Utente:Laura Rossk/Sandbox
Iconographical elements
If we try to explain how the iconographical elements of our chalice work together in relation to the context of provenance, we need to look at the material and visual aspects of the object. The foot of the chalice shows six half-length figures, including the crucifixion and various saints: St. Giustina of course, the titular saint of the church the chalice comes from, but also St. John the Evangelist, the Vergin Mary, St. Peter and finally St. Martin or maybe St. Bartholomew. Other saints were represented on the pomo, the central spherical node. They completed the decoration, with the saints represented on the base. On the rhomboidal nails are engraved the figures of St. Christopher, a holy bishop holding the model of a church (St. Sabinus?), St. Catherine, a prophet saint (St. Simeon?), St. Philip (?) and St. Daniel (?). Engraved in the six-lobed circular cup holder are half-figures totally filling the fields: the symbols of the four Evangelists, St. Paul and St. James[1].
St. Giustina in Monselice was born as a pieve, that is the center of a precise baptismal district with the right to care for the souls of the faithful residing there. The church originally stood on the top of the mountain, but in 1256 it was destroyed by Federico II, in order to build his castrum, and the pieve was officially transferred to S. Martino Nuovo, which took the title of S. Giustina, in a more convenient location for both canons of Monselice “et etiam hominum inibi habitantium”[2]. The better location, halfway up the hill, probably facilitated the attendance of worshippers and the regular exercise of soul care. Although small compared to Padua, the center of Monselice held a significant political position in the Middle Age thanks to the rich religious foundations which spread collective identity. These communities were formed by groups that had the same spiritual needs and shared the same charitable commitment: the collaboration between civil and ecclesiastical institutions, led to the birth of two welfare structures in Monselice, the hospital of St. James in 1162 and the leprosarium of St. Michael in 1191. There was a need to offer care to the poor and pilgrims arriving in Monselice, located on the ancient Roman road from Bologna to Padua. The dedication of the hospital to James the Greater, protector of wayfarers and pilgrims, who is also represented on our chalice, is quite clear, but it should be emphasized in relation to the presence of another saint engraved on the chalice: St. Christopher.
The role of Monselice as a spiritual and territorial crossroads is significant if we consider the role of the ferryman of pilgrims assigned to St. Christopher by the tradition spread in the 13th century by Jacopo da Varagine's Legenda Aurea: when he converted by putting himself at the service of Christ, he began to make wayfarers and pilgrims cross a dangerous river by loading them on his shoulders, since he had the strength of a giant[3]. Saint Christopher is aligned with the crucified Christ and this symmetry seems to emphasise the liturgical function of the object: the bishop ideally lifts Christ in the Eucharistic wine contained in the chalice, just as Christopher carried Christ on his shoulders to ford the river according to the hagiographic narrative. The priest raising the chalice must have identified himself with St Christopher, but also with the prophet Simeon, another saint probably engraved on the chalice and one of the other so-called "Christophores" saints, who according to the tradition was an old man who held the baby Jesus in his arms during the Presentation in the temple[4].
The identification of the figure of the saint with the knife/sword attribute, played out between St Bartholomew and St Martin, remains doubtful. The link between the cult of St Justine in Padua and that of St Martin is documented by one of the oldest documents mentioning the saint's tomb: the Vita Martini, written by Venanzio Fortunato in 573. From this ancient testimony, we know that the Paduan basilica of Santa Giustina prior to the post-earthquake reconstruction of 1117 had the deeds of St Martin painted on the walls of the saint's tomb[5].
Considering Venanzio Fortunato's testimony attesting the ancient existence of St. Martin in Padua's figurative culture, and considering the ancient dedication of the Monselice church to St. Martin, it is likely that - as has been said - the saint in bishop's attire accompanying the Virgin and Child painted on the bottom of the apse of S. Giustina in Monselice can be identified precisely with St. Martin[6] (Enrica Cozzi dates the paintings to the mid-13th century).
- ^ G. Ericani. Oreficeria Sacra in Veneto. Volume primo. Secoli VI-XV, edited by Anna Maria Spiazzi, Biblos Edizioni, Cittadella 2004, pp.89-90.
- ^ A. Rigon, Le istituzioni ecclesiastiche e la vita religiosa, in Monselice nei secoli, a cura di A. RIGON, Città di Monselice 2009, n. n° 134 p. 224.
- ^ Louis Réau, Iconographie de l'art chrétien. 3,1, Iconographie des saints. Tome 1, A-F, Parigi 1958, pp. 304-313.
- ^ Louis Réau, Iconographie de l'art chrétien. 3,3, Iconographie des saints. Tome 3, P-Z, Parigi 1958, p. 1220.
- ^ P. Golinelli, Il Cristianesimo nella Venetia altomedievale. Diffusione, istituzionalizzazione e forme di religiosità dalle origini al sec. X, in A. CASTAGNETTI - G.M. VARANINI (a cura di ), Il Veneto nel medioevo. Dalla “Venetia” alla Marca Veronese, vol. I, op. cit., p. 261.
- ^ Fabrizio Magani, Gli affreschi due e trecenteschi della Pieve di Santa Giustina, in Monselice nei secoli, a cura di A. RIGON, Città di Monselice 2009, p. 337.