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5 Minutes in Church History with Stephen Nichols

Constantine in Threads

5 Minutes in Church History with Stephen Nichols

Ligonier Ministries

Christianity, History, Religion & Spirituality

4.81.7K Ratings

🗓️ 3 October 2018

⏱️ 5 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

On this episode of 5 Minutes in Church History, Dr. Stephen Nichols returns to the Philadelphia Museum of Art and walks us through a series of tapestries depicting Constantine’s life.

Read the transcript.

Transcript

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0:00.0

Welcome to five minutes in church history hosted by Dr Stephen Nichols, where we take a little

0:07.8

break from the present to go exploring the past. Travel back in time as we look at the people, events, and even the places that have shaped the story of Christianity.

0:16.0

This is our story, our family history. Let's get started.

0:20.0

Welcome back to another episode of five minutes in church history on this

0:26.1

episode we are again in the Philadelphia Museum of Art. In the center of

0:30.6

that museum is the great stair hall and around it is a very large and impressive balcony and even more impressive is what lines the walls of that balcony, a series of tapestries, 12 tapestries in all, known as the Constantine tapestries. These tapestries were the result of the work of two Baroque painters, Peter Paul Rubens, and Pietro Day Cortona.

0:54.7

Rubens of course is the famous Flemish Master, perhaps he is the Flemish Master, famous for

0:59.8

the Baroque style.

1:01.0

He was born in Germany, but from Tenon he lived in Antwer.

1:05.1

We also have work here by Pietro de Cortona. He was an Italian Baroque painter.

1:10.8

These tapestries were originally done for King Louis the 13th of France.

1:16.0

They were commissioned by a Bishop from the House of Barbarini.

1:20.0

And from the House of Barbarini, we actually have one of the popes and there was the large

1:25.0

palace the barberini palace there in Rome and this bishop not only was the

1:31.0

a bishop he also had a tapestry factory and so he commissioned

1:35.4

Rubens initially to do these tapestries. Rubens turned his attention to a book

1:40.5

by Eusebius the early church historian and of course Eusebius, the early church historian.

1:43.5

And of course Eusebius wrote the book,

1:45.1

The History of the Christian Church,

1:46.5

which tells that early story.

1:48.6

But he also wrote a second book called The Life of Constantine.

1:52.8

Eusebius held Constantine in a very high regard.

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