Circle of Benedetto Antelami (circa 1150-1230) Italian, Parma, first half 13th century

inscribed on the scroll: CONS \ CIUS \ EME \ RNO (or RMO) \ QUI I ... \ FLIDA (or AIDA) \ PAA \ MISS …

private collection, Germany;
private collection, Switzerland, from 2009

There is dirt and wear to the surface consistent with the age of the sculpture. There are various losses: to the base, particularly at the front and back on the left side, including part of the proper right foot, and the front right corner; to the back of the proper left shoulder, upper arm and elbow; to the capital (a section of the right side and also part of the left side at the back); and the throne, below the elbow and also at the bottom (at the viewer's right). There are areas of particular wear to the surface, including to: the proper left foot; the bottom of the scroll; the proper right index finger and thumb. There are various smaller losses and wear to the capital. There is wear to the inscription on the scroll, and small chips and general wear to some of the folds of drapery (such as at the proper left arm). There is a possible slightly open vein at the proper right index finger and thumb. These is some brownish-yellow and green discolouration in a few places. There is a hole to the top of the capital. Otherwise the condition is stable.
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Italian Romanesque sculpture started and flourished on the many great church portals that were erected in the 12^th century. Changes in liturgy made the portals and doors that led the congregation into the holy space the first architectural elements to which elaborate carved decorations and eventually figurative sculpture was applied. As Poeschke points out, Christian sculptures did not appear in Italy until the early years of the 12th century, when the inside of the doorposts of the main portal of Modena cathedral was decorated with a series of reliefs of prophets. As the century progressed such prophets became a consistent feature on Italian church facades. The prophets grew in size and moved to the succession of jambs that framed the doors.  Portals such as those of Ferrara, Verona and Fidenza cathedrals, for example, were made circa 1135, 1139, and 1170 respectively and illustrate this process. As an integral part of the portal the prophets served to draw a line between the wild animals and mythical monsters on the church facade and the enlightenment found inside. (op.cit., p. 35, figs. 52-53, 64-65, and 94-95)

The prophets, like many of the figurative sculptures in Romanesque churches, were usually embedded in the architecture. The lack of a frame and the hunched pose of the present sculpture suggest the present figure would have seemed to bear the fabric of the church on his shoulders, a device often employed by Italian Romanesque sculptors. Otherwise the prophets are distinguished by their prominent gesticulation in the form of raised hands, pointed fingers, or touching the chest or abdomen. The scrolls of text are a recurring feature in Romanesque sculpture in general but essential to the identification and function of the prophets. The snakes that meet above this sculpture’s head may be the terminals of a now lost, ornate halo such as that of Micah on the main portal in Verona or Gabriel on Ferrara cathedral (see Poeschke, op.cit., figs.  52 and 65) The imaginative shape and patterning of the drapery creates more movement and outlines the figures’ anatomy. In this, the prophets are particularly illustrative of the lively exchange between Italy and the South of France, were similar prophets can be found on the early-12^th-century portals of the Saint-Sernin in Toulouse and the abbey church of Moissac.

Most of the comparisons for the present prophet are found in the Po Valley, the cradle of North Italian Romanesque sculpture. This specific type -a bearded figure in high relief, wearing a toga with an intricate system of folds, who gestures and shows a scroll to draw attention to his prophecies- appears first when Cremona cathedral’s main portal was modernised by Wiligelmo between 1107 and 1120. (Poeschke, op. cit., figs. 34-35) Note also the angel West portal in Cremona, which is seated in a similar manner as the present statue, and the face of the figure identified as Baldes, both illustrated by Quintavalle. (op.cit., pp. 224, fig. 206 and pp. 460-467, no. 55a) Around this time the typically Lombardo-Emilian caryatids, such as the Atlantes that support the columns of the West portal of Piacenza cathedral, become part of the language of Romanesque sculpture as well. (Poeschke, op. cit., figs. 41-42) As the 12^th century progressed most major cities in the Po Valley built or remodelled their cathedrals but a major change was not brought about until the arrival of Benedetto Antelami in the region, whose influential sculpture for the main churches of Parma, Fidenza, and possibly Venice between 1178 and 1230 is characterised by more loosely modelled drapery and more naturalistic anatomy. He also refreshed the traditional wide-eyed, static physiognomy, introducing somewhat more naturalistic features to the formal context of Romanesque sculpture which approach the qualities of the present sculpture. See, for example, the superlative Deposition relief and the bearers of the bishop’s throne in Parma cathedral dating to 1178 and circa 1200 respectively and the Adoration of the Magi attributed to the school of Antelami in the Castello Sforzesca, Milan. (Poeschke, op. cit., figs. 105-107 and 111).

RELATED LITERATURE
A. C. Quintavalle, A. Calzona and G. Z. Zanichelli, Benedetto Antelami, exh. cat. Centro studi medievali, Università di Parma, Milan, 1990; A.C. Quintavalle, Wiligelmo e Matilde. L’officina romanica, exh. cat. Fruttiere di Palazzo Te, Mantua, Milan, 1991; J. Poeschke, Die Skulptur des Mittelalters in Italien. Romanik, Munich, 1998