The Eucharist and the Old Testament at the Morgan Library



Last Supper and Manna in the Desert

From Speculum humanae salvationis

Belgium, Bruges, Mid-15th Century

New York, Pierpont Morgan Library

MS M385, fol. 18v

(Please note that this essay was originally written in conjunction with a temporary exhibition at the Pierpont Morgan Library in New York, which ran from May to September in 2013.)*

In this section of the exhibition “Illuminating Faith: The Eucharist in Medieval Life and Art” the Morgan Library presents what is known as the typology of the Eucharist. Typology is one of the ways in which the early church and the medieval church meditated on the meaning of the Eucharist. In typology events and people in the Old Testament are related to events and people that they appear to foreshadow in the New Testament.

The use of typology to reflect on Jesus, His life, His resurrection and the Eucharist He left us begins at the very beginning of Christianity, with the New Testament. Several of the New Testament writers were the first to think of relating the events they describe to events from earlier Jewish history. As an example, in the Bread of Life discourse in John 6:30-58,  Jesus and his interlocutors refer several times to the manna which fed the Israelites in the desert, contrasting His Body and Blood, the real Bread from Heaven, with the ephemeral manna from heaven.

It is small wonder, then, that typology became a major tool in people’s thinking about theology and, especially, in presenting Christianity in a visual manner.

One of the most commonly used books in the later middle ages was the Speculum humanae salvationis (the Mirror of Mankind’s Salvation). This book was a manual of typology particularly popular with the laity, but also used by the clergy. Typically, the pages of the book would include an image from the life of Jesus and other images from the Old Testament, usually one from the Book of Genesis and another from the other books, from Exodus on. We have looked at some of these in previous articles. This kind of composition was also used in the sculpture and decoration, for example in the famous Klosterneuburg Altarpiece.

The Morgan’s current exhibition includes a copy of the Speculum which includes not just two Old Testament scenes, but three. The New Testament scene is the Last Supper. It is related to one scene from Genesis (the scene in which Melchisedek, the priest-king of Salem, the early name for Jerusalem, offers bread and wine to Abram in Genesis 14:18-20) and two scenes from the book of Exodus (the Paschal Lamb of Exodus 12 and the collection of manna from Exodus 16). Clearly, the message is that the bread and wine offered by Melchisedek and the manna from heaven prefigure the bread and wine offered at Mass and the Bread from Heaven, which the bread and wine become at the consecration. In addition, the Paschal Lamb is to be seen as a type of Christ’s sacrifice on Calvary in which each Mass participates.

The Paschal Lamb and Melchisedek and Abram

From Speculum humanae salvationis

Belgian, Bruges, Mid-15th Century

New York, Pierpont Morgan Library

MS M385, fol. 19r

The Manna and the Lamb are also seen in the beautiful Book of Hours prepared for Catherine of Cleves in the mid-15th century.

The Paschal Lamb

From Hours of Catherine of Cleves

Dutch, Utrecht, ca. 1440

New York, Pierpont Morgan Library

MS M945, fol. 140v

The Manna in the Desert

From Hours of Catherine of Cleves

Dutch, Utrecht, ca. 1440

New York, Pierpont Morgan Library

MS M945, 137v

And the Last Supper is paired with the meeting of Melchisedek and Abram in another Book of Hours from the later part of the 15th century.  Here the Eucharistic typology of the story of Melchisedek is made explict.  He is dressed as a bishop and the bread and wine he offers to Abram are the Host and Chalice.

Last Supper 

From a Book of Hours

Belgian (probably Brussels), ca. 1475

New York, Pierpont Morgan Library

MS M485, fol. 40v

Melchisedek and Abram 

From Book of Hours

Belgian (probably Brussels), ca. 1475

New York, Pierpont Morgan Library

MS M485, fol. 41r (detail)

Other references to the Old Testament also occur in the show. One symbolically suggests that the New Testament has superseded the Old, the other suggests that both are necessary for salvation.

Master of Jacques de Luxembourg, Last Supper 

From Book of Hours

French (or northeastern France), c. 1465

New York, Pierpont Morgan Library

MS M1003, fol. 13r

The first image shows the scene of the Last Supper seen as if it is taking place in a house from which the sides have been removed. As Judas (identified by the money bag he is holding) exits, the rest of the Apostles still sit at table with Jesus. As Judas leaves he is confronted with the image of a woman standing in a canopied niche, wearing a crown and holding in her right hand the familiar image of the Host surmounting a Chalice and in her left the shaft of a pennant which identifies her as the image of Ecclesia or Church. She represents the New Testament. In a niche on the other side of the “house” in a similar canopied niche, stands the figure of another woman. This one is blindfolded. In her right hand she holds the tablets of the Law rather limply. In her left hand is a pennant that identifies her as Synagoga. She represents the Old Testament. This pairing had a long history in medieval art.












Another, more unusual, image in the show comes from a Missal probably produced in Tours, France around 1400.

In this book, the left hand page depicts the Crucifixion.

Crucifixion 

From Missal

French (possibly Troyes), ca. 1400

New York, Pierpont Morgan Library

MS M331, fol. 186v

Christ in Majesty 

From Missal

French (possibly Troyes), c. 1400

New York, Pierpont Morgan Library

MS M331, fol. 187r

But, instead of an image of the Mass or of an Old Testament scene, such as the Paschal Lamb, the right hand page presents an image of Christ in Majesty. He sits in a central diamond-shaped space in the traditional pose for this image. The corners of the overall rectangle of the picture field are occupied by the four Evangelists and their associated beasts of Revelation 4:6-9 (themselves echoing four beasts from the Old Testament (Ezekiel 1:5-10). Thus far this image is a typical image of Christ in Majesty, seen in countless medieval images. What makes this one somewhat unusual are the two altars seen to the right and left of Christ in the central diamond. To His right, below the hand which is raised in blessing is a Christian altar, identifiable from the Chalice and the Host, which lies on top of a corporal (a small square of folded linen used to cover the chalice during Mass). To his left, the hand holding the orb, which represents the world, stands an Old Testament altar. On it is placed the tablets of the Law. Here the Old and New Testament altars appear on an equal basis, as the two foundation stones of salvation. The Law is completed by the sacrificial offering of Christ and its continuation in the Mass.

© Margaret Duffy, 2013

* Some images are available at http://www.themorgan.org/exhibitions/images/illuminating-faith

Illustrating Miracles: The Hole in the Roof

Master of the Registrum Gregorii, Jesus Heals the Paralytic
From the Codex Egberti
German (Reichenau), 977-993.
Trier, Stadtbibliothek
MS StB Hs 24, Unknown folio

“When Jesus returned to Capernaum after some days,

it became known that he was at home.
Many gathered together so that there was no longer room for them,
not even around the door,
and he preached the word to them.
They came bringing to him a paralytic carried by four men.
Unable to get near Jesus because of the crowd,
they opened up the roof above him.
After they had broken through,
they let down the mat on which the paralytic was lying.
When Jesus saw their faith, he said to the paralytic,
"Child, your sins are forgiven."
Now some of the scribes were sitting there asking themselves,
"Why does this man speak that way? He is blaspheming.
Who but God alone can forgive sins?"
Jesus immediately knew in his mind
what they were thinking to themselves,
so he said, "Why are you thinking such things in your hearts?
Which is easier, to say to the paralytic,
'Your sins are forgiven,'
or to say, 'Rise, pick up your mat and walk?'
But that you may know
that the Son of Man has authority to forgive sins on earth"
-he said to the paralytic,
"I say to you, rise, pick up your mat, and go home."
He rose, picked up his mat at once,
and went away in the sight of everyone.
They were all astounded
and glorified God, saying, "We have never seen anything like this."

(Mark 2:1-12) Gospel for the Seventh Sunday in Ordinary Time, Year B*

When I was a small child, somewhere around age 4 or 5, my then parish church, located on Manhattan’s Upper West Side, sponsored a campaign to encourage parishioners to read the Bible. As part of that campaign, several Douay-Rheims translations of the Bible,1 in various price ranges, were made available. My parents opted for the deluxe offering, a beautiful volume, bound in leather, with gilt-edged pages and red lettering for the statements of Jesus. 2  It also came with several sections that included maps and descriptions of biblical history, explanations of the Rosary and the Mass, plus a glossary and footnotes and a section for recording important family events. For me, however, the best feature of all was the illustrations. It was elegantly illustrated with both series of biblical illustrations by James Tissot. Unbeknownst to me at the time, both series have a New York connection. The Old Testament illustrations are now in the Jewish Museum, a few blocks from my current residence; while the New Testament scenes are in the collection of the Brooklyn Museum, just across the East River.

At the time this volume entered our house I was too small to be able to read. So, like our illiterate ancestors in ages past, I looked at the pictures. They were fascinating. I knew some of the stories because I had listened at Mass to the Gospel readings (at that time the only portion of the Mass that was in English). As I learned to read, I read the captions and eventually proceeded to being able to connect the captions to the biblical passages from which they derived. Although I now own a variety of Bibles in several translations and editions, I still treasure this book and its pictures.

Among the illustrations that most fascinated me as a child was the scene described in the text of the Gospel for this Sunday. In this Gospel citizens of Capernaum bring their paralyzed family member or friend to Jesus, confident that He will heal their friend, IF they can reach Him. Blocked by the crowds surrounding Jesus, they climb onto the roof of the house where He is staying, tear a hole in it and lower their friend down into His presence. Tissot’s depiction, based on careful research gained from extended trips to the Middle East, seems very real and immediate. The strong composition, in which the downward motion of the descending paralytic, his arms spread wide, is met by the upward moving gestures of those who have risen to support him, leads down in a descending curve to the true focus of the picture, the seated Jesus, raising His arms in welcome and blessing. The picture is a dynamic, realistic product of a century of realism.

James Tissot, Healing of the Paralytic
French, c. 1886-1894
New York, Brooklyn Museum

Earlier depictions were less so. Lacking both the ability and the interest to create a realistic vision, early depictions seem to have an almost fairytale quality. For example, a mosaic of the subject, composed around the year 500 for the Arian church of Sant’ Apollinare Nuovo in Ravenna shows Jesus, depicted in larger-than-life-size (to underline His divine status), standing with a slightly smaller disciple, while the friends of the paralytic lower him from the roof of a building. The paralytic and his friends are represented as extremely small figures, indicating their simple human status.  Moreover, the imprecise perspective in which the building is depicted makes it difficult to tell whether the paralyzed man is being lowered to the inside of the building or to the outside.

Jesus Healing the Paralytic
Byzantine, c. 500
Ravenna, Sant' Apollinare Nuovo

A very similar scene is found in a 12th-century pictorial Bible from the Abbey of St. Bertin in France. Again we see a cut-away view of the house, in which a giant-sized Jesus sits, addressing a crowd of smaller figure. Through the hole in the roof, which resembles a chimney, two men lower the paralytic. But the two men are so nearly obscured by what appear to be towers that the overall first impression makes it seem as if the paralytic is descending from above without assistance.

Christ Healing the Paralytic
From a Pictorial Bible
France (St. Omer), c. 1190-1200
The Hague, Koninklijk Bibliotheek
MS KB 76 F 5, fol. 14r (detail)

In the mosaics decorating the cathedral of Monreale in Sicily, executed around 1200, the hole in the roof has completely disappeared and the friends appear to lower the invalid, on his bed, from the edge of the roof, almost as if the building had a Roman-style atrium.  Also of note is the fact that Jesus no longer appears to be as big as the house.  He has assumed more human dimensions.

 

Christ Healing the Paralytic
Sicilian, c. 1200
Monreale, Cathedral

This demonstrates that, although we often think of Byzantine influence as being anti-naturalistic, more abstract and symbolic, here the later Byzantine style brings a greater naturalism than we see in the nearly contemporary work from the Abbey of St. Bertin.

A later, 15th century work, the Meditationes vitae Christi, illustrated by the Master of the Harvard Hannibal, and made for King Henry V of England around 1420, places the hole in the roof, but sets the descent, somewhat illogically, outside the house. This represents a period in which the artist appears to be struggling with the correct use of perspective.

Mast of the Harvard Hannibal, Christ Healing the Paralytic
From Meditationes vitae Christ by Pseudo-Bonaventure
French (Paris), c. 1420
London, British Library
MS Royal 20 B IV, fol.v59v

By the turn of the 17th century perspective difficulties had been overcome and the indoor location of the event could be presented properly. This can be illustrated by the work of two Flemish artists, Marten de Vos and Anton Wierix, done for Catholic editions of the Bible around 1600.3   Typical of the style prevalent at the time, the compositions are crowded and somewhat difficult to read, particularly the de Vos. But it is clearly obvious that the invalid has been lowered from the opening in the roof.

Anton Wierix, Christ Healing the Paralytic
From Evangelicae historiae imagines byJerome Nadal
Flemish, c. 1593-1595
London, Trustees of the British Museum

Marten de Vos, Christ Healing the Paralytic
Flemish, c. 1600
Bolton (England), Bolton Museum

It remained for the late 19th-century painter, Tissot, to present us with a dramatic, readable and realistic image.

© M. Duffy, 2012
_______________________________
*  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.

1.  See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Douay%E2%80%93Rheims_Bible.  For a discussion of how the Douay-Rheims translation was influential in the Authorized Version (known as the King James Bible) see Nicolson, Adam.  God's Secretaries:  The Making of the King James Bible, New York, HarperCollins, 2003.

2.  The Holy Bible, The Catholic Press, Inc., 1950.

3.  http://catholic-resources.org/Art/Nadal.htm