THE VOLTO SANTO 0F LUCCA: ITS PROVENANCE AND LITURGICAL SIGNIFICANCE Thesis for the Degree of M. A. MICHIGAN STATE UNIVERSITY GARY M. RADKE 1975 a. - c ',I . ~ 9 a. u. . ' . l _ - .. ‘ ’ »<- ,.,_ . ' f- . . - .- ‘ ‘- - - I. ‘ f w- .-- " _ , O I 7 '. .I' - . . ‘fl - o « ,— o , ,_ _ ‘ 9 . " o a _' I o A r‘v I ' «"- "(t'flu‘tg' - ,‘a {Inseam IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII 31293 00618 9447 WK'h-p Linneu 0“ '9 tr; : a r . V 35 I I V6125... If)! ABSTRACT THE VOLTO SANTO OF LUCCA: ITS PROVENANCE AND LITURGICAL SIGNIFICANCE BY Gary M. Radke This study attempts to delineate how the Volto Santo of Lucca, an over-life-size representation of Christ upon the Cross, was originally used during Passion Week and Eastertide. By examining published fragments of ceremonies which involved the Volto Santo, it has been possible to suggest that the Volto Santo's Chapel symbolically represented both Golgotha and the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The relationship of the Volto Santo Chapel's placement in the north aisle of Lucca cathedral to the main altar of that church mirrors the re- lationship between the Golgotha Chapel and the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. I The statue itself, like the present chapel, replaces a lost original. Since the present statue shows many similari- ties with German works of art and there were strong political ties between the Ottonian emperors and Lucca, it can be con- cluded that the original Volto Santo was based on German prototypes and was carved sometime in the second quarter of Gary M. Radke the eleventh century. Indeed, Bishop Giovanni II of Lucca had frequent dealings with the German leaders and the Volto Santo's advent can be specifically associated with events in his bishopric. The present Volto Santo, on the other hand, was probably carved in the early thirteenth century by a sculptor conversant with the style of Benedetto Antelami. This study's discussion of the Volto Santo's provenance summarizes and expands upon a large body of art historical literature on this subject, while the discussion of the statue's liturgical significance depends more heavily upon the scholarship of historians of drama. Such a union of studies in the arts, drama and liturgy has recently gained some popularity among art historians, but the full implica- tions of such a study of the Volto Santo and of its cult are still to be explored. THE VOLTO SANTO OF LUCCA: ITS PROVENANCE AND LITURGICAL SIGNIFICANCE BY Gary Mi Radke A THESIS Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of MASTER OF ARTS Department of Art 1975 DEDICATION A TUTTI I MIEI ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS The infectious and unfailing enthusiasm of Dr. Molly Teasdale Smith continues to validate my own fascination with the history of art. Dr. Smith's deep reverence and respect for the mysteries of medieval art, along with her numerous insights into its complexities, have enriched my life as well as this thesis. I extend to her my heartfelt thanks. I am also grateful to the staff of the Interlibrary Loan Service at the Michigan State University Library who have acquired so many of the publications necessary for this thesis. I am also indebted to Dr. Joan Smith and Dr. Webster Smith who read this work and suggested useful editorial changes. Matthew Spiro helped to prepare the photographs. A Michigan State University Graduate Council Scholar- ship has helped to defray some of the expenses of this study, but without the encouragement and perennial good humor of my wife Nancy, preparing this thesis would have been a much more difficult undertaking. I thank her and all those who have been supportive of my work. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS Page List of Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . v Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . l The Legend of Leobino . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 8 The Present Volto Santo and its Provenance . . . . . 19 The Original Volto Santo and its Provenance . . . . . 41 The Significance of the Volto Santo's Placement in Lucca Cathedral and the Statue's Liturgical Use. . 64 Conclusion . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 106 Bibliography . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . lll Illustrations . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 iv LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS Illustration Page 1. 10. ll. 12. The Volto Santo of Lucca. Walnut. Lucca cathedral. Late twelfth or early thirteenth century. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 121 Detail of Illustration 1 . . . . . . . . . . . . 122 The Volto Santo of Lucca as displayed for festivals. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 123 Interior of nave. Lucca cathedral. Early four- teenth century . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 124 Matteo Civitali. Chapel of the Volto Santo. North aisle of Lucca cathedral. 1482-84 . . 125 Crucifixion from the Rabbula Gospels. Syrian. Laurentian Library, Florence. Sixth Century. (Photo: Thoby, pl. V. No. 11) . . . . . . . 126 Deposition Group. Wood. Volterra, Italy.Mid— thirteenth century. (Photo: Francovich, 1937' Fig. 31) o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o 127 Crucifix. Wood. Braunschweig, Germany. c. 1166. (Photo: Thoby, Pl. LXXIII, No. 166). . . . . 128 Majestad. Wood. Museo de la Ciudadela, Barcelona. Mid-twelfth century. (Photo: Porter, Vol. 1, P1. 34) o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o 1'29 Deposition Group. Wood. San Juan de 1as Abadesas, Spain, 1251. (Photo: Francovich, 1937, Fig. 65) o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o o 130 Benedetto Antelami. Presentation in the Temple. Stone. Detail of lunette over the interior south portal, Parma Baptistry. c. 1200-10. (Photo: Salvini, Ill. 152) . . . . . . . . . 131 Gero Crucifix. Oak. Cologne Cathedral. 969-76. (PhotO: Janson. Ill. 328) . . . . . . . . . 132 Illustration Page 13. Crucifixion from Metz Gospel Book. Ottonian. Bibliothéque Nationale, Paris. Eleventh century. (Photo: Thoby, P1. XX, No. 42) . . . 133 14. Manuscript plan of the Holy Sepulchre, Jerusalem according to Arculfe. Vienna. Ninth century. (Photo: Heitz, Pl. XXIX, A). . . . . . . . . . 134 15. Crucifixion from the Echternach Gospels. Ottonian. London. c. 1050. (Photo: Schiller, Vol. 2, Ill. 387). . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 135 vi INTRODUCTION "What is the Volto Santo? ... It is evident that we are face to face with a mystery of the first class."1 The Volto Santo ("Holy Face") of Lucca is an over-life- size wooden simulacrum of Christ. Local tradition credits Nicodemus with having imparted the Lord's actual features to this statue. Dressed in a long~sleeved colobium and trium- phantly displayed upon a cross, the Volto Santo is famous not only for its associations with Nicodemus; it is also dis- tinguished by its unusual Eastern garb and its placement in a freestanding chapel in the north aisle of Lucca cathedral. The present study of the Volto Santo's provenance and litur- gical significance originated in an attempt to discern the origins and symbolic intention of these peculiarities of dress and placement. The first scholars to be fascinated by the mysteries of the Volto Santo were Italians who had very parochial con- cerns in mind. The seventeenth century work of Franciotti,2 along with the nineteenth century treatises of di Poggio and Barsocchini,3 sought to defend the integrity of the Volto Santo as a sacred image. These early writers also began the task of collecting and reviewing the surviving medieval l records which relate to the Volto Santo. In the late nineteenth century Almerico Guerra wrote his Storia del Volto Santo.4 This book is still the standard work on all aspects of the statue and its cult. Examining historical documents and local tradition, Guerra discussed the Volto Santo's history from the statue's presumed origins at the hands of Nicodemus to its place in the life of nine- teenth century Lucca. German scholars began to take interest in the Volto Santo in the first quarter of the twentieth century. Arti- cles written by wascher-Becchi, Schnfirer and Panofsky indi- cated how the cult of the Volto Santo had spread throughout northern EurOpe during the Middle Ages.5 The image of the Volto Santo itself was shown to be recorded in paintings at Schaffhausen and Kronberg and in a monumental, colobium-clad crucifix at Braunschweig. This period also saw the first in- vestigations of how, during the late Middle Ages, the Volto Santo had been transformed into a female saint known as St. Rammernis or St. Wilgefortis. These studies culminated in the definitive 1934 work on this subject by Schnfirer and Ritz.6 Research between 1920 and 1936 turned more directly to the Volto Santo itself. During this period there was a re- newed popular interest in the medieval processions and cere- monies celebrated on September fourteenth of each year to honor the Volto Santo, as witnessed by articles published by Guidi and Lazzareschi.7 In 1922 Luigi Dami published the first photograph of the Volto Santo which showed the statue without its extravagant accumulation of later ornaments.8 On stylistic grounds Dami proposed a late twelfth or early thirteenth century date for the Volto Santo. Since this date does not correspond with surviving records of the Volto Santo's early history, heated arguments about the Volto Santo's dating and origins ensued. It was not until 1936 that Francovich was able to bank the fires of this debate. He suggested, and scholars readily agreed, that the present Volto Santo is probably not the original statue known by that name, but a copy of the original.9 The studies of Francovich and Schnfirer and Ritz did solve many of the problems regarding the Volto Santo, but few of the implications of their studies were developed dur- ing the unsympathetic Fascist and Nazi regimes of the next decade. Also hindered by the disruptions of World War II, scholars have only recently resumed studying the Volto Santo. A 1955 article on an Italian copy of the Volto Santo and Reiner Hausherr's cogent reinvestigation of the Braun- schweig crucifix of 1962 both take an indirect look at the Volto Santo.lo Even an admirable work such as Schwarzmaier's 1972 study of Lucchese history up to the end of the eleventh century deals only with a very narrow consideration of the Volto Santo's cult in the eighth century.11 Returning to the earlier studies of Guerra, which focused directly upon the Volto Santo, I shall attempt to reconstruct the history of both the present and original Volto Santos. By observing precedents in Ottonian manuscript il- luminations and by citing the strong political ties between Lucca and the German emperors, I shall suggest that the origi- nal Volto Santo arrived in Lucca during the second quarter of the eleventh century. It will be necessary to return to a discussion of the legends surrounding the Volto Santo and the history of eighth century Lucca in order to clarify the composite character of the image's cult. This study shall also explore the original significance of the Volto Santo's chapel in Lucca cathedral. Concurrently, its use in the liturgical ceremonies of Passion Week and Eastertide will be studied. An increased interest in art historical research which unites studies of art, architecture and liturgy, as exemplified by Carol Heitz's 1963 study of architecture and liturgy in Carolingian and Ottonian times,12 has made this study possible and suggested its approach. I am likewise indebted to the efforts of Gordana Babié, Thomas Mathews and Ilene Forsyth for their delineations of some of the relationships between the visual and dramatic arts.13 Young's pioneering studies of the origins of the liturgical drama shall serve as the basis from which a synthesis of the artistic and dramatic qualities of the Volto Santo can be explored.14 In the present study, the path to a discussion of these concerns proceeds from an exploration of the various legends and local traditions which account for the Volto Santo. The original chapel in which the Volto Santo was placed and the ceremonies in which it played a part will be related, as other authors have related their particular monuments, to prototypes at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. The associ- ations with this monument will be shown to be of special im- portance to the symbolic significance of the Volto Santo in the eleventh and twelfth centuries. In the end these explorations are very modest beginnings. Although I shall suggest answers to previously unasked ques- tions, my replies must remain tentative in view of the pau- city of documentary evidence available in published form out- side of Lucca today. In this sense, this study is a proposal for further study, a suggestion of the sorts of answers one might expect to derive from extensive research in the Lucchese archives. NOTES - INTRODUCTION 1Arthur Kingsley Porter, Spanish Romanesque Sculpture, Vol. 2 (Florence: Pantheon, 1928), 8. 2Cesare Franciotti, Historia delle miracolose imagini g delle vite d3 1 santi (Lucca: D. Guidoboni, 1613). 3F. di Poggio, Illustrazione del SS. Crocifisso di Lucca, detto volgarmentg'il Volto Santo (fficca, 1839) and—— Domenico Barsocchini, "Ragionamento sul Volto Santo," Memorie e Documenti per servire all' istoria del Ducato di Lucca, 5 (1844), 41ff. 4Almerico Guerra, Storia del Volto Santo d1 Lucca (Lucca: Tipografia Arcivescovo s. Paolino, 1881). 5E. "Wuscher-Becchi, "Grosse Gott von Schaffhausen," Anzeiger fur schweizerische Altertumskunde, NF 2B (1900), 116- 26, Gustav Schnurer, "Das Volto Santo-bild in der Burg- kapelle zu Kronberg," Zeitschrift fur christliche Kunst, 3 (1913), 77- 88 and Erwin Panofsky, "Das Braunschweiger Dom- kruzifix und das Volto Santo zu Lucca," Festschrift fur H. Goldschmidt (Lipsia, 1923), 37- 44. 6Gustav Schnfirer and Joseph M. Ritz, Sankt Kfimmernis und Volto Santo (Dusseldorf: L. Schwann, 1934). 7Pietro Guidi, La 'Luminara' d; S. Croce nel medio evo (Lucca: Tipografia Casinl, 1920) and E. Lazzareschi, "La festa di 8. Croce a Lucca," E2.Vie d'Italia, 40 (1934), 627- 39. 8Luigi Dami, "Volto Santo di Lucca," Dedalo, Anno II, Vol. III (February 1922), 708-11. 9Géza de Francovich, Il_Volto Santo d1 Lucca (Lucca: Scuola tipografica Artigianelli, 1936). 10Hugh Honour, “An Unpublished Romanesque Crucifix," Connoisseur, 136 (1955), 150-54 and Reiner Haussherr, "Das Imvardkreuz und der Volto-Santo-typ," Zeitschrift fur Kunst- wissenschaft, 16 (1962), 129-70. llHansmartin Schwarzmaier, Lucca und das Reich bis zum Ende des 11. Jahrhunderts (Tfibingen: Max Niemeyer, 1972). 12Carol Heitz, Recherches sur les rapportes entre Architecture gt Liturgieé l'époque carolingienne (Paris: S.E.V.P.E.N., 1963). 13Gordana Babié, Les Chapelles Annex des Eglises Byzantines. Fonction Liturgique et Programmes Iconographiques (Paris: Editions Klincksieck, 1969); Thomas F. Mathews, The Earlnyhurches of Constantinople: Architecture and Liturgy (University Park: Pennsylvania State University Press, 1971); Ilene H. Forsyth, The Throne 9£_Wisdom (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972). l4Karl Young, The Dramatic Associations of the Easter Sepulchre (Madison, Wisconsin, 1920) and The Drama of the Medieval Church, 2 Vols. (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1933). CHAPTER I THE LEGEND OF LEOBINO In Lucca the history of the Volto Santo has tradition- ally been reckoned from the legend of Leobino. This narration of the events associated with the Volto Santo's arrival in Lucca states that the statue was sculpted by Nicodemus and subsequently brought to Lucca in the eighth-century. However, the earliest surviving manuscripts of the legend date from the twelfth-century. This chapter will retell Leobino's tale and then subject it to a brief literary analysis in order to determine whether an eighth-century date can truly be assigned to the Volto Santo. In the prologue to the legend the deacon Leobinus greets all his brothers in Christ and states his intention to tell all that he has seen with his own eyes and heard from men of faith ("que oculis nostris vidimus gt auribus nostris II ).1 per religiosos viros audivimus He is sure that his recount- ing of the story of the Volto Santo will be useful for the believer and non-believer alike ("ad fidelium scrire cupien- tium eruditionem, ad infidelium confutationem seu quod melius est conversionem"). I. "23 revelatione" Gualefredus, referred to by Leobino as "subalpinus 8 episcgpus," was forced to stay in the Holy Land for an extend- ed period of time on his pilgrimage there, because his fellow pilgrims were sick. On account of his continuous prayers, fasting and alms-giving he was accorded a very special honor. Having fallen asleep after all the pious activity of a busy day, Gualefredus was greeted by an angel who appeared to him in a dream and said, "Rise, servant of God and find the most holy face sculpted by Nicodemus (”sacratissimum vultum a Nichodemo sculptum‘).' It was revealed to Gualefredus that the most holy face was to be found next to his lodgings in a cave below the house of a certain Christian called Seleucio ("in domum Seleucii viri christianissimi hospicio tuo adher- entem ibique sanctissimum vultum in cripta positum invenies"). This Nicodemus was the one mentioned in the gospels who had come to Jesus by night. After Jesus' resurrection and ascension Nicodemus always had the image of Christ on his mind ("semper gestaret Christum in pectore, semper haberat in ore"), and translated his recollections into wood with di- vine help ("sacratissimum vultum non sua, sed divina arte desculpsit"). Before his death, Nicodemus entrusted the sculpture to Isachar who hid it from the Jews so that succeed- ing generations are still able to venerate it. This image is of our Savior incarnate as he hung upon the cross for us ("Preciosi vultus figura redemptorem nostrum incarnatum et pro nobis in cruce pendentem quasi quibusdam liniamentis representatum exprimit"). 10 II. "2g sanctissimi vultus inventione" After having found the Holy Face, Bishop Gualefre- dus and his companions decided to place it in a ship and transport it, with God's help, back to Europe ("deo gubernante, usque 3g Romanas partes"). Gualfredus placed the holy crucifix inside the boat, along with many lit candles and lamps, at the port of Jaffa. Gualefredus made the boat waterproof with bi- tumen, as Noah had done to the ark ("sicut gg archa Noe sancta Geneseos narrat hystoria"). He committed the vessel to Divine Providence and prayed with his companions that so precious a gift would find its way to a place where many devoted Chris- tians would enjoy its protection ("gg talis locus ditatus ornaretur, $2 quo innumerabiles populi Christiane religionis concursum devote gt fideliter facientes, visu eius gt presidio assidue protecti gt defensi gratulentur"). Without human ef- fort, the boat was guided across the sea by divine power to the port of Luni ("nullo mortalium remigante- non enim intus ullus fuerat- sed sola divina potentia"). The inhabitants of Luni, professional pirates ("fraudibus gt rapinis marinis"), sought to capture this ship, but God did not let its valuable cargo fall into the hands of such people. III. "Qualiter Lucam translatus fuerit" At this time, Bishop Giovanni of Lucca, "vir quidem Deo acceptus," had a dream in which an angel appeared to him and said, "Rise, servant of God and go without delay, along with your brothers, to the port of Luni where you will find a ship and inside it a representation of Christ as he hung 11 upon the cross (fsalvatoris mundi imago posita, qualiter £2. -cruce pro hominibus passus sit'). It was made by Nicodemus who saw and touched Christ (Igui Christum vidit gt tetigit'). God wills that you bring this work to your city." Giovanni, along with the clerics of Lucca, hurried to Luni and saw the vessel which refused to be captured by the Lunese. ("Lunenses gemina ope remis gt velis laborabant... sed nichil machinando proficiebant"). The Lucchese sang hymns and the sea calmed and the ship miraculously came to rest on the shore. With tears of happiness and gratitude the Lucchese sang "Gloria 12 excelsis" ("prae gaudio lacrimas effuderunt gt ymnum angelicum decantantes divine misericordie gratias retulerunt"). There necessarily arose a dispute between the Lucchese and the Lunese as to the ownership of the miraculous vessel, but Bish0p Giovanni resolved the conflict by giving the Lunese a glass ampulla of the blood of Christ ("ampullem vitream Christi precioso sanguine") and taking the Volto Santo back to Lucca ("preciossimum vultum gg suam urbem cum magna gloria Christo duce portavit") amidst the rejoicing and singing of the Lucchese. This took place in the year of our Lord 742, in the second year of the reigns of Charlemagne and Pepin ("tempore Karoli et Pipini serenissimorum regum, anno regni eorum secundo"). The image was placed in the south aisle, near the door, of the cathedral ("prope valvas eiusdem basilice 3g australem plagam"). 12 A brief analysis of the legend of Leobino suggests that the provenance of the Volto Santo is other than that which is stated in the legend. Developed and preserved through oral tradition, the legend may, nonetheless, offer veiled glimpses of the actual circumstances of the Volto Santo's creation and arrival in Lucca. The following pages are a necessary begin- ning at penetrating nearer, if not always arriving at, the truth therein. Although the writer of the legend identifies himself with the eighth century events he narrates, scholars are in agreement that of some nineteen texts of this legend that 2 none can be dated earlier than the twelfth century.3 survive, Furthermore, the manner of narration employed is a typical example of cursus leoninus, the style which appears in docu- ments of 1098 that summoned the Lucchese to the Crusades.4 It is not the style used by writers of the eighth century. Some authors have judged generalized statements such as "subalpinus episcopus" to be typical of the eighth-century,5 but I agree with Gustav Schnfirer who sees such statements as indications that the author was not a contemporary of the events he narrates.6 Indeed, even the name Gualfredus found in the legend does not appear in Italy until the twelfth century.7 The very date espoused in the legend for the arrival of the Volto Santo in Lucca gives further reason to date the manuscripts from the twelfth century or just slightly earlier. 13 The A.D. 742 indicated as the second year of the reigns of Charlemagne and Pepin is historically inaccurate.8 Such a date was, however, consonant with medieval understanding of Carolingian history;9 a number of Lucchese manuscripts sur- vive which say that Charlemagne reigned, together with Pepin, from 741.10 Furthermore, in a medieval manuscript of the life of San Frediano preserved at Lucca, the bishopric of Giovanni, the bishop associated with the translation of the Volto Santo to Lucca, is dated "usgue gg tempore Caroli gt Pepini," the exact same wording as that which is used by Leobino.11 That the author of the legend may indeed be an early twelfth-century writer is still further indicated by the greater specificity with which he relates miraculous events in the appendix to the legend. In fact, these supposedly later additions are written in the same style as the main text. One of these stories concerns Stefano da Butrione, whose existence is confirmed by his inclusion in the Lucchese Annales ecclesiastici for the year 1099.12 While on a pil- grimage to the Holy Land, Stefano went to pray at the Holy Sepulchre, where, according to the legend, he was approached by a Syrian named Gregory who told him that the Volto Santo was a true portrait of Christ. Inside the crucifix, said the Syrian, were placed relics: an ampulla of the blood of Christ, one quarter of the crown of thorns, a nail from the l4 cross, and finally some of Christ's hair and fingernails. Another story of contemporaneous date relates how a Lucchese cleric was informed that Nicodemus had sculpted the Volto Santo, and that Nicodemus had placed relics of the crown of thorns, nails and Christ's clothes in the Volto Santo.13 Could this Stefano da Butrione therefore have been, as Haussherr calls him, "der Vermittler der ganzen Nikodemus- tradition"?l4 It would seem certain that with his return to Lucca and the invention of new relics, it became necessary and desirable to codify the legends which may have been part of the local oral tradition. A rather late attribution of the Volto Santo to Nicodemus could have demanded that a special section which spoke about Stefano da Butrione and which reinforced Nicodemus' authorship be added to the legend. As will be seen in Chapter 4, however, Nicodemus and the Volto Santo had probably been linked together as early as the eleventh century through the vigil ceremonies of Easter. Interestingly, the reinforcement of this association between Nicodemus and the Volto Santo around 1000 coincides with the translation of the bones of Nicodemus, Gamaliel and Abibo by the Pisans. They had brought these relics back to their city after the First Crusade.15 The Pisans and Lucchese were perennial political rivals,16 and the Lucchese were not to be outdone in the number nor glory of the relics acquired by the Pisans.17 More than merely following the example of the Pisans, the Lucchese felt the need to assert their pre- eminence over the Pisans. The Lucchese also had a Nicodemean 15 relic, and they claimed to have possessed it since the eighth century. After the First Crusade they may have been under- standably anxious to reconfirm the Volto Santo's hallowed origins. Perhaps it was the Pisans who consciously sought out a relic of Nicodemus because their rivals had one. Fol- lowing such reasoning, I am inclined to think that the dis- covery of the location of new relics in the Volto Santo by Stefano da Butrioni probably encouraged the Lucchese to write down the history of the Volto Santo, but that Butrione was not the originator or transmitter of new ideas regarding Nicodemus' authorship. It is my opinion that no manuscripts exist for the legend of Leobino before the twelfth century because until this time there was no great impetus to record the legend in formal written form. But I would not exclude the possibility that the name of Nicodemus was already associated with the Volto Santo as early as the eighth-century.18 NOTES - CHAPTER I 1I follow the basic Latin text as published by Gustav Schnurer and Joseph Ritz, Sankt Kfimmernis und Volto Santo (Dusseldorf: L. Schwann, 1934), 128-32. My English transla- tion follows the Italian version published by F. P. Luiso, La Leggenda del Volto Santo - Storia di un cimelio (Pescia: Benedetti and Niccolai, 1928), 9- 12. —_ 2Gustav Schnfirer, "Sopra l'eta e la Provenienza del Vblto Santo di Lucca," Bolletino Storico Lucchese, l (1929), 77-78 gives a detailed accounting of these nineteen manu- scripts and their present locations. 3The most complete discussion of the dating of these works can be found in Gustav Schnurer and Joseph Ritz, Sankt Kummernis und Volto Santo (Dusseldorf. L. Schwann, 1934), 117- 158. 45chnfirer (1929), 79-81. 5In particular see Almerico Guerra, Storia del Volto Santo di Lucca (Lucca: Tipografia Arcivescovo s. Paolino, 1881), 310. 6Schm'irer (1929), 90. 7Reiner Haussherr, "Das Imervardkreuz und der Volto- Santo- typ," Zeitschrift fur Kunstwissenschaft, 16 (1962), 140 relates that this had been previously observed by Ernest von Dobschutz, Christusbilder (Leipzig, 1899), 286. I un- fortunately have not had access to this work. Adriano Bernareggi, "Il Volto Santo di Lucca," Rivista g1 archeologia cristiana, 2 (1925), 125, n. 1 suggests that Gualfredus may correspond, in an altered form, to a Bishop Guelprando, son of Duke Gualperto, mentioned in documents of A.D. 754. On the other hand, Hansmartin Schwarzmaier, Lucca und das Reich gig zum Ende des it. Jahrhunderts (Tfibingen: Max Niemeyer, 1972), 341 notes more plausible connections between Lucca and Gualfredus of Siena in the early twelfth century. 8Charlemagne ruled from A.D. 768 to 814, while his son Pepin ruled as King of Italy from 781 to 810. Thus, it had been suggested by earlier writers that Leobino had perhaps meant to write 782 instead of 742, a date which more closely corresponds to the bishopric of Giovanni at the end of the eighth century. Pietro Guidi, "La Data nella Legenda di l6 l7 Leobino," Archivo Storico Italiano, Series 7, 18 (1932), 151- 64 has shown, however, that no such mistake can be assumed either in transcribing the legend or making the date histori- cally correct, since 782 would still not be the second year of both of their reigns. 9Guidi, 155 states that "11 742 non reco alcun disturbo nella mentalita medievale dei seEEli XI-XV.“ 10Guidi, 159, n. 2 lists such works. One such example is Codice 618, Biblioteco Capitolare, Lucca. 11Guidi, 161. See also Schwarzmaier, 337. 12In the Annales published by Caesar Baronius, accord- ing to Haussherr, 150, n. 33. 13See Schnfirer-Ritz, 139-40 for the text of the two legends I cite. 14Haussherr, 141. 15Schni'lrer (1929), 90. 16The Cambridge Medieval History, Vol. 5 (New York: Macmillan, 1926), 227 notes that "already in 1003 the cities not yet communes, were fighting." 17The similarities in styles of architecture between the two cities may reflect this same rivalry. For example see S. Burger, "L'architettura romanica in Lucchesia e i suoi rapporti con Pisa," Atti della Scuola normale superiore g; Pisa, Lettere, storia g filosofia, 23 (1954), 121-28, and Carlo Ragghianti, "Architettura lucchese e architettura pisana," Critica g'arte, 8 (1949), 168-72. 18Nicodemus had early been associated with the author- ship of the cross of Beirut, at least in Western tradition. In the translation of the Acts of the Counsel of Nicaea of 787, dedicated by the papal librarian to Pope John VIII (872-882), Nicodemus is cited as the creator of the Beirut crucifix, according to Schnurer (1929), 90. The association of Nicodemus with the Volto Santo may be a contemporaneous attribution or ma even predate this documented instance. According to Schnurer (1929), 90 this pairing of Nicodemus and crucifixes was probably invented in the West. Yet, as Dr. Molly Teasdale Smith has reminded me, the idea of as- sociating an image with first-hand knowledge of the person portrayed in an Eastern rather than Western idea and stands behind the whole tradition of icons. William Wood Seymour, The Cross tg_Tradition, History and Art (New York: G. P. 18 Putnam's Sons, The Knickerbocker Press, 1898), 185 mentions that there are also crosses in the cathedral of Palermo and somewhere in Spain which are supposed to have been sculpted by Nicodemus. CHAPTER II THE PRESENT VOLTO SANTO AND ITS PROVENANCE The Volto Santo of Lucca is an over-lifesize representa- tion of Christ on the cross (Illustration 1). Sculpted of 1 the figure measures 2.25 meters from its head to its walnut, heels, 2.50 meters if one measures to the toes.2 Although it is carved in the round, independent of the cross, it is nearly flat on the back with an opening between the shoulders in which relics were kept. Christ wears a long-sleeved tunic known as a colobium. It is belted at the waist and falls to just above the ankles where the right side of the gilt hem hangs noticeably lower than the left. Folds of cloth are suggested by concave fur- rows which splay to the left and right as they approach the simply rendered belt. This belt falls in two long parallel bands down the lower portion of the colobium. The furrows re-emerge above the belt more closely spaced, with three fur- rows extending all the way up into the left sleeve, whereas the right sleeve shares only one furrow with the rest of the garment. This differentiation between the two arms would seem to have been made in response to the manner in which Christ's head leans heavily towards his right shoulder. More- over, the lower hanging hem on his left side visually counter- balances the emphasis given to his right side by the heavier 19 20 folds of cloth and leaning head.“ The wide sleeves continue the same sort of folds until the last third nearest the hands. Attached to the cross by one nail each, the hands are somewhat elongated and their narrow wrists become lost in the wide sleeves. The feet are likewise very narrow and they have some reddish tinge, whereas the hands and head are dark.3 The feet, although attached to the cross by nails, do not have the nail heads showing on their surface. Christ's face is framed by long plaits of hair which flow from a central part (Illustration 2). Just below the very low placed ears, the hair continues down his neck and out across his shoulders. His beard curves around the sides of his face and ends in two wavy sections which just cover the otherwise cleanshaven chin. The equally wavy ends of the moustache lie gently over the lower beard. Though the tilted head and heavy-lidded eyes suggest the dead, crucified Christ, the glass paste eyes are intensely alive. The cross upon which the Volto Santo hangs is 4.34 meters tall and 2.65 meters wide. Its arms are 7 centimeters thick and 27 centimeters wide.4 Bernareggi has observed that some bits of linen are attached to the surface of the colobium around the ribs,5 but Dami6 and Kingsley Porter7 contend that the entire colobium was covered with a thin, closely adhering layer of linen. In either case, it is noteworthy that this practice of applying cloth to the wood surface before it was polychromed was common 21 in the Middle Ages.8 The Volto Santo as it is displayed today is placed in an octagonal chapel in the north aisle of the church of San Martino, the cathedral of Lucca (Illustration 4). The chapel was commissioned by Domenico Bertini and built between 1482 and 1484 according to the designs of Matteo Civitali (Illus- tration 5).9 Eight white marble columns rise from a white and red marble dado and support a gilded entablature with a fruit-garlanded frieze. Eight segmental gables, gilded and framing ornamental shells, rise above the eight sections of entablature. The edifice is then crowned by a dome orna- mented with blue, green, yellow, and purple tiles, and eight gilded ribs rising to a slender, pointed lantern. The chapel may be entered from either the front or two sides but is normally closed off by open-work grills. Two of the front sides have windows, while the back three sides, against which the image is placed, are solid. The interior is adorned with votives offered to the Volto Santo, which it- self rests above a marble and bronze altar made by Filippo Iuvara of—Messina in 1725.10 The exterior is completed by a statue of Saint Sebastian on the solid wall behind the Volto Santo. Inscriptions in the marble record both the artist and the benefactor.11 The entire chapel was restored in 1838.12 The decorations which adorn the Volto Santo for festi- vals are all later in date than the statue (Illustration 3). 22 The nine-centimeter wide aureole, which terminates in two fleurs-gg-ttg and is placed behind the Volto Santo, is cover- ed with silver and glass inlays in the style of the thirteenth century.13 Some authorities consider that it replaced an earlier nimbus which surrounded the Volto Santo's head.14 The Volto Santo has been crowned since at least the twelfth century. A denaro grosso of the late twelfth century preserves an image of the Volto Santo with an earlier, less elaborate crown than the present one.15 This new crown is a work from around 1665. It was designed by the Lucchese painter Girolamo Scaglia and executed by Giannoni da Massa. It contains some sixteen pounds, three ounces of gold, num- bers of precious jewels and has a representation of God the Father and the descending dove of the Holy Spirit on its front, flanked by three seraphim on each side. A slender cross rises from the top.16 The splendid collar and necklace are also works of the seventeenth century. The 336 diamonds set in silver for the necklace were given to the Volto Santo in 1660 by Laura Nieri Santini, a wealthy Lucchese, to enlarge one she had previously given in 1637.17 Covering the lower skirt of the colobium is a black velvet petticoat from the nineteenth century, over which is placed a gold belt with twenty-three little niches, ordered 18 Each niche . by the Senate of Lucca on February 19, 1384. contains a bust of a saint except for that in the lower cen- ter which contains a representation of the Madonna and Child. 23 Although the parament-like hangings which are placed on the VOlto Santo's wrists appear similar to the skirt decorations, I have been unable to determine exactly when they may have been added. The decorative metal slippers which cover the feet of the Volto Santo on major holidays may also date from the four-1 teenth century. Guerra indicated that these shoes probably replaced ones that had been added to the statue, along with the chalice placed beneath its right foot, in the twelfth century.19 Little of the original decorative paraphenalia of the Volto Santo survives today, except in the altered form of later, and presumably richer, replacements. This "habit of honouring statues with gifts of jewelry, so common today, was also the custom in the Early Middle Ages."20 Even if the modern worshipper is no longer dazzled by those particular ornaments initially intended to add visual richness to the statue, he can still surmise what its original effect may have been. On the other hand, it has not been so easy a matter for scholars to determine when the Volto Santo itself was sculp- ted. There are those who propose that the image is indeed a work by Nicodemus.21 Other opinions vary, with authors sug- gesting wide ranging dates between the seventh and thirteenth centuries. Those who opt for an early date agree neither on the date itself nor the location in which the Volto Santo was 24 created.22 Suggestions do usually center around the Near East and Palestine, the colobium worn by Christ being cited as a typically Eastern, and specifically Syrian, mode of pre- sentation. Such a crucified Christ does appear in the Gospels of Rabbula (Illustration 6), which were written at Zagba in Eastern Syria in 586. Although typical of many Byzantine portrayals of the crucified Christ, the colobium-clad Christ also appears early in the West. A fresco in the church of Santa Maria Antiqua, Rome, painted during the pontificate of the Syrian Pope Zacchary (741-52) presents Christ in this manner.23 Even if one admits the possibility of Syrian or Palestinian origins of the Volto Santo, the difficulties in- volved in transporting such a large object over such a long distance make the suggestion unconvincing.24 Also, it is not clear whether crucifixes the size of the Volto Santo were made at that time, even though walnut was probably available in Syria. If then, an eighth-century or earlier date seems im- probable, if not impossible, might not the Volto Santo be related chronologically to the existing twelfth-century manu- scripts of its legend? In 1922 Luigi Dami published the first photograph of the Volto Santo unencumbered by its later decorations. On purely stylistic grounds he suggested that the Volto Santo was probably sculpted in the late twelfth or early thirteenth century.25 Such a dating would require one to believe, how- ever, that the legend of the Volto Santo was created for an 25 object which did not exist until a century after the earliest versions of the legend were written. Yet, his analysis was not without merit. Whereas others had contended, and would continue to contend, that no similar sculpture of wood existed in Italy at that time,26 Dami compared the Volto Santo with the mid-thirteenth-century Volterra Deposition (Illustration 7). Of special interest to him was the manner in which the folds of cloth on each of the figures outline parallel con- cave furrows. Even though the Christ in the Volterra example has closed eyes, the general disposition of his features and hair shows a certain affinity, like the folds of the cloth, to the manner of sculpting seen on the Volto Santo. There are indeed general stylistic similarities between the Volto Santo and such thirteenth century works,27 but Dami's refusal to deal with any historical considerations other than those of style prompted an outraged reply to his suggestions by Adriano Bernareggi who published documents which proved that the Volto Santo existed before the twelfth-century.28 A papal bull of Pasquale II, dated September 18, 1107, speaks of the revenues received from the Volto Santo and states that the practice of offering gifts to the Volto Santo had been established by predecessors of the current Bishop Rangiero.29 Since Rangiero's bishopric began in 1097, we must assume that such practices were established at least be- fore 1097 and probably even much earlier.30 This documentary evidence seems not only to disprove Dami's dating, but also to make untenable any suggestion that 26 the Volto Santo may have_been brought to Lucca only after the First Crusade, as were the Pisan"relics of Nicodemus. Only the invention of the relics learned of by Stefano da Butrione can be assigned such a date. Furthermore, Eadmero (died 1121) reported in his Historia novorum that William II, duke of Normandy and King of England (1087-1100) swore "per Sanctum Vultum gg Luca."31 If the cult and the renown of the Volto Santo had already spread to England by the early twelfth-century, it certainly cannot be thought of as a newly invented relic or one of the thirteenth- century.32 Bernareggi also notes that copies of the Volto Santo already appear before the thirteenth century.33 The most famous and well-documented copy of the Volto Santo, the so- called Imervard Crucifix (Illustration 8) is indeed dated circa 1166, over a quarter century in advance of Dami's date.34 Following an earlier suggestion by A. Kingsley Porter,35 Bernareggi concluded that the Volto Santo was a Western cre- ation, perhaps from either Spain or southern France. His dating, while earlier than Dami's, lent little more specifi- city to the dispute. Bernareggi suggested that the Volto Santo was sculpted sometime before the middle of the eleventh century but not earlier than the eighth or ninth centuries.36 Kingsley Porter began his excursus on the Volto Santo by admitting what is by now most evident: "The Volto Santo is a baffling riddle."37 He also attempted to show its simi- larities to certain Catalan Crucifixes from north-eastern 27 Spain. The head of the Volto Santo recalled to him "the same peculiar shape as that of the Erilavall Deposition at Vich,"38 which he had dated from the second half of the twelfth cen- tury. The Volto Santo is also similar in type to the Majestad from Caldas de Montbfiy which he dated from the first quarter of the twelfth century.39 Similarly dated is the Majestad from San Juan de las Fuentes.40 From the second quarter of the same century Porter cited the Baget Majestad.41 All these figures, as well as the late eleventh-century Barcelona Majestad (Illustration 9),42 wear a colobium belted at the waist like the Volto Santo, and their eyebrows and long noses are all portrayed in a similar manner. Unfortunately, as will be seen below, the inaccuracies of Porter's chronology discount his suggested date from the third quarter of the eleventh century for the Volto Santo. Porter did, nonetheless, provide a strong series of possible links between Spain and the Volto Santo. He saw strong simi- larities between Spanish-legends and Leobino's legend, as Bernareggi had noted great similarities with the legends of the Christ of Valencia (S. Salvatore) and of Santa Maria del Grao nearby.43 Porter also noted that the manufacturing of a sacred image by angels closely parallels the story of the Cross of the Angels in the Camara Santa of Orviedo.44 The translation of the body of Saint James to Compostella, ac- cording to the Golden Legend, was accomplished, like that of the Volto Santo, with a boat that "had neither rudder nor I II III I II I l I 1 II I! III I t ' I‘l‘l‘l A I . 28 steersman,...set sail, trusting to the providence of God to determine the place of his burial."45 Porter also remarked that the discovery of sacred objects in caves is a "constantly reappearing commonplace in spanish legends."46 Such a Spanish origin could partially account for the legendary arrival of the Volto Santo by ship, in this case, in a rather easily accomplished journey. Specifically, Kingsley Porter suggests that the Volto Santo "may well have come to Lucca at the time the cathedral was reconstructed (1061-1073). The study of Spanish miraculous images shows that such usually put in their first appearance at the time of the reconstruction of churches."47 In the same year as Porter's pronouncement, Salmi sug- gested a mid-twelfth-century date and French origins.48 He gave no explanation for this designation, but perhaps he had in mind such a work as the Belpuig crucifix,49 which closely resembles the above-mentioned Catalan crucifixes. Male con- sidered the Belpuig work to be a twelfth-century Volto Santo copy.so It was not until 1936 that Géza de Francovich clarified the above issues.51 He began his discussion with the Deposi- tion group from San Juan de 1as Abadesas (Illustration 10) which can be securely~dated by the "1251" carved on its base.52 Its affinities with the previously discussed Volterra Deposi- tion are numerous.53 Although the Spanish example appears stiffer and more generalized, the artists of both works ren- dered drapery as concave surfaces against the skin. The Christ 29 in each is dead, though not yet the horrific representation found often in Gothic sculpture. The spacing of the folds on the Volto Santo's colobium is repeated on the garment worn by the Virgin from the Spanish group. The accompanying thief's loincloth also splays in a manner very similar to the treatment given the Volto Santo, even though the cloth on the thief admittedly adheres more closely to the body beneath. The rather similar styles found in both Tuscany and Catalonia in the mid-thirteenth-century tend to weaken the case for de- pendence of the Volto Santo upon Spanish examples. A native Tuscan tradition of sculpting would appear to have existed.54 Certainly the Volterra Deposition did not arise from an ar- tistic vacuum. Furthermore, Francovich's refutation of Kingsley Porter's dating weakens the supposed connection between the Volto Santo and Catalonian Majestads. Although the Tahull and Erilavall Depositions initially might appear earlier than the San Juan de las Abadesas group of 1251, whose surfaces are more highly polished and well preserved than those of the Tahull and Erilavall groups, these same groups express a new Gothic aesthetic in their manner of portrayal. As Francovich has observed,55 the loincloths of each no longer are suggested by stylized uniform curves but more closely resemble and imi- tate real thicknesses of cloth. The artist has shown an in- terest in portraying the natural folds of skin around the knees, and most importantly, the open-mouthed, pierced-sided Christ. This suffering Christ is certainly typical of the 30 new humanity of the Gothic. Such a representation would be inconceivable in the twelfth-century but widespread through- out Europe at the end of the thirteenth and beginning of the fourteenth-centuries, later even than the controversial early thirteenth-century date suggested by Dami for the Volto Santo. Similarly disputable is the late eleventh century date Porter assigns to the Barcelona Majestad. I would concur with Francovich who sees the Barcelona example as certainly later than the sculpture from Caldas de Montbfiy, which Porter himself dates in the first quarter of the twelfth century. The Barcelona Majestad should probably, therefore, be redated circa mid-twelfth-century, as is the similar Baget Majestad.S6 Even the Caldas de Montbuy work is subject to redating since it more closely resembles the yet later and definitively dated 1251 Abadesas group.57 Thus none of the Spanish exam- ples predate the requisite 1107, when the Volto Santo is first mentioned in surviving documents. Stylistically, the Majestads and the Volto Santo are also at variance. Although they all wear similar colobiums, their physiognomy and hairdos are "assolutamente differente."58 None of the Majestads shows the same inclination of the head to the side, nor the half-open, half-closed eyes of the Volto Santo. Even the similar colobiums end horizontally, while the Volto Santo's dips noticeably on one side. The wide concave folds are not found at all in the Majestads but only in the mid-thirteenth century Abadesas Deposition. The stumpy nailed feet of the Majestads also show no similarity to the elegant 31 elongation of the Volto Santo's feet. Those correspondences which do occur between the Majestads and the Volto Santo may suggest that both shared a common artistic root.59 In the case of the Majestads, per- haps their large size reflects a source in works such as the now lost lifesize crucifix placed by Theobard in the cathe- dral of Narbonne (c. 890).60 In fact, early in the ninth century, Narbonne had become the metropolitan see of Gerona, Barcelona and Vich.61 As will be seen in Chapter 3, the Volto Santo may also have evolved from such early works, though modified and transformed by Ottonian artists. Perhaps the circumstances of their use were also similar. The litur- gical dramas of Good Friday and Easter which involved the VOlto Santo (see Chapter 4) are also known to have been quite popular in Catalonia.62 Outside of Catalonia it is difficult to find statues which look like the Volto Santo from the eleventh through the mid-twelfth-centuries. Francovich finally turns to the new plastic sense of sculpting which appears in the mid-twelfth-century at St. Denis and more specifically on the facade of Chartres (1145- 55). On the figures there, one side of a hem is longer than another. Even similar belts are worn by female figures in these two monuments.63 The greatest Italian disseminator of the new Gothic style was Benedetto Antelami. The garment worn by the priest 32 in the Presentation in the Temple (Illustration 11) over the south door of the Baptistry at Parma (1200-10) is very simi- lar to the Volto Santo's colobium and would seem a forerunner of the similarities previously observed with the Volterra De- position. Francovich adds that the Queen of Sheba portrayed by Antelami on the exterior of the baptistry (c. 1208-10) wears the same sort of belt as the Volto Santo.64 Further- more, the garment worn by Saint Andrew in the tympanum of the central portal of S. Andrea a Vercelli (1219-27) has the same gently curving, uninterrupted surfaces of cloth which run from above the belt into the sleeve like the Volto Santo. On all these examples the folds of the cloth are portrayed like those of the Volto Santo as parallel concave furrows. For these reasons, Francovich agreed with Dami's sug- gested late twelfth-or early thirteenth-century date and could only account for the disparity with the historical documents by suggesting that the original Volto Santo may have been damaged somehow. Owing to its great fame, the Volto Santo was, he suggests, probably replaced quietly with a new copy which suggests certain early types in the face but betrays the work of an artist trained in the manner of Antelami.65 The records of building and refurbishing on the Cathe- dral of San Martino suggest to me ample opportunity for such a copy to have been executed. The facade of the cathedral was entirely rebuilt in the late twelfth and early thirteenth centuries. In fact, an inscription records that in 1204 33 Guidetto was in charge of the work.66 During such disruptions it would certainly not have raised any great suspicions to have removed the Volto Santo from view under the guise of pro- tecting it. Of even greater interest is the fact that the chapel of the Volto Santo, as Guerra relates, was renovated around 1200 and in it were painted frescoes depicting the coming of the Volto Santo to Lucca.67 During such work it would have been absolutely necessary to remove the Volto Santo from its chapel for an extended period of time. Art historians have also noted the influence of Antelami's art upon other works in Lucca, for example, the early thirteenth- century Martyrdom of St. Regulus over the south portal of the cathedral.68 Since Parma is on the northern end of the Via Francigena which led from Lucca to Rome,69 artistic ideas developed in Parma could easily have found their way to Lucca. Only by recognizing that the Volto Santo venerated to- day is probably not the original can one make sense out of the history of this famous crucifix.7o NOTES - CHAPTER II 1Most authorities today agree that the figure is sculpted of the juglans regia. Almerico Guerra, Storia del Volto Santo (Lucca: Tipografica Arcivescovo s. Paolino, 1881), 15, on the other hand, thought the body to be of oak and the face some- what hopefully, to be of cedar of Lebanon. Reiner Haussherr, "Das Imvardkreuz und der Volto—Santo-typ," Zeitschrift ffir Kunstwissenschaft, 16 (1962), 132 says that walnut is a very popular material for Italian crucifixes. 2These measurements are according to Guerra, 28. 3Perhaps the lighter color of the feet is indicative of the wear incurred by the kisses of many centuries of pil- grims. 4Guerra, 25. He notes on 427, n.2 that an unspecified drawing of the eleventh or twelfth century shows the letters Alpha and Omega on the ends of the cross. There were no traces of these letters when Guerra examined the cross. 5Adriano Bernareggi, "I1 Volto Santo di Lucca," Rivista g; archeologia cristiana, 2 (1925), 122. 6Luigi Dami, "Il Volto Santo di Lucca," Dedalo, Anno II, Vol. III (February 1922), 708-11. 7Arthur Kingsley Porter, Spanish Romanesque Sculpture, Vol. 2 (Florence: Pantheon, 1928), ll. 8Dr. Molly Teasdale Smith has referred me to her article, "A Gothic Woodcarving in the MSU Collection," Kresgg Art Center Bulletin, 5 (October 1971). In note 1 she refers the reader to J. Rorimer, "A Monumental Catalan WOOd Statue of the Four- teenth Century," Metropolitan Museum Studies, 3 (1930), 102 regarding this practice. 9Guerra, 188-89. Giorgio Vasari, tg Vite gg' piu eccel- lenti pittori, scultori gg architettori (Vol. 2). Annotations and Comments by Gaetano Milanes (Florence: Sansoni, 1906), 119-20 speaks of Civitali's Volto Santo chapel: "i; qual tempio 222 g veramente gg non molto bello g proporzionato." 10Lapis Aesaris, £1 Volto Santo g; Lucca (Lucca: L. Tommasi, 1962), ll. 34 35 11Guerra, 190 gives the exact inscriptions. 12Guerra, 195. This included the removal of eight angels with instruments of the Passion which had been placed in the cupola of the chapel under the supervision of Muzzio Oddi da Urbino in 1623. Likewise relocated were four statues of the evangelists which had been placed in the Volto Santo chapel by de Francelli of Rome in 1663. They were removed to the baptistry. According to Guerra, 221 the gold sceptre which is placed beneath the Volto Santo' 5 right arm on holidays was given to the cathedral on September 12,1852. When a new gate to the city was opened in the nineteenth cen- tury a new key was created to join those placed to the Volto Santo's left. 13Guerra, 27. 14For example, Gustav Schnurer, "fiber Alter und Herkunft des Volto Santo von Lucca," Romische Quartelschrift fur Christliche Altertumskunde und fur Kirchengeschichte, 34 15Guerra, 124. 16Guerra, 198-201 describes the circumstances cf its creation. After a series of sermons given by Father Candido da Verona asking for special offerings for a crown for the Volto Santo, a box was placed in the Volto Santo chapel to collect the funds. l7Guerra, 202. There is also record of a contract for late Trecento embellishments. See Guerra, 83 and 446, n. 12. 18Guerra, 202. It is thought to have replaced an earlier, non-figural belt which is represented in such manu- scripts as.the Trecento Tucci-Tognetti Codex- E. Lazzareschi, "La festa di S. Croce a Lucca," Le Vtg_d'Italia,40 (1934), 636 reproduces a page from this manuscript. Dr. Molly Teas- dale Smith has suggested to me that the saints portrayed in the niches of the belt may correspond to some sort of litany. In this instance, Guerra, 258 speaks of an unspecified, very old prayer used in Litaniae during times of public need. 19Guerra, 32 states that the boots were added for decorum and to protect the feet from the kisses of the faithful. 20Ilene H. Forsyth, The Throne gt Wisdom (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972), 48. She cites a necklace hung about a Madonna in Coventry (eleventh century) and a statue in Avallon (c. 1078) which was adorned with a golden crown and bracelets. 36 21The major proponent of such a theory is Guerra, 1-24. One cannot help but be fascinated by his ingenious, but never- theless inappropriate, use of Biblical tradition to "prove" that the Volto Santo could have been sculpted by Nicodemus. Bernareggi, 128 reports that Grimouard de Saint-Laurent also asserts that we cannot exclude the possibility of an attribu- tion to Nicodemus. 22Bernareggi, 128 reports that Gaffre sees it as a Semitic work of unknown date; Marucchi and Scaglia date it between the sixth- and seventh-centuries; Ridolfi sees it as a Byzantine work of not later than the eighth- century; Dobschutz and Wuscher- Becchi assign it to the eighth-century. Schnurer, 300 reports that Saint- -Laurent also suggests a seventh-century Armenian provenance; Kraus dates the Volto Santo as a work of the seventh- or eight-century and Stockbauer, Miller and Schnurer, 276 agree on an eighth-century date. 23According to V. N. Lazarev, "L'Arte Bizantina e Particolarmente la Pittura in Italia nell'Alto Medioevo," L'Oriente Cristiano nella storia della civilta (Rome: Accademia Nazionale dei LIficei, 1964), 664 he was of Syrian origin. Gertrude Schiller, Iconography gt Christian Art, Vol. 2, Trans. Janet Seligman (Greenwich, Connecticut: New York Graphic Society, 1972), 94 on the other hand, says that he was a Greek from southern Italy. Lazarev, 665 says that between 606 and 752 there were ten Greek and Syrian popes. The fresco from Rome is illustrated in Paul Thoby, tg Crucifix des Origines gt Concile gg Trente (Nantes: Bellanger, 1959), P1. VIII, no. 20. 24Haussherr, 142 cites this same problem. 25Luigi Dami, "Il Volto Santo di Lucca," Dedalo, Anno II, Vol. III (February 1922), 708-11. 26As for example, Schnfirer, 293. 27Such backward looking interpolations of styles are admittedly dangerous and a case certainly could be made for the Volto Santo having somehow influenced the Volterra De- position, no matter when the Volto Santo was created, because of its great fame. 28See his article, pages 117 to 155 cited above in note 5. 29The entire Latin text is printed by Bernareggi, 138. 30Porter, Vol. 2, 9. I! I I I'll Ill- ulcl 1 IIIIII I Iirllllll‘ll Ill‘l Ill. I ‘llll‘l I! I." II It! 37 31J. P. Migne, Patrologiae Latinae, 159 (Paris: Garnier and J. P. Migne, 1894), 364. The same story is also repeated in William of Malmesbury's (died 1143) account, Migne, Pt, 179, 1275. 32Such is the reasoning of Schnfirer, 278 who concludes that the Volto Santo arrived in the eighth century. Obviously Dami chose to ignore all literary evidence at his disposal. Guerra, 83 had already reported in 1881 the documents which Bernareggi subsequently published. Guerra, 104 also speaks of a diploma of February 10, 1123 from Henry IV which recog- nizes the existence of the Volto Santo. . 33.Although the dates Bernareggi assigns to most of the Volto Santo copies are currently thought to be unrealisti- cally early, his observation still holds true. He wisely admits the possibility of some common source for the Volto Santo and its replicas, particularly in Spain, whereas Porter, 8, sees any work similar to the Volto Santo as a Volto Santo copy. 34Haussherr, 156. See also Erwin Panofsky, "Das Braun- schweigernDomkruzifix und das Volto Santo zu Lucca," Fest- schrift fur H. Goldschmidt (Lipsia, 1923), 37-44. 35Bernareggi, 150, n.2 refers the reader to Porter's Sculpture gt the Pilgrimage Roads. Vols. 5 and 6 (Boston: Jones, 1923). 36Bernareggi, 154. 37Porter, Romanesque, Vol. 2, 8. 38Porter, Romanesque, Vol. 2, 11. See Vol. 2, Plate 69. The much more refined modelling of the Volto Santo, however, shares little in common with the Erilavall example. 39Porter, Romanesque, Vol. 2, Plate 63. 40Porter, Romanesque, Vol. 2, Plate 65. According to Porter, 11 this work retains its original polychromy. 41Porter, Romanesque, Vol. 2, Plate 64. Porter, 11 records that the nose and feet of this eight foot tall figure are restorations. The silver crown is modern. 42Porter, Romanesque, Vol. 1, Plate 34. 43Bernareggi, 126, n. 1. 44Porter, Romanesque, Vol. 2, 9. ll 1 ill IIIIIII I‘llllu ll . ‘ Ill 'lIIIIlIl lllll‘ll'li'lll' 38 45The Golden Legend of Jacobus de Voragine, translated by Granger Ryan and Helmut— Ripperger (New York. Arno Press, 1969), 371- 72. 46Porter, Romanesque, Vol. 2, 9. 47Porter, Romanesque, Vol. 2, 10. On page 11 he also admits the possibility that the Volto Santo could have been made in Tuscany. 48Mario Salmi, Romanesque Sculpture in Tuscany (Florence: Rinascimento del Libro, 1928), 78. 49Emile Male, L'Arte religeux du XIIe siécle en France Troisiéme Edition (Paris: Armand ColIH,—I928), 255,—Figure 170. Porter, Romanesque, Vol. 2, 12 reports that this work "has been ruthlessly overpainted." Male also cites similar works at La Llagonne and Angoustrine. Both these works are illustrated in Dictionnaire des Eglises de France, Vol.2 (Paris: Robert Laffont, 1966), that at Saint-André, Angoustrine- II C 8 and that at Saint-Vincent, La Llagone- II C 79.‘ Richard B. Donovan, The Liturgical Drama in Medieval Spain (Toronto: Pontifical Institute of Medieval Studies, 1958), 25 notes that after Charlemagne' s reign Catalonia was "closely linked with France in every way." 50Ma1e, 256 51Géza de Francovich, Il Volto Santo di Lucca (Lucca: Scuola Tipografico Artigianelli, 1936). 52See Porter, Romanesque, Vol. 2, Plate 72. 53Francovich, however, did not concern himself with the relationship of the Catalan example to the VOlterra Deposition, nor to their relationship to the Volto Santo. 54For much earlier work in Italy see Nicolette Gray, "Dark Age figure sculpture in Italy," Burlington, 67 (November 1935), 191-202. Francovich discusses other sculptures similar to the Volto Santo and the Volterra Deposition in his article, "A Romanesque School of Wood Carvers in Central Italy," Att Bulletin, 19 (1937), 5-57. See also his Scultura medioevale £2 legno (Rome: Tumminelli, 1943). 55Francovich, Volto Santo, 4-5. 55Francovich, Volto Santo, 6. 57 Francovich, Volto Santo, 7. 53Francovich, Volto Santo, 12. II ll'.l II: III 1' l 1., 39 59Schiller, Vol. 2, 145. 60Ilene H. Forsyth, The Throne of Wisdom (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972), 73 lists a number of these large sculptured crucifixes from the ninth century. 61Donovan, 26. 62Donovan, 21. The cathedral of Barcelona employed a specially constructed sepulchre for the liturgical ceremonies of Easter week, according to Donovan, 161. Similarly, "from earliest times the cathedral of Gerona was famous throughout Catalonia for its numerous and colorful liturgical customs." Donovan, 98. 63Perhaps this helps to explain in part the curious transformation of the Volto Santo in Northern Europe to a fe- male martyr usually identified as Saint Kfimmernis. For a complete discussion of this cult and its basis in the popu- larity and dispersion of the cult of the Volto Santo see Gustav Schnurer and Joseph Ritz, Sankt Kummernis und Volto Santo (Dusseldorf: L. Schwann, 1934). This female saint was also known as Saint Wilgefortis. See J. Gessler, "Wilgefortiana, een bibliographisch overzicht," Oostvlaamsche Zanten, 16 (January- April 1941), l-l3. Ironically, this transformed cult was later reintroduced into Italy. 64Francovich, Volto Santo, 17. 65Francovich, Volto Santo, 18. This idea has gained wide acceptance, as for example Haussherr, 136. Antelami's style is very similar to that of the Romanesque reliefs at St. Gilles (late twelfth-century), which in turn are related to the sculpture at Chartres. ' 66Oscar Mothes, Die Baukunst des Mittelalters in Italien (Jena: Hermann Costenoble, 1884), 739, n. 1366 records the exact inscription: "Condidit electi tam pulchras dextra Guidetti. MCCIV." 6.lGuerra, 83. He unfortunately gave no documentary evidence. On page 424, n. 8 he similarly states that ”sa iamo da antiche scritture che nella capella eretta per questo s1mulacro nel secolo XII era dipinta l'istoria del Volto Santo." 68Encyclopedia g£_Wor1d Art, Vol. 12 (New York: McGraw- Hill 1966), P1. 256. Goffredo Rosati, "Benedetto Antelami," Encyclopedia g£_World Art, Vol. 1 Rev.prtng. (New York: Mc- Graw-Hill, 1968), 473 also cites those scenes showing St. Martin. 40 69The Cambridge Medieval History, Vol. 5 (New York: Macmillan, 1926), 227. 70Since Francovich made his suggestion that the present VOlto Santo replaces an earlier sculpture, Hugh Honour, "An Unpublished Romanesque Crucifix," Connoisseur, 136 (1955), 150-54 has suggested that a crucifix from Bocca di Magro in Tuscany may reflect the form of the original Volto Santo. The Braunschweig crucifix must also reflect the original statue. i. .l I III II ll. [III II . III‘ ‘I l I [It I CHAPTER III THE ORIGINAL VOLTO SANTO AND ITS PROVENANCE Since the Volto Santo honored today in the cathedral of Lucca probably is not the original statue known by that name, previous attempts at dating the advent of this highly renowned statue in Lucca must be reconsidered. To this end must we be content like Bernareggi to suppose that the origi- nal version of the Volto Santo arrived in Lucca at an un- specified date between the eighth and eleventh centuries? I think not. While Volto Santo II probably is not a direct copy of Volto Santo I, the present Volto Santo must never- theless have preserved many of the original's essential fea- tures. By reexamining the account of the Volto Santo’s ar- rival as given in Leobino's legend and by considering the present Volto Santo's similarities to Ottonian works of art which may have served it as conceptual prototypes, I shall propose that Volto Santo I was a work of the second quarter of the eleventh century.l Attempts to assign an eighth century date to Volto Santo II failed because of stylistic discrepancies. Leobino's legend did specify, however, that Bishop Giovanni had trans- ported the Volto Santo to Lucca in the year 742. In fact, there appears to be some coincidence between the events nar- rated in the legend and the documented history of eighth- 41 \ I‘III[II{II,1[1' 42 century Lucca. Although Pope Pasquale II's bull of 1107 is the first documented account of the Volto Santo's presence in Lucca, Barsocchini had suggested as early as 1844 that the eighth-century foundation of a church dedicated to Dominis gt Salvatoris may have appropriately recorded the arrival of the Volto Santo and the honor accorded it.2 This church first appeared in documents of 797.3 It was evidentally de- molished sometime in the early tenth century, since a docu- ment of 930 records that there had been a church of Dominis gt Salvatoris near the cathedral but that it no longer existed at that time.4 It has generally been assumed that with the destruction of this church Volto Santo I was placed in the south aisle of Lucca cathedral, the site Leobino had indica— ted in his legend. Such circumstantial evidence for the eighth century existence of Volto Santo I has left most recent writers un- convinced.5 Those who associated the Volto Santo with the church of Dominis gt Salvatoris cited the large number of donations presented to the church as indicative of its im— portance. On the other hand, an analysis of these donations by Pedemonte has shown that the church thrived during the bishopric of Giovanni I but that during the remaining years of its existence the church received only three recorded gifts.6 Apparently the church was a favorite of its episco- pal founder, but its patrimony remained modest. It was neither 7 the richest nor the poorest church in the diocese. In short, the church of Dominis gt Salvatoris "non presenta nessun i1 .11 I 'I I'll- fl II. t J 43 carattere gt eccezionalita."8 Furthermore, many other churches in the late eighth and early ninth centuries dedicated to the Savior were more richly endowed than the one in Lucca.9 Nonetheless, there are some indications that Leobino had good reason to cast Bishop Giovanni I as the protagonist of his legend. It was Giovanni Who first actively acquired relics for Lucca,lo precisely when Charlemagne occupied the territory of the Longobards and the center of power in the region was transferred to Lucca.ll Until this time the Lom- bard dukes had had possession of Luni,12 but now this town, which figures so importantly in the Volto Santo legend, be- gan to rely upon Lucca for its defense.13 Indeed, the legend's assertion that it was necessary for Giovanni to come to Luni before the ship laden with the Volto Santo would come to shore corresponds accurately with Lucca's new responsibility for a large portion of the Ligurian coast.l4 Corsica and Luni were strategic points in Charlemagne's late eighth cen- tury plans to counter the Saracens, and since 797 Charlemagne's boats to and from Jerusalem had landed there.15 Of particular importance to our concern is the fact that relics of the Holy Cross and of Christ's blood were transmitted from the Holy Land via this route. A tenth-cen- tury report of the translation of a particle of the True Cross and relic of the Redeemer's blood to Reichnau (c. 799) indicates such a practice.16 The legend says that Azan, Pre- fect of Jerusalem, was bringing costly gifts to Charlemagne. 44 Resting in Corsica, Azan became very ill, so Charlemagne sent two emissaries to receive the gifts and to bring them back to him at Ravenna. This closely corresponds to the historical annals of 799 for the Frankish court which record that the Saracen Azan, Prefect of Huesca, had given the key of his city to Charlemagne and that the Patriarch of Jerusalem had sent relics which were brought to Aachen by a monk.17 Simi- larly,Charlemagne received presents and a relic of the True Cross from two monks, one from the Mount of Olives and the other from St. Sabas, while he was in Rome in 800.18 Further- more, it is recorded that in 801 the emissaries of the Calif Harun-al-Rachid stopped in the region of Luni as they brought gifts, among them the famous elephant, to Charlemagne.19 Having thoroughly studied such accounts, Schwarzmaier has convincingly suggested that a relic of the Redeemer's blood. and some sort of cross actually acquired from Charlemagne or from those persons transporting relics from Jerusalem were later incorporated into Leobino's tale.20 Often, legends do correspond to actual historical events. The religious foundations of St. Riquier, Toulouse, Chartres and Paris all credit Charlemagne with the donation of relics,21 22 Charlemagne's as also do Sens, Sitter, Florence and Corbie. palace at Aachen had become a major point from which relics were dispersed,23 and Lucca can thus be seen as one of the many centers in which grew the cult of relics of the Savior and dedication of churches to Him. x I 1|)! 1 . 45 Such a widespread popularity sufficiently accounts for the establishment of the church of Dominis gt Salvatoris by Bishop Giovanni, and the donation of a relic of Christ's blood to the Lunese seems only logical since it was probably through their port that the relics were received. On the other hand, the question of whether Volto Santo I itself ar— rived at this time remains unanswered. Forsyth has recently shown that "in ninth century Europe large, sculptured crucifixes existed in considerable numbers."24 Although "the descriptions of these lost works suggest that the crucifixes were of grand size, often of human proportions" like Volto Santo II, the Carolingian works were "ordinarily made of gold or silver attached to a wood base and ornamented with gems" unlike the present Volto Santo.25 Was Volto Santo I one of these large gold or silver crucifixes, the wooden core of which has been transmitted to us, in effect, in the rendition of Volto Santo II? Such a conclusion seems unlikely. There is little in the legend of the Volto Santo or in local tradition and documents to suggest such an elaborate and ex- travagant donation. There are also very few examples of Carolingian crucifixes in which Christ wears a colobium.26 Finally, while the threads of the Volto Santo's legend can be seen to have their beginnings at the end of the eighth cen- tury, these large-scale crucifixes did not appear, for the most part, until the second quarter of the ninth century. Even then they were made despite condemnation by such church ‘1' l 1‘ ‘II “III 46 councils as the Paris Synod of 825.27 It was indeed the cult of relics and not the cult of images which had been sponsored by Charlemagne. It thus cannot be assumed that Volto Santo I was of Carolingian provenance. It is interesting to note, however, that a list of al- tars from the cathedral of Lucca which dates from between 1065 and 1109 commences with mention of an "Altare ante Vultum" and an altar "Ante Crucem veteremu"28 Although Guidi identi- fied both the "Altar before the Face" and that "Before the Old Cross" as the Volto Santo,29 Pedemonte questioned such an equation of the two terms.30 There seems to be little doubt that two distinct objects are described before two dif- ferent altars. Schwarzmaier has suggested that perhaps the old cross may have been a cross reliquary like that acquired by Reichnau. Brought to Lucca by Bishop Giovanni and later translated into the legend of Leobino, perhaps it provided, some of the relics which Stefano da Butrione found in the Volto Santo.31 Leobino's legend does have the inconsistent quality of a work which resulted from the merger of a number of traditions. The discovery of relics around the year 1000, some forty years after the cult of the Volto Santo was proba- bly first promoted in Lucca, indicates in some measure the way various elements were brought together by this late eleventh- or early twelfth-century writer. In suggesting that the cult of the Volto Santo was first promoted forty years prior to the discovery of relics within 47 the status, I am focusing attention upon the bishoprics of Anselm I (later Pope Alexander II) and his nephew Anselm II. As has been shown above, the cult of the Volto Santo was well established in England in the early twelfth century, primarily due to the efforts of Pope Alexander II. Although born in Baggio near Milan "he was made bishop of Lucca in 1057, re- taining the see as pope" (1061-1073).32 "In 1066 we find the Pope officiating from August until November in the cathe- dral of San Martino ... so it must have been at Lucca that he received the ambassadors of Duke William of Normandy and declared him to be the legitimate successor to the throne of England."33 Furthermore, when William the Conqueror was crowned on Easter Day, 1070, it was under orders from Alex- ander II and accomplished by two of his papal legates.34 Thus, when William II swore "per Sanctum Vultum gg Luca" he was recalling the papal sanction of his reign and con- comittently paying homage to the sacred image which was as- sociated with the Pope's bishopric of Lucca.35 It was also under Pope Alexander II that the cathedral was remodelled, and as it will be recalled, Kingsley Porter has suggested that it was at this time that the Volto Santo may have first appeared in Lucca.36 One of the miracles cited in Leobino's legend likewise indicates that the Volto Santo was revered during the bishopric of the Pope. One of the miracles is supposed to have taken place during "tempore Lamberti gt Blanchardi archidiaconi qui fratres uterini fuerunt."37 48 These two brothers, Lambertus and Blanchardus, served under either Bishop Anselm I or Anselm II.38 This association of the bishops' archdeacons with the Volto Santo, taken in con- junction with the other events of their careers, strongly suggests that the Pope and his nephew were the principal pro- moters of the Volto Santo cult in its initial stage.39 An analysis of the artistic prototypes upon which VOlto Santo I may have been based suggests a type slightly earlier than mid-eleventh century. Thus, Volto Santo I's arrival may actually predate the bishoprics of the Anselms. In this case, the VOlto Santo can be seen as an image whose presence in Lucca was well-established before it was elevated to its position as chief religious symbol of the town. The general character of the face of Volto Santo II seems somehow related to the face of Christ as depicted on the wooden crucifix probably carved for Archbishop Gero of Cologne (969-76).40 Admittedly, the Gero crucifix (Illustra- tion 12) expresses human emotion as particularized in Christ's suffering, while the Romanesque Volto Santo is more stylized. The pained expression of the Gero crucifix seems to be trans- formed into a profoundly stoic sadness on Volto Santo II. Yet, the similar manner in which the hair of both statues spreads across their shoulders and the way their eyebrows arch high over bulging eyes intimates some distant relationship. In fact, if one imagines Volto Santo II without its staring, glass-paste eyes, the similarities appear even greater. Per- haps VOlto Santo I's portrayal more closely approximated the (lull 49 emotional sense of the Gero crucifix than does the present Vblto Santo. Volto Santo II is, after all, one more step re— moved from its original prototype than was Volto Santo I. Admittedly, no extant, monumental Ottonian crucifix presents Christ in a colobium, but this Eastern manner of robing the crucified Christ is found, significantly enough, in numerous Ottonian manuscripts, for example in the Cruci- fixion from an eleventh century Metz Gospel Book, (Illustra- tion 13) now in the Bibliotheque Nationals in Paris.41 Here the bearded Christ is dressed, like the Volto Santo, in a long-sleeved colobium. The borders of the hems and rounded neckline are equally narrow. The colobium is folded at the waist to suggest a sort of belt. His feet resting upon a chalice, Christ is accompanied by the Virgin and St. John below and personifications of the sun and moon in roundels above. Whereas the Byzantine representation usually shows a short-sleeved colobium, as for example, that on the Rabbula Gospels,42 Ottonian manuscript figures and Volto Santo II have long sleeves. The three-quarter-length sleeves of the Ottonian colobium are not significantly different in length from the Volto Santo's sleeves. An examination of Volto Santo II reveals an interesting similarity to Ottonian rep- resentations. The closely spaced folds of Volto Santo II's sleeves end approximately at the point where the Ottonian examples terminate altogether. For some reason the sculptor of the Volto Santo seems to have found it more agreeable to 50 extend the sleeves to the wrists, even though this lengthen- ing produced wide cuffs on the sleeves which do not corre- spond to the narrow border of the bottom hem.43 Besides this suggestion of a mutated Ottonian type in Volto Santo II, the inclined, bearded head, hair spreading over the shoulders and the delicate, elongated hands of the Ottonian manuscript figures all have visual counterparts in Volto Santo II. German influences have been noted by art historians in numbers of Tuscan manuscripts from the eleventh century.44 These borrowings are only a logical reflection of close po— litical ties. Lucca in particular had frequent dealings with the Ottonian emperors and their officials in Tuscany. "Lucca commanded the Via Francigena, which after the Lombard period was one of the principal roads between Lombardy and Rome and which assumed fresh significance after Otto I's coronation as Holy Roman emperor in 962."45 For the next century, every Holy Roman emperor made expeditions into Italy, often pene- trating Byzantine southern Italy.46 In 1051 Henry III strengthened his power with his marriage to Beatrice of Tuscany, "whose lands lay across the main route from Germany to Rome."47 Giovanni II, bishop of Lucca from 1023 to 1056, actually met the Emperor in Florence.48 After the council called there by Pope Victor II, it seems certain that Henry passed through Lucca on his return to Germany.49 Giovanni II also had deal- ings with Conrad II, Henry's predecessor, who had granted three privileges to the clerics of San Martino and a fourth to the Lucchese ecclesiastical community in general.50 It 51 is also known that in 1022 Henry II had visited the villa of the Dukes of Tuscany near Lucca.51 Since the first document which speaks of Giovanni II, dated 1023, carries the name "of a small Bavarian city, it can be believed that this bishop, soon after his elevation, accompanied the emperor Henry to Germany, and perhaps assisted there at a council called by the same emperor."52 Besides having had these explicit connections with the Ottonian emperors, Giovanni II may perhaps also be implicated in Leobino's legend.53 While Giovanni I is mentioned in both the legends of San Frediano and St. Regulus, it is significant that it was only under Giovanni II that the invention of the relics of San Frediano took place.54 It has already been noted that Bishop Giovanni is the protagonist of the Volto Santo legend. This correspondence between the acts of the two bishops Giovanni seems far from accidental. Could the events associated with the Giovanni in the legend of Leobino be the collected recitation of both their deeds? The Volto Santo legend purports that the events narrated there took place, like those at San Frediano, "usgue gg tempora Karoli gt Pipini serenissimorum regum."55 And yet we know, at least in the case of San Frediano, that it was Giovanni II who brought these relics to light. In Giovanni's many dealings with the Germans he could have easily obtained an appropriate prototype such as a manuscript for Volto Santo I or he may have acquired the statue itself. He may thus have become involved with the Volto Santo legend. Since it is under the l1 It‘llll‘lltlll‘ll'ellll.'l‘“l 52 bishopric of Pope Alexander II that the cult of the Volto ‘Santo would appear to have first been widely promoted, it is not difficult to see the arrival of this image through the efforts of Giovanni II some years before.56 Even after Giovanni's time, Lucca remained loyal to the emperor for suc- ceeding generations, as witnessed by an early thirteenth- century coin minted at Lucca with images of both the Volto Santo and the Emperor.57 Thus it is not surprising that the Vblto Santo resembles such Ottonian manuscripts as that from Metz or even the Crucifixion from the Pericopes of Henry II, now in the Munich Staatsbibliothek.58 An appropriate theological climate which would have welcomed the creation of such an image as the Volto Santo also existed at the beginning of the second quarter of the eleventh century. Around 1025 the statement issued by the Synod of Arras sanctioned and encouraged the creation of sacred images. Regarding worshippers' adoration of artistic representations of Christ's passion, the Synod statement de- clared that "while they [worshippers] venerate this out- ward appearance... they are adoring only Christ, not the work of men's hands. For it is not a stock of wood that is adored; rather, through that visible image is awakened man's inner discernment in which the passion and the death of Christ undertaken for us are inscribed as if on the scroll of the heart, so that each one recognizes within himself how much he owes to his Redeemer."59 As Forsyth has noted, such a statement aligns the West with the Eastern idea that the honor of an image passes from the 53 original to the prototype and thus has the power "to incite a mystical contemplation of the meaning of Christian grace."60 This is especially true in the case of the Volto Santo whose legend stresses that the image of Christ's face is the "XEEE iggg" executed with the assistance of both Nicodemus - the historical person who had actually seen Christ's face - and angels who imparted its divine character. Perhaps still sen- sitive to the possibility of such an image being regarded as an idol, the creators of the Volto Santo legend wisely as- sociated the work with Nicodemus. As will be demonstrated below, the use of the Volto Santo in the Adoratio crucis cer- emony of Good Friday requires that the worshipper be aware that the honor he bestows upon the image of Christ is ad- dressed in the end to Christ Himself. Another element related to the ceremonies of Good Friday, the chalice placed beneath the Volto Santo's right foot, may also have Ottonian origins. As the object in which the Host and consecrated wine were commingled, the chalice in its liturgical use contains the body and blood of Christ. The VOlto Santo's visual image of Christ's body is symbolically completed by the addition of the chalice. The Church is founded upon the sacrifice of Christ which both redeems and nourishes it. That the chalice be placed to Christ's right recalls the water and blood which flowed from Christ's side and symbolically recalls the death and new life of baptism. The sharing of Christ's church in this death and resurrection 54 is particularly important to the events of the Easter Vigil with which the Volto Santo was also associated. The earliest surviving example of an actual chalice being portrayed with the crucifixion appears in a miniature from the ninth-century Sacramentary of Drogo.61 Unlike the chalice placed beneath the Volto Santo's foot, the chalice in this miniature is held to the wounded side of Christ by a small figure. It is only with Ottonian examples, such as our previously cited example from Metz, that the chalice is regu- larly placed in its ritualistic position below Christ's feet.62 Although there is no specific mention of the chalice of the Volto Santo prior to 1213 when it was replaced by a new chalice connected with a box to receive offerings,63 this replacement does suggest that a chalice had always been there. Even the earliest representations of the Volto Santo show it with a chalice.64 Schnurer,65 along with later writers,66 excused the chalice as a device to hold up the Volto Santo's loose right shoe. According to a twelfth-century legend, the Volto Santo kicked off this shoe to an itinerant musician who had pleased the statue.67 The earliest account of this miracle comes from an Icelandic monk writing around 1150 who had heard the story in Lucca on his way to the Holy Land.68 Although the legend may account for a shoe which actually did fall off the foot of the Volto Santo, it does not sufficiently account for the chalice. In fact, the legend itself in no way attempts to account for it.69 55 A number of objects which could have been easily trans- ported from Ottonian Germany to Lucca show a chalice placed below a crucifix. These manuscripts and ivory carvings, like that from the Cologne school in the first half of the eleventh century now in the Musée de Cluny,7o could have provided a precedent for adding the chalice to the Volto Santo. Even the basic iconography of the Volto Santo suggests Ottonian sources. The colobium clearly reflects an adoption of the Eastern form as interpreted by the Ottonians, whose political and artistic ties with the Byzantine Empire are well known.71 The eschatological meaning of this mode of presentation is clear. Its basic form derives from the Revelation of John I:l3 which speaks of "a figure like a Son of man, dressed in a long robe tied at the waist with a golden girdle."72 This priestly garment worn by the Volto Santo would have been especially appropriate during the bishopric of Giovanni II. He attempted to reform the clergy and follow the rules that the Bishop of Metz, Crodegango, had established for his clerics.73 Considering the strong ties between Giovanni and the German emperors, one wonders whether this acquaintance with the rule of Metz did not extend also to an acquaintance with manuscripts such as those discussed above. In any case, an image of Christ as the eternal High Priest could well have reinforced the bishop's intentions to have his clerics lead a priestly life more like Christ's. This representation of the Apocalyptic Christ was proba- bly made even more explicit by the addition of an alpha and 56 an omega on the arms of the cross. Guerra reports that a drawing of perhaps the twelfth century shows these Greek letters on the ends of the cross arms. He found no trace of such lettering upon his inspection and therefore questioned 74 It seems certain whether these actually did ever appear. to me that they did. Not only does the first chapter of John's Revelation describe Christ, but this robed figure states in verses seventeen and eighteen: "Do not be afraid: it is I, the First and the Last; I am the Living One, I was dead and now I am to live for ever and ever, and I hold the keys of death and of the underworld." The sculptor could have hardly translated these words more fittingly. The Volto Santo is the image of the crucified Christ who nonetheless is alive and triumphs in the End. The cross behind the copy of the Volto Santo at Bocca di Magro likewise has an alpha and an omega inscribed on the cross, though in this case above Christ's head.75 It has also been noted by Schiller that the designation of the very similar appearing Spanish Majestads "confirms their interpretation as the type of the Apocalyptic Christ."76 As will be seen in Chapter 4, this image, with its aspects of both the living and crucified Christ, is appropriate to the Easter ceremonies in which the Volto Santo played a part. It is in conjunction with these ceremonies that the eschatological meaning of the Volto Santo became most apparent. NOTES - CHAPTER III 1In order to identify clearly whether I am referring to the present Volto Santo or to the earlier original, I shall adopt the designation of Volto Santo II for the former and Vblto Santo I for the latter. References applicable to both works shall be designated as Volto Santo without a Roman numeral. 2A3 reported by Almerico Guerra, Storia del Volto Santo gt Lucca (Lucca: Tipografia Arcivescovo s. Paolino, 1881), 440, n. l. Guerra, 68-76 discusses this idea and adopts Barsocchini's suggestion as well as summarizing the documents which refer to the church. See also Antonio Pedemonte, Quando venne i1 Volto Santo a Lucca? (Lucca: Scuola Tipo- grafica Artigianellij'1936),_5-9. 3Guerra, 68. Pedemonte, 25 emphasizes however that the altar was dedicated to St. Peter and that the first dona- tion was specifically given to the altar of St. Peter. 4Guerra, 73. 5For example, Reiner Haussherr, "Das Imvardkreuz und der VOlto-Santo-typ," Zeitschrift ffir Kunstwissenschaft, 16, NO. 3-4 (1962), 140. 6Pedemonte, ll. Pedemonte, 15 shows that by 880 the church had lost its autonomy and passed to the dominion of the bishop. 7Pedemonte, l3. 8Pedemonte, ll. 9Pedemonte, 23 cites the monasteries of San Salvatore in Bresciano and San Salvatore di Sesto. Guerra, 55 mentions a contemporaneous founding of San Salvatore in Mura at Lucca and Hansmartin Schwarzmaier, Lucca und das Reich bis zum Ende des it. Jahrhunderts (Tfibingen: Max Niemeyer, 1972), 362 say; that San Salvatore in Montione was rebuilt in 800 by the Tuscan Duke Wichram. 10Schwarzmaier, 337. Giovanni I is associated with the legends of the translation of the relics of Saints Regulus and Frediano, according to Schwarzmaier, 347. It is also recorded by Isa Belli Barsali, tg Diocesi g; Lucca (Spoleto: 57 58 Centro Italiano di Studi sull'Alto Medioevo, 1959), 27, n. 6 that he built the crypt at San Frediano in the late eighth century. Prior to Carolingian times no relics had been ac- quired at Lucca in spite of the fact that it was located on the ancient road to Rome. See A. Solari, "Lucca centro itinerario nell'antichita," Bolletino storico lucchese,l (1929), 25-30. 11Gustav Schnfirer, "Uber Alter und Herkunft des Volto Santo von Lucca," Romische Quartelschrift, 34 (1926), 295-96. 12Schwarzmaier, 355. Luni was located on the Via Francigena near La Spezia. In 1204 the diocese was transferred to Sarzana, and Luni was left uninhabited. l3Schwarzmaier, 358. 14Schwarzmaier, 365. 15Schwarzmaier, 368 "seit 797 die Boten nach Jerusalem und die von dort kommenden Gesandtschaften gg Land gegangen sind." 16Schwarzmaier, 356-7 relates the entire story in greater detail. l7Schwarzmaier, 357. 18Jean Ebersolt, Orient gt Occident, 2nd ed. (Paris: E. De Boccard, 1954), 46. 19Schwarzmaier, 357. 20Schwarzmaier, 358. 21Ebersolt, 47. 22Schwarzmaier, 359-60. 23Schwarzmaier, 361. 24Ilene H. Forsyth, The Throne gt_Wisdom (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1972), 73. She lists examples from Auxerre (813-23), Le Mans (835), Redon (869) and Narbonne (c. 890). 25Forsyth, 73. She remarks only on the ninth-century works, making no mention of the Volto Santo. 26Haussherr, 160. Exceptional is a short-sleeved rep- resentation in the Utrecht Psalter. See Haussherr, 159, Ill. 22. - II ...111. I'll I II‘ .. (Ii III]. ill". Elli [..III III! I'll .‘lllll'l‘l f1. ll 59 27Forsyth, 81. 28Published by Pietro Guidi, "Per la storia della Cattedrale e del Volto Santo," Bolletino storico lucchese, 4 (1932), 169. The list continues on page 170. The first two items are fully listed as follows: "Altare ante Vultum: in honore XII Apostolorum, Cornelii gt Cipriani atque Concofdii, Gregorii martyris Spoletini. Ante Crucem veterem: Blasii, Valentifii, Remi ii gt Xmilium Martyrum.w— There 13 no indi- cation within the manuscript as to where these altars were located in the church. . 29Guidi, 178. 3oPedemonte, 45. 31Schwarzmaier, 355. 32J. J. Ryan, "Alexander II, Pope," New Catholic Encyclo- pedia, Vol. 1 (New York: McGraw-Hill, 1967), 288. 33Janet Ross and Nelly Erichsen, The Story gt Lucca (New York: E. P. Dutton, 1912), 18. 34Horace K. Mann, The Lives of the Popes 13 the Middle Ages, Vol. 6, 2nd ed. (St. Louis, Missouri: B. Herder Book Company, 1925), 333. 35These ties with England remained rather strong. Schwarzmaier, 348 says that "EE.EEE.£B Lucca eine f5rm1iche, englische Kolonie gegeben haben." Likewise, many of the Lucchese who participated in the First Crusade were trans- ported in English Ships. See Raoul Manselli, "Lucca e Lucchesi nei loro Rapporti con la Prima Crociata,” Bolletino storico lucchese, 12 (1940), 158-68. 36Arthur Kingsley Porter, Spanish Romanesqge Sculpture, V01. 2 (Florence: Pantheon, 1928), 10. 37As quoted in Schwarzmaier, 349. 38Schwarzmaier, 349. Blanchardus first appears in documents of 1057. The two are last mentioned in September 1078. 39Alexander II also gave special gifts to the church of San Frediano, according to S.J.P. Van Dijk and J. Hazelden Walker, Ttg Origins gt ttg Modern Roman Liturgy, (Westminster, Maryland: The Newman Press, I960), 71. George S. Tyack, Egg Cross it Ritual, Architecture and Art, 2nd ed. (London: William Andrews, 1900), 49 reports that in 1070 Alexander II allowed the bishops of Lucca and Pavia to have processional crosses carried before them, an honor usually accorded to archbishops. 60 40Illustrated in John Beckwith, Early Medieval Art (New York: Frederick A. Praeger, 1964), 151, Ill. 141 and 142. 41Illustrated in Paul Thoby, tg Crucifix des Origines gt Concile gg Trente (Nantes: Bellanger, 1959), P1. XX, No. 42. 42Thoby, Pl. V, No. 11. See also the representation on a gold and crystal cross given by Gregory the Great to Queen Theolinda at the beginning of the seventh-century, Pl. VII, No. 18; eighth-century enamel work in the Pierpont Morgan Library, Pl. IX, No. 26; eleventh-century Ada ivory in the Victoria and Albert Museum, Pl. XXIII, No. 50; manu- script of the Discourse of St. Gregory Nazianzus in the Bibliotheque Nationale, Paris, Pl. XLI, No. 92; and eleventh- century Greek psalter in the British Museum, P1. XLII, No. 95. Exceptional are the eighth-century encolpion from Monza which shows a long sleeved, beltless colobium, P1. VII, No. 19 and an embossed sixth to seventh-century Syrian silver paten now in Leningrad, Gertrud Schiller, Iconography gt Christian Art, V01. 2 (Greenwich, Connecticut: New York Graphic Society, 1972), P1. 322. 43The uniformly hemmed colobium is not restricted only to Ottonian examples. In the Deposition carved by Benedetto Antelami for Parma Cathedral in 1178, illustrated in Gustav Kanstler, Ed., Romanesque Art 12 Euro e (New York: W. W. Norton, 1973), No. 125, the soldiers are roll1ng dice to determine the ownership of Christ's gown. It has similar narrow bor- ders on the hems of the sleeves and the bottom. 44For example, see E. B. Garrison, "Lucchese Passionary Related to the Sarzana Crucifix," Art Bulletin, 35 (1953), 109-19. 45Encyclopedia Britannica, Vol. 14 (Chicago: William Benton, 1972), 391. 46According to Britannica, Vol. 16, 1159, Otto I was in Italy from 966 to 972, Otto II - 980 to 982, Otto III - 983, 998 and 1000 (Vol. 16, 1160), Henry II - 1004, 1013 to 1014, and 1021 (V01. 11, 372), Conrad II - 1027 and 1036 to 1038 (Vol. 6, 362) and Henry III - 1046 to 1047 and 1055 (Vol. 11, 373). 47Britannica, Vol. 11, 373. Guerra, 132 records a gift to the Volto Santo from Beatrice. 43Augusto Mancini, Storia gt Lucca (Florence: Sansoni, 1950), 48. 61 49Mancini, 49. 50Mancini, 47. 51Guerra, 97. 52Almerico Guerra, Compendio di storia ecclesiastica lucchese dalle origini a tutto i1 secolo XII (Lucca: Coop. Tipografica Editrice, 1924), 135 "di una piccola citta della Baviera, puo credersi avere questo vescovo, tosto dopo la sua elevazione, accompagnato in Germania l' Imperatore S. Enrico, ed avere forse assistito cola ad un concilio con- vocato dallo stesso Imperatore.’ 53Pedemonte, 33 has suggested that the "in primodilis fere ggntis illius" of the legend more accurately refers to the situation in Lucca during the time of Giovanni II than Giovanni I. S4Guerra, Compendio, 140. 55As quoted from the eleventh-century legend of San Frediano by Schwarzmaier, 337. 561t is interesting to note that it was also Giovanni II who brought the relics of St. Lucina from Rome to Lucca, according to Guerra, Compendio, 140. St. Lucina was be- lieved to have discovered the body of St. Sebastian after his martyrdom and have given him an honorable burial. To this day, a statue of St. Sebastian graces the back of the Volto Santo's chapel. 57Guerra, Storia, 105. On page 124 Guerra says that Otto IV was respons1ble for monetary reform in Lucca in the early thirteenth century. Schwarzmaier, 355 also records that he was the first documented visitor to the relic of the Holy Blood at Luni. 58Illustrated by Haussherr, 159, Ill. 23. See also the crowned, bearded Christ on the cross with a slightly shorter but more elaborately draped garment from the Gospel Book of Abbess Uta of Kirchberg, c. 1020, now in Munich, Illustrated in Thoby, Pl. XVI, No. 35. This sort of garment is also worn by the Majestad from Las Caldas de Montbuy, Porter, Vol. 2, P1. 63. 59Translated by Forsyth, 93. She prints the Latin text on 94, n. 2. 60Forsyth, 94. 62 61Clairece Black, "Origin of the Lucchese Cross Form: The Significance of the Chalice Base," Marsyas, l (1941), 32. See illustration on P1. XV, Fig. 13. 62This practice is not restricted to colobium clad representations. Two crucifixes with Christ garbed in the traditional Western perizonium are found in an eleventh- century sacramentary in Bamberg and a twelfth-century pericope in Munich, Black, Pl. XVII, Figs. 19 and 20. Louis Réau, Iconographie gg l'art chrétien, Vol. 2, Part 2 (Paris: Presses Universitaires de France, 1957), 501 cites a tenth-century fresco in the choir of St. Pierre- -1es-Eglises, near Chauvigny in Poitou as depicting a crucifix and a chalice, but this was not the general practice. 63Cited in Gustav Schnurer and Joseph Ritz, Sankt Kummernis und Volto Santo (Dusseldorf: L. Schwann, 1934), 146, as 'calicem sancte crucis." 64Perhaps the earliest of these is the unspecified seal which Guerra, Storia, 126 dates from the time of Alexander II and which has representations of the Volto Santo and St. Martin. 65Schnt'irer, "Herkunft," 275. 66For example, Black, 35. 67See Wendelin Foerster, "Le Saint Vou de Lucques," Mélanges Chabaneau (Erlangen, 1907), 1-55 for a thorough treatment of this legend. His ideas are condensed by Joseph Bédier, Les Légendes Epigues, 3rd ed., Vol. 2 (Paris: Librarie Ancienne H. Champion, 1926), 223-29. 68Schnfirer and Ritz, 163. 69For the Latin text of the legend see Foerster, 53-54. 70Illustrated in Thoby, Pl. XXVII, No. 63. It is very similar to a near lifesize crucifix from Cologne c.1170, Thoby, Pl. LXXIII, No. 167. 71While the colobiums do differ, it is not necessary to assume that the Volto Santo is the resumption of an early Byzantine type as suggested by Haussherr, 160. The over- whelming number of relationships between Lucca and Germany favor an Ottonian prototype. 72First noted by Haussherr, 158. 63 73Guerra, Compendio, 137. This reform movement continued under Bishops Anselm I and II. See E. Kittel, "Der Kampf um die Reform des Domskapitels in Lucca im 11. Jahrhundert," tgstschrift Albert Brackmann (Weimar: H. thlaus, 1931), 207- 47. 74Guerra, Storia, 427, n. 2. 75Hugh Honour, "An Unpublished Romanesque Crucifix," Connoisseur, 136 (November 1955), 151, Ill. 1. See also the crowned image of Christ from Kirchberg, cited in note 58 which has an alpha and omega placed on the manuscript page just above the arms of the cross. 768chiller, II, 145. CHAPTER IV THE SIGNIFICANCE OF THE VOLTO SANTO'S PLACEMENT IN LUCCA CATHEDRAL AND THE STATUE'S LITURGICAL USE The particular location of the Volto Santo in the ca- thedral of Lucca is crucial to the interpretation of its liturgical significance. Its present location in an autono- mous structure in the north aisle of this church is first documented in 1119 when Bishop Benedetto dedicated a chapel to the Volto Santo.1 In 1107, however, Pasquale II's papal bull had already mentioned a "Sacrarium Vultus," indicating the existence of a separate structure which housed the V01to Santo. Unlike the present octagonal chapel of 1482, the original would appear to have been square, as indicated by the contract for the construction of the new chapel.2 Since Leobino's legend states that the Volto Santo was - placed in the "australem plagam," not the north aisle of its present location, scholars have attempted to determine at what time this venerated image was moved to its new location. General consensus dates this transfer between 1060 and 1070. The Volto Santo is assumed to have been placed over an altar dedicated to the twelve apostles and other saints.3 I would propose, however, that the present location of the V01to Santo or one very similar to it is that which it occupied since its arrival in the second quarter of the eleventh century. 64 65 It has already been suggested that the Volto Santo legend may actually be the merging of a number of traditions dating back to the eighth century. It is not difficult to imagine that the Carolingian relics or reliquary cross acquired at Luni were transferred to a position near the south portal (accounting for Leobino's "australem plagam") upon the demise of the church of Dominis gt Salvatoris in the early tenth century. It thus would not be necessary to assume that the Volto Santo was moved at all. In fact, it may have been the original cross with its relics which was moved near the Volto Santo. There is mention of a large silver cross in the leg- end which accounts for the invention of relics at least fifty years after it may be assumed that Volto Santo I arrived in Lucca. This image of Christ was hung in the middle of the church to commemorate the miraculous discovery of the relics.4 It is certainly tempting to identify this cross with the Carolingian donation. Even a new cross created especially for the occasion may have been modelled on the type of this "crux vetus." At any rate, the Volto Santo's demonstrable use in the liturgical ceremonies of Good Friday and Easter, and its appropriate iconography for such celebrations sug- gest that Volto Santo I was originally and purposefully in- tended to be placed in or near the north aisle. Previous scholars have not considered the significance of the Volto Santo Chapel's placement. Most have excused it as more convenient or quieter than a location near the portals 66 of the church.5 I would submit that this chapel belongs to a large group of analogously positioned Altars of the Cross which have their origins in the monuments of the Holy Sepul- chre in Jerusalem. A The location of the Volto Santo chapel is very similar to the locations of the Altars of'the Cross at the monastery of St. Catherine at Mt. Sinai and at San Marco in Venice.6 These altars with ciborium-like structures over them are placed next to the nave arcade on the north side of the church. The monastery at Mt. Sinai was regularly frequented by pilgrims in spite of its isolated location.7 By the eleventh century a large number of Easterners also made pilgrimages to the west. One such traveller of particular importance to our concerns is a certain Simeon who was born in Syracuse. He studied in Constantinople, later served seven years as a guide for pilgrims in Jerusalem and then became a monk at Mt. Sinai. Sometime afterwards he is known to have gone to Rome and later to Normandy. It is more than likely that he passed through Lucca on this northward journey which ended with his death as a recluse at Trier in 1035.8 Such specific associations with the church of St. Catherine are not totally necessary, however, to account for the placement of the Volto Santo. By the ninth century many German and Frankish churches had specific Altars of the Cross, though they were usually placed in the middle of the nave. The pre-830 ideal plan for the monastery of St. Gall locates 67 an "'altare sancti salvatoris gg crucem,‘ as at Saint-Riquier and at Fulda, in the middle of the central nave, approximately mid-way between the two apses."9 Similarly, ceremonies from Essen and Saint-Riquier both mention altars of the Holy Cross.10 In Italy the rectangular chapel built in the middle of the nave in the fifteenth century by Michelozzo at San Miniato a1 Monte, Florence is likewise a Chapel of the Holy Cross,11 and a 1519 rite for Holy Thursday from Aquileia takes place in the middle of the nave before the altar of the Holy Cross.12 In many churches of the later Middle Ages, this chapel was incorporated into the choir screen and rood loft, but at Lucca it retained its integrity as a separate structure. Al- though the chapel in Lucca cathedral is specifically associ- ated with the Volto Santo, documents do frequently speak of it as the chapel of the Holy Cross.13 The identification of the north side of the church with altars of the Holy Cross was persistent in Lucca, where, until 1506, the St. Augustine chapel in the left aisle of the church of San Frediano was called "Santa Croce."14 The Lucchese placement, like that at Mt. Sinai and Venice, more closely replicates the actual disposition of the monuments at the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem than do those which place the altar in the middle of the nave. Yet, the general relationship to the high altar remains the same. In fact, Heitz has concluded that for the Carolingian monuments 68 cited above "Jerusalem, thaint-Sépulcre gt_tg_liturgie gg 15 Constantine's tg Resurrection sont g t'origine gg tout." 16 "basilica on Golgotha, Jerusalem," dedicated on September 14, 335 by members of the Council of Tyre,17 provides the basic prototype for Altars of the Cross. At this monument in Jerusalem, which united the Holy Sepulchre, The Rock of Calvary and a basilical martyrium, ”the rock of Calvary some thirty meters (one hundred feet) south-east of the tomb was shaped into a cube."18 The original V01to Santo Chapel and Michelozzo's altar, for example, both had this same shape. The Volto Santo chapel is located to the north-west of the main altar. In Lucca cathedral the main altar, like that in any church, can be seen to represent the Holy Sepulchre. The Liturgical reenactment of Christ's death and resurrection occurs here each time the Eucharist is celebrated. The re- lationship of the V01to Santo chapel to the high altar mir- rors the relationship of the rock of Calvary to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. In the end, it is not the actual physical directions of the compass but rather the relation- ship expressed among the structures which is crucial to our concerns.19 The rock of Calvary in Jerusalem was located to the south-east of Christ's tomb rather than the north-west merely because the buildings in Jerusalem were not oriented. Although numbers of pilgrims actually did travel to the Holy Land, the monuments there were primarily known from de- scriptions of schematic diagrams such as that made by the Gallic bishop Arculfe in the late seventh century (Illustration 69 14).20 At least four ninth-century copies of this plan exist in Vienna,21 Paris,22 Zurich,23 and Brussels.24 They all represent the structures in terms of circles and rectangles. The chapel built around the rock of Calvary is shown as hav- ing either a square (Paris) or rectangular (Vienna) floor plan like that of the original Volto Santo chapel. Of particular interest on these plans is the proximity of the chapel in which the Holy Grail was displayed- in the Vienna example immediately next to and behind the Golgotha Chapel, while on the Paris example directly behind it. Per- haps the image of the V01to Santo displayed with the chalice below its right foot was intended as an allusion to both the Golgotha chapel and the chapel of the Holy Grail. Even though the monuments in Jerusalem were destroyed in 1009,25 they continued to live in the memories of Christians by means of manuscripts and also buildings like San Stefano in Bologna which reflected the general scheme of the structures.26 According to tradition, "as early as the time of Modestus the rock of Calvary was enveloped by a double chapel. The upper section of this chapel showed the hole (which is still exhibited) that held Christ's Cross, while the lower section en- closed Adam's grave and the crevice in the rock through which the Saviour's blood flowed to annoint Adam's skull."27 I am convinced that it is this structure which is symbolically portrayed in the crucifixion from the mid-eleventh-century Echternach Gospels (Illustration 15).28 Christ on the cross wears a typical long-sleeved colobium generally similar to 70 that of the Volto Santo. A large chalice which rests beneath his feet resembles those beneath the crosses in the Metz manuscript and Cologne ivory. To Christ's sides are the Virgin and St. John, and the sun and moon appear in roundels above. Below the cross Adam and Eve rise from their graves. The inclusion of this detail clearly suggests an association with the Golgotha chapel in Jerusalem. Similarly, perhaps the chalice in this manuscript and the one placed below the Volto Santo are references to the chapel of the Holy Grail which was adjacent to the Golgotha chapel in Jerusalem.29 The preparation of the Eucharistic gifts in the Byzan- tine mass takes place to the north of the main altar, again recalling the relationship of the chapels of the Holy Grail and Golgotha to the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Although the ceremonies of the Byzantine rite differed substantially from those of Western Roman rite, they were known in the West. The example of Azenerius, abbot of Saint-Martin, Massay may be cited. According to the acts of the Concilium Lemovicense of 1031, he had assisted in a liturgical service at Hagia Sophia.30 There, as in all Byzantine services, the Great Entrance, that is, the entry of the celebrant with the Eucharistic elements, is made from the north of the church. In pre-Iconoclastic churches this entrance was made from the skeuophylakion, a structure which served as a sort of sacristy and "was located somewhere north of the church."31 Signifi- cantly, the eighth-century writer. Germanus says that "the preparation of the gifts which takes place in the skeuophylakion 71 stands for the place of Calvary where Christ was crucified."32 A twelfth century compilation of liturgies attributed to Pseudo-Sophrone concurs in interpreting the skeuophylakion as "the place of the skull as it was prefigured by Abraham."33 In present practice, the deacon and the celebrant "go to the prothesis table which is located at the north side of the sanctuary or in a separate chapel north of it" to pre- pare the Eucharistic gifts.34 In the tenth and eleventh cen- turies new formulae were developed for the cutting of the bread on the Prothesis table and the act was also "given a symbolic meaning because the accompanying text alludes to the death of the Lamb, Jesus Christ, on Golgotha."35 Further reference to Christ's sacrifice and the north side of the church is reflected in a monument such as the church at Daphni where the famous mosaic Crucifixion (c.1100) is located in a lunette on the north wall of the left cross- arm of the church.36 At Hosios Lukos in Phocis, Greece an- other mosaic rendition of the crucifixion was placed in the left side of the narthex around the year 1000.37 Likewise, the tympanum over the left portal of Lucca cathedral shows the Deposition. The doorway is known as the "Porta della g. gtggg," as is also the north portal of the Florence Bap- tistry.38 The left or north side has traditonally connoted the darkness of temporal existence. This is made clear in St. Gregory's Twenty-First Homily, based on the Gospel read dur- ing Easter matins in the Roman rite. He rhetorically asks, 72 "For what signifieth the left, but this life which now is? or the right, but life everlasting?"39 The positioning of the Volto Santo chapel in the north aisle of Lucca cathedral thus appropriately commemorates Christ's sacrifice on this earth, in fact, the very spot in Jerusalem where he made that sacrifice. Far from being just the "Sacrarium Vultus," the Volto Santo chapel is also a Golgotha chapel intimately linked with Christ's tomb. The liturgical ceremonies associated with the Volto Santo also may have their origins at the holy places of Jerusalem. From the fourth century account of the Pelegrinatio Etheriae we learn how the Golgotha chapel was used on Good Friday:40 Etheria tells how the Bishop holds the Holy wood of the Cross between his hands while deacons stand guard. The faithful come forward, she says, and touch the relic "first with their foreheads and then with their eyes; then they kiss the Cross and pass through."41 They also adore other objects. "All the people are passing through up to the sixth hour, entering by one door and going out by another."42 At the sixth hour everyone gathers in front of the Cross where the Bishop is seated, and lessons are read from the gospels re- garding Christ's passion. Hymns are sung and prayers are said. "At the beginning of the ninth hour, there is read that passage.from the Gospel according to John where He gave up the ghost. This read, prayer and the Dismissal follow."43 The form of this commemoration of Christ's passion acted at the places where they actually occurred was imported 73 to the West and took the form of a stational drama within the Good Friday liturgy. "By the seventh century it was a regu- lar part of Roman usage. The station for the day, Santa Groce in Gerusalemme, is chosen explicitly for the ceremony - a re- minder of the tendency of coincidence to operate in terms of space as well as time."44 Not unexpectedly, the station for this drama in Lucca cathedral was the Volto Santo chapel "ubi Christi crux adora- tgt."45 Previous scholars studying the Volto Santo have neg- lected the importance of this ceremony; their energies were concentrated on unraveling the mysteries of the Volto Santo's provenance.46 While all the problems regarding its provenance are far from solved, recent studies on the relationship between architecture and liturgy, as exemplified by Carol Heitz' study of Carolingian and Ottonian architecture,47 have suggested the importance of investigating the Volto Santo's liturgical function. Since the thirteenth century the Volto Santo has been intimately associated with three church festivals: the solemn recollection of Christ's death on Good Friday, the Feast of the Invention of the Cross on May third and the Feast of the Ex- altation of the Cross on September fourteenth.48 The Lucchese have adopted the autumnal celebration as their civic holiday. The elaborate processions and services in honor of the Volto Santo on the latter have overshadowed the former two church holidays.49 In the eleventh and twelfth centuries, on the other hand, the major celebrations surrounding the Volto Santo 74 took place during Passion Week and Eastertide. According to local tradition, the Volto Santo arrived in Lucca on the Friday after Easter, which is still known in Lucca as "11 venerdi dello scontro della croce."50 Unspecified documents and liturgical records of the cathedral indicated to Guerra that the original festival of the Volto Santo was celebrated on the second day of Easter, that is, Easter Monday.51 The day began with the ringing of church bells and after a pro- cession in the vicinity of the cathedral, the bishop presided pontifically at mass in the cathedral. Indeed, a papal bull of Pope Gelasius II from 1118 prohibited the celebration of mass in any other church on this day.52 The special character of this day is indicated by the fact that it was the only day in the year that the canons were permitted the use of the mitre. After the mass was completed, the eight cantors re- ceived two gold coins from the Guardians of the Holy Cross.53 Such practice indicates that this day was none other than the ancient festival of the Volto Santo. This large-scale celebration on Easter Monday was a fitting continuation of the Easter celebrations of the day before. In effect, the news of Christ's resurrection was brought to all the people of the town, much as Christ had ap- peared to his disciples on the road to Emmaus.54 The V01to Santo which had been adored on Good Friday was now adored as the risen, triumphant Christ. This dual character of its iconography is suited to a comparable Easter custom at Rome which "requires an especially elaborate vesper service 75 throughout the week."55 "It has all the elements of a resur- rection ceremony...and begins with actions recalling the Crucifixion and the Adoration rite of Good Friday."56 The ancient form of this adoration rite in Lucca con- tains all the basic elements of the Roman form.57 In the fragments of this rite which have been published, the cere- mony begins after the reading of an unspecified tract. The deacon announces the reading of the Passion of the Lord which is presented in an austere manner without responses, incense or even making the sign of the cross over the gospel or one- self. The only exception occurs when the words "venit autem Nicodemus" are read. The act of crossing oneself in this in- stance would clearly seem to be in deference to the sculptor of the Volto Santo. When the reading of the passion is completed, prayers are said. Then the bishop, with the choir, goes down to the chapel of the Holy Cross where the Volto Santo is located. The bishop prostrates himself on a carpet before the chapel and the responsory "tenebrae factae sunt super universam terram" is sung by the cantor and the subdeacon. When this is finished the choir to the right sings the Greek portion of the Trisagion, "the holiest of all Greek prayers."58 Afterwards, the other choir sings it in Latin. Then four cantors enter the Volto Santo chapel. The two on the side of the cross facing the people sing "Popule meus quid feci titt?" Except for a few altered details, the Lucchese cere- mony parallels the Roman rite. As at Rome, "the Cross ceases 76 to be a simple object of meditation. It is treated as the original Cross,...[the] reproaches (improperia) understood to be spoken by Christ himself."59 The Lucchese manuscript is incomplete regarding the next actions, but it does indi- cate that the other two cantors sing something in reply from the other side of the cross. In Roman practice Christ's lament continues with "a reference to Christ's deliverance of the Hebrews:....'Quia eduxi terra Aegypti, pgrasti crucem Salvatori tuo.'"60 The lacuna in the manuscript would also appear to have eliminated the singing of the Greek portion of the Trisagion by the right choir, for the manuscript re- sumes as the choir on the left sings it again in Latin.61 Once more two voices are heard from within the chapel singing "the second improperium, also an allusion to Exodus...: 'Quia gggtt_tg_per desertum quadraginta annis."'62 The ceremony is interrupted as the bish0p ascends the pulpit and preaches a sermon about peace.53 The ceremony is later continued with confession. Then the bishop enters the chapel of the Holy Cross and uncovers the Volto Santo. The invitation to adore the cross is sung: "Ecce lignum crucis, tg quo salus mundi perpendit. Venite adoremus." Finally the feet of the Volto Santo are kissed by the priests and the people. The rest of the rite proceeds, according to Mansi, as in the nineteenth century.64 In this ceremony the Passion of Christ is not read be- fore the cross as at Jerusalem and the reading precedes rather 77 than follows the adoration of the cross, but the special honor accorded Nicodemus is clearly a reference to the V01to Santo. The gospel reading serves as a prologue to the actual visit- ing of the symbolic site of Christ's crucifixion in the church. The divine history which has been read is now reenacted. As the Volto Santo chapel is transformed in the minds of the wor- shippers into the Jerusalem Golgotha chapel, the mood is set by the foreboding responsory's reminder that darkness was over the entire earth. The deathly stillness is shattered by the cantors who sing Christ's reproaches to his people. It would have seemed as though Christ Himself were in the chapel, embodied in the form of the Volto Santo. At the conclusion of the rite, the Volto Santo's feet are kissed, just as were the relics of the True Cross in Jerusalem. Although the cross was viewed symbolically in this manner in any church which followed the basic form of the Adoratio crucis, it was all the more fitting at Lucca where the V01to Santo was believed to be an accurate image of the Savior himself, housed in a chapel which recalled the very place of his cru- cifixion in Jerusalem. The ceremonies which followed this dramatic encounter between Christ and his people at the foot of the cross are not specified in the published account of the Lucchese rite. In most cases, the liturgy continues the metaphoric narration of events leading to Christ's burial. ”The most important expression of sorrow on Good Friday is the cessation of the daily sacrifice."65 A special Mass of the Presanctified 78 usually followed the Adoration of the Cross. A Host which had been consecrated on Holy Thursday and reserved for Friday was used. In Lucca the extra Eucharistic elements consecrated for Good Friday were taken to the sacristy after all had com- muned on Holy Thursday.66 These elements were probably brought quietly back to the main altar as the Adoratio crucis finished. Upon the conclusion of the Adoration, the doors of the Volto Santo chapel were most likely closed.67 Whether this occurred before or after the Mass of the Presanctified is not certain, but such an act does symbolically allude to the deposition and burial of Christ, who had just been adored upon the cross, suffering for mankind. Since the Lucchese manuscript stops short with the Adora- tion of the Cross, it is not certain whether the Lucchese actually developed any formal 'burial'rite for Good Friday, but extra-liturgical ceremonies of this type are known as early as the tenth-century Concordia Regularis of St. Athewold 68 The rubrics provide that used at Winchester. "on that part of the altar where there is space for it shall be a representation, as it were, of a sepulchre, hung about with a curtain, in which the Holy Cross, wheggit has been venerated, shall be placed." After a ceremony in which the cross is wrapped in a sindon and buried "in imitation as it were of the burial of our Lord Jesus Christ,...the Holy Cross shall be guarded with all reverence until the night of the Lord's Resurrection." 79 This burial was followed by the Mass of the Presanctified in which all communed in silence. Such ceremonies developed a wide popularity,71 and per- manent or semi-permanent structures were constructed to serve as the sepulchre for both the Cross and the Host. The majori- ty of the Depositio crucis ceremonies which have been pre- served are of South-German provenance.73 Since we have pre- viously suggested numerous other connections with Germany, it is of importance that the "German sepulchre was usually in the nave." Sometimes it was actually placed at or near the Altar of the Holy Cross.74 On the other hand, the sepulchre in England and France was usually placed in the choir.75 "In Italy it seems...to have been usually in the nave,"76 77 such as at Cividale and Venice. In fact, at Aquileia it was placed, like the Volto Santo chapel, in the north aisle.78 Akin to the practice described at Winchester, the n , Prufen1ng Deposito crucis immediately followed the Adoratio crucis. The rubrics for this ceremony specifically indicate that a sepulchre was prepared at the Altar of the Holy Cross: "ultimo portitores crucis, gt fit stacio ante altare sancte crucis quod antea g custode loco dominici sepulchri lintheo magno specialiter gg_hoc apto velatum existit.” Related to this practice, in turn, is that at Moosburg, Germany which specified that after communion the sepulchre for the crucifix should be set up where the crucifix was adored: "super altari mobili posito portatur gg_1ocum 12 quo crucifixus est adSratus gt ibi sepul- chrum pro sepultura crucifixi debet esse positum gt circumductis pannis decenter preparatum.‘ 80 Admittedly, the Volto Santo could not actually have been placed in a separate sepulchre upon the altar as at Prfifening, but the entire chapel with its doors closed probably did serve as a symbolic sepulchre. A number of churches built large scale, permanent se- pulchres at least as big as the Volto Santo chapel. As noted above, the large circular structure known as the San Sepglcro, located in the second bay of the north aisle of Aquileia cathedral,81 likewise corresponds to the Volto Santo Chapel's placement in the north aisle of Lucca cathedral. The San 82 Sepolcro is known to have existed already in 1077, and ceremonies describe its use as a repository for both a cross and a Host which were then elevated on Easter.83 Analogous ceremonies are associated with the Altar of the Cross at Prt'ifening.84 Perhaps such ceremonies which included the burial of both the cross and a Host,85 usually placed in a monstrance or chalice, may lend yet more plausibility to my suggestion that the chalice of the Volto Santo was not a makeshift ad- dition but had its origins in Easter ceremonies. The Roman Ordo from a fourteenth- or fifteenth-century manuscript speaks of a chalice to reserve the Host: "calicem cum corpore Domini nostri reservato, non iIlum calicem.tg uo celebravit, sed solum magnum gg auro. That the preconsecrated elements for Good Friday were 81 reserved in the sacristy and not the Volto Santo chapel does raise some questions. Yet, the Depositio crucis gt_hostiae at Regensburg specifically provides that both elements - that is, the cross and the Host - be placed in the sepulchre only to be removed promptly to the sacristy for safekeeping by the Abbott when the ceremony is completed.87 A manuscript from Laon also indicates that the Host was placed on the altar of the sepulchre before Matins on Easter, in spite of the fact 88 The ceremonies that it was stored elsewhere, as at Lucca. for Holy Thursday from Essen suggest yet another alternative. The fourteenth-century Liber ordinarius, which probably re- flects tenth-century usage at Essen, requires that three Hosts be consecrated on Holy Thursday: one for the mass of that day, one which was stored in a sacristy for the Mass of the Presanctified on Good Friday and a third which was de- posed in a symbolic sepulchre called the sacrarium corporis 89 Christi. There had been mention of a "sacrarium Vultus" in Pope Pasquale II's bull of 1107. In its general sense this term indicates a special area or chapel reserved for the hallowed Volto Santo, but perhaps further research into the entymology of the term may also show a more specific re- lationship to the Essen sacrarium in which a Host was buried. That the V01to Santo was originally placed over an altar dedicated to the Twelve Apostles in no way weakens the hy- pothesis that the V01to Santo was used in EaSter rituals. "Sometimes chapels other than Sepulchre Chapels were used for these ceremonies as the Chapel of St. Sebastian at St. Gall. 82 of St. Finstan at Rheinau and of Simon at Meissen."90 In Italy a thirteenth-century Deposito crucis ceremony from Padua in- dicates the Chapel of St. Daniel as the site of the sepulchre: "deferunt Crucem gg altare Sancti Danielis, gt deponunt eam 91 tg Sepulchro ante altare." Of special interest is the co- incidence with a ceremony from Polling, Germany where the altar of the Apostles served as the setting for a liturgical drama representing the Three Maries' visit to the tomb (Visitatio Sepulchri): "itur ptocessionaliter gg_altare apos- tolorum. Et ibidem peragatur visitatio sepulchri secondum 92 consuetudinum." Such sepulchres and their use of Christ's symbolic burial necessitated complementary resurrection or Elevatio ceremonies. These acts were in perfect harmony with the Easter message of Christ's resurrection from the tomb. How- ever, unlike the public, communal rites of the Adoratio and subsequent Dgpositio, "the Elevatio was often performed almost pri- vately in a subdued voice and behind closed doors. The performance was usually given not for rejoicing throngs but rather for small groups of penitent clerics."93 The earliest example of this ceremony is a counterpart to the Depositio found in St. Athelwold's Concordia Regularis. It very simply provides that the cross which was deposited be taken out of its sepulchre and be put in an appropriate place.94 "Since it is certain that Christ was resurrected before the women and disciples came to the sepulchre," says an Elevatio ceremony from Gran, Hungary, "it is fitting that this ceremony be completed before the people gather in the 83 church."95 In fact, the Synod of worms of 1316 prohibited lay people from participating in the Elevation.96 A ceremony of this type at Lucca would assuredly have been private. The Volto Santo no doubt had been displayed without its ornaments on Good Friday.97 It would now have been necessary to adorn it for Easter with its crown, gilt belt and shoes, all of which, like the chalice, are indicated in early representations of the figure. Such a vesting of the statue would have been undesirably awkward and difficult to perform publicly and can justifiably be assumed to have occurred privately. Once dressed, the V01to Santo became the perfect image of the transfigured, resurrected and even apoca- lyptic Lord who had been dead but now lives forever.98 Although the principal readings for Eastertide are pre- dictably chosen from the gospel accounts of the Resurrection and the ensuing encounters between the risen Christ and his disciples, the oldest of the Ordines romani for use at the Lateran specifies that lessons from the Epistles, Acts of the Apostles and the Apocalypse be read until Pentecost.99 More specifically, the Liber Comicus, reflecting the custom at Toledo around 660, required the reading of Revelation 1:9-16, 17-18 on Holy Saturday and Revelation I:l-18 for Easter it- self.100 In both cases, the verses which are read are at the very basis of the Volto Santo's iconography. If not read on Easter in Lucca, perhaps these lessons were read on the fol- lowing day when the original feast of the Volto Santo was celebrated. Precedent for such a practice occurs already 84 around the eighth century in the lessons for Eastertide speci- fied by the lectionary of Luxeil in Gaul.101 Although the lessons for Easter Day are missing from this document, those for Easter Monday include Revelation 1:14 through II:7. For the moment.such remarks are merely speculative but in the future it would perhaps prove worthwhile to examine the litur- gical documents in Lucca for evidence of readings from the 1 Apocalypse at Eastertide.102 What I have been able to determine of Lucchese Easter ceremonies does indicate that the Volto Santo was displayed for Easter and that the Volto Santo chapel was treated sym- bolically as the sepulchre of Christ. An undated Easter Vigil collected by Mansi in the seventeenth century begins with 103 rites for lighting the Paschal candle. After the candle is lit, the twelve traditional lessons for the Vigil are read by canons from the various municipal churches.104 During these readings, four priests prepare the catechumens for bap- tism. After the priests annoint them with holy oils, the bishop, clerics and people descend to the font.105 Four priests from the cathedral and four from the church of Santa Reparata officiate as the entire community witnesses the spiritual death and rebirth of the neophytes. This idea is expressed most clearly in St. Paul's letter to the Romans VI:3-4: "When we were baptized in Christ we were bap- tized in his death; in other words, when we were baptized we went into the tomb with him and joined him in death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead by the Father's glory, we too might have a new life."106 85 St. Basil's interpretation of this passage further explicates the essential symbolism of baptism: "How then do we achieve the descent into hell? By imitating through baptism the burial of Christ. For the bodies of the baptized are, as it were, buried in water...For there the death on behalf of the world is one, and one the res- urrection of the dead, whereof baptism is a type."107 When the rite of baptism is concluded, the entire con- gregation liturgically recreates Christ's descent to hell and his resurrection as follows. The bishop, deacon and subdeacon, ornately vested and preceded by candelabra, thuribles, incense and three crosses, begin the prayer "Deus qui ecclesiam tuam" 108 at the door of the Cloister. Then all process around the 109 church singing the antiphon "Cum rex gloriae." This anti- phon reflects the story of Christ's Harrowing of Hell and is 110 frequently found in Elevatio ceremonies. It continues the recollection of the events of Christ's death and resurrection begun in the baptismal rites. Moving through the church the congregation recalls how Christ descended into hell. "The chief inspiration for the treatment of this theme is, directly or indirectly, the Gospel of Nicodemus."111 The ceremony continues with an actual dramatization of this theme at the church door. An Elevatio ceremony from Bamberg clearly states that the ceremonial at the door sym- 112 bolizes Christ's descent to hell. At St. Gall the door was actually struck with the base of a cross "as a sign of "113 the redemption of souls from limbo. In Lucca the rubric 86 indicates that the bishop announces, "Tollite portas, princi- pes, vestras, gt elevamini, portae aeternales, gt introibit rex gloriae" ("Lift up your gates o rulers and be lifted up 0 everlasting doors, and the king of glory shall come in.")114 These words, taken from Psalm 24, are precisely those which begin the Nicodemean account of Christ's descent into hell. Although the response to the bishop's acclamation is missing from the Lucchese manuscript, it can be assumed that the chorus responded with the usual "Quis est iste rex gloriae?" ("Who is this king of glory?"),115 since the bishop is respond- ing to this question when the manuscript resumes: "Dominus virtutum ipse est rex gloriae" ("The Lord of strength, this is the king of glory.") Again, the manuscript is incomplete following the words ”Hoc fit ter...," but since similar cere- monies entail a dialogue repeated three times and the account in the Descensus in Nicodemus' Gospel has the Lord repeat the phrase "Lift up your gates" three times before the souls are released from hell, it can be assumed that the "ter..." is a truncated form of "tertio." When this symbolic harrowing of hell was completed, the doors to the church must have been opened, because the Lucchese manuscript says that all the church bells are rung and the people enter the church. This obvious commemoration of the resurrection is again made explicit at St. Gall where all the 116 bells were rung "tg signum resurrectionis." At Lucca the procession stops "ante crucem" and the bishop declares, "Iam 87 Christus Dominus resurrexit." ("Christ the Lord is risen.")l No clearer indication that the Volto Santo chapel was viewed symbolically as the Holy Sepulchre is necessary. The first verbal recognition of Christ's resurrection is said before the cross which was adored and symbolically buried on Good Friday. The triumphant Christ who released the souls from hell in Nicodemus' Gospel is seen face to face. If the rub- rics here are as incomplete as others throughout the manu- script, perhaps the antiphon continued with a more specific reference to Christ's tomb. A twelfth-century Antiphonary probably from a Camaldolite monastery near Lucca reminds us of the angel's words at the empty tomb: "Egg .surrexit. Venite gt videre locum ubi pgsitus erat dominus."118 Even if the antiphon at Lucca did not continue with this admoni- tion to come and see the place where Christ was laid, such a meaning was certainly implicit. The people responded by say- ing "Thanks be to God." The announcement of Christ's resur- rection and the pe0ple's response were repeated two more times before the procession moved to the choir. This three- fold repetition not only corresponds to the thrice repeated entreaty at the doors of the church, but it also leaves no doubt about the association of the Volto Santo chapel and Christ's resurrection. The three major acts of the Easter vigil ceremony at Lucca can be seen to involve Nicodemus. According to the gospels, he assisted at Christ's burial, symbolically enacted during the rite of baptism. He also is credited with having written the account of Christ's descent 7 88 into hell which is reenacted in the baptismal act, in the singing of the Cum rex gloriae and in the dialogue at the portals of the church. This trilogy of associations is com- pleted by the Volto Santo itself which Nicodemus is reputed to have sculpted and which serves as the image of the risen Lord later in the service. At the high altar the bishop said the Gloria tg_excelsis in his highest voice and the mass continued from there. Again we are reminded of Leobino's legend where, when the ship car- rying the Volto Santo came to shore, the Lucchese are said to have sung the Gloria in thanks for God's divine mercy. (ymnum angelicum decantantes divine misericordie gratias retulerunt). In the Easter ceremony at Lucca the resurrection as commemorated before the cross is likewise followed by the people's "Deo gratias" and the singing of the Gloria at the high altar. The mass at the main altar, though not specified in the Lucchese manuscript, can be assumed to have resounded with the triumph of the Easter message. By the eleventh century a special Easter trope was usually added to the in- 119 Evidently originating at St. Martial 120 troit for the day. of Limoges between 923 and 934, the trope took the form of a sung dialogue which soon gained widespread acceptance throughout Europe. It freely repeated and elaborated upon the encounter between the Three Maries and the angel at the tomb. The question "Qgem quaeritis?" ("Whom do you seek?") usually began the sequence. In Italy such liturgical 89 embellishments are documented in eleventh century ceremonies from the Abruzzi, Bobbfla,Rome, Vercelli, Monza, Mantua, Monte Cassino, Novalesa, and Ivrea.121 Although the Quem quaeritis trope served as the source 122 for the liturgical drama of the Visitatio Sepulchri, which was popularized in England, France and Germany, this trope remained virtually unchanged in Italy for the entire twelfth century.123 Exceptional is the quite elaborate Visitatio performed at Aquileia where a permanent Holy Sepulchre had 124 been erected. A Visitatio was also performed at the Parma sepulchre which, unlike most Italian examples, was located in the choir behind the altar.125 Although a Quem qgaeritis trope may have been sung dur- ing the mass at Lucca, the liturgical drama of the Visitatio Sepulchri would have been inappropriate. In these plays priests representing the Three Maries usually came to a rep- resentation of the empty tomb, where the dialogue ensued.126 Although a Host could be removed from the Volto Santo chapel with little difficulty, the large sculpture itself is not likely to have been. In fact, the Volto Santo's ornamented presence within the chapel would have rendered senseless the import of the drama which depended upon an empty tomb as the visible sign of Christ's resurrection. The Easter ceremony discussed above does indicate the chapel as the place of Christ's resurrection but in no way attempts a literal, re- presentational enactment of that scene. A sepulchre could 90 have been set up nearby, as in the German examples cited above, but the Volto Santo chapel is so emphatically treated as a sepulchre in other Easter ceremonies that the addition of a temporary structure would have been an unwelcome re- dundancy. A sepulchre specifically used for Easter plays is reported to have been constructed in Lucca, perhaps as early as the thirteenth century, but this sepulchre was a civic monument. It was evidently located in the chapel of the town hall127 and therefore was probably not a part of the liturgi- cal ceremonies which took place in the cathedral. The Quem Quaeritis trope does not appear to have under- gone significant development in Italy; hence, it is not sur- prising that mystery plays did not appear there until the thirteenth century.128 The separation of liturgy and drama at this time does suggest, nonetheless, an interesting cor- relation with development of the cult of the Volto Santo. It must be admitted that the main celebration involving the Volto Santo was probably transferred to September fourteenth because of the great fame the statue had acquired; a celebra- tion of its own, divorced from the chief celebration of the church year, was indeed warranted. However, it is curious that at this very time the Volto Santo and its effects should be so completely transformed. Its chapel was redecorated, a new chalice was installed, a new feast was appropriated and, if art historians be correct, even a new Volto Santo was sculpted. Haussherr has noted that by 1200 the original mean- ing of the colobium-clad Apocalyptic Christ was no longer 91 known}?9 Especially in the case of the Volto Santo, its own image had become more important than its type. Perhaps even its associations with the Easter ceremonies were weakening. While the munificence of a thriving populace may be credited with the embellishments for the Volto Santo around 1200, might not an actual change in function also be reflected? The chalice, once a sacred vessel symbolically associated with Christ's sacrifice, was transformed into a receptacle for gifts to the Volto Santo. The new series of frescoes which decorated the chapel are said to have depicted scenes from the legend of the Volto Santo. Along with its new association with the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross, the Volto Santo would appear to have taken on an autonomous existence. It was no longer Christ on the cross but the Volto Santo which people desired to see and exalt. Although the discovery of relics around 1100 had made the Volto Santo a reliquary, by 1200 it was its own most famous relic. Though still used for the Adoratio ceremony of Good Friday and even recognized during the Easter vigil, the actual drama of Easter would seem to have been transferred to that sepulchre outside the church. In the end, it was a happy compromise. The Easter drama and the Volto Santo were removed from competition. Un- happily, much of the original meaning and significance of the Volto Santo were nearly lost to us. Those vestiges which have survived, those traditions which have been perpetuated, even 92 in their presently fragmented state, have helped to recon- struct how important the monuments of Jerusalem and the events which took place there were to that peculiar image, placed in the north aisle of Lucca cathedral, which we know as the Volto Santo. NOTES - CHAPTER IV lAlmerico Guerra, Storia del Volto Santo gt Lucca (Lucca: Tipografia Arcivescovo s. Paolino, 1881), 83. 2Guerra, 446, n. 12. According to Guerra, 484, n. 16 the documents are published by F. di Poggio, Illustrazione del SS. Crocifisso di Lucca, detto volgarmente i1 Volto Santo (Lucca, 1839), 160,161 and 216 ff. A Trecento 1llumination from the Tucci-Tognetti Codex in the Biblioteca Governativa di Lucca which illustrates a procession in honor of the Feast of the Exaltation of the Cross gives some indication of the Chapel's character. Illustrated in E. Lazzareschi, "La festa di 8. Croce a Lucca," Vtg g'Italia 40 (1934), 636. A fifteenth century painting now in the Louvre clearly shows the rectan-’ gularly shaped chapel, illustrated in Gustav Schnfirer and Joseph Ritz, Sankt Kfimmernis und Volto Santo (Dusseldorf: L. Schwann, 1934), P1. XXIII, Abb. 52. 3For example, Pietro Guidi, "Per la storia della Cat- tedrale e del Volto Santo," Bolletino storico lucchese, 4 (1932), 180- 81. Antonio Pedemonte, Quando venne i1 Volto Santo g Lucca? (Lucca: Scuola Tipografica Art1gianell1, 1936) 4948- contends, on the other hand, that the Volto Santo was not yet moved from near the portal as it appears in Guidi's list of altars from between 1065 and 1109 (Guidi, 169-170). Pedemonte assumes that the Volto Santo was not in its present position because it was placed over an altar dedicated to the twelve apostles and other saints. One of the legends in the appendix to Leobino' s legend regarding a woman of Siena spe- cifically states, however, that she went "ad locum...ubi Christi Crux adoratur...In medio enim fere Ecclesiae locus aliis paululum habetur excelsior, septemtrionali parti vici- nor, et ibidem in honorem duodecim Apostolorum et beatissimum CorneTi et CyprTani martyrum altare sacratum coTitur, et super illud imagg Christi collocatur, quam tota Europa devothsime celebrat." Quoted by Guerra, 444, n. 8. 4Guerra, 114. This cross was destroyed in 1798 but Guerra, 460, n. 5 reports that Fioriti, writing in the middle of the eighteenth century, tells of the cross and a document preserved within it relating the story of the legend. 5For example, see Guidi, 181; Pietro Lazzarini, I1 Duomo di Lucca (Lucca: Zincongrafica Fiorentina, September 1970), 42. 93 94 6The mt. Sinai example is illustrated in a nineteenth- century lithograph after a drawing by David Roberts reproduced in Kurt Weitzmann, "The Mosaic in St. Catherine's Monastery on Mount Sinai," Proceedings of the American Philosophical Society, 110, No. 6 (December—1966), 393, F1g. 2. Although the monastery was founded by the Emperor Justinian in the sixth century, it is not known whether the Altar of the Cross is part of the original structure. The San Marco altar post- dates the Volto Santo chapel. According to Ursula Schlegel, "Observations on Masaccio's Trinity Fresco in Santa Maria Novella," Art Bulletin, 45, No. 1 (March 1963), 29 the struc- ture was erected in 1290 to house a cross from Constantinople. The chapel is illustrated in Richard Krautheimer, Early Christian and Byzantine Architecture (Baltimore: Penguin Books, 1965), P1. 172. 7Jean Ebersolt, Orient gt Occident, 2nd ed. (Paris: E. De Boccard, 1954), 39 d1scusses the elaborate itineraries of a number of eighth-century pilgrims which include stops at Mount Sinai. 8Ebersolt, 55. Guerra, 96 records the presence of a S. Simeone in Lucca in the first years of the eleventh century. 9Carol Heitz, Recherches sur les rapportes entre Architecture et Liturgie a l' epoque carolingienne (Paris: S. E. V. P. E. N., —1963), 68 "L' —aute1 de la Sa1nte- Croix (altare sancti salvatoris ad crucem) se dresse, comme a Saint-Riguier 32 § Fulda, ag_milieu d3 13 nef centrale, a p__ pr es a mi- chemin entre les deux absides.‘ For the plan of the church see Heitz, Fig. 33. See also the ninth century plan of Corvey, Fig. 6. 10For Essen see Heitz, Fig. 39, ceremonies described on 193. For Saint-Riquier see Caecilia Davis-Weyer, Early Medieval Art. 300-1150. Sources and Documents. (Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1971), 95. 11Schlegel, 28. She also suggests that Masaccio's Trinity and Buggiano's Cardini Chapel in San Francesco, Pescia are Golgotha Chapels. 12Archdale A. King, Liturgies of the Past (Longmans, Green and Co., 1959), 46. 13Guerra, 461, n. 9 speaks of a thirteenth century church calendar which requires that the lessons for Matins during the octave of the Feast of the Holy Cross be chosen "dei miraculi descritti nel Libro della Capella di 3. Croce. Giovanni Domenico Mansi, Diar1o Sacro delle Ch1ese di Lucca (Lucca, 1836), 78 publishes a ceremony for Good Fr1day 1n *which ”descendat Pontifex cum" choro ante Capellam s. Crucis" which *- is later identified as "capella §§.Vu1tus." 95 14Guerra, 56. The chapel is now decorated with six- ‘teenth centurywflnscoes by Amico Aspertini representing scenes :from the legend of the Volto Santo. 15Heitz, 286. See also 91-121. 16Krautheimer's appellation is most apt for our discus- :sion here. Krautheimer, 39, Fig. 16. 17L. Duchesne, Christian WOrship. Trans. M. L. McClure, .Sth ed. (New York: Macmillan, 1949), 274. 18Krautheimer, 39-40. 19Richard Krautheimer, "Introduction to an Iconography (of Mediaeval Architecture, "Journal of the Warburg and Cour- 'tauld Institutes, 5. (1942), 18 speaks of how the Holy Se- pulchre's 'pattern...is clearly reproduced in the plan of the louildings at Bologna," that is, San Stefano, even though the .Hm .mnone coaucmusmn .GMfluhm ”ouozmv .muaucmu suxflm .mocmuon .mumunflq .mammmoo maonnmm may Eoum :onflMHUSHU um COHfiMHflmDHHH 127 .AHm .mflm .smma .nofi>oucmum .ouonmv .musucmo aucmmuhflnunoflz .xamuH .munmuao> .Uooz .msomw :oflUflmommo "h GOflumuumnaaH 128 Illustration 8: Crucifix. Wood. Braunschweig, Germany. c. 1166. (Photo: Thoby, Pl. LXXIII, No. 166). 129 Illustration 9: Majestad. Wood. Museo de la Ciudadela, Barcelona. Mid-twelfth century. (Photo: Porter, Vol. 1, P1. 34). .Amm .mflm .hmma .sofi>oo:mum “ouonmv .Hmma cflmmm .mmmmomn< mmH mo cash cow .Uooz .msouw :ofluflmomma "0H coaumuumDHHH I!!! I'll! 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