Holy Bishop

Abstract

The wooden, life-size sculpture represents a bishop and may have originally been located in Controne, Campania. It is now on display at the Museo Diocesano Teggiano. The bishop, garbed in a red cope decorated with geometric patterns, holds up his right hand in a blessing gesture. His left hand clutches onto his cope and crosier, revealing the brocade at the bottom of his alb. The gloves on the figure’s hands have been remodelled over time. Gold leaf was applied to the Bishop’s crosier. The yellow mitre mimics gold and is embellished with faux gems made of glass paste. The conservation treatment in 2020 revealed that the sculpture originally had a dark complexion, which suggests that it may have been a representation of Saint Augustine of Hippo. However, scholars also contend that the effigy may be identified as Saint Blaise. Iconographical attributes are missing—the sculpture does contain a mitre and staff, but these attributes alone are not enough to identify the saint. Saint Augustine is from North Africa but is not usually represented with dark skin in the Italian tradition. Could the saint's skin be due to poor preservation, or was he painted with dark skin? Photograph(s) licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.