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Giacobbe Giusti, Basilica of Saint Lawrence, Milan
Giacobbe Giusti, Basilica of Saint Lawrence, Milan
Giacobbe Giusti, Basilica of Saint Lawrence, Milan
Johann Christoph Storer, volta della cappella di San Sisto
Giacobbe Giusti, Basilica of Saint Lawrence, Milan
Giacobbe Giusti, Basilica of Saint Lawrence, Milan
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| Basic information | |
|---|---|
| Location | Milan, Italy |
| Geographic coordinates | 45°27′30″N 09°10′55″ECoordinates: 45°27′30″N 09°10′55″E |
| Affiliation | Roman Catholic |
| Rite | Ambrosian |
| Province | Archdiocese of Milan |
| Year consecrated | 402 |
| Ecclesiastical or organizational status | Basilica |
| Status | Active |
| Website | sanlorenzomaggiore.com |
| Architectural description | |
| Architectural type | Basilica |
| Architectural style | Early Christian, Renaissance, Baroque |
| Groundbreaking | 364 |
| Completed | 18th century |
The Basilica of San Lorenzo Maggiore is church in Milan, northern Italy. Located within the city’s ring of canals, it was originally built in Roman times and subsequently rebuilt several times over a number of centuries. It is close to the mediaeval Ticino gate, and is one of the oldest churches in Milan. It is near the city park called Basilicas Park, which includes both the Basilica of San Lorenzo and the Basilica of Sant’Eustorgio, as well as the Roman Colonne di San Lorenzo.
Origins
The basilica was built between the late fourth and early fifth centuries. The exact date is uncertain, as are the name of who commissioned it and the circumstances of its foundation. According to some scholars San Lorenzo was erected to coincide with the “Basilica Portiana”, which was built by the “Augustus of the West” (Valentinian I or Valentinian II) to please the Bishop of Milan Auxentius (355–372) of the Arian faith. If this is true, San Lorenzo would have preceded the foundation of the four Ambrosian basilicas. Supporting this proposition is the fact that the Basilica Portiana, cited in many sources that were quoting the struggle of Ambrose to remove it from the Arians, has never been identified with certainty by archaeologists.
A second proposition gives the date of the foundation of the church to a later period, between 390 and 402, and attributes its commissioning to Theodosius I or Stilicho. Evidence for this proposition comes from archaeological investigations carried out between 2002 and 2004. Supporters of this view are divided as to the function of the building; for some it is an imperial basilica that would have confirmed the role of Milan as the imperial capital of the West, in rivalry with Rome and Constantinople; for others it is a mausoleum for the Theodosian dynasty.
What is certain is that at the time of its construction the basilica was the largest, centrally planned building in the West. The dedication of the temple to St. Laurence (San Lorenzo) the martyr has been certified only from 590, when Milan was already controlled by the Lombards.
The Medieval Period and the Renaissance
The church’s exterior
While Medieval Milan underwent a period of decline, San Lorenzo maintained a leading role in the city’s liturgy: as the highest place in Milan it came to represent the Mount of Olives and on Palm Sunday the bishop blessed the palms and led the procession that from there to the now-demolished Basilica of Santa Tecla.
The eleventh and twelfth centuries were marked by numerous disasters: fires, in particular the terrible “fire of the Stork”, that in 1071 devoured the basilica, devastating the internal decorations, and earthquakes, that undermined the stability of the complex, making new restorations necessary between the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. Towards the middle of the eleventh century, the open space behind the basilica, called Vetra, was used as the place of executions: this practice continued until 1840 and was reported, among others, by Alessandro Manzoni in the history of the infamous column. By 1167, with the construction of the medieval walls, the basilica was to be found within the city, at the new Porta Ticinese (Ticinese gate).
Recent and contemporary times
The basilica of San Lorenzo remained throughout the Middle Ages a symbol of the legacy of the Roman Empire in Milan. Subsequently during the age of the Renaissance, especially after the 1154 destruction of the other Ancient Roman structures by Emperor Barbarossa, the temple was an example of the classical architectural canons admired by humanists, and studied by architects and artists such as Bramante, Leonardo, and Giuliano da Sangallo. Painted references to the church from that era can be identified.
On 5 June 1573 the dome of the basilica suddenly collapsed, fortunately without causing casualties. Construction of a new dome in a more modern style began immediately and were completed in 1619. During the reconstruction, a miracle occurred, one predicted by Archbishop Carlo Borromeo: one year after his death in 1585, a sick woman was cured in front of the icon of the Madonna del Latte, displayed on the Piazza della Vetra. Following this event, donations increased enabling more rapid progress in the reconstruction. In 1626, the Madonna del Latte was transferred to the high altar where it remains to this day.
In the 1830s the Austrian Government began a redevelopment of the Vetra: houses built leaning against the basilica and inhabited by tanners were demolished; the channel of the Vetra was covered over; and executions were abolished. After the bombings of 1944-1945 the houses that had been destroyed were not rebuilt enabling the park of the basilicas to be created, from which there is an excellent view of the complex. In 1934 in place of the demolished houses a sort of a courtyard was formed, with the creation of a public square opposite the basilica.
Art and architecture
Interior open central area
The basilica, perhaps to avoid the unstable and marshy ground, was built on an artificial hill not far from the walls, along the Via Ticinensis, the main access route to the city, and not far from the Imperial Palace and the amphitheatre, from which were taken some of the materials used in constructing the temple itself. The complex was surrounded by various waterways, coming together to form the Vettabbia, the canal that takes away the waters of Milan, which still flow towards the agricultural areas to the south of the city.
The building had a central plan approached by a four-sided portico and surrounded by two connected structures. Access to the portico was through a colonnade which in turn gave access to three portals leading to the main body of the building. This consisted of a square hall inscribed as a building with four apses, whose semicircular hollows overhung by semi-cupolas were articulated by four columns. Around this space ran the ambulatory surmounted by a space later used as a women’s gallery. Towers rose at the four corners of the square building. The whole was topped by a dome of which we know little, this having been lost. The interior was lit by large windows, and probably decorated with marble in the lower parts and with mosaics in the vaults and arches. Of the two side buildings, the smaller was in the east, opposite the entrance: a chapel in the shape of a Greek cross, later on octagonal, dedicated to St Hippolytus. The larger building was to the south, having the function of the imperial mausoleum: tradition attributing its foundation to Galla Placidia, which is why the sacellum took on the name of the chapel of the Queen.
Between 489 and 511 Bishop Lorenzo had a third structure built to the north, a chapel dedicated to St Sixtus, to be used for the burial of metropolitans. Perhaps in this period, when Roman imperial authority in Italy had diminished, the mausoleum to the south of the basilica was transformed into a chapel dedicated to St Genesius the martyr. By the sixth century, on the east wall, opposite the entrance, two portals were opened giving access to two local apses.
In the tenth century, probably in the Ottonian era, reconstruction took place possibly involving the participation of a Byzantine workforce who had retained knowledge of the classical techniques of construction and decoration. Little is known regarding these restorations, but it is assumed that the cupola (dome) had been reconstructed using pipes made of terracotta, making it lighter than the previous one, perhaps already damaged to the extent of justifying a reconstruction. After the disasters of the eleventh century, the restorations of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries focused on providing stability to the whole complex, rebuilding the pillars that supported the cupola and carrying out other interventions on the load-bearing structures (columns, towers). In this period, a lantern was added above the dome, supported by flying buttresses leaning against the towers. In the fifteenth century, the Chapel of the Citizens was created from the hall of the apse in the southeast, which had already been refashioned in the eleventh century.
After the collapse of 1573, a new cupola was commissioned from the architect, Martino Bassi. His collaboration with Rinaldi, Meda and Trezzi resulted in numerous changes and was only completed in 1619. Archbishop Borromeo had the chapel of St Genesius rededicated to St Aquilino, whose relics were placed in the chapel; to its sides were added two chapels, dedicated to St John the Baptist and the Holy Family. In 1623, at the wish of Archbishop Federico Borromeo there began the construction of the chapter house to the side of the courtyard, a project carried out by the architects Aurelio Trezzi and Francesco Maria Richino; construction was completed in 1626.
In 1713 at the initiative of Francesco Croce, the Chapel of Redemption was inserted between those of St Aquilino and the Holy Family (now a sacristry).
In 1894, the engineer and architect Cesare Nava built a vestibule in front of the church, consisting of three ionic arches in stone-like cement. In 1934 the houses that had sprung up in the courtyard were demolished, and in their place the following year was positioned a bronze statue of Constantine the Great, a copy of an original late antiquity preserved in Rome in San Giovanni in Laterano; the courtyard was opened to form a public square.
Pipe organ
On the face of the women’s gallery to the right of the apse is to be found the pipe organ, built by the Milanese organ builder Pietro Bernasconi, re-using materials from the organ constructed in 1840 by Felice Bossi; he in turn had re-used parts from an earlier organ, restored in 1820 by Antonio Brunelli II and probably originally from the church of San Giovanni in Conca.
The instrument, with a fully mechanical transmission, has its console situated at the centre of the organ case, comprising two manuals (keyboards) each of 61 notes (Great Organ, first manual; Second Organ, second manual), with a first extensive chromatic octave and a pedal board of 24 notes. The case, with its three arched façade, presents a display of 29 pipes of the Principal 8′ arranged in three groups, one for each of the three arches, with the mitred mouths of the pipes aligned. Following on, the layout of the organ is arranged according to the position of the mechanisms that control the various stops in the columns of the stops either side of the console (at the left of the console the Second Organ; at the right the Great Organ and Pedal).
Column to the left of the console – Second Organ
Tromba dolce 8′ Voce tremula 8′ Treble Viola I 4′ Bass Violin I 4′ Treble Viola II 4′ Bass Violin II 4′ Treble Voce flebile Treble Flute in VIII 4′
Column to the left of the registry – Concert
Bassoon Bass Trumpet Treble Clarion Bass Clarinet Treble Trumpet Bass English horn Treble Contra Oboe Treble Contra Oboe Bass Flute Treble Viola Bass Flute in VIII Bass Flute in VIII Treble Piccolo Treble Open twelfth Treble Principal cornet Treble Vox humana Treble Violine 8′ (on the pedals) Kettledrum (on the pedals) Bombarde 16′ (on the pedals)
Column to the right of the registry – Full
Principal 16′ Bass Principal 16′ Treble Principal I 8′ Bass Principal I 8′ Treble Principal II 8′ Bass Principal II 8′ Treble Octave 4′ Bass Octave 4′ Treble Open twelfth 2⅔’ Bass Open twelfth 2⅔’ Treble Super octave 2′ Octave twelfth 1½’ Octave fifteenth 1′ Mixture I Mixture II Mixture III Bass viols and octave 16’+8′ (on the pedals Bass viols II 16′ (on the pedals) Coupler IP Coupler II-I Third hand
Chapel of Saint Aquilino
Other chapels were added to the original edifice. Notable is the octagonal Capella di Sant’Aquilino (chapel of St Aquilino), adjoining the main church to the south. The chapel, which may have originally been built as an imperial Roman mausoleum,[1][2] features important 4th-century Paleochristian mosaics. Among the mosaics is included a formulaic depiction of Jesus, as « Christ the Lawgiver » (« Traditio Legis » – « handing over the law ») or possibly « Christ the teacher. » Jesus is seated on a throne, flanked by a « school » of his Apostles, with a scroll box at his feet.[3] The chapel was later dedicated to the martyr Saint Aquilino of Milan (or Saint Aquilinus of Cologne), with his remains being housed in the chapel.[1] A 17th-century reliquary ark for the saint was crafted by Lombardian architect Carlo Garavaglia (flourished 1634-1635). The fresco The Rediscovery of the corpse of Saint Aquilinus of Cologne, by Carlo Urbino, decorates the wall behind the main altar in the Sant’Aquilino chapel.
Chapel of Saint Aquilino
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Late 4th-century mosaic of Christ the Lawgiver
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The octagonal chapel
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Ceiling over main altar
Colonne di San Lorenzo
The square facing the basilica features the so-called « Colonne di San Lorenzo » (Columns of St. Lawrence), one of the few remains of the Roman « Mediolanum », dating from the 3rd century AD and probably belonging to the large baths built by the emperor Maximian. They were carried in the current place when the basilica construction was finished.
Chronology of the provosts (parish priests)
The parish priest of San Lorenzo has long held the position of provost. The complete list of provosts is not known; the following names are derived from a list compiled from studies undertaken by the priest A. Baruffaldi, carved in marble and placed in the basilica itself. Among them were two Archbishops and one Pope.
- Anselmo da Bovisio (?–1097), who was appointed Archbishop of Milan
- …
- Ambrogio (1116–1119)
- …
- Belengerio (1137–?)
- …
- Guifredo (1146–1152)
- …
- Corvo (1158–1176)
- …
- Giacomo (1187–1203)
- Anizone (1208–1225)
- Guglielmo (1228–1251)
- Ardizone del Conte (1254–1285)
- Filippo del Conte (1285–1312)
- Bonifacio Pusterla (1313–1314)
- Ardizone del Conte (1321–1338)
- Antonio del Conte (1340–1347)
- Francesco da S. Zenone (1350–1359)
- Francesco da Legnano (1363–1371)
- Giovanni da Mandello (1376–1385)
- Giovanni di Sommariva (1392–1399)
- Martino di Canale (1406–1436)
- Enea Silvvio Piccolomini (1436–1440), in 1458 elected Pope as Pius II
- Leonardo da Vercelli (1441–1444)
- Filippo da Gallarate (1448–1460)
- Nicolò da Appiano (1461–1496)
- Bernardino Lanterio (1500–1505)
- Francesco Cazzaniga (1510–1519)
- Giacomo de Spaldis (1522–1525)
- Francescco Aaccursio (1528–1545)
- Ottoviano Arcimboldo (1546–?)
- Giovan Battista della Chiesa (1551–?)
- Giovan Aandrea Pionnio (1569–1579)
- Giovan Battista Recalcato (1579–1589)
- Giulio Cesare Negri (1589–1594)
- Massimiliano Pusterla (1594–1607)
- Giovan Stefaano Ciami (1607–1608)
- Andrea Bassi (1609–1629)
- Tullo Piantanida (1629–1630)
- Giulio Maschera (1630–1650)
- Giovan Ambrogio Torriani (1650–1666)
- Orazio Baruverio (1667–1688)
- Giovan Antonio Galllo (1688–1717)
- Carlo Ambrogio Curioni (1717–1728)
- Settimio Lodi (1728–1733)
- Pier Antonio Valmaginio (1733–1747)
- Carlo Antonio Belvisi (1748–1770)
- Antonio Airoldo (1771–1795)
- Giovan Battista Aloardi (1795–1819)
- Giovanni dell’Oro (1820–1830)
- Giovan Battista Redaelli (1830–1854)
- Giovan Battista Gadola (1855–1865), formerly Parish priest of Legnano
- Achille Achino (1867–1876)
- Giovan Battista Thomas (1877–1895)
- Luigi Bignami (1896–1905), who was appointed Archbishop of Siracusa
- Carlo Rigogliosi (1906–1932)
- Giovanni Maria Stoppani (1932–1960)
- Anselmo Redaelli (1960–?)
- Carlo del Corno (1968–1984)
- Angelo Manzoni (1984–1986)
- Riccardo Busnelli (1986–1996)
- Augusto Casolo (1996–still in office)
The apse area of the ancient basilica is now a park. Previously the area was occupied by a channel or a lake (probably with a port), while later it was used in public executions, one of which is recounted in Alessandro Manzoni‘s Storia della Colonna Infame.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Basilica_of_San_Lorenzo,_Milan
Giacobbe Giusti, COSIMO ROSSELLI, MINO da FIESOLE: Cappella del Miracolo del Sacramento
Giacobbe Giusti, COSIMO ROSSELLI, MINO da FIESOLE: Cappella del Miracolo del Sacramento
Giacobbe Giusti, COSIMO ROSSELLI, MINO da FIESOLE: Cappella del Miracolo del Sacramento
Giacobbe Giusti, COSIMO ROSSELLI, MINO da FIESOLE: Cappella del Miracolo del Sacramento
Giacobbe Giusti, COSIMO ROSSELLI, MINO da FIESOLE: Cappella del Miracolo del Sacramento
Giacobbe Giusti, COSIMO ROSSELLI, MINO da FIESOLE: Cappella del Miracolo del Sacramento
Cappella del Miracolo del Sacramento
La cappella del Miracolo del Sacramentosi trova nella chiesa di Sant’Ambrogio a Firenze. Decorata da sculture di Mino da Fiesole e da affreschi di Cosimo Rosselli, venne realizzata per conservare l’ampollacol sangue del Miracolo eucaristico di Firenze, avvenuto nel 1230.
Storia
Mino da Fiesole, Uguccione affida la reliquia del miracolo alla badessa di Sant’Ambrogio
Il miracolo avvenne il 30 dicembre 1230, quando un anziano prete di nome Uguccione, dopo aver celebrato la messa, non asciugò accuratamente il calice, ritrovandovi il giorno dopo del sangue vivo frutto dell’incarnazione divina. Il miracoloso sangue venne messo in un’ampolla di cristallo e divenne oggetto fin da allora della devozione popolare. L’atteggiamento della Chiesa fiorentina fu scettico sull’avvenimento, infatti il vescovo Ardingo Foraboschi, recatosi subito alla chiesa, tenne nel palazzo vescovile l’ampolla per un anno per i dovuti accertamenti e solo in seguito, per intercessione dei frati francescani la fece tornare al suo posto. Anche il pontefice ebbe una reazione tiepida, garantendo solo tardive indulgenze (nel 1257 e nel 1266), ben diversamente dall’atteggiamento tenuto nei confronti del miracolo di Bolsena del 1266. La diversa disposizione ha anche ragioni politiche: i miracoli eucaristici infatti contraddicevano le posizioni eretiche di Catari e Patarini che, sebbene a partire da diversi presupposti teologici, negavano la presenza reale del corpo e del sangue di Cristo nell’eucaristia; e se si considera che l’eresia catara aveva numerosi simpatizzanti tra le famiglie ghibelline, è ovvio che avvenimenti del genere fossero trattati per lo meno con scetticismo durante il massimo prestigio delle loro fazioni, prima del 1266 (battaglia di Benevento, 26 febbraio).
Dettaglio degli affreschi
Nel 1279 infatti Beatrice di Capraia dei Conti Guidi, di fazione guelfa, donò 20 lire per la decorazione del contenitore del sangue miracoloso e alcuni fondi nella zona per accogliere i pellegrini in visita al luogo dell’evento sovrannaturale. Dal 1317 al 1344anche l’Arte dei Giudici e dei Notai, una delle più potenti della città, sostenne economicamente le celebrazioni per l’anniversario del miracolo, anche per allontanare qualsiasi sospetto di adesione alle idee ghibelline. Nel 1340 il sangue miracoloso venne portato in processione per scongiurare un grave pestilenza. Nel 1345 il mercante di lana Turino Baldesi, lontano discendente dei Guidi, donò ben tremila fiorini d’oro per la costruzione di una cappella in cui contenere la reliquia del miracolo « per l’anima sua e di suo fratello Giannotto ».
Nel frattempo però l’organizzazione del culto del Corpus Domini era stato affidato ai domenicani di Santa Maria Novella, forti dell' »Ufficiatura » sull’argomento scritta dal domenicano Tommaso d’Aquino, lasciando Sant’Ambrogio e il suo miracolo in secondo piano. Se nel 1405 gli Ufficiali di Mercanzia, cioè del tribunale delle Arti, decisero di partecipare annualmente alla festa di Sant’Ambrogio prima della guerra contro Pisa, nel 1425 la Signoria, per un’analoga propiziazione in vista delle guerre di Milano, optò invece per la processione di Santa Maria Novella. Le stesse monache benedettine di Sant’Ambrogio avviarono a prediligere la celebrazione dell’Immacolata Concezione, caro a san Benedetto e sant’Ambrogio, titolare della chiesa, e nel 1431il loro priore, messer Francesco Maringhi, commissionò a Filippo Lippiun’Incoronazione della Vergine (oggi agli Uffizi) che andò a decorare l’altare maggiore dove da più di un secolo si trovava il recipiente del sangue miracoloso.
Solo nel 1468 Domenico Maringhi, discendente di Francesco, fece costruire a destra dell’ingresso una nuova cappella con un tabernacolo in cui conservare l’ampolla miracolosa. Il tabernacolo era riquadrato dalla tavola con Angeli e i santi Ambrogio, Lorenzo, Giovanni e Caterina d’Alessandria adoranti di Alesso Baldovinetti.
Nel 1481 si decise di sistemare l’attuale cappella del Miracolo alla sinistra dell’altare maggiore, già patronata dalla famiglia Zati, quando la badessa stipulò un contratto con Mino da Fiesole per un nuovo tabernacolo marmoreo. Tra il maggio 1484 e l’agosto 1486 Cosimo Rosselli curò la decorazione ad affresco sulla parete libera, su quella attorno al tabernacolo e sulle volte, per un compenso di cento fiorini. Gli affreschi oggi non sono in condizioni ottimali, anche per un incendio del 1595 e, soprattutto, per i danni dell’alluvione di Firenze del 1966.
Con la sistemazione definitiva della cappella il dipinto del Baldovinetti trovò posto su un altare della navata sinistra dove si trova tutt’oggi, mentre del tabernacolo originario si sa solo che fu venduto nel 1486 a Ruggieri Corbinelli.
Descrizione
Tabernacolo di Mino da Fiesole
La cappella si trova a sinistra del presbiterio, rialzato di alcuni gradini. La pianta è rettangolare, aperta su due lati e recintata da una balaustra marmorea della fine del XVII-inizio del XVIII secolo.
Il tabernacolo
Il tabernacolo di Mino da Fiesole occupa la parete di fondo ed ha le dimensioni di una pala d’altare marmorea. Vasari racconta che le monache erano rimaste impressionate dal tabernacolo dello scultore visto nel monastero delle Murate, e stipularono un contratto con lo scultore nel 1482, che avrebbe dovuto essere finito in otto mesi per un costo di 160 fiorini, anche se alla fine furono necessari circa tre anni e mezzo.
Il riquadro centrale è infatti affiancato da due pilastrini con decorazione a bassorilievo con motivi vegetali e capitelli compositi, sormontati da un fregio di cherubini e da una lunetta con il Padre Eterno benedicente tra due angeli e un cherubino. Il ciborio al centro è incorniciato da una finta nicchia in stiacciato, affiancata da altre due in cui si trovano le rappresentazioni dei santi Ambrogio e Benedetto, rispettivamente titolare della chiesa e fondatore dell’ordine delle monache, entrambi in posizione simmetrica di orante. In alto invece si vede la colomba dello Spirito Santo tra due riquadri con cherubini. Più in basso due angeli in volo reggono il calice del miracolo, appoggiato su un cherubino, dal quale si manifesta Gesù Bambino benedicente entro una mandorla, ispirato al ciborio di San Lorenzo di Desiderio da Settignano. La sua posa riprende quella del Dio Padre in alto e, con la colomba, crea una rappresentazione della Trinità che rimanda al mistero dell’eucaristia in cui Cristo si manifesta come nutrimento dell’umanità.
La base è decorata da un pannello a bassorilievo che ricorda una predella. Raffigura il prete Uguccione che affida la reliquia alla badessa di Sant’Ambrogio. La scena è composta in maniera simmetrica, con un doppio gruppo di oranti inginocchiati, tra cui alcune monache e alcuni notabili. Nelle nicchie ai lati dell’altare, in bassissimo rilievo, si vedono le personificazioni della Fede, col calice e la patena in una mano e la croce nell’altra, e della Speranza, con le mani giunte. Ai lati due donne aprono delle porte da cui entrano altri personaggi inginocchiati. L’opera è firmata « Opus Mini ». Anticamente il tabernacolo era ravvivato da dorature, delle quali restano oggi alcune tracce.
Gli affreschi
Il Miracolo del calice
Ai lati del tabernacolo Cosimo Rosselli affrescò gli angeli musicanti, in accordo con l’Officiatura del Corpus Domini scritta da Tommaso d’Aquino. Nella volta si trovano i Dottori della Chiesa sullo sfondo di un cielo punteggiato di stelle (oggi rosso, un tempo blu). Il lunettone sul lato sinistro presenta il Miracolo del Calice, probabilmente una rappresentazione dell’esposizione del 1340 che scongiurò al pestilenza. La scena venne considerata dal Vasari come la migliore del Rosselli a Firenze. Alla realizzazione dell’opera avrebbe contribuito anche il giovane Fra Bartolomeo, allievo del Rosselli.
La scena è tratta dal vero, ambientata nell’allora piazza antistante la chiesa, con una veduta laterale che ricorda da vicino l’impostazione della Sagra di Masaccio, altrettanto ricca di ritratti e fedele nella rappresentazione dei luoghi della città contemporanea. A destra si vede il sagrato della chiesa e al centro sullo sfondo un palazzo non più esistente. La scena principale si svolge a destra con un gruppo di preti e suore raccolto attorno all’ampolla miracolosa, tenuta in esposizione da un vescovo. L’ispirazione naturalistica traspare da vari dettagli: l’ombra che la monaca proietta sulla facciata bianca della chiesa, la finta finestra in alto a destra, rivelata da un riquadro in pietra serena che rappresenta la reale apertura, oppure la donna che stende i panni nella lontana costruzione sulla sinistra, vicino alla quale si apre un piacevole paesaggio della collina fiorentina. Molta cura è riposta nella descrizione di vesti, acconciature e copricapo, soprattutto delle donne.
La fanciulla che conduce per mano due bambini e si volta verso lo spettatore non è presente nella sinopia, ed ha la funzione di richiamare lo sguardo dello spettatore stabilendo un contatto visivo, per dirigerlo poi verso il cuore dell’azione tramite il gioco delle linee di forza.
Il gruppo degli umanisti
Il corteo, consuetamente diviso tra uomini e donne, è ricco di ritratti, come riporta anche Vasari. All’estrema sinistra si trova ad esempio l’autoritratto del Rosselli, che guarda verso lo spettatore. Spicca poi il gruppo di tre giovani al centro: si tratta, da sinistra, dei neoplatonici Marsilio Ficino, Giovanni Pico della Mirandola e Agnolo Poliziano. Tra questi spicca al centro il ritratto di Pico della Mirandola, vestito di verde e con il tipico caschetto, che venne copiato per la galleria di uomini illustri di Paolo Giovio. L’intreccio di mani con i colleghi, che sembrano confortarlo e dargli forza, si rifà probabilmente a un argomento di attualità: le sue tesi filosofiche, presentate in quegli anni al papa, avevano destato scalpore e in particolare la tesi n.13, proprio sull’argomento dell’eucaristia, gli aveva valso la scomunica e, di lì a poco, un breve arresto nel 1488.
I tre anziani inginocchiati davanti al sagrato non sono sicuramente identificabili: forse quello vestito di nero, in posizione preminente, è un personaggio di casa Medici. Il vescovo che dona il Sacramento potrebbe essere Antonino Pierozzi e colui che lo riceve messer Francesco di Stefano della Torre, dietro cui si vede a mani giunte la badessa Maria de’ Barbadori.
Dell’affresco si conosce anche la sinopia, che oggi si trova staccata e appesa sulla parete subito prima della cappella. Essa è interessante sia per le linee guida nella parte superiore, d’aiuto per il posizionamento prospettico degli edifici, sia perché i corpi, a differenza dell’affresco, sono disegnati senza le vesti in alcuni particolari, probabilmente per aiutare l’artista a ricordarsi meglio dei volumi che i drappeggi dovevano coprire. Inoltre si apprendono alcune modifiche intervenute in corso d’opera: l’uomo inginocchiato di fronte al calice inizialmente avrebbe dovuto avere gli attributi di san Benedetto (barba, tonsura e abito monastico con cappuccio) e il ritratto di Pico della Mirandola doveva trovarsi nel gruppo dei tre a sinistra. Il gioco di linee e di sguardi della scena conduce poi verso destra, verso il tabernacolo marmoreo del miracolo.
I colori anticamente dovevano essere molto più squillanti, come tipico del Rosselli, con finiture d’oro, come nella Cappella Sistina a cui peraltro il Rosselli aveva da poco finito di lavorare.
Il reliquiario
L’ostensione del reliquiario
Il primo reliquiario dell’ampolla del sangue miracoloso venne fatto, stando alla testimonianza di un breviario scritto dalle monache stesse, all’epoca del vescovo Ardengo Trotti, che ne ebbe in sogno l’esortazione. Si trattava di un’urna d’avorio con decorazione in porpora di bisso e intarsi in lamina d’oro. Di questo antico contenitore non vi è traccia, se non nella testimonianza iconografica dell’affresco del Rosselli, mentre quello odierno risale al 1511, ad opera dell’orefice non altrimenti conosciuto Bartolomeo di Piero Sasso. Non è chiaro però se la nuova opera fu fatta ex novo o se si trattò di un riadattamento del cofanetto precedente.
Oggi il sangue del miracolo si trova in un’ampolla protetta da un corpo cilindrico di cristallo. Il reliquiario che lo contiene è in argento parzialmente dorato, che ricorda un ostensorio nella forma. La base esagonale è slanciata, con una cornice punzonata a ovuli e separata dal fusto da una modanatura liscia. La parte superiore è composta da una nicchia che contiene il raccordo che tiene la teca di cristallo saldata al fusto, con due cerchi di metallo che lo abbracciano e lo sostengono, leggermente dentellati.
Ai lati della nicchia sono appesi due angeli in volo e sulla sommità si trova un terzo angioletto che regge un pomello allungato che regge l’elemento circolare dell’ostensorio, realizzato in epoca moderna con testine di angeli, raggi e nuvolette. I due angeli laterali, lavorati a sbalzo e cesello, sono di notevole fattura, con un’attenzione ai loro gesti, differenziati per evitare la rigidità di una simmetria troppo marcata. I panneggi sono fluidi e armoniosi, denotando una considerevole abilità esecutiva dell’artefice.
Altri arredi
Nella cappella si trovavano anche due angeli reggicandela in terracotta policroma invetriata di Giovanni della Robbia, risalenti al 1513.
Bibliografia
- Giuliana Grillotti, La Cappella del Miracolo a Sant’Ambrogio, in AA.VV., Cappelle del Rinascimento a Firenze, Editrice Giusti, Firenze 1998. ISBN 88-8200-017-6
https://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cappella_del_Miracolo_del_Sacramento
Giacobbe Giusti, Renaissance humanism
Leonardo da Vinci‘s Vitruvian Man (c. 1490) shows the correlations of ideal human body proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in his De Architectura. Vitruvius described the human figure as being like the principal source of proportion among the Classical orders of architecture.
Giacobbe Giusti, Renaissance humanism
Domenico Ghirlandaio: Zachariah in the Temple (detail): Marsilio Ficino, Cristoforo Landino, Angelo Poliziano and Demetrios Chalkondyles. Fresco. Santa Maria Novella, Cappella Tornabuoni, Florence, Italy. 1486-1490.
Quatre philosophes humanistes pensionnés par les Médicis : Marsile Ficin, Cristoforo Landino, Ange Politien et Démétrios Chalcondyle (fresque de Domenico Ghirlandaio).
Giacobbe Giusti, Renaissance humanism
Anonimo, Francesco Petrarca nello studium, affresco murale, ultimo quarto del secolo XIV, Reggia Carrarese-Sala dei Giganti, Padova.
Giacobbe Giusti, Renaissance humanism
Vincenzo Foppa, Fanciullo che legge Cicerone. Quest’affresco, datato intorno al 1464, proveniva dal Banco Mediceo presente a Milano e denotava la profonda venerazione che si teneva nei confronti del retore e filosofo Marco Tullio Cicerone, ammirato e celebrato quale massimo prosatore latino dagli umanisti.
Giacobbe Giusti, Renaissance humanism
Giusto di Gand e Pedro Berruguete, Vittorino da Feltre, olio su tavola, 1474, Museo del Louvre, Parigi
Giacobbe Giusti, Renaissance humanism
The School of Athens » by Raffaello Sanzio da Urbino
Giacobbe Giusti, Renaissance humanism
Leonardo da Vinci‘s Vitruvian Man (c. 1490) shows the correlations of ideal human body proportions with geometry described by the ancient Roman architect Vitruvius in his De Architectura. Vitruvius described the human figure as being like the principal source of proportion among the Classical orders of architecture.
| Renaissance
Giacobbe Giusti, Renaissance humanism
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The School of Athens, Raphael, 1509–1511
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| Topics |
| Regions |
| Criticism |
Renaissance humanism is the study of classical antiquity, at first in Italy and then spreading across Western Europe in the 14th, 15th, and 16th centuries. The term humanism is contemporary to that period, while Renaissance humanism is a retronym used to distinguish it from later humanistdevelopments.[1]
Renaissance humanism was a response to the utilitarian approach and what came to be depicted as the « narrow pedantry » associated with medieval scholasticism.[2]Humanists sought to create a Citizenry able to speak and write with eloquence and clarity and thus capable of engaging in the civic lifeof their communities and persuading others to virtuous and prudentactions. This was to be accomplished through the study of the studia humanitatis, today known as the humanities: grammar, rhetoric, history, poetry, and moral philosophy.
According to one scholar of the movement,
Early Italian humanism, which in many respects continued the grammatical and rhetorical traditions of the Middle Ages, not merely provided the old Trivium with a new and more ambitious name (Studia humanitatis), but also increased its actual scope, content and significance in the curriculum of the schools and universities and in its own extensive literary production. The studia humanitatisexcluded logic, but they added to the traditional grammar and rhetoric not only history, Greek, and moral philosophy, but also made poetry, once a sequel of grammar and rhetoric, the most important member of the whole group.[3]
Humanism was a pervasive cultural mode and not the program of a small elite, a program to revive the cultural legacy, literary legacy, and moral philosophy of classical antiquity. There were important centres of humanism in Florence, Naples, Rome, Venice, Genoa, Mantua, Ferrara, and Urbino.
Origin
Some of the first humanists were great collectors of antique manuscripts, including Petrarch, Giovanni Boccaccio, Coluccio Salutati, and Poggio Bracciolini. Of the four, Petrarch was dubbed the « Father of Humanism » because of his devotion or loyalty to Greek and Roman scrolls. Many worked for the Catholic Church and were in holy orders, like Petrarch, while others were lawyers and chancellors of Italian cities, and thus had access to book copying workshops, such as Petrarch’s disciple Salutati, the Chancellor of Florence.
In Italy, the humanist educational program won rapid acceptance and, by the mid-15th century, many of the upper classes had received humanist educations, possibly in addition to traditional scholasticistones. Some of the highest officials of the Catholic Church were humanists with the resources to amass important libraries. Such was Cardinal Basilios Bessarion, a convert to the Catholic Church from Greek Orthodoxy, who was considered for the papacy, and was one of the most learned scholars of his time. There were several 15th-century and early 16th-century humanist Popes[4] one of whom, Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini (Pope Pius II), was a prolific author and wrote a treatise on The Education of Boys.[5] These subjects came to be known as the humanities, and the movement which they inspired is shown as humanism.
The migration waves of Byzantine Greek scholars and émigrés in the period following the Crusader sacking of Constantinople and the end of the Byzantine Empire in 1453 greatly assisted the revival of Greekand Roman literature and science via their greater familiarity with ancient languages and works.[6][7] They included Gemistus Pletho, George of Trebizond, Theodorus Gaza, and John Argyropoulos.
Italian humanism spread northward to France, Germany, the Low Countries, and England with the adoption of large-scale printing after the end of the era of incunabula (or books printed prior to 1501), and it became associated with the Protestant Reformation. In France, pre-eminent humanist Guillaume Budé (1467–1540) applied the philological methods of Italian humanism to the study of antique coinage and to legal history, composing a detailed commentary on Justinian’s Code. Budé was a royal absolutist (and not a republicanlike the early Italian umanisti) who was active in civic life, serving as a diplomat for François I and helping to found the Collège des Lecteurs Royaux (later the Collège de France). Meanwhile, Marguerite de Navarre, the sister of François I, was a poet, novelist, and religious mystic[8] who gathered around her and protected a circle of vernacular poets and writers, including Clément Marot, Pierre de Ronsard, and François Rabelais.
Paganism and Christianity in the Renaissance
Many humanists were churchmen, most notably Pope Pius II (Aeneas Silvius Piccolomini), Sixtus IV, and Leo X,[9][10] and there was often patronage of humanists by senior church figures.[11] Much humanist effort went into improving the understanding and translations of Biblical and early Christian texts, both before and after the Protestant Reformation, which was greatly influenced by the work of non-Italian, Northern European figures such as Desiderius Erasmus, Jacques Lefèvre d’Étaples, William Grocyn, and Swedish Catholic Archbishop in exile Olaus Magnus.
The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy describes the rationalism of ancient writings as having tremendous impact on Renaissancescholars:
Here, one felt no weight of the supernatural pressing on the human mind, demanding homage and allegiance. Humanity—with all its distinct capabilities, talents, worries, problems, possibilities—was the center of interest. It has been said that medieval thinkers philosophised on their knees, but, bolstered by the new studies, they dared to stand up and to rise to full stature.[12]
The rediscovery of classical philosophy and science would eventually challenge traditional religious beliefs. In 1417, for example, Poggio Bracciolini discovered the manuscript of Lucretius, De rerum natura, which had been lost for centuries and which contained an explanation of Epicurean doctrine, though at the time this was not commented on much by Renaissance scholars, who confined themselves to remarks about Lucretius’s grammar and syntax.[13] Lorenzo Valla, however, puts a defense of epicureanism in the mouth of one of the interlocutors of one of his dialogues.[14] Valla’s defense, or adaptation, of Epicureanism was later taken up in The Epicurean by Erasmus, the « Prince of humanists: »
If people who live agreeably are Epicureans, none are more truly Epicurean than the righteous and godly. And if it is names that bother us, no one better deserves the name of Epicurean than the revered founder and head of the Christian philosophy Christ, for in Greek epikourosmeans « helper. » He alone, when the law of Nature was all but blotted out by sins, when the law of Moses incited to lists rather than cured them, when Satan ruled in the world unchallenged, brought timely aid to perishing humanity. Completely mistaken, therefore, are those who talk in their foolish fashion about Christ’s having been sad and gloomy in character and calling upon us to follow a dismal mode of life. On the contrary, he alone shows the most enjoyable life of all and the one most full of true pleasure.[15]
This passage exemplifies the way in which the humanists saw paganclassical works, such as the philosophy of Epicurus, as being in harmony with their interpretation of Christianity.
Renaissance Neo-Platonists such as Marsilio Ficino (whose translations of Plato’s works into Latin were still used into the 19th century) attempted to reconcile Platonism with Christianity, according to the suggestions of early Church fathers Lactantius and Saint Augustine. In this spirit, Pico della Mirandola attempted to construct a syncretism of all religions (he was not a humanist[clarification needed] but an Aristotelian trained in Paris), but his work did not win favor with the church authorities.
Historian Steven Kreis expresses a widespread view (derived from the 19th-century Swiss historian Jacob Burckhardt), when he writes that:
The period from the fourteenth century to the seventeenth worked in favor of the general emancipation of the individual. The city-states of northern Italy had come into contact with the diverse customs of the East, and gradually permitted expression in matters of taste and dress. The writings of Dante, and particularly the doctrines of Petrarch and humanists like Machiavelli, emphasized the virtues of intellectual freedom and individual expression. In the essays of Montaigne the individualistic view of life received perhaps the most persuasive and eloquent statement in the history of literature and philosophy.[16]
Two noteworthy trends in Renaissance humanism were Renaissance Neo-Platonism and Hermeticism, which through the works of figures like Nicholas of Kues, Giordano Bruno, Cornelius Agrippa, Campanellaand Pico della Mirandola sometimes came close to constituting a new religion itself. Of these two, Hermeticism has had great continuing influence in Western thought, while the former mostly dissipated as an intellectual trend, leading to movements in Western esotericism such as Theosophy and New Age thinking.[17] The « Yates thesis » of Frances Yates holds that before falling out of favour, esoteric Renaissance thought introduced several concepts that were useful for the development of scientific method, though this remains a matter of controversy.
Though humanists continued to use their scholarship in the service of the church into the middle of the sixteenth century and beyond, the sharply confrontational religious atmosphere following the Protestant reformation resulted in the Counter-Reformation that sought to silence challenges to Catholic theology,[18] with similar efforts among the Protestant denominations. However, a number of humanists joined the Reformation movement and took over leadership functions, for example, Philipp Melanchthon, Ulrich Zwingli, John Calvin, and William Tyndale.
With the Counter Reformation initiated by the Council of Trent (1545-1563), positions hardened and a strict Catholic orthodoxy based on Scholastic philosophy was imposed. Some humanists, even moderate Catholics such as Erasmus, risked being declared heretics for their perceived criticism of the church.[19]
The historian of the Renaissance Sir John Hale cautions against too direct a linkage between Renaissance humanism and modern uses of the term humanism: « Renaissance humanism must be kept free from any hint of either « humanitarianism » or « humanism » in its modern sense of rational, non-religious approach to life … the word « humanism » will mislead … if it is seen in opposition to a Christianity its students in the main wished to supplement, not contradict, through their patient excavation of the sources of ancient God-inspired wisdom »[20]
Humanists
See also
| Part of a Philosophy series on |
| Humanism |
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| History |
| Secular humanism |
| Religious humanism |
| Other forms |
| Organizations |
Notes
- ^ The term la rinascita (rebirth) first appeared, however, in its broad sense in Giorgio Vasari‘s Vite de’ più eccellenti architetti, pittori, et scultori Italiani (The Lives of the Artists, 1550, revised 1568) Panofsky, Erwin. Renaissance and Renascences in Western Art, New York: Harper and Row, 1960. « The term umanista was used in fifteenth-century Italian academic slang to describe a teacher or student of classical literature and the arts associated with it, including that of rhetoric. The English equivalent ‘humanist’ makes its appearance in the late sixteenth century with a similar meaning. Only in the nineteenth century, however, and probably for the first time in Germany in 1809, is the attribute transformed into a substantive: humanism, standing for devotion to the literature of ancient Greece and Rome, and the humane values that may be derived from them » Nicholas Mann « The Origins of Humanism », Cambridge Companion to Humanism, Jill Kraye, editor [Cambridge University Press, 1996], p. 1–2). The term « Middle Ages » for the preceding period separating classical antiquity from its « rebirth » first appears in Latin in 1469 as media tempestas.
- ^ Craig W. Kallendorf, introduction to Humanist Educational Treatises, edited and translated by Craig W. Kallendorf (Cambridge, Massachusetts and London England: The I Tatti Renaissance Library, 2002) p. vii.
- ^ Paul Oskar Kristeller, Renaissance Thought II: Papers on Humanism and the Arts (New York: Harper Torchbooks, 1965), p. 178. See also Kristeller’s Renaissance Thought I, « Humanism and Scholasticism In the Italian Renaissance », Byzantion 17(1944–45), pp. 346–74. Reprinted in Renaissance Thought (New York: Harper Torchbooks), 1961.
- ^ They include Innocent VII, Nicholas V, Pius II, Sixtus IV, Alexander VI, Julius II and Leo X. Innocent VII, patron of Leonardo Bruni, is considered the first humanist Pope. See James Hankins, Plato in the Italian Renaissance (New York: Columbia Studies in the Classical Tradition, 1990), p. 49; for the others, see their respective entries in Sir John Hale’s Concise Encyclopaedia of the Italian Renaissance(Oxford University Press, 1981).
- ^ See Humanist Educational Treatises, (2001) pp. 126–259. This volume (pp. 92–125) contains an essay by Leonardo Bruni, entitled « The Study of Literature », on the education of girls.
- ^ Byzantines in Renaissance Italy
- ^ Greeks in Italy
- ^ She was the author of Miroir de l’ame pecheresse(The Mirror of a Sinful Soul), published after her death, among other devotional poetry. See also « Marguerite de Navarre: Religious Reformist » in Jonathan A. Reid, King’s sister–queen of dissent: Marguerite of Navarre (1492-1549) and her evangelical network[dead link](Studies in medieval and Reformation traditions, 1573-4188; v. 139). Leiden; Boston: Brill, 2009. (2 v.: (xxii, 795 p.) ISBN 978-90-04-17760-4 (v. 1), 9789004177611 (v. 2)
- ^ Löffler, Klemens (1910). « Humanism ». The Catholic Encyclopedia. VII. New York: Robert Appleton Company. pp. 538–542.
- ^ See note two, above.
- ^ Davies, 477
- ^ « Humanism ». The Cambridge Dictionary of Philosophy, Second Edition. Cambridge University Press. 1999. p.397 quotation:
The unashamedly humanistic flavor of classical writings had a tremendous impact on Renaissance scholar.
- ^ Only in 1564 did French commentator Denys Lambin (1519–72) announce in the preface to the work that « he regarded Lucretius’s Epicurean ideas as ‘fanciful, absurd, and opposed to Christianity ». Lambin’s preface remained standard until the nineteenth century. (See Jill Kraye’s essay, « Philologists and Philosophers » in the Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Humanism [1996], p. 153.) Epicurus’s unacceptable doctrine that pleasure was the highest good « ensured the unpopularity of his philosophy » (Kraye [1996] p. 154.)
- ^ Charles Trinkhaus regards Valla’s « epicureanism » as a ploy, not seriously meant by Valla, but designed to refute Stoicism, which he regarded together with epicureanism as equally inferior to Christianity. See Trinkaus, In Our Image and LikenessVol. 1 (University of Chicago Press, 1970), pp. 103–170
- ^ John L. Lepage (5 December 2012). The Revival of Antique Philosophy in the Renaissance. Palgrave Macmillan. p. 111. ISBN 978-1-137-28181-4.
- ^ Kreis, Steven (2008). « Renaissance Humanism ». Retrieved 2009-03-03.
- ^ Plumb, 95
- ^ « Rome Reborn: The Vatican Library & Renaissance Culture: Humanism ». The Library of Congress. 2002-07-01. Retrieved 2009-03-03.
- ^ « Humanism ». Encyclopedic Dictionary of Religion. F–N. Corpus Publications. 1979. p. 1733. ISBN 978-0-9602572-1-8.
- ^ Hale, 171. See also Davies, 479-480 for similar caution.
Further reading
- Bolgar, R. R. The Classical Heritage and Its Beneficiaries: from the Carolingian Age to the End of the Renaissance. Cambridge, 1954.
- Cassirer, Ernst. Individual and Cosmos in Renaissance Philosophy. Harper and Row, 1963.
- Cassirer, Ernst (Editor), Paul Oskar Kristeller (Editor), John Herman Randall (Editor). The Renaisssance Philosophy of Man. University of Chicago Press, 1969.
- Cassirer, Ernst. Platonic Renaissance in England. Gordian, 1970.
- Celenza, Christopher S. The Lost Italian Renaissance: Humanism, Historians, and Latin’s Legacy. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. 2004 ISBN 978-0-8018-8384-2
- Celenza, Christopher S. Petrarch: Everywhere a Wanderer. London: Reaktion. 2017
- Erasmus, Desiderius. « The Epicurean ». In Colloquies.
- Garin, Eugenio. Science and Civic Life in the Italian Renaissance. New York: Doubleday, 1969.
- Garin, Eugenio. Italian Humanism: Philosophy and Civic Life in the Renaissance. Basil Blackwell, 1965.
- Garin, Eugenio. History of Italian Philosophy. (2 vols.) Amsterdam/New York: Rodopi, 2008. ISBN 978-90-420-2321-5
- Grafton, Anthony. Bring Out Your Dead: The Past as Revelation. Harvard University Press, 2004 ISBN 0-674-01597-5
- Grafton, Anthony. Worlds Made By Words: Scholarship and Community in the Modern West. Harvard University Press, 2009 ISBN 0-674-03257-8
- Hale, John. A Concise Encyclopaedia of the Italian Renaissance. Oxford University Press, 1981, ISBN 0-500-23333-0.
- Kallendorf, Craig W, editor. Humanist Educational Treatises. Cambridge, Massachusetts: The I Tatti Renaissance Library, 2002.
- Kraye, Jill (Editor). The Cambridge Companion to Renaissance Humanism. Cambridge University Press, 1996.
- Kristeller, Paul Oskar. Renaissance Thought and Its Sources. Columbia University Press, 1979 ISBN 978-0-231-04513-1
- Pico della Mirandola, Giovanni. Oration on the Dignity of Man. In Cassirer, Kristeller, and Randall, eds. Renaissance Philosophy of Man. University of Chicago Press, 1969.
- Skinner, Quentin. Renaissance Virtues: Visions of Politics: Volume II. Cambridge University Press, [2002] 2007.
- McManus, Stuart M. « Byzantines in the Florentine Polis: Ideology, Statecraft and Ritual during the Council of Florence ». Journal of the Oxford University History Society, 6 (Michaelmas 2008/Hilary 2009).
- Melchert, Norman (2002). The Great Conversation: A Historical Introduction to Philosophy. McGraw Hill. ISBN 978-0-19-517510-3.
- Nauert, Charles Garfield. Humanism and the Culture of Renaissance Europe (New Approaches to European History).Cambridge University Press, 2006.
- Plumb, J. H. ed.: The Italian Renaissance 1961, American Heritage, New York, ISBN 0-618-12738-0 (page refs from 1978 UK Penguin edn).
- Rossellini, Roberto. The Age of the Medici: Part 1, Cosimo de’ Medici; Part 2, Alberti 1973. (Film Series). Criterion Collection.
- Symonds, John Addington.The Renaissance in Italy. Seven Volumes. 1875-1886.
- Trinkaus, Charles (1973). « Renaissance Idea of the Dignity of Man ». In Wiener, Philip P. Dictionary of the History of Ideas. ISBN 978-0-684-13293-8. Retrieved 2009-12-02.
- Trinkaus, Charles. The Scope of Renaissance Humanism. Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1983.
- Wind, Edgar. Pagan Mysteries in the Renaissance. New York: W.W. Norton, 1969.
- Witt, Ronald. « In the footsteps of the ancients: the origins of humanism from Lovato to Bruni. » Leiden: Brill Publishers, 2000
- Humanism 1: An Outline by Albert Rabil, Jr.
- « Rome Reborn: The Vatican Library & Renaissance Culture: Humanism ». The Library of Congress. 2002-07-01
- Paganism in the Renaissance, BBC Radio 4 discussion with Tom Healy, Charles Hope & Evelyn Welch (In Our Time, June 16, 2005)
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Renaissance_humanism
Giacobbe Giusti, MASOLINO da PANICALE: Vierge à l’Enfant, musée des Offices
Gravure de son portrait illustrant son chapitre dans Le Vite.
| Naissance | |
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| Décès | |
| Activité |
Madone et deux anges, 1424
fresques de San Stefano, Empoli
Giacobbe Giusti, MASOLINO da PANICALE
Martyre de sainte Catherine d’Alexandrie.
Tommaso di Cristoforo Finidit Masolino da Panicale(1383 – v. 1440ou vers 1447), est un peintre italien de la pré-Renaissancené à Panicale, dans l’actuelle province de Pérouse, en Ombrie et mort à Florence.
Traités sur ses peintures
- Masolino et Masaccio, par Roberto Longhi, Pandora éditions, (1983)
Articles connexes
- Giorgio Vasari le cite et décrit sa biographie dans Le Vite : Page 107 – vol. III – édition Giuntina 1568
Notes et références
- Biographie selon Altepinakothek [archive]
- Madone et deux anges, Empoli
- Madone de l’Humilité, Florence
- Prédication de saint Pierre
- Crucifixion, Saint-Clément
- Voûte, Saint-Clément
- Annonciation, Washington
- Vierge de l’humilité, Brême
- Archange Gabriel
- Vierge de l’Annonciation
- Madone, Munich
- Dieu le Père
- Assomption de la Vierge
- Fondation de Sainte-Marie-Majeure
- Sts Libère et Matthieu [archive]
- Sts Jean et Martin [archive]
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Masolino_da_Panicale
Giacobbe Giusti, DOMENICO VENEZIANO: Santa Lucia de’ Magnoli Altarpiece, Uffizi
Giacobbe Giusti, DOMENICO VENEZIANO: Santa Lucia de’ Magnoli Altarpiece, Uffizi
Giacobbe Giusti, DOMENICO VENEZIANO: Santa Lucia de’ Magnoli Altarpiece, Uffizi
Giacobbe Giusti, DOMENICO VENEZIANO: Santa Lucia de’ Magnoli Altarpiece, Uffizi
Giacobbe Giusti, DOMENICO VENEZIANO: Santa Lucia de’ Magnoli Altarpiece, Uffizi
Giacobbe Giusti, DOMENICO VENEZIANO: Santa Lucia de’ Magnoli Altarpiece, Uffizi
| Santa Lucia de’ Magnoli Altarpiece
Giacobbe Giusti, DOMENICO VENEZIANO: Santa Lucia de’ Magnoli Altarpiece, Uffizi |
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| Artist | Domenico Veneziano |
| Year | c. 1445–1447 |
| Medium | Tempera on panel |
| Dimensions | 210 cm × 215 cm (83 in × 85 in) |
| Location | Uffizi, Florence, Italy |
The Santa Lucia de’ Magnoli Altarpiece(Italian: Pala di Santa Lucia de’ Magnoli) is a painting by the Italian painter Domenico Veneziano, dated to around 1445–1447. Once placed at the high altar of the church of Santa Lucia dei Magnoli, Florence, it is now in the Uffizi Gallery in the same city. The large panel had originally a predella, which has been divided between museums in Washington, Berlin and Cambridge.
It has been described as « almost certainly … the first true sacra conversazione« , or painting of the Virgin and Child with saints on a unified scale and sharing the same space.[1]
Description
The painting is one of the earliest known examples of tabula quadrata et sine civoriis as suggested by Brunelleschi, which meant a « modern » type of painting without the inner frames and the gilded background which was typical of earlier painting. The setting is however reminiscent of the frames, with three ogival arches, the columns and the shell-shaped niches. The polychrome floor, and the architecture, including the base of the Madonna’s throne, is depicted with the use of geometrical perspective, an innovation introduced in Italian early Renaissance art.[2]
The saints portrayed are St. John the Baptist and St. Zenobius (patron saints of Florence), St. Lucy (titular of the church where the painting was situated) and St. Francis,[2] who resided in the church at his arrival in Florence in 1211. The garments and the mitre of St. Zenobius are particularly rich, with precious stones, pearls, golden plaques and enamels.
Predella
Giacobbe Giusti, DOMENICO VENEZIANO: Santa Lucia de’ Magnoli Altarpiece, Uffizi
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Reconstruction of the original predella
The predella included panels with scenes of the saints of the main composition, and a central, double-size Annunciation: the Stygmata of St. Francis and John Baptist in the Desert are currently in the National Gallery of Art in Washington, the Annunciation and The Miracle of St. Zenobius are in the Fitzwilliam Museum of Cambridge, and the Martyrdom of St. Lucy is in the Berlin State Museums.
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 Veneziano’s St. Lucy Altarpiece, Smarthistory[2] |
References
- Jump up^ Nigel Gauk-Roger. « Sacra conversazione. » Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. 4 Mar. 2017. Subscription required
- ^ Jump up to:a b c « Veneziano’s St. Lucy Altarpiece ». Smarthistory at Khan Academy. Retrieved October 8, 2013.
Sources
- __ (2003). Galleria degli Uffizi. I Grandi Musei del Mondo. Rome.
Retable de Santa Lucia dei Magnoli
Le retable de Santa Lucia dei (ou de’) Magnoli (en italien : Pala di Santa Lucia dei Magnoli, aussi appelé Sacra
Conversazione), est une œuvre du peintre italien Domenico Veneziano, exécutée vers 1445-1447, conservée au musée des Offices, à Florence.
Le retable ornait autrefois le maître-autel de l’église Santa Lucia dei Magnoli, à Florence.
Le retable est signé sur la première marche du gradin : OPVS DOMINICI DE VENETIIS HO[C] MATER DEI MISERERE MEI DATVM EST .
Thème
La Vierge à l’Enfant est selon une des figures de l’iconographie chrétienne représentée en Conversation sacrée, soit trônant dans une architecture terrestre, et entourée de figures saintes : de gauche à droite, saint François d’Assise, saint Jean Baptiste, saint Zénobie et sainte Lucie. Saint Jean-Baptiste et saint Zénobie sont les saints patrons de la ville et du diocèse de Florence, sainte Lucie est la dédicataire de l’église ; enfin, saint François est supposé s’être rendu dans cette église lors de son premier séjour à Florence, en 1211. Le visage de saint Jean Baptiste est un autoportrait du peintre.
Description
La composition se caractérise par une luminosité très étudiée, l’emploi d’une palette claire et la création d’espaces vastes et aérés, démontrant la maîtrise de la perspective – selon les principes exposés par Alberti dans son traité De Pictura (1435) – par l’utilisation d’éléments architecturaux et de jeux d’ombre. Les volumes sont modelés avec grâce, et la tonalité « pastel » de la palette résulte des fines variations sur la lumière et l’espace. La maîtrise de la perspective est attestée par la représentation du pavement, ainsi que la position des personnages définie par le cadre architectural symétrique, avec des chapiteaux en saillie surmontés de voûtes à arcs en plein cintre. La scène se situe dans une élégante loggia décorée de marqueterie en marbre et éclairée par une lumière pâle et délicate descendant obliquement de droite à gauche mettant en évidence l’utilisation de jeux d’ombre. Au premier plan figure le pavement avec une marqueterie de marbre, puis la loggia, et enfin la cour polygonale avec niches, les différentes couleurs mettant en évidence les structures architecturales.
L’axe central de toute la composition est constitué par la figure de la Vierge sur le trône qui se situe au sommet d’un triangle dans lequel sont disposés les personnages des saints. L’élément linéaire est effacé par la lumière claire qui provient d’en haut à droite, mettant en évidence les profils des personnages. C’est précisément cette « synthèse de couleurs » comme la définit Roberto Longhi, qui constitue l’élément fondamental qui a été transmis à Piero della Francesca, bien visible dans ses chefs-d’œuvre comme La Légende de la Vraie Croix (Basilique San Francesco d’Arezzo). Les couleurs limpides et pures de Domenico Veneziano sont souvent expliquées par sa présumée origine vénitienne, qui en réalité est uniquement suggérée par son nom.
Analyse
Après L’Annonciation de Fra Angelico (1426), le retable de Santa Lucia dei Magnoli est l’un des premiers exemples qui subsistent encore aujourd’hui de tabula quadrata sine civoriis (panneau carré sans séparations), exigence de plus en plus fréquente à cette époque chez les commanditaires florentins, et qui marque une volonté de rompre avec les canons esthétiques de la période médiévale ; ils suivent en cela les recommandations énoncées par Brunelleschi en 1425 pour la basilique San Lorenzo1.
Prédelle
Le retable était à l’origine accompagné d’une prédelle, aujourd’hui divisée en cinq éléments partagés entre plusieurs musées (comme beaucoup de polyptyques italiens démembrés et dispersés) :
- Les Stigmates de saint François et Saint Jean dans le désert la National Gallery of Art de Washington,
- L’Annonciation et Le Miracle de saint Zénobie au Fitzwilliam Museum de Cambridge
- Le Martyre de sainte Lucie à la Gemäldegalerie de Berlin.
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Prédelle reconstituée du retable de Santa Lucia dei MagnoliNotes et références
- Laurence B. Kanter, Painting and illumination in early Renaissance Florence, 1300-1450, Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1994, p. 35.
Bibliographie
- AA.VV., Galleria degli Uffizi, collection I Grandi Musei del Mondo, Rome, 2003.
https://fr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Retable_de_Santa_Lucia_dei_Magnoli
Giacobbe Giusti, NERI di BICCI: Tobias and Three Archangels, Detriot Institute of Arts
Giacobbe Giusti, NERI di BICCI
Neri di Bicci(1419–1491) was an Italian painter active mainly in Florence. A prolific painter of mainly religious themes, he worked in the medium of tempera. He studied under his father, Bicci di Lorenzo, who in turn had studied under his father, Lorenzo di Bicci. All three were part of a lineage of great painters beginning with Neri’s grandfather Lorenzo who was a pupil of Spinello Aretino.
Neri di Bicci’s main works include a St. John Gualbert Enthroned, with Ten Saints for the church of Santa Trinita, an Annunciation (1464) in the Florentine Academy, two altarpieces in the Diocesan Museum of San Miniato, a Madonna with Child Enthroned in the Pinacoteca Nazionale of Siena, and a Coronation of the Virgin (1472) in the abbey church at San Pietro a Ruoti (Bucine).
The Ricordanze are a series of journals Neri kept from the years 1453–1475. They include the rates of remuneration for his work, his pupils, and lists of their works. They are the most extensive 15th century document we have relating to a 15th-century painter and are still preserved in the library of the Uffizi Gallery.[1]
References
- ^ Jump up to:a b c d e f g Santi, B. (2003). Neri di Bicci. Grove Art Online. Retrieved 8 Dec. 2017, from http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.duke.edu/groveart/view/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7000061797.
- ^ Jump up to:a b Pope- Hennessy, John (1987). O’Neill, John P, ed. The Robert Lehman Collection I. Italian Paintings. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art. pp. 179–181.
- ^ Jump up to:a b « Bicci, Neri di. » Benezit Dictionary of Artists. 2011-10-31. Oxford University Press. Date of access 9 Dec. 2017, <http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.duke.edu/benezit/view/10.1093/benz/9780199773787.001.0001/acref-9780199773787-e-00019370>
- ^ Jump up to:a b Mseriantz, Maria. “Two New Panels by Neri Di Bicci.” The Burlington Magazine for Connoisseurs, vol. 62, no. 362, 1933, pp. 222–228. JSTOR, JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/865433.
- ^ Jump up to:a b W. R. V. “THE THREE ARCHANGELS BY NERI DI BICCI.” Bulletin of the Detroit Institute of Arts of the City of Detroit, vol. 8, no. 2, 1926, pp. 14–16. JSTOR, JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41826634.
- Jump up^ Turner, A. (2003). Giusto d’Andrea. Grove Art Online. Retrieved 9 Dec. 2017, from http://www.oxfordartonline.com.proxy.lib.duke.edu/groveart/view/10.1093/gao/9781884446054.001.0001/oao-9781884446054-e-7000032723.
Further reading
- Bryan, Michael (1886). Robert Edmund Graves, ed. Dictionary of Painters and Engravers, Biographical and Critical (Volume I: A-K). York St. #4, Covent Garden, London; Original from Fogg Library, Digitized May 18, 2007: George Bell and Sons. p. 125.
- Farquhar, Maria (1855). Ralph Nicholson Wornum, ed. Biographical catalogue of the principal Italian painters. Woodfall & Kinder, Angel Court, Skinner Street, London; Digitized by Googlebooks from Oxford University copy on Jun 27, 2006. p. 26.
- Pope-Hennessy, John; Kanter, Laurence B. (1987). The Robert Lehman Collection I, Italian Paintings. New York, Princeton: The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press. ISBN 0870994794. (see index; plates 76-77)
Giacobbe Giusti, BERNARDO di STEFANO ROSSELLI: Virgin and Child with an Angel, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston
Bernardo di Stefano Rosselli (active 1460- 1526) was an Italianpainter, mainly active in Florence.
He was likely a young teen, when along with his cousin, Cosimo Roselli, he entered the studio of Neri di Bicci in Florence. Between 1488 to 1499, he works in decorating the Sala dei Signori in Palazzo Vecchio of Florence. In 1499 he was paid for an altarpiece destined for the Rucellai altar in San Pancrazio. Based on his predilection for more archaic representations, he putatively traveled to Rome.[1] He painted a Madonna della Cintola with Saints (1484) now in the Princeton University Art Museum.[2]
References
- Jump up^ Piccoli Grandi Musei, biography, project of Ente Cassa di Risparmio di Firenze.
- Jump up^ Princeton University Art Museum.
Giacobbe Giusti 
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