types and the architectural and landscape settings, a
large number of works have been associated with the
Berlinghieri family. Several of these have been attributed
to Bonaventura Berlinghieri and his followers, including
a diptych originally from Lucca but now in the Uffi zi
in Florence, portions of a Crucifi xion in Tereglio, and a
group of works sometimes attributed to a separate “Ob-
late Cross Master.” Together, these Lucchese painters
had a profound impact on the style of painters in other
Tuscan centers, especially Florence, such as the Bardi
Saint Francis Master, the Bigallo Master, the Master of
the Uffi zi Crucifi x 434, and Coppo di Marcovaldo.
See also Francis of Assisi, Saint
Further Reading
Angiola, Eloise M. “Nuovi documenti su Bonaventura e Marco
di Berlinghiero.” Prospettiva, 21, 1980, pp. 82–84.
Ayer, Elizabeth. “Thirteenth-Century Imagery in Transition: The
Berlighiero Family in Lucca.” Dissertation, Rutgers the State
University, 1991.
Belting, Hans. Likeness and Presence: A History of the Image
before the Era of Art, trans. Edmund Jephcott. Chicago, Ill.:
University of Chicago Press, 1994.
Boskovits, Miklós. The Origins of Florentine Painting 1100–
1270 , trans. Robert Erich Wolf. A Critical and Historical
Corpus of Florentine Painting, 1, Vol. 1, 1993.
Caleca, Antonino, and Mariagiulia Burresi. Momenti dell’arte a
Volterra: Volterra, Palazzo Minucci Solaini, Agosto-Settembre
- Pisa: Pacini, 1981.
Capohvori e Restauri, Firenze, Palazzo Vecchio, 14 Dicembre
1986–26 Aprile 1987. Florence: Cantini Edizioni d’Arte,
Garrison, Edward B., Jr. “A Berlinghieresque Fresco in S. Stefano,
Bologna.” Art Bulletin, 28, 1946, pp. 211–225.
——. “Post-War Discoveries—III: The Madonna ‘di sotto gli
Organi.’ ” Burlington Magazine, 89, 1947, pp. 274–279.
——. Italian Romanesque Panel Painting. Florence: Olschki,
——. “Toward a New History of Early Lucchese Painting.” Art
Bulletin, 33, 1951, pp. 11–31.
——. Studies in the History of Medieval Italian Painting, 4 vols.
Florence: L’Impronta, 1953–1963.
Gombrich, Ernst H. “Bonaventura Berlinghiero’s Palmettes.”
Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes, 39, 1976,
pp. 234–236.
Krüger, Klaus. Der frühe Bildkunst des Franziskus in Italien:
Gestaltund Funktionswandel des Tafelbildes im 13. und 14.
Jahrhundert. Berlin: Gebr. Mann Verlag, 1992.
Marcucci, Luisa. Gallerie Nazionali di Firenze, I Dipinti toscani
del secolo XIII, scuole bizantine e russe dal secolo XII al
secolo XVIII. Rome: Istituto Poligrafi co dello Stato, 1959.
La pittura in Italia: Il Duecento e il Trecento. Milan: Edizioni
Electa, 1985, Vol. 2, pp. 557–558.
Sandberg-Vavalà, Evelyn. La croce dipinta italiana e l’iconografi a
della passione. Verona: Casa Editrice Apollo, 1929.
Sinabaldi, Giulia, and Giulia Brunetti. Pittura italiana del
Duecento e Trecento, catalogo della Mostra Giottesca di
Firenze del 1937. Florence: Sansoni, 1943.
Rebecca W. Corrie
BONAVENTURE, SAINT
(John of Fidanza; ca. 1217–74)
Bonaventure was born in Bagnoregio, near Viterbo, and
sources say that he fought his well-to-do family to enter
the Franciscan order; this he did in Paris, probably in- Legend has it that as a child he was miraculously
cured by St. Francis’s intervention. He was educated in
the Franciscan friary in Bagnoregio and moved to Paris
for the arts course ca. 1234. He studied theology in the
Franciscan school under Alexander of Hales, John of
La Rochelle, William of Melitona, and Odo Rigaldus;
his wide use of the Dominican Hugues de Saint-Cher
suggests that he may have been Hugues’s pupil as well.
He was made regent master, probably in 1253, but for-
mal acceptance for him and for Thomas Aquinas was
delayed until October 1257 by the dispute between
secular masters and the mendicants.
In February 1257, Bonaventure was made minister-
general of the Franciscans, on the suggestion of John
of Parma, who had resigned under pressure from Pope
Alexander IV. His nomination suggests that the divide
between the two wings of the order (Conventual and
Spiritual) was not yet unbridgeable, since John was
later characterized as a Spiritual and Bonaventure a
Conventual. As a master, he composed a commentary
on Peter Lombard’s Sententiae (by far his longest and
most systematic work) and biblical commentaries, as
well as various theological “questions.”
Bonaventure’s accession to the minister-generalate
effectively ended his academic career, but he continued
to write devotional works. His writing is marked by a
lucid latinity and deep devotion, qualities that he could
also bring to academic argument. He combined aca-
demic discipline with fervent piety: for Bonaventure,
more clearly than for any other scholastic theologian,
the point of any theology was the building up of the life
of faith and prayer. After a visit to La Verna, in Italy, in
1259, he began to write mystical texts of great infl uence;
he had, in the Franciscan tradition, a particular devotion
to the Passion.
During the 1260–70s, he worked to defend the or-
der, which did not practice the absolute poverty of its
founder, against charges of hypocrisy, especially by his
Apologia pauperum (1270). His aim was to reinterpret
Francis’s Testament for subsequent generations. He was
called the “second father of the order,” because of his
attempt to produce a theology of the Franciscan life.
On the publication of his new Life of Francis (1266),
all previous Lives were ordered to be destroyed, as
had happened similarly when Humbert of Romans had
produced his new Life of Dominic (1260). Bonaventure
was made Cardinal-Bishop of Albano in 1273; he died
unexpectedly at the Second Council of Lyon in 1274.
BONAVENTURE, SAINT