Reading the Iconography of Saint Filippo Benizi in Fifteenth-Century Prints

Authors

Alana A. O'Brien, La Trobe UniversityFollow

Abstract

The Servite Order, founded only a few years after the Dominicans and the Franciscans, was still lacking a saintly exemplar by the mid-fifteenth century. Over the century Servites repeatedly renewed their efforts to push for the canonization of beato Filippo Benizi, their most promising candidate. At least two traditions of his life (the Legenda Arcaiaca and Legenda Vulgata) were then in circulation, and his cult was being promoted both in paintings and prints. A woodcut from the Veneto and a Florentine engraving offers valuable evidence of the ways in which the Order was promoting beato Filippo. The iconographical programs of the prints discussed in this article draw on both Vite traditions. Some elements, however, are found only in painted artworks, texts that post-date the prints, or not at all, suggesting that elements of the oral tradition can also be detected in the prints.

Recommended Citation

O'Brien, Alana A. (2023) "Reading the Iconography of Saint Filippo Benizi in Fifteenth-Century Prints," Studies in Iconography: Vol. 44, Article 5.
Available at: https://scholarworks.wmich.edu/studies_in_iconography/vol44/iss1/5