Changing religious art and Protestant Reformation

I was at the grocery store when turning a corner I came face to face with an ex-colleague I had not seen in a long time and we started talking about Italy and Rome and exchanging news. When I got home I started to think about how religious art in Italy started to change after the Council of Trent  (1545-1563) or Trento in the South Tyrol or Alto-Adige in Northern Italy which has a lovely castle and produces excellent wines. I had also seen an Italian site where there was talk about restoration of some of the works of Michelangelo (1475-1564), mostly of the marble statue of Christ in the Church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, the only Gothic church of Rome built over the temple of the goddess Minerva (Wisdom). The church is behind and next to the Pantheon of Rome and is famous for being the site of the trial of Galileo in 1633.

Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, Rome

Statue of Christ by Michelangelo, altered with a bronze loincloth by the Dominicans in 1600. 

Funny how ideas sometimes collide with each other based on conversations and reminiscing of things we saw or heard of and trigger memories. We were in Trento a few years ago on our way to Innsbruck and Salzburg for the music Festival at Pentecost. We visited the castle and the town and saw some wonderful art work and of course heard about the famous Council called to answer the Protestant Reformation.

The Reformation starts around 1517 and lasts as a movement until 1562. Martin Luther (1483-1546) who is a Catholic becomes a critic of the Pope, he sees the role of Pontifex becoming a substitute for God on Earth and Luther believes that the Papacy has become very corrupt. He becomes the head of the Reformation movement, there are others like John Calvin but Luther is the better known.

The Reformation and the opposition movement to Papal authority was nothing new. Originally the Pontifex of the Official Roman Religion which protected with its pantheon of Gods, Rome and its Empire was the first man in Rome, Julius Caesar was P.M. and then his Nephew Augustus. The Emperor assumed the role of Pontifex Maximus, when Constantine in the 4th Century made Christianity the new Official Religion of the Empire, not without major controversy and revolt amongst Romans, he named a bishop for Rome but he kept for himself the central role of Pontifex.

When Constantine moved the Capital to the new city of Constantinople
he named a bishop there also. But the bickering started immediately between the 2 bishops of the two Imperial cities. When Constantine died, the Bishop of Rome grabbed the title of Pontifex and claimed to be the successor of the Roman Emperor producing a fraudulent last will and testament to back up his claim. This and many other events led to the great schism between Rome and Constantinople a few centuries later.

When the Papacy returned to Rome from its long exile in Avignon, France around 1376 the Pope found the city devastated by centuries of neglect, the once great capital of the world was nothing more than a small village of about 10,000 people. The city had one million resident until 350 AD.

The old St-Peter's Basilica built in 318 AD and destroyed in 1460 to make way for the current basilica

The original Saint Peter Basilica which had been built by Emperor Constantine was in very poor shape and the whole structure was no longer safe to use. It was Pope Nicholas V, a humanist and a man of the Renaissance who started to rebuilt Rome the moment he became Pope in 1447.  Restoring the Aqueducts which could once again bring clean fresh water to the City, this can be seen today in the Fountain of Trevi fed by the Aqua Virgo. He also paved the main roads and started to re-build St-Peter Basilica. He declared 1450 a Jubilee Year and started on his great construction projects. He needed construction material and using 2522 cart loads of stone from the ancient Coliseum he used them as building material, he also turned the Roman Forum into a quarry, most of the original antique buildings had survived almost intact.

Facade of St-Peter's basilica today 

For 100 years every Pope worked on re-building the basilica we see today. This meant that a lot of money was needed and this is where the trouble started, many architects and artists and labourers worked year after year on this giant project. Popes needed to be creative to find new sources of revenues and one had the idea of selling indulgences and Holy relics of Saints to make a quick profit,
of course it was all for a good cause but that is a sure way to the road to Hell.

Martin Luther like many Europeans including Princes, Kings and Emperors were a little fed-up with the over the top ways of Bishops and Popes alike there was a lot of criticism and if it got to loud, Popes could excommunicate and even have critics put to death for heresy. Martin Luther studied closely the Bible and event translated it into German, a first, so that ordinary folk could understand the reading of the texts.

Luther challenged directly the authority of the Pontiff to collect taxes and sell indulgences which allowed the buyer a fast track to Paradise. Luther pointed out that this was nonsense since the Bible made no mention of any of this.

Furthermore Luther got the protection of the King of Saxony and was kept out of reach of the Papal agents and Police. Unable to shut him up, the Pope saw him as a dangerous enemy undermining his authority. The influence of Martin Luther extended all over Europe and the Reformation movement had real traction, Catholic churches were converted into new Protestant churches in many Kingdoms.

Luther rejected the worship of Saints and its calendar, the marketing and selling of Holy relics, he also challenged the Marian cult which had taken a great deal of importance in the Catholic Church.

Mary breastfeeding the infant Jesus, by Gerard David 1490.

As a reply the Papacy called the Council of Trent to reclaim its authority and rebuke the Reformation.
In so doing it ordered that all religious art, there really was not much secular art anyway, should follow new guidelines in the representation of the Divine. Per example the Virgin Mary as Mother of Christ could no longer be represented as an ordinary mother with her child, breastfeeding images were common in the early part of the Renaissance. The Council of Trent gave her a new role, that of Queen of Heaven and images now had to present her in a regal role. Christ had also been represented naked on the cross, this could no longer do. Popes thought that it was a too humanist approach, so painting and sculptures where altered accordingly.

Christ by Michelangelo, original version intact of 1522 made for Metello Vari and now in the church of San Vincenzo Martire in Bassano Romano near the town of Viterbo.

 A very young Michelangelo created this Christ in 1492 for the Church of Santo-Spirito in Florence.

However it was acceptable to mix pagan gods with Christian images in frescos because it presented an artistic continuity from antiquity to today. Since the Catholic Church claimed direct link with Imperial Rome this made sense. Apostles who were all Jewish would now be depicted dressed as Roman Senators, this also goes for Moses or all other Prophets of the Old Testament, thus transforming them into Roman-Christians. Since the population was still largely illiterate and the story was told from the pulpit no one questioned what they were told.







 

From Rome to Padua

Friday afternoon we left Rome Termini on the Silver Arrow high speed train built by Canada's Bombardier to Padua in the Veneto Province, this use to be the Republic of Venice until 1797 when that Corsican fellow Napoleon Bonaparte arrived with his French army.

A very nice comfortable ride on the train which stops in Florence and Bologna on its way to Padua. Padua in the Veneto is a renowned university city since 1244, a city of great men like Galileo and the poet Petrach, of great artists like Giotto and of course St-Anthony who despite being closely associated with Padua is in fact Portuguese from Lisbon and ended up in Padua by accident. Our hotel is steps away from the Papal Basilica where he is buried, a centre of high Christian pilgrimage. Padua being very close to Venice, its only 30 minutes away by train is a very nice stop on our way to Austria.  We could easily spend several days here, there is so much art and good food and beautiful things and because it is a University town, lots of good looking men, it deserves the mention Padova Citta d'Arte.

Our hotel is well located, Hotel Belludi is nice, clean and the staff are very kind and helpful. Our shower head in the bathroom did not work properly, they moved us to a far better room and gave us a bottle of Proseco as way of apology.

Last night we arrived at 8pm just in time for dinner and the hotel reception made reservations at a wonderful restaurant on the Prato, the menu was great, sort of new Italian cuisine, very well thought out dishes, good balance, beautifully presented. The wines are matched with the dishes. I had Tornedos Rossini, I have not seen this on a restaurant menu in 35 years, it was so good, the filet cooked the way I like it and it is topped with a slice of Foie Gras and shavings of truffles, I thought I was in Paradise.

Today we went walking around this beautiful city, we had a special reservation this morning to visit the  Scrovegni Family Chapel in the Roman Arena. The Scrovegni became very rich by lending money at usury rates, this of course is a major sin and those practicing it will burn in hell fire. So Enrico Scrovegni decided that he needed to atone for the sins of his father Reginaldo who had just died, wanting to save him from eternal damnation and save also himself since he too practice usury. It is interesting to note that Reginaldo Scrovegni appears in Dante's Inferno as one of the damned. So Enrico prayed the Virgin Mary and promised to build a chapel to her and get the painter Giotto, who was now accredited to the Pope as official painter to the Holy See, to decorate the Chapel, the work was completed in 1305, it is truly magnificent. The story does not tell if God forgave them their sins of usury.

The Chapel remained in the Scrovegni family until 1821 when it was purchased by the City of Padua. The chapel was in poor shape by then but worse was to come, the building was attached to the Scrovegni family palace and it was demolished in 1824, then the stucco covering the outside walls of the chapel was removed exposing for the first time the brick to the elements, the chapel is built in a former Roman arena from antiquity and the ground is water logged.  You can well imagine that in no time at all the frescoes covering the entire walls and ceiling started to show signs of mildew in the form of mushroom growth. Then in 1944 Padova was badly bombed by the allies, the surrounding buildings were heavely damaged and the chapel itself suffered from the tremor of the explosions.

In the last 50 years the Italian State and the City of Padua have spent millions of Euros to restore and save the building and the frescoes of Giotto, it was well worth it. You can see artwork 700 years old from the master who introduced to the western world modern painting concepts. In order to view the inside of the chapel you must reserve in advance and obtain tickets, it is a small space. Once you arrive at the site you will be brought inside a special room and watch a short film presentation, after 15 minutes in this room, a special door will open unto a corridor which use to be attached to the long gone palace and you can walk into the chapel with the guards. The reason why you spend 15 minutes in the temperature control room is in order to reduce the level of humidity from the outside and balance it with the levels found inside the chapel so the fragile frescoes are not damaged. No photos allowed and you can only spend 15 minutes admiring the artwork, a bell will sound and you must leave.  If you come to Padua, I highly recommend visiting the Scrovegni Family Chapel.

We then went for a coffee at Caffe Cavour on Piazza Cavour, again a great place for coffee but also for lunch, the menu looked great and had some really interesting Northern Italian dishes. So we decided that we would come back for lunch. We then went to visit the Baptistry of the Cathedral of Padua. The Baptistry is a round building and it is located next to the Cathedral as was the tradition in earlier Christian times to have such buildings outside a church where the person wishing to enter the Christian assembly would be first welcomed through baptism and later would come to the church proper by way of first communion and confirmation.

The round Baptistry next to the unfinished facade of the Cathedral of Padua.

The painter who decorated the baptistry is one Giusto De' Menabuoi, it is done in a Byzantine Venitian Style, absolutely stunning. At the very top of the dome is this huge Christ done in Byzantine fashion as master of the universe, solemn and majestic, surrounded by circles of angels and saints, below him stands the Virgin Mary as Queen of Heaven. The surrounding walls are covered with all the stories of the Old Testament, truly impressive. There is also another fresco where Christ sitting creates the world, here the universe is represented with all the signs of the zodiac and the earth is shown as it was then known. What I found different about this fresco, is that usually in Rome it is God the Father who occupies that role and not God the Son. But here De' Menabuoi simply works on the Christian concept that Father and Son are one and the same. The baptistry was built in 1100 built and painted by Giusto De' Menabuoi in 1370.

The wood horse in the Great Hall in the Palazzo della Ragione

We then returned to Caffe Cavour for lunch and had a cream soup of Anise and brocoli topped with grated Parmesan cheese, the main course was a paper thin omelette stuffed with shavings of zucchini and  Asiago cheese on a bed of arrugola salad. It was soooooo good.

After lunch we walked some more toward the Palazzo della Ragione (Reason) also known as City Hall, strange that the concept of reason would be associated with municipal administration, it was also used as a Hall of Justice, built around 1218, the ground floor has been a daily market place for the last 800 years and today the shoppers were there in large numbers. The great room on the second floor (218 meters long) has a fantastic wood beam ceiling that soars high above you and the walls are decorated with frescoes and various themes.  At one end of the room stands this enormous statue of a wood horse. The horse is so big 4 men can sit in its belly. It was built for a party by the Capodilista Family in 1466 and paraded through town,when the party was over the horse was returned to the Palace of the Capodilista and it was used in future years when plays on the siege of Troy were performed. Finally in 1837 the family gave it to the City and it is now in the great hall.

The many domes of the Basilica del Santo, (St-Anthony of Padua)

After all this walking we decided to head back to the hotel while passing in front of the Basilica of the Saint, I decided to enter, Will went on to the hotel. But that story is for another entry.