The 14th century grave in the chapel of saint Alexius. A newly discovered trecento presence in San Giacomo Maggiore

Abstract

A mural painting from the fourteenth century depicting the Pietà lays hidden in a dark enclosed space just to the right of the urn containing the bones of the Blessed Simon of Todi in the chapel of saint Alexius in the church of San Giacomo Maggiore in Bologna. The painting has already been mentioned as a work from the thirteenth century in an article in the 1934 issue of the «Bollettino Storico Agostiniano».This paper is intended to present the discovery that the painting decorates an arcosolium tomb or arca. Consequently, this grave proves to be the first Trecento sepulchre found in the church of San Giacomo. On the contrary, modern scholars have for a long time known the arche that were along the front and north side of the church.Thanks to an inspection, I have been able to clarify that the painting adorns the background wall of an arca. It is also possible to see the starry sky painted on the intrados and a later figure represented in profile on the right wall.The article deals with the different aspects of the painting: iconography, style and history. Therefore, the paper states how the painting belongs to the late-medieval iconography of the Pietà or Vesperbild, especially with regard to Bologna, where this subject reoccurs with notable frequency in comparison with the rest of Italy. The visual culture of the painter is considered to suggest a date in the second quarter of the fourteenth century on the grounds of its closeness to the emotional and expressive style of the Bolognese painters known as the 1333 Master and the Polyptychs Master. Furthermore, the paper highlights the connection between the surviving examples of that style and the «imagines pro remedio animae» requested by individuals in their wills, as the painting in San Giacomo seems to be. Finally, this paper suggests some hypotheses on the origin of the painting and the sepulchre, bearing in mind that Fino Beccaro left some money in his will to build an altar dedicated to saint Marta exactly where the chapel of saint Alexius is now and that the tomb of Blessed Simon of Todi, who died in 1322, has been recorded to be in this area of the church at least since 1567.