Page 102 - Art In The Age Of Exploration (Great Section on Chinese Art Ming Dynasty)

contexts established a complex set of meanings, artist who has created a Saint Sebastian who is inmates of the hospital with the hope of a
of which we remain the heirs. Indeed, this range an image of calm piety, emphasized by the allu- release which can be realized through Christ's
of meanings is so great that it seems at first sions to paradise conveyed by the figures of assumption of human sin and suffering, so
sight to preclude the definition of any common angels, while the Italian Mantegna has vividly coruscatingly illustrated in the central image of
ground across the varied European traditions portrayed painful emotion. the altarpiece, a monumental predecessor of the
within which the expressive potential of the To understand this apparent paradox, we must Crucifixion now in the National Gallery of Art,
human body was reinvented or invented anew. remember the differing functions of the two Washington. This calming and intercessory role
The extremes of this range are represented by paintings. Griinewald's Saint Sebastian, mir- was commonly assigned to images of Saint
Antico's suave Apollo and the figure of Christ in rored iixhis holy calm by the image of Saint Sebastian. Mantegna's saint, by contrast, dra-
Griinewald's harrowing Crucifixion (cat. 152). Anthony on the corresponding wing on the matically assumes within his own person the
The one is luxurious, polished, idealizing, right of the altarpiece, provides the suffering sufferings of our sinful world — sufferings that
hedonistic, entirely secular, and emotionally
bland, appealing to the connoisseur of classiciz-
ing beauty. The other is tortured, discomfiting,
terrible, graceless, and deeply expressive, func-
tioning as a stark reminder to the believer of
Christ's suffering on behalf of a sinful mankind,
whose corrupt flesh is burdened with the guilt
of Adam and Eve. The comparison is almost a
reductio ad absurdum of the conventional con-
trasts of stylistic features in northern and
southern European art.
Between these poles are works of art that
combine classical form and Christian meaning,
like Mantegna's monumental Saint Sebastian.
Mantegna's heroic figure is deeply imbued with
the grandeur of ancient sculpture, from which
Antico, too, was drawing inspiration. It follows
in a tradition of Apollo-like Saint Sebastians
in Renaissance art, a reference that is clearly
appropriate for Sebastian as a Roman soldier in
Maximian's and Diocletian's First Cohort. But
Mantegna's saint, pierced with arrows, is pri-
marily a Christian martyr whose bodily suffer-
ing makes him an ideal intermediary between
man and Christ. The story of the failure of the
arrows to kill Sebastian — he was later clubbed
to death—led to his cult as the patron saint of
plague victims, who offered him their prayers in
hopes of relief. This meaning resides not only
in the obvious expressiveness of the image —
Mantegna's striking depiction of the anatomy of
suffering—but also in the presentation of the
saint as a devotional icon rather than as an actor
within an overtly narrative context. This mean-
ing is underscored by the guttering candle, a
reminder that "nothing is stable other than the
divine; everything else is smoke," and by the
swags in the form of rosary beads, a reminder of
the ritualistic incantation of prayers.
Griinewald's great masterpiece, the Isenheim fig. 10. Andrea Mantegna, Saint Sebastian.
Altarpiece, which was commissioned for an c. 1505-1506, tempera on canvas. Galleria Giorgio
Anthonite monastery devoted to healing, also Franchetti, Ca' d'Oro, Venice
appropriately includes an image of Saint Sebas-
tian. The Christ Child in another panel of this
altar fingers a rosary, a reminder that the rules
of the Order of St. Anthony stipulated that
"each patient be required for every canonical
hour to say twelve Our Fathers and as many fig. 11. Matthias Griinewald, Saint Sebastian. 1512-
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Hail Marys." In this instance, it is the German 1516, oil on panel. Musee d'Unterlinden, Colmar
EUROPE AND THE M E D I T E R R A N E A N WORLD 1O1