«Ridicula monstruositas»? Spunti iconografici sul chiostro dei Vassalletto in San Paolo fuori le mura

The article intends to analize a group of reliefs on the Northern side of the Cloister of St. Paul outside the walls, both from a stylistic and iconographic point of view. These sculptures are among the most representative produced in Rome in the Late Middles Ages and were made in different phases by the workshop of the Vassalletto, the Roman marble workers. In the first part, the study focalizes on the chronology and patronage of the work, by examining the past art-historical literature and the most up-to-date studies, and underlines how the decoration must be connected to the patronage of the wealthy cardinal Pietro Capuano. The second part of the text, following an interdisciplinary method, which assigns a considerable place to the analysis of religious literary sources, intends to bring to light the most significant data regarding the patronage and the artists involved in the iconographic programme; six of the twenty-four reliefs are examined. With the instruments of iconological analysis it is possible to understand how the questions underlined by the patronage were those of eschatology, of the dilaguing heresy, especially Cathars, and of the controversy between Christians and Jews.