Skip to main content Accessibility help
×
Hostname: page-component-89b8bd64d-shngb Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2026-05-06T13:52:48.072Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter Four - Relics and Istorie

from Part II - Narrative Experts

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  20 February 2026

Grace M. Harpster
Affiliation:
Georgia State University
Get access

Summary

Chapter 4 continues this examination of narrative truth, focusing on the new post-Tridentine pressure to accurately portray relics in depictions of sacred history. This chapter explores how two of Borromeo’s most cherished Passion relics, the Column of Flagellation in the Church of Santa Prassede in Rome and the relic of Christ’s burial shroud in Turin, began to appear in narrative art during the 1570s for the first time in the history of Christian art. Both relics were of doubtful authenticity: Borromeo’s Column of the Flagellation was short, rather than the expected long pillar, while the long dimensions of the Shroud of Turin failed to match with descriptions of Christ’s burial cloths in the Bible. Nevertheless, Borromeo and his fellow Catholic scholars attempted to fit these prized relics into sacred history – and artists joined in this endeavor. Artists’ visual skills in the making of the istoria, the dramatic narrative still so central to ambitious art-making, were instrumental in scholarly revisions of biblical events. Artists marshalled practices of figure drawing and composition to explain the possibilities of sacred history, producing istorie of historical value for reformers and antiquarians.

Information

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Book purchase

Temporarily unavailable

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

  • Relics and Istorie
  • Grace M. Harpster, Georgia State University
  • Book: Carlo Borromeo and the Sacred Image in Sixteenth-Century Italy
  • Online publication: 20 February 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009664141.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

  • Relics and Istorie
  • Grace M. Harpster, Georgia State University
  • Book: Carlo Borromeo and the Sacred Image in Sixteenth-Century Italy
  • Online publication: 20 February 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009664141.007
Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Relics and Istorie
  • Grace M. Harpster, Georgia State University
  • Book: Carlo Borromeo and the Sacred Image in Sixteenth-Century Italy
  • Online publication: 20 February 2026
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009664141.007
Available formats
×