Wooden Sculpture in Italy as Sacral Presence

Author(s): John T. Paoletti

Source: Artibus et Historiae, Vol. 13, No. 26 (1992), pp. 85-100
Published by: IRSA s.c.
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/1483432
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JOHN T. PAOLETTI
Wooden Sculpture in Italy as Sacral Presence
Due to the prodigiousefforts of restorers duringthe past
twenty years andthe increasingattention paidto wooden sculp-
ture of the Trecentoand Quattrocentoby museum curators,art
historians,and historiansof liturgicalandtheatricaltexts, we are
at a good moment to assess the meaningand function of these
splendidworksinthe context of the religioushistoryof theirown
time. Sculpture in wood, although fundamentallydifferent in
function from stone and bronzesculpture,should, however, be
viewed together with works in those media which share com-
parable mimetic capabilities, particularlythose free-standing
pieces in wax, plaster, or terracotta which are pigmented like
wood to replicatethe subject in as compellinglyrealistica man-
ner as possible. Much of this once pervasive sculpture is now
lost, in large part because of its fragile nature, but also one
should note that, because of its functionalroleinthe culturesfor
which it was produced, it was left vulnerableto both normal
wear and to politicalattack.
Death masks in wood, plaster, and wax, such as those of
Queen Elizabethof York(1465-1503) [Fig. 1] and of HenryVII
(d. 1509) now preserved in Westminster Abbey, are cases in
point. Glass eyes, real human hair, and appropriatecostume
madethese figuresvirtualanimatepresences long afterthe ruler
had died. We can, by way of comparison,recallthe three wax ef-
figies which Lorenzothe Magnificenthad made after the Pazzi
Conspiracy of 1478. According to Vasari, one of these was
placed in Santissima Annunziata,Florence,one in Santa Maria
degli Angeliat Assisi, andthe thirdinthe Conventof the Chiarito,
Florence;this last one Lorenzohad clothed with the very gar-
ments he had been wearing at the time of the foiled attempt on
his life, whereas the Santissima Annunziataeffigy was dressed
in the garments of a proper Florentinecitizen. These figures
must have provideda curious extension, if not inversion,of the
normative meanings attached to commemorativestatues like
the English examples just cited, by having as their unspoken
epithet "the prince is alive, long live the prince."All the figures
of Lorenzowere destroyed in the political uprisingof 1494, a
damnatiomemoriae indicatingthe effectiveness of the effigy in
carrying Lorenzo'spolitical power to a wide audience.2 Such
masks in wax and plaster served more than a commemorative
function;they were meantto suggest the ever-present,timeless
personaof the manorwoman represented,a seamless temporal,
social, and politicalorderwhich no cataclysm, not even death it-
self, could rend.Thiscollapse of time into a realisticimage which
denies a linearchronologyor discrete events creates a sacralex-
perience which is the very raison d'etre of devotional art. Pre-
cisely the same search for the sacral is evident in large-scale
85
JOHNT. PAOLETTI
1) ((QueenElizabethof York),WestminsterAbbey, London.
wooden sculpture, and can be seen most particularlyin those
endlessly repeated representations of the crucified Christ,
figures which must have been requisitesculpturaliconography
for virtuallyevery majorchurch on the Europeansubcontinent.
Compendiaof these crucifixes reveal a numberof consis-
tent attributes which are worthy of remark. First, wooden
crucifixes are almost without exception within the parameters
of what we can safely call life-sized3;there are no Christsof an
intermediatescale, a fact which may indicatethat actual size is
intrinsicto their meaning and function. There are some figures
which are considerably largerthan life-sized, but these were
placed at a distance from the viewer, normallyhigh above rood
screens, thus diminishingthe appearanceof theirsize considera-
bly.Wooden crucifixes are-or were-all polychromedso as to
86
2) Donatello,((Crucifix)),Sta. Croce, Florence.
present the torturedhumanbody of Christin a naturalisticman-
ner; even the extravagances of pain depicted in late medieval
Germanexamples reproducethe actuality of the horrificevent.
Particulardetails of wooden crucifixes indicate the desire to
achieve a compellingverism. Examplessurvive in Franconiaof
figures of the crucifiedChristwhich were designed to have wigs
fitted to their smoothly carved skulls.4And some Italianexam-
ples like the Santa Maria Novella Crucifix attributed to
Brunelleschiwere made to have actual draperyloincloths cover
the genital area.5 Inclusionsof real materialslike human hairor
cloth indicateattempts to dissolve the boundariesbetween the
fictive and the real.A numberof wood crucifixes, likethe one in
Santa Croceattributedto Donatello[Figs.2-3], even have mov-
able limbs6; the changeable positions of the arms of such
 WOODEN SCULPTUREIN ITALYAS SACRAL PRESENCE

3) Donatello, ((Crucifix)), Santa Croce, Florence (showing corpus removed from the cross).

87
JOHN T. PAOLETTI
4) Giovannidi Paolo, (Levitationof an UnknownFranciscanMonk)),privatecollection.
figures allowed them to function along a continuum of the
Christological narrative from the Crucifixion to the Lamentation
or to depict the ahistorical imago pietatis. Lastly, it must be not-
ed that virtually no life-sized sculptural crucifixes exist in media
other than wood prior to the sixteenth century; the very few ex-
ceptions one could cite, such as Donatello's bronze crucifix in
Padua, are remarkable for what amounted to an aberrant choice
of material.7
The original placement of the Santa Croce and Santa Maria
Novella crucifixes may help to explain how such sculpture func-
tioned to make possible the sacral experience mentioned above.
They were originally not intended to be seen the way we see
them today, that is over altars within chapels.8 This is not sur-
prising since the large size of Renaissance altarpieces filled a
good part of the wall space of chapels, leaving little usable space
for a life-sized crucifix. The earliest reference to the Santa Croce
88
Crucifix in the LibrodiAntonio Billi (c. 1530), describes it as be-
ing "a meza la chiesa." Shortly afterwards Vasari wrote that Tad-
deo Gaddi's fresco of a miracle of St. Francis was on the rood
screen which divided Santa Croce, and that it was painted
"above the crucifix of Donatello,"9 implying that the wooden
crucifix was in the middle of the church as Billihad written and
also low to the ground. Manetti described the Santa MariaNovel-
la Crucifix as "attached to the pillar between the two side
chapels on the side of the transept toward the old piazza in Santa
Maria Novella."o1 And in the mid-sixteenth century Giovanni
Battista Gelli described the same crucifix as being "between the
chapels of the Strozzi and the Bardi,"again indicating that it was
not in a discretely enclosed and private family chapel.11
In a number of painted depictions of religious ecstasy from
the Quattrocento, the holy person kneels before what must be
a polychromed wooden crucifix as in Sassetta's depiction of the
 WOODEN SCULPTUREIN ITALYAS SACRAL PRESENCE

Vision of St. Thomas Aquinas from the Arte della LanaAltarpiece

and Giovanni di Paolo's Levitation of an Unknown Franciscan
Monk [Fig. 4]. Inthese small predellapaintings all distinctions - 1?= -.•I ~ :- ....

between actual and (re)presentedChristdisappear.Differences

inscale between the saintlyfigureandthe crucifixcan be under-
stood as pictorialconventions used to emphasize the central
characterinthe narrativesince the relationshipbetween crucifix
and churchinteriorsuggests that the corpus in each case is life- .
sized. The placement of the crucifixat groundlevel in a support-
!, I
ing base signifying the hill of Golgotha suggests the way in
which many of the life-sized sculpted wooden crucifixes from
the Trecentoand the Quattrocento would originallyhave been
seen.
iii '~ -
The obvious Florentineanalogue to these Sienese panels is
Masaccio's Trinity where the donorfiguresarea merestep below
the crucifiedChristand where the cross is placed directlyon the I
floor of the fictive chapel, where it too is supported by a rather
reduced Golgotha. Here the scale of the figures is consistent
i
throughout. Tellingly,when this fresco was recreated, so to _
speak, in fully dimensionalform for the CardiniChapel in San
Francesco in Pescia (c. 1451; Fig. 5), the crucifixwas placed on .
.

the floorin its own stylized Golgotha,just as we have seen inthe

paintings.12There is a 1470 record of a "crucifisso magno"
placed above a Brunelleschifamily tomb slab in San Marcoin
Florence,perhapsin an arrangementsimilarto the CardiniTomb
in Pescia.13The CardiniChapel suggests one furthermeaning
for the placement of these wooden crucifixes.The realityof the
crucifiedChristwhich the priest saw before him was repeated
in the sacramental presence which he held in his hands, an
iconography comparable to the familiarMass of St. Gregory
imagery.
Entriesin Neridi Bicci's Ricordanzereferdirectlyto this cru-
cifix for the CardiniChapel.OnJune 3, 1458, Nerirecordedthat
he had taken "a dipigniere dal detto Ant[oni]o [Cardini]lo
Crocifisso di relievo [in this case one by Giulianoda Maiano],
grande piuiche naturale,chol monte e.lla croce e.lla chorona di
spine e.lla santita...."14The document, like others in the Ricor-
danze,15 indicates that the crucifix had as one of its parts a
monte, a word which meant not only mount but, in contem-
poraryusage, also Calvary.Althoughthe extant wooden crucifix
in Pescia is in accord with the partsmentionedin the document,
none of the other crucifixes which Neri mentioned has been
identified,thus makinga generalizationthat they were placed on
the floordifficult,even if they are referredto as "grande."Yetone
furtherreferenceinthe Ricordanzemakes this hypothesis seem
morethan likely.On December 15, 1470, Neriwrote that he had
sold to Giovanni d'Andrea, a goldsmith, "lo crocifisso di leg-
niame grande da tenere in chiesa, cholla croce, el monte e cholla
chorona e 'I titolo di sopra alla croce."16 For some undeclared
5) Cardini Chapel, San Francesco, Pescia.
reason, he had not paintedthe mount which was still in his stu-
dio and which he described as being 3/4 of a bracciahigh and
1 3/4 braccia"lar[g]ho,"which might mean 1 3/4 bracciawide
or perhaps 1 3/4 bracciain diameter.17Inany event it is difficult
to imaginesuch a monte on an altar,attached to a wallwhere the
monte would be redundant,or in any other place withina liturgi-
cal setting except on the floor of the building,or possibly at a
crowning point on the rood screen.18
Sculpted images of the crucified Christ, whatever their
placement, must havebeen powerfulincitementsto devotionfor
the worshipper.The Chronicleof Moyenmoutiers(Vosges, c.
1020) begins: "Apenitentstood in the churchat the entranceto
the choir and contemplatedthe image of the crucified Savior."
This image of Christwas apparentlyattached somehow to the
roodscreen, eitherat groundlevel (likethe Santa Crocecrucifix)
or over the entrance to the choir through the screen (likethe

89
JOHNT. PAOLETTI
rr?•r
..
AO
40' VAL Aftq
*,,
~ror
1 ??OF
i,
6) ((SantaChiaraAltarpiece,,, Santa Chiara,Assisi.
painted crucifix depicted in the St. Franciscycle of the upper
churchinAssisi or likegenerallyunnoticedVenetiansculpted ex-
amples such as the wooden crucifixat Santa MariaGloriosadei
Frari).The Chroniclercontinues: "The master who made this
work was so skilled that even today it moves the hardest of
heartsto pity and makes people feel that they are witnessing the
death of Christwith theirown eyes."'9 Inthis lightit is also use-
fulto recalla passage froma late-thirteenth-centurymanuscript.
The Meditations on the Life of Christ, by an anonymous Francis-
can states: "Thereforeyou ought to know that it is enough to
meditate only on what the Lorddid or on what happened con-
90
cerning Himor on what is told accordingto the Gospel stories,
feeling yourself present in those places as if the things were
done in yourpresence, as it comes directlyto yoursoul in think-
ing of them."20
Indealing with such moments of spiritualimmediacyin the
historyof art,we tend to cite familiardepictions,such as Giovan-
ni di Paolo's panel of St. Catherineof Siena (1447-49), where
the crucifiedChristin hervision takes the form of what appears
to be a paintedwooden crucifix.But it is the narrativeaspect of
the vision which normallyoccupies ourattention, not the object
seen by the saint.21Nordo we normallyconsider very seriously
the objects which helpto provokevisions as they are narratedin
pious hagiographicaltexts, many of which speak, for example,
"
of "talking"crucifixes.InFraThomasAgniof Lentino'slife of St.
PeterMartyr,the saint, havingbeen falsely accused of admitting
women to his cell, "prayeddevotedly at night in church before
a crucifix"onlyto havethe "Crucifixiimago"speak to him:"And
I, Peter, what did I do wrong that .... I was condemned to the
cross."22 WhetherPeter Martyr,St. John Gaulbert,or St. Fran-
cis of Assisi, hagiographicaccounts indicate that the saint
closed the distance between himself and the livingChristof the
cross throughthe mediationof a paintedor sculpted image.
There are also a number of secular texts and examples
which attest to the powerof these images of the crucifiedChrist
to work wonders in rathermore pedestriancircumstances. Ina
long and unusual passage in his Ricordi, Giovannidi Pagolo
Morellitells of his year-longgriefoverthe death of his son, Alber-
to, and of kneeling before a crucifix on "bare knees" in his
camicia, with nothingon his head and a belt aroundhis neck. Af-
ter prolongedprayerhe fell asleep and dreamed of talkingwith
his deceased son in Paradise, an experience which finally
released himfromhis sorrow.Itis importantto emphasize inthis
secular account that Giovanniat no time in his discursivenarra-
tive confused this dream with any direct experience with the
Almightyor with his son; the dreamwas just a dream.Nonethe-
less the crucifixseems to have been the agent for what must be
read as a liminalexperience.23In GiovanniCambi's Istorie he
tells of three women who, in 1534, saw a crucifixrise up above
theirheads with a great clatteringnoise. Whena crowdof people
gathered around,the wounds made by the crown of thorns be-
gan to spurt bloodwhich was caught in a chalice by the vicarof
the local bishop.24Such tales of piety and credulitycould un-
doubtedlybe multipliedmanytimes over.The pointto be made,
however,is that objects perceivedas works of art functioned in
their early histories as efficacious agents of the sacral.
Likepaintedcrucifixes,even certain paintingssuggest that
the artists and the patrons intended to make a distinction be-
tween the imminent presence of the saint or Christ and the
subordinatenarrativepanels which depict scenes fromhis or her
 WOODEN SCULPTUREIN ITALYAS SACRAL PRESENCE

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7) Cimabue, ((Great Crucifixion)), San Francesco, Assisi.

life. The Santa Chiara Master, for example, took great care to Madonna del Carmine (c. 1250-60) for Santa Maria Maggiore
depict the figure of St. Clare in the altarpiece for Santa Chiara in where the central icon is raised in actual relief from the main
Assisi (c. 1281-85; Fig. 6) in a fictive architectural tabernacle body of the painting. This format is later developed in poly-
as if she were an actual presence in real space. The rigidity of her chromed wooden statues placed at the center of altarpieces like
iconic representation is an appropriate stylistic device for the Signorelli's Pala Bichi with its figure of St. Christopher by Fran-
devotional image and is distinct from the active figural poses in cesco de Giorgio.26 Other paintings indicate the power of the
the flanking narrative panels. Yet its very rigidity approximates wooden crucifix to be a surrogate reality for the devotional ardor
that of wooden sculpture and is another example of the blurring of the pious. In Cimabue's Great Crucifixion [Fig. 7] at Assisi, St.
of the boundaries between representation and actuality which Francis kneels at the base of the cross before the crucified Christ.
lies at the heart of polychromed wood sculpture.25 With this in Like many other similar images of St. Francis in Trecento paint-
mind it might be useful to remember Coppo di Marcovaldo's ing, Cimabue's fresco depicts that sacral moment suggested by

91
JOHN T. PAOLETTI

San Marco or an anonymous woodcut of c. 1460 [Fig. 8] il-

lustrate.28
" - -- The theatricality of Cimabue's early Franciscan image,
..... meant for the eyes of the monks seated in the choir of San Fran-
cesco, has a counterpart in well-known Quattrocento lamenta-
tion groups in terracotta by artists like Niccol6 dell'Arca and Gui-
do Mazzoni [Fig. 9]. These groups were, like wooden sculpture,
'?-I originally brilliantly polychromed to replicate real figures; they
must, also like wooden sculpture, be seen as figures meant to
F,"
"re-present" the original event. Placed on the floor of the church
~d >4~/Y>4
A in the space of the worshipper, again much like the crucifixes,
~PJ \?L~~fA;:'J
C
the figures of these groups invite one to become a full participant
I
1!
~7 16,c
J 1j1
A?~;Ii/ft..
4'! ~ 2J in their emotional reaction to the death of Christ, a kind of gueril-
la theater, where the bridge between the event and the viewer
t
di /~~f l
'' is made by the kneeling donor figure depicted as Joseph of
\. .
-,_
?
A1J Arimathea or the sculptor himself, often depicted as Nicode-
-I a.
mus.29 Like the figure of St. Francis in Cimabue's fresco or the
worshipper in front of a wooden crucifix, the donor or the sculp-
tor is represented as living in the present and in the long-past
historical moment at one and the same time.
A document previously overlooked by art historians sug-
gests how such Lamentation groups might have functioned. On
April 13, 1437, Good Friday, Alfonso I of Naples "fa le funzioni
sacri del Sepolcro (la rapresentacio del vinendres sant) nel
Castello Nuovo di Napoli."30This reference suggests that Alfon-
r _ _ so took part in a liturgical drama of the Deposition and Burial of
Christ, a re-enactment of the original event, and that such liminal
dramas are recalled in the terracotta groups by artists such as
Niccol6 dell'Arca and Guido Mazzoni. Since donor images are
suspected in a number of these terracotta Lamentations, such
portraits represent an invasion of the sacral by the political with
the not surprising presence of the secular rulerat the heart of the
liturgical practice. The ruler's role was sacralized by blurringthe
boundaries between religious ritual and princely pageant in both
8) Anonymous German(?), ((Saint Before a Crucifix)),colored enacted dramas and mimetic sculpture.
woodcut, c. 1460, Kunstmuseum,Basel. The Christ figure of such terracotta Lamentation groups
should remind modern viewers of a sub-set of wooden crucifixes
whose arms are fixed to the shoulders in such a way as to allow
the Moyenmoutiers quotation; Francis does not see a vision but them to be folded down to the sides of the body so that the cor-
miraculously reaches through time to participate in the actual pus could be removed from the cross in a Good Friday re-enact-
history of the Crucifixion. All commemorative relivings of the ment of the Deposition and Lamentation. By 1969, the Tauberts
event are collapsed into the ever-present actuality of the mys- had published an inventory of forty such crucifixes with movable
tery as a fourteenth-century text from a Swiss convent rather arms.31 The Santa Croce crucifix [Figs. 2-3] is one of these
graphically suggests: "... era in preghiera dinnanzi a un'immagine sculptures, as Hans Kauffmann indicated over fifty years ago,32
di Nostro Signore nel Sepolcro ed eccola d'un tratto prendere although its arms fold only part way to its sides to create an icon-
nella sua mano la mano e il piede di Nostro Signore, e sentirli di ic Man of Sorrows rather than the dead Christ of historical nar-
came e di sangue come se veramente un uomo fosse lb sepol- rative.
to."27Such imagery quickly became widespread and apparently The well-known late Dugento Deposition in the cathedral of
universally understood as FraAngelico's fresco of St. Dominic in Volterra perhaps gives an idea of how these wooden crucifixes

92
 IN ITALY
WOODENSCULPTURE AS SACRALPRESENCE

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=

IF

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zrI
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9) Guido Mazzoni,((TheLamentation), Monteoliveto,Naples.

with movablearms might have been used. A document from an
Englishordo is also pertinentinsofaras it indicatesthat "Joseph
et Nicodemide ligno deponentes Ymaginem,"which they could
only do, incidentally,if the crucifixwere on or close to the floor
of the church.33Sculpted examples of this transitionalmoment
in the Passion narrativeare not as numerous as the isolated
figure of the crucified Christ,but enough such groups exist to
suggest that the subject was importantin the devotionallife of
the late MiddleAges.34 It may well be fromsuch enacted depic-
tions of the Deposition that the Imago Pietatis image, like the
familiarone fromthe Portadella Mandorlasometimes compared
with the Santa Crocecrucifix,35derives. Itmay also be the case
that the pose of the dead Christwith armsextended rigidlyaway
from the body in late-Dugento and early-TrecentoLamentation
paintingsalso reflectsthe awkwardstiffness of the wooden cor-
pus whose arms move only at the shoulderonce released from
the cross.36
Sandro Sticca has suggested that such liturgicaldramas
movedfromsimpletextual formto actualtheater inthe mid-thir-
teenth century,that is, at just the time that the Volterragroup
was carved.37Interestingly,there are virtuallyno liturgicaldra-
mas centered on the actions of crucifixion;plays leadingto the

93
JOHNT. PAOLETTI
Santo, Padua.
10) Donatello, <<Crucifix)),
moment of the Crucifixionand highlyemotionaldramasdealing
with the Lamentationabound, but the central event of redemp-
tion-for whatever reasons (among which must be counted its
staging difficulties)--was apparently left to sculpture to play,
whether its formwas wood orsome kindof doll-likemannequin.
Ina planctus of the Virginfromthe late MiddleAges, stage direc-
tions which dictate that St. John pointto Christ("Hiccum mani-
bus extensis ostendat Christum"),makeit abundantlyclearthat
a crucified Christwas at the emotional center of the action.38
Althoughthe dramatictexts are frustratinglysilent about the
Christfigure, Falvey is most likely correct in suggesting that
veristicwooden crucifixes playedcentralroles in these liturgical
94
dramas,figures no less realthan the actors addressingthem.39
Forexample,in 1377 there is a Perugianrecordof expenses for
a Good Fridayprocession with a "deadChrist"whose material
is not specified, and in 1491 there is a recordof the manufacture
of a paintedwax Virginby Benedetto Buglionefor use in a Holy
Saturdayprocession.40 Clearlysculpture was central to cultic
events and served to embody the presence of the person
represented.
Comparableexamples of sculpture functioning as a sur-
rogate for the actual figure in some kindof liturgicaldramacan
be seen in other iconographicaltypes. Life-sizedwooden figures
of Christ as a baby are well-known, if not well-liked,images.
Such figures, apparentlyplaced on altarsfor Nativityfeasts, ex-
ist primarilyin the mediumof wood; what few remainin marble
seem to have been detached fromarchitecturalmonuments like
tabernacles.41Wooden figures of Christon a donkey standing
on very simple wheeled carts were used in PalmSunday proces-
sions.42 Morecompellingfigures to our moderneyes are those
from Annunciationgroups, such as that attributedto Mariano
d'AngeloRomanelliin the churchof Santa Chiaradella Marcain
Castelfiorentino,in which the figure of Maryhas real drapery
addedto it and is structuredwith armswhich arejointedto allow
movement-and perhapsalso to holdone of the Gesuinofigures
at a narrativemoment laterin the liturgicalcycle. Inaddition,as
RobertModehas pointedout, an effigy "insimilitudine," perhaps
of some temporarymateriallikewax or clay drapedwith realgar-
ments, was used for a rappresentazioneof an ascension of St.
Bernardinointo Paradisewhich took place in frontof the Palazzo
Pubblicoin Siena in 1450.43
Whateverthe subject matterof wooden sculpture,its func-
tion and adherence to type suggest a numberof ramifications
whose development lies beyond the scope of this study. Yet
some briefindicationof their naturecan be outlined.First,inso-
faras wooden (andterracottaorwax) sculpturefunctions within
popularreligiousand liturgicalpractice, the style of individual
works within the various iconographicaltypes tends to be as
conservative--and as universal-as those practices within the
wide-rangingterritoriesof the Catholic Church.An important
corollaryfollows: any attempts to date wood sculpture on the
basis of stylistic comparisonsto other known sculpture,within
an artist's works or to stone or bronzesculpture,is likelyto lead
to a real perversionof the historicalfacts.44 Second, insofaras
the overridingconcern of wooden sculptureis to recreatethe hu-
man formin ways which make it immediate-as well as in ways
which fall within previouslyestablished and functionalconven-
tions of iconographicaltype-any overt referencesto a classical
(antique)idealizingstylistic vocabularywould be inappropriate
and thus are largely absent.45 Veracityto nature and conven-
tionalism over time insure the widespread readability-if not
 WOODEN SCULPTUREIN ITALYAS SACRAL PRESENCE

efficacy-of the type. Third, within specific iconographical

types, wood exists as the exclusive medium of representation.
The conservatism of style predicated on functional need
and type, used in the wooden sculpture of the Quattrocento,
does pertain to one very intriguing aspect of Donatello's work
outside this medium. The bronze crucifix in the Santo in Padua
[Fig. 10] is documented to Donatello and datable to 1444-47
by payment records. Comparison of this work with a wooden
crucifix from the little church of San Francesco at Bosco ai Fra-
ti [Fig. 11]46 helps to focus the issue. Cosimo de' Medici be-
gan restoration of the chapel sometime after 1421,47 in part
because it served his villa at Caffagiolo. He ultimately commis-
sioned Fra Angelico to make the altarpiece for the building and
it is assumed that his patronage extends to the Bosco ai Frati
crucifix as well. The work has been attributed to Donatello
solely on the basis of other connections between the sculptor
and Cosimo, particularly during the decade between 1434 and
1443 when Donatello was involved with the decoration of the
Old Sacristy. At any rate, given the history of the restorations
at Bosco ai Frati, it does seem likely that the wooden crucifix
was carved before Donatello went to Padua in
1443--whoever
may have been the sculptor-and that it is close in time to the
Padua sculpture.48
Comparison of the bronze crucifix in Padua and the wooden
crucifix at Bosco ai Frati reveals that the sculptor (or sculptors)
chose the same physical types for the body, the same placement
and modeling of the legs, the same degree of detail in the genital
area (although the Paduan figure is now discreetly covered by a
seventeenth-century loincloth), and the same rectangular con-
figuration of the torso from the shoulders to the hips. Vasari said,
when talking about wood sculpture, that one does not see the
same "carnositb e morbidezza" that one sees in bronze; that is
the case here, although some of the muscular tenseness and
definition in the Paduan crucifix is due more to the way that light 11) Donatello (attributed), ((Crucifix)), San Francesco, Bosco ai
plays over the reflective surface of the bronze than to its actual Frati.
form, an effect which probably lies behind Vasari's statement.
And, although one might note differences--such as the more
classicizing patterned hair of the Paduan figure, the more sharply it the more obvious classicizing stylistics of the bronzemedium
articulated distinctions between individual muscular forms in known from antiquity and from civic sculpture of the earlier
the Paduan Christ and the more expressionistically rendered de- years of the Quattrocento.50
tails of the bloody stripes allowed by the polychromy in the Butbronzewas utterlyinappropriateat this time for interior
Bosco ai Fratifigure - by and large the similarities between these liturgicaldecoration.Withthe notableexception of Arnolfo'sSt.
two works are more striking than their differences. If we assume Peter in Rome, there are no examples of life-sized figures in
that the Bosco ai Frati piece also had stucco or plaster additions bronzeas interiordevotionalimages untilDonatellomadethe Pa-
to the hair, then the comparison might be even more compel- duan crucifix and subsequently the figures for the high altar of
ling.49 In the Paduan crucifix, Donatello seems to cross the the Santo. Donatello'stranslationof the conventions of wooden
traditional stylistic boundaries between wood and bronze sculp- sculptureinto bronzeplaces the Paduancrucifixoutside the dis-
ture. He has turned into bronze the stylistics of realism central course both of the history of bronze sculpture and of the history
to works carved in wood, essentially without superimposing on of liturgical decoration. It is bronze but, polychromy aside, it

95
JOHN T. PAOLETTI
looks like wood, sharing the same realistic or naturalistic con-
ventions cultivated by carvers of wood.51 Thus it is perhaps not
surprising that, with the exception of non-Florentine sources
such as Bartolomeo Fazio and Marcantonio Michiel,52 there is
no mention of the bronze sculpture at the Santo in near contem-
porary sources. Antonio Billirefers to the marble PietMon the al-
tar,53 and Vasari mentions the reliefs54--obviously appropriate
for bronze-and the marble Pieth. Perhaps these writers were
merely uninformed. But perhaps their omissions are an indica-
tion that Donatello had trespassed boundaries established by
medium, as he was to do again in 1457 with the bronze St. John
for the cathedral of Siena which subsequently lay in storage for
so many years.55 Such faint historical echoes seem to indicate
The ideas in this article were first presented at the 24th International
Congress on MedievalStudies at Kalamazooin May 1989 in what was
intendedmerelyas a briefforayintothe issues particularto wooden and
terracottasculpture.A much revised version of that paperwas readat
the annualmeetings of the CollegeArtAssociation in New YorkCityin
February1990. My thinking has benefited from the advice and as-
sistance of many, among whom I would like particularlyto thank Carla
Antonaccio, ClarkMaines,Anita Moskowitz, Peter Parshall,Amy Van-
dersall, Timothy Verdon, and Paul Watson. Kathleen Falvey and
ElizabethParkerwere especially generous in sharing with me their
magisterialcommandof Italianliturgicaldramaand confraternalritual.
PhilipFoster read an earlierdraftof this paperand providedme with a
detailedand helpfulcritiquewhich broughtnew clarityto my ideas and
for this I am enormously grateful. I hope eventually to develop the
materialdiscussed hereinto a muchlargerstudy of wood andterracotta
sculptureduringthe fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
1 The bibliographypertinentto sculpture in wood is lengthy; the
most importantworks dealing with Italianart follow. Enzo Carlihas
96
that contemporaries of Donatello understood the relationship
between medium and message very clearly, something we must
learn to do as well if we are to comprehend both Donatello's
sculpture and his genius.
Donatello's innovations in bronze sculpture in Padua and
Siena occasioned only very limited response either from writers
or from other artists.56 Although bronze was important in civic
and commemorative commissions, it never became a widely
used medium for devotional imagery, in part perhaps because of
its costliness, but more likely because as a medium it was inap-
propriate for this function insofar as it lacked that verisimilitude
which could transport the viewer into sacral time. In short it was
art and not reality.
been a leader among modern historians writing about wooden sculp-
ture; see Lascultura lignea senese, Milan-Florence,1951; Lascultura
lignea italiana dal Xll//al XVIsecolo, Milan, 1961. DeborahStrom has
recently given a fuller discussion of wooden sculpture in Tuscany in
her Studies in Quattrocento Tuscan Wooden Sculpture, Ann Arbor,
1981. For wooden crucifixes in particular see G. de Francovich,
"L'Originee la diffusione del Crocifisso gotico doloroso," Kunst-
geschichtliches Jahrbuch der Bibliotheca Herziana 2 (1938), pp.
143-261; M. Lisner, Holzkruzifixein Florenz und in der Toskana,
Munich, 1970 (ItalienischeForschungen,I111.4). The fundamentalarti-
cle on wooden crucifixeswith movablearmsis G. &J. Taubert's"Mittel-
alterlicheKruzifixemit schwenkbarenArmen. EinBeitragzur Verwen-
dung von Bildwerkenin der Liturgie," Zeitschriftdes Deutschen Vereins
fir Kunstwissenschaft 23 (1969), pp. 79-121.
Forinsights into wooden (and wax) funeraryeffigies see W. H. St.
John Hope,"Onthe FuneralEffigiesof the Kingsand Queens of England,
with Special Referenceto Those in the Abbey Churchof Westminster,"
Archaeologia60 (1907), pp. 517-65. Forsculpturein wax see G. Masi,

"Laceroplastica in Firenzenei secoli XV-XVIe la famigliaBenintendi,"
Rivistad'arte 9 (1916), pp. 134-43; the premierwork on this subject is
J. von Schlosser's "Geschichteder Portritbildnerei in Wachs,"Jahrbuch
der KunsthistorischenSammlungendes AllerhochstenKaiserhauses29
(1911),pp. 171-258. An importantrecent exhibitioncatalogue for wood
sculpture is Scultura Dipinta. Maestri di Legname e Pittori a Siena
1250- 1450, Florence,1987.
For a wide-ranging,thorough, and provocativetreatment of the
functioning of images within the society see now D. Freedberg,The
Powerof Images, Chicago, 1989; Freedbergdiscusses the specific im-
agery of the Crucifixion(pp. 286-94) about which this paper is con-
cerned,althoughhe does not concern himselfwith the actualplacement
of the sculpturewithinthe church.See also H. Belting,Das Bildundsein
PublikumimMittelalter:FormundFunktionfriiherBildtafelnderPassion,
Berlin,1981; now translatedas The Image and Its Publicin the Middle
Ages, New Rochelle(N.Y.),1990. Foran importantstudy of a sub-set of
this materialsee U. Haastrup,"MedievalPropsin the LiturgicalDrama,"
Hafnia(CopenhagenPapersinthe Historyof Art) 11(1987), pp. 133-70;
Haastrup'sworkis particularlyuseful as a compendiumof Scandinavian
examples which parallelthe sculpturalform and function of Italianand
Germanfigures.
2 G. Vasari,Le Vitede'pid eccellentipittori,scultoried architettori,
ed. G. Milanesi,Florence,1906, III,pp. 373-74; these votive portraits
were broughtinto the modernliteratureon this subject by A. Warburg
"Bildniskunstund FlorentinischesB1irgertum," Gesammelte Schriften,
vol. I, Berlin-Leipzig,
1932, p. 99. Lorenzo'sdeath mask still exists, hav-
ing survivedboth the 1494 and the 1527 attacks on Mediciimageryin
Florence.Although most likelyfortuitous, it is worth noting that royal
corpses in Englandwere embalmed in wax-impregnatedcloth (Hope,
"FuneraryEffigies,"pp. 528-29) andthat as earlyas 1327 forthe funer-
al of EdwardVIIthe royalcoffin carrieda wooden effigy of the king(ibi-
dem, p. 530).
3 Fordiscussion of the medievalnotion of the size of Christsee G.
Uzielli,"L'Orazione della Misuradi Cristo,"Archiviostorico italiano 27
(1901),pp. 334-45, essentially taken fromthe same author'sLemisure
linearimedioevalie l'effigiedi Cristo,Florence,1899, pp. 9-10; he cites
two Florentinemanuscripts,one fromthe fourteenthand one fromthe
fifteenth century, each of which includes a diagrammaticmeasure of
1/16of what the authorsthought was the lengthof Christ'sbody,which
in the first instance measured 1.744 meters and in the second 1.60
meters. See also note 13.
4 F.Joubert, "Stylizationet Verisme:Leparadoxed'un Groupede
ChristsFranconiensdu XV6mesi6cle,"Zeitschriftfar Kunstgeschichte
51 (1988), pp. 513-23. Similarsmooth craniaalso appearin a Rhenish
wooden statue of a Madonnaand Childsuggesting a widespreaduse of
such wigs; see I. Futterer,Gotische Bildwerkeder Deutschen Schweiz,
1230- 1240, Augsburg, 1930, p. 168, plates 30-32. Schlosser, "Ge-
schichte der Portritbildnerei," pp. 193-94, cites a document in which
detailsof the makingof the funeraryeffigy of FrancisIby FrancoisClouet
includes the purchase of hairand of glue for adheringit.
5 Otherexamples in which the corpus is completely nude,thereby
suggesting the additionsof an actual fabricloincloth,exist in crucifixes
madeforSS. AnnunziataandSan Niccol6oltr'Arnoin Florence,San Fran-
cesco at Bosco ai Frati,S. Mariaa Ripain Empoli,and Sto. Spiritoin Flor-
ence (now in the Casa Buonarroti).The DonatelloCrucifixin bronzein
Sant'Antonioin Paduawas also made with a completely nude body; it
is now drapedwith a seventeenth-centurybronzeloincloth.
6 Fora compendiumof these crucifixes with movablearms and a
discussion of theirhistorysee G. &J. Taubert,"Mittelalterliche Kruzifixe."
Inthis articlethe Taubertscatalogue 40 such crucifixes,some with mov-
WOODEN SCULPTUREIN ITALYAS SACRAL PRESENCE
able eyes andsome even with provisionsfor allowingbloodto flow from
the side of the corpus. By 1978 theirlist hadapparentlyreached68 such
crucifixes;see Haastrup,"MedievalProps,"p. 146. Ina subsequent pub-
lication,Johannes Taubertreturnedto the issue of crucifixeswith mova-
ble arms as partof a largerstudy on wooden sculptureand its restora-
tion;see FarbigeSkulpturen: Bedeutung,Fassung,Restaurierung, Munich,
1978, esp. pp. 38-50. Hisis both the most succinct and the most com-
prehensivetreatmentof the topic of wooden crucifixes and their place
in the liturgy.Inadditionto crucifixes,Italianwooden statues of the An-
nunciateVirginalso havemovablearms;see SculturaDipinta...,pp.56-60
for a figurewith an inscribeddate of 1321 inthe Museo Nazionaledi San
Matteo,Pisa, and pp. 86-88 for an Annunciationgroupin Santa Chiara
dellaMarca,Castelfiorentino. S. Corbin,LaDepositionLiturgique du Christ
au VendrediSaint,Paris-Lisbon,1960, pp. 115-116, mentionsa liturgical
dramaknownfrommusicaltexts from Florencein the fifteenth century
whose directionsindicatethat a corpuswas removedfromthe cross and
carriedin procession along with a consecrated host to a place of burial
inthe church.D.Carl,"DieKruzifixedes TaddeoCurradiin der Kircheder
SS. Concezionezu Florenz," Mitteilungendes Kunsthistorischen Institutes
in Florenz28 (1984), p. 398, gives a documentfor 1574 which indicates
that such ritualpracticeswere still followedat that date: "ognivolta che
dettacompagnia[dellaSS. Concezione]o altrilo [ilcrocifissogrande]voles-
si rimovereper occasione di cappelle, che si possa sempre ove piacera
alla nostracompagniaporleet fare la sepolturanel mezzo dellachiesa."
7 See note 56.
8 Thereare recordsof wooden crucifixeson altars,but theirlackof
precisionabout size lead me to believethat they were very small;see G.
Poggi,et al., "LaCompagniadel Bigallo,"Rivistad'arte2 (1904), p. 234,
fora paymentto Lapodi Franciescho"perunacrociecol piedistallodipin-
ta per tenere in su I'altare...."
9 AntonioBilli,IILibrodiAntonio Billi,ed. C. Frey.Berlin,1892, pp.
40-41. Vasari-Milanesi, Vite,I,p. 573; in his lifeof Donatello,Vasarisays
that the crucifixwas "a lato della storia di TaddeoGaddi"(ibidem,II,p.
398). Sometime probablyduringthe mid-sixteenthcentury renovation
of Sta. Croce,the crucifixwas movedto the BarbigiaChapel;when this
chapel was ceded to the Guidaccifamilyin the 1570s, the crucifixwas
again moved (c. 1572), this time to the LodovicoBardiChapel.See M.
B. Hall,Renovationand Counter-Reformation. Vasariand Duke Cosimo
in Sta MariaNovellaand Sta Croce 1565- 1577, Oxford,1979, p. 145.
10 A. Manetti, TheLifeof Brunelleschi,ed. H. Saalman,University
Park:PennsylvaniaState UniversityPress, 1970, p.40. Giventhe tendency
to date this sculptureearly in the century by recent writers(H.W. Jan-
son, TheSculptureof Donatello,Princeton,1957, as c. 1412andD.Strom,
Studies in QuattrocentoTuscanWoodenSculpture,p. 187, as 1420-25),
it might be useful to note that the Crucifixmay not have been given to
Sta. MariaNovellauntil1443, as a documentaryreferencefromthe Libro
di Lapi-Radda,fol. 119, seems to indicate:"1443-Crocifisso posto da
Filippodi Ser BrunellescoinChiesa";see S. Orlandi,NecrologiodiS. Mar-
ia Novella, Florence,1955, p. 578.
11The referenceby GiovanniBattistaGelliis found in H.W.Janson,
Donatelo, pp. 7-8. A document from 1412 indicatessuch a placement
on a wall with an imprecisereferenceto an altar:"Romigidi NeriMalifici
dono...unocrocifisso grandeel qualee appicchatoapresso all'altaredella
detta chapellain una faccia di murodipintadi nero...nell'anno1412 a di
d'ottobre";see J. Mesnil,"LaCompagniadi Gesi Pellegrino," Rivistad'arte
2 (1904), p. 69. A wooden crucifix,probablyfromthe earlysixteenthcen-
tury,in a side chapel of the parishchurchof the Assunta in Settignano
now still approximatessuch a placement.
12 Forthe CardiniChapelin Pesciasee G. Morolli,"OrtodossieAlber-
tiane nella 'Brunelleschiana'Cappella dei Cardinia Pescia,"Atti del
97
JOHN T. PAOLETTI
Convegnosu AndreaCavalcantidetto "ilBuggiano,"BuggianoCastello,
1979, pp.47-60. Referencesto sculptedcrucifixesraisedhighabovethe
viewer come from much later, which may merely be an accident of
documentaryremains.Parenthetically,we might recallherethat Vasari,
inhis Introduction to the artsof Architecture,PaintingandSculpture,states
thatinorderto makeperfectwoodensculpturethe carvermustfirstfashion
models in wax or terracotta (Vasari-Milanesi,Vite, p. 166). Thus the
progressfromdesignto executionof woodensculptureapparentlyparallels
that of stone sculpture.The earliest Italianrepresentationof a crucifix
placedon the ground(inthis case apparentlybeforethe sculptorhimself)
is a reliefdated 1311fromthe pulpitof the cathedralof Benevento;see
G. de Francovich,"L'Origine e la diffusionedel Crocifissogotico doloro-
so,"KunstgeschichtlichesJahrbuchder BibliothecaHerziana2 (1938),
pp. 225-26.
13 "Unasepolturamsive avellumpositumin ecclesia Sancti Marci...et
ferepositumsub crucifissomagnodicteecclesie...";H.Teubner,"SanMar-
co in Florenz:Umbautenvor 1500. EinBeitragzum Werkdes Micheloz-
zo,"Mitteilungendes KunsthistorischenInstitutesin Florenz23 (1979),
p. 262, doc. VI, 2.
14N. di Bicci,LeRicordanze(10 Marzo 1453-24 Aprile 1475) ed.
BrunoSanti, Pisa, 1976, p. 94. Itis not clearwhat Nerimeant by "grande
piOche naturale"since the corpus in Pesciais not noticeablylargerthan
life-sized.As noted above (note 3), there is still some uncertaintyabout
what wouldconstitute "life-sized"forthis period,especiallysince actual
body height was somewhat shorterthan it is today.Inactualfact Neri's
descriptivecommentmaybe accurate,butwe shouldbuildsome latitude
into our readingof the term life-sizedwhich will allow for the distance
of the viewerfromthe crucifix.ThusDonatello'sSantaCrocecrucifixmay
replicateactualhumansize forthe periodsince viewers couldapparently
get veryclose to it, whereasthe Pesciacrucifixis somewhatlargerto com-
pensate for its recessed position in the chapel.
15Ilbidem,p. 163, no. 322; p. 192, no. 382; for a smalldevotionalcru-
cifix see pp. 300-01, no. 569.
16Ilbidem,pp. 360-61, no. 677.
17 Ibidem, p. 361.
18Placementof sculpturalcrucifixeson roodscreens does not seem
to have occurredin central Italy,althoughit must be admittedthat evi-
dence is slight. ExamplesfromGermany,such as the wooden Crucifixion
fromHalberstadt(c. 1220), from France,such as Suger's great cross at
Saint Denis, andfromnorthernItaly,such as the figuresin the cathedral
of Torcelloand in the churchof Santa MariaGloriosadei Frariin Venice,
suggest such placement had wider currencyin the north. See also the
Chronicleof Moyenmoutierscited inthe textbelow. One well-knownex-
tant Italianexamplefrom1394 (atopthe roodscreeninSan MarcobyJaco-
po di MarcoBenato)differsfromthe woodenexamplesdiscussed not only
in mediumbut in its smallerthan life-sizedscale as well.
ElizabethC. Parkerhas mentionedthe placementof the Altarof the
Crossinfrontof the roodscreeninherdiscussionof the settingsforDeposi-
tio dramaswhich mightexplainthe placementof the Santa Crocecruci-
fix and also the placementof crucifixesat the centralcrowningpointof
roodscreens inthe sites mentionedabove;see her TheDescent fromthe
"Depositio"Drama,New York-
Cross:Its Relationto the Extra-Liturgical
London,1978, p. 134. The issue of the placementof the crucifixin con-
junctionwith an altarbecomes morecomplicatedinthe sixteenth centu-
ry,perhapsas a resultof changes occasioned by the Councilof Trent.D.
Carl,"DieKruzifixedes TaddeoCurradiin der Kircheder SS. Concezione
zu Florenz,"Mitteilungendes KunsthistorischenInstitutesin Florenz28
(1984), pp. 394-401, has publisheda numberof documents which list
crucifixesattachedto ciboria:in 1575 Bacciodi Filippodi Bacciod'Agno-
lo repaired"ilnostro crocifixograndesopra I'arcoallo altaremaggiore"
98
in Sto. Spirito(p. 397, note 2); a seventeenth-centuryinventoryof SS.
Concezione lists "1 Crocifissodi legno, che stava gi6 sopra il ciboriodi
TaddeoCurradi" (p.401). Documentsof 1577 listpaymentsfor"unacroce
per I'altaremaggiore,"but referto the corpus as "crocifissino"(p. 399,
document VIII),indicatingthat the workwas a very small altarcross of
a quitedifferentnaturefromthe life-sizedcrucifixesbeingconsideredhere.
19 This passage is quoted by J. Burckhardtin The Altarpiece in
Renaissance Italy, Cambridge,1988, p. 22.
20Meditationson the Lifeof Christ,ed. I.Ragusa,R.B.Green,Prince-
ton, 1961, p. 387.
21 Over40 years ago, MillardMeiss in his Paintingin Florenceand
SienaaftertheBlackDeath,Princeton,1951,demonstratedthatSt. Cather-
ine of Siena's visions were dependent upon paintedimages which she
hadseen; this is the only extensive treatmentof this issue which Iknow.
See also Belting,TheImageandits Public.Ican't resist mentioninga cu-
riouspredellapanel,TheVisionof St. Augustine(TheArtInstituteof Chica-
go), fromthe PlacidiAltarpieceby Matteode Giovanniinwhichthe appa-
ritionsin St. Augustine'svision of the eremeticalsaints, John the Baptist
and Jerome, look for all the world like carved representationsof those
saints.
22 VitaScriptaper Thomamde Lentinocoaevum, Ord.Praed.postea
Patriarcham Hierosoloymitanum inActaSanctorum,12, Paris-Rome, 1866,
pp. 696-97.
23 Giovannidi Pagolo Morelli,"Ricordi"(1393-1421) in Mercanti
Scrittori,ed. V. Branca,Milan,1986, pp. 303-24.
24G. Cambi,"Istoriedi GiovanniCambi"inDeliziedegliEruditiTosca-
ni, vol. 23, Florence,1786, p. 138-39. Cambi,incidentally,describes
the crownof thorns in a mannersuggesting a realcrownon a sculptural
form. There is also a story of the nun Maechtilddie Rittrinwho, while
meditatingbefore a stone figureof the dead Christ,touched the hands
andfeet of the statue onlyto feel that they were flesh;see W.H. Forsyth,
TheEntombmentof Christ:FrenchSculpturesof the Fifteenthand Six-
teenth Centuries,Cambridge,1970, p. 17.
25 Iwould liketo thankJeryldene M. Woodfor her insights into the
Sta. ChiaraAltarpiecewhichshe discussed at the 1989 International Con-
gress on MedievalStudies in Kalamazooand for providingme with an il-
lustrationof this painting;herfocus on this altarpieceled to my own in-
terpretationin the text (forwhich she should not be held responsible).
26See M. Ingendaay,"Rekonstruktionsversuch der'PalaBichi'in San
AgostinoinSiena,"Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen InstitutesinFlorenz
23 (1979), pp. 109-26.
27E.Castelnuovo,ed., ImagoLignea:sculturelignee nel Trentinodal
XIIIalXV/secolo, Trent,1989, p. 16;Castelnuovounfortunatelydoes not
identifythe text, notingmerelythat it comes froma "monasterofemminile
della zona del lago di Costanza."
28MaryMagdalenealso frequentlyappearedat the foot of the cross;
the relationshipbetween the iconographyof the Magdalenand of St.
Francishas yet to be determined,but it is not unreasonableto suspect
that the Franciscanimageryreusedalreadyextant penitentialMagdalen
formulae.The image of a contemporaryembracingthe cross replicates,
of course, the liturgicalpracticeof the late MiddleAges and the Renais-
sance, a ritualdevotion which continues to our own day. Bartolommeo
del Corazzarecords,for example,the entirepapalcourt participatingin
such a practice:
A'di 14,VenerdiSanto,lamattina,ilsanto Padrevennein SantaMaria
Novellaall'altaremaggiore,e parossi,e disse I'uffiziodella Croce,e
scopersela, come & di consueto fare;poi la pose a pie dell'altare,e
and6a sedereinsu lasedia,e fecesi scalzaree and6con grandedivozi-
one a baciare la Croce e inginocchiossi 3 volte: poi andarono

tutti i Cardinaliche erano 17, poivescovi, e altriprelatie signori,am-
basciatoridi piuiSignorie;poi si comunic6 e lesse la Messa, dissesi
la pistola e 'I passio; e il vangelio disselo un Cardinale.
See "DiarioFiorentinodi Bartolommeodi Michele del CorazzaAnni
1405-1438," ArchivioStorico Italiano,ser. V (14), 1894, p. 260.
29 G. Hersey, Alfonso II and the Artistic Renewal of
Naples
1485- 1495, New Haven,1969, pp. 121-24, discusses GuidoMazzoni's
Lamentationin Naplesand the figurehe calls Nicodemusas a portraitof
Alfonso II;see also T.Verdon,TheArt of GuidoMazzoni,New York-Lon-
don, 1978, pp.79-81 fora discussion of portraitfiguresinthis groupand
passim for portraitsin other Lamentationgroups by Mazzoni.N. Gram-
maccini,"Lad6plorationde Niccol6dell'Arca,"Revuede I'art62 (1983),
pp.21-34, exploresthis questioneven morefully;he positsa portraitfigure
of GiovanniIIBentivogliointhe LamentationforS. MariadellaVitain Bolo-
gna and reviews the earliersuggestions that ErcoleI d'Este appearsas
Joseph of Arimatheain GuidoMazzoni'sgroupin Sta. Mariadelle Rose
in Ferraraand Alfonso IIof Aragonas Joseph in Guido'sLamentationin
Naples. A numberof the Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimatheafigures
which are partsof the FrenchEntombmentgroupsdiscussed by Forsyth
(TheEntombmentof Christ)seem also to haveparticularized physicalfea-
tures andmay well also be portraits.Forcomments which mightprovoke
a full-scalediscussion of the figureof Nicodemusas a portraitof the ar-
tist see G. DunphyMurphy,"OnceMore,MichelangeloandNicodemism,"
TheArt Bulletin71 (1989), p. 693.
30 Corbin,LaDeposition Liturgique,p. 257.
31 G. & S. Taubert,MittelalterlicheKruzifixe.
32 H. Kauffmann,Donatello, Berlin,1935, 200, n. 44; H. W.Jan-
p.
son, Donatello, p. 9, reintroducedthis fact into the ongoing discussion
of the crucifix.
33 Corbin,LaDepositionLiturgique,p. 189; the ordo, from Barking,
also says that "deferantCrucem ad magnam altare ubique in specie
Joseph...,"indicatingthat the ceremony took place at the high altarat
least in this instance. Corbinalso providesappendices of documented
depositions from all across Europe;for Italysee pp. 257-59.
34Some extantfragments,such as the Courajodcrucifixdatedto the
twelfth century (inthe Louvre),suggest in theirasymmetricaltreatment
of the torso with a loweredrightarmthat they were once partsof Deposi-
tiongroupsandnot independentcrucifixes.Thissuggests thatsuch Depo-
sition groups were morenumerousthan the few extant examples might
initiallyindicate.
35 Contemporarypaintedexamples of such imagerywould include
FraAngelico's fresco at San Marco.
36 I wish to thank my colleague, ClarkMaines,for this observation.
37 S. Sticca, The LatinPassion Play, Albany,1970, p. 150.
38These directionsarefroma PlanctusMariaenow inthe MuseoAr-
cheologico of Cividale;see iIMovimentodeiDisciplinatinelSettimoCen-
tenariodal suo inizio, publishedas a special volume of Deputazionedi
StoriaPatriaperl'Umbria,Appendiceal Bollettino,no. 9, Perugia,1962,
p. 19. T.Verdon,GuidoMazzoni,pp.21 -24, has also mentionedthe con-
nectionof depositionsandlamentationsto HolyWeekliturgiesanddramas.
39 K.Falvey,ScripturalPlaysfromPerugia,unpublishedPh.D.disser-
tation, State Universityof New Yorkat Stony Brook,1974, p. 111,where
she says that the "deadChristwas not an actorbut ratheran emblematic
representation similar to [a] completely articulated wooden figure...."She
also mentions an inventory from 1386 from the Confraternity of St. Do-
minic in Perugia which lists among other items for a passion play "two
Thieves" which she suggests might have been articulated wood or stuffed
figures. She also cautions against too narrow a reading of the Christ figure
as sculpture (pp. 111-12), since in this same inventory are listed "a flesh-
WOODEN SCULPTUREIN ITALYAS SACRAL PRESENCE
coloredleathergarmentforChristwith leggingsof flesh-coloredleather,"
which suggests that a realactor playedthe role in a costume meant to
indicatea naked body.
40 CanizioPizzonipublishedthe document from the Confraternith
dell'Annunziatain Perugiain "LaConfraternithdell'Annunziatain Peru-
gia,"I/MovimentodeiDisciplinati,p. 152; R.G. Mather,"Nuovidocumenti
robbiani," L'arte22 (1919),p. 107. Recentpracticesin penitentialproces-
event;E.Monaci
sions also used sculptureas a centralfocus of the liturgical
("Appuntiperla storiadel teatroitaliano:Uffizidrammaticidei disciplina-
ti dell'Umbria,"Rivistadi filologiaromanza1 [1872], p. 242, note 2) men-
tioned a contemporaryGoodFridayprocession in Piperno(Campania)in
which the corpuswas removedfroma cross, placedon a bier,andcarried
to a tombtemporarilymadefroman altar.Onecaveat must be noted here:
the term"corpus"is used in documentarysources for both the eucharis-
tic host and for a fictive body of Christ;it is not always possible to tell
which of the two meanings is intended.
41An earlydiscussion of the Gesuinofigures(includingexamplesin
stucco andterracotta)was UrsulaSchlegel's purelyformalconsideration
in "TheChristChildas DevotionalImagein MedievalItalianSculpture:
A Contribution to AmbrogioLorenzetti Studies,"TheArtBulletin52 (1970),
pp. 1-10; see also GiovanniPrevitali'scommentson this articlein "II'Bam-
binGesi' come 'immagineDevozionale'nellasculturaitalianadelTrecento,"
Paragoneno. 249 (1970), pp.31-40. C.van Hulst,"Lastoriadelladivozi-
one a Ges' Bambinonelle immaginiplastiche isolate,"Antonianum19
(1944), pp.35-54, hadearlierprovideda wide rangeof criticalexamples
of Gesuino figures;this articledeserves to be better known. Henkvan
Os has writtenabout an anomalousPaduanexampleof a paintingused
in place of one of these sculpted figures in "TheMadonnaand the Mys-
tery Play,"Simiolus5 (1971),pp.5-19. The most importantworkon these
BabyChristfiguresnow is ChristianeKlapisch-Zuber's "HolyDolls:Play
and Pietyin Florencein the Quattrocento,"Women,Family,and Ritualin
RenaissanceItaly,Chicago,1985, pp.310-29. Neridi Biccimentionsthe
manufactureandpaintingof one of these figuresin hisRicordanze(p. 193)
anda 1386 inventoryof the Confraternith dei Disciplinatidi San Domeni-
co in Perugialists a "Giesuino"(E.Monaci,"Appuntiperlastoriadelteatro
italiano,"p. 259).
42 Forsuch figures see E. Lipsmeyer,"Jahreslaufbrauchtum," Volk-
skunst 1 (1989), pp. 50-58.
43R. L.Mode,"SanBernardinoin Glory,"TheArtBulletin55 (1973),
p. 59.
44The recentlydiscoveredinscriptionon the Virginof the Annunci-
ation in the Museo Nazionaledi San Matteo in Pisa datingthe statue to
1321 andthe documentaryevidenceof paymentswhichallowsus to date
Jacopo dellaQuercia'sAnnunciationgroupin San Gimignanoto 1421-26
providea test case for stylistic conservatism over time. Comparisonof
the two figuresof Maryshows that they closely approximateone another
in pose and draperystyle. A Morelliancomparisonof the two provides
a distinctionof hands, but hardlysuggests that the two pieces differin
date by 100 years.Whatwe see inQuercia'sVirginis a continuityof figural
forms imitatinga venerable model in virtualdisregardof the stylistic
predilectionsnotablein others of his works.See SculturaDipinta.Maes-
tridi Legnamee Pittoria Siena 1250- 1450, for the Pisa figureand pp.
156-57 for the Querciafigure.
45 The Quercesquefigures of the Virginand Childand FourSaints,
formerlyon the altarof San Martinoand now in the Museo dell'Opera
del Duomo,providea case in point. These figuresare not life-sized,nor
do theirdraperiesseek to imitatecontemporarycostume; thus they are
giltinimitationof bronzegiltsculptureratherthantakingon the polychromy
of normalwood sculpture.Thereis, one must note, still a great deal of
uncertaintyabout these figures. Modernrestorationhas yet to be done
99
JOHN T. PAOLETTI
and would indicate,among other things, whether the gildingis original
to the figures.
46 The Bosco ai Fraticrucifix entered the (debatable) works of
Donatelloonlyin 1962 when AlessandroParronchi discoveredit ina base-
mentstorageareaof the church;see A. Parronchi, "IICrocifissodel Bosco,"
ScrittidiStoriadell'Artein onoredi MarioSalmi,vol. II,Rome,1962, pp.
233-62.
47 Forthe restorationof the churchat Bosco ai Fratisee H. Sieben-
huner& L.H. Heydenreich,"DieKlosterkircheS. Francescoal Bosco im
Mugello,"Mitteilungendes KunsthistorischenInstitutes in Florenz 5
(1939-40), pp. 183-96, 387-401.
48 Fora discussion of the attributionsof this crucifixsee Donatello
e i Suoi, eds. A. Phipps Darr,G. Bonsanti, Florence-Detroit,1986, pp.
174-75.
49 Given such similaritiesit is tempting to say that a sculptor of
Donatello'sabilitieswouldhardlyhaveimitatedthe style of anothermaster
andthat,therefore,bothcrucifixesmustbe bythe same hand.Butof course
there is no hardevidence for such an assertion.
50 This appropriationcan be seen even more clearlyif we compare
the PaduanChristwithone fromthe churchof San Niccol6oltr'Arnowhich
Lisner(Holzkruzifixe,pp. 65-66) has attributedto Michelozzo.The two
formscould hardlybe closer. Itis truethat realismand idealismareover-
lappingandoftentimesinseparableaspects of antiquesculptureandthat
Donatello'sabsorptionof this aesthetic was complete.Yetone must also
be awareof otherconventionsinthe historyof sculptureattachedto medi-
umandto specific iconographieswhich Donatelloandhis patronswould
surely have known and which would have exertedtheirown functional
power into his creative process.
51PeterParshallhas suggested (incorrespondence)a furtherreason
forthe use of wood for certainsculpture,namelythat it was considered
100
a "humble"medium.Thecriticaltext which provokedthis suggestion and
which mentions wax, plasterof Paris,and clay-although not wood--is
fromPetrarch'sDe remediisutriusquefortunae;see the Physickeagainst
Fortune.London,1579 in facsimileeditionedited by B.G. Kohl,Delman,
N.Y.,1980, p. 60.
52 Forthe pertinentquotationsfrom Fazio,c. 1457, and Michiel,c.
1520, see Janson, Donatello, p. 167.
53 Billi,Libro,pp. 42-43.
54 Vasari-Milanesi,Vite, II,p. 411.
55 In 1467 the St. John was still in an unspecified"ridottodi sotto"
inthe Sienese Opera,althoughby 1480 it was inthe sacristy of the Duo-
mo; see V. Herzner,"Donatello in Siena," Mitteilungendes Kunst-
historischenInstitutesin Florenz15 (1971),p. 185. Twopracticalreasons
maybe suggested forthe long-termstorageof the statue which hadbeen
deliveredto Sienain 1457: the statue was stillincomplete,lackingits right
arm;the chapel or locationfor which the statue was intendedwas yet
to be finished.Neitherof these probabilitiescan erasethe possibilityraised
inthe text that the formalpropertiesof the bronzestatue madeit visually
ambiguous at the time of its delivery.
56 The outstandingexample of a commission for bronzesculpture
similarto Donatello'sworkfor the PaduanSanto is Niccol6 Baroncelli's
bronzesculptureof a Crucifix,a Virginand St. John and SS. Georgeand
Maureliusfor the cathedralof Ferrara.The groupwas commissionedas
an ensemble for an iconostasis by Lionellod'Este in 1450; it was com-
pletedin 1456 by GiovanniBaroncelliand Domenicodi ParisafterBaron-
celli's death in 1453. The projectwas apparentlya direct imitationof
Donatello'sworkinPadua.Theovertonesof princelypowerandciviccom-
petitiveness implicitin this commission both removethe sculpturefrom
the discourseof traditionalCrucifixionimageryandsupportthe supposi-
tion that bronze-not wood -was the mediumfor civic commissions.