Iconography

The Depictions of Saint Sylvester began in the 13th century. Their diffusion is linked to the expansion of the monastic movement he founded and was therefore particularly concentrated, for many centuries, in the Marche, Umbria, Lazio, and, to some extent, Tuscany. The iconographic type of Saint Sylvester underwent few variations until the 17th century, mainly concerning the age of the saint and the color of his habit: the latter changed in accordance with the relevant regulations within the Congregation. It is essentially a fairly stable typology, while the choice of episodes depicted in the various cycles dedicated to the Saint's life is more varied.

The Oldest Depiction of Saint Sylvester

The oldest depiction of Saint Sylvester is probably to be found in the vast and complex decorative program of the Fontana Maggiore in Perugia (1277-1278). One of the sculpted groups decorating the upper basin depicts Saint Sylvester kneeling, receiving the Rule from Saint Benedict.

The inscription contains the first words of the Rule: "Audi f(ili) p(raecepta) m(agistri)".

The fountain's design and layout are the work of the Sylvestrine monk Fra Bevignate da Cingoli, while the decorative program was carried out by famous master sculptors such as Nicola and Giovanni Pisano, as can be read in the inscription running along the lower edge of the fountain's second basin. According to some scholars, the artist intended to reproduce the features of Saint Sylvester in the face of Saint Benedict, while the kneeling monk can be identified as Fra Bevignate himself.

An important depiction of Saint Sylvester is found on the panel of a polyptych housed in the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York. The work, signed by Segna di Bonaventura, a Sienese painter active in the workshop of Duccio di Boninsegna, is dated around 1320 and was likely commissioned by the monks of the monastery of Santo Spirito in Siena, which was founded in 1311 by the fourth prior general, Andrea di Giacomo. Saint Sylvester (on the right of the polyptych, with Saint Benedict on the left and the Virgin and Child in the center) is depicted blessing with his right hand, while holding a closed book in his left. He wears a cocolla de gattinello (a coarse woolen cloth of gray or mixed color, resulting from a combination of ash and lion's-hair) and is distinguished from the Patriarch of Norcia by his more youthful appearance and lack of beard.

A beardless Saint Sylvester is depicted in a polyptych by Fiorenzo di Lorenzo, one of the greatest protagonists of 15th-century Perugian painting. The polyptych was completed around 1493 for the Sylvestrine church of Santa Maria Nuova in Perugia. It is now exhibited in the Galleria Nazionale dell'Umbria in Perugia. Saint Sylvester, depicted with a tonsure and beardless, as in the polyptych by Segna di Bonaventura at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, wears a light lion-colored cowl and holds the book of the Rule of Saint Benedict. Traditionally, the Sylvestrine monk saint depicted in Fiorenzo di Lorenzo's polyptych next to the Madonna and Child and Saints Benedict, Peter the Apostle, and John the Evangelist, was identified with Blessed Paolino Bigazzini, an Umbrian follower of Saint Sylvester.

Worthy of note is a fresco by Antonio da Fabriano from 1458, located in the parish church of Castelletta near Grottafucile: Saint Sylvester is depicted without a beard, seated on a throne and blessing with his right hand, while with his left he holds the open book of the Rule of Saint Benedict.

Sylvester is later depicted with a beard, at a rather advanced age. This is the case of the tablet preserved in the Montefano Archives (probably from the late 15th century), where the saint, wearing a tan-colored cowl, holds a cross in his right hand and the book of the Rule of Saint Benedict in his left.

The interesting iconographic testimonies relating to Saint Sylvester are collected in the church of San Benedetto in Fabriano. Of particular note is a "narrative" cycle of the saint's life, executed by the painter Simone de Magistris da Caldarola towards the end of the 16th century: nine wall frescoes, partly ruined by humidity, in which the saint is always depicted bearded, in old age, and wearing a tan cowl. In the fresco depicting the "Virgin Saving Saint Sylvester," the abbey's miter and crosier are visible for the first time.

Beginning in the 17th century, the typology of depictions of the Saint changed radically. The iconographic theme of Sylvester receiving communion from the Virgin Mary became prevalent, if not exclusive: it is the most famous miracle, placed by the Vita Silvestri almost at the pinnacle of the Saint's spiritual journey. This is due to the recognition of the "unheard-of and undoubted" miracle by Pope Paul V in the papal bull Sanctorum virorum of 1617.

The oldest painting depicting the Virgin Mary giving communion to Saint Sylvester is the canvas by Cristoforo Roncalli, known as Pomarancio, created in 1620 for the church of San Silvestro in Osimo, commissioned by Cardinal Antonio Maria Gallo.

In 1632, Claudio Ridolfi of Verona, a painter who had long been active in the Marche region, painted the central altarpiece on the back wall of the church of Montefano. It depicts the Virgin giving communion to Saint Sylvester . Note the beautiful, fresh image of Mary, wrapped in the ample blue cloak that envelops her. Saint Sylvester wears a tan cowl. An angel holds the crosier, while the miter rests on the book of the Rule of Saint Benedict. A wolf stands beside the Saint. The lower margin features the coat of arms of the Bargagnati family of Fabriano, who paid for the work.

In one of the codices in the Montefano Archives, a beautiful illuminated image of Saint Sylvester from 1657 is depicted. The saint, bearded, wearing a miter, crosier, and tan-colored cowl, is in the act of adoring the cross presented to him by an angel. In the background, the monastery of Montefano is depicted in its seventeenth-century architectural structure.

"Stories of the Saint" is Found in the Main Cloister of Montefano (1740-1742)

"Stories of the Saint" consists of 20 lunettes frescoed by the painter Antonio Ungarini (Ungherini) from Fabriano between 1740 and 1742, which illustrate episodes from the life of Saint Sylvester, reproduced with a descriptive and popular taste and with a marked predilection for the anecdotal aspect of the saint's human and religious story. The vocational journey of Saint Sylvester is depicted, from his escape from Osimo at the age of about 50, until his death on 26 November 1267. The four lunettes in the smaller cloister, by a different and unknown hand, were painted around 1760 and recall the life of Saint Sylvester up until his conversion to monastic life.