art and piety in the female religious communities of...

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Art and Piety in the FemaleReligious Communities of

Renaissance ItalyICONOGRAPHY, SPACE, AND THE RELIGIOUS

WOMAN’S PERSPECTIVE

Anabel Thomas

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published by the press syndicate of the university of cambridgeThe Pitt Building, Trumpington Street, Cambridge, United Kingdom

cambridge university pressThe Edinburgh Building, Cambridge cb2 2ru, UK

40 West 20th Street, New York, ny 10011-4211, USA477 Williamstown Road, Port Melbourne, vic 3207, Australia

Ruiz de Alarcon 13, 28014 Madrid, SpainDock House, The Waterfront, Cape Town 8001, South Africa

http://www.cambridge.org

C© Anabel Thomas 2003

This book is in copyright. Subject to statutory exceptionand to the provisions of relevant collective licensing agreements,

no reproduction of any part may take place withoutthe written permission of Cambridge University Press.

First published 2003

Printed in the United States of America

Typefaces Apollo 11/13.5 pt. and Poetica System LATEX 2ε [TB]

A catalog record for this book is available from the British Library.

Library of Congress Cataloging in Publication Data is available.

isbn 0 521 81188 0 hardback

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Contents

List of Illustrations • ix

Preface • xiii

Acknowledgements • xv

Structure • xvii

Bibliographical Note • xix

Introduction • xxiii

Preliminary Overview • 1

part one: the social function of the institution

1 Partial and Impartial Evidence • 25

2 Female Religious Communities Characterized • 33

3 Issues of Gender: An Augustinian View • 53

part two: the spatial dimension

4 The Architectural Development of the Conventual Complex • 75

5 Plans – Distinctions Drawn in Space • 92

6 Inventories and Conventual Chronicles – Art Recorded in Space • 100

7 Visual Distinctions and the Demarcation of Space • 106

part three: art and space

8 Distinctive Imagery in the Private and Public Sphere • 113

9 Franciscan Tertiaries (i): Sant’Anna at Foligno • 135

10 Franciscan Tertiaries (ii): Sant’Onofrio in Florence • 165

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contents

11 Tracking Change in Conventual Imagery: Images Relocatedand Altered • 192

12 Reassessment of Conventual Imagery: The Role of SuppressionDocuments • 206

part four: art and ritual

13 The Politics of Display • 215

14 A Dominican Angle: San Domenico del Maglio in Florence • 220

15 Varying Degrees of Emphasis on Titular Saints • 236

16 The Nature of Gaze • 254

17 Hierarchies within the Establishment: San Niccolo in Prato • 270

18 The Resonance of Time and Experience: Varying Patternsof Behaviour • 280

19 Communication • 291

part five: perspectives on conventual patronage

20 Commissioning Bodies: Insiders, Outsiders, and Less FamiliarAsides • 309

21 Frameworks of Association • 320

Epilogue • 329

Notes • 335

Bibliography • 377

Index • 397

Color plates follow p. 208.

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List of Illustrations

colour plates

I Bicci di Lorenzo and workshop. AnnunciationII Anonymous Italian, sixteenth century. Scenes

from the Lives of the Virgin and ChristIII ?First church/?Summer workplace, Sant’Anna,

FolignoIV Zanobi Macchiavelli. Virgin and Child between

SS Nicholas of Tolentino, ?Nicholas of Bari,Bartholomew and Monica

V Francesco Botticini. Santa Monaca and Nuns of theAugustinian Order

VI Refettorio di magro, San Niccolo, Prato withscenes of the Madonna and Child Enthroned withSaints, the Crucifixion and the Flagellation ofChrist by an anonymous fifteenth-century Italianartist

VII Neri di Bicci. Virgin and Child Enthroned betweenSS Louis, Benedict, Apollonia and Catherine (detail)

VIII ?Giovanni di Corraduccio. Last Supper andWedding Feast at Cana

IX ?Giovanni di Corraduccio. Kneeling figure at apriedieu (?Angelina di Montegiove) (detail)

X Attr. Biagio d’Antonio. Virgin and Child Enthronedwith Saints, including a kneeling St Catherine

XI Cosimo Rosselli. St Catherine with Members of theDominican Third Order

XII Attr. Bartolomeo Bocchi. The Feast of St Dominicand other scenes (detail, Two kneeling figures)

figures

book cover. Lippo d’Andrea di Lippo. The An-nunciation, St Bridget and a choir of BridgettineNuns

frontispiece. Andrea di Bartolo. St Catherine ofSiena and four Dominican Beate

1 Florentine, last quarter of the fifteenth century.St Catherine of Siena • 8

2 Anonymous Italian, ?late fourteenth/early fif-teenth century. Flying Angels and Donor • 11

3 Gregor Erhart. Christ Child with Terrestial Globe• 12

4 Anonymous Italian, ?late fourteenth century. StJerome • 15

5 Anonymous Italian, fourteenth century. Cruci-fixion • 17

6 Master of St Lucy and an unknown hand, latefifteenth/early sixteenth century. St Catherine ofAlexandria • 20

7 Anonymous Italian, sixteenth century. Scenesfrom the Lives of the Virgin and Christ • 31

8 Pacino di Bonaguida. The Tree of Life • 36

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list of illustrations

9 Sandro Botticelli and workshop. Trinity with SSMary Magdalen and John the Baptist • 42

10 Interior Santa Monaca, Florence • 6611 Neri di Bicci. Crucifixion (main panel) • 6812 Reconstruction of 1781 plan of monastery of Il Pa-

radiso, Florence • 9313 Reconstruction of sixteenth century plan of San Ja-

copo, Via della Scala, Florence • 9714 ?Giovanni di Corraduccio. Virgin and Child

(‘Madonna della Tenerezza’) • 11515 Attr. Paolo Uccello. Crucifixion • 11716 Eighteenth-century plan of Sant’Apollonia, Flo-

rence • 11817 A. Arnoldi. Virgin and Child • 11918 Lippo d’Andrea di Lippo. The Annunciation, St

Bridget and a choir of Bridgettine Nuns • 12119 Neri di Bicci. Coronation of the Virgin • 12220 Anonymous Italian, late fifteenth/early sixteenth

century. ?Archangel Raphael/?Michael • 12321 Davide and Domenico Ghirlandaio. Madonna and

Child and Saints • 12522 Paolo Schiavo. Crucifixion • 12723 Francesco Botticini. Madonna and Child be-

tween St Francis and the Archangel Raphael andTobias • 128

24 Giovanni Gaddi. Madonna della Misericordia• 131

25 Donatello. Madonna Pazzi • 13226 Anonymous Italian, fifteenth century. Madonna

and Child • 13327 Plan, Sant’Anna, Foligno • 13828 ?Giovanni di Corraduccio. The Tree of Life • 13929 View of Refectory, Sant’Anna, Foligno • 14130 ?Giovanni di Corraduccio. Christ’s Meal in the

House of Martha and Mary • 14331 ?Giovanni di Corraduccio. The Last Supper • 14432 Large Refectory, Sant’Anna, Foligno with ?Gio-

vanni di Corraduccio Scene of Martha in theKitchen • 145

33 Oratory, Sant’Anna, Foligno • 15134 ?Giovanni di Corraduccio. Standing female saint

(?Beata Angelina in Glory/?Elizabeth of Hungary)• 153

35 Italian, various dates from the fifteenth centuryonwards. Votive images (including ?PierantonioMezzastris. Stigmata of St Francis) • 155

36 Italian, ?sixteenth century. St Anne with ?QueenHelen/St Elizabeth and the Beata Angelina• 156

37 External Entrance Portal, Sant’Anna, Folignowith ?Pierantonio Mezzastris. Virgin and Childwith St Anne and the Beata Angelina • 159

38 Anonymous Italian, sixteenth century. Circum-cision of Christ • 161

39 Anonymous Italian, sixteenth century. The Vir-gin as a Young Child in the Temple • 162

40 Anonymous Italian, sixteenth century. Christ inthe Temple • 163

41 Ground Floor and First Floor Plans. Original Nu-cleus, Sant’Onofrio, Florence • 169

42 Bicci di Lorenzo and workshop. St Ivo En-throned • 170

43 Bicci di Lorenzo and workshop. St Ivo Enthroned(detail, group of lay figures, left and ?Ginevra deiBardi) • 171

44 Upper Chamber, Sant’Onofrio with images byBicci di Lorenzo and workshop. St Ivo En-throned, Franciscan Miracle and St Francis ofPaola • 173

45 Bicci di Lorenzo and workshop. Apotheosis of StFrancis • 174

46 Upper Chamber C, Sant’Onofrio with images byBicci di Lorenzo and workshop. Christ as Man ofSorrows surrounded by symbols of the Passion andSt Anthony giving instructions about overcomingEvil • 175

47 ?Neri di Bicci. Young St John the Baptist • 17648 Bicci di Lorenzo and workshop. St Anthony Abbot

giving instructions about overcoming Evil • 17749 Bicci di Lorenzo and workshop. Annunciation

(detail of kneeling ‘donor’ figure) • 17850 Stefano Bonsignori. Map of Florence (detail show-

ing Sant’Onofrio) • 18151 Copy of late-fifteenth century Catena Map of Flo-

rence (detail) • 18552 Reconstruction of 1802 ground floor and first floor

plan, Sant’Onofrio, Florence • 18653 Bicci di Lorenzo and workshop. Nativity • 18754 Bicci di Lorenzo and workshop. St Margaret and

Scenes of Her Life and Martyrdom • 18855 Anonymous Italian, ?early sixteenth century. St

Catherine of Alexandria (detail, predella) • 190

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list of illustrations

56 ?Bicci di Lorenzo and workshop. Nativity(sinopia) • 191

57 Italian, ?fourteenth century. Flying Angels (detailof donor) • 193

58 ?Follower of Rosselli Franchi. St Catherine andMembers of the Dominican Third Order • 196

59 Anonymous Italian, early sixteenth century.Oretta Pugliese on Her Death Bed • 197

60 Anonymous Italian, ?fourteenth century. Mira-cle of St Nicholas • 200

61 Attr. Pietro di Miniato. Assumption of the Virginand the Giving of the Girdle • 201

62 Anonymous Italian, ?fourteenth/fifteenth cen-tury. Quatrefoil heads in decorative surround anddetails of urban background • 225

63 Anonymous Italian, ?fourteenth/fifteenth cen-tury. Foliage • 226

64 Anonymous Italian, ?fourteenth/fifteenth cen-tury. Crowd figures • 227

65 Cosimo Rosselli. Miracle of the Sacramental Cloth(crowd detail) • 228

66 Anonymous Italian, fourteenth/fifteenth cen-tury. ?Apostles • 229

67 Anonymous Italian, sixteenth century. ChristFeeding the Five Thousand • 230

68 Anonymous Italian, ?fourteenth century. StBartholomew • 232

69 Anonymous Italian, ?fourteenth century. ?StLawrence • 232

70 Anonymous Italian, ?fourteenth century. ?St Ste-phen • 233

71 Anonymous Italian, ?fourteenth century. ?StLucy/Catherine of Alexandria/?Mary Magdalene• 234

72 Anonymous Italian, ?fourteenth century. ThreeDominican Saints • 234

73 Cosimo Rosselli. Miracle of the Sacramental Cloth(crowd detail, including a group of ?Tertiarynuns) • 250

74 Cosimo Rosselli. Miracle of the Sacramental Cloth(detail, kneeling right foreground figure) • 251

75 Cosimo Rosselli. St Catherine with Members of theDominican Third Order • 255

76 Bicci di Lorenzo and workshop. St Ivo Enthroned(detail, parchment scroll) • 259

77 Bicci di Lorenzo and workshop. St Ivo Enthroned(detail, ‘accounts and expenses’ scroll) • 260

78 Cosimo Rosselli. St Catherine with Members ofthe Dominican Third Order (detail of scroll)• 261

79 Cosimo Rosselli. St Catherine with Members of theDominican Third Order (detail of book) • 262

80 Diamante di Feo. St Francis Giving the Rule • 26381 Pisan School, late fourteenth/early fifteenth cen-

tury. St Benedict and St Romuald • 26382 Giovanni Antonio Sogliani. St Bridget Giving the

Order • 26583 Anonymous Italian, late fifteenth century. En-

throned Virgin and Child between Saints • 27184 Attr. Bartolomeo Bocchi. The Feast of St Dominic,

and other Scenes (detail) • 27585 Attr. Girolamo Ristori. Carrying of the Cross

• 27886 Master of the Breslau Epiphany. Leonardo Buon-

afede Giving the Rule • 29587 Neri di Bicci. Coronation of the Virgin (detail of

multifaceted ciborium) • 29888 Neri di Bicci. Coronation of the Virgin (detail,

carved section in lower foreground) • 30389 Neri di Bicci. Santa Felicita Seated between Her

Sons • 31190 Cardini Chapel, San Francesco, Pescia with deco-

rations by Neri di Bicci • 32491 Neri di Bicci. Coronation of the Virgin • 32592 Neri di Bicci. Saint Thomas Receiving the Virgin’s

Girdle, with the Archangel Michael, SS Augustine,Margaret and Catherine of Alexandria and Angels(main panel) • 326

93 Neri di Bicci. St Thomas Receiving the Virgin’sGirdle, with the Archangel Michael, SS Augustine,Margaret and Catherine of Alexandria and Angels(predella) • 327

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CU497-Pre CB497-Thomas December 10, 2002 8:56 Char Count= 0

Preliminary Overview1

As indicated by the Table of Contents, this study combines a broad sketchwith a comparatively narrow, but detailed, analysis of art and piety in fe-male religious communities in Renaissance Italy. This Preliminary Overviewhighlights key issues as they appear in the main text. Throughout, attentionis paid to the functions of artistic products and the ways in which thesewere central to the aims and objectives of female religious communities. Butquestions are first raised about the purpose of these institutions and someof the common problems they faced. For, despite their widely varying char-acter, it is possible to identify features these institutions shared in common,some of which also apply to male religious communities.2

It is not the purpose of this study to consider why the fluctuating im-pulse, individual and collective, to develop and sustain female religiouscommunities was so strong during the early modern period. Much atten-tion has already been paid to this.3 Clearly, the prevalence of this formof religious and social organization often resulted from a complex of fac-tors. In any event, there were many different establishments in Tuscanyand Umbria and as the examples in Part One show, their developmentand evolution varied considerably. It was a lively, even volatile field.

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art and piety in the female religious communities of renaissance italy

Despite many important variations, the essentialfeatures of these communities involved a group ofpeople – women in the establishments consideredhere – who made an individual commitment to ded-icate their lives to God and to the service of theirimmediate and more distanced societies. This was ef-fected by the maintenance in houses separated fromthe community to some degree, of a collective lifegoverned by a set of shared rules, rituals, and obser-vances. Almost all religious communities held thatmuch in common. There were, of course, wide vari-ations concerning every aspect: the order followed;the rules observed; dress; the precise vows under-taken; the balance between private devotional ac-tivity, and collective religious observance and otheractivities such as medical and social work; and theextent of separation from the lay community.

The primary official purposes of such communi-ties, then, included the provision of lives of collec-tive service to God and mankind; intercessionarydevotional activity; and the demonstrable mainte-nance, as an example for the community as a wholeand as an offering to the Almighty, of a distinct andelevated lifestyle governed by the observance of pre-scribed rules. Unofficially, but obviously, these com-munities also performed other functions crucial totheir role in society. In particular, they provided arelatively secure and accepted way of life, and liveli-hood, to a significant number of single women whowere as a result not directly dependent on continuedsupport from their extended families.4

If those were common primary objectives, it isclear that these communities had a number of im-portant secondary objectives that must be achievedif they were to be successfully developed and sus-tained. Like all organizations, they needed to en-sure financial viability through the recruitment ofnew members and the retention of sufficient ex-isting members, not only in good order and disci-pline, but also with as high morale as possible. Theseobjectives, in turn, meant that it was importantthat these establishments enjoyed good external andcommunity relations so that they were accepted andsupported generally, and could successfully projectthemselves and their activities, particularly to thosebest able to provide or encourage financial supportand new recruits. Similarly and defensively, such

communities needed to avoid attracting political ec-clesiastical or community antagonism, and, more im-portantly, to secure active political, religious, andcommunity support and protection. For all these rea-sons there was a need for what might now be calleda successful promotional strategy.

The field of female religious communities wasboth competitive and in constant flux. There wasa recurrent pattern of communities failing as inde-pendent entities and disappearing or being absorbedby rivals. If a community or, indeed, an order wereto survive, it had to maintain its independence byresisting absorption by others. While financial vi-ability was a prerequisite, political and ecclesiasti-cal patronage could also be crucial. The significanceof this is drawn out in consideration of the founda-tion of the Franciscan community of Sant’Onofrio inFlorence. Equally, one way in which a communitymight strengthen its position would be by suc-cessfully taking over rivals. The response of theCarmelites at Santa Maria del Carmine in Florenceto the nearby foundation of the Augustinian com-munity of Santa Monaca offers an example of thedegrees to which preexisting communities were pre-pared to go to obstruct, or at least delay, the emer-gence of rivals. (This is discussed in Chapter Three.)

These promotional political and community rela-tions issues depended ultimately on the religiouscommunity successfully maintaining, and beingseen to maintain, the observance of the particularrole it claimed and the maintenance of the special el-evated rule of life which it espoused. That involvedboth the superficial – for example, the important is-sue of a distinct dress or uniform – and more complexcultural issues.5 In particular, to sustain a collectiveand to some extent demanding lifestyle required thedevelopment and maintenance of a collective cultureand identity, so that the members of the communitywere encouraged and reinforced in their decision tocontinue to live by the rule. That, in turn, put apremium on establishing, internally and externally,the history, tradition, and myth of the community,its place in a wider religious and ecclesiastical struc-ture, and the elevation of heroic figures who couldprovide iconic exemplars of the rule chosen: typ-ically the founder, original patron, or early mem-bers of the order or, if it was a branch of an order

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preliminary overview

as was often the case with female communities, itsparent.

Texts in the form of chronicles, record books, andmemoriale often assumed an important role in chart-ing the foundation of individual communities. Butfrescoed images, sculptural reliefs, painted panels,and three-dimensional funerary monuments com-bining painting and sculpture (to name but someof the conventual furnishings considered here) alsocontributed to the sense of history. Detailed consid-eration is given here to the ways in which a sculptedbas-relief of Maria degli Albizzi at Santa Chiara inFlorence was used by later chroniclers to explain andconfirm that particular community’s foundationand development. The significance of positioningand display of images of the ‘founders’ is furtheranalysed in the context of Sant’Anna in Foligno(the Beata Angelina) and Sant’Onofrio in Florence(Ginevra dei Bardi).

While later texts such as those associated withSanta Chiara may use images in an attempt to recon-struct an orthodox past, the original motives behindthe creation of such images may have been differ-ent. As this study will attempt to show, visual ref-erences of this kind, their positioning within otherdecorative schemes in the conventual complex, and(in particular) the extent to which they served theinternal and/or external gaze indicate a variety ofaims and objectives. The way in which a figure isdressed will give clear indications concerning orderand rule. Indeed, in some cases such depictions arerevealed as conscious attempts to distinguish the na-ture of the internal organization. In some instancessuch as the painting of St Catherine surrounded byMembers of the Dominican Third Order, which formsthe basis of enquiry in Chapter Sixteen, it also seemslikely that the intention was to mark a particu-lar period or event in that community’s history ordevelopment, rather than merely stress the rule itfollowed.

Special attention is paid here to the varying na-ture and social makeup of individual communi-ties. The Franciscan complexes of Sant’Anna andSant’Onofrio are selected as examples of commu-nities established within the same order, but withrather different internal organizations. The formerclung to the comparatively relaxed rule of the reg-

ular Third Order under the Padri conventuali;6 theother aspired to the more rigid constitutions of theObservant branch of the Franciscan Order.7 Yet,in each case it seems that women from aristocraticbackgrounds were instrumental in founding thecommunity, and that, for the most part, early mem-bers came from the same background. Their bloodwas so ‘blue’ that each was individually known asthe ‘monastery of the countesses’. The nature ofthe internal organization and the social profile ofits membership are accepted here as central issuesfor consideration in the interpretation of decorationsproduced for the conventual complex.

Questions are also raised concerning motives op-erating in the lay community in maintaining orsupporting individual communities. It seems likelythat the selection of individual communities for theplacement of daughters with or without dowries orwith or without religious convictions was intricatelyassociated with lay expectations, as well as lay so-cietal and familial circumstances. Placement of a fe-male member of the family in a religious commu-nity could significantly ease the financial burden ofcaring for her, or providing large (and sometimesrepeated) dowries for her in the lay community.8

Such placements, especially when combined withsome endowment, also offered spiritual insuranceconcerning both the temporal condition and the af-terlife of those members of the family remaining out-side the conventual walls.9 Specific evidence of thismay be found in the late fifteenth-century constitu-tions concerning prayer at the Franciscan commu-nity of Sant’Anna in Foligno.10 In these, the womenare advised to establish a predetermined number ofprayers to which they should adhere, except in ex-ceptional circumstances such as illness. At the veryleast, they were required to include among thesethree recitations of the rosary; fifteen Pater Nostersin commemoration of Christ’s Passion; five in rever-ence to St Francis, and some offering in considera-tion of ‘quelli che hanno fatto o fanno bene al monas-tero’ (thus, both past and current benefactors).

The orders, then, needed to establish internallya clear and distinct identity and culture, to main-tain morale, and to sustain the primary objectives ofoffering lives of service (frequently based on inter-cessionary prayer). At the same time, and without

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conflicting with aspirations to humility, they neededto project such internal organization externally forthe positive purposes of securing political, ecclesias-tical, and public support and protection; gaining re-cruits and financial support (the latter often closelylinked to the former); and, defensively, ensuring vi-ability against bankruptcy or takeover.

Against this background what role did artisticproductions play? Two-dimensional and plastic artoperated in practice in conjunction with many otherfeatures such as music, singing and chanting, liturgyand ritual, architecture, habits, and costume.11 Theythus often assumed a number of roles. It is arguedhere that the role or function of conventual art de-pended in large part upon the use of the surround-ing space and the kind of behaviour expected fromthe individuals gathered there. Divisions in archi-tectural space are thus examined against the notionnot only that varying functions or liturgical require-ments played a distinct part in fashioning the con-tent and nature of decorations displayed there, butalso that the images themselves regulated activitiesin these different areas. But, as the detailed analysisof many of the communities selected for considera-tion here shows, the nature of conventual space andbehaviour within it was rarely fixed. There were nu-merous variations over time. The watershed of theCouncil of Trent, although much emphasised andsubjected to considerable analysis, represents onlyone period of reform among many in the history offemale religious communities in Italy. Each of theseresulted in changes to a lesser or greater extent inthe internal nature of such institutions, which intheir turn influenced the way in which space wasorganized and used.

Even without response to such external forces,practice within individual communities could varyaccording to the size and nature of the conventual ac-commodation. During the early history of many fe-male religious communities individual spaces withinthe conventual complex often assumed a numberof different functions. Although certain areas arenow correctly defined in terms of varying activi-ties ranging from devotion to discussion, and eat-ing to sleeping, it may also be the case that duringan earlier age, such spaces, individually or in par-allel, ‘doubled up’. Doubling up could be official

and unofficial, sanctioned through constitutionalrule or frowned upon as unorthodox behaviour,and regulated against through individual articlesof reform. Thus, devotional activities might legit-imately range freely across the conventual complex,although constitutional rules stipulated that certainprayers should only be offered in specific places. Thelate fifteenth-century ordinations of Sant’Onofrio,for example, stipulate that penitential psalms shouldalways be delivered in the choir.12 Offices for thedead were likewise to be restricted to the choir, withthe exception of a number of quite precisely stipu-lated times.13

Constitutional rules also laid down certain reg-ulations concerning the use of particular spaces forprayer at different times during the day. The womenof Sant’Onofrio were, for example, required to re-main in their cells and pray between Prime andTerce.14 And, in one particularly detailed rule, itwas stipulated that between ‘Paschua di Resur(r)exiinfino alla Donna di settembre’ (roughly six monthsof each year), the women should go into the choir torecite penitential psalms after each meal, and that af-ter the sounding of a bell they should return to theircells for contemplation ‘overo fare altre comodita delcorpo overo exe(r)citio a loro concessi’ (presumablyallowing for a wide variety of activity).15 At Nonesthey were all to gather together in the room ‘deputataa lavorare’ (an interesting insight to the flexibility infunctions of conventual space) and here they wererequired to read ‘qualche libro divoto’ for an hourin complete silence. After this time they could talktogether, but always using edifying speech (‘sem-pre parlando parole edificatorie’) and in praise ofthe celestial bridegroom (‘in laude dello sposo’) un-til Vespers.

Silence was observed in a number of places and ata number of different times as part of an establishedpattern of decorous behaviour. But it would be a mis-take to assume that the thread between behaviouralexpectations, rules, and practice upon the ground(or, to be more precise, in the corner of the choir, re-fectory, or cell) remained taut.16 Reforms drawn up atthe time of the Council of Trent and the scandalisedreports of visiting inspectors offer ample evidenceof ‘lax’ behaviour behind convent walls.17 How-ever, even laying such extreme and obvious cases of

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deviation from an established or expected norm toone side, it seems clear that traditional interpre-tations of conventual space and behaviour withinit need some revision. Many examples consideredhere indicate, for example, that discussions and an-nouncements might take place just as easily in the re-fectory as in the chapter house. Eating was probablynot confined to the refectory, either. Why else shouldit have been thought necessary to draw up rules pre-venting food being taken out of the refectory?18 Doc-umentary evidence survives, also, to indicate thatthe rule of silence was likewise, on occasion, bro-ken. The late fifteenth-century rules drawn up forSant’Onofrio in Florence, as well as drawing atten-tion to appropriate behaviour in the refectory, alsoinclude penalties for those who chatted irreverentlyor laughed in the choir.19

It seems quite clear, also, that many women com-mitted to religious life during the early modern pe-riod showed little aptitude and even less vocation forsuch practice. Instances abound of nuns absconding;novices reneging on their instructions; and postu-lants requesting that their role in the communityshould be commuted to the condition of a lay mem-ber or servant to the community, rather than pro-ceeding through religious instruction to professionand taking of the veil. One particularly arresting ac-count of this kind concerns Antonia, the daughterof Giovanni ‘del valdarno di sopra’, who first joinedthe community of Mantellate nuns at Santa Monacain Florence as a servant.20 In January 1451/2 shetook the habit, assuming the name Sister Apollonia.In December 1455 she apparently fled the monasteryby way of the back door. Her excuse was that she hadnever wished to take part in the ceremony of profes-sion because she did not want to remain in clausura.Her subsequent life outside the conventual walls wasperhaps not so rosy as she had anticipated. Only ayear later she is recorded as dying in the hospital of‘messer Bonifacio’.

Such incidents were no doubt common in manyother arenas. Signing up for membership withinany kind of institution, and behaviour when onceelected or accepted there, depended on many dif-ferent personal circumstances and external forces.21

Religious communities (as organizations intent uponthe practice of a particular kind of ‘activity’ or way

of life) faced many of the same problems concerningregulations and actual operation of the ‘business’ aslay communities intent upon more concrete forms of‘trade’.

While the sociological aspects of conventual lifeunderpin many of the enquiries in Part One, thecentral aim in later sections is to illustrate that manyimages hitherto assumed to have been produced forpublic viewing, as well as many of those with asyet no firm provenance, were in fact commissionedfor private gaze within the inner space of a femaleconventual complex. The overriding intention hereis to illustrate how conventual art related to andregulated the space surrounding it. This inevitablyrequires an exploration of the varying nature andfunction of conventual space.22

Particular consideration is given, for example, inthe analysis of Sant’Anna at Foligno to the spacetraditionally known as ‘Angelina’s cell’. This areaappears to have changed both in scale and deco-ration as it evolved from the private space of oneindividual to the corporate space of the community,upon assuming the function of an inner oratory afterAngelina’s death. The changing function of thespace emerges as a key factor in interpretations ofsurviving decoration there. A slightly different con-sideration regulates analysis of the evolution in sig-nificance of a fresco of the Annunciation (ColourPlate I), originally produced by Bicci di Lorenzo andhis workshop as one of a number of frescoed imageson the wall of an upper chamber at Sant’Onofrio inFlorence. In this case, it is argued that it was thedecoration itself which played an important part inestablishing the character of the surrounding spaceand controlling or regulating activities there. It isfurther suggested that the changing function of thatspace was inextricably linked with the developmentof the architectural fabric and the internal organiza-tion of the community itself.

As the more detailed analysis in Chapter Eighteenindicates, Bicci di Lorenzo’s Annunciation fresco ap-pears to have been selected for particular attentionat the beginning of the sixteenth century, almost acentury after its original commission and produc-tion. At that time, it seems to have been singledout by papal decree as an appropriate and culmi-nating point of reference during the reenactment of

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pilgrimages within the conventual complex. Thus,what was originally deemed appropriate as one of anumber of images on one wall in one space withinthe conventual complex, not only assumed a uniqueand separate significance, but also exerted a specificinfluence on the way in which the surrounding spacewas viewed and used. It seems most likely that thespace for which the Annunciation image and otherscenes were originally produced served first as aninternal hall. This was thus an area through whichmembers of the community passed when movingfrom one part of the conventual complex to another.However, once the Annunciation was marked outas different, imbued with significance as a pilgrim-age image, the surrounding space assumed quite adifferent character. No longer a connecting spacethrough which members of the community movedwhen intent on business elsewhere, it became anarea to which individuals came, with the specificintention of assembling there to offer devotions atan altar erected in front of one particular image. Asan artistic production the original fresco remainedunchanged. But changing attitudes to it influencedboth the way in which the space in which it wasdisplayed was viewed and used.

Despite evidence of fluctuations and duplicationsin the use of female religious space (which are con-sidered in greater detail in Chapter Seven), andchanges in the nature or content of decoration (sub-jected to closer examination in Chapters Six andEleven), there were many situations where the re-lationship between space and image remained effec-tively fixed. It is in this context that the role of art inritual assumes particular significance. The high al-tar and its associated imagery was in effect the mostsignificant and central point in the celebration of theEucharist (at least in an outer, or conventual church).The furnishings of sacristies were, with very few ex-ceptions, essentially concerned with religious cel-ebrations carried out at the high altar. Survivingconventual records also suggest that some activi-ties, such as the confirmation of the nun’s espousalto Christ through the ceremonies of profession andtaking the veil, not only had fixed points of refer-ence (either to the high altar in the outer conventualchurch or in the space surrounding the main altar in

the inner church, or nuns’ choir), but also requireda particular artistic vocabulary.23

By way of introduction to such conventual rit-ual, Chapters Two and Three consider some of thecharacteristics of female religious communities andthe extent to which we may argue that the decora-tions of their conventual complexes were different.By definition, life within female religious communi-ties was essentially carried on without the presenceof men. But, as with male communities, there wasthroughout an emphasis on corporate activity: pray-ing together at set times, joining together to discusscommunity matters, eating together, even carryingout the ‘disciplina’ or self-flagellation together. Pos-tulancy or vestition, and the election of abbesses andmother superiors, were possibly the only ceremonieswhere individual women assumed a specific signif-icance. Although there is evidence that vestitionceremonies could involve more than one individ-ual, the act of postulancy was specific to one femalealone.

On such occasions complex negotiations were nor-mally carried out concerning the conditions underwhich the postulant was to be accepted into the com-munity. Although a male member of the lay societyor a member of the clergy might officiate, any vi-sual record of the event itself tended naturally toemphasise the female rather than the male. It wasthrough such ceremonies that the permanent num-ber of members of the community was maintainedand the overall network of female religious housesstrengthened. But the event was also of particularsignificance to the individual female concerned andto her natal family. When works of art were commis-sioned in celebration of such transactions, it wouldno doubt have seemed natural that both the femaleat the centre of the ceremony and her familial con-nections should take precedence. The painting tra-ditionally entitled St Catherine as Spiritual Motherof the Second and Third Orders, but here renamed StCatherine surrounded by Members of the DominicanThird Order, is identified as one such example. Adetailed explanation of why this painting should beassociated with an entrance ceremony and the waysin which it emphasised the significance of the pos-tulant and her family is offered in Chapter Sixteen.

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As we shall see, one clear distinction which maybe drawn between imagery in female and male re-ligious communities is the emphasis placed in theformer on the nun as the spouse of Christ. Precise vi-sual references were also often made to the individ-ual nun’s position within the community. Prospec-tive members of a female community experienced anumber of changes in dress during the various stagesof their acceptance into religious life. The postulantor novice was clearly distinguished from the pro-fessed nun, who in taking the veil took part in whatwas in effect a bridal ceremony.24 But there weredifferences also between postulants and novices. Inmany cases, postulants were not required to wearany kind of official habit. Novices, by comparison,were often distinguished by a slightly less elaborateor refined form of dress. There was a specific spiritualpurpose here which is explained in the ordinationsdrawn up for the ‘sisters of penitence’ at Sant’Annain Foligno in the early seventeenth century.25 Ac-cording to these, the probationer should wear a‘panno vile et ceneritio’ for a whole year in order toshow her humility and spiritual willingness to serveSt Francis.

A general analysis of the prominence allotted tofemale figures in decorations destined for conven-tual complexes underpins many of the individualenquiries raised in this study. In this context, also,distinctions are drawn between the male manipula-tion of ‘public’ space through the commissioning ofhigh altarpieces, and independent female action inthe patronage of artworks for ‘private’ areas.

Although considerable attention is paid to inter-nal decorations, it is certainly not the intention hereto deny the importance of art in the outer or publicchurch. Although clearly not essential to the cel-ebration of mass, altarpieces could and often didrelate specifically to liturgical activities associatedwith the altar upon which they were displayed.And, most significantly in the context of the presentstudy, altarpieces in the outer or public space couldemphasise the standing of the community, indicat-ing its financial viability and/or endowment andprotection by wealthy patrons. The commissioningof a prestigious altarpiece served not only to beau-tify that outer space, but also often to emphasise

a particular titulus, whether of side chapel or highaltar or the church itself.

There can be little doubt that production of artfor public display aided public projection. It notonly validated the community’s way of life and itsmembers’ choice of it, but also encouraged and reas-sured existing members. At the same time it servedthe interests of the lay community. Where high al-tarpiece or subsidiary decorations within the con-ventual church included references to lay donorsthrough the display of coats of arms, inscriptions, orportraits, such details must clearly have been viewedin terms of the promise of spiritual reward. Visual ac-knowledgement of those individuals responsible forembellishment of the conventual complex no doubtalso encouraged and attracted further support andyet other endowments. Thus, much art productionin ‘outer’ spaces served to promote and protect acommunity’s interests, while at the same time estab-lishing and projecting its doctrinal and political al-legiance. It encouraged recruitment and at the sametime reinforced the presence and identity of the re-ligious establishment within lay society. Public con-ventual art, therefore, not only served to project theindividual characteristics of a particular religiouscommunity, but also contributed in a concrete fash-ion to public and community relations.

The decoration of the conventual church was notonly relevant in terms of promoting the ‘outside’ orpublic face of the community; it could also influenceeveryday life and spiritual experience within theconventual complex itself. There is much evidenceto suggest that women in religious communities hadonly partial access to the decorations in their con-ventual churches and on some occasions no directexperience of such art at all. However, it seems thatmany small-scale images in the form of woodcuts andengravings circulated within more private spaces,and that these often referred to or replicated more‘public’ imagery. The engraved image of St Catherineof Siena (Hind A.I.66, British Museum, London) isone such example (Figure 1). At least three of thenarrative scenes flanking the standing saint in thisengraved image can be related to painted panels pro-duced for the Dominican community in Florenceduring the latter part of the fifteenth century.26 This

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1. Florentine, last quarter of the fifteenth century. St Catherine of Siena. Engraving. British Museum,Print Room, Hind A.I.66. Copyright The British Museum.

print thus offered in miniature form a reflection ofart produced for public viewing.

Woodcuts and engravings offered considerablepossibilities for spiritual instruction, not least as aresult of their wide distribution. Whether insertedin spiritual tracts, attached to the wall, or stuck tofurniture (including cupboard doors, choir stalls,

and the predelle of altarpieces), these images, be-ing cheap and mass-produced, were particularly ap-propriate for circulation and use within female reli-gious communities. The extent to which ephemeralwork of this kind was circulated within such insti-tutions is considered in detail in Chapter Twenty.The heading there – Less Familiar Asides – refers as

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much to our understanding of the role and functionof printed images within the enclosed space of fe-male religious communities, as our knowledge of thecircumstances of their production and circulation.It is, however, argued here that such merchandisecontributed to the vitality of art displayed in morepublic spaces. Familiarity with painted or sculpteddecorations in the public arena through the mediumof mass-produced prints not only imparted a senseof ownership over art in the public realm, but alsohelped bridge the gap between the world of the clois-ter and the more public spaces beyond.

Jeffrey Hamburger’s suggestion concerning thedistinctions that may have been drawn between artproduced for different groups of individuals is par-ticularly relevant here.27 It also finds support incontemporary Italian documentation. Entries in thechronicle of San Giorgio at Lucca, for example, dis-tinguish an altar within the conventual complexwhich was reserved specifically for novices.28 Af-ter celebration of Mass, when the senior members ofthe community went to the workroom, the noviceswent instead with their teacher to offer prayers attheir own altar. The differing nature and role ofimages viewed by novices as opposed to professednuns are explored in some detail here, particularattention being paid to the decoration of refectoryspace at Sant’Anna in Foligno. Hierarchical differen-tiations are traced also in the decoration of a num-ber of spaces allotted to different members of thecommunity at San Domenico del Maglio in Florence.Further distinctions in the nature of the viewingaudience are explored through a comparison of thedecorations in the large refectory in the Dominicancommunity of San Niccolo at Prato, and the smallerspace serving a similar function on the same siteknown as the ‘Refettorio delle Educande’.

Considerable attention has already been paid tothe variety of decorations and their differing func-tions in male space.29 William Hood, in particular,has considered the extent to which imagery at theDominican friary of San Marco in Florence relatedboth to the nature of the order, the organization ofspace within the monastic complex, and the vari-ous activities practised there. That such distinctionsshould have to be stressed in the context of female

space is curious. Female communities have on thewhole been excluded from such anthropological en-quiries. Many still assume that the inner spaces offemale religious communities remained unador-ned.30 Many still argue that for Second-Order nunsand their Tertiary sisters (whether regular or secu-lar) the outer church constituted the main area forconventual decoration, the rest being simplicity andasceticism. In some quarters, the assumption evenprevails that following edicts concerning clausura asearly as the thirteenth century, strict enclosure waseffected in all female religious communities duringthe early modern period.31 On that basis, given theextent of decorations revealed in inner spaces in thisstudy, one would have to argue for extensive activ-ity on the part of artistic nuns. Much evidence is, infact, emerging concerning the activities of nuns asartists, particularly during the sixteenth century.32

Instances cited here indicate that women also mayhave taken control of decorations within the privatespaces of conventual complexes (at least in minordetails) at a much earlier date.

To some extent, trenchant views concerning thedifferences in decoration between outer and innerspace depend on distinctions established by earlyhistorians such as Giuseppe Richa.33 When drawingup his survey of churches, monasteries, and con-vents in Florence shortly before the first suppres-sion of ecclesiastical establishments by the Lorenagovernment at the end of the eighteenth century,Richa often stopped short at the interface betweenthe public space of the outer church and the con-ventual complex beyond. Strict reforms followingthe Council of Trent in the sixteenth century playeda significant part in erecting both mental and physi-cal barriers between the lay community and the en-closed world of religious men and women. Althoughon occasion Richa referred (often on the basis of re-ceived information, rather than personal experience)to the decorations of the cloister, or to some specialimage revered by a female religious community anddisplayed by them in their own private space, heclearly prioritised the decorations of more publicspaces.34 Such mental sets still prevail. In addition,even though it is accepted that small panel paintingsand three-dimensional works (both free-standing

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sculpture and relief work), and more ephemeral mer-chandise such as woodblock and metal engravingprints, may have contributed to private devotionswithin the conventual complex, these are habituallyregarded as peripheral to the central spiritual im-petus which sprang from prestigious or large-scalework serving religious functions in the conventualchurch.

The notion that men (and, in particular, maleartists) did not penetrate the more private spacesof conventual complexes is clearly in need of somerevision. That men habitually entered the privatespaces of female religious communities is confirmedby a variety of documentary sources. Julian Gard-ner’s reference to Dominican friars breaking into theconfines of a local religious community in Zamorain Spain and subjecting the women there to var-ious insults and physical abuse is only one ofa vast number of documented instances both inItaly and elsewhere. One event noted in Dino Com-pagni’s Cronaca concerns one of the communitiesconsidered in detail in this study. Compagni recordshow in July 1304, during the conflict between theGuelphs and the Ghibellines, Baschiere de’Tosinghilaunched an attack on Florence. Betrayed and fear-ing a vendetta against members of his family, whichincluded two women established in the Dominicancommunity of San Domenico at Cafaggio (betterknown as San Domenico del Maglio), Baschiere ap-parently forced his way into that conventual com-plex to ‘save them’.35

Many other sources bear witness to intrusionsarising from practical necessity. Evidence survives,indeed, to explain how religious women were ex-pected to behave in the event of visits by lay trades-men. Thus, the rule of St Clare of Assisi, which wasdrawn up in 1252, stipulated that when it was nec-essary for a member of the lay community to comeinto the conventual complex to carry out work there,the abbess was to place a sentinel at the gate, whowas to give access only to the authorised persons.All the other women in the community were to takeutmost care that they should not be seen by thosewho entered.36

A surviving register from the Dominican commu-nity of San Jacopo di Ripoli in Florence dating to thefourteenth century explains in even greater detail

how the religious women of the community shouldbehave in the event of special licence being givento male workers to enter the conventual complexthere.37 Only the prioress, sub-prioress, and porterand three of the oldest women should be allowed tospeak to the workers. The other members of the com-munity were not to communicate with them in anyway. The sixteenth-century chronicle of the Domini-can community of San Giorgio at Lucca contains sim-ilar instructions concerning such intrusions.38 Ac-cording to this chronicle, the women there, despitewearing the black habit, did not originally follow astrictly enclosed regime, but opted instead for theless rigid regulations and discipline of the Third Or-der of St Catherine.39 Government of the communitywas shared between the church (‘i preti’) and the fri-ars of the Dominican Order. It was only during theearly years of the sixteenth century, after transfer-ring from the countryside outside Lucca, that theyestablished a stricter regime of enclosure. Yet evenat this stage they are described as professing obedi-ence according to the rule of St Augustine, ratherthan the more rigid rule of St Dominic.40 At thisdate, the community’s regulations included the fol-lowing advice concerning the entry of men into theconventual complex:

When it happens that the doctor or workers or otherindividuals (‘altri factori’) have to come into the house(‘debbono venire in casa’), a bell should first be rung andall the women who are scattered around the house shouldretire (‘si riducano’ – literally, ‘dwindle away’) into someplace where they can not be seen, ‘and they should takegreat care’ in this.

In essence, the women were advised to make them-selves scarce and avoid any kind of eye contact, in theevent of physical confrontation. This was presum-ably what happened when teams of fresco painterswere brought in to decorate chapter houses and re-fectory spaces. Even greater precautions must havebeen taken when, as is documented in the case ofCosimo Rosselli at Sant’Ambrogio, an artist was com-missioned to produce fixed decorations for the dor-mitory.

The differing nature of decorations in such spacesand the relationship between these and the functionof the spaces themselves is not often explored in any

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2. Anonymous Italian, ?late fourteenth/early fifteenth century. Flying Angels and Donor. Frescofragment. Nuns’ choir, San Niccolo, Prato. Photograph by author with permission from the Ufficio BeniCulturali delle diocesi di Prato and the Soprintendenza per i Beni Artistici e Storici, Florence.

detail. Nor is much made of references to the internalorganization and history of individual communities.Yet many publications generally concerned with Re-naissance art and decoration contain evidence insupport of the hypothesis presented here that in-ternal conventual decorations not only existed in awide variety of material forms, but were also inti-mately connected with the specific character of thecommunity and the function of the spaces in whichthey were displayed. One such example is the ad-mirable survey of San Niccolo at Prato publishedby Silvestro Bardazzi and Eugenio Castellani.41 In-tent upon reconstructing San Niccolo’s history andtracing its evolution from a religious community toan educational institute, these authors present muchvisual and documentary material concerning its pri-vate and public spaces. They also appear to identifyan hierarchy of space within the conventual com-plex itself, distinguishing, for example, the large re-fectory from that known as the ‘refettorio delle ed-ucande’ and both of these from a third space whichcurrently serves as an eating area for the womenstill at San Niccolo. However, there is little detailedinterpretation of the iconography of individual dec-orations.

By contrast, considerable attention is paid hereto a fresco containing two angels and a kneel-

ing figure in religious clothing which is now dis-played in the choir (and therefore inner space of SanNiccolo) (Figure 2). Although some effort has beenmade in the past to attribute and date this image,few questions have been raised concerning its orig-inal display or viewing audience; neither has anyattempt been made to assess the extent to which it iscomplete as opposed to a fragment of a larger piece ofdecoration. If it is a fragment, little real assessmentof its significance is possible without reconstruc-tion of the missing parts. Only through reconstruct-ing the whole can one hope to establish more firmlywhether or not the image is now displayed in its orig-inal position, and the extent to which it is appropri-ate to that space. As later discussion will show, thisimage was most probably originally displayed in theouter church and thus served a semipublic function.

Evidence presented here suggests that images dis-played in more private space were very differentfrom those on public display. In many cases it be-comes clear that they catered specifically to the fe-male viewer and user. In this context, attentionturns increasingly to the female state and psycheand the extent to which this differs from the male.Harnessing the maternal instinct of religious womenreceives increasing consideration in surveys of con-ventual art. Indeed, evidence mounts to suggest that

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3. Gregor Erhart, c. 1500. Christ Child with Terrestial Globe.Polychromed wood. Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe, Hamburg.Museum fur Kunst und Gewerbe Hamburg

a virtual experience of the woman’s natural dispo-sition to procreate was offered through contempla-tion of images depicting the Virgin Mary in ten-der maternal embrace of her child. Active physicalengagement in ‘nurturing’ was also often effectedthrough the care of a naturalistic Christ doll (Fig-ure 3). Christiane Klapisch-Zuber, in noting a num-ber of instances where professed nuns were givensuch dolls by relatives, argues persuasively for theirprivate use, presumably within the space of individ-ual cells.42

Such practice must have offered an importantchannel for maternal instincts otherwise denied to

women enclosed within religious communities. Thespecific feast of Christmas offered further possibil-ities through the arrangement of a stable scene, inwhich a sculptural model of the Christ child couldbe removed from its manger, cradled, embraced,changed, and replaced in replication of Mary’s ac-tions. It also obviously reflected the contemporaryactivities of women in the lay world.43 Klapisch-Zuber also notes the potential of such dolls in assum-ing the role of surrogate, albeit miniature, spouses.44

The function and use of such images must, however,have been highly subjective, influenced not least bythe age of the girl or woman and the stage reachedin her religious induction.

Other images, such as inspirational depictionsestablishing the foundation myth, worked to stre-ngthen the corporate well-being of the community.Whereas painted images and sculpture catering tothe maternal instinct might benefit the emotionsand aspirations of the individual, those celebratingthe founder or others holding significant office theremust, by comparison, have served a broader func-tion. Images of this kind must have encouraged acorporate sense of identity and tradition. Buildingup the heroic status of the founder as an exemplar,such images assumed a didactic purpose in ensur-ing collective ownership of the founding myth. Atthe same time, they reinforced community culturethrough maintenance of a sense of a dignified andelevated lifestyle.

Thus, while dolls may have been reserved for moreindividual and private devotion, many other imagesserved a more public function in being placed inan area associated with a particular communal ac-tivity. All religious communities required the ser-vices and functions of certain spaces beyond theconventual or monastic church for their daily re-ligious practice: for worship, for the discussion ofcommunity matters, for contemplation, for work, forcommunicating with the outside world, for the vari-ous stages of acceptance and accommodation of newmembers, for eating, and for sleeping. Clearly estab-lished conventions existed in both male and femalespheres concerning the decoration of some of these‘inner’ spaces. An obvious example is the Last Sup-per, which was commonly depicted in the refectory,

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both in reflection of the function of that space andin reference to the Institution of the Eucharist – thecorporate event that underpinned the establishmentand spread of Christianity.45 Concrete visual reflec-tions of the events associated with that were oftenoffered in the form of a depiction of the Crucifixionor Tree of Life as a background to the Last Supper, oras a separate motif. But, as the analysis of refectorydecorations here reveals, there were great variationsin imagery deemed appropriate to the physical orcommunal replenishment of the body. The refect-ory decorations at Sant’Anna in Foligno and SanNiccolo in Prato indicate, in addition, that variationscould depend on the internal organization of thecommunity.

As we shall see, there were many areas within thearchitectural complex of both male and female com-munities that lent themselves to quite different kindsof imagery reflecting industry, decorous behaviour,self-denial, humility, and obedience. What is drawnout for consideration here is the way in which thesedifferent kinds of imagery reflected the nature of thecommunity or distinguished one area, and helped toimbue activities conducted there, even when everyday in nature, with the elevated formality of ritual.Particular consideration is given to the way in whichthe gender of the community’s members could influ-ence the iconography of its decorations.

A continuing theme addressed throughout thisstudy concerns the extent to which conventual artproduction was influenced or restricted by the spe-cific requirements of religious women in cloisteredand semicloistered space. Patterns of patronage andthe working procedures adopted in the productionof art for female religious communities are examinedin a variety of ways, particular emphasis being laidon the role of male clergy and middlemen acting inthe interests of individual establishments or in theinterests of particular orders.

It is frequently argued that nuns’ expectationsand desires concerning the decoration of their con-ventual complexes were in most cases filtered thro-ugh male administrators, clergy, and benefactors.On that view it would seem legitimate to argue thatthe patronal network and commissioning stipula-tions depended not so much on the ‘niche-market’

desires of the individual female clients, as on theexpectations and assumptions of their male coun-terparts and go-betweens. Many maintain that it ismore realistic to view altarpieces and other worksof art produced for religious women in terms ofmale taste. Many argue that it is inappropriate toconsider works of art produced for female religiouscommunities as a separate issue at all. Certainly,doubts are raised about evaluating decorations pro-duced for those strictly enclosed in terms of their re-flecting developments in contemporary female spir-ituality. Such work, it is argued, should rather beseen as representing a ‘selection of familiar themesfrom an existing repertoire, rather than an innova-tive imagery intended for cloistered women’.

In denying the existence of altars within clausura,some scholars appear to indicate that it is inappro-priate to consider painted panels displayed withinthe conventual complex as altarpieces. It is arguedthat nuns in clausura would have had little need forsuch points of reference, given that they only rarelytook communion and were apparently satisfied bythe sight of the consecrated wafer raised during cele-bration of Mass in the ‘outer’ space of the conventualchurch.46 Such attitudes clearly call into questionthe function and nature of altars. But there may be amore profound need to question the kind of method-ology adopted in consideration of the nature andfunction of conventual art. Many contemporary ref-erences indicate that the religious woman’s spiritual-ity was satisfied in a number of ways other than thephysical act of consuming the Eucharistic wafer. Oneexample concerns an altar dedicated to St Jerome inthe Dominican community of San Domenico in Pisa.According to inventories drawn up at the time of SanDomenico’s suppression early in the nineteenth cen-tury, the altar of St Jerome was situated at one endof the first dormitory in that conventual complex.47

This altar, which apparently faced another at theother end of the dormitory (‘nella testata’), is de-scribed as being embellished at that time by a smallpainting (‘piccolo Quadro’) together with its curtain(‘sua Tenda’) and an old crucifix.

Although many suppression documents refer tointernal altars and their decorations, it is often diffi-cult to establish the exact date of such furnishings.

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