Bernardo Daddi (painter) active by 1320, died probably 1348

 

 

 

Bernardo Daddi (painter)

active by 1320, died probably 1348

 

This small painting was probably the right-hand side of a diptych with two hinged panels. Very likely the panel opposite depicted the Virgin and Child. Those who meditated on this image during private devotions would have made an intimate connection with the grief of the mourners who stood at the foot of the cross. The Gospels differ in their accounts of the Crucifixion, and so do paintings of it. Here, on the left, the swooning Virgin is accompanied by a group of holy women. One helps support her as she collapses against John the Evangelist. While they look at Mary with tender concern, all other eyes are turned toward Jesus and the angels who collect his blood. Mary Magdalene, recognized by her long flowing tresses, kneels and grasps the cross despairingly. Among the men on the right, in the armor of a Roman soldier, is the centurion who was converted on the spot, saying “Truly, this was the Son of God” (Matthew 27:54).

 

The second half of the Pange, lingua: verses 7-10.  It begins with a catalogue of suffering, each word another blow to the body of Jesus: the vinegar, gall, ‘the reed, the spit, the nails, and the lance; his tender body pierced through, blood, water flow’. Crux fidelis: the Cross is faithful in the sense that it carries out the allotted task. The Cross paves the way to the harbor of heaven for the shipwrecked world.

 

 

Behold the vinegar, gall, the reed, the spit, the nails, and the lance; his tender body pierced through, blood, water flow. Earth, sea, stars and the world washed clean by this river. Faithful Cross, only noble tree above all others, such as no other forest produces, in fruit, leaf or seed; sweet the wood, sweet the nails, sweet the weight it holds.  Bend your branches, lofty tree, relax your inward tension, may your hardness become soft, which nature gives, that your gentle trunk may bear the limbs of  the King of heaven. You alone were worthy to bear the ransom of the world and provide a safe port for the sailor in a shipwrecked world, you whom the sacred blood anointed, poured forth from the body of the Lamb.  Equal and eternal glory to the Father and the Son, the glorious Paraclete , to the blessed Trinity, whose nourishing grace redeems and preserves us. Amen.