medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
On Friday, March 12, 2010, at 11:09 pm, Marjorie Greene wrote:
> Another offering to the collection of pictures of San Gimignano and
> its Sta Fina:
> http://medrelart.shutterfly.com/2333
> MG
Thanks for these, Marjorie. And espectially for this shot of Benedetto da Maiano's altar of F. (completed, 1477) in the collegiata of San Gimignano, with the altar's doors open to show the Beata's reliquary bust within:
http://medrelart.shutterfly.com/2344
Here's a later nineteenth-century view, taken from a little farther away, of the altar with its doors shut:
http://tinyurl.com/yzjempg
There's a very good view of the upper part of the altar in Doris Carl, "Der Fina-Altar von Benedetto da Maiano in der Collegiata zu San Gimignano: Zu seiner Datierung und Rekonstruktion", _Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz_ 22 (1978), 265-286, p. 266 [in JSTOR, for those with access to JSTOR].
The inscription on the sarcophagus reads (punctutation mine):
VIRGINIS OSSA LATENT TVMVLO QVEM SUSPICIS, HOSPES / HAEC DECVS EXEMPLVM PRAESIDIVMQVE SUIS. / NOMEN FINA FVIT; PATRIA HAEC; MIRACVLA QVAERIS? /PERLEGE QVAE PARIES VIVAQUE SIGNA DOCENT. MCCCCLXXV
("Stranger, a virgin's bones lie hidden in the tomb that you behold. She is the glory of her people, an example to them, and their bulwark. Her name was Fina. This was her home town. Do you seek miracles? Scrutinize what the walls and living sculptures teach. 1475")
The text of the inscription was furnished by the Neapolitan humanist Giovanni Battista Cantalicio (ca. 1450 - 1514?). The mural paintings to which it refers are the two by Ghirlandaio on the walls of the oblong chapel (the _hospes_ passes these to approach the altar at the chapel's far end). The sculptures referred to are those on the upper part of the altar.
F. had an altar in this church as early as 1325. The present chapel was built and adorned in the late 1460s and the 1470s.
Best again,
John Dillon
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