Paris Bordone (Treviso, 1500 - 1571, Venice)
Christ Disputing in the Temple, 1543-1547
Oil on canvas , 168 x 234 cm (66 1/8 x 92 1/8 in.)
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This large horizontal oil painting depicts a scene from the New Testament, where the young Jesus is found discussing aspects of Jewish law with scholars in the Temple at Jerusalem. The young Jesus is seated on a tall, stepped chair at the right of the painting, and wears a pink robe and dark blue mantle. His feet are bare and he has a halo of radiating light around his head. He uses his two hands to make rhetorical gestures, and does not look at the large book that is set before him on a plinth. He is surrounded by robed adult scholars who hold books and scrolls, and some who seem to be speaking and arguing with their hands. To the left, Jesus' parents, Mary and Joseph, enter the scene to see their son. Mary is dressed similarly to Jesus, with a blue mantle that covers her head, and a pink robe. Joseph, an old bearded man, wears a dark blue robe and orange mantle. The scene takes place in the Temple, which is shown as a columned room decorated with statues and a geometrically-patterned floor.
Titian Room
Commentary
The subject of the painting is Christ Disputing in the Temple, the only event from Christ’s childhood mentioned in the Gospels. The theme of religious debate offered a painter ample opportunity to portray a variety of puzzled and agitated facial expressions. Paris Bordone underscored the theme of Christianity’s imminent triumph by making the brightly lit Christ Child the calm center of a composition of muscular figures in restless poses. Books and scrolls in simulated Hebrew lettering and a bell at the lower right lie in disarray. Punctuating this confusion is the very human expression of Christ’s frantic parents who enter at the upper left; you can almost hear Mary whine, “We’ve been looking all over for you!”
A cautious painter who tended to react to developments in Venetian painting rather than initiate them, Paris Bordone trained under Titian and emulated Titian’s style of the 1510s and 1520s – albeit in a more timid mode – for his entire career. This painting (which has been variously dated between the mid-1530s and 1545) seems indebted to a picture of the same subject by the young Tintoretto (Museo del Duomo, Milan), which must date from the early 1540s. Bordone’s painting is typically Venetian in its layering of impasto to create a surface resonant with rich coloring, particularly in the costumes, whose folds have squirmy lives of their own. Characteristically Venetian as well is the way Paris improvised during the process of painting: major changes include shifting Christ from left of the central door to the right, altering the shape of the throne, and adding the decorated step in the foreground.
That Mrs. Gardner didn’t always collect “names” confirms her status as a collector. Buying a picture by Paris Bordone would not have furthered her social position, nor the reputation of her collection. Rather, she selected this masterpiece by a second-tier artist in order to provide context for paintings by more famous artists, especially Titian’s Europa, and also for its intrinsic beauty and drama.Gardner bought the picture from J. P. Richter, a noted scholar of Leonardo da Vinci, who also had a reputation as a dodgy dealer.Yet Richter certainly had an eye for quality; he sold Mrs. Gardner her painting by Giotto.
Source: Frederick Ilchman, "Christ Disputing in the Temple," in Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 109.
A cautious painter who tended to react to developments in Venetian painting rather than initiate them, Paris Bordone trained under Titian and emulated Titian’s style of the 1510s and 1520s – albeit in a more timid mode – for his entire career. This painting (which has been variously dated between the mid-1530s and 1545) seems indebted to a picture of the same subject by the young Tintoretto (Museo del Duomo, Milan), which must date from the early 1540s. Bordone’s painting is typically Venetian in its layering of impasto to create a surface resonant with rich coloring, particularly in the costumes, whose folds have squirmy lives of their own. Characteristically Venetian as well is the way Paris improvised during the process of painting: major changes include shifting Christ from left of the central door to the right, altering the shape of the throne, and adding the decorated step in the foreground.
That Mrs. Gardner didn’t always collect “names” confirms her status as a collector. Buying a picture by Paris Bordone would not have furthered her social position, nor the reputation of her collection. Rather, she selected this masterpiece by a second-tier artist in order to provide context for paintings by more famous artists, especially Titian’s Europa, and also for its intrinsic beauty and drama.Gardner bought the picture from J. P. Richter, a noted scholar of Leonardo da Vinci, who also had a reputation as a dodgy dealer.Yet Richter certainly had an eye for quality; he sold Mrs. Gardner her painting by Giotto.
Source: Frederick Ilchman, "Christ Disputing in the Temple," in Eye of the Beholder, edited by Alan Chong et al. (Boston: ISGM and Beacon Press, 2003): 109.