Confraternities and the Visual Arts in Renaissance Italy: Ritual, Spectacle, Image Edited by Barbara Wisch and Diane Cole Ahl Frontmatter More Information

Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-40340-6 - Confraternities and the Visual Arts in Renaissance Italy: Ritual, Spectacle, Image Edited by Barbara Wisch and Diane Cole Ahl Frontmatter More information

Confraternities and the Visual Arts in Renaissance Italy

Confraternities and the Visual Arts in Renaissance Italy: Ritual, Spectacle, Image is the first book to consider the role of Italian confraternities in the patronage of art. Eleven interdisciplinary essays analyze confraternal painting, sculpture, architec ture, and dramatic spectacles by documenting the unique historical and ritual con texts in which they were experienced. Exploring the evolution of devotional prac tices, the roles of women and youths, the age's conception of charity, and the importance of confraternities in civic politics and urban design, this book offers new approaches to one of the most dynamic forms of corporate patronage in early modern Italy.

© in this web service Cambridge University Press www.cambridge.org Cambridge University Press 978-1-107-40340-6 - Confraternities and the Visual Arts in Renaissance Italy: Ritual, Spectacle, Image Edited by Barbara Wisch and Diane Cole Ahl Frontmatter More information

Confraternities and the Visual Arts in Renaissance Italy

Ritual, Spectacle, Image

Edited by BARBARA WISCH State University of New York College at Cortland

DIANE COLE AHL Lafayette College, Easton, Pennsylvania

1 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS

CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS Cambridge, New York, Melbourne, Madrid, Cape Town, Singapore, Sao Paulo, Delhi, Tokyo, Mexico City

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First published 2000 First paperback edition 2011

A catalogue record for this publication is available from the British Library

Library of Congress Cataloguing in Publication data Confraternities and the visual arts in Renaissance Italy : ritual, spectacle, image / Barbara Wisch, Diane Cole Ahl, [editors]. p. cm. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-521-66288-5 1. Art, Italian. 2. Christian art and symbolism - Renaissance, 1450-1600 - Italy. 3. Confraternities - Italy. 4. Art patronage - Italy. I. Wisch, Barbara. II. Ahl, Diane Cole, 1949- . N7952.A1C66 2000 701'.03'094509024 - dc21 99-39383 CIP

ISBN 978-0-521-66288-8 Hardback ISBN 978-1-107-40340-6 Paperback

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Contents

List of Illustrations page ix List of Contributors xiii Introduction i BARBARA WISCH AND DIANE COLE AHL i Confraternity and Community: Mobilizing the Sacred in Times of Plague 20 LOUISE MARSHALL 2 "In corpo di compagnia": Art and Devotion in the Compagnia della Purificazione e di San Zanobi of Florence 46 DIANE COLE AHL 3 The Compagnia della Purificazione e di San Zanobi in Florence: A Reconstruction of Its Residence at San Marco, 1440—1506 74 ANN MATCHETTE Appendix: Documents 93 4 The Acquisition of Art by a Florentine Youth Confraternity: The Case of the Arcangelo Raffaello 102 KONRAD EISENBICHLER 5 The Qualita of Mercy: (Re)building Confraternal Charities in Renaissance Bologna 117 NICHOLAS TERPSTRA 6 Passion, Compassion, and the Sorrows of Women: Niccolo delTArea's Lamentation over the Dead Christ for the Bolognese Confraternity of Santa Maria della Vita 146 RANDI KLEBANOFF Appendix: The Composition of the Lamentation 169

Vlll CONTENTS

7 The Decorum of the Passion: The Plays of the Confraternity of the Gonfalone in the Roman Colosseum, 1490-1539 173 NERIDA NEWBIGIN 8 New Themes for New Rituals: The Crucifixion Altarpiece by Roviale Spagnuolo for the Oratory of the Gonfalone in Rome 203 BARBARA WISCH Appendix 1: Documents 225 Appendix 2: History of the Attribution and New Conclusions 229 9 Appropriating Space: Woman's Place in Confraternal Life at Santo Spirito in Sassia, Rome 235 EUNICE D. HOWE 10 "E faucibus daemonis": Daughters of Prostitutes, the First Jesuits, and the Compagnia delle Vergini Miserabili di Santa Caterina della Rosa 259 LANCE G. LAZAR 11 "She is among all virgins the queen ... so worthy a patron . . . for maidens to copy." Livio Agresti, Cardinal Federico Cesi, and the Compagnia delle Vergini Miserabili di Santa Caterina della Rosa 280 LOUISE SMITH BROSS (f 1996) Selected Bibliography 299 Index 309

List of Illustrations

i. Barnaba da Modena, Plague Madonna della Misericordia, 1370s, Genoa, Santa Maria dei Servi 22 2. Anonymous Sienese, Madonna della Misericordia, early fourteenth century, Siena, Pinacoteca 23 3. Benedetto Bonfigli, Plague Madonna della Misericordia, 1464, Perugia, San Francesco al Prato 25 4. Benedetto Bonfigli, Processional Banner of the Confraternity of San Benedetto dei Frustati, ca. 1471-2, Perugia, Santa Maria Nuova 27 5. Bartolomeo della Gatta, Saint Roch Intercedes with the Virgin on Behalf of Arezzo, 1479, Arezzo, Museo Statale di Arte Medievale e Moderna 30 6. Palazzo della Fraternita, Arezzo, ca. 1375—1440 31 7. Bernardo Rossellino and Domenico Rossellino, Madonna della Misericordia with Saints Laurentinus and Pergentinus, 1433, Arezzo, Palazzo della Fraternita 32 8. Bartolomeo della Gatta, Saint Roch Intercedes with Christ on Behalf of Arezzo, 1470s, Arezzo, Museo Statale di Arte Medievale e Moderna 3 3 9. Benozzo Gozzoli, Altarpiece of the Purificazione, 1461, London, National Gallery 48 10. Benozzo Gozzoli, Saint Zenohius Resurrecting a Child from the Dead, 1461, Berlin, Staatliche Museen 49 11 Benozzo Gozzoli, The Feast of Herod and Beheading of the Baptist, 1461, Washington, DC, National Gallery of Art 50 12. Benozzo Gozzoli, The Presentation of the Christ Child in the Temple, 1461, Philadelphia, Museum of Art 50 13. Benozzo Gozzoli, Saint Peter and the Fall of Simon Magus, 1461, London, Hampton Court 51

X LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

14. Benozzo Gozzoli, Saint Dominic Resurrecting a Child from the Dead, 1461, Milan, Pinacoteca di Brera 51 15. Fra Angelico, San Marco Altarpiece, 1438-42, Florence, Museo di San Marco 53 16. Marco di Bartolommeo Rustici, View of San Marco, Rustici Codex, ca. 1448, Florence, Biblioteca del Seminario Maggiore di San Frediano in Cestello 76 17. Reconstruction of the Purificazione's residence in relation to the other confraternities at San Marco, Florence, 1444-1506 77 18. Reconstruction and floor plans of the Purificazione's residence: a Chapel of Saints Cosmas and Damian with scrittoi; b main oratory; and c sacristy, 1444-15 06 79 19. Benozzo Gozzoli, Angelic Chorus, from Journey of the Magi, 1459, Florence, Medici Palace, Chapel 83 20. Piero di Cosimo, Madonna and Child with Saints Dominic and Jerome, ca. 1510-20, New Haven, Yale University Art Gallery 107 21. Cherubino and Giovanni Alberti, Map of Bologna, 1575, Vatican City, Vatican Palace, Sala Bologna 118 22. Ospedale di Santa Maria del Baraccano, Bologna, ca. 1491-1500 121 23. Ospedale degli Esposti, Bologna, begun 1500 123 24. Engraving after Domenico Tibaldi, Chiesa dell'Ospedale di San Francesco, Bologna, 1583, from Edifici Bolognesi del Cinque-Seicento, Delineati e incisi da Giuseppe Antonio Landi, ed. Giancarlo Roversi 135 25. Niccolo dell'Area, Lamentation over the Dead Christ, completed 1463, Bologna, Santa Maria della Vita 147 26. Dead Christ, detail of PLATE 25 149 27. Mary Salome, detail of PLATE 25 155 28. Mary Magdalene, detail of PLATE 25 156 29. Saint John the Evangelist, detail of PLATE 25 157 30. Joseph of Arimathea, detail of PLATE 25 158 31. Virgin Mary, detail of PLATE 25 159 32. Alfonso Lombardi, Death of the Virgin, 1519—22, Bologna, Santa Maria della Vita 160 3 3. Reconstruction of Niccolo dell'Area, Lamentation over the Dead Christ 170 34. Title page, La passione di Christo (Rome: Fritag and Besicken, ca. 1496), f. Air, Augsburg, Staats- und Stadtbibliothek, Inkunabel 40 Ink 61 177 35. Colophon, La passione di Christo (Rome: Fritag and Besicken, ca. 1496), f. Bvir, Augsburg, Staats- und Stadtbibliothek, Inkunabel 40 Ink 61 178 36. Title page, La resuscitatione di Lazaro (Rome: Silber?, ca. 1515), f. Air, Seville, Institucion Colombina, Biblioteca Colombina, 6-3-29 179 37. Title page, La resurectione de Christo (Rome: Silber?, ca. 1515), f Air, Zwickau, Ratsschulbibliothek, 5.4.34/4 181

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

38. Title page, La passione reducta in Tragedia per el Cynico (Rome: n.p., 1521), f. Air, Seville, Institucion Colombina, Biblioteca Colombina, 14-1-8(20) 185 39. Title page, La passione de Christo (Venice: Danza, March 17, 1526), f. Dvv, Seville, Institucion Colombina, Biblioteca Colombina, 14-1-8(1) 187 40. Interior toward the altar chapel, Oratory of the Gonfalone, Rome, rebuilt 1555 204 41. Pietro Roviale Spagnuolo, Crucifixion Altarpiece, 1556—7, Rome, Oratory of the Gonfalone 205 42. Crucified Christ, detail of PLATE 41 207 43. Attributed to Luzio Romano, Design for an Altarpiece, ca. 1545, London, The Courtauld Gallery 209 44. Anonymous, Madonna della Misericordia with Saint Bonaventure, woodcut from Breve S. D. N. Gregorii Papae XIII. Concessions Indulgentiarum Coronae, after 15 81, from Vatican City, Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Fondo Arciconfraternita Gonfalone, 2 (Mazzo B), f 30 215 45. Pietro Roviale Spagnuolo, Pieta Altarpiece, ca. 1550, Naples, Castel Capuano, Cappella della Summaria 230 46. Pietro Roviale Spagnuolo, Crucifixion, ca. 1550, Naples, Castel Capuano, Cappella della Summaria 231 47. Giovanni Battista Falda, Church and Hospital of Santo Spirito in Sassia, engraving from Giovanni Battista Falda, II nuovo teatro delle fabriche, e edificii, in prospettiva di Roma moderna. (Rome: n.p., 1665) 237 48. Anonymous, Barbo family coat of arms, from Liber Regulae, f. 227V, late fourteenth century, Rome, Archivio di Stato 240 49. Anonymous, De orphanus nutriendis etfeminis pregnantibus, from Liber Regulae, Chapter 41, late fourteenth century, Rome, Archivio di Stato 241 50. Anonymous, De peccatricibus suscipiendis, from Liber Regulae, Chapter 46, late fourteenth century, Rome, Archivio di Stato 243 51. Illius qui pro Dominici, bull of Sixtus IV (March 21, 1478), from Liber Fraternitatis, Rome, Biblioteca Lancisiana 244 52. Anonymous, Sixtus IV Receives Queen Charlotte of Cyprus, ca. 1475, Rome, Hospital of Santo Spirito, Corsia Sistina 245 53. Ground Plan of the Hospital and Church of Santo Spirito in Sassia, from Paul M. Letarouilly, Edifices de Rome moderne (Liege: Avanzo, 1849) 246 54. Anonymous, Palace and courtyard of the Suore, Rome, Hospital of Santo Spirito in Sassia, 1474-82 247 55. Antonio da Sangallo the Younger, Facade of the Church of Santo Spirito in Sassia, Rome, designed 1538-44 249 56. Andrea Orazii, Puella in Cenobio S. Caterine de Funariis, from Filippo Bonanni, S.J., Ordinum religiosorum in ecclesia militanti catalogus: eorumque indumenta in iconibus expressa, & oblata Clementi XL Pont. Max / Catalogo degli

Xll LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Ordini Religiosi Delia Chiesa Militante Espressi con Imagini, e spiegati con una breve narrazione, offerta alia santita di N.S. Clemente XI (Rome: Antonio de' Rossi, 1706—10), vol. 3, Plate 62 261 57. Guidetto Guidetti, Facade of Santa Caterina dei Funari, Rome, 1560-4 281 58. Guidetto Guidetti, Interior toward the high altar chapel, Santa Caterina dei Funari, Rome, 1560—4 282 59. Giovanni Battista Cavalieri after Livio Agresti, Saint Catherine Saved from Martyrdom on the Wheel, 1565, Rome, Istituto Nazionale per la Grafica 283 60. Livio Agresti, Saint Catherine Disputing with the Philosophers, 1562/3—4, Chicago, Private Collection 284 61. Federico Zuccari, Saint Catherine Disputing with the Philosophers, 1571—2, Rome, Santa Caterina dei Funari, high altar chapel 290 62. Federico Zuccari, Beheading of Saint Catherine, 1571-2, Rome, Santa Caterina dei Funari, high altar chapel 291 63. Federico Zuccari, Study for the Lower Register of the North Wall of the High Altar Chapel with Saint Catherine in Prison Converting Empress Faustina and Saints Saturnino and Sisinio, 1571, Chicago, Private Collection 291 64. Federico Zuccari, Saint Catherine in Prison Converting Empress Faustina, 1571—2, Rome, Santa Caterina dei Funari, originally the high altar chapel (now inner entrance wall above the portal) 292 65. Federico Zuccari, Study for the Lower Register of the South Wall of the High Altar Chapel with Standing Virgin Martyrs and Saint Catherine's Body Transported by Angels to Mount Sinai, 1571, Florence, Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi, no. 104 Orn. 293

List of Contributors

Louise Marshall is lecturer in the Department of Art History and Theory at the University of Sydney, Australia. Her publications include "Manipulating the Sacred: Image and Plague in Renaissance Italy," Renaissance Quarterly (1994), and "Augustinian Exegesis in the Chiesa del Tau, Pistoia," in Augustine in Iconography, History and Legend (1999). She is writing a book on plague images and their patronage. Diane Cole Ahl is Charles A. Dana Professor of Art History at Lafayette Col lege in Easton, Pennsylvania, and former president of the Italian Art Society. Her books include Benozzo Gozzoli (1996), co-awarded the Otto Gnindler Prize in Medieval Studies; Leonardo da Vinci's Sforza Monument Horse: The Art and the Engineering (1995), of which she was editor; and the forthcoming Cambridge Companion to Masaccio, which she is editing. Ann Matchette is research coordinator at the Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, Arizona State University, where she is production manager and series coordinator for the center's book series, Arizona Studies in the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. In addition to her work on the Compagnia della Purificazione, she is researching images of Mary Magdalene preaching in medieval and Renaissance painting. Konrad Eisenbichler is director of the Centre for Reformation and Renais sance Studies at the University of Toronto, where he is also professor in the Department of Italian Studies. He is a founding member of the Society for Con fraternity Studies and editor of the biannual bulletin Confraternitas. His books include The Boys of the Archangel Raphael: A Youth Confraternity in Florence, 1411—1783 (1998); many edited volumes, among them, Crossing the Boundaries. Christian Piety and the Arts in Italian Medieval and Renaissance Confraternities (1991); and translations of Firenzuola, Della Casa, and Cecchi.

XIV LIST OF CONTRIBUTORS

Nicholas Terpstra is associate professor of history at the University of Toronto. His publications include Lay Confraternities and Civic Religion in Renaissance Bologna (1995), for which he received the Howard R. Marraro Prize for Italian Historical Studies (1996), and The Politics of Ritual Kinship: Confraternities and Social Order in Early Modern Italy (1999), which he edited. He is currently the president of the Society for Confraternity Studies. Randi Klebanoff is assistant professor of art history at Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada. She has delivered papers on Niccolo delTArca, the Area di San Domenico, and the youthful works of Michelangelo in Bologna. She is writing a book on narrative sculptural groups in the Renaissance. Nerida Newbigin is associate professor of Italian language and literature at the University of Sydney, Australia, and a fellow of the Australian Academy of the Humanities. She is the author o£ Nuovo Corpus di sacre rappresentazioni fiorentine del Quattrocento (1983) and the two-volume Teste d'Oltrarno: Plays in Churches in Fif teenth-Century Florence (1996). With her students, she is creating the electronic Archive of Italian Medieval Drama as part of SETIS, the University of Sydney's Electronic Text and Information Service. She and Barbara Wisch are collaborat ing on a contextual study of the plays, rituals, and art of the confraternity of the Gonfalone. Barbara Wisch is associate professor of art history at the State University of New York College at Cortland. Her publications include the two-volume 'All the world's a stage . . ." Art and Pageantry in the Renaissance and Baroque (1990), co-edited with Susan Scott Munshower, and Italian Renaissance Art: Selections from the Piero Corsini Gallery (1986). She and Nerida Newbigin are collaborating on a contextual study of the plays, rituals, and art of the confraternity of the Gonfalone. Eunice D. Howe is associate professor of art history at the University of Southern California. She is the author of The Hospital of Santo Spirito and Pope Sixtus IV (1978) and Andrea Palladio, the Churches of Rome (1991), and the editor of The Art of Exaggeration: Piranesi's Perspectives on Rome (1995). Her book, Woman's Place in the Renaissance: Gendered Space at the Hospital of Santo Spirito in Sassia, is forthcoming. Lance G. Lazar is assistant professor in medieval and early modern Christianity in the Religious Studies Department of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. He has published several articles on Jesuit confraternities in Rome, and is writing a monograph titled Bringing God to the People: Jesuit Confraternities in Early Modern Italy. Louise Smith Bross (j* 1996) was lecturer in art history at Lake Forest College in Lake Forest, Illinois, and gallery director at Richard L. Feigen and Co. Her publications include "New Documents for Livio Agresti's Chapel of St. Stephen in Santo Spirito in Sassia," in The Burlington Magazine (1993), and "Patronage and Propaganda in Santo Spirito in Sassia: The Role of a Papal Confraternity," in Confraternite, chiesa e societa. Aspetti e problemi delVassociazionismo laicale europeo in eta moderna e contemporanea (1994).

Confraternities and the Visual Arts in Renaissance Italy