VERROCCHIO's DOUBTING OF THOMAS II

VERROCCHIO'S DOUBTING OF THOMAS   II 

Two other notes must be made with regard to Verrocchio's Doubting of Thomas (1467-83.)

The first has to do with the actual casting of the figures. One of the things that is painfully obvious when you see the statues in the museum location (where they are presently) is that they were not meant to be bronze sculptures seen in the round. To place two statues within the tight strictures of the niche on Via Calzaiuoli, Verrocchio had to reduce the weight of the figures and reduce the volume of the figures. So he made molds for both of them in such a way that kept the feet and heads whole but eliminated all the bulk of the back of the figures. Essentially they have no backs! They just have heads, fronts, and feet. They were never meant to be seen from the back!

They are shells of bronze with stanchions also made of metal and the weight of the shell rests on bases formed from the feet, the drapery, and the plinths under the feet.  Because Verrocchio wanted to give the impression that the statues were whole bodies, he makes sure that the backs are concealed in the niche opening and he makes sure that the viewer sees ringlets of hair on the figures' heads, 

drapery that looks complete,

 and sandals that are delicately ornate set on whole feet, 

so that within the niche the whole body of each figure seems to stand next to the whole body of the other. 

When seen from the side, however, in reality, they are mere slivers of themselves.

Was Verrocchio producing these optical illusions to emphasize the visual and tangible evidence that was required in the Mercanzia court by the merchants who had commissioned his statue group?

Without tangible and visible proof, the statues seem to be lifesize full people who inhabit the niche

together. He has made them look real and complete. Beware the artist's power to seduce and trick,

he seems to be saying. But the beauty of his art is that he convinces the viewers in the street that his

Thomas and Christ are meeting and that Christ lifts up his robe to show Thomas not only the nail holes in his hands but the spear wound in his chest. As viewers we have no doubt that each of these persons

has a complete body under their drapery and their exchange is real, as real as the meeting of real people in the street below.

The second thing to note about the statue grouping is that Verrocchio was probably aware of the

examples of artistic presentations of this subject before his.

Here are a few of them:

Venice, San Marco, mosaic, 11th century: Doubting of Thomas

In this version, Christ sits on a throne and lifts up his right arm. Thomas dives in from the left and bends over to examine the hole in Christ's chest. Thomas holds a scroll which reads, "Dominus meus et deus meus." But the drapery is so stylized that it is hard to read them as real figures.

Monreale, Sicily, 12-13th centuries, Doubting of Thomas:

Not likely that Verrocchio saw this example, but it shares similarities with the Venetian example which he might have seen.

14th century fresco, Incredulity of Thomas

Signorelli, Doubting of Thomas, 1477, Basilica della Santa Casa, Loreto (Signorelli had certainly seen the Venetian example and his Thomas bends in the same manner. )

But the most likely candidate for Verrocchio's predecessor is Duccio's rendering of the scene

on the Altarpiece for Siena Cathedral, produced between 1309 and 1311:

In Duccio's version,Thomas comes in from the left, lifts up his right hand to reach the wound, Christ raises his right hand to expose it, and around them stand all the apostles who were described as being in the original scene.The bystanders in the Verrocchio version take the place of the apostles in Duccio's version, and the doubting then is witnessed by all the people walking past on Via Calzaiuoli, witnesses who might have been called to testify in the actual trials of the Mercanzia court itself.

Verrocchio's Doubting of Thomas I

 

ANDREA VERROCCHIO'S DOUBTING of THOMAS   I

In 1467 Andrea Verrocchio is commissioned by the merchants' court of Florence to cast a bronze statue group of two figures, Saint Thomas and Christ, for a niche on the building of Orsanmichele in Florence. The entire enterprise takes almost twenty years to complete and in 1483 the two statues are placed in the niche. (The originals are in the Museum of Orsanmichele now and copies of both are placed outside the building.)

The moment the statues were created, they were praised by other artists. Cristoforo Landucci says that everyone considered the (Christ) (on the right) to be the most beautiful head of the Savior ever made. 

The complexity of the composition and the graceful gestures of the two figures make them certainly the

loveliest statues that Verrocchio ever completed. And what a powerful juxtaposition of doubt with certainty!

What is the story he depicted here and why was it of interest to the commissioners? The story is one told after Christ has been crucified and after he has returned alive after death. He has several encounters with the disciples. The Book of John in the New Testament describes one of them with Thomas, who didn't believe Christ had survived the crucifixion.

Book of John, Chapter 21: 24-29: (from the King James version):

"But Thomas, one of the twelves, called Didymus, was not with them when Jesus came. The other disciples therefore said unto him, We have seen the Lord, But he said unto them, Except I shall see in his hands the print of the nails, and put my finger into the print of the nails, and thrust my hand into his side, I will not believe. And after eight days again his disciples were within, and Thomas with them: then came Jesus, the doors being shut, and stood in the midst, and said, Peace be unto you.      

            Then saith he to Thomas, Reach hither thy finger, and behold my hands, and reach hither thy hand, and thrust it into my side; and be not faithless, but believing.

             And Thomas answered and said unto him, My Lord and my God.

             Jesus saith unto him, Thomas, because thou hast seen me, thou hast believed:  blessed are they that have not seen, and yet have believed."

             I have underscored these words from the text in color because, in Verrocchio's version of the story, these exact words are written in Latin on the hems of the robes which Thomas and Christ are wearing.

            The words from the Latin Vulgate text of the Bible on Thomas' robe are:

             TU ES DOMINUS MEUS ET DEUS MEUS (You are my Lord and my God.) 

The reply from Christ is written also in Latin on the hem of his robe from the bottom to the edge of his shoulder.

QUIA VIDISTI ME THOMA. BEATI QUI NON VIDERUNT ET CREDIDERUNT.

(You have seen me, Thomas. Blessed are those who have not seen me and yet believe.)

As if to emphasize his blessing of those who have not received tangible proof, Christ raises his right

hand with two fingers extended in blessing.

Thomas is the younger figure on the left. He steps forward onto his left foot and his right foot

swings into the viewers' space outside the niche where it originally stood. The swinging out of the right foot draws the spectator into the story and makes the story approachable and human.

With his left hand Thomas clutches the drapery of his robe and with his right hand, he reaches into the

open cut wound of Christ on his front chest.

    

              

Since the two statues were cast separately, his two fingers don't actually touch the wound but are very close to the skin. Not only does he almost touch the wound for tangible proof but he looks down at it for visible proof.

The words on the hems suggest that the viewer has already witnessed the resolution of Thomas'doubt since he says, You are my Lord and my God.  Jesus's words also suggest the end of the story since he speaks of the people who have not yet known him and yet will believe he is the Son of God. The gestures of the two figures, however, point to a different moment in the narrative, not the end.

         Thomas's body approaches the body of Christ and his feet are in motion in forward movement, as is his right hand.  His right knee bends out toward the viewer under the voluminous drapery and his right index and middle fingers point to the wound opening; his head turns from his torso towards Christ and

his whole body appears to be moving.

Christ's feet rest on a plinth and his body seems alive but in repose, calm. The eager movement of 

Thomas suggests his questioning, his disbelief, his need to know, need to touch in order to believe.Christ's body at rest suggests an answer, the ultimate answer, the utter belief that he has received wounds, has died, and has come back alive. The moment of the gestures appears to be the exact moment when Thomas is reaching to provide evidence for himself that Christ is truly alive.

    Why would this dialogue of question and answer be a scene of interest to the merchants'court of Florence? Why, of all the Bible stories available to them, did they want this one in the niche of their guild?  The Merchants' Court, the Mercatanzia or Mercanzia, had their own building for their proceedings (complete with jail) right next door to the Palazzo della Signoria in the center of town.

As a group, they must have had plenty of money from the cases which were adjudicated in their  building because during the same period in which they commissioned this statue group from Verrocchio, they commissioned from the Pollaiuolo brothers and Botticelli a painted group of Virtues (1470) to be placed over the judges' benches in the room where cases were tried.

Their court settled disputes between merchants, disputes between sellers and buyers, and cases of misconduct by members of the guilds, but their main function was the adjudication of cases when Florentine merchants had dealings in foreign countries.

(See Antonella Astorri and David Friedman's interesting article in I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance, Vol. 10 (2005), pp. 11-68.)  In all their cases disputes had to be resolved by resorting to tangible and visible proof to reach the truth of a verdict. The requirement for tangible proof in the court meant that the story of St. Thomas was pertinent to their proceedings. Thomas had required tangible proof from Jesus in order to believe in his truth. The merchants required tangible evidence for the settlements of their disputes. 

               Unlike the Virtues that were private painted reminders of the qualities most associated with the Mercatanzia judges, the statues of St. Thomas and Christ were public reminders of theimportance of the Mercatanzia's methods of problem-resolution for the major industry, the cloth  industry, in Florence and abroad.

              The niche on Orsanmichele where the Verrocchio group stood is just above the heads of passersby on one of the busiest streets in the city, the street which leads from the secular center of town, Piazza della Signoria, to the sacred center of town, the Duomo. Orsanmichele, a building which

housed the grain supply for the town and also held the most sacred of Madonna images, 

combined both the secular and sacred in its functions. Orsanmichele was both silo and church.

              Verrocchio is aware of the position of his two male figures in the town context. Thomas represents the secular (silo) questioning of faith and Christ represents the unquestioning acknowledgement of belief (the church.)  Their two gestures swathed in large, sweeping folds of cloth, the cloth that was at the heart of Florentine industry and trade in the period,

allow the public that passes by to be reminded of the two major currents in their own lives, the reality of selling cloth to survive, and the reality of the Christian belief that underpinned all transactions related to that selling. 

 Verrocchio himself is selling faith, faith exhibited in the niche's subject, faith exhibited by his commissioners, faith in his own abilities to sculpt, faith in the story of Christ coming back after death, faith in the jurisdictions of the merchants' court itself. And the beauty of his figures transfixes the viewer, captivates and holds his/her attention. The artist here is the ultimate salesman, luring and seducing the audience to admire the version of the story as crafted in his hands. He knows that beauty is nourishment and his figures give satiation to the people who walk past them. 

 How beautiful the concepts of justice and belief! 

The artist even left a foot out for you to reach up and touch, in case seeing the beauty were not enough.