The Funerary Monument
The English word “monument” comes from the Latin “monumentum”, and literally means something that reminds or tells about something else. A “monument” then is an element that carries the remembrance of an event or person, and the expression is usually used to indicate a tomb or a memorial site. It carries out a public intent, commemorates a person in the public sphere and contributes to building one’s fame. Celebrating the cult of remembrance, it creates a lasting a physical memory for an individual or a family.
The case of Gabriele Ferretti’s monument is one of great privilege and richness: until the Renaissance period, to be buried on the sacred ground of a church was strict privilege of saints, popes, and royals. Nobles often bought the honours with great donations to the church itself and patronizing chapels, gaining great recognition for the family. Specific rules were set to regulate what and how could be erected.
The monument was described in detail the documents of the process of beatification in 1573. A computer graphic reconstruction shows how it could have been.
“…above is located a painting of the Blessed Gabriele in ecstatic vision, above the marble statue of golden spendor, which radiates much redemption. The sepulchre has a small window, to allow devotees to see the Sacred Body.
…above the sepulchre it is a tombstone held up by two angels, in which is inscribed a Latin praise of the Blessed Gabriele,
…the marble sepulchre wanted by his sister, or her heirs…is held about the ground for a few inches.
The friar Antonio Maria from Ancona, the oldest friar, 70 years old and 63 in religion and convent, says the tomb is as it always was, except for the Ferretti family’s effigies that have been removed. Regarding the statue, only the hood is more strict and held closer to the check than what we do Religious Observants do now.
Once the mable sepulcher was built, the Body of the Blessed Gabriele was placed in here, so that the people can adorated and worship Him better.
Above the stone, hung on the wall and with the support of a big stud, in a big wooden golden frame there is the painting panel, high and wide, representing the religious with the Franciscan grey habit, which means the tonaca and the hood of the Minor Observants Friars of Saint Francis…the religious is barefoot and kneeling with the hands joined, ecstatically looking the sky towards the Figure of the Saint Virgin, with the Child in a luminous Glory with a majestic golden dress, and Diadem, and Crown […] on top of the painting there are different fruits, and in one part of it there are two duck one bigger, and the other one small, and on the other side there are the following words = Opus Karolus Crivellus Veneti; both the V and the S of Carolus and of the Crivellus are scratched, so that you can not see them anymore, and there is only the first line of the V, which looks like an I, but is known that the rest has been cancelled to correct the mistake, and it is not to be red as Carolus Crivellus, but Karoli Crivelli.
[…] circa in the middle of the space, between the face of religious and the feet of the Figure of the Virgin Mary there is a silver voto [votive offer] nailed to the same painting [...] and since this voto must have blackened over time, it is known to have been cleaned. On both sides of the painting are two nailed panels at the same height of the painting, on which a great number of silver votos are hung, representing legs, arms, eyes, breasts, hearts, and figures of children, men and women. [omitted here, there were many other small votive paintings and gifts around the area].
[…] Antonio Fabbri, goldsmith as one can tell from the name, says the silver voto nailed in the centre of the painting dates from the early of mid sixteenth century and is the same as he has seen in portraits of noble matrons in Ancona. Serafino Zumbelli, another goldsmith, said it must be at least 190 years old.”
Read more about: ex-votos
The Latin expression “ex voto” is the shorter version of “ex voto suscepto” (literally meaning “from the vow made”). It indicates an offer taken to a church or sanctuary as a thanksgiving for a miraculous event that occurred. Even if ex votos can be traced in all history - back to Rome and Egypt - the most famous votive practice is the Catholic one, found in Europe and South America.
In times of particular need the devotee makes a vow, usually to a specific Saint or to the Virgin, of giving public recognition if granted with a requested miracle. The object is then a physical representation of the divine intervention, but can also be a testimony of gratefulness for an unexpected grace.
The ex votos can be some quite curious types of objects, and much different from one another. Depending on the period and economic possibilities of the supplicant, they can be jewels or paintings, photographs or clothing shreds, icons or everyday utensils, and so on. The most common ones represent organs or parts of the human body that have been miraculously cured, and are made or coated with silver. They are traditionally placed next to the source of divine grace: to a Saint’s sepulcher, to an image believed to perform supernatural deeds, or as in this case hung on miraculous paintings.
At least one ex-voto was placed in the middle The Vision of the Blessed Gabriele, an heart-shaped silver one between Gabriele and the Virgin, and many more on two panels next to it. A computer reconstruction shows how eye-tricking the object and its shadows were probably looking just below the top garland. The fruit composition is not, how it has often been considered, unusual and almost metaphysical, but part of a conscious and intended eye-trick.
