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Source Description

When Abbot Joel (r. 1182-1191) commissioned the door for the main entrance to the church of San Clemente at Casauria in Abruzzi, he may have chosen bronze because of the medium's association with the legal tradition. San Clemente's doors are composed of seventy-two bronze plaques. In addition to decorative panels, the doors feature representations of each of the twenty possessions of the monastery. This panel bears a three-turreted castle labeled "Fare d'Abrilie." The door cycle includes an image of Saint Clement, patron saint of the church, Emperor Louis II the Younger, founder of the monastery, and King William II, who enlarged the abbey's lands. The bronze doors showcased the extent of the monastery's domains, which were mostly under dispute. The legal claim made by the doors is underscored by the use of a material traditionally associated with imperial legal proclamations. This does not imply that bronze, commonly used for doors, was always chosen for this reason, but due to the nature of the program at San Clemente such a hypothesis is tantalizing.

Scholar Source Context

Document identity
localId
3566
label
Door Panel with Castle
core
obj
dtoType
object
pageCount
2
Source metadata
id
3566
contentType
object
stage
normalized
title
Door Panel with Castle
description
When Abbot Joel (r. 1182-1191) commissioned the door for the main entrance to the church of San Clemente at Casauria in Abruzzi, he may have chosen bronze because of the medium's association with the legal tradition. San Clemente's doors are composed of seventy-two bronze plaques. In addition to decorative panels, the doors feature representations of each of the twenty possessions of the monastery. This panel bears a three-turreted castle labeled "Fare d'Abrilie." The door cycle includes an image of Saint Clement, patron saint of the church, Emperor Louis II the Younger, founder of the monastery, and King William II, who enlarged the abbey's lands. The bronze doors showcased the extent of the monastery's domains, which were mostly under dispute. The legal claim made by the doors is underscored by the use of a material traditionally associated with imperial legal proclamations. This does not imply that bronze, commonly used for doors, was always chosen for this reason, but due to the nature of the program at San Clemente such a hypothesis is tantalizing.
provenance
Don Marcello Massarenti Collection, Rome [date and mode of acquisition unknown]; Henry Walters, Baltimore, 1902, by purchase; Walters Art Museum, 1931, by bequest.
date
ca. 1190 (Medieval)
rightsUri
CC0
language
en
genreSpecific
Metal
panels
doors
imageCount
2
pageCount
2
source
import
dimensions
units
cm
width
28.2
height
28.2
depth
3.5
dimensionsRaw
H: 11 1/8 x W: 11 1/8 x D: 1 3/8 in. (28.2 x 28.2 x 3.5 cm)
Source extras
cul
Italian
style
Romanesque
inscriptions
[Transcription] in a band at the base of the castle: CASTRUMFAREDABRILIE; (CASTRUM FARE D'ABRILE); [Translation] the Castle of D'Abrile
RelatedObjects
6040
med
bronze
creator_ids
33562
collection_ids
MED
exhibition_ids
34
306
680
Page inventory
seq
1
type
photo
mediaId
733d4024bbb7b4f0
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no
seq
2
type
photo
mediaId
a44523dffde43044
hasOcr
no
hasDescription
no