Memorials

Angeli 01.2 Cappella maggiore

Situated In

S. Maria degli Angeli -- chiesa -- Cappella dell'Assunta a

Alternate Names

Altar maggiore
Cappella dell'Assunta
Cappella maggiore de' Quaratesi

Rosselli Number	1.0
Memorial Type	chapel
Status	transferred
Current Repository	na
Primary Installation	na
Secondary Installation	na
Tomb Form	na
Liturgical Orientation	N
Documented Types	altare cappella tabernacolo
Component Parts	mensa
Decorative Elements	Virgin Mary
Database ID	31917

Dates

circa 1373 (date is approximate) to circa 1375 (date is approximate) b	decoration
1374 to 1375 c
August 1375 d	decoration
February 1414 e	decoration

Inscriptions (1 total)

2534

hEC• TABULA• FACTA• EST• PRO: AnIMA• ÇENOBII• CECChI• FRASChE• ET• SVO4• In• RECOMPEnSATIOnẼ• UnIVS• ALTERI• TABVLE• PER• EUM• In• hOC• [TEMPLO• POSITA• EST• PER• OPERAM• LA]VRENTII• IOhIS• E• SVO4• MOnACI• hVI• ORdInIS• QVI• EAM• dEPInXIT• AnO• dñI• MCCCCXIII• MĒSE• FEBR• TPORE• dÕnI• MAThI• PRIORIS• h• MONASTER

This painting was made for the soul of Zanobi di Cecco del Frasca and of his own [family], in compensation for another painting placed in this church by him, through the work of Lorenzo di Giovanni and of his own [assistants], a monk of this order who painted it in the year of the Lord 1413 [o.s.], in the month of February, at the time of messer Matteo, prior of this monastery.

Individuals (6 total)

Quaratesi, Sandro di Simone (da Quarata)	circa 1374 (date is approximate) to circa 1375 (date is approximate)	f
Benvenuti, Bernardo di Cino di Bartolino di Chiaro di Benvenuto (de'Nobili)	August 1375	g
Corsi, Bardo di Corso di Buonamico (setaiuolus)	July 26th, 1379 (day is uncertain) h	i
del Frasca, Domenico di Zanobi di Cecco di Neri di Tagno	circa 1410 (date is approximate) to February 1414	j
Adimari, Zanobi di Cecco di Neri di Tagno di Pepo (del Frasca)	February 1414 to 1593	k
Quaratesi, Andrea di Ranieri di Giovanni di Giovanni di Luigi	circa 1550s (date is approximate)	l

Groups (3 total)

monaci di S. Maria degli Angeli	circa 1373 (date is approximate) to August 13th, 1580	m
Quaratesi	circa 1380s (date is approximate) to circa 1580s (date is approximate)	n
Gaddi	circa 1550s (date is approximate) to August 12th, 1580

Related Memorials (6 total)

Angeli 01.1 Altar Maggiore	circa 1373 (date is approximate)
Angeli 01.3 Altar maggiore:	August 13th, 1580 to 1593
Angeli 02 Archetta di SS. Proto, Jacinto, e Eugenia:
Angeli 03a Archetta con reliquie della croce e chiodo:
Angeli 03b lapide rettangolare:
Angeli 04c tomb of Benedetto Varchi 1566:

Sources (6 total)

G. Farulli, Istoria cronologica	pp. 13
ASF, Manoscritti, 625, Rosselli, Sepoltuario Fiorentino, 1657 (copy)	pp. 1320, no. 1
G.R. Bent, “Santa Maria degli Angeli"	pp. 158, 422-442; 648, doc. 36
S. Rosselli, Sepoltuario Fiorentino, autograph	pp. 1507, no. 1
C. Ricci, S. Maria degli Angeli	pp. 88, fig. 1.16, N
D. Gordon, "The paintings"	pp. 202-205; 216-219

Notes

[] Chapter five (pp. 420-500) is devoted to Lorenzo Monaco's Coronation. See also George R. Bent, “A Patron for Lorenzo Monaco’s Uffizi Coronation of the Virgin,” The Art Bulletin 82, no. 2 (2000): 348–54.
[] The inscription runs continuously in one line between the main panel and the predella. The portion of the transcription in brackets is a modern replacement, likely from Ettore Franchi's 1878 restoration of the painting, as noted by Anneke de Vries and Victor M. Schmidt in the catalogue from the exhibition held at the Galleria dell'Accademia in 2006. Noting imperfect Latin in the restored part, de Vries and Schmidt offered several options to correct it, including as the genitive "positae est," thus referring to the previous genitive "unius alterius tablul(a)e," which we follow here. See de Vries and Schmidt, "The Coronation of the Virgin for the main altar of Santa Maria degli Angeli: Iconography and purpose," in Lorenzo Monaco: A Bridge from Giotto’s Heritage to the Renaissance, editd by Angelo Tartuferi and Daniela Parenti (Florence: Giunti, 2006), p. 42n5.
[a] The high altar was oriented to the northeast, towards the city walls (later via degli Alfani), rather than the liturgical norm at the east.
[b] Given that Lorenzo Monaco's high altarpiece states that it was made in recompense for another altar dedicated by Zanobi del Frasca, scholars think that it may have been an altarpiece he either commissioned to adorn the new altar or left funds for when he died in June 1375.

In 2022 Dillian Gordon, following Guido Tigler's suggestion, proposed a partial reconstruction of what could have been the Angeli's second high altarpiece. Building on proposals by Miklós Boskovits, Gaudenz Freuler, and Amy Huntington, Gordon reconstructs a group of twenty-two panels dispersed across several museums as framing elements for a triptych with pinnacles, a predella, and pilasters. She tentatively assigns Jacopo di Cione's Virgin and Child with Angels now in Budapest as the central element, which would have echoed the Vanni Pisano altarpiece it replaced. Saints most certainly filled the side panels, though they remain unidentified.

Despite the numerous patrons George Bent has identified from the monastery's documentary record and early sources, he has found no records of donations by Zanobi del Frasca to the monastery save the inscription on Lorenzo Monaco's Coronation of 1414.
[c] In the third quarter of the fifteenth century the church of the Angeli was rebuilt on a much larger scale and the high altar was refurbished. Several patrons contributed to its decoration including Bartolomeo di Cino Nobili and Zanobi di Cecco del Frasca. Sandro di Simone Quaratesi may have received patronage rights around this time as well.
[d] Bernardo di Cino Bartolini de' Nobili of the parish of Santa Maria sopra Porta provided 400 florins for a new tabernacle to be placed above the high altar along with an iron grill. A record of this bequest, coinciding with the completion of the project, is dated August 1375. See Richa 1759, p. 151 and Bent 1993, pp. 158-159 and 648, doc. 36.
[e] The magnificent, large altarpiece showing the Coronation of the Virgin by Lorenzo Monaco carries the date February 1413 according to the Florentine-style calendar. This painting seems to have replaced another funded by Zanobi di Cecco del Frasca, reconstructed by Gordon (2022, pp. 202-205). It remained over the high altar until it was replaced with a painting by Alessandro Allori showing the same subject in 1593. Lorenzo's altarpiece was sent to San Pietro a Cerreto, a Camaldolese monastery about 40 km southwest of Florence on the road between Certaldo and Gambassi Terme, where it remained until the 19th century, when it was taken to the Uffizi.
[f] According to Farulli (1710, pp. 12-13), "Sandro di Simone da Quarata, oggi detti Quaratesi" was among the "principali Cittadini" responsible for building, endowing, and enriching the Angeli's chapels with precious and sacred furnishings ("arricchendole di preziose, e sacre suppellettili"). This is likely the Sandro da Quarata recorded in the monastery's Registro Nuovo, and transcribed by Bent (1993, p. 724, doc. 100), as endowing a perpetual mass for his soul on the day after the feast of Saint Nicholas (6 December). Bent does not otherwise refer to Sandro or the Quaratesi family. Like Zanobi del Frasca, whose name appears on the Lorenzo Monaco's high altarpiece of 1414, Sandro Quaratesi is oddly otherwise absent from the Angeli's archives. If Farulli is correct that he was the chapel's builder, then he would have received patronage rights in the early 1370s.
[g] Bernardo di Cino Benvenuti de'Nobili donated 400 florins to the rebuilding of the high altar to provide a ciborium (tabernacolo) and an iron gate for the choir. The monks' Registro Nuovo records that these gifts were for the remediation of his soul (Bent, 1993, p. 648, doc. 36)
[h] The Registro Nuovo notes that the monks were obligated to say an anniversary mass for Bardo Corsi on July 26th. His tomb slab in Santa Croce records that he died on July 27th, 1379. It is unclear whether his testament requested the mass the day prior to his death date, or if either the Registro Nuovo or his tomb inscription contains an error.
[i] Bardo Corsi was among several wealthy patrons who gave generous sums to Santa Maria degli Angeli to rebuild their church in 1372. His testament included a bequest for an annual mass on the anniversary of his death in July.
[j] George Bent has argued that Domenico di Zanobi del Frasca is the most likely candidate for commissioning Lorenzo Monaco's altarpiece, which carries the name of his father. See George R. Bent, “A Patron for Lorenzo Monaco’s Uffizi Coronation of the Virgin.” The Art Bulletin 82, no. 2 (2000): 348–54. doi.org/10.2307/3051381.
[k] Though he did not commission Lorenzo Monaco's Coronation of the Virgin altarpiece, Zanobi is named in its inscription, which explains that it was given in recompense for an earlier altarpiece dedicated for the souls of Zanobi and his family. Dillian Gordon proposes a reconstructed polyptych from the workshop of Jacopo di Cione as the original del Frasca altarpiece. See Dillian Gordon, “The paintings from the early to the late Gothic period.” In Santa Maria degli Angeli a Firenze: da monastero camaldolese a biblioteca umanistica, edited by Cristina De Benedictis, Carla Milloschi, and Guido Tigler, 188–225 (Firenze: Nardini editore, 2022), pp. 202–205.
[l] The presence of the Quaratesi and Gaddi family arms in the 1580 sepoltuario suggest that Andrea and his wife Elena Gaddi added some decoration or refurbishment to the high altar chapel during what seems to have been a short marriage. Andrea had remarried Maddalena di Coppo Canigiani prior to the birth of their son Giovanni on 30 August 1565.
[m] Though several families were known via inscriptions and coats of arms in the high altar chapel, it was first and foremost, as Stefano Rosselli notes, the altar of the Camaldolese community. The first church was demolished and replaced with a larger one in the fourteenth century. This church was significantly remodeled in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and finally deconsecrated in July 1866.
[n] According to Gregorio Farulli's history of the Angeli (1710, p. 13), Sandro di Simone da Quarata was given rights to the high altar chapel, which was conceded to the Montalvi (Ramirez de Montalvo) family in 1580. George Bent (1993, p. 724) published the anniversary mass for Sandro da Quarata among those celebrated in December. Sandro had left ten lire for a perpetual anniversary mass on December 7th, the day after the feast of St. Nicholas, as Bent transcribed from ASF, Corporazioni Religiosi Soppresse, 86, Registro Nuovo 96, fol. 8v. Stefano Rosselli noted that the monastery's sepoltuario of 1580 included two coats of arms, though he did not identify the families. One is clearly that of the Quaratesi with a shield carrying a silver eagle on a blue ground in the upper portion and a gold field below, while the other is almost certainly that of the Gaddi family with a gold cross on a blue shield. Rosselli states that these arms were no longer visible in his day and had likely been removed after the Ramirez de Montalvo family obtained patronage rights and began to renovate the chapel.