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| Pope Saint Leo I, the Great from the Chronologia Summorum Romanorum Pontificum Rome, 1675 London, © The Trustees of the British Museum |
Very few people in history have been given the distinction
of the title “the Great”. A few that
come to mind are: Cyrus the Great,
Ramses the Great, Alexander the Great, Constantine the Great, Charlemagne
(Charles the Great), Alfred the Great, Catherine the Great. All of these are kings or rulers of great
empires: the Persian, the Egyptian, the Hellenistic, the Roman, the
Carolingian, the Russian or, in the case of Alfred the Great, the first of a
line of English kings (and queens) over a thousand years long. And then there are two popes*: Saint Gregory the Great and Saint Leo the
Great, whose feast day is celebrated on November 10.
To really appreciate Saint Leo’s world, you need to use a
little imagination and think yourself back into a very different world -- the world of late antiquity, the time of the Christian Roman Empire. He appears to have been born in Italy around
the year 400 (the actual date is not known).
The world he entered was seriously unsettled and, in some ways, a good deal like our own.
- Only 24 years before Leo’s
presumed birth the first wave of barbarians had forced their way across
the Danube River border of the Empire and had carved out semi-autonomous areas within it for their own
tribes instead of integrating into the general population of the Empire, which had been the rule for earlier barbarian groups. Perceived bad treatment by the Roman governor resulted in a revolt within two years. At the Battle of Adrianople in 378 a Roman army led by the Emperor of the East, Valens, was defeated and Valens himself was killed.
- When he was a small child of about 5 or 6, a second, and far more devastating, invasion began when multiple barbarian groups forced their way across the Rhine River frontier. They poured into the provinces of the western Empire, spreading through what is now the Low Countries, France and Spain, destroying a good deal of the infrastructure of the Western Empire as they moved south.
- In 410, when Leo was about 10, a group of Goths, led by Alaric,
besieged and ultimately sacked the city of Rome itself. (This event was of great symbolic importance, though less important politically, as the capital of the Western Empire had already been moved to the more strategically placed city of Milan.)
- In 429, when Leo was still a young man, the Vandals, one of the groups that had crossed the Rhine in 405-406, after
traveling the entire length of Europe from Germany to southern Spain, invaded
and conquered the important Roman provinces of North Africa, the area of today's Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia and Libya. Their conquest deprived the western half
of the Roman Empire (with its capital at Milan) of its most profitable tax
base.
- The resulting inability to
properly fund its own defense ultimately resulted in the end of the
Western Empire (476) not long after Leo’s death on October 10, 461.1
Religiously times were equally bad. Many of the barbarian invaders professed to
be Christian, but their Christianity was of a variant kind, called Arianism,
which denied the divinity of Christ. Further,
other variants also had significant followings. In regions where the rulers professed Arianism or other variations of Christianity the orthodox, Apostolic faith was frequently persecuted.
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| St. Leo the Great German, 1716 Kappel, Catholic Church of the Holy Trinity
In this statue, Pope Leo wears the triple tiara and holds the papal cross in this right hand. In his left hand
he holds a symbol of the Trinity, a triangle within a circle, honoring his role in establishing the Christological definition.
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After his election as Pope on September 29, 440, Leo tirelessly battled for the Apostolic Tradition against these variations and was especially influential at the Council of Chalcedon (451), which defined the nature of the person of Christ that has been professed ever since by both the Catholic, Eastern Orthodox and most Protestant churches.2 This definition insists that in one person Christ is both human and Divine with a human nature and a Divine nature that are separate, yet unified in one person. As the Council stated “We confess that one and the same Christ, Lord, and only-begotten Son, is to be acknowledged in two natures without confusion, change, division or separation. the distinction between the natures was never abolished by their union, but rather the character proper to each of the two natures was preserved as they came together in one person (prosopon) and one hypostasis.”3 It is the letter that Leo sent with his envoys to this Council that provided the framework for the definition.
Politically, Leo was also very active, working to resolve
internal troubles of the Empire in this extremely difficult period.
He is most often remembered for one of his diplomatic
missions. In 452 he traveled north as
part of a peace mission to intercept Attila the Hun. The previous year Attila, known as the “Scourge
of God” for his fierce and destructive raids, had been stopped in his rampage through what is now France at the Battle of
the Catalaunian Plains.4 He was
defeated by an army composed of Roman soldiers under Aetius and barbarian
troops under the Visigothic king, Theoderic I.
In 452, after regrouping his army, Attila made a move into Italy,
heading for Rome. Along the way he
sacked many of the cities of the Po plain and even the capital city of
Milan. It is at this time that the
inhabitants of the Veneto region fled to some islands in the off-shore lagoon
and founded the city of Venice.
Leo and his companions set out to attempt to turn him away
from wrecking these same horrors on Rome.
They met Attila in northern Italy, near Mantua. At this meeting Attila was persuaded to turn
aside in his advance. No one today really
knows what happened at the meeting but, whatever it was, it had the desired
effect. Attila did turn away, retreating
into what is now Hungary, where he died the following winter. With
their great war leader dead, the Huns ceased to be a major threat to what was
left of the western Empire.
Above all the events of Leo’s active life, this episode is
the one which has been most often remembered by artists. Two of the greatest of these works are found,
not surprisingly, in the Vatican . One is the monumental fresco by Raphael in the Vatican Palace, now the Vatican Museum
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| Raphael, Meeting of Leo I and Attila Italian, 1514 Vatican State, Vatican Museums, Stanza di Eliodoro |
The other is a huge and impressive relief carving in St. Peter’s Basilica by the sculptor Alessandro Algardi.
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| Alessandro Algardi, Meeting of St. Leo and Attila Italian, 1646-1653 Vatican City, St. Peter's Basilica |
Although a century separates them, they are both remarkably similar and obviously different.
First, and most obvious is the difference in medium. Raphael’s version is a fresco, painted on a flat wall. Algardi’s is a piece of sculpture, carved in marble. However, it is in relief, the most painterly kind of sculpture.
Because it is painted, Raphael was able to use color to differentiate his figures. Algardi can only use sculptural techniques, cutting deeper or lighter, as he differentiates them, so that his major figures stand out in high relief, while minor characters are shown in various depths of low (or bas) relief.
What may seem like a disadvantage to the sculptor may
actually be seen as an advantage.
Algardi focuses our attention more on the major figures by cutting them
in higher relief. Their actions press
out of the plane of the relief to intrude into our space. He also concentrates only on the major
figures, using only a few minor ones. So
we see primarily Pope Leo and Attila in the lower area of the composition, and
Saints Peter and Paul descending in the upper section. The story is immediate and easily understood.
Raphael, on the other hand, tells his story with many more
characters and a more defuse and slower impact.
In addition to the Pope we see several members of his entourage, barely
hinted at by Algardi. We also see a
great many Huns, so many in fact that it is a bit difficult to identify Attila
without hunting for him. He is actually
situated a little to the right of center, in the middle distance, seated on a dark horse with a white blaze on the forehead and a white nose, just in front of the man holding the red flag. He is wearing a crown, barely visible, and
throwing his arms out toward the right as he looks up to see the figures of the
saints advancing toward him. Raphael’s
Peter and Paul are shown as moving at a slower tempo than in Algardi’s version.
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Raphael, Meeting of Leo I and Attila Italian, 1514 Vatican State, Vatican Museums, Stanza di Eliodoro Detail of Left Side of Painting Showing Attila |
Raphael’s version is richer in detail, giving us glimpses of
the landscape around their meeting place, including glimpses of the city of
Rome itself. The outline of the
Colosseum is visible. He also shows us
more of the reaction in the ranks of the Huns, where men are trying to escape
to the right, even as trumpets are calling them to make a stand.
Both images are dramatic, but their drama is subject to the
conditions of their own time.
Raphael was painting at the apex of the High Renaissance,
almost as it begins to tilt into early Mannerism. Therefore, he created a balanced, calm
composition in a naturalistic landscape setting, but with certain elements that,
beginning in this mature style of his, begin to tilt toward the complexity and
agitation of Mannerism. The left hand
side of the painting, showing the Pope, the Cardinals and other attendants,
along with Saints Peter and Paul in the sky overhead has all the calm and
clarity of the High Renaissance. On the
other hand, the right side, showing the Hun army, has all the exaggerated and
complex movement and violence which would become typical of Mannerism in the
decades to come.
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Raphael, Meeting of Leo I and Attila Italian, 1514 Vatican State, Vatican Museums, Stanza di Eliodoro Detail of Right Side of Painting Showing the Huns |
Algardi, however, was
carving his monumental scene in the full flush of the Baroque. He was one of the sculptors who assisted
Gianlorenzo Bernini in the great task of seventeenth-century Rome, the decoration
of the interior of Saint Peter’s Basilica.
His composition is full of the dynamism and clarity of the high Baroque.
As I mentioned above, there is no doubt
here as to who the most important figures are.
Pope Leo, Attila and the two saints stand out clearly from the
background. Their movements can be
clearly read and are full of exuberance. There is a sense of explosive action
that seems to bring the figures out of the background and into the space we
inhabit. Standing in front of this huge
marble altarpiece engenders a sense of anxiety not conveyed by the Raphael
painting, where we seem to be separated from the action by the imposition of
painted architectural elements as well as real ones. This eruption of the figure into the space of
the viewer, whether it is accomplished through the explosion of high relief, or
the outward thrust of a wall, or by the extreme chiaroscuro of the early
Baroque painters, like Caravaggio, is a hallmark of the Baroque
sensibility.
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| Alessandro Algardi, Meeting of St. Leo and Attila Italian, c. 1646-1653 Vatican City, St. Peter's Basilica |
Saint Leo Alone
Other imagery for Saint Leo focused on typical “saint” types, especially those types that belonged to the class of saints that were episcopal (appropriate since, in addition to other things, the Pope is the Bishop of Rome). So Leo is shown as an enthroned bishop, sometimes wearing the simple miter and sometimes the unique triple crown of the Popes. |
| St. Leo the Great from a Breviary Italian (Apulia), c. 1350-1400 New York, Pierpont Morgan Library MS M .200, fol. 49v |
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| Michael Hoenel & Johann Seitlinger St. Leo the Great and St. Thomas Becket (in the upper tier) with St. Luke and St. John the Evangelist (in the lower tier) Austrian, 1626 Gurk, Church of the Assumption |
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| Francisco Herrera the Younger, St. Leo the Great Spanish, c. 1670-1680 Madrid, Museo National del Prado |
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| Johann Lossau, St. Leo the Great German, c. 1748-1749 Chwalcin, Braniewo |
Saint Leo As Patron
He is also seen in the typical guise of a patron, presenting a donor to the central figure of a painting, frequently a Madonna and Child or Apostle Saint, or in a scene invoking him as an intercessor. |
| Leon Conseil presented to the Virgin by St.Leo Tapestry French (Paris), c.1499 Paris, Musée de Cluny, Musée national du Moyen Age |
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| Claus Seman, Pope St. Leo German, 1517 London, © The Trustees of the British Museum |
Saint Leo As Doctor of the Church
In addition, since Leo is a Doctor of the Church, he may be shown as a scholar, surrounded by books or in the act of writing. |
| St. Leo the Great Letters of Pope Leo I with the Life of Leo by Marcus Michael of Cortona Italy (Florence), c. 1450-1475 London, British Library MS Harley 3268, fol. 2 |
Saint Leo With Others
He might also be included in images of the communion of saints, or of groups of important figures in Church history. |
| Friedrich Overbeck, Heroes of the Chruch German, 1818 Cologne, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum |
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| Ludwig Moralt and collaborators, Community of Saints: Saints Bonaventure, Thomas Aquinas, Leo, John Chrysostom, Romauld, Dominic, Bernard, Francis and Ignatius Loyola German, c. 1837-1838 Regensburg, Cathedral |
Saint Leo's Hand
In addition, Leo has a special few images that focus on a unique iconography that is attached to him and is not a common type. These are a few images that revolve around a miracle related to his hand.One of the fantasies relates that Leo cuts off his hand when “he was tempted vehemently in his flesh” after it was kissed by a woman.
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| Workshop of Chroniques II Illuminator, Miracle of the Hand from the Golden Legend Flemish (Bruges), c. 1445-1465 New York, Pierpont Morgan Library MS M 674, fol. 292r
This picture shows the beginning and end of the story. At left Leo's hand is being kissed. At the right, he is preaching to the people about the miraculous restoration of his hand.
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Because of his missing hand he is unable to
preside at the Eucharist and the people of Rome notice this and become
restless. Whereupon Leo prays to the
Virgin Mary for the restoration of his hand.
His prayers are heard and, as de Voragine says: “she anon appeared to him and restored to him his hand and reformed it with her holy hands, commanding that he should go forth and offer sacrifice unto her son. Then this holy man Leo preached unto all the people that came thither, and showed evidently how his hand was restored to him again.”5
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Antoniazzo Romano, Virgin Invoking God to Heal the Hand of Pope Leo I Italian, c.1475 Dublin, National Gallery of Ireland |
Saint Leo and Attila Before and After Raphael
Prior to the work of Raphael at the Vatican images of the confrontation of Pope Leo with the barbarians seem very limited and, in at least one instance, the barbarian is mis-identified as Gaiseric, leader of the Vandals, instead of Attila, leader of the Huns. |
| Master Francois,, Leo Persuades Geiseric, King of the Vandals, From Sacking Rome from City of God by St.Augustine French (Paris), c.1475 The Hague, Meermano Museum MS MMW 10 A 11, fol. 15r However, once the image by Raphael was completed and became widely known through the medium of printmaking, it became more common in the iconography of the saint. |
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| Hendrick Bloemart, Leo I and Attila Dutch, 1643 Private Collection |
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| Lucas Valdes Carrasquilla, St. Leo Turns Attila from the Gates of Rome Spanish, 1661 Seville, Hospital of Los Venerables, Chapel |
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| St. Leo Confronts Attila Italian, 1680-1720 Vatican City, Vatican Museums |
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| Luca Giordano, Leo the Great Confronting Attila Italian, 1682 Naples, Museo di Capodimonte |
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| Sebastien LeClerc, The Meeting of Leo I with Attila French, c.1699 London, © The Trustees of the British Museum |
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| Francesco Solimena, The Meeting of Pope Leo and Attila Italian, 1701-1705 Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera |
© M. Duffy, 2016
* A third Pope may be
on his way to becoming a “Great”. Pope Saint
John Paul II, who died in 2005 and was canonized in 2014, has begun to receive
this title. Whether the title will stick
is a matter for the future to reveal.
Discerning a “Great” is something that usually takes the passage of time
to determine.
___________________________________________________________
- For the historical background of Saint
Leo’s life see the following:
Heather, Peter. The Fall of the Roman Empire: A New History of Rome and the Barbarians, New
York, Oxford University Press, 2006.
Heather, Peter. Empires and Barbarians, The Fall of Rome and
the Birth of Europe, New York, Oxford University Press, 2010.
Ward-Perkins, Brian. The Fall of Rome and the End of Civilization, New York, Oxford University Press, 2006.
Brown, Peter. The World of Late Antiquity, AD 150-750, New
York, Norton, 1989.
- It is not accepted by the
Oriental Orthodox churches, such as the Coptic and Armenian Apostolic
churches and by a minority of Protestant churches.
- Catechism of the
Catholic Church, Vatican City, Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1993, Part
I, §2, Chapter 2, Article 3, ¶1, #467. This text may be accessed at: http://www.vatican.va/archive/ENG0015/__P1J.HTM#$HC
Another translation reads: “This
one and the same Jesus Christ, the only-begotten Son [of God] must be confessed
to be in two natures, unconfusedly, immutably, indivisibly, inseparably
[united], and that without the distinction of natures being taken away by such
union, but rather the peculiar property of each nature being preserved and
being united in one Person and subsistence, not separated or divided into two
persons, but one and the same...” Source: Philip
Schaff et al., Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers: Series II, Volume XIV, The
Fourth Ecumenical Council, New York, 1885-1893. This may be accessed at https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Nicene_and_Post-Nicene_Fathers:_Series_II/Volume_XIV/The_Fourth_Ecumenical_Council/The_Definition_of_Faith
- The site of the battle is unknown. It was most likely in the region of Chalons-en-Champagne, near Troyes in northeastern France.
- The GOLDEN LEGEND or LIVES
of the SAINTS, Compiled by Jacobus de Voragine, Archbishop of Genoa, 1275.
First Edition Published 1470. ENGLISHED
by WILLIAM CAXTON, First Edition 1483, VOLUME FOUR. From the Temple
Classics Edited by F.S. ELLIS, First issue of this Edition, 1900 Reprinted
1922, 1931. This may be accessed
at: http://sourcebooks.fordham.edu/basis/goldenlegend/GoldenLegend-Volume4.asp#Leo
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