The reference is to the frescoes in the so-called Spanish Chapel opening off the main cloister of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. The fresco of the east (liturgical north) wall asserts the power of the Dominican order and of Florence. It includes the Pope and the Emperor in front of what White, Art and Architecture in Italy 1250-1400, p. 563, calls 'a prophetic portrait of the then unfinished cathedral of Florence'.
Vasari attributes three sides of the work, including this one, to the Sienese painter Simone Martini (also called Simone Memmi by Vasari), with help from his brother-in-law, Lippo Memmi. The vault and the other side Vasari attributes to Taddeo Gaddi, a Florentine painter best know for his Life of the Virgin cycle in the Baroncelli Chapel of Santa Croce, Florence (see Vasari, Le Vite, Testo II.195).
The frescoes for the 'Spanish Chapel' were commissioned in 1365, and Simone Martini died in 1344. The whole cycle is now attributed to Andrea Bonaiuti da Firenze. Ruskin discusses the work in the chapel in Mornings in Florence (1875-1877) and accepts there the account given by Vasari of the painting of the frescoes: see Works, 23.235; Works, 23.369; Works, 23.378.
Lippo Memmi 14th Century
[abstract of the Duomo at Florence] c.1365
Pigment on wet plaster, size unknown
Further Comments: Vasari claimed that Memmi was assisted by his brother-in-law, Simone Martini, yet Simone died in 1344, 21 years before the frescoes were commissioned. The fresco cycle of the Spanish Chapel are now attributed to Andrea Bonaiuto da Firenze (of Florence).
Collection: Santa Maria Novella, Florence -Spanish Chapel
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