The hell of Beelzebub[2], with mystics and indifferent people.

 

The fresco of Beelzebub in Bolognini Chapel.

 

 

 

“… In case the chapel placed in the church of Saint Petronio, of which the testator himself is supporter, at the time of his death wouldn’t be finished and painted, shoul be carried out by the executors of his will, as follows : 

building a double door, the two leaves half closed and half open, as a grating with nails in golden copper and, below, with tondoes including different characters as you can see in the door of Saint Mary of Porta Ravegnana. 

The chapel shall then be painted by a good painter as follows : the ceiling shall be light blue, in a good colour of the price of two ducats per pound, with golden stars as you can see in the chapel placed in the church of  the Lord of Sabina, 

and on the side wall of the same chapel toward the square of the Municipality of Bononia, up to the middle of the wall, shall be painted all the pains of hell, the most awful possible, 

and, on the other wall of the chapel, shall be painted the histories of three Magi kings, occupying the whole space…“[3]  

 

On February 10, 1408, almost at the end of the work, Bartolomeo Bolognini so dictated his testamentary wills to the notary Lodovico Codagnelli : descendant from a family of silk makers in Lucca who came to Bologna in the middle of XIII century, as attracted by taxes concessions offered to silk spinners and having great profits by that, in 1.404 he acquired the patronage on  the fourth and last chapel in Saint Petronio from the municipality of Bologna which built the basilica. 

Bartolomeo Bolognini was not then in his deathbed, and infact the coming years would have kept him aside further satisfactions, notwithstanding he did never engage in politics in those so unsteady years and not only in Bologna, so that his elegant town house – placed near the two spinning machines authorized to draw the hydraulic power for the two mills from Savena channel - could receive distinguished guests both of the town and of the antipopes. 

The Church infact was going through, since the death of pope Gregorio XI in 1.378 and the following election of pope Urbano VI, one of the most severe crisis of its history, culminating with the election of the antipopes at Avignone from dissident cardinals who didn’t recognize the legitimate pontifex of Rome, notwithstanding they acted side by side, as if Avignone had its own legitimacy : added to that, in 1.409 cardinal Cossa got to collect a Council in Pisa which led to the election of a third pope, also not legitimated, and named Alessandro V, which in January 1.410 made his entrance in Bologna, so become the third papal seat. 

As a supporter of one of the chapels of the Basilica, Bartolomeo Bolognini took charge of an official aim : and we wonder when he points out in his wills that “… pains of hell should be painted, awful the most is possible…“ 

As a matter of facts, Middle Ages excluded the possibility of Purgatory. 

At the center of fresco, clearly visible to the bystanders, here is Beelzebub, a meticulous officer but not able to procreate, lacking any sex : while serving a real Agency, time has gone over on earth where any sinner could still mend his, or her own ways, by judging the evil done. 

‘Thinking, a synthesis capacity and specific for humans, here is no more possible, as this is the    kingdom of the indifference : and of the no-difference, among sexes, too. 

The betrayers – as Judas and Brute – are the most bitterly punished, in their own indifference to the benefit received and to their benefactors : they are condemned ‘not‘ to be recognized, gulped down at the entrance and rejected at the exit, in an in-different and endless automatism of Beelzebub-machine - grindstone, mill or ‘tortellini machine‘ – which doesn’t distinguish an ‘object‘ from a living creature, and woe to end up in those torture gears! 

Adulators, greedies, second-rates, enchanters, seducers usually neglected on earthly live, here on the the contrary are condemned to awful penalties right on the body which they were so much offending. And looking at the fresco is cathartic indeed, and not worrying about : even that does still collect consents, as you may see on satisfied faces of whom, nothwithstanding the ticket paid, goes out from the chapel and fully approves. 

To put an end to that mess, Sigismund emperor of Luxembourg then started a Council at Constance until 1.417 when, deposed the last popes, the sole legitimate successor of Saint Peter was elected as Martin the 5th : in May 1.415, date of deposition of Johannes the 23rd it may also be considered the end for frescoes of Bolognini family Chapel, to whom now it would convenient dismantling, fastest as possible, scaffolds and internal frames, just not to go on decorating with the picture of the latest anti-pope of Bologna. 

As a matter of facts, the lunette on the right is still the only unfinished part of the Chapel. 

 

 

                                                    Marina Bilotta Membretti / Cernusco sul Naviglio - January 25, 2020

 

 

[1] The first ‘tortellini machine‘ has been patented at Bologna by Zamboni & Troncon, factory founded by two workers coming from the Military Arsenal which in 1912 got for that machine the Prize Umberto I : a model has been exposed in 2015 at Milan, at the Museo Nazionale della Scienza e della Tecnologia in the itinerary #FoodPeople, together with Italian ancient menus and contemporaries.

[2] The program of frescoes on the left wall of the chapel were cited in the Bartolomeo Bolognini will, and carried out by Giovanni Da Modena after 1408, when he was called to replace the painter Jacopo di Paolo who had to drop the work.

[3] Although not an original, the will of Bartolomeo Bolognini does remain in a few copies, both by Archivio di Stato in Bologna, and by Biblioteca Comunale dell’Archiginnasio, and also by Archivio della Fabbriceria di San Petronio (Libro rosso III dei testamenti). The “church of Lord of Sabina” refers to the church of Saint Clemente, into the Collegio di Spagna founded by card. Gil de Albornoz, archbishop of Sabina.