Santissima Annunziata

Neues zum Stifterverhalten und zur Kunstpatronage der frühen Medici aus dem Briefwechsel des Serviten Paolo Attavanti

Abstract

This article explores new documentation regarding the relationship between the Servites of Santissima Annunziata in Florence and Cosimo and Piero de’ Medici, especially their early patronage of the chapel of the Madonna della Nunziata. Furthermore, the article draws attention to a significant but little-known manuscript containing the works of the Servite friar Paolo Attavanti, which provides crucial information about the Servites in Florence, the promotion of their blessed and their cults, the intellectual life of Santissima Annunziata, its patronage network, and other topics. Attavanti’s hitherto unknown correspondence with Cosimo the Elder not only reveals new aspects of Medici patronage, but also sheds new light on the author’s biography, the genesis of his works on the history of the order (especially his Dialogus de origine Ordinis Servorum ad Petrum Cosmae filium Medicem), and in particular the cult of Santissima Annunziata in Early Renaissance Florence. The article thus contributes to acknowledging the diversity of religious orders and their attempts to encourage patronage of their churches during the Renaissance.