medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture
Galganus (d. 1181) was a native of today's Chiusdino (SI) in southern Tuscany who turned to religion from a life of soldiering and dissipation and who shortly before his death founded an hermitage on the nearby hill of Montesiepi. These places were then in the diocese of Volterra, whose bishop promoted Galganus' cult by consecrating, in 1185 and with papal approval, a small commemorative church at the site of the hermitage. Galganus' canonization trial of the same year is the oldest whose acta are known. He has several thirteenth- and fourteenth-century Lives, whose earliest, the _Vita sancti Galgani_, was written probably before 1227 by a Pisan monk of the Cistercian abbey at Montesiepi (founded in 1218). According to this account, Galganus, wishing to plant a cross at the site chosen for his hermitage, thrust into the earth a sword whose cruciform upper portion served the purpose. Later and more entertaining versions have Galganus miraculously driving his sword into solid rock.
The _Vita sancti Galgani_ dates Galganus' death to 30. November 1181. A slightly later Vita used for his Office changed the day to 3. December in accordance with the needs of the local calendar for Siena. That in turn was followed by the Roman Martyrology. In the diocese of Volterra Galganus is celebrated on 5. December, as he is also in the archdiocese of Siena, Colle di Val d'Elsa, and Montalcino.
What is said to be Galganus' skull is displayed in this modern container in the prepositura di San Michele at Chiusdino:
http://tinyurl.com/6syhxj
The hermitage on top of the hill (restored in 1924 and containing both Galganus' gravestone and -- who could doubt it? -- Galganus' sword sticking out of a rock in the church's center) and the ruined Cistercian abbey below are major tourist attractions. Views, etc. will be found at these websites (among many others):
http://tinyurl.com/666gbq
http://www.italiantourism.com/news03.html
http://tinyurl.com/vjnzt
http://www.sangalgano.info/eremo_en.html
http://www.bluedragon.it/non_fantasy/misteri/galgano.htm
https://www.flickr.com/groups/337399@N25/pool/
Some period-pertinent images of St. Galganus:
a) as portrayed in relief by Lando di Pietro on a panel of a late thirteenth-century reliquary for the saint's head (ca. 1290-1300) formerly in the Museo dell'Opera Metropolitana di Siena and now in the possession of the prepositura di San Michele at Chiusdino:
http://tinyurl.com/y3b4mac
The reliquary as a whole:
http://images.alinari.it/img/480/CAL/CAL-F-002318-0000.jpg
http://tinyurl.com/q9fc7am
A set of grayscale views of the individual plaques starts here:
http://tinyurl.com/hmytcpr
b) as portrayed in a privately owned fourteenth-century silver gilt reliquary statue of Sienese manufacture:
http://tinyurl.com/old6aed
c) as portrayed in a statuette on the head of the earlier fourteenth-century pastorale di San Galgano (ca. 1320), a piece of Sienese manufacture belonging to the cattedrale di Santa Margherita in relatively nearby Montefiascone (VT) in northern Lazio:
http://tinyurl.com/25ksp3w
d) as depicted in a panel of an an earlier or mid-fourteenth-century altarpiece (ca. 1320-1360) attributed to Ugolino Lorenzetti in the Pinacoteca nazionale in Siena:
http://santiebeati.it/immagini/Original/90493/90493B.JPG
e) as depicted (at right) by Niccolò di Segna in an earlier fourteenth-century panel painting (ca. 1331-1345) in the Pinacoteca comunale of Faenza:
http://tinyurl.com/yftpvtq
f) as depicted by Pietro di Giovanni d'Ambrogio on a side panel of his mid-fifteenth-century altarpiece of the Adoration of the Shepherds with Sts. Augustine and Galgano (ca. 1440-1449) in the Museo Civico Archeologico e d'Arte Sacra Palazzo Corboli in Asciano (SI):
http://tinyurl.com/j54by4p
The altarpiece as a whole:
http://tinyurl.com/q9ost98
g) as depicted by Vecchietta in a mid-fifteenth-century panel painting (1445) on the doors of a reliquary cabinet in the Pinacoteca nazionale in Siena:
http://tinyurl.com/ygcdqk4
The doors themselves (Galganus is second from right in the bottom register):
http://www.wga.hu/art/v/vecchiet/arliqui1.jpg
h) as depicted (at right, flanking the BVM and Christ Child) by Giovanni di Paolo in a later fifteenth-century altarpiece (ca. 1475-1480) in the Walters Art Museum, Baltimore:
http://art.thewalters.org/viewwoa.aspx?id=14988
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
|