Christ taking leave of his Mother
Encyclopedia
Christian art
Christian art is sacred art produced in an attempt to illustrate, supplement and portray in tangible form the principles of Christianity, though other definitions are possible. Most Christian groups use or have used art to some extent, although some have had strong objections to some forms of...
, most commonly found in Northern art of the 15th and 16th centuries. Christ says farewell to his mother Mary
Mary (mother of Jesus)
Mary , commonly referred to as "Saint Mary", "Mother Mary", the "Virgin Mary", the "Blessed Virgin Mary", or "Mary, Mother of God", was a Jewish woman of Nazareth in Galilee...
, often blessing her, before leaving for his final journey
Palm Sunday
Palm Sunday is a Christian moveable feast that falls on the Sunday before Easter. The feast commemorates Jesus' triumphal entry into Jerusalem, an event mentioned in all four Canonical Gospels. ....
to Jerusalem, which he knows will lead to his Passion
Passion (Christianity)
The Passion is the Christian theological term used for the events and suffering – physical, spiritual, and mental – of Jesus in the hours before and including his trial and execution by crucifixion...
and death; indeed this scene marks the beginning of his Passion. In early versions just these two figures are usually shown, at half-length or less.
After Dürer the subject usually has a landscape setting and includes attendants (usually the Three Marys) to Mary, who often swoons with distress and is held by them. Saints Peter
Saint Peter
Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...
, John the Evangelist
John the Evangelist
Saint John the Evangelist is the conventional name for the author of the Gospel of John...
, Mary Magdalen and other apostles may be shown. It is probably more common in prints
Old master print
An old master print is a work of art produced by a printing process within the Western tradition . A date of about 1830 is usually taken as marking the end of the period whose prints are covered by this term. The main techniques concerned are woodcut, engraving and etching, although there are...
than paintings.
Subject matter
The subject does not illustrate any Biblical passage, but derives from one of the Pseudo-BonaventuraPseudo-Bonaventura
The Pseudo-Bonaventura, or Pseudo-Bonaventure is the name given to the authors of a number of medieval devotional works which were believed at the time to be the work of Saint Bonaventure: "It would almost seem as if 'Bonaventura' came to be regarded as a convenient label for a certain type of...
's "Meditations on the life of Christ" (1308), and the Marienleben of Philipp the Carthusian (about 1330). The scene became used in Passion play
Passion play
A Passion play is a dramatic presentation depicting the Passion of Jesus Christ: his trial, suffering and death. It is a traditional part of Lent in several Christian denominations, particularly in Catholic tradition....
s and other religious dramas.It may be depicted in Christ Blessing with the Virgin in Prayer, a work by Robert Campin
Robert Campin
Robert Campin , now usually identified as the artist known as the Master of Flémalle, is usually considered the first great master of Early Netherlandish painting...
of the early 15th century (Philadelphia), and is painted several times by Gerard David
Gerard David
Gerard David was an Early Netherlandish painter and manuscript illuminator known for his brilliant use of color.-Life:...
at the end of the century (Dublin, Basel, Munich, Metropolitan New York); many lesser artists were painting the subject by then, especially in Germany.
Awareness of the subject was further spread by prints, by Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer
Albrecht Dürer was a German painter, printmaker, engraver, mathematician, and theorist from Nuremberg. His prints established his reputation across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance ever since...
in his very popular woodcut
Woodcut
Woodcut—occasionally known as xylography—is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges...
series the on the Life of the Virgin
Life of the Virgin
The Life of the Virgin, showing narrative scenes from the life of Mary, the mother of Jesus, is a common subject for pictorial cycles in Christian art, often complementing, or forming part of, a cycle on the Life of Christ. In both cases the number of scenes shown varies greatly with the space...
(ca. 1505), and again in his woodcut Passion series (1509), and also by Lucas van Leyden
Lucas van Leyden
Lucas van Leyden , also named either Lucas Hugensz or Lucas Jacobsz, was a Dutch engraver and painter, born and mainly active in Leiden...
. As was by then often the case, many provincial painters used the compositions of the prints directly as a basis for their paintings, for example a version from his eponymous altarpiece
Altarpiece
An altarpiece is a picture or relief representing a religious subject and suspended in a frame behind the altar of a church. The altarpiece is often made up of two or more separate panels created using a technique known as panel painting. It is then called a diptych, triptych or polyptych for two,...
by the Nuremberg painter known as the "Master of the Schwabach Altarpiece"(1506, Compton Verney House
Compton Verney House
Compton Verney House is an 18th century country mansion at Compton Verney near Kineton in Warwickshire which has been converted into the Compton Verney Art Gallery....
), who uses his fellow-townsman Dürer.
The first third of the 16th century was the period of peak popularity for the subject; to the Danube School
Danube school
The Danube School or Donau School is the name of a circle of painters of the first third of the 16th century in Bavaria and Austria . Many also were innovative printmakers, usually in etching...
in particular the opportunities for expressiveness and a landscape background made the subject attractive. Versions include very intense ones by Albrecht Altdorfer
Albrecht Altdorfer
Albrecht Altdorfer was a German painter, printmaker and architect of the Renaissance era.-Biography:Altdorfer was born in Regensburg or Altdorf around 1480....
, and Wolf Huber
Wolf Huber
Wolf Huber was an Austrian painter, printmaker, and architect, a leading member of the Danube School.-Life:Records show that Huber was born in Feldkirch, Vorarlberg, but that by 1515 he was living in Passau. His relationship with other painters of that name living in Feldkirch is unknown,...
(both about 1520 and in the National Gallery, London
National Gallery, London
The National Gallery is an art museum on Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The gallery is an exempt charity, and a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media...
). The Huber is a cut-down fragment with just the group around the Virgin, and Christ's arm coming in from the right. Both of these works have a lush forest background, and show the female figures in largely contemporary dress.
One of the earliest of the few Italian depictions, an early Correggio of about 1514 (National Gallery, London
National Gallery, London
The National Gallery is an art museum on Trafalgar Square, London, United Kingdom. Founded in 1824, it houses a collection of over 2,300 paintings dating from the mid-13th century to 1900. The gallery is an exempt charity, and a non-departmental public body of the Department for Culture, Media...
) clearly (under x-rays) used Dürer's composition as a starting point, before changing it around. Lorenzo Lotto
Lorenzo Lotto
Lorenzo Lotto was a Northern Italian painter draughtsman and illustrator, traditionally placed in the Venetian school. He painted mainly altarpieces, religious subjects and portraits...
(1521, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
Gemäldegalerie, Berlin
The Gemäldegalerie is an art museum in Berlin, Germany. It holds one of the world's leading collections of European art from the 13th to the 18th centuries. It is located on Kulturforum west of Potsdamer Platz. Its collection includes masterpieces from such artists as Albrecht Dürer, Lucas...
) also painted the subject, and there is a Lucas Cranach the Elder
Lucas Cranach the Elder
Lucas Cranach the Elder , was a German Renaissance painter and printmaker in woodcut and engraving...
(ca 1520) in Vienna. After 1550 the subject is seen less often, though the Pitti Palace has a work that is at least from the school of Paolo Veronese
Paolo Veronese
Paolo Veronese was an Italian painter of the Renaissance in Venice, famous for paintings such as The Wedding at Cana and The Feast in the House of Levi...
.
Gallery
Image:Correggio 001.jpg|Correggio, probably before 1514, London, with John the Evangelist and (?) Mary Magdalene.
Image:Bernhard Strigel 001.jpg|Bernhard Strigel
Bernhard Strigel
Bernhard Strigel was a German portrait and historical painter of the Swabian school, the most important of a family of artists established at Memmingen. He was born at Memmingen and was probably a pupil of Zeitblom at Ulm...
, 1520, Berlin. Saint Peter heads the disciples waiting for Christ.
Image:Lorenzo Lotto 015.jpg|Lorenzo Lotto
Lorenzo Lotto
Lorenzo Lotto was a Northern Italian painter draughtsman and illustrator, traditionally placed in the Venetian school. He painted mainly altarpieces, religious subjects and portraits...
1521, Berlin, with Saint Peter
Saint Peter
Saint Peter or Simon Peter was an early Christian leader, who is featured prominently in the New Testament Gospels and the Acts of the Apostles. The son of John or of Jonah and from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, his brother Andrew was also an apostle...
, Saint John
John the Evangelist
Saint John the Evangelist is the conventional name for the author of the Gospel of John...
and Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene
Mary Magdalene was one of Jesus' most celebrated disciples, and the most important woman disciple in the movement of Jesus. Jesus cleansed her of "seven demons", conventionally interpreted as referring to complex illnesses...
.
Image:MaryattheTomb.jpg|Stained glass window by Quaker City Glass Company, 1912 at St. Matthew's German Evangelical Lutheran Church
St. Matthew's German Evangelical Lutheran Church
The German Evangelical Lutheran Church of Charleston, South Carolina was incorporated on December 3, 1840. Through usage and custom the Church is now known as St. Matthew's German Evangelical Lutheran Church or St...
in Charleston, SC.
External links
- Italian miniature of ca 1540, with commentary