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Paintings by Garofalo from the San Bernardino
Convent
8 August 2008 - 28 September 2008
The exhibition in the Winter Palace (Hall 152) has been organized by
the State Hermitage in conjunction with the Art Museum of the Far East
in Khabarovsk with the support of the Administration of the Khabarovsk
Territory, EMERCOM (the Russian Federation Ministry of Emergency Situations)
and the Hermitage–Italy Foundation.
The exhibition is devoted to Benvenuto Tisi da Garofalo (1481–1559),
one of the foremost artists in 16th-century Italy. In 1531 Garofalo suffered
the misfortune to go blind in one eye. In the hope of preserving his remaining
sight, the artist vowed to God to continue working without charge on a
series of paintings for the Convent of San Bernardino in his native city
of Ferrara. The nunnery had been founded in 1510 by Lucrezia Borgia, the
wife of Duke Alfonso d’Este. In keeping with the ruling family’s striving
to turn Ferrara into a “bulwark of Christianity”, Lucrezia generously
patronized the local convents.
The Convent of San Bernardino existed until 1798, when it was dissolved
as a result of Napoleon’s invasion. But as early as 1792 the impoverished
nuns sold eight canvases to Pope Pius VI. In 1840 Count Pio Braschi decided
to part with the valuables accumulated by his uncle, Pius VI. In accordance
with Nicholas I’s wishes, along with other items four paintings by Garofalo
were acquired for the Hermitage: The Marriage at Cana, an Allegory of
the Old and New Testaments, The Carrying of the Cross and The Miracle
of the Loaves and Fishes. The last was transferred in 1931 to the newly-created
Art Museum of the Far East in Khabarovsk. Visitors to the Hermitage have
the rare opportunity to see this canvas at a temporary exhibition that
reunites all four works (the Allegory of the Old and New Testaments was
kept rolled up for many years and only unrolled and restored in 2007).
Garofalo’s Marriage at Cana is signed and dated 1531. An inscription
on it states that the artist worked free of charge. According to the Gospel,
Christ turned water into wine at the wedding feast, the first of his miracles.
The scene is set against a background of magnificent architecture, the
prototype for which was the temples in the Vatican frescoes by Raphael,
who had a string influence on Garofalo. It is no coincidence that contemporaries
called Benvenuto Tisi “the Ferrara Raphael”. In The Marriage at Cana Garofalo
combined two worlds – the legendary world of the Gospel and the contemporary
world: the bride and groom are dressed in the fashion of the artist’s
day. With good reason the painting has been identified as an interesting
illustration of Renaissance-era customs.
The Allegory of the Old and New Testaments is devoted to the triumph
of the Christian faith and the failure of Judaism. The complex subject
is expounded with the aid of symbols and Latin inscriptions.
In the centre of the painting is the Crucifixion. The left-hand part
shows the victory of Catholic Church and the right-hand part the collapse
of the Jewish faith.
The Church is embodied by a smartly dressed woman with the papal tiara
on her head, surrounded by emblems of the four Evangelists; in one hand
she holds a sphere – a symbol of power; with the other she interrupts
the blood flowing from Christ’s wounds. The flow divides into three parts,
creating the sacraments of baptism, confession and the Eucharist that
are illustrated in the three foreground scenes.
The Old Testament is presented in the guise of a crone riding a donkey.
She holds a broken sceptre; the crown is slipping from her head, while
the blindfold testifies to the ignorance of her faith. In the foreground
a Levite receives “vain gifts” from his congregation.
Above the Crucifixion behind a fortress wall bearing the inscription
“Paradise” is God the Father, while the door seen at the foot of the cross
is marked “Hell”.
“They said that Garofalo intended to present the destruction of the old
dispensation and the birth of the new… The rather strange subject makes
one think more of Dante Alighieri than of an artist,” Archbishop Girolamo
Barufaldi (1675–1755) wrote.
The Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes was also intended to adorn the refectory.
The feeding of a hungry crowd with five loaves and two fishes, miraculously
multiplied by Christ, alluded to the charitable activities of the Convent
of San Bernardino. It is no coincidence that among the personages in the
painting the artist depicted the abbess and sisters.
All three paintings originally had a rounded, semicircular top that was
later replaced by the present rectangular shape by the addition of canvas.
This was possibly done to make them easier to frame.
The curator of the exhibition and author of the illustrated booklet (State
Hermitage Publishing House) is Tatyana Kustodiyeva, leading researcher
in the Hermitage’s Department of Western European Fine Art with a Candidate’s
Degree in Art History.
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