The fresco of the Raising up of the dead Youth, left unfinished by
Masaccio when he left Florence for Rome, was completed by Filippino
Lippi (the son of that run-a-way Carmelite in whom the spirit of
Masaccio was said to have lived again), in 1484. The five figures on
the left appear to be from Filippino's hand (the second from the end
is said to be Luigi Pulci, the poet), as also the resuscitated boy
(said to be Francesco Granacci the painter, who was then about fifteen
years old) and the group of eight on the right. Under Masaccio's Adam
and Eve, he painted St. Paul visiting St. Peter in prison; under
Masolino's Fall, the Liberation of Peter by the Angel, two exceedingly
beautiful and simple compositions. And, on the right wall of the
chapel, St. Peter and St. Paul before the Proconsul and the
Crucifixion of St. Peter are also by Filippino. In the Crucifixion
scene, which is inferior to the rest, the last of the three spectators
on our right, wearing a black cap, is Filippino's master, Sandro
Botticelli. In the presence of the Proconsul, the elderly man with a
keen face, in a red cap to the right of the judge, is Antonio
Pollaiuolo; and, on our right, the youth whose head appears in the
corner is certainly Filippino himself--a kind of signature to the
whole.
Apart from the Brancacci chapel, the interest of the Carmine is mainly
confined to the tomb of the noble and simple-hearted ex-Gonfaloniere,
Piero Soderini (who died in 1513), in the choir; it was originally by
Benedetto da Rovezzano, but has been restored. There are frescoes in
the sacristy, representing the life of St. Cecilia, by one of Giotto's
later followers, possibly Spinello Aretino, and, in the cloisters, a
noteworthy Madonna of the same school, ascribed to Giovanni da Milano.
Beyond the Carmine, westwards, is the Borgo San Frediano, now, as in
olden time, the poorest part of Florence. It was the ringing of the
bell of the Carmine that gave the signal for the rising of the Ciompi
in 1378. Unlike their neighbours, the Augustinians of Santo Spirito,
the good fathers of Our Lady of Mount Carmel were for the most part
ardent followers of Savonarola, and, on the first of October 1497, one
of them preached an open-air sermon near the Porta San Frediano, in
which he declared that he himself had had a special revelation from
God on the subject of Fra Girolamo's sanctity, and that all who
resisted the Friar would be horribly punished; even Landucci admits
that he talked arrant nonsense, _pazzie_. The parish church of this
district, San Frediano in Cestello, is quite uninteresting. At the end
of the Via San Frediano is the great Porta San Frediano, of which more
presently.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Elsewhere in the archive
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account