Artemisia Gentileschi –St Cecilia Playing a Lute

As Fondazzjoni Patrimonju Malti prepare for their next major exhibition on music and musical instruments, here’s a look at the life of the patroness of music herself – St Cecilia, whose feast is celebrated on Tuesday. The exhibition will form part of a major project to take place throughout 2018, the year that Valletta will hold the title European Capital of Culture.

Most famous of Roman martyrs, St Cecilia has been celebrated since the fourth century, enjoying considerable popularity during the Counter Reformation in Rome. Born to a Roman patrician family, Cecilia’s story is one of fervent devotion to God. Although pledging a lifelong vow of chastity, she was still given in marriage and famously arrived at her wedding to the sounds of music. Yet, “she sang in her heart to the Lord alone”.

She succeeded in converting her husband and his brother to Christianity, but her refusal to follow the practice of pagan sacrifice angered the Roman prefect. He ordered for her life to be ended, first by suffocation. When that attempt failed, she was beheaded... three blows to the neck, as famously depicted in a sculpture by Stefano Maderno found in the church of St Cecilia in Rome.

Guido Reni – St Cecilia

Another violent story of sainthood and martyrdom, yet we can certainly say that such tales have enriched the story of art with many paintings, prints, sculptures, music scores and works of art alike. For St Cecilia has not only fascinated artists but historians, critics, musicians and even philosophers alike. Nevertheless, Cecilia’s martyrdom is rarely portrayed, but artists instead often opt to depict her with musical instruments, most commonly the organ.

There are various theories as to how music in general, and the organ in particular, came to be associated or identified with St Cecilia. They range from the association with virginity and virtue to the use of the word ‘organum’ meaning ‘instrument’ for the more specific ‘organ’.

The organ was at the peak of its popularity and development during the 15th century and began to play an increasingly more important role in Church music. Adopting the idea from ancient times of connecting music with prayer, the representation of St Cecilia was also included in the circle of images of music praising the glory of God, while also expressing happiness of the souls participating in the glory.

These events will shed light upon traditional instruments and sounds, which albeit having lost popularity in recent years, are intrinsically very much part of our patrimony

This way of representing the saint was very popular during this century particularly north of the Alps and extremely rare in Italian art until the famous painting by Raphael. The instrument in the hands of Raphael’s St Cecilia plays a different role than similar representations till that time. Once again, according to ancient notions taken over by Christianity, music may be the means leading to ecstasy and this was probably the reason for Raphael’s saint using the organ. Once she attained this state of ecstasy, enabling her to hear the angels singing, she lowered the now unnecessary organetto from which some pipes started to fall out. Here are a number of instruments in Raphael’s painting, all scattered in disorder and partly damaged symbolising the secular music of the wedding ceremony, rejected by St Cecilia mentioned in the text of her legend.

Stefano Maderno – St Cecilia

Nevertheless, artists have de-picted her playing a variety of instruments over the years... Guido Reni gives her a violin, Rubens shows her playing the virginals and Mignand paints her strumming a harp. In Artemisia Gentileschi’s Saint Cecilia, she is placed within a dim interior and her most common attribute – the organ –  is barely visible as she is painted playing the lute instead.

Her deep, yellow garments recall Cesare Ripa’s iconographic handbook, the colour symbolising the desire for god. Moreover, the pose in which Artemisia has fashioned her saint with the face turned upward and the eyes gazing towards heaven also follows Ripa’s recommendation.

Raphael – St Cecilia

Although the artist herself may have not consulted such sources, this way of representing the saint was most popular during the 17th century, Gentileschi’s painting being one of the most monumental representations of the time.

John William Waterhouse’s interpretation of the saint, exhibited at the Royal Academy in 1895, accompanies a quotation from Tennyson’s The Palace of Art; “in a clear walled city on the sea. Near gilded organ pipes – slept St Cecilia”. The aim of this painting is wholly decorative and the feeling is entirely removed from realism and the reality of everyday life.

Patrimonju’s next major project is entitled A Musical Journey through the Mediterranean and is guest-curated by Anna Borg Cardona, who is one of the leading authorities on our national musical folklore and folkloristic instruments.

The aim of this project is to tell the story of music in Malta and the Mediterranean from the earliest times to the 20th century through a major exhibition and a series of events including musical performances, public lectures, and workshops by local and foreign artists. These events will shed light upon traditional instruments and sounds, which albeit having lost popularity in recent years, are intrinsically very much part of our patrimony and identity as Maltese, but at the same time also link us to the various cultures around us.

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