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DOI Artikel:Ratkowska, Paulina: The remains of an altarpiece with the legend of St. John the Baptist: an unpublished work of the Franco-Gothic Style in the National Museum in Warsaw
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.18818#0022
probable tbat our master intended to depict the early moment of tbe episode preceding tbe
Descent of Holy Ghost.
Tbe subseąuent scene is so rare in tbe context of the legend of St John the Baptist tbat the au-
thor of the recent monograph of this subject, A. Masseron,24 passed it in silence. Our artist, however,
devoted to it the upper compartments of the two wings. On the narrower one St John, shown
amidst stylized trees, is turning to the right with the pointing gesture. On the respective
compartment of the broader left wing Jesus assisted by two Disciples hastens toward the Baptist.
The first of the Apostles is a beardless youth with the tonsura, the face of the second is en-
circled with a short rounded beard. The Saviour and the Apostles are blessing. Ali participants
of the scene hołd books — the attributes of Divine Teaching. We identify this scene as the
Calling of the First Disciples. The event is circumstantially related in the Fourth Gospel: „Again
the next day after John stood and two of his disciples; and looking upon Jesus as he walketh,
he saith: Behold the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him speak and they followed
Jesus. Then Jesus turned and saw them following and saith unto them, What seek ye? They
said unto him: Rabbi (which is to say being interpreted: Master) where dwellest thou? He saith
unto them: Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt and abode with him that day:
for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two which heard John speak and followed him was
Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.” The second one was interpreted by most of Latin mediae val
biblicists as St John the Evangelist although there were sonie controversions about it.25 In any
case the first of the Apostles on the compartment under disscussion is close in type to the Youn-
gest Disciple in the Deposition of the retable in the Wildenstein Collection in New York26 and
this is perfectly enough for such an identification of the personage on our panel (fig. 12). It is
worthy to notice that St John the Evangelist shown usually as 11 e first after Christ in the rangę
of the Apostles often appears in the miniatures of Historia of Alphonse X (even if he is depicted
here with a slightly longer hair). The representation of the Calling of the First Disciples, known
from Byzantine cycles and their Western derivatives in the XIYth century,27 may be found
in the Italian manuscript of the Meditations of Pseudo-Bonaventure. It differs from ours only
in the placing of the group of Jesus and the Disciples (going away from and not toward St John
the Baptist) and the seąuence of the figures of St John the Evangelist and St Andrew (fig. 22).28
The Feast of Herod is shown by our master according to the common usage and contrarily
to the relation of the Fourth Gospel with Herodiadę present at the table in the moment of the
bringing of John’s head by Salome.29 The painter followed the iconographic pattern close to
such XIIth century examples as the well-known and beautiful Capital from St Etienne de Tou-
louse (Musee des Augustins; fig. 23). Here Herod is represented once morę in the attitude royale
with Salome (fig. 24). Ali main participants are shown in haloes undoubtedly in order to en-
hance their royal dignity. It would be hardly possible to point to another example of the motif
in the scene of the Feast. The maid playing viola da bracchia — the person almost inseparable
from the XIVth century images of this subject — supplements the representation. Tne form
of her viol resembling that of the modern guitare, with seven strings is an indication, as Yiollet-
le-Duc has suggested,30 as to the dating of the representation before 1350.
24. A. Masseron, Saint Jean Baptiste dans Vart, Paris, 1957.
25. See the statement of St John Chrysostome quoted by Millet, op. citp. 190, footnote 1: ,,Les uns disent que 1'autre
etait 1'auteur de l'evangile; les autres, que c’etait un disciple obscur.”
26. Ars Hispaniae, op. cit., VI, fig. 263.
27. Millet, op. cit., p. 190 ff.
28. Meditations on the Life of Christ, op. cit., p. 130.
29. Masseron, op. cit., p. 109 ff.
30. Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionnaire du mobilier franęais de l'epoque carlouingienne a la Renaissance, Paris, 1871, p. 323, s. v.
Viele.
16
Descent of Holy Ghost.
Tbe subseąuent scene is so rare in tbe context of the legend of St John the Baptist tbat the au-
thor of the recent monograph of this subject, A. Masseron,24 passed it in silence. Our artist, however,
devoted to it the upper compartments of the two wings. On the narrower one St John, shown
amidst stylized trees, is turning to the right with the pointing gesture. On the respective
compartment of the broader left wing Jesus assisted by two Disciples hastens toward the Baptist.
The first of the Apostles is a beardless youth with the tonsura, the face of the second is en-
circled with a short rounded beard. The Saviour and the Apostles are blessing. Ali participants
of the scene hołd books — the attributes of Divine Teaching. We identify this scene as the
Calling of the First Disciples. The event is circumstantially related in the Fourth Gospel: „Again
the next day after John stood and two of his disciples; and looking upon Jesus as he walketh,
he saith: Behold the Lamb of God. And the two disciples heard him speak and they followed
Jesus. Then Jesus turned and saw them following and saith unto them, What seek ye? They
said unto him: Rabbi (which is to say being interpreted: Master) where dwellest thou? He saith
unto them: Come and see. They came and saw where he dwelt and abode with him that day:
for it was about the tenth hour. One of the two which heard John speak and followed him was
Andrew, Simon Peter’s brother.” The second one was interpreted by most of Latin mediae val
biblicists as St John the Evangelist although there were sonie controversions about it.25 In any
case the first of the Apostles on the compartment under disscussion is close in type to the Youn-
gest Disciple in the Deposition of the retable in the Wildenstein Collection in New York26 and
this is perfectly enough for such an identification of the personage on our panel (fig. 12). It is
worthy to notice that St John the Evangelist shown usually as 11 e first after Christ in the rangę
of the Apostles often appears in the miniatures of Historia of Alphonse X (even if he is depicted
here with a slightly longer hair). The representation of the Calling of the First Disciples, known
from Byzantine cycles and their Western derivatives in the XIYth century,27 may be found
in the Italian manuscript of the Meditations of Pseudo-Bonaventure. It differs from ours only
in the placing of the group of Jesus and the Disciples (going away from and not toward St John
the Baptist) and the seąuence of the figures of St John the Evangelist and St Andrew (fig. 22).28
The Feast of Herod is shown by our master according to the common usage and contrarily
to the relation of the Fourth Gospel with Herodiadę present at the table in the moment of the
bringing of John’s head by Salome.29 The painter followed the iconographic pattern close to
such XIIth century examples as the well-known and beautiful Capital from St Etienne de Tou-
louse (Musee des Augustins; fig. 23). Here Herod is represented once morę in the attitude royale
with Salome (fig. 24). Ali main participants are shown in haloes undoubtedly in order to en-
hance their royal dignity. It would be hardly possible to point to another example of the motif
in the scene of the Feast. The maid playing viola da bracchia — the person almost inseparable
from the XIVth century images of this subject — supplements the representation. Tne form
of her viol resembling that of the modern guitare, with seven strings is an indication, as Yiollet-
le-Duc has suggested,30 as to the dating of the representation before 1350.
24. A. Masseron, Saint Jean Baptiste dans Vart, Paris, 1957.
25. See the statement of St John Chrysostome quoted by Millet, op. citp. 190, footnote 1: ,,Les uns disent que 1'autre
etait 1'auteur de l'evangile; les autres, que c’etait un disciple obscur.”
26. Ars Hispaniae, op. cit., VI, fig. 263.
27. Millet, op. cit., p. 190 ff.
28. Meditations on the Life of Christ, op. cit., p. 130.
29. Masseron, op. cit., p. 109 ff.
30. Viollet-le-Duc, Dictionnaire du mobilier franęais de l'epoque carlouingienne a la Renaissance, Paris, 1871, p. 323, s. v.
Viele.
16