Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/
info/about/policies/terms.jsp
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.
Taylor & Francis, Ltd. and College Art Association are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The
Art Bulletin.
http://www.jstor.org
This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Fri, 11 Dec 2015 20:40:47 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
The Nuns
Considered:
Audience
and Castagno's
Last Supper
A Renaissance
at S. Apollonia
Andr?e Hayum
It is not difficult
to Florence
visitors
routinely
tourist
attraction
during
who
Vasari,
the
course
refers
to a
at
Castagno
the
of
fifteenth
con
Nuova,
attribution.2
use
as a
of
space
refectory
for
this
the
of
time
its
the
military.3
Benedictine
former
suppres
was put to
in 1866, S. Apollonia
institution
warehouse
storage
at
Furthermore,
sion as a religious
even
Yet
once
the
was
establishment
Via
and
was
S. Gallo
the complex
has been
Lately,
it
been
transformed
having
inaccessible
periodically
and
renovation,
repair,
undergoing
further
into
overcrowded
and
of
portions
classroom
space
of
training
art
in American
once
cially
it
form
textbooks
history
to appear
began
several
a textbook
do's
much
count,
play
more
role
fresco,
of
revisions
in
began
the
treating
same
to alert
to's Arena
Florence,
principal
cycles
a more
a
to
of
Chapel.
the Last
scene
refectories?something,
later,
his
gno's
nious
of
mode
l'oeil
particular
the
subject had
Life
An
scholarly
specialized,
contextual
setting
and
Passion
important
was
Supper
and focus
long formed
shift occurred
of
the
has
it,
that
began
its
the
backing
Castagno's
chronological
position
on
perspec
treatise
of
of
in Giot
and
It
seems
at
first
and
now,
By
as
patrons
Stewart
younger
to be
and
of
as well
sure,
the
that
however,
say,
contemporaneous
were
more
engaged
women
and
artists,
past
of
ingredients
to
in
appeal
is very differ
the
situation
collectors?from
turning
as
con
to art
the
iconographie
patrons
by male
of
generation
after the
patronage
more
central
to
fair
fuel
Gardner?are
productively
ceremonies
a decade
not
and
much
in
and,
which
inquiries,
identities
by manifestly
even
if determined
Isabella
A
not
feminist
viewers.8
study.
book,
to become
be
was
work
avant-garde
of
than
should
substantial
into. Within
issues
more
religious
a
such
relevant
art,
female
stylistically
art were
was
definitively
That
of Vertova's
of
or
has been
inge
Apollonia."7
so
careers
the
Sant'
of
commissioning
investigations.
concerns
did
part of
about
Casta
its
scene, with
measuring
its
ta Alberti's
patrons
estimation,
something
to
of
had done.
for
present,
of monastery
of
in
revetments
Vertova,
Battis
nuns
these
responsible
Vertova's
male
when,
Leon
after
scholars
works
in
nature
standpoint,
of marble
refectory";
in terms
Benedictine
by
to become
monumentalized
consensus
as
of Christ,
a formal
the
this
like
innovative
here
decade
of
for
conditions
scholars
phenomenon
the
from
rendition
for
Suppers
achievement
emergence
literature
the
(Fig.
seemingly palpable presence of Christ and the Apostles
2). Thus, Gilbert refers to it as "the first of our familiar Last
ac
representa
least
sharpening
that
radical
to reflect
less
the
about
agreement
at
example,
those
human
with
dining
ent. Women
universal
room?is
arrangement
historical
theme.
time,
us
In
the middle
the more
by
superseded
some
staged
fifty years
and
tradition
iconographie
the
was
Supper
of Leonar
table"-like
"high
or
more
meant
publication
text of works
formulation)
was
most
later
pages
Supper
decoration.
Identifying
eloquently
in the
veining
to an Abstract
point
in Milan,
toward
painted
is
century,
At
Andrea
espe
of H. W.
vantage
example
its
were
Castagno's
retrospective
celebrated
1960,
hundred
Leonardo
drama
tion
the
Castagno's
fifteenth
is the
audience
from
made
editions
Castagno's
around
in successive
accessible
canvas,
Expressionist
of
of
idea
of the fresco
Janson's
of Art.5 Aspects
History
as
such
the
marble
characterized,
"explosive"
is sometimes
which
compared
background,
made
those with
however,
an
formal power
debut
could
of Franciscan
image
across
the entire
hor
extends
in terms
and Creighton
Gilbert examined
in the course of the
tradition that develops
ca. 1447, and
fifteenth century (Castagno at S. Apollonia,
now
at
S. Maria Nuova, completed
Ghirlandaio
lost;
1457,
S. Marco, 1477-80, and Ognissanti,
and
continues
well
1480)
into the sixteenth (Franciabigio, Convento della Calza, 1514;
mere
Florence.
basic
a favored
of Life,
Last
Luisa Vertova
of a Florentine
trompe
restoration.4
fragmented,
office
the wall
tuting
there
The
tles?obviously
of the actual
by
painted
is silent
Supper
S. Maria
of
complex
as the Tree
Giorgio
century.1
Last
cross
the
at S.
and
on
iconography.
of monasteries
the
now-destroyed
nearby
few
Casta
works
Ang?lico's
in the north
its concentration
in
dense
notably
vents
Fra
containing
this neighborhood
Marco,
del
see Andrea
to
went
Isabella
the
subject
historians
and
its attention
literary
and
of
art
d'Est?
intensive
historians
to the histories
artistic
production
women
such
shedding
art
still
and,
commissioned
a
frequently
through
archival
tendency
in
female
communities.9
by these
to
these
works
studies
employ
This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Fri, 11 Dec 2015 20:40:47 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
research,
and types of
Yet
there
of
art more
is
ART BULLETIN
244
VOLUME
2006
JUNE
LXXXVIII
NUMBER
of Life
fresco.
provided by Alinari/Art
photograph
New
Resource,
ysis of
as with
be
rather
it comes
when
tile,
in
of
quality?products
not
necessarily
the important
Given
and
and
indeed,
by
of Renaissance
now
and
per,
of
even
a canonical
this mural
of
visual
for
issues
sustained
visual
monument?
major
in our
point
remarkable
Sup
audience
seems
thus
study
Last
to an
related
in this
stimulated
of
all
the
endeavor
to be a recur
has proved
of women
artists
the
since
representations,
the
interventions
From
the
time
teenth
century,
lenged.13
became
one
artist's
For
style,
frescoes
this
the
of
name
Castagno's
the S. Apollonia
modern
student,
considered
from
being
has
attribution
the works
though,
started
associated
the
in
remained
fact,
most
Last
representative
perspective
seem
an
del
may
study, Andrea
Castagno
to choose
for a group
of women
religious
the
unchal
of my
unlikely
as their
Supper
of
present
candidate
artist.
Here,
of
portrayal
Domenico
colleague
and
jealousy
even
if
cannot
rage,
to death
but
help
evidence
documentary
as a murderer,
Castagno
Veneziano
of
1461.
the
plague,
as the
Insofar
seem
would
our
this
proved
beat
professional
perception,
dis
account,
Lives of theArtists, to be
young in 1457 during an
Vasari's
through Giorgio
false.14 Castagno died relatively
in
who
in
affect
later
seminated
and
to follow
obvious
four
styles
before
years
a
has
story
Veneziano's
of
ring
truth,
from distinctions,
to
also
representational
sive contouring,
of
the modern
two
these
it
sharply drawn
by
between
viewer,
the
inci
Castagno's
earthen
tonalities
painters:
and
death
however,
dense,
rugged
figures,
the traits of a dominant,
up
conjuring
aggressive
personality
when
effect
the delicate
of Veneziano's
pitted
against
pastel
hues
of form.
the
and
Furthermore,
optical
transparencies
come
to mind
extant
that first
when
personages
reviewing
works
from
short
from
this Last
career,
apart
Castagno's
are
Supper,
whether
neighbor
other
even
assertive,
militant
male
figures,
the equestrian
da Tolentino,
portrait of Niccol?
to Uccello's Sir John Hawkwood
in the cathedral of
or
Florence,
the
condottiere
Pippo
from
Spano,
the
"Huo
mini
Leonardo
ments
present.
with
the
be
focus.11
on
out
the
that
words,
dramatic
Vasari
marginal
exclusive
the
his
outbreak
(manuscript
in material
(tex
and/or
viewers,
beginning
the
even
may
convent
by
famous
target
ring
female
newly
More
in which
typical male
most
reference
Castagno's
would
have
lying
in other
as
in a
scale
to
piety,
on
a
reflection
examples,
in fact,
can,
output
carried
being
interroga
the anal
patrons.10
in
culture,
women's
critical
comprised
exclusively
more
We
pressing.12
by ways
female
themselves
research
art?such
how
altarpiece,
interest
impermanent
in purpose
visual
lent
aspects
of
of
group
occasional
have
analysis
main
embroideries),
papier-m?ch?),
gender
the
Pertinent
to
artistic
possible
is often
miniature
production
illustrations,
with
form.
like
their
association
women,
of
types
picture
conventional,
identified
deserving
drawn
from
consequences
structures
inherent
certain
themselves
objects
interpretative
their
over,
as
than
illustratively
with
tion,
York)
da
well
form
to be
featuring
figures
interest
scenes
in
of
Leonardo's
fueling
human
singled
female
are
some
out
for
deformity,
in order
violence
feminine
output,
a Castagno
to invoke
seemed
pieces
mosi"
and
of a predominantly
notion
Freud's
and
Vinci's
of warfare,
so,
who
during
his
narrative
subjects.15
of the first
Among
monumental
instru
to redress
ideal of subject
we
conversely,
his own
do
lifetime
and
cycles
the "Huomini
renditions
altar
Fa
of
classical
This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Fri, 11 Dec 2015 20:40:47 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE
2 Andrea
del
and
Magdalene
Martha.
The Death
mosaic
Venice's
Last
Castagno,
The
was
impressive
We
will
much
lauded
rendition
of
never
its convents
and
depended
a matter
of much
been
ties?connections
In this
part.
vein,
the
its own
links
come
to
the
or
commission
S. Apollonia
played
of artists
networks"
with
their
may
Castagno
for
lately
reali
practical
of
by way
expansion,
link worth
the
further
high
Tarasio
suggests
the
paintings
between
investigation
these
of
degree
That
tives.21
residing
the
the Venetian
Chapel
their
nuns'
convents,
direct
role
decision
executed
and
frame
the
bears
of
names
in
this
making
by Neri
evidence
however,
the main
of
the
the
altarpiece
abbess
and
commission.22
is affirmed
di Bicci
in the
At
in
assess
to
Neri
of
room
its
subject
iconographie
a
says,
Ma
central
prioress
S. Apollo
case
of
the
the
nuns
the
standing
single,
in later
presence
To
convent.25
on
figure
had
by
judge
the
frontis
edition
as well
as her
conspicuous
pair
Lucca,
S.
Andrea
the
honored
del
no
initiating
for
payments
convent,
if
extant
from
name
plans,
the
major
cloister
large
actual
Castagno's
early
his
patrons
1420s
and
Cecilia
abbess,
and
that
documents
oversee
to
additions
and
the
time
working
at
into
di Pazzino
and
agreements,
forging
to be
saint
(Figs. 6, 7).26
with
the
renovations
the
including
Even
rule
transactions
records,
repeatedly
female
principal
comparable
Castagno's
convent
Apollonia,
Donati,
are
there
While
discuss
images
associated
space.27
S.
for
to women,
pertaining
and
a
as
Alexandria
is a recurring
done
to
from
Benedictine
martyr
Observant
of a 1529 printed
piece
direc
frescoes
appearance
as
1470s, only
us
and
virgin
of
in 1339,
and
the mid-1440s,
in the
Ricor
Conversazione
at S.
Apollonia
in a small
housed
they want,"
settlement
dedicated
conveys
abbess's
nuns
the
and
enabling
third-century
this
order
him
a Sacra
for
is now
"in which
altarpieces
earliest
makes
abbess
In his
there.
employed
commission
the
lonia,
her
possible
well
have
his
domain;
ing
self-determination
carved
refectory,
been
altarpiece
the
commissions.20
of
both
during
was
he
Florentine
At
nia,
especially
when
Florence."25
whom
the
His
instructions,
this
has
"from
to
the
245
donna
art
if, rather,
agents
Certain
along
and
of
issuing
matter
An
of
was
of
danze,
in the public
SUPPER
Florence)
Castagno
writes
adjacent
Whether
or
artists
intermediaries
has
been
patrons
explored,
to Medici
influence.18
Thus,
and
in
Neri
LAST
CASTAGNO'S
(artwork
refectory
Fotogr?fico,
after
generation
as
cycle
artist's
choice
the works
convenience?undoubtedly
idea of "Benedictine
the
lost
our
for
refectory.
discussion.17
and
Mary's
depicting
how
much
aesthetic
influenced
handpicked
on male
in
death.16
iconographie
for the S. Apollonia
drea
del Castagno
nuns
of
itself
commissioned
community
former
Florence,
the
Chapel
but
especially
sure
considerations
of
Castagno
executed
for
know
to
of debate,
by Vasari,
the scene
S. Apollonia,
AND
AT S. APOLLONIA
in the Mascoli
a matter
be
may
process
fresco.
1447,
attribution
of the Virgin
S. Marco
Florence
ca.
Supper,
photograph
NUNS
the
refectory
took
place
under
Cecilia
part
Donati
of her
increasing
first
overall
numbers
extended
plans
for
the
expansion
by the middle
This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Fri, 11 Dec 2015 20:40:47 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
to
commission
of
the
Castagno
convent,
of the fifteenth
as
whose
century
ART BULLETIN
246
3 Castagno,
Pippo
2006
JUNE
ca.
Spano,
LXXXVIII
VOLUME
fresco
1448,
detached
NUMBER
from
loggia
New
Resource,
4 Castagno,
York)
commissioning
tain?within
seen
more
strictures
the
gathering
place
fresco
daily?indeed,
stressing, especially
awareness
precise
on
nuns'
concomitant
convent/church
to deliberately
such
as
the
Once
precincts.29
the S. Apollonia
confrontation
frame
of
structuring
signed
corresponds
several
one
the
thing
nuns
times
is cer
would
This
day.
the
concerning
proceedings
and
which
architecture,
and
could
and
early
be
altarpieces
inside
the
contained
vast
an
and
within
their
unobstructed
inhabitant
could
i Beni
e Storici,
Artistici
Last
whose
Castagno's
Supper,
to the
viewer's
level
eye
standing
the
fresco
end
of
the
room.30
Within
the
escape
confines
the
the
funerary.
loggia
Gabinetto
of
purposes,
At
ranging
of
death
to frame
in order
days
to
others
the
a sister,
the
absence
her.31
for
the
example,
nuns
the
at
S.
the
rules
for
his
have
fresco
of
the
would
as a
compelling
and
tangible
and
its horseshoe
year
to conform
always
have
extent,
moreover,
familiar
step
or
especially
to
reader
daylight
platform
arrives
vivid
evo
imagine.32
those
throughout
hours,
Casta
visible.33
the work
the
the
during
adjusted
to
remained
realm:
nun,
done
for
the Medita
of
a Franciscan
seasons
a space
author
in an
must
Apollonia
create
and
When
contemplate
the Life of Christ,
addressing
Lord's
he engages
Supper,
of all aspects
of this scene
the
So
her
on
tions
gno's
To
8).
apart from
as
functioned
refectory
specify that her place at the table be set and served for thirty
periods
of
bottom
(Fig.
principal public
fulfilled multiple
cation
sacred
the
furthermore,
chamber
de
Seated, the nuns would most likely have faced in from the far
side of two long, narrow tables placed at either long wall
toward
from
Florence)
convent,
at
space
not
the
Re
refectory,
with
Supper,
for meals,
recent
in
participation
naissance
works
Last
Castagno's
this
isworth
point
the
detached
include
Florentine
have
fresco
1448,
Tomyris,
per
Soprintendenza
Fotogr?fico,
would
Queen
presents
foreshortened
mirrors
itself
flooring
the
refectory's
own; the brick red tiles of the sloping roof that caps the
chamber of the Last Supper in the mural mimics the convent
This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Fri, 11 Dec 2015 20:40:47 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE
architecture's
actual
Life-size
roofing.
are
figures
NUNS
AT S. APOLLONIA
AND
LAST
CASTAGNO'S
SUPPER
247
spread
nearly the width of the bottom half of the picture space, each
with clearly differentiated
hair types, features, and gestures:
Andrew
and
next
Bartholomew,
to each
the
other
dark
whereas
brown,
chestnut-colored
is
hair
hair
right,
next
the
Apostle
back
pushed
our
Thaddeus,
on
other,
reveal
wavy,
smooth,
shaven profile at the left end of the table (Fig. 10). With arms
and hands opening outward and grayish brown beard, James
the Less, at the right head of the table, could be responding
to Matthew, his counterpart at the other end (Fig. 11). The
enumerates
latter
a discussion
of
points
as
the
of
fingers
his
left hand touch the table's top edge. Philip, who looks at
next to him, holds up his hands, palms facing
Matthew
as
forward,
if
to Matthew's
surrendering
argument
10).
(Fig.
relation
a
and
the
ground,
uniformly
sharp
and
to
response
as
gesture,
might
the Greater,
James
by
character
occasion:
one
in
part,
or
or
have
that
the
to hold
toward
Benedictine
their
section
to
the
when
hands
in the
and
the
of
side
his
in a gesture
face
of
as
Viewed
13).
a whole,
that shoot
marble
the
earthen
of
admixtures
oranges,
the Apostles'
through
have
panels?would
but
intense
with
gray
and
a visual
to
counterpoint
the black over white of the nuns' own habits as they filed
to
Access
from
the
the
end
the
central
evidence
make
convenient
and
trecento
posed
flanked
on
Resurrection
a
under
tions,
to
read
where
and
scenes
of
of
the
abraded
section
This
and damaged
eliminated
Last
of
the
emphasis
Passion
on
of
is superim
Supper
the
Christ.
one
side
remained
it was
until
is often
three
cov
(Figs. 8, 15). As in
on
Entombment
other.
whitewash
Castagno's
the
the
scenes
of
room
the most
also provide
uncovered
condition,
in
is cut
Mary
Magdalene
right
a manifest
(Fig.
level
would
in these
embraces
the
supports
Marys
Magdalene
15).
of
is the
close
to his
witness
often
be
the Gospels
followers
his women
of
and
Resurrection,
represent
to
of women.
it may
central
the
consti
personae
For while
representations,
association
at
group
audience
dramatis
history.
primary
tall, the
personages
to our
the
16).
(Fig.
a
stands
the
bracketing
these
relevance
of religious
of Mary
figure
Together,
of
space
as
refectory
reappears
foreground,
in visual
to
to him, bearing
of
the word
spreading
vantage
convent's
scenes
these
of
community
female
Matthew
"many
the
distance,
of
and
women"
same
looked
for
the
narrative
who
"were
women
after
the
who
in addition,
accounts
set
example,
the
be
of
the
for
stage
the perspec
by positing
there,
had
the
tier,
upper
might,
to Gospel
and Mark,
portion
of
viewers
of as a living parallel
thought
Galilee
onto
point
of
it is diffi
other
the
cloaked
treatment
this
tive
about
closest
the
hidden
two
the
toward
the
heavily
to the
climactic
reproduc
to the
framing
protagonists
tute
Nor
forward
and
mourner,
this
female
faces
it is
and
of
Entombment,
Crucifixion;
textbook
down
and
the
not
archi
the
a Crucifixion
in S. Croce,
the
of
layer
1890.36 In much
cult
view
and
plans
.35 Entering
14)
doorway would
by
(Fig.
example
over
clear
space
In
underplayed
themselves
initially
one
while
cross,
a distortion
at
doorway
to the
indicated
ground
early
encompassing
the upper
ering
through
as the
on
cloister
the original
through
the
large
nave-shaped
it is today,
but
the fresco,
opposite
as
wall,
of
right
tectural
was
refectory
a central
the
side,
the
into
room.
the
provided
figure
extreme
greens
draperies
formed
tonalities?
violets
S. Apollonia,
1472.
Conversazione,
in the public
domain;
photograph
by Alinari/Art
cross
consternation
that the artist had previously used for his grieving Madonna
in the frescoed Crucifixion for S. Maria degli Angeli
(Figs. 11,
umbers,
Sacra
(artwork
at
di Bicci,
the
drank
they
5 Neri
Florence
instructed
fact,
vessels
light,
the
Supper
individual
pertinent
both
left,
the chalice
in
of
Last
other
the
rules,
earthenware
this
the
been
holding
manner
overall
clarifying
each
throughout
to address
viewer
the
encourage
composition
part
nuns
consistent
focus
watching
followed
Jesus
from
from
. . ,"37
him.
recent
research
piety.
Scholars
interrelated
ical
perspective
into
late medieval-early
such as Caroline
Walker
worldly
This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Fri, 11 Dec 2015 20:40:47 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Renaissance
Bynum,
wom
probing
as
food
preparers
ART
248
BULLETIN
2006
JUNE
LXXXVIII
VOLUME
NUMBER
to
Saint
Apollonia,
frontispiece
Patre nostro, Venice,
Benedetto
1529
New
York
the
Collection,
Spencer
The
cm).
del Sanctissimo
Regula
by
(photograph
provided
Public
As tor, Lenox
Library,
Norton
earlier version
showing
of the subject
meals
en's
to a
providers
devotion,
ence,
were
have
shown
and
psychology
religious
how
imagination,
food-related
of wom
phenomenology
and
mystical
and
practices
Martha
experi
characteristic
for
of Hungary.39
Elizabeth
prominent
lactation
for men?and
charity
distinction
in
of
the
Lidwina
such
of
to
Louvain
and
are
"feeding" miracles
Similarly,
of women:
hagiographies
of Schiedam,
route
this
explained
as Ida
cases
the
multipli
cation
ciano.40
Food-related
characterizations
abound
metaphors
own
their
of
in
of
experience
of Mary
Historians
also
S. Onofrio
with
dealing
with
begun
number
of early
women's
convents,
as
of Oignies
new
such
Last
di Foligno
as
reading" and of
to the religious
the
to
Suppers
fine
example
in Florence,
the
register
that
have
considerable
were
made
tions
ican
nun
by Perugino
itself substituting
for
for an
convent
Benedictine
in
of S. Anna
lives
quotidian
of members
of Le M?rate,
in Florence,
Last
contemporaneous
nearly
Plautilla
Nelli,
painted
on
reports
Supper
by
convent
her
for
ence
of
Last
refectory
surely
female
Franciscan
tertiary
structurally
strategic
Suppers,
further
needing
donor
at
who
the
presence
of
investigation
in the
the
of
of
S. Cate
Taddeo
namely,
kneels
foot
the Domin
garments
cross,
female
Gaddi's
is the
along
in
saints
with
the
pres
a
of
the
small
diamonds
studding the illusionistic frame of the Last Supper
there (Fig. I).45
In considering
the important role of food in terms of
piety,
the Eucharistie
along
religious,
for
of
and Saint
women's
"inebriation."41
awareness
refectory
women's
holy
the divine:
Ida
convent
the Franciscan
at
(Marriage
renowned
of
example
in S. Croce,
the miraculous
spontaneous
the
at
Kitchen)
accompanying
preparation
"commemorations
of the female
as
Foligno
metaphors
to women's
fundamental
in Her
and
Supper
food
and/or
di Bicci. Domi
there by Neri
a Last
Pasadena
Foundation,
characterizes
Rigaux
nique
scenes
Simon
scholars
motif
with
have
it to
related
to
the
body,
the
dominance
of
and
by
possible
teacher
This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Fri, 11 Dec 2015 20:40:47 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
of
Castagno,
Paolo
Schiavo,
it
THE
NUNS
AT S. APOLLONIA
AND
CASTAGNO'S
LAST
SUPPER
249
I01
former
S. Apollonia,
del
frescoes
by Andrea
refectory
with
Castagno
I^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^HB^^^a
^^>___^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^n^^^^?^g
*i?E.i^^^H^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^Bf?w
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^H?
This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Fri, 11 Dec 2015 20:40:47 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
New
ART BULLETIN
250
2006
JUNE
LXXXVIII
VOLUME
NUMBER
to
dates
same
the
as
years
the
Last
nuns
(Fig.
lives
holy
of the
parcel
of women
creation
nourishment
and
of
spread
devotions
special
cussed
Florentine
to
in respect
extensively
can also
ties. One
find
as
milieu,
evidence
at
the
surrounding
has been
Christi,
Belgian
for this
dis
communi
religious
in the
phenomenon
another
Benedictine
S. Ambrogio,
the
interrelated
"long before
Christi
and
cults
they
the
Immaculate
official
to
viewer
Eucharistie
and wine,
carafes
over,
the
tablecloth
in
his
the
delicately
table
effect
of
form
of
reflecting
(Figs.
of
foods
to
mainly
dinner
rolls,
glasses
and
More
9-11).
the mensa?and
of
band
ability
that
to
that
is
significant
of
domain;
public
per i Beni
other
alimentary
were
of men,
the
identity
of
worldly
of fasting.50 Within
to
pertaining
the
female
the
and
part
renunciation
the practice
in
prevalent
frequently
to
central
feature
namely,
through
more
much
miracles,
than
religious,
Florence)
Fotogr?fico,
women
structure
narrative
sainthood,
the
fasting
the miracle
of surviving on the
often served to highlight
Eucharist alone. In Raymond of Capua's life of Saint Cathe
rine,
he
says,
profound
the Blessed
"All who
and
knew
Sacrament
were
Catherine
reverence
characteristic
of
the
strength
Benedictine
and
the
. . .without
for
rhythms
such
toward
It was
Lord."
receives Holy
"kept up her
as
Insofar
food."51
to
attempt
fasting,
our
of
of her
devotion
Catherine
lived and
other
any
taking
for women
rules
aware
well
and
Body
should
regulations
the
intake
food
regulate
be
seen
extremes
of potentially destabilizing
against the background
of renunciation.52
Similarly, the privilege granted by Pope
Eugene
often
their
(about
the
white
a viewer's
overhang?limits
spareness,
of
opulence
selection
length
sharp
foreshortening
of
starkness
the horizontal
the
the
the
punctuate
relative
restricts
staples?bread,
through
artist's
dominant
marks
Castagno
visible
that
demonstrate
tableware,
there,
of Corpus
sanction,"
Conception.48
While
the
celebrated
"precociously"
received
Gabinetto
Eucharistie
2).
in the
(artwork
e Storici,
Artistici
Resident
Supper.
the Less
James
photograph
they wished
convent
church,
seven
well respond
so
frequently
To
rehearse
broadly
work
nuns
IV to the
as
based
in which
years
at S.
Apollonia
to be allowed
and
recorded
before
to take
in a document
Castagno's
fresco
was
some
the
facets
tendencies
to
consider
lives
of
of
these
female
in
the Host
dating
begun),
as
Communion
to reserve
to 1439
may
that had
saints.53
documented
and
broadly
an
new
frame
provides
important
the original
of Casta
reception
This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Fri, 11 Dec 2015 20:40:47 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE
the Greater
James
e Storici,
Last
gno's
ence
of
Gabinetto
a discussion
Supper,
to the distinctiy
Saint
Before
idols,
her
identifying
with
of
dentists
feature:
tongs,
and
that
granting
a more
have
for
religious
scious?outlined
pointed
some
representation
appeal
the
of
audience?
tional
setting
Before
was
mode
should admit
ible in works
picture
types,
decoration.
phasis,
the complex
to characterize
we
conclude
patron
But
Supper
were
into
deep
sharp
that Castagno's
by his
be
it altarpiece,
this
Presumably
sharp
own
distinctions
of this
brown
with
of
overall
artist
was
witness
employed
between
was
or
to
forms
the
explain
the
and
simply
pursuing
even
his
own
of
this
on
for
exempla
the
constant,
safeguard
Saint
Catherine's
as when
characteristic,
the
female
virtue
as
virility
aware
of
us
she
states
Catherine
instance,
"like
"she
was
the
devil
if
the
to
of
faith.
fre
urges
the
"virily,
account.58
apocryphal
history
as well
Tomyris
and
battle,
murdered
was
was
This
for Mary
prototypes
of
suicide,
she
Testa
"Since you be
and Esthers
to
that
Old
strengthened,"
that Castagno
the Judiths
committed
Ida of L?au
and
type
women
as the
exemplary
Lucretia?who
stood
up
and
life of
your
is described
seizing
weapons"
in a
womanly
way."57
not
fear
appropriate
in constancy."
a man
like
a man,
like
man
strong
like Judith
heroines
haved
came
that
secular
catego
em
linear
Yet
another
fought
or
and ground,
figure
in space
that seemed
achievement.55
as
for
is,
makes
invocation
the
extension,
sur
starts
discourse
Renaissance
almost
that
one
the moment
For
there.
encounters,
Mattioli
of God
ment
we
perceived
critical
nuns
need,
being
claims
same
here,
patrons
the
late medieval-early
heroine
and,
by
one
as
facial
that
representa
monument,
coherence
time;
foreshortenings
Castagno's
our
that
civic
New
Resource,
in
Castagno's
relief,
quent
women
uncon
his depiction
piety,
virility?the
Umberto
could
and
reconcile
characters,
teeth
the mouth.54
who
to
the
Christian
saint
Last
the
Former
by Alinari/Art
provided
251
a well-established
topos for
stylistic bent at S. Apollonia,
female sanctity would have rendered his presentation
highly
veying
became
in Castagno's
Renaissance
writers
the
we
determined
actually
that
the
spectators
do
to argue
try
affirmed
ries
of
features
we
of
of portrayal,
cast
masculine
her
photograph
fresco.
detached
1442,
relevant
pun
to the worship
reasons?conscious
how
meeting
of
to
refer
exclude
torture
the
rendering
diseases
for
above,
their
voluntarily
the brutal
ultimately
such
not
intercessor
main;
ca.
Crucifixion,
LAST SUPPER
CASTAGNO'S
York)
underwent
Apollonia
of
pair
ruggedly
shadows
per i Beni
should
"oral" component
herself.
Apollonia
that
13 Castagno,
Florence)
Fotogr?fico,
AND
AT S. APOLLONIA
Convento
domain;
photograph
Artistici
in the public
(artwork
NUNS
says
was
in
of Jewish
antiquity?Queen
went
authority,
in their
the
turns,
into
be
herself.59
Creighton
mirroring
of
the
actual
space
This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Fri, 11 Dec 2015 20:40:47 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
as a
playing
out,
in
particularly
ART BULLETIN
252
LXXXVIII
VOLUME
2006
JUNE
NUMBER
,??:
Y?i
1 ::
a;?:?'-??lc?Ca;7?,???""""
""""""""?P-"U?Y"I~^"rs?::?
?':
:;4?
3i3?S
?-:
i?i)?
14 Convent
of
S. Apollonia,
plan,
Stato,
Florence,
c.l
82, m.207,
Soppressi,
Archivio
1741.
Convenu
di
in
(artwork
the public
Renaissance
of
can,
the moral
no
be
course,
rationalized
monastery
fact
the
by
convent
and
at
that
from
Supper
the
are
1970s
in
least,
to be
provocations,
the more
mural
18),
and
is a
Supper
herself
nude,
theless,
these
logical
inclusion
nuns
charge,
that
when
must
also
they
personages
emotions
may
their
images,
be
seen
artists
precise
intuit
our
such
or
yearning
of
ac
its
and
to
certain
who
to pursue
the
gamut
religious
women,
holy
could
become
formed,
others
with
along
within
disguised
the monastic
legendary
(the most
freaks
of
in
cross-dressing
sphere:
as Thecla
such
who,
a follower
themselves
life of
of
famous among
nature,
of
Saint
in men's
the
or
of
lives
thus
only
Paul,
trans
the many
clothing
extreme
More
learning.61
the bearded,
them being
transvestism
female
involving
legends
in order
female
Saint Wilgeforte),
the
part
they
sacred
and
to
as
cases
eccentric
that
their
explain
in
topoi,
of
issue
the
was
sphere
in
marriage
these women.62
of
evidence
reveal
religious
more
a male
by
Christian
"virile
their
gender
to some
always
to be
perceived
beginning
stricter,
are
not
says
monastery,"
instinct
is to resist
lance
council
of
the
of
its
the
form,
fundamental
might
pi
that
the
from
concomitantly,
of
than
the
leave
is
the
women,
for men.63
those
of
confinement
If my
for women.64
the
literally
S. Apollonia
the
own
clausura"
"perpetua
the
documents,
in Florence
its convents
for
enclosure
rule
too
of
to
the wish
demonstrates
convents
that
and
the
was
sometimes
of nuns
and protection
The
of outside
determining
aggression.
was
that woman,
the
idea
sure,
however,
sexual
which
a more
also had
virility
state
of virginity,
her
guard
There
of constant
vigilance.
to
of
the
pillaging
meant
inhabitants
saints
of
the more
of
it.65
enforcing
one
and
idea
to
unrelieved
established
of
the
projection?with
rules
permitted
the Benedictine
security
keep
actively
of
Records
rape
to
and
produced
more
taking
in one
prescribed
special
for
in need
woman
holy
were
unfailingly
"The nuns
also
things
was
certainly
for
with
identification
the divide.
aim:
defensive
of
considered,
exhortation
this
for women,
and
All
vehicles
could bridge
agreement
non
god.
heroine"
strategies?or
specific
state
terms
human
fundamental
were
the
the
and
gift
and
Yet
for
these
transgression
within
viable
apposite
historically
viewers
unknown
intended
collective
of
think
ous women
psycho
drives
or
sex
of
martyrdom
religious
we
for
realistic
search
existence
the
they beheld
Indeed,
certain
the
as miraculous
perceived
renunciation
self-willed
on
Whether
acceptance
presents
instances
these
the
of
and
community
even
as,
fresco,
aspirations,
exemplars.
to invest
Cox
the
Castagno's
conventional
as moral
to
impelled
race
of
agent
Last
ambivalence,
have
confronted
us
help
examples
emotional
the
to more
cording
photographic
decorum
the expected
American
artist
Ren?e
(Fig.
Yo Mama's
to
challenge
the African
as
gender,
recent
in
sure,
in
favor
The
this goal transcended
gender boundaries.
principle,
modern feminist works to which I alluded at the outset of this
essay are revealing in this regard. Judy Chicago's Dinner Party
and Mary Beth Edelson's Some Living American Women Artists/
Last
in
beard
between
distinction
to Christian
central
striving
of holiness,
its pursuit
made
Gilbert
of
form,
piety and
domain;
by K. Dahab)
photograph
forces
at
any
time
importance
This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Fri, 11 Dec 2015 20:40:47 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
of
become
these
for
this
to real
linked
motivation
as
raging within
and
abduction
the
need
daughter
security
dangers
for enclo
of Eve,
herself, which,
unleashed.
notions
to
Beyond
the Chris
in
THE NUNS
15 Castagno,
end
wall
of
the
of
refectory
S. Apollonia
with
the Last
ingly
Malleus
into
the
implicated
maleficarum,
nature
of
women.
whose
evil
and
the
It culminated,
successive
demonic
as we
printed
and
Supper
AND
the Resurrection,
LAST
CASTAGNO'S
Crucifixion,
and
SUPPER
253
Entombment
AT S. APOLLONIA
that
know,
editions
increas
in
the
from
how
the
about
ethical
women's
extremes
nature
This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Fri, 11 Dec 2015 20:40:47 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
that
within
characterized
a Christian
consider
universe
254
ART BULLETIN
JUNE
2006
VOLUME
LXXXVIII
NUMBER
16 Castagno,
of
of
refectory
detail
of
end
wall
the
portion
the upper
of the
with
S. Apollonia
the
have
would
an
affected
New
Resource,
of
audience
female
York)
in
religious
its
tensions
the
terms
formal
and
S. Apollonia,
the
much-noted
frames
the
through
backs
expressively
at
surface
dramatic
slab
Peter
node
in
them
signaling
"marble"
that
Judas
Christ with
from
received
tures
that
ing?and
His head
truding
the most
17 Paolo Schiavo, Crucifixion with Nuns
detached
fresco.
S. Apollonia,
domain; photograph
York)
Florence
inDevotion, 1447-49,
(artwork
provided by Alinari/Art
in the
public
Resource, New
art?here
for
crisscross
when
Satan
beard,
long,
biting
actually
to have
associated
enclosure
hooked
follows
palpably
which
from
conveyed
This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Fri, 11 Dec 2015 20:40:47 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
ges
bless
refers us to this
entered
and
nose,
the
satyr's
of Judas
embodiment
with
hand
betrayer.
characterizations
is the
right
of Saint John
was
of
choreography
good?Christ's
"incarceration"
originally
enon
of
elaborate
moment
crucial
in an
Christ
thus
of
the
his
Satan.
notion
ear?one
of
in the history of
The
of
presence,
by Castagno's
necessity
was
clausura
this
phenom
foreshort
THE
Some Living
Artists/Last
AND
CASTAGNO'S
-v-ts*
Supper,
**?;^^-^?^^^crs^^"^E|?^^S:??Lp:
SUPPER
255
***
^?ff^?A^^M?^
;^%*'^^^#^>';
provided by the
1972 (photograph
LAST
-::%?
American
AT S. APOLLONIA
NUNS
artist)
Leonardo's
(until
the
example)
conventional
way
of designating
his lapsed moral status, but at S. Apollonia,
deviates
from convention
the profile
by flipping
Castagno
view of Judas so that he appears to the (viewer's) left of
to a
center.68
Ascribing
this
part?a
convenient
way to ensure
and
purely
on
the
artist's
as
insufficient
John?seems
move
formal
an
the
given
explanation,
"moralized
geography"
Christ's
Entombment
scenes
of
dically
related
to
the
central
the
upper
zone.
and
Resurrection
to the
two
the
There,
are
viewer's
confirmed
by
of
quence
frescoed
stool
on
that
light
receding
which
nuns
ations
Judas
tine
the
that
scene would
consciousness.
convent
of
found
scriptions
when
en's
orders:
judged
and water
to warrant
to be
general
The
the M?rate
in
the
eaten
from
on
not
own.
For
refectory's
have
triggered
room was
sometimes
could
humiliation
and
rigor
have done
of
from
and
elaborates
Benedictine
rules
the
the
refectory.69
the
have
by
a
is also
there
means
of
and bodily
the
of Alberti's
a matter
as significant
and
and
precision
the
being
his
about
Casta
Floren
was
On
to
with
spot
unmistakable
and
the
table,
on
the
it is John's
visual
given
field,
the
the
strict
seem
position
central
symmetry
au
particular
I refer not to
13:23-26),
Jesus'
I had
that
to
in response
which,
in visual representations
the
been
its apparent
context.
This
of John.
(John
back
has
not
intention
arrangement
considering
of him
"leaning
it. Rather,
on
derives
theoretical
the figurai
on
asleep
to all the
illusionistic
is the placement
description
Jesus"
that
before
long
over,
slouching
of
organization
is faithful
which
from
the biblical
tant
its realization,
a feature
case,
speculated
dience
of
coherence
reli
harmonious
perspective?as
literature?does
nature
the
in the
to
its women
by Castagno's
for
enacted
seems
that
a more
his fresco
and
community
the combi
subjugation
and
suggested
prescriptions
discussion
some
of
of
for
message
was
men
both
a chastisement
Benedictines
gentler
identification
for
goal?significantly,
was
space
refectory
reserved
been
gious.
But
away
bread
of
of food deprivation
made
or defiant
behavior
slovenly,
was
to a diet
restricted
of
floor
nation
standard motif
pre
wom
the
silence,
banish
meals
sense
sustaining
the
within
associ
on
the
was
rules
she
facedown,
scheduled
in the Benedictine
to
the
chronicle
recurring
women?testimony
even
in
that,
that,
re
leashlike
floor.70 While
from
confinement
solitary
censure
next
and punish
severity
to
the refectory
that
specify
or
neck
victim's
her body on
prostrate
ment
further
to the
attached
on
for
general
it, a nun
wooden
furthermore,
to the
surviving
reiterates
careless,
the
threat
right
se
of
side
three-legged
him,
grounds
that supports
analogous
visually
at S.
this
Apollonia,
image
to the way
their own dining
gno's projected
from
sits
tile floor
to function
ment,
panels
to be
in the
slivers
the
at
seems
that
reading
two open
penetrates
marble
chamber
orientation,
earthly
be
details
straint
heral
the Resurrection?
Crucifixion,
accounts
these
occasion,
"reclining
until Leonardo
at
the most
axis,
an
created
became
breast,"
did
axis
impor
that
by
the
is
six
nuns
at S.
Apollonia
in mind,
an
aspect
of John's
persona
widely popularized
through texts like the Legenda ?urea and
the subject of popular devotions becomes
the likely motiva
This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Fri, 11 Dec 2015 20:40:47 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
256
ART BULLETIN
2006
JUNE
VOLUME
LXXXVIII
NUMBER
of this sleeping
hair
and
smooth-skinned
long, wavy
rations
for Mary's
Jacobus
obsequies,
between
exchange
bearer
to John,
fitting
entire
of
the
de
which
palm,
ends
prepa
Describing
with
shall be
the
awarding
it
Peter
ulated
the
culine
virtue,
breach
of
Sexual
in
faith,
the person
to
themselves
project
chaste
the
of John
aggressiveness
vigilance
center
presents
as prototypical
and
into
against
innate
the
of mas
guise
temptation
sexual
in women
may
and
in
purity
have
been
Pentecost,
and
Christ's
Ascension
had
by
motifs
in
her
then
the
fresco
would,
presence.73
visual
by
For
accompany
those
lecterns
and
as
Incarnation,
Domenico,
her
the
in
scenes
as
in Donatello's
by Fra Damiano
the
on
to
pertaining
Annunciation
or
Parma)
the
Garofalo
by
in
sixteenth-century
da Bergamo
in
Furthermore,
Bologna).74
throne,
in
prie-dieux
the
painted
classicizing,
in Padua
Nazionale,
tarsia version
of
sides
Mary?the
in the Santo
example
have
association,
example,
(Pinacoteca
virgin youth.72
excess
other
suggested
an
relates
Vor?gine
over who
and Peter
John
virgin's
face.
(Basilica di S.
the
S. Apollonia
fresco, flowering plants pattern the cloth that lines the Apos
tles' bench and hangs on the wall behind Christ and his
disciples (Figs. 9-12). Defined by somewhat more thinly and
loosely applied strokes of paint than are the figures and
these
architecture,
backdrop
or,
at
flowers
times,
to
appear
to grow
from
from
sprout
out
of
the
glass
their
dark
vases
that
rest on
20
Pistoian
painter,
Scenes from
the
New
York
(artwork
This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Fri, 11 Dec 2015 20:40:47 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
in the
provided
21
School
of Amiens,
The Priesthood
1438. Mus?e
ofMary,
du Louvre,
one
of
des Mus?es
Nationaux/Art
that Castagno
the
almost
treated
at
frescoes
S. Apollonia
Resource,
New
immediately
in
when,
the
contrast
too,
were
with
the marble
signifiers
a
chastening
suggested,
the
for
revetments
convent
completion
now
panel
above.
in
These,
as we
with
empanelization,
which
have
Alesso
the
demanding
our
way
panels,
field
their
disciples,
a viewer's
eyes
which
as do
Didi-Huberman's
inevitably
actually
diverse
scrutiny,
ages,
we must
gravitate
as
occupy
the all-important
discussions
large
and
types,
also
toward
figures
of
hair
take
those
an
area
of
of
faux
marble
the
pictorial
fictive
of Hieronymus
Venice
Palace,
marble
just
cance
the
the
in
figure
netti's
the
areas
angular
the monastery's
traces
of
ulate
colors
visual
on.77
of
the
Crucifixion
in the public
a Female
of
domain;
have
SUPPER
From
257
Saint.
touch
of
the
so-called
culture
The
contrasting
are
and
of Venice,
square
signifi
intercon
By
colorful
where
Castagno
frameworks
coloration
at
This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Fri, 11 Dec 2015 20:40:47 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
S.
enclosing
Apollonia
they
in
manip
the
us
engages
marble
had
central
l'oeil
facing
to
worked
serial
also
to
allowed
in the trompe
was
architecture
key
rect
four
replicating
Castagno
inherent
white
Ang?lico
as
at
attempt
that
of
brush
they
in Baldovi
the Shadows
of
Fra
his
contrast,
reminded
interior
of
gestures
over
any
material.76
We
Madonna
is the way
corridor
as
perspective,
of those
the monks/viewers
prevail
their
the
Incarnation,
Didi-Huberman's
and
(completed
to
of
Markers
the
exterior
us
on
east
S. Marco
sensitized
context.
scenes
below
to
stone
rendition.
the
in
example.
effects
possible
actual
Bosch,
at neighboring
Castagnos)
Christian
especially
the
LAST
(artwork
bodily extremes
nected
CASTAGNO'S
before
through
gestures
stock
comparable
School
on
just
22
AND
AT S. APOLLONIA
photograph
York)
audience,
NUNS
Doge's
THE
on
the
early
panels
bring
to
ART BULLETIN
258
2006
JUNE
LXXXVIII
VOLUME
NUMBER
beige hatching
against a blue background
hairline
white
veining produces a calmer
interspersed with
at
stone
in
Saint Andrew's place (Fig. 9). Where
the
effect
is marked by
and Thaddeus
Bartholomew
sit, the marble
allover
Christ;
of
striations
veins
(Fig.
white,
verde
approaching
written
descriptions?from
vored
the
qualities
rhetorical
us
to orient
"marble"
at S.
Apollonia,
panels
and
copius
in which
ekphrases
marble
natural
the
heavens.79
into
the
more
23
del
Santo,
and
Madonna
Donatello,
Padua
(artwork
provided by Alinari/Art
some
mind
of
the
early
domain;
Chiesa
altar,
photograph
and
aesthetic
powerful
as
at
S.
presbyterial
additions
Saba
on
work
marble
Cosmatesque
churches,
of main
church
enclosures?
to
Rome's
S. Lorenzo
and
fuori
Surveying
Castagno's
fresco
from
left
to
right:
uniformly
James;
lets
color
dramatic
the
square
red-orange,
of marble
black,
white,
at
the
level
and
of
gray
Judas
rivu
and
two
a bearded
fifteenth
stars
toward
in his Treatise
Filarete,
at prayer
in
the
to
envoy
veins
At
S. Marco.80
Spanish
in
well
gravitate
in Venice's
century,
verbally
or
continuing
readings,
sometimes
the
decorative
the
clouds,
rivers,
hermit
of marble
slabs
of
Pro
passages,
are transposed
formed hallucinations:
sees
by
classic
patterns
could
century,
but constitute
the
Sophia
that
the
the
east,
Christ.
that
on
a wall
battles,
Castagno's
audience
ary
a viewer's
in Leonardo's
affirmed
animals,
precisely
stains
le Mura.
fifteenth
the
and
colors
meadows,
phenomena:
Such
metaphoric
on Architecture,
connecting
turn of
thrones
furnishings?bishops'
were
such
that
medieval
Child, detail
in the
public
facing
into
the
at the Hagia
the
note
Accounts
contain
Silentarius
Paulus
of
potential
once
we
them.
above
context,
Byzantine
especially
zone
discrete
and
sa
Another
stone.78
backing
panel.
Vasari?that
actual
rich
in the
especially
to the
transformational
tradition,
serves
of
first
the
through
varieties
and
blue
greenish
of
color
in the panels
Pliny
by white
interrupted
a darker
the
echoes
visible distinctions
These
black
and
orange,
15). At
the
helping
so
and
revetments
on?we
provided
on
stimulated
further
24 Alesso
Baldovinetti,
trait
random
heads,
envisage
can
appreciate
convent
the
something
to
artist/viewer
landscapes,
"marble"
with a meditative
experience,
imaginative
propensity?a
comments
about
well-known
for vision
a percep
patterns
Annunciation,
S. Miniato,
Florence
This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Fri, 11 Dec 2015 20:40:47 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Gabinetto
Fotogr?fico,
Florence)
in
THE NUNS
AND
AT S. APOLLONIA
CASTAGNO'S
LAST SUPPER
259
111
ca. 1455,
Saint Julian,
Castagno,
fresco.
SS. Annunziata,
Florence
in the public
domain;
(artwork
25
provided by Alinari/Art
photograph
New
Resource,
York)
the
tier
upper
can
level
upper
(Fig.
be
15).
For
as
perceived
one
when
stands
the
back,
a dream
if it were
or
vision
that issues from the sleeping John. The central axis of the
juncture of marble panels behind him is aligned with the
base
of
the
cross
above,
version
straightedge
of
Castagno's
the
Saint
Julian
scene,
both
at
frescoes
to
the
Catholic
at
community
large,
SS.
Annunziata
15).
parallel
Venerable's
visual
link
sometimes
letter
between
clausura
and
at
the
occasion
as in Peter
of
Peter
Eastern
the
Abe
learned
discussions
enclosure
that
to
traditions
his
explain
bearded
to Christ's
compared
number
been
both
the monastic
likens
of
her
Western
invoke
face
clean-shaven
countenance
in the Last
Christ
entombment
invoked by theologians,
to H?lo?se
when
reveals
was
he
several
of
subject
versus
and resurrection
Castagno
where
death,
of
a
Christ,
lard's
female
of
the
in
protagonists
reminder
comforting
so the choice
of
the
Resurrection,
the
of
upper
tier would
women's
youthful,
beardless
through
its
closer
solidarity
Christ
have
with
a
for
resemblance
a more
itant
these
of
mundane
manner,
too,
the upper
the
scenes
convent.
reveal
In
a
spatial
frescoes
Castagno's
liberation
of
their
abraded
spite
is the
ambience
that
This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Fri, 11 Dec 2015 20:40:47 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
in
to the inhab
condition,
obverse
of
ART BULLETIN
260
JUNE
2006
VOLUME
LXXXVIII
NUMBER
_i
-i:iI
I:
i
:r
26
r
upper
was
at what
chamber
landscape,
look
must
up
have
are
to
terrain
comparable
tombment,
breathing
Apollonia.85
far and wide,
situated
frequently
a nature bathed
by unifying
that
fields
and
the
roof
an
been
the
Resurrection
the
for
There,
on
and
deep
sunlight
the
whose
encompassing
horizon's
Crucifixion,
afforded
restricted
a nun's
basis,
daily
the distance.
into
eyes
by
Piero
of
far back
Those
En
imaginary
at S.
viewers
could
pressed
come
narratives
initial
roam
of
in
as
Accordingly,
sive actions
the
patrons
Supper began
Even
up
of
a shock
to
"nuns"
and
features
of women
for
the
such
as
in
the
York)
were
never
commis
see
inac
been
our
to punctuate
were
passing
context
original
the
preponderance
scenes
of
upper
es
that,
of Renaissance
to a decade
New
symptomatic
development
and
viewers
literature.
something
provided by
S.
is nonetheless
the
the upper
of the
the
with
S. Apollonia
in the public
(artwork
Apollonia
has
religious
female
It
of
female
wall
Resource,
at
frescoes
this Last
when
pecially
of
end
domain; photograph
Alinari/Art
information.
"convent"
foreground
views
edge.
sioned
the
panoramic
and stretching
Castagno's
for a group
modern
enclosed
Veneziano,
Castagno's
must
have
otherwise
the
That
cessible
fenestra
vistas developed
Baldovinetti,
against
of
impressive
Domenico
at
undulates
surrounding
space
over
to those distinctive
similar
colleagues
Castagno's
painter
and Alesso
della
Francesca,
figures
by
uninterrupted
can
viewer
especially
originally
of the Last
projection
if, as I think can be argued,
architectural
detail
the
of
refectory
Resurrection
ii
the
Castagno,
of
portion
style,
sup
generally
it could
ago,
to
reference
of
this
and
the
work.
expres
Crucifixion
with
the conviction
I, for one,
proceeded
a difference
and would
surely made
gender
to consider
be a fruitful
this
work
way
by Castagno.
striking
a female
order
would
have
Does
that patronage
this mean
by
or
even
most
in
the
of
the
determined
choices
all
artist's
that
perspective;
the issue
of
This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Fri, 11 Dec 2015 20:40:47 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE NUNS
realization
a devotional
that
noteworthy
tracted
from
Last
the
Supper
female
within
popular
arm
Granted
such
enfolds
direct
artist
and
this
to
appeal
patron
cherished,
the
youngest
disciple.86
at S.
Apol
as
themselves
convent-viewer
obviously
positioned
refectory.
Looking
strictly
I have
speaking,
of women
to
and
artistic
beyond
(religious)
the
phenomena:
and
virile
of
reiterate
mean
both
the
key
nuns
the
only
sense. With
its broadest
features.
Of
could
have
a painting
Renaissance
the
the
of
opposite
polar
times
in Erwin
eral
the
Apollonia
them
among
realization
our
leaves
may
be
illusion
spatial
that must
in viewers,
more
needs
from,
apart
structured
theological
we wonder
how
by
certain
respect
neously
impact
preparedness
a Renaissance
on
aisle
to
of
its
signals
of an
realization
notion
of
of
creasingly
sense
of his
an
to
the
common
artist
Castagno's
dealt
in
the
and
First
of
power
and facilitated
with
the
Duomo
the
presents
However,
accessibility.
us not
to be too literal
immediate
a
project,
ideal,
especially
even
this
because,
future
or
community
by
areas
at S.
"living"
Apollonia?in
where
upper-story
loggia,
pious
the
nuns
such
com
contrast
expectations
artistic
reception
extensive
of
intention
this
in
simulta
comparison
by
in
da Tolentino
the
and
period,
seems
the
in
artist's
unconsciously?an
the
that
S. Apollonia
time,
the
given
clausura
have
obvious
in our
on
audience
broader,
finally,
an
fact
of
the
cultural
same
words,
stricture
to
of
ground
At the
In other
approach
inform?consciously
own
output.
Remarkable,
Benedictine
at
issues.
force
in its audience.
be publicly
accessible.
how would
the
context,
to bear
side
seeing
an "ex
frescoes
Castagno's
but
in
not
would
conventual
come
of
incapable
contemplating
the
conceptual
We
in this
and
a work
how
reception.
effect
sponse
in
sustained
us
sev
"Studies
anything
Supper
very
impulse
to the
challenge
would
have
lowered
its women
while
the
as
the
from
table
assertive
works
to
and
mealtimes?87
imagery
and
the
appeal
paradox
which
inclined,
place,
at S.
a
order,
their heads
during
presence
Last
such
Benedictine
place
toward
imperative
indisputably
of
keeping
proceeding
at
when
on
the
readings
the manifest
to commission
rules
not
Does
Apollonia,
of a work
commitment
eyes
focused
and
such
to a more
suggest
Castagno's
Supper,
on the
and flexible
attentiveness
part of its audience
vigorous
a
nuns
and
conviction
about
what
these
would
be destined,
motivated
to
take
in?
articles
and books on both northern
of several
art. Her
book The
Isenheim
Altarpiece:
and
God's
Italian
Med
10023].
one
invoked
essay
is
of
(school
Notes
I want, first of all, to express my appreciation
to colleagues
and friends at
Smith College
"five colleges") who provided
such a
(and at the surrounding
and stimulating forum for me when, as Ruth and Clarence Kennedy
welcome
in the Renaissance
Professor
of 1995, I first
the spring semester
during
lecture. On the occasion
of her
many of these ideas in a public
presented
I also want to acknowledge
Elizabeth
C. Parker, my longtime
retirement,
in art history at Fordham University's
and
Lincoln Center Campus,
partner
our dialogue about this and many other
readers
subjects. The two anonymous
for The Art Bulletin have my gratitude
for their thorough
and insightful
many aspects of which they will, I hope, find reflected here.
commentary,
Unless otherwise
translations are mine.
specified,
1. See Richard
with
and
reactions
bushman"
who
Last
in
be thought of as
concern
figures
dramatic
also
the
floor
Last Supper,
contemporary
seminal
Panofsky's
other
viewing
as that
Iconology":
in a
of
representation
dinner
cited
party."
The
level of achievement
S.
"Australian
in the
Renaissance
not
does
this work
like Castagno's
and
public
ical
is author
rugged
ele
these Apostles,
this
the main
Andr?e Hayum
given
the
understood
doorway
261
images
of
course,
interior
SUPPER
Rossello
indeed,
decorative
participants,
or the marble
revetments,
hanging
an
LAST
CASTAGNO'S
audience
these
perceptions
meal
itself,
certain
that
its male
floral
an
what
particular
communal
sacred
typology
as the
such
ments
nuns'
directives,
patron's
to consider
sought
might
the
identify
or
intention
over
lunette
AND
in Paolo Schiavo's
ing in devotion
see
mainly
orders north
whose
lonia,
ex
sculpture
became
example
Christ,
in wooden
type
scene
AT S. APOLLONIA
of identity this
decorations
passageways,
were
shown
such
kneel
as
C. Trexler,
The Nuns of
"Celibacy in the Renaissance:
in The Women of Renaissance Florence, vol. 2
Florence,"
reprinted
(Asheville, N.C.: Pegasus Press, 1998), 6-30. See also Saundra Lynn
and the
Weddle,
"Enclosing Le M?rate: The Ideology of Enclosure
of a Florentine
Architecture
vol. 1 (PhD diss.,
Convent,
1390-1597,"
Cornell University,
1997), esp. 84-105.
This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Fri, 11 Dec 2015 20:40:47 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
ART BULLETIN
262
JUNE
2006 VOLUME
LXXXVIII
NUMBER
Santa Apollonia
of demol
1842, no. 40) that discuss the consequences
side in order to create the
ishing part of the convent on the northeast
street. However,
to judge by contemporary
this project was
guidebooks,
realized only in late 1849 or early 1850. Up through the fifth edition of
the Nuova guida di Firenze (Florence: Editore Angiolo Garinei,
1849),
the maps
included do not yet show the new street, whereas
it
L289d,
in
the
Guida
di Firenze of the following year (Florence: Editore
appears
Vincenzo
it was re
Bulli, 1850), L290. Initially called Via S. Apollonia,
in April 1889 to commemorate
events of April
named
the revolutionary
Stradario storico biogr?fico delta
27, 1859. See also Demetrio
Guccerelli,
citt? di Firenze (Florence: Vallecchi,
1929), 493.
4.
5. The
6. Eve Borsook,
The Mural Painters of Tuscany, 2nd ed. (Oxford: Oxford
See especially Luisa Vertova, / Cenacoli
Press, 1980), 42-43.
University
Italiana, 1965); and
(Turin: Edizione Radio-Televisione
fiorentini
"Last Suppers and Their Refectories,"
in The Pursuit
Gilbert,
Creighton
in Late Medieval and Renaissance Religion, ed. Charles
ofHoliness
Trinkaus
and Heiko A. Oberman
The
(Leiden: Brill, 1974), 371-402.
of this subject, as destined
for the monas
history of the representation
in Florence,
has,
tery refectory context and in terms of its development
in turn, provided
the orientation
for such later studies as R. Scott
Walker, Florentine Painted Refectories (Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI, 1979);
in Cristina Acidini Luchinat
and with full-dress colorplates
and Ro
sanna Caterina Proto Pisani, La tradizione florentina dei Cenacoli (Flor
ence: Scala, 1997).
7. Gilbert,
"Last Suppers," 377; Vertova.
I Cenacoli, 31: "II primo refettorio
rinascimentale
florentino
? quello delle monache
benedettine
di Santa
See also Martin Wackernagel,
The World of theFlorentine Re
Apollonia."
naissance Artist, trans. A. Luchs
Press,
(Princeton: Princeton University
1981), 127.
to a
8. Jaynie Anderson
takes stock of these questions
in her introduction
special issue of Renaissance Studies 10, no. 2 (June 1996) that is devoted
to the subject women patrons of Renaissance
David
art, 1300-1600.
"Woman as Artist and Patron in the Middle Ages and the Re
Wilkins,
in The Roles and Images ofWomen in theMiddle Ages and Re
naissance,"
of Pitts
naissance, ed. Douglas Radcliff Umstead
(Pittsburgh: University
Isabella d'Est? and Gioanna
de
burgh Press, 1975), 107-31, highlights
Piacenza as exemplary
female collector and/or patron of the arts, in
an essay that the author called, at the time, "a prolegomena
for further
study" (107).
9. Key to these developments
has been the work of several European
his
see Anna Benvenuti
torians. For the later medieval
Papi. whose
period,
are collected
in "In Castro Poenitentiae"
essays starting in the mid-1970s
(Rome: Herder Editrice e Librer?a, 1990). Gabriella Zarri is important
not only for her own publications
since the early 1970s on female sanc
tity and female religious communities
through the late Renaissance,
in the Bolognese
but also as a catalyst for further re
milieu,
especially
search by other scholars, through organizing
conferences
and editing
several significant anthologies.
Jeffrey Hamburger,
placing
special em
set an
phasis on the visual culture of nuns in the medieval
period,
in The Rothschild Canticles (New Haven: Yale Uni
important precedent
versity Press, 1990). For a brief overview of this general
subject, see
"La donna,
la fede, l'immagine
Dominique
Rigaux,
negli ultimi secoli
del medioevo,"
in Donne efede: Santit? e vita religiosa in Italia, ed.
Lucetta Scaraffia and Gabriella
Zarri (Rome-Bari: Editori Laterza e
orders, see Jeryldene M. Wood,
Figli, 1994), 157-75. For the Franciscan
Women, Art, and Spirituality: The Poor Clares of Early Modern Italy (Cam
Press, 1996); Gary M. Radke, "Nuns and
University
bridge: Cambridge
Their Art: The Case of San Zacear?a in Renaissance
Venice," Renais
sance Quarterly 54, no. 2 (Summer 2001): 430-59;
and, most recently,
treatment of the subject by Anabel Thomas, Art and
the comprehensive
Piety in theFemale Religious Communities of Renaissance Italy (Cambridge:
Press, 2003).
University
Cambridge
10. See Ann M. Roberts,
"North Meets South in the Convent: The Altar
in Pisa," Zeitschrifi fur Kunstge
of Alexandria
piece of Saint Catherine
"Nuns and Altarpieces:
schichte 2 (1987): 187-206; and Julian Gardner,
for Research," R?misches Jahrbuch der Biblioteca Hertziana 30
Agendas
1997).
of main docu
12. For monograph,
raisonn?, and reprinting
catalogue
ments on the artist, see Marita Horster, Andrea del
Castagno (Ithaca,
N.Y.: Cornell University
Press, 1980). A significant
separate study of
Last Supper is Dominique
Castagno's
Rigaux, Un banquet pour l'?ternit?:
La C?ne d'Andr?a del Castagno (Paris: Mame,
1997), an extremely
treatment accompanied
and theologically
informed
thoughtful
by ex
cellent reproductions.
This monographic
essay does not, however,
dwell on the issue of gender or on the fresco's particular patronage
more
and audience
of women?the
since Rigaux did just
surprising
that in her earlier study of the stylistically more modest
in
decorations
the refectory at the convent of S. Anna at Foligno
(see n. 42 below).
Eckart Marchand,
"Monastic Imitatio Christi: Andrea del Castagno's
Ce
nacolo di S. Apollonia," Artibus etHistoriae 24, no. 48 (2003): 31-50, fol
in stressing the stimulus to contemplation
lows Rigaux
of these paint
as individual exemplars.
The essays
ings, with the Apostles
functioning
combined
in Rosanna Caterina Proto Pisani, ed., Luce e disegno negli
affreschi di Andrea del Castagno (Livorno: Sillabe, 2000), were occasioned
that spring, of the frescoes at S. Apollo
by the conservation
campaign,
nia.
13. Sir J. A. Crowe and G. B. Cavalcaselle
attribute
the work to Castagno
not in their first (1864) edition of A New History of Painting
in Italy but
in the subsequent German
translation, Geschichte der italienischen Malerei,
vol. 2 (Leipzig: S. Hirzel,
1870), 41, adding that the fresco had some
times been thought to be by Paolo Uccello.
Three years later, Susan
Horner
and Joanna Horner, Walks in Florence, vol. 2 (London: Strahan,
Cenacolo as a work by Castagno
1873), 183, include the S. Apollonia
and praise his handling
of the composition
and delineation
of figures.
Jacob Burckhardt,
by the third edition of his Cicerone, vol. 3 (Leipzig:
E. A. Seemann,
the fresco in his account of
1874), 883, also discusses
oeuvre.
Castagno's
14. Vasari,
in 1956, is reprinted
15. Meyer Schapiro's
in Theory
essay, first published
and Philosophy of Art: Style, Artist, and Society (New York: George Bra
ziller, 1994), see esp. 182-85.
16. See Vasari, Le vite, vol. 2, 677, for a close description
of Castagno's
now-lost Death of the Virgin at S. Maria Nuova. Female religious, both as
patron and as subject, also had an important place in this artist's ca
reer. In addition
to S. Apollonia,
Vasari, 672, reports that Castagno
a fresco of Saint
worked for the nuns at S. Giuliano. At SS. Annunziata,
Jerome having a vision of the Holy Trinity shows him flanked by fe
male clerical saints, Paola and her daughter Eustochium.
The artist's
for the no-longer-existing
(commissioned
altarpiece of the Assumption
church of S. Miniato
fra le Torri, now in the Gem?ldegalerie,
Berlin)
in clerical garb. See Marita Horster, Andrea del
the Virgin
presents
Castagno, 34ff., 181ff., 27, 177, pis. 7, 3.
17. See Catherine
Matrons,
King, "Medieval and Renaissance
Italian-Style,"
Zeitschrift f?r Kunstgeschichte 55, no. 3 (1992): 372-93; and Kate Lowe,
in Medicean
"Nuns and Choice: Artistic Decision-Making
in
Florence,"
With and Without theMedici, ed. Eckart Marchand
and Alison Wright
Art and Piety,
1998), 129-53. Anabel Thomas,
(Cambridge: Ashgate,
Bodies:
and Less
Insiders, Outsiders,
esp. chap. 20, "Commissioning
Familiar Asides," discusses variations
in respect to responsibility
for pa
contexts.
conventual
tronage in differing
This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Fri, 11 Dec 2015 20:40:47 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE NUNS
18. John R. Spencer, Andrea del Castagno and His Patrons (Durham, N.C.:
Duke University
Press, 1991), 106ff.; and Lowe. "Nuns and Choice,"
136.
19. Marita
24.
25. A wall of the trecento church has frescoes by Cenni di Francesco with
individual scenes from Saint Apollonia's
life. See Giuseppina
Bacarelli
e una leggenda
Novit?
in?
Locoratolo,
"Sant'Apollonia:
iconografiche
dita," Paragone 33, nos. 383-85
1982): 101-7. Saint
(January-March
Apollonia,
along with Saints Lucy, John the Baptist, and Jerome,
flanked a now-lost central section of the main altarpiece
for the con
vent's remodeled
life
church, as events from Apollonia's
Cinquecento
and legend detail the surviving predellas painted by Francesco Gra
nacci in 1516-17. Christian Von Hoist, Francesco Granacci (Munich: Ver
She is also represented
in one
1974), figs. 97-107.
lag F. Bruckmann,
of the pendentives
of the cupola, frescoed by Bernardino
Pocetti
of the Virgin. At the front of the
shortly after 1600 with a Coronation
tribune was an altarpiece by Agosto Veracini with Saint Apollonia
in
below.
glory in the upper register and a scene with Saint Benedict
Paolo Pierleoni, Denti e santi, il mito di Apollonia
(Milan: Stampa Galli
1991), 13-21.
Thierry,
26. Regula del Sanctissimo Benedetto Patre nostro: Tradutta in quelle parte che con
vengono a noi monache (Venice, 1529), New York Public Library, Spencer
an apparent wing of an altar
Collection.
For Filippino Lippi's painting,
"ANew Monumental
piece, dated ca. 1483, see Millard Meiss,
Painting
attrib
by Filippino Lippi," Art Bulletin 55 (1973): 479-93. A painting
uted to Vitale da Bologna
the
Saints
in the
(George Kaftal, Iconography of
1978], 87, no. 26a, fig.
Painting ofNorth East Italy [Florence: Sansoni,
in the garb of a Benedictine
114) shows the single figure of Apollonia
nun. The other female saint sometimes
shown with Benedict
is, of
course, his sister, Scholastica.
"Per l'architettura
27. See especially Bacarelli,
florentina," who includes
contracts dating to March
of agreements made between Ce
1441/42
cilia Donati and two bricklayers for work to be undertaken
on the large
cloister of the convent, visible on the plan of the convent
(Fig. 14) and
still to be viewed from the original
on the inte
lower-story fenestration
rior long wall of the refectory.
S. APOLLONIA
AND
CASTAGNO'S
LAST
SUPPER
263
starting
29.
AT
6, 1446.
30. That we do not find written evidence of the exact seating arrangement
in surviving documents
and habitual
probably reflects how accepted
such an arrangement
not in need of recording. How
was, something
are instructive in this
ever, certain depictions
regard, for example,
Pietro Lorenzetti's
panel from the polyptych of S. Umilt?, now in the
Galler?a degli Uffizi, Florence
(Carlo Volpe, Pietro Lorenzetti, ed. Mauro
Lucco
[Milan: Electa,
1989], 179, cat. nos. 141-64, fig. 144). This
panel shows nuns seated at a table running along one side of the room
as well as the front end wall, a second
long wall being hidden from our
view. A horseshoelike
format is indicated
in certain relevant Florentine
now in the Louvre, Saint
(such as a predella by Fra Ang?lico,
examples
Dominic Served by theAngels, in Gilbert,
"Last Suppers," fig. 4). The com
scene and Giovanni Antonio
this predella
positional
similarity between
treatment of the same subject in a refectory
Sogliani's
sixteenth-century
at the monastery
of S. Marco
suggests that a fresco by Fra Ang?lico
to Sogliani's depiction
may well have been precursor
(Gilbert, "Last
is visible in sev
Suppers," 381ff., fig. 3). Such a format for the table(s)
eral Last Supper scenes, such as Cosimo Rosselli's
at S. Giorgio
alia
at S. Onofrio
Costa and Perugino's
di Foligno
(Vertova, / Cenacoli, fig.
"Plautilla Nelli's Last
22, pi. 23). See comments
by Ann M. Roberts,
of Dominican
in Plau
Supper and the Tradition
Refectory Decorations,"
tilla Nelli (1523-1588):
The First Woman Painter ofFlorence, ed. Jonathan
Nelson
(Fiesole: Cadmo,
2000), 44-55.
31. Regula
32. Meditations
(Princeton:
(38v).
B. Green
33. Regula del Sanctissimo Benedetto, chap, xli, fol. 22v: "A che hora sia con
veniente
che le sorelle mangino,"
where
it is advised that the evening
so that lamplight will never be needed;
meal should be scheduled
this
passage ends (fol. 23r), "Ma & da ogni tempo de lanno lhora della
cena & della refectione
sia in tal modo
che con la luce ogni
temperata,
cosa facia finita."
34.
in refectorio
beveno: ma
9, no. 30 (November
30, 1890): 231; 10, no. 7 (March 31,
The 1891 notice also mentions
the closing up of the two
the upper zone. Mostra di quattro maestri del Primo Rinasci
cat., Palazzo Strozzi, Florence
(Florence: Tipograf?a Giun
tina, 1954), 141ff., cat. no. 59, refers to the 1953 restoration by L.
Tintori
in which
the sinopia drawings of the upper scenes were first
to light. I want to thank
for generously
brought
Giorgio Bonsanti
join
on one occasion,
ing me at S. Apollonia
during the summer of 1996,
to review at firsthand aspects of the present condition
of this entire
wall of frescoes.
37.
Theferusalem
27:55-56.
38. Caroline
Bible
Walker
(Garden
Bynum,
1966),
62; Matthew
This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Fri, 11 Dec 2015 20:40:47 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
Signifi
ART BULLETIN
264
canee of Food
1987).
39.
40.
Ibid.,
41.
JUNE
toMedieval
2006 VOLUME
Women
LXXXVIII
(Berkeley: University
NUMBER
of California
126, 125.
see Vertova,
the example by Perugino,
/ Cenacoli, pis. xxm-xxv.
at the Convent of
"The Franciscan Tertiaries
Dominique
Rigaux,
at Foligno," Gesta 31, no. 2 (1992): 92-98.
Sant'Anna
43. Cronache delMonastero
(Bibl. Naz.), Flor
(M?rate), Biblioteca Nazionale
of Vasari's Last Supper 2&
ence, II, II, 509, 139v, 176. For discussion
see Lowe, Nuns' Chronicles.
mentioned
in this chronicle,
42.
to this privilege
1439. Reference
is also found in Regula del Sanctissimo
there is good reason "se
Benedetto, fol. 21v, every Sunday or whenever
condo la licentia data alii monachi
da papa Eugenio
quarto."
Press,
For
44. Vasari, Le vite, vol. 5, 79; this occurs while reviewing the works of sev
artists within
eral women
the chapter on Properzia de' Rossi, 73-81.
on Nelli
in Nelson,
See the papers from the symposium
Plautilla Nelli,
to Jonathan Nelson
for including me in
127-32, pis. 3-8. I am grateful
a small group, several years ago, for which he arranged access to see
canvas. Nelli's Last Supper now hangs in the modern
this enormous
friars at S. Maria
(not the original)
refectory used by the Dominican
Novella.
coat of arms appears on the fresco, the wife of Filippo
45. As the Manfredi
for the
Manfredi, Monna Vaggia, who died in 1345, has been suggested
not accepted,
identification
of this figure, something
however, by An
drew Laddis, Taddeo Gaddi (Columbia: University
of Missouri
Press,
1982), 172-73.
46. Caroline Walker Bynum,"Women
in
Mystics and Eucharistie Devotion
the Thirteenth
Century," Women's Studies 2 (1984): 179-214.
at the present refec
in the small anteroom
47. This work is now exhibited
in Museo
Storico To
tory entrance. A plan of the convent, formerly
now in ASCF, amfce 0394 (cass. 11, ins.
"Firenze Com'era,"
pogr?fico
contains written annotations
D), with an attributed date of 1808-10,
on the lower right that refer to this painting
still in situ, "In una p?rete
un
nella terrazza del primo piano vi esiste un fresco rappresentante
Cristo in Croce, opera di Paolo di Stefano fatta nell' anno 1442." Anna
Padoa Rizzo, "Aggiunte a Paolo Schiavo," Antichit? Viva 14, no. 6
is "signed and dated by Paolo Schiavo
(1975): 3-8, says this picture
1448." But, as noted by Luciano Berti, "Appunto su Andrea del
a San Zacear?a," Acropoli 3, no. 4 (1963): 261-92,
the chrono
Castagno
the left side, that of
logical evidence of two papal coats of arms?at
the painting must have
Eugene TV, at the right, Nicholas V?means
IV on February 23, 1447.
been begun before
the death date of Eugene
at the bottom of the
In fact, the date inscribed
in Roman numerals
appears to include four Xs before fading out at the end:
painting
1449 the latest possible
which would make
D.M.CCCC.XXXX[-],
of this work.
year of completion
48. Eve Borsook,"Cults
and Imagery at Sant'Ambrogio
in Florence," Mittei
Instituts in Florenz 24, no. 2 (1981): 147-202.
lungen des Kunsthistorischen
Documents
cited by Borsook make evident the close association
be
even in regard to practical artistic
tween S. Ambrogio
and S. Apollonia
matters
and exchanges.
See also Laura De Angelis,
"Un libro antico
della Sagrestia di Sant'Ambrogio,"
Annali della Scuola Normale Superiore
di Pisa, 3rd ser., 4, no. 1 (1976): 97-102. Blue pigment was sent from
to S. Apollonia
to be employed
Venice
by Filippo Lippi in his Corona
tion of the Virgin, the main altarpiece
for S. Ambrogio.
This painting,
on January 21,
now in the Uffizi, was, in fact, taken to S. Apollonia
it was brought
touches by Lippi, before
for finishing
1446, presumably
in January 1447?thus,
in the very
back to S. Ambrogio
seemingly,
years Castagno was at work on his frescoes at S. Apollonia.
49. On the technical
level, some of the objects on the table were treated a
secco. These passages have flaked off and thinned out over time, which
to making
the details of the table setting less than clearly
contributes
legible. Placed toward the back of the tabletop are several plates, hold
it is this de
of small, rock-shaped
objects. Presumably,
ing low mounds
tail that Hartt, Italian Renaissance Art (4th ed., 1994), 271, refers to
on the table.
salt as one of the items appearing
when he mentions
and Holy Feast, 93, 134, 165ff.
da Capua, 5. Caterina da Siena: Legenda maior, trans. P.
(Siena: Edizioni Cantagalli,
1994), 188, no. 170, 322,
Tinagli
Giuseppe
sanno con me quanto fosse
no. 312: "Tutti quelli che la conobbero,
verso il santissimo Corpo del Si
grande e sp?ciale la sua devozione
tanto che, per riceverlo
la voce che
spesso, corse fra il pop?lo
gnore,
al
Caterina
si comunicasse
ogni giorno, e con questo senza prendere
tro cibo, vivesse mantenendosi
in perfetta
salute." The original Latin of
was soon translated
into the vernacular,
and
this life of Saint Catherine
version became one of the first printed books to
this Italian-language
in
sisters of S. Jacopo di Ripoli
be issued in 1477 by the Dominican
Florence.
50. Bynum,
51. Beato
"Women Mystics,"
Raimondo
52. Regula del Sanctissimo Benedetto, chap, xxxix, fol. 22r: "Delia misura
cibi," fol. 22v: "Della misura del bevere," fols. 23, 23v.
53. ASF, Diplom?tico
lunghe
Sant'Appollonia
di Firenze,
October
18,
de
"La tipologia
'virile' nella biograf?a e nella lettera
Atti del Congresso Internazionale di Studi Cateriniani,
Siena/Rome, April, 1980 (Rome: Curia Generalizia,
1981), 198-222.
n. 68.
57. Bynum, Holy Feast, 318-19
56. Umberto Mattioli,
tura cateriniana,"
60. The
61. The
early fifteenth
This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Fri, 11 Dec 2015 20:40:47 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
THE NUNS
in masculine
of a heroine
guise in the person of Joan of Arc. Apart
from male dress, cutting off the hair is a frequent feature in accounts
of the transvestism of female saints. From a considerable
literature
"Female Saints in Mascu
dealing with this subject see Marie Delcourt,
in Hermaphrodite
line Clothing,"
(London: Studio Books, 1961), 84-102;
"Female Transvestite
in Early Monasticism,"
Viator 5
John Anson,
in Pagan
(1974): 1-32; and Mary Ann Rossi, "The Passion of Perpetua,"
and Christian Anxiety, ed. Robert C. Smith and John Lounibos
(Lan
Press of America,
ham, Md.: University
1984).
ou Ontcommer,"
Le
"La l?gende de sainte Wilgeforte
62. Jean Gessler,
Les
and Hyppolyte
Folklore Braban?on 15 (1936): 307-401;
Delahaye,
(Brussels: Soci?t? des Bollandistes,
1927), 44,
l?gendes hagiographiques
of Paris about
103ff., 195, 198. In the artistic and intellectual milieu
Nadar and the novelist-critic
1900, the portrait photographer
J. K.
took a particular
interest in the phenomenon
of bearded
Huysmans
women
as with a statue of the cruci
saints and their representations,
to this more
fied Saint Wilgeforte
found in Beauvais. For references
see Sylvie Aubenas,
modern
cultural context,
"Beyond the Portrait, be
yond the Artist,"
Philippe N?agu,
1995, 95-106.
Fran?oise Heilbrun,
of Art, New York,
non possono
in refettorio mangi
Cronache delMonastero
(M?rate), fol. 47r: "laMattina
in terra solo pane et vino," fol. 47v: "et chi non fussi con l'altre alia
la sua parte in terra." The general for
beneditione
della mensa, mangi
in refettorio"
is repeated on fols. 47v, 48r. Re
mula "facci la disciplina
gula del Sanctissimo Benedetto, fol. 5r: "e degiuna una volta in pane e
in terra in refectorio.
..." 7r: "Ma chi contrafara
aqua, mangiando
cose degiuni
in pane e aqua in terra in refectorio
nelle preditte
totiens
quotiens."
70. Regula del Sanctissimo Benedetto, fol. 34 (37): "digiuni una volta in pane
con la correg?a al eolio."
in terra in refectorio
& aqua, mangiandolo
dica quivi in
Cronache delMonastero
(M?rate), fol. 47v: "et transgredendo
neces
penitentia
cinque Pater bocconi in terra," or "chi senza occasione
il silentio dica una volta il salmo Miserere Mei Deus
saria vi romper?
esca di refettorio"
prostrata in terra bocconi, prima che il convento
(my
for reviewing with me the termi
emphasis). My thanks to Elissa Weaver
nology as well as the customs in these cases and for steering me, all
as here: Francesca
references,
along, toward significant bibliographical
in Donna disciplina
Bianchini,
"Regola del vivere, regola del convivere,"
creanza cristiana dal XV al XVII sec?lo, ed. Gabriella
Zarri (Rome: Edi
zioni di Storia e Letteratura,
1996), 189-204.
The Golden Legend, trans, and ed. Granger Ryan
71. Jacobus de Vor?gine,
and Helmut
(New York: Arno Press, 1969), 452. I first articu
Ripperger
in one of three public lectures as Ruth and
lated these observations
at Smith College
in spring 1995.
Clarence Kennedy Visiting Professor
Birgitte Monstadt, Judas beim Abendmahl, 178, also importantly notes
John's
dolph
AT S. APOLLONIA
placement
of Saxony
AND
CASTAGNO'S
LAST SUPPER
the meditational
here, emphasizing
writings
in connection
with John's state of virginity.
265
of Lu
72. An
73. Not
treated these
only paintings but also the Sacre Rappresentazioni
see Nerida Newbigin,
"Cene and Cenacoli in the As
themes, for which,
cension and Pentecost
of Fifteenth-Century
in
Florence,"
Companies
(Kalamazoo, Mich.: Me
Crossing the Boundaries, ed. Konrad Eisenbichler
dieval Institute Publications,
such as Jean
1991), 90-107.
Theologians,
Gerson,
apparently
grappled with the thought of Mary's participation
in the Last Supper
itself. See Margaret R. Miles,
"The Virgin's One
Bare Breast," in The Expanding Discourse, ed. Norma Broude and Mary
D. Garrard
(New York: Harper Collins,
1992), 26-37; and Hilda Graef,
Mary: A History ofDoctrine and Devotion, vol. 1 (London: Christian Clas
Dan
and Sheed and Ward,
sics, Westminster
1963), 313ff. Whether
Brown's positing of an actual female figure
identified as
(although
for the John the Evangelist of Leonardo's
Last Supper
The Da Vinci Code is done with any awareness of the
associative
tradition of John the Evangelist with virgin
long-standing
of this
youth and Mary is an open question. The author's presentation
as a heretical
feature,
long suppressed by the official church, suggests
an answer in the negative.
Mary Magdalene)
in the bestseller
Annunciation
74. For Garofalo's
Parma, inv. no.
(Pinacoteca Nazionale,
372), see Anna Maria Fioravanti Baraldi, 77 Garofalo (Rimini: Luise Edi
tore, 1993), 224, fig. 154. The intarsia Annunciation was kindly brought
see P. Venturino
to my attention by Claire Renkin,
for which,
Alee, II
cow intarsiato di San Domenico in Bologna (Bologna: PDUL Edizioni
Stu
dio Domenicano,
relief by Agostino
2002), 121, pi. 40. A small marble
di Duccio, Metropolitan
Museum
of Art, New York, also shows a sphinx
at the side of the seat of a clerically garbed female figure, formerly
thought to represent Mary. This appears most recently in Keith Chris
tiansen, ed., From Filippo Lippi toPiero della Francesca: Fra Carnevale and
theMaking
Press,
(New Haven: Yale University
of a Renaissance Master
2005), 238, no. 39. The female figure joins right hands with a youthful
Christ who holds up a scroll with his left hand. James Draper's
catalog
of this subject as Saint
entry informs us of the newer identification
the rules of the order, but adds, "The
Bridget of Sweden receiving
feet endows her low throne with the authority of
sphinx at Bridget's
the Virgin Mary's Sedes Sapientiae." For general discussion
of the motif
of the sphinx, see Andr? Chastel,
"Note sur le sphinx ? la Renais
also on the so-called Ma
sance," Archivio di Filosofa 5 (1958): 179-83;
see John Shearman, Andrea del Sarto, vol. 1 (Ox
donna of theHarpies,
ford: Clarendon
Press, 1965), 48ff.; and Heinz Demisch, Die Sphinx:
Geschichte ihrerDarstellung von den Anf?ngen bis zur Gegenwart (Stuttgart:
Urachhaus,
1977).
trans.
and Figuration,
1995), esp. 28-34.
This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Fri, 11 Dec 2015 20:40:47 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
266
ART BULLETIN
influential Mineralia
teenth century.
JUNE
2006 VOLUME
was written
shortly after
LXXXVIII
the middle
NUMBER
of the thir
trans. Guy
81. Ruy Gonz?lez
de Clavijo, Embassy to Tamerlane, 1403-1406,
Le Strange
and Sons, 1928), 75. I am
(London: George Routledge
at Fordham,
to acknowledge
for
Kimberly Bowes, my colleague
pleased
me with this text by Clavijo, for generously
bib
acquainting
providing
to other such ekphrases, especially from the Byz
references
liographical
re
antine context, and for the stimulation
of our ongoing
discussions
lating to this rich subject.
litt?raires et
82. Pierre Ab?lard, Pierre le Venerable: Les courants philosophiques,
artistiques en Occident au milieu du Xlle si?cle; Actes et memoirs du colloque
international (Paris: ?ditions
du Centre National
de la Recherche
Scien
tifique, 1975), 23-27, for this letter in Latin; 29-37 for an early transla
tion into French. For this metaphoric
enclo
parallel between monastic
see also Hartt, Italian Renaissance Art (4th ed.,
sure and entombment,
Carthusian monk
1994), 270, who brings up the fourteenth-century
of Saxony in this connection.
Ludolph
83.
84. Two ground plans of the convent dating to 1824 (Museo di Firenze
Com'era, ASCF, Reali Fabbriche,
2097, inserto 10; see also n. 3 above)
on the Last Supper wall of the refectory
that do show a pair of windows
were drawn up on the occasion
of the reinstallation
of Benedictine
nuns at S. Apollonia
after the convent's
suppression
by the French gov
ernment
in 1808, when
the need arose to segregate a small place for
a confraternity
been meet
the Buca di S. Antonio,
that had meanwhile
the plans dating to 1741 (see n. 35
however,
ing there. Significantly,
above and Fig. 14) do not indicate any windows on that wall of the re
at this west/northwest-oriented
of exposure
fectory. The desirability
inhabitants or for
wall, either in terms of the comfort of the convent's
is at the very least open to question,
the visibility of the frescoes,
and,
one notices
on the Via S. Reparata,
from outside
the building,
that
n.
were
at
some
two
these
windows
36 above).
point walled up (see also
The fact that their place in the original program has gone mainly un
stems from their apparent function
in separating
doubted
three dis
85. Winkelmes,
This content downloaded from 83.137.211.198 on Fri, 11 Dec 2015 20:40:47 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions