Religious Material Culture in Late Quattrocento Florence: The Case of the Tornabuoni, in: Ghirlandaio y el Renacimiento en Florencia, ed. Gert Jan van der Sman, Madrid: Fundación Colección Thyssen-Bornemisza, 2010, pp. 308-316

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III. Private Devotion and Sacred Iconography

Religious Material Culture in Late Quattrocento Florence: The Case of the Tornabuoni Victor M. Schmidt

The aim of this essay is to discuss religious works of art created for domestic use in Florence at the end of the fifteenth century, starting from the well-known Tornabuoni inventory of 1498. Although the Tornabuoni were among the wealthiest patrician families of Florence, the kind of objects they owned—but not their number—can be paralleled with other, less extensive inventories of the Quattrocento.1 The 1498 inventory comprises the family palace in Florence, the villa at Careggi, and the podere (farmhouse) Le Brache. As is usual in such inventories, items are listed per room. Religious works of art are often the first items recorded, presumably because they were the most conspicuous, if not necessarily the most valuable. Unfortunately, the descriptions are very summary. In the case of works of art, no dimensions are given, nor the names of the artists; in a few cases a painting is qualified as Flemish (fiandresco), suggesting a Netherlandish import. On the basis of the entries alone, it would be almost impossible to identify the works listed with extant ones, with the exception perhaps of the portraits of Giovanna degli Albizzi Tornabuoni [cat. 20] and Lucrezia Tornabuoni, the mother of Lorenzo il Magnifico,2 because these were probably unique. For most of the religious objects, one can only obtain a general idea by relating the object types and subject matter to contemporary works that have survived. In the next paragraphs, I will undertake this endeavour, following the inventory of the three buildings floor by floor and room by room. The Objects Giovanni Tornabuoni’s Florentine palace, now known as Palazzo Corsi, still stands on Via de’ Tornabuoni but in a completely altered form. According to Vasari, it was designed by Michelozzo, “similar in almost every aspect to the palace that he had made for Cosimo [de’ Medici], except that the façade is not rusticated and has no cornices above, but is plain.”3 It would seem that the Tornabuoni were not only political allies of the Medici but also shared their taste in material culture. However, in at least one fundamental aspect they were following a general fashion: their predilection for images of the Virgin. These were ubiquitous. They are usually referred to as “una Vergine Maria,” but as single images of the Virgin alone are quite rare, it must be assumed that the presence of the Christ Child was taken for granted. If we follow the sequence of the inventory, we find on the ground floor in two rooms (the camera of the sala terrena and the camera terrena in sul androne) the usual Madonna in a tabernacle, while the latter room was also the location of Lucrezia Tornabuoni’s portrait. Guests might be received in such rooms and on occasions the owner used them as a summer chamber, which would explain why they contained works of art.4

In the room above the one previously mentioned was a painted Madonna all’antica in a gilded tabernacle. To continue on the piano nobile, we encounter a suite of representative camere and anticamere. Although usually translated as bedroom, the camera actually served a range of social functions, the most important of which was the reception of family, friends, and business associates.5 The presence of a bed did not necessarily mean that its occupant actually slept there: this basic function may actually in fact have taken place in the anticamera. The latter served as an appendage to the camera and was often as lavishly furnished, albeit on a diminished scale.6 In Palazzo Tornabuoni, the most spectacular camera must have been that of Lorenzo. Among the paintings it contained was a tondo with a gilt frame, representing the Adoration of the Magi [cat. 27]. This is undoubtedly Ghirlandaio’s painting of this subject now in the Uffizi. It is dated 1487, the year in which Giovanni di Lorenzo was born.7 Exceptionally, the room is referred to as “bella,” suggesting that the whole ensemble of objects displayed here warranted this qualification.8 Apart from Ghirlandaio’s tondo, there were “two world maps, also in gilded frames, and two gilded marriage chests with gilded and painted spalliere, and another chest of walnut with inlay.”9 A set of five panel paintings, three horizontal ones depicting the story of the Argonauts and two vertical ones of Apollo and Venus respectively, are thought to have adorned this room as well. Four have the Tornabuoni and Degli Albizzi coats of arms, and one of them bears the date 1487. The subjects are certainly suitable for Lorenzo’s chamber, but the panels are not explicitly mentioned in the inventory.10 Two other rooms on the same floor had a number of sumptuous features, evident in their designations: the room with the golden ceiling (chamera del palco d’oro), and the camera del arcipresso, so-called because of the spalliere of cypress wood. The former housed a tondo with a “gilded festoon,” representing the Virgin and Saint John. Sculpted and gilded fruit-and-flower frames were typical for tondi at the end of the fifteenth century and the beginning of the next.11 The painting’s subject must have been the Virgin and the Infant Christ with his young cousin, Saint John the Baptist. The subject was quite popular for tondi, and examples by Botticelli, Jacopo del Sellaio, Filippino Lippi, Piero di Cosimo, Lorenzo di Credi, and others survive.12 A particularly successful composition from the circle of Ghirlandaio, depicting the Virgin with the Child on her lap and caressing the infant Saint John the Baptist with a varying number of angels, is known in more than a dozen replicas and versions [fig. 18]. Most of them are attributed to Sebastiano Mainardi but the composition itself may go back

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to his more renowned brother-in-law, Domenico Ghirlandaio.13 In the same room were a small tabernacle (tabernacoletto) with Saint Anthony of Padua, and the portrait of Giovanna. In the camera del arcipresso were a painted Madonna “in 1o telaio,” and a Madonna in a small tabernacle. The term telaio suggests a mounted picture, most likely a painting on canvas.14 Still on the same floor, the anteroom of Lorenzo housed a “Virgin Mary of wood, painted, and Saint John with a Christ on the cross with Saints Francis and Jerome.”15 Unfortunately, the curious wording makes it difficult to understand what is meant exactly. It may indicate an image, either a panel painting or a polychrome wood sculpture, of Christ on the cross with the Virgin and Saint John, and Saints Francis and Jerome as additional mourners. Another possibility is an image of the Virgin and Child with Saint John, combined with an image of Christ on the cross flanked by Saints Francis and Jerome elsewhere in the picture field, or in another compartment, such as a lunette or a predella. The latter idea suggests a tabernacle, but the inventory does not mention an object type. It is even possible that the chrocifixo is part of these saints’ iconography: Saint Francis received the stigmata from a winged crucifix, while in images of Jerome in the wilderness the saint is usually praying before a crucifix [fig. 27]. The room of Giovannino, Lorenzo’s ten-year old son, included a gilded Madonna, a tabernacle all’antica and a tavoletta with the Annunciation. A few Florentine small-scale paintings of the latter subject survive today, including the panel by Filippino Lippi in the Hermitage [cat. 52].16 Datable to the mid-1490s, the latter is a free quotation from the most famous of all Florentine Annunciation images, the miraculous fresco in Santissima Annunziata. Giovannino’s bedroom also contained a gesso crucifix. From the items listed in the inventory, it appears that the salotto di sopra was used as a chapel. Private chapels for laypersons in their residences had always been an exception. In principle, Mass could not be celebrated in a space not open to public access unless the local bishop had given his permission. It goes without saying that this dispensation was only given to a privileged few. In Florence during the Quattrocento, such individuals were usually in one way or another allies of the Medici. There was no standard decoration for such a chapel, and the room in Palazzo Tornabuoni used as such was only one of the possible arrangements.17 Here, a canvas “chon una Pietà e altri santi dipinta fiandrescha” functioned as an altarpiece. The subject is probably not the Pietà as we understand it today—an image of the Virgin supporting the body of the dead Christ on her lap—but rather the imago Pietatis, that is, Christ as the Man of Sorrows in half-length format. In a letter from Domenico di Cambio of 29 December 1390 to Francesco di Marco Datini, the well-known merchant of Prato, concerning a panel that Datini had asked him to supply, Domenico uses the term in precisely this way, explaining that it is an image of Christ in the sepulchre or sarcophagus.18 The Tornabuoni painting, however, also included various saints. Since the painting is described as Flemish, it is quite possible that the subject was

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a Descent from the Cross or a Deposition with half-length figures. At least three such compositions existed in Netherlandish painting: a Descent from the Cross, which probably originated with Rogier van der Weyden, a Descent from the Cross by Hugo van der Goes, and a Deposition/Lamentation by the same painter. As Sixten Ringbom has shown, such compositions can be regarded as developments of the Man of Sorrows figure.19 A fragment of the Deposition/Lamentation composition in Oxford [fig. 19], generally considered to be autograph, is in fact on canvas and seems to have come from Palazzo Durazzo in Genoa.20 Another of Giovanni’s rooms, “verso in su la sala,” included a polychromed marble Madonna in a tabernacle, a small rectangular panel with a gilt frame showing the Redeemer, a painting on canvas of Mary Magdalene in a gilt frame, and a panel painting of Saint Francis in a similar frame. The Redeemer (Salvatore) was most probably a figure of Christ, dressed and represented as a bust or half-length figure, as this was the most common format. Since it is not described as Flemish, the painting was probably Florentine. During the second half of the Quattrocento, Florentine painters produced a number of busts or half-length figures of Christ that are close to (but not necessarily inspired by) contemporary Netherlandish examples.21 At least one popular composition in this vein was created by Botticelli and shows Christ with the crown of thorns, raising his right hand in benediction and pointing with his left hand to the wound in his side, visible through a slit in his robe [fig. 20].22 Another version of the composition, showing Christ with the crown of thorns in his right hand, may also go back to a design by Botticelli.23 The formula was apparently adopted by Jacopo del Sellaio, who not only recycled the Botticellian design but also made a number of versions of his own, showing Christ with different attributes [cat. 56].24 In the anteroom of Giovanni’s camera were a Madonna in a wooden tabernacle, a small painting on canvas of the Redeemer, and two small pictures with the head of Christ. The fact that the latter items are referred to as heads probably suggests that the painting on canvas represented Christ as a bust or half-length figure. The anteroom of the room near the sala grande was adorned with a Madonna in a small tabernacle. The study included a small tabernacle of the Madonna with Saints Jerome and Francis. Interestingly, Palazzo Tornabuoni actually had two rooms called scrittoio. One was located at the head of the staircase and must have been used as an office space. The other one, which interests us here, must have been more private, located as it was at the end of the apartment off an antechamber.25 The villa at Careggi, now known as Villa Lemmi, was acquired by Giovanni in 1469, shortly after a major rebuilding campaign undertaken by the previous owner, the Da Galliano family.26 In the camera and the sala terrena we find a marble Madonna in a tabernacle, a painting of the Madonna in a tabernacle, and a small crucifix. The camera dello schaglione included a “piata” in a small tabernacle, presumably a Man of Sorrows, while the same subject was found in the room of the

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III. Private Devotion and Sacred Iconography Religious Material Culture in Late Quattrocento Florence: The Case of the Tornabuoni Victor M. Schmidt

hall of the wet nurses (chamera in sudetta sala delle balie). The Man of Sorrows can be represented as an isolated figure in the sepulchre, or in combination with the Virgin, Saint John, and the arma Christi, as in a panel of around 1475 from Ghirlandaio’s workshop in Maastricht [fig. 21].27 The same room of the wet nurses also had two Madonnas in tabernacles and a crucifix, and the anteroom a polychromed gesso Madonna. The nearby room of Ludovica contained a Madonna of gesso “in 1o tondo di diamante.” This is a curious expression, which should perhaps be taken literally. A mirror frame in the Victoria and Albert Museum with a gesso relief of Venus, Mars, and putti is in fact circular and crowned with a diamond-shaped ornament.28 A similar ornament is to be seen on top of the metal frame of the mirror in the hand of Prudence, one of the Virtues painted by Piero del Pollaiuolo for the audience hall of the Mercanzia in Florence.29 In the case of the Tornabuoni tondo, the diamond probably had a personal significance as well, as it was one of the family emblems. In the anteroom was “1o tabernacolo dipinto in charta,” a painting on paper, possibly mounted on panel. Paintings on paper are regularly listed in inventories but very few examples survive.30 In Giovannino’s room was a gesso Madonna, and in that of Lorenzo on the upper floor another gesso Madonna “in 1o tondo di diamante,” as well as a painting of the Nativity of Our Lord on canvas. The latter was probably a painting of the Virgin adoring the Christ Child or a similar composition with the addition of Joseph. In the anteroom we find the usual Madonna in a small tabernacle, and finally, in the camera nuova di sopra, a painted Madonna. The podere Le Brache near Castello was owned by Giovanni Tornabuoni since 1488.31 Here, we encounter a tabernacle with saints, a small tabernacle of the Crucifixion all’antica, two painted gesso Madonnas, and a tabernacle with the Coronation of the Virgin. The Crucifixion must have been an older work of art, and this probably also held true for the Coronation tabernacle, as it is difficult to find a small painting of this subject in later fifteenth-century painting. It is true that the subject remained popular for large altarpieces throughout the century, but smallscale renderings principally date from the second half of the Trecento; after this they seem to have gone out of fashion. Finally, in the camera of Giovanni was another Madonna in polychromed gesso and a picture of Saint Jerome, probably as a penitent in the wilderness (see below). Distribution and Display It is not surprising that the most conspicuous, and presumably the most valuable items are listed as being in the city palace, including all the paintings and reliefs with gilt frames. The religious works of art in the villa and podere were less valuable items and their number was small in comparison to the city palace. Aside from this, there is no clear distinction between the works in the three locations.32 Most of the items in all three buildings were recorded in the camere or the anticamere, usually designated by their occupants.

It is noteworthy that religious works were not only found in the adults’ chambers, but also in those of the children. The very presence of religious works of art here suggests that their primary function was that of edification. This is underscored by the objects in the wet nurse’s room in the villa, which, according to Jacqueline Marie Musacchio, were: “almost certainly meant for the impressionable infant’s edification, since it is doubtful that the Tornabuoni cared enough about the wet nurse to tend to her religious needs in such a thorough manner.”33 In this context, it is probably also significant that the tutor’s room in the city palace and in Le Brache did not contain any works of art, nor did those of the domestic maids.34 The distribution of the recorded paintings over the rooms was probably not static and the smaller items in particular may have been moved, even between the palazzo, villa, and podere. If so, they must have been transported in a case or a sheath, even though such items are not recorded.35 It should also not be assumed that the paintings and reliefs were necessarily hanging on a wall as pictures are today. Depending on the object type (see below), tabernacles were usually provided with a pedestal so that they could stand up, either in a niche or on a bracket or some piece of furniture. In some cases, the bracket is actually of one piece with the frame, forming an antependium [see cat. 50]. In contrast, and given their circular format, it would seem that tondi must have been hung on a wall. But even they could be displayed in combination with a bracket, as is shown in a well-known woodcut in a printed edition of Savonarola’s Predica dell’arte del bene morire [fig. 22].36 Items such as brackets are not recorded in the Tornabuoni inventory, but this does not necessarily mean that they were not present. From other contemporary inventories we also know that tabernacles and other pictures were often equipped with a protective cloth and a candle-holder. These, too, are not mentioned in the Tornabuoni inventory. Thus, inventories do not necessarily give a full and complete picture. The same holds true for depictions of interiors. The woodcut mentioned above is exceptional in that it is the only clear representation of a tondo in a contemporary domestic setting,37 yet we know from surviving examples that this type of picture was very popular. Most contemporary representations of interiors show a tabernacle of the Virgin, and a few a crucifix. I am only familiar with one Florentine depiction of a statue of the Madonna in an interior [fig. 23].38 Although interesting, the documentary value of contemporary representations of interiors is limited, as they primarily serve as backdrops for figures whose actions form the main focus of attention. Moreover, the details of the interiors represented are sometimes ambiguous. An early fifteenth-century Florentine desco da parto (childbirth tray) in Detroit representing a confinement chamber has a painting in the background of the Madonna with other figures, including a Dominican saint [fig. 24]. In fact, it is possibly not a picture but a painted niche, since it is unclear whether a frame is depicted at all.39 Niches could also be used as depositories for small objects such as crucifixes [fig. 25].40

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Object Types In the inventory, the most important object types are relatively easy to determine: quadri, tondi, tabernacles, and crucifixes. As their names suggest, a quadro is rectangular, whereas a tondo is circular in shape. Paintings and reliefs in this format were particularly popular in Florence and Siena during the second half of the fifteenth and the beginning of the sixteenth centuries. Less straightforward, however, is the tabernacle. In current usage, a tabernacle can refer to a variety of objects. For Edward Garrison, a “tabernacle is merely a simple panel to which a door or shutters have been added.”41 The term is not, however, exactly synonymous with triptych. Particularly in fourteenth-century Florentine painting, the centre part of a tabernacle has a base and a frame of a certain thickness, often projecting and imitating contemporary architectural forms.42 Hence the other modern term of aedicular frame, which in practice is used to refer to the Renaissance tabernacle frame, consisting of a pedestal, flanking pilasters, entablature, and pediment. It is the Renaissance format par excellence for a painting or relief of the half-length Virgin with the Child.43 We can assume that most tabernacles mentioned in the inventory referred to this type of object. In general, these Renaissance tabernacles do not have shutters, although exceptions survive. In other contemporary inventories these shutters are sometimes explicitly mentioned, and again, the fact that they are not recorded in the Tornabuoni inventory does not mean that they were not there. It is quite possible that the tabernacles in the Tornabuoni inventory described as small or all’antica had shutters, as pre-Renaissance tabernacles often had. However, since the late fourteenth century there was also another, specifically Florentine type of tabernacle that was actually quite large, without shutters, and had a predella, an arched top, and spiral columns flanking the central image.44 In current art-historical usage, all’antica means “in the ancient, or classical, manner.” Such a meaning is attested, for example, in the record book, or Ricordanze, of the painter Neri di Bicci, which covers the period 1453–75. On 1 September 1455, he recorded a contract with Giuliano da Maiano, one of his favourite frame makers, to construct an altarpiece which was to be “square, in the classical manner (quadra, al’anticha [sic]), with a predella at the base, fluted columns on the side, and an architrave, frieze, and cornice with leaves above.”45 It is, in other words, the archetypical Renaissance altarpiece. In many other instances, however, antico refers to an “ancient,” i.e. oldfashioned, style, which must have roughly corresponded to our modern notion of Gothic. A Sienese inventory of 1450, for example, lists two painted chests that are both old (vecchio) and all’antica.46 If all’antica were really “in the classical, i.e. Renaissance manner,” these objects could not have been old enough to be worn with age. The added qualification of vecchio therefore suggests that all’antica does indicate a style or manner at that point out of fashion. Another word often used, if not in the Tornabuoni inventory, is colmo. In his Ricordanze, Neri di Bicci uses both terms almost

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interchangeably. Essentially, they are the same kind of object, although it would seem that a colmo has an arched rather than a rounded top. In fifteenth-century usage, both colmo and tabernacolo often have the qualification da camera (but again, not in the Tornabuoni inventory). This qualification confirms that a clearly recognizable category of objects for domestic use had been created. In turn, this circumstance can be related to the fact that all the object types covered by the modern term tabernacle frequently feature two coats of arms, generally separate but sometimes impaled. Presumably these coats of arms are those of a husband and wife; in fact, a marriage was the occasion to furnish a new home, particularly the camera, with paintings and other objects [fig. 23]. Models and Media In Florence during the Quattrocento, successful compositions were repeated in replicas, versions, and copies. The phenomenon can be observed particularly in religious domestic art and attests to the growing market for such commodities.47 Whereas replicas of paintings were usually executed in painters’ workshops, the reproduction of sculpture, particularly reliefs, was more complex. Almost every major Florentine sculptor designed a Madonna composition that exists in various materials, ranging from replicas in marble or another stone to copies made in terracotta, stucco, and even papier-mâché. To refer to this phenomenon as “serial production” is a serious misnomer. The “seriality” only concerns one part of the production process, the casting or squeezing from a mould. Every individual piece, however, was the result of craftsmanship: the relief was pigmented, gilded, and put in a frame, which was often gilded itself and painted with coats of arms and sometimes additional imagery. To create such a finished product was the painter’s task. Many Florentine painters, if not the major ones, must have been engaged in this kind of craftsmanship and a few of their artefacts can be identified today if they have figural decoration. A tabernacle in the Victoria and Albert Museum of around 1434–40, enclosing a stucco relief of the Madonna, possibly after Donatello, contains painted figural additions on the sides, tympanum, and corbel by Paolo Schiavo. Given this attribution it is reasonable to suppose that the whole object, including its polychromy, was finished in Paolo’s studio.48 The same can be said of a later tabernacle and a tabernacle frame with lunettes painted by Bartolommeo di Giovanni [fig. 26].49 Alesso Baldovinetti was another painter engaged in such activities,50 and the same is probably the case for the Pseudo Pier Francesco Fiorentino.51 Thanks to his Ricordanze, the most discussed painter in this area of Florentine art is, however, Neri di Bicci.52 He sold numerous reliefs, usually of the Madonna and in gesso, which he had gilded and pigmented and often also set into a gilded and painted frame. On occasions he even sold more than one example at a time, suggesting that he had these reliefs in stock. Although he rarely recorded the sculptors’ names, he does occasionally mention Desiderio da Settignano as the artist of marble or gesso reliefs of the Madonna that he had to colour, gild, and frame.53 In fact,

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there are a number of gesso or stucco reliefs after Desiderio extant today that were clearly finished by Neri, including a fine specimen in the Liebieghaus in Frankfurt [cat. 45]. Iconography: the Virgin Through their images, Christ, the Virgin, and the saints sanctified and protected the house. The Virgin, as the Mother of God, was the principal advocate of all mankind. The standard inscription on the frames of the tabernacles of the Virgin and Child contains the first words of the Hail Mary.54 A tabernacle with a stucco relief after Verrocchio in Museo Bardini contains the words “Ave, Maria [sic, for “maris”] stella, Dei mater.”55 A tabernacle in the Victoria and Albert Museum with a terracotta relief after Benedetto da Maiano [fig. 26] contains the words “Ave sola virgo parens.”56 An extensive inscription on a tabernacle with a relief of the same model now in Opava spells out the Virgin’s function as advocate: “Recordare, Virgo Mater [Dei], dum steteris in conspectu Domini, ut loquaris pro nobis bona et ut avertat indignationem suam a nobis.”57 The Annunciation expressed the prime reason for the Virgin’s role in Salvation, as she consented to be the Mother of God— “Behold the maidservant of the Lord! Let it be to me according to your word.”58 The Annunciation was the moment of the Incarnation. Visually it was an attractive image, as it gave the beholder the opportunity to join the angel in his salutation—“Ave gratia plena.”59 As mentioned above, it is quite possible that the Annunciation panel recorded in Giovannino’s room in the palace established a direct relationship with one of the most important Marian shrines of Florence, the Santissima Annunziata. The Coronation expressed the Virgin’s role in the Economy of Salvation in yet another fashion. Ever since its first, “classic” formulation by Giotto, the Coronation of the Virgin in Florentine painting has been an image of heaven: the Virgin and Christ surrounded by their celestial court, comprising a host of angels and saints.60 It underscores the position of the Virgin as Queen of Heaven and advocate of mankind, and provides an intimation of the future glory awaiting every Christian. Iconography: Christ Every image of the Virgin with the Infant Christ is also an emblem of the Word made flesh. In the canvas of the Nativity recorded in the villa, for example, the idea was expressed in a focused manner and almost certainly featured the Virgin adoring her Son. The same formula was also used in various compositions of the Madonna with the Christ Child [see cat. 45]. Adoration is also the essential action in representations of the Magi, or the Epiphany, in which Christ manifests himself to the pagans. In Florence this subject had Medicean overtones. The Magi and their retinue were painted on the walls of the chapel in the Palazzo Medici. More importantly, the palace housed two large tondi of the subject, a highly valued one by Fra Angelico and another by Pesellino. The tondo now in Washington may be the former; it is by Fra Angelico, although it was completed

by Filippo Lippi at some point after the death of the older artist in 1455.61 Compared to other subjects, the Epiphany was not very popular for tondi, which may suggest a relationship between the surviving examples. Vasari saw a tondo of the Adoration by Botticelli in the house of the Pucci, which may well be the tondo with this subject now in the National Gallery in London. Datable to the early 1470s, it may have been a form of homage to the Medici.62 The case is even stronger with Ghirlandaio’s tondo, given the strong ties between the Tornabuoni and the Medici [cat. 27]. The representation of Christ on the cross is the essential image of his Passion, although the image in the form of a sculpture in the round was perhaps not as common as it is today. Although they existed during the Trecento, their growing popularity in Florence during the Quattrocento was probably related to the vogue for monumental crucifixes, often in wood. Moreover, small crucifixes were also represented in contemporary depictions of Saint Jerome in the wilderness, for example [fig. 27; see cat. 60]. These objects had the additional advantage that they could be handled. Perhaps even more than the Crucifixion, the Man of Sorrows evoked the whole of Christ’s Passion and suffering for mankind. Due to the empathy the subject aroused in the beholder it was called “chosa molto devote” by Domenico di Cambio in his letter to Datini referred to before.63 A similar expression was used by Alessandra Strozzi in a letter from 6 March 1460 to her son Lorenzo to characterise a Netherlandish head of Christ: “una devota figura e bella.”64 The qualification was no doubt applicable to the Tornabuoni pictures of the head or bust of Christ, especially as they may well have included the crown of thorns or other instruments of the Passion. Iconography: Saints The saints whose images are recorded in the inventory are among the most venerated, which makes it difficult to evaluate their selection. Nevertheless, the first observation that should be made is the total absence of Dominican saints. The Tornabuoni had the ius patronatus of the Cappella Maggiore of Santa Maria Novella, the principal Dominican church in the city, and Giovanni spent vast sums of money on its furnishing and decoration, including the well-known frescoes by Domenico Ghirlandaio and his assistants. This circumstance apparently did not give rise to any personal interest in the saints of the Order. Secondly, and equally remarkably, there are no clear indications that name saints were preferred.65 No image of Lawrence (for Lorenzo) or Louis of Toulouse (for Lorenzo’s daughter Ludovica) is recorded. It is true that there was a tondo with Saint John the Baptist, Giovanni’s name saint, but the Baptist is Florence’s patron saint and therefore very popular. In addition, Francesca was the name of Giovanni’s deceased wife, Francesco that of his father, and Antonio that of his halfbrother. It is questionable, however, whether these circumstances were conclusive motives for Giovanni to have a panel of Saint Francis in one of his rooms in the palace or for Lorenzo to have

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a small tabernacle of Saint Anthony of Padua in the chamera del palco d’oro. Saint Francis was combined with Saint Jerome in two other objects, suggesting that the saints were chosen for other reasons. They were both very popular at that time and were fairly frequently combined in painting. Also popular was Mary Magdalene, of whom a painting on canvas was in the same room of Giovanni that housed his panel of Saint Francis. There is a strong possibility that a specific feature in the case of Jerome, Francis, and the Magdalen caused these saints and depictions of them to be so attractive, namely the landscape. Jerome was often represented as a scholar in his study, but also as a penitent in the wilderness [see cat. 60]. In the early fifteenth century, the setting was usually grim and bare with scorpions and other unpleasant creatures as the only inhabitants. Later in the century, the saint’s immediate surroundings were still rocky and bare but the middle-ground and background were often filled with lush trees opening onto panoramic views. Architectural elements were frequently included and sometimes even a view of Florence in the distance.66 Of all the Florentine painters who devoted their attention to this popular saint, Jacopo del Sellaio is perhaps the most interesting. In a number of pictures, he expanded the landscape around Saint Jerome to include other saints such as Mary Magdalene as a penitent and Saint Francis receiving the stigmata [fig. 28], in other words, the very saints who were also represented in the Tornabuoni inventory in the form of independent pictures.67 If the Mary Magdalene in Giovanni’s room was in fact set in a landscape, she must have been represented in the same fashion [see cat. 59]. According to tradition, Saint Francis received the stigmata near the convent of La Verna, high up in the mountainous region of the Casentino; hence the rocky landscape in depictions of the event. Two other Tornabuoni pictures may have been equally distinguished by the presence of landscape settings. The canvas of the Nativity in the villa was probably of this type, as in Florentine painting this scene was often located in such a setting. The tabernacle of Our Lady with Saints Francis and Jerome in Giovanni’s study in the palazzo may have been a “wilderness Adoration” in the manner of Filippo Lippi, the best-known example of which is the altarpiece for the chapel of Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, now in Berlin [fig. 29].68 The formula was repeated and modified by later Florentine painters, including Jacopo del Sellaio, Francesco Botticini [see cat. 50], and the painters known as Pseudo Pier Francesco Fiorentino and the Master of the Castello Nativity. The fashion for landscape as a setting no doubt contained an element of visual pleasure and appreciation, as can also be gauged from remarks in Alberti’s De re aedificatoria (book IX, 4) and Lorenzo il Magnifico’s Comento de’ miei sonetti.69 In the case of “saints in the wilderness,” however, there must have been more to it. The theme was expressed in Florentine painting in yet another fashion: the Thebaid. As the name suggests, the Thebaid was a representation of the Egyptian Desert Fathers set in a rocky landscape. In the course

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of the first half of the century, the subject was modified to include examples of Western hermitical life, including Saints Augustine, Benedict, Romuald, Bernard, and even Francis. An early example from Fra Angelico’s workshop datable to around 1430 has recently been reconstructed by Michel Laclotte.70 A little studied canvas, possibly a fragment, by Paolo Uccello datable to around 1460 should also be mentioned in this context.71 Two “spalliere” paintings by Jacopo del Sellaio in Berlin form the trait-d’union between his pictures of Saint Jerome with additional saints and the Thebaid tradition [fig. 28].72 Some Thebaids are known to have been commissioned, or at least owned, by laypersons. The famous 1492 Medici inventory lists two: one, by Fra Angelico, in the Palazzo Medici, and another anonymous one in the chapel of the Medici villa at Careggi.73 Whether or not the panel in the Uffizi can be identified with the former, its attribution to the young Fra Angelico is now generally accepted.74 The layman’s interest in hermitic ideals is expressed even more clearly in the fresco decoration of the “altana” of Palazzo Rucellai in Florence, which includes a Thebaid and a representation of the Virgin appearing to Saint Bernard.75 The interest on the part of the urban laity in hermits and in hermitical life and ideals dates back to the late thirteenth century.76 A lay person who retired to his private quarters could almost consider himself a hermit in the wilderness. The same situation could apply to the domestic chapel, such as the one in Palazzo Medici-Riccardi. Here it is as if the chapel’s pictorial decoration expresses the inherent contradiction of the situation. The quiet atmosphere of the Adoration wonderfully contrasts with the secular splendour and bustle of the three Magi and their retinue painted by Benozzo Gozzoli on the chapel’s walls. In the same spirit, a study could also become a layman’s cell to which he could retreat from daily affairs to read, reflect, and meditate. In a letter of 16 April 1395 to Francesco di Marco Datini, the notary Lapo Mazzei wrote: “I remain at home, in bed and in my study, as happy as the good hermits are on the mountain.”77 From here it seems just a small step to Giovanni’s study with his tabernacle. On the other hand, in the picture of Saint Jerome in his camera in Le Brache, the hypothetical outdoor setting would have matched the actual one of the podere itself. Conclusion With our tour around the Tornabuoni estates completed, it may be useful to conclude with some general remarks. The objects I have tried to individualise tend to be classified as “domestic” (da camera). It should be noted, however, that they were not exclusively used in the domestic realm. A tabernacle or tondo could have functioned perfectly in a variety of contexts, including a public building, a confraternity, or a monastic community. Nor were religious domestic objects characterised by a special iconography. Undoubtedly, the halflength format in combination with certain attitudes and

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gestures would have established an intimate contact between the beholder and the holy figures (the Virgin and the Child, Christ as the Redeemer or the Man of Sorrows) and the impact of these figures could even have been underscored by elements such as parapets and balustrades [see cat. 44, 56].78 However, the same devices were also used in secular portraits. The relatively small scale of religious artistic objects would have created a certain intimacy for their users. Generally, however, there is no such thing as an intimate iconography of domestic devotional imagery.79 In fact, the religious subject matter tends to be quite conventional and is not essentially different to what one might find in other contexts. Personal preferences could have been expressed through the selection of certain subjects, which could have been personalised by means of devices such as coats of arms. Within these limits the variety was legion, simply because the whole spectrum of religious material culture was vast, as the Tornabuoni inventory amply demonstrates.

Nella chamera di Giovanni 1a Nostra Donna a giesso dipinta 1o Santo Girolamo dipinto

Appendix. The Religious Works of Art in the Tornabuoni Inventory (1498)

Nella chamera di Lorenzo bella in su la sala in palco Uno tondo chon chornicione d’oro di Nostra Donna e magi che ofersono a Christo

Florence, Archivio di Stato, Magistrato dei Pupilli avanti il Principato, 181, fols. 141r–152v The villa at Careggi (fol. 141r–143v) In chamera terrena e in sala terrena Una Vergine Maria di marmo in 1o tabernacolo 1a Vergine Maria dipinta in piano in 1o tabernacolo 1o chrocifisso piccholo Nella chamera dello schaglione in su detta sala Una piata in uno tabernacholuzo Nella chamera in sudetta sala delle balie 1a piata e 2 Vergine Marie in 2 tabernacoli Uno chrocifixo et 1a chassa a 2 serrami a pie di detto letto

Nella chamera della torre Una Vergine Maria a giesso dipinta Nell’antichamera di detta chamera [chamera in chapo di schala] 1o tabernacolo chon Inchoronatione di Nostra Donna Nella chamera di Dosino Una Vergine Maria a giesso dipinta Palazzo Tornabuoni (fols. 146v–150r) Nella chamera di detta sala [sala terrena chon panche intorno] 1a Vergine Maria in 1o tabernacolo con chornicie dorati Nella chamera terrena in sul androne 1a Vergine Maria di giesso dorata in 1o tabernacolo Nella chamera del androne di sopra 1a Vergine Maria dipinta in piano al’anticha in 1o tabernacholo messo d’oro

Nella chamera del palcho d’oro Uno tondo chon festone messo d’oro dov’è Nostra Donna e santo G[iovanni] 1o tabernacoletto dov’è dipinto santo Antonio da Padova Nella camera del arcipresso 1a Vergine Maria in 1o telaio dipinta 1o tabernacolino chon una Madonna Nell’antichamera di Lorenzo 1a Virgine Maria di legno dipinta e santo Giovanni chon uno Chrocifixo con santo Francesco e santo Girolamo

Nell’antichamera di detta chamera Una Vergine Maria dipinta di giesso

Nella chamera in su la saletta di Giovannino 1a Vergine Maria messa d’oro 1o tabernacolo all’anticha 1a tavoletta dov’è l’Anuntiatione di Nostra Donna dipinta

Nella chamera della Lodovicha Una Vergine Maria di giesso in 1o tondo di diemante

Nella chamera dove dorme Giovannino 1o chrocifixo di giesso80

Nell’antichamera di detta chamera 1o tabernacolo dipinto in charta

Nel salotto di sopra 1o telaio chon una Pietà e altri santi dipinta fiandrescha

Nella chamera di Giovannino Una Vergine Maria di giesso

Nella chamera di Giovanni verso in su la sala Una Vergine Maria di marmo dipinta in 1o tabernacolo 1a tavoletta quadra e chornicione d’oro dipintovi el Salvatore 1o quadro chon chornicione dorato in tela dipintovi Santa Maria Madalena

Nella chamera di Lorenzo di sopra 1a Vergine Maria di giesso in 1o tondo di diemante 1o telaio entrovi la Natività di nostro Signiore Nell’antichamera di detta chamera 1a Vergine Maria in 1o tabernacolino Nella chamera nuova di sopra Una Vergine Maria dipinta in piano

1o quadro chon chornicione d’oro dov’è dipinto San Francesco Nell’antichamera di detta chamera 1a Vergine Maria in tabernacolo di legnio 1o quadretto dov’è dipinto el Salvatore in tela 2 quadretti picholetti chon teste di Nostro Signiore

Nella chamera del pane 1o tabernacolo dipinto in legno chon dei santi

Nello schrittoio 1a chassetta d’arcipresso ch’è ve dentro più medaglie chon teste di rilievo e 1a scharsella richamata di brochato e 1o tabernacholino dov’è Nostra Donna e San Girolamo e San Francesco

Nella chamera in su la logia 1o tabernacoluzzo chon una chrocifixo all’anticha

Nell’antichamera di detta chamera [chamera in su la sala grande] 1a Vergine Maria in 1o tabernacoletto

The Villa at Le Brache (fols. 144r–146r)

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See in particular Lydecker 1987 and Musacchio 2008, especially the chapter entitled “The Madonna, Saints, and Heroes for the Home.” The Tornabuoni inventory has also been extensively used by Lindow 2007, who published on pp. 236–39 the inventory of Lorenzo Tornabuoni’s camera bella; and Sman 2009. Paula Nuttall has evaluated the number of Netherlandish paintings and tapestries owned by the Tornabuoni: Nuttall 2004, pp. 127–30, 261–63.

2

Washington, National Gallery of Art, inv. no. 1952.5.62. See Cadogan 2000, pp. 277–78, no. 46; Boskovits/Brown 2003, pp. 303–7.

3

“quasi in tutto simile al palazzo che aveva fatto a Cosimo, eccetto che la facciata non è di bozzi né con cornici sopra”: Vasari (1568) 1966– 1987, vol. III, p. 237. For the palace, see Ferrara/Quinterio 1984, pp. 375–77, 419.

4

Preyer 2006, p. 36; Lindow 2007, p. 123.

5

Preyer 2006, pp. 40–45; Lindow 2007, p. 127–31.

6

Preyer 2006, pp. 36, 46; Lindow 2007, p. 131.

7

Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi, inv. no. 1619. Cadogan 2000, pp. 256–58, no. 32 (with bibliography).

8

Lindow 2007, pp. 153–72.

9

Fol. 148r: “2 Mappamondi chon chornicie dorati (...); 2 forzieri da sposa dorati e di pinto chon ispalliere dorate e dipinte; 1o forziere di noce chon prospettiva e altri lavori di noce chon dette spalliere choperto di tela azurra.”

10

The five panels are: The Departure of the Argonauts by Pietro del Donzello [cat. 24] and The Argonauts in Colchis by Bartolommeo di Giovanni [cat. 25] (both in the Mari-Cha Collection Ltd.); The Betrothal of Jason and Medea by Biagio d’Antonio [cat. 26]; Apollo, with the Tornabuoni arms, and Venus, with the Degli Albizzi arms, both by Bartolommeo di Giovanni (private collection). See Kress 2003; Bayer 2008, pp. 303–6; Sman 2009, pp. 73–89.

11

Mitchell/Roberts 1996, p. 24.

12

Olson 2000, figs. 7.14–16, 7.25–26, 7.29–30, 7.34, 7.36, A3–4, A8, A14, A17, A19–23, A28, A31, A39, A45–46, A49, A51, A54, A57–58, A63, A99–100, A102–5, A107–110.

13

Fahy 1976, p. 217; Venturini 1992, in part. p. 151; Olson 2000, pp. 185, 184, figs. 7.14–16. One of the best versions is in the Louvre (inv. no. M.I. 1547); two angels in this tondo can be related to the drawing of the heads of two boys attributed to Ghirlandaio (Galleria degli Uffizi, Gabinetto dei Disegni, inv. no. 288 E); see Cadogan 2000, p. 293, no. 82.

20 Byam Shaw 1967, pp. 120–21, no. 231; Dhanens 1998, pp. 176–84,

374 note 84. A connection between the Oxford fragment and the Tornabuoni entry was suggested by Nuttall 2004, p. 292 note 5. 21

Nuttall 2004, pp. 235–39.

22 The composition is seen in the panels in Detroit, Detroit Institute

of Arts, inv. no. 27.3, and Bergamo, Accademia Carrara, inv. no. 256, and in the canvas in Cambridge, Mass., Fogg Art Museum, inv. no. 1930.2. For the latter, see Kanter/Goldfarb/Hawkins 1997, pp. 41–43, no. 4. For the Bergamo panel, see Fahy 2007, pp. 47–48; for the Detroit version, see Schumacher 2009, pp. 352–53 (catalogue entry by Bastian Eclercy). Although the paintings in Cambridge and Detroit seem to have been independent works, the panel in Bergamo once formed a diptych with a Mater dolorosa, last seen in the collection of Sergej Sheremetev in St Petersburg. A virtual reconstruction of the diptych will be presented in a forthcoming exhibition at Museo Poldi Pezzoli in Milan, entitled Botticelli nelle collezioni lombarde. I thank the curator, Andrea Di Lorenzo, for this information. 23 Oxford, Christ Church. See Byam Shaw 1967, p. 51, no. 38. 24 A version of this composition is in La Spezia, Museo Lia, inv.

no. 107; Zeri/De Marchi 1997, pp. 168–69, no. 72 (as workshop of Filippino Lippi). For other variations by Jacopo, see Pons 1996, and Baldessari 2001, pp. 86–89 (catalogue entry by Luciano Bellosi). 25 Lindow 2007, pp. 132–33. 26 In the past the design of the rebuilding has been ascribed to

Michelozzo, see Ferrara/Quinterio 1984, p. 401 note 1. For further information on the villa and the fresco decoration, see Sman 2009, pp. 53–68. 27 Maastricht, Bonnefantenmuseum, inv. no. 3442 (41.5 x 27.4 cm),

see Jong-Janssen 1995, pp. 48–49. 28 London, Victoria and Albert Museum, inv. no. 5887–1859. See Pope-

Hennessy 1964, vol. I, pp. 153–54, no. 129, and vol. II, p. 122, fig. 151; Rubin/Wright 1999, pp. 320–21, no. 80. The 1492 inventory of the Medici palace lists in Piero’s anteroom a Madonna in a “colmetto in uno diamante”: Spallanzani/Gaeta Bertelà 1992, p. 94. 29 Now in the Uffizi, inv. no. 1890, no. 1610. See Wright 2005, p. 521,

no. 49f (with further references). For details of the mirror, see ibid., p. 248, and Musacchio 2008, p. 165, fig. 166. 30 Nuttall 2004, pp. 120–21; Musacchio 2008, pp. 216–17. 31

Carocci 1906–1907, vol. I, pp. 288–89; Ferrara/Quinterio 1984, p. 401 note 1.

32 See Lillie 2005, pp. 133–46 (chapter 7: “Villa Interiors”).

14

For the meaning and use of telaio, see Nutall ’2004, pp. 119–20.

33 Musacchio 2008, p. 210.

15

“1a Virgine Maria di legno dipinta e santo Giovanni chon uno Chrocifixo con santo Francesco e santo Girolamo.”

34 Lindow 2007, p. 127; Musacchio 2008, p. 47.

16

Other small-scale examples include an early panel by Filippino in Glens Falls, NY, Hyde Collection, inv. no. 1470.10; a panel by Botticelli in New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, Robert Lehman Collection, inv. no. 1975.1.74; and another from his workshop in Hannover, Niedersächsisches Landesmuseum, inv. no. KM 306. The latter includes the figure of a female supplicant.

36 For a discussion, see Olson 2000, p. 79. The author rightly remarks

17

Schmidt 2005, pp. 90–94; Mattox 2006, in particular p. 669 for Palazzo Tornabuoni. In contrast, the chapel of Le Brache must have been out of use, as it did not even contain the one essential element, i.e. the consecrated stone embedded in the altar table. In the inventory, only some worked stone elements and planks are recorded: “Nella chapella: 4 pezzi di chonci da finestra e più pezzi di chonci e asse” (fol. 144v).

18

“… una Pietà, cioè il Nostro Singnore quand’escie del monimento.” See Piattoli 1929, p. 229.

19

Ringbom 1984, pp. 117–41. See also De Vos 1999, pp. 368–69, no. B11.

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35 Schmidt 2005, pp. 95–101.

that the tondo is either leaning against the wall or attached to it. 37 Ibid., pp. 79–80. 38 A coarse woodcut in Rappresentazione di Tobia dell’Angelo Raffaele

(Florence, 1554), reproduced in Kecks 1988, fig. 28. 39 Detroit, Detroit Institute of Arts, inv. no. 65.385. See De Carli 1997,

pp. 66–67, no. 2; Musacchio 2008, pp. 198–99. 40 Schmidt 2005, p. 94; Musacchio 2008, pp. 198–202. 41

Garrison 1949, p. 109.

42 Schmidt 2008. 43 Newbery/Bisacca/Kanter 1990, pp. 38–63; Mitchell/Roberts 1996,

pp. 19–20. 44 Newbery/Bisacca/Kanter 1990, pp. 36–37. 45 The English translation in Newbery/Bisacca/Kanter 1990, p. 22.

The original in Neri di Bicci (1453–1475) 1976, p. 33: “… una tavola

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d’altare…; quadra, al’anticha, chon predella da pie’, cholonne a chanali da lato e architrave, freg[i]o, chornic[i]one e foglia di sopra.”

64 Speaking about Netherlandish paintings on canvas that might

sell well in Florence, she writes: “El Volto Santo serberò; che è una divota figura e bella.” See Macinghi Strozzi 1914, p. 58.

46 Mazzi 1911, pp. 168, no. 221, and 169, no. 235. 47 Venturini 1992; Kecks 1988; Johnson 1997. 48 London, the Victoria and Albert Museum, inv. no. A.45-1926.

65 Contrary to what Musacchio 2008, p. 212, suggests. 66 An example is a panel in the Lindenau-Museum, Altenburg, inv.

no. 150, now attributed to the “Maestro esiguo.” See Boskovits 2005, pp. 128–30, no. 28 (catalogue entry by Johannes Tripps). For Saint Jerome in general, see Russo 1987, and Wiebel 1988.

See Pope-Hennessy 1964, vol. I, pp. 83–84, no. 68. 49 Tabernacle with a terracotta relief of the Virgin and Child with the

Young Baptist after Benedetto da Maiano in London, the Victoria and Albert Museum, inv. no. 5–1980; tabernacle frame by the workshop of Giuliano da Maiano in New York, the Metropolitan Museum of Art, inv. no. 1989.132. See Pope-Hennessy 1964, vol. I, pp. 161–62, fig. 158; and Newbery/Bisacca/Kanter 1990, p. 43, no. 11.

67 Examples include Saint Jerome with Saint John the Baptist and

Mary Magdalene (Fiesole, Museo Bandini; formerly collection of the Earl of Crawford and Balcarres); Saint Jerome with John the Baptist, Mary Magdalene and Job (Milan, collection of Countess Rasini); Saint Jerome with Saint Augustine and the Christ Child and The Temptation of Saint Anthony (Stockholm, Nationalmuseum, inv. no. NM 2366); Saint Jerome and Saint Francis receiving the Stigmata (El Paso Museum of Art, inv. no. 1961–6/12); Saint Jerome with Saint John the Baptist in the Background (Sarasota, John and Mable Ringling Museum of Art, inv. no. SN 17); Saint Jerome with the Meeting of Saint Augustine and the Christ Child and that of Saint John the Baptist with Christ in the Background (Paris, Musée du Louvre, inv. no. M.I.500).

50 According to Baldovinetti’s Ricordi, he painted, or just coloured,

a small Madonna in a frame for Giuliano da Maiano; see Kennedy 1938, p. 236. 51

Middeldorf 1978, pp. 80–81.

52 Middeldorf 1978; Boskovits 1991, pp. 87–90, no. 22 (catalogue

entry by Angelo Tartuferi); Thomas 1995, pp. 287–93. 53 Neri di Bicci (1453–1475) 1976, pp. 156–57, no. 308 (3 January

1461), 186, no. 369 (4 June 1462), 239, no. 465 (19 February 1465). 54 Kecks 1988, p. 30; Johnson 1997, pp. 7–8. 55

Neri Lusanna/Fardo 1986, no. 207. The words are the beginning of a well-known hymn once attributed to Venantius Fortunatus, 1881, p. 385, no. IX.

56 “Hail alone the Virgin Mother”; London, the Victoria and Albert

Museum, inv. no. 5–1980. See Pope-Hennessy 1964, vol. I, pp. 161–62, fig. 158. 57

“Remember, Virgin Mother [of God], when thou shalt stand in the sight of the Lord, speak good things for us and to turn away His indignation from us”; Opava, Slezské zemské muzeum, inv. no. U 238 B/1. See Pulmanová 1997, pp. 306–7, no. 168 (with incorrect transcription). The text was (and is) used as the Offertory in Masses of the Virgin.

58 Luke 1:38. 59 Luke 1:28. 60 Offner 1947, pp. 243–50. 61

Washington, National Gallery of Art, inv. no. 1952.2.2. See Boskovits/Brown 2003, pp. 21–30.

62 London, the National Gallery, inv. no. NG 1033. See Rubin/Wright

1999, pp. 133–40, no. 7. For Vasari’s statement, see Vasari (1568) 1966–1987, vol. III, p. 514. 63 “... la Pietà, ch’è chosa molto divota”: Piattoli 1929, p. 232.

68 Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Gemäldegalerie, inv. no. 69. For the

“wilderness Adoration” in general, see Ruda 1993, pp. 217–35. 69 Alberti (1485) 1966, pp. 804–7; Médicis 1992, p. 660. 70 Laclotte 2008. For the iconography of hermits in general,

see Callmann 1975, and Russo 1991. 71

Florence, Galleria dell’Accademia, inv. no. 1890, no. 5381.

72 Berlin, Staatliche Museen, Gemäldegalerie, inv. nos. III.96 and III.97. 73 Spallanzani/Gaeta Bertelà 1992, pp. 80 (“Una tavoletta di legname

di br. 4 incircha, di mano di fra’ Giovanni [i.e. Fra Angelico], dipintovi più storie di santi padri”), 133 (“Una tavola lungha br. 3 7/8, larga br. 1 1/3, con cornicione d’oro atorno, dipintovi drento storie di santi padri e più una tavoletta schrittovi orationi”). 74

Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi, inv. no. 447. See Bellosi 2002, pp. 164–67, no. 22 (catalogue entry by Miklós Boskovits).

75

Malquori 1993, in part. pp. 35–46.

76 Krüger 1989; Schmidt 2005, pp. 16–18. 77

“Io mi sto solo in casa nel letto e nello studio in quella letizia che stavano i romiti buoni nel monte.” Mazzei 1880, vol. I, p. 87. The English translation is taken from Thornton 1997, p. 11, which has more on the study as a place of solitude.

78 Johnson 1997, pp. 3–5; Schmidt 2005, pp. 141–60. 79 The expression is used by Musacchio 2008, p. 202. 80 Musacchio 2008, pp. 210–97 note 107.

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