Maulbertsch und die tragische Malerei : die Deckenbilder der Legende des hl. Stephan in der Pfarrkirche von Pápa

Abstract

The narrative unfolding in the ceiling paintings at Pápa can be taken for a painted tragedy of a complex plot based on Aristotle's notions of change of fate (peripeteia) and recognition (anagnorisis), the precedents of which are not to be sought in ceiling painting but much rather in the history of pictures of the classical approach produced in the early modern age. In terms of classical rhetoric, the style of the three ceiling frescoes corresponds to Quintilian's second category, the sublime and vehement mode of representation (genus sublime, genus vehemens) aimed at moving the recipient. The vision of heaven has a crucial role in the cycle, for the celestial sphere, in the plot the promise of salvation ensures areversal of fortune, an auspicious denouement. The earthly events stir the recipients' emotions but the involvement of justice in the afterlife calms them, thus allowing perfect catharsis to happen. The change of fate in the third fresco is related to the moment of recognition. Through the great masters of the 16th and 17th centuries, pathos theory and the conception of peripeteia became a fundamental, even commonplace pictorial narrative method in history painting and Tridentine religious art of the early modern age. With the Pápa ceiling frescoes Franz Anton Maulbertsch (1724–1796) gave evidence of his broad pictorial culture by choosing from among these visual panels and formulas with a keen eye and shaping them to his own liking.