IDLE SPECULATIONS

Religion and Modern Art

noreply@blogger.com (terry) — Sat, 28 Jan 2012 16:59:00 +0000

Sir Jacob Epstein

1880 - 1959

Consummatum Est

1936

Alabaster

24 x 88 in

Private collection

Sir Jacob Epstein

1880 - 1959

Christ in Majesty

Aluminium

As seen in nave of Llandaff Cathedral, Llandaff, Vale of Glamorgan, Wales

Sir Jacob Epstein

1880 - 1959

The Visitation 1926

Bronze

1651 x 470 x 457 mm

The Tate, London

Of this sculpture, Epstein said that the figure expresses

" a humility so profound as to shame the beholder who comes to my sculpture expecting rhetoric or splendour of gesture"

Sir Jacob Epstein

1880-1959

Jacob and the Angel 1940-1

Alabaster

2140 x 1100 x 920 mm, 2500 kg

The Tate, Liverpool

Sir Jacob Epstein

1880-1959

The third and final cast of 'Angel Torso'.

1925

157 cm

The Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, Swansea

Professor the Rt Revd Lord Harries was the Bishop of Oxford from 1987 to 2006. He was previously the Dean of King's College London, where he is now a Fellow and an Honorary Professor of Theology

He is the current Gresham Professor of Divinity

He is currently in the middle of a series of lectures at Gresham College on the theme of Religion and Art

The lectures are available as video, audio podcast, word transcript and powerpoint presentation.

One of the most important of his lectures was entitled "The Explosion of Modernism" which considered the work of Nolde, Jacob Epstein and Roualt.

But one aspect which he does not hesitate to discuss is the composing of religious works of Christian themes by Jewish artists. Nowadays of course it is not regarded as a problem. But it was not always so.

Sir Jacob Epstein (1880-1959) and Chagall (1887-1985) are the two most prominent examples.

Epstein is discussed in "The Explosion of Modernism" and Chagall is discussed in "Distinctive Individual Visions"

As regards Epstein, Lord Herries said:

"People were puzzled that Epstein, a Jew, should depict so many major Christian themes.

So something about his religion, first of all his Judaism. Brought up in a very Jewish Quarter of New York, a bit of Polish Jewry simply transplanted there, his father was a leading member and benefactor of the synagogue. In his household there were daily prayers, bible readings and Hebrew lessons. On the Sabbath the young Jacob had to spend most of the day in synagogue

He duly went through his Bar Mitzvah. He found all this stifling, and distanced himself from it as soon as he could.

However, it gave him a deep knowledge and love of the Bible, and a sense of the sheer power of the Biblical stories, as for example we see in sculptures such as Adam, and Jacob wrestling with the angel.

Whilst in New York he was as it were taken up by people in a settlement there. This settlement was no doubt very like such institutions founded by educated people in England at the time, usually with a strong Christian motivation, to enhance the lives and open up wider opportunities of those living in the slums of some of big cities.

Epstein found that this wider world liberated him from the stifling confines of the Jewish ghetto, and introduced him not only to Christians who were an influence on him but Yiddish intellectuals who had similarly thrown off their religious upbringing. In particular a Mrs Moore befriended him and believed in him when he had lost faith in himself. ...

Coventry Cathedral was almost totally destroyed by bombing in 1940 and in the early 1950’s Basil Spence was commissioned as the architect for the building of a new Cathedral. He invited Graham Sutherland, John Piper and Elizabeth Frink to do work for it. He also wanted Epstein and in 1954 took Bishop Gorton to look at the Madonna and Child in Cavendish Square.

The bishop stood looking up at it, oblivious of the traffic and said simply “Epstein’s the man for us.”

Later when Epstein’s name was brought before the committee Basil Spence noted “There was a shocked silence, at length broken by the remark, ‘But is he a Jew’, to which I replied quietly, ‘So was Jesus Christ’”

At this meeting Epstein was asked about his faith, to which he responded by saying it could be seen in his work. In a radio broadcast he enlarged on this.

My tendency has always been religious-it may not be known, but that is a fact…most great sculpture is occasioned by faith. Even the African sculpture, which we don’t understand, is full of their faith.

So Epstein was an innately religious person whose upbringing on the Hebrew scriptures had gone deep. The other fact, in addition to the friendly encouragement by Mrs Moore and others at the settlement in New York was his life long friendship with some Christian intellectuals and clergy.

He and Eliot became friends and Eliot was amongst a small group invited to Epsteins 70th birthday party and the one who lit the candles on the cake. When Epstein died Eliot wrote to his widow to say

“It is as if some of my world has crumbled away.We loved him".

Epstein was buried at Putney Vale cemetry, with Dr Hewlett Johnson, the Red Dean of Canterbury taking the service. A memorial service was held at St Paul’s Cathedral, at which his friend Canon Mortlock said

If we ask how it was that a boy born and bred in the Jewish faith and never embracing any other, should become the interpreter of the sublime mysteries of our religion there can be no clear answer. Such things belong to the inscrutable wisdom of God.

Silence and the Word

noreply@blogger.com (terry) — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 22:32:00 +0000

Odilon Redon (1840-1916)

Le Christ du silence

c. 1895 - 8

Charcoal and pastel on canvas and brown paper

59.5 x 47.5 cm

Musée du Petit-Palais, Paris

Christ is the Word. The Word seems at the opposite end of the spectrum to Silence.

Silence and the Word was the theme of Pope Benedict`s Message for Communications Day :

"When word and silence become mutually exclusive, communication breaks down, either because it gives rise to confusion or because, on the contrary, it creates an atmosphere of coldness; when they complement one another, however, communication acquires value and meaning."

Odilon Redon (1840-1916)

Le Silence

1910-1911

Détrempe

46 x 106 cm

Abbaye de Fontfroide, Corbières, near Narbonne

During the 1890s Redon responded to the Catholic revival that emerged in France during the previous decade and remained a powerful force in the nation's cultural life until the First World War

Redon had many close friends who figured in the Catholic revival such as Paul Claudel and the painters Emile Bernard and Maurice Denis on the one hand and the writers Leon Bloy and J.K. Huysmans on the other. All were admirers of Redon's work

By 1900, Odilon Redon had entirely abandoned the confines of his monochromatic Noirs, the macabre and enigmatic charcoals and graphic albums which had dominated the majority of his career.

As Klaus Berger observed, 'The demons have retired' (in Odilon Redon, New York, 1965, p. 88).

Redon never placed limits on the interpretation or meaning of the symbols he employed but rather believed that a subject should never restrict one's freedom of expression or interpretation.

Fontfroide was a Cistercian abbey near Narbonne founded in the eleventh century. It was abandoned in 1901. It was acquired by Gustave Fayet (1865-1925), a French painter and friend of Redon.

Fayet asked Redon to produce decoration for the library. The result was and is a masterpiece. Le Silence is one of the works in the library.

Silence was a major theme in the work of Redon.

The work, Le Silence, invites calm and serenity, two attributes associated with an abbey and a library. The Word and words.

But in his Message the Pope provided a learned disquisition on the importance of Silence:

"Silence is an integral element of communication; in its absence, words rich in content cannot exist.

In silence, we are better able to listen to and understand ourselves; ideas come to birth and acquire depth; we understand with greater clarity what it is we want to say and what we expect from others; and we choose how to express ourselves.

By remaining silent we allow the other person to speak, to express him or herself; and we avoid being tied simply to our own words and ideas without them being adequately tested. In this way, space is created for mutual listening, and deeper human relationships become possible.

It is often in silence, for example, that we observe the most authentic communication taking place between people who are in love: gestures, facial expressions and body language are signs by which they reveal themselves to each other.

Joy, anxiety, and suffering can all be communicated in silence – indeed it provides them with a particularly powerful mode of expression.

Silence, then, gives rise to even more active communication, requiring sensitivity and a capacity to listen that often makes manifest the true measure and nature of the relationships involved.

When messages and information are plentiful, silence becomes essential if we are to distinguish what is important from what is insignificant or secondary.

Deeper reflection helps us to discover the links between events that at first sight seem unconnected, to make evaluations, to analyze messages; this makes it possible to share thoughtful and relevant opinions, giving rise to an authentic body of shared knowledge.

For this to happen, it is necessary to develop an appropriate environment, a kind of ‘eco-system’ that maintains a just equilibrium between silence, words, images and sounds."

The silence of Christ can often be a test as it was for the Woman of Canaan, a test of faith:

"21 Leaving that place, Jesus withdrew to the region of Tyre and Sidon.

22 A Canaanite woman from that vicinity came to Him, crying out, “Lord, Son of David, have mercy on me! My daughter is suffering terribly from demon-possession.”

23 Jesus did not answer a word. So his disciples came to Him and urged Him, “Send her away, for she keeps crying out after us.”

24 He answered, “I was only sent to the lost sheep of Israel.”

25 The woman came and knelt before Him. “Lord, help me!” she said.

26 He replied, “It is not right to take the children’s bread and toss it to their dogs.”

27 “Yes, Lord,” she said, “but even the dogs eat the crumbs that fall from their master’s table.”

28 Then Jesus answered, “Woman, you have great faith! Your request is granted.” And her daughter was healed from that very hour."

(Matthew 15: 21 - 28)

It can also be the reaction when we attempt to put God to the test as in the narrative of the woman taken in adultery:

"1 Jesus went unto the mount of Olives.

2 And early in the morning he came again into the temple, and all the people came unto him; and he sat down, and taught them.

3 And the scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst,

4 They say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act.

5 Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou?

6 This they said, tempting him, that they might have to accuse him. But Jesus stooped down, and with his finger wrote on the ground, as though he heard them not."

(John 8: 1- 6)

In the Passion the silence of Christ is remarkable:

"The high priests brought many charges against him

Pilatus again questioned him, saying,

"Have you no answers? Look how much you are accused of."

But Jesus still said nothing.

Pilatus was amazed."

(Mark 15:3-5)

Then there is another different type of silence when Christ is not present: the silence of The Silence of Holy Saturday, the silence of the tomb

The Prayer of the Eucharist

noreply@blogger.com (terry) — Sat, 21 Jan 2012 19:30:00 +0000

Rodolfo Papa

Prima messa di San Giovanni de Matha,

The First Mass of St John of Matha

1996

Fresco

Basilica di San Crisogono, Rome

The distinguished Italian artist and art historian Rodolfo Papa now has his own website on Religious art. The blog is simply entitled Rodolfo Papa

He is also Professor of the History of Aesthetic Theory in the Faculty of Philosophy at the Pontifical Urban University, Rome,

Many basilicas in Italy have his works including Sulmona. His writings (in Italian only) appear very frequently in the Italian edition of Zenit.

If one wants to know about religious art, look no further

Saint John of Matha (1154 - 1213) was the co-founder of the Order of the Most Holy Trinity ("The Trinitarians"). The Trinitarians` Church in Rome is The Basilica di San Crisogono

St John was a priest in France when he celebrated his first Mass on 28th January 1193. It took place in the chapel of the Archbishop of Paris, Maurice de Sully

There he had a vision. He saw a man in white with a blue and red cross on his chest. The man had placed his hands on two prisoners: one of whom was white, the other a Moor

The next day St John made a a retreat in forest with a hermit. The two men saw another vision: a stag carrying a cross in its antlers (reminscent of the story of St Eustace ?)

Troubled he discussed the visions which he came to interpret as a call to found an order dedicated to ransom Christian prisoners taken hostage in the Mediterranean.

Often these hostages were pilgrims on the way to the Holy Land. As well as people who lived on the coast of the Mediterranean or traded there.

The mission of the Order put the lives of the Trinitarians at great risk. Many suffered death in their vocation

The order was approved by Pope Innocent III on 17th December 1198

In the work we see the vision of the saint occurring at the moment of Consecration of the Eucharist when the prayer of Jesus at the Last Supper is repeated by the priest.

It is not the prayer of the laity. But the whole Church can attend and join in the prayer

If we read the recent discourse by Pope Benedict XVI on prayer which is on Jesus` prayer at the institution of the Eucharist, the depth of Papa`s painting is uncovered.The work perfectly illustrates what occurred at the First Mass celebrated by Saint John of Matha and its effects on Saint John and his ministry

In his talk, the Pope first reminded us of the context of the Last Supper. It took place at a feast which was a memorial of past liberation and when hopes for present and future liberation were rekindled:

"[O]n the very day He was preparing to bid the disciples farewell, the life of the people of Israel was marked by the approaching feast of Passover; i.e. of the memorial of Israel’s liberation from Egypt. This liberation -- experienced in the past, and awaited anew in the present and for the future -- was relived in the family celebrations of the Passover."

But this liberation is achieved by sacrifice, the self-sacrifice of Jesus:

"The Last Supper takes place within this context, but with a fundamental newness. Jesus looks to His Passion, Death and Resurrection fully aware of them. He wills to experience this Supper with His disciples, but with a wholly unique character, different from all other banquets: It is His Supper, in which He gives Something totally new: Himself. Thus it is that Jesus celebrates His Passover and anticipates His Cross and Resurrection."

This sacrifice arises from perfect love and charity. The repetition of the Eucharist is an act of the Trinity, of Trinitarian love:

"He therefore offers in anticipation the life that will be taken from Him, and in this way He transforms His violent death into a free act of self-giving for others and to others. The violence suffered is transformed into an active, free and redemptive sacrifice.

Once again, in prayer -- begun in accordance with the ritual forms of the biblical tradition -- Jesus reveals His identity and His determination to accomplish unto the end His mission of total love, of offering in obedience to the Father’s Will. The profound originality of His gift of Himself to those who are His own through the memorial of the Eucharist is the summit of the prayer that marks the farewell supper with His disciples.

In contemplating Jesus’ actions and words on that night, we see clearly that His intimate and constant relationship with the Father is the locus where He accomplishes the act of leaving to His disciples, and to each one of us, the Sacrament of love, the “Sacramentum caritatis”.

Papa depicts the saint in action in the prayer. It is a common enough depiction when a prest or saint is depicted celebrating the Eucharist (as in The Mass of Pope St Gregory). The Eucharist involves action and words. The acts are what we call ritual which are part of the prayer. These acts are not theatrical or performance art. They are far more serious and profound. They are part of the prayer, the Reality and the witness to the Truth:

"Before the words of institution come the actions: the breaking of bread and the offering of wine. The breaking of bread and the passing of the chalice are in the first instance the function of the head of the family, who welcomes the members of his family to his meal; but these are also gestures of hospitality, of welcoming the stranger who is not part of the household to table fellowship and communion.

These very gestures, in the meal with which Jesus takes leave of those who are his own, acquire an entirely new depth: He gives a visible sign of welcome to the meal in which God gives Himself. Jesus offers and communicates Himself in the form of bread and wine"

The Pope emphasised the profound transformation effected by the Eucharist:

"The Eucharist is the food of pilgrims that becomes strength also for whoever is tired, exhausted and disoriented ...

From her earliest days, the Church has understood the words of consecration as part of her praying together with Jesus; as a central part of the praise filled with thanksgiving through which the fruit of the earth and of men’s hands are given to us anew by God in the form of Jesus’ Body and Blood, as God’s gift of Himself in His Son’s self-emptying love (cf. Jesus of Nazareth, II, pg. 128).

In participating in the Eucharist, in nourishing ourselves on the Flesh and Blood of the Son of God, we unite our prayer to that of the paschal Lamb on His last night, so that our lives might not be lost, despite our weakness and infidelity, but might be transformed."

St Agnes: Portraits

noreply@blogger.com (terry) — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:08:00 +0000

Gonzales Coques 1614/18 - 1684

Portrait of a Woman as Saint Agnes about 1680

Oil on silver 18.3 x 14.4 cm

The National Gallery, London (on long term loan to The Rubens House, Antwerp)

The patron saint of gardeners, girls, engaged couples, rape victims, and virgins has long been venerated since her death in AD 304

However these days her stock is not as high as previously was the case.

In the seventeenth century, portrait painting was the vogue. It became more common than before.

The upper middle class and the aristocracy sometimes had themselves portrayed in the dress from figures in Roman history and Latin literature to illuminate the sitter’s life. Sometimes as above even as saints.

There is a notable example in The Royal Collection of HM The Queen in London: Anthony Van Dyck Lady Mary Villiers, Duchess of Richmond and Lennox (1622-85) as St Agnes c.1637

The young woman in Coques` painting is possibly Maria Agnes, one of the daughters of Jacomo van Eycke and Cornelia Hillewerve. The rich merchant couple bought the Rubens House in 1660. The porchway of the Rubens House is depicted in the background

By 1650, Coques had effectively adapted the van Dyckian portrait style for his portraits. For architecture, his style derives from Rubens’s family portraits and ‘conversation pieces’

The work was probably a gift for a future husband

The lamb is a play on her name (Latin agnus lamb) while the sword indicates her martyr’s death.

The self-agrandissement in the portrait does not sit well with modern tastes. The modern taste for realism perhaps favours a more Italianate style of the early seventeenth century such as that of Francesco del Cairo below. This work depicts a brutal murder. But within the picture we see how a young girl`s faith overcame threats and violence. Perhaps more memorable and inspirational than that of the Flemish paintings of the seventeenth century.

In this sexualised age, we detect an eroticism in the painting which was not intended and would not have been conveyed and detected by contemporary viewers.

Francesco del Cairo (1607-1665) (aka Il Cavaliere del Cairo)

The Death of St Agnes 1635

Oil on canvas 66 x 52 cm

Galleria Sabauda, Turin

A Wedding in Cana

noreply@blogger.com (terry) — Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:04:00 +0000

Nowadays the reading of The Wedding at Cana is influenced by David Hume and the post-Enlightenment and the debate on whether Jesus performed miracles or not

Attention is on the physical changing of water into wine. Or not. And whether it is proof of the divinity of Christ or not.

But St Augustine described what happened in Cana as "mysterious" and redolent with symbols and signs (Tractate 8 (John 2:1-4); and Tractate 9 (John 2:1-2)

Some of the "mystery" of the story is caught in the following work which was used as a model for many depictions of the scene in Germany in the nineteenth century. It is replete with meaning - perhaps too much.

Julius Schnorr von Carolsfeld

1794-1872

The Wedding Feast at Cana

1819

Oil on canvas,

140 x 210 cm

Kunsthalle, Hamburg

The incident is only related in John. The other Gospels do not relate it. It is the first of Jesus`s miracles or rather "signs". It comes at the beginning of his public ministry when there were not even twelve disciples or apostles.

Blessed Pope John Paul II thought that the location of the sign in John`s text- the beginning of Chapter 2 - was very significant:

"The expression “the beginning of his miracles”, which the Council has taken from John’s text,[(Lumen gentium, n. 58)] attracts our attention. The Greek term arche, translated as “beginning”, is used by John in the Prologue of his Gospel: “In the beginning was the Word” (1:1). This significant coincidence suggests a parallel between the very origins of Christ’s glory in eternity and the first manifestation of this same glory in his earthly mission"

(Blessed Pope John Paul II, General Audience, Wednesday, 5 March 1997)

The Text in St John`s Gospel

John writes:

"1 On the third day there was a wedding in Cana in Galilee, and the mother of Jesus was there.

2 Jesus and his disciples were also invited to the wedding.

3 When the wine ran short, the mother of Jesus said to him, "They have no wine."

4 (And) Jesus said to her, "Woman, how does your concern affect me? My hour has not yet come."

5 His mother said to the servers, "Do whatever he tells you."

6 Now there were six stone water jars there for Jewish ceremonial washings, each holding twenty to thirty gallons.

7 Jesus told them, "Fill the jars with water." So they filled them to the brim.

8 Then he told them, "Draw some out now and take it to the headwaiter." So they took it.

9 And when the headwaiter tasted the water that had become wine, without knowing where it came from (although the servers who had drawn the water knew), the headwaiter called the bridegroom

10 and said to him, "Everyone serves good wine first, and then when people have drunk freely, an inferior one; but you have kept the good wine until now."

11 Jesus did this as the beginning of his signs in Cana in Galilee and so revealed his glory, and his disciples began to believe in him.

12 After this, he and his mother, (his) brothers, and his disciples went down to Capernaum and stayed there only a few days."

(John 2: 1 - 12)

It is the first of a number of "signs" made by Jesus and narrated in Chapter 2. But John has the following comment regarding these signs:

"23 While he was in Jerusalem for the feast of Passover, many began to believe in his name when they saw the signs he was doing.

24 But Jesus would not trust himself to them because he knew them all,

25 and did not need anyone to testify about human nature. He himself understood it well."

(John 2: 23 - 25)

The setting of the incident

It is in the village of Cana. There is disagreement as to where Cana was. It was a small hill village. But only John mentions Cana (in this and some other occasions). It is not mentioned anywhere else in Scripture

Cana:

It is a wedding. We do not know whose wedding it was.

There was a tradition among some in late medieval times that the groom was St John himself. It was based on the Apochrypha and the stories set out in Jacobus de Voragine. Others went further and said that the bride was St Mary Magdalene. But even Jacobus de Voragine thought that too fanciful and rejected it absolutely.

Here are two paintings both by Flemish artists and based on the legend that the bridegroom was St John:

Juan de Flandes (active by 1496–died 1519)

The Marriage Feast at Cana

ca. 1500–1504

Oil on wood

8 1/4 x 6 1/4 in. (21 x 15.9 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum, New York

Jan Cornelisz. Vermeyen c. 1500 - 1559

The Marriage at Cana

c. 1530

Oil on panel

66 x 84,5 cm

The Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

Vermeyen`s work is hypnotic. It is a remarkable work. Realism and Chiaroscuro did not begin with Caravaggio. The Flemish artists of the sixteenth century had already perfected the technique.

Unusually the artists makes the bride and the bridegroom major figures in the narrative. This emphasis on their identification with St John and St Mary Magdalene detracts from the painting. The intimacy of the theme and the chiaroscuro effects inevitably suggests the compositions of the Caravaggisti`s depictions of the scene at Emmaus. However the identification of the Feast with the Eucharist is another major theme considered below

But presumably like all rural weddings that used to take place in the Mediterranean the wedding was not a quiet or private occasion. It was a public and communal occasion in which the whole village and the whole extended families and friends were invited.

Weddings in the Holy Land were celebrated for a whole week. Much wine was consumed.

The running out of wine would have been a personal disaster for the spouses and their families. It would never have been lived down. It would always be remembered. The beginning of the marriage would have been to say the least inauspicious.

It is the setting of the wedding which is emphasised by the Vatican website when it discusses the incident as the Second Mystery of Light:

""On the threshold of his public life Jesus performs his first sign at his mother's request - during a wedding feast: The Church attaches great importance to Jesus' presence at the wedding at Cana. She sees in it the confirmation of the goodness of marriage and the proclamation that thenceforth marriage will be an efficacious sign of Christ's presence" (CCC, 1613)."

Feasting at a crowded wedding is the predominant theme in a number of works such as these. Everyone loves a wedding:

Diego Oronzo Bianchi di Manduria (1683 - 1767)

The Marriage Feast at Cana

18th century

Oil on canvas

Santa Maria degli Angeli , Gallipoli, Puglia, Italy

Leandro da Ponte (Leandro Bassano)

(1557-1622)

The Marriage at Cana c. 1579

Oil on canvas

127 cm x 203 cm

Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

A Spiritual Union

But it is more than an affirmation of a marriage between man and woman. The early Church saw it as a symbol of much greater significance: a Spiritual Marriage, the prefiguration of the institution of the Eucharist and the sacrifice on Calvary:

"The context of a wedding banquet, chosen by Jesus for his first miracle, refers to the marriage symbolism used frequently in the Old Testament to indicate the Covenant between God and his People (cf. Hos 2:21; Jer 2:1-8; Ps 44; etc.), and in the New Testament to signify Christ’s union with the Church (cf. Jn 3:28-30; Eph 5:25-32; Rv 21:1-2, etc.) .

..

According to the interpretation of Christian authors, the miracle at Cana also has a deep Eucharistic meaning. Performing this miracle near the time of the Jewish feast Passover (cf. Jn 2:13), Jesus, as he did in multiplying the loaves (cf. Jn 6:4), shows his intention to prepare the true paschal banquet, the Eucharist. His desire at the wedding in Cana seems to be emphasized further by the presence of wine, which alludes to the blood of the New Covenant, and by the context of a banquet."

(Blessed Pope John Paul II, General Audience, Wednesday, 5 March 1997)

Pope Benedict XVI put it more expansively (Monday, 11 September 2006):

" [He] gives a sign, in which he proclaims his hour, the hour of the wedding-feast, the hour of union between God and man.

He does not merely “make” wine, but transforms the human wedding-feast into an image of the divine wedding-feast, to which the Father invites us through the Son and in which he gives us every good thing, represented by the abundance of wine.

The wedding-feast becomes an image of that moment when Jesus pushed love to the utmost, let his body be rent and thus gave himself to us for ever, having become completely one with us - a marriage between God and man.

The hour of the Cross, the hour which is the source of the Sacrament, in which he gives himself really to us in flesh and blood, puts his Body into our hands and our hearts, this is the hour of the wedding feast.

Thus a momentary need is resolved in a truly divine manner and the initial request is superabundantly granted. Jesus' hour has not yet arrived, but in the sign of the water changed into wine, in the sign of the festive gift, he even now anticipates that hour.

It is this spiritual dimension which is recorded in these works especially in the last of the 'Flemish Primitives':

Gérard David (c 1460-1523)

The Wedding Feast at Cana

1501 - 1502

Oil on wood

1.0 m. x 1.280 m.

Musée du Louvre, Paris

Jacopo Robusti (Tintoretto) (1518-1594)

The Marriage Feast at Cana

1561

Oil on canvas

4.35m x 5.45 m

Commissioned, Painted and still in situ in the Sacristy of the Chiesa di Santa Maria della Salute, Venice

Lavinia Fontana

1552 - 1614

The Marriage Feast at Cana

Oil on copper

26 1/4 by 14 3/4 in.; 66.5 by 37.5 cm.

Private collection

The six stone jars

The superabundance of the grace of Christ is seen in the amount of wine which results. The six stone jars John speaks of would together hold about 150 gallons, that is, about 800 bottles’ worth. Such superabundance is seen again in the Feeding of the Five Thousand

But the early Church saw a greater significance in the six stone jars. Early Christian art focuses on these:

Panel depicting the filling of the water pots at the Miracle of Cana,

Relief in ivory

Syrian

c. AD 650

The Victoria and Albert Museum, London

The stone jars were filled with water for Jewish religious rites. The transformation of the water into wine was seen as the supersession of the Old Law by the New Law

But there is more.

In Tractate 9, Saint Augustine expounds at length on the pots:

"And we know that the law extends from the time of which we have record, that is, from the beginning of the world: In the beginning God made the heaven and the earth. Genesis 1:1

Thence down to the time in which we are now living are six ages, this being the sixth, as you have often heard and know.

The first age is reckoned from Adam to Noah; the second, from Noah to Abraham; and, as Matthew the evangelist duly follows and distinguishes, the third, from Abraham to David; the fourth, from David to the carrying away into Babylon; the fifth, from the carrying away into Babylon to John the Baptist; Matthew 1:17 the sixth, from John the Baptist to the end of the world.

Moreover, God made man after His own image on the sixth day, because in this sixth age is manifested the renewing of our mind through the gospel, after the image of Him who created us; Colossians 3:10 and the water is turned into wine, that we may taste of Christ, now manifested in the law and the prophets.

Hence there were there six water-pots, which He bade be filled with water.

Now the six water-pots signify the six ages, which were not without prophecy. And those six periods, divided and separated as it were by joints, would be as empty vessels unless they were filled by Christ. Why did I say, the periods which would run fruitlessly on, unless the Lord Jesus were preached in them? Prophecies are fulfilled, the water-pots are full; but that the water may be turned into wine, Christ must be understood in that whole prophecy"

The role of Mary

And then but not least we come to Mary.

Mary had a major role in what happened at Cana. Without her the great "sign" would not have occurred She is the instigator of the first public manifestation of Christ`s ministry

It is in this incident that we have the last recorded authentic words of Mary. "They have no wine." "Do whatever he tells you."

Cyr Manuel Evgenikos

(14th century)

Fragment of The Marriage Feast at Cana

Fresco

South transept, The Church of The Holy Saviour, Tsalendjikha, Georgia

Yet there is something very disturbing about this part of the tale.

Saint Augustine and Pope Benedict XVI both point out what is wrong or seems to be wrong: we do not like the way Christ talks to Mary, his mother

"In the first place, we don't like the way he addresses her: “Woman”. Why doesn't he say: “Mother”? ...

Yet we like even less what Jesus at Cana then says to Mary: “Woman, what have I to do with you? My hour has not yet come” (Jn 2:4). We want to object: you have a lot to do with her! It was Mary who gave you flesh and blood, who gave you your body, and not only your body: with the “yes” which rose from the depths of her heart she bore you in her womb and with a mother's love she gave you life and introduced you to the community of the people of Israel."

(Pope Benedict XVI, Homily of Monday, 11 September 2006)

Mattia Preti 1613 - 1699

The Marriage at Cana

about 1655-60

Oil on canvas

203.2 x 226 cm

The National Gallery, London

Pope Benedict XVI explains thiese difficulties in his Homily.

It was also considered in the ARCIC document Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ

It considered the role of Mary in the entirety of St John`s Gospel, the great Christological Gospel where the emphasis is on the Divinity of Christ. Mary is fully human. Christ is wholly human and wholly divine. The public ministry of Christ changes His relationship with his mother:

"Mary in John’s Gospel

22 Mary is not mentioned explicitly in the Prologue of John’s Gospel. However, something of the significance of her role in salvation history may be discerned by placing her in the context of the considered theological truths that the evangelist articulates in unfolding the good news of the Incarnation. The theological emphasis on the divine initiative, that in the narratives of Matthew and Luke is expressed in the story of Jesus’ birth, is paralleled in the Prologue of John by an emphasis on the predestining will and grace of God by which all those who are brought to new birth are said to be born “not of blood, nor of the will of the flesh, nor of the will of man, but of God” (1:13). These are words that could be applied to the birth of Jesus himself.

23 At two important moments of Jesus’ public life, the beginning (the wedding at Cana) and the end (the Cross), John notes the presence of Jesus’ mother. Each is an hour of need: the first on the surface rather trivial, but at a deeper level a symbolic anticipation of the second.

John gives a prominent position in his Gospel to the wedding at Cana (2:1-12), calling it the beginning (archē) of the signs of Jesus. The account emphasizes the new wine which Jesus brings, symbolizing the eschatological marriage feast of God with his people and the messianic banquet of the Kingdom. The story primarily conveys a Christological message: Jesus reveals his messianic glory to his disciples and they believe in him (2:11).

24 The presence of the “mother of Jesus” is mentioned at the beginning of the story: she has a distinctive role in the unfolding of the narrative. Mary seems to have been invited and be present in her own right, not with “Jesus and his disciples” (2:1-2); Jesus is initially seen as present as part of his mother’s family.

In the dialogue between them when the wine runs out, Jesus seems at first to refuse Mary’s implied request, but in the end he accedes to it. This reading of the narrative, however, leaves room for a deeper symbolic reading of the event.

In Mary’s words “they have no wine”, John ascribes to her the expression not so much of a deficiency in the wedding arrangements, as of the longing for salvation of the whole covenant people, who have water for purification but lack the joyful wine of the messianic kingdom.

In his answer, Jesus begins by calling into question his former relationship with his mother (“What is there between you and me?”), implying that a change has to take place. He does not address Mary as ‘mother’, but as “woman” (cf. John 19:26). Jesus no longer sees his relation to Mary as simply one of earthly kinship.

25 Mary’s response, to instruct the servants to “Do whatever he tells you” (2:5), is unexpected; she is not in charge of the feast (cf. 2:8).

Her initial role as the mother of Jesus has radically changed. She herself is now seen as a believer within the messianic community. From this moment on, she commits herself totally to the Messiah and his word. A new relationship results, indicated by the change in the order of the main characters at the end of the story: “After this he went down to Capernaum, with his mother and his brothers and his disciples” (2:12).

The Cana narrative opens by placing Jesus within the family of Mary, his mother; from now on, Mary is part of the “company of Jesus”, his disciple. Our reading of this passage reflects the Church’s understanding of the role of Mary: to help the disciples come to her son, Jesus Christ, and to “do whatever he tells you.”

26 John’s second mention of the presence of Mary occurs at the decisive hour of Jesus’ messianic mission, his crucifixion (19:25-27). Standing with other disciples at the cross, Mary shares in the suffering of Jesus, who in his last moments addresses a special word to her, “Woman, behold your son”, and to the beloved disciple, “Behold your mother.” We cannot but be touched that, even in his dying moments, Jesus is concerned for the welfare of his mother, showing his filial affection. This surface reading again invites a symbolic and ecclesial reading of John’s rich narrative. These last commands of Jesus before he dies reveal an understanding beyond their primary reference to Mary and “the beloved disciple” as individuals. The reciprocal roles of the ‘woman’ and the ‘disciple’ are related to the identity of the Church. Elsewhere in John, the beloved disciple is presented as the model disciple of Jesus, the one closest to him who never deserted him, the object of Jesus’ love, and the ever-faithful witness (13:25, 19:26, 20:1-10, 21:20-25). Understood in terms of discipleship, Jesus’ dying words give Mary a motherly role in the Church and encourage the community of disciples to embrace her as a spiritual mother.

27 A corporate understanding of ‘woman’ also calls the Church constantly to behold Christ crucified, and calls each disciple to care for the Church as mother. Implicit here perhaps is a Mary-Eve typology: just as the first ‘woman’ was taken from Adam’s ‘rib’ (Genesis 2:22, pleura LXX) and became the mother of all the living (Genesis 3:20), so the ‘woman’ Mary is, on a spiritual level, the mother of all who gain true life from the water and blood that flow from the side (Greek pleura, literally ‘rib’) of Christ (19:34) and from the Spirit that is breathed out from his triumphant sacrifice (19:30, 20:22, cf. 1 John 5:8).

In such symbolic and corporate readings, images for the Church, Mary and discipleship interact with one another. Mary is seen as the personification of Israel, now giving birth to the Christian community (cf. Isaiah 54:1, 66:7-8), just as she had given birth earlier to the Messiah (cf. Isaiah 7:14).

When John’s account of Mary at the beginning and end of Jesus’ ministry is viewed in this light, it is difficult to speak of the Church without thinking of Mary, the Mother of the Lord, as its archetype and first realization."

The Prayer of Mary: "Vinum non habent"

Gerónimo Nadal (1507-1580),

Adnotationes et meditationes in Evangelia : [cum Imaginibus et lineis rubris]

1595

The Bavarian State Library, Munich

Pope Benedict has cited Mary`s prayer as a model:

"Mary leaves everything to the Lord's judgement.

At Nazareth she gave over her will, immersing it in the will of God: “Here am I, the servant of the Lord; let it be with me according to your word” (Lk 1:38). And this continues to be her fundamental attitude.

This is how she teaches us to pray: not by seeking to assert before God our own will and our own desires, however important they may be, however reasonable they might appear to us, but rather to bring them before him and to let him decide what he intends to do.

From Mary we learn graciousness and readiness to help, but we also learn humility and generosity in accepting God's will, in the confident conviction that, whatever it may be, it will be our, and my own, true good."

(Pope Benedict XVI, Homily of Monday, 11 September 2006)

In his Purgatorio, Dante uses this prayer on the Second Terrace where those guilty of the sin of Envy are being purified. The prayer is seen as part of the cure for Envy.

Dante and Virgil first hear voices on the air telling stories of Charity, selfless generosity, the opposite virtue.

"The first voice that passed onward in its flight,
29 Vinum non habent, said in accents loud,
30 And went reiterating it behind us."
(Dante, Purgatory. Canto 13. Lines 28 - 30 trans Longfellow)

In the same way that Christ transformed water into wine at Cana, Dante reminds us that by the grace of God, those in Purgatory are transformed.

Mary`s order: " "Do whatever he tells you." ( Quodcumque dixerit vobis, facite)

These are Mary`s last recorded words in Scripture. They are in the form of a command

They are simple and direct. The words need no elaboration.

Pope Benedict used the words to make an exhortation:

"Mary told the servants to turn to Jesus and gave them a precise order: “Do whatever he tells you” (Jn 2:5). Treasure these words, the last to be spoken by Mary as recorded in the Gospels, as it were, a spiritual testament of hers, and you will always have the joy of the celebration: Jesus is the wine of the feast!"

(Pope Benedict XVI. Speech at Ancona, Italy September 2011)

The Year of Faith

noreply@blogger.com (terry) — Sat, 14 Jan 2012 12:16:00 +0000

Francisco de Zurbarán 1598 - 1664

Aparición del Apóstol San Pedro a San Pedro Nolasco

The Vision of St Peter to St Peter Nolasco

1629

Oil on canvas

179 cm x 223 cm

Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

Giovanni Paolo Panini 1691 – 1765

Ruinas con San Pablo predicando

St Paul prophesying amongst the Ruins

1735

Oil on canvas

63 cm x 48 cm

Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

The announcemnt of "The Year of Faith" from 11 October 2012, on the 50th anniversary of the opening of the Second Ecumenical Vatican Council, and ending on 24 November 2013, the Solemnity of our Lord Jesus Christ, Universal King has not attracted much comment. From some circles the silence has been deafening.

It is only the second time that such a year has been called. The first was called in 1967 by Paul VI. It was called then to commemorate the martyrdom of Saints Peter and Paul on the 19th centenary of their supreme act of witness.

It is the invitation of the Holy Father to live fully the Year as a special "time of grace." It is a call for renewal of the Faith and its dissemination and transmission

Pope Benedict XVI set out his reasons and aiims for calling the Year in his Apostolic Letter Porta Fidei

He said:

"We want this Year to arouse in every believer the aspiration to profess the faith in fullness and with renewed conviction, with confidence and hope. It will also be a good opportunity to intensify the celebration of the faith in the liturgy, especially in the Eucharist, which is “the summit towards which the activity of the Church is directed; ... and also the source from which all its power flows.”

At the same time, we make it our prayer that believers’ witness of life may grow in credibility. To rediscover the content of the faith that is professed, celebrated, lived and prayed,and to reflect on the act of faith, is a task that every believer must make his own, especially in the course of this Year."

Central to the preparation for the Year and the Year itself will be The Catechism of the Catholic Church

which as both the Pope and the Congregation emphasised was the fruit of Vatican II

Envy and Jealousy

noreply@blogger.com (terry) — Tue, 10 Jan 2012 22:14:00 +0000

Nicolas Poussin (1594-1665)

Le Temps soustrait la Vérité aux atteintes de l'Envie et de la Discorde

Time rescues Truth from the Clutches of Envy and Discord

1641 - 1642

Oil on canvas

Diameter: 297 cm

Musée du Louvre, Paris

The painting was commissioned by the great Cardinal de Richelieu for the main office room of his Palace. It was one of a number of works commissioned by the Cardinal from Poussin when the artist was in Paris

The figures are larger than life. It was hung in a very prominent position in the Cardinal`s office. This was the office of the man who had determined the fate of his nation and of Europe for many a long year.

Truth is pulled towards the Light. Truth`s face is lit up in ecstasy and he is stretching out his arms towards his destination of the Light. His face is like marble, like some kind of divinity.

Time is pulling Truth towards the divine destination. Is it Time or Eternity ? The small cherub holding the tail of Time is a symbol of Eternity.

Truth is being rescued from Envy and Discord shown as seated at the bottom of the work.

Envy naturally is coloured green. So are his clothes. As are the serpents which envelop Envy. Venomous green. His face betrays pain, agony and depression.

Red is the colour of Envy`s twin, Discord. The colour of anger and violence. Red is the visage and dress. Like the flames of his lanyard and the wounds inflicted by his dagger.

The red and the green do not conduct friendly debates but all out civil war. It is from these horrific characters that Time rescues Truth in an Assumption or Apotheosis towards the Light.

But did Richelieu intend there to be a religious effect or was it purely political ?

One should remind oneself of Richelieu`s reputed last words:

« Pardonnez- vous à vos ennemis? — Je n'en ai pas eu d'autres que ceux du Roi et de l'État. »

Despite the self justification of the person who commissioned the work, the allegory depicted shows the intimate relation of Envy and Discord and the destruction associated with them. It was a constant and recurrent theme in medieval Church preaching and teaching.

Envy is one of the seven deadly sins.

Basil Cole OP in The Cambridge Dictionary of Christian Theology defines it thus:

"Envy is a sadness at the success or good achieved by another. Someone’s good fortune or even virtue is seen by someone captivated by this vice as a personal threat.

Its offspring are tale-bearing, detraction, joy at another’s misfortune, and grief at another’s prosperity.

The Catechism adds to this notion that it is a refusal of charity (§2540), which would be a rejoicing in the goodness of someone else as a gift from God to the community"

Envy is an offence of the Second Great Command: "Love Your Neighbour as Yourself". It was set out in the Tenth Commandment which according to the Catechism (§2534) "concerns the intentions of the heart; with the ninth, it summarizes all the precepts of the Law."

It is not a frequent theme in the visual arts. Here is a work from the 15th Century

Antonio della Corna (active last quarter of the 15th Century)

Saint Julian the Hospitaller believing to surprise his Wife and a Lover, Kills His Parents

c. 1488

Oil on panel

53 by 60 1/8 in.; 134.5 by 152.7 cm.

Private collection

The Cremonese artist Della Corna may have been a pupil of Mantegna

The Latin inscription in the painting HOC Q[UOD] MANTENEE DIDICI[T] SVB DOGMATE/ CLARI-/ ANTONI CORNE DEXTERA PINXIT/ OPVS can be translated thus: This work, which he learned under the instruction of the famous Mantegna, was painted by the hand of Antonio della Corna'

But the theme of envy and jealousy is certainly not infrequent in literature. But it was not and is not a popular theme.

An early example is found in that great unread and ignored work: The Parson`s Tale in The Canterbury Tales

It was probably meant by Chaucer to be the last Tale and the climax of his work.

The Parson calls envy the worst of sins, a sin against the Holy Spirit itself. Its gravity is because,

"for in truth, all other sins are at times directed against one special virtue alone. But envy takes sorrow in all the blessings of his neighbour" ("Parson’s Tale," 488-489).

.In her last novel The Finishing School, Dame Muriel Spark considered the vices of envy and jealousy. It is a fascinating insight into the most destructive of emotions.

Envy and jealousy dominate the relationship of Rowland and Chris. Rowland is a teacher at the Finishing School where one of his pupils is Chris. Rowland teaches creative writing and is an author manque Chris seems to be successful in writing his first novel. Rowland has dried up.

His envy of Chris grows and eventually the result is mutual self-destruction:

"But we come back to Chris as he and his two friends were watched from the window by Rowland: of all the pupils Chris caused Rowland the most disquiet. He was writing a novel, yes. Rowland, too, was writing a novel, and he wasn’t going to say how good he thought Chris was.

A faint twinge of that jealousy which was to mastermind Rowland’s coming months, growing in intensity small hour by hour, seized Rowland as he looked.

What was Chris talking about to the two others? Was he discussing the lesson he had just left?

Rowland wanted greatly to enter Chris’s mind. He was ostensibly a close warm friend of Chris — and in a way it was a true friendship — Where did Chris get his talent? He was self-assured.

‘You know, Chris,’ Rowland had said, ‘I don’t think you’re on the right lines. You might scrap it and start again.’...

According to the catechism of the Roman Catholic faith, into which Rowland had been born, six sins against the Holy Spirit are specified. The fourth is ‘Envy of Another’s Spiritual Good’, and that was the sin from which Rowland suffered.

Suffered is the right word, as it often is in cases where the perpetrators are in the clutches of their own distortions. With Rowland, his obsessive jealousy of Chris was his greatest misfortune. And jealousy is an affliction of the spirit which, unlike some sins of the flesh, gives no-one any pleasure. It is a miserable emotion for the jealous one with equally miserable effects on others.....

Chris pondered on the nature of jealousy. ... although he knew the sensation, and could recognize it in others. He had sometimes envied other boys, and recognized the feeling as a sort of admiration. He knew what it was to want what others had and that he had not, such as a stable family life. And Chris also understood that when it came to looking closely at the thing or condition desired (such as other children’s ‘stable family life’) in fact it didn’t seem so very desirable, if indeed it existed at all.

What is jealousy? Jealousy is to say, what you have got is mine, it is mine, it is mine? Not quite. It is to say, I hate you because you have got what I have not got and desire. I want to be me, myself, but in your position, with youropportunities, your fascination, your looks, your abilities, your spiritual good.

Chris, like any of us, would have been astonished if he had known that Rowland, through jealousy, had thought with some tormented satisfaction of Chris dying in his sleep."

Muriel Spark, The Finishing School

The New-born

noreply@blogger.com (terry) — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 22:37:00 +0000

Georges de La Tour

1593-1652

Le Nouveau-né / The New-born

1630 - 1640s

Oil on canvas

76 x 91 cm

Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rennes

One of the most famous works of the Baroque artist, Georges de La Tour, is undoubtedly Le Nouveau-né

It is an ambiguous work. It is not stated if the subject is Mary and the Christ Child with St Anne. But there is more than a suggestion that it is

It was seized in the Revolution in 1794 from the house of a Royalist émigré from Rennes. Hence the lack of definite knowledge as to what it is meant to portray, when it was painted and for whom

It is a deeply tranquil work with the light being provided by an imaginary candle partly hidden by the figure of the servant or is it St Anne ? The artist is most celebrated for his mysterious candle-lit compositions and attracted many less able imitators.

The light shines softly on the head of the infant child almost as if the baby were the source of the illumination

It has been described as a Caravagesque work no doubt because of the chiaroscuro, the light and shadow produced through the setting at night

However the deceptively simple scene is the product of much work and technique which is almost pointilliste: the mother's dress is achieved by minute dots of colour of varying hue, as is the lilac garment of the figure of St Anne/servant.

The gazes of the adult are filled with love and tenderness totally rapt in the miracle of the birth

Through heightened realism. the great attention to detail and the lack of decor depicted in the scene, our attention is firmly fastened on the three figures. The artist`s genius is to endow the humblest figure with religious authority. He is one of the few painters who can convincingly portray and evoke silence

Ambiguity prevails in the picture. The way the mother holds the child is not free from straightforward interpretation. Is there a hint of sadness in her expression ? Is it stretching the point to say that the mother is holding the child in the way of a Pieta ? A prefiguring of a much less happy occasion when her child is place on her lap after being taken down from the Cross ? The scene is timeless not bound by rules of time and place. The work is a meditation rather than a simple genre painting.

Perhaps the following passage from the Pope`s Urbi et Orbi message of last Christmas puts the work into context:

"“The Word became flesh”. The light of this truth is revealed to those who receive it in faith, for it is a mystery of love. Only those who are open to love are enveloped in the light of Christmas. So it was on that night in Bethlehem, and so it is today. The Incarnation of the Son of God is an event which occurred within history, while at the same time transcending history. In the night of the world a new light was kindled, one which lets itself be seen by the simple eyes of faith, by the meek and humble hearts of those who await the Saviour"

A happy Christmas and Good New Year to one and all. Blogging will return in mid January.

A Pastoral in Winter

noreply@blogger.com (terry) — Mon, 19 Dec 2011 20:43:00 +0000

Jacopo Bassano (Jacopo dal Ponte) (1515-1592)

The Adoration of the Shepherds

Oil on canvas

1.26 m. x 1.00 m

Musée national du château de Fontainebleau, Fontainebleau

Jacopo Bassano (Jacopo dal Ponte) (1515-1592)

The Adoration of the Shepherds

1565-70

Oil on canvas

112,1 x 72,1 cm

Private collection, loaned to The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston

The depiction of shepherds in art and literature is central to the Art of the Pastoral

Even before the Gospels were written, the motif of the shepherd and his sheep represented a simple uncomplicated life in sharp contrast to a more complicated and less ideal way of life

The pastor and his sheep were and are still idealised.

They represent innocence and purity in a corrupted world.

In On Naïve and Sentimental Poetry, Friedrich Schiller wrote:

"The naive way of thinking can accordingly never be a property of a corrupted man, but rather belongs only to children and childlike-minded men. These latter often act and think naively in the midst of the artificial relations of the great world; they forget out of their own beautiful human nature, that they have to do with a corrupt world, and conduct themselves even in the courts of kings with an ingenuousness and innocence as one finds only in the world of shepherds"

They represent the return to a Golden Age which probably never existed.

Bassano`s treatment of the theme is noteworthy. He treated religious subjects as if they were genre or everyday scenes. His naturalness brings the viewer into the scene. We respond to the scene and the goodness of the characters represented

In The New Testament pastors and their sheep crop up many times. They are singled out as amongst the first to be told about The Incarnation. Christ later in his preaching himself sets them up as exemplars, ideals to be imitated and followed.

Shepherds are seen as honest simple plain dealing men, used to hard work, totally and selflessly devoted to their cures.

That is why the latest reports from the Church in Holland are so painful and a matter of deep shame even to those outside Holland who have never had any contact with the Church in Holland.

Geoffrey Chaucer put the matter pithily and beyond answer in The General Prologue:

"And shame it is, if a prest take keep,

A shiten shepherde and a clene sheep."

Mantegna: The Nativity and the Incarnation

noreply@blogger.com (terry) — Sun, 18 Dec 2011 12:22:00 +0000

Andrea Mantegna (1431 - 1506)

The Baby Jesus in a Manger

1450

Miniature on parchment

27,3 cm x 28,3 cm

Ms. Lat. IX, 1 (3496), c. 133v

Biblioteca Nazionale Marciana, Venice

Andrea Mantegna (1431 - 1506)

The Adoration of the Shepherds

c. 1455-1456

Part of the polyptych of San Zeno of Verona

Wood transposed onto canvas

40 cm x 55,6 cm

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Andrea Mantegna (1431 - 1506)

Madonna and Child with Seraphim and Cherubim

ca. 1460

Tempera and gold on wood

Arched top, 17 3/8 x 11 1/4 in. (44.1 x 28.6 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Andrea Mantegna (1431 - 1506)

The Holy Family with Saints Elizabeth and John the Baptist

c. 1500 - 05

Oil on canvas

62,9 cm x 51,3 cm

The Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, Texas

Andrea Mantegna (1431 - 1506)

THe Holy Family with the Family of St John the Baptist

c. 1500

Oil on canvas

40 cm x 169 cm

Basilica di Sant'Andrea, Mantua (Mantova)

Andrea Mantegna (1431 - 1506)

The Adoration of the Magi

c. 1495 - 1500

Oil on canvas

54,6 cm x 70,7 cm

The J.P. Getty Museum, Los Angeles

Andrea Mantegna (1431 - 1506)

The Adoration of the Magi

1460-64

Tempera on wood

86 x 162 cm

Galleria degli Uffizi, Florence

Andrea Mantegna (1431 - 1506)

Presentation in the Temple

c. 1460

Tempera on cloth

67 x 86 cm

Staatliche Museen, Berlin

Andrea Mantegna (1431 - 1506)

Madonna with Sleeping Child

1465-70

Tempera on canvas

43 x 32 cm

Staatliche Museen, Berlin

"For today [Christmas] the Maker of the world was born of a Virgin's womb, and He, who made all natures, became Son of her, whom He created.

Today the Word of God appeared clothed in flesh, and That which had never been visible to human eyes began to be tangible to our hands as well.

Today the shepherds learned from angels' voices that the Saviour was born in the substance of our flesh and soul; and today the form of the Gospel message was pre-arranged by the leaders of the Lord's flocks , so that we too may say with the army of the heavenly host: Glory in the highest to God, and on earth peace to men of good will. ...

[Y]et today's festival renews for us the holy childhood of Jesus born of the Virgin Mary: and in adoring the birth of our Saviour, we find we are celebrating the commencement of our own life.

For the birth of Christ is the source of life for Christian folk, and the birthday of the Head is the birthday of the body.

Although every individual that is called has his own order, and all the sons of the Church are separated from one another by intervals of time, yet as the entire body of the faithful being born in the font of baptism is crucified with Christ in His passion, raised again in His resurrection, and placed at the Father's right hand in His ascension, so with Him are they born in this nativity

(Pope Leo the Great, Sermon 26, On the Feast of the Nativity, VI)

"In a great number of works of art, Jesus Christ - he for whom, according to Saint Peter, everything was created and in whom everything subsists - appears as a baby.

The paradox of a God incarnate, and therefore also of a God as a newborn or as a little child, is represented in all of those cloths, frescoes, mosaics or sculptures, which during many centuries of Christian art have attempted to depict the infancy of the Son of God.

While it is the case that the Gospels recount little about the first years of the life of the Redeemer, the artists have always tried to use their imaginations to remedy this poverty of details, and the patrimony of depiction's where Jesus is portrayed as a baby is very vast.

Many episodes of the infancy of Christ have been translated in visual language: the Nativity, the Adoration of the shepherds, the Adoration of the Magi, the Presentation at the Temple and the Circumcision of Jesus, the Escape to Egypt, Jesus and the Doctors. And that is aside from all of the representations of with the Sacred Family or the Madonna with Child ...

Many sacred writers, in reality, have meditated on the extraordinary fact that the Word, come from the Father, as the perfect God and not susceptible to any development or growth, had made himself similar to us, and therefore child, made to grow in the body and the intelligence, from the first steps of childhood, slowly towards maturity. The artists contemplated this enigma even more than the theologians. "

(Alessandro Scafi, Christ in the World of Art )

Nativity with Saints

noreply@blogger.com (terry) — Sat, 17 Dec 2011 16:46:00 +0000

Pietro di Francesco Orioli (c 1458 – 1496)

The Nativity with Saints

From The Nativity with Saints Altarpiece

c. 1485 - 95

Tempera on wood

187.5 x 155 cm

The National Gallery, London

I have written about Pietro Orioli before.

Orioli was a pupil of Matteo di Giovanni, though he also worked with the multi-talented Francesco di Giorgio. He is thought to have been independently active from the 1480s; his first documented work

The images above are from a work in The National Gallery in London which is only available for viewing once a week (Wednesday)

The work comes from the little chapel of Cerreto Ciampoli, in the Val-d'Arbia part of the Province of Siena. It was part of an altarpiece

In this Nativity scene we see the Virgin and Child with Saint Joseph, God the Father between two angels, John the Baptist, Saint Stephen and possibly a shepherd, Saints Jerome and Nicholas

For the altarpiece see below

THe original Siennese carpentry is still extant

Orioli is known from documents to have been particularly devout

Many experts have commented on the influence on the Siennese artist by the Dominicans, Savonarola and Botticelli

For more information about the artist see the website of the Basilica dell` Osservanza in Siena where the artist is buried

Blessed Hildegard of Bingen

noreply@blogger.com (terry) — Fri, 16 Dec 2011 20:35:00 +0000

It is reported that Blessed Hildegard of Bingen (1097/8-1179) will be made a Saint and then a Doctor of the Church in October 2012, nearly 1000 years after her death

One of the main reasons for the survival of the writings of Blessed Hildegard has been the The Wiesbaden Codex (“Riesencodex“: "giant codex", or “chain codex”) now in the Landesbibliothek Wiesbaden in Wiesbaden, Germany

It is a “definitive edition” of Hildegard’s writings probably finished during her lifetime (i.e., before 1179) or shortly after,

She had knowledge of the project and it involved five or six scribes in her monastery,

Part of Manuscript of Scivias by Hildegard of Bingen in The Wiesbaden ("Giant") Codex

c. 1175/1190

46 x 30 cm

Landesbibliothek Wiesbaden, Wiesbaden, Germany

Shortly after this manuscript other manuscripts were produced including this one of Scivias in the University of Heidelberg dating from about 1190 -1220 (Cod. Sal. X,16, Hildegard von Bingen, Liber Scivias , Zwiefalten und Salem, Ende 12

It has a number of beautiful illustrations. See below

2v Miniatur "Annus"

106r part of Teil III, Vision 1-13

142r part of Teil III, Vision 1-13

167v part of Teil III, Vision 1-13

177r part of Teil III, Vision 1-13

The Seven Joys of Mary

noreply@blogger.com (terry) — Wed, 14 Dec 2011 21:42:00 +0000

Hans Memling (1435-1494)

The Seven Joys of Mary

1480

Oil on oak wood panel

81.3 x 189.2 cm

Alte Pinakothek, Bayerische Staatsgemäldesammlungen, Munich

There is some dispute about this picture. Not about the artist which is quite beyond doubt. It is about the title and what it is meant to depict.

The old title was and is The Seven Joys of Mary. These "Joys" do not coincide with the Five Joyful Mysteries of the Rosary

The seven joys are usually listed as: The Annunciation, The Nativity of Jesus, The Adoration of the Magi, The Resurrection of Christ, The Ascension of Christ to Heaven, The Pentecost or Descent of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles and Mary, and The Coronation of the Virgin in Heaven. There are variants. It was a common theme in medieval devotional painting and literature

The events depicted in Memling`s work all have a Marian joyful theme: the Annunciation, the Nativity, the Visit of the Three Wise Men, the escape from the Massacre of the Innocents (and presumably The Flight into Egypt), the Resurrection of Jesus with the appearances of Christ after the Resurrection, Pentecost, the Death and Assumption of Mary

Others have interpreted Memling`s work as The Advent and Triumph of Christ, the story of the Salvation through the Incarnation and the Resurrection. But if that was the case one wonders where are, for example,the depictions of the Baptism of Christ, the Institution of the Eucharist, the Passion and the Crucifixion,

Another title given to the work is The Panorama of the Epiphany. Again that seems to restrict the themes in the painting and undermine or deny the role of Mary in the work.

The Munich Gallery still refers to Memling`s picture as "The Seven Joys of Mary". To deny that the thread to all the images depicted is Mary is to perhaps ignore the obvious.

THe use of the old title is reinforced by the fact that the work was commissioned for the Tanner's Guild Chapel in the Church of Our Lady in Bruges

The donor, Pieter Bultync, is depicted in the painting on the left with his sons, and his wife Katharina van Riebeke is on the right.

One does wonder why some people have denied or continue to deny the obvious theme of the painting

Which leads us on to consider the word "Joy". Especially as last Sunday was "Gaudete Sunday"

The Pope took the proper meaning of the word "Joy" as his theme for last Sunday`s Angelus

Is "joy" different from "happiness"? The French seem to use two words: "joie" and "bonheur". English has two words too: "joy" and "happiness" but the words seem to be used interchangeably

The essence of true "joy" according to the Pope seems to be that it is permanent and not temporary, and that it does not derive by our own acts but from a divine source:

"True joy is not a mere passing state of soul, nor something that is achieved by our own power but is a gift; it is born from the encounter with the living person of Jesus, from making space for him in us, from welcoming the Holy Spirit who guides our life."

One does not readily associate the latter years of Pope Paul VI with Joy. He became very ill, anxious and frail. Yet in 1975 he wrote and published an Apostolic Exhortation Gaudete in Domino (Rejoice in the Lord), all devoted to an exposition to the theme of Christian Joy

In quite a prophetic passage which Pope Benedict seemed to echo in his Sunday Angelus, Pope Paul VI wrote:

"When he awakens to the world, does not man feel, in addition to the natural desire to understand and take possession of it, the desire to find within it his fulfillment and happiness?

As everyone knows, there are several degrees of this "happiness." Its most noble expression is joy, or "happiness" in the strict sense, when man, on the level of his higher faculties, finds his peace and satisfaction in the possession of a known and loved good.

Thus, man experiences joy when he finds himself in harmony with nature, and especially in the encounter, sharing and communion with other people. All the more does he know spiritual joy or happiness when his spirit enters into possession of God, known and loved as the supreme and immutable good.

Poets, artists, thinkers, but also ordinary men and women, simply disposed to a certain inner light, have been able and still are able, in the times before Christ and in our own time and among us, to experience something of the joy of God.

But how can we ignore the additional fact that joy is always imperfect, fragile and threatened?

By a strange paradox, the consciousness of that which, beyond all passing pleasure, would constitute true happiness, also includes the certainty that there is no perfect happiness. The experience of finiteness, felt by each generation in its turn, obliges one to acknowledge and to plumb the immense gap that always exists between reality and the desire for the infinite.

This paradox, and this difficulty in attaining joy, seem to us particularly acute today. This is the reason for our message.

Technological society has succeeded in multiplying the opportunities for pleasure, but it has great difficulty in generating joy. For joy comes from another source. It is spiritual.

Money, comfort, hygiene and material security are often not lacking; and yet boredom, depression and sadness unhappily remain the lot of many. These feelings sometimes go as far as anguish and despair, which apparent carefreeness, the frenzies of present good fortune and artificial paradises cannot assuage.

Do people perhaps feel helpless to dominate industrial progress, to plan society in a human way? Does the future perhaps seem too uncertain, human life too threatened? Or is it not perhaps a matter of loneliness, of an unsatisfied thirst for love and for someone's presence, of an ill-defined emptiness? On the contrary, in many regions and sometimes in our midst, the sum of physical and moral sufferings weighs heavily: so many starving people, so many victims of fruitless combats, so many people torn from their homes! These miseries are perhaps not deeper than those of the past but they have taken on a worldwide dimension. They are better known, reported by the mass media—at least as much as the events of good fortune—and they overwhelm people's minds. Often there seems to be no adequate human solution to them."

And so back to the painting.

What the artist has depicted is Mary`s encounters with God: God the Father and the Holy Spirit at the Annunciation, the pregnancy and life with her Son, and the reception by her of The Holy Spirit at Pentecost and then her encounter with the Trinity. A life filled with Grace and by act of Divine Grace

One of the poorest of the poor, fragile and threatened by outside human forces, challenged by the vicissitudes and turmoils, she was and is triumphant filled with holy and everlasting Joy and forever in union with with The Trinity through Her Son.

Pope Paul VI perhaps summed it up best and completely in his Apostolic Exhortation, at a time when after The Second Vatican Council some thought that Mary was being "written out" of the Catholic Church:

"She [Mary], accepting the announcement from on high, the Servant of the Lord, Spouse of the Spirit and Mother of the Eternal Son, manifests her joy before her cousin Elizabeth who celebrates her faith:

"My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior...henceforth all generations will call me blessed."

She has grasped, better than all other creatures, that God accomplishes wonderful things: His name is holy, He shows His mercy, He raises up the humble, He is faithful to His promises.

Not that the apparent course of her life in any way departs from the ordinary, but she meditates on the least signs of God, pondering them in her heart.

Not that she is in any way spared sufferings: she stands, the mother of sorrows, at the foot of the cross, associated in an eminent way with the sacrifice of the innocent Servant.

But she is also open in an unlimited degree to the joy of the resurrection; and she is also taken up, body and soul, into the glory of heaven.

The first of the redeemed, immaculate from the moment of her conception, the incomparable dwelling-place of the Spirit, the pure abode of the Redeemer of mankind, she is at the same time the beloved Daughter of God and, in Christ, the Mother of all.

She is the perfect model of the Church both on earth and in glory. What a marvelous echo the prophetic words about the new Jerusalem find in her wonderful existence as the Virgin of Israel:

"I will greatly rejoice in the Lord, my soul shall exult in my God; for he has clothed me with the garment of salvation, he has covered me with the robe of righteousness, as a bridegroom decks himself with a garland and as a bride adorns herself with her jewels."

With Christ, she sums up in herself all joys; she lives the perfect joy promised to the Church: Mater plena sanctae laetitiae. And it is with good reason that her children on earth, turning to her who is the mother of hope and of grace, invoke her as the cause of their joy: Causa nostrae laetitiae."

A Celebration of Poverty

noreply@blogger.com (terry) — Sun, 11 Dec 2011 20:24:00 +0000

Guido Reni 1575 - 1642

The Adoration of the Shepherds

About 1640

Oil on canvas

480 x 321 cm

The National Gallery, London

This work was possibly commissioned by Prince Karl Eusebius of Lichtenstein (who died in 1684).

The National Gallery acquired it from the Prince`s descendants in 1957.

Before the acquisition, some of the Trustees went to Vaduz to see it. It was in a very dark room. It was decided to take the painting outside. Unfortunately the wind took hold of it and it smashed into a fencepost. The post left a huge hole in the painting next to the head of one of the shepherds.

The National Gallery continued with the purchase no doubt on the well known retail concept of "If you break it, you own it"

After it was repaired the huge work stayed in the same room in the Gallery for nearly fifty years before it went to be restored. It is back after a period of three years in the National Gallery`s "backshop".

It is a late work of Reni`s and probably many of Reni`s assistants were involved in the actual production of the work.

On or about the same time Reni also was commissioned to carry out the same work for the Charterhouse of Saint Martin in Naples. It is still there. (See below)

Guido Reni 1575 - 1642

The Adoration of the Shepherds

About 1641

Oil on canvas

485 x 350 cm

Certosa e Museo di San Martino, Naples

It is a classic Nativity scene. Perhaps we are inured to its theme

Years ago, images of such scenes were extremely common especially on Christmas cards. Now such images are much fewer and have to compete with "secular" Christmas cards with no Christian symbols.

In many ways it is quite understandable. The image is counter-cultural to say the least.

In a season now dedicated to conspicuous consumption and self-indulgence, it is almmost a crime to be poor. It is not good marketing therefore to put traditional images to the fore and to bring to customers` minds the uncomfortable idea of poverty.

Yet what Reni depicts is a scene of great poverty and simplicity. It is being glorified. It is being celebrated.

There is absolutely no doubt that the second person of the Trinity chose to be born to a family and setting of great poverty.

At the Presentation at the Temple of Jerusalem when Mary and Joseph brought their first born son to be redeemed, they did not bring a lamb and a turtledove for sacrifice but the poor person`s option: a pair of turtledoves, or two young pigeons (See: Luke 2:22-40 and Leviticus 12)

Pope Benedict XVI discussed this on 1st January 2009 in his Homily in which he referred to his Message for the World Day of Peace entitled: "Fighting poverty to build peace"

"I believe that the Virgin Mary must have asked herself this question several times: why did Jesus choose to be born of a simple, humble girl like me? And then, why did he want to come into the world in a stable and have his first visit from the shepherds of Bethlehem?

Mary received her answer in full at the end, having laid in the tomb the Body of Jesus, dead and wrapped in a linen shroud (cf. Lk 23: 53). She must then have fully understood the mystery of the poverty of God.

She understood that God made himself poor for our sake, to enrich us with his poverty full of love, to urge us to impede the insatiable greed that sparks conflicts and divisions, to invite us to moderate the mania to possess and thus to be open to reciprocal sharing and acceptance."

Science and Religion

noreply@blogger.com (terry) — Sat, 10 Dec 2011 10:30:00 +0000

From Aristotle`s Ethics: Science, Art, Wisdom and Listening

15th century Manuscript

34.5 x 25 cm

Musée Condé, Chantilly

The Faraday Institute for Science and Religion is an interdisciplinary research enterprise based at St Edmund's College, Cambridge. In addition to academic research, the Institute engages in the public understanding of science and religion

Amongst the fascinating lectures available in podcast form are those on Astronomy and Biblical events.

Professor Sir Colin Humphreys is Director of Research in the Department of Materials Science and Metallurgy at the University of Cambridge and has delivered a number of lectures on the following topics:

Astronomy and the date of the Crucifixion

Science and the dating of the Easter week events

They are interesting as the Professor demonstrates how Science can come to the aid of upholding the historicity of Jesus and events narrated in Scripture.

There are also many lectures by John Charlton Polkinghorne KBE FRS (born 16 October 1930). He is an English theoretical physicist, theologian, writer, and Anglican priest. He was professor of Mathematical physics at the University of Cambridge from 1968 to 1979

Some of his lectures include:

The Interaction between Science and Theology

Theology in a Scientific Context

Crivelli and the Madonna and Child

noreply@blogger.com (terry) — Thu, 08 Dec 2011 23:10:00 +0000

Carlo Crivelli 1430/35 - 1495

Virgin and Child

c. 1480

Tempera on panel, 49 x 34 cm

Victoria and Albert Museum, London

Carlo Crivelli 1430/35 - 1495

Madonna and Child

c. 1480

Tempera and gold on wood, 37.8 x 25.4 cm

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Crivelli specialised in exquisite devotional paintings of the Madonna and Child

Here are two examples: one in The Victoria and Albert Museum in London known as "The Jones Madonna" (after the donor of the work to the V and A), and the other in The Metropolitan Museum in New York. Both were meant probably as private devotional paintings.

They are intricate works full of devotional symbolism which probably for the modern taste are perhaps slightly overbearing.

With the pre-Raphelites, Crivelli`s reputation increased and then fell again. Now there is a recrudescence of interest in the artist.

The apple is the symbol of Death which arose from the eating of the apple in the Garden of Eden.

The gourd is the symbol of recovery and redemption, of Resurrection deriving from the experiences of Jonah.

The fly is associated with Satan, the great Tempter. The fly is bearer of evil or pestilence, a symbol of sin

The goldfinch is associated with the Passion and Christ's Crown of Thorns because the bird feeds among thorns. One recalls Raphael’s painting, “Madonna of the Goldfinch,” again showing an Infant Jesus lovingly stroking a goldfinch.

THe fly and the goldfinch were often shown together as the goldfinch is the eater of flies, a saviour against disease harboured by the fly

The commentary by the Victoria and Albert on its work is masterly and worth reading in full.

Here is what the Museum says about the symbolism in the work in the V and A:

"[T]he painting shows the Virgin's half-length figure standing before a parapet holding the Child against her.

Behind her is a dark red embroidered dossal, across which hangs a swag of fruits with figs and peaches. Reminiscent of Mantegna's art, these are not only depicted for decorative purposes but enhance the devotional significance of the image. They enclose Christian symbolical meanings and relate to the story of Christ: Redemption (peach) and Fertility (fig).

Behind the dossal or cloth of honour is a bird-view of a hilly landscape showing on the left flourishing trees and on the right an isolated leafless tree. Again, trees are symbolically important in the religious iconography and act as a link between the sky, the earth and hell.

As flourishing, they allude to the regeneration whereas leafless trees stand for a prediction of death.

Furthermore, the leafless tree, an important feature in Veneto-Paduan devotional art of the 1450s (Lightbown, 2004), may allude to the Tree of Knowledge which is believed to have survived under this form in the Earthly Paradise. This bare tree already appeared in the early Bergamo Madonna and in other compositions by Mantegna and Schiavone (see Mantegna, Agony in the Garden (1460) and Schiavone's Madonna, (late 1450s) both in The National Gallery, London).

Symbols for life and death pervade the composition, which structure reiterates this idea with the parapet, cracked all'antica, which is sometimes interpreted as an altar, alluding thus to the coming sacrifice of Christ.

On the parapet are two more symbolic flowers: the pink or carnation which relates since the Middle Ages to the Passion of Christ while violets are Marian flowers enhancing her humility and purity.

These floral symbols are counterbalanced by the fly on the parapet far right, which represents evil and justify somehow the coming sacrifice of Christ for the redemption of mankind.

Small devotional pictures of this kind were made to solicit prayers and meditation from the believer who was supposed to look at it.

This is the purpose of the symbolical fruits which act as reminders of the religious credo and the reason why the Virgin and the Child are looking in two different directions so as to embrace the whole family kneeling before them"

Here is what seems to be the prototype of the Metropolitan work once situated in the Church of San Francesco in Alto in Ancona and now hanging in the city gallery in Ancona

Carlo Crivelli 1430/35 - 1495

Madonna and Child

Tempera on panel

21 cm x 15,5 cm

Pinacoteca Civica, Ancona

Here is another on the same theme which is in a private collection

Carlo Crivelli 1430/35 - 1495

The Madonna and Child at a marble parapet, an apple and a gourd hanging from a niche behind

1490 - 3

Tempera on panel

61.3 x 44 cm

Private collection

A Treasure of San Silvestro

noreply@blogger.com (terry) — Wed, 07 Dec 2011 21:01:00 +0000

Paolo Veronese (aka Paolo Caliari) 1528 - 1588

The Adoration of the Kings

1573

Oil on canvas

355.6 x 320 cm

The National Gallery, London

Veronese painted this beautiful work in 1573 for the Church of San Silvestro in Venice. There it remained against a wall of the nave beside a chapel of the Confraternity of St Joseph until the middle of the nineteenth century.

When the church was remodelled in the mid 19th century, this and some other works were sold. Purportedly because they were too large for the new setting. Probably simply to raise money for the refurbishment and to replace them with some nineteenth century works.

First it was crated up and brought to Paris where it was to be offered to Baron James Rothschild. However he sold it on and The National Gallery acquired it in 1855 for the princely sum of £1,977 (now £135,000 using RPI to £1,180,000.00 using average earnings) plus £2 2s. 2d. for carriage from Paris

The purchase of the painting did cause some controvery. Questions were asked in "the House".

Hansard for the time reported:

"NATIONAL GALLERY—PICTURE OF "THE ADORATION OF THE MAGI."— QUESTION.HC Deb 14 March 1856 vol 141 c150

§ MR. OTWAY said, he begged to ask the hon. Gentleman the Secretary of the Treasury if it was true that £1,977 had been paid for the picture of "The Adoration of the Magi," recently placed in the National Gallery, and whether that sum included all the expenses occasioned to the country by the acquisition of that picture; by whose recommendation the picture had been purchased, and on what authority it was stated to be painted by Paolo Veronese?

§ MR. WILSON, in reply said, that £1,977 was the whole sum which this picture would cost, with the exception of £2 2s. 2d. paid for its carriage from Paris. All other expenses were paid by the seller. The purchase of the picture was recommended solely by the director of the National Gallery, but was acquiesced in and decided upon by the trustees. Whatever difference of opinion there might be as to the value of the picture, there could, he thought, be none as to its authenticity, for it stood in the position of being, perhaps, the best authenticated picture of the kind in the world. In Venice, where the picture had remained from the time of its being painted up to a very recent date, it was well known to have been the production of Paolo Veronese; and besides that, it was mentioned as his work and as belonging to the church from which it had been taken, in a book which was published in 1581, eight years after the date at which it was painted, and seven years before the death of the artist. In the British Museum there was a print of the picture, which was engraved in the year 1649."

Modern art experts and authorities now consider that perhaps Veronese himself was only responsible for the Virgin and Child. It would seem that it may be that the Virgin and Child together with the rest may have been painted by the followers of Jacopo Bassano.

Veronese also executed a number of variations of the same basic composition, for example showing the foremost wise man kissing Christ's foot

His studio and followers also used the same or a similar composition.

One does wonder who came off best: the church in Venice or the British taxpayer ?

A Daring Picture in The National Gallery

noreply@blogger.com (terry) — Tue, 06 Dec 2011 22:36:00 +0000

Carlo Crivelli (about 1430/5 - about 1494)

The Immaculate Conception

1492

Egg on wood

194.3 x 93.3 cm

Signed; Dated and inscribed

The National Gallery, London

According to The National Gallery in London, while Columbus was discovering The New World, Crivelli was painting this depiction of The Immaculate Conception.

According also to the Gallery, this painting may be the earliest dated picture of the Virgin of the Immaculate Conception.

If any masterpiece should be exhibited in a Church (as Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor once suggested), it would surely be this one

It was commissioned for the Franciscan church of San Francesco, Pergola in Central Italy.

The setting of the Franciscan Church is significant. The Franciscan order was the great champion agaiinst the Dominicans of the Doctrine of The Immaculate Conception. In 1476 it was the Franciscan Pope, Sixtus IV, who issued the Decree in the post below which launched the Franciscan viewpoint on the Universal Church

On the banner are inscribed the words:

"VT. INMENTE. DEI. ABINITIO. CONCEPTA. FVI. ITA. ET. FACTA. SVM."

(As from the beginning I was conceived in the mind of God, so have I in like manner been conceived in the flesh.)

It was purchased by The National Gallery in 1874 and quite a remarkable acquisition it was. Considering that the Declaration of the Dogma of the Immaculate Conception had provoked protest and outrage amongst pious Anglicans as had the First Vatican Council and its Decrees in 1870 in particular about Papal Infallibility.

The Gallery proceeded very cautiously. It could not as a public institution display a work which would have caused deep offence and outrage. It seems to have named the picture "THe Virgin in Ecstasy" rather than "The Immaculate Conception". Here is what an English biographer wrote of the painting in 1910:

"To the next year (1492) belongs the masterpiece in the National Gallery (No. 906) known as " The Virgin in Ecstasy (The Conception)" but which rather presents (as the appended text shows) the idea which is the foundation of the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception, combined with the "Coronation" of the glorified mother.

It is intended, in fact, to bring before us not the historical mother of Christ so much as that mediaeval conception of the mystical being of Ecclesiasticus and the Book of Wisdom, existing from all time in the mind of God as the instrument of the Incarnation, and returning to share the glory of her divine Son.

Crivelli has expressed with rare distinction that combination of humility and awe with a sense of personal dignity which befits this ideal of the Virgin. In herself she is an imposing figure, but she is absorbed in the divine influences which mould her destiny.

Never did Crivelli come nearer to the grand style than in this magnificent conception.

For the first time we find here in the Virgin a new type of features which we shall notice in others of these latest works. It may be described as more academical than the naive, girlish Virgins of the earlier time.

The flying angels are also new, and remind us of similar figures in Umbrian art. It is possible that Crivelli may have received them from that source."

(G. McNeil Rushforth, Crivelli 1910)

Even in 1910 one had to be careful what one said about the picture.

Even today people can have strong adverse reactions to the Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception as can be seen from some of the reactions to paragraphs 59 and 60 of the ARCIC Mary: Grace and Hope in Christ (2005) on The Immaculate Conception:

"59 Roman Catholics are also bound to believe that “the most blessed Virgin Mary was, from the first moment of her conception, by a singular grace and privilege of almighty God and in view of the merits of Christ Jesus the Saviour of the human race, preserved immune from all stain of original sin” (Dogma of the Immaculate Conception of Mary, defined by Pope Pius IX, 1854). The definition teaches that Mary, like all other human beings, has need of Christ as her Saviour and Redeemer (cf. Lumen Gentium 53; Catechism of the Catholic Church 491).

The negative notion of ‘sinlessness’ runs the risk of obscuring the fullness of Christ’s saving work. It is not so much that Mary lacks something which other human beings ‘have’, namely sin, but that the glorious grace of God filled her life from the beginning. The holiness which is our end in Christ (cf. 1 John 3:2-3) was seen, by unmerited grace, in Mary, who is the prototype of the hope of grace for humankind as a whole.

According to the New Testament, being ‘graced’ has the connotation of being freed from sin through Christ’s blood (Ephesians 1:6-7). The Scriptures point to the efficacy of Christ’s atoning sacrifice even for those who preceded him in time (cf. 1 Peter 3:19, John 8:56, 1 Corinthians 10:4).

Here again the eschatological perspective illuminates our understanding of Mary’s person and calling. In view of her vocation to be the mother of the Holy One (Luke 1:35), we can affirm together that Christ’s redeeming work reached ‘back’ in Mary to the depths of her being, and to her earliest beginnings.

This is not contrary to the teaching of Scripture, and can only be understood in the light of Scripture. Roman Catholics can recognize in this what is affirmed by the dogma - namely “preserved from all stain of original sin” and “from the first moment of her conception.”

60 We have agreed together that the teaching about Mary in the two definitions of 1854 and 1950, understood within the biblical pattern of the economy of grace and hope outlined here, can be said to be consonant with the teaching of the Scriptures and the ancient common traditions.

However, in Roman Catholic understanding as expressed in these two definitions, the proclamation of any teaching as dogma implies that the teaching in question is affirmed to be “ revealed by God” and therefore to be believed “firmly and constantly” by all the faithful (i.e. it is de fide). The problem which the dogmas may present for Anglicans can be put in terms of Article VI:

Holy Scripture containeth all things necessary to salvation: so that whatsoever is not read therein, nor may be proved thereby, is not to be required of any man, that it should be believed as an article of the Faith, or be thought requisite or necessary to salvation

We agree that nothing can be required to be believed as an article of faith unless it is revealed by God.

The question arises for Anglicans, however, as to whether these doctrines concerning Mary are revealed by God in a way which must be held by believers as a matter of faith"

An Unusual Iconography

noreply@blogger.com (terry) — Mon, 05 Dec 2011 22:25:00 +0000

Giovanni Francesco Barbieri : Il Guercino (1591 - 1666)

The Immaculate Conception

c. 1656

Oil on canvas

259 x 180 cm

Pinacoteca "F. Podesti", Ancona

This is one of the artist's late works. He was a highly prestigious artist of religious works, celebrated as one of the greatest painters of his day

In his late works, Il Guercino exhibited 'a mastery of tender and tranquil colour' (Ellis K. Waterhouse, Italian Baroque Painting, London, 1962, p. 115).

It would appear that this was a work meant and commissioned for private devotion

For a Baroque artist in the Counter-Reformation, it is noteworthy that the iconography used is different from the standard iconography of the time. There is no crown of stars. And God the Father is present.

She does stand on the crescent moon, reminiscent of the Apocalypse but she does not crush the serpent. There is no serpent

It is a meditation on two of the main Scriptural foundations for the Doctrine of the Immaculate Conception:

"And the angel being come in, said unto her: Hail, full of grace, the Lord is with thee: blessed art thou among women" (Luke 1:28)

"And she [Elizabeth] cried out with a loud voice, and said: Blessed art thou among women" (Luke 1:42)

The first quote is the angel`s greeting to Mary at the Annunciation. The second, of course, is the greeting of St Elizabeth to Mary at the Visitation

The Angel`s greeting to Mary had never been applied to any human being before

The painting depicts what Blessed Pope PIus IX said two centuries later in Ineffabilis Deus (1854):

"In like manner did [The Fathers and writers of the Church] use the words of the prophets to describe this wondrous abundance of divine gifts and the original innocence of the Virgin of whom Jesus was born.

They celebrated the august Virgin as ... as the ark and house of holiness which Eternal Wisdom built, and as that Queen who, abounding in delights and leaning on her Beloved, came forth from the mouth of the Most High, entirely perfect, beautiful, most dear to God and never stained with the least blemish."

The Immaculate Conception

noreply@blogger.com (terry) — Sun, 04 Dec 2011 20:30:00 +0000

Jean Bellegambe (c. 1470 - c. 1534)

L`Immaculée Conception (part of Triptych)

Exterior doors: St Anne and St Joachim

In Grisaille with touch of red in the faces

Interior: The Church (Pope Sixtus IV and his advisers and the donors of the work (the family of Jean Poltier) in prayer

1526

Oil on wood

333 x 113cm

Musée de la Chartreuse, Douai

Jean Bellegambe (c. 1470 - c. 1534)

St Anne and the Conception of Mary

1515-1520

Oil on wood

36 x 26 cm

Musée de la Chartreuse, Douai

Jean Bourdichon c 1457 - 1521

The Meeting of St Anne and St Joachim at the Golden Gate in Jerusalem From The Breviary of King René II of Lorraine

c. 1520

Illuminated manuscript: miniature

Musée du Petit-Palais, Paris

The Immaculate Conception, the conception of Mary free from original sin was not easily depicted in medieval art.

By God's own choice, Mary was filled with deifying grace from the moment of her conception so she might be fittingly honoured as the all-holy Mother of the Incarnate Word.

The above two images are examples where the focus is put on St Anne and her pregnancy as a means to establish that Mary was a special person selected by God from the moment of her conception.

No doubt there were at one time many examples of such iconography. However the iconoclasm at The Reformation singled out images of the Virgin for special destruction

One other problem was that although the balance and weight of opinion was in favour of the Doctrine, there appeared to be a substantial body of opinion against the Doctrine (St. Bernard of Clairvaux (1090-1153), St. Albert the Great (1206-1280) and St. Thomas Aquinas (c. 1275-1274))

But St Thomas Aquinas held ""If the soul of the Blessed Virgin had never incurred the stain of original sin, it would be derogatory to the dignity of Christ, by reason of His being the universal Saviour of all.'

Therefore, he concluded that, "the Blessed Virgin did indeed contract original sin, but was cleansed therefrom before her birth from the womb."

In reply to certain Dominican preachers who preached that the Doctrine was a heresy, the Franciscan Pope Sixtus IV thundered in 1476:

"... We, therefore, wishing to oppose such irresponsible boldness ... by Our own initiative and not by the insistence of anyone's request presented to Us on this subject, but only through our deliberation and certain knowledge, condemn and reprove those types of assertions of preachers and any others who have dared to assert that those who believe and hold that the same Mother of God was, in her conception, preserved from the stain of original sin are, because of this, polluted by the stain of heresy or sin mortally; or if [they] celebrate this office of [Mary's] conception or listen to such sermons they incur the guilt of some sin; and [likewise] in virtue of Apostolic authority, on the basis of these present [writings], [We condemn such affinnations] as false and erroneous and completely contrary to the truth as well as the afore said books that have been published with this content; ...

and We place a similar penalty and censure on those who have dared to assert that people who hold the contrary opinion - namely that the Virgin Mary was conceived with original sin - incur the crime of heresy or mortal sin, since the matter has not yet been decided by the Roman Church and the Apostolic See"

Denzinger Hunennann, 1426; the date of the constitution is Feb. 27, 1477, but given as 1476 in the curial record

It was this decree by Sixtus IV which allowed the Church to commence the artistic depiction of The Immaculate Conception

The importance of the pronouncement is seen by the fact that in the Triptych by Jean Bellegambe, Pope Sixtus IV is depicted surrounded by his cardinals and advisers making the pronouncement

The earliest extant depiction of the Immaculate Conception after the pronouncement by Sixtus IV is an engraving for the Heures à l’usage du diocèse d’Angers by Simon Vostre made in 1510

In 1661, Pope Alexander VII published his brief Sollicitudo omnium ecclesiarum manifesting his support for the Immaculate Conception. He said of the Feast and the Doctrine:

"We, considering that the holy Roman Church solemnly celebrates the feast of the conception of the spotless and ever-virgin Mary and for a long while has established for this a special and proper Office ... and wishing to promote ... this praiseworthy piety and devotion and the feast and the cult ... we renew ... [the decrees] promulgated on behalf of the judgment which affirms that the soul of the blessed Virgin Mary in its creation and its infusion into the body was blessed by the grace of the Holy Spirit and preserved from original sin."

Saving the Lateran

noreply@blogger.com (terry) — Tue, 29 Nov 2011 21:56:00 +0000

Initial A with Saint Dominic Saving the Church of Saint John Lateran

From a Dominican gradual

Mid-15th century ( Lombardy)

Tempera, gold, and ink on parchment

4 5/16 x 3 11/16 in. (10.9 x 9.3 cm)

The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

Giotto di Bondone (1267 - 1337)

Legend of St Francis: 6. The Dream of Innocent III

1297-99

Fresco

270 x 230 cm

Upper Church, San Francesco, Assisi

There is a story that Pope Innocent III allowed the Dominicans to be established after he dreamed that Saint Dominic saved the Church of Saint John Lateran in Rome - the Pope`s own Church in Rome

There is another story that Pope Innocent III dreamt of Saint Francis being the person who saved the Lateran and then approved the Order of St Francis

In 1215 the year of the Fourth Lateran Council, Dominic and one of his followers, Foulques, went to Rome to secure the approval of the Pope, Innocent III, of their order. It is understood that Dominic did attend the Council himself as a spectator (as apparently did St Francis of Assisi) Dominic returned to Rome a year later, and was finally granted written authority in December 1216 and January 1217 by the new pope, Honorius III for an order to be named "The Order of Preachers"

In 1209, Francis led his first eleven followers to Rome to seek permission from Pope Innocent III to found a new religious order. The story is that although Pope Innocent initially had doubts he had a dream in which he saw Francis holding up the Basilica of St. John Lateran. He then decided to endorse Francis' order on April 16, 1210

Francis later attended the Fourth Lateran Council in 1215

It is interesting to note that there is inscription in the Basilica of St John Lateran which ascribes the dream of Inncoent to St Francis and there is a 17th century fresco on the apse which depicts again the dream of Innocent after meeting St Francis

Unfortunately there is no reliable record of St Francis meeting St Dominic at the Fourth Lateran Council

But what is significant is the linking of the foundation and founders of the two great medieval mendicant orders (the Franciscans and the Dominicans) with Pope Innocent III and his great programme of reform which culminated in the greatest of the medieval Councils - the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215.

The Council is largely forgotten in modern times but its effects still reverberate today.

Norman Tanner, Professor of Church History at the Gregorian University in Rome, in his book The Ages of Faith: Popular Religion in Late Medieval England and Western Europe (2009) wrote of the Council:

"The Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 opens a unique window onto pastoral care in the Middle Ages.

Summoned by Pope Innocent III and meeting in the Lateran basilica in Rome during the month of November 1215, the assembly of several hundred bishops and other prelates from all over western Christendom enacted in its 71 decrees the most impressive and influential legislation of all medieval councils.

Regarding the preparation for the council, the balance between papal input and that of other contributors is difficult to weigh precisely.

Most of the decrees appear to have been drafted by Pope Innocent and the Roman Curia before the beginning of the council, so the task of the latter was largely to rubber-stamp the prepared legislation.

More detailed information about possible amendments introduced by individuals is hard to come by, on account of lack of evidence about the council’s proceedings. On the other hand, the decrees were not invented out of nothing. Several of them are traceable to decrees of earlier councils, and in the letters sent out in April 1213 to announce the forthcoming council, bishops were invited to suggest topics for the council.

In the next two and a half years, moreover, many local councils were held in preparation, at the Pope’s express wish, and it seems likely that these local councils had some influence upon the decrees that were drafted for Lateran IV. In short, while the principal impetus for the decrees came from the Pope and the Roman Curia, they certainly reflect a wider constituency within the Church.

The purpose of the council was set forth by Innocent in his letter of summons:

‘To eradicate vices and plant virtues, to correct faults and reform morals, to remove heresies and strengthen faith, to settle discords and establish peace, to get rid of oppression and foster liberty, to induce princes and Christian people to succour the Holy Land.
’

A broad programme of what we can recognise as pastoral care is intended and this is reflected in the decrees of the council ...

How influential were the decrees? Was the council the motor of developments in the Church in the thirteenth century – often regarded as the golden age of the Western Church in the Middle Ages – or was it merely an onlooker? No doubt the answer lies somewhere in between.

What is certain is that in almost all the areas of Christian life in which the century saw spectacular achievements, as well as deviations and disasters, the council issued a decree of some relevance: famous saints such as Francis and Clare of Assisi or King Louis IX of France; the four orders of friars – Franciscans, Dominicans, Carmelites and Augustinians – and the beguine movement for women; the universities, pre-eminently Bologna, Paris and Oxford, and theologians of the stature of Thomas Aquinas and Duns Scotus; mystical writers such as Mechtild of Magdeburg and Gertrude of Helfta; parish churches, cathedrals and works of art; the Christianity of countless individuals, largely unknown; as well as the Inquisition, crusades, continuing schism with the Eastern Church, the expulsion of Jews.

The council did not produce the results single-handed but at least it was a guide, not just a spectator"

The Tax Collectors

noreply@blogger.com (terry) — Sun, 27 Nov 2011 13:01:00 +0000

Marinus Van Reymerswaele (c.1493- c 1567)

The Tax Collectors

c. 1540s

Oil on oak panel

94.1 cm x 77 cm

Musée du Louvre, Paris

A nearly identical picture by Marinus Van Reymerswaele hangs in The National Gallery in London

However it would appear that the picture in The Louvre is the earlier work

Other simplified versions are in Antwerp and Warsaw. But the narrow range of themes which the artist painted were very popular. The existence of many old copies and studio repetitions is an indication of the popularity of his satirical critique of his subject matter.

It would appear from the writing on the various Deeds that the picture depicts two tax gatherers in the town of Reymerswaele.

In the fifteenth century Reymerswaele was the third most important town in Zeeland after Middelburg and Zierikzee. However disaster struck in 1530 with the Saint Felix Flood and Reymerswaele became a separate island. It was abandoned in 1631 and the town was submerged under the waters of the Ooster Schelde.

One of the few facts we know about Van Reymerswaele is that he was a Calvinist

The man on the left is entering into an account book the excise and tax revenues for the town for a period of seven months. He may be the Treasurer or Tax Collector of the town.

The other man who appears to be quite a grasping and unattractive fellow is either one of the collectors or Alternative Book-Keeper who was meant to keep an eye on the Treasurer or his surety

The tax collector or treasurer on the left is a rather extraordinary figure. He appears to be rather sexless, possibly feminine. This is emphasised by his rather extraordinary headgear which it is understood was popular amongst women in the mid-fifteenth century.

The man on the right is the picture of Avarice. His grasped hands, his sneering and contorted countenance. His gaze at the viewer of the picture is neither friendly nor welcoming, quite the opposite in fact. One eye seems to be bigger than the other.

These two gentlemen do not appear to be ordinary people.

As in Biblical times, tax collectors were not popular. At the time of the painting, the usurer, the miller, the money changer and the tax collector were commonly said to be "Lucifer`s Four Evangelists" It is unlikely that as a Calvinist Van Reymerswaele thought they were amongst the "Elect"

Tax collectors received a percentage of the tax collected. Therefore they were not disposed to remit taxes even from the poor and destitute

The taxes collected include imposts on miller`s fees (that is on flour and bread) and on the beer stall

It has been hypothesised that the present work and the many other known examples of its compositional type were in turn based upon a second, lost, derivation of Metsys' that was itself adapted by Marinus van Reymerswaele. See Lorne Campbell in The Pictures in the Collection of Her Majesty The Queen. The Early Flemish Pictures, Cambridge, 1985

In two other versions of the painting the French texts on the ledgers put the message of the painting beyond all doubt:

"The avaricious man is never sated with money ... Have no care for unjustly gained riches for they will be of no profit to you on the day of reckoning and vengeance. Be therefore without avarice."

This message is reinforced by all the symbols in the painting especially the candlestick holder with the extinguished candle at the top of the work which looms over the scene below. Christ, the Light of the World, is not present. The two men are creatures of the Dark.

The Moneychanger and his Wife

noreply@blogger.com (terry) — Sat, 26 Nov 2011 11:24:00 +0000

Marinus Claeszoon van Reymerswaele (c. 1490 – c. 1546)

The Moneychanger and his Wife 1539

Oil on panel

83 cm x 97 cm

Museo Nacional del Prado, Madrid

Amongst the works of the Flemish-Dutch painters Quentin Matsys (1466–1529) and Marinus Claeszoon van Reymerswaele (c. 1490 – c. 1546) are two themes: Money lenders (or Bankers and clients) and Tax gatherers.

They were very popular themes.

The theme of moneylending seems to have been first popularised by a lost half-length Banker and Client by Jan van Eyck of 1440, that was probably commissioned by Italian financiers working in Bruges

Van Eyck's composition appears to have been adapted by Quinten Metsys in two works including The Banker and his Wife of 1514 in the Louvre, Paris

It would appear that it was Metsys' work that was the source of the theme by Marinus van Reymerswaele. But there are major differences between the two works.

Van Reymerswaele repeated the composition shown in the Prado many times.

Seated at their table a rather attractive married couple in 16th century Flemish dress are seated at a table totally rapt and absorbed in the process of counting money. It is obviously one of their deep shared interests. It is one of the main (or only ties ?) which binds them together. In modern terms it could be said that it shows the family as an economic unit in society or a modern economy

It is a satirical work. The husband and wife do not have eyes for each other: only the coins of gold and silver on the table. They relate to each other through money, not touch or conversation. The treasure which they value is not each other or their children (there do not appear to be any) but the little lumps of metal which are the centrepiece of the painting.

The room in which they are sitting is rather disordered, drab and untidy. Sheets of paper litter the room. The room is devoted entirely to the practice of moneychanging. There are no paintings, decoration or religious symbols.

However their clothing is quite fine. It is good bourgeois clothing. The husband has fur cuffs and collar and a strange hat with a pendant. The woman wears a red suit and a white cap

Amongst the accoutrements of their trade are the scales, the symbol of justice. But they ascertain value by the process of weighing the lumps of material metal in a method which seems mechanical and roughly scientific.

They are not stupid people. They can read and write. But it would appear that their book are entirely related to their calling. They are account books.

Above their heads is a candle. The candle has been extinguished. It provides no light.

Alsoon the jumble on the shelf above their heads is an empty beaker stuffed with account papers. In medieval art, the carafe of water often symbolised the purity of the Virgin, the receptacle for the Water of Life. There is no Water in the beaker and no room for any water to be there.

The trade of currency exchange was a lucrative one. It was one which Christians could carry out in medieval times without apparently contravening the prohibition againist usury. However there was also some doubt about this. The Florentine bankers developed a system of currency exchange which was a form of lending but on the face of it did not appear to be a loan. It was derivative. It was an adjunct of trade and without which international trade could not flourish. It was therefore necessary. But for the medieval Christian the dangers were obvious.

Why was there such a theme popular in Flemish painting at the time ? Antwerp was a major trading centre and rapidly became the principal city for commerce between northern and southern Europe. Portuguese and Spanish merchants and powerful Italian bankers visited Antwerp for trade, making the bustling city the economic capital of Europe in those times.

No more Walmart Churches

noreply@blogger.com (terry) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 22:00:00 +0000

The Vatican Insider has reported some good news.

There is to be a new Vatican commission: "The Liturgical Art and Sacred Music Commission". It will be established shortly

According to Andrea Tornielli the Commission "will not be just any office, but a true and proper team, whose task will be to collaborate with the commissions in charge of evaluating construction projects for churches of various dioceses."

Further and perhaps more importantly "The team will also be responsible for the further study of music and singing that accompany the celebration of mass."

Cardinal Antonio Cañizares Llovera, Prefect of the Congregation for Divine Worship and Benedict XVI, consider this work as “very urgent”.

Tonielli comments:

"The reality is staring everyone in the eyes: in recent decades, churches have been substituted by buildings that resemble multi purpose halls. Too often, architects, even the more famous ones, do not use the Catholic liturgy as a starting point and thus end up producing avant-garde constructions that look like anything but a church. These buildings composed of cement cubes, glass boxes, crazy shapes and confused spaces, remind people of anything but the mystery and sacredness of a church.

Tabernacles are semi hidden, leading faithful on a real treasure hunt and sacred images are almost inexistent.

The new commission’s regulations will be written up over the next few days and will give precise instructions to dioceses. It will only be responsible for liturgical art, not for sacred art in general; and this also goes for liturgical music and singing too. The judicial powers of the Congregation for Divine Worship will have the power to act."

One wonders what took them so long

I wonder if they will be able to order demolition of existing structures and demand changes in certain interiors ?

Saint Cecilia

noreply@blogger.com (terry) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 21:43:00 +0000

After Niccolò Circignani called "Il Pomarancio" (c. 1517/1524 - after 1596)

Print made by Monogrammist MP (16th C. late - 17th C. early; fl)

Church martyrs, with in the foreground St Cecilia standing in a cauldron of boiling water

After the fresco executed in San Stefano Rotondo by Niccolò Circignani

Engraving

268 millimetres x 171 millimetres

The British Museum, London

Nicola Circignani's cycle of the early Christian martyrs (1582) in the ambulatory of the Jesuit church of San Stefano Rotondo was one of the most celebrated of the numerous martyrdom cycles in Rome during the last twenty years of the sixteenth century. It consisted of thirty-one frescoes each depicting a scene of horrendous martyrdom within the early Church

The cycles were part of the Catholic response to the Protestant martyrologies such as John Foxe's Acts and Monuments

One of the main themes of the Pontificate of Gregory XIII (1572-1585) was an Early Christian revival which took shape in Rome. Early Christendom was referred to as a Golden Age in the history of the Church

The church of San Stefano Rotondo had first been given to the Hungarian College in 1573 by Gregory

The Church was an Early Christian construction dating back to the fifth century

Circignani`s figures in the foreground are life sized and situated at eye level.

There are legible inscriptions below and above the panels. The inscription at the top is a quotation from one of the Psalms or other verse from the Bible. The lower inscription explains the scene and giving the name of the emperor who ordered the execution

The composition of the cycle is the work of the Jesuit Father Michele di Loreto, the then rector of the German-Hungarian College. Gregory refounded and reformed the German-Hungarian College in 1573 and took a very close interest in the internal decoration of the Church of San Stefano Rotondo at this time

Circignani was one of the major artists patronised and commissioned by the Pope in his programme for the remodelling of Rome. One of the major works which he carried out for Gregory was in the famous Loggia dei venti in the Vatican (now recently restored)

The cycle is a means of meditation and a visual Litany of the Saints and Martyrs

In the cycle, the figure of St Cecilia was one of the major scenes in the cycle.

She died about AD 230 with her husband Valerian, his brother Tiburtius, and a Roman soldier Maximus. She was already a popular Roman saint.

But it was only in 1594 that she was officially made the Patron Saint of Music - again by decree of Gregory XIII, a patronage which give a boost to her cult