Sunday, April 29, 2012

Miracles of St. Peter – The Brancacci Chapel


Masaccio, St. Peter Healing With His Shadow
Italian, 1426-1427
Florence, Santa Maria del Carmine, Brancacci Chapel
Peter, filled with the Holy Spirit, said:
"Leaders of the people and elders:
If we are being examined today
about a good deed done to a cripple,
namely, by what means he was saved,
then all of you and all the people of Israel should know
that it was in the name of Jesus Christ the Nazorean
whom you crucified, whom God raised from the dead;
in his name this man stands before you healed.
He is the stone rejected by you, the builders,
which has become the cornerstone.
There is no salvation through anyone else,
nor is there any other name under heaven
given to the human race by which we are to be saved."
(Acts 4:8-12) First Reading for the Fourth Sunday of Easter Year B)1

Since the liturgical reforms of Vatican Council II, the Catholic Church follows a three-year cycle (Years A, B and C) of readings on Sundays (and a two year cycle on weekdays). This means that, with a very few exceptions, the readings for a given Sunday rotate from year to year. However, there is sometimes a relationship between readings over the three-year cycle. The Fourth Sunday of Easter, which occurs this year on April 29th, is a case in point. It is known as “Good Shepherd Sunday” and, in each phase of the cycle, features a Gospel reading that is drawn from different portions of Chapter 10 of the Gospel of John. This year (2012) the passage is the actual “I am the Good Shepherd” portion (John 10:11-18).

During the Easter Season, also, the first of the three weekly readings is drawn from the Acts of the Apostles. But, unlike the Gospel reading for the Fourth Sunday of Easter, the first reading varies by year within the cycle. In Year B (2012) the reading for this Fourth Sunday is a continuation of the readings from Acts that have been read at the daily Masses during the past few weeks. Acts Chapters 3, 4 and 5 focus on a series of events in the life of St. Peter and the other apostles at the very beginning of the Church.
Masaccio, View of Brancacci Chapel

During the years 1425-1427 these events from the life of St. Peter formed the basis for one of the seminal artistic projects that mark the beginning of the transition of Italian Renaissance art from the still medieval Quattrocento toward the pinnacle of the High Renaissance.

This project was the decoration of a chapel, financed by the Brancacci family, in the church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence by two artists with the first name of Thomas: Tommaso di Cristoforo Fini, known as Masolino da Panicale, and Tommaso di Ser Giovanni de Simone, better known as Masaccio. 2
Masolino, View of Brancacci Chapel

The contribution of the older artist, Masolino, is limited. He began the project, with Masaccio as his assistant, but abandoned it for other work. From 1426 Masaccio carried on alone. The majority of the work in the chapel is his. However, he too was forced to abandon his work in 1427 when he was called to work in Rome, where he died, at the early age of 27, in 1428. The final paintings were completed by Filippino Lippi much later in the century.

The subject of the Gospel reading for today (see above) is the healing of a cripple by St. Peter. The illustration of this scene in the Brancacci Chapel is the work of Masolino and it is interesting as a comparison with a similar subject (the Raising of the Son of Theophilus) by Masaccio.
Masolino, Healing of the Cripple
Italian, 1425-1426
Florence, Santa Maria del Carmine, Brancacci Chapel

Masolino, detail of Healing of the
Cripple

Masolino’s painting belongs to the still Gothic style that continued into the middle years of the 15th century. The figures are graceful and elegant, painted as though in silhouette against the background. They seem flat and the folds of their draperies are soft, graceful and more the idea of a fold than the reality of one. The clothing of the witness figures, who are dressed in contemporary, 15th century attire, is particularly telling. The emphasis is on line and pattern, not volume. Indeed, in the left of the two men, seen strolling in conversation to the right of the saints, we see the use of pattern at its most extreme.  His body is completely eradicated by the heavily patterned bell-like shape of his cloak, to the point that "he" becomes merely a patterned bell with legs and a head!

Masaccio, Raising of the Son of Theophilus and St. Peter Enthroned
Italian, 1426-1427
Florence, Santa Maria del Carmine, Brancacci Chapel
Masaccio’s work, on the other hand, seems to come from a different world. His figures are sturdy and solid, existing in three dimensions rather than two. Their obvious volume is created by the play of light and shadow. The clothing in which they are dressed falls in heavy folds. The contemporarily dressed figures in his work appear to be portraits of actual people, including Florentine civic fathers and Carmelite friars, who staffed the church in which the chapel is located.
Detail - left side group
Raising of Theophilus
Detail - center group
Raising of Theophilus
Detail - Carmelite Friars
St. Peter Enthroned
Masaccio’s work at the Brancacci Chapel forms a bridge between the still-medieval aesthetic of the early 15th century and the work of the great masters of the High Renaissance. His realistic, solid figures challenged his fellow painters to imitate and go further. For the rest of the century Florentine artists and visitors from other cities strove to incorporate these characteristics into their own work. Finally, at the end of the century it had its full flowering in the work of Raphael and Michelangelo.

1. http://www.usccb.org/bible/readings/042912.cfm

2. You can pay an almost virtual visit to the Brancacci Chapel at http://www.wga.hu/tours/brancacc/index.html

© M. Duffy, 2012

Saturday, April 7, 2012

Meditation on the Passion – In the Tomb

Andrea Mantegna, Lamentation Over the Dead Christ
Italian, ca. 1483
Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera

From the late afternoon of Good Friday until the evening of Holy Saturday the Church keeps prayerful, quiet vigil. The tabernacles are empty, the altars are bare, no Mass is celebrated. We remember the second day (from sundown to sundown) of the Passion, the day on which Jesus’ body lies in the tomb. We ponder the sacrifice and await what we know is the joyful outcome. 

Artists have done this also. They have wondered, as we do, about what was happening on that second day. Taking their guide from the phrase in the Apostles Creed “He descended into Hell” some have imagined Jesus freeing Adam, Eve and the righteous ancestors from their bondage in Limbo. Others have imagined the Body of Jesus simply lying in the tomb. Still others have imagined the Body of Jesus tended by angels, who console and prepare Him for the Resurrection. Last year we looked at the first of these.1 This year we will look at the second and third images.

Probably the most astonishing image of the second of these types, the Dead Christ, comes from the brush of Andrea Mantegna, one of the great north Italian painters of the Quattrocento. Often called the Lamentation over the Dead Christ, it shows the body of Jesus, depicted in excruciating detail, in extreme foreshortening, with the nail-pierced feet immediately before our eyes. It is barely a Lamentation, receiving the title only because of the partial inclusion of two people, a man and a woman, at the extreme left edge. The woman is sometimes identified as Mary, but I am doubtful about this. Rather, I think these are two older people of Mantegna’s era and not the richest of his contemporaries either. The woman is shown wiping her eyes, the other figure (presumably a man) is barely visible in profile. This startling image, combining the 1st-century corpse with 15th-century people, still startles us as it must have startled his contemporaries. 

This image, not idealized, detailed, even brutal, became a model for other artists to follow. And, although it was never a popular image, there were followers. Among them were other artists with a realistic, almost scientific bent: Carpaccio, Hans Holbein the Younger, Philippe de Champaigne, Giuseppe Sammartino and others.

In these images we are presented with “just the facts”, a dead body, a cadaver.

Carpaccio
Dead Christ
Italian, c.1520
Berlin, Gemäldegalerie der Staatliche Museen zu Berliln

Hans Holbein the Younger, The Dead Christ in the Tomb
German, 1521
Basel, Kunstmuseum

Zacharias Hegewald, The Dead Christ in the Tomb
German, c. 1630
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum

Philippe de Champaigne, The Dead Christ
French, Prior to 1654
Paris, Musée du Louvre

Giuseppe Sammartino, Dead Christ in a Shroud
Italian, 1753
Naples, Church of Santa Maria della Pieta dei Sangro

Eduard Adrian Dusssek. The Dead Christ in the Tomb
Slovak, 1873
Vienna, Belvedere Museum

Wilhelm Truebner, Christ in the Tomb
German, 1874
Hamburg, Hamburger Kunsthalle

Jean-Jacques Henner, Jesus in the Tomb
French, 1879
Paris, Musée d'Orsay


James Tissot, Jesus in the Sepulchre
French, 1886-1894
New York, Brooklyn Museum

Henri Levi, Dead Christ
French, c. 1893
Villefranche-sur-Saone, MuséPaul Din

Alexandre Charpentier, Covered Christ
French, 1895
Paris, Musée d'Orsay



In the third type, the Dead Christ tended by angels, we see something very different. These images have a deep relationship with the Man of Sorrows image, especially the form of the Man of Sorrows in which Jesus is supported by another person. But, in this variation, the humans have been replaced by angels.

The angels are sometimes sad and sorrowing, sometimes busy working on preparation for the Resurrection. They support and prepare His physical Body for its new, glorified existence.

Giovanni Bellini, Dead Christ Supported by  Angels
Italian, ca. 1474
Rimini, Pinacoteca Comunale
Not surprisingly, Venetian artists, like Bellini, were among the first to adapt the Man of Sorrows image to that of
the Dead Christ supported by angels.

Girolamo da Treviso, Dead Christ Supported by Two Angels
Italian, c. 1475-1485
Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera

Girolamo da Treviso, Dead Christ Supported by Two Angels
Italian, c. 1475-1485
Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera

Pedro Berruguete, Dead Christ with Two Angels
Spanish, 1480
Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera

Dead Christ Mourned by Angels
Italian, 16th Century
Rome, Pinacoteca della Basilica di San Paolo fuori le mura

Rosso Fiorentino, Dead Christ Supported by Angels
Italian, 1524-1526
Boston, Museum of Fine Arts
Rosso portrayed a typically Mannerist image of a contorted, unstable body barely supported by the angels.

Leandro Bassano, Dead Christ Mourned by Angels
Italian, c. 1580
Rome, Galleria Colonna

Tintorett, The Dead Christ Adored by Doges Pietro Lando  and Marcantonio Trevisan
Italian, c. 1580s
Venice, Palazzo Ducale

Veronese, Dead Christ Supported by Two Angels
Italian, c. 1587-1589
Berlin, Gemäldegalerie der Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Alessandro Allori, Dead Christ with Two Angels
Italian, ca. 1600
Budapest, National Museum
This tiny painting, painted on copper, is a bridge between the "scientific" Dead Christ and the
Dead Christ with Angels.  Here the angels tenderly minister to the Body of Christ, preparing it for its
new role. 

Dead Christ Supported by Angels
German, c. 1600-1625
 London, Victoria and Albert Museum

Abraham Janssen van Nuyssen, Dead Christ in the Tomb with Two Angels
Flemish, c. 1610
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Guercino, Angels Mourning the Dead Christ
Italian, 1618
London, National Gallery of Art


Alonso Cano, The Dead Christ Supported by an Angel
Spanish, 1646-1652
Madrid, Museo Nacional del Prado

Edouard Manet, Dead Christ With Angels
French, 1864
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

____________________________
1.  See also "O Key of David!  Come, break down the walls of death" at http://imaginemdei.blogspot.com/2011/12/o-key-of-david.html

© M. Duffy, 2012, 2018

Friday, April 6, 2012

Meditation on the Passion – The Man of Sorrows

Michele Giambono, Man of Sorrows Adored By Saint Francis of Assisi
Italian, ca. 1430
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art


“See, my servant shall prosper,
he shall be raised high and greatly exalted.
Even as many were amazed at him—
so marred were his features,
beyond that of mortals
his appearance, beyond that of human beings—
So shall he startle many nations,
kings shall stand speechless;
For those who have not been told shall see,
those who have not heard shall ponder it.”
(Isaiah 52:13-15)
Excerpt from the First Reading for Good Friday Liturgy of the Passion of the Lord 



Among the many images that evoke the Passion the one that is probably the most shocking to our modern eyes is that of the Man of Sorrows. In fact, even among Catholics it is now little known, having been supplanted long ago by other images, such as the Sacred Heart, or more recently, by the Divine Mercy. I confess that I, myself, had never seen it prior to my second year in graduate school and, at first sight, I found it extremely shocking. Yet, it was once one of the best known and most wide spread of all visual meditations on the Passion.






The Man of Sorrows image has many variations and relationships to other images. Interpretation of these relationships is extraordinarily complex, far too complex to deal with in one article. Consequently, I will limit myself to merely describing the most common and simplest variation.

Imago pietatis Icon (similar to those which entered Italy in the 13th Century)
Byzantine (Mount Sinai, St. Catherine's Monastery), c. 1300 (Casing Italian, c. 1380)
Rome, Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme


The image of the Man of Sorrows appears to have developed first in Byzantine art, entering Western art by about 1300, probably via Rome and Venice. 1 From that point it spread throughout the West, so that there are examples readily available from nearly every country in Europe by 1500. And it is in the West that the tremendous development in the theme took place.

At its most basic the image of the Man of Sorrows is: a half-length image of the crucified Jesus, showing His wounds. He may be shown as crowned with thorns or with the crown removed. His arms may be folded over His torso or they may be extended at His sides. Sometimes He seems to be sitting upright on his own power, sometimes His body is supported by others. In every case His wounds are visible. His head is inclined to His right.  And, most importantly, in the original image He is shown as dead, with closed eyes.




Master of the Borgo Crucifix
Italian, c. 1255-1260
London, National Gallery



Man of Sorrows
Italian, 14th Century
Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum and Fondation Corboud



Pietro Lorenzetti, Man of Sorrows
Italian, c. 1340-1345
Altenburg, Lindenau-Museum Gemäldesammlung



Naddo Ceccarelli, Man of Sorrows
Italian, ca. 1347
Vienna, Liechtenstein Museum



Sano di Pietro, Man of Sorrows
Italian, c. 1440
Dresden, Gemäldegalerie Alte Meister



Among the earliest variations on the image are those works that include the Cross or sometimes just a crossbeam behind the image of the Crucified.


Niccolo di Tommasso, Man of Sorrows with the Cross
Italian, c. 1370
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, The Cloisters Collection


Jacobello del Bonomo, Man of Sorrows with the Cross
Italian, c. 1385-1400
London, National Gallery


Lorenzo Monaco, Man of Sorrows
Italian, c. 1415-17
Private Collection


Bartolomeo Caporali, Man of Sorrows with the Cross and Whips
Italian, c. 1475-1500
Oxford, Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology


Man of Sorrows with the Cross
From an Illustrated Vita Christi
English (Norfolk), c. 1480-1490
Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum
MS 101, fol. 95v



Cristoforo Mayorana, Man of Sorrows with the Cross
From a Book of Hours
Italian (Naples), 1483
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 1052, fol. 102r


Follower of Perugino, Man of Sorrows with the Cross
Italian, c. 1500
Berlin, Gemäldegalerie der Staatliche Museum zu Berlin


But the most frequent image during the 14th and 15th centuries was that of the half-length figure or a bust, sometimes seen as dead, with closed eyes, but sometimes rather disturbingly awake and making eye contact with the viewer, even showing us his wounded hands and side.  These were, above all, devotional images and they appeared in every kind of medium imaginable, including illumination, wall and panel painting, sculpture, goldsmith’s work, lapidary.  In addition, the image can now be demonstrated to have spread throughout Europe.

Initially, the image of Jesus was naked above the waist, as time went on draperies were added, evoking the mocking by the Roman soldiers at the time the Crown of Thorns was pressed on His head.

Master of the Bible of Jean de Sy, Life Size Wound and Man of Sorrows
From a Book of Hours
French (Paris), c. 1370-1380
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 90, fol. 130r
This rather startling image combines what was believed to be a life size representation of the spear wound in Christ's side with the image of the Man of Sorrows.


Giovanni Bellini, Man of Sorrows
Italian, c. 1460-1469
Milan, Museo Poldi Pezzoli

Master of Mary of Burgundy, Man of Sorrows
Flemish, c. 1480
Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett der Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Simon Marmion, Man of Sorrows
French, 1480
Strasbourg, Musédes Beaux-Arts

Anonymous Lombard Artist, Man of Sorrows
Italian, c. 1490-1500
Milan, Museo Nazionale della Scienza e Tochnologia Leonardo da Vinci

Giovanni Santi, Man of Sorrows
Italian, c. 1490
Private Collection
Israhel van Meckenem the Younger, Man of Sorrows
German, c. 1490
Berlin, Kupferstichkabinett der Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Hans Memling, Man of Sorrows
Flemish, After 1490
Esztergom, Christian Museum

Albrecht Bouts, Man of Sorrows
Dutch, c. 1500
Lyon, Musée des Beaux-Arts

Colijn de Coter, Man of Sorrows
Flemish, c. 1500
Private Collection

Jan Mostaert, Man of Sorrows
Dutch, c. 1500
Moscow, Pushkin Museum, Collection Dmitry Ivanovich Shchukin


Cristoforo Solari, Man of Sorrows
Italian, ca. 1500
Dayton (OH), Art Institute



Man of Sorrows
German, c. 1500
Paris, Musée du Louvre





Workshop of Giovanni Bellini, Man of Sorrows
Italian, c. 1510-1515
Besancon, Musée des Beaux-Arts

Simon Bening, Man of Sorrows
From the Da Costa Hours
Flemish (Bruges), c. 1510-1520
New York, Pierpont Morgan Library
MS M 399, fol. 42r


Workshop of Aelbert Bouts, Man of Sorrows
Dutch, c. 1525
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Lucas Cranach the Younger, Man of Sorrows
German, c. 1540
Bremen, Museum im Roselius-Haus

Bernardo de Mora, Man of Sorrows
Spanish, 1659
Granada, Capilla Real

However presented, The Man of Sorrows image causes us to ponder the sufferings of Jesus and evokes in us a sense of pity. Indeed, in Latin it is known as the “Imago Pietatis”, in French, it is the “Christ du pitié”, in German the “Schmerzensmann”. This fits into what we know of some emotional forms of medieval piety and it enjoyed a long life from its introduction till around 1600, when its basic form faded. However, it had a strong influence on other images, which have continued, even into the modern world. It affected, among others: the Ecce Homo, Deposition, Lamentation and Burial images, and other images that are no longer so much with us, such as the Dead Christ supported by saints and angels and images of the Holy Face. 

In a more subtle way, the identification of the Dead Jesus with Isaiah’s Suffering Servant through the image of the Man of Sorrows has influenced the wider culture, beyond Catholicism. One example is found in the music of Georg Friedrich Handel’s “Messiah”.  Below is a recording by the great English mezzo-soprano, Sarah Connolly.



© M. Duffy, 2012 and 2018


Scripture texts in this work are taken from the New American Bible, revised edition © 2010, 1991, 1986, 1970 Confraternity of Christian Doctrine, Washington, D.C. and are used by permission of the copyright owner. All Rights Reserved. No part of the New American Bible may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the copyright owner.
___________________________________

1. Passion in Venice: Crivelli to Tintoretto and Veronese, The Man of Sorrows in Venetian Art, edited by Catherine Puglisi and William Barcham, New York and London, Museum of Biblical Art in association with D. Giles Limited, p. 10. This book is the exhibition catalog for the exhibition “Passion in Venice: Crivelli to Tintoretto and Veronese” at the Museum of Biblical Art, New York from February 11 to June 12, 2011. In addition to the catalog entries for the works in the exhibition, the book includes informative essays on the Man of Sorrows image, primarily in Venice and the Veneto (the area of mainland Italy traditionally controlled by Venice). This is, however, merely a minute slice of the enormous diversity and geographic spread of the image.