The Crown of Immortality is a literary and religious metaphor traditionally represented in art first as a laurel wreath and later as a symbolic circle of stars (often a crown, tiara, halo or aureola). The Crown appears in a number of Baroque iconographic and allegoric works of art to indicate the wearer's immortality.
In ancient Egypt, the crown of justification was a wreath placed on the deceased to represent victory over death in the afterlife, in emulation of the resurrecting god Osiris. It was made of various materials including laurel, palm, feathers, papyrus, roses, or precious metals, with numerous examples represented on the Fayum mummy portraits of the Roman Imperial period. [1]
In ancient Greece, a wreath of laurel or olive was awarded to victorious athletes and later poets. Among the Romans, generals celebrating a formal triumph wore a laurel wreath, an honor that during the Empire was restricted to the Imperial family. The placing of the wreath was often called a "crowning", and its relation to immortality was problematic; it was supposed to secure the wearer immortality in the form of enduring fame, but the triumphator was also reminded of his place within the mortal world: in the traditional tableaux, an accompanying slave whispered continually in the general's ear Memento mori , "Remember you are mortal". [2] Funerary wreaths of gold leaf were associated particularly with initiates into the mystery religions. [3]
From the Early Christian era the phrase "crown of immortality" was widely used by the Church Fathers in writing about martyrs; the immortality was now both of reputation on earth, and of eternal life in heaven. The usual visual attribute of a martyr in art, was a palm frond, not a wreath.[ citation needed ] The phrase may have originated in scriptural references, or from incidents such as this reported by Eusebius (Bk V of History) describing the persecution in Lyon in 177, in which he refers to literal crowns, and also brings in an athletic metaphor of the "victor's crown" at the end:
"From that time on, their martyrdoms embraced death in all its forms. From flowers of every shape and color they wove a crown to offer to the Father; and so it was fitting that the valiant champions should endure an ever-changing conflict, and having triumphed gloriously should win the mighty crown of immortality. Maturus, Sanctus, Blandina, and Attalus were taken into the amphitheater to face the wild beasts, and to furnish open proof of the inhumanity of the heathen, the day of fighting wild beasts being purposely arranged for our people. There, before the eyes of all, Maturus and Sanctus were again taken through the whole series of punishments, as if they had suffered nothing at all before, or rather as if they had already defeated their opponent in bout after bout and were now battling for the victor's crown." [4]
The first use seems to be that attributed to the martyr Ignatius of Antioch in 107.[ citation needed ]
An Advent wreath is a ring of candles, usually made with evergreen cuttings and used for household devotion by some Christians during the season of Advent. The wreath is meant to represent God's eternity.[ citation needed ] On Saint Lucy's Day, December 13, it is common to wear crowns of candles in Sweden, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Italy, Bosnia, Iceland, and Croatia.
Before the reform of the Gregorian calendar in the 16th century, St. Lucy's Day fell on the winter solstice. The representation of Saint Lucy seems to derive from the Roman goddess Lucina, who is connected to the solstice. [5] [6]
Martyrs often are idealized as combatants, with the spectacle of the arena transposed to the martyr's struggle with Satan. Ignatius of Antioch, condemned to fight beasts in the year 107, "asked his friends not to try to save him and so rob him of the crown of immortality." [7] In 155, Polycarp, Christian bishop of Smyrna, was stabbed after a failed attempt to burn him at the stake. He is said to have been " … crowned with the wreath of immortality ... having through patience overcome the unjust governor, and thus acquired the crown of immortality." [8] Eusebius uses similar imagery to speak of Blandina, martyred in the arena at Lyon in 177:
A small, weak, despised woman, who had put on Christ, the great invincible champion, and in bout after bout had defeated her adversary and through conflict had won the crown of immortality. [9] Emblem of Christian martyrs, The Crown or wreath of Immortality, is a reward for those who stayed faithful until death. (1 Corinthians 9:24-27, James 1:12, and Revelation 2:10) [10]
The crown of stars, representing immortality, may derive from the story of Ariadne, especially as told by Ovid, in which the unhappy Ariadne is turned into a constellation of stars, the Corona Borealis (Crown of the North), modelled on a jewelled crown she wore, and thus becoming immortal. In Titian's Bacchus and Ariadne (1520–23, National Gallery, London), the constellation is shown above Ariadne's head as a circle of eight stars (though Ovid specifies nine), very similar to what would become the standard depiction of the motif. Although the crown was probably depicted in classical art, and is described in several literary sources, no classical visual depictions have survived. [11] The Titian therefore appears to be the earliest such representation to survive, and it was also at this period that illustrations in prints of the Apocalypse by artists such as Dürer [12] [13] and Jean Duvet were receiving very wide circulation.
In Ariadne, Venus and Bacchus, by Tintoretto (1576, Doge's Palace, Venice), a flying Venus crowns Ariadne with a circle of stars, and many similar compositions exist, such as the ceiling of the Egyptian Hall at Boughton House of 1695.
The first use of the crown of stars as an allegorical Crown of Immortality may be the ceiling fresco, Allegory of Divine Providence and Barberini Power (1633–39), in the Palazzo Barberini in Rome by Pietro da Cortona. Here a figure identified as Immortality is flying, with her crown of stars held out in front of her, near the centre of the large ceiling. According to the earliest descriptions she is about to crown the Barberini emblems, representing Pope Urban VIII, who was also a poet. [14] [15] [16] Immortality seems to have been a preoccupation of Urban; his funeral monument by Bernini in St Peter's Basilica in Rome has Death as a life-size skeleton writing his name on a scroll.
Two further examples of the Crown of Immortality can be found in Sweden, firstly in the great hall ceiling fresco of the Swedish House of Knights by David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl (between 1670–1675) which pictures among many allegoric figures Eterna (eternity) who holds in her hands the Crown of Immortality. [17] The second is in Drottningholm Palace, the home of the Swedish Royal Family, in a ceiling fresco named The Great Deeds of The Swedish Kings, painted in 1695 by David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl. [18] This has the same motif as the fresco in the House of Knights mentioned above. The Drottningholm fresco, was shown in the 1000th stamp [19] by Czesław Słania, the Polish postage stamp and banknote engraver.
The crown was also painted by the French Neoclassical painter Louis-Jean-François Lagrenée, 1725–1805, in his Allegory on the Death of the Dauphin, where the crown was held by a young son who had pre-deceased the father (alternative titles specifically mention the crown of Immortality). [20]
Tiziano Vecelli or Vecellio, known in English as Titian, was an Italian (Venetian) painter of the Renaissance, considered the most important member of the 16th-century Venetian school. He was born in Pieve di Cadore, near Belluno. During his lifetime he was often called da Cadore, 'from Cadore', taken from his native region.
Luca Signorelli was an Italian Renaissance painter from Cortona in Tuscany, who was noted in particular for his ability as a draftsman and his use of foreshortening. His massive frescos of the Last Judgment (1499–1503) in Orvieto Cathedral are considered his masterpiece.
Pietro da Cortona was an Italian Baroque painter and architect. Along with his contemporaries and rivals Gian Lorenzo Bernini and Francesco Borromini, he was one of the key figures in the emergence of Roman Baroque architecture. He was also an important designer of interior decorations.
Giovanni Battista Gaulli, also known as Baciccio or Baciccia, was an Italian artist working in the High Baroque and early Rococo periods. He is best known for his grand illusionistic vault frescos in the Church of the Gesù in Rome, Italy. His work was influenced by Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
Illusionistic ceiling painting, which includes the techniques of perspective di sotto in sù and quadratura, is the tradition in Renaissance, Baroque and Rococo art in which trompe-l'œil, perspective tools such as foreshortening, and other spatial effects are used to create the illusion of three-dimensional space on an otherwise two-dimensional or mostly flat ceiling surface above the viewer. It is frequently used to create the illusion of an open sky, such as with the oculus in Andrea Mantegna's Camera degli Sposi, or the illusion of an architectural space such as the cupola, one of Andrea Pozzo's frescoes in Sant'Ignazio, Rome. Illusionistic ceiling painting belongs to the general class of illusionism in art, designed to create accurate representations of reality.
The Palazzo Barberini is a 17th-century palace in Rome, facing the Piazza Barberini in Rione Trevi. Today, it houses the Galleria Nazionale d'Arte Antica, the main national collection of older paintings in Rome.
The Allegory of Divine Providence and Barberini Power is a fresco by Italian painter Pietro da Cortona, filling the large ceiling of the grand salon of the Palazzo Barberini in Rome, Italy. Begun in 1633, it was nearly finished in three years; upon Cortona's return from Venice, it was extensively reworked to completion in 1639. The Palazzo, since the 1620s, had been the palatial home of the Barberini family headed by Maffeo Barberini, by then Urban VIII, who had launched an extensive program of refurbishment of the city with art and architecture.
The Loves of the Gods is a monumental fresco cycle, completed by the Bolognese artist Annibale Carracci and his studio, in the Farnese Gallery which is located in the west wing of the Palazzo Farnese, now the French Embassy, in Rome. The frescoes were greatly admired at the time, and were later considered to reflect a significant change in painting style away from sixteenth century Mannerism in anticipation of the development of Baroque and Classicism in Rome during the seventeenth century.
Sebastiano Ricci was an Italian painter of the late Baroque school of Venice. About the same age as Piazzetta, and an elder contemporary of Tiepolo, he represents a late version of the vigorous and luminous Cortonesque style of grand manner fresco painting.
Bacchus and Ariadne (1522–1523) is an oil painting by Titian. It is one of a cycle of paintings on mythological subjects produced for Alfonso I d'Este, Duke of Ferrara, for the Camerino d'Alabastro – a private room in his palazzo in Ferrara decorated with paintings based on classical texts. An advance payment was given to Raphael, who originally held the commission for the subject of a Triumph of Bacchus.
Santi Luca e Martina is a church in Rome, Italy, situated between the Roman Forum and the Forum of Caesar and close to the Arch of Septimus Severus.
Giuseppe Bartolomeo Chiari, also known simply as Giuseppe Chiari, was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque period, active mostly in Rome.
A circle of stars often represents unity, solidarity and harmony in flags, seals and signs, and is also seen in iconographic motifs related to the Woman of the Apocalypse as well as in Baroque allegoric art that sometimes depicts the Crown of Immortality.
David Klöcker Ehrenstrahl was a Swedish nobleman and portrait painter.
The Triumph of Bacchus is a painting by Diego Velázquez, now in the Museo del Prado, in Madrid. It is popularly known as Los borrachos or The Drinkers.
Dorothea of Caesarea is a 4th-century virgin martyr who was executed at Caesarea Mazaca. Evidence for her actual historical existence or acta is very sparse. She is called a martyr of the late Diocletianic Persecution, although her death occurred after the resignation of Diocletian himself.
Italian Baroque art is a term that is used here to refer to Italian painting and sculpture in the Baroque manner executed over a period that extended from the late sixteenth to the mid eighteenth centuries.
Hispania is the national personification of Spain.
The Galleria Spada is a museum in Rome, which is housed in the Palazzo Spada on Piazza Capo di Ferro. The palazzo is also famous for its façade and for the forced perspective gallery by Francesco Borromini.
Bacchus, Venus and Ariadne is an oil painting executed in Venice in 1576–77 by the Italian painter Jacopo Tintoretto which hangs in the Sala dell'Anticollegio at the Doge's Palace (the Pallazzo Ducale} in Venice. It is one of four almost square paintings on mythological subjects in the same room which were commissioned to celebrate the government of Doge Girolamo Priuli.
passim
citing Minucius Felix, Octavius 28.3–4
chapter 18 & 19
