Pope Francis and the artists who move him
ering! Let me be fell: force I must be brief.”‘
O the mind, mind has mountains; cliffs of fall
Frightful, sheer, no-man-fathomed. Hold them cheap
May who ne’er hung there. Nor does long our small
Durance deal with that steep or deep. Here! creep,
Wretch, under a comfort serves in a whirlwind: all
Life death does end and each day dies with sleep.
— nor the works of Caravaggio, whose rap sheet was impressive to say the least:
Arriving in Rome in 1595 at the age of 25, the hot-headed painter’s police dossier — hand-written in Latin and vernacular Italian and bound in great volumes that were stored in the archives until now — makes Caravaggio come across as almost compulsive in his lawlessness. For instance, the man was weapon-obsessed, sporting a sword, dagger, and pistol at various times. He was twice thrown in the clink for carrying arms without a permit, and known for beating strangers in late-night fights and pelting police with rocks.
The documents add fresh color to well-known parts of the Caravaggio legend. Regarding the 1606 brawl during which the artist killed one Ranuccio Tommassoni, leading the artist to flee Rome and causing Pope Paul V to issue a death warrant, the documents reveal that the fight was over a gambling debt, and not a woman, as some accounts have suggested.
It is all the more appropriate, then, to close this post with Caravaggio’s own meditation on the martyrdom by crucifixion of the first Pope, St Peter, whose chair Francis now holds:
_______________________________________________________________________________
.
h/t Damian Thompson, who tweeted “I never thought I’d hear a Pope rave about Haskil’s Mozart, Furtwängler’s Beethoven and Knappertsbusch’s legendary 62 Parsifal.”
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Lynn C. Rees:
September 20th, 2013 at 12:40 am
The shallowness of the post-modern secular mind is astonishing in its obtuseness.
Charles Cameron:
September 20th, 2013 at 12:58 am
Ah — I’m happy to say: not on this occasion, Lynn…
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The tweter in this case, Damian Thompson — a friend of mine for many years — is a devout Catholic, a noted British journalist, and a connoisseur and occasional critic of classical music. His surprise comes not from a Pope loving classical music — Damian was already a delighted aficionado of Benedict XVI’s enthusiasm for Bach and habit of playing Mozart on the piano of an evening — but from the very specific knowledge that the otherwise supposedly “pop-cultural” new Pope showed in choosing to mention the somewhat obscure Clara Haskil, the not always socially-approved Furtwängler, and so on.
.
Damian is delighted, I’m pretty sure, that Pope Francis’ taste in such matters goes farther into these realms even that his immediate Papal predecessor’s. It’s the depth of the Pope’s affinity for these things that so pleasantly surprises him.
Lexington Green:
September 20th, 2013 at 1:05 am
This man is going to take some getting used to. Oremus pro beatissimo Papa Francisco.
J. Scott Shipman:
September 20th, 2013 at 1:19 am
Lex,
.
Indeed, sir. Indeed. Much to admire, and much to give pause.
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That said, this piece is brilliant.
Scott:
September 20th, 2013 at 6:56 pm
I’m not a Catholic, although I married one, but even I have to say that I’m pretty impressed by this Pope. Less pomp and ceremony and more focus on people, especially the poor – a refreshing change. I may be biased, though, since of late I’ve read about the Borgias…