The Entombment of Mary
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| The Entombment of Mary |
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| Giotto di Bondone , around 1310 |
| Tempera on poplar wood and gold background |
| 75.8 x 179.7 cm |
| Gemäldegalerie Berlin |
The Entombment of Mariae (also: Transitus Mariae, Marientod, Latin Dormitio Virginis ) is a panel painting by the Italian painter Giotto di Bondone . The 75.8 × 179.7 cm altar panel is dated around 1310 in view of its stylistic proximity to the Maestà in the Uffizi . It was acquired in 1914 by the Kaiser Friedrich Museum Association and is now in the picture gallery of the State Museums in Berlin . The inventory number of the work is 1884.
Technology and material
The altar panel (75.8 × 179.7 cm) was made in tempera on poplar wood and a gold background . The elongated format with a gable-shaped upper end can be described as a flat gable dossal and thus corresponds to a format that was coined in the Duecento . The work resembles Tuscan dossals of the late 13th century, which were replaced after 1300 by polyptyches and vertical altar panels.
State of preservation
The picture carrier, consisting of two horizontally grooved boards of poplar wood with a canvas covering, was trimmed on all sides. This probably first happened when the original frame elements were removed. In addition, it has been thinned and is now only 0.53 cm thick. An attempt was made to compensate for the slight asymmetry of the work with a narrow oak strip. Since this was attached with industrially manufactured nails, research suggests that the procedure must be more recent. In addition, the paint layer was apparently heavily cleaned in the 19th century. The fact that many of the incarnates have a whitish appearance, especially in the area of the faces, is probably due to detergents that were too strong and which may have been used in the course of the 20th century. The gilding in the background was also completely renewed, which affects the effect of the picture in its original form.
Older overpaintings and integrations were partially removed in 1972, which led to the varnish being cleaned , among other things . Four years later, the panel was treated again and new retouching was added.
On the back, next to the modern inventory slips, there is an older slip with the number 1761 (Cardinal Fesch auction), above which is painted in black on the wood “N… 266”.
Image description
The body of the Blessed Mother Mary , laid on the bier in the center of the altar panel , is surrounded by apostles, angels, women and patriarchs on a gold background. Simon Petrus can be identified in a golden cloak, and Andreas , dressed in green, who blesses the deceased with holy water . In the middle is Christ holding a baby - metaphorically representing the soul of Mary - in his arms.
What is innovative in the presentation is the effective use of the space in the depth. In contrast to earlier works, the figures are arranged in depths on several levels in a very natural way. This type of representation, which can also be found in the Maestá , seems even more sophisticated in its application: the more distant figures behind the light wells disappear behind the figures in the foreground and on the second floor. In addition, the group of figures is based on the shape of the dossal and with poses, gestures and looks inevitably directs the viewer's gaze to the central fulcrum of the scene. The two side groups are arranged slightly asymmetrically, in an ascending line that runs straight from the right to the head of Christ and finally merges into the figure of the bent apostle, possibly John . The Marian sarcophagus , simple but enlivened by cosmic decorations, breaks the frontality of the work by shifting it to the left.
iconography
This type of representation is based on the traditional basic scheme. The picture theme is based on apocryphal source writings. Of importance here is a text entitled Transitus (Beatae) Mariae by an anonymous author named Pseudo-Melito , which was later modified by Gregor von Tours . On the basis of these templates, Jacobus de Voragine edited his version of the event for the Legenda aurea , a collection of the life stories of saints and legends of saints. In all sources, a distinction is made between different, chronologically successive events, especially between Dormition - Mary dies with the apostles, Christ takes her soul - and Assumptio - the apostles bury Mary in the Josaphat valley, after three days the Lord, angel appears bring the soul of Mary down again and the immaculate, revived body is carried to heaven by the angels. In this work Giotto synthesized several elements of these events in a single representation. So here both dormition, exequies , burial and resurrection or assumptio animae unite .
The subject of the picture can therefore be described less as storia (picture narration). Rather, one could speak of a staging of the cult of the dead formulated without a temporal continuum, whereby this is to be understood as a representation of the ritual of collective memory ( memoria ). This background explains Giotto's composition of numerous references to the medieval burial ritual. In addition to the apostles, the angels also play an important role; They appear as liturgists in exequien depictions and in the tomb iconography and, following the text of the Apocalypse , donate the incense . In Giotto's depiction, an angel in the right half of the picture takes on this task. There are also women on the left edge of the picture who can be identified as “companions of Mary”. At the same time, these could be understood as references to the women belonging to the funeral procession in the real funeral cult. Alongside the sarcophagus, a pair of angels with specially twisted candles can be seen on both sides, which are lit when the blessing takes place. The apostles, positioned over the head of Mary, perform gestures of mourning that are reminiscent of the mourning for the dead . The clergy then gathers for the vigil , the penitential psalms are recited and the body sprinkled with holy water. On the left, Peter recites from the Psalms, while Andreas leads the Aspergill with the holy water from the right . In the procession that followed, the corpse was led to the grave with prayer and song.
Original site
The Entombment of Mary is to be located in the context of other works by Giotto, which Lorenzo Ghiberti describes in his Comentarii . These are four of Giotto's works that were in the Ognissanti Church in Florence, founded by the Humiliates . Even Vasari saw more later than a century in the same church and reported "... a [em] tablets in tempera, the fact painted by Giotto with infinite care and presented with perfect drawing and vibrancy of the death of Our Lady of the Apostles, who hold the exequies, and with Christ carrying the soul in his arms. "
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| Maestà (also: Ognissanti-Madonna) |
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| Giotto di Bondone , around 1310 |
| Tempera on wood |
| 325 × 204 cm |
| Uffizi Gallery, Florence |
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| Triumphal cross |
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| Giotto di Bondone , around 1315 |
| Tempera and gold |
| 468 × 375 cm |
| Ognissanti Church, Florence |
Of the four works, apart from the Entombment of Mary , only the Maestà and the Triumphal Cross can be identified today .
The work was probably positioned, at least in the Quattrocento and in the early Cinquecento , on a side altar that was on the rood screen. This also opens up the function of the dossal: the rood screen divides the nave into two areas: on the one hand, the area reserved for the clergy and the parish church, which was basically also accessible to the layperson . Accordingly, both areas were each equipped with their own specific sculptures: in the choir area with the Maestà and in the room accessible to laypeople with the cross and the death of the Virgin . The death of the Virgin consequently formed the altarpiece in this part of the church.
The side altar was also explicitly dedicated to the performance of funeral offices and memorial services, immediately in front of it there were graves. The online database of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, SMB-digital, states: “The cult image was thematically coordinated with the liturgical ritual that occurred before, while the ceremony itself was visually exaggerated by the events staged in the altarpiece. The Christian hope for an afterlife is connected with the dormition of Mary. The cultic activity around death and memoria was of great importance for the humilitant order, because this pastoral activity was connected with important income, which the monks received from shares in the estate of the deceased. When the inner city cemetery in Florence was closed in 1296, the convent of Ognissanti, located outside the city center, was one of the most important churches for funerary cult for a few years, as there was a large cemetery in the immediate vicinity that could be expanded without restriction. "
Provenance
When the panel was removed from the Ognissanti Church in the 16th century , it was moved to an unspecified location. The traces were lost until around 1841; eventually the work reappeared in the collection of Joseph Cardinal Fesch . It was also in the Davenport Bromley and Langton Douglas collections before it was transferred to Berlin in 1914 to be purchased by the Kaiser-Friedrich-Museumsverein . It was not until 1920, however, that the museum association became the legal owner of the painting. Towards the end of the Second World War , the plant was relocated to the Merkers salt mine near Kaiseroda in Thuringia , and after the end of the war it was finally moved to the Central Collecting Point in Wiesbaden . The sticker “Army No. 89 “on the back of the work confirms this. In 1945 the American occupation sent the work to Washington for a special exhibition. It did not find its way back to Wiesbaden until 1948 and was shown in the “Returned Masterpieces” exhibition until 1952. Finally the work found its way back to Berlin to be exhibited there in the Dahlem gallery. Since 1998 it has been located in the new museum building at the Kulturforum (Potsdamer Platz).
literature
- Edi Bacceschi, Giancarlo Vigorelli: Classics of Art. The complete works of Giotto . Kunstkreis [ao], Lucerne 1966.
- Miklós Bosvokits, Erich Schleier: Early Italian painting. Catalog of the paintings. Mann, Berlin 1988. (In it on the Entombment of Mariae especially pp. 56–61).
- Edward B. Garrison: Italian romanesque panel painting . Olschki, Florence 1949.
- Julius von Schlosser: Lorenzo Ghiberti's Memories (I Commentari) , Vol. 1. Bard, Berlin 1912.
- Michael Viktor Schwarz: Giottus Pictor. Böhle, Vienna 2008.
- Stefan Weppelmann: Space and Memoria. Giotto's Berlin Transitus Mariae and some thoughts on the installation of the Maestà in Ognissanti, Florence . In: Stefan Weppelmann (ed.): Ceremonial and space in early Italian painting . Imhof, Petersberg 2007, pp. 128–159.
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ Miklós Bosvokits, Erich Schleier : Early Italian painting . Mann, Berlin 1988, p. 59 .
- ^ Edward B. Garrison: Italian romanesque panel painting . Olschki, Florence 1949, p. 165-167 .
- ^ Stefan Weppelmann: Space and Memoria. Giotto's Berlin Transitus Mariae and some thoughts on the installation of the Maestà in Ognissanti, Florence . In: Stefan Weppelmann (Hrsg.): Ceremonial and space in early Italian painting . Imhof, Petersberg 2007, p. 130 .
- ^ Stefan Weppelmann: Space and Memoria. Giotto's Berlin Transitus Mariae and some thoughts on the installation of the Maestà in Ognissanti, Florence . In: Stefan Weppelmann (Hrsg.): Ceremonial and space in early Italian painting . Imhof, Petersberg 2007, p. 132 .
- ^ Stefan Weppelmann: Space and Memoria. Giotto's Berlin Transitus Mariae and some thoughts on the installation of the Maestà in Ognissanti, Florence . In: Stefan Weppelmann (Hrsg.): Ceremonial and space in early Italian painting . Imhof, Petersberg 2007, p. 133 .
- ↑ Miklós Boskovits, Erich Schleier: Early Italian Painting . Mann, Berlin 1988, p. 57 .
- ^ Stefan Weppelmann: Space and Memoria. Giotto's Berlin Transitus Mariae and some thoughts on the installation of the Maestà in Ognissanti, Florence . In: Stefan Weppelmann (Hrsg.): Ceremonial and space in early Italian painting . Imhof, Petersberg 2007, p. 145 .
- ^ Stefan Weppelmann: Space and Memoria. Giotto's Berlin Transitus Mariae and some thoughts on the installation of the Maestà in Ognissanti, Florence . In: Stefan Weppelmann (Hrsg.): Ceremonial and space in early Italian painting . Imhof, Petersberg 2007, p. 146 .
- ↑ a b Information on the painting “The Entombment of Mary”. Online database of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin SMB Digital, accessed on June 22, 2020 .
- ↑ Julius von Schlosser: Lorenzo Ghiberti's Memories (I Commentari) . tape 1 . Bard, Berlin 1912, p. 36 .
- ↑ Quoted from Schwarz. See: Michael Viktor Schwarz: Giottos Pictor. Giotto's works . tape 2 . [sl], Böhlau 2008, p. 469 .
- ^ Stefan Weppelmann: Space and Memoria. Giotto's Berlin Transitus Mariae and some thoughts on the installation of the Maestà in Ognissanti, Florence . In: Stefan Weppelmann (Hrsg.): Ceremonial and space in early Italian painting . Imhof, Petersberg 2007, p. 145 .
- ^ Stefan Weppelmann: Space and Memoria. Giotto's Berlin Transitus Mariae and some thoughts on the installation of the Maestà in Ognissanti, Florence . In: Stefan Weppelmann (Hrsg.): Ceremonial and space in early Italian painting . Imhof, Petersberg 2007, p. 144 .
- ↑ Edi Bacceschi, Giancarlo Vigorelli: classics of art. The complete works of Giotto . Kunstkreis [ua], Luzern 1966, p. 112 .
- ^ Stefan Weppelmann: Space and Memoria. Giotto's Berlin Transitus Mariae and some thoughts on the installation of the Maestà in Ognissanti, Florence . In: Stefan Weppelmann (Hrsg.): Ceremonial and space in early Italian painting . Imhof, Petersberg 2007, p. 133 .