Confraternity Board (Tabella di Confraternita)

Depicted in the lunettes below are (left to right): Saint Francis of Assisi, Saint Gregory with crux resurrectiones (the papal cross with three traverses), Saint Laurence, and Saint Bernardino da Siena (with the Bernardian monogram ihs, as early in his life he joined the Fraternity of Our Lady of the Hospital of Santa Maria della Scola). The nomina sacra for Jesus Christus (or Jesous Christos) is IHS, emanating from the Holy Name of Jesus, Isus Hominus Salvator. Above in the cimasa with arched pediment supported by volutes and flanked antefixes sit the broken triangulars. The tableau illustrates the ascension of the Virgin Mary, midair, standing upright with open arms being borne aloft by clouds and a choir of angels playing musical instruments. Framed between massive fluted columns are four vertical sections that could display small labels with the fraternity members’ names. This unpublished confraternity board is a rare survival of ecclesiastical furnishings. During its period of use it held great importance: the bold inscriptions on the tablets reminded those serving the confraternity that their own names may be “written in heaven” like the names of the patron saints depicted. The design of four vertical divisions parted by pilaster strips and lunettes is an old form that may originate from early manuscript illuminations like the famous Book of Kells.(1) Such boards were displayed to inform the members of their duties or to record tasks accomplished in service to the church body.(2)

Catalogue entry from: Wolfram Koeppe. The Robert Lehman Collection. Decorative Arts, Vol. XV. Wolfram Koeppe, et al. New York: The Metropolitan Museum of Art in association with Princeton University Press, 2012, p. 287.

NOTES:
1. Brown, Peter. Ed. The Book of Kells: Forty-eight Pages and Details in Color from the Manuscript in Trinity College, Dublin. New York, 1980, pl. 1 (Canon Tables; Canon I for Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John).
2. Saint Charles Borromeo 1577/2000 (containing instructions for builders and decorators of churches). See also Mershman, Francis. “Lectern.” In The Catholic Encyclopedia, Vol. 9, p. 110. New York, 1910; Montevecchi, Benedetta, and Sandra Vasco Rocca. Dizionari terminologici. Vol. 4, Suppellettile ecclesiastica I. Florence, 1988, pp. 420 – 21.

Inscription: Inscribed on the recto: NOMINA VESTRA SCRIPTA SANT IN COELO

Robert Lehman, New York