St. Euphemia
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Authors
Andrea Mantegna, attr. to
Date
Type
Image
Language
Keyword
St. Euphemia , Lion
Alternative Title
Abstract
This painted stone sculpture of Saint Euphemia was a part of the rich gifts sent by the wealthy cleric, Roberto de Mabilia, from Padua to his native town of Montepeloso (now called Irsina) in Basilicata, where the statue still stands. Also sent as a part of this donation, which was celebrated in a sixteenth-century poem, were a painting by Andrea Mantegna of St. Euphemia (now in the Museo di Capodimonte in Naples), and a series of objects still housed in the same church, including a relic of St. Euphemia, a painted stone sculpture of the Madonna and Child, and a painted wood crucifix. The Mantegna painting is signed and dated 1454, and so this sculpture was likely made at around the same time, ca. 1450. The sculpture was the subject of much devotion over the centuries -- taken on procession every year until the nineteenth century, the statue was given a metal crown and other adornments to wear, which have now been removed but have left the forehead and other parts of the statue noticeably abraded. The delicate shifting polychrome on the skin (pearly pale green flesh enlivened with flushes of different pinks) is original, whereas the drapery, hair, lion, and cityscape have all been repainted at a later date. Clara Gelao has argued in a series of persuasive publications that the sculpture should be attributed to Andrea Mantegna himself. The Paduan Mantegna, known today only as a painter, was celebrated in his day and shortly thereafter also as a sculptor. No securely identifiable sculptures by Mantegna survive, and so the argument rests on a comparison with his paintings, especially the St. Euphemia that was a part of the same donation and the St. Giustina in the Brera in Milan. The parallels in terms of the treatment of drapery, textures, pose of the figure, etc. are quite strong, including both the overall form and such idiosyncratic details as the straight triple fold of drapery that falls vertically between the feet. Other scholars have argued that the sculpture was made by Pietro Lombardo, but it would have to be strangely early in his oeuvre to be a part of the same donation as the 1454 painting. Completely finished in the back, the work was always meant to be visible from all angles, but was displayed for centuries in a later niche. Now, local authorities and church administrators have decided to place the sculpture behind glass, for its protection, but on a rotating remote-controlled base -- perhaps not the wisest move for a fragile, painted stone sculpture in an earthquake-prone region. Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Description
Cathedral, Irsina (Montepeloso)
Citation
Clara Gelao, Andrea Mantegna scultore e la Sant'Eufemia di Montepeloso (Venice: Marsilio, 2013), passim, esp. pp. 71-142.