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The Compendium was prepared by a commission of cardinals led by then-Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger (now Pope Benedict VXI), who stressed the importance of art in catechesis as being one of the book’s three primary characteristics.
The artwork for the Compendium’s chapter on “The Profession of the Christian Faith,” Avakoff noted, is taken from a mosaic in one of the earliest Christian basilicas in Rome, San Clemente. In it, Christ is seen on the cross with lambs, representing we the church, below. Vines spring from the cross, symbolizing Christ as the vine and mankind as the branches.
The 12 doves shown on the cross are both the 12 apostles and the 12 tribes of Israel, she related, and beneath the cross stand Mary and John the Evangelist. From the base of the cross gushes a spring of life-giving water, with the four rivulets symbolizing the four Gospels at which the faithful quench their thirst.
Avakoff noted that, for the church fathers, the idea shown in this scene is Christ giving Mary to the world from the cross, with John representing all of humanity. This scene can also be interpreted as symbolizing the birth of the church.
For the Compendium’s “The Celebration of the Christian Mystery,” the pope chose an image of the last supper from the Northern Renaissance, Joos van Wassenhove’s Jesus Gives Communion to the Apostles. Here the table approximates an altar, connecting the symbolism of the Last Supper to the altar at Mass. The apostles resemble men from contemporary society, making the scene more accessible and immediate to its viewers, and the device of the halo has been done away in the Renaissance effort to make things more true to life.
Avakoff related that Pope Benedict XVI writes here that the Eucharist is the source and summit of our faith. “So it is really beautiful,” she said, “the way the Last Supper has been interpreted and literally translated into a theological statement.”
Of the Last Supper picture used in the Compendium, she observed, “The picture opens up and becomes more subjective, like a window where we are invited in and we are invited to come to the table literally. All of us are.”
She then showed a 15th century painting of the Last Supper by Dirck Bouts, which uses a contemporary setting for this scene. Here, the room depicted is an exact replica of the refectory or cafeteria for the Confraternity of the Holy Sacrament in Louvain. Actual people from this confraternity are shown in the painting and Jesus is depicted as both the high priest and victim. Again, the halo is not used but, instead, the paneling seen behind Jesus serves to suggest one, part of the Renaissance trend to use everyday objects as disguised symbols.
In another depiction of the Last Supper, Avakoff pointed out that the classical columns are a reminder of Christ’s passion, where he was tied and whipped. “There are lots of symbolic elements in these kinds of paintings,” she said, “especially from the Northern Renaissance.” A second illustration of the Last Supper used in the Compendium shows the table itself resembling a giant chalice.
Avakoff described representations of the Last Supper as often showing Judas on the opposite side of the table from Jesus and clutching a money bag. She noted that in homilies “you are either going to be a Peter or a Judas, because both of them deny or betray Christ in their own ways.” While one asks forgiveness and repents, the other despairs to death. “I think Peter was symbolizing faith and John was symbolizing love,” she added.
She further noted that early church fathers stressed the importance of being prepared to receive Communion and not to receive it unworthily, as Judas is often portrayed doing when he dips the bread into the wine at the Last Supper.
A woodcut shown of the Last Supper by Albrecht Dürer, created in Germany on the eve of the Protestant Reformation, shows only 11 apostles present, Avakoff noted. In it, Judas has already departed with his blood money and Christ is bestowing the new covenant, “Love one another as I have loved you.” It also shows a very unconventional moment at the Last Supper, Avakoff related — the announcement by Jesus that Peter is going to betray him. Dürer, a supporter of Martin Luther, was using this imagery to make a political statement regarding the pope.
For the section, “The Seven Sacraments of the Church,” the Compendium’s artwork is another Northern European image, an altarpiece by Rogier Van Der Weyden of Flanders, Triptych of the Seven Sacraments. It portrays in microscopic detail all seven sacraments taking place inside a Gothic church of that time, with the seemingly anachronistic scene of the crucifixion taking place in the center of the church. It is also an early example of the use of oil painting, which was first developed in northern Europe.
Avakoff noted that the artist chose the imagery of the sacraments inside a church to show that supernatural grace comes only from the church through the sacraments.
The section, “Man’s Vocation: Life in the Spirit,” uses St. John Contemplates the Immaculate Conception by El Greco. A Greek who spent most of his life in Spain, El Greco depicts Mary with the Holy Spirit descending on her as a dove.
Of significance is the presence of John the Evangelist. Tradition has it that he was the only apostle who did not die a martyr’s death and was with Mary until the time she was assumed body and soul into heaven. John is said to have written the Book of Revelation in which he speaks of a woman “clothed with the sun and the moon at her feet.”
The use of the dove is an apt choice of symbolism for this section of the Compendium, Avakoff noted, because of our receiving our vocation — life in the spirit — at baptism. “And baptism is how we actually can share in Mary’s life,” she said, “because even though she was free from original sin, we at baptism have the grace to be free from original sin as well.”
Many beautiful images of Mary as the Immaculate Conception were created in Spain following the Council of Trent, Avakoff related, to defend Mary’s position in response to the Protestant Reformation taking place in northern Europe.
Similar portraits of the Blessed Virgin were shown by Avakoff as examples, all based on the passage from Revelation speaking of the woman “clothed with the sun and the moon at her feet.” This same imagery that represents the Immaculate Conception is also used to portray the Assumption of Mary.
“I think what is so amazing,” said Avakoff, “is Our Lady of Guadalupe is the Immaculate Conception, the woman clothed with the sun and the moon at her feet.” When Juan Diego unfurled his tilma, the Spanish bishop immediately recognized that it was the Blessed Virgin although she had an Aztec face.
El Greco’s Prayer of Jesus in the Garden is the Compendium artwork for The Our Father near the book’s end. It gives visual emphasis to the spiritual suffering of Christ at this time, as shown by several similar paintings of this subject presented by Avakoff. All depict the apostles soundly sleeping through Jesus’ night of agonizing prayer, and the soldiers coming for him in the distance. “I think,” said Avakoff of these paintings, “there is an element about at the end of life we face God alone. We, like Jesus, have to go to the Father alone.”
The concluding artwork in the Compendium is a panel from an altarpiece, Angelic Singers, by Jan Van Eyck, which shows a choir of wingless angels praying through song, with St. Cecelia, the patroness of music, at the center.
The full multi-paneled artwork also shows God the Father (wearing the triple tiara of the pope), Mary, John the Baptist, Adam and Eve (a reminder of the fall and original sin) and, at the bottom, a vision of paradise.
Avakoff pointed out this paradise is drawn from the Book of Revelation, depicting a heavenly Mass with the adoration of a lamb (Jesus) on an altar. Blood springs from the lamb’s side into a chalice, as angels swing censers before the altar. Angels, Avakoff noted, are often shown as altar servers. There are also reminders of Christ’s passion in the painting and, in the foreground, a fountain representing Christ, “the fountain that thirsts to be drunk.”
A Reformation political statement can be found, Avakoff observed, in the opulently dressed, bejeweled churchmen, who are pictured looking away from what is taking place on the altar, and who are in sharp contrast to the humble, barefoot hermits gazing at the lamb on their knees.
In conclusion, Avakoff recommended Gardener’s Art Through the Ages for those wanting a thorough art history. She also mentioned that images of good religious art can be downloaded off the Internet for use in classroom presentations, notably through The Web Gallery of Art. |