Portal de Periódicos da CAPES

Relics, reinvention, and reform in Renaissance Venice: Catherine of Siena's stigmata at the Basilica dei Santi Giovanni e Paolo

2019; Wiley; Volume: 34; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1111/rest.12607

1477-4658

Jennifer McFarland,

Reformation and Early Modern Christianity

Abstract This essay analyses the previously unstudied relic of Catherine of Siena's right foot, and its relationship to religious reform in late fifteenth‐century Venice. The relic was gifted to the Venetian Dominican convent of Santi Giovanni e Paolo by the Order's Master General, Gioacchino Torriani, between 1487 and 1500. The essay argues that Torriani's donation formed part of a broader effort to establish Catherine's status as a legitimate stigmatic, and hence to promote Dominican Observant reform. The final section explores the possible implications of this in the context of the convent space. Using both textual evidence and other Venetian depictions of the saint – in particular Andrea di Bartolo's Catherine of Siena with Four Mantellate and Giovanni Bellini's lost Catherine of Siena altarpiece – the article analyses the differing constructions of Catherine that were disseminated from Santi Giovanni e Paolo in the fifteenth century, contextualizing the stigmata iconography of the relic and reliquary within these images. In so doing, it aims to highlight the multifaceted nature of late fifteenth‐century Dominican reform, and also to emphasise the ways in which material and artistic evidence can reveal complexities in the narratives of Dominican Observance presented in extant archival material.