#JesuitMuseums: Rockhurst University

AJCU’s #JesuitMuseums series is back for the summer! Today’s post on Saint Mark the Evangelist by Giambattista Tiepolo comes from the Greenlease Gallery’s Van Ackeren Collection of Religious Art at Rockhurst University.

Giambattista Tiepolo (1696–1770), Saint Mark the Evangelist, c. 1732–33, Van Ackeren Collection of Religious Art, Greenlease Gallery, Rockhurst University, Gift of Virginia Greenlease,1976.2.

The subject of this small, oval-shaped artwork is St. Mark: one of the Twelve Apostles chosen by Jesus, who was also the author of the second Gospel in the New Testament. Mark’s Gospel highlights the action and determination of Jesus in overcoming evil forces and defying the power of Rome. An interesting element of Mark’s Gospel is his description of Jesus as a person hesitant to identify himself as the Messiah — in it, Jesus humbly refers to himself only as the Son of Man. The purpose of this work (like other religious paintings of the 18th century) was to instruct the faithful and/or relate a theme for spiritual contemplation in a pictorial fashion.

Mark was an apprentice to St. Peter the Apostle and became his companion and interpreter, often writing sermons for him. It is believed that Mark founded the Church of Alexandria in Egypt, became the first bishop of Alexandria, and is the founder of Christianity in Africa. He was martyred in Alexandria in 68 A.D., but his relics were removed to Venice to the Church of San Marco. Mark is the patron saint of Venice, lawyers, paintings, interpreters, and lions.

In this painting, Giambattista Tiepolo depicts Mark as a bearded, middle-aged man flanked by his attribute, a lion. In Christian iconography, however, St. Mark’s lion is typically shown as a winged creature to reflect passages in the Book of Revelation and accounts of Ezekiel that reference four-winged figures (e.g., man, lion, oxen and eagle) that are associated with the Evangelists Matthew, Mark, Luke and John. In this work, St. Mark holds the written Gospel book with this left hand and a quill pen in his right, and wears a white robe marked with a red cross over a celestial blue garment. A small halo denotes him as a holy person.

Venice-born Giambattista Tiepolo was apprenticed at the age of 14 to a neighborhood Venetian painter named Gregoria Lazzarini (1657–1730) and launched his career early by quickly becoming a favorite of one of Venice’s highest-ranking civic officers. This allowed him an introduction to society’s elite and afforded him commissions by private patrons and the Catholic church. He completed frescoes, canvases, altarpieces, and small-scale works — some were more large-scale decorative pieces, others were religious altarpieces for family chapels or for religious orders including the Carmelites, Franciscans, Dominicans, and Jesuits.

Tiepolo ran a successful studio workshop (with his sons Giovanni Domenico and Lorenzo) and often completed small preparatory sketches (known as “bozzetto”) as a way to rough out a design before attempting a larger-scale work commissioned by a patron. It is unknown if this painting was intended as a bozzetto for a larger project or was simply a small devotional painting for a private home or chapel. Regardless, this piece may inspire us as viewers to contemplate and reflect upon the power of the pen, the action of our own written or spoken convictions about what is ‘true,’ and inspire us to think about the impact that 18th-century paintings (such as Tiepolo’s) have on secular and Catholic viewers.

Zoom in (by clicking here) to study compositional details and the painterly qualities of this work.

What are your favorite elements of the palette chosen by Tiepolo?
What are some small details that you notice about Mark?
What words would you use to describe the facial expression of the lion and Mark?
Who is your favorite saint? Why?

Contributed by Kristy Peterson, Director of the Center for Arts and Letters at Rockhurst University.