Hello world, from Life: Full Colour!
8 January 2019
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In his first article for Life:Full Colour, Professor Julian Gardner, Emeritus Professor of Warwick University History of Art, asks whether Simone Martini’s Christ Discovered in the Temple is the most important Italian painting in England. The article includes an introduction by one of Professor Gardner’s former students, Sara McKee, Life:Full Colour Founder.
Professor Julian Gardner taught me everything I know and love about looking, seeing and loving paintings.
Most memorably, Julian introduced me to Italian art through the magnificent frescoes of Giotto di Bondone at the Scrovegni Chapel, Padua – traveling from dawn’s first light to reach the chapel as the sun rose and cast its light directly on the rich azure scenes. I was captivated.
His enthusiasm, tutelage and friendship has helped me become the passionate Art Historian and colourist I’ve always hoped to be. So, I’ve asked him to write a few erudite thoughts for Life Full Colour on some of our favourite paintings.
Julian’s first article focuses on Christ Discovered in the Temple, a panel on display at the Walker Art Gallery Liverpool. I worked at the Walker Art Gallery during my vacations from Warwick University between 1984 and 1987 – giving me the opportunity to see this panel regularly. It was my first taste of working alongside great artworks, an experience I’ve never forgotten. Liverpool is one of the places the Professor and I met last. We’re looking forward to many more encounters with fine art, good food and great company once we’re released from lockdown.
Please enjoy.
Sara McKee, Life:Full Colour Founder
The most important early Italian painting in England?
A good candidate for this title is a small and often overlooked panel in the Walker Art Gallery in Liverpool.
Titled Christ Discovered in the Temple, it carries the signature of the greatest painter of the 14th century – Simone Martini. The painting bears a signature and a date, which is unusual for those times. The Latin inscription can be translated as “Simon of Siena painted me in the year 1342”.
We know Simone had moved to Avignon a few years earlier. Whether he made the move from Italy in search of prestigious commissions or had been summoned by a client remains a mystery. However, Avignon was a very special place in the 14th century – an independent city that had become the centre of Christendom. Pope Clement V and his cardinals settled there in 1309 and remained for over sixty years. The city was a hugely important diplomatic hub, as well as a city buzzing with art.
The buzz was thanks largely due to the presence of the Roman Catholic church. The huge new papal palace had to be decorated, as did the papal summer palace at Sorgues, and the urban palaces of the cardinals. Naturally, this acted as a magnet for painters, sculptors and goldsmiths drawn by the concentrated presence of wealthy clients.
The Liverpool panel was painted by Simone in 1342 during the time he was still in Avignon – he only returned to his native Siena a couple of years before died. It is the only one of his paintings that we can be certain was painted outside Italy. It was rather small (it measures 50 x 35 centimeters) and eminently portable.
The panel portrays a very rare subject. It appears to show Jesus saying goodbye to his parents, Mary and Joseph. This episode took place after the twelve-year old had successfully refuted the Jewish elders in the temple, an event which is often regarded as the beginning of Christ’s adult life.
Mary is seated, gesturing towards the young Christ who stands defiantly beside his father. She holds an open book which shows Latin text taken from the Gospel of Saint Luke (Ch2, v48):
"My child, why have you done this to us? See how worried your father and I have been, looking for you."
It poses the question of why the young Saviour is treating his parents in this way. Unusually for the period, it represents an involved human situation, a difficult family issue not yet resolved. What is particularly fine is the balance created between the emotion of the scene and the decorative nature of the panel.
A closer look at the painting reveals even more. The edges of the wooden frame are intact and covered in the original burnished gold leaf. This is astonishingly rare for a painting of this date which invariably come down to us as fragments, either from a bigger painting which has been taken to pieces or as part of a sequence. The absence of any traces of hinges prove that it was an independent panel. This makes it more important as a historical document.
For me, the unusual nature of the subject and the immense detail makes Christ Discovered in the Temple the most important early Italian painting in England.
JG