The miracle of fire of St. Peter Martyr

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The miracle of fire of St. Peter Martyr (Antonio Vivarini)
The miracle of fire of St. Peter Martyr
Antonio Vivarini , approx. 1440/1450
oil on wood
52 × 34 cm
Gemäldegalerie (Berlin) , Berlin

The fire miracle of St. Peter Martyr (also: The fire miracle before the Sultan ) is a part of an Italian polyptych ascribed to Antonio Vivarini . The picture was taken in the early modern period . It is estimated to be around 1440/1450. The picture shows Saint Peter Martyr in a white monk's robe , who performs a miracle of fire in front of heretics . The 52 × 34 cm picture is in the permanent exhibition of the Gemäldegalerie Berlin (inventory number 66).

Material, technology and condition

The picture carrier is hexagonal, unframed and about 52 × 34 cm in size. The picture was painted in oil paints. The paint is relatively well preserved. A long, thin crack runs vertically through the center of the picture. Compared to the other parts of the polyptych, the Berlin pictures appear to have been trimmed at the top right and left. The position of the original arched frame can still be seen in the picture today: There is a hard transition from light to dark at this point, which can be seen particularly well in the sky (see also the other pictures of the polyptych below for comparison).

iconography

According to the lexicon of Christian iconography, the subject of the miracle of fire in connection with Saint Peter is a “rare posthumous scene”. The painting is an illustration of the fire miracle described in the Legenda Aurea . However, the scene in the picture has undergone significant changes. In the Legenda Aurea, Petrus Martyr is not the acting person, but Geoffrey. The story takes place in Como (Italy). Geoffrey has part of Peter's monk's robe with him as a sign of his faith. A heretic makes fun of it and tells him to throw the piece of cloth into a fire. If it didn't burn up, he would return to the faith. When Geoffrey does this, the fabric doesn't burn, but instead suffocates the flames. As a result of this miracle, the unbeliever returns to faith. According to legend, Petrus Martyr does not appear at all, but only performs the miracle indirectly through the material of his habit and Geoffrey as a mediator of faith. The legend also mentions only one heretic, while the picture gives the impression that it was a large group.

The title with mention of a sultan probably goes back to a confusion with a much more common motif: Francis of Assisi's ordeal by fire before Sultan al-Kamil , which was illustrated in large numbers, for example in the fresco cycle of the Basilica of San Francesco .

description

On the right is Petrus Martyr all in white. He has taken off the black cover of his Dominican robe and is holding it in the fire. It is clearly highlighted by its nimbus and its white tunic. The young man behind him in red is the Christ Geoffrey described in the Legenda Aurea. As with most of the figures in the picture, his gaze falls down on the black cloak of Peter lying in the flames in the center of the picture. The other eight people all wear a turban and are thus identified as unbelievers. Six of them are on the left side of the fire across from Geoffrey and Petrus Martyr, and two more are on the right behind Geoffrey. However, these two figures take no notice of the fire wonder. The scene takes place in a courtyard, which is separated from the rest of the city by a wall. To the right is a gray, three-story building with a loggia on the ground floor . A building with battlements is indicated on the left. At the back, a church tower can be seen as the tallest building in the city.

The clothing of St. Peter Martyr when entering the Dominican Order , Gemäldegalerie Berlin
Saint Peter Martyr heals a young man's leg , Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York)
St. Peter Martyr exorcises the devil appearing as Madonna, Alana collection, Newark, Delaware

Polyptych: Petrus Martyr

Saint Peter Martyr exorcises a woman possessed by the devil , Art Institute of Chicago

In the collection of the Gemäldegalerie there is a very similar picture with the title: The clothing of St. Peter Martyr entering the Dominican order (inventory number 67). It shows the moment of his acceptance into the Dominican order.

As early as 1937, Georg Pudelko suspected that both paintings were once united as parts of a polyptych , which was dedicated to Petrus Martyr and is said to have been in San Zanipolo in Venice. Current research confirms this. To date, a total of eight scenes from the life of Petrus Martyr by Antonio Vivarini have been identified: In addition to the two Berlin pictures, there is one in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, another in the Art Institute of Chicago , two scenes are in the Alana Collection in Newark , Delaware and one in the Frascione Arte Gallery in Florence . The last work, entitled: La esquie di San Pietro Martire , was auctioned in Milan in 2014 and is now privately owned. Four of the eight pictures show the miracles of Petrus Martyr. In addition to the fire miracle, the picture in New York shows a miracle healing and one of the pictures in Newark and the one in Chicago each shows an exorcism .

With the inclusion of an inventory list of the church from 1733, the research assumes that the polyptych once consisted of a total of 14 panels. The larger, missing panels in the middle of the polyptych most likely depict the martyrdom of Peter and a statue of him, while six smaller scenes are assumed to the left and right of it. After this reconstruction by Daniele Benati, four of the 12 smaller panels would have remained undiscovered or have not survived to this day.

Provenance and picture history

The picture was originally installed as part of the Petrus Martyr Polyptych in the Church of San Zanipolo in Venice, where it stood at least until 1733. After that, the individual pictures must have been sold separately from each other. The two Berlin paintings became the property of Edward Solly , who then sold them to the museum in 1821. These are not the only paintings by Antonio Vivarini from this bundle. Other paintings from this purchase are also hanging in the same exhibition room of the Gemäldegalerie.

Web links

Commons : Antonio Vivarini Polyptych Petrus Martyr  - Album with pictures, videos and audio files

literature

  • Rodolfo Pallucchini: I Vivarini , Vicenza 1962.
  • Georg Pudelko: A Petrus Martyr Altar by Antonio Vivarini . In: Pantheon, 20 (September 1937), pp. 283-286.
  • Peter Humfrey: A New Panel by Antonio Vivarini from the 'St Peter Martyr' Polyptych . In: Venezia Cinquecento 24, No. 48 (2014).
  • Mattia Vinco: Antonio Vivarini in San Zanipolo a Venezia: Iconografia e nuovi documenti , Florence 2018.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b The miracle of fire before the Sultan. In: SMB Digital. Retrieved June 23, 2020 .
  2. ↑ Wolfgang Braunfels in Zsarb. with Günter Bandmann (Ed.): Lexicon of Christian Iconography. Iconography of the saints: Meletius to forty-two martyrs . tape 8 , 1994, ISBN 3-451-22568-9 , pp. 187 .
  3. ^ Jacobus de Voragine: The Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints. April 22, 2012, p. 260 , accessed on June 23, 2020 (English).
  4. ↑ Irene Earls: Renaissance Art: A Topical Dictionary. 1987, p. 119 , accessed on June 23, 2020 (English).
  5. ^ Corina Mühlstedt: Francis of Assisi and Sultan al-Kamil meet. Between murderers and mystics. In: deutschlandfunk.de. September 11, 2019, accessed June 23, 2020 .
  6. ↑ The clothing of St. Peter Martyr upon entering the Dominican order. In: SMB Digital. Retrieved June 23, 2020 .
  7. ^ Georg Pudelko: A Petrus Martyr Altar by Antonio Vivarini . In: Pantheon 20 . 1937, p. 283-286 .
  8. ↑ a b c d Mattia Vinco: Saint Peter Martyr Healing the Leg of a Young Man. Catalog Entry. In: metmuseum.org. 2019, accessed on June 23, 2020 .
  9. ↑ Saint Peter Martyr Exorcizing a Woman Possessed by a Devil. In: artic.edu. Retrieved June 23, 2020 (English).
  10. ^ Peter Humfrey: A New Panel by Antonio Vivarini from the 'St Peter Martyr' Polyptych . In: Venezia Cinquecento . tape 24 , no. 48 , 2014, p. 5, 10-11, 14-15 .
  11. ↑ Daniele Benati: La bottega degli Erri e la pittura del Rinascimento a Modena . Modena 1988, p. 70 (Italian).
  12. ^ Mattia Vinco: Antonio Vivarini in San Zanipolo a Venezia. Iconografia e nuovi documenti . Enrico Frascione Arte, Florence 2018.