Magian ars medica, liturgical devices, and eastern influences in the Medici Palace Chapel

• Autores: Darrell Dean Davisson
• Localización: Studies in iconography, ISSN 0148-1029, Nº. 22, 2001, págs. 111-162
• Idioma: inglés
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• Resumen

  • The writer discusses the iconography of the decoration in the chapel of the palace of the Medici family in Florence, Italy. Clues to the chapel's personal and programmatic iconographies can be found in its lost relics and dispersed liturgical vessels and in the heritage of ancient Magian traditions manifest in the wall paintings by Benozzo Gonzoli. Also discernable in the decor is a virtual encyclopedia of mystical and canonical teachings in the form of images, shapes, and words intended to heal the body and soul. The writer examines and reconstructs the functions and uses of the chapel based on these items as they pertain to surviving images and documents, particularly those objects that refer to Medici identity, the Three Kings, and related iconographical motifs. He concludes that the chapel represented the fundamental objectives ascribed to the Wise Men while offering Neoplatonic allusions to the physician Asclepius—the main god of healing in Greek and Roman civilizations—as magus, Christ, priest, medicus, and Medici.