

• Giotto, St. Francis Cycle, c. 1300
• Duccio, Maestà Altarpiece, Sienna Cathedral, 1311
• Jan van Eyck, Altarpiece of Ghent, 1432
• Fra Angelico, Frescoes of the Convent of San Marco, 1438-50
• Hieronymus Bosch, Garden of Earthly Delights, 1510
• Raphael Rooms in the Vatican Apartments, c. 1520
• Michelangelo, Sistine Chapel: Ceiling 1512, Last Judgment 1541
• Tintoretto, Scuola di San Rocco, 1565-67, 1575-88
• Caravaggio, Saint Matthew paintings in San Luigi, Rome, c. 1600

Other Paintings

• Botticelli, Madonna of the Magnificat, 1483; see his other Madonnas and seven versions of the Adoration of the Magi
• Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Procession to Calvary, 1564
• El Greco, The Burial of the Count of Orgaz, 1586
• Diego Velázquez “Coronation of the Virgin,” 1644; see also “Christ in the House of Mary and Martha,” 1618
• Murillo, The Annunciation, c. 1660
• Rembrandt, The Return of the Prodigal Son, c. 1669
• Ingres, The Virgin Adoring the Host, 1852
• Monet, Cathedral of Rouen series, 1890s

Sculpture

• Gislebertus, Tympanum at Autun, c. 1135
• South Portal of Chartres Cathedral, c. 1210
• Donatello, Magdalene Penitent, 1455
• Niccolò dell’Arca, Lamentation for the Dead Christ, c.1480-90
• Michelangelo, Pietà, 1499
• Bernini, Ecstasy of Saint Teresa, 1652
• Antonio Canova, Magdalene Penitent, 1796
• Rodin, The Hand of God, 1896

Film

• Carl Theodor Dreyer, The Passion of Joan of Arc, 1928
• Maurice Cloche, Monsieur Vincent, 1947
• Roberto Rossellini, The Flowers of St. Francis, 1950
• Robert Bresson, Diary of a Country Priest, 1951
• Ingmar Bergman, The Seventh Seal, 1957
• Fred Zinnemann, A Man for All Seasons, 1966
• Roland Joffé, The Mission, 1986
• Gabriel Axel, Babette’s Feast, 1987
• Philip Gröning, Into Great Silence, 2005
• Xavier Beauvois, Of Gods and Men, 2010

In the “leave a reply” box, please share the works of art you think every Catholic should know.