6 minute read
Art and devotion
Caroline Farey on a fresco by Filippino Lippi (1457-1504) in the Carafa Chapel in the Church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, Rome
This magnificent fresco painting by Filippino Lippi, including all the architectural pillars and arches, is painted on the back wall, directly behind the altar, of the Carafa chapel in the Church of Santa Maria Sopra Minerva, Rome. Cardinal Oliviero Carafa was the patron of this chapel which was dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and St Thomas Aquinas. This back wall is dedicated especially to the Blessed Virgin while the two side walls of the chapel are dedicated to St Thomas Aquinas.
The first thing to point out perhaps is that, sadly, there are many blank areas where the plaster has been affected by damp and the fresco has fallen away. Once these gaps have been noted, however, they do not seem to diminish the glory of the painting which still stunningly portrays its rich message.
The key to the whole wall painting is the half-hidden, black funeral pall stretched across the sky via two thin ropes. These are tied onto a pole from which the pall hangs like a dark roof just behind the ‘temple’ of the Annunciation. Patches of fresco have fallen away at each end of the pole to obscure this, but one can still see that these ropes are held at the top end by little cherub ‘putti’ sitting on the pilaster ledges at the sides of the chapel wall. The putti sit next to shields of red and white stripes which are Cardinal Carafa’s personal colours, thus indicating that this is his funerary chapel.
The funeral pall and its ropes, symbolising death, thus separate the earth below and heaven above; life before death and, in hope, life beyond death in heaven. The ropes create the finest of dividing lines between the upper register and the lower. In the upper register, the highly animated, musical and colourful dance of the angels around the Blessed Virgin symbolises the eternal life of joy in heaven.
In the background of the lower register, the struggling trees and vegetation amidst the fields and barren rocks, symbolise earthly life, especially perhaps that of Carafa, as well as of the apostles. As a Cardinal, Carafa’s life also included the role of politician and diplomat, and even a military leader since he was admiral of the papal fleet at one point, which fought against the Turks and defeated them.
Central to the panoply of life and death portrayed here, is the mystery of the Annunciation. The scene is placed in its own temple architecture immediately above the altar since it is there that the Word becomes flesh for us, as it did in the womb of the Blessed Virgin Mary. This temple structure may be deliberately to affirm Mary as the true ‘temple’ of the Holy Spirit, replacing the temple of the goddess Minerva (or some say Isis) on whose site this church is built over (Santa Maria sopra ‘over’ Minerva).
The artist, Filipino Lippi, was apparently present at the unearthing of some Roman ruins taking place at this time, from which he copied directly the ornate decoration of the columns. These pagan patterns are now placed to serve the true God made man in Mary.
The background to this annunciation scene is unusual. The Blessed Virgin is more often viewed in her bedroom or in a setting of Church architecture. Here she is in a library similar to Carafa’s own, with books behind her displaying his expansive personal interest in the arts and humanities. In accord with these interests, the pillar just behind Mary marks the ‘golden ratio’ between the two outer walls of the little building. It is sometimes called the ‘golden section’ or ‘divine ratio’ of perfect proportion. This ratio can be found throughout the natural world as a proportion of perfect harmony and therefore of beauty. It was used in ancient architecture and reapplied in the renaissance period in architecture and the fine arts.
Also, at the back of the room one can make out a glass carafe holding an olive branch which has a double meaning. Mary is the totally pure glass that contains the olive branch of the peace of the Holy Spirit. It also signifies the patron, whose full name is ‘Olivero Carafa’. Cardinal Carafa is the man kneeling in front of Mary contemplating the scene, with St Thomas Aquinas behind him.
The Church’s understanding of all the great mysteries of Mary, flows, above all, from the Scriptural text of the gospel of St Luke describing the annunciation of the angel Gabriel ‘to a virgin betrothed to a man whose name was Joseph, of the House of David, and the virgin’s name was Mary. And he came to her and said Hail, Full of Grace, the Lord is with you.’ (Luke 1:26-28).
In this sacred account, the Church has seen from the earliest times that Mary, ‘Full of Grace’, was ‘without sin’ from the beginning of her life and ‘ever virgin’ and that this was because she was chosen to be the ‘Mother of God’. By the presence of the Holy Spirit and these exceptional graces she continued in perfect grace all her life and so did not deserve death; which Scripture calls the ‘wages of sin’. The Eastern Church celebrated the feast of the ‘Dormition’ or ‘falling asleep’ of Mary from the earliest centuries. In the West this same belief was called the Assumption of Our Lady, body and soul, into heaven, after, as it were, having fallen asleep.
The doctrine of the Assumption of Our Blessed Lady, in the upper register of this wall painting, depends entirely, therefore, on the Annunciation painted immediately below it. The Assumption of Mary is the entrance of one who is not God, but the spouse and the bride of God, that is the Church, into heaven. Mary’s Assumption is a sign of the promise that, by the blood of Christ, the gates of paradise have been opened once more to mankind.
And it is the flesh and blood of Christ that are made present at the altar directly in front of the Annunciation scene and the entire vision surrounding it. The Liturgy on earth is being joined to the liturgy in heaven where angels as acolytes swing their thuribles, carry candles and form the clouds of incense and of prayer that make up the footstool under, and canopy around, the Blessed Virgin. Other angels sing and play musical instruments that indicate the polyphony that is just beginning to accompany the liturgies of the Church.
Returning to the foreground, we see the apostles gathered around an empty tomb just on the left of the temple of the Annunciation. They point or look upwards, leading those at Mass in this chapel to do the same and to keep their eyes fixed on the eternal world to come, with our Blessed Mother.
It is Mary herself, from her place in heaven, who unites herself with her beloved apostles on earth via her gaze of love towards the apostle John. He is on the right, clutching his red cloak, with his head bent back and his right hand open and raised towards his new mother who was given to him by Christ from the cross. He is our guide par excellence, for keeping our eyes fixed on Mary, the fulfilment and culmination of all the promises of God. 31
