Litany of Loreto and Artwork
  • I had seen a recent posting of Domenico Zipoli's "Litaniae Lauretanae," on the Rorate Caeli site. Fr. Domenico Zipoli, S.I. (1688-1726), a Tuscan, was active in the Jesuit missions of Paraguay (now in Paraguay, Northeast Argentina and Southern Brazil).http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ErNjckX0WEI

    I recognized the artwork as being that of Josef Sebastian Klauber. Here is a link to that artwork: http://campus.udayton.edu/mary/gallery/exhibits/litany.html
    Using your zoom feature, you can still get a very good high-definition image, even at a 400% magnification. Each picture also includes brief commentary, and scriptural references. It's a great art teaching tool for children and adults.

    For the beginning image, "Sancta Maria," click on the icon at the bottom, which says "Next Invocation." To advance to successive images, click the icon "Next Advocation." The link also gives a listing of all images, in case you want to go to a specific image, rather than clicking through all of them.

    "The Marian Library (University of Dayton) has in its possession rare books of the eighteenth century with engravings by the renowned Augsburg artist, Josef Sebastian Klauber (ca. 1700-1768). The highly symbolic and illustrative reproductions are typical of the Baroque period. Their message is of great spiritual riches. Mary's profile is that of the exalted Mother, Virgin, and Queen, as suits the period. We limited ourselves to the illustrations of the Marian titles. The reader needs to keep in mind that the titles (of the BVM) introduced in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, obviously, are not included in Klauber's illustrations."