"The Phonograph" by Massani - Some Religious Connotations
by John E. Rutherford
"The Phonograph", painted by P. Massani, ca. 1905
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"The
Phonograph" painted
by
P.
Massani,
an
Italian,
was
exhibited
in
the
United
States
in
1905,
and
was
purchased
by
Thomas
Edison
and
Co.
for
around
$1,000.
The
painting
originally
showed
a
"Puck"
machine,
but this was changed to
an Edison
product.
It
is
possible
that Edison purchased
the
Massani
painting
to use
as
a counter
advertisement
to
the
"Nipper"
picture
which
the
Victor
Company
was using on
some
of its
products
and
stationery.
There
are
two
versions
of
"The
Phonograph" showing machines with different horns,
but the paintings are
similar
in other
respects.
At
one
time,
reproductions
of
Massani's
painting
must
have
been
common
in the
homes
of America.
In
1907
one
could
obtain
a
print
of
"The
Phonograph"
by
sending
30c in postage stamps or a
money order
to Edison's Orange,
New Jersey
office.
At first
glance,
"the Phonograph"
is
a picture
of a
poor,
elderly
couple
listening
("for the first time"
says an
Edison
advertisement
of 1907) to an Edison
cylinder machine.
"The Supper at Emmaus", painted by Caravaggio, 1597
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But
is that all that the artist wanted
to say?
It was (and still is) quite
common for artists to put
secondary meanings into their work, and during the
nineteenth
century
and
the
early
years
of
the
twentieth,
those
secondary
meanings
were
often
religious.
Also,
artists
often
borrow
ideas
from
other artists
(just as
musicians
borrow from other
musicians)
and
Massani
may have "borrowed" from
two paintings
by a fellow Italian.
In the years
1597 and 1606,
Caravaggio
painted
two
religious
pictures
illustrating
the
story
of
"The
Supper
at Emmaus".
The
biblical
story
(Luke
24:
13-31),
with
which
our
grandparents
would
have
been quite familiar,
goes like this:
Christ.
after his
resurrection,
walked
to the village
of
Emmaus
and
sat down to supper
with
some friends who did not
recognize
who
he
was.
When
Jesus
blessed
the
food,
they recognized him as the crucified Christ.
In
other
words,
the diners
did
not
realize
that they
were
witnessing
a
miracle
until
they
heard
the
voice of Christ. Then Christ
vanished.
In the
Caravaggio
painting of 1597 the man's
gesture
of surprise
is
very
similar
to that
in the
Massani
painting.
In
the
Caravaggio
painting
of
1606
the old woman on the right
with the
wizened
features
and
bound
hair
could
very
well
have
been
the
"model"
for
Massani's
woman.
(Massani would
probably
have been aquainted
with
both
Caravaggio
paintings
through
reproductions.
He
may
even have seen the 1606
painting still in the
Brera Gallery
in Milan).
"The Supper at Emmaus", painted by Caravaggio, 1606
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But
why
might
Massani
have
taken
some
of
his
ideas from
two
religious
paintings
known
as
"The
Supper
at
Emmaus"
in
order
to
illustrate
the
surprise of two people on first hearing the phonograph?
Here
is one possible explanation:
Massani
may have
seen
a
connection
between
the
two
events
taking
place
almost
nineteen
hundred
years
apart.
"The
Supper
at
Emmaus"
was
a
miracle
of
the
First
Century
A.D.
where
Christ's
voice
was
heard
after
his
resurrection.
Massani's
painting shows a miracle
in the age of the machine where the poor couple do
not realize that they are
witnessing a miracle
until
they
hear the
"voice"
— the
disembodied
voice,
as
it were, of an "unseen guest". Such a connection,
if
seen
consciously or
subconsciously
by a viewer
in
1905,
would
have
given
this
painting
an
added
punch,
thus
making
it
a
more
effective
advertisement.
The
painting
also
suggests
that
Edison was a "maker of miracles".
If
you
should
feel
that
there is no connection
between the Massani
painting and the two paintings
of
Caravaggio,
you are perfectly
at liberty
to think
so,
but
there are
similarities
that will
have
to be
does
explained.
Why,
for example,
Massani's
"miracle" take place at
the
supper
table,
at
the
beginning
of
a
meal,
in
a
"village"
home?
Most
interesting
of all
is the
presence
of
red
wine,
long
a
symbol
of
Christ
and
his
resurrection.
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