In the article the iconology of the Communion of the Apostles appears reconsidered, an altarpiece made by the Flemish painter Justus van Ghent, between 1473 and 1474 in Urbino for the Confraternity of Corpus Domini. In the past, following the late affirmation of the Urbino scholar Bernardino Baldi, it was almost always believed that a testimony from the Persian embassy appeared in the Communion, identifying the oriental dignitary having a conversation with the Duke Federico da Montefeltro, as an ambassador of King Husun Hasan. From here various proposals started, often intertwined with the strong anti-Jewish values of Paolo Uccello’s Predella. However, as I’m persuaded that a small official such as an ambassador could not be represented with such intimacy and on the same level of dignity as the Duke, I suggest another reading. In reason of the offering for the Altarpiece he donated to the Confraternity in 1474, Federico would have wanted to add to the communion of the apostles the confirmation of the newborn Guidobaldo, officiated in Gubbio by Cardinal Bessarion in 1472. His beloved wife Battista and his fraternal friend Bessarion died that same year only a few months apart: it is plausible that he felt the urge to re-propose the memory while sealing the confirmation of the heir, who had just been baptized, in a sort of exaltation of the triad of Catholic initiation, according to precepts of his beloved St. Thomas.
La Comunione di Federico e la Cresima di Guidubaldo? Una proposta per la Pala di Giusto di Gand
Francesca Bottacin
Writing – Review & Editing
2020
Abstract
In the article the iconology of the Communion of the Apostles appears reconsidered, an altarpiece made by the Flemish painter Justus van Ghent, between 1473 and 1474 in Urbino for the Confraternity of Corpus Domini. In the past, following the late affirmation of the Urbino scholar Bernardino Baldi, it was almost always believed that a testimony from the Persian embassy appeared in the Communion, identifying the oriental dignitary having a conversation with the Duke Federico da Montefeltro, as an ambassador of King Husun Hasan. From here various proposals started, often intertwined with the strong anti-Jewish values of Paolo Uccello’s Predella. However, as I’m persuaded that a small official such as an ambassador could not be represented with such intimacy and on the same level of dignity as the Duke, I suggest another reading. In reason of the offering for the Altarpiece he donated to the Confraternity in 1474, Federico would have wanted to add to the communion of the apostles the confirmation of the newborn Guidobaldo, officiated in Gubbio by Cardinal Bessarion in 1472. His beloved wife Battista and his fraternal friend Bessarion died that same year only a few months apart: it is plausible that he felt the urge to re-propose the memory while sealing the confirmation of the heir, who had just been baptized, in a sort of exaltation of the triad of Catholic initiation, according to precepts of his beloved St. Thomas.I documenti in IRIS sono protetti da copyright e tutti i diritti sono riservati, salvo diversa indicazione.