Saint Tryphon’s reliquary casket in Kotor. A contribution to the study of the iconography*

The paper analyses late Gothic and early Renaissance imagery on the reliquary casket of Saint Tryphon kept in the Kotor Cathedral. The iconography of the torture and death scenes of the young martyr Tryphon, as well the representation of the architecture on the model of the town of Kotor in the hand of Saint Tryphon opens up the possibility of interpreting this reliquary in a historical context. The paper proposes an in-terpretation of the iconography of the scenes on the reliquary casket as part of the constructed memory of the Ottoman siege of Kotor under the command of kapudan pacha Hayreddin Barbarossa (1539) and the Venetian defense of the town. A similar way of creating memories through juxtaposing images of Turks, members of the Holy League and Kotor’s devotees under the protection of Saint Tryphon has been recorded in poetry, chronicles, and epistles.

tron of the town of Kotor is shown very frontally, dressed in a toga and a cloak. The hieraticity of the composition is completed by two figures of dragons surrounding the saint. There are carved medallions with symbols of the Evangelists in palm branches on the triangular fields which flank the two panels with the representation of Saint Tryphon. Pelicans surrounded by zoomorphic and vegetal motifs of dolphins and acanthus leaves are found on the narrow sides of the casket. 2 This involves a traditional medieval form of the reliquary casket which was typical for the twelfth and thirteenth centuries. 3 There are parallels to this on the Dalmatian coast, at least for the basic form of a reliquary with narrative scenes, which can also be seen on the Tomb-Shrine of Saint Simeon, displayed in the church of St. Simeon in Zadar and commissioned by Queen Elizabeth Kotromanić (c.1339Kotromanić (c. -1387. 4 Due to the fact that there are no primary documents related to the origin of Kotor's reliquary casket (the time and workshop where it was created) it was analyzed primarily based on its stylistic features. Considering that the reliefs are set apart by a mixture of late medieval and early Renaissance stylistic and iconographic elements, it has been proposed that this is the work of local goldsmiths originating around the year 1500. 5 However, it must be stressed that the circumstance which exacerbates any attempt of dating based on style is the fact that these works were created on the cultural fringe, and thus the appearance of late Gothic elements during the entire sixteenth century can be expected. Undoubtedly, a more dependable dating method is provided by the iconographic elements on the reliefs of the reliquary casket. Way back in 1938, don Ivo Stjepčević noticed that Saint Tryphon was presented as holding a model of the town on which the standard of Saint Mark was flying, and thus he proposed a flexible dating after 1420, when Kotor became part of the Republic of Venice ( fig. 2). The year 1551 was proposed as the terminus ante quem, in view of the fact that the reliquary is mentioned in the poem Descriptio sinus et urbis Ascriviensis by the poet Giovanni Bona de Boliris, which is dated between 1539 and 1551. 6 Having in mind the observation of I. Stjepčević, Cvito Fisković described the relief style as a combination of Gothic and Renaissance elements and suggested the period between 1538 and 1551 as a possible timeframe of the reliquary's creation. 7 A step forward to reach a more precise dating was carried out by Radoslav Tomić, who noted quite suitably that the model of the town of Kotor that Saint Tryphon was holding in his hands was symbolic as well as realistic. The realistic presentation can be seen in the triangular plan of the town whose ramparts scale the hill of San Giovanni, as well as in the details of church architecture. R. Tomić then stressed that the Kotor Cathedral was represented with a dome, which existed until the 1563 earthquake when it collapsed and was never rebuilt. 8 We can add to this conclusion the earlier observation by Bojana 6 Stjepčević,Katedrala Sv. Tripuna,31. The poem Descriptio sinus et urbis Ascriviensis was published posthumously in an appendix of La Storia di Raugia, by Serafino Razzi in 1595, as well as in the edition published by G. Gelcich: S. Razzi, La Storia di Ragusa scritta nuevamente in tre libri, Ragusa 1903, 3-14. The translation of the poem was published in: Književnost Crne Gore od XII do XIX vijeka. Đ. Bizanti, Lj. Paskvalić, I. B. Bolica. Izabrana poezija, ed. S. Kalezić, Cetinje 1996, 321-329. 7  Radojković that the representation of the town of Kotor in the hands of Saint Tryphon on the cover of the reliquary differs from the model that Saint Tryphon is holding on the silver altarpiece in the Kotor Cathedral. 9 In fact, the Kotor model on the reliquary casket is noticeably a step towards a more detailed and realistic representation. The views of previous researchers represent a cornerstone for a more precise reading of iconographic features present on the relief representation of the model in the hands of Saint Tryphon. Viewed together with the iconography of the torture scenes of Kotor's patron saint, we can narrow down the time of the origin of the reliquary casket from 1539 to 1551.
Let us proceed from the details of the town model in the hands of St. Tryphon which offer the possibility of a more precise dating of the reliquary casket after the Ottoman siege of Kotor in 1539. Namely, there is an apparent tendency to represent the ramparts of the town, which makes a crucial difference from the earlier representation of the model in the hands of Saint Tryphon on the silver altarpiece. What is especially relevant for secolo). Studi per Valentino Pace, ed. eadem, A. Trivellone, Pisa 2014, 289-300 (with the relevant bibliography). 9 Radojković, Remek dela kotorskog zlatarstva, 90. On the silver altarpiece in Kotor v. N. Jakšić, Srebrna oltarna pala u Kotoru, Ars Adriatica 3 (Zadar 2013) 53-66. There is a similar schematic and idealized shape of the model of Kotor in the pictorial images of Saint Tryphon from the mid-fifteenth century, in the church of Saint Michael in Kotor and in the church of Our Lady (today Saint Basil) in nearby Mržep (Stoliv). Cf. R. Vujičić, O freskama u crkvi Svetog Mihaila u Kotoru, Boka 17 (1985) Saint Tryphon's reliquary casket, Cathedral of St. Tryphon, Kotor, around 1539 (after: Tomić, Zagovori svetom Tripunu) 187 the possibility of a more precise dating is a representation of the ramparts with curved towers on the south and north sides that reflect the actual Kotor fortification. This involves fortification works that were built as part of the Venetian plan of modernizing Kotor's walls and fortifying the defence powers of Kotor due to an increasing Turkish threat. Special focus was placed on the fortification points: the round towers or bastions of Gurdić (south side) and Škurda (north), and then the Castello located on the eastern side, on the hill propping the town. A round tower on the south side near the gate leading to the town was built during the Venetian provveditore Bertucci Gabriel in 1470-1473. 10  Which historical conditions led to the Ottoman siege and successful Venetian defense of Kotor, memorialized in both visual and written sources? Namely, the defeat of the Holy League fleet under the command of Genovese Andrea Doria in the famous battle of Preveza in 1538 unleashed a series of military and diplomatic battles against the Ottoman admiral, kapudan pacha Hayreddin Barbarossa (1478Barbarossa ( -1546, who at that time represented a great danger for the entire Mediterranean. 13 Of particular strategic significance were the battles for domination over the two small towns in the Bay of Kotor: Castelnuovo and Cattaro (Herceg Novi and Kotor in modern-day Montenegro).
After Barbarossa started his regular attacks on Venetian assets in the Aegean, Ionian and Adriatic Seas, 12 P. Fortini Brown, Becoming a man of empire. The construction of patrician identity in a republic of equals, in: Architecture, art and identity in Venice and its territories, 1450-1750, ed 14 L`imperator Carlo quando fece la lega del `38 con la Serenità vostra haveva consigliato con tutti li capitani principali di quel tempo che la vera via di assalir il turco bisognava che fusse questa: cio è che esso imperator, con la persona propria, con 50 in 60 mila soldati oltramontani havesse calato per il Danubio  Although Venice insisted on maintaining power in the Levant, its sphere of interest and strategic priority in the defence of the entire Christendom, Genoa and Spain had no wish to risk their galleys, soldiers and capital for realizing Venetian aims and interest. The united command suffered a devastating defeat, losing 39 ships. 18 The key to understanding the ensuing events is in the contents of the agreement which was made in Madrid before the battle of Preveza: in the distribution of Turkish territories, Venice delegated to Castelnuovo an important fortress at the entrance of the Bay of Kotor and thus preserved the security of its territories, especially Kotor, the most significant town in this region which belonged to the Venetian Republic from 1420 to 1797. 19 After the defeat at Preveza, the Christian army occupied Castelnuovo on October 27, 1538. Three flags were flying on the ramparts: the Spanish, Venetian and papal. It is important to note that Doria did not cede Castelnuovo to Venice, but rather set up a garrison of around 4,000 men, predominantly Spanish soldiers. This marked the end of the rather fragile trust between La Serenissima and the interests of Emperor Charles V and his Genovese admiral, Andrea Doria. 20 The Turkish officials' letters from the Porte to the Doge underline Suleiman's anger at the Venetians for causing the war, harming Ottoman subjects, damaging their property, and forming an alliance with Spain. Suleiman immediately issued an order to Hayreddin Barbarossa to recover the fortress at the entrance to the Bay of Kotor. 21 Barbarossa had no trouble recovering Castelnuovo the following summer (in 1539) considering that Andrea Doria, who was in Otranto, failed to come to the rescue as he had no desire to take any chances and damage his galleys in a high-risk battle. 22 The conquest was accompanied by a horrific massacre of some 3,000 or 4,000 Spanish guardians who defended the fortress. 23 18 K. M. Setton

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The real danger from Ottoman conquests had yet to come for La Serenissima. As expected, after the conquest of Castelnuovo, Barbarossa penetrated deeply into the Bay with his fleet, reaching its end -the town of Kotor. For Venice, Kotor was of great strategic significance as an important bulwark (Antemurale Christianitatis) of the Adriatic Sea. 24 The Venetians had earlier stressed the strategic relevance of Kotor, realizing its position was very close to the territory which had already been conquered by the Turks -in mezo di la Bossina e Servia, and they systematically repaired the fortress which was forte ma mal custodito. 25 Also, as already mentioned, Venice sent Gian Matteo Bembo to Kotor, who had previously acquired an excellent reputation as a captain in Zadar: in Cattaro era venuto quel Proveditor così valoroso che era già stato a Zara. 26 The relevance of Kotor for Venetian interests was underscored by Doge Pietro Loredano in a letter sent after Gian Matteo's arrival in Kotor in which he promises all the needed aid for the defense of "an exceptionally important and to us very dear country": Ne ui mancaremo di tutte le cose, che conosceremo esserui necessarie, et che uoi ne richiederete per la difensione, et conseruatione di quella importantissima, et à noi carissima terra, supplying him with 300 troops, wheat, beans and wine, and 9000 ducats and putting two well-organized galleys with good sopracomiti (captains) at his disposal. 27 Venetian reports from Kotor dispatched an offer which rendered a very precise insight into exactly what Venice meant when it stressed the strategic significance of this town. As in 1553 in his Itinerario about the journey through Dalmatia, Giovanni Battista Giustiniano reported that the Bay was so big that the largest fleet could fit into it and the Turks in Castelnuovo could sail out to Puglia, Albania or Romagna with their vast armada whenever they wished and no bordering country would know. 28 That which followed -the arrival of the Turkish fleet in front of Kotor and a successful Venetian prevention of the attack, belongs more to diplomatic history, considering that a military conflict did not occur after all and the Turkish fleet retreated. Written sources in the form of diplomatic and personal correspondence of the provveditore Gian Matteo Bembo with his cousin Pietro Bembo and Hayreddin Barbarossa provide a foundation for understanding the background of the event. The diplomatic efforts were convincingly reflected in the gradual changes in the contents of Barbarossa's letters: the correspondence with Gian Matteo Bembo started with a very threatening tone. Barbarossa  cial place was reserved for captain Gian Matteo Bembo and his wise diplomatic correspondence with Barbarossa (Tra tutte le cose fatte da voi sono celebrate per le più belle le risposte savie che avete fatte a Barbarossa), according to Pietro Bembo. 32 The poet Marco Bandarini celebrated the Venetian direct victory over the Turks in a similar way in the extensive poem written only three or four years after the siege of Kotor -L'impresa di Barbarossa contro la città di Cattaro con la presa di Castel Novo composta per Marcho Bandarini allo illustro signor Bartholomeo da Villa Chiara. 33 This involved the events that most probably occurred immediately before the creation of the relief on the reliquary casket. The iconography of the narrative scenes provides indirect evidence of this. The principle stressed in the diplomatic correspondence or poem written in honour of the victory of Gian Matteo Bembo can also be seen in the iconography of the scenes on the reliquary casket. Namely, the torturers of Saint Tryphon were shown dressed in Turkish attire, 34 while the holy 32   protector of the town, after being tortured and killed, is rewarded by a celestial award. It should be stressed that this reliquary casket from the sixteenth century had replaced an older one of which little is known. 35 The fact that the reliefs on the new reliquary casket interpolated the Turks as contemporary enemies and participants of historical events 36 puts a strong emphasis on the context com/znanstvenazalozbaff/docs/international_conference_for_phd_st_ b67825b0f29446). 35 The oldest coffin in which Saint Tryphon's relics arrived to Kotor is traditionally a small monolithic coffin made of grayish-colored marble, which is now kept in the Treasury of the Kotor Cathedral [v.  features of the participants in a hagiographic narrative scene) I would like to point out the manner of representing the prefect Aquilinus. He is depicted as a resolute man wearing a turban, with a thick beard and long whiskers, a strong and slightly hooked nose, and with bushy eyebrows joined together in a frown ( fig. 6) threats. The enormous fear increased after the news of the fall of Castel Nuovo followed by the horrible massacre of the Spanish soldiers, and during the expectation of the attack and finally, the siege itself. Written sources in the form of correspondence by Gian Matteo Bembo, mainly with his cousin Cardinal Pietro Bembo, provide evidence of this. There was a tendency for spiritual protection during the siege which was deemed as significant as the military securing of the town. In the letter to Pietro Bembo, Gian Matteo pointed out that he had brought out a sizable artillery on the hill above Kotor che è gran bellezza à uederle, et saranno di gran terrore al nemico, pointing out that all the citizens had made sacramental confession and received communion and that they had found solace in the prayers of the holy nuns, the clergy and pious women (da sperare nelle orationi di queste sante monache, et di questo Reuer. chlero, et diuote done). 38 The iconography of the narrative scenes of the torture and death of Saint Tryphon additionally gives credence to the presumption about the dating of the reliquary casket (which was offered based on the model of the town of Kotor in Saint Tryphon's hands) in the years immediately following Hayreddin Barbarossa's attack on Kotor. While identifying Barbarossa himself with Aquilinus remains hypothetical, what is certain is that those who had commissioned the reliquary intended to give the appearance of Turks as contemporary enemies to the torturers of the patron of Kotor, and to represent the conquering of Kotor by employing pictorial symbolism. The narrative of the holy patron saint of the town receiving a celestial award for his suffering represents a victory of Christian Kotor and it had occurred under the spiritual and political power of the Venetian standard of Saint Mark. The choice of the shape of the reliquary can also be seen in the same context of emphasizing Venetian merit, as it was made to roughly resemble the shrine of Saint Simeon from Zadar, the town which was the Venetian centre for Dalmatia. Gian Matteo Bembo had gained a good reputation as a captain in Zadar and therefore he was sent to Kotor to prepare a defence against the Ottoman attack on Venetian territories in the Adriatic. 39 The hagiographical works undoubtedly served as a literary template for the iconography of the scenes of the torture and death of Saint Tryphon on the reliquary casket. R. Tomic has proposed, more as a literary than a direct iconographic template, the manuscript codex noted that the hagiographical tradition of writing about the passion of Saint Tryphon existed in Kotor throughout the Middle Ages, and thus these literary models are recurring. The incompletely preserved Suffering of Saint Tryphon and Saint Blaise, a twelfth-century text written in the beneventan script from Dalmatia on parchment (Library of the Archaeological Museum in Split) bear evidence to this tradition. Viktor Novak linked the emergence of this text to the consecration of the cathedral of Kotor in 1166 and emphasized that the relics of St. Tryphon were then given a new reliquary. 41 This partially preserved twelfthcentury hagiography provides a description of the torture of Saint Tryphon by fire, horses, flagellation, stoning and finally beheading -scenes that were also presented on the sixteenth-century reliquary casket. Particular attention should be paid to the iconographic representation of death, that is, when Saint Tryphon recepit gladium, et consumauit martirium. The twelfth-century hagiography testifies that Saint Tryphon uttered the following before he died: Ihesu Xpiste, domine, suscipe spiritum meum. 42 That moment is represented on the reliquary casket in the form of an angel who takes the soul of St. Tryphon to Heaven.
Parallels with the celebration of Kotor patrons in fine art and written works from the time of the consecration of the new cathedral in the twelfth century can be seen in the second half of the sixteenth century. Namely, it should be stressed that another hagiographic text was written at the time of the reliquary casket -Offitium Sanc- the historical circumstances, the intention of the Kotor bishop to write Offitium Sancti Triphonis Martyris can be interpreted in the context of strengthening the faith in the miraculous protection of St. Tryphon and the forming of a communal and sacred identity during an age of a serious threat to Christianity when faith and the morale of devotees could be shaken. 46 As we have seen, the hagiography of Saint Tryphon was renewed over the centuries in new writings that emerged. Keeping the tradition renewed by inserting new elements into well-known schemes is a characteristic that distinguishes the narratives on the reliquary casket, at both formal and content levels. Thus we have the merging of the late medieval with the early Renaissance style elements, just as the usual iconographic form of depicting the saint and his tormentors is combined with contemporary elements from the realm of the real. The insertion of the actors of contemporary events, that is, the Turkish threat, into the iconography of Saint Tryphon, is a 46 The citizens of Kotor relied on the protective powers of the town's patron, Saint Tryphon, whose relics were kept in the Cathedral, the core of civic devotion. The shrine of Saint Tryphon was a symbol of local identity. Cf. Stjepčević Barbarossa, 1535, engraving, Rijksmuseum (after: Wikimedia commons) form of uplifting faith in the power of the saint. By doing so, it becomes part of a new tradition that is being built. We can read the layers of veneration of the patron saint in the sacral space of the Cathedral from different periods. First, the reliefs on the reliquary casket are complementary, by their theme and concept, to the stone reliefs on the ciborium in the altar space. The selection of scenes from the life and miracles of the young Saint Tryphon on the ciborium was made so as to emphasise the protective role of the patron of Kotor. Quite differently, the choice of torture scenes is the conceptual framework for a place intended to hold the relics of the town patron. 47 Beside the body parts in the reliquary casket, the head of Saint Tryphon is also kept in the Kotor Cathedral. 48 Today both reliquaries are kept in the baroque sacral space of the Cathedral Treasury, the work of Francesco Cabianca from 1704-1708. 49 The reliquary casket, together with the reliquary of the Glorious Head of Saint Tryphon, has become a part of the new architectural and sculptural entity within a marble sarcophagus held up by two angels, with the figure of the young martyr Tryphon in a kneeling prayer position on top.
In the context of shifting the emphasis within the hagiographic and iconographic narratives in the sense of inserting the Turks as torturers, it should be stressed that the reliquary casket was a part of the procession for Saint Tryphon's Day, the ceremony that was a symbol of the identity of the commune and its tradition. The Benedictine monk Timoteo Cisilla wrote about this in the first half of the seventeenth century: "The well-known casket with the relics of Saint Tryphon the Martyr can also be seen in the Cathedral. It retains the body of this eminent saint, buried in a silver casket of an exquisite artistic design. Four prebendaries, the oldest by rank, bear it in the procession of February 3 throughout the entire town. " The reliefs with the images of the Turks as torturers became symbols of the torture of the town itself, which has traditionally been identified with its holy protector, especially in the procession. 50 During the time when Kotor was an integral part of the Venetian Republic, highlighting the town patron, Saint Tryphon, who prevails over the Turks with the standard of Saint Mark, should be read within the framework of the Venetian tendency for the celebration and preservation of the memory of the victory over Hayreddin Barbarossa. With this victory, Venice defended its position in Dalmatia, and the celebration was followed by a particular creative strategy, 51 with the aim of developing its image as a diplomatic, military and cultural power on the eastern Adriatic coast.