The drunkenness of Noah (Bellini)
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| Noah's drunkenness |
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| Giovanni Bellini , 1515 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 103 × 157 cm |
| Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie , Besançon |
Noah's Drunkenness is a painting by Italian artist Giovanni Bellini and was completed around 1515 . It is located in the Musée des Beaux-Arts et d'Archéologie (Museum of Fine Arts and Archeology) in Besançon , France .
description
The picture is a landscape format with the dimensions 103 × 157 cm and was painted in oil on canvas . It shows four people who largely fill the picture area and are in some cases already slightly cut off.
In the foreground lies a sleeping elderly naked man, Noah, parallel to the edge of the picture . He sleeps in an uncomfortable position, his head leaning on a stone on the left, his arms partly behind his head, partly on his cheek to support his head, his legs spread wide. He presents himself completely unprotected to the viewer's eyes, only his shame is covered by a corner of a lush red cloth that borders the foreground behind him and behind which his three sons can be seen.
His sons Sem and Japhet kneel to the left and right of him , they are about to cover their father with the red cloth, while they respectfully avert their gaze. A little further back, Cham , the third son, can be seen in the center of the picture . He seems to want to keep his brothers from doing what they do with his arms outstretched, while grinning and looking directly at his father's pubic area.
In the background of the picture, vines indicate a vineyard ; Next to Noah's head lies a bunch of grapes , in front of him is an almost empty, simple vessel in the middle of the picture.
background
The work shows a scene from the Bible from the Old Testament in Genesis 9 : 20-27 EU , the mockery of Noah :
- 20 But Noah the farmer was the first to plant a vineyard.
- 21 And as he was drinking of the wine, he was drunk and lay uncovered in the tent.
- 22 When Ham, Canaan's father, saw his father's nakedness, he told his two brothers outside.
- 23 Then Shem and Jafet took a garment, and placed it on both of their shoulders, and went backwards and covered their father's nakedness; and their faces were turned away, that they might not see the nakedness of their father.
- 24 When Noah woke up from his intoxication and learned what his youngest son had done to him,
- 25 he said, Cursed be Canaan, and be a servant of all servants to his brothers.
- 26 And he said, Blessed be the LORD God of Shem, and Canaan be his servant.
- 27 God spread Jafet out and make him dwell in the tents of Shem, and let Canaan be his servant.
The religious significance of the scene is not primarily in the “ban on looking” at the nudity of Noah, which is discredited in Christianity, and in particular his shame, but in the inappropriate behavior of Ham, who does not do justice to his duties as a son ( Ex 20.12 EU ) Mocking helpless father instead of honoring and protecting him like his virtuous brothers. This narrative is of particular importance through the typological reading of the Old Testament, which understands its events as the advance notice of Jesus and constructs connections between the two testaments through analogy .
So here the Old Testament Noah as the “new Adam” and ancestor of all people after the flood symbolizes Christ. His mockery by Ham was interpreted as anticipating the mockery of Christ before his sentencing to death. This equation was generally understood; in the picture panels of the poor bibles, for example, these two stories from the Old and New Testament were shown next to each other on one page. In this sense, the vines in the background, the wine goblet and the grapes not only serve to decorate the scene, but can also be read as symbols of the Eucharist and references to Christ ( John 15.1 EU ).
Bellini seems to have resorted to elements of a woodcut published in Venice in 1493 when Noah was drunk . Here, too, unlike in the biblical text, the scene is not set in a tent, but in a vineyard , in which Noah is stored in a very similar way to the painting, the chalice in the foreground is also found here and the diverging lines of sight of the three brothers. Bellini condensed the scene, however, in order to increase the drama, the characters fill the whole picture and are almost cut off. The lighting enhances the expression, it directs one's gaze to the contemptuous laugh of Ham, who is almost grimacing, and with his gesture seems to urge the brothers to do the same and at the same time try to prevent them from covering Noah.
The drunkenness of Noah is not signed and is not due Bellini from safe sources ( provenance are assigned), the work was first to him in 1927 by Roberto Longhi attributed to , an assessment of the joined most experts; other attributions name Lorenzo Lotto and Tizian as authors.
The work is one of the last paintings by Bellini, who died in 1516, and is seen as his painterly legacy, in its design and realism it can almost be seen as an early example of a “ precarravaggism ”.
literature
- Rona Goffen: Giovanni Bellini. Yale University Press, New Haven et al. a. 1989, pp. 249–52 ( limited preview in Google Book search)
- Anchise Tempestini: Giovanni Bellini. Hirmer, Munich 1998, cat. No. 125, pp. 232-233.
Individual evidence
- ↑ cf. for example The Mockery of Christ ( Joh 19.1-3 EU ), flanked by the mockery of Noah and the mockery of Elijah ( 2 Kings 2.23-24 EU ): sheet 23 of the Biblia Pauperum (Netherlands, approx. 1460-70) in the British Museum , sheet 24 of the Biblia pauperum (Switzerland (?), 1518) in the Codex Palatinus Germanicus of the Heidelberg University Library .
- ↑ cf. Rona Goffen: Giovanni Bellini, 1989, p. 250: the mocking of Noah by an unknown artist in the Biblica italica from 1493, sheet 3 verso (Google Books), Biblioteca Marciana , Venice.
- ↑ Norbert Huse , for example, speaks out in favor of the lottery ; on the attributions cf. Anchise Tempestini: Giovanni Bellini, 1998, cat. No. 125, pp. 232-33.
- ↑ Anchise Tempestini: Giovanni Bellini, 1998, p. 233
