El Greco
The Feast in the House of Simon, c.1608–14, Oil on canvas, 143.3 x 100.4 cm, The Art Institute of Chicago; Gift of Joseph Winterbotham, 1949.397, Courtesy of The Art Institute of Chicago
Anointing as Visionary Illumination
Commentary by Diane Apostolos-Cappadona
On this large canvas painted by El Greco, we see a centrally seated man (Christ) and a woman standing behind him in a yellow dress, the frontal tresses of her red hair accentuated by her white veil. As red hair is traditionally attributed to her, this detail invites us to read the woman as Mary Magdalene.
Between them, they contribute to a dramatic vertical division in the composition which extends through the circular table. This is highlighted by the liquid, ostensibly nard, flowing from the jar held in the woman’s right hand and onto Christ’s head. Its downward movement is balanced as the vertical is reinforced by the rising spire atop the dome in the distance.
At the final session of the Council of Trent on 3 December 1563, the document ‘On Purgatory, the Invocation of Saints, and the Veneration of their Relics and Images’ was promulgated. The Tridentine declaration defined the two functions of religious art as images necessary for the instruction in the articles of the faith, and the visual narration of the events of Christian history. Any lasciviousness was to be avoided and archepiscopal approval of finished works was required before acceptance.
Here, we see El Greco emphasizing the drama of this scriptural narrative by the way he puts to work a mature appreciation of the emotive power of vibrant colour in his treatment of the diverse guests, and by the way he concentrates light within their circle, while darkness lurks at the margins—perhaps an anticipating echo of a Last Supper.
The Tridentine documents elevated saints as mediators between humanity and divinity when understood to have experienced visionary illumination and/or mystical ecstasy. El Greco made this visible by suggesting what almost seems to be an inner luminosity in each figure, to heighten the devotional intensity of the viewer’s contemplation of them. It is as though they, like Christ, have been ‘anointed’, and the Holy Spirit is visibly at work in their persons.
An accompanying Tridentine emphasis was on anointing as consecration—for example, when used as the seal of chrismation or at burial—and on the close connection between such rituals of consecration and the practice of penance, accompanied by tears of compunction.
In this context, Mary Magdalene stands out as the paradigmatic female penitent whose tears and devotion led to her redemption, as well as being a model for the Christian Church as a whole.
