When entering the church of Ognissanti visitors are bound to stop in front of the second chapel on the right side of the nave, the Vespucci’s. Years after the first few family members moved to Borgo Ognissanti, the Vespucci started to extend their power and patronage to the nearby church of Ognissanti, at the time under the control of the Humiliati.
The family chapel is decorated by two frescoes of Domenico Ghirlandaio: the Deposition and, right above it, the Madonna della Misericordia. The peculiarity of the latter are twelve kneeling figures depicted underneath the Virgin’s robe that brought art historians to speculate on who they portray. The possibility of one of them being the famous navigator-explorer Amerigo made the depiction a worthwhile topic of research. For years the dating of Ghirlandaio’s painting and the identification of its figures has been widely discussed and several hypotheses have been advanced. A recent publication by Karl Schlebusch (Schlebusch 2009) have pulled together previous considerations and re-examined them under the light of new documents, offering an insight into the construction of the chapel, its decoration and the relation with the Vespucci family.
Gathering documents from the Archivio di Stato of Florence and the archives of the Cloister of San Domenico in Fiesole, Schlebusch was able to find a terminus post quem for the beginning of the chapel’s construction works. The first reference to the chapel dates 1472 when Amerigo the Elder (the explorer’s grandfather) and his sons met up with Ognissanti’s monks to arrange the construction of a family chapel. Amerigo did not see the building finished as his testament records the will of having his sons in charge of building the chapel “della misericordia”.
The chapel is mentioned again in 1473 when Amerigo’s three sons Nastagio, Bartolomeo, and Giorgio Antonio met up with the Capitolo of Ognissanti. They decided to change the location of the family chapel within the church, wished the chapel to be modelled after the one of the Merchants guild in the church of San Pier Scheraggio and agreed in the project to be finished within ten years.
In a further document dated 1480, Giorgio Antonio (see previous posts for his predominant role in Florence) agreed with the Capitolo to pay 100 florins for a lifelong use of the burial space. The chapel is referred to as “already built” and the document also mentions Nastagio, Giorgio Antonio and the deceased Bartolomeo as patrons. The chapel must have been almost completed by the time Bartolomeo died in July 1479. On the basis of this founding, Schlebusch was able to date the chapel between 1474 and 1479 as the new documents provided the most accurate dating indication so far known.
A fairly precise dating of the chapel also has consequences on the dating of Ghirlandaio’s frescoes. According to the documents, it was not until the end of 1473 that it was decided where the chapel had to be placed. This leads to assume that Ghirlandaio cannot have started earlier than 1474. Furthermore, it is known that the artist was not in Florence from September 1474 till May 1474 and it seems reasonable to believe the painter started working on the Vespucci chapel after his return to Florence. The frescoes could therefore be dated around 1476-77.
The manuscripts found gave Schlebusch the opportunity to re-examine the identification of the figures portrayed in Ghirlandaio’s frescoes. By considering the tax reports of the Florentine catasto and taking into account dating aspect, the historian concluded that the twelve people depicted represent members of Amerigo’s family (Amerigo the explorer).
The two figures in the middle, with their backs towards the beholder, resemble a married couple and, in all probability, they represent Amerigo the Elder and his wife Nanna. The two people at the far right and left are Nastagio and his wife Lisa Mini. Bartolomeo is placed between Amerigo and the Bishop, and his wife Maria on the opposite site. The other two men are Giorgio Antonio, never married, and Jacopo, portrayed as an eighteen-year-old boy. The last three women are respectively Piera, Margherita and Verdiana, Amerigo’s (the explorer) aunts. Among the group of people depicted around Christ in the Deposition, Schlebusch identify the man dressed in dark clothing, who stares at the beholder, with Saint Anastasius Persa. He could just as well represent Amerigo’s father, who was also called Nastagio.
Schlebusch’s exposé offers a new(ish) insight into the construction phases of the chapel and Vespucci patronage rights. The writing provides interesting material but while presenting facts and “data” it misses out on the opportunity to tackle the social, historical and artistic context that surrounds the chapel, the church and – most importantly – the Vespucci. Although the inclusion of original Latin documents at the end of the article makes it easier to follow the author’s argument, there is to hope that these considerations - not only on chapel itself but also on the activity of Ghirlandaio - would be sooner or later published in English and spread among a wider audience. Otherwise we would all better get a really good German dictionary (at least I would).
A big Thank You to Klazina for her invaluable help with the translation of the article. Also, Thank You to the friends who stopped by and offered help at the library. And Thank You to those who have started making fun of my non-existent German by dropping German words into our conversations.
Source
Karl Schlebusch. 2009. “Neue Dokumente zur Vespucci-Kapelle in Ognissanti und zur Familie Domenico Ghirlandaios”, Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institute in Florenz, 2/3: 364-374.
