Crucifixion (Antonello da Messina)

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Crucifixion (Antonello da Messina)
crucifixion
Antonello da Messina , 1475
oil on wood
52.5 × 42 cm
Royal Museum of Fine Arts , Antwerp

The Crucifixion is an oil painting by Antonello da Messina . It was created in the early Renaissance in the second half of the 15th century and is considered one of his main works. Various influences on Antonello's painting style can still be recognized, but it is largely detached from it and independent.

Origin and related paintings

Antonello made the picture during his stay in Venice . It is one of three crucifixion scenes that he created: the first he had painted about 20 years earlier, around 1455. This picture was created using the old technique in tempera on wood, it is now in the National Art Museum in Bucharest . Between around 1460, possibly as early as 1456, and 1470 Antonello learned the oil technique from Dutch artists. He was the first painter to introduce them to Italian art. Correspondingly, the Antwerp crucifixion is executed in oil, as is the third created by him. It was also made around 1475 and is now in the National Gallery in London . For the Antwerp crucifixion, Antonello used the wood of a wild chestnut as a painting surface .

The differences between the three paintings are considerable. All they have in common is the monumental emphasis on the cross of Christ. In the Bucharest version, the mourning figures stand upright under the crosses, there are also five instead of two. In the London version Antonello dispensed with the depiction of the two thieves crucified with him , but took over the depiction with two mourners, both of whom are depicted in a seated position, in the Antwerp version Johannes kneels.

Presentation and statement

The crucified Christ is depicted on an elongated Passion Cross. To the right and left of him hang the bodies of the two sinners Gesmas and Dismas . They are shown on Schächter crosses . Jesus bends his head to the left, to the repentant sinner Dismas. The two mourning and praying figures are Maria on the left and his favorite disciple Johannes on the right . The depiction of the crucified in strict symmetry and the structure as a triangle are features of Antonello's painting style.

The landscape behind the main event is designed as an ideal landscape and possibly still shows influences from Catalan , but certainly Dutch models, especially the small group of people who move away from the event to the right of the cross of Christ is a reference to Dutch art. The bright, airy lighting of the picture, on the other hand, is a typical Venetian style, which he adopted from the Bellinis and which his most important student Alvise Vivarini later continued from him . Here, too, the gradation of the depth effect through clear lines and perspective accuracy is characteristic of Antonello's approach. The water surface a little below the center of the picture behind the cross of Christ can be a reference to the Sea of ​​Galilee .

The exact representation of the body was only possible through the oil technique. Their complicated, contorted way of representation reveals a good knowledge of human anatomy as well as perspective painting. The relaxed, loving face of Christ in contrast to that of sinners is important for the interpretation of the picture.

In the lower third of the picture Antonello depicted three objects, two of which are important for the statement. For one, in the lower center, a skull with a snake. In contrast to many skull images, it is not a memento mori with a vanitas statement, but a reference to the Old Testament : the skull is that of Adam , the snake symbolizes original sin . It is a reference to the place of execution Golgata itself, according to Origen Adam's skull is said to have been buried there. To the right of it is the illustration of an owl , which looks away from the picture and thus away from Jesus himself. It is a symbol of Judaism that has turned away from Jesus. The third item is the broken wooden stake on the left. A scroll is nailed to it. It contains Antonello's signature: " 1475. Antonellus messanes me o¯o pinxit ". The abbreviation o¯o stands for oleo , meaning oil technology. Antonello wanted to express that although he no longer kept the new technology to himself - he had long since passed it on to his students and colleagues - he still wanted it to be understood as a special feature.

The message of the picture results from the summary of the individual symbols: Original sin has been overcome by the death of Christ. Whoever believes in him, unlike sinners, will overcome death and find eternal life. The statement is reinforced by a small tree stump, which is located at the level of the group of people on the left of the cross shaft: from it new life sprouts, a symbol for the replacement of the old covenant with God by the new covenant , which seals with the death of Christ becomes.

Whereabouts

Ernst Förster's remarks on Giorgio Vasari's " Le Vite de 'più eccellenti pittori scultori ed architettori ", German: "Life descriptions of the most distinguished painters, sculptors and architects" indicate that the painting came to the Netherlands early on. It was owned by the Maelcamp family for a long time before it came into the possession of a Mr van Ertborn in Utrecht , there it must have been around the 1820s / 30s. Today it is in the Royal Museum of Fine Arts in Antwerp.

literature

  • Bernhard Berenson: The Italian painters of the Renaissance , 2nd edition, Phaidon Verlag, Zurich 1966
  • Wolfgang Braunfels : Small Italian Art History . DuMont Buchverlag, Cologne 1984, ISBN 3-7701-1509-0 .
  • Patrick de Rynck: The art of reading pictures - The old masters decipher and understand , Parthas Verlag, Berlin 2005, ISBN 3-86601-695-6 .
  • Will Durant: The Splendor and Decay of the Italian Renaissance . Volume 8 from Will and Ariel Durant's cultural history of mankind , 1st edition, Südwest Verlag, Munich 1978, ISBN 3-517-00562-2 .
  • Fritz Knapp : The artistic culture of the occident , 3 vols., 3rd to 4th ed., Kurt Schroeder Verlag, Bonn and Leipzig 1923
  • Corrado Ricci: History of Art in Northern Italy , 2nd edition, Julius Hoffmann Verlag, Stuttgart 1924
  • 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.
  • Christiane Stukenbrock, Barbara Töpper: 1000 masterpieces of painting , Tandem Verlag GmbH, special edition hfullmann 2005 ISBN 978-3-8331-6172-8
  • Rolf Toman (Ed.): The art of the Italian Renaissance - architecture, sculpture, painting, drawing . Tandem Verlag, Cologne 2007, ISBN 978-3-8331-4582-7 .
  • Giorgio Vasari: Lives of the most famous painters, sculptors and builders , ed. by Ludwig Schorn and Ernst Förster, marixverlag, Wiesbaden 2010, ISBN 978-3-86539-224-4
  • Robert E. Wolf / Ronald Millen: Birth of the Modern Age . Kunst im Bild series, Naturalis Verlag, Munich 1987, ISBN 3-88703-705-7
  • Manfred Wundram: Art of the World - Renaissance , Holle Verlag, Baden-Baden 1980.
  • Stefano Zuffi: The Renaissance - Art, Architecture, History, Masterpieces . DuMont Buchverlag, 2008, ISBN 978-3-8321-9113-9 .

Web links

Commons : Antwerp Crucifixion by Antonello da Messina  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Max Semrau: The Art of the Renaissance in Italy and in the North , p. 237.
  2. ↑ Max Semrau: The Art of the Renaissance in Italy and in the North , p. 237.
  3. ^ Rolf Toman (ed.): The art of the Italian Renaissance - architecture, sculpture, painting, drawing , p. 361.
  4. ^ Herbert Alexander Stützer: Painting of the Italian Renaissance , p. 47/48.
  5. ^ Max Semrau: The art of the Renaissance in Italy and in the north , p. 263/237.
  6. ↑ Christiane Stukenbrock, Barbara Töpper: 1000 Masterpieces of Painting , p. 34.
  7. ↑ Patrick de Rynck: The Art of Reading Pictures - Deciphering and Understanding the Old Masters , p. 78.
  8. ^ Corrado Ricci: History of Art in Northern Italy , p. 54.
  9. ↑ Patrick de Rynck: The Art of Reading Pictures - Deciphering and Understanding the Old Masters , p. 78.
  10. ^ Bernhard Berenson: The Italian painters of the Renaissance , p. 164.
  11. ↑ Christiane Stukenbrock, Barbara Töpper: 1000 Masterpieces of Painting , p. 34.
  12. ↑ Christiane Stukenbrock, Barbara Töpper: 1000 Masterpieces of Painting , p. 34.
  13. ↑ Patrick de Rynck: The Art of Reading Pictures - Deciphering and Understanding the Old Masters , p. 78.
  14. ↑ Ernst Förster, note 420 in Giorgio Vasari: Lives of the most famous painters, sculptors and builders , p. 218.
  15. ↑ Ernst Förster, note 420 in Giorgio Vasari: Lives of the most famous painters, sculptors and builders , p. 218.
  16. ↑ Ernst Förster, note 420 in Giorgio Vasari: Lives of the most famous painters, sculptors and builders , p. 218.