DOI Heft:
No. 2
DOI Artikel:Dobrzeniecki, Tadeusz: The Farewell in Bethany: some iconographical notes
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.17161#0060
Pierfrancesco Sacchi40. The Dominican Meditations reveal an image analogous in this respect
to Italian examples (fig. 12), and the spiritual meaning of the respective meditation41 is even
richer than that of the quoted Italian text.
In the sermon of Barletta it is the Virgin who asks Christ for the blessing: „Et mater econtra
dixit filio: O ego mater infoelix quia priyor filio meo, da mihi benedictionem tuam"42.
An undoubted illustration of this episode may be found on the panel of Jerg Radgeb in Bern
(fig 4)43. Inscriptions on the scrolls of Mary and Jesus attest to this. The first of them, expressing
the recpiest of Mother, reads as follows: Da mihi benedictionem, fili mi, and the second, with the
answer of Christ: Vale, benedicta Mater. Pater meus et spiritus confortet te. Angeli defendant te.
Both persons confront each other. Jesus holds in His right hand the dextera of Mary while
the Virgin with Her left hand wipes tears. Behind Mother of God the Holy Women stand while
behind Christ the Apostles are shown as they walk away in the background.
This iconographic formuła was already used in the Cologne painting of ca 140044, mentioned
above, on which Jesus is represented blessing with His left hand He holds the hand of the
Virgin.
The Master of the Cologne Passion of ca 14 5 045 conceiyes the eyent slightly differently. Mary
inclines to Her Son, holding His right hand in Hers. Christ — as if already walking off — raises
His left hand.
In Rhenish painting the Parting of Christ from His Mother takes place without witnesses.
But in the Haller Passionspiel the Apostles and the Holy Women participate in the Farewell.
Ali of them kneel and receiye the blessing from Jesus. And in the last moment He „porrigit
omnibus manum incipiendo a matre"16.
Nearly all preseryed Silesian examples of the scenę used the Rhenish formuła,47 introducing
however, the secondary participants of the Farewell — the Apostles and the Holy Women.
The votive painting from Wrocław in the National Museum (fig. 3) betrays a considerable resem-
błance to the Jerg Radgeb's panel. But in the background of our work the Crucifixion is shown.
This extremely original detail is a very simple and at the same time penetrating yisualization of
the cardinal idea of almost all literary presentations of the Parting in Bethany: Christ justified
the necessity of His death and forctold the participation of the Virgin in the work of Redemp-
tion48. Mary assures that this parting is only temporary sińce she ncver abandons Her Son49.
On the Wrocław painting Mary, lost in despair, presses Her left hand to Her forehead. On the re-
lief from Rościsławice (fig. 2) she wipes tears with the edge of Her mantle, being held by Her left
hand50. Instead, on the StarczedeFs epitaph from Wrocław (fig. 5) a new detail appears: Christ
40. E. v. d. Bercken, Die Malerei der Renaissance in Oberilalien, Wildpark— Potsdam, 1927, p. 148.
41. Dominican Meditations, fol. 30.
42. See our footnote 35.
43. Kunstmuseum, see O. Benesch, „Zum Werk Jerg Radgeb", Zeitschrift fur bildende Kunst, LXI, 1927/28, p. 49-53.
44. See our footnote 18.
45. Koln, Wallraf — Richartz Museum, No 100.
46. I quote after Waekernell, op. cit.
.47. The only exception is the carved predella of an altar of ca 1520 from Mycielin (district Szprotawa), see H. Braune and
E. Wiese, op. cit., p. 70-71, No 142, pl. 151.
48. The dialogue of the Virgin with Christ carried according to scholastic principles is to be understood as a dramatized expo-
sition of mediaeval Christology and Mariology.
49. The statement of the Virgin was emphatically worded by Oliyier Maillard (1440 —1502) in his Quadragcsiinale opus...
Lugduni, 1498: Feria V hebdomade sancte Sermo lxi]: quo vos ( —Christus) ibitis ego vadam et ubi moriemini ego moriar".
50. For the analogous composition see the stone epitapb of M. Irmisch (j 1518) in the wali of the Northern aisle of St Mary
Magdalen's Churcli in Wrociaw; K. Bimler, Die schlesische Renaissanceplastik, Breslau, 1934, p. 30 — 32, fig. 12. A similar
representation may be found in two stone epitaphs in the Vienna Stephansdom; see Osterreichische Kunsttopographie,
geschichte und Beschreibung des St Stephansdomes in Wien, Bd XXIII, Wien, 1931, fig. 389, 390, 516.
50
to Italian examples (fig. 12), and the spiritual meaning of the respective meditation41 is even
richer than that of the quoted Italian text.
In the sermon of Barletta it is the Virgin who asks Christ for the blessing: „Et mater econtra
dixit filio: O ego mater infoelix quia priyor filio meo, da mihi benedictionem tuam"42.
An undoubted illustration of this episode may be found on the panel of Jerg Radgeb in Bern
(fig 4)43. Inscriptions on the scrolls of Mary and Jesus attest to this. The first of them, expressing
the recpiest of Mother, reads as follows: Da mihi benedictionem, fili mi, and the second, with the
answer of Christ: Vale, benedicta Mater. Pater meus et spiritus confortet te. Angeli defendant te.
Both persons confront each other. Jesus holds in His right hand the dextera of Mary while
the Virgin with Her left hand wipes tears. Behind Mother of God the Holy Women stand while
behind Christ the Apostles are shown as they walk away in the background.
This iconographic formuła was already used in the Cologne painting of ca 140044, mentioned
above, on which Jesus is represented blessing with His left hand He holds the hand of the
Virgin.
The Master of the Cologne Passion of ca 14 5 045 conceiyes the eyent slightly differently. Mary
inclines to Her Son, holding His right hand in Hers. Christ — as if already walking off — raises
His left hand.
In Rhenish painting the Parting of Christ from His Mother takes place without witnesses.
But in the Haller Passionspiel the Apostles and the Holy Women participate in the Farewell.
Ali of them kneel and receiye the blessing from Jesus. And in the last moment He „porrigit
omnibus manum incipiendo a matre"16.
Nearly all preseryed Silesian examples of the scenę used the Rhenish formuła,47 introducing
however, the secondary participants of the Farewell — the Apostles and the Holy Women.
The votive painting from Wrocław in the National Museum (fig. 3) betrays a considerable resem-
błance to the Jerg Radgeb's panel. But in the background of our work the Crucifixion is shown.
This extremely original detail is a very simple and at the same time penetrating yisualization of
the cardinal idea of almost all literary presentations of the Parting in Bethany: Christ justified
the necessity of His death and forctold the participation of the Virgin in the work of Redemp-
tion48. Mary assures that this parting is only temporary sińce she ncver abandons Her Son49.
On the Wrocław painting Mary, lost in despair, presses Her left hand to Her forehead. On the re-
lief from Rościsławice (fig. 2) she wipes tears with the edge of Her mantle, being held by Her left
hand50. Instead, on the StarczedeFs epitaph from Wrocław (fig. 5) a new detail appears: Christ
40. E. v. d. Bercken, Die Malerei der Renaissance in Oberilalien, Wildpark— Potsdam, 1927, p. 148.
41. Dominican Meditations, fol. 30.
42. See our footnote 35.
43. Kunstmuseum, see O. Benesch, „Zum Werk Jerg Radgeb", Zeitschrift fur bildende Kunst, LXI, 1927/28, p. 49-53.
44. See our footnote 18.
45. Koln, Wallraf — Richartz Museum, No 100.
46. I quote after Waekernell, op. cit.
.47. The only exception is the carved predella of an altar of ca 1520 from Mycielin (district Szprotawa), see H. Braune and
E. Wiese, op. cit., p. 70-71, No 142, pl. 151.
48. The dialogue of the Virgin with Christ carried according to scholastic principles is to be understood as a dramatized expo-
sition of mediaeval Christology and Mariology.
49. The statement of the Virgin was emphatically worded by Oliyier Maillard (1440 —1502) in his Quadragcsiinale opus...
Lugduni, 1498: Feria V hebdomade sancte Sermo lxi]: quo vos ( —Christus) ibitis ego vadam et ubi moriemini ego moriar".
50. For the analogous composition see the stone epitapb of M. Irmisch (j 1518) in the wali of the Northern aisle of St Mary
Magdalen's Churcli in Wrociaw; K. Bimler, Die schlesische Renaissanceplastik, Breslau, 1934, p. 30 — 32, fig. 12. A similar
representation may be found in two stone epitaphs in the Vienna Stephansdom; see Osterreichische Kunsttopographie,
geschichte und Beschreibung des St Stephansdomes in Wien, Bd XXIII, Wien, 1931, fig. 389, 390, 516.
50