DOI Artikel:
Krasny, Piotr: Exempla viva: the prelates of the Roman Catholic Church as inspirers of Charles Borromeo’s instructions on shaping sacred srt
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.38234#0053
52
17. High altar in Milan Cathedral. Measured drawing by Camillo
Boito. After C. Boito, Duomo di Milano, 1889
would be at the same time antique and Christian.105 There-
fore, one may only wonder why such an excellent work
had to wait for a consistent continuation until Borromeos
reconstruction of his Roman church of Santa Prassede
and was given a theoretical and critical treatment only in
the pages of his Instructiones.
THE TABERNACLE EXPOSED
ON THE HIGH ALTAR
In 1581, while setting down the principles for the preser-
vation of the sacrament in the churches of this diocese,
the Patriarch of Venice, Giovanni Tre visan (1503-1590),
recalled at the beginning of his statement that, ‘Cardinal
Borromeo recommended, among others, that the Blessed
Sacrament be kept on the high altar, being the most ho-
nourable place, which, owing to its location in the midd-
le of the church, verily is the most honourable place’. He
also noted, following the instructions of the Archbishop
of Milan, that ‘in the churches of friars and monks the
Blessed Sacrament has been kept on the high altar’.106 The
1051. Herklotz, Archeologia cristiana e archeologia classica nel
XVI secolo. Riflessioni sulla genesi di una nuova disciplina’, in
idem, I Roma degli antiquari. Cultura e erudizione tra Cinquecen-
to e Settecento, Rome, 2012, pp. 59-60; G. Simoncini, La memoria
del medioevo, pp. 133,158-159 (as in note 49).
106 Topinion del Cardinal Borromeo fra le altre è che il Santissimo
Sacramento sia tenuto sopra l’altar grande, come il loco più hono-
rato, et è vero che l’altar grande, per esser in mezzo le chiese e il
18. High altar in Milan Cathedral. After C. Boito, Duomo di Mila-
no, 1889
association of the idea of locating the tabernacle on the
high altar with Borromeo was widespread among his con-
temporary clergymen who, after his death, continued the
Tridentine reform of the Church.107 This conviction was
based on solid foundations, since Borromeo began the re-
decoration of the interior of Milan Cathedral by erecting
an altar with a huge tempietto-tabernacle in the midd-
le of the chancel (Figs. 17, 18)108, and then recommended
più honorato’; nelle chiese dei frati et monache il Santissimo Sa-
cramento si tiene sopra l’altar grande’, quoted after S. Mason Ri-
naldi, ‘“Hora di nuovo vedesi...”. Imagini della devozione eucari-
stica a Venezia alla fine del Cinquecento’, in Venezia e la Roma dei
Papi, Milano, p. 171.
107 See, for example, A. Iodice, ‘Influenze del primo concilio provin-
ciale’, pp. 153-154 (as in note 7).
108 S. Benedetti, ‘Un’aggiunta a Pirro Ligorio. Il tabernacolo di
Pio IV nel Duomo di Milano’, Palladio, 25,1978, no. 1, pp. 45-64;
S. Scotti, ‘L’architettura e riforma cattolica’, pp. 55-90 (as in note
52); S. Benedetti, ‘Tabernacoli’, in II Duomo di Milano. Dizio-
nario storico, artistico e religioso, ed. by A. Majo, Milan, 1986,
pp. 596-597; G. Denti, Architettura a Milano tra Controriforma
e Barocco, Florence, 1988, pp. 98-99; M.L. Gatti Perer, ‘Le “In-
struzioni” di San Carlo e L’ispirazione, classica nell’ architettura
religiosa del 600 in Lombardia’, in II mito di classicismo nel Sei-
cento, ed. by L. Anceschi, S. Bottari, G. d’Anna, Florence, 1964, pp.
111-118; R.V. Schofield, ‘Pellegrino Tibaldi e tre cori borromaici’,
in Domenico e Pellegrino Tibaldi. Architettura e arte a Bologna nel
secondo Cinquecento, ed. by F. Ceccarelli, D. Lenzi, Venice, 2011,
pp. 143-163; A. Nagel, ‘Tabernacle in Matrix’, in idem, A Contro-
versy, pp. 255-265 (as in note 3).
17. High altar in Milan Cathedral. Measured drawing by Camillo
Boito. After C. Boito, Duomo di Milano, 1889
would be at the same time antique and Christian.105 There-
fore, one may only wonder why such an excellent work
had to wait for a consistent continuation until Borromeos
reconstruction of his Roman church of Santa Prassede
and was given a theoretical and critical treatment only in
the pages of his Instructiones.
THE TABERNACLE EXPOSED
ON THE HIGH ALTAR
In 1581, while setting down the principles for the preser-
vation of the sacrament in the churches of this diocese,
the Patriarch of Venice, Giovanni Tre visan (1503-1590),
recalled at the beginning of his statement that, ‘Cardinal
Borromeo recommended, among others, that the Blessed
Sacrament be kept on the high altar, being the most ho-
nourable place, which, owing to its location in the midd-
le of the church, verily is the most honourable place’. He
also noted, following the instructions of the Archbishop
of Milan, that ‘in the churches of friars and monks the
Blessed Sacrament has been kept on the high altar’.106 The
1051. Herklotz, Archeologia cristiana e archeologia classica nel
XVI secolo. Riflessioni sulla genesi di una nuova disciplina’, in
idem, I Roma degli antiquari. Cultura e erudizione tra Cinquecen-
to e Settecento, Rome, 2012, pp. 59-60; G. Simoncini, La memoria
del medioevo, pp. 133,158-159 (as in note 49).
106 Topinion del Cardinal Borromeo fra le altre è che il Santissimo
Sacramento sia tenuto sopra l’altar grande, come il loco più hono-
rato, et è vero che l’altar grande, per esser in mezzo le chiese e il
18. High altar in Milan Cathedral. After C. Boito, Duomo di Mila-
no, 1889
association of the idea of locating the tabernacle on the
high altar with Borromeo was widespread among his con-
temporary clergymen who, after his death, continued the
Tridentine reform of the Church.107 This conviction was
based on solid foundations, since Borromeo began the re-
decoration of the interior of Milan Cathedral by erecting
an altar with a huge tempietto-tabernacle in the midd-
le of the chancel (Figs. 17, 18)108, and then recommended
più honorato’; nelle chiese dei frati et monache il Santissimo Sa-
cramento si tiene sopra l’altar grande’, quoted after S. Mason Ri-
naldi, ‘“Hora di nuovo vedesi...”. Imagini della devozione eucari-
stica a Venezia alla fine del Cinquecento’, in Venezia e la Roma dei
Papi, Milano, p. 171.
107 See, for example, A. Iodice, ‘Influenze del primo concilio provin-
ciale’, pp. 153-154 (as in note 7).
108 S. Benedetti, ‘Un’aggiunta a Pirro Ligorio. Il tabernacolo di
Pio IV nel Duomo di Milano’, Palladio, 25,1978, no. 1, pp. 45-64;
S. Scotti, ‘L’architettura e riforma cattolica’, pp. 55-90 (as in note
52); S. Benedetti, ‘Tabernacoli’, in II Duomo di Milano. Dizio-
nario storico, artistico e religioso, ed. by A. Majo, Milan, 1986,
pp. 596-597; G. Denti, Architettura a Milano tra Controriforma
e Barocco, Florence, 1988, pp. 98-99; M.L. Gatti Perer, ‘Le “In-
struzioni” di San Carlo e L’ispirazione, classica nell’ architettura
religiosa del 600 in Lombardia’, in II mito di classicismo nel Sei-
cento, ed. by L. Anceschi, S. Bottari, G. d’Anna, Florence, 1964, pp.
111-118; R.V. Schofield, ‘Pellegrino Tibaldi e tre cori borromaici’,
in Domenico e Pellegrino Tibaldi. Architettura e arte a Bologna nel
secondo Cinquecento, ed. by F. Ceccarelli, D. Lenzi, Venice, 2011,
pp. 143-163; A. Nagel, ‘Tabernacle in Matrix’, in idem, A Contro-
versy, pp. 255-265 (as in note 3).