Feminae: Medieval Women and Gender Index


  • Record Number: 3703
  • Author(s)/Creator(s): Tejera Llano , Dionisia,
  • Contributor(s):
  • Title: The Portrayal of Female Sainthood in Renaissance San Gimignano: Ghirlandio's Frescoes of Santa Fina's Legend
  • Source: Artibus et Historiae 19, 38 ( 1998): Pages 143 - 170.
  • Description:
  • Article Type: Journal Article
  • Subject (See Also): Art History- Painting Body Canonization of Saints Eucharist, Sacrament Fina of San Gimignano, Saint Ghirlandaio, Domenico, Painter- San Gimignano, Collegiata, Chapel Dedicated to Santa Fina- Two Frescoes, The Annunciation of Santa Fina's Death by Saint Gr
  • Award Note:
  • Geographic Area: Italy
  • Century: 15
  • Primary Evidence: Painting; San Gimignano, Collegiata [a church], chapel dedicated to Saint Fina, two Frescoes painted by Domenico Ghirlandaio, "The Annunciation of Santa Fina's Death by Saint Gregory the Great" and "The Funeral of Santa Fina." Painted between late 1477 and Septembe
  • Illustrations: Twenty-three illustrations. Figure One S. Fina Chapel, Collegiata, S. Gimignano. Figure Two Domenico Ghirlandaio, "The Annunciation of Santa Fina's Death by Saint Gregory the Great," (S. Fina Chapel, Collegiata, S. Gimignano). Figure Three Ghirlandaio, "The Funeral of Santa Fina," (S. Fina Chapel, Collegiata, S. Gimignano). Figure Four Detail, Ghirlandaio's "Annunciation." Figure Five Detail, Ghirlandaio's "Funeral." Figure Six Anonymous, "The Annunciation of Santa Fina's Death by Saint Gregory the Great," (Collegiata, S. Gimignano), (from J. Vichi Imberciadori, Fina del Ciardi, 1979, p. 18). Figure Seven Giotto, "The Funeral of Saint Francis," (Bardi Chapel, S. Croce, Florence). Figure Eight Lorenzo di Niccolò Gerini, Reliquary tabernacle of S. Fina, front, (Pinacoteca Civica, S. Gimignano). Figure Nine Gerini, Reliquary tabernacle of S. Fina, back (Pinacoteca Civica, S. Gimignano). Figure Ten Detail, Ghirlandaio's "Annunciation." Figure Eleven Detail, Ghirlandaio's "Annunciation." Figure Twelve "Saint Lawrence Approaching a Burning Grill," (Mausoleum of Galla Placidia, Ravenna). Figure Thirteen Fra Filippo Lippi, "The Celebration of the Relics of Saint Stephen" (Cathedral choir, Prato). Figure Fourteen Detail, Ghirlandaio's "Funeral." Figure Fifteen Bernardo Rosselino, tomb of Leonardo Bruni (S. Croce, Florence). Figure Sixteen Andrea Bregno?, Tomb of Rafaelle della Rovere (SS. Apostoli, Rome) (From G. Davies, Renascence: The Sculpted Tombs of the Fifteenth Century in Rome, 1910, fig. 40). Figure Seventeen School of Bregno, Tomb of Giovanni della Rovere (S. Maria del Popolo, Rome) (From Davies, fig. 44). Figure Eighteen Tomb of Bishop De Coca (S. Maria sopra Minerva, Rome) (From Davies, fig. 65). Figure Nineteen Melozzo da Forlì (attributed), "Christ in Judgement," tomb of Bishop Coca (S. Maria sopra Minerva). Figure Twenty School of Amiens, "The Mass of Saint Gregory," (Louvre, Paris) (From M. Vloberg, L'Euchariste dans l'art, 1946, p. 197). Figure Twenty-one Florentine, "The Mass of Saint Gregory," engraving (From A. M. Hind, Early Italian Engraving, 1938, Pt. I, Vol. II, pl. 43). Figure Twenty-two Detail, Ghirlandaio's "Funeral." Figure Twenty-three Detail, Ghirlandaio's "Funeral."
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  • Abstract: Domenico Ghirlandaio's two frescoes depicting the Legend of S. Fina in the Collegiata at San Gimignano (intended for the promotion of this local saint's official recognition by the Church) present an ideal image of female sainthood that focuses overwhelmingly on Fina's physical body. Ghirlandaio used Fina's recumbent position on a hard board to his advantage, providing settings that establish her likeness to the Virgin Mary, Christ Crucified, the early martyrs, and the Eucharist. The settings also imply her connection with the institution of the Church itself both through a visualization of the metaphorical equation of the spiritual and material "Church" and through reference to the Mass of St. Gregory. In a very brief depiction of a saint's legend unparalleled in the fifteenth century, Ghirlandaio endowed a little-known local female with universal Christian significance.
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  • Author's Affiliation: John Carroll University, Cleveland, Ohio
  • Conference Info: - , -
  • Year of Publication: 1998.
  • Language: English
  • ISSN/ISBN: 03919064