Apostolorum Gloriosissimus Princeps
Apostolorum Gloriosissimus Princeps

Saint Peter Healing the Sick with His Shadow in Late Medieval Painting between the Acts and the Golden Legend

Author(s): Gerd Mathias Micheluzzi
Subject(s): Christian Theology and Religion, History, Middle Ages, Theology and Religion, History of Religion
Published by: Trivent Publishing
Keywords: Shadow; Saint Peter; San Piero a Grado; Assisi; Deodato Orlandi; Cimabue; Iconography; Golden Legend; Federico Visconti; Pseudo-Clementine Writings
Summary/Abstract: Owing to the fame of Masaccio’s depiction of the “St. Peter Healing the Sick with his Shadow” in the Florentine Brancacci chapel, its forerunners in San Piero a Grado and Assisi were barely considered for their own sake. Consequently, important implications have been overlooked. By focusing on iconographical details and the respective local contexts, the current study proposes that both the San Piero and the Assisi examples are dependent on apocryphal writings, mediated via the Golden Legend. Furthermore, the results suggest a locally specific double function, a dualism which consists in the fact that each not only to propagates the Petrine primacy, but is also intended to attract pilgrims in San Piero, or to serve as a church- and order political statement in Assisi.

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