Source for and influences from Niccolo dell'Arca's Lamentation

A source for and influences from Niccolo dell'Arca's LAMENTATION in BOLOGNA

The last blog entry treated the site and context for the 1463 Lamentation by Niccolo dell'Arca.
Here I would like to suggest three things:
1-DONATELLO's influence on Niccolo's Lamentation
2-NICCOLO's influence on the Della Robbia in La Verna
3-NICCOLO's influence on De Roberti's Magdalene painted 1475-85 in Bologna

1)Niccolo's dell'Arca's presentation of the Compianto (Lamentation) is such a vivid and dramatic
reworking of the story told for many centuries before his opus that it is intriguing to wonder
where he got the ideas for the seven sculpted figures and their passionate expressions. Many
painters and sculptors represented the Deposition (the taking down of Christ's body off
the cross), the Entombment (the laying of his body in the tomb), the Pieta (Mary with her
son's body) and the Lamentation (a group of mourners around the supine body of Christ) in the
centuries that preceded Niccolo dell'Arca, and it is possible, since he was originally from Bari,
that he saw many of these representations on his travels around Italy for work. But the sculpted
versions that are closest in tenor, feeling, and in arrangement of figures' bodies are to be found
in the late works of the Florentine sculptor DONATELLO, whose last years, 1460-66, overlap with the date given for Niccolo's Lamentation, 1463.
          Towards the end of his life, 1460-65, (he dies in 1466) Donatello is working on bas-reliefs in bronze for two pulpits in the church of San Lorenzo in Florence. 
 
As is his usual modus operandi (mode of operation) he takes the quite common theme of the last days of Christ's life (the Passion) and gives it original compositions and twists. For instance, in his DEPOSITION made for the pulpit he imagines the three crosses, that of Christ and the two thieves (good and bad) sticking out of the picture plane at the top as the viewer looks up at the feet of the two thieves and down at the body of Christ, who has already been laid out on his mother's lap.

The scene is tumultuous, filled with Roman soldiers on horseback, followers of Christ, and new
converts. The ladder in the center reaches beyond the picture plane to Christ's cross whose foot-ledge
is barely visible.  But if we look closely we can find the Madonna at the bottom of the ladder,
Nicodemus to the right and below him, rushing in from the right, Mary Magdalene, her arms raised
and her hair flying. The air pressing on her clothing reveals her body under the drapery and gives the
viewer the sense of her urgency.

She rushes in in much the same way we see her in dell'Arca's scene, her eyes focusing on Christ's feet. Easier to see in a drawing because
the bronze is so dark.

Nicodemus in Donatello's bronze holds the tongs in the right hand, instead of the hammer, but he reaches for his belt, where he intends to secure the tongs since he has finished removing the nails.

 

Nicodemus' tools and hand gestures are very similar in the dell'Arca Lamentation:

And on the left rushing in is Mary Salome, both Maries in a hurry as they are in Dell'Arca's
Lamentation.

The idea that mourners are so torn up by grief that they rush around wildly is sculpted on an earlier occasion by Donatello in his Entombment 1447-50, made for the high altar of Sant'Antonio in Padua:

In this earlier Entombment scene, four women, all Maries, can be seen at the back beyond the body. Their hair streaming, they lift up their arms, two tear their hair, in a gesture of despair that goes back to ancient Greek crematory urns.
Christ's right hand is placed over his left, as in Dell'Arca's dead body:            

Giotto's (1305) and Angelico's (1434) Lamentation scenes seem calm in comparison with the riveting
grief of the women in Donatello's and Dell'Arca's sculptures:

Niccolo dell'Arca could have seen Donatello's high altar panel of 1447-50 in Padua as well as the

panel of the Deposition from the pulpit in Florence, dated between 1460-65, before undertaking the

Nicodemus and two far right Maries in his own Lamentation of 1463. 

The heightened urgency of the women, as well as the emphasis on the emotional outpouring of their grief seem both to be taken from Donatello's late compositions. Dell'Arca doesn't repeat the raised arms of the women. But he tucks the tongs into the belt of Nicodemus so we won't suspect he has substituted his hammer in the location where the master Florentine sculptor had placed Nicodemus' tongs. 

 

Even Dell'Arca's St. John the Evangelist seems to have been lifted from Donatello's St. John in

an earlier bas-relief of the Pieta for the same altar in Sant'Antonio in Padua, 1447-50:

 

2) The hand of John holding up his head goes on to influence one of the Della Robbias (probably Giovanni) in his Behold the Man (Ecce Uomo) in an altar relief done for the Franciscan church complex at La Verna in northern Tuscany:

St. John on the right cradles his chin with his right hand while holding Christ's left arm in his other

hand. Dates for this glazed bas-relief vary from 1480 to 1490, but well after Niccolo dell'Arca's

Lamentation of 1463.

         In the same group of churches decorated to honor St. Francis' receiving the stigmata

we find a Deposition by Andrea della Robbia of 1515; the figures are restrained compared to Dell'Arca's,

but Christ's body is supine in much the same way as his and Christ's right arm is placed over his left, just as in the Bolognese work:

 

The monks at La Verna did not want to be riled up by females wildly rushing in to view

Christ's body; they were not the flagellants of Dell'Arca's Bologna church.

3) Several scholars have said Ercole de Roberti's painting of 1475-85 (mostly destroyed now, only the Magdalene preserved in the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna) was an influence on Niccolo dell'Arca for his figure of Mary Magdalene. The painted fragment of Magdalene by De Roberti displays the open mouth showing teeth, the downcast eyes, and the suggestion of hair and drapery flowing out behind the figure that remind us of the terracotta figure of Magdalene that Niccolo dell'Arca places in his Compianto or LAMENTATION in the Church of Santa Maria della Vita in Bologna.

          

 But the date of the painting precludes it being an influence on the sculptor. The painter has clearly
been influenced by Niccolo dell'Arca's figure of Magdalene of 1463 and not the other way around.

A document for Sangallo's dome in Loreto

A DOCUMENT for SANGALLO's dome in LORETO 

While searching for information about Giuliano da Sangallo's 1499-1500 dome
on the Basilica della Santa Casa in Loreto in Italy, I came across an inscription
in Italian written by Giuliano himself that seems to recount the placement of
the final stone in the dome designed and built by him in Loreto.

Perhaps the inscription is imbedded in the dome itself since this appears to be Giuliano's
own attempt to write it down in trial form to measure the length of the ITALIAN words for
final incision into marble. The whole is written in his sketchbook (now in Siena in the Biblioteca Pubblica, published in 2015) in capital letters with various spellings and non-punctuation. Here are four versions of the inscription:

Original Italian capital letters                                         Original Italian without caps

AL NOME DI DIO E DELA GRORI                                     Al nome e dela grori

OSA MADONA SA MARIA SEN                                        osa madona sa maria sen

PRE VERGINE IN MEMORIA COME                              pre vergine in memoria come

SABATO ADORE XV ADI XXIII DI                                sabato adore XV adi XXIII di

MAGO M CCCCC IO GIULIANO DI                              mago M CCCCC io Giuliano di

FRANCHESCHO DA S. GHALLO FIORETINO            Frenchesco da s. Ghallo Fioretino

CHON GRANDISIMA SOLENITA EDIVO                   chon grandisima solenita edivo

ZIONE E PRESISIONE MURAI LUTIMA              zione e presisione murai lutima petra

PETRA DELA CHUPOLA DISANTA  MARIA DELORET dela chupola disantamariadeloreto

O DI GCHEIDTO CIDIA GRATIA SICHONSER           di gcheidto cidia gratia sichonser

VI LUNGHO TENPO FAME DIA GRATIA CHE           vilungho tempo fame dia gratia che

ALA FINE MIA IO SALVI LANIMA MIA                      ala fine mia io salvi l’anima mia

IN SECHULUM SICHULORUM AMENM                     in sechulum cihulorum amenm

     SANTA MARIA DELORETA                                      Santa Maria deloreta

Corrected modern Italian version:

Al nome di Dio e della Glori

osa Madonna Santa Maria sem

pre Vergine in memoria come

Sabato ad ore XV al di XXIII di Maggio 1500

Io Giuliano di Francesco da Sangallo Fiorentino

Con grandissima solennita e divozione

E precisione murai l’ultima

pietra della cupola di Santa Maria di Loreto

di che chiedo dio ci dia gratia, si conserve

lungo tempo fame dia gratia che alla fine mia

io salvi l’anima mia in secolo secolorum Amen.

Santa Maria di Loreto

Corrected modern English version:

In the name of God and of the Glorious (his version is Grorious)

Madonna Santa Maria always a Virgin

in memory of how Saturday at 3 o’clock in the

afternoon on the 23^rd of May 1500

I, Giuliano, son of Francesco, da Sangallo the Florentine

with great solemnity and devotion

and precision, walled in the last stone

of the cupola of Santa Maria di Loreto

For which I ask God to bless us, preserve

our fame for a long time. May he give grace that

at the end of my life I may save my soul for

centuries to come. Amen. Santa Maria di Loreto. 

Even if this inscription was never inserted into the building, the immediacy of the

moment he records is so wonderfully intense that we are transported back to the

scene of his placing the last stone in the cupola. He also conveys to us his own

simple faith and his hope that his building will be his pathway into heaven as he

has constructed the dome for God and the Virgin.

A remarkable document to come across in a notebook of his sketches for and of other buildings

in Rome, Ostia, Naples, and Milan. A glimpse, a "tranche de vie," (slice of life) for one of the great Italian architects of the 15th century.

University Reprints, 2015, orig. from the Biblioteca Pubblica di Siena.

Niccolo dell'Arca's LAMENTATION

Niccolo dell'Arca's LAMENTATION, 1464
Bologna is worth a Lamentation
The only work of art worth going to Bologna to see is the terracotta group of sculpted figures by Niccolo dell'Arca (c.1440-45-1494) called the LAMENTATION, set up now in the small church of Santa Maria della Vita, the church of its origin.

Although not certain, the date usually given to the work is 1464. The arrangement consists of six lifesize figures placed in location around the supine body of the Dead Christ.

Because the figures are lifesize, because they have traces of color still on the baked clay, because they have gestures that are familiar, because they form a semicircle facing the viewer, because they are only slightly raised up from the ground, they appear to be real human beings, and the viewer shares their space. In fact if another group of real humans were to form a mirror semicircle, the chapel would become a full circle of figures around the dead body
of Christ.
        First let us identify the figures as best we can, then we will discuss why they are portrayed as they are.
         From the left:
JOSEPH of ARIMATHAEA or NICODEMUS

He is dressed as a town merchant with tools, a hammer projecting from his right hand and tongs hanging on his belt. Hammer still cocked, he kneels as though he has just completed removing the nails from Christ's hands and feet. He is the only figure who looks out at the viewer. His face, probably a portrait of the commissioner or a self-portrait of the artist, is in shock, his brow furrowed. He grabs his belt with his left hand, trying to take stock of what has happened, trying to grasp literally something to ground himself in order to understand the significance of the death he has witnessed. His rich clothing suggests he could be Joseph of Arimathaea, who donated his tomb for the body of Christ, but his tools suggest that he is Nicodemus, who was a sculptor and helped get Christ's body down from the cross. If the figure is meant to be Nicodemus, it would be appropriate for the sculptor, Niccolo dell'Arca, to want to present his namesake (both have nicknames of Nico) as himself, the sculptor of the terracotta figures we see. As such, the whole group could be seen, then, as the expiatory project of the sculptor to ensure his own immortality and afterlife.
           The next individual figures:
2 MARIES -   MARY, wife of Cleophas  and the Virgin MARY, mother of Christ

MARY CLEOPHAS grasps the cloth of her gown in disbelief as she stares at the body. She is the wife of the brother (Cleophas) of Mary's husband (Joseph) and was thought to be the mother of John the Evangelist who is to her proper left in the scene.

MARY, the MADONNA, Christ's mother, clasps her hands together in anguish
 
 and a moan escapes her open mouth as she looks down at her son:

Christ lies on the ground with his right hand crossed over his left:

 His eyes are closed, his mouth slightly open; he still wears the crown of thorns:

In the center of the 4 women stands JOHN THE EVANGELIST, Christ's disciple, to whom Christ entrusted the care of his own mother:
 

His eyes show the swelling lids of weeping, his brow is furrowed, his face wracked with pain, and he rests his chin on his right hand as though the weight of the moment has been too much.

The three left figures, together with John the Evangelist build a sliding diagonal of restrained emotion that stops with the vertical figure of John in contemplation,

then all sound and fury are let loose in the two far right figures of MARY SALOME and MARY MAGDALENE:

MARY SALOME sticks both her hands out as if to ward off the danger of death to herself, to keep from seeing the disaster of overwhelming feelings. "Let it not be true!" her hands say, as she catapults towards the truth.

Both she and MARY MAGDALENE are running toward the dead figure, with cloaks billowing out behind them as if they had just heard the news and are racing towards the others. 

                              

They both look down at Christ with their mouths open in extreme pain, the screams of mourning that people feel when learning of the death of a beloved person. We even see their teeth and wild eyes.

MARY MAGDALENE has been placed near Christ's feet because she is always associated in the Renaissance with the woman who anointed Christ's feet with oil at the house of Simon the Pharisee.

 

MARY MAGDALENE's hand gestures say, "How can this be? I wasn't finished loving him; I need more time to be near."

 

The pressing of the drapery on her figure in front and the motion of the drapery behind her are not this powerfully rendered again by a sculptor until Bernini in the 17th century. She is the most extraordinary of the figures and expresses her grief in the most dramatic way. Her passionate love is so visible and forthright and her extreme pain so remarkably sculpted that the viewer finds it hard 

to look at anyone else in the group.

Niccolo dell'Arca's intent is to produce a COMPIANTO, the Italian term for a group who are joined in crying (Piangere the verb in Italian) over Christ after he's been crucified. The mourning of the group is meant to stimulate the feelings of mourning in the viewers of the work so that they, too, join in the grief, in the co-crying. He has so powerfully rendered, in terracotta, figures in the extreme
stages of grief, that he has made a crescendo from left to right of sound, motion, feeling, and rhythm that effects a pure catharsis for the viewer of the drama.

 On learning that Santa Maria della Vita housed a group

of flagellants (members of the faithful who whipped themselves to obtain penance and reach ecstatic religious heights,) an example of one who can be seen here in a much later 1595 depiction in the Beinecke library ms. 457,

it is much easier to understand the expression of passion that Niccolo dell'Arca wanted to convey. We cry with the figures in the depths of their grief after viewing this LAMENTATION.

The sculptor whips us as participants as violently as he sends the clay cloths of Mary Magdalene flying in her

frenzy.