“Whoever Belongs to God Hears What God Says” (John 8:47): The Other as Deaf in Two Frescoes by Filippo Lippi and Gualtiero Padovano

This essay explores the Christian visualization of religious Otherness in connection to deafness in Italian paintings of the 15^th and 16^th centuries. Following the words of John 8:47 “Whoever belongs to God hears what God says”, theologians developed through centuries the idea of a Christian community based on listening to God with the ears of the spirit or the ears of the heart. Hence, deafness is conceived as the hallmark of the Christian Other: Jews, heretics or false believers are therefore perceived as ”spiritually” deaf. The essay aims to investigate how Christian images depict the Other as deaf as opposed to the Christian who listens. To this end, it focuses mainly on two frescoes that stand out for the originality with which they illustrate this contrast: the Disputation of St Stephen with the Elders of the Sanhedrin (1452-1567) by Fra Filippo Lippi in Prato’s Cathedral and St Anthony of Padua preaching to the fishes (1530-1537) attributed to Gualtiero Padovano in the Oratory of the Walnut Tree near Padua. Starting from this iconographic analysis, I reflect on the effect these frescoes might have had on their viewers. Conceived to be seen by Christians, their main purpose appears to be the construction of Christian identity based on listening: a listening Us versus the deaf Other.

„Tko je od Boga, riječi Božje sluša” (Ivan 8:47) Drugi i gluhi na freskama Filippa Lippia i Gualtiera Padovana

Tekst istražuje kršćansku vizualizaciju religijske Drugosti u vezi s gluhoćom na talijanskim slikama 15. i 16. stoljeća. Prema Ivanu 8,47 „Tko je od Boga, riječi Božje sluša”, teolozi su kroz stoljeća razvijali ideju kršćanske zajednice koja se temelji na slušanju Boga ušima duha ili ušima srca. Stoga se gluhoća smatrala obilježjem Drugih: Židova, heretika ili lažnih vjernika koji se doživljavaju kao „duhovno” gluhi. Rad ima za cilj istražiti kako kršćanska umjetnost prikazuje Drugog kao gluhog za razliku od kršćanina koji sluša. U tu se svrhu uglavnom usredotočuje na dvije freske koje se ističu originalnošću kojom ilustriraju ovu suprotnost: Rasprava sv. Stjepana sa starješinama Sanhedrina Fra Filippa Lippija u Katedrali u Pratu (1452-1567) i Sv. Ante Padovanski propovijeda ribama Gualtiera Padovana u Svetištu od oraha u Camposampietru kraj Padove (1530.-1537.). Polazeći od ikonografske analize, raspravlja se o utjecaju koje su freske mogle imati na gledatelje. Zaključuje se da je njihov temeljni zadatak bio izgradnja kršćanskog identiteta koji se temelji na slušanju: Nas koji slušamo nasuprot gluhog Drugog.