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Revising Devotion: the Role of Wooden Sculptures in Affecting Painting and Devotion in the Late Medieval Period in Italy (XII-XV Century)

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Revising Devotion: the Role of Wooden Sculptures in Affecting Painting and Devotion in the Late Medieval Period in Italy (XII-XV Century) Revising Devotion: the role of wooden sculptures in affecting painting and devotion in the Late Medieval period in Italy (XII-XV century) Daniele Di Lodovico A dissertation SuBmitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy University of Washington 2016 Reading Committee: Stuart Lingo, Chair Estelle Lingo Ivan Drpić Program Authorized to Offer Degree Art History © Copyright 2016 Daniele Di Lodovico University of Washington Abstract Revising Devotion: the role of wooden sculptures in affecting painting and devotion in the Late Medieval period in Italy (XII-XV century) Daniele Di Lodovico Chair of the Supervisory Committee: Professor Stuart Lingo Art History This dissertation offers a reconsideration of medieval wooden sculptures and a new perspective for understanding their role in affecting devotion and pictorial production in late medieval and Renaissance culture. My study focuses on the diffusion and use of the sculptures from the group of the Descent from the Cross through the development of the animated sculptures of Christ from around 1100 to around 1560. Historically these objects have Been considered principally as devotional objects and utilized to understand devotional practices and ceremonies; conversely, I assert that they represented the catalyst of a new, unfiltered experience of the sacred in which the laity were aBle to access and shape a powerful and direct relationship with the human side of Christ, eluding the controlling role of the Church. Even if the iconography of these sculptures did not bring anything new in comparison with their pictorial counterpart, I argue that the utilization of these sculptures guaranteed a connection with the divine through physicality and the ability to create a spatial experience of the sacred. The devotional use of these sculptures contributed to an identification of the faithful with the scene, which allowed devotees to Begin to stand in for the characters in the Descent from the Cross. As a consequence the faithful created a dimension in which they were real participants in the scene, transcending time and space rather than creating e mere reenactment of this dramatic moment of the Passion of Christ. The distinctive media, qualities and adornments that these sculptures had endorsed them to Become real in front of the faithful in a way that was not possible to replicate with the pictorial medium. This new relationship with the sculptures and the creation of a real sacred scene in which the faithful participated, I argue, greatly influenced the pictorial medium, especially in the shift toward a more naturalistic representation of the sacred scene during the later Middle Ages and beginning of the Renaissance. Painters translated visually what they experienced in the contemporary devotional context of this new, compelling, effective and physical relationship Between sculptures and faithful, because of their conviction that what they witnessed could be understood to be real and authentic, not a mere representation. As a consequence sculptures attained such an important role in promoting the experience of the sacred that wooden representations of the Body of Christ were treated and identified as if it they were the real human Body of Christ. Acknowledgments This study would not have been possible without the assistance and support of many individuals and institutions. This research was undertaken both in United States and Italy, through museums, libraries, confraternities, Dioceses, churches, archives. I would like to take this opportunity to express my deepest appreciation and esteem to the members of my committee and mentors: Professor Stuart Lingo, Professor Estelle Lingo and Professor Ivan Drpić. Their expertise, understanding and generous guidance made it possible for me to learn continuously during these years of study. Because of that I am endlessly grateful and feel very fortunate to have had the chance to work with such amazing and refined scholars and great persons. I am hugely indebted to Professor Corrado Fratini because of the possibility to share with him the love of Medieval art and life. I would like to thank also Professor Elvio Lunghi for the time he dedicated to me and for his help in supporting this research. My thoughts in this special moments go to my dearest friend Dott. Christian Massari for his endless support in every moment of my life here as a graduate student and because the possibility to laugh even in difficult moments and to see life through the lens of irony. I would like to thank all the people that I met during these years, with whom I had compelling and interesting conversations about this topic from which I benefitted for this research. It would be impossible to name all of them, but it is true that I remember all of them and the meaningful and rewarding moments I shared with them. I want to express my deepest gratitude to Jill Jermyn for the invaluable support, help and friendship in the final part of this project. The same gratitude goes to Steven Bunn for the great amount of help and for endless and enriching conversations about art and music. I would like to thank my parents, my sister Maria Laura, my brother in law Antonio my niece Irene, my nephew Giordano, and my grand parents Emilio, Leondina, Rivo Antonio and Cecilia for their continuing and precious support and presence during my life and especially these years of graduate school. This “experience” is dedicated to Dino and Maria Rita. I Table of Contents Introduction………………………………………………………………………………………………………...1 The Scholarship………………………………………………………………………………………………….14 Corpus of Sculptures…………………………………………………………………………………………..25 Structure of the Dissertation………………………………………………………………………………32 Chapter 1 Diffusion and Iconography of the group of the Descent from the Cross…………………35 The Descent from the Cross and the relationship with the Benedictine order……….49 Chapter 2 The Descent from the Cross and Medieval Piety…………………………………………………..68 The Role of the sculpted version of the Descent from the Cross……………………………69 The Descent from the Cross and the literature of the period………………………………...95 Chapter 3 The sculpture as the body of Christ…………………………………………………………………...121 Lay Confraternities and the laicization of the sacred………………………………………….130 The lauda, the pictorial production and the importance of sculpture………………….145 Sculpture as “real” body……………………………………………………………………………...........154 Chapter 4 The influence of wooden sculptures on the pictorial production of the period…………………………………………………………...175 Chapter 5 Christ as “sculpture” and his bodily presence in painting…………………………………...246 The Miraculous Crucifix of Saint Giovanni Gualberto………………………………………….258 The Vision of Saint Thomas Aquinas…………………………………………………………............264 The case of the representation of Stigmatization of Saint Catherine of Siena……….266 II Chapter 6 Polychrome Wooden Crucifixes in History and Historiography…………………………..295 Conservation and Critical Reception………………………………………………………………….298 The Devotional Use of Wooden Sculptures and Questions of Idolatry…………………301 The use of images in the West………………………………………………………………………..…303 The Reliquary of Sainte Foy…………………………………………………………………………..….305 The Gero Cross and Medieval Devotion of the Wooden Crucifix……………………..…..308 Visualizing Christ…………………………………………………………………………………………......312 Corporeal Legitimacy……………………………………………………………………………………….316 The Descent from the Cross and the Development of Polychrome Sculpture in Medieval Central Italy………………………………………………………………………………………318 From Descent from the Cross to Animated Crucifix: the Spectator and the Transformation of the Ritual Experience…………………………………………………………...327 The Schiavellatione and a Practical Case for the Use of Sculpture……………………….332 Alterations and Substitutions to Polychrome Sculpture……………………………………..335 Devotion, Art, and Medium: the Case of Lando di Pietro’s Crucifix………………………341 Medieval Renaissance: the polychrome wooden Crucifix in the Quattrocento……..347 Bibliography………………………………………………………………………………………………….357 III List of Figures Chapter 1 Fig 1 – Head of Christ from Curva Crux, middle of the 11th century, Lauvain, Church of Saint Pierre. Fig 2 - Descent from the Cross, 12th century, painted wood, Duomo of San Lorenzo, Tivoli (Rome), Italy. Fig 3 – Descent from the Cross: detail from Bronze Doors, ca. 1080; Verona, San Zeno (Parker, The Descent from the Cross, fig 1 pag I). Fig 4 – St Blasien Psalter, Descent from the Cross, 1230-35; f. 93; Private Collection (Bober, St Blasien Psalter, frontispiece - Parker, The Descent from the Cross, fig 6 pag III). Fig 5 – Descent from the Cross, Angers Gospels: Descent from the Cross and Entombment, ca. 980; Trier, Stadtbibliothek, cod. 24, F 84b. (Schiller, Iconography of Christian Art, Volume 2 The Passion of Christ, fig 545). Fig 6 – Scenes of the Passion, 11th century, Ivory plaque, Louvre, Paris. Fig 7 – Simone Martini, Descent from the Cross, 1333, tempera on wood, Koninklijk Museum voor Schone Kunsten, Antwerpen. Fig 8 – Descent from the Cross, 12th century, painted wood, Duomo of San Lorenzo, Tivoli (Rome), Italy. Fig 9 – Descent from the Cross, 12th century, fresco, Cripta, Basilica, Aquileia, Italy. Fig 10 – Bendetto Antelami, Descent from the Cross, 1178, Duomo, Parma, Italy. Fig 11 - Descent from the Cross, Angers Gospels: Descent from the Cross and Entombment, ca. 980; Trier, Stadtbibliothek, cod. 24, F 84b. (Schiller, Iconography of Christian Art, Volume 2 The Passion of Christ, fig 545). Fig 12 – Descent from the Cross, 12th century, Chartres
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