The bishop's chasuble, the principal vestment worn by a priest, is represented with a black orphrey ornamented with a series of quatrefoils. The top medallion shows Christ with his hand raised in benediction, while the others contain letters that spell AVE MARIA. The grandeur and nobility of this figure, a rare example of Gothic wood sculpture from Italy, results from the careful balance of the elements of the bishop's vestments—the tall miter and the long elliptical drapery folds—with the attenuated proportions, the frontality of the pose, the authority of the facial expression, and the refinement in the painted surfaces, especially on the face and beard.
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Detail image of the top-most medallion on statue's cope showing the Lord Blessing against a gilt background
Artwork Details
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Title:Blessing Bishop (Saint Nicholas of Bari)
Date:ca. 1350–75
Geography:Made in probably Umbria, Italy
Culture:Central Italian
Medium:Poplar, paint, gilt
Dimensions:Overall: 73 1/2 x 17 1/2 x 13 1/2 in., 39lb. (186.7 x 44.5 x 34.3 cm, 17690.3g)
Classification:Sculpture-Wood
Credit Line:The Cloisters Collection, 1925
Accession Number:25.120.218
The life-size bishop stands with his gloved, right hand raised in a gesture of benediction. He wears a white beard and moustache, and the fringe of his white hair can be seen beneath his mitre, a ceremonial hat that marks his office. The sculpture is notable for the striking, original polychromy of the bishop’s face and his vestments. The mitre has horizontal and vertical bands known as aurafrisia and medallions simulating embroidery and applied jewels in pastiglia. The white glove is decorated with embroidery and the ring (anulum) is a sign of his office. The chasuble is decorated with ten quatrefoil medallions simulating embroidery. The upper medallion over the bishop’s chest represents a half-length image of Christ blessing as he holds an open book in his left hand. The remaining medallions bear the letters AVE MARIA reading down from the image of Christ with the last medallion featuring purely ornamental decoration. The bishop’s white amice, worn beneath the chasuble, is visible at the neck. A textile such as linen has been applied beneath the polychromy and the visible portion of the amice is likewise made of linen covered with gesso rather than carved of wood. The chasuble and areas of the mitre are water gilded and decorative punchwork can be seen in a few areas such as the edge of the gilt quatrefoil with the image of Christ. Despite the excellent state of the polychromy, which has never been overpainted, the sculpture has suffered losses, which include the bishop’s entire proper left side, the tip of the middle finger and the entire fourth and fifth fingers. The sculpture is hollowed out at the back, a typical practice that helped the wood keep its shape over time.
The sculpture comes from the church of San Nicola, Monticchio (L’Aquila) in Abruzzo, making it nearly certain that it represents the church’s patron St. Nicholas of Bari. Its original location in the church is unknown, but it is possible that the figure was the central element of a tabernacle with scenes from the life of Saint Nicholas represented on the wings. A very similar sculpture of nearly the same size, also representing a bishop saint is in the Museo Nazionale del Bargello in Florence. This work also features highly sophisticated and well-preserved polychrome decoration. The style of the painting seen in the figures on the chasuble has been compared to Perugian manuscript illumination; and the sculpture in Florence has been attributed to an Umbrian workshop on that basis. There were many workshops creating wood sculptures during the fourteenth century in Umbria and the adjacent region of Abbruzzo, and while it has not been possible to assign the New York sculpture to a specific locale, Umbria is the most likely origin for the statue.
Selected reference:
Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Lisbeth, and Jack Soultanian. Italian Medieval Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Cloisters. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2010. no. 42, pp. 199–207.
Entry by Peter Barnet, curator emeritus, Department of Medieval Art and The Met Cloisters
[2020; adapted from draft Barnet Sculpture Catalogue]
Inscription: (In red medallions down the chasuble of figure): a / v / e / m / a / r / i / a / + (Hail Mary [image of cross])
From the parish church of San Nicola di Bari, Monticchio, L'Aquila; George Grey Barnard American, New York (by 1913–until 1925)
Catalogo generale della mostra d'arte antica abruzzese in Chieti. Chieti: Tipografia Nicola Jecco, 1905. no. 6, p. 189.
"Commissioni. Commissione Centrale peri Monumenti e per le Opere di Antichità e d'Arte. Sect 2. Monumenti e oggetti medioevali e dell'età posteriore." Bollettino d'Arte 1, no. 1 (January 1907). no. 9, p. 36.
Balzano, Vincenzo. L'arte abruzzese. Collezione di monografie illustrate, Serie 5a. Raccolta d'arte 8. Bergamo: Istituto Italiano d'Arti Grafiche, 1910. p. 36, ill. p. 38.
Breck, Joseph. The Cloisters: A Brief Guide. 1st ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1926. p. 42.
Breck, Joseph. The Cloisters: A Brief Guide. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1927. p. 45.
Breck, Joseph. The Cloisters: A Brief Guide. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1929. p. 45.
Breck, Joseph. The Cloisters: A Brief Guide. 4th ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1931. p. 45.
Serra, Luigi. Provincia di Aquila. Inventario degli oggetti d'arte d'Italia, Vol. 4. Rome: La Libreria dello Stato, 1934. pp. 245–46.
Rorimer, James J., and Margaret B. Freeman. The Cloisters: The Building and the Collection of Mediaeval Art, in Fort Tryon Park. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1938. p. 60, fig. 30.
Ragghianti, Carlo L. "Scultura lignea senese (e non senese)." La Critica d'Arte, 3rd ser., 8, no. 6 (March 1, 1950). p. 496, n. 10.
Rorimer, James J. The Cloisters: The Building and the Collection of Mediaeval Art in Fort Tryon Park, New York. 11th ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1951. p. 61, fig. 29.
Mortari, Luisa. Opere d'arte in Sabina dall'XI al XVII secolo. Rome: De Luca Editore, 1957. pp. 70–71.
Carli, Enzo. La scultura lignea italiana dal XII al XVI secolo. Milan: Electa, 1960. p. 52.
Rorimer, James J. The Cloisters: The Building and the Collection of Medieval Art in Fort Tryon Park. 3rd revised ed. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1963. pp. 88–89, fig. 39.
Mortari, Luisa. Mostra delle opere restaurate in Sabina dalle Soprintendenze ai monumenti ed alle gallerie del Lazio. Rieti: Palazzo Papale, 1966. pp. 18–19.
Gómez-Moreno, Carmen. "Three Madonnas in Search of an Author." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 25, no. 10 (June 1967). p. 396.
Schrader, J. L. "George Grey Barnard: The Cloisters and the Abbaye." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 37, no. 1 (Summer 1979). p. 32, fig. 42.
Lehmann-Brockhaus, Otto. Abruzzen und Molise: Kunst und Geschichte. Römische Forschungen der Bibliotheca Hertziana, Vol. 23. Munich: Prestel Verlag, 1983. p. 363.
D'Achille, Anna Maria, and Tiziana Iazeolla. "Luoghi e testimonianze del Medioevo in Sabina." In La Sabina medievale, edited by Marina Righetti Tosti-Croce. Milan: Amilcare Pizzi Editore, 1985. p. 208.
Shepard, Mary B. Europe in the Middle Ages, edited by Charles T. Little, and Timothy B. Husband. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1987. pp. 104–105, pl. 97.
Wixom, William D. "Medieval Sculpture at The Cloisters." The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, n.s., 46, no. 3 (Winter 1988-1989). p. 30.
Piemonte, Anna Maria. "Il Santo Vescovo ligneo della città di Leonessa." In Leonessa: Storia e cultura di un centro di confine, edited by Corrado Maltese. Ricerche di Storia dell'Arte, Vol. 43-44. Rome: Nuova Italia Scientifica, 1991. p. 89.
Frinta, Mojmir. Punched Decoration on Late Medieval Panel and Miniature Painting. Prague: Maxdorf, 1998. pp. 211, 482, 504.
Castelnuovo-Tedesco, Lisbeth, and Jack Soultanian. Italian Medieval Sculpture in The Metropolitan Museum of Art and The Cloisters. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2010. no. 42, pp. 199–207.
Chadbourne, Susanne. "The Transatlantic Movement of Medieval Monuments: A Consideration of the Portal from the Church of San Leonardo al Frigido." In Medioevo tra due mondi. San Nicolò a San Gemini e le alienazioni monumentali nella prima metà del Novecento, edited by Francesco Gangemi, Tanja Michalsky, and Bruno Toscano. Rome: Campisano Editore, 2022. fig. 4, pp. 144–145.
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