Resumen de Un polittico di Lippo d'Andrea per l'ospedale di San Paolo a Firenze
An examination of documents and iconography leads the author to propose that the great triptych of the "Virgin and Child Enthroned with Saints" attibuted to Lippo d'Andrea in the Galleria dell'Accademia in Florence was the altarpiece of the chapel of the Hospital of the Friars of Penance of the Third Order of Saint Francis, later known as the Ospedale di San Paolo dei Convalescenti. Commissioned in about 1430 by the hospitaller Stefano di Giovanni Sardelli, the work was probably made for the chapel at the end of the ward that received the poor and sick and formed the hub of the patients' devotional life, as well as being a customary part of hospital architecture, as proved by altarpieces from other charitable institutions in Florence and its surrounding area. Furthermore, a study of the historical events that determined how Lippo d'Andrea's painting passed to the Florentine Galleries provides useful clues for a reconstruction, albeit partial, of the early artistic patrimony of the Ospedale di San Paolo.
