"Seeing the Shroud: Guarini's Reliquary Chapel in Turin and the Ostension of a Dynastic Relic"

Seeing the Shroud: Guarini's Reliquary Chapel in Turin and the Ostension of a Dynastic RelicAuthor(s): John Beldon ScottSource: The Art Bulletin, Vol. 77, No. 4 (Dec., 1995), pp. 609-637Published by: College Art AssociationStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3046139 .

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610 ART BULLETIN DECEMBER 1995 VOLUME LXXVII NUMBER 4

2 Plan of Turin Cathedral and the Chapel of the Holy Shroud (drawn by Carla Dal Molin)

The Great Window and Its Consequences The visitor today who enters Turin Cathedral and looks down the length of the nave has little sense of the connection between the choir and the murky reliquary chapel beyond (Figs. 3, 4). This experience of visual as well as spatial separation, however, is not the one that worshipers had in the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Linking chapel and cathedral, both physically and visually, was a constant concern throughout the design process of Guarini's structure. With the completion of the new chapel and the

placement of the Shroud, in 1694, in the altar and reliquary shrine designed by Antonio Bertola (Figs. 5, 6),3 the faithful who entered the cathedral's main portal immediately appre- hended the chapel and its reliquary raised in the distance above the high altar and beyond the apse.

The large glass partition now dividing chapel and cathedral (Figs. 3, 7) is an intrusion introduced by King Carlo Felice in 1825-26 as a barrier against the wintry drafts suffered by members of the court when they attended ceremonial functions and worshiped in the chapel. No doubt the king and his designers intended the great window to be

transparent, but given the large space of the opening between cathedral choir and chapel, a significant amount of

opaque structural membering was necessary. Two additional factors make the glass almost impen-

etrable to the eye. First, the distortions of the panes and the film of dust covering the surfaces reduce their transparency.

3 Turin Cathedral, nave (photo: Chomon)



Seeing the Shroud: Guarini's Reliquary Chapel in Turin

and the Ostension of a Dynastic Relic

John Beldon Scott

Guarini's domed, centrally planned chapel of the Holy Shroud (1657-94) towers over the cathedral of S. Giovanni in

Turin, architecturally announcing to visitors standing in the

piazza the extraordinary importance of the relic it contains

(Fig. 1). In plan, the chapel embraces the entire east end of

the church. The cathedral side aisles terminate in stairs

flanking the choir and leading to the elevated chapel rotunda (Fig. 2). Seventeenth-century pilgrims, too, would

have perceived the church as a monumental approach to the

reliquary chapel, but with the significant difference that the

Shroud Chapel's ritual and political function would have

been more apparent than it is today.' Just as the stairs gave humble pilgrims admission, so a third opening, from a

gallery at the top of the plan, served the duke of Savoy and

his court as a direct entrance from their adjoining residence.

With the chapel at the level of the piano nobile of the palace, the duke and his family had ready access to the prized relic of

their dynasty, not only for purposes of daily devotion but also

for the court ceremony that centered on the burial cloth of

Christ. Another significant feature of the Shroud Chapel is its

original visual connection with the cathedral nave, although little attention has been given to this conspicuous component of the design. Focusing their analyses instead on

Guarini's creation of illusionistic effects through the manipu- lation of vertical perspective, scholars have mostly ignored the architect's like concern with controlling the spectator's view across horizontal space.2 In the case of the Shroud

Chapel the oversight is especially curious because the link

between chapel and cathedral was a major consideration for

the architect and his patrons and crucial to the fulfillment of

the chapel's ceremonial purpose. As we shall see, insufficient

attention to the nature and use of the relic housed in the

chapel may have contributed to this omission.

The desuetude of the traditional ritual exhibition, or

ostension, of the Shroud that formerly took place in the

chapel has obscured our perception of the original function

of that space as a stage for dynastic self-representation. The

rite of ostension evolved in the fifteenth and sixteenth

centuries as increasing numbers of pilgrims sought access to

1 Turin Cathedral, 1491-98, and the Chapel of the Holy Shroud, 1657-94 (photo: Chomon, Turin)

the relic and as its owners, the dukes of Savoy, promoted it as a palladium of their rule. But the chief reason we have failed to take account of the unifying components of cathedral and

chapel is the glass partition inserted between them in the nineteenth century. This obtrusive addition has drastically changed our experience of the ensemble and undermined

analysis of the design, yet the banality of the glass curtain wall is such that the art-historical literature has scarcely taken note of it. The intrusion has also inhibited a judicious assessment of the political significance of the formal display of the relic that took place precisely at the juncture between cathedral and chapel, at the position now occupied by the

glass.

I wish to thank Cesare Bertana, Gemma Cambursano, Dorothy Crispino, Giuseppe Dardanello, Luigi Fossati, Giovanna Giacobello Bernard, Irving Lavin, Gino Moretto, Franco Ormezzano, Ada Peyrot, Chiara Passanti, Katherine H. Tachau, and Patricia Waddy, all of whom contributed significantly to the research and completion of this study. Translations are mine unless otherwise indicated.

1. For the proximity of chapel and palace as a reflection of a larger dynastic program, particularly on a wider urban scale, see M. D. Pollak, Turin, 1564-1680: Urban Design, Military Culture, and the Creation of the Absolutist

Capital, Chicago/London, 1991, esp. 143-44, 160-61, 164.

2. For a recent exception to this general trend, see Guarini's idea for

controlling the fagade view of Palazzo Carignano as reconstructed by G. Dardanello, "I1 Collegio dei Nobili e la Piazza del Principe di Carignano (1675-1684)," in Torino, 1675-1699: Strategie e conflitti del barocco, ed. G. Romano, Turin, 1993, 220-22. For a general discussion of Guarini's theoretical understanding of the use of perspective effects in architecture, see C. Maltese, "Guarini e la prospettiva," in Guarino Guarini e l'internazionalitel del barocco, Atti del convegno internazionale promosso dall'Accademia delle scienze di Torino ... 1968, Turin, 1970, I, 557-72.



GUARINI'S RELIQUARY CHAPEL 611

Second, the glazing, even when perfectly clean (Fig. 7), produces reflections that create a strong visual barrier whether one looks from cathedral into chapel or vice versa. Notwithstanding the effort to maintain some link between church and chapel the "window" effectively creates two discrete spaces. Today's pilgrim entering the cathedral portal sees only the dimmest hint of the Shroud Chapel beyond and above the high altar of the cathedral.

Fortunately, we can gain an idea of how the cathedral choir and Shroud Chapel originally looked when they still formed an ensemble. The Archivio Capitolare in Turin contains an anonymous perspective drawing made sometime between 1709 and 1713, soon after the completion of the new chapel, which re-creates something of the intended appearance (Fig. 8).4 It shows the flanking stair portals and the cathedral altar and choir with the chapel above. The carefully considered scenographic components of the design can be seen more clearly in an enlarged detail (Fig. 9).

Two large fluted Corinthian columns project from the walls and frame the expansive opening under a coffered depressed arch (Figs. 4, 10). A balustrade at the forward edge of the raised chapel floor separates the rotunda from the space of the choir below (Fig. 11). In the drawing, Bertola's altar shrine rises over the balustrade to reveal a grated mid-section containing the silver reliquary casket with the rolled-up Shroud. A burst of golden rays, clouds, and angels encircles a cross, as seen to advantage in front of one of six luminous oculi at pendentive level, while the geometric coffering of the same zone provides an arresting backdrop. Here Guarini created a proscenium through which we apprehend the sacred theater of the Shroud. With its polished black marble surfaces and the gilded bronze accents of the numerous capitals, one can easily imagine how the view of the chapel from the cathedral portal would have pulled pilgrims forward toward the goal of theirjourney. The visual curtain of the glass partition foreclosed on this orches- trated spectacle.

Not only have we failed to appreciate the optical link that once existed between chapel and cathedral, but many studies also neglect even to acknowledge the existence of the proscenium and the partition. The major art-historical writ- ings on Guarini and the Shroud Chapel either make no

4 Glass partition of 1825-26 as seen from transept crossing, Turin Cathedral (photo: author)

significant mention of the barrier or assume it to date from the seventeenth century.5 In disregarding the original connection between cathedral and chapel and its importance for the psychological functioning of Guarini's design, studies have tacitly acknowledged the presence of the partition. Scholars

3. For Bertola, who was responsible for completing the chapel after Guarini's death, see G. Brayda, L. Celi, and D. Sesia, Ingegneri e architetti del sei e settecento in Piemonte, Turin, 1963, 16; E. Olivero, "L'altare della SS. Sindone ed il suo autore," Il duomo di Torino, ii, no. 7, July 1928a, 6-11. Carlo Felice ordered the installation of the partition on May 5, 1825; see A. Milanesio, Cenni storici sulla cittd e cittadella di Torino dall'anno 1418-1826

.... Turin, 1826, 100-102. The royal architect, Carlo Randoni, designed it, and the earliest documents related to its construction are dated Aug. 17-18, 1825. ASTR, Real Casa, parcelle e conti, 1825, reg. 30, ricapito 246, lista 127; ibid., ricapito 238, lista 119.

4. The drawing (231/2 211/4 in., 59.5 x 54 cm) is one of a set of three framed uncatalogued drawings in the Archivio Capitolare in Turin. The other two show plans of the cathedral and of the chapel. The group must have been made shortly after the installation of the Shroud in its new chapel, perhaps to document changes made in the cathedral plan and elevation. G. Carita, "II cantiere del duomo nuovo di Torino," in G. Romano ed., Domenico della Rovere e ii duomo nuovo di Torino, Turin, 1990, 201-28, esp. 207, dates the drawing of the cathedral plan ca. 1700. But the paintingjust visible in the semidome of the arched opening under the chapel is signed and dated 1709; see below, n. 6. The drawing has been published three times: first, by E. Olivero, "La reale cappella della SS. Sindone," Il Duomo di Torino, Periodico

Religiosa Storico-Artistico, II, no. 3, Mar. 1928b, 9, 12, but without comment; second, by Midana, 340, also without comment; and, third, by A. Cavallari Murat, ed., Forma urbana ed architettura nella Torino barocca, I, Turin, 1968, 813, fig. 11, with the elliptical observation that in the drawing the dividing glass has not yet been installed.

5. R. Pommer, Eighteenth-Century Architecture in Piedmont, New York/ London; P. Portoghesi, Guarino Guarini, Milan, 1956; M. Passanti, Nel mondo magico di Guarino Guarini, Turin, 1963; R. Wittkower, Art and Architecture in Italy, 1600 to 1750, 3d ed., Harmondsworth, 1973, 403-32; Guarino Guarini e l'internazionalita del barocco, 2 vols., Turin, 1970; Meek, 61-79; C. Miiller, Unendlichkeit und Transzendenz in der Sakralarchitektur Guarinis, Hildesheim/ Zurich/New York, 1986; E. C. Robison, "Guarino Guarini's Church of San Lorenzo in Turin," Ph.D. diss., Cornell University, 1985; and idem, "Optics and Mathematics in the Domed Churches of Guarino Guarini,"Journal of the Society ofArchitectural Historians, L, 1991, 384-401. Meek, 64, n. 21, refers to a "large window" opened between the cathedral and the chapel, which was closed off temporarily with a waxed cloth in 1662. The "gran fenestrone" mentioned in the document (ASTR, Articolo. 179, mazzo 8, registro 1, item 179) designates only the opening between the two spaces, for there is no documentary evidence suggesting a framework for glazing at this early time.




5 Antonio Bertola, Reliquary altar, Chapel of the Holy Shroud, 1685-94 (photo: Alinari/Art Resource, New York)




RO RITRATTCO DEIL SANTISSIMO) IUDARIO

p OL LALZATA DELLALTARE IN CI It TRO4A RIP STO NE?LLA RE& IA CAPELLA XW:

6 Jean-Louis Daudet, Reliquary Shrine and Altar of the Holy Shroud, engraving, 1737 (photo: Galleria Sabauda, Turin)




7 Glass partition of 1825-26 as seen from the chapel rotunda (photo: Soprintendenza per i Beni Artistici e Storici del Piemonte, Turin)




8 Artist unknown, Perspective View of Turin Cathedral Transept Crossing and Choir with Chapel of the Holy Shroud, drawing, after 1709 (photo: Archivio Capitolare, Turin)

may treat the chapel as a discrete spatial entity, but Guarini conceived of it as a component visually united with the larger church.

Guarini's Proscenium A closer look at the formal elements of the opening and the

parts of the chapel visible from the cathedral will aid our

understanding of the crucial role of the connective design in

promoting the dynastic relic of the Savoy. The viewer's

position in the perspective drawing is at an ideal point, somewhat elevated in the center of the last bay of the cathedral nave, just forward of the crossing (Figs. 2, 8). From this location we see the stair portals as well as the arched

opening toward the chapel rotunda, where the reliquary altar towers above and overwhelms the modest cathedral altar below.6

The composition of this view shows Guarini's concern for

optical and scenographic effects, an interest he discusses in several passages of his treatise on architecture.7 Large fluted

columns, disposed along a transverse axis and enframing the view into the chapel, rest on splayed pedestals supported at choir level by marble-sheathed piers flanking the entrance to the cathedral sacristy located under the chapel (Fig. 11).

9 Detail of Fig. 8 (photo: Archivio Capitolare, Turin)

Salient cornices above the gilded bronze capitals indicate that the columns have only a visual function and serve no structural purpose. Even at relatively close range the columns jut out distinctly from the pilasters facing the adjoining walls, with narrow slits of space appearing between column and pilaster. The fluting helps soften the transition from the

planar surfaces of the choir walls to the more textured

backdrop of the chapel.8 At the top, the composition closes as the protruding cornices of the foreground columns

visually connect across space with the entablature of the

pendentive zone of the chapel. As seen in the plan (Fig. 12) and in a photograph of the

arch spanning the opening and projecting forward into the choir (Fig. 10), the columns and arch continue the arc of the

chapel rotunda. They belong both to the plan and to the mural articulation of the chapel, not to the choir, a fact that makes their isolation by the glass partition even more

illogical. The perpendicular frame of the two large columns and

their facing pilasters, as seen in the perspective drawing, recurs both in the pilasters of the rotunda and in the

foreground columns flanking the sacristy door in the choir,

narrowing and focusing the viewer's attention on the altar

6. In 1700-1713 Archbishop Michele Antonio Vib6 erected a new, larger high altar made of polychrome marble, which is the one in place today; see Midana, 367. A Saint Cecilia with Choir ofAngels (signed and dated D[omenico]

G[uidobono]Jf[ecit] 1709) occupies the surface of the semidome of the arched

opening leading to the new cathedral sacristy under the Shroud Chapel (Figs. 9, 11); see M. Paroletti, Turin et ses curiositgs ..., Turin, 1819, 139. Today this

painting is mostly blocked from view and cast in darkness, but originally it would have enlivened the space just above the high altar as seen from the cathedral nave and crossing. These projects appear to reflect the desire of the cathedral authorities to enhance the altar and choir area so as to compensate

for the overwhelming visual power of the Shroud Chapel above. On Domenico Guidobono (1650-1746), see A. Baudi di Vesme, Schede Vesme: L'arte in Piemonte dal XVI al XVIII secolo, Turin, 1966, II, 571-72.

7. G. Guarini, Architettura civile, ed. B. Vittone, Turin, 1737, 3.21.9, 3.22.4, 3.22.11, 3.22.12. The text of the treatise (written in the 1670s) was published posthumously. For Guarini's interest in scenographic effects, see also Maltese, 557-72.

8. Guarini (as in n. 7), 3.21.5, wrote of the visual effect of fluting, stating that such activated surfaces made the vertical unit appear larger than a smooth column of the same dimensions.




10 Proscenium arch, Chapel of the Holy Shroud (photo: author)

11 Choir, sacristy, and ostension balustrade, Turin Cathedral (photo: Soprintendenza per i Beni Artistici e Storici del Piemonte, Turin)




12 Plan of the Chapel of the Holy Shroud, drawing, after 1709 (photo: Archivio Capitolare, Turin)

reliquary. At choir level two monolithic column shafts flank the arched opening to the cathedral sacristy (Fig. 11). These verticals continue in the chapel, first in the pedestals and

angels of the forward balustrade, then in the major order

pilasters at the back of the rotunda, and finally in the

sweeping arch soffits forming the contours of the pendentive (Fig. 9). These formal lines help channel the viewer's attention toward the raised reliquary section of the chapel altar with its gilded wrought-iron protective grille (Fig. 6). The

inward-curving consoles above this part of the altar help link it visually with the cornice of the major order. All these

components combine across space to create a harmonious concatenation of parts.

An aureole of clouds, rays, and angels encircles the cross at the apex of the altar assemblage. From the viewer's vantage point, this upper section of the shrine crosses in front of the lower part of the pendentive oculus. Thus, as the pilgrim moves forward down the nave, the open center of the altar's artificial radiance would rise in front of the glazed oculus and be lit from the rear by the natural light source. The formal

homogeneity we see in the full arrangement of parts as observed from the cathedral constitutes a Berninesque "beautiful whole" (bel composto) transplanted to the Piedmontese

capital.9 Because of its linear detail, the perspective drawing pro-

vides a good sense of the formal compositional devices

employed in the design to control the viewing experience of the observer. It fails, however, to convey any idea of how

actual lighting effects would have looked. A small engraving of 1829, based on a prepartition drawing, shows the cathedral interior as seen from the central portal and suggests something of the dramatic workings of the chapel's illumination (Fig. 13).10 The six huge windows of the drum and the

openings in the perforated dome above admit generous amounts of light into the rotunda below (Fig. 14), while the six oculi of the pendentive zone provide indirect lighting.11 Despite its lack of detail and obvious incongruities of scale, the engraving demonstrates that sunlight streaming in from above illuminated the reliquary shrine and silhouetted the two flanking columns.12

The gaze of the entering pilgrim passes through the bright nave into the dark choir and then focuses on the light-filled chapel beyond. We can understand why early observers noted how the chapel's reliquary shrine dominated the cathedral's high altar, obscured in the penumbra of the choir.13 Still, to re-create what the chapel looked like under the original conditions, we must try to imagine the effects of

light striking the polished black marble cladding of the

chapel walls and coffered surfaces as well as the freshly gilded details of the capitals and reliquary sculpture. Despite its distortions and suppression of detail, Demetrio Festa's litho-

graph of 1833 shows something of the strong lighting effects as they would have appeared to an observer arriving at the stair landing on the left (Fig. 15).14

Although the print conveys an idea of the internal lighting of the chapel, we may also infer from it the infelicitous

9. The discussion of this concept appears in I. Lavin, Bernini and the Unity of the Visual Arts, New York/ London, 1980, II, 6-13.

10. A. Peyrot, Torino nei secoli: Vedute e piante, feste e cerimonie nell'incisione dal cinquecento all'ottocento, Turin, 1965, II, 507-8, no. 343/15.

11. The cathedral and palace encase the chapel on all sides up to the base of the drum; in consequence the chapel is lit almost entirely from the drum and dome high above the rotunda. The oculi receive illumination only from narrow light wells channeled through the attic spaces of the surrounding roofs.

12. The incongruous baldacchin suspended above the cathedral's high altar was removed during the restoration of 1926-28.

13. See the comments of Ferdinando Strozzi, the papal nuncio in 1694, quoted in Savio, 329; G. G. Craveri, Guida de'forestieri per la real citta di Torino, Turin, 1753, 12; J. Richard, Description historique et critique de l'Italie ..., I, Dijon, 1766, 37; and J. J. le Frangais Delalande, Voyage d'un frangois en Italie, fait dans les annees 1765 et 1766, Paris, 1769-70, I, 78-79.

14. In L. G. Piano, Comentarii critico-archeologici sopra la SS. Sindone di N.S. Gesut Cristo venerata in Torino, Turin, II, 1833, 394. The artist has misunder- stood the fenestration of the dome, opening the spandrils and leaving closed the spaces beneath the arches. The actual arrangement is just the reverse.




13 Louis Durau, after Christophe Civeton, Interior of S. Giovanni, engraving, 1829 (photo: Ada Peyrot)

consequences of Carlo Felice's recently installed glass wall, which closed Guarini's proscenium and blocked the ideal view from the cathedral nave, the position from which all

previous illustrators had rendered the chapel. Festa's is the earliest reproduction of the interior in any graphic medium to show it from the point of entry into the rotunda proper, just as the visitor was now forced to mount one of the

flanking stairs before gaining sight of the chapel. When Alinari photographed the cathedral and chapel in the early twentieth century, the view taken from the church's main

portal showed nothing of the chapel (Alinari 31474). To gain visual access to the chapel he, like the modern pilgrim, had to ascend the stairs. There he set up his camera on the same

spot that Festa had used for his print. The resulting photograph established the canonical image of the rotunda- defining it for posterity (Fig. 5). This shot and others of the

spectacular view straight up into the dome (Fig. 14) have too

exclusively conditioned our thinking about the design of the

chapel and contributed significantly to our failure to per- ceive the original scenographic view from the nave that Guarini's proscenium was intended to enhance.

Visual Link between Cathedral and Chapel The oblivion into which the unity of cathedral and chapel has fallen is especially surprising since the most authoritative

printed source of the period clearly illustrates and plainly states the connection. A section (Fig. 16) of the chapel appears in the famous official atlas of Savoyard possessions, the Theatrum Sabaudiae, published in 1682 by the Amsterdam firm of Joan Blaeu.15 Two sumptuous volumes of large engraved plates show views and plans of the principal cities and ducal residences of the domain. The work was one of the

grand propagandist publications of the seventeenth century, and had the obvious purpose of promoting the house of




14 Chapel of the Holy Shroud, interior of the dome, 1667-83

(photo: Chomon)

Savoy in the eyes of the other ruling houses of Europe and of

celebrating Turin as capital of the realm.16 Inclusion of the Shroud Chapel in the Theatrum witnesses to the building's importance, with its precious relic, as a dynastic monument- "Aedes Regiae Sacratissimae Sindoni Dicatae" ("The Royal Chapel Dedicated to the Holy Shroud").'7 The engraving shows the proscenium completely open.

Explanatory texts accompany the engravings. A document confirms Guarini's authorship of the commentary for four of these prints, one of which represents the exedra plan of his own Porta del Po city gate.i8 Although no surviving record identifies the writer of the text on the Shroud Chapel engraving, Guarini would seem the likely author.19 At all

events, the statement about the visual link between cathedral and chapel is unambiguous:

The church of S. Giovanni is divided into three longitudi- nal sections, each one terminating in a backdrop of marble: the two on the sides terminate with stairs leading to the level of the chapel, the one in the center has an immense opening that permits one to see all the internal

symmetry.20

The text posits a reading of the design with irrefutable logic; the cathedral nave gives visual access to the chapel, while the aisles lead to stairs providing physical entry. The opening

15 Demetrio Festa, Chapel of the Holy Shroud, lithograph, 1833 (from L. G. Piano, Comentarii critico-archeologici sopra la SS. Sindone . . . . Turin, 1833, II, 394; photo: BRT)

toward the chapel helps focus the pilgrim's attention and invites progression toward the crossing; then the stairs offer admission off axis left and right.

Eyewitnesses at the earliest ceremonies held in the new

chapel also reported on its visibility from the cathedral. The

papal nuncio in Turin, Ferdinando Strozzi, provided a detailed account of the transfer of the relic on June 1, 1694, from its temporary location in the cathedral to the com-

pleted chapel. He wrote to Rome: "One looks at this [chapel built] all of black marble raised above and beyond the high

15. The work also contains an engraved plan of the chapel; see Blaeu, I, 25-26.

16. On the propagandistic value and other aspects of the book, including a

complete Italian translation of the text, see L. Firpo, ed., Theatrum Sabaudiae

(teatro degli stati del duca di Savoia), Turin, 1984-85, I, 9-14, 63-92, which now

largely supersedes F. Rondolino, "Per la storia di un libro," Atti della Societd di

Archeologia e Belle Arti per la Provincia di Torino, viI, 1905, 314-59. 17. Since the dome of the chapel was just nearing completion and would

have been still under scaffolding at the time of publication, the artist, Giovanni Tommaso Borgonio, turned to Guarini's large wooden model of the

chapel; see G. Dardanello, "La scena urbana," in Torino, 1675-1699: Strategie e conflitti del barocco, ed. G. Romano, Turin, 1993, 47, n. 18. The engraving after Borgonio reflects the state of the model between 1673 and 1680, prior to the modification of the design of the dome that occurred no later than 1680. Borgonio's first drawings of the chapel (paid 1670) perished, along with many other drawings and engraved plates, in the fire that swept through Blaeu's press in Amsterdam in 1672. This disaster establishes the date post quem for the second set of drawings, for which the artist unsuccessfully

requested payment in 1680, the date ante quem. For the documents, see

Firpo (as in n. 16), II, 109, 124. 18. The others show a perspective view of Turin, the Accademia Reale, and

Piazza Carlina; see Rondolino (as in n. 16), 350-51; and Firpo (as in n. 16), II, 34. 19. Whoever penned the explanation was not merely describing Borgon-

io's drawing, since the text (Blaeu, I, 26) refers to five registers of arches in the dome, whereas there are seven in the engraving. The five-tiered design appears neither in the engraving nor in the finished structure, which has six levels, but only in an engraved section based on drawings that Guarini left at his death in 1683. It appears in G. Guarini, Dissegni d'architettura civile et ecclesiastica ... ,Turin, 1686, pl. 3, and must represent a penultimate stage of the design process dating from the late 1670s. We can infer that the description, which could only have been written by someone with intimate knowledge of the project, refers to an intermediate stage in the evolution of the design.

20. Blaeu, I, 25. The author of this text uses the term "symmetry" in the Vitruvian sense, to mean a harmonious proportional relationship among architectural components.




SCENOGRAPHIA ADDIS RE GIL

SACRATISSI- ME SINDONI DIC -TA

.

16 After Giovanni Tommaso Borgonio, Section of Wooden Model for Chapel of the Holy Shroud, engraving, 1682 (from Blaeu; photo: Newberry Library, Chicago)

altar and the canons' choir of the cathedral of S. Giovanni."21

Although the nuncio occupied a place of honor in the chapel alongside the court, he describes the view from the vantage point of someone standing in the cathedral nave and looking up beyond the high altar. The new reliquary chapel became the focal point of the entire cathedral.

If the art-historical literature has neglected Guarini's

scenographic achievement, early guidebook authors and advocates of the Shroud did not. Descriptions of the cathedral and chapel prior to the introduction of the partition indicate how effective was the connection between the two

spaces. In his 1753 guide to Turin, G. G. Craveri observed

that behind the high altar "the magnificent Chapel of the

Holy Shroud appears from the church and increases by no small amount the beauty of this temple."22 The chapel was thus seen as visually enhancing the cathedral.

The French traveler J. J. Delalande was much impressed by the chapel, calling it "extravagante" and possessing "majestueuse horreur": "The royal chapel of the Holy Shroud is ... located beyond and above the high altar in the

apse of the cathedral in such a way that its altar is discovered at a great distance, above the high altar of the cathedral."23 Here Delalande adds Bertola's altar reliquary to the ensemble perceived from the cathedral. The description makes




clear that the author first saw the chapel from the distance of the cathedral nave, presumably from near the cathedral's main portal.

In their published descriptions of the physical setting of the relic, several Sindonologists have remarked perceptively and negatively about Carlo Felice's glass wall. Less than ten years after its installation, L. G. Piano, in his commentary on the Shroud, wrote critically of the glass and tentatively offered a corrective to the problem:

Among these [chapel columns] the two fluted ones that support the architrave of the large arch and show from the cathedral stand out admirably. King Carlo Felice recently had this arch closed with a glass supported by gilded cross members so that the excessive cold would not deter the faithful from attending the holy services and the adoration of the Holy Relic; but I will not go on without noting that some foreigners, seeing this work, have said that this

glass does not harmonize with the design of the chapel and, moreover, violates its round geometry and the view of its altar. And for this the cathedral as much as the

chapel has lost some of its respective beauty.24

Thus, there arose almost immediately after its completion a

fully developed critique of the partition, one that noted not

only the blockage of the view from the cathedral but also the

disruption of the interior space of the chapel (Fig. 7). As reference to a prepartition plan indicates (Fig. 12),25 the fluted columns flanking the original open space are simply three-dimensional versions of the eight major order pilasters of the chapel rotunda; they even have the same modified Corinthian capitals incorporating Instruments of the Pas- sion. The glass separates the columns from their counter-

parts inside the chapel and leaves them illogically isolated in the choir. This hardly matters under present conditions, however, since the partition also cloaks the black marble column shafts in darkness so inky that these once-prominent elements are now scarcely visible (Fig. 3).

A careful reading of the pre- 1825 texts indicates a further

important consequence of the chapel's original conjunction with the larger church. Before the king's comfort took

precedence, the Shroud Chapel and its shrine were the focus of the entire cathedral. In describing the chapel first from the distance of the nave, prepartition visitors leave little doubt that the rotunda and its reliquary upstaged the church and its simple altar. The spacious opening at the back of the choir transformed the cathedral into an extended atrium for the chapel, as the perspective drawing shows (Fig. 8).

Evolution of the Design Having attempted to re-create the original viewing conditions of the chapel, we may now consider the degree to which Guarini was responsible for this programmed theatrical ensemble. Some significant components of the project pre- date the architect's arrival on the scene, and his death preceded by eleven years the actual completion of the chapel. A review of the design history of the chapel demonstrates that the link between cathedral and chapel was a concern long before Guarini took charge of the project.

In the last years of his life Prince Maurizio di Savoia (1593-1657), the uncle of Duke Carlo Emanuele II (1638- 1675), promoted the construction of a new chapel to house the Savoy relic. Maurizio's correspondence on this matter with the young duke and his powerful mother, the regent Maria Cristina, indicate attentiveness to the opening between cathedral and chapel.26 A detail from a large plan showing the entire cathedral and palace site from around 1644-48 indicates the oval Shroud Chapel begun after a

design by Carlo di Castellamonte in 1611, but left aban- doned in the mid-1620s with little more than the foundations in place (Fig. 17).27 It shows the plan of the unfinished structure at the time of Maurizio's correspondence in 1656. Here the chapel is at cathedral-floor level, with pilaster-faced piers impinging from each side to restrict the width of the

opening toward the choir. A raised ostension balustrade

supported by two columns closes the choir. Following this

design there would have been almost no visual connection between the two spaces, and the high altar of the cathedral would have blocked even that narrow view. Although the

drawing played no role in the evolution of the chapel's design, it demonstrates that in the Castellamonte project cathedral and chapel remained separate spatial entities.

A second plan probably dates to around 1655-56 and may represent Amedeo di Castellamonte's proposed modification of his father's design (Fig. 18).28 The oval shape and

subsidiary openings remain much the same as in the earlier

drawing and the portal to the cathedral is still narrow. Now, however, the rotunda rises eleven steps above cathedral level. While both spaces remain distinct, a celebrant standing at the chapel entrance would have commanded at least a partial view of the cathedral nave if we presuppose a low, simple altar for the cathedral, although the elevated ostension balustrade again at the back of the choir may have thwarted this possibility. Both drawings indicate a lack of unity between cathedral and chapel.

In referring to one of the three alternatives being consid-

21. ASV, Nunziatura di Savoia, 114, fols. 560-61, transcribed in Savio, 329. 22. Craveri (as in n. 13), 12. 23. Delalande (as in n. 13), 78-79. 24. Piano (as in n. 14), I, 385-86. The most recent such critique of the

partition by a Sindonologist was made by S. Solero, II duomo di Torino e la r. capella della Sindone, Pinerolo, 1956, 157, n. 1.

25. First published by Midana, 420. 26. ASTC, Lettere di Diversi Principi, mazzo 17, 1644-57, at datesJune 25

and Nov. 12, 1655, and Sept. 4, 9, 23, 1656; transcribed in G. Claretta, Storia della reggenza di Cristina di Francia, duchessa di Savoia, Turin, 1868-69, II, 569-72, and Baudi di Vesme (as in n. 6), I, 286-87. See also the analyses of this correspondence in Carboneri, 102-3; and G. Dardanello, "Cantieri di corte e imprese decorative a Torino," in Figure del barocco in Piemonte: La corte, la cittd, i cantieri, le province, ed. G. Romano, Turin, 1988, 180-8 1, n. 94.

27. Biblioteca Nazionale, Turin, Album Valperga, q.1.64, dis. 6, detail.

The careless draftsmanship indicates this was probably not a working drawing. I follow the attribution and dating of Pollak (as in n. 1), 160-63, fig. 84. V. Comoli Mandracci, "II Palazzo Ducale nella costruzione della capitale sabauda," in L'architettura a Roma e in Italia (1580-1621), Atti del XXIII Convegno di Storia dell'Architettura, Rome, 1989, II, 80, attributes the drawing to Carlo Morello (after Carlo di Castellamonte) and dates it to the early 1650s.

28. This drawing, together with a related sketch of the chapel elevation, has disappeared. In 1931 it was in the collection of the Principe di Piemonte and included in the historical exhibition organized for the ostension of that year; see Lovera di Castiglione and Merlo, eds., 60, no. 59. L. Collobi Ragghianti, "Carlo di Castellamonte Primo Ingengnere del Duca di Savoia," Bollettino Storico-Bibliografico Subalpino, xxxIx, 1937, 243-44, saw it in the Biblioteca Reale and ascribed it to Carlo di Castellamonte. See also Dar- danello (as in n. 26), 180, n. 94.




17 Amedeo di Castellamonte, after Carlo di Castellamonte, Plan of the Chapel of the Holy Shroud and Royal Palaces, drawing, detail, ca. 1644-48 (photo: Biblioteca Nazionale, Turin)

ered by the duke and his mother at this time, Prince Maurizio advocated a completely new design by Amedeo di Castella- monte--one with the flanking stairs and wide opening toward the cathedral that eventually became part of the executed project. These features were Maurizio's idea: "I would estimate that the view toward the choir of S. Giovanni would be better because it [this design] will leave more space around the rotunda and the [chapel] altar would be seen from the entire church."29 Ultimately, the nod of approval went to neither the Amedeo di Castellamonte design backed by the prince nor to the modified version of the original project by Carlo, but to one submitted by the sculptor Bernardino Quadri and incorporating significant elements of the second Castellamonte design (Fig. 19). Since we have only Maurizio's letters, we cannot be certain of the features desired by the regent and the young duke, but it appears that they wanted the chapel raised to the level of the piano nobile of the adjacent palace to facilitate their access to the relic. Quadri's plan rises thirty-seven steps above the cathedral level and because of its circular rather than elliptical form, makes possible the addition of an access gallery in the palace cortile at the top, connecting the chapel with the palace apartments.

Quadri's plan shows flanking stairs similar to those in the executed version and an opening toward the cathedral that is the full width of the choir. At some point after its initial drafting, the articulation of this transitional space between chapel and church was modified. At first, pilaster piers

marked the proscenium, but, as seen from the chapel, these were complicated and oddly asymmetrical, with the inside pilasters of each pier almost touching the adjacent members belonging to the major order of the rotunda, which in turn abut the smaller columns of the stair landings. The piers were not integrated into the plan of the chapel but instead corresponded to the comparable members at the front of the cathedral choir.

A change, made in ink, began with the pushing forward of the raised ostension balustrade into the space of the choir, making its parapet tangent with the arc of the rotunda plan. This modification marked the demise of the corner pilaster piers and their replacement, as seen on the right, with a column conforming to the minor order columns of the chapel recesses and stair landings. The solution helps inte- grate the opening, as seen from inside the chapel, with the articulation of the rotunda walls, but the remedy is achieved only by the sacrifice of any special emphasis on the zone between chapel and choir as seen from the cathedral. The change, moreover, leaves unresolved the wall treatment at this crucial juncture, with the side of the minor-order column awkwardly exposed to view from the choir. Just at the point calling for a strong vertical stress we encounter instead the weak, unaccented element of the minor order, at least as seen from the choir. This adjustment indicates recognition of the need for an appropriate articulation of the juncture between cathedral and chapel.

When Guarini took charge of the chapel project in 1667,

29. Letter of Sept. 23, 1656; ASTC, Lettere di Diversi Principi, mazzo 17, 1644-57. See Claretta (as in n. 26), II, 571, n. 1; and Baudi di Vesme (as in n. 6), I, 287.

30. Dec. 6, 1662: lire 159, soldi 6 for "tante incerate fatte e messe in opera per il gran fenestrone della Santiss.mo Sudario..._. Prima per il grande fenestrone tele n.o 8 di altezza ras 11 che in tutto sono ras 88"; ASTR, Art. 197, reg. 12, 1657-73, 49v (one raso = 2312 in., or 0.5993 m). The same payment appears in ASTR, Art. 179, mazzo 8, reg. 1, item 179 (as cited by

Meek, 64, n. 21), and Art. 195, mazzo 1, reg. 1, 23v. We can make a crude but useful calculation if we allow that the lengths of cloth were approximately 1 meter (39 3/8 in.) in width. This results in a measurement of 5651/2 square feet (52.39 sq. m) of cloth, whereas the opening of the chapel as executed (approx. 221/2 371/2 ft., or 6.9 X 11.4 m) is about 843 3/4 square feet (78.7 sq. m)-a difference of 278 /4square feet (26.3 sq. m).

31. Giovanni Andrea Rosso, the cabinetmaker who constructed the wooden model based on Guarini's new design, specifically mentions in his work list of




18 Amedeo di Castellamonte, Project for the Chapel of the Holy Shroud, drawing, ca. 1655-56, formerly Collection of the Principe di Piemonte (photo: Fototeca dei Musei Civici, Turin)

the masonry shell of the rotunda was in place up to cornice level, as was much of the columnar and pilaster articulation. The construction documents are unclear about the status of the opening, other than to confirm its existence, presumably to the full width of the choir. A payment of December 6, 1662, however, refers to waxed cloth for covering the "great window" of the chapel and provides a means for roughly calculating the size of the opening at this time. From the document we can estimate that the square foot area of the "window" as planned by Quadri was approximately 278

square feet smaller than the opening as ultimately executed by Guarini.30 Although Quadri attempted to deal with the issue of the size and treatment of the opening toward the cathedral, it is likely that Guarini considerably increased the height of the arch, thus providing greater visual access to the chapel as observed from the nave and crossing.

The two large columns of the opening are due to Guarini's new design.31 He perceived that the rounded and fluted form of these vertical members would, as we have seen, mediate between the choir and the chapel, providing a

Nov. 30, 1667, the two columns made by a turner: "Per le due grandi [colonne] che guardano la gran nave della chiesa mi costano L.9 caduna"; ASTR, Art. 197, mazzo 12, 1657-73, 92v-95v. A payment record of Dec. 13, 1669 (three years after Guarini had taken charge of the design) for their transport is the earliest mention of the large columns themselves: "per la condotta delle due grande colonne per la medema capella"; ASTR, Art. 195, mazzo 1, reg. ibis, 8r. This is two-and-a-half years after the first payment for the model, on Apr. 30, 1667; ASTR, Art. 197, reg. 12, 87v-88r, and Art. 179,

mazzo 8, reg. 2, item 8. See also Carboneri, 106. The two giant columns are composed of thirteen pieces. The estimator, Bartolomeo Rastelletto, was paid on Apr. 3, 1672, for having measured the columns in the previous year: "Li 4 giugno d.o anno [1671] haver misurato le due collonne grosse canellate avant il choro con 13 pezzi diversi quali collone et pezzi d.o capo mro Piscina gl'ha tirati dal solo della capella in oppera"; ASTR, Art. 197, reg. 12, 1657-73, 132v.




19 Bernardino Quadri, Project for the Chapel of the Holy Shroud, drawing, ca. 1655 (photo: BRT)

suitable frame for the view toward the reliquary altar. Moreover, although he set the columns on the arc of the

chapel rotunda as it projected into the space of the cathedral choir, he maintained the balustrade recessed well behind that position (approximately 8 feet, or 2.5 m). This arrangement resulted in an interpenetration of the spaces of the choir and chapel. Although the columns belong to the plan of the chapel, in elevation they appear to belong to the choir.

Keeping the balustrade behind the columns not only helped maintain the spatial integrity of the choir, it was also crucial for opening the view of the reliquary shrine from the cathedral's crossing.

Scenography in Rome and Turin In his architectural treatise, Architettura civile, published posthumously in 1737, Guarini wrote of the optical and

psychological function of fluting, citing Vitruvius on this matter and observing that such treatment of the shafts made the columns look larger than in fact they were.32 With his

carefully considered design of the choir columns Guarini must already have been thinking about the chapel's reliquary altar, to which the flanking shafts would be visually tied in the

perspective view from the cathedral. Death, however, inter- vened in 1683, just as workers completed the structure of the

chapel dome, leaving the design of the altar to Bertola. We have no record of what Guarini might have planned for the

centerpiece of his chapel, but a passage from the Architettura civile gives us an idea of the scenographic dicta he would

likely have applied to the design: "All those objects which are

pierced, through which are seen others of different propor- tions and which are larger than those [pierced] (and some- times even if they are smaller), remain confused."33 Guarini's concern here is that separate objects when visually united across space can produce undesirable effects, especially on the framing elements of the forward component.

To demonstrate his point, Guarini critiques a famous

example of this phenomenon-Bernini's Baldacchino in St. Peter's, through which the entering visitor sees the later Cathedra Petri in the apse (Fig. 20):

Clearly this is known from an example by which Pope Innocent X [sic] had made the Cathedra of Saint Peter behind the open bronze tabernacle made earlier by Urban. To those who enter there in St. Peter's that tabernacle no longer makes such a sumptuous display and beautiful view as the one it made when, isolated, it remained uninterrupted and unviolated by the Cathedra architecture behind.34

32. G. Guarini, Architettura civile, ed. N. Carboneri and B. Tavassi La Greca, Milan, 1968, 244.

33. "Tutti quegli oggetti che sono traforati, pe' quali si veggono altri d'altra simmetria che siano maggiori di essi, restano confusi, ed anche talvolta se sono minori"; ibid., 246-47.

34. Ibid., 246-47. The Cathedra Petri (1656-65) dates from the pontifi- cate of Alexander VII.

35. Guarini's objection is clearest in the view of Bernini's ensemble as seen at great distance, principally from the basilica's main portal. As the observer progresses down the nave, the rays of the Cathedra gradually recede from the




20 Gianlorenzo Bernini, Baldacchino, 1624-33, and Cathedra Petri, 1656-66. Rome, St. Peter's (photo: Istituto Geografico De Agostini, Novara)

This passage shows Guarini's thinking about the primacy of visual effect in architecture. The architect should not only consider abstract design concepts such as proportion and composition, but he must also allow for adjustments to correct for the optical experience of the viewer.

That two objects visually merge across space is not at issue, for this in itself might be desirable or unavoidable. But the architect must not fail to make the necessary changes to compensate for the optical results of such linkage. According to Guarini, the Baldacchino appears too small or, conversely, the Cathedra appears too large as seen between the spiral columns. For him, the tabernacle was more impressive when isolated, without the Cathedra in the background, which "interrupts" the viewer's sight of the Baldacchino as the expansive contours of gilded rays of light explode and cross above the horizontal canopy and behind the spiral columns in the foreground, thus violating or "confusing" the visual integrity of the bronze tabernacle.35

The nature of the assignment at the Shroud Chapel in Turin may well have prompted Guarini's turn to Bernini's ensemble at St. Peter's. The Cathedra, too, is an altar reliquary designed as the visual focus of the basilica for the pilgrim entering the main portal.36 Whether or not Bertola consciously adhered to Guarini's prescription we cannot

know for certain, but the design and placement of the altar reliquary, as executed, stay well within the boundaries established by the flanking forward columns (Fig. 9). Despite certain formal correspondences with the Cathedra (aureole of clouds and rays, angels, elevated reliquary housing, and back lighting provided by a window), the Shroud altar is narrower and does not cross behind the framing foreground columns or above the proscenium arch. To judge from the Archivio Capitolare perspective drawing (Fig. 9), Bertola's reliquary even fits securely between the pilasters on the back wall of the chapel. Moreover, just as Bernini had to raise the Cathedra on a high pedestal to ensure its visibility through the Baldacchino, so the reliquary housing of Bertola's assem- bly required elevated placement on a register of voluted consoles in order to allow for the view from the cathedral nave below.

In the new Shroud Chapel Guarini, his ducal patrons, and the council in charge of overseeing design and construction, the Consiglio delle Finanze, sought solutions to several long-standing problems related to the shelter and display of the relic. Many of these issues were common to all major relics: security from theft and fire, visibility for everyday veneration, and accessibility for feast-day ostensions. A reliquary shrine, designed by the ducal architect Carlo di

enframing internal profile of the Baldacchino, rendering the criticism irrelevant.

36. R. Battaglia, La cattedra berniniana di San Pietro, Rome, 1943; and R. Wittkower, Gian Lorenzo Bernini: The Sculptor of the Roman Baroque, London,

1966, 235-37. On the relic of Saint Peter's throne housed in Bernini's assemblage, see M. Maccarrone, "La storia della cattedra," La cattedra lignea di S. Pietro in Vaticano: Memorie della Pontificia Accademia Romana di Archeologia, x, 1971, 3-70.




Castellamonte, located forward of the choir and over the high altar in the cathedral crossing, housed the Shroud from 1587 until 1685, when the structure was demolished to clear the view toward the proscenium opening ofGuarini's chapel.37 The early version of this shrine (1587) consisted of four wooden columns, a round tempietto-like superstructure, and a

gilded dome upheld by seraphim,38 but subsequently the duke ordered it rebuilt (1607) in permanent materials and in modified form."9 We have several descriptions of the shrine and an engraved view of 1634 of its revised version (Fig. 21).4o This reliquary tabernacle was important because it influenced the design of the new ensemble for the housing and exhibition of the Shroud.

A detail from the 1634 engraving, which depicts the

swearing of a defense treaty between the duke and the Catholic cantons, gives us an idea of how the shrine of 1607 looked and functioned (Fig. 22). Two black marble columns flanking the high altar project from the choir screen and support an enclosed reliquary chamber on the upper level. A balustraded platform in front of the chamber opening provides space for the removal and ceremonial display of the relic. In the engraving we see musicians standing behind the balustrades of the flanking choir screen sections. The high altar and its reliquary superstructure appear to project forward of the screen. This installation kept the relic secure from theft and fire while the reliquary, or at least its housing, remained in sight for the daily veneration of pilgrims and worshipers. A representation of the Shroud occupied a rectangular panel beneath the pediment.

On May 4, the feast day of the Holy Shroud, the celebrants would remove the relic from the chamber and display it, unfurled, over the forward balustrade for the faithful assembled in the crossing and nave to see. The religious emotions evoked by these quasi epiphanies can be gauged by the calamity of the 1647 ostension, at which such a multitude crowded into the cathedral that many were overcome by the heat and others suffocated in the crush.41

Medieval Roman reliquary shrines served as prototypes for the Turin structure. The oldest and perhaps most famous of these contained the Sudarium of Veronica in Old St. Peter's, dismantled only in 1606 at the time of the final destruction of the Constantinian basilica.42 Early woodcuts record how such shrines functioned during an ostension

(Fig. 23), with the priest and assisting acolytes elevated on

the platform in front of the reliquary chamber and holding up the sacred image for the pilgrims kneeling below.43 The celebrants could exhibit the relic without descending to floor level. On ordinary days the sacred object would be securely locked away inside the raised chamber. Often a simulacrum affixed to the front of the shrine would substitute for the relic inside. This was exactly the procedure followed at Turin until the completion of the new chapel, as recorded in a manu-

script history of the Shroud dating from the early seventeenth century:

That Shroud [the simulacrum] was positioned on the

pediment made for the honor and glory of this same Shroud, from which place many times by order of Their Highnesses this sacred image was publicly spread out to the people, always with the attendance of at least three bishops and other prelates.44

Thus, even when the Shroud was rolled up and locked away out of sight, at least the reliquary chamber and the simulacrum could be seen by the faithful gathered in the cathedral. On the feast-day ostensions, the elevated location of the relic allowed everyone standing in the nave and crossing to see the holy image imprinted on the cloth.

We can gain a general idea of how these ostensions looked up close from an engraving dated 1579 that represents a typical public exhibition of the Shroud (Fig. 24).45 The scene purports to show how the relic was displayed at the May 4 feast-day showings in Chambery, the old Savoyard capital, prior to removal of the precious object to Turin in 1578. From an elevated architectural setting, indicated by the arched supporting structure with its hint of Doric columns, three bishops attended by taper-bearing deacons hold the Shroud over a forward parapet, with the frontal image of Christ shown to the central bishop's right. The Savoy arms in the center arch add the cachet of a ducal imprimatur to the event. To complete the scene, we need only imagine our- selves surrounded by fellow pilgrims.

For the private ostensions given to important foreign visitors of rank and official dignitaries at court, the prelates brought the relic down and Spread it open on a specially prepared table in the choir space behind the shrine.46 Like the public events, these exclusive showings were at the will of the duke, who was always present. Prince Vittorio Amedeo

37. Diary entry of F. L. Soleri, Torino racconta, ed. D. Rebaudengo, Turin, 1969, 26.

38. See D. F. Bucci, Il solenne battesimo del serenissimo prencipe di Piemonte Filippo Emanuelle ... , Turin, 1588, 33v-34r, and, citing a "visita pastorale" of 1593, F. Rondolino, II duomo di Torino illustrato, Turin, 1898, 138, n. 7. See also Carboneri, 97-98, n. 9. For the payments in 1587, see ASTR, Art. 179, 1570-1610, mazzo 2, reg. 32, credito 58, 62, 95, 146, 166, 185, 155, 174, 193, 206, 207, 217, 243, 308.

39. See G. Claretta, "Inclinazioni artistiche di Carlo Emanuele I di Savoia e de' suoi figli," Atti della Societd di Archeologia e Belle Arti per la Provincia di Torino, v, 1887, 351; G. Lanza, La Santissima Sindone del Signore che si venera nella R. Cappella di Torino, Turin, 1898, 89-91; Carboneri, 98-99, n. 13, citing payments of 1607-9; and A. Scotti, Ascanio Vitozzi: Ingegnere ducale a Torino, Florence, 1969, 138. ASTR, Art. 180, 1607-9, reg. 3, debito 71, 171, 247, 271, 279-80, credito 1624, 2618-27; Art. 207, 1611-12, reg. 10, 31r and 41v, reg. 11, 30v.

40. ASF, "Avvisi di Torino et Savoia dal 1547 al 1899," cod. 2962, as quoted in Sanna Solaro, 56, n. 1; Bucci (as in n. 38), 33v-34v; a 1593 pastoral visit cited in Rondolino (as in n. 38), 138, n. 7; "Historia vera come la sacra

Sindone di N.S.re sia pervenuta nelle mani dell'Alta Savoia ...," ASTC, Benefici di qua dai Monti, mazzo 31, no. 23, 18v-19v; C. Baracco, "L'antico coro del duomo di S. Giovanni," II duomo di Torino, 1928a, II, 15-16; and L. Giuglaris, Funerale fatto nel duomo di Torino alla gloriosa memoria [di] Vittorio Amedeo Duca di Savoia, Prencipe di Piemonte, Re di Cipro, Turin, 1638, 9.

41. ASV, Nunziatura di Savoia, 66, 134v, as transcribed in Savio, 312. 42. Illustrated in G. Grimaldi, Descrizione della basilica antica di S. Pietro in

Vaticano: Codice barberino latino 2733, ed. R. Niggl, Vatican City, 1972, 105-13, 122-23 (fig. 40), 128. The only surviving example of the type in Rome is the Gothic tabernacle over the high altar of S. Giovanni in Laterano. See J. Braun, Der christliche Altar in seiner geschichtlichen Entwicklung, Munich, 1924, 11, 259-61; G. Zander, "Considerazioni su un tipo di ciborio in uso a Roma nel rinascimento," Bollettino d'arte, ser. 6, LXIX, 1984, 99-106; and B. Cassidy, "Orcagna's Tabernacle in Florence: Design and Function," Zeitschrift fir Kunstgeschichte, LXI, 1992, 188, 198-203. After the destruction of the old shrines at St. Peter's the Congregazione della Reverenda Fabbrica commis- sioned Bernini to rework the crossing piers for the placement of the relics in niches on the upper level, behind balustrades (1624-41). The famous statues




21 Giovenale Boetto, after Carlo Morello, Vittorio Amedeo I Renews the League with the Catholic Cantons of Switzerland, engraving, 1634 (photo: Galleria Sabauda, Turin)

(reigned 1630-37), for example, exhibited the Shroud to his new bride, Cristina di Francia, the sister of Louis XIII, on

February 10, 1620.47 In addition to Savoy family members and visiting princes, the duke also arranged special exhibi- tions for persons of saintly reputation, as was done in 1578 for Carlo Borromeo (canonized 1610), in 1613 for Frangois de Sales (canonized 1665), and in 1639 forJeanne-Frangoise de Chantal (canonized 1767).48

Dynastic Ritual and the Theater of Ostension The Roman reliquary shrine type provided a solution to the

problems of security, visibility, and, to a degree, also accessi-

bility. It appears that wooden stairs, especially erected for each ostension, gave access to the elevated chamber at Turin.49 Even so, this meant that the duke had to descend from his tribune in the left transept (Fig. 21) and then climb the stairs to the shrine in order to take part in the ostension

ceremony. There remained, however, an issue of jurisdic- tion. The Shroud belonged to the house of Savoy and could

only be exhibited at the specific command of the duke, who maintained possession of three of the keys required to open the reliquary housing.50 Having the relic kept in the cathedral within the physical space of episcopal control made for a somewhat awkward tension between secular and church

authority. More than ecclesiastical rituals, the ostensions of the Shroud were ceremonies that involved the participation of the entire court and ducal officials. The restricted space of the elevated platform did not allow sufficient room for such a

large number of participants, hence Prince Maurizio's special concern for "more space around the rotunda."51

The new Shroud Chapel represented a nearly ideal solution to this issue, while also maintaining the advantages of the shrine. A glance at the Archivio Capitolare perspective drawing shows how the design provided for the same degree of security and visibility as the shrine, with the wrought-iron grille of the reliquary housing kept at about the same height above the cathedral floor as the chamber of the earlier shrine

(Fig. 8). At the same time the new design enhanced accessibil-

in the lower niches served as simulacra. The Volto Santo, or Veil of Veronica, occupied the southwest pier with Francesco Mochi's Saint Veronica (1635-39) in the lower niche. See "Volto Santo o Veronica," in G. Moroni, Dizionario di erudizione storico-ecclesiastica, Venice, 1840-61, cIII, 91-109; and I. Lavin, Bernini and the Crossing of Saint Peter's, New York, 1968, esp. 19-27.

43. Mirabilia urbis romae, Rome, [1511], n.p. 44. "Qual Sindone e posta nel frontispizio, fatta ad honor, & gloria d'essa

Sindone, dal qual luogo spesse volte per comandament. delle loro AA. li

spiega publicam. al popolo questa sacrata imagine, col intervent.e sempre al meno di tre vescovi, & altri prelati"; ASTC, "Historia vera ...," Benefici di qua dai Monti, mazzo 31, no. 23, 19r.

45. The engraving (12 5/8 x 171/4 in.; 32 x 44 cm) exists in two versions, both published in Rome, of which the one reproduced here is the more generic. The other shows, among minor differences, Emanuele Filiberto and his son, the future Carlo Emanuele I, flanking the central bishop, and it serves as the frontispiece in the official history of the relic: F. Pingon, Sindon Evangelica, Turin, 1581. See C. Bertana et al., La Sindone di qua dai monti: Documenti e testimonianze, Turin, 1978, pl. v.

46. "... & privatamente fano anco spiegare ad instanza d'altri duchi,

duchesse, gran prinicpi, cardinali, & personaggi di portata, sopra una tavola a questo fine posta dietro la tribuna"; ASTC, Benefici di qua dai Monti, mazzo 31, no. 23, 18v-19r [early 17th century].

47. See P. Monod, Recherches historiques sur les alliances royales de France et de Savoie, Lyon, 1621, 87; and Sanna Solaro, 56-57.

48. See P. Savio, "Pellegrinaggio di San Carlo Borromeo alla Sindone di Torino," Aevum, vII, 1933, 447; Cenni sulla Santissima Sindone sulle principali sue pubbliche ostensioni e su quella che ha luogo addi 4 maggio di quest'anno 1842, Turin, 1842, 29; A. Bosio, Alcune memorie sulla sacratissima sindone, 2d ed., Turin, 1868, 27; and Sanna Solaro, 57.

49. On May 6, 1607, the carpenter Giovanni Borgognone received payment for "una scalla d'assi fatta del suo all'altare grande nella chiesa di San Giovanni, dove si fece il tabernacolo novo per il Santiss.mo Sudario, il giorno della sua ostensione dell'anno 1607"; ASTR, Art. 180, reg. 3, 1607-9, credito 2619.

50. Cenni (as in n. 48), 30. 51. See above, n. 29.




22 Detail of Fig. 21 (photo: Galleria Sabauda, Turin)

ity for the faithful, created an ample circumambient space for the court, and provided an unambiguous positioning of the relic at the piano nobile level of the ducal palace.52

As we can see from the plan of the chapel (Fig. 12), the flanking stairs allowed for the efficient flow of pilgrims ascending on the right and descending on the left. The main portal of the chapel opens at the top of the plan into a gallery leading to the sala and ducal apartments of the palace. Access to and from the ducal tribune was facilitated by a door at the left stair landing which opens into another gallery and up a short flight of steps. With the floor now raised to the level of the palace, it became clear that the chapel was under ducal administration as a palatine chapel. We find this confirmed by its designation as "Cappella Reale," "Reggia Cappella," or "Aedes Regiae" in documents of the period.53 Moreover, the wrought-iron gates at the base of the flanking stairs locked from the inside (Fig. 8).54

The forward balustrade of the new chapel appears to be at the same level as the ostension balustrade of the old shrine, but it now thrusts well back into the choir (Fig. 12). This disposition, with the reliquary altar in the center of the chapel, offered a more permanent and commodious arrangement for the safekeeping and exhibition of the relic. Perhaps of equal importance, the new chapel represented a consider- able increase of the aulic splendor of the ritual space in which to shelter and display the dynastic relic of the house of Savoy.

Now the sacred object could be truly integrated into the ceremonial life of the court.

Throughout the vicissitudes of the design history of the new Shroud Chapel and its reliquary altar, one guiding principle remained constant-to provide a functional and

suitably dignified ostension platform. The arched opening between the chapel and the cathedral is the product of this

programmatic intent. The Archivio Capitolare perspective drawing (Fig. 8) gives us an idea of how the design would have functioned. With only the drawing, however, we still need imagination to add the players who once populated this sacred theater when the relic was displayed over the balustrade: the faithful masses crowding the nave and crossing, the cathedral canons in their choir, the officiating prelates, the duke and duchess, and the entire court standing behind them.

There exists just one image showing the almost full architectural context of an ostension from the chapel balus-

trade, an engraving published in Turin in 1703 (Fig. 25).55 An inscription at the bottom of the print explains the scene as "The True Portrait of the Most Holy Shroud Represented for the Public in the Palace Chapel." Here we see how

23 Ostension of the Sudarium, woodcut (from Mirabilis Urbis Romae, 1511) (photo: Biblioteca Angelica, Rome)




24 Carlo Malliano, Ostension of the Holy Shroud, engraving, 1579 (photo: Fototeca dei Musei Civici, Turin)

Guarini's enframing devices of the fluted columns and

depressed arch functioned as a proscenium for ceremonial exhibition. Three bishops hold the relic over the balustrade for the benefit of spectators in the cathedral. Bertola's altar

reliquary rises in the center of the rotunda with the gilded grating of the housing that normally secures the Shroud

prominently on view. The aureole surrounding the cross at the top is visually linked with the background pendentive and its oculus, bracketed by the sweeping soffits of the

adjacent arches. At the moment of ostension the unfurled relic and those attending to it serve to complete the composition, horizontally uniting the foreground column pedestals and creating a visual base for the towering pyramid of forms. The heavy arc of the entablature, separating pendentive zone and cupola drum, connects the capitals of the foreground columns and locks into place the entire assemblage below.

As we can now judge by looking at this engraving, the width of the fully displayed relic itself determined the

minimum size of the chapel opening toward the cathedral. Since the Shroud measures 14 feet 31/2 inches (4.36 m) when

unrolled, the area between the flanking columns had to be at least that wide. Given a distance of 31 feet 6 inches (9.6 m) between the choir walls, Guarini had adequate room with which to work. As the print shows, the section of the balustrade that runs perpendicular to the viewer's line of

sight corresponds closely to the width of the relic when

displayed.56 Thus, the principal actors in the ceremony fill but do not crowd the space between the columns.

We can also see that the ducal family and court occupy the area of the chapel behind the prelates. As protocol dictated, Vittorio Amedeo II (1675-1730), his sons, and other male members of the ruling family have positions of honor to the

right of the central bishop and behind the frontal image of Christ on the Shroud. Duchess Anna d'Orlkans and the duke's mother, Madama Reale Maria Giovanna Battista,57

together with other female members of the house, appear on

52. The cathedral chapter acknowledged receipt of the relic for the period it was in their safekeeping (1685-94). See Savio, 330-331, for the nuncio's

report ofJune 4, 1694, and the dispute between the cathedral canons and the

chaplains of the chapel at the feast-day mass of May 4, 1696. Only at the ostension of 1697, following the resolution of a lawsuit, did the chapter finally recognize the independence of the chapel. For the suit, see also below, n. 54.

53. See, e.g., the document dated 1697 laying out the duke's plan to

establish a college of canons for the chapel; ASTC, "Progetto per constituire una collegiata nella Capella Regia del Santis.mo Sudario di S.A.R.," Benefici di qua dai Monti, mazzo 31, no. 17. See also inscriptions on engraved representations of the chapel, as in the Theatrum Sabaudiae of 1682 (Fig. 16) and an engraving of 1737 showing Bertola's reliquary shrine (Fig. 6), which

designate the chapel "Aedis Regiae" and "Reggia Capella." 54. The orientation of the locks was one of the arguments used in rebuffing

a lawsuit initiated by the cathedral canons, through which they sought to take

possession of the Shroud Chapel. See V. Bussi, "La Cappella della S. Sindone in una lite seicentesca," Bollettino Storico Vercellese, viI, 1978, 27.

55. It measures 15 x 9 7/8 in., or 38 x 25 cm. The draftsman was Giulio Cesare Grampini and the engraver Bartolomeo Giuseppe Tasniere. This invaluable visual document, dated 1703 in the lower right, has occasionally been reproduced (Lovera di Castiglione and Merlo, eds., 56, no. 17, pl. xxxi; Peyrot [as in n. 10], I, no. 88; and A. Peyrot and V. Viale, eds., Immagini di Torino nei secoli, Turin, 1969, no. 113) but, to my knowledge, no one has yet analyzed or even mentioned the engraving's importance for understanding the ritual function of Guarini's chapel. The example illustrated is in BRT, Inc.II.65.

56. Measurements confirm this representation. The center section of the balustrade is 18 feet 9 inches (5.75 m) in length, leaving free approximately 2 feet 1 1/2 inches (.70 m) on either side of the extended relic.

57. The duke's mother saw to the completion of the chapel during her

regency (1675-85), and the print is dedicated to her.




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25 Bartolomeo Giuseppe Tasnibre, after Giulio Cesare Grampini, Ostension from the Balustrade of the Chapel of the Holy Shroud in Turin Cathedral, engraving, 1703 (photo: BRT)




26 Nave of Turin Cathedral from the ostension balustrade of the Chapel of the Holy Shroud (photo: author)

the opposite side behind the dorsal imprint on the relic. The theatrical setting of the scene shows us how the chapel functioned as a stage for the living ceremony of the Savoy court and provided the reigning duke with a platform from which he could literally parade the mystique of sacral

kingship before the gaze of his assembled subjects. A duke's-

eye view of the cathedral from his position behind the balustrade shows us how extensive that audience would be

(Fig. 26). The political implications of positioning the duke and the

hereditary princes behind the frontal image of Christ are reinforced in the upper section of the reliquary shrine, where a cross appears in the center of the aureole. Witnesses at the ostensions would have needed no reminder that the original arms of the house of Savoy consisted of a simple silver cross

against a plain red field. We see it on the right side in the

impaled coat of arms held up by putti at the top of the

engraving. To reiterate the idea of dynastic ownership of the Shroud, the coffering of the three chapel pendentives, one of which appears behind the shrine's aureole in the print, also takes the repeated form of the Savoy cross (Figs. 9, 14). The most important of all Instruments of the Passion is thereby illustrated in heraldic form to reinforce absolutist notions of

divinely sanctioned rulership. Several details in the engraving do not appear in the

chapel itself. The coat of arms affixed to the arch apparently never existed, as witness the construction documents, the Archivio Capitolare perspective drawing, and the 1829

Durau-Civeton engraved view of the cathedral interior (Fig. 13). Nor is there evidence to support the existence of the statues in the drum niches and the paintings in the intercolumnar spaces of the rotunda.58 Turning to the engraved section of Guarini's model, however, we see statues and

paintings in place throughout the chapel (Fig. 16). The

impossibly high vantage point, suspended somewhere above the cathedral crossing, is another curious feature of the ostension engraving. Moreover, the strong light hitting the sides of the foreground columns does not conform to the main light sources of the chapel. Because of the lack of any direct light, the choir should be darker than the chapel and the proscenium columns should therefore appear silhouetted when seen from the cathedral, as they are in the much later Durau-Civeton engraving (Fig. 13).59 These particulars make it likely that in illustrating this ostension scene the artist used as a handy guide the large wooden model of the

chapel,60 which, as documents record, did contain the intercolumnar paintings and drum statuary seen in the Theatrum engraving (Fig. 16).

Another curiosity of the 1703 ostension print is worthy of our attention. The Savoy court record kept by the master of ceremonies, a reliable source for all important ducal events, makes no mention of a public exhibition of the Shroud in that year.61 Owing to the duke's frequent absences from court and especially to the War of Spanish Succession

(1700-1713), in which Vittorio Amedeo II played an active

part,62 there were no ostensions between 1697 and 1713.63

58. Lamps and ex-votos filled these spaces; see A.-L. Millin, Voyages d'Italie et d'Hollande, Paris, 1816, I, 201.

59. The windows in the choir walls receive illumination only from the light wells above the adjacent stairs.

60. For the work estimate and complete description of the model, signed and dated by Guarini Nov. 30, 1667, for ninety-six days of work accom-

plished in the summer of that year by the cabinetmaker Giovanni Rosso, called "Pavia," see ASTR, Art. 197, reg. 12, 92v-95v. Published in Dardanello (as in n. 17), 64.

61. BRT, Storia Patria 726/5 (1702-3 and 1710-13), pt. 1, covers Sept. 10, 1702-Oct. 5, 1703. BRT, Storia Patria 726/4-2, covers Oct. 26, 1703-Dec. 31, 1709.

62. G. Symcox, Victor Amadeus II: Absolutism in the Savoyard State, 1675- 1730, London, 1983, 134-56.

63. See BRT, Storia Patria, 726/3, 1690-99, and Storia Patria 726/4-1, 1699-1702.




Thus, the publisher of the print, Giovanni Boglietto, and his artists represented not a specific ostension but an ideal one, perhaps to make up for the lack of an actual ceremony during this troubled period.64

We must understand this image not only as an ideal

representation of an ostension in the Shroud Chapel, but also as an example of dynastic propaganda in a medium of mass reproduction. The print is dedicated to the Madama Reale, suggesting that the duke's mother probably provided the publisher with a subvention to help cover his production costs. The "con Privilegio" in the legend also indicates that

publication and sale of the engraving had ducal authoriza- tion. As the inscription informs us, Boglietto sold the

engraving at his shop in the Piazza Castello, the urban site of outdoor ostensions, under the sign of the "Santissimo Sudario." Serving a dual political function, the print showed off the new chapel and at the same time circulated the image of an ostension, precisely for want of a real one.

At the time of the print's publication in 1703 the Shroud had most recently been displayed over the balustrade of the

chapel in 1694, which was also the first such event. As the record of court ceremonies indicates, on June 1, 1694, Vittorio Amedeo had finally accomplished what his ancestor, Emanuele Filiberto, had wished; he installed the family's chief relic permanently in its own chapel:

His Royal Highness took himself with all the court to S. Giovanni ... and having taken the Most Holy Shroud

carried it into the upper chapel, passing by way of the stairs next to the sacristy that lead to the same .... The Most Holy Shroud was spread out on a table placed between the chapel altar and the balustrade facing S. Giovanni, then from that same balustrade it was shown to the people who were in the church, and from that same table it was held up also to display it to those who were in the chapel, then it was put back in its chest and placed in the assigned location.65

The report of the papal nuncio, who always had a major role in the ceremony, fills in the picture with some additional information.66 He had an excellent view of the relic from his seat just to the side of the ostension table. The archbishop of Turin and the bishop of Fossano, together with the canons of the cathedral, officiated at the ostension, to musical accompa- niment.67 Among the various foreign dignitaries present were two Protestants, princes of Brandenburg, who discreetly

occupied one of the two small balconies above the stair

landings. With the ostension engraving of 1703 in front of us, we

have no difficulty in imagining how this first ceremony in the new Shroud Chapel must have looked, seen close up from the direction of the cathedral. If we consider this view

together with the more expansive one of cathedral crossing and choir in the Archivio Capitolare perspective drawing, we can begin to achieve a mental image of how an ostension from the chapel balustrade would have appeared to a viewer at nave level. We must, however, still call on the imagination to place the crowd in the cathedral below, as we see it, for

example, in the 1634 engraving of the oath-swearing cer-

emony (Fig. 21). Failure to take note of the intended view from the

cathedral has robbed Guarini's chapel of one of its most

carefully programmed features, one that had its beginning even before Guarini arrived on the scene but one that he embraced, developed, and refined. He made of it a spectacular example of the Berninesque device of the scenographic relationship of separate sculptural and architectural components brought into visual proximity across space. Notwith-

standing his critique of the Baldacchino-Cathedra Petri ensemble at St. Peter's, Guarini's argument concerned the details of execution rather than a negation of the concept itself. On the contrary, as we have seen, Guarini was sensitive to optical effects in architecture. His stricture was simply that what was in the background should not interrupt the contours of the major element in the foreground, thereby violating its autonomy and lessening its visual and psychological impact.

Guarini died in March 1683. In October of that year the

young duke's mother, Madama Reale Maria Giovanna Bat- tista, sent drawings of the proposed reliquary shrine to the

Savoy ambassador in Rome for evaluation by the most skilled authorities in such matters.68 As they have not survived, we

may never know if any of these designs were by Guarini, but it is clear that the structure as completed by Bertola reflects Guarini's scenographic thinking. Thus, the finished reli-

quary shrine stands well within the flanking columns of the

proscenium. Avoiding the discordant juxtaposition of Berni- ni's ensemble at St. Peter's, it coordinates sympathetically with the major architectural lines of the background wall and

vaulting. By 1685 Giovanni Andrea Rosso, who was also the executant of Guarini's model of the chapel, was building a

64. The turn of the 17th century marked a watershed in the history of the ostensions. Until then the Shroud was exhibited frequently, if not every year, on its feast day. In the 18th century, however, there were no more than nine public ostensions-two in the cathedral and seven in the Piazza Castello.

65. "Si port6 S.A.R.le con tutta la corte a S. Giovanni ... e presa la santissima Sindone fu portata nella capella superiore, passando per la scala, che conduce alla medema vicin'alla sacristia.... La Santissima Sindone fu spiegata sovra una tavola posta l'altare della cappella, ed il balustro verso S. Giovanni, indi dal detto balaustro fu mostrata al popolo, che stava nella chiesa, e dalla medema tavola fu pure alzata per mostrarla a quelli, ch'erano nella capella, indi riposta nella sua cassa, fu messa nel luogo destinato"; BRT, "Ceremoniale della Real Corte Savoia," Storia Patria 726/3, 1690-99, 187r-v. At the time of the transfer the relic was kept in the chapel of Saints Stephen and Catherine located at the east end of the north aisle of the cathedral, where the stairs leading from the Shroud Chapel were to be built.

The old reliquary shrine was demolished in 1685, as Soleri (as in n. 37), 26, recorded in his diary entry of May 24. Payments to laborers dated June 9 confirm the entry: "Per haver di novo portato ... nel magazeno assieme sei pezzi di ferro levati dalla machina demollita ove stava reposto il SS.mo Sudario"; ASTR, Art. 201, 1684-86, reg. 26, 33r.

66. ASV, Nunziatura di Savoia, 114, 560-61, as transcribed in Savio, 328-30. 67. For the two organs designed and installed in the balconies, see the

contract and payments in ASTR, Art. 199, reg. 10, 120r-121v, 130r-131r. 68. ASTC, Lettere Ministri, Roma, mazzo 105, fasc. 1, Madama Reale at

Moncalieri to Count Orazio Provana, Oct. 13, 1683; published by G. Claretta, I reali di Savoia munifici fautori delle arti, Turin, 1893, 33-34. The letter is discussed in L. Tamburini, Le chiese di Torino dal rinascimento al barocco, Turin, 1968, 228, n. 31; and Dardanello (as in n. 26), 194, and n. 156.

69. May 22, 1685: L.200 "al menusiero Gio. Andrea Rosso d.a Pavia a conto delle robbe fatture che deve proceder in formar il modello disegno




27 Relic of the Holy Shroud, linen, 3 ft. 7 in. x 14 ft. 31/2 in. (1.10 x 4.36 m), Turin (photo: Centro Internazionale di Sindonologia, Turin)

full-scale wood and stucco model of the shrine in the center of the rotunda.69 This permitted Bertola to make the

necessary adjustments to harmonize the assemblage with its architectural context. By October 1687 the model had been dismantled and work on the actual shrine had commenced.70

The compositional organization of components in Turin Cathedral not only shows the influence of Bernini's Roman lessons in scenography, it also represents a corrected reprise of his "beautiful whole" as executed at St. Peter's. Although Guarini criticized Bernini's work, his concern for optically unifying sculptural and architectural elements across space is

manifestly Berninesque.

Seeing the Shroud Crucial to our understanding of the nature and importance of the ostensions and the architecture they generated is our

grasp of the profound meaning attached to seeing the image of the crucified Christ imprinted on the Shroud (Fig. 27). Since the man there plainly bore the wounds of Christ's

suffering (on his head, side, and hands), the relic constituted a direct witness to the Passion and the mystery of the Incarnation. The sepia-toned figure was believed to have been transferred to the cloth when Nicodemus and Joseph of Arimathea carried the blood-stained body of Christ to the tomb. Because the image was made by and consisted of Christ's blood, theologians who discussed the Shroud de- clared it worthy not merely of dulia, the veneration owed to the relics of the saints, but of latria, the adoration due to God himself."7

The frenzy of religious emotion characterizing the osten-

sions is worthy of our attention if we are to comprehend the

importance of key design features of the Shroud Chapel. Duke Emanuele Filiberto (reigned 1553-80), wishing to increase the devotion of his subjects toward the Shroud,

successfully petitioned Gregory XIII for a plenary indul-

gence in perpetuity for anyone attending an ostension or

visiting on the feast day of May 4 the place where the relic was

kept.72 This papal concession enhanced the status of the

events, and the ducal administration made every effort to increase the numbers of pilgrims who attended them. Osten- sions were announced by notices distributed throughout the

Savoy holdings. An example is the poster proclaiming the ostension of May 4, 1674, to be held in the Piazza Castello, which invites Christians, both subjects and foreigners, to celebrate the "Sight" of the "Heavenly Treasure" and receive the plenary indulgence (Fig. 28).73 Above the text of the sheet we see an ostension in the presence of a duke and duchess with the Savoy arms at the top. Vignettes of Instru- ments and scenes of the Passion associate the ducal palladium with other venerated sacred relics, while the inscription declares the image to be the "Most True Portrait of the Most

Holy Shroud of Our Lord."

Seeing the Shroud was an extraordinarily important event in the spiritual life of an individual Christian, not only because of the promised indulgence, but also owing to the

physics of light as understood at the time. The predominant theory of optics in the seventeenth century, derived from the medieval perspectivist treatises ofAlhazen (Ibn al-Haytham), Witelo of Thuringia, John Pecham, and especially Roger

rapresentante il dissegno in grande del ciborio o sia altare che si deve fare in mezo la capella del Santiss.o Sudario"; ASTR, Art. 182, reg. 23, 1685, credito 316. On the role of full-scale models in creating harmonious scenographic effects, see G. Bauer, "From Architecture to Scenography: The Full-Scale Model in the Baroque Tradition," in La scenografia barocca, ed. A. Schnapper, Bologna, 1982, 142-49; and idem, "Bernini ei 'modelli in grande,' " in Gian Lorenzo Bernini e l'architettura europea del sei-settecento, ed. G. Spagnesi and M.

Fagiolo, 3 vols., Rome, 1983-84, I, 279-90. 70. Aug. 25, 1687: "S.A.R. ha comandato, che si disfaccia il modello che si

e fatto in mezzo della capella del Sant.mo Sudario"; ASTR, Art. 199, reg. 8, 1685-88, 157v. Oct. 18, 1687: "Si e incominciata l'altare di pietra dove si ha da reponer la santissima Sindone"; Soleri (as in n. 37), 34. The altar reliquary was not complete in all its marble, wood, iron, and crystal components until 1693. The Consiglio delle Finanze met in the chapel in Jan. of that year to inspect the altar; see ASTR, Art. 199, reg. 10, 104r-105v.

71. See A. Paleotti, Esplicatione del lenzuolo ove fu involto il signore, & delle

piaghe in esso impresso col suo pretioso sangue confrontate con la scrittura profeti e

padri. Con la notitia di molte piaghe occulte & numero de' chiodi et con pie meditatione de' dolori della B. Vergine, Bologna, 1599, 50; and J.-J. Chifflet, Hierothonie de Iesus Christ, ou discours des saincts suaires di nostre seigneur, ed. and trans. A. Duchesne, Paris, 1631, 236-37.

72. For the letter of Apr. 7, 1581, from the bishop of Mondovi, acting on behalf of the duke, requesting the indulgence, see ASV, Nunziatura di Savoia, 12, fol. 109; transcribed in Savio, 302-3. For the papal document granting the request, see ibid., 303-5. For the official printed announcement of the indulgence, dated Apr. 12, 1582, see Lovera di Castiglione and Merlo, eds., pl. LXVI.

73. The poster (approx. 11 3/4 x 8 5/8 in., or 29.7 x 22 cm) is reproduced in Lovera di Castiglione and Merlo, eds., pi. LXIX.




OLFNDO S. A. R. cont L. toleaniurtcar a r boli Pi, teeivosioe la Fftta della SACRATISSIMA $SINDONEe,tli4 Magio, con fpo e adla blwa Piaa dl Caft1dlo puefi Sama& RELIQVIA, Inuita sed lI 9Fddi Chriftaoi, oasoSWddki quanto Foraftie. ri , ~ ncorerto= diuoto aferto alla cekbrationa di dota Feft par*icipando della commune Allegrcza,

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28 Poster for the ostension of May 4, 1674 (photo: ASTC)




Bacon, held that the properties of the object of sight were transmitted from the source to the eye of the observer by means of the "multiplication of species."74 This process of

seeing involves a kind of radiation of force or image from any seen object through the space intervening between it and the

eye. Every physical entity emits species, as Bacon put it, "into the matter of the recipient," i.e., the beholder.75 The likeness that the species produces there is thence transmitted by way of the optic nerve to the brain; thus, the species, by traveling along intromitted rays, not only affect the ocular receiver but also, indirectly, the intellect and, hence, the soul of the

image's recipient. When that representation is the "True Portrait" of Christ, consisting of his own blood shed at the Passion, the implications become profound.

That intellectuals of the period explained vision in terms of the propagation of luminous species is not in doubt. Guarini, for example, in his discussion of optical effects in architecture, observes that often the imagination corrects the

species received in the eye.76 How these processes were understood on a theological level is, however, less certain.

In his commentary (published in 1607) on Alfonso Paleot- ti's meditational manual on the Shroud, Daniele Mallonio, theologian at the University of Bologna, makes unmistakable reference to the mechanics of species radiation:

The celestial splendor which flashes from the most holy effigy of Christ imprinted on the Shroud is redolent not of human but divine artifice. Some kind of hidden energy shines out of the sheet and fills those who look upon it with heartfelt stupefaction; and like the sword wrapped in a cloth behind the ephod (1 Sam. 21:9) with which David killed Goliath, this force pierces through and through to the point where mind and spirit divide, as do the joints and marrow (Heb. 4:12), and, wounding the heart of the beholder with the dagger of remorse, dissolves him in tears. Other images were drawn from this original. How- ever, the painter could not conceive in his mind nor

express with his brush that splendor which by divine agency breathes forth from the linen, but was compelled to acknowledge and confess that a certain radiance in the Shroud is a thing divine.77

The modern reader may easily interpret Mallonio's words metaphorically rather than literally, but a careful analysis of the context of the quotation makes clear enough that the author is speaking quite directly about real, if mystical, experiences. The author, moreover, employs the words "brilliance" (fulgor), "impression" (impressio), "viewer" (as- piciens), "likeness" (simulacrum), and "ray" (radius)-all technical terms common to the perspective literature.78 We have here an echo of the theory of the multiplication of species used by a seventeenth-century theologian explicating the Shroud and its divine imprint.

The Shroud was, of course, by no means unique in its

operation through the multiplication of species. The same would be equally true of any relic or even any visible object. What makes the process important is the sacred nature of the

image from which the species radiate. The russet figure on the Shroud becomes a special case because it consists entirely of Christ's blood. Thus the species transferred to the eye, the brain, and ultimately the soul of the beholder are especially powerful and salvific. Mallonio is, in fact, careful to specify, in his opening sentence, that he refers to the "effigy," that is, the figure on the cloth, notjust the textile itself, although this too would have its own spiritual value.

Understanding in a literal way the multiplication of species enables us to appreciate the profound significance that

seeing the Shroud had for those who congregated in Turin for the ostensions. The unlearned were no doubt likely to

comprehend their visual encounter with the relic in terms less technical than Mallonio's, but the importance of visually experiencing the Savoy Passion relic would have been simi- larly understood.79 For the faithful, seeing the Shroud must have been a spiritually transforming experience.

74. The optical works of Alhazen (De aspectibus) and Witelo (Perspectiva) are combined in Opticae thesaurus, ed. F. Risner, Basel, 1572. Pecham's Perspectiva communis went through eleven printed editions between 1482/83 and 1627; D. C. Lindberg, ed., John Pecham and the Science of Optics: "Perspectiva communis, " Madison, Wis., 1970, 56-57. For the grand synthesis of medieval thought on the multiplication of species, see R. Bacon, De multiplicatione specierum, in Opus majus, ed. S.Jebb, London, 1733, 358-445; and Perspectiva, ed. I. Combach, Frankfurt, 1614, 1-167. The complete list of the Renais- sance printed editions of these works appears in D. C. Lindberg, A Catalogue of Medieval and Renaissance Optical Manuscripts, Toronto, 1975. The develop- ment ofperspectiva and subtleties of this theory are discussed by idem, Theories of Vision from Al-Kindi to Kepler, Chicago, 1976; and, with emphasis on the epistemological implications of the theory, K. H. Tachau, Vision and Certitude in the Age of Ockham: Optics, Epistemology and the Foundations of Semantics, 1250-1345, Leiden, 1988, 3-26. For a handy summary of the fundamental issues as they developed from late antiquity to the early 17th century, see D. C. Lindberg, "The Genesis of Kepler's Theory of Light: Light Metaphysics from Plotinus to Kepler," Osiris, I1, 1986, 5-42. The early 17th-century summa on perspectivist theory is F. d'Aguilon, Opticorum libri sex philosophis iuxta ac mathematicis utiles, Antwerp, 1613, esp. 48-55, 74-78, 94-95, 101. I thank Katherine H. Tachau for pointing me in the direction of the literature on the theory of the multiplication of species, for reading this section of the text for historical accuracy, and for her thoughtful comments.

75. R. Bacon, De mulitplicatione specierum (1.1.42-69, 75-80), in Roger Bacon's Philosophy of Nature: A Critical Edition, with English Translation, Introduction, and Notes, of "De multiplicatione specierum" and "De speculis comburentibus", trans. D. C. Lindberg, Oxford, 1983, 7.

76. Guarini (as in n. 32), 255-57. 77. "Fulgor qui e sacratissima Christi effigie Sindoni impressa coelitus

emicat, non humanum sed divinum redolet artificium; ac nescio quid latentis energiae fulget e linteo, quod aspicientes intimo quodam stupore replet, ac veluti gladius, quo David Goliath occiderat, involutus ephod (1 Sam. 21:9) pertingit usque ad divisionem animae et spiritus, compagnum quoque ac medullarum (Heb. 4:12), et aspicientium pectora compuctionis iaculo pun- gens solvit in lacrimas. Licet autem ex eodem prototypo alia extracta sint simulacra, pictor tamen fulgorem illum, qui divinitus spirat e linteo, neque mente assequi neque penicillo exprimere valuit, sed rem divinam, quendam radium in Sindone, agnoscere et futeri coactus est"; D. Mallonio, Historia admiranda de Iesu Christi stigmatibus sacrae sindoni impressis, ab Alphonso Paleoto archiepiscopo II bononiensi explicata, Douai, 1607, 28-29. See P. Caramello, "Lo splendore della S. Sindone," Sindon, i, Oct. 1959, 34-37; and idem, "The Splendor of the Holy Shroud," Shroud Spectrum International, I, no. 2, 1982, 29-32. I use the English translation from the latter (29-30) with slight modification.

78. On the terminology, see Lindberg (as in n. 74), 19. 79. S. Y. Edgerton, Jr., The Heritage of Giotto's Geometry: Art and Science on the

Eve of the Scientific Revolution, Ithaca/London, 1991, 92-107, interprets as

species the succession of golden rings and sprays of golden dots descending with the Holy Spirit in Fra Filippo Lippi's Annunciation of ca. 1455 (National Gallery, London). He notes also Ghiberti's numerous quotations (in his third Commentario) from Bacon and Pecham on the nature of species. See above, n. 74.




29 Antoine Herisset, View of the Royal Pavilion Decorated for the Exhibition of the Holy Shroud, engraving, 1737 (photo: BRT)

Keeping in mind the prominent ducal presence at the ceremonies helps us also to recognize that a potent mixture of metaphysical and political ingredients went into the

production of these heady events. The design of the Shroud

Chapel reflects the desire of the Savoy and their advisers to facilitate the effectiveness of the ostension ceremony as an instrument of dynastic self-representation.80 The proscenium with its framing columns and display balustrade is therefore a primary functional component of the architectural ensemble-and this fact must be understood if we are to grasp the intended ritual purpose of the chapel.

Conclusion Reinvesting the ceremonial space of the chapel with its

original function aids our comprehension of the design in terms of the spiritual and political life of the Savoy court and

society. Of the fifteen public ostensions held between the

completion of the chapel in 1694 and the installation of the

glass partition in 1825-26, at least four involved display of the Shroud over the chapel balustrade toward the cathedral: at the ceremonial transfer of the relic to the new shrine (1694), for the visit of the elector of Bavaria (1736), during the sojourn of Emperor Joseph II (1769), and to celebrate

Carlo Felice's inauguration as king of Sardinia (1822).81 These instances were events of enormous importance for the

political aspirations of the Savoy family-precisely the kind of occasion that the proscenium was intended to enhance.

When the church was deemed too small to accommodate the extraordinary numbers of pilgrims and worshipers who flocked into the city for major ostensions, these were held on a vast outdoor stage constructed for the occasion in the Piazza Castello in front of the palace; one such event is recorded in an engraving of the ostension of 1737 celebrat-

ing the marriage of Carlo Emanuele III (1730-1773) and Elisabetta Teresa di Lorena (Fig. 29). At times even this

arrangement was insufficient, and the Savoy rulers, now

kings, personally bore the relic in procession to various

positions around the great square so that the populace gathered there, and in the streets extending from the piazza, could behold the image of God imprinted on the Shroud.82

The festive atmosphere of these open-air ostensions re- sembled the various court spectacles performed in the same

public space-among them, birthday celebrations, fireworks

displays, jousting matches, and animal combats.83 A venerated object of profound religious significance was thus

temporarily transferred to a secular site to serve the pur-

80. For what may be a similar case of the influence of the theory of species as applied to the housing and ostension of a dynastic relic, the Gonzagan relic of the Most Precious Blood of Christ at Mantua, see H. Saalman, L. Volpi Ghirardini, and A. Law, "Recent Excavations under the Ombrellino of Sant'Andrea in Mantua: Preliminary Report,"Journal of the Society ofArchitec- tural Historians, LI, 1992, 371-75. On the history of this relic and its architectural installations, see Storia e arte religiosa a Mantova: Visite di pontefici e la reliquia del Preziosissimo Sangue, ed. R. Signorini, Mantua, 1991.

81. See, for the ostension of 1694, BRT, Storia Patria, 726/3, 1690-99, 187r-v; and ASV, Nunziatura di Savoia, 114, fols. 560-61, transcribed in Savio, 328-30; for that of 1736, ASTC, Benefici di qua dai monti, mazzo 31, no. 32, Ir; for that of 1769, BRT, Storia Patria 905, "Memorie storiche compend.te sull'Ordine Supremo della SS.ma Annunziata coi ceremoniali per la tenuta de' capitoli, cappelle, ed esposizione priv.ta e pubblica della

reliquia della Santissima Sindone," 96-97; for that of 1822, Notizie storiche del SS. Sudario esposto alla pubblica venerazione ... , Turin, 1842, 9; and Bosio (as in n. 48), 32. It must have been on this last occasion that Carlo Felice suffered from the cold and first conceived of the idea of glazing the tribune and chapel.

82. The papal nuncio reported 60,000 spectators at the ostension of May 4, 1697, in the Piazza Castello; see ASV, Nunziatura di Savoia, 120, fols. 281-84, partially transcribed in Savio, 332, n. 111.

83. See, e.g., M. Viale Ferrero, Feste delle Madame Reali di Savoia, Turin, 1965, passim.

84. My forthcoming book on the architectural history of the Shroud will examine the impact of the outdoor ostensions on urban planning in and around Turin's principal public square.




poses of the ruling house. Inside the cathedral, Guarini's design of the proscenium and connecting visual links between the Shroud Chapel and the church, by contrast, provided the possessor of the relic with a permanent platform above the ecclesiastical heart of the Piedmontese capital from which to display, amid appropriate architectural splendor, the holy palladium of his family-thereby sacraliz- ing both his person and his dynasty.84

Frequently Cited Sources

ASTC Archivio di Stato, Turin, Sezione Corte ASTR Archivio di Stato, Turin, Sezione Riunite ASV Archivio Segreto Vaticano, Rome BRT Biblioteca Reale, Turin

Blaeu, J., Theatrum statuum regiae celsitudinis Sabaudiae ducis, Pedemontis principis, Cypris regis ... , 2 vols., Amsterdam, 1682.

Carboneri, N., "Vicenda delle cappelle per la Santa Sindone," Bollettino della Societd Piemontese di Archeologia e Belle Arti, n.s. xviii, 1964, 94-109.

Lovera di Castiglione, C., and C. Merlo, eds., L'ostensione della Santa Sindone, Turin, 1931.

Meek, H. A., Guarino Guarini and His Architecture, New Haven/ London, 1988. Midana, A.,"Il duomo di Torino e la real cappella della S.S. Sindone," in

Italia Sacra, 1928-30, I, 301-429. Sanna Solaro, G. M., La S. Sindone che si venera a Torino, illustrata e difesa,

Turin, 1901. Savio, P., Ricerche storiche sulla Santa Sindone, Turin, 1957.

John Beldon Scott is the author of Images of Nepotism: The Painted Ceilings of Palazzo Barberini (1991). His other publications include studies of Borromini, Pietro da Cortona, Annibale Carracci, Bernini, and Barberini patronage. He is

currently working on a book on Guarini and the architectural

history of the Shroud of Turin [School of Art and Art History, University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242-1706].



"Seeing the Shroud: Guarini's Reliquary Chapel in Turin and the Ostension of a Dynastic Relic"

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