THE MOST SERIOUS NATIVITY!

THE MOST SERIOUS NATIVITY!

One of the reasons for Christianity's appeal is that it follows the life cycle of one man, from BIRTH to DEATH to AFTERLIFE. The celebration of the Death occurs in the Northern Hemisphere in the spring and is given a balancing levity with the joy of the Resurrection and at Easter in the same season.
The Birth should be a joyous occasion, as most births are, but the birth in this case is always celebrated in the solemnity and dead of Winter in the Northern Hemisphere. And often in Nativity scenes as painted in the Renaissance you can find references to the Death. In the example above, for instance, Domenico Ghirlandaio's Nativity painted in 1480-5 as an altarpiece for the Sassetti Chapel in the church of Santa Trinita in Florence, the child lies on the ground (well, actually on his mother's robe on the ground) directly in front of an ancient Roman sarcophagus that is decorated with a wreath and a Latin inscription: 

Ense cadens. Solymo. Pompei Fulvius
                           Augur
Numen Ait Quae Me Conteg
                     Urna Dabit
While Fulvius, Augur of Pompey, was falling by the sword, he said: the urn that enshrouds me shall
serve for a god.

The inscription refers to a prophecy by Fulvius, as he was slain by Sulla, that his burial sarcophagus would be used as a birthplace for a god. The references to the past and the future are contained within the same open tomb. The baby's head leans (complete with foreshortened halo) up against the tomb and we are meant to remember Christ's death at the moment of his birth, the Alpha and Omega, beginning and end, of Christ's life.
         In this case the painter paints himself into the painting as a shepherd witnessing the birth. He kneels and points to the Child and garland with his left hand and to himself with his right hand.

Since Domenico's real last name was Bigordi and his nickname Ghirlandaio or Garland-Maker, the wreath on the sarcophagus presents a second kind of signature. The ox and ass stand behind the sarcophagus and Joseph looks up in the sky at the angel who has brought the tidings of the birth.

As in most Italian Renaissance Nativities, the past in relation to Christ's birth is represented in the back of the scene, while the figure of the baby lies in the foreground. So behind the child is the old faith, represented in the ancient pagan sarcophagus, the pilaster with Corinthian capital, and in the Roman triumphal arch with the Latin inscription to Pompey the Great
 "Gn[eo] Pompeo Magno Hircanus Pont[ifex] P[osuit]" ("The priest Hircanus erected [this arch] in honor of Gnaius Pompey the Great").  The most visible letters are POMPEO MAGNO HIRCA.
The irony here is that Pompey had had a triumphal arch erected for his own success on the battlefield, but the baby in the foreground is presented as triumphing over any material success of a Roman general. (The background is read as in the past chronologically, so that even the earlier story of the
angel coming to the shepherds is set in the background.) The old pagan beliefs of Rome have been superseded by the belief in Christ as the new God. The present time is emphasized by the artist in the pilaster with the end date of the painting, 1485, that leads the viewer's eye down to the child who looks out at the viewer.

 

             In the far distance the Three Kings (Magi) who are travelling from the East to bring presents to the child are shown on horseback under the arch. They can be identified by the slight suggestions of crowns on their heads, by their being singled out under the arc of the arch, and by the fact that they are represented as the three Ages of man, middle-aged, old, and young, from
left to right.

Their beliefs are also taken over by the Christian faith in the front, so they are not prominent or easy to see.

The sarcophagus, arch, and roof of the temple are all damaged, passe. The baby is at the center and is the focus of the shepherds, animals, and mother, if not the figure of Joseph. As has been pointed out by Leo Steinberg, the child is naked so that we don't forget that, even though he is a God, he is a human baby boy; the humanity of the story is emphasized here.
           But Ghirlandaio, though an extremely talented painter, does not show much of a sense of humor in this scene. All is seriousness in the takeover by Christianity of the pagan beliefs of old. And the sarcophagus reminds us that this story ends in tragedy, the child living to age 33 when he is put to death on a cross (that, too, suggested in the Corinthian pillar with cross beams in the roof.)
 









When painting for the serious banker and his wife, the Sassetti patrons in this case, Ghirlandaio makes sure they are reassured that their payment for Christian scenes is a worthy investment. They are, after all, kneeling and facing in towards the altarpiece from either side in the chapel. These wall frescoes are also painted by Ghirlandaio.

 Nera Corsi, wife of Francesco Sassetti                                                                   Francesco Sassetti

 

Under them an appropriate date, 25th December, 1480, the day the contract was signed, 1480 years after the original Birth. (Anno Domini 1480, 25 December)

       The painter points to the Child for them because they pray for the salvation of their souls after death through this Birth. It explains why the painter doesn't really look at the shepherd next to him; he is looking beyond him to the kneeling patron.

The Latin inscription on the frame says, "Ipsum quem genuit adoravit Maria" ("Mary knelt before the very one to whom she had given birth") (my trans.)

The patrons kneel as Mary does, the artist kneels as Mary does. The child signifies a new beginning in a way that is more than just a newborn come into the world. He signifies for the believers the chance not to ever die.
Merry Christmas, indeed!
 

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.