Curiosities of Christian History Prior to the Reformation

by James Paterson

On the road from Anna to Varallo, in North Italy, the Sacro Monte, an eminence of great beauty, is seen and is resorted to by pilgrims from all quarters. At the foot is the church of St. Francis, where the wall dividing the nave from the choir is painted in fresco in nineteen compartments, representing the chief events in the life of the Saviour. The hill of the Sacro Monte is covered with a series of fifty chapels or oratories, containing groups of figures of characters executed in terra-cotta, painted and clothed. They are grouped so as to represent passages in Christ’s history. The structures are never entered, being merely frames or cases to contain the respective subjects, which are viewed from two or three peepholes in front. Some of the figures are very indifferent works of art; others are of great merit. The oratories are richly decorated with façades, porticoes, and domes, and the figures are the size of life. The walls are all painted, and painters, sculptors, and architects have vied in producing their highest arts of embellishment. Much effect is produced by the situation of some of the groups. The access to the place where Christ is laid in the sepulchre is by a vault where little light is admitted; and as it is difficult on entering from the open day to distinguish at first any object, the result is very impressive. Many of the figures are clothed in real drapery, and some have real hair. The executioners conducting the Saviour to Calvary are made as hideous and repulsive as possible, and are represented with goitres appended to their throats. This Sacro Monte originated in the piety of the blessed St. Bernardino Caimo, or Coloto, a Milanese noble.

MIRACULOUS IMAGES IN SPAIN.

In Spain all classes were devout believers in miraculous images and effigies of all kinds. Holy kerchiefs were preserved at Alicante, stamped with the Saviour’s face; and winding-sheets revealing the same print were adored at Oviedo. In his “History of Painting” Palomino relates how a Christian and Jew labouring in a vineyard disputed about the Messiah, until the Jew, losing patience, exclaimed he would believe in Christ if He would emerge from that vine stock, and which thereupon forthwith became a crucifix. He also tells how at Valencia, on the death of a devout lady, the wax dropping from a taper that burned before her coffin shaped itself into a crucifix, and was treasured as a relic. Once an artist was employed by St. Theresa to paint our Lord at the column as she had beheld Him in a vision; and after failing to express the lady abbess’s ideas, he at last found his unsatisfactory picture had been finished to perfection by an angel artist. And at a later time, when this same picture was restored, the nuns were told by the two artists employed that they saw the very finger of the angel as it traced the outlines. And when a pilgrim was engaged at Calatayud to paint St. Ignatius Loyola, he did it so well that he was supposed to be an angel in disguise. And by the same Divine influences the portrait of St. Jerome and the lion was found traced in the mottlings of a jasper.

CIMABUE’S PICTURE OF THE MADONNA (1302).

Cimabue, an Italian painter, who died in 1302, painted for a church in Florence a picture of the Madonna, which excited great enthusiasm in the public. Charles of Anjou, King of Naples, passing through Florence while the artist was at work, was taken to see it at the artist’s studio in a garden. It had been till then only known to confidants; but when the rumour spread, all Florence crowded to have a glimpse. Nothing before that period had been seen in Tuscany like this picture. When finished, it was carried in solemn procession to the church, followed by the whole population, and with such triumph and rejoicing that the quarter where the painter lived took its name from this event. The figure of the Virgin, as now judged by critics, is neither beautiful nor graceful, but there is a dignity and a majesty in her mien and an expression of inward ponderings and sad anticipations rising from her heart to her eyes which rivet the memory. The Child, too, blessing with His right hand is full of deity; and the attendant angels, though like each other as twins, have much grace and sweetness. The picture still hangs in the church of the Dominicans in Santa Maria Novella. Cimabue was one of those conscientious painters who, on noticing the least blemish in his work, would destroy it without compunction, however much trouble it had caused him.

THE BISHOP’S APE TAKES TO PAINTING (1302).

In 1302 Buonamico Buffalmacco, the painter, was passing through Arezzo, when Bishop Guido, hearing of his being a cheerful companion as well as great artist, requested him to stay with him and paint the chapel where the baptistery now is, the subject being “the Crucifixion.” The painter set to work and completed a large part of it. It happened that the bishop had a large ape of extraordinary cunning and full of mischief, and which sometimes stood on the scaffold watching the work with great interest, particularly the mode of mixing the colours and pouring out from the various flasks, and beating up the eggs. One Sunday morning the ape contrived, in the absence of the painter, to get on the scaffold and see if he could not do that work too. It then fell upon the brushes and pots and pencils; and having mimicked the artist’s ways, poured all the colours into one basin, and with a large brush proceeded shortly to cover the whole canvas with artistic flourishes. On Monday morning the artist, on returning, was horrified at the result, and at once attributed it to some envious person, whom he named to the bishop as the suspected culprit. The bishop was greatly annoyed, but, nevertheless, prevailed on the artist to return to his work, and he said he would provide six soldiers with drawn swords to remain concealed and on the watch, to cut down the intruder without mercy, in case a repetition of the nefarious deed should occur. The figures were again painted by the artist, and after several days the soldiers took the alarm on hearing some strange sound of stealthy steps and movements, and then a figure clambering up to the scaffold and seizing the brushes. They noticed soon that this figure, after mixing the colours, painted with unseemly haste all the fine heads of saints which had been so carefully elaborated by the artist. They then summoned the artist himself to witness it, whereupon they all were unable to contain themselves for laughter at the grotesque handiwork of the amateur ape, which was the real culprit. The artist betook himself at once to the bishop, and said, “My lord, you desire to have your chapel painted in one fashion, but your ape chooses to have it done in another fashion.” Then he told the story of what he had seen, and added: “There’s no need for your lordship to send to foreign parts for a painter since you have a master of colour already in your house. Perhaps he did not at first fully understand how to mix the colours, but he is now evidently well acquainted with the whole secret, and can proceed without further help. I am no longer required here since we have discovered his talents, and I will ask no other reward for my labours except permission to return home.” The bishop made suitable apologies and begged the artist once more to resume his work, and he would for its crimes shut up the ape in a strong wooden cage, and have it fastened on the scaffold, where it might spend its jealousy and rage in witnessing without having the power of further marring the work. The artist afterwards went to Pisa and covered the roofs and walls of the abbey of St. Paul with pictures from Old Testament subjects, which greatly pleased the people frequenting that place. And many other admirable sacred works were finished in Florence and other places by the same pencil.

THE PAINTER’S CRITICS AND BAD DEBTS (1342).

The same Buffalmacco was engaged by the town of Perugia to paint their patron saint Herculanus for their market-place, and the price was agreed on. The painter erected scaffolds and also enclosed himself with boards, so as to keep the people from overlooking him in his labours. After ten days had passed, the people passing used to stop and wonder how long he was going to take to finish his picture, as they seemed to think such work could be turned out by the yard from a mould, so that the artist became worried and pestered with their importunities. The people became day by day more impatient, until the artist determined he would serve them out. So after some days’ preparation he admitted them to look at the work when near its completion, and they were greatly pleased, and all they next wanted was that he would remove the scaffolding entirely. He said this could not be done for two days longer, as he wished to retouch part of the picture when thoroughly dried. This was allowed. The artist had originally intended the saint’s head to have a great diadem in relievo of richly gilt plaster, as was then the custom. He now, remounting his scaffold, substituted for the original another coronet or garland surrounded with gudgeons. Next morning he went off to Florence, and when the people had to take down the scaffold and saw the affront put on them, they proposed to send horsemen in pursuit; but in the end they had to get another artist to set the diadem right and erase the silly gudgeons. The same artist was employed to paint a fresco for a country church at Calcindia, a picture of the Virgin holding the Infant Christ in her arms. He found the employer dilatory in payment, so he went and changed the Infant Christ into a bear, using water-colours only. The employer thereupon was in despair, and implored him to restore the Holy Child, and if so he would pay at once all demands. The money being forthcoming, the painter with a wet sponge easily removed the bear and restored the work.