&SINNERS CARAVAGG IO & THE BAROZVE IMAGE

Edited by Yranco eMformando

McMULLEN MUSEUM OF ART, BOSTON COLLEGE Distributed by the University of Chicago Press TABLE OF CONTENTS

STATEMENTS FROM THE HONORARY PATRONS OF THE EXHIBITION 6 HIS EXCELLENCY FERDINANDO SALLEO Ambassador of to the United States

HIS EMINENCE CARDINAL CARLO MARIA MARTINI Archbishop of Milan

PRINCESS STEFANIA ANGELO-COMNENO DI TESSAGLIA President, Accademia Angelica-Coftantiniana di lettere, arti e scienze,

THE VERY REVEREND PETER-HANS KOLVENBACH, Superior General of the , Rome DIRECTOR'S FOREWORD 9 oNncy eN,tzer

PREFACE: THE MURDER BEHIND THE DISCOVERY II Nei' Barber EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION (with Appendix, ,Synopsis of the gxhibition) 14 Franco aformando

A HISTORIOGRAPHICAL FRAME FOR THE PAINTINGS: RECENT INTERPRETATIONS OF EARLY MODERN CATHOLICISM 19 John W. O'o5'vfalley

THE POWER OF IMAGES: PAINTINGS AND VIEWERS IN CARAVAGGIO'S ITALY 28 Pamela QM. Jones PLATES OF PAINTINGS IN THE EXHIBITION 49 TRENT AND BEYOND: ARTS OF TRANSFORMATION 87 Thomas Worcetter

TEACHING THE FAITHFUL TO FLY: AND PETER IN BAROQUE ITALY 107 Yranco aformando

CARDINAL CAESAR BARONIUS, THE ARTS, AND THE EARLY CHRISTIAN MARTYRS 136 Josephine von gienneberg

THE JESUITS AND PAINTING IN ITALY, 1550-1690: THE ART OF CATHOLIC REFORM 151 Gauvin oAlexander Bailey

"JUST AS YOUR LIPS APPROACH THE LIPS OF

YOUR BROTHERS": JUDAS ISCARIOT AND THE KISS OF BETRAYAL 179 Franco Q.2iformando

CARAVAGGIO AND RELIGION 191 John Varriano

CLASSICAL AND RELIGIOUS INFLUENCES IN CARAVAGGIO'S PAINTING 208 ,Sergio Benedetti

LENDERS TO THE EXHIBITION back page

CONTRIBUTORS TO THE CATALOGUE back page Hutchins, Wheeler & Dittmar Fondazione Longhi, Florence, figs. 33, 36 William J. McLaughlin, '58 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. 9 SUPPORTERS 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. 3o Paul A. Fugazzotto, '76 Museo di Roma, Archivio Fotografico, fig. 25 Paul J. McAdams, 457 Museum of Fine Arts, Bolton, plate 28 Gerard and Brigitte Moufflet Museum der Bildenden Kiingt, 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. z8 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, Bolton College McMullen Museum of Art, Baton College, North Carolina Museum of Art, plate 21 February 1 to May 24, 1999 Cheitnut 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 ISBN1-892850-00—I John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, PRINCIPAL CURATOR: Digtributed by the University of Chicago Press The State Art Museum of Florida, plates x5, 16, zo Franco Mormando, Bolton College Sao Roque Museum/Misericdrdia de Lisboa, Printed by Acme Printing Lisbon, figs. 14, 18 CO-CURATORS: Designed by Office of Publications and Print The Louis Art Museum, plate 19 Gauvin Alexander Bailey, Clark University Marketing at Bofton College Pamela Jones, University of Massachusetts, Bolton John W. O'Malley, Welton Jesuit School of JoAnn Yandle, Designer Typeset in the Hoefler Text family Thomas W. Worcegter, College of the Holy Cross FRONT COVER: Paper Rock is Potlach McCoy The Taking of Chrift, 16 o2 This exhibition and catalogue are underwritten by and Monadnock Dulcet MICHELANGELO MERISI DA CARAVAGGIO Bolton 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.x, 3-6, 12,15, 20-22 Joan Vercollone Barry and Henry F. Barry '64 Bolton College Audio Visual Department, fig. to Linda Carigto Crescenzi, '64 and Crescenzi John J. Burns Library, Bolton College, figs. 11 , 13 The Cleveland Museum of Art, fig. 23 BENEFACTORS Courtauld Inftitute, London, fig. 31 The Jesuit Ingtitute at Bolton College The Jesuit Community Loyola University, Nancy McElaney Joyce and John E. Joyce '61, '7o Chicago, plate 22 PATRONS Detroit Inglitute of Arts, plate 6 Jesuit Community Bolton College Mary Jane Harris, New York, plates 3, 5 Homeland Foundation, New York, New York Richard L. Feigen, New York, plates 9, it, 18 Donna Hoffman and Chriglian M. Hoffman, '66 Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco, fig. 7 EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION

OUR ANCESTORS brought civil- view and employing differing methodologies. ization to my people." So remarked Queen Executed in a variety of artiftic Ryles and intended Elizabeth II in a formal address to the for many different locations and audiences, the paint- Italian Parliament on the occasion of one ings, nonetheless, fall into two categories: large works of her official ftate visits to Italy.' Many commissioned for public display in churches, chapels, and y parts of the globe have likewise been oratories; and smaller works meant for private display profoundly touched, transformed, and in palaces, villas, and houses of the religious orders. enriched by the prodigious cultural forces emanating Whether public or private, moft religious art of the from the Italian peninsula, not only in ancient times period was commissioned by wealthy aristocrats and mer- but throughout the centuries, including the present one. chants, cardinals and other prelates, religious orders, The Italian Studies program at Bolton College has long and . However, despite differences in ftyle, scale, desired to mount an exhibition at the University's Museum and provenance, these paintings share common premises, celebrating the glorious achievements of Italy's creative iconographical traditions, and goals. The latter were genius. That desire has finally become reality in Saints docere, delectare, movere, that is, to teach, delight, and per- and Sinners: Caravaggio and the Baroque Image. suade the viewer. These traditional goals of public oratory were commonly applied to sacred painting, especially to GOALS AND SIGNIFICANCE the widely diffused images of saints and sinners, the focus OF THE EXHIBITION of this exhibition. As the exhibition and catalogue essays make clear, these goals, in turn, reflect the new spiritual- AINTS and Sinners explores the religious and social cultural exigencies of Catholic society in the wake of the S functions of art in Italy, ca. 158o-168o, a period often Protegtant and the Roman Catholic Council called the Baroque. 2 The exhibition gathers paintings of Trent (1545-63), two landmark events that profound- on religious themes by some of the moft important artifts ly affected the religious culture and sacred art of Italy working in Italy during these years, which span the early, through-out the period explored in Saints and Sinners. middle, and late Baroque periods. Unlike moft museum exhibitions, which focus on matters of ftyliftic develop- THE CATALOGUE ESSAYS ment and connoisseurship, Saints and Sinners asks queftions about how these paintings were received by their original HE essays contained herein expand upon the issues audiences. What significances would their contents and T explored in the exhibition and represent the result of aefthetics have had for their viewers? What were they original, new research by scholars coming together from meant to teach viewers? How were they meant to move diverse fields to "read" the art of Caravaggio and other and persuade them? major Italian Baroque painters from new, hitherto ignored A variety of documents—including sermons, popular or little explored perspectives. drama, chapbooks (-produced spiritual pamphlets), Four of the essays, those by Pamela Jones, Thomas devotional treatises, religious poetry, biblical commen- Worcefter, and my two contributions, are largely devoted tary—are herein examined to illuminate the themes, figures, to queftions of reception and significance: What did these and episodes contained in the paintings of the exhibition. paintings signify for early modern Italian viewers? How Like the paintings, these documents—many of them only were they received—in religious, social, and psychological recently gtudied and previously unpublished—reveal what terms —by their original audiences? These queftions scholars now refer to as the "mentalities," or ways of are answered with respect to representations of Mary thinking, current in this period at all levels of society, both Magdalene, Peter the Apogtle, and Judas Iscariot in my elite and popular. These "mentalities" are uncovered in two essays, "Teaching the Faithful to fly" and "Juft as your Saints and Sinners by a team of scholars from various acade- lips approach the lips of your brothers." The two essays mic disciplines, bringing with them multiple points of examine a wide body of contemporary texts that offer privileged insight into the predominant ideas, notions, received paintings in this exhibition. In exploring recep- and topoi circulating about these figures at all levels of tion, Worcefter responds to the recent, much-discussed society in early modern Italy. I favor the sermons of pop- work of Piero Camporesi, The Fear of Hell: Images of ular preachers and two classic texts of early modern Damnation and Salvation in Early Modern Europe. From the Catholicism, Cardinal Caesar Baronius's Annales ecclesiaifici visual evidence presented in the exhibition and the textu- and Cornelius a Lapide's Great Commentary on Scripture. al evidence examined in his essay, Worcefter concludes Documents pertaining to the commissioning, execution, that Camporesi's thesis—that the fear of hell was the and subsequent degliny of the individual paintings, as dominant motif in the religious culture of early modern well as the lives and works of the artigts, are also integrat- Italy—may need revision. ed into these discussions. The nature of the evidence, Essays by Josephine von Henneberg and Gauvin however, precludes my or any of the other authors' mak- Bailey focus on specific higtorical developments of the ing apodeictic claims about either the original intentions Baroque period: the paleo-Chriglian revivial and the rise of the artigts or the meanings of the paintings to any of the Jesuit Order. In "Cardinal Caesar Baronius, the given viewer. Arts, and the Early Chrigtian Martyrs," von Henneberg Pamela Jones's essay, "The Power of Images: Paintings explores the theme of martyrdom as seen in the represen- and Viewers in Caravaggio's Italy," begins with a brief tations of Saints Sebagtian and Cecilia, especially from overview of image theory, examining the didactic, devo- the perspective of new hiftorical research on Cardinal tional, and thaumaturgic powers that paintings were Baronius. Von Henneberg considers in her discussion then believed to possess. Jones then turns to a detailed contemporary social issues—especially aid to the poor, inveftigation of the reception of three pairs of paintings, sick, and dying— mirrored in these images. representing Saint Sebagtian, Saint Mary Magdalene, and Saints and Sinners comprises several paintings either the Madonna of Loreto. Expanding our undergtanding of Jesuit theme or of provenance, including Caravaggio's of early modern Italian Catholicism (which scholars The Taking of Chrift. The Jesuits interacted widely with— have hitherto explored by gtudying, above all, the upper and profoundly influenced—the art and artigts of early echelons of society—popes, prelates, princes, and theolo- modern Italy in their various roles as patrons, spiritual gians), Jones treats the viewing expectations not only teachers, scholars, art theorigts, and artigts themselves. of nameable elites, such as patrons, but those of now Gauvin Bailey's essay, "The Jesuits and Painting in Italy, unidentifiable viewers, such as ordinary people who saw 5550-5690: The Art of Catholic Reform," re-assesses the altarpieces in public churches. To do so, she brings to role of the Society of Jesus, or Jesuits, in the world of bear not merely elite literary sources, but also extensive Italian late Renaissance and Baroque painting, based on archival research of popular religious theatrical texts and new archival material and in relation to the artigts, works, chapbooks, heretofore almogt entirely overlooked for and themes of this exhibition. In particular he identifies this period. Likewise, Jones's essay helps illuminate the crucial role played by Giovanni Battifta Fiammeri, a Seicento attitudes not only toward artigtic ftyle, aegthet- lesser-known Jesuit painter, in the original programs of ics, and religion, but also such major social issues as the Church of the Gesii and the earliegUesuit churches in poverty. Among the conclusions which Jones reaches is Rome, and ftresses the intimate relationship between that of the permeability of elite and popular culture; in these commissions and the print culture of Antwerp. their notions and assumptions, these two socio-cultural Bailey also provides a new recongtruction of the iconog- realms overlapped and influenced each other to a degree raphy of the firit Jesuit saints, particularly the image of far greater than scholars have traditionally assumed. The Death of St. , which became one of the In "Trent and Beyond: Arts of Transformation," moft popular for the Society. Bailey's essay is the firgt Thomas Worcegter considers how devout of the subftantial survey of these issues since Howard Hibbard's Seicento, when imbued with the spirit of the decrees seminal "Ut picturae sermones: The Firft Painted Decor- of the Council of Trent or spiritually formed by two ations of the Gesi1."3 devotional treatises widely read in the seventeenth centu- John Varriano's essay focuses on Caravaggio, examin- ry—Lorenzo Scupoli's Spiritual Combat and Roberto ing the complex, problematic quegtion of the artigt's Bellarmino's Art of Dying Well—could have viewed or attitude toward religion. Varriano begins with a review of

15 the relevant primary sources and subsequent treatment century. Two hundred years later, in 5993, arnica world- of the subject in the secondary literature, including the wide jubilation, it was rediscovered quite accidentally most recent studies. He then analyzes selected examples in Dublin in the dining room of the Jesuit Fathers of of Caravaggio's work—with special emphasis on those Lower Leeson Street, under circumstances that Barber, paintings in the exhibition—in light of current knowledge one of the key players in this dramatic episode of art of the prevailing religious attitudes and representational hiftory, explains. Cleaned and restored, The Taking of Chrift conventions of his time. The essay concludes with a dis- now hangs on indefinite loan in the National Gallery of cussion of Caravaggio's self-portrayals in such paintings Ireland. Saints and Sinners not only represents the firft as The Taking of Chritt, and the artist's personal engage- appearance of The Taking of Chrift in North America, but ment with the spiritual issues encompassed by the is likely to be also its only appearance outside Dublin for exhibition as a whole. Continuing the focus on Caravaggio, many years to come. Indeed, Caravaggio's masterpiece Sergio Benedetti, the rediscoverer of The Taking of Chrift, has come to the United States only because of the special identifies and discusses influences on the artist's paint- concession.granted to Bolton College, a Jesuit university, ings in both classical sculpture and religious literature. by its Jesuit owners in Ireland. John O'Malley's introductory survey provides both the paintings in the exhibition and the other essays in the catalogue with an hiftoriographical "frame." In various ways, the works of art in Saints and Sinners are prod- ucts and reflections of Roman Catholic culture of the early modern period, of that century or so following the Council of Trent, molt commonly called the Counter Reformation. Scholarly interpretation of the events, per- sonalities, institutions, and culture of this period of Roman Catholic—and European—hiftory has undergone revision in the paft few decades. Scholars have long divided into two opposing schools of interpretation, each, offering a polemically simpliftic, monolithic image of the —the Catholic school, as O'Malley reports, usually taking "an unremittingly bright view of the subject," and the Proteftant, instead, taking "a cor- respondingly unremittingly dark view" Now, however, they have arrived at a significantly altered, more nuanced picture of both early modern Roman Catholicism and Proteftantism in the wake of new, largely de-polemicized research. In summarizing this emerging, revised picture Saints and Sinners represents an endeavor that is not O'Malley reviews the state of the queftion, placing the only interdisciplinary but also inter-institutional: co-cura- exhibition's paintings—as well as the essays—in a more tors Gauvin Bailey of Clark University, Pamela Jones of up-to-date, serviceable hermeneutical frame than one the University of Massachusetts at Bofton, John O'Malley usually finds in the writings of art hiftorians and in of the Wefton Jesuit School of Theology, and Thomas museum exhibition catalogues. Worcefter of the College of the Holy Cross were all vital, This collection of scholarly essays is prefaced by Noel active organizers of this project from its very inception to Barber's "The Murder Behind the Discovery," in which he its conclusion and in all of its multiple facets; they have recounts the story behind the rediscovery of Caravaggio's likewise been prodigious in the scholarly expertise, intel- The Taking of Chrift, the visual centerpiece and culmina- lectual insight, creativity, time, energy, and devotion tion of Saints and Sinners. Painted in Rome in 16oz, which they unstintingly dedicated to the exhibition dur- The Taking of Chrift "disappeared" in the late eighteenth ing its long and complicated geftation. I would also like to

16 acknowledge here my colleague Virginia Reinburg of the APPENDIX: Department of Hiltory, Bolton College, whose consulta- SYNOPSIS OF THE EXHIBITION tion was invaluable in the initial phases of this exhibition. The fine team at the McMullen Museum—Kerry SECTION I of the exhibition explores The Power of Leonard, Algton Conley, Helen Swartz, and Jennifer Images (Pls. 1-3). As this section reveals, in early modern Grinnell—have also been a conilant, integral, and invalu- Italy there was considerable diversity of opinion about able part of the preparation and organization of Saints and artillic gtyle, subject matter, and the appropriate audi- Sinners and the production of the catalogue. It has been a ences for art, but everyone agreed that images were pleasure these years working with individuals of such powerful. Indeed, images were regarded as even more talent, skill, and cheerful efficiency. potent than words because they were believed to imprint Geographically more remote but nonetheless gtill material on viewers' memories in direct and indelible vital to our enterprise has been the Italian Embassy in fashion. The power of art was seen as threefold: didactic, Washington, D.C., in particular, former Firgt Counselor devotional, and thaumaturgic. That is, images could be for Political Affairs Daniele Mancini, and Firgt Secretary effective teachers of ecclesiagtical doctrine and hillory; Giuseppe Perrone, to whom I extend heart-felt thanks. they could inspire spiritual conversion and devotion, and, I likewise express my gratitude toward the Honorable finally, they could heal the body and mind. This belief Giovanni Germano, Minifiropienipotenziario, former Consul applied equally to large works executed for public display General of Italy in Bolton. The Jesuit Community of (Pl. 1) and smaller works intended for private use (Pl. 2). Bolton College, Dean J. Robert Barth, and the Depart- SECTION 2, Saints as Sinners; Sinners as Saints (Pls. ment of Romance Languages and Literatures of Bolton 4-12), explores the iconography and reception of images College, especially its chair Laurie Shepard, mull also be of Mary Magdalene and Peter the Apogtle, two of the gratefully acknowledged for providing the resources that molt popular saints in Baroque Italy. The Magdalene was allowed me to devote more of my energies to the realiza- the example par excellence of the reformed progtitute, tion of this project. while Peter served as a symbol of the papacy. At the same Not only paintings, but books too have been central time, both saints were accessible role models for all to this project, and on that front the §taff of the Bapgt Art Chrigtians because in their human frailty, they had sinned. Library at Bolton College has been graciously unflagging These two "saints-who-sinned" contrail effectively with in its help over the pall three years, especially the direc- the "apoftle-who-failed," Judas Iscariot, who figures tor of Bapgt Adeane Bregman. Finally, but with no less prominently in Caravaggio's The Taking of Chria (Pl. 3o). gratitude, I thank Jack and Nancy Joyce, Donna Hoffman, SECTION 3, Envisioning Sanctity (Pls. 13-23), exam- Denis Reidy, Walter Hildner, Brian French, Shirley Smith, ines the Baroque undergtanding and representation of and Marta Vides, who have likewise been generous in sanctity as embodied by the men and women—higtorical, their appoggio morale during this whole process. legendary, and contemporary—enrolled in the Church's For the pall three and a half years, Michelangelo official roller of canonized saints. As this section demon- Merisi da Caravaggio and Italian Baroque art have been gtrates, the saints' roles as intercessors had always made the conllant companions of my daily life; I hope the them popular subjects in Chrillian art, but in the face of viewers of Saints and Sinners and the readers of this cata- Proteltant rejection of this traditional role, early modern logue will be as enriched and as exhilarated by a more Catholic Italy witnessed a renewed promotion of their intimate acquaintance with this enigmatic yet soul-llirring cults. This resurgence led to a proliferation of images of artill and with this remarkably creative period of Italian the saints. In addition to their roles as powerful interces- culture as I have been. sors, the saints functioned as exemplars of the many different paths to sanctity. These paths, which were illu- FRANCO MORMANDO llrated and celebrated through art, included prayer, attendance at sermons, martyrdom, works of mercy, peni- tence, and myllical contemplation.

17 SECTION 4, Representing Sin: Avarice and Betrayal a wide spectrum of issues involving money and the social - (Pls. 24-27), looks at counter-examples, or negative role religious bond. models, in Italian Baroque art. As this section demon- SECTION 5, Saints and Sinners culminates injudas girates, saints were not the only role models exploited Iscariot and The Taking of Chris? (Pls. 28-3o), in the ulti- in Catholic art; sinners were equally important in teach- mate juxtaposition of Good and Evil, as embodied ing the parameters of Chriftian behavior. Indeed, early in the figures of Jesus and Judas Iscariot. Baroque artifts modern Chriftianity thought in terms of Good versus emphasized this duality by depicting the innocent Jesus Evil. Adapted from ancient epideictic oratory, the rhetoric as more pleasing and refined in appearance than the of praise and blame, early modern sermons often relied wicked Judas, who is represented as unattractive and on the gtark delineation of moral opposites. The paint- uncouth. Alongside Caravaggio's The Taking of Christ ings in this section show that this pattern of thought (Pl. 3o), two revealingly different renditions of the same emerges not only in literature, but also in art. Both the tradi- episode are displayed. Ludovico Carracci's painting (P1.28), tional Seven Deadly Sins and the Ten Commandments the earlieft of the three, is a diftinctly non Caravaggesque were the basis for visual representations of vice, sin, and treatment of the subject. By contragt, the work by the evil in the early modern period. Particularly prominent anonymous Flemish artift (P1.29) shows the profound among such representations were the two sins of Judas influence of Caravaggio's ftyle and treatment of the Iscariot, avarice and betrayal. These two sins pertained to theme on European art.

I Quoted by Carl A. Pescosolido and Pamela Gleason, The Proud Italians: Our Great Civilizers (Washington, DC, 1995), 2.

2 Having, by now, lost much of its meaning and usefulness as a critical category, the adjective, Baroque, is used in the exhibition and catalogue as a convenient chronological term to designate the period extending from the late sixteenth through the end of the seventeenth century; no stylistic description or aesthetic judgment is intended about the body of paintings to which the adjective is applied.

3 In Rudolph Wittkower and Irma B. Jaffe, eds., Baroque Art: The Jesuit Contribution (New York, 1972), 29-5o.

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