6. ‘The Five Disciples,’ by Albert Dürer, seem intended to form part of a complete set. We have St. Paul, St. Bartholomew, St. Thomas, St. Philip, and St. Simon. The two last are the finest, and are most grandly conceived.
These are examples of the simplest devotional treatment.
When the Apostles are grouped together in various historical scenes,—some scriptural, some legendary—they are more interesting as individual personages; and the treatment should be more characteristic. Some of these subjects belong properly to the life of Christ: as the Delivery of the Keys to Peter; the Transfiguration; the Entry into Jerusalem; the Last Supper; the Ascension. Others, as the Death and Assumption of the Virgin, will be considered in the legends of the Madonna. But there are others, again, which refer more particularly to the personal history of the Apostles, as related in the Acts and in the Legends.
The Descent of the Holy Ghost was the first and most important event after the Ascension of Christ. It is thus described: ‘When the day of Pentecost was fully come, they were all with one accord in one place. And suddenly there came a sound from heaven, as of a rushing mighty wind, and it filled all the house where they were sitting. And there appeared unto them cloven tongues, like as of fire, and sat upon each of them, and they were all filled with the Holy Ghost, and began to speak with other tongues, as the Spirit gave them utterance. And there were dwelling at Jerusalem Jews, devout men, out of every nation under heaven. Now when this was noised abroad the multitude came together, and were confounded, because that every man heard them speak in his own language.... But this is that which was spoken by the prophet Joel.’ (Acts ii. 1-12, 16.)
According to the usual interpretation, the word they, in the first verse, does not signify the Apostles merely, but, with them, ‘the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus, and his brethren:’ hence in so many representations of this subject the Virgin is not only present, but a principal person: Mary Magdalene and others are also frequently introduced.
1. The most striking example I have yet met with is the grand mosaic in the principal dome of St. Mark’s at Venice. In the apex of the dome is seen the Celestial Dove in a glory of light; rays proceed from the centre on every side, and fall on the heads of the Virgin and the Twelve Apostles, seated in a circle. Lower down is a series of twelve figures standing all round the dome: ‘Parthians, Medes, and Elamites, the dwellers in Mesopotamia, Judea, Cappadocia, Pontus, Asia, Phrygia, Pamphylia, Cretes and Arabians,’—each nation represented by one person, and all in strange dresses, and looking up with amazement.
2. The Twelve Apostles and the Virgin are seen above seated in an enclosure; tongues of fire descend from heaven; beneath is a closed door, at which several persons in strange foreign dresses, with turbans, &c., are listening with amazement. One of these is in the Chinese costume,—a curious circumstance, considering the age of the picture, and which could have occurred at that date nowhere but at Venice.[152]
3. In the interior of a temple, sustained by slender pillars, the Twelve Apostles are seated in a circle, and in the midst the Virgin, tongues of fire on each head. Here the Virgin is the principal person.[153]
4. An interior, the Twelve Apostles seated in a circle; above them, the Celestial Dove in a glory, and from his beak proceed twelve tongues of flame; underneath, in a small arch, is the prophet Joel, as an old man crowned with a kingly crown and holding twelve rolls or scrolls, indicating the Gospel in so many different languages. The allusion is to the words of Joel, ii. 28: ‘And I will pour out my Spirit upon all flesh.’[154] This is the Greek formula, and it is curious that it should have been closely followed by Pinturicchio;—thus: