Beheading of John the Baptist (Callisto Piazza)
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| Beheading of John the Baptist |
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| Callisto Piazza , 1525-1526 |
| Oil on canvas |
| 166 × 178 cm |
| Gemäldegalerie, Berlin |
Beheading of John the Baptist was a painting by the Lombard painter Callisto Piazza . Created between 1525 and 1526 in Brescia , it belonged to the collection of the Berlin Gemäldegalerie until it was destroyed in 1945 .
Material and technology
The Beheading of John the Baptist was a painting painted with oils on canvas. It was 166 × 178 cm.
State of preservation
It was probably destroyed in May 1945 in the control tower of the flak bunker in Berlin's Friedrichshain . Therefore today there is only a black and white photograph .
Image description
The almost square painting reproduced the moment immediately after the beheading of John the Baptist . In front of the walls of a city ruin protruding from the right, which reveals the city behind, the main action takes place in the open air in a scenic setting. The black-and-white reproduction shows that the painting exhibited a strong contrast between light and dark, according to which the center of the picture with the main protagonists and the architecture in the background on the right were illuminated.
In the center of the picture the executioner bends backwards in a pronounced backward motion to place the head of the executed man, which is held by the forelock in his left hand, on an oval bowl that is held by a young woman standing opposite him. The face of the decapitated person is directed at this female figure, who in turn looks at it with a worried look. The hangman's face, on the other hand, remains hidden under his left arm. The executioner and the young woman, through their positioning and posture, create an optical bridge over the decapitated body in the foreground. With his hands tied behind his back, he was bent onto a narrow stone block with incised letters, which gives the viewer a direct view of the decapitated neck through the representation in half profile. Another woman can be seen in the left half of the picture, slightly shaded by a cut-out tree. Your head is tilted slightly to the right and the gaze is longing. Likewise, in the direction of the decapitated person, he can lead past it at the same time to the opulently dressed man at the front right edge of the picture. His gaze can also turn to the decapitated person or to the woman in the background. On the middle level of the picture and thus on the same level as the second woman, a guard with a spear protruding diagonally is visible directly behind the executioner. He looks just like the executioner in the direction of both women. What is noticeable here is the disapproving look towards the second female figure in the background. The entire scene is thus characterized by verifiable changes in gaze among the individual figures, which thereby relate to one another. The left half of the picture was then created with women looking into the right half of the picture and the right half of the picture with men looking into the left half of the picture. In this way, the figures in the respective group relate to one another, which suggests a certain togetherness. The decapitated body and head were placed between these two groups.
The figures described wear contemporary clothing, whereas the man on the right, front edge of the picture and the young woman holding the bowl are dressed in the highest quality and thus relate to each other. The man with springy headgear, velvety cloak, shiny outerwear, gloves and tights, including eye-catching footwear, is particularly striking. Accompanied by a small dog in the lower right corner of the picture, he follows the main story in a calm pose and a casual grip on the sword shown. Based on this appearance, he stands in clear contrast to the executioner, which is made even clearer by the adjacent positioning of the two figures. Because of the executioner's shorts, his legs become visible, which enables a closer look at the painterly reproduction of the increased backward movement. It's the same with the short sleeves of his outerwear, which makes the effort of old age more visible. Mannerist approaches could already be recognized in this implementation of extreme movement .
The background of the right half of the picture is filled with images of architectural buildings. Behind the group of men there is a dilapidated building, which, partly covered with hanging vegetation, still reveals ancient sculptures , such as the section of a male figure on the front of the ruin and a female figure resembling the depiction of Venus in a tabernacle on the side facade. The stone head of a ram can still be seen under the man's stature. The painterly use of a passage, on the other hand, reveals a more elaborate architecture. A multi-storey building becomes visible that shows individual figures on a balcony and indicates with the coat of arms above that this is representative architecture . Most of the rest of the rear image plane shows a cloud-covered sky and the view of an extensive landscape with a low horizon, which corresponds to the slight top view of the depicted scenery.
Since the original no longer exists, the color scheme cannot be described in the traditional sense. It is only possible to make assumptions on the basis of secondary sources that have assessed the work in its original state. Clear references to the style of the Ferrara school , especially Dosso Dossi, are said to have been recognizable.
iconography
swell
As the last prophet of Jesus , John the Baptist is considered one of the most important saints of the Orthodox and Roman Catholic Church. That the life of the Baptist ends violently is told only by the evangelists Mark and Matthew and by Josephus . The New Testament and Section XVIII of the Antiquitates Judaicae by Flavius Josephus thus form the basis for the stories about the beheading of John the Baptist. But only in the case of Mark and Matthew it was the Baptist's criticism of Herod Antipas ' adultery that led to his imprisonment and eventual execution. Antipas, who was married to a daughter of Aretas , met Herodias , his stepbrother's wife , in Rome . For her sake he had planned to leave the daughter of Areta, who found out about it and is said to have fled to her father via Macharus . Then it came to war in which Herod suffered a devastating defeat. Again it is Mark and Matthew who also make the end of the Baptist more dramatic. Herodias thought of a suitable opportunity that presented itself with the birthday celebration of Antipas. Her daughter, whose name Salome only gave Josephus (Ant XVIII 136 / 5.4), had won the favor of her stepfather through her dance. On the advice of her mother, she is said to have abused the wish he granted her to demand the head of the Baptist. But Josephus named the fortress Macharus as the place of imprisonment and execution.
Aspect ratio to the sources
In the destroyed version of the decapitation of John the Baptist, Callisto seems to have referred to Mark and Matthew as well as to Josephus. According to the story, the bowl shown here is held by Salome, who, on behalf of her mother Herodias, claimed the head of John of Herod. The woman in the shadow behind Salome shows Herodias, possibly described in Callisto, with whom he also understood how to effectively visualize her actions in the background. Her longing gaze, which can be directed towards the man in the front right half of the picture, supports this assumption. This man could therefore be Herod, who is characterized by his eye-catching clothing and his positioning in front of the ruling architecture. Together with Herodias, they frame the entire scene in Callisto's pictorial interpretation, since as a result of their love affair, the Baptist was beheaded at all. At the same time, Callisto succeeded in placing the Baptist between the two lovers, even after he was beheaded, whose head in turn is directed towards the people who are responsible for his ultimate killing. As if she just realized what she did, Salome in particular is shown looking guilty. Herodias does not seem to have achieved this awareness yet. The effects of their actions are here overlaid by feelings for Herod. The Baptist's head and body seem to be furrowed like a ditch between unlawful love. The lighter sky with the accumulation of clouds in the background of the Baptist, Salomes and Herodias also seems to bear the divine determination of assigning blame to the two female figures. Another reference against an illegitimate relationship is clear from the dog in the lower right half of the picture, next to Herod, which is used in the fine arts as a symbol for marital fidelity.
In the destroyed Berlin version, Callisto designed the act of violence of beheading as an ambivalent contrast between the dramatic staging of the act itself, expressively staged by the openly presented neck of the Baptist and his head held high, but also an emerging sympathy for an unaccepted love. Due to the size of the picture, the figures shown have enabled a lifelike connection, which must only have made the effect of the action depicted even more impressive. Callisto's manifestation of different narrative looks, in which the awareness of the extent of the action just taken seems to be felt, conveys an increasing discomfort when looking at it. There is nothing solemn in his interpretation, but rather aims suddenly at the moralizing scope of adultery. The fact that Callisto then addressed the appeal exclusively to Salome and Herodias is part of the tried and tested feedback on Adam and Eve and that in Christian tradition the female is always seduced to sin. Above all, as in the story of the beheading of John the Baptist, the consequences should be so dramatic that they end in death. So the executioner with the head held high appears to be the judge at the same time with the noticeable appeal: "Look what you've done."
Pictorial tradition
The beheading of John the Baptist became a popular motif in the visual arts. Callisto was probably familiar with the subject. Other visual interpretations preceded his version. However, Salome and Herodias rarely appear in earlier depictions. The focus was mainly on the Baptist and the executioner. It was only from the middle of the 15th century that these two female figures could increasingly be found in Italian works. In the Holy Roman Empire and in France, visualizations of this type already developed in the Middle Ages. This can be seen especially in some books of hours of female nobles.
Beheading of John the Baptist
Filippo Lippi , 1452, fresco, Prato, Dom S. Stefano.
Marie de Grave's devotional book: Beheading of John the Baptist
1281 to 1291, parchment, 13.2 × 17.9 cm, Paris, Bibliothèque Nationale.
Beheading of the Baptist
Rogier van der Weyden , oil on oak, 77 × 48 cm, Berlin, Gemäldegalerie.
Callisto retained the demonstrative positioning of Herodias behind her daughter. It is only noticeable that Salome often averted her gaze from the plot in the previous versions. The Lombard painter therefore had to deal with a comparatively new way of depicting traditional iconography, in which he tried to prove his ability of disegno and pictorial narrative power.
In the same period and in the same place, Callisto produced this subject twice. The significantly smaller version, dated 1526, in portrait format with 119 × 92.5 cm is now in the Gallerie dell'Accademia in Venice. What is striking is the different implementation of the same picture theme, which is probably due to different clients. In the chapel of the same name of the Tempio Civico della Beata Vergine Incoronata in Lodi , Callisto was commissioned in 1531 with a whole series of paintings on the stories of the Baptist, so that this topic became an integral part of his work biography.
Authorship
Initially considered to be a work by Titian , later thought to be one by Girolamo Romanino , the Berlin decapitation of John the Baptist in 1917 was finally attributed to Callisto Piazza. The similarities to Titian's Venetian coloring and the Romanino painting style may have been the cause of this long-lasting question of attribution. What is noticeable within Callisto's work biography, however, is that Callisto often repeated his own models. For example, the executioner and the corpse at his feet in Callisto's Beheading of the Baptist in the Incoronata Lodi are precise quotations from the fresco on the same subject in Erbanno. The beheading of the Baptist in Venice, which occurred at the same time and is still preserved, also shows the same type of woman as he u. a. in the Philadelphia picture of the music making society can be seen.
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The destroyed Berlin version does not seem to fit in here. This could be explained by the fact that Callisto oriented himself more obviously to other artists in this early phase of his work than in his later works. So possibly also to Romanino, who was working in Brescia at the same time . The enthusiasm for Romanino's art may have begun in 1520 when Martino Callisto, Callisto Piazza's father, was asked by Fabbriceri del Duomo to give his opinion on the controversial Romanino frescoes in Cremona Cathedral . This fact could have been an important prerequisite for his son Callisto's relationship with Romanino. Even if the exact reasons for Callisto's move to Brescia in 1523 are not known, it has been speculated that he either became a student of Romanino or shared his studio with him.
Connection Girolamo da Romano (also Girolamo Romanino)
If similarities to the Romanino style can be found in the destroyed beheading of the Baptist , his painting style must first be examined more closely. Romanino showed a great affinity for Venice. The early works are characterized by gorgeous, glowing colors. The altarpiece of Santa Giustina from 1513 is an example of this. Completely Venetian in composition and execution, it is painted with great fluency and technical perfection. Its colors range from black and white to ruby red, raspberry pink, gold, light blue, orange, blue and olive green. Accordingly, comparable pictorial properties could also have applied to Callisto's painting, since Romanino's style did not change significantly over the course of the Brescian years. It is worth mentioning in this context the letter published for the first time by Sciolla, in which the poet and scholar de Lemene from Lodigia corrected Callisto's painting style and pointed out that Callisto belonged to the Titian school. Lanzi also performed Callisto in the stuolo de 'tizianeschi , and Cavalcaselle also emphasized the Venetian aspects of Callisto's paintings. On the one hand, it could be concluded from this that both Romanino and Callisto were followers of Titian and this was reflected in their works at a time when both were working together in Brescia . Since Callisto's earliest works are dated to 1524 and Romanino was thus already artistically active much earlier, Callisto can also have superficially referred to Romanino, who in turn referred to Titian much earlier.
Callisto Piazza connection
These similarities in the pictorial properties can also be discovered in other works by Romanino and Callisto, which continued to cause attribution difficulties, such as the decoration of the sacrament chapel in San Giovanni. However, the addition of the three adoring angels, pushed together in a rigid triangle, does not seem at all to fit Romanino's usual streak of smooth and energetic movement. On the other hand, it bears a much greater resemblance to the style of Callisto Piazza. The shepherds are also said to resemble the Callisto type. Although Callisto's own formal language is said to have been very individual and he never followed Romanino's anti-classical expressionism, it would have remained a fundamental point of reference in his art until 1529, before Callisto returned from Brescia to Lodi. If one looks again at the beheading of John the Baptist from Venice, there are dossesque and Venetian references, which were also assigned to the Berlin version. Even if the figures were not the typical Callistos afterwards, this could be another indication of Callisto's own interpretation of pictorial themes, who took the most meaningful characteristics for him from an already living pictorial tradition in Northern Italy in order to unite and even surpass them. Later titled as a chameleon-like painter, despite regular adaptations he seems to have had individual features in his remarks that led the art historian Roberto Longhi to ascribe the Berlin decapitation of John the Baptist to Callisto Piazza.
Client
The client is not known. Since this is an iconographic motif of considerable size, it can be assumed that it was made for a sacred building, according to which church orders or patrons come into question as possible clients.
literature
- Staatliche Museen zu Berlin: Descriptive directory of the paintings in the Kaiser Friedrich Museum and the German Museum. Ninth edition, Berlin 1931, p. 402 f, here named as "Romanino ?, catalog no. 157 A ".
- Gatti Perer, Marie Luisa: I Piazza da Lodi. Una tradizione di pittori nel Cinquecento. In: Arte Lombarda. No. 92/93. 1990, pp. 178-181.
- Florence Kossoff: Romanino in Brescia. In: The Burlington Magazine. Volume 107, No. 751. 1965, pp. 514-521.
- Alessandro Nova: The Piazza Family. Lodi. In: The Burlington Magazine. Volume 131, No. 1041. 1989, pp. 874-876.
Web links
- Beheading of John the Baptist in the online database of the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin
- Salome (Titian) in the Museo del Prado
- Pomona (Titian) Coll. G. Encil
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b Beheading of John the Baptist. In: SMB Digital. Retrieved July 14, 2020 .
- ↑ John the Baptist. In: bibelwissenschaft.de. Retrieved July 14, 2020 .
- ↑ Nova, Alessandro (1989): The Piazza Family. Lodi . In: The Burlington Magazine . tape 131 , no. 1041 , ISSN 0007-6287 , p. 874-876, here p. 875 , JSTOR : 884242 .
- ↑ Gatti Perer, Maria Luisa (1990): I Piazza da Lodi. Una tradizione di pittori nel Cinquecento . In: Arte Lombarda . No. 92/93 (1-2) , ISSN 0004-3443 , pp. 178-181, here p. 180 , JSTOR : 43132718 .
- ↑ a b Kossoff, Florence (1965): Romanino in Brescia . In: The Burlington Magazine . tape 107 , no. 751 , ISSN 0007-6287 , p. 514-521, here p. 517 , JSTOR : 874704 .
- ^ A b Nova, Alessandro (1989): The Piazza Family. Lodi . In: The Burlington Magazine . tape 131 , no. 1041 , ISSN 0007-6287 , p. 874-876, here p. 876 , JSTOR : 884242 .
- ^ Kossoff, Florence (1965): Romanino in Brescia . In: The Burlington Magazine . tape 107 , no. 751 , ISSN 0007-6287 , p. 514-521, here p. 521 , JSTOR : 874704 .
- ↑ Nova, Alessandro (1989): The Piazza Family. Lodi . In: The Burlington Magazine . tape 131 , no. 1041 , ISSN 0007-6287 , p. 874-876, here p. 875 , JSTOR : 884242 .