{"id":747,"date":"2015-05-01T00:00:06","date_gmt":"2015-05-01T04:00:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/?p=747"},"modified":"2018-09-13T15:01:57","modified_gmt":"2018-09-13T19:01:57","slug":"cavallo-rome","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/2015\/05\/01\/cavallo-rome\/","title":{"rendered":"Early Modern Funerary Portraits Painted on Metal and Stone Supports: Results of Field Work in Rome"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Detail<\/a>
Detail of a Roman funerary portrait painted on a metal support.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

In the spring of 2013, while conducting dissertation research in Rome, I noticed the\u00a0funerary portraits of Gaspare Rivaldi and Ortenzia Mazziotti in the church of Santa Maria della\u00a0Pace. Intrigued by their appearance, I inquired of the sacristan as to their material. (Fig. 1<\/strong>)\u00a0To my\u00a0surprise, he promptly tapped upon Signore Rivaldi\u2019s visage as on the hood of a car, pointed to the\u00a0over-painted rivets affixing the artwork to its marble frame, and said \u201caluminum.\u201d [1]<\/a> Although\u00a0chemists did not produce pure aluminum until the nineteenth century, the sacristan correctly\u00a0noted the support\u2019s metallic composition. [2]<\/a> Surprisingly, subsequent research revealed no\u00a0investigations of these portraits or any others in situ<\/em> in Rome painted in oils on metal plates or\u00a0stone panels. [3]<\/a> In fact, the Rivaldi\/Mazziotti portraits of ca. 1611-1614 contradict expectations\u00a0to find such artworks nowhere other than in early modern Wunderkammer<\/em> collections as records\u00a0of a Mannerist \u201cevolution of taste and interest.\u201d [4]<\/a> But did these funerary effigies represent\u00a0isolated instances or exemplars of a larger phenomenon overlooked by art historians?<\/p>\n

\"Figure<\/a>
Figure 1. Lavinia Fontana, Portrait of Gaspare Rivaldi, ca. 1611-1614, oil on metal, ~1 ft. 2 in. x ~8 in. Rivaldi\/Mazziotti Chapel, Santa Maria della Pace, Rome.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

I returned to Rome in the summer of 2014 in order to answer this question, and between\u00a0June 14 and July 9 I examined the interiors of 137 churches, basilicas, and cloisters. [5]<\/a> In 46\u00a0(34%), I found 108 funerary monuments that included two-dimensional effigies. [6]<\/a> Of these, I\u00a0discovered 21 (19%) on metal, 42 (39%) on stone, and another 24 (22%) in physically inaccessible\u00a0positions but whose visual characteristics suggest stone or metal supports. [7]<\/a> I\u00a0photographed each monument and its portrait, and transcribed the accompanying Latin epigraph.\u00a0These inscriptions indicate that patrons in Rome began installing commemorative portraits into\u00a0their funerary monuments by the 1550s. The practice became especially popular during the first half\u00a0of the seventeenth century, significantly diminished during the eighteenth century, and then\u00a0reappeared during the third-quarter of the nineteenth century. [8]<\/a> Such continuity over time is\u00a0only matched by the ubiquitous distribution of oil-painted funerary effigies on metal and stone\u00a0supports in all of Rome\u2019s neighborhoods (rioni<\/em>).<\/p>\n

The identification of these artworks proved that the Rivaldi\/Mazziotti portraits epitomize\u00a0a type of aesthetic maintained over centuries in Rome and that entailed the installation of two-dimensional\u00a0rather than three-dimensional effigies into mortuary monuments. [9]<\/a> While the\u00a0tradition encompassed portraits made on canvas, in buon fresco<\/em>, or in the micro-mosaic\u00a0technique, those painted in oils on round pieces of metal and stone exhibit comparatively\u00a0excellent states of preservation. (Fig. 2<\/strong>)<\/p>\n

\"Figure<\/a>
Figure 2. Anonymous, Portrait of Alessandro Maggio, n.d, oil on metal, ~1 ft. 3 in. x ~9 in. Santa Maria del Popolo, Rome.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Indeed, I hypothesize that early modern patrons began to\u00a0utilize these supports due to the perception that they might endow simulacra with an enduring\u00a0presence as durable as the materials themselves. Furthermore, by choosing a circular format, the\u00a0early modern reader of Pliny the Elder\u2019s Natural History<\/em> knew that they emulated the Imago\u00a0clipeata<\/em>. [10]<\/a> By having this classical Roman type painted, patrons re-conceptualized Pliny to\u00a0accord with contemporary Christian theology and aesthetic theories about the efficacy of a\u00a0polychromatic effigy to eternalize an individual\u2019s body in anticipation of becoming entirely\u00a0whole again upon reunification with the immortal soul at the Resurrection. [11]<\/a><\/p>\n

Bradley J. Cavallo<\/span><\/h3>\n

____________________<\/p>\n

Endnotes:<\/strong><\/p>\n

<\/a>[1] Unless otherwise indicated, translations are the author\u2019s.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[2] For the history of aluminum production, see Joseph William Richards, Aluminum. Its\u00a0History, Occurrence, Properties, Metallurgy and Applications, Including Its Alloys<\/em> (Philadelphia,\u00a0PA: Henry Carey Baird & Co., 1890); Mimi Sheller, Aluminum Dreams:\u00a0The Making of Light\u00a0Modernity <\/em>(Cambridge, MA: MIT Press, 2014).<\/p>\n

<\/a>[3] Even Ralph-Miklos Dobler\u2019s 2009 study of the Rivaldi\/Mazziotti chapel, which aids in the\u00a0attribution of these portraits to the Bolognese painter Lavinia Fontana (d. 1614), ignores the\u00a0painted funerary portraits. See Die Juristenkapellen Rivaldi, Cerri und Antamoro: Form,\u00a0Funktion und Intention r\u00f6mischer Familienkapellen im Sei- und Settecento<\/em> (Munich: Hirmer\u00a0verlag, 2009).<\/p>\n

<\/a>[4] Anne Laure Collomb, \u201cLes trait\u00e9s artistiques et la peinture sur pierre (XVIe-XVIIe si\u00e8cles),\u201d\u00a0Histoire de L\u2019Art<\/em>, no. 52 (June, 2003): 117.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[5] Seven other edifices were closed at the time due to restorations.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[6] The 1682 monument to Valentino Onorato is the only known example positioned on the\u00a0exterior of a building. Because it stands on a pier in the portico of Santa Maria in Trastevere,\u00a0Valentino\u2019s painted effigy exhibits the blue-green, Copper (II) acetate stain of Verdigris<\/em> on the\u00a0lower lip of the surrounding marble frame as a result of the physically-degrading, corrosive\u00a0reaction of the copper support to weathering and pollutants.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[7] Of the 19 (18%) other two-dimensional, funerary effigies that I documented, 9 (8%) are\u00a0made in the micro-mosaic technique, 4 (4%) are in buon fresco<\/em>, and 6 (6%) are in oils on canvas.\u00a0Another 26 (19%) monuments contain blank, oval spaces where a two-dimensional portrait was,\u00a0could, or may have been installed originally and then removed.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[8] All but the Rivaldi\/Mazziotti portraits are by unidentified artists.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[9] Even Gian Lorenzo Bernini noted the benefits of a painted portrait vis-\u00e0-vis marble. In 1638,\u00a0he is recorded as having stated (with reference to the Pope), \u201cI told his Holiness that if he went\u00a0into the next rome and whyted all his face over\u2026and came fort againe nott being a whit leaner\u00a0nor lesse beard, only chaunging his coulour, no man would know you\u2026[for] How can itt\u2026be\u00a0possible that a marble picture can ressemble\u2026nature when itt is all one coulour\u2026?\u201d Quoted in\u00a0Andrea Bacchi and Catherine Hess, \u201cCreating a New Likeness. Bernini\u2019s Transformation of the\u00a0Portrait Bust,\u201d in Bernini and the Birth of Baroque Portrait Sculpture<\/em>, ed. Andrea Bacchi et al.\u00a0(Los Angeles, CA: Getty Publications, 2008), 1.<\/p>\n

<\/a>[10] For Pliny the Elder\u2019s description of the Roman Imago clipeata<\/em>, see Natural History in Ten\u00a0Volumes<\/em>, trans. H. Rackham, M.A., volume IX, Libri xxxiii-xxxv (Cambridge, MA: Harvard\u00a0University Press, 1969), xxxv. I. 3-11. 5, 262-271. For scholarly examinations of the imago\u00a0clipeata<\/em>, see Cornelius C. Vermeule, III, who notes many Roman sarcophagi inclusive of the imago clipeata<\/em> known by the early modern period. See his \u201cA Greek Theme and Its Survivals:\u00a0The Ruler\u2019s Shield (Tondo Image) in Tomb and Temple,\u201d Proceedings of the American\u00a0Philosophical Society<\/em> 109, no. 6 (Dec., 1965): 361-397. For other detailed studies of the Imago\u00a0clipeata, see Rolf Winkes, \u201cPliny\u2019s Chapter on Roman Funeral Customs in the Light of Clipeatae\u00a0Imagines,\u201d American Journal of Archaeology<\/em> 83, no. 4 (Oct., 1979): 481-484; Andr\u00e1 Grabar,\u00a0\u201cL\u2019imago clipeata chr\u00e9tienne,\u201d in Comptes rendus des s\u00e9ances de l\u2019Academie des Inscriptions et\u00a0Belles-Lettres<\/em> 101, no. 2 (1957): 209-213; Donatella Scarpellini, Stele romane con imagines\u00a0clipeatae in Italia<\/em> (Rome: \u2018L\u2019Erma\u2019 di Bretschneider, 1987); Rudolf Winkes, Clipeata imago.\u00a0Studien zu einer r\u00f6mischen Bildnisform<\/em> (Bonn: R. Habelt, 1969).<\/p>\n

<\/a>[11] For discussions of the immortality of the soul during the early modern period, see The\u00a0Catechism of The Council of Trent, Published by Command of Pope Pius the Fifth<\/em>, trans. Rev. J.\u00a0Donovan (Dublin: Richard Coyne, 1829), 115-126; Paul Oskar Kristeller, \u201cThe Immortality of\u00a0the Soul,\u201d in Renaissance Thought and Its Sources<\/em>, ed. Michael Mooney (New York, NY:\u00a0Columbia University Press, 1979), 181-196; Eric A. Constant, \u201cA Reinterpretation of the Fifth\u00a0Lateran Council Decree Apostolici regiminis<\/em> (1513),\u201d The Sixteenth Century Journal<\/em> 33, no. 2\u00a0(Summer, 2002): 353-379; Lorenzo Casini, \u201cThe Renaissance Debate On the Immortality of the\u00a0Soul. Pietro Pomponazzi and the Plurality of Substantial Forms,\u201d in Mind, Cognition and\u00a0Representation: The Tradition of Commentaries on Aristotle\u2019s <\/em>De Anima, ed. Paul J.J.M. Bakker\u00a0and Johannes M.M.H Thijssen (Burlington, VT: Ashgate Publishing Company, 2007), 127-150.<\/p>\n

Download Article<\/a><\/p>\n

Top<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

In the spring of 2013, while conducting dissertation research in Rome, I noticed the\u00a0funerary portraits of Gaspare Rivaldi and Ortenzia Mazziotti in the church of Santa Maria della\u00a0Pace. Intrigued by their appearance, I inquired of the sacristan as to their material. (Fig. 1)\u00a0To my\u00a0surprise, he promptly tapped upon Signore Rivaldi\u2019s visage as on the hood […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":8848,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/8848"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=747"}],"version-history":[{"count":14,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":935,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/747\/revisions\/935"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.bu.edu\/sequitur\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}