Date:
2007-02-08
Basilica
Built on Martyrdom; a Caravaggio Rival
The
Return of Santo Stefano Rotundo
By
Elizabeth Lev
The
wary sentiment of this canny Florentine resonates even today, where many
people come to see the wonders of the city without expecting to find much
spiritual bolstering. Fortunately,
An
example is the reopening of a basilica that celebrates the triumph of
Christianity over paganism, which had come at the cost of thousands of
Christian lives.
On
Jan. 27, with very little fanfare, Romans welcomed the return of Santo
Stefano Rotundo, the ancient church dedicated
to the first martyr, which has been under restoration for almost half
a decade. In a unique space, tucked away on the Caelian
Hill, Christians can remember that, in the words of Tertullian,
"the blood of the martyrs watered the seed of the early Church."
This
round basilica, shaped like an ancient victory temple, was consecrated
under Pope Simplicius (468-483). The fascinating
form of the church, originally three sets of concentric colonnades now
cut back to two, and once intersected by a Greek cross, also harks back to the Church of the Holy Sepulcher in
Pilgrims
have frequented the church for more than 1,500 years. Popes embellished
it with costly marbles, and the remains of the first martyrs were transported
from the outskirts of the city to Santo Stefano. Sts. Primus and Felicianus
were moved to a side chapel by decision of Pope Theodore in 645. The chapel
can still be visited today, and its shimmering seventh-century mosaic
is a rare treasure, even in
The
most famous decorations of the church, however, are the frescos covering
every inch of the outer wall, ordered by Pope Gregory XIII and executed
by Nicolo Circignano
(known as Pomerancio) in 1583. They represent
hundreds of martyrdoms organized by imperial persecution. Starting with
St. Peter and
Many
guidebooks write condescendingly of the paintings, seeing them as the
apex of bad Catholic taste. But what they, and even we, forget is that
the Christians were killed often as an entertainment for the Romans. Pomerancio
depicts these deaths inside stadiums and arenas to remind us of the ridicule
and jeers that accompanied the martyrs as they were burned, skinned alive,
torn apart by beasts and otherwise tortured.
Yet
they held firm. Men, women and children, aristocrats and slaves, the learned
and the ignorant, all emboldened by the same Spirit, and all brought together
by one faith in Christ.
*
* *
A
Forgotten Artist
Just
as countless people anxiously awaited the third installment of "The
Lord of the Rings" (myself among them), I have been counting down
the days to the arrival of the Carracci exhibition
in
Annibale
Carracci, the most important yet virtually unknown
artist of the post-Counter Reformation era, has been given his own show
with more than 120 paintings and drawings to help modern eyes learn to
appreciate this brilliant painter.
Carracci
was born in 1560 in
The
later 16th century saw a crisis in art in the wake of the Council of Trent.
Clarity, intelligibility and stimulation of piety were the declared objectives
of art, but how to translate these dictums into artistic composition remained
a mystery. Art became highly artificial, dominated by unnatural colors
and unrealistic perspectives.
Painting
tended to be either pedantic -- a heavy-handed account of holy stories
-- or only understood by connoisseurs who could recognize the virtuosity
of spatial construction, or dependent on figures "borrowed"
from other works.
Annibale,
his brother Agostino and his cousin Ludovico
rebelled against an art that stood distant and uninviting to viewers.
They paved the way to a new style intended to awaken and stimulate a numbed
painting public. Immediacy, freshness and viewer involvement were the
aims of this new movement, known as the Accademia
of the Incamminati.
The
Bolognese painter was aided by his compatriot, Monsignor Giovanni Battista
Agucchi, author of a treatise on painting outlining
guidelines for artists in the post Tridentine
world. Monsignor Agucchi and Annibale
consulted frequently about the portrayal of sacred subjects, and between
Carracci's technical aspirations and his interest in transmitting
holy stories to the public, a new style was born.
The
first rooms of the exhibition show Carracci's
brilliant blend of technical mastery and candid representations. Three
self-portraits not only introduce the visitor to the artist but also to
his artistic considerations. A hasty preparatory sketch for "Self-Portrait
on an Easel" shows a dog barking at the portrait (an ancient Greek
allusion to perfect imitation) as well as a bearded Michelangelo looking
on. Carracci represents himself as ready to compete with the world
of the ancients.
Nearby
several works startle the visitor with unusual subject matter. A
man eating beans, a monkey picking at his owner's hair, a boy grinning
giddily from the canvas, appear like candid photos capturing people almost
unawares. The hasty brushstrokes and the daubs of white increase this
impression of immediacy.
In
Carracci's personal copy of Giorgio Vasari's
"Lives of the Artists," he underlined a section regarding the
importance of painting from live models. Carracci took this advice to heart. While some heads he painted
as studies of expressions for more important commissions, others capture
a fleeting instant.
These
latter works of Carracci earned him the title
of the founder of modern caricature.
The
stunning "Boy Drinking" shows this academic study combined with
the immediacy of his work. A young man throws his head back, his eyes
fixed on his drinking glass. In his other hand he holds a carafe at the
ready. The broad brushstrokes and the startling pose seem like a Polaroid
picture, but the complexity of the foreshortened jaw and the upside down
glass indicate weeks of preliminary sketches.
The
magnificent draftsmanship of Carracci is wonderfully
represented in the exhibit. Lifelike portrait sketches and preparatory
drawings for dramatically foreshortened figures remind us that God-given
talent must by supported by hard work.
Carracci's
principal commissions were either mythological or biblical subjects, and
the exhibition contains many of Carracci's hagiographical
images, particularly of St. Francis of
Arresting
altarpieces were the master's specialty. Carracci's "Pietà" from
1599, updates Michelangelo's unforgettable
His
spectacular mythological cycles (the most famous being in the Palazzo
Farnese in
These
cycles earned Carracci patrons among popes and
princes, but today, while anyone can admire Caravaggio in San Luigi dei
Francesi, very few can see Carracci's
famous works, since they are housed in private collections rarely opened
to the public. This is one of the reasons why Carracci
has fallen in anonymity while Caravaggio has been "rediscovered."
Both
artists worked in
Caravaggio,
never one for false compliments when it came to other people's painting,
spent a long time looking at the painting "St. Margaret" in
the Church of St. Catherine of the Funari, finally
declaring: "I am glad to see a true painter in my lifetime."
These
two great artists were finally pitted against each other in the Church
of Santa Maria del Popolo in
But
Carracci aspired above all to equal Raphael,
who, in the artist's opinion, was "the worthiest master of art."
The flawless compositions, lifelike figures, and in particular Raphael's
boundless desire to learn, deeply affected Carracci
all his life.
Asked
to compare the two artists who most influenced his career, the Venetian
Titian and the Florentine Raphael, Carracci
replied: "Titian painted to inspire delight and Raphael painted to
inspire wonder."
Carracci
died in 1609, a year before Caravaggio, and was buried next to his hero,
Raphael. Raphael had used his study of the ancients to re-create the most
perfect images of Christian beliefs, and Carracci
followed suit, adding a vitality and vigor that stimulated Christians
to think about, discuss and admire holy stories in a new way. Both men
were buried in the building that most exemplifies the grandeur of the
pagan world harnessed for the glory of Christianity, the Pantheon.
The
Carracci exhibition will be at the Bramante
Cloister of the Church of Santa Maria della
Pace from Jan. 26 to May 6. It is open from
*
* *
Elizabeth
Lev teaches Christian art and architecture at