1 00:00:00,240 --> 00:00:13,700 Good afternoon, ladies and gentlemen. I think I'm going to begin it's just after 5:00 and I'll show you a nice picture to look at. 2 00:00:13,700 --> 00:00:18,450 Correggio is a small town near Parmar in northern Italy. 3 00:00:18,450 --> 00:00:27,350 It gave its name to Antonia Alegre, who was born there in fourteen eighty nine and died in 15 34. 4 00:00:27,350 --> 00:00:33,650 Nowadays, he's an incomparably less famous figure than Leonardo Michelangelo Rafil, 5 00:00:33,650 --> 00:00:40,400 but was at least they're equal in the estimation of the 17th and 18th centuries. 6 00:00:40,400 --> 00:00:42,590 My subject this afternoon, 7 00:00:42,590 --> 00:00:53,420 his Dohm fresco in Parma Cathedral is one of the most explosively original and influential works of art of the 16th century. 8 00:00:53,420 --> 00:01:01,760 It went much further than any of its precursors in this department, but it did not come out of nowhere. 9 00:01:01,760 --> 00:01:09,890 As a rule in these lectures, time constraints mean I've reluctantly resisted the temptation to give any background to the works, 10 00:01:09,890 --> 00:01:16,130 which are my subjects week by week. But today I am going to break that rule. 11 00:01:16,130 --> 00:01:24,860 The idea of opening up the heavens in the losen mystic fashion in a fresco was not completely new. 12 00:01:24,860 --> 00:01:31,370 The first great, if more modest breakthrough came with what you're seeing. 13 00:01:31,370 --> 00:01:34,250 The vault of Under Armour maintained a so-called Kamerad daily, 14 00:01:34,250 --> 00:01:45,020 supposedly in the Palazzo du Cowley and Mantua, a room which was painted between 14 65 and 14 74. 15 00:01:45,020 --> 00:01:50,180 There is good evidence to support the idea that the teenage Correggio was a pupil of 16 00:01:50,180 --> 00:01:57,020 Montaigne years and the years before the latter's death in fifteen six and soon thereafter. 17 00:01:57,020 --> 00:02:03,620 He was certainly responsible for the frescoes in the cupola of mountaineer's funerary 18 00:02:03,620 --> 00:02:13,390 chapel in the Basilica of Santa Andréa in mantra which you see by the late fifteen tens. 19 00:02:13,390 --> 00:02:23,480 Correggio was in Parma, where he frescoed the Volta Verolme in the private apartments of the abbess of the Benedictine Convent of Son Paolo, 20 00:02:23,480 --> 00:02:30,110 with an irresistible and resolute, fully pagan fresco decoration. 21 00:02:30,110 --> 00:02:42,620 Incomparably more crucial for the Duomo, however, was his dome fresco in the Benedictine abbey of San Giovanni Evangelistic, which, 22 00:02:42,620 --> 00:02:53,710 together with a now in large part destroyed apse, fresco and other decorations, dates from the first half of the fifteen twenties. 23 00:02:53,710 --> 00:03:03,920 I cannot dwell on this project, but its importance as a precedent for the even more ambitious Guillermo Fresco is obvious. 24 00:03:03,920 --> 00:03:14,000 I think if you see them together. Moreover, it does seem imperative at least to mention a very recently rediscovered autograph letter 25 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:21,860 which was hiding in St. Petersburg sent by Correggio on the 20th of July 15 19 to Jerusalem. 26 00:03:21,860 --> 00:03:27,140 Madame on Ferrat. A major figure in the Benedictine order. 27 00:03:27,140 --> 00:03:35,840 Its president in fifteen twenty one and about to send Jovani Evangelist from fifteen twenty two to twenty four. 28 00:03:35,840 --> 00:03:47,960 In it, Correggio states that he has been in power for eight days and that for the fathers of Sam Giovannelli I have already agreed to do 29 00:03:47,960 --> 00:04:00,020 in the cupola of their church the ascension of our Lord with the 12 Apostles with other histories and Freese's for the church. 30 00:04:00,020 --> 00:04:08,420 He adds that the whole project is likely to take around four years. 31 00:04:08,420 --> 00:04:15,380 On the 3rd of November 15 22, Correggio signed a contract with the Fabbri chair. 32 00:04:15,380 --> 00:04:22,130 The lay factors of PAMA Cathedral in the presence of all the cathedral canons. 33 00:04:22,130 --> 00:04:26,570 In it, he agreed. Paint the cupola. The vote leading to the high altar. 34 00:04:26,570 --> 00:04:31,820 The apps and all visible parts. The walls leading to the apps. 35 00:04:31,820 --> 00:04:39,500 The entire surface area was calculated at 150 square path to care, which is perches. 36 00:04:39,500 --> 00:04:47,390 A colossal expands. Pareja was to receive the commensurately immense sum of a thousand ducats. 37 00:04:47,390 --> 00:04:54,020 The figure of twelve hundred is crossed out in the document and a hundred ducats for materials. 38 00:04:54,020 --> 00:05:05,720 He was to include whatever storia histories would be given to him, whether to the life or imitating bronze or marble as appropriate, 39 00:05:05,720 --> 00:05:12,490 which seems to suggest that no details of the decorative scheme had yet been determined. 40 00:05:12,490 --> 00:05:26,830 Correction further stipulated that he required a large room or closed chapel per family dng to make the drawings, that must be to say, the cartoons. 41 00:05:26,830 --> 00:05:34,120 It is frustrating that nothing more is said concerning the subject matter, which I will be exploring later on. 42 00:05:34,120 --> 00:05:38,740 However, an agreement drawn up on the 17th of May, 43 00:05:38,740 --> 00:05:49,730 fifteen forty seven between the authorities at the monastery of San Benedetta in Ferrara and an all but undocumented pentacle lottery could modern. 44 00:05:49,730 --> 00:05:55,690 That gives an intriguing insight into what might have been required of Carriger. 45 00:05:55,690 --> 00:06:03,050 No such fresco exists in Ferrare and it may indeed never have been executed. 46 00:06:03,050 --> 00:06:12,730 Ludovico is to paint the main cupola from the top to the bottom of the four Peduto C, which means corbels of the crossing. 47 00:06:12,730 --> 00:06:22,930 The document then explains, and I quote First that said Messa Ludovico has to begin said work at the beginning of next month. 48 00:06:22,930 --> 00:06:27,730 Work on it continuously. Make all the figures with his own hand. 49 00:06:27,730 --> 00:06:33,460 The work has to be in the following manner, namely at the summit of the set down, 50 00:06:33,460 --> 00:06:41,110 the ascension of our Lord with the Apostles, all large figures in proportion to the height and size, the said. 51 00:06:41,110 --> 00:06:49,690 But the heavens and angels in clouds so that it is pleasing to a man of judgement, and that the uppermost cornice, 52 00:06:49,690 --> 00:06:57,970 which will be the first one below the apostles, should include eight well painted fictive marble columns. 53 00:06:57,970 --> 00:07:01,540 Then between the columns of the dome where there are no windows. 54 00:07:01,540 --> 00:07:09,530 He is to paint two prophets on an appropriate scale where there are windows to Putina holding festoons. 55 00:07:09,530 --> 00:07:20,390 Why the side of the windows in accordance with the drawing give them the second corners from the top is likewise to be effective marble. 56 00:07:20,390 --> 00:07:25,630 And there he is to paint, festoon, or whatever seems fit to a good judge. 57 00:07:25,630 --> 00:07:29,410 Below the second cornice he has to paint appropriately. 58 00:07:29,410 --> 00:07:40,720 The four patriarchs there then follow the financial arrangements, which, as was customary, involve payments in instalments. 59 00:07:40,720 --> 00:07:51,010 All commentators have accepted that it was courageous work in Central Valley evangelist that had impressed the cathedral authorities. 60 00:07:51,010 --> 00:08:00,430 Indeed, at least in relation to enterprises of this enormity, the idea of such a commission tends not to exist in the abstract. 61 00:08:00,430 --> 00:08:06,940 On the contrary, it is inspired by the availability of an exceptional artist. 62 00:08:06,940 --> 00:08:10,540 What is more, it must have been the overall planned cover. 63 00:08:10,540 --> 00:08:18,580 Sam Geovanni with frescoes by a team of painters that encouraged the even more grandiose Cathedral project, 64 00:08:18,580 --> 00:08:26,860 which similarly involved a vast programme of other frescoes by a number of other artists. 65 00:08:26,860 --> 00:08:34,630 The grand design for the cathedral was arguably overambitious from the start and ran into countless practical difficulties, 66 00:08:34,630 --> 00:08:41,290 such as Parelli Janina's departure for Rome in fifteen twenty four. 67 00:08:41,290 --> 00:08:50,920 At that date, Correggio had not even started to paint, and one has the impression that a leisurely rate of execution was always anticipated. 68 00:08:50,920 --> 00:08:57,880 The cupola in the cathedral was not the centrepiece of a new building, as it Sam Giovannelli. 69 00:08:57,880 --> 00:09:08,800 Instead, it was the heart of an old Romanesque structure and was not suitable for painting without a certain amount of preliminary attention. 70 00:09:08,800 --> 00:09:14,440 This was not arranged until a year later when the contract was signed by George Job. 71 00:09:14,440 --> 00:09:18,550 That added bar on the twenty third in November. Fifteen twenty three. 72 00:09:18,550 --> 00:09:24,700 But in the meantime, the scaffolding had been constructed and the cupola inspected. 73 00:09:24,700 --> 00:09:29,710 There are further documents concerned with a temporary wooden covering for the cupola, 74 00:09:29,710 --> 00:09:37,990 which was the responsibility of Malcolm Turnbull Zuki and with the provision of copper to make the dome secure. 75 00:09:37,990 --> 00:09:43,750 Only when this work was completed, Kuruc could Carriger have begun to paint, 76 00:09:43,750 --> 00:09:49,030 although there is evidence of additional copper laying taking place later wrong. 77 00:09:49,030 --> 00:09:53,800 Maybe because the initial labour was done in too much of a hurry. 78 00:09:53,800 --> 00:10:01,060 However, the delay no doubt suited Carriger extremely well and had presumably been taken into 79 00:10:01,060 --> 00:10:06,700 consideration from the outset since he had a good deal of unfinished business. 80 00:10:06,700 --> 00:10:11,140 That some sounds more than it used to be believed. 81 00:10:11,140 --> 00:10:11,740 Not least. 82 00:10:11,740 --> 00:10:22,930 By me in the book, I wrote some courage about 20 years ago that the payment of the 17th of November, fifteen, 30 marks the completion of the day. 83 00:10:22,930 --> 00:10:30,610 But an article by Christina Chickee nearly of 2010, which publishes a number of new notarial documents, 84 00:10:30,610 --> 00:10:39,840 above all, concerned with the scaffolding, has demonstrated that work went on well into the fifteen thirties. 85 00:10:39,840 --> 00:10:46,160 Checking Early argues convincingly that previously known payment of the twenty ninth of November 86 00:10:46,160 --> 00:10:53,980 fifteen twenty six is not as previously believed for fresco work already completed on the dome. 87 00:10:53,980 --> 00:11:00,730 But on the contrary, the Pareja only got started in the summer of fifteen thirty. 88 00:11:00,730 --> 00:11:06,910 One of the new documents dated the 8th of June fifteen thirty again involves Georgia at 89 00:11:06,910 --> 00:11:12,830 a bar and requires him to construct a scaffolding necessary pair of dipping Jerry deep 90 00:11:12,830 --> 00:11:20,290 dark coolibah in order to paint the said cupola at the same time obliging him to 91 00:11:20,290 --> 00:11:27,040 dismantle the scaffolding once the fresco is completed and to do so without damaging it. 92 00:11:27,040 --> 00:11:33,430 A second document dated the 1st of August 15th, 30 directly concerns correct. 93 00:11:33,430 --> 00:11:41,110 It revisits the original agreement of 15 22, not just for the dome, but also for the apps and the crossing of the choir. 94 00:11:41,110 --> 00:11:48,760 It specifies that his guarantor, in connexion with these enterprises will be should be only Munteanu Della Rosa, 95 00:11:48,760 --> 00:11:54,190 a Parmesan nobleman who was one of the two February chary at the time of the original 96 00:11:54,190 --> 00:12:01,210 signing of the contract and more generally played a considerable part anchorages career. 97 00:12:01,210 --> 00:12:07,660 Further documents of the twenty third and the third first May fifteen thirty 32 relate to the 98 00:12:07,660 --> 00:12:13,620 construction of scaffolding and preparation of the surfaces to be painted in the choir and apps, 99 00:12:13,620 --> 00:12:23,410 and would seem to indicate that by this date Correggio had all but completed his work on the day he died in fifteen thirty four, as I've said. 100 00:12:23,410 --> 00:12:34,240 So the fact that he failed to execute any more of the project is no great surprise if he made drawings for these other areas, they have not survived. 101 00:12:34,240 --> 00:12:38,050 The contract does not specify the frescoes subject, 102 00:12:38,050 --> 00:12:45,220 but merely stipulates that graduates to paint whatever histories are given to him, as previously stated. 103 00:12:45,220 --> 00:12:49,030 This may seem to suggest that the programme remains to be determined, 104 00:12:49,030 --> 00:12:54,820 but in fact there can be no doubt that the assumption of the Virgin was always planned for the cupola. 105 00:12:54,820 --> 00:12:59,260 The Virgin was the patron saint of Panama, and her assumption and coronation, 106 00:12:59,260 --> 00:13:05,740 which both celebrated on the 15th of August, were of particular significance to the city. 107 00:13:05,740 --> 00:13:16,150 The cathedral was actually dedicated to her assumption, and it would have seemed natural to surround her with a subsidiary patron saint of the city. 108 00:13:16,150 --> 00:13:22,660 In the squinch is the arias at the bottom of the dome. 109 00:13:22,660 --> 00:13:31,720 Much as she was flanked by the two most important patron saint John the Baptist and Hillary on the seal of the time, 110 00:13:31,720 --> 00:13:35,740 the details of the iconography will be discussed more fully in due course. 111 00:13:35,740 --> 00:13:44,380 But it is important to realise at the outset that its broad lines were probably defined before the contract was signed. 112 00:13:44,380 --> 00:13:53,140 The idea of an artist planning an exceptionally complex illusionist dick fresco for a cupola is extremely hard to imagine. 113 00:13:53,140 --> 00:14:00,400 And in this instance, there were two particular factors that can only have added to Courreges difficulties. 114 00:14:00,400 --> 00:14:08,410 The first is that although the top part of the cupola is rounded off at its base, it is octagonal. 115 00:14:08,410 --> 00:14:16,930 The second is that each of its eight sides is penetrated by a substantial circular window at its base. 116 00:14:16,930 --> 00:14:20,380 These complications had to be borne in mind from the first, 117 00:14:20,380 --> 00:14:28,360 and it is likely that correctly built himself some sort of scale model upon which to experiment. 118 00:14:28,360 --> 00:14:38,420 His contemporary Rosseau Fiorentino did exactly that when faced by a far less illusionist, actually demanding decorative commission in error. 119 00:14:38,420 --> 00:14:47,890 So needless to say, no such model exists, but a number of preparatory drawings for the cupola have survived. 120 00:14:47,890 --> 00:14:56,680 Sadly, they are less informative about the evolution of the overall design than might have been hoped. 121 00:14:56,680 --> 00:15:10,090 The most instructive by far is a double-sided sheet in the Ashmolean, whose present Recto is currently on display in the museum. 122 00:15:10,090 --> 00:15:17,210 The first point to. Make about it, is that the present recto? 123 00:15:17,210 --> 00:15:26,270 There must, in fact, have been drawn SACC and that it is with the current Vasso on the left for you, 124 00:15:26,270 --> 00:15:30,650 that we should begin drawing in hot orange, red chalk. 125 00:15:30,650 --> 00:15:37,480 It shows one octagonal section of the day capable of repetition all the way round 126 00:15:37,480 --> 00:15:44,030 and appears to have been cut down to its present curved shape by the artist himself. 127 00:15:44,030 --> 00:15:54,650 He started by drawing the parapet and the prominent occulus he has surrounded by a foliate wreath decoration based on Atlantica models. 128 00:15:54,650 --> 00:15:58,100 And then drew the figures over the top. 129 00:15:58,100 --> 00:16:07,580 The parapet bearers of classical order and close inspection reveals that the left right halves are not identical. 130 00:16:07,580 --> 00:16:13,070 This could be interpreted as meaning that the plan involved an alternating rhythm. 131 00:16:13,070 --> 00:16:17,060 But it is far more likely that Correggio was adopting a practise common in 132 00:16:17,060 --> 00:16:23,480 architectural drawings of the period and also found in designs for altarpiece friends, 133 00:16:23,480 --> 00:16:29,570 which issued repetition in order to show alternative options. 134 00:16:29,570 --> 00:16:39,600 In this instance, Gregory drew a fluted ionic plaster on the left, while its counterpart on the right is fluted Doric. 135 00:16:39,600 --> 00:16:47,120 The figures in front of the parapet are even more obviously different, but not for exactly the same reason. 136 00:16:47,120 --> 00:16:53,630 Here. The arrangement on the right is the easier to decipher with a seated figure wearing some 137 00:16:53,630 --> 00:17:01,640 sort of headdress in front of whom is a round breasted sphynx scene Desart to ensue, 138 00:17:01,640 --> 00:17:06,590 resting on its haunches and sitting up on its front legs on the left. 139 00:17:06,590 --> 00:17:16,640 It is possible to pick out a faint echoing sphynx, but the figure behind is very differently conceived, is drawn on a much larger scale, 140 00:17:16,640 --> 00:17:23,870 and notably more boldly, with his head slumped onto his forearm and his legs brawling over the edge of the parapet. 141 00:17:23,870 --> 00:17:27,890 In theory, he could be a prophet, balancing the civil opposite. 142 00:17:27,890 --> 00:17:35,660 But it seems more probable that two separate moments in the evolution of the design are involved up above. 143 00:17:35,660 --> 00:17:43,940 Sitting on the parapet are two boys whose draperies dangle down as they sprawled backwards and look upwards. 144 00:17:43,940 --> 00:17:50,330 Both of them are in charge of their respective candelabra, which are quite hard to pick out. 145 00:17:50,330 --> 00:17:58,600 I know it's unclear at this stage where the apostles must always have been part of the grand design. 146 00:17:58,600 --> 00:18:05,070 I meant to go. They are not included. When Correggio turn the sheet over. 147 00:18:05,070 --> 00:18:15,050 So I'm talking about this side. He again pursued the policy of exploring various possibilities on the left. 148 00:18:15,050 --> 00:18:21,080 He more or less repeated the solution from the left of the Vasso with a bearded prophet 149 00:18:21,080 --> 00:18:27,290 sleeping on his hands behind the Sphinx with lowered head and more evidently than before, 150 00:18:27,290 --> 00:18:33,440 sitting on and resting his arms on a block of fluted plaster or possibly half column. 151 00:18:33,440 --> 00:18:40,520 This time, Corinthian is again the backdrop, and again he has drawn over it. 152 00:18:40,520 --> 00:18:46,880 Above is the same by still tending the candelabra. The solution on the right, however, 153 00:18:46,880 --> 00:18:56,600 is another new departure and shows considerably more signs of creative energy than anything on the comparatively timid other side of the sheet. 154 00:18:56,600 --> 00:19:05,810 The Sphinx has gone. The fluted plaster is replaced by an order less block, and only the Sleeping Profitt remains. 155 00:19:05,810 --> 00:19:13,160 Behind him is a great bulging hearth column, and there is a drum base at his feet. 156 00:19:13,160 --> 00:19:23,210 The only decorative compensation for the increase in austerity comes with the trace of a garland round the central Tonda on this side only, 157 00:19:23,210 --> 00:19:28,040 and with the addition of a bow at the top of that occulus. 158 00:19:28,040 --> 00:19:32,210 All this architectural detail is very carefully planned. 159 00:19:32,210 --> 00:19:40,610 The baselines and cornice lines are all ruled and incised, as is the Tonda, which must have been drawn with the help of a compass. 160 00:19:40,610 --> 00:19:48,920 Furthermore, blank incised line, which starts at the bow and goes down to the baseline, marks the centre of the bay. 161 00:19:48,920 --> 00:19:57,530 However, the real changes come above the parapet where the seated by is supplanted by a standing used in vigorous motion, 162 00:19:57,530 --> 00:20:07,040 still in conjunction with one of the candelabra, which were always intended to occupy the angles of the octagon and thus help conceal them. 163 00:20:07,040 --> 00:20:17,170 Something of his energy is then transferred to the relatively enormous standing figure with raised arms in the middle of the bay. 164 00:20:17,170 --> 00:20:22,660 He was drawn nude with his head in two different positions and then draped. 165 00:20:22,660 --> 00:20:24,880 It seems he must be an apostle. 166 00:20:24,880 --> 00:20:36,580 And if so, Courreges plan would have involved a combination of single compare the parcels to fit all 12 of them onto the eight sides of the dead. 167 00:20:36,580 --> 00:20:42,250 In the final solution, they were to occupy the corners, not the centres of the bays. 168 00:20:42,250 --> 00:20:48,940 And the four pairs were disposed at the sides. But the principal must have remained the same. 169 00:20:48,940 --> 00:20:57,070 This is the nature of drawing, such as this one that they are unable to inform us whether Correggio conceived of standing boys with standing 170 00:20:57,070 --> 00:21:06,250 apostles or whether his idea for the boy led onto the apostle in a way that made them mutually exclusive. 171 00:21:06,250 --> 00:21:15,340 That may seem the more plausible interpretation, since the Apostles might otherwise have got confused with the FGB, 172 00:21:15,340 --> 00:21:23,950 although and engraving after what must have been an autograph drawing for the side 173 00:21:23,950 --> 00:21:30,730 of the octagon immediately below the Virgin involves just such a melee of figures. 174 00:21:30,730 --> 00:21:36,650 In fact, only one further drawing in Harlem. 175 00:21:36,650 --> 00:21:41,590 A much worried over fragment on the Versova study for the figure of Eve, 176 00:21:41,590 --> 00:21:49,840 which will be discussed in due course, is concerned with the parapet does not at all easy to unravel. 177 00:21:49,840 --> 00:21:58,840 That appears to follow on from the Oxford Recto, with which I am comparing it and shows a solution involving the swelling ballasted in front of the 178 00:21:58,840 --> 00:22:06,580 Prophet and a more elaborated version of the half column and drum based arrangement behind him. 179 00:22:06,580 --> 00:22:17,500 Again, there is no trace of the Sphinx. This hilum, Vasso, is of considerable importance for the chronology of the planning of the cupola. 180 00:22:17,500 --> 00:22:21,040 It was not uncovered until comparatively recently. 181 00:22:21,040 --> 00:22:31,540 It's quite normal for drawings to be stuck down and we now unstick them and is clearly cropped from a larger 182 00:22:31,540 --> 00:22:41,530 sheet in the Corden's with the extent of the drawing on its rector when it is turned through 90 degrees. 183 00:22:41,530 --> 00:22:52,750 It becomes possible to decipher preparatory study for the lower half of the figure of Venus in the School of Love in the National Gallery in London. 184 00:22:52,750 --> 00:22:58,920 So you can see foot knee swelling. 185 00:22:58,920 --> 00:23:07,000 Fine one corresponding with since the Kubla study clearly follows the study of Venus. 186 00:23:07,000 --> 00:23:10,180 And since the School of Love is datable to around fifteen, 187 00:23:10,180 --> 00:23:17,110 twenty three to twenty five cupolas studies on the Harlem sheet cannot be any earlier than that. 188 00:23:17,110 --> 00:23:26,350 Very probably. Correct. You did not start serious planning on the design until the cupola was fit to paint the whole conception of 189 00:23:26,350 --> 00:23:34,270 profits and symbols with Sphinx's grew out of his designs for the nave freeze in sounds of an evangelist. 190 00:23:34,270 --> 00:23:43,750 They were to have no part in the finished fresco, although the Sphinx's came to assume decorative row lower down at the level of the scrunches. 191 00:23:43,750 --> 00:23:48,730 Presumably this zone was what the February cherry encourage you had in mind when they 192 00:23:48,730 --> 00:23:54,430 drew up a contract which Reifler referred to the imitation of bronze and marble. 193 00:23:54,430 --> 00:24:00,330 And they may have intended to have bronze Sphinx's and marble profits. 194 00:24:00,330 --> 00:24:05,650 Their presence in the flesh, even if confined to the near side of the parapet, 195 00:24:05,650 --> 00:24:13,420 could hardly have failed, proved distracting in terms of the narrative being enacted higher up. 196 00:24:13,420 --> 00:24:18,070 As far as one can judge, the overall scheme at this stage was very close in spirit. 197 00:24:18,070 --> 00:24:28,630 That of the Dome of San Giovannelli would necessarily involve gigantic apostles around a centrally placed assumption in the event. 198 00:24:28,630 --> 00:24:35,780 Courageous revision was a masterly one which cleared the zone in front of the parapet for the apostles, 199 00:24:35,780 --> 00:24:41,980 therefore allowed them to be even more towering in stature without taking up the whole height of the cupola. 200 00:24:41,980 --> 00:24:53,980 Instead, the Fabi remained relatively low above the parapet, and the centre of the vault was liberated for the full drama of the assumption proper. 201 00:24:53,980 --> 00:25:00,370 Alas, this transformation is not chronicled by drawing's because the rest of them, without exception, 202 00:25:00,370 --> 00:25:06,490 represents studies of details executed after the new conception had been developed. 203 00:25:06,490 --> 00:25:10,390 None of these details relates the simpler initial scheme. 204 00:25:10,390 --> 00:25:16,560 But given how many drawings must been made and how few survive, it would be unwise to infer that. 205 00:25:16,560 --> 00:25:24,930 Ever existed, although the execution of the fresco necessarily proceeded from the top downwards, 206 00:25:24,930 --> 00:25:29,760 the bottom of the design had to be settled before the upper part. 207 00:25:29,760 --> 00:25:39,030 In examining the remaining drawings, it therefore seems best to start at the parapet and move upwards to begin with. 208 00:25:39,030 --> 00:25:45,390 There are a handful of sheets of the apostles. They are all consistent in various respects. 209 00:25:45,390 --> 00:25:51,810 Each sheet represents a single apostle and they invariably show them without feet. 210 00:25:51,810 --> 00:25:59,430 On account of the softer insoo perspective because their feet are hidden behind the parapet, 211 00:25:59,430 --> 00:26:05,490 they stand on a visual plie that's already anticipated on the Oxford director. 212 00:26:05,490 --> 00:26:11,010 Another feature they almost all square is their share. 213 00:26:11,010 --> 00:26:18,120 So share is there squaring off as the one on the left shows. 214 00:26:18,120 --> 00:26:20,210 This is unsurprising. 215 00:26:20,210 --> 00:26:34,860 Correggio must have been constantly aware of the need to transfer the design and and large it threw out a fairly uniform scale was employed. 216 00:26:34,860 --> 00:26:42,870 Some of the studies can be associated with particular apostles in the fresco, while others cannot. 217 00:26:42,870 --> 00:26:49,410 Those that show less recoil may be earlier ideas, since this may have been in effect. 218 00:26:49,410 --> 00:26:55,410 Along with the billowing draper is the Carriger developed only gradually. 219 00:26:55,410 --> 00:27:04,360 There is a big recall of good correspondence in one particular instance, 220 00:27:04,360 --> 00:27:13,000 the same apostle dramatically recoiling from the radiance, the virgins, the scent is studied twice on different sheets. 221 00:27:13,000 --> 00:27:15,640 Both times distinctly schematically. 222 00:27:15,640 --> 00:27:28,360 But in the earlier, with almost no attention being paid to facial type or features, the next group of studies concerns the Phoebe. 223 00:27:28,360 --> 00:27:33,280 And again, a number of the sheets correspond closely to actual figures in the fresco. 224 00:27:33,280 --> 00:27:37,630 In reality, the heads of the apostles impinge upon this. 225 00:27:37,630 --> 00:27:43,750 But in the drawing, the boys are invariably shown without these interruptions. 226 00:27:43,750 --> 00:27:52,950 Thus, for example, in this drawing in Lisbon, which is unusual in its use of pen, in addition to the habitual red chalk. 227 00:27:52,950 --> 00:28:03,700 The seated boys trailing left foot is shown, whereas in the fresco it is occluded by the drapery of one of the apostles. 228 00:28:03,700 --> 00:28:10,030 A sheet formerly in the wouldn't, a collection and now in the private collection, which has a ground plan on its VASSO, 229 00:28:10,030 --> 00:28:17,080 which I'm showing you, shows the same phenomenon with the whole of one segment of the octagon being included. 230 00:28:17,080 --> 00:28:22,420 And the standing gives stretching out towards a nonexistent candelabrum. 231 00:28:22,420 --> 00:28:32,230 Similarly, his legs are included, although in the fresco they too are obscured by an apostle, only the way he's seated. 232 00:28:32,230 --> 00:28:37,180 Companion's left arm trails away suggests that any provision is being made for 233 00:28:37,180 --> 00:28:42,260 the figures in front of the dispositions and poses of the boys in the drawing. 234 00:28:42,260 --> 00:28:47,530 A remarkably close fresco that there is one fascinating difference. 235 00:28:47,530 --> 00:28:57,700 The standing boys arms half conceal his face in the painting, which is a visual complication or obfuscation of the sort. 236 00:28:57,700 --> 00:29:05,050 The entire work abounds in both the Lisbon and wouldn't the sheets predominantly linear. 237 00:29:05,050 --> 00:29:14,710 But the latter does include some shading and two square drawings in the Louvre, which no doubt originally formed part of the same sheet. 238 00:29:14,710 --> 00:29:19,570 This is more evident and the candelabra are included. 239 00:29:19,570 --> 00:29:27,820 The pose of one of the figures in one of them matches that of Phoebe in the engraving. 240 00:29:27,820 --> 00:29:38,760 After last drawing I showed. A Double-Sided sheet in the fund, that's your name. 241 00:29:38,760 --> 00:29:47,080 Crenshaw, which was rediscovered about 20 years ago. But previously known through an engraving dating from the 18th century, has a study, 242 00:29:47,080 --> 00:29:53,430 three apostles in the Fabi of the section of the day, immediately below the Virgin on its recto. 243 00:29:53,430 --> 00:29:55,760 And the Versailles, which you're seeing in black and white. 244 00:29:55,760 --> 00:30:06,750 Consists of a famous study, very famous statuary of the same section and red chalk combined with a series of architectural elevations. 245 00:30:06,750 --> 00:30:16,020 Amongst the figures here is the apostle studied in two drawings previously shown like the Lisbon drawing. 246 00:30:16,020 --> 00:30:20,250 This one is executed in simple pan outline over red chalk, 247 00:30:20,250 --> 00:30:25,590 and it is tempting to suppose that this extreme simplification may have represented 248 00:30:25,590 --> 00:30:32,320 the final stage of courageous preparation immediately before the no less schematics, 249 00:30:32,320 --> 00:30:34,980 not PR or under drawing. 250 00:30:34,980 --> 00:30:46,650 Also, like the Lisbon drawing, this one is squared, but in addition has two angled lines which define the limits of the octagonal face of the dome, 251 00:30:46,650 --> 00:30:55,350 as well as curved lines at the top, perhaps suggestive of the rounding off the centre of the cupola. 252 00:30:55,350 --> 00:31:01,680 This is one of the most severely damaged parts of the fresco, 253 00:31:01,680 --> 00:31:15,030 but it is still possible to see that Corregidor made some minor adjustments between this drawing and what he actually painted. 254 00:31:15,030 --> 00:31:23,100 And even more instructive sheet as regards Courreges overall method of planning is a drawing in red chalk in Frankfurt. 255 00:31:23,100 --> 00:31:32,670 It is centred on the figure of Eve and the women behind that and must have been made at a relatively late stage in the design process. 256 00:31:32,670 --> 00:31:36,960 It is extensively square that the top where the squiring stops. 257 00:31:36,960 --> 00:31:42,600 It is overlapped by the segment of a circle again evidently drawn with the help of a compass. 258 00:31:42,600 --> 00:31:49,470 The system of squiring involves three different baselines which correspond to the sides of the octagon. 259 00:31:49,470 --> 00:31:57,330 What all this proves is that in order to achieve an effect of infinite space on the surface of an octagonal down, 260 00:31:57,330 --> 00:32:03,390 Correggio felt he had to respect the shape, at least until a certain height. 261 00:32:03,390 --> 00:32:11,550 Furthermore, he considered the composition in large units, even if he then restudy did eight by eighth. 262 00:32:11,550 --> 00:32:17,850 The simplest way of gauging the extent of his success in achieving the illusion of continuity is to look 263 00:32:17,850 --> 00:32:25,170 at the reproduction of the detail of the upper part only and to try to work out where the joints are. 264 00:32:25,170 --> 00:32:32,820 The proof that this drawing was executed at a late stage is not merely the correspondence between it and the fresco, 265 00:32:32,820 --> 00:32:45,390 but the existence of for further studies of Eve, two of which certainly earlier they illustrate courageous economy of invention to perfection. 266 00:32:45,390 --> 00:32:51,960 The first of them on the left here is probably the sheet in Harlem whose verse was already been discussed. 267 00:32:51,960 --> 00:33:00,930 It shows Eve as a beautiful naked girl. Her hair unbound and her breasts prominent with her right arm brought back across her body 268 00:33:00,930 --> 00:33:07,530 in a gesture that may ultimately derive from a Venus Boudica classical Venus Boudicca, 269 00:33:07,530 --> 00:33:18,000 but which conceals nothing. A putto seated on a cloud faces her arm, holds the apple of her original sin red chalk with the initial medium implied. 270 00:33:18,000 --> 00:33:24,600 And then Pen was used to outline the final positions that the artist deemed most satisfactory. 271 00:33:24,600 --> 00:33:32,880 They, in turn, were his point of departure for a far more worked up red chalk drawing in the British Museum on the right, 272 00:33:32,880 --> 00:33:40,290 where the curious guru is unusually heavy and the slightly older, grinning child has joined the couple. 273 00:33:40,290 --> 00:33:47,150 This solution was not used for Eve as the Frankfurt drawing. 274 00:33:47,150 --> 00:33:50,770 A lusciously ripe red chalk sheet in the loop. 275 00:33:50,770 --> 00:33:57,090 Which is what I'm showing you here. And the fresco itself all demonstrates instead. 276 00:33:57,090 --> 00:34:02,140 Eve was shown proffering the fruit across the great divide to add them. 277 00:34:02,140 --> 00:34:04,870 The first conception of Eve was not wasted. 278 00:34:04,870 --> 00:34:12,790 However, for the woman directly behind her in the fresco as her right arm and face in much the same position. 279 00:34:12,790 --> 00:34:17,950 The only real difference being that she is clothed indeed somewhat damaged. 280 00:34:17,950 --> 00:34:34,940 Red chalk drawing in a private collection which we're seeing shows both figures and a number of more and less distinctly, realised Putih. 281 00:34:34,940 --> 00:34:43,020 A drawing of Adam with Abraham and Isaac Windsor is almost unique in being connected with the other male side. 282 00:34:43,020 --> 00:34:50,340 It, too, has a curved segment of the circle at the top and is executed in red chalk with pen outlines as the finishing touches. 283 00:34:50,340 --> 00:34:57,330 The emission of the Virgin's outstretched right hand is the only real difference between it and the fresco. 284 00:34:57,330 --> 00:35:05,450 The way in which Adam's left arm has folded back under his chin is a mirror image of the first conception of Eve. 285 00:35:05,450 --> 00:35:10,080 The sequence of execution of the drawings is not easy to reconstruct, 286 00:35:10,080 --> 00:35:16,560 but it is hard to believe that both Adam and Eve were ever intended to be so similar. 287 00:35:16,560 --> 00:35:24,050 On the contrary, Adam's present attitude seems to be a pensive response to Eve's tempting offer. 288 00:35:24,050 --> 00:35:36,960 And now fragmentary head study, which you see below on the left from a severely cropped sheet, is almost a cross between Adam and Abraham. 289 00:35:36,960 --> 00:35:44,700 Three studies survive the all important figure of the Vergie, two on the recto and verso of a sheet in the confession cabinet. 290 00:35:44,700 --> 00:35:50,500 Dresden and the third in the British Museum. In the case of the Dresden drawing. 291 00:35:50,500 --> 00:35:56,100 And you're seeing both sides. It is clear that one side was traced through from the other. 292 00:35:56,100 --> 00:36:04,650 But the initial study probably derived from a tracing to just attempting to suppose that the present Vasso came first. 293 00:36:04,650 --> 00:36:09,210 Not so much because the pose is reversed with respect to the fresco, 294 00:36:09,210 --> 00:36:19,140 but rather because the frontal conception of the head with rolling eyes looking upwards is profoundly unlike the solution found in the fresco. 295 00:36:19,140 --> 00:36:30,810 By contrast, the recto, which is what you see below, already has the raised profile more or less, as in the finished work. 296 00:36:30,810 --> 00:36:38,130 The British Museum sheet is a very different type of drawing because it represents a late stage anchorages thinking. 297 00:36:38,130 --> 00:36:45,030 It is far more resolved with the red chalk more confidently applied and hardly a to a pentimento insight. 298 00:36:45,030 --> 00:36:47,760 It also excludes the Putih entirely, 299 00:36:47,760 --> 00:36:56,190 but does show the virgin of the assumption who is supported on Klans in only one respect, albeit a significant one. 300 00:36:56,190 --> 00:37:05,400 Does it differ from the Dresden Raptor and indeed the fresco, namely in the astonishingly spread eagled legs of the Virgin? 301 00:37:05,400 --> 00:37:13,410 Even then, the work is flouting of convention appears to have been the object of adverse comment from the first. 302 00:37:13,410 --> 00:37:20,880 This would have been a uniquely indecorous solution. Regardless of any intervening clouds or draperies. 303 00:37:20,880 --> 00:37:28,350 The bed, the Virgin's bare feet could not have failed to reveal display of her legs. 304 00:37:28,350 --> 00:37:37,530 In the end, Correggio reverted to the solution of the Dresden's sheet, most probably without requiring the veto of the authorities. 305 00:37:37,530 --> 00:37:45,120 Self-censorship must have been a fact of life in this period, especially for the most imaginative spirits, 306 00:37:45,120 --> 00:37:50,880 apart possibly from a single angel on a drawing in rugby school, 307 00:37:50,880 --> 00:37:57,600 which also has studies Frejus Altarpiece, The Madonna, Delas Cordella on it, which I'm not showing. 308 00:37:57,600 --> 00:38:05,460 There are no surviving preparations for the extraordinary living stream of the angelic host surrounding the Virgin. 309 00:38:05,460 --> 00:38:10,680 No doubt Correggio made small models out of clay or wax and suspended them 310 00:38:10,680 --> 00:38:15,930 from strings to draw them from a multiplicity of viewpoints for Starry stated. 311 00:38:15,930 --> 00:38:23,780 The Gruffalo, with the first artist in Lumber Day by which he meant northern Italy to employ this practise. 312 00:38:23,780 --> 00:38:33,540 And this may be true, but carriages use of it is self evident, may be demonstrated by reconstructing comparable models. 313 00:38:33,540 --> 00:38:42,540 It seems important before concluding with the squinch is to consider the basic subject matter of the fresco, 314 00:38:42,540 --> 00:38:47,670 which is so self evident that it is tended to inhibit detailed discussion. 315 00:38:47,670 --> 00:38:52,530 The first thing to understand, as Padbury Arrester did in the 18th century, 316 00:38:52,530 --> 00:39:01,170 is that the open space around which the apostles are thronged is in some sense at least, the Virgin's tomb. 317 00:39:01,170 --> 00:39:05,940 We in the body of the church so far below, look up at the Apostles, 318 00:39:05,940 --> 00:39:13,370 at the Fabi and the burning candelabra and witness the Virgin being received in the company of Heaven. 319 00:39:13,370 --> 00:39:21,600 Caret share deliberately avoided identifying individual apostles in the usual manner. 320 00:39:21,600 --> 00:39:25,740 There are no affidavits, no coded draperies here, 321 00:39:25,740 --> 00:39:33,360 but instead concentrated on the variety of their overtly physical expressions of their emotional responses. 322 00:39:33,360 --> 00:39:45,510 The apostles nearest the virgin here, the ones we first see from the middle of the nave, are the ones most dazzled by the radiance of her passing. 323 00:39:45,510 --> 00:39:52,100 The force as of a mighty rushing wind, all but knocks them off their feet and their arms are raised as if to fend off the 324 00:39:52,100 --> 00:39:57,990 imaginary blows moving outwards from the male gaze confronts no less surprised but more 325 00:39:57,990 --> 00:40:03,930 delighted figures with great swathes of drapery hurrying across their bodies as they 326 00:40:03,930 --> 00:40:09,120 stretch their arms as wide as possible to encompass the extent of their feelings. 327 00:40:09,120 --> 00:40:14,900 And at the same time, to echo the gesture of the Virgin herself. 328 00:40:14,900 --> 00:40:18,330 Since maybe. Well, I'm saying all this. 329 00:40:18,330 --> 00:40:26,880 You can see that since the Virgin was laid in the tomb by the apostles immediately before her assumption, it is her funeral that is represented. 330 00:40:26,880 --> 00:40:30,690 That explains, at least in part, the inclusion of the Fabi. 331 00:40:30,690 --> 00:40:39,990 They are shown lighting and tending candelabra and also burning branches in the flames to produce clouds of aromatic smoke. 332 00:40:39,990 --> 00:40:44,330 By this period, candles were in the central feature of any funeral, 333 00:40:44,330 --> 00:40:54,060 and they allowed Correggio to fill what would otherwise have been a troublesome hiatus between the earthly and the heavenly. 334 00:40:54,060 --> 00:40:59,550 As regards the assumption of the Virgin and her immediately subsequent coronation, 335 00:40:59,550 --> 00:41:08,430 two main ways of treating the episode had devolved by this date, both of which allowed of almost infinite variations of detail. 336 00:41:08,430 --> 00:41:16,020 The first tended to favour the coronation and presented the event timelessly taking place before the whole company of heaven, 337 00:41:16,020 --> 00:41:25,980 as constituted at the time of the work's execution and naturally reflecting the preferences in terms of saints of the patrons. 338 00:41:25,980 --> 00:41:36,300 The second was strictly historical and only included those of the blessed whose arrival in heaven preceded that of the Virgin. 339 00:41:36,300 --> 00:41:44,240 This is the way Correggio elected or was instructed to show her appearance in paradise. 340 00:41:44,240 --> 00:41:52,530 And in fact, he has confined himself to the Old Testament Worthy's whom Christ released from Limbo. 341 00:41:52,530 --> 00:41:58,550 Judaism is amongst the religions to segregate men and women in services of worship, 342 00:41:58,550 --> 00:42:07,680 and this circumstance was often reflected in Renesas representations of the marriage of the Virgin. 343 00:42:07,680 --> 00:42:12,830 With the menfolk standing on Joseph's side and the womenfolk on Mary's carriages, 344 00:42:12,830 --> 00:42:19,670 paradise is similarly arranged and some, but by no means all of its company are identifiable. 345 00:42:19,670 --> 00:42:27,500 Sadly, I do not have time to pick them out for you above. 346 00:42:27,500 --> 00:42:34,240 The virgin and descending feetfirst degreaser is a figure whose identity has been much debated. 347 00:42:34,240 --> 00:42:39,280 Most critics have assumed he must be Christ, who does indeed meet his mother. 348 00:42:39,280 --> 00:42:45,880 In most representations of the subject and would otherwise be perplexingly absent. 349 00:42:45,880 --> 00:42:50,860 However, it is well to admit that there are problems with this identification. 350 00:42:50,860 --> 00:42:55,330 The figure in the fresco is beardless and wears green and white. 351 00:42:55,330 --> 00:43:02,920 Nothing about him. Such a stigmata or a cruciform halo suggests Christ. 352 00:43:02,920 --> 00:43:10,090 The other possibility is that he is an angel. 353 00:43:10,090 --> 00:43:18,520 Discussion of the assumption on the basis of the photographs is incomparably more deceiving than that exercise usually is. 354 00:43:18,520 --> 00:43:27,190 It diminishes the extraordinarily difficult job of working out who's who. 355 00:43:27,190 --> 00:43:39,700 And it does not give you a crick in the neck. And by the way, if you ever go take binoculars, they will be of inestimable value. 356 00:43:39,700 --> 00:43:44,110 That crick in the neck is an inevitable consequence of trying to see the fresco hole. 357 00:43:44,110 --> 00:43:53,290 The common experience of anyone who has been to Palmer, by contrast, from the body of the knave before the steps leading up to the presbytery, 358 00:43:53,290 --> 00:44:03,190 which was necessarily the location from which the majority of the faithful saw the fresco, only part of the cupola is disclosed. 359 00:44:03,190 --> 00:44:09,520 That is where the virgin is. And there is even an hour of the afternoon when the sun's rays passing through one of 360 00:44:09,520 --> 00:44:16,360 the windows put a natural spotlight on her and bathe her in warmth in the cathedral. 361 00:44:16,360 --> 00:44:18,760 The nave view is the main one. 362 00:44:18,760 --> 00:44:29,290 But some parts of the decoration, such as the side apostles, are best seen from the transept, and the Western Squinch is a best scene from the choir. 363 00:44:29,290 --> 00:44:36,430 However, if the cupola of San Jovani evangelist had privileged viewpoints for the Benedictines, 364 00:44:36,430 --> 00:44:42,540 then it seems right to describe this decoration as essentially democratic. 365 00:44:42,540 --> 00:44:52,210 The cathedral cupola should have been Courreges crowning achievement, but there is good reason to believe it was nothing of the kind. 366 00:44:52,210 --> 00:45:02,740 The anecdote about one of the canons of the cathedral denouncing it as a stew of frogs legs is apparently supported 367 00:45:02,740 --> 00:45:10,350 by a letter from Bevan Alvino Gatti written when he was at work on the cupola of the Church of the State. 368 00:45:10,350 --> 00:45:24,550 Carter just a few hundred yards away in Padma, in which he refers ominously to what happened to Carriger in the cathedral in the last analysis. 369 00:45:24,550 --> 00:45:29,760 The criticism is not wholly without substance either. 370 00:45:29,760 --> 00:45:34,450 For although the protagonist is clear enough. 371 00:45:34,450 --> 00:45:44,290 And although there is a real sense of movement, the composition is hard to read and must furthermore have come as a shock to a provincial public, 372 00:45:44,290 --> 00:45:51,490 even one educated by Courreges own recent efforts in Sanj of Army Evangelist. 373 00:45:51,490 --> 00:45:59,860 Some of courageous foreshortening is border on the indecent as well as the deliberately virtuosi. 374 00:45:59,860 --> 00:46:05,800 And I'm assuming, by the way, that the V sign didn't mean anything. Rene Syler safely. 375 00:46:05,800 --> 00:46:10,600 So that's just a strange chance for us as Brits. 376 00:46:10,600 --> 00:46:19,030 Legend has it that when the cathedral cannons were minded to destroy the fresco or have it whitewashed over 377 00:46:19,030 --> 00:46:25,510 Titian himself assured them that if they had been able to fill the space of the cupola with gold coins, 378 00:46:25,510 --> 00:46:35,890 they would still not have paid the master enough. The squinch is in the cathedral are by definition separated from the cupola proper. 379 00:46:35,890 --> 00:46:40,300 But the figures in them participate in the heavenly rejoicing above. 380 00:46:40,300 --> 00:46:49,870 Each of the Four Corners is occupied by one of the patron saint of the city, who have not invariably been correctly identified in the Sari's words. 381 00:46:49,870 --> 00:46:56,830 The Saints are Saint John the Baptist, who is holding a lamb here on the left, St. Joseph. 382 00:46:56,830 --> 00:46:58,240 The husband of our lady. 383 00:46:58,240 --> 00:47:11,170 Here on the right, Saint Bernard Basti of Florence Cardinal and a bishop of that city on the left here, and another bishop, namely St. Hillary. 384 00:47:11,170 --> 00:47:18,400 Until recently, St. Joseph was invariably mistaken for Thomas, who was indeed the patron saint of Palmer. 385 00:47:18,400 --> 00:47:25,490 However, the figures just reversed. However, the figures of attributes, physiognomy and costume. 386 00:47:25,490 --> 00:47:30,230 All identify him as jokes, as elsewhere, encourages work. 387 00:47:30,230 --> 00:47:43,610 Most obviously in the Madonna Delfs Cordella, Joseph is elderly but robust, grey haired and short, bearded and is dressed in orange and grey. 388 00:47:43,610 --> 00:47:52,820 The inherent interest of this identification is increased by the fact that it leads to a fuller understanding of the history of the commission. 389 00:47:52,820 --> 00:47:59,120 It can be shown that although the original scheme must indeed have required St. Thomas. 390 00:47:59,120 --> 00:48:05,700 That's to say in fifteen twenty two there was a change of programme and he was replaced by St. 391 00:48:05,700 --> 00:48:12,020 Joseph. The Baptists and Hillary were especially revered in power. 392 00:48:12,020 --> 00:48:14,560 I've explained they were on the seal of the time. 393 00:48:14,560 --> 00:48:22,370 Bernard, who Battey had longstanding associations with both the city and the cathedral where he is buried. 394 00:48:22,370 --> 00:48:31,220 By contrast, Thomas had joined the number of the patron saint only in the wake of the lifting of the French siege of Panama. 395 00:48:31,220 --> 00:48:37,610 In fifteen twenty one, which took place on the 21st of December, 396 00:48:37,610 --> 00:48:44,300 his feast day less than a year before Correggio scientists contract on the 3rd of November. 397 00:48:44,300 --> 00:48:55,540 Fifteen, twenty two. It was the subsequent creation of a new patron saint that must have course Thomas to be supplanted on the 19th of March 15. 398 00:48:55,540 --> 00:49:00,710 Twenty eight, the Town Council of Parmar unanimously agreed to adopt St. 399 00:49:00,710 --> 00:49:05,690 Joseph, whose day it was because one of their patron saint. 400 00:49:05,690 --> 00:49:14,210 We now know that the squinch is like the rest of the dome could not have been painted before the summer of fifteen thirty. 401 00:49:14,210 --> 00:49:24,890 Much more interesting is the fact that in their present form they cannot have been invented before March fifteen twenty eight. 402 00:49:24,890 --> 00:49:34,280 This is proved by a series of four red chalk drawings for the squinch is all of a piece stylistically, 403 00:49:34,280 --> 00:49:41,210 which includes Saint Joseph along with the three older patrons. 404 00:49:41,210 --> 00:49:48,560 They provide an invaluable touchstone for courage is late drawing style in his final years. 405 00:49:48,560 --> 00:49:57,620 In the case of St. Bernard, whom you see here, there also exists a very similar, if marginally less resolved, study. 406 00:49:57,620 --> 00:50:10,400 The one on the left second drawing of there is you can see him compare him with how he ends up a second drawing. 407 00:50:10,400 --> 00:50:19,670 St. John the Baptist reveals more energetic but still remarkably delicate touch and portrays him as altogether slighter and less mature, 408 00:50:19,670 --> 00:50:23,510 executed initially in red chalk and then partially gone over in pen. 409 00:50:23,510 --> 00:50:32,390 The sheet shows the Baptist intently cradling Islam and represents an earlier conception of the design in the fresco. 410 00:50:32,390 --> 00:50:40,730 He appears much more aware of his surroundings, his gaze blazing with zeal as he confronts the world where the two facing 411 00:50:40,730 --> 00:50:46,280 patrons slaves you see from the nave John the Baptist and Hillary turn inwards. 412 00:50:46,280 --> 00:50:52,100 The two who are visible only from the crossing and the presbytery face outwards again. 413 00:50:52,100 --> 00:50:56,360 They divide into one who looks out more or less front a St. 414 00:50:56,360 --> 00:51:01,740 Joseph and one looking sideways. St. Bernard. 415 00:51:01,740 --> 00:51:09,950 This latter is an almost pure profile like Hillary, he looks across the divide towards the Baptist. 416 00:51:09,950 --> 00:51:19,770 It is under his feet that there lurks the famous figure of an angel who also plays the part of Ganymede 417 00:51:19,770 --> 00:51:28,740 in a canvas by courage in Vienna when it was assumed that the dome was completed in fifteen thirty, 418 00:51:28,740 --> 00:51:38,310 it was taken as read that he was plucked out of the fresco and repeated in the mythology, which is very much anchorages, last style. 419 00:51:38,310 --> 00:51:42,750 But this is now far less certain. 420 00:51:42,750 --> 00:51:56,160 No less fascinating is the angel in the Saint Joseph squinch, for whom there appears to be a preliminary cartoon in the equal that bows out in Paris, 421 00:51:56,160 --> 00:52:04,600 although a direct link with the head of the Virgin above has often been suggested. 422 00:52:04,600 --> 00:52:13,200 And while it is true that they are very similar in their foreshortening and in the term of the head, they are not the same way round. 423 00:52:13,200 --> 00:52:19,120 Given what a crucial feature the direction of the Virgin's gaze was, 424 00:52:19,120 --> 00:52:29,610 bearing in mind how much depended upon it in terms of the larger composition, it is hard to believe it was reversed at the Khartoum stage. 425 00:52:29,610 --> 00:52:39,150 What is more, although the virgins I look straight up at the figure descending to meet her, 426 00:52:39,150 --> 00:52:47,000 it is entirely proper that her whole attitude should tend towards Eve's side. 427 00:52:47,000 --> 00:52:53,720 There has been an enormous amount of speculation about the cartoons for the cathedral, 428 00:52:53,720 --> 00:53:05,990 but all that is actually known is that there was a black chalk scene up here to draw the fragment of it retrieved during restoration, 429 00:53:05,990 --> 00:53:13,100 which you see on the left here now in the gallery. And that Somalian panorama, which shows the head of the Virgin is remarkable, 430 00:53:13,100 --> 00:53:21,020 even by courageous standards, for its combination of simplicity and confidence in the contract. 431 00:53:21,020 --> 00:53:26,600 Correggio agreed to paint figures in imitation of bronze marble as well as to the life 432 00:53:26,600 --> 00:53:31,340 their possible accommodation in his early designs in the form of profits and symbols. 433 00:53:31,340 --> 00:53:36,110 And Sphinx's is being considered in relation to the half million drawing. 434 00:53:36,110 --> 00:53:41,690 But when that scheme was modified, they were not completely forgotten. 435 00:53:41,690 --> 00:53:50,870 There are Garland bearing winged geniuses in imitation of marble at the springing of the options of the dome, which I'm not showing. 436 00:53:50,870 --> 00:53:57,110 More significantly, the art windows in the zone between the squinch is of top by seated Sphinx's looking 437 00:53:57,110 --> 00:54:05,420 upwards and by winged geniuses receiving garlands below all imitating marble gilt. 438 00:54:05,420 --> 00:54:17,180 Bronze reliefs are counterfeited on either side of these openings and show pooty with cornucopia of stray dolphins accompanied by serpents and apples, 439 00:54:17,180 --> 00:54:22,040 presumably an allusion to the Virgin's role as the secondees. 440 00:54:22,040 --> 00:54:29,900 What appears to be an autographed red chalk drawing for one of these is in the Accademia in Venice. 441 00:54:29,900 --> 00:54:37,070 What you see on the left here, if these monochrome areas reveal economy of effort, 442 00:54:37,070 --> 00:54:42,710 then the opposite is true of the still life vignettes that fill the spaniel's above 443 00:54:42,710 --> 00:54:49,370 the shell niches inhabited by the patron saint like them and like the frescoes above. 444 00:54:49,370 --> 00:54:58,040 They are based on the colours scheme dominated by muted greens, oranges and violets and based acorns, 445 00:54:58,040 --> 00:55:07,280 chestnuts and turnips as here, as well as more predictable bunches of grapes and oranges and lemons. 446 00:55:07,280 --> 00:55:20,480 They serve as a telling reminder that even this most illusionist stick and fantastical of decorations was grounded in the observation of reality. 447 00:55:20,480 --> 00:55:24,578 Thank you very much.