The Renaissance Altarpiece: a valid category?

2013

This dissertation examines the aesthetic response to altarpieces in early modern Italy, which culminated in the reconstitution of altarpieces as gallery paintings, when, beginning in the seventeenth century, wealthy collectors began removing them from churches and displaying them in their private collections. Such a transformation not only entailed a complete rupture in the function of these paintings – from object of public veneration to private delectation – but also frequently met with resistance and censure from local authorities. It is precisely because it was a very difficult thing to do that the documents concerning the removal of altarpieces are frequently revealing about contemporary attitudes toward art among collectors as well as ecclesiastics. In order to understand the mechanisms – both theoretical and practical –that had to be in place for such a transformation to occur, I explore the history of the altarpiece from the rise of ius patronatus as an economically motivated form of piety in late-medieval Italy, through the encroachment of artistic criteria such as invention and difficulty in the making and viewing of religious art in the sixteenth century, and, finally, to the post-Tridentine discourse on sacred images. Because the purpose of this study is to establish the church as a venue for a nascent connoisseurial discourse, I also consider the development of art collecting in Italy, which was circumscribed in extent through most of the sixteenth century. Lastly, I provide a comprehensive overview of the removal of altarpieces in seventeenth-century Italy, a phenomenon that has previously received only scant attention in art historical literature.

Religious Studies Review, 2009

2007

Renaissance Quarterly, 2020

2011

Title of dissertation: DECORATING THE HOUSE OF WISDOM: FOUR ALTARPIECES FROM THE CHURCH OF SANTO SPIRITO IN FLORENCE (1485-1500) Antonia Fondaras, Doctor of Philosophy, 2011 Dissertation directed by: Professor Meredith J. Gill Department of Art History and Archaeology This dissertation examines four altarpieces by different artists paint ed between 1485 and 1500 for Santo Spirito, the church of the Augustinian Hermits in Florence, in light of the Hermits’ influence on the paintings’ iconography. I argue that eac h of the altarpieces expresses a distinct set of Augustinian values and suggests a ppropri te modes of devotion and praxis. Together, the paintings represent an attempt on the part of the Florentine Hermits to convey their institutional and religious identity as hei r to Augustine’s spirituality. The first chapter reviews the history and thought of the Augustinian Hermits, t he history of the convent of Santo Spirito and the building and decoration of its church. The second ...

Brill: Brill's Studies on Art, Art History, and Intellectual History, 2020

Over the course of his career, Andrea del Sarto (1486–1530) created altarpieces rich in theological complexity, elegant in formal execution, and dazzlingly brilliant in chromatic impact. This book investigates the spiritual dimensions of those works, focusing on six highly-significant panels. According to Steven J. Cody, the beauty and splendor of Andrea’s paintings speak to a profound engagement with Christian theories of spiritual renewal—an engagement that only intensified as Andrea matured into one of the most admired artists of his time. From this perspective, 'Andrea del Sarto: Splendor and Renewal in the Renaissance Altarpiece' not only shines new light on a painter who has long deserved more scholarly attention; it also offers up fresh insights regarding the Renaissance altarpiece itself.

Renaissance Studies, 2010

In 1864 the V&A (then the South Kensington Museum) purchased a large marble altar frame from a dealer in Florence. The quality of the frame identifies it as the product of a leading Florentine sculpture workshop, possibly that of Giuliano da Sangallo at the end of the fifteenth century. Its dimensions indicate that it would have housed a large altarpiece in one of the city's churches. The frame's provenance remains obscure, but this article offers the first critical evaluation of the object based on first-hand examination. Comparisons with similar frames in Florentine churches (surviving and documented) suggest that the V&A frame can be identified as an example of a particular category of monumental altar that was popular in the city in the decades around 1500. This type combined painted panel altarpieces with sculpture, integrating both within impressive architectural superstructures comprising lateral columns, elaborate entablatures, and arched lunettes. Identifiable examples housed altarpieces by Perugino, Lorenzo di Credi, Piero di Cosimo, and Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio, each juxtaposed with tin-glazed terracotta reliefs by the Della Robbia shop. The popularity of these arched frames was relatively short-lived, but their brief heyday provides important evidence for the gathering appreciation of aesthetic integration, formal order and spatial symmetry within Italian church interiors in the years around 1500.

View of Piero della Francesca, The Baptism of Christ, 1450s, in situ in the Sainsbury Wing of the National Gallery, London a l t a r p i e c e s i n c o n t e x t 6 Andrea di Bonaiuto da Firenze, The Virgin and Child with Ten Saints, about 1365-70 The order of the saints in this small picture reflects the dedications of the major chapels behind the choir screen of the Dominican Church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence. They flank the Virgin, to whom the high altar was dedicated.

Marburger Jahrbuch für Kunstgeschichte, 2015

Italian church Interiors have been subject to constant change during the whole period of their existence. This often has a strong impact on the pieces of spatial furnishing as well, even when these objects - such as altarpieces, pulpits or screens - are not even touched themselves. The present article tries to demonstrate this fact by reconstructing the entire history of the transformations of Perugino's famous 'Ascension of Christ' inside and outside the church of S. Pietro in Perugia, for which it had been originally painted. The article shows that the altarpiece had been created between c. 1496 and 1500 for the high altar of S. Pietro, being designed outwardly as a kind of cupboard. Its main adressee at that point were the monks sitting in the choir district, which was closed off by a frontal tramezzo from the outer areas. In 1567 this altarpiece was moved into the central window of the apse to give way to a tabernacle of the Holy Sacrament, following the decrees of the Tridentine Council. In contrast to what had been hitherto assumed, during a major transformation campaign, taking place between 1591-1609, the altarpiece was not touched at all. It however lost its relation to the High Altar, as this liturgical object was moved forward and away from the apse to introduce a retro-choir disposition to S. Pietro in Perugia. Gradually, the altarpiece was more perceived as an art object rather than a liturgical one. Thus, to allow closer inspection of Perugino's work by art critiques, the predella panels were removed in 1642 and exhibited further on in the church's sacristy. This was part of a wider campaign to partly transform the interior of S. Pietro into a picture gallery by the Cassinese abbot P.D. Leone Pavoni. In 1751, his successor P.D. Carlo Francesco della Penna had the whole altarpiece disassembled and its various panels incorporated into the re-systematised picture gallery. At this point, it was not only enriched and rendered more symmetrical, but also complemented by a new Sacresty Chapel which served both liturgical and needs and the exigencies of the art connoisseur. This very delicately balanced picture gallery was severely damaged in 1797 by the requisition of the main panels of Perugino's 'Ascension' altarpiece during the First French Invasion to Perugia. The pictures were then first exhibited in the "Muséum central des arts de la République" (the later Musée du Louvre) and later distributed amongst the Musées des Beaux-Arts du Lyon, du Rouen, du Nantes, and the Musei Vaticani in Rome. There, the panels have lost all their original liturgical and representational function and serve for the purposes of art enjoyment and research.