Altarpiece of Pellegrinus II, Cathedral of Cividale

The altarpiece of Pellegrino II is a

medieval In the history of Europe, the Middle Ages or medieval period lasted approximately from the late 5th to the late 15th centuries, similar to the post-classical period of global history. It began with the fall of the Western Roman Empire a ...

altarpiece An altarpiece is an artwork such as a painting, sculpture or relief representing a religious subject made for placing at the back of or behind the altar of a Christian church. Though most commonly used for a single work of art such as a painting ...

in the

cathedral A cathedral is a church that contains the ''cathedra'' () of a bishop, thus serving as the central church of a diocese, conference, or episcopate. Churches with the function of "cathedral" are usually specific to those Christian denominations ...

Cividale Cividale del Friuli ( fur, Cividât (locally ); german: Östrich; sl, Čedad) is a town and '' comune'' in the Province of Udine, part of the North-Italian Friuli Venezia Giulia ''regione''. The town lies above sea-level in the foothills of the ...

, Italy. The

silver Silver is a chemical element with the symbol Ag (from the Latin ', derived from the Proto-Indo-European ''h₂erǵ'': "shiny" or "white") and atomic number 47. A soft, white, lustrous transition metal, it exhibits the highest electrical ...

relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term '' relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that th ...

was endowed by Pellegrino II, the

patriarch of Aquileia The highest-ranking bishops in Eastern Orthodoxy, Oriental Orthodoxy, the Catholic Church (above major archbishop and primate), the Hussite Church, Church of the East, and some Independent Catholic Churches are termed patriarchs (and in certain ...

, around 1200 and adorns today the main

altar An altar is a table or platform for the presentation of religious offerings, for sacrifices, or for other ritualistic purposes. Altars are found at shrines, temples, churches, and other places of worship. They are used particularly in pagan ...

of the church ''Santa Maria Assunta''. It shows

Mary Mary may refer to: People * Mary (name), a feminine given name (includes a list of people with the name) Religious contexts * New Testament people named Mary, overview article linking to many of those below * Mary, mother of Jesus, also calle ...

and the

Child Jesus The Christ Child, also known as Divine Infant, Baby Jesus, Infant Jesus, the Divine Child, Child Jesus, the Holy Child, Santo Niño, and to some as Señor Noemi refers to Jesus Christ from his nativity to age 12. The four canonical gospels, a ...

surrounded by

archangel Archangels () are the second lowest rank of angel in the hierarchy of angels. The word ''archangel'' itself is usually associated with the Abrahamic religions, but beings that are very similar to archangels are found in a number of other relig ...

s and groups of

saint In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Or ...

s. The piece is notable for its rich ornamentation and its early

typographic Typography is the art and technique of typesetting, arranging type to make written language legibility, legible, readability, readable and beauty, appealing when displayed. The arrangement of type involves selecting typefaces, Point (typogra ...

inscription.

Description

The altarpiece is located in the cathedral

Santa Maria Assunta Santa Claus, also known as Father Christmas, Saint Nicholas, Saint Nick, Kris Kringle, or simply Santa, is a legendary figure originating in Western Christian culture who is said to bring children gifts during the late evening and overnight ...

in the town of Cividale in

Friuli Friuli ( fur, Friûl, sl, Furlanija, german: Friaul) is an area of Northeast Italy with its own particular cultural and historical identity containing 1,000,000 Friulians. It comprises the major part of the autonomous region Friuli Venezia Giuli ...

. The rectangular relief plate which measures about one meter high and two meters wide is made of partly

gilded Gilding is a decorative technique for applying a very thin coating of gold over solid surfaces such as metal (most common), wood, porcelain, or stone. A gilded object is also described as "gilt". Where metal is gilded, the metal below was tradi ...

silver. Protected by a modern glass case, it towers above the principal altar in the

choir A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which sp ...

. It was consecrated by Pellegrino II who was

between 1195 and 1204.Brekle 2011, pp. 1f.; Lipinsky 1986, pp. 75f. The altarpiece is divided into four parts: the center consists of a

triptych A triptych ( ; from the Greek adjective ''τρίπτυχον'' "''triptukhon''" ("three-fold"), from ''tri'', i.e., "three" and ''ptysso'', i.e., "to fold" or ''ptyx'', i.e., "fold") is a work of art (usually a panel painting) that is divided ...

which shows Mary as the

Mother of God ''Theotokos'' ( Greek: ) is a title of Mary, mother of Jesus, used especially in Eastern Christianity. The usual Latin translations are ''Dei Genitrix'' or '' Deipara'' (approximately "parent (fem.) of God"). Familiar English translations ar ...

(

Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic languages, Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through ...

''mater dei'') with the Child Jesus in her lap. From left and right the archangels

Michael Michael may refer to: People * Michael (given name), a given name * Michael (surname), including a list of people with the surname Michael Given name "Michael" * Michael (archangel), ''first'' of God's archangels in the Jewish, Christian and ...

and

Gabriel In Abrahamic religions (Judaism, Christianity and Islam), Gabriel (); Greek: grc, Γαβριήλ, translit=Gabriḗl, label=none; Latin: ''Gabriel''; Coptic: cop, Ⲅⲁⲃⲣⲓⲏⲗ, translit=Gabriêl, label=none; Amharic: am, ገብ� ...

rush to the seated mother and her child. The whole scene takes place under a three-arched

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

. The triptych is flanked by two departments which display, in three horizontal lines each, a total of 25 male and female saints standing next to one other. All figures except the Child Jesus are identifiable by name. A frame displaying a series of head medallions without inscriptions runs all around the triptych and the two lateral sections. In the upper horizontal frame piece Christ and

John the Baptist John the Baptist or , , or , ;Wetterau, Bruce. ''World history''. New York: Henry Holt and Company. 1994. syc, ܝܘܿܚܲܢܵܢ ܡܲܥܡܕ݂ܵܢܵܐ, Yoḥanān Maʿmḏānā; he, יוחנן המטביל, Yohanān HaMatbil; la, Ioannes Bapti ...

as well as the four Evangelists are depicted. In its lower counterpart Pellegrino II, kneeling at the feet of Mary, can be identified by an accompanying inscription as the donator of the altarpiece. On the inside of the two frame boards a votive inscription composed of ten

Leonine verse Leonine verse is a type of versification based on internal rhyme, and commonly used in Latin verse of the European Middle Ages. The invention of such conscious rhymes, foreign to Classical Latin poetry, is traditionally attributed to a probably ap ...

s runs horizontally across the altarpiece.Brekle 2011, pp. 1f.

Typography

All inscriptions of the altarpiece were written in Latin. The font of the dedicatory inscription is overall classified as Gothic capitalis.Brekle 2011, p. 2 Modern commentators agree that the inscriptions were produced by hammering individual letter punches one by one into the silver plate. Evidence for this typographic method can be derived from the observation that the

letterform A letterform, letter-form or letter form, is a term used especially in typography, palaeography, calligraphy and epigraphy to mean a letter's shape. A letterform is a type of glyph, which is a specific, concrete way of writing an abstract c ...

s comply with the criterion of type identity according to which every letter imprint must come from one and the same letter punch.Brekle 2011, p. 19 The type identity is ''inter alia'' evident in the repeated occurrence of the faulty letter "R" throughout the text that indicates a damaged letter punch. The

high relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impression that the ...

letters stand proud in rectangular recesses created by the bases of the

low relief Relief is a sculptural method in which the sculpted pieces are bonded to a solid background of the same material. The term ''wikt:relief, relief'' is from the Latin verb ''relevo'', to raise. To create a sculpture in relief is to give the impres ...

punches; the fine edges between these recesses are a further indication of the sequential use of individual letter punches. A number of letters which are not properly aligned to their baseline provide additional evidence that the artisan worked with separate punches. A total of about forty

types Type may refer to: Science and technology Computing * Typing, producing text via a keyboard, typewriter, etc. * Data type In computer science and computer programming, a data type (or simply type) is a set of possible values and a set of allo ...

, which come in equal parts in a smaller and larger font size, were employed for creating the inscriptions.Brekle 2011, p. 4 The smaller ones were used for the names of the saints and the donor's inscription of the patriarch, while the names of the archangels, of the Mother of God, the abbreviations of sanctus/sancta ("holy") and the two-line inscription were printed with the larger set. The latter text was punched into eight silver strips which were strung together and nailed onto the wooden substructure of the altarpiece. According to the art historian Angelo Lipinsky, the altarpiece may have been inspired by

Byzantine The Byzantine Empire, also referred to as the Eastern Roman Empire or Byzantium, was the continuation of the Roman Empire primarily in its eastern provinces during Late Antiquity and the Middle Ages, when its capital city was Constantinopl ...

reliquaries A reliquary (also referred to as a '' shrine'', by the French term ''châsse'', and historically including '' phylacteries'') is a container for relics. A portable reliquary may be called a ''fereter'', and a chapel in which it is housed a ''f ...

which were decorated by the same typographic technique in the 10th to 12th centuries. However, a random check with the Limburg Staurotheca which dates from this period showed that the inscription was

engraved Engraving is the practice of incising a design onto a hard, usually flat surface by cutting grooves into it with a burin. The result may be a decorated object in itself, as when silver, gold, steel, or glass are engraved, or may provide an i ...

directly into the metal.Brekle 2011, pp. 2f. The Prüfening dedicatory inscription of 1119 is another early example of typographic text production in the Latin West.Brekle 2005, pp. 22–25 It differs in some technical details though: its plate is made of

clay Clay is a type of fine-grained natural soil material containing clay minerals (hydrous aluminium phyllosilicates, e.g. kaolin, Al2 Si2 O5( OH)4). Clays develop plasticity when wet, due to a molecular film of water surrounding the clay pa ...

, not silver, and the inscription was created in low relief with (wooden) stamps, not metal punches.

References

Sources

* Brekle, Herbert E.:
Die typographische Herstellungstechnik der Inschriften auf dem silbernen Altaraufsatz im Dom von Cividale
', Regensburg 2011 * Brekle, Herbert E.: ''Die Prüfeninger Weiheinschrift von 1119. Eine paläographisch-typographische Untersuchung'', Scriptorium Verlag für Kultur und Wissenschaft, Regensburg 2005, * Cuscito, Giuseppe: "La pala di Pellegrino II nel duomo di Cividale", ''Studi cividalesi'', Antichità altoadriatiche, Vol. 7 (1975), pp. 99–108 * Koch, Walter: ''Literaturbericht zur mittelalterlichen und neuzeitlichen Epigraphik (1985−1991)'',

Monumenta Germaniae Historica The ''Monumenta Germaniae Historica'' (''MGH'') is a comprehensive series of carefully edited and published primary sources, both chronicle and archival, for the study of Northwestern and Central European history from the end of the Roman Empir ...

: Hilfsmittel, Vol. 14, Munich 1994, , p. 213 * Lipinsky, Angelo: "La pala argentea del patriarca Pellegrino nella collegiata di Cividale e le sue iscrizioni con caratteri mobili", ''Ateneo Veneto'', Vol. 24 (1986), pp. 75–80 * Pertoldi, Rudy: "La 'pala' in argento dorato della basilica di S. Maria Assunta a Cividale del Friuli ed il suo committente, il patriarca Pellegrino II", ''Forum Iulii'', Vol. 21 (1997), pp. 91–113 * Visintini, Maria: "Alcune osservazioni sulla grande 'tabula argentea' del patriarca Pellegrino II", ''Forum Iulii'', Vol. 31 (2007), pp. 39–72

External links

* Gabinetto fotografico nazionale
Complete view of the altarpiece
(9 MB) * Atlante dell'arte italiana

{{DEFAULTSORT:Altarpiece of Pellegrino 02 Altarpieces Cividale del Friuli Jesus in art Virgin Mary in art History of printing Images of saints Medieval Christian inscriptions Medieval Latin inscriptions Patriarchate of Aquileia Triptychs Angels in art