Life Transformed: Performative Meaning, Analogy, and the Art of Bernini's Funerary Chapel Decorations

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Notes

1. John Rupert Martin, Baroque, New York, 1977; Rudolf Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy 1600–1750, Harmondsworth, 1982 (many other editions); Irving Lavin, Bernini and the Unity of the Visual Arts, New York, London, text, plates, 1980.

2. Giovanni Careri, Flights of Love, the Art of Devotion, translated by Linda Lappin, Chicago & London, 1995 (in French 1990); Frank Fehrenbach, »Bernini's light«, Art History, 28:1, February, 2005, 1–42.

3. Barbara Maria Stafford, Visual Analogy: Consciousness as the Art of Connecting, Cambridge Mass.,1999. See also review of Stafford by Charles Altieri, Modernism/Modernity, 7.3, 2000, 514–517. See MacDonald, Scott (1998), Illumination. In E. Craig (Ed.), Routledge Encyclopedia of Philosophy, London: Routledge, Retrieved February 24 2008, from http://www04.sub.su.se: 2861/article/KO36SECT1

4. C.M. Smith, »The Aesthetics of Charles S. Peirce«, The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism, Vol. 31, No 1, Autumn 1972, 21–29; Carl G. Vaught, »Semiotics and the Problem of Analogy: A Critique of Peirce's Theory of the Categories«, Transactions of the Charles S. Peirce Society, Summer 1986, Volume 22, Issue 3, 311–326t; Immanuel Kant, Prolegomena to Any Future Metaphysics that Will be Able to Come Forward as Science: With Selections from the Critique of Pure Reason, edited and translated by Gary Hatfield, Cambridge, 1997. Vaught discusses, with reference to Kant and in »dialogue« with Peirce, the theme of »incongruous counter parts« with the example of »right« and »left« - concepts that cannot be explained with an idea of similarity as shared characteristics in interplay with difference. Vaught proposes to introduce »analogy« as a fourth category, in addition to Firstness, Secondness and Thirdness in Peirce's categories.

5. Walter Benjamin, Ursprung des deutschen Trauerspiels, Gesammelte Schriften, Band I, 1. Abhandlungen, 207–409, editors Rolf Tiedemann and Hermann Schweppenhäuser, Frankfurt am Main, 1974, 351.

6. Benjamin, 336–365.

7. Benjamin, 218–223.

8. See for instance Christopher Braider, Baroque Self-Invention and Historical Truth: Hercules at the Crossroads, Burlington, 2004; and Samuel Weber, Benjamin's Abilities, Cambridge Mass., 2008. The idea of changing an »historical object« into a »theoretical object« recalls Benjamin's distinction between interests of history writing, dealing with »knowledge« and empiric material, and philosophy, dealing with ideas, »truth« and the essential possibilities in the form of fulfillment. See Mieke Bal, »Ecstatic Aesthetics Metaphoring Bernini', Compelling Visuality:the Work of Art in and out of History, editors Claire Farago and Robert Zwijnenberg, Minneapolis and London, 2003, 1–30; Giovanni Careri,»The Sistine Chapel as a »theoretical object«', ART HISTORY, Volume 30, Issue 3, 2007, 326–348.

9. Compare again Mieke Bal in Compelling … and Careri, 2007.

10. In the selection of the paradigmatic »Ur-Bilder« I disregard for the moment the difference dividing two discursive traditions; on the one hand of »performance« (theatre and rite), and on the other »performative« (speech-act and identity issues). For a survey of the discursive traditions of »performativity«, see Jonathan D. Culler, »Philosophy and Literature: The Fortunes of the Performative«, Poetics Today, Volume 21, Number 3, Fall 2000, 503–519.

11. Regarding an extended concept of scenography I refer to Magdalena Holdar, Scenography in Action : Space, Time and Movement in Theatre Productions by Ingmar Bergman, Stockholm, 2005.

12. See Arnold van Gennep, The Rites of Passage, translation (from French) Monica B. Vizedom and Gabrielle L. Caffee, London, 1977 (first in French 1909); Victor Turner, The Ritual Process. Structure and Anti-Structure, Ithaca New Yersey, 1977.

13. Margaretha Rossholm Lagerlöf, The Sculptures of the Parthenon, Aesthetics and Interpretation, New Haven, London, 2000, 72–77.

14. Fonseca acquired the chapel in 1661; the chapel's right hand painting was signed by the painter Giacinto Gimignani in 1664: Bernini's bust of the donor was probably done after Bernini's stay in France 1665, but before Fonseca's death in 1668, according to Oreste Ferrari, Serenita Papaldo, Le scultura del seicento a Roma, Roma, 1999. The date of the bust remains uncertain. In Federico Franzini's guide Roma antica e moderna …  , 1668, 114, Bernini's design as a whole is mentioned but not the bust (a fact that is no proof that the bust was not ready and on the site). In Giovanni Battista Mola, Breve racconto … , 1663, s. 186, Bernini's disegno is again mentioned as well as all the paintings, but the bust is not mentioned. In Filippo Titi, Studio di pittura, Scoltura & Architettura, nelle Chiese di Roma … , 1674, 224, only the paintings are mentioned. About the dates and the paintings on the sides, presumably ordered by Fonseca, building in their Biblical subject matter on allusions to Fonseca's medical career, see Ferrari & Papaldo, 186–187; Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Regista del Barocco, editors Maria Grazia Bernardini and Maurizio Fagliolo dell'Arco, Milano, 1999, 361–363; 361 about the publication of the archival documents of the testaments (Contardi, 1990). – Here and in the following, »right« and »left« will be used as related to an approaching viewer, in front of the decoration, not according to the heraldic or liturgical norm.

15. Ferrari & Papaldo, 86.

16. Irving Lavin, 1980, 139. The text refers to what God, according to Jewish Haggadah, says to Elijah on Mount Carmel. The phrase was welknown to the Carmelites; the phrase was included in the documents for Theresa's canonisation, it also appears in her autobiography, added by her confessor. Compare Rudolf Preimesberger, »Berninis Cappella Cornaro. Ein Bild-Wort-Synthese des siebzehnten Jahrhunderts«, Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte, Bd 49, 1986,190–219; Preimesberger considers the text as part of an impresa formed by the whole decoration and with its text as its motto.

17. About Bernini's works for the theatre, see Lavin, 1980, 150–155 and Donald Beecher, A Comedy by Bernini, London 1985. We learn for instance that Bernini worked with two scenes and two audiences, turning the audiences alternatively into actors, thus varying the functions of virtuality.

18. This impression can be compared to the current ideas about the nature of angels in the Counter Reformation: angels are supposed to be totally spiritual, ontologically, but they are created by God and thus subject to a dimension of time (eternal being is for instance not a necessary criterion of their life, according to the thomistic philosophy at the basis of Counter Reformation, see James Collins, The Thomistic Philosophy of the Angels, Washington CD, 1947, 338); they can adopt any shape, assimilating a material body, usually with a human appearance, to get themselves perceived by humans, but these images of bodies are just appearances, images (see Giovanni Maria Tarsia, Trattato della natura de gl« angeli, Firenze, 1576, 51–53).

19. Comparisons between Teresa's vision, her text in the autobiography, and the love mystic and bridal symbolism of the Song of Songs abound, also at the time of her canonization in 1622. See Lavin, 1980, 121–124.

20. Careri, 1995 (in French 1990), about the gestures forming a chain of piety: the beholder's devotion imitating the gesture of Fonseca, who carries the impact further to the angel, who ultimately connects to the Virgin, 18–19, 30–38, 43–47.

21. Opposite Fonseca there are late 17^th century busts of his mother and his sister, both buried in the chapel according to Fonseca's will, see Judy Dobias, »Gian Lorenzo Bernini's Fonseca Chapel in S. Lorenzo in Lucina, Rome«, The Burlington Magazine, Volume 120, Number 899 (Feb., 1978), 65–71; Maria Elena Bartoldi, S. Lorenzo in Lucina, Istituto Nazionale di Studi Romani, Palombi, 1994, 83; Ferrari&Papaldo, 186–187. The fourth bust was added later, it represents Luigi Antonio de Witten, interior minister to Pius IX, de Witten acquired the chapel in 1849, see Roma sacra. Guida Sacra alle chiese della città eterna, Roma, 1995, 12.

22. First these angels were in white stucco looking like marble, but they were to be executed in gilded or black varnished bronze. In Bernini's drawing, Windsor 5599, the angels are light and also in the print.

23. Careri, 1995 (1990), 16–23. It is a copy of Guido Reni's painting in the Quirinal Palace, the copy is done by Ludovico Gimignani (1643–1697).

24. About the Jesuits« preoccupation with angels as messengers to humans and how this thematic is visually displayed in the dogmatically leading church of the Jesuits, see Golda Baldass, »Five Hierarchies of Intercessors for Salvation. The Decoration of the Angels« Chapel in the Gesù«, Artibus et Historiae, 2003, 24, 47, 177–208.

25. About the commission, see Filippo Titi, Studio di pittura, Scoltura & Architettura, nelle Chiese di Roma, nel quale si hà notitia di tutti gl'Artefici, che hanno illi operato, Roma, 1675, 31: Hora nella Cappella della B. Ludovica Albertoni li Signori Principi Altieri fanno metter la di lei statua in marmor scolpita perfettamente dal Caualier Bernino.«The Cardinal Albertoni became adopted nephew of the Altieri pope Clement X in 1670, and the cult of Blessed Ludovica Albertoni was thus allowed. Laurie Nussdorfer, Civic Politics in the Rome of Urban VIII, Princeton, New Jersey, 1992, 170–171.

26. In the outer room there are frescos from an earlier period of decoration, from the period of acception of Ludovica as »blessed«, 1622. The frescoes were painted by the Jesuit pater Gaspare Celio and they represent, flanking the entrance of the niche, at the right hand Ludovica herself dressed in the dress of the Poor Clares and to the left Saint Clare showing the Hostia of the Eucharist. (Originally there were some more paintings in the room, of Saint Cecilia, Saint Agnes, Saint Francesca Romana, and a portrait of San Carlo Borromeo). See Careri, 1995 (1990), 51.

27. About the nature of angels, as created beings, see Collins, 160–161; 338; Tarsia, 10; Francesco Amico, De natura angelorum, Antwerpin, 1637, 68, 69.

28. In a contribution to the conference »Performativity and Baroque Art« held at the Swedish Institute in Rome in September 2006, »The apparition of faith .The performative meaning of Gian Lorenzo Bernini′s decoration for the Cornaro chapel (in Santa Maria della Vittoria, 1647–1651/2)« (in print) I have written an analysis of the Cornaro chapel where the discussion of the figures« eye sight is one element.

29. Lavin, 1980, 112, actually sees an abdominal contraction in Teresa's body; this impression seems like a projection from the statue of Ludovica.

30. About the exceeding stillness in the ultimate state of the mystic ecstasy see Santa Teresa, chapters 18–21.

31. The biblical love poetry is at the centre of Carmelite mysticism on the whole. See Careri, 1995 (1990), 67–69; Lavin, 1980, 121–124.

32. Quotation from the English translation, presented along with other translations in the Cornaro chapel.

33. Catechismus romanus, 1566, 72; 1680, 65–68.

34. The Jesuites and the Arts 1540–1773, edited by John W. O'Malley, S.J. and Gauvin Alexander Bailey, Philadelphia, 2003, 61.

35. The story is about a man who is condemned to death through starvation, but who is rescued by his daughter who feeds him with mild from her breast. Valerius Maximus, ca 30 e.Kr., Factorum et dictorum memorabilium libri novem, IX, 5, 4.

36. Compare also Bernini's well known Truth, 1646–52, an ostensively sensual naked woman, »allowed« by the allegorical reference to a concept. The idea of an allegory makes it certain that the visible sign is about something else.

37. In Ferrari & Papaldo, 178–179, the figures are still covered; now they are displayed with comments of the restoration beside on a panel of information.

38. The large fresco of the ceiling with illusionist effects and merging devices of painting and sculpture was done by Giovanni Battista Gaulli in 1679, quite close in time to Bernini's chapels. Gaulli had close contacts with Bernini, as can be stated from the Altieri chapel. Much of the sculptural decorations of Il Gesù are from the last decade of the seventeenth century.

39. There are exceptions, for instance the large allegorical groups flanking the Ignatius« altar, by French artists during the 1690's, Faith conquers Idolatry by Jean-Baptiste Théodon (1646–1713) and Religion punishes Heresy by Pierre Legros the younger (1666–1719). These sculptures convey a more formal Classicism of French character, in combination with the drastic figures representing heresies.

40. The reference is to Baldassare Fonseca's will dressed up the 3rd of March 1682, but opened only the 19th of May 1691. Ferrari & Papaldo, 186–187. Gian Lorenzo Bernini. Regista del Barocco, editors Maria Grazia Bernardini and Maurizio Fagliolo dell'Arco, Milano, 1999, 361–363.

41. Presently I cannot state with absolute certainty that the figures are made of bronze (a light nock did not produce a clinging sound); they might be stucco varnished like bronze.

42. About the angels« role as guardians for humans, according to Counter Reformation ideology, see Catechismus … , 1680, 13–14.

43. The intervention of an angel in the human experience can have impact on the body although not touch it, as we see from the example of Teresa and the angel.

44. According to the Thomistic philosophy at the basis of Counter Reformation Catholicism, angels are »pure forms«, and thus they can have influence on human cognition and they can communicate with humans persuasively to promote human will, but they cannot cause human will to change, and they cannot know directly the »secrets« of the human heart; this can only God and the person himself/herself know anything about. Collins, 232–233; 322–328.

45. The following kinds of monuments appear abundantly in Roman churches, types for which Bernini also was involved in developing the paradigms: Commemorative busts, looking like regular portraits, mostly within oval niches, mostly very realistic but also with a somewhat heroic or distanced air. This is a tradition from sixteenth century imagery, stemming from family bust galleries, implemented as grave imagery by the late sixteenth century and early seventeenth. Good examples can be seen for instance in Santa Maria in Aracoeli, the Orsini monument in Cappella dell'Ascensione. About the transition from profane to religious context and meaning traditions in these busts, see Irving Lavin, »On the Illusion and Allusion in Italian Sixteenth-Century Bust«, Proceedings at the American Philosophical Society, CXIX, 1975, 353–362, as quoted in Ferrari & Papaldo, LIII. Relief portraits or busts, mostly in oval frames, surrounded by two angels, one on each side (pairs of angels, flanking the commemorated person can be found in all kinds of monuments actually). Commemorative busts appearing as more »alive«, as if looking out of frames in oval or square form. Busts or half bodies in niches shown as praying or with devotional gestures, such as holding rosaries or books, and pressing one hand against the chest. Busts or half bodies shown in pairs: two men »talking« and handling religious devices (an arrangement in favour in the 1670« and the 1680«). Full scale figures shown kneeling and praying. (This scheme is of course prestigious and the most expensive, it can be seen in popes« graves, as in Bernini's tomb of Alexander VII (and later in Canovas monument for Clemens XIII). A full scale figure restricted to popes is the seated figure with a benediction gesture, as in Algardi's tomb for Leo XI 1634–44 and Bernini's tomb for Urban VIII 1627–47, prefigured by the tomb for Innocentius VIII by Pollaiouolo in the 1490«.) Compare the papal tombs with for instance the full scale figure in the sepulchral monument by Domenico Guidi for Cardinal Lorenzo Imperiali (dead 1673), in the left transept of the church Sant'Agostino in Rome.

46. Compare note 55. The artist who does not know how to »transcend« the »rules« of art will rest confined within the old customs and will never be able to explore further the possibilities in each art form.

47. About the idea of the bodily resurrection as a moment »a twinkling of an eye« and with reference to Paul′s letter to the Corinthians, see Catechismus romanus, 1680, 67.

48. Rudolf Carnap, Challenges to Empiricism, edited by Harold Morick, London, 1980.Concerning Peirce and the relevance of »analogy« in his system: Peirce does not use the label »analogy« for any of his sign types; as is well known Peirce distinguishes between »icon«, »index«, and »symbol«, but discusses »analogy« as pertaining in the iconic sign, as a similarity between the reaction in relation to the sign and the reaction in relation to the object the sign is a sign of. About this analogy-function in Peirce, see Vaught. But Peirce's difference between icon and index (the one determined by similarity, the other by proximity) recalls the characteristics of the analogy in Carnap's late philosophy.

49. Martin Paul Schittko, Analogien als Argumentationstyp. Von Paradeigma zur Similtudo, Göttingen, 2003, 11, on the proportional type of analogy being the oldest known explanation of the sign, within the mathematics of the Pythagoreans.

50. See Fehrenbach, 2005, 1–42; Fabio Barry, »Lux and Lumen. The Symbolism of Real and Represented Light in the Baroque Dome«, Kritische Berichte, 30, 2002 (4), 22–37.

51. About the interplay between real light, represented light, and levels of darkness in Baroque Counter Reformation sites, see Barry, 2002.

52. Erika Fischer-Lichte, discusses the theme of »co-presence« in the theatre event, in her article for the project conference held at the Swedish Institute in Rome Spetember 2006, »Performativity in Baroque Art«.

53. Collins, 326.

54. Compare also the main interest in gestures and bodily stance in the Jesuit teaching. Devotion and faith itself is brought forth in actions, behaviour, and bodily stance.

55. Filippo Baldinucci, Vita des Gio.Lorenzo Bernini, editors Arthur Burda and Oskar Pollak, commentary Alois Riegl (in German),Wien, 1912, 67, 234–235: »È concetto molto universale, ch′egli sia stato il primo, che abbia tentato di unire l′Achitettura con la Scultura, e Pittura in tal modo, che di tutte si facesse un bel composto; il che fece egli con togliere alcune uniformità di attitudine, rompendole talora senza violare le buone regole, ma senza obbligarsi a regola: ed era suo ditto ordinario in tal proposito, che chi non esce talvolta della regola, non la passa mai; voleva però, che chi non era insieme Pittore, e Scultore, a ciò non si cimentasse, ma si stesse fermo ne′ buon precetti dell′Arte. By using the art forms in interaction, the artist could bring each form to transcend the limits immanent in its tradition and practice.

56. Domenico Bernini, Vita del Cavalier Gio. Lorenzo Bernino descritta da Domenico Bernino suo figlio, Roma, 1713, 29–30. La Scultura mostrare quel che è, la Pittura quello che non è: Volendo inferire, che la Scultura si appogia a regole certe di dimensione, & ar grande ciò, che vuol che comparisca grande, /…./ Altrimento però la Pittura, che sà, e può render lontano ciò, ch′è d′appresso, piccolo, cio ch«è grande, e staccato ciò che per altro non hà rilievo.

57. Margaretha Rossholm Lagerlöf, Ideal Landscape. Annibale Carracci, Nicolas Poussin and Claude Lorrain, New Haven and London, 1990, chapter 5, 129–160 (134–140 in particular), about the rhetoric device of the eye witness experience; the expression should be as powerful to the recipient as if the event had been »before the eyes«. About the rhetorical use of devices of vividness, as an eye witness experience conveyed in words, in the »analogy«, see Schittko, 158.

58. Caroline Walker Bynum, The Resurrection of the Body in Western Christianity, 200–1336, New York, 1995, 233–243.

59. Collins, 232–233, on the question about to what extent angels can know the human »heart«, a person's inner mind, that is not expressed outwards, according to Thomistic philosophy.

60. Ignatius of Loyola, Spiritual exercises, for instance, the first preparatory exercise and the First day, second contemplation, over the Birth of Christ.