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Memorials

S. Barnaba 04 Tribuna, Altar Grande, e Coro

Situated In

Chiesa e monastero di San Barnaba -- chiesa
Rosselli Number 4.0
Memorial Type altar
Status extant
Current Repository Galleria degli Uffizi
Primary Installation na
Secondary Installation na
Tomb Form na
Liturgical Orientation E
Documented Types
  • altare
  • coro
Component Parts
  • mensa
Decorative Elements
  • Virgin Mary
  • a
  • b
Material
Database ID 31966

Dates

circa 1350 (date is approximate)
circa 1483 (date is approximate) to circa 1488 (date is approximate) c
decoration
1717 d
renovation

Inscriptions (1 total)

2540 VERGINE • MADRE • / FIGLIA • DELTVO • / FIGLIO Virgin mother, daughter of your son

Groups (2 total)

Arte dei Medici e Speziali
Città di Firenze
e

Related Memorials (4 total)

S. Barnaba 03a piccolo Altare:
S. Barnaba 05 altro piccolo Altare:
S. Barnaba Cappella della Nunziata:
S. Barnaba Cappella delle Sante Teresa e Maddalena de' Pazzi:

Sources (3 total)

Catalogo generale dei Beni Culturali rec. 0900158555A
ASF, Manoscritti, 625, Rosselli, Sepoltuario Fiorentino, 1657 (copy) pp. 1382, no. 4
G. Richa, Notizie istoriche delle chiese fiorentine vol. 7, pp. 65-66

Notes

  • [a] Four angels and six saints flank the raised throne of the Virgin Mary who holds the standing Christ child on her lap. The patron saints of the church, Barnabas, and the city, John the Baptist, stand closest to the throne. Next to Barnabas on the Virgin's right hand are Saint Augustine and Catherine of Alexandria, while Saints Ignatius of Antioch and the Archangel Michael complete the group on the Virgin's left-hand side.
  • [b] The top step of the Virgin's throne carries an inscription that reads: Virgin mother, daughter of your son.
  • [c] The Arte dei Medici e Speziali hired Sandro Botticelli to provide San Barnaba with a new altarpiece in the 1480s. His picture, showing an enthroned Virgin and Child with six saints and angels, was mentioned by Francesco Albertini in his 1510 Memoriale of the paintings and sculptures of Florence. According to F. Domestici and M. Sframeli (Catalogo), the picture remained on the high altar until 1717 when it was moved to the rear wall of the church. It entered the Uffizi collections in 1919.
  • [d] Giuseppe Richa discusses the renovations of the choir and tribune undertaken by Giovanni Vernaccini in 1717, including enlarging the altarpiece by Sandro Botticelli so it better fit the space, work Richa praises as so fine it seems as if the painting were all by the same artist ("che sembra tutta di una mano."
  • [e] The lily of Florence was installed over the chapel's entrance. Though the colors in the ASFi copy of Rosselli have a light flower on a dark ground, the arms of the Florentine commune can be recognized in the single, large fleur-de-lis, whose dark flower (red) on a light shield (silver) were represented correctly in Rosselli's autograph. The Florentine lily also adorns the facade of the church.