Page - 152 - in Der Arkadenhof der Universität Wien und die Tradition der Gelehrtenmemoria in Europa

the singular image of the deceased on his tomb. At times these forms mix, as in the case of bust portraits on sepulchral monuments. One such case will be the focus of the following investi- gation. simile al vivo quanto sia possibile: a scholar’s tomb as ‘think space’ In his major publication on the history of Italian tomb monuments, Fritz Burger’s Die Geschichte des Florentinischen Grabmals of 1904, the author emphasizes the key position of the monument to Leonardo Salutati in the Fiesole Cathedral (Fig. 1): For the first time ever in the Renaissance, Bur- ger states, a tomb monument appears as ‘Den- kmal in des Wortes eigentlichster Bedeutung’, as a memorial in the truest sense of the word.11 Denkmal literally translated means as much as: a monument to think about – and a place that is both one of remembrance and one to remem- ber. Burger’s brief observation about the Salu- tati monument as a think-space, uttered more than a century ago, provides a keynote for the following short case study, which presents some new suggestions on the Salutati Chapel’s iconog- raphy and reevaluates the remarkable tomb’s vis- ual strategies in engaging the beholder; it does so in an intriguingly innovative way, using the aes- thetics and the appeal of bust portraiture to ‘pro- duce’ and ‘perform’ the perpetual memoria of an eminent cleric and scholar. Surprisingly, the Salutati tomb – unique and aesthetically appealing as it is – is not dis- cussed in most standard publications on tomb monuments.12 It is briefly mentioned in a few publications dedicated to its sculptor, Mino da Fiesole, where it is generally characterized as a problem case with an obscure iconog- raphy.13 Part of the reason for this lack of atten- tion might be its somewhat remote place in the Fig. 1: Mino da Fiesole, Tomb monument for Leonardo Sa- lutati, 1464–1466, marble, Cathedral San Romolo, Fiesole. jeanette kohl152 11 F. Burger, Geschichte des florentinischen Grabmals von den ältesten Zeiten bis Michelangelo, Strassburg 1904, p. 217. Despite a multitude of publications on individual tombs, there is no more recent comprehensive publication dedicated to Renaissance tomb monuments in Florence. 12 It is briefly mentioned in P. Schubring, Die italienische Plastik des Quattrocento, Berlin 1919, p. 163 and in J. Poeschke, Die Skulptur der Renaissance in Italian, vol. 1: Donatello und seine Zeit, Munich 1990, p. 143. J. Pope- Hennessy in his canonical volume Italian Renaissance Sculpture, London 1958, discusses in his chapter on The Humanist Tomb the monuments to Benozzo Federighi and Margrave Hugo – both by Mino da Fiesole – but does not mention the Salutati tomb. The same applies for more recent publications, which discuss Renaissance tombs, such as J. T. Paoletti/G. M. Radke, Art in Renaissance Italy, London 1997. 13 It is briefly discussed in G.C. Sciolla, La scultura di Mino da Fiesole, Turin 1970, and in S. E. Zuraw, The Sculp- Open Access © 2018 by BÖHLAU VERLAG GMBH & CO.KG, WIEN KÖLN WEIMAR