In the next 10 minutes we're going to
take a better look
at Luca Signorelli's 'Circumcision of Christ'.
We're going to find out why this is such
an unusual subject
for a monumental altarpiece on this scale,
and we're going to meet a host of
interesting characters,
including Simeon raising his hands in wonder.
we're also going to find out why Luca
Signorelli was such an inventive painter,
and how he treated this subject in a way
it had never been treated before.
Luca Signorelli's 'Circumcision' is a
really odd picture that makes
a really strong first impression on the viewer.
I remember when I first saw it and I was
especially struck
by the bold colouring of the floor which
reminded me of Saturday Night Fever
more than anything else. But the longer I
looked at this picture,
the more I realised how unusual it
really is.
Let me take you on a little bit of a
journey and talk you through this picture,
and and its many elements that constitute
one of the great altarpieces in the
National Gallery's collection. Luca Signorelli
might not be a painter everyone's
familiar with.
Luckily for us, Vasari's biography,
and many other sources give us a good
indication of his life,
and career as a painter, including the
many wonderful pictures
that are still there with us today.
There's some odd details in Vasari's 'Life
of Luca Signorelli' including that when
his young son died,
instead of mourning, Signorelli
went on and drew the body of his deceased
son, which tells you something about
Vasari's opinion
of the painter. Luca Signorelli was in
fact the last painter
in the second part of Georgio Vasari's
three-part 'Life
of the Artist', and ending the second part of his
series of biographies of artists with Luca Signorelli
sort of indicates that for Vasari,
Signorelli was a slightly old-fashioned
painter that belonged to an earlier period,
and Vasari sort of wants to finish the
second part of his lives
with Signorelli. But he was a really
innovative painter that left us many
great pictures,
including this one. It was painted
for the town of Volterra in Tuscany.
There was a little bit
of an uproar in Volterra in 1472
when the locals were a bit fed up with
Lorenzo de Medici
who was the de facto ruler. Since then, Lorenzo
took it upon him to use artists, and
great pictures they made, as a sort of
diplomacy in Volterra,
but also a way of showing that the
Medici family
was still in power in the town.
This particular picture was painted for
an oratory
that belonged to a confraternity, a brotherhood
dedicated to the holy name of Jesus.
One of the syndics of this confraternity
was in fact the estate manager
of one of Lorenzo de Medici's villas
just outside of Volterra, called Los Peroletto,
and it is that probably that reason
that Signorelli was introduced to the confraternity
when they needed a new altarpiece.
Now the holy name of Jesus is an
interesting subject.
The famous Franciscan preacher
Bernardino of Siena
came to the town of Volterra some
decades earlier in the 15th century
and preached about the holy name of Jesus,
a subject that Bernardino was immensely
invested in,
and it was therefore that the confraternity
dedicated itself to the name of Jesus
and chose the subject of Christ's circumcision
as the subject of Signorelli's altarpiece,
a monumental depiction of the
circumcision of Jesus Christ,
is a very rare subject in painting
especially on this grand scale.
Possibly only Mantegna before him
painted a panel that really had the circumcision
as its subject, but Signorelli blew it up
to an entirely grander scale.
It's a subject that is highly
appropriate for a confraternity
that is dedicated to the holy name of Jesus,
because it has something to do with the
moment that Jesus is named,
and is also brought into the church
under Mosaic law. It's that moment
that is encapsulated in his circumcision.
Looking at the picture, one of the first
things you'll notice
is that floor I already told you about,
it really draws you into the picture.
It's this massive perspectival void
in the foreground of the picture that
really leads your eye in
through the central axis up into
the most important moment of this
picture, the moment of the circumcision
right in the centre. The figures surrounding it
wear really interesting abundant
clothing, again in that rich coloration
that we also see in the floor,
and in the marble architecture
surrounding the scene.
The figures besides Christ in the middle are
a figure we would today call the mohel,
the person executing the circumcision.
To Christ's left it's Joseph,
and Christ sitting on the lap of the
Virgin Mary.
They are both identifiable by their halos,
setting them apart as holy figures in
this scene.
There is however one more holy figure in
this scene.
It's the figure looking slightly pale,
raising his hands in the background.
This figure is Simeon, and it is
described in the gospel of Luke
in the New Testament where Christ's circumcision
and other events after that are
mentioned that Simeon
was informed in a miraculous way through
the Holy Spirit
that he would live to see the day that
he would see the Messiah,
and could only then die in very
old age. It's that moment that Luca
Signorelli painted here,
the moment that Simeon realises that
he's witnessing
the circumcision of the Messiah. And he's
raising his hands
in wonder. By painting his skin
in such a pale white manner, it almost
seems as Signorelli is
emphasising the moment that Simeon decides
he can finally die. he has seen the Messiah,
and his life is fulfilled. The scene
is a really wonderful exploration of the subject,
and the circumcision's meaning in
Christianity as well as Judaism.
Signorelli painted two roundels at the
top of the picture,
and these roundels show what are likely to be
two prophets, or a prophet and a sybil,
both prophetic figures associated with predicting
Christ's coming and it's in fact the
coming of Christ.
His circumcision a very important moment
in his early life
that's emphasised through that Old
Testament connection
that Signorelli painted above. What is really
interesting is that the two prophetic
figures at the top
seem to have scrolls, and scrolls are always
a reference to the Old Testament,
the Jewish tradition, whereas the codex,
the book,
is a reference to the New Testament. And indeed,
on the floor you see an open book, and
there's a receptacle in the middle, and
then there's a roll,
a roll of gauze or some kind of bandage,
and that bandage almost looks like the scrolls
held up by the prophet on the top of the picture.
It is as if Luca Signorelli is
emphasising that transitional moment
between the Old Testament and the New,
from the scroll
to the book, and in the middle that receptacle
to probably catch the blood that
unfortunately is associated with that
moment of the circumcision.
That blood might seem unfortunate
but it's actually a highly symbolic
event, the moment that christ first bled
for mankind, as if the picture is looking ahead
at Christ's ultimate crucifixion,
the moment he is sacrificed
for mankind. It's that blood
that's very important and
possibly also the reason that Signorelli
used that foreground floor and left it empty.
This picture was indeed an altarpiece
as a backdrop to Mass, the Eucharist,
the ritualised celebration of Christ's sacrifice.
There's a highly symbolic relationship
between the subject
of the picture and the function of the picture
as an altarpiece, and Signorelli did
that beautifully well,
using the ledge in the foreground as a
transitional space,
between the space of the picture and the
space of the real altar table below.
Signing his name on the ledge, Lucas Cortonensis Pinxit.
Luca from Cortona painted this.
If you're interested in learning more
about art history,
please click here or here.
Thank you for watching and we'll see you
again next time.