La rappresentazione della santità femminile tardomedievale. Il caso di Santa Margherita da Cortona

The Life and Miracles of Saint Margaret of Cortona, written by Fra Giunta Bevegnati, is the literary source of the vita–panel of the saint at the diocesan museum in Cortona. The paper examines two different portraits, the paint and the marble memorial of saint Margaret, and their relations with the text and the presence of her relics in the original location in the church. The vita–panel represents the image of the saint after her earthly death when she is reborn into a new life in Christ’s light, surrounded by scenes from her life; on the contrary the marble memorial represents the corpse of Margaret and it is a visual substitute of her relics hidden in the closed coffin. When these elements were still together in the church, on the saint’s celebration day, the pilgrim could see three different manifestations of Saint Margaret: in her uncorrupted corpse (relics), in the representation of her relics (marble memorial) and in the image of the celestial vision (vita–panel).