Polyptych by Massa Fermana
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| Polyptych by Massa Fermana |
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| Carlo Crivelli , 1468 |
| Tempera and gold on wood |
| 110 × 190 cm |
| Ss Lorenzo, Silvestro e Rufino, currently Pinacoteca Comunale, Massa Fermana |
The polyptych by Massa Fermana is a tempera and gold painting on wood (approx. 110 × 190 cm) by Carlo Crivelli , dated 1468 and is located in the church of Ss Lorenzo, Silvestro e Rufino in Massa Fermana . It is signed " KAROLVS CRIVELLVS VENETVS PINXIT HOC OPVS MCCCCLXVIII ". This is the painter's first known work in the Marche, and it is also important in determining his return to Italy.
history
The local tradition, adopted by Amico Ricci (1834), refers to a polyptych commissioned by Count Azzolini of Fermo , Signor of Massa. While researching the works of art commissioned by the Italian government after unification , Cavalcaselle and Crowe saw the polyptych in the rectory in 1861. It was later exhibited at the parish headquarters and then at the Galleria Nazionale delle Marche in Urbino , where it remained until the end of World War II , after which it returned to its original church. Due to the earthquake in 2016, the church is currently closed. The polyptych by Crivelli is currently kept in the Pinacoteca Comunale di Massa Fermana.
Description and style
The polyptych consists of five main panels with the Madonna and Child (105 × 44 cm) in the middle and Saints John the Baptist , Lorenz , Sylvester and Francis (each 105 × 44 cm) on the sides. There are three gables with the Annunciation (37 × 19), the Pieta (51 × 28) and the Annunciation Angel (37 × 19) and four fields of the Predella , with the prayer in the garden , the crucifixion , the flagellation and the resurrection : Strangely enough the crucifixion precedes the flagellation in that order.
Madonna
The Madonna sits on a throne in the middle and holds in her arms the child who is blessing and who holds a golden ball as a symbol of the earth. The marble throne rests on a pedestal with the artist's signature and a candle that has been extinguished. At the top it is refined with a red fabric that covers the backrest. On the side of the back there is a peach and a quince , which come from the tradition of the " Squarcionesca " and allude to original sin . The halos of Mary and the saints are archaic in nature, like golden discs that are pinned behind the head and not shortened and on which the artist applied relief decorations.
The Madonna is reminiscent of Filippo Lippi's designs . Compared to the Madonnas of the Paduan or Saragossa period ( Madonna Huldschinsky, Madonna della Passione ), the figure of the Virgin is given a new tenderness, which will then be found in the artist's mature works.
Side saints
The lower level unifies the areas of the saints, but differs in the environment. John the Baptist, for example, is depicted in the desert on a jagged rock alla Mantegna , which is also located symmetrically in the right panel, with St. Francis receiving the stigmata while the other two saints rest on a step of spotted marble.
The saints, who vary in pose and posture, can be recognized by typical attributes (the scroll with the Agnus Dei of John, the lattice of Laurentius and the crucifix with golden rays - in relief - that touch the wounds of Francis), with the exception of Sylvester, who has no specific attributes other than the magnificent papal robes, but is still recognizable with Laurentius as the patron of the church.
Unlike the Madonna, with its dry and sculptural nature, the saints show a longer adherence to the Paduan Renaissance.
John the Baptist and Laurence
St. Sylvester and St. Francis
St. Sylvester (detail)
gable
The original wooden frame, which was supposed to integrate the gable more elegantly, was lost.
These three scenes are also spatially connected, but only the side walls of the Annunciation have the same background with a battlement wall. On the right the angel glides gently with the wings and the fluttering cords of the robe in relief. On the left, Mary sits in front of a lectern, receives a visit from the dove of the Holy Spirit and accepts her fate by humbly clasping her hands, while on the left a delicate shortening of her bedroom can be seen, untouched as it should be for a virgin. These two little scenes represent a real perspective exercise, showing the grid in the blocks of the floor and in the course of the joints between the stacked walls. The virgin's prayer desk herself is forcibly shortened. The type of Madonna is influenced by Bartolomeo Vivarini , who was already known to the artist in Venice and who was also active in the Marche during these years.
The Pieta stands in a bare rock landscape. The body of Christ rises there heroically, in its strong plastic corporeality, and painful because of the sufferings of martyrdom, which is not only reminiscent of the facial features, but also the cross that is shown behind him with the three nails set in wood. The perspective foreshortening of the sarcophagus and the attention to the light are nice, as shown by the shadow that Jesus casts on the left edge or on the nails.
Annunciation
Annunciation angel
Predella
At the bottom of the predella are narrative scenes that are rare in the artist's production. Obviously the inspiration of Mantegna's San Zeno Altar is for the scenes (without the flagellation) which attempt to reproduce even more the drama of the events, as can be seen at the Crucifixion , where the elderly Mary is shown with an expression marked by pain . The soldier in the foreground in the resurrection refers specifically to the transport of St. Christopher , which is painted in the Ovetari Chapel in Padua . The flagellation, on the other hand, refers to the perspective solutions of Paolo Uccello , who worked in Urbino that year , particularly in the scenes of the predella of the desecrated host.
An examination of the two sarcophagi depicted in the polyptych shows that the one in the Pietà is gray and has no traces of blood like the one in the Resurrection. This treatment was declared in support of the theological theses that were fought in the same years by the Franciscans of the local convent of Massa Fermana and by the client, the Franciscan Giacomo della Marca, against the Dominican opinion that the blood of Christ lost its divinity during the Passion has to regain it in the resurrection.
crucifixion
resurrection
literature
- Pietro Zampetti: Carlo Crivelli . Nardini Editore, Florence 1986 (Italian).
Web links
- Una scheda sul polittico ( it ) frammentiarte.it. Retrieved September 10, 2019.