Mandorla

MANDORLA - Christ seated within the m. Miniature from an Exultet (12th cent.) - Rome, Biblioteca Casanatense, cod. 724 B 1, 13.

An iconographic type of Christ within a m. among the symbols of the Evangelists, which is defined in 9th-century miniatures (Evangelary of Lothair in the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris), will enjoy particular diffusion in the Romanesque and Gothic ages, not only in bookbindings and in miniatures of the Gospels, but also in the sculptures of portals (portal of the kings of Chartres, 12th cent.), in fabrics, in antependia (silver antependia of Città di Castello and of the cathedral of Komburg in Germany, of the 12th cent.; antependia carved in wood or painted of the Museum of Barcelona), in frescoes (oratory of Mocchirolo, now at Brera, 14th cent.), in paxes (pax of the commune of Siena, 13th cent.). To this type is linked the far less frequent one of Christ among the symbols of Earth and Ocean, which is found in a miniature of a Sacramentary of the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris and in the ivory binding of an Evangelary carved by the monk Tuotila of the abbey of St. Gall, both of the 9th cent. Other figurations in which the m. is used are those of the Apocalypse (fresco of S. Pietro di Civate, 12th cent.); that of the Ascension, which is found besides in miniatures and ivories also in bas-reliefs of portals (northern portal of St. Stephen's of Cahors, end of the 12th cent.); of the Dormitio Virginis (mosaic by Cavallini in S. Maria in Trastevere); of the Most Holy Trinity (miniature of the Statuts de l'Ordre du St Esprit in the Bibliothèque nationale in Paris, 14th cent.); rare, on the other hand, is that of the descent into Limbo, because this attribute suits representations of hieratic majesty and not scenes of movement: the fresco of the lower church of S. Clemente (10th cent.) indeed has an exceptional example of a m. inclined to follow the motion of the figure. Very frequently there is also represented within a m., from the 12th to the 14th cent., the Christ of the Last Judgment, in the sculptures of portals and of church facades (Ste Foy of Conques, St. Lazarus of Autun, of the 12th cent.; cathedral of Ferrara, 13th cent.; cathedral of Orvieto, 14th cent.), in mosaics (cathedral of Torcello), and in frescoes among which is to be particularly remembered that of the Camposanto of Pisa because there are represented in two distinct m. Christ the Judge and the Virgin interceding.

The m. becomes a frequent attribute of the Virgin in the 14th cent., not only in the scene of the Assumption, repeated in miniature, in paintings, in bas-reliefs (Notre-Dame of Paris; tabernacle of Orcagna in Orsanmichele), but also in other figurations: from the m. that surrounds the Virgin in the act of giving the girdle to St. Thomas takes its name the beautiful door on the side of S. Maria del Fiore.

In the 15th cent. the m. is sometimes not delineated, but indicated by garlands of angels (Coronation of the Virgin by Leonardo da Besozzo in S. Giovanni a Carbonara in Naples; Assunta by Masolino in the Museum of Naples). At the end of the century it is still used by the painters of central Italy, particularly by Francia, by Perugino, and generally by the whole Umbrian school; in the 16th cent. it is found in the disjointed altarpiece of S. Nicola da Tolentino and in the banner of Città di Castello by the young Raphael.

Besides the examples cited, which all refer to representations of Christ, of the Eternal Father, of the Virgin, there are to be remembered rare figurations, of entirely exceptional iconography, in which the m. is an attribute of saints and of prophets: the miniatures with the Evangelists in the Gospels of the cathedral of Bamberg, of the 10th cent. (Library of Munich); the miniature with Abraham receiving the souls brought by the angels, in the Kalendarium necrologicum of Ratisbon, of the 12th cent. (Archives of Munich); the antependium of the 12th cent. of the Museum of Barcelona, in which within a m. is depicted St. Julitta with the little St. Quiricus in her arms; the casket of the Museum of Limoges, which bears on its front, within three identical m., the Virgin, the Redeemer and St. Peter.

Emma Zocca