Ghezzi

After Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674 – 1755)

Engraving by Girolamo Rossi II (1682- after 1762)

Drawing of Pope Clement XI

Print

30.1 x 22.6 cm

Châteaux de Versailles et de Trianon, Versailles

Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674 – 1755)

Scene from The Life of Pope Clement XI

Brown ink on brown wash and white stone on paper

29.1  cm x 19.2cm

Musée du Louvre département des Arts graphiques, Paris 

Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674 – 1755)

Allegory on the Promulgation of the Encyclical Unigenitus

Black pen and pencil on grey and brown wash on paper

40.3 cm x  28.9 cm

Musée de Port-Royal des Champs, Magny-les-Hameaux

Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674 - 1755)

Pope Clement XI  receiving Pilgrims in the presence of Cardinals

Pen and brown ink with grey wash over black chalk, heightened with white, on greenish grey paper

265 x 419 mm

The Ashmolean Museum, Oxford

Pier Leone Ghezzi (28 June 1674 – 6 March 1755) was an Italian Rococo painter and caricaturist active in Rome.

He was a  secretary to the Roman Accademia di San Luca and he organised the centenary celebrations for the academy in 1695, and invited Pope Clement XI to be an honorary fellow of the Academy

The modern interest in his work focuses mainly on his sketches and caricatures revealing a side about life in Rome in the early 18th century

Like his father he received many commissions for churches in Rome

He received many commissions under Pope Clement XI (Albani). 

He and Albani got on well. 

Both originally came from Le Marche. But the Pope was a genuine admirer of his work and commissioned Ghezzi for works for the Albani family chapel at St. Sebastian outside the Walls

However his favourite artist was Marratti

A great patron of the arts, Clement XI is today remembered for his role in the Chinese Rites controversies and the issuing of the bull Unigenitus in 1713, the apostolic letter which led to the extinxtion of the formal movement we now know as Jansenism

He also thrived under Clement`s successor, Pope Benedict XIII although he did not have the same close relationship that he had with Clement

As with Clement XI, Ghezzi did a cycle of paintings on the life of Benedict XIII

It is from Ghezzi`s drawings executed in the reign of Benedict XII we see glimpses of clerical and liturgical life during the early eighteenth century in Rome. Many of these drawings are in the Louvre. 

Here are some

Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674 - 1755)

The administration of chrism by the bishop  during the sacrament of Confirmation to children

Brown ink on brown wash and white stone on paper

12.8 x 19 cm

Musée du Louvre département des Arts graphiques, Paris 

Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674 - 1755)

Ceremony of reconciliation of penitents during the Jubilee Holy Year

Brown ink on brown wash and white stone on paper

12.8 x 19 cm

Musée du Louvre département des Arts graphiques, Paris 

Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674 - 1755)

Call to penitents: the bishop taks and leads one of the penitents by the hand

Brown ink on brown wash and white stone on paper

12.8 x 19 cm

Musée du Louvre département des Arts graphiques, Paris 

Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674 - 1755)

Blessing of a cemetery and the blessing of one of the crosses

Brown ink on brown wash and white stone on paper

12.8 x 19 cm

Musée du Louvre département des Arts graphiques, Paris 

Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674 - 1755)

Blessing of oil for the sick

Brown ink on brown wash and white stone on paper

12.8 x 19 cm

Musée du Louvre département des Arts graphiques, Paris 

Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674 - 1755)

Consecration of an altar: the bishop prays over the altar table

Brown ink on brown wash and white stone on paper

12.8 x 19 cm

Musée du Louvre département des Arts graphiques, Paris 

Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674 - 1755)

A bishop consecrates a newly elected bishop

Brown ink on brown wash and white stone on paper

12.8 x 19 cm

Musée du Louvre département des Arts graphiques, Paris 

Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674 - 1755)

A bishop consecrates a new church and traces a St Andrew`s Cross with his staff

Brown ink on brown wash and white stone on paper

12.8 x 19 cm

Musée du Louvre département des Arts graphiques, Paris 

Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674 - 1755)

Journey of a prelate seated on a mule and surrounded by other clerics and servants

Brown ink on brown wash and white stone on paper

12.8 x 19 cm

Musée du Louvre département des Arts graphiques, Paris 

Pier Leone Ghezzi (1674 - 1755)

The bishop confers the first tonsure

Brown ink on brown wash and white stone on paper

12.8 x 19 cm

Musée du Louvre département des Arts graphiques, Paris 

The Great Organ

The Great Organ, Cathédrale Saint-Gatien, Tours, France

The present cathedral building was started in the 12th century and was not completed until the 16th century

It is dedicated to St Gatien, the first bishop of Tours (previously dedicated to St Maurice)

The first organ documented in the cathedral was in the 16th century by the Archbishop Martin de Beaune (1519 - 1527)

The present organ (with a few reconstructions) is from the 17th century

The Tours organ illustrates that at one time, the organ and its music was regarded as fundamental to liturgy

Consider the labour in the making of the great instrument, not simply the external decoration but the  sheer technical proficiency in the selecting of the materials, fashioning it and ensuring  the sound produced

Then the effort in installing it taking into account the acoustics of the building in which it resides

Then the maintenance and renewal

And lastly the effort and talent in making the instrument sing throughout its life

No mean effort and no mean achievement. But then it was for the liturgy, the centre of worship when  the centrality of worship of God in society was undisputed

Perhaps nowadays (apart from cathedrals and major churches) we do not receive the opportunity to hear it

Pius XII extolled the place of the organ in church and in liturgy

In Musicae Sacrae (25th December 1955) he wrote:

"Among the musical instruments that have a place in church the organ rightly holds the principal position, since it is especially fitted for the sacred chants and sacred rites. It adds a wonderful splendour and a special magnificence to the ceremonies of the Church. 

It moves the souls of the faithful by the grandeur and sweetness of its tones. It gives minds an almost heavenly joy and it lifts them up powerfully to God and to higher things."

The most musical of Popes, Pope Benedict XVI likewise praised its position in the Church and its use in liturgy when he blessed the new organ in Regensburg's Alte Kapelle (13th September 2006) in a speech which showed his passion for music:

"The organ has always been considered, and rightly so, the king of musical instruments, because it takes up all the sounds of creation – as was just said - and gives resonance to the fullness of human sentiments, from joy to sadness, from praise to lamentation.  

By transcending the merely human sphere, as all music of quality does, it evokes the divine.  

The organ’s great range of timbre, from piano through to a thundering fortissimo, makes it an instrument superior to all others. It is capable of echoing and expressing all the experiences of human life. The manifold possibilities of the organ in some way remind us of the immensity and the magnificence of God. 

Psalm 150, which we have just heard and interiorly followed, speaks of trumpets and flutes, of harps and zithers, cymbals and drums; all these musical instruments are called to contribute to the praise of the triune God.  

In an organ, the many pipes and voices must form a unity.  

If here or there something becomes blocked, if one pipe is out of tune, this may at first be perceptible only to a trained ear. But if more pipes are out of tune, dissonance ensues and the result is unbearable.  

Also, the pipes of this organ are exposed to variations of temperature and subject to wear.  

Now, this is an image of our community in the Church. Just as in an organ an expert hand must constantly bring disharmony back to consonance, so we in the Church, in the variety of our gifts and charisms, always need to find anew, through our communion in faith, harmony in the praise of God and in fraternal love.  

The more we allow ourselves, through the liturgy, to be transformed in Christ, the more we will be capable of transforming the world, radiating Christ’s goodness, his mercy and his love for others."

Killing children and the helpless

Statue of Pope Pius XII commemorating his visit to the Quartiere San Lorenzo in July 1943  in Rome after the Bombing in the Second World War

1953

Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori le mura, Rome 

In the middle of the Second World War, Pope Pius XII issued a courageous denunciation of the ongoing Nazi euthanasia program, under which disabled Germans were being removed from care facilities and murdered by the state as "life unworthy of life". 

Impelled by his revulsion at what he saw as a grave moral evil and crime, at considerable personal danger to himself and others in the Church, he wrote:

"94. For as the Apostle with good reason admonishes us: "Those that seem the more feeble members of the Body are more necessary; and those that we think the less honorable members of the Body, we surround with more abundant honour."[I Cor., XII, 22-23]  

Conscious of the obligations of Our high office We deem it necessary to reiterate this grave statement today, when to Our profound grief We see at times the deformed, the insane, and those suffering from hereditary disease deprived of their lives, as though they were a useless burden to Society; and this procedure is hailed by some as a manifestation of human progress, and as something that is entirely in accordance with the common good.  

Yet who that is possessed of sound judgment does not recognize that this not only violates the natural and the divine law [Decree of the Holy Office, 2 Dec. 1940: A.A.S., 1940, p. 553] written in the heart of every man, but that it outrages the noblest instincts of humanity?  

The blood of these unfortunate victims who are all the dearer to our Redeemer because they are deserving of greater pity, "cries to God from the earth."[Gen., IV, 10] 

Pope Pius XII, Mystici Corporis Christi (28th June 1943)

The denunciation by Pope Pius XII was followed, on 26 September 1943, by an open condemnation by the German Bishops which, from every German pulpit, denounced the killing of "innocent and defenceless mentally handicapped, incurably infirm and fatally wounded, innocent hostages, and disarmed prisoners of war and criminal offenders, people of a foreign race or descent"

Unfortunately today, the Belgian Parliament has approved a law allowing euthanasia for terminally ill children without any age limit

Last week 160 Belgian paediatricians signed an open letter against the law, claiming that there was no urgent need for it and that modern medicine is capable of alleviating pain.

The Catholic Church in Belgium would appear to be moribund in a State devoid of all  reason, moral sense and charity

It also seems strange that the death of one giraffe in a zoo in Copenhagen can attract more attention and condemnation than this horrific Belgian legislation

Pilgrims to Loreto

Donato Bramante 1434 - 1514

Shrine of the Holy House

Marble

Santuario della Santa Casa, Loreto, Le Marche, Italy

Andrea Sansovino 1450 - 1529

Detail, relief, Annunciation

Marble

Santuario della Santa Casa, Loreto, Le Marche, Italy

Niccolò Tribolo 1500 - 1550, Raffaello da Montelupo 1495 - 1567. Andrea Sansovino 1450 - 1529

Detail, relief, Marriage of the Virgin

Marble

Santuario della Santa Casa, Loreto, Le Marche, Italy

Andrea Sansovino 1450 - 1529

Detail, relief, Nativity

Marble

Santuario della Santa Casa, Loreto, Le Marche, Italy

Loreto  has been a popular pilgrimage site since the 13th century

The tale is quite fantastic and very hard to believe

Belief in it is not a matter of faith

Yet Popes and other pilgrims flock to it

On 4 October 1962, Blessed John XXIII came as a pilgrim to this Shrine to entrust to the Virgin Mary the Second Vatican Ecumenical Council, due to begin a week later.

Nowadays Catholics get rather embarassed by it

However it is still a magnet

In 1582 the great sceptical Montaigne went on pilgrimage there. He thought that the cures there were true

See The journal of Montaigne's travels in Italy by way of Switzerland and Germany in 1580 and 1581. Translated and edited, with an introd. and notes by W.G. Waters (1903)

Erasmus wrote a Mass in honour of The Virgin of Loreto

In 1619 René Descartes had three dreams which were to change his life and the course of Western philosophical thought. He was inspired to seek a new method for scientific inquiry and to envisage a unified science

At the same time he made a vow to go on pilgrimage to the shrine of Loreto in thanksgiving In 1623  he carried out his vow

The decline of Confession

Jean-Jacques Hauer 1751 - 1829

La confession de Louis XVI par l'abbé Edgeworth

1793

Oil on canvas

32.5 x 24.5 cm

Musée Lambinet, Versailles

There was a time when Catholics, even absolute monarchs, went to Confession regularly

Henry Essex Edgeworth (1745 – 22 May 1807), also known as L'Abbé Edgeworth de Firmont, was an Irish-born Catholic priest and confessor of Louis XVI

Here we see the final reconciliation before Louis XVI was taken out to the guillotine

Hauer was born in what we now call Germany but come to Paris where he resided until his death

During the French Revolution Hauer was a captain of the National Guard in the Section des Cordeliers. 

From his vantage point he witnessed many of the important events of the French Revolution and painted many of the historical scenes of those tumultuous times as part of the iconography of the "New Order"

But even in those turbulent times, the final confession before death was regarded as the last opportunity to become reconciled with God. Even vicious enemies would never deprive their victims of that opportunity. Only the most evil would

Such was the belief in sin, life after death and final Judgment

The controversial historian John Cornwell has recently written a book entitled The Dark Box - a history of Catholic confession

Professor Eamon Duffy, a much more distinguished and able historian wrote a review of the work in The Guardian

As usual Professor Duffy`s review is worth more and much more illuminating than the book which he reviews. Read the review.

Duffy  sets the scene:

"[I]n the years after the Second Vatican Council, those long queues dwindled to nothing, as Catholics in their millions simply stopped attending. Despite vehement attempts by John Paul II to promote its revival, frequent confession is now the custom of the few."

Both Cornwell and Duffy attempt to consider why there has been the  "exodus from the confessional queue"

Unfortunately Cornwell`s book focuses entirely on what Duffy describes as the use of the confessional for "dysfunctional sexuality"

While recognising that there is some truth in Cornwell`s claims, Cornwell`s thesis is utterly unbalanced:

"[H]is powerful, persuasive and disturbing book is not in fact a history of confession. 

It is instead an impassioned response to the crisis in the Catholic church over sexual abuse by clergy. Cornwell has a stark and challenging case to argue. 

Confession, he believes, has been on balance a malign institution, both religiously and psychologically. The obsessive emphasis of Catholic moral theology on sexual sin fostered joyless self-loathing among Catholics at large, while its rule-bound legalism propagated an infantile understanding of sin as mere contravention of external rules, rather than radical failure in virtue. 

The "dark box" itself was a well-intentioned innovation of the 16th century, designed to ensure that confessions were heard in church, not a priest's bedroom. 

Ironically, Cornwell argues, it provided an ideal environment – dark, intimate, where the priest sat judicially before the subjugated penitent – for clerical domination and the solicitation, seduction or sexual grooming of the young and vulnerable. 

And Cornwell sees Pope Pius X's decision in the early 20th century to extend the obligation to confess to children as young as seven as a moral disaster, putting them at the mercy of rogue clergy, teaching them to think badly of themselves, and to imagine God as "trivial, petulant" and "obsessed with cleanliness". ... 

Anyone who experienced a pre-conciliar Catholic upbringing will recognise the force of Cornwell's case. The exodus from the confessional queue speaks volumes for itself. 

Most clergy of course were neither prurient nor predators, but the institutional church has undoubtedly been far too interested in what the faithful do in bed. Yet Cornwell at times lays it on with a trowel. 

The fact is that, religious or otherwise, we are all far too interested in what people do in bed. Sex is a problem for the Catholic church because it is a problem for the human race. Human sexuality can be a source of life, joy and tenderness. But from the Trojan war to the poisonous antics of Jimmy Savileit is also the cause of some of the world's grossest ills, and in our society is routinely the locus of betrayal, infidelity and broken promises. "

Duffy criticises the one sided polemic of Cornwell. Cornwell ignores the matters other than sex which Confession was and is concerned about. He summarises his view thus:

"There are 10 commandments, and only two of them concern sex. 

The Dark Box doesn't discuss the thousands of catechisms and devotional works produced down the ages to help lay-people examine their consciences, but by and large those works treat sex with notable reticence, devoting far more space to other kinds of sin. 

The clergy who promoted the confessional from the 16th century onwards were indeed negative about sex, but they confronted communities where people were at least as liable to steal each other's corn, to gossip or lie, to fiddle the scales in their shops, and to settle their arguments with knives or bottles. 

The role of confession in moderating these sins, cultivating civility and a sense of right and wrong, is also a necessary part of the story. 

The Dark Box is a major contribution to the Catholic church's examination of conscience about the roots and circumstances of sexual abuse. But for a rounded historical assessment of confession itself, we will need to look for a different kind of audit."

Unfortunately for Cornwell there is one major error in his thesis. He makes out that until the Pontificate of St Pope Pius X, children did not make confession until adolescence. This is wrong

St Teresa of Lisieux for instance made her first confession at the age of six in 1879 (Pope Pius X only became Pope in 1903). See Biography   Infant Confession was a very common practice before Pius X issued Quam Singulari in 1910

As to what Quam Singulari was about, please see Cardinal Wright`s discussion on Infant Confession and Communion on the Vatican website here

From the discussion one can see that even as an Anglican, Blessed Cardinal Newman was in favour of the approach eventually allowed by Pope Pius X and which at the time of Newman was already an established practice and norm

The One Thing Needful

Paul-Alexandre-Alfred Leroy (1860 - 1942)

Jesus with Martha and Mary

1882

Oil on canvas

Musée des Beaux-Arts, Rouen

This was Leroy`s first public work exhibited at the Salon in 1882 to great acclaim

He was later to be famous for his Orientalist works and this early work exhibits features of that work for which he was to become celebrated in his time

There is a Venetian or Middle Eastern  feel to the work but he did not set out on his foreign travels until 1882 when he did the Grand Tour to Italy including Venice

He is of course drawing on that  "library" of motifs of largely imagined works which indulged Western preconceptions of exotic Eastern interiors.

The effect is all through props and subtle suggestion

But the figure of Christ is central and what we see is the human Christ with his good friends and not the divine Christ. 

It is the Christ who walked on the earth and attracted people as his followers, someone whom we could wish that we would get to know and talk to and be with and be like. Someone we feel comfortable with

It is an imaginative glimpse of that figure we can only barely see and envisage through the dark and fragmentary writings about him in Scripture which we have

Of course the divine Christ was and is the human Christ and what is depicted is a facet of a many faceted person

It is of course only one man`s conception and as Pope Benedict XVI said about the works of writers who attempt a portrait of "the historical Jesus", it is limited and  only a reflection of the personality of the artist himself.

It is a very important caveat

To meet Jesus we have to make the journey ourselves through the Word

As regards what the scene depicts there is probably no better summary of the episode than that given by Pope Benedict XVI in one of his Angelus talks in Summer 2010:

"Martha and Mary are two sisters; they also have a brother, Lazarus, but he does not appear on this occasion. Jesus is passing through their village and, the text says, Martha received him at her home (cf. 10: 38). This detail enables us to understand that Martha is the elder of the two, the one in charge of the house. Indeed, when Jesus has been made comfortable, Mary sits at his feet and listens to him while Martha is totally absorbed by her many tasks, certainly due to the special Guest.  

We seem to see the scene: one sister bustling about busily and the other, as it were, enraptured by the presence of the Teacher and by his words. 

A little later Martha, who is evidently resentful, can no longer resist and complains, even feeling that she has a right to criticize Jesus: "Lord, do you not care that my sister has left me to serve alone? Tell her then to help me". Martha would even like to teach the Teacher! 

Jesus on the other hand answers her very calmly: "Martha, Martha", and the repetition of her name expresses his affection, "you are anxious and troubled about many things; only one thing is needful. Mary has chosen the good portion, which shall not be taken away from her" (10: 41-42). 

Christ's words are quite clear: there is no contempt for active life, nor even less for generous hospitality; rather, a distinct reminder of the fact that the only really necessary thing is something else: listening to the word of the Lord; and the Lord is there at that moment, present in the Person of Jesus! 

All the rest will pass away and will be taken from us but the word of God is eternal and gives meaning to our daily actions."

There have been tomes written about this episode in the life of Christ

But it is a straightforward story simply told. 

There is a straightforward message

As Pope Benedict XVI said:

"[T]he human person must indeed work and be involved in domestic and professional occupations, but first and foremost needs God, who is the inner light of Love and Truth. 

Without love, even the most important activities lose their value and give no joy. Without a profound meaning, all our activities are reduced to sterile and unorganised activism. 

And who, if not Jesus Christ, gives us Love and Truth? "

And with his strokes and through his great talent and labour, Leroy says the same thing to us with apparent but deceptive ease

Lost Genius

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (1609-64)

St Francis in prayer

c. 1655

Dark brown, grey and white oil paint on paper

34.5 x 22.7 cm

Royal Collection Trust  © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2013

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (1609-64)

St Francis Embracing the Cross

c. 1655

Dark brown, red brown, grey and white oil paint on paper

39.8 x 28.3 cm

Royal Collection Trust  © Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II 2013

Castiglione’s brother Paolo was a friar in the Franciscan Order

His series on the Franciscans has been described as the nearest thing to painting that is not painting

The Queen's Gallery, Buckingham Palace, London presently have an exhibition of the works of the Italian Baroque Genoese artist  Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (1609-64)

It is entitled Castiglione: Lost Genius.

Few have heard of him

He is called il Grechetto

Castiglione's great technical inventiveness and  his pioneering use of materials allowed him to create some of the most brilliant drawings and prints of the seventeenth century

He pioneered the oil sketch and invented the monotype

He has been called one of the most original draftsmen of the Baroque

His star fell after his death

In his time he was called The Second Rembrandt.

He trained in  Genoa, the influence of Rubens and Van Dyck, who had both worked there earlier in the century (and whose work is still very much present there) is visible in his work

Here are some of his other works in London:

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (1609-64)

Preaching of Saint John the Baptist

Watercolour (red), oil (blue-grey) on paper

40 cm x 28.5 cm

The Courtauld Gallery, London

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (1609-64)

God the Father watching over the new born Child

Ink, wash on paper

29.5 cm (sheet) x  20.2 cm (sheet)

The Courtauld Gallery, London

Giovanni Benedetto Castiglione (1609-64)

Tobit burying the dead

Watercolour (brown), earth (red) on paper

39 cm x 51.6 cm

The Courtauld Gallery, London

Poverty

Jean Bourdichon (1457-1521)

Les quatre états de la société : l'homme misérable ou l'état de pauvreté

The four states of society: the man or the state of miserable poverty.

Paint and gilt on vellum parchment

17.4 x 13 cm

Ecole nationale supérieure des Beaux-arts, Paris

A pupil of the great  Jean Fouquet, Bourdichon served  four French monarchs:  Louis XI, Charles VIII, Louis XII and  François I

The depiction of poverty in art reflects how poverty is seen in society

There have been many studies on how different societies at different times have reacted to the poor in its midst

In 19th century France and Britain, the poor were criminalised. One sees this in the novels of Dickens as well as paintings such as this which depicts the operation of the Poor Law in France in the nineteenth century

Alfred Stevens 1823 - 1906

Ce qu'on appelle le vagabondage

1855

Oil on canvas

172 cm x  205 cm

Musée d'Orsay, Paris

The background to this picture can be read here 

The poverty of Christ is the theme of the Pope`s Lenten message this year

He wrote:

"By making himself poor, Jesus did not seek poverty for its own sake but, as Saint Paul says “that by his poverty you might become rich”. This is no mere play on words or a catch phrase. 

Rather, it sums up God’s logic, the logic of love, the logic of the incarnation and the cross. 

God did not let our salvation drop down from heaven, like someone who gives alms from their abundance out of a sense of altruism and piety. 

Christ’s love is different! When Jesus stepped into the waters of the Jordan and was baptized by John the Baptist, he did so not because he was in need of repentance, or conversion; he did it to be among people who need forgiveness, among us sinners, and to take upon himself the burden of our sins. 

In this way he chose to comfort us, to save us, to free us from our misery. 

It is striking that the Apostle states that we were set free, not by Christ’s riches but by his poverty. Yet Saint Paul is well aware of the “the unsearchable riches of Christ” (Eph 3:8), that he is “heir of all things” (Heb 1:2). 

So what is this poverty by which Christ frees us and enriches us? It is his way of loving us, his way of being our neighbour, just as the Good Samaritan was neighbour to the man left half dead by the side of the road (cf. Lk 10:25ff). What gives us true freedom, true salvation and true happiness is the compassion, tenderness and solidarity of his love ... 

In imitation of our Master, we Christians are called to confront the poverty of our brothers and sisters, to touch it, to make it our own and to take practical steps to alleviate it."

The Apostles Creed

The Apostles Creed

1300

Illuminated Manuscript

Paris - Bibl. Mazarine - ms. 0924, f 150v

Mazarine Library, Paris

The rubric states: 'Duodecim articuli fidei editi a duodecim apostolis'; "Twelve articles of faith set out by twelve apostles"

Imitator of Maître Honoré 

The Apostles Creed

From "Somme le Roi"

1295

Illuminated manuscript

Paris - Bibl. Mazarine - ms. 0870, f. 005

Mazarine Library, Paris

The rubric states: "Comment li apostre font la credo"

The illustration in the book in the picture has the words of the Creed; "Credo in deum"

The Apostles Creed from Compost et calendrier des bergers

1493

Illuminated manuscript

Angers - BM - SA 3390, f. 039v-040

Public Library, Angers

In his Motu proprio Porta Fidei declaring The Year of Faith, Pope Benedict XVI explained the importance of the Creed, the profession of faith and the handing over or down of the faith, the creed:

"Not without reason, Christians in the early centuries were required to learn the creed from memory. It served them as a daily prayer not to forget the commitment they had undertaken in baptism.  

With words rich in meaning, Saint Augustine speaks of this in a homily on the redditio symboli, the handing over of the creed: 

“the symbol of the holy mystery that you have all received together and that today you have recited one by one, are the words on which the faith of Mother Church is firmly built above the stable foundation that is Christ the Lord. You have received it and recited it, but in your minds and hearts you must keep it ever present, you must repeat it in your beds, recall it in the public squares and not forget it during meals: even when your body is asleep, you must watch over it with your hearts.”[Sermo 215:1] ...

Confessing with the lips indicates in turn that faith implies public testimony and commitment.  

A Christian may never think of belief as a private act. Faith is choosing to stand with the Lord so as to live with him. This “standing with him” points towards an understanding of the reasons for believing.  

Faith, precisely because it is a free act, also demands social responsibility for what one believes.  

The Church on the day of Pentecost demonstrates with utter clarity this public dimension of believing and proclaiming one’s faith fearlessly to every person. 

It is the gift of the Holy Spirit that makes us fit for mission and strengthens our witness, making it frank and courageous. 

Profession of faith is an act both personal and communitarian. It is the Church that is the primary subject of faith. "

St Agatha, Martyr

Mariano Rossi (1731-1807)

The Martyrdom of St Agnes

Oil on canvas

61 x 36 cm

Musée du Louvre, Paris

Rossi was born in Sicily and trained in Naples and in Rome, eventually returning home

He had many religious art commissions in Sicily and from Rome

He died in Rome and is buried in the Church of Santa Susanna, the American Catholic church in Rome

St. Agatha was born in Catania, Sicily in the 3rd century A.D

During the persecution of the Roman Emperor Trajanus Decus (AD 249- 251), she rejected the love of the Roman governor Quintianus and like Saint Agnes, was thrown into a brothel. She was subjected to violent tortures before dying a martyr`s death

Patron of Catania, her devotion is very strong in Sicily

Giovanni e Battista Baschenis

Martirio di Sant’Agata,

1488

Fresco

Church of St Agatha, Commezzadura

Her story prompted many depictions of her fate throughout Europe

Jean Bellegambe (c 1470- c 1534)

The Martyrdom of St Agatha

Oil on wooden panel

60 x 44 cm

Musée de la Chartreuse, Douai

Jean Bellegambe was active in the Franco-Netherlandish border town of Douai, now part of Northern France but earlier under the rule of the counts of Flanders. He was influenced by both French and Flemish art 

Giovanni Battista Tiepolo 1696 - 1770

Martyrdom of Saint Agatha

1734

Oil on canvas

48.9 cm x 30 cm

The Courtauld Gallery, London

Guglielmo Caccia (1568 - 1625)

St Agatha

Oil on canvas

113,5 cm x 230 cm

Chiesa di S. Maria Annunciata, Milan

Blessed Pope John Paul II said in a homily on 1st October 1999:

"From her very origins, the Church, although conditioned by the cultures surrounding her, has always recognized the full spiritual dignity of women, beginning with the unique vocation and mission of Mary, Mother of the Redeemer.  

From the very start, Christians have turned to women such as Felicity, Perpetua, Agatha, Lucy, Agnes, Cecilia and Anastasia - as the Roman Canon attests - with no less fervour than that reserved for saintly men."

Some Scottish Saints

Stewart Carmichael (1867-1950)

The Meeting of Saint Kentigern and Saint Fergus

1940

Oil on canvas

134 x 101 cm

The Orchar Collection,  Dundee Art Galleries and Museums, Dundee

Stewart Carmichael (1867-1950)

A Scottish Saint Praying at the Feet of Christ

1922

Oil on canvas

62 x 51 cm

University of Dundee Fine Art Collections, Dundee 

Robert Inerarity Herdman (1829-1888)

Saint Columba Rescuing a Captive

1883

Oil on canvas

177.8 x 269.2 cm

Perth & Kinross Council, Scotland

Nicolas de Largillière (1656 – March 20, 1746)

Saint Margaret (c.1045–1093), Queen of Scotland

1692 

Oil on canvas

135 x 103 cm

The National Trust, Sizergh Castle, near Kendal, England

Between 1888 and 1891 Carmichael travelled and studied in Antwerp, Brussels, Paris and Siena before returning to Dundee. 

He was intensely interested in Scottish literature and history.

Herdman was born at Rattray, Perthshire. He came under the influence of Robert Scott Lauder (1803-1869). Between 1855 and 1856 he spent the best part of the year in Italy, painting Italian peasant scenes in both oil and watercolour.

The French Roccoco artist Nicolas de Largillière trained in Antwerp and London, where he admired the work of Rubens

He was at the court of Charles II and of James II in England before returning to France after the Glorious Revolution. He established a great reputation as a painter of historical scenes and of portraits and was a favourite of Louis XIV

For St Kentigern (St Mungo) see here

For St Columba see here

For St Fergus see here

For St Margaret of Scotland see here and also here