Bildakt at the Warburg Institute by Marienberg Sabine; Trabant Jürgen;

Author:Marienberg, Sabine; Trabant, Jürgen;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: De Gruyter, Inc.
Published: 2014-10-03T16:00:00+00:00

Preti’s Special Solution

Mattia Preti was born in Calabria in Southern Italy in 1613 and came to Rome in circa 1630, where he lived for 20 years before moving to Naples and later to Malta.470 He produced the painting of St. Thomas around 1635/40, which is to say, a few years after his arrival in Rome.471 It is unknown whether Preti made a stopover in Naples on his way to Rome and hence had already seen works by Caravaggio as well as the Neapolitan Caravaggists, such as Jusepe de Ribera, there.472 However, in Rome, at the latest, he came into direct contact with the original works of Caravaggio as well as of the numerous northern Caravaggists who were active in Rome during the 1620s and 1630s. For example, both Ter Brugghen and Preti produced versions of The Calling of St. Matthew that most certainly were inspired by the immense success of Caravaggio’s composition for the Contarelli Chapel in S. Luigi dei Francesi in Rome.473 In the 1630s and 1640s, Preti rose to being one of the best-represented artists in Roman collections. To this day, his works are part of the collections of the families Aldobrandini, Barberini, Colonna, Pallavicini, Pamphilj, Sacchetti and Spada.

Although Mattia Preti’s representation of St. Thomas (Fig. 1) is not quite as drastic, the influence of Caravaggio and the Caravaggists is evident. The Chiaroscuro, the diagonal spotlight, the dark hues, the arrangement of figures that, in part, stand with their backs to the viewer, the intimate proximity, the plasticity, and the physiognomy of the figures with their beards and furrowed brows mark clear parallels. However, one iconographic particularity in Preti’s painting catches the eye: One apostle tentatively approaches the side wound with his hands while another apostle digs his finger into the wound of the hand. This raises the question as to which of them is Thomas? As the previous account of the iconography of St. Thomas should have made clear, Thomas is traditionally shown in the act of touching the side wound, or otherwise reaching out to touch it.

Sabine Schunk-Heller has pointed to five depictions of St. Thomas dating to the year 1500 or earlier, which, instead of bearing the title Doubting Thomas, should more appropriately be called Ostentatio vulnerum.474 The textual source, Schunk-Heller argues, is not the Gospel of John (20, 24–29), but of St. Luke, namely the inspection of Christ’s wounds by the disciples, of which Luke gives an account (Luke 24, 36–40).

When Christ appeared to his disciples after his resurrection, they initially believed him to be a ghost (Luke 24, 36–37). Consequently, he spoke to them: “Look at my hands and my feet. It is I myself! Touch me and see; a ghost does not have flesh and bones, as you see I have.” (Luke 24, 39) When he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet (Luke 24, 40). Luke does not explicitly mention Thomas, but instead refers to the community of disciples. What is at stake is the collective act of doubting; however, the disciples are not shown in their doubt but in their overcoming of doubt.

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