Bellini's Ass

BROTHER SUN: UNUSUAL FRANCISCAN ICONOGRAPHY ON A DERUTESE "PIATTO DI POMPA" Author(s): Norman Hammond Source: Source: Notes in the History of Art, Vol. 26, No. 1 (Fall 2006), pp. 27-33 Published by: Ars Brevis Foundation, Inc. Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/23207960 . Accessed: 25/02/2014 12:27 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . Ars Brevis Foundation, Inc. is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Source: Notes in the History of Art. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Tue, 25 Feb 2014 12:27:42 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions BROTHER SUN: UNUSUAL ON A DERUTESE FRANCISCAN PIATTO ICONOGRAPHY Dl POMPA Norman Hammond The small town of Deruta, some 15 kilome ters south of Perugia on the upper Tiber and a similar distance downstream from Assisi on the Chiascio, has long been noted for its production of the tin-glazed polychrome pottery known as maiolica.1 Both bricks and pottery vessels were made in Deruta from the thirteenth century onward. After the plague of 1456, depopulation was countered with a forty-year tax exemption that saw an influx of master potters from other towns. The istoriato design frequently overflowed to the rim, removing the border altogether. The central medallions of piatti di pompa might contain a profile portrait, a coat of arms, or a narrative vignette. Designs were often copied from other media. For exam ple, Perugino's Erythraean Sibyl in the Col legio del Cambio in Perugia inspired several plates, the same artist providing an angel, a Nativity, and a Virgin and Child; others derived from the works of Marcantonio Rai Masci family established themselves there by 1489, split into three branches in 1498, and, in requesting new citizenship, referred to laboreria maiolicata, lusterware, which seems to have been the source of their fame and fortune. They disappeared mondi.5 Such religious subjects on piatti are not complex, but are, rather, reduced to a single striking image. Thus, the Madonna is extracted from the San Francesco Alfani fresco, and the figure of Gabriel is taken by 1490,3 the Mancini, including Giacomo (nicknamed El Frate) and his sons Filippo and Africano, prominent among the notable producers from the second quarter of the sixteenth century into the early seven teenth.4 An emphasis on jars and dishes that saints are common and Non-apostolic include Anthony Abbot, Barbara, Catherine of Alexandria, Cecilia, George, Jerome, Michael, Roch, and Sebastian, each with an identifying attribute.7 It is not surprising that, given Deruta's from the records, however, after 1528.2 The production of istoriato wares, with figural and often narrative subjects, probably began could from the Perugino/Pinturicchio Annuncia tion.6 The life of Christ includes portrayals of the Crucifixion, the Resurrection, and, more rarely, the Incredulity of Thomas. accommodate elaborate abstract or ornament figured appeared by the end of the proximity to Assisi, the life of Saint Francis was a common subject (the market for such within concentric bands of often foliate motifs. By the mid-sixteenth century, the able).8 The small, hastily painted coppa or jug, showing Saint Francis at prayer in front of a large cross, must have been at the lower end of the price and prestige range,9 the piat to di pompa at the top. Carola Fiocco and fifteenth century, providing a broader sur face for decoration. Display plates (piatti di pompa) were developed that used a formal template of a central istoriato medallion devotional wares must have been consider This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Tue, 25 Feb 2014 12:27:42 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 28 Fig. 1 Saint Francis on a piatto di pompa from Deruta. 1500-1540. Maiolica, 165/8in. (42.2 cm) diameter. Toledo Museum of Art, Ohio (1949.39). (Photo: cour tesy of the Toledo Museum of Art) This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Tue, 25 Feb 2014 12:27:42 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 29 Fig. 2 Saint 1500-1540. Francis of Art, William Angeles Receiving Maiolica, Randolph County Museum the Stigmata, on a piatto di pompa from Deruta. 16'/4 in. (41.3 cm) diameter. Los Angeles County Museum Hearst Collection (50.9.12). (Photo: courtesy of Art) This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Tue, 25 Feb 2014 12:27:42 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions of the Los 30 Gherardi note that such piatti Gabriella "required elevated subjects: moral, religious, historical and allegorical," that "the predom inant presence of St. Francis ... attests to the popularity of a cult widespread everywhere," and that "St. Francis, in the act of receiving the stigmata, is perhaps the most widespread depiction."10 In 1949, the Toledo Museum of Art pur chased a Deruta maiolica piatto di pompa of at a Parke-Bernet sale in about 1510-1540 New York City (Joseph Brummer Collection, lot 479; museum accession no. 1949.39). Its dimensions, 42.2 centimeters (16-78 inches) diameter and 9.2 centimeters (35h inches) high, place it squarely in the range of similar plates of this period. The rim is decorated with four sets of intertwined foliate motifs, the central medallion with a scene identified in the museum's records as Saint Francis Receiving the Stigmata (Fig. 1). The scene is, however, not like other Stigmatization portrayals on Deruta plates, of which the excellent example from the William Randolph Hearst Collection now in of Art the Los Angeles County Museum accession no. 50.9.12) (museum may be This as specimen, typical (Fig. 2). regarded slightly smaller than the Toledo plate, with a diameter of 41.3 centimeters (16'/4 inches), is, according to the museum, possibly from of Giacomo El the workshop Mancini, Frate.11 plate shows Saint Fran cis positioned just left of center in front of a church or chapel with a pointed tower, tiled roof, and round-arched doorway. A second The Los Angeles and lower part of the building with a cupola is visible in the background to the left, and a tree with a bushy top and two sets of leaves partway up the trunk are to the right of the tower. The saint kneels on a level but rocky hummocks place, a series of vegetated behind him and an area of rocks and vegeta tion jutting into the scene from the right margin. Francis kneels on his right knee and faces up and to his left toward a seraphic crucifix in the sky at top center. Five lines from the crucified Christ's feet, hands, and chest strike Saint Francis in the corresponding parts of his body: on the inside of the left foot, the outside of the right foot, the base of the left little finger, the base of the right thumb, and the center of his habit. No wounds are seen: the event is in progress. This is the standard iconography for the fres of Saint Francis—in Stigmatization coes such as those by Giotto in the Upper Francesco at Assisi (c. and the Bardi 1297-1300) Chapel at Santa Croce in Florence (c. 1325), and in numer ous easel paintings (for example, the one by Church of San Giotto of about 1300 in the Louvre, which closely resembles the Assisi fresco, and the one by Taddeo Gaddi of around 1325-1330 in the Fogg Art Museum [1929.234] at Har vard). The proximate model for the piatti seems to be the Assisi image (unsurprising, given their souvenir function), although there the head of the saint is more in profile, his hands are held palm forward rather than turned out to display the stigmata more clearly, and the seraphic Christ lacks a cross; in addition. Brother Leo is present at lower right, reading a book. The cross is present in the Bardi Chapel fresco; but the of Christ, his relationship to the ser aph's wings, and the posture of Saint Fran cis are different. A free adaptation of pose Giotto's basic image is the best definition of what local potters were producing as sou venirs and display pieces. Timothy Wilson that this adaptation at Deruta suggests This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Tue, 25 Feb 2014 12:27:42 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 31 derives from a north Italian engraving of about 1500.12 The rocky landscape in all the images is that of Mount Averna, where the stigmatiza tion took place on September 14, 1224; the Francis's building is presumably oratory there (although Fiocco and Gherardi identi near Assisi, which, fy it as the Porziuncola while not impossible, would involve a con scious conflation of two different times and places in the same scene).13 In other, more unusual painted renditions Francis stands rather than kneels (as in the Frick's Saint Francis in Ecstasy)4, sometimes the oratory is a natural cave instead of a man-made struc all media ture; and some versions—in —include the figure of Brother Leo. But the reverential pose of the saint, the seraphic crucifix, and the presence of lines joining the two figures, with or without emergent stigmata, define the event. The Toledo plate is different. Saint Fran cis kneels on his right knee, as on the Los Angeles plate, and the details of his position in the medallion, his posture, and the drap ery of his habit are so similar as to suggest use of the same design with only minor changes.14 Francis shows clear stigmata, as reddish spots on the palms of his hands and the sides of his feet, the same loci as on the Los Angeles plate. The oratory and trees behind him are similar in design but differ in detail. However, in the background is a fortified town instead of a hummocky land Lauaes it creaturarum, San Damiano Laudato tue was composed at in the summer of 1225: sie, mi' Signore, cum fructe le creature, messor lo frate sole, Spezialmente Lo quale e iorno, et allumini noi per lui. Et ellu e bellu e radiante cum grande splendore; De te, Altissimo, porta significazione Be praised, my Lord, through all that you created, Especially the lord Brother Sun, Who is the day, and you bring us light through him. and he is beautiful and radiant with much splendor; Of you, O most high, it bears witness Depictions of Saint Francis intoning the Cantico alfrate sole are considerably rarer than those of the Stigmatization. This is partly because the event may be more diffi cult to portray and partly because it may be less intrinsically dramatic. There is continu ing debate over even such notable Francis can images as the Frick's Saint Francis in Ecstasy: some scholars (for example, Ken neth Clark, Richard Turner, and Hellmut Wohl)16 identify it as portraying the Canti co; Millard Meiss and I argue for a Stigma tization; Alastair Smart sees Francis rising after his nocturnal ordeal of stigmatization "to greet the risen sun, whose praises he was scape. In the sky above is a large Sun with wavy rays and a human face. The event por trayed is clearly not the Stigmatization— to sing as the most beautiful of all created things."17 Giles Robertson ingeniously con ished, to be replaced by the personified Sun. What is being shown is the next event in ta and "an illustration that has its occurred, already leaving marks—and the seraphic crucifix has van the life of Saint Francis: the composition of the Cantico al frate sole.15 Part of the flates the two events, interpreting the light from beyond the frame as simultaneously the radiance of Christ conferring the stigma of the Hymn to the Sun ... the function of the seraph has actu been taken over by the sun itself."18 ally There is ambiguity because the sun itself is This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Tue, 25 Feb 2014 12:27:42 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 32 not shown, and explicit portrayals of the Cantico alfrate sole are uncommon enough to leave that ambiguity unresolved. The Toledo piatto thus shows us a rare of several common image composed themes. The figure of Saint Francis derives from the standard Stigmatization imagery, and the oratory behind him from Mount Alverna, where this occurred, now indicates San Damiano. The personified Sun, on the other hand, comes religious from secular rather than (like iconography many of the designs on piatti di pompa), while the forti fied town is Assisi, outside which San Damiano lies. The rarity of this particular Franciscan maiolica image on Derutese may attest to a comparative lack of interest in it among pilgrims and social aspirants, who preferred the immediacy of the Stigma tization or the mundanity of Saint Francis at other examples come to prayer. Unless light, its presence here may be the result of a special commission from a more educated or more humanist client. NOTES 1. C. Fiocco Busti and G. Gherardi, dal XIII Deruta: al XVIII and F. Cocchi, Deruta La ceramica di 223-224. 1994); (Perugia: ceramisti e ceramiche G. servers di Fitzwilliam eds., secolo Maestri T. Wilson, "II ruolo di 1997); Deruta nello sviluppo della maiolica istoriata," in La ceramica umbra al tempo di Perugino, ed. G. Busti and F. Cocchi am grateful (Milan: 2004), pp. 39^49.1 (Florence: to Timothy Wilson of Oxford University for introduc and for much good ing me to the Toledo piatto to Dr. Jutta Page of the Toledo Museum of advice; of Boston University Art; and to Astrid Runggaldier for help with Italian texts. 2. Fiocco and Gherardi, pp. 107-108. 3. Wilson, pp. 39^12. 4. Busti and Cocchi, Maestri ceramisti, pp. 54—81. of the Mancini. Pages 80-81 give a useful genealogy 5. Busti 6. C. and Cocchi, Fiocco dal Medioevo and alio La ceramica. G. Gherardi, storicismo Ceramiche (Faenza: p. 95. umbre 1988-1989), 7. Ibid., pp. 95-96; G. Busti and F. Cocchi, Museo della ceramica di Deruta: Ceramiche regionale poli crome, a lustro e terrecotte di Deruta dei secoli XV e XVI (Milan: 1999), pp. 238-239. 8. Fiocco and Gherardi, La ceramica, p. 109; id., Italian Maiolica Ceramiche umbre, p. 96; T. Wilson, Wilson (Milan: 1996), pp. 70-72. of the Renaissance of both lustered and unlus gives a useful checklist tered representations of the Stigmatization. 9. Fiocco and Gherardi, Ceramiche umbre, 235; Busti and Cocchi, Museo regionale, Good as of jugs—practical examples as souvenirs—can be seen well Museum, Cambridge (C.66-67.1927). wine in the University 10. Fiocco and Gherardi, La ceramica, p. 109. The they illustrate, on p. 216, from the Castello in Milan (inv. no. 16), does not show the but simply Saint Francis, with no Stigmatization, stigmata, kneeling in prayer. example Sforzesco 11. The Museum of Art's Angeles County this to 1530-1545, but I am persuaded otherwise of T. Wilson by the arguments (personal June 2005), in reference communication, especially records Los date to the rim decoration and its similarity to historically dated pieces. Wilson says: "I see no reason to rule out a date for both LACMA and Toledo pieces as early as I would myself probably label them ca. 1500/1510; 1500^-0." Wilson also doubts the Los Angeles Coun of Art's suggestion that its plate may be ty Museum from the El Frate workshop. I prefer the early and narrower date range attributed to the Toledo plate also for the Los Angeles specimen, the greater latitude that Wilson 12. Wilson, Italian Maiolica, while is in A. M. Hind, Early Engraving: with Catalogue Prints Described, Complete Reproduction 2 vols, in 7 (London: Italian not discounting allows. p. 70. The engraving A Critical of All the 1938-1948), fig. and Gherardi, Ceramiche VII, pi. 886. Fiocco umbre, p. 96, illustrate a plate in the Kunstgewerbemuseum, which they maintain is derived (E2465), Cologne pp. from the same engraving. This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Tue, 25 Feb 2014 12:27:42 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Brother Leo is present in 33 from the plate, as is the case in a illus in private possession, plate of about 1520-1550 trated by Wilson, Italian maiolica, p. 71.1 may not be from the engraving alone in finding these derivations II, p. I, pp. 113-114; (New York: 1999-2000), Bellini's St. 186. H. Wohl, "The Subject of Giovanni in Mosaics Francis in the Frick Collection," of Friend ed. ship: Studies in Art and History for Eve Borsook, the latter but absent vols. Busti and strained, given these and other differences. Maestri ceramisti, Cocchi, p. 16, illustrate a plate in Comunale delle Ceramiche di Deruta on the Museo that it is God, the figure of Brother Leo in Busti left (also illustrated which regionale, p. 241). 13. Fiocco and Gherardi, is present at the lower and Cocchi, Museo Ceramiche umbre, p. 96. both the Los Angeles 14. My inclination to ascribe or even and the Toledo piatti to the same workshop cautious the same hand has received encouragement O. Francisci Osti (Florence: 1999), p. 190, points not the Sun, who is being addressed. into Art (London: 16. K. Clark, Landscape 1949), of St. Fran p. 24: "Here, at last, is a true illustration cis' hymn to the sun"; A. R. Turner, The Vision of in Renaissance 1966), p. Landscape Italy (Princeton: 62 n. 2: "The subject of the picture is 'Saint Francis singing his canticle to the sun'"; Wohl, p. 190. 17. M. Meiss, Frick Collection Bellini's St. Francis (Princeton: 1964); A Note on the Frick N. 'St. "Bellini's 144, no. 1186 (2002):24-26; Burlington Magazine and Bellini's Smart, "The speculum perfections St. Francis," Apollo 97 (1973):470-476. 18. G. Robertson, Giovanni pp. 76-77. This content downloaded from 128.103.149.52 on Tue, 25 Feb 2014 12:27:42 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions Bellini in the Hammond, from T. Wilson risky. and W. J. 15. R. J. Armstrong, J. A. W. Hellmann, 2 Short, eds., Francis of Assisi: Early Documents, Ass: Giovanni together June 2005) communication, (personal with a warning that, given the present state of is attribution to any particular workshop knowledge, out Francis,'" (Oxford: A. Frick 1968),