and subsequent evolution of the Servite Order between 1233 and 1310 at
the hands of the Seven Holy Founders and of St. Philip Benizi (see Fabbri
1988-1989; Fabbri 2009, 75-89).
The attribution of the work to Rosselli, suggested by an initial inspection, is
confirmed beyond all doubt by a stylistic comparison with another bozzetto
currently in a private collection in Florence – the only one so far linked
to the fresco cycle in the Santissima Annunziata (fig.1) – which Matteo
Rosselli signed and dated 1616. This is a model for the lunette of The Blessed
Manetto della Antella Preaching Before St. Louis, King of France, paid for by
a direct descendant of the founder of the Servite Order, the Hospitaller
Knight Francesco di Filippo dell’Antella (see Fabbri in Pitture fiorentine del
Seicento 1987, 30-31, entry 6; Fabbri 2009, 79-80, plate 5).
The composition prefigured by our model, on the other hand, coincides
in every part with the composition frescoed by Matteo Rosselli – signed
and dated 1618 bottom left – in the first of the six lunettes along the south
walk of the great cloister, which runs parallel to the Piazza della Santissima
Annunziata. The last of four in order of execution, and bearing the Campani
arms at its base in perpetual commemoration of the patron’s family (“azure,
Matteo Rosselli, detail.
bells or a band passant gules charged with three mullets of eight points or”), this
lunette illustrates the event that was to permit the Servite Order to expand
throughout Europe, namely the authorisation, granted by papal decree in 1255, to found places of worship and
convents for the order wherever it chose. Complying literally with the suggestions contained in Arcangelo Giani’s
iconographical programme, Rosselli set the Holy Founders’ audience with Pope Alexander IV in a large hall
decorated in pontifical style and packed with “Deac[ons], Card[ina]ls and Masters of Ceremonies, and Bishops, and
Prelates in ord[e]r, and before the Pope the Blessed Buonfigl[iol]o with the Blessed Manetto and Buonagiunta (…); and
here, praying and beseeching on behalf of s[ai]d friars, two consistory Lawyers, with the Datary who holds a sealed Bull
in his hand so that he can read it to those Fathers receiving the Pope’s Bles[si]ng”. Following Giani’s advice, the artist
meticulously depicted each individual present, varying their stances and their ‘interrelations’ according to the role
played by each one in the story, thus seeking to interpret their various states of mind and the general feeling of
elation sparked by the happy event: “on the one hand benignity with the majesty of the Pope; on the other Humility
and reverence, and happiness mixed with modesty on the part of those Religious; on the other again, the energy and
liveliness of those concistory Lawyers as they negotiate and promote th[i]s affair; and final[ly] the interest and wonder
of that College all around, in seeing these new religious and their devotion and humility” (for the iconographical
programme, see Fabbri 1988-1989, vol. II, 463-473; Fabbri 2009, 73-89).
We have two figure studies illustrating the planning stages that led to the production of the model being examined
here, both of them drawn in red chalk: the first, n. 9783 F in the Uffizi, is a preparatory drawing for the youthful
cardinal visible to the right of the pope (see Faini Guazzelli 1965-1966, vol. I, 108); the second, formerly in the
Horvitz collection sold Soteby’s New York 28/1/2008, lotto 41, consists of a fine study – so perfectly finished
it can almost be superimposed on the painted version – of the young page holding a sword and hat in the right
foreground, his purpose being to provide the scene with a form of theatrical frame (see Wolk-Simon 1991, 76-
79, n. 19).
That the Campani lunette would be considered one of Matteo Rosselli’s masterpieces on the very day after its
presentation to the public – “the best that was to be seen in that place” according to Pietro da Cortona, and the object
of equal praise from Domenico Passignano and Gian Lorenzo Bernini (see Cinelli in Bocchi-Cinelli 1677, 463-
464 ; Baldinucci, vol. IV, 1846, 162) – is something that would have been easy to predict simply from the model
itself, which received
the unreserved approval
both of the patron
and of the cleric who
devised the Servite
hagiographical
cycle.
The
small
oil-on-
paper
composition
already displays that
“marvellous harmony
which it has within
itself ”
(Baldinucci,
vol. IV, 1846, 162) – a
source of admiration
in the frescoed version
– and which Rosselli
achieved through a clear
Fig.1 Matteo Rosselli, fresco in the Santissima Annunziata, Florence .
scansion of the depth
of the painted space on
parallel planes marked by a regular alternation of light and shade, which prompts the eye to dwell on the figure of
the pope who is seated on his throne in the background and who is lit by a ray of light symbolising his inspiration
from the Virgin.
We have yet to clarify the seeming discrepancy between the date of 1616 on the back of the model and the actual
date of execution, which was 1618 (both as seen on the Campani fresco itself and as reiterated by numerous
convent sources and by Filippo Baldinucci). The perfectly logical explanation for the two-year time lapse between
the production of the model and its transposition into a full-scale fresco lies in the fact that this lunette, which
the friars initially granted to Francesco da Sommaia many years earlier and he, in turn, commissioned Poccetti
to do the work, was still unfinished at the latter’s death in 1612. So four years later, following the example set by
Count Roberto de’ Bardi and by Cavaliere Francesco dell’Antella, Sommaia must have turned to Matteo Rosselli
who, in the meantime, had taken over from his late predecessor in painting the Servite cycle. Sommaia must have
commissioned the new preparatory model from him, but he then postponed its transposition into fresco, possibly
owing to financial difficulties. By 1618, with the deadline well past, the Servites decided to reassign the lunette to
Cavaliere Francesco di Giovanni Campani, a knight of Sienese origin, who ordered its immediate execution after
purchasing Rosselli’s model, which already had the friars’ approval, from Sommaia who still owned it. The convent
records in the Santissima Annunziata appear to bear out this version of events (see Fabbri 2009, 77).
( MCF )