The Princes St. Basil and St. Constantine of Yaroslavl
Yaroslavl School, 17th century
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Tag Archives: 17th century
St. Sebastian Aided by St. Irene
Oil on canvas
Dirck van Baburen (attr. to)
Dutch, c. 1594–d. 1624
In 1581 several provinces in the Netherlands joined in signing The Act of Abjuration, a declaration of independence freeing them from allegiance to Philip II of Spain. With this abjuration these self-governing territories became known as the United Provinces of the Netherlands or simply the Dutch Republic. In Baroque Painting: Two Centuries of Baroque Masterpieces Stefano Zuffi notes that by the early 1600s this Republic “enjoyed a private prosperity and social harmony that was unique.” Precise indicators of this prosperity included documentation noting a healthy daily consumption of calories, high literacy rates, and peaceful co-existence among a diverse religious population. Equally interesting is the fact that these provinces also had “the highest ratio in Europe of works of art, particularly paintings, to number of inhabitants” (Zuffi, p. 154). This cultural backdrop produces a stunning array of artistic talent—Rembrandt, Vermeer, Frans Hals, Heemskerck, Honthorst, Terbrugghen, and the subject of this article Dirck van Baburen.
Although we know that Baburen was born in Utrecht in the late sixteenth century, pinpointing the precise year of his birth is not easily done. For example, in a 2007 monograph on the artist noted scholar Leonard Slatkes puts the date circa 1595. However, art historian Wayne Franits argues for an earlier date, circa 1592. According to Franits this date makes more sense because it places the painter “at an appropriate age for completing his training. . .and traveling to Rome.” Regardless, both scholars agree that the young Dirck began his career under the tutelage of Paulus Moreelse. Moreelse was a distinguished portrait painter who along with Abraham Bloemaert founded Utrecht’s “St. Lucas-gilde.”
After completing his training in 1612 Baburen set out for Italy. He soon settled in the “Eternal City” of Rome. There he came under the spell of the Caravaggisti—stylistic followers of the famed Michelangelo Caravaggio (1571-1610). Caravaggio was one of the most original and influential painters of the 17th century. What set him apart was the dramatic illumination of his canvases which he created by using dark tonalities punctuated with bright shafts of light. This technique called tenebrism is derived from the Italian word, tenebroso, meaning dark or gloomy. Figures 1 and 2 not only illustrate Caravaggio’s innovative technique but also point to the impact of this technique on followers like Baburen.
In comparing Baburen’s canvas to Caravaggio’s Wayne Franits writes: “The Dutch painter’s famed altarpiece The Entombment (Fig. 1), [was] painted in 1617 as part of a group of canvases . . . to adorn the Pietà Chapel in the church of San Pietro. . . . It is well known that The Entombment testifies to its maker’s knowledge of . . . Caravaggio’s famous painting of the same subject (fig. 2), which hung at that time in the Vittrice Chapel in Santa Maria in Vallicella. Van Baburen’s exposure to Caravaggio’s work must have impressed upon him the fact that strongly illuminated figures set against a dark background literally stand out forcefully within a dusky chapel. Van Baburen also deployed the same basic compositional structure as Caravaggio, with its wedgelike arrangement of figures set at a diagonal, cascading downward toward the body of the dead Christ. In van Baburen’s Entombment, however, the stone of the tomb, which, like the Italian’s, also serves as the stone of unction (with its eucharistic implications), is more tablelike while the body of Christ has been rendered in an upright, almost seated position.”
Baburen would return to Utrecht in 1620 where he, along with Gerrit van Honthorst and Hendrick Terbrugghen formed the Utrecht Caravaggisti. Although he died only four years later, his style continued to develop becoming less Italian and more distinctly Dutch. A comparison of M&G’s St. Sebastian Aided by St. Irene to an earlier version he completed while in Rome (Fig. 3) highlights these distinctions especially in the physical appearance of the characters. St. Sebastian was the patron saint of plague victims and a popular subject in religious art throughout the 17th century. The article by Armand P. Gelpi in the Resources section provides a detailed overview of his iconography and connection to the plague.
Dirck van Baburen died in February 1624; he was buried in the medieval parish church of Buurkerk. His teacher Paulus Moreelse would be laid to rest there 9 years later.
Donnalynn Hess, Director of Education
Resources:
Baroque Painting: Two Centuries of Baroque Masterpieces, Ed. Stefano Zuffi
“Religious Policies in the Seventeenth-Century Dutch Republic,” Jo Spanns
“Dirck van Baburen and the ‘Self-Taught’ Master, Angelo Caroselli,” Wayne Franits
“Saint Sebastian and the Black Death,” Armand P. Gelpi, MD
Saint Sebastian Attended by Saint Irene and Her Maid, Dirck van Baburen (attributed to)
Published 2024
The Young Christ
Giovanni Battista Salvi, called Il Sassoferrato
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The Flight from Sodom
Oil on canvas, c. 1630
Matthias Stomer
Dutch, c. 1600–after 1649
Very little is known about the artistic training of Dutch master Matthias Stomer. His works have similarities to Gerrit van Honthorst and Abraham Janssens, both in M&G’s collection. He spent some time in Rome being influenced by Caravaggio as did many of his contemporary fellow artists. He seems to have settled in Sicily and painted many biblical subjects. Though some think M&G’s The Flight from Sodom is derivative of a Rubens’ work of the same title at the Ringling in Sarasota, Florida, Stomer simply tells the “rest of the story.”
Genesis 19 reveals that the escape of Lot and his family from Sodom has two stages. First, God warns Lot of the impending destruction of Sodom for its immorality and wickedness and tells him to gather his family and escape the fate of the city. Unfortunately, his efforts are rebuffed by his sons-in-law. The delay means he is still in the city at daybreak. Then he is commanded, “Escape for thy life; look not behind thee, neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain.” But in fear, Lot begs to escape to a “little” city nearby rather than the mountain of God’s dictum. God mercifully allows this change, saving Zoar from destruction for Lot’s sake.
Stomer paints the second part of the drama: Lot’s negotiating his escape into Zoar. Lot’s wife is near the back of the group, signifying her growing reluctance to leave. Her faraway gaze shows her preoccupation with the past. She will eventually look back and be turned into a pillar of salt as punishment. In the foreground the blond daughter carries a basket of gold household items and engages the audience with a direct gaze. Is she asking for sympathy? For approval of her father’s plan? She definitely challenges the viewer to contemplate the event. The other daughter, mostly hidden, carries a cloth bundle on her head. She gazes straight ahead, intent on escaping with her life.
Lot clutches his red robe to him. Is he facilitating his gait or visually showing his reluctance to leave by grasping the rich garment that indicates his prominence? His raised eyebrows indicate a question for the leading angel. His open left palm indicates that the question asked is reasonable, almost a “what about?” gesture. The lead angel looks astonished at the request, mirroring Lot’s hand position with one hand while pointing definitively forward with the other, as if to say, “You want to go there?” The second angel’s hand lies near his chin, like the professor’s “stroking his beard” as he considers a student’s idea. Lot suggests a change of plan, and the angels seem to have differing opinions on it.
It may be reading too much into the painting to see in the half-shaved little dog a lesson that Lot and his family are escaping by the “skin of their teeth.” However, the running dog has more sense than Lot who has dawdled at every turn of the story, even with his life at stake. Stomer’s background indicates that the family has taken all night to leave the city (Genesis 19:16 states that the angels had to “set him without the city”). The morning has come—the time when Lot finishes his “flight” since “the sun was risen upon the earth when Lot entered into Zoar” (19:23). Ironically, even Stomer doesn’t finish the story. Lot and his daughters eventually find Zoar inhospitable, and the evil that Lot dreaded “in the mountain” comes to pass.
Dr. Karen Rowe Jones, M&G board member
Special Note:
Scholars have discovered that Stomer used “Naples yellow,” a color created by combining antimony and lead. First mentioned in the late 17th century, Naples yellow appears in Stomer’s early work. Determining whether the blond daughter’s robe uses Naples yellow, might facilitate dating The Flight from Sodom within Stomer’s oeuvre.
Botticelli, Michela, Costanza Miliani, Eva Luna Ravan, Claudia Caliri, and Francesco Paolo Romano. 2024. “Naples Yellow Revisited: Insights into Trades and Use in 17th-Century Sicily from the Macro X-ray Fluorescence Scanning of Matthias Stomer’s ‘The Mocking of Christ’” Heritage 7, no. 3: 1188-1201. https://doi.org/10.3390/heritage7030057
Published 2024
The Body of Christ Prepared for Burial
Oil on canvas, signed and dated: .EQVS.IO.BAGLIONVS.RO.P.1616
Cavaliere Giovanni Baglione, called Il Sordo del Barozzo
Roman, c. 1566-1644
Giovanni Baglione was born, lived and died in Rome; although he received and completed art commissions elsewhere. He was an important artist in his day, even becoming President of the Roman Academy. He authored two books including The Lives of Painters, Sculptors, Architects and Engravers, active from 1572–1642, which has become a fundamental source for study of 17th-century Italian art of more than 200 artists, particularly in Rome.
Like many artists of the Baroque era, Baglione was influenced by the younger painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio. He sought to borrow and integrate Caravaggio’s naturalism and technique of dramatic light and shadow, which was quite novel. The two were in competition for commissions in Rome by the popes, nobles, and influentials.
Although incredibly talented, Caravaggio was arrogant and an angry, violent man. He expressed his hatred of Baglione through mockery and insults including his writing and circulating slanderous satirical poems criticizing him. In 1603, Baglione sued Caravaggio and three other painters (Orazio Gentileschi, Onorio Longhi, and Filippo Trisegni) for libel. According to the court records from the trial, Caravaggio said Baglione was no friend of his, and that he was not a good painter. Then he outlined his views in court about what a good painter was—“a man who can paint well and imitate nature well.” Essentially, in Caravaggio’s opinion, Baglione could do neither. In his book on the Lives, Baglione also shared his own view of Caravaggio saying, “he would speak badly of painters of the past, no matter how distinguished they were, because he thought that he alone had surpassed all other artists in his profession.”
Baglione’s most esteemed painting is in St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome, Peter Raising Tabitha from the Dead, for which he was made a Knight of the Order of Christ by Pope Paul V in 1606.
In spite of the bitterness between the two artists, Baglione produced a painting inspired by one of Caravaggio’s most renowned works—the Entombment in the Vatican Pinacoteca. If not the first, Baglione was one of the first artists to emulate Caravaggio’s revolutionary style, and he described his rival’s Entombment as Caravaggio’s best work. M&G’s The Body of Christ Prepared for Burial references some elements from Caravaggio’s work, such as the stone slab and highlighting and shadowing. M&G’s painting is not Baglione’s first version of the subject, which was finished in 1608—just five years after the libel lawsuit—as a commissioned altarpiece for the church of the Pio Monte della Misericordia in Naples.
However, eight years later he refined the composition into M&G’s version, which he signed and dated the lower right corner of the stone slab as Cavaliere Giovanni Baglione, revealing his knightly status.
It’s ironic, but art historians believe that Baglione’s best pictures are his most “Caravaggesque.” M&G’s treatment is a more classical interpretation of Caravaggio’s version. We’re uncertain of who commissioned the canvas, but it may have been an altarpiece because of its size of more than 7’ tall, the centrality of Christ’s body, and the details with the elements of the passion (crown and nails on the lower left).
Among other specialists, Edgar Peters Bowron describes M&G’s painting as one of his “noblest compositions and demonstrates how good he was in his maturity.”
Today, Baglione is most famous for his authorship of two important books: a guidebook about Roman churches and the volume of artist biographies. He is also remembered for his interactions with Caravaggio. Yet, he was an extremely accomplished artist and favored by popes; he also proved that he was able to learn and profit from other more talented artists.
M&G’s painting is a rare example of Baglione’s work in America and one of his most significant paintings. Dr. Stephen Pepper has described it as “the most important painting by Baglione in an American collection.”
Erin R. Jones, M&G Executive Director
Published 2024
The Presentation of Christ in the Temple
Jacob Jordaens
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Madonna and Child with St. John the Baptist
Polychrome terracotta
Italian, 17th century
The vast collection at the Museum & Gallery contains many hidden treasures that are sometimes overlooked. In my years working for the museum, I don’t remember coming across this piece. Or if I had, I did not give it too much thought as it was one of many pictorial examples of a common theme—the Madonna and Child with the infant St. John the Baptist. While this sculpture may not be one of the biggest or most recognizable, it is a reminder of humility.
The terracotta sculpture was made towards the beginning of the Italian Baroque. The dramatic movement, and attention to anatomical detail is very typical of Baroque art. Mary is portrayed as a graceful, ideal beauty; and the two infants, Jesus and St. John the Baptist, look like active children. Their leaning bodies and outstretched arms lead the viewer through the piece. In fact, this similar pose can be found in another work in the museum’s collection from the Italian Renaissance, Granacci’s Rest on the Flight into Egypt.
It also relates back to another famous visual interpretation of these three individuals—Leonardo da Vinci’s Virgin of the Rocks. There are obvious similarities, such as Mary’s arm wrapped around an adoring St. John the Baptist and Jesus blessing his infant cousin. What may not be as noticeable at first glance is the setting. Of course, one is a painting, and one is a sculpture, but they both feature figures sitting on rocks. This iconography is referred to as the Madonna of Humility. In earlier art history and even during the Renaissance, Mary is sometimes shown as the Queen of Heaven, enthroned in gold beside Jesus. However, in contrast, da Vinci and this Italian sculptor position Mary seated on the ground, which is a possible reference to her resting during their flight to Egypt. By sitting on the ground or on rocks, Mary demonstrates her humility before her Savior.
The Bible records an example of Mary’s meekness before the Lord in Luke 1:46-55. It was after she had received the news that she would give birth to Jesus Christ, the Son of God. Called her Magnificat, she begins by saying, “My soul magnifies the Lord, and my spirit rejoices in God my Savior, for God has looked with favor on the humble estate of His servant. For behold, from now on all generations will call me blessed; for He who is mighty has done great things for me, and holy is His name…”
While not large or ostentatious, this 19-inch terracotta sculpture is as humble as its subject matter. During the holiday season, we celebrate Christ’s birth that was only made possible through the humility of a young woman and the ultimate humbling for the Savior of the world to become flesh and dwell among us.
KC Christmas Beach, M&G summer educator
Published 2023
