ORCAGNA

The detached frescoes distributed on the walls, depicting thirty-five busts of Prophets and Saints and a fragment of a decorative band, come originally from the groins of the vault of the Cappella Maggiore of the church. They are the only fragments that have survived from the work by Orcagna and his assistants, dating to the years preceding the middle of the 14th century, that decorated the chapel before Domenico Ghirlandaio and his workshop painted their Stories of the Virgin and of St. John the Baptist at the end of the 15th century,that we can still see today.

The picture shows the bust of a Prophet.

The detached frescoes distributed on the walls, depicting thirty-five busts of Prophets and Saints and a fragment of a decorative band, come originally from the groins of the vault of the Cappella Maggiore of the church. They are the only fragments that have survived from the work by Orcagna and his assistants, dating to the years preceding the middle of the 14th century, that decorated the chapel before Domenico Ghirlandaio and his workshop painted their Stories of the Virgin and of St. John the Baptist at the end of the 15th century,that we can still see today.

The picture shows the bust of a Saint.

The detached frescoes distributed on the walls, depicting thirty-five busts of Prophets and Saints and a fragment of a decorative band, come originally from the groins of the vault of the Cappella Maggiore of the church. They are the only fragments that have survived from the work by Orcagna and his assistants, dating to the years preceding the middle of the 14th century, that decorated the chapel before Domenico Ghirlandaio and his workshop painted their Stories of the Virgin and of St. John the Baptist at the end of the 15th century,that we can still see today.

It is probable that from 1348 to 1352 Andrea was occupied with decorating the Cappella Maggiore in Santa Maria Novella. This was the most extensive fresco cycle in Florence up to that time, but it was destroyed owing to a leaking roof and was replaced (1485-90) with frescoes by Domenico Ghirlandaio, which show the same scenes that Andrea had depicted. Only the busts of figures from the Old Testament have survived from the original frescoes in the vault. The work of five different painters can be recognized, one of whom was certainly Orcagna, while another may have been his brother Nardo.

Ubriachi Chapel was once a chapel of the patronage of the Florentine family named Ubriachi. Since 1983, it has become a museum exhibiting works of art and sacred furnishings coming from other areas of the monumental complex of Santa Maria Novella.

The large wall of the refectory features the Crucifixion with a multitude of angels surrounding the cross, portrayed on a dark background. One of the most remarkable aspects is the attention to details in each armour, head coverings, gestures and typical Florentine medieval costumes. Remarkable is the brave gesture of Longinus, the roman soldier, located to the right of Jesus. The centurion was present at the Crucifixion, and testified, “In truth this man was son of God”.

As several other cases, Orcagna’s brother Nardo di Cione helped him in the execution of the fresco. Some sources even attribute the painting to Nardo.

The large wall of the refectory features the Crucifixion with a multitude of angels surrounding the cross, portrayed on a dark background. One of the most remarkable aspects is the attention to details in each armour, head coverings, gestures and typical Florentine medieval costumes. Remarkable is the brave gesture of Longinus, the roman soldier, located to the right of Jesus. The centurion was present at the Crucifixion, and testified, “In truth this man was son of God”.

As several other cases, Orcagna’s brother Nardo di Cione helped him in the execution of the fresco. Some sources even attribute the painting to Nardo.

Orcagna painted the fresco of the Crucifixion in the Benedictine monastery Santa Marta, located in the northern outskirts of Florence. Its figures bear a close resemblance to those of the Strozzi Altarpiece.

Orcagna painted the fresco of the Crucifixion in the Benedictine monastery Santa Marta, located in the northern outskirts of Florence. Its figures bear a close resemblance to those of the Strozzi Altarpiece.

Though seemingly self-contained, this panel is actually a fragment of a larger painting that was cut in half across the middle. The tops of two haloes are all that remain of Mary and St. John the Evangelist, who originally flanked the cross in the lower half of the panel, now missing. While the Armenian bole (a red earth pigment) foundation beneath the gold leaf shows through in many places, the figure of Christ is in excellent condition. Orcagna’s attention to the anatomical details of Christ’s torso reveals his training as a sculptor.

The Chiostrino dei Morti (Cloister of the Dead), a former cemetery already built around 1270 by the Dominicans, probably by reusing a former cloister of the canons that we know as existing in 1179, was remodeled to its current size in 1337-1350. It presents on two sides vaulted arches lowered on octagonal fourteenth century pillars with overlying gallery, supported by very projecting corbels, leading from the dormitory to the sacristy of the church.

In a corner of the cloister, today protected by a stained glass window, there is the Chapel of the Annunciation, formerly the Strozzi funerary chapel, with two frescoed walls with the Nativity and the Crucifixion, frescoes attributed to Andrea Orcagna; a third wall presented the Annunciation, but was demolished at the beginning of the twentieth century.

The frescoes, like most of those in the church and the convent, were removed, restored and replaced after the flood damages of Florence (1966).

The Crucifixion and the six half-length angels mounted within the frame are fragments of an altarpiece; however their current arrangement does not reflect that of the original altarpiece but rather a reconfiguration by a 19th-century collector. The Crucifixion originally formed the altarpiece’s central pinnacle while the six angels originally comprised pilasters. The altarpiece was probably painted for Santa Maria degli Angeli, the Camaldolese church of Florence, perhaps for the chapel founded in 1365 and dedicated to Ognissanti (All Saints), which was funded by Ser Francesco di Ser Berto degli Albizzi.

The altarpiece and its components have been variously attributed to members of the renowned family of Florentine painters: the brothers Andrea (known as Orcagna), Nardo, and Jacopo di Cione. The commission may have been given to Nardo in 1365 and taken over by Jacopo, following Nardo’s death in 1366. The Cione brothers, especially Nardo, were involved in multiple commissions for Santa Maria degli Angeli.

Orcagna executed an ensemble of frescoes in the Santa Croce, Florence, on the theme of the Last Judgment. However, these frescoes survived only in fragments.

The refectory (Cenacolo) of Santo Spirito is the only surviving Gothic style wing of the ancient Augustine convent built around the 1350s. The monastic complex was entirely transformed during the Renaissance, when Filippo Brunelleschi started the reconstruction of the Church of Santo Spirito in 1444.

Only the Cenacolo preserves its original architecture featuring trusses and two-lighted windows. Florentine patrons, the Cambi’s, covered the expenses for the decoration of the eastern wall depicting a monumental Crucifixion and Last Supper. The commission was assigned between 1360 and 1365 to one of the greatest late Gothic masters: Andrea Orcagna, who was helped by his brother Nardo di Cione.

The large wall features the Crucifixion with a multitude of angels surrounding the cross, portrayed on a dark background. The lower register, showing the Last Supper, is almost completely destroyed, only two of the Apostles and an Augustinian friar on the right side are partially conserved.

Today the Cenacolo is a museum housing a precious collection of Gothic sculptures, paintings, decorative artworks and antique pieces of furniture.

While the figures in Orcagna’s in earlier works rather stocky, they become more slender in his later paintings. This is particularly clear in the (fragmentary) Last Supper in the refectory of Santo Spirito in Florence. Taddeo Gaddi painted a Last Supper (c. 1360) in the refectory of Santa Croce in direct rivalry with Orcagna’s version.

The Chiostrino dei Morti (Cloister of the Dead), a former cemetery already built around 1270 by the Dominicans, probably by reusing a former cloister of the canons that we know as existing in 1179, was remodeled to its current size in 1337-1350. It presents on two sides vaulted arches lowered on octagonal fourteenth century pillars with overlying gallery, supported by very projecting corbels, leading from the dormitory to the sacristy of the church.

In a corner of the cloister, today protected by a stained glass window, there is the Chapel of the Annunciation, formerly the Strozzi funerary chapel, with two frescoed walls with the Nativity and the Crucifixion, frescoes attributed to Andrea Orcagna; a third wall presented the Annunciation, but was demolished at the beginning of the twentieth century.

The frescoes, like most of those in the church and the convent, were removed, restored and replaced after the flood damages of Florence (1966).

The Chiostrino dei Morti (Cloister of the Dead), a former cemetery already built around 1270 by the Dominicans, probably by reusing a former cloister of the canons that we know as existing in 1179, was remodeled to its current size in 1337-1350. It presents on two sides vaulted arches lowered on octagonal fourteenth century pillars with overlying gallery, supported by very projecting corbels, leading from the dormitory to the sacristy of the church.

In a corner of the cloister, today protected by a stained glass window, there is the Chapel of the Annunciation, formerly the Strozzi funerary chapel, with two frescoed walls with the Nativity and the Crucifixion, frescoes attributed to Andrea Orcagna; a third wall presented the Annunciation, but was demolished at the beginning of the twentieth century.

The frescoes, like most of those in the church and the convent, were removed, restored and replaced after the flood damages of Florence (1966).

The triptych with the Pentecost from Santi Apostoli, Florence, consists of three panels with round arches at the top, the middle one being taller and broader than those at the sides. Although incomplete, the frame has a pronounced architectural character with references to the triumphal arch. In terms of the treatment of the picture plane, the pictorial space and the scene depicted, the three panels are conceived as a unity. At the centre of the middle panel the Virgin kneels, apparently hovering, surrounded by six kneeling apostles, who are accompanied by three apostles in each of the side panels. Here, as in the Strozzi Altarpiece, Orcagna has achieved a rare harmony between the planar and spatial dimensions, between bodily presence and the spiritual realm. The influence of Giovanni da Milano is detectable in the style of the figures and in the use of colour, suggesting a date of around 1365-67.

The unique form of this panel is due to the use for which it was originally intended: it was commissioned to adorn the pillar of the Church of Orsammichele in Florence, assigned to the Guild of Moneychangers. With its convex structure and three panels that, together, form a semi-hexagon, it was designed to embrace the pillar on three sides, telling the story of the life of Saint Matthew, patron saint of the Guild of Moneychangers. Matthew, apostle and evangelist, who, before Christ’s calling, had been a tax collector and was known as Levi, due precisely to his original job of levying taxes, was and still is the protector of bankers, customs officers, financiers, money-changers, accountants, business consultants and tax collectors.

The three panels of Orsammichele were commissioned to Orcagna in 1367, but a year later he died and left the task of completing the panels to his younger brother Jacopo.

The central panel portrays St Matthew with Gospel, feather and quill, dressed in a loose pink cloak with a red lining and trimmed with gold, over a light blue tunic. He is standing on a richly decorated rug featuring patterns that can also be found in the textiles depicted in other works by Orcagna. The two side panels depict four episodes in the life of the Saint, which should be read in different directions: on the left from bottom to top and on the right vice versa. The descriptions of the scenes appear at the bottom of the panel on which they are depicted. Starting from the left, facing the work head on, they read, in medieval Latin: QUOMODO. SANTUS. MATHEUS. DECESSIT. DE. CHELONEO. ET. SECUTUS. EST. CRISTUM, (Vocation of St Matthew); QUOMODO. MISERUT. SUP. EUM. SANCTUS. MATHEUS. DRACONES (St Matthew tames the two dragons of Vadabar), on the right, QUOMODO. SANCTUS. MATHEUS. RESUSCITAVIT. UNUM. MORTUUM (St Matthew raises the son of King Egippus) and QUOMODO. SANCTUS. MATHEUS. FUIT. ACCISUS (Martyrdom of St Matthew). Under the image of the saint SANTHUS MATHEUS. APOSTOLUS. ET. EVANGELISTA, and in the book, the beginning of his Gospel. The episodes are related concisely using a palette of bright colours and with a close focus on the architectures, which are all highly imaginative and probably designed in this way to articulate the distribution of the figures within the space.

The panels end in a linear moulding and contain a sort of niche with pointed arches and poly-lobed setting that frames the image of the Saint and the two settings for the stories on the sides. At the top, in the cut-out portions above the figure of St Matthew, there are two small tondos with the busts of angels, respectively holding the Gospel and the palm of martyrdom, while identical tondos decorate the other two panels and are filled with golden coins on a red background, the symbol of the Guild of Money-changers.

After 1402, when orders were given to remove all the panels on the pillars in Orsammichele, the work was moved to a series of different locations. It was purchased in 1899 by the Uffizi Gallery, and exhibited there from 1901 onwards. It was restored in 1981.

Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 8 minutes):

Johann Sebastian Bach: St. Matthew Passion BWV 244 (excerpts)

The detail shows two scenes: St Matthew tames the two dragons of Vadabar (above) and Vocation of St Matthew (below).

The detail shows two scenes: St Matthew raises the son of King Egippus (above) and Martyrdom of St Matthew (below).

The Black Death struck in Italy in 1349, followed by an economic crisis that brought about a sharp break in sculptural activity, so that, with the exception of Andrea Orcagna’s shrine in the Orsanmichele in Florence, the sculptural scene remained extremely barren until the closing decade of the century.

While the Strozzi Altarpiece was being painted, work on the tabernacle in Orsanmichele, begun in 1352, continued steadily. To be able to execute it at all Orcagna had to take the exceptional step of joining (1352) a second guild, that of builders and masons. He designed the tabernacle as a completely self-contained domed structure to enclose the miraculous painting; the work even included the surrounding marble balustrade, to which Pietro di Migliore (active 1357-1385) added only the bronze rings and plates in 1366. The three open arcades of the tabernacle could be closed or opened by means of wooden shutters sliding vertically on rails. The architectural idiom and the motifs of the rich decoration and the figural sculptures display a Marian iconography.

No fewer than 117 figural reliefs and statues were carved to adorn the tabernacle and to convey its complex iconography. In the socle area and behind the painting are 10 scenes from the Life of the Virgin combined with 15 allegories of the Virtues, presenting the Virgin as the mater virtutum. In addition, eight Old Testament figures and St Luke point to the events depicted from the Life of the Virgin. The painting is surrounded by several choirs of angels and cherubim on the frame, in the centres of the corner piers, in the spandrels of the arcades and above the arcade arches. A cycle of Apostles with excerpts from the Creed surrounds the Virgin, who is shown as the mater ecclesiae. In the gables of the tabernacle are angels with the words Ave Maria and Gratia plena.

The placing of the statue of St Michael the Archangel at the highest point of the dome and under the boss of one of the six vaults of the hall of Orsanmichele creates an obvious link between the tabernacle and its location. Orcagna - a painter by training - clearly engaged only highly qualified masons and sculptors, whom he guided by extremely precise instructions at the workshop founded specially for the purpose. Sculptors of the highest calibre were rare at any time; they must have been sought primarily among the few sculptors documented in Florence. The question therefore arises whether these sculptors were involved in the execution of the many reliefs and statues of the tabernacle. One group of works that can only have been by Orcagna’s hand is identifiable; it includes the reliefs of the Annunciation of the Death of the Virgin, the Death and Assumption of the Virgin. Although the tabernacle is dated in an inscription, Andreas Cionis pictor Florentin oratorii archimagister extitit hui MCCCLIX, it was not finished, according to documentary records, until 1360.

Orcagna - a painter, sculptor and architect - was commissioned to execute the only significant, large-scale sculpture of the time in Florence, the mammoth tabernacle for Orsanmichele. This Gothic marble structure, rather like a miniature church, was a religious and civic edifice built to house Bernardo Daddi’s repainting of a lost image of the Virgin and Child. Hexagonal reliefs of the virtues and octagonal reliefs of the Life of the Virgin alternate on its base. The programme culminates in the large relief on the back, the Dormition and Assumption of the Virgin, where the work is signed and dated 1359.

The tabernacle is encrusted with precious lapis, gold and glass inlay that creates a brilliant, shining polychromy; it is especially dense in the celestial realm, rendering the area still flatter. The elaborate decoration is equivalent to the rich brocades in contemporary painting, a taste which blossomed with the International Gothic style.

While the Strozzi Altarpiece was being painted, work on the tabernacle in Orsanmichele, begun in 1352, continued steadily. To be able to execute it at all Orcagna had to take the exceptional step of joining (1352) a second guild, that of builders and masons. He designed the tabernacle as a completely self-contained domed structure to enclose the miraculous painting; the work even included the surrounding marble balustrade, to which Pietro di Migliore (active 1357-1385) added only the bronze rings and plates in 1366. The three open arcades of the tabernacle could be closed or opened by means of wooden shutters sliding vertically on rails. The architectural idiom and the motifs of the rich decoration and the figural sculptures display a Marian iconography.

No fewer than 117 figural reliefs and statues were carved to adorn the tabernacle and to convey its complex iconography. In the socle area and behind the painting are 10 scenes from the Life of the Virgin combined with 15 allegories of the Virtues, presenting the Virgin as the mater virtutum. In addition, eight Old Testament figures and St Luke point to the events depicted from the Life of the Virgin. The painting is surrounded by several choirs of angels and cherubim on the frame, in the centres of the corner piers, in the spandrels of the arcades and above the arcade arches. A cycle of Apostles with excerpts from the Creed surrounds the Virgin, who is shown as the mater ecclesiae. In the gables of the tabernacle are angels with the words Ave Maria and Gratia plena.

The placing of the statue of St Michael the Archangel at the highest point of the dome and under the boss of one of the six vaults of the hall of Orsanmichele creates an obvious link between the tabernacle and its location. Orcagna - a painter by training - clearly engaged only highly qualified masons and sculptors, whom he guided by extremely precise instructions at the workshop founded specially for the purpose. Sculptors of the highest calibre were rare at any time; they must have been sought primarily among the few sculptors documented in Florence. The question therefore arises whether these sculptors were involved in the execution of the many reliefs and statues of the tabernacle. One group of works that can only have been by Orcagna’s hand is identifiable; it includes the reliefs of the Annunciation of the Death of the Virgin, the Death and Assumption of the Virgin. Although the tabernacle is dated in an inscription, Andreas Cionis pictor Florentin oratorii archimagister extitit hui MCCCLIX, it was not finished, according to documentary records, until 1360.

This view of the front of the tabernacle shows Bernardo Daddi’s monumental Madonna and Child which replaced earlier images in Orsanmichele.

The detail shows one of the prophets pointing to the events depicted from the Life of the Virgin.

The picture shows a detail of a spiral column with lions and lionesses at its base.

In the socle area and behind the painting are 10 scenes from the Life of the Virgin combined with 15 allegories of the Virtues. The picture shows the Allegory of Prudence.

The picture shows the Annunciation of the Death of the Virgin, one of the ten scenes from the Life of the Virgin which are in the socle area and behind the painting.

On the back of the tabernacle, built to house Bernardo Daddi’s repainting of a lost image of the Virgin and Child, is the large relief “Dormition and Assumption of the Virgin.” The two scenes, treated as one, are separated by the horizontal band of the tomb.

The picture shows the upper part of the relief in which the Virgin levitates within a mandorla indicating spirituality and bestows her girdle on the kneeling St Thomas.

The picture shows The Birth of the Virgin, one of the eight octagonal reliefs on the base of the tabernacle depicting scenes from the life of the Virgin.

The transformation of the Gothic style into a richer, more highly decorated mode in only twenty years can be illustrated by comparing the lucidity of Andrea Pisano’s (in fact Giotto’s) design for the Campanile of the Cathedral in Florence with the complexity of Orcagna’s structure. In the Birth of the Virgin, the floor is tilted and the bed curtains parted like those of a stage to display every detail: the midwife admiring the swaddled child, the background figure with the pitcher in one hand and in the other a tray (similar to ones customarily given to Florentine mothers after the birth of a male child), the bedroom walls of unplastered masonry, the interior shutters with their nailheads, and even the keyholes in the linen chest, which formed the pedestal of an Italian bed of the period. All this represents a sharp departure from the ordered reliefs of Andrea Pisano.

On the back of the tabernacle, built to house Bernardo Daddi’s repainting of a lost image of the Virgin and Child, is the large relief “Dormition and Assumption of the Virgin.” The two scenes, treated as one, are separated by the horizontal band of the tomb.

In the Dormition scene the Apostles who crowd round the Virgin’s tomb give vent to their emotions with violent rhetoric. In the middle stands Christ holding a child symbolic of the Virgin’s soul, flanked by two angels.

On the back of the tabernacle, built to house Bernardo Daddi’s repainting of a lost image of the Virgin and Child, is the large relief “Dormition and Assumption of the Virgin.” The two scenes, treated as one, are separated by the horizontal band of the tomb.

In the Dormition scene the Apostles who crowd round the Virgin’s tomb give vent to their emotions with violent rhetoric. In the middle stands Christ holding a child symbolic of the Virgin’s soul, flanked by two angels.

On the back of the tabernacle, built to house Bernardo Daddi’s repainting of a lost image of the Virgin and Child, is the large relief “Dormition and Assumption of the Virgin.” The two scenes, treated as one, are separated by the horizontal band of the tomb. This rocky ledge also marks a dichotomy in contemporary attitudes towards the earthly and the spiritual. The Death and Funeral of the Virgin take place on the earth and are physical, but three-dimensional space is suggested only by the histrionic figures who crowd round the Virgin laid out on her sarcophagus. In the middle stands Christ holding a child symbolic of the Virgin’s soul, flanked by two angels. Above in the flat otherworldly real, the Virgin levitates within a “mandorla” (almond) indicating spirituality and bestows her girdle on the kneeling St Thomas.

On the back of the tabernacle, built to house Bernardo Daddi’s repainting of a lost image of the Virgin and Child, is the large relief “Dormition and Assumption of the Virgin. The two scenes, treated as one, are separated by the horizontal band of the tomb. This rocky ledge also marks a dichotomy in contemporary attitudes towards the earthly and the spiritual. The Death and Funeral of the Virgin take place on the earth and are physical, but three-dimensional space is suggested only by the histrionic figures who crowd round the Virgin laid out on her sarcophagus. In the middle stands Christ holding a child symbolic of the Virgin’s soul, flanked by two angels. Above in the flat otherworldly real, the Virgin levitates within a “mandorla” (almond) indicating spirituality and bestows her girdle on the kneeling St Thomas.

The picture shows the Presentation of the Virgin in the Temple, one of the ten scenes from the Life of the Virgin which are in the socle area and behind the painting.

The picture shows the statue of St Michael the Archangel at the highest point of the dome.

Originally in a tabernacle in the courtyard of the Stinche prison, demolished in 1833, this detached fresco portrays St Anne, on whose feast day in 1343 the Florentines rebelled against the tyrant Gualtieri di Brienne, Duke of Athens. The empty throne on the right alludes to the loss of the city’s ruler. The scene must have been frescoed at the time of the rebuilding of the prison, burnt down by the Florentines after the prisoners had been liberated during the uprising that lead to the Duke’s expulsion.

Tommaso Strozzi, the famous banker of Florence, commissioned the Cione brothers Andrea and Nardo to decorate the family’s chapel dedicated to St Thomas of Aquino. The altarpiece was made by Andrea, the greatest master of Florence. The iconographic program was given by Piero Strozzi, a scholar monk, prior of the cloister of Santa Maria Novella.

The Strozzi Altarpiece incorporates iconography related to the Dominican order. It is a richly decorative painting, with tooled gold background, gold punchwork imitating embroidered fabric, and large areas of expensive lapis lasuli blue. The sheer opulence of the painting indicates its importance. At the centre of the altarpiece is a figure of God, seated rigidly and frontally in a radiant mandorla of cherubim, suspended in a light-filled heaven which defies specific spatial description. On his right he is flanked by a crowned Virgin in a Dominican habit who presents her prot�g� St Thomas Aquinas to him. St Thomas kneels before God in a typical donor pose. To God’s left St Peter kneels to receive to keys that symbolize his office - and his power - as pope. Behind Peter is St john the Baptist, The saints in the outermost compartments of the altarpiece include St Michael the Archangel, St Catherine of Alexandria, St Lawrence and St Paul.

The change in Orcagna’s style is likely to have resulted from his involvement from 1352 in a new commission: a monumental architectural tabernacle, adorned with sculpture, for Bernardo Daddi’s miraculous image of the Virgin Enthroned, housed in Orsanmichele. The change is manifested especially in the Strozzi Altarpiece, signed “Anni Dni MCCCLVII Andreas Cionis de Florentia me pinxit” and commissioned in 1354 by Tommaso di Rosello Strozzi for the altar of the family chapel in Santa Maria Novella.

It is a pioneering work, until very recently misconstrued as a two-dimensional painting, lacking in depth. What is new in the work is the way Orcagna departs from the additive, compartmentalized structure of previous polyptychs by unifying the picture plane with the pictorial space; also new is the incorporation of the frame as an integral element of the pictorial space. A further innovation, prefigured only in the Baronci triptych (Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam), is the dislocation of the spatial structure by the abolition of the space around Christ, in order to give his presence the character of an apparition.

The work makes use of the Early Christian motif of the Traditio legis et clavium, whereby Christ entrusts St Paul with the doctrine of the Church and St Peter with its authority, although here St Thomas Aquinas takes the place of St Paul. By placing the Virgin and St John the Baptist behind Sts Thomas and Peter, the work relates to the Deësis iconography, which represents the mediation of grace at the Last Judgement. The message conveyed by the Strozzi Altarpiece is that such grace can be obtained only through the Church; this links it to Nardo’s frescoes in the same chapel, with which it forms a unified programme.

The detail shows the head of Christ.

The work makes use of the Early Christian motif of the Traditio legis et clavium, whereby Christ entrusts St Paul with the doctrine of the Church and St Peter with its authority, although here St Thomas Aquinas takes the place of St Paul. By placing the Virgin and St John the Baptist behind Sts Thomas and Peter, the work relates to the Deësis iconography, which represents the mediation of grace at the Last Judgement.

The painting depicts the Thronum Gratiae (Throne of Grace). An almost identical representation of the subject can be seen in Nardo di Cione’s triptych in the Galleria dell’Accademia, Florence.

The Thronum Gratiae traditionally shows God the Father seated on a throne, with his legs slightly apart, holding the arms of the cross of Jesus in front of him in his hands, while the dove of the Holy Spirit flies over them (or between them).

The panel is deposited to National Museum in Warsaw by a private collection.

The tomb of Tommaso Corsini, attributed to Andrea Orcagna, is today placed on the wall in front of the entrance door of the Corsini Chapel. It comes from San Gaggio, the church of the Corsini family, from where the 14th-century funeral monuments were moved to the chapel in the cloister of the church of Santo Spirito. The tomb has an epitaph in Latin hexameters.

The Corsinis originated from the areas of Poggibonsi and from Val di Pesa, the valley between Siena and Florence. They arrived in Florence towards the end of the 12th century. During the 14th century they gained prominence as politicians, traders, and churchmen in what was the Republic of Florence. They gave to Florence twelve Priors and forty-seven Gonfalonieres of Justice, the highest appointments in Florence.

The tomb of Tommaso Corsini, attributed to Andrea Orcagna, is today placed on the wall in front of the entrance door of the Corsini Chapel. It comes from San Gaggio, the church of the Corsini family, from where the 14th-century funeral monuments were moved to the chapel in the cloister of the church of Santo Spirito. The tomb has an epitaph in Latin hexameters.

The Corsinis originated from the areas of Poggibonsi and from Val di Pesa, the valley between Siena and Florence. They arrived in Florence towards the end of the 12th century. During the 14th century they gained prominence as politicians, traders, and churchmen in what was the Republic of Florence. They gave to Florence twelve Priors and forty-seven Gonfalonieres of Justice, the highest appointments in Florence.

The tomb of Tommaso Corsini, attributed to Andrea Orcagna, is today placed on the wall in front of the entrance door of the Corsini Chapel. It comes from San Gaggio, the church of the Corsini family, from where the 14th-century funeral monuments were moved to the chapel in the cloister of the church of Santo Spirito. The tomb has an epitaph in Latin hexameters.

The Corsinis originated from the areas of Poggibonsi and from Val di Pesa, the valley between Siena and Florence. They arrived in Florence towards the end of the 12th century. During the 14th century they gained prominence as politicians, traders, and churchmen in what was the Republic of Florence. They gave to Florence twelve Priors and forty-seven Gonfalonieres of Justice, the highest appointments in Florence.

This altarpiece, which has survived almost intact, was commissioned in 1350 by Tommaso Baronci, a prominent citizen, for a side-altar in Santa Maria Maggiore, Florence. It represents the Virgin and Child with Sts Mary Magdalene and Ansanus.

By concealing the sides of the throne Orcagna gave the Virgin a weightless quality; she seems to be floating, in contrast to the sense of weight conveyed by the saints standing beside her. The depiction of the figures reflects the rather stiff, hieratical style of the period. The frame is reminiscent of Gothic architecture.

Orcagna’s matriculation probably took place in 1344, when he was awarded the commission to paint a large fresco in Santa Croce, Florence, showing the Triumph of Death, the Last Judgement, and Hell; Ghiberti confirms this as Orcagna’s work. Two fragments of the fresco have survived, showing parts of the frame and parts of the Triumph of Death and Hell.

Orcagna’s matriculation probably took place in 1344, when he was awarded the commission to paint a large fresco in Santa Croce, Florence, showing the Triumph of Death, the Last Judgement, and Hell; Ghiberti confirms this as Orcagna’s work. Two fragments of the fresco have survived, showing parts of the frame and parts of the Triumph of Death and Hell.

The picture shows the vault frescoes in the Chapel of Annunciation

This view of the Strozzi Chapel in the Santa Maria Novella in Florence shows the fresco cycle by Nardo di Cione of the Last Judgment (rear wall), the Paradise (left wall) and the Hell (right wall) executed in the 1350s. The altarpiece is by Orcagna, the brother of Nardo. The figures in the stained glass window are the Madonna and Child, and the Dominican Saint Thomas Aquinas.

Orcagna’s altarpiece and Nardo’s frescoes form a unified programme.

This view of the Strozzi Chapel in the Santa Maria Novella in Florence shows the fresco cycle by Nardo di Cione of the Last Judgment (rear wall), the Paradise (left wall) and the Hell (right wall) executed in the 1350s. The altarpiece is by Orcagna, the brother of Nardo. The figures in the stained glass window are the Madonna and Child, and the Dominican Saint Thomas Aquinas.

Orcagna’s altarpiece and Nardo’s frescoes form a unified programme.

This altarpiece, originally cusped, traditionally was attributed to the Master of San Giorgio a Ruballa, but later assigned to Orcagna.

This pentatych was commissioned by the del Palagio family for the altar of the chapel of San Niccolò in Santissima Annunziata, Florence. Here Orcagna returns to the closed and severe forms of rigorous design typical of Giotto. The forms detach decisively from the gold background, increased by the robustness of the colour.