Art in Focus Chasuble of Cardinal Alessandro Farnese Youtube
Fairfield University, whose patron is the Jesuit cardinal and theologian St. Robert Bellarmine, is celebrating this yr the 75th anniversary of its founding.
Linda Wolk-Simon, the imaginative and energetic director of the Academy Art Museum, had an audacious dream—indeed, she readily admits, it was "quixotic"—to bring to Fairfield the magnificent marble bust of Bellarmine sculpted by the young Gian Lorenzo Bernini. One problem was that the bust resides loftier in the apse of the Church of the Gesù, the mother church building of the Society of Jesus, in Rome. Some other was that information technology had never left Rome and there were no firsthand plans for it to do so (if the Italian authorities had whatsoever say in the thing—which it did).
Bernini'due south magnificent marble bosom of St. Robert Bellarmine had made its mode to Fairfield University.
How information technology finally made its way to Fairfield, helped along by a letter from the new superior general of the Jesuits and the tenacious dedication of Ms. Wolk-Simon, is best heard directly from her during a visit to this imposing exhibition. And visit it you should! As Philippe de Montebello, director emeritus of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, confesses: "If I were still director of the Metropolitan, I would be jealous of Fairfield doing this show. Information technology's but incredible."
No dubiety the star of the show is that moving sculpture of Bellarmine: moving both for its event upon the observer and for its pulsating vitality. As Ms Wolk-Simon rightly claims, Bernini breathes life into his creation: "marble metamorphosed into textile and flesh."
Only this is a multidimensional exhibition, and the star is surrounded by a rich supporting cast. Over l objects from museums in Europe and America requite the exhibition artistic and historical depth. At that place are bronze statues of Ignatius Loyola, Francis Xavier and Teresa of Avila, all 3 canonized at the aforementioned time in 1622. At that place are oil paintings of Ignatius and Francis that began to craft a new hagiographical imagery, a visual language that missionary Jesuits would spread throughout the world. And rare volumes of the writings of Bellarmine help create a sense of fourth dimension and place: Rome in the fervor of Reformation and Renaissance.
But what is unique about this exhibition, in my view, is that it fosters and makes possible a compositio loci—the "limerick of place" that Ignatius recommends in his Spiritual Exercises. It is the church itself, the Gesù, (or to give it its total and suggestive name, Il Santissimo Nome di Gesù—The Most Holy Proper noun of Jesus) that provides the living context and organizing principle for the individual pieces.
The exhibition encourages the viewer to enter imaginatively and contemplatively into the space of the church.
The exhibition encourages the viewer to enter imaginatively and contemplatively into the infinite of the church, not merely as an creative wonder (which information technology certainly is) just as the theater in which the drama of human conservancy is depicted and enacted.
We tin examine shut up the richly embroidered chasuble of Key Alessandro Farnese, who funded the building of the church building and imperiously imposed his ain architectural preferences (and architect) on the sometimes reluctant Jesuits. Nosotros contemplate the intricate cartegloria, the altar cards containing some of the prayers of the Mass, emblazoned with gems and held past sturdy silver and bronze angels that must have dazzled viewers in the play of candlelight.
Nosotros also catch a glimpse, through an early 17th-century engraving, of the all the same arid vaulted nave and the unembellished alcove, decades later on the church's induction. Here Bernini enters the story of the decoration of the Gesù over again. The at present famed creative person had become a frequent participant in spiritual exercises at the church and an intimate of the and so Jesuit superior general, the influential Gian Paolo Oliva. Bernini prevailed upon Oliva to entrust the commission for frescoing the nave and the alcove to the young and relatively unknown Giovanni Battista Gaulli. Bernini pledged to stand surety for his disciple's piece of work, and he aided the young artist by both drawings and advice.
It proved to be an inspired choice. Two magnificent paintings in the exhibition attest to Gaulli'due south genius: the model for the nave fresco depicting "The Triumph of the Name of Jesus" and the model for the alcove portraying "The Admiration of the Lamb."
The former is an extravagant and dramatic accomplishment of the high Bizarre. The central focus is the radiant Christogram, IHS, representing the initial Greek messages of the name of Jesus, the chosen monogram of the Compagnia di Gesù, the Society of Jesus. Surrounded past a nimbus of angels, the Holy Name draws by its luminous power the blest and repels the demonic and damned, who seem to be tumbling down upon the craned necks of the spectators.
No less dramatic, but suffused with heavenly harmony, is Gaulli's painted model of the alcove fresco. In many ways this fresco of the Lamb once slain, who now reigns triumphant, anchors the church building and the entire drama of salvation information technology enshrines. Every bit the devout worshiper contemplates the scene, one can imagine him or her uttering the prayer for obtaining divine love that culminates Ignatius' Spiritual Exercises.
These two fine works more than vindicate Bernini's confidence in his protégé's ability and validate Oliva'southward discerning approval.
To speak personally, however, the work in this exhibition that most excites my wonder is the oil altar painting by Domenichino, executed before long after the canonization of Ignatius. It portrays in vivid colors Ignatius' vision at La Storta, near Rome, every bit he and his beginning companions made their way to the urban center in order to secure the pope's approbation of their pioneering venture. If the Bernini bosom of Bellarmine is the creative highlight of the exhibition, this painting is its spiritual heart.
Domenichino gives palpable immediacy to the vision. A fully incarnate Jesus points to his cantankerous, equally an equally tangible Father gestures toward the pilgrim who gazes rapt in prayer. Unspoken but implicitly evoked are the words of Jesus, "I wish you lot to serve us," and the Father's assurance, "I will be propitious to you in Rome." Thus confirmed, Ignatius gain into the city that he and his Company will transform.
From this vision flows all that we have seen in this exhibition and in the church that it then wonderfully conjures for the viewer. For the miracle of Ignatius is to have recovered the e'er ancient and ever new beauty of the Gospel at the very beginning of the mod age and to have envisioned a society that in its many and varied works, theological and pastoral, pedagogic and artistic, rekindled anew the Christic imagination. All these endeavors middle on the Most Holy Proper noun of Jesus—non merely the church of the Gesù, but the very reality information technology symbolizes. For it is the Holy Name that the Company of Jesus exists to celebrate and to serve—without which it would lose its very raison d'être.
At the luncheon formally opening the exhibition, the delegate full general of Italy remarked on the amazing dedication that brought a quixotic dream to fulfillment. He concluded by suggesting that at present "all roads atomic number 82 to Fairfield." An acute diplomat, he was being simply partly hyperbolic.
"The Holy Name. Art of the Gesù: Bernini and his Age" is on exhibition at the Fairfield University Art Museum from February. two to May 19.
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Source: https://www.americamagazine.org/arts-culture/2018/02/12/art-jesuit-rome-comes-connecticut
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