Saint Scholastica
By Esther L. Cuenca
The sculptor manufactured this St. Scholastica statue out of lindenwood, which is sourced from lime trees commonly found in Northern Europe. The figure itself is painted and one of Scholastica’s attributes, her staff, is partially gilded. Even though Scholastica herself lived during the sixth century, the figure is wearing a nun’s habit, which includes the robe and a wimple (or a headdress made of cloth), in the style of a contemporary woman religious of the eighteenth century (Ferguson, 288; Hall, “Religious Dress”). The figure’s habit, which appears to have faded into a greyish color, shows the artist’s careful attention to the realistic folds and drapery of such a garment. This artistic technique is effective in making the figure almost appear as if it were in movement. Scholastica is displaying an open book in her left hand and holding a golden crozier in her right hand. In the hook of the crozier, or pastoral staff, there is a lily, which symbolizes purity. Her right foot rests on a golden orb from which the end of her crozier has been placed. The book and the crozier, as symbols of her learning and leadership, are common iconographic elements in artistic representations of Scholastica. In other artistic works, she is sometimes shown alongside her brother or with a dove because, according to her hagiographical account, St. Benedict witnessed her spirit ascend to heaven as a dove (Hall, “Scholastica”).
This statue was made for a Catholic audience and, perhaps, for women and women religious in particular. In addition to being a central figure in the history of women’s spirituality, Scholastica is also known for being the patron saint of convulsive children. Parents with sick children may have focused on sculptures and other artistic representations of Scholastica, such as this one at LACMA, for comfort and solace. Indeed, Catholics believed that saints in heaven could intervene on their behalf and convince God to answer their prayers. The unknown artisan, a sculptor, responsible for manufacturing this figure may have had a professional affiliation to Ignaz Günther (1725-1775) or to his workshop, as LACMA lists the artist as being in the “Circle of Ignaz Günther” (“circle of,” Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms). In previous centuries, sculptors who made pieces of particular importance to Benedictine communities were usually Benedictines themselves, with artisanal skills to serve the communities of which they were a part. In fact, Benedictine communities ensured that their members had the requisite skills to manufacture items (and not just manuscripts) for the benefit and edification of the entire community. By the eleventh century, however, Benedictines were looking outside the walls of their cloisters to (secular) artisans with specialized skills (Dawtry, “Benedictine Order”). Paintings of Scholastica, especially in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries, were usually made for Benedictine nuns in particular (Hall, “Scholastica”), and this sculpture may have been intended for the same. |
Made in Germany in circa 1755, this object is a sculpture of St. Scholastica, who was born circa 480 and died in either 542 or 543 on February 10, which is also her feast day. Scholastica—meaning “learned” or “educated”—is an important saint in both the Catholic and Eastern Orthodox traditions because, according to her legend, she was St. Benedict of Nursia’s twin sister. She was instrumental in the foundation of female Benedictine communities, which allowed women to lead monastic lives according to Benedict’s Rule (Hall, “Scholastica”). She established a convent at Plombariola, located near Benedict’s own famous monastery in Monte Cassino, and met regularly with her brother to discuss religious and spiritual matters (Archibald, “Rules for Canonesses, Nuns, and Recluses”). This statue, measuring at a height of almost five feet and about two and a half feet in width, may have once graced the cloisters of a Benedictine convent or adorned the interior of a church as an object of veneration and decoration. Now, this sculpture can be viewed on the third floor's foyer of the Ahmanson Building at the Los Angeles County Museum of Arts (LACMA). While the purpose of this sculpture is to promote the veneration and importance of Scholastica in the Christian faith, we may also see this near life-size figure as also representing her role as a foundress of convents and patron saint of nuns worldwide, as female monasticism allowed women to participate in the type of ascetic devotional life that Benedict had outlined for monks in his Rule. This sculpture held great interest for me because it seemingly towers over the other sculptures of female saints, which appear comparatively diminutive in size.
Today, Scholastica and her story are still inspiring artists and artisans. There is a rather large market for Catholic devotional items, and modern consumers have many options when it comes to choosing a variety of objects that feature Scholastica. On Etsy, a wooden figurine of Scholastica, painted and inked in vibrant colors to look cartoon-like, is certainly not as detailed as the large statue in LACMA, but it shows how small devotional items such as these may have great appeal to modern Catholics who like non-traditional representations of their saints. This figurine shows Scholastica in a modern black-and-white nun’s habit, which has a cloud and rain painted on it to symbolize a thunderstorm. According to her legend, Scholastica prayed for a thunderstorm to keep her brother Benedict longer with her in their last meeting before she died (Walsh, “Scholastica”). She is painted holding a dove and a crozier (with a lily in its hook), which looks similar to the crozier the LACMA statue is holding. On the back of the figurine, the artist painted the following words: “St. Scholastica pray for us.” While this Etsy merchant likely does not hail from a monastery, the sellers of an expensive St. Scholastica wooden statue, which comes in all different sizes and imported from Italy (and available for purchase on sistersofcarmels.com), are Carmelite nuns! In other modern representations, Scholastica can be seen in more naturalistic settings and poses. At the entrance of Mount Marty College’s Library in South Dakota, for example, the Scholastica statue there is barefoot and reading a book set aloft a lectern.
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St. Luke Polyptych (detail of Saint Scholastica)
This altarpiece, which can be viewed at the Pinacoteca di Brera (a public art gallery in Milan), dates roughly to 1453 and is a polyptych composed of twelve panels. The panel on the bottom-left of the altarpiece depicts St. Scholastica. On this panel, Scholastica wears a Benedictine nun’s black-and-white habit and, much like the statue at LACMA, she holds a book, which is a symbol of her learning. Unlike the statue at LACMA, however, the artist of this altarpiece, the northern Italian renaissance painter Andrea Mantegna (1430-1506), chose to depict Scholastica holding a palm frond, which, in this particular artistic context, symbolizes her chastity (Hall, “Palm”), befitting her status as the first Benedictine nun. This polyptych, which features St. Luke the Evangelist as its central figure, highlights Scholastica as one of many major saints in the history of Christianity. Mantegna depicted Scholastica alongside other famous figures, such as her twin brother St. Benedict of Nursia. There are other saints who are also holding palm fronds. St. Justina of Padua, an early Christian virgin martyr for whom the palm likely symbolized martyrdom, is shown with a knife in her heart on the bottom-right panel. Also holding a palm is the martyr St. Sebastian, located on the top-right panel. The other panels depict luminaries such as Jerome and Augustine, the Latin Fathers of the Church, and the central top panels illustrate the Virgin and Christ after his crucifixion. In southern Europe, altarpieces such as these were permanently mounted to the altars of churches, on view for the entire Christian congregation (Schmidt, “Polyptych”). This altarpiece shows Scholastica mainly among famous Italian saints, and some of them were likely chosen because of their connections to the city of Padua (in addition to St. Justina, see, for examples, St. Daniel of Padua on the top-left panel and St. Proscodimus, the first bishop of Padua, shown holding a crozier and wearing a bishop’s miter). This polyptych likely reflected Mantegna’s personal pride in having deep connections to Padua as one of the city’s native sons (“Andrea Mantegna,” Encyclopaedia Britannica). While not the central focus of the altarpiece, Scholastica’s presence illustrates her spiritual importance to northern Italy and her continuing relevance as a major figure in Christian worship.
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Ignaz Günther (1725-1775)
Works Cited
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Archibald, Edith Brigitte. “Rules for Canonesses, Nuns, and Recluses.” Women in the Middle Ages: An Encyclopedia. Eds. Katharina M. Wilson and Nadia Margolis. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2004. Credo Reference. Web. Accessed October 30, 2015.
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Ferguson, George. Signs and Symbols in Christian Art. New York: Oxford University Press, 1954.
Hall, James. Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art. New York: Harper and Row, 1974.
“Ignaz Günther.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. Britannica Academic. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2015. Web. Accessed October 30, 2015. <http://academic.eb.com/EBchecked/topic/249540/Ignaz-Gunther>.
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Walsh, Michael. A New Dictionary of the Saints: East and West. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2007.
Volk, Peter. “Günther, Ignaz.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. Accessed October 30, 2015. <http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T035692>.
Archibald, Edith Brigitte. “Rules for Canonesses, Nuns, and Recluses.” Women in the Middle Ages: An Encyclopedia. Eds. Katharina M. Wilson and Nadia Margolis. Santa Barbara: ABC-CLIO, 2004. Credo Reference. Web. Accessed October 30, 2015.
“circle of.” The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. Accessed October 30, 2015. <http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t4/e445>.
Dawtry, Anne Frances. “Benedictine Order.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. Accessed October 30, 2015. <http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T007854>.
Ferguson, George. Signs and Symbols in Christian Art. New York: Oxford University Press, 1954.
Hall, James. Dictionary of Subjects and Symbols in Art. New York: Harper and Row, 1974.
“Ignaz Günther.” Encyclopaedia Britannica. Britannica Academic. Encyclopædia Britannica Inc., 2015. Web. Accessed October 30, 2015. <http://academic.eb.com/EBchecked/topic/249540/Ignaz-Gunther>.
Jordan, Marc. “Egell, Paul.” The Oxford Companion to Western Art. Ed. Hugh Brigstocke. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. Accessed October 30, 2015. <http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t118/e818>.
_____. “Günther, Ignaz.” The Oxford Companion to Western Art. Ed. Hugh Brigstocke. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. Accessed October 30, 2015. <http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t118/e1137>.
Osborne, Harold and Antonia Boström. “polychromy.” The Oxford Companion to Western Art. Ed. Hugh Brigstocke. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. Accessed October 30, 2015. <http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/opr/t118/e2089>.
Schmidt, Victor M. “Polyptych.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. Accessed October 30, 2015. <http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T068546>.
Walsh, Michael. A New Dictionary of the Saints: East and West. Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2007.
Volk, Peter. “Günther, Ignaz.” Grove Art Online. Oxford Art Online. Oxford University Press. Web. Accessed October 30, 2015. <http://www.oxfordartonline.com/subscriber/article/grove/art/T035692>.