16 April 2014

Art for Lent (43): ‘The Taking of Christ’ (1602)
by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio

‘The Taking of Christ’ (1602), by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio

Patrick Comerford

The Revised Common Lectionary as used in the Church of Ireland provides readings, collects and post-communion prayers for each of the days in Holy Week. The readings for today, Wednesday in Holy Week [16 April 2014], are: Isaiah 50: 4-9a; Psalm 70; Hebrews 12: 1-3; and John 13: 21-32.

My choice of a work of Art for Lent this morning.

In this Gospel reading, Christ talks about his imminent betrayal by Judas. Perhaps the best known painting illustrating the betrayal of Christ by Judas is ‘The Taking of Christ’ (1602) by Caravaggio, which is on display in the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin, and which is my choice of a work of Art for Lent this morning [16 April 2014].

John 13: 21-32

21 After saying this Jesus was troubled in spirit, and declared, ‘Very truly, I tell you, one of you will betray me.’ 22 The disciples looked at one another, uncertain of whom he was speaking. 23 One of his disciples—the one whom Jesus loved—was reclining next to him; 24 Simon Peter therefore motioned to him to ask Jesus of whom he was speaking. 25 So while reclining next to Jesus, he asked him, ‘Lord, who is it?’ 26 Jesus answered, ‘It is the one to whom I give this piece of bread when I have dipped it in the dish.’ So when he had dipped the piece of bread, he gave it to Judas son of Simon Iscariot. 27After he received the piece of bread, Satan entered into him. Jesus said to him, ‘Do quickly what you are going to do.’ 28 Now no one at the table knew why he said this to him. 29 Some thought that, because Judas had the common purse, Jesus was telling him, ‘Buy what we need for the festival’; or, that he should give something to the poor. 30 So, after receiving the piece of bread, he immediately went out. And it was night.

31 When he had gone out, Jesus said, ‘Now the Son of Man has been glorified, and God has been glorified in him. 32 If God has been glorified in him, God will also glorify him in himself and will glorify him at once.

The artist and his painting

‘The Taking of Christ,’ painted in 1602 by Michelangelo Merisi da Caravaggio (1573-1610), is on display in the National Gallery of Ireland in Merrion Square, Dublin. It is in oil on canvas and measures 133.5 cm x 169.5 cm. It is on indefinite loan to the National Gallery from the Jesuit Community in Leeson Street, Dublin.

This painting was as a candidate in the RTÉ competition looking for Ireland’s Favourite Painting, and Mel Gibson said that the cinematography in his The Passion of the Christaimed to imitate Caravaggio’s style. The arrest scene in his movie uses similar perspective, lighting, and placement of figures as the painting at the moment the soldiers seize upon Christ.

Caravaggio is one of the few artists to have brought about a radical change in art. He was the most famous painter of his time in Italy, and became a source of inspiration for hundreds of followers throughout Europe.

He was at the height of his fame when he painted ‘The Taking of Christ’ for a Roman aristocrat, the Marchesse Ciriaco Mattei at the end of 1602.

Breaking with artistic tradition, he provided a new visual rendering of the narrative of the Gospels, reducing the space around the three-quarter-length figures and avoiding any description of the setting. All his emphasis is directed on Judas and his kiss, on the Temple guards and on Christ, who appears overwhelmed and offers no resistance.

The fleeing disciple in disarray on the left is Saint John the Evangelist. His arms are raised, his mouth is open and gasping, his cloak is flying and is being snatched back by a soldier.

The fleeing figure of Saint John in his terror is in contrast to the man entering the scene at the far side. He is holding a lantern, it is ineffective, so that only the moon lights the scene from the upper left. This man’s features provide a self-portrait of Caravaggio at the age of 31, seen here as a passive spectator at the divine tragedy.

In all, there seven standing, three-quarter length figures in the painting: from left to right they are Saint John, Christ, Judas, two soldiers, a man with a lamp who provides a self-portrait of Caravaggio, and a third soldier. These seven figures are arrayed before a very dark background, in which the setting is disguised.

The contrast between the fleeing and terrorised figure of Saint John with the soldier who provides a self-portrait of the artist makes the point that even a sinner over 1,500 years after the Crucifixion and the Resurrection has a better understanding of who Christ is than his friends before the Easter events.

By the late 18th century, the painting was thought to have been lost, and its whereabouts remained unknown for about 200 years. In 1990, this masterpiece was recognized in the Jesuit house in Leeson Street, Dublin, and news of its rediscovery was published in November 1993.

The painting had been hanging in the Jesuits’ dining room since the early 1930s, but it had long been considered not the original but a copy by Gerard van Honthorst, also known as Gherardo delle Notti, one of Caravaggio’s Dutch followers.

This erroneous attribution had already been made while the painting was in the possession of the Mattei family, descendant of the aristocrat who had originally commissioned this masterpiece.

In 1802, the Mattei family sold it as a work by Honthorst to William Hamilton Nisbet, and it hung in his home in Scotland it hung until 1921. Later in the 1920s, it was sold to Dr Marie Lea-Wilson, who donated it in the 1930s to the Jesuits in Dublin, in gratitude for their support following the shooting of her husband, Captain Percival Lea-Wilson. He was a District Inspector in the Royal Irish Constabulary in Gorey, Co Wexford, and was shot by the IRA on 15 June 1920.

The painting remained in the possession of the Dublin Jesuits for about 60 years, until it was recognised in the early 1990s by Sergio Benedetti, Senior Conservator of the National Gallery of Ireland. He had been asked by Father Noel Barber, SJ, to examine a number of paintings in the Leeson Street house which the Jesuit community was planning to restore.

As layers of dirt and discoloured varnish were removed, the quality of the painting was revealed, and it was tentatively identified as Caravaggio’s lost work.

Much of the credit for verifying the authenticity of this painting belongs to Francesca Cappelletti and Laura Testa, two graduate students at the University of Rome. During a long period of research, they found the first recorded mention of ‘The Taking of Christ’ in an ancient and decaying account book documenting the original commission and payments to Caravaggio, in the archives of the Mattei family, kept in the cellar of a palazzo in the small town of Recanati.

The painting is now on indefinite loan to the National Gallery of Ireland by the Jesuit Community in Leeson Street.

Collect:

Lord God,
whose blessed Son our Saviour
gave his back to the smiters,
and did not hide his face from shame:
Give us grace to endure the sufferings
of this present time,
with sure confidence in the glory that shall be revealed;
through Jesus Christ your Son our Lord.

Post Communion Prayer:

Lord Jesus Christ,
you humbled yourself in taking the form of a servant
and in obedience died on the cross for our salvation.
Give us the mind to follow you
and to proclaim you as Lord and King,
to the glory of God the Father.

Tomorrow: ‘The Last Supper’ (1592-1594), by Jacopo Tintoretto.

A Dublin-born son of Enniskillen looks
across the town from a hilltop column

The tall column on top of Fort Hill in Enniskillen commemorates Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Patrick Comerford

From my room in the Belmore Court Hotel in Enniskillen this week, I have had a sweeping view across the town, including Saint Macartin’s Cathedral and up to Fort Hill Park and Cole’s Monument. The column was lit up under the full moon last night [14 April 2014] and can be seen clearly from the cathedral too.

During a sunny morning break, I climbed the winding paths that lead through the trees up to the peak of Fort Hill. There at the top of the hill is the tall column commemorating Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole (1772-1842), who was one of Wellington’s generals and the son of the first Earl of Enniskillen.

At an early stage, this drumlin-like hill was known as Commons Hill or Cow Hill, where the people of Enniskillen were free to graze their cattle and sheep. It was also known as Camomile Hill where, in 1689, the Governor of Enniskillen, Gustav Hamilton, ordered a fort of sods to be raised in Enniskillen, and Fort Hill became an artillery star fort at the end of the 17th century.

In 1836, the area was enclosed and planted with trees. It became a promenade and pleasure ground, and within a decade was a popular public garden with walks.

The Victorian bandstand in Fort Hill Park remembers Thomas Plunkett’s role in restoring the park (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

However, by the 1880s, the park was overgrown and was little used. Thomas Plunkett (1830-1919), Chairman of the Enniskillen Town Commissioners, supervised the landscaping of the park, and the new grounds were officially opened as the Fort Hill Pleasure Grounds on 7 August 1891.

The special areas designed by Plunkett included the Dell, the Fernery, the Fountain, and the Waterfall, and a new entrance and steps were added. The wrought-iron Victorian bandstand, with a clock tower, was built in 1895, while Plunkett was still alive, as a mark of appreciation from the people of Enniskillen.

An inscription reads: “Erected by public subscription in grateful appreciation of the services rendered to the town by Thomas Plunkett, MRIA who during his chairmanship of the Town Commissioners 1882 to 1885 and 1888 to 1894 transformed and beautified these grounds and carried out many other improvements for the promotion of the health and comfort of the community. AD 1895.”

A little above the bandstand, the Cole Monument is a Doric column, topped by a statue of General Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole, who was one of Wellington’s generals during the Peninsular War (1808-1814). The column was designed by the sculptor Terence Farrell. Work started in 1845, and it was another 12 years before the monument was completed in 1857.

The column is 30 metres (100 feet) high, and inside the column 108 steps lead to the viewing platform at the top. I am told there are magnificent views across Enniskillen and the surrounding countryside from the platform, and a sign at the entrance to the park says it is open to visitors from April. However, it seems to be closed this week for renovation and restoration, and I never got the opportunity to appreciate those panoramic views.

Samuel Beckett ... proudly remembered on a shop front on Enniskillen’s High Street, close to Saint Macartin’s Cathedral (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

It is interesting how many of Enniskillen’s claimed favourite sons are Dublin-born, including Samuel Beckett, Oscar Wilde and Lowry Cole.

Samuel Beckett and Oscar Wilde both went to school in Portora Royal School, Enniskillen (as did Archbishop Michael Jackson). Samuel Beckett (1906-1989) was born was born in Foxrock, Co Dublin, on Good Friday, 13 April 1906. Oscar Wilde (1854-1900) was born at 21 Westland Row on 16 October 1854. Lowry Cole, the second son of William Willoughby Cole (1736-1803), 1st Earl of Enniskillen, was born in Dublin on 1 May 1772.

Lowry Cole was an army officer in the West Indies, Ireland, Egypt and Sicily before becoming a general. Meanwhile, he was MP for Enniskillen in the Irish House of Commons from 1797 to 1800, and after the Act of Union was MP for Co Fermanagh in the British House of Commons in 1803-1823.

While he was a sitting MP he was also one of Wellington’s generals during the Peninsular War (1808-1814). As colonel of the 27th Foot, he commanded the 4th Division in the Peninsular War under Wellington, and was wounded at the Battle of Albuera and at Salamanca.

Later, he was Governor of Mauritius (1823-1828) and then Governor of the Cape Colony (1828-1833). In the Cape Colony, Cole played a prominent part in social philanthropy and the town of Colesberg in the Cape and Sir Lowry’s Pass near Cape Town are named after him. He died in 1842 at his Hampshire country seat, Highfield Park, which is now an hotel. He is commemorated by a larger-than-life statue on the north side of the cathedral chancel arch, above a fading more humble monument for his father; a similar monument to his brother, the 2nd Earl of Enniskillen, stands in the a marching place on the south side of the chancel arch.

Larger than life ... a statue commemorating Sir Galbraith Lowry Cole in Saint Macartin’s Cathedral, Enniskillen (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2014)

Lowry Cole’s nephew, Bishop Francis Richard Townley Balfour (1846-1924), from Townley Hall, Drogheda, Co Louth, later served as an Anglican missionary with SPG (now Us) in the Cape Colony. He was Archdeacon of Bloemfontein (1901-1906), Archdeacon of Basutoland (1908-1922), and from 1911 the first Anglican bishop to serve in what is now Lesotho. He is buried in the grounds of Mellifont Abbey, Co Louth.

Florence Court outside Enniskillen was the Co Fermanagh home of the Cole family from the late 1750s until 1972. It has been in the care of the National Trust since 1953.

Florence Court, once home to the Cole family, Earls of Enniskillen, is now owned and managed by the National Trust (Photograph: Patrick Comerford, 2012)