Reasons for Commissioning an Object
Why did patrons commission works?
The mid-14th century was a time of panic and fear, where death felt imminent and the future was uncertain. A commision like the monstrance could’ve served as a reassurance of a better afterlife when Europe was gripped by the Black Death.
It was seen as the duty of the faithful to donate money and objects to the Church. [6] Commissioning religious objects for the Church was one of the few widely accepted expenditures of the wealthy. [7] With their money and influence, wealthy noblemen and merchants would decorate private chapels and open them to the public, who would admire the decoration and sumptuous details. [8] Acting as a patron for religious items was also a way to publicly display not just one’s wealth, but also one’s piety in the eyes of the faithful. Materials of religious items themselves carried subtle messages. The choice of rock crystal of the monstrance could represent the “‘nondecayable quintessence of heaven.’” [9]
Sometimes, the salvation of one’s soul served as a major motivator for the commissioning of religious items and buildings. [10] Medieval peoples believed that by contributing to God’s earthly presence through commissions, then their chances of getting into Heaven would either be guaranteed or expedited.
As for why Petrucci commissioned a monstrance specifically, it could’ve been the concept behind the Eucharistic host itself. The Eucharist is supposed to represent the earthly form of Christ’s body. Perhaps in this time of crisis, Petrucci wanted to feel like she was as close to Christ as possible. The monstrance acted as an extension of her mortal body in this way.
Sometimes, members of merchant families could not attend Church due to long distance trading. These merchants would commission a religious item that could be placed within the church specifically for the purpose of acting as an intermediary. [11] A commissioned religious object would affirm the constant presence of the person within the church itself, and thus affirm one’s own devotion. Although Petrucci was most likely not a trader herself, nor would she have accompanied any of her trader relatives on journeys, she could have feared stepping outside the safety of her own home; the Black Death was highly contagious and perhaps not even Mass would be enough to induce her to risk catching the disease.
The fact that the inscription was written in Latin and not in vernacular Italian means that only those who were educated - and therefore of a higher social status - could read what the message said. It’s also important to note that the monstrance would’ve been placed upon the altar, meaning that churchgoers would not have been able to read the inscription from the pews. Only clergymen would have gotten close enough to read the inscription, as the monstrance can only be touched by higher-ranking ecclesiastical members of the Church.
Patrons would have their names inscribed on commissioned items so that both Church officials and lay people could say prayers for their soul, as a way of thanking the patron. [12] The hope was that the more people prayed for your soul, the easier it would be to ascend to Heaven. Since only these higher-ranked clergymen would be reading this inscription, they would also likely have mentioned Petrucci in their prayers. The idea behind the inscription may have been that since clergymen read the inscription, then their prayers would be “louder” to God compared to the prayers of regular lay people.
Another explanation for the inscription could be that the artisan himself may have chosen to include an honorific message, with the intent of flattering Petrucci and remaining in her goodwill, ensuring possible future commissions. The Medieval author De Troyes mentioned the name of his patron family in a fictional story as a form of flattery with this intention in mind. [13]
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[6] Jill Caskey, "Whodunnit? Patronage, the Canon, and the Problematics of Agency in Gothic and Romanesque Art," in A Companion to Medieval Art: Romanesque and Gothic in Northern Europe (Malden, MA: Blackwell Publishing Ltd., 2010): 195.
[7] Jill Caskey, Art and Patronage in the Medieval Mediterranean: Merchant Culture in the Region of Amalfi (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004): 119.
[8] Ibid, 117.
[9] Karen Overbey, “Seeing Through Stone: Materiality and place within in a medieval Scottish pendant reliquary,” in RES: Anthropology and Aesthetics 65/66 (Harvard University Press, 2014-2015): 251. http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/691037
[10] Jill Caskey, Art and Patronage in the Medieval Mediterranean: Merchant Culture in the Region of Amalfi (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2004): 119.
[11] Ibid, 169.
[12] June Hall McCash, The Cultural Patronage of Medieval Women (Athens, GA: University of Georgia Press, 1996): 138.
[13] De Troyes, Chretien, “Cliges.” http://omacl.org/Cliges/cliges1.html.