Folia Historica Cracoviensia (Dec 2016)
The relations of St. Bonaventure’s theology of the cross with the Carmelite mysticism. In the realm of Franciscan and Carmelite artistic affinity exemplified by the chosen works of art from the 14th and the early 15th centuries
Abstract
Rich research legacy of Carmelite Father Bienignus Wanat, an art history professor, is the motivation of further studies carried out to explain plastic arts created within the Carmelite Order in the Middle Ages and continued till modern times. In the present paper the motif of the cross as Lignum Vitae, which was known the earliest from Palestinian small plastic works of art in the first Carmelites’ area of living, has been presented. We are making an attempt to relate this form of the cross, depicted on religious objects which were brought to Europe from the Holy Land, to the tradition of both St. Mary’s worship and that of the Cross. The first hermitages in Palestine followed by the settlement of the Carmelites in Italy in the 13th and 14th centuries have been pointed out. There are certain relations between the Carmelites’ hermit lives and the original forms of Franciscan life in Italy, Umbria especially. The research has been done on the main directions of piety and university education of Carmelites in Italy in the 13th and at the beginning of the 14th century. Their close relation to the teaching of St. Thomas Aquinas and Dominican piety, continued by the most renowned Carmelite mystics in the 17th century, has been pointed out. In the present paper the mainstream of Franciscan piety has been pointed out and its relation with the contemplation of the Cross as The Tree of Life, the form of which was assimilated by importing ampoules for the holy oil or other votive items from Palestine. Such a motif of the cross, well-known in Franciscan iconography, was also assimilated in Carmelite piety, although the abundance of specific work of arts dates back to the modern era, which is confirmed, e.g. by a crucifix from a fromer Carmelite church in Warsaw. St Bonaventure’s writings and treaties were read and contemplated in the Carmelite milieu. Those texts established the motifs of cross in art.
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