A single detail often draws you towards a painting.
Sometimes it is as subtle as Proust's 'little
patch of yellow wall' in Vermeer's
View of Delft.
Often it is more emphatic
than that.
I've already paid three
visits to Bartolomé Bermejo's sumptuous
Saint
Michael Triumphant over the Devil featured in The National Gallery's
small but fascinating exhibition.
And
what keeps me coming back are the rainbow wings that sprout strikingly out of
the archangel Michael's shoulder-blades.
Not for Bermejo off-white swan feathers or a heavenly golden glow, but
rather a pair of multicoloured appendages that put me in mind of those
belonging to one of the more exotic species of dragonfly.
In the hands of a lesser artist this singular
detail could have made for a kitschy gimmick, grounding Michael
permanently.
But here they make the
central figure in this dramatic painting tower: Michael is otherworldly; the
pathetic, almost cartoon-like beast, is skewered mercilessly.
The painting's benefactor - Antoni Joan, a
rich Spanish Lord, securing his one-way trip to paradise - looks on with
suitably prayerful awe.
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| Saint Michael Triumphant Over the Devil (1468) |
These small, free exhibitions easily pass you by.
No posters on the Tube; reviews, if any,
hidden away at the back of the newspaper; artists that you might not have even
heard of.
Indeed, Bermejo is completely
new to me.
The Spanish Master, active in
the second half of the 15
th century, dazzles us with his use of
colour.
That deep, rich red on Michael's
cloak is apparent in the paintings of so many Renaissance artists, but it is one
that you never tire of.
And Bermejo is
wonderful at the detail, too.
Reproductions don't come close to picking up the astonishing delineation
of the city of Jerusalem in the archangel's armour.
There are only five paintings in this tiny and discrete
exhibition, but this allows you to focus and concentrate without the anxious
urge to hurry and ration out your attention span.
And as you gaze, you tune in to the
quiddity - Simon Schama's word that
helped him unpack the peerless Rembrandt – of this incredible painter.
I love the distinctness of the faces in the
Desplà Pietà hanging alongside
the
Saint Michael.
Although once I'd decided that the Saint Jerome, on the far left of the painting, had the look of
Coronation Street's
Reg Holdsworth, the gravitas and pity required of a
pietà
was somewhat diluted.
Although maybe
that's part of the point: contrast the mundane features of the earthly saint with the androgynous
serenity of Michael.
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| Desplà Pietà (1490) |
I thought my time with the
Saint Michael was limited.
The exhibition closes at the weekend – appropriately at Michaelmas - and
I planned one more visit before the painting returned to its permanent
home.
I was more than pleased to learn
that this is actually the National Gallery.
The painting has been under my nose all this time and I’d never even
noticed.
I shall pay Michael the
occasional visit.
Postscript: Glancing at some of the depictions of Michael
versus the Devil did reveal another variation on angel wings. Nearly forty years after the Bermejo, Raphael's
Saint Michael Vanquishing Satan depicts our hero with the wings of either a kestrel or a jay. The subject would seemingly demand the former,
but having once seen a hungry jay tear apart a baby great tit, I wouldn't be so sure.
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| Raphael, Saint Michael Vanquishing Satan (1518) |
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