The Berardenga Antependium and the "Passio Ymaginis" office

• Autores: Michele Bacci
• Localización: Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, ISSN 0075-4390, Nº 61, 1998, págs. 1-16
• Idioma: inglés
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• Dialnet Métricas: 2 Citas
• Resumen

  • The writer proposes that the abbey church of San Salvatore della Bernardino, in the diocese of Arezzo, Italy, was the original location of an ancient panel dated 1215 in the National Gallery in Siena, which is often regarded as the earliest painted antependium in Italian art. As Camaldolese monks asserted the authority of their abbey in the Berardenga area in the first quarter of the 13th century, the antependium's execution was probably conceived as a symbolic act, stressing the power of the monastic institution. Moreover, its iconographic elements were carefully chosen and combined to recall the liturgical rites proper to the abbey of Berardenga, in order to celebrate its local, deep-rooted traditions. The Berardenga antependium, like the cross exposed on the “mensa” in Siena Cathedral on May 3, or the Lucca Volto Santo involved in the Saviour's rites, was employed as a useful counterpart to the liturgical lections depicting the Beirut miracle, the story of the Invention of the Cross by St. Helena, and the martyr pope St. Alexander—images it depicts.