Burial of St. Lucia
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| Funeral of St. Lucia |
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| Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio , 1608 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 408 × 300 cm |
| Santa Lucia alla Badia in Syracuse |
The altarpiece Funeral of St. Lucia ( Seppellimento di Santa Lucia ) is one of the later works of the painter Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio . It was created in Syracuse in 1608 for the Franciscan church of Santa Lucia al Sepolcro. Today it is on the main altar of the Church of Santa Lucia alla Badia in Syracuse .
history
St. Lucia is the patron saint of Syracuse, where she once lived and was martyred around 304. The description of their cruel martyrdom can be found in the Legenda Aurea . According to tradition, the church of Santa Lucia al Sepolcro was built over the place where she suffered her martyrdom and where her grave is located . The relics of the early Christian saints were stolen by the Byzantines and carried off to Constantinople, from where they were brought to Venice in the course of the sacking of the city by the Crusader army in 1204. There they have been kept in the church of Santa Lucia since the 13th century . After Napoleon's abolition of the monastery and church, the relics were transferred to San Geremia .
In Syracuse, therefore, the saint was long forgotten, the cult of saints was not resumed until the middle of the 16th century and the once dilapidated church was repaired at the behest of the Syracuse Senate from 1608 to 1610. At the same time he commissioned Caravaggio with a new picture for the high altar. Caravaggio managed to escape from prison in Malta on October 6, 1608 . He found refuge in Sicily with his friend and Roman workshop assistant from earlier years Mario Minniti in Syracuse. It was through his mediation that he probably received the commission for this work before traveling on to Messina.
The painting was badly damaged by moisture and underwent a major restoration from 1972 to 1979.
description
The oil painting on canvas has the dimensions 408 × 300 cm. The scene appears to be depicted at the entrance to the Latomies, the ancient stone quarries of Syracuse, or more likely in the underground dark catacombs under the church of Santa Lucia al Sepolcro. Two gigantic gravedigger in the foreground are digging the grave for the corpse lying on the ground. In the background a group of mourners and the bishop who gave the saint the last unction . The gloomy background is only divided by a round arch niche, which is reminiscent of the arcosolium in which the tomb of the saint is located. The corpse shows the cut on the neck, which testifies to the sword stab in her throat, one of the many tortures she suffered. There are no other iconographic references to her martyrdom in the picture.
The drama of the scene is created by the composition of the picture, the different dimensions of the people and, above all, the lighting. A harsh light falls from the top right on the tightly packed group of people and creates bright reflections on the face and hands and on individual items of clothing, such as. B. the pointed bishop's miter, which protrude together with the bishop's staff from the closed diagonal line formed by the heads. The powerful, muscular arms and legs of the two gravedigger form an almost perfect circle around the woman lying on the ground. The only colored accent of the picture, which is kept in white, brown and ocher tones, is the long blood-red stole around the priest's shoulders, which draws the viewer's gaze to the chest and upper body of the dead.
The almost monochrome dark wall and the arched niche of the interior, which make up almost two thirds of the entire picture, are only faintly modeled by the light and form the gloomy background for the dramatic scene of the funeral. The impression arises as if the artist did not want to stage the glorious martyrdom of the saints, but rather the gloomy reality of a funeral in which the gravedigger are the real protagonists.
literature
- Eberhard König: Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio . Könemann Verlag, Cologne 1997, ISBN 3-8290-0685-3 .
- Sebastian Schütze: Caravaggio - The complete work . Taschen Verlag, Cologne, 2009, ISBN 978-3-8365-0181-1 .
- Giovanni Pietro Bellori : Le vite de 'pittori, scultori ed architetti moderni . Rome 1728, p. 125 digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de
