Cooperation and Collaboration in Vicenza before Palladio: Jacopo Sansovino and the Pedemuro Masters at the High Altar of the Cathedral of Vicenza

In 1534 the Vicentine masters, Giovanni da Porlezza and Girolamo Pittoni da Lumignano (the so-called Pedemuro masters) signed a contract with Aurelio Dall'Acqua for the construction of the main altar in the cathedral of Vicenza. Documents concerning the altar, later Dall'Acqua's funerary monument, have led scholars to attribute the design to Andrea Palladio, who began his career as a stone carver in the Pedemuro workshop. Designed following the model of a triumphal arch, the altar constitutes an extraordinary novelty in Vicenza, which was still unfamiliar with ancient models in the 1530s and 1540s. Documents show that Aurelio Dall'Acqua had connections to Venetian intellectual close to the doge, Andrea Gritti and the Franciscan theologian Francesco Zorzi, who, in those same years, wrote the program for the church of S. Francesco della Vigna and was in contact with Jacopo Sansovino. The inventory of the library of Dall'Acqua and an examination of his correspondence reveal his religious interests: that he was close to Catholic reform circles and interested in Erasmus; an expression of those interests should be considered part of the realization of the altar. Architectural analysis of the monument allows us to note in it a series of medieval and Renaissance elements from Florentine sources, direct borrowing from antique sources, and elements from Venetian architecture of the same period. Comparison of these elements with the architectural language that Palladio developed in the 1540s, after his first visit to Rome, excludes an attribution to him. In any case, the date of design is too early for him to have undertaken an autonomous project. Many of the architectural elements on the altar are to be found in the work of Jacopo Sansovino, who was invited to Vicenza in 1538 to furnish an opinion on the roofing of the tribune of the cathedral and the movement of the original altar to the end of the apse. The design for the architectural structure of the altar is attributed here to Sansovino, while the disposition of the semiprecious stones which entirely cover the altar is considered to be the work of the Pedemuro masters. Francesco Zorzi seems to have been the connecting figure between patron and architect, as he was in Sansovino's commission for the main altar and funerary monument of Cardinal Francesco Quiñones in the basilica of S. Croce in Gerusalemme, Rome.

Download Full-text

“‘But the Fountain Sprang Up and the Bird Sang Down’: Heidegger’s Gathering of the Fourfold and the Seven-Sacraments Font at Salle, Norfolk.”

Religions ◽

10.3390/rel12070464 ◽

2021 ◽

Vol 12 (7) ◽

pp. 464

Author(s):

Marie Clausén

Keyword(s):

Cultural Heritage ◽

Art History ◽

Architectural Elements ◽

15Th Century ◽

The Earth ◽

Medieval Church ◽

The Church ◽

As If

My paper analyses the 15th-century seven-sacraments font at the medieval church of St Peter and St Paul at Salle in Norfolk (England). The church guides and gazetteers that describe the font, and the church in which it is situated, owe both their style and content to Art History, focusing as they do on their material and aesthetic dimensions. The guides also tend towards isolating the various elements of the font, and these in turn from the rest of the architectural elements, fittings and furniture of the church, as if they could be meaningfully experienced or interpreted as discrete entities, in isolation from one another. While none of the font descriptions can be faulted for being inaccurate, they can, as a result of these tendencies, be held insufficient, and not quite to the purpose. My analysis of the font, by means of Heidegger’s concept of Dwelling, does not separate the font either from the rest of the church, nor from other fonts, but acknowledges that it comes to be, and be seen as, what it is only when considered as standing in ‘myriad referential relations’ to other things, as well as to ourselves. This perspective has enabled me to draw out what it is about the font at Salle that can be experienced as not merely beautiful or interesting, but also as meaningful to those—believers and non-believers alike—who encounter it. By reconsidering the proper mode of perceiving and engaging with the font, we may spare it from being commodified, from becoming a unit in the standing reserve of cultural heritage, and in so doing, we, too, may be momentarily freed from our false identities as units of production and agents of consumption. The medieval fonts and churches of Norfolk are, I argue, not valuable as a result of their putative antiquarian qualities, but invaluable in their extending to us a possibility of dwelling—as mortals—on the earth—under the sky—before the divinities.

Download Full-text

Depiction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on a Jerusalem icon from Ružica Church: An example of visual culture in the context of religious practice

Nasledje ◽

10.5937/nasledje2021191k ◽

2020 ◽

pp. 191-207

Author(s):

Marko Katić

Keyword(s):

Visual Culture ◽

Religious Practice ◽

Architectural Elements ◽

Early Origin ◽

The One ◽

The Church

Among but few icons brought back home by hajjis from their pilgrimage to Jerusalem (hence the name jerusalems) preserved in Belgrade, the one that stands out for its peculiarity and relatively early origin is the 1819 icon kept in Ružica Church in Kalemegdan. The most important element of the icon is the depiction of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. This paper presents and analyses numerous peculiarities of this depiction, before all by comparing its iconography and style with the usual kind of the Jerusalem pilgrimage icons of the same age. Th icon painter's method is additionally analysed through the theoretical prism of palimpsest and gloss, recently developed in art-historical studies. It has been concluded that the depiction is basically similar to that on other icons dating from after the 1808 fire in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre, but bearing an array of specificities that could be ascribed to the reinterpretation of architectural elements of the Jerusalem Church which the icon painter depicts to underline its holiness. The analysis points to a local Palestinian master as the author of the icon.

Download Full-text

Liturgical renovation of modern churches in Rome (Italy)

Resourceedings ◽

10.21625/resourceedings.v2i3.623 ◽

2019 ◽

Vol 2 (3) ◽

pp. 39

Author(s):

Daniela Concas

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Roman Catholic ◽

Point Of View ◽

Second Vatican Council ◽

Direct Reading ◽

Liturgical Movement ◽

Vatican Council ◽

Architectural Language ◽

Historical Moment ◽

The Church

At the beginning of the first half of the twentieth century the bond between ars-venustas and cultus-pietas has produced many churches of Roman Catholic cult.It’s between the 20s and 60s of the twentieth century that the experiments of the Liturgical Movement in Germany lead to the evolution of the liturgical space, which, even today, we see engraving in modern churches in Rome (Italy).The Council of Trent (1545-1563) constitutes the precedent historical moment, in which the Church recognised the need for major liturgical renovation of its churches. In comparison with this, the Second Vatican Council (1959-65) introduced some radical changes within the church architectural spaces.The observations come from the direct reading of the present architectural space and the interventions already realised in modern churches in Rome. The most significant churches from an historical-artistic point of view were selected (1924-1965). Significantly, although every single architecture is unique for dimensions, architectural language and used materials, a comparison, in order to gather the discovered characteristics and to compare the restrictions regarding the different operations, would extremely effective, as demonstrated below.Since the matter is considerably vast, in this work, only some brief notes regarding the liturgical renovation of the Presbytery area will be outlined.

Download Full-text

Recent Narratives on Galileo and the Church: or The Three Dogmas of the Counter-Reformation

Science in Context ◽

10.1017/s0269889700003884 ◽

2000 ◽

Vol 13 (3-4) ◽

pp. 489-507 ◽

Cited By ~ 3

Author(s):

Rivka Feldhay

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Reform Movement ◽

Main Thrust ◽

Counter Reformation ◽

Cultural Forces ◽

Galileo Affair ◽

Catholic Reform ◽

The Church

The ArgumentThis article confronts an old-new orientation in the historiographical literature on the “Galileo affair.” It argues that a varied group of historians moved by different cultural forces in the last decade of the twentieth century tends to crystallize a consensus about the inevitability of the conflict between Galileo and the Church and its outcome in the trial of 1633. The “neo-conflictualists” — as I call them — have built their case by adhering to and developing the “three dogmas of the Counter-Reformation”: Church authoritarianism is portrayed by them as verging towards “totalitarianism.” A preference for a literal reading of the Scriptures is understood as a mode of “fundamentalism.” And mild skeptical positions in astronomy are read as expressions of “instrumentalism,” or “fictionalism.” The main thrust of the article lies in an attempt to historicize these three aspects of the Catholic reform movement. Finally, the lacunae in insufficiently explored historiographical landscape are delineated in order to tame the temptation to embrace the three dogmas, and to modify the radical conflictualist version of the story of Galileo and the Church.

Download Full-text

Record of a nonbarred clastic shoreline

Geology ◽

10.1130/g46800.1 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 48 (4) ◽

pp. 338-342

Author(s):

Manuel F. Isla ◽

Ernesto Schwarz ◽

Gonzalo D. Veiga

Keyword(s):

Surf Zone ◽

Small Scale ◽

Beach Profile ◽

Deep Time ◽

Architectural Analysis ◽

Architectural Elements ◽

Quantitative Studies ◽

Similarities And Differences ◽

Ancient Record ◽

First Time

Abstract The morphology of wave-dominated clastic shorelines (i.e., foreshore and upper-shoreface sediments) can vary from barred to nonbarred, though the ancient record of nonbarred, sand-dominated shorelines has yet to be recognized. Here, a facies and quantitative architectural analysis of a clastic succession characterized by sandy inclined beds is presented and interpreted as the record of a high-gradient, nonbarred shoreline. Inclined beds dip seaward, have a tangential geometry (<3 m height, <40 m length, <11° dip), and are composed of planar lamination along the foresets and subordinate small-scale trough cross-bedding in the bottomsets. This facies distribution reflects a steep beach profile with a narrow surf zone and the development of plane beds both in foreshore and proximal upper-shoreface settings. Successive packages of inclined beds (a few tens of meters wide) are interpreted as the seaward accretion of this shoreline morphology, producing distinctive architectural elements (foresets and bottomsets). For the first time, we propose diagnostic criteria for identification in the rock record of the widely used modern nonbarred clastic shoreline model, and we contrast them with classical facies models of barred systems. Moreover, we discuss similarities and differences with radar-based Holocene coastal architectural elements, highlighting the need to incorporate detailed two-dimensional quantitative studies for refining the reconstruction of deep-time and recent clastic shorelines.

Download Full-text

recent narratives on galileo and the church: or the three dogmas of the counter-reformation

Science in Context ◽

10.1017/s0269889701000357 ◽

2001 ◽

Vol 14 (s1) ◽

pp. 219-237

Author(s):

rivka feldhay

Keyword(s):

Twentieth Century ◽

Reform Movement ◽

Main Thrust ◽

Counter Reformation ◽

Cultural Forces ◽

Galileo Affair ◽

Catholic Reform ◽

The Church

this article confronts an old-new orientation in the historiographical literature on the “galileo affair.” it argues that a varied group of historians moved by different cultural forces in the last decade of the twentieth century tends to crystallize a consensus about the inevitability of the conflict between galileo and the church and its outcome in the trial of 1633. the “neo-conflictualists” — as i call them — have built their case by adhering to and developing the “three dogmas of the counter-reformation”: church authoritarianism is portrayed by them as verging towards “totalitarianism.” a preference for a literal reading of the scriptures is understood as a mode of “fundamentalism.” and mild skeptical positions in astronomy are read as expressions of “instrumentalism,” or “fictionalism.” the main thrust of the article lies in an attempt to historicize these three aspects of the catholic reform movement. finally, the lacunae in insufficiently explored historiographical landscape are delineated in order to tame the temptation to embrace the three dogmas, and to modify the radical conflictualist version of the story of galileo and the church.

Download Full-text

The Council of Trent, The Spiritual Exercises and The Catholic Reform

Church History ◽

10.2307/3162870 ◽

1965 ◽

Vol 34 (1) ◽

pp. 36-49 ◽

Cited By ~ 1

Author(s):

Robert E. McNally

Keyword(s):

Temporal Order ◽

Spiritual Exercises ◽

Council Of Trent ◽

Charles V ◽

Catholic Reform ◽

Francis I ◽

The Church

Four hundred years ago, on December 4, 1563, the Council of Trent held its twenty-fifth and last solemn session. During eighteen difficult years it dominated the ecclesiastical affairs of Europe and its influence was felt far and wide even in the temporal order. No one in Christendom was indifferent to its proceedings, for the issues involved in this Council touched in one way or another the lives of all. In the course of the years it was supported and resisted in turn by their Catholic majesties, Charles V and Francis I, as well as by the Protestant Estates of Germany. Vituperated by Luther and Calvin and avoided by the evangelical theologians it became a wall of separation between the old and the new orders. United Christendom, which witnessed its convocation in 1545, had vanished as a reality before its closure in 1563. Assembled under trying conditions it was almost doomed to failure before it commenced; the task, which confronted this reform council, was gigantic. For it was asked to revitalize and renew the Church weighed down with the burden of the centuries. In effect, the reform, which the Fathers of this Council achieved, initiated the transformation of the medieval into the modern Church.

Download Full-text

Philip Neri and Charles Borromeo as Models of Catholic Reform

Perichoresis ◽

10.2478/perc-2020-0037 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 18 (6) ◽

pp. 119-136

Author(s):

Charles D. Fox

Keyword(s):

Sixteenth Century ◽

Institutional Reform ◽

Protestant Reformation ◽

The Core ◽

The People ◽

Counter Reformation ◽

The Face ◽

Catholic Reform ◽

The Church

AbstractIn the face of the external challenge of the Protestant Reformation, as well as the internal threat of spiritual, moral, and disciplinary corruption, two Catholic saints worked tirelessly to reform the Church in different but complementary ways. Philip Neri (1515–95) and Charles Borromeo (1538–84) led the Catholic Counter–Reformation during the middle–to–late sixteenth century, placing their distinctive gifts at the service of the Church. Philip Neri used his personal humility, intelligence, and charisma to attract the people of Rome to Christ, while Charles Borromeo employed his gifts for administration and his experience as a top aide to the pope to promote needed institutional reform. Both men achieved great personal holiness and moved others to holiness of life. It is their response to and sharing of the ‘universal call to holiness’, then, that constitutes the core of both of their approaches to ecclesial reform. Their focus on holiness, expressed in an emphasis on either the ‘charismatic’ or ‘hierarchical’ dimensions of the Church’s life, also provides a model for today’s Church, scarred as she is by scandal and in need of a new movement of reform.

Download Full-text

Vincent de Paul, the Lazarist Mission, and French Catholic Reform

10.1093/oso/9780198785767.001.0001 ◽

2017 ◽

Cited By ~ 5

Author(s):

Alison Forrestal

Keyword(s):

Seventeenth Century ◽

Reform Movement ◽

Rural Poor ◽

Wars Of Religion ◽

Catholic Reformation ◽

Religious Reform ◽

Congregation Of The Mission ◽

Catholic Reform ◽

The Church ◽

And Training

This book offers a major reassessment of the thought and activities of the most famous figure of the seventeenth-century French Catholic Reformation, Vincent de Paul. Confronting traditional explanations for de Paul’s prominence in the dévot reform movement that emerged in the wake of the Wars of Religion, it explores how he turned a personal vocation to evangelize the rural poor of France into a congregation of secular missionaries, known as the Congregation of the Mission or the Lazarists, with three interrelated strands of pastoral responsibility: the delivery of missions, the formation and training of clergy, and the promotion of confraternal charity. It demonstrates that the structure, ethos, and works that de Paul devised for the Congregation placed it at the heart of a significant enterprise of reform that involved a broad set of associates in efforts to transform the character of devotional belief and practice within the church. The book’s central questions concern de Paul’s efforts to create, characterize, and articulate a distinctive and influential vision for missionary life and work, both for himself and for the Lazarist Congregation, and it argues that his prominence and achievements depended on his remarkable ability to exploit the potential for association and collaboration within the dévot environment of seventeenth-century France in enterprising and systematic ways. It is the first study to assess de Paul’s activities against the backdrop of religious reform and Bourbon rule, and to reconstruct the combination of ideas, practices, resources, and relationships that determined his ability to pursue his ambitions.

Download Full-text

Două tehnici, un singur iconar: Savu Moga

Transilvania ◽

10.51391/trva.2021.01.10 ◽

2021 ◽

pp. 91-96

Author(s):

Alexandra Balan

Keyword(s):

19Th Century ◽

Good Condition ◽

Restoration Process ◽

Architectural Elements ◽

Long Period ◽

Single Piece ◽

The 19Th Century ◽

The Church ◽

Artistic Talent ◽

The Way

This article brings to attention the work of Savu Moga, a famous icon painter who lived and worked in the 19th century in Transylvania. His artistic talent was native and his greatest skills were revealed by his icons painted on glass, but he also painted icons on wood, a less known fact. Brâncoveanu Monastery from Sâmbăta de Sus, Brașov county, owns 10 icons painted on wood, which are in the process of restoration and research. The technique of painting on wood brings to Moga certain difficulties, which he tried to solve. Although the supports and techniques are different and the order of the stages is reversed, the style of work is very much alike. The colours, the way he writes, the vegetal and architectural elements and the faces of the characters are the same. Also the pigments and the binder used are the same for both types of painting. Regarding the conservation and restoration aspects, the icons that have been properly preserved are generally in good condition, which means he achieved his purpose. Those icons that were used in the church for a long period of time are much more degraded. Every single piece is carefully investigated and treated as a patient. After completing the restoration process of these icons we will have an overview on Savu Moga’s work on wood, compared to his work on glass. Untill then, we are sure of the value of his entire artwork.

Download Full-text