Anne Derbes, Ritual, Gender and Narrative in Late Medieval Italy: Fina Buzzacarini and the Baptistery of Padua. Studies in the Visual Cultures of the Middle Ages, 15. Turnhout: Brepols, 2020, 384 pp., 189 ill.

Abstract

Abstract: Visitors to the northern Italian city of Padua often marvel at the city’s medieval pictorial artworks which adorn the interiors of its ancient buildings. Most queue to be admitted into the environmentally regulated Scrovegni Chapel to view Giotto’s stupendous works completed at the beginning of the fourteenth century. Those who venture further into Padua’s historic center will never forget the experience of stepping into the city’s baptistery. Admitted through a small wooden door nonchalantly by a proud but often helpful Paduan, the viewer ‐ as soon as his/her eyes adjust to the soft light ‐ is embraced by the splendor of the baptistery’s ceilings and walls. Although the city’s adjoining cathedral was gradually transformed from its late medieval form during the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries, the baptistery has retained both its facade and interior frozen in the late fourteenth century. Perhaps the only significant change occurred early in the fifteenth century when the sarcophagi of the city’s penultimate lord Francesco Il Vecchio da Carrara (1325–1393) and his consort Fina Buzzacarini (1328–1378) were removed.