Description
Caterina Vigri (later Saint Catherine of Bologna) was a mystic, writer, teacher and nun-artist. Her first home, Corpus Domini, Ferrara, was a house of semi-religious women that became a Poor Clare convent and model of Franciscan Observant piety. Vigri's intensely spiritual decoration of her breviary, as well as convent altarpieces that formed a visual program of adoration for the Body of Christ, exemplify the Franciscan Observant visual culture. After Vigri's departure, it was transformed by d'Este women patrons, including Isabella da Aragona, Isabella d'Este and Lucrezia Borgia. While still preserving Observant ideals, it became a more elite noblewomen's retreat.
Grounded in archival research and extant paintings, drawings, prints and art objects from Corpus Domini, this volume explores the art, visual culture, and social history of an early modern Franciscan women's community.
About the Author
Kathleen Giles Arthur is Professor of Italian Renaissance Art (emerita) at James Madison University (Virginia), author of studies on fifteenth-century women artists, including Caterina Vigri (St. Catherine of Bologna) and self-portraitist Maria di Ormanno degli Albizzi, as well as Florentine art and patronage around the time of the Black Death.
Reviews
Nominated for the Hagiographic Society Prize 2019!
"Arthur's fascinating study brings the story of the Poor Clares in Ferrara to an anglophone audience for the first time. She offers new insights into the visual culture of Observant Franciscan women in a crucial period of transition for the order. The author's extensive archival research reveals the names and ages of many of the nuns at Corpus Christi, providing much new material for future scholars."
- Holly Flora, caa.reviews, February 2020
"This study shows the fruits that can be won by connecting a gender study approach with the reconstruction of a religious community and religious tradition by means of a reading of visual and material sources. In doing so, it challenges implicit values that regulate academic research."
- Prof. Daria Pezzoldi-Olgiati, Ludwig Maximilians Univ., Munich, Gender and Religion 9 (2019)
"Arthur's monograph is to be recommended as groundbreaking work on women's history, Observant Franciscan spirituality, and true "outsider art." There is the thrill of discovery in progress around such direct study of manuscripts still too little explored. In short, this is a superb work of scholarship as well as a fascinating read."
- Linda Burke, Elmhurst College, The Medieval Review 19.09.38
"Arthur's book makes an important contribution to our understanding of female convents, Observant Franciscan piety, and religious women's engagement with visual culture. By integrating Caterina Vigri's written and artistic production into the social, spiritual, and visual context of the Ferrarese convent of Corpus Christi, Arthur enriches our perceptions of both Vigri's devotional works and female piety."
- Marilyn Dunn, Loyola University Chicago Renaissance Quarterly Volume LXXI I, No. 3
Book Information
ISBN 9789462984332
Author Kathleen Giles Arthur
Format Hardback
Page Count 252
Imprint Amsterdam University Press
Publisher Amsterdam University Press
Grounded in archival research and extant paintings, drawings, prints and art objects from Corpus Domini, this volume explores the art, visual culture, and social history of an early modern Franciscan women's community.
About the Author
Kathleen Giles Arthur is Professor of Italian Renaissance Art (emerita) at James Madison University (Virginia), author of studies on fifteenth-century women artists, including Caterina Vigri (St. Catherine of Bologna) and self-portraitist Maria di Ormanno degli Albizzi, as well as Florentine art and patronage around the time of the Black Death.
Reviews
Nominated for the Hagiographic Society Prize 2019!
"Arthur's fascinating study brings the story of the Poor Clares in Ferrara to an anglophone audience for the first time. She offers new insights into the visual culture of Observant Franciscan women in a crucial period of transition for the order. The author's extensive archival research reveals the names and ages of many of the nuns at Corpus Christi, providing much new material for future scholars."
- Holly Flora, caa.reviews, February 2020
"This study shows the fruits that can be won by connecting a gender study approach with the reconstruction of a religious community and religious tradition by means of a reading of visual and material sources. In doing so, it challenges implicit values that regulate academic research."
- Prof. Daria Pezzoldi-Olgiati, Ludwig Maximilians Univ., Munich, Gender and Religion 9 (2019)
"Arthur's monograph is to be recommended as groundbreaking work on women's history, Observant Franciscan spirituality, and true "outsider art." There is the thrill of discovery in progress around such direct study of manuscripts still too little explored. In short, this is a superb work of scholarship as well as a fascinating read."
- Linda Burke, Elmhurst College, The Medieval Review 19.09.38
"Arthur's book makes an important contribution to our understanding of female convents, Observant Franciscan piety, and religious women's engagement with visual culture. By integrating Caterina Vigri's written and artistic production into the social, spiritual, and visual context of the Ferrarese convent of Corpus Christi, Arthur enriches our perceptions of both Vigri's devotional works and female piety."
- Marilyn Dunn, Loyola University Chicago Renaissance Quarterly Volume LXXI I, No. 3
Book Information
ISBN 9789462984332
Author Kathleen Giles Arthur
Format Hardback
Page Count 252
Imprint Amsterdam University Press
Publisher Amsterdam University Press
