Day 383 - Two Crivelli paintings


 

November 2, 2024

Gallery 606 centers on Venetian paintings of the second half of the 15th century. It includes a sweet Bellini  "Madonna and Child" with an Italianate landscape in the background, and a lovely small painting of the same subject by Cima da Conegliano.

But to my surprise, the painting that lives with me most is a 1476 "Pieta'" by Carlo Crivelli.  (I always thought of a "Pieta'" as depicting Mary holding the body of the crucified Christ, and, since the scene also includes the figures of John the Evangelist and Mary Magdalene, I would have labeled this painting a "Lamentation" instead, but maybe I've been too influenced by Michelangelo's Pieta'.)  This is a work I would never want it in my home, because I find it surpassingly ugly, but its emotional force is undeniable. And Crivelli recognized that people are ugly in their grief. 

Measuring perhaps 26 inches wide and 30 inches high at its highest point, the panel was originally part of an altarpiece that's now in the National Gallery, London. But the  painting stands well on its own.  Its gold background draws our attention even more to the thin, naked body of the dead Christ and to the anguished expressions of the faces of Mary and St. John the Evangelist, their mouths open in an apparent wail,  as well as to the more quietly sorrowful Mary Magdalene. The latter holds Christ's slack arm over the edge of the open tomb, a touch of foreshortening that draws the viewer's eye further into the scene. The light blue tones of Mary's cloak and mantle and the touches of red and green in Mary Magdalene's dress in now way detract from the nude tones of Christ's body at the center of the composition. Crivelli is known for his detailed brushwork, especially evident in the deep wrinkles that line Mary's face,  John's furrowed brow, and the marked veins that snake up Christ's thin arm. 

In contrast, a small Crivelli "Madonna and Child" hung adjacent to the "Pieta'" leaves me absolutely cold. Mary's elaborate robe and the detailed trees in the background crowd the picture with so much detail that the image strikes me as merely decorative. It says nothing to my heart.

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