BMCR 2009.01.25, Galit Noga-Banai, The Trophies of the Martyrs

Galit Noga-Banai, The Trophies of the Martyrs: An Art Historical Study
of Early Christian Silver Reliquaries. Oxford Studies in Byzantium.
Oxford/New York:  Oxford University Press, 2008.  Pp. xvi, 186, ills.
52.  ISBN 9780199217748.  $170.00.

Reviewed by Lucy Grig, University of Edinburgh ([email protected])
Word count:  1364 words
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Table of Contents
(http://catdir.loc.gov/catdir/toc/fy0805/2008299945.html)

While the literary aspect of the cult of saints in Late Antiquity is a
topic that continues to receive copious scholarly attention the
material and visual culture of the cult has been comparatively
neglected. The corpus that forms the subject of this present study, a
catalogue of silver reliquary caskets, is perhaps doubly
underappreciated: in fact it constitutes important testimony of both
religious practice and artistic developments. The 'minor arts' of
(Late) Antiquity continue to have something of a Cinderella status, but
there are signs that this situation is changing and this volume
constitutes a very welcome addition to current scholarship.[[1]]

The structure of the book is simple: Galit Noga-Banai has a catalogue
of sixteen objects, of which four (each retaining a complete and
complex iconographical programme) provide the focus for the study.  The
first chapter considers two reliquaries decorated with biblical scenes,
the second chapter considers two caskets which depict martyrs. Detailed
descriptions are given, supported by excellent illustrations, and a
number of comparanda in various media. A third chapter seeks to pull
this material together and to ask bigger questions about the function
and meaning of the caskets and their decorative programmes, then
summarised in a brief conclusion. Understandably, much of the
discussion, in the first two chapters in particular, is highly detailed
so this review will not attempt to summarise the material point by
point, but will instead attempt to highlight key points of the argument
and consider, where appropriate, the methodology used.

In introducing her corpus Noga-Banai immediately brings a key issue to
bear: how can we be certain that all these objects were, in fact,
reliquaries? In some cases, in fact, we simply cannot, and the dangers
of circular identification are only too clear. Noga-Banai comments
briskly that we should not assume that all caskets were made for
identical purposes, and that we need to allow for the possibility of
reuse. This caveat dealt with, Noga-Banai goes on to explain her four
basic aims when examining each casket: to explain its iconographical
programme, to ascribe as accurate a date as possible, to relate it,
stylistically and iconographically, to the (better-known) monumental
art of the period, and, finally, to establish the 'message' each object
sought to transmit.

This study combines close art-historical analysis with a broader
consideration of history and theology. Therefore, this work moves some
way beyond traditional stylistic analysis but, somewhat
disappointingly, does not draw as strongly on cultural and social
history as other recent studies have done, e.g. by focusing on
questions of audience and patronage.[[2]] It is a study that
scrutinises, albeit with great care and attention, its objects in a
determinedly 'Early Christian' rather than a 'late antique' context.
Noga-Banai's methodology also tends towards the conservative in showing
a preference for linking iconographic details and programmes to
established textual sources, which for some readers, will seem overly
limiting. Also surprising is the lack of consideration of late antique
martyr iconography in other media.[[3]]

Nonetheless, the studies of the four caskets are impressively detailed
and comprehensive. Noga-Banai's methodology enables her to make
interesting comparisons with a range of media and enables largely
convincing close geographical and chronological attributions,
rejecting, in some cases, previous vague and, indeed, pejorative
labelling. For instance, in Chapter One, the first example considered
is the casket from Nea Herakleia, now in Thessaloniki. Noga-Banai
compares it stylistically with the Projecta casket, and thematically
with the painting programme of the Cubiculum Leonis in the Catacomb of
Commodilla, as well as, more broadly, with the interests of Pope
Damasus, ultimately suggesting a date of c. 380 and a Roman provenance.
The second 'biblical' casket, the Capsella Brivio, from Northern Italy
shows some overlap in its iconography with the Nea Herakleia reliquary,
though an eschatological emphasis is particularly striking. Both
caskets depict largely familiar scenes from the early Christian
repertoire, without overt martyrological reference. Can we be certain
that these caskets were intended as reliquaries?

Chapter Two focuses on two caskets the status of which as reliquaries
is more overtly proclaimed:  both depict martyrs prominently. The
'Capsella Africana' from Algeria depicts on its lid an unnamed, young
male figure, standing at the source of the four rivers of paradise,
with a crown in his hands, while a heavenly hand places a crown on his
head. This eschatologically tinged imagery is strikingly reminiscent of
martyrial and funerary iconography from both North Africa and Campania.
Noga-Banai links this iconography with the Catacomb of S. Gennaro in
Naples and is keen to push for an identification of the saintly figure
with St. Januarius himself, though her reasoning seems tenuous. The
casket from Grado, however, depicts, in addition to Christ, Peter and
Paul, five portraits, named as the three Aquileian martyrs Cantius,
Cantianilla and Cantianus, Latinus, Bishop of Brescia, and Quirinus,
bishop of Siscia. This casket also gives the names of three donors.
Noga-Banai puts this object squarely into its Adriatic context,
comparing these portraits with mosaic portrait medallions and donor
inscriptions from nearby Aquileia as well as from Porec and Ravenna.

Chapter Three, 'Decorative Programmes in Context', seeks to set the
caskets in the context of the cult of the relics, here making good use
of recent scholarship on the subject. Noga-Banai points to an
eschatological focus in each of her caskets and the Grado example is
the most striking instance of her argument that each reliquary shares
'a combination of local priorities and hope for the fulfilment of
Christ's Second Advent' [p. 124]. Noga-Banai goes on to demonstrate
this dual focus in such relevant texts as Prudentius' Peristephanon,
Victricius of Rouen's striking sermon on the cult of relics, De laude
sanctorum, as well as the more cautious words of Augustine. The placing
of reliquaries under the altar, which deprived the complex
iconographical programmes of an audience, again, for Noga-Banai,
alluded to eschatology: 'In the history of salvation... the cult of
relics fills the gaps between the coming of Christ and his return in
glory' [p. 150].

Not all readers will be equally convinced by this determined
eschatological emphasis: Noga-Banai's selection of images and texts for
discussion does indeed support her argument, but few scholars would
wish to reduce the cult of relics quite so exclusively (and
reductively) to hopes for the Second Coming.  This is perhaps where
Noga-Banai's somewhat conservative methodology comes into play, whereby
an interpretation of early Christian art, focused on typology, is
strongly dictated by texts produced by the clerical elite. How a
viewer-centred approach to these objects might change our perception is
never really considered, though this too raises a moot point, as noted
by Noga-Banai: most reliquaries, after their initial adventus and
deposition, would have been kept out of sight of the congregation,
under the altar.

In her conclusion, Noga-Banai asks for a 'substantial place' for her
corpus  'as a self-conscious medium with its own characteristics in the
formative period of Christian art' [p. 153],  as worthy of study both
in and of itself, as 'an innovative group' [p. 151], but also as an aid
to the study of the broader artistic context. Indeed, if the dates and
provenances offered here are accepted more generally, this will indeed
be a very useful study for vexed problems of date and provenance in
late antique art. Therefore, Noga-Banai has provided new reference and
starting points for the study of other related objects, while at the
same time enlightening the study of monumental art and artistic
practice in Italy (and elsewhere) in the late fourth and fifth
centuries. This is no small achievement.

In places this study could have benefited from going further and asking
bigger questions: why use silver at all? How do these objects compare
with non-liturgical silver? Why/and when use decoration? (a question
only briefly touched upon here)?  Nonetheless, this monograph is highly
valuable for its combination of detailed iconographical study with
consideration of broader historical and theological context, taking us
far beyond most traditional scholarship on early Christian art. The
generous provision of excellent illustrations (over one hundred in
total) is particularly welcomed. It is to be hoped that this monograph
will go a long way towards helping another, hugely important 'minor
art' shake off its Cinderella status.


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Notes:


1.   See for instance, R. Leader-Newby, Silver and Society in Late
Antiquity, (Aldershot; Ashgate, 2004) and L. Grig 'Portraits, Pontiffs
and the Christianization of Fourth-Century Rome,' PBSR 72 (2004),
203-30.

2.   See most recently J. Elsner, Roman Eyes: Visuality and
Subjectivity in Art and Text (Princeton and Oxford; Princeton
University Press, 2007).

3.   See here L. Grig, Making Martyrs in Late Antiquity (London;
Duckworth, 2004), Ch. 6.