Farsangi feszületek

Abstract

Farewell to meat – carnevale – was the origin of the initially innocent merry-making customs that came into use around Shrovetide, near the Lenten season. This frolicking gradually deteriorated so much that Pope Benedict XIV had to issue a decree “inter cetera de bacchanalibus” to warn the believers. Some peculiar crucifix representations allude to these carnival excesses in a moralizing, allegorical form. In the engraved icon of Hieronymus Wierix (1553–1619) (owned by the author) the crucifix allegory shows perhaps the embodiments of the seven deadly sins. They try to make the youth standing at the foot of the cross swerve away from pious life. The Latin caption of the engraving is from St Paul's letter to the Romans (Rom 8,35; 8,38–39). The second important depiction of the theme is in the graphic collection of the Benedictine abbey of Göttweig. The engraved sheet is the work of Matthäus Küsell (1629–1681) after Johann Christoph Storer's (1611?–1671) drawing. The bustling scene takes place on Calvary Hill. In the celestial sphere, on both sides of the darkened Sun and Moon, angels are hovering, two of them holding a banderol. Among the Vice figures torturing Christ a few characters of the Passion can also be discovered: Longinus with the lance, the soldiers who cast lots, the figure offering the sponge. In the right-hand corner a weeping angel is guarding the Arma Christi. The banderol refers to the crucified Christ, the rest of the characters actualize the scenario of Good Friday in a figurative sense. The latest graphic piece of the theme is an engraving possibly by Franz Karl Heissig (?–?) (owned by the author) from the mid-18th century. The Latin and German inscriptions unmistakably refer to the message of carnival crosses and also make allusions to the bacchanals of pagan Rome. The penitent Mary Magdalene at the foot of the cross is the only positive figure, the rest around her are embodiments of immoderate carnival revelries.