Full title | The Pietà |
---|---|
Artist | Francesco Francia |
Artist dates | about 1447 - 1517 |
Group | The Buonvisi Altarpiece |
Date made | 1510-12 |
Medium and support | Oil on wood |
Dimensions | 94 x 184.5 cm |
Acquisition credit | Bought, 1841 |
Inventory number | NG180 |
Location | Not on display |
Collection | Main Collection |
This semicircular painting forms the upper part of the altarpiece painted for the Buonvisi family chapel in the church of S. Frediano in Lucca.
The Virgin Mary grieves over the body of her son Christ, laid across her lap, her eyelids red and puffy from weeping. An angel holds Christ’s head; another, hands joined in prayer, looks at the wounds on his feet. These were made by the nails that attached him to the Cross on which he was crucified. The angel at Christ’s head is the only figure in either part of the altarpiece to directly meet our gaze, drawing our attention to Christ’s sacrifice for humanity.
The main part of the altarpiece shows the young Virgin enthroned with the infant Christ and her mother, Saint Anne, accompanied by saints. In that painting, the Virgin’s thoughts are already on the destiny awaiting her son, which we see here, in the scene above.
This type of semicircular painting is known as a lunette because its shape resembles a half moon (lune in French). It forms the upper part of the altarpiece painted by the Bolognese artist Francesco Francia for the chapel of the Buonvisi family in the church of S. Frediano in Lucca.
Both parts of the altarpiece were painted on panel but the main part has since been transferred to canvas to preserve it. The lunette remains on its original poplar panel but the spandrels at either corner were added later, when the altarpiece was removed from its sacred setting to transform the semicircular painting into a rectangular gallery picture. The spandrels have been painted with imitation carvings to match those on the architecture in the main painting below.
The Virgin Mary grieves over the body of her son Christ, laid across her lap, her eyelids red and puffy from weeping. This scene, frequently represented in Catholic art, is known as the pietà, which means ‘pity’ in Italian. An angel holds Christ’s head; another, hands joined in prayer, looks at the wounds on his feet. These were made by the nails that attached him to the Cross on which he was crucified. The angel at Christ’s head is the only figure in either part of the altarpiece to directly meet our gaze, drawing our attention to Christ’s sacrifice for humanity. The background of the lunette is completely black, emphasising the grief of the figures in the scene and offering us no distraction. There are touches of shell gold on the ends of the feathers of both angels and around the Virgin’s hem, which hint at the radiance of heaven to come.
The rich green and red of the angels‘ robes repeat colours in the main painting below, tying the two scenes and two parts of the altarpiece together both in terms of theme and composition. In the main panel, the young Virgin holding her baby son is already thinking of the fate that will befall him, shown in the lunette above. The infant Saint John the Baptist looks up to the lunette and points. He carries a Crucifix and a scroll on which is written ’ECCE AGNUS DEI‘ (’Behold the Lamb of God‘). These foretell Christ’s sacrifice. In the lunette, the elderly Virgin, holding her adult dead son, resembles in both dress and appearance her own mother, Saint Anne, who is enthroned below and to whom the altar in the Buonvisi chapel was dedicated.
During the early nineteenth century this lunette was particularly popular with visitors to the National Gallery, who considered it to have ’no equal in the whole range of Italian art‘. The expression of sorrow was said to have affected ’generation after generation'. Since then the very high general esteem for Francesco Francia’s work has lessened with changing fashions, and the altarpiece, although worthy of close attention and admiration, is no longer so well known.
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The Buonvisi Altarpiece
This altarpiece was painted for the Buonvisi Chapel in the church of S. Frediano in Lucca. It shows the Virgin Mary with her mother, Saint Anne, and the infant Christ enthroned and surrounded by saints, from left to right: Saint Sebastian, Saint Paul, Saint Lawrence and Saint Benedict.
In the main panel, the young Virgin sits holding her baby, thinking about his future sacrifice. The scene carved on the pillar behind her head represents the sacrifice of Isaac (Genesis 22: 2), when God ordered Abraham to sacrifice his son but at the last moment supplied a lamb instead. In Francia’s altarpiece, the infant John the Baptist’s banner reads ‘ECCE AGNUS DEI’ (‘Behold the Lamb of God’). His message is that Christ must be sacrificed but that no lamb will be exchanged in his place.
In the semicircular panel above the main panel, the elderly Virgin grieves over the lifeless body of her son who has been sacrificed for the salvation of mankind.
This altarpiece was painted for the Buonvisi Chapel in the church of S. Frediano in Lucca. It shows the Virgin Mary with her mother, Saint Anne, and the infant Christ enthroned and surrounded by saints. On the left are Saint Sebastian, shot with arrows, and Saint Paul, and on the right are Saint Lawrence, holding the gridiron on which he was martyred, and Saint Benedict, wearing white monastic robes.
The Buonvisi family from Lucca had an international banking business and also traded, especially in silk. Members of the family held important political roles in Lucca and also represented the city on diplomatic missions. The Buonvisi had offices in Naples, Venice, Genoa, Lyons, Tours, Louvain, Antwerp and London.
Three of the saints represented in Francia’s altarpiece are the name saints of members of the Buonvisi family: the patron who commissioned the altarpiece, Benedetto (1450–1513); his brother, Paolo (died 1484); and their father, Lorenzo (died 1451). Saint Sebastian, who was often invoked against the plague, may have been included because plague broke out in Lucca in 1510, about the time the altarpiece was painted.
The two elements of this altarpiece – the main panel and the lunette (the semicircular panel above it) – are carefully connected both in terms of theme and composition. In the main panel, the young Virgin sits holding her baby, thinking about the future sacrifice of her son. This is suggested by the scene carved on the pillar behind her head, which represents the sacrifice of Isaac from the Old Testament (Genesis 22: 2). God ordered Abraham to sacrifice his son Isaac as a test of his faith but at the last moment supplied a lamb to replace Isaac on the sacrificial altar. In Francia’s altarpiece, the infant John the Baptist strides before the Virgin’s throne pointing up towards the infant Christ and the lunette above. He carries a banner that reads ‘ECCE AGNUS DEI’, meaning ‘Behold the Lamb of God’. His message is that Christ must be sacrificed but that no lamb will be exchanged in his place.
In the lunette we see the Virgin again, now old and resembling her own mother. She grieves over the lifeless body of her son who has been sacrificed for the salvation of mankind, a scene known as a pietà. The bright red drapery worn by Saint Paul in the main panel leads our eye to the dress of the Virgin and then up to the praying angel in the lunette above.
In 1891, the main part of the altarpiece was transferred from its wooden panel to a canvas to preserve it. The lunette remains on the wooden panel on which it was originally painted, although the spandrels are later additions to make the painting easier to display as a rectangular picture when it was shown in a gallery. In both paintings there are wide cracks that developed as the paint was drying and where paint has subsequently been lost. This is particularly so in the areas of orange or red drapery. To disguise the damage, both pictures have been extensively repainted, and some of the old repainting is now becoming more visible as it discolours.


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