Franciscan at Home

The English College in Rome, now universally known as the Venerabile (‘venerable’ because of its age and because of the number of martyrs that went from there to their death in England), dates from 1579. The altarpiece for the main altar, which is the subject of these art notes, was painted by Durante Alberti in 1580 and is generally called the Martyrs picture. It is a ‘Mercy Seat Trinity’, a representation of the Trinity that became increasingly popular in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, and is a good example of how fine art can enhance catechesis on the liturgy.

The Mercy Seat was originally commanded of Moses by God (Exodus 25:17-22) and placed above the Ark of the Covenant. The Ark and the Mercy Seat were carried by the Israelites throughout their forty-year sojourn in the desert. When Israel settled in the Promised Land, and Solomon’s Temple was built in Jerusalem, the Ark and the Mercy Seat were placed in the Holy of Holies in the Temple.

The painting by Durante Alberti is the kind of painting one is sometimes warned against using in catechesis, especially with children, for there is a worry that children will be led astray by the depiction of God the Father as an old man with a big beard – and, possibly for children, what appears to be a rather frightening old man. But all that we need to remember is that catechesis should accompany the presentation of Catholic art such as this, and the explanations that one can offer are not only striking in themselves, and deeply helpful for children as well as adults, but alter one’s perception of what is in the painting. Indeed, the initial alteration comes as soon as one applies the name, ‘Mercy seat’, to the painting. As one looks at the painting with this title in one’s mind, the meaning of the picture changes from being a straightforward depiction of the crucifixion, to a profound depiction of the Catholic understanding of God’s power as loving mercy.

A picture of the Annunciation is a resource par excellence for catechesis because it can illustrate so many interconnecting doctrines of the faith. Having said this, not all artists have the same degree of ecclesial depth and so some pictures will be of greater catechetical value than others. At this point it is also good to be aware that one might look at a painting of a great artist, or a very beautiful painting, or one that speaks very personally, or one helpful for prayer or meditation – none of these criteria, however, makes the painting necessarily the most appropriate to use catechetically. What, then, do we need to look for as catechists in order to choose the best art of the Annunciation for our purposes?

Over the years, church buildings have received numerous titles: domus ecclesiae, domus Dei, Temple of the Most High, Image of the Eternal, Holy Place, and Body of Christ. John Cardinal Newman called churches ‘gospel palaces.’ However, it is also appropriate to reflect on the church as domus Eucharistica, the church as a Eucharistic house. Our churches are the places we gather to ‘eucharist,’ to thank God for His marvelous gifts. The psalmist exhorts us to ‘enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with joy.’ A church building which is eucharistic should foster our thanks by bringing to our eyes those things in salvation history for which we have to be thankful.

We contemplate a beautiful illustration used in the Compendium to introduce the section on the Ten Commandments, a fresco by Guido di Pietro (Fra Angelico).
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/2/23/Fra_Angelico_-_Die_Be...

In his Lives of the Artists, published in 1550, Giorgio Vasari tells us that ‘to portray holy and spiritual things, a man must have a holy and pious mind’. No one in the history of art satisfies that requirement more fully than Guido di Pietro, known in the religious life as Fra Giovanni da Fiesole, but better known to us as Fra Angelico. A man of outstanding holiness, he only ever began painting after long periods spent in prayer, and it is said that he could never paint a crucifixion without weeping. He was beatified by Pope John Paul II in 1984.

The fresco we are studying was made by Fra Angelico between 1440 and 1450, as part of the decoration of the Monastery of St Marco in Florence. It is to be found in the north wing in cell 32.