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| Brother Antony Moscheni, SJ |
It is noted in the life of St. Thomas Acquinas that our Lord once appeared to him and said: "Thomas, you have written much and well of me. What reward would you like to have?". And the reply of St. Thomas is well known. "Lord, that I may know thee yet more and more and nothing else." Thinking of the humble Brother Moscheni the incident in St. Thomas's life crossed my mind. Well could our Lord have addressed and perhaps he did address the same words to him. "Antony much and well you have pictured me? Ask for your reward," And the reply. It has remained a secret of the brother. Did he ask to die a missionary artist in India, or perhaps, like St. Thomas to know and love him more and to make him known and loved. Perhaps both. He died a martyr in his art in India and has and is continuing to make known his master through his paintings in St. Aloysius College, Mangalore in the Holy Name Church, Bombay, and in the Cathedral at Cochin, besides in Italy, Dalmatia, and Albania, Who can count the hearts and minds that have sighed an act of love and whispered a prayer after seeing those paintings, for no one can remain a silent spectator while going through panorama of Christ's life and of his saints left in paint by Brother Antony Moscheni.
And who is this Brother Antony Moscheni? And what has he painted to be called as some have done the "Michael Angelo" of Mangalore?
To speak fittingly of Brother Moscheni's life and work one should have as gifted a pen as the Brother's own brush in that other medium of paint.
Antony Moscheni was born at Stezzano, near Bergamo, in Lombardy, on January 17, 1854. From his parents and his sisters, he early imbibed sentiments of tender piety. Drawing was the favourite amusement of his boyhood. While attending the Gymnasium at the age of twelve, he used to spend all his free time in sketching a variety of scenes. The battle-field, however, had a special attraction for him, as the war was waging at this period between Italy and Austria. Seeing the boy's budding genius Antony's relations sent him to the far-famed Academia Carrara in Bergamo. This he attended for several years, and under the tuition of able masters attained considerable proficiency in the art of painting. He then went to Rome where he spent about a year studying the master pieces of the Vatican. On his return home he practised his profession with signal success and applause. His genius seems to have inclined in particular to fresco-painting, and the frescoes which his native town has preserved are such as will hand down his name to posterity.
In 1889 at the age of 35 he renounced the prospects of a career in the world and sought admittance into the Society of Jesus as a Coadjutor Brother. After the usual two years of noviceship, he was permitted to exercise his artistic talents. He spent two years in adorning several churches and chapels in Italy, Dalmatia and Albania. He was then told off to the Mangalore Mission to paint the Chapel of St. Aloysius College, which he did in little more than two years.
His beautiful frescoes and paintings in canvas which adorn this chapel elicit the admiration of every visitor, Christian or otherwise, and they have made it a centre of attraction for the public as one of the most magnificent structures for divine worship in India.
As the visitor enters by the main door and lifts up his gaze, he cannot stand an unmoved spectator of the glories with which the ceiling is resplendent. For there we have vivid tableaux, representing in their chronological order some of the most important events in the life of Saint Aloysius Gonzaga, to whom the church is dedicated. Thus, in the first panel we are shown how the little Aloysius pronounced the vow of perpetual chastity before the miraculous painting of the Annunciation in the church of the "Annunziata" in the city of Florence; in the next how he gathered the simple towns folk and preached to them. And then we are successively present at his First Communion which he received at the hand of St. Charles Borromeo; at his deed of renunciation of the Marquisate of Castiglione in the presence of the united power and pomp of his noble family; and at his reception into the Society of Jesus by St. Francis Borgia, the one-time Duke of Gandia and Viceroy of Catalonia. The story of his life in the Society is continued into the Sanctuary. On the wall behind the main altar, Aloysius is seen engaged in the heroic work of tending the plague-stricken. In another picture to the right, he lifts up his grateful heart to heaven for having been instrumental in bringing to an end a feud between his brother and uncle; and to the left, the Saint closes his holy life by a death precious in the sight of God, a victim of charity in the service of the plague-stricken, while the angels are hastening to welcome him into the realms of bliss above.
Along the whole length of space sloping down from the topmost part of the ceiling towards the upper row of arches, the twelve apostles hold exclusive sway; seated on thrones connected with one another by an elegant floral wreath which without obtruding itself upon the notice of the beholder, spreads its thousand and one charms in a quiet unostentatious manner. The wreath runs right round the inside of the church, being caught up at convenient distances by chubby cherubs, no two of whom anywhere assume the same posture.
The spaces on either side of the arches are filled in with the Saints of the Society-its apostles and missionaries, such as Peter Faber, Ven. Joseph Anchieta, St. John de Britto and St. Francis Regis; its heroic roll of martyrs, such as Bl. Zola, Azvedo, Spinola, Campion, Bobola, and Ven. Criminale- all in fact that have achieved eminence in the ways of sanctity, find an honoured place in this brilliant galaxy of heaven's heroes. Nor are the other children of the Church, the fruitful Mother of Saints, at all excluded. For the chief glories of the Augustinian, Franciscan, Carthusian, Dominican and other religious orders, as well as some of the best known martyrs, confessors and virgins of the Universal Church, adorn those heights and look lovingly down upon the Congregation, encouraging them to fight the good fight, and be crowned like themselves with the laurel wreath of victory.
As we ascend the steps of the Sanctuary, the noble figure of St. Ignatius, in alb and chasuble, with the open book of the Constitutions in his hand, beams on us; and on the opposite side, St. Francis in surplice and stole, holding his crucifix aloft in one hand, the other resting on the shoulders of a little Indian boy, beckons us heavenwards. Beneath is the artistic mural slab put up in memory of an Irish Jesuit, Fr. Ryan-a fitting place for one who, like his great patron, devoted himself wholly to the spiritual welfare of the people he loved so well.
The ceiling over the chancel depicts for us the most holy Trinity. Mary and Joseph in glory-these two creatures that came into the closest connection with the workings of the Trinity ad extra, by the position they occupy, throw the central picture into relief. The monogram of the Society, in a framework of a most elaborate design, together with the smiling cherub faces and trumpet-blowing angels and the wealth of flowers skillfully arranged, gives the whole a pleasing appearance. The four corner spaces of the two arches are ornamented with life-size paintings of the four Evangelists, with the typical animal beside each. On the Epistle side stands a group of three imitation statues representing Our Lord as found in the temple by his sorrowing parents. On the Gospel side there is a corresponding group, where the young man in the Gospel learns from Our Lord which is the perfect state of life. The appropriateness of these two Gospel incidents, in a College chapel, needs no comment. The one shows the divine exemplar stifling the Voice of nature at the call of duty; the other the invitation held out to the young man at the parting of the ways.
Now let us descend and turn to the head of the southern aisle. On one side of our Lady's altar are large paintings of our First Parents after the Fall; on the other, the Second Eve, the star-crowned Queen tramples with her viginal foot on the head of the infernal serpent. On the walls enclosing the altar is portrayed the life-history of Mary, beginning with the prophetic vision of her future immaculate birth, down to the moment when her pure soul, in an ecstasy of love, leaves the tabernacle of flesh to fly to the embraces of her Son. That part of the ceiling which forms a canopy over this altar shows Our Lord in the act of crowning his Mother as Queen of heaven and earth.
Around the corresponding altar of St. Joseph, in the southern aisle, is gathered together whatever is calculated to inspire us with reverence and love for the glorious Patriarch. For this purpose, the Old Testament prototypes are portrayed. The vain search for a night's lodgings in over-crowded Bethlehem, the lonely Flight into Egypt, the workshop where St. Joseph earned the bread that was to support the life of Him who was the Life of the world-all these scenes warm our hearts with love for the dear Saint. The canopy above represents the death-scene, or rather his happy passage into eternity, cheered and comforted by the hallowed presence of Jesus and Mary.
In our tour round the Church, following the course of the aisles from left to right, we are met by a rapid succession of the chief Mysteries in the Public Life of Our Lord. Nay, our way lies not only between, but also under a series of the most glowing portraits, as the ceiling under the gallery has been utilized to illustrate in like manner the life and teachings of our Divine Saviour. Some typical miracles, showing, for example, his control over the material world, as evidenced in the changing of water into wine at the marriage feast of Cana; over health and Sickness, as exemplified in the cure of the servant of the centurion of Capernaum: over life and death, as instanced in the raising of Lazarus; Over the kingdom of the Evil one, as shown in expelling demons from the possessed - all these are given due prominence that they may carry conviction to the mind concerning the divinity of Jesus Christ. Nor has his divine teaching, as embodied in his immortal parables, been lost sight of. Thus, as we cross over to the right aisle, we behold representations of the parables familiar to all, e.g., that of the prodigal son, of the Good Samaritan, of the Sower of cockle and of the foolish virgins. As we move up the right aisle, the concluding mysteries appropriately terminate the splendid gallery of pictures. The institution of the Eucharist is placed in juxtaposition with the tragic scene on the hilltop of Calvary. Thus, reminding one of the touching words of St. Paul, in which he emphasizes the greatness of the Eucharistic gift by noting the time when it was made. The ignominy of the Cross is immediately followed by the glory of the Resurrection which sets the seal on all the miracles wrought by Jesus in his life time proof of the divinity of his mission and of his perfect equality with God the Father. Beneath each one of these pictures there is a scroll containing explanatory texts from Scripture.
The paintings which Br. Moscheni has left in the St. Aloysius Chapel are of two kinds: those in oil paint on canvas and frescoes in water colour on the walls. The six large pictures depicting the main events in the life of St. Aloysius, the picture of the most Blessed Trinity above the sanctuary, and the twenty-one pictures under the loft along the two aisles taken up with the scriptural history of the life of Christ are in oil paint. The others are all in fresco style the water colour on wet plaster which having been absorbed into the plaster has become a part of the wall.
It was painful to see him for hours together pinned to at scaffold, toiling under the ceiling or on the walls of a church, with no proper circulation of air, and in our Indian climate conditions which must have been suffocating to him. When he finished his work because of fading sunlight, after a short walk up and down the square, he would be in his room working still, designing, studying his own plans, preparing his sketches, thus wasting not a minute. This had to be so, for his quick speed made people wonder: he would study and prepare everything in his room, and when he set to frescoing, he worked with an adroit and sure hand.
Another legacy Br Moscheni has left for posterity is the telling scene filling the whole of the back wall of the Fathers' refectory, of the Last Supper. On the other three walls, we are given in miniature the scenes of Loyola, Pampalona, Castille, Monserrat, Manresa and Xavier. For a Jesuit these names are so familiar that he feels transported to the times of the founding of the society.
And here is a marvel, but not to a real artist, to a real Christian who takes in all and lifts it up to God's glory. The keen painter's eye and the Christian sense of values in Brother Moscheni did not hesitate to depict in paint, the goddess of knowledge Sarasvati in all her glory on the College stage fittings. The marvel is that a 100 years ago he should have turned what we may say in our modern trend an adaptionist.
This is how one writes about this piece of art.
"The figure of Sarasvati, the Goddess of Knowledge, on the proscenium of the College stage, is drawn with admirable skill and painted with a deep remarkable rhythmic quality which generally characterizes Indian art throughout the ages. The poise, the grace of movement, and the eloquent gesture of the figure are brought into relief. Brother Moscheni, in putting this goddess up in such a prominent place in a Catholic College about 80 years ago, when the idea of adaptation and dialogue was yet not much heard of, and the signs of India's independence were still in the offing, showed that he was a man of extraordinary vision, and that he was nearly a century ahead of his times."
Unfortunately, a few years back when the stage was renewed, to appeal to the modern eye with modern fittings the painting was taken down and we hope it has been preserved.
What we have attempted here is only a hurried description of the exquisite marvels in paint wrought by a simple unassuming Brother. Pages would be required to appropriately describe the beauty, freshness, richness originality and variety of all the paintings of this Church. Evidently the artist reveals himself as a man of God and well acquainted with the Holy Scripture. The exuberance of the sanctity of his inspired soul was in some degree materialized in those marvelous paintings.
"What an inspiring place this must be!" cried Lord Willingdon when, as Governor of Madras, he first visited the chapel. To teachers and students, it has been the centre round which their whole activity has turned, the place where hearts have been moulded and shaped in the likeness of Christ.
And it has truly been "an inspiring place" of vocations, as over five hundred students have felt in the College chapel the call of the divine Master. As to the thousands and thousands of non-Catholics, not only from Mangalore but from distant parts of India as well, who yearly come to visit it, the Chapel is undoubtedly the best exponent of Christianity, in a language everyone can understand.
In the original intentions of his superiors, Br. Moscheni was to have returned to Europe on the completion of his work at the College. But the demand on the productions of his brush was such as to detain him in India till his death, not to mention his work in the chapel of the hospital at Kankanady, in the Codialbail Chapel, and in the church at Agrar, Br. Moscheni painted the two side-altars in the church of St. Joseph's Seminary, Mangalore. In one of these side-altars he represented the Grotto of Lourdes, which alone would bear sufficient testimony to his artistic powers. In the other, a beautiful tableau of St. Ignatius with his sons in glory pays a high and well-merited tribute to the Father and Founder of the Society of Jesus. At the Seminary he also showed himself to be a master of the plastic art when he moulded several clay statues now preserved in its church. Mangalore still remembers the beautiful crib which Br. Moscheni exhibited during the Christmas season of 1901. It was worthy of the admiring gaze of the thousands who flocked to see it during the whole fortnight.
Even so, not all his activity ended there: in spare moments, he set to the work of illustrating the Sacred Scriptures to which he applied himself with much love. Who would have believed that at his death he had completed ten big albums! Even among his brethren only a few knew of this work or had the good fortune of seeing it. During the College Golden Jubilee celebrations Brother Moscheni's sketches from these albums were exhibited and admired. His piety was no whit less remarkable than his art, for each evening he would go over in spirit some scene dear to the Christian; and pan and brush would join to paint the picture.
The good Brother had fairly satisfied the demands of Mangalore when the Archbishop of Bombay requested him to do for the Church of the Holy Name what he had done for St. Aloysius College Chapel. Indeed, these two churches will endure for years as the two great monuments of his genius in India. The Bishop of Cochin was the next to avail himself of the brother’s services for the further adornment of his beautiful Cathedral. The artist had scarcely completed his work in the sanctuary when he was taken ill with an acute type of dysentery in the beginning of September of 1905. The doctors strove to stay the progress of the disease and for a time the patient seemed to recover. As soon as he felt better, he resumed his brush, intent on completing his work. But he was destined to paint no more. His illness declared itself with renewed vigour. From the Santa Cruz High School, he was taken to the Bishop's Palace, where the Very Rev. Fr. Sebastian de Oliviera Xavier, brother and secretary of the Bishop of Cochin, spared no effort to bring him round. But the patient grew worse and worse. He was removed to the hospital at Magnamey. He who used to write either to the Monsignor or to his superior or to Br Doneda, after coming to Magnamey did not write anymore except a few lines on the feast of St. Alphonsus, in which he mentioned that he received two graces from the Brother Saint: one, that he felt a little better and the other that he had an hour of natural sleep and thus had got up almost a different man. But the improvement was very short-lived.
On Wednesday evening, November 15, fortified with the last Sacraments, he went to see face to face the divine Master who had been the supreme love of his whole life and whom he had tried, in ever various ways, to fix on canvas for the love and admiration of all. Br Moscheni's remains lie buried in the Catholic cemetery at Cochin.
What we have seen thus far is mostly Moscheni the artist. But the other facets of his life- as a religious and as a man are no less striking. He had renounced worldly glory in order to follow Christ the poor in the Society of Jesus. When his works in the churches of Europe were bringing him fame and would have won many more admirers, he had no second thought when he was told to go to the Missions. Though he very well knew that the obnoxious fumes of fresh paint would cost him, yet he did not shirk it. In his illness he was most resigned and ever prepared for any eventuality, even for the sacrifice of his life when and in the manner the Lord would require.
One who could have shone in the world by his extraordinary talents of a painter preferred to be unknown to men and to alternate with his exquisite works of the pannels the humble tasks of our Coadjutor Brothers; for the love of Jesus, he preferred the privation, obedience and austerities of religious life to the comforts and freedom of life. Though endowed with far superior talents and culture, he made himself one with the other Brothers in everything; he always found delight in their conversation, and it was a great mortification for him to be destined in his last days to work in places where he could not find them except rarely. He made up for it by writing to them frequently and entertaining them with witticisms and amusing cartoons which he could produce in plenty. In return he expected his brethren to correspond with him often. Here we see the warm personality of a 'community man' forced by circumstances to live outside a community.
When once there was a pestilence in the Mission, a Jesuit Father asked the Brothers one day if any of them felt inclined to offer themselves to the service of the victims in the hospital.
Br Moscheni said to a confrere "Let's too offer ourselves." When it was pointed out to him that he was fully engaged already in the service of the Lord, and that there would be others volunteering, he replied: "what could be a better way to end ones life than a beautiful act of love. And he said this with all sincerity and conviction."
He was a true Christian missionary. when on earth he preached Christ with his life and death; now he does so through the works he has left behind.
A religious from across the seas had spent his energies and his life working in his field of action to make known the true God and his faith to his brethren of far off India. He had voluntarily left behind not only his motherland but also his brothers in religion to labour where duty called him, and breathed his last in the field of his labour, offering with a great heart the sacrifice of his life after having offered that of his energies.
A portrait of the Brother hangs in the portico of St. Aloysius College. It is by one of his pupils Mr. Gama who learnt the art from the brother. But his real portrait the portrait of his heart and mind, of the man, the religious the Jesuit in him is in his paintings which reflect his contemplations and meditations. Our Lord with the Church Triumphant and the whole of creation with its beauty and marvels were in his thoughts which flowed through his artistic hands. The man is in his art, in the use he has made of God's gift to him. Like the humble carpenter of Nazareth, the humble painter of Mangalore, we feel sure, is high in God's eye and is an example to us to make use of our talents for God in the service of man.
Brother Antony Moscheni, S.J.
1854, 18 Jan. Born in Stezzano, near Bergamo attends Accademia di Belle Arti in Bergamo Studies the masterpieces of the Vat, Gall., Rome
1889 30 Jul, Enters the SJ in Nov. Portore, Austria
1890 Novice do.
1891 First Vows do.
1892 Paints in Coll. Pomt., Scutari, Albania
1893 do.
1894 Paints in Resid. Ragusa, in Dalmazia
1895 do.
1896-1898 Paints in Resid. Piacenza
1898 24 Dec. Arrives in Mangalore
1899 in Feb. Begins the painting of the Church of S.A. Coll.
do 19 Sep Final Vows do.
1900 Continues Painting do.
1901 22 Aug. Completes the paintings of do.
1903 in Oct. Goes to Bombay to paint the Church of the Holy name
1905 23 Mar. Returns from Bombay.
do Goes to Cochin to paint the Cathedral
1905 15 Nov Dies in the Lord in Magname, near Verapoli, Aet, an. 51
Soc. 16 and is buried in the Cemetary of Cochin.
1936 18 Oct. Unveiling of his portrait in the academy hall of St. Aloysius College, Mangalore
This above material is taken from the book "Restless for Christ - Lives of Select Jesuits who toiled in the Karnataka Province" Series - I
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