Sanctity Pictured: The Art of the Dominican and Franciscan Orders in Renaissance Italy

Philip Wilson Press – Sanctity Pictured – PWP jacket Hardback – 256 pages – Trim size 275 x 210 mm – Spine 27.5 mm 4-colour

I

Edited by TR INITA KENNEDY

S A NC T I T Y PIC T U R E D

Trinita Kennedy is Curator at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville. She was formerly Research Associate at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, for the major international loan exhibition, Venice and the Islamic World, 828–1797, which was also presented at the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, and the Palazzo Ducale, Venice.

Donal Cooper is Lecturer in Italian Renaissance Art and Fellow of Jesus College at the University of Cambridge and co-author with Janet Robson of The Making of Assisi: The Pope, The Franciscans and the Painting of the Basilica, which focuses on the Upper Church of San Francesco. They are currently working on a companion volume on the Lower Church.

Holly Flora is Associate Professor, History of Art, at Tulane University and author of The Devout Belief of the Imagination: The Paris “Meditationes Vitae Christi” and Female Franciscan Spirituality in Trecento Italy. She served as Guest Curator of Cimabue and Early Italian Devotional Painting at the Frick Collection, New York.

Amy Neff is Professor, School of Art, at the University of Tennessee and author of the forthcoming book, A Soul’s Journey into God: The “Supplicationes Variae.” With Anne Derbes, she is co-author of “Italy, the Mendicant Orders, and the Byzantine Sphere,” an essay in the awardwinning catalogue accompanying the exhibition Byzantium: Faith & Power (1261–1557) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Janet Robson is an Independent Scholar and co-author with Donal Cooper of The Making of Assisi: The Pope, The Franciscans and the Painting of the Basilica, which focuses on the Upper Church of San Francesco. They are currently working on a companion volume on the Lower Church. cover Giovanni di Paolo. Saint Catherine of Siena Invested with the Dominican Habit (detail), 1460s. Tempera and gold leaf on panel, 113/8 × 9 in. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust, 1966.2 back cover Jacopo Bassano (Jacopo del Ponte). Portrait of a Franciscan Friar (detail), ca. 1540–42. Oil on canvas, 313/4 × 271/4 in. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, AP 1997.02

ISBN 978-1-78130-026-8

cover design Lucy Morton at illuminati

9 781781 300268

SANCTITY PICTURED The Art of the Dominican and Franciscan Orders in Renaissance Italy

taly in the thirteenth century was transformed by two new religious orders known as the Dominicans, founded by Saint Dominic of Caleruega, and the Franciscans, founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Whereas earlier religious orders, such as the Benedictines, had secluded themselves in monasteries in the countryside and lived off income from their property, the Dominicans and Franciscans settled in urban centers and lived as mendicants, or beggars, who ministered to the laity.

Members of both orders took a vow of poverty, yet soon after the deaths of their founders they were building churches that rivaled cathedrals in size and splendor throughout Italy. They created a tremendous demand for works of art of all kinds to outfit their churches, including altarpieces, crucifixes, fresco cycles, illuminated choir books, and liturgical objects. They had a special need for engaging narrative scenes to recount the biographies and miracles of their saints, and used art to tell stories such as Saint Francis preaching to the birds, Saint Dominic multiplying a single loaf of bread into enough food to feed a whole community of hungry friars, and Saint Clare rescuing a child mauled by a wolf. These visual narratives are notable for their naturalism and emphasis on expressive gestures and human emotions, which were significant new developments in Italian art.

This beautifully illustrated book accompanies an exhibition at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts presenting works of art from the collections of American museums and libraries and the Vatican. It is the first major study to examine the art of these rival religious orders together. An international team of art historians provides new insights into the significant contributions made by the Dominicans and Franciscans to the artistic revolution known as the Renaissance that occurred in Italy during the period 1200 to 1550.

Philip Wilson Publishers an imprint of I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd 6 Salem Road London W2 4BU www.philip-wilson.co.uk

SANCTITY PICTUR ED

SANCTITY PICTUR ED The A rt of the Domin ican an d F r a n c i s c a n O r d e r s i n  R e n a i s s a n c e Ita ly edit ed by

Trinita Kennedy with essays by Donal Cooper Holly Flora Trinita Kennedy Amy Neff Janet Robson

Fr ist Cen t er for t h e V isua l A rts Ph i li p W i lson Pu blish er s

Published in conjunction with the exhibition Sanctity Pictured: The Art of the Dominican and Franciscan Orders in Renaissance Italy (October 31, 2014–January 25, 2015) at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, Tennessee (www.fristcenter.org).

The exhibition has been made possible in part by grants from the National Endowment for the Arts, the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, and the Robert Lehman Foundation, and a gift from Lynn and Ken Melkus.

Support for the Frist Center for the Visual Arts is also provided by the Metro Nashville Arts Commission and the Tennessee Arts Commission, which receives funding from the National Endowment for the Arts.

The exhibition catalogue is published with the assistance of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation and Furthermore: a program of the J. M. Kaplan Fund.

Copyright © 2014 Frist Center for the Visual Arts All rights reserved. Except for brief quotations in a review, this book, or any part thereof, may not be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher.

The right of Trinita Kennedy to be identified as the editor of this work has been asserted by her in accordance with the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

Published by the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville, and Philip Wilson Publishers, London.

For the Frist Center for the Visual Arts CopyEditor Fronia W. Simpson Publications Manager Wallace Joiner For Philip Wilson Publishers PRODUCTION EDITOR David Hawkins COMMISSIONING EDITOR Anne Jackson Designed and typeset in 11½ on 16 Bembo Book by illuminati, Grosmont Printed and bound in China A full CIP record for this book is available from the British Library A full CIP record is available from the Library of Congress Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: available isbn 978 1 78130 030 5 (Frist Center) isbn 978 1 78130 026 8 (Philip Wilson Publishers) Frontispiece Taddeo di Bartolo. Saint Thomas Aquinas Submitting His Office of Corpus Domini to Pope Urban IV (detail), ca. 1403. Tempera and gold leaf on panel, 16 7/8 × 14 1/8 in. Philadelphia Museum of Art, John G. Johnson Collection, 1917, cat. 101 Catalogue section br eak (p. 91) Sassetta (Stefano di Giovanni di Conosolo). The Procession to Calvary (detail), 1437–44. Tempera and gold leaf on poplar panel, 19 1/8 × 24 1/4 in. Detroit Institute of Arts, City of Detroit Purchase, 24.94

Contents

Di r ector’s for ewor d

vi

Len der s to t h e ex h i bi t ion

viii

Con t r i bu tor s

viii

Ack now ledgm en ts

ix

M A P OF I TA LY A N D DA LM AT I A

xi

m Sanctity pictured: the art of the Dominican and Franciscan orders in Renaissance Italy

1

Tr inita K enn edy

m The changing imagery of Saint Francis in the Basilica of San Francesco in Assisi

19

Janet Robson

m Painting, devotion, and the Franciscans

33

A my Neff

m Experiencing Dominican and Franciscan churches in Renaissance Italy

47

Donal Cooper

m Order, gender, and image: art for Dominican and Franciscan women

63

Holly Flor a

m In search of authenticity: the art of the Dominican and Franciscan orders in the age of Observant reform Tr inita K enn edy

m Catalogue

77 91

Bi bliogr aph y

224

i m age sou rces

236

i n dex

237

Catalogue

I n s e a rc h o f au t h e n t i c i t y   91

11 Madonna and Child with Saint Francis, ca. 1285 Possibly Duccio di Buoninsegna (active 1278– 1318) or an early follower, Italian, Sienese Tempera on hardwood panel, believed to be poplar, 27 × 20¼ in. (68.6 × 51.4 cm) Allen Memorial Art Museum, Oberlin College, Oberlin, Ohio; R.T. Miller Jr. Fund, 1945.9

Oberlin’s painting is one of three late thirteenth-century Sienese or Florentine panels that depict the Madonna and Child posed similarly: she cradles the Child with her left arm, gesturing to him with her right hand in the manner of a Byzantine Hodegetria icon, while the Child wraps his right arm around her neck and presses his face to hers. The tender cheekto-cheek gesture links the work to Byzantine Eleousa (tenderness, compassion) icons, but, as Millard Meiss notes, in the present panel, “the gesture of the Child’s hands, one of which caresses the chin of the Madonna while the other embraces the shoulder, has no precedent.”1 To the right of the Virgin and Child is Saint Francis. The presence of such a small figure hovering in space finds an analogy in the small figures beside centrally placed saints in Byzantine icons.2 The figure of Saint Francis would almost certainly have been a particular request of the patron. As in thirteenth-century vita panels of Saint Francis, such as figures 5 and 6 and catalogue 4, he holds a book, but, contrary to early

114 s a n c t i t y p i c t u r e d

convention, he is beardless. Only the stigmata on his hands are visible.3 Of the two similar paintings, one in a private collection and one in the Musée du Louvre, Paris, the latter likewise contains a small figure of Saint Francis, there in

the act of receiving the stigmata.4 Alastair Smart concluded, “[B]oth the [Louvre] and Oberlin Madonnas were painted for Franciscan churches or communities. … The [private collection] Madonna may well have formed the central panel of a triptych or polyptych containing a scene of the Stigmatization (copied by the painter of the [Louvre] Madonna) and perhaps a full-length figure of Saint Francis (copied by the painter of the Madonna at Oberlin College).”5 The Louvre panel was once the central part of a gabled triptych.6 While it is not clear whether the Oberlin painting similarly formed part of a multipaneled work, its verso has a channel for a cross-batten; this would have been more than was needed to support a panel of this size and raises the question of whether it might have been keyed to other panels as part of a larger construction.7 Although there is not sufficient evidence to determine whether the Oberlin panel too may have formed part of a multipaneled work, its size, the intimacy of the figures’ poses, and the personal nature of the inclusion of Saint Francis indicate that it was likely a work made for private devotion. Importantly, much of its visual power comes from the way the Madonna and Child touch, flesh to flesh: his hand cradles her chin, their faces are pressed together, and three of her fingers tenderly support the sole of his bare foot.8 These naturalistic gestures emphasize Christ’s humanity—indeed, his carnality—just as the visible stigmata of Saint Francis emphasize the saint’s role as alter Christus and constitute a direct visual link to the Christ Child’s eventual bodily torture and death. Thus, the iconography points toward a use in private devotion, facilitating the viewer’s meditation on the bodily reality of Christ, even as the small figure of Saint Francis also gazes solemnly down and toward the Child.

Most scholars think that this painting was made in the circle of Duccio or perhaps by Duccio

himself, around 1285, the year when his Rucellai Madonna (fig. 18) was commissioned by a laudesi confraternity that met in the Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence.9 Many qualities of the work link it to Duccio, not least the delicate gold punchwork and tooling, the arabesques of which are created with a filigree effect. As Richard Offner first noted, the Madonna greatly resembles that figure in the Rucellai Madonna, just as the pose of the Child’s head is similar to that of the lowermost angel supporting the throne on the right side of that work; the tooling of that angel’s halo is the basis for that seen in the present work, as well as in the two related paintings.10 The decoration at the edges of the garments of both the Madonna and Child is intriguing, being formed apparently of small red, blue, and green knots or jewels, possibly meant to seem attached by several lighter, radiating threads.11 The painting’s condition is compromised.

In 1946 it was considered “unfinished,” and the green underpainting in the areas of flesh (verdaccio) was visible; in subsequent years conservation reports noted extensive flaking and cleavage.12 In 1974 extensive areas of cleaving paint were faced with tissue.13 In 2012 it was treated by Wendy Partridge at ICA-Art Conservation. She removed the tissue and set down the tenting, insecure paint; cleaned the surface; varnished the painted areas; and filled and inpainted small losses. She noted underdrawing visible through infrared reflect­ography, especially in the faces (which appear more delicately modeled when viewed via infrared) and the drapery; lines inscribed in the gesso also help define forms.

AD

c ata l o g u e 115

22 The Adoration of the Magi, ca. 1333–40 Francesco da Rimini (Master of the Blessed Clare), Italian, documented in Rimini, 1333–48 Tempera and gold leaf on panel, 22 3/4 × 23 3/8 in. (57.8 × 59.4 cm) Lowe Art Museum, University of Miami, Gift of the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, 61.018.000 Provenance Santa Maria Annunziata (later known as Santa Maria degli Angeli), Rimini

138 s a n c t i t y p i c t u r e d

Fig. 86 Giotto di Bondone and workshop. Nativity, ca. 1315.

Fresco. Lower Church, Basilica of San Francesco, Assisi

This panel is believed to be a fragment of a long rectangular altarpiece composed of three scenes arranged in a horizontal series and divided by a decorative border. The Adoration of the Magi was likely first in the series; The Vision of the Blessed Clare of Rimini (National Gallery, London) was probably last; and it has recently been proposed that The Virgin and Child (Andreas Pittas collection) came between the two.1 A contemporaneous altarpiece with a similar format and iconography, but with a Crucifixion scene showing Saint Francis at the foot of the cross at its center, is in the Musée Fesch in Ajaccio. Both altarpieces were documented in Rimini in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries in the now-destroyed convent of Santa Maria degli Angeli (formerly Santa Maria Annunziata), the home of a female

penitent community founded in the early fourteenth century by the Blessed Clare of Rimini.2 Although their original location there is unknown, the Ajaccio altarpiece might have been made for the private area of the church or convent, such as the choir, while the altarpiece containing the Lowe panel perhaps adorned the high altar of the church, above the tomb of the Blessed Clare.3 Born in Rimini in the 1260s, the Blessed Clare was a wealthy laywoman who lived entirely for her own lascivious pleasure, until she began visiting the Franciscan church of San Francesco in Rimini, where she heard heavenly voices and received ecstatic visions inspired by the works of art she saw there.4 After her religious conversion, Clare devoted her life to voluntary poverty and

c ata l o g u e 139

extreme asceticism. In penitential performances akin to those of Saint Francis, she publicly re­ enacted Christ’s Flagellation and Way to Calvary, stripping to near nakedness and ordering servants to flog her, later dragging a heavy beam balanced on her shoulders.5 Clare practiced her piety alone until about 1306, when a small group of female followers joined her at the convent of Santa Maria Annunziata, which was administered by local Franciscan friars.6 However, she never officially joined any religious order and did not remain cloistered, as did most mendicant women of her time.7 She probably died about 1326 and was beatified in 1784.

Like the Franciscans’, Clare’s spirituality centered on Christ’s Incarnation and Passion, themes of the altarpiece that included the Lowe Adoration. The National Gallery panel illustrates Clare’s mystical encounter with the resurrected Christ, and the Lowe panel features an unusual vignette drawing the viewer’s attention to the Christ Child. Standing on the Virgin’s lap, the child takes the gift offered by the eldest magus, simultaneously looking back at his mother. This detail recalls Clare’s devotion to the infant Christ, expressed in one of her many recurring visions in which she felt a baby moving in her heart. Franciscan influence is evident here: the focus on the Nativity reflects Francis’s well-known celebration at Greccio of Christ’s birth.

Giotto had a profound and long-lasting impact on art in Rimini, where he painted frescoes and a large crucifix for the church of San Francesco about 1300.8 His altarpiece with the Adoration of the Magi and six other Christological scenes, which is now divided between Boston, London, Munich, New York, and Settignano, may have been made for the high altar of that church.9 In both its horizontal format and its subject matter, Giotto’s altarpiece appears to have served as a model for the two made for Clare’s convent.

14 0 s a n c t i t y p i c t u r e d

The composition of the Lowe Adoration is based most closely on the frescoed Nativity attributed to Giotto’s workshop in the Lower Church of San Francesco in Assisi near Saint Francis’s tomb (fig. 86). The Lowe Adoration is similarly set in a dramatic, rocky landscape, with the reclining Virgin and her infant son taking center stage.

Francesco da Rimini departs from Giotto’s rendition by depicting the Virgin in much larger scale than the three magi and the kneeling figures of Joseph and Saint Stephen. Giotto’s simple shelter above Mary is moved to the background, where it frames a company of angels singing joyfully.

The angel in the center wears a red tunic and blue mantle like the Virgin’s and perhaps refers to one of Clare’s early visions in San Francesco, in which she saw the Virgin surrounded by angels.

Another group of angels to their right excitedly share the news of Christ’s birth as they descend the mountain, evoking a passage from the Meditationes vitae Christi, a Franciscan devotional text compiled around the time this panel was painted.

The Meditationes describes how at the Nativity a multitude of angels “came in the order of their heavenly rank to see the face of the Lord their God. Adoring Him and likewise his mother with every reverence, they loudly proclaimed their praises in songs to him.”10 The lively imagery of this altarpiece is a fitting commemoration of Clare’s unique approach to mendicant devotion.

HF 1. Casu 2011, cat. 11, pp. 54–57. See also Gordon 2011, pp. 204–17.

Gordon estimates that the total width of the altarpiece was 807/8 in. (205.3 cm).

2. Gordon 2011, p. 215. The convent was demolished in 1810.

3. Ibid.

4. Frugoni 1996a, pp. 138–39.

5. Dalarun 2006, p. 203.

6. Ibid., p. 204.

7. Ibid.

8. Volpe 2002; D. Cooper 2013a, pp. 37–38. The frescoes are lost, but the crucifix remains in the church.

9. An idea explored in Gordon 1989. On this altarpiece, see most recently Angelo Tartuferi in Los Angeles and Toronto 2012, cats. 32.1–32.7, pp. 170–75.

10. John of Caulibus 2000, pp. 27–28.

34 The Procession to Calvary, 1437–44 Sassetta (Stefano di Giovanni di Consolo), Italian, Cortona or Siena ca. 1400–1450 Siena Tempera and gold leaf on poplar panel, 19 ⅛ × 25 ¼ in. (48.6 × 64.1 cm) Detroit Institute of Arts, City of Detroit Purchase, 24.94 Provenance part of the front predella of the high altarpiece of San Francesco, Sansepolcro (formerly Borgo San Sepolcro)

This panel is a fragment of Sassetta’s Borgo San Sepolcro Altarpiece, a double-sided polyptych installed in 1444 on the high altar of San Francesco in the Tuscan town of Sansepolcro.1 The altarpiece stood some 16 feet high and 20 feet wide. Prior to 1810 it was sawn into pieces and

16 8 s a n c t i t y p i c t u r e d

sold; today its twenty-seven known parts are dispersed in twelve collections in six countries.

A team of scholars led by Machtelt Israëls recently used documents and technical studies to reconstruct it.2 The front presented the enthroned Virgin and Child flanked by four standing saints

and a predella of Passion scenes. On the back Saint Francis in Glory was surrounded by eight smaller scenes of his legend; the predella showed miracles of the Franciscan lay brother Blessed Ranieri, who died in 1304 and was buried below the altar. Piers and pinnacles framed the altarpiece and were filled with saints of local significance.

At the summit were panels with Saint Francis at the foot of the cross on the front (fig. 91) and the Annunciation on the back.

In a document of 1439, two Franciscan friars recorded the proceedings of one of their meetings with Sassetta about the altarpiece program.3 They decided that the predella on the front should have “stories from the Passion, those that are the most devout, and they are four.”4 The precise subject matter, however, is not indicated. Three of the scenes have been identified: the Agony in the Garden, the Betrayal of Christ, and the Procession to Calvary, which is exhibited here.5 The subject of the fourth scene remains unknown.

With members of the Franciscan order encouraged to take up the cross and follow Christ, the Procession to Calvary became common in Franciscan art. Sassetta’s rendition bears important similarities to Paolo di Giovanni Fei’s earlier representation of the same subject (cat. 31), which also likely comes from a Franciscan context.

A rope around Christ’s neck appears as an instrument of torture in both works and also in Sassetta’s Betrayal. As Holly Flora explains in her entry on Paolo di Giovanni’s panel (cat. 31), the rope had special meaning for Franciscans, who tied a thrice-knotted rope around their waists to symbolize their vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. In Sassetta’s altarpiece those vows are also represented allegorically in Saint Francis in Glory and the Mystic Marriage of Saint Francis.

In Sassetta’s Procession to Calvary, Christ wears the crown of thorns as well as the rope. The crown of thorns appears three more times in

Fig. 91 Sassetta. Saint Francis Kneeling before Christ on the Cross, from the Borgo San Sepolcro Altarpiece, 1437–44.

Tempera and gold leaf on panel. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Mr. and Mrs. William H. Marlatt Fund, 1962.36

the altarpiece: it hangs around both the chalice in the Agony and the crucifix set in a niche in the Stigmatization and is worn by Christ in Saint Francis Kneeling before Christ on the Cross (fig. 91).

Israëls has plausibly suggested that the missing

c ata l o g u e 16 9

40 Saint Clare Rescuing a Child Mauled by a Wolf, ca. 1455–60 Giovanni di Paolo, Italian, Siena ca. 1399–1482 Siena Tempera and gold leaf on panel, 8 ⅛ × 11 ½ in. (20.6 × 29.2 cm) The Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Edith A. and Percy S. Straus Collection, 44.571

This small narrative panel by the Sienese painter Giovanni di Paolo depicts a miracle of Saint Clare of Assisi. It is the only known representation of this subject.1 Clare’s biographer, Thomas of Celano, recounts two posthumous miracles in which the saint saved children from wolves. The panel does not correspond exactly to either story but is closer to the first one. The biography relates that a woman named Bona of Monte Galliano

182 s a n c t i t y p i c t u r e d

had lost one of her sons to wolves terrorizing the land. She tearfully begged Saint Clare to save her second son, who had also been carried off by a wolf. Neighbors found the child alive in a nearby wood, tended by a dog licking the wounds the child had sustained in his neck and side.2 On the panel, a young mother with long, flowing hair like that of Mary Magdalen, a sign of distress and mourning,3 kneels in supplication to Clare,

who emerges amid rays of light in the upper right corner, her arm raised in a blessing gesture.

In the center, a bleeding child, whose arm has been bitten off and is still in the wolf’s mouth, looks back toward his mother. The wolf appears a second time, in the lower right, dead and rigid.

Because Giovanni di Paolo departs significantly from Thomas of Celano’s description, it has been suggested that his version derives from another, now-lost hagiographic text.4 Yet the painter was a master storyteller, as we know from his diverse oeuvre, which included manuscript illuminations illustrating Dante’s Divine Comedy. Thus, he may have adapted Thomas of Celano’s narrative to heighten the drama of the scene. Paring the cast of characters down to the key players of child, mother, wolf, and Clare, Giovanni di Paolo spotlights the saint’s miraculous intervention. By showing the child being dismembered, the artist underscores the violence of the attack. Equally arresting is his portrayal of the distraught mother crying out to Clare, who responds instantly and forcefully, killing the vicious animal. This theatri­ cality is enhanced by a fantastical, candy-colored landscape in which jagged, triangular mountains emerge from a web of rectangular fields.

Giovanni di Paolo’s composition made the story easily legible amid the other narrative panels that once formed part of the same larger work, one probably commissioned for a Poor Clare convent in Siena. The panel came from the predella of an altarpiece or formed part of an extended visual biography adorning a vita panel or a reliquary cabinet.5 This ensemble included at least three other panels depicting episodes from Clare’s life: Saint Francis Investing Clare with Her Habit, Saint Clare Rescuing the Shipwrecked (both, Gemäldegalerie, Berlin), and Saint Clare Blessing the Loaves before Pope Innocent IV (Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven). All of these episodes, which are rarely or never seen elsewhere,6 present

Clare in a new light. On the best-known visual biography of the saint, Clare’s vita panel from Assisi (fig. 58), Clare is cast primarily as a devoted follower of Francis and model nun, and the only miracle shown is her multiplication of bread to feed her fellow sisters.7 By contrast, Giovanni di Paolo’s panels emphatically characterize Clare as a thaumaturge whose authority derives directly from Francis and is sanctioned by the pope. This reinvented Clare can be understood in the context of the Franciscan promotion of their new saint, Bernardino of Siena, who was also known for posthumous miracles involving children.8 This emphasis on the healing powers of Franciscan saints also harks back to early vita panels of their founder, Francis.9 The Franciscans chose to promote Clare aggressively in Siena in the mid-fifteenth century—the time when a local female Dominican, Catherine of Siena, was under consideration for sainthood. She would be canonized in 1461.

Through such striking portrayals of heroism as seen on this panel, the Franciscans highlighted the power of their own female saint at a time when a new female Dominican saint was being celebrated.

HF 1.

2.

3.

4.

5.

6.

7.

8.

9.

P. Roberts 2009, vol. 2, p. 402.

Thomas of Celano 2006, pp. 327–28.

Wilson 1996b, p. 425, describes it as an indication of mourning.

Ibid., pp. 427–28.

Carl Brandon Strehlke in New York 1988, cats. 34 a–b, pp. 204–07; Wilson 1996a, pp. 166–67; Wilson 1996b, pp. 420–34.

Frugoni 2006, pp. 162–64.

Wood 1990; see also the essay by Flora in this catalogue.

Carl Brandon Strehlke in New York 1988, cats. 24 a–b, pp. 164–66. On Francis and miracles involving children, see Hoeniger 2002, pp. 308–11.

See Ahlquist and Cook 2005.

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Philip Wilson Press – Sanctity Pictured – PWP jacket Hardback – 256 pages – Trim size 275 x 210 mm – Spine 27.5 mm 4-colour

I

Edited by TR INITA KENNEDY

S A NC T I T Y PIC T U R E D

Trinita Kennedy is Curator at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts, Nashville. She was formerly Research Associate at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, for the major international loan exhibition, Venice and the Islamic World, 828–1797, which was also presented at the Institut du Monde Arabe, Paris, and the Palazzo Ducale, Venice.

Donal Cooper is Lecturer in Italian Renaissance Art and Fellow of Jesus College at the University of Cambridge and co-author with Janet Robson of The Making of Assisi: The Pope, The Franciscans and the Painting of the Basilica, which focuses on the Upper Church of San Francesco. They are currently working on a companion volume on the Lower Church.

Holly Flora is Associate Professor, History of Art, at Tulane University and author of The Devout Belief of the Imagination: The Paris “Meditationes Vitae Christi” and Female Franciscan Spirituality in Trecento Italy. She served as Guest Curator of Cimabue and Early Italian Devotional Painting at the Frick Collection, New York.

Amy Neff is Professor, School of Art, at the University of Tennessee and author of the forthcoming book, A Soul’s Journey into God: The “Supplicationes Variae.” With Anne Derbes, she is co-author of “Italy, the Mendicant Orders, and the Byzantine Sphere,” an essay in the awardwinning catalogue accompanying the exhibition Byzantium: Faith & Power (1261–1557) at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Janet Robson is an Independent Scholar and co-author with Donal Cooper of The Making of Assisi: The Pope, The Franciscans and the Painting of the Basilica, which focuses on the Upper Church of San Francesco. They are currently working on a companion volume on the Lower Church. cover Giovanni di Paolo. Saint Catherine of Siena Invested with the Dominican Habit (detail), 1460s. Tempera and gold leaf on panel, 113/8 × 9 in. The Cleveland Museum of Art, Gift of the John Huntington Art and Polytechnic Trust, 1966.2 back cover Jacopo Bassano (Jacopo del Ponte). Portrait of a Franciscan Friar (detail), ca. 1540–42. Oil on canvas, 313/4 × 271/4 in. Kimbell Art Museum, Fort Worth, AP 1997.02

ISBN 978-1-78130-026-8

cover design Lucy Morton at illuminati

9 781781 300268

SANCTITY PICTURED The Art of the Dominican and Franciscan Orders in Renaissance Italy

taly in the thirteenth century was transformed by two new religious orders known as the Dominicans, founded by Saint Dominic of Caleruega, and the Franciscans, founded by Saint Francis of Assisi. Whereas earlier religious orders, such as the Benedictines, had secluded themselves in monasteries in the countryside and lived off income from their property, the Dominicans and Franciscans settled in urban centers and lived as mendicants, or beggars, who ministered to the laity.

Members of both orders took a vow of poverty, yet soon after the deaths of their founders they were building churches that rivaled cathedrals in size and splendor throughout Italy. They created a tremendous demand for works of art of all kinds to outfit their churches, including altarpieces, crucifixes, fresco cycles, illuminated choir books, and liturgical objects. They had a special need for engaging narrative scenes to recount the biographies and miracles of their saints, and used art to tell stories such as Saint Francis preaching to the birds, Saint Dominic multiplying a single loaf of bread into enough food to feed a whole community of hungry friars, and Saint Clare rescuing a child mauled by a wolf. These visual narratives are notable for their naturalism and emphasis on expressive gestures and human emotions, which were significant new developments in Italian art.

This beautifully illustrated book accompanies an exhibition at the Frist Center for the Visual Arts presenting works of art from the collections of American museums and libraries and the Vatican. It is the first major study to examine the art of these rival religious orders together. An international team of art historians provides new insights into the significant contributions made by the Dominicans and Franciscans to the artistic revolution known as the Renaissance that occurred in Italy during the period 1200 to 1550.

Philip Wilson Publishers an imprint of I.B.Tauris & Co Ltd 6 Salem Road London W2 4BU www.philip-wilson.co.uk