Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Cardinals and their Images
- Part I Individuality and Identity: Florence and Rome
- Part II Divided Loyalties: Venice and Rome
- Part III Collecting and Display: Portraits and Worldly Goods
- Part IV Post-Tridentine Piety: The Devout Cardinal
- Conclusion: Cardinal Portraits beyond Italy
- Index
- Plate Section
5 - The Role of Cardinals’ Portraits in Venice: The Case of the Grimani Family and Some Thoughts on the Correr MS Morosini Grimani 270
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 19 October 2021
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Illustrations
- Abbreviations
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction: Cardinals and their Images
- Part I Individuality and Identity: Florence and Rome
- Part II Divided Loyalties: Venice and Rome
- Part III Collecting and Display: Portraits and Worldly Goods
- Part IV Post-Tridentine Piety: The Devout Cardinal
- Conclusion: Cardinal Portraits beyond Italy
- Index
- Plate Section
Summary
Abstract
The most powerful Venetian cardinals in the sixteenth century were arguably those stemming from the Grimani family. This chapter presents a detailed analysis of the MS Morosini Grimani 270 in the Biblioteca del Museo Correr in Venice, focusing on drawings that illustrate the appointment of Grimani cardinals, alongside their portraits. The iconographic derivation of these drawings from existing works of art will be explored through comparison with painted portraits and other visual representations of the Grimani cardinals, some previously unidentified. The possible function of the included cardinal portraits, and the historical scenes relating to them will be investigated, considering the role of images of cardinals within the dynastic strategies and histories of certain families.
Keywords: Venice; cardinals; Grimani; Cornaro; Baldassarre d’Anna
In summer 1463 the Greek Cardinal Bessarion (1408–1472), a humanist from Constantinople, decided to donate the Staurotheca – a precious cross-shaped reliquary containing fragments of the True Cross and of Christ's seamless coat – to the Scuola Grande della Carità, one of the most important confraternities in Venice, connected with the church of Santa Maria della Carità. Bessarion had himself become a member of the Scuola on 29 August of the same year. On 6 July 1472 the guardian grande then in office, Andrea dalla Siega, addressed a letter to thecardinal, describing the solemn public procession that had taken place on Trinity Sunday to welcome the arrival of the munificent gift, which was first exhibited in the Basilica of St. Mark and subsequently transferred to the oratory of the Scuola, where an altar had been specifically installed for its recovery. Shortly afterwards, in November 1472, Bessarion died in Ravenna. A solemn ossequio was celebrated on 6 December, in the church of Santa Maria della Carità, ‘a perpetua memoria’ of the deceased cardinal. In the explicit, Bessarion's soul is invoked, almost ‘portrayed’ while praying for God to watch over all the brethren. This passage immediately recalls the image depicted on a small panel attributed to Gentile Bellini, now held at the National Gallery in London, in which Bessarion appears in profile, alongside two confratelli, kneeling in adoration of the reliquary.
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- Information
- Portrait Cultures of the Early Modern Cardinal , pp. 117 - 148Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2021