Caravagg Io & the Barozve Image
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SAINTS &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 Italy 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, Rome THE VERY REVEREND PETER-HANS KOLVENBACH, Superior General of the Society of Jesus, 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: MARY MAGDALENE 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 Saint 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 Theology 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 Adam 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 popes. 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 Reformation 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 (mass-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.