The Litany of Loreto dates back to the Middle Ages and includes over 50 titles of Mary. In 1912, Italian artist Ezio Anichini released his illustrations of the 46 titles that were in use at the time. Of those, an anonymous person made 12 or 13 into needlework. Anichini's style is Art Noveau, or Stile Liberty in Italian. The sticher faithfully recreated Anichini's precise yet romantic, emotionally engaging images. Anichini is perhaps our favorite non-museum Catholic artist, and the embroidery adds an intriguing element of color to his designs, besides being masterpieces in their own right.

St. John Henry Newman said of the title Mirror of Justice that "justice" in this usage can be taken as "all virtues at once, a perfect, virtuous state of soul-righteousness, or moral perfection; so that it answers very nearly to what is meant by sanctity." Mary reflects like a mirror the holiness of Jesus, who himself is justice.
(Sources: CorneliaConnellyLibrary.org & needlenthread.com & www.cardinaljohnhenrynewman.com)

We spent a lot of time restoring this image, removing the flaws from the photograph and lightening it a bit to bring out the richness and contrast of the colors and the precision of the needlework. We look forward to the time when the Royal School of Needlework, who hold and preserve these masterpieces, release perfect photographs of them to a grateful world. Until that time, the restoration work we have performed, not the imperfect source photograph, is copyrighted under U.S. copyright law.

** IMPORTANT ** THE IMAGE IS SMALLER THAN THE PAPER! There is a white border of about 0.5" inch for 5x7", 1.3" for 8.5x11", or 1.6" for 11x14" pictures. All Approx! Fine art printers do this because the images are almost never the same rectangular ratio of the standard paper sizes. It also gives the prints a finished look, and lets them look good in a frame without a matt.

- Acid-free paper
- Archival pigments, rated to last for generations.
- Cardboard backer
- Above story of the art
- Enclosed in a tight-fitting, crystal clear bag.

Thanks for your interest!

Thanks!
Sue & John

"In order to communicate the message entrusted to her by Christ, the Church needs art." ~ St. Pope John Paul II

Original image is out-of-copyright. Descriptive text and image alterations (hence the whole new image) © by Sue Kouma Johnson - CatholicArtAndJewelry.