The Pulpit of Sant'Ambrogio at Milan

Abstract

A new analysis shows that the present arrangement of the pulpit is a farrago of ca. 1200, combining the sculpted pieces which survived from the destroyed Romanesque pulpit of ca. 1100 with some additional preexisting material. Whatever can be gathered of the character of the original Romanesque work should be understood in the context of its surroundings in the church of Sant'Ambrogio, at that time overcrowded with sacred mementos of the Ambrosian church of Milan. The fragments of the original sculptural program accordingly emerge as stylistically historicist, deliberately rehashing past forms. Their iconography, however, echoes a new concept of the orders of Christian society, centering on a contrast between the reformed clergy, dedicated to God's work, and the worldly laity whose concerns are marriage and physical labor. The combination of historicism and innovation reflects a tension between the traditional local establishment and the movement of ecclesiastical reform, supported by the papal establishm...