This volume examines the relationship between preaching and art, addressing with particular detail the use of works of art in preaching and the importance of the pulpit itself. A challenging issue in the field of sermon studies is the relationship between preaching and art, in particular the manner in which preachers used works of art in their preaching and described specific pictures in their sermons; and the pulpit itself. The thesis of the book is that pulpits should be viewed in the context of the world of preaching in Renaissance Florence and in connection with sacred oratory. Indeed, like preached sermons, pulpits used rhetorical strategies to deliver religious messages. The author adopts an interdisciplinary approach to the topic by combining art history, historical analysis, and sermon studies; and she examines the pulpit's patronage, location, and function as well as its chronological development. This book combines a general survey of pulpits in Tuscany, with close analysis of five specific pulpits. Designed and executed by important artists located in Florence and Prato, these five pulpits are the most exquisite and impressive monuments of their type, and each has a complex and rich iconographic programme. The author reveals that the period between the fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries constitutes a distinct phase in the development of pulpits, different from the earlier tradition, and from pulpits constructed after the Council of Trent and during the Catholic Reformation.
Author(s): Nirit Ben-Aryeh Debby
Series: Late Medieval and Early Modern Studies, 6
Publisher: Brepols
Year: 2007
Language: English
Pages: 314
Acknowledgements
List of Illustrations
Chapter l: Introduction
Aims and Structure
Methodology and Earlier Scholarship on the Subject
Verbal and Visual Rhetoric
Chapter 2: The Tradition of Tuscan Pulpits to 1400
Romanesque Pulpits in Tuscany
Gothic Pulpits in Tuscany
Conclusions 36
Chapter 3: Patronage and Commemoration in the Renaissance Church
Patronage of the Pulpit
Commemorative Features of the Pulpit
Conclusions
Chapter 4: Location and Function of the Pulpit
Internal Structure of the Church
Evidence for the Location and Function of the Pulpit
The Position of the Pulpit in Relation to the Male/Female
Division of the Church
Conclusions
Chapter 5: Form and Content of the Renaissance Pulpit
Form and Design of the Pulpits
The Pulpit in Santa Maria Novella
The Pulpit in Santa Croce
Conclusions
Chapter 6: Prato's Santo Stefano Pulpits
Santo Stefano in Prato
The External Pulpit
The Internal Pulpit
Conclusions
Chapter 7: Performance, Spectacle, and the Renaissance Pulpit
Theatre, Preaching, and Art
Sacred Drama and the Visual Arts: A Two-Way Influence?
Dramatic Narrative in the Italian Renaissance Pulpit
Conclusions
Chapter 8: Donatello's San Lorenzo Pulpits
Preaching Tradition and Earlier Pulpits in the Church of San Lorenzo
Patronage, Location, and Function of Donatello's Ambones
Form and Content of Donatello's Pulpits
The Visual Rhetoric in Donatello's Pulpits
Conclusions
Chapter 9: The Legacy of the Renaissance Pulpit
The Tuscan Pulpit in the First Half of the Sixteenth Century
Church Interiors in the Second Half of the Sixteenth Century
San Carlo Borromeo: Pulpits and Preaching in Tridentine Italy
Conclusions
Chapter 10: Conclusion
Bibliography
Illustrations
Index
