Easter 2012: "O death where is thy sting?"

Easter week celebrates the moment when, in Christian metaphysics, mortality is overcome by everlasting life. The crucifixion of Jesus Christ redeems mankind from the sinful state into which mankind fell through Adam's disobedience to the will of God in the garden of Eden. His resurrection liberates us from eternal perdition: in Saint Paul's famous words (I Corinthians, XV.54-55) "So when this corruptible shall have put on incorruption, and this mortal shall have put on immortality, then shall be brought to pass the saying that is written, 'Death is swallowed up in victory'. O death where is thy sting? O grave where is thy victory?".

These concepts were articulated with fresh force in the later sixteenth century through the Counter-Reformation, in media such as altarpieces, sermons, the educational work of the Jesuit Order, and through devotional prints which were widely disseminated. Here we present four such prints from the holdings of the Wellcome Library.

Engraving by B. van Bolswert after Rubens. Wellcome Library no. 24606i.

The print above publishes an altarpiece painted for a church in Antwerp in 1619-20. The lettering names Pieter Paul Rubens as the painter, and Boëce van Bolswert (in Latin, Boethius à Bolswert) as the engraver and printer. Bolswert (ca. 1580-1633) worked in Antwerp in collaboration with the Rubens studio. The lettering describes the scene in the words of Saint John's gospel (XIX.19-34), which is also closely followed in the depiction.

For instance, Saint John mentions that the mocking inscription on Christ's cross "was written in Hebrew and Greek and Latin" (XIX.20), as it is here. The print also illustrates an act of casual cruelty which is described by Saint John: the soldiers broke the legs of the two men crucified with Jesus, but when they got to Jesus himself, they saw that he was already dead so did not waste any effort in breaking his limbs. Thus the print emphasizes the sinfulness of mankind and its need for the "corruptible to put on incorruption".

The altarpiece was seen in Antwerp in 1781 by the painter Joshua Reynolds. He describes it as "famous", meaning that it was widely known from  Bolswert's print. He commented in his diary:

'The altar of the choir is the famous crucifixion of Christ between the two thieves, by Rubens. To give animation to this subject, he has chosen the point of time when an executioner is piercing the side of Christ, whilst another with a bar of iron is breaking the limbs of one of the malefactors, who in his convulsive agony, which his body admirably expresses, has torn one of his feet from the tree to which it was nailed. The expression in the action of this figure is wonderful: the attitude of the other is more composed; and he looks at the dying Christ with a countenance perfectly expressive of his penitence. This figure is likewise admirable.

'The Virgin, St. John, and Mary the wife of Cleophas are standing by with great expression of grief and resignation, whilst the Magdalen, who is at the feet of Christ, and may be supposed to have been kissing his feet, looks at the horseman with the spear, with a countenance of great horror: as the expression carries with it no grimace or contortion of the features, the beauty is not destroyed. This is by far the most beautiful profile I ever saw of Rubens, or, I think, of any other painter …

'The genius of Rubens nowhere appears to more advantage than here: it is the most carefully finished picture of all his works. The whole is conducted with the most consummate art; the composition is bold and uncommon, with circumstances which no other painter had ever before thought of; such as the breaking of the limbs, and the expression of the Magdalen, to which we may add the disposition of the three crosses, which are placed prospectively in an uncommon picturesque manner: the nearest bears the thief whose limbs are breaking; the next the Christ, whose figure is straighter than ordinary, as contrast to the others: and the furthermost, the penitent thief: this produces a most picturesque effect, but it is what few such a daring genius as Rubens would have attempted. . . . I have dwelt longer on this picture than any other, as it appears to me to deserve extraordinary attention: it is certainly one of the first pictures in the world, for composition, colouring, and, what was not to be expected from Rubens, correctness of drawing.'

Although Reynolds's appreciation is primarily technical, written from the point of view of a professional painter, his feeling for the subject matter is also strongly expressed. In the 19th century the composition continued to be well known under the name Le coup de lance given to it in 1876 by the French painter Eugène Fromentin. Even today some writers call it Le coup de lance, even though many other incidents are shown in addition to the centurion piercing Christ's side with the lance. Although the lettering on the print and other evidence state that the author was Pieter Paul Rubens, there are reasons for thinking that, while Rubens designed the composition, his pupil Antonie Van Dyck may have been responsible for some of the detailing. [1] The painting now belongs to the Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerp.

At some stage Christ's body had to be taken down from the Cross. An episode after that, known in English by the Italian word Pietà, in which the Virgin Mary mourns her son, is recorded in many pictures and sculptures.

 Engraving by Lucas Kilian after Hans von Aachen, 1602. Wellcome Library no. 23231i.

This is one of the most finely worked prints of that subject. It is a truly international production. The designer was Hans von Aachen (1552-1615) who was born in Cologne, worked in Italy where he learnt a good deal about painting and design, and eventually became court painter to the Emperor Rudolf II in Prague, where he died. Our print is dated 1602, when Hans was in Prague. It bears a dedication from Dominicus Custos (the printer and/or publisher), dated to the day: "MDCII. VIII. Id. Maÿ", i.e. 8 May 1602. The dedicatee is Johann Philipp von Gebsattel (1555-1609),  Prince-Bishop of Bamberg from 1599 to 1609, not a man renowned for piety, which is perhaps why he was glad to be recognized as the patron of this magnificent print. He could hardly fail to be impressed by the engraver's work on the Virgin's halo. The engraver was the stepson of Dominicus Custos, Lucas Kilian, who was from Augsburg in Bavaria but carried out the work for this print in Venice.

The episode is not mentioned in the Gospels but became one of the standard Stations of the Cross in the Middle Ages. Evidently it was thought necessary to have a time for grieving between the killing of Christ and his burial. The Virgin's expression is one of bewilderment, while Mary Magdalene devotes herself to the wounded body of Christ. In the foreground are the causes of the sacred wounds, including the nails, a hammer, and the crown of thorns.

Engraving by Lucas Kilian after Tintoretto. Wellcome Library no.23236i.

The carrying of Christ's body to the tomb is shown in another print made by Lucas Kilian, again in collaboration with his stepfather Dominicus Custos as printer and/or publisher, but this time Lucas is engraving a design by a Venetian painter, Jacopo Robusti, called il Tintoretto. The patron to whom the print is dedicated is also Italian:  Anna Caterina Gonzaga (1566-1621), daughter of Guglielmo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, and at this time the consort of her uncle, Ferdinand II, Archduke of Austria. Unlike the Prince-Bishop of Bamberg, she was indeed renowned for her piety: as a child she had received visions of the Virgin, and after her husband's death she abandoned the trappings of wealth and devoted herself entirely to religion and good works.

It is clear why the archduchess would have been happy to be associated with an engraving in which the suffering Virgin Mary is literally so prominent: the three Maries are almost falling out of the front of the picture, with the Blessed Virgin in the centre, Mary Magdalene on the right and Mary the wife of Cleophas (John XIX: 25) on the left. Remarkably, what we might regard as the main subject, the carrying of the body of Christ, appears only in the background. The reaction of the Virgin to the sight of Jesus's body implies that a distinct earlier phase corresponding to the Lamentation or Pietà did not take place.

Engraving after Maerten de Vos, late 16th century. Wellcome Library no. 23283i.

Finally in this sequence, we have the powerful figure of Christ triumphing over death. The upper part combines two scenes: Christ is simultaneously resurrected from the tomb and ascends into heaven. In the lower left corner, Death itself is about to be swallowed up by a monster, while in the centre the snake that led Adam and Eve astray, and who is entwined around the secular world, is about to be trampled down by the wounded foot of Christ. On the right a tablet engraved with the Ten Commandments faces upwards, indicating that Christ is triumphing over righteousness of the law, replacing it with righteousness of faith.

The composition is by Maerten De Vos (1532-1603), and the engraving was produced by the publishing house of Hieronymus (Jeroen) Cock (c. 1510–1570) at the sign of the four winds ("Aux quatre vents") in Antwerp.

Thanks to Erika Delbecque for cataloguing the Wellcome Library's prints by Lucas Kilian.

[1] N. Van Hout, 'On the invention and execution of the Coup de Lance', in Rubens Bulletin Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten Antwerpen (KMSKA), 2011, 3: 2-39. Online at http://www.kmska.be/nl/Onderzoek/Rubens/Rubensbulletin_3.html

Gold, frankincense and myrrh

Everyone who has heard the Nativity story will know that the newborn baby Jesus was given gold, frankincense and myrrh by the fabled Three Wise Men. But what do these substances look like, and do they have real medicinal properties?

You’ll recognise gold. Shiny and lustrous, it’s been used in jewellery and decorative arts for millennia throughout the world. The Alexandrian Egyptians believed that gold was the “fountain of youth”, for surely something that glowed so beautifully was innate with health. In medieval times gold was used as a healing remedy and, although the properties assigned to it then were more “magical” than medical, gold is used in many forms of modern medicine.


Gold nanoparticles are used in the diagnosis and treatment of cancer. When coated with a cancer antibody they are effective at binding to tumour cells. When bound to the gold, the tumour cells scatter light, making it very easy to identify the non-cancerous cells from the cancerous ones. The particles shown in this transmission electron micrograph are just 10-90 nanometres across.

Injections of gold salts are used to treat arthritis, and gold alloys are used in dentistry. Gold is used in medical imaging too, to coat a sample before it goes into a scanning electron microscope, a procedure that has been used to created many of Wellcome Images’ scanning electron micrographs.

Frankincense and myrrh have also been used in medicine throughout history, and are now being investigated by scientists to see if they are effective at treating disease.

Myrrh is the resin produced by Commiphora trees when the bark is attacked and the resulting wound reaches the sapwood. It has been valued since ancient times for its perfume and wound healing qualities, due to its antiseptic and anaesthetic properties. Myrrh is named for its bitter taste, so any oral remedies using the resin would have tasted quite unpleasant. The Ancient Egyptians used myrrh as the principal ingredient when embalming mummies. In Ayurvedic and Chinese medicine, it is used for rheumatic and circulatory conditions.

Myrrh is used by many diabetics in Arabic countries to lower blood sugar, although no human studies have proved how effective this treatment is. Bilharzia, a tropical parasitic worm infection, has been treated with a marketed version of myrrh since 2001, although a review of this showed the efficacy of the cure to be low.^[1]

Frankincense comes from Boswellia trees. It is a resin like myrrh, and is called ruxiang in Chinese medicine. The name, meaning “nipple-shaped flower”, was first mentioned in Chinese medicine texts around 500 AD. This woodcut from the 19th century Yanhou miji, or Collected Secrets of Laryngology, illustrates an abcess of the throat that is treated with a traditional Chinese medicine six-flower concoction containing ruxiang.

Frankincense looks more promising as a modern medicine than myrrh. A systematic review of the use of frankincense to treat conditions including asthma, rheumatoid arthritis and Crohn’s disease concluded that the results of clinical trials were “encouraging” (though not “compelling”)^[2]. Compounds extracted from frankincense have shown anti-inflammatory properties in clinical trials^[3] as well as anti-depressive effects in mice^[4], so the modern therapeutic potential of frankincense might be fully realised in future years.

[1] Barakat R et al. Efficacy of myrrh in the treatment of human Schistosomiasis mansoni. Am J Trop Med Hyg. 2005 Aug;73(2):365-7. Online here.

[2] E Ernst. Frankincense: systematic review. BMJ 2008;337:a2813. Online here.

[3] Moussaieff A, Mechoulam R. Boswellia resin: from religious ceremonies to medical uses; a review of in-vitro, in-vivo and clinical trials. J Pharm Pharmacol. 2009 Oct;61(10):1281-93. Online here.

[4] Moussaieff A. et al. Incensole acetate, an incense component, elicits psychoactivity by activating TRPV3 channels in the brain. FASEB J. 2008 Aug;22(8):3024-34. Epub 2008 May 20. PubMed link

Behold the man: a painting in Perth

Christ displaying his wounds. Oil painting on canvas 132.1 x 99 cm.
Perth Museum and Art Gallery, Scotland.

This painting of Christ showing to the viewer the wound in his side has belonged to the town of Perth, Scotland, since around 1862, when it was presented by a local resident, Colonel William Macdonald Farquharson Colquhoun Macdonald (1822-1893). Until recently it was hardly known to anyone, but in November 2007 it became available on the web in the British online database National Inventory of Continental European Paintings, in which it appears with a catalogue record by Dr Claudia Heide. (A small selection of the Wellcome Library's more problematic oil paintings--164 items--are also included in the same database.)

However, though databases may be accessed on the Internet through what is called a "browser" (such as Internet Explorer, Netscape or Firefox), they, unlike ordinary web-pages, do not usually expose their contents for browsing, and the painting did not come to wide public attention until it was published in the pages of a journal in October 2009, when it was the subject of a thorough and expert study by John Gash of the University of Aberdeen [1]. Such an exceptional painting raises several inter-related questions about its authorship, iconography, and function, which are discussed in Mr Gash's article.

First, who painted it? It is a Caravaggesque painting, and although there are features that suggest an attribution to the artist called Caravaggio (Michelangelo Merisi, il Caravaggio, 1571-1610), the odds are that the painting is "a stupendous act of homage by an early follower" of Caravaggio. Gash mentions as the possible author of the painting no fewer than eight such followers, all of them well known to students of the international Caravaggesque movement, and all of whom worked in Rome at some time: Bartolomeo Manfredi, a master of half-length compositions; the elusive Giovanni Antonio Galli, il Spadarino; G.B. Caracciolo, il Battistello, of Naples; Valentin de Boulogne; Gérard Douffet from Liège; the Venetian Carlo Saraceni; Antiveduto Gramatica from Siena; and Alessandro Turchi from Verona. Unable to fix on a definitive attribution, especially in the painting's uncleaned state, Gash concludes by designating the author as The Perth Master. One of the small unusual features that might prove to be a clincher of the attribution is the fact that the outer contour of Christ's halo follows the irregular contour of his hair, instead of being a perfect circle.

The iconography is also unusual. Pictures of Christ showing his wounds are usually narratives of Christ showing his wounds to the doubting Saint Thomas, called by art-historians the ostentatio vulnerum [2]. In the Perth painting, Christ is showing his wounds to us as the viewers of the painting; or to us as contemporary doubting St Thomases. Works showing this subject tend to be mediaeval rather than early modern: the closest parallel cited by Gash is a Florentine sculpture (left) from the early 15th century, which happens to be prominently displayed in the Medieval and Renaissance Galleries at the Victoria and Albert Museum--the new galleries which opened on 2 December 2009 (below right). [3] It is displayed rather high on the wall in the V&A because it is thought to have been placed originally above the cloister doorway in the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence. [4]









This provides Gash with a clue to the function of the painting:
"Sculptures and paintings of this subject were traditionally located in hospitals, as reminders of Christ's compassion for, and identification with, sick and suffering humanity, and it may be that the sculptural qualities of the Perth painting reflect that tradition and were devised for such a location." Paintings for such a setting are documented as having been painted by Caravaggio himself. During his time in Rome, one of his patrons was the prior of the hospital of Santa Maria della Consolazione: as Gash remarks, "none of these pictures has ever been identified, and the subject of the Perth canvas would make it an ideal contender".

However, Caravaggio was not the only painter to receive such commissions. Another of the candidates, Bartolomeo Manfredi, was patronised by Pope Paul V's physician, the connoisseur and critic Giulio Mancini, who had links with the two Roman hospitals Santa Maria della Consolazione and Santa Maria della Scala. Manfredi also made paintings for the rector of the Hospital of Santa Maria Della Scala in Siena. Another Caravaggesque painter, the Fleming Louis Finson, painted an allegory of the four humours and other subjects for the hospital of the Jesuits at Sant'Andrea della Valle in Rome before 1612. [5]

The Perth painting gains in force if we imagine that we are not just doubting St Thomases to be won over intellectually to the possibility of resurrection, we are also vulnerable, ailing hospital patients with painful ulcers, bubos, and aposthumes, to be comforted by this vision of Christ appearing, as if in living reality, before us, and demonstrating his own trauma. Christ tilts his head, raises his eyebrows and furrows his forehead in a combined questioning, pained and resigned expression in response to our presence before him: "What do you expect? I went through this—-you can endure it too". The contour of the halo also emphasizes his physical humanity.

So—a remarkable discovery, obscure even in Perth, even more so elsewhere until now, and one which enlarges our insight into the minds and sufferings of early modern people.

[1] John Gash, 'A Caravaggesque "Christ" in Scotland', The Burlington magazine, October 2009, 151: 682-690

[2] Sabine Schunk-Heller, Die Darstellung des ungläubigen Thomas in der italienischen Kunst bis um 1500 unter Berücksichtigung der lukanischen ostentatio vulnerum, München: scaneg, 1995

[3] Anna Somers Cocks, 'How the Victoria and Albert Museum dealt with the dying of Christianity: the redisplay of the museum's Medieval and Renaissance Galleries' The art newspaper, December 2009, http://tinyurl.com/yzjfawm

[4] "Tentatively identified as the figure of Christ once situated over the now-destroyed small doorway leading into the Chiostro delle Ossa, next to the church of Sant'Egidio within the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova in Florence. Christ's wounds were a focus for devotion. His side wound was especially venerated, and in prayers it was evoked as a refuge for sinners. No. A43-1937 artist unidentified" (V&A exhibition label)

[5] Louis Finson, The four elements, Milano: Rob Smeets, 2007