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medieval-religion: Scholarly discussions of medieval religion and culture Today (26. July) is the feast day of: 1) Joachim and Anne (d. 1st cent.). J. and A., the parents of Mary the mother of Jesus, are first attested in the later second-century infancy gospel generally known as the _Protevangelium Jacobi_. One may read about them in three English-language translations here: http://www.thomasephillips.info/gospelofjames.htm#Infancy Their cult seems initially to have been limited to Palestine and Syria. In the middle of the sixth century the emperor Justinian I built a church at Constantinople dedicated to A.; this was restored by Justinian II in 705. A view of what is said to be A.'s left foot, preserved at the Skete of St. Anna (a seventeenth-century foundation) on Mount Athos: http://tinyurl.com/3nbbd26 In the East J. and A. have been traditionally celebrated on 9. September, with a separate feast of the Dormition of A. occurring on 25. July. The earlier ninth-century Marble Calendar of Naples, notable for its admixture of "Eastern" and "Western" feasts, records both of these, with A. sharing 25. July with St. Eupraxia (as she still does in Orthodox churches). In the medieval Latin West it was usually A. alone who was celebrated liturgically and there her cult did not become really widespread until the fourteenth century. In art, on the other hand, J. and A. were often represented together: a fairly early example would be the vestment bearing their portraits (and an Annunciation scene) reportedly presented by pope St. Leo III (795-813) to Rome's Santa Maria Maggiore. Sherry Reames' introduction to her TEAMS edition of _Legends of St. Anne, Mother of the Virgin Mary_ is here: http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/teams/44sr.htm A. as depicted in two sixth-century ivory panels of Syrian origin (Visitation; Annunciation to A.), now in the State Hermitage Museum, St. Petersburg (photographs by Genevra Kornbluth): http://www.kornbluthphoto.com/images/AnnAnnaVir.jpg An expandable, black-and-white image of A.'s seventh(?)-century portrait in Rome's Santa Maria Antiqua is here: http://www.icon-art.info/masterpiece.php?lng=en&mst_id=1893 An expandable image of an eighth-century portrait of A. from Faras in Lower Nubia, now in the National Museum in Warsaw, is here: http://tinyurl.com/5kl6d9 J. and A. as depicted in the mid-eleventh-century mosaics of the Nea Moni on Chios: J.: http://tinyurl.com/3jjgban http://tinyurl.com/3uejgjw A.: http://tinyurl.com/3nbwwr5 http://tinyurl.com/23k5djk http://tinyurl.com/3esomvv Some of the numerous J. and A. scenes in an earlier twelfth-century copy of Jacob of Coccinobaphi, _Orationes encomiasticae in SS. Virginem Deiparam_ (Paris, BnF, ms. Grec 1208): http://tinyurl.com/29hq9pq http://tinyurl.com/25aho7h http://tinyurl.com/23ux7mz http://tinyurl.com/29kppgh http://tinyurl.com/28ell2e http://tinyurl.com/ygyxgfr http://tinyurl.com/28qjhvb J. and A. flanking the Holy Face as depicted in a late thirteenth-century fresco (ca. 1282-1285) in the King Dragutin chapel, church of St. George, monastery of the Tracts/Pillars of St. George (Đurđevi Stupovi) near Novi Pazar (Raška dist.) in Serbia: J.: http://tinyurl.com/3cctcwy A.: http://tinyurl.com/3hty8vc image as whole (slightly cropped): http://tinyurl.com/3mm6hyu A. and J., and A. having given birth to Mary (J. at far right), as depicted (at right) in the late thirteenth-century (ca. 1285-1290) Livre d'images de Madame Marie (Paris, BnF, ms. Nouvelle acquisition française 16251, fols. 18v, 19r): http://tinyurl.com/3fdhmt2 http://tinyurl.com/3d98xv5 An expandable view of A. reclining after giving birth to Mary as depicted in a late thirteenth-century copy of French origin of Jacopo da Varazze's _Legenda aurea_ (San Marino, CA, Huntington Library, ms. HM 3027, fol. 119v): http://tinyurl.com/3gh97uj Expandable views of scenes by Giotto from the life of J. and A. (1305-1306), Cappella dei Scrovegni (Arena Chapel), Padua, may be reached from the menu at left here: http://www.wga.hu/tours/giotto/padova/index21.html In 1313 or 1314 the Serbian king Stefan Uroš II Milutin (r. 1282-1321) caused to be erected in the monastery of the Presentation of the Theotokos at Studenica near Kraljevo (Raška dist.) in southern Serbia a small church dedicated to J. and A. In this aerial view of the monastery the church can be seen in the upper center: http://tinyurl.com/5tncq4 Herewith a richly illustrated, multi-page site on this church, generally known as the King's Church / Kraljeva Crkva: http://tinyurl.com/26yu4ng J. and A. (at left) as depicted in the Presentation of the Theotokos in this church's earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1313 and ca. 1320): http://tinyurl.com/26ornt3 The scene in its entirety: http://tinyurl.com/yezz9d3 A.'s dormition as depicted in the July Calendar and the portraits of J. and A. in the September Calendar in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. ca. 1312 and 1321/1322) of the monastery church of the Theotokos at Gračanica in, depending on one's view of the matter, either Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija or the Republic of Kosovo: http://tinyurl.com/lobppr http://tinyurl.com/kojfqt J. and A. as depicted in earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1322 and 1324) in the nave of the church of St. Demetrius in the Patriarchate of Peć at Peć in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija: J.: http://tinyurl.com/2eudfel A.: http://tinyurl.com/23awtwy J. and A. as depicted in the September Calendar in the earlier fourteenth-century frescoes (betw. 1335 and 1350) in the church of the Holy Ascension at the Visoki Dečani monastery near Peć in, depending on one's view of the matter, either the Republic of Kosovo or Serbia's province of Kosovo and Metohija: http://tinyurl.com/nffb5x A. and J. in the fourteenth-century frescoes of the monastery of St. John the Theologian (Sv. Ioan Bogoslov) at Zemen in western Bulgaria: http://tinyurl.com/6ghcnw While we're here, a page on the monastery itself: http://www.bulgarianmonastery.com/zemen_monastery.html and one, with English-language text commencing a little more than halfway down the page, on its frescoes: http://www.pravoslavieto.com/manastiri/zemenski/index.htm Two fourteenth-century wall paintings of A. teaching Mary to read, both in English churches: http://www.paintedchurch.org/corbysan.htm http://www.paintedchurch.org/chalfsv.htm Another version of the same scene, this time from a fourteenth-century English altar frontal now in Paris at the Musée national du Moyen Âge (Musée de Cluny): http://tinyurl.com/5fc6s8 J. and A. meeting at the Golden Gate as depicted in the early fifteenth-century (1409) _Les Grandes Heures de Jean de Berry_ (Paris, BnF, ms. Latin 919, fol. 24r): http://tinyurl.com/234m7sg J.'s prayer, the meeting of J. and A., and J. and A. at the Presentation of the Theotokos as depicted in the fifteenth-century frescoes of the church of Agios Jakobos at İskele/Trikomo in Turkish-dominated northern Cyprus: http://tinyurl.com/2exze3v http://tinyurl.com/2ecyozb http://tinyurl.com/26b7t2p Two scenes (Annunciation to J.; J. and A. embracing at the Golden Gate) as depicted in a later fifteenth-century copy of Jean Mansel's _Fleur des hystoires_ (Paris, BnF, Français 56, fol. 6r): http://tinyurl.com/2craf79 http://tinyurl.com/2ffdgsp An expandable view of a wooden sculpture of J. and A. embracing (ca. 1470), by the Master of Joachim and Anne, in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam: http://tinyurl.com/5k29w6 An expandable view, with A. at left and J. behind her, of a painting (ca. 1490) by Geertgen tot Sint Jans of the Holy Kinship (the extended Marian family), also in the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam: http://tinyurl.com/589vf6 A subtype of Holy Kinship portraiture is the representation either of A. holding Mary holding Jesus or else of A. holding both of them (in French, Anne trinitaire; in German, Anna selbdritt; in Italian, Anna metterza; in Swedish, Anna själv tredje). Some examples: a) Statue (first attested from 1307; the oblong cavities are thought to have once held reliquaries) in the Nikolaikirche at Stralsund in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern: http://tinyurl.com/5pmpfe http://tinyurl.com/6kw2ew b) Wall painting (fourteenth-century) in the parish church at Velemér in Hungary: http://tinyurl.com/mxfoa c) Panel painting (1424 or 1425) by Masaccio (perh. with Masolino da Panicale) in the Uffizi in Florence: http://tinyurl.com/63ftg5 d) Fresco (ca. 1450), oratorio di San Lorenzo all’Alpe Seccio at Boccioleto (VC) in Piedmont: http://tinyurl.com/5vpt6a e) Manuscript illumination (3d quarter of the fifteenth century) by Willem Vrelant, Horae BVM (Free Library of Philadelphia, ms. Widener 5, fol. 13v): http://tinyurl.com/5ma2el f) Reliquary statue (1472; silver, partly gilt, partly painted) from Ingolstadt, by the goldsmith Hans Greiff for Anna Hofmann, now in the Musée national du Moyen Âge (Musée de Cluny) in Paris: http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3410/3333169121_29790d3d48_b.jpg http://farm4.static.flickr.com/3611/3334027462_51bb5e429d_o.jpg g) The central figure in a wooden altar from ca. 1475 in the Annenkapelle of the Annenkirche in Alt Krüssow (Lkr. Prignitz) in Brandenburg: http://www.altekirchen.de/Bilder/Alt-KruessowAnna.jpg http://www.altekirchen.de/Bilder/Alt-Kruessow.486x650.jpg The church and the altar as a whole: http://www2.hu-berlin.de/sachkultur/Anna/kruessow.htm h) Fresco (ca. 1485), cappella della Madonna delle Grazie, chiesa di San Pietro Vecchio at Favria (TO) in Piedmont: http://tinyurl.com/5kktww The artist responsible for that last example also produced, a little below it and subsequently painted over, this portrait of A. alone: http://tinyurl.com/56bgfl i) Wooden statue (late fifteenth-century), Pfarrkirche St. Florian, Funnix (an Ortsteil of Wittmund), Niedersachsen: http://www.flickr.com/photos/ana_sudani/2389383082/sizes/l/ A view of the interior of the church to show the sculpture's approximate size: http://tinyurl.com/mxf8cc j) Sandstone sculpture (ca. 1490-95) by Tilman Riemenschneider in the Mainfränkisches Museum in Würzburg: http://www.metmuseum.org/special/tilman/saint_anne.L.htm k) Wooden statue (ca. 1500) in the collection of the Millesgården at Lidingö (Stockholms län): http://tinyurl.com/28cxm7v l) Wooden statute (ca. 1500) in the Landesmuseum, Mainz (three views by Genevra Kornbluth), second row here: http://www.kornbluthphoto.com/Saints1.html m) Wooden statue (ca. 1501-1525) said to be at Ragunda (Jämtlands län), presumably in Ragunda nya kyrka: http://tinyurl.com/3656jrg n) Fresco (1519) in the St. Blasius-Kirche in Hann. Münden (Lkr. Göttingen) in Niedersachsen: http://regiowiki.hna.de/images/f/fe/Mu_fresko.jpg o) Marjorie Greene's medrelart site has a few further examples: http://medrelart.shutterfly.com/1177 Related to this type, but with A., the Christ Child, and the BVM represented by individual statuettes, are the earlier fourteenth-century (second quarter) central figures in this group of wooden statues in Hubbo kyrka in Västerås kommun (Västmanlands län) in southern central Sweden: http://tinyurl.com/2br5sy8 For another description of this set, see the last paragraph here: http://tinyurl.com/29ubrel Further images of A. will be found here: http://www.aug.edu/augusta/iconography/anne.html 2) Simeon of Polirone (d. 1016). According to his Vita et Miracula (BHL 7952-7953) by a monk of the abbey of St. Benedict at Polirone near Mantua, seemingly written in the pontificate of Benedict IX (1032-45), S. (in Latin, Simeon Padolironensis) was an Armenian by birth who had lived in the East in a Greek-rite monastery and subsequently in the wilderness as an hermit before going on pilgrimage to Jerusalem, Rome (where his unusual devotional practices, compounded by language difficulties, got him into trouble), Aquitaine (where he visited St. Martin at Tours), Galicia (where he visited St. James at Compostela), and other places before entering the aforementioned abbey where he died and where numerous miracles were reported at his grave. The abbey had been founded fairly recently (1007) by the comital family of Canossa who continued to be its major patrons throughout the eleventh century. S.'s canonization is said to have been authorized by Benedict VIII (1017-1024) on condition that the reports of miracles were true; Leo XI (1048-1054) permitted the abbey an Elevation of S.'s remains and the dedication of a church to him. The abbey complex of Polirone, at today's San Benedetto Po (MN) in Lombardy, is extensive. A website devoted to it is here: http://tinyurl.com/lg9qef The last five views on this page are of the abbey's Cloister of St. Simeon: http://tinyurl.com/lox6zx Another view: http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/3902074.jpg The abbey's Oratory of Saint Mary has a partially preserved and recently restored mid-twelfth-century (1151) mosaic floor shown here: http://tinyurl.com/p7pm9 Detail views: http://www.flickr.com/photos/pedetemptim/3040597813/sizes/o/ http://static.panoramio.com/photos/original/4031769.jpg http://tinyurl.com/n7xa4p http://tinyurl.com/nlkxjz http://tinyurl.com/n5vuln More views here: http://tinyurl.com/28sueck 3) Ugo degli Atti (Bl.; d. ca. 1270). U. (in Latin, Ugo de Actis) is also known from his place of birth as Ugo of Serra San Quirico. A scion of the leading comital family from the part of the pre-Appennine uplands of today's Ancona province of the Marche that includes both Serra San Quirico and Sassoferrato, he was the brother of Bl. Giuseppe degli Atti (de Actis; of Serra San Quirico; 25. August). After some study at Bologna, U. entered the nascent Silvestrine Benedictine congregation at its monastery of San Giovanni at Sassoferrato, where he was welcomed by the congregation's founder, St. Silvestro Guzzolini (26. November). According to his late medieval Vita (BHL 4033b, 4033c), U. was known in his lifetime both for his preaching and for works of charity. He died on this day at Serra San Quirico but his remains were returned to Sassoferrato for burial in his monastery's church of San Giovanni Battista. U. was beatified in 1756. He is a co-patron of Serra San Quirico (where, as also among the Silvestrines as a whole, he is celebrated tomorrow, 27. July) and the patron "saint" of Sassoferrato, where he now reposes in the originally fifteenth-century church of Santa Maria del Ponte del Piano, whose Early Modern facade and belltower may be seen here just past Sassoferrato's bridge over the Sentino: http://www.flickr.com/photos/10471154@N02/893775069/ Best, John Dillon (last year's post revised) ********************************************************************** 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