Madonna Del Bordone and The Meaning of The BareLegged Christ

Coppo di Marcovaldo's Madonna del bordone and the Meaning of the Bare-Legged Christ
Child in Siena and the East

Author(s): Rebecca W. Corrie
Source: Gesta, Vol. 35, No. 1 (1996), pp. 43-65
Published by: The University of Chicago Press on behalf of the International Center of
Medieval Art
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/767226
Accessed: 11-07-2017 08:50 UTC
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Coppo di Marcovaldo's Madonna del bordone
and the Meaning of the Bare-Legged Christ Child
in Siena and the East
REBECCA W. CORRIE
Bates College
Abstract
ages produced in Italy to others produced in the orbit of the
Coppo di Marcovaldo's Madonna del bordone was Byzantine empire. It will also attempt to explain the phenome-
probably the first in the series of similar, large images non by outlining other aspects of the art of the maniera greca,
of the Virgin and Child produced in Siena in the de- such as the relationship between Byzantinizing Italian images
cades following the city's victory at Montaperti in 1260. and local social structures, in particular the ways in which the
These images are united by a number of elements,
Sienese used images to articulate their physical and psycho-
most distinctly the bare-legged child on a cloth. Analy-
sis of the meaning and use of the motif of the bare- logical worlds.4
legged child in the Byzantine world provides a context This study concentrates on Coppo di Marcovaldo's Ma-
for understanding Coppo's use of the same motif as donna del bordone, signed and dated 1261 and painted in
well as an understanding of the use of Byzantine ele-Siena (Fig. 1). It continues work I began with an earlier article
ments by Italian painters. The meaning of Coppo di Mar-
on the panel's political content.5 Well-documented, with works
covaldo's bare-legged child who sits on a large, striped
cloth, has eluded scholars, but considered in the con- in several media assigned to him, Coppo offers an excellent
text of images made in the Byzantine world, the icon-opportunity to investigate the Byzantine aspects of thirteenth-
ography of this motif is clear. The bare-legged child, century Italian art.6 His Siena Madonna is particularly useful.
associated in the East and the West with the Presen-
Although the hands and faces of the image were repainted in
tation in the Temple, stresses the identification of the
child with the crucified Christ and the host of the eucha-
the fourteenth century, x-rays taken during its restoration a
few decades ago revealed the original faces still visible be-
rist. This interpretation identifies the cloth in Coppo's
painting as the shroud of Christ, a motif suited to theneath the repainting. The face of the Virgin, its features and
particular needs of the Servite order. The significance
highlighting, show remarkable resemblance to images in Byz-
of Coppo's image, of the bare-legged child in Siena, and
antine art, and even more to Byzantinizing art from centers
of the use of Byzantine imagery in Siena emerges in
such as thirteenth-century Cyprus.7 The use of chrysography
a subsequent discussion of the manner in which the
group of images with this child participated in the artic- on the drapery also appears to come from Byzantine art, and
ulation of the religious and political identities of Siena Paul Hills has suggested that Coppo introduced this technique
and its citizens. to Tuscan panel painting.8 Finally, as I have pointed out else-
where, the details of the lyre-backed throne find their closest
For six centuries historians and art historians have writ- comparison in an early thirteenth-century fresco on Patmos.9
ten about the connections between thirteenth-century Italian Coppo, in fact, appears to have been a conduit for informa-
art and the art of the Byzantine world.' For most of that time tion on Byzantine art to his clients. But with the exception of
we have characterized the manuscripts, panels, and wall paint- Anne Derbes, scholars have not looked closely enough at his
ings of Tuscany, Umbria, and other regions of Italy as prod- use of Byzantine art to understand what he was copying, how
ucts of a maniera greca.2 In recent decades as scholars have accurately he was copying, or why he was copying aspects of
focused attention on the Byzantinizing art produced in Medi- Byzantine images.'0
terranean centers in the age of the Crusades, including the The focus of this article is the specific cluster of motifs
Crusader states, Armenian Cilicia, Greece, the Balkans, and making up the image of the Christ Child. My intention here
Cyprus, as well as Central Europe, the complexity of the com-
is to explain where the motifs came from and why they were
parison inherent in the term maniera greca has become evi-copied and perpetuated, and-by understanding their sources,
dent.3 And the fact that the best parallels remain not in
meaning, and even their function in the city of Siena-to
Constantinopolitan art, but in Byzantinizing works such as suggest some reasons why Italian artists and patrons of the
Armenian manuscripts, has made the process of understand- thirteenth-century used Byzantine imagery. Analyzed in de-
ing how and why Italian artists produced their Byzantinizing tail, the imagery of Coppo's panel typifies the intersecting
images more difficult still. The following discussion attemptsreligious and civic aspects of Sienese life. Decisions regard-
to improve our comprehension of the maniera greca by eval- ing imagery were not only made by artists, but also by in-
uating the closeness in meaning and appearance of some im-dividuals who participated in the network of formal and
GESTA XXXV/1 @ The International Center of Medieval Art 1996 43
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FIGURE 1. Coppo di Marcovaldo, Madonna del bordone, S. Maria dei Servi, Siena, 1261 (photo: Istituto
Centrale del Restaure, Rome).
44
- -
informal institutions that structured Sienese life: individual

members of the clergy, lay patrons, and even members of the
city council, who bore multiple allegiances to city, family,
church, and even religious order.11 Part of the explanation for
the imagery of Coppo's panel lies in the history of the order
for which it was made. The Madonna del bordone, now on
the right-hand wall of S. Maria dei Servi in Siena, was appar-
ently always intended for the Servi di Maria, an order founded
in the first half of the thirteenth century.12 In addition, at 225 -'i"~iiiii ~:il-i:ii-:-
x 125 cm it was probably the largest panel in Tuscany when

`ii.
it was executed, and may have been the first of the immense .-i x:
'? ~C1Q~F~s~l i:Q1

images of the enthroned Virgin and Child painted following -r
"~ ` i i--' -.:--: i_ :11_ J~ 'LI

the Sienese victory over the Florentines at Montaperti in 1260,
a-1
which the Sienese attributed to the intervention of their pa- a, _
a:_
tron, the Virgin.13 In my earlier iconographic study of this

88_
r::::
panel I argued that elements such as the throne and the eagles : ?: ?
imprinted on the Virgin's headscarf carried political messages r,

:- ::::
and that the image belonged to the city as much as it did

6: :
:::!j
to the Servite order.14 I argued that while the details of the :::-: -
---:-::::::: : ::- ?:-:::-
:. ::...
throne indicate that Coppo knew Byzantine versions of the

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enthroned Virgin, the lyre-backed form of the throne has par-

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allels in monumental church decoration in Italy, particularly ::: B :- --:I
:-:
in Rome, and like the eagle cloth provided a European reso- - P r::
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nance. The eagle, a Hohenstaufen motif, as well as the date ?:?:-::-:::
of the image in the year after Sienese victory of 1260 at Mon- : i.
.:,.i ii _i.:_ii:
taperti, argue that the image was a declaration of Sienese :

,i i-i
power and the support provided to the city by the Virgin.

The motifs that determine the configuration of the Christ
:-: i:
Child merit separate attention in part because they are proba-

FIGURE 2. The Painter Makarios, Virgin and Child of Pelagonia, 1421-
bly derived from sources different from those used for the 1422. Gallery ofArt, Skopje (photo: after Weitzmann et al. Treasury of Icons).
throne and headscarf. Here the references seem to be to half-
length icons of the Virgin and Child from the Eastern Medi-
terranean. Yet ultimately these motifs, too, may have beencenturies to Russia, the Balkans, Cyprus, Italy, and Bohemia.17
as bound up in the definition of a Sienese political and reli- These images show an active child often in the short, strapped
gious identity as they were in the needs of the Servite order.tunic, embracing his mother and, at times, twisting or turning
Coppo apparently devised this panel by drawing disparate, to press his cheek against hers. Some examples found in
compelling motifs together from different sources into a Greece and the Balkans bear inscriptions identifying them
single, powerful image that served many purposes, resonating as the Kykkotissa, the Pelagonitissa, and the Glykophilousa,
simultaneously in a variety of ways.15 although the last title may be post-Byzantine (Figs. 2, 3). Al-
though the Kykkotissa is usually associated with a frontally-
The Bare-Legged Child in Eastern Art held, kicking child and the Pelagonitissa with the twisting
child, it is unlikely that such names were intended to distin-
The child in Coppo's painting is distinctive. It differs from guish iconographically separate image types.18 Instead, these
the imperial child in robe and himation found in most Italian two titles derive from the locations of important or famous
and Byzantine images of the Virgin and Child enthroned, forexamples. Given the expressive, emotional gesture of the em-
he wears a short tunic that leaves his legs bare, and he is brace it seems likely that as a group they are extensions of
banded by what appear to be straps over his shoulders andthe type often called the Eleousa, which usually depicts a qui-
around his chest (Fig. 1). He also wears a cloak and sits on aeter child embraced by his mother, and-as we shall see-
large, yellow, striped cloth.16 share aspects of its meaning.19
The child in Coppo's painting repeats a type that appears Undoubtedly the Pelagonitissa, with its bare legs, belt
in several related images found in the Byzantine world. Alland straps, and cloth beneath the child, shares the largest
the Eastern examples are variations of the Madonna and Child number of motifs with Coppo's child, and we shall look at
that Victor Lasareff grouped under the rubric of the "Virginthis type when we turn our attention to the cloth itself (Figs.
with the Playing Child," which first appeared in large numbers 1, 2). But other motifs such as the cape find parallels in images
in the twelfth century, and spread extensively during the next of the Virgin and Child usually identified as the Kykkotissa
45
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FIGURE 3. Virgin Kykkotissa with Prophets and Saints, Monastery of FIGURE 4.

Saint Catherine, Mount Sinai, detail (photo: published through the cour- akos near
tesy of the Michigan-Princeton-Alexandria Expedition to Mount Sinai). Visual Res
and in variations of that type. Moreover, the Kykkotissa pro- Rome, m

vides the most profound insight into the meaning of all of In additio
images of the bare-legged child, and thus it is with the Kyk- panel, th
kotissa that we begin our analysis. Most examples of the uted to
Kykkotissa are images from Cyprus, and the name is taken center de
from an intensely revered image of the Virgin and Child still in the sa
in the Cypriot monastery at Kykko, which according to tradi- Sinai Vir
tion was given to that monastery by the Byzantine Emperor short tun
Alexios Komnenos in the eleventh century.20 It is likely that child in
the Kykko panel, now covered with a silver revetment, resem- ning over
bles the most common versions remaining.21 Typical of the tunics w
group is the panel at Nicosia in which the struggling or leap- in Byzant
ing child is held in an embrace before the Virgin.22 Once While t
again, the child is dressed in a short tunic with a red belt at Kykkotis
the front and appears to wear a cloak. He also holds a rotulus. the stron
As in many examples, the Virgin wears an additional head- by study
scarf over her maphorion. An example from Asinou includes standing
the straps, belt, and the cloak, but the additional veil on the child in g
Virgin's head is lacking.23 of image
Although the Kykkotissa type is found most often in Cy- and Hans
prus, with examples in Southern Italy and the region around of the Vi
46
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.. .. .. .......
I-iiii iiii~i~~-~~PX~~il'I '9 a e ? - 1 esg~? lp-~as~ ll?~ji~B d~si~B~iiIx"-
FIGURE 5. Presentation in the Temple, Mon

Alexandria Expedition to Mount Sinai).
of Symeon with Images of child

the Symeon with the active
at child the
in this costume al-
Prese
From this visual connection we can move on to elucidate a
ready existed in full narrative depictions of the Presentation.
three-way association between the bare-legged, leapingOne example can be found in a twelfth-century Sinai icon
child,
the crucified Christ, and the eucharistic host that must have
(Fig. 5).29 There is also visual evidence that many thirteenth-
century Italians were familiar with this type of child and
come easily to the minds of most thirteenth-century worship-
recognized
pers when they looked at images of the Virgin and Child of the association between the bare-legged child in
this type. the Virgin's arms and the child held by Symeon at the Pre-
Compelling visual associations join the Kykkotissa to sentation, for this is the type of child held by Symeon in
images of the priest Symeon with the Christ Child. Perhaps the thirteenth-century mosaics in the Florentine Baptistery.30
the most telling image is that of Symeon with the child in a Moreover, as Anne Derbes has pointed out, a thirteenth-
fresco at Lagoudera on Cyprus dated 1192 (Fig. 4).27 Here the century Byzantine image of Symeon with a reclining, bare-
bare-legged, kicking child takes the pose found in the Sinai legged child may indicate the source of the strikingly similar
and Nicosia images. Even the motif of the child grabbing the reclining child in one of the major thirteenth-century Sienese
clothing of the person holding him is repeated. Images of images, the Palazzo Pubblico Madonna (Fig. 6).31
Symeon extracted from scenes of the Presentation in the What religious and emotional value propelled the emer-
Temple began to appear in the twelfth century not only in gence and the popularity of these interconnected images of
frescoes but also in devotional icons.28 Indeed, it is likely that the Virgin and Child and Symeon and the Child? Henry
Lagoudera's version of Symeon was devised to look as much Maguire has set the stage for our understanding of the images
like the Kykkotissa type as possible because of the already usually called the Kykkotissa and the Pelagonitissa in his
existing association between the Kykkotissa type, the bare- analysis of the Eleousa and similar images of Symeon and
legged child, and the story of the Presentation in the Temple. the child.32 He has drawn on the story of the Presentation in
47
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::
FIGURE 7. Enrico di Tedice, Lamentation from

--
?-
--
: ,:
Church of S. Martino, Pisa, detail (photo: after C
ii-i
:::::i::-:-:ir :.:- -.:.
:::: .P~-~-rP~s~Ha~p~ S1~4b~J~E~WII llS - 81 ll~irl iii
drawn together: Symeon with the child, t

and the Virgin with the dead Christ, f
Lamentation images the Virgin embraces
she does the child of the Eleousa and sim
^"
is not only the gesture that connects thes

costume. In all three we find the short skirt and the revealed
::
and vulnerable legs of Christ.

FIGURE 6. Guido da Siena, Palazzo Pubblico Madonna (photo: Alinari).
Maguire provides us with two texts associating the child
with the dead Christ that are particularly relevant to our in-
quiry. The first is a lament of the Virgin which says: "I will
the Temple where Symeon first tells the Virgin of the coming
wind you in a winding sheet my son, instead of swaddling
sacrifice, the Crucifixion. It has long been a commonplace
clothes."36 Maguire also recounts a tenth-century Byzantine
that the sad face of the Virgin reflects her foreknowledge of
lament of the Virgin:
the sacrifice. This emotional message is reinforced by further
motifs that broaden the tragic reference. I raised you in a mother's arms, but leaping and jumping
As Hans Belting has pointed out, the Eleousa functions as children do. Now I raise you up in the same arms, but
in prolepsis, a process in which an image calls to mind an without breath and lying as the dead.37
impending event.33 Maguire has demonstrated that the Ele-
ousa and the image of Symeon with the Christ Child evoke Both verses join the images of the Virgin with the infant
not only the Crucifixion, but also the scene of the Lamenta- Christ to the images of the Virgin embracing the dead Christ.
tion. This association connects the sacrifice of the Crucifixion But in particular the latter also explains the aspects of Las-
with the infancy of Christ (Figs. 7, 8).34 Indeed, becauseareff's
it Virgin with the Playing Child, including the Kykko-
tissa. To those who first saw him in Symeon's arms, the lively
was Symeon who first warned the Virgin of her coming trials,
three events and three images are mentally and emotionallychild had seemed to be alarmed or frightened and reaching
48
cloths we should return to the images and the texts discuss
above. Maguire's first text makes an association betwe
cloths wrapped about the child's body and the shroud us
for the adult Christ. This textual association is supported b
the visual analogy between the large cloth found benea
the Christ child in the Pelagonitissa and the shroud beneath
the dead Christ in parallel depictions of the Lamentatio
Indeed, like the other versions of the affectionate or playi
-..A -
child analyzed by Maguire, the Pelagonitissa finds striki
parallels in Byzantine and Byzantizing images of the Lamen
tation. For example in a Lamentation panel from Ped th
Virgin reaches over and presses her cheek to that of Christ
with the same arching pose seen in the icons of the Virg
and Child (Figs. 2, 8).41 Here great prominence is given to th
shroud beneath Christ, which parallels the cloth beneath th
infant.
Coppo's panel, in turn, makes the equation between the
shroud of Christ and cloths beneath the bare-legged Christ
Child
FIGURE 8. Lamentation. Double-faced Icon. 17th Century. Treasury of quite literally. The great yellow, striped cloth beneat
the Patriarchate, Pec' (photo: After Weitzmann et al., Treasury of Coppo's
lcons). child resembles nothing so much as the shroud
see in the Ped panel (Figs. 1, 8). Similar striped cloths can b
found in Italian paintings of the Lamentation, including one
for his mother. Hans Belting, on the other hand, seeingPisa dated around 1260 (Fig. 7). Even more telling is another
that
in the Lamentation found on the historiated Crucifix in the
the lively child occurred first in Mary's arms, has suggested
that the kicking motion shows the child's eagerness in cathedral
"his at Pistoia usually dated around 1275 and attributed
preparation for the Passion, which he accepts as his destiny."38 and his son Salerno.42 Anne Derbes recently argued
to Coppo
It would seem, then, that the struggling or leaping pose that of
the Pistoia shroud was devised by Coppo in response to
the Kykkotissa child that shaped the specific pose of thethe miracle at Bolsena, which had only recently taken place,
and in which the eucharistic host was seen to bleed.43 I would
Lagoudera Symeon was originally devised in response to the
Metaphrastes text. At the very least the images and thestress
text that this is another example of the extreme sensitivity
would have recalled each other in an additional layer both
of of the artist and the general population to shroud imagery
meaning and emotional response. during this period.
The texts chosen by Maguire reveal even more about the That the cloth beneath Coppo's child would have been
emotional and religious resonance of other versions of the recognized as a shroud is evident not only from paintings of
the Lamentation,
playing child. The so-called Pelagonitissa virtually illustrates but from what we know of medieval burials.
A drawing
Maguire's second text (Fig. 2).39 Here again is the leaping or made at the opening of his tomb at the end of the
eighteenth
playing child dressed in a short tunic with bands or straps century depicts the corpse of Louis VIII of France
across the shoulders and chest. These images have two who died in 1226.44 He was wrapped in a shroud made from
a striped
distinctive aspects. First, the child reaches back across his cloth of gold. This was by no means unique. English
kings
shoulder to press his cheek against the cheek of his mother. were also buried in cloth of gold.45 Drawing on contem-
He virtually turns away from her and then turns back.poraryShe burial practice, Coppo's image appears to have made
literal and visible the identification of the cloth often found
holds his leg. A second motif appears in all versions of these
beneath the child with his shroud.
images. A large cloth usually yellow, gold, or orange lies
below the child, a cloth that resembles the cloth beneath theSuch striking visual evidence argues that Coppo's cloth
seated figure of Christ in Coppo's Siena panel. If we turn the bare-legged child was intended to call to mind the
beneath
shroud of the adult and equate this child with the crucified
now to analyze that cloth we will understand not only Coppo's
image but the intense meaning of these related Byzantineadult, and that Coppo and his patrons knew that this meaning
images, as well. was also carried by Byzantine images of the bare-legged child
who appears with Symeon. This is important because Coppo's
The Swaddling, the Shroud, and the Altarcloth child does not take the pose typical of the child in types
usually identified as the Kykkotissa and the Pelagonitissa. In-
Coppo's image and most Pelagonitissa images depict stead,
the he sits in the more formal pose usually associated with
bare-legged child with a large, yellow cloth beneath him, thejust
Hodegetria. Coppo surely knew the active, bare-legged
child from examples of the lively, Mediterranean image types.
as images with Symeon usually include a large cloth beneath
The
the child (Figs. 1, 2, 5).40 To clarify the meaning of these Kykkotissa was known in the area around Rome and had
large
49
U
41..MA
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.... ...
.......
PIN
KI.
. .... .. .... p
F-M
op
;A:' 0:
k 13.
zift &
Ak' 31
a SM
. . ... .....
mx?, ~ i
N
kol
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MW
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FIG
FI
Rom
At
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enm
50
Athens but attributed to Cyprus by Doula Mouriki, we even tification between the child and the host lies behind Belting's
find the Virgin holding the foot of the child, a motif found recent comparison between Coppo's cloth in the Madonna
in Coppo's painting that appears in Byzantine works begin- del bordone and eucharistic cloths.56 Furthermore, the identi-
ning in the twelfth century (Figs. 1, 10).50 The comparison fication between the child and the host is underlined by the
between Coppo's image and the Cypriot Hodegetria icons is cloth held beneath the child by Symeon in many of the im-
so compelling that there can be little doubt that he had an ages of the Presentation in the Temple and of Symeon with
image of this type before him or at least had one in mind. the child (Fig. 5).57 Like cloths held in images of the Virgin
The presence of the shroud or cloth in Coppo's painting ar- and Child, it provides a visual analogy to the shroud, as well
gues that he and his clients found the bare-legged child of as to eucharistic veils. Indeed, Symeon's cloth, as a cloth
the Hodegetria icons, the images of Symeon, the Kykko- held by a priest, is by definition a eucharistic veil. In the
tissa, and the Pelagonitissa interchangeable and carrying a East the relationship between the shroud and eucharistic
shared meaning.51 In that sense Coppo's addition to the veils is very clear.58 As early as the fifth century, Isidore of
child found in the Cypriot icons of the cloth found in the Peleusion compared the priest preparing the host with Jo-
so-called Pelagonitissa images as well as those with Sym- seph of Arimathea wrapping the body of Christ in his
eon was consistent with the Eastern understanding of the shroud.59 And from an early date, some altar veils were
images as well as his own. Only the startling literalness of called katasarkion or shroud.60 By the twelfth century, the
depicting the shroud itself seems more consistent with an amnos and melismos motifs had appeared in apse decoration
Italian aesthetic than an Eastern one. in the East.61 In these images the body of the crucified Christ
The degree to which the bare-legged costume could andbethe infant Christ appeared on the altar of the mass in
moved from image to image and the fact that this costume place of the host. Like the laments of the Virgin these
is capable of transmitting the message of the Presentation practices and images reinforced the three-way association of
in the Temple in the East as well as the West can be seen inchild on his cloth, the host on the eucharistic veils, and
the
the type known as the Virgin of the Passion in its earliest the crucified Christ on his shroud.
example found in a fresco at Lagoudera on Cyprus. Here,In the West the same associations were widespread.62
the child lies back in a reclining position Hans Belting Thehas
child as host and sacrifice must have been palpably
associated with the placement of the host in the eucharistic real to worshippers of the twelfth and thirteenth centuries,
spoon; angels float above, bearing the instruments of the they were theologians or ordinary worshippers. It
whether
Passion.52 The image stands opposite the Symeon with was an age characterized by miracles in which the host was
which we had begun (Fig. 4), and there is every reason to
transformed literally into the body of Christ. In 1238 and
think that they have a reciprocal message. Not only do both again in 1254 infants appeared in the place of the host in
incorporate an emotional pre-envisioning the Passion, but churches.63 Only two years after Coppo signed his
French
the child wears the short, banded tunic of the Presentation painting in Siena, the host was seen to bleed in the mass at
scene in both. He must have a similar meaning in each. Bolsena and Anne Derbes has argued that it was to com-
Belting's observation about the eucharistic spoon intro- memorate that miracle that Coppo martialed his knowledge
duces an important aspect of the bare-legged child, for of even
shroud imagery in the Lamentation of the Pistoia Crucifix
more than other types this child must have carried the weight in 1275, visually connecting the dead Christ with the host
of eucharistic symbolism in both the East and the West. and the shroud with liturgical veils by adding the large,
Such an identification between the child and the eucharistic striped shroud to the scene.64 The same images engaged the
host was part of Byzantine doctrine and was clearly articu- minds of theologians, as twelfth-century discussion paral-
lated in the writings of Nicholas Cabasilas in the fourteenth leled painting in its insistence that the whole Christ was
century: "It (the host) typifies the Lord's body in his early present in the eucharist, not just his body and blood.65
years, for he himself was an offering from his birth on- Just as religious events from their own times reinforced
wards."53 But when the icons depicting Symeon and thethe association between the child, the crucified Christ, and
Child are brought into the equation again, the full weight ofthe eucharistic host, so did worshippers' recognition of details
images with the bare-legged child becomes clear. Studies of from their own lives in paintings such as Coppo's. Our discus-
the Presentation in the Temple have discussed its references sion of the shroud of Louis VIII introduced this approach,
to both the eucharist and the Passion.54 As the prototypical and we can extend it, for the associative power of the cloths
priest Symeon emphasizes the association between the child and clothes depicted in these images is emphasized when
and the host. This association is present in the mass itself, we consider the little we know about medieval clothing. Al-
which every priest closes with the words of Symeon, "Lord, though the evidence is meager, scholars of the history of
now let thy servant depart in peace," and is crystallized in thechildhood have made useful observations. For example, the
late and post-Byzantine practice of decorating the protheses visual comparison between the cloths associated with the
of churches, the rooms in which the host was prepared for child and the shroud of Christ was reinforced by the practice
the mass, with images of Symeon with the child.55 This iden-of using a new-born child's swaddling as a shroud if the
51
child died in the first month of life.66 In addition, the chrissom incorporate the large cloth, as well? Was it simply for em-
cloth, used to wipe anointing oil at baptism, was wrapped phasis? In part, Coppo may have used the Pelagonitissa's
about the child and buried with him if he died still swad- cloth as a result of his familiarity with a much smaller cloth
dled.67 Of course, it is not clear whether the cloth beneath the or mappa held by the Virgin against the child in many images
child in images such as the Pelagonitissa is intended to beof the more formal Hodegetria type.74 This cloth also appears
swaddling or an unwrapped himation. Depictions of swad- to have had liturgical and eucharistic significance, since it
dling in the Middle Ages can vary from what appear to beparallels a cloth, the maniple, held by priests in the Middle
mummy-like strips to single, blanket-like cloths. In fact, the Ages. As Hans Belting has pointed out, the maniple resembles
himation of the more imperial appearing Christ Child seems the cloth held by the Virgin at the Crucifixion.75 The ubiquity
to be interchangeable with swaddling here (Figs, 2, 9).68of this small cloth enhanced the appropriateness of including
Without doubt we are being shown a child in an infant's the meaning-laden cloth of the Pelagonitissa with the more
shirt or tunic with his wrapping or swaddling down. formal pose of the Hodegetria.
Indeed, it is possible that some costumes used for the Perhaps nothing illustrates the connection between
child in these paintings reflect actual children's clothing from Coppo's shroud and the mappa often found in the Hodegetria
the Middle Ages, just as Coppo's shroud matches actual royal so well as the image of the Madonna and Child at Pomarance
shrouds, and brocades in thirteenth and fourteenth-century near Volterra, for its center is a virtual copy of Coppo's Siena
paintings match textile fragments that remain today.69 The panel with one exception.76 In the Pomarance panel the large
issue of children's clothing must be approached with care:yellow cloth is gone. Instead, the bare-legged child sits on the
discussions of costume are often circular, for scholars who
Virgin's lap and against him she holds a version of the
study the history of childhood often rely on paintings for their mappa. The change is all the more striking because the throne
information. Still, there is reason to think that while our motifbehind the Virgin and the poses and costumes of the Virgin
of the straps and belt began as an imitation of the ancientand the Child repeat what we see in Coppo's Siena image.
clavi, it was eventually transformed to reflect actual clothing. Whether this painter or his clients were confused by Coppo's
In many of our Italian and Serbian images, the belt in par- large yellow cloth or understood its use and felt it was not
ticular is distinguished as a separate piece of clothing (Figs. appropriate for this project, the smaller mappa was consid-
1, 2, 6, 11). Moreover, the child appears frequently in Byz- ered an appropriate exchange for the large cloth in Coppo's
antine art wearing a similar belt and straps combination overpainting.
a full-length tunic.70 But Coppo's large, shroud-like reworking of the Pelag-
In any case, in both Eastern and Western images the belt onitissa's cloth has an additional explanation, one that lies
is distinct and visible because the himation or swaddling isin the history of the Servite order for which the motif was
absent or down. Such informal dress corresponds to some devised. The large, striped shroud that Coppo has depicted
descriptions of infant clothing in the Middle Ages and the under the child in the Siena Madonna does not occur in other
Renaissance which report belts tied over swaddling and for paintings in Siena. Images such as the Palazzo Pubblico Ma-
older infants over short tunics for restraint and for teaching donna of Guido da Siena depict smaller, white cloths with
children to walk.71 Because of such correspondences, a bare- striped borders (Figs. 6, 11).77 Coppo's great, striped cloth ap-
legged child in paintings could be recognized easily as out of pears in only one other painting, the Madonna and Child
his swaddling, especially if he sat on a cloth which could be painted for the Servite church in Orvieto, usually attributed
identified with swaddling or a robe. In this regard one ancient to Coppo or his son and given a date around 1265 (Fig. 12).78
source is particularly intriguing, for it records that Romans At Orvieto the Virgin wears the same costume and sits on
unswaddled children between the fortieth and sixtieth days another version of the lyre-backed throne found in Siena. But
of life, a duration for swaddling that persisted into the seven- the child is reversed to the left and wears an ankle-length cos-
teenth century in some parts of Europe.72 This coincides with tume. At Orvieto the cloth appears to be the crucial element.
the identification of the event of the Presentation in the The bare-legged child has been left behind in Siena.
Temple with the Purification of the Virgin on the fortieth day Thus, the motif of the striped shroud under the child ap-
after the birth of Christ.73 Thus, we can formulate a scenario
pears to be Coppo's invention, developed from shroud ima-
of the increasing prevalence of images with the Christ Child
gery and the cloth of the Pelagonitissa. It probably belongs to
in this short costume, based on the costume's derivation from
the Servite order, whose needs it suits particularly well. From
and evocation of scenes such as the Presentation in the their official institution in 1250, the Servi di Maria, whose
Temple. name means slaves or servants of the Virgin, had kept a
Coppo, then, seems to have appropriated the bare-legged special devotion to her as Queen of Heaven and in her suf-
child as well as the large, gold cloth found in the images usu- fering at the foot of the cross. Scholars have argued that the
ally called the Pelagonitissa. But if the bare-legged child early character of the order was shaped by the mid-thirteenth-
alone could convey the message of Symeon's child, as the century archbishop of Florence, Ardigno, who supported and
Kykkotissa or the Cypriot Hodegetria imply, why did Coppo officially recognized the new order. His sermons contained
52
entire focus was on her. Moreover, the motif of the shroud
directed attention to Symeon's prophecy of the Crucifixion
and this seems to be particularly appropriate for the Servites
who eventually acquired a special responsibility for the d
votion to the sorrows of the Virgin.85 They promulgated th
image of the Virgin with her heart pierced by seven sword
47: :::
a motif known as the Addolorata, a formula based on the

words of Symeon at the Presentation in the Temple: "Yea a
Ilk:
sword shall pierce through thy own soul also."86 Most Ser-
vite images using the sword motif belong to the period
after 1600, and permission for the Servites to spread what is
known in English as the cult of the Seven Sorrows of the
Virgin was given by Pope Paul V, whose papacy dates from
1605 to 1621. But their devotion is older. According to Ser-
vite tradition this embodiment of the sorrows of the Virgin
was based on a thirteenth-century revelation to the founders
of the order.87 In a sense, then, Coppo's motif of the shroud
with Symeon's child on it is a response to the same Servite
... . ... . .. .. devotion to the sorrowful Virgin that we see in the later
Addolorata.
By placing the bare-legged child associated with Sy

eon's prophecy upon the shroud of Christ, Coppo formula
a motif particularly suited to Servite devotion. That t
shroud appears only in Siena and Orvieto and nowhere
in Servite images of the Madonna and Child argues that th
motif was created for the Sienese Servites and did not re-
flect a prototype made earlier, for example in Florence (Fi
1, 12). Of course, the order was founded in Florence, wher
SS. Annunziata remains its head church, and some scholars
have suggested that the Siena panel is a reflection of a now
lost Florentine image.88 But the history of the order argues
FIGURE 11. San Bernardino Master, Madonna and Child, Siena Pina-
that the Siena panel was the first, for at the time of its exe-
coteca (photo: after Stubblebine, Guido da Siena).
cution, 1261, the prior of the order was Sienese, the only time
in the history of the Servites that control had passed out of
many themes central to Servite devotion, including theirthe fo-hands of the Florentines.89 And as we noted above, the
cus on the sorrows of the Virgin.79 political history of the city, and the use of the eagle medal-
Of course the Servites shared these themes with other lions on the Virgin's head-scarf which provide political sym-
thirteenth-century religious groups. This is revealed in bolism the for the imperial allegiance of the city, argue that the
early Servite liturgy, which can be found in manuscripts panel made as a whole was devised for Siena.90 Above all, the
for the order in Siena.80 Codex E in the archives of the convent consistent repetition in Siena of the general appearance of the
of S. Clemente in Siena is dated around 1271, and it demon- image-the bare-legged child seated on a cloth, the costume
of the Virgin, and the formal position of the Virgin on a
strates that at that time the Servite order used the Salve Regina
high-backed throne-argues that the image Coppo painted
extensively in their liturgy.8' Composed before the thirteenth
was
century, this hymn was spread in the thirteenth century by theintended for Siena, and didn't repeat an earlier image
created
Franciscans.82 In his study of the Servite liturgy Crociani ar- for a church in a rival city. Indeed, as we shall see, it
gued that the Salve Regina suited the Servites because itiscon-
likely that images of the enthroned Virgin with the bare-
nected the Virgin as the mother of the Christ Child with her child came to be identified with the city of Siena itself.
legged
suffering at the Passion.83 Further evidence of this sharing is
the composition of the Stabat Mater, dated to the middle of Bare-Legged Child and the Madonnas of Siena
The
the thirteenth century and attributed to Jacopone da Todi. It
stresses the sorrow of the Virgin and refers directly to It seems clear that the bare-legged child both in the
Symeon's prophecy fulfilled in the Crucifixion.84 East and in Tuscany was identified with the child of the
The Servites' devotion to the Virgin resembles that Presentation
of in the Temple and called the Crucifixion to
mind through a visual evocation of the Lamentation. It is
other orders, but it was distinguished by the fact that their
53
Hans Belting stresses the importance of Coppo's appar-
ent introduction of the image that combines the enthroned
Virgin and Child with the half-length Hodegetria to Siena,
and if he is correct, this combining of motifs testifies to
Coppo's flexibility in handling motifs, as well as his knowl-
edge of their meaning.91 Belting may be correct that the com-
ow.: so bination had not been seen in Sienese painting before, but
?jg
...............
it is also possible that what Coppo and his Sienese clients
'It:l
had in mind as precedents were the full-length images in
the apses of Roman churches.92 Moreover, the major sig-
r_49 Kt,
nificance of the painting may not lie in the transformation
of the enthroned Virgin, but in the fact that what we see
combined with the enthroned type was a specific type of
child and that it was subsequently repeated in Siena.
Aside from the costume and pose of the Virgin, it is
the bare-legged child sitting on a cloth who unites the group
::-: WORM of images found in Siena. Indeed, while the immense, yellow,
::::: ::AMR: striped shroud can be associated exclusively with the Ser-
...........
vites, it seems more accurate to associate this child with a
...
MOM group of Sienese institutionst:-

o?$F??~~%~~~e"aPa~P rather than just the Servites,
. ....
although Coppo probably introduced the child type, associ-

ated with Symeon and the Presentation, for that single order.
The child type appears in a series of altarpieces, some with
half-length figures, but the most important depicting the en-
:: _-If
throned Virgin and Child.93 Nearly all are associated with the
...........
.......... name Guido da Siena, although in reality they were probably
painted by a number of masters working in the same style.
Three of the panels with the enthroned Virgin and Child are
over four feet by seven feet.94 Coppo's is the first. The second
is the so-called Palazzo Pubblico Madonna by Guido da
Siena, which originally stood in the Dominican church (Fig.
6). It is usually dated to the 1270s or even the 1280s, but like
Coppo's panel its hands and faces were repainted in the
fourteenth century.95 The third work is the cut-down Ma-
donna and Child attributed to the so-called San Bernardino
Master, now in the Pinacoteca Nazionale, but originally in
the Oratorio of the Compagnia di Santa Maria degli Angeli
founded by the Tertiary Franciscans, later the Oratorio of
San Bernardino, next to San Francesco (Fig. 11). It is dated
FIGUR
Maria
by tradition to 1262, the year after the completion of Coppo's
Galler
panel.96 Thus, including Coppo's panel, we can identify sim-
ilar, important images painted in the years shortly after
Montaperti for three of the four new religious orders, the
also c
Franciscans, Dominicans, and Servites (Figs. 11, 6, 1). Only
Byzan
the Augustinians appear to lack an image. But there are
for t
also four somewhat smaller images of the same type.97 One
of these may account for the absence of a panel for the
depic
mean
church of S. Agostino, for while no chronicles indicate that
the Sienese Augustinians ever had such an
the c image, it is pos-
comp
sible that they did: the panel now in the Civic Museum in
Siena
San Gimignano came from the church of S. Agostino in that
sion
town, and may be-or imitate-a panel brought there from
the
the church of S. Agostino in Siena in 1280.98 VMost likely,
in Siena. then, the four major new churches each had an image, and
54
other, smaller versions were found in the city. Belting sug- carrier from the S. Lorenzo district for the battle, we know
gests that the three major examples, the Servite, the Domin- that he was not in Siena before that time, and there is reason
ican, and the Franciscan, were the products of rivalry among to accept the tradition that he was given this job after bein
the orders.99 We shall argue that their existence was the result taken prisoner during the battle.'05 Moreover, Sienese chron
of coordination, as well. icles describing the Battle of Montaperti recount the rededi
Why do these images look so much alike and why do cation of the city to the Virgin and visions of her protectio
they share the distinctive type of child? It is certainly pos- of the city on the eve of battle. Although it is clear that th
sible, as Hans Belting has suggested, that the core Virgin and city had described itself as under her patronage earlier, it i
Child in all the images including Coppo's reflects a lost pro- from Montaperti that this special relationship is usuall
totype, possibly an Eastern icon of the Hodegetria, which dated. 06 And the Sienese saw the Servites as a focus of
was the focus of devotion in Siena.'00 And certainly Coppo's devotion to the Virgin, as Servite scholars have pointed out.
image is so close to the Cypriot Hodegetria that such an Around 1260 the city began to pressure the order to mov
icon could have been available in the city (Figs. 1, 10). from its location outside the city walls to a place just within
Nevertheless, it is unlikely that an image copied so often the walls and offered funds for a new building on the condi
and the focus of such Sienese devotion following Monta- tion that the order move.107 This argues that the image, no
perti would have been entirely forgotten. It is far more likely less than the order, was important to the city.
that one of the images remaining today was the prototype Yet however important such an image was, we shouldn't
for all the other full-length panels.'0' It is also likely that assume that each Sienese image existed in isolation. They
Coppo's panel was that first image. 02 As I have argued else- may also have functioned together to embody the political-
where, its date, the choice of a Florentine prisoner of war religious identity of the city and its population. And this may
who was also a well-known master to execute it, and the explain, in part, why are there so many panels of this genera
devotion of the Servites to the Virgin argue that this wastype. In the past scholars have organized their study of the
the first panel produced to celebrate the Virgin's support of paintings of this period by artist, grouping works stylisticall
the city in battle. Moreover, Coppo's rendition of the bare- in order to trace the development of illusionism in Sien
legged child is by far the most accurate imitation of the and Tuscany. Coppo's work has either been put at the front o
Byzantine type which all of the images appear to reflect.'03 a stylistic series or more recently been set aside as secondary,
Similarly, his throne is closer to Byzantine examples thanin a sense eliminated from the series because he is not a
those in the Guidesque paintings, which seem to be vague Sienese painter. But Henk van Os has given us a bette
approximations of Coppo's throne. Thus, it seems likely that model to work with. In his study of the paintings executed
Coppo's image was the prototype and introduced the bare-the fourteenth century for Siena cathedral, he noted that
legged child to Siena. Although the type of the child may should see Trecento works painted by different artists
have been devised to conform to Servite devotion, Coppo'san ensemble.'08 Perhaps we should look at the thirteen
panel celebrating the victory is subsequently evoked, in part, century panels executed after Montaperti in the same man
through the child type. The importance of this child to Sienaner, in this case in the context of the vision and the phys
is emphasized by the fact that it was not used in later pan- fabric of the city itself, for the very placement of the ima
els for the Servites outside Siena. We find the same shroud about the city is tied to the placement of the new religiou
and a version of the lyre-backed throne at Orvieto but orders a dif- around the city, and that placement has significan
ferent type of child (Figs. 1, 13). The same throne is found for inthe identity of the city.
the panel of around 1285 at the Servite church in Bologna.'04 To begin, the laws of Siena, especially the Statutes
Did the Sienese repeat Coppo's version of the Virgin1262, and demonstrate that the city council was sensitive to t
Child simply because of Montaperti? Of course, theyappearance may and condition of the city and to the role of buil
have been aware of the devotion to the Kykkotissa and ingsthein the glorification of the city.109 Funds were provi
Pelagonitissa in the East and the repeated power of the not ori-only for the Servites but for other religious orders to s
ginal images. But as we shall see, the answer may also port liebuilding and decorating programs. Moreover, a glanc
in the importance of the Virgin herself for the city, and thein map of Siena reveals that, in a manner remarkably lik
the manner in which the distribution of the largest paintings that at Florence, the buildings of the four leading orders in
in a ring around the city articulates the Sienese conception city, the Franciscans, Dominicans, Augustinians, and S
of the city as a leading Christian capital, a new Rome andlie at the four corners of the city, not an easy patter
vites,
a new Jerusalem. The participation of images in the impose
inex- on a city map divided into thirds by its history an
tricably integrated political and religious life of Siena is clear
topography.110
even in individual works such as Coppo's Madonna and Child. Undoubtedly a number of factors participated in the re
As we noted above, Coppo's panel was commissioned im-
ularized separation of these four religious orders. New bui
mediately following the Battle of Montaperti. Since theings Flo- were more easily placed at the edges of the cities wh
rentine Book of Montaperti tells us that Coppo was a shieldthere was still open space.' One Dominican text instructs t
55
order to avoid building too close to the other mendicant or beg- As we noted above, the map of the city reveals the es-
ging orders, because dense begging populations would be a sential, three-part outline of thirteenth-century Siena.'22 The
hardship on the local populations supporting them."2 But it city has long been divided into three sections known as the
is also clear that the distribution had to do with a desire to terzi, arrayed along the roads leading in and out of town.
The oldest is the section around the cathedral known as the
spread the control and benefits of these increasingly promi-
nent institutions around the city and among the powerfulCittci, and the other two are the Camolfia and San Martino.
and rich families who often provided the land on which Clearly
they defined by the thirteenth century, these three section
were not only geographic; they were also what the twentieth
were built.113 Indeed, the highly regularized pattern suggests
that there is more than a simple need for separation century
here, calls "turf", and legends tell of unfortunate individ-
especially since the Servites of the thirteenth century num-
uals who strayed into the wrong sections of town.123 These
bered far fewer members than the other orders."14 In fact,divisions,
some which at some point became subdivided into th
chronicles suggest that the city council, which providedcontrade
sup- or neighborhoods, affected not only the appearance
port for these buildings, was also the place where decisions
of the city, but its political arrangements, so that government
were made about the location of the monasteries, and this over the years were divided into groups of nine, twenty-four
argues that there was a plan behind their location, probably and thirty-six, all divisible by three. In a sense we can argue
determined in part by the self-interest of powerful families.""5 that the great new monastic foundations of the thirteenth
In the same way we should probably avoid a model of pat- century and their paintings were also distributed around the
ronage in which single artists, patrons, or institutions are given edges of the city in a four-part distribution superimposed on
responsibility for the formulation of images. More likely, the an ancient triangular plan.
explanation lies at the intersection of competing but coordi- The comparative study of stational liturgies throughout
nated interests belonging to the religious orders, the city coun- the Mediterranean Basin provides corroboration for the idea
cil, the bishop, and the powerful and often feuding families that the physical and psychological spaces of a city could be
that provided the individuals who made up the other bodies.16 outlined by its images. In his commentary on Constantinopol-
The question of whether the arrangements of these cities itan practices John Baldovin provides striking parallels. He
were devised for symbolic reasons and reasons of meaning notes that "devotion to the Virgin Mary as the protectress of
needs to be approached with some caution; but it is important the city was intimately tied to Constantinopolitan proces-
to recall that scholars have pointed out that the Sienese en- sional practices," something we will find is similar to the
visaged their city as both a New Jerusalem and a New Rome, situation in Siena.124 But he goes on to an observation even
and that those cities were often depicted as divided into quad- more crucial for our purposes when he notes that there was
rants.'17 At the very least, placing the four churches across a group of churches which he describes as "the major shrines
the city from each other surrounded Siena with the new and that ringed the city like a charmed circle," comparable to
popular religious orders, declaring it a city and a population Rome's use of "shrines of famous martyrs for the arrange-
dedicated to the Virgin and to religion, and providing protec- ment of a charmed circle of protection for the city."'25 The
tion for the city by ringing it with religious houses and their manner in which images expressed the Virgin's defense of
images of the Virgin. Constantinople is also described in Averil Cameron's analysis
As we noted above, it has become a virtual common- of late sixth-century Byzantine practices. Of the Virgin she
place that the Sienese government saw support and control writes that "she takes possession of the city walls with her
of architecture as a means of glorifying the city and codified icon; she 'walls' the city with her power."'26
this in 1262, and recently Joanna Cannon pointed out that Whether thirteenth-century Sienese civic and religious
the city council also supported the production of images for leaders thought in terms of Byzantine references and at
these churches."8 Earlier we noted that the three largest tempted to place images around their city in imitation of cit-
paintings depicting the enthroned Virgin holding the bare- ies such as Constantinople or Rome or did it because it was a
legged Christ were intended for three of the four churches general practice is not clear. Still, as Bram Kempers recently
at the corners of the city or the oratorios that preceded or emphasized, it was the Hodegetria that protected the wall
accompanied them: S. Maria dei Servi, S. Francesco, and of Constantinople in time of war.'27 It is not a far stretch
S. Domenico."9 And we may have identified the image for of the imagination to propose that Coppo had this fact in
S. Agostino in the image currently in San Gimignano. More- mind when he combined the colossal enthroned Virgin with
over, two of these paintings may have been intended to glorify version of the Hodegetria. In the same way the name of the
the Virgin immediately following Montaperti. Coppo's Ma- Sienese city treasury, the Biccherne, may have been derived
donna is dated 1261 and the image now known as the San from the Constantinopolitan district of the Blachernai.128
Bernardino Madonna is usually dated to 1262.120 A closer There is other evidence that the Sienese used the mon-
look at the history of Siena and its use of such images dem- asteries and their images as a psychological and physical
onstrates the degree to which images participated in the ar- defense. Recently Bernadette Paton noted that when a fifteenth-
ticulation of a conception of the city and in its political life.121' century Dominican preacher compared religious orders to
56
"guards who watch for the enemy from the city wall," he was for the presence of the Virgin in the city and the dedication,
describing an actual military function of "the heavily fortified indeed the donation, of the city to her were articulated before
houses.. . situated on the city walls at strategic look-out her image in the cathedral. Secondly, chronicles tell us that
points."129 In other words, the ring of religious orders around the image was carried through the city in procession from the
the edges of the city of Siena were seen as connected to one cathedral to S. Cristoforo, also called S. Cristofano, and back
another in their protection of the city. Placing immense im- to the cathedral again. This is significant because before the
ages of the Virgin with these orders at the edges and simulta- building of the Palazzo Pubblico, S. Cristoforo served as the
neously at gates to the city acknowledged and perhaps even political center of the city.136 It was the place where the city
assured the Virgin's protection. By the close of the thirteenth government met, near the geographic center of the city where
century the religious orders and their images of the Virgin the three terzi came together. Thus the procession was a ritual
must have been major elements in Sienese inhabitants' mental uniting the civic and religious power of the city, affirming
picture and physical experience of their city. the Virgin's connection to both aspects of city life, and, like
Other instances demonstrate that the Sienese, or at least bringing the keys together, enacting the union of the city at
Sienese policy-makers, used images and their location to ar- this moment of strife as well as the Virgin's protection of
ticulate their political and religious conception of the city and the entire physical and psychological fabric of the city.
thus their civic and presumably their individual identities.130 Physically re-enacting the structure of the city through
Siena has a long history of incorporating images of the Vir- ritual did not begin with Montaperti. An Ordo officiorum
gin into the political life of the city. The most often cited written for the cathedral of Siena in 1215 describes the three
example is the fourteenth-century inscription on Simone days' processions made by the cathedral clergy at the time
Martini's Maestak in the Palazzo Pubblico, which warns that of rogation.137 On each of the three days, the clergy marched
she is watching over the city.131 A more complex alliance bein procession through one of the terzi and returned to the
tween the images in the city and its self-conception under- center of the city, ultimately uniting the city and at the same
lines a second Trecento example, the holiday and procession time acknowledging its divisions. In our reconstruction the
in June 1311 that brought Duccio's Maestha from his studio to distribution of the images of the Virgin functioned in a simi-
the Cathedral, a procession in which the populace of the city lar, subtle way for the city and the needs of the individuals
marched in rank.132 Art historians usually regard this as an who made decisions about images in the city council. For,
indication of the importance of Duccio and his panel. Only a while we can think of these paintings and the orders as
few have noted that it demonstrates the degree to which the uniting the city under the patronage of the Virgin or at least
Sienese incorporated images of the Virgin into their total promoting the illusion of unity, their distribution also recog-
self-conception, both as a city and a society.133 nizes the separation, providing an affirmation of the political
The events surrounding Montaperti also emphasize the status quo, balancing jealousies and competition, and thus ac-
way in which the Sienese images functioned to articulate the knowledging the powerful and dissonant voices in the city.138
realities and the illusions of civic and religious life. Art his- Clifford Geertz has provided an explanation for the union by
torians often recite the story of the Battle of Montaperti on means of religious images and the urban system into which
September 4, 1260, which immediately preceded the produc- they fit. He writes:
tion of our images. But while we often describe the Sienese
victory as the inspiration for the new series of paintings of ... sacred symbols function to synthesize a people's ethos
the Virgin, the full significance of the story usually escapes -the tone, character, and quality of their life, its moral
us.134 Chronicles report that a man of "high character," Bon- and aesthetic style and mood-and their world view-the
aguida Lucari, led the population of the city in bare-foot picture they have of the way things in sheer actuality are,
procession from the church of S. Cristoforo to the Duomo, their most comprehensive ideas of order.139
where all the clergy of the city had assembled, and there, be-
fore the image of the Virgin on the high altar now usually The degree to which the Sienese constructed, re-enacted,
identified as the Romanesque Madonna of the Large Eyes, and preserved their civic identity through a series of the pro-
they dedicated the city to her, presenting to her the keys of cessions and the use of religious images is even clearer when
all of the city gates.135 Following this the bishop, his clergy, we come to the events that took place as the Sienese faced
and others returned to S. Cristoforo in a procession that the Florentines in later centuries in 1483, 1526, 1550, and
now included the women of the city. The procession carried 1555.140 Once again, they re-enacted the processions that
a sculpted Crucifixion and the painted image of the Virgin. took place before Montaperti in memory of their success at
Once again they returned to the Duomo and again to S. Cris- that time, placing the keys to the city gates before the paint-
toforo, where the next morning they were met by represen- ing known as the Madonna del voto, which they believed
tatives of the terzi as they set out for battle. When historians was the image of 1260. The chronicles of 1526 and 1550
retell this story, crucial aspects are often overlooked. First, report that they did everything they could to match their
we should note that it brings out the centrality of the image, rituals to those of Montaperti. Certainly, the great victory at
57
Montaperti is one of the events out of which the Sienese con- Rona Goffen has amply demonstrated for Venice, we need t
structed their civic identity.141 In other words, Montaperti remember that much of the imagery we see in the fourteenth
and the events and images connected with it are the elements fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries is a continuation of the Byz
anthropologists identify as the crucial components in the con- antinizing formulations of the thirteenth century and not a
struction of a national or civic identity. break from them.144
In the same way we must ask about the meaning and
Conclusion significance of the Byzantinizing style, the maniera greca,
for having commented on the iconography of the image, on
It would appear that in the Madonna del bordone Coppo
might still envision an argument that any painting of the Vir
di Marcovaldo brought together a group of motifs derived
gin, in any style, might have been processed about the city
from Eastern images whose meanings and power he and his
or placed in different versions about the city. But both the
clients understood. His literalness in transforming the cloth
style of these images and their iconography were Byzantine
found under the child in images of the child with Symeon
in derivation.145 And, I would argue, that the Byzantine or
and the Virgin and Child into a shroud may seem jarring,
Greek style that belonged to the legendary city of Constanti-
but it is a demonstration of his understanding of Byzantine
nople, particularly available to Italian cities in the thirteenth
images of the bare-legged child.
century, was identified with political and financial power, and
Even more intriguing is the role of the enthroned Vir-
must have suited the symbolic needs of the rising Sienes
gin with this child in the life of Siena. For at least four de-
state. Moreover, the protective power of an image that looked
cades and probably far longer this type of enthroned Virgin
Byzantine would have been understood in an age of suc
and Child embodied the devotion of the city to the Virgin
international cultural contact. Finally, it is worth observing
and their conviction that their city as a whole was under her
that identifying the paintings of the maniera greca in Siena
special protection. The most logical scenario argues that the
as participants in forging a political identity may help us ex
image of the Queen of Heaven holding the child of the Pre-
plain another aspect of the history of Sienese painting, and
sentation in the Temple was devised for the Servites with
that is the persistence of formal elements that strike us toda
iconographic details suited to their special religious devo-
as Byzantine in origin. Historians have noticed a retrospec-
tions and more generally to the political needs of the city,
tive quality in Sienese culture and painting, the tendency of
and that this image as the first great panel after Montaperti
works of the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries, however bril
was repeated in versions modified for the use of other orders.
liant, to repeat not only the iconographic formulations of ear
In the end a series of similar images of the Virgin and Child
lier Sienese paintings, but even elements such as the shapes
ringed the city declaring and providing her protection.
and faces and treatments of eyes.146 A clear example of this
Could the bare-legged child himself have come to have
can be found in the work of Sano di Pietro, whose fifteenth-
a distinctive meaning for those living in the city? Judith Hook
century images continue the appearance of types found in Si-
and others have commented that Sienese citizens identified
mone Martini, Lippo Memmi, and even Duccio.147 What we
with the Christ Child who, like them, lived under the Virgin's
haven't asked is why Simone and or even Duccio persiste
protection and care.142 But there is another point. To us the
in Byzantinizing styles. One explanation may lie in the Sien-
child in Coppo's painting appears formal. Subsequent images
ese leaders' use of aspects of Byzantine art for the image
by artists from the Lorenzetti to Raphael have conditioned us
produced at the time of their greatest success, the era of Mon
to see his image in this manner. But in comparison to the
taperti, in other words, at a seminal moment in the develop
child in a classical himation usually held by an enthroned
ment of their civic identity.148
Virgin, this child is informal and vulnerable, and, with his
pain and tribulations spelled out quite literally, he would cer-
tainly have been a most empathetic figure. Within a half cen-
tury, the Sienese went on to produce images of the Virgin and NOTES
Child characterized by even more obvious sentiment. Mes-
merized by the sweetness of Trecento images such as those This article is the second half of a study on Coppo di Marco
of the Lorenzetti, we have often lost sight of their eucharis-See "The Political Meaning of Coppo di Marcovaldo's Madonn
Child in Siena," Gesta, XXIX (1990), 61-76. Much of it was
tic content, a content that connects them directly to the paint-
sented as "Coppo di Marcovaldo and the Meaning of the Ch
ings of the thirteenth century.143 Perhaps we should also keepthe Virgin Kykkotissa," the Joint Meeting of the XII Spring S
in mind the degree to which emotional identification with the sium of Byzantine Studies and of the Society for the Study
child and his mother was a characteristic of both the thir- Crusades and the Latin East, the University of Nottingham, M
teenth and fourteenth centuries. Indeed we can argue that the26-March 29, 1988. I first addressed the problems of Coppo di
covaldo in an M.A. thesis written at Oberlin College in 1970
pattern of Sienese Trecento painting was set in the thirteenth
the direction of John R. Spencer, "The Byzantine Sources
century, with images through which we never forget that the Paintings of Coppo di Marcovaldo." Portions of the study o
Queen of Heaven was also the mother of the lively infantSiena panel appeared in other papers: "Marian Iconography:
who was to become the mourned son of the Crucifixion. As tium and Italy in the Duecento" Cleveland, Ohio, October 1
58
1976; "The Byzantine Iconography of a Madonna by Coppo di Mar- 1400 (Oxford, 1978), 11-15, and J. H. Stubblebine, "The Develop-
covaldo," Tenth Annual Byzantine Studies Conference, Cincinnati, ment of the Throne in Dugento Tuscan Painting," Marsyas, V (1947-
Ohio, November 1-4, 1984; and "Siena and the East: The Question 49), 4-14. Recently there have been extensive discussions of the
of Motivation," Eleventh Annual Byzantine Studies Conference, To- Orvieto image, especially with regard to the repainting of the faces.
ronto, Canada, October 24-27, 1985. Portions of the material on See J. Polzer, "The Virgin and Child Enthroned from the Church of
Siena were presented as "Artistic Means to Political Ends: Explaining the Servites in Orvieto Generally Given to Coppo di Marcovaldo:
the Maniera Greca" Byzantium and the Italians, Dumbarton Oaks Recent Laboratory Evidence and a Review of Coppo's Oeuvre," Anti-
Symposium, Washington, D.C., April 29-May 2, 1993. I am grateful chitai viva, XXIII (1984), 5-18 and M. Boskovits, "Intorno a Coppo
to Bruce Cole, Thalia Gouma-Peterson, and John Spencer for their di Marcovaldo," in Scritti di storia dell'arte in onore di Ugo Pro-
advice on the earliest stages of my work. I am also indebted to Ernst cacci, 2 vols., ed. M. G. Ciardi Dupr6 dal Poggetto and P. dal
Kitzinger and Henry Maguire for suggesting new directions in my Poggetto (Milan 1977), I, 94-110. For recent discussions of Coppo
research, and in particular to Annemarie Weyl Carr for generous attributions see: L. Bellosi, "Precisazioni su Coppo di Marcovaldo,"
discussions and for sharing material on the Kykkotissa. in Tra metodo e ricerca: Contributi di storia dell'arte, Atti del Semi-
nario di Studio in ricordo de Maria Luisa Ferrari (Lecce, 22/23
2. For a survey of the attitudes and the terminology used to describe
Marzo 1988), ed. R. Poso and L. Galante (Galatina, 1991), 37-74,
the period of the maniera greca see E. Panofsky, Renaissance and
and M. Boskovits, A Critical and Historical Corpus of Florentine
Renascences in Western Art (Stockholm, 1960), especially 21-35.
Painting: The Origins of Florentine Painting 1100-1270, Section 1,
A range of recent opinions on the maniera greca is published in
Volume 1 (Florence, 1993), among other discussions: 116-30, 510-
H. Belting, ed., II medio oriente e l'occidente nell' arte del XIII sec-
23, 762-77. The best sources on the documentation remain G. Coor-
olo (Bologna, 1979). Much of the bibliography that follows below
touches on these issues.
Achenbach, "Coppo di Marcovaldo, His Art in Relation to the Art
of His time," Marsyas, V (1947-49), 4-14; and idem, "A Visual
3. For a sampling of the bibliography see: A. Derbes, "Siena and the Basis for the Documents Relating to Coppo di Marcovaldo and His
Levant in the Later Dugento," Gesta, XXVIII (1989), 190-204; H. Son C. Salerno," AB, XXVIII (1946), 233-47.
Evans, "Manuscript Illumination at the Armenian Patriarchate in
7. C. Brandi, "I1 restauro della Madonna di Coppo di Marcovaldo,"
Hromkla and the West" (Ph.D. dissertation, New York University,
Bolletino d'arte, XXV (1950), 160-70. The X-ray of Coppo's face
1989); K. Weitzmann, "Thirteenth Century Crusader Icons at Mount
reveals details of highlighting and facial features that are remarkably
Sinai," AB, XLV (1963), 179-203; idem, "Icon Painting in the
similar to Cypriot works such as the Archangel illustrated in A. Papa-
Crusader Kingdom," DOP, XX (1966), 51-83; idem, "Crusader Icons
georgiou, Icons of Cyprus (New York, 1970), 14. On the subject of
and Maniera Greca," in, Byzanz und der Westen. Studien zur Kunst
Cyprus and Italy see V. Pace, "Presenze e influenze cipriote nella
des europiiischen Mittelalters, ed. I. Hutter (Vienna, 1984), 143-70.
pittura duecentesca italiana," Corsi di cultura sull' arte ravennate e
H. Belting, "Zwischen Gotik und Byzanz: Gedanken zur Geschichte
bizantina, XXXII (1985), 259-98, especially 272-74. See also A. W.
der sichsische Buchmalerei im 13. Jahrhundert," ZfK, XLI (1978),
Carr, A Byzantine Masterpiece Recovered, the Thirteenth-Century
217-57, and Annemarie Weyl Carr, "East, West, and Icons in
Murals of Lysi, Cyprus (Austin, 1991).
Twelfth-Century Outremer," in The Meeting of Two Worlds, ed. V. P
Goss and C. V. Bornstein (Kalamazoo, 1986), 347-59. On Cyprus 8. P Hills, The Light of Early Italian Painting (New Haven, 1987), 25.
see note 7 below.
9. Corrie, "Political Meaning,"' 62, 63, 70-72, nn. 13-28.
4. Several approaches have been used to explain the connection between
10. Otto Demus in his crucial Byzantine Art and the West, 7-12, 212,
Byzantine art and Italian painting. For examples of formal approaches
239-40, indicated that in large part the attraction to Byzantine art in
see Weitzmann, "Thirteenth Century Crusader Icons;" O. Demus, Byz-Europe, particularly in Italy, was the result of Byzantine art's rela-
antine Art and the West (New York, 1970), 212-18; J. Stubblebine, tively greater illusionism and knowledge of ancient art. Hans Belting
"Byzantine Influence in Thirteenth-Century Italian Panel Painting,"
has provided one instance of what he terms a "surprising and unex-
DOP, XX (1966), 85-101. More recently scholars such as Anne pectedly exact understanding" of Byzantine Virgin imagery by a
Derbes and Hans Belting have outlined in more detail both the
North Italian artist, but Coppo's image and those associated with it
similarities and differences, pointing out that Italian artists usually
provide yet more significant examples of such understanding. See
put Byzantine images to local usage. See A. Derbes, "The PistoiaBelting, The Image and Its Public, 139.
Lamentation,"' Gesta, XXIII (1984), 131-35; idem, "Siena and the
11. For a particularly thoughtful discussion of the complexities of pa-
Levant"; and her dissertation "Byzantine Art and the Dugento: Icon-
tronage in Italy see R. Weissman, "Taking Patronage Seriously: Med-
ographic Sources of the Passion Scenes of Italian Painted Crosses"
iterranean Values and Renaissance Society," in Patronage, Art, and
(Ph.D. dissertation, University of Virginia, Charlottesville, 1980), and
Society in Renaissance Italy, ed. F W. Kent and P. Simons with J. C.
Corrie, "Political Meaning." Belting's books provide particularly use-
Eade (Canberra and Oxford, 1987), 25-45. His discussion of the
ful insights for the study of images of the Virgin: H. Belting, The
concept of amici outlines the understanding of patronage I attempted
Image and its Public in the Middle Ages: Form and Function of
to describe in Corrie, "The Political Meaning." The complexities of
Early Paintings of the Passion, trans. M. Bartusis and R. Meyer
patronage analysis are discussed further below.
(New York, 1981), and idem, Likeness and Presence: A History of
the Image before the Era of Art, trans. E. Jephcott (Chicago and 12. On Coppo and the Servites see Corrie, "Political Meaning." There
London, 1990). is reason to think that by 1261 the Servites were at their present site
just within the city walls. Founded at Pistoia and Florence in the
5. For a discussion of the bibliography on Coppo di Marcovaldo, see
1230s and 1240s, the Servites first appear in documents in Siena in
Corrie, "Political Meaning," 69 and 70, nn. 4, 6, and 7, and note 6
below.
the 1250s. In 1253 the podesta of the city suggested that the order
receive assistance in building a house and an oratorio. The commune
6. We encounter Coppo's paintings most often in surveys of Italian of Siena made a donation in 1255. In 1259 and 1260, the commune
Renaissance art, where his work serves as a late medieval contrast offered financial help on the condition that the order return within
to the more illusionistic images of the early Renaissance that follow. the city wall to the hill at S. Clemente, presumably its present lo-
See B. Cole, Giotto and Florentine Painting 1280-1375 (New York, cation. See A. dal Pino, Un gruppo evangelico del duecento (Flo-
1976), 24-30; A. Smart, The Dawn of Italian Painting, 1250- rence, 1969), 86-101; idem, "Madonna Santa Maria e l'ordine dei
59
suoi Servi nel 2. secolo di storia (1233-1317 ca.)," Studi storici dell' 18. For examples of the Pelagonitissa, which takes its name from the
ordine dei Servi di Maria, XVII (1967), 22; idem, I Frati Servi di region of Pelagonia, and the Glykophilousa, which Belting translates
S. Maria dalle origini all' approvazione (1233-ca. 1304) Vol. I as the "tenderly kissing one," see K. Weitzmann, G. Alibegasvili,
Storiografia-Fonti-Storia (Louvain, 1972), 964. A. Volskaja, M. Chatzidakis, G. Babi6, M. Alpatov, and T Voinescu,
The Icon (New York, 1982), 173, 187, 69. Belting points out the
13. The Battle of Montaperti was the stunning victory of the out-
difficulty in using titles such as the Glykophilousa, which he notes
numbered Sienese Ghibelline forces over the Florentine Guelph alli-
is "of post-Byzantine date." See Likeness and Presence, 281. See
ance on September 4, 1260. The story has been recounted in many
sources. Most writers refer to an anonymous Sienese chronicle, La also G. Babi6, "I1 modello e la replica nell'arte bizantina delle icone,"'
Arte cristiana, LXXVI/724 (1988), 61-78, for a discussion of the
sconfita di Montaperti, also called La battaglia di Montaperti, which
diffusion of these types and many examples.
exists in fifteenth-century versions, but may rely on a thirteenth-
century original. For a more extensive discussion see Corrie, "Politi-
19. Despite its relatively consistent appearance, the meaning of the title
cal Meaning," 69, n. 3. For more recent discussions, see R. March- Eleousa does not seem to be related to its pose, but to its theologi-
ioni, I Senesi a Montaperti (Siena, 1992), and B. Kempers, "Icons, cal function. See below note 32. Curiously, Belting, Likeness and
Altarpieces, and Civic Ritual in Siena Cathedral, 1100-1530," in Presence, 281-96, speaks of the Virgin of Vladimir and the Virgin of
City and Spectacle in Medieval Europe, ed. B. A. Hanawalt and K. L. Kykko as having antithetical meanings, and then goes on to describe
Reyerson (Minneapolis and London, 1994), 89-136, especially 97- their meanings in very similar terms. For example he describes the
107. Coppo's image must have been well-known to Sienese citizens, Kykkotissa as providing a "synthesis of childhood and Passion of
for according to one tradition, it takes its name from a long-standing Christ," and the Virgin of Vladimir as possessing an "allusion to the
practice in which pilgrims returning from Rome along the Via Ro- Passion." The differences he outlines, seem to lie in their specific
mana through the Porta Romana near the church of the Servi placed articulation, rather than their general significance as we shall see
their palms on the altar before it. Corrie, "Political Meaning," 69, shortly.
n. 2. The possibility that the image may have been considered a20. On the Kykkotissa see D. Mouriki, "Thirteenth-Century Icon Painting
miracle-working image has not been discussed by art historians, but
in Cyprus," The Griffon, N.S. I-II (1985-86), 9-112; idem, "A Thir-
William Heywood's reference to the image as surrounded by votive
teenth-Century Icon with a Variant on the Hodegetria in the Byz-
gifts in the late nineteenth century merits further investigation. See
antine Museum of Athens," DOP XLI (1987), 403-14; Babi6, "Il
W. Heywood, Our Lady of August and the Palio of Siena (Siena, modello"; and S. Sophocleous, "The Icon of Kykkotissa at Agios
1899), 69. It is difficult to recreate the early role of this painting in
Theodoros Tou Agrou," 'Erctr7lp(a Ktvrpov McAribv Icpd? Movig
Sienese life, for the church in which it now resides belongs for
K6rKcov, II (1993), 329-37, in Greek. Among the scholars working
the most part to subsequent centuries. See V. Lusini, La basilica di S.
most recently on the Kykkotissa is Annemarie Weyl Carr. See for
Maria dei Servi in Siena (Siena, 1908), and Z. Pepi, La basilica di example her recent, eloquent discussion of the resonance of these
S. Maria dei Servi (Siena, 1970), 11-32.
images in "The Presentation of an Icon at Mount Sinai," AcAriov
14. Corrie, "The Political Meaning." rjq XpicrriavuKicr dpxatlooyiloqi Eratpeia;, ser. IV/17 (1993-94),
239-48, and her paper, "Byzantines and Italians in Cyprus: Images
15. The complex relationship between the Virgin and the Sienese has
from Art," delivered at the Byzantine Symposium, "Byzantium and
been discussed by numerous historians. Texts identifying the Sienese
the Italians," Dumbarton Oaks, Washington, D.C., April 30-May 2,
with the Christ Child, since both were under the protection of the 1993.
Virgin, can be found in A. Dundes and A. Falassi, La Terra in Piazza
(Berkeley, 1973), especially 232-35. 21. A. and J. Stylianou, The Painted Churches of Cyprus: Treasures of
Byzantine Art (London, 1985), 41, fig. 10. Images called Kykkotissa
16. The full significance of these motifs has eluded scholars, and over
vary. In addition to the position of the child, other common ele-
the years the painting has elicited derisive comments. See for ex- ments include a cloak on the child, an extra maphorion on the Virgin,
ample J. A. Crowe and C. B. Cavalcaselle, A History of Painting in and the passing of a scroll from the Virgin to the Child. An image
Italy: Umbria Florence and Siena from the Second to the Sixteenth of the child that may be related is the anapeson. This child reclines
Century, 3 vols., ed. L. Douglas (London, 1903), I, 174: "But his on a cushion wearing a long robe with straps and is recognized as a
picture plainly shows the depression from which Florentine art had
reference to the Good Friday liturgy and the Messiah. See D. I.
not yet recovered." Recently, Leo Steinberg commented that Coppo's Pallas, Passion und Bestattung Christi in Byzanz: Der Ritus-das Bild
image "flashed" the legs of the child. Even greater confusion has (Munich, 1965), 181, 196. More recent is O. Meinardus, "The Place
been caused by the cloth. Henk van Os compared it to a "semi- of the Anapeson of Soumela in Byzantine Art," Oriens christianus,
inflated airbed." Joseph Polzer described it as "heaped in thick rolls LV (1970), 195-203. As Meinardus notes, the well-known Crusader
approaching the consistency of twisted metal sheeting." Only Hans Kykkotissa on Sinai probably incorporates the anapeson, see K.
Belting, who associated Coppo's cloth with the altar cloth, has Weitzmann et al., The Icon, 227.
come close to the explanation of the motifs that follows here. See:
L. Steinberg, The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and Modern 22. Mouriki, "Thirteenth-Century Icon Painting," fig. 24.
Oblivion (New York: 1983), 28; H. van Os, Sienese Altarpieces 23. See Papageorgiou, Icons of Cyprus, 21, for a color illustration of the
1215-1460: Form, Content, Function, Vol. 1 1215-1344 (Groningen, image, which he identifies as from the Bishop's Palace at Kyrenia.
1984), 25; Polzer, "The Virgin and Child Enthroned," 10; Belting, Doula Mouriki notes that it is from the Church of the Virgin at
Likeness and Presence, 390. Asinou in "Thirteenth-Century Icon Painting," 37, fig. 38.
17. V. Lasareff, "Studies in the Iconography of the Virgin," AB, XX 24. The presence of the Kvkkotissa in Italy has been noted by several
(1938), 41-46. See also T. Gouma-Peterson, "Crete, Venice, and the scholars. See for example: P. Santa Maria Mannino, "La Virgine
'Madonneri' and a Creto-Venetian Icon in the Allen Art Museum," 'Kykkotissa' in due icone laziali del duecento," in Roma anno
Allen Memorial Art Museum Bulletin, XXV (1968), 57. See also K. 1300. Atti del congresso internazionale di storia dell' arte medievale,
Weitzmann, M. Chatzidakis, K. Miatev, and S. Radojcid, A Treasury Rome, 1980 (Rome, 1983), 487-92 and Weitzmann, "Crusader Icons
of Icons, Sixth to Seventeenth Centuries from the Sinai Peninsula, and la 'Maniera Greca''," 149-51. The Sinai panel is cited in numer-
Greece, Bulgaria, and Yugoslavia (New York, 1966), plate 191. ous publications, for example, Weitzmann et al., The Icon, 48. In her
60
discussion of this panel Annemarie Weyl Carr offers a more ex- tion, LIII (1983), 9-16, which includes additional sources on images
tensive bibliography, "The Presentation of an Icon at Mount Sinai," of the Virgin.
especially 239. 40. Maguire, "Iconography of Symeon."
25. The clavi are best known from examples in Coptic tunics. D. L. Car- 41. Weitzmann, A Treasury of Icons, fig. 212.
roll, Looms and Textiles of the Copts: First Millennium Egyptian
Textiles in the Carl Austin Rietz Collection of the California Academy 42. For the Pisa image by Enrico di Tedice see E. Carli, Italian Primi-
of Sciences (Seattle and London, 1988), 38-44, 184, describes the tives, Panel Painting of the Twelfth and Thirteenth Centuries (New
clavi as "the vertical tapestry bands descending from the shoulder York, 1965), fig. 11.
areas of a tunic." See also M.-H. Rutschowscaya, Coptic Fabrics 43. Derbes, "The Pistoia Lamentation," 131-35.
(Paris, 1990), 14-15, 52-53, 151, which illustrates on page 52 a
44. Lord Twining, European Regalia (London, 1967), fig. 83.
fifth-century weaving that depicts a figure wearing a knee-length,
long-sleeved, belted tunic decorated with clavi. 45. P. Cunningham and C. Lucas, Costumes for Births, Marriages and
Deaths (London, 1972), 170, 174, for Edward I and Edward IV.
26. Mouriki, "Thirteenth-Century Icon Painting,"' 406. Belting, Likeness
and Presence, 290-91. Carr's recent study, "The Presentation of an 46. Mannino, "La Virgine 'Kykkotissa'," figs. 1, 2, 5; and Pace, "Presenze
Icon at Mount Sinai," provides extensive textual and liturgical sub- e influenze cipriote," 272.
stantiation for this connection, which is developed here primarily in 47. E. B. Garrison, Italian Romanesque Panel Painting (Florence, 1949),
visual terms.
120, no. 309.
27. Mouriki, "Thirteenth-Century Icon Painting," 31. For a discussion
48. Seeof
note 30 above. On the attribution of the ceiling mosaics to Coppo
additional aspects of the meaning of the bare-legged child held by
di Marcovaldo, see for example: C. L. Ragghianti, Pittura del Dug-
Symeon at Lagoudera, see C. Baltoyianni, "Christ the Lamb and theento a Firenze (Florence, 1957), 47-75.
'Evorinov of the Law in a Wall Painting of Araka on Cyprus," AcAriov
49. Mouriki, "Thirteenth-Century Icon Painting," figs. 3, 6, 26, 27. The
rio pcXPrrtavaK7o dpyatoloylr<K 'EraipEia;, ser. IV/17 (1993-94),
53-58. cloak and straps are prominent in three of the images, one with cov-
ered legs, two with bare legs. In the fourth the straps and bare legs
28. For example, a twelfth-century image at Sinai. See Derbes, "Siena
are clear, but whether there is a cloak or not cannot be seen in
and the Levant," fig. 3. published photographs.
29. G. and M. Sotiriou, Icones du Mont Sinai (Athens, 1956), plate 50. See D. Mouriki, "A Thirteenth Century Icon with a Variant of the
78.
Hodegetria in the Byzantine Museum of Athens," DOP, XLI (1987),
30. I mosaici del battistero dei Firenze, Vol. II Le storie di N. S. Gesu
403-14. The presence of the foot-holding motif in Coppo's Siena
Cristo (Florence, 1955), plate VII.
image has puzzled scholars. While the gesture may be a reference to
31. Derbes, "Siena and the Levant," 3. the nailed foot of the Crucifixion or to the foot of the eucharistic
chalice as some have suggested, it is likely that it is also linked to
32. H. Maguire, "The Iconography of Symeon with the Christ Child
the icons with the active child, where the grasp fits comfortably as an
in Byzantine Art," DOP, XXXIV-XXXV (1980-81), 261-69 and
anecdotal detail of the Virgin hanging on to an over-active child. On
idem, Art and Eloquence in Byzantium (Princeton, 1981), especially
this motif see Ibid., 406, 411. Belting, Likeness and Presence, 390,
Chapter V. Although scholars have most often associated the name
comments that in Coppo's painting it may refer to petition through
Eleousa with images in which the Virgin and Child embrace, press-
prostration at his feet.
ing their cheeks together, Nancy Sev'enko has recently provided a
much more thorough discussion of its meaning in its connection 51. Curiously, Hans Belting seems to have overlooked the visual rela-
with the liturgy. See N. Sevienko, "Icons in the Liturgy," DOP, XLV tionship, perhaps in focusing on the differences in the poses of the
(1991), 45-57, especially 52-56. She identifies the Eleousa on page Hodegetria and the Kykkotissa. Yet in the same discussion, he does
52 with the "parakletikos kanon, a supplicatory canon, characterized place the Athens image among a series of other images of the bare-
by fervent, first-person appeals to the Virgin and other saints to inter- legged child including the Kykkotissa. Belting, Likeness and Pres-
cede with Christ on behalf of an individual troubled by sin, despair, ence, 291-92.
or fear of death."
52. Belting, The Image and Its Public, 118.
33. Belting, The Image and Its Public, 114. 53. N. Cabasilas, A Commentary on the Divine Liturgy, trans. J. Hussey
34. Maguire, Art and Eloquence, 102. and P. McNulty (London, 1966), 41.
35. Ibid., 98, and Maguire, "Iconography of Symeon," 267. 54. For bibliography see Maguire, "Iconography of Symeon," 262. For
additional sources see B. Lane, The Altar and the Altarpiece (New
36. Maguire, Art and Eloquence, 100. York, 1984), 68-74, 77. A basic study of the scenes from the child-
37. Ibid., 99. H. Belting, "An Image and its Function in the Liturgy: The hood of Christ is U. Nilgen, "The Epiphany and the Eucharist: On
Man of Sorrows in Byzantium," DOP, XXXIV-XXXV (1980-81), 9, the Interpretation of Eucharistic Motifs in Medieval Epiphany
suggests that this text, attributed to Symeon Metaphrastes, was incor-
Scenes," AB, XLIX (1967), 311-16.
porated into the passion liturgy. 55. Luke 3:29. J. D. Stefanescu, L'illustration des liturgies dans I'art de
38. Belting, Likeness and Presence, 290. Byzance et I'orient (Brussels, 1936), 54.
56. Hans Belting is the only scholar to consider aspects of the interpreta-
39. Weitzmann et al., The Icon, 175, 187 and idem, Treasury of Icons,
tion that follows here. See his comment in Likeness and Presence,
191. Although most of the examples we have are late, it seems likely
390, that the "unusual cloth makes sense only if it is related meta-
that the Pelagonitissa existed earlier, and was known in Italy, since
we have a Tuscan Duecento copy (Fig. 9). On the Pelagonitissa and phorically to the altar cloth..."
Glykophilousa see also L. Hadermann-Misguich, "Pelagonitissa57. etFor examples of Symeon with the cloth see Maguire, "Iconography
Kardiotissa: variantes extremes du type Vierge de Tendresse" Byzan- of Symeon."
61
58. Extensive discussion of veils can be found in Lane, The Altar and the 318. Bluish-gray versions of these strap and belt combinations worn
Altarpiece and Steinberg, The Sexuality of Christ. An example of the over ankle-length robes without himation can be found in images
identification of cloths with veils can be found in R. Goffen, Piety of Christ produced in both Rome and Byzantium. See for example
and Patronage in Renaissance Venice: Bellini, Titian, and the Fran- the twelfth-century manuscript, Athos, Dionysiou, cod. 65, fol. 12v
ciscans (New Haven, 1986), 114. Extensive discussions on eucharis- (A. Cutler, The Aristocratic Psalters in Byzantium [Paris, 1984],
tic veils have taken place recently. R. F Taft, The Great Entrance: A 104, fig. 364), and mosaics probably of the eleventh and the early
History of the Transfer of Gifts and Other Preanaphorae Rites of the thirteenth centuries respectively at S. Prassede and S. Paolo fuori le
Liturgy of St. John Chrysostom (Rome, 1978), 216 points out that the Mura in Rome in W. Oakeshott, The Mosaics of Rome from the Third
liturgical cloth, the eiliton was interpreted as the winding sheet or to the Fourteenth Centuries (Greenwich, Conn., 1968), fig. 126, plate
shroud from the beginning. He comments, however, that there is a XXVII. For another discussion of the strap worn over a long robe
debate over the exact date of the emergence of the aer as shroud and see A. M. Lidov, "Obraz 'Khrista-arkhiyerea' v ikonograficheskoi
places its first use in the East not earlier than 1300. Following Taft, programme Sofii okhridskoi," Zograf, XVII (1987), 5-20, and idem,
Belting has warned that we must keep the chronology of the liturgy "L'Image du Christ-pr6lat dans le programme iconographique de
in mind when analyzing the iconography of images. See Belting, "An Sainte Sophie d'Ohride," Arte cristiana, LXXIX/745 (1991), 245-50.
Image and its Function." Ann Plogstreth has urged similar caution Lidov connects this version of the straps with most of the types of
in dealing with Western iconography in "A Reconsideration of the child discussed in this article.
Religious Iconography in Hartt's History of Italian Renaissance

71. Cunningham and Lucas, Costumes, 26, 28. L. de Mause, "The Evolu-
Art," AB, LVII (1975), 433-37.
tion of Childhood," in The History of Childhood, ed. L. de Mause
59. R. Bornert, Les commentaires byzantin de la divine liturgie du Vile (New York, 1974), 11, 22.
au XVe siecle (Paris, 1966), 79.
72. Ibid., 38, notes that Soranus reported that Romans unswaddled in
60. J. Corblet, Histoire dogmatique, liturgique, et arche'ologique du fants when they were between forty and sixty days of age. De Mause
sacrements de l'euchariste, 2 vols. (Paris, 1885-86), I, 177. points out that sixteenth and seventeenth-century sources report un-
61. D. Slipopoulou-Rogan, "Sur une fresque de la periode des paleo- swaddling at the same time.
logues," Byzantion, XLI (1971), 109-21; Belting, "An Image and its 73. Luke 2:22; Leviticus 12:1-5. Another scene in which is child wears
Function," 3; C. Walter, "The Christ Child on the Altar in the Rado-
the short, strapped costume is the Circumcision of Christ in the
slav Narthex. A Learned or Popular Theme," in Studenica e l'art byz-
Menologion of Basil II. Produced in Constantinople in the tenth cen-
antin autour de l'annie 1200 (Beograd, 1988), 219-24.
tury, this may be the earliest remaining depiction of the short
62. Corblet, Histoire dogmatique, I, 178. Hymns such as the Pange costume on the Christ Child. See G. Schiller, Ikonographie der chris-
lingua, probably from the sixth century, compare the swaddling to tlichen Kunst, 4 vols. (Gutersloh, 1966), I, fig. 225. Once again, the
the bonds that held Christ at his burial, see J. Connelly, Hymns of child has bare legs and the halter belt, and once again, as in the
the Roman Liturgy (Westminster, Maryland, 1957), 84. J. Jungmann, Presentation in the Temple, the child is unwrapped in a manner that
The Mass of the Roman Rite: Its Origins and Development, 2 vols. fits the narrative of the story. Furthermore, the scene of the Circum-
(New York, 1955), II, 55, n. 69. See also Derbes, "The Pistoia Lam- cision, depicting the first spilling of blood, foretells the Crucifixion
entation," especially, 135, n. 22. and the eucharist. See Steinberg, The Sexuality of Christ, 50-71.
63. Matthew Paris reported that the miracle of 1238 took place in Paris 74. The mappa was common in Eastern images until the fourteenth cen-
at Sainte Chapelle: Corblet, Histoire dogmatique, I, 474-76. tury. Prominent examples include the eighth-century mosaic of Ni-
64. Derbes, "The Pistoia Lamentation." caea, the twelfth-century standing Hodegetria in the apse at Torcello,
and several earlier mosaics at Saint Sophia in Constantinople. See
65. Jungmann, Mass of the Roman Rite, II, 118-22. J. Pelikan, The Chris-
Belting, Likeness and Presence, 160; Demus, Byzantine Mosaic Dec-
tian Tradition: A History of the Development of Doctrine: Vol. 3, The
oration (New Rochelle, 1976), fig. 2; J. Beckwith, The Art of Con-
Growth of Medieval Theology (600-1300) (Chicago, 1978), 185-204,
stantinople: An Introduction to Byzantine Art (London and New
especially 193.
York, 1961), figs. 123, 161, 196. Emil Mile suggested that the mappa
66. O. J. Reichel, English Liturgical Vestments in the Thirteenth Cen- of the Virgin was descended from the handkerchief carried by mem-
tury (London, 1895), 172-73. bers of the early Byzantine court as a sign of their imperial rank.
See E. Male, The Early Churches of Rome (London, 1960), 86.
67. Cunningham and Lucas, Costumes, 41. Cunningham and Lucas also
Eunice Dauterman Maguire has made a similar comparison in her
discuss elaborate baptismal robes. These may have provided another
paper, "Cues for Heaven and Earth in Pictorial Detail," Abstracts of
visual reference for cloths in paintings of the Virgin and Child.
Papers, Twelfth Annual Byzantine Studies Conference, October 10-
68. Visually at least, all the cloths wrapped about the child seem in- 12, 1986, 46.
terchangeable. A brief glance through Weitzmann et al., The Icon,
(see pages 69, 175, 178, 179, 180, 182, 183, 186, 187, and 348) 75. Beginning as a small strip of fine cloth with fringed ends, the mani-
shows the remarkable similarity between himation, cloths under ple was originally found in both the Eastern and Western churches.
bare-legged infants, and swaddling-like wrappings in images of the Although it is now worn on the sleeve in the West, in Coppo's time
thirteenth century and later. the priest held it in his hand, just as the Virgin holds the mappa
in paintings. See: Catholic Encyclopedia (New York, 1910), IX, 601.
69. Mouriki, "Thirteenth-Century Icon Painting," 406, refers to the cos-
A scene from the twelfth-century frescoes in the lower church of
tume as "baby's attire."
San Clemente in Rome shows the hand-held maniple. On the rela-
70. Other motifs may have affected the emergence of our motif of red tionship between the Virgin's garb and the priest's vestments see
straps. Ann Wharton Epstein identified the white, striped version of Lane, The Altar and the Altarpiece, 71, 110-11. Interestingly, in the
this motif worn over a long gown as the orarion, worn only by a East the priest's hand-held maniple was altered around 1200, culmi-
deacon, and argued that it identifies Christ as the Deacon. See A. W. nating in the diamond-shaped cloth attached to the front of the
Epstein, "The Political Content of the Paintings of Saint Sophia at priest's robe today. Shortly thereafter, the fringed handkerchief disap-
Ohrid," Jahrbuch der isterreichischen Byzantinistik, XXIX (1980), peared from Byzantine representations of the Virgin and Child, a
62
chronological parallel that supports the visual evidence that the Vir- Virgins see Corrie, "The Political Meaning," 62-63 and examples in
gin's mappa was identified with the priest's maniple and by the Oakeshott, The Mosaics of Rome, fig. 174, plate XX.
thirteenth century had liturgical significance. See: Catholic Ency- 93. The existence of dossale panels with half-length figures that include
clopedia, IX, 602. Belting, Likeness and Presence, 367, 216, 219. the bare-legged child stresses the importance of the type for the city.
For examples of the Virgin with the cloth at the Crucifixion, see Most significant are Siena Pinacoteca Polyptychs 6 and 7. Interest-
O. Demus, Byzantine Mosaic Decoration: Aspects of Monumental Art
ingly, the Virgin in Polyptych 7 wears a shawl with an eagle motif.
in Byzantium (New Rochelle, 1976), fig. 29; A. Smart, Dawn of Stubblebine, Guido da Siena, 24-27, 66-67, figs. 7 and 33.
Italian Painting 1250-1400 (Oxford, 1978), fig. 3.
94. While Coppo's panel measures 220 x 125 cm, the Palazzo Pubblico
76. Garrison, Italian Romanesque Panel Painting, 45, no. 26. Madonna is 283 x 194 cm. The extensively cut-down San Bernardino
77. J. Stubblebine, Guido da Siena (Princeton, 1964), 14. Master panel measures 140 x 97 cm. The panel discussed below, now
in San Gimignano, is 170 x 134 cm. These measurements are taken
78. For recent observations on the Orvieto panel see M. Boskovits, "In-
from Stubblebine, Guido da Siena, 30, 61, 104, except for the mea-
torno a Coppo di Marcovaldo." See also Corrie, "Political Meaning,"
73, n. 59.
surement for Coppo's painting which comes from Polzer, "The Virgin
and Child Enthroned," 7, who notes also that the Orvieto Madonna
79. Q. Brunetti, II vescovo Ardingo e la chiesa di Firenze nel quarto e and Child measures 222 x 134 cm.
quinto decennio del secolo XIII (Florence, 1965), 25-26, and L. Cro-
95. Stubblebine, Guido da Siena, 30-60, fig. 14.
ciani, Le origini della spiritualitti dei Servi di Maria (1233-1304)
(Florence, 1983). L. Crociani, "La liturgia dei Servi nei primi due 96. Ibid., 61-64.
secoli di vita dell'ordine,' I Servi nel trecento squarci di storia e
97. In addition to the San Gimignano panel which follows are panels in
documenti di spiritualitai (Monte Senario, 1980), 5. Arezzo, Florence, and Siena. See Stubblebine, Guido da Siena, 64-
80. P.-M. Branchesi,. "Librari corali del convento di S. Maria dei Servi 65, 76-77, 80-81, figs. 32, 39, 43. According to Stubblebine, they
di Siena, (sec. XIII-XVIII)," Studi sull'ordine del Servi di Maria, measure respectively: 198 x 122 cm; 125 x 73 cm; 125 x 73 cm.
XVII (1967), 116-60.
98. Ibid., 104-6, fig. 60. Some art historians have suggested that this
81. Ibid., 122, 158. panel has a Sienese provenance, and that it was taken from Siena to
82. Connelly, Hymns, 46, for the text.
San Gimignano in 1280 at the time that the Augustinian church
was founded there. It might also have been sent to San Gimignano at
83. Crociani, "La liturgia," 100. a later time when a new image was placed at S. Agostino in Siena.
84. Connelly, Hymns, 186-90. 99. Belting, Likeness and Presence, 393.
85. M. Warner, Alone of All Her Sex: The Myth and the Cult of the 100. Ibid., 390. Belting's dating of the Madonna del voto to 1261 precedes
Virgin Mary (New York, 1976), 218. In her thorough discussion most dates, which place it not earlier than the late 1260s and more
Carol Schuler makes an interesting and pertinent observation on the often in the 1270s. See Stubblebine, Guido da Siena, 72-75. Kem-
association between "Byzantinizing icons" of the Hodegetria and the pers, "Icons, Altarpieces, and Civic Ritual," 91, dates the painting as
"new cult" of the Seven Sorrows of the Virgin. See her "The Seven "1261 or later, but not after 1280," identifying the panel on page 109
Sorrows of the Virgin: popular culture and cultic imagery in pre- as one commissioned immediately after the Battle of Montaperti.
Reformation Europe," Simiolus, XXI (1992), 5-28, especially 5 and 16.
101.
Many art historians have discussed the problem of which painting
86. Luke 2:35.
came first, and which artist, Coppo, Guido, or the San Bernardino
87. Warner, Alone of All Her Sex, 218. See Pillor's paintingMaster, frominfluenced
the or led the others. Inevitably we all engage in the
eighteenth century in A. dal Pino, Un gruppo evangelico debate
delover
due-Sienese or Florentine priority and thus over which artis-
cento (Florence, 1969), plate V, and his discussion of the ticmotif
center of
began the Renaissance. See for example B. Cole, Sienese
the Addolorata, 63-68. Painting: From Its Origins to the Fifteenth Century (New York,
1980), 8-10; J. White, Duccio: Tuscan Art and the Medieval Work-
88. For example, Gertrude Coor-Achenbach implies a Florentine version,
shop (London, 1979), 25-32; Van Os, Sienese Altarpieces, 23-28.
"Coppo di Marcovaldo," 4, as does Belting, Likeness and Presence,
387. 102. Although he also argues for the presence of a Byzantine image in
Siena, Hans Belting, too, has suggested that Coppo's panel may be
89. Corrie, "The Political Meaning," 67, 68, 74, notes 70, 71.
the model for the group. See Likeness and Presence, 387 and 393.
90. Ibid., 65-67.
103. Guido da Siena and his associates repeat the bare-legged child in
91. Belting, Likeness and Presence, 387-90. We need to keep this issueother formats. See Stubblebine, Guida da Siena, 7, 33.
open. The existence of an image of the Virgin Hodegetria and Child
104. K. Christiansen, Fourteenth-Century Altarpieces (New York, 1982),
Enthroned on Sinai dated 1200-1250 suggests that Coppo copied a
19, fig. 18.
full-length image of Eastern origin. Similarly, a sixteenth-century
105. Coor-Achenbach, "A Visual Basis," 234.
Serbian Enthroned Hodegetria that closely resembles Coppo's image
in Siena includes a child with straps and a gold cloth that wraps
106. See notes 134 and 135 below for an extensive discussion of the
about him. This gold cloth isn't a himation, but it isn't simply under Battle of Montaperti.
the child, either. This suggests either that Coppo had a full-length
107. Corrie, "The Political Meaning," 67, 74, n. 67; dal Pino, Un grupp
Eastern model before him or that on the other hand the Serbian image
evangelico del duecento (Florence, 1969), 100-103.
follows Coppo's and his images had a far larger and longer afterlife
in the East than we had previously realized. For these images,108.
see Van Os, Sienese Altarpieces, 77-89. For a wider discussion of the
Weitzmann et al., The Icon, 66, 348. traditional handling of Coppo's career, see Corrie, "The Political
92. For an enthroned Hodegetria see the fresco in San Silvestro at Meaning."
Tivoli, usually dated ca. 1210. O. Demus, Romanesque Mural Paint- 109. E. Armstrong, "The Sienese Statutes of 1262," The English Histori-
ing (New York, 1968, 1970), 303-4, fig. 6. For other enthroned cal Review, LVII (1900), 6.
63
110. W. Braunfels, Urban Design in Western Europe, Regime and Ar- 120. Interestingly, a date of 1262 has been attacked by Stubblebine, who
chitecture, 900-1900 (Chicago and London, 1988), 50-51, 66-67, considered it too early, in part because the confraternity for which
fig. 28, has the best demonstration of this arrangement, although a it was commissioned was founded only in 1262 and therefore had no
glance at his map of Florence (fig. 21) indicates that the relationship building. In contrast Van Os argues that the painting and the style
between the division of the city into quarters, the city walls, and the it represents are earlier. Stubblebine, Guido da Siena, 61-63; Van
placement of the new religious orders is much stronger than he Os, Sienese Altarpieces, 23-28. There is no strong evidence for
suggests. It is interesting that in both Siena and Florence, the fifth either position. As Stubblebine notes, the other paintings executed in
major new order, the Carmelites, shares a quarter with the Augustin- the style we associate with Guido da Siena belong to the 1270s
ians, lying slightly to the west of the Augustinian church. For an and 1280s, not the 1260s or earlier. On the other hand, the history of
interesting discussion of Florentine planning see: E Szmura, "Civic Coppo's Siena panel, finished in 1261 for the Servite order that had
Urbanism in Medieval Florence," in City States in Classical Antiq- just began work on its own new building, demonstrates that an order
uity and Medieval Italy, ed. A. Molho, K. Raaflaub, and J. Emlen did not wait for the completion of a building before commissioning
(Ann Arbor, 1991), 403-18. an image. See Corrie, "The Political Meaning," 69, n. 4. That these
111. G. Holmes, Florence, Rome and the Origins of the Renaissance paintings were not commissioned for completed or even nearly
(Oxford, 1986), 56, 57. completed buildings, suggests that they were thought of in terms of
the orders and their sites, and not in terms of fitting out buildings.
112. W. A. Hinnebusch, The History of the Dominican Order, 2 vols.
121. Among the best sources on the following are Waley, Siena and the
(New York, 1965, 1973), I, 161.
Sienese, A. Waterhouse, Boundaries of the City: The Architecture of
113. The complex relationships among church and family powers are Western Urbanism (Toronto, 1993), 165-92, and L. Bortolotti, Siena
discussed in W. M. Bowsky, A Medieval Italian Commune: Siena (Roma-Bari, 1987). Without doubt the ideas in the following por-
under the Nine, 1287-1355 (Berkeley, 1981), 266-76. It may be tion of this article are dependent upon my reading of works such as
significant that the major donors for S. Domenico and S. Francesco P. Bourdieu, Distinction: A Social Critique of the Judgment of Taste,
were the Malavolti, while the Tolomei provided support for the Ser- trans. R. Nice, (Cambridge, 1984), and M. de Certeau, The Practice
vites and the Augustinians. See: V. Lusini, "San Domenico in Cam- of Everyday Life, trans. S. Rendall, (Berkeley, 1984). I am indebted
poreggio," Bolletino senese di storia patri, XIII (1906), 264; idem, to Edward S. Harwood, my colleague in the Department of Fine Arts
Storia della basilica di S. Francesco in Siena (Siena, 1894), 23; at Bates College, for long discussions of such approaches to the
idem, La basilica di S. Maria dei Servi in Siena (Siena, 1908), 3. study of art. After completion of this article, I found Bram Kempers'
On the Augustinians, see the much more recent P. A. Riedl and fascinating discussion of similar issues in the same period in Siena,
M. Seidel, Die Kirchen von Siena, Band 1,1 Abbadia all'Arco-S. Bia- which focuses on cathedral paintings. See Kempers, "Icons, Altar-
gio, Textband (Munich, 1985), 2 (1273,10.Februar). On the role of pieces, and Civic Ritual."
the support of such new orders in local politics in Venice see
122. The following material appears in many sources, most vividly J. Hook,
R. Goldthwaite, Wealth and the Demand for Art in Italy 1300-1600
Siena: A City and its History (London, 1979), 11-15.
(Baltimore and London, 1993), 102. He cites additional sources on
the subject. 123. Ibid., 9-11.
114. D. Waley, Siena and the Sienese in the Thirteenth Century (Cam- 124. J. E Baldovin, S. J., The Urban Character of Christian Worship: The
bridge, 1991), 136. Origins, Development, and Meaning of Stational Liturgy (Rome,
1987), 197.
115. Riedl and Seidel, Die Kirchen, 2 and 4, cites the commune's pro-
125. Ibid., 123.
vision of money (1259) and bricks (1292) to the Augustinians.
Lusini, S. Maria dei Servi, 2-3, and idem, San Domenico, 264, points 126. A. Cameron, "Images of Authority: Elites and Icons in Late Sixth-
out the participation of the commune in the move of the Servites to Century Byzantium," in Byzantium and the Classical Tradition: Uni-
their current location, and its financial support, and similar support versity of Birmingham Thirteenth Spring Symposium of Byzantine
given to the Dominicans. Studies 1979, ed. M. Mullett and R. Scott (Centre for Byzantine
116. Similar points are made by S. T. Strocchia in Death of Ritual in Re- Studies, University of Birmingham, 1981), 228. Cameron provides an
naissance Florence (Baltimore and London, 1992), 5; and R. Weiss- excellent analysis as well as a review of the other literature on this
man, "Reconstructing Renaissance Sociology," in Persons in Groups: subject. Nancy Sev'enko has provided a very useful discussion of
Social Behavior as Identity Formation in Medieval and Renaissance later practices. See Sevienko, "Icons in the Liturgy," 48-49. In his
Europe, ed. Richard C. Trexler (Binghamton, N.Y., 1985), 450. recent study, Hans Belting provides an extensive series of texts
describing instances in both Rome and the East in which images
117. E Deuchler, "Siena und Jerusalem: Imagination und Realitit in were processed or were used in time of war. See Likeness and Pres-
Duccios neuen Stadtbild," Europiiische Sachkultur des Mittelalters, ence, 495-502, 513-14.
IV (1980), 11-20; M. Ascheri, "Siena in the Fourteenth Century:
127. Kempers, "Icons, Altarpieces, and Civic Ritual," 106.
State, Territory, and Culture," in T. W. Blomquist and M. F Mazaoui,
The "Other Tuscany": Essays in the History of Lucca, Pisa, and 128. W. Bowsky, The Finance of the Commune of Siena (1287-1355)
Siena during the Thirteenth, Fourteenth, and Fifteenth Centuries (Oxford, 1970), 2.
(Kalamazoo, 1994), 183; H. W. van Os, "Siena, een tweede Rome. 129. B. Paton, Preaching Friars and the Civic Ethos: Siena, 1380-1480
Politieke theorie in symbolen," in Dwergen op de schouders van (London, 1992), 131-32.
reuzen: Studies over de receptie van de Oudheid in de Middeleeu-
wen, ed. V. van Dijk and E. R. Smits (Groningen, 1990), 75-81; and 130. The complex processes by which political identities and mythologies
W. Muller, Die heilige Stadt: Roma quadrata, himmlisches Jerusalem are created are analyzed perceptively in C. Wickham and J. Fentress,
und die Mythe vom Weltnabel (Stuttgart, 1961), 22, 54, figs. 6b, 7a. Social Memory (Oxford, 1988).
131. Bowsky, A Medieval Italian Commune, 286.
118. J. Cannon, "Pietro Lorenzetti and the History of the Carmelite Or-
der," JWCI, L (1987), 18-28. 132. Ibid., 284.
119. On the confraternities and their relationship to other aspects of civic 133. On the relationship between Duccio's Maesthi and the conception of
life see Goldthwaite, Wealth and the Demand for Art, 114-21. Siena as a new Rome see W. Tronzo, "Between Icon and the Monu-
64
mental Decoration of a Church: Notes on Duccio's Maesta and the 141. The difficulty of assessing the importance of Montaperti and the
accuracy of its history is also clear in numerous studies of the
Definition of an Alterpiece," in the Walters Art Gallery, ICON (Wash-
ington, 1988), 36-47. famous Palio of Siena, the horse race run twice a summer in honor
of the Virgin. Two recent, interesting studies offer insight into both
134. For a recent discussion of Montaperti see Kempers, "Icons, Altar-
issues. See Dundes and Falassi, La Terra in Piazza and S. Silverman,
pieces, and Civic Ritual," 97-107. Both the events and the complex
role of Montaperti in subsequent Sienese history are hard to under-
"The Palio of Siena: Game, Ritual, or Politics?" in Urban Life in
stand. Since the chronicles that remain were written a few centuries the Renaissance, ed. S. Zimmerman and R. F E. Weissman (Newark,
later, their accuracy may be questioned, and as Fentress and Wick- 1989), 224-39. The latter has an excellent bibliography on the Palio
and its history.
ham have pointed out in their book Social Memory, we must always
ask whether community histories are erroneously reconstructed 142. by Hook, Siena, 129. Her general observation finds convincing support
later needs. Like the history of the Palio and the contrade, the his- in Dundes and Falassi, La Terra in Piazza, 232-36.
toriography of the Battle of Montaperti is in need of a thorough
143. It is important to note Alistair Smart's observation of this connection,
investigation.
when he writes that "the tender intimacy of the Madonnas of Am-
135. For the story of the Battle of Montaperti see Porri, II primo libro, brogio Lorenzetti ... represents the fulfilment of an ideal that Coppo
31-98. In English see: L. Douglas, A History of Siena (London, was among the first to glimpse, and which Guido da Siena transmit-
1902), 83-104. See page 85 for his analysis of the sources. See also ted to Sienese Trecento painting." See Smart, Dawn of ltalian Paint-
W. Heywood, Palio and Ponte: An Account of the Sports of Cen- ing, 12.
tral Italy from the Age of Dante to the XXth Century (London, 1904),
144. R. Goffen, "Icon and Vision: Giovanni Bellini's Half-Length Ma-
26-38, and idem, Our Lady of August, 11-44. For the most part, the
donnas" AB, LVII (1975), 487-518.
story of the keys comes from late reenactments, Heywood, Our Lady
of August, 71, but see E Schevill, Siena: The History of a Medieval 145. Although I view the artist as a transmitter of much of the information
Commune (New York, 1964), 84. on Byzantine art, I find Belting's comment that Byzantine style
"could only be the concern of the artist" hard to follow or accept.
136. Waterhouse, Boundaries, 168-69.
That Florentine artists and writers of the next few centuries regarded
137. This text, the Ordo officiorum ecclesiae Senensis (ms. G.v.8, Siena, those aspects of earlier art as the maniera greca, which we still iden-
Biblioteca Comunale degli Intronati) written by the canon Odericus, tify as stylistic characteristics, and that the Sienese managed to retain
has recently been discussed extensively by Kees van der Ploeg. See some, requires our willingness to assume that at least some wor-
his Art Architecture and Liturgy: Siena Cathedral in the Middle shippers saw characteristics of images as we do. To reject the exclu-
Ages (Groningen, 1993), 63-81, 120, 129-58. Since I have had re- sively formalistic treatment of thirteenth-century art that dominated
course to neither the manuscript itself nor Trombelli's 1766 edition discussion until recently does not require that we omit style as a
cited by van der Ploeg (10, n. 51), I am relying for details on descrip- category of observation either for ourselves or for thirteenth-century
tions in E. Repetti, Dizionario Corografico della Toscana (Milan, worshippers. Belting, The Image and Its Public, 216.
1855), 1358-59, and Bortolotti, Siena, 7.
146. B. Cole, Sienese Painting in the Age of the Renaissance (Blooming-
138. This concept was suggested by reading J. Black-Michaud, Cohesive ton, 1985), 72; D. Balestracci, "From Development to Crisis: Chang-
Force, Feud in the Mediterranean and the Middle East (New York, ing Urban Structures in Siena between the Thirteenth and Fifteenth
1975). Centuries," in The "Other Tuscany," ed. Blomquist and Mazzaoui,
139. C. Geertz, The Interpretation of Cultures (Basic books, 1973), 89. 209-11. C. B. Stehlke, "Art and Culture in Renaissance Siena," in
For another source that provides a conceptual basis for this study Painting in Renaissance Siena 1420-1500 (New York, 1988), 33-60.
see D. I. Kertzer, Ritual, Politics, and Power (New Haven and Lon- 147. Ibid., 138-67.
don, 1988).
148. Ibid., 36. Strehlke notes the importance of Montaperti for the ref-
140. Heywood, Palio and Ponte, 40 and Our Lady of August, 70-91, erences of the Quattrocento to the Trecento, but he does not make a
which provides a long narration of events in English. connection to the Byzantine style of the Dugento.
65

Madonna Del Bordone and The Meaning of The BareLegged Christ

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Coppo di Marcovaldo's Madonna del bordone and the Meaning of the Bare-Legged Christ

Child in Siena and the East

GESTA XXXV/1 @ The International Center of Medieval Art 1996 43

S ........... . .... .............

-VOW.. MEN, "I

informal institutions that structured Sienese life: individual

x 125 cm it was probably the largest panel in Tuscany when

'? ~C1Q~F~s~l i:Q1

"~ ` i i--' -.:--: i_ :11_ J~ 'LI

which the Sienese attributed to the intervention of their pa- a, _

tron, the Virgin.13 In my earlier iconographic study of this

imprinted on the Virgin's headscarf carried political messages r,

and that the image belonged to the city as much as it did

throne indicate that Coppo knew Byzantine versions of the

enthroned Virgin, the lyre-backed form of the throne has par-

nance. The eagle, a Hohenstaufen motif, as well as the date ?:?:-::-:::

of the image in the year after Sienese victory of 1260 at Mon- : i.

taperti, argue that the image was a declaration of Sienese :

power and the support provided to the city by the Virgin.

Child merit separate attention in part because they are proba-

.. ... ... ... .. . ......

.......... ... ............

-:i i- i i - ,i i i --i-i-i: -:: l- -_:

iiii'- i:- iii-iiii;ii:i ili:: : i_:_-i iiiiiiiii;i

::: :-'::-.: :iiiiii-ii -_iiiwii;,:i-i .. ..... . .....

iiiiiiiiii iiiiiiiiiiiiiiii iiiiiii-iii!!!iiill

i ~ i! ii~iiii~iiiiii!i!!iii~ i!!ii !!!iii! III !II i-i!! ili

!! !! k'i-iiii r';!i ....... ...

. i:C7,, i!ii!i iiiiil!!i,ii ........... ... ... p g.

FIGURE 3. Virgin Kykkotissa with Prophets and Saints, Monastery of FIGURE 4.

and in variations of that type. Moreover, the Kykkotissa pro- Rome, m

..... .. .... ...... .... .. .......

I-iiii iiii~i~~-~~PX~~il'I '9 a e ? - 1 esg~? lp-~as~ ll?~ji~B d~si~B~iiIx"-

FIGURE 5. Presentation in the Temple, Mon

of Symeon with Images of child

iiili:-i:i iii~ii?i:i-ii "

v~ ~., I uJPiE :I~ : :~~I

~?~L~~ - - ~ ~----PBll~eS~a9-- ~ 1IL

FIGURE 7. Enrico di Tedice, Lamentation from

:::: .P~-~-rP~s~Ha~p~ S1~4b~J~E~WII llS - 81 ll~irl iii

drawn together: Symeon with the child, t

is not only the gesture that connects thes

and vulnerable legs of Christ.

a motif known as the Addolorata, a formula based on the

By placing the bare-legged child associated with Sy

MOM group of Sienese institutionst:-

although Coppo probably introduced the child type, associ-

Religious Iconography in Hartt's History of Italian Renaissance

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I-iiii iiii~i-PX~~il'I '9 a e ? - 1 esg~? lp-~as~ ll?~ji~B d~si~B~iiIx"-