Caravaggio & the Baroque Image
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SAINTS &SINNERS CARAVAGGIO & THE BAROQUE IMAGE Edited by Franco aformando McMULLEN MUSEUM OF ART, BOSTON COLLEGE Distributed by the University of Chicago Press 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 peril Reftauro, Archivio J. Shea It, 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, '57 Museum of Fine Arts, Baton, plate 28 Gerard and Brigitte Mouffiet Museum der Bildenden Kiinat, 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, Baton College McMullen Museum of Art, Baton College, North Carolina Museum of Art, plate 21 Februaryi 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 I-892830-00-I 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, zo Franco Mormando, Baton 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 Baton College Pamela Jones, University of Massachusetts, Baton John W. O'Malley, Wefton Jesuit School of JoAnn Yandle, Designer Theology Typeset in the Hoefler Text family Thomas W. Worcefter, College of the Holy Cross FRONT COVER: Paper Rock is Potlach McCoy The Taking of Chriii, 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.1, 3-6, 12, 15, 20-22 Joan Vercollone Barry and Henry F. Barry, ' 64 Baton College Audio Visual Department, fig. 10 Linda Carifto Crescenzi, '64 and Adam Crescenzi John J. Burns Library, Bofton College, figs. II , 13 The Cleveland Museum of Art, fig. 23 BENEFACTORS Courrauld Inftitute, London, fig. 31 The Jesuit Institute at Baton College The Jesuit Community, Loyola University, Nancy McElaney Joyce and John E. Joyce '61, '70 Chicago, plate 22 PATRONS Detroit Institute of Arts, plate 6 Jesuit Community, Baton College Mary Jane Harris, New York, plates 3, 5 Homeland Foundation, New York, New York Richard L. Feigen, New York, plates 9, I8 Donna Hoffman and Chriftian 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 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-Collantiniana di lettere, arti e scienze, Rome THE VERY REVEREND PETER-HANS KOLVENBACH, S.J. Superior General of the Society of Jesus, Rome DIRECTOR'S FOREWORD 9 °Nulty °N,tzer PREFACE: THE MURDER BEHIND THE DISCOVERY II eNel Barber EDITOR'S INTRODUCTION (with Appendix, Synopsis of the 8xhibition) Franco aformando A HISTORIOGRAPHICAL FRAME FOR THE PAINTINGS: RECENT INTERPRETATIONS OF EARLY MODERN CATHOLICISM 19 John 'W. O'afalley THE POWER OF IMAGES: PAINTINGS AND VIEWERS IN CARAVAGGIO'S ITALY 28 Pamela al. Jones PLATES OF PAINTINGS IN THE EXHIBITION 49 TRENT AND BEYOND: ARTS OF TRANSFORMATION 87 Thomas Worceiter TEACHING THE FAITHFUL TO FLY: MARY MAGDALENE AND PETER IN BAROQUE ITALY 107 Franco aformando CARDINAL CAESAR BARONIUS, THE ARTS, AND THE EARLY CHRISTIAN MARTYRS 136 Josephine von gfenneberg THE JESUITS AND PAINTING IN ITALY, 1550-16 9 0: THE ART OF CATHOLIC REFORM 151 gauvin °Alexander Bailey "JUST AS YOUR LIPS APPROACH THE LIPS OF YOUR BROTHERS": JUDAS ISCARIOT AND THE KISS OF BETRAYAL 179 Franco aformando CARAVAGGIO AND RELIGION 191 John Varriano CLASSICAL AND RELIGIOUS INFLUENCES IN CARAVAGGIO'S FAINTING 208 jergio Benedetti LENDERS TO THE EXHIBITION back page CONTRIBUTORS TO THE CATALOGUE back page "JUST AS YOUR LIPS APPROACH THE LIPS OF YOUR BROTHERS": JUDAS ISCARIOT AND THE KISS OF BETRAYAL ANCO QMORMANDO of Christ of 16o2 (Pl. 3o) belonging to the Jesuit Fathers of After [the Lord's Prayer) comes the greeting, "Peace be with you," and Chriftians kiss one another with a holy kiss. It's a Dublin, in which the kiss, though presumably having already sign of peace; what is indicated by the lips should happen in taken place (hence the forward movement of the soldiers), the conscience; that is, juft as your lips approach the lips of is (till very much present in the proximity ofJudas's lips to your brothers or sifters, so your heart should not be with- Jesus's.5 These two canvases have shared a similar deftiny: drawn from theirs. both were loft to higtory for nearly two hundred years and —eAUGUSTINE, Sermon 227, "Preached on the Holy Day only recently have been rediscovered. More important, of Eafter to the Infantes, on the Sacraments."' these paintings were of great influence in their own day, several copies of each having been produced in the seven- Then let the men give the men, and the women give the teenth century. 6 Even when not copied directly, they women, the Lord's kiss. But let no one do it with a deceit, as Judas betrayed the Lord with a kiss. served as unmiftakable sources of inspiration for other artifts, as we see in Guercino's diftinctively Carraccesque —The Apaftolic Constitutions, late 4th century. 2 The Betrayal of Chrift (ca. 1621) in the Fitzwilliam Museum7 and the Anonymous Flemish Caravaggesco's The Taking of N E 0 F the moft infamous kisses in Christ of the same decade in Boglon's Museum of Fine Arts the higtory of Weftern civilization was (MFA) and included in the present exhibition (Pl. 29). that given to Jesus in the Garden of In all three of the paintings in our exhibition, the Gethsemane by disciple-turned-betrayer intensely emotional action of the scene is quite compact, Judas Iscariot, whose "filthy mouth... placed close and crowded to the forefront of the canvas, 0 dared to touch the so loving and melli- drawing the viewer inexorably into the drama of the scene. fluous mouth of the Eternal Word."3 Judas The Caravaggio and Carracci canvases were commis- is the sinner par excellence of Chriftian higtory and the dra- sioned for private collection and devotion; given its size matic scene of his betrayal of Chrift with its villainous and composition, we may assume the same for the kiss has been a popular theme of Weftern art since the Flemish work as well. Nothing, however, is known of earlieft centuries. Indeed, since the earlieft centuries, the the origins of the latter painting, purchased by the MFA scene has rarely been excluded from painted or sculpted from Colnaghi in 1977. It had been attributed to both depictions of the Passion cycle, even the moft abbreviated Dirck van Baburen and Valentin de Boulogne. 8 Recently of them.4 Perhaps the beft-known and moft-celebrated Marina Mojana found that, "although certain passages .. representation is that of the frescoed Passion cycle in are done in a manner close to that of the French artift," Padua's Scrovegni Chapel by fourteenth-century Italian the work indicates instead "the sphere of a northern artift, Giotto, but Baroque Italy produced its own share Caravaggesco active in Rome in the second decade of the of equally ftriking depictions. Seicento, an artift, I think, of the circle of Van Somer, as We are fortunate in having two of the moft ftirring Brejon suggefts."9 We know something more about the in the present exhibition. One, Ludovico (Lodovico) Princeton painting, though, again, nothing about the pre- Carracci's The Kiss of Judas of ca. 1589-90 (Pl. 28), from the cise circumftances of its commissioning. Firft recorded in Princeton University Art Museum, is arguably the moft a 164o inventory attached to the teftament of Alessandro ftartling, disquieting painted re-creation of that scene. Tanari, the painting was part of the Tanari collection in The other is Caravaggio's deeply poignant The Taking Bologna, one of more than a dozen works of Ludovico 179 owned by that family of avid collectors. Yet, we do not of the betrayal of Chrigt, in Franciscan spirituality. know if the Tanari had commissioned the painting or Although, to be sure, mental and visual contemplation of instead had purchased it from previous owners. Designed the Passion of Chrigt in its various "gtations" was central as an overdoor, Ludovico's Kiss of Judas was an item of to all of early modern Catholicism (as testified in the pre- some notoriety in the Tanari collection during the seven- sent exhibition by the Pulzone, Bassano, and Cavaliere teenth century, not surprising in light of its almogt shocking d'Arpino paintings, Pls.