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San Zeno Maggiore, Verona: a Chronological and Liturgical Assessment

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San Zeno Maggiore, Verona: a Chronological and Liturgical Assessment The Bronze Door Panels within the Façade of San Zeno Maggiore, Verona: A Chronological and Liturgical Assessment. Christopher Heginbotham OBE MA by Research University of York History of Art December 2016 Abstract This thesis presents an analysis of the bronze door panels of San Zeno Maggiore, Verona, with reference to the surrounding low relief stone sculptures, textual material relating to Bishop Zeno, the patron saint of the church, and the wider religious and political developments of the late tenth, eleventh and twelfth centuries. In identifying those panels the thesis recognises the way in which the door panels and stone sculptures form a traditional narrative identifying Creation and the Fall on the right juxtaposed with Redemption and Salvation on the left. The core of the thesis focuses on two facets of the bronze door panels: the dating of the panels’ production, and the composition of the doors prior to the earthquake of 1117. The doors are complex and include in their current state panels manufactured by at least two workshops operating in different periods. These are discussed with reference to the works themselves and to recent historical scholarship. The thesis concludes that the panels were manufactured in two periods: the first period may have been either in the Ottonian era (c.960-c.1040) or later in the eleventh century (c.1080); the second period was the later twelfth century (c.1175). The thesis also discusses the stone relief sculptures, carved in 1135-1138, that provide a framework and context for the doors. The second aspect is the baptismal and Paschal lectionary, which incorporates San Zeno’s preferred readings, as the basis for the choice of subjects of the first set of bronze door panels. The massive earthquake of 1117 severely damaged the basilica and some original panels were damaged and discarded. It has not been possible to demonstrate definitively that the sermons and lectionary were known to those who commissioned the panels, but the thesis seeks to show their importance in describing the panel composition. The door panels and stone reliefs assert a symbolic distancing from both Papacy and Empire after the Investiture Controversy. The two lowest stone reliefs, on the left and right of the doorway, represent accounts of Otto and Berengar fighting over Adelaide, and of Theodoric and the wild hunt, respectively.1 The significance of these narratives is discussed. 1 Beat Brenk, “The Cathedrals of Early Medieval Italy: The Impact of the Cult of Saints and the Liturgy on Italian Cathedrals from 300 to 1200,” in Gerardo Boto Varela and Justin E. A. Kroesen, (eds.), Romanesque Cathedrals in Mediterranean Europe: Architecture, Ritual and Urban Context (Turnhout: Brepols, 2016), 13-14. 2 Table of Contents Abstract ............................................................................................................................... 2 List of Tables ....................................................................................................................... 5 List of Figures ..................................................................................................................... 6 Acknowledgements ............................................................................................................ 8 Declaration .......................................................................................................................... 9 Chapter 1. Introduction ..................................................................................................... 10 1.1. The Veronese Context of San Zeno Maggiore .................................................. 10 1.2. The Investiture Controversy .............................................................................. 12 1.3. Bishop Zeno of Verona ....................................................................................... 14 1.4. Review of Existing Scholarship ............................................................................. 15 Portal Stone Relief Sculptures ..................................................................................... 15 Bronze Door Panels ...................................................................................................... 16 1.5. Critical Research Questions .................................................................................. 25 1.6. Summary ................................................................................................................. 26 Chapter 2. The bronze door panels ................................................................................. 27 2.1. Introduction ............................................................................................................ 27 2.2. Layout of the Panels ............................................................................................... 27 Table 1. Description and layout of the doors as they are today. ................................ 28 2.3. Anomalies in the Presentation of the Panels ........................................................ 29 2.4. Description of the Panels in relation to the Chronology and Workshop Attribution ...................................................................................................................... 30 2.5. Panel Duplication ................................................................................................... 37 2.6. Summary ................................................................................................................. 40 Chapter 3. Portal Stone Relief Sculptures ....................................................................... 42 3.1. Introduction ............................................................................................................ 42 3.2. Portal Stone Relief Sculptures .............................................................................. 42 3.3. Concordance between Portal Relief Sculptures and the Bronze Door Panels ... 44 3.4. The Lower Left and Right-Hand Reliefs ................................................................ 45 (i) Lower Right Stone Relief Panels ........................................................................... 48 3.5. Summary ................................................................................................................. 49 Chapter 4. San Zeno’s Paschal Lectionary as a possible basis for reading the Bronze Door Panels ....................................................................................................................... 50 4.1. Introduction ......................................................................................................... 50 4.2 Zeno’s Influence and the importance of the Baptismal Rite ................................. 51 4.3. Zeno’s Sermons and the Paschal Lectionary ....................................................... 55 Table 2. Composite Lectionary after Jeanes (201) with the comparison of the original twelve Old Testament readings. ..................................................................... 56 3 Table 3. Tabulation of Various Lectionaries (NB. The reading numbers have been reordered from Jeanes for clarity). ................................................................................... 59 4.4. Derivation of the subjects of the Workshop 1 Panels .......................................... 61 Table 4. Composite lectionary (from Jeanes, 201). ..................................................... 62 Table 5. Proposed panel descriptions (for panels made prior to 1117 and lost) based on the lectionary in Table 4. ......................................................................................... 63 Table 6. The right-hand door (panels made by Workshop 1), after possible damage in 1117, amended to suggest the lost panels (7?, 8-12, and 14). ............................... 64 4.5. Assistance with dating the panels ........................................................................ 66 4.6. Summary ................................................................................................................. 66 Chapter 5. Conclusion ...................................................................................................... 68 5.1. Identifying the ‘lost’ panels from before 1117 ...................................................... 68 5.2. Dating of the panels ............................................................................................... 68 5.3. The façade and stone reliefs .................................................................................. 69 Conclusions ................................................................................................................... 70 Appendix 1: Summary of Bronze Door Panels in German, Italian and Polish Churches ........................................................................................................................................... 71 Appendix 2. The Porch and Lunette as a Coherent Structure ....................................... 72 Appendix 3. The lions at the feet of the porch columns................................................. 80 Portfolio of Images............................................................................................................ 83 San Zeno Maggiore: Bronze Door Panels .................................................................... 83 San Zeno Maggiore: Portal Stone Relief Sculpture ..................................................... 97 References and Bibliography ........................................................................................
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