Illuminating Eucharistic Faith at the Morgan Library

View of the exhibition at the Morgan Library
New York

(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.)*

One of the summer exhibitions that recently opened at the Morgan Library in mid-town Manhattan is focused on a subject that is surprisingly relevant to the upcoming feast of Corpus Christi (Feast of the Most Holy Body and Blood of Christ). This feast is celebrated in some countries on its traditonal day, which is this coming Thursday, May 30th.  In the United States it will be celebrated next Sunday, June 2nd. The title of the exhibition is “Illuminating Faith: The Eucharist in Medieval Life and Art” and the results are impressive in several ways.

The exhibition is presented in a respectful and serious way, with wall cards and labeling providing orthodox explanations of the meaning of the Eucharist, including some words, such as transubstantiation, that are seldom heard in today’s culture. The more than sixty-five items in the show, drawn almost entirely from the Morgan’s own collections, offer views of many aspects of the iconography of the Eucharist, and go well beyond images of the Last Supper. It is organized around six themes: The Institution of the Eucharist; The Introduction of the Elevation; The Eucharist and the Old Testament; Domestic Devotion to the Eucharist; The Feast of Corpus Christi and Eucharistic Miracles. I will be discussing several of these themes in the next few days.

Last Supper
From the Hours of Don Alfonso of Castile
Spanish (perhaps Burgos or Segovia)
1463-1480
New York, Morgan Library
MS M.854, fol. 202v

The first section, The Institution of the Eucharist, presents samples of what is probably the most immediately recognizable image of the Eucharist for the majority of people, the Last Supper. The exhibition points out that even in supposedly simple medieval images of the Last Supper there are references to the primary experience of Eucharist for most of us, which is the Mass. For example, in the very first image chosen for the show, from a 15th-century Spanish manuscript, we see the Apostles seated around a circular table, draped in white. Christ holds the familiar circular white host in one hand as he blesses it with the other. The round white host is clearly different from the other breads on the table, which are a light brown color, and the cup of wine is clearly modeled on the chalice used at Mass.

Last Supper
From Miniatures of the Life of Christ
French (perhaps Corbie), ca. 1175
New York, Morgan Library
MS M44, fol. 60v

 

 

References to the actions of the priest at Mass are also evident in an older manuscript, painted in France, probably at the abbey of Corbie in the late 12th century. Here Christ stands, holding up the host and the chalice, just as the priest does during the elevations of the Body and Blood of Christ during Mass.

 

 

In another image, one from a large choir book, a Gradual, painted by Silvestro dei Gherarducci in late 14th-century Florence we also see the effects of an unworthy reception of Christ’s Body and Blood. Judas, still with the other Apostles, sits opposite Jesus at the circular table as Christ makes a sign of blessing. However, unlike the other Apostles the halo around Judas’ head reveals him to be the betrayer. It has turned black and is covered with scorpions. This relates to the images of Judas composed by Giotto at the beginning of the century. There Judas wears a halo that is made of dark smoke. Both darkened haloes depict the darkness of the soul that resists the grace of God.

Silvestro dei Gherarducci, Last Supper
Single leaf cutting from Gradual Choir Book
Italian (Florence) 1392-1399
New York, Morgan Library
MS M653.4

Christ in Gethsemene 

From a Book of Hours

Belgian, 1400-1415

New York, Morgan Library

MS M259, fol. 12v

This section of the exhibition also includes images that are the direct ancestors of our most commonly recognized “shorthand” image for the Eucharist. That is the Host elevated above the Chalice. This image appears first in images of the Agony in the Garden, where Jesus prays that He will be spared the bitter cup of the Passion. In these images the “cup” has been interpreted in the light of the Eucharistic celebration, as the Chalice of the Precious Blood and the consecrated Host.

Christ in Gethsemene 

From the Beauchamp Hours

English (perhaps London), 1420-1445

New York, Morgan Library

MS M893, fol. 17r

 

 

The preciousness of the Precious Blood is emphasized in other images from the show. In one image the blood of Christ, shed on the cross, flows down to the skull of Adam, whom legend said was buried on Calvary (see my article about the Legend of the True Cross by Piero della Francesca at Arezzo for this). This image symbolizes the redemption from Original Sin that was the effect of Christ’s Passion.


The Blood of Christ Cleanses the Skull of Adam
From a Missal
Italian (Ferrara), 1463
New York, Morgan Library
MS M518, fol. 128v

 

 

Similarly, in several images angels hold up vessels in which to catch the Blood flowing from Christ’s wounded hands and side, just as angels did this in Giotto’s frescoes in the Arena Chapel in Padua at the beginning of the 14th century. 

Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, Crucifixion
From a Missal
Italian (Perugia), 1472-1499
New York, Morgan Library
MS M472, fol. 131v

 

 

The connection between Calvary and the Mass is made explicit in a luxury manuscript commissioned by Cardinal Domenico Della Revere, a member of the clan that included Popes Sixtus IV, for whom the Sistine Chapel is named, and Julius II, the patron of Michelangelo in that same chapel. In this beautiful book (now seriously damaged in parts), illuminated by an artist known as the Master of the Della Rovere Missals (i.e., the actual identity of the artist is currently uncertain) an image of the Crucifixion appears on the left hand page, juxtaposed by an image of the elevation of the Host at Mass in a contemporary chapel setting on the right hand page. Kneeling devoutly as the priest elevates the Host is the Pope and his entourage. 

 

Master of the Della Rovere Missals, Crucifixion 
From a Missal (left hand page)
Italian (Rome), ca. 1483
New York, Morgan Library
MS M306, fol. 118v

Master of the Della Rovere Missals, Elevation at a Mass with the Pope in attendance
From a Missal (right hand page)
Italian (Rome), ca. 1483
New York, Morgan Library
MS M306, fol. 118r

 

 

Two other images, both favorites of mine, are introduced at the end of this section. One is the image of the Man of Sorrows.  This subject, which presents the viewer with the image of Christ bearing the wounds of His sacrifice, has a long association with the Eucharist.  In nothern Italy in particular, it was a frequent subject used in the decoration of tabernacles, structures which hose the reserved consecrated Hosts for use outside of Mass.

Another image is that of Christ in the Winepress, also called the Mystic Winepress. In this image, the cross becomes the cross beam of the winepress in which the suffering Christ is pressed as if He were a bunch of grapes. His blood flows out like grape juice from the press. And, as the grape juice is transformed into wine, so the wine becomes the Blood of Christ through the Mass.

 

 

Man of Sorrows
From a Missal
Spanish (Valencia), ca, 1468
New York, Morgan Library
MS M450, fol. 93v

Christ in the Winepress
From Tafel van den Dersten Ghelove
Dutch (perhaps Utrecht), ca. 1405-1410
New York, Morgan Library
MS691, fol. 5r

 

 

 

 

I will continue looking at the images from the exhibition in future articles. The show will run until September 2, 2013 at the Morgan Library, which can be entered on Madison Avenue between 36th and 37th streets. Please see the Morgan Library website for information on hours and fees (www.themorgan.org).

© M. Duffy, 2013 

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

Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity

Although it's somewhat outside the subjects I usually comment on, I thought I might mention the special exhibition now underway at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.  Called "Impressionism, Fashion, and Modernity" it is a sumptuous and fascinatingly frothy concoction of paintings and clothing from the last four decades of the 19th century.

Beginning with the 1860s we are treated to gallery walls lavishly arrayed with paintings of beautifully dressed women (and a few men), from the brushes of the founders of Impressionism and other selected contemporary painters, of the fashionable people of Paris in particular.  On the floors of the same galleries are samples of clothing similar to or, in a few amazing cases, the actual clothing worn by the sitters.

Claude Monet, Madame Louis Joachim Gaudibert
French, 1868
Paris, Musee d'Orsay


Exhibited nearby is a virtually identical dress and shawl.

Day Dress of Grey Silk Faille and Indian Multicolored Wool Shawl
French, c. 1866-1867
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art
www.metmuseum.org

I think that it is the latter instances that are the most poignant. 

One pairing in particular stands out in my mind.  It is a painting called "In the Conservatory" by the French painter, Paul Albert Bartholome in 1881.  In the painting the artist's wife stands in the doorway, framed by the light from outdoors.  She wears a gown of purple and white that mixes polka dots, stripes and solids. 

Albert Bartholome, In the Conservatory
French, 1881
Paris, Musee d'Orsay

 In front of it stands the very gown, in almost pristine condition, its white still white and its purple still seemingly unfaded. 

Cotton dress worn by Mme. Bartholome
French, 1880
Paris, Musee d'Orsay

Gallery View showing the painting and the original dress.

What struck me particularly as I looked from one to the other was the nearly impossible size of the waist and the painful thought of how difficult it must have been for this young woman squeezed into it to take a deep breath or to engage in any activity more robust than a sedate walk.  Not even a child above the age of 6 could have so small a waist!  Seeing this, it is not difficult to believe stories of deformed rib cases and displaced organs among women of this era.  It is not too surprising then, to read elsewhere that this young woman died only six years after this picture was painted.

Not every dress in the show demonstrates such tight lacing but they do show, in various ways, some restructuring or exaggerated outline of the body:  impossible bust lines, and the rather absurd bustle, for instance.  They remind me of something my mother told about a woman who was an acquaintance of her own parents when she was a child.  This woman clung to the old style of dress and was wearing long skirted, corseted clothing into the 1920s.  My mother said that her bustline resembled a table top.  And, viewing these "modern" fashions at the Met I can see exactly what she meant!

Some examples of the means by which these unusual effects were achieved are also on display.  One gallery includes a display of three corsets, showing varying degrees of cinch in the waist, but all cutting in pretty deeply.  Surely our foremothers must have hurt from wearing these contraptions and been very glad to unhook them at the end of a day!

Still, much of the fashion on display is beautiful, either for its fabric or for its workmanship, or for both.  A favorite of mine is among the last items in the show, a beautiful, bustled, navy blue silk faille and velvet day dress of American design and workmanship from the late 1880s. 

The dress described above is the dress on the right in this gallery view.

In spite of the rather ludicrous bustle shape of its back, this dress manages to suggest the air of an efficient and decorously outgoing personality.  One wonders for whom it was made. 

An interesting issue taken up by the show is the effect of mass production and the emergence of the department store on the world of fashion and the reflections this cast in the arts.  One instance is the 1874 painting by James Tissot (whose Biblical illustrations have often been seen in this blog) called "The Ball on Shipboard". 

Tissot, who initially made his name with paintings in the popularly Romantic style of medievalism, had, in the 1860s emphatically embraced painting modern life, especially fashionable modern life.  Although never an Impressionist, he shares many of his themes with them, but was far more acceptable to contemporary taste and, therefore, more financially successful.  Until 1884 he continued to paint these fashionable, meticulously rendered works for wealthy patrons.  His reversion to Catholicism and the lifework of his two Biblical series came after 1884. 

In "The Ball on Shipboard" Tissot shows, presumably with tongue in cheek, the effects of mass produced fashion on a social climbing crowd.  Set on a yacht off the Isle of Wight during the Cowes Week Regatta, the company includes two women, placed full center, each wearing identical, nautically inspired white outfits with black trimmings.  To their right another young woman climbs the stairs.  She is attired in an outfit of pink with maroon trim, and even sports a matching bonnet.  However, her fashion statement is not unique, as two others identical to her can be seen in the crowd standing on the far side of the railing that surrounds the stairs.  In the left background, several young women appear to be wearing the same frothy gowns in different pastel colors.

James Tissot, The Ball on Shipboard
French, 1874
London, Tate Britain

It is truly a privilege to be able to compare the paintings, such as the Met's own beloved Renoir "Mme. Georges Charpentier and Her Children", with the actual (or closely related) garments that appear in them. 

Auguste Renoir, Madame Georges Charpentier and Her Children
French, 1878
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art
www.metmuseum.org

This comparison reminds us that some things don't change, such as favoring black for evening wear.  It's also interesting to contemplate the lengths to which people, especially women, will go to appear fashionable.  We may decry the idiocy of the tight-laced corset or the idea of wearing a skirt covering a metal hoop skirt or a bustle frame, but we see the same dynamic at work today in items such as the ultra high heels currently fashionable. 

The show is open until May 27th in the second floor special exhibition galleries.  You can learn more on the web at:  http://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2013/impressionism-fashion-modernity

The Fifth Sorrowful Mystery – The Crucifixion

Andrea da Firenze, The Crucifixion of Jesus
Italian, c. 1365-1368
Florence, Santa Maria Novella, Cappella Spagnuolo, Upper Portion

"There they crucified him, and with him two others,
one on either side, with Jesus in the middle."

(John 19:18)

Passion of Our Lord Jesus Christ According to John – Excerpt from Gospel Reading for the celebration of the Friday of the Passion of the Lord (Good Friday)

The subject of the Crucifixion is one of the most difficult of all subjects to write about because it is so ubiquitous. Scenes of the Crucifixion have abounded in almost every Christian culture and time period. I can only touch on some of the varying ways that it has appeared in this article.



Somewhat surprisingly, given its central importance, the Crucifixion as an iconographic subject was a bit late in getting started. This is, perhaps, not astonishing, when one recognizes that it was not until the late 4th century, following the conversion of Constantine and the declaration that Christianity would be the religion of the Roman Empire, that crucifixion was suppressed as a punishment within the Empire.




The earliest known appearance of a direct reference to it is found in the wooden doors of the church of Santa Sabina in Rome.

4th Century Wooden Doors
Late Antique, c. 430-432
Rome, Basilica of Santa Sabina

They are original to the church, which was built in the 5th century and are dated to 430-432, or roughly a generation and a half from the suppression of the punishment. Further, the image from Santa Sabina is more schematic than realistic. Christ stands between the two thieves, His image larger than theirs because of His greater importance. However, His face is immediately recognizable, already set in the way it would be seen thereafter. No crosses are in evidence. Only the extended arms of the three figures suggest the subject matter. They stand in front of what appears to be a series of walled, pedimented spaces. The survival of these fragile, precious, late antique doors is an amazing gift from the past to us.

Like the subject of the Carrying of the Cross and many of the other subjects associated with the Sorrowful Mysteries, the images of the Crucifixion tend to fall into three main themes:  the narrative, the devotional and a group of hybrid images.



There are scenes that are principally narrative, giving an overview, more or less realistically, of the words in the Gospel accounts of the Passion.  These scenes include the figures traditionally believed (based on the Gospels) to have been present at Calvary: the Virgin Mary, Mary Magdalene, St. John the Evangelist, and other possible women disciples. They may also include soldiers, members of the Sanhedrin, local citizens and the occasional donor portrait.

Duccio di Buoninsegno
Italian, c. 1308-1311
Siena, Museo dell'Opera del Duomo

Giotto di Bondone
Italian, c. 1304-1306
Padua, Scrovegni (Arena) Chapel

Jan van Eyck
Flemish, c. 1420-1425
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Masolino da Panicale
Italian, c. 1428-1430
Rome, Basilica of San Clemente

Piero della Francesca, from Polyptych of St. Augustine
Italian, c. 1460
New York, Frick Collection

Donatello
Italian, 1465
Florence, Museo Nazionale del Barghello

Veit Stoss
German, c. 1477-1478
Cracow, Church of St. Mary

Maerten van Heemskerck
Dutch, c. 1545-1560
St. Petersburg, State Hermitage Museum

Tintoretto
Italian, 1565
Venice, Scuola di San Rocco

Pieter Brueghel the Younger
Dutch, 1617
Budapest, National Museum

Franz Anton Maulbertsch
Austrian, 1758
Suemeg, Parish Church

Costantino Brumidi
Italian, c. 1870-1880
New York, Church of the Holy Innocents

There are also devotional images, stripped of narrative or background elements. In these we may see the figure of Jesus alone, displayed solely for our meditation and prayer or in company with one other figure who acts as an observer, as our surrogate. Such an image may be found in a prayer book, a devotional book or a liturgical book. It may even be a painting, either large or small.  It appears early and persists alongside the narrative mode.

Page from Sacramentary of Charles the Bald
French, c. 870
Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France
MS Latin 1141, fol. 6v

Giovanni Bellini
Italian, c. 1501-1503
Private Collection

Lucas Cranach the Elder
German, 1536
Washington, D.C., National Gallery of Art

Anthony van Dyck
Flemish, c. 1622
Venice, Church of San Zaccaria

Francisco de Zurbaran
Spanish, 1627
Chicago, Art Institute

Bartolome Murillo
Spanish, 1675
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Salvador Dali
Spanish, 1954
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

And then, there is a third, hybrid, category. These images seem to be compounded of the devotional image writ large. They are stripped of much of the narrative elements, but may include other figures. Most importantly, they are on a larger scale than that of the true devotional image. Often they are altarpieces. One might think of them as a series of “just the facts” images.

Byzantine Ivory Plaque
Byzantium, c. 950
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Apse Mosaic
Italian, c. 1130s
Rome, Basilica of San Clemente

Masaccio
Italian, c. 1426
Naples, Museo Nazionale di Copdimonte

Rogier van der Weyden
Flemish, c. 1445
Vienna, Kunsthistorisches Museum

Andrea del Castagno
Italian, c. 1455
Florence, Church of Sant'Apollonia

Raphael Sanzio, Citta di Castello Altarpiece
Italian, 1502
London, National Gallery

Matthias Gruenwald, Isenheim Altarpiece (center, first face)
German, c. 1515
Colmar, Musée d'Unterlinden

Lucas Cranach the Younger
German, 1555
Weimar, Stadtkirche Sankt Peter und Paul

This painting, known as the Weimar Triptych, illustrates that, at the beginning, the Reformation  retained many features of the past, even while introducing new interpretations.

Annibale Carracci
Italian, 1583
Bologna, Church of Santa Maria della Carità

Simon Vouet
French, 1622
Genoa, Church of the Gesù

Hendrick Terbrugghen
Dutch, c. 1624-1625
New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art

Francesco Conti
Italian, 1709
Florence, Church of San Lorenzo

The Crucifixion offers much to think about. It should not be glossed over. For, if Jesus did not die this cruel and bitter death, there would be no resurrection. “And if Christ has not been raised your faith is vain; you are still in your sins. Then those who have fallen asleep in Christ have perished. If for this life only we have hoped in Christ, we are the most pitiable people of all.” (1 Corinthians 15:17-19) 

It is through the Crucifixion that we reach the Resurrection.

© M. Duffy, 2013

 

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.