The Art of Lent - by Wendy Beckett (Paperback)

About the Book

This delightful book describes and interprets a series of forty full-color paintings for each day of Lent. The brilliant and perceptive reflections from nun and art historian Sister Wendy Beckett will help you to read these paintings with a more discerning eye and encounter deeper levels of spiritual meaning than may at first appear.

Book Synopsis

A Visual and Spiritual Companion for Lent

This delightful book describes and interprets a series of forty full-color paintings for each day of Lent. Artists often address subjects that our culture seeks to avoid, and the brilliant and perceptive reflections from nun and art historian Sister Wendy Beckett will help you to read these paintings with a more discerning eye and encounter deeper levels of spiritual meaning than may at first appear. It was at the core of Sister Wendy Beckett's mission to make fine art accessible. This led to her becoming a BBC presenter and then American viewers discovered her series on PBS. Sister Wendy, who died in 2018, lived at a Carmelite Monastery in Norfolk, England.

From the Hokusai's Great Wave to Rembrandt's The Return of the Prodigal Son, the reflections in The Art of Lent draw from the emotions and spiritual truths behind the paintings to give you lessons that will stay with you a lifetime. Each of the days is based around a different theme: from joy to tranquility to courage to sacrifice, the messages in this book are short meditations that are designed to leave you with questions to ponder and meditate on.

The use of four-color classical paintings adds to the visual and sensory appeal. These lush artistic images stir our imagination and expand on the words of the daily devotionals. With The Art of Lent, you'll gain a fuller and more spiritual understanding of Christian art and see Holy Week and Easter as never before.

About the Author

Sister Wendy Beckett (1930-2018) was a Carmelite nun and art historian who became world famous in the 1990s when she presented a series of BBC documentaries on the history of painting. She studied for her degree in English at St. Anne's College, Oxford, where she graduated with highest honors. After teaching in South Africa, she returned to England in 1970 to live a fully contemplative life under the protection of a Carmelite monastery in Norfolk. She was the author of over thirty books on Christian art, including the internationally bestselling book, The Story of Painting.