As we continue to make more works available online, survey some of the paintings and objects in M&G’s collection. Click on the images below to enjoy videos, articles, and audio stops.
Tag Archives: art collection
St. Veronica
Oil on canvas
Claude Vignon
French, 1593-1670
The legend of St. Veronica is a tangled one. Whether she is based on a woman named Berenice, the woman with the issue of blood, or merely a weeping woman of Jerusalem, the important thing is that there is no Biblical foundation to her story. Veronica is said to be a widow who pitied the Savior and offered Him her veil to wipe His sweaty, bloodstained face. He accepted, and when He returned the veil, it bore His likeness.
In the world of art, her iconography includes the face-imprinted cloth, as in M&G’s painting by Claude Vignon. The religious have long sought relics of biblical personages. This veil with its miracle-produced image is considered the vera icon or “true image” to distinguish it from all other images of Christ. Over time the cloth became known as a veronica (also a sudarium) and the woman as “Veronica.”
Luke 23:28 states that Christ tells the mourning women following Him to Calvary, “Daughters of Jerusalem, weep not for me, but weep for yourselves, and for your children.” These are not the devoted Galilean women; these are women of Jerusalem who doubtless heard of or even participated in the mob cry, “Let his blood be upon us and our children” outside Pilate’s palace. Christ denies their pity for Himself; His death is a permanent payment for sin, but He will rise again. Instead, He confronts them with the consequences of their nation’s rejection of the Son of God (Luke 23:29-30). Whether He foretells the cruel Roman destruction of Jerusalem (A.D. 70) or the ultimate judgment of the earth when the Jews recognize fully their sin in rejecting Him (Revelation 6:16) or both destructions, Jesus’ words point up the irony that their sympathy should lie with the living, not the soon-dead, innocent One (the “green tree” in Luke 23:31).
Vignon painted another work with a veronica, this time with angels holding the cloth. It is intriguing to consider the variations of the face of Christ. M&G’s St. Veronica depicts a corpse-like appearance similar to a death mask with a face drained of color, eyes closed, and a marked lack of blood from both the crown of thorns and the soldiers’ abuse. It is clearly not a true image of Christ on His way to Calvary, though His blood loss must have been severe. However, the visage on the cloth that the two angels display is much more like the face the women saw—a man abused, yet fully aware. Why Vignon painted such different versions of the vera icon, aside from being ironic, is a mystery.
Two Angels Presenting the Holy Face, Claude Vignon
Musee des Beaux-Arts, Rouen, France
The vibrant colors and use of chiaroscuro suggest the influence of the Caravaggisti that Vignon encountered in Rome during his travels. The different coloring between these two works highlights the variety that is found in Vignon’s style in general and causes the viewer to understand the validity of one critic’s comment that “a wealth of hues plays a large part in the poetry of the work of Claude Vignon.”
He was employed by King Louis XIII as well as Cardinal Richelieu, commissions that speak to his skill and popularity. A man of varied talents (painter, etcher, and art salesman), Vignon drew together the influences of Mannerism, Colorism, Caravaggism, and even of Rembrandt and produced works that mark him as “one of the most important and most distinctive French painters of his generation.”
Dr. Karen Rowe Jones, M&G Board Member
Published 2026
Published 2026
Old Master paintings can be overwhelming sometimes with their detailed beauty, serious palette, and historical roots. But they don’t have to be, which is why M&G created the EXPLORE pages—a diversion on our website to unfold some of the mystery and meaning in the art of the past. Watch, listen, read, and color your way through the world of Old Masters!
Click on the links below to investigate for yourself:
For students of ALL ages: click and print the coloring sheet, then find inspiration in the Old Master’s original to create your own version! Share your work with others on social media and tag the Museum & Gallery!
Esther Accusing Haman by Jan Victors, Dutch (1619–after 1676)
For a printable coloring sheet click HERE.
The Heavenly Shepherd by Bartolomé Esteban Murillo, Spanish (1617–1682)
For a printable coloring sheet click HERE.
Joseph Sold into Bondage by His Brethren by Giovanni Battista Carlone, Genoese (1603–1684)
For a printable coloring sheet click HERE.
Rest on the Flight to Egypt by Francesco Granacci, Florentine (1469–1543)
For a printable coloring sheet click HERE.
Madonna of the Chair by Unknown 19th-century Artist (copy of Raphael)
For a printable coloring sheet click HERE.
The Old Master Painting Collection
The Museum & Gallery’s Old Master painting collection provides a rare viewer experience outside European cities and metropolitan areas with beautiful masterworks by recognized artists and their students—all of which are aesthetically exhibited with period furniture, sculpture, and tapestries to lend a period ambiance to the galleries and give patrons a panoramic view of ages past. Of special note, M&G’s baroque paintings represent some of the most important artists and their works in the country.
The Collection is one of the largest and most interesting collections of European Old Master paintings in America. These works of art from the 14th through the 19th centuries beautifully trace the religious, artistic, and cultural history of Western Europe. Included are important works of many major artists such as Vannuccio, Botticelli, Cranach, Gerard David, Rubens, van Dyck, Reni, Domenichino, Guercino, Murillo, Ribera, Honthorst, and Doré. For a glimpse, view this virtual tour.
Patrons can also enjoy M&G’s Bowen Collection of Antiquities with artifacts that span 37 centuries and represent every day life from ancient Egyptian, Roman, and Hebrew cultures; and the Benjamin West Collection, a series of paintings housed in the War Memorial Chapel (on the campus of Bob Jones University).
M&G’s Russian Icon Collection, which dates from the 14th through 20th centuries and includes several icons once owned by members of the Romanov family, the last tsars of Russia.
While not all of the collections are available online, we continue to add more monthly. You can see some of the individual works and objects through articles, short video clips, and audio stops. OR view the variety of Collection objects currently available online here.
Drama and Beauty: Great European Paintings from the Bob Jones Collection
This beautifully illustrated catalog—celebrating the 70th anniversary of the Bob Jones Collection—presents a fascinating survey of religious European art from the 14th through the 19th centuries.
Bob Jones Jr. founded the collection as an educational effort and opened it on the campus of the university named after his father in Greenville, South Carolina, in 1951. Those first 25 paintings included works by Bicci di Lorenzo, Luca Giordano, El Greco, and Tintoretto, and today the collection comprises over 400 paintings, as well as a wide range of sculpture, decorative arts, and antiquities. It is widely recognized among scholars as one of the finest collections of Renaissance and Baroque paintings in America, and a document of the revival of the taste for Baroque pictures in the mid-20th century.
Erin Jones’s introduction provides an overview of the history of the various iterations of the Museum & Gallery, even as it looks forward to a new home in the center of its community. Richard P. Townsend’s essay presents the most in-depth examination to date of Bob Jones Jr. as a collector, extensively using letters, invoices, and photographs to paint a picture of Jones hitherto not available. At the heart of the volume is the presentation of 55 paintings, featuring works by great European masters including Botticelli, Bouts, Cranach, Guercino, Jordaens, Preti, Reni, Ribera, Rubens, Tiepolo, and Zurbarán.
If you’re interested in M&G’s new catalog commemorating our 70th anniversary, Drama and Beauty: Great European Paintings from the Bob Jones Collection, you may pre-order and purchase a book online at any of these places: Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Walmart.com and Target.com.
The Value of Visiting a Museum
Below the image, click play to listen.
Currently, M&G is not offering public viewing hours while we pursue a new building and location.
Located on the campus of Bob Jones University, M&G has been open and accessible to the public since 1951 and a separate, independent 501(c)(3) non-profit entity governed by its own board of directors since 1996. While the Collection’s primary focus is European Old Master paintings, it also displays nearly 200 pieces of Gothic to nineteenth-century furniture, approximately 100 works of sculpture, some 60 textiles, nearly 50 Russian and Greek icons, over 1,000 ancient artifacts, and approximately 130 architectural elements that range from stained glass windows to fireplace mantels.
Prior to 2017, there was also a satellite location, M&G at Heritage Green. If you would like to learn more about the building and the current Heritage Green campus, visit here.
Please consider supporting our collection and work by making a gift here.
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