The Late Trecento in Santa Croce in Gerusalemme: Nicola and Napoleone Orsini, the Carthusians, and the Triptych of St. Gregory

In the late Trecento, after a long period of disregard, the Roman basilica of Santa Croce in Gersualemme attracted the attention of Napoleone and Nicola Orsini, who financed the creation of a Carthusian monastery. This article will focus on the Orsini's patronage, its motivations and long-term results. The project of building a certosa in Rome was part of a series of charterhouses that were patronized by members of the Angevin court of Naples - as both Napoleone and Nicola were. After outlining the documentary evidence for the building enterprise up to circa 1400, are considered, particularly the so-called triptych of Saint Gregory, which, thanks to a new interpretation of the arms on the frame of its central Man of Sorrows icon, can now be established to have been donated by Nicola Orsini. The issue of why these object were chosen to be presented to Santa Croce and how they impacted on the liturgical life of the basilica in the following centuries is addressed.