John Martin (1789–1854)

The artist John Martin (1789–1854) from the North of England is gradually making a comeback and rightly so

Many of his works are religious in nature. But he was a deist, a Romantic and radical reformer

But it is the works dealing with the Apocalypse and other great and architectonic themes which are causing his reputation to rise again

Many see in his works the fantastic element in modern sci-fi illustrative works and in computer games graphics

One of his early works was a commission to do twenty four mezzotint engravings for an edition of "Paradise Lost" by John Milton - the great classical which few read these days.

Recently the Watt Library in Greenock discovered an early edition of the work with the illustrations by John Martin and put them on special exhibition

An interesting commentary on the mezzotints is available from the website of the Spaightwood Galleries, Inc.

Martin`s works have been described as "the summit of Romantic art"

His interest in Milton is not coincidental. At that time after the French Revolution and the social turmoil after the Napoleonic Wars, many poets and artists were inspired by their image of John Milton

Martin’s art was hugely popular with the public. But in his time  critics more often saw his art as tawdry, sensationalist and bombastic. Samuel Taylor Coleridge dismissed Martin as ‘a poor creature’, John Constable lamented his artistic ‘pantomimes’, and John Ruskin declared that his art was ‘merely a common manufacture, as much makeable to order as a tea-tray or a coal-scuttle’. The critics did not change their opinions in the 20th century 

Below are some of the mezzotints from the imperial octavo edition of 1827 as seen in the Greenock exhibition:

John Martin (Haydon Bridge, Northumberland 1789–1854 Douglas, Isle of Man) 

Book 1 Line 44: 'Him the Almighty Power Hurl'd headlong from the ethereal sky' 

From Paradise Lost 

1827 

Publisher: Septimus Prowett (London)

Printer:Chatfield & Company (London)

Mezzotint

Plate: 7 11/16 x 11 1/2 in. (19.5 x 29.2 cm) Sheet: 14 13/16 x 21 13/16 in. (37.7 x 55.4 cm)

The Watt Library, Greenock

The full quotation from the epic poem is:

"He trusted to have equall’d the most High,
If he oppos’d; and with ambitious aim
Against the Throne and Monarchy of God
Rais’d impious War in Heav’n and Battle proud
With vain attempt.     Him the Almighty Power
Hurl’d headlong flaming from th’Ethereal Sky
With hideous ruin and combustion down
To bottomless perdition, there to dwell
In Adamantine Chains and penal Fire,
Who durst defy th’Omnipotent to Arms." 

Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 1, lines 40-49

In mezzotint the artist began with a dark plate and literally scratched his way to light. 

The contemporary viewers of these plates would have been more than familiar which the Scriptural underpinnings of these lines by Milton:

"How you are fallen from heaven, O Lucifer, son of the morning!" (Isaiah 14:12)

"And the angels who did not stay within their own position of authority, but left their proper dwelling, he has kept in eternal chains under gloomy darkness until the judgment of the great day" (Jude 6: 6)

"For if God did not spare angels when they sinned, but cast them into Hell and committed them to chains of gloomy darkness to be kept until the judgment" (2 Peter 2:4)

And not least:

"17 The seventy-two returned with joy and said, “Lord, even the demons submit to us in your name.” 

18 He replied, “I saw Satan fall like lightning from heaven." (Luke 10: 17 -18)

Suddenly and without warning God casts Lucifer, his Light bearer, and his fellow rebels like a bolt of lightning from the height of heaven  into the depths of the black earth, the exterior darkness. The force of God, his speed, the greatness and grandeur all within the poem are conjured up to perfection by Martin

John Martin (Haydon Bridge, Northumberland 1789–1854 Douglas, Isle of Man) 

Book 1 Line 192: 'Thus Satan, talking to his nearest mate'

From Paradise Lost 

1827 

Publisher: Septimus Prowett (London)

Printer:Chatfield & Company (London)

Mezzotint

Plate: 7 11/16 x 11 1/2 in. (19.5 x 29.2 cm) Sheet: 14 13/16 x 21 13/16 in. (37.7 x 55.4 cm)

The Watt Library, Greenock

Wiliiam Blake and others thought that Milton's Satan, the rebel against God, was the true hero of Paradise Lost

Milton created Satan as a politician and a seducer, a tragic but heroic figure with virtues of readiness, fervour, eloquence and opposition to tyranny

Here we have Milton`s physical description of Satan:

"Thus Satan, talking to his nearest mate,
With head uplift above the wave, and eyes
That sparkling blazed; his other parts besides
Prone on the flood, extended long and large,
Lay floating many a rood, in bulk as huge
As whom the fables name of monstrous size,
Titanian, or Earth-born, that warred on Jove,
Briareus, or Typhon, whom the den
By ancient Tarsus held, or that sea-beast
Leviathan, which God of all his works
Created hugest that swim the ocean stream:
Him, haply, slumbering on the Norway foam,
The pilot of some small night-foundered skiff,
Deeming some island, oft, as seamen tell,
With fixed anchor in his scaly rind
Moors by his side under the lee, while night
Invests the sea, and wished morn delays.
So stretched out huge in length the Arch-fiend lay
Chained on the burning lake."

Here Martin depicts the huge expanse of Hell: some great cavernous Kingdom steeped in darkness and only barely lit by sulphur fires

His "mate" is Belzebub and both are amking their way from the lake of fire to the fiery plain to join their compatriots in revolt

Satan is large. He lay floating "many a rood." about 1/4 acre. Satan`s bulk is compared to mythological monsters such as Leviathan

John Martin (Haydon Bridge, Northumberland 1789–1854 Douglas, Isle of Man) 

Book 1 Line 710: 'Anon, out of the earth a fabric huge' -

From Paradise Lost 

1827 

Publisher: Septimus Prowett (London)

Printer:Chatfield & Company (London)

Mezzotint

Plate: 7 11/16 x 11 1/2 in. (19.5 x 29.2 cm) Sheet: 14 13/16 x 21 13/16 in. (37.7 x 55.4 cm)

The Watt Library, Greenock

Milton writes of The Building of Pandemonium

"Anon out of the earth a Fabrick huge
Rose like an Exhalation, with the sound
Of Dulcet Symphonies and voices sweet,
Built like a Temple, where Pilasters round
Were set, and Doric pillars overlaid
With Golden Architrave; nor did there want
Cornice or Freeze, with bossy Sculptures grav'n,
The Roof was fretted Gold. Not Babilon,
Nor great Alcairo such magnificence
Equal'd in all thir glories, to inshrine
Belus or Serapis thir Gods, or seat
Thir Kings, when Ægypt with Assyria strove
In wealth and luxurie. "  

Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 1, lines 710 - 722

Martin depicts Satan before his Palace, He came back to this image time and time again Here we see it in oils:

John Martin (Haydon Bridge, Northumberland 1789–1854 Douglas, Isle of Man) 

Pandemonium

1841

Oil on canvas

123 x 184 cm

Private collection

Pandemonium is the palace of Satan,  place of All Demons  It was a word invented by Milton

The demons built it in about an hour. It exceeded  all human palaces or dwellings; It was designed by the architect Mulciber, who had been the designer of palaces in Heaven before his fall. In Milton, Mulciber is also the Roman God Vulcan, the God of Fire and volcanoes

If you think that there is something familiar about the scene,or that you may have seen something like this before, you probably have.

Martin's painting was inspired not only by Milton's text but also by the contemporary architecture of London such as the immense water-gates of Somerset House, the arcade of Carlton House Terrace in Pall Mall, and Charles Barry's perspective plans for the new Houses of Parliament

Byron, in  Don Juan (1818) also associated Pall Mall with Hell.

At the centre of Pandemonium is the throne room, the seat of Satan`s power

John Martin (Haydon Bridge, Northumberland 1789–1854 Douglas, Isle of Man) 

Book II Line 1: 'High on a throne of royal state' 

From Paradise Lost 

1827 

Publisher: Septimus Prowett (London)

Printer:Chatfield & Company (London)

Mezzotint

Plate: 7 11/16 x 11 1/2 in. (19.5 x 29.2 cm) Sheet: 14 13/16 x 21 13/16 in. (37.7 x 55.4 cm)

The Watt Library, Greenock

High on a throne of royal state, which far
Outshone the wealth or Ormus and of Ind,
Or where the gorgeous East with richest hand
Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold,
Satan exalted sat, by merit raised
To that bad eminence; and, from despair
Thus high uplifted beyond hope, aspires
Beyond thus high, insatiate to pursue
Vain war with Heaven; and, by success untaught,
His proud imaginations thus displayed:-- 

Milton, Paradise Lost, Book II, lines 1 - 10

Milton`s vision of Satan`s throne is that of a Far Eastern despot`s 

It is the beginning of Satan`s address to his co-inhabitants of Hell for the preparations of the Second Battle for Heaven

It is of course not a coincidence that Milton portrayed Satan as a King. Milton and the Puritans had just executed a King. In 1649, after the execution of Charles I, Milton published the tract The Tenure of Kings and Magistrates, stating that power resides in the people, who may depose and execute an unworthy and absolute king who seeks to deprive them of fundamental rights

Martin depicts the mindset of the intelligent despot: the epitome of the Satanic  Non serviam: History is littered with countless examples

"The mind is its own place, and in it self
Can make a Heav'n of Hell, a Hell of Heav'n.
What matter where, if I be still the same,
And what I should be, all but less then he
Whom Thunder hath made greater? Here at least
We shall be free; th' Almighty hath not built
Here for his envy, will not drive us hence:
Here we may reign secure, and in my choyce
To reign is worth ambition though in Hell:
Better to reign in Hell, then serve in Heav'n." 

Milton, Paradise Lost, Book 1, lines 233 - 242

Satan sitting on the highest throne over all the  territorial dominions of the Earth. It was an image and theme to which Milton would return in 1677 in Paradise Regained

After wandering in the wilderness for forty days Jesus is starved of both food and the Word of God. Satan, too blind to see any non-literal meanings of the term, offers Christ food and various other temptations, but Jesus continually denies him.

It is The Temptation of Christ according to the Gospel of Luke (Luke 4:1-13)

;

Christ rejects Satan's offer of all the worldly kingdoms in exchange for worshipping Satan: He also rejects worldly kingdoms in favor of other worldly kingdoms.Christ's reply also implies that worldly kingdoms are Satan's domain. Since Satan has the power to give these kingdoms away, they must be under his control:

"It is written
The first of all Commandments, Thou shalt worship
The Lord thy God, and only him shalt serve;
And dar'st thou to the Son of God propound
To worship thee accurst, now more accurst
For this attempt bolder then that on Eve,
And more blasphemous? which expect to rue.
The Kingdoms of the world to thee were giv'n,
Permitted rather, and by thee usurp't,
Other donation none thou canst produce:
If given, by whom but by the King of Kings,
God over all supreme? If giv'n to thee,
By thee how fairly is the Giver now
Repaid? But gratitude in thee is lost
Long since. Wert thou so void of fear or shame,
As offer them to me the Son of God,
To me my own, on such abhorred pact, 

John Milton Paradise Regained Book IV, 175 - 191

Mihi enim vivere Christus est et mori lucrum

"The Pauline Chapel ... is the most intimate and private among the chapels of Apostolic Palace. The Pauline is the chapel which, even more than the Sistine, is called to evoke the mission and destiny of the Universal Church. ... [T]his Chapel is dedicated to Saints Peter and Paul. On the first rests the historical and juridical legitimacy of the Roman pontiffs. The second is the corner stone which sustains and justifies the doctrine of the Church and its ecumenical mission 

The Popes of the XVI century, amidst the Reformation and Counter Reformation, were utterly aware of the extraordinary symbolic meaning of this place which explains the complicated construction and decorative itinerary of this chapel, so full of interruptions, reworkings and adjustments by multiple Popes. ... 

The present image of the Pauline Chapel is basically the one that Gregory XIII wanted during his papacy (1572 - 1585) and it is characterized by the large murals of Sabatini and Zuccari, which describe the most important episodes of the life of St. Peter and Paul and by the gold and coloured decorations of the vault, which recall the Gallery of the Geographical Maps. 

Professor Antonio Paolucci Director of the Vatican Museums

After the recent renovations Pope Benedict XVI said of the Chapel::

"For those who come to pray in this chapel, and above all for the Pope, Peter and Paul become teachers of faith.  

With their witness they invite us to go deeper, to meditate in silence upon the mystery of the Cross, which accompanies the Church until the end of time, and to absorb the light of the faith.  

It is thanks to this light that the apostolic Community can extend to the ends of the earth the missionary and evangelizing action entrusted to it by the Risen Christ.  

Solemn celebrations with the people are not held here.  

This is where the Successor of Peter and his collaborators meditate in silence and adore the living Christ, present above all in the Most Holy Sacrament of the Eucharist." 

Pope Benedict XVI Homily at the Celebration of Vespers on the occasion of the re-opening of the Pauline Chapel in the Vatican Apostolic Palace (4 July 2009)

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On the walls are a number of quotations. There is one in a prominent place which is from St Paul`s Letter to the Philippians (1.21):

"Mihi enim vivere Christus est et mori lucrum"
"For to me, to live is Christ and to die is to gain."

It is of course this Letter which St Paul wrote in prison in Rome while awaiting his sentence in about AD 62

A Forgotten Classic ?

Hitchcock's Vertigo has apparently ousted Orson Welles's Citizen Kane as the greatest film of all time.

According to the learned "critics" of Sight & Sound magazine

But at Number 9 of the new listing is a silent  film made in 1927: The Passion of Joan of Arc (La Passion de Jeanne d'Arc)

The film has a curious history as can be seen from the Wikipedia entry and from here

It cost nine million francs to make - a fortune in those days. It was acclaimed when first exhibited in France. But it was banned in England because of the portrayal of English soldiers. 

It was long thought that the film had been lost to fire, the original version was miraculously found in perfect condition in 1981—in a janitor`s room in a Norwegian mental institution.

The film was directed by the Dane, Carl Theodor Dreyer

Renee (Maria) Falconetti (1892-1946), the actress who plays Jeanne, was a popular star of the French stage, Some critics have thought that Falconetti's Jeanne may be the finest performance ever recorded on film

Here is the scene where Jeanne is harried by the judges and she is told that she is to suffer death by burning at the stake. 

In this small clip one can see that the praise is not just idle hype:

The full film (1 hour 20 minutes) can be seen on YouTube at http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=epE7X3WO2-E

St Eusebius of Vercelli

Mahiet and others

The Vision of St Eusebius of Vercelli and The Baptism of St Eusebius

From Vincentius Bellovacensis, Speculum Historiale (trans. Jean de Vignay in Le mireoir hystorial, livres IX-XVI)

Illuminated manuscript on parchment

Arsenal 5080, fol. 346v

Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Bibliothèque nationale de France

Mahiet and others

Saint Eusebius of Vercelli and Saint Athanasius the Great of Alexandria: Their firmness against the Arians

From Vincentius Bellovacensis, Speculum Historiale (trans. Jean de Vignay in Le mireoir hystorial, livres IX-XVI)

c. 1335

Illuminated manuscript

Arsenal 5080, fol. 346v

Bibliothèque de l'Arsenal, Bibliothèque nationale de France

The Dominican friar Vincent of Beauvais (Vincentius Bellovacensis or Vincentius Burgundus) (c. 1190 – 1264?) wrote the Speculum Maius, the main encyclopedia that was used in the Middle Ages. It was produced by Vincent at the command of Saint King Louis

The most widely disseminated part of the Speculum Maius was the Speculum Historiale, 

This was a history of the world down to Vincent's time. 

Jean de Vignay (c 1283 - 1340?) of the Order of Saint-Jacques-du-Haut-Pas,was a French translator renowned for his prodigious output of translations from Latin into French 

His translation of the work by Vincent of Beauvais  above was in Le Mirouer hystorial. This work was dedicated to Jeanne de Bourgogne,,Queen of France (c 1293–1349), the first wife of Philippe VI de Valois for whom Jean de Vignay also produced many translations

In the image below we see the complementarity of Vincent de Beauvais and Jean de Vignay:

The commanding princes

Vincent de Beauvais, Miroir historial, translated by Jean de Vignay

Français 308, fol. 1

Département des Manuscrits, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris

On the left King St Louis orders Vincent to start on his major work. On the right we see Jeanne de Bourgogne commanding the translation be carried out  by Jean de Vignay

Jeanne was actually the grand-daughter of King Saint Louis

The writing of histories in medieval times was a preoccupation of Kings and royalty, and those in power. The circulation of these histories was limited to the Royal circle and the nobility. The Chronicles were the tales of Kings and their preoccupations

The light from the past was meant to illuminate the present and be a possible guide to the future

The Life of St Eusebius of Vercelli (283 – August 1, 371) was for the medieval religious one of the great lives in the early Church and therefore the world

Along with St Hilary of Poitiers and St Athanasius, he is recognised as one of the great opponents or hammers of Arianism. For him Jesus Christ was fully divine

He was the first bishop of the West who united monastic with clerical life.

Along with St Augustine he was regarded as one of the Western founders (or reformers) of the Canons Regular of St. Augustine to persuade the clergy in the diocese to live secundum regulam sub sanctis Apostolis constitutam, (to live in accordance with the rule of the Apostles)

Eusebius was the first Bishop of Vercelli after it was established after the Peace of Constanine. It was from there that Christianity spread along the Po and across the whole of Lombardy in Northern Italy

It was one of his successors, Saint Simenus (370), who baptized and consecrated Saint Ambrose

The royal readers of the works of Vincent of Beauvais and Jean de Vignay would no doubt have been reminded of Eusebius`s disputes with the Emperor. They were being warned. As were the Bishops who might have been tempted to temper truth on the grounds of political expediency

In his Catechesis on the life of St Eusebius on Wednesday, 17 October 2007, Pope Benedict XVI described it this way:

"With his sound formation in the Nicene faith, Eusebius did his utmost to defend the full divinity of Jesus Christ, defined by the Nicene Creed as "of one being with the Father".  

To this end, he allied himself with the great Fathers of the fourth century - especially St Athanasius, the standard bearer of Nicene orthodoxy - against the philo-Arian policies of the Emperor.  

For the Emperor, the simpler Arian faith appeared politically more useful as the ideology of the Empire. For him it was not truth that counted but rather political opportunism: he wanted to exploit religion as the bond of unity for the Empire.  

But these great Fathers resisted him, defending the truth against political expediency.  

Eusebius was consequently condemned to exile, as were so many other Bishops of the East and West: such as Athanasius himself, Hilary of Poitiers - of whom we spoke last time - and Hosius of Cordoba. In Scythopolis, Palestine, to which he was exiled between 355 and 360, Eusebius wrote a marvellous account of his life.  

Here too, he founded a monastic community with a small group of disciples. It was also from here that he attended to his correspondence with his faithful in Piedmont, as can be seen in the second of the three Letters of Eusebius recognized as authentic.  

Later, after 360, Eusebius was exiled to Cappadocia and the Thebaid, where he suffered serious physical ill-treatment.  

After his death in 361, Constantius II was succeeded by the Emperor Julian, known as "the Apostate", who was not interested in making Christianity the religion of the Empire but merely wished to restore paganism.  

He rescinded the banishment of these Bishops and thereby also enabled Eusebius to be reinstated in his See. In 362 he was invited by Anastasius to take part in the Council of Alexandria, which decided to pardon the Arian Bishops as long as they returned to the secular state.  

Eusebius was able to exercise his episcopal ministry for another 10 years, until he died, creating an exemplary relationship with his city which did not fail to inspire the pastoral service of other Bishops of Northern Italy, whom we shall reflect upon in future . ... 

Just like the Apostles, for whom Jesus prayed at his Last Supper, the Pastors and faithful of the Church "are of the world" (Jn 17: 11), but not "in the world".  

Therefore, Pastors, Eusebius said, must urge the faithful not to consider the cities of the world as their permanent dwelling place but to seek the future city, the definitive heavenly Jerusalem.  

This "eschatological reserve" enables Pastors and faithful to preserve the proper scale of values without ever submitting to the fashions of the moment and the unjust claims of the current political power.  

The authentic scale of values - Eusebius' whole life seems to say - does not come from emperors of the past or of today but from Jesus Christ, the perfect Man, equal to the Father in divinity, yet a man like us.  

In referring to this scale of values, Eusebius never tired of "warmly recommending" his faithful "to jealously guard the faith, to preserve harmony, to be assiduous in prayer" (Second Letter, Ep. extra collecitonem 14: Maur. 63). 

A Private Meditation

Michelangelo 1475 - 1564

Christ on the Cross between the Virgin and St John

1550-1560

Black chalk and white lead (oxidised in places)

412 millimetres x 285 millimetres

The British Museum, London 

Michelangelo 1475 - 1564

Christ on the Cross between the Virgin and St John

1550-1560

Black chalk and white lead (oxidised in places)

410 mm x 278 mm

The British Museum, London 

These two drawings in The British Museum in London are late and amongst the last  drawings in a series of six which Michelangelo produced for his own meditation

The other sheets are in the Louvre, the Ashmolean and at Windsor

The catalogue of The British Museum states:

"The appearance of this group of drawings, with multiple contours and changes, in some cases leading to the near obliteration of the original motif, suggests that these sheets are autonomous works without a destination beyond themselves: as Berenson observes (1938), these are in no sense presentation drawings - no attempt has been made to 'burnish them up'.  

The very process of production was surely for Michelangelo a meditation upon Christ's sacrifice, a central preoccupation of the artist's old age also reflected in his late devotional poetry ... 

De Tolnay observes (1960) that these images derive from the 'process of the creation of inner mental images.'  

He explains their spareness, and concentration, thus:  

'The spiritual effort which begets them cannot simultaneously produce the numerous elements which go to make up a complete world.'  

Michelangelo did not use a model since his private purpose in producing the drawings did not require one. In this Crucifixion group, the very act of drawing becomes a spiritual exercise - and the resulting images, independent of any definite space, undefined towards the periphery, are images conjured by mental expenditure ... 

The various symmetry of the Crucifixion image, its complex simplicity, the isolation of the image with no extraneous detail, and the unblemished nature of Christ's body, display the function of the drawing - combined with the others in the series - as an ideal image, summoned to mind through profound meditation.  

The Crucifixion drawings thus have no destination or purpose beyond themselves: they represent the ever various meditation one the central Christian theme - ever present in Michelangelo's devout old age - of Christ's sacrifice."

The English Catholic poet Elizabeth Jennings  (1926–2001)  in the 1960s produced an English translation of the sonnets of Michelangelo. It  is still the standard version and remains unsurpassed. 

Here is her rendition of Sonnet 60:

At times, pure love may justly be equated

With fervent hope; nor need it be deceived

If by all human loves the heavens are grieved,

Then to what end was the whole world created? 

If I indeed honour and love you, Lord,

And if I burn, it is a heavenly calm

That emanates from you and makes me warm;

Such peace is far removed from all discord.  

True love is not a passion which can die,

Or which depends on beauty that must fade;

Nor is it subject to a changing face.  

That love is true and holy which finds place

Within a modest heart, and which is made,

Far above earth, a pledge of love on high.  

Sonnet LX(ii), from The Sonnets of Michelangelo, Translated by Elizabeth Jennings, 1970, Doubleday, NY, p. 97.

It has been said that Painting is a poetry that is seen and Poetry is imagery in words.

Painting has also been called silent poetry  as a painter is said to write out his feelings in silent words

For Michelangelo the distinction between Painting and Poetry did not exist.

Elizabeth Jennings took up this theme when she wrote:

‘Painting means a tremendous amount to me. If I had to choose between music and painting, I’d probably choose painting. I love to look at pictures and scenes and my favourite painter is Rembrandt, and some of the impressionists or post-impressionists, Manet and Cezanne.  

But there is something else, they were right when they said, these Renaissance people, in a way all the arts – specifically painting, sculpture, poetry and music – they are all the same eventually. All express the aspirations and the failures of human beings, though I do think, perhaps music is the highest of all.’

The Dream

Michelangelo Buonarroti

1475 - 1564

The Dream (Il Sogno)

Circa 1533

Black chalk on paper

39.6 cm x 27.9 cm

The Courtauld Gallery, London.

One of the star exhibits in The Courtauld Gallery`s present exhiibition Mantegna to Matisse: Master Drawings from The Courtauld Gallery is The Dream

A naked, sleeping man is woken by an angel. The angel who is  also naked is blowing a trumpet in his face. Behind the sleeping man jostles a circle of figures representing the deadly sins

Its precise meaning has remained elusive.

It is one of the Gallery`s greatest treasures

The sleeping man is being wakened by God`s messenger from his lethargy or comatose state - the Mortal Life - to the bright ever vigilant Eternal Life

It is thought that the work was composed by Michelangel for Tommaso de’ Cavalieri  the great love of his life

Michelangelo always inssisted that the gossips and rumour mongers were wrong and that his love for the young man was strictly Platonic:

“Alas, then, how shall the chaste desire that sets aflame my heart within be seen by those who always see themselves in others?”

It was one of a series of "presentation drawings" which Michelangelo did for the young nobleman and which the young nobleman presented to the court of Pope Clement VII. 

Cavalieri wrote to Michelangelo that they had been admired by ‘the Pope, Cardinal de Medici and everyone’,

In 1568, Vasari said of the drawings that "the like of which have never been seen"

The title and subject of the work bring to mind Plato`s The Republic and in particular The Republic IX

Sleep is compared to "opinion" grounded in sensibles which are both true and false. Wakefulness is compared to "knowledge" which is founded in truth.

A normal person may sometimes have lustful dreams in his sleep.

However a man can become a slave to lust if lustful thoughts predominate in his waking thoughts and acts

The tyrant is a slave to lustful thoughts and erotic love, living as if in a dream and a realm of the unreal, totally oblivious to the truth, to goodness, and to  beauty. 

For the tyrant, the viciousness of his waking activities becomes indistinguishable from the viciousness of his dreams. Unable to distinguish between Truth and Falsehood, the tyrant`s character degenerates and is unable to conduct rational relations with others. 

He lives in Fear and by Fear. A nightmare of the soul which to the dreamer appears to be without end. It is the state which some Christians call "Hell"

La Chapelle de la Trinité, Lyon

Fr. Étienne Martellange 1569-1641

Collège de la Trinité de Lyon, France : projet d'ensemble comprenant aussi le plan de l'église

1607

Pen brown ink and aquarelle on paper

38,5 x 29 cm

Département Estampes et photographie, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris

La Chapelle de la Trinité is one of the most historic of the churches in the city of Lyon in France. It is also one of the most beautiful. It is pure Counter-Reformation Baroque.

It was built as the chapel for the adjoining Jesuit College between 1617 and 1622

It was consecrated by St Francis de Sales in 1622

The style is baroque. Its architect was the Jesuit Fr. Étienne Martellange 1569-1641

After its restaoration in the 1990s, the chapel is now the setting of many major Baroque and other musical concerts

In October of this year there is a concert by La Magnifica Comunità wth the German soprano Simone Kermes reliving the sounds of the great Baroque castrati Caffarelli, Farinelli, and Carestini in works by Handel and Vivaldi. Here is a preview:

As can seen from the great performance by Simone Kermes,  Counter-Reformation Baroque never really died. It was only resting

On a different level, here is an extract from a forthcoming concert by the ensemble Doulce Mémoire (November 2012) entitled Laudes et Chants Soufis Chants de transe d'Orient et d'Occident

For those who like more traditional renditions by Doulce Mémoire here is something more traditional by them

Some Jesuit architecture: old and new

The Jesuits have always been interested in architecture and new religious  buildings

Father Tommaso Blandino, Brother  Guiseppe Valeriano, Father François Derand and Brother Martellange are only some members of the Order without whom « Jesuit architecture » would not have spread in France, Italy, Germany, Poland and other areas in Europe during and after the Counter-Reformation. 

It was not only Churches and chapels which they designed and helped construct but colleges, seminaries, novitiates, residences and the other buildings necessary in the spread and consolidation of a religious  institution

Here are two of the drawings for the Jesuit Novitiate in Paris in the 1630s :

Father Etienne Martellange

Aspect contre le Novitial de Paris, 1634, 23 7.bre : Veüe des Environs du Noviciat de Paris, le 23 7.bre 1634

1634

Drawing :Pencil and  Brown ink on paper with brown wash

38,9 x 54,3 cm

DépartementEstampes et photographie, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris

Father Etienne Martellange

Des fondations de l'Eglize // du novitial de Paris. 1631 : Fondations du Noviciat de Paris, en 1631

1631

Pencil and brown ink drawing on paper

40,5 x 54,5 cm

Département Estampes et photographie, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris

Many other drawings for the Novitiate in Paris  are in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, Paris and can be accessed here

On less precarious foundations than the Church for the novitiate in Paris, the Jesuits in Maryland have just had constructed  a brand new (and almost fully occupied) retirement and health-care facility which they call “New Colombière.” The design was not by the Jesuits unlike in days of old. As is usual these days it was outsourced this time  to the architectural firm Bohlin Cywinski Jackson, It cost more than 5 million dollars

Officially it is called the St. Claude la Colombiere Jesuit Community Residence.

It is set in a 14 acre bucolic site outside Baltimore

Here is a video celebrating the new project:

One father who was one of the first residents declared that he felt that he had moved  to “paradise.”

The centre of the new 66000 square feet complex is the chapel:

A central feature of the new chapel is the chapel`s tree canopy

It is a complex structure with a  delicate layering effect achieved with six tons of wood and steel It is meant to simulate the natural light effects  of a   natural tree canopy

The article linked to above says:

“While the non-traditional form of the chapel and even the tree canopy itself seems to have taken the Jesuit brothers by surprise, they appreciate how the presence of the canopy lends the chapel sanctuary a sense of sublime light and a state of repose appropriate to a place of worship.”

Others of a more traditional cast may dispute this. 

For more images of the construction of the complex see Colombiere Community's Gallery Albums (49)

Benedict on Subiaco

The workshop of Lorenzo Monaco (c. 1365 - c. 1426) 

St Benedict at the "Sacro Speco" (Holy Grotto) at Subiaco

c. 1415 -1420

Egg Tempera and paint on wood panel

36.5 x 27.8 cm

The National Gallery, London

According to The Golden Legend  the young Saint Benedict is receiving food from Saint Romanus at the Sacro Speco in Subiaco

Ambrogio di Stefano Bergognone (also called Amnrogio da Fossano) (c 1453-1523) 

The Temptation and Penitence of Saint Benedict

Oil on wood

27 x 48 cm

Musée des Beaux-Arts, Nantes

Workshop of Fra Angelico 1400 ; 1455 

Saint Benedict on Subiaco

Tempera on wood panel

17 x 26 cm

Musée Condé, Chantilly

The work by Fra Angelico is one panel of a greater work. Panels of this work are preserved in Museums across the world including the Philadelphia Museum of Art

During the Second World War, the Arch-Abbey of Monte Cassino, the head house of the Benedictine Order,  was virtually destroyed

In 1947 after the Allies and Italy formally declared peace, Pope Pius XII wrote an Encyclical, Fulgens Radiator,  on St Benedict of Norcia and the 1400th anniversary of his death

Pope Pius XII recalled that as a young man, St Benedict gave up his family and the promising career which was promised him in Rome. He went to Subiaco and stayed there three years:

"[L]eaving Rome behind, he sought out wild and solitary places where he could devote himself to the contemplation of the divine. Thus he came to Subiaco and there retiring into a narrow cave he began to live a life that was more heavenly than human. 

Hidden with Christ in God he there strove for three years with great fruit to acquire the perfection and holiness of the Gospels to which he seemed to be called by divine instinct. He made the practice of shunning all earthly things to seek alone and ardently heavenly things; of holding converse with God day and night; of praying incessantly for his own salvation and for the salvation of men; in curbing and mastering the body by voluntary punishment, and checking and controlling the evil motions of the senses.  

In this way of life he found such sweetness of soul that all the former delights he had experienced from his wealth and ease now appeared distasteful to him and in a way forgotten.  

One day the enemy of human nature aroused in him very strong allurements of the flesh; at once he strenuously resisted - noble and strong soul that he was, and casting himself into a thicket of briars and sharp nettles by voluntary wounds he conquered and quenched the interior fire.  

Victorious over himself he seemed to have been strengthened from on high as a reward. 

"After which time, as he himself related to his disciples, he was so free from the like temptation that he never felt any such motion. . . Being now altogether free from vicious temptation he worthily deserved to be a master of virtue".

Our saint, then, living for a long time this secluded and solitary life in the cave of Subiaco, shaped and set himself in sanctity, and laid those solid foundations of Christian perfection on which he was given later to raise a mighty building of lofty heights.  

As you well know, Venerable Brethren, zealous and apostolic works become useless and vain unless they proceed from a soul enriched with those Christian qualities which alone with God's grace can make human undertakings contribute to the glory of God and the salvation of souls. 

This Benedict knew well and had found to be true.  

Before undertaking and executing those great designs and plans to which he was called by God, he first devoted his most earnest efforts and fervent prayers to make himself fully master of that integral, evangelical holiness which he desired the others to acquire"

It was this period of the saint`s life at Subiaco that Pope Benedict XVI emphasised in his General Audience on Wednesday, 9 April 2008 when the subject of his talk was Saint Benedict of Norcia, or as Pope Benedict put it "the Patron of my Pontificate":

"The period in Subiaco, a time of solitude with God, was a time of maturation for Benedict. It was here that he bore and overcame the three fundamental temptations of every human being: the temptation of self-affirmation and the desire to put oneself at the centre, the temptation of sensuality and, lastly, the temptation of anger and revenge.  

In fact, Benedict was convinced that only after overcoming these temptations would he be able to say a useful word to others about their own situations of neediness. 

Thus, having tranquilized his soul, he could be in full control of the drive of his ego and thus create peace around him. Only then did he decide to found his first monasteries in the Valley of the Anio, near Subiaco"

Silence, prayer and meditation, humility, penitence and purification, and Love: what St Benedict learned on Mount Subiaco

All lessons frequently preached by the present Pope in his catecheses, Letters and Encyclicals

A useful reminder for the forthcoming Year of Evangelisation

Papa Luciani - no, not forgotten

The tomb of Pope John Paul I in the Crypt of St Peter`s Basilica in the Vatican

Source: Wikipedia

The last time I was in Rome was shortly before the death of Blessed Pope John Paul II

I visited the Vatican crypt where many of the tombs of the Popes are

At that time the tomb for Papa Luciani seemed rather forlorn - a bit out  on a limb. For some reason it was rather sad that the Pope who only reigned for little more than a month had seemed to be forgotten. 

Outshone by the supernova  that was Blessed John Paul II

Therefore it is good to report that the process of canonisation for John Paul I is proceeding apace athough rather more slowly than for Blessed John Paul II

Lori Piper from New York has a very strong devotion to the cause of The Smiling Pope and in her blog On Pilgrimage  reports that the Positio on John Paul I’s cause for beatification will soon be turned in to the Holy See. 

It will go in on the centenary of the birth of Papa Luciani

Miss Pieper`s blog is an excellent source of information in English on the life and works of the Pope as well as comment. She provides translations into English from many Italian sources. In Italy it would appear that devotion to the late Pope is far stronger than in Englsih speaking countries. Hence the importance of her translations, especially of the book The Smiling Pope: The Life and Teaching of John Paul I