Ceremony & Setting in the Sacraments III/IV

Interlude – this is a variant of something I scribbled down for a friend recently, trying to summarize the positions I’m taking here:

Panofsky style iconology [in its American phase] & Blunt’s determination to locate Poussin’s beliefs [his ‘mind’, or his ‘thought’] has misled pretty well everyone, myself included. The attempt to make the ‘philosophical’ Poussin into someone with a philosophical doctrine [goes back to 1660s, I know] is the trouble: hence the attempts to ‘make’ him into a stoic a libertin a covert protestant !? or a messenger boy for secret mystical organizations [extra silly], all these begin to seem irrelevant biographical fantasies.

Question, for a painter, always and only is how do the artworks work -- & I’ve no doubt NPs can work as well now as ever – given a recovery of the context not only of their historical iconography [both ideological placement & symbolism] but also of their functioning as things to look at -- & while the latter is what I find most delightful in them, it is important to recognize that that is exactly what a painter has to ‘design’, ‘compose’, ‘think up’, ‘think of’, all the while estimating the effect on his/her imagined audience, posited as somewhere else and ‘Other’-wise.

I am not finally unconvinced by the attempts to treat paintings semiotically as things to be read, turning them into pseudo-texts. That ignores precisely the information in them put there by someone who knew they were things to be looked at, as I have been saying [i.e. would occupy & fill the visual field with its artifices, appearances, illusions, tricks even, and its play with the conventions that make up its mimesis].

So the question is rather what is the ‘poetics’ of paintings [in the broadest sense of the word] rather than what is the author’s philosophical belief system or doctrines [about ‘life’ and how to live it]. Finally, painting is a poor medium for philosophical statement: too little in the way of appropriate meaning for this purpose and too much else going on that is to do with appearances and their production. 

There is a general remark to make regarding this thesis. Irrespective of Poussin’s personal beliefs and doctrinal investments, whatever they were in fact, the religious paintings seem to offer themselves to the kind of interpretation that learned and devout contemporaries would be able to bring to them, including the Jesuit educated Chambray and Chantelou brothers from Le Mans, where the Jesuits had an important college. Poussin must have known enough to make this possible, though that does not mean that his beliefs or his thoughts concerning doctrine are thereby made clear.

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ 

Part 4 of Chapter IV. Poussin’s Typology .

[There are often no footnotes in the general discussion of typology in the thesis, but I presumed at that time that any reasonable person would find that what I had said was firmly and honestly based on what I had found in the texts. Further, it was not my intention to write a thesis about 17^th century religious literature, but about Poussin’s paintings. Of course, over 35 years on I can see all too clearly the weaknesses of argument and the clumsiness of the writing. Nonetheless I have not attempted to make corrections]. Now read on

We have already seen that in the popular tradition of the illustrated catechisms of the later sixteenth century mystical typology was gradually replaced by a system of moralizing Biblical emblems. [ Chapter III, part IV and in the Poussin Sacraments book pp 97 – 105]. These little books are very like the secular emblem books of the period. The difference is that in the emblem books the pictorial image was accompanied by a short explanatory text while in the Catechisms the pictorial imagery was accompanied only by captions. The text was provided by the oral explanations of the catechist. [This is a guess, but not unreasonable. It is how Sunday-School picture books usually work].

Typology was not extinct in the seventeenth century. There was an attempt to purge Christian interpretation of the Bible of profane material and of all-inclusive typology of the later middle ages. There was also a strenuous move to put an end to Christian typological interpretation of pagan authors, like Ovid and Virgil. The Biblical commentators of the counter-reformation tried to restrict the use of mystical and moral interpretation to that justified by Christ’s words in the Gospels,

St Paul

’s writings and to the interpretation of the Fathers. There was no significantly new invention in typological thought in this period, but as with the study of Liturgy and Ritual, there was a renewal of interest in patristic thought.

The purge was not absolute. Outside the canon of the scriptures laid down by the Council of Trent, which included all the Pauline epistles, and several books now regarded as apocryphal, like the book of Tobit, there were one or two Jewish writers of antiquity whose writings were still treated as authoritative in some degree. Philo’s commentaries were widely used, just as they had been by the early Fathers. Josephus was also frequently consulted on details of history, not only of his own times but on those of Moses also. In the middle age several episodes in the life of Moses recounted only by Josephus found their way into typological imagery, like Moses Trampling on Pharoah’s Crown, which appears in the Speculum Humanae Salvationis. The same subject was given a mystical interpretation in the mediaeval compendium of Pierre Bercheur (Berthorius), whose works were often reprinted as late as the beginning of the seventeenth century. Seventeenth century editions of his collected works tended to omit his Bible Moralisée, however, probably because he interpreted every incident in the whole Bible. Josephus was still respected in the seventeenth century, however. It was widely believed that he had testified to the Divinity of Christ and that his writings therefore had some semblance of revelation about them. It is not unusual to find stoic writers quoted in  arguments about the moral meaning of many Bible events, as if pagan antiquity sometimes provided support to Christian morality.

Typological thought flourished in the many Bible commentaries of the Counter-reformation. The older generation of Jesuits used it with some caution, but Cornelis Steen (Cornelis à Lapide) used it very fully in his complete Bible commentary of the early seventeenth century. [In my margin at a later date I have written “Canon 35 re- Prophecy”, which is to say Council of Trent authority for typology]. His was the only complete Bible commentary of the period and was widely acclaimed as a monumental achievement. Some of the volumes were dedicate to Cardiunal Francesco Barberini. The volumes appeared slowly in the course of the first half of the seventeenth century.

Other forms of devotional publication used mystical figures with great frequency.  This kind of attitude to the Bible was not opposed to historical thought, but as has already been pointed out, it was an integral part of the historical system that prevailed in religious circles in the earlier seventeenth century, a survival of mediaeval belief. [See Erich Auerbach: Mimesis.

Princeton

,1953, for a view of typology as integral to a historical method].

[-- paragraph omitted – ]

Four kinds of  interpretation were specified by  Cornelis and his contemporaries; literal, allegorical, tropological and anagogical [as was required by the Council of Trent]. In the early of the Church the cycles of pictures in the roman Basilicas had placed Old Testament type opposite New Testament antitype. Cycles of this sort existed also in the middle ages and indeed in the sixteenth century. In some cycles not in churches, like the Raphael Loggias, biblical scenes are unaccompanied by their explanatory antitypes, but nevertheless in an age of moralised Bibles, it would not have been hard to recognize the allegorical significance of the scenes represented. Nearly all the Old Testament scenes in the Loggias are important typological examples and were almost certainly understood as such.

We have already encountered two such occasions on which Popussin appears to have borrowed imagery got his Sacraments from scenes showing their Old Testament types. [the Raphael Loggias Anointing of David for Baptism I, and S.Maria Maggiore mosaic of Moses giving the Law for Ordination I] . He also painted many Old Testament scenes by themselves, in single easel pictures which stood alone, without New Testament antitypes. In particular, he painted a great many scenes from the life of Moses, all of which might have been intended to carry, at the least, allegorical interpretation. If, as one suspects, some of these in the 1640s have a mystical sense, it  is more than likely  that his employment of Old Testament scenes as iconographical patterns for the Sacraments was deliberate.

There are many possible sources from which Poussin could have gained a knowledge not only of current interpretation, but also of early patristic ideas. [Blunt believed that Poussin’s typology would have come from reading the patristic sources. There are obvious difficulties with this: the time it would have taken and Poussin’s lack of Greek and inexpert Latin (according to Bellori)] Besides the Biblical commentaries, there was the commentary by Severani at the end of Roma Sotterrranea on the imagery of the early Christian scenes of the catacombs and the sarcophagi. {Bosio. Bk IV., Ch VI ff.}This, in Italian, not in Latin, in a book Poussin certainly knew, could have been a most useful source of information. In the commentaries an even wider range of interpretative material was available and Poussin could well have used a copy of Cornelis à Lapide, the most up-to-date and the most complete of contemporary works. Corneli sin particular enlarged on the parallels between Christ and Moses. He listed and summarized the nineteen poarlalles of Eusebius. One of the most important of these for Poussin, as we shall see, was expressed by Cornelis:”Legislator fuit Moses Pentateuch: Christus Evangelis.” , corresponding to the third of Eusebius’s parallels. {Commnetaria in Pentateuchum Mosis.

Antwerp

, 1618. In

Antwerp

, 1670 edition, p.20.

Bellori remarked on the frequency with which Poussin painted Moses striking the Rock {1728 edition, p173}. He stressed the point that Poussin continually invented new figures and new arrangements to express the variety of the affetti in this subject. In all versions Poussin placed Moses and Aaron in the middle ground, reserving the foreground for his many, varied figures of anonymous Israelites. The effect of the miracle and the interpretation given to the subject is expressed chiefly by these foreground figures, rather than by the chief actors, Moses and Aaron. In the first surviving version, that in the

Bridgewater

collection [now the Duke of Sutherland’s on loan to the National Gallery of Scotland], he showed the distressed Israelites near their tents in the background, unaware of the miracle. Then there are some rushing up the slope to the stream, and those praising God beside the rock. In the foreground are the drinkers at the stream, in a variety of attitudes, some drinking from bowls, and some offering water to their companions. This is an act of charity, like that of the woman and children on the extreme right. She is giving water to her children and is undoubtedly intended as a figure of Charity. { Cf. Catechism illustrations, e.. Institutiones Christianae Pietatis,

Antwerp

, both 1576 and 1589 editions. Seven acts of Mercy. Giving drink to the thirsty is illustrated by a man pouring out water, while in the background there is Moses striking the rock.} This is the key to Poussin’s interpretation of the scene. Charity is primarily expressed in human actions, which correspond to the Divine Charity implicit in this miracle.

St Augustine

’s interpretation of the episode is quoted at length by Severani and it is this which corresponds to the human action in Poussin’s picture. {Bosio. pp 619-610}. The essence of this interpretation is that the Rock is Christ, Moses’ rod the Cross, the water is the water which flowed from Christ’s side at the Crucifixion. The water which flowed from Christ’s side was generally understood as signifying the institution of the Church by baptism. The Crucifixion itself was the means by which redemption was given to humanity through God’s Charity.

Poussin’s means of expression are not transcendental symbolism, but the expression of spiritual themes through human actions. Behind his moralities lie the spiritual realities which activate them.

The same kind of process can be seen in the Manna. This was universally accepted as a type of the Eucharist. The elements are similar to those in Moses Striking the Rock. There are suffering Israelites, starving in the wilderness, figure praying for food, giving praise for the miracle and some offering the manna to those in greater need than they. The variety of types, ages and actions in this picture is even more remarkable than in the Moses Striking he Rock. Poussin draws attention to the variety of the figures in his letter to Chantelou concerning the picture, in which he proposed that the picture should be read figure by figure. {Lettres. Ed. P. du Colombier.

Paris

, 1929. 28^th 1639 [the only edition regularly available to me during the work on the thesis]}

We have already encountered this method of constructing pictures in Bernini’s examination of the Sacraments and in Bellori’s elaborate descriptions of figure action in his Vite. In thiosd picture the composition is made upo of so many dispersed elements that it is a t first very difficult to make out what it is a bout. It is only when the method of reading the picture figure by figure is followed that the picture makes sense. 

Once more, Moses and Aaron are in the middle ground and the whole content of the picture is expressed through the actions of the anonymous Israelites in the foreground. These are divided into two groups. In the left foreground are Israelites unaware of the miracle that is taking place. They are shown as too weak to move. A turbaned man lies on the ground, resting his head on his hand. In front of him is a Caritas Romana group, which derives from one of the moralities in Valerius Maximus, not from the story of Cimon and Pero, but from the immediately preceding one which a young woman suckles an older one. {Valerius Maximus. Factorum et dictorum memorabilium. Lib. V, Ch IV, s.% ed C Kempfius.

Berlin

, 1854, p425}. In Poussin’s picture, the old woman has taklen the place of a child at the breast. Poussin duly records the distress of the child. Beside this group stands a bearded philosopher figure, viewing the action with wonder. Poussin chose to represent this onlooker as a mature man, presumably to show that the action of the young woman was remarkable even to a man of his experience. The old man with the turban cannot reach the food which a young man points out to him. The young man’s pointing gesture is the only formal link from the group on the left to that on the right. 

On the right there is one corresponding figure, a young woman who points to the distressed figure behind her. The right hand group is concerned with the gathering of the manna. Two struggling boys demonstrate the dominance of the passions in the young, ho are unaware that there is enough manna to satisfy the needs of all. Some gather manna for themselves. The young woman in the foreground, however, points to those in distress who are unable to gather food for themselves, and directs a boy to carry food to them, before she satisfies her on needs. The background is reserved for figures expressing praise and wonder.

This subject was thought of as the type of the Eucharistic Bread, the broken body of Christ, sacrificed willingly through God’s Charity for the salvation of mankind. As in the Moses Striking the Rock, Poussin expresses the Charity implicit in the scene through the charitable actions of his figures. These pictures are presented as moral emblemata, but their emblematic moral meaning is that suggested by mystical interpretation, not by merely ethical or moral considerations.

These two pictures were painted in the 1630’s and two other Moses subjects of the same period suggest that Poussin was more often concerned with presenting emblemata in his Biblical subjects, only secondarily with typological examples with specifically mystical meanings.

The Red Sea Crossing and the Golden Calf were painted for Cassiano’s cousin, Amadeo dal Pozzo, at some time in the 1630s. They were accompanied by two pictures by Pietro da Cortona [discussed in recent years, though still unknown in the 1960s].

The Red Sea Crossing does not concentrate on the crossing itself but on the events immediately after it. In the background is the song of Miriam and the dance of her maidens. This was sometimes the subject of a separate Bible illustration in the sixteent h century {Biblia Sacra, Rouvilly, Lyon 1562} [with illustrations by Eskrich, discussed in an earlier chapter on book illustration and Poussin]. In the middle ground, the Israelites are thanking God for, their Salvation, while in the immediate foreground is the only reference in the picture to the overthrow of the Egyptians. Young men are ]dragging some bodies from the sea to strip them of their armour.   

This foreground part of the scene depends on Josephus’ account of the event. It is not to be found in the Bible, though there is a related passage. Josephus pointed out that the stripping of the Egyptians was the means by which the Israelites were enriched, and thus able to defend themselves in the Wilderness. {Josephus. Jewish Antiquities. Bks I-IV,

trans H. St

J Thackeray. Loeb.

London

&

New York

, 1930. Bk II, 6, pp317-318. Josephus also mentions the gifts of the Egyptians to the Hebrews. Ibid. Bk II, 6, p303.}In the Bible there is a short passage in which it is said that before leaving

Egypt

the Israelites despoiled the Egyptians.{Exodus XII, 35-36} The two accounts are equivalent, in that both show means by which the Israelites were enriched at the expense of the Egyptians. The Biblical passage could not be included without making a violent breach in the credibility of the time structure of the picture, but Josephus’ story could, since it took place at the moment Poussin chose for his picture. The mention in the bible of the Israelites seeing the dead bodies of the Egyptians upon the shore dos not in itself explain the despoiling of the Egyptian bodies. {Exodus, XIV, 30}. Cornelis à Lapide who had evidently read both Josephus and Philo in this context, remarked that the bodies washed up on the shore gave the Israelites, to their great joy and consolation, the opportunity for obtaining spoil. Cornelis à Lapide had therefoe connected the episode in Josephus and the Biblical verse. It is quite likely that the connection between Jospehus’s account and Poussin’s picture was Cornelis à Lapide’s commentary. { Cornelis à Lapide, op.cit.p449}. The spoil itself mentioned in the /bible also received its due share of  attention from the commentators. Cornelis noted the tradition recorded by Tertullian that the spoil was really gifts to the Israelites before the crossing of the

Red Sea

, but he did not accept this. He noted also that the spoils were interpreted as a figure for the transference of the wisdom and eloquence of the pagans to the church.  

The Crossing of the

Red Sea

itself, for which the Israelites are giving thanks in Poussin’s picture, was everywhere taken as a type of Christian baptism. Cornelis à Lapide does not fail to mention this and cites eight authorities. {op.cit.p449} Thus Poussin’s Red Sea Crossing in isolation could have had a sacramental significance, in the same way as had the Striking of the Rock; its related subject, the Waters of Marah (a type of Baptism), and the Manna (a type of the Eucharist). The Finding of Moses was also a type of baptism. Poussin painted this subject at least three times. It is not clear that Poussin intended the sacramental meaning of the Red Sea Crossing, since its pendant, the golden Calf was never given a sacramental meaning.

In the Golden Calf Moses breaks the first tablets of the Law, while the Israelites in the foreground, under the leadership of Aaron, worship the bull-god. They made this by melting down their precious metal ornaments. The idolatrous worship of the bull, the Egyptian god Apis, as the commentators pointed out, can only have signified the misuse of the (allegorical) riches acquired from the Egyptians. These, it will be remembered, in the Bible were in the literal sense jewels and ornaments of gold and silver. While the Egyptians were regarded as possessing wisdom and eloquence, which the Israelites carried off, they had also perverted wisdom by worshipping idols. The Israelites acquired this from the Egyptians also. The two pictures therefore point to both aspects of the significance of Egyptian learning.

There is further significance in the pictures [possible because current in commentary]. In the Red Sea Crossing, the Israelites are thanking God for their Salvation, in the Golden Calf, they are showing their ingratitude to God, who brought them out of slavery. Moses breaking the Tablets, because of their ingratitude, signified the destruction of then Old Law, prior to the coming of the New.

Thus the two pictures [could] form an allegory of Faith and Salvation, in which the typological significance plays a minor role. The references to Egyptian wisdom and the moral interpretation of the idolatry of the Israelites are the major motifs, while both contain references to the institution of the New Law.

[To be continued, with discussion of the Finding of Moses pictures, Moses and Aaron before Pharoah, Moses Trampling on Pharoah’s Crown, & The Crucifixion]

       

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