Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 9995
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Fleck , Cathleen A
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: To exercise yourself in these things by continued contemplation: Visual and Textual Literacy in the Frescoes at Santa Maria Donna Regina [The author argues that the Donna Regina fresco program was planned to enhance the resident nuns' understanding and meditation on the tenets of the faith. Furthermore many of the nuns would have had a visual literacy as well as a textual literacy to understand the sophisticated iconography and the Latin inscriptions. The nuns also would need to summon up relevant Biblical texts and other readings from memory. Title note supplied by Feminae.].
  • Source: The Church of Santa Maria Donna Regina: Art, Iconography, and Patronage in Fourteenth-Century Naples.  Edited by Janis Elliott and Cordelia Warr.  Ashgate, 2004.  Pages 109 - 128.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Essay
  • Subject (See Also): Art History- Painting Devotional Literature Images Latin Language Literacy Meditation Monasticism Naples, Napoli, Italy- Church of Santa Maria Donna Regina Visual Literacy
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: Italy
  • Century: 14
  • Primary Evidence:
  • Illustrations: Twenty-nine figures. Figure one (Thirty-eight in book) "Lamentation," detail from "Passion" cycle. Figure Two (Thirty-nine in book) "Saint Catherine of Alexandria Condemned and Led to Prison," detail of the "Life of Saint Catherine" cycle. Figure Three (Forty in book) "Saint Thomas and the Prophet Elias," detail of "Prophets and Apostles" on the north wall. Figure Four (Forty-one in book) "Christ's Ascent of the Cross," detail from "Passion" cycle. Figure Five (Forty-two in book) "The Prefect's Son Declares His Love," detail from the "Life of Saint Agnes" cycle. Figure Six (Forty-three in book) "The Prefect's Son Declares His Love for Agnes to His Father (?)," detail from the "Life of Saint Agnes" cycle. Figure Seven (Forty-four in book) "Agnes Led to a Brothel," detail from the "Life of Saint Agnes" cycle. Figure Eight (Forty-five in book) "Agnes about to Resuscitate the Prefect's Son; the Martyrdom of Agnes," from the "Life of Saint Agnes" cycle. Figure Nine (Forty-six in book) "Constance, Daughter of Emperor Constantine, Cured of Leprosy by Saint Agnes," detail from the "Life of Saint Agnes" cycle. The following figures are referred to in the text but are located in other sections of the book. Figure 3 Schematic layout of frescoes. Figure 34 View of north wall showing the "Passion" cycle and "Life of Saint Elisabeth of Thuringia-Hungary." Figure 37 "Angelic Choirs," detail from the "Last Judgement" cycle. Figure 53 "Second Judgment before Pilate;" the "Crowning with Thorns;" the "Second Stripping of Christ;" and the "Way to Calvary," detail from the "Passion" cycle. Figure 58 "Descent into Limbo" and "Resurrection," detail from the "Passion" cycle. Figure 60 "Apparitions of Christ," detail from the "Passion" cycle. Figure 61 "Incredulity of Thomas; Christ Appearing to his Disciples at Supper," detail from the "Passion" cycle. Figure 81 "Hell," detail from the "Last Judgement" cycle. Plate 6 Photograph of the nuns' choir with the apse in the background (in color). Plate 11 "Angelic Choirs," on the left side of the triumphal arch (in color). Plate 13 "Saint Thomas and the Prophet Elias," detail of the "Prophets and Apostles" on the north wall (in color). Plate 14 "Catherine Refusing the Sacrifice to the Idols; Catherine Preaching to the Philosophers," details from the "Life of Saint Catherine" (in color). Plate 15 "Catherine Led to Prison; the Martyrdom of the Philosophers," details from the "Life of Saint Catherine" (in color). Plate 16 "Saint Agnes at School; the Prefect's Son Declares His Love for Agnes to His Father (?)" details from the "Life of Saint Agnes" (in color). Plate 17 "Saint Agnes Reading," detail from the "Life of Saint Agnes" (in color). Plate 18 "Constance," detail from the "Life of Saint Agnes" (in color). Plate 19 "Third Stripping of Christ" and "Christ's Ascent of the Cross," detail from the "Passion" cycle (in color). Plate 22 "The Marriage of Elisabeth," detail from the "Life of Saint Elisabeth of Thuringia-Hungary." Plate 23 The "Last Judgment" cycle, west wall of the choir (in color). Plate 25 "The Procession of the Elect to Paradise," detail from the "Last Judgment" cycle (in color).
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  • Author's Affiliation: Washington University [Scholar in Residence]
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 2004.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 0754634779