The Presentation of Christ in the Temple (Andrea Mantegna)

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Andrea Mantegna, The Presentation of Christ in the Temple, around 1454, egg tempera on canvas with original stenter frame construction, 77.5 × 94.4 cm, Gemäldegalerie, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin.

The painting entitled The Presentation of Christ in the Temple by Andrea Mantegna shows the biblical subject of the Holy Family in the temple in Jerusalem with the sage Simeon . The work is dated to 1453/54, but was neither signed nor dated by its artist. It is part of the collection of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin and is exhibited in the Gemäldegalerie at the Kulturforum .

His brother-in-law Giovanni Bellini painted a congruent picture with the same title The Presentation of Christ in the Temple . The parts of both compositions are exactly the same. So far it has not been proven whether Bellini's portrayal is based on a cardboard box of Mantegna's painting. Using the same boxes in the same shop was a common practice, but not in different shops.

Material, technology and state of preservation

The work was painted on canvas . It is considered one of the early works on canvas that has existed to this day without major changes. The canvas was nailed to a wooden frame from the front. This was covered from the front with another frame so that the nails were not visible. The canvas was reinforced with thin spruce boards. Investigations showed that the colors of the robes were originally bright, but that the whole work has lost its color over time. The dark background, which was initially dark blue, was painted over with black. The halos were also added later.

Mantegna used egg tempera paint , which was proven by detecting egg residue.

Image description

Generally the picture is kept in dark colors. The background is designed entirely in black. The colors of the robes are also mostly dark. Some parts, including the veil of Mary, the ribbons in which the baby Jesus was wrapped, and Simeon's beard are designed in white. The headgear of the woman on the left edge of the picture has also been designed in a yellowish color. Mary, Jesus and Simeon are shown in the foreground, while Joseph (in the middle) and the woman and man on the edges of the picture are shown in the background.

The people are all shown cropped, i.e. as half-figures . This was also considered atypical when the painting was made. Mary is the woman wearing the veil and holding the baby Jesus in her arms. It is turned towards the center of the picture, whereas the baby Jesus is shown with his back to the center of the picture. The wise old man Simeon is leaning towards Mary, her and the child, positioned and holding the child by its feet. Simeon wears a dark veil, a garment decorated with flowers and has a long white beard. Between Jesus and Simeon, Joseph can be seen in the background. His head is positioned centrally but his eyes look in the direction of Simeons. The people described so far are all depicted with a nimbus . The two people on the edge, right and left, are depicted without a nimbus. A woman is shown on the left who has turned away from the scene and seems to be looking out of the picture. The man on the right edge of the picture, on the other hand, looks at the action that is happening in front of him.

If you look at the work without a frame, you can see the frame implemented by Mantegna. Mantegna put a frame in the picture space here. This is supposed to imitate a marble frame. Maria has supported her arm with which she is holding the child. Christ is positioned on a pillow that rests on the frame. Through this imitation the artist creates a transition from the viewer space to the depicted space, whereby the contours of these two spaces are dissolved.

Research on a self-portrayal of the artist

The man on the right outer edge of the picture was interpreted by researchers in the 19th century as a self-portrayal of the artist . The researchers came to this assumption based on a comparison with a grisaille above a fresco in the Ovetari Chapel in Padua , which was identified as Mantegna's self-portrayal. In conclusion, the woman on the opposite edge of the picture was interpreted as the wife of Mantegna Nicolosia Bellini, the sister of Giovanni Bellini .

iconography

The painted motif is a biblical motif, which is described in the Gospel of Luke 2.22-39 . Jesus is brought to the temple in Jerusalem by his parents, Mary and Joseph . There they want to make the prescribed sacrifice on the occasion of the first birth of a boy . Including a pair of lovebirds or two young pigeons . The prophet named Simeon recognizes in Jesus the Messiah and deliverer of Israel. The prophetess Hannah , a daughter of Penuel, from the Ascher tribe, also accompanied the family in the temple.

Circumstances of origin

Based on the assumption that the man on the right edge of the picture is a self-portrayal of Mantegna, the date was 1453, in which the marriage to Nicolosia Bellini took place or the birth of the first child in 1554 could have been used as an occasion. Through infrared and X-ray examinations, researchers have suggested that the picture was taken for the family themselves. They came to this assumption through the first composition of the work, which became visible through the investigations. This composition has been changed many times and is described as free and unbinding for Mantegna. From this it is concluded that it was a private picture and that there were no commissioning persons behind it.

Tradition of the subject

For Italian artists of the 15th century, the representation of the Christian scene of the offering in the temple of Giotto in the arena chapel in Padua can be seen as a style- defining feature . Mantegna breaks away from the style of representation prescribed by Giotto. No spatial or symbolic features are shown. With Giotto, both the temple and the altar and the doves can be clearly seen. None of these features can be found in Mantegna's presentation.

Giovanni Bellini, The Offering in the Temple , around 1470–75, oil on panel, 80 × 105 cm, Museo della Fondazione Querini Stampalia, Venice

Giovanni Bellini's interpretation of the subject

Bellini's version of the offering in the temple was written no earlier than two years after the creation of Mantegna's work. This is assumed on the basis of the materials used, which could be assigned to the artistic development of the artist. Bellini painted on wood and laid out his work wider than Mantegna. The wider area led to the addition of two people to the composition. It could be proven that Bellini worked with a break in order to take over the composition. It will not come up from any common design box.

Provenance

The provenance of the work can be easily understood on the basis of features on the back of the picture. The seals reveal the first claims to ownership. The Venetian family Gradenigo bought it as part of the inventory from Cardinal Pietro Bembo of Padua.

Before it was added to the Solly Collection in 1819 , the work came to Austria. There it was given the seal of Emperor Franz I, recognizable by the letters FI in the seal.

The collection of the merchant Edward Solly went to the Prussian King Friedrich Wilhelm III in 1821 . over. The first note of the Prussian collection, which can be found on the back, is shown by the attached note, which documents the dimensions of the picture. The inventory of the collection in 1830 gave the work its inventory number "I.29", under which it is still listed in the Gemäldegalerie today.

In 1904 the work came from the Altes Museum to the Bode Museum (then Kaiser-Friedrich-Museum) and was presented there. During the Second World War, Mantegna's work, along with many other works in the Berlin museums, was stored in a mine, from where it came to the Central Art Collection Point in Wiesbaden after the war. At this collection point, works of art found by the Allies were collected, documented and brought to the USA. In the USA, many works were presented in very different cities. Due to its fragility, Mantegna's work was shown only once and returned to Germany in 1948, where it was exhibited in Wiesbaden and Munich before returning to Berlin in 1957. Today it is on permanent display in the Gemäldegalerie at the Kulturforum in Berlin.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Brigit Blass-Simmen, Stefan Weppelmann : Padua and Venice: Transcultural Exchange in the Early Modern Age . Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG, 2017, ISBN 978-3-11-046540-2 ( google.de [accessed on July 11, 2020]).
  2. ↑ a b c d Dunkerton, Jill / Hartwieg, Babette: Andrea Mantegna and Giovanni Bellini. Contrasting approaches in painting technique . Ed .: National Museums in Berlin. Munich 2018, p. 51-66 .
  3. ↑ Pigments were analyzed with the micro-X-ray fluorescence analysis by Sabine Schwerdtfeger and Ina Reiche, Rathgen Research Laboratory, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin. See note
  4. ↑ a b Rowley, Neville: Masters of the Renaissance - As Bellini mantegna paused. Two versions of Christ's offering in the temple . Ed .: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie. Munich 2019, p. 140 .
  5. ↑ Rowley, Neville: Masters of the Renaissance - When Bellini Paused Mantegna. Two versions of Christ's offering in the temple. Ed .: Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Gemäldegalerie. Munich 2019, p. 145 .
  6. ↑ Hartwieg, Barbette / Lang, Lisa: The story of a picture. In: Bolg of the SMB. December 11, 2020, accessed June 29, 2020 .

literature

  • Shorr, Dorothy C .: The Iconographic Development of the Presentation in the Temple, The Art Bulletin 28, 1946, 17-32.
  • Walter, Ingeborg: Presentation of Jesus in the temple. Ed. Städel-Museum, Jahrbuch, Frankfurt 1989, pp. 59–70.
  • Giorgio Vasari : The Life of Bellini and Mantegna. edited by Alessandro Nova together with Matteo Burioni, Katja Burzer, Sabine Feser and Hana Gründler, edited by Rebecca Müller, German by Victoria Lorini, Klaus Wagenbach, Berlin 2010, ISBN 978-3-8031-5050-9 .
  • Alberta de Nicolò Salmazo: Andrea Mantegna. DuMont Literature and Art Verlag, Cologne 2004, ISBN 3-8321-7230-0 .
  • Mantegna + Bellini: Masters of the Renaissance . Catalog for the exhibitions in the National Gallery of Art, London, 2018 and Gemäldegalerie, Berlin, 2019. Edited by Caroline Campbell and others Hirmer, Munich 2018.

Web links

Commons : Presentation of Christ in the Temple by Andrea Mantegna  - Collection of images, videos and audio files