Bishop and Penitent Man

Object belonging

One's own

Category

Wood sculpture

City

Rome

Location

Museo Nazionale del Palazzo di Venezia

Specific location

Store

Inventory

PV 07304

Material and technique

Sculpted and carved pinewood and tilia wood, paint and gilding

Author

Southern German School (Swabia)

Dating

c.1500-1525

Dimensions

79.5 x 26.5 x 6.5 cm.

Origin

Tower-Wurts Collection (1933)

Image copyright

SSPSAE e per il Polo Museale della città di Roma

Short description

This work, which came from the Wurts collection (W 151), is sculpted in bass-relief and was originally probably part of a triptych. It depicts a man dressed in Episcopal robes, wearing a mitre and with his left arm raised in a gesture of adlocutio. A smaller, young man is at his feet, with only his torso visible as he is seemingly being dragged beneath; below is the even smaller figure of the demon who is falling. It is clearly an allegorical image, probably referring to St. Ambrose, the bishop of Milan who was born in Trier, renowned as a theologian and an ecclesiastical authority; he played a fundamental role in the fight against Arianism, a doctrine believed to be heretical since it was totally opposed to the orthodox teaching of the Trinity. The work seems to allude, in fact, to Ambrose’s condemnation of Arius, who is represented by the demon. As the persecutor of the Arians, Ambrose is depicted with a whip in his hand (the first depiction dates from the 11th century and is found in a bass-relief in the basilica dedicated to Ambrose in Milan); here it was probably in his right hand initially, which is now missing the thumb. It can be compared with the altar of the Fathers of the Church by Michael Pacher in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich where, at the feet of Ambrose, a man with a crown is depicted burning and buried half way up his thigh. Santangelo (1954) believed the work to be similar to the six figures of the saints in the Berlin Museums, belonging to the altar-step or the side panels of an altar that is analogous to that of the Plague Chapel in Hindelang, carved in Kaufbeuren in 1515. Indeed, these comparisons allow this origin of work to be identified, between Alto Adige and south Swabia in Germany. Technical-scientific tests carried out in 2009 by IVALSA-CNR in Florence identified the wood used as Swiss pine (Pinus cfr. cembra), for the upper part, and the corbel is tilia (Tilia sp.).

Grazia Maria Fachechi 

Bibliography

A. Santangelo (ed.), Museo di Palazzo Venezia. Catalogo delle sculture, Rome 1954, p. 70