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    Report Information from ProQuestFebruary 28 2012 10:19_______________________________________________________________

  • Document 1 of 1Art Imitates Architecture: The Saint Philip Reliquary in Renaissance FlorenceCornelison, Sally. The Art Bulletin 86.4 (Dec 2004): 642-658,640.

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    Abstract

    Between 1422 and 1425 a new reliquary was made for the prestigious Florentine relic ofApostle Philip's right arm. Although it was kept at the baptistery of S. Giovanni, the form ofthe Saint Philip reliquary was inspired by several key elements of Florence Cathedral'sdesign and decorative program. This essay will argue that this was done in order to presentthe reliquary as a potent and explicit symbol of the bond between the protective power of thesaint whose relic it contains and the city of Florence-a symbol whose meaning was fullyrealized only through ritual performance. [PUBLICATION ABSTRACT] _______________________________________________________________

    Full Text

    Public ritual in late medieval and Renaissance Florence was largely dependent on the cultsof the city's patron saints, relics, and sacred images.1 For example, each time a new bishopentered Florence to take possession of the bishopric, on his way from the church of S. PierMaggiore to the cathedral of S. Maria del Fiore he would pause in the Borgo degli Albizzi.There, he would kneel and pray before a stone plaque situated where it was believedFlorence's first sainted bishop, Zenobius (d. ca. 424), resurrected the son of a French pilgrimduring the late fourth or the early fifth century.2 This was only one of several monuments inthe city associated with Saint Zenobius. On his feast day of May 25, the members of theGirolami family, who counted Saint Zenobius among their ancestors, celebrated andadvertised their familial ties to him with a procession that began at their twelfth-century tower,located near the Ponte Vecchio in the Via Por S. Maria, and ended at the St. ZenobiusChapel in the cathedral.3 Moreover, on the January 26 feast of Saint Zenobius's translation,Andrea Arditi's enameled and gilded silver reliquary bust (1831), which contains a fragmentof the saint's skull, was carried to a cippolino marble column near the northwest wall of thebaptistery of S. Giovanni (Fig. 1). The column was erected during the Middle Ages in order tomark the spot where a leafless elm tree flowered when Saint Zenobius's relics passed by itduring their legendary translation from S. Lorenzo to S. Reparata in January 429.4All of these celebrations and rituals took place within the perimeters of Early ChristianFlorence on sites that-as the Lives of Saint Zenobius inform us-were closely associated withthe saint both during his life and after his death. As a result, it appears that the devotionalpractices particular to Saint Zenobius's cult, simply by virtue of the places in which they werecarried out, reinforced his importance as an intercessor and as the spiritual founder of theFlorentine church.The cults of saints not native to the city, lacking the numerous sites associated with the localcult of Saint Zenobius, gained prominence in other ways. The Apostle Philip had no hold in

  • Florentine worship until a relic of his arm was acquired in the Holy Land (Fig. 2). From thetime it arrived in Florence in the spring of 1205, the apostle was embraced as a patron andprotector of the entire city and its citizens. His arm, the oldest documented relic at theFlorentine baptistery, rivaled the popularity of the Saint Zenobius reliquary bust in thefrequency of its display.Between 1422 and 1425 a new reliquary was made for Saint Philip's arm (Fig. 3). Unlike theSaint Zenobius head reliquary, which is a so-called speaking, or body-part, reliquary thatreflects the type of relic it contains, the arm of Saint Philip is housed in an elongatedostensorium, a monstrance reliquary that shelters the precious relic in a glass, crystal, andgilded silver architectural frame.5 The design and ritual use of the reliquary, a superbexample of microarchitecture, further promoted the saint's importance, through the power ofhis arm relic, as an intercessor for the Florentines. The literature on this object is, for a workin precious metal, relatively extensive, but discussions of the reliquary have rarely gonebeyond issues of style.6 Although Saint Philip's arm belonged to the baptistery, we shall seethat its fifteenth-century reliquary is composed of a combination of architectural andornamental elements that are based on the dome, lantern, and sculptural program of theadjacent Florentine Cathedral. The formal connection between the Saint Philip reliquary andS. Maria del Fiore has been noted in the literature, but the extent and symbolic implicationsof their structural and decorative similarities, especially for Florentine ritual, have not beenfully explored.7 This essay will show that, because it emulates S. Maria del Fiore'sarchitecture and decorations, the Saint Philip reliquary was an innovative, potent, and explicitsymbol of the bond between the protective and healing power of the apostle whose relic itcontains and the city of Florence. It was a symbol whose local and regional significance wasadvertised and reached its full potential each time the reliquary was displayed in thebaptistery and cathedral and carried in procession through the city streets. Thus, rather thanbeing associated with specific sites, like the cult and relics of Saint Zenobius, the Saint Philipreliquary became an effective and portable testament to the arm relic's significance forFlorence and its citizens through ritual performance.The Translation of Saint Philip's Arm to FlorenceThe civic and episcopal promotion of Saint Philip's arm as one of the most important andpowerful of all of Florence's relics began with a detailed account of its translation from theHoly Land. Commissioned by Giovanni da Velletri, the bishop of Florence (1204-30), shortlyafter the relic was placed in the baptistery, the traslatio text is preserved in two manuscripts,one at Florence's Biblioteca Riccardiana, the other at the Opera del Duomo, and the eventwas noted by virtually all Florentine chroniclers.8 The relic's history received its mostextensive treatment, however, at the hands of the antiquarian Giovanni Mariti in the lateeighteenth century.9The arm of Saint Philip boasted an especially illustrious provenance in that it had belonged toMaria Komnenos, niece of the Byzantine emperor Manuel T and widow of the king ofJerusalem and Cyprus. It was through the efforts of a rather remarkable number of high-ranking Florentine ecclesiastical officials in the Holy Land that the relic was obtained and

  • eventually sent to Tuscany.10 The Florentine patriarch of Jerusalem, Monaco di Mompi diRiccomanno de' Corbizzi, a former cleric at the baptistery of S. Giovanni, is the primaryprotagonist in the story of the relic's translation.11 Inspired by a desire to honor the city of hisbirth with an impressive gift, he informed Maria Komnenos that it was not permissible (lecito)that a layperson, especially a woman, possess such an important relic, much less keep itamong her secular treasures.12 The queen apparently took the patriarch's words to heartand promptly handed the relic over to him. Once news of this transaction reached Florence,the city's bishop, Piet.ro, wrote numerous letters to Monaco de' Corbizzi requesting him tosend the relic to Florence. This, however, did not happen until 1203, when the patriarch, whowas near death, commissioned a certain Ranieri, another Florentine and the prior of thechurch of the Holy Sepulchre, to transport the arm of Saint Philip to Florence. With thesupport of Gualterotto, the Florentine bishop of St. John at Acre, and with permission toremove the relic from the Holy Land from the new patriarch of Jerusalem, Alberto da Vercelli-who was also from Florence-Ranieri set off for the Italian peninsula.

    The traslatio text describing the relic's arrival in Florence and its subsequent placement in thebaptistery closely follows the typology of the late antique and medieval relic adventus, theceremony celebrating the arrival of holy remains. By involving all of a city's citizens, adventusceremonies were orchestrated to show that the new relic would aid and protect the entirecommunity.13 The Florentine adventus took place on March 2, 1205, and began with thesynantesis, the reception of the relic by high-ranking civic and ecclesiastical officials. Thispart of the ceremony was led not by Bishop Pietro, who had worked to secure the relic forFlorence, but rather by his successor, Giovanni da Velletri, and the podest, or governor,Count Rodolfo di Capraia.14 Together with the cathedral clergy, they met the relic at thecity's south gate, the Porta S. Pier Gattolino (the present-day Porta Romana). Giovanni daVelletri then carried it in procession (the propompe) to the Piazza S. Giovanni, accompanied

  • by the sound of the Florentine people singing hymns in honor of the apostle. The translationceremony concluded with the apothesis, or deposition, of the arm of Saint Philip in thebaptistery of S. Giovanni. At this time, the relic was probably placed inside the block altar inthe baptistery's chapel, or scarsella, the rectangular apse on the west side of theRomanesque structure whose construction had been begun just two years before SaintPhilip's arm arrived in the city (Fig. 4).15 The relic's power was revealed almost immediately,for it performed several miracles, which included healing an ailing goldsmith and preventing alittle girl from drowning in the Arno-thus providing timely proof of the saint's efficacy as aprotector of Florence and its people. It was also significant for the Florentines that theacquisition of Saint Philip's arm coincided with the Western victory over Constantinople,something that was noted in the traslatio and that certainly added to the relic's prestige.16

    Fourteenth- and fifteenth-century documents indicate that when it arrived in Florence, thearm of Saint Philip was kept in a gilded and enameled silver reliquary casket, forzerino.17The Florentine relic had (and still has) further decorations that were apparently attached to itprior to its arrival in Florence. The earliest of these ornaments is a silver plaquette, probablydating from the twelfth century, that is embossed with an image of the saint and inscribedwith the words "Philip Apostle" in Greek (Fig. 5). A band of gilded silver inscribed with Gothiclettering that reads BRACHIUM S. PHILIPPI encircles the wrist of the arm relic.

  • It is likely that from the beginning, the relic of Saint Philip's arm had more than just localsignificance for Florence and its citizens, as its acquisition heightened the city's status in theregion of Tuscany. Indeed, it was probably no coincidence that the relic arrived in Florenceonly a few decades after Bishop Atto (1133-53) of the nearby town of Pistoia acquired for thatcity's cathedral a fragment of the head of the Apostle Saint James from Santiago deCompostela. By 1174, the Pistoiesi had established the Opera di S. Jacopo at their cathedralfor the purpose of safeguarding the relic and seeing that it was housed in an appropriatelyappointed chapel.18 Pistoia's location near the pilgrimage and trade route, the ViaFrancigena, ensured that its relic of Saint James became an important stop for pilgrimstraveling that road to Rome and, for some, on to the Holy Land.19 More important for thisstudy, the relic of Saint James attracted pilgrims from closer to home as well, for after ithealed several Florentines, their compatriots began to travel to Pistoia. A papal bull of 1145encouraged this kind of regional pilgrimage to Pistoia by urging Tuscan bishops to promotetravel to the relic.20 The consistent flow of devotional traffic to Pistoia helped fund theexecution of the silver altar of Saint James (now located in a chapel off the right aisle ofPistoia's cathedral of S. Zeno). The splendid altar, begun in 1287, was expanded from 1361and worked on throughout the fourteenth century by silversmiths from Florence, includingFilippo Brunelleschi, and possibly the young Donatello.21Given the strained and often hostile relations between Florence and Pistoia in the late twelfthand early thirteenth centuries, it is likely that the popularity and power of the relic from Spaindid not sit well at all with Florentine secular and ecclesiastical officials, and it surely fueledBishop Pietro's desire to bring the arm of Saint Philip to Florence.22 Moreover, just as thePistoiesi's acquisition of a relic of Saint James may have led the Florentines to procure theirown relic of an apostle, it is probable that the Pistoia altar inspired the 1366 commission for asilver altar for S. Giovanni in Florence.23 Although Florence was known more for itseconomic prosperity than for its devotional attractions for pilgrims, the acquisition of SaintPhilip's arm in the early duecento put the city in a position to pose a devotional challenge toPistoia and to make an especially prestigious addition to its roster of saintly protectors.24 Asone of Christ's apostles and one of the earliest Christian martyrs, Philip was a saint whosestatus was equal to that of Saint James, a fellow apostle. There are no known records tosuggest that the arm of Saint Philip was ever as effective in drawing pilgrims to Florence asthe relic of Saint James was for Pistoia, but it did become a consistent and prominent featureof public ritual.

    The Florentines saw their relic of Saint Philip's arm as the physical embodiment of his saintlypower and authority working on their behalf, and their ritual use, celebration, and venerationof the relic was directed at a citywide audience. In the Florentine calendar, the May 1 feast ofSaints Philip and James the Less was treated as a major feast, a precipua jesta, whosestatus was commensurate with those of Florence's other patron saints, such as Zenobiusand John the Baptist.25 We shall see below that on that day, the relic of Saint Philip's armwas exhibited in the cathedral and the baptistery of S. Giovanni. It was also displayed in the

  • latter on June 23 and 24, the vigil and feast of Saint John the Baptist; on November 6 inhonor of the anniversary of the baptistery's dedication; and on the January 13 feast of thebaptism of Christ, popularly known as the Festa del Perdono.26 According to Florence'sstatutes of 1325, all civic officials-the podesl, captain of the people, priors, and thegonfaloniere, the standard bearer of justice, as well as the twenty-one Florentine guilds-leftofferings at S. Giovanni in honor of Saint Philip on his feast day.27 These offerings were, asDiana Webb has noted, to be spent on images (picturae) to decorate S. Giovanni.28The apostle's feast was especially significant for the members of the Arte dei Calzolai, theShoemakers' Guild, who, for reasons that are obscure, claimed Saint Philip as their patron. Inaddition to the offering they left at S. Giovanni on May 1, they also celebrated the saint'sfeast with a procession to their tabernacle on the north side of Orsanmichele. From 1412,Nanni di Banco's marble statue of Saint Philip filled the tabernacle (Fig. 6). Mary Bergsteinhas observed that there existed a visual dialogue between the statue, which turns toward theVia Calzaiuoli, and the shoemakers who plied their trade in the piazza of Orsanmichele.Moreover, a direct, albeit brief, interaction took place between the statue and the relic ofSaint Philip's arm when the latter was periodically carried past Orsanmichele on this majorprocessional route.29The Saint Philip Reliquary and Its SourcesThe pan-Florentine devotion to Saint Philip must have contributed to the decision tocommission a reliquary for the arm relic whose design echoed that of S. Maria del Fiore. By1340, the Saint Philip reliquary casket was in need of repair,30 and in 1422 the Opera di S.Giovanni commissioned a new container for the prestigious relic. A document of that yearrecords that "[a] reliquary is being made for the arm of Saint Philip,"31 and in 1425 thegoldsmith Antonio di Piero del Vagliente received the substantial sum of 350 florins for hiswork on a gilded silver reliquary for the arm relic.32 The same document shows that thecasket in which the arm of Saint Philip had been kept up to that time was sold, probably inorder to help finance the new reliquary.The Saint Philip reliquary is one of the best preserved of the reliquaries from the Florentinebaptistery, but its original appearance has undergone a significant transformation. As itappears today (Fig. 3), the ostensorium consists of parts of two different reliquaries that were

  • made almost three decades apart. They were fused together when the Saint Philip reliquarywas restored sometime around 1720 during a comprehensive campaign to alter and repairthe reliquaries at Florence's cathedral and baptistery.33 The earlier part of the Saint Philipreliquary is its late trecento gilded silver base, which also serves as a container for relics.34 Ithas a rather lengthy inscription stating that the relics it houses came to Florence fromConstantinople in 1394 during the reign of the emperor Manuel II Palaiologos (1391-1425)and that they were placed in the reliquary in 1398.35The upper portion of the Saint Philip reliquary, the part Antonio del Vagliente made between1422 and 1425, consists of an elongated glass cylinder that reveals the arm bone, which isalmost entirely encased in silver, and the hand, which is covered with a piece of red silk (Fig.2). The relic and its protective glass cylinder are framed by a gilded silver aedicule, ortempietto, consisting of six elongated Corinthian colonnetics. These are supported by smallround-arched and fluted flying buttresses topped by figurines of scroll-bearing prophet.36The colonnettes rest on a plain hexagonal base, and their capitals uphold a twelve-sidedentablature comprising an architrave, a frieze, and a cornice decorated with dentils, egg-and-dart, and bead motifs.

    The most distinctive part of the reliquary is its cupola, a small ogival crystal vault divided intosix sections by ribs decorated with crockets (Fig. 7). A tiny winged dragon ornaments thebase of each of these ribs. The dragon motif was not unprecedented in contemporaryFlorentine metalwork, as it appears on the reliquary Lorenzo Ghiberti and his workshop madefor the arm of Saint Andrew at Citt di Castello in about 1420. A dragon with open wings alsoformed part of the gold mount that Ghiberti created in about 1428 for an ancient corneliandepicting Apollo, Marsyas, and Olympos.37 The presence of the fierce little dragons on thebaptistery reliquary, however, probably has an added iconographie significance, for it may be

  • related to Saint Philip's principal miracle. According to the Golden Legend, the Apostle Philiphad been preaching in Scythia when he was captured by pagans, who attempted to force himto make a sacrifice to a statue of Mars. A dragon emerged from the statue's base andproceeded to kill a priest's son and the two men who had arrested Philip and to sickenbystanders with its foul breath. Philip, however, commanded the dragon to abandon the cityfor the desert, which it promptly did, never to be heard from again. Once he had banished thedragon, the saint set about curing those the monster had made ill and resurrecting the threemen it had killed.38The story of the apostle's triumph over the dragon is subtly incorporated into the Florentinereliquary's design in that a gilded silver figurine of Saint Philip stands above the smalldragons at the summit of its crystal cupola. This image of the apostle is stylistically related tothe statue of the same saint that Nanni di Banco made for the niche of the Shoemakers'Guild at Orsanmichele; if anything, it is more animated than Nanni's relatively wooden figure(Fig. 6).39 Both the figurine of Saint Philip on the baptistery reliquary and the statue fromOrsanmichele hold books in their left hands, attributes that refer to the saint's status as anapostle. Saint Philip is also often represented holding a cross and a stone, the symbols of hismartyrdom, or, occasionally, a piece or basket of bread, which recalls his participation in theMiracle of the Loaves and Fishes.40 The decision to represent the saint with a book on thebaptistery reliquary is probably not solely dependent on Nanni di Banco's precedent atOrsanmichele, as it must have been inspired by the silver plaquette attached to the arm relic(Fig. 5). This embossed image shows Saint Philip with his right hand raised in a gesture ofbenediction, while in his left he holds what appears to be a scroll.Even though documentary evidence links the production of the Saint Philip reliquary toAntonio del Vagliente, its authorship, especially of the figurine that serves as its finial, hasbeen the subject of debate. Giulia Brunetti assumed that because the style of the Saint Philipfigurine is markedly different from the prophet figures on the reliquary's buttresses, it must beby an artist other than Antonio del Vagliente.41 She was not the first to note that the statuetteis reminiscent of Florentine figural sculpture of the 1410s and 1420s, as both MartinWackernagel and Walter and Elisabeth Paatz likened its style to that of Donatello.42 Brunetti,on the other hand, despite observing its similarities to the princess figure in Donatello's reliefof Saint George and the Dragon from Orsanmichele (ca. 1417) and certain figures in thesame artist's Feast of Herod for the Siena Cathedral baptismal font (1423-27), thought thereliquary's date too late to attribute the statuette to Donatello. She therefore tentativelyascribed it to the young Michelozzo and proposed that the same artist may have designedthe aedicule that houses the relic and that Antonio del Vagliente subsequently carried out hisdesign.43

    Brunetti's attribution of the reliquary to Michelozzo, while accepted in much of the literature,is far from certain. It was contested by the author of the entry for the Saint Philip reliquary inthe catalogue for the 1977 exhibition L'oreficeria nella Firenze del quattrocento.44 The mostprominent member of a family of goldsmiths, Antonio del Vagliente matriculated into the Arte

  • di Por S. Maria, the guild of goldsmiths and silk merchants, in 1414.45 Thanks to AlessandroGuidotti's archival work, we now know that by the time Antonio del Vagliente received thecommission for the Saint Philip reliquary in the early 1420s, he had entered into a partnershipwith the prominent goldsmith Giovanni del Chiaro, whose workshop he inherited in 1424.Giovanni del Chiaro provided the baptistery with a number of important and expensiveliturgical objects, including a basin and two silver ampullae (1419). He also made a gildedsilver reliquary for the very important relic of Saint John the Baptist's right index finger (1421),which the former Pope John XXIII, Baldassare Cossa, donated to the baptistery in histestament of 1419.46 It is possible that Antonio del Vagliente's professional relationship withGiovanni del Chiaro may have led to his commission of about 1422 for the Saint Philipreliquary. But in the 1420s he also had personal and professional ties with other leadinggoldsmiths in Florence, as well as with Donatello, Luca della Robbia, Lorenzo Ghiberti, andMichelozzo.47 Thus, while it is not to be ruled out that Antonio del Vagliente executed theSaint Philip reliquary according to a design by Michelozzo or another of his more famouscontemporaries, it is just as likely that the reliquary is an example of the goldsmith's ownimpressive standing in early quattrocento Florence and of his knowledge of current trends insculpture and architecture.48The Saint Philip reliquary has certain prominent structural and decorative elements that arereadily recognizable, even if they are not exact, as having been derived from FlorenceCathedral and its then-incomplete dome (Fig. 8). The reliquary's ogival cupola is hexagonal,not octagonal like the cathedral's dome, but its particular shape is an unmistakable referenceto Brunelleschi's high-profile vault.49 The similarities between the Saint Philip reliquary andS. Maria del Fiore go beyond their respective domes, for the reliquary's round-archedbuttresses resemble the more decorative ones on the lantern Brunelleschi designed in 1486for the cathedral's cupola. Indeed, it is possible that, as Heinrich Klotz suggested, thereliquary reflects the architect's lost lantern design of 1418.50 In addition, the scroll-bearingprophets that stand atop the reliquary's buttresses must have been inspired by the decorative

  • program for the cathedral's exterior, for they recall the series of prophet figures that were todecorate the church's roofline, as well as the corners of the octagonal drum of its dome-someof which were famously commissioned from Donatello, Nanni di Banco, and Michelangelo.51

    Brunelleschi's wooden model for Florence Cathedral's dome was probably Antonio delVagliente's most important source for the Saint Philip reliquary, but certain elements of thereliquary's architectural and decorative vocabulary indicate that the goldsmith drew on twowell-known fourteenth-century works that are also closely related to the dome of S. Maria delFiore and the history of its design. That is, the crockets that decorate the ribs of thereliquary's cupola are derived from those on the dome of Andrea Orcagna's tabernacle forOrsanmichele, which was completed in 1359 (Fig. 9).52 Similar crockets appear on the domeof the frescoed image of the Florentine Cathedral in Andrea di Bonaiuto's Church Triumphant(ca. 1366) in the chapterhouse of S. Maria Novella (Fig. 10).53 The statuette of Saint Philipon the baptistery reliquary may also have been inspired by Orcagna's Orsanmicheletabernacle, where a figure of the Archangel Saint Michael serves as a large-scale Rnial for itsdome. The Orsanmichele tabernacle, whose dome is based on the cupola of the baptistery,has both a stylistic and a functional relation to contemporary metalwork, as it, like a reliquaryor monstrance, was a container for a sacred object-in this case, Bernardo Daddi's miracle-working painting of the Virgin and Child Enthroned.54The Saint Philip Reliquary and Architectural ImitationThe Saint Philip reliquary's similarities to the Florentine Cathedral place it within theiconographie tradition of metalwork objects that copy particular buildings. In recent years,there has been a significant increase in scholarship that explores the symbolic and functionalmeaning of relics that were kept in reliquaries shaped like parts of the human body.55Relatively little attention, on the other hand, has been paid to the symbolic and functionalmeaning of relics, like the arm of Saint Philip, that were kept in ostensoria that resemble

  • specific structures, usually the ones in which they were housed.56 Because it recalls theform and decoration of S. Maria del Fiore, a church that was intended to stand as a symbol ofFlorentine civic and religious power, the Saint Philip reliquary is quite explicit in its meaningas a frame for a miracle-working relic of citywide importance. Moreover, it is telling that itscommission coincided with what David Peterson has identified as the Florentinegovernment's strategy to "resacralise the city, and to legitimate their shaky regime, byorchestrating, and identifying with, key strains of the city's religious life."57The formal discrepancies between the Saint Philip reliquary and Florence Cathedral willcome as no surprise to students of medieval art and architecture for, more often than not,copies of specific buildings or monuments deviate from their sources rather than reproducethem with precision. In his classic study of the iconography of medieval architecture, RichardKrautheimer demonstrated the variety of form that characterizes copies of the HolySepulchre in Jerusalem, concluding that "the mediaeval beholder expected to find in a copyonly some parts of the prototype but not by any means all of them."58 The fifteenth centurydid not necessarily bring with it a greater desire for formal accuracy in replicas of the emptytomb of Christ, as Leon Battista Alberti's "copy" of the Holy Sepulchre for the Rucellai Chapelat S. Pancrazio in Florence attests.59 Examples of the inexact reproduction of architectureabound in other media as well. Felicity Ratt has recently shown that although "architecturalportraits" became increasingly common in trecento frescoes, the descriptive accuracy ofthese images was often sacrificed. This, however, did not prevent them from being readilyrecognized or from communicating a specific message.60 The same must be true of latemedieval and early modern metalwork, and the Saint Philip reliquary is just one of a numberof significant reliquaries whose form was inspired by, but does not exactly reproduce, specificbuildings.61The many small cupolas on the reliquary of the tongue of Saint Anthony in Padua (1434-36)resemble those of the basilica of Sant'Antonio, as well as the dome of Florence Cathedral(Fig. 11). The author of this reliquary, Giuliano da Firenze, as his name indicates, was fromTuscany, and while its style has been associated with the work of his Florentinecontemporaries Ghiberti and Brunelleschi, the goldsmith also seems to have beenresponding to the Byzantine-inspired architecture of the Veneto and to the cupolas ofSant'Antonio in particular.62 The similarities between this reliquary and the church in which itis located places it in the category of architectural reliquaries that were made to imitate thebuildings in which they were housed, just as most body-part reliquaries served to "flesh out"the particular relic they were made to contain. One of the best examples of this type ofarchitectural metalwork is Ugolino di Vieri's exceptional reliquary of the Holy Corporal atOrvieto (1837-38). Its gabled form, which echoes Lorenzo Maitani's design for the facade ofOrvieto Cathedral, led John White to describe it as "a faade in little" (Fig. 12).63 Anotherobject whose shape was inspired by its architectural and decorative setting is the reliquary ofSaints Lucianus, Maxianus, and Julianus, three martyrs from Beauvais, created for the Ste-Chapelle in Paris (ca. 1261). This gilded silver casket (now in the Muse de Cluny) wasmade in the form of a Gothic church that echoes the design of both the Ste-Chapelle and the

  • baldachin that sheltered the grand chsse containing its rich treasure of relics (Fig. 13).64

    To this list of reliquaries that reflect the places in which they were kept, I would like to addMaso di Bartolomeo's 1446 reliquary for the Sacro Cingolo, the belt or girdle of the VirginMary, in Prato (Fig. 14).65 Although it is not an architectural reliquary and does not resemblePrato Cathedral, in which it was housed, this small reliquary casket was designed tocomplement Donatello and Michelozzo's exterior pulpit (1428-58) on the comer of PratoCathedral's facade (Fig. 15).66 The dancing putti that decorate the sides of this exquisitecassetta are direct copies of those framed by Corinthian pilasters on the pulpit. Thus, whenthe reliquary was exhibited from the outdoor pulpit on feast days sacred to the Virgin Mary, astrong visual bond between the reliquary and the church in which it was kept could bediscerned. Similarly, the design of the Saint Philip reliquary was directly linked to the way inwhich it was displayed publicly, but it differs from all of the reliquaries described above in thatit was made not in the image of the baptistery to which it belonged but, iather, in that of theFlorentine Cathedral. Indeed, of all the reliquaries from S. Maiia del Fiore and S. Giovanni,the Saint Philip reliquary stands out as the only one whose design, in all likelihood for ritualpurposes and to underscore the importance of the relic for the city, complements the urbanand ecclesiastical context in which it was displayed.

  • The Civic and Devotional Stage: The Display of the Saint Philip ReliquaryWe have seen that the ostensorium made for Saint Philip's arm marked quite a departurefrom the enameled silver casket that held the arm relic until 1425. Why, then, did its patron,the Opera of S. Giovanni, or its maker, Antonio del Vagliente, choose this kind of reliquaryover a more traditional arm-shaped reliquary? It certainly was not because body-partreliquaries had become unfashionable, for they continued to be produced throughout Europein spite of an increase in the number or relic ostensoria to be found in church treasuries.Instead, it is probable that its form was determined by the importance of Saint Philip and hisarm within the context of the Florentine cult of saints and relics and the way in which it wasdisplayed both inside and outside S. Giovanni. The Saint Philip reliquary's stylistic andsymbolic relation with Florence Cathedral singles it out as a portable reliquaiy with particularrelevance for the city of Florence, but the inherent symbolism of its form was revealed onlyon those occasions when it was brought forth from the baptistery altar.Arm relics offered possibilities for public display that most other body-part relics, with theexception of head relics, did not. Arms, hands, and heads are the most communicative partsof the human body, and during their ritual display, arm relics were regularly lifted above thefaithful in order to bless and, sometimes, to heal them.67 Arm-shaped reliquaries, regardlessof whether or not they actually contained arm relics, were especially effective in carrying outthese ritual blessings, but they could also successfully be carried out with reliquary caskets,like the one that originally housed the arm of Saint Philip, that concealed, rather thanrevealed, the type of sacred body part they held.68This is evident from the "Mores et consuetudines canonice florentinae," a thirteenth-centurycodex recording the liturgical practices at the Florentine Cathedral, which tells us a great dealabout the way in which the arm of Saint Philip was displayed each May 1 on the feast ofSaints Philip and James the Less.69 The official celebration of the saint's feast day beganthe evening before at vespers and was followed by an early morning mass in the baptistery.After this mass, another was celebrated in one of the apsidiole chapels at the Romanesquecathedral of S. Reparata. The altar in that chapel, which was dedicated to Saint Mark, heldrelics of uncertain provenance of Saints Philip and James.70 Toward the end of mass in theSt. Mark Chapel, the bishop or, if he was out of town, one of the cathedral canons, delivereda sermon. At the same time, the arm of Saint Philip was brought forth, shown to the people,and used to bless them with the sign of the cross. After the ritual blessing, the relic wasreplaced in its casket. This was not the only time that day that the relic was employed in thismanner, for after mass in the cathedral, the bishop personally carried Saint Philip's arm inprocession from S. Reparata to the baptistery. There, the principal mass of the day wascelebrated, at the end of which the apostle's arm was again removed from its casket, shownto the people, and presumably used once more to bless them.?1 The "Mores" stresses theprotective properties of the arm for those to whom it was shown on Saint Philip's feast day("illud brachium populo ostendatur et ipso ad nostrarum protectionem animarum populum"),thereby possibly explaining the decision in the early fifteenth century to place it in anostensorium through which the relic was always visible. 2

  • In addition to its role in blessing the faithful during mass, each May 1 the arm of Saint Philipwas displayed by itself on the baptistery's silver altar, but on virtually all other occasions onwhich it was exhibited, it appeared with the other major Florentine relics. Indeed, of allFlorence's relics, the arm of Saint Philip and the head of Saint Zenobius were mostfrequently called on for help and exhibited to the people. The collective power of these relicsand the miraculous image of the Madonna of Impruneta was, as Richard Trexler and othershave shown, a force to be reckoned with, and Florentine chroniclers report that they wereparaded through the city streets during periods of inclement weather, political and militarycrisis, and to avert the plague.73In an often-quoted passage from his Florentine chronicle, Matteo Villani reports that in 1354,during an extreme drought, Saint Philip's arm, the head of Saint Zenobius, and themiraculous panel painting were carried in procession on a circuitous route from the smalltown of Impruneta in the hills just south of Florence to the baptistery, to the basilica of S.Miniato al Monte, and then back to Impruneta. Clouds began to gather on the day of theprocession, four days later it began to rain heavily, and the rain continued for seven moredays.74An anonymous diary dating from the late trecento shows that similar processions were heldin late May 1387; twice in 1390, on June 30 and October 16; and again in December 1398.75The procession of October 16, 1390, was held at a time when the Florentines were in conflictwith the Sienese, Giangaleazzo Visconti and his Milanese army, and were concerned aboutthe plague. At that time, the Madonna of Impruneta, the head of Saint Zenobius, and the armof Saint Philip were carried through the city streets and then set up on the ringhiera, therostrum in front of the Palazzo Vecchio, to make them visible to everyone assembled in thePiazza Signoria while the bishop celebrated mass.76The anonymous diarist's description of the December 1398 procession, this one held whenthe Florentines called on all of their most potent holy resources in order to stop an incessantrain, is also of interest. He states that on that day:There came to Florence the panel of the Virgin Mary from Impruneta, and the relics from theCertosa, [accompanied by] all the clergy wearing copes and other liturgical garments, with alltheir relics under banners, and many youths wearing gloves and with poles in hand on whichthey carried the platform with the relics. Then Lcame] all the clergy with the relics of SaintJohn, the head of Saint Zenobius, and with the arm of Saint Philip and [the relic] of SaintAndrew. And in all, between the clergymen and monks, they numbered 460, with all, or themajority of, the Florentine people-men and women-behind them, and in this manner theywent about the city. Once they reached S. Maria del Fiore, they placed the relics on the altar,and the entire church was oiled with lit torches and Rishop Nofrio celebrated mass in the said[church of] S. Maria [del Fiore].77

  • Kach of these accounts is unusually informative as to the manner in which the relics carriedin the processions were displayed. More often than not, in contemporary descriptions of suchevents, diarists or chroniclers simply state that the relics were shown to the people, withoutspecifying where and how. The literary image of the Florentine youths bearing the relic-ladenplatform brings to mind the way in which a relic of the True dross is carried by the membersof the Scuola di S. Giovanni Evangelista, a Venetian lay confraternity, in the Procession in

  • the Piazza S. Marco that Gentile Bellini painted for the scuola's Sala d'Albergo (now the Saladella Croce) in 1496 (Fig. 10). In this scene, the piazza and church of S. Marco serve as adramatic stage and backdrop for the barely discernible miracle that takes place when theRrescian merchant Jacopo de' Salis, in an attempt to effect a cure for his wounded son,kneels down while the scuola's relic of the True Cross passes by. Patricia Fortini Brown hasinterpreted this image as a representation of communal harmony, one that can be seen in thecoats of arms of the Venetian Scuole Grandi that hang from the edges of the canopy abovethe reliquary containing the fragment of the True Cross, the other participants in theprocession, and, most important, the marble- and mosaic-covered basilica of S. Marco in thebackground.78I am aware of only one comparable Florentine image, an early-sixteenth-century manuscriptillumination from one of the cathedral's choir books depicting a Corpus Domini procession(Fig. 17).79 In this image, the bishop, accompanied by the clergy and followed by thepopulace, carries a monstrance under the shelter of a portable baldachin decorated with theimages of various saints and martyrs. This illumination, contemporary descriptions ofprocessions, and the surviving visual evidence provided by the reliquaries from the cathedraland baptistery allow us to imagine a vision of communal and ecclesiastical harmony similarto the one shown in Gentile Bellini's painting every time the Florentines brought out theirrelics. The head of Saint Zenobius was encased in an object fashioned in the likeness of thesaintly founder of the Florentine church (Fig. 1). The reliquary bust's shoulders were made tolook as if draped in a rich brocade, and it has a removable silk and enameled silver miter.The miter especially must have invited a visual comparison between it and the one worn bythe Florentine bishop when he took part in the processions in which it was carried. The SaintPhilip reliquary did not recall the appearance of the procession's participants, but it echoedthat of the massive building that dominated the urban setting through which they moved. Inthis manner, the reliquary's form, particularly its cupola, served as a portable representativenot of the Baptistery of S. Giovanni and its rich collection of relics but of Saint Philip's role asan intercessor for all of Florence-as symbolized by S. Maria del Fiore.

    A Protective ShadowDuring the trecento and quattrocento, the spirit of competition between S. Maria del Fioreand S. Giovanni guided their respective acquisitions of relics and commissions for reliquariesin which to house them.80 This local competition has been linked, in part, to the battle forprestige between the guilds that were responsible for the maintenance, construction, andembellishment of the two churches. The Calimala Guild, composed of merchants who dealtwith imported wool, had been in charge of S. Giovanni from about 1157, whereas the guild ofthe domestic wool merchants, the Arte della Lana, was assigned the administration of theOpera di S. Maria del Fiore in 1531.81 The two rival guilds never missed an opportunity tosurpass one another, and while this generally appears to be true for the history of theirartistic commissions, when it came to Florentine ritual, the cathedral and baptistery weremore often united than they were divided.82

  • Accounts of various celebrations and processions show that the two churches were regularlypaired ritually, and Franklin Toker has noted that "the Baptist altar in the Baptistery was sotightly bound to the liturgy of the cathedral that it was a virtual S. Reparata altar as well."83We have seen that this was the case on the May 1 feast of Saints Philip and James the Less,when masses were celebrated and the arm relic was exhibited in both churches. There is noreason to suspect that the liturgy on that day was altered when S. Maria del Fiore replaced S.Reparata, especially as one of the chapels in the eastern, and most prestigious, tribune ofthe new church was dedicated to those very apostles.84Descriptions of other celebrations and processions indicate that the two churches were aconsistent part of major celebrations. On the June 6, 1393, translation of the baptistery's firstthree relics of Saint John the Baptist to S. Giovanni, the relics were initially carried to thecathedral, where the bishop celebrated mass, and presumably it was after this mass thatthey were placed in the baptistery.85 Even today, after working their way through the centerof Florence, the participants in the procession held on the feast of Saint John the Baptist firstenter the baptistery to collect a relic of Saint John displayed on that church's altar (usuallythe saint's second finger) and then proceed to the cathedral for mass. It should also beremembered that the baptistery's double-shelled cupola was an important inspiration forBrunelleschi's solution for the construction of the dome of S. Maria del Fiore,86 and that bothsets of bronze doors Lorenzo Ghiberti made for S. Giovanni, the north doors as well as theGates of Paradise, were meant to create a worthy passage from one church to the other.87

  • With this in mind, it is hardly surprising that a reliquary made for the baptistery andcommissioned by the Calimala Guild has a dome that resembles one whose constructionwas supervised by a rival guild at another church. From the time its construction began, thedome symbolized Florence's civic and religious status. As a "copy" of S. Maria del Fiorc, theSaint Philip reliqtiary likewise symbolized Florence's civic, economic, and spiritual well-beingand prowess, and its meaning would not have been lost on the spectators who saw it when itwas exhibited each May 1, as well as the other times it was removed from the baptisteryaltar.When viewed within its devotional and ritual context, it appears that the Saint Philip reliquarywas designed so that each time it was carried through the city's streets, set up on theringhiera before the Palazzo Vecchio, or displayed on altars in either the baptistery or thecathedral, it would represent not just the Florentine Cathedral complex but the entire city.Thus, even though Saint Philip did not have plaques and monuments commemorating his lifeand miracles located throughout Florence, as Saint Zenobius did, because the reliquarymade for his arm was based on the form and decoration of S. Maria del Fiore, it effectivelysymbolized, promoted, and celebrated Saint Philip's importance as an advocate anddefender of Florence's citizens, church, and government. In other words, just as LeonBattista Alberti noted that the cathedral's dome was "ample to cover with its shadow all the

  • Tuscan people," within its domed reliquary, the arm of Saint Philip cast its own protectiveshadow over the city.88

    SidebarBetween 1422 and 1425 a new reliquary was made for the prestigious Florentine relic ofApostle Philip's right arm. Although it was kept at the baptistery of S. Giovanni, the form ofthe Saint Philip reliquary was inspired by several key elements of Florence Cathedral'sdesign and decorative program. This essay will argue that this was done in order to presentthe reliquary as a potent and explicit symbol of the bond between the protective power of thesaint whose relic it contains and the city of Florence-a symbol whose meaning was fullyrealized only through ritual performance.FootnoteNotesThis essay is based on a series of papers presented at the Southeast College ArtConference (SECAC), Columbia, South Carolina, in October 2001; at the annual meeting ofthe Renaissance Society of America, Tempe, Arizona, in April 2002; and at the InternationalMedieval Congress, University of Leeds, England, in July 2002. I should like to extend awarm and sincere thanks to the following friends, colleagues, and mentors, as well as toPerry Chapman, the anonymous readers for The Art Bulletin, and Lory Frankel, whoseinsights and intellectual generosity have greatly improved it: Scott B. Montgomery, SarahBlake McHam, Andrew Becker, William Levin, Sara James, and Timothy Smith. I am alsoindebted to the staffs of the Kunsthistorisches Institutes in Florence and the Art andArchitecture Libraries and Inter-library Loan offices at Virginia Tech and the University ofKansas for their assistance. Research for this study was funded in part by a summer stipendfrom Virginia Tech's College of Arts and Sciences and a grant from the New Faculty General

  • Research Fund at the University of Kansas.1. See, for example, Richard C. Trexler, "Ritual Behavior in Renaissance Florence: TheSetting," Medievalia et Humanistica 4 (1973): 125-44; and idem, Public Life in RenaissanceFlorence (Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1980), esp. 240-78.2. The marble plaque is set into the facade of the Altoviti Palace. Giovanni Lami, Sanctaeecclesiae florentinae monumenta (Florence, 1758), vol. 3, 1710; and E. Sanesi, L'anticoingresso dei vescovi fiorentini (Florence, 1932).3. See Sally J. Cornelison, "A French King and a Magic Ring: The Girolami and a Relic of St.Zenobius in Renaissance Florence," Renaissance Quarterly 55 (2002): 434-69.4. For the history of the translation and the rituals surrounding its celebration, see Bicchi andCiandella, 31, 42-43; Giovanni Leoncini and Alessandro Bicchi, "Il culto dei santi incattedrale," in Verdon and Innocenti, vol. 1, 299-303; and Sally J. Cornelison, "When anImage Is a Relic: The Saint Zenobius Panel from Florence Cathedral," in Images, Relics, andDevotional Practices in Medieval and Renaissance Italy, ed. Cornelison and Scott B.Montgomery (Tempe, Ariz.: Medieval and Renaissance Texts and Studies, in press).5. For the history of relic ostensoria and monstrances and further examples of these objects,see Joseph Braun, Die Reliquiare des christlichen Kultes und ihre Entwicklung (Freiburg imBreisgau: Herder, 1940), 55-60, 301-79; Michel Andrieu, "Aux origines du culte du saint-sacrement, reliquaires et monstrances eucharistiques," Analecta Bollandiana 68 (1950): 397-418; and Miri Rubin, Corpus Christi: The Eucharist in Late Medieval Culture (Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 1991), 290-92.6. See Cocchi, 46-54; Filippo Rossi, "La mostra del Tesoro di Firenze Sacra, le oreficerie,"Bollettino d'Arle, 3rd ser., 27 (1933-34): 220; Giulia Brunetti, "Reliquiario del braccio di S.Filippo Apostolo e di altri santi," in Becherucci and Brunetti, vol. 2, 242-45; L'oreficeria nellaFirenze, 33-34; Alessandro Guidotti, "Del Vagliente," in Dizionario biograjico degli italiani(Rome: Istituto clella Enciclopedia Italiana, 1990), vol. 38, 381-83; Antonio Paolucci, ed., IlBattistero di San Giovanni a Firenze (Modena: Franco Cosimo Panini, 1994), 178, 550-51;Bicchi and Ciandella, 106-8; Annamaria Giusti, Il Battistero di San Giovanni a Firenze(Florence: Mandragora, 2000), 118-19; Dora Liscia Bemporad, "Il Battistero e la cupolanell'iconografia orafa fiorentina del quattrocento," in La cattedrale e la citt: Saggi sul Duomodi Firenze, ed. Timothy Verdon and Annalisa Innocenti (Florence: EDIFIR, 2001), vol. 2, 463-64.7. See, for example, L'oreficeria nella Firenze, 33; Heinrich Klotz, Filippo Brunneleschi: TheEarly Works and the Medieval Tradition, trans. Hugh Keith (London: Academy Editions,1990), 103; Ludwig H. Heydenreich, Architecture in Italy, 1400-1500, rev. Paul Davies (NewHaven: Yale University Press, 1996), 153 n. 4; and Liscia Bemporad (as in n. 6), 463-64.8. Biblioteca Riccardiana, Florence, Riccardianus 1223 E2; and Archivio dell'Opera di S.Maria del Fiore (hereafter AOSMF), 1.3.7, fols. 23v-32v. The Opera del Duomo codex waspublished in the Acta Sanctorum (AASS, I, Maii, Paris, 1866), vol. 14, 15-18. There isanother account of the translation in AOSMF, 1.3.9, fols. 5v-9v. For the literary tradition oftraslationes texts, see Patrick J. Geary, Furta Sacra: Thefts of Relics in the Central Middle

  • Ages (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1990), 10-15. Giovanni Villani incorrectly datedthe translation from 1190 and misidentified the queen of Jerusalem; Villani, Cronica diGiovanni Villani, ed. Ignazio Moutier and Francesco Gherardi Dragomani (Florence: Sansoni,1845), bk. 5, chap. 14. See also Agostino Lapini, Diario fiorentino di Agostino Lapini dal 252al 1596, ed. Giuseppe Odoardo Corazzini (Florence: Sansoni, 1900), 6-7. For recentdiscussions of Villani's treatment of the subject, see Webb, 82-83; and Anna Benvenuti, "Lefonti agiografiche nella costruzione della memoria cronistica: Il caso di Giovanni Villani," in Ilpubblico dei santi: Forme e livelli di recezione dei messaggi agiografici, ed. Paolo Golinelli(Rome: Viella, 2000), 94-96.9. Giovanni Mariti, Memorie istoriche di Monaco de' Corbizzi fiorentino Patriarca diGerusalemme (Florence, 1781). For the relic's history, see also Ferdinande Leopoldo DelMigliore, Firenze citt nobilissima illustrata (Florence, 1684), 104; Giuseppe Richa, Notizieistoriche delle chiese florentine divise nei suoi quartieri, 10 vols. (Florence, 1755), vol. 5, 1;and Robert Davidsohn, Storia di Firenze, ed. L. Belmonte and L. Clerici (Florence: Sansoni,1956), vol. 1, 959-61.10. Pope Innocent III was evidently aware of the Florentines' acquisition of the relic, whichoccurred at a time when Florence was strengthening its ties to the papacy. Webb, 82-83.11. For Monaco de' Corbizzi's illustrious ecclesiastical career, see Benvenuti (as in n. 8), 95.12. Villani (as in n. 8): "E sappiendo come la delta [Maria] reina di Gerusalem avea la dettasanta reliquia, desiderando d'averla per onorare la sua citt di Firenze, la domand alla dettareina, assegnandole corne non era lecito a donna che fosse al secolo, s santa reliquiatenere infra le sue gioie mondane, ma si convenia che fosse in parte ove fosse venerata aDio: per la quale cosa la detta reina la don al detto patriarca." See also Lapini (as in n. 8), 6.13. For the relic adventus ceremony in Byzantium and for visual records of such events, seeKenneth G. Holum and Gary Vikan, "The Trier Ivory, Adventus Ceremonial, and the Relics ofSt. Stephen," Dumbarton Oaks Papers 33 (1979): 113-33, esp. 115-20. For relatedceremonies that accompanied medieval relic thefts, see Geary (as in n. 8), 125-28.14. For the political situation in Florence at this time and how it relates to the city'sepiscopacy, see Anna Benvenuti Papi, Pastori del popolo: Storie e leggende di vescovi e dicitt nell''Italia medievale (Florence: Arnaud, 1988), 22-24, 100-103 nn. 10-22; and GeorgeW. Dameron, Episcopal Power and Florentine Society, 1000-1320 (Cambridge, Mass.:Harvard University Press, 1991), 93-140, esp. 125.15. Domenico Cardini and Marco Cardini, "L'avvio alla riconfigurazione del centro religiosenella forma attuale," in Il bel San Giovanni e, Santa Maria del Fiore: Il centro religioso diFirenze dal tardo antico al rinscimento, ed. Domenico Cardini (Florence: Le Lettere, 1996),160.16. See Tacconi, 98.17. In images depicting medieval Eastern relic adventus ceremonies, carried relics aretypically housed in the same kind of aniconic reliquary casket, a form of reliquary that wasfavored in Byzantium. See Holum and Vikan (as in n. 13); and Ioli Kalavrezou, "HelpingHands for the Empire: Imperial Ceremonies and the Cult of Relies at the Byzantine Court," in

  • Byzantine Court Culture from 829 to 1204, ed. Henry Maguire (Washington, D.C.: DumbartonOaks, 1977), 53-79.18. For the history of Pistoia, the cult of Saint James, and the Opera di S. Jacopo, see DavidHerlihy, Medieval and Renaissance Pistoia: The Social History of 'an Italian Town, 1200-1430 (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1967), 254-57; and Sabatino Ferrali, L'Apostolo S.Jacopo il Maggiore e il suo culto a Pistoia (Pistoia: Opera dei Santi Giovanni e Zeno, 1979),11-45. The origins and celebration of the feast of Saint James in Pistoia are also discussed in(although it has numerous editorial and factual shortcomings) Heidi Chrtien, The Festival ofSan Giovanni: Imagery and Political Power in Renaissance Florence (New York: Peter Lang,1994), 101-23. For reviews of this book, see Christiane L. Joost-Gaugier, Sixteenth CenturyJournal 27 (1996): 559-61; and Louis Haas, Renaissance Quarterly 51 (1998): 212-14. Webb(78-81) suggests that Bishop Atto's acquisition of the relic of Saintjames was motivated byhis wish to divert some of the pilgrim traffic along the Via Francigena from Lucca and theVolto Santo to Pistoia.19. For Pistoia's political and economic status in the 12th century and its importance as apilgrimage center, see Lucia Gai, ed., Pistoia e il Cammino di Santiago: Una dimensioneeuropea nella Toscana medioevale, Atti del Convegno Internazionale di Studi, Pistoia 28-29-30 Settembre 1984 (Naples: Edizioni Scientifiche Italiane, 1987); idem, ed., La viaFrancigena ed il culto di San Iacopo a Pistoia (Pistoia: Provincia e Comune di Pistoia, 1996);Dorothy F. Glass, Portals, Pilgrimage, and Crusade, in Western Tuscany (Princeton:Princeton University Press, 1997), 5-6, 72-74; and Diana Webb, "Pilgrimage in One City:Pistoia," chap. 7 of Pilgrims and Pilgrimage in the Medieval West (London: I. B. Tauris,1999).20. Glass (as in n. 19), 5-6. See also Alberto Cipriani, "Il pellegrinaggio iacopeo in Pistoia,"chap. 2 of Storie di pellegrinaggi e giubilei (Florence: Maschietto e Musolino, 1999).21. Ferrali (as in n. 18), 47-64; idem, L'altare argenteo di S. Jacopo in Cattedrale di Pistoia(Pistoia: Fabbriceria della Cattedrale, n.d.); Lucia Gai, L'altare argenteo di San Jacopo nelDuomo di Pistoia (Turin: Allemandi, 1984); and Roger Tarr, "Brunelleschi and Donatello:Placement and Meaning in Sculpture," Artibus et Historiae 32 (1995): 102-7.22. Webb, 79-80.23. See Giulia Brunetti and Luisa Becherucci, "Il dossale d'argento," in Becherucci andBrunetti, vol. 2, 5, 215-29. For both altars, see Pietro Toesca, Il trecento (Turin: UnioneTipografico Editrice Torinese, 1951), 902-5.24. It is perhaps also significant that in 1206, only one year after Saint Philip's arm arrived inFlorence, Bishop Giovanni da Velletri founded a church dedicated to Saintjames, S. Jacopoin Campo Corbellini, in the Via Faenza, a church that may have had ties to Pistoia.Davidsohn (as in n. 9), vol. 1, 962; Richa (as in n. 9), vol. 3, 293. From 1256, S. Jacopo inCampo Corbellini was the commandery of the Knights of Malta. Walter Paatz and ElisabethPaatz, Die Kirchen von Florenz (Frankfurt: Vittorio Klostermann, 1955), vol. 2, 400-410; andGeraldine A. Johnson, "Activating the Effigy: Donatello's Peed Tomb in Siena Cathedral," ArtBulletin 77 ()995): 452-54.

  • 25. For the celebration of the feast in the context of the Florentine Cathedral's calendar, seeTacconi, 43-44, 67.26. Becherucci and Brunetti, vol. 2, 242.27. Romolo Caggese, ed., Statuti delta repubblica fiorentina, vol. 2, Statute del Podest 1325(Florence: Stab. Tipigrafico E. Ariani, 1921), vol. 2, 1, 378-79 (bk. 5.20), 395 (5.48). see alsoDiane Finiello Zervas, ed., Orsanmichele a Firenze, 2 vols. (Modena: Franco Cosimo Panini,1996), vol. 1, 53; and Bicchi and Ciandella, 113-14.28. Webb, 124.29. Mary Bergstein, The Sculpture of Nanni di Bianco (Princeton: Princeton University Press,2000), 49-54, 125-31.30. Biblioteca Marucelliana, Florence, Manoscritti, A. 199. I, fol. 170v: "11 Maggio 1340.Forzerino d'argento nel quale si tiene il braccio di S. Filippo si rassetti per un buon maestro."A transcription of the same document from the Spoglie Slrozziane is published in Vasari,366, doc. 3. See also Becherucci and Brunetti, vol. 2, 11.31.Archivio di Stato, Florence (hereafter ASF), Carle Strozziane, ser. II^sup a^, LI.1, fol.125r: "1422. Reliquiere si faccia per il braccio di S. Filippo." Published in Vasari, 368, doc.25.32. ASF, Carte Strozziane, ser. II^sup a^, LI. 1, fol. 15v: "1425. Antonio di Piero delVagliente, orafo, fa una reliquiera d'argento dorato per il braccio di S. Filippo, nella quale sispende nor. 350, e si vende un forzerino d'argento dorato e smaltellato dove stava prima."Published in part in Cocchi, 50; and Vasari, 368, doc. 27. While a considerable amount, the350 florins the Opera di S. Giovanni paid for the Saint Philip reliquary was notunprecedented, and it was just a fraction of what the organization disbursed between the endof the 14th century and the early 16th century in order to house ils most important relics inhonorable and impressive containers.33. The goldsmith Bernardo Holzmann seems to have carried out all the restoration work ofabout 1720, and his name is certainly associated with the Saint Philip reliquary's restoration.See Cocchi, 48; Becherucci and Brunetti, vol. 2, 237, 243; L'oreficeria nella Firenze, 33-34.34. As Giulia Brunetti has noted (Becherucci and Brunetti, vol. 2, 244-45), Paolo di GiovanniSogliani's reliquary of Saint Giovanni Gualberto of 1500 may provide a clue as to the originalappearance of the Saint Philip reliquary, for the former's aedicule and statuette were inspiredby the latter. See also Dora Liscia Bemporad, "Reliquiario di San Giovanni Gualberto," inArgenti fiorentini (Florence: Studio per Edizioni Scelle, 1992), vol. 2, 21-24.35. The inscription reads: HE SACRATISSIME SANCTORUM RELIQUIE MISSE FUERUNTDE CONSTANTINOPOLI TEMPORE MANUELIS PALTOLOGI [sic] IMPERATORISCONSTANTINOPOLITANI ANNO MCCCLXXXXIIII ET IN PRESENTE VASCULO POSITEANNO DOMINI MCCCLXXXXVIII DE MENSE IUNH. The base contains a relic of SaintPantaleon, a piece of one of the stones that were the instruments of Saint Slephen'smartyrdom, various anonymous sainls' relics, and a small Byzantine silver plaque decoratedwith the image of an unknown saint. Becherucci and Brunetti, vol. 2, 242-43.

  • 36. These prophet figures, one of which is missing, are tiny, each measuring not much morethan an inch (slightly less than 3 centimeters) in height. See Becherucci and Brunetti, vol. 2,242.37. For these works, see Giulia Brunetli, "Ghiberti orafo," in Lorenzo Ghiberli nel suo tempo(Florence: Olschki, 1980), 223-44; and Francesco Caglioti and Davide Gasparotlo, "LorenzoGhiberti, il 'Sigillo di Nerone' e le origini della placchetta 'antiquaria,' " Prospettiva 85 (1997):2-38.38. Jacobus de Voragine, The Golden Legend, trans. William Granger Ryan (Princeton:Princeton University Press, 1993), vol. 1, 267-68.39. Bergstein (as in n. 29), 53-54, 129, has noted the stylistic and iconographie affinitiesbetween the two figures.40. The saint appears with both of these attributes in a 14th-century fresco fromOrsanmichele's interior. Zervas (as in n. 27), vol. 1, 525, vol. 2, 240. For the iconography ofSaint Philip, see George Kaftal, The Iconography of the Saints in Tuscan Painting (Florence:Sansoni, 1952), 841-46.41. Becherucci and Brunetti, vol. 2, 245.42. Martin Wackernagel, The World of the Florentine Renaissance Artist, trans. Alison Luchs(Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1981), 92; and Paatz and Paatz (as in n. 24), vol. 2,210. See also Becherucci and Brunetli, vol. 2, 244.43. Becherucci and Brunetti, vol. 2, 11, 245. Brunetli repeated this theory almost twentyyears later in her article "Oreficeria del quattrocento in Toscana," Antichit viva 26 (1987):22.44. It was accepted by Bergstein (as in n. 29), 54; and Antonio Natali, L'umanesimo diMichelozzo (Florence: Maschiello e Musolino, 1996), 18-21. L'oreficeria nella Firenze, 33-34.45. Ulrich Thieme and Felix Becker, "Antonio di Piero del Vagliente," in Allgemeines Lexiconder Bildenden Knstler (Leipzig: E. A. Seemann, 1908), vol. 2, 7; Becherucci and Brunetti,vol. 2, 243; L'oreficeria nella Firenze, 180; Richard Krautheimer, Lorenzo Ghiberti (Princeton:Princeton University Press, 1982), 376; and Guidotti (as in n. 6), 381-83.46. Unfortunately, the reliquary no longer survives. See Alessandro Guidotti, "Del Chiaro," inDizionario biografico degli italiani (Rome: Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, 1988), vol. 36,449-52. For Cossa's will, see Giuseppe Canestrini, "Il testamento del Cardinale BaldassareCoscia, gi Papa col nome di Giovanni XXIII," Archivio Storico Italiano 4 (1843): 292-96. Thehistory of the quattrocento reliquary for Saint John the Baptisl's right index finger is discussedin Sally J. Cornelison, "Art and Devotion in Late Medieval and Renaissance Florence: TheRelics and Reliquaries of Sis. Zenobius and John the Baptist" (Ph.D. diss., CourtauldInstitute of Art, University of London, 1998), 187-89. In the late 17th century, the relic wasplaced in a new reliquary, and nothing survives of the one Giovanni del Chiaro made in theearly 1420s. Becherucci and Brunetti, vol. 2, 256-57.47. His patrons included various religious institutions, the Medici, Palla Strozzi, and Niccoloda Tolentino. Guidotti (as in n. 6), 381-82.

  • 48. Although Paolucci (as in n. 6), 550-51, citing the reliquary's "particular stylistic andstructural characteristics," shies away from crediting Antonio del Vagliente with the reliquary'sexecution, I see no reason to question the documented attribution.49. Similar formal liberties were taken with the architectural setting of a 15th-century paintingattributed to Andrea di Giusto, Christ and His Apostles in a Temple, that also depictsFlorence Cathedral and its dome. See John G. Johnson Collection: Catalogue of ItalianPaintings (Philadelphia: George H. Buchanan, 1966), 1-2.50. Klotz (as in n. 7), 103, discusses the relation between the Saint Philip reliquary and thelantern without specifically identifying the reliquary. For the lantern's design, see GabrielleMorolli, "Due Lanterne," in Lorenzo Ghiberti, "materia e ragionamenti" (Florence: Centro Di,1978), 509; Howard Saalman, Filippo Brunelleschi: The Cupola of Santa Maria del Fiore(London: Zwemmer, 1980), 137-41; Henry A. Millon, "Models in Renaissance Architecture,"in The Renaissance from Brunelleschi to Michelangelo: The Representation of Architecture,ed. Millon and Vittorio Magnago Lampugnani (Milan: Bompiani, 1994), 19-22; and thecatalogue entries by Massimo Scolari in the same volume, 583-85.51. Giovanni Poggi, Il Duomo di Firenze (Florence: Medicea, 1988), vol. 1, lxxv-lxxvii; H. W.Janson, The Sculpture of Donatello (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1963), 3-4; Tarr(as in n. 21), 117; and Bonnie A. Bennett and David G. Wilkins, Donatello (Mt. Kisco, N.Y.:Moyer Bell, 1984), 191-94.52. The Orsanmichele tabernacle's dome is based on the dome of the baptistery and servedas an important precedent for the dome of S. Maria del Fiore. Howard Saalman, "SantaMaria del Fiore, 1294-1418," Art Bulletin 46 (1964): 493; idem (as in n. 50), 82; GiuseppeRocchi Coopmans De Yoldi, "Context and Innovation in Orcagna's Tabernacle," vol. 1, 362;and Claudio Pisetta and Giulia Maria Vitali, "New Knowledge of Andrea Orcagna'sTabernacle through an Interpretive Study," vol. 1, 384-90, in Zervas (as in n. 27). See alsoNancy Rash Fabbri and Nina Rutenburg, "The Tabernacle of Orsanmichele in Context," ArtBulletin 63 (1981): 392; and Gert Kreytenberg, Orcagna's Tabernacle in Orsanmichele,Florence (New York: Harry N. Abrams, 1994), 38-39.53. The reliquary's crockets are also similar to those on the gables of several of the exteriorniches at Orsanmichele. For the stylistically related niches IOr the statues of Saints Luke,John the Baptist, Philip, and Mark, see Bergstein (as in n. 29), 126-28.54. See Fabbri and Rutenburg (as in n. 52), 385-405, esp. 390-92; Brendan Cassidy,"Orcagna's Tabernacle in Florence: Design and Function," Zeitschrift fr Kunstgeschichte 55(1992): 180-211, esp. 204; Zervas, "Il tabernacolo della Vergine," in Zervas (as in n. 27), vol.1, 79-98, esp. 84; Pisetta and Vitali (as in n. 52), 389-90; and Anita Fiderer Moskowitz, ItalianGothic Sculpture, c. 1250-c. 1400 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2001), 163-65.55. With reference to the relation between figural and body-part reliquaries and the relicsthey contained, Hans Belting noted that "images and relics were never two distinct realities"and that "image and relic explained each other"; Belting, Likeness and Presence: A History ofthe Image before the Era of Art, trans. Edmund Jephcott (Chicago: University of ChicagoPress, 1994), 301-2. For recent studies of body-part reliquaries and the relics they contained,

  • see the essays in Gesta 36 (1997); Scott B. Montgomery, "The Use and Perception ofReliquary Busts in the Late Middle Ages" (Ph.D. diss., Rutgers University, 1996); and idem,"Caput sancli Regis Ladislai: The Reliquary Bust of Saint Ladislas and Holy Kingship in LateMedieval Hungary," in Decorations for the Holy Dead: Visual Embellishment on Tombs andShrines of Saints, ed. Stephen Lamia and Elizabeth Valdez del Alamo (Turnhout: Brepols,2002), 77-90.56. Geary (as in n. 8), 5, has observed that the symbolic import of a relic is wholly dependenton the meaning it is assigned by the community that possessed it.57. David S. Peterson, "State-Building, Church Reform, and the Politics of Legitimacy inFlorence, 1375-1460," in Florentine Tuscany: Structures and Practices of Power, ed. WilliamJ. Connell and Andrea Zorzi (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2000), 122-43, esp.132-33.58. Richard Krautheimer, "Introduction to an 'Iconography of Mediaeval Architecture,'"Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 5 (1942): 1-33.59. For the Holy Sepulchre in the Rucellai Chapel and related bibliography, see Heydenreich(as in n. 7), 40, 157 mi. 31-35. There is also a small, painted wooden box at the Castello diMonselice, possibly a container for relics, that in turn inexactly copies the Rucellai HolySepulchre. see Christine Smith's catalogue entry for this object in Millon and Lampugnani (asin n. 50), 456 n. 44.60. Felicity Ratt, "Re-presenting the Common Place: Architectural Portraits in TrecentoPainting," Studies in Iconography 22 (2001): 87-110. Marvin Trachtenberg also discussesthis issue in Dominion of the Eye: Urbanism, Art, and Power in Early Modern Florence(Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1997), 214-16.61. Examples of mctahvork objects that represent more generic architecture are the formercenser from the treasury of S. Marco in Venice, which resembles a secular structure such asa garden kiosk. This object was later used to house the important Venetian relic of the HolyBlood. Danielle GaboritChopin, "Lampada o bruciaprofumo a forma di edificio a cupole," in Iltesoro di San Marco (Milan: Olivetti, 1986), 245-51; and Ioli Kalavrezou, "Incense Burner inthe Shape of a Domed Building," in The Glory of Byzantium: Art and Culture of the MiddleByzantine Ere A.D. 843-1261, ed. Helen C. Evans and William D. Wixom (New York:Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1997), 251. Another is a domed reliquary, now in Aachen, whichmay have been made to serve as au artophorion (container for the Host), whose shape hasbeen linked to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Robert G. Ousterhout. "Reliquary of SaintAnastasios the Persian," in Evans and Wixom, 460-61. A penchant for domed architecturalmetalwork was not exclusive to Byzantine artisans, as is attested by two late-12th-centuryreliquaries, one from Hochelten (in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London) and the otherfrom the Guelph Treasure (now in the Staatliche Museen, Berlin). Peter Lasko, Ars Sacra800-1200, 2nd ed. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1994), 236-38; Paul Williamson, ed.,The Medieval Treasury: The Art of the Middle Ages in the Victoria and Albert Museum(London: Victoria and Albert Museum, 1986), 144-45; Marie-Madeleine Gauthier, maux duMoyen ge occidental (Fribourg: Office du Livre, 1972), 148-52, 358; and Jorg H.

  • Baumgarten, Die Kuppelreliquiare aus dem Welfenschatz und von Hoch-Elten: Einevergleichende Untersuchung (Frankfurt: Bern, 1995).62. Donatella Reggioli, "Reliquiario della lingua di Sant'Antonio," in Lorenzo Ghiberti (as in n.50), 108-10; Anna Maria Spiazzi, "La prima met del quattrocento," in Basilica del Santo: Leoreficerie, ed. Marco Collareta, Giordana Mariani Canova, and Spiazzi (Padua: Centro StudiAntoniani, 1995), 40, 110-14: and Liscia Bemporad (as in n. 6), 471-72.63. See Giovanni Freni, 'The Reliquary of the Holy Corporal in the Cathedral of Orvieto:Patronage and Politics," in Art, Politics, and Civic Religion in Central Italy 1261-1352, ed.Joanna Cannon and Beth Williamson (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2000), 117-77; and John White,Art and Architecture in Italy, 1250-1400, 3rd ed. (New Haven: Yale University Press, 1993),466-68. Toesca (as in n. 23), 890, has shown that early Italian architectural reliquaries wereinspired by those being produced in the Gothic north in the 13th century.Genevive Souchal, "Un reliquaire de la Sainte-Chapelle au Muse de Cluny," Revue desArts 10 (1960): 179-94, esp. 190-92; Elisabeth Taburet-Delahaye, L'orfevrerie gothique (XIIe-dbut XVe sicle) nu Muse de Cluny (Paris: Runion des Muses Nationaux, 1989), 83-86,esp. 85; and idem, "Reliquaire des Saints Maxien, Lucien, Julien," in Le trsor de la Sainte-Chapelle (Paris: Runion des Muses Nationaux, 2001), 164-66.65. Ulrich Middeldorf, "Zur Goldschmeidekunst der Toskanischen Frh-renaissance," inRaccoltta di scritti (Florence: Studio per Edizioni Scelte, 1979-80), vol. 1, 212-13; GiuseppeMarchini, Il tesoro del Duomo di Prato (Prato: Cassa di Risparmio e Depositi di Prato, 1963),19-20; and Brunetti (as in n. 43), 23-24.66. For the pulpit, see Janson (as in n. 51), 108-18; R. W. Lightbown, Donatello andMichelozzo (London: Harvey Miller, 1980), vol. 1, 230-55, esp. 245; and John Pope-Hennessy, Italian Renaissance Sculpture, 4th ed. (London: Phaidon, 1996), 352-53.67. See Cynthia Hahn, "The Voices of the Saints: Speaking Reliquaries," Gesta 36 (1997):20-31.68. Most of them completely conceal the relics they contain, but some have small windowsthrough which the sacred objects are visible. Hahn (as in n. 67),26.69. AOSMF, I.3.8, published as Mores et consuetudinrs ecclesiae florentinae, ed. DomenicoMoroni (Florence: Petri Allegrini, 1791). Because it includes the least of Saint Francis butdoes not mention the least of the Corpus Domini, which was instituted in 1264, Lami (as in n.2). vol. 3, 1654, dated this text to sometime between 1228 and 1264. See also LorenzoFabbri's entry for the Mores et consuetudines in I libri del Duomo di Firenze, ed. Fabbri andMarica Tacconi (Florence: Centro Di, 1997), 175-76; and Tacconi, 93-94.70. Today these relics are housed in the St. Malthew Chapel in the cathedral's south tribune.Bicchi and Ciandella, 67.71. For the text, see Moreni (as in n. 69), 46; reprinted in Cocchi, 52-53, and in Tacconi, 98-99. For an Faiglish translation of part of this text, see Franklin Toker, "On Holy Ground:Architecture and Liturgy in the Cathedral and in the Streets of Late-Medieval Florence," inVerdon and Innocenti, vol. 2, 547. See also Leoncini and Bicchi (as in n. 4), 313.

  • 72. See 'Facconi, 99.73. See Richard C. Trexler, "Florentine Religious Experience: The Sacred Image," Studies inthe Renaissance 19 (1972): 11; idem, 1980 (as in n. 1), chap. 10, "the Ritual of Crisis"; andWebb, 166.74. Cronica di Matteo Villani, ed. Francesco Gherardi Dragomani (Florence: Sansoni, 1816),bk. 4, chap. 7. See also Trexler (as in n. 73), 13-14; and Becherucci and Brunetti, vol. 2, 8-11. According to Giovanni Battista Casotti's history of the Virgin of Impruneta, similarprocessions look place more than fifty time's between 1354 and 1500: Casotti, Memorieistoriche della Miracolosa Immagine di Maria Vergine dell'Impruneta (Florence: GiiuseppeManni, 1714), vol. 1, 91-139. See also Bicchi and Ciandella, 42.75. Alle bocche della piazza, 73, 95-96, 99. 141. See also Webb, 166.76. Alle bocche della piazza, 99: "Domenica a d XVI si fe' la procisione generale per la cittdi Firenze, messer lo veschovo cholla chericeria, cho' pieviali e / chon cotte indosso e chollatesta di santo Canobi e chol braccio di santo Filippo e cho[n] molle altre relique, e tuttireligiosi cholle loro croci e loro relique, e'frati di Certosa cho[n] le loro relique i[n] granquantit. F. vonne i[n] questo di i[n] Firenze la tavola di Santa Maria in Pianeta, e posesi i[n]su la piaa de' Signori, e quivi i[n] sulla ringhiera, fatto un grandissimo palcho dove stetono e'cherici, e' Signiori Priori e' loro Cholegi, e uno palcho dove stette messer lo veschovo acantare la messa, e pi palchi pi alti, molti adorni, dove stette la moltitudinee delle reliquie,che ogniuno di sulla piaa le potea vedere, e uno placho per gli orghani e pe'cantori. Epredich messer lo veschovo fra la messa."77. Alle bocche della piazza, 212: "e vene [n] Firenze la tavola di Santa Maria I[m] prineta elle relique da Certosa e tutti i religiosi cho' pieviali e paramenti indosso, chon tutte loro reliquesotto i stendardi, e moltitudine di giovanni con ghuanti e aste i[n] mano facendo levare lapressa dalle relique; poi tutto il cherichato, con pieviali, paramenti e cotte indosso, chollerelique di santo Giovanni e colla testa di santo anobi e chol braccio di santo Filippo e disanto Andrea. E furono in tutto, fra 'l cherichato e religiosi, CCCCLX, con tutto il popolo diFirenze o la magioro parte, uomini e donne, dirieto, e chos andorono per la citt. E giunti poia Santa Maria del Fiore, posorono le relique i[n] su l'altare, e tutta la chiesa era piena ditorchietti acesi, e messer lo veschovo Nofrio canto la messa i[n] Santa Maria detta." See alsoTrexler, 1980 (as in n. 1), 356. The wording of this passage implies that the relic of SaintAndrew was an arm relic, but this was not necessarily the case. It may refer to an unspecifiedrelic of Saint Andrew that belonged to the church of Sant'Andrea near the Mercato Vecchio(the present-day Piazza della Repubblica) or to a relic of Saint Andrew at the cathedral. SeeRicha (as in n. 9), vol. 7, 329; Tacconi, 90; and Leoncini and Bicchi (as in n. 4), 308.78. Patricia Fortini Brown, Venetian Narrative Painting in the Age of Carpaccio (New Haven:Yale University Press, 1988), 144-49. See also Elizabeth Rodini, "Describing Narrative inGentile Bellini's Procession in Piazza San Marco," Art History 21 (1998): 26-44.79. Biblioteca Medicea Laurenziana, Florence, MS Corale 4, fol. 7v.80. Becherucci and Brunetti, vol. 2, 16-17.

  • 81. The first reference to the Opera di S. Giovanni dales from 1193, and a papal bull of 1207shows that by that time it had been in existence for about fifty years. See Robert Davidsohn,Forschungen zur lteren Geschichle von Florenz (Berlin: E. S. Mittler und Sohn, 1896),vol. 1,145; and Giovanni Filippi, L'Arte dei Mercanti di Calimala in Firenze ed il suo pi anticostatuto (Turin: Fratelli Bocca, 1889), 55-58. For the Opera del Duomo and the Arte dellaLana, see Margaret Haines, "L'Arte della Lana e l'Opera del Duomo a Firenze con unaccenno a Ghiberti tra due istitutizioni." in Opera: Carallere e roulo delle fabbriche cittadinefino all'inizio dell'et moderna, ed. Haines and Lucio Riccetti (Florence: Olschki, 1996), 270;and Howard Saalman, "Guild Control after 1331: The Opera of Santa Maria del Fiore," inSaalman (as in n. 50), 173-78.82. Elsewhere, I have suggested that the acquisition of relics of Saint John the Baptist at thebaptistery and commissions for reliquaries in which to house them may have been thecatalyst for the commission of a reliquary for the cathedral's relic of the thumb of the samesaint. Cornelison (as in n. 46), 155.83. Franklin Toker, "A Gap in the Liturgical History of Florence Cathedral, and a ByzantineCasket Rich Enough to Fill It," in Arte d'occidente: Studi in onore di Angiola Maria Romanini(Rome: Sintesi Informarzione, 1999), 773. See also Charles T. Davis, "Topographical andHistorical Propaganda in Early Florentine Chronicles and in Villani." Medioevo eRinascimento 2 (1988): 38-39; and Leoncini and Bicchi (as in n. 4), 304.84. The dedication of the tribune chapels was stipulated in a document of March 8, 1439, andin 1439-40 the painter Bicci di Lorenzo frescoed most of them with images of their titularsaints. Poggi (as in n. 51), vol. 1. exv, 215, doc. 1075. See also Franklin Toker, "Arnolfo diCambio a Santa Maria del Fiore: Un trionfo di forma e significato." in Verdon and Innocenti(as in n. 6), vol. 1, 233-37. It is virtually certain that the altat\r in the cathedral's chapel of Sts.Philip and James became the new home for the relics of the same saints that werepreviously kept in S. Reparata's St. Mark altar. It is also likely that they continued to be animportant part of the mass celebrated in the cathedral each May 1.85. Elina Bellondi. ed., Cronica volgare di anonimo fiorentino dall'anno 1385 al 1409 giattribuita a Piero di Giovanni Minerbetti, Rerum italicarum scriptores, vol. 27 (Citt diCastello: S. Lapi. 1915), 173; and Alle bocche delta piazza, 148-49.86. See Saalman (as in n. 50), 80-82; and Klotz (as in n. 7), 89.87. Krautheimer (as in n. 45), 32, believes Andrea Pisano's doors were made for thebaptistery's south entrance. For the ritual relation between the cathedral and the baptistery'seast doors, see Krautheimer, 34, 105; and Eloise M. Angiola, "'Gates of Paradise' and theFlorentine Baptistery," Art Bulletin 60 (1978): 242-18.88. Leon Battista Alberti. On Paintings, trans. John R. Spencer (New Haven: Yale UniversityPress, 1966), 40. For the significance of the dome as a symbol of the status of the city ofFlorence and its meaning within the culture of early Florentine humanism, see ChristineSmith, Architecture in the Culture of Early Humanism: Ethics, Aesthetics, and Eloquence1400-1470 (New York: Oxford University Press, 1992), chaps. 2, 3.

  • ReferencesFrequently Cited SourcesAlle bocche della piazza, diario di anonimo fiorentino (1382-1401), ed. Anthony Molho andFranek Sznura (Florence: Olschki, 1986).Becherucci, Luisa, and Giulia Brunetti, Il Museo dell'Opera del Duomo di Firenze, vol. 2(Milan: Electa, 1970).Bicchi, Alessandro, and Alessandro Ciandella, Testimonia Sanctitatis: Le reliquie e i reliquiaridel Duomo e del Battistero diFirenze (Florence: Mandragora, 1999).Cocchi, Arnaldo, Degli antichi reliquiari di Santa Maria del Fiore e di San Giovanni diFirenze(Florence: Stabilimento Pellas, 1901).L'oreficeria nella Firenze del quattrocento, ed. Maria Grazia Ciardi-Dupr Dal Poggetto et al.(Florence: Studio per Edizioni Scelte, 1977).Tacconi, Marica Susan, "Liturgy and Chant at the Cathedral of Florence: A Survey of the Pre-Tridentine Sources (Tenth-Sixteenth Centuries)" (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1999).Vasari, Giorgio, Le vite de' pi eccelenti pittori, scultori, e architettori, ed. Karl Frey (Munich:G. Mller, 1911).Verdon, Timothy, and Annalisa Innocenti, eds., La cattedrale come spazzio sacro: Saggi sulDuomo di Firenze, 2 vols. (Florence: EDIFIR, 2001).Webb, Diana, Patrons and Defenders: The Saints in the Italian City-States (London: I. B.Tauris, 1996).AuthorAffiliationSally J. Cornelison's research and publications focus on the history and function of saints'cults, relics, tombs, and reliquaries in late medieval and Renaissance Florence [KressFoundation Department of Art History, University of Kansas, Spencer Museum of Art, 1301Missisippi SL, Room 209, Lawrence, Kans. 66045-7500]._______________________________________________________________

    Indexing (details)

    Subject Saints; Religious icons; Religious cults; Art history

    Location Florence South CarolinaPeople Philip, Saint (Apostle)Title Art Imitates Architecture: The Saint Philip Reliquary in Renaissance

    FlorenceAuthor Cornelison, Sally JPublication title The Art BulletinVolume 86Issue 4Pages 642-658,640

  • Number of pages 18Publication year 2004Publication date Dec 2004Year 2004Publisher New YorkPublisher College Art Association, Inc.Place of publication New YorkCountry of publication United StatesJournal subject ArtISSN 00043079CODEN ABCABKSource type Scholarly JournalsLanguage of publication EnglishDocument type CommentaryDocument feature References;PhotographsSubfile Art history, Saints, Religious icons, Religious cultsProQuest document ID 222944030Document URL http://search.proquest.com/docview/222944030?accountid=15533Copyright Copyright College Art Association of America Dec 2004Last updated 2010-06-09Database ProQuest Central