Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 38865
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): McHam , Sarah Blake,
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: Visualizing the Immaculate Conception: Donatello, Francesco della Rovere, and the High Altar and Choir Screen at the Church of the Santo in Padua
  • Source: Renaissance Quarterly 69, 3 ( 2016): Pages 831 - 864.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Journal Article
  • Subject (See Also): Adam (Biblical Figure in Art) Donatello, Artist- High altar of the Santo in Padua Eve (Biblical Figure in Art) Franciscan Order Immaculate Conception Mary, Virgin, Saint Padua, Padua, Italy Sixtus IV, Pope Theology
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: Italy
  • Century: 15
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations:
  • Table:
  • Abstract: This essay contends that Donatello’s High Altar at the Santo in Padua represents the Immaculate Virgin, reflecting a controversial doctrine of burgeoning interest in fifteenth-century Italy that she was exempted from original sin prior to the first moment of her conception. It ties the altar and scenes on the surrounding choir screen to a sermon promoting the Virgin’s immaculacy by Francesco della Rovere (later Sixtus IV), spoken in Padua in 1448 while the altar was being erected. It further connects the liturgical ensemble with bulls by Sixtus IV and liturgical offices sponsored by him after he was elected pope. [Reproduced from the journal page on the University of Chicago website: http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/toc/rq/current.]
  • Related Resources:
  • Author's Affiliation: Rutgers University
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 2016.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 00344338 (print); 19350236 (online)