Louvre musée, THE CALVARY
THE CALVARY
Andrea Mantegna, 1457-1459, 67x93 cm, tempera on wood.
Andrea Mantegna was the son of a poor woodcutter. He was born in 1431 in Isola di Cartura in the Republic of Venisia. When he was about 10 years old he entered the workshop of the painter Francesco Squarcione, in Padua. There was much interest in collecting and studying roman antiquities at that time and Squarcione had a great collection of statues and low-relief. Mantegna was the most talented student Squarcione had. So he dccided to adopt him.He tought him latin and gave him roman sculptures to study. At the age of 17 Mantegna left him and set up his own workshop. In 1453, he married Nicolosia Bellini whose brothers were the famous painters Giovanni and Gentile and so entered the most powerful family of venitian painters. In 1460 he started to work for the marchioness of Gonzague in Mantua and did it until his death. So he became painter of the court. He was also well known as an engraver, because he brought the engraving on copper tecnic to northern Italy but this topic is hard to study because he only signed one plate on the 50 we know.
This painting was made in Verone around 1457-1459 and it was the central piece of the lower part of a trypich realised for the San Zenon Maggiore church in Verone. Actually the central painting represents a Sacra conversazione which means the Virgin with the Child in majesty surrounded by angels playing music.On the lateral panels saints are reading, discussing and meditating. The lower part is composed of the Agony of the Christ, the Calvary and the Resurrection (in the Fine Arts museum of Tours).This painting is a tempera on a wooden panel ( egg yolk to bind pigments) and it’s 93cm long and 67cm width.
The Calvary represents the Crucifixion of the Christ, the Good robber and the Impenitent thief on either side on the Golgotha mount. Golgotha means skull and we recognize skulls at the feet of the Christ and on the left. Mantegna choosed the italian tradition of the representation of the Calvary, told by the four evangelists, with a multiplication of the figures. We notice two different groups : the one on the left represents Saint John the Baptist and 5 women whom the Virgin, Mary wife of Clopas and Mary Magdala. While the Virgin is falling down the four other women try to comfort her. On the right are represented the four roman soldiers. The one with a spear in the center had just hit the body of the Christ with it to check his death. So the other soldiers playing with dice can win Jesus’s clothes.The inscription INRI written on a panel above the Christ means “Jesus of Nazareth king of the jews”, an ironic title given by roman soldiers. In the background the scene is opening on a wide landscape where the city of Jerusalem raise on the left. The composition is made of a subtle layout of oblique lines:
. Perspective lines of the failures in the ground
. The slop of the hill of Jerusalem on the left
. The wall of rocks on the right
All these lines meet at the center under the feet of the Christ = linear perspective.
The sky gets clearer in the background = aerial perspective.
This organisation makes the central cross emerge from the background. The vertical line is repeted by the rigid attitude of the figures and by the spear of the captain and balanced by the horizontal lines of the parallel clouds. Each point of the composition is conceived with a great intellectual rigor. Actually the perspective and the optical illusion is one of his favourite subject of research, because Mantegna read the famous book of Alberti. Alberti said that the most important in painting was : the imitation of the nature by the perspective and the roman art as the best expression of art. More over he learnt roman art with the Squarciones’s collection. So he decided to dress his figures with deep and stretch folds imitating the roman wet drapery. He was used to study severe and cold antic marbles and this is why the painting shows a great precision of the line, a dignity and an ideal in the representation of the figures. This makes his art looking a bit rigid and austere. Actually the style is dry, very finished and graphical we find some patches of vivid colours on the garments but the principal colours are cold and the surface is glazed. Petrified figures seem to be made of the mineral material of the rocks. The bodies are skeletal and tight and we guess the bones under the skin and the muscles which shows a great mastery of the anatomy that remains antic statues. The tension of the lines and the visible pain of the figures brings a dramatic touch to this frozen universe and violence to the scene. This is why we can say that this painting is one of the most tragic picture of the Crucifixion. Actually in the works of art of Mantegna, the beauty and the seduction are often lacking to emphasize the tension of energy and passion expressed through the rigor of his high ideals and his sober genius. This work shows his constant curiosity for the antiquity studied and interpreted with a critical intelligence. Mantegna probably represents the most accomplished model of the humanist artist.
STONEY MANNER
TRANSPARENCY OF THE LIGHT ( Ottomani’s vocabulary)