Elección de Lenin Moreno en Ecuador

Saul of Tarsus sought to rid Judaism of Christian influence first by dragging believers to prison during persecutions in Jerusalem. Then, according to Acts 9:1-19, he set out for

Damascus intent on suppressing the cult further. Michelangelo shows the moment during this journey in which a light flashed from heaven, knocking Saul from his horse. A powerful voice demanded, “Saul, Saul, why do you persecute me?” Saul asked who was speaking; the voice answered that it was Jesus. Saul was then instructed to go to Damascus, but being struck blind,

57

Kuntz, “Designed for Ceremony,” 233-36.

58

Additional frescoes, commissioned by Gregory XIII, were painted in the chapel by Lorenzo Sabbatini (1573-76) and Federico Zuccari in two campaigns (1580-81 and 1583-85). For studies of the decorations in the Sala Regia, see Loren Partridge and Randolph Starn, “Triumphalism and the Sala Regia in the Vatican,” in “All the World’s a Stage... ”:Art and

Pageantry in the Renaissance and Baroque, Papers in Art History from the Pennsylvania State

University v. 6 (University Park, Pa: Pennsylvania State University, 1990): 22-81; and Davidson, “Decoration of the Sala Regia.”

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he required the guidance of his companions. For three sightless days, he neither ate nor drank. In Damascus, Ananias, whom God had instructed, laid his hands on Saul. When Ananias touched Saul’s eyes, the Holy Spirit filled the blind man and something like scales fell from his eyes. Augmenting the biblical account, the Golden Legend gives Christ’s instruction to Saul “Take upon yourself the depths of my humility and rid your eyes of the scales of pride.”59 No longer sightless, he was baptized and began to preach in the name of Christ. The fresco

foreshadows events, many years later, when Paul will be blindfolded with his follower Plantilla’s veil, beheaded and fall to the ground as a martyr. 60 In the bronze relief of Paul’s martyrdom cast in 1447 for St. Peter’s Basilica, Filarete depicts Paul blindfolded just prior to his execution (fig. 3.11). Although Michelangelo’s fresco emphasizes the moment when Saul undergoes spiritual conversion, his helpless, prostrate position suggests death and his blindness

foreshadows the covering of his eyes before martyrdom. The scene in Michelangelo’s fresco demonstrates Christ’s direct involvement with selecting a worthy man to spread the Word and guide the faithful and reminds viewers how the apostles suffered for their faith. I will return to the fresco for more extensive analysis.

On the opposite side of the chapel, facing the painting of Saul, Michelangelo painted the

Crucifixion of Peter head- down as described by Eusebius (Church History, III, 1.2).61 Prior to this martyrdom scene, Peter had been arrested and imprisoned in Rome with Paul. The two

59

Jacobus Voragine, Golden Legend: Readings on the Saints, trans. William G. Ryan. (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1993)1:119.

60

Ibid.,1: 353.

61

The manner of Peter’s martyrdom is also discussed in Voragine, Golden Legend, 1: 347.

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apostles converted and baptized their jailors, Processus and Martinian; the new Christians, in turn, set the prisoners free.62 Voragine cites Pope Leo I and Pope Linus as sources on Peter’s martyrdom, which he recounts as follows: urged by his followers, Peter headed out of the city in search of safety.63 On the road from Rome, he met Christ walking into the city and asked, “Lord, where are you going?” Jesus answered, “To Rome, to be crucified again.” When Peter exclaimed that he would join his lord, Christ ascended to heaven. 64 The apostle realized that it was his own execution that was foretold, and returned to accept his fate. Nero’s men arrested Peter, planning to crucify him. But the humble apostle insisted that he was unworthy to be executed in the same fashion as Jesus, so he was crucified upside-down.65 Michelangelo’s fresco shows Peter nailed to the cross while brawny figures prepare to heft the wooden beam into a hole in the ground. The narrative suggests that the first pope, and the model for his successors to follow, was a true martyr chosen by Christ. Not only was he willing to die for his love of the Lord, but he did so with humility. As the locus sanctus of Peter’s tomb, and probably his execution, the Vatican was a tangible link to the apostle’s relics and, by extension, to Christ. The scenes Michelangelo painted in the Pauline Chapel reinforce a web of connections linking

62

Processus and Martinian were later arrested, beaten and beheaded under Nero’s

authority. Their relics are now found in one of the seven privileged altars in St. Peter’s Basilica. See Louise Rice, The Altars and Altarpieces of New St. Peter’s: Outfitting the Basilica, 1621-

1666 (Cambridge, U.K.; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 18-19. 63

Voragine, Golden Legend, 1:345.

64

Ibid., cites Leo and Marcellus as sources.

65

In addition to Voragine (as cited above), other church historians recorded Peter’s crucifixion upside-down. See, for example, Bartolomeo Platina, Lives of the Popes, ed. and trans. by Anthony D’Elia, Vol. 1, I Tatti Renaissance Library (Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 2008), 35. These events should not be confused with Peter’s imprisonment in Jerusalem by Herod Agrippa I (Acts 12: 6-19). As Raphael depicted in the Stanza d’Eliodoro (Apostolic Palace, Vatican), an angel freed the apostle from that prison.

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the sacred events, places and figures of the early church in Rome with those of the Renaissance popes.