The Exceptional Role of St. Joseph in Ugolino di Prete Ilario’s Life of the Virgin at Orvieto

Between 1370 and 1384 Ugolino di Prete Ilario, a local artist, honored the long-standing Marian devotion in Orvieto by painting in the cathedral tribune one of the most comprehensive monumental narratives ever created of the life of the Virgin. In the sixteenth century Giorgio Vasari, attributing the murals to Ambrogio Lorenzetti, praised them for their composition, invention, and handling of historical scenes, but modern scholars have paid them little notice. Comparisons with other monumental Marian and Christological programs before 1350, however, especially Lorenzo Maitani’s reliefs on the cathedral facade, support Vasari’s acclaim. Because of the large size of the tribune, several episodes seldom seen outside illuminated manuscripts appear, whereas other, customary scenes either are omitted or contain something exceptional. Some of these variants depend on textual sources, which extend beyond the usual canonical, noncanonical, and legendary texts to include devotional manuals, writings of St. Bernard of Clairvaux and St. Bridget, and the local cycle of liturgical dramas. Most remarkably, the frescoes convey both a substantial reverence for St. Joseph several decades before his cult gained widespread acceptance and a precocious local devotion. Joseph, officially declared the patron saint of Orvieto only in the seventeenth century, not only participates in several traditional scenes that usually omit or marginalize him but is present in each of the uncommon scenes, where he is vital to the story. The rare scene of Joseph in his workshop subtly discloses Joseph’s divinely ordained role as paterfamilias, “artisan of the soul,” and counterpart of, and collaborator with, the heavenly father.