St. Ambrose flogging heretics
Year mention: ca. 1576
Subject:
St. Ambrose driving the Arian heretics from Milan
Conflict:
Indecency/Impropriety
Issues with attributes
Criticism:

St. Ambrose is represented on horseback, brandishing a scourge, and violently charging a group of heretics whose attitudes are described as ridiculous

Agent:
Archdiocese of Milan; Carlo Borromeo
St. Ambrose on horseback
REFERENCE IMAGE: St. Ambrose on horseback
Cristoforo de’ Predis, detail of the frontespice of the Antifonario ambrosiano (Varese, Museo Baroffio, inv. 1000), 1476. From Marazzi 2015, 27

The case described here comes from a 16th-century document preserved in the Diocesan Archives of Milan, in which fourteen works of art that needed to be amended or destroyed are listed. This list would appear to present the results of an inquiry into paintings, sculptures and sacred buildings that did not comply with the decrees of the Council of Trent, carried out in the dioceses of Milan at the request of Archbishop Carlo Borromeo, probably around 1576 (on the contents and the date of the document see Lurati 1968 and 1970; De Boer 2001, 223; Debernardi, forthcoming).

The irregular painting discovered in Molina was evidently a representation of St. Ambrose driving the Arian heretics from Milan, an iconography inspired by the doctrinal and political struggle against the spread of Arianism waged by the historical Ambrose, who was bishop of Milan in the 4th century. Starting from the late Middle Ages, however, this subject was often rendered in Lombard art as a dramatic fight, with the saint on horseback charging against the opponents of orthodoxy. The development of this representation was fuelled by a legend according to which St. Ambrose, mounted on a steed, had appeared in aid of the Milanese army at the battle of Parabiago, fought in 1339 against rebel citizens (Gatti Perer 1966, 4-5; Albuzzi 2015, n. 38-39; Cariboni 2015, 129-53). The painting found in the church of Molina appears to have been considered objectionable because it contained elements recalling martial violence (regarded as inappropriate for a bishop: Meda 1939, 162), coupled with the “ridiculous” attitudes of the Arians fleeing before St. Ambrose.

The iconography of St Ambrose on horseback was the focus of much debate during Carlo Borromeo’s time. As bishop of Milan, Church Father, and successful mediator in the struggles between secular power and ecclesiastical authority, St Ambrose was regarded by Borromeo as an especially apt symbol for his own political and pastoral goals (Geddo and Paoli 1997). Preventing the spread of potentially damaging representations of the saint was therefore a pressing concern for Borromeo, who, in particular, expressed his disapproval of the proliferation of images inspired by the legend of the battle of Parabiago (Meda 1939; Geddo and Paoli 1997, 300).

“In St. Ambrose of Molina, [the titular saint] is painted on horseback, with a scourge in his hand, and many ridiculous images of Arians.”

“In santo Ambrosio de Molina, vi è pinto à cavallo con la scoriata in mano, con ali(quant)e imagine d’Ariani ridiculose.”

Keywords
Arianism, battle, bishop, heretics, horse, St. Ambrose

Terminology
ridiculose
Artist
unknown

Date mention
ca. 1576

Date artwork
14th-16th c.
Historical Location

Molina, Church of Sant'Ambrogio

Via F. Rossi, 21020, Barasso, Varese, Italy


Type of Object
painting

Iconclass Number
11H(AMBROSE)41

Source
Milan, Archivio storico diocesano, MS Archivio Spirituale, Sezione XIV, vol. 67, Indici vari, f. 47r-v, Index picturarum prophanarum, f. 47r.
Literature

Annalisa Albuzzi, “La barba di Ambrogio. Iconografia, erudizione agiografica e propaganda nella Milano dei due Borromeo”, in Patrick Boucheron and Stéphane Gioanni (Ed.), La mémoire d’Ambrose de Milan. Usages politiques et sociaux d’une autorité patristique en Italie (Ve-XVIIIe siècle), Paris: Éditions de la Sorbonne-École française de Rome, 2015, pp. 155-207; Guido Cariboni, “L’iconografia ambrosiana in rapporto al sorgere e al primo svilupparsi della signoria viscontea”, in Patrick Boucheron and Stéphane Gioanni (Ed.), La mémoire d’Ambrose de Milan. Usages politiques et sociaux d’une autorité patristique en Italie (Ve-XVIIIe siècle), Paris: Éditions de la Sorbonne-École française de Rome, 2015, pp. 129-53; Wietse De Boer, The Conquest of the Soul: Confession, Discipline, and Public Order in Counter-Reformation Milan, Leiden-Boston-Köln: Brill, 2001; Lea Debernardi, “Identifying and Censoring Improper Artworks in Carlo Borromeo’s Diocese: The Sixteenth-Century Index of Profane Paintings in the Milan Diocesan Archives”, forthcoming; Maria Luisa Gatti Perer, La chiesa e il convento di S. Ambrogio della Vittoria a Parabiago, Milan: Edizioni La Rete, 1966; Cristina Geddo and Silvia Paoli, “I santi Ambrogio e Carlo”, in Marco Rizzi (Ed.), La città e la sua memoria. Milano e la tradizione di sant’Ambrogio, Milano: Electa, 1997, pp. 298-307; Ottavio Lurati, “Superstizioni lombarde (e leventinesi) del tempo di San Carlo Borromeo”, Vox Romanica, 27, 1968, pp. 229-249; Ottavio Lurati, “Pene ai bestemmiatori, indulgenze, reliquie e ‘immagini profane’ nella Diocesi milanese (e nelle Tre Valli) ai tempi di San Carlo”, Folklore suisse/Folclore svizzero, 60, 1970, pp. 41-50; Filippo Meda, “Il centenario di una battaglia e la leggenda dello staffile di S. Ambrogio”, La scuola cattolica, 67/2,  1939, pp. 150-66.

Permanent Link
https://www.sacrima.eu/case/st-ambrose-flogging-heretics/