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Is it art or ecclesiastical? Cardinal clashes with gallery over painting
RELIGION has inspired many famous works of art, but rarely have the two worlds collided in such spectacular fashion as when the Archbishop of Westminster demanded the National Gallery give up a Renaissance masterpiece.
Cardinal Cormac Murphy O’Connor says “The Baptism of Christ”, painted by Piero della Francesca in the 1450s, should be in Westminster Cathedral because it is a “work of faith”.
Speaking at a lecture for the Royal Fine Art Commission Trust last week, the Cardinal said: “It is a mistake to treat it as a work of art – it is a work of faith and piety.”
The painting has been in the gallery’s collection in Trafalgar Square since 1861.
The Cardinal added: “I would like to see this painting taken down from the walls of the National Gallery and placed in a Catholic church in London.
“I will willingly offer Westminster Cathedral as the new home for this painting, it should be restored to a religious setting.”
The Cardinal promised the director of the National Gallery that the church would “cherish this Catholic treasure”.
The artwork is so fragile the gallery must be kept at a constant temperature and humidity. Lighting levels are closely controlled to keep it well preserved.
Since its return from Wales – where it was evacuated to by the gallery during the Blitz – the painting has not been moved and is too delicate to be loaned to other institutions.
The gallery has said visitors are welcome to pray in front of the painting where it hangs in the Salisbury Wing.
Luke Syson, the National Gallery’s curator of Italian paintings said: “The National Gallery is a place for learning about pictures, but also for appreciating them on many different levels.
“For some, Piero’s ‘Baptism’ is a masterly artistic exercise in perspective and mathematical composition. For others, these aspects are intimately linked with Piero’s ability to set the protagonists of the Christian story into a rigorously, even miraculously described universe.
“By seeing the picture at the National Gallery, in a secluded room which evokes a chapel setting, visitors can experience this masterpiece in any number of ways, according to their beliefs or, indeed lack of beliefs.”
The painting came into the hands of the gallery in 1861 from the Camaldolese Abbey in Borgo Sansepolcro, the artist’s native town in Italy. |
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