the fresco of St. James
Francesco Fiumalbi
The church called "San Domenico is one of the most beautiful among those present San Miniato. Third in order of magnitude, the church owes its name to the Dominican convent. In reality the building is dedicated to the worship of Saints James and Lucia. This double dedication has probably its origin in the merger of two separate churches, although there are no documents in this regard.
Given the amount of information and artistic works relating to this church, it is practically impossible to exhaust the discussion in a single solution. In this article we will talk only to one small aspect: a painting referred to San Jacopo.
Church of St. James and Lucia, facade
Inside Church of Saints James and Lucia di San Miniato is in fact a very particular fresco. The pictorial work of the church is located on the counter, the right side when entering, above a small altar, contained in what is commonly called a "arcosolium", that culminated in a niche by an arch, which was inserted a tomb or an altar. According to tradition, San Miniato, represents the transport by sea of \u200b\u200bthe body of St. James to the shores of Galicia. Let's see who was St. James and which has relevance to the church of SS. James and Lucy.
St. James is a name which is often known the Apostle James called "the Greater". Son of Zebedee and Salome, was the brother of the Apostle John.
" Passing along the Sea of \u200b\u200bGalilee, he saw Simon and Andrew, the brother of Simon casting a net into the sea, for they were fishermen. Jesus said unto them, Follow me, I will make you fishers of men. " And immediately they left their nets and followed him. Going a little further, also on the boat saw James son of Zebedee and John his brother, who were mending their nets. He called them. And they left their father Zebedee in the boat with the hired servants and followed him "
Marco, 1, 16-22.
was therefore a common fisherman who drew their livelihood from the waters of Lake Tiberias. Jesus called him to become, along with others, "fisher of men." Followed, together with the other apostles of Christ and the earthly events he witnessed, along with the apostle Peter, the Transfiguration. Giacomo (or Jacopo) took a leading role within the Christian community in Jerusalem, so that King Herod Agrippa the First he ordered the death, which occurred, according to tradition, collected by Jacopo da Varazze in the "Golden Legend" by decapitation. However there is no documentary evidence of this fact. Giacomo (or Jacopo) became the first martyr among the apostles. Also according to tradition, the followers of James (or James) transported her body in Galicia (although there are legends that tell otherwise) at the existing Santiago de Compostela (Sancti Jacobi, who was pronounced in old English Sant Yago, Santiago then).
The anniversary of St. James, St. James, or Sant Yago, is celebrated July 25.
You can not establish an exact date for this fresco. We know that in 1324 the "workers church "obtained by Mr. Twelve, which is the highest judiciary of the City, to be able to enlarge the church in the direction of the city walls, then south (1). This happened when the church of SS. James and Lucy was a suffragan of the parish church of SS Maria Assunta and Genesis, then Church Cathedral. In fact, the building was granted to the Dominican fathers only in 1330 by the will of Hugh Malpigli, when the parish became vacant following the death of its last Prior, the father Betto (2). Throughout the '300 there are many legacies, especially after the 1348 plague. These offers or benefits to land, went to "equip" the chapels which were built: St Matthew (later Sant'Urbano) Corpus Christi (then Grifoni), SS Cosma e Damiano (then-Chellini Sanmina-Pazzi), S. John the Baptist and SS. Annunziata (3). We have news that work is carried out in 1394 for the facade, where a house was alienated mail Borgonuovo (4). In 1404 a chapel was completed in honor of St. James is also the Master of Master Giovanni Jacopo de 'Bernardi had left open in 1384 (5), and were completed by his sons Jacobus and Ser Magister Hieronymus, as indicated by a lost inscription on the painting (6).
Could it be, then, that the small chapel with its apparatus in question is precisely that of the fresco painting in question. A confirmation could come from a stylistic point of view, placing the painting in fact in the late '300 and early '400, although we can not rule out further changes. The fate of the chapel dedicated to San Jacopo similar to the other along the sides of the aisle who were swabbed along the 600. In their place, as many altars were placed, so that we do not know the representations previously located within the three-arched niches fifteenth (7). For example, the same chapel dedicated to St. James, was to include the table with St. Jerome in His Study, by Cenni di Francesco, now in the Diocesan Museum of Sacred Art (8).
The detail that inevitably affects of this fresco is the group of fish that swims in the sea under the boat. These figures are characterized by a body of marine fish and human heads or demonic. E 'was suggested a link with the mission of James, namely that of being a "fisher of men" and then called to discern between demons and men "to fish" as an ordinary fisherman, once you pull up the nets , takes the good fish and discarding what is not good (9). However, it seems more plausible reflection made by Nistri Ross: "The incident arrival (...) the body of a holy place to which it was intended (as he had noticed the Bollandist Hippolyte Delehaye) is a topical subject of hagiographic narratives and its function is to accredit the divine will and its protective power to the saint himself. (...) The fact that among the inhabitants of the deep there are only monsters (or pluriteriomorfe antropoteriomorfe: see Jurgis Baltrusaitis) and even a good fish leads me to believe that the narrative intent is (...) the description set out, as the popular imagination at the time of the immense dangers that faced the spacecraft into the open ocean (...) and that could be overcome only because protected by the divine will: the more danger the greater the divine benevolence of the saint is addressed and who is able to pass as an intercessor for humanity .
Also interesting is the way it portrayed the wind be very curious with a face like to human. It 'obvious reference to the pace of the Synoptic Gospels of "Calming of the Storm" (Matthew 8.23-27, Mark 4:35-41, Luke 8.22-25) in which Jesus "rebukes" the winds . It seems that the wind itself is an entity that, in the case of transportation of the body of St. James, through the Holy Spirit leads the boat on the shores of Galicia. The wind as an instrument of divine will.
We shall now try to understand the artistic context within which places our fresco. It is not easy and it should be pointed out that what you say is the result of logical considerations strongly liable to error.
The pictorial context in which it appears is to be found in the painters of the so-called "school of Giotto, that is to say that painting movement of the fourteenth century, which were part of a large number of artists associated with the teaching and imitation of models of Giotto (10).
First we note that the painting was most likely made other than in two stages, by two different hands. We observe, in fact, that while the boat with the remains of St. James is characterized by a good wealth of detail, the figures of the fish are rather simplified and the same wave at the top is much more defined than the lower portion, not to mention some color change, although it might be due to a different condition. The two figures, placed in the side walls of the niche, may have been painted by another hand again. The colors are quite different (For example, the hair of the figures, but also the costumes) seem quite similar, while the halos. It is quite plausible as the chapel was built in stages. Then it was very common for the master painter is only the main part, the cornerstone of the frescoes (and also of other paintings in general), leaving portions of the secondary students. The same teacher may have made the figures of St. Peter and St. Paul, respectively, to the left and right of the altar, and the figures at the soffit of the arch that crowns the chapel, which should portray the same saints (11).
While the subjects are marine essentially unknown in the landscape painters of the time, it is reasonable to ask who might be inspired by our artist for the representation of the main scene or transportation to ship the body of St. James. It 'good to clear that what you will say it is only a hypothesis and as such must be considered, because there are no detailed studies in this direction and this writer is absolutely not an expert in painting.
Art historians seem divided on this fresco: on one side Bernard Berenson (12), Van Marle (13) agree to the authorship attribution Rossello di Jacopo Franchi, posing as dating the second decade of the '400 and assuming the same hand for the other chapel located on the left side, for those who enter, the counter, take a different view Federico Zeri (14) that approaches the paternity of a Pseudo-Ambrose Baldese, a hypothesis originally advanced by Serena Padovani (15) but remains cautious, calling the author of the transport master of St. James.
seems evident that none of the above hypothesis meets the full problem of the attribution of the fresco in question. So who could have been?
You can not answer the question. However, the writer wishes to propose a new track to follow. The subject of the boat is highly reminiscent of a fresco by Andrea di Bonaiuto in the English Chapel at the Convent of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. The painting depicts "The ship of the apostles in the Sea of \u200b\u200bGalilee."
Click here to see the fresco by Andrea di Bonaiuto in Santa Maria Novella:
It 'obvious that the work of Andrea di Bonaiuto an invoice is considerably more refined, however, would appear to be the model to which our artist may have inspired. In particular for the design of the ship's stern, mast, sail and ropes capable of sailing to the government seem to have a common matrix. Andrea di Bonaiuto painted the English Chapel around 1365, when we find him active in the Cemetery of Pisa around 1377.
Our fresco is, in all probability, a few years back, but both the geographical area in which Andrea di Bonaiuto and the same Order of the Dominican convent of Santa Maria Novella and the church of SS. James and Lucia di San Miniato corroborate what still remains a hypothesis which is that our artist had to know the work of Andrea di Bonaiuto. The name of our artist is surely to be found in Florence, among those who worked for the Dominicans, taking into account that the chapel of St. James was completed in 1404. This time limit would not drop the assumptions made by historians, who still seem partly erroneous.
While Pseudo-Ambrose Baldese seems correct the proximity of the side figures of St. Peter and St. Paul, see Madonna Child kept in the Museum of Sacred Art of Certaldo, the same can not be said of the upper part of the fresco, or boat with the body of St. James. Federico Zeri note that one of the characteristics of Pseudo-Ambrose Baldese of the nose is quite straight. Fact that we find in the figures side, but not in people who are on the boat. And figures of this fish, the author remains unknown for now.
Click here to see the Madonna and Child by Pseudo-Ambrose Baldese:
References:
(1) Chronicle San Jacopo , c. 34, TS Centi, P. Morelli, L. Tognetti, " SS. James and Lucy: a church, a convent ", Academy of Euteleti, San Miniato, 1995, p.. 84.
(2) Chronicle of San Jacopo , c. 3, TS Centi, P. Morelli, L. Tognetti, Op Cit. , p.. 86.
(3) TS Centi, P. Morelli, L. Tognetti, Op Cit. , pp. 89-101.
(4) Chronicle of San Jacopo , c. 3, TS Centi, P. Morelli, L. Tognetti, Op Cit. , p.. 86.
(5) Ibid.
(6) Pasquinucci Simon, " fourteenth-century paintings: the reconstruction of a furniture ", in Antonio D'Aniello (ed.), " Painting and Sculpture in the church of San Domenico San Miniato "CRSM, Pacini Editore, San Miniato, 1998, p.. 31.
(7) Claudio Casini, " The sculpture finds liturgical furnishings" in D'Aniello Op Cit. , p.. 21.
(8) Pasquinucci Simona, Op Cit. , p. 31.
(9) Chronicle of San Jacopo , c. 3, TS Centi, P. Morelli, L. Tognetti, Op Cit. , p.. 135.
(10) http://it.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scuola_giottesca
(11) Pasquinucci Simona, Op Cit. , p. 31.
(12) Bernard Berenson, "Italian two illustrations of the Speculum Salvationis ", in Art Bulletin, V, 1926, pp. 289-320.
(13) Van Marle, " The Development of the Italian School of Painting ", IX, 1927, The Hague.
(14) news reported by Linda Pisani in " Late Gothic Painting in Florence in the thirties of the fifteenth century: the case of Pseudo Ambrogio di Baldese " in Mitteilungen des Institutes in Kunsthistorischen Florenz, 45. Bd, H. 1 / 2 (2001), pp. 1-36.
(15) Serena Padovani, in " Treasures of Ancient Art at San Miniato ", edited by P. Torriti, Genova, 1979.
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