Pierre-Marie Dumont
Leeds Museums and Galleries, UK
"This Saint James the Greater (the son of Zebedee, brother of Saint John) was painted around 1660. Holding his pilgrim’s staff, he invites the viewer to follow him on the path of the pilgrimage to Compostela. The ideal landscape into which the road disappears reflects a very classical technique. You might say that it is inspired by the French genius of the century of King Louis XIV. The apostle’s face, too, owes much to classicism, adopting the canons of 'ideal beauty' in the manner of a Raphael or a Guido Reni. However, far from being impassive, it is as eloquent as a “Baroque” face can be. Its expression denotes authority and even a hint of impatience at the hesitation of his followers to commit themselves. "
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Artistic production in Rome in the late 17th century was divided between adherents of classicism and those who painted in what art critics would later incorrectly call the Baroque style. The first group, followers of Raphael and then of Annibale Carracci—or of Nicolas Poussin, then of Charles Lebrun in France—had a universal, immanent concept of beauty. The artist, who is expected to be humble, has to receive this gift from God and, in a way, to return it. In this spirit, nature (which is God’s creation), the models of classical Antiquity, and those of the Renaissance are considered copies of “ideal beauty”; part of the artist’s vocation is to present this beauty objectively and serenely for the viewer to contemplate. The second group, emancipating themselves from the conventional models and from any dependence on an immanent beauty, set no limit to their inventiveness and grandiloquence. Their palette of colors is so brilliant as to be excessive, their forms are so innovative as to be complicated. Feelings are heightened, and in expressing emotion, or even passion, they pull out the stops. This did not prevent these artists from being profoundly religious—or more exactly, Roman Catholic; their art may have been out of bounds, but it reached a paradisiacal dimension. El Greco, Velasquez, Pietro da Cortona, Caravaggio, Rubens, and Rembrandt were among the leading lights of this movement. In France, classicism would remain the standard of good taste, even though some artists, following the example of Simon Vouet and Hyacinthe Rigaud, mitigated it with so-called “Baroque” features.
In this context, Carlo Maratta (1625–1713)—considered by many the greatest Italian painter of the late 17th and early 18th century—appeared as the mediator who reconciled the two currents, drawing on the resources of both with a freedom (or we might even say an opportunism) that would be widely followed later on. Thus he was a classical artist who could prove the rules by numerous exceptions, and a “Baroque” painter who preferred the charm of feelings to the excess of passions.
The canons of ideal beauty
This Saint James the Greater (the son of Zebedee, brother of Saint John) was painted around 1660. Holding his pilgrim’s staff, he invites the viewer to follow him on the path of the pilgrimage to Compostela. The ideal landscape into which the road disappears reflects a very classical technique. You might say that it is inspired by the French genius of the century of King Louis XIV. The apostle’s face, too, owes much to classicism, adopting the canons of “ideal beauty” in the manner of a Raphael or a Guido Reni. However, far from being impassive, it is as eloquent as a “Baroque” face can be. Its expression denotes authority and even a hint of impatience at the hesitation of his followers to commit themselves.
Wildly “Baroque,” in contrast, engulfing the center of the picture, is the fullness and inspired disorder of the cloak, its folds going every which way, without the least concern for realism, in an explosion that is akin to a manifesto. Was it necessary to make so much of it in order to tell us that the figure inviting us to follow him to Compostela is not just anyone? No doubt. Isn’t James one of the three close friends of Jesus, with Peter and John, who were present at the resurrection of the daughter of Jairus, beheld the Transfiguration, and endured the trial in Gethsemane?
But this individual, who is so extravagantly highlighted by his garment, is walking barefoot! There is no better way to convey all that one must abandon, all that one must renounce, in order to make a pilgrimage that is an authentic Christian experience.
Today, to convey the same requirement, an inspired painter might have to depict, abandoned at the side of the road, a modern device with a screen: smartphone, tablet, or laptop.
St James the Greater, Carlo Maratta (1625–1713), Leeds Museums and Galleries, UK. © Leeds Museums and Galleries, UK / Bridgeman Images.
2023 Magnificat published alternative lyrics to the tune for "All Glory, Laud, and Honor" for the Feast of Saint James :
By all your saints still striving,
For all your saints at rest
Your holy name, O Jesus ,
For evermore be blessed.
You rose, our King victorious,
That they might wear the crown
And ever shine in splendor
Reflected from your throne.
O Lord, for James, we praise you,
Who fell to Herod 's sword
He drank the cup of suffering
And thus fulfilled your word.
Lord, curb our vain impatience
For glory and for fame,
Equip us for such sufferings
As glorify your Name.
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