User:Awatkins770/The Sermon of St. Stephan (Carpaccio)
| The Sermon of St. Stephen | |
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| Artist | Vittore Carpaccio |
| Year | 1514 |
| Medium | Oil on canvas |
| Dimensions | 148 cm × 194 cm (58 in × 76 in) |
| Location | Louvre, Paris |
The Sermon of Saint Stephen is an oil-on-canvas painting by Italian artist Vittore Carpaccio, done in 1514. It is now in the Louvre in Paris. The painting is from the Venetian Renaissance and depicts the first Christian martyr, St. Stephen, giving a sermon. St. Stephen was best recognized as a man with special gifts as an evangelist. He participated in several religious debates and converted many to Christianity.
Description
[edit]In the foreground, St. Stephen passionately stands on a pedestal, overlooking a diverse crowd as he delivers his speech. His presence highlights themes of faith, devotion, and martyrdom. The setting appears to be on a barren land with an ideal city view, reminiscent to Jerusalem. The buildings form a spacious look as they recede into the horizon. The convoluted cityscape also features unique architectural elements. It is suggested that the artist, Carpaccio, may have been in Jerusalem for this scene as many of these elements are reminiscent of life in Jerusalem, and of the Haram-ash-Sharif with the Mosque of Omar in Jerusalem[1]. The 'Oriental' atmosphere was a Venetian characteristic in paintings during the 16th and early 17th centuries. The rich colors and intricate details typical of Carpaccio's style bring a liveliness to the painting. This painting also appears to be set during mid-day, emphasizing the energy of daily life at the time. Overall, there is a dynamic interplay of the figures; A key part of The Sermon of Saint Stephen.
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Jerusalem Architecture
Subject
[edit]The Sermon of Saint Stephen depicts the moment of St. Stephen delivering his powerful sermon to an audience. His composed and confident posture alongside the mixed expressions on the crowd's faces capture the value and intensity of his message; Some of the figures are engaged and others are skeptical. The scene overall emphasizes many of the cultural and religious praises and tensions St. Stephen may have faced during his service.
Identity of Figures
[edit]Saint Stephen, the central figure of the painting, was best known to be a deacon early in the apostolic age of the Church. The preaching of his faith to the combative audience of Jews ultimately led to his martyrdom by stoning, a powerful moment in Christian history.
Beyond the figure of Saint Stephen, an intriguing aspect of the painting is the diversity present in the crowd. By around the sixteenth century, the Turkish had become a commonly depicted theme in Italian art, reflecting the growing awareness of and interactions with different cultures. Many figures in the painting can be seen wearing turbans, indicative of "orientals" (Turkish, Syrians, Arabians, and Nubians) resonating with the cultural context of the later Mameluke Empire. [1] While many of the figures appear attentive, suggesting that his message resonated deeply, others seem to question or challenge it, creating a dynamic atmosphere in the painting. The mix of turbans, Oriental garments, conservative-clothed women, and hatted Greeks, alongside their perplexed faces, harmonize the setting, illustrating the rich tapestry of cultural identities present at the time. The blend of these figures in the foreground of this multicultural architectural landscape enhances the idea of a society grappling with new ideas and beliefs.
History
[edit]This painting was one of five scenes representing the life of Saint Stephen, painted between 1511 and 1514 for the Scuola dei Lanieri, Santo Stefano (Venice).[2] The series was broken up in 1806, when the religious houses were suppressed.[3] Two panels went to the Brera Gallery, Milan; in 1812, Vivant Denon exchanged some of the northern paintings in the Louvre for Italian works in the Brera, and one of these panels was transferred under this arrangement. Another is in Berlin; one has disappeared, and the fifth is in Stuttgart.[4]
The Sermon of Saint Stephen the deacon, represented in this Louvre painting, took place in Jerusalem. This gave Carpaccio an excuse for filling his canvas with picturesque oriental costumes and architecture. Jerusalem in the early days of Christianity is here identified as Constantinople (actually Yoros Castle on the opposite side of the Bosphorus ) - a fantastic and imaginary[citation needed] Constantinople full of Turkish, antique, Byzantine and Italian elements. Carpaccio refers with pride, in a letter to the Marquis of Mantua, to a view of Jerusalem which he had painted.[5]
Provenance
[edit]From 1511 to 1520, Carpaccio was working for the Scuola di S. Stefano. The Scuola di Stefano, or Scuola di San Stefano, was a confraternity, or religious brotherhood in Venice. Found in the late 14th century, It was dedicated to St. Stephen, serving as a spiritual and social organization for wool merchants and craftsmen. The Scuola functioned as a place of worship and especially artistic patronage, housing various artworks, specifically by the artist Vittore Carpaccio. Carpaccio was called upon to commission five canvases, illustrating episodes from the life of Saint Stephen. This series of paintings is known as the stories from the Life of St Stephen (1511-1520), which includes St. Stephen being Consecrated Deacon, The Sermon of St. Stephen, The Disputation of St. Stephen, The Stoning of St. Stephen, and The Trial of St. Stephen. [6]In the 19th century, the series was broken up and scattered between various museums. The Sermon of St Stephen became a part of the art collection at the Musee du Louvre in Paris, where it still resides today. Today, this painting suggests evidence of how religious values and influences affected people at the time.
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Scuola di Santo Stefano in Venice, Italy
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See also
[edit]References
[edit]- ^ a b Goetz, Hermann (August 1938). "Oriental Types and Scenes in Renaissance and Baroque Painting-I". The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs. 73 (425): 62 – via JSTOR.
- ^ Cf. the Louvre website for specific info on this
- ^ Cf. Nurturing art in the Venetian scuole, Roderick Conway Morris, International Herald Tribune, Feb.2005.
- ^ Dominique Vivant, Baron de Denon (1747–1825) was a French artist, writer, diplomat, author, and archaeologist, appointed first director of the Louvre Museum by Napoleon after the Egyptian campaign of 1798–1801. Information on the five panels is given by the Louvre, on their website's relevant pages [1]. See also S. Mason and A. Ellis, Carpaccio: The Major Pictorial Cycles: The Narrative Paintings, Skira (2000)
- ^ A. Gentili, Le storie di Carpaccio. Venezia, i turchi, gli ebrei, Marsilio (2006)
- ^ Molmenti, Pompeo; Ludwig, Gustav (January 1907). The Life and Works of Vittorio Carpaccio. University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign: J.Murray (published 1907). pp. 182–190.
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Sources
[edit]- Patricia Fortini Brown, Venetian Narrative Painting in the Age of Carpaccio (New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1988/1994)
- Augusto Gentili, Le storie di Carpaccio. Venezia, i turchi, gli ebrei, Marsilio, (2006) (in Italian)
- Peter Humfrey, Carpaccio, Chaucer Press (2005)
- Stefania Mason & Andrew Ellis, Carpaccio: The Major Pictorial Cycles: The Narrative Paintings, Skira (2000)
- Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). . Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 5 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 382.
External links
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- Louvre's respective entry
- www.VittoreCarpaccio.org 150 works by Vittore Carpaccio
- Paintings by Vittore Carpaccio
- Nurturing art in the Venetian scuole, Roderick Conway Morris, International Herald Tribune, FEBRUARY 26, 2005
- Web Gallery of Art