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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Today (19. August) is also the feast day of a saint of the Regno perhaps more widely known than Bartholomew of Simeri: Louis of Toulouse (d. 1297). L., also known by his dynastic name as Louis of Anjou, was the second son of Charles, duke of Calabria, the future Charles II of Sicily. He may have been born in Provence but modern conjecture usually prefers as the place of his birth the castle at today's Nocera Inferiore (SA) in Campania. Herewith a few views of the remains of this structure, situated above the coastal plain on the north flank of the Monti Lattari: http://www.forzanocerina.it/nocera/fienga03.jpg http://tinyurl.com/ypyrma http://tinyurl.com/ynvc2h http://tinyurl.com/2hu9tv11 In 1288 L. and two of his younger brothers were sent to Catalunya as hostages in exchange for their father, who by succession should now have been king but who in 1284 had been taken prisoner by naval forces of insular Sicily at the battle of Castellamare (Battle of the Gulf of Naples). The brothers remained there until 1295, supervised by Franciscan tutors. During this time L. chose a life of religion and must have made this known, as pope Celestine V (St. Peter Celestine) in an appointment that was never effectuated offered him the diocese of Lyon. Early in 1296 L.'s younger bother Robert (who had also been one of the hostages) was made vicar of the realm and L. himself formally renounced his place in the line of succession to the thrones of Sicily and Jerusalem. His ordination to the priesthood followed on 19. May in Naples' recently built Franciscan church of San Lorenzo (now San Lorenzo Maggiore): http://www.sanlorenzomaggiorenapoli.it/basilica.htm http://docenti.lett.unisi.it/files/3/1/4/19/Napoli_San_Lorenzo.jpg In December 1296 L. made his profession as a Franciscan and was immediately appointed bishop of Toulouse by Boniface VIII. He proceeded to his diocese the following May. L. was at his family's residence in today's Brignoles (Var), the summer home of the counts of Provence, when he died on this day after a brief illness. He was buried in the Franciscan church at Marseille. L. left behind approximately fifteen sermons, some hymns, and a reputation for holiness. An Angevin campaign to have him canonized was successful in 1317. In the early fifteenth century Alfonso V of Aragon (not yet Alfonso I of mostly mainland Sicily) had L.'s by this time somewhat diminished relics removed to the cathedral of Valencia, where they remain today. The diocesan museum of Amalfi-Cava de' Tirreni possesses a mitre made for L. at the Angevin court of Naples: http://www.diocesiamalficava.it/museodioc.htm At Naples, where his brother Robert had succeeded as king in 1309, there are two surviving major monuments to L. One is the well known painting by Simone Martini, paid for by the Crown in 1317, formerly in the possession of San Lorenzo Maggiore and now preserved at the Museo Nazionale di Capodimonte: http://www.abcgallery.com/M/martini/martini1.html The other is the church of the Franciscan convent of Santa Chiara, a project of Robert's queen Sancia of Majorca built between 1310 and 1328. Ordinarily referred to by the name of the convent, it is actually dedicated to L. Some views: http://www.foto.portanapoli.com/FOTO/santachiara_alto.jpg http://p.vtourist.com/2149650-Santa_Chiara_Facade-Naples.jpg http://www.fisica.unina.it/napoli/gif/Schiara.jpg http://www.turizmus.vein.hu/napoly/nap_ph10.html In 1332 queen Sancia presented this church with relics of L. (an arm and various articles of clothing) now housed in the eighteenth-century display reliquary shown here: http://schiara.baa.remuna.org/visite/album/createPage?inv=18 And here's a view of a French fifteenth-/seventeenth-century reliquary of of L. now in the Musée national du Moyen Âge (Musée de Cluny), Paris: http://tinyurl.com/2bqrtn This pattern of a church dedicated to L. with an annexed convent for women was repeated in the late fourteenth century at Venice, where the church, reworked in the seventeenth century, is known as that of Sant'Alvise: http://www.venicebanana.com/images/ch03001l.jpg Its fifteenth-century statue of L. over the main portal: http://www.venicebanana.com/images/ch03002l.jpg The pattern exists elsewhere, e.g. in the originally early sixteenth-century church of San Luigi in the Apulian port of Bisceglie (convent of Poor Clares founded, 1519). The latter replaced an earlier church of San Ludovico (dedicated to St. Louis IX?) and, in an accumulation of Angevin associations, took over from its predecessor the tomb of king Louis I of mostly mainland Sicily (r., 1382-84). Simone Martini also painted portraits of L. and of St. Louis IX for the lower church of the Basilica di San Francesco at Assisi. Here's an expandable view of that L.: http://tinyurl.com/38j8gw Other portraits of L.: Master of Figline, panel painting (early fourteenth century), chiesa di Santa Maria di Figline, Figline Valdarno (FI), Tuscany, Madonna and Child between Sts. Elizabeth of Hungary and L.: http://tinyurl.com/39fcwf Taddeo Gaddi, window (betw. 1328 and 1332), Florence, Basilica di Santa Croce: http://www.icvbc.cnr.it/bivi/schede/Toscana/Firenze/8scroce1.htm Tommaso del Mazza (ca. 1370 - ca. 1415; formerly known as the Master of St. Verdiana), panel painting of St. John the Evangelist and L.: http://tinyurl.com/3x4b8s Donatello, statue originally made for the Orsanmichele in Florence (ca. 1413 or early 1420s), now in that city's Museo dell'Opera di Santa Croce: http://tinyurl.com/32a7ma http://www.wga.hu/art/d/donatell/1_early/orsanmic/2louis_1.jpg Donatello, Padua, Basilica del Santo (St. Anthony of Padua), statue for the main altar (1444-1450): at left here: http://www.wga.hu/art/d/donatell/2_mature/padova/2altar00.jpg detail: http://www.basilicadelsanto.org/gfx/visita/sludovico_bronzi.jpg Antonio Vivarini, panel painting (after 1450), Paris, Musée du Louvre, on deposit at Avignon, Musée du Petit Palais: http://tinyurl.com/37xuht http://tinyurl.com/3y98r6 http://www.insecula.com/us/oeuvre/photo_ME0000057825.html Andrea Mantegna, Madonna and Child between Sts. Jerome and L., Paris, Jacquemart-André (ca. 1455) http://tinyurl.com/ywyxh3 Piero della Francesco, fresco (1460), Pinacoteca Comunale, Sansepolcro (AR), Tuscany: http://www.abcgallery.com/P/piero/piero44.html smaller but more recent views: http://www.pierodellafrancesca.it/sludovico1.html http://www.pierodellafrancesca.it/piero_gb/Ludovico.jpg Vincenzo Foppa, panel of Sts. L. and Bernardino of Siena in an altarpiece (1476) now in the Brera Gallery in Milan: http://www.ilongobardi.it/foppa/zo9_sch13.html http://www.artrenewal.org/asp/database/image.asp?id=23786 also here: http://www.wga.hu/frames-e.html?/html/f/foppa/index.html Antonio Vivarini, Bartolomeo Vivarini, panel painting (1463 or 1464), Paris, Musée du Louvre, on deposit at Avignon, Musée du Petit Palais: http://tinyurl.com/2eybtt http://tinyurl.com/24nkhk Sebastiano del Piombo, fresco (1510), Venice, Gallerie dell' Accademia: http://artyzm.com/e_obraz.php?id=1158 Best, John Dillon ********************************************************************** To join the list, send the message: join medieval-religion YOUR NAME to: [log in to unmask] To send a message to the list, address it to: [log in to unmask] To leave the list, send the message: leave medieval-religion to: [log in to unmask] In order to report problems or to contact the list's owners, write to: [log in to unmask] For further information, visit our web site: http://www.jiscmail.ac.uk/lists/medieval-religion.html