Holy Bodies: Relics, Art, and Popular Religion in Florence, c. 1400-1700

FAIN: FT-54365-06

Sally J. Cornelison
University of Kansas, Lawrence (Lawrence, KS 66045-7505)

The focus of "Holy Bodies" is the works of art made between the 15th and 17th centuries to honor the relics of four Florentine holy persons. These works reveal differences of class, patronage, and popular devotional practices within Florentine society. They also served to link the saints to the needs, aims, and history of the larger ecclesiastical and political communities that possessed their relics and, at the same time, underscored their effectiveness as intercessors for both elite and non-elite audiences. "Holy Bodies" will provide new insights into the ritual and devotional significance of saints' cults and images and will take its place in a growing body of literature on popular visual culture in the early modern period.

Associated Products

Tales of Two Bishop Saints: Zenobius and Antoninus in Florentine Renaissance Art and History (Article)
Title: Tales of Two Bishop Saints: Zenobius and Antoninus in Florentine Renaissance Art and History
Author: Sally J. Cornelison
Abstract: From the late quattrocento through the cinquecento Florence's first sainted bishop, Zenobius (d. ca. 424), and the sainted Florentine archbishop Antoninus Pierozzi (d. 1459) were hailed as two of Florence's most effective intercessors. Their images were included in an impressive series of temporary and permanent decorations made for Florence Cathedral, and the historical and visual relationship between the two saints reached its symbolic peak in Giambologna's St. Antoninus Chapel (1578-88) at the Dominican church of San Marco. The present study will show that by pairing images of the saints and drawing on the style and iconography of the reliefs that Lorenzo Ghiberti created for the bronze St. Zenobius shrine at Santa Maria del Fiore (1432- 42), the St. Antoninus Chapel's decorative program stresses Antoninus's importance as Zenobius's saintly successor and promotes the efficacy of his holy remains which lie at the center of that spiritually charged space.
Year: 2007
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Sixteenth Century Journal
Publisher: Sixteenth Century Society and Conference

Relocating Fra Bartolomeo at San Marco (Article)
Title: Relocating Fra Bartolomeo at San Marco
Author: Sally J. Cornelison
Abstract: This study reconsiders the primary and archival sources related to the early history and location of Fra Bartolomeo's "St. Mark" and "St. Sebastian" in the Florentine church of San Marco. Contrary to previous studies, it reveals that they were installed within San Marco's choir, where they took their place in a long-standing Dominican tradition of depicting exemplary saints over or near the portals of the Order’s churches and convents.
Year: 2009
Primary URL: http://www.wiley.com/bw/journal.asp?ref=0269-1213
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Renaissance Studies
Publisher: Blackwell / Society for Renaissance Studies

Art and the Relic Cult of St. Antoninus in Renaissance Florence (Book)
Title: Art and the Relic Cult of St. Antoninus in Renaissance Florence
Author: Sally J. Cornelison
Abstract: Tracing the history of St Antoninus' cult and burial from the time of his death in 1459 until his remains were moved to their final resting place in 1589, this interdisciplinary study demonstrates that the saint's relic cult was a key element of Florence's sacred cityscape. The works of art created in his honor, as well as the rituals practiced at his fifteenth- and sixteenth-century places of burial, advertised Antoninus' saintly power and persona to the people who depended upon his intercessory abilities to negotiate life's challenges. Drawing on a rich variety of contemporary visual, literary, and archival sources, this volume explores the ways in which shifting political, familial, and ecclesiastical aims and agendas shaped the ways in which St. Antoninus' holiness was broadcast to those who visited his burial church. Author Sally Cornelison foregrounds the visual splendor of the St Antoninus Chapel, which was designed, built, and decorated by Medici court artist Giambologna and his collaborators between 1579 and 1591. Her research sheds new light on the artist, whose secular and mythological sculptures have received far more scholarly attention than his religious works. Cornelison draws on social and religious history, patronage and gender studies, and art historical and anthropological inquiries into the functions and meanings of images, relics, and ritual performance, to interpret how they activated St Antoninus' burial sites and defined them in ways that held multivalent meanings for a broad audience of viewers and devotees. Among the objects for which she provides visual and contextual analyses are a banner from the saint's first tomb, early printed and painted images, and the sculptures, frescoes, panel paintings, and embroidered textiles made for the present St Antoninus Chapel.
Year: 2012
Primary URL: http://firstsearch.oclc.org.www2.lib.ku.edu:2048/WebZ/FSFETCH?fetchtype=fullrecord:sessionid=fsapp1-59959-gxbv6htm-scj8yi:entitypagenum=14:0:recno=8:resultset=2:format=FI:next=html/record.html:bad=error/badfetch.html:entitytoprecno=8:entitycurrecno
Primary URL Description: WorldCat
Secondary URL: http://www.ashgate.com/default.aspx?page=1777&calctitle=1&pageSubject=4103&sort=pubdate&forthcoming=1&title_id=8646&edition_id=11866
Secondary URL Description: Ashgate.com
Publisher: Ashgate Publishing
Type: Single author monograph
ISBN: 978-0-7546-671

Testo e contesto rituale: 'L’Ingresso di Sant’Antonino a Firenze' di Giambologna (Article)
Title: Testo e contesto rituale: 'L’Ingresso di Sant’Antonino a Firenze' di Giambologna
Author: Sally J. Cornelison
Abstract: The subject of this article is Giambologna's bronze relief depicting "St. Antoninus' Entry into Florence as Archbishop" in the St. Antoninus Chapel, San Marco, Florence (1579-91). Drawing on the "Lives" of St. Antoninus and contemporary ritual practices, it demonstrates that rather than illustrating Antoninus' archiepiscopal entry as he experienced it in 1459, the relief presents the entry as all other bishops and archbishops had experienced it since the late trecento.
Year: 2012
Primary URL: http://www.nerbini.it/Nostri%20libri/Religione/Memorie%20domenicanee/memorie%20domenicane.htm
Primary URL Description: Memorie Domenicane
Format: Journal
Periodical Title: Memorie Domenicane
Publisher: Nerbini

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