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| Enguerrand Quarton Pietà de Villeneuve-lès-Avignon 1455 tempera on panel Musée du Louvre |
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| Enguerrand Quarton Pietà de Villeneuve-lès-Avignon (Mary Magdalen) 1455 tempera on panel Musée du Louvre |
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| Enguerrand Quarton Pietà de Villeneuve-lès-Avignon (Donor) 1455 tempera on panel Musée du Louvre |
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| Enguerrand Quarton Pietà de Villeneuve-lès-Avignon (Dead Christ) 1455 tempera on panel Musée du Louvre |
The Author
The charterhouse of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon possessed two important paintings, of which one, The Coronation of the Virgin (which remains in the village, though now housed in its own small museum) is documented as the work of Enguerrand Quarton. The other, this Pietà, is today in the Louvre. Given that it bears the same date and shares many common characteristics, it is tempting to attribute it to the same painter, but on this point scholars do not unanimously agree.
The charterhouse of Villeneuve-lès-Avignon possessed two important paintings, of which one, The Coronation of the Virgin (which remains in the village, though now housed in its own small museum) is documented as the work of Enguerrand Quarton. The other, this Pietà, is today in the Louvre. Given that it bears the same date and shares many common characteristics, it is tempting to attribute it to the same painter, but on this point scholars do not unanimously agree.
Inscribed Haloes
In The Coronation of the Virgin there are no inscriptions, but they are numerous in the Pietà. The Magdalen and St John the Evangelist would have been immediately identifiable, even for the least educated Christian. By contrast, we are ignorant of the identity of the donor, and no documents have survived to aid us. As for Christ, there is a nimbus of rays, but no lettering.
The names of the three saints are not painted but incised within their haloes and are initially difficult to decipher: Johannes Evangelista, Virgo Mater, Maria Magdalena. Only by patient examination can we reconstitute the words, letter by letter. These designations are not present to facilitate our identification of the protagonists, which we would already have understood at first glance, but to encourage us to pronounce the sacred names as often as possible. They are not meant to be legible without a certain delay: we are obliged to give them our full attention. We confront here the same intention that inspired the amazing characters spelling out inscriptions in the tombs of ancient Egypt, meant to trigger the requisite pronunciation of the names of the deceased. Deliberately distorted lettering plays a similar role in modern advertising. The circular arrangement around each head contributes to this deacceleration, this retardation of the reading process, certain letters even set down in reverse.
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| Enguerrand Quarton Pietà de Villeneuve-lès-Avignon (the Virgin) 1455 tempera on panel Musée du Louvre |
The picture is in some sense structured around five golden circles: the three haloes, Christ's nimbus of rays, and the star in the form of a jeweled clasp on the outside of the Virgin's robe, stella matutina, star of the morning.
The absence of a name inside the nimbus of Christ is as important as the presence of names inside the others. He remains in a state of misidentification, miscomprehension. Only with the Resurrection will He reveal beyond any doubt his double nature.
The Heavenly Inscription
The celestial golden background is enclosed by a long inscription in smaller characters that demand even slower reading: O vos omnes qui transitis per viam attendite et videte si est dolor sicut dolor meus. (O thou who pass on this path, pause and consider if any sorrow exists comparable to mine.) The words are attributed to the Virgin in the offices for Good Friday and Holy Saturday. First, rising vertically on the left, the message asks us to pause on a reading-path that is normally horizontal, next it requests in the middle of the phrase and of the image that we stop and gaze, and finally, descending on the right, adjures us to animate within ourselves the Virgin's sorrow. Pious manipulation.
Between Earth and Sky
The donor, at left, is presented with striking realism. This is the portrait of an actual person, while the sacred actors can better be described as idealizations of sorrow. They serve as the link between the gold of Heaven and the earthly Jerusalem, at left, a cityscape with domes and pinnacles unrolling along the horizon toward a red hill, and, far to the right, a mountain that punctuates the tableau. Earthly Jerusalem is called to become heavenly. Christ through the mystery of the incarnation transforms the heavenly to the earthly, and vice versa. His extended arm ends in a partly open hand bearing the mark of the nail that was driven through it. This wound is the doorway to Heaven.
– translated and adapted from Le Musée imaginaire de Michel Butor: 105 œuvres décisives de la peinture occidentale (Paris: Flammarion, 2019)