Sunday, November 12, 2017

Picturing the Parables: The Wise and the Foolish Virgins

The Wise and the Foolish Virgins
From a Picture Bible
French (St. Omer), c. 1190-1200
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek
MS KB 76 F 5, fol. 31v
“Jesus told his disciples this parable:
"The kingdom of heaven will be like ten virgins
who took their lamps and went out to meet the bridegroom.
Five of them were foolish and five were wise.
The foolish ones, when taking their lamps,
brought no oil with them,
but the wise brought flasks of oil with their lamps.
Since the bridegroom was long delayed,
they all became drowsy and fell asleep.
At midnight, there was a cry,
'Behold, the bridegroom! Come out to meet him!'
Then all those virgins got up and trimmed their lamps.
The foolish ones said to the wise,
'Give us some of your oil,
for our lamps are going out.'
But the wise ones replied,
'No, for there may not be enough for us and you.
Go instead to the merchants and buy some for yourselves.'
While they went off to buy it,
the bridegroom came
and those who were ready went into the wedding feast with him.
Then the door was locked.
Afterwards the other virgins came and said,
'Lord, Lord, open the door for us!'
But he said in reply,
'Amen, I say to you, I do not know you.'
Therefore, stay awake,
for you know neither the day nor the hour."
(Matthew 25:1-13, Gospel for the Thirty-Second Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year A)

The Gospel reading for this Sunday, the thirty-second Sunday in Ordinary Time in the Year A cycle, is the parable of the wise and foolish virgins.  In it the Gospel writer, Matthew, is issuing a warning for those with ears to hear.  This rather amusing story seems on the surface to describe a situation akin to one during an emergency in the modern world, in which one neighbor discovers that he is out of batteries and begs his more prudent neighbor to give him some of his.

However, what Matthew is actually describing is the end of things, both at the personal level of each person’s life and at the universal level of the end of the world.   The season of Advent is approaching, with its reminders of the end of time and its urgent calls for personal change of heart and mind.  The last sentence today reminds us to “stay awake, for you know neither the day not the hour”.    This is, indeed, the theme of the next few weeks as the liturgical year ends and a new one begins.  We must "stay awake".  

Hopefully, each person will imitate the wise virgins, who were ready when the bridegroom arrived, and not the foolish ones who found themselves wanting at the decisive moment and, arriving late to the party, were denied admission.  For the Bridegroom is Christ and the wedding feast is eternal life and the oil for the lamps represents our level of preparation for the moment of our death.
 
Master of Edward IV, The Wise and the Foolish Virgins
From the Vita Christi
Flemish (Bruges), c. 1487-1490
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 894, fol. 233v
Here the wise virgins are shown already in the banqueting house, with their lamps alight, while the improvident foolish ones
find themselves locked out.


Artists have been depicting this parable since medieval times, but over time there has been a subtle change in what the works of art are saying.  In the earlier centuries, the women are simply presented as having lighted lamps or having lamps that are empty of oil.  Quite often the division is reinforced by showing the wise virgins wearing crowns, while the foolish ones are bare headed.  Also, the lamps of the foolish are frequently shown pointing down, indicating that they are empty.

 
The Wise and the Foolish Virgins
Single Leaf from a Psalter
English (Canterbury), c. 1155-1160
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 521v, Zone 1


The Foolish Virgins
German, c. 1245
Magdeburg, Cathedral
The foolish virgins lament their empty lamps.  I particularly appreciate the gesture of the second from the left.  


The Wise Virgins
German, c. 1245
Magdeburg, Cathedral
Meanwhile, the wise virgins appear to be happy with their situation.



Christ with the Wise and the Foolish Virgins
From a Bible
Byzantine (Constantinople), c. 1250
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Grec 54, fol. 91r



Christ in Heaven with the Wise and the Foolish Virgins and a Bishop Preaching
From the Bestiaire divin by Guillaume le Clerc
English, c. 1250-1300
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 14969, fol. 17r




The Wise and the Foolish Virgins
From the Speculum humanae salvationis
Swiss (Basle), 15th Century
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 512, fol. 42r



Claes Brouwer, the Alexander Master, The Wise and the Foolish Virgins
From a History Bible
Dutch (Utrecht), c. 1430
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek
MS KB 78 D 38 II, fol. 184v



Hektor Mullich and Georg Mullich, The Wise and the Foolish Virgins
From s German Textual Miscellany
German, c. 1450-1460
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 782,fol. 75r



The Foolish Virgins Beg for Oil from the Wise Virgins
From the Egmont Breviary
Dutch (Utrecht), c. 1435-1445
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 87, fol. 331r



Jean Colombe, The Wise and the Foolish Virgins
From the Vita Jesu Christi by Ludolph of Saxony
French (Bourges), c. 1475-1500
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 178, fol. 174v



However, in the fifteenth century, artists began to focus more on the implications of the story for the foolish virgins, those who were unready for the arrival of the bridegroom.  In a page from a collection of manuscript pages associated with the Carthusian order now in the British Library and dated to around 1425, we see the bridegroom, Christ, in His castle with His bride (the Church).  Angels lead the wise virgins, with their lighted lamps, to heaven, while one of the angels bars the foolish, with their empty lamps, with a sword. 



The Wise and the Foolish Virgins
From The Carthusian Miscellany
English, c. 1425-1475
London, British Library
MS Additional 37049, fol. 80v


Other illustrators picked up the same theme.


The Wise and the Foolish Virgins
From the Speculum humane salvationis
Unknown Origin, First Half of the 15th Century
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 9585, fol. 46r



Master of Edward IV, The Foolish Virgins
From the Speculum humanae salvationis
Flemish (Bruges), c. 1485
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Francais 6275, fol. 42r



These implications are made even more explicit in a Flemish painting from about 1450 which combines the story of the wise and foolish virgins with the Last Judgment.  Each group stands in front of the group to which they will belong.  The wise virgins are placed below the group of the saved and are being guided by an angel to reach that group.  The foolish virgins are placed in front of the damned and turn sadly away as they realize where they must go.


Last Judgment With the Parable of the Wise and the Foolish Virgins
Flemish, c. 1450-1480
Berlin, Staatliche Museen



A 1469 manuscript depicting the wise and foolish virgins flanking a scene of the Crucifixion is a bit more ambiguous, implying that the foolish ones might still have a chance at salvation through the Blood of Christ.


Workshop of Diebold Lauber, Crucifixion with the Wise and the Foolish Virgins
From the Tale of Barlaam and Josaphat
Alsatian, 1469
Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum
MS Ludwig XV, fol. 90v



An engraving made by Philips Galle after a design by Pieter Bruegel the Elder sometime around 1550 continues the theme of the parable related to the end of times, but also looks forward to what would become the central theme of painters in the future.  In the foreground the two groups spend their waiting time in very different activities.  The wise diligently work hard at activities related to the wool trade.  They card and spin and embroider, while their foolish counterparts spend their time idly in dancing and playing music, while their lamps lie empty.  In the middle ground an angel appears holding a banner which says "Behold, the bridegroom is coming!   Go out to meet him!” (Matthew 25:6).  In the background Christ, the Bridegroom, welcomes the souls of the wise to heaven, while on the other side of the image, the souls of the foolish face a closed door.  On the side of the steps leading to the closed door are the words “I do not know you” (Matthew 25:12).  At the bottom of the image are the words with which the foolish begged the wise for some oil, “Give us some of your oil, for our lamps are going out”, as well as the reply of the wise “'No, for there may not be enough for us and you”.  (Matthew 25:8-9)


Phillips Galle after Pieter Bruegel the Elder, The Parable of the Wise and the Foolish Virgins
Flemish, c. 1550-1563
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Bruegel’s reference to the end of times is a bit of an outlier at this point, for around 1500 the favored scene had changed for artists.  They no longer pointed openly to the eternal implications of the parable, but seemed to assume that it was understood.  Instead, they began to focus first on the acceptance or rejection of each group by the Bridegroom and then on the ways in which the two groups spent the hours during which they waited for the Bridegroom. 





Lambert Zutman, called Lambert Suavius III, The Parable of the Wise Virgins
Flemish, c. 1530
Paris, Musée du Louvre, Cabinet des dessins


Ceramic Plaque with the Parable of the Wise and the Foolish Virgins
Austrian, c. 1550-1600
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts



Jacopo Tintoretto, The Wise and the Foolish Virgins
Italian, c. 1546
Banbury, Warwickshire (UK), Upton House
The foolish plead for admission and are refused by the Bridegroom/Christ, who stands looking down from the balcony.


These themes were particularly popular in the Netherlands, both Southern (under Spanish rule at the time and now known as Belgium) and Northern (provinces which had broken away from Spain and had formed the Dutch Republic).  Several families of artists made this one of their frequent themes, such as the Francken family and the Lisaert family.



Jan Collaert I After Ambrosius Francken, The Wise and the Foolish Virgins
Thesaurus Novi Testamenti elegantissimis iconibus expressus continens historias atque miracula do[mi] ni nostri Iesu Christi
Flemish, 1585
London,  British Museum
On the left side of the image, the wise virgins diligently concentrate on keeping their lamps filled with oil as they wait.  On the right side, the foolish spend their waiting time in idle pursuits, their lamps empty and time forgotten.  In the background, Francken still included the ultimate fate of each group.  The wise welcomed by the Risen Christ, while the foolish face a closed door.



Hieronymous Francken II, The Wise and the Foolish Virgins
Flemish, c. 1600
Private Collection
In this image the foolish are given more prominence than the wise, who remain in the right background.  Once senses that this Francken may have felt more friendly toward the foolish virgins than usual as their pursuits are given more of the picture surface.



Hieronymous Francken II, Parable of the Wise and the Foolish Virgins
Flemish, c. 1616
St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum



Pieter Lisaert III, The Foolish Virgins and the Wise Virgins
Flemish, c. 1590-1600
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado



Pieter Lisaert IV, The Parable of the Wise and the Foolish Virgins
Flemish, c. 1600
Private Collection


Jan Saenredam, Parable of the Wise and the Foolish Virgins
Dutch, 1605
London, British Museum
While the Bridegroom welcomes the first three wise the last two tell the foolish to go to the merchants for oil.



Jan Saenradam, The Foolish Virgins Refused Entry
Dutch, 1606
Chicago, Art Institute
The foolish return from their buying trip to find the doors closed and the terrible words of the Bridegroom issuing from the window above it "Amen dico vobis, nescio vos".  In the far right background we can see the scene of welcome created by Saenradam in the engraving above.



Other artists depicted the moment of conflict in which the foolish begged the wise for some of their oil and the prudent wise refused to share in case they too would be unready for the arrival of the Bridegroom.


Harmen Janszoon Muller After Gerard van Groeningen, The Wise Tell the Foolish to Get Oil from the Merchants
Dutch, c. 1565-1572
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum



In France the subject was treated in a new way by the engraver Abraham Bosse, who published a well-known series of engravings called Les Vierges sages et les vierges folles in 1635.  In this series Bosse published scenes showing the manner in which each group spent the time awaiting the Bridegroom.  The foolish virgins play cards, or play musical instruments or study their reflections in the mirror.  They snooze before the fire.



Abraham Bosse, The Foolish Virgins Conversing
From Les Vierges sages et les vierges folles
French, c. 1635
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art



Abraham Bosse, The Foolish Virgins Sleeping
From Les Vierges sages et les vierges folles
French, c. 1635
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art



Meanwhile, the wise virgins spend their time in earnest discussion of religious topics and are, therefore, alert to the arrival of the Bridegroom.


Abraham Bosse, The Wise Virgins Conversing
From Les Vierges sages et les vierges folles
French, c. 1635
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art



In another image from the series, the two groups meet and the wise refuse to give their oil to the foolish, telling them to go away and buy it.

Abraham Bosse, The Wise Virgins Refuse Oil to the Foolish Virgins
From Les Vierges sages et les vierges folles
French, c. 1635
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art
It is interesting that Bosse underlines the differences between the groups in terms of fashion.  The wise virgins are modestly dressed, the shoulders and bosoms of their dresses are covered by large, plain white linen collars.  The foolish follow the current court fashion of exposed shoulders and low cut decolletage.  


While the foolish are trying to make up for their oversight, the Bridegroom arrives and welcomes the wise to the wedding feast.


Abraham Bosse, The Wise Virgins Before Christ
From Les Vierges sages et les vierges folles
French, c. 1635
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art



The final image in the series shows the disconsolate foolish virgins, returned from their errand, only to find that they are locked out of the banqueting hall.


Abraham Bosse, The Foolish Virgins Denied Admission
From Les Vierges sages et les vierges folles
French, c. 1635
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art




These interpretations remain the standard images associated with this parable until well into the nineteenth century.


Robert de Baudous After Pieter Feddes van Harlingen, The Wise and the Foolish Virgins
Dutch, c. 1650
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum



Domenico Piola, The Wise and the Foolish Virgins
Italian, c. 1680-1700
Edinburgh, Royal Scottish Academy of Art and Architecture 
On Loan to the Scottish National Museums


Caspar Luyken, The Wise Virgins and the Bridegroom
Dutch, 1708
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum



Godfried Schalcken, The Wise and the Foolish Virgins
Dutch, c. 1700
 Munich, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Alte Pinakothek



Jan Luyken, The Foolish Virgins Beg for Oil from the Wise
Dutch, 1712
Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum



Francesco Zuccarelli, The Wise Virgins Are Ready to Greet the Bridegroom
Italian, 1728
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art



Francesco Fontebasso, The Bridegroom and the Foolish Virgins
Italian, c. 1760
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado



William Blake, The Parable of the Wise and the Foolish Virgins
English, c. 1799-1800
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art



William Etty, The Foolish Virgins
English, c. 1830-1849
Dundee (UK), University of Dundee Fine Arts Collections



Wilhelm von Schadow, The Parable of the Wise and the Foolish Virgins
German, c. 1850-1862
 Frankfurt-am-Main,  Städel Museum



The last few images made, shortly before 1900, have a different outlook.  They tend to depict the scene stripped of its relation to the end of the world and are, instead, more focused on the natural level of the story.


James Tissot, The  Wise Virgins
French, 1886-1894
New York, Brooklyn Museum



James Tissot, The Foolish Virgins
French, 1886-1894
New York, Brooklyn Museum
In the pictures by Tissot we see the wise virgins who, though they have fallen asleep, have sufficient oil to keep their lamps brightly lit and the foolish virgins rushing back to the house with the oil they have purchased.  We know they will be too late, but they do not.




William John Wainwright, The Parable of the Wise and the Foolish Virgins
English, 1899
Birmingham (UK), Birmingham Museums Trust

Wainwright presents his picture from the point of view of the Bridegroom.  The wise virgins are shown with their lighted lamps and the additional jug of oil they had prudently brought with them.  In the back, the foolish react to the discovery that they are unprepared for His arrival.


Interest in the story has continued into the twentieth- and twenty-first centuries, although interpreted in ways that represent the era in which they were made, being more abstract than the earlier images.  However, copyright issues prevent me from including some of these images.

© M. Duffy, 2017, additional images added 2023.

Excerpts from the Lectionary for Mass for Use in the Dioceses of the United States of America, second typical edition © 2001, 1998, 1997, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Inc., Washington, DC. Used with permission. All rights reserved. No portion of this text may be reproduced by any means without permission in writing from the copyright owner.




Saturday, November 4, 2017

Leonardo’s Rediscovered Salvator Mundi

Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator Mundi
Italian, c. 1500
Private Collection
UPDATE:  On November 15, 2017 this picture was sold at auction at Christie's New York for four times the anticipated price, or $400,000,000 (plus the buyers premium).  This is the highest price ever paid for a work of art.  At this point, the name of the buyer has not been released.

November 4, 2017
Right now, in midtown New York, just half a block from Saks Fifth Avenue, what is probably the last Leonardo da Vinci painting still in private hands is on exhibition, but only until early afternoon on November 15.  At 7 PM that same evening it will be auctioned by Christie’s and is expected to sell for upwards of $100,000,000 (that’s right, one hundred million dollars), according to reports in the press. 

The story of how this remarkable and beautiful painting comes to be lodged temporarily on West 49th Street is one of the most interesting stories of the last several decades.  

Since Leonardo’s own time it has been known that he made a painting called Salvator Mundi (Savior of the World).  At some point following his death in 1519 the painting made its way into the famous collection of King Charles I of England and was recorded in the inventories of the royal palaces.  After the King lost the English Civil War (1641-1649) and was beheaded, his collection was sold off to anyone with the money to pay.  In 1986 I did some research in those inventories, now held as part of the Public Records of England, and was amazed at the number of famous paintings, now dispersed worldwide, that were once part of that collection. 
Wenceslaus Hollar, Salvator Mundi
Engraving after the painting by Leonardo da Vinci
Czech, 1650
Windsor Castle, Royal Collection

The painting was catalogued for the sale as “A peece of Christ done by Leonardo at 30- 00- 00”.1 It was sold on October 23, 1651 as part of settlement for a debt owed by the Crown.  

When Charles’ son, also Charles (Charles II), was restored as King in 1660, Parliament passed a bill requiring that any possessions of his father that had been purchased in the sales and were still in the country should be returned to the Crown.  The painting of the Salvator Mundi was duly returned and placed in the King’s private quarters.  

On Charles II’s death, it presumably passed to his brother, who became King James II.  When James was forced to flee England during the Glorious Revolution of 1688, the picture is believed to have passed to others, possibly through James’ mistress, Catherine Sedley, Countess of Dorchester.  

It is presumed to have passed by inheritance to her descendants, one of whom sold it in a 1763 auction for £2 s10.  It then passed down through the family of the person who bought it in 1763 until 1900, when it was sold again.   By the time of this sale its previous history and attribution had been forgotten, and it was attributed to Bernardino Luini.  

It was sold again in 1958 as a “copy after Boltraffio” for £45, after which it disappeared.

When it reappeared again it was in the sale of an American collection in 2005.  It was bought at that time by an American art dealer, who suspected that it might be more than it seemed.  Careful examination and restoration by the leading conservator of the Samuel H. Kress Program in Paintings Conservation at my graduate alma mater, the Institute of Fine Arts of NYU, revealed the reasons for its loss of attribution and confirmed that it was, indeed, the work of the master.

Photograph from 1904 showing the picture with the
disfiguring overpainting.
Over time the wooden panel on which Leonardo had painted the Salvator Mundi had warped and split, with a crack running from top to bottom.  To disguise this the panel had been thinned and glued to another form of support and the gap created by the crack had been filled with various materials, which only aggravated the situation and also resulted in a two-fold new problem:  loss of original pigment and clumsy overpainting to disguise these problems.  When the overpainting was removed it could be seen that, despite the damage, the remaining original surface was in good condition and of much higher quality than the attributions suggested. 

Examination by x-ray and microscopic examination of cross-sections of the paint have pretty much proved conclusively that this is the original painting, recorded in the royal inventories, and not one of the numerous copies.  Most decisive have been the finding of numerous pentimenti through study of the x-rays.  

Hans Memling, Maria Portinari
Detail showing close up of head and neck
Flemish, c. 1470
New  York, Metropolitan Museum of Art







Pentimenti are areas in which artists made corrections as they rethink the design even after having begun the painting.   One famous example, that is evident even to the unaided eye, is found in the portrait of Maria Portinari by
Hans Memling.  Her necklace was initially painted higher up on her neck.  One can easily see the original location because the black pigment of the original line of black beads has come through the flesh tones with which the
artist overpainted them.

Pentimenti are clear signs that a work in which they are found is an original and not a copy of someone else’s work.   While copyists may make differing decisions about the colors of clothing, background, etc. they almost never make changes in the basic design of the work, so copies are generally free of these telltale pentimenti.  I was initially skeptical about this picture, as I usually am about such “discoveries”.  However, the evidence of the pentimenti went a long way toward convincing me that this just might be a real Leonardo.

Evidence from the paint layers is also striking.  The surface is built up in several layers, arguing a great deal of time and effort was involved in creating the surface we see.  Again, this is not typically the sign of a copy, but of an original.  Further, the blue pigment used for Christ’s robe is the very expensive ground lapis lazuli, hardly the blue pigment that would have been used by a copyist!

Then there is the style of the work, especially the style and handling of the face, the hands and the exquisitely painted orb of crystal.  They looked good in pictures, but in person they leave little doubt.  
Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator Mundi
Close up of face

The strangely veiled, elusively soft impact of the face and eyes, the carefully highlighted curling hair, the beautifully painted blessing hand, emerging out of a highly detailed sleeve (for which an autograph drawing exists at Windsor Castle), 

Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator Mundi
Detail of the blessing hand and arm.
Leonardo da Vinci, Drawing of a Sleeve
Italian, c. 1500
Windsor Castle, Royal Collection






















and the gorgeous, minutely observed, rock crystal orb were entirely convincing.  This beautiful painting is indeed by Leonardo da Vinci.

Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator Mundi, Detail of the Orb

I strongly urge everyone with any interest in the work of Leonardo who is in the New York area or who can get to the city to go see this picture while it awaits its auction date.  You may never again have the chance to see it this close or perhaps to see it at all.  One hopes that the buyer may be an institution that will allow public access to it, but there is no guarantee that it will. 

The painting is on exhibition in a specially prepared gallery at Christie’s at 20 West 49th Street, opposite the Rockefeller Plaza ice skating rink, between Fifth and Sixth Avenues.  This gallery has been allotted its own well-guarded entrance.  It is also well-guarded on the inside of the darkened gallery in which it sits. 

On the way to it, one passes a related work that will be included in the same auction.  This is the famous “Sixty Last Suppers” painting by Andy Warhol.  Dating to 1986, shortly before Warhol’s premature death, it is a large canvas composed of ten six-picture columns, each segment of which is a small, black, grey and white silk-screened image of Leonardo’s famous Last Supper.  Each small image is slightly different from the others.  The repetition is classic Warhol, while the subject matter reflects the more meditative works of Warhol’s last few years. 
Andy Warhol. Sixty Last Suppers
American, 1986

It is well-known that Leonardo’s restless, experimental approach to painting had tragic results for his Last Supper, which began to flake off the wall shortly after it was painted.  What remains today is, quite simply, a ruin.  It is difficult to imagine what it might have looked like when just completed.  The presence of Warhol’s tribute in the room next to the Salvator Mundi reminds us that in it we may catch a glimpse of what the figure of Christ in that newly completed wall painting may have looked like. 
Leonardo da Vinci, Last Supper
Detail of the Figure of Christ
Italisn, c. 1492-1498
Milan, Santa Maria delle Grazie
Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator Mundi
Head and Blessing Hand of Christ
Italian, c. 1500


























The exhibition is open weekdays and Saturdays from 10 AM to 5 PM and on the two remaining Sundays from 1 PM to 5 PM.  On the date of the sale, Wednesday, November 15, it will be open from 10 AM to 2 PM.  The sale will follow at 7 PM.

© M. Duffy, 2017

1.  For this quote and other information about the painting, its presumed provenance and restoration please see the Christie exhibition catalogue:  Leonardo da Vinci, Salvator Mundi, Christie’s New York, 2017.  A PDF copy can be found at http://www.christies.com/zmags?ZmagsPublishID=7baedae9.  A printed copy can be ordered from Christie’s at https://catalogues.christies.com/christies-shop/Product.aspx?offerId=51568&sId=82 and is priced at $50.00.