Saint Francis beholds a wild-haired, lute playing angel.

"In a painting by Francisco Ribalta, Saint Francis beholds a wild-haired, lute playing angel who has floated into his rough cell on a cloud. Such paintings offered themselves as models of religious experience. The sufficiently devout and spiritually imaginative might one day be granted similarly arousing supernatural visitations."

Legend. Püha Franciscus - abielus „proua Vaesusega”

Püha Franciscus sündis 1181. aastal Assisi linnas. Kuni 25. eluaastani oli Franciscus elupõletaja.

1202. a sõjas peruugialaste vastu langes ta vangi. Kui aasta pärast vangist vabanenud Franciscus Assisis hooletusse jäetud San Damiano kirikus palvetas, kuulis ta krutsifiksist häält: „Minu maja on varemeis. Mine ja paranda seda!” Kõigepealt müüs noormees maha isa siidkangad. Meelepahas kaebas isa ta kohtusse. Franciscus võttis kohtu ees olles seljast oma kallid rõivad, viskas need koos rahaga isale, ütles alatiseks lahti rikkusest, pani selga vaimulikurüü ja kuulutas end olevat abielus „proua Vaesusega”.

Rändjutlustajana pidas Franciscus oma missiooniks päästa vaeste inimeste hingi ning jagada nendega eluraskusi. Tema esimesed jüngrid olid lapsepõlvesõbrad ja head tuttavad, kes pidid andma vaesustõotuse.

Ümbruskonnas tunti neid kui Friars Minor - „väikesi munki”, hallide rüüde tõttu ka kui „halle munki”, kes kerjasid toitu, jutlustasid vaesusest ja vabadusest.

Franciscus taaselustas Jeesuse sündimisloo (Jeesus sündis laudas loomade keskel) ja pani aluse legendile jõululapse sõimest.
1209. aastal said frantsiskaanid ametlikult orduks, Franciscus ordineeriti diakoniks ja järgmisel aastal tunnustas paavst Innocentius III (1198-1216) nende põhikirja.
Frantsisklaste ordu liikmeteks olid „vennad” ehk kerjusmungad, peamisteks reegliteks püha alandlikkus, ülim vaesus ja kõhklematu ohvrimeelsus. 1212. aastal asutas Franciscus koos Püha Klaraga Vaese Klara ordu, kus samuti järgiti frantsiklaste põhikirja.

1219. aastal üritas Franciscus ristida ka muhameedlasi. Palestiinas kohtus ta sultaniga, kuid Malek-al-Kamilist kristlast ei saanud. Franciscus pakkus välja võimaluse läbi tule kõndides proovida, kumb usk on tugevam, kristlus või islam. Muhameedlased aga keeldusid tuleproovis osalemast. Oma edutust tööst pettunud Franciscus pöördus pärast palverännakut tagasi kodumaale.

Järgnevatesse aastatesse kuuluvad Püha Franciscuse kuulsamad imeteod. Franciscus olevat armastanud loomi, mõistnud lindude keelt ja pidanud neile jutlusi. Aastal 1224, kui Püha Franciscus oli eraldunud mägede üksildusse, et seal 40 päeva paastuda ja palvetada, ilmutas Franciscusele kuue tiivaga seerav (mõne versiooni kohaselt Jeesus ise). Pärast seda tekkisid Franciscuse kehale stigmad ehk viis Kristuse haava. Jeesuse kätel, jalgadel, kehal olnud armid püsisid Franciscuse kehal kaks aastat - kuni tema surmani. 1228. aastal kuulutas paavst Gregorius IX (1227-1241) Franciscuse pühakuks. Tema säilmed asuvad Assisi Püha Franciscuse basiilikas, mida kaunistavad Giotto freskod.

Püha Franciscus on kaupmeeste, lindude ja loomade, loomakaitseseltside, loodus- ja muinsuskaitsjate, ökoloogide ja ökoloogia kaitsepühak.

Püha Franciscuse atribuudid on linnud, hunt, pealuu, liilia, krutsifiks, stigmad. Franciscust kujutatakse tavaliselt pruuni või halli mungarüüga, mida hoiab koos kolme sõlmega nöör.

Sõlmed sümboliseerivad tema tõotust olla vaene, karske ja kuulekas.

The Stigmatization of St. Francis

By Vincente Carducho.

"Among the show's most floridly imaginative works are paintings showing Saint Francis of Assisi having visions. In one by Vicente Carducho, the saint levitates over a rural landscape and receives stigmata from Jesus who hovers before him, crucified on a cross of pink, angelic wings. The ecstasy seems as much erotic as religious."

"Joachim and Anne Meeting at the Golden Gate".

By Eugenio Cajés.

"What saves the show from being merely a hodge-podge of Spanish treasures can be summed up in a word: realism. It is not the explicitly stated theme, but it is, in one way or another, an urgent concern for the exhibition's most interesting artists.

The fruitful complexities and contradictions of realism most fully emerge in religious paintings. In officially Catholic Spain, the creation of devotional images was much encouraged. The more naturalistically rendered they were, the better, because they would impress the minds of the faithful that much more persuasively."

Portrait of the poet Luis de Góngora y Argote.

Still-life paintings are on view, along with portraits, scenes from the lives of saints, and Biblical images. Not every one of the more than 60 paintings and sculptures, by 19 artists, is great. If El Greco's brushy, spectral paintings of white figures with weirdly elongated limbs are not to your taste, you may be thankful that the 11 works in the show from late in his life are balanced by seven wonderful pieces made by Velázquez at the start of his career. The Velázquezes include lovingly observed tavern scenes and the Boston museum's own stunning, small portrait of the poet Luis de Góngora y Argote.

Luis de Góngora lõi kujundlikku, peenelt viimistletud luulet, mis aga osutus oma metafoorikülluse, salapäraste mütoloogiliste vihjete, rohkete uudisväljendite ja keerulise sõnastusviisi tõttu sageli raskesti mõistetavaks। Ta teenis „hämara luuletaja” maine, seda eriti poeemiga „Üksindused”. Oma tuntud soneti alguses ülistab Góngora naise ilu, lõpuridades rõhutab kontrastiks selle kaduvust.

Jüri Talveti tõlge:


SONETT

Nii kaua kui ka päiksest häilituna
su juustega kuld võistleb asjata
ja kuni üle kauni liilia
su valge laup võib tõusta soosikuna;

nii kaua kui seob silmi huulte puna
veel enam kui õrn nelk sul hurmana
ja võrreldes su nõtke kaelaga
näib lüüm kristallgi pigem koltununa,

eks naudi, kuni sest, mis oli nelk,
kuld, lüüm kristall ja liilia vanasti –
huul, juus, kael, laup – ei saa vaid hõbehelk

ja murtud lill, vaid koos teist koguni –
neist, sinust endast – saab vaid vari pelk
ja muld ja tolm ja suits – eimidagi.

"Laocoön"

One of the most surprising discoveries those Romans made when they began to dig in old Rome, looking for beautiful ruins, was the Laocoön. Michelangelo himself dropped what he was doing and hurried to see it lifted out of the dirt that had covered it for a thousand years.
Sculptural group from Hellenistic times showing the old priest and his sons being killed by snakes. Laocoön twists in agony and despair. But his body isn´t the miserable puppet or sack of sick-white flesh that the Italians of the Middle Ages might have made of him but the proud encarnation of the old gods, with all its noble “architecture” and dignity. It was the greatest example Michelangelo had ever seen of the sublime nude and it impressed him so much that there is a trace of this Laocoön in all his statues after the David.

"Laocoön" (circa 1610-14) by El Greco

"That hair-raising convergence of the mystical and the mundane runs irregularly but potently through 'El Greco to Velázquez: Art During the Reign of Philip III,' a rich, uneven stew of an exhibition at the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston."

Widespread interest in the story of Laocoön, a mythical priest of Troy, developed after an ancient, monumental sculpture representing him and his two sons was unearthed in 1506 in Rome. Suspecting trickery, Laocoön had warned his countrymen not to accept the wooden horse left outside Troy by the Greeks and had hurled his spear at it to prove that it was hollow. Thus the priest incurred the wrath of the gods, for desecrating an object dedicated to the goddess Athena. El Greco depicted serpents, sent by the angry gods, engaging Laocoön and one son in a mortal struggle, while a second son lies already dead at his father's side. The identity of the unfinished figures on the right continues to be debated; perhaps they represent the gods themselves supervising their vengeance.

Did El Greco intend to relate this mythical theme of conflict and divine retribution to the Inquisition then raging in Toledo? Whatever the case, the story of Laocoön is the only classical theme he is known to have painted.

"The Immaculate Conception" by Diego Velázquez.

"Mary stands on a crescent moon. Enveloped in mauve satin and blue velvet, hands prayerfully joined, she gazes with pensive beneficence down upon a dark pastoral landscape. Twelve twinkling stars circle around her head, and clouds irradiated by golden light billow behind her.

What is striking about this lovely picture painted by Diego Velázquez in 1618-19, when he was just about 20 years old, is Mary's face. Painted with Vermeerish, almost photographic verisimilitude, this pretty, long-haired, big-eyed girl with the pouty lips and small chin looks uncannily modern, like a teenager you could pass on the street. "