The Cult of the Virgin Mary in Medieval Italy
Art, Devotion, and Liturgy in Orvieto

The Marian programs in Orvieto Cathedral join narrative, liturgy, and local religious traditions to celebrate the cult of the Virgin.

Sara Nair James (Author)

9781009526401, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 24 July 2025

360 pages
25.9 x 18.3 x 2.3 cm, 0.88 kg

'In this comprehensive study, Dr. Sara James presents a nuanced reading of the iconography of the 14th-century frescoes and stained-glass windows in the high chapel at Orvieto Cathedral. Dr. James takes painter Ugolino di Prete Ilario and stained-glass artist Giovanni Bonino out of the margins of 14th-century art history and argues that both artists created innovative, engaging narratives that incorporated elements of Marian devotion specific to Orvieto. While considering the important visual and architectural precedents that inspired the Cathedral's construction and decoration, Dr. James also paints a vivid picture of the political, artistic, and theological debates within the city of Orvieto that shaped Ugolino's and Giovanni Bonino's image programs.' Nancy M. Thompson, St. Olaf's College

Late medieval Italy witnessed the widespread rise of the cult of the Virgin, as reflected in the profusion of paintings, sculptures, and fresco cycles created in her honor during this period. The cathedral of papal Orvieto especially reflects the strong Marian tradition through its fresco and stained-glass window narrative cycles. In this study, Sara James explores its complex narrative programs. She demonstrates how a papal plan for the cathedral to emulate the basilica of S. Maria Maggiore in Rome, together with Dominican and Franciscan texts, determined the choices and arrangement of scenes. The result is a tour de force of Marian devotion, superior artistry, and compelling story-telling. James also shows how the narratives promoted agendas tied to the city's history and principal religious feasts. Not only are these works more interesting, sophisticated, and theologically rich than previously realized, but, as James argues, each represents the acme in their respective media of their generation in central Italy.

Preface
Acknowledgements
Introduction
Part I. History and Context: Orvieto and the Cult of the Virgin: 1. Defining Orvieto 1190–1370: turmoil, popes, spiritual matters, and a new cathedral
2. The cult of the virgin and the early veneration of Joseph
3. The portrayal of Mary and the holy family: artistic precedents
Part II. The Orvietan Setting and the Artists: 4. The cathedral and its artistic programs 1291–1372
5. Ugolino di Prete Ilario
Part III. Ugolino's Frescoes of the Life Of the Virgin: 6. Joachim, Anna and the Childhood of Mary
7. A new vision of the holy couple
8. The infancy of Jesus: incarnation and hypostatic union
9. The Egyptian sojourn and divine portents
10. Out of Egypt, into Jerusalem: disappearance, discovery and divine revelation
Part IV. Mary's Transition from Earthly Mother to Heavenly Queen: 11. Gateway to heaven
12. Prophecy, fulfillment, witness and theology
13. The Beatific Vision
Part V. Appendix: Bibliography
Index.

Subject Areas: The arts: general issues [AB]