PAST- PRESENT Essays on Historicism in Art jrom Donatello to Picasso Irving Lavin UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA PRESS BERKELEY • LOS ANGELES• OXFORD The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the Institute for Advanced Study, Princeton, and the Una Endowment Fund of the University of California, Berkeley. University of California Press Berkeley and Los Angeles, California University of California Press, Ltd. Oxford, England © 1993 by Irving Lavin Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Lavin, Irving, 1927- Past-present : essays on historicism in art from Donatello to Picasso / Irving Lavin. p. cm. - (Una's lectures ; 6) Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-520-06816-5 (cloth) I. Art and history. 2. Historicism. I. Title. II. Series. N72.H58L38 1992 709-dC20 91-28489 Printed in the United States of America 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 The paper used in this publication meets the minimum requirements of American National Standard for Information Sciences - Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, ANSI z39.48-1984. § Fig. 99. Caravaggio, Calling of St. Matthew. San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome (photo: Istituto Centrale de! Restauro, Rome 9779). Fig. 100. Detail of Fig. 99. CHAPTER FOUR + CARAVAGGIO'S Calling of Saint Matthew: T H E I D E N T I T Y OF THE PROTAGONIST powerful current runs through the entire history of involves a conundrum that is obscured in the King Western art-a complex, imponderable, paradoxical James translation. The glass is a mirror (speculum) Ametaphor that defines in visual terms the relation­ through which we see, and what we perceive "darkly" ship between the world and Christian belief The is an enigma. The point I want to focus on particu­ metaphor occurs in I Corinthians 1p2, where St. larly, however-because I believe Caravaggio did so, Paul explains the understanding that will come in in an unprecedented and utterly devastating way- is the fullness of faith: "For now we see through a the second part of the metaphor. "Face to face" is glass, darkly, but then face to face" (Videmus nunc per also a conundrum: the phrase may be taken both speculum in aenigmate, tune autem Jacie ad jaciem). One of metaphorically and literally-and this is exactly the principal interpretations of the passage was that how Caravaggio took it. Appropriating the Renais­ it alluded to the presence of God in everyday, ordi­ sance understanding of physiognomy as the outward nary, even unworthy things. Paul's dictum was thus manifestation of psychological and moral character related both to the ancient rhetorical tradition of (see pp. 109, 212 below), Caravaggio used the face in rhyparography, the art of portraying lowly and insig­ the second part of Paul's metaphor to portray (the nificant things, and to the Christian devotional tra­ pun is deliberate) the enigma of the first. Justification dition of the sermo humilis, or humble style, both of for Caravaggio's interpretation was provided by Paul's which have important corollaries in the visual arts. use of the same metaphor in 2 Corinthians p8, where These traditions enjoyed a great florescence in the he relates the image in the mirror to the change of face Northern European Renaissance, becoming a veri­ wrought by the spirit of the Lord in those who table mode of thought, as well as of persuasion, believe: "But we all, with open face beholding as in a among the major thinkers of the age, including glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same Nicholas of Cusa, Erasmus, and Rabelais. 1 image from glory to glory, even as by the Spirit of the My subject here is really an episode in this Lord" (Nos vero omnes revelata jacie gloriam Domini speculates millennial story, although a significant one, as I in eandem imaginem traniformamur a claritate in claritatem, hope will become clear. Paul's formulation in Latin tanquam a Domini Spiritu ). 85 My immediate purpose is to offer a counterproof tradition universally accepted since the early seven­ to arguments recently made to re-identify the figure teenth century had identified as the publican the of the Jewish tax collector Levi, whom Jesus calls to elegantly dressed bearded man who, bathed in Christ's the apostolate in Caravaggio's painting of that subject light, looks toward the approaching figure of the executed for the left wall of the Contarelli chapel in Lord and points to himself, assenting to the divine San Luigi dei Francesi, the French national church in command "Follow me.''3 Caravaggio's paintings Rome (Figs. 99, 100; Plate IV). Besides the Calling ef created an astonishing three-act religious drama in St. Matthew, Caravaggio painted three other canvases for which-to judge by appearances-the chief pro­ the chapel between 1599 and 1603 at the behest of the tagonist played three completely different and executors of Cardinal Matthieu Cointrel, who had incompatible roles. died in 1585: the Martyrdom ef St. Matthew for the right An alternative suggestion has been made that wall (Figs. IOI, 102) and two versions of the altarpiece Levi-who-became-Matthew should be identified showing Matthew composing his Gospel under the with the youth seated at the left of the counting inspiration of his symbolic angel (Figs. 103, 104 ).2 A table, unaware of Christ's approach, engulfed in Caravaggio's Calling of St. Matthew Fig. 101 (opposite). Caravaggio, Martrydom ef St. Matthew. San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome (photo: Istituto Centrale de! Restauro, Rome 9773). Fig. 102 (above). Detail of Fig. 101 (photo: Istituto Centrale per ii Catalogo e la Documentazione, Rome Ez4570 ). darkness, his head down, grasping a money bag the two figures sit, the so-called Savonarola chair, is close to his chest.4 The main arguments presented identical- in fact, Caravaggio also reused the bench to support this interpretation, though reasonable, do under the youth with the sword (at right) for the not in themselves seem persuasive to me: that the evangelist in the second version of the altarpiece pointing gesture of the seated figure could refer to (Fig. 104 ), and he had already used both props in the his companions at the end of the table - in fact, the London Supper at Emmaus(Fig. 105). The simple, una­ gesture seems clearly self-referential and not at all dorned pieces of furniture were just that, props, like ambiguous; that the physiognomy of the youth is the Capuchin's frock and the pair of wings Caravag­ more readily reconcilable with the Socratic features gio borrowed from the painter Orazio Gentileschi Caravaggio gave the evangelist Matthew composing during the very period he was working on the Con­ his Gospel in the original version of the altarpiece tarelli chapel. 5 In any case, accepting this partial for the chapel-in fact, notwithstanding the differ­ cure for the consistently split personality of Cara­ ence in age, the evangelist's features seem much vaggio's hero would be worse than the disease, for coarser; and that the design of the chairs on which we would then have to confront, without help from Caravaggio's Calling of St. Matthew Fig. m3 (above). Caravaggio, St. Matthew Composing His Gospel. Destroyed in 1945; formerly Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum, Berlin (photo: Zentralinstitut fur Kunstgeschichte, Munich 120854 ). Fig. 104 (following plates). Caravaggio, St. Matthew Composing His Gospel. San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome (photo: lstituto Centrale de! Restauro, Rome 9783). 88 Caravaggio's Calling of St. Matthew Plate IV (above). Caravaggio, Calling of St. Matthew, detail. San Luigi dei Francesi, Rome (photo: courtesy Maurizio Marino). Plate V (right). Pieter Coecke, Last Supper, detail. Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels. Plate VI (opposite, above). Jan van Hemessen, Calling of St. Mat­ thew. Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Plate VII (opposite, below). Hendrick Terbrugghen, Calling of St. Matthew. Cencraal Museum, Utrecht. Caravaggio's Calling of St. Matthew Fig. 105 (above) . Caravaggio, Supptr at Emmaus. National Gallery, London. Fig. 106 (opposite). Piecer Coecke, I.Ast Supper. Musees Royaux des Beaux-Arts, Brussels. the theory's proponents, the inconsistency of the divine illumination. Indeed, the metaphor has par­ same individual as Matthew in the first two scenes, ticular relevance in the Calling of St. Matthew, as a but another in the third. visual analogue to a passage connecting Matthew's To my mind, however, the alternative identifica­ conversion to his vision of Christ's radiance, in the tion is excluded a priori by other, more fundamental, liturgy for the saint celebrated in the chapel on his considerations. A youthful beardless and hatless feast day. The breviary quotes St. Jerome's luminous publican would contradict the worldly maturity response, in his commentary on this episode in the universally attributed to this government official, first Gospel, to the shadow of doubt cast on the however corrupt. The relative obscurity of the authenticity of the conversion by the pagan philoso­ youth at the side as Levi would contradict the high pher Porphyry and the apostate emperor Julian. drama of the composition as a whole, which focuses They claimed that either the story was false or it on the man in the center who looks toward Christ bespoke the folly of anyone who would follow and points. A Levi oblivious to Christ's appearance without hesitation at a call. Jerome replied that "cer­ would contradict the essential point of the episode, tainly the radiance and the majesty of the hidden the publican's response-not lack of response-to the divinity which shone out from the human face of Call. A benighted Levi would contradict one of the Christ could draw to Him at first sight those who most profound and innovative principles of Cara­ saw Him."6 vaggio's art, the use of light as a visual metaphor for These points are obvious enough, perhaps even Caravaggio's Calling of St.