medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Seemingly originally from a Latin-speaking part of northern Africa, the well educated Zeno (d. ca. 371) became bishop of Verona in 362. He is the author of a body of sermons of some literary polish and, as Verona's principal patron saint, a fixture in that city's historic folklore. His late eighth-century Vita by Coronatus (BHL 9001-9008b) is one of the classics of early medieval Italy's Latin literature.
Today is Zeno's day of commemoration in the Roman Martyrology. In his own diocese he has since 2004 been celebrated liturgically on 21. May, the anniversary of his translation to a predecessor of the former abbey church in Verona dedicated to him, San Zeno Maggiore. The latter church, built from ca. 1138 to 1178 and incorporating some elements of a tenth-century predecessor, is one of Italy's major romanesque monuments. It is also noteworthy for some later ornamentation. Some exterior views:
http://tinyurl.com/r23sw
http://tinyurl.com/qbdhp
Facade and main portal:
http://tinyurl.com/49g3ma
http://tinyurl.com/qxff4
Some interior views:
http://tinyurl.com/ruooj
http://tinyurl.com/oksvl
http://tinyurl.com/hx74x
http://tinyurl.com/kwh2l
Zeno is usually on display in the crypt:
http://tinyurl.com/ovc4jmd
https://www.flickr.com/photos/smbtravels/5085472170
But on his feast day he's brought up to the sanctuary. Here's a view from 2012:
http://tinyurl.com/h389dqh
Some period-pertinent images of Zeno of Verona:
a) as portrayed in relief (between, in lower relief, the foot soldiers and the knights of the commune of Verona) by Nicholaus in the tympanum (ca. 1138) of the mostly earlier twelfth-century main (west) portal of Verona's basilica di San Zeno Maggiore:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/42038165@N02/22490847002
http://tinyurl.com/h6dbpot
Detail view (Zeno):
http://tinyurl.com/o69d36x
b) as portrayed in relief (miracle scenes) by Nicholaus in the tympanum (ca. 1138) of the mostly earlier twelfth-century main portal of Verona's basilica di San Zeno Maggiore:
1) exorcising the emperor's daughter:
http://tinyurl.com/nd6qkar
2) while fishing, saving a carter who by the machination of a demon had fallen into the Adige:
http://tinyurl.com/pckwnzr
c) as portrayed in relief in earlier or mid-twelfth-century bronze panels on the right (south) door of the main (west) portal of Verona's basilica di San Zeno Maggiore:
1) with the emperor:
http://tinyurl.com/oydzsct
2) exorcising the emperor's daughter:
http://www.heiligenlexikon.de/Fotos/Zeno3.jpg
3) a distance view of some of the panels celebrating Zeno on this door (Zeno with the emperor is at upper right):
http://tinyurl.com/p4tk7rd
4) another distance view including the next higher rows of panels (includes the emperor's messengers finding Zeno fishing; Zeno exorcising the emperor's daughter; Zeno saving the carter who had fallen into the Adige; Zeno with the emperor:
http://tinyurl.com/hck3w9x
5) a close-up of Zeno as portrayed in no. 1) above:
http://www.heiligenlexikon.de/Fotos/Zeno.jpg
d) as portrayed in relief (at left, flanking the BVM and Christ Child) on the later twelfth-century tympanum of the west portal of the Klosterkirche St. Zeno in Bad Reichenhall (Lkr. Berchtesgadener Land) in Bavaria:
http://tinyurl.com/gr3mvu4
e) as portrayed in a thirteenth-century polychrome marble statue in the presbytery of Verona's basilica di San Zeno Maggiore, the locally famous "San Zen che ride" ("Smiling Saint Zeno"):
http://tinyurl.com/gt3nl
http://tinyurl.com/z529ewd
http://tinyurl.com/jja89ws
f) as depicted in two thirteenth- or fourteenth-century votive frescoes in Verona's basilica di San Zeno Maggiore:
1) https://www.heiligenlexikon.de/Fotos/Zeno13.jpg
2) https://www.flickr.com/photos/42038165@N02/22464725120
g) as depicted (in the coffin, flanked by the hermits Sts. Benignus and Carus [or Lazarus] of Malcesine) in a fourteenth(?)-century fresco in Verona's basilica di San Zeno Maggiore:
http://tinyurl.com/d6w5vzo
The fresco commemorates Zeno's seemingly legendary ninth-century translation to his resting place in the monastic church at Verona dedicated to him.
h) as portrayed in low relief (the first two items on this page) on two later fourteenth-century coins from Verona (the second possibly very early fifteenth-century):
http://www.coingallery.de/Heilige/Z/Zeno.htm
i) as depicted (at left; at right, St. Jerome) by Francesco Pesellino and Filippo Lippi in the mid-fifteenth-century Pistoia Santa Trinità altarpiece (ca. 1455-1460) in the National Gallery, London:
http://tinyurl.com/qjeagzm
j) as depicted (exorcising the emperor's daughter) by Filippo Lippi and workshop in a predella panel of the Pistoia Santa Trinità altarpiece (ca. 1455-1460) in the National Gallery, London:
http://tinyurl.com/hu8ho4p
k) as depicted (at far right; from left the others are the apostles Peter, Paul, and John) by Andrea Mantegna in a panel of his mid-fifteenth-century San Zeno polyptych (ca. 1457-1460) in Verona's basilica di San Zeno:
http://tinyurl.com/jnu8vfv
l) as depicted in a wooden inlay (intarsia) in the late fifteenth-century choir stalls (betw. 1494 and 1499) in Verona's chiesa di Santa Maria in Organo:
https://www.flickr.com/photos/hen-magonza/8503322386/
m) as portrayed in low relief (the second two items on this page) on two early sixteenth-century coins from Verona (1510-1516):
http://www.coingallery.de/Heilige/Z/Zeno.htm
Best,
John Dillon
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