| Saint Anne | |
|---|---|
| Polish: Święta Anna | |
 | |
| Year | 7th–9th century |
| Type | Wall painting |
| Medium | Tempera on silt plaster |
| Subject | Saint Anne |
| Dimensions | 69 cm × 68.5 cm (27 in × 27.0 in) |
| Location | National Museum, Warsaw |
| 22°10′54″N 31°29′49″E / 22.1817°N 31.4969°E | |
| Owner | Faras Cathedral Faras Wadi Halfa |
| Accession | 234058 |
Saint Anne is a Makurian wall painting estimated to have been painted between the 8th and 9th centuries,[1] painted al secco with tempera on plaster.[2] The anonymous work was found at the Faras Cathedral within old Nubia in Faras Wadi Halfa present-day Sudan.[3]
The painting was discovered by a Polish archaeological team during a campaign undertaken in the 1960s under the patronage of UNESCO (the Nubian Campaign) in Faras.[3] Since 1964 the painting is in the collection of the National Museum in Warsaw. It is presented in Room VI of the Faras Gallery.[2]
The image of Saint Anne has been used as a logo of the National Museum in Warsaw.[4]
YouTube Encyclopedic
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1/3Views:30 2018 5815 081
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Leonardo, The Virgin and Child with St Anne and St John the Baptist, 1499-1500
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1/2 Michael Palin...on Redpath
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2/2 Michael Palin...on Redpath
Transcription
[MUSIC PLAYING] SPEAKER 1: Even in the Renaissance, drawings were sometimes works of art unto themselves. They weren't always preparatory. And we think that's the case with the large scale drawing by Leonardo that is usually given the title of the Virgin and Child with St. Anne and St. John. And that's because it's not perforated. SPEAKER 2: Right Although it's unfinished. So it's status is a little bit unclear. And it would have had tiny dots or perforations in it so that that would have allowed Leonardo to trace the outlines of the figures so that you could transfer a drawing to a panel or a wall to paint on. SPEAKER 1: Although using Leonardo's technique is so different from traditional, much more linear Renaissance painting that that would be more problematic. You get the basic contours. But his construction of the figure is so often simply using chiaroscuro, or using light and shadow. SPEAKER 2: Sfumato. SPEAKER 1: Well, that's because it's so soft and because it's so smoky. That idea of just the line that would be traced by the perforations seems sort of absurd. SPEAKER 2: Right. Yeah. He was much more interested in these, very slow gradations from dark to light and then moving back into dark again. So that is such a sense of three dimensionality and monumentality to these figures. SPEAKER 1: And also an integration of the figures into a whole. The figures form a kind of pyramid. They are so stable. And that's one of the characteristics about Renaissance. SPEAKER 2: That stability that would suggest that kind of eternity that is appropriate for the subject of these divine figures, so, go ahead. Did you want to say something? SPEAKER 1: Well, just wanted to say that it is such an interesting contrast. Because on the one hand, you've got the sense of an ideal perfection. This notion of the eternal, and sort of the eternally spiritual. On the other hand, there's such a kind of intimacy between figures, between Anne and Mary, and between John and Christ. SPEAKER 2: That's very human. SPEAKER 1: That's incredibly human and seems incredibly precious. And so sort of at odds with the notion of the eternal. SPEAKER 2: Yeah. It's both. That's what Leonardo does, right? He combines the human and the divine. That's the definition to me of what Leonardo accomplished in High Renaissance. SPEAKER 1: There are all these marvelous passages here. I mean, I just love the way that Anne turns to Mary, who sits on her lap. There's this kind of rhythm of needs of the two women, right? SPEAKER 2: Yeah. SPEAKER 1: Down, and up and down, and up again. It's almost musical as it moves across. SPEAKER 2: It makes me feel that Leonardo is certainly looking at classical sculpture. Because that so much looks to me like drapery on ancient Greek and Roman figures. SPEAKER 1: There is a sense of the varied age of the figures. And you get a real sense of Leonardo's process, especially when you look at the contrast between Anne's face and her hand, which is so much less finished and still so much more linear. SPEAKER 2: And Anne is pointing up to communicate this idea that this is part of God's plan, that Christ and his future sacrifice is part of God's plan for the salvation of mankind. SPEAKER 1: Look at the way in which Christ's arm bends around and his finger's up in blessing John. Actually it's continued upward by Anne's fingers. SPEAKER 2: Yeah. SPEAKER 1: So that's one continuous movement. In a sense Christ is literally drawn up in Anne's gesture. SPEAKER 2: Well, and that begins with the line from Mary's shoulder up through Christ and then pointing up to God. SPEAKER 1: In fact, you could actually begin that movement with Anne's glance at-- SPEAKER 2: Right. SPEAKER 1: Mary continuing down her shoulders, as you said, around her elbow, and then up through Christ's arm SPEAKER 2: And actually what we just did is a really good example of what was so important to Leonardo, which is that unification. Like, you can start linking things together the longer you look at the image. I mean, we can look at St. John's glance up at Christ and then move up there to Mary's looking at the Christ child. And then go back to Anne, whose looking at Mary. SPEAKER 1: That's right. And it really does create a pathway for her eyes. But all of which lead toward Heaven, which is, of course, the very point of the drawing. [MUSIC PLAYING]
The painting in its original setting
The wall painting of Saint Anne has been found in situ on the wall of the north nave,[2] 3 metres from the floor level.[3][5] It was painted on the first layer of plaster and was covered by its second layer, featuring a composition of Queen Martha.[3] The northern nave at the Faras Cathedral may have been dedicated for women. The image of Saint Anne was not the only image of a woman presented there – this area of the Cathedral contained images of founders, saints, queens, martyrs, mothers, and healers. Many of these depictions were probably aimed at private prayer.[2]
Iconography
Saint Anne is a painting preserved in a fragment: it depicts the head and shoulders of the saint,[2] as well as the upper part of her right hand held to her lips.[3] It is possible the full painting depicted the entire figure of Saint Anne – standing or seated.[2]
The image of Saint Anne
According to Kazimierz Michałowski, the saint is dressed in a purple maphorion, a type of hooded cloak. The folds of the hood are marked in black. The inside of the hood is light yellow, and its folds light purple. The face of Saint Anne is elongated, her nose long and straight, highlighted with a black, curved contour. The saint's eyes are wide open, with black, large irises encircled with black and purple; lower eyelids painted in light purple, and upper lids in dark purple. Anne's head is painted without a halo, an unusual omission for a portrait of a saint. Her hands are slim, with long fingers painted in light yellow with a purple contour. Her right hand is supporting her face, and the index finger with a visible fingernail is laid on her lips.[3]
The iconography of Saint Anne and literary sources
Canonical sources do not mention Saint Anne; instead, she is mentioned in the Gospel of James – part of the Biblical apocrypha from between the 2nd and 3rd centuries CE written in Greek and translated into many eastern and western languages.[2] She also appears in the Gospel of Pseudo-Matthew and many other apocryphal texts. These texts describe events related to the birth and childhood of the Virgin Mary and are modelled on the Old Testament, in which the births of biblical patriarchs are described as the result of divine intervention to defeat women's infertility. Saint Anne and her husband, saint Joachim, a devout Jew from the family of David, were childless, which in the Jewish society of the time was seen as shameful. Thanks to prayers and the faith in God's power Anne has conceived and given birth to a daughter, who later became the mother to Jesus.[6] Anna and Joachim were later called Theopatores - God's ancestors.
Veneration of Saint Anne in Nubia
Saint Anne is believed to have been venerated in Nubia. It was firstly related to her being the mother of Mary, and so an ancestor to Christ. B. Mierzejewska believes that Nubian women prayed to Saint Anne due to the miraculous conception of her daughter, hoping to gain her support and granting their requests related to childbearing, the health of children, pregnancy and welfare of mothers and children.[2]
Other images of Saint Anne in Nubia
The second painting of Saint Anne at Faras Cathedral
The veneration of Mary's mother may be confirmed by the placement of another image of saint Anne on the second layer of plaster in the same nave. The second image is painted later and depicts the saint seated on a throne with baby Mary on her lap, perhaps in a breastfeeding position.[2] The preserved fragment of that painting is in the collection of the National Museum of Sudan in Khartoum.[3]
The image of Saint Anne at Abdallah Nirki
The depiction of Saint Anne was also discovered at a church in Abdallah Nirki near Faras. That painting depicts Anne standing. The painting was found in the north nave of a local church.
Symbolism of Anne's gesture
Saint Anne of Faras is the only known depiction of this saint making the gesture of placing a finger on her lips. There are several interpretations of the symbolism of this gesture. It may be a command to remain quiet and silent.[2] It may relate to the "God's silence", in which, according to Ignatius of Antioch three mysteries related to Mary took place: a miraculous conception, virginity and the birth of the Messiah.[2] Another theory suggests that the gesture relates to prayer. In Egyptian and Palestinian monastic groups and some heretical groups, a custom existed of praying quietly while holding a finger of the right hand on one's lips; it was believed this gesture protected people from evil, which might otherwise prevail in human hearts during prayer.[2]
Inscription
The painting features an inscription. Both vertical registers are incomplete. According to S. Jakobielski the content of the inscription is: Saint Anne, mother to the Mother of God. Saint and... Jakobielski offers two theories on the ending of the inscription: Saint and Mary, or Saint and the Mother of Mary; the second version is coherent with the principles of reading the left vertical register before the other lines. One of the words of the inscription has been presented as a monogram representative of the period, used also in Byzantine painting.[3]
See also
References
- ^ "Malowidło ścienne – św. Anna – fragment postaci". Cyfrowe Muzeum Narodowe w Warszawie. Archived from the original on 2016-10-02. Retrieved 2016-10-01.
- ^ a b c d e f g h i j k l Muzeum Narodowe (Warszawa); Mierzejewska, Bożena; Sulikowska-Gąska, Aleksandra; Górecki, Tomasz (2014-01-01). Galeria Faras im. Profesora Kazimierza Michałowskiego: przewodnik (in Polish). Warszawa: Muzeum Narodowe. ISBN 9788371009167. OCLC 898253572.
- ^ a b c d e f g h Michałowski, Kazimierz (1974). Faras. Malowidła ścienne w zbiorach Muzeum Narodowego w Warszawie. Warsaw: Wydawnictwo Artystyczno-Graficzne.
- ^ "Otwarcie Galerii Faras". Retrieved 2016-10-01.
- ^ "Rocznik Muzeum Narodowego w Warszawie (32.1988)". digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de. Retrieved 2016-10-01.
- ^ Starowieyski, Marek; Appel, Wlodzimierz; Banak, Jerzy; Bartnicki, Roman (2003-01-01). Apokryfy Nowego Testamentu. 1, 1 (in Polish). Kraków: Wydawnictwo WAM. ISBN 8373181385. OCLC 491528852.
This page was last edited on 18 March 2024, at 18:39