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Digital Stanza della Segnatura

Digital Stanza

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Decachordum
Decachordum (Vat.lat.1125)

Published in 1507 by Marco Vigerio della Rovere, a cousin of the (detail, manuscript, spatial) pope and a Franciscan, whom Julius II elevated to the station of cardinal. This didactic text extends the metaphor of a lyre (detail, spatial), the instrument of the Psalms, to the structure and organization of its arguments; its topics range from the life, Passion, and Mysteries of Christ (detail, manuscript, spatial) and the Holy Family, to the nature of angels (detail, manuscript, spatial) and other theological themes. The ten chords that characterize Vigerio's thesis are conceived as the strings of Christian harmony. Vigerio is sometimes thought to have served as one of the Stanza's key intellectual advisors (Hartt suggested that Bonaventure (detail, spatial) in the Disputa (spatial) is modeled after his likeness), but the influence of his text is scarcely considered in the context of Raphael's frescoes. Indeed, the manuscript, which is mostly unstudied, is often described as a work of art in its own right. It is splendidly illuminated, with rich miniatures opening each of its ten books.

Fol. Ir
The text of the First Book begins by citing Socrates, Plato (detail, manuscript, spatial), and Aristotle (detail, manuscript, spatial). As he introduces the mysteries of the faith (particularly relating to the Annunciation), Vigerio explains that even the ancient philosophers, who grasped what is possible to know, could not have comprehended these sublime and ineffable examples. Vigerio continues to describe how all ranks of creation, including every immutable variety of being, are connected and revolve mutually in turn,attributing the number, measure, and form of the universe to the Son of God (detail, manuscript, spatial) as the architect of the world.

This epistemological landscape echoes the relationship of Philosophy (detail, spatial) and Theology (detail, spatial) in the Stanza. Knowledge, whose history begins in Philosophy, culminates in the Mystery of the Transubstantiation illustrated in Theology, similar to their relationship as described in the opening pages of Vigerio's text. Notably, against this backdrop, god appears in the painting against the golden firmament of heaven wearing the geometer's cap and holding the orb of the world. Also significant is the strong architectural metaphor that characterizes the fresco: the marble block at the right of the fresco, as well as the spiritual landscape of Raphael's fictive apse, which is formed from the bodies of the gathered theologians.

Similar Neoplatonic themes are seen on fol. VIIIr, where Vigerio compares the divine to a series of spheres, the highest of which consists of pure intellect, whose center is everywhere and circumference nowhere, whose light illuminates all things. Likewise, the spiritual geography of Raphael's composition is defined by a hierarchy of spheres along its vertical axis, embodying a similar cosmic order: the uppermost sphere, the golden vault of heaven, is occupied only by the figure of God, who holds a celestial globe and wears a geometer's cap. Below him, the mandorla of the sun encircles the figures of Christ, as a circular burst encompasses the dove of the Holy Spirit, mediating between natural and divine. And, finally, on the altar in our earthly plane, the wafer of the Eucharist is girded by the glittering gold of the circular monstrance.” (See pp. 80-81, “Raphael’s Art of Commentary and the Library of Julius II” on this example).

Fol. IIr - IIIv
On the ranks of angels (“De angelis in genere” (detail, manuscript, spatial))

This important section in the First Book follows the basic structure described by Pseudo-Dionysius, but attending in particular to the distinction of ranks and titles (although Vigerio is not so specific in naming, for example, their individual classes). This general celestial hierarchy, which describes ascending ranks of intellect and desire, is organized according to each rank’s physical and finite form, suggesting perfection in immateriality. These distinctions run parallel to the sensitive materialities that characterize the angels in the Disputa: at the highest level, for example, seraphic bodies dissolve (detail, spatial) into golden planes of light, whereas on the cloudbank below (where the Judeo-Christian Fathers are seated), the faces of putti (detail, spatial) emerge from the misty vapor as fleshy forms. (On the “cloud putto” in general, see Kleinbub)

Folio CXXr-CXXIr
On the power of the body of Christ in the sacrament of the altar (“De p[ote]ntia corporis Chr[ist]I in sacram[en]to altaris”)

At the start of the chapter, Vigerio compares the body of Christ to “the light of a single star that shines in many places” – a characterization that is underscored throughout the passage. Stressing the circumstance of the bread, as it becomes the flesh and blood of Christ, Vigerio describes the Mystery of the Transubstantiation using metaphors of light. Christ and his sacrifice are compared a lantern, which “illuminates the whole of the earth throughout the universe.” The relationship of the Eucharist to light echoes Raphael’s composition, whose theme is the Sacrament of the Altar (detail, spatial). Here God appears against the golden firmament (detail, spatial) of heaven and Christ is encircled by the mandorla of the sun (detail, manuscript, spatial). Further, the Disputa is the only fresco in the Stanza to use the technique of pastiglia, or wax leafed with gold (detail, spatial), evoking the qualities of light and illumination that characterize Vigerio’s text. Finally, the light in Raphael’s fresco illuminates the composition, shining down on an assembled world of priests, pontiffs, and theologians.

Further Reading
Tracy Cosgriff, “The Library of Julius II and Raphael’s Art of Commentary,” I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance 22.1 (2019): 59-91.
Frederick Hartt, “Lignum Vitae in Medio Paradisi: The Stanza d’Eliodoro and the Sistine Ceiling,” Art Bulletin 32.2 (1950): 115-145.
Christian Kleinbub, “At the Boundaries of Sight: The Italian Renaissance Cloud Putto.” In Renaissance Theories of Vision, ed. John Hendrix and Charles Carman, 117-133. London and New York: Routledge, 2010.
Moralia in Job (Vat.lat.577)

Gregory the Great, Moralia in Job (Vat.lat.577)

A commentary on the biblical Book of Job, the Moralia (LIBER MORALIUM) is Gregory’s longest work and his magnum opus, conceived as an encyclopedic manual of committed Christian life. Taking the Old Testament narrative as a cue for reflections on morality and divine justice, Gregory (detail, spatial, paratext) uses the story of Job to plumb the exegetical depths of Christian wisdom and uncover spiritual teachings for a virtuous life. For Gregory and his readers, the mystical meaning of scripture exceeds its literal presentation; he maintained that hidden below the surface of the written word, a deeper spiritual significance could be discerned through moral and allegorical interpretation. Understanding God to be Job’s ultimate author, Gregory insists that scripture transcends all forms of knowledge, and throughout the commentary, he reminds the reader that words are the cryptic vehicles of divine truth and that a good life is one of “lived reading or study” (manuscript). Through this contemplation of text, Gregory proposed to find the true meaning of the Word.

Gregory’s popularity in Renaissance Rome was founded on the perceived duality of his character. For Italy’s humanists, Gregory was both the inheritor of classical antiquity as well as a hero of Christian piety, and his writings were regarded as a fundamental basis for the interpretation of Holy Scripture. For the papacy, he represented a ripe symbol of pontifical authority, one which was easily shaped into the image and policies of his successors. Few other theological works have shared the influence of the Moralia, whose popularity was immediate and widespread; it was widely read throughout the Middle Ages and the Renaissance as an authority of spiritual enlightenment. Out of all of Gregory’s writings, none other was more widely dispersed during the Renaissance or better suited to the themes of the papal library than the Moralia. Not only was Gregory’s written legacy broadly circulated in the medieval sourcebooks and patristic florilegia (medieval collections of literary extracts, or anthologies) but by the fifteenth century, the Moralia in particular proliferated into all important academic, monastic, and private collections. Humanists also spurred the production of new manuscripts and printed editions across the intellectual centers of Western Europe.

Gregory’s prominent place in Raphael’s Disputa complements his literary presence in the Julian collection, which included several editions of his letters and homilies and at least two copies of the Moralia, one of which survives today in the Vatican Library. In the fresco, Gregory appears in the guise of Julius II (detail, spatial) to the left of the altar (detail, spatial) with eyes raised to behold the mystery unfolding before him; a labeled volume (detail, spatial) of the Moralia (LIBER MORALIUM) rests at his feet. Like many of its companions, the imagined book had a real counterpart in the Bibliotheca Iulia: BAV MS Vat.lat.577 . An ornate humanistic manuscript which includes Books XIX-XXXV of Gregory’s text, Vat.lat.577 once belonged to the collection of Cardinal Filippo Calandrini, brother of Pope Nicholas V, before it was claimed for the library of Julius II. The text is richly ornamented with illuminated initials and tangled bianchi girari (white vine tendrils), and its pages find striking affinities in Raphael’s painting.

Fol. 1r
The golden interlace (detail, spatial, manuscript) that frames the opening of the text mirrors the golden knots and coils that characterize the altar in Raphael’s fresco, beside which the labeled Moralia appears. Notably, Raphael did not include the altar (detail, spatial) in his original plans for the painting; the first version of the altar, evident from early drawings, included placards of text, which Raphael later replaced in the fresco with the glittering cloth. The table appears relatively late in preliminary studies, entering the composition only with the patristic authors. One might speculate about the message of the altar’s planned titulus, but it is enough to observe its emphasis at the center of the image, just below the convergence of the perspectival rays. The substitution of a written inscription with the pattern of golden interlace is thus significant and suggests that the manuscript and the painting participate in mutual relationship of meaning, elucidated by Gregory’s writings. Visual echoes in the manuscript and painting also indicate that the Sacrament of the Altar (detail, manuscript, paratext) carries distinctly Gregorian connotations here; the power of the Eucharist as an instrument of cosmic justice in Gregory’s writings is an integral dimension of its representation in the fresco.

Fol. 48v
As he reflects on the virtues and their functions, Gregory describes the harmony of fortitude (detail, spatial, manuscript), prudence (detail, spatial, manuscript), and temperance (detail, spatial, manuscript), which, “joined mutually to one another,” form the basis for justice. Gregory’s position echoes that of both Plato and Aristotle (detail, spatial), and his definition might be seen to mirror the description of the virtues in Raphael’s Jurisprudence (spatial). In the lower registers, Justinian and Gregory IX perform the literary exercise of justice: the former assembled the corpus iuris civilis (civil law) (detial, spatial), while the latter compiled the critical text of the corpus iuris canonici (canon law) (detail, spatial). Above, Raphael’s personifications of fortitude, prudence, and temperance are crowned by justice (detail, spatial, manuscript), who appears in the ceiling’s tondo overhead.

Fol. 50r
Gold (detail, manuscript, paratext) in the Moralia is a favorite metaphor for illumination through Holy Scripture. For Gregory, “gold” refers variously to sanctity or virtue or righteousness, and over and over in the long text, it appears in conjunction with divine inspiration. Throughout the Moralia, “gold” penetrates all that is good, making it into a sacred vessel of the Word, and in the penultimate book of his magnum opus, Gregory concludes: “For by the term ‘gold’ in Holy Scripture is designated the innermost brightness of the Divine” (fol. 277r).Thus, according to Gregory’s system, as the mind is raised in contemplation of the divine, it takes the reciprocal form of heavenly light (detail, spatial, manuscript), which is signified by the properties of gold in the written word and the natural world alike. Within this scheme, Gregory tells us, the saints humbly receive the talents of God, which are transfused to them just as light reaches the golden prongs of an encrusted gem. In the Disputa, the hierarchy of golden pigment begins from the top down: gilt and yellow beams flicker down from heaven’s dome and Christ’s scintillating mandorla: passing through the Trinity (detail, spatial), it touches the saints (detail, spatial) assembled along the cloudbank of Christ’s court, finally illuming the altar cloth and the vestments of select theologians.

Raphael’s use of gold in the painting is deliberate, corresponding to the holiest bodies. The glittering interlace of the altar follows from the golden monstrance, whose color and shape are in turn received from the ascending spiritual forms of the Holy Spirit (detail, spatial), Christ the sun (detail, spatial), and the dome of heaven (detail, spatial). Perhaps not by coincidence, in the Moralia gold is a favorite metaphor for illumination through Holy Scripture, which Gregory deems the highest of all colors and metals. For Gregory, “gold” refers variously to sanctity, virtue, or righteousness, but it appears always in conjunction with divine inspiration; time and again in the long text, Gregory compares gold’s sparkle to the mind of mankind (manscript).

Fol. 158r
In the Disputa, Gregory the Great appears to the left of the altar, on the side of the Jurisprudence. Gregory compared in his Moralia the moderation of virtue to the tightening or loosening of a bow (detail, spatial, manscript), an analogy he extended to the operation of justice, and which evokes the relationship of the northern and southern walls. In the Parnassus, a figure at the right of the jamb emphatically directs our gaze to the Jurisprudence; at the crest of the mountain, Apollo (detail, spatial) plays his lira, reminiscent of Gregory’s analogy and the theme of justice as harmony.

Further Reading
Buddensieg, Tilmann. “Gregory the Great, the Destroyer of Pagan Idols: The History of a Medieval Legend Concerning the Decline of Ancient Art and Literature.” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 28 (1965): 44-64.

Cosgriff, Tracy. “The Library of Julius II and Raphael’s Art of Commentary.” I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance 22.1] (2019): 59-91.

DelCogliano, Mark. Moral Reflections on the Book of Job: Preface and Books 1-5, vol. 1, trans. by Brian Kerns. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2014.

Fehl, Philipp. “Raphael’s Reconstruction of the Throne of St. Gregory the Great.” Art Bulletin 55.3 (1973): 373-379.

Kessler, Stephan C. “Gregory the Great (c. 540-604).” In Handbook of Patristic Exegesis: The Bible in Ancient Christianity, ed. Charles Kannengiesser, 1336-1368. Leiden: Brill, 2006.

Künzle, Paul. “Zur obersten der drei Tiaren auf Raffaels ‘Disputa.’” Römische Quartalschrift 7 (1962): 226-249.

Kuzdale, Ann. “The Reception of Gregory in the Renaissance and Reformation.” In A Companion to Gregory the Great, ed. Bronwen Neil and Matthew Dal Santo, 359-382. Leiden: Brill, 2013.

La tramissione dei testi latini del medioevo, Te.Tra. 5: Gregorius I Papa, ed. Lucia Castaldi. Florence: Sismel and Edizioni del Galluzzo, 2013.

Straw, Carole. Gregory the Great. Aldershot: Variorum, 1996.

Wingfield, Kim Butler. “Networks of Knowledge: Inventing Theology in the Stanza della Segnatura.” Studies in Iconography 38 (2017): 174–221.

Young, Frances. Biblical Exegesis and the Formation of Christian Culture. Cambridge, U.K.: Cambridge University Press, 1997.
Moralia Secondary Paratext Moralia Secondary Paratext: Gold

Throughout the Moralia, Gregory grounds the spiritual exercise of his reading in creative exegesis, promising hidden strata of meaning concealed by a rough facade. Expounding the utility of images to stimulate contemplation of the mysteries, Gregory’s allegories offered a natural index of pictorial devices whose verbal form could be put to stunning visual effect. To elucidate the spiritual analogy of word and image, Gregory describes God in the language of art, comparing the logos to a pigment, which spreads in its cup as it is ground (manuscript). Like Gregory, in the Disputa Raphael captured the transmission of the divine through visual metaphors, equating the Word with painterly technique. Scholars have often noted the liberal use of gold in the painting, which seems incompatible with Raphael’s otherwise stoic classicism and by the second half of the fifteenth century had largely gone out of fashion. The distribution of gold in the painting, however, should not be understood as a simple statement of papal opulence, or as a mere homage to the altarpieces and apsidal mosaics of Rome’s early Christian churches. Rather, the gilding in the fresco is better understood as a spiritual actor, an essential character in the unfolding Christian drama.

As one might conclude from this metaphoric order, Gregory’s discussion of gold in the Moralia is bound to the heavenly metaphor of the sun, by then a popular allegory for Christ in art and literature, and a relationship that Raphael visualized in the colors and shapes of the Disputa. Just as gold has interchangeable meanings for Gregory, so too does the sun, and like gold, Gregory’s various interpretations are always reconciled under the power of divine truth. Associating the coming of Christ with the “rising of the true sun,” Gregory identifies the light that bathes mankind as the emanating splendor of God’s grace. In an especially lucid passage, Gregory turns to meteorological symbolism to explain the experience of spiritual enlightenment.
Gregory explains further that God’s wisdom glows increasingly brighter in the souls of man as the logos gradually becomes known through the written word. The Christian equation of the sun (detail, spatial) and the Son of God was nothing new for either Gregory or Raphael, but the close physical and visual proximity of the Moralia, the altar, and the figure of the pope suggests that the artist was engaged with the figurative tokens of Gregory’s theology. In Raphael’s fresco, Gregory the Great is one of only three theologians who sees heaven’s invisible landscape emerging above; the two others, Ambrose and Sixtus IV, also set forth Christ’s presence in the Eucharist. Gregory’s exceptional characterization in the painting—sitting with an open book as he experiences visionary communion with the divine—leads us back to the text of the Moralia. Not only is Gregory cast according to the premise outlined in his writings—that is, attaining divine wisdom through the contemplation of Holy Scripture—but his gaze carries us across transcendent planes of light reminiscent of his expositions in the Moralia. As in the text, in the Disputa the rays of truth radiate from the supreme light of the sun, which ascends in brilliant golden orbs toward the Father; and just as in the entry, ascending toward the heavenly source, rings of angels populate the illuminated vault like sparkling stars reflecting the light of God.

Further Reading
Baxandall, Michael. Painting and Experience in Fifteenth-Century Italy: A Primer in the Social History of Pictorial Style, 2nd ed. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1988.