Imago Pietatis

The book discusses the development of the legend of the so-called Mass of St. Gregory, or the apparition of Christ as the Man of Sorrows to Pope Gregory the Great during a Mass. The role of the Roman Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme and its icon is throughly studied, as well as other early sources on the event. One section is devoted to the prayer associated to the event, the O Domine Jesu Christe adoro te in cruce pendentem, and its evolution.

Christ shown in half-length with his head inclined to one side, arms folded at the elbows, and hands crossed at the wrists to exhibit the stigmata, executed in the micromosaic technique of Byzantine imperial icons, occupies a prominent place in the history of Christian devotional art in the West. Intimate in scale at only 13 x 9 cm, the imago pietatis, is thought to have originated in Byzantium around 1300 and been brought to Italy towards the end of the fourteenth century, when it was outfitted with the silver frame and donated to the Roman basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. It has been assumed that at the time of the donation the icon had already been integrated with the folding triptych bearing row upon row of compartments containing relics, the whole measuring almost a meter high and wide when open. The painting of Saint Catherine of Alexandria on the reverse of the central panel, a Western creation that imitates Byzantine style, and the classical segmental pediment of the front attest to the ensemble’s layered history.
In 1967 Carlo Bertelli inaugurated historical analysis of the triptych, and ever since, questions concerning the mosaic’s place of origin, date, and patronage have attracted the attention of art historians. An enduring interest in the association of the icon with the theme of the Man of Sorrows, and above all with its legendary identification as the image Pope Gregory the Great had created to memorialize the vision of Christ he experienced while celebrating the Mass, have directed scholarly attention toward devotional concerns. The present essay, instead, focuses on the afterlife of the triptych and, particularly, on the political significance that this object held around the year 1500, when it was drawn into a coordinated program to honor the achievements of Ferdinand of Aragón and Isabel of Castile in the international ambience of papal Rome.

In Vienna's Diözesanmuseum is housed a triptych, painted in Lombardy in the fifteenth century. This article's intent is to bring up this artwork - which has never been thoroughly researched - to the attention of scholars, and to offer a complete study. The passages of property that brought the triptych to its present location, its attribution and complex iconography will all be addressed. The latter element deserves particular attention since the small "altarolo" is unusually abundant in episodes. This article concludes focusing on one scene, a Dead Christ with three angels (Engel-Pietà), and its source.

The subject depicted in the "lunetta" painted by Girolamo Romanino for the Corpus Domini chapel in the church of San Giovanni Evangelista in Brescia has always been somewhat uncertain. Various hypothesis have been assumed, but the predominant idea was that it depicted the so-called Mass of Saint Gregory, the apparition of Christ as the Man of Sorrows which the saint received while he was celebrating mass. Such identification is not satisfactory, because of the differences between what the legend described and what Romanino painted. This article suggest an alternative interpretation: that in Brescia is depicted another mass of Saint Gregory, the Mass of the doubting matron.

A review of the exhibition at the National Gallery, London.  I points out that for Mantegna the male body is essentially the speaking body, whereas Bellini's possess a mute eloquence.  Giovanni Bellini's paintings display a special tenderness towards animals whereas Mantegna emphasises that man is master.

Until the late eighteenth century on the plaza of the Sforza Castle in Milan a small column could be seen. Probably a late-fourtheenth artifact, this column was said to mark the location where saint Protasius, one of the patrons of Milan, had been martyred. Apart from reconstructing the history of Protasius' monument, this article will discuss the use of columns as markers in medieval Italian cities. These columns were erected in order to help people remember an event, be it positive or negative (colonne infamanti), and were standing in the exact location where said event had happened. Plus, in order to perform their task, such columns were always accompanied by an inscription. For a better understanding of the Milanese case, however, a further motive will be discussed. Columns also had funerary connotations. In Milan this connection was enhanced by carving a Man of Sorrows relief, an imagery often found on tombs, on Prothasius' column. Starting from the Milanese column, my article will thus explore a little-known practice, discussing how it was both long-living, as columns were erected until well into the seventeenth century, and far-reaching, as such columns were not an Italian-only phenomena.

Příspěvek pojednává o gotické dřevěné soše Piety pocházející přibližně z 30.–40. letech 15. století. Tato socha byla do konce 20. století umístěna na hlavním oltáři barokního kostela Narození Panny Marie v Popovicích u Jičína. Na základě studia písemných pramenů jsou objasňovány dosud neznámé skutečnosti týkající se umístění díla a jeho funkce v barokním chrámu i úcty, která byla soše projevována v podobě votivních darů.

The Sculpture Garden of San Marco
The spirituality of Girolamo Savonarola and the freedom of the arts
The Lamentation of Christ in Florentine art in the late 15th century
The commissioning of the Vatican Pietà by Michelangelo
The figure of the Holy Virgin in Savonarola’s sermons and in the Vatican Pietà
Michelangelo’s friends and the monochromatic Pietà in the Palazzo Barberini, Rome
Original or imitation? The Entombment of Christ in the National Gallery, London
From devotional purposes to aesthetic admiration: the transformation of the Lamentation of Christ in Florence during the 16th century
The after-life of Michelangelo’s Vatican Pietà
Coda. Some remarks on Charles de Tolnay’s approach to art history

El icono en micromosaico que representa a Cristo de medio busto con la cabeza inclinada hacia un lado, los brazos doblados y las manos cruzadas a la altura de las muñecas para mostrar los estigmas, ocupa unlugar prominente en la historia del arte cristiano devocional. Conocido como la imago pietatis, se piensa que este íntimo trabajo de pequeñas dimensiones, tal vez de origen bizantino y realizado en torno a 1300, fue llevado a Italia hacia finales del siglo XIV, momento en el que se le añade un marco de plata con cuatro blasones en los ángulos y es montado en la parte central de un tríptico plegable con filas y filas de reliquias que mide casi un metro de alto y otro de largo cuando tiene las hojas abiertas. En 1967 Carlo Bertelli inauguró el debate histórico sobre la obra, y desde entonces el lugar y la fecha de origen del mosaico, su patrocinio y su función han llamado la atención de los historiadores del arte. La preocupación por la tipología de la imagen y su uso devocional han dominado la discusión. Un interés duradero por la asociación del icono con la iconografía del Vir dolorum, Varón de dolores, y sobre todo su legendaria identificación con la imagen que el papa Gregorio Magno creó para recordar la visión que tuvo de Cristo durante la celebración de la misa, ha focalizado los estudios hacia el aspecto devocional. El objetivo de la presente contribución es valorar el significado político que debió de tener el tríptico en torno a 1500, cuando fue absorbido por el programa coordinado que Bernardino López de Carvajal desarrolló para festejar a los Reyes Católicos en Roma.

In the late Trecento, after a long period of disregard, the Roman basilica of Santa Croce in Gersualemme attracted the attention of Napoleone Orsini, count of Manoppello, and Nicola Orsini, count of Nola, who financed the creation of a Carthusian monastery. This article will focus on the Orsini's patronage, its motivations and long-term results. The project of building a certosa in Rome was part of a series of charterhouses that were patronized by members of the Angevin court of Naples -  as both Napoleone and Nicola were. After outlining the documentary evidence for the building enterprise up to circa 1400, are considered, particularly the so-called triptych of Saint Gregory, which, thanks to a new interpretation of the arms on the frame of its central Man of Sorrows icon, can now be established to have been donated by Nicola Orsini. The issue of why these object were chosen to be presented to Santa Croce and how they impacted on the liturgical life of the basilica in the following centuries is addressed.

Il Capitello della Peste, una piccola edicola situata tra le colline di Zugliano, è stato lì collocato dopo la peste del 1630. Al suo interno è presente la scena raffigurante la "Pietà", di chiaro gusto rinascimentale, con tutta probabilità proveniente dalla chiesa parrocchiale di Centrale.

Book project, to be completed in 2024.
Related publications:
> Gallori, Corinna T.  Alle origini di una leggenda: la Messa di san Gregorio Magno tra testi e immagini. Milan: Scalpendi, 2021.
> Gallori, Corinna T. "A Mass of St. Gregory from Santa Maria Assunta in Fiera and Italian Indulgence Prints." Print Quarterly, XXXVII/3 (2020), pp. 243-253
> Gallori, Corinna T. “La Pietà di Bramantino, Santa Croce in Gerusalemme e la Messa di san Gregorio Magno." In Bramantino e le arti nella Lombardia francese (1499-1525), ed. by Mauro Natale, pp. 131-150. Milan: Skira editore, 2017.
> Gallori, Corinna T. "The Late Trecento in Santa Croce in Gerusalemme: Napoleone and Nicola Orsini, the Carthusians, and the 'Triptych of St. Gregory'." In: Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz, 58, 2 (2016), pp. 156-187.
> Gallori, Corinna T. “Sull’iconografia della Messa di san Gregorio di Girolamo Romanino.” Arte Cristiana, 199, 864 (2011), pp. 211-222.
> Gallori, Corinna T. “Il monogramma dei Nomi di Gesù e Maria in Sant’Andrea ad Asola.” In La memoria della fede: studi storici offerti a Sua Santità Benedetto XVI nel centenario della rivista "Brixia sacra", eds. Gabriele Archetti and Giovanni Donni, vol. 1: 365-417. (= monographic issue of Brixia Sacra, 14, 1-2 [2009]).

The article investigates the life of the Observant Franciscan
preacher Michele d’Acqui, particularly focusing on his initiatives to promote the foundation of the Monte di Pietà in Verona, in 1490. The article analyses and integrally publishes an incunabulum that was edited in Verona in concomitance with those events. This document highlights the spiritual message that was connected with the presentation of the Monte di Pietà as well as the communicative strategies adopted by skilful preachers such as Fra Michele. He organised a planned and civic form of charity to support the Monte di Pietà, which was a central institution in the reform of the society promoted by the Observance. As the statutes of Scola del Monte della Pietà clearly show, within this reform social and religious dimensions were deeply intertwined: the economic support to the Monte went hand in hand with the dissemination of a model of religious life for the laity.

[The original Italian version is available upon request. Feel free to email me if you are interested: p.delcorno@let.ru.nl ]

This essay reconstructs the history of the Pietà of Giovanni Bellini housed in the Pinacoteca di Brera, Milan. Starting from the issue of its first owners, the Bolognese Sampieri, it details how the painting arrived to its present location. Then, the essay provides a complete resume of the Pietà's critical history. From the first references up to present-day, it will be detailed when scholars dated the painting, and what they wrote of its fascinating imagery.

In Milan's Duomo is housed a late fourteenth century relief showing Christ as the Man of Sorrows, ascribed to the German sculptor Hans von Fernach. The relief was originally decorating a pillar in the other cathedral of Milan, Santa Tecla, and was moved in the Duomo only after the church's destruction in 1461.
My article will show how Fernach's Man of Sorrows was moved into the Duomo after 1461, and will reconstruct the history of a marble polyptych built around it. The altarpiece was erected in 1504-1509 thanks to the patronage of the brothers Giovanni Pietro and Ambrogio Porro, and was destroyed in late sixteenth century. I will demonstrate how several parts of the Porro altarpiece still survive and are now part of St. Catherine of Siena's altarpiece in Milan's Duomo.

In Milan's Duomo is housed a late fourteenth century relief showing Christ as the Man of Sorrows, ascribed to the German sculptor Hans von Fernach. The relief was originally decorating a pillar in the other cathedral of Milan, Santa Tecla, and was moved in the Duomo only after the church's destruction in 1461.
My article will show how Fernach's Man of Sorrows was moved into the Duomo after 1461, and will reconstruct the history of a marble polyptych built around it. The altarpiece was erected in 1504-1509 thanks to the patronage of the brothers Giovanni Pietro and Ambrogio Porro, and was destroyed in late sixteenth century. I will demonstrate how several parts of the Porro altarpiece still survive and are now part of St. Catherine of Siena's altarpiece in Milan's Duomo.