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Mendicant Orders in the Medieval World

• 
  Martyrdom of Saint Peter Martyr in an Initial P, second half of 13th century
  Leaf from a Dominican gradual
  Southern Italy (probably Naples)
  Tempera and ink on parchment

  18 3/4 x 13 3/4 in. (47.5 x 33.5 cm)
  Purchase, Ronald R. Atkins, James Marrow, Elaine Rosenberg, and R. R. Atkins Foundation Gifts, 2005 (2005.273)

• 
  Morse, with Saint Francis of Assisi Receiving the Stigmata, 1300–1325
  Italian; Made in Tuscany
  Copper gilt, with champlevé enamel

  Diam. 4 1/2 in. (10.8 cm)
  Gift of Georges and Edna Seligmann, in memory of his father, Simon Seligmann, the collector of Medieval Art, and of his brother, René, 1979 (1979.498.2)

• 
  Chalice of Peter of Sassoferrato, 1341–42 with later, perhaps 15th-century, cup
  Italian; Siena, from the Franciscan Church of Sassoferrato
  Silver gilded and translucent enamel

  H. 8 7/16 in. (21.7 cm), Diam. of base 5 7/8 in. (14.9 cm)
  Inscribed (on the stem above the knop): + FRA/T(R)IS P/ETRI PENIT/ENTI/ARII + DOMI/NI PA/PE ("of Brother Peter Penitentiary of the Lord Pope"); (on the stem below the knop) + LOCI SAS/SIFERATI/NON VEN/DATVR/NEC DI/STRATVR ("of the place of Sassoferrato neither sell nor destroy")
  The Cloisters Collection, 1988 (1988.67)

• 
  The Man of Sorrows, mid-14th century
  Central Italy
  Gilt copper, champlevé enamel

  4 1/8 x 3 1/8 in. (10.3 x 7.8 cm)
  Gift of Georges E. Seligmann, in memory of his wife, Edna, his father, Simon Seligmann, and his brother, René, 1982 (1982.480)

• 
  The Bishop of Assisi Handing a Palm to Saint Clare, ca. 1360
  German, Made in Nuremberg
  Tempera and gold on oak panel

  13 1/4 x 8 5/8 in. (33.7 x 21.9 cm)
  The Cloisters Collection, 1984 (1984.343)

• 
  The Man of Sorrows, ca. 1420–30
  Michele Giambono (Michele Giovanni Bono) (Italian, Venetian, active 1420–62)
  Tempera and gold on wood

  Overall (with engaged frame): 21 5/8 x 15 1/4 in. (54.9 x 38.7 cm); painted surface: 18 1/2 x 12 1/4 in. (47 x 31.1 cm)
  Rogers Fund, 1906 (06.180)

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The mendicant friars were bound by a vow of absolute poverty and dedication to an ascetic way of life. They lived as Christ did, renouncing property and traveling the world to preach. Their survival was dependent upon the good will of their listeners. It was this way of life that gave them their name, "mendicant," derived from the Latin mendicare, meaning "to beg." Unlike monks of the Cistercian or Benedictine orders, mendicants spread God's word in the cities. They were active in community life, teaching, healing, and helping the sick, poor, and destitute. Their personal maxim was: sibi soli vivere sed et aliis proficere ("not to live for themselves only but to serve others").

Their personal maxim was: sibi soli vivere sed et aliis proficere ("not to live for themselves only but to serve others").

Related

Timelines (23)

• Balkan Peninsula, 500–1000 A.D.
• Balkan Peninsula, 1000–1400 A.D.
• Balkan Peninsula, 1400–1600 A.D.
• Central Europe (including Germany), 500–1000 A.D.
• Central Europe (including Germany), 1000–1400 A.D.
• Eastern and Southern Africa, 1400–1600 A.D.
• Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, 500–1000 A.D.
• Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, 1000–1400 A.D.
• Eastern Europe and Scandinavia, 1400–1600 A.D.
• Egypt, 1–500 A.D.
• Egypt, 500–1000 A.D.
• Florence and Central Italy, 1400–1600 A.D.
• France, 500–1000 A.D.
• France, 1000–1400 A.D.
• Great Britain and Ireland, 500–1000 A.D.
• Great Britain and Ireland, 1000–1400 A.D.
• Great Britain and Ireland, 1400–1600 A.D.
• Iberian Peninsula, 500–1000 A.D.
• Iberian Peninsula, 1000–1400 A.D.
• Italian Peninsula, 500–1000 A.D.
• Italian Peninsula, 1000–1400 A.D.
• The Eastern Mediterranean, 1–500 A.D.
• Venice and Northern Italy, 1400–1600 A.D.

Primary Thematic Essays (5)

• Art for the Christian Liturgy in the Middle Ages
• The Art of the Book in the Middle Ages
• Monasticism in Medieval Christianity
• Private Devotion in Medieval Christianity
• Relics and Reliquaries in Medieval Christianity

Other Thematic Essays (21)

• The Age of Saint Louis (1226–1270 a.d.)
• Art and Death in the Middle Ages
• Arts of the Mission Schools in Mexico
• The Birth and Infancy of Christ in Italian Painting
• Byzantine Art under Islam
• Byzantium (ca. 330–1453)
• Classical Antiquity in the Middle Ages
• Constantinople after 1261
• Figural Representation in Islamic Art
• Fra Angelico (1395/1400–1455)
• Frescoes and Wall Painting in Late Byzantine Art
• Hagia Sophia, 532–37
• Icons and Iconoclasm in Byzantium
• Italian Painting of the Later Middle Ages
• Jain Sculpture
• Life of Jesus of Nazareth
• List of Rulers of Byzantium
• Ottonian Art
• Painting in Italian Choir Books, 1300–1500
• The Papacy during the Renaissance
• The Religious Relationship between Byzantium and the West

Maps (4)

• Africa, 500–1000 a.d.
• Europe, 1000–1400 a.d.
• West Asia, 1000–1400 a.d.
• World, 1000–1400 a.d.

Index Terms (18)

Art Movement/Style

• Byzantine Art from Europe
• Byzantine Art from West Asia
• Romanesque Medieval Art

Artist

• Giambono, Michele (Italian, Venetian, 1420–1462)

Geography/Place

• Byzantium
• Byzantium
• European Medieval Art

Material and Technique

• Gilt Copper
• Painting in Enamel

Object

• Christian Manuscript

Subject Matter/Theme

• Christ
• Christian Icon
• Christian Sculpture Relief
• Christian Vessel
• Icons and Iconoclasm
• Religious Figure
• Religious Figures from Central Europe
• Religious Figures from Europe

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The major mendicant orders, the Franciscans and Dominicans, aspired to emulate the life and suffering of Christ. The Man of Sorrows by Michele Giambono (06.180) shows the small figure of Saint Francis expressing his grief over Christ's Crucifixion. According to medieval thought, Christ's position of outstretched arms and his displayed wounds suggest a mystical union with the viewer. Saint Francis attained the most perfect emulation of Christ's pain by receiving the stigmatization associated with the Crucifixion (1979.498.2). The devotional plaque with the Man of Sorrows (1982.480) shows a Dominican friar and a hooded flagellant contemplating the suffering of Christ. Christ appears as if in a vision, but the friar and flagellant worship him in a direct and immediate way. Christ is represented in a manner that emphasizes his bodily suffering: above his tomb is the vinegar-soaked sponge that was offered to him during the Crucifixion and the lance that wounded his side. The flagellants, in particular, interpreted Christ's pain in a literal way, whipping themselves in order to personally experience a degree of his suffering.

Because the orders' primary aim was the evangelization of the masses, the church granted them freedom from the jurisdiction of the bishops and they were sent around the world to convert or reinforce faith. It was on journeys to the East that the friars inevitably encountered Byzantine art and learned of the value of visual images in their apostolic mission. They discovered that a union between the material and spiritual could be realized in an icon. As a material gate to a spiritual world, such art was able to strengthen existing faith or prompt conversion. It was not long after their travels in the East that the monks, who had previously shunned material possession, began to fill their churches and monasteries with ornate images inspired by Byzantine art. The orders established their own scriptoria for the production of illuminated manuscripts (2005.273) and adopted Eastern themes. Giambono's Man of Sorrows (06.180) reveals an interest in Eastern iconography; for instance, the decision to show Christ both humiliated and glorified derives from an icon type popular in Byzantine depictions of Christ.

Annie Labatt Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Charlotte Appleyard Department of Medieval Art and The Cloisters, The Metropolitan Museum of Art

Citation

Labatt, Annie, and Charlotte Appleyard. "Mendicant Orders in the Medieval World". In Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2000–. http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/mend/hd_mend.htm (October 2004)

Further Reading

Derbes, Anne. Picturing the Passion in Late Medieval Italy: Narrative Painting, Franciscan Ideologies, and the Levant. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1996.

Derbes, Anne, and Amy Neff. "Italy, the Mendicant Orders, and the Byzantine Sphere." In Byzantium: Faith and Power (1261–1557), edited by Helen C. Evans, pp. 449–89. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004.

Kianka, Frances, and Anthony Cutler. "Franciscans." In The Oxford Dictionary of Byzantium, edited by Alexander P. Kazhdan. New York: Oxford University Press, 1991.

Panagopoulos, Beata K. Cistercian and Mendicant Monasteries in Medieval Greece. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1979.

Striker, Cecil L., and Y. Dogan Kuban, eds. Kalenderhane in Istanbul. Mainz: Verlag Philipp von Zabern, 1997.

Wolff, Robert L. "The Latin Empire of Constantinople and the Franciscans." Traditio 2 (1944), pp. 213–37.

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