Fresco scenes from the Manetti Chapel (6)

In 1348, (Gio)Vanni Manetti del Buono wrote instructions in his will that his chapel dedicated to John the Baptist (his name saint) in Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence should be painted. The fresco cycle devoted to scenes from the life of St John the Baptist in the Manetti Chapel was identified on the basis of engravings made by Thomas Patch in 1772.

The decoration of the chapel, situated to the right of the choir, consisted of six scenes from the life of St John the Baptist: the Annunciation to Zacharias; the Visitation; the Birth and Naming of John the Baptist; the Baptist preaching in the Desert and the Baptism; the Decollation and Burial of the Baptist; the Baptist visited in Prison by Two Apostles and the Feast of Herod.

The frescoes were already in poor condition in 1763-64 when they were restored. When the church of the Carmine was largely destroyed by fire in 1771, they suffered comparatively little. Patch made the engravings in 1772 and removed some fragments from the wall, the rest was presumably destroyed in the reconstruction of the church. There are twelve fragments to survive.

Patch’s engravings are a very rough rendering of the style of the originals, but he copied the compositions with considerable exactness. The picture shows the sixth scene: the Baptist visited in Prison by Two Apostles and the Feast of Herod.