The Stefaneschi Altarpiece is a triptych by the Italian painter Giotto, from c. 1320. It was commissioned by Cardinal Giacomo Gaetani Stefaneschi[1] to serve as an altarpiece for one of the altars of Old St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. It is now at the Pinacoteca Vaticana, in Rome.
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Follower of Daddi, The Aldobrandini Triptych, c. 1336
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Workshop of Campin, Annunciation Triptych (Merode Altarpiece)
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현대미술 작가 프랜시스 베이컨 그림은 왜 기괴하고 공포스러울까? 울부짖는 교황, 루치안 프로이트 작품 속 이야기 완전 분석. 현대미술 그림 이해. 미술교양 쌓기. 현대미술사.
Transcription
CHRISTINA OLSEN: We are in the European galleries of the Portland Art Museum. I'm Christina Olsen. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: And I'm Marybeth Graybill. CHRISTINA OLSEN: And we're standing in front of this incredible object by a follower of Bernardo Daddi, And what we see is a Madonna, the mother of Christ, surrounded by this group of saints and angels. And this is not just a painting. It's really an object. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: What really draws me to this piece of the many, many Madonna and Christ as an infant paintings in this room, is what you've just pointed out, that it is not a flat surface. It's not an easel painting but the whole thing is, in fact, a next, miniature church. CHRISTINA OLSEN: Yes. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: And so that there's the panel, the back panel, which has a steeple above it. And then there are doors. There's an entryway. And these doors can be closed, and when they're closed, as we walk around the side, we can see it's just plain gilt, perhaps gilt leather or gilt wood on the outside. But then when you enter this space-- CHRISTINA OLSEN: Yes! MARYBETH GRAYBILL: --when you open the doors, suddenly you're in the presence of the Madonna. CHRISTINA OLSEN: Absolutely. I love that too. And I love this way in which you realize that the object was both, of course, a representation, but also something that you, the viewer and the devotee, have a relationship with. And the doors open, and you're in the presence of the Madonna and this scene is revealed to you. And let's talk about this scene, because it's really, really not just an image of Madonna, but also the story of her life. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: Right. CHRISTINA OLSEN: We see the angel Gabriel on the top left door. And the angel Gabriel comes down from Heaven and tells Mary that she will be the mother of Christ, that she will bear a son. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: The Anunciation scene. And what's so wonderful in these two is the sensitivity of this artist's gestures. So Gabriel raises his right hand to make an announcement. CHRISTINA OLSEN: Absolutely. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: Mary-- and she, as you've pointed out earlier, places her hand over her heart and inclines her head in this-- CHRISTINA OLSEN: Wonderful. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: --beautifully modest "me?" CHRISTINA OLSEN: Right, right. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: We can imagine-- we can almost hear the conversation between them, because it's so dramatically, if you will, enacted for us. CHRISTINA OLSEN: Right. Absolutely. And then below the angel Gabriel, we see, in fact, the nativity scene when Christ is born in the manger. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: In the manger. With a cow and a donkey. CHRISTINA OLSEN: Absolutely. And angels above with halos. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: Angels above, and Joseph below interacting, I think, with a shepherd. CHRISTINA OLSEN: Right. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: And then over here, on the right hand side is the crucifixion. Christ, on the cross, emaciated. His skin even takes on a deathly pallor. Blood is coming out of his wounds. CHRISTINA OLSEN: Bursting out of his wound. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: And at his feet, standing on the ground, his mother Mary is swooning and accompanied by John-- CHRISTINA OLSEN: By John. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: --and other followers of Jesus. And again, that beautiful-- CHRISTINA OLSEN: And John holds her up in this incredible-- MARYBETH GRAYBILL: Yes, he supports her as she's swooning. CHRISTINA OLSEN: And she's just mourning her son has died. And I love the way in which then the object has both an immediate time and also a narrative time. In other words, we come upon it, and there the version is. But what we see to the left and right is both what has happened before and what will happen to come. So there's this just this unbelievable sense of presence and kind of multiple senses of time in the object. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: And it just occurs to me as you say that, that if you think about it, the panels have narrative things. Things that happened, things that are recorded in the Bible. But the central panel of Mary enthroned, that's not in the Biblical text, but also because that's presented hieratically. CHRISTINA OLSEN: Yes. MARYBETH GRAYBILL: That's eternal. CHRISTINA OLSEN: That's MARYBETH GRAYBILL: It's outside of time. CHRISTINA OLSEN: And that is the relationship with us. I mean, it's really the central panel that is always alive and always-- MARYBETH GRAYBILL: Eternally present. CHRISTINA OLSEN: --speaking to us as both an image, but also an alive, efficacious deity.
Description
It is a rare example in Giotto's work of a documented commission, and includes Giotto's signature, although the date, like most dates for Giotto, is disputed, and many scholars feel the artist's workshop was responsible for its execution.[2] It had long been thought to have been made for the main altar of the church; more recent research suggests that it was placed on the "canon's altar", located in the nave, just to the left of the huge arched opening into the transept.[3] The altar was freestanding, and the altarpiece is painted on both sides so it could be seen by the congregation from the front and the canons of the church from the back.
The central front panel represents Saint Peter enthroned, flanked by saints, with Cardinal Stefaneschi himself kneeling at Peter's right offering up this altarpiece in reduced size. Saints James and Paul are in the left panel and John the Evangelist and Andrew are on the right. Two of the three predella panels are lost, but they surely all represented half-length figures of saints. The back main (central) panel represents Christ enthroned flanked by angels with a kneeling Cardinal Stefaneschi at his right foot. In the left panel we see the crucifixion of Peter, and on the right is the beheading of St. Paul. The predella depicts the Virgin and Child flanked by angels in the center and standing figures of the 12 apostles at the sides.
The altarpiece stood before the apse of Old St. Peter's, which in the 14th century contained a mosaic of Christ enthroned between Saints. Peter & Paul. Thus the iconography of the front of the painting paralleled the apse mosaic in form but did not repeat it in iconography. The central panel of the back of the altarpiece duplicated the apse mosaic for those who could not see it (because they sat with their backs to it), while the side panels introduced narratives. It was normal for double-sided altarpieces in this period to have an iconic image on the front and narrative images on the back.[4] Peter echoes Christ's pose to emphasize the role of the pope (Peter was the first pope) as Christ's representative on earth.[5]
Giotto represents the martyrdoms of Peter and Paul as taking place in recognizable locales, frequently visited by pilgrims to Rome. Peter's crucifixion is placed between the Meta Romuli (a pyramid near the Vatican, destroyed in the 15th century) and the Terebinthus Neronis (a classical monument, likely a mausoleum, that no longer exists), while Paul's beheading is outside the city, near a round building that represents the church of San Paolo alle Tre Fontane, the site of the Saint’s beheading South of Rome. These scenes could also be found in the medieval frescoes on the walls of the nave of Old St. Peter's.[6] Although images of donors in church decorations in Rome went back to the Early Christian period, Giotto's altarpiece for St. Peter's is unusual in both the double representation of the donor (front and back) and the specificity of the face and costume of Cardinal Stefaneschi. Stefaneschi is dressed in full ceremonial costume as a cardinal on the front, appropriate for the "public" face of the altarpiece and is introduced to St. Peter by St. George. On the back, he is more modestly dressed as a canon, like the audience for this side of the painting. Vasari cited portraiture as one of the greatest strengths of Giotto's art.[7]
The depiction of Stefaneschi holding this very painting suggests that it originally had a significantly more elaborate frame, which would have made the relatively small altarpiece fit better into the large space that was Old St. Peter's.[citation needed] The characteristic of containing a smaller version of itself provides one of the earliest known Renaissance examples of the so-called "Droste effect", common in medieval art.[citation needed]
Notes
- ^ His name is also often found as Jacopo Caetani degli Stefaneschi.
- ^ Gardner, 57–8, gives the documentation from the obituary book of St. Peter's. Most scholars date the altarpiece to c. 1320; Gardner dates it to c. 1300; Anne Mueller von den Haegen dates it to c. 1313; Kessler dates it to between 1313 and 1320.
- ^ Kempers and De Blaauw, 88–89; Kessler, 91–92. See a drawing reconstructing the location of the altar in Kempers and De Blaauw. These authors believe the figure of Christ was on the front of the altarpiece, the figure of St. Peter on the back.
- ^ Gardner, 62–63.
- ^ Paoletti & Radke, 66; Kessler, 93.
- ^ Kessler, 92–93.
- ^ Maginnis, 386–390.
Sources
- Boskovits, Miklos, "Giotto a Roma", Arte Cristiana, 88 (2000) 171–180.
- Gardner, Julian, "The Stefaneschi Altarpiece: A Reconsideration", Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, Vol. 37, (1974), pp. 57–103.
- Gosebruch, M., "Giottos Stefaneschi-Altarwerk aus Alt-St. Peter in Rom", Miscellanea Bibliotecae Hertzianae, Munich, 1961, 101–130.
- von den Haegen, Anne Mueller, Giotto di Bondone, trans. Lena Miller, Cologne, 1998, 80–85.
- Kemp,W., "Zum Program von Stefaneschi-Altar und Navicella", Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 30 (1967) 309–320.
- Kempers, Bram & Sible de Blauuw. "Jacopo Stefaneschi, Patron and Liturgist: A New Hypothesis Regarding the Date, Iconography, Authorship, and Function of His Altarpiece for Old St. Peter's", Mededelingen van het Nederlands Instituut te Rome 47 (1987) 83–113.
- Kessler, Herbert L., "Giotto e Roma", in Giotto e il Trecento: "Il più Sovrano Maestro stato in dipintura", exh. cat., ed. Alessandro Tomei, Milan, 2009, 85–99.
- Maginnis, Hayden B.J., "Giotto's World through Vasari's Eyes", Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, 56 Bd., H. 3 (1993), pp. 385–408.
- Paoletti, John T. & Gary Radke, Art in Renaissance Italy, 3rd ed., London, 2005.
External links
- The Vatican: spirit and art of Christian Rome, a book from The Metropolitan Museum of Art Libraries (fully available online as PDF), which contains material on this triptych (p. 251)
This page was last edited on 14 April 2024, at 12:23