Two great Caravaggio’s united in Belfast exhibition

The big summer exhibition at the Ulster Museum in Belfast this year will be the exhibition of two important Caravaggio’s together for the first time in centuries. One is from the National Gallery in London, The Supper at Emmaus (1601); the other is lent by the National Gallery of Ireland in Dublin, the now famous Taking of Christ (1602).

The two pictures are already united by their creation. They were painted at the same time for the same patron, Ciriaco Mattei. They were originally displayed at the Mattei Palazzo in Rome.

The two paintings are nowadays rarely lent, and they have not been exhibited together in this way since the first decades of the 1600’s.

This is an event that should not be missed by admirers of Caravaggio, and indeed by any student of religious art.

The exhibition opens on May 10 and will run until September 1; but now is the time to make plans to go north to see this unique presentation in its full glory.

In thinking about them, however, it is better to take The Taking of Christ first, for this portrays an event at the beginning of Eastertide. Readers of this paper will not need to be reminded of the extraordinary tale of the rediscovery of this painting.

Presented privately to the Jesuit community in Dublin’s Leeson Street, it hung unnoticed for years until its full importance struck a visitor.

Examined carefully in the laboratories of the National Gallery Merrion Square it was revealed for what it is, one of the world’s great works of art.

Betrayal

It is a painting of the betrayal of Christ by Judas when he kisses him in salute. It is full of power and force, expressive in a way of the artist’s own rumbustious life but also recreating the appalling significance of what is being shown.

Judas has long been an ambiguous figure, but one worth thinking about. For 2,000 years he has been execrated by Christians as the archetype of the treacherous betrayer.

He was seen in medieval times as the money man of the Apostles, a man only interested in the cash in hand, and it was for a lust for wealth that he betrayed Jesus.

The betrayal of Jesus is a burden for all Christians, whether they wish it or not”

But then again, could he have been in fact that figure familiar in many social and political movements, who is impatient for action, and deprecates what he sees in his leader as a lack of action: Jesus seemed to his mind to be content to wander round the country talking to people when what was needed was immediate action.

Perhaps he saw Jesus more as Pilate did, as a political figure, the ‘King of Jews’ who might chase away the Romans. Judas chose to precipitate a conflict by revealing his leader’s location to his enemies. It could in a way be matter plucked from the headlines of today’s news.

An ambiguous figure, he might be a man who needs more theological thought. The heart of the betrayal of Jesus was the sins of mankind, and they, God knows, have not gone away. The betrayal of Jesus is a burden for all Christians, whether they wish it or not.

Emmaus

But then what a contrast is The Supper at Emmaus. It illustrates the episode related in Luke 24:13-35. This, too, is filled with power, not of violence, but of sudden spiritual insight.

The ‘appearance’ of Christ is not the right word for their vision: Jesus is not a ghost, but a real man. This is a revelation.

Here, too, is a painting that expounds a theological teaching: “At the breaking of the bread, they recognised him.”

Notice in the painting how the hand of Jesus is raised in blessing over not only the bread, but over the glass of wine a little to the left. This is in effect is the first post-Resurrection Eucharist.

Revelation can indeed come unheralded, a mere moment in the daily round of the quite ordinary”

However, it is the convention of art historians these days to deal only with art historical matters; they cautiously leave to one side all matters of theology.

Thus they deprive both paintings of what their real interest and power was to the Mattei family and those of their time who were first privileged to see the pictures.

Also in the National Gallery of Ireland is another treatment of the moment at Emmaus, by Velazquez, created about 1617.

This is dominated in the foreground by a Moorish servant, that is to say, an African slave girl. Upon the left hand top corner there is a glimpse through a hatch from the kitchen into the dining room, where Jesus is breaking the bread. The slave looks up in surprise, as if she knows something important is happening.

When I see this painting there comes into my mind that phrase from St Teresa of Avila about meeting God “among the pots and pans”. Revelation can indeed come unheralded, a mere moment in the daily round of the quite ordinary.

Ulster

Readers should make every effort to visit Belfast to see this exhibition. The Ulster Museum is a fine institution, set in a park that seems always to be filled with city people enjoying themselves, many of them immigrants.

On a fine day it is as crowded as St Stephen’s Green. People living in the South should make every effort to see Belfast and Ulster as they are, and not as they imagine them to be, or others claim them to be.