medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Homobonus (d. 1197; in Italian, Omobono; in French, Homebon; in German sometimes Gotman or Gutman) was a merchant tailor of Cremona, married, contemplative, exceptionally charitable, and extraordinarily upright. Late in life he seems to have abandoned mercantile activity altogether and to have lived ascetically as a penitent. He died suddenly while at Mass in his parish church of Sant'Egidio (now Sant'Omobono). Homobonus' reputation for holiness was such that he was canonized a mere two years after his death. According to André Vauchez, he was the first lay saint of non-noble birth to be accorded papal canonization.
Homobonus has several early Vitae, all brief and emphasizing different aspects of their subject. Only in fifteenth century did he become viewed -- as he still is -- as a patron of merchants and laborers (esp. tailors and cloth workers). He is a patron saint of the diocese of Cremona and of the cities of Cremona and Modena. Today (13. November) is his feast day in Cremona and elsewhere and his day of commemoration in the Roman Martyrology.
Some period-pertinent images of St. Homobonus:
a) as portrayed in an early thirteenth-century statue in a niche on the early seventeenth-century facade of the chiesa di Sant'Omobono in Cremona:
http://tinyurl.com/hy4f8ht
b) as portrayed (at right, flanking the BVM and Christ Child; at left, bishop St. Himerius) in an early fourteenth-century statue attributed to Gano da Siena (Gano di Fazio; d. before 1318) in the loggia over the porch of Cremona's originally twelfth-/fourteenth-century basilica cattedrale di Santa Maria Assunta:
http://tinyurl.com/zvvsvhv
Detail view (Homobonus):
http://tinyurl.com/2tknql
c) as depicted (at left; at right, St. Christopher) by Pietro di Giovanni Lianori in an earlier fifteenth-century panel painting (ca. 1420) in the Musée du Petit Palais in Avignon:
http://tinyurl.com/gm4gq7x
http://tinyurl.com/hqf38ca
Detail view (Homobonus):
http://digilander.libero.it/gregduomocremona/immagini/omobono_lianori.jpg
d) as depicted (with devotees; the image is an adaptation of the familiar one of the Madonna della Misericordia) by Ambrogio Bembo (attrib.) in a mid-fifteenth-century watercolor-and-ink drawing (1450) on the cover of the Libro Mastro of Cremona's Consorzio di Sant'Omobono, on deposit in the Archivio di Stato di Cremona (esc. 6.381; grayscale view):
http://fondazionecr.it/_upload/opere/244.jpg
Expandable views of other fifteenth and earlier sixteenth-century versions of this image will be found here (Miniature nos. 5, 6, 14, 22, 23, 24, 25):
http://www.fondazionecr.it/opere_darte.php
e) as depicted (giving alms) by Frate Nebridio on a late fifteenth-century privilege (1495) granted by Ludovico Maria Sforza to the Consorzio della Donna, on deposit in the Archivio di Stato di Cremona (esc. 6.381; grayscale view):
http://fondazionecr.it/_upload/opere/253.jpg
A distance view in color of the entire privilege, with the illumination visible in the left margin:
http://fondazionecr.it/_upload/opere/252.jpg
f) as depicted (at lower right) by Domenico da Tolmezzo in his late fifteenth-century St. Lucy altarpiece (1499) in the Galleria d'Arte Antica in Udine:
http://www.wga.hu/art/d/domenico/tolmezzo/stlucy.jpg
g) as depicted in an early sixteenth-century glass window panel (1508; from the house of the tailors' guild in Basel) in the Historisches Museum Basel:
http://tinyurl.com/jmcjs7g
h) as portrayed (at left, flanking the BVM and Christ Child; at right, St. Barbara) on an early sixteenth-century relief (1511) for the former Ospedal dei Poveri Sartori at no. 4338 Fondamenta dei Sartori in Venice's _sestiere_ of Cannaregio:
http://tinyurl.com/azuqrn7
Best,
John Dillon
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