Notizie su due cappelle perdute nella basilica di Santa Croce a Firenze

• Autores: Giovanni Giura
• Localización: Commentari d'arte: rivista di critica e storia dell'arte, Vol. 17, Nº. 49, 2011, págs. 29-41
• Idioma: italiano
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• Resumen

  • The article attempts to reconstruct two medievals chapels which were dismantled at the time of Vasari's restructuring of the basilica in the 1560's and '70's. Of the Machiavelli chapel, dedicated to SS. James and Philip, a fragmentary fresco survives in the sixth bay on the north side representing the Death and Assumption of the Virgin. Boskovits attributes the fresco to Lorenzo di Niccolò around 1400, at an important stage in the artist's work when his style was influenced by Spinello Aretino and subsequently by Lorenzo Monaco. From the funerary record of 1439, one can deduce that the chapel was situated between the door to the old cementery and the rear wall of the Asini chapel. The chapel had a polyptych on the altar and we know from Vasari that the walls were painted with scenes from the lives of the titular saints by Spinelo Aretino.

    The 1439 document also enables us to identify the position of the former Volto Santo chapel along the right aisle. No traces survive but it was patronised by the Cigliamochi family and is mentioned in a novella by Franco Sacchetti who refers to the donor Dino di Geri. The cult of the Volto Santo, which originated in Lucca, was reintroduced by the emperor Charles IV around 1368/69, and may have been imported to Florence soon afterwards.