The Birth of Mary (Ghirlandaio)

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The Birth of Mary (Domenico Ghirlandaio)
The birth of Mary
Domenico Ghirlandaio , 1486-1490
fresco
Santa Maria Novella

The Nativity of Mary is a fresco in the Santa Maria Novella church in Florence . It is part of a cycle of frescoes created by Domenico Ghirlandaio in the late 15th century. The cycle is considered to be the main work of Ghirlandaios.

History of origin

The commission for the fresco cycle was given by Giovanni Tornabuoni , who was related by marriage to Piero de 'Medici through his sister Lucrezia . Previously there were frescoes on this site that were donated by the Ricci family in Florence; these paintings, however, were spoiled. However, due to their financial situation, the Ricci family were unable to donate new frescoes and only reluctantly gave their consent to the commission of Tuornaboni from Ghirlandaio. After completion, this family was also disappointed that Ghirlandaio represented a total of 21 members of the Tuornaboni family and the related Tornaquinci instead of members of their family. The corresponding contract between Tuornaboni and Ghirlandaio (it was the second major commission for Ghirlandaio in addition to the commission for an altarpiece for the Ospedale degli Innocenti ) contained a. a. the clause that the frescoes are to be decorated with “figures, buildings, chapels, cities, mountains, hills, plains, rocks, costumes, birds and animals of all kinds” . Ghirlandaio created the cycle from 1486 to 1490. Giorgio Vasari reports that the young Michelangelo was involved in the execution . That is quite possible, because this then just thirteen-year-old had had a three-year apprenticeship contract with Ghirlandaio since 1488 "to learn the art of painting". According to Luca Landucci , the cycle was unveiled on December 22, 1490. The painting cost Tuornaboni 1,000 Florentine gold florins.

Theme of the birth of Mary

The theme of the fresco is the Nativity of Mary. The related story does not come from the Bible , but from an apocryphal script, the Protevangelium of James , written between 150 and 200 AD. Mary's parents, Anna and Joachim, had not yet had a child despite their twenty-year marriage. Anna received her husband according to her own prayers and fasting without physical union, according to an angel's message. The girl who was finally born was called Maria by her mother. It is important that Mary, as Mother of Jesus Christ, for her part was not tainted with the stigma of sexual union in order to be able to fulfill her role in God's plan of salvation.

presentation

Ghirlandaio chose a contemporary space in a posh Florentine home to depict the scene. The characters involved are also dressed in the elegant Florentine clothing of the time. The representation is structured by two pilasters delimiting the edges of the picture . A little to the left of the center of the fresco, two square columns subdivide the perspective painted space. The right half is further divided by a surrounding putti frieze at the top right. The fresco can be divided into four individual elements, of which one, possibly two, represent events from the Protevangelium in the life of Anna.

Welcome scene, top left

In the upper left part of the picture the greeting of a man and a woman is shown. You can read in the literature that it could be about greeting a guest. Another view is that it is the representation of the conception itself, which would be the first event from the Prot Gospel.

The women who have recently given birth, bottom center

Detail of the group of visitors with the signature Ghirlandaios

The group of five women who visit Anna, who has recently given birth , has itself become a subject of art history. The women are dressed in simple two- or one-colored robes, with the exception of the young woman. The leader of the group, shown in a splendid brocade robe, is Ludovica Tuornaboni , the client's daughter. She wears her hair open in the style of unmarried women. The figure in the pink robe looks out of the picture, she seems a little worried. Ghirlandaio has signed the fresco in the first left panel of the wood paneling in front of the depiction of Ludovica Tuornaboni. “Bighordi” can be read because the real name was Ghirlandaios Tommaso Bighordi.

The depiction of Anna, bottom right

The depiction shows how a midwife prepares the first bath for the child after the birth, while two more take care of the newborn girl. In the Prot Gospel the scene is represented as follows: “Six months passed, as (the angel) had told her, in the seventh Anna gave birth. And she asked the midwife, 'What did I give birth?' The midwife replied: 'A girl'. Anna said: 'My soul praises this day!' And she put it down. When the appropriate deadline had passed, Anna cleaned herself of her childbed, gave the child the breast and called it Maria. "

The putti frieze, top right

When depicting the putti, Ghirlandaio could have orientated himself on the pulpit of the cathedral in Florence, erected by Donatello shortly before, around 1430 . The Latin frieze running around below reads: " NATIVITAS TUA DEI GENITRIX VIRGO GAUDIUM ANNUNTIAVIT UNIVERSO MUNDO " ("Your birth, the Mother of God, Virgin, joy announced to the whole world")

Overall, the frescoes are considered to be Ghirlandaio's main work. Max Semrau comments on this: "The stories often told have never been presented in a more beautiful, noble and graceful manner than in these pictures, which in their calm serenity already prepare the style of the new century."

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Tomann, The Art of the Italian Renaissance , p. 290.
  2. ↑ a b Woermann: Guide to Art. P. 46.
  3. ^ A b Tomann: The Art of the Italian Renaissance. P. 290.
  4. ↑ Grote: Florence. P. 158.
  5. ↑ Durant: Splendor and Decay of the Italian Renaissance. P. 233.
  6. ↑ Landucci: Florentine Diary. P. 90.
  7. ↑ Ceming / Werlitz, Die Verbotenen Evangelien , p. 68.
  8. ^ Protevangelium des Jakobus, chap. 4 verse 1, quoted in Ceming, Werlitz, Die Verbotenen Evangelien , p. 73.
  9. ↑ Weidinger, Die Apokryphen , p. 429.
  10. ↑ de Rynck, The Art of Reading Pictures , p. 92.
  11. ^ Tomann, The Art of the Italian Renaissance , p. 290.
  12. ↑ de Rynck, The Art of Reading Pictures , p. 92.
  13. ↑ so z. B. in Stützer, Painting of the Italian Renaissance , p. 112.
  14. ^ Stützer, Painting of the Italian Renaissance , p. 112.
  15. ^ Stützer, Painting of the Italian Renaissance , p. 112.
  16. ↑ quoted from: Ceming / Werlitz, Die Verbotenen Evangelien , p. 68.
  17. ^ Tomann, The Art of the Italian Renaissance , p. 290.
  18. ↑ Lübke / Semrau, Die Kunst der Renaissance , p. 188.

literature

  • Rolf Toman (ed.), The Art of the Italian Renaissance - Architecture, Sculpture, Painting, Drawing , Tandem Verlag, Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-8331-4582-7
  • Max Semrau, The Art of the Renaissance in Italy and in the North , 3rd edition, Vol. III from Wilhelm Lübke, Grundriss der Kunstgeschichte , 14th edition, Paul Neff Verlag, Esslingen 1912
  • Will Durant, splendor and decay of the Italian Renaissance , Volume 8 from Will and Ariel Durant's cultural history of humanity , 1st edition, Südwest Verlag, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-517-00562-2
  • Luca Landucci, Florentine Diary , transl., Incorporated. and explain by Marie Herzfeld, Eugen Diederichs, Jena 1912, new edition, Eugen Diederichs Verlag, Düsseldorf 1978, ISBN 3-424-00633-5
  • Patrick de Rynck, The Art of Reading Pictures - The Old Masters Deciphering and Understanding , Parthas Verlag, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-86601-695-6
  • Andreas Grote, Florence - Shape and History of a Community , 5th edition, Prestel Verlag, Munich 1980, ISBN 3-7913-0511-5
  • Karl Woermann, The Italian Portrait Painting of the Renaissance , Vol. 4 of the series of guides to art , ed. by Hermann Popp, Paul Neff Verlag (Max Schreiber), Esslingen 1906
  • Herbert Alexander Stützer, painting of the Italian Renaissance , DuMont's library of great painters, DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 1979, ISBN 3-7701-1118-4
  • Katharina Ceming / Jürgen Werlitz , The Forbidden Gospels , Piper, Munich and Zurich 2007, ISBN 978-3-492-25027-6
  • Erich Weidinger, The Apocrypha - Hidden Books of the Bible , Pattloch Verlag, Augsburg 1989, ISBN 3-629-91319-9
  • Maria Merseburger: Painted drapery in the Florentine Quattrocento. Ghirlandaios Tornabuoni Chapel. Humboldt-Univ., Diss., Berlin 2018. online