Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 1805
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Holman , Beth L.
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Exemplum and "Imitatio" : Countess Matilda and Lucrezia Pico della Mirandola at Polirone Italy [the Appendix reproduces four documents in Latin concerning Lucrezia Pico della Mirandola and the monastery at Polirone].
  • Source URL: Art Bulletin (Full Text via JSTOR) 81,4 (December 1999): 637-664. Link Info target = '_blank'>Art Bulletin (Full Text via JSTOR) 81,4 (December 1999): 637-664. Link Info
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Journal Article
  • Subject (See Also): Architecture- Religious Burials Imitation Matilda, Countess of Tuscany Memorialization of the Dead Monasticism Noble Women Patronage, Ecclesiastical Pico della Mirandola, Lucrezia, Wife of Gherardo Felice Appiano d'Aragona, Count of Montegano Polirone, It
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: Italy
  • Century: 11- 12, 15- 16
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations: Twenty figures. Figure One Tomb of Lucrezia Pico della Mirandola, 1503 (S. Benedetto Polirone). Figure Two Tomb of Matilda of Canossa (S. Benedetto Polirone). Figure Three S. Benedetto Polirone, exterior, Romanesque church renovated by Giulio Romano in the early 1540's. Figure Four Giulio Romano, S. Benedetto Polirone, interior. Figure Five S. Benedetto Polirone, reconstruction of the plan of the fifteenth-century basilica marked with the locations of the tombs of Matilda of Canossa and Lucrezia Pico della Mirandola. Figure Six Paolo Farinati, "Countess Matilda of Canossa," 1587 (Verona, Museo di Castelvecchio). Figure Seven Tomb of Galeotto I Pico and his wife Bianca Maria d'Este (died 1499 and 1506) (Mirandola, S. Francesco). Figure Eight Tomb of Lucrezia Pico della Mirandola. Figure Nine Tomb of Spinetta di Paolo Pico (died circa 1399) (Mirandola, S. Francesco). Figure Ten Oratory chapel of S. Maria (S. Benedetto Polirone). Figure Eleven Tomb of Cesare Arsago (died 1510) (S. Benedetto Polirone). Figure Twelve Tomb of Cesare Arsago , detail. Figure Thirteen Arms of Cesare Arsago, Fresco (S. Benedetto Polirone, Chapel of St. Ambrose). Figure Fourteen S. Benedetto Polirone, plan of the monastery with the areas to be razed for construction, circa 1524-38. Figure Fifteen Giovanni Buora, column, 1494 (S. Benedetto Polirone). Figure Sixteen S. Maria, Pieve di Coriano, exterior, circa 1082?, restored 1538. Figure Seventeen S. Maria di Coriano, apse and flank. Figure Eighteen S. Benedetto Polirone, South Flank. Figure Nineteen S. Benedetto Polirone, south flank, detail of exterior nave wall. Figure Twenty Gian Lorenzo Bernini, "Monument to Countess Matilda of Canossa," begun 1633 (St. Peter's).
  • Table:
  • Abstract: Matilda of Canossa, countess of Tuscany, was the premier benefactress of the Benedictine monastery of Polirone, where she was buried and memorialized through word and ritual. Matilda was the exemplum for a Renaissance patron, Lucrezia Pico della Mirandola, who bequeathed her estates to build a new abbey church. The vicissitudes of that project and of Lucrezia's reputation as its patron were resolved with the monks' eventual decision to preserve the medieval, Canossan basilica, renovated by Giulio Romano, and to portray Lucrezia as a "new Matilda." [Reproduced by permission of the College Art Association.]
  • Related Resources:
  • Author's Affiliation: Bard Graduate Center
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 1999.
  • Language: English;Latin
  • ISSN/ISBN: 00043079
    • 0