bai-xue:I absolutely love this fresco. It’s a Ghirlandaio in the Sassetti Chapel in Santa Trin
bai-xue:I absolutely love this fresco. It’s a Ghirlandaio in the Sassetti Chapel in Santa Trinita, in a series of frescos showing the history of St. Francis. This one is called “The Confirmation of the Order of St Francis.”In the middleground, you see Pope Innocent III confirming the Order of the Friars Minor, with Francis himself upon the steps in front of the Pope, and his followers in succession behind him. The background sets the scene for the whole painting: an urban Italian landscape of the Piazza della Signoria in Florence, the center of action in Florentine republican government.Now look at the foreground. In front of and mirroring the position of the Pope, there stands Lorenzo de’ Medici in the center, grouped with men like Franco Sassetti (the donor for the Sassetti chapel). He extends his hand in a mirror of the motions of blessing given by Pope Innocent to St. Francis. Mirroring St. Francis is Angelo Poliziano, beloved friend of Lorenzo and tutor to his children, and in succession are (in order) Giovanni, Piero, and Giuliano de’ Medici. There’s a good deal of hypothesizing about the order of the children (I suggest reading Gombrich’s “The Sassetti Chapel Revisited”), but the message is the same regardless: Lorenzo is a secular pope blessing the upbringing of his children as they rise up into the public sphere of government and republican participation. As Innocent III placed his hopes for the life of the church upon Francis’s cultivation of the mendicant life, Lorenzo places his hopes for the life of Florence upon the good upbringing of his sons under the tutelage of Poliziano. -- source link