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Matter and Materiality in an Italian Reliquary Triptych

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Matter and Materiality in an Italian Reliquary Triptych Williamson, B. A. (2018). Matter and materiality in an Italian reliquary triptych. Gesta, 57(1), 23-42. https://doi.org/10.1086/695772 Publisher's PDF, also known as Version of record Link to published version (if available): 10.1086/695772 Link to publication record in Explore Bristol Research PDF-document This is the final published version of the article (version of record). It first appeared online via University of Chicago Press at https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/695772. Please refer to any applicable terms of use of the publisher. University of Bristol - Explore Bristol Research General rights This document is made available in accordance with publisher policies. Please cite only the published version using the reference above. Full terms of use are available: http://www.bristol.ac.uk/red/research-policy/pure/user-guides/ebr-terms/ Matter and Materiality in an Italian Reliquary Triptych BETH WILLIAMSON University of Bristol Abstract private collection in London houses a painted wooden triptych with wings that close over a A late fourteenth-century painted triptych by the Sienese painter central, gable-shaped panel (Fig. 1). The exte- Bartolo di Fredi, now in a private collection in London, depicts a rior is painted but carries no figurative deco- the Virgin Mary with the Sienese patron saint Ansanus. It is one ration (Fig. 2). The wings open to show an image of the An- of several painted wooden tabernacles that originally incorpo- nunciation, with the angel Gabriel on the left wing and the rated saints’ relics visibly into their surfaces. These tabernacles Virgin Mary on the right. Framing the central panel are thir- participate in a discourse around media, materiality, representa- tion, and re-presentation. Through their combinations of bodily teen circular cavities that once held relics. A half-length image matter and varied artistic media, they raise questions and en- of a young male martyr saint is painted in the triangular apex courage thought about the relationships between different types of the central panel. Below him is a pair of ivory panels carved of matter and among visuality, materiality, and reality. The tab- in shallow relief, depicting the Adoration of the Magi on the ernacles use a multiplicity of materials to represent the effects left and the Crucifixion on the right. of other, more precious substances, such as painted and gilded This triptych is one of a group of reliquary tabernacles, wood for gold and colored glass for precious jewels. This seems now scattered around the world in public and private collec- to make an explicit devotional and theological point, highlight- tions, that seem to have emanated from the workshops of ’ ing the real value of the saints relics in contrast with the appar- Sienese artists in the mid- to late fourteenth century.1 All au- ent preciousness of the painted, gilded, and embellished surfaces. thors who have published on the London triptych attribute it I suggest that paying attention to the materiality of the various to the Sienese artist Bartolo di Fredi. Nothing is known about elements of the tabernacles offers additional possibilities for con- its provenance or patronage. These issues will be discussed sideration of their use and reception. I propose that the London fi tabernacle was created in Siena in the wake of the newly reinvig- further below, but for the moment it suf ces to describe this orated cult of relics that followed the acquisition by the hospital as a Sienese triptych by virtue both of its production by a of Sta. Maria della Scala of a major collection of relics from By- Sienese artist and of its formal similarities to analogous tab- zantium. At the same time, the tabernacle responds to the con- ernacles produced in Siena or by Sienese artists in the same tinuing cult of the Virgin in Siena and to the long-standing de- period. sire to link relics of the saints with images of the Virgin. The research for this article was generously supported by a Research Grant from the British Academy/Leverhulme Trust and by the Faculty of Arts and School of Humanities at the University of Bristol. Material that later developed into this article was delivered in papers at St. Andrews University, 2014; the Dorothy Ford Wiley Crossroads Lecture at the University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 2014; the “Giotto’s Circle” research seminar at the Courtauld Institute of Art, London, 2015; “Senses,” a workshop of the Institute for Medieval and Early Modern Studies, St. Chad’s College, Durham, 2015; Johns Hopkins University, Baltimore, 2015; University of Sussex, 2015; and the 51st International Medieval Congress on Medieval Studies, Kalamazoo, 2016. I thank the owner of the triptych for generously giving me access to the object on more than one occasion and Paul Williamson for taking the time to examine it with me. I would like to thank Eliza Garrison, Peter Dent, the anonymous readers for Gesta, and the editors and copy editor of Gesta for their invaluable readings of and as- sistance with the text. 1. Other Italian reliquary tabernacles exist, including several from northern Italy and Rome and a significant number produced in Umbria. Of the latter, eight are primarily executed in gilded glass. I will be analyzing these gilded-glass tabernacles in a separate study. Dillian Gordon, “A Sienese Verre Églomisé and Its Setting,” Burlington Magazine 123, no. 936 (1981): 132, 148–53; and eadem, “The Mass Pro- duction of Franciscan Piety: Another Look at Some Umbrian verres églomisés,” Apollo 140, no. 394 (1994): 33–42. Gesta v57n1 (Spring 2018). 0031-8248/2018/7703-0004 $10.00. Copyright 2018 by the International Center of Medieval Art. All rights reserved. v57n1, Spring 2018 Materiality in a Reliquary Triptych D 23 This content downloaded from 137.222.190.097 on April 24, 2018 01:38:05 AM All use subject to University of Chicago Press Terms and Conditions (http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/t-and-c). The London Triptych: Formal and Material triptych was created in the 1370s, and the person who cata- Characteristics logued the work when it was auctioned at Christie’s, London, in 1994 gave it a date between 1368 and 1370.5 Federica Siddi The London triptych enshrined and presented a collection supported a date around 1368, whereas Alix de Torquat dated of saints’ relics for visual contemplation. The outer edges of it later, to the 1380s.6 Bartolo di Fredi is documented as a the triptych’s central panel were once embedded with relics painter in Siena in 1355, and he reappears in documents re- sealed behind glass or crystal disks, as is the case with other lating to his living or working in Siena throughout his career.7 objects of this kind, such as a tabernacle in Baltimore attrib- He also received commissions in San Gimignano, Pienza, uted to Naddo Ceccarelli (Fig. 3) and a tabernacle in Cleve- Volterra, and Montalcino, so it is by no means a foregone con- land (Fig. 4). In the London triptych only the hollowed-out clusion that this triptych was created for a Sienese patron. cavities, painted blue, remain.2 The traces of the raised gesso Nevertheless, the painting is reasonably included in the group frames that once surrounded the transparent disks can be of Sienese reliquary tabernacles by virtue of its production by a seen in circular areas of damage on the painted surface of Sienese painter. Moreover, connections can be drawn between the wings (Fig. 5). There is no remaining evidence of the rel- this triptych and the wider visual culture of trecento Siena and ics that were once housed here. The male saint in the apex of with possible Sienese patronage, as will be discussed below. the central panel looks up at the highest relic cavity, above Embedded in the painted wooden structure of the triptych his head, perhaps indicating that cavity as the site of one under discussion is an ivory diptych, making this Sienese of his own relics.3 The painted decoration of the triptych in London has been attributed to the Sienese painter Bartolo di Fredi, whose Peter Martyr and Thomas Aquinas, ca. 1360, tempera on poplar panel, 45.5 × 52.2 cm, Vatican City, Musei Vaticani, Pinacoteca, 224 (91); active career encompassed the years from 1353 to his death Bartolo di Fredi, Reliquary Triptych with the Annunciation, St. Ansanus, in 1410. On the basis of the style of the painting and compar- Adoration of the Magi, and the Crucifixion, ca. 1370, tempera and gold ison with nine other objects of its type, the triptych can be leaf on wood with gold and polychromed ivory, thirteenth century, dated to about 1370.4 Gaudenz Freuler thought the London 35.5 × 46 × 3.4 cm (open), private collection, London (under discussion here); Cristoforo di Bindoccio(?) or Francesco di Vannuccio(?), Taber- nacle with Madonna of Humility and Standing Saints, ca. 1380, tempera on wood, 74 × 38 cm, Museo Civico, Montepulciano, 71/131; Francesco 2. Because the object has not yet undergone a technical examina- di Vannuccio(?), Tabernacle with Madonna of Humility, ca. 1380, tem- tion, it is impossible to know the age of the blue paint in the relic cav- pera on panel, 54 × 37.5 cm, FondazionedeiMontedeiPaschidiSiena, ities. Other comparable objects, such as that by Naddo Ceccarelli in FMPS 101551 (2642); and Andrea di Bartolo, Madonna of Humility, Baltimore (Fig. 3), deploy blue paint in the interior of the relic cham- The Blessing Christ, Two Angels, and a Donor [obverse], ca. 1380–90, bers. C. Griffith Mann suggests that this evokes “the celestial realm tempera on panel, 28.4 × 17 cm (painted surface), National Gallery of inhabited by the saints whose fragments were collected in the object.” Art, Washington, DC, 1939.1.20.a and 1939.1.20.b.
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