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Enguerrand Quartern's "": This World and the Next, the Dogma and the Devotion, the Individual and the Community Author(s): Véronique Plesch Source: Historical Reflections / Réflexions Historiques, Vol. 26, No. 2, The Last Things (Summer 2000), pp. 189-221 Published by: Berghahn Books Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/41299173 . Accessed: 21/10/2014 21:21

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This content downloaded from 137.146.177.126 on Tue, 21 Oct 2014 21:21:29 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Enguerrand Quartern's Coronation of

the Virgin : This World and the Next,

the Dogma and the Devotion,

the Individual and the Community1

Veronique Plesch

On September 11,1834 ProsperMerimee, then Inspecteur general des monuments historiques,visited Villeneuve-lez- with the primary goal ofseeing InnocentVI's tomb at the Charterhouseof the Val-de- Benediction. While there he also paid a visitto other sites. Aftervisiting the Chartreuseand the church he went to the hospital: "The hospital of the same town," he wrote in an account published the followingyear,

1. Myinterest inEnguerrand Quarton's Coronation ofthe Virgin goes back to the early 1980swhen 1 chose it as topicfor a memoirede licence("Le Couronnement de la Vierge d'EnguerrandQuarton: Th£ologie ethistoire des mentalit£s d'une iconographie. XlVe-XVe- XVIesiecles," unpublished thesis, University de Gen&ve, 1984). I am indebtedto Larissa Taylorfor offering me the opportunity toreturn to this amour de jeunesse : this article is an expandedversion of a paperread at the session she organized at the1998 meeting of the Societyfor French Historical Studies in Ottawa. 1am most grateful toWalter Gibson for the inputhe providedme inhis response to my paper at theconference and in subsequent exchanges,as wellas tomy research assistant Yuliya Komska.

VeroniquePlesch is Assistant Professor ofArt History at ColbyCollege. ©2000HISTORICAL REFLECTIONS/REFLEXIONS HISTORIQUES , Vol. 26, No. 2

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. . . possesses a . . . veryremarkable paintingfrom the fifteenth century,representing the Last Judgment.Father and Son, clad in long purple robes, occupy the top ofthe composition.Their heads are of the utmostbeauty . . . Between them,the HolySpirit hovers itsextended wings brushingthe mouthsof the Fatherand the Son, hence forminga link of sorts . . . Below is the Virgin,draped in blue, and half wrapped in the robes of the 'stwo main persons. Big and square, this head is less beautifulthan the two others. This was the type in fashion around 1500, for there are fashionsfor figures as thereare forgarments. Around the Trinityis gathered a crowd of saints and prophets,not to mentionan army of and cherubimred, green,blue, etc.2

The painting Merimee saw is the that in 1453 Jean de Montagnac,canon ofthe Avignonese church of Saint-Agricol and chaplain of the Charterhouse,commissioned to the painterEnguerrand Quarton (fig. I).3 A lengthycontract was established before notaryJean Morelli, containing some twenty-sixitems, which detail all the elements to be included in the depiction.4Extremely visual in character,the prix-faitis more than just an enumeration of topics to be depicted; it also stresses the spatial relationshipsbetween thedifferent iconographic components. Its primarysubject matteris stated rightaway; it is not, as Merimee thought,a Last Judgment:

First:There should be the formof Paradise, and in thatParadise should be the HolyTrinity, and thereshould not be any difference between the Fatherand the Son; and the HolyGhost in the formof a dove; and Our Lady in frontas it will seem best to Master

2. ProsperMerimee, Notes d'urt voyage dans le midi de la France(Paris, 1835), p. 163. Unlessotherwise noted, all translations aremine. 3. EnguerrandQuarton (or Charonton), who came from the diocese of Laon, is first documentedinAix-en- in1 444; in 1 446 he was living in Aries, and the next year he settledin Avignon. On his oeuvre, see CharlesSterling, Enguerrand Quarton, lepeintre de la Pietdd' Avignon (Paris, 1983), hereafter abbreviated E.Q. 4. Forthe text of the prix-fait, seeSterling, E.Q., pp. 20 1-202; English translations appear inA Documentary History ofArt. vol. 1 , TheMiddle Ages and the Renaissance, ed. Elizabeth GilmoreHolt (Princeton, 1981), pp. 298-302, and Wolfgand Stechow, Northern ,1400-1600, Sources and Documents (Englewood Cliffs, N.J., 1966), pp. 141-145. Sterling, E.Q.,p. 186,noticed several errors in both English translations.

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Figure 1. EnguerrandQuarton, Coronation of the Virgin.

PhotographbyMary an Daspet, courtesy ofthe Musee Pierre de Luxembourg, Villeneuve-lez- Avignon.

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Enguerrand;the Holy Trinitywill place the crown on the head of Our Lady.5

In heaven the Trinitycrowns the Virgin.A varied angelic hierarchy surrounds them: we see blue cherubim, red seraphim (but no green angels despite what Merimee wrote!), the archangels Gabriel and Michael. On each side of the centralgroup we have the heavenly court, theprix-fait listing some ofthe apostles, confessorsand saintswho should be present. Also in attendance are representativesof all the strata of society,"all the estates ofthe world." Below heaven is the world,with the cities of Rome and .Within them landmarks are placed: for Rome we have the Castel Sant'Angelo and "many churches," among them the churchof Santa Croce where pope Gregorycelebrates the mass as Christmiraculously appears to him. The tombs of Christand of the Virginare on the side ofJerusalem, among others.Below, on theviewer's left,are the infants'limbo and purgatory,and on the right,hell.

The Iconographic Program and the Decree Laetentur caeli

It is well established by now how many of the elements specified in the contract are indebted to the discussions of the seventeenth ecumenical council successively held in Basel (1431-37), Ferrara(1438- 39), and Florence (1 439-43).6The decree Laetenturcaeli issued on 6 July 1439 was meant to cement the union between the western and eastern churches, an urgently needed response to the Turkish threat to Constantinople.7In the decree, several litigious points are given an expression satisfactoryfor both "Latins" and "Greeks," and these formulationsvery much correspond to what we findin the altarpiece. The decree's firstpoint concerns the relationship between the members of the Trinity,that is, whether to Saint John's definitionof the Spiritproceeding "ex patre" should be added the formula"et filio"(or filioque,as thewhole issue came to be known) so the entireTrinity would

5. Unlessotherwise noted, I quote from Holt's English translation ofthe prix-fait. 6. Firststated by Etienne Delaruelle, L'Eglise ail temps du grand schisme et de la crise conciliaire( 1378-1449) inHistoire de 1'Eglise, depuis les originesjusqu'a nos jours, vol. 1 4, ed. EtienneDelaruelle, Paul Ourliac, Edmond-Rene Labande (Paris, 1962-64), p.556 n. 5 andp. 766n. 32; see also DonDenny, "The Trinity in Enguerrand Quarton's Coronation of the VirginArt Bulletin 45 (1963),pp. 48-52. 7. See JosephGill, The Council of Florence (New York, 1982). The decree appears on pp.412-15. A French translation appears in Joseph Gill, Constance et Bale-Florence (Paris, 1965),pp. 355-59.

This content downloaded from 137.146.177.126 on Tue, 21 Oct 2014 21:21:29 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Quarton's Coronation of the Virgin 193 be presentin the Creed. The Greeks fearedthat with that addition Father and Son would appear as "duobus principiiset duabus spirationis,"as two disunitedentities. The decree reassures them,emphasizing thatthis does not deny the Fatherto be "the source and principlefor all divinity" and that "it eternallyproceeds fromone and the other as one principle and one spiration"(et unica spiratione). Hence the iconographicformula adopted forthe Trinity, with the identicalFather and Son, expressingtheir coeternityand equality,and withthe dove' s wings touchingboth mouths, translatingits simultaneous and, in a way, unique procession fromthe Father and the Son.8 Note that the Holy Ghost in no way appears in a situation secondary to that of the two other hypostases thanks to the forcefulalignment of the cruciformhaloes. Furthermore,with its beak touching the Virgin'scrown, the dove fullyparticipates in the act. The uniqueness of the formulais hintedat by a contractQuarton received a few years later. When on 7 November 1461 abbess Georgeta Quella commissioned an altarpiece for the convent of the Poor Clares in Avignon, she specified that the Virgin had to be crowned "in an appropriate manner forthe representationof the three divine persons" [modo debito representationemtrium divinarum personarum ] ,9Charles Sterlinginterprets this as referringto the traditionaliconographic formula, inwhich Fatherand Son are endowed withdistinct features.10 The corpus of earlydepictions of the coronationof the Virginby the Trinity(i.e., from ca. 1400 to ca. 1450) proves the formula'soriginality, for very few works display an identical Fatherand Son." It should be noted that for artistsand patrons, the depiction of the Trinityrepresents a challenge nearly impossible to meet. So many notions, contradictoryat times, are involvedand ought to be included.

" 8. Denny,in "The Trinity, argued that this iconographic formula, with identical Father and Son withoutany distinguishing attributes is derived from manuscript illuminations illustratingPsalm 109. His argument was reconsidered byFrancois Boespflug, . . dupere au filsne doit avoir nulle difference . . .' Apropos du christomorphisme de la representation de Dieua la renaissance,"Les Chartreux etl'art, XlVe-XVe sidcle, ed. Alain Girard and Daniel Le Btevec(Paris, 1989), pp. 325-345. 9. Sterling,E.Q., pp. 203-4, reproduces and translates the contract. 10. Sterling,E.Q. , pp.135 and 204. " 11 . Seemy "Innovazione iconografica e unita alpina: la Vergine incoronata dalla Trinita, inLo spazioalpino: area di civilta,regione cerniera, ed. GauroCoppola and Pierangelo Schiera(Naples, 1991), pp. 263-279. A fewinstances can be found,hence revising Don Denny'sstatement that he had "discovered no otherrepresentation ofthe coronation ofthe Virginby the Trinity inwhich the First and Second Persons of the Trinity are completely undifferentiated,andno representations ofthe subject preceding Quarton's painting (1453) inwhich they are not strongly differentiated." ("The Trinity," p. 49).

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First,the linksbetween the hypostases: the generation(from the Father to the Son), the filiation(from the Son to the Father),and the procession of the Holy Ghost (and, as we have seen, the exact nature of this latter remained subject to debate). Also to be represented is the consubstantialityand the coeternityof the members, while at the same time respectingand expressingthe identityof each. And how should the Son, withhis two natures,divine and human, be depicted? As a resultof thisadditional choice, the depictionstend to oscillate between two poles, between immanence (with the Son as God) and economy (with the Son showing signs of his incarnation and redemptive death). This iconographic conundrum explains the plethora of Trinitarian depictions- at least before the standardizationbrought by the Council of Trent.12 If the formula chosen by Montagnac successfully conveys the coeternity,the consubstantiality,and double procession of the Spirit,it nevertheless does not express the notion of paternityand filiation. Montagnac's Trinityis also fullyimmanent in nature,for it does not refer to Christ's humanity and Passion. And yet the altarpiece has been recognized as being about the historyof salvation.13Salvation without Christ's Passion? The absence of references to Christ's redemptive sufferingin Quarton's Trinityis nevertheless compensated for by the presence ofthe incarnatedChrist elsewhere in thepainting. Christ as man appears on the cross at the bottomof the composition and as the Man of Sorrows miraculouslyappearing to Pope Gregory.Finally, we also findan Agnus Dei sculpted on the facade of Gregory'schurch.14 These three reminders of Christ's sacrifice represent a summary of the different modalities of the expression of the same concept: Christon the cross

12. Interms of spatial organization, two major types can be distinguished.The three personscan be arrangedeither horizontally (as is thecase in Montagnac'sTrinity) or verticallyas in theThrone of Mercytype of Trinity, the most famous instance being Masaccio'sfresco in Florence. Within the first type, no less than four different versions can be considered:1) allthree persons are identical (the Holy Ghost is given a humanform); 2) allthree persons are different (the Spirit is alsodepicted as a man);3) Fatherand Son are identical,the Spirit isa dove;and 4) Fatherand Son are different, theSpirit appears as a dove. Foran excellentbibliographic update on theiconography ofthe Trinity, see Francois Boespflug,Dieu dans I'art (Paris, 1984), pp. 356-57. 13. See,for example, Bernard Montagnes, "Marie du tombeauau couronnement:La theologied'Enguerrand Quarton," Etudes vauclusiennes 24-25 (July-December 1980 and "La et Notessur le January-June1981): 11; JacquesChiffoleau, croyance" l'image. Couronnementde la Viergede Villeneuve-les-Avignon,ibid.,pp. 7-18. 14. 1am not including the figure in the Burning Bush, who, although endowed with the featuresof Christ, stands for God (and does not display any marks of the Passion).

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representsthe event itself,"the text", the Man ofSorrows as an apparition could be seen as a quotation, or an intertext,while the Agnus Dei, a depiction withina depiction,is comparable to a metaphor,a gloss, or a metatext. The decree then addresses the issue of the Real Presence of Christin the consecrated bread, be it unleavened or leavened. This dogma too finds an echo in the altarpiece, with the Mass of St. Gregory.The apparitionof the incarnated sufferingChrist above the altar as the pope celebrates the mass was considered both a confirmation and an illustrationof the dogma. Also addressed in Laetenturcaeli is the fate of those who die withouthaving made fullpenance fortheir sins. They are to be purifiedby "the pains of purgatory"[poenis purgatoriis]which can be mitigatedby the interventionof the living,through masses, prayers, alms, and works of mercy. This section as well finds its place in the altarpiece, throughthe depiction of purgatoryin its lower leftportion.15 Purgatorywas indeed one of the centralpoints discussed at the council. As we know, the Orthodox view held that the firesof purgatorylignis purgatoriis] were onlya metaphor,while forthe Roman Church itwas a reality.Those who die purifiedof all sin are "immediatelyreceived in heaven" [in caelum mox recipi], where theyclearly see God "trinumet unum."16Quarton's Trinityis surroundedby the blessed who by gestures and facialexpressions suggesttheir beatitude and adorationin front of the Godhead. The fact thatrepresentatives of all strataof society are to be found promises the Beatific Vision for all.17 Similarly,the damned immediatelygo down to hell [mox in internumdescendere], located, as we know, on the lower rightof the composition.The decree specifies that thishappens "immediately"after death, in otherwords, withouthaving to wait forthe Last Judgment.In the depiction,the presence ofpurgatory

15. Onthe history ofpurgatory, see Jacques Le Goff, La Naissance du purgatoire (Paris, 1981).English translation: TheBirth of Purgatory, trans. Arthur Goldhammer (Chicago, 1984). Onthe ofpurgatory, a recent and comprehensive update is in Michel Vovelle, LesAmes du purgatoire ou le travaildu deuil (Paris, 1996). 16. Thisdogma had alreadybeen defined in 1336by Pope BenedictXII in thebull BenedictusDei. It is importanttostress that Avignon had early on witnessed a devotion to soulsin purgatory. See JacquesChiffoleau, La Comptabiliti de tau-dela : les hommes,la mortet la religiondans la regiondAvignon d la findu moyen dge (vers 1320-vers 1480) (Rome,1980), pp. 389-425. 17. Forearly depictions ofthe Beatific Vision, see LucyFreeman Sandler, "Face to Face withGod: A PictorialImage of the Beatific Vision," England in the Fourteenth Century: Proceedingsof the 1985 Harlaxton Symposium, Woodbridge, Suffolk, ed. W.M.Ormrod (Dover,N.H, 1986), pp. 224-35, who also presents an excellent summary ofthe history ofthe theologicaldebates relative to the issue.

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contributesto conveyingthat message. It unmistakablydetermines the moment ofthe action,setting it well beforethe Last Judgment,18and thus givingshape to the notionof the individual,or particular,judgment.19 Withpurgatory, this intermediary and transitoryplace, therearises the need ofprayers of the living- embodied bythe Carthusian monk in prayer at the footof the cross: we can see here an affirmationof the validityof Carthusian prayer- and of Mary's intercession,along with that of the saints in her court. And so the altarpiece is also very much an Allerheiligenbild,20a comprehensive image of all the intercessors available. Jacques Chiffoleaunoticed how Quarton's countless saints, martyrs,apostles and patriarchsare aligned in the paintingas neatly as they appear listed in late medieval testaments.21Mary is nevertheless unmistakablypresented here as themain intercessor- hence herposition facingthe congregation,and hence her glorification.We are remindedof Denis the Carthusianreferring to heras the "SalvatrixMundi."22 The saints serve a double function:on the one hand theyare the manyintercessors who can relayone's prayerto God, and on the otherhand, theyillustrate the conditionof those who reach heaven and witness the BeatificVision. The issue of the BeatificVision is furtherdeveloped in the altarpiece by the inclusion of several epiphanies: the vision of God before death being indeed considered in connectionwith the discussions regardingthe BeatificVision. The prix-faitmentions three such instances: the Burning Bush (§ 20), the Mass of St. Gregory(§ 15), and Abraham and the Three

18. Thatthe depiction takes place before the Last Judgment isfurther implied, as Walter Gibsonpointed out to me, by thefact that the present world (i.e., Quarton'sand Montagnac's)still exists. At least in this case, one cannot agree with Philippe Verdier when he affirmsthat "in the order of historical succession of theophanies, the coronation ofthe Virgincomes immediately after the Last Judgment, which it completes and consummates" (emphasismine). Philippe Verdier, Le Couronnementde la Vierge. Les origineset les premiersdeveloppements d'uri theme iconoeraphique (Montreal and Paris, 1980), p. 9. 19. Onthe issue of the particular judgment (as wellas ofthe depiction ofthe hereafter), an excellentsynthesis is to be foundin therecent exhibition catalog: Peter Jezler, ed., Himmel,Holle, Fegefeuer. Das Jenseitsim Mittelalter (Zurich, 1994); see, in particular, the editor'sintroduction "Jenseitsmodelle undJenseitsvorsorge - eine Einfuhrung," pp.13-26. 20. Literally"All Saints' Image." On thisiconographic type, see theentry in the Reallexikonzur deutschen Kunstgeschichte (Stuttgart, 1937). 21. See Chiffoleau,"La croyance et l'image," p. 16. 22. OttoG. von Simson, "Compassio and Co-Redemptio inRoger van der Weyden's 'DescentFrom the Cross ,"'Arf Bulletin 35 (1 953): 1 4. The quotation comes from De dignitate et laudibusbeatae virginis Mariae , 11:23 ( Doctoris ecstatici D. DionysiiCartusiani Opera omnia)xxxvi (Toumai, 1908), p. 99.Simson notes that to his knowledge "the term occurs herefor the first time."

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Angels (§ 19). In the finishedaltarpiece, the latterwas not included, perhaps as a resultof a decision by the painter,for in several instances the document lets theartist decide the details forthe representation(with formulas such as "selon Padviz dudit maistre Enguerrand"). Indeed, a detailed comparison of the text with the image reveals many other changes.23One should neverthelesskeep in mind thatthe textwhich has survived is not a definitivecontract but only a detailed preliminary schedule, writtenon paper.24In the case of the omission of the episode of Abraham and the Three Angels, perhaps it was thoughtthat two epiphanies were sufficient,especially since the two retained are both charged with meaning.25The BurningBush, which burned but was not consumed, is a traditionaltypological metaphor both forMary's virginity and the church's incorruptibility.26The epiphany of the GregorianMass, in addition to being a proofof the dogma of the Real Presence of Christ in the consecrated host, also resonates with Carthusian pride, for the episode was believed to have taken place in the Roman church of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, which belonged to the Carthusian order from 27 1370 to 1561. In fact,behind the pope celebratingthe mass and his two acolytes, several white-hooded Carthusiansform the audience.28Absent fromthe decree is the Virginwho, in keeping with Carthusiandevotion, receives a most prominentrole in the altarpiece.29This inflectiontowards a glorificationof the Virginwas not immediatelymade in the contract: Jacques Chiffoleauhas noticed the disparitybetween the commission, witha clear emphasis on the Trinity(after all, the panel was destined for

23. See Sterling,£0., pp.46-67. 24. Sterling,E.Q., p. 67. 25. Theoriginal choice of Abraham and the Angels certainly fits into the iconographic program,for it is considereda typological prefiguration ofthe Trinity. Sterling, E.Q., p. 67, furtherexplains the cancellation by compositional concerns. 26. See E. Harris,"Mary in theBurning Bush: Nicolas Froment's Triptych at Aix-en- Provence,"Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institute 1 (1938-39): 281-286. 27. GabrielLe Bras, "Les chartreux," inLes Ordres religieux, la vie et I' art, ed. Gabriel Le Bras(Paris, 1979), p. 611. 28. Sterling,E.Q. , p. 59 (andfig. 38) suggeststhat the man with a brownhood at the bottomleft corner of the church is thedonor, Jean de Montagnac.Itis truethat in his depictionpraying infront of Mary's tomb, Montagnac wears a similaroutfit. 29. Forthe special devotion of the Carthusian order to the Virgin, see forexample Alain Girard,"Le d£cor en Chartreuse:La place de la chartreusedeVilleneuve-l&s-Avignon dans le d£veloppementde 1' image," Cahiers de Fanjeaux28 (1993):368, and Christiande M£rindol,"Art, spirituality et politique. Philippe le Hardiet la chartreusede Champmol, nouvelaperqu," in Les ChartreuxetI' art , XlVe-XVe siecle, ed. Alain Girard and Daniel Le Bl£vec(Paris, 1989), p. 98.

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