The Painted Panel Crucifixes of the Early Franciscans as a Response to the Cathar Heresy _______________________________________ A Thesis Presented to the Faculty of the Graduate School at the University of Missouri _______________________________________________________ In Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree Master of Arts _____________________________________________________ by REBECCA RUPPAR Dr. Anne Rudloff Stanton, Thesis Advisor MAY 2016 The undersigned, appointed by the dean of the Graduate School, have examined the thesis entitled The Painted Panel Crucifixes of the Early Franciscans as a Response to the Cathar Heresy presented by Rebecca Ruppar, a candidate for the degree master of arts, and hereby certify that, in their opinion, it is worthy of acceptance. Professor Anne Rudloff Stanton Professor Marcus Rautman Professor Jill Raitt ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS My deepest gratitude is given to Dr. Jill Raitt, whose brilliant guidance through the Mystics helped me discover the Cathars and my thesis Dr.
Marcus Rautman, whose enthusiasm introduced me to the joys of looking further back and turning my attention to the East Dr. Anne Rudloff Stanton, whose rich knowledge challenged my thinking and guided my writing with pinpoint accuracy, and whose kind spirit provided unfailing support TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ii LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS iv CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION 2 §1.1 LITERATURE REVIEW 5 CHAPTER 2: HERESY AND REFORM: THE RELIGIOUS CONTEXT 10 §2.1: CATHAR HISTORY AND BELIEFS 10 §2.2: FRANCIS OF ASSISI, FOUNDING BROTHER 20 CHAPTER 3: THE ARTISTIC CONTEXT OF THE EARLY FRANCISCANS 31 §3.1: HEIR TO THE ICON 39 §3.2: ORTHODOX FRAMEWORK 44 CHAPTER 4: THEOLOGY AND MATERIALITY IN THE DIPINTURA 48 CRUCIFIXES §4.1 FOCUS ON THE DOCTRINE OF THE INCARNATION 50 §4.3: COMPANIONS AT THE CROSS 61 §4.4: TORTURED PHYSICALITY 68 CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION 76 APPENDIX 1: THIRTEENTH-CENTURY CRUCIFIXES DEPICTING FRANCIS OF 80 ASSISI AT THE FOOT OF THE CROSS APPENDIX 2: FOURTH LATERAN COUNCIL: CANON 3 ON HERESY 83 APPENDIX 3: RELEVANT TEXT OF ON THE REDUCTION OF THE ARTS TO 85 THEOLOGY BY BONAVENTURE BIBLIOGRAPHY 88 iv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Map 1 Cathar Routes and Bishoprics 49 Fig. 1 Cross of Maestro Guglielmo in the Cathedral of Sarzana, Italy 4 Fig. 2 Cross of San Damiano in the Basilica of Santa Chiara, Assisi, 21 Italy Fig.
3 Franciscan Dossal of Orte, Museo Diocesano Orte, Orte, Italy 27 Fig. 4 Sketch of Giunta Pisano’s 1236 Crucifix, formerly in the Upper 33 Basilica of San Francesco, Assisi, Italy Fig. 5 Crucifix of Santa Maria degli Angeli alla Porziuncola, near Assisi, 34 Italy Fig. 6 Remains of the Tramezzo in the Upper Basilica of San Francesco, 36 Assisi, Italy Fig.
7 Historicist Photograph of the Upper Basilica of San Francisco, 37 Assisi, Italy Fig. 8 Verification of the Stigmata, Upper Basilica of San Francesco, 38 Assisi, Italy Fig. 9 Nativity at Greccio, Upper Basilica of San Francesco, 38 Assisi, Italy Fig. 10 Crucifixion wall painting in the Monastery Church of Nemanja, 41 Studenica, Serbia Fig.
11 Crucifixion wall painting in the Church of the Resurrection in 41 Žiča, Serbia Fig. 12 The Entry into Jerusalem, the Crucifixion, and the Harrowing of 42 Hell, Chapel of Constantine and Helena, Monastery of St. Catherine, Mount Sinai, Egypt Fig. 13 The Ascension, Pentecost, and Dormition, Chapel of Constantine 42 and Helena, Monastery of St.
Catherine, Mount Sinai, Egypt v Fig. 14 Baptism of Christ, the Transfiguration, and the Raising of 42 Lazarus, Chapel of St. George, Monastery of St. Catherine, Mount Sinai, Egypt Fig.
15 Annunciation, the Nativity, and Jesus’ Presentation in the 42 Temple, Chapel of St. George, Monastery of St. Catherine, Mount Sinai, Egypt Fig. 16 Crucifix of the Church of San Francesco, Arezzo, Italy 50 Fig.
17 Crucifix of Perugia in the Galleria Nationale dell’Umbria, 62 Perugia, Italy Fig. 18 Crucifix of Perugia, termini details, Galleria Nationale 63 dell’Umbria, Perugia, Italy Fig. 19 Crucifix of Perugia, foot detail, Galleria Nationale dell’Umbria, 65 Perugia, Italy Fig. 20 Crucifix of Church of Sant’ Andrea in Spello, Italy 70 1 Strange it might appear that the Arts, the highest luxuries, if we may so speak, of religion, should be fostered, cultivated, cherished, and distributed throughout Italy and even beyond the Alps, by those who professed to reduce Christianity to more than its primitive simplicity, its nakedness of all adornment, its poverty…Strange! that these should become the most munificent patrons of art, the most consummate artists; that their cloistered palaces should be the most sumptuous in architecture, and the most richly decorated by sculpture and painting; at once the workshops and the abodes of those who executed most admirably, and might seem to adore with the most intense devotion, these splendors and extravagances of religious wealth…Assisi becomes the capital, the young, gorgeous capital of Christian art.1 -Henry Hart Milman 1 Henry Hart Milman, History of Latin Christianity : Including that of the Popes to the Pontificate of Nicholas V, vol.org/stream/latinchristianity08milmrich#page/478/mode/2up.
2 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION The art-historical literature is in general agreement that a major shift in the presentation of Christian imagery in European art occurred at approximately the same time the Franciscan order was in its early stages of development in duecento Italy.2 My goal in this thesis is to shed light on the art-historical and theological reasons behind the Franciscan patronage of artworks that stress the physical and emotional suffering of Jesus. Specifically, I will argue that the shift in artwork produced by the Franciscan order was an outgrowth of the friars’ response to Catharism, what was considered by orthodox Christians to be a heretical teaching that proposed Jesus to be a completely supernatural deity as opposed to a monotheist, yet dual-natured, God-Man. The art-historical research points to the naturalism evident in the artwork of the period as an outgrowth of the artistic desire to faithfully emulate the work of God’s creation. Michael Camille expresses the belief that “It is not just that Gothic art as a style looks more ‘naturalistic,’ but that nature itself becomes an integrated myth of meaning in the elaboration of its structure.”3 While this environmental mimesis may play a supporting role in the development of the Gothic style, it is my contention that the cause of the evolution was the perceived need to remind the Christian faithful of the central dogmas of their religion in a compelling, even impassioned, way—especially the 2 Two important recent studies which have addressed the influence of the Franciscans on this transitional period are Trinita Kennedy's Sanctity Pictured: The Art of the Dominican and Franciscan Orders in Renaissance Italy (Nashville: Frist Center for the Visual Arts, 2014), 2; and Anne Derbes' Picturing the Passion in Late Medieval Italy: Narrative Painting, Franciscan Ideologies, and the Levant (Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1996), 1–2, 11.
For convenience, I will use of the modern names of countries and regions throughout this paper. 3 Michael Camille, The Gothic Idol: Ideology and Image-Making in Medieval Art, Repr, Cambridge New Art History and Criticism (Cambridge: Cambridge Univ. While Camille discusses this organic and realistic form in terms of architecture, it can readily be applied to the shift in the depiction of the human form as well. 3 teachings on the Incarnation, the dual nature of Jesus, and the importance of the Passion.
To this purpose, my thesis will focus on specific painted panel or dipintura crosses created for use in the Italian churches of the early Franciscan order. All the crucifixes under consideration are imposing in size—at least 1.5 meters in width by nearly 2.0 meters in length—and originally positioned in prominent locations in churches. While they did not always remain in their original site, they were not intended to regularly move in procession or pilgrimage. These crosses feature the suffering Christ, or Christus Patiens, depicting Jesus’ abused body very near to or immediately following his death.
My argument is based on the ten extant crucifixes made prior to 1300 C. which depict the image of Francis of Assisi at the foot of the cross. We will closely examine three of these examples which are located in the towns of Arezzo, Perugia, and Spello. Even before the Franciscans, the visual focus for churches in Italy was the image of the crucifix.4 The earliest Italian painted panel crosses were created in or near Pisa.
The Cross of Maestro Guglielmo in the Cathedral of Sarzana (1138) serves as the oldest extant example of a monumental painted panel (dipintura) cross (Fig.5 This crucifix portrays Jesus as the Christus Triumphans. In this format of depicting the crucifixion, Jesus appears immune to suffering and death. He stands against the cross fully alive (despite the spear wound); his eyes are open and his face devoid of emotion. The main figure is surrounded by those of a stoic Mary, John the Apostle, and other bystanders, as 4 Amy Neff, “Painting, Devotion, and the Franciscans,” in Sanctity Pictured: The Art of the Dominican and Franciscan Orders in Renaissance Italy, ed.
5 David Talbot Rice, Byzantine Painting: The Last Phase (New York: Dial Press, 1968), 76. 4 well as smaller scenes of the Passion on the apron. The original position of this piece is unknown, as it has been moved several times and the church has been remodeled extensively. 1 Cross of Maestro Guglielmo in the Cathedral of Sarzana, Italy (1138) https://it.org/wiki/Croce_di_Mastro_Guglielmo#/media/File:Crusifix.
jpg (in situ) https://en.org/wiki/Sarzana_Cathedral#/media/File:Sarzana-cattedrale-altare4.jpg In her book Picturing the Passion in Late Medieval Italy, Anne Derbes proposes that one of the greatest artistic transitions to occur during the thirteenth century was the evolution from the Christus Triumphans style of crucifix to the Christus Patiens. 6 To examine the role these crosses played in the Franciscans’ resistance against the Cathars, I will look at representations of the crucifixion created as monumental panel paintings during the founding century of the Franciscan order. Throughout this study I will address the manner in which these crucifixion images, by their graphic depiction of physical and emotional suffering and framed within their historical and theological contexts, implicitly challenged the fundamental beliefs of the Cathars, who were in direct competition with the Franciscans for both earthly support of donors as well as the competition to win souls for eternity. I intend to elaborate on the capacity of the evolving naturalism of form to evoke viewer emotion and support orthodox religious belief as a counter to the Cathar movement.
6 Derbes, Picturing the Passion in Late Medieval Italy, 4–5.1 LITERATURE REVIEW The acknowledged leader in the study of images of Francis of Assisi is William Cook. For his encyclopedic work, Images of St. Francis of Assisi: In Painting, Stone, and Glass : From the Earliest Images to Ca. 1320 in Italy : A Catalogue (1999), Cook traveled to view every known representation of the saint created during that early time period in the region in which the order originated.
Cook also considers images which have dropped out of circulation for which there are photographs or only written descriptions remaining. While Cook’s study provides a catalogue raisonné of depictions of the saint, he does not deeply analyze the artistic style or theological context of the full compositions as I will do in this thesis. In his brief systematic entry on each artwork, he speaks strictly of the image of Francis itself. In her powerfully argued book Picturing the Passion in Late Medieval Italy: Narrative Painting, Franciscan Ideologies, and the Levant (1996), Anne Derbes explores the reasons behind the significant transition that occurred in the portrayal of sacred subject matter.
She uses the historical backdrop of images produced in Byzantium and northern Europe. 7 While her focus varies from that of this thesis, she supplies a thought- provoking rationale for the expansion of the Passion narrative depicted on medieval altarpieces in the fourteenth century especially under the patronage of the Franciscans.8 In his much debated book, The Sexuality of Christ in Renaissance Art and in Modern Oblivion (1983), Leo Steinberg explores how art has wrestled with the notion of Jesus’ physical form, specifically his sexuality, as fully human. While Steinberg avoids mention of Catharism, 7 Derbes, 11. 6 his theories will lend a certain specificity to my argument.