TABERNACOLO LEONE-CHIESA – Luoghi Parlanti

Tabernacles of Florence

Piazza San Felice corner of Piazza Pitti

THE TABERNACLE THE STREET AUTHOR PICTURES

THE TABERNACLE

Annunciazione

The Virgin, portrayed in an ample red and white robe and with traditional heavenly mantle, receives, with a motion of agitation, the visit of the Archangel Gabriel who, with an emphatic raised arm, gives her greeting (Lc 1,28-29); the sacredness tone of the scene, which is witnessed by two Cherubim in the upper right corner, is further reaffirmed by the bright ochre sky in the background.

Tabernacle

The large 17th-century tabernacle depicting the Annunciation, set in a pietra serena frame, adorns the wall of the palace between Piazza San Felice and Piazza Pitti. The painting was repeatedly remodeled in various parts over the course of successive eras: restored in the mid-20th century by Renato Bagnoli and once also equipped with a valuable lantern, the tabernacle now shines again thanks to the painstaking work of Bartolomeo Ciccone and the generous contribution of the Friends of Florence.

THE STREET

PIAZZA SAN FELICE

In Piazza San Felice, named after the church of the same name, two important streets converge: via Romana, which leads to Porta Romana, and via Maggio, i.e. "Maggiore," a street of great importance. On the corner of Via Mazzetta, Piazza San Felice and Via Maggio there is Casa Guidi. Opposite Casa Guidi there is the building on which the tabernacle is placed, located right at the junction of Via Maggio and Piazza Pitti. The latter owes its name to the imposing Pitti Palace, begun for Luca Pitti in 1457, designed, it seems, by Filippo Brunelleschi.

AUTHOR

Florentine school

(early 17th century) The painting is believed to have been executed in the first decade of the 17th century by an unknown late Mannerist artist of the Florentine school. It is brought closer by more recent critics to the circle of Santi di Tito, due to the simplicity of the scenic layout, rather than to the sphere of Jacopo Chimenti known as "l'Empoli", to whom the work was initially attributed.

Curiosity

The choice of the subject is perhaps to be traced back to the representation of the "Annuncio a Maria" (the "Annunciation to Mary") that during the Renaissance, on March 25, took place in the nearby church of San Felice in Piazza: it is handed down that in 1439, during the Council for the union with the Eastern Church, the Gospel episode was re-enacted inside the church in a spectacular way by means of scenic machinery, called "ingegni," designed by Brunelleschi, and that real people participated in it in the role of figurants.

OTHER INFORMATION

Info

AMICI DEI MUSEI FIORENTINI ODV - COMITATO PER IL DECORO E IL RESTAURO DEI TABERNACOLI - File by Lorenzo Manzani - Restoration: Bartolomeo Ciccone and Stefano Landi - Restored by Friends of Florence Foundation, Florence Chapter (2020)