LENTEN PRINTS
These stirring pictures shown below were painted by my grandfather, William Guido Castagnoli, Sr. (1898-1973) who did much scenic artwork for both stage and TV for many years. These depict our Lord in his Passion, Death and Resurrection from different perpectives.
William G. Castagnoli grew up in an environment surrounded by the symbolism and visual iconography of the Catholic Church. His father, John Castagnoli, a classically trained sculptor, was in charge of the decoration of Catholic churches in New England and Canada in the early 1900s. This work involved creations of statues of religious figures, scenes from scripture, the Stations of the Cross, the Crucifixion, etc. John encouraged William to follow in his footsteps.
After World War I, William became a scenic artist working for theatrical companies in cities in the West and Mid-West. When the arrival of motion pictures and the Great Depression greatly reduced live local theater, he moved to New York City becoming the scenic artist for the Roxy Theater, and he continued working as a scenic artist on Broadway and television until his retirement.
The influences of his father's work and William's own belief in Jesus' teachings found expression in his religious drawings – particularly of Christ’s crucifixion. He held these depictions as personal expressions. My grandfather never showed them to anyone but his wife and his son, my father William Jr., who has given them to me to make this art available here exclusively for the first time!
We are pleased to offer his art as prints on glossy photographic paper stock in two sizes: 5" x 7" for $5.00 and 8" x 10" for $8.00 each. You can select the desired sizes by using the pull-down menus that accompany each picture.
We hope these images can inspire much thoughtful meditation this Lenten season and beyond! We've added scripture quotations for each print and some brief reflections on each one on the "more information" pages.
Christopher Castagnoli,
for www.ourcatholicprayers.com
Select sizes from the pull-down menus above each picture |
