Madonna and Child with the infant St John the Baptist

 St Sylvester, 31st December, 2023

     It is the final day of the Octave of Christmas, what in Orthodoxy is termed the Apodosis - the 'Leave Taking'; and I thought I'd conclude this little sequence of paintings with this arresting image: 'The Madonna & Child with the infant St John the Baptist' attributed to the Renaissance Florentine Master Sandro Botticelli, (14415-1510).  It currently resides in the Barber Institute in Birmingham.  Sadly the Institute, unlike the Fitzwilliam Museum, does not list provenance online.

    The painting depicts the meeting of the infant Christ with St John the Baptist, a subject that seems to have been continuously popular with artists in the Middle Ages and beyond. It is however an event that is apocryphal but not impossible.  There is a near identical painting that, according to Wiki, is in the Palazzo Pitti collection, though it is not listed in the online gallery collection.  It is the mirror image of the painting in the Barber.  The colour of the Barber painting however seems, to judge by a comparison of photographs on the internet, to be the more sombre.  Both paintings seem a long way from the usual 'sweetness and light' Botticelli style. The extraordinary element lies in the composition which seems to echo depictions of the adult Christ's Deposition from the Cross.  Christ appears as one dead. 

Madonna and Child with Bird

 

      Something rather different today.  A sculpture, 139x95cms, undertaken in glazed terracotta in Renaissance Florence.  It is the creation of the workshop of Giovanni della Robbia, (1469-1529), son of the much better know Andrea della Robbia.  Today it is on display in the foyer of the Barber Institute (part of the University of Birmingham) but it was originally made for a monastery (and I have no idea which) located in Castellina nr Florence. I took the photograph way back in 2017 when I made my first visit to the Institute.

     The sculpture is in the form of an aedicule (from the Latin meaning 'little house'), essentially a small shrine.  It is an example of those ways in which Classical Antiquity was adopted and adapted to fit a Christian context.  The term 'tabernacle' might be used today.  The aedicule is of the Corinthian order supported by a winged cherub's head flanked by two cornucopia profusely sprouting foliage, fruit and pine cones.  The profusion is repeated in the sunk panels of the Corinthian pilasters and cornucopia replace the volutes, the 'helices', in the capitals. Indeed, the whole 'architecture' of the aedicule is highly decorated, most particularly the frieze of the entablature which echoes the ornamentation of the support with alternating cherub heads and foliage. The cornice is itself is a little simplified, omitting the brackets/modillions (for technical reasons?).

     The visual and devotional heart of the aedicule is a relief sculpture of the Theotokos and the Christ child contained in a thin arch decorated with 'egg and dart'. She placed centrally, Christ to her left. Both are standing - the Virgin Mary is three quarter length, Christ full length.  Both the figures occupy slightly different positions in the 'picture' plain - Christ, who is standing on the 'sill' of the arch is in the foreground, his mother slightly behind, her lower half partially hidden by the architecture. Christ's right hand is raised in blessing, his left hand, which is held above his heart is holding a small bird.

     The work of the della Robbia family has an immediate appeal to the viewer.  I particularly love the tondi, which are used so successfully to decorate the exterior of so many Renaissance buildings in the city and also the dazzling ceiling of the Chapel of the Cardinal of Portugal attached to the north aisle of San Miniato del Monte also in Florence. In the Madonna and Child with Bird, which is so scaled as to suggest a devotional use, I love the freedom with which the Classical language of architecture is handled. 

    Is the bird in the infant Christ's hand, I wonder, a reference to the legend of the infant Jesus making birds from clay and then giving them life?  The story occurs in the Infancy Gospel of Thomas.  The legend later occurs in the Quran and in Medieval Jewish writing.  Although entirely apocryphal it was, like stories from the Proto-Evangelium of James, a very popular subject for Medieval artists.  If it is then it is some sort of comment on the work of della Robbia as a sculptor in clay and by extension to work of all artists.

The Virgin of Humility

 

     Today something far removed from yesterday's towering painting. We are back to the Fitzwilliam collection and back in the pre-modern and the Gothic.  That slightly strange, to Northern eyes at least, Gothic of the Italian peninsular, where the Gothic north blends with strong and persistent Classical, Romanesque and, most important in the discussion of this painting, Byzantine traditions.

     What we are looking at here is essentially an icon set within a tabernacle - everything we see is constructed of gessoed, painted and gilded wood.  According to the Fitzwilliam museum it dates from after 1440; the work of Paolo Schiavo.  It is Florentine, but at some point the tabernacle turned up in Pisa.  By 1883 it is known to have been in the collection of the Pisan Giuseppe Tuscanelli.  The tabernacle is a devotional object, but not for personal, private use, but for the use of a lay devotional community - in this case a group of flagellants. In one sense it is a variant of the 'Madonna enthroned' I talked about on Wednesday; the Theotokos and the Christ child are still surrounded by a heavenly court - there are angels in the soffit of the arch, and saints on the piers 'supporting' the arch, four in all. The variation is simply that the Theotokos is seated on the ground; hence the title 'The Virgin of Humility'.  A fitting subject for such a confraternity, which is depicted in the panel below the main panel performing the funeral rite of one of its members. 

     Finally, I suppose I ought to say something about these flagellants.  All we need to know is that in the Middle Ages confraternities were very popular, loci of popular lay devotion.  Some very famous Medieval paintings, such as the Rucellai Madonna¹ by Duccio were commissioned by such confraternities.  The flagellants were simply a more 'extreme' example of such devotional life. They seem to have been a product of the later, post Black Death, Middle Ages.

1 The Rucellai Madonna was commission by the Laudesi confraternity.  They met within the 's' transept of Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella, where they had a chapel.  It has often been said that the painting - tempera on wood - was an altarpiece. I don't think that that is accepted these days. The image - which is extremely large and is essentially, like 'The Virgin of Humility' an icon, though of the 'Panakranta' type - may either have stood in the confraternity's chapel or outside in the transept. After the completion of the nave it may have been moved there, to stand either against one of the piers or upon the rood beam, what in the Italian peninsular was then referred to as the 'Iconostasis' (see: 'The Art and Science of the Church Screen in Medieval Europe', Eds: Spike Bucklow, Richard Marks, & Lucy Wrapson).  The Iconostasis in the Upper Church at Assisi not only supported (centrally) a Crucifix, but icons of St Michael and the Virgin Mary & Christ child of the 'Panakranta' type - the beam is depicted in Giotto's fresco 'The Verification of the Stigmata', also in the Upper Church.

     When Vasari ruthlessly remodelled the interior of Santa Maria Novella during the Counter-Reformation (the amount of destruction was quite the equal to that done by Protestants) the image was placed in the Rucellai chapel off the 's' transept. Hence its current name.  It was moved out of the church in 1937 and on to display in Uffizi in 1948 (wiki says it was moved to the Uffizi in the 19th century), and denuded of its power thereby. (image from wiki Commons)

Adoration of the Shepherds

 The Holy Innocents, 28th December, 2023

     Just over a hundred years separates today's image - 'The Adoration of the Shepherds', by Philippe de Champaigne (1602-74) in London's Wallace Collection - from yesterday's; and, although perhaps not a fair comparison for they are not of the same genre, the contrast in style and technique could not be greater: lucidity to mystery, hieratic to fluid drama, from an even light to the theatrical disposition of light and darkness. It is, paradoxically, both a maximalist and minimalist work - by minimalist I mean the ruthless expurging of extraneous detail. As in all Baroque art, all is subsumed into a whole that is designed to elicit, to excite, an emotional response in the viewer. While in yesterday's painting the subjects were either deep in contemplation or addressing the viewer, here the figures are completely oblivious to the observer being entirely caught up in the communal moment when the shepherds are brought into the divine presence.

     According to The Wallace Collection website The Adoration was painted c1645. It is a large work, some 260x160cms, commissioned, perhaps, for Abbey of Notre Dame de Quincy, where it is tempting to think it formed part of an altarpiece.

     Altarpiece, or not, the whole thing, I think, can be read as an allegory of the Eucharist, or rather the Eucharist as it was understood in the Western catholic church in the early years of the seventeenth century.  The shepherds, who can be thought of as the Faithful, have brought a lamb, a bound lamb pointing to Christ's passion and death, as an offering to the infant Christ. It lies upon the floor of the cave.  Christ is the Lamb of God. The Virgin Mary stands as a 'type' of the church presenting to the faithful the incarnate God for adoration, just as the church, in the person of the priest, in the elevation of the consecrated species, presents the faithful the risen body & blood for adoration.  It was at that moment of adoration that the altarpiece and the liturgical action below it became one and time was collapsed.

Virgin and Child between St John the Baptist and St Onufrius

 St John the Divine, 27th December, 2023

      During what remains of the Octave of the Nativity I thought I'd post some images of paintings that have caught my eye and are relevant to the season.  

     Today, on the feast of St John the Divine, I thought I'd share with you another photo I took on my last visit to the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge at the end of November: 'Virgin and Child between St John the Baptist and St Onufrius'.  It measures approx 150x130cms which suggests to me, at least, that it was intended for a liturgical use and setting (such as an altarpiece within a church or chapel) rather than for domestic, devotional use - an object to exist in the public, or semi-public realm not the private one, but all of this is merely supposition, for we actually know very little about this object. The name of the artist is itself unknown to us at present, though at one time it was attributed to one Cristoforo Scacco. Perhaps the identity of the artist will never now be known. The painting, which I presume is painted on wood, is attributed vaguely to the 'Neopolitan School' - that is it was painted, c1507, in Southern Italy, in what was then part of the Spanish Empire.  The Fitzwilliam Museum website gives its provenance - a sort of secular equivalent to a 'catena patrum'. The earliest entry dates from c 1821, when the painting was purchased for the Museo Reale in Naples from an unknown source in Gaeta, a city north of Naples in Lazio.  What stylistic or technical reasons for a 'Neopolitan' attribution are, I don't know.

     The influence of Florentine art, however, is obvious; the figures of the Theotokos and the Christ child in particular remind me of the work of Sandro Botticelli (1445-1510).  There is perhaps, also a Northern Gothic influence at play.  A balance between naturalism and the graphic, between nascent Modernity and the pre-Modern as exemplified by the twisting ribbon at the head of St John the Baptist's staff. 

    The composition, however, has origins that are much older. Right back to Late Antiquity and the formation of Christian Art.  It follows a type usually referred to as the 'Panakranta' or 'Madonna Enthroned', which must, I feel, owe something to Imperial iconography. One of the earliest examples of this type or genre, comes from an icon (done in encaustic) from St Catherine's monastery in the Sinai, in which the Theotokos is sat enthroned like a Late Roman Empress, with the Christ child placed upon her lap. They are surrounded as it were by her court officials - here saints and angels.  The positions of the two saints - St John the Baptist and the Egyptian Desert Hermit St Onufrius - echoes (in a less hieratic manner) the positions of the original saint attendants (St George & St Theodore).  I'm not at all sure this qualifies as a sacra conversazione as the dramatis personae seem caught up in their own thoughts, in addition St John the Baptist looks out of the picture to his right (our left) while pointing with is right hand to the infant Christ. It is as though he is addressing an unseen spectator. I cannot but speculate that St John's pose is related to the position of the painting in the space it was intended to occupy.

Seasons Greetings

St Stephen, 26th December, 2023

 Wishing you all

where ever you may be

a

very

 Merry Christmas

and a

 prosperous and peaceful

 New Year

God bless us everyone!

Nativity attributed to Domenico Ghirlandaio in the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge

Two Exhibitions

     Thursday was spent in London, in Mayfair and St James's.  I took in two exhibitions; one a planned visit and the second a happy happenstance. 

     First then off to the RA and, having braved the rather officious woman at the desk, the 'Impressionists on Paper: Degas to Toulouse-Lautrec' exhibition.  This, it has to be said, a slightly misleading title as the hanging did not begin and end with either.  It ended, if I remember rightly, with the Symbolists, or was it perhaps Cezanne? I can't rightly remember. Maybe it was the chest infection that I was incubating, but to be truthful there was a lot of work on display that has completely eluded my recollection. And here I have to confess that Impressionism does not do much for me. I mean it's pleasant enough, the oil paintings and all that, but 'is that all there is?' I always go to this sort of exhibition in the hope that I'll get it, and this particularly exhibition - which in this week's Speccie is described as a 'once-in-a-lifetime show' - sadly, did little to alter my opinion. It really must be me then.
     So what do I remember actually remember? Well, there were a number of studies of dancers by Degas - obligatory, really - some rather brooding studies by Seurat and a couple of fine portraits; a Renoir - rather sugary, perhaps, but a wonderful lesson in the use of pastel and one, all piss and vinegar, by Toulouse-Lautrec.
     And, oh, there were also a couple of watercolours by Pissarro. Alas. I've encountered his watercolours before at the Fitzwilliam Museum in Cambridge way back in 2015. I'm never quite sure why they're ever displayed as they really are quite dreadful.  His talents obviously lay elsewhere.  Cezanne's 'Flowerpots on the Terrace of the Artist's Studio at Les Lauves' is a watercolour on a completely different level.
     Afterwards I went to the RA Grand Cafe, which is a space I rather love. Designed by the great Richard Norman Shaw (1831-1912), it still appears fresh and original today. In addition room is decorated with large paintings by RA members.

     I then had a wander around that net work of streets behind the RA, popping into Messums on Cork St. where there were some wonderful ceramics by Makoto Kagoshima were on display. I crossed Piccadilly for shopping and quite by accident found 'One Hundred Drawings and Watercolours from the eighteenth to the 21st centuries' curated by Freya Mitton, Guy Peppiatt and Harry Moore-Gwyn. Much more to my liking than the RA exhibition what with work by Mark Hearld, John Sell Cotman, John Nash, John Piper, Charles Rennie Mackintosh, Keith Vaughan, Barbara Jones, Barnett Freedman, Robert Taverner and Edward Bawden. My cup did overflow.

Cambridge

      A welcome return, on Wednesday, to one of my favourite cities, Cambridge in East Anglia, that area of England I feel most at home. And what a cold day it was - brilliant winter sunshine, fields grey with frost and pavements slippery underfoot in the city. How I missed it all.  It had been two years since I visited the city last and some six years since I set foot in that eminently civilised space, the Fitzwilliam Museum.  It was a slightly emotional day. Be that as it may here are some photos I took on my peregrinations.

     Lunch at 'Yo! Sushi', which I was quite looking forward to, was a terrible disappointment.

     Back in London it was the Christmas Shopping Event in Lamb's Conduit St.  I was good and stayed my hand.  Tempted though I was by the wonderful things for sale in the current pop-up shop at Pentreath and Hall, 'The Willow Man' - aka Bruce Sansom - 'basket maker based in the Scottish Borders'.  His work is delightful - baskets for shopping, laundry, fishing and logs - all very architectural and beautifully made. You can find his website here, and it is well worth a perusal. 

     Pentreath and Hall have been busy themselves.  The original shop in Rugby St has pupped and a new branch has opened just around the corner in Lamb's Conduit St.

London

Kanst du das Land, wo zitronen bluhn,
Im dunklen laub die goldorangen gluhn,

Ein sanfter Wind vom blauen himmel weht, 

Die Myrte still und hoch der Lorbeer stedt?

     To London last week and a busy schedule; two parties, a couple of exhibitions and a trip to Cambridge - but more of that in a later post. And all the time, unfortunately incubating a chest infection.

     I was actually in London for the Traditional Architecture Group Awards, held, as usual, at the Art Workers Guild in Bloomsbury. Two speeches were made that evening that were both a bit above the ordinary; the first from Ben Pentreath and the other by the winner of the Life Time Achievement Award, Craig Hamilton.  
     Ben made a tangential reference to our current cultural difficulties by reference, correctly, to Mao's Cultural Revolution.  Mention was made of the 'Four Olds' that were the  targets of the revolutionary mobs - old ideas, old culture, old customs, old habits. He acknowledged that the older he grew the greater his attachment to the the four olds grew. It was both a warning of things to come in the short term and a rallying point & call to action. A more optimistic speech, perhaps, than my brief description suggests.

     Craig Hamilton's speech was brief - one felt that he found public speaking a bit of a task. Modest too, even humble. What he did do however, much to my pleasure, was quote from Goethe - the quotation at the top of this post. It translates as follows:

Do you know the land where the lemon flowers,

In dark leaves the golden oranges glow,

a soft wind blows the from pure blue sky,

The Myrtle still, and the laurel tree high?

     It is a poem of longing for the south and, by extension, the Classical past. It reminds me of the trips south made by the British Gothic Revival architect Sir Ninian Comper. It was, and I can't emphasize this enough, so good to hear a serious writer, or thinker quoted publicly in a speech.  All too often these days, and especially amongst politicians, it is a rare thing.  One wants a bit more heft. Is that really too much to ask for?