Master of Campo di Giove. Recomposing a masterpiece

The Custodia in 1891

The original appearance and location of the Saint Eustace Custodia is yet not known.

In September 1891, the case was located in the presbyterial area, to the left of the high altar, above a Sixteenth Century altar. This information is known thanks to the record compiled by Antonio De Nino, then Honorary Inspector of Monuments and Excavations of Antiquities. As stated in the document, the artifact was a rectangular wooden niche, almost 2 meters high, 65 centimeters wide and 24 centimeters deep, formed by a panel in the background and two doors that folded down the sides and the front to house the wooden statue of the patron saint of the parish. Each door was thus composed of two vertical hinged panels, on the inside of which the story of the saint was painted with tempera on wood in 16 episodes.

The narrative proceeded left to right and top to bottom, as in an illustrated book. The case was surmounted by a tympanum with an image of the Blessing Eternal.

From the Custodia to the “Wooden Panels”

On 6 October 1902, the doors of Saint Eustace custody in the homonymous church in Campo di Giove were stolen.

The parish sexton and the priest from Campo di Giove were immediately involved in the theft charge. The whole affair was reported by the local press.

The first to report is by Antonio De Nino in Adolfo Venturi’s magazine “L’Arte,” taking up what he recorded in his 1891 entry. In 1903 Pietro Piccirilli writes an essay, also in the magazine “L’Arte,” on the works of art at Campo di Giove; he thus publishes on it the overview photograph of the two doors, which he took in 1890 circa. Today, the photo is the only evidence documenting the artwork before its purloining.

By 1923, the doors of the custody were sawn and dismembered into 16 tablets to facilitate their sale on the antiques market and to disguise their provenance. A base was added to each of the first four scenes that made up the upper register, along with a cusped frame decorated with acanthus leaves and twisted columns; a simple gilded batten was applied to the outline of the painted frame.

From this moment on, the tablets were scattered on the international antiques market and became part of museum and private collections.

Currently, the whereabouts of 13 out of the 16 tablets, which made up the doors of the custody, are known.

The life of Saint Eustace in the Legenda Aaurea (Golden Legend)

The 16 tablets depict the most relevant episodes of Saint Eustace’s life, from his conversion to the martyrdom. These events are described in the Legenda Aurea (Golden Legend), a collection of stories dedicated to the lives of saints, written in the mid-Thirteenth Century by the Dominican friar Jacopo da Varagine. The volume was an important reference for the depiction of the stories of saints in late medieval and Renaissance times.

According to the Legenda, Placidus was a valiant pagan leader who held the most important military position under Emperor Trajan (98 – 117 A.D.). One day, during a hunting trip, Placidus saw Christ between the antlers of a beautiful deer and decided to convert to Christianity with his wife Theopista and sons Agapitus and Theopistus, changing his name to Eustace.

From this moment, a series of tragic misfortunes begin for Eustace and his family. Having lost all his possessions and separated from his children and wife, he was then recalled by Trajan at the head of the army to fight the barbarians. He then rejoined his family and achieved victory against the enemy, but he was thrown with his wife and children to the lions at the behest of Emperor Hadrian (76 – 138 A.D.). Unharmed, they were placed inside a flaming bronze bull, where they died martyred. Their bodies, miraculously intact, were transported to a solemn place where an oratory will be erected in their honor.