The Ascetic Body: Alignment and Composure in Art for the Camaldolese Order

The hermits and monks of Camaldoli uphold asceticism or spiritual purification of the soul to be a fundamental tool for aligning the mind, body, and spirit in one’s pilgrimage towards and contemplation of God. The architecture, landscape, and visual imagery of this Order, which was founded a millenium ago, plays a fundamental role in the somaesthetic cultivation of its asceticism. This essay analyzes architectural design of the Order’s cloistered environments, which were built in forests, islands, and in cities, as well as the monks’ daily viewing of art (altarpieces, private devotional paintings, and illuminated manuscripts), whose imagery exemplified composure of the ascetic body. The study pays particular attention to representations of St. Romuald of Ravenna, the founding father and argues that the rules governing and shaping the ascetic body are portrayed more explicitly by monk artists, such as Don Lorenzo Monaco. Many of the terms found in the Regola or Rules of the Camaldolese Order, including ingegnare (to devise) or composizione (to compose), correlate with those found in treatises about art, sparking intriguing questions about the role of vision in the ascetic quest for aligning mind, body, and soul.