At first (and quick) glance, it may seem that this is a reflection in a mirror - in an old, convex mirror, of which there were a lot of them, with their characteristic perspective distortions. And the no less characteristic profile of some medieval city on the horizon suggests that it will most likely be about another Flemish mirror_in_art. With "Flemish" in general, everything is correct, but with "specularity" there are complications. An attempt to unravel with them led to the emergence of another infinitely long posting (almost 60 pictures; I warned).
Short preface: In a sense, this posting is a continuation of my recent Facebook retellings. As I said, last year I signed up for a community on FB, where I successfully re-posted a number of “Flemish” mirrors in art, about which this blog has been written for years. It so happened that I posted there some new things that I found from time to time, but which have not appeared here yet. As a result, a series of updates appeared - about “new mirrors” in scenes of the Annunciation, the history of Susanna and the Pilate's Court. All of them were built on a simple model - here is the old story (posting), but here is the update. But some mirror works began to fall into that community, about which I had not written anything here before (not only about the work itself, but about the whole topic related to it). Therefore, having dealt finally with the updates,the time has come for completely new texts.
Here is the whole picture (panel) from which the fragment above was cut.
It is very bright, elegant, interesting - but at the same time, rather incomprehensible to the “average public” (therefore, over time, it gained a record number of likes for my postings in that community). The plot shown on it is traditionally called Christ the Salvator Mundi - Christ the Savior of the World (usually translated into English as Savior of the World).
It is a rather large panel, 58 x 68 cm, and dates back to 1520. The exact author is unknown, but it is quite confidently attributed to the work of the so-called Master of the Mansi Magdalen, who worked in Antwerp in the late 15th and early 16th centuries and according to some sources was a student of Quentin Matsys - the same one that Mirrors for money).
I will come back to the story about this master, but for now I want to immediately indicate what the story will be about in this posting - about such “mirror balls”, one of which is holding Christ here. Since there will be a lot about “balls”, I have not forgotten yet, I will show one more “potentially-mirror” object on this panel - a huge brooch on Jesus' chest, in the stone of which something is also reflected.
Promotional video:
I wrote "also reflected", but here you need to make a reservation right away. I will once again show this “ball”, this time “with context”, from which it can be seen that it does not reflect so much as “shows”. The closest analogue could be such glass balls, into which some scenes are inserted, and if you shake it, it starts to “snow”. It seems that this is not even a mirror, but a kind of (tele) visor that allows us to look at the world (somewhat reminiscent of the crystals from the Narcissus fountain in the Novel of the Rose).
In fact, I already wrote about one such object, albeit very casually, when I talked about Leonardo da Vinci's mirrors (more precisely, mainly about the absence of such). Then, in an attempt to scrape at least something on the mirror bottom, I showed one work, which recently began to be attributed to the brush of Leonardo (attribution is still disputed by most researchers). On that panel, Christ the Savior is also depicted, and also with a "ball" - and what a ball! An absolutely luxurious bead, with a beautifully displayed mirror texture (including “bubbles” in the glass). Note that this ball does not have a cross on top of its head.
Now I will make a dive in history and tell first about this ball itself, where it came from and why it is used. After that, I will return to questions of its use by Christ, and the depiction of this use by the Flemish primitivists in particular.
About Sharik
The official name of this balloon is Globus cruciger; which sounds solid, but it really means just a "ball with a cross", or rather a cross-bearing orb. It is not translated into Russian in any other way except as “power”. Which in this context does not mean a country, but “a symbol of the power of the monarch in the form of a (golden) ball with a cross”. I could start the story here with the powers of the Russian tsars, or some other tsars, but it so happened that the powers of the emperors of the Holy Roman Empire were the first to come across to me, so why not with them?
Here is a picture of one of the most famous powers in the history of this empire (and Europe in general). Now this artifact, along with numerous other imperial regalia, is in the imperial treasury in the Hofburg Palace in Vienna (Hofburg Palace). This is a rather massive golden ball (in my opinion, still hollow), richly decorated with precious stones.
It's funny that in German it is called Reichsapfel, an imperial apple, and this metaphor has penetrated into the Russian language at some point, and in the past the empire of the tsar was called “the apple of the Tsar's rank” (sometimes “the sovereign apple”, which is butter, if understand what kind of apple it is).
This power became, in a sense, the default for many other powers in Europe, and then legendary and mythological - for example, Charlemagne was portrayed with a hint of it (Carolus Magnus, Karl der Große, Charlemagne etc - the founder of that very St. Empire).
The first picture is the famous portrait of Charlemagne by Albrecht Durer, painted around 1510, the second is a later drawing, made around the middle of the 18th century in France. On both, Karl holds the same power in his hands. More precisely, that one, but not that one - the object that is now stored in Vienna was made at the end of the 12th century, 400 years after the death of Charles.
If we are to find out exactly who this power belonged to, then Frederick Barbarossa, who reigned for almost forty years, from 1150 to 1190, is a good candidate.
On the left - his portrait with his sons Heinrich and Friedrich from the famous Historia Welforum manuscript of the late 12th century, and on the right - his image as a knight-crusader from the Historia Hierosolymitana chronicle (the first “edition” of which dates back to 1188). In both cases, we see some "powers" in his hands. But according to some sources, “that same power” was first “used for its intended purpose” only during the coronation of his son, Henry, who became the next emperor, Henry VI.
According to another source, the very first surviving depiction of the state of the Holy Roman Empire is a fragment from an 11th century manuscript showing the consecration of Henry III (great-great-grandfather of Frederick Barbarossa) to the throne at the Stavelot monastery, which took place on June 5, 1040. …
But if you dig deeper into this genealogy, you can stumble upon Emperor Otto III (who, in turn, was the great-great-grandfather of Henry III), then in his image (on the right) you can find some kind of power in his hand. I doubt, of course, that this is some kind of more modern manuscript (and thus a historical reconstruction, not a “truth of life.” Otto III ruled for only a few years, from 996 to 1002, and I do not remember the manuscripts of those times with such rich illustrations.
***
But not the point. You can continue to gradually dig deeper and deeper into history, or you can jump into the water at once with one jump. The image of the Sphere of Peace as a symbol of domination over it was, apparently, already well known to the ancient Greeks - as evidenced, for example, by the marble statue of Zeus (by coincidence, it is now in the Hermitage):
In his hand, Zeus holds a globe-ball, which was symbolically conquered (he is at her feet) Nika, the goddess of victory.
We find the same ball in the images of many Roman emperors (who never missed the chance to mimic the Greek gods). The left image is the emperor Octavian Augustus (who, as the founder of the empire, mowed under the gods himself); the second is a relief depicting the emperor Flavius Gonorius Augustus (his Nick on the ball is, of course, the bitter irony of fate - it was during his reign, in 410, that Rome was first invaded and plundered by the Goths; the third is a giant five-meter statue located in Italian the town of Barletta, the so-called Barletta Colossus. There is still debate in honor of which emperor it was created, so it can be considered a monument to the Roman Emperor as a whole. The statue holds the orb, but instead of the usual scepter in such cases it holds a cross - but I know her complicated fate,it can be assumed that this is a late "postscript".
We find images of various rulers of the Byzantine Empire on coins - the one on the left is Constantine IV (ruled from 668 to 685), and the right is Constantine VI “The Blind” (ruled 780 to 797).
But images of ball-powers are found on Roman coins even earlier, before the Eastern Roman Empire slowly turned into Byzantine (Christian). For example, the so-called antoninian, a coin that was introduced into circulation at the beginning of the 3rd century by the emperor Caracalla. On it we see the emperor himself in a crown with sunbeams, and, most likely, the image of the god Sol Invictus - with a ball / orb.
This last image suggests that if we are to dive into history, then to “the very bottom”:
The statuette on the left is, of course, a perfect replica. Such kitsch "ancient Egyptian gods" are sold in all Yegpita souvenir shops. But on the right is quite a real fresco from the temple in Abu Simbel, the goddess of the sky Nut (Nut or Nwt), who traditionally held the solar disk / an (k) x in her hand.
If you wish, you can dig deeper into the abyss of the history of Persian, Babylonian, Sumerian, etc. (the relief depicts the god Marduk, the supreme deity of Ancient Mesopotamia, usually depicted with a ball / disk (sun) and a scepter / stick (hoe, shovel)
Well, here I already want to stop and start some kind of ascent up. It is clear that all these symbols of power were born long before the Christians, and long before the Romans / Greeks, and if you wish, you can get to the bottom of “long before the Egyptians” (but the Egyptians in general are always not a bad option to start with, a sort of MVP).
As usual, over time, the symbol grew and developed, picking up everything that turned up on the go (and being picked up by those who passed by). It so happened that at that moment Christianity, which was gaining strength, passed by, so it picked up, and from some time the powers began to be used by Christian gods. Interestingly, the first orb-balls are found in the images of angels (or archangels - usually Michael). On the left is an icon from about the 8th century, with a pronounced orb-ball (which is already Globus Cruciger). In the center is one of the oldest surviving bone plates from Byzantium, from about the 10th century, also with the Archangel Michael.
And on the left - as it were, the same thing that is needed, the icon of Christ the Savior (or Lord) of the World (Savior the Almighty or Pantocrator) - but note the absence of any "powers" in him. Instead, he holds a book (Word, Verb), and in many cases holds nothing. He does not need anything external to save the world, he commands it and saves it using only “the word”.
This is a very strong image and concept (and it is clear where it came from in Christianity; that is, in “real Christianity”). But it has already happened that “fake” became popular - and strong - (according to the principle “our cause is strong, and therefore rightful”). Instead of the supposed ἐκκλησία, κυριακή was built, and now we have what we have. Those who decided to build a church did not hesitate to hoist appropriate hats on their heads - for example, what the early papal tiaras looked like:
On the left - the image of Pope Innocent III (1198 - 1216), on the top of the tiara of which one can already discern a miniature orb. And the three-crown tiara of Clement VIII (not very different from modern ones) is crowned by the already fully formed Globus cruciger (more precisely, even this whole tiara seems to be it).
But yeah to the Mirror Balls
So. Whether this is true or not from the standpoint of “true Christianity,” but at some point the image of Christ the Savior grappled with the image of the Power. This link has never been iron, and we can always and in any era can find exceptions (or rather, an alternative reading of the image). Here, for example, is the image of Christ the Savior performed by Giovanni Bellini, circa 1465;
There is no “ball” on the panel of Christ the Savior by another Italian master, Antonello da Messina, also circa 1465.
But on this panel by Carlo Crivelli (c. 1470), we see a completely default image of the notorious "power" - only here, like almost everything else, it looks more like gold. This panel was part of a large altar, which at some point was pulled apart into pieces - for example, this one is now in Mexico, and the El Paso Museum. In Mexico.
And here is another interesting panel, by another Italian master, Gherardo Starnina, c. 1400. Here Christ is holding in his hands not just a power, but almost a globe - we can discern a map of the world showing the three parts of the world according to Ptolemy. Later, such balls will almost no doubt be considered a model of the Earth - they say, Christ saves (and therefore holds in his hands) the Earth.
It is clear that this is a somewhat simplified “picture of the world” (more precisely, rewriting history). First, people did not always know that the Earth is round (which did not prevent them from making and drawing spherical states). But a certain intuitive sphericity of the whole world was present in the heads of people (and therefore later in art) long before the discovery of the sphericity of the Earth (and it was not necessarily canceled by this discovery, by the way). It's just that this globularity meant something other than the globularity of the planet. (And this is not to mention the versions of the origin of this "ball" from the sun, which I write about in more detail below).
It is interesting to note that in some cases there is a "ball", but there is no cross on it - as in this bronze relief from about 1500, the Master of the Barbarigo Reliefs from Venice:
And here is the work that finally brings us closer to the mirrors. This panel was written in 1519 (? - I don't know where this accuracy comes from) by Andrea Previtali, a student of Bellini:
Here Christ the Savior holds the most glass ball (moreover, transparent):
Christ is also holding something similar in the painting by Titian - Salvator Mundi (1570).
Titian already has tons of interesting mirrors, and mirror balls are added to them!
The last Italian work I want to show is made by an unknown master, presumably from Florence, and presumably around 1560.
It is already beautiful, but what makes it especially interesting is the “cosmic structure” of its sphere-orb - the very case when the author “takes it higher” and depicts not just the Earth, but also a part of the solar system, with the planets and itself By the sun. You can read here some irony of fate - there is a suspicion that the original inspirer of this symbol was the Sun, but then everyone forgot about it - but it, however, still “crawled” into its holy_place.
Now, and finally, to the beloved primitive Flemings. There will be mainly carpet bombing of balloons, but I will start again with the “ballless” Savior. Both portraits (is it possible to paint like that?) Of Christ by Hans Memling, one in 1474, the other in 1481; in the European tradition, such paintings “without powers” are usually called Christ the Blessing (Christ Giving His Blessing), but in fact it is Christ the Savior (and the “true” one).
Another example is the central panel of the famous Braque Triptych by Rogier van der Weyden c. 1452 Here we already see a completely standard "sphere" - power - but metallic (golden?), In which, at the same time, there is a reflection (windows?)
I have not had the opportunity to seriously rummage through the archives of manuscripts (I mean - electronic archives), so I still have only one example of the image of Christ the Savior in the manuscript (I'm sure there are many more of them there).
An unusual detail here is that he freely walks in some kind of gardens with his power. The manuscript is illustrated by the Flemish master Willem Vrelant, also c. 1460.
Further, there will simply be examples of "mirror balls" that I managed to find, one more beautiful than the other. But this I would like to formulate a "general idea", otherwise it risks drowning later in the mass of individual trees. The idea is quite simple, and I would even say, collateral to the idea that I was trying to convey in the case of “non-mirrors” of the same era.
At some point (15-16 centuries) and in some place (Flanders, a little wider - Northern Europe) an interesting technology appeared - the ability to blow very clean, transparent glass. Things from it turned out beautiful, but expensive - just what usually attracts the so-called. "Those in power." The church had power at that moment, therefore glass mirrors (and their derivatives - for example, glass balls), quickly began to be used for various utilitarian and ideological purposes - for example, to depict all the same Powers.
But since the material had its own characteristics, then the objects depicted by it began to acquire somewhat unusual properties - which I will show below.
Gerard David - Christ as Salvator Mundi (c. 1485) - here we see a simple glass ball, with some reflections in it.
(disciple?) Gerard David - Christ as Salvator Mundi (c. 1490) - and here we see the same motive as on (in) the very first “ball” - we are shown a certain world inside. There is also a very interesting brooch here - perhaps a good copy will contain a self-portrait of the artist.
Workshop Joos van Cleve - Christ as Salvator Mundi (c. 1530).
Also a kind of world inside (but also reflections of the outside world). True, the copy is not very good, it is not very clear what is “inside” - it is only noticeable that the “horizon” is filled up (more precisely, it’s just not filled up properly):
Another work of the Joos van Cleve workshop is Christ as Salvator Mundi (c. 1540). Also a complex “inner world” - and also a huge, fancy cross.
And this panel is more or less confidently attributed to Joos van Cleve himself - - Christ as Salvator Mundi (c. 1540).
The world in this case is the most complex, with landscape, weather and “atmosphere”.
Christ as Salvator Mundi (c. 1530) - panel by an unknown master from Bruges; even more sophisticated cross.
And also again the whole world, and already "human", we see a city (port? Bruges itself?), Ships and almost mountains.
A few more similar examples, one heap (I couldn't find large copies); the first panel is attributed to the workshop of Michiel Coxie the Elder, the second to the workshop of Hans Memling, the third to an anonymous, presumably from Antwerp:
Another work attributed to the workshop of Joos van Cleve is Christ as Salvator Mundi (c.1530s)
with a huge, transparent and delicately decorated glass ball:
This panel is attributed to Quinten Metsys (or Messys) - Christ as Salvator Mundi (c. 1500).
Inside - again a surprisingly complex world (night, I note, which we still see):
Another work that is attributed to his own studio is probably one of the most beautiful: Christ as Salvator Mundi (c. 1500).
This variety is closer to the "transparent ball with reflection" (urban profile, in this case), but it is written so complex and beautiful that it seems that this city is inside this ball. And also - a terribly rare case! - we see the reflection of Christ's hand (right) in the surface of the ball.
I brought these works of Quentin Masseys towards the end, not only because they are more recent, but also because the very Master of the Mansi Magdalen, with whom I began this posting, is considered his student. This is a rather important fact, since this master has, it turns out, other works on this subject (more precisely, there are such works that are attributed to him). For example, here is this panel with Christ the Savior in the Landscape (c.1520).
It is interesting that Christ is walking in the landscape, but the interior of the room is reflected in his mirror-ball (in particular, the window - and again the hand of Christ, by the way, in the same way as on the Massace panel:
And another work attributed to the same master: Christ as Salvator Mundi (p. 1525).
At the end of this long series, I will show a few more works, more in the genre of “how it ended”.
Here is a huge panel by a certain Fernando Gallego, actually a Spanish master, but who belonged to the so-called Spanish-Flemish school (like Juan de Flandes, for example, about whom I wrote here several times already):
The Blessing Christ (1492).
And this is a later work, by the master from Bruges Antoon Claeissens - Christ as Salvator Mundi (c. 1590).
As in the case of the Italian master, about whom I wrote above, we see here the appearance in the sphere-power of the Solar system and even some "elements of the rest of the Universe."
We do not know the authors of the next two works - the first is sometimes considered not Flemish, but Italian, and the second, most likely, German, both belong to the middle of the 16th century. And on both we notice how the Power of the World smoothly turns into the Earth Globe. The Age of Geographical Discovery does not pass by.
Over time, the image of Christ with the Globe became commonplace, and in the Baroque era it was almost default. But in this regard (and perhaps for some other reason, they no longer began to make such beautiful mirror balls; the primitive Flemings all got out, and the Dutch of the Golden Age began to do something else. There are some strange exceptions, like this Baby - Christ saving the world with the help of the Huge Ball (this picture is attributed to Anthony van Dyck - more precisely, this particular copy was made by one of the imitators, based on the work of van Dyck, which, as far as I know, has not survived). - a certain Cornelis Schut the Elder, circa 1640
Around this place, you can finish, at least end with this row (but not with the topic - I have one more important continuation, which I will write about another time). But since I risk not returning to this topic in the near future, I will add one more important subtopic. This sub-topic, in fact, is rather complicated and slippery, and I can give a rooster, but I would like to at least outline it now (in the hope of digging in the future).
Here's the point. In almost all the paintings that I showed yours, Christ (= the Son of God) was depicted. It is he who saves the world.
But in some versions and interpretations the situation is described a little differently - it is God (= Father) who sends the Son, and through this saves the World. A completely different calico.
For a person far from theology, these are all details, similar to disputes about camels and the eye of a needle. And for a believer, one version may be the Absolute Truth, while the other is a Terrible Heresy. In the history of Christianity, there have been heated debates over these interpretations (not very well known to us now, because the winning side usually simply destroyed the loser). I will add that now the first version is more or less finally the winning version.
If we reduce everything to a very, very simple example, then the conversation is about who is holding the ball. In the Russian Orthodox Church, for example, God the Father never holds a ball (and in general his image is not very welcome - as, indeed, is the image of the state). In the European Catholic there were, as they say, different moments - and as I understand, some of the “wrong” were then diligently cleaned up, retroactively. But some traces and pieces remained.
One powerful example of "storms and battles" is the famous Ghent altarpiece by the Van Eyck brothers. I only present here its central part:
As for him, there are ongoing disputes - who is depicted on it? God the Father or already God the Son? If this is God the Father, then it is he who saves the world (he has no power, but his papal tiara, as it were, is a power, as I wrote above; and his gesture is appropriate) - and he saves him by sending the Lamb (he is on the panel below). But many ardently argue that this is wrong (because they decided to believe that only Christ has the role of savior). And so on, in a spiral.
Here's an example of a panel I found at the Museum of Ancient Art in Lisbon. She is described as a Master of the Flemish School, ca 1550), and depicts Mary with the Child Jesus, St. Anna and St. Joachim (and the donor). First of all, I was attracted by Mary's mirror (Speculum sine macula - it hangs on the wall on the left, and it even has this very inscription).
And only then I saw God the Father in heaven, saving the world and holding the corresponding Globus cruciger in his hands:
Another example is the Trinity panel, by the Antwerp artist Artus Wolffort, circa 1620. There are several versions of this work, many of which were most likely created by his students:
Here God the Father and God the Son together, but the ball is in the hands of the Father:
The same thing happens in the painting by Bartholomäus Bruyn, a master from Cologne stylistically close to the Flemish masters. This is the scene of the so-called Coronation of the Virgin (p. 1540):
The completely glass Globus cruciger is here again in the hands of God the Father:
The same plot - Marienkrönung - but performed by another German master, Hans von Kulmbach (ca.1520).
Here everything is even more confused - the ball is in the hands of God the Father (I note that the ball is without a cross), but the tiara is on the head of the Son (and the father has a Crown ?!).
But on the panel about the coronation of Maria Michael Sittow, we see how the ball smoothly passes into the hands of Christ:
The work is dated back to 1496. I note that these are more and more strange artists, “non-local” - the same Sittow was born in general in Reval (now Estonia), but studied already in Bruges, with Memling, and then worked quite actively in different Flemish cities, but at the end finally moved to Spain, to Toleldo. It feels like these non-canonical “balls” were preserved only by such strange migrants-defectors (and the mainstream either did not write them, or then such works were washed away.)
And finally - quite recently (and accidentally) found work by Paolo Veronese, not a Flemish (but an Italian), and already close to baroque (rather than “primitivism”, for lack of a better term). Here Christ saves the world in the most direct way - by concretely stopping the Plague (Christ arresting the Plague with Saint Roch and Saint Sebastian, ca 1560).
At the same time, he elegantly holds in his hands a HUGE ball of some size.