Sacred Imagery, Confraternities and Urban Space in Medieval Naples

In recent years, scholarly research has shown an increasing interest in the confraternal imagery, although studies have mainly concentrated on single case-studies. More comprehensive overviews were attempted for limited areas, such as Central and Northern Italy, during specific periods of time. Medieval Naples, like Southern Italy in general, has received no attention, although historical studies during the last few decades have offered a clearer picture of confraternal movements and other forms of lay associations that were active in the city since the early Middle Ages. Far from filling the gap, this article adopts an art-historical methodology to explore the visual culture, rituality and social composition of confraternities and other lay associations in medieval Naples. The survey focuses on three types of sacred images. Firstly, it discusses the monumental wooden Crucifixes that were on display in the main churches of the city. An essential feature in the visual layout of the church, the crucifixes also benefited from donations of lands and properties from the laypeople, a practice originally reserved in Naples to images of private devotion. Utilizing textual and material evidence, the article examines their relation with the most common kind of secular associations in the churches of Naples during the medieval and early modern periods: the “staurite”, from the Greek word for cross (“stauròs”). They were made of laymen who lived in the surroundings of the church and were devoted to charitable activities for the sick and poor of the district. Secondly, it examines sacred imagery in late medieval confraternities and other forms of lay religious associations by analysing three case-studies: the Disciplina della Croce, one of the oldest and longest living confraternities in Naples, originally formed by flagellants; the Annunziata, founded by a consortium of laymen and women in the fourteenth century as a church and hospital; two fifteenth century confraternities linked to the Dominican convents of S. Domenico Maggiore and S. Pietro Martire, whose members came from the aristocracy and the middle class respectively. Lastly, it presents two ancient images that originally belonged to local confraternities but gained a larger reputation after they proved miraculous in the sixteenth century: a panel with St. Antony of Padua in S. Lorenzo Maggiore, and the icon of the Madonna Bruna in S. Maria del Carmine.