Sara Nair James (Professor Emerita, Mary Baldwin University)

In 1290, at the height of the cult of the Virgin, Pope Nicholas IV dedicated the Orvieto Cathedral to the Assumption of the Virgin and decreed that it mirror the basilica of S. Maria Maggiore in Rome. The two Marian programs in the Cappella Maggiore—originally the high chapel and locus of Mary’s cult, now the chancel—are shown to reflect that plan. Giovanni di Bonino da Assisi’s stained-glass window (1334), presents twenty-two Marian and Christological narrative panels that alternate with twenty-two prophets both horizontally and vertically that relate to each other in a heretofore unnoticed typological pattern. Local artist Ugolino di Prete Ilario’s forty-frame Marian fresco cycle (1370- 1384) is among the few programs outside of Rome to focus primarily on her life; it also chronicles her spiritual development. While both artists give new life and deeper meaning to traditional scenes, each includes rarely depicted events to fill an iconographic or liturgical void, uphold a dogma, or celebrate the church universal. Both artists promote agendas related to the cathedral’s corporal relic and the cult of Corpus Christi, and give unprecedented attention to Joseph’s vital role in salvation. The rhetorically driven arrangements of scenes, the complex iconography, and the role of the liturgy suggest advice from mendicant theologians. Finally, each program represents its artist’s masterpiece as well as the best work of their generations in their respective media in central Italy.