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A series of frescoes by Giotto (1266–1337) in the Scrovegni Chapel in Padua follow the life of Christ. In this image, Mary is clearly the dominant figure. Her strength as she holds Jesus on her lap is immediately conveyed. Giotto uses monumental rock forms to direct the viewer’s attention to the Madonna and Child. Joseph is deemphasized on the right side of the composition: he turns away in conversation with a member of the entourage while the guiding angel looks directly at Mary. Giotto portrays Mary as protector of the Christ child and, by extension, of the church. 

Artist, illustrator, and muralist Rita Corbin (1930–2011) brought together her passion for the arts and for justice when Dorothy Day asked her to provide illustrations for the Catholic Worker. She went on to illustrate other books and periodicals and used her artwork to support the message of such organizations as the War Resisters League while keeping ties with Catholic Worker communities. According to one account of her life, she was once asked in an interview, “Do you believe the artist has a social responsibility?” She responded, “Everyone has a social responsibility.”

When Pope Sixtus IV commissioned the building of the Sistine Chapel in the papal residence, he called on Cosimo Rosselli (1439–1507) to paint several frescoes on the long north wall. The Sermon on the Mount and Healing of the Leper is iconographically traditional: in delivering the sermon on the mount, Jesus is the new Moses, delivering a new law from a mountain top. The apostles in Rosselli’s composition stand in rapt attention, but the people in the foreground vary both in their dress and attention span.