Room with sculptures.
Bologna’s Museo Civico Medievale is a must-visit for those who still think people in the Middle Ages were backward, spent the entire day prostrated in prayer and waited for the Renaissance to wake them from their creative slumber. The beautiful art on display at the museum paints an entirely different picture of the Middle Ages. The museum has, rather ironically, found accommodation in a Renaissance palazzo, the Palazzo Ghisilardi, which was built between 1484 and 1491 for Bartolomeo Ghisilardi, a rich notary and chancellor of the city council. Visitors enter the Museo Civico Medievale through the courtyard of the palazzo. After buying a ticket they can visit the 22 rooms of the museum, which are equally distributed between the ground floor, basement and first floor. Although medieval art obviously takes centre-stage, the museum also has objects from the Renaissance and Baroque eras, as well as a collection of weapons and art from the Middle East.
Many of the objects in the museum come from former private collections. Others were taken from churches and public buildings in Bologna. From the church of San Martino comes the so-called Arca Saliceto from 1403, a funerary monument made by artists from the circle of Jacobello and Pierpaolo dalle Masegne, two brothers from Venice. The monument was commissioned by Carlo da Saliceto, who had it made for his grandfather Roberto and great-grandfather Riccardo. In the same room 4 we find the Arca di Bartolomeo da Saliceto, made for a nephew of Riccardo. Pierpaolo dalle Masegne was also involved in sculpting a group of statues for the Palazzo della Mercanzia in Bologna, which housed the merchants’ court. The original statues, made between 1382 and 1391, are now in the Museo Civico Medievale, whereas at the Palazzo della Mercanzia we nowadays see copies.
Arca Saliceto.
Palazzo della Mercanzia.
Original statues of the Palazzo della Mercanzia.
The Virgin Mary.
Some of the most beautiful objects of the museum have been put on display in rooms 6 and 7. Quite spectacular is a Byzantine mosaic of the Virgin Mary as the Theotokos, a term that literally means “she whose child is God”. The mosaic is dated to the end of the twelfth or beginning of the thirteenth century. Unfortunately it is no longer entirely complete. It must have once been larger, as only part of the Greek letters MP ΘY (Μήτηρ Θεοῦ), Mother of God, is legible. It is very likely that the mosaic was part of a portable icon. The museum refers to stylistic similarities between this mosaic and two mosaics in the Venetian lagoon. These are the apse mosaics in the cathedral of Torcello and the church of Santi Maria e Donato on Murano. The face of the Theotokos is truly magnificent. Note the tiny tesserae that have been used to create it.
A very special object in the collection is a ewer in the shape of a knight on horseback from ca. 1240-1250. The ewer gives us a fair idea of the arms and armour of a knight in the middle of the thirteenth century. It is definitely not an Italian object. It was presumably made in Lower Saxony or the Meuse valley.
Ewer in the shape of a knight on horseback.
Pope Bonifatius VIII – Manno di Bandini.
A true highlight and a genuine gem is the statue of Pope Bonifatius VIII (1294-1303), made of gilded bronze. The sculptor involved was Manno di Bandini da Siena, who was active in Bologna between 1287 and 1316. Pope Bonifatius VIII had been born Benedetto Caetani. As pope he was responsible for the first Jubilee in church history (the year 1300) and in 1303 he founded the university of Rome, La Sapienza. Bonifatius was a genuine political powerbroker, who had many mighty enemies, including the kings of France, England and Naples, the Roman Colonna family and the famous poet Dante Alighieri from Florence.[1] Dante, who may have been in Rome in 1300, saw Bonifatius as the driving force behind his own involuntary exile. In his Divine Comedy, in Canto 19 of Inferno to be more precise, Dante relates how he stumbles upon Pope Nicholas III (1277-1280) in the third trench of the eighth circle of hell. Nicholas – planted into the ground upside down and therefore unable to see – mistakenly assumes that Dante is in fact Bonifatius. It is clear that Nicholas suggests that Bonifatius will end up in this part of hell too, the part where the simoniacs are punished.[2]
We obviously do not know where Bonifatius ended up, but in 1303 King Philip IV of France sent an army to Anagni to arrest the Pope. The action ended in failure, but Bonifatius was so shocked that he died just a month later. And so the (no doubt apocryphal) prediction of his predecessor Celestinus V came true that Bonifatius had sneaked in like a fox, would rule like a lion, but would die like a dog. However, in Bologna – one of the most important cities of the Papal States – Bonifatius had been very popular, as is evidenced by the statue that was made of him in 1301. It was a reward for his attempts to stop the war between Bologna and Ferrara. The statue adorned the city hall and is currently one of the top pieces in the Museo Civico Medievale. Unfortunately some parts are missing, including the feet of the Holy Father.
Saint Peter Martyr – Giovanni di Balduccio.
Art in Bologna was also influenced by Tuscan art. This is evident from a small but high-quality statuette of the martyr Saint Peter of Verona (1205-1252). Saint Peter was the first martyr of the Dominican Order. He was a notorious inquisitor and was murdered by a heretic in 1252. The next year he was canonised by Pope Innocentius IV (1243-1254). The marble statuette of Saint Peter in the Museo Civico Medievale was made around 1332 by the sculptor Giovanni di Balduccio from Pisa. It was part of an altarpiece in the chapel of the palace that was known as the Rocca di Galliera. After this palace had been sacked by the people in 1334, the altarpiece was moved to the church of San Domenico in Bologna. Apparently only the statuette of Saint Peter of Verona survives today. Note that the saint does not yet have the characteristic hatchet entrenched in his skull. Giovanni di Balduccio went on to sculpt the tomb of the saint as well, which was completed in 1339. It can be found in the church of Sant’Eustorgio in Milan.
The next highlight is the tomb slab of Domenico Garganelli. It dates from 1478 and was designed by Francesco del Cossa from Ferrara (ca. 1436-1478). He is best known as a painter, but was also active as a sculptor. Together with Ercole de’ Roberti (ca. 1451-1496), also from Ferrara, he decorated the Cappella Garganelli in the cathedral of Bologna. Unfortunately very few of these decorations have been preserved. In the Pinacoteca Nazionale in Bologna we find a fresco fragment by Ercole and here in the Museo Civico Medievale the (uncompleted, according to the museum) tomb slab by Francesco. The slab is made of limestone, coloured marble and bronze. Entirely made of bronze is the bust of Pope Gregorius XV (1621-1623), a work by the famous sculptor Gian Lorenzo Bernini (1598-1680). Like the statue of Pope Bonifatius VIII the bust comes from the city hall. Pope Gregorius XV was himself a native of Bologna. He was a scion of the Ludovisi, a noble Bolognese family.
Tombstone of Domenico Garganelli – Francesco del Cossa.
Pope Gregorius XV – Gian Lorenzo Bernini.
Left part of a triptych – Lippo di Dalmasio.
During my visit to the museum there was a special exhibition dedicated to the painter Lippo di Dalmasio (ca. 1352-1410). His father Dalmasio Scannabecchi was also a painter, just like his uncle Simone dei Crocifissi. The exhibition focused on Lippo’s early work in Tuscany[3], his work after his return to Bologna around 1387 and lastly his late work until his death in 1410. On display were about 30 pieces, not all of them works of Lippo. Visitors could also admires sculptures by the aforementioned brothers Jacobello and Pierpaolo dalle Masegne. In the Pinacoteca Nazionale I had already seen a splendid triptych from ca. 1390, painted by Lippo. But this triptych was no longer complete: the left panel featuring Saints John the Baptist, Augustine and Petronius had been loaned to the Museo Civico Medievale. To get the complete picture I was therefore required to visit that museum as well.
Website of the museum: Museo Civico Medievale | Musei Civici Bologna | Iperbole (museibologna.it)
Notes
[1] See John Julius Norwich, The Popes, Chapter XIV.
[2] Pope Nicholas III had been born Giovanni Gaetano Orsini. The Orsini and Caetani families were allies. Bonifatius was a scion of the latter.
[3] In those days, the Scannabecchi family lived in exile. At the time Bologna was under Guelph rule, and the Scannabecchi were supporters of the Ghibellines, the archenemies of the Guelphs.