Wooden Sculpture in as Sacral Presence Author(s): John T. Paoletti Reviewed work(s): Source: Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 13, No. 26 (1992), pp. 85-100 Published by: IRSA s.c. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1483432 . Accessed: 03/04/2012 21:37

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http://www.jstor.org JOHN T. PAOLETTI

Wooden Sculpture in Italy as Sacral Presence

Due to the prodigious efforts of restorers during the past figies which Lorenzothe Magnificenthad made after the Pazzi twenty years and the increasingattention paidto wooden sculp- Conspiracy of 1478. According to Vasari, one of these was ture of the Trecentoand Quattrocentoby museum curators,art placed in Santissima Annunziata,Florence, one in Santa Maria historians,and historiansof liturgicaland theatricaltexts, we are degli Angeliat Assisi, andthe thirdin the Conventof the Chiarito, at a good moment to assess the meaning and function of these Florence;this last one Lorenzohad clothed with the very gar- splendidworks inthe context of the religioushistory of theirown ments he had been wearing at the time of the foiled attempt on time. Sculpture in wood, although fundamentally different in his life, whereas the Santissima Annunziataeffigy was dressed function from stone and bronze sculpture, should, however, be in the garments of a proper Florentinecitizen. These figures viewed together with works in those media which share com- must have provideda curious extension, if not inversion,of the parable mimetic capabilities, particularlythose free-standing normative meanings attached to commemorative statues like pieces in wax, plaster, or terracotta which are pigmented like the English examples just cited, by having as their unspoken wood to replicatethe subject in as compellinglyrealistic a man- epithet "the prince is alive, long live the prince."All the figures ner as possible. Much of this once pervasive sculpture is now of Lorenzowere destroyed in the political uprising of 1494, a lost, in large part because of its fragile nature, but also one damnatiomemoriae indicatingthe effectiveness of the effigy in should note that, because of its functionalrole in the culturesfor carrying Lorenzo'spolitical power to a wide audience.2 Such which it was produced, it was left vulnerableto both normal masks in wax and plaster served more than a commemorative wear and to politicalattack. function;they were meant to suggest the ever-present,timeless Death masks in wood, plaster, and wax, such as those of persona of the man or woman represented,a seamless temporal, Queen Elizabethof York(1465-1503) [Fig. 1] and of HenryVII social, and politicalorder which no cataclysm, not even death it- (d. 1509) now preserved in Westminster Abbey, are cases in self, could rend.This collapse of time into a realisticimage which point. Glass eyes, real human hair, and appropriatecostume denies a linearchronology or discrete events creates a sacral ex- made these figures virtualanimate presences long afterthe ruler perience which is the very raison d'etre of devotional art. Pre- had died. We can, by way of comparison,recall the three wax ef- cisely the same search for the sacral is evident in large-scale

85 JOHNT. PAOLETTI

1) ((Queen Elizabethof York), WestminsterAbbey, London. 2) Donatello,((Crucifix)), Sta. Croce, Florence.

wooden sculpture, and can be seen most particularlyin those present the torturedhuman body of Christin a naturalisticman- endlessly repeated representations of the crucified Christ, ner; even the extravagances of pain depicted in late medieval figures which must have been requisitesculptural iconography Germanexamples reproducethe actuality of the horrificevent. for virtuallyevery majorchurch on the Europeansubcontinent. Particulardetails of wooden crucifixes indicate the desire to Compendia of these crucifixes reveal a number of consis- achieve a compelling verism. Examplessurvive in Franconiaof tent attributes which are worthy of remark. First, wooden figures of the crucifiedChrist which were designed to have wigs crucifixes are almost without exception within the parameters fitted to their smoothly carved skulls.4 And some Italianexam- of what we can safely call life-sized3;there are no Christs of an ples like the Santa Maria Novella Crucifix attributed to intermediatescale, a fact which may indicate that actual size is Brunelleschiwere made to have actual draperyloincloths cover intrinsicto their meaning and function. There are some figures the genital area.5 Inclusionsof real materialslike human hairor which are considerably larger than life-sized, but these were cloth indicate attempts to dissolve the boundariesbetween the placed at a distance from the viewer, normallyhigh above rood fictive and the real.A numberof wood crucifixes, likethe one in screens, thus diminishingthe appearanceof theirsize considera- Santa Croceattributed to Donatello[Figs. 2-3], even have mov- bly. Wooden crucifixes are-or were-all polychromedso as to able limbs6; the changeable positions of the arms of such

86 WOODEN SCULPTUREIN ITALYAS SACRAL PRESENCE

3) Donatello, ((Crucifix)), Santa Croce, Florence (showing corpus removed from the cross).

87 JOHN T. PAOLETTI

4) Giovannidi Paolo, (Levitationof an Unknown FranciscanMonk)), private collection.

figures allowed them to function along a continuum of the Crucifix in the Libro diAntonio Billi (c. 1530), describes it as be- Christological narrative from the Crucifixion to the Lamentation ing "a meza la chiesa." Shortly afterwards Vasari wrote that Tad- or to depict the ahistorical imago pietatis. Lastly, it must be not- deo Gaddi's fresco of a miracle of St. Francis was on the rood ed that virtually no life-sized sculptural crucifixes exist in media screen which divided Santa Croce, and that it was painted other than wood prior to the sixteenth century; the very few ex- "above the crucifix of Donatello,"9 implying that the wooden ceptions one could cite, such as Donatello's bronze crucifix in crucifix was in the middle of the church as Billi had written and Padua, are remarkable for what amounted to an aberrant choice also low to the ground. Manetti described the Santa Maria Novel- of material.7 la Crucifix as "attached to the pillar between the two side The original placement of the Santa Croce and Santa Maria chapels on the side of the transept toward the old piazza in Santa Novella crucifixes may help to explain how such sculpture func- Maria Novella."o1 And in the mid-sixteenth century Giovanni tioned to make possible the sacral experience mentioned above. Battista Gelli described the same crucifix as being "between the They were originally not intended to be seen the way we see chapels of the Strozzi and the Bardi,"again indicating that it was them today, that is over altars within chapels.8 This is not sur- not in a discretely enclosed and private family chapel.11 prising since the large size of Renaissance altarpieces filled a In a number of painted depictions of religious ecstasy from good part of the wall space of chapels, leaving little usable space the Quattrocento, the holy person kneels before what must be for a life-sized crucifix. The earliest reference to the Santa Croce a polychromed wooden crucifix as in Sassetta's depiction of the

88 WOODEN SCULPTUREIN ITALYAS SACRAL PRESENCE

Vision of St. Thomas Aquinas from the Arte della Lana Altarpiece and Giovanni di Paolo's Levitation of an Unknown Franciscan

Monk [Fig. 4]. In these small predellapaintings all distinctions - 1?= -.•I ~ :- .... between actual and (re)presentedChrist disappear. Differences in scale between the saintlyfigure and the crucifixcan be under- stood as pictorialconventions used to emphasize the central characterin the narrativesince the relationshipbetween crucifix and church interiorsuggests that the corpus in each case is life- ! , . sized. The placement of the crucifixat groundlevel in a support- I ing base signifying the hill of Golgotha suggests the way in which many of the life-sized sculpted wooden crucifixes from the Trecentoand the Quattrocento would originallyhave been seen. iii - The obvious Florentineanalogue to these Sienese panels is '~ Masaccio's Trinitywhere the donorfigures are a merestep below the crucifiedChrist and where the cross is placed directlyon the I floor of the fictive chapel, where it too is supported by a rather reduced Here the scale of the figures is consistent Golgotha. i throughout. Tellingly,when this fresco was recreated, so to _ speak, in fully dimensional form for the CardiniChapel in San

. Francesco in Pescia (c. 1451; Fig. 5), the crucifixwas placed on . the floor in its own stylized Golgotha,just as we have seen in the paintings.12There is a 1470 record of a "crucifisso magno" placed above a Brunelleschifamily tomb slab in San Marco in Florence,perhaps in an arrangementsimilar to the CardiniTomb in Pescia.13The CardiniChapel suggests one furthermeaning for the placement of these wooden crucifixes. The realityof the crucified Christwhich the priest saw before him was repeated in the sacramental presence which he held in his hands, an iconography comparable to the familiar Mass of St. Gregory 5) Cardini Chapel, San Francesco, Pescia. imagery. Entriesin Neridi Bicci's Ricordanzerefer directly to this cru- cifix for the CardiniChapel. On June 3, 1458, Nerirecorded that he had taken "a dipigniere dal detto Ant[oni]o [Cardini]lo reason, he had not paintedthe mount which was still in his stu- Crocifisso di relievo [in this case one by Giulianoda Maiano], dio and which he described as being 3/4 of a braccia high and grande piuiche naturale,chol monte e.lla croce e.lla chorona di 1 3/4 braccia "lar[g]ho,"which might mean 1 3/4 bracciawide spine e.lla santita...."14The document, like others in the Ricor- or perhaps 1 3/4 bracciain diameter.17 Inany event it is difficult danze,15 indicates that the crucifix had as one of its parts a to imaginesuch a monte on an altar,attached to a wall where the monte, a word which meant not only mount but, in contem- monte would be redundant,or in any other place within a liturgi- poraryusage, also Calvary.Although the extant wooden crucifix cal setting except on the floor of the building,or possibly at a in Pescia is in accord with the parts mentioned in the document, crowning point on the rood screen.18 none of the other crucifixes which Neri mentioned has been Sculpted images of the crucified Christ, whatever their identified,thus makinga generalizationthat they were placed on placement, must have been powerfulincitements to devotionfor the floordifficult, even if they are referredto as "grande."Yet one the worshipper.The Chronicleof Moyenmoutiers(Vosges, c. furtherreference in the Ricordanzemakes this hypothesis seem 1020) begins: "Apenitent stood in the churchat the entranceto morethan likely.On December 15, 1470, Neriwrote that he had the choir and contemplated the image of the crucified Savior." sold to Giovanni d'Andrea, a goldsmith, "lo crocifisso di leg- This image of Christwas apparentlyattached somehow to the niame grande da tenere in chiesa, cholla croce, el monte e cholla roodscreen, either at groundlevel (likethe Santa Croce crucifix) chorona e 'I titolo di sopra alla croce."16 For some undeclared or over the entrance to the choir through the screen (like the

89 JOHNT. PAOLETTI

rr?•r cerning Himor on what is told accordingto the Gospel stories, feeling yourself present in those places as if the things were ...... done in your presence, as it comes directlyto your soul in think- AO ing of them."20 Indealing with such moments of spiritualimmediacy in the 40' VAL Aftq historyof art, we tend to cite familiardepictions, such as Giovan- ni di Paolo's panel of St. Catherineof Siena (1447-49), where *,, the crucifiedChrist in her vision takes the form of what appears to be a paintedwooden crucifix.But it is the narrativeaspect of the vision which normallyoccupies ourattention, not the object seen by the saint.21Nor do we normallyconsider very seriously the objects which help to provokevisions as they are narratedin ~ror pious hagiographicaltexts, many of which speak, for example, 1 ??OF " of "talking"crucifixes. In FraThomas Agniof Lentino'slife of St. i, PeterMartyr, the saint, havingbeen falsely accused of admitting women to his cell, "prayeddevotedly at night in church before a crucifix"only to have the "Crucifixiimago" speak to him:"And I, Peter, what did I do wrong that .... I was condemned to the cross."22 Whether Peter Martyr,St. John Gaulbert,or St. Fran- cis of Assisi, hagiographic accounts indicate that the saint closed the distance between himself and the livingChrist of the cross through the mediation of a painted or sculpted image. There are also a number of secular texts and examples which attest to the powerof these images of the crucifiedChrist to work wonders in rathermore pedestrian circumstances. In a long and unusual passage in his Ricordi, Giovannidi Pagolo Morellitells of his year-longgrief over the death of his son, Alber- to, and of kneeling before a crucifix on "bare knees" in his camicia, with nothingon his head and a belt aroundhis neck. Af- ter prolongedprayer he fell asleep and dreamed of talking with his deceased son in Paradise, an experience which finally released himfrom his sorrow.It is importantto emphasize in this secular account that Giovanniat no time in his discursive narra- tive confused this dream with any direct experience with the 6) ((SantaChiara Altarpiece,,, Santa Chiara,Assisi. Almightyor with his son; the dreamwas just a dream. Nonethe- less the crucifixseems to have been the agent for what must be read as a liminalexperience.23 In GiovanniCambi's Istorie he tells of three women who, in 1534, saw a crucifix rise up above painted crucifix depicted in the St. Franciscycle of the upper their heads with a great clatteringnoise. Whena crowdof people churchin Assisi or likegenerally unnoticed Venetian sculpted ex- gathered around,the wounds made by the crown of thorns be- amples such as the wooden crucifixat Santa MariaGloriosa dei gan to spurt blood which was caught in a chalice by the vicar of Frari).The Chroniclercontinues: "The master who made this the local bishop.24Such tales of piety and credulity could un- work was so skilled that even today it moves the hardest of doubtedly be multipliedmany times over.The point to be made, heartsto pity and makes people feel that they are witnessing the however,is that objects perceivedas works of art functioned in death of Christwith their own eyes."'9 Inthis light it is also use- their early histories as efficacious agents of the sacral. fulto recalla passage froma late-thirteenth-centurymanuscript. Likepainted crucifixes, even certain paintingssuggest that The Meditations on the Life of Christ, by an anonymous Francis- the artists and the patrons intended to make a distinction be- can states: "Thereforeyou ought to know that it is enough to tween the imminent presence of the saint or Christ and the meditate only on what the Lorddid or on what happened con- subordinatenarrative panels which depict scenes fromhis or her

90 WOODEN SCULPTUREIN ITALYAS SACRAL PRESENCE

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7) Cimabue, ((Great Crucifixion)), San Francesco, Assisi.

life. The Santa Chiara Master, for example, took great care to Madonna del Carmine (c. 1250-60) for Santa Maria Maggiore depict the figure of St. Clare in the altarpiece for Santa Chiara in where the central icon is raised in actual relief from the main Assisi (c. 1281-85; Fig. 6) in a fictive architectural tabernacle body of the painting. This format is later developed in poly- as if she were an actual presence in real space. The rigidity of her chromed wooden statues placed at the center of altarpieces like iconic representation is an appropriate stylistic device for the Signorelli's Pala Bichi with its figure of St. Christopher by Fran- devotional image and is distinct from the active figural poses in cesco de Giorgio.26 Other paintings indicate the power of the the flanking narrative panels. Yet its very rigidity approximates wooden crucifix to be a surrogate reality for the devotional ardor that of wooden sculpture and is another example of the blurring of the pious. In Cimabue's Great Crucifixion [Fig. 7] at Assisi, St. of the boundaries between representation and actuality which Francis kneels at the base of the cross before the crucified Christ. lies at the heart of polychromed wood sculpture.25 With this in Like many other similar images of St. Francis in Trecento paint- mind it might be useful to remember Coppo di Marcovaldo's ing, Cimabue's fresco depicts that sacral moment suggested by

91 JOHN T. PAOLETTI

San Marco or an anonymous woodcut of c. 1460 [Fig. 8] il- lustrate.28 " - -- The theatricality of Cimabue's early Franciscan image, ..... meant for the eyes of the monks seated in the choir of San Fran- cesco, has a counterpart in well-known Quattrocento lamenta- tion groups in terracotta by artists like Niccol6 dell'Arca and Gui- do Mazzoni [Fig. 9]. These groups were, like wooden sculpture, '?-I originally brilliantly polychromed to replicate real figures; they F," must, also like wooden sculpture, be seen as figures meant to "re-present" the original event. Placed on the floor of the church ~d >4~/Y>4A in the space of the worshipper, again much like the crucifixes, C ~PJ \?L~~fA;: 'J the figures of these groups invite one to become a full participant in their emotional reaction to the death of a kind of I 1! 16,c1j1 Christ, gueril- ~74'!A?~;Ii/ft.. ~ J 2J where the between the event and the viewer di la theater, bridge t /~~f l '' \. ? is made by the kneeling donor figure depicted as Joseph of . -,_ A1J Arimathea or the sculptor himself, often depicted as Nicode- -I a. mus.29 Like the figure of St. Francis in Cimabue's fresco or the worshipper in front of a wooden crucifix, the donor or the sculp- tor is represented as living in the present and in the long-past historical moment at one and the same time. A document previously overlooked by art historians sug- gests how such Lamentation groups might have functioned. On April 13, 1437, Good Friday, Alfonso I of "fa le funzioni sacri del Sepolcro (la rapresentacio del vinendres sant) nel Castello Nuovo di Napoli."30This reference suggests that Alfon- r _ _ so took part in a liturgical drama of the Deposition and Burial of Christ, a re-enactment of the original event, and that such liminal dramas are recalled in the terracotta groups by artists such as Niccol6 dell'Arca and Guido Mazzoni. Since donor images are suspected in a number of these terracotta Lamentations, such portraits represent an invasion of the sacral by the political with the not surprising presence of the secular ruler at the heart of the liturgical practice. The ruler's role was sacralized by blurring the boundaries between religious ritual and princely pageant in both 8) Anonymous German (?), ((Saint Before a Crucifix)),colored enacted dramas and mimetic sculpture. woodcut, c. 1460, Kunstmuseum,Basel. The Christ figure of such terracotta Lamentation groups should remind modern viewers of a sub-set of wooden crucifixes whose arms are fixed to the shoulders in such a way as to allow the Moyenmoutiers quotation; Francis does not see a vision but them to be folded down to the sides of the body so that the cor- miraculously reaches through time to participate in the actual pus could be removed from the cross in a Good Friday re-enact- history of the Crucifixion. All commemorative relivings of the ment of the Deposition and Lamentation. By 1969, the Tauberts event are collapsed into the ever-present actuality of the mys- had published an inventory of forty such crucifixes with movable tery as a fourteenth-century text from a Swiss convent rather arms.31 The Santa Croce crucifix [Figs. 2-3] is one of these graphically suggests: "... era in preghiera dinnanzi a un'immagine sculptures, as Hans Kauffmann indicated over fifty years ago,32 di Nostro Signore nel Sepolcro ed eccola d'un tratto prendere although its arms fold only part way to its sides to create an icon- nella sua mano la mano e il piede di Nostro Signore, e sentirli di ic Man of Sorrows rather than the dead Christ of historical nar- came e di sangue come se veramente un uomo fosse lb sepol- rative. to."27Such imagery quickly became widespread and apparently The well-known late Dugento Deposition in the cathedral of universally understood as Fra Angelico's fresco of St. Dominic in Volterra perhaps gives an idea of how these wooden crucifixes

92 WOODENSCULPTURE IN ITALYAS SACRALPRESENCE

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9) Guido Mazzoni, ((TheLamentation), Monteoliveto,Naples.

with movablearms might have been used. A document from an with the Santa Croce crucifix,35derives. It may also be the case Englishordo is also pertinentinsofar as it indicates that "Joseph that the pose of the dead Christwith arms extended rigidlyaway et Nicodemide ligno deponentes Ymaginem,"which they could from the body in late-Dugento and early-TrecentoLamentation only do, incidentally,if the crucifix were on or close to the floor paintingsalso reflects the awkwardstiffness of the wooden cor- of the church.33Sculpted examples of this transitionalmoment pus whose arms move only at the shoulder once released from in the Passion narrativeare not as numerous as the isolated the cross.36 figure of the crucified Christ, but enough such groups exist to Sandro Sticca has suggested that such liturgicaldramas suggest that the subject was importantin the devotional life of moved fromsimple textual formto actual theater in the mid-thir- the late MiddleAges.34 It may well be from such enacted depic- teenth century, that is, at just the time that the Volterragroup tions of the Deposition that the Imago Pietatis image, like the was carved.37Interestingly, there are virtuallyno liturgicaldra- familiarone fromthe Portadella Mandorlasometimes compared mas centered on the actions of crucifixion;plays leadingto the

93 JOHNT. PAOLETTI

dramas,figures no less realthan the actors addressingthem.39 Forexample, in 1377 there is a Perugianrecord of expenses for a Good Fridayprocession with a "deadChrist" whose material is not specified, and in 1491 there is a recordof the manufacture of a painted wax Virginby Benedetto Buglionefor use in a Holy Saturday procession.40 Clearlysculpture was central to cultic events and served to embody the presence of the person represented. Comparableexamples of sculpture functioning as a sur- rogate for the actual figure in some kindof liturgicaldrama can be seen in other iconographicaltypes. Life-sizedwooden figures of Christ as a baby are well-known, if not well-liked,images. Such figures, apparentlyplaced on altarsfor Nativityfeasts, ex- ist primarilyin the mediumof wood; what few remainin marble seem to have been detached from architecturalmonuments like tabernacles.41Wooden figures of Christon a donkey standing on very simple wheeled carts were used in PalmSunday proces- sions.42 Morecompelling figures to our moderneyes are those from Annunciationgroups, such as that attributedto Mariano d'AngeloRomanelli in the church of Santa Chiaradella Marcain Castelfiorentino,in which the figure of Mary has real drapery addedto it and is structuredwith arms which arejointed to allow movement-and perhapsalso to hold one of the Gesuinofigures at a narrativemoment later in the liturgicalcycle. Inaddition, as RobertMode has pointedout, an effigy "insimilitudine," perhaps of some temporarymaterial like wax or clay drapedwith realgar- ments, was used for a rappresentazioneof an ascension of St. Bernardinointo Paradisewhich took place in frontof the Palazzo Pubblicoin Siena in 1450.43 Whateverthe subject matterof wooden sculpture,its func- tion and adherence to type suggest a numberof ramifications whose development lies beyond the scope of this study. Yet some briefindication of their naturecan be outlined. First,inso- 10) Donatello, <

94 WOODEN SCULPTUREIN ITALYAS SACRAL PRESENCE efficacy-of the type. Third, within specific iconographical types, wood exists as the exclusive medium of representation. The conservatism of style predicated on functional need and type, used in the wooden sculpture of the Quattrocento, does pertain to one very intriguing aspect of Donatello's work outside this medium. The bronze crucifix in the Santo in Padua [Fig. 10] is documented to Donatello and datable to 1444-47 by payment records. Comparison of this work with a wooden crucifix from the little church of San Francesco at Bosco ai Fra- ti [Fig. 11]46 helps to focus the issue. Cosimo de' Medici be- gan restoration of the chapel sometime after 1421,47 in part because it served his villa at Caffagiolo. He ultimately commis- sioned Fra Angelico to make the altarpiece for the building and it is assumed that his patronage extends to the Bosco ai Frati crucifix as well. The work has been attributed to Donatello solely on the basis of other connections between the sculptor and Cosimo, particularly during the decade between 1434 and 1443 when Donatello was involved with the decoration of the Old Sacristy. At any rate, given the history of the restorations at Bosco ai Frati, it does seem likely that the wooden crucifix was carved before Donatello went to Padua in 1443--whoever may have been the sculptor-and that it is close in time to the Padua sculpture.48 Comparison of the bronze crucifix in Padua and the wooden crucifix at Bosco ai Frati reveals that the sculptor (or sculptors) chose the same physical types for the body, the same placement and modeling of the legs, the same degree of detail in the genital area (although the Paduan figure is now discreetly covered by a seventeenth-century loincloth), and the same rectangular con- figuration of the torso from the shoulders to the hips. Vasari said, when talking about wood sculpture, that one does not see the same "carnositb e morbidezza" that one sees in bronze; that is the case here, although some of the muscular tenseness and definition in the Paduan crucifix is due more to the way that light 11) Donatello (attributed), ((Crucifix)), San Francesco, Bosco ai plays over the reflective surface of the bronze than to its actual Frati. form, an effect which probably lies behind Vasari's statement. And, although one might note differences--such as the more classicizing patterned hair of the Paduan figure, the more sharply it the more obvious classicizing stylistics of the bronzemedium articulated distinctions between individual muscular forms in known from antiquity and from civic sculpture of the earlier the Paduan Christ and the more expressionistically rendered de- years of the Quattrocento.50 tails of the bloody stripes allowed by the polychromy in the But bronzewas utterlyinappropriate at this time for interior Bosco ai Fratifigure - by and large the similarities between these liturgicaldecoration. With the notable exception of Arnolfo'sSt. two works are more striking than their differences. If we assume Peter in Rome, there are no examples of life-sized figures in that the Bosco ai Frati piece also had stucco or plaster additions bronzeas interiordevotional images untilDonatello made the Pa- to the hair, then the comparison might be even more compel- duan crucifix and subsequently the figures for the high altar of ling.49 In the Paduan crucifix, Donatello seems to cross the the Santo. Donatello'stranslation of the conventions of wooden traditional stylistic boundaries between wood and bronze sculp- sculptureinto bronzeplaces the Paduancrucifix outside the dis- ture. He has turned into bronze the stylistics of realism central course both of the history of bronze sculpture and of the history to works carved in wood, essentially without superimposing on of liturgical decoration. It is bronze but, polychromy aside, it

95 JOHN T. PAOLETTI looks like wood, sharing the same realistic or naturalistic con- that contemporaries of Donatello understood the relationship ventions cultivated by carvers of wood.51 Thus it is perhaps not between medium and message very clearly, something we must surprising that, with the exception of non-Florentine sources learn to do as well if we are to comprehend both Donatello's such as Bartolomeo Fazio and Marcantonio Michiel,52 there is sculpture and his genius. no mention of the bronze sculpture at the Santo in near contem- Donatello's innovations in bronze sculpture in Padua and porary sources. Antonio Billi refers to the marble PietMon the al- Siena occasioned only very limited response either from writers tar,53 and Vasari mentions the reliefs54--obviously appropriate or from other artists.56 Although bronze was important in civic for bronze-and the marble Pieth. Perhaps these writers were and commemorative commissions, it never became a widely merely uninformed. But perhaps their omissions are an indica- used medium for devotional imagery, in part perhaps because of tion that Donatello had trespassed boundaries established by its costliness, but more likely because as a medium it was inap- medium, as he was to do again in 1457 with the bronze St. John propriate for this function insofar as it lacked that verisimilitude for the cathedral of Siena which subsequently lay in storage for which could transport the viewer into sacral time. In short it was so many years.55 Such faint historical echoes seem to indicate art and not reality.

The ideas in this article were first presented at the 24th International been a leader among modern historians writing about wooden sculp- Congress on MedievalStudies at Kalamazooin May 1989 in what was ture; see Lascultura lignea senese, Milan-Florence,1951; Lascultura intendedmerely as a briefforay intothe issues particularto wooden and lignea italiana dal Xll//al XVI secolo, Milan, 1961. DeborahStrom has terracottasculpture. A much revised version of that paperwas read at recently given a fuller discussion of wooden sculpture in Tuscany in the annualmeetings of the College ArtAssociation in New YorkCity in her Studies in Quattrocento Tuscan Wooden Sculpture, Ann Arbor, February1990. My thinking has benefited from the advice and as- 1981. For wooden crucifixes in particular see G. de Francovich, sistance of many, among whom I would like particularlyto thank Carla "L'Originee la diffusione del Crocifisso gotico doloroso," Kunst- Antonaccio, ClarkMaines, Anita Moskowitz, Peter Parshall,Amy Van- geschichtliches Jahrbuch der Bibliotheca Herziana 2 (1938), pp. dersall, Timothy Verdon, and Paul Watson. Kathleen Falvey and 143-261; M. Lisner, Holzkruzifixein Florenz und in der Toskana, ElizabethParker were especially generous in sharing with me their Munich, 1970 (ItalienischeForschungen,I111.4). The fundamentalarti- magisterialcommand of Italianliturgical drama and confraternalritual. cle on wooden crucifixeswith movablearms is G. &J. Taubert's"Mittel- PhilipFoster read an earlierdraft of this paper and providedme with a alterliche Kruzifixemit schwenkbarenArmen. Ein Beitragzur Verwen- detailedand helpfulcritique which broughtnew clarityto my ideas and dung von Bildwerkenin der Liturgie,"Zeitschrift des Deutschen Vereins for this I am enormously grateful. I hope eventually to develop the fir Kunstwissenschaft 23 (1969), pp. 79-121. materialdiscussed here into a much largerstudy of wood and terracotta Forinsights into wooden (and wax) funeraryeffigies see W. H. St. sculpture duringthe fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. John Hope,"On the FuneralEffigies of the Kingsand Queens of England, 1 The bibliographypertinent to sculpture in wood is lengthy; the with Special Referenceto Those in the Abbey Churchof Westminster," most important works dealing with Italianart follow. Enzo Carlihas Archaeologia60 (1907), pp. 517-65. Forsculpture in wax see G. Masi,

96 WOODEN SCULPTUREIN ITALYAS SACRAL PRESENCE

"Laceroplastica in Firenzenei secoli XV-XVIe la famigliaBenintendi," able eyes and some even with provisionsfor allowingblood to flow from Rivistad'arte 9 (1916), pp. 134-43; the premierwork on this subject is the side of the corpus. By 1978 theirlist had apparentlyreached 68 such J. von Schlosser's "Geschichteder Portritbildnereiin Wachs,"Jahrbuch crucifixes;see Haastrup,"Medieval Props," p. 146. Ina subsequent pub- der KunsthistorischenSammlungen des AllerhochstenKaiserhauses 29 lication,Johannes Taubertreturned to the issue of crucifixeswith mova- (1911),pp. 171-258. An importantrecent exhibitioncatalogue for wood ble arms as partof a largerstudy on wooden sculpture and its restora- sculpture is Scultura Dipinta. Maestri di Legname e Pittori a Siena tion;see FarbigeSkulpturen: Bedeutung, Fassung, Restaurierung, Munich, 1250- 1450, Florence, 1987. 1978, esp. pp. 38-50. His is both the most succinct and the most com- For a wide-ranging, thorough, and provocative treatment of the prehensivetreatment of the topic of wooden crucifixes and their place functioning of images within the society see now D. Freedberg,The in the liturgy.In addition to crucifixes, Italianwooden statues of the An- Power of Images, Chicago, 1989; Freedbergdiscusses the specific im- nunciateVirgin also havemovable arms; see SculturaDipinta..., pp. 56-60 agery of the Crucifixion(pp. 286-94) about which this paper is con- for a figurewith an inscribeddate of 1321 inthe Museo Nazionaledi San cerned, althoughhe does not concern himselfwith the actual placement Matteo, Pisa, and pp. 86-88 for an Annunciationgroup in Santa Chiara of the sculpturewithin the church.See also H. Belting,Das Bildundsein dellaMarca, Castelfiorentino. S. Corbin,La Deposition Liturgique du Christ Publikumim Mittelalter:Form und Funktion friiher Bildtafeln der Passion, au VendrediSaint,Paris-Lisbon, 1960, pp. 115-116, mentionsa liturgical Berlin,1981; now translatedas The Image and Its Publicin the Middle dramaknown from musicaltexts from Florencein the fifteenth century Ages, New Rochelle(N.Y.), 1990. Foran importantstudy of a sub-set of whose directionsindicate that a corpus was removedfrom the cross and this materialsee U. Haastrup,"Medieval Props in the LiturgicalDrama," carriedin procession along with a consecrated host to a place of burial Hafnia(Copenhagen Papers in the Historyof Art) 11(1987), pp. 133-70; in the church.D. Carl,"Die Kruzifixe des TaddeoCurradi in der Kircheder Haastrup'swork is particularlyuseful as a compendiumof Scandinavian SS. Concezionezu Florenz,"Mitteilungen des KunsthistorischenInstitutes examples which parallelthe sculpturalform and function of Italianand in Florenz28 (1984), p. 398, gives a document for 1574 which indicates Germanfigures. that such ritualpractices were still followed at that date: "ognivolta che 2 G. Vasari,Le Vitede'pid eccellentipittori,scultori ed architettori, detta compagnia[della SS. Concezione]o altrilo [ilcrocifisso grande] voles- ed. G. Milanesi,Florence, 1906, III,pp. 373-74; these votive portraits si rimovereper occasione di cappelle, che si possa sempre ove piacera were broughtinto the modern literatureon this subject by A. Warburg alla nostra compagniaporle et fare la sepolturanel mezzo della chiesa." "Bildniskunstund FlorentinischesB1irgertum," Gesammelte Schriften, 7 See note 56. vol. I, Berlin-Leipzig,1932, p. 99. Lorenzo'sdeath mask still exists, hav- 8 Thereare recordsof wooden crucifixeson altars,but theirlack of ing survived both the 1494 and the 1527 attacks on Mediciimagery in precisionabout size lead me to believethat they were very small;see G. Florence.Although most likelyfortuitous, it is worth noting that royal Poggi, et al., "LaCompagnia del Bigallo,"Rivista d'arte 2 (1904), p. 234, corpses in Englandwere embalmed in wax-impregnatedcloth (Hope, for a paymentto Lapodi Franciescho"per una crociecol piedistallodipin- "FuneraryEffigies," pp. 528-29) and that as earlyas 1327 for the funer- ta per tenere in su I'altare...." al of EdwardVII the royalcoffin carrieda wooden effigy of the king (ibi- 9 Antonio Billi,II Libro diAntonio Billi,ed. C. Frey.Berlin, 1892, pp. dem, p. 530). 40-41. Vasari-Milanesi,Vite, I, p. 573; in his lifeof Donatello,Vasari says 3 Fordiscussion of the medievalnotion of the size of Christsee G. that the crucifixwas "a lato della storia di TaddeoGaddi" (ibidem, II, p. Uzielli,"L'Orazione della Misuradi Cristo,"Archivio storico italiano 27 398). Sometime probablyduring the mid-sixteenthcentury renovation (1901), pp. 334-45, essentially taken fromthe same author'sLe misure of Sta. Croce,the crucifixwas moved to the BarbigiaChapel; when this linearimedioevalie l'effigie di Cristo, Florence,1899, pp. 9-10; he cites chapel was ceded to the Guidaccifamily in the 1570s, the crucifixwas two Florentinemanuscripts, one from the fourteenthand one from the again moved (c. 1572), this time to the LodovicoBardi Chapel. See M. fifteenth century, each of which includes a diagrammaticmeasure of B. Hall,Renovation and Counter-Reformation.Vasari and Duke Cosimo 1/16of what the authorsthought was the length of Christ'sbody, which in Sta MariaNovella and Sta Croce 1565- 1577, Oxford, 1979, p. 145. in the first instance measured 1.744 meters and in the second 1.60 10 A. Manetti, The Lifeof Brunelleschi,ed. H. Saalman, University meters. See also note 13. Park:Pennsylvania State UniversityPress, 1970, p. 40. Giventhe tendency 4 F.Joubert, "Stylizationet Verisme:Le paradoxed'un Groupede to date this sculptureearly in the century by recent writers(H. W. Jan- Christs Franconiensdu XV6me si6cle,"Zeitschrift far Kunstgeschichte son, TheSculpture of Donatello,Princeton, 1957, as c. 1412and D.Strom, 51 (1988), pp. 513-23. Similarsmooth craniaalso appearin a Rhenish Studies in QuattrocentoTuscan Wooden Sculpture, p. 187, as 1420-25), wooden statue of a Madonnaand Childsuggesting a widespreaduse of it might be useful to note that the Crucifixmay not have been given to such wigs; see I. Futterer,Gotische Bildwerkeder Deutschen Schweiz, Sta. MariaNovella until 1443, as a documentaryreference from the Libro 1230- 1240, Augsburg, 1930, p. 168, plates 30-32. Schlosser, "Ge- di Lapi-Radda,fol. 119, seems to indicate:"1443-Crocifisso posto da schichte der Portritbildnerei,"pp. 193-94, cites a document in which Filippodi Ser Brunellescoin Chiesa";see S. Orlandi,Necrologio diS. Mar- details of the makingof the funeraryeffigy of FrancisI by FrancoisClouet ia Novella, Florence,1955, p. 578. includes the purchase of hair and of glue for adheringit. 11The referenceby GiovanniBattista Gelli is found in H. W.Janson, 5 Otherexamples in which the corpus is completely nude,thereby Donatelo, pp. 7-8. A document from 1412 indicates such a placement suggesting the additionsof an actual fabricloincloth, exist in crucifixes on a wall with an imprecisereference to an altar:"Romigi di NeriMalifici made for SS. Annunziataand San Niccol6oltr'Arno in Florence,San Fran- dono...unocrocifisso grandeel quale e appicchatoapresso all'altaredella cesco at Bosco ai Frati,S. Mariaa Ripain Empoli,and Sto. Spiritoin Flor- detta chapella in una faccia di murodipinta di nero...nell'anno1412 a di ence (now in the Casa Buonarroti).The DonatelloCrucifix in bronze in d'ottobre";see J. Mesnil,"La Compagnia di Gesi Pellegrino,"Rivista d'arte Sant'Antonioin Paduawas also made with a completely nude body; it 2 (1904), p. 69. A wooden crucifix,probably from the earlysixteenth cen- is now drapedwith a seventeenth-century bronze loincloth. tury, in a side chapel of the parishchurch of the Assunta in Settignano 6 Fora compendiumof these crucifixes with movable arms and a now still approximatessuch a placement. discussion of theirhistory see G. &J. Taubert,"Mittelalterliche Kruzifixe." 12 Forthe CardiniChapel in Pesciasee G. Morolli,"Ortodossie Alber- Inthis articlethe Taubertscatalogue 40 such crucifixes,some with mov- tiane nella 'Brunelleschiana'Cappella dei Cardinia Pescia,"Atti del

97 JOHN T. PAOLETTI

Convegnosu AndreaCavalcanti detto "ilBuggiano," Buggiano Castello, in Sto. Spirito(p. 397, note 2); a seventeenth-centuryinventory of SS. 1979, pp.47-60. Referencesto sculptedcrucifixes raised high above the Concezione lists "1 Crocifissodi legno, che stava gi6 sopra il ciboriodi viewer come from much later, which may merely be an accident of TaddeoCurradi" (p. 401). Documentsof 1577 list paymentsfor "unacroce documentaryremains. Parenthetically, we might recallhere that Vasari, per I'altaremaggiore," but referto the corpus as "crocifissino"(p. 399, in his Introductionto the artsof Architecture,Painting and Sculpture, states document VIII),indicating that the work was a very small altarcross of that inorder to makeperfect wooden sculpture the carvermust first fashion a quitedifferent nature from the life-sizedcrucifixes being considered here. models in wax or terracotta (Vasari-Milanesi,Vite, p. 166). Thus the 19 This passage is quoted by J. Burckhardtin The Altarpiece in progressfrom design to executionof woodensculpture apparently parallels Renaissance Italy, Cambridge,1988, p. 22. that of stone sculpture.The earliest Italianrepresentation of a crucifix 20Meditations on the Lifeof Christ,ed. I. Ragusa,R. B. Green, Prince- placedon the ground(in this case apparentlybefore the sculptorhimself) ton, 1961, p. 387. is a reliefdated 1311 fromthe pulpitof the cathedralof Benevento;see 21 Over 40 years ago, MillardMeiss in his Paintingin Florenceand G. de Francovich,"L'Origine e la diffusionedel Crocifissogotico doloro- Sienaafter the BlackDeath, Princeton, 1951, demonstrated that St. Cather- so," KunstgeschichtlichesJahrbuch der BibliothecaHerziana 2 (1938), ine of Siena's visions were dependent upon paintedimages which she pp. 225-26. had seen; this is the only extensive treatmentof this issue which I know. 13 "Unasepolturam sive avellumpositum in ecclesia Sancti Marci...et See also Belting,The Image andits Public.I can't resist mentioninga cu- fere positumsub crucifissomagno dicte ecclesie..."; H. Teubner, "San Mar- riouspredella panel, The Visionof St. Augustine(The Art Institute of Chica- co in Florenz:Umbauten vor 1500. EinBeitrag zum Werkdes Micheloz- go), fromthe PlacidiAltarpiece by Matteode Giovanniin which the appa- zo,"Mitteilungen des KunsthistorischenInstitutes in Florenz23 (1979), ritionsin St. Augustine'svision of the eremeticalsaints, John the Baptist p. 262, doc. VI, 2. and Jerome, look for all the world like carved representationsof those 14 N. di Bicci, Le Ricordanze(10 Marzo 1453-24 Aprile 1475) ed. saints. BrunoSanti, Pisa, 1976, p. 94. Itis not clearwhat Nerimeant by "grande 22 VitaScripta per Thomamde Lentinocoaevum, Ord.Praed. postea piOche naturale"since the corpus in Pescia is not noticeablylarger than PatriarchamHierosoloymitanum inActa Sanctorum, 12, Paris-Rome,1866, life-sized.As noted above (note 3), there is still some uncertaintyabout pp. 696-97. what wouldconstitute "life-sized"for this period,especially since actual 23 Giovannidi Pagolo Morelli,"Ricordi" (1393-1421) in Mercanti body height was somewhat shorterthan it is today. Inactual fact Neri's Scrittori,ed. V. Branca,Milan, 1986, pp. 303-24. descriptivecomment may be accurate,but we should buildsome latitude 24G. Cambi,"Istorie di GiovanniCambi" in DeliziedegliEruditi Tosca- into our readingof the term life-sizedwhich will allow for the distance ni, vol. 23, Florence, 1786, p. 138-39. Cambi,incidentally, describes of the viewerfrom the crucifix.Thus Donatello'sSanta Croce crucifix may the crown of thorns in a mannersuggesting a realcrown on a sculptural replicateactual humansize forthe periodsince viewers could apparently form. There is also a story of the nun Maechtilddie Rittrinwho, while get veryclose to it, whereasthe Pesciacrucifix is somewhat largerto com- meditatingbefore a stone figure of the dead Christ,touched the hands pensate for its recessed position in the chapel. and feet of the statue only to feel that they were flesh; see W. H. Forsyth, 15Ilbidem, p. 163, no. 322; p. 192, no. 382; for a smalldevotional cru- TheEntombment of Christ:French Sculptures of the Fifteenthand Six- cifix see pp. 300-01, no. 569. teenth Centuries, Cambridge,1970, p. 17. 16 Ilbidem,pp. 360-61, no. 677. 25 I would liketo thank Jeryldene M. Woodfor her insights into the 17 Ibidem, p. 361. Sta. ChiaraAltarpiece which she discussed at the 1989 InternationalCon- 18Placement of sculpturalcrucifixes on roodscreens does not seem gress on MedievalStudies in Kalamazooand for providingme with an il- to have occurredin central Italy,although it must be admittedthat evi- lustrationof this painting;her focus on this altarpieceled to my own in- dence is slight. Examplesfrom Germany, such as the wooden Crucifixion terpretationin the text (for which she should not be held responsible). from Halberstadt(c. 1220), from France,such as Suger's great cross at 26See M. Ingendaay,"Rekonstruktionsversuch der 'Pala Bichi' in San Saint Denis, and fromnorthern Italy, such as the figures in the cathedral Agostinoin Siena,"Mitteilungen des KunsthistorischenInstitutes in Florenz of Torcelloand in the churchof Santa MariaGloriosa dei Frariin Venice, 23 (1979), pp. 109-26. suggest such placement had wider currencyin the north. See also the 27 E. Castelnuovo,ed., ImagoLignea: sculture lignee nel Trentinodal Chronicleof Moyenmoutierscited in the textbelow. One well-knownex- XIIIalXV/secolo, Trent,1989, p. 16; Castelnuovounfortunately does not tant Italianexample from 1394 (atopthe roodscreen in San Marcoby Jaco- identifythe text, notingmerely that it comes froma "monasterofemminile po di MarcoBenato) differs from the wooden examplesdiscussed not only della zona del lago di Costanza." in mediumbut in its smallerthan life-sizedscale as well. 28 MaryMagdalene also frequentlyappeared at the foot of the cross; ElizabethC. Parkerhas mentionedthe placementof the Altarof the the relationshipbetween the iconographyof the Magdalenand of St. Crossin front of the roodscreen in herdiscussion of the settingsfor Deposi- Francishas yet to be determined,but it is not unreasonableto suspect tio dramaswhich mightexplain the placementof the Santa Crocecruci- that the Franciscanimagery reused alreadyextant penitentialMagdalen fix and also the placementof crucifixesat the centralcrowning point of formulae.The image of a contemporaryembracing the cross replicates, roodscreens in the sites mentionedabove; see her TheDescent fromthe of course, the liturgicalpractice of the late MiddleAges and the Renais- Cross:Its Relationto the Extra-Liturgical"Depositio" Drama, New York- sance, a ritualdevotion which continues to our own day. Bartolommeo London,1978, p. 134. The issue of the placementof the crucifixin con- del Corazzarecords, for example,the entire papalcourt participatingin junctionwith an altarbecomes morecomplicated in the sixteenth centu- such a practice: ry,perhaps as a resultof changes occasioned by the Councilof Trent.D. Carl,"Die Kruzifixe des TaddeoCurradi in der Kircheder SS. Concezione A'di 14, VenerdiSanto, la mattina,il santo Padrevenne in SantaMaria zu Florenz,"Mitteilungen des KunsthistorischenInstitutes in Florenz28 Novellaall'altare maggiore, e parossi, e disse I'uffiziodella Croce,e (1984), pp. 394-401, has publisheda numberof documents which list scopersela, come &di consueto fare;poi la pose a pie dell'altare,e crucifixesattached to ciboria:in 1575 Bacciodi Filippodi Bacciod'Agno- and6a sederein su la sedia,e fecesi scalzaree and6con grandedivozi- lo repaired"il nostro crocifixogrande sopra I'arcoallo altaremaggiore" one a baciare la Croce e inginocchiossi 3 volte: poi andarono

98 WOODEN SCULPTUREIN ITALYAS SACRAL PRESENCE

tutti i Cardinaliche erano 17, poi vescovi, e altriprelati e signori,am- coloredleather garment for Christwith leggings of flesh-coloredleather," basciatoridi piuiSignorie; poi si comunic6 e lesse la Messa, dissesi which suggests that a real actor playedthe role in a costume meant to la pistola e 'I passio; e il vangelio disselo un Cardinale. indicate a naked body. 40 CanizioPizzoni published the document from the Confraternith See "DiarioFiorentino di Bartolommeodi Michele del Corazza Anni dell'Annunziatain Perugiain "LaConfraternith dell'Annunziata in Peru- 1405-1438," ArchivioStorico Italiano,ser. V (14), 1894, p. 260. gia," deiDisciplinati,p. 152; R.G. Mather,"Nuovi documenti 29 I/Movimento G. Hersey, Alfonso II and the Artistic Renewal of Naples robbiani,"L'arte 22 (1919),p. 107. Recent practicesin penitentialproces- 1485- 1495, New Haven,1969, pp. 121-24, discusses GuidoMazzoni's sions also used sculptureas a centralfocus of the liturgicalevent; E. Monaci Lamentationin Naples and the figurehe calls Nicodemusas a portraitof ("Appuntiper la storiadel teatro italiano:Uffizi drammatici dei disciplina- Alfonso II;see also T. Verdon,The Art of GuidoMazzoni, New York-Lon- ti dell'Umbria,"Rivista di filologiaromanza 1 [1872], p. 242, note 2) men- don, 1978, pp. 79-81 for a discussion of portraitfigures in this groupand tioned a contemporaryGood Fridayprocession in Piperno(Campania) in passim for portraitsin other Lamentationgroups by Mazzoni.N. Gram- which the corpus was removedfrom a cross, placedon a bier,and carried maccini, "Lad6ploration de Niccol6 dell'Arca,"Revue de I'art62 (1983), to a tomb temporarilymade from an altar.One caveat must be noted here: pp.21 -34, exploresthis questioneven morefully; he posits a portraitfigure the term "corpus"is used in documentarysources for both the eucharis- of GiovanniII Bentivoglio in the Lamentationfor S. Mariadella Vita in Bolo- tic host and for a fictive body of Christ;it is not always possible to tell gna and reviews the earliersuggestions that ErcoleI d'Este appears as which of the two meanings is intended. Joseph of Arimatheain GuidoMazzoni's group in Sta. Mariadelle Rose 41An earlydiscussion of the Gesuinofigures (includingexamples in in Ferraraand Alfonso IIof Aragonas Joseph in Guido'sLamentation in stucco and terracotta)was UrsulaSchlegel's purelyformal consideration Naples. A numberof the Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimatheafigures in "The ChristChild as DevotionalImage in MedievalItalian Sculpture: which are partsof the FrenchEntombment groups discussed by Forsyth A Contributionto AmbrogioLorenzetti Studies," The Art Bulletin 52 (1970), (TheEntombment of Christ)seem also to haveparticularized physical fea- pp. 1-10; see also GiovanniPrevitali's comments on this articlein "II'Bam- tures and may well also be portraits.For comments which might provoke binGesi' come 'immagineDevozionale' nella scultura italiana del Trecento," a full-scale discussion of the figureof Nicodemusas a portraitof the ar- Paragoneno. 249 (1970), pp. 31 -40. C.van Hulst,"La storia della divozi- tist see G. DunphyMurphy, "Once More, Michelangelo and Nicodemism," one a Ges' Bambinonelle immaginiplastiche isolate,"Antonianum 19 TheArt Bulletin71 (1989), p. 693. (1944), pp. 35-54, had earlierprovided a wide rangeof criticalexamples Corbin,La Deposition Liturgique,p. 257. of Gesuino figures; this articledeserves to be better known. Henkvan 3031 G. & S. Taubert,Mittelalterliche Kruzifixe. Os has written about an anomalous Paduanexample of a paintingused 32 H. Kauffmann,Donatello, Berlin,1935, p. 200, n. 44; H. W. Jan- in place of one of these sculpted figures in "TheMadonna and the Mys- son, Donatello, p. 9, reintroducedthis fact into the ongoing discussion tery Play,"Simiolus 5 (1971),pp. 5-19. The most importantwork on these of the crucifix. BabyChrist figures now is ChristianeKlapisch-Zuber's "Holy Dolls: Play 33 Corbin,La Deposition Liturgique, p. 189; the ordo, from Barking, and Piety in Florencein the Quattrocento,"Women, Family, and Ritualin also says that "deferantCrucem ad magnam altare ubique in specie RenaissanceItaly, Chicago, 1985, pp. 310-29. Neridi Biccimentions the Joseph...," indicatingthat the ceremony took place at the high altarat manufactureand paintingof one of these figuresin his Ricordanze(p. 193) least in this instance. Corbinalso providesappendices of documented and a 1386 inventoryof the Confraternithdei Disciplinatidi San Domeni- depositions from all across Europe;for Italysee pp. 257-59. co in Perugialists a "Giesuino"(E. Monaci, "Appunti per la storia del teatro 34 Some extantfragments, such as the Courajodcrucifix dated to the italiano,"p. 259). twelfth century (inthe ),suggest in theirasymmetrical treatment 42 Forsuch figures see E. Lipsmeyer,"Jahreslaufbrauchtum," Volk- of the torso with a loweredright arm that they were once partsof Deposi- skunst 1 (1989), pp. 50-58. tiongroups and not independentcrucifixes. This suggests that such Depo- 43 R. L.Mode, "San Bernardinoin Glory,"The Art Bulletin55 (1973), sition groups were more numerousthan the few extant examples might p. 59. initiallyindicate. 44 The recentlydiscovered inscription on the Virginof the Annunci- 35 Contemporarypainted examples of such imagerywould include ation in the Museo Nazionaledi San Matteo in Pisa dating the statue to FraAngelico's fresco at San Marco. 1321 andthe documentaryevidence of paymentswhich allows us to date 36 I wish to thank my colleague, ClarkMaines, for this observation. Jacopo dellaQuercia's Annunciation group in San Gimignanoto 1421-26 37 S. Sticca, The LatinPassion Play, Albany,1970, p. 150. providea test case for stylistic conservatism over time. Comparisonof 38These directionsare from a PlanctusMariae now in the MuseoAr- the two figuresof Maryshows that they closely approximateone another cheologico of Cividale;see iIMovimentodeiDisciplinatinelSettimo Cen- in pose and draperystyle. A Morelliancomparison of the two provides tenariodal suo inizio, publishedas a special volume of Deputazionedi a distinctionof hands, but hardlysuggests that the two pieces differin StoriaPatria per l'Umbria, Appendice al Bollettino,no. 9, Perugia,1962, date by 100 years.What we see in Quercia'sVirgin is a continuityof figural p. 19. T.Verdon, Guido Mazzoni, pp. 21 -24, has also mentionedthe con- forms imitatinga venerable model in virtual disregardof the stylistic nectionof depositionsand lamentations to HolyWeek liturgies and dramas. predilectionsnotable in others of his works. See SculturaDipinta. Maes- 39 K. Falvey,Scriptural Plays fromPerugia, unpublished Ph.D. disser- tri di Legnamee Pittoria Siena 1250- 1450, for the Pisa figure and pp. tation, State Universityof New Yorkat Stony Brook,1974, p. 111,where 156-57 for the Querciafigure. she says that the "deadChrist was not an actor but ratheran emblematic 45 The Quercesquefigures of the Virginand Childand FourSaints, representation similar to [a] completely articulated wooden figure...." She formerlyon the altarof San Martinoand now in the Museo dell'Opera also mentions an inventory from 1386 from the Confraternity of St. Do- del Duomo,provide a case in point. These figures are not life-sized,nor minic in Perugia which lists among other items for a passion play "two do their draperiesseek to imitatecontemporary costume; thus they are Thieves" which she suggests might have been articulated wood or stuffed giltin imitation of bronzegilt sculpture rather than taking on the polychromy figures. She also cautions against too narrow a reading of the Christ figure of normalwood sculpture.There is, one must note, still a great deal of as sculpture (pp. 111-12), since in this same inventory are listed "a flesh- uncertaintyabout these figures. Modernrestoration has yet to be done

99 JOHN T. PAOLETTI and would indicate,among other things, whether the gildingis original a "humble"medium. The criticaltext which provokedthis suggestion and to the figures. which mentions wax, plasterof Paris,and clay-although not wood--is 46 The Bosco ai Fraticrucifix entered the (debatable) works of fromPetrarch's De remediisutriusque fortunae; see the Physickeagainst Donatelloonly in 1962 when AlessandroParronchi discovered it in a base- Fortune.London, 1579 in facsimileedition edited by B. G. Kohl,Delman, mentstorage area of the church;see A. Parronchi,"II Crocifisso del Bosco," N.Y.,1980, p. 60. ScrittidiStoriadell'Arte in onore di MarioSalmi, vol. II,Rome, 1962, pp. 52 Forthe pertinentquotations from Fazio,c. 1457, and Michiel,c. 233-62. 1520, see Janson, Donatello, p. 167. 47 Forthe restorationof the churchat Bosco ai Fratisee H. Sieben- 53 Billi,Libro, pp. 42-43. huner& L. H. Heydenreich,"Die KlosterkircheS. Francescoal Bosco im 54 Vasari-Milanesi,Vite, II,p. 411. Mugello,"Mitteilungen des KunsthistorischenInstitutes in Florenz 5 55 In 1467 the St. John was still in an unspecified "ridottodi sotto" (1939-40), pp. 183-96, 387-401. in the Sienese Opera,although by 1480 it was in the sacristy of the Duo- 48 Fora discussion of the attributionsof this crucifixsee Donatello mo; see V. Herzner, "Donatello in Siena," Mitteilungen des Kunst- e i Suoi, eds. A. Phipps Darr,G. Bonsanti, Florence-Detroit,1986, pp. historischenInstitutes in Florenz15 (1971),p. 185. Twopractical reasons 174-75. may be suggested forthe long-termstorage of the statue which had been 49 Given such similaritiesit is tempting to say that a sculptor of deliveredto Sienain 1457: the statue was stillincomplete, lacking its right Donatello'sabilities would hardly have imitated the style of anothermaster arm;the chapel or location for which the statue was intended was yet andthat, therefore, both crucifixes must be bythe same hand.But of course to be finished.Neither of these probabilitiescan erasethe possibilityraised there is no hardevidence for such an assertion. in the text that the formalproperties of the bronzestatue made it visually 50 This appropriationcan be seen even more clearlyif we compare ambiguous at the time of its delivery. the PaduanChrist with one fromthe churchof San Niccol6oltr'Arno which 56 The outstanding example of a commission for bronzesculpture Lisner(Holzkruzifixe, pp. 65-66) has attributedto Michelozzo.The two similarto Donatello'swork for the PaduanSanto is Niccol6 Baroncelli's formscould hardlybe closer. Itis true that realismand idealismare over- bronzesculpture of a Crucifix,a Virginand St. John and SS. Georgeand lappingand oftentimesinseparable aspects of antiquesculpture and that Maureliusfor the cathedralof .The groupwas commissioned as Donatello'sabsorption of this aesthetic was complete.Yet one must also an ensemble for an iconostasis by Lionellod'Este in 1450; it was com- be awareof otherconventions in the historyof sculptureattached to medi- pleted in 1456 by GiovanniBaroncelli and Domenicodi Parisafter Baron- umand to specific iconographieswhich Donatelloand his patronswould celli's death in 1453. The projectwas apparentlya direct imitationof surely have known and which would have exerted their own functional Donatello'swork in Padua.The overtones of princelypower and civic com- power into his creative process. petitiveness implicitin this commission both removethe sculpturefrom 51 PeterParshall has suggested (incorrespondence) a furtherreason the discourse of traditionalCrucifixion imagery and support the supposi- for the use of wood for certainsculpture, namely that it was considered tion that bronze-not wood -was the mediumfor civic commissions.

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