The Exaltation of Beauty

The Three Young Men in the Blazing Furnace, 1575, by Pieter Pietersz, Frans Hals Museum The Babylonian king Nebuchadnezzar set up a large golden idol and ordered the Jews in exile to worship it. Three young men refused to kneel before the strange god. The king had them cast into the fire, but they were protected by their God and survived the flames. Converted by this miracle, Nebuchadnezzar afterwards worshipped the God of Israel. In the foreground of this painting the young men are being bound. The subject of this work is rather appropriate, since it was commissioned by the bakers’ guild of Haarlem.

Vasily Timm, The Anointing of Alexander II, 1856

Paolo de Matteis, The triumph of the Immaculate, 1715

Jacob Jordaens, Triumph of Frederick Henry, Prince of Orange, 1651

Pierre-Paul Prud’hon (1758-1823) The Monument to Clement XIV

Figure of Humility, on the right

Tomb of Clement XIV, by Antonio Canova, 1787 Canova laid out the content in a similar way to how he also designed the Tomb of Clement XIII. Canova used carrara marble and lumachella in order to complete this work, with the former being his preference for most of his career. He places Clement XIV directly at the top of the sculpture, with one arm outstretched, as he looks down on us all. The main subject of any tomb design would normally be positioned this way, so as to make it clear as to who the overall design is referred to. Below him are two further figures who flank the two sides of this triangular shaped construction. The figure to the left is Temperance, who leans over the sarcophagus with an entirely sombre expression which feels entirely appropriate for the content involved. To the right hand side, sat upon the middle level is a figure who represents Humility. She bows her head in a similarly sad expression of grief, perhaps suggesting her own concern at the direction of humanity at that time.

The severe allegorical personification of Religion, standing on the left, is the only element that has not been perfectly blended, also because of the excessive size of the cross. On the right, in place of the Christian image of a frightened skeleton so popular with medieval and Baroque artists, he shows a beautiful mourning youth with a turned-down torch, the Genius of Death, of Apollonian beauty, who rests delicately on the sarcophagus, on which the figures of Charity and Hope, with reference to similar Greek-Roman works and executed with sophisticated delicateness, are sculpted in a bas-relief on the sides of the dedication. Beneath them on the left we can see a awake lion, and on the right, a sleeping lion.

In addition to a spontaneous ability of making his essentially classical inspiration conform with Christian themes and subjects, Canova's inventive happiness is expressed in a perfect technical-interpretative symbiosis also with studies from real life, such as, in this case, for the Pope and for the lions. Heartfelt nobility emanates from the figure of Pope Clement XIII, the face bears a very close resemblance. The Pope is kneeling rapt in prayer and completely wrapped by his sumptuous robe.

Monument to Clement XIII, by Antonio Canova, 1792 It shows the pope kneeling in prayer with the tiara beside him, and to the left of the sarcophagus Religion dressed in sacerdotal garments; to the right, there is a semi-reclining funerary Genius. At the base are two crouching lions, one sleeping, the other vigilant. They are carved in travertine, while the rest of the monument is of white Carrara marble. With it, Canova introduced neoclassicism into the Basilica. The general idea is in line with the new aesthetic tendencies in the purity of its planes and lines, accentuated by the use of white marble which produces an overall candor. The Monument to Pope Clement XIII immediately appears quite innovative with respect to the previous examples in the Basilica, which are substantially based on the Bernini tombs, since it has greater spatial depth and eliminates the traditional feminine figures symbolizing the virtues, replacing them with pagan Allegories.

The tomb of Pope Clement XIII Rezzonico in the Vaticanca. 1790, by Raphael Morghen, after Antonio Canova

Fred Roe (1865–1947), Joan of Arc