Divine splendour.
Relics, reliquaries and liturgical vessels
in Venice ca. 1300-1475

Sommario in lingua inglese
This book is the first comprehensive study of goldsmiths' art in Venice in the 14^th and 15^th  centuries. The study places the cult of relics in its historical context and scholarly discourse and provides an overview of the types of liturgical vessels crafted in the Middle Ages. It investigates the material and social dimension of the goldsmiths' art in medieval and early-Renaissance Venice, and the role of relics, reliquaries, and liturgical vessels in domestic devotion. This is exemplified through case studies, one of which focuses on an important late-13^th-century filigree cross in the Cloisters collection of New York City. The book brings to light several hitherto unstudied objects, and explores new approaches, studying several liturgical vessels in light of developments in contemporary sculpture. The study concludes with an investigation of the Reliquary of St. Martha, made for the female monastery of Santa Marta in Venice by the German goldsmith Zuane Lion in 1472. An introduction by Giovanna Valenzano and foreword by Giovanna Baldissin precede the text. Copious illustrations, many of objects which are not on public display, bring to life the forgotten art of the medieval goldsmith.

Sommario in lingua italiana
Questo libro è il principale contributo sull'oreficeria veneziana dei secoli XIV e XV apparso negli ultimi decenni. Lo studio procede dal culto delle reliquie come fenomeno storico, offre una digressione sulle diverse tipologie di suppellettili liturgiche e presenta il panorama storiografico con particolare attenzione al contesto veneziano; delinea la dimensione sociale e materiale dell'orefice nel contesto veneto e veneziano tra Medioevo e Rinascimento; indaga il ruolo di reliquie, reliquiari e altri manufatti nell'ambito della devozione domestica. Casi di studio affrontano importanti opere quali una croce in filigrana di fine duecento conservata ai Cloisters a New York e il Reliquiario di Santa Marta proveniente dall'omonimo convento femminile veneziano, ora conservato al Louvre.
Il volume presenta inoltre una molteplicità di manufatti, alcuni dei quali misconosciuti o persino inediti, offrendo nuove informazioni e indagandoli da nuove angolature. Introduzione di Giovanna Valenzano, postfazione di Giovanna Baldissin. Questo libro, riccamente illustrato, con molte immagini di opere non visibili al pubblico, riporta l'attenzione su un'arte fondamentale quale l'oreficeria.

Indice

Prefazione / Preface LUCIANO BERTAZZO
Foreword GIOVANNA VALENZANO

Chapter I Ornamenta ecclesiae: the essence of cult and its materiai presence:

• Solemn beauty: sacred metalwork in its liturgical context
• The cult of relics in Europe: an historical overview
• Between materiality and spirituality: lines of inquiry
• Sacred goldsmith's art as an object of study: the Venetian focus

Chapter II. The world of the Venetian goldsmith: culture and context:

• The guilds and the organisation of the craft
• Inside the workshop: tools and products
• Circulation of craftsmen and wares

Chapter III. Devotion at home: liturgical furnishings, relics, reliquaries and other objects in domestic contexts:

• Lay people and liturgical Vessels
• 'Private' relics
• Other objects for devotion

Chapter IV. A rare reliquary cross in The Cloisters Collection: the filigree cross from Pozzuolo Martesana:

• Provenance and history – Iconography
• Technical matters, observations and comparisons

Chapter V. Precious sculpture, micro- sculpture: the many-faceted art of goldsmithery in the late fourteenth and fifteenth centuries:

Reliquaries and monstrances:

• Reliquary of the Column of the Flagellation, Treasury of San Marco
• Malatesta Monstrance, now Reliquary of the Holy Thorns, Cathedral of Rimini
• Reliquary of the Finger of St. Anthony and Reliquary of the Soil Brought from the East by the Blessed Odoric of Pordenone, Basilica of Sant’Antonio, Padua
• Silver gilded statuettes of the Virgin and St.Vitus, church of San Martino, Marana Lagunare Reliquary of the Most Precious Blood, Treasury of San Marco

Crosses and reliquary crosses:

• Cross of the iconostasis, Basilica of San Marco
• Reliquary cross, Scuola Grande di San Giovanni Evangelista, Venice Processional cross, Diocesan Museum, Chioggia
• Reliquary cross, church of San Silvestro, Venice
• Processional cross, church of San Cassiano, Venice
• Processional cross of the Cathedral of Treviso, Diocesan Museum, Treviso
• Processional cross, church of San Silvestro, Selva del Montello
• Processional cross, Collegiata of Sant'Esuperanzio, Cingoli
• Other processional crosses scattered throughout the Venetian Terreferma
• Reliquary cross, Museum of the Cathedral, Bergamo
• Processional crosses from the churches of San Geremia and San Giovanni in Bragora, Diocesan Museum, Venice
• Processional crosses in Santa Maria dei Frari,Venice, and in the Treasury of Bologna Cathedral
• Silver gilded altarpieces: Silver gilded altarpiece, church of San Salvador, Venice
• Paliotto of Pope Gregory X II, Treasury of San Marco

Other artefacts:

• Crosier of the Cathedral of Treviso, Diocesan Museum, Treviso
• Crosier, Treasury of San Marco
• Crosier of the Cathedral of St. Chrysogonus, Zadar
• Pax of the church of San Giovanni in Bragora, Diocesan Museum, Venice

Chapter VI. The Reliquary of the Hand of St. Martha: style, context and meaning: Zuane Lion da Colonia, the Reliquary of St. Martha and related works Iconographical choices, meaning and function

Beauty befitting the glory of God: the luxury arts in service of liturgy in the Venetian Gothic. An afterword , GIOVANNA BALDISSIN MOLLI