(in English, The Pardon of Gesualdo) is an altarpiece created in 1609 by the Florentine painter Giovanni Balducci for a commission from the madrigal composer Carlo Gesualdo, Prince of Venosa, of the kingdom of Naples. Conserved in the private chapel of Gesualdo's church, Santa Maria delle Grazie, the painting underwent important restorations in the late twentieth century, following the destructive Irpinia earthquake of 1980.
A unique testimony, in the field of religious painting, to the devotion of the composer prince, Il Perdono di Gesualdo has been the object of numerous commentaries and analyses since the seventeenth century. These interpretations, focusing on the musician's murder of his adulterous wife and her lover, have shrouded the artwork in mystery.
In the early twenty-first century, art historians and musicologists agree that certain ambiguities in the Perdono reflect the fascinating personality of its patron. The American musicologist Glenn Watkins believes the painting to be the only authentic portrait of Gesualdo.
Introduction
Location Il Perdono di Gesualdo was commissioned for the high altar in Carlo Gesualdo's private chapel, in the church attached to the Capuchin convent founded in the mid-1580s by his father Fabrizio.
This convent, today largely destroyed, “once formed a beautiful monastic complex with a large garden, vast convent buildings, and a magnificent church: Santa Maria delle Grazie." Denis Morrier points out that this monastery was “endowed with a comfortable annuity by Gesualdo.” The chapel bears an inscription recalling that the prince began its construction in 1592:
Dominvs Carolvs Gesvaldvs Compsae Comes VII. Venvsii Princeps III. Hoc templvm Virgini Matri dicatvm Adesqve religionis domicilivm Pietatis incitamentvm Posteris a fvndamentis erexit A.D. MDXCII. Don Carlo Gesualdo, VIIth count of Conza, IIIrd prince of Venosa, Had this temple erected, Dedicated to the Virgin Mother, Domicile of Religion And incentive to piety, In the year of grace 1592.
In fact, the composer-prince oversaw the construction of “two convents, one Dominican, the other Capuchin, and their respective churches: Santissimo Rosario, completed in 1592, and Santa Maria delle Grazie, which Gesualdo never saw completed.”
According to Catherine Deutsch, “certain historians have been tempted to draw a connection between the founding of these institutions and the murder that Gesualdo had just committed” against his wife, Maria d’Avalos, caught red-handed in adultery with Fabrizio Carafa, Duke of Andria, at Gesualdo's palace in Naples, during the night of October 16 or 17, 1590. This interpretation of “a tentative remission of his recent sins” applies equally to the Perdono, a painting loaded with allegorical figures that invite multiple levels of interpretation.
Description
The painting presents itself as a Last Judgement scene with ten main characters, including Gesualdo and his second wife. The prince is supplicating Christ by the side of his maternal uncle, St. Charles Borromeo, who is clothed in cardinal red and positioned as his protector.
Denis Morrier points out the canvas’ three-tiered composition: “At the summit, Christ Pantocrator, in majesty, judges the living and the dead. He is surrounded by several saints, among whom we recognize the Virgin Mary, ‘consoler of the afflicted,’ who intercedes with her son for the pardon of sinners, and Mary Magdalene, symbol of repentance,” In the middle section, we see the composer supported by his uncle St. Charles Borromeo. Across from him is his wife, Eleonora d’Este, clothed “in the Spanish style,” “In the lower section we see purgatory, where a man and a woman wait, lost in the flames.” Moreover, Glenn Watkins, who identifies the two upper levels of the canvas as “a typical sacra conversazione,” points out the guardian figures of the archangel Michael—sitting near Christ and somewhat effaced—and of St. Francis of Assisi and St. Dominic, the founders of the religious orders that occupied the two convents built by Gesualdo.
History According to Glenn Watkins, the imposing dimensions of the Perdono di Gesualdo testify to the patron's preoccupation not only with grandeur, but also with religious fervour.
Commission The attribution of the painting to a painter remained hypothetical for a long time. According to Denis Morrier, “Silvestro Bruno, and Girolamo Imparato, two minor mannerist painters” of the Neapolitan school, were among the first artists considered. Following the painting's restoration, more advanced research has enabled the attribution of the Perdono di Gesualdo to Giovanni Balducci and to his Florentine workshop. Protégé of the Cardinal Gesualdo in Rome, the artist followed his master to Naples, where the cardinal presided as dean of the College of Cardinals, and then as archbishop in 1596. The historian Francesco Abbate considers Giovanni Balducci to have been the “official painter of Gesualdo’s house” from this date on.
The exact date of the commission is unknown, but the painting, which follows precise instructions in terms of character representation and composition, was completed in 1609. Today, the revelatory circumstances surrounding this commission are well established: Glenn Watkins sees in them a perfect example of Ars moriendi, “where elements of the Last Judgement and the search for pardon are principle themes.”
In fact, the American musicologist paints a powerful picture of the state Gesualdo found himself in during the early seventeenth century: “the Prince’s health was in such decline that many feared for his life. It was also the year of witchcraft trials, a period in which the psychological strain would have been extraordinary. A review of his life could bring little consolation: a first marriage had ended in infidelity and murder; a second marriage had provided only a momentary consolation before deteriorating into an untenable domestic situation; the son from his first marriage was estranged and living elsewhere; and a son born of his second marriage had died in October 1600.”
Deterioration The painting was significantly damaged during the earthquake of November 23, 1980. The earthquake's epicentre was located in Conza della Campania, a feudal domain of the Gesualdos in the province of Avellino since the fifteenth century.
This event was catastrophic for the two convents built on the prince's orders, for his castle in Gesualdo (which was never restored) and for the town, which counted 2,570 dead and 9,000 injured and homeless. A large part of the Gesualdos's family heritage in Venosa was thus irremediably lost, the family line having been extinguished with the death of the composer on September 8, 1613. Glenn Watkins concludes from this that “history is a story of loss and recovery and comes down to us in bits and pieces.”
Restoration
The painting had suffered other damages before the 1980 earthquake. During his first visit to Santa Maria delle Grazie, in 1961, Glenn Watkins noticed “that the altarpiece had been transferred to the wall at the left of the main altar but also that it had a prominent tear at the lower left-hand side.” It was reproduced with this tear on the cover of the first edition of Watkins's book Gesualdo, The Man and his Music in 1973.
After the earthquake, which destroyed a large portion of the church, the painting remained stored on its side on the ground for many years. Restorative work was decided on at the end of the 1990s, and the canvas was remounted in its original location on June 6, 2004.
This work led to a number of discoveries concerning the state of the original painting. The restoration uncovered several pentimenti, such as Mary Magdalene's originally more open décolleté. But the influence of the Counter-Reformation affected more than the painting's modesty: the most impressive alteration was done to the figure of Eleonora d’Este, entirely covered by a Capuchin Poor Clare nun in a monastic robe.
The identification of the princess of Venosa put an end to a controversy that had agitated the community of historians and musicologist up to that point. Among interpretations suggested for this figure in the Perdono, Glenn Watkins mentions Sister Corona, the sister of Cardinal Borromeo, as well as the wife of the duke Gesualdo assassinated. The restored figure's court dress and collarless ruff are in keeping with the grandee attire worn by the Duke of Andria.
Technical considerations Giovanni Balducci's work on the Perdono di Gesualdo has not been the object of any particular commentary. Judgements of the Florentine painter's technique in general tend to be critical. According to Françoise Viatte, “his drawing style, directly descendent from the teaching of Vasari and very close to that of Naldini, is marked by an attachment to traditional models of representation.” William Griswold, curator at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, adds that, “Although he was a prolific artist, profoundly influenced by Naldini, Balducci was a timid draftsman, and his pen drawings—characterized by thin, nervous contours and pale washes—are seldom to be confused with those of his master.”
Francesco Abbate therefore describes the Perdono di Gesualdo as “a prestigious commission” for a painter of minor importance who had not found a way to impose himself in the face of “fierce competition in Rome,” and whose pictorial technique was readily critiqued by his colleague Filippo Baldinucci as “mannered and somewhat crude.” From the seventeenth century to the present, art historians and music critics have been interested in the painting primarily for the “history” it evokes.
Analysis The characters represented in the Perdono di Gesualdo can be classified into three categories: members of Carlo Gesualdo's family treated in a realist manner, sacred figures treated in a classical manner, and allegorical figures, more challenging to interpret.
Portraits The first group is limited to the Princess and Prince of Venosa and the latter's uncle. The restored figure of Eleonora d’Este, however, shows her strangely isolated from the rest of the figures.
Eleonora d’Este
Gesualdo's wife is the only figure whose gaze is turned toward the viewer. In a way, the modified version of this figure, with her gaze turned toward Christ, was in greater harmony with the attitudes of the other figures. In his analysis of the Perdono, Glenn Watkins suggests that Gesualdo intended for his wife to appear “as the sole person in the painting to maintain a blank frontal stare, a completely passive witness to the implorations of forgiveness.”
Biographical information on the couples marriage sheds some light on the nature of their conjugal relations: with the support of her brother Cesare d’Este, Eleonora obtained her husband's permission to return to the court of Modena, where she stayed first from October 1607 to November 1608, then again from October 1609 to November 1610, “not without provoking the irritation of Gesualdo, who implored her to return to the conjugal residence.”
Considering this absence, her portrait was likely created from a pre-existing portrait, such as the one conserved in the house of Este museum at the Ducal Palace of Modena, rather than from life.
Carlo Gesualdo
The portrait of Carlo Gesualdo has an otherworldly eloquence: clothed in black, his tense face resting on his Spanish ruff, his gaze dark despite his blue-grey eyes, his hair cut short, his beard sparse, his air austere and his hands joined together. Glenn Watkins describes him as “a sallow-faced El Greco-like figure.”