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ROBERTO
LUNARDI
Iconographical
and iconological notes
"Et
Jesum - benedictum fructum ventris tui, - nobis post hoc exsilium ostende"
This essay presents
the confirmation of the Masaccio Trinity's primary meaning. This
work of Dominican art is not a funeral monument, but a triumphal celebration
of the eternity of the human life, that is earthly and divine as the
nature of Christ, the Trinity's second Person. He is the Only-Begotten
of the Father, incarnated by the Holy Ghost and born of the Virgin Mary,
as the Credo recites and as this work of art solemnly proclaims.
Painted by Masaccio with refined tecniques and planed by Brunelleschi,
the Trinity is the most modern painting produced by the Western
culture at that time. Besides representing the main topic of the Dominican
preaching, this work is certainly connected to the Council of Florence.
In this occasion Roman and Orthodox Churches disputed the Filioque
topic: Latins supported the thesis of the descent of the Holy Ghost
from the Father and the Son, while Orthodoxes supported Its descent
from the only Father.
Since the Council of Constance (1414-1418), a new Council for the reunion
of the two Churches had been planed. In Costance, where ended the Western
schism, a diplomatic mission from Constantinople and an ambassador from
the Florentine Republic, Leonardo di Stagio Dati General of the Dominican
Order, were present.
Since January 1418, moreover, the Florentine Republic ordered to prepare
a worthy residence for the new Pope, Martin V, inside the Santa Maria
Novella cloister: the Pope lived in that residence from February 1418
to September 1419.
From June 1433 to April 1436 also Pope Eugene IV lived in that place
and in 1439 the Council of Florence occurred in the Dominican church.
The Masaccio's fresco, located in a preminent position, nearby the pulpit,
was the very first image that was visible from the Via degli Avelli's
main entrance. Therefore, during the Council the painting played an
important role in reconfirming the Faith. According to Dominican preaching,
however, this reconfirmation was possible just through the Virgin Mary:
the Church is dedicated to Her as well as the magnificent Madonna,
painted by Duccio and now exhibited at the Uffizi Museum, but that should
be moved back to the church for a complete comprehension of the Masaccio's
Trinity.
The Black Friars' prayer in the occasion of their entrance in the Order
and of their death is the Salve Regina. The Masaccio's Virgin
Mary, with the noble and firm gesture of Her hand showing Her Son and
with Her piercing glance casted at bystanders, is the Queen saluting
and standing in front of the great mystery of the Faith: Salve Regina.
She is the Queen which repersents us in front of God, defends us as
the seat of the divine Law wisdom, hears our prayer: "Eja ergo,
advocata nostra - illos tuos misericordes oculos - ad nos converte.
- Et Jesum, - benedictum fructum ventris tui,- nobis post hoc exsilium
ostende".
She is the Virgin and the Mother, Her Son's doughter, according to Dante,
and She looks after us and shows us Her Son, dead on the Cross, but
alive in the Father and in the Holy Ghost.
His blood drops on the wood and down on the Galgotha, restoring to life
the skeleton that laid on the bier ("IO . FU . GIA' . QUEL . CHE
. VOI . SIETE . QUEL . CHI . SON . VOI . ANCOR . SARETE", "I
used to be what you are, and you will be what I am", actually this
phrase is not a memento mori, but it has to be referred to the
God's promise of eternal life). This expectation of resurrection from
the death is supported by Christ's resurrection.
The two figures, kneeling between the bier and the triumphal arch, represent
not only those one who ordered the painting, but the believers too.
The composition's absolut unity remarks the main topic: dark blue and
red alternate, while the Holy Ghost's white dove and the Christ's white
girdle draw bystanders' eye on the painting's centre: Christ, which
reveals the divinity of the human condition, made in God's own image
and likeness, and able to place the Man at the centre of the Universe.
Outside: chaos.
The fresco is located in a particular position on the wall, in front
of the large door that had been walled up by Vasari, after the Council
of Trent (1563), but that used to be the most frequented by the time
the fresco had been painted. At the present that door has been re-opened
and the fresco appears, once again, in the middle of the field of vision.
Althought a central vision is valid from a close point of view, several
architectonical features of the composition are decentralized from the
median axis and only a vision from the right rectifys them optically.
These two possible points of view document a probable collaboration
between Masaccio and Brunelleschi.
The architectonic structure is a real triumphal arch, that embraces
and exalts the Trinity.
This fresco is a concise and permanent description of the principles
of the Christian Faith, the firm bulwark of the Dominican preaching.
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