I ARAVAG G O if THE BAROSIUE IMAGE Edited by J^ranco iiM^ormando O SAINTS & SINNERS C ARAVAGG I & THE BAROQUE IMAGE O SAINTS&SINNERS C ARAVAGG I if THE BAROSU/E IMAGE Edited by J^ranco ({Mbrmando McMullen museum of art, boston college Distributed by the University of Chicago Press Hutchins, Wheeler & Dittmar Fondazione Longhi, Florence, figs. 33, 36 ‘58 William J. McLaughlin, Gabinetto Nazionale Fotografica, Rome, fig. 17 Meagan Carroll Shea, ‘89, L‘92 and Timothy Iftituto Centrale per il Reftauro, Archivio J. Shea II, L‘92 Fotografico, Rome, figs. 24-37 Charles W. Sullivan, ‘64 Bob Jones University Museum and Gallery, plate 27 Los Angeles County Museum, fig. SUPPORTERS 9 Metropolitan Museum of Art, plate 2, fig. 16 Jesuit Community, College of the Holy Cross Mount Holyoke College Museum of Art, plate 17 Downer and Company Musei Vaticani, Archivio Fotografico, fig. 30 Paul A. Fugazzotto, ‘76 Museo di Roma, Archivio Fotografico, fig. 25 Paul J. McAdams, ‘57 Museum of Fine Arts, Bofton, plate 28 Gerard and Brigitte Moufflet Museum der Bildenden Kiinil, Leipzig, fig. 19 This publication is issued in conjunction with National Italian American Foundation National Gallery of Art, Washington, plate 26 the exhibition Saints and Sinners: Caravaggio and Alexander H. Petro, ‘85 National Gallery, London, fig. 28 the Baroque Image, at the Charles S. and Isabella V. Copyright © 1999 by the Charles S. and Isabella V. Joan Nissman and Morton Abromson, plate 13 McMullen Museum of Art, Bofton College McMullen Museum of Art, Bofton College, North Carolina Museum of Art, plate 21 February i to May 24, 1999 Cheftnut Hill, MA 02467 The Art Museum, Princeton University, plate 29 The Putnam Foundation, Timken Museum of Art, The exhibition is organized by Library of Congress Catalogue Card number San Diego, fig. 8 the McMullen Museum of Art 98-68410 ISBN 1-892850-00-1 John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, PRINCIPAL CURATOR: Diftributed by the University of Chicago Press The State Art Museum of Florida, plates 15, 16, 20 Franco Mormando, Bofton College Sao Roque Museum/Misericordia de Lisboa, Printed by Acme Printing Lisbon, figs. 14, 18 CO-CURATORS: Designed by Office of Publications and Print The Saint Louis Art Museum, plate 19 Gauvin Alexander Bailey, Clark University Marketing at Bofton College Pamela Jones, University of Massachusetts, Bofton John W. O’Malley, Wefton Jesuit School of JoAnn Yandle, Designer Theology Typeset in the HoeflerText family Thomas W. Worcefter, College of the Holy Cross FRONT COVER: Paper ftock is Potlach McCoy The Taking of Qhrill, 1602 This exhibition and catalogue are underwritten by and Monadnock Dulcet MICHELANGELO MERISI DA CARAVAGGIO Bofton College with an indemnity from the Federal oil on canvas Council on the Arts and Humanities and additional Copyedited by Naomi Rosenberg 53 X 67 in. support from the following: Photographs have been provided courtesy of Society of Jesus, Ireland, on loan to the SPONSORS the following: National Gallery of Ireland National Endowment for the Arts, a Federal Agency Alinari-Art Resource, figs.i, 3-6, 12, 15, 20-22 Joan Vercollone Barry and Henry F. Barry, ‘64 Bofton College Audio Visual Department, fig. 10 Linda Carifto Crescenzi, ‘64 and Adam Crescenzi JohnJ. Burns Library, Boston College, figs, ii, 13 The Cleveland Museum of Art, fig. 23 BENEFACTORS Courtauld Inftitute, London, fig. 31 The Jesuit Inftitute at Bofton College The Jesuit Community, Loyola University, Nancy McElaneyJoyce and John E. Joyce ‘61, ‘70 Chicago, plate 22 PATRONS Detroit Infinite of Arts, plate 6 Jesuit Community, Boston College MaryJane Harris, New York, plates 3, 5 Homeland Foundation, New York, New York Richard L. Feigen, New York, plates 9, ii, 18 Donna Hoffman and Chriflian M. Hoffman, ‘66 Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, fig. 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS STATEMENTS FROM THE HONORARY PATRONS OF THE EXHIBITION 6 HIS EXCELLENCY FERDiNANDO SALLEO Ambdssador of Italy to the United States HIS EMINENCE CARDINAL CARLO MARIA MARTI N I Archbishop ofMilan PRINCESS STEFANIA AN GELO- COMNEN O DI TESSAGLIA President, Accademia Angelica-CoHantiniana di lettere, arti e scienze, Rome THE VERT REVEREND PETER-HANS KOLVENBACH, S.J. Superior General ofthe Society ofJesus, Rome DIRECTOR’S FOREWORD 9 £S(ancy (SNftzer PREFACE: THE MURDER BEHIND THE DISCOVERY II £l\[hel ‘-Barber EDITOR’S INTRODUCTION {sNith. ^ynopsis ofthe Exhibition) 14 J-ranco cCMhrmando A HISTORIOGRAPHICAL FRAME FOR THE PAINTINGS: RECENT INTERPRETATIONS OF EARLY MODERN CATHOLICISM I9 John W. O'aMalley THE POWER OF IMAGES: PAINTINGS AND VIEWERS IN CARAVAGGIO’S ITALY 28 ‘Bamela <iM^. Jones PLATES OF PAINTINGS IN THE EXHIBITION 49 TRENT AND BEYOND: ARTS OF TRANSFORMATION 87 Thomas Worcester TEACHING THE FAITHFUL TO FLY: MARY MAGDALENE AND PETER IN BAROQUE ITALY IO7 J-ranco dJyformando CARDINAL CAESAR BARONIUS, THE ARTS, AND THE EARLY CHRISTIAN MARTYRS I36 Josephine von Jfenneberg THE JESUITS AND PAINTING IN ITALY, I55O-169O: THE ART OF CATHOLIC REFORM I5I Qauvin ^Alexander Bailey “JUST AS YOUR LIPS APPROACH THE LIPS OF YOUR BROTHERS”: JUDAS ISCARIOT AND THE KISS OF BETRAYAL I79 J-ranco <£Aformando CARAVAGGIO AND RELIGION I9I John ‘Varriano CLASSICAL AND RELIGIOUS INFLUENCES IN CARAVAGGIO’S PAINTING 2o8 ^ergio Benedetti LENDERS TO THE EXHIBITION back page CONTRIBUTORS TO THE CATALOGUE backpage STATEMENTS FROM THE HONORARY PATRONS OF THE EXHIBITION FERDINANDO SALLEO AiNTS AND SINNERS marks an hiftoric opportunity. This exhibition enables us to both qAmbassador of Italy to the appreciate the context in which Caravaggio United TATES of qAmerica created his art and to become aware of the interaction of the great Italian artift with his contemporary world. Religion, nature, politics, philosophy are here to illuftrate the artiftic and social milieu that inspired some of the moft remarkable works of art of all times. The five conceptual sections have been carefully chosen to thoroughly represent an age when Chriftianity was challenged by new ideas and the moral ftruggle that ensued, together with the intense and passionate artiftic inspira- tion that gave birth to extraordinary works of art. Designed as the central theme of the exhibition, the vivid laft section portrays with rare strength the major spiritual queft of the time through the mafterful The Taking of Chri§l which, thanks to the generosity of the Jesuits of Ireland, will be publicly exhibited for the firft time ever in the Weftern Hemisphere. This extraordinary canvas enhances the visual appeal as well as the artiftic value of the exhibition. Almoft mesmerizing the viewer with its time- less and profound gravity, the powerful juxtaposition of good and evil, as embodied by Jesus and Judas, is the rightful climax of a birring journey on which the curators of this show have taken us. We are grateful to the McMullen Museum of Art at Bofton College for conceiving this idea and for introduc- ing the United States to one of the moft fertile and intense periods of Italian art. The succession of events and cultural turmoil characterizing an era of revolutionary values that developed in direct antithesis to commonly accepted ideas emerges vigorously and diftinctly in the five sections of the exhibition. The succession of paintings seduces us and dis- closes an impassioned moment in the ftruggle between surrender to reality and the desire to transform it, a moment when the flames of artiftic creation, beyond the charm of beautiful religious imagery, are fanned by new and growing winds of zeal, guilt, and suffering, and by persiftent swells of moral redemption. What better underlying concept for this exhibition than the exiftential choice between saintliness and sinful- ness as part of the moral ftruggle posed by the Poft-Tridentine Church? This time of agitation and controversy in Rome’s artiftic circles was also the rooting period for the Caravaggio legend — that is, its bad seeds — sown by seventeenth-century biographer Giovanni Pietro Bellori, who portrayed Caravaggio as an innovative, naturalift, materialiftic, and libertarian painter. The portrait elaborated by writers from the seventeenth-century chroniclers to the nineteenth-century Romantics was that of an undeniably plebeian artift, a depiction serving to explain Caravaggio’s inbred nonconformity. While none doubted the genius of his talent, all agreed it was the doom of painting as an art form. The re-evaluations by Jacob Burckhardt, Alois Riegl, and Roger Fry at the close of the nineteenth century, and by Roberto Longhi and Walter Friedlaender in the middle of the twentieth, may have been long overdue, but they have reconfirmed Caravaggio’s ftatus as one of hiftory’s greateft artifts. The exhibition faithfully reconftructs a hiftorical environment from which Michelangelo Merisi emerges as the leading artift and an unparalleled genius. One could say, look at The Taking of ChriSl, and the secret will be unveiled. Finally, I would like to thank all those who conceived of and made possible this exhibition: again, the McMullen Museum of Art at Bofton College, all the lending inftitutions and individuals for their generosity, and in particular the Jesuits of the Leeson Street Community, Dublin. 6 CARLO MARIA MARTINI MONG THE MANY pcfsonages to havc come forth over the centuries from the qArchbishop of ClM^ILAN archdiocese of Milan to enrich the world of the arts, two figures ftand out in especial relief: my illuftrious predecessor, Federico Borromeo, archbishop of Milan from 1595 to 1631, founder of that great and unique art inftitution which is the Ambrosiana, and Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio, one of the greater exponents of Italian artiftic genius, who spent the fir^t several years of his life in Milan and was later apprentice for four years here to the artift Simone Peterzano, one of Titian’s disciples. Though, to be sure, of far differing temperaments and visions of life, both Borromeo and Caravaggio underftood deeply the efficacious power of art to quicken, to transform, and to perfect the human heart, mind, and soul.