The Discovery of Matthias Grunewald: a personal journey

Featured Image: Grünewald in a 19th century depiction on the de:Frankoniabrunnen, by Ferdinand von Miller (1824), now in front of the Würzburg Residence.

This is a short recount of how I discovered Matthias Grunewald, the late German Renaissance Master of the Isenheim Altarpiece. It is one of the best journeys of my life.

Updated 14 March 2024

“Mathis der Maler”, a Paul Hindemith Opera

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In 1995 I was living in London and one of my favorite past times was going to the opera. The Royal Opera at Covent Garden in London was the most famous and reputable, but at the same time more conservative compared to other operas in the UK. However, there was the odd occasion when a “radical” production would be staged. One of them was Peter Sellar’s staging of Paul Hindemith’s opera, “Mathis der Maler”. This is how I was introduced to the mystical world of Mathias Grunewald.

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I was one of the lucky ones who got a last minute STB ‘stand-by’ ticket in the orchestra stalls for 20 pounds. These tickets would normally sell for more than 80 pounds. I was seated in row B at the center of the stalls, and could hear the Conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen breath as he conducted the orchestra.

The Royal Opera organized on Saturday 11 November 1995 a study day, so that people would learn about the subject of the opera, the painter Mathis, and the people behind the production would present their views and aesthetic ideas.

Luckily I attended and got to meet Peter Sellars, the American theater director of the staging.

He was kind enough to sign the program with the following:

Dear Nick,
So wonderful to meet you.
Thanks for your GENTLE sense of ANARCHY.
Peter Sellars.

But the key person as far as Grunewald was concerned, was the lecture given by Anne Tennant, an art historian, which was the best introduction to the world of Grunewald. From this moment on, I became hooked.

I went to the opera, enjoyed it immensely becasue Hindemith is one of my favorites, but my mind was travelling to Isenheim.

The trip to Colmar, Stuppach and Karlsruhe

I therefore decided that I had to see the Isenheim altarpiece and on April 1996, I embarked on a short trip to visit Matthias Grunewald’s Isenheim Alterpiece, the painting of the Madonna in Stuppach, and the Crucifixion in Karlsruhe. I picked the weekend of 13-14 April 1996, which happened to be the Greek Orthodox Easter weekend.

The route

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Fly from London Heathrow to Basel – Mulhouse, rent a car and drive to Colmar.

Then drive to Bad Mergentheim (some 350 km) to spend the night, Stuppach, Karlsruhe and back to the Basel – Mulhouse airport.

Colmar

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A canal in Colmar. Photo: N. Moropoulos
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The center of Colmar is picturesque, with canals and medieval houses and buildings. It is also small and compact, so that you can get around quickly.

The Isenheim Alterpiece

“Beauty is only the beginning of the terrible.” Rainer – Maria Rilke

The Isenheim Alterpiece is exhibited in the Unterlinden Museum, a former Dominican convent, dating back to the 13th century.

The Crucifixion panel is the most horrid depiction of suffering leading to death that I have seen. Being such, nevertheless it captivates the observer, at least the one who has some sort of affinity to Christianity. Its intensity and brutality give new meaning to the Resurrection.

isenheim_crucifixion_panel
Matthias Grunewald, The Isenheim Alterpiece, Crucifixion, 1513 – 1515, Museum Unterlinden, Colmar

The French writer and art critic Joris-Karl Huysmans wrote about Grunewald:

“He was the most uncompromising of realists, but his morgue redeemer, his
sewer Deity, let the observer know that realism could be truly transcendent …
Grunewald was the most uncompromising of Idealists… In this canvas was
revealed the masterpiece of an art obeying the unopposable urge to render the
tangible and the invisible, to make manifest the crying impurity of the flesh and
to make the sublime the infinite distress of the soul.”

As I mention in an article I have written on the Isenheim Altarpiece, in a way it is Germany’s Sistine Chapel.

The Madonna in the Rosegarden

A stone’s throw from the Museum is the Dominican Church where I saw the masterpiece of Grunewald’s mentor, Martin Schongauer’s, the “Madonna in the Rosegarden”, painted in 1473.

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Was the Madonna in the Rosegarden related to the Madonna in Stuppach? I would find out the next day.

Bad Mergentheim

I spent the night in Bad Mergentheim, in the Main-Tauber-Kreis district in the German state of Baden-Württemberg.

The room in the ‘Alte Muenze’ Gasthaus was clean and spacious.

The next day, Orthodox Easter Sunday, I had a wonderful walk in the park around the town’s castle, called home and then drove the short distance to Stuppach.

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Bad Mergentheim Castle, Photo: N. Moropoulos

The Stuppacher Madonna

Suppach is a village 2 km south of the town of Bad Mergentheim.

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Suppach – The Vilalge and the Church © ML Preiss, Deutsche Stiftung Denkmalschutz, Bonn

In the chapel of the village church, the visitor can see Matthias Grunewald’s masterpiece “The Stuppacher Madonna”. Having seen the Isenheim Alterpiece, the Stuppach Madonna is a brilliant return to some sort of normal life, where there is beauty, love, happinness.  I could see the influence of Schongauer, even van der Weyden.

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Von Matthias Grünewald – Stuppacher_Madonna – Fokus GmbH Leipzig, via blicklokal.de, Gemeinfrei, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=56132209

Ticket to view the Stuppacher Madonna

The Stuppacher Madonna and Christ’s Lamentation in the Collegiate Church of St. Peter and Alexander in Aschaffenburg are the only Grunewald paintings that are not kept in museums today. I have seen a copy of it, but not the original.

Matthias_Gruenewald-Beweinung_Christi-Aschaffenburg-Web_Gallery_of_Art

The Karlsruhe Crucifixion

Following my visit to the Stuppacher Madonna, I had time to quickly drive to Karlsruhe and visit the Staatliche Kunsthalle (State Art Gallery), where one of Grunewald’s Crucifixion’s is kept.

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Christ on the Cross between Maria and John (Tauberbischofsheim Altarpiece), 1523 – 1525.  Height: 195.5 cm (76.9 in); Width: 142.5 cm (56.1 in), Staatliche Kunsthalle  Karlsruhe

It has been painted some years after the ISenheim altarpiece, it is even drarker, but not less gruesome.

In the same museum they have a drawing of Christ on the Cross, but it is not exhibited, so I did not get to see it.

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Matthias Grunewald, Christ on the Cross, 1520, 531 x 320 mm, Black chalk on brownish paper, Staatliche Kunsthalle  Karlsruhe

As I was exiting the museum room where the “Crucifixion” painting hangs, I stumbled upon two beautiful etchings of female saints. This is my favorite, because of the hair.

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Matthias Grunewald, 1511/1512, Holy Saint (Bibiana or Lucia?), H 101 cm W 43, Staatliche Kunsthalle  Karlsruhe

The Basel Crucifixion

Some years later, in 2003, I visited the Arts Museum in Basel (Kunstmuseum) to see the Crucifixion. Although painted at about the same time with the Isenheim Altarpiece, it is much softer as far as the depiction of the Holy Drama goes, and it has much more light.

Matthias Grünewald; Die Kreuzigung Christi; um 1515 (?), HxB: 74.9 x 54.4 cm; Mischtechnik auf Lindenholz; Inv. 269, Kunstmuseum Basel

Epilogue

And so I have traced the painter’s personal journey back to its origin.

Up to the Basel Crucifixion, Grunewald was painting like one of late German Renaissance Masters. The Isenheim Altarpiece was his “Turn”.

From the relatively ordinary Basel Crucifixion, the painter enters the world beyond with the Isenheim Alterpiece. And he continues with the Karlsruhe painting.

He is not a man living in a world without beauty, he is a man who can appreciate beauty because he has seen the absolute horror.

A 1954 Guide (in Greek) to the Dormition of the Virgin Chapel in Lindos, Rhodes, Greece – Ο Ιερός Ναός Λίνδου “Η Κοίμησις της Θεοτόκου”, Αρχιμανδρίτου Θεοδοσίου Αναστασιάδου – Λίνδος 1954

Συνέχεια παιδικών αναμνήσεων και χρόνων.

Ψάχνοντας στην βιβλιοθήκη μου, βρήκα αυτό το φυλλάδιο που αποτελεί οδηγό για τον ιερό ναό Κοιμήσεως της Θεοτόκου τη Λίνδο της Ρόδου.

Εκδόθηκε το 1954 και γράφτηκε από τον Αρχιμανδρίτη Θεοδόσιο Αναστασιάδη. Ο Μητροπολίτης Ρόδου Σπυρίδων έγραψε μιαν εγκριτική εισαγωγή. Τον Σπυρίδωνα τον θυμάμαι καλά, λειτουργούσε στον Ευαγγελισμό κάθε Κυριακή και το Πάσχα. Τον Αναστασιάδη δεν τον ενθυμούμαι.

 

 

Church of Chrysospiliotissa, Kato Graikiko, Tzoumerka, Greece – Μονή Χρυσοσπηλιώτισσας, Κάτω Γραικικό, Τζουμέρκα

Στο Κάτω Γραικικό Τζουμέρκων, στην κοινότητα Γουριανά υπάρχει μια χωμάτινη διαδρομή (περίπου 3 χιλιόμετρα) που σε πηγαίνει στη Μονή Χρυσοσπηλιώτισσας.

Μονή Χρυσοσπηλιώτισσας, Κάτω Γραικικό, Τζουμέρκα, Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Σήμερα υπάρχει μόνο η εκκλησία, χτισμένη στον χώρο που παλιά ήταν το μοναστήρι. Φθάνοντας στον χώρο, η πινακίδα σε στέλνει σε μια κατωφέρεια που στο βάθος της βρίσκεται ο ναός.

Μονή Χρυσοσπηλιώτισσας, Κάτω Γραικικό, Τζουμέρκα, Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Υψόμετρο περίπου 900 μέτρα, καταπράσινα όλα. Η εκκλησία είναι μονόκλιτη σταυρεπίστεγη θολωτή βασιλική με τρούλο, ο πιο διαδεδομένος τύπος ηπειρωτικού ναού κατά την Τουρκοκρατία.

Μονή Χρυσοσπηλιώτισσας, Κάτω Γραικικό, Τζουμέρκα, Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Η εκκλησία χτίστηκε τον 11ο αιώνας, καταστράφηκε κάποια στιγμή, και – όπως δείχνει η αναμνηστική πλάκα – ξαναχτίστηκε το 1663.

Μονή Χρυσοσπηλιώτισσας, Κάτω Γραικικό, Τζουμέρκα, Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Ο βράχος αγκαλιάζει την εκκλησία, και αφήνει ένα μικρό πέρασμα για να φτάσει ο επισκέπτης σε ένα κοίλωμα όπου κατά την παράδοση βρέθηκε η εικόνα της Παναγίας που εδωσε το όνομα της στην μονή.

Μονή Χρυσοσπηλιώτισσας, Κάτω Γραικικό, Τζουμέρκα, Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Σήμερα στην εσοχή υπάρχουν εικόνες προσφορές των πιστών. Οι τοιχογραφίες του ναού έγιναν το 1801.

Μονή Χρυσοσπηλιώτισσας, Κάτω Γραικικό, Τζουμέρκα, Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Δεν υπάρχει καμπαναριό, μόνο αυτό το λιτό σήμαντρο με την καταπληκτική θέα απέναντι.

Μονή Χρυσοσπηλιώτισσας, Κάτω Γραικικό, Τζουμέρκα, Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Θέα από τη Μονή Χρυσοσπηλιώτισσας, Κάτω Γραικικό, Τζουμέρκα, Φωτο: Νίκος Μορόπουλος

Το τοπίο είναι μαγευτικό. Η ηρεμία σε καθηλώνει.

Αξέχαστη επίσκεψη.

Δείτε επίσης τα ακόλουθα άρθρα για τα Τζουμέρκα:

Μιχαλίτσι

Ροδαυγή

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Christ’s Passion in the Thyssen – Bornemisza Museum of Madrid

Christ’s Passion is the pivotal event for Christians all over the world. This is the reason that it has been the subject of so many works of art. Today I present the relevant works of art from the collection of one of the great small museums of the world, the Thyssen Bornemisza Museum in Madrid, Spain.

Important note: All the pictures (except one) are from the archives of the Thyssen-Bornemisza museum and are presented here for non-commercial purposes. All readers of this post are kindly requested to respect this condition of use. 

UGOLINO DI NERIO (Ugolino da Siena)_La Crucifixión con la Virgen, san Juan y ángeles, c.1330-1335_ 412 (1968.3)

The earliest and first work in this review is “The Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John and Angels”,  by the Sienese artist Ugolino di Nerio, or Ugolino da Siena.  The panel was part of an altarpiece in a church in Florence, Italy.

Tempera and gold on panel. 135 x 89 cm.

The composition is minimal, illuminated by the golden background, which gives to the painting a metaphysical dimension. The Virgin and St John turn their faces to the right of the picture, counterbalancing Jesus’s face which turns to the left. I particularly like the angels as they fly around the cross.

ANONIMO ALEMAN_El Descendimiento (anverso), c.1420_ 268a (1970.19.a)

Descent from the Cross, Anonymous German (Middle Rhine), c. 1420.

Oil on panel. 62 x 30 cm

In stark contrast to the Crucifixion of Ugolino di Nerio, “The descent from the Cross” of the anonymous German painter is characterized by a complex composition and a realism that cannot be escaped. Notice that there is no scenery in the background.

AN. VALENCIANO hacia 1450-1460_La Crucifixion_94_(1976.1)

The Crucifixion, Anonymous Valencian Artist, c. 1450-146

Oil on panel. 44.8 x 34 cm

Although the palette of the painting is austere, earthy and on the dark side, this is a painting with complex composition and expression of emotions. I cannot help but adore the landscape in the background, a clear reference to the Northern European school of painting.

UCCELLO, Paolo (Paolo di Dono)_La Crucifixión con la Virgen, los santos Juanes y san Francisco, c.1460-1465_ 411(1930.118)

The Crucifixion with the Virgin, Saint John the Baptist, Saint John the Evangelist and Saint Francis,

Paolo Uccello, c. 1460-1465

Tempera on panel. 45 x 67 cm

Back to the minimalism of tempera. What shines in the otherwise grim composition is the golden Cross and the garments of the Virgin and St John. The horizontal (2 figures on the left, two on the right of the Cross) and vertical (dark sky at the top, dark ground at the bottom) symmetry is the highlight of the composition.

DAVID, Gerard_La Crucifixion_125_(1928.3)

The Crucifixion, Gerard David, c.147

Oil on panel. 88 x 56 cm

The Flemish painter Gerard David here shows the clear influence of Rogier van der Weyden among others. The palette of the bluish colors in the landscape announce the arrival of Patinir.

 

Lamentation Triptych, Master of the Legend of Saint Lucy, c. 1475

Oil on panel. Central panel: 75 x 61 cm; lateral wings: 75 x 27 cm

A Crucifixion triptych from the North, with the characteristic color palette, and the bluish landscape. The influence of Rogier van der Weyden and his period is clear.

BRAMANTINO (Bartolomeo Suardi) _Cristo resucitado, c. 1490_61 (1937.1)

The Risen Christ, Bramantino, c. 1490

Mixed media on panel. 109 x 73 cm

The risen Christ is a rare subject, and here we have one painting of it. But this is not a happy Christ, there is no triumph, no joy, here we have a tormented Christ who is still feeling the horror of crucifixion, and the background is a ruined building of the classical period. The full moon is up in the sky, but the light is minimal. This is a dark, sad, painting. One of my favorites!

GRECO, El (Domenico Theotokópoulos)_Cristo abrazando la cruz, c. 1587-1596_169 (1930.28)

Christ with the Cross, El Greco, c.1587-1596

Oil on canvas. 66 x 52.5 cm

El Greco here gives us a picture of the face of Christ, before the Crucifixion, at the height of His torment. It is a stunning painting, because the painter accomplishes so much with so little. Literally minimal, only the red garment appears on the canvas.

ZURBARAN, Francisco de_Cristo en la Cruz, c.1630_ 447 (1956.8)

Christ on the Cross, Zurbaran, c. 1630

Oil on canvas. 214 x 143.5 cm

This is a picture that reminds me of a similar painting by Velazquez (in the Prado) and another one by Goya (also in Prado). It must have been popular and this is the reason there are so many around.

RIBERA, José de_La Piedad, 1633_ 336 (1984.12)

La Pietà, Jose de Ribera, c. 1633

Oil on canvas. 157 x 210 cm

Wonderful, dark, strong, minimal painting.

DYCK, Anton van_Cristo en la Cruz, 1627_(CTB.1995.26)

Christ on the Cross, Anthony van Dyck, c.1627

Oil on panel. 105.3 x 73 cm

Compare this painting to the Crucifixion by Zurbaran. This is dynamic, almost live, you can feel the torment and the escaping life out of Christ’s body. Wonderful.

Christ on the Cross, attributed to Anthony van Dyck

Christ on the Cross, Anthony van Dyck, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

This is a black and white chalk drawing in the Metropolitan Museum of New York, apparently  done before the painting in the Thyssen.

Here our little journey in the Thyssen collection ends. I hope that you have found at least one picture that you liked. Happy Easter!

 

Can the Middle East migrant crisis be contained?

The migrant crisis has reached an acute  state in Greece and Europe for more than one year now. Millions of people from Syria, Iraq, Afghanistan, and other countries are flooding Greece aiming to continue their journey to other European countries. Some 45,000 of them are now stuck in Greece, after the northern borders of the country have been closed. Approximately 14,000 of them are in the area of Idomeni, a village of 150 inhabitants.

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Photo: Hundreds of people arrive at the passport office in Kabul to apply for new travel documents. SLOBODAN LEKIC/Stars and Stripes

Images of the migrants stuck in Greece near the border with FYROM (Macedonia) are all over the news. On the 17th March 2016 the EU leaders met and finalized the EU proposal to Turkey to stem the flow of migrants to Europe. An agreement was reached with Turkey on the 18th March 2016. According to the agreement, every migrant arriving in Greece after the 20th March 2016 who does not qualify for asylum in a European country will be returned to Turkey. In exchange, a Syrian refuge who is in Turkey and has not attempted to cross illegally to Greece, will be given asylum to a European country. There is a cap to this, of 72,000 people. There are significant implementation issues for the agreement to run smoothly. However, the big question remain: “Can the flow of migrants from the Middle East to Europe be stemmed?”

It is obvious that the European leaders and their advisors think that the flow can be stemmed. The deal with Turkey is structured on the basis of this hypothesis. Why is this the case? How can this be proven to be a reasonable assumption?

Quite simply put, the flow can be stemmed provided that the causes of the massive migration can be addressed so that migration is no longer the path to the future for millions of people. It is therefore essential that we know which are the causes of the migration, and that we examine how they can ills behind creating them can be cured.

The war in Syria has made the whole phenomenon look like a mass exodus of people from the battlefields of the Syrian war. This is the explanation that best suits the European Union’s agenda. The war stops, therefore the migration flow  declines and eventually stops. All we need – in this case – is to stem the flow from Turkey to Europe and wait until the flow stops.

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Photo: Boy on a destroyed tank in Kobane, Syria. Yasin Akgul/AFP/Getty Images

Before I proceed I would like to clarify the terminology. Following the BBC, I use the terms migrant and migration to describe the phenomenon. I suggest that the word refugee is not needed, as it creates confusion and obfuscates the phenomenon at large. A migrant is a person who decides to leave their country of residence in order to move to another country. No matter what the reason is, political persecution, economic need, or something else, the migrant is a man determined to move and seek asylum in another country.

The confusion with the terminology arose out of the need qualify a migrant as a refugee in case the reason for their decision is political persecution.Being a refugee qualifies the migrant for automatic granting of asylum by the receiving country, whereas a simple migrant who, say, emigrates in order to make a living (so called financial refugees) has no right to asylum whatsoever and is not accepted.

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In order to establish the causes of the phenomenon, we must make sure we have the facts relevant to it. Lets begin with the country of origin.Where do the migrants come from?

The origin countries

According to Frontex, there were 1.83 million “illegal border crossings” into Europe in 2015 compared to the previous year’s record of 283,500. As we see in the Eurostat chart above, the three top origin countries of the migrants are Syria, Afghanistan and Iraq. A total of 363,000 Syrians fled the war and entered Europe seeking asylum.

So far we have established one probable cause for the migration. The war in Syria. Assuming that this is the only cause, we have an issue to deal with in our analysis. How do we explain the migration from Afghanistan and Iraq as a result of the war in Syria?

 

Before addressing this issue it would be useful to gather some facts on the migration from Afghanistan and Iraq.

Afghan refugees walk through a beach where they will wait to board a dinghy sailing off for the Greek island of Chios
Afghan refugees walk through a beach where they will wait to board a dinghy sailing off for the Greek island of Chios, while they try to travel from the western Turkish coastal town of Cesme, in Izmir province, Turkey, March 6, 2016. REUTERS/Umit Bektas

Afghanistan

The Afghanistan population is approximately 33 million. Male life expectancy is 59 years, and female 61 years. Unemployment is over 50%, while 38% of the population lives below the poverty demarcation line.Afghanistan is practically a country whose economy is destroyed and more than one third of its territory is under the control of the Taliban insurgents.

Eurostat  figures show that 178,000 Afghanis entered Europe in 2015 seeking a better life.

Slobodan Lekic writes in “Stars and Stripes”:

“Afghans are now the second-largest contingent of migrants heading for Europe, after Syrians but ahead of Iraqis fleeing from the murderous Islamic State jihadis in the Middle East, according to the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees and the European Union’s statistical agency. But exact numbers are difficult to come by because many of the Afghans heading east have already been living as refugees outside Afghanistan’s borders. A good proportion of those traveling to Europe live in Iran, where some 900,000 Afghans have resided since the 1990s.”(1)

Dasha Afanasieva reports on the Afghanis in Turkey:

“The EU is not even discussing these issues and is exclusively focused on Syria,” Kati Piri, the European Parliament’s rapporteur for Turkey, told Reuters last month.

“Even if the Syrian crisis would be solved tomorrow, there would still be a serious refugee crisis, with a large number of refugees in Turkey who don’t have access to their rights.”

Afghan migrants in Turkey interviewed by Reuters said that over the past few years they had been denied interviews with U.N. refugee agency UNHCR that would formally determine their refugee status, a key step in the journey to being resettled.

Polat Kizildag, program coordinator at ASAM, an organization which registers asylum seekers in Turkey, said they were generally told they were ineligible because Turkey was the third country on their journey and the expectation was that they apply for refugee status in their second, in many cases Iran.

Human rights groups have said Iranian forces deport thousands of Afghans without giving them a chance to prove their asylum status and that they are pressured to leave the country.

“More than 63,000 Afghans came to Turkey last year, a sharp rise from 15,652 in 2014, according to ASAM (an organization which registers asylum seekers in Turkey), counting only those who registered. Some came directly from Afghanistan, others from Iran, where they had tried unsuccessfully to settle.(6)

ap_ap-photo1602-wi-e1448474695814-640x478

Iraq

Iraq has a population of approximately 37 million people and its oil dependent economy is in a terrible shape. In her NPR report, Alice Fordham says:

“Everything seems to be working against the Iraqi economy. The government is waging a costly war with the Islamic State while dealing with falling oil prices, millions of displaced citizens and staggering costs for reconstruction of cities ruined by fighting.” (7)

Add to this the effects of the civil strife and you have the makings of an explosive situation. According to a report by the International Organization for Migration, more than 3 million people have been displaced in Iraq by violent conflict since January 2014.  Dominik Bartsch, the U.N.’s deputy humanitarian coordinator in Iraq, said 10 million people were expected to need humanitarian support by the end of the year in that country, where 3.2 million were already displaced. (4)

In the past years there has been  migration within the region, which is now becoming migration to Europe. In a New York Times article, Ken Arango wrote in September 2015:

“Adnan al-Azzawi, 45, was in Damascus, Syria, from 2004 to 2011, and then returned to Baghdad. He recently sent his family on the migrant journey, and they wound up in Belgium. He hopes to join them soon.” (3)

iraq_displacement

The mix of the origin countries is changing

Since September 2015, the mix of migrants by country of origin has changed significantly. The extensive quote below is from Chris Tomlinson’s article (5):

The number of Syrian migrants is falling, while the number of Afghans, Iraqis and West Africans continues to grow, according to the European Union’s (EU) Frontex agency.

The organisation, which is tasked with monitoring and controlling movements around Europe’s borders, has revealed that the new wave of migrants aren’t necessarily fleeing conflict, but rather “aspiring” for a better economic situation, according to two agency reports.

The first document talks about migration coming through the Greek islands from the Middle East. They state that in recent months the percentage of Syrian migrants is decreasing.

According to the agency, although Syrians represented 56 percent of the illegal migrants that crossed into Greece in 2015, by December that number had fell to 39 percent.

The report also said that Iraqis and Afghanis as a percentage of the migrants had dramatically increased with the share of Iraqis more than doubling from 11 percent in October to 25 percent by the end of December. Afghani numbers also have increased to one third of migrants crossing into Greece.

aegli

Photo: The Aigli Hotel, a bankrupt resort near Thermopylae Greece, is now an official migrant center. Sergey Ponomarev for the New York Times.

First conclusions

What we can conclude from the Iraqi situation is that the tide of migrants will become stronger. When 10 million people are displaced and in danger of their well being, the tide will not only be big, it may also be unstoppable.

If the findings of the Frontex reports are valid, the wave of migrants from the Middle East to Europe will continue to come strong, contrary to the views that it will stop once the Syrian war is over. The reasons behind the migration are not restricted to the geographical territory of Syria, nor are they confined to fully blown war. There is an intense feeling of insecurity both in Iraq and Afghanistan, and this feeling is not going away if we believe the relevant reports.

If insecurity drives the migration, this is not strictly a political issue. It is also an economic issue, and it is related to demographics.

Given all of the above, the migration crisis facing the Middle East and Europe is here to stay. And this raises a lot of questions regarding the adequacy of the EU – Turkey agreement regarding the flow of migrants. If the migration tide is not just the result of a war in Syria that is going to end, what are the chances that an agreement to control the flow of migrants from Turkey to the EU will prove to be totally inadequate?

European politicians have developed a piecemeal approach to tackle issues, no matter how big or small they are. As the collapse of the American financial system in 2008 has shown us, piecemeal measures do not work when the issue is a big crisis that transcends the ordinary. The Europeans do not seem to have learned this lesson. If we judge from the way the Greek crisis is being handled, the piecemeal approach thrives.

Is this going to work in the migrant crisis facing Europe? I do not think so. A year from now the situation in Greece will be intollerable, with many more migrants stuck in the country unable to move either to Europe or back to Turkey. The northern borders of Greece will continue to be closed for the migrants.

And what is the worst of all, the economic conditions that make migration inevitable also fuel insurgency in the Middle East.

iraq_war

Sources

(1) Afghans join Syrians, others migrating to Europe, by Slobodan Lekic. Stars and Stripes. Published: September 18, 2015.

(2) In Syria: Four Years of War. The Atlantic.

(3) A New Wave of Migrants Flees Iraq, Yearning for Europe, by Ken Arango. The New York Times, September 2015.

(4) U.N. sees refugee flow to Europe growing, plans for big Iraq displacement, by Tom Miles. Reuters, September 2015.

(5) EU Border Agency: Syrian ‘Refugee’ Numbers Declining, Economic Migration Exploding, by Chris Tomlinson. Breitbart, January 2016.

(6) Afghans feel forgotten in Europe’s migrant crisis, Dasha Afanasieva. Reuters, 6 March 2016.

(7) Iraq Faces A Perfect Economic Storm, Alice Fordham. NPR parallels, January 2016.

 

 

 

 

 

The painter Francis Bacon on Crucifixion

Introduction

Crucifixion is the subject that attests to the fragility, the futility, the horror and at the utter impossibility of life.

Live is an everyday miracle that we somehow take for granted.

The supreme depiction of Crucifixion as a “state” of being, is in Grunewald’s Isenheim Altarpiece.

The Crucifixion Panel
Isenheim Altarpiece, The Crucifixion Panel

After Grunewald’s Crucifixion, come the depictions by Francis Bacon.

A self-professed atheist, he has painted over and over again the subject of Crucifixion, two of which I have already presented in Crucifixion II.

Today I extracted from his “Sylvester Interviews” (1) material relevant to the Crucifixion and present it dressed with relevant pictures.

Georgia O'Keefe, Black Cross, New Mexico, 1929, Oil on canvas, Art Institute of Chicago
Georgia O’Keefe, Black Cross, New Mexico, 1929, Oil on canvas, Art Institute of Chicago

Interview 2

David Sylvester (DS): Is it a part of your intention to try and create a tragic art?

Diptych with the Virgin and Child Enthroned and the Crucifixion, 1275/80, Art Institute of Chicago
Diptych with the Virgin and Child Enthroned and the Crucifixion, 1275/80, Art Institute of Chicago

Francis Bacon (FB): No. Of course, I think that, if one could find a valid myth today where there was the distance between grandeur and its fall of the tragedies of Aeschylus and Shakespeare, it would be tremendously helpful. But, when you’re outside a tradition, as every artist is today, one can only want to record one’s own feelings about certain situations as closely to one’s nervous system as one possibly can.

Francescuccio Ghissi, The Crucifixion, c. 1370, Tempera on panel
Francescuccio Ghissi, The Crucifixion, c. 1370, Tempera on panel, Art Institute of Chicago

DS: There is of course, one great traditional mythological and tragic subject you’ve painted very often, which is the Crucifixion.

Jacques de Baerze, Corpus of Christ from the Altarpiece of the Crucifixion, 1391–99, Walnut with traces of polychromy and gilding
Jacques de Baerze, Corpus of Christ from the Altarpiece of the Crucifixion, 1391–99, Walnut with traces of polychromy and gilding, Art Institute of Chicago

FB: Well, there have been so very many great pictures in European art of the Crucifixion that it’s a magnificent armature on which you can hang all types of feeling and sensation. You may say it’s a curious thing for a non-religious person to take the Crucifixion, but I don’t think that that has anything to do with it. The great Crucifixions that one knows of – one doesn’t know whether they were painted by men who had religious beliefs.

Lorenzo Monaco, The Crucifixion, 1390–1395, Tempera on panel, Art Institute of Chicago
Lorenzo Monaco, The Crucifixion, 1390–1395, Tempera on panel, Art Institute of Chicago

DS: But they were painted as part of Christian culture and they were made for believers.

German (Rhenish?), Triptych of the Crucifixion with Saints Anthony, Christopher, James and George, c. 1400, Tempera and oil (estimated) on panel, Art Institute of Chicago
German (Rhenish?), Triptych of the Crucifixion with Saints Anthony, Christopher, James and George, c. 1400, Tempera and oil (estimated) on panel, Art Institute of Chicago

FB: Yes, that is true. It may be unsatisfactory, but I haven’t found another subject so far that has been as helpful for covering certain areas of human feelings and behavior. Perhaps it is only because so many people have worked on this particular theme that it has created this armature – I can’t think of a better way of saying it – on which one can operate all types of level of feeling.

Taddeo di Bartolo, The Crucifixion, 1401/04, Tempera on panel, Art Institute of Chicago
Taddeo di Bartolo, The Crucifixion, 1401/04, Tempera on panel, Art Institute of Chicago

DS: Of course, a lot of modern artists in all the media faced with this problem have gone back to the Greek myths. You yourself, in the Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, didn’t paint the traditional Christian figures at the foot of the Cross, but the Eumenides. Are there other themes from Greek mythology that you’ve ever thought of using?

Austrian or Bavarian, The Crucifixion, 1494, Oil on panel, Art Institute of chicago
Austrian or Bavarian, The Crucifixion, 1494, Oil on panel, Art Institute of chicago

FB: Well, I think Greek mythology is even further from us than Christianity. One of the things about the Crucifixion is the very fact that the central figure of Christ is raised into a very pronounced and isolated position, which gives it from a formal point of view, greater possibilities than having all the different figures placed on the same level. The alteration of level is, from my point of view, very important.

Martin Schongauer, The Crucifixion with the Holy Women, St. John and Roman Soldiers, n.d, Engraving on paper, Art Institute of Chicago
Martin Schongauer, The Crucifixion with the Holy Women, St. John and Roman Soldiers, n.d, Engraving on paper, Art Institute of Chicago

DS: In painting a Crucifixion, do you find you approach the problem in a radically different way from when working on other paintings?

Albrech Durer, The Crucifixion, from The Large Passion, 1498, Woodcut on cream laid paper, Art Institute of  Chicago
Albrech Durer, The Crucifixion, from The Large Passion, 1498, Woodcut on cream laid paper, Art Institute of Chicago

FB: Well, of course, you’re working then about your own feelings and sensations, really. You might say it’s almost nearer to a self-portrait. You are working on all sorts of very private feelings about behavior and about the way life is.

Lucas Cranach the Elder, The Crucifixion, 1538, Oil on panel, Art Institute of Chicago
Lucas Cranach the Elder, The Crucifixion, 1538, Oil on panel, Art Institute of Chicago

DS: One very personal recurrent configuration in your work is the interlocking of Crucifixion imagery with that of the butcher’s shop. The connection with meat must mean a great deal to you.

Francisco de Zurbaran, The Crucifixion, 1627, Oil on canvas, Art Institute of Chicago
Francisco de Zurbaran, The Crucifixion, 1627, Oil on canvas, Art Institute of Chicago

FB: Well, it does. If you go to some of those great stores, where you just go through those great halls of death, you can see0 fish and meat and birds and everything else all lying dead there. And, of course, one has got to remember that there is this great  beauty of the color of meat.

Boetius Adams Bolswert, The Crucifixion, 1631, Engraving on ivory laid paper, Art Institute of Chicago
Boetius Adams Bolswert, The Crucifixion, 1631, Engraving on ivory laid paper, Art Institute of Chicago

DS: The conjunction of the meat with the Crucifixion seems to happen in two ways – through the presence on the scene of sides of meat and through the transformation of the crucified figure itself into a hanging carcass of meat.

Marc Chagall, White Crucifixion, 1938, Oil on Canvas, Art Institute of Chicago
Marc Chagall, White Crucifixion, 1938, Oil on Canvas, Art Institute of Chicago

FB: Well, of course, we are meat, we are potential carcasses. If I go into a butcher’s shop I always think it’s surprising that I wasn’t there instead of the animal. But using the meat in that particular way is possibly like the way one might use the spine, because we are constantly seeing images of the human body through X-ray photographs and that obviously does alter the ways by which one can use the body.

Francis Bacon, Crucifixion, 1933, Tate Gallery, London
Francis Bacon, Crucifixion, 1933, Tate Gallery, London

Postscript 1

Bacon had spoken of how people come away from the Grünewald Isenheim altarpiece ‘as though purged into happiness, into a fuller reality of existence.’ Whether this was true for him too as he faced the last months of his life, we may never know. In the last triptych he painted in 1991, he steps off the earth into the darkness of one of his black rectangles, looking out from a reflective, haunted self-portrait. ‘You don’t know what it’s like to be eighty and alone at midnight,’ he said to his godson Francis Wishart. But it cannot be insignificant that, knowing he was critically ill, he chose to be admitted to a Catholic convent where he died with a crucifix hanging on the wall behind his bed. He was cremated to taped Gregorian chant, in a coffin with a metal cross on the lid. (2)

Francis Bacon, Crucifixion, 1965
Francis Bacon, Crucifixion, 1965

Postscript 2: Bacon’s Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion c. 1944

When this triptych was first exhibited at the end of the war in 1945, it secured Bacon’s reputation. The title relates these horrific beasts to the saints traditionally portrayed at the foot of the cross in religious painting. Bacon even suggested he had intended to paint a larger crucifixion beneath which these would appear. He later related these figures to the Eumenides – the vengeful furies of Greek myth, associating them within a broader mythological tradition. Typically, Bacon drew on a range of sources for these figures, including a photograph purporting to show the materialisation of ectoplasm and the work of Pablo Picasso. (4)

Francis Bacon, Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion c.1944, Tate Gallery, London
Francis Bacon, Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion c.1944, Tate Gallery, London

Second Version 1988

Part man, part beast, these howling creatures first appeared in Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, which Bacon painted during the Second World War. One critic described that picture as a reflection of ‘the atrocious world into which we have survived’. Bacon identified his distorted figures with the vengeful Greek Furies, while the title places them in the Christian context of the crucifixion. In this version, painted in 1988, Bacon changed the background colour from orange to blood red, and placed more space around the figures, plunging them into a deep void.

Francis Bacon, Second Version of Triptych 1944 1988
Francis Bacon, Second Version of Triptych 1944 1988

Postscript 3: Bacon’s Final Triptych, 1991

In Bacon’s final triptych, made at the end of his career, a composite figure steps in and out of stagelike spaces. Seemingly nailed to the canvas are closely cropped headshots of Bacon’s face, at right, and, at left, that of a Brazilian racecar driver, placed above muscular lower bodies. The triptych form is rooted in Christian religious painting; the center panel is traditionally reserved for the object of devotion. Here, an abject mass of flesh spills forth from the black niche. Bacon said his triptychs were “the thing I like doing most, and I think this may be related to the thought I’ve sometimes had of making a film. I like the juxtaposition of the images separated on three different canvases.” (3)

Francis Bacon, Triptych, 1991, Oil on canvas,  The Museum of Modern Art, New York
Francis Bacon, Triptych, 1991, Oil on canvas, The Museum of Modern Art, New York

Postscript 4

For me the Crucifixion is the agony and ecstasy of life. I do not have much time for Resurrection. This is like the good ending of a Hollywood film. It is not the miracle that I do not buy in. It is the modern day interpretation that,  after all, there is a good ending in life, that there is life after death.

Sources

(1) David Sylvester, Interviews with Francis Bacon, Thames and Hudson

(2) ‘A TERRIBLE BEAUTY’ Francis Bacon: disorder and reality – Ingrid Soren

(3) Triptych, MOMA

(4) Three Studies for Figures at the Base of a Crucifixion, Tate Gallery

Stations of the Cross: Giandomenico Tiepolo, San Polo Church, Venice Italy and Art Institute, Chicago USA

Giandomenico Tiepolo (1727-1804) was the son of Giambattista Tiepolo, a master of painting.

He never achieved the status and fame of his father.

San Polo Church, Venice

However, between 1747 and 1749 he painted “Via Crucis”, the stations of the Cross, in the Oratory of the Crucifixion in the Venetian Church of San Polo. In the same period he also etched the sequence of prints with the same title.

This sequence of 14 paintings is for me the most moving sequence of Christ’s path to the Cross and the Beyond.

Inside the San Polo Church (when I visited) there were on display only some of the 14 paintings, the ones I photographed and have included here.

To my delight, I discovered some of the etchings on paper at the Art Institute of Chicago, which I also display here. Although they do not form a complete series, they supplement the paintings very nicely.

I followed the numerical sequence for both the prints and the paintings.

Frontispiece to Stations of the Cross, c. 1748, published 1749 (Art Institute of Chicago)

Frontispiece to the set of etchings

Station I: Christ is Condemed to Death, plate one from Stations of the Cross, c. 1748, published 1749 (Art Institute of Chicago)

Station I: Christ is Condemed to Death

Station II: Christ Receives the Cross, plate two from Stations of the Cross, c. 1748, published 1749 (Art Institute of Chicago)

Station II: Christ Receives the Cross

Station III: Christ Falls Beneath the Cross for the First Time, plate three from Stations of the Cross, c. 1748, published 1749 (Art Institute of Chicago)

Station III: Christ Falls Beneath the Cross for the First Time

Station IV: Christ Meets his Mother, plate four from Stations of the Cross, c. 1748, published 1749 (Art Institute of Chicago)

Station IV: Christ Meets his Mother

Station V: Christ is Helped by Simon of Cyrene, plate five from Stations of the Cross, c. 1748, published 1749 (Art Institute of Chicago)

Station V: Christ is Helped by Simon of Cyrene

Station VI: Christ's Face is Wiped by St. Veronica, plate six from Stations of the Cross, c. 1748, published 1749 (Art Institute of Chicago)

Station VI: Christ’s Face is Wiped by St. Veronica

Station VII: Christ Consoles the Weeping Women, plate seven from Stations of the Cross, c. 1748, published 1749 (Art Institute of Chicago)

Station VII: Christ Consoles the Weeping Women

Station IX: Christ Falls Beneath the Cross for the Third Time, plate nine from Stations of the Cross, c. 1748, published 1749 (Art Institute of Chicago)

Station IX: Christ Falls Beneath the Cross for the Third Time

Painting IX: Christ Falls Beneath the Cross for the Third Time, San Polo Church, Venice

Station IX: Christ Falls Beneath the Cross for the Third Time

Painting IX - Detail: the crowd

The crowd is shown full of anticipation.

Station X: Christ is Stripped of His Garments, plate ten from Stations of the Cross, c. 1748, published 1749 (Art Institute of Chicago)

Station X: Christ is Stripped of His Garments

Painting X: Christ is Stripped of His Garments, San Polo Church, Venice

Station X: Christ is Stripped of His Garments

Painting X - Detail

The elder

Painting X - Detail: Mother and Daughter

Mother and daughter observing

Station XI: Christ is Nailed to the Cross, plate eleven from Stations of the Cross, c. 1748, published 1749 (Art Institute of Chicago)

Station XI: Christ is Nailed to the Cross

Painting XI: Christ is Nailed to the Cross, San Polo Church, Venice

Station XI: Christ is Nailed to the Cross

Painting XI - Detail: Christ

Christ unconscious

Painting XI - Detail: Crowd

The watching crowd

Painting XII: Crucifixion, San Polo Church, Venice

Station XII: Christ crucified

Painting XIII: Deposition, San Polo Church, Venice

Station XIII: The deposition of Christ

Painting XIII - Detail

Deposition detail

Painting XIV - Entombment, San Polo Church, Venice

Station XIV: Entombment

Titian's Pieta: The master of light … plunges into darkness

Tiziano: Pieta, detail

I borrowed half of the title of today’s post from an article by Jonathan Jones in the Guardian.

As Jones says,

“Titian painted the Pietà when Venice was struck by plague. It was made as an ex voto offering, a prayer for the survival of himself and his beloved son, Orazio. In the bottom right-hand, propped under the stone lion, is a tablet on which Titian and Orazio are depicted praying to the Virgin for delivery from the plague. His plea went unanswered. Titian is recorded as having died “of fever” on August 27, 1576. Orazio also died during the plague.”

Titian: Transfiguration

Compare the dark oppressing colours of the Pieta to the exhuberant light of the Transfiguration of Christ in San Salvador in Venice,

Titian: Assumption of the Virgin

or the Assumption of the Virgin, in Santa Maria Gloriosa dei Frari in Venice.

Titian: Pieta (detail)

The world of the light has been transformed into the underworld of the Dead.

Titian: Pieta (detail, Nikodemus)

The kneeling Nikodemus is a self-portrait of the painter himself. The brushwork is visible only in some parts of the huge canvas. In many others, the careful observer can see smudges of paint, rather than brush strokes.

Titian: Pieta (detail, tablet)

The tablet in the right-bottom under the lion shows the painter and his son Orazio pleading to the Virgin for salvation.

Titian: Pieta, detail

But there has been no salvation. And the painting itself is anticipating this. It is full of fear, and silent resignation to the inevitability of Death. A Death that is anticipated as the entry in a dark, damp, frozen chamber, without any natural light. The painter of light, the admirer of women, the master of color, locks himself in the vision of his own death in the most horrific way imaginable.

The Pieta is allegedly Titian’s last painting. He did not even manage to finish it. According to the incription at the bottom of the picture, it was finished by Palma the Younger, one of his apprentices.

A Cretan Madonna in Venice: Mesopanditissa in Santa Maria della Salute (Saint Mary of Health)

JMW Turner: Santa Maria della Salute

Today I want to honor the centuries’ old ties between Byzantium and Venice, by kneeling in front of the “Mesopanditissa” Madonna, a 12th or 13th century Byzantine icon that was brought to Venice in 1669, after Candia (Herakleion) fell to the Ottoman Turks. The picture is kept in the main altar of the Church of Santa Maria della Salute (Holy Mary of the Health). Lets start with the historical background.

Santa Maria della Salute is one of the jewels of Venice. Baldassare Longhena was 32 years old when he won a competition in 1631 to design a shrine honoring the Virgin Mary for saving Venice from a plague that in the space of two years (1629-30) killed 47,000 residents, or one-third the population of the city. Outside, this ornate white Istrian stone octagon is topped by a colossal cupola with snail-like ornamental buttresses and a baroque facade; inside are a polychrome marble floor and six chapels.

The Byzantine icon above the main altar has been venerated as the Madonna della Salute (Madonna of Health) since 1670, when Francesco Morosini brought it here from Crete. The icon and other holy relics, were brought to Venice by Morosini when Crete fell to the Ottoman Turks.

It was the jewel of the Church of Saint Titus in the center of Candia, today’s Irakleion. Morosini also brought to Venice the remains of Saint Titus. They were kept in Saint Mark’s Basilica until 1966, when they were returned to Crete.

Above it is a sculpture showing Venice on her knees to the Madonna as she drives the wretched plague from the city.

I must confess that the baroque sculptures surrounding the Madonna did not impress me, but they are not in any way obstructing the view of the magnificent icon.

The Madonna is serene, understanding, can absorb the pain of the whole world. The Holy Child is contemplative.

The icon is at home in the magnificent Church. It stands next to Titian, Giordano, Tintoretto, like they are its most natural companion.

This is the glory of Byzantium, glory that remains alive and strong in Venice. More on the subject will follow.

The Kaisariani Monastery, near Athens, Greece – Η Μονη Καισαριανης

Το υπεροχο μοναστηρι της Καισαριανης μετα απο 2 χρονια επισκευων και συντηρησης ανοιξε ξανα τις πυλες στους επισκεπτες του. Υπευθυνη για την συντηρηση της μονης και της περιοχης στο δασος του Υμηττου ειναι η Φιλοδασικη Ενωση Αθηνων, την οποια και ευχαριστω γιατι και η περιοχη αλλα και η μονη Καισαριανης αποτελουν θυλακες οξυγονου κυριολεκτικα και μεταφορικα στην δοκιμασμενη Αττικη.

Χαρτης Φιλοδασικης

Η μονη κτιστηκε στη θεση αρχαιου ιερου, μαλλον της Δημητρας της οικογενειας των Λυκομηδων.  Στην περιοχη σωζονται και τα θεμελια τρικλιτης παλαιοχριστιανικης Βασιλικης του 5ου – 6ου μ.Χ. αιωνα.

Κυρια Εισοδος

Ο ναος που διασωζεται σημερα, ειναι βυζαντινου ρυθμου, εγγεγραμμενος σταυροειδης με τρουλο (*) και κτισθηκε τον 11 αιωνα, αφιερωμενος στα Εισοδια της Θεοτοκου. Πολλα απο τα μαρμαρα του αρχαιοτερου ναου χρησιμοποιηθηκαν σαν δομικα στοιχεια.

Τοπογραφικο της Μονης

Η μονη απεκτησε μεγαλη φημη τον 12 και 13 αιωνα και η βιβλιοθηκη της ηταν απο τις πιο πλουσιες στο Βυζαντιο. Οι υπευθυνοι της μονης ειχαν πολυ καλες διπλωματικες ικανοτητες και καταφεραν να τα εχουν καλα και με τους Φραγκους οταν αυτοι κατεκτησαν την Αττικη στις αρχες του 13 αιωνα, αλλα και με τους Τουρκους.

Ναος Εισοδιων της Θεοτοκου και παρεκκλησιο Αγιου Αντωνιου

Το 1204 ο πάπας Ιννοκέντιος ο Γ’ υπέβαλλε την Μονή Καισαριανής στη δικαιοδοσία του λατίνου αρχιεπισκόπου Αθηνών. (**) Το 1458 οι Τούρκοι καταλαμβάνουν την Αττική και ο Μωάμεθ προσέρχεται στη Μονή (***) όπου, σύμφωνα με τον γάλλο γιατρό από την Λυών, Jacob Spon (1675), του παραδίδονται τα κλειδιά της πόλης. Το 1678 ο πατριάρχης Διονύσιος ο Δ’ καθορίζει την Μονή ως “Σταυροπηγική” (****) δηλαδή “ελεύθερη και ασύδοτη” ως πρός τον μητροπολίτη της Αθήνας στον οποίο έχει μόνο μία υποχρέωση: να τον μνημονεύει στη λειτουργία. Το 1792 ο πατριάρχης Νεόφυτος καταργεί με Σιγίλλιο την ελευθερία της Μονής η οποία θα υπαχθεί και πάλι στην μητρόπολη των Αθηνών. Το 1824 η Μονή πλέον “?υποδουλώνεται και οικονομείται ως ίδιον κτήμα των αγίων αρχιερέων. Τί δέν εσυνέβησαν εις αυτό, ποίας τύχας δέν εδοκίμασεν; εκατήντησεν έπαυλις βοών, όνων και αλόγων ζώων το πρώην δυνατόν νά σώση καί να φωτίση πολλάς ψυχάς ανθρώπων”. (Πηγη: Φιλοδασικη Ενωση Αθηνων).

Λουτρα

Τα βιβλια της διασημης βιβλιοθηκης μεταφερθηκαν το 1821 στην Μητροπολη Αθηνων για να προστατευθουν απο την επικειμενη συγκρουση με τους Τουρκους. Δυστυχως συνεβη το ακριβως αντιθετο. Τα βιβλια κατεληξαν στον Παρθενωνα οπου χρησιμοποιηθηκαν για να παρασκευασθουν φυσιγγια κατα την πολιορκια της απο τον Κιουταχη (αναφερεται απο τον Γιωργο Καραχαλιο στα Φαινομενα, Ελευθερος Τυπος, 11 Δεκεμβριου 2010).

Καθολικο Ναου

(*) Ο εγγεγραμμένος σταυροειδής με τρούλο είναι ο αντιπροσωπευτικός βυζαντινός ρυθμός. Κύριο χαρακτηριστικό στοιχείο αυτού του θαυμαστού ρυθμού είναι ο σχηματισμός σταυρού εσωτερικά και εξωτερικά στο σχεδόν τετράγωνο πια κτίσμα, με τον έναν ή τους πέντε τρούλους. Η δημιουργία κογχών στη βόρεια και νότια πλευρά όχι μόνο αυξάνουν τον εσωτερικό χώρο,αλλά χαρίζουν παράλληλα ομορφιά και χάρη. Υπάρχουν πάμπλλα δείγματα αυτού του θαυμασίου ρυθμού, όπως η Γοργοεπίκοος (άγιος Ελευθέριος), άγιοι Θεόδωροι, Καπνικαρέα, Καισαριανή στην Αθήνα, Παναγία των Χαλκαίων στη Θεσσαλονίκη, οι εκκλησίες του Μυστρά, κ.α.(Πηγη: Αποστολικη Διακονια της Εκκλησιας της Ελλαδος)

Η Αγια Τριαδα

(**) Μετά την κατάκτηση της Κων/πόλεως από τους σταυροφόρους επακολούθησε δια προκαταρκτικής συνθήκης διανομή ολόκληρου του Βυζαντινού κράτους μεταξύ των Φράγκων σε λατινικά φέουδα. Στο μαρκήσιο Βονιφάτιο Μομφερατικό, γνωστό στρατηγό της άλωσης της Κων/πόλεως παραχωρήθηκε ήδη από το Σεπτέμβριο 1204 το ιδρυθέν τότε Φραγκικό βασίλειο της Θεσσαλονίκης, το οποίο περιελάμβανε και την χώρα των Αθηνών. Έτσι οδηγήθηκε ο Βονιφάτιος προς κατάκτηση των περιοχών του. Η Αθήνα μετά της Ακροπόλεως καταλήφθηκαν αμαχητί. Η πόλη είχε παραμεληθεί τελείως υπό των Βυζαντινών από αρκετών δε ετών στερούταν διοικητικής κεφαλής. Η «θρυλούμενη και χρυσή πόλη Αθήνα η «πάλαι μεν μήτηρ σοφίας παντοδαπής και πάσης καθηγεμών αρετής» στις παραμονής της Δ΄ Σταυροφορίας καταπιεσμένη από τους φόρους και την απληστία των αρχόντων και λησμονημένη από τους ανθρώπους, είχε χάσει σύμφωνα με την μαρτυρία του Μιχαήλ Χωνιάτη, την παλαιά της δόξα και είχε μεταβληθεί σε μικρό και «αοίκητο χωριό» που την τύχη της ακολούθησε και το «ένδοξο επίνειό της».

Βρεφοκρατουσα

(***) Οι Τούρκοι κατέλαβαν την Αθήνα τον Ιούνιο του 1458, μετά την κατόπιν συνθηκολόγησης παράδοση της Ακρόπολης από τον τελευταίο δούκα των Αθηνών, τον Francesco II Acciajuoli, στον διοικητή της θεσσαλίας Ομάρ. Στη μακραίωνη ιστορία της πόλης των Αθηνών, αυτή η κατάληψη από τους Τούρκους αποτελεί τη μοναδική περίπτωση «ειρηνικής» κατάκτησής της χωρίς καταστροφή. Ο Μωάμεθ Β’ επισκέφτηκε την πόλη γύρω στα τέλη του Αυγούστου της ίδιας χρονιάς, προκειμένου να την επιθεωρήσει αλλά και να θαυμάσει τα περίφημα αρχαία μνημεία που την κοσμούσαν. Η εντύπωση που του προκάλεσαν τα τελευταία, ιδίως η Ακρόπολη, ήταν τεράστια. Μάλιστα, σύγχρονοι χρονογράφοι αποδίδουν σε αυτήν την επιείκεια με την οποία αντιμετώπισε τους Αθηναίους, παραχωρώντας τους ποικίλα προνόμια, όπως την ελευθερία της λατρείας και τη σχετική αυτοδιοίκηση. Έτσι, σταδιακά η πόλη αναπτύχθηκε και πάλι, μετά την εξαθλίωση στην οποία είχε περιπέσει κατά τη Φραγκοκρατία.

Παντοκρατωρ

(****) Σταυροπηγιακή μονή : Σταυροπηγιακή ή πατριαρχική χαρακτηρίζεται η μονή η οποία υπάγεται άμεσα στον Οικουμενικό Πατριάρχη και κατά συνέπεια αποσυνδέεται από την διοικητική εποπτεία του επιχώριου μητροπολίτη ή επισκόπου. Σύμφωνα με την κανονική παράδοση της Ορθόδοξης Εκκλησίας, ο Πατριάρχης έχει το δικαίωμα κατά την ίδρυση μονής σε περιοχή της δικαιοδοσίας του να αποστέλλει σταυρό, ο οποίος τοποθετείται στα θεμέλια της μονής και θεμελιώνει την άμεση εξάρτησή της από αυτόν.

Το Καθολικό και ο λουτρώνας είναι τα αρχικά κτίρια του 11ου αιώνα αλλά ο νάρθηκας, το καμπαναριό καθώς και το παρεκκλήσι του Αγίου Αντωνίου είναι προσθήκες μεταγενέστερες της περιόδου της Τουρκοκρατίας. Τα κτίσματα ήσαν διατεταγμένα γύρω από την εσωτερική αυλή, Στο ανατολικό μέρος υπήρχε το Καθολικό, στο δυτικό η τράπεζα με το μαγειρείο, στη νότια πλευρά ο λουτρώνας μετασκευασμένος στα χρόνια της Τουρκοκρατίας σε ελαιοτριβείο της μονής και δίπλα διώροφα κτίρια με τα κελιά πού είχαν μπροστά ανοιχτή στοά

Η Ανασταση του Λαζαρου

Τοιχογραφίες: Η παλαιότερη τοιχογραφία βρισκόταν στον εξωτερικό νότιο τοίχο του καθολικού πού σήμερα περιλαμβάνεται μέσα στο παρεκκλήσι του Αγίου Αντωνίου. Είναι μία μορφή Παναγίας, δεομένης προς αριστερά, με αδρές γραμμές σχεδίου που φανερώνουν επαρχιακή τεχνοτροπία του 14ου αιώνα.
Ο ναός και ο νάρθηκας κοσμούνται από τοιχογραφίες τής εποχής της τουρκοκρατίας. Οι τοιχογραφίες του νάρθηκα έγιναν από τον Ιωάννη Ύπατο από την Πελοπόννησο, το 1682 και με δαπάνες του Μπενιζέλου, σύμφωνα με επιγραφή που υπάρχει στον δυτικό τοίχο.

Στον τρούλλο παριστάνεται ο Χριστός Παντοκράτωρ, στο τύμπανο, που χωρίζεται σε δύο ζώνες και εικονίζονται η Ετοιμασία του θρόνου, η Παναγία, ο Ιωάννης ο Πρόδρομος, οι άγγελοι καθώς και τετράμορφο σύμπλεγμα των τεσσάρων Ευαγγελιστών. Στην κόγχη του ιερού παριστάνεται η Θεοτόκος Πλατυτέρα, ένθρονη, πλαισιωμένη από δύο σεβίζοντες αγγέλους.

Μαρμαρο απο παλαιωτερο ναο

Οι τοιχογραφίες του ναού δεν διακρίνονται για καινοτομίες στους εικονογραφικούς τύπους αλλά ανήκουν σε κρητικά εικονογραφικά πρότυπα του 16ου αιώνα που συναντούμε στις εκκλησίες του Αγίου Όρους.

Ο χαρακτήρας των τοιχογραφιών του 17ου αιώνα γίνεται πάντως όλο και πιο λαϊκός. Η τάση αυτή είναι φανερή στις τοιχογραφίες του νάρθηκα τόσο στο στυλ όσο και στην τεχνική εκτέλεση. Είναι φανερή πλέον η βούληση του ζωγράφου να απομακρυνθεί από τα πρότυπα της Κρητικής Σχολής.

Η Τραπεζα

Τράπεζα

Απέναντι από το καθολικό, στη δυτική πλευρά του τείχους, μέσα σε ένα ενιαίο και αυτοτελές κτίριο βρίσκονται η τράπεζα και το μαγειρείο. Η τράπεζα είναι μια επιμήκης ορθογώνια θολωτή αίθουσα που χωρίζεται σε δύο χώρους. Το μαγειρείο είναι προσκολλημένο στη νότια πλευρά της τράπεζας, είναι τετράγωνο με θολωτή οροφή απ’όπου υψώνεται η καπνοδόχος. Η εστία βρίσκεται στη μέση και γύρω της έχει κτιστό πεζούλι προσκολλημένο στους τέσσερις τοίχους. Το κτίριο αυτό χρονολογείται πιθανότατα από τον 16ο ή τον 17ο αιώνα.

Αγορι και Γαιδουρακι