Berea College Art Collection

The artist of this painting is so named for his notable rendering of the Greek myth of Daphne fleeing Apollo. In this painting, two scenes from the life of Moses are presented. On the right, the baby Moses has been found floating amongst the reeds in the river Nile and brought to the Pharaoh and [...]

Despite the titling of this piece as a portrait, there is question over whether or not it represents an ordinary woman or a biblical heroine. It can, however, be confidently be dated as after 1532 despite the lack of artist identification because it is surely copied off of Antonio Alegri Correggio’s Allegory of Virtue. The [...]

A common practice amongst early renaissance Christians, this piece is thought to be intended for personal devotion because of its small size. It is accepted as being one of the last paintings by di Francesco. Joseph’s head is the most reminiscent of the artist’s younger hand and so considered the finest part of the painting. [...]

Many renaissance paintings are rife with symbolic iconography. The Madonna’s red robe symbolizes power through faith in Christ and the green signifies the triumph of life over death. Playing with the infant Christ child on her lap, is infant Saint John the Baptist. He is depicted clothed in animal skins because he was said to [...]

Inspired by his letter to a disciple describing his joy in solitary penance, representations of St. Jerome beating his bare breast with a stone became popular in fifteenth-century Tuscany. These images, usually showing St. Jerome kneeling before a crucifix and accompanied by a lion, were especially popular in the last quarter of the century. Images [...]

Apollonio di Giovanni di Tommaso is also known as “The Virgil Master.” The artist’s pseudonym was given to him because he did numerous miniatures for a manuscript of Virgil's "Aeneid" in the Riccardi Library in Florence. The melancholy of the Madonna is balanced by the infant Jesus who sweetly reaches for a rose offered by [...]

This beloved scene of Madonna and Child stands apart from its earlier counterparts in its tenderness. This Virgin Mary is holding her child who is clambering up his mother to whisper in her ear. Mary steadies herself upon a parapet inscribed with Luke 1:42 “Blessed are you among women and blessed is the fruit of [...]

This piece was originally the center panel of a small triptych commissioned for a side altar or chapel. The panel depicts the Virgin Mary seated on a brocaded pillow upon a high platform. She holds the Christ child and a rose—a sign of her beauty and purity. Upon either side of her throne are her [...]

Charles Counts was an American Renaissance man who worked to preserve the art forms of his native Appalachia. He was a proficient weaver, quilter, teacher, writer, and activist. However, he is best known for his pottery. Born in Lynch, Kentucky, Counts graduated from Berea College where his devotion to his native culture was fostered and [...]

The chasuble is the outermost liturgical vestment worn by clergy for the celebration of the Eucharist in Western-tradition Christian Churches that use full vestments, primarily in the Roman Catholic, Anglican, Lutheran, and United Methodist Church (during the Eucharist). In the Eastern Orthodox Churches and in the Eastern Rite Catholic Churches, the equivalent vestment is the phelonion. The chasuble originated [...]