RON HENGGELER

December 23, 2015
Photos from a rain-soaked weekend

My two days off from work this week were soaking wet. After four years of drought, California is finally getting the long waited for and much needed rains and snow. On Sunday, to stay out of the rain, Dave and I went in the late afternoon to the Legion of Honor Museum for the Christmas organ concert. While there, with the organ music playing throughout the galleries, I photographed the paintings in the museum's collection that depict Mary and the Christ Child. The next day Monday also saw a full day of torrential pouring rain. When Dave and I went out to do some errands, I brought the camera along and photographed some of the rainy day scenes. Remarkably, the stretch of 13th Street under the freeway from Folsom to Mission Street had become an encampment of homeless people being sheltered somewhat from the rain by the freeway above. The homeless souls with tents were the fortunate ones. The homeless ones without any shelter were having a very rough day.

A rainy day view of City Hall from my window upstairs.

Church and Market in San Francisco

Madonna and Child, ca. 1504-1505

by Giovanni Battista Cima, called Cima da Conegliano

Italian, Venetian 1459-1518

Oil on panel

Church Street near Market

What we have found in this country, and maybe we're more aware of it now, is one problem that we've had, even in the best of times, and that is the people who are sleeping on the grates, the homeless, you might say, by choice.

Ronald Reagan

Rest on the Flight into Egypt, ca. 1550

Oil on panel

by Polidoro da Lancing

Italian, Venetian, 1515-1565

Home is where the heart is.

Pliny the Elder

Tom and Jerry's home decorated for the Holidays

21st at Church in San Francisco

Madonna and Child with Two Angels, ca. 1525

Oil on linen panel

by Studio of Pontormo (Italian, Portorme 1494-1557 Florence)

A glimpse into Golden Gate Park from Fulton Street

Madonna Enthroned with Saints and Angels, 1502

Oil on panel

by Raffaellino del Garbo

Italian, Florentine, 1466-1524

Church Street near 18th

detail of:

Madonna and Child, 1481

Tempera and oil on panel

by Bartolomeo Vivarini

Italian,Venetian 1432-1499

Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.

Langston Hughes

detail of:

The Adoration of the Magi, ca. 1490

Oil on panel

by Bartolomeo di Giovanni

Italian, Florentine 1488-1500

Life is full of beauty. Notice it. Notice the bumble bee, the small child, and the smiling faces. Smell the rain, and feel the wind. Live your life to the fullest potential, and fight for your dreams.

Ashley Smith

detail of:

The Holy Family, ca. 1614-1617

Oil on wood panel

by Jacob Jordaens

Flemish, Antwerp 1593-1678

 

Madonna and Child with the Infant St. John the Baptist and Attending Angel, ca. 1485

Oil on panel

by Jacopo del Sellaio

Italian, Florentine ca. 1441-1493

The rain began again. It fell heavily, easily, with no meaning or intention but the fulfillment of its own nature, which was to fall and fall.

Helen Garner

Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist and St. George, ca.1514

oil on panel (transferred to pressed wood)

by Cesare da Sesto

Italian, Lombard, 1477-1523

Sunshine is delicious, rain is refreshing, wind braces us up, snow is exhilarating; there is really no such thing as bad weather, only different kinds of good weather.

John Ruskin

detail of:

Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist and St. George, ca.1514

oil on panel (transferred to pressed wood)

by Cesare da Sesto

Italian, Lombard, 1477-1523

“Do not be angry with the rain; it simply does not know how to fall upwards.”

Vladimir Nabokov

detail of:

Virgin and Child Enthroned with Angels

Oil on tempera on panel

by Master of the St. Lucy Legend

Flemish, active in Bruges the last quarter of the 15th century

 

Madonna

German ca. 1500

Wood, polychromed, with linen

“Are the days of winter sunshine just as sad for you, too? When it is misty, in the evenings, and I am out walking by myself, it seems to me that the rain is falling through my heart and causing it to crumble into ruins.”

Gustave Flaubert

Virgin and Child with Putti, ca. 1490-1495

Glazed terracotta relief

by Andrea della Robbia

Italian, Florentine, 1437-1525

 

detail of:

The Adoration of the Magi

Oil on pine panel

by Rodrigo de Osona the Elder and Assistant

Spanish, active ca. 1464-1510

“The sun did not shine. It was too wet to play. So we sat in the house. All that cold, cold, wet day.”

Dr. Seuss, The Cat in the Hat

detail of:

Madonna and Child, ca. 1400

Tempera on panel

by Tadeo di Bartolo

Italian, Sienese ca. 1362-1422

 

 

 

detail of:

The Adoration of the Shepherds

Oil on panel

Unknown Flemish Artist

Antwerp, ca. 1530

“The only noise now was the rain, pattering softly with the magnificent indifference of nature for the tangled passions of humans.”

Sherwood Smith

Virgin and Child Enthroned with Angels

Oil on tempera on panel

by Master of the St. Lucy Legend

Flemish, active in Bruges the last quarter of the 15th century

Virgin and Child, ca. 1475

Oil on panel

by Dieric Bouts and/or Workshop

Netherlands, Late 15th century

Most people, if you live in a big city, you see some form of schizophrenia every day, and it's always in the form of someone homeless. 'Look at that guy - he's crazy. He looks dangerous.' Well, he's on the streets because of mental illness. He probably had a job and a home.

Eric McCormack

detail of:

Madonna and Child with Angels ca. 1405-1410

by Lorenzodidi Bicci

Italian, Florentine ca. 1350-1427

You can spend the money on new housing for poor people and the homeless, or you can spend it on a football stadium or a golf course.

Jello Biafra

detail of:

The Nativity

Oil on pine panel

byMaster of the Retable of the Reyes Catolicos

Spanish, last quarter of the 15th century

The best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain.

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

detail of:

The Adoration of the Shepherds, ca. 1598-1599

Oil on canvas

by Joachim Antonisz. Wtewael

Dutch, 1566-1638

 

Madonna and Child, ca. 1370

Tempera on panel

by Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci

Italian, Florentine , 1339-1399

Seven out of 10 Americans are one paycheck away from being homeless.

Pras Michel

Madonna and Child with Angels, ca. 1430

Tempera on panel

by Giovanni di Marco

Italian Florentine, 1385-1437-42

 

Madonna and Child, ca. 1400

Tempera on panel

by Tadeo di Bartolo

Italian, Sienese, 1362-1422

“I always like walking in the rain, so no one can see me crying.”

Charlie Chaplin

Madonna and Child with Angels ca. 1405-1410

by Lorenzodidi Bicci

Italian, Florentine ca. 1350-1427

 

The Adoration of the Shepherds, ca. 1598-1599

Oil on canvas

by Joachim Antonisz. Wtewael

Dutch, 1566-1638

 

detail of:

Madonna and Child, ca. 1504-1505

Oil on panel

by Giovanni Battista Cima, called Cima da Conegliano

Italian, Venetian 1459-1518

Lincoln Park

The Palace of the Legion of Honor

San Francisco

Madonna and Child with Two Angels, ca. 1525

Oil on linen panel

by Studio of Pontormo (Italian, Portorme 1494-1557 Florence)

The Palace of the Legion of Honor

San Francisco

detail of:

Madonna and Child with Two Angels, ca. 1525

Oil on linen panel

by Studio of Pontormo (Italian, Portorme 1494-1557 Florence)

An old tree brought down by the storm in the Presidio Cemetery

detail of:

Madonna and Child, ca. 1570-1572

Oil on canvas

by jacopo Robusti, called Tintoretto

(Italian, Venice 1519-1594)

The Presidio Cemetery's 28,000 historic headstones are being upended for resetting. The work started in 2012, and about 16,000 markers have been reset and the sod replaced - about 500,000 square feet of new grass. The project is expected to take two more years.

Madonna and Child, ca. 1570-1572

Oil on canvas

by jacopo Robusti, called Tintoretto

(Italian, Venice 1519-1594)

The construction includes removing the headstones and digging a trench, filling it with concrete and building individual concrete boxes for each grave marker.

The headstones never leave the grave site.

This is an effort to honor those buried there by ensuring that their headstones are level and plumb, and not subject to the shifting sands of time.

detail of:

The Adoration of the Magi

Oil on pine panel

by Rodrigo de Osona the Elder and Assistant

Spanish, active ca. 1464-1510

Presidio Cemetery

Crissy Field in the Presidio and a distant Palace of Fine Arts

detail of:

Madonna and Child with Two Angels, ca. 1525

Oil on linen panel

by Studio of Pontormo (Italian, Portorme 1494-1557 Florence)

 

detail of:

The Holy Family, ca. 1614-1617

Oil on wood panel

by jacob Jordaens (Flemish, Antwerp, 1593-1678)

 

The Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist, 1626

Oil on panel

by Simon Vouet, (French 1590-1649)

 

detail of:

Virgin and Child Enthroned with Angels

Oil on tempera on panel

by Master of the St. Lucy Legend

Flemish, active in Bruges the last quarter of the 15th century

 

detail of:

The Holy Family, ca. 1614-1617

Oil on wood panel

by jacob Jordaens (Flemish, Antwerp, 1593-1678)

 

detail of:

The Adoration of the Magi

Oil on pine panel

by Rodrigo de Osona the Elder and Assistant

Spanish, active ca. 1464-1510

 

 

detail of:

The Holy Family, ca. 1614-1617

Oil on wood panel

by jacob Jordaens (Flemish, Antwerp, 1593-1678)

 

 

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