engleski

Distinctive features attributed to an infidel. The political propaganda, religious enemies and the iconography of visual narratives in the Renaissance Venice

After the fall of Constantinople in 1453, the political rhetoric between the Venetian Republic and the Ottoman Empire sharpened, culminating with the War of Cyprus in the second half of the 16th century. At the same time the emergence of Lutheranism started to erode Christian Europe from the north. In these times of crisis, the Church did not hesitate to use all available resources in the combat against infidels. Several Christian monks preached and claimed that they had foreseen the triumph of Christians over Muslims. Their words were printed on various pamphlets, leaflets and brochures which were distributed throughout the Venetian territory and beyond. In 1509 a monk, Pietro Nanni, predicted that, after losing all their dominion due to their sins, the Venetians would regain their territorial possessions after a 'flagellation' of two and a half years. Nanni also said 'Il Turcho si fará Christian'. An Ottoman will become a Christian! During those years, another priest was present in Venice: Paolo Angelo, a refugee who had fled from the Ottoman Albania, the author of several prophetic texts in which Ottomans and Protestants were represented as the most dangerous enemies of Christianity. Prompted by the failure of the Ottomans in Vienna in 1529 and due to the fact that the previous prophecies had not come true, in 1534 ‘De eversion Europae Prognosticon’ was printed. The publication has had a great reception. It was printed in several editions during the 16th and 17th century. According to the 'Prognosticon', the Ottoman Empire and the Holy Roman Empire would be united under a single emperor. The Muslims and Jews would receive a Christian baptism. It was supposed to occur in 1538. That kind of propaganda was supported and reinforced by visual narratives. In this text, the author analyzes the impact of historical circumstances and of the ecclesiastical and political propaganda on the iconography of the Renaissance painting in Venice, particularly focusing on how two Venetian painters – Girolamo and Francesco da Santa Croce – responded to those impulses. From this perspective, several iconographic themes in the paintings from the Santa Croce workshop are analyzed which, in accordance with the social, political and artistic circumstances of the time, were depicted anachronistically. Thus, for example, one of the magi in the 'Adoration of the Magi' painting (Walters Art Museum in Baltimore) was shown as a high-ranking member of the Ottoman court, wearing a ceremonial kaftan and a turban. For Christians, the magus shown as a Muslim who came to bow before the Christ Child offered faith in the triumph of the cross over the crescent. In the eyes of the Catholics, the triumph of the Church over Islam could be accomplished only through conversion of the Sultan and his Empire to Christianity. The theme of conversion of Muslims is also encountered in the famous epic 'Orlando Furioso', written by Ludovico Ariosto in the early 16th century. Based on a graphic source printed in Venice in 1556 to accompany the Canto XIV of the famous epic, Francesco da Santa Croce made the painting which depicts the siege of the city of Paris at the time of Charlemagne. Here the painter portrayed the Saracen king Agramante as wearing a turban after the Ottoman fashion, thus putting a contemporary stamp on the topic. Similarly, the anachronistic method was used to render the following iconographic themes from the Santa Croce workshop which are dealt with in this paper: the Flagellation of Christ, the Crucifixion, and the Martyrdom of Christian Saints, wherein the historical adversaries of the Catholic Church were represented as its contemporary enemies. The author would also like to highligh that in the creation of the paintings which are analyzed in the paper, the painters from the Santa Croce workshop heavily relied on prints, especially those by Dürer from the cycles known as The Large Passion (1497-1500), Small Passion (1511), and The Engraved Passion (1507- 1512).

Painting ; iconography ; 16th century ; Venice

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