The solved mystery
for "The fall of Simon Magus" altar painting is here
Only on this website is the solved mystery for Vatican rejection of "The fall of Simon Magus" Pompeo Batoni's painting as altarpiece. This is the link to view
"The fall of Simon Magus"
painting in custody of Cleveland Art Museum in Ohio, USA. There are some differences between this study and the final painting located in Rome at "Santa Maria degli Angeli" church.
"Simon Magus and Peter and Paul competition in Rome" In final painting the Apostle Peter hands are more dramatic and his face is more visible. He is praying with right hand arm extended down with palm up to receive the needed power to win this competition. His left hand is down pointing with the index finger where Simon Magus would hit the pavement. The rest is about the same in both paintings. In early 1746 the Vatican experts in charge with art work in Vatican Basilica awarded Pompeo Batoni with the most important commission of his career an altarpiece for Saint Peter's. Over a period of nine years, he worked on monumental painting, making hundreds of preparatory drawings and oil sketches for the highly complex composition. His extremely ambitious design featured a multitude of facial expression and gestures, encompassing a range of emotions from fervent faith to petrified fear. The artist received a total of 1,200 scuds plus 300 scuds for expenses. The finished canvas was finally exhibited in Saint Peter's on Easer Sunday, 1755 and soon began the difficult process of creating a scale mosaic copy to last better in that humid environment.
What is the Mystery?
In March 1756, the congregation abruptly abandoned the project. Was it because the vehement movement and vigorous rhetoric of Baton's altarpiece? No. They had been working together with Batoni for the last nine years. This is the mysterious decision. I assume it was an intellectual connection between the artist and the Vatican "inspector" responsible for this project. Everything was discussed over nine years. Was this original counselor replaced with a younger more politically minded cleric in the 10th year? The fact is that the criticism of "The fall of Simon Magus" started when the execution of the mosaic had already been under way for nine months, at a cost of some 900 scuds, rather than during the painting public exhibition in April of the previous year. That made Batoni's conviction that he become the victim of intrigue. The artist deep disappointment over the reception of this colossal, costly, and time-consuming history painting coincided with a surge in demand for his portraits. Pompeo Batoni found the wealthy tourist clientele much more congenial than the Vatican's politicized bureaucracy. It was for us to solve mystery of rejection.
What was the painting subject?
What was the picture about and why the story depicted was selected for the altarpiece in the most important Catholic Church on Earth?If you do not know the story of competition between Apostle Peter and the Gnostic Simon Magus in front of emperor Nero and Rome population, you may look at painting and think it does something with early aviation or flying experiments. We need to know the legend to understand the painting. The legend depicted was about a challenge to see which man truly possessed the power of God. Simon said if he could levitate above the city, then he truly possessed the power. As Simon made ready for his flight Peter knelt in prayer, praying that God would not permit such a thing to happen. As scripture has it Simon plunged to earth, and Peter's pray was answered. The Batoni's paint show the emperor Nero on a tall chair between some legion under their flag in background and close to a big Heracles statue symbolizing the accredited believes at that time. The Simon is high in the sky and people at the ground looking high and seem very much surprised seeing Simon falling. The people were violently clearing the pavement for Simon. He did levitate before is the message. Something unexpected happened. We know everything falls because gravity, but we do not know that Simon lost his concentration or Peter and Paul prayers worked. Nero was there because both man demonstrated great powers and he wanted this competition done. For records Peter was the winner.
The Solved Mystery
For me the eighteen century Pompeo Batoni's paint "The fall of Simon Magus" and the strange Vatican rejection after ten years of studies and work has an explanation. The Vatican does not want as altar piece the story of Apostle Peter fighting in sorcery competition a levitating Magus. The Simon Magus was falling but he was falling from the sky where he was levitating. In 1756 after so many centuries (17) the Vatican wanted people better forget about Simon Magus's first Gnostic legend. It was not politically correct for Vatican to advertise Simon Magus any more. Apostle Peter had been already recognized as founder of Christian Church in Rome since first century. Pompeo Batoni's new brilliant paint might stimulate curiosity and questions about old competitors to early Christian religion. That was exactly what happened to me. I needed to know
Who was Simon Magus?
The results of my research are these web pages. I came to the Gnostic Myths trying to explain to you and to myself the Pompeo Batoni's "The Fall of Simon Magus" painting. I solved mystery of Vatican's rejection and I learned about Gnostic Gospels. For me the reward of this work, is the the excitement of discovering more frontiers in knowledge, giving hope, alienating frustrations with the news about
divine spark within...
This page "Solved Mystery" was worked with info sourcing from en/wikipedia.org and the recent book "Pompeo Batoni: Prince of Painters in Eighteenth-Century Rome" by Edgar Peters Bowron and Peter Bjorn Kerber (2007). It contains the picture discussed in my article. The price is very good for the book presentation, text and all color pictures quality.
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