Peter Paul Rubens, Elevation of the Cross, from the church of Saint Walpurgis (destroyed), 1610, oil on wood, center panel: 460 x 340 cm, wings: 460 x 150 cm (now in the Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp)
Today's piece covers a Flemish artist in the Baroque Era, by the name of Peter Paul Rubens. The piece is titled Elevation of the Cross, or sometimes Raising of the Cross. It's another triptych done with oil paint on wood panels. The pieces focuses on religion, but depicts the emotion, depth, and struggle many Baroque artists wanted to portray within their work. Today we'll be analyzing the nuances that make the piece so emotional in it's depiction of Christ.
Before we start, a bit of history: The Baroque period was an era of dramatic, emotional pieces. Often or not being big, loud, and full of small detail. Peter Paul Rubens was an exemplary example of this as he brought the values of the Baroque style of art to Northern art.
The StoryThe painting was a commissioned piece, painted at around 1610-1611. It was commissioned by the church as to highlight Christ's passion, love, and sheer emotion that was his act of being hung on the cross.
The piece was originally in the the Church of Saint Walpurgis, Antwerp, painted on the high alters of the church, the triptych itself including the saints Amand, Walburga, and Eligius on it's outer wings. Unfortunately in 1817 the church was destroyed, and has been migrated to the Cathedral of Our Lady, Antwerp.
Many are moved by this piece, and many consider this to be one of Ruben's highest works. It's a showcase of his prolific skill, and the representation of action and emotion of Christ, as well as his love and compassion that would inspire Catholics in their faith. With so much nuance and detail, it makes more than enough sense to dive right in.
The left panel depicts St. John and the Virgin Mary, as well as a group of women. They all look onto the centerpiece, carrying the eyes to the primary image. It follows a direction to brings your eyes to the center and focuses on it, guiding the viewer to the main horror. The colors range from darker, muted values at the top and leaning to a lighter, more saturated scene at the bottom.
Cast in the shadows, as St. John and Virgin Mary look on seemingly resigned of their emotion, you can see their touching hands, as if to show a quiet sense of support for each other. St. John's hand is placed atop Mary's, and his other hand is up in a motion as if to quietly urge her to be still, that things will be alright. Rather than the scene itself St. John has his eyes focused on Mary, while Mary looks on with a sense of longing. Despite their still figures and lack of exaggeration, the small deails of their actions convey so much weight to the depths of their feelings.
Lower down the panel you can see a group of women, with some children included. All are distraught, carrying most the emotional weight of the panel. From the older woman staring on in seeming horror, a young child hugging onto her from the side, to the woman craddling her hair close to herself. Something in particular that catches my eye is the woman at the bottom, seemingly in the middle of breast-feeding her baby. She has a hand out to comfort the woman above her, but as she stares on to the scene her own child seems to stop it's breastfeeding, staring on with a look of disgust.
Such an expression of the child, halted in it's own feeding to show it's judgement of such an action feels like a small indication that even the pure and youngest knew that this horror was wrong.
Right Panel
In the right panel, we see the romans, as well as the thieves crucified alongside Christ. Something Rubens is incredible at is guiding the eye. Similar to the gazes of the left panel drawing our eyes to the center, the right panel does this as well. The roman on the horse with it's pointing direction creates a direct angle to be drawn to the center of the peiece. The movement of the horse can draw you up it's body and to this "arrow" as well. While the thieves in the background are facing away from the scene, the roman on the horse being front and center gives a sense of focus, and centers where we should be.
In the background, we can see the theives being prepared for crucifixtion, one laid on the ground as mostly someone out of view holds him down, and the other kneeling down as his hair is tugged by the roman soldier. Theres a sense of power and domination that comes from the right panel, in direct juxtaposition of the shared despair and comfort of the left panel. The highlighted muscles, the strained and dynamc poses. The action contrasts the more subtle, reserved positions of the left panel, and even the bodytypes directly contrast; the softer, plumpier bodies of the women compared to the muscularture of the soldiers. It creates a harsher image in comparison, both painting two sides that aid the central piece. Center Panel
We focus on the centerpiece now, the main draw of the image. Already, the movement is incredible. The slanted composition as Christ is raised onto the cross is balanced by the men who work to to raise him up. Particularly, the one closest to the bottom with the blue cloth wrapped around his waist does wonders to help balance the piece, still making it feel center. Jesus's arms also give a sense of a center, his right arm aimed near the top center of the image. Despite the extreme composition, theres a sense of balance achieved through positioning.
This is also achieved through colors, the ligting coming from the far right makes it feel heavier to the right, despite the composition. The pose is left-leaning, the lighting and coloring is right-leaning. They work together to create this balance.
Onto the piece itself theres so much detail. The dog that looks up, seemingly oblivious of the horrors in front of it, as well as the sheer strength of the main visible through their posing, emphasic on musculature, and the amount of men needed to raise Christ on the cross. The way Jesus's gaze is up to the heavens, rather than any of his surroundings as he focuses on his goal more than anything, is another small highlight of the piece.
Something that works so well about this piece is how it draws the eye. When you return to the left panel, the woman holding her baby has her gaze directly pointed at Jesus, pointing our eyes there as well. In the right panel, the roman soldier on the horse is pointing his stick directly to one of the men hoisting Jesus up with a rope. This creates a line to follow as we're guided by the soldier to the man , and as we follow the rope our eyes are drawn directly to Christ.
While it's incredibly subtle, this piece does a wonderful job of prioritizing. The piece knows where our eyes should be, and directs us in various ways while still keeping everything balance and dynamic. From Renaissance to Baroque: Emotion, Christ and Art Catholic art isn't an uncommon thing, in fact theres tons of it. But in the Baroque period there was an especially large jump on the focus on catholic art, and Peter Paul Rubens is one of many artists. From the 1545-1663 period, in response to protestant refromation popes, catholic leaders, and the church became some of the biggest supporters of art, and encouraged artists to portray emotional depth, clarity, and virtue in their art of Christ
A big part of this was The Council of Trent, which were a series of meetings that helped define Catholic doctrine and was key to the Catholic Counter-Reformation. Peter Paul Rubens was one of these commissioned artists and was most sought after for his work. The Elevation of the Cross, and many others like it, are an example of religious art moving away from standard, pure art and away from art being deemed "secullar" and being destroyed for it, but to another era of appreciation for art and it's work, and it's pure emotional depth and power
The Baroque era carries the themes of humanism and mannerism, and carries them on to create emotionally striking pieces that encourage and inspire catholics in their faith, and shows the very human side of Christ. Compared to Leonardo's Last Supper, the range of more dynamic use of light and shadows, posing, and expression is the biggest highlight to this era, but the biggest change in Catholic art. This evolution of art is even more evident when you compare this to another famous triptych by Hiernymous Bosch, titled The Garden of Earthly Delights. While both are wonderful pieces, they serve as examples of their time, especially as religious centered pieces.
The work of art is beautiful, and while theres definitely a soft spot for the renaissance era, I find the Baroque period to be exempolary in it's massive support of artists, and the change in focus in much more dynamic and emotional pieces. Something i'll never get over are the small, intimate details found in these pieces that add to the emotional impact. The more still pieces are gorgeous but something about the exaggerated poses, the movement, the expressions all speak to me personally.
The Elevation of the Cross is a gorgeous piece, and I feel it can resonate with Christians and Atheists alike. Rubens was a man dedicated to his craft, and his usage of lighting, his sense of direction his ability to lead the viewer throughout a piece all great reasons to analyze his work. His sense of balance is extraordinary. This piece is merely a testament to his skill, and the wonderful period that is the Baroque era.
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Wow, your analysis had so much depth! Probably because this piece is ridded with incredible detail, from the facial expressions to the gestures and body positions. This piece has so much extreme emotion! Mixed with its religious nature and the contrast between light and dark, you can definitely tell it came from the Baroque era. Even though it is a horrific scene, I really like the attention to detail with every person and animal in this piece.
ReplyDeleteI really enjoyed your analysis, I have to say I did not think to look at some of the expressions (the dog) until you pointed them out, but as we both know, that is part of the artist's plan. Where they guide you to look. What and how it is important. And how light, shadow, colour, positions, expressions, along with focal points is how this movement started. This is a wonderful example of the beginning of the Baroque Era. If you take into consideration the theater that is carefully choreographed into a Baroque painting, you can definitely tell this era not only brought with it everything that was learned from the past, but bringing it to life was essential to Baroque. I also like how you pointed out the focal points and how the artist is using lines to bring your eye to the center, every spot carefully planned with such emotion is...beautiful. I think if you like this, especially the way you described it, I think you would be a fan of Carivaggio's work as well. If you look at some of his work, it follows the same Baroque style and the whether the lines are direct or fluid, it is filled with that more theatrical emotion that this era is so memorable for.
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