The iconography of the Mass of Saint Gregory: image and Eucharistic realism in late medieval France

• Grant number: 17/03068-6
• Support Opportunities: Scholarships in Brazil - Doctorate
• Start date: August 01, 2017
• End date: March 31, 2022
• Field of knowledge: Humanities - History - Ancient and Medieval History
• Agreement: Coordination of Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES)
• Principal Investigator: Luiz Cesar Marques Filho
• Grantee: Doglas Morais Lubarino
• Host Institution: Instituto de Filosofia e Ciências Humanas (IFCH). Universidade Estadual de Campinas (UNICAMP). Campinas , SP, Brazil
• Associated scholarship(s): 18/18048-3 - The iconography of the Mass of Saint Gregory in France: images and Eucharistic realism in the late Middle Ages, BE.EP.DR

Abstract

The iconographic theme of the Mass of Saint Gregory, despite being common in late medieval images, is still little known and studied. This iconography depicts a Eucharistic miracle that takes place during a Mass: the apparition of Christ, most often stigmatized and wounded, to St. Gregory the Great. These images usually also present the instruments of the Passion, called Arma Christi. The miracle represented in these images, together with the Arma Christi and the characteristic Christ representation, shows us that the reproduction of this iconography sought a connection between the Sacrament of Bread and the Passion of Christ. According to the specialized bibliography on the subject, this association was an ecclesiastical effort to affirm the real presence of Christ in the Eucharistic sacrament. There are a significant number of these representations in murals and panels that were produced in France and which, despite the great opportunity for study, have not being researched in detail. Thus, our goal is to analyze such iconography from a corpus of images composed of mural and retable paintings produced between the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. Based on the analysis of this corpus, in addition to the comparison with historical textual sources and specialized bibliography, we will investigate how these images relate to the process of affirmation of Eucharistic realism in its context of production and exhibition in the late Middle Ages. (AU)