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Pietro Perugino: The Handing of the Keys to St Peter painting.

The origins and role of the Papacy is a subject covered all too infrequently in catechesis. Pope Benedict XVI’s visit to England proved a stimulus for much debate over the Petrine Office and speaking ‘heart to heart’ the Holy Father demonstrated that this humble Vicar of Christ has much to teach all sections of society, believers and non believers alike. In the Sistine Chapel the fresco ‘the handing of the keys to St Peter’ was painted and through this masterpiece we can come to a better understanding of the origin and role of the Petrine Office.

Pietro di Cristoforo Vannuncci, better known as Pietro Perugino (1450-1523), was an Umbrian painter of the High Renaissance who realised the exceptional fresco entitled The Handing of the Keys to St Peter between 1481/2 in the Sistine Chapel, Vatican City, Rome. The fresco forms part of a series of mural decorations that gave the Sistine Chapel its original appearance. The frescoes, realised on the lateral walls of the Chapel, depict the story of salvation through the events in the Old Testament relating to the life of Moses and on the opposite wall the New Testament showing the major events in Christ’s life.

This series is commenting on the images used in the Catechism of the Catholic Church, images which are chosen for their significance and relevance for catechesis.

The series has already covered the miniature from the Monastery of Dionysius on Mount Athos that was chosen to introduce Part four on ‘Prayer’. It has also covered the oldest image of Our Lady found in the Catacombs of Priscilla.

This issue focuses on another image from the early Church, that is, the central section from the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus which was chosen to be at the beginning of Part three, ‘Life in Christ’.

There are several reasons why this is an extraordinary image to use catechetically and why it is so perfectly suited to illustrate Part Three of the Catechism of the Catholic Church.

One reason is that it links those who are going through the RCIA process today to someone who had been through the RCIA in the fourth century! The young man for whom this tomb was made is named Junius Bassus and the inscription across the top of the sarcophagus states clearly that Junius was a ‘neophyte gone to God’, ‘neofitus iit ad deum’.

It may be that he was dying and was baptized on his deathbed; or it may be that he had been a catechumen in the normal way and had been baptized at some point within the previous year. Whatever his particular circumstances, we can see from these earliest times in the Church, that those newly baptised were called those with new (neo) nature (physis), now united with the life of Jesus Christ. ‘New birth, ‘newly planted’ into Christ or ‘newly alive’ are the usual translations for the great event, the great ontological change that takes place at baptism.

For the Year of Faith, ‘Learning through Art’ is focusing on the artworks used in the Catechism of the Catholic Church and how to catechise, beginning from the art work, when we use or teach from a particular section of the Catechism. The first image discussed in The Sower was the logo on the front cover which we saw can help us to catechise on the purpose and structure of the Catechism and appreciate how the Catechism was written to support us in our journey to Heaven. In the last issue, we looked at the artwork used for Part Four of the Catechism on Christian Prayer. In this present issue we look at the image that illustrates Part One, The Profession of Faith.

This painting, called ‘Real Presence’, is a rich example of proclamation of the faith from a Catholic perspective. You can see immediately that it is Eucharistic; the consecrated host takes up the centre around which, and to which, everything is connected. For the New Evangelization, reaching out especially to the baptised but lapsed Catholic, the Eucharistic liturgy is the source of Christian life as well as the summit. Eucharistic art, then, can wonderfully serve the New Evangelization.

What a remarkable painting! And how unexpected to find it given to us as the painting to introduce the part of the Compendium on the moral life! One might have thought, naturally, that this painting could most easily be used to illustrate the doctrines of Our Lady, especially Mary as Immaculate. But in the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church the painting is being proposed, instead, as one that can be used to help people to learn about Catholic moral teaching, our life in Christ.

The usual title of the painting is, as we know, the Immaculate Conception but here the Church surprises us by placing a very different title over the painting: ‘Man’s vocation: life in the Spirit’. We need to look closely at the painting, therefore, to understand how the picture illustrates this point: to ‘picture’, to see, our vocation, to see what you and I are being called to, we are being asked to contemplate Mary immaculate. We might say, in fact, that if we do not contemplate she who has the fullness of life in the Spirit we cannot know well to what we are being called. In Mary we see what life in the Spirit is, and so in her we see our vocation.

A catechetical implication, then, is that when we teach any element of Catholic life or moral teaching, we would do well to help people to contemplate Mary immaculate in order to see more clearly what the Church’s moral teaching means and entails. If we do not do this, one might even say that we are actually making it harder for people to ‘see’ the Church’s moral teaching.

Part Three of the Compendium is entitled ‘Life in Christ’, and Section One introduces us to man’s authentic vocation, which is Life in the Holy Spirit. The painting chosen to illustrate this Section is El Greco’s St John contemplates the Immaculate Conception, presently to be found in the Museum of Santa Cruz (Holy Cross), Toledo, Spain. El Greco (1541-1614) made this painting during his period of prolific activity between 1607 and his death in 1614. It is a particularly appropriate choice, for as the Compendium puts it: ‘Mary, the Panhagia, (all holy), is the masterpiece of the Holy Spirit. (Panhagion). Her existence from her Immaculate Conception to her glorious Assumption into heaven, is completely sustained by the love of God. The Spirit of the Love of the Father and the Son makes Mary a new creature, the new Eve.’
Although the doctrine of the Immaculate Conception was not officially promulgated until 1854 (in the Ineffabilis Deus of Pius IX), it has long been part of the Tradition of the Church. The feast of the Immaculate Conception was instituted by Pope Sextus IV in 1477, and in its decree on Original Sin in 1546, the Council of Trent specifically exempted the Virgin from any stain of Original Sin.

An early painting of the Immaculate Conception, made in 1492 by Carlo Crivelli, hangs in the National Gallery, London, and seventeenth century Spain produced a profusion of ‘Immaculadas’ by artists such as Pacheco, Velasquez, Murillo and Zurbaran. El Greco, a Cretan Greek who came to Spain via Titian’s Venice, thoroughly absorbed the Spanish spirituality of the Counter Reformation. His magnificent paintings of the Immaculate Conception effectively became templates or prototypes for those later Spanish artists.

Este cuadro de Caravaggio narra el relato histórica de lo que le sucedió a San Pablo antes de que fuera bautizado, mientras todavía le llamaban Saúl. Se narra esta historia tres veces en el Nuevo Testamento (Hechos 9:1-9; 22:5-16; 26:12-18) con variantes en el detalle y énfasis. Principalmente, ésta es una de las representaciones más poderosas de las características esenciales de la conversión cristiana.

Una forma en que se puede empezar a utilizar este cuadro, para adultos o niños, sería por medio de una lectura en voz alta, lentamente, siguiendo el drama del encuentro de Saúl con Cristo, señalando paso a paso cómo se describe la conversión en el cuadro.

Se propone la versión más completa de la historia en la tabla que sigue, tomado de Hechos 26. El texto de las Sagradas Escrituras se encuentra en la columna de lado izquierdo, y un comentario sobre el cuadro en la columna del lado derecho.

This painting by Caravaggio tells the historical story of what happened to St Paul, before he was baptized, while he was still called Saul. The story is related three times in the New Testament each time with slightly different detail and emphasis: in Acts 9:1-19; 22:5-16; 26:12-18. Most of all, this is one of the most powerful depictions of the essential characteristics of Christian conversion.

One way to begin using this painting, for adults or children, would be to have the story read slowly, out-loud, following the drama of Saul’s encounter with Christ, while pointing out step by step how the conversion is portrayed in the picture.