Manipulating the Sacred: Image and Plague in Renaissance Italy

RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY

Edited by MICHAEL J. B. ALLEN ALBERT RABIL, JR.

Associate Editovs RONA GOFFEN BRIDGET GELLERT LYONS COLIN EISLER GENE A. BRUCKER

Manipulating the Salved: Image and Plague in Renaissance Italy *

THE INFAMOUS BLACKDEATHof 1348 signaled the reappearance of bubonic plague in Europe after long centuries of absence. I

Contemporary accounts vividly describe the shock and horror of universal and indiscriminate mortality. From Tournai, Gilles Li Muisis observed that "no one was secure, whether rich, in mod- erate circumstances or poor, but everyone from day to day waited on the will of the Lord. " 2 In any given area, between one third to half of the population would die. Worse still, the Black Death was only the beginning of a worldwide pandemic, or cyclical series of

*Material in this article is drawn from my doctoral dissertation, "Wai t ing on the Wil l o f t h e Lord: The Imagery of the Plague", University of Pennsylvania, 1989. I wish to thank my advisor Leo Steinberg for his inspiration and support. Research for this article was made possible by the generous support of a Chester Dale Fellowship from the Center for Advanced Studies in the Visual Arts, National Gallery of Art, Washington, DC, and a Faculty Research Award from the University of Melbourne. This essay was accepted for publication in April 1992 and thus does not contain any bibliography beyond that date. The following abbreviations are used in the notes: AASS, Acta Sanc- torum; BSS, Bibliotheca Sanctorum.

'Carpentier's influential bibliographic essay (1962') remains an excellent point of orientation, lucidly summarizing recent findings and serving as a stimulus for much later scholarship. Ziegler's 1969 study is still the best synthetic survey, at once ex- tremely readable and eminently scholarly. His historical approach is complemented by the more environmental focus of Gottfried. An invaluable collection of Italian sources on the Black Death in Italy can be found in Corradi, I : 184-99, 4: 35-50.

2Chronicutn tnajor, quoted in Ziegler, 82.

486 R E N A I S S A N C E Q U A R T E R L Y

epidemics, recurring at intervals oftwo to twenty years throughout Europe until well into the seventeenth century.3

Traditionally, the outbreak of plague in I 348 has been seen as the single most decisive event in late medievallearly modern history.4 More recently, localized case studies by Elisabeth Carpentier, William Bowsky, David Herlihy, and others have demonstrated that the experience of plague had little long-term effect upon economic, social, and political structures.5 The more intangible psychological responses, however, are still relatively unexplored. In part, this is due to the nature of the sources hitherto utilized by scholars: the well-known accounts produced in the immediate wake of 1348 or, alternatively, the impersonal administrative and statistical data gleaned from local archives. A further problem of modern studies is the notoriety of the first outbreak. As long ago as 1962, Elisabeth Carpentier pointed out that the exclusive focus of modern scholars upon the Black Death of I 348 was in fact miss- ing the primary characteristic of the contemporary experience of plague, namely, its frequent r epe t i t i~n .~ Yet some twenty five years later, there is still relatively little scholarly discussion of plague outbreaks after 1348 or of the cumulative psychological effect of recurring epidemics. 7

My aim in this paper is to introduce a new term into the scholarly debate. I would like to suggest that there is another resource, thus far untapped by historians of the plague, that can provide direct ac- cess to the ways in which those who lived during the pandemic at-

3The classic study of plague in Europe is Biraben, with extensive bibliography. "See Carpentier, 196z1, 1084-92; and the essays edited by Bowsky, 1971, for a sum-

mary of the scholarly debate through the 1960s. More recent analyses can be approached through the excellent collection of conference papers edited by Daniel Willi- man, and especially in the insightful introductory essay by Nancy Siraisi, Williman, 9-22.

scarpentier, 1962~; Bowsky, 1964; Herlihy; Emery; Brucker. Varpentier, 1962', 108 1-82. 7Modern studies of later outbreaks have usually focused on either demographic ef-

fects or governmental response, in the form of legislation and administration. See Bira- ben, with earlier bibliography; Cipolla; Del Panta; Carmichael, 1983, 1986 and 1991; Mazzi; and Henderson. A notable exception is Trexler's stimulating analysis of Flor- entine crisis ritual: Trexler, 1980, 347-67; on plague outbreaks in particular, 361-64, although his emphasis on individualistic self-interest triumphing over collective civic identity is perhaps overdrawn. Gottfried, 129-60, stresses the significance of repeated outbreaks and charts long-term effects, primarily demographic and economic, kbun- dant documentation of later epidemics in Italy can be found in the volumes of Corradi.

487 M A N I P U L A T I N G T H E S A C R E D

tempted to articulate and manipulate their situation: the images generated by experience or expectation of the d i s e a ~ e . ~

Mindful of the complex etiology of the plague, unguessed at by contemporaries,9 modern historians have tended to assume that the Black Death left survivors prey to anxiety and despair. In the words of Philip Ziegler, post-1348 generations are seen as gripped by "a neurotic and all-pervading gloom," reduced to terrified helplessness in the face of incomprehensible disaster. A particularly influential exponent of this position for historians and art historians alike has been Millard Meiss, whose celebrated analysis of late-Trecento Tuscan painting is frequently cited as a cogent demonstration of the profound pessimism induced by the plague. Combining art historical and cultural observations in an unprecedented manner, Meiss argued that following the Black Death, Florentine and Sien- ese art underwent a radical change in style and theme. In his view, artists turned away from an intimate and humane presentation of

8Plague imagery remains a relatively unexplored area of study. Crawfurd's 1914 account is somewhat anecdotal in nature and is primarily devoted to literary texts. Useful collections of material, the majority from ~ r a n c e and of later date than the works to be discussed in this article, have been gathered by Biraben; and by Mollaret and Bros- solet. However neither of these studies offers systematic analysis of the kind proposed here. More relevant is Polzer's article of 1982, which briefly reviews fourteenth-century images of death and the plague to advance further arguments for a dating of the famous frescoes of the Triumph of Death in the Pisan Camposanto to the early 1330s.

9The findings of mbdern medical research into plague are fully covered in Biraben, I: 7-21; and Gottfried, 1-1 j. For a brief and lucid summary of some of the more complex issues of plague ecology and etiology, see Carmichael, 1986, 5-8. Fourteenth- century theories of transmission are reviewed in Ziegler, 19-24; for the fifteenth century, see Carmichael, 1986; and idem., 1991.

IOZiegler, 274; and ibid., 17: "In the Middle Ages the plague was not only all- destroying, it was totally incomprehensible. Medieval man was equipped with no form of defence-social, medical or psychological-against a violent epidemic of this mag- nitude. His baffled and terrified helplessness in the face of disaster will be above all the theme of this book." This kind of reading was already well entrenched by the late nine- teenth century, as demonstrated by the comments of Perdrizet (139)~ writing in 1908: "On peut croire que, depuis la g a n d e peste de 1348, le moyen Oge a vkcu dans une ter- reur perpetuelle, dans un continue1 Cbranlement nerveux. La crainte de la mort dont il a toujours kt6 hantk devient, depuis que la peste s'est mise B ravager periodiquement I'Europe, une angoisse de tous le instants." For similar views, common to much modern literature on the Black Death, see Renouard; Langer, 296-303; Gottfried, 77-103; and Naso.

"Meiss, 19 51. Admiring references to Meiss's arguments can be found in most historical studies on the plague. See, for example, Langer, 302; Carpentier, 196z1, 1069; Ziegler, 268; Siraisi, in Williman, 13; Gottfried, goff and 175 n. 28, citing Meiss as "a fundamental text that I have used extensively."

488 RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY

the holy figures to a more hierarchical and formalized mode that deliberately distanced the beholder from the object of his or her devotion. Meiss's interpretation links up with those of many earlier writers who pointed to the plague to explain the prevalence of ma- cabre imagery, most notably the Dance of Death, in fourteenth- and fifteenth-century art. l 2

While there is not the space here to address the many problematic aspects of Meiss's analysis,13 I should point out that this study ap- proaches the problem from another angle. Whereas Meiss sought to deduce the temper of the times from a stylistic and thematic analysis of post-plague art in general, my focus is on images specifically created in response to or in anticipation of the experience of the disease. Such an analysis offers rather different insights into Renais- sance responses to the plague than those formulated by Meiss and others. The images to be examined functioned to secure protection from the plague by soliciting the intervention of some powerful heavenly protector. It will be argued that an understanding of the expectations attached to such images and the ways in which they were believed to operate is crucial in evaluating the long-term effects of the plague. In setting up hierarchical relationships of mutual obligation between worshiper and image, those who lived during the pandemic were not neurotic and helpless, but were taking positive-and in their eyes effective-steps to regain control over their environment. 14

Throughout the Renaissance the preeminent saintly defender against the plague was the fourth-century Roman martyr Sebastian (fig. I ) . According to his fifth-century biography, Sebastian was a valued member of the Praetorian guard of the Emperors Maximian and Diocletian, who used his position to visit imprisoned Chris- tians and strengthen them in their faith. 1 5 Denounced as a Christian,

'"Mile, ch. 8, 319-55, and 523 n. 28, citing the advent of plague as a contributing cause of the "orofound change" he sees in the art of the latter fourteenth and fifteenth u

centuries, characterized by an obsessive fascination with suffering and death. For later formulations of this idea, see Brion-Guerry; Tenenti; and, more recently, Brossolet.

'3See the important article by Henk van Os, although his own reading of post-1348 art has also been criticized: cf. Freuler and Wainwright, 327-28.

'4My understanding of Renaissance attitudes to the nature and use of religious images owes much to the brilliant analyses of Richard Trexler: 1972; 1980, esp. 61-73.

IsPassio S . Sebastiani, A A S S , Ian., 2: 629-42. O n the fanciful nature of this "hagiographic romance" and the possible circumstances of its composition, see Pesci, 180-85; and Gordini, in B S S , 9: 777-84. Jacopo da Voragine's retelling of Sebastian's life in the Golden Legend, 104-10, closely follows the earlier text.

MANIPULATING T H E SACRED 489

he refused to apostatize and was sentenced to death. At the Emper- ors' orders he was taken to a field and, in the words of the Passio, "pierced with arrows like a hedgehog" (figs. I , 2 ) .16 His executioners left him for dead, but Christians who came secretly at night to claim his body for burial found him miraculously still alive. Nursed back to health, Sebastian refused to flee Rome. Instead, he deliberately sought out the amazed Emperors to accuse them of their crimes against Christianity. In the saint's own words, "The Lord has resurrected me that I might come to you and reproach you for your persecution of the servants of Christ. "17 To no avail of course; once more arrested, Sebastian was beaten to death and his body thrown into a sewer. Appearing in a dream to a Christian matron, he revealed the location of his body, which she duly recovered and buried with all honor.

During the Early Christian period, veneration of Sebastian was a function of his status as a martyr and was primarily limited to Rome, the site of his death and the locus of his mortal remains.Is His cult as a plague saint was apparently a later development, which cannot be documented before the late eighth century. In his History of the Lombauds, Paul the Deacon (c. 720-c. 797) describes the ces- sation of an epidemic in the Lombard capital of Pavia in A.D. 680 after the erection of an altar dedicated to Sebastian. 19 Significantly, in Paul's account the populace of Pavia did not turn to the Roman martyr spontaneously but had to be directed to do so by miraculous revelation, suggesting that such a cult was unknown in Pavia prior to this date. Included in Jacopo da Voragine's retelling of Sebas- tian's life and miracles in the Golden Legend, the Pavian miracle was to be a familiar demonstration of Sebastian's protective powers for Renaissance worshippers.

The origins of Sebastian's cult as a plague saint have long puzzled scholars. As we have seen, there is nothing in his life or early cult that would link him to plague. Like other saints, Sebastian is described in the Passio as performing several miracles of healing and exorcism, which served to win converts to Christianity. However,

16". . . ut quasi ericius ita esset hirsutus ictibus saggittarum": A A S S , Ian., 2: 642. The same phrase is repeated by Voragine, 109.

" A A S S , Ian., 2: 642. 180n Sebastian's early cult, see Pesci; and Gordini, in B S S , 9: 776-89. For early im-

ages of Sebastian, see also Zupnick, ch. 2, 7-21. '9Historia Langobavdovum, 6: 5 , ed. Waitz, 166. 20V~ragine,I 10.


FIG. I . Giovanni del Biondo. Altarpiece of Saint Sebastian, 1370s. Tempera on panel. Florence, Museo dell'opera del Duomo. Photo: Alinari-Art Resource.

MANIPULATING THE SACRED 491

FIG. I . continued

none of these cures involve epidemic disease. Instead, his activities parallel Christ's cures recorded in the Gospels: a mute woman re- gains her voice, people who have been sick for many years are made whole. Such typical acts of saintly power serve as demonstrative signs of divinely-bestowed grace. In life as in death, the martyr is distinguished by an exemplary conformity to the Christological prototype. The origins of his protective role must therefore be sought elsewhere.

Some scholars, most notably the medical historian Henry Sig- erist, have argued that Sebastian's invocation against the plague


FIG. 2. Antonio and Piero Pollaiuolo. Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, 1476. Tempera on panel. London, National Gallery. Photo: National Gallery.

493 M A N I P U L A T I N G T H E SACRED

represents the simple transference of the cult of Apollo as one who both sends and averts the arrows of pe~ t i l ence .~~ Such an explanation draws on a long tradition ofEnlightenment scholarship, which viewed the Christian cult of the saints as a direct continuation of that of the pagan gods. Both cases exemplified the natural propen- sity of primitive and irrational humanity to lapse into polytheism. Yet, as Peter Brown has so forcefully demonstrated, this is to ig- nore the profound differences in world view between paganism and Christianity.22 For late-antique pagans, earth and heaven were im- mutably fixed, sundered by a chasm to be passed only by the soul after death once the worthless body had been discarded. The gods were distant figures, forever separated from humanity by its curse of mortality: as Artemis tells Hippolytus in Euripides' play, the dying were offensive to divine eyes. By contrast, at the shrines of the martyrs Christianity dramatically breached the ancient barriers and joined together earth and heaven, the living and the dead. The martyrs were fellow human beings who, precisely because of their death, now enjoyed intimacy with God. And through that intimacy came their power to intercede with God on behalf of their devotees.

Alternatively, iconographers have focused on the ancient symbolism of the arrow.23 In the Old Testament, as in Graeco-Roman myth, the arrow is a potent weapon in God's armory, the instru- ment of sudden, divinely-inflicted misfortune, disease, and death. So Job recognizes the calamities which have befallen him: "The arrows of the Almighty are in me; my spirit drinks their poison; the terrors of God are arrayed against me" (Job 6: 4); so God promises judgment upon the wicked: "I will render vengeance to mine en- emies, and repay them that hate me. I will make my arrows drunk with blood" (Deut. 32: 41 -42). "4 The significance of this familiar imagery for Sebastian's cult is undeniable. In this context, the arrows with which he was pierced could be identified with the deadly arrows of the plague hurled at humanity by an angry God. Con- crete proof of the currency of such an understanding among Renais- sance worshipers is provided by a Perugino panel (fig. 3), where Sebastian addresses God in the words of the psalmist lamenting his

2111iad, I: ~ f f . See Sigerist; and Pesci, 193. 22See Brown, 1-22. "Perdrizet, 107-13; Mlle, 179; Rtau, 313: I 191-92. 24See also Deut. 32: 19-24; Job 16: 11-13; Ps. 7: 11-13; Ps. 64: 7-9; Is. 30: 26.


FIG. 3. Pietro Perugino. Martyred Sebastian. Oil on panel. Paris, Louvre. Photo: Alinari-Art Resource.


afflictions as divine chastisement: "0 Lord, rebuke me not in thy anger . . . for thy arrows have struck fast in me . . . there is no health in my flesh because of thy indignation" (Ps. 38: 1-3).~5

Nevertheless, the symbolism of the arrow is not, it seems to me, in itself sufficient explanation for Sebastian's veneration as a plague saint since it evades any specific understanding of the way in which such symbolism functioned in a Christian context.26 Instead, the key to Sebastian's cult as a protector against the plague must be sought in the confluence of arrow imagery with the Christian concept of martyrdom as the most perfect imitation of C h r i ~ t . ~ 7 As in- dicated in the Passio, Sebastian's trial by arrows was understood as a real martyrdom from which he was resurrected by divine power. Thus archbishop Antoninus's observation that Sebastian "through two deaths, possesses two crowns of martyrdom."28 It is in this context that the Passion-like drama of suffering, death, and resurrection that Sebastian undergoes takes on a salvific charge. In direct analogy with Christ's redemptive death, Sebastian's martyrdom by the arrows of the plague becomes a vicarious sacrifice offered up to God. Christ-like, he takes the sins of humanity upon himself and makes restitution for these sins with his own sufferings. His resurrection demonstrates the acceptability of his sacrifice before the divine judge. Hence the crucial significance of the isolated scene of the martyrdom in Renaissance art (fig. 2 ) . In such images Sebastian places himself as willing victim between his worshipers and a punitive deity, accepting the divinely-sent plague arrows in his own body. To use a graphic metaphor formulated by Leo Steinberg,"s

l5Inscribed along the lower edge of the panel: SAGGITAE TV[A]E INFIXE SVNT MICHI. I wish to thank Leo Steinberg for bringing this painting to m y attention.

26Perhaps for this reason it has also been argued that Sebastian's cult as a plague saint has no connection with arrow symbolism but was due solely to the fame of the Pavian miracle of 680: Delehaye, 489; and Gordini, in BSS, 9: 787-89 (incorrectly transposing the miracle to Rome). However, this interpretation also avoids the question of original impulse. The charged significance of the arrow is clearly demonstrated in many Renaissance images of Sebastian, including the Perugino panel cited above.

"7The possible connections between Sebastian's cult and Christian ideas of martyrdom were briefly raised by Zupnick, 217-18, but without further elaboration. More- over, Zupnick did not entirely reject the concept of Sebastian as a Christianized Apollo, and he further linked Sebastian's new role with European pre-Christian folklore, in the form of the scapegoat. As with the Apollo hypothesis, this latter interpretation similarly fails to acknowledge the radical break with the traditional world view of paganism represented by the Christian cult of the saints.

28Summa, 3: 8; quoted in Halla and Uhr, 573 n. 29. 29Verbal communication.


Sebastian acts as a living "lightning rod," drawing the plague arrows away from humanity and "grounding" them harmlessly in his own flesh.

The expectations invested in Sebastian's cult are most forcibly vi- sualized in a radically new image-type of the saint created during the course of the Quattrocento. The distinguishing feature of this type, which I have called the martyred Sebastian, is its lack of narrative action: the archers are either inactive or, more usually, absent (fig. 3 ) . 3 0 FOCUShas shifted from the dramatic moment of the martyrdom, when the executioners deliver a volley of arrows and crossbolts into the martyr's flesh, to an isolated representation of the suffering saint. The essential meaning of the image lies in its proferring of Sebastian's pierced yet living body before the worshiper's gaze. Logically, it is a somewhat inaccurate scenario, since the archers are said to have left Sebastian for dead. Nevertheless, Re- naissance images invariably show him fully conscious and unmis- takably alive. In a panel by Botticelli, for example, (fig. 4), a serene Sebastian fixes the viewer in his untroubled gaze.31 Another by Lorenzo Costa (fig. 5 ) sets up an even more dramatic confrontation as the constricting surroundings thrust Sebastian's bleeding but still miraculously living body insistently forward into the actual space of the beholder. In these images historical time is suspended and inverted, transforming the narrative into a devotional image that exists outside of time and place.

As a timeless and ahistorical image, depictions of the martyred Sebastian explicitly evoke representations of Christ as the Man of Sorrows. An enormously popular devotional image, the Man of Sorrows presents the dead and crucified Christ standing upright within his tomb, displaying the wounds of the Passion for the worshiper's sorrowful meditations (fig. 6).32In the same way, the

3OThis image type is not recognized by other commentators, who usually discuss such works under the heading of simple narratives. See Riau, 313: I 190-99; Zupnick, passim.

i lThe panel originally hung on a column in the Florentine church of S. Maria Mag- giore, and once bore the date [zoth?] January [Sebastian's feast day] 1474. See Light- bown, 2: 27-28.

-'"The classic study on this theme and on devotional images in general is Panofsky. See also Meiss, 195 I , 121-2 j; Ringbom; Schiller, 2: 184ff; and, most recently, the su- perb study of Belting, which successfully resolves the problematic aspects of Panof- sky's definition of the andachtsbild, or devotional image, commented upon by Ringbom and other scholars. O n the gestures of the dead Christ as "not other than willed," see Steinberg: 1970; 1983, 96-106, 155-56, 189-93; 1989.


FIG. 4. Sandro Botticelli. Martyred Sebastian, 1474. Tempera on panel. Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Gemddegalerie. Photo: Gemddegalerie.


FIG. 5. Lorenzo Costa. Martyred Sebastian. Tempera on panel. Dresden, Gemdde- galerie. Photo: Gemiildegalerie Alte Meister, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.


FIG. 6. Michele Giambono. Man ofSowows with Saint Francis. Tempera on panel. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Rogers Fund. Photo: Metropolitan Museum of Art.


mortally wounded Sebastian is shown miraculously alive at the site of his martyrdom. In both it is this supernatural contradiction that spells out the promise of the image for the contemporary viewer. By showing the dead Christ as capable of action and intention, the theme of the Man of Sorrows looks forward to the Resurrection with its promise of salvation. So, too, the image of Sebastian, martyred and yet alive, celebrates his resurrection as proof of his inexhaustible capacity to absorb in his own body the plague arrows destined for his worshipers.

Renaissance creation of a devotional image of Sebastian is highly unusual since this was an image type normally reserved for Christ and the Virgin. Like other aspects of Sebastian's iconography, its existence demonstrates the enormous significance of his cult as a Christ-like redeemer against the plague. By the second half of the Quattrocento the new image had become the standard representa- tional type of Sebastian, far outnumbering both narrative cycles and isolated depictions of the martyrdom proper. Such success is due to the way in which the image allows the worshiper direct ac- cess to the promise of salvation from the plague contained in Se- bastian's wounded but living body. No narrative detail intrudes upon the intimate relationship between saint and devotee; since Sebastian will draw the arrows, the worshiper rests secure in his presence. 33

Despite Sebastian's popularity, however, alternative sources of heavenly protection were not neglected. Throughout the pandemic, for many towns the first line of supernatural defense re- mained the local patron saint.34 At the heavenly court, the local saint could be relied upon to plead the community's cause with all the vigor and passion of a citizen on an urgent embassy to a foreign dignitary. So a fresco commissioned from Fiorenzo di Lorenzo by the civic authorities of Deruta (Marches) depicts the local saint Romanus on the left, successfully petitioning the divine judge on the city's behalf (fig. 7).35 Not even the more relevant "expertise"

33Over eighty examples of the martyred Sebastian from the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries are known to me. I am currently preparing a longer study on all aspects of Sebastian's imagery in Renaissance art.

34F0r examples, see Ziegler, 41; Vauchez, 1986, 70-71; Corradi, I : 224 n. 2, 4: 255-6, j: ZIO.

35Kafta1, 1965, cols. 969-70, fig. I 140 incorrectly identifies Romanus as Sebastian despite the presence of the worn but legible identifying inscriptions beneath each saint:


FIG. 7. Fiorenzo di Lorenzo. Saints Romanus and Roch interceding with God the Father on behalfof Deruta, 147[8]. Detached fresco, from S. Francesco. Deruta, Pina- coteca. Photo: Archivio Fotografico, Soprintendenza per i Beni Ambientali Ar- chitettonici. Artistici e Storici dell'umbria, Perugia.


of an actual plague saint, invoked through the presence of Saint Roch, can displace the community's trust in its local patron saint as a specially interested protector: Romanus, and not Roch, serves as the city's primary advocate before God.

With the minor exception of the Augustinian Nicholas of To- lentino, promoted as a plague protector during the fifteenth century with apparently only limited success by his order,36 Renaissance worshipers recognized only one other universal plague saint. This was the somewhat shadowy figure of Saint Roch, whose life, as it is reported in the anonymous and undated Acta Breviora,37 relies almost entirely on hagiographic top0i.3~ According to this text, Roch was born in Montpelier, in the south of France, at an unspecified date. After a conventionally pious childhood, the youthful saint distributed all his wealth and embarked on a pilgrimage to Rome. Enroute, he passed through several cities in northern and central It- aly stricken by plague and effected a series of miraculous cures.39 Most striking of all, in Piacenza he himself contracted and lived through the disease. Unjustly imprisoned as a spy on his return to France, he spent five years as a model prisoner, unrecognized by his relatives. At his death he was granted the power to save others from the plague by divine fiat. When his body was discovered bathed in a saintly light, a tablet under his head "written in a divine

S. ROMANVS; S. ROCCVS. The lower line records the fresco's civic sponsorship: DECRETO PVBLICO DERVTA A N N 0 DlOMIlNlIl MCCCCLXXV . . . The

L , L ,

last part of the date has been lost, but the intervening space indicates that it should most probably be read as 1478.This is confirmed by an outbreak of plague in Deruta in that year: Bianconi, 8.

-'6Nicholas of Tolentino (1245-130s) was widely venerated as a powerful thau- maturge. O n the basis of a Pisan miracle, a handful of images show him protecting a city from the plague or include him in saintly gatherings alongside the Virgin and Saint Sebastian (see figs. 14and 18)as a source of relief from the disease. However, the almost exclusively Augustinian provenance of these works indicates that efforts to promote Nicholas as a universal plague saint were largely unsuccessful beyond the confines of his own order. See AASS, Sept., 3 : 699-700; Kaftal, 1952, 771-73, figs. 867, 868, 870; idem., 1985, 515-24, fig. 729; Santi, pl. IS;and Marshall, ch. 5, 147-67.

-"AASS, Aug., 3: 407-10; English translation in Vaslef, App. I , 179-90. Fliche, 346-47, has plausibly suggested that the writer was a native of ~iacenza. However, his attempts to date the Acta around I430 (ibid., 345-46) are unconvincing, and it is therefore impossible to date the rise of Roch's cult in Northern Italy by reference to this text with any precision. The only secure terminus ante quem is 1478,when Francesco Diedo began his Vita Sancti Rochi. For Diedo and his text, see below.

W e r y fully demonstrated in Vaslef, ch. 4, 89-137. 39The following towns are listed, although there is little concern for mapping a log-

ical itinerary: Acquapendente, Cesena, Rimini, Novara, Piacenza.

M A N I P U L A T I N G T H E S A C R E D SO3

way in gold letters" proclaimed his status as an intercessor against the plague.40 The A c t a ends with an account of Roch's immediate recognition as a saint by the populace and his official canonization by the papacy. Such a triumphant conclusion is hagiographically satisfying but without factual basis.41

Specific historical details, never a major concern of saintly biographers, are particularly elusive in the case of Roch. The A c t a Bveviova provides no dates or secure points of reference. From Francesco Diedo in 1478, who confidently gives Roch's date of death as 1327, to the modern scholar Antoine Fliche's careful ac- cumulation of "probabilities, " all attempts to construct a workable chronology of Roch's life founder upon the specifically ahistorical character of this original t e ~ t . 4 ~ Although concerns regarding Roch's historicity were not entirely absent in the Renaissance (as witness Diedo's attempted chronology or the worried comments of the Venetian ambassador in the late sixteenth century), these were ultimately of little consequence.43 The A c t a was intended to celebrate and promote the cult of Roch, not document his life. In- deed, as Irene Vaslef has justly observed, the profusion of hagiographic topoi "fairly clearly demonstrates the literary genre quality of the legend, instead of historicity. "44

4OActa Bueviova, 2:1j-16; English translation from Vaslef, 189. 4'The lack of evidence for Roch's canonization is thoroughly proven by Vaslef, I 3 8-

44. Diedo's account of Roch's intervention during an outbreak of plague at the Council of Constance in 1416 is similarly fictive. See ibid., 144-46.

@Diedo's proposed death date of 1327 incongruously places Roch's life before the advent of plague in 1348. Fliche suggests approximate dates of c. 1350-79. However, his arguments are flawed by his failure to recognize the texts as hagiographic constructs rather than historical documents. The fallacy of such an approach is well pointed out by Vaslef, I I 1-1 j . Andre Vauchez surveys a range of suggested chronologies and notes some of the problems of Fliche's arguments, while accepting an approximate siting of Roch's life in the second half of the fourteenth century. See BSS, 9: 269.

4% I jgo the Venetian ambassador to Rome informed the Doge that he had been repeatedly urged to beg the Venetian government to "send soon the witnesses and public documents of the life and miracles of the blessed Roch, because our Lord [Pone Six-

L .

tus V] is strong in his opinion either to canonize him or else to remove him from the ranks of the saints." Venetian reaction to this proposal was understandably horrified: the ambassador warned a cardinal of the general scandal which would result if the widely venerated Roch were to be denounced as an impostor. This prediction may have had an effect; in the event, Sixtus V did not pursue the matter. Later popes put any lingering fears to rest with the formal introduction of Roch's name into the Roman martyrology. See Vauchez, in BSS, 9: 272; and Vaslef, 138-39.

44Vaslef, I 20.


First documented in Northern Italy in the latter part of the 146os, Roch's cult as a plague saint gathered momentum during the dev- astating series of epidemics that swept Italy from 1477 to 1479.45 Confraternities dedicated to the new saint were founded in Venice and el~ewhere.4~ In 1478 the spectacle of Brescia wracked by the plague inspired the city's Venetian governor Francesco Diedo to compose a properly eloquent account of Roch's life.47 Between 1478 and 1484 Latin and Italian versions of Diedo's text were repeatedly printed in several North Italian cities, beginning with the Milanese editions of 1478179.4~ Complete with humanist-inspired rhetorical flourishes and lengthy discourses, the Venetian patri- cian's eminently modern narrative was undoubtedly influential in the further promotion of Roch's cult.

Relying upon the earlier Acta for factual information, Diedo's version was distinguished by a more explicitly polemical character, aimed at rectifying what he saw as potentially dangerous neglect of the proper respect and honor due to the saint. He urges his readers to pay close attention to his account of Roch's life, "that you may not offend his majesty in any way. "49 The implied threat would not have been taken lightly: as everyone knew, saints were wielders of power that could easily be turned against those who angered them. As Diedo makes clear, Roch's cult had been divinely guaranteed. Where the Acta had been content to summarize the contents of the miraculous tablet recommending Roch's veneration, Diedo provides the exact words: "Those suffering from the plague, fleeing to the protection of Roch, will escape that most violent contagion. "50

To spurn such gifts would be foolish, if not perilous. Directing his

4sThe earliest testimony to Roch's cult in Italy is his inclusion in two altarpieces from the Venetian workshop ofthe Vivarini dated 1464 and 1465 See Schmitz-Eichoff, 58-59, 89-90, I 19. For the plague outbreaks of 1477-79, see Corradi, I : 3 I ~ f f ,4: 193& 5: zjzff; and Carmichael, 1986, 14-26.

46Tramontin et al., 89; Vauchez, in BSS, 9: 269. For an earlier confraternity in Padua, see below, n. 56.

47AASS, Aug., 3: 399-407; English translation in Vaslef, App. 2, 191-218. In his prologue Diedo describes the circumstances whlch led him to compose the work and refers to certain "ancient and sacred manuscripts concerning Roch" from which he had gathered information (Vita, Preface: 1-2; trans. in Vaslef, 191-92). Textual analysis demonstrates his dependency upon the Acta. See Fliche, 344-50; Vauchez, in BSS, 9: 264-69; Vaslef, 66-98.

@For a list of incunables of Diedo's text, see Vaslef, 91. 4gVita, Preface: 2; trans. in Vaslef, 192. sovita, 4: 34; trans. in Vaslef, 216.


comments to his fellow Venetians, Diedo urged the city to rectify its neglect of Roch by immediately erecting a church in his honour: "And when also the foundations of this temple have been laid, then not through the protection of doctors or other men, but by the prayers of Roch and the clemency of God, this city will straight- away be so freed from all epidemic as if it had never been punished by this kind of disease. "51 Diedo's exhortations to his compatriots did not fall on deaf ears. Already in 148I Roch's name was inserted into the Venetian edition of the Roman missal.s2 His increasing fame culminated in 1485 with the acquisition and triumphant in- stallation of his relics in Venice.53 From then on, Roch's status as the second major plague saint after Sebastian was firmly established.

As in the Deruta fresco, Roch's characteristic gesture in Renais- sance images is the demonstrative display ofhis plague bubo. 54 Like other late-medieval saints, he welcomed his disease as a divinely sent opportunity to imitate the sufferings of C h r i s t , ~ ~ and Renais- sance worshipers understood his patient endurance as a form of martyrdom.s6 Directed outward to contemporaries, the sight of Roch scarred by the plague yet alive and healthy must have been an emotionally charged image of promised cure. Here was literal proof that one could survive the plague, a saint who had triumphed over the disease in his own flesh.

slVita, Preface: 2; trans. in Vaslef, 193. sZTramontin et al., 89. s3See Fliche, 3 53; Tramontin et al., 204; Vauchez, in BSS, 9: 269; and Vaslef,

146-53. 54Fifteenth-century recognition of the bubo as the clear "sign" of the plague and

indicator of imminent death is documented in Carmichael, 1986, 79-80, 55Both the Acta Bveviova and Diedo constantly emphasize Roch's willingness to use

his sufferings as a means of imitating Christ. So, for instance, Diedo's dramatically af- fecting rendition of Roch's prayer when struck down by plague: "Most sweet Jesus, although I should have thought myself your servant before this, now that you have given me a part of your torments and are making me worthy through them, I consi- der myself dear to you and pleasing, by whose love these afflictions seem sweet to me, and for whom I shall not avoid death." Vita Sancti Rochi, 2: 18; English trans. from Vaslef, 205. O n the prominence of such themes in fourteenth-century hagiography, see Kieckhefer.

5% 1467 the Paduan confraternity of Saint Lucy decided to include Saint Roch as additional and principal patron. The new constitutions of the confraternity, drawn up in 1468, invoke "our devoted intercessor, martyr of Christ Jesus, saint Roch the pil- grim": De Sandre Gasparini, 78. O n the well established belief that the crown of martyrdom could also by won by heroic suffering, see Gougaud, ch. 4, "The desire for martyrdom," zojff.


Performed under the divine gaze, Roch's ritualistic presentation of his "wound"s7 secures, indeed compels, divine favor on behalf of his worshipers. This confident trust in the saint's power to wrest clemency from an angry God is dramatically articulated in a panel by Bartolomeo della Gatta, probably from the 1470s (fig. 8). Lit-erally and figuratively the painting presents a confrontation between heaven and earth. Christ's determination to exact punishment from a sinning humanity is met by Roch's insistent petition that his devotees be spared. Divine implacability dissolves in the face of saintly resistance, and Christ countermands his own orders, sending a second pair of angels to intercept and break the plague arrows before they reach the town of Arezzo. Such a startling jux- taposition of apparently contradictory actions vividly illuminates the Renaissance conviction that a saint can force God to have "second thoughts. "58

Since the thirteenth century, groups of all kinds had invoked the merciful protection of the Virgin in the image known as the Ma- donna della Misericordia, or the Virgin of Mercy (fig. 9).59 With the advent of plague, this popular image was adapted to meet the new crisis. In the plague Madonna della Misericordia (fig. IO), a wrathful deity-who may be identified as either Christ or God the Father-appears in the upper area brandishing the plague arrows against a sinful humanity. In a striking reversal of traditional hier- archies of scale, the tiny figure of the enraged divinity is dwarfed by the Virgin, whose towering presence dominates the image. Se- renely calm, she neither petitions nor even acknowledges the divine presence. Instead, her gaze is directed outward to the contemporary beholder as she effortlessly intervenes to thwart the divine purpose. Plague arrows rain down uselessly and break upon her outstretched

"The Acta Bveviova ( I : 8) describes Roch's contraction of the plague as a wounding by a heaven-sent plague arrow: "At once, feeling the deadly dart strike him in one of his hipbones, he gave thanks to God." English trans. from Vaslef, 184. Mile, 193. notes that many images of Roch show his bubo as a wound and cites a similar passage from a later French life of the saint.

sRThe saints' "battle" with a punitive God on behalf of their supplicants is enthu- siastically described by friar Giordano da Pisa (2: 85) in a sermon of 1304. See Trexler, 1980, 66-67.

sgThe classic and still excellent account is that of Perdrizet; important later studies by Sussman and Belting-Ihm have elaborated upon the still-unsettled question of the origins of the theme.


FIG. 8. Bartolomeo della Gatta. Saint Roch interceding with Christ on behalff Arezzo. Tempera on panel. Arezzo, Museo Medievale e Modemo. Photo: Archivio Fo- tografico, Soprintendenza per i Beni Ambientali Architettonici, Artistici e Storici, Arezzo.


FIG. 9. Anonymous, Sienese. Madonna della Misericordia, early 14th century. Tern- pera on panel. Siena, Pinacoteca. Photo: Scala-Art Resource.

mantle. With a single act, the terrible anger of the divine judge is reduced to impotency: God's chosen victims are safe from punishment within the charmed circle of her protection.60

60The most authoritative study of this variant type remains Perdrizet, chs. 7-9,107- 49. Historians of Umbrian art have also cataloguedgonfaloni, or processional banners, of the plague Madonna della Misericordia: see Santi, with earlier bibliography.


FIG. 10. Benedetto Bonfigli. Plague Madonna della Misericordia, 1464. Canvas gonfalone. Perugia, San Francesco a1 Prato. Photo: Alinari-Art Resource.


The decision on the part of artists and commissioners forging a defense against the plague to reshape an existing image rather than to create ex nuovo is a strong testimony to the continuity of attitudes across the presumed divide of 1 ~ 4 8 .Yet in the prdcess, the traditional image of the Madonna della Misericordia was radically transformed. Earlier emphasis on the Virgin's spiritual motherhood of the faithful and her bounteous mercy towards sinners is replaced by glorification of the Virgin as an effective agent in her own right. Secure in the knowledge that God can deny her nothing, she has no need to consult him, but acts as a supreme and autonomous power, even to the extent of actively opposing God's prior judgment.

Many scholars have attributed such lack of theological nicety to the heedless enthusiasms of "popular" faith.61 However, the problematic nature of the two-tiered interpretive model of "popular" and "elite" culture has been cogently demonstrated by historians such as Peter Documented involvement of a broad range of individuals and groups in commissioning images of the plague Madonna della Misericordia, including confraternities, communal officials, and secular and regular clergy of all ranks and orders, further highlights the inadequacy of such an explanation.63 However difficult to reconcile with an orthodox recognition of divine om- nipotence, the plague Madonna della Misericordia was hardly a het- erodox or marginal image, but articulated and functioned within a set of widely shared assumptions regarding the workings of the celestial hierar~hy.~4

Understood in these terms, the image offers a rich field of investigation into the contested issue of the psychological effects of the pandemic. The representation of an inflexibly angry and punitive God, for instance, is frequently cited as evidence of a radical change

61Perdrizet, 122-24; Sussman, 3I I . 62Brown, 12-22.

63Marshall, App. 2, 267-72, lists 22 examples from all regions of Italy, ranging in date from the 1370s to the early-sixteenth century. O n questions ofpatronage, seeibid., 235-37, and 239 n. 8.

641t is frequently asserted that the plague Madonna della Misericordia is a distinctly Umbrian, or even Perugian, invention: Perdrizet, 121-24; Crawfurd, 136; and Santi, 1976, 8-9. However the earliest extant example known to me is a fourteenth-century panel from Genoa (see below), and fifteenth-century examples can be found throughout Italy. See Marshall, App. 2.

5 1 1 M A N I P U L A T I N G T H E S A C R E D

in the perception of the deity caused by the plague. As Meiss and others would have it, earlier confidence in the accessibility of the holy figures gives way to guilt, terror, and alienation: Christ is a harsh and awesome judge, remote from any contact or sympathy with suffering humanity.65 However, this argument rests on a false dialectic between pre- and post-plague periods. In actuality, the idea of an angry and punitive Christ was by no means new, but had long co-existed in medieval consciousness beside other devotional trends which stressed the accessibility of the human and suffering Christ.66 Differing perceptions effectively fulfilled differing needs. Well before 1348 people were quick to recognize disasters as the result of "the vendettas of God" against a sinful world and seek appropriate remedy.67

The image's invocation of the Virgin as an independent power is similarly less an innovation than a compellingly direct visualiza- tion of established beliefs. As humanity's most powerful advocate, the Virgin constantly sets herself against her son's punitive intentions, either through force of persuasion or actual opposition. Im- plicit in much medieval Marian devotion was a tendency toward the specialization of divine functions. Justice was wholly localized in Christ, while mercy became the exclusive provenance of the Virgin. Herein lay the source of her immense appeal: against the strict accounting of divine justice, she offered a highly personalized system of arbitrary favor and reward.68

6sMeiss, 1951, passim; Ziegler, 274-77: "It was characteristic of the age that Christ should often be portrayed as an angry and minatory figure" (276); Gottfried, 88-93.

66Pelikan, ch. 3, 106ff, and esp. 157; and below, n. 67. 67The phrase is used by friar Giordano da Pisa, preaching in Florence in 1303-06

(2: 85); and by Dino Compagni in his early-fourteenth century chronicle (bk. 3, ch. 8; ed. Pittoru, 155). See the stimulating analysis in Trexler, 1980, 66-67, 347-54. See also the perceptive comments of Nancy Siraisi, pointing out that "both the harsher re- alities of medieval life . . . and the teachings of the Christian tradition on the transi- toriness of human life had combined long before 1347 to provide people with very ad- equate psychological and cultural mechanisms for dealing with the shock and horror produced by sudden death from foul and unexplainable disease." Williman, 17-18.

68For medieval devotion to Mary as mediatrix and intercessor, see Perdrizet; Suss- man, 294ff; Barre; Pelikan, 69-74, I 58-74; and the extensive summaries of devotional literature in Graef, chs. 4-6, I : 162-322. Particularly striking formulations ofthe theme of Mary as Queen of Mercy to Christ's wrathful or punitive King of Justice may be foundibid., 214, 220-21, 224-26, 255, 266-70, 289, 291, 313. O n this theme, see also Ward, 140-41, 149, 162-65.

512 RENAISSANCE Q U A R T E R L Y

Certain versions of the plague Madonna della Misericordia offer a particularly stark demonstration of the preferential workings of the Virgin's power. In a Genoese altarpiece by Barnaba da Modena from the I 370s (fig. I I ) , the earliest monumental example of the theme known to me, only a select group is saved from the universal carnage of the plague. Beyond the sheltering confines of the Vir- gin's mantle, angelic archers systematically decimate humanity with a rain of deadly arr0ws.~5 The terrifying contrast between those who are protected and those who are abandoned by the Vir- gin can be understood in terms of the commissioning confraternity, which was dedicated to the Madonna della Misericordia.70 Whether a petition in time of danger or a votive offering to record grace received, the image confidently expresses the confraternity's special relationship with its patron. When danger threatens, the Virgin of Mercy will not neglect those who have enrolled in her company.

To the world at large, the confraternity altarpiece broadcasts an urgent warning. Only those who repent of their sins and place their trust in the bountiful mercy of Mary will escape the divine anger. All those who do not turn to her are lost, and God and his angels will punish them as they deserve. In a Quattrocento version, this time from the Marches (fig. 12), a series of accompanying inscriptions vividly articulates such contemporary assumptions regarding the Virgin's preferential exercise of saving grace.71 The altarpiece was commissioned from Pietro Alemanno by the Commune of San Ginesio in 1485, following a lengthy epidemic.7" Those protected by the Virgin appeal to her in the words of popular liturgical

69Unfortunately, the panel has been cut down on all sides, so that no trace now remains of any supervisory divine figure.

7OIn all probability, the altarpiece was commissioned by the Consortia de liforesr2vi de la Madonna de Misericordia in Genoa around the time of the I 372 plague for their chapel in the local Servite church. See Da Langasco and Rotondi.

"Other examples of this "preferential" type of the plague Madonna della Miser- icordia, all from the fifteenth century, are: a fresco in the apse of S. Lucia, Atella (Ba- silicata; see Perdrizet, fig. I); a panel in the Pinacoteca atjmola; and a double-sided wooden processional standard, by Valentino Pica il Vecchio, in S. Agostino, Tuscania. See Marshall, 272.

7lThe Commune's commissioning of the image is recorded in the inscription inset into the illusionistically-rendered lower border. The altarpiece was subsequently placed in a newly erected chapel in the Collegiati. A titular confraternity was created at the same time, charged with the care of victims. For plague in San Ginesio from 1483-85, and the circumstances of the commission, see Salvi, 87, 239-40,

MANIPULATING THE SACRED $13

FIG. 11. Bamaba da Modena. Plague Madonna della Mkericordia, 1370s. Tempera on panel. Genoa. S. Maria dei Servi. Photo: Soprintendenza per i Beni Artistici e Storici dell'liguria, Genova.

514 R E N A I S S A N C E QUARTERLY

FIG. 12. Pietro Alemanno. Plague Madonna della Misericordia, 1485. Tempera on panel. San Ginesio, Collegiath. Photo: Soprintendenza per i Beni Artistici e Storici delle Marche, Urbino.

prayers. To her right, the men address her by the first line of the ancient prayer, Sub tuumpraesidium: "0 Mary, under thy protection we seek refuge. " Opposite, the women appeal to her in a line from the Sancta Maria prayer: "0 Mary, intercede for your female devotees. " These heartfelt invocations to the Virgin stand in telling contrast to the mottoes above those excluded from the shelter of her mantle. As they are struck down by the plague, the dead and dying men confess their sin: "Justly we suffer these things, because we did not love you. " The stricken women similarly acknowledge

515 MANIPULATING T H E SACRED

their fatal error: "Alas for us, because we did not have faith in you. "73

Those dying of the plague are thus punished not because of sin- fulness per se, but because of lack of devotion to the Virgin. One sees again the extent to which the plague image draws on pre- existing conceptions of the holy figures to obtain security against the new threat. As in the many popular medieval collections of her miracles, Mary is presented as an omnipotent source of spiritual re- dress, passionately responsive to the needs of those consecrated to her service.74 Moral worth is no longer an absolute value: simple acts of devotion in her honor are sufficient to procure the salvation of otherwise undeserving sinners. So too in the San Ginesio altarpiece, anyone can be saved from the plague if only he or she prays devotedly to the Virgin. Willfully intervening to overturn justly merited divine chastisement for the sake of "her" sinners, the Vir- gin effectively functions as an autonomous power. Conversely, to withhold one's devotion, or to doubt the efficacy of her intervention, is to invite disaster: in the words of a well-known eleventh- century prayer of Anselm of Canterbury, "As, therefore, 0 most blessed one, everyone who turns away from you and is despised by you must perish, so whoever turns to, and is regarded by you, cannot possibly be lost. "75

At San Ginesio, as in a handful of other examples, the plague arrows are launched by hordes of grinning demons. Identification of the immediate cause of the plague as demonic malice rather than celestial judgment allows a certain measure of comfort by distancing the divinity from human suffering. Plague is divinely ordained, but God has withdrawn from the task of punishing humanity. Such an

7 3 0 MARIA SVB TVV[M] PRESIDIV[M] CO[N]FVGIMVS; 0 MARIA IN- TERCEDE PRO DEVOTO TIBI FEMINEO SEXV; IVSTE HEC PATIMVR QVIA TE N O N AMAVIMVS; V[A]E NOB[IS] Q[VI]A I[N] TE NO[N] CREDI- DIMVS. Other inscriptions reinforce this message of the necessary reliance on the protection of the Virgin. Both Saints Ginesio and Vincento Ferrer urge her veneration, and the Virgin herself invites humanity to pledge allegiance to her: "Come over to me, all ye that desire me" (Eccl. 24: 26). For full transcriptions, see Salvi, 240. On these prayers, see Perdrizet, 11; M%le, 189 and 489 n. 160; and BarrC, 19-20, 34-42.

74F0r an excellent recent analysis of medieval Marian miracle collections, see Ward, 132-65, with earlier bibliography.

7sOrationes, 7, quoted in Graef, I: 212. It was well known that Christ would punish insults to his mother more harshly than those to himself: see Geoffrey of Vendome (d. 1132), in ibid., 226; and Ward, 139-41, for specific instances of such "vengeance" miracles.


identification also shifts the focus of appeal from the supreme deity to more accessible intermediaries -whether the Virgin or saints- sufficiently powerful to control demonic activity.

However, the majority of Quattrocento representations identify the enraged Christ as the source of the plague (fig. 8).76 Very often he appears as the awesome Judge of the Last Judgment, bearing his wounds as visible reminders of his sacrifice and so of his right to judge humanity (fig. 10).77 This testifies to the wide currency of eschatological interpretations of the pandemic. For many worshipers the advent of plague heralded the beginning of the Last Times before the end of the world. Yet such convictions were not neces- sarily the cause for unmitigated despair. As Robert Lerner has justly argued, millenarian beliefs often functioned to comfort people in times of trial.78 Plague could be understood as part of a co- herent divine plan. Patient endurance of present adversities would ultimately be rewarded by the refreshment of the millennium.

In a panel probably commissioned by a Perugian disciplinati con-fraternity (fig. 13), the ritual practice of its members is situated within a vision of the opening of the seven seals of the Book of Revelations at the end of time.79 To the left, the sacrificial Lamb of God rests before the cross, the apocalyptic "sign of the son of man" (Math. z4:30). Along with the crown of thorns, the whips hanging from the cross-arms remind the viewer of Christ's sufferings on earth; their prominence also testifies to confraternity members' willingness to imitate such sufferings through voluntary self-flagellation. Six of the seven seals of the Book of Revelations

7 6 F ~ rUmbrian examples, see Santi, pls. I , 8, 12, 14-16, 20, 3 I . The preeminence of an angry and punitive Christ in the Renaissance imagination, demonstrated in both texts and images, proves Trexler to be incorrect in his statement that "Florentines quickly traced the ultimate source of the evil to their own sins, which had become in- tolerable to God the Father. It was always God the Father that punished" (1980, 348).

77As Jacopo da Voragine reminded his readers, the wounds of the Judge "show us Christ's mercy, for they remind us of his willing sacrifice, but they also justify his anger when we remember that not all men wished to accept his sacrifice." See Panofsky, 286-88 (citing da Voragine in German); and Schiller, 2: 188-89 (with English trans., 189).

78Lerner, 8 ~ f f . 79For attributional history and transcription of all inscriptions, see Wohl, I 89-90. XODisciplinesalso hang from the arms of the cross behind the Man of Sorrows in

a gonfalone by Niccold da Foligno, which is presumed to have been painted for a disciplinati confraternity in Bettona: see Santi, pl. 10.


FIG. 13. Anonymous. Perugian. Apocalyptic Lamb and Plague Madonna della Mise- ricordia. Tempera on panel. Perugia, Galleria Nazionale. Photo: Carlo Fiorucci, Perugia.

have been opened.81 The stars have fallen from their places; the sun and the moon are dimmed; heaven has been folded up like a scroll. Only the last seal remains, which will bring with it the final end of the world. In the second mandorla, the Madonna della Mis- ericordia shelters a group of men and women from the plague arrows hurled by an angry Christ. By the crown she wears and by the moon at her feet, she is identified as the Woman of Revela- tions "clothed with the sun, and the moon was under her feet, and upon her head a crown of stars" (Rev. 12:1).8" In this carefully

8rInscriptions on the seals recall the seven stages of Christ's sacrificial missions as rehearsed in the Creed: NASCITVR, ABLITVR, MORITVR; DESCENDIT AD YMA, SVRGIT, ASCENDIT, VENIET DIES EIVS.

81Prayers petitioning the mercy of the Lamb (in Latin) and calling on the Virgin to intercede with her angry son (in Italian) encircle the borders of the mandorlas.

518 RENAISSANCE Q U A R T E R L Y

orchestrated image, an eschatological interpretation of the plague offers the prospect of comfort and ultimate vindication. By their practice of flagellation, disciplinati could participate in Christ's sufferings and thus incur merit for themselves and their families. Through the merit of their devotions and the merciful intervention of the Virgin, the just wrath of Christ would be turned aside, and members could hope to endure through the time of chastisement to enter into the promised kingdom of Christ and his elect.

Very occasionally the punitive impulse in Renaissance plague imagery originates not in Christ but in God the Father (fig. 14).~3 At one level, this could be interpreted as a rejection of eschatological readings of the pandemic. Instead, plague is situated within the ongoing course of providential history as a customary aspect of God's dealings with his chosen people. An altarpiece by Vasari, for example (figs. 15-16), combines the wrathful Father in the main image with predella narratives of the plague which was sent to punish David's presumption in taking a census (2 Sam. 24). 84 Recalling Israel's past trials, worshipers were encouraged to see the present round of epidemics in a long-term perspective that stressed patience and endurance. All that occurs is part of God's providential plan. Human sin provokes divine punishment, but with repentance will come forgiveness and renewed protection. Yet at another level, the specific identity of the divine person sending the plague hardly seems to matter. In images of the plague Madonna della Misericor- dia, the tiny figures of Christ and God the Father appear inter- changeable. Alike intent on exacting vengeance from a sinful populace, both Father and Son are equally thwarted by the Virgin's intervention. The crucial contrast is always between an oppressive divinity and a compassionate Mary.

Concentration of divine justice in God the Father also allows worshipers to approach Christ himself as intercessor on their behalf. In a processional banner from Fabriano (fig. 17). the Christ

R3See Perdrizet, fig. I; Santi, pls. 11, 30; and Fiorenzo's fresco at Deruta (above, fig. 7 ) ,where security from the plague is received from God the Father rather than from Christ. O f the twenty-two examples of the plague Madonna della Misericordia known to me, seven appear to depict God the Father menacing humanity with plague arrows. However, given the practice of representing both Father and Son with a cruciform halo as a sign of the consubstantiality of the Trinity, differentiation is sometimes difficult.

84Commissioned in 1535 by the confraternity of Saint Roch in Arezzo for the high altar of their church and completed the following year. See Giorgio Vasavi, 50-51, 329-3


FIG. 14. Benedetto Bonfigli. Plague Madonna della Misericordia, 1472. Canvas gonfalone. Corciano, parish church. Photo: Carlo Fiorucci, Pemgia.


FIG. 15. Giorgio Vasari. Virgin and Child with saints, 1536. Oil on panel. Arezzo, Museo Medievale e Moderno. Photo: Archivio Fotografico, Soprintendenza per i Beni Ambientali Architettonici, Artistici e Storici, Arezzo.

FIG. 16. Giorgio Vasari. Three scenes from the life of David: the prophet Gad indicating to David the choice of punishments; God sending a plague upon Israel; David acquiring land to build an altar of propitiation. 1536. Predella panels of fig. 15. Oil on panel. Arezzo, Museo Diocesano. Photo: Archivio Fotografico. Soprintendenza per i Beni Ambientali Architettonici, Artistici e Storici, Arezzo. f:

MANIPULATING T H E SACRED


FIG. 17. Anonymous, Marchigan. The Virgin and Saint Bemardinopetition Christ on behalf of Fabriano, 1458-60. Canvas gonfalone. Fabriano, Chiesa del Buon Gesh. Photo: Soprintendenza per i Beni Artistici e Storici delle Marche, Urbino.

525 MANIPULATING THE SACRED

child lies in a pink cradle within the stable of the Nativity and holds aloft a model of the ~ i t y . ~ s A transparent garment reveals his nudity as visible proof of his "humanation."86 Above him, the vertical alignment of the dove ofthe Holy Ghost and the stern Father poised to cast down the plague arrows underlines the voluntary descent of the second person of the Trinity into human frailty. 87 In the mys- tery of the Incarnation lies the key to salvation from the plague. Fully God and fully man, Christ offers himself as mediator between sinful humanity and offended divine justice. Kneeling before her child, the Virgin petitions Christ on behalf of Fabriano. The loving glance that passes between mother and son indicates his responsive- ness to her prayer. Saint Bernardino's presence recalls the Fran- ciscan inspiration behind the hospital's creation.a8 For all its apparent childishness, Christ's trusting grasp on Bernardino's fingers vividly conveys the intimacy with God that the saints enjoy. The closeness of their relationship reassures contemporary viewers that Christ will willingly accede to the saint's intercession. In turn, by his uncompromisingly upward gaze Bernardino reminds the beholder of the constant threat of divine justice, while with his other hand he proffers his IHS emblem as a symbol of the necessary devotion to Christ by which danger can be averted.

Still other defensive strategies focus more exclusively on the merit of Christ's redemptive death. Counterposing irate Father and wounded Son, a fresco originally in the Augustinian church in Visso (Marches) locates the source of relief from the plague in the pathetic spectacle of the Piet3 (fig. 18).~9 Within a womb-like

8SCommissioned between 1458-60 for the newly enlarged civic hospital of S. Maria del Buon Gesb, now the city's orphanage. See Molajoli, I 14-17. As Brian Pullan (182, 190-93) has demonstrated, the creation of such large, centralized hospitals was a dis- tinctive feature of the latter Dart of the fifteenth centurv. often associated. as at Fabriano. ,,

with the preaching of visiting Franciscan Observants. For plague in the Marches in 1456-57 and again in 1460, see Corradi, I : 291-95, 297.

86See Steinberg, 1983, on the pervasive genital display of Christ as child and as corpse in Renaissance art as celebrating the proof of Christ's assumption of the human condition; this specific phrase is first used ibid., g. O n the nudity of the Christ child and the revelatory function of his transparent garment, see esp. ibid., 24-3 j, 141-47, and figs. 32-33, 35-36, 160-62.

R7As in Filippo Lippi's slightly later and much better-known picture for the Medici: ibid., 120-21, arguing for the renaming of works such as the Fabriano gonfalone, usually called "the Virgin adoring the Christ Child," as images of the Incarnation.

"See the dedicatory inscription cited in Molajoli, I IS. @Detached fresco, now in the Collegiati. For attribution to Paolo da Viso, docu-

mented between 1441-83, and inscriptions, see Fabbi, 139-46.


FIG. 18. Paolo da Visso (attr.). Madonna del voto. Detached fresco, fiom S. Ag- ostino. Visso, Duomo. Photo: Soprintendenza per i Beni Artistici e Storici delle Marche, Urbino.


ceremonial tent, the Virgin as Mater dolorosa cradles the dead body of Christ on her lap, the populace of Visso at her feet.90 As a shield between the citizens and the enraged divinity, the tent takes the place of the Virgin's mantle in the plague Madonna della Miseri- cordia. By this device her protective role is still stressed, yet di- vested of any disturbing implications of autonomy. Instead, trust in the Virgin's perogatives as the mother of God is placed within a more carefully articulated Christological theology. Christ's vicarious sacrifice reconciles a just God and an unjust humanity, disarming the Father from his vengeful intentions.

The workings of the heavenly court are most fully elaborated in Benozzo Gozzoli's 1464 fresco for the Augustinians of San Gimig- nano (fig. 19).g1 In this unique instance, Sebastian takes on the function of the Madonna della Misericordia, shielding the populace with his outstretched mantle. Unlike the Virgin, however, he is not envisaged as acting independently. Instead, invocation of his intercession sets in motion a systematically pursued joint effort that pro- ceeds inexorably upwards through the celestial hierarchy. Above him, Christ and the Virgin stage a double ostentatio to turn aside the fury of God the Father. The Virgin presents her breast to Christ, beseeching his clemency by reminding him of her motherhood; in turn, Christ displays his wounds to the Father, reminding him of the reparation for human sin effected by his sacrifice.92

Here, as elsewhere, one is struck by the confidence with which Renaissance worshipers seek for solutions to the ongoing ravages ofthe plague. Although human nature is inevitably prone to sin and hence justly provokes divine anger and punishment, secure sources of celestial relief are available: if approached in the right way, God

sOHere, as in a number of other Renaissance works, the tent seems to function as a visual metaphor of the Virgin's divinely-filled womb. Other examples include Piero della Francesca's famous Madonna del Parto at Montecherci, Botticelli's Madonna de Pa- diglione in the Pinacoteca Ambrosiana, Milan and the polyptych by Niccolb da Foligno in Nocera Umbra.

9'On this fresco, see Ahl, 1988;and Ronen, both with earlier bibliography. For further information on the commissioner, prior Domenico Strambi, and his reformist intentions for the convent, explicitly articulated in the frescoes of Augustine's life commissioned from Gozzoli for the choir, see Ahl, 1986.

s2The textual source and earlier iconographic tradition of this theme have been an- alyzed by Perdrizet, 237-52. See also Panofsky, 283-94;and Schiller, 2: 224-26. On Gozzoli's immediate source, a canvas gonfalone now in the Cloisters, originally kept on an altar in the Florentine Duomo when not in use, see Meiss, 1954;and Ronen, 98-107.

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FIG. 19. Benozzo Gozzoli. Saint Sebastian protecting the populace of Sun Gimignano, 1464. Fresco. San Gimignano, S. Agostino. Photo: Alinari-Art Resource.


could be persuaded to change his mind. Even as the Father menaces humanity with the plague arrows, the presence of the dove of the Holy Ghost reveals the unity of purpose behind the apparent con- flict of offended Father and petitioning Son. Threat of punishment and promise of deliverance are contained within the one image. Above, angels assist the Father in casting the arrows; below, others catch and break them in mid-flight and hold up the protective mantle of the saint.

As we have seen, Renaissance images offer strikingly divergent perceptions of the temper and role of Christ in sending and averting the plague. Petitioned by the saints or by his mother, he is a stern but forgiving lord ofjustice, quick to rescind his judgments in humanity's favor. Yet he is also seen consumed with anger, intent only on destroying a world so given over to sin that it merits no further stays of sentence. O r he himself can argue humanity's cause before the throne of his father, either as vulnerable infant or wounded redeemer. Such contrasting conceptions of Christ as both merciful savior and wrathful judge-and the respective roles of the saints and the Virgin in mitigating or even subverting his implacability- were not unique to the period after I 348. Instead, existing concepts of the celestial hierarchy were energetically mo- bilized and refashioned to meet the new situation. Renaissance worshipers' ability to cope with the continuing presence of plague in their midst rested precisely on the secure conviction of multiple means of accessing supernatural aid.

The central proposition of this study has been to demonstrate the relevance of visual images to the history of the plague in western Europe. Images created through experience or expectation of the plague constitute a key source in the investigation of the psychological effects of cyclical epidemics. Above all, the creation and use of such images argues against any lasting crisis of confidence or pa- ralysis of will engendered by the plague, as posited in much modern scholarship. Instead, in the multiplicity of their identifications of the origins of the plague and potential sources of heavenly defence, the images testify to the creativity of Renaissance responses. For contemporay worshipers, images were an effective means of protection, ritually activated and manipulated in a process of confident negotiation and persuasion with the celestial powers. U N I V E R S I T Y OF S Y D N E Y

R E N A I S S A N C E Q U A R T E R L Y

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