Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Abbreviations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: ‘Il primo huomo da dipingere in fresco, che sia in questi paesi’: Bernardino Poccetti and the Historiography of Florentine Painting during the Late Renaissance
- 1 ‘Grandemente inclinato all’Arte del Disegno’: Filippo Baldinucci’s Biography of Bernardino Poccetti
- 2 ‘Le prime cose lodevoli molto’: Bernardino Poccetti’s Early Work and the Frescoes from the Life of Saint Dominic in the Chiostro Grande, Santa Maria Novella
- 3 ‘Locum ecclesiae designavit, quae Ioannis et uxoris pecunia extructa est’: Bernardino Poccetti and the Decoration of the Canigiani Chapel in Santa Felicita
- 4 ‘Miracula et alia id genus’: Bernardino Poccetti’s Frescoes in the Church of San Lorenzo at the Certosa del Galluzzo
- Color Plates
- 5 ‘L’inventore di dipingere tutte le muraglie della nostra chiesa’: Bernardino Poccetti and the Sixteenth-Century Decoration of Santa Maria del Carmine
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
5 - ‘L’inventore di dipingere tutte le muraglie della nostra chiesa’: Bernardino Poccetti and the Sixteenth-Century Decoration of Santa Maria del Carmine
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 13 February 2024
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of Illustrations
- List of Abbreviations
- Acknowledgments
- Introduction: ‘Il primo huomo da dipingere in fresco, che sia in questi paesi’: Bernardino Poccetti and the Historiography of Florentine Painting during the Late Renaissance
- 1 ‘Grandemente inclinato all’Arte del Disegno’: Filippo Baldinucci’s Biography of Bernardino Poccetti
- 2 ‘Le prime cose lodevoli molto’: Bernardino Poccetti’s Early Work and the Frescoes from the Life of Saint Dominic in the Chiostro Grande, Santa Maria Novella
- 3 ‘Locum ecclesiae designavit, quae Ioannis et uxoris pecunia extructa est’: Bernardino Poccetti and the Decoration of the Canigiani Chapel in Santa Felicita
- 4 ‘Miracula et alia id genus’: Bernardino Poccetti’s Frescoes in the Church of San Lorenzo at the Certosa del Galluzzo
- Color Plates
- 5 ‘L’inventore di dipingere tutte le muraglie della nostra chiesa’: Bernardino Poccetti and the Sixteenth-Century Decoration of Santa Maria del Carmine
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Abstract: Bernardino Barbatelli (called Poccetti, 1553–1612) was buried in Santa Maria del Carmine in 1612. At the time, almost the entire fresco cycle in the nave that represented the apostles was by his hand. This chapter reconstructs the decorative program, destroyed by a fire in 1771, through a reading of archival documents, contemporary records, and a comparison to known examples of similar paintings by Poccetti. The renovations to the Carmine embodied the ideals of the Roman Church as it faced the threat of Protestantism. In addition to a robust defense of religious imagery, the apostles in the Carmine also emphasized the Church's long history, while an elaborate program of faux colored-marble revetment demonstrated Catholicism's continued commitment to ecclesiastical splendor.
Keywords: Bernardino Barbatelli, called Poccetti; Santa Maria del Carmine, Florence; colored marble; apostles; church reform
At around eleven o’clock on the night of 28 January 1771, several members of the Stabbini family, who lived behind Santa Maria del Carmine on Via degli Allori, saw light coming from inside the choir of the large Carmelite church that dominated their neighborhood. Although it was unusual for it to be illuminated at that hour, the Stabbini knew that the Carmine was undergoing a substantial renovation, and they decided that the light must have been coming from the lamps of workers toiling late into the night. About an hour later, around midnight, Giuseppe Bellucci, an ortolano who lived on Via d’Ardiglione, woke up and saw a bright light emanating from around the Carmine's choir. Giuseppe, startled by the scene, attempted to rouse his sleeping son, Angelo. Angelo, who had witnessed an aurora borealis a few weeks earlier, convinced his father that the light he saw was most likely the result of yet another cosmic event and not evidence of an ensuing conflagration, and so Giuseppe returned to bed. It was not until two hours later, when Angelo's wife awoke to see tongues of flame emerging from the windows of the choir, that she realized that the church was on fire and ran to awaken the other members of the household. The Bellucci family then rushed to the church and roused the sacristan, but by the time the sacristan had assessed the situation and sounded the alarm, the fire was already raging out of control, fed by strong winds that buffeted Florence throughout the night.
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- Bernardino Poccetti and the Art of Religious Painting at the End of the Florentine Renaissance , pp. 241 - 276Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2023