Something Beautiful

Cross

Here is another work by Bernardo Daddi, this one very unusual.   It might help to know at the outset that it was intended to bring comfort to prisoners awaiting execution.  On the recto side are the traditional images of the Virgin Mary, of Saint John the Evangelist and the Redeemer.  So far so good -- but they are accompanied, at bottom, by a fleshless corpse dressed in the black tunic of execution.  

On the verso side, it only gets worse.  Or at least more strange.   Three saints are shown immediately after their martyrdom by beheading.  They still kneel with hands clasped in prayer. From the left are St. James the Greater, St. Paul, and St. John the Baptist.  At the bottom are two Dominicans, St. Peter Martyr and St. Thomas Aquinas. 

You know, there is something quite beautiful about this cross.   And yet it must be admitted, on the basis of this evidence, that Catholicism has some very bizarre aspects!   

Processional cross

This processional cross depicts four Franciscan saints and was therefore probably commissioned by an establishment of that order. Given the presence of St. Clare, it was probably a community of sisters.

On its recto side, the cross shows Mary, St. Peter, St. John the Evangelist, and St. Mary Magdalene (starting from left and moving clockwise).

 

On the verso side are St. Francis, St. Louis of Toulouse, St. Clare, and St. Anthony of Padua.

Silver and gold (GAP)

I'm still loving the Search feature at Google Art Project. 

Have a look, for example at these 111 objects that have the word 'silver' in their title.  (Love that Episcopal silver mitre!)

Or these 215 objects that are returned upon searching for 'gold.'

 

Crozier

Google Art Project calls this a pastorale, by which I assume they mean a bishop's crozier.  Quite beautiful, with its silver, enamels, lettering and the Annunciation scene in the center of the curl. 

Lindau Gospels: Cover

I love the upper cover and lower covers for the Lindau Gospels. At Morgan Library, in New York City.

P.S. You can see an additional view of the front cover, and two of the back, at Corsair, the Morgan's search catalog. Here too you will find a number of folios of the manuscript itself. It's unexpectedly plain, in contrast to the sumptuous cover. Check out, for example, the beginning of St. Mark's Gospel.

Walters (crozier)

Yet another crozier, this one even more beautiful than last month's.

Crozier

I do love a fine bishop's crozier. This thirteenth-century French crozier has a rather peculiar theme, but its Limoges enamel decoration surely elevates it from the strange to the superb.

Otto I, Cathedral of Magdeburg

I'm glad that trade in ivory is now prohibited, but it's easy to see why it was so much prized for so long -- Otto I presents Magdeburg Cathedral to Christ, ca. 965 (ivory)

Three works in ivory

One more day of ivory, okay?  So we can gaze longingly at these works --

Magdeburg Panel, 962-68, Italy

Borradaile Triptych, 10th century, Byzantine.

Ivory triptych, 1330-40, England 

 

Russian Bishops' Mitres

When formally attired, a bishop wears a distinctive headpiece known as a "mitre."   Bishops in the Western church have for centuries worn a mitre that comes to a point at the top, as shown in this portrait of St. Ildefonso, ca. 1610, by El Greco. 

Bishops in the Russian Orthodox Church traditionally wear a mitre with a broader, rounder top.  Here are four quite lovely 19th-century examples from the Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg, Russia --

Mitre, 1840s

Mitre, 2nd half, 19th century

Mitre, 2nd half, 19th century

Mitre, late 19th century

You can see three bishops wearing mitres such as these in the Wedding of Nicholas II and Alexandra, 1895, by Laurits Tuxen.