Memorials

Angeli 16 Cappella di San Giacomo de Nobili a

Situated In

S. Maria degli Angeli -- chiostro di ponente (della sacrestia)

Alternate Names

Cappella di San Giacomo Maggiore e San Giovanni Decollato

Rosselli Number	16.0
Memorial Type	chapel
Status	lost
Current Repository	na
Primary Installation	na
Secondary Installation	na
Tomb Form	na
Liturgical Orientation	W
Documented Types	cappella tavola imbasamento
Component Parts	mensa
Decorative Elements
Database ID	31831

Dates

July 25th, 1387 b
before March 25th, 1388 c	decoration
March 29th, 1388 d	consecration
May 22nd, 1389 e

Inscriptions (1 total)

2450

central pinnacle:
EGO / SUM / VIA / VERI / TAS / ET VITA

at the base of the pinnacle:
•AVE • MARIA • GRATIA • PLE / EGO SUM VIA • VTA • VERT / • ECCE • ANCILLA • DNI • FIA

at the base of the left main panel:
⋮S • IOhES • EVA⋮S • IOhES • BATIS⋮

central panel:
• VIRGO • MATER • dEI • REGInA • ANGLO4

right panel:
S • IACOBUS • APLS⋮+ S • BARTOLOMEUS

predella:
A.D. MCCCLXXXVII Bernardus Cini de Nobilibus ... fecit fieri hanc Cappellam [pro remedio animae suae et suorum] Descendentium ad gloriam Dei

pinnacle:
EGO

central pinnacle:
I am the way, and the truth, and the life [Jn 14:6]

at the base of the pinnacle:
Hail, Mary, full of grace. I am the way, the life, the truth. Behold the handmaid of the Lord, let it be done [Lk 1: 28, 38]

at the base of the left main panel:
St. John the Evangelist. St. John the Baptist

central panel:
The Virgin Mother of God, Queen of the Angels

right panel:
Saint James Apostle. Saint Bartholomew

predella:
In the year of the Lord 1387 Bernardo di Cino from the Nobili family caused this chapel to be made [for the salvation of his soul and of his] descendants to the glory of God.

Individuals (3 total)

Benvenuti, Bernardo di Cino di Bartolino di Chiaro di Benvenuto (de'Nobili)	1387 to 1388
Benvenuti, Bernardo di Cino di Bartolino di Chiaro di Benvenuto (de'Nobili)	1388 to circa 1764 (date is approximate)	f
Albizzi, Piera (uxor Bernardo di Cino de'Nobili)	1388 to circa 1764 (date is approximate)	g

Groups (1 total)

Nobili

1388 to circa 1764 (date is approximate)

Related Memorials (1 total)

Angeli Cappella di San Niccolò da Filicaia: h

1387 to 1764

Sources (6 total)

L. Kanter and P. Palladino, Italian Paintings	no. 30
G. Tigler, “Lo sviluppo architettonico del complesso"	pp. 64, fig. 15, no. 56; 84-90
ASF, Manoscritti, 625, Rosselli, Sepoltuario Fiorentino, 1657 (copy)	pp. 1324-1325, no. 16
G. Richa, Notizie istoriche delle chiese fiorentine	vol. 8 (1759), p. 166
G.R. Bent, “Santa Maria degli Angeli"	pp. 174-77; 580; 657, doc. 43
D. Gordon, "The paintings"	pp. 205-209

Notes

[a] For the history of the chapel, a reconstruction of its altarpiece, and bibliography, see Dillian Gordon, “The Nobili Altarpiece from S. Maria degli Angeli, Florence.” Burlington Magazine 162, no. 1402 (January 2020): 14–25; and Laurence Kanter, “Lorenzo Monaco, Portrait of Bernardo di Cino Bartolini Benvenuti de’ Nobili and Four of his Sons: Bartolomeo, Carlo, Benedetto, and Alamanno.” In Italian Paintings at the Yale University Art Gallery. New Haven, Connecticut: Yale University Art Gallery, 2023. https://publications.artgallery.yale.edu/italian-paintings/catalogue/volume-1/the-florentine-school/30/.
[b] According to Gordon (2022, p. 205), the chapel was founded on the feast of St. James in 1387. It opened off of the cloister's west loggia, adjacent to the chapter room on its south side.
[c] The altarpiece once carried the date 1387, most likely according to the Florentine calendar, indicating that it was in place in the first few months of 1388.
[d] According to Gordon (2022, p. 205), the first mass was said in the Nobili chapel on Easter Sunday in 1388.
[e] In 1386, don Giovanni da Carmignano granted permission to Bernardo Nobili for daily masses during his lifetime (a rare honor) and in perpetuity after his death. This obligation was reconfirmed on May 22nd, 1389 by don Michele Ghiberti.
[f] Portraits of the patron Bernardo de'Nobili and his wife Piera, along with eight of their children, appear in the chapel's altarpiece predella as kneeling donors. His name was also in the painting's inscription.
[g] Piera kneels at the head of a group of female donors in the predella of the chapel altarpiece commissioned by her husband.
[h] According to Tigler (2022, p. 88), the two chapels lost their function in 1764.