The Bodily Christ

Sign up to download The Bodily Christ



Pino Blasone



Noli me tangere

Sign Up With Facebook Sign Up With Google or with email

Jesus, as the Bodily Christ Name Email

Password

(at least 6 characters)

Show Send me updates from Scribd

Sign Up By registering a Scribd account, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Already have an account? Sign in

1 – The Christ as Good Shepherd, Vatican Museums, from Domitilla’s Catacomb, Rome; late 3 rd or early 4 th c.

An Iconography at Work

How did early Christians imagine the figure of Jesus, the Christ? This is not a simple curiosity. It is a possible way to go back into artistic and religious feelings, as far as the roots of our shared civilization. Through the iconography, maybe we will discover that what




unifies is deeper than what has diversified us. In any process of individuation, a moment of Up Withof Facebook synthesis seems to be as important as Sign the trouble differentiation, at least. Removed in the

past, we might find something still useful for a new synthesis. This would be only a step on Sign Up With Google

that way of course, course, but not a trifling trifling or impertin impertinent ent one. In fact we may suppose, suppose, often the or with email

images of Jesus were bodily reflections of their souls so uls by our historical predecessors, the best Name

they were able to conceive since grew aware to be made “in image and likeness of God”. If we occur to be in Rome, we could make an idea of our topic in few days, with a Email

reasona reasonable ble approxi approximat mation ion.. The first first destin destinati ation on should should be the cataco catacombs mbs,, underg undergrou round nd cemeteries on the roads departing from the ancient city. Not seldom Christian catacombs Password

were adorned with graffiti, (at pictures and sculptures. Early representations of Jesus were least 6 characters) willingly symbolic, allegoric or cryptic: a fish, a lamb, theShow Greek letters Alpha and Omega or the Chi-Rho monogram… The most famous allegory was the Good Shepherd, inspired by Send me updates from Scribd

a well known evangelical parable but also by the heathen figural tradition of the Kriophoros, a Greek appellative meaning “Ram Bearer”Sign andUp prevalently referred to the god Hermes. By registering a Scribd account, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy


2 – Young Jesus Teaching, detail, Roman National Museum (Palazzo Massimo alle Terme), Rome; 4 th c.

2




Up aWith Facebook  Sign by Another frequent allegory inspired pagan legend was that of Jesus represented as

Orpheus, the mythic and mysteric musician who tried to resurrect his beloved woman Sign Up With Google

thanks to his own music. Sometimes, the Good Shepherd and Orpheus could be unified in or with email

one character, playing or having played his musical instrument amid sheep or other animals. Name

Naturally, those domestic or tame animals too assumed a metaphoric value, as human souls. The shepherd, the fisher, the gardener, are all figures which can draw a Christological sense Email

from the Gospels. Rather or more than to a wish to dissimulate their religious identity in times times of persec persecuti utions, ons, the symbol symbolic ic or allegor allegoric ic repres represent entati ation on of the Christ Christ by early early Password

Christians was probably owing to a softened heritage of the Jewish aniconic tradition. (at least 6 characters) Later, Jesus will be represented directly too, as theShow main character in the illustration of episodes narrated by the Gospels. This is the case of various scenes, as the baptism of the Send me updates from Scribd

Christ in the river Jordan by John the Baptist, or Jesus miraculously healing the woman with Sign Up Catacomb). Particularly in these scenes, a flow of blood (3 rd century, century, Peter and Marcellinus’

the physicity of the Christ isBydirectly indirectly involved. registering or a Scribd account, you agree to ourThe miracle of the rising of Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Lazarus and the meeting with a Samaritan woman can be found frescoed in the Catacomb on Via Latina (4 th century). In the Catacomb of Domitilla, the Master is portrayed with his Already have an account? Sign in

apostles in a wall painting dating from about 350 (but a fresco of him healing a paralytic, inside the Christian Chapel at Dura-Europos in Syria, dates back to a century earlier).

3







Name

Email

Password



3 – Beardless Jesus, Archiepiscopal Museum, Ravenna; late 5 th c.

Sign Up

In these pictures, and

By registering a Scribd account, you agree to our Terms ofcoeval Service and Privacy stone Policy sarchophagi on nearly carved

or ivory artworks,

the Saviour was generally generally figured as a beardless youth, Roman or Greek dressed. That is a an account? Sign in man like many others, with regardAlready to thehave epoch and places and customs of the artists, and in

accordance with an opinion expressed by St. Augustine in his treatise On the Trinity, that Jesus’ countenance is unremarkable. He was depicted as short haired too, also for St. Paul in the First Epistle to the Corinthians had written: “Does not even nature itself teach you that, if a man has long hair, it is a shame unto him?” (11:14). Above all, it is to be noticed that in such pictures the Christ is always represented in relation with others. At the same time, he is the “Good Neighbour”, as well as a divine “Absolute Other” (cf. reliably Paul himself, in an Epistle to the Colossians, 2:9; “For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form”).

A Contrasting Transition

By time Jesus began to be represented also isolated, or older, unshaved and long haired – despite Saint Paul’s criteria –, in a more hieratic or ascetic and distanced manner. According to Irenaeus in his treatise Against Heresies Heresies, formerly some sectarian Gnostics, followers of Carpocrates, venerated icons like those: “They crown these images, and set 4




them up along with the images of the philosophers of the world: that is to say, with those of Signthe Up rest. With Facebook  and Pythagoras, and Plato, and Aristotle, They have also other modes of honouring

these images, after the same manner of theUpGentiles” (I, 25:6). In the 4 th-5th century, the Sign With Google Christian historians Eusebius and Sozomen asserted a bust of Jesus survived the destruction or with email

of an old bronze statue at Caesarea in Palestine, ordered by the Roman emperor Julian the Name Apostate. The head of this improbable portrait should shou ld have been bearded, if not n ot long haired. Email

Password





4 – Blessing Jesus, Museum of Early Middle Ages, Rome; late 4 th c.

However, that was a premise to the transition from Early Christian to Byzantine art. Already in the catacombs, we can observe this transformation. First bearded images of the Christ appear in the late 4 th or at the beginning of the 5 th century, for instance in the Catacomb of Commodilla. In 1960 a bust of Jesus with beard, nimbus and great eyes, was discovered at Ostia, within the marble wall decoration of a mansion dated to the late 4 th century. Nowadays, this impressive image can be admired in the Museum of Early Middle 5




Ages at Rome. The blessing gesture excluded, it might look the portrayal of a philosopher. Up“true With philosopher” Facebook  Sign Indeed, an iconography of the Master as the was not lacking then.

Yet the finest is the small statue of a seated teaching Christ, in the Roman National Sign Up With Google

Museum (ca. 350-375). He is represented beardless but long haired, so ephebic as to look or with email

one of the last expressions of a Hellenistic art. One of the best early Christian sculptures in Name

the round, along with Jesus as a Good Shepherd today in the Vatican Museums, probably it refers to an adolescent Jesus among the doctors in Jerusalem’s temple (cf. Luke 2:41-51). Email

We can better realize a contrast, if we reach Ravenna in northern Italy, one of the towns where a Byzantine art was born and the mosaic craft flourished. Among other Jesus’ images, Password in the Archiepiscopal Museum and6 characters) Chapel (late 5 th century) a mosaic portrayal shows him (at least

beardless, still according to the pristine iconography: an Show ever young man, now especially versus the Arian heresy, heresy, which wanted too human Send me him updates from Scribd and changing by age. Sign Up By registering a Scribd account, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy


5 – Blessing Jesus, S. Apollinare Nuovo, Ravenna; early 6th c.

6




Nonetheless, in the Basilicas of San Vitale, S. Apollinare in Classe and S. Apollinare Nuo Nuovo vo (fir (first st half half of the the 6th cent ce ntur ury) y),, when when the the Aria Arian n dang danger er – and and rela relate ted d barb barbar aric ic Sign Up With Facebook

occupation – were finally over along aSign while, bearded, long haired portraits of the Saviour Up With Google remained in fashion. Notoriously, it will become the figurative standard till Modern Age, or with email

meanwh meanwhile ile influe influence nced d by the Byzantine ine venera venerati tion on of the “Mandy “Mandylio lion”, n”, a holy holy relic relic NameByzant consisting of a cloth on which a miraculous image of Christ’s face would have been imprinted (an early variant of this story was reported in the Church History by Eusebius of Email

Caesarea). Especially in the Renaissance period, future artists will work hard in restoring to that figure a new live sweetness, though thoug h saving most of its majesty and alleged historicity. historicity. Password

It is quite obvious, Jesus’ figuration (at least 6 characters)was always contested between a too spiritual and a more physical interpretation. Yet here we like to detect Show in the evangelical narration itself those passages, where a bodily presence of him particularly stressed. Paradoxically, these Send me updates fromis Scribd episodes seem to emerge with more force after his resurrection. In such a sense that of St. Sign Up Thomas’ incredulity (John’s Gospel, 20:24-29) is the most evident, apparently at least even

too explicit, as to give rise to any problematic exegesis. Buttooften, sacred art works as a kind By registering a Scribd account, you agree our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

of quiet and parallel exegesis, not necessarily coinciding with the spoken or written one. Another meaningful episode is the meeting of the Christ with the Magdalene. We will see Already have an account? Sign in

how these events look complementary, complementary, reflecting two different attitudes of the human soul.

7




6 – A dark skinned Christ, Sts. Up With  Sign Cosmas and Damian, Rome; earlyFacebook 6 th c. Sign Up With Google

A Modern Doubting Thomas

or with email

Name

On the “Doubting Thomas”, we have so many paintings and sculptures, along the history of art. Firstly, a mosaic in the Basilica of S. Apollinare Nuovo at Ravenna. Yet, no Email doubt, The Incredulity of Saint Thomas by the Italian painter Michelangelo Merisi, the Caravaggio, is the most famous (circa 1601-1602; Sanssouci, Potsdam, Germany). A reason Password

6 characters) is that in this masterpiece, it(at isleast well illustrated – in a dramatic and realistic way – not only

the the probl problem em of the the reli religi giou ouss fait faith, h, but the the corp corpor orei eity ty Show itsel itselff of the the Son Son of God, God, what what distinguishes Christianity from Send other Through the words to Thomas, implicitly me religions. updates from Scribd Jesus invited to reflect about the significance of that mystery: “Put your finger here, and see my hands; and put out your hand, and placeSign it inUp my side; do not be faithless, but believing”. In the biblical account, human abeings had been created By registering Scribd account, you agree to our “in image and likeness of Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

God”. During his earthly experience, we dare say, the Saviour went an inverse way. He made himself in image and likeness of men, of every man or also woman on earth. In such a Already have an account? Sign in

sense too, the New Testament sounds consequent with the Old one. Along this way of “approximation”, this effort of reduction of any alienness or otherness to “neighbourhood”, hardly and wrongly a corporal component could be disjointed from the spiritual one. Jesus himself took care of souls and healed bodies, not really to astonish people by his miracles. In this, we might affirm on a philosophical level, Christianity is an anti-idealistic doctrine. The “Bodily Christ” is set between Nature and History, and related temptations to consider one of these entities as an absolute. He is the link between these dimensions of the existing.

8







Name

Email

Password


Show

7 – Caravaggio, The Incredulity Send me updates from Scribd of St. Thomas, Sanssouci, Potsdam Sign Up

From the catacombs toByan incipient modernity, registering a Scribd account, you the agreemain to our problem in representing the Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

Christ was that. It was neither a detail of beard shave or hair cut, nor the colour of his skin, nor else a conventional historicity. That Jesus’ aspect was basically unknown to Christian Already have an account? Sign in

artists, it might even be considered providential. In a Supper at Emmaus by the Caravaggio (1601-1602; National Gallery, London), we see a long haired but beardless Christ. In the 6 th century Roman Basilica of Sts. Cosmas and Damian, we can find the mosaic of a dark skinned Jesus. It is true, it was quite an exception. Nevertheless this dark skinned, long haired and bearded one, was inserted in such a scene as the “Second Coming with Saints”. Not always the representation is so striking, as in the paintings by the Caravaggio. In the oil The Doubting Thomas by the Dutch Rembrandt van Rijn (1634, Pushkin Museum, Moscow), the subject is the same that in The Incredulity of Saint Thomas . The atmosphere atmosphere appears more traditional. At the centre of the scene, the Saviour nimbed with light, mostly covered by a white cloak against a dark background, shows Thomas his wounds. The other apostles and an unknown woman, w oman, on which we will return below, are surrounding them. Not all denote the same curiosity or attention (cf. Matthew, 28:17). Someone is praying, as if confused for the extraordinary event. Another – John the Evangelist?! – is even sleeping. Evidently, Evidently, the alert perplexity of Thomas is neither the only nor no r the worst human defect. d efect.

9







Name

Email

Password



Sign Up 8 – Rembrandt H. van Rijn, The Doubting Thomas , Pushkin Museum, Moscow By registering a Scribd account, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

In real realit ity y, that that is the the mode modern rnit ity y in the the crit critic ic eyes eyes of the the arti artist st,, with with all all its its contradictions. The 17

th


century was fascinated by such a theme. Then, similar artworks

were by the Guercino in Italy, by the Dutch Dirk van Baburen and Gerrit van Honthorst or by the Flemish Peter P. Rubens. In these examples, particularly in the latest (1613-1615, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp), a bright detail is the bareness of Christ’s body. It becomes the virtual centre in the composition. The most strange detail can be noted in a painting by the Dutch Hendrick ter Brugghen (c. 1621-1623; Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam): a pince-nez on the noise of an apostle, examining Jesus’ wounds; almost an “anatomy lesson”. Not the best allusion in order to hint at a growing modernity, it looks like an indirect memento for a new born science, to respect the dignity of any human suffering.

The Hearing, the Sight, the Touch Touch

In a Christian perspective, the messianic advent is not only an epochal end, as it may be an apocalyptic “Second Coming”. Above all, it is a new beginning. Like a gardener, the

10




Redeemer came to till the field of this world. His born, died and risen corpus prefigures the With Facebook  Sign aUpgrowing body of a redeemed History, auspiciously and progressive one. Individual as well

as collective, the existence turns into a dynamic mirror, striving – despite its opacity and Sign Up With Google

frequent eclipsing – to reflect and realize the true essence of the being. Probably, this is the or with email

deep sense of the image of Jesus as a gardener, such as he appears in the episode of the Name

meeting with the Magdalene near his empty tomb, after his h is resurrection (John 20:14-18): Email

Password





9 – Guercino, The Incredulity of St. Thomas , National Gallery, London

“She turned around and saw Jesus standing there, but she did not realize it was Jesus. ‘Woman,’ ‘W oman,’ he he said, ‘why are you crying? Who is it you are looking for?’ Thinking he was the gardener, she said, ‘Sir, if you have carried him h im away, away, tell me where you have put him, and I will get him.’ Jesus said to her, ‘Mary!’ She turned toward him and cried out in Hebrew, ‘Rabbouni!’ (which means Teacher). Jesus said, ‘Do not touch me, for I have not yet returned to the Father. Go instead to my brothers and tell them that I am returning to my Father and your Father, to my God and your God’. Mary Magdalene went to the disciples with the news: ‘I have seen the Lord!’ And she told them what he had said to her”. We can easily perceive and share Magdalene’s emotions. All of a sudden, that which had been an improvised burial ground was transfigured into a kind of new Garden of Eden. 11




Listening to his voice, hearing her name pronounced by him, it was enough for her. The Sign Up Facebook sight and the touch are secondary  faculties, if With referred to the Incarnated Word. Yet a wish to

touch is an instinctive reaction. In the Greek myth of Alcestis, the protagonist Admetus did Sign Up With Google

not act otherwise before his revived wife (cf. Euripides, Alcestis, l. 1131). As to Mary of or with email

Magdala, all grief, perplexity and surprise, were converted into joy. But the apostles could Name

not believe her (Mark 16:9-11). Likewise will do two disciples, while walking on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-35). No wonder, beside the antique one of the Good Shepherd, in fine Email

arts the evangelical episode will give rise to the flourishing of an iconography of the “Holy Gardener”, even though rarely in the form of an autonomous or isolated allegory. allegory. Password





10 – Gerrit van Honthorst, The Incredulity of St. Thomas , Museo del Prado, Madrid

Mostly such a representation includes the Christ and the Magdalene, sometimes two angels more, with the title Noli me tangere (“Touch me not”). Indeed, this was the Latin translati translation on from the Greek Mē mou haptou , which can rather mean “Do not hold me”. In Luke’s Gospel (24:36-39), when Jesus invites the apostles to touch him, to verify that he is 12




not a spirit, actually the verb used is different. Yet the Latin sentence was more impressive, Up wondered With Facebook  Sign for it evokes Jesus’ corporeity. Some have why he showed off and allowed to

touch his body Thomas or other apostles, apostles, whereas did not the Magdalene. Magdalene. Perhaps, for she Sign Up With Google

was a woman, and that could result unseemly at that epoch and places? Or, more simply, or with email

because she did not need to touch in order to believe, unlike Thomas later. To him, the Name

Master will further specify: “Blessed are those who have not seen and yet have believed”. But, seen what? Reliably, Reliably, his risen body, body, in all its tangibility and dazzling brightness. Email

If Thomas wished to touch in order to believe, in a previous time another one had touched because she had believed. Anyway, in both cases an importance of the tangible Password

reality results confirmed. Let(atus read again Luke’s Gospel, 8:43-48: “A woman who had a least 6 characters) haemorrhage for twelve years, and could not be healed by Show anyone, came up behind him, and touched the fringe of his cloak; and immediately her haemorrhage stopped. And Jesus said, Send me updates from Scribd

‘Who is the one who touched me?’ And while they were all denying it, Peter said, ‘Master, the multitudes are crowding and pressing Sign upon Upyou.’ But Jesus said, ‘Someone did touch me, for I was aware that power had gone out of me.’ And when the woman saw that she had By registering a Scribd account, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

not escaped notice, she came trembling and fell down before him, declaring in the presence of all people the reason why she had touched him, and how she had been immediately Already have an account? Sign in

healed. And he said to her, ‘Daughter, ‘Daughter, your faith has made you well. Go in peace’”.

13







Name

Email

Password



Sign Up

11 – P. P. Rubens, The Incredulity of St. Thomas , By registering a Scribd account, you agree to our Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp Terms of Service and Privacy Policy have an account? Sign in In the evangelical account,Already the Christ himself remarks his not only visible, but also

concrete corporeity. It is affecting when, in Luke’s Gospel (24:40-43), at last he eats a fish before the apostles, to better persuade them that he is not a mere vision. Probably in memory of that too, Christians in the catacombs were depicted while eating bread and fish or drinking wine, in an early form of Eucharistic celebration or Agapes: fraternal love feasts where men, women, children children were admitted admitted together. together. As to a peculiar peculiar brightness brightness of Jesus’ body, this pictorial detail, especially adopted by some modern painters, might have been analogically inspired by a passage of Matthew, where it is referred to an angel appeared to the holy women, announcing the resurrection resurrection of the Christ by his empty grave (28:1-7). Even if Mary of Magdala had not achieved such a degree of perfection, as to believe without having seen, she had gone close to it, in an exemplary way for later believers of the invisible. Her faith was owed not to evidence alone, but to a love beyond the death (cf. Luke Luke,, 7:47 7:47:: “Her “Her sins sins,, whic which h are are many many,, are are forg forgiv iven en;; for for she she love loved d much much”) ”).. Almo Almost st expecting certain later objections, anyhow an artist as Rembrandt introduced a woman into his Doubting Thomas , amid the apostles around Jesus. Most likely, that female presence is 14




the Magdalene herself. This is just a clue, not seldom artistic imagination was freer to Sign Up Facebook anticipate a topical interpretation.  It could fillWith spaces left blank by the Scriptures, such as to

be integrated with circumstances and requests of the times we happen to live in. What Sign Up With Google

official exegesis is not always ready to do. Or, usually, usually, it is far more cautious in doing that. or with email

Name

Email

Password




Already have an account? Sign in 12 – Hendrick J. Terbrugghen, The Incredulity of St. Thomas , Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam

The Messiah as a Gardner

In Luke’s Gospel, the evangelical narration begins with an angel announcing the Madonna her conception of the Christ. Mostly in the Byzantine iconography, often God’s herald is represented with a pilgrim staff in his hands. Along the New Testament, we meet other figures representing Jesus himself in a translated form, as the Good Shepherd or even the Good Samaritan. In a quite psychological way, they can be also interpreted as allegories of the Self, during his travel through the Other on heart. As an ultimate figure after the resurrection, especially the Holy Gardener may be referred to the Absolute Other. That is an Incarnated Word, Word, which can be seen or “touched” in a prominent transfigured form. Actually, in the pictures we are here concerned with, the Messiah is characterized as a gardener, with a spade or pale or hoe in his hands, exceptionally with a broad brimmed hat 15




on his head. It may be even surprising how that which in John’s Gospel appears an Facebook  Sign UptoWith accessory detail, moreover with reference a mistake by the Magdalene, becomes a new

figure of the Saviour. Saviour. Incidentally, Incidentally, it is what occurs especially on the threshold of modernity, modernity, Sign Up With Google

as if this is congenial with such a kind of figuration. Thus – we can better say –, that is a or with email

representation of the resurrected Christ as seen by the eyes of the Magdalene, in a transitory Name

moment of confusion, which does assume an archetypal and mystic value though. Email

Password





13 – Fra Angelico, Noli me tangere , St. Mark’s Museum, Florence

In fact such a confusion had not to be so great, considering that Jesus himself had compared God to a gardener or a vine dresser (John 15:1; cf. Luke 13:6-9). In the same John’s Gospel, he remarks his close likeness with God Father: “Whoever sees me, sees the one who sent me” (12:45); “Whoever has seen me, has seen the Father” (14:9). Let us remember the Gethsemane too, a sorrowful garden, if compared with the joyful one we are dealing with. Early pictures on our theme, with the Christ as a gardener, began to spread in

16




the late medieval Europe, after an analogous use in the sacred dramas. For example, a fresco Up With (1255-1263); Facebook  Sign in the Church of S. Pietro in Vineis at Anagni an altarpiece in the Abbey

Five Depictions of Christ (late 14th Church at Klosternueburg (c. 1330); a Sign panel Upcontaining With Google century; Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Wallraf-Richartz-Museum, Cologne); a miniature of Les très riches heures du Duc or with email

brothers (1413-1416, Musée Condé, Chantilly). de Berry, illuminated by the Limbourg Name An epochal change was at hand. The cultural ground required to be dug again. In a relevant fresco by Fra Angelico (1425-1430; Convent of S. Marco, Florence), a long haired Email

Magdalene is kneeling to Jesus, already got aware of his identity. Rather than a body to touch, what she was searching for was a visage to recognize, in the anonymity of this world. Password

But now she dares not look (at at least his 6face, face , as if still fearing fearing to be undeceived. undeceived. And And he remains remains characters) figured as a gardener, carrying his hoe on a shoulder. Still Show fully clothed, he is quite different from the Christus triumphans ofSend the me medieval tradition, holding a cross-staff or a flag in his updates from Scribd hands. Maybe this is not yet the quest for a visage or a body, compatible with the divinity. Sign Up Nevertheless he is an actual person, somewhat transfigured by the event of the resurrection.

For all Augustine’s Augustine’s old and authoritative auBy thoritative opinion, hisyou appearance registering a Scribd account, agree to our is no longer unremarkable. Terms of Service and Privacy Policy


14 – Paolo Veronese, Noli me tangere , Stadtmuseum, Grenoble

17




Later artists were more audacious in showing a bareness of Jesus’ body. What had Upcentre With Facebook theSign been a corpse on the cross returned live of attention, according to the subject and

to the title of the composition, but also to the classicistic demands of a Renaissance and Sign Up With Google

Manneristic style. Among them, Paolo Veronese. In 1573 at Venice, he was questioned by or with email

the Tribunal of the Inquisition and charged of religious irreverence because of another work Name

by him. In the quasi coeval painting Noli me tangere (Stadtmuseum, Grenoble), we can find nothing of that. Nay, the scene portrayed anticipates the Caravaggian “miracle”, by which Email

an artistic realism joins with a deep intimacy. intimacy. Veronese Veronese himself answered the inquisitors that his art was not a thoughtful, but rather a joyous one, praising God in light and colour. colour. Password

Inde Indeed ed,, if we read read the th e repor reportt of the the tria trial, l, will will real realiz izee that that his his art art was was not not so (at least 6 characters) thoughtless, as he prudently professed. Simply, it was a different way to think reality and to Show interpret it. In fact, Veronese had added: “We painters use the same license as poets and Send me updates from Scribd

madmen. […] I paint my pictures with all the considerations which are natural to my intell intellige igence nce,, and accordi according ng as my intell intellige igence nce understan tands ds them” them” (trans (trans.. Franci Franciss M. Sign Up unders Crawford, in Salve Venetia, New York, 1905; vol. 2, pp. 29-34.). It is one of the first open By registering a Scribd account, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy

statements on an autonomous dignity of the artistic creation. At once, it sounds somewhat an anticipation of a Romantic conception of the artist, whose apparent irrationality – according Already have an account? Sign in

to Nature – not seldom is the pre-figuration of a new rationality still to come.

15 – Jan Brueghel the Younger, Noli me tangere ,

18




Musée Historique Lorrain, Nancy



Sign Up With Facebook

Sign Noli me tangere, tangere, or me plangere? plangere ? Up With Google or with email Name the gardener Saviour is characterized not only by a hoe, In Veronese’s masterpiece,

but also by a rake next him. The most extensive characterization is in a Noli me tangere artwork by Jan Brueghel the Email Younger (c. 1630; Musée Historique Lorrain, Nancy). Here the “Gardener” and the Magdalene are surrounded by the rich fruits of his work, in a kind of metaphoric still life view. AnPassword odd detail can be found in other analogous pictures of the 16 th (at least 6 characters)

th

or 17 century, century, for instance by Rembrandt, Jacob Jordaens, Lavinia Fontana: a gardener hat, Show

such as to cover him from sunlight and rain to which he was no longer used, at least for the Send me updates from Scribd

while they could not reach him into the tomb or elsewhere. Almost we have here a smiling Jesus, joking with our imagination and even defusing the gloomy mystery of death. Sign Up Let us confront the above apology by Veronese Veronese before the Tribunal of the Inquisition, Inqu isition, with a Sermon of the

By registering a Scribd account, you agree to our of Service in and1621 Privacyby Policy ResurrectionTerms , preached Lancelot

Andrewes ( Works, vol. 3,

pp. 23-38): “He asked her kindly why she wept, as much to say as ‘Weep not’: noli me Already have an account? Sign in[…] But there is good use of noli some comfort in that. tangere, noli me plangere . There is

me plangere , and noli me tangere , both. One we have touched already; of the other, now”. By different ways, the “joyous art” of the Italian painter and such a “comfort” as understood by the English clergyman seem to converge into a perspective more sensitive to human feelings than worried by theological abstractions. Nec ultra velis me plangere , “Weep me no longer”, is a sentence of a medieval liturgical play for Easter. As to Andrewes’ hint, of a Magdalene glad to see the Christ risen as well as for she touched him in the past, likely he identifies her with the woman sinner who washed Jesus’ Jesus ’ feet with her tears (Luke 7:36-50).

19







Name

Email

Password



Sign Up By registering a Scribd account, 16 – Lavinia Fontana, , you agree to our Noli me tangere of Service and Privacy Policy Uffizi Gallery, Terms Florence


In his works Augustine, quoted by Andrewes himself, himself, after Ambrose had explained explained that “to touch” means to believe, in a new spiritual sense (there we find also the phrase “Weep not”, in the Latin variant Noli plorare; Lectures on John’s Gospel 121:1). Even St. Bernard had criticized Magdalene’s “still carnal wisdom” ( On the Song of Songs 28:8). Yet, paradoxically, a minor argument of the Holy Inquisition against Veronese was his previous refusal to picture Magdalene’s character in a “Last Supper”. In this consistent with the letter of the Scriptures, so the daring artist inverted his role, from inquired becoming inquirer. inquirer. Not less interesting, a reference by the painter to the precedent of the Sistine Chapel frescoes in Rome, where Michelangelo had depicted nude Jesus with saints and others. The reply of the inquisitor was: “In representing the Last Judgment, in which it is a mistake to suppose that clothes are worn, there was no reason for painting any”. That is, a bare bodily representat representation ion was not wrong in itself, depending on its context. Anyhow Anyhow,, to prevent prevent such inconveniences too, in 1564 the figures of the Papal Chapel had been partially dressed.

20




The perplexities of a Counter-Reformed Church, that an art with religious contents Sign With Facebook  not might assume profane forms, could – Up in part, did not want – stop or often even control

its development. With special regard to our theme, they were not completely groundless. Sign Up With Google

Particularly, if we watch an oil by the Florentine courtly artist Agnolo Bronzino (1561; or with email

Musée du Louvre, Paris), surely we can admire it. Yet we may conclude that his half naked Name

Christ resembles more a pagan deity than a Christian figure, despite the disquieting detail of three crosses of the crucifixion, still discernible on the Calvary, Calvary, just in the left top corner. corner. Email

Password





17 – Agnolo Bronzino, Noli me tangere , Musée du Louvre, Paris

A tendency to represent Jesus with ephebic looks was not lacking in the late antiquity, likely influenced by Gnostic doctrines as much as by the lesson of Hellenistic art. Mostly, it was an idealized kind of representation. This painting by the Bronzino, instead, seems to be an explicit sensual scene. In this, it is not too dissimilar from masterpieces on the same subject by others, such as Titian, the Correggio or the Garofalo, who had preceded him in

21




the same century. Strangely, this sensuality contrasts with another Noli me tangere tangere ascribed Facebook House at Florence.  Sign Up to the same author, and currently exhibited in With the Buonarroti

The history of the latter artwork, sober coloured and chaste looking, is a little Sign Up With Google

complex and uncertain too. In 1531, its now lost cartoon was drawn by Michelangelo or with email

Buonar Buonarrot roti. i. Probabl Probably y, the choice choice of the subject subject was suggest suggested ed by the poetess poetess Vittori ittoriaa Name

Colonna, a dear friend of the master. Art criticism has attributed the completed picture to Jacopo Pontormo, before; later, to his best follower, the Bronzino. Once more, we may Email

comment that modernity was born in the sign of a dialectic contradiction. In this sense, the image of an incarnated divinity – its image in the flesh of History – could not be an Password

exception. Nay, Nay, for its own nature, it was a privileged mirror of such su ch a changing reality. (at least 6 characters) Show Send me updates from Scribd



18 – Agnolo Bronzino (or Pontormo ?; after Michelangelo), Noli me tangere , Casa Buonarroti, Florence

Copyright [email protected] 2009

22




Articles by the same author on similar s imilar subjects, at the Websites Websites here below:

 Sign Up With Facebook http://www.scribd.com/doc/2531940/Space-and-T http://www .scribd.com/doc/2531940/Space-and-Time-of-the-Annunciation ime-of-the-Annunciation http://www.scribd.com/doc/2681466/The-Cat-and-the-Angel-of-the-Annunciation Sign Up With Google http://www.scribd.com/doc/2913375/The-Hands-of-Mary-States-of-Mind-in-theAnnunciate or with email http://www.scribd.com/doc/2988387/Hail-Mary-Naz http://www .scribd.com/doc/2988387/Hail-Mary-Nazarene-and-PreRaphaelitearene-and-PreRaphaeliteName Annunciations http://www.scribd.com/doc/3817130/W http://www .scribd.com/doc/3817130/Women-and-Angels-Female-Annunciations omen-and-Angels-Female-Annunciations http://www.scribd.com/doc/4597267/Byzantine-Annunciations-An-Iconography-ofEmail Iconography http://www.scribd.com/doc/5837944/Marian-Icons-in-Rome-and-Italy http://www.scribd.com/doc/8650381/The-Flight-into-Egypt-A-T http://www .scribd.com/doc/8650381/The-Flight-into-Egypt-A-Transcontinental-T ranscontinental-Trip rip http://www.scribd.com/doc/9568413/A-Long-W http://www .scribd.com/doc/9568413/A-Long-Way-to-Emmaus-Almost-a-Samari ay-to-Emmaus-Almost-a-SamaritantanPassword (at least 6 characters) Story http://www.scribd.com/doc/12902607/Magdalenes-Iconography Show http://www.scribd.com/doc/15057438/Marys-Gaze-in-the-History-of-Art http://www.scribd.com/doc/14136622/Mimesis-in-Ancient-Art Send me updates from Scribd http://www.scribd.com/doc/16420824/Thinkers-in-a-Landscape http://www.scribd.com/doc/19582647/Figures-of-Absence-in-the-History-of-Art Sign Up http://www.scribd.com/doc/2075273/Italy-through-a-Gothic-Glass By registering a Scribd account, you agree to our Terms of Service and Privacy Policy


23

The Bodily Christ

Recommend Documents