The Easter Candle
Between Light and Sacred Art
I immediately accepted with great pleasure the appointment of Mons. Carlino, archpriest of the Parish of Santa Maria Assunta in Cividale, for making the decoration of the Easter candle.
The choice of such a representative subject inspired by the altar of Ratchis was a challenge I took up with enthusiasm: to combine the image of “Maiestas Domini” with the technique - so precious to me - of the iconography, on such a delicate and cylindrical base as a candle.
Moreover, proud of my origins, I wanted to express myself as much as possible in a task that means to valorize one of the most historically important forms of art in my area.
First of all, I carefully designed the preparatory drawing, studying the spaces, the harmony of form and proportions, which took me a lot of time.
The second step was gilding: I used oil-gilding technique. I gently applied the gold leaf to the areas of the wax to be decorated: the greatest difficulty was working on a cylindrical base.
Then I transferred the drawing to the gilding of the wax, using the engraving technique, doing a little bit of pressure with an awl.
Following the technique of iconography, I gave a basis to the images then I picked up the lines of the drawing and finally painted all the different parts of the subject with the technique of the egg-based tempera, using an egg emulsion as pigment binder.
The image was decorated with lapis lazuli crystal stones for the nimbo and, for the clothes, I chose the colors that were as close as possible to the original ones.
The Easter Candle in Liturgy
(Elisa Morandini, Direttrice del Museo Cristiano e Tesoro del Duomo di Cividale del Friuli)
The Easter candle is lit during the Easter Vigil. It symbolizes the Risen Christ and the victory of light over darkness, of life over death.
There is no specific iconography for the decoration of the candle, but there are some representative symbols of Easter time: the first and the last letters of the Greek alphabet Alpha and Omega, meaning that Jesus is both the beginning and end of all things; the cross, representing our spiritual journey; five incense grains on the sides of the cross and a picture of the Risen Christ.
On the occasion of last Easter, Don Livio had chosen the oldest image of Christ in town: the Maiestas Domini, carved in the front of the altar of Ratchis.
In this work Jesus Christ is represented as a young man still beardless. He is seated on a throne, as can be seen from the folds of his garment at his knees; with one hand he is holding a cartouche and in the other hand two fingers are to touch doing a sign which at the time meant “I’m talking to you”.
The halo, made of gold foil - now missing -, leaves the carved track of the cross and the bezels of three glass pastes, probably blue, representing the color of the Passion.
Even his robe represents his majesty. Two were the colors that in the Middle Ages canonically represented the king or a real character: green for the robe and purple for the mantle. The same colors that can be admired in the altar.
Two seraphim, angels with six wings, only two of which are open and also come out from the almond-shaped laurel and from the thousand eyes made by red glazed paste, assist and protect him.
The angels’ wings, painted in ochre, are not coated with gold foils, which were usually used because of their importance; this is probably an artistic artifice to prevent their shining from obscuring the image of Christ.
The scene is almond-shaped and decorated with laurel and its light blue background is for bringing out the corporeity and importance of Jesus.
Above the head of Jesus we can see the hand of God the Father bursting from the clouds, once colored with rainbow colours as a symbol of the alliance between God and man, crosses the sky represented by the cordoned frame and finally enters the laurel almond to welcome his son.