Bolgia C., ‘The Felici Icon Tabernacle (1372) at S. Maria in Aracoeli, Reconstructed: Lay Patronage, Sculpture, and Marian Devotion in Trecento Rome’, (original) (raw)
Related papers
in Art and Experience in Trecento Italy, H. Flora and S. S. Wilkins (eds),(Proceedings of the Andrew Ladis International Conference, New Orleans, 10-12 Nov. 2016), Turnhout, Brepols-Harvey Miller, 2018
Thanks to significant literary, archaeological, epigraphic and iconographic evidence we can analyse the altars of the martyrial sanctuary of St. Felix at Cimitile, near Nola (Naples, Italy), between Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages (fig. 1), and the modalities of deposition of the relics inside them (fenestellae, loculi, capsules) 2. After the excavation and restoration campaigns directed by Gino Chierici between 1931 and 1960 3 , nine altars remained in situ, either preserving the original configuration or having undergone limited adaptations to better assist new trends and changed liturgical needs, consistent with development over the centuries. According to the available data, we can subdivide the altars of Cimitile into three types 4 : box (I), sarcophagus (II) or blockaltars (III) 5. In type I, the table rested on four chancel screens supported by corner pillars, while in type II, it was placed on four walls covered externally with marble slabs. The type III can be grouped into two variants based upon the position of the altar relative to the wall of the presbytery: those of variant IIIa, which are set against the wall, are distinguished by the presence of a fenestella on the front (west) (IIIa1) or due to the lack of a deposit of relics (IIIa2); the first ones are surmounted by a small niche (variant IIIa1a), and adhere to the rectilinear wall (variant IIIa1b) or are positioned inside a large niche (variant IIIa1c). The altars of variant IIIb, which allowed the celebrant to turn the structure around, instead, have the fenestella on the back (east) side. To better understand the reasons of the transformations, determined by the adaptation to the new liturgical needs or by the archaeological interventions, I have grouped the altars into two clusters dating back to the 4 th-7 th century (type I) and 8 th-10 th century (type II, variants IIIa1a, IIIa1b); I will discuss elsewhere the liturgical installations erected between the Late Middle Ages and the Early Modern Age (variants IIIa1c, IIIb) 6 .
Chapels in Roman Churches of the Cinquecento and the Seicento. Form, Function, Meaning, ed. by C. Franceschini, P. Tosini, S. F. Ostrow, Milano, Officina Libraria, 2020, 2020
This essay examines the history and decoration of the Salviati Chapel at San Gregorio al Celio in Rome as the repository of an image of the Virgin and in relation to two other chapels created by the same patron (Antonio Maria Salviati) in the church of San Giacomo in Augusta. In considering this dialogue among the chapels, I analyze the rationale behind the project at San Gregorio and its purpose to valorize antique images, reconstructing the particular design and function in the space of the now lost altarpiece with St. Gregory by Annibale Carracci. I also discuss more broadly th theme of the artistic experimentation and confrontation between "old" and "ruined" 'images' and "new" and "beautiful" 'works of art', that took place in Rome at the turn of the seventeenth century.