Ikon

This paper explores the two fresco cycles devoted to Saint Francesca Romana (Francesca Bussa de’ Leoni 1384-1440), in the monastery of Tor de’ Specchi in Rome, at the foot of Campidoglio, founded in 1433. The two cycles, created by different painters and realized twenty years apart, are situated in two adjoining spaces of the monastery. The first, attributed to Antoniazzo Romano and his school, was frescoed in 1468 in a space used for prayer (ancient monastery chapel). These images, colorful, represent in twentyfive scenes her charitable actions and miracles. The second fresco, colorless (terra verde), is situated in the ancient refettorio, is dated 1485, and is composed by ten scenes depicting her conflicts with monstrous creatures. This proposal will analyze the two parietal decorations in relation to their source, the Tractati della vita et delli visioni di santa Francesca Romana (1447), a collection of texts recording mainly her miracles and visions written in Roman vulgar by her confessor, Ianni Mattiotti. Each image of the cycles is presented by a caption from this agiographic source. The examination will thus highlight that words and images are linked by a participative relationship: they interact in order to build the sense of the whole scene, often composed by two consecutive moments of the same event. The paper will then unearth the iconographical devices and narrative strategies employed in some of these paradigmatic pictures to translate visually the sainthood concept. The task is to grasp how images and words work together and how this interaction makes possible the visualization of the different polarities inherent to holiness. Indeed, whereas the polychrome cycle shows forms of holiness linked to a vivifying dimension – healing the sick, supplying food, her charitable activities occurring in a real urban space in her city – the terra verde cycle depicts a noxious dimension characterized by light deprivation, indoor spaces, and opposition to the Devil’s torments. Finally, we will proceed with the articulation of a reflection focused on the gestures exhibited in the frescoes and consequently on the persecutory nature of the images that describe the female body of the saint. These accentuated gestures, together with the opposing categories present in the paintings (external vs interior, colorfull vs colorless, blocked action vs moving action, etc.), constitute the site of elaboration that allows the viewer to recognize the saving action of Francesca’s sainthood.

On a number of pilgrimage objects from Late Antiquity, St Thecla, a highly revered saint, also known as Thecla the Protomartyr, is shown accompanied by St Menas, whose tomb in Egypt was the pilgrimage centre associated with healing miracles. The saintly couple appear in ad bestias compositions or in a simplified variant as two saints with a cross. Although the popularity of Sts Menas and Thecla, as well as their shrines, is well known in Late Antiquity, the connection between the two cults seems to be insufficiently analysed. By means of comparing and analysing hagiographic texts, epigraphic material and objects of visual culture that depict Menas and Thecla, the paper debates the nature and origin of this cult community, aspects of pilgrimage related to the saints, as well as the iconographic patterns on which the common image of the saintly couple is based.