Carla Travi

15th-Century Reliquaries at the Certosa di Garegnano: a new reading The article offers a new analysis of the two reliquaries of the Certosa di Garegnano in Milan, made up of 15th-Century miniatures and golden glass frames. The relics preserved inside – which have been in the charterhouse since at least the late 16th Century, when they were arranged as in the current display – may have already been there by 1477. The hypothesis suggested in the essay is that glass frames and miniatures, each with its own relic, were originally organized in two distinct series, and may be dated to as early as the half of the previous century. The tempera pictures are strictly connected to the Carthusian environment, and specifically to the community of Garegnano, within which they might have been conceived. The golden glass frames, the work of a different workshop, are noted for their high quality and their affinity with the new language of the Renaissance. The cultural liveliness of the Certosa around and after the half of the 15th Century, well represented by the figure of the well-read Prior Matteo Codenari da Cremona, appears in the background of these masterpieces.

Ancient Partitions in Lombardy: the Case of Sant’Eustorgio CARLA TRAVI The article offers some insight considerations about the structure and function of partitions and parapets as architectural-liturgical elements documented in several Lombard churches in the Middle Ages. At the present state of the studies, the gradual demolition of these parts since approximately the 15th Century makes it difficult to be more precise about the number and placement of the documented examples. Nonetheless, particularly abundant and interesting information has been found about the partition in the Dominican church of Sant’Eustorgio in Milan, built in 1239 and heavily modified in 1279. This structure – the position of which within the church is tentatively defined in this study – should have been the original location of some pictorial works, such as an imposing Crucifix in Venetian style erected in 1288 and still present in the church, or two wood panels there situated in 1315, or immediately after, and both unfortunately lost.