Resumen de L'"Incoronazione della Vergine" di Lorenzo di Niccolò in San Domenico a Cortona: da polittico silvestrino a pala domenicana
One of the best known and best preserved Florentine polyptychs is Lorenzodi Niccolò’s ‘Coronation of the virgin’ in San Domenico in Cortona. As the inscription on its base asserts, it was donated by Cosimo and Lorenzo de’ Medici in 1440, but it has long been known that it was originally commissioned by the Silvestrines of San Marco in Florence in 1402 to serve as their high-altarpiece. After the expulsion of the silvestrines and their replacement by Dominican Observants in 1436, the Medici, being the new patrons of San Marco, arranged for its removal to the newly built Observant convent in Cortona. This article discusses the connection between the polyptych’s function and its iconography, arguing that the transferral from the high altar of a church belonging to a reformed Benedictine order to that of a Dominican Observant convent had significant consequences which have hitherto been overlooked, mainly because the altarpiece has never been considered as the major example of Silvestrine patronage it actually is. The identities of the monastic saints both in the lateral panels and the pilasters have until now caused confusion, not least because those in the laterals – Saints Dominic, Thomas Aquinas and Peter Martyr -, present some anomalies with regard to physical type and attributes; moreover, although two of the predella panels represent stories from the life of Saint Benedict, this saint is absent from the laterals. These anomalies, as well as the surprising number of Dominican saints in an altarpiece not originally painted for a church of this order, can only be explained by assuming that, in orden to adapt the altarpiece ti its new setting and audience, the identitiesof the monastic saints were altered by changing the colour of their habits and some of their attributes. Originally, not only Saint Benedict, but also Saints Bernard of Clairvaux and Silvester Guzzolini were represented. The monastic beati in the pilasters have remained unchanged; they are here for the first time identified as Silvestrines. Both the iconographical adaptations and transfer of the altarpiece took place shortly after the Dominican take-over of San Marco, between 1436 and 1440. However, these changes must not simply be interpreted as a damnatio memoriae of the Solvestrines: emphatically presented as a religious bequest by the Medici brothers, the altarpiece was given a new lease of life. The Medici act of patronage and the careful and inconspicuous nature of the overpaintings both suggest the involvement of the painter who was active at this time not only for the Medici in San Marco but also for at least two patrons in San Domenico in Cortona: Fra’ Angelico.
