Invito Melchiorre Cafà Basilica Santa Maria Maggiore - 13 dicembre 2017 / 21 gennaio 2018. Exhibition Curators: Sante Guido and Giuseppe Mantella with Rev. Fr Edgar Vella (original) (raw)
"Il Santo. rivista francescana di storia dottrina arte", 2023
This paper focuses on a relief with the Virgin of Mercy in the Museo Antoniano. Although the provenance is unknown, the presence of Franciscan friars among the devotees represented under the Virgin’s mantle points to a placement within the Santo, either the church or the convent. Furthermore, stylistic and formal characteristics suggest that the work, dating around mid-15th century, may be attributed to a sculptor from beyond the Alps, most likely the area of Salzburg. Moreover, the authors concentrate upon the gothic minuscule inscriptions placed in the lower part of the relief, within the symbol of the sun and the moon. The inscriptions have been identified as the absolute incipit and the beginning of the second quatrain of two popular Marian hymns, included in the Liturgia horarum. The hymns – recited respectively in the Lauds and the Matin of the Hail Mary – were originally part of a single hymn which scholars accredited to Venantius Fortunatus. Ancient sources also link these hymns to St. Anthony’s Marian devotion. The creation of a new text from twodifferent textual fragments, significantly integrated with the image, testifies to the sculptor’s ability as well as to the profound theological knowledge of those who conceived the relief.
Römisches Jahrbuch der Bibliotheca Hertziana, 2022
This contribution details the history of the church of Santa Lucia in Selci from its sixteenth-century refoundation as a cloistered convent of first Benedictine (1534), then Augustinian (1568), nuns to its seventeenth-century reconstruction and redecoration by a series of artistic luminaries, adducing a wealth of unpublished archival sources. The role of Bartolomeo Bassi, not Carlo Maderno as previously thought, is shown in designing and building the original church and convent (1603-1605). The patronage history of the church's individual chapels is reconstructed and each is analysed cautiously to separate the design roles of Carlo Maderno, his studio, and others. Borromini's work in the church has hitherto not received due recognition, neither for its important place in the earliest period of his independent activity as an architect nor for its relation to his contemporary output. First, the Cappella Landi (1638-39) is analysed, with particular attention to its rich and unexamined Trinitarian symbolism and the role of the Cavaliere d'Arpino. An iconographical program for the chapel's stuccoes is also presented for the first time. Secondly, the cantoria (choir loft), built between 1630 and 1640, is analysed with a view to the pivotal role of choral music in the overall design of the church and the life of the convent. Finally, an attempt is made to meticulously reconstruct the appearance of Borromini's lost High Altar (ca. 1636-1643), which was destroyed in the mid-19th century. A sense of its appearance can be gleaned from autograph drawings and an engraving, though careful analysis is necessary to track the phases in its construction and filter out ephemeral elements from the permanent design. A coda to the main article details the origins and demise of the neighbouring and now largely demolished church and convent of the Poor Clares at Santa Maria della Purificazione, its artworks, and its design by the little-known Giovanni Paolo Maggi.
"La controversa figura di Ippolito de’ Medici trova un perfetto riscontro nel celebre ritratto dipinto da Tiziano Vecellio nel 1532. Benché a quella data Ippolito fosse già stato creato cardinale, egli vi appare con un abito sontuoso e marziale che mette in piena luce le sue ambizioni politiche e sociali, nonché il suo carattere assai poco predisposto alla vita ecclesiastica. Figura inquieta, eccentrica e brillante, Ippolito de’ Medici era nipote di Lorenzo il Magnifico e nel corso della sua vita aspirò ad assumerne il ruolo alla guida di Firenze. Tale ambizione si scontrò però con la strategia dinastica di papa Clemente VII, anch’egli un Medici, e condusse Ippolito alla morte per veleno all’età di appena ventiquattro anni. Basato su materiale documentario in larga misura inedito, questo volume colma una cospicua lacuna nella storiografia sui Medici, che fin dal Cinquecento si è mostrata reticente a investigare le tensioni e i conflitti scoppiati all’interno della famiglia prima dell’ascesa di Cosimo al ducato nel 1537. Restituendo coerenza alle vicende biografiche di Ippolito, giunte fino a noi in forma frammentaria proprio perché in contraddizione con il mito di unità e legittimità promosso da Cosimo, questo studio fa luce sui meccanismi in base ai quali la memoria di un personaggio scomodo come Ippolito è stata rimodellata e piegata agli interessi dinastici dei Medici. Il profilo biografico è integrato da quattro capitoli dedicati agli abiti da lui indossati e al significato che essi assumevano agli occhi dei contemporanei, alla sua corte come organo di rappresentanza e al suo multiforme mecenatismo letterario e artistico, che investì alcuni dei massimi pittori, scultori, poeti e intellettuali del suo tempo. Servendosi degli strumenti della storia sociale e politica, della microstoria e della storia delle arti, questo libro illumina con vivacità la cultura di un periodo di transizione della storia italiana, in cui la frammentazione dei poteri signorili cedeva spazio alla creazione di più forti autorità statali."
2013
Relazione presentata la XX Colloquio dell'International Research Center for Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages della University of Zagreb. Session II: Images of Christianity and the (re) making of Christian identity Abstract: In Campania si sono conservati undici crocifissi lignei databili tra XII e XIII secolo. Si tratta di un numero consistente al confronto con le regioni limitrofe dell’Italia meridionale, dove raramente sopravvivono esemplari anteriori al XIII. I crocifissi campani si segnalano soprattutto per la varietà tipologica e iconografica. Quello di Mirabella Eclano, vicino Benevento, riprende un modello di Christus triumphans molto simile alla Crocifissione di un Exultet (1120 circa), miniato nella stessa zona. Un modello analogo è attestato più tardi ad Acerra, nel cuore della Campania normanna. A Napoli, un diverso tipo di Christus triumphans è adottato nei crocifissi di San Giovanni Maggiore (ora perduto), che aveva preservato le tabelle laterali con i dolenti, e in quello di San Giorgio Maggiore, con iscrizione a rilievo nella cimasa. Da un documento del 1230 si apprende che il crocifisso di San Giorgio si trovava sopra un altare. I crocifissi di Sant’Aniello a Caponapoli e del Duomo raffigurano Cristo morto e sono ispirati a un modello francese. In quello di Santa Maria a Piazza, che ha conservato la croce dipinta originaria, la posizione dell’aureola a rilievo dimostra che era esposto leggermente inclinato verso il basso, come nelle croci raffigurate da Giotto nelle Storie di San Francesco ad Assisi. Dimensioni e morfologia suggeriscono la collocazione di questi crocifissi presso un altare posto in “in medio ecclesiae”. La loro funzione liturgica spiega la venerazione che gli era riservata a Napoli, dove sin dal secolo XI sono attestate donazioni di terreni in loro favore “pro remedio animae”. Il culto della croce era alimentato anche da confraternite, sia laiche sia clericali, dedite all’officiatura per i defunti e ad attività di assistenza ai poveri e agli ammalati.
Chapels of the Cinquecento and Seicento in the Churches of Rome, 2020
Just out with Officina Libraria! Chapels of the Cinquecento and Seicento in the Churches of Rome, edited by Chiara Franceschini, Steven F. Ostrow, and Patrizia Tosini, Milano: Officina Libraria, 2020 Nine studies of early modern private chapels as multimedia “laboratories” for social and devotional display and for artistic invention and innovation in 16th- and 17th-century Rome. Roman church interiors throughout the Early Modern age were endowed with rich historical and visual significance. During the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, in anticipation of and following the Council of Trent, and in response to the expansion of the Roman Curia, the chapel became a singular arena in which wealthy and powerful Roman families, as well as middle-class citizens, had the opportunity to demonstrate their status and role in Roman society. In most cases the chapels were conceived not as isolated spaces, but as part of a more complex system, which involved the nave and the other chapels within the church, in a dialogue among the arts and the patrons of those other spaces. This volume explores this historical and artistic phenomenon through nine examples involving the patronage of prominent Roman families such as the Frangipane, Spadas, Caetanis, Cybos and important artists and architects such as Federico Zuccari, Annibale Carracci, Giacomo della Porta, Francesco da Volterra, Carlo Maderno, Alessandro Algardi, Carlo Maratta. Table of Contents: Chapels: An Introduction Chiara Franceschini, Steven F. Ostrow, and Patrizia Tosini Map of the Churches The Frangipani Chapel in San Marcello: Farnesian Devotion, Antiquarian Taste, and Municipal Pride Patrizia Tosini Between all’Antica and Acheiropoieton: The Cappella Gregoriana in the Ekphrases of Lorenzo Frizolio (1582) and Ascanio Valentino (1583) Fabio Barry Caetani’s Blood: Magnificence, Lineage, and Martyrdom in the Family Chapel of Santa Pudenziana Enrico Parlato “A Gem Set in Most Resplendent Gold”: Girolamo Rusticucci’s Confessio Chapel in Santa Susanna Steven F. Ostrow A Splendid Shrine for an Ugly Image: Visual Interactions in the Salviati Chapel at San Gregorio al Celio Chiara Franceschini Carving Out Identity: The Boncompagni Family, Alessandro Algardi, and the Chapel in the Sacristy of Santa Maria in Vallicella Guendalina Serafinelli The Angelic Balustrade of the Spada Chapel in San Girolamo della Carità Louise Rice The Arm Relic as Index of the Body: The Chapel of Francis Xavier in the Gesù Alison C. Fleming and Stephanie C. Leone A Chapel in Dialogue: The Cybo Chapel in Santa Maria del Popolo Fabrizio Federici List of abbreviations Bibliography Contributors Index of Names Index of Places Photo Credits
Renaissance commemoration in Naples: the Rota chapel in San Pietro a Maiella
Renaissance Studies, 2000
Sepulchral commemoration was a major field of artistic expression in Renaissance Naples. Issues of memory and oblivion were charged hereto a greater degree than in other Italian centreswith deep pietistic sentiments and a chivalrous ethos. This essential aspect of Neapolitan Renaissance art has been generally disregarded by art historians, who referred to the local sepulchral monuments mainly in relation to works made by prominent Tuscan artists.' This article presents the story of the Rota family and its chapels in order to bring about a better understanding of the particular sense of commemoration that characterizes Renaissance society in Naples. Like many other households of the lesser nobility in Naples, the Rota favoured military and administrative careers, developed economic initiatives, and displayed an interest in learning. In the times of the Aragonese kingdom they were considered among the most distinguished families in the city, although they were never numbered among the noble houses of any of the local segigi.* In the second half of the seventeenth century their importance began to diminish. The slow but persistent decline of their position continued until the eighteenth century when, lacking a male heir, all their remaining possessions and rights passed to the Ligni family.' Since the commemorative endeavours of the Rotas during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries were in part related to their ancestors, some details regarding the historical roots of the family are needed. Probably of Piedmontese origin, the Rotas arrived in the southern dominion together with king Charles I of Anjou. Although their primary base was in Sorrento, they '' The chapel's alrar was commissioned from Tommaso Malvito on 25 July 1504, G. Filangieri, Documenti, 111, 88; VI, 475. For the history of the Recca chapel see A. Filangieri di Candida, Lu ChieJa e il Monustm di Sun Giouunni u Curbonam (Naples, 1924), 95-7. For the attribution of the relief of the Risen Christ to Giovan Tommaso Mahito see Abbate, La sculum napoletana, 62.
2011
This dissertation examines four altarpieces by different artists painted between 1485 and 1500 for Santo Spirito, the church of the Augustinian Hermits in Florence, in light of the Hermits' influence on the paintings' iconography. I argue that each of the altarpieces expresses a distinct set of Augustinian values and suggests appropriate modes of devotion and praxis. Together, the paintings represent an attempt on the part of the Florentine Hermits to convey their institutional and religious identity as heirs to Augustine's spirituality. The first chapter reviews the history and thought of the Augustinian Hermits, the history of the convent of Santo Spirito and the building and decoration of its church. The second concerns Sandro Botticelli's 1485 Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints John the Baptist and John the Evangelist, which displays a nursing Virgin in a garden of scriptural quotations. The altarpiece portrays Holy Wisdom as the garden of Ecclesiasticus 24, as the Virgin immaculate created before all things, and, most importantly, as the Christ Child whose engorged breasts feed mankind. The third chapter addresses Piero di Cosimo's 1490-1498 Visitation with Saints Nicholas of Bari and Anthony Abbot. Mary and Elizabeth's junctio dextrarum seals, under the impression of the Holy Spirit, the union of the Testaments and the unity and authority of Ecclesia and accomplishes the "kiss of Justice and Peace" of Psalm 84. The third chapter discusses Filippino Lippi's 1494 Madonna and Child with Saints Martin of Tours, Catherine of Alexandria, the Young Saint John the Baptist and Donors: Within a multilayered composition based on Augustine's City of God, the donors apply to familial relationships the model of Saint Martin's charity displayed in the chapel window. Finally, Agnolo del Mazziere's 1495-1500 Trinity with Saints Mary Magdalene and Catherine of Alexandria, discusses ways of seeing and imaging the Trinity in light of Augustine's De Trinitate. My close reading of these altarpieces and my focus on religious context breaks ground in revealing how, in Renaissance Florence, an order could fashion, through independent TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF FIGURES .
Bollettino dei Musei e Gallerie Pontificie, 2008
Pope Clement XI delegated his vicar in Rome, Cardinal Gaspare di Carpegna, to establish a parish at the Basilica of San Paolo fuori le mura. Following the establishment of the new parish, the monks of San Paolo were charged with overseeing numerous churches located in the extra-urban regions between the Porta San Paolo and the basilica 1 as well as on the road toward Ostia. 2 Accordingly, the population residing in this vast region would converge on San Paolo for its sacramental needs. The Baptism 1 The northern stretch of parish territory was described as follows: "In questa sua parrocchia, cioè dalla porta della città sino alla chiesa di S. Paolo, suddetta vi sono tre chiese.
The Sacristy of Santa Maria Novella in Florence: the History of its Functions and Furnishings
Memorie Domenicane, n.s.11, 1980, pp. 575-626; and ibid., n.s.12, 1981, pp. 269-286., 1980
mendicanti, in « II gotico a Pistoia nei suoi rapporti con l'arte gotica italiana », Atti del 2° convegno internazionale di studi, Pistoia, 24-30 aprile 1966, published Pistoia, 1972 a stimulating discussion of the historical and institutional motives for the swelling proportions of these churches and provides a summary plan of the superimposition of successive churches on the site of S. Maria Novella (fig. 1, tav. III). : I bid., p. 68. 3 S. ORLANDI O.P., « Necrologio » di. S. Maria Novella, I, Florence, 1955, p. 549, for the priority and patronage of the room. The relationship of the first church and successive sacristies is clearly described oy the Dominican chronicler, Fr. Modesto BrLIOTTI: « Latitudo [ veteris ecclesiae] erat quanta est hodie sacrarii longitudo, et iuxta maius illud altare ianua erat, per quam et breviusculam quandam scalam, in antiquum ascendebatur in sacrarium, quod erexerant et processu temporis instauraverant Cavalcantes ». (Chronica pulcherrimae aedis magnique coenobii S. Mariae cognomento Novellae fiorentinae civitatis, ms. written 1583-86 still conserved in the convent library and published through chapter L VIII in « Analecta sacris ordinis fratrum praedicatorum », VII (I of ser.