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Advertise the Message: Images in Rome at the Turn of the Twelfth Century1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  21 March 2016

Brenda M. Bolton
Brenda M. Bolton*
Affiliation:
Queen Mary and Westfield College, University of London
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Extract

On at least three occasions during the pontificate of Innocent III, Gerald of Wales—failed bishop, celebrated story-teller, and inveterate and inventive pilgrim, made the journey to Rome.There, having already carried out his preliminary research, he was always eager to examine two of the most outstanding images in Rome at close quarters. These two images—the Uronica at the Lateran and the Veronica at St Peter’s—made such a deep impression upon him that his description and explanation of their importance was to form a central role in his Speculum Ecclesiae, which he wrote on his return home. He clearly saw them as a pair, having similar names and being held in equal reverence, although perhaps their authenticity sprang from different roots. His remarks would have greatly pleased Innocent, for this was precisely the approach which the pope aimed to achieve. He considered it essential that the long and damaging rivalry between the two great basilicas of the Lateran and the Vatican, which had existed for much of the twelfth century, should now be resolved. It was a rivalry which had brought scandal to the papacy and grave detriment to the Church. In thiscontroversy the Lateran had some advantages, both historically—as the cathedral of Rome and hence of the world—and in the popular appeal of its fabulous relics. A brief glance at a contemporary inventory shows the outstanding richness of this collection. Innocent’s aim was not to diminish the Lateran, but instead to raise the status of St Peter’s, so that both became co-equal seats of the pope-bishop of Rome. What Gerald of Wales had written confirmed Innocent’s own reading of the Liber Pontif¡calis, which was to form the basis for his important reform of the liturgy at this time. Nor was his approbation merely directed towards Gerald. It went to all observant pilgrims, particularly that small number of highly significant archbishops and metropolitans who came to Rome to collect their pallia on their appointments. That great show, the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215, saw almost all of them in attendance. ‘Here was a wonderful opportunity for Innocent to stress the underlying purpose of his artistic patronage, whereby Lateran and Vatican were to achieve coequal status whilst, at the same time, the Church’s real message was being strengthened.

Type
Research Article
Information
Studies in Church History , Volume 28: The Church and the Arts , 1992 , pp. 117 - 130
Copyright
Copyright © Ecclesiastical History Society 1992

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Footnotes

1

My deep gratitude to Dr Fabrizio Mancinelli of the Vatican Museums for granting me privileged access to the confessio of St Peter’s and the Sancta Sanctorum in April 1989.

References

2 Gerald of Wales (ci 145-1223), disputed the election to the bishopric of St David’s and there after pursued his claim relentlessly at the Curia. Giraldas Cambrensis opera, ed. Brewer, J. S. and Dimock, J. F., 8 vols, RS (London, 1861-91)Google Scholar. See also The Jewel of the Church: a Translation of the Gemma Ecclesiastica by Giraldas Cambrensis, ed. J. J. Hagen (Leiden, 1979), pp. ix–xv [hereafter Jewel of the Church] for biographical and bibliographical information.

3 Gerald of Wales, Speculum Ecclesiae, RS, 4 (1873), esp. Distinctio TV, pp. 268-85 [hereafter Speculum Ecclesiae], and Jewel of the Church, p. xiii, for the suggestion that this work was possibly his latest, still being added to in 1216.

4 Speculum Ecclesiae, p. 278: ‘De duabus igitur iconiis Salvatoris, Uronica scilicet et Veronica, quarum una apud Lateranum, altera vero apud Sanctum Petrutn.’

5 M. Maccarrone, ‘La “Cathedra Saneei Petri” nel medioevo: da simbolo a reliquia’, Rivista di Storia della Chiesa in Italia, 39 (1985), pp. 349–447, esp. pp. 395–432.

6 Ibid., pp. 430-2; John the Deacon, Descriptio Lateranensis Ecclesiae, in R. Valentini and G. Zucchetti, Codice topografico della città di Roma, Fonti per ¡a storia d’Italia, 4 vols (Rome, 1940-53). 3, pp. 319-73 [hereafter Descriptio Lateranensis]; Petti Mallii Descriptio Basilicac Valicarne aucta ataue emendata a Romano Presbytero [hereafter Descriptio Vaticanae], ibid., pp. 375-442, and esp. pp. 379-80 for two poems, Contra Lateranensis.

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8 Descriptio Lateranensis, pp. 356–8, De Ecclesia Sancii Laurent! in Palatio; Speculum Ecclesiae, pp. 272-4, for Gerald’s own list.

9 13 March 1198, O. Hageneder and A. Haidacher, eds. Die Register Innocenz’III, I Band, Ponti-fihatsjah 1198/99 (Graz and Koln, 1964), [hereafter Register 1], pp. 417-18; Innocenta III: Opera omnia, 4 vols (Paris, 1855), PL 214, cols 254-5; Potthast, 1, no. 46; 18 Jan. 1199, Register I, pp. 772–3; PL 214, cols 490-1; Potthast, no. 939; 21 Jan. 1204, PL 215, cols 513-17, esp. col. 513, ‘quia ex tunc fecit Petrum stabilem sedem habere, sive in Laterano, sive in Vaticano’; Maccarrone, ‘“Cathedra”’, pp. 430-1.

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12 B. M. Bolton, ‘A show with a meaning: Innocent Ill’s approach to the Fourth Lateran Council, 1215’, Medieval History, 1 (1991), pp. 53-67.

13 M. M. Gautier, ‘La Clôture Émaillée de la Confession de Saint Pierre au Vatican hors du Con cile de Latran, 1215’, Bibliothèque des Cahiers Archéologiques, II, Synthronon: art et archéologie de la fin de l’antiquité (Paris, 1068), pp. 237–46; ‘Observations préliminaires sur les restes d’un revêtement d’émail champlevé fait pour la Confession de Saint Pierre à Rome’, Bulletin de laSociété Archéologique et Historique du Limousin, 91 (1964), pp. 43–70; ‘L’art de l’émail champlevé en Italie à l’époque primitive du gothique’, Il Gotico a Pistoia nei suoi rapporti con l’arte gotica italiana - Atti del secondo convegno internazionale ài studi, Pistoia, 24-30 aprile, 1966, pp. 271-93. Cf. F. Vitale, ‘Il frontale della confessione Vaticano’, Federico IIet l’arte del ducenti) italiano, 1 vols (Rome, 1980), 2, pp. 159–72.

14 Gautier, ‘Clôture émaillée’, p. 238.

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16 Iacobini, ‘Il mosaico absidale’, pp. 66-8, plates 2, 3, and 4.

17 Hence Gerald of Wales, Speculum Ecclesiae, p. 278; Descriptio Lateranensis, p. 357.

18 Grisar, H., II Sancta Sanctorum ed il suo tesoro sacro (Rome, 1907), p. 49 Google Scholar.

19 Gerald of Wales, Speculum Ecclesiae, p. 278, ‘Tales fecit duas vel tres, quarum una Romae babetur apud Lateranensem, scilicet in sancta sanctorum.’

20 Ibid., ‘Cum papa quidam… inspicere praesumpsisset, statim lumen oculorum amisit.

21 Ibid., ‘Deinde coopera fuit auro et argento tota praeter genu dexerum, a quo oleum in-desinenter emanat’

22 J. Wilpert, ‘L’acheropita ossia l’immagine del Salvatore della Capelle del Saneia Sanctorum’, L’Arte, io (1907), pp. 159-77,246-62, esp. pp. 162-5.

23 Cf. W. F. Volbach, ‘Il Cristo di Sutri e la venerazione del SS. Salvatore nel Lazio’, Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia, Rendiconti, 17 (1940–1), pp. 97-126.

24 Wilpert, ‘Vachenpita’, p. 174 and esp. fig. 9.

25 Lewis, F., ‘The Veronica: image, legend and the viewer’, in Ormrod, W. M., ed., England in the Thirteenth Century, Proceedings of the Harlaxton Conference (Woodbridge, 1985), pp. 100–6 Google Scholar, especially p. 104.

26 Wilpert, ‘L’archeropito’, pp. 246-62.

27 Descriptio Lateranensis, p. 357.

28 Cf. G. B. Ladner, “The gestures of prayer in papal iconography of the thirteenth and early fourteenth centuries’, Images and Ideas in the Middle Ages, Selected Studies in History and Art, Storia e Letteratura - Raccolta di Studi e Testi, 155–6, 2 vols (Rome, 1983), 1, pp. 209–37, esp. pp. 209–11.

29 Descriptio Lateranensis, p. 357, ‘et caput Sancta Práxedis et Sanctae Agnese reliquae cum aliis multis’. Wilpert, ‘Vacheròfita’, p. 177, suggests that one might be the Magdalene, who herself anointed Christ’s feet.

30 From left to right, Agnes with lamb and crown, St Paul with his sword, John the Baptist, a space. Madonna and Child, Peter with keys and a book, St Laurence, S. Prassede, a bishop, and a donor.

31 + INNOCENTIVS PP III HOC OPVS FECIT FIERI +.

32 Dobschiitz, E. V., Chrislusbilder, Untersuchungen zur christlichen Legende (Leipzig, 1899), esp. pp. 197–262 Google Scholar.

33 Wilson, I., Holy Faces: Secret Places (London, 1991)Google Scholar; Lewis, ‘The Veronica’, pp. 100-3.

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35 Wilpert, J., Die romischen Malereien und Mosaiken, 2 vols (Freiburg, 1917), 2, p. 1123 Google Scholar; Lewis, ‘Veronica’, p. 105, n. 15.

36 3 Jan. 1208, PL 215, col. 1270, ‘recolitur infra capsam ex auro et argento et lapidibus pretiosis ad hoc specialiter fabrefactam venerabiliter deportetur.’ Cf. Lewis, ‘Veronica’, p. 103, n. 15.

37 Grisar, Sanaa Sanctorum, p. 51.

38 Gerald of “Wilts, Jewel of the Church, ch. 31, pp. 79-80.

39 Ordo Romanus XII, PL 78, cols 1063-1106, esp. col. 1097.

40 Lewis/Veronica’, p. 105.

41 For fourteenth-century representations of the pilgrim badge or Vernicle’, see Mitchincr, M., Medieval Pilgrim and Secular Badges (London, 1986), p. 273 Google Scholar, and plates 1057–8.

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44 E. Kirzinger, ‘A Virgin’s face: antiquarianism in twelfth-century art’, Art Bulletin, 62 (1980), pp. 6–19; M. Guarducci, La più antica icone di Maria: un prodigioso vincolo fra oriente e occidente (Rome, 1989).

45 E. Dahl, ‘Heavenly images. The statue of St Foy of Conques and the signification of the medieval “Cult-image” in die West’, Acta ad Archaeologicam et Artium Historiam Pertinentia - Institutum Romanum Norvtgiae, 8 (Rome, 1978) [hereafter AAAHP], pp. 175-92.

46 Sancii Bernardi Opera, 3, ed. J. Leclercq and H. M. Rocháis (Rome, 1363), Apologia ad Cuillelmum Abbatem, p. 105.

47 Forsyth, L., The Throne of Wisdom: Wood Sculptures of the Madonna in Romanesque France (Princeton, 1972), pp. 40–4 Google Scholar.

48 Dahl, ‘Heavenly images’, pp. 188-91.

49 Master Gregory, The Marvels of Rome, a. J. Osborne - Medieval Sources in Translation, 31 (Toronto, 1987), p. 23.

50 Dahl, ‘Heavenly images’, pp. 190-1; S. Sinding-Larsen, ‘Some observations on liturgical imagery of the twelfth century’, AAAHP, pp. 192-212, esp. pp. 208–12.

51 Gervase of Tilbury, Olia Imperials, book 3, ed. Leibnitz, G. G., Scriptores rerum Brunsvicensium (Hanover, 1707), p. 967 Google Scholar; Lewis, ‘Veronica’, p. 103.

52 Gerald of Wales, Speculum Ecclesiae, p. 279, ‘… a nemine, nisi per velorum quae ante dependent interpositionem inspicitur.’

53 Dahl, ‘Heavenly images’, pp. 186-91.

54 Ibid., pp. 177-8.

55 Conciliorum oecumenicorum decreta, ed. Alberigo, J. et al, 3rd edn (Bologna, 1973), pp. 263–4 Google Scholar.

56 Antonelli, Memorie storiche, p. 11; Grisar, Sancta Sanctorum, p. 24.

57 PL 217, col. 877, ‘Melius est Deo totum committere quam aliud temere definire.’ Cf. Grisar, Sancta Sanctorum, p. 123, who notes that this relic was kept in a gemmed cross inscribed ‘PRE-PUTIUM DNJC.

58 PL 215, col. 1270, for the privilege to the Hospital.

59 The Book of Pontiffs (Liber Pontificala), tr. R. Davis (Liverpool, 1989), pp. 87-8; A. Mancini, ‘La chiesa medioevale di S. Adriano nel Foro Romano’, Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia, Rendiconti, 40 (1067–8), pp. 191–245.

60 Liber Pontificala, ed. L. Duchesne, 3 vols (Paris, 1886-92), 1, p. 443; Grisar, &mcu Sanctorum, p. 50; Kitzinger, ‘A Virgin’s face’, p. 12. Cf. D. de Bruyne, ‘L’origine des processions de la Chandeleur et des rogations à propos d’un sermon inédit’, RBen, 34 (1922), pp. 142–26.

61 Liber Pontificala, 2, pp. 110,135; Volbach, ‘Il Cristo di Sutri’, p. 116.

62 Grisar, Sancta Sanctorum, pp. 55–7; Kirzinger, ‘A Virgin’s face’, pp. 12, 17; Mancini, ‘S. Adriano nel Foro Romano’, p. 223; Sinding-Larsen, ‘Liturgical imagery’, p. 211; Volbach, ‘11 Cristo di Sutri’, pp. 116-18.

63 Mabillon, J., Museum Italicum seu collectio veterum scriptorum ex bibliothecis Italicis, 2 vols (Paris, 1724), 2, pp. 131, 134, 174 Google Scholar; Kitzinger, ‘A Virgin’s face’, p. 12.

64 Benedicrus Canonicus, Liber Politicus, in P. Fabre and L. Duchesne, Le Liber Censuum de l’église romaine, 3 vols (Paris, 1905-10), 2, p. 158.

65 PL 217, cols 581-6.

66 Ibid., col. $84: ‘Quia vero ad diluculum poenitenriae surgit, respiciat auroram, deprecetur Mariani, ut ipsa per filium cor ejus ad satisfactionem illuminée’

67 Grisar, Saneia Sanctorum, pp. 56-7.

68 Kitzinger, ‘A Virgin’s face’, pp. 16-17.

69 “Volbach, ‘Il Cristo di Sutri’, pp. 104-16.

70 Kitzinger, ‘A Virgin’s face’, p. 12, n. 46.

71 PL 215, cols 1270–1; Albani, A., Collections bullarum sacrosanctae basilicae Vaticanae, 3 vols (Rome, 1747-54), I, pp. 89–90 Google Scholar.

72 Gesta Innocenta PPIII, PL 214, cols xvii-ccxxvi, esp. cols cc-cciii and cci, ‘in qua populus illic confluit’.

73 PL 217, cols 345-50.

74 Origins of the Liturgy, pp. 102-3, 460.

75 Origins of the Liturgy, p. 93.

76 Ado of Vienne, Vetus Romanum Martyroiogium, PL 123, cols 143-82; Van Dijk, Origins, pp. 126-8,226-7,493-8.

77 PL 78, col. 1077; Grisar, Saneia Sanctorum, pp. 50-1.

78 Gautier, ‘La Cloture Émaillée’, pp. 237-42.

79 Ibid., p. 238. + TERCIVS HOC MUNVS DANS INNOCENTIVS +.

80 On the confessio see E. Kirschbaum, Les fouilles de Saint-Pierre Je Rome (Paris, 1961); Descriptio Valicarne, pp. 375-442.

81 Book of Pontiffs, pp. 35-7, esp. p. 36.

82 Liber Pontificalalis, p. 1.

83 Ibid., p. 114.

84 Ibid., p. 380.

85 Gautier, ‘Observations préliminaires’, pp. 43–79.

86 Gautier, ‘La Clôture Émaillée’, pp. 238-42.

87 Ibid., pp. 242-6.

88 Gesta, col. ccv, ‘absidam ejusdem basilicae fecit restauri mosibus, quod erat ex magna parte consumptum.’ Cf. J. Ruysschaert, ‘Le tableau Mariotti de la mosaïque absidale de l’ancien S.Pierre’, Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologìa, Rendiconti, 40 (1967-8), pp. 29S-317.

89 S. Kuttner and A. Garcia y Garcia, ‘A new eyewitness account of the Fourth Lateran Council’, Traditio, 20 (1964), pp. 115-78; Kinney, D., Santa Maria in Trastevere from its Founding to 1215 (Michigan, 1975), pp. 337–9 Google Scholar.

90 Bolton, ‘Show with a meaning’, pp. 61-4.