{"title":"Riders on the Throne: Animal Agency in Benedetto Antelami’s Parma Cathedra","authors":"Sabine Sommerer","doi":"10.1086/715156","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"This article focuses on Parma Cathedral’s episcopal throne, which is an exemplar among cathedrae with animal imagery. Embodying the more abstract aspects of their owners’ authority, animals occupy a prominent place within the seat’s decoration, thereby distilling the human–animal relationship in a way that links the legitimization of power to the act of sitting. Despite its extraordinary iconography and quality, the throne made by Benedetto Antelami (ca. 1178) is still relatively obscure. It is adorned with atlas figures carved in the round and two equestrian reliefs on the armrests, which connect riding to dominion and power while simultaneously transforming the act of enthroning and dethroning into a kind of allegory. Against the background of a more general discussion of animal depictions on medieval chairs, this article addresses new questions concerning the Parma cathedra’s animal décor, its object biography, patron, and possessor, as well as its place and role within the liturgy.","PeriodicalId":43922,"journal":{"name":"GESTA-INTERNATIONAL CENTER OF MEDIEVAL ART","volume":null,"pages":null},"PeriodicalIF":0.8000,"publicationDate":"2021-09-01","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"0","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"GESTA-INTERNATIONAL CENTER OF MEDIEVAL ART","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1086/715156","RegionNum":1,"RegionCategory":"艺术学","ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"0","JCRName":"ART","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 0
Abstract
This article focuses on Parma Cathedral’s episcopal throne, which is an exemplar among cathedrae with animal imagery. Embodying the more abstract aspects of their owners’ authority, animals occupy a prominent place within the seat’s decoration, thereby distilling the human–animal relationship in a way that links the legitimization of power to the act of sitting. Despite its extraordinary iconography and quality, the throne made by Benedetto Antelami (ca. 1178) is still relatively obscure. It is adorned with atlas figures carved in the round and two equestrian reliefs on the armrests, which connect riding to dominion and power while simultaneously transforming the act of enthroning and dethroning into a kind of allegory. Against the background of a more general discussion of animal depictions on medieval chairs, this article addresses new questions concerning the Parma cathedra’s animal décor, its object biography, patron, and possessor, as well as its place and role within the liturgy.
期刊介绍:
The Newsletter, published three times a year, includes notices of ICMA elections and other important votes of the membership, notices of ICMA meetings, conference and exhibition announcements, some employment and fellowship listings, and topical news items related to the discovery, conservation, research, teaching, publication, and exhibition of medieval art and architecture. The movement of some material traditionally included in the newsletter to the ICMA website, such as the Census of Dissertations in Medieval Art, has provided the opportunity for new features in the Newsletter, such as reports on issues of broad concern to our membership.