artibus
et
historiae

an art anthology

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OF 'ARTIBUS ET HISTORIAE'
Artibus et Historiae no. 39 (XX), 1999
252 x 232 mm
ISSN 0391-9064
90 EURO
Contents
LECH KALINOWSKI - Salomon et la Sagesse. Remarques sur l'iconographie dela Création du monde dans Antiquités Judaiques de Flavius Josephe du Musée Condé a Chantilly (pp. 9—26)
Salomon and Wisdom. Remarks on the Iconography of the Creation of the World in the Antiquitates Iudaicae of the Musée at Chantilly
 
The representation of the seven days of the Creation of the World making up the initial IN of the Antiquitates ludaicae (fol. 3) produced in the Abbey of Saint Trond at the time of the Abbot Wiric (1165—1180) is framed by several typological scenes related to the idea of the Redemption of Man by Christ. This program is enriched by two royal figures identifiable as Salomon, in his capacity as the author of the sapiential books and the prefigure of Christ (Christus verus Salomon), and as Wisdom (Sapientia creata ante omnem creaturam). To visualize both persons the miniaturist took as a model their images used to be placed traditionally, in the 12th century, each at the beginning of one of the sapiential books.
The typological scenes juxtapose Abraham's Sacrifice of Isaac and Jesus crucified; Noah with the grape of grapevine and the Personification of the church: Ecclesia holding a chal­ice; Adam lying in the tomb and the Descent of Christ into the Limbo.
The choice of the subjects conforms with Proverbs 8:22, which underline that the very beginning of the World denotes not only the Creation of the Matter, but rather the Word, that is Jesus, through whom God created the World. Already in the Targum of Jerusalem the word "Word" is understood as an equivalent of "through the Wisdom".
 
D. STEPHEN PEPPER - Guido Reni's Practice of Repeating Compositions (pp. 27—54)
In the present article, the author, D. Stephen Pepper, deals with the problem of autographs replicas by Guido Reni. In the author's monograph ob the artist, published in English in 1984, Pepper excluded all examples of autograph replicas, and, as a consequence, published several original works and copies. By the time of the completely reviewed edition in Italian published in 1988 he had corrected the most apparent of these errors. However, these revisions only represented a small portion of the number of autograph compositions repeated by Reni. Thus the present article continues the work begun with the 1988 edition to expand greatly the number of replicas executed by Reni. At the same time it offers two principal explanations for the artist's intention. First, Reni's concern was not to invent and reinvent his compositions. His vision of ideal figures was more concerned with light, texture and atmosphere rather than compositions, so that he left unchanged his arrangement of the figure. Secondly, his stylistic method underwent a complete reversal around 1630. Instead of painting with strong chiaroscuro modeling in his general manner he eliminated such dark constructs, and he sought the opportunity to redo his compositions executed in his first manner in his second one.
 
YOSHIAKI NISHINO - Le Triptyque de l'Annonciation d'Aix et son Programme iconographique (pp. 55—74)

The central panel of the Annunciation Triptych of Aix is characterized by a number of typological iconographies between «sub lege» and «sub gratia»; the oratory at its left side with Romanesque arches, metaphor of the «Synagoga», is con­trasted by the principal arcades at the right with Gothic ogives, that of the «Ecclesia»: the exterior landscape viewed at the extreme left side, based on Is. LX, 1-8, is corresponding with a interior scene at the extreme right of a High Mass in which a priest standing at the epistle side of an altar, beside a deacon holding a calix, is reading sacramental words of the «Canon Missae» from the Missae Romanum: "Hic est enim Calix Sanguis mei, novi et aeterni testamenti". The words of the "novum testamentum" have theologically a close relationship with prophecies of Jeremiah XXXI, 31 ("foedus novum"); iconographically, this link justifies a presence of the figure of Prophet Jeremiah at the right wing in correspondence with that of Prophet Isaiah at the left one. The hexagonal lectern depicted in the middle of the central panel, as a visual axis of composition of the Triptych, with a shaft in spiral, allusion to a wine press (Is. LXIII, 3), and a seated monkey on the top cleansed by divine radiations, symbol of Original Sin maculating the Virgin, could be considered as a symbol of Salvation, "Fountain of Life" transposing the world from «sub lege» to «sub gratia». The iconographical program of the inner parties of the Triptych, as a whole, could be inspired with a Bernardine mariology by which the Virgin in a Mystery of Salvation is located as a "mediator" between Old Alliance and New Testament. This mariological concept had been preached by St. Bernardine of Siena in whom the King Rene had put his personal faith.

HANA SEDINOVÁ - The Symbolism of the Precious Stones in St. Wenceslas Chapel (pp. 75—94)
The lower section of the four walls of the St. Wenceslas Chapel in St. Vitus' Cathedral at the Prague Castle is decorated with twelve paintings of the Redemption Story, including panels of polished semi-precious stones - amethyst, jasper and chrysoprase. We base an examination of the symbolism of these precious stones upon medieval biblical commentaries to the Scripture, particularly commentaries on the Revelation of St. John. In the fourth chapter (Rev. 4,3) St. John describes a vision of God's Majesty resembling jasper and sardius surrounded by the emerald rainbow; in the twenty-first chapter (Rev. 21, 19-21) he describes the appearance of Heavenly Jerusalem, whose city foundations are adorned with twelve precious stones. Green stones (jasper and emerald), linked to vegetation on account of their colour, are symbols of faith, Christ and the desire for eternal life; the combination with red makes them symbols of Christ's divine nature. The red stones are identified with Christ and are symbols of his suffering, his human nature. Purple was always the colour of royal garment, and so amethyst too becomes a symbol of the Heavenly Kingdom.
 
The St. Wenceslas Chapel has always been taken as an image of the Heavenly Jerusalem. This hypothesis is supported by the arrangement of the chapel, its dedication to St. John the Evangelist, and the symbolism of the precious stone with which it is decorated. However, in the chapel as a whole the dominant colours are the green and red; this colour combination is most often connected with Christ and his two natures, human and divine. In combination with the passion cycle and with the motif of the cross which appears in the chapel in countless variations, they suggest the possibility of a different conception of the chapel, conceived as a commemoration and celebration of Christ's sacrifice and martyrdom in general, conceived as a reliquary. This conception of the chapel is supported also by its dedication to St. Wenceslas, patron of the Czech Lands and Czech martyr.
ROBERT H. GETSCHER - The 'Massacre of the Innocents,' an Early Work Engraved by Marcantonio (pp. 95—111)

Two versions of the Massacre of the Innocents after Raphael have often been given to Marcantonio, one with a "fir tree" (B. 18), an one without (B. 20). But both stylistic and technical evidence suggest that Marcantonio engraved only the second. This engraving also must be early, for it resembles Marcantonio's early pre-Roman work more than his other engravings after Raphael, making it the first work designed by Raphael to be engraved. Iconographically, this image bridges ancient Jerusalem and Raphael's Rome.

THIERRY BAJOU - Deux tableaux de Nicolas Poussin pour un: Vénus et Adonis dans un paysage avec un dieu-fleuve et des chiens qui se désalterent ou les vicissitudes d'un tableau (pp. 113—125)
Two Paintings of Nicolas Poussin for one: Venus and Adonis in a Landscape with a God-River or the Vicissitudes of a Painting
 
Venus and Adonis from the Montpellier museum and the Landscape with a God-River from the Birch collection were recognized in 1980 by Clovis Withfield as being two parts of the same work. The discovery confirmed the Dal Pozzo provenance that was already suggested by the inscription on the back, a photograph of which has been published here for the first time. The layout that separates Venus and Adonis on the side, and the God-River on the other into two autonomous groups must have facilitated the splitting of the painting between 1740 and 1771. The Montpellier canvas was bought by Fabre before 1814. The Birch canvas probably stayed in the Boccapaduli collection for a longer period before being acquired, perhaps in 1863—1864, by Flandrin.
BERT W. MEIJER - New Light on Cristoph Schwarz in Venice and the Veneto (pp. 127—156)

Before becoming "the pearl of painting in all Germany" as Karel van Mander called him, Christoph Schwarz (Ingolstadt, c. 1548 - Munich 1592) in the years 1570—1573 went to Venice. There he received the essential part of his professional training with Titian. Paolo Veronese, too, became an important model. This is confirmed by Schwarz's small Venetian œuvre, here enlarged by a few easel paintings and by frescoes decorating various rooms on the ground floor of Villa Giunti (now Giacomini) at Magnadola di Cessalto near Treviso. These frescoes were attributed by Ridolfi and the later authors to Paolo Veronese and/or his assistants or pupils.

HIDEMICHI TANAKA - Sharaku is Hokusai - On Warrior Prints and Shunrô (Hokusai's) Actor Prints (pp. 157—190)

The identity of the mysterious Edo print artist, Tōshūsai Sharaku, has been the subject of numerous theories and postulations since the Edo period. An examination of stylistic fea­tures, such as Sharaku's choice of subject matter and method of depicting highly individualized facial expressions and bodily postures, shows strong similarities to the work of Shunro (an early name used by the great landscape artist Katsushika Hokusai). Additional consideration of political and personal artistic concerns which would have lead a great artist such as Hokusai to guard his true identity so closely serve to solidify the theory that these two artists were in fact the same person.

NEVENKA KROSCHEWSKI - Caravaggio-Bild und Caravaggios Bilder - zur Frage der künstlerischen Methode (pp. 191—215)
Caravaggio's Image and Caravaggio's Images — on the Question of Art's Method
 
Since the late 1980s, one can note the establishment of a very efficient branch of Caravaggio-research that is devoted to confirming the traditional understanding of Caravaggio's artistic working method. According to this research, Caravaggio is percepted as a modern painter before his time, who - negating disegno - developed his images by painting spontaneously in front of the model. Whilst considering the arguments in discussion, the author shows that neither historical sources nor asthetic evidence - as a result of technical analyses of Caravaggio's paintings - can be used to legitimize the art historical idea of an exclusively pictorial approach of the artist. The image of Caravaggio introducing a revolutionary technique of alla-prima-painting without preliminary drawings seems to root in misunderstood topoi of seicento art-literature. In opposition to the traditional research, the author develops a plea of a Caravaggio-disegnatore, who made use of the medium of drawing as a highly elaborated artistic technique. This is indicated not least by exact geometrical orders that can be found as compositional underpinnings on Caravaggio-s paintings, a phenomenon that corresponds to the fact that one can find only very minor pentimenti in most of his pictures.