Iconic artwork from every country in Europe

[EndtheMadnessNow]

20. Italy: "The Birth of Venus" - Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi aka Sandro Botticelli (c.1484–1486)


The woman painted as Venus by Botticelli was likely Simonetta Vespucci, a noblewoman from Genoa, or perhaps as many people like to believe in order to emphasize the name's coincidence - from Porto Venere (Venus Harbour).
Details of The Birth of Venus


21. Latvia: "After Church" - Janis Rozentāls (1894)



22. Liechtenstein Garden Palace painted in 1759 by Bernardo Bellotto.

For over 300 years, the GARDEN PALACE and the CITY PALACE of the princely family of Liechtenstein are deeply rooted in Vienna’s history. Both palaces are still privately owned by the princely family.

The GARDEN PALACE is available for hire for exclusive events (no parallel events at the same time) - with the Sala Terrena on the ground floor, the three former Ladies' Apartments as well as the Hercules Hall on the first floor. If the weather is fine the magnificent garden is available for events too. The Princely Library is another highlight of the palace.

23. Lithuania: "Fairy Tale of the Kings" - Mikalojus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1909)



24. Luxembourg: "Prise de la Porte d'Eich" - Jean-Baptiste Fresez (c.1839)



25. Malta: "Death of Dragut' - Giuseppe Calì (1867), depicts the death of the Ottoman general Dragut during the Great Siege of Malta in 1565.



26. Moldova: "The Girls From Ciadar Lunga" - Mihai Grecu (1960)



27. Monaco: "Hercules fighting Acheloos transformed into a snake" - François Joseph Bosio (1824)



28. Montenegro: "Our Lady of Philermos" Byzantine icon of the Theotokos, dated to the 11th or 12th century.

The icon of Our Lady of Philermos is, more than any other, the most sacred representation to which, for centuries, the Knights of the Order of Malta have been devoted. It is the symbol par excellence of the Marian spirituality of the ancient Order of the Hospitallers of St. John. However, Our Lady of Philermos could also be worthy of the name of patron saint of travellers, without wishing in any way to detract from the official holder of this title, St. Christopher. Few religious pictures have travelled as much and as adventurously as this small but precious portrait.

EVERYTHING ABOUT HER SPEAKS OF PILGRIMAGE

Even just to admire this face, which releases a deeply holy sense, one has to travel, taking a long journey to the National Museum of Art of Montenegro in Cetinje, where it has been kept since the Second World War. And when the icon reappeared, at the end of the 20th century, having been thought to be lost, it was welcomed like a long lost friend or, better yet, a much-loved mother from whom you’ve heard nothing for years and who suddenly shows hope when all hope had been lost.

ITS HISTORY ACCORDING TO TRADITION

The first account, reported in the Complete calendar of Russian saints and brief miraculous news on the Mother of God, leaves no room for doubt: “According to tradition, the Hodigitria (she who leads) Filermskaia was painted by St Luke and consecrated with the blessing of the Mother of God. In around the year 46, it was taken to Antioch, the birthplace of St. Luke, and then to Jerusalem. Towards the year 430, it was taken to the church of Blacherne in Constantinople. In 626, it saved Constantinople from the Persians (…) In 1204 it was taken by the Latin army, transferred to Palestine and from there to the island of Malta”.

Another description, reported in a text dating back to the 17th century, also makes reference to the same presumed artist: “Said to have been painted by the Evangelist, Luke”. Then it makes less precise historical references. The icon, according to what is written, is supposed to have been taken to Rhodes from Jerusalem “when the island was still under the rule of the Eastern Emperors”. The timing is less certain because, apart from the invasions by the Persians in 620 and the Arabs (633-665), Rhodes was ruled, at least in name, by the Eastern Emperors until the island was occupied by the Hospitallers in 1306.

A third version appears in a Magistral Bull of the Hospitallers Order dated 1497. It states that, according to local tradition, the icon is said to have arrived in Rhodes by way of a miracle: floating on the sea, at the time of Emperor Leon the Heretic (717-741).

....
ITS REDISCOVERY

But what had happened to the original? It was found thanks to the insistence of an Italian scholar Giovannella Berté Ferraris di Celle. She had written a book on the icon in 1988, but her interest didn’t stop there: she continued with her search. She had heard rumours in the religious and monastic environments, particularly those of the Orthodox Church, according to which the great reliquaries of Malta and the icon had not been destroyed, but were located in a monastery in the south of what was then Yugoslavia. After writing numerous letters and continuing to insist, she finally received a reply from the Metropolitan of Belgrade: yes, the icon was in Cetinje in Montenegro! And so it was that, in May 1997, the tenacious researcher completed her work: “I was moved by being able to worship this holy icon”. Several years later, between the 12th and 15th of March 2004, the Grand Master of the Order of Malta, Fra’ Andrew Bertie led the pilgrimage to the icon. Followed by a delegation of the Order, he paid devout homage also to the other two holy reliquaries of the Order: the authentic Cross and the hand of St. John the Baptist, kept in the Orthodox monastery of the Nativity.

An icon with an extraordinary history, still today a symbol of the Order of Malta’s Marian spirituality and emblem of its history. The members of the Order of Malta – as their predecessors have done over the centuries – continue to pray and to invoke her as their protector and to refer to her in the most difficult moments. On 8 September they celebrate her feast all over the world.

Order of Malta

29. Netherlands: "Wheat Field with Cypresses" - Van Gogh (1889)