Cappella bartolini salimbeni, 05 sposalizio della vergine

The Bartolini Salimbeni Chapel (Italian: ''Cappella Bartolini Salimbeni'') is a chapel in the church of

Santa Trinita Santa Trinita (; Italian for "Holy Trinity") is a Roman Catholic church located in front of the piazza of the same name, traversed by Via de' Tornabuoni, in central Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy. It is the mother church of the Vallumbrosan ...

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico an ...

, central Italy. Its decoration by

Lorenzo Monaco Lorenzo Monaco (1370 – 1425) was an Italian painter of the late Gothic to early Renaissance age. He was born Piero di Giovanni in Siena, Italy. Little is known about his youth, apart from the fact that he was apprenticed in Florence. He was inf ...

, dating to the 1420s, are one of the few surviving examples of

International Gothic International Gothic is a period of Gothic art which began in Burgundy, France, and northern Italy in the late 14th and early 15th century. It then spread very widely across Western Europe, hence the name for the period, which was introduced by th ...

frescoes in Italy. The chapel has kept other original elements, such as its altarpiece, an ''

Annunciation The Annunciation (from Latin '), also referred to as the Annunciation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the Annunciation of Our Lady, or the Annunciation of the Lord, is the Christian celebration of the biblical tale of the announcement by the ange ...

'', also by Monaco, and the railings.

History

The chapel, created during the

Gothic Gothic or Gothics may refer to: People and languages *Goths or Gothic people, the ethnonym of a group of East Germanic tribes **Gothic language, an extinct East Germanic language spoken by the Goths **Crimean Gothic, the Gothic language spoken b ...

renovation and enlargement of the church started in the mid-13th century, was owned by the rich merchant family of the Bartolini-Salimbeni since as early as 1363. Their residence, the

Palazzo Bartolini Salimbeni The Palazzo Bartolini Salimbeni is a High Renaissance-style palace located on Via de Tornabuoni on Piazza Trinita in central Florence, Tuscany, Italy. History The palace arose at the site which once held the residence of the Soldanieri and lat ...

, is located in the same square as the church. Around 1390, the chapel had been already decorated by

Spinello Aretino Spinello Aretino (c. 1350 – c. 1410) was an Italian painter from Arezzo, who was active in Tuscany at the end of the 14th and the first decennium of the 15th century.Giovanni Francesco Toscani's frescoes in the annexed Ardinghelli Chapel. Monaco was inspired by numerous contemporary examples of ''Histories of the Virgin'' cycles, such as the

Baroncelli Chapel The Baroncelli Chapel is a chapel located at the end of the right transept in Santa Croce, Florence, church of Santa Croce, central Florence, Italy. It has frescoes by Taddeo Gaddi executed between 1328 and 1338. Description Gaddi artworks T ...

Taddeo Gaddi Taddeo Gaddi (c. 1290, in Florence – 1366, in Florence) was a medieval Italian painter and architect. He was the son of Gaddo di Zanobi, called Gaddo Gaddi. He was a member of Giotto's workshop from 1313 until the master's death in 1337. A ...

, the Rinuccini Chapel by

Giovanni da Milano Giovanni da Milano (Giovanni di Jacopo di Guido da Caversaccio) was an Italian Painting, painter, known to be active in Florence and Rome between 1346 and 1369. His style is, like many Florentine painters of the time, considered to be derivative ...

and others, in the

Basilica of Santa Croce The (Italian for 'Basilica of the Holy Cross') is the principal Franciscan church in Florence, Italy, and a minor basilica of the Roman Catholic Church. It is situated on the Piazza di Santa Croce, about 800 meters south-east of the Duomo. The ...

Orcagna Andrea di Cione di Arcangelo (c. 1308 – 25 August 1368), better known as Orcagna, was an Italian painter, sculptor, and architect active in Florence. He worked as a consultant at the Florence Cathedral and supervised the construction of the fa ...

's frescoes in

Santa Maria Novella Santa Maria Novella is a church in Florence, Italy, situated opposite, and lending its name to, the city's main railway station. Chronologically, it is the first great basilica in Florence, and is the city's principal Dominican church. The chu ...

, the Holy Cingulum Chapel by

Agnolo Gaddi Agnolo Gaddi (c.1350–1396) was an Italian painter. He was born and died in Florence, and was the son of the painter Taddeo Gaddi,who was himself the major pupil of the Florentine master Giotto. Agnolo was a painter and mosaicist, trained ...

in the

Prato Cathedral Prato Cathedral, or Cathedral of Saint Stephen, ( it, Duomo di Prato; Cattedrale di San Stefano) is a Roman Catholic cathedral in Prato, Tuscany, Central Italy, from 1954 the seat of the Bishop of Prato, having been previously, from 1653, a cathe ...

and the stained glass of

Orsanmichele Orsanmichele (; "Kitchen Garden of St. Michael", from the Tuscan contraction of the Italian word ''orto'') is a church in the Italian city of Florence. The building was constructed on the site of the kitchen garden of the monastery of San Michel ...

, which perhaps Lorenzo Monaco had collaborated on. The frescoes were covered by white plaster in 1740, and were rediscovered in 1885–1887 by Augusto Burchi. In 1944, the retreating German forces blew up the nearby

Ponte Santa Trinita The Ponte Santa Trìnita (Italian for ''Holy Trinity Bridge'', named for the ancient church in the nearest stretch of via de' Tornabuoni) is a Renaissance bridge in Florence, Italy, spanning the Arno. The Ponte Santa Trìnita is the oldest ellip ...

, also causing damage to the frescoes. They were restored in 1961 and again in 2004.

Description

The frescoes, fragments of which are now lost, occupy the chapel's walls, vault, arch and lunette. Lorenzo Monaco was initially a miniaturist, but also worked on (wooden) panels: an outstanding example of the latter is the altarpiece in this chapel, his ''Annunciation''. The theme of the frescoes is connected to the contemporary dispute about the Immaculate Conception of Mary, involving the question of whether she had been born without the

original sin Original sin is the Christian doctrine that holds that humans, through the fact of birth, inherit a tainted nature in need of regeneration and a proclivity to sinful conduct. The biblical basis for the belief is generally found in Genesis 3 (t ...

: the dispute saw the Franciscans and the Benedictines (including the

Vallumbrosan Order The Vallombrosians (alternately spelled Vallombrosans, Vallumbrosians or Vallumbrosans) are a monastic Religious order (Catholic), religious order in the Catholic Church. They are named after the location of Vallombrosa Abbey, their motherhouse fou ...

holding the church at the time) against the Dominicans. Monaco's frescoes were inspired by the

apocrypha Apocrypha are works, usually written, of unknown authorship or of doubtful origin. The word ''apocryphal'' (ἀπόκρυφος) was first applied to writings which were kept secret because they were the vehicles of esoteric knowledge considered ...

Gospel of James The Gospel of James (or the Protoevangelium of James) is a second-century infancy gospel telling of the miraculous conception of the Virgin Mary, her upbringing and marriage to Joseph, the journey of the couple to Bethlehem, the birth of Jesus, ...

, dealing with Mary's infancy and supporting the Vallumbrosan's view that she had been not naturally born by her father. The cycle begins in the

lunette A lunette (French ''lunette'', "little moon") is a half-moon shaped architectural space, variously filled with sculpture, painted, glazed, filled with recessed masonry, or void. A lunette may also be segmental, and the arch may be an arc take ...

on the left wall, portraying the ''Espulsion of Joachim from the Temple'' and the ''Annunciation to Joachim''. Below are the ''Meeting of Joachim and Anne'' and ''Anne at the Golden Gate'', set in a fanciful

Jerusalem Jerusalem (; he, יְרוּשָׁלַיִם ; ar, القُدس ) (combining the Biblical and common usage Arabic names); grc, Ἱερουσαλήμ/Ἰεροσόλυμα, Hierousalḗm/Hierosóluma; hy, Երուսաղեմ, Erusałēm. i ...

with high tower, belfries and other edifices painted in pink. The water of a stream where several youths are drinking is a symbol of Mary as the source of life, while the sea is a hint to her attribute as ''Stella Maris'' ("Star of the Sea") and the islet a symbol of virginity. The stories continue in the middle part of the end wall, with the ''Nativity of the Virgin'', following the same scheme of

Pietro Lorenzetti Pietro Lorenzetti (; – 1348) or Pietro Laurati was an Italian painter, active between c. 1306 and 1345. Together with his younger brother Ambrogio, he introduced naturalism into Sienese art. In their artistry and experiments with three-dimens ...

's '' Nativity of the Virgin'', with Jesus bathing, and the ''Presentation of the Virgin at the Temple''. The latter scene contains several

numerology Numerology (also known as arithmancy) is the belief in an occult, divine or mystical relationship between a number and one or more coinciding events. It is also the study of the numerical value, via an alphanumeric system, of the letters in ...

hints in the steps (three and seven, the number of the

Theological virtues Theological virtues are virtues associated in Christian theology and philosophy with salvation resulting from the grace of God. Virtues are traits or qualities which dispose one to conduct oneself in a morally good manner. Traditionally they have ...

and all the Virtues respectively) and in the arches of

Solomon's Temple Solomon's Temple, also known as the First Temple (, , ), was the Temple in Jerusalem between the 10th century BC and . According to the Hebrew Bible, it was commissioned by Solomon in the United Kingdom of Israel before being inherited by th ...

(three like the Holy Trinity). The scene on the mid-left wall, perhaps the sole executed by Lorenzo Monaco alone, depicts the ''Marriage of the Virgin''. The pretenders who are refused by Mary walk from the right to left such as in the artist's ''

Adoration of the Magi The Adoration of the Magi or Adoration of the Kings is the name traditionally given to the subject in the Nativity of Jesus in art in which the three Magi, represented as kings, especially in the West, having found Jesus by following a star, ...

'' at the Uffizi; one of them (that in the background, behind the arcade) is a possible self-portrait of Monaco, although his age does not correspond to the artist's one at the time. The next scene is that of the ''Annunciation'', whose predella has scenes of the ''Visitation'', ''Nativity and Annunciation to the Shepherds'', ''Adoration of the Magi'' and the ''Flight to Egypt''. The next episodes depicted include some miracles connected to Mary: the ''Dormitio'', the ''Assumption'' and the ''Miracle of the Snow''. In the

cross vault A groin vault or groined vault (also sometimes known as a double barrel vault or cross vault) is produced by the intersection at right angles of two barrel vaults. Honour, H. and J. Fleming, (2009) ''A World History of Art''. 7th edn. London: Lau ...

are portrayals of Prophets

David David (; , "beloved one") (traditional spelling), , ''Dāwūd''; grc-koi, Δαυΐδ, Dauíd; la, Davidus, David; gez , ዳዊት, ''Dawit''; xcl, Դաւիթ, ''Dawitʿ''; cu, Давíдъ, ''Davidŭ''; possibly meaning "beloved one". w ...

Isaiah Isaiah ( or ; he, , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', "God is Salvation"), also known as Isaias, was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named. Within the text of the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah himself is referred to as "the ...

Malachi Malachi (; ) is the traditional author of the Book of Malachi, the last book of the Nevi'im (Prophets) section of the Tanakh. According to the 1897 ''Easton's Bible Dictionary'', it is possible that Malachi is not a proper name, as it simply mean ...

and

Micah Micah (; ) is a given name. Micah is the name of several people in the Hebrew Bible (Old Testament), and means "Who is like God?" The name is sometimes found with Theophoric name, theophoric extensions. Suffix theophory in ''Jah, Yah'' and in ''Y ...

References

* {{coord, 43, 46, 13, N, 11, 15, 03, E, region:IT_type:landmark_source:kolossus-itwiki, display=title 1420s paintings Church frescos in Florence Gothic paintings Paintings by Lorenzo Monaco Paintings depicting David Paintings depicting Hebrew Bible prophets Isaiah Paintings depicting John the Baptist Paintings depicting the Annunciation 1420s in Europe 15th century in the Republic of Florence