ABSTRACT
In April 1430 the fourth-century grave of St Monica, the mother of St Augustine, was discovered at Ostia and her physical remains were ceremonially translated to Rome. This act marked the beginning of a refashioning of Monica’s image for fifteenthcentury audiences. Her life had been lovingly sketched by her son in his Confessions and it was only within his larger biography that she had appeared in texts such as Jacobus de Voragine’s Golden Legend, or in visual cycles devoted to her son such as that of the cappella maggiore of the Eremitani in Padua painted by guariento d’Arpo around the mid-fourteenth century. Thus, although Monica had been known before this time she had previously achieved no independence, in visual or textual cycles, from Augustine. By the close of the fifteenth century, however, her remains were commemorated by an impressive tomb monument, her feast day had become part of the Augustinian calendar and she had been provided with a distinct hagiography and iconography of her own.1 The present paper considers the characteristics of Monica’s Venetian cult and the motivations underpinning it by examining a chapel honouring her in the main church of the Augustinian friars in Venice, Santo Stefano. In particular, the study will focus on the chapel’s original altarpiece painted by giovanni d’Alemagna and Antonio Vivarini – a work that constitutes the most extensive narrative cycle dedicated to the life of St Monica extant from fifteenth-century Italy. The paper seeks to explore the strategies employed by the painters in order to represent this unfamiliar saint to Venetian audiences. The study will draw upon material relating to the cult in other Italian centres, particularly Rome, to inform the poorly documented Venetian site.
