Mitteilungen des Kunsthistorischen Institutes in Florenz

Inhalt | Contenuto

Die Redaktion — 2025-11-14

Peter Tigler

Wolfgang Wolters — 2025-11-14

Botticelli, Ugolino di Nerio and a Sassetti Memorial Portrait

Christa Gardner von Teuffel — 2025-11-14

Una conferma per Pietro Lombardo a Bologna

Marco Scansani — 2025-11-14

I Ginori in Spagna e Portogallo tra XVII e XVIII secolo

Rafael Japón — 2025-11-14

This article discusses for the first time the collecting activities of members of the Ginori family in the Iberian Peninsula during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries.
Because some of them were Florentine consuls, they also acted as envoys on behalf of Cosimo III, which enabled them to develop a profound ability to use works of art as diplomatic instruments. The abundant unpublished documentation found in the Archivio Ginori Lisci makes it possible to correct, clarify, and deepen our understanding of the family’s trade relations, which previous scholarship had developed mainly based on the Mediceo del Principato fund of the Archivio di Stato in Florence. In addition, this essay examines the import of artworks by the Ginori from the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese monarchies for their Florentine residence. Some of these works are still preserved today and are introduced here for the first time, with particular attention to their artistic display in the Palazzo Ginori from the moment of their arrival in Italy.

Cristo fonte di vita

Francesco Saracino — 2025-11-14

This study presents a neglected painting that could be important for recognizing some aspects of the Florentine religious imagination in one of its most elusive periods. The panel depicts Christ as the Source of Life and is an authentic iconographic novelty based on various biblical passages, especially from the Gospel of John, the Apocalypse, and the First Epistle to the Corinthians. The aim of this article is to attribute its invention to Baccio Bandinelli, connecting it to the contemporary debate on the sola fide justification: the image visualizes the justice obtained by sinners who approach the Messiah with faith and are restored by his gift, a belief that was especially advanced by the Italian spirituali. It is suggested here that the painting was commissioned by Eleonora di Toledo in 1557, thus confirming her sympathies with this movement.

Ottaviano de'Medici e la sua collezione

Lunarita Sterpetti — 2025-11-14

This essay traces the biographical and intellectual profile of Ottaviano de’ Medici (1482–1546) along with his activities as a patron and collector. Ottaviano hailed from a cadet branch of the Medici family and became a political and cultural adviser to Alessandro de’ Medici, the first Duke of Florence. He collected paintings by Lorenzo di Credi, Fra Bartolomeo, and Andrea del Sarto, among others, alongside an important gallery of dynastic portraits by Pontormo, Raphael, Titian, and Vasari. Despite the significance of his endeavors, Ottaviano has received scant scholarly attention. In addition to providing a revised and updated biography of him, this article examines why he has been marginalized in Medici historiography through the analysis of previously unpublished archival documents and the writings of Giorgio Vasari, who was closely associated with Ottaviano during his early years at the Medici court. Vasari’s texts also constitute a key source to reconstruct Ottaviano’s art collection, especially his portrait gallery, which can be viewed as the precursor to the series of Medici portraits known as the Serie Aulica, now exhibited at the Uffizi Galleries.

L'abside della discordia

Maddalena Spagnolo — 2025-11-14

This paper investigates the intricate history of the decoration of the east apse of Santa Maria della Steccata in Parma. It forms an emblematic case study of a complex artistic commission in which the aims of painters, religious and secular authorities, and heterogeneous groups of citizens intertwined and sometimes conﬂicted with each other. By situating the sources concerning the construction and decoration of the church in their social and historical context, the paper highlights a distinctive approach of patrons handling commissions at the “discretion of many brains”, which allows us to reframe the problems which occurred ﬁrst with Parmigianino and later with Giulio Romano and Michelangelo Anselmi. Discussion then focuses on the work of the latter two artists, and proposes, along with some stylistic and chronological clariﬁcations, the ﬁrst iconographical analysis of what is revealed to be a highly sophisticated lost project by Giulio, recorded in a drawing by Federico Zuccari. A comparison between the drawing and the fresco offers a solution to the long-debated question of Giulio and Anselmi’s respective contributions to the decoration and to unlock the signiﬁcance of the changes and censorship ordered by the patrons in 1547. The paper further considers the criticisms sparked by both the project and the fresco in the light of the lively debate on religious images which spread through Italy during the 1540s.

Brunescelli and Michelozzo

Jack Wasserman — 2025-11-14

This study is devoted to the double-bay Chapel of Cosmas and Damian in San Lorenzo, Florence, which despite its Medici patronage has attracted few scholarly interest, and its relationship with the neighboring Old Sacristy. It aims to demonstrate that the chapel was begun later than the sacristy and built in two stages: Filippo Brunelleschi, who had designed the new transept of San Lorenzo on commission from Giovanni de’ Medici, was involved only with the first stage. After he had built the external walls and begun the one towards the interior of the church, around 1428 Giovanni’s son Cosimo took over, bringing in his favored architect Michelozzo di Bartolomeo. He must have been responsible for the demolition of the unfinished internal wall and the adaption of its pilaster and pier into an entrance to the chapel’s inner chamber. With its tympanum featuring a scallop shell, the portal is identical in appearance to the one Michelozzo built contemporaneously at the sacristy
entrance, thereby creating a symmetrical façade that unites the chapel and the sacristy into a Medici spiritual compound. It is argued here that this type of scallop shell was alien to Brunelleschi’s architectural language and that its introduction in the lantern of the cathedral was due to Michelozzo as well; in San Lorenzo it must have been chosen also for its funeral symbolism, in a space that was to contain the tombs of both Giovanni and Cosimo de’ Medici. Moreover, this article analyzes the reasons for the awkward placement of the entrance to the Old Sacristy, which cuts off the folded angular pilaster. It maintains that Brunelleschi’s entrance must have
been contained within the thickness of the wall and that only the wooden door installed in the 1450s forced its enlargement, thereby damaging the sacristy’s carefully thought-out architectural system.

Compelling radiance

Alison Wright — 2025-11-14

The depiction of radiance was a major challenge both to painters’ means and the limits of their materials in the early decades of the fifteenth century. Yet, because it falls outside the obvious analytical grasp of other types of figuration, radiance or shine often escapes critical attention. Focussing on Fra Angelico’s Paradise altarpiece from Sant’Egidio, Florence, this article explores the facture, optical effects, and varied meanings of radiance in the hands of a painter who was sensitive to the character of radiant light in biblical, Christian, and poetic sources. A distinctive strand of brilliant radiance, similarly using tooled gold leaf, is addressed in Fra Angelico’s small triptych of the Last Judgement for a Roman patron. Finally, the legacy and variants of gilded splendour are shown in a number of later fifteenth-century Florentine altarpieces of the Coronation of the Virgin. In exploring a historical material practice applied to visionary, heavenly, and apocalyptic themes, the analysis also acknowledges the appeal and affect of moving light, a phenomenon experienced differently, but still actively, in the present.

Inhalt | Contenuto

Die Redaktion — 2025-11-14

Raphael's Unexecuted Resurection of Christ and Santa Maria della Pace

Angelamaria Aceto — 2025-11-10

Il Tondo Riccardi del Vernaccia

Francesca Mari — 2025-11-10

In the commentary to the life of Mariotto Albertinelli in the 1851 edition of Vasari’s Vite, among the works not mentioned by the biographer is a tondo the curators accurately describe then in the palace of Francesco del Vernaccia in Borgo Pinti, Florence. This painting, representing a Holy Family with the Infant Saint John the Baptist, has never been considered or traced by scholars and can now be recognized in a panel preserved in excellent condition in a private collection. Comprehensive documentation found in various archives has made it possible to reconstruct its entire collection history. The Tondo Riccardi del Vernaccia is not only a very high-quality addition to the artist’s catalogue, but also a fundamental piece of evidence for understanding Albertinelli’s development during the last years of the first decade of the sixteenth century. In particular, the fact that it is based on a design by Raphael sheds new light on the relationship between the two artists.

Due estremi per il Vecchietta intagliatore

Giulio Dalvit — 2025-11-10

The objective of this article is twofold. On the one hand, it promotes the reattribution to Vecchietta of a wooden statue of the Risen Christ in the Chigi Zondadari collection – currently attributed to Domenico di Niccolò dei Cori –, connecting it to a documented commission from 1442. On the other hand, it suggests a change in chronology for the artist’s wooden Pietà, usually dated to the end of the 1440s but more convincingly placed in the artist’s late period, after 1472. As a result, Vecchietta’s entire career as a wood sculptor ought to be reconsidered with strong repercussions on the history of fifteenth-century Sienese wood sculpture as a whole. New evidence about Vecchietta’s work for the Martinozzi family and his Roman stay of 1460 is also presented here for the first time.

Editoriale

Samuel Vitali — 2025-11-10

Natural Calamities, Litany and Banners

Jessica N. Richardson — 2025-11-10

This article explores the performativity of images and script in late medieval Florence. It offers a new interpretation of the Intercession of the Virgin and Christ, a late-fourteenth century cloth painting from Florence attributed to Lorenzo Monaco, today in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. It considers new evidence in favor of its long-debated early function as a banner, arguing that the painting’s highly sophisticated use of text and image might be linked directly to its role in processions. Central to this hypothesis is the painting’s theme, as it was understood in relation to liturgical feasts and crisis processions in fourteenth-century Florence and, in particular, the form, placement, and language of the words painted on its surface. These inscriptions recall the songs and sounds of litany. This proposition is further supported by the later fifteenth-century visual quotations in paintings in and around Florence, attesting to the multisensorial dimensions of its imagery within the ritual environment of the city. Focusing on the dialectics between image and script in the Intercession, it shows how the performative aspects of this work broaden our understanding of traditional iconographies and contribute to wider discussions on the role of image and script in the definition of ‘public’ ritual practices.

"Fiorenza figlia di Roma"

Elon Danziger — 2025-11-10

Since the late eighteenth century, studies of the baptistery of San Giovanni in Florence have built their chronologies around one or both of two well-known reference points: a consecration by Pope Nicholas II in 1059 and the transfer of the baptismal font from Santa Reparata to San Giovanni in 1128. Both originate in a 1684 history of Florence by Ferdinando Leopoldo Del Migliore. A close examination of manuscript sources reveals both to be spurious. Freed of these constraints, we find multiple lines of evidence to support dating the origin of the project to the 1070s and the completion of its most important elements by the 1090s.
Consequently, it is possible to propose a new perspective on the development of early Romanesque architecture in Florence. Santi Apostoli, San Giovanni, and San Miniato, likely all works of the same architect, seem to represent not an organic development but an extrinsic current introduced into a visual culture for which the antique had been only one of many formal sources. The similarity in plan between San Miniato and the Roman church of Santa Maria in Portico consecrated by Pope Gregory VII and the extraordinary reference San Giovanni makes to the Pantheon, then reserved for papal masses, are among the pieces of evidence adduced for the involvement of Roman church reformers in Florentine architecture. The article furthermore explores the support of the Tuscan margravine and the role of Bishop Ranieri in the conception and realization of the baptistery.

Vulgarity and the Masterly Manner: Annibale Carracci Cites His Sources

Gail Feigenbaum — 2025-07-31

Epistolary Criticism, the Minerva Christ, and Michelangelo’s Garzone Problem

Raymond Carlson — 2025-07-31

“Broken into pieces and its head thrown into the square”: The Numerous Failures of Michelangelo’s Bronze Statue of Pope Julius II

Sefy Hendler — 2025-07-31

“Che non l’arebbe fat’a pena Cuio”. Porte, apparati e facciate ﬁorentine in tre testi pasquineschi dello Zoppo Carrozziere e dell’Etrusco

Paolo Celi — 2025-07-31

Effimere saette: sﬁde e limiti di una Kunstliteratur satiricoburlesca

Maddalena Spagnolo — 2025-07-31

The Fiascos of Mimesis: Ancient Sources for Renaissance Verse Ridiculing Art

Diletta Gamberini — 2025-07-28

Giudizi negativi e stime d’artista nel mondo di Vasari e Michelangelo

Chiara Franceschini — 2025-07-28

Bad Reception and the Renaissance Altarpiece

David Ekserdjian — 2025-07-28

Italian Renaissance Portraits that Disappoint: Isabella d’Este, Francesco del Giocondo, and Other Displeased Patrons

Jonathan K. Nelson — 2025-07-28

Bad Reception in Early Modern Italy: An Introduction

Alessandro Nova — 2025-07-28

Preface

Diletta Gamberini — 2025-07-28

Studien zur mediceischen Glaskunst, Archivalien, Entwurfszeichnungen, Gläser und Scherben

Detlef Heikamp — 2024-09-24

Jacopo Vignola, Alessandro Manzuoli und die Villa Isolani in Minerbio: zu den frühen Antikenstudien von Vignola

Margaret Daly Davis — 2024-09-24

A New Look at Three Drawings for Villa Madama, and Some Related Images

Sabine Eiche — 2024-09-24

Das Thema der "Konstantinschlacht" Piero della Francescas

Frank Büttner — 2024-09-24

Das Davanzati-Grabmal in S. Trinita zu Florenz

Elisabeth Oy-Marra — 2024-09-24

Abkürzungsschlüssel

Die Redaktion — 2024-09-24

Verzeichnisse

Die Redaktion — 2024-09-24

Inhalt | Contenuto

Die Redaktion — 2024-09-24

Titelei

Die Redaktion — 2024-09-24

Alcune note ed una proposta per Giovanni Bandini

Francesco Vossilla — 2024-09-17

Der Vertrag mit Andrea del Sarto für die Fresken des Atriums der SS. Annunziata in Florenz vom 30. Juli 1509

Doris Carl — 2024-09-17

Abschied von der Symmetrie. Zur Binnengliederung des "Castrum Imperatoris" in Prato

Kai Kappel — 2024-09-17

Der Palazzo Spinelli di Tarsia in Neapel: Domenico Antonio Vaccaro und die Kunst des Barocchetto

Salvatore Pisani — 2024-09-17

Der Maestro di Gherarduccio kopiert Giotto. Zur Rezeption der Arena-Fresken in der oberitalienischen Buchmalerei zu Beginn des 14. Jahrhunderts

Almut Stolte — 2024-09-17

Abkürzungsschlüssel

Die Redaktion — 2024-09-17

Verzeichnisse

Die Redaktion — 2024-09-17

Inhalt | Contenuto

Die Redaktion — 2024-09-17

Titelei

Die Redaktion — 2024-09-17

Zwei Zeichnungen nach dem Medici-Kairos

Sylvia Ferino-Pagden — 2024-09-17

"Ad instar S. Marie Maioris de Urbe": Der Dom von Orvieto und S. Maria Maggiore in Rom

Jürgen Wiener — 2024-09-17

Baccio Bandinelli e Benvenuto Cellini tra il 1540 ed il 1560: disputa su Firenze e su Roma

Francesco Vossilla — 2024-09-17

The Palazzo Bentivoglio in 1487

Carolyn James — 2024-09-17

Die Madonna von Nicotera und ihre Kopien. Vier unerkannte Madonnenstatuen des Benedetto da Maiano in Kalabrien und Sizilien

Doris Carl — 2024-09-17

Abkürzungsschlüssel

Die Redaktion — 2024-09-17

Verzeichnisse

Die Redaktion — 2024-09-17

Inhalt | Contenuto

Die Redaktion — 2024-09-17

Titelei

Die Redaktion — 2024-09-17

Zur frühen Schongauer-Rezeption in Florenz: Ein Verrocchio-Nachtrag

Janez Höfler — 2024-09-17

La fortezza di San Nicolò presso Sebenico. Un'opera importante di Giangirolamo Sanmicheli

Andrej Žmegač — 2024-09-17

Il Trionfo di Tamerlano. Una nuova lettura iconografica di un cassone del Metropolitan Museum of Art

Patricia Lurati — 2024-09-17

Abkürzungsschlüssel

Die Redaktion — 2024-09-17

Verzeichnisse

Die Redaktion — 2024-09-17

Inhalt | Contenuto

Die Redaktion — 2024-09-17

Titelei

Die Redaktion — 2024-09-17

Zwei weitere Madonnenstatuen des Benedetto da Maiano in Kalabrien. Ergänzungen zu: Die Madonna von Nicotera und ihre Kopien

Doris Carl — 2024-09-17

Giovan Battista Bertani. Miti classici e rivisitazioni giuliesche in disegni per committenze ducali mantovane

Piera Giovanna Tordella — 2024-09-17

Ein Entwurf Michelangelos für den Tondo Pitti und seine Beziehungen zu Leonardo da Vinci, zu antiken Werken und zu Raffael

Claudia Echinger-Maurach — 2024-09-17

An Unknown Crucifix by Baccio da Montelupo

Anne Markham Schulz — 2024-09-17

Lorenzo Sirigatti: gli svaghi eruditi di un dilettante del Cinquecento

Donatella Pegazzano — 2024-09-17

Nuove indagini sui disegni di Paolo Uccello agli Uffizi: disegno sottostante, tecnica, funzione

Lorenza Melli — 2024-09-17

Abkürzungsschlüssel

Die Redaktion — 2024-09-17

Verzeichnisse

Die Redaktion — 2024-09-17

Inhalt | Contenuto

Die Redaktion — 2024-09-17

Titelei

Die Redaktion — 2024-09-17

Leone Aretino: New documentary evidence of Leone Leoni's birthplace and training

Kelley Helmstutler Di Dio — 2024-09-10

Die Büsten im Kranzgesims des Palazzo Spannocchi in Siena

Doris Carl — 2024-09-10

Dokumente zu Banner und Tabernakel der Florentiner Compagnia di Santa Maria e San Zanobi im Trecento

Andreas Dehmer — 2024-09-10

Michelangelos Statuen des 'Apollo Pubes' und Raffaels 'Apollo Citharoedus' in der Schule von Athen

Claudia Echinger-Maurach — 2024-09-10

Immagini casuali, figure nascoste e natura antropomorfa nell'immaginario artistico rinascimentale

Giacomo Berra — 2024-09-10

Nicola Pisano: Bauskulptur

Max Seidel — 2024-09-10

Inhalt | Contenuto

Die Redaktion — 2024-09-10

Bartolomeo Ammannati e le statue degli Apostoli in Santa Maria del Fiore: ipotesi e acquisizioni documentarie

Carlo Cinelli — 2024-09-10

All'ombra della Loggia. Storia dell'iconografia fotografica della fiorentina Loggia della Signoria

Giovanni Fanelli — 2024-09-10

Cigoli et Marino

Vladimir Juren — 2024-09-10

Art Nouveau in Florenz

Stephanie Hanke — 2024-09-10

Der 'fliegende Kartograph'. Zu dem Federico da Montefeltro und Lorenzo de' Medici gewidmeten Werk "Le septe giornate della geographia" von Francesco Berlinghieri und dem Bild der Erde im Florenz des Quattrocento

Philine Helas — 2024-09-10

L'educazione di Masaccio. Documenti, problemi, proposte

Anna Padoa Rizzo — 2024-09-10

Verzeichnisse

Die Redaktion — 2024-09-10

Königin in einer Republik. Projekte für ein Grabmonument Caterina Corners in Venedig

Martin Gaier — 2024-09-10

Zum ursprünglichen Standort und zur Ikonographie des Dominikaner-Retabels von Giovanni di Paolo in den Uffizien

Ingeborg Bähr — 2024-09-10

Inhalt | Contenuto

Die Redaktion — 2024-09-10

Die Statuen der berühmten Toskaner im Hof der Uffizien

Régine Bonnefoit — 2024-09-10

L’Incoronazione della Vergine nella controfacciata della cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore e altri mosaici monumentali in Toscana

Alessio Monciatti — 2024-09-10

Ein Lehrender Christus von Nicola Pisano im Zisterzienserinnenkloster St. Marienstern in Sachsen

Gert Kreytenberg — 2024-09-10

Abkürzungsschlüssel

Die Redaktion — 2024-09-10

Verzeichnisse

Die Redaktion — 2024-09-10

Inhalt | Contenuto

Die Redaktion — 2024-09-10

Titelei

Die Redaktion — 2024-09-10

An unknown drawing for Seravezza

Sabine Eiche — 2024-09-03

Ein Gerichtsurteil zu einer offenen Geldschuld Leonardo da Vincis aus dem April 1481 (ASF, Mercanzia 7265)

Lorenz Böninger — 2024-09-03

“Altare portatile” e “cappella privata”: il caso dei Medici

Lorenz Böninger — 2024-09-03

Vasari e Borghini sul ritratto. Gli appunti pliniani della Selva di notizie (ms. K 783.16 del Kunsthistorisches Institut di Firenze)

Eliana Carrara — 2024-09-03