Print

Print


medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture

Three glass images:
 
 
Mells, St Andrew,  Somerset, nIV A4 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/3486641376 
Long Sutton, St  Mary, Lincolnshire, sVI,  A3: 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/5176017055 
Gresford, All  Saints, Trevor Chapel, East window, 2b: 
https://www.flickr.com/photos/22274117@N08/15422799435 
Gordon Plumb 


 
In a message dated 09/02/2016 16:25:51 GMT Standard Time, [log in to unmask] 
 writes:

medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and  culture

Apollonia of Alexandria (also Appolina; d. 249) is a martyr of  the 
anti-Christian riots in Alexandria in Egypt in the year preceding the  Decian 
persecution.  According to Eusebius (_Historia ecclesiastica_, 6.  41) or, more 
precisely, to an account by St. Dionysius of Alexandria from  which Eusebius 
quotes, she was a virgin advanced in years (alternative  interpretation: a 
virgin elder, probably a deacon) all of whose teeth were  knocked out by 
blows to her jaw.  Still according to Dionysius, having  survived that torment 
she leaped onto a blazing pyre that had been prepared  for her should she 
refuse to join the crowd in its blasphemous proclamations  and so finished her 
earthly life.  The details of her suffering recur in  Rufinus' Latin 
translation of Eusebius, in Usuard's martyrology, and Jacopo da  Varazze's chapter 
on Apollonia in his _Legenda aurea_ (ed. Graesse, cap.  66).  In all of 
these we are told that her teeth were knocked out (the  verb used is always 
_excutio_) and in none of these is the instrument  specified.  Yet images of 
Apollonia's torture (images of her death on the  pyre are rare) from the later 
Middle Ages onward overwhelmingly show a forceps  applied to her mouth, 
intimating rather the _extraction_ of her teeth, and in  portraits her standard 
identifying attribute is likewise a forceps.   Images of Apollonia's torture 
showing the application to her mouth of a metal  rod or chisel to render 
her toothless -- and thus conforming to the manner of  torture specified in 
the texts -- are correspondingly infrequent (two are  linked to below: images 
gg and ii).  Unsurprisingly, Apollonia has long  been the patron saint of 
dental sufferers.  She is also a patron of  dentists and other dental workers.

For comparison, herewith a later  fourteenth-century image of the use in 
medical practice of a forceps to remove  a tooth (_Omne Bonum_; London, BL, 
Royal MS 6 E VI, fol.  503v):
http://tinyurl.com/z2fw8se


Some period-pertinent images  of St. Apollonia of Alexandria:

a) as depicted in a fourteenth-century  fresco in the chiesa di San Michele 
Arcangelo in  Perugia:
http://tinyurl.com/hqmjmoj
Detail  view:
http://tinyurl.com/jckfumv

b) as depicted (in this view,  fourth from left) by Simone Martini in a 
predella panel of his early  fourteenth-century Santa Caterina d'Alessandria 
altarpiece (commissioned,  1319) in the Museo nazionale di San Matteo in  Pisa:
http://tinyurl.com/zu86j4w

c) as depicted (at left, torture;  at right, St. Gotthard) in a 
fifteenth-century fresco in the chiesa di San  Tommaso di Canterbury at Corenno Plinio, 
a _frazione_ of Dervio (LC) in  Lombardy:
http://tinyurl.com/hoxejgr
Detail view  (Apollonia):
http://tinyurl.com/zlzdncc

d) as depicted (at far left)  on the fifteenth-century rood screen in the 
church of St Michael and All  Angels, Barton Turf (Norfolk):
http://tinyurl.com/zno36bx

e) as  depicted in an earlier fifteenth-century fresco in the Pfarrkirche 
St. Vitus  in Handschuhsheim, a _Stadtteil_ of  Heidelberg:
http://tinyurl.com/zlaoety

f) as depicted (image at  right; at left, the Resurrection of Christ) in 
the early fifteenth-century  Hours of René d'Anjou (ca. 1410; London, British 
Library, MS Egerton 1070,  fol.  90r):
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllI
D=10649
http://tinyurl.com/ydk4kno

g)  as depicted (torture) in an early fifteenth-century book of hours for 
the Use  of Rennes (ca. 1410-1415; Philadelphia, Free Library of 
Philadelphia, ms.  Widener 4, fol.  195r):
http://libwww.library.phila.gov/medievalman/detail.cfm?searchKey=9969977607&
ItemID=mcaw041951

h)  as depicted in an early fifteenth-century book of hours of 
Netherlandish  origin (?Delft; ca. 1415-1420; New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, Morgan 
ms.  M.866, fol.  168v):
http://ica.themorgan.org/manuscript/page/93/76934

i) as  depicted (torture) in the Suffrages of the earlier to 
mid-fifteenth-century  Hours of Françoise de Dinan (ca. 1435-1450; a.k.a. Hours of 
Catherine de Rohan  and of Françoise de Dinan; Rennes, Bibliothèque de Rennes 
Métropole, ms. 34bis  [pt. 2 of ms. 15942], fol. 80r):
http://tinyurl.com/h7xdejf

j) as  depicted (torture) in the mid-fifteenth-century Dunois Hours (ca. 
1440-1450;  London, BL, Yates Thompson MS 3, fol.  284v):
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=yates_thompson_ms_3_f284v

k)  as depicted (torture) in the Suffrages of a mid-fifteenth-century book 
of  hours from Paris (ca. 1440-1450; London BL, Egerton MS 2019, fol.  217r):
http://www.bl.uk/manuscripts/Viewer.aspx?ref=egerton_ms_2019_f217r
http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/.a/6a00d8341c464853ef01a5115e08f1970c-po
pup

l)  as depicted (at right; at left, St. Margaret) in a 
mid-fifteenth-century (ca.  1445-1450) panel painting by Rogier van der Weyden in the 
Gemäldegalerie in  Berlin:
http://www.wga.hu/art/w/weyden/rogier/13variou/3margare.jpg

m)  as depicted (at right; at left, St. Ottilia) on one of the shutters 
(closed  position) of the mid-fifteenth-century altarpiece in the 
Bürgerspitalskirche  Hl. Geist in Bad Aussee (Land  Steiermark):
http://tinyurl.com/go5v85s

n) as depicted (torture) by  Jean Fouquet in his now dismembered 
mid-fifteenth-century Hours of Étienne  Chevalier (1450s; this folio in the Musée 
Condé, Chantilly [Oise], ms. Fr.  71):
http://tinyurl.com/je87l5b

o) as depicted in grisaille  (torture) by Jean le Tavernier in the 
mid-fifteenth-century Hours of Philip of  Burgundy (ca. 1451-1460; Den Haag, KB, ms. 
76 F 2, fol.  279r):
http://manuscripts.kb.nl/zoom/BYVANCKB%3Amimi_76f2%3A279r_min

p)  as depicted (image at right) in a panel of a mid-fifteenth-century 
glass  window (225a, 1452) in the cathédrale Saint-Étienne in  Metz:
http://therosewindow.com/pilot/Metz-cath/w225a.htm

q) as  depicted (torture) in the Suffrages of the mid-fifteenth-century 
Hours of  Simon de Varie (ca. 1455; from Paris; Den Haag, KB, Ms. 74 G 37a, 
fol.  17r):
http://manuscripts.kb.nl/zoom/BYVANCKB%3Amimi_74g37a%3A017r_min

r)  as depicted by Piero della Francesca in a mid-fifteenth-century panel 
painting  (ca. 1455-1460) in the National Gallery of Art, Washington,  DC:
http://tinyurl.com/z4xluwc

s) as depicted in the mid- or  slightly later fifteenth-century Prayer Book 
of Albrecht VI (ca. 1455-1463;  Wien, ÖNB, cod. 1846, fol.  48v):
http://tethys.imareal.sbg.ac.at/realonline/images/7007599.JPG

t)  as depicted in grisaille in the mid- or slightly later 
fifteenth-century Hours  of Jacques de Brégilles (Bruges, ca. 1460; London, BM, Yates 
Thompson MS 4,  fol.  190v):
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllI
D=5739

u)  as depicted on the rear side of a predella wing (ca. 1460-1465; from 
the later  fifteenth-century altarpiece in the Kirche Mariä Heimsuchung in 
Maria Laach am  Jauerling) in the Salzburg Museum in  Salzburg:
http://tethys.imareal.sbg.ac.at/realonline/images/7001496.JPG

v)  as depicted (at center) on a later fifteenth-century wooden cover (ca.  
1460-1470) for a baptismal font in the Pfarrkirche St. Rupert in 
Außerteuchen  (Land  Kärnten):
http://tethys.imareal.sbg.ac.at/realonline/images/7001719.JPG

w)  as depicted (at right; at left, St. Anthony of Egypt) in the Suffrages 
of a  later fifteenth-century book for hours for the Use of the collegiate 
Sint  Hermeskerk in Ronse (ca. 1465; London, BL, Harley MS 1211, fol.  90v):
http://www.bl.uk/catalogues/illuminatedmanuscripts/ILLUMIN.ASP?Size=mid&IllI
D=15823
http://britishlibrary.typepad.co.uk/.a/6a00d8341c464853ef01a5115e0900970c-po
pup

x)  as depicted (torture) by Lieven van Lathem in the later 
fifteenth-century  Prayer Book of Charles the Bold (1469; Los Angeles, J. Paul Getty Museum 
and  Library, Ms. 37, fol.  50v):
http://www.getty.edu/art/gettyguide/artObjectDetails?artobj=1943

y)  as depicted in a later fifteenth-century book of hours for the Use of 
Paris  (ca. 1470; Chambéry, Bibliothèque municipale, ms. 1, fol.  204r):
http://www.enluminures.culture.fr/Wave/savimage/enlumine/irht1/IRHT_035215-p
.jpg

z)  as depicted by the Master of the Boston City of God in the Suffrages of 
a  later fifteenth-century book of hours from Utrecht (ca. 1470; Den Haag, 
KB,  ms. 131 G 4, fol.  185r):
http://manuscripts.kb.nl/zoom/BYVANCKB%3Amimi_131g4%3A185r_init

aa)  as depicted (at far right; from left, the others are Sts. Anastasia, 
Agatha,  and Lucy) by Tommaso De Vigilia (attrib.) in a later 
fifteenth-century fresco  (ca. 1470) in the Galleria regionale di Sicilia in  Palermo:
https://misilmeriblog.files.wordpress.com/2009/02/affresco4.jpg

bb)  as depicted by Ercole de' Roberti in a later fifteenth-century panel 
painting  (ca. 1472-1473) in the Musée du Louvre in  Paris:
http://tinyurl.com/z7scjlc

cc) as depicted (upper register,  just right of center; torture) by Maître 
François in the first volume of a  later fifteenth-century copy  of St. 
Augustine's _City of God_ in its  French-language version by Raoul de Presles 
(ca. 1475; Den Haag, Museum  Meermanno, cod. 10 A 11, fol.  397v):
http://manuscripts.kb.nl/zoom/BYVANCKB%3Amimi_mmw_10a11%3A397v_min

dd)  as depicted in a late fifteenth-century book of hours of southern  
Netherlandish origin (?Bruges; ca. 1490; Baltimore, Walters Art Museum,  
Walters Ms. W.435, fol.  179v):
http://www.thedigitalwalters.org/Data/WaltersManuscripts/W435/data/W.435/sap
/W435_000366_sap.jpg

ee)  as depicted (at left; at center, St. Dorothea; at right, another 
female saint)  in a late fifteenth-century panel painting (ca. 1490) in the 
Compton Verney  Art Gallery, Compton Verney  (Warwickshire):
http://cdn.rowleygallery.co.uk/2014/11/007.jpg

ff)  as depicted (left margin, second from top) in a hand-colored woodcut 
in the  Beloit College copy of Hartmann Schedel's late fifteenth-century 
_Weltchronik_  (_Nuremberg Chronicle_; 1493) at fol.  CXXr:
https://www.beloit.edu/nuremberg/book/6th_age/right_page/24%20%28Folio%20CXX
r%29.pdf

gg)  as portrayed (torture) in a late fifteenth- or very early 
sixteenth-century  polychromed wooden sculpture employed in the slightly later Saint 
Sebaldus  altar (1505) in the Heiligkreuzmünster in Schwäbisch  Hall:
http://www.sagen.at/fotos/data/625/Apollonia_Schwa_776_bGmu_776_nd.jpg

hh)  as depicted (at right; at left, St. Genovefa of Paris) by Lucas 
Cranach the  Elder on a shutter (closed position) of his dismembered early  
sixteenth-century St. Catherine altarpiece (1506; shutters in the Galerie Alte  
Meister in Dresden):
http://tinyurl.com/hepo9k8

ii) as portrayed  (torture) in a polychromed relief on a wing of the early 
sixteenth-century  Eleven Thousand Virgins altar (1513) in the Münster St. 
Marien und Jakobus,  Heilsbronn (Lkr. Ansbach),  Bavaria:
http://tinyurl.com/jpvywfq

Best,
John  Dillon

**********************************************************************
To  join the list, send the message: subscribe 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: unsubscribe 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/medieval-religion

**********************************************************************
To join the list, send the message: subscribe 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: unsubscribe 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/medieval-religion