Pala Colonna
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| Pala Colonna |
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| Raphael , 1502-1505 |
| Oil and gold on wood |
| Metropolitan Museum of Art , Inv. No. 16.30ab |
The Pala Colonna is an altar painting by the Italian Renaissance painter Raffael .
It shows a Sacra Conversazione with the enthroned Virgin Mary and the Christ child, the boy John and four saints. The main panel of the altarpiece from 1501 and 1506 in Perugia is in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. It is the only Raphael altarpiece in the United States and has been shown exclusively in the United States since 1913. The five-part predella , which originally belonged to the Pala , was cut up in the 17th century; the individual images are in four different museums in the USA and Europe.
Data
- Sacra Conversatione : 172.4 x 172.4 cm; The Metropolitan Art Museum, New York
- Bezel : 64.8 × 171.5 cm;
- Predella
- Francis of Assisi : 25.8 × 16.8 cm, Dulwich Picture Gallery , London
- probably a student work
- Christ on the Mount of Olives : 23.5 × 28.8 cm, The Metropolitan Art Museum, New York
- The walk to Golgotha : 24.4 × 85.5 cm; Oil on poplar wood; National Gallery , London
- Pietà : 24 x2 8 cm; Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum , Boston
- Anthony of Padua : 25.6 × 16.4 cm; Dulwich Picture Gallery, London
- probably a student work
history
As Giorgio Vasari writes in his Vite , Raphael created an altarpiece in Perugia for the nuns of St. Anthony of Padua : “The Madonna with the Christ child on her lap, which, according to the wish of the pious women, he depicted fully clothed with her by Peter , Paul, St. Cecilia and St. Catherine. [...] Above it he depicted a wonderful God the Father in a semicircle and three scenes on the altar in small figures: Christ on the Mount of Olives, Christ under the cross [...] and finally the dead Christ in his mother's lap. "
This altarpiece was cut up in 1661 in order to sell the predelle paintings individually. In 1663 Christine von Sweden acquired the three pictures and the two little saints on the right and left. The five pictures were replaced by copies. In 1677, probably out of financial need, the nuns sold the main panel together with the lunette , which was also replaced by a copy, to Giovanni Antonio Bigazzini, who sold the picture to the Colonna in 1678 , after whom the Pala was named from now on. In the course of the conquest of Italy by Napoleon and the associated bloodletting of works of art in Italy, the Pala came to the Bourbons . The first owner was Ferdinand I , King of the Two Sicilies, and then successively his successors Franz I and Ferdinand II. When Ferdinand had to leave Italy, he took the picture with him into exile in Spain. In 1867 he had the picture offered for sale by the Spanish diplomat Salvador Bermudez de Castro, Duca di Ripalda (1617–1883). The picture caught the attention of William Boxall (1800–1879), then director of the National Gallery in London, who unsuccessfully tried to persuade the English government to buy the picture. Thereupon de Castro left the picture on loan to Empress Eugénie , who had it exhibited in the Louvre . When the Franco-Prussian War broke out in 1870, the agent shipped the picture to London, where it was exhibited in the National Gallery. However, instead of this picture, the National Gallery chose the Madonna Ansidei , which was for sale at the same time. Offers to sell to various American art collectors, including Isabella Stewart Gardner , were unsuccessful. The London art dealer Martin Colaghi had it restored and passed it on to the Austrian art dealer Charles Sedelmeyer , who exhibited it in his exclusive Paris gallery.
In 1901 Sedelmeyer finally sold the picture to the American industrialist, banker and art collector John Pierpont Morgan for the sum of 2 million francs ($ 400,000). After Morgan's death in 1916, his heirs donated the painting to the Metropolitan Museum of Art, at Morgan's request.
In 2006 the Metropolitan Museum of Art exhibited the complete pala with all the predelle images for the first time.
description
The altarpiece consists of an almost square panel, a lunette and a five-part predella .
The bezel
In the center of the circular segment-shaped bezel is a representation of the Pantocrator with a gesture of blessing and a blue globe in his left hand on a blue background . He is flanked by two angels, one with his hands folded in prayer, the other with his arms crossed over his chest. Two small, six-winged angel heads ( cherubim ) are on the right and left in front of his head.
Mary with the child and the boy John in company of four saints
In the main panel of the Pala Colonna two common types of images of occidental sacred art are linked: a Sacra Conversazione and a Madonna with Child and St. John the Boy . In the depiction of Mary , who is dressed in a dark blue, star-studded cloak that also covers her hair, echoes of Byzantine icon painting can still be recognized. As in the icon painting, the Jesus boy is not shown naked, but wears a white dress decorated with ornaments and gold borders . The Johannesknabe wears his typical fur robe under his red cloak.
Maria's lavishly designed throne stands on a three-tiered pedestal covered by an honorary canopy. The two side rests of the throne are designed as rolled up volutes . Maria herself sits in front of a precious veil made of red and gold brocade . It is flanked by the two apostles Peter and Paul , as well as two female saints, St. Catherine of Alexandria and another saint whose identification is controversial in art historiography. If three of the saints can be reliably identified by their canonical clothing and their attributes - two bowls for Peter, the sword for Paul and the wheel for Catherine - there are different interpretations when assigning saints to the book, the martyr's palm and the wreath of flowers in their hair , where Saint Dorothea is sometimes depicted with flowers in her hair.
The throne itself stands under a clear sky against a hilly, Umbrian landscape.
The predella
Predella of the Pala Colonna, reconstruction.
The three middle predelle pictures tell events from the Passion of Christ and are framed by two narrow pictures of monk saints, to which the nunnery had a special reference. On the left is Francis of Assisi as a Franciscan with a belted robe and a wound on his chest. The former community of nuns of St. Anthony of Padua, who had ordered the altar, belonged as a tertiary order to the Franciscans , which was founded by Francis of Assisi. Antony of Padua , the namesake and patron of the monastery, is mirror-symmetrical on the right-hand side . As a Franciscan he also wears the monk's habit , which is girded with a cord with a Franciscan knot . In his hand he holds a lily, his usual iconographic attribute of saints .
The picture narration of the Passion begins with a depiction of Jesus in the Garden of Getsemane . Jesus kneels on the floor, the three disciples who accompany him have fallen asleep. His prayer “My father, if it is possible, this cup will pass me by” (Mt. 26, 40) is visualized in the picture by the angel with the cup at the top right of the picture.
The wide-format central picture tells another episode from the Passion. Jesus carries the cross and is accompanied by armed soldiers, a helper urges him to hurry with a rope. It depicts the meeting with Simon of Cyrene , who helps Jesus to carry the cross. The group is led by two riders who struggle to rein in their nervously prancing horses. The group is followed by the mother of Jesus, who can hardly stand on her feet because of the pain, and has to be supported by three women and by John , who is wringing his hands.
The third picture shows Maria with her dead son on her lap. John supports the body of the corpse while Mary Magdalene kisses its feet. Witnesses of the scene are Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathäa , who, as is often the case, is depicted with a turban-like headgear, and who provided a grave for the burial of the deceased. All Passion scenes take place under a serene, almost cloudless sky and in front of a hilly landscape reminiscent of Umbria .
literature
- Luitpold Dussler : Raphael. A Critical Catalog of his Pictures, Wall-Paintings and Tapestries . Cat. raisonné. Phaidon Publ. 1971. ISBN 0-7148-1469-5
- Laura Näder: Raffael. The old-fashioned character of the Pala Colonna . Grin 2011. (Academic series. 5.) ISBN 978-3-640-96942-5
Web links
- Pala Colonna, The Metropolitan Museum of Art
- Sveva Battifoglia: La vendita della Pala Colonna di Raffaello
Individual evidence
- ↑ Quoted from: Vasari: CVs. Zurich: Manesse 1974. p. 379.
- ↑ Metropolitan Museum of Art, provenance accessed on May 6, 2019
- ↑ Provenance , accessed March 31, 2015.
- ↑ Lorenzo Gigliotti: Il Raffaello ricomposto , accessed on March 31, 2015
- ↑ Monastero di Sant 'Antonio da Padova (approx. 1445) , accessed on April 4, 2015