The key to the Brescia casket : typology and the Early Christian imagination / Catherine Brown Tkacz.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Tkacz, Catherine Brown.

Series:

Christianity and Judaism in antiquity ; v. 14.

Collection des études augustiniennes. Série Antiquité ; 165.

Collection des études augustiniennes. Série Antiquité ; 165

Christianity and Judaism in antiquity

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Brescia casket.

Bible. New Testament--Relation to the Old Testament--Art.

Bible.

Bible. New Testament.

Typology (Theology) in art.

Christian art and symbolism--To 500.

Christian art and symbolism.

Physical Description:

273 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm.

Place of Publication:

Notre Dame, Ind. : University of Notre Dame Press ; Paris : Institut d'Etudes Augustiennes, 2002.

Summary:

The elusive rationale for the Brescia Casket, an ivory reliquary carved in northern Italy ca. 390, has long tantalized scholars. In The Key to the Brescia Casket, Dr. Catherine Brown Tkacz reveals that the secret to its meaning lies in exegetical typology -- the interpretation of Old Testament people and events as prefiguring the Messiah. Typology, Tkacz argues, underlies the sophisticated program of the ivory box, which features an unusually full depiction of the Passion.

Among the fifty-nine carvings on the Brescia Casket, most of them depicting biblical events, are five scenes of the Passion, more than any other monument prior to this time period. These are arranged in historical order, which is also rare in fourth-century Christian art. Tkacz contends that the Casket is in effect a visual sermon on the unity of the Bible's two testaments, an important theological issue of the time.

This wonderfully illustrated and rigorously interdisciplinary volume, funded by a grant from the Samuel H. Kress Foundation, grounds the typological program of the Brescia Casket in fourth-century thought. In so doing, it suggests the real possibility that typology is more important for the understanding of Early Christian art than has previously been appreciated.

Contents:

1. The Brescia Casket 19

The History of the Brescia Casket 21

The Visual Facts 28

Cover 28

Front 30

Right Side 36

Back 40

Left Side 43

Bust Portraits 46

2. Typology and the Early Christian Imagination 51

Biblical and Rabbinic Typology 53

Early Christian Typology 55

Typology's two referents: Christ and the Christian 56

Typology and the unity of the Bible 57

Typology and Art 59

Recognition of typology in Early Christian art 59

Textual analogues 60

3. The Innovative Program of Types on the Casket 63

Typology as the Key to the Casket 66

The Christological Types on the Casket 70

Jonah 70

Susanna 74

Daniel 82

The Passion of the Lord on the Lid and Front 82

The Angel with the Three Hebrews 83

Susanna, Jonah, and Daniel 84

David and Goliath 87

Jacob 88

Moses 90

Moses as a Type of Christ 90

Moses as a Witness to Theophany 92

The Lock on the Casket 94

What Christ Teaches in the Synagogue 96

The Portrayal of the Passion, Unlocked 98

The Full Role of Typology on the Casket 101

4. A Possible Source for the Casket's Program of Types: The Libera Petitions of the Commendatio animae 109

The Commendatio animae 109

The Date of the Commendatio animae 113

Table 1 The Text of the Commendatio animae, earlier version(?) 114

Table 2 The Text of the Commendatio animae, eighth-century version 115

The evidence in hagiography 117

The evidence from St. Augustine 118

The art historical evidence 124

The Commendatio animae and the Brescia Casket 130

Intriguing Possibilities 136

5. The Enigma in the Upper Right Register 139

The Visual Facts of the Scene 140

The Rival Interpretations 141

The Souls in Purgatory 141

The Band of Korah 143

The Seven Maccabees 150

The Three Hebrews 158

The Possibility of a Dual Meaning: Augustine on the Maccabees and the Three Hebrews 165

The Enigma Half Solved: The Three Hebrews 167

6. Gloria, Intelligent Fire, and the Program of the Casket 169

The Trio of Scenes in the Upper Right Register 170

The Call of Moses: The Burning Bush 170

Moses Receiving the Law: The Fire on the Mountain 172

The Three Hebrews: The Fire in the Furnace 175

Fire from Heaven, Gloria, and Intelligent Fire 177

Biblical evidence 177

Patristic evidence 180

De medio ignis: Revelation and Incarnation 184

Appendix The Iconography of the Sarcophagus of Junius Bassus 191

Table of Identifications 195

The Scenes 195

The Medallion Portraits 233

The Symbols 237

A. The Bible 245

B. Patristic and hagiographic texts 245

2. Research Tools and Series 248

3. Secondary Literature 249.

Notes:

Includes bibliographical references (pages [245]-261) and index.

ISBN:

0268012318

OCLC:

49333544