St. Jacob Kisai and St. John de Goto

Description: The oval image contains the representation of two Japanese Jesuits, martyrs, depicted with the tools of their torture. The identification of the figure is hypothetical and based on the figure’s age, probably from the left (viewer’s side): St. Jacob Kisai with a beard and St. John de Goto – the former at the time of joint martyrdom was much older. The background is brown, uniform, brightened only at the top, illuminated by rays, with the outline of clouds. The martyrs stand next to each other, they are shown frontally, from the knees up. In the upper part, both figures are slightly animated, which is accentuated by the movement of the hands and the tilt of the heads to the right (heraldically) side, at a slightly different angle. The saints hold massive bronze crosses and spears with wooden shafts and metal, polished, gray-blue blades with their hands in different ways. The saint on the left holds the cross only with his left hand, his right hand is raised freely, vertically upwards, at the height of his chest. The faces of both figures are shown in a strictly realistic way, but they are devoid of any features of East Asian physiognomy. The man on the left of the image field is older and more mature, his oval face is framed by short stubble, and the younger man with finer, slightly more pointed features; the short hair of both men and the stubble of the saint on the left is brown. Both saints have their eyelids down; their complexion is pale pink. Dressed in Jesuit habits, black, with open collars revealing the edges of the collars of white undershirts; the sleeves of the habits are long and narrow, at the ends of some visible hems of white undergarments. Above the heads of both saints, on the illuminated part of the background, there are two flying angels, covered with pink and blue drapery at the waist, with blond hair, holding wreaths and palms in their hands. Partially openwork frame. In the general outline of an oval, slightly elongated on the vertical axis. At the top, the decoration of the frame is a bit more elaborate, it has the character of a finial, in the center of which a crown is visible. The frame at the bottom is cut straight. Made of symmetrical, multi-layered weaves of acanthus flagellum in the white color of the polished ground, with a sharp styling (but not withering yet). The described weaves are enriched with motifs wholly or partly gold: profiled strips (some in arrangements typical of the so-called regency ornaments, with campanulas), sections of a gathered ribbon of various widths, mostly twisted (with volute endings), independent volutes, palm leaves, laurel branches, and cornucopias. The top of the frame is accentuated with a doubled, ruffled ribbon forming a volute.

Provenance: The painting belongs to a series of nine compositions funded by the Świdnica Jesuits as part of the baroqueization of the Gothic interior of the church in Świdnica, which lasted several decades. The paintings were commissioned in 1700 by two Silesian painters: four from Knechtl and five from Johann Jacob Eybelwieser the Younger. Knechtel probably painted his paintings quite quickly, but the rich frames for them were made ten years later, probably when all the paintings in the cycle were ready.

Characteristics: The painting belongs to a series that was intended to illustrate the merits of the Jesuits in the history of the Catholic Church by showing the most outstanding representatives of the Order, including the martyrs who lost their lives during the Jesuit missions in the East. The Japanese Jesuits presented in the painting next to each other are: on the left (from the viewer) St. Jacob Kisai (born in 1533), who was baptized as an adult and lived in the Jesuit house in Osaka, on the right St. John de Goto (born in 1578, also known as John Soan), associated with the Jesuits since he was 15 years old. Both were arrested in 1596 and a year later in Nagasaka suffered a martyr’s death on the cross. Just before their death, they were admitted to the order and ordained. Beatified in 1627, they were counted among the saints in 1862. In the Świdnica composition, despite some liveliness of the characters, the drama of the pictured situation gives way to the presentation of the prayerful focus of the two saints in the face of cruel death. The identification of the martyrs proposed in this discussion is rather clear.

The painting was formerly mistakenly believed to be a depiction of the Jesuit St. John Berchmans (1599-1621), beatified in 1865 and canonized in 1887, venerated as one of the patrons of youth. Perhaps attention was drawn to the youthful appearance of St. John de Goto (on the Świdnica painting visible on the right side – from the viewer). However, like his companion, he holds the instruments of martyrdom usually depicted when referring to the crucifixion: a cross and a spear. Meanwhile, John Berchmans died in Rome at the age of 22, evidently as a result of illness, and was canonized as a confessor, not a martyr. The earlier study referred to here did not suggest any identification of the second figure in the painting, which must be considered an image of St. Jacob Kisai.