Time Matter(s): Invention and Re-Imagination in Built Conservation by Goffi Federica;

Author:Goffi, Federica;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Taylor & Francis Group
Published: 2016-08-15T00:00:00+00:00

This figure has intentionally been removed for copyright reasons. To view this image, please refer to the printed version of this book.

5.2 Alesso Baldovinetti, 1470–1472 ca. Trinity with Sts John Gualbert and Benedict. Tempera on Panel. Florence.

This allows apprehending the 1590s ichnography as representation of the Church born on the Golgotha. The 1571 drawing puts ‘Christ’s head’ at the top, suggesting that the sheet can be read not only horizontally as plan (Vitruvian man), but also elevationally as crucifixion.19 The experience of walking from the entry to the altar is equivalent to ascending, getting closer to a higher realm; achieved metaphorically by contemplating the ichnography.

Alfarano is a messenger raising the veil of a metaphorical sopracielo.20 The practice of unveiling sacred images transforms through time. It starts as an act of physically veiling by hanging cloths in front of sacred images and develops into a metaphorical veiling achieved pictorially within the frame of the canvas. Schmidt sees the beginning of this practice in the myth narrated by Pliny in his Natural History (XXXV, 65), where he describes the ‘illusionistically-rendered curtain’ which Parrhasius depicted to deceive Zeuxis.21 The working of Alfarano’s drawing reminds one of:

the veil, that is, the curtain of the tabernacle which, according to the oldest Eastern tradition, symbolizes the sky separating earth from heaven.22

In Baldovinetti’s representation the curtain is pulled away by angels revealing the Holy Trinity and uncovering a transcendent world within a visible representation.23 Alfarano builds a complex iconographic frame for both drawing and print. The frames are essential in providing access through contemplation to an encrypted significance. Glenn Peers states that frames are key sites for the interpretation of meaning and observes that in the Byzantine framing of icons:

margins, edges, details of works of art, the framing device cease to be liminal and become integral.24

Analyzing the marginalia in the 1590 print it is possible to observe that key elements of the 1571 hybrid drawing have been substituted with new ones, translating their allegoric presence. In the top center of the print a winged cherub’s head supporting festoons on each side, with a wind rose below, substitutes Veronica’s veil (Figure’s 1.4 and 1.3).25 The winged cherub’s head might be read in light of Schmidt’s observation, as the messenger which makes revelation possible, an act metaphorically symbolized by the lifting of the veil.26 Traditional iconographies of Veronica’s veil often make use of the allegory of raising the curtain to reveal Christ’s effigy. Christine Sciacca documents the concealing and revealing of sacred images within sacred codices with actual fragments of fabric sawn into a page.27 The early thirteenth century Gradual and Sacramentary of Hainricus Sacrista where historiated initials are covered with small pieces of fabric is telling. A depiction of the ‘Assumption’ (Figure 5.3) demonstrates how, the raising of the veil by angelic figures, allows the epiphany of Christ’s image. The reader identifies by literally raising the silk cloth, unveiling an image concealed within the text thereby allowing the beholder to gain access to the heavenly realm.

By placing Old St.

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