| The
remarkable evolution of Italian Gothic and Renaissance sepulchral
art was initiated, not by the tomb of a pope or a prince but by one
made for a saint, Dominic Guzmın, founder of the Order of Preachers.
The tomb was designed by Nicola Pisano in 1264 and built in San Domenico,
Bologna, in 1267. Shortly after its construction, monumental tombs
appeared everywhere in Italy, characterized by increasingly large-scale,
spatially aggressive, architectonic forms with rich sculptural embellishments.
This study analyzes the form and structure of this thirteenth-century
monument and explores its meaning to Pisano's contemporaries, patrons
as well as the public. Anita Moskowitz's discussions of the two major
descendents of the Arca di San Domenico-the Arca di San Pietro Martire
in Milan by Giovanni di Balduccio and the Arca di Sant' Agostino in
Pavia by a follower of Balduccio-as well as the large number of monuments
peripherally related to it, show the profound impact of the Bolognese
monument on the subsequent history of tomb sculpture.
Moskowitz begins with a brief discussion of the history and concerns
of the Dominican Order, particularly during the decades spanning
the death of Dominic and the initiation of the Arca project. After
describing the form and structure of the original tomb and elucidating
the subjects for the reliefs, she investigates the historical context
of the tomb's construction, revealing that the unusual components
of the tomb can be related to contemporary Dominican concerns and
that several themes are linked to specific controversies of the
1250s and 1260s, both in and outside Bologna. Her examination of
the concrete manifestations of the tomb's generative power serves
to underline further the inventiveness of the design, the purposefulness
of the iconography, and the importance of the influence of Nicola
Pisano's Arca di San Domenico. |
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