Portrait busts became a widespread reliquary type and they are all the more interesting because their design was subject to and restricted by fears of overenthusiastic reverence as well as by gender conventions.
Reliquary bust portraiture was characteristic by its simplified abstracted forms. This does not mean that a bust was an expressionless, mute piece of wood or stone. Simplicity of forms gave the portrait simply a different kind of expression than one portrayed in a conventional imitation of an ordinary person.
Portraiture and Idolatry
Religious significance of saints required sculptors and patrons to employ abstract mode of representation because realistic portrayal may have suggested the illusion of a real person. It was feared that an image bearing a likeness of a real human might mislead the viewer into worshipping the bust itself. Adoration of an object may easily insinuate idolatry and that could mean trouble for parties involved in the commission.
Gender Differences
Distinction between the representation of male and female reliquary busts had to be strictly observed too. Softly modelled idealized faces of women saints contrasted severe expression and sharp lines of males.
Women tended to be portrayed in an idealized manner suppressing their individuality. The position of a woman in Medieval society was private and related to family affairs unlike men whose public role was emphasized by expressing, albeit faintly, a specific personality.The Christian viewer was thus encouraged to recognize and honour different values associated with the role of male and female saints.
Male Reliquary Busts
The reliquary bust of St Zenobius, the first bishop of Florence, shows him at once as a man of extraordinary spiritual qualities by means of abstraction and as a man of authority through individualizing his facial expression. The boldness of bones, tight skin, abrupt angles and sharp features make his face appear rigid. This is foremost a saintly man but those few visual traits of personality support his portrayal as an individualized character and emphasize his distinguished public standing.
Female Reliquary Busts
Idealizations of female saints busts were realized through aesthetic refinement of facial features and serenity of expression. Portrait busts such as reliquaries of St Agatha, St Fina and St Humiliana carry the sense of spiritual detachment, they are usually portrayed as beautiful healthy young women despite the hardships they endured in their lifetime. Physical torture of St Agatha, St Fina's poor physical condition and asceticism of St Humiliana are smoothed away so that spiritual power shines through their physical beauty.
Individualization of Female Saints
Their faces are round and softly modelled, in case of Agatha and Fina, the skin is treated in flesh colour with flushed cheeks and painted eyes, their conventionally fair hair is curly (Fina) and wavy (Agatha) and they both smile slightly. Although Agatha's and Fina's appearance is idealized, certain fetures are identifiable with ordinariness of mortals. In Fina's face there are features such as dimpled chin and prominent ears that indicate a specific personality.
Idealization of Female Saints
The bust of Beata Humiliana is executed in more abstract fashion. Symmetry of her face and the regularity of forms give her a more detached expression. Minimalistic desgin of this veiled, highly polished silver silver gilt portrait contrasts with Agatha's bust richly decorated with jewels and enamelled plaques.
Gender considerations were required in both secular and religious sculpture. As C. King (in Diana Norman) claims: 'Even with the housings of relics, images tended to be gendered; the brutal shapes of the human head were considered suitable for the relic of the skull of St Zenobius, while sweeter idealizations were created for the craniums of St Agatha'.
Sources:
- Diana Norman: Siena, Florence and Padua: Art, Society and Religion 1280 - 1400, Yale University Press, 1995
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