Cologne
Cologne is the largest city of Germany's most populous federal state of North Rhine-Westphalia, its 1 million+ inhabitants make it the fourth most populous city in Germany after Berlin and Munich. The largest city on the Rhine, it is the most populous city both of the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Region, Germany's largest and one of Europe's major metropolitan areas, of the Rhineland. Centred on the left bank of the Rhine, Cologne is about 45 kilometres southeast of North Rhine-Westphalia's capital of Düsseldorf and 25 kilometres northwest of Bonn, it is the largest city in the Central Ripuarian dialect areas. The city's famous Cologne Cathedral is the seat of the Catholic Archbishop of Cologne. There are many institutions of higher education in the city, most notably the University of Cologne, one of Europe's oldest and largest universities, the Technical University of Cologne, Germany's largest university of applied sciences, the German Sport University Cologne, Germany's only sport university.
Cologne Bonn Airport lies in the southeast of the city. The main airport for the Rhine-Ruhr region is Düsseldorf Airport. Cologne was founded and established in Ubii territory in the 1st century AD as the Roman Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium, the first word of, the origin of its name. An alternative Latin name of the settlement is Augusta Ubiorum, after the Ubii. "Cologne", the French version of the city's name, has become standard in English as well. The city functioned as the capital of the Roman province of Germania Inferior and as the headquarters of the Roman military in the region until occupied by the Franks in 462. During the Middle Ages it flourished on one of the most important major trade routes between east and west in Europe. Cologne was one of the leading members of the Hanseatic League and one of the largest cities north of the Alps in medieval and Renaissance times. Prior to World War II the city had undergone several occupations by the French and by the British. Cologne was one of the most bombed cities in Germany during World War II, with the Royal Air Force dropping 34,711 long tons of bombs on the city.
The bombing reduced the population by 95% due to evacuation, destroyed the entire city. With the intention of restoring as many historic buildings as possible, the successful postwar rebuilding has resulted in a mixed and unique cityscape. Cologne is a major cultural centre for the Rhineland. Exhibitions range from local ancient Roman archeological sites to contemporary graphics and sculpture; the Cologne Trade Fair hosts a number of trade shows such as Art Cologne, imm Cologne and the Photokina. The first urban settlement on the grounds of modern-day Cologne was Oppidum Ubiorum, founded in 38 BC by the Ubii, a Cisrhenian Germanic tribe. In 50 AD, the Romans founded Colonia Claudia Ara Agrippinensium on the river Rhine and the city became the provincial capital of Germania Inferior in 85 AD. Considerable Roman remains can be found in present-day Cologne near the wharf area, where a 1,900-year-old Roman boat was discovered in late 2007. From 260 to 271 Cologne was the capital of the Gallic Empire under Postumus and Victorinus.
In 310 under emperor Constantine I a bridge was built over the Rhine at Cologne. Roman imperial governors resided in the city and it became one of the most important trade and production centres in the Roman Empire north of the Alps. Cologne is shown on the 4th century Peutinger Map. Maternus, elected as bishop in 313, was the first known bishop of Cologne; the city was the capital of a Roman province until it was occupied by the Ripuarian Franks in 462. Parts of the original Roman sewers are preserved underneath the city, with the new sewerage system having opened in 1890. Early medieval Cologne was part of Austrasia within the Frankish Empire. In 716, Charles Martel commanded an army for the first time and suffered the only defeat of his life when Chilperic II, King of Neustria, invaded Austrasia and the city fell to him in the Battle of Cologne. Charles fled to the Eifel mountains, rallied supporters, took the city back that same year after defeating Chilperic in the Battle of Amblève. Cologne had been the seat of a bishop since the Roman period.
In 843, Cologne became a city within the Treaty of Verdun-created East Francia. In 953, the archbishops of Cologne first gained noteworthy secular power, when bishop Bruno was appointed as duke by his brother Otto I, King of Germany. In order to weaken the secular nobility, who threatened his power, Otto endowed Bruno and his successors on the bishop's see with the prerogatives of secular princes, thus establishing the Electorate of Cologne, formed by the temporal possessions of the archbishopric and included in the end a strip of territory along the left Bank of the Rhine east of Jülich, as well as the Duchy of Westphalia on the other side of the Rhine, beyond Berg and Mark. By the end of the 12th century, the Archbishop of Cologne was one of the seven electors of the Holy Roman Emperor. Besides being prince elector, he was Arch-chancellor of Italy as well, technically from 1238 and permanently from 1263 until 1803. Following the Battle of Worringen in 1288, Cologne gained its independence from the archbishops and became a Free City.
Archbishop Sigfried II von Westerburg was forced to reside in Bonn. The archbishop preserv
Joseph of Arimathea
Joseph of Arimathea was, according to all four canonical Christian Gospels, the man who assumed responsibility for the burial of Jesus after his crucifixion. A number of stories that developed during the Middle Ages connect him with Glastonbury, where the stories said he founded the earliest Christian oratory, with the Holy Grail legend. Matthew 27:57 described him as a rich man and disciple of Jesus, but according to Mark 15:43 Joseph of Arimathea was "a respected member of the council, himself looking for the kingdom of God". According to John 19:38, upon hearing of Jesus' death, this secret disciple of Jesus "asked Pilate that he might take away the body of Jesus, Pilate gave him permission." Joseph purchased a linen shroud and proceeded to Golgotha to take the body of Jesus down from the cross. There, according to John 19:39-40, Joseph and Nicodemus took the body and bound it in linen cloths with the spices that Nicodemus had bought; the disciples conveyed the prepared corpse to a man-made cave hewn from rock in a garden of his house nearby.
The Gospel of Matthew alone suggests. The burial was undertaken speedily, "for the Sabbath was drawing on". Joseph of Arimathea is venerated as a saint by the Roman Catholic, Eastern Orthodox, some Protestant churches; the traditional Roman calendar marked his feast day on March 17, but he is now listed, along with Saint Nicodemus, on August 31 in the Martyrologium Romanum. Eastern Orthodox churches commemorate him on the Third Sunday of Pascha and on July 31, the date shared by Lutheran churches. Although a series of legends developed during the Middle Ages tied this Joseph to Britain as well as the Holy Grail, he is not on the abbreviated liturgical calendar of the Church of England, although this Joseph is on the calendars of some churches of the Anglican communion, such as the Episcopal Church, which commemorates him on August 1. Many Christians interpret Joseph's role as fulfilling Isaiah's prediction that the grave of the "Suffering Servant" would be with a rich man, assuming that Isaiah was referring to the Messiah.
The prophecy in Isaiah chapter 53 is known as the "Man of Sorrows" passage: He was assigned a grave with the wicked, with the rich in his death, though he had done no violence, nor was any deceit in his mouth. The Greek Septuagint text: And I will give the wicked for his burial, the rich for his death. Since the 2nd century, a mass of legendary detail has accumulated around the figure of Joseph of Arimathea in addition to the New Testament references. Joseph is referenced in apocryphal and non-canonical accounts such as the Acts of Pilate, a text appended to the medieval Gospel of Nicodemus and The Narrative of Joseph, mentioned in the works of early church historians such as Irenaeus, Hippolytus and Eusebius, who added details not found in the canonical accounts. Francis Gigot, writing in the Catholic Encyclopedia, states that "the additional details which are found concerning him in the apocryphal Acta Pilati, are unworthy of credence."Hilary of Poitiers enriched the legend, Saint John Chrysostom, the Patriarch of Constantinople, was the first to write that Joseph was one of the Seventy Apostles appointed in Luke 10.
During the late 12th century, Joseph became connected with the Arthurian cycle, appearing in them as the first keeper of the Holy Grail. This idea first appears in Robert de Boron's Joseph d'Arimathie, in which Joseph receives the Grail from an apparition of Jesus and sends it with his followers to Britain; this theme is elaborated upon in subsequent Arthurian works penned by others. Retellings of the story contend that Joseph of Arimathea himself travelled to Britain and became the first Christian bishop in the Isles, a claim Gigot characterizes as a fable; the Gospel of Nicodemus, a text appended to the Acts of Pilate, provides additional details about Joseph. For instance, after Joseph asked Pilate for the body of the Christ, prepared the body with Nicodemus' help, Christ's body was delivered to a new tomb that Joseph had built for himself. In the Gospel of Nicodemus, the Jewish elders express anger at Joseph for burying the body of Christ, saying: And Joseph stepped out and said to them: Why are you angry against me because I begged the body of Jesus?
Behold, I have put him in my new tomb. And you have acted not well against the just man, because you have not repented of crucifying him, but have pierced him with a spear; the Jewish elders captured Joseph, imprisoned him, placed a seal on the door to his cell after first posting a guard. Joseph warned the elders, "The Son of God whom you hanged upon the cross, is able to deliver me out of your hands. All your wickedness will return upon you." Once the elders returned to the cell, the seal was still in place. The elders discover that Joseph had returned to Arimathea. Having a change in heart, the elders desired to have a more civil conversation with Joseph about his actions and sent a letter of apology to him by means of seven of his friends. Joseph travelled back from Arimathea to Jerusalem to meet with the elders, where they questioned him about his escape, he told them this story. And when m
Andachtsbilder
Andachtsbilder is a German term used in English in art history for Christian devotional images designed as aids for prayer or contemplation. The images "generally show holy figures extracted from a narrative context to form a focused, very powerful, vignette"; the term is used of Northern Gothic art around the 14th and 15th centuries, when new subjects such as the Pietà, Pensive Christ, Man of Sorrows, Arma Christi, Veil of Veronica, the severed head of John the Baptist, the Virgin of Sorrows became popular. The term was first devised for a group of sculptural subjects, including the Pietà and Pensive Christ, that were thought to have emerged in convents in south-western Germany in the 14th century, although their history is now believed to be more complicated. In churches such images were given a side-chapel, sometimes are given special places in the rituals of Holy Week. For example, consecrated hosts might be stored in the cavity of the spear wound in a sculpted Pietà between Good Friday and Easter Sunday.
Traditional subjects from the narrative of the Passion of Christ such as the Ecce Homo and the Crucifixion of Jesus were treated in the same way. Though the Crucifix had been treated as an intense, isolated image for centuries, at least as far back as the 10th century Gero Cross in Cologne, many images showed a new emphasis on graphically depicted streaming blood and contorted poses; this process started around 1300, so the influence appears to be from the Crucifixion to other subjects. The traditional Ecce Homo is a crowded scene, in which the figure of Christ is less prominent than those of his captors, but in the andachtsbilder versions the other figures and complex architectural background have vanished, leaving only Christ, with a plain background in most painted versions. Andachtsbilder have a strong emphasis on the grief and suffering of Christ and the figures close to him, their use was encouraged by movements such as the Franciscans, the Devotio Moderna and German mysticism in late medieval Europe, which promoted meditation on the sufferings of Christ by intense mental visualization of them and their physical effects.
The most extreme gruesome, examples came from the eastern edge of the Holy Roman Empire and beyond in Poland and the Baltic states, where large carved gobbets of congealed blood can cover the body. But the style spread all over Europe, including Italy, although the extremes of emotionalism were avoided there until the Baroque; the term is used for small works intended for personal contemplation in the home. By the 15th century the emerging urban middle classes of Northern Europe were able to afford small paintings or carvings; the depiction was very "close-up", with a half-length figure occupying nearly the whole picture space. Andachtsbilder subjects were very common in prints; however larger works for churches or outdoor display are covered by the term. By the mid-15th century andachtsbilder were influencing large monumental works, a process James Snyder discusses in relation to major works such as Rogier van der Weyden's Prado Deposition, the Isenheim Altarpiece of Matthias Grünewald and the carved Altarpiece of the Holy Blood by Tilman Riemenschneider at Rothenburg ob der Tauber.
The Mass of St Gregory, which included a vision of the Man of Sorrows, was a composition used on altarpieces which took a common andachtsbilder subject and expanded it into a subject suitable for more monumental works. The art historian Jeffrey F. Hamburger observed that the term has now "lost whatever precision it could lay claim to, having been applied to any object that might have been used to stimulate devotional experience". Although works in the andachtsbilder tradition remained popular in Catholic art for centuries, for example in Baroque Spain and Italy, the term is less to be applied to much images; the English term "devotional image" or "picture" etc. can apply to a wide range of images, in all media, included modern commercially printed reproductions or prayer cards those featuring a portrait-like image rather than a narrative scene. Elkins, James and Tears: A History of People Who Have Cried in Front of Paintings, Routledge, 2004, ISBN 0-415-97053-9, ISBN 978-0-415-97053-2 google books Hamburger, Jeffrey F..
Medieval Art, a topical dictionary, Greenwood Publishing Group, 1996, ISBN 0-313-29329-5, ISBN 978-0-313-29329-0 Google books Schiller, Gertrud.
Louvre
The Louvre, or the Louvre Museum, is the world's largest art museum and a historic monument in Paris, France. A central landmark of the city, it is located on the Right Bank of the Seine in the city's 1st arrondissement. 38,000 objects from prehistory to the 21st century are exhibited over an area of 72,735 square metres. In 2018, the Louvre was the world's most visited art museum; the museum is housed in the Louvre Palace built as the Louvre castle in the late 12th to 13th century under Philip II. Remnants of the fortress are visible in the basement of the museum. Due to the urban expansion of the city, the fortress lost its defensive function and, in 1546, was converted by Francis I into the main residence of the French Kings; the building was extended many times to form the present Louvre Palace. In 1682, Louis XIV chose the Palace of Versailles for his household, leaving the Louvre as a place to display the royal collection, from 1692, a collection of ancient Greek and Roman sculpture. In 1692, the building was occupied by the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres and the Académie Royale de Peinture et de Sculpture, which in 1699 held the first of a series of salons.
The Académie remained at the Louvre for 100 years. During the French Revolution, the National Assembly decreed that the Louvre should be used as a museum to display the nation's masterpieces; the museum opened on 10 August 1793 with an exhibition of 537 paintings, the majority of the works being royal and confiscated church property. Because of structural problems with the building, the museum was closed in 1796 until 1801; the collection was increased under Napoleon and the museum was renamed Musée Napoléon, but after Napoleon's abdication many works seized by his armies were returned to their original owners. The collection was further increased during the reigns of Louis XVIII and Charles X, during the Second French Empire the museum gained 20,000 pieces. Holdings have grown through donations and bequests since the Third Republic; the collection is divided among eight curatorial departments: Egyptian Antiquities. The Louvre Palace, which houses the museum, was begun as a fortress by Philip II in the 12th century to protect the city from English soldiers which were in Normandy.
Remnants of this castle are still visible in the crypt. Whether this was the first building on that spot is not known. According to the authoritative Grand Larousse encyclopédique, the name derives from an association with wolf hunting den. In the 7th century, St. Fare, an abbess in Meaux, left part of her "Villa called Luvra situated in the region of Paris" to a monastery.. The Louvre Palace was altered throughout the Middle Ages. In the 14th century, Charles V converted the building into a residence and in 1546, Francis I renovated the site in French Renaissance style. Francis acquired what would become the nucleus of the Louvre's holdings, his acquisitions including Leonardo da Vinci's Mona Lisa. After Louis XIV chose Versailles as his residence in 1682, constructions slowed. Four generations of Boulle were granted Royal patronage and resided in the Louvre in the following order: Pierre Boulle, Jean Boulle, Andre-Charles Boulle and his four sons, after him. André-Charles Boulle is the most famous French cabinetmaker and the preeminent artist in the field of marquetry known as "Inlay".
Boulle was "the most remarkable of all French cabinetmakers". He was commended to Louis XIV of France, the "Sun King", by Jean-Baptiste Colbert as being "the most skilled craftsman in his profession". Before the fire of 1720 destroyed them, André-Charles Boulle held priceless works of art in the Louvre, including forty-eight drawings by Raphael'. By the mid-18th century there were an increasing number of proposals to create a public gallery, with the art critic La Font de Saint-Yenne publishing, in 1747, a call for a display of the royal collection. On 14 October 1750, Louis XV agreed and sanctioned a display of 96 pieces from the royal collection, mounted in the Galerie royale de peinture of the Luxembourg Palace. A hall was opened by Le Normant de Tournehem and the Marquis de Marigny for public viewing of the Tableaux du Roy on Wednesdays and Saturdays, contained Andrea del Sarto's Charity and works by Raphael. Under Louis XVI, the royal museum idea became policy; the comte d'Angiviller broadened the collection and in 1776 proposed conversion of the Grande Galerie of the Louvre – which contained maps – into the "French Museum".
Many proposals were offered for the Louvre's renovation into a museum. Hence the museum remained incomplete until the French Revolution. During the French Revolution the Louvre was transformed into a public museum. In May 1791, the Assembly declared that the Louvre would be "a place for bringing together monuments of all the sciences and arts". On 10 August 1792, Louis XVI was imprisoned and the royal collection i
Christian art
Christian art is sacred art which uses themes and imagery from Christianity. Most Christian groups use or have used art to some extent, although some have had strong objections to some forms of religious image, there have been major periods of iconoclasm within Christianity. Images of Jesus and narrative scenes from the Life of Christ are the most common subjects, scenes from the Old Testament play a part in the art of most denominations. Images of the Virgin Mary and saints are much rarer in Protestant art than that of Roman Catholicism and Eastern Orthodoxy. Christianity makes far wider use of images than related religions, in which figurative representations are forbidden, such as Islam and Judaism. However, there is a considerable history of aniconism in Christianity from various periods. Early Christian art survives from dates near the origins of Christianity; the oldest Christian sculptures are from sarcophagi. The largest groups of Early Christian paintings come from the tombs in the Catacombs of Rome, show the evolution of the depiction of Jesus, a process not complete until the 6th century, since when the conventional appearance of Jesus in art has remained remarkably consistent.
Until the adoption of Christianity by Constantine Christian art derived its style and much of its iconography from popular Roman art, but from this point grand Christian buildings built under imperial patronage brought a need for Christian versions of Roman elite and official art, of which mosaics in churches in Rome are the most prominent surviving examples. Christian art was caught up in, but did not originate, the shift in style from the classical tradition inherited from Ancient Greek art to a less realist and otherworldly hieratic style, the start of gothic art. Much of the art surviving from Europe after the fall of the Western Roman Empire is Christian art, although this in large part because the continuity of church ownership has preserved church art better than secular works. While the Western Roman Empire's political structure collapsed after the fall of Rome, its religious hierarchy, what is today the modern-day Roman Catholic Church commissioned and funded production of religious art imagery.
The Orthodox Church of Constantinople, which enjoyed greater stability within the surviving Eastern Empire was key in commissioning imagery there and glorifying Christianity. As a stable Western European society emerged during the Middle Ages, the Catholic Church led the way in terms of art, using its resources to commission paintings and sculptures. During the development of Christian art in the Byzantine Empire, a more abstract aesthetic replaced the naturalism established in Hellenistic art; this new style was hieratic, meaning its primary purpose was to convey religious meaning rather than render objects and people. Realistic perspective, proportions and color were ignored in favor of geometric simplification of forms, reverse perspective and standardized conventions to portray individuals and events; the controversy over the use of graven images, the interpretation of the Second Commandment, the crisis of Byzantine Iconoclasm led to a standardization of religious imagery within the Eastern Orthodoxy.
The fall of Constantinople in 1453 brought an end to the highest quality Byzantine art, produced in the Imperial workshops there. Orthodox art, known as icons regardless of the medium, has otherwise continued with little change in subject and style up to the present day, with Russia becoming the leading centre of production. In the West, the Renaissance saw an increase in monumental secular works, but until the Protestant Reformation Christian art continued to be commissioned in great quantities by churches, clergy and by the aristocracy; the Reformation had a huge effect on Christian art bringing the production of public Christian art to a virtual halt in Protestant countries, causing the destruction of most of the art that existed. Artists were commissioned more secular genres like portraits, landscape paintings and because of the revival of Neoplatonism, subjects from classical mythology. In Catholic countries, production continued, increased during the Counter-Reformation, but Catholic art was brought under much tighter control by the church hierarchy than had been the case before.
From the 18th century the number of religious works produced by leading artists declined though important commissions were still placed, some artists continued to produce large bodies of religious art on their own initiative. As a secular, non-sectarian, universal notion of art arose in 19th-century Western Europe and Medieval Christian art began to be collected for art appreciation rather than worship, while contemporary Christian art was considered marginal. Secular artists treated Christian themes — but only was a Christian artist included in the historical canon; however many modern artists such as Eric Gill, Marc Chagall, Henri Matisse, Jacob Epstein, Elizabeth Frink and Graham Sutherland have produced well-known works of art for churches. Salvador Dali is an artist who had produced notable and popular artworks with Christian themes. Contemporary artists such as Makoto Fujimura have had significant influence both in sacred and secular arts. Other notable artists include John August Swanson.
Some writers, such as Gregory Wolfe, see this as part of a rebirth of Christian humanism. Since the advent of printing, the sale of reproductions of pious works has been a major element of popular Christian culture. In the 19th century, this included genre painters such as Mihály Munkácsy; the invention of color lith
Vatican City
Vatican City Vatican City State, is an independent city-state enclaved within Rome, Italy. Established with the Lateran Treaty, it is distinct from yet under "full ownership, exclusive dominion, sovereign authority and jurisdiction" of the Holy See. With an area of 44 hectares, a population of about 1,000, it is the smallest state in the world by both area and population; the Vatican City is an ecclesiastical or sacerdotal-monarchical state ruled by the pope who is, religiously speaking, the bishop of Rome and head of the Catholic Church. The highest state functionaries are all Catholic clergy of various national origins. Since the return of the popes from Avignon in 1377, they have resided at the Apostolic Palace within what is now Vatican City, although at times residing instead in the Quirinal Palace in Rome or elsewhere; the Holy See dates back to early Christianity, is the primate episcopal see of the Catholic Church, with 1.3 billion Catholics around the world distributed in the Latin Church and 23 Eastern Catholic Churches.
The independent Vatican City-state, on the other hand, came into existence in 11 February 1929 by the Lateran Treaty between the Holy See and Italy, which spoke of it as a new creation, not as a vestige of the much larger Papal States, which had encompassed much of central Italy. Within the Vatican City are religious and cultural sites such as St. Peter's Basilica, the Sistine Chapel and the Vatican Museums, they feature some of sculptures. The unique economy of Vatican City is supported financially by the sale of postage stamps and souvenirs, fees for admission to museums, sales of publications; the name Vatican City was first used in the Lateran Treaty, signed on 11 February 1929, which established the modern city-state. The name is taken from the geographic location of the state. "Vatican" is derived from the name of an Etruscan settlement, Vatica or Vaticum meaning garden, located in the general area the Romans called vaticanus ager, "Vatican territory". The official Italian name of the city is Città del Vaticano or, more formally, Stato della Città del Vaticano, meaning "Vatican City State".
Although the Holy See and the Catholic Church use Ecclesiastical Latin in official documents, the Vatican City uses Italian. The Latin name is Status Civitatis Vaticanæ; the name "Vatican" was in use in the time of the Roman Republic for a marshy area on the west bank of the Tiber across from the city of Rome. Under the Roman Empire, many villas were constructed there, after Agrippina the Elder drained the area and laid out her gardens in the early 1st century AD. In AD 40, her son, Emperor Caligula built in her gardens a circus for charioteers, completed by Nero, the Circus Gaii et Neronis called the Circus of Nero. Before the arrival of Christianity, it is supposed that this uninhabited part of Rome had long been considered sacred, or at least not available for habitation. A shrine dedicated to the Phrygian goddess Cybele and her consort Attis remained active long after the Constantinian Basilica of St. Peter was built nearby; the low quality of Vatican water after the reclamation of the area, was commented on by the poet Martial.
Tacitus wrote, that in AD 69, the Year of the Four Emperors, when the northern army that brought Vitellius to power arrived in Rome, "a large proportion camped in the unhealthy districts of the Vatican, which resulted in many deaths among the common soldiery. The Vatican Obelisk was taken by Caligula from Heliopolis in Egypt to decorate the spina of his circus and is thus its last visible remnant; this area became the site of martyrdom of many Christians after the Great Fire of Rome in AD 64. Ancient tradition holds. Opposite the circus was a cemetery separated by the Via Cornelia. Funeral monuments and mausoleums and small tombs as well as altars to pagan gods of all kinds of polytheistic religions were constructed lasting until before the construction of the Constantinian Basilica of St. Peter's in the first half of the 4th century. Remains of this ancient necropolis were brought to light sporadically during renovations by various popes throughout the centuries, increasing in frequency during the Renaissance until it was systematically excavated by orders of Pope Pius XII from 1939 to 1941.
The Constantinian basilica was built in 326 over what was believed to be the tomb of Saint Peter, buried in that cemetery. From on, the area became more populated in connection with activity at the basilica. A palace was constructed nearby as early as the 5th century during the pontificate of Pope Symmachus. Popes came to have a secular role as governors of regions near Rome, they ruled the Papal States, which covered a large portion of the Italian peninsula, for more than a thousand years until the mid-19th century, when all the territory belonging to the papacy was seized by the newly created Kingdom of Italy. For most of this time the popes did not live at the Vatican; the Lateran Palace, on the opposite side
Lamentation of Christ
The Lamentation of Christ is a common subject in Christian art from the High Middle Ages to the Baroque. After Jesus was crucified, his body was removed from the cross and his friends mourned over his body; this event has been depicted by many different artists. Lamentation works are often included in cycles of the Life of Christ, form the subject of many individual works. One specific type of Lamentation depicts only Jesus' mother Mary cradling his body; these are known as Pietà. As the depiction of the Passion of Christ increased in complexity towards the end of the first millennium, a number of scenes were developed covering the period between the death of Jesus on the Cross and his being placed in his tomb; the accounts in the Canonical Gospels concentrate on the roles of Joseph of Arimathea and Nicodemus, but mention Mary and Mary Magdalene as present. Scenes showing Joseph negotiating with Pontius Pilate for permission to take Christ's body are rare in art; the Deposition of Christ, where the body is being taken down from the cross, shown always in a vertical or diagonal position still off the ground, was the first scene to be developed, appearing first in late 9th century Byzantine art, soon after in Ottonian miniatures.
The Bearing of the Body, showing Jesus' body being carried by Joseph and sometimes others was the image covering the whole period between Deposition and Entombment, remained usual in the Byzantine world. The laying-out of Jesus' body on a slab or bier, in Greek the Epitaphios, became an important subject in Byzantine art, with special types of cloth icon, the Epitaphios and the Antimension; the Entombment of Christ, showing the lowering of Christ's body into the tomb, was a Western innovation of the late 10th century. From these different images another type, the Lamentation itself, arose from the 11th century, always giving a more prominent position to Mary, who either holds the body, has it across her lap, or sometimes falls back in a state of collapse as Joseph and others hold the body. In a early Byzantine depiction of the 11th century, a scene of this type is placed just outside the mouth of the tomb, but around the same time other images place the scene at the foot of the empty cross - in effect relocating it in both time as well as space.
This became the standard scene in Western Gothic art, when the cross is subsequently seen less the landscape background is retained. In Early Netherlandish painting of the 15th century the three crosses appear in the background of the painting, a short distance from the scene. Lamentations did not appear in art north of the Alps until the 14th century, but became popular there, Northern versions further developed the centrality of Mary to the composition; the typical position of Christ's body changes from being flat on the ground or slab seen in profile across the centre of the work, to the upper torso being raised by Mary or others, being held in a near-vertical position, seen frontally, or across Mary's lap. Mary Magdalene holds Jesus' feet, Joseph is a bearded older man richly dressed. In populated Lamentations the figures shown with the body include The Three Marys, John the Apostle and Nicodemus, others of both sexes, not to mention angels and donor portraits. Giotto's famous depiction in the Scrovegni Chapel includes ten further female figures, who are not intended to be individualized as they have no halos.
The subject became a separate devotional image, concentrating on Mary's grief for her son, with less narrative emphasis. The Deposition of Christ and the Lamentation or Pietà form the 13th of the Stations of the Cross, one of Seven Sorrows of the Virgin, a common component of cycles of the Life of the Virgin, all of which increased the frequency with which the scene was depicted, as series of works based on these devotional themes became popular, it is not always possible to say whether a particular image should be regarded as a Lamentation or one of the other related subjects discussed above, museums and art historians are not always consistent in their naming. The famous Mantegna painting motivated by an interest in foreshortening, is an Anointing, many scenes Italian Trecento ones and those after 1500, share characteristics of the Lamentation and the Entombment. Ambrosius Benson's 16th century Lamentation triptych was stolen from the Nájera in 1913, it was resold several times. The last time was a Sotheby's auction in 2008, where it was purchased by an anonymous buyer for 1.46 million euros.
Lamentation of Christ, 1460s Lamentation over the Dead Christ with Saints Lamentation over the Dead Christ Lamentation of Christ Lamentation by Petrus Christus Lamentation over the Dead Christ, 1495 Lamentation of Christ, c. 1498 Lamentation of Christ, c. 1500 Lamentation of Christ, wood relief, c. 1510 Lamentation, c. 1520 Lamentation of Christ, 1511 Lamentation of Christ, by Maarten van Heemskerck, c. 1540 Life of Christ in art Life of Jesus in the New Testament G Schiller, Iconography of Christian Art, Vol. II,1972 (English trans fr
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