Visualizing the Reform: Examining Modena Cathedral’s Porta dei Principi for Traces of the Gregorian Reform

Abstract

In the vein of Ernst Kitzinger, Kirstin Noreen, and Anat Tcherikover’s work on art of the Gregorian Reform, as well as H.E.J. Cowdrey’s work on the networks of the Gregorian Reform, this paper will explore the aesthetic manifestations the eleventh-century papal reform by examining the iconographic content of relief sculptures on the ‘Porta dei Principi’ of the cathedral of Modena for pro-papal imagery. On the lintel of the entranceway is the life of the city’s patron saint and fourth-century bishop, Geminianus, which regales viewers of the bishop-saint’s heroism while exorcising evil from within the royal court. By examining the imagery upon the doorway in conjunction with contemporary descriptions such as the Relatio de Innovatione Ecclesie Sancti Geminiani, this paper will investigate potential visual links between the iconography of the cathedral and the Gregorian Reform.

Keywords

• modena
• porta dei principi
• gregorian reform
• matilda of canossa