DOI article:
Krasny, Piotr: Exempla viva: the prelates of the Roman Catholic Church as inspirers of Charles Borromeo’s instructions on shaping sacred srt
DOI Page / Citation link: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.38234#0038
37
his writings.10 A carefully thought out and very consistent
course of actions taken by Borromeo to develop a com-
prehensive model of bishopric patronage of the arts re-
sulted in the fact that adherence to his theoretical con-
cepts and imitation of the practical solutions proposed
by him have been regarded as the key elements of post-
-Tridentine art of the Roman Catholic Church.* 11
While totally in agreement with such an approach,
Borromeos achievements, in my opinion, should also
be confronted with actions undertaken by the precur-
sors of the Tridentine ‘reform’ of the arts, and an attempt
should be made to find, in their writings and actions, spe-
cific inspirations for the artistic patronage of the Arch-
bishop of Milan. After all, Borromeo himself admitted to
having followed such examples, stating in the introduc-
tion to his Instructiones that he was going to present solu-
tions ‘which we have seen in frequent use in the churches
of our province as convenient and appropriate for their
decoration, and which he, after consultation with special-
ists in the art of architecture, deemed useful as a physi-
cal setting for the celebration of the liturgy.12 It is there-
fore worthwhile, I think, to closely examine the various
activities of the prelates ruling in the metropolitan Arch-
diocese of Milan and in the neighbouring dioceses who,
in the first two thirds of the sixteenth century, attempted
to ‘reform’ sacred art and managed to propagate in their
local Churches certain artistic stances and solutions. At-
tempts aimed at determining the extent of these ‘reforms’
have hitherto been very scanty, and they concentrated al-
most exclusively on the problem of Borromeos reception
of regulations stipulating the arrangement of church inte-
riors and on the exemplary artistic solutions developed by
bishop Gian Matteo Giberti (1495-1543) in the Diocese of
Verona.13 Venturing this - in my opinion, much needed -
attempt at systematizing the results of previous research,
I shall also try to look for inspirations for the Archbish-
op of Milan’s artistic activities in the art patronage of the
Church hierarchs who referred to Giberti’s ideas and de-
veloped them further, underscoring their high rank and
usefulness, in the period between the death of the bishop
of Verona and Borromeos ascent to the archiépiscopal
throne of Milan.
10 See P. Krasny, ‘Forma pastoris. Działalność Karola Boromeusza
jako wzorzec patronatu biskupiego nad sztuką sakralną’, in Fun-
dator i dzieło w sztuce nowożytnej, pt 2, ed. by J. Lileyko, I. Rolska-
-Boruch, Lublin, 2006, pp. 7-36.
11 See especially M.L. Gatti-Perer, “Prospettive”, pp. 25-33 (as in
note 8); J. Ackerman, ‘The Aesthetics of Architecture in the Re-
naissance’, in idem, Origins, Imitation, Representation in the Visu-
al Arts, Cambridge, 2000, p. 179.
12 ‘quae Provinciae nostrae ecclesiarum frequentiori usui et ornatui
opportuna atque accomodata vidimus’, C. Borromeus, Instruc-
tionum fabricae, p. 4 (as in note 8).
13 See notes 122,133, and 134.
EXEMPLA VIVA FOR A BISHOP -
REFORMER OF THE LOCAL CHURCH
A severe crisis of the Church had been diagnosed very
perceptively by the learned Camaldolese monks from Ve-
nice, Paolo Giustiniani (1476-1528) and Pietro Querini
(1478-1514), who, in 1513, compiled a memorial to Pope
Leo X (Giovanni di Lorenzo de’ Medici, 1475-1521) in
which they appealed for a radical reform of the institu-
tion and presented a fairly comprehensive programme
thereof.14 The pope disregarded their work, but it deeply
affected many bishops in the Most Serene Republic of Ve-
nice and in Lombardy, who had understood from the me-
morial that every bishop should be an ‘exemplum vivum’,
or a living example, of the renewal of Christian life, in that
he should restore Christian purity and Christian order
first in his own life and then in all institutions of the dio-
cese managed by him.15 Certain prelates immediately set
about implementing such measures, achieving very pro-
mising results, as for example Girolamo Trevisan (d. 1523)
in Cremona.16
Also northern-Italian bishops and cardinals residing in
the Eternal City remained under strong influence of the
ideas of Giustiniani and Querini. Initially, they tried to
persuade subsequent popes to put these ideas into prac-
tice. Yet, discouraged by the persistent failure of their ef-
forts, they began to return to their, often small, dioceses in
order to ‘try out’ various reformist solutions there, before
disseminating them in the entire Church.17
A person who enjoyed considerable authority among
those men was the Venetian thinker Gaspare Contarmi
(1483-1542; Fig. 2). He substantially expanded the pro-
gramme of Giustiniani and Querini, detailing it in his
dissertation, De officio viri boni ac probi episcopi (1517),
into dozens of actions that the prelates should undertake
in order to become ‘exempla viva’ for the renewal of the
Church.18 Among various domains that required episco-
pal reforms he indicated also the control over sacred art.
14 S. Tramontin, ‘Un Programma di riforma della Chiesa per
il Concilio Lateranense. Il Libellus ad Leonem X dei veneziani
P. Giustiniani e P. Querini’, in Venezia e i Concilii, ed. by E. Nie-
ro, A. Altan, S. Tramontin, B. Bertoli, Venice, 1972, pp. 67-93;
S.D. Bowd, Reform Before the Reformation. Vincenzo Querini and
the Religious Renaissance in Italy, Leiden, 2002, pp. 149-158.
15 J. Mara DeSilva, A Living Example’, in Episcopal Reform and Pol-
itics in Early Modern Europe, ed. by J. Mara DeSilva, Kirksville,
2012, pp. 1-2.
16 M. Regazzoni, ‘Cinque e Seicento. Lepoca delle Riforme e Con-
troriforma’, in Storia della spiritualità italiana, ed. by P. Zavato,
Rome, 2002, p. 230.
17 J.C. Olin, Catholic Reform from the Cardinal Ximenes to the
Council of Trent, New York, 1990, pp. 13-22.
18 S. Tramontin, ‘Il “De officio episcopi” di Gaspare Contarmi’, Stu-
dia Pataviana, 12,1965, pp. 292-303; G. Fragnita, ‘Cultura uma-
nistica e riforma religiosa. Il “De officio boni ac probi episco-
pi” di Gaspare Contarmi’, Studi Veneziani, 11, 1969, pp. 75-189;
his writings.10 A carefully thought out and very consistent
course of actions taken by Borromeo to develop a com-
prehensive model of bishopric patronage of the arts re-
sulted in the fact that adherence to his theoretical con-
cepts and imitation of the practical solutions proposed
by him have been regarded as the key elements of post-
-Tridentine art of the Roman Catholic Church.* 11
While totally in agreement with such an approach,
Borromeos achievements, in my opinion, should also
be confronted with actions undertaken by the precur-
sors of the Tridentine ‘reform’ of the arts, and an attempt
should be made to find, in their writings and actions, spe-
cific inspirations for the artistic patronage of the Arch-
bishop of Milan. After all, Borromeo himself admitted to
having followed such examples, stating in the introduc-
tion to his Instructiones that he was going to present solu-
tions ‘which we have seen in frequent use in the churches
of our province as convenient and appropriate for their
decoration, and which he, after consultation with special-
ists in the art of architecture, deemed useful as a physi-
cal setting for the celebration of the liturgy.12 It is there-
fore worthwhile, I think, to closely examine the various
activities of the prelates ruling in the metropolitan Arch-
diocese of Milan and in the neighbouring dioceses who,
in the first two thirds of the sixteenth century, attempted
to ‘reform’ sacred art and managed to propagate in their
local Churches certain artistic stances and solutions. At-
tempts aimed at determining the extent of these ‘reforms’
have hitherto been very scanty, and they concentrated al-
most exclusively on the problem of Borromeos reception
of regulations stipulating the arrangement of church inte-
riors and on the exemplary artistic solutions developed by
bishop Gian Matteo Giberti (1495-1543) in the Diocese of
Verona.13 Venturing this - in my opinion, much needed -
attempt at systematizing the results of previous research,
I shall also try to look for inspirations for the Archbish-
op of Milan’s artistic activities in the art patronage of the
Church hierarchs who referred to Giberti’s ideas and de-
veloped them further, underscoring their high rank and
usefulness, in the period between the death of the bishop
of Verona and Borromeos ascent to the archiépiscopal
throne of Milan.
10 See P. Krasny, ‘Forma pastoris. Działalność Karola Boromeusza
jako wzorzec patronatu biskupiego nad sztuką sakralną’, in Fun-
dator i dzieło w sztuce nowożytnej, pt 2, ed. by J. Lileyko, I. Rolska-
-Boruch, Lublin, 2006, pp. 7-36.
11 See especially M.L. Gatti-Perer, “Prospettive”, pp. 25-33 (as in
note 8); J. Ackerman, ‘The Aesthetics of Architecture in the Re-
naissance’, in idem, Origins, Imitation, Representation in the Visu-
al Arts, Cambridge, 2000, p. 179.
12 ‘quae Provinciae nostrae ecclesiarum frequentiori usui et ornatui
opportuna atque accomodata vidimus’, C. Borromeus, Instruc-
tionum fabricae, p. 4 (as in note 8).
13 See notes 122,133, and 134.
EXEMPLA VIVA FOR A BISHOP -
REFORMER OF THE LOCAL CHURCH
A severe crisis of the Church had been diagnosed very
perceptively by the learned Camaldolese monks from Ve-
nice, Paolo Giustiniani (1476-1528) and Pietro Querini
(1478-1514), who, in 1513, compiled a memorial to Pope
Leo X (Giovanni di Lorenzo de’ Medici, 1475-1521) in
which they appealed for a radical reform of the institu-
tion and presented a fairly comprehensive programme
thereof.14 The pope disregarded their work, but it deeply
affected many bishops in the Most Serene Republic of Ve-
nice and in Lombardy, who had understood from the me-
morial that every bishop should be an ‘exemplum vivum’,
or a living example, of the renewal of Christian life, in that
he should restore Christian purity and Christian order
first in his own life and then in all institutions of the dio-
cese managed by him.15 Certain prelates immediately set
about implementing such measures, achieving very pro-
mising results, as for example Girolamo Trevisan (d. 1523)
in Cremona.16
Also northern-Italian bishops and cardinals residing in
the Eternal City remained under strong influence of the
ideas of Giustiniani and Querini. Initially, they tried to
persuade subsequent popes to put these ideas into prac-
tice. Yet, discouraged by the persistent failure of their ef-
forts, they began to return to their, often small, dioceses in
order to ‘try out’ various reformist solutions there, before
disseminating them in the entire Church.17
A person who enjoyed considerable authority among
those men was the Venetian thinker Gaspare Contarmi
(1483-1542; Fig. 2). He substantially expanded the pro-
gramme of Giustiniani and Querini, detailing it in his
dissertation, De officio viri boni ac probi episcopi (1517),
into dozens of actions that the prelates should undertake
in order to become ‘exempla viva’ for the renewal of the
Church.18 Among various domains that required episco-
pal reforms he indicated also the control over sacred art.
14 S. Tramontin, ‘Un Programma di riforma della Chiesa per
il Concilio Lateranense. Il Libellus ad Leonem X dei veneziani
P. Giustiniani e P. Querini’, in Venezia e i Concilii, ed. by E. Nie-
ro, A. Altan, S. Tramontin, B. Bertoli, Venice, 1972, pp. 67-93;
S.D. Bowd, Reform Before the Reformation. Vincenzo Querini and
the Religious Renaissance in Italy, Leiden, 2002, pp. 149-158.
15 J. Mara DeSilva, A Living Example’, in Episcopal Reform and Pol-
itics in Early Modern Europe, ed. by J. Mara DeSilva, Kirksville,
2012, pp. 1-2.
16 M. Regazzoni, ‘Cinque e Seicento. Lepoca delle Riforme e Con-
troriforma’, in Storia della spiritualità italiana, ed. by P. Zavato,
Rome, 2002, p. 230.
17 J.C. Olin, Catholic Reform from the Cardinal Ximenes to the
Council of Trent, New York, 1990, pp. 13-22.
18 S. Tramontin, ‘Il “De officio episcopi” di Gaspare Contarmi’, Stu-
dia Pataviana, 12,1965, pp. 292-303; G. Fragnita, ‘Cultura uma-
nistica e riforma religiosa. Il “De officio boni ac probi episco-
pi” di Gaspare Contarmi’, Studi Veneziani, 11, 1969, pp. 75-189;