Giovanni del Biondo, John the Evangelist, ca. 1380
Orsanmichele
Silk Guild
Giovanni del Biondo
Active in Florence from ca. 1360 until his death in 1396, Giovanni del Biondo’s prolific career spanned most of the last half of the fourteenth century. Trained as a fresco painter but also active as a miniaturist, the artist’s most frequent type of commission came in the form of panel pictures for liturgical settings. The facial characteristics of his figures frequently feature large eyes, jutting jawlines, and rosy cheeks. While he understood the potency of light and shadows as signifiers of volume and space, Giovanni’s paintings rarely convey the same brilliance as do the works of his Giottesque predecessors or his Gerinesque contemporaries. Still, the preponderance of images produced by Giovanni del Biondo – whose paintings adorned spaces in the Duomo, S. Maria Novella, S. Croce, and S. Maria degli Angeli, to name but a few – suggests his popularity in Florence irrespective of the limited skill set he retained.
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Circumstances of John the Evangelist
Commissioned by the Silk Merchants sometime near 1380, Giovanni del Biondo’s vertically oriented painting of John the Evangelist matches the type of picture installed systematically on the piers of Orsanmichele by late Trecento painters working for the different guilds of Florence. Located on the pier adjacent to Orcagna’s Tabernacle and the miracle working Madonna of Orsanmichele inside it, painted by Bernardo Daddi in 1347, the picture of the patron saint of the Por Santa Maria – the name of the Silk Guild, taken from the location of its headquarters near the city gate named for the Virgin Mary – enjoyed a position of prominence inside the church of the guilds. Its arrangement, with a tall compartment for the effigy and a smaller narrative picture below, aligns the image with typical side panels and predellas that normally flanked central compartments of polyptych altarpieces. Its proximity to Daddi’s cult image of the Madonna, installed with neither side panels nor predella scenes, suggests that the Evangelist – as well as the other pier panels inside Orsanmichele – were produced as surrogates that extended the visual presence of a typical altarpiece throughout the entire ground floor of the guild church.
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The Form of John
The enthroned Evangelist sits with the index finger of his right hand pointed up toward the half-length image of Christ. Both figures hold opened books in their left hands: Christ’s contains the first and last letters of the Greek alphabet – the Alpha and Omega – which symbolize the beginning and the end, or the entirety of purpose that He entails, while John’s book features the opening verses of his Gospel text, “In the beginning was the Word ….” John’s symbolic eagle perches below his right elbow and an inkwell and quill pen remind us of his authoritative authorship. At his feet, as though trampled by the power of Evangelic insight, lie personifications of the three vices of Pride, Avarice, and Vanity. The narrative scene below illustrates the Ascension of John, who rises up from his earthly grave into the waiting arms of Christ, who is flanked in His Celestial Court by Peter, Paul, and (presumably) the other three Gospel writers. Clerics to the left and puzzled bystanders at the right witness the miraculous event, while the symbol of the Silk Guild – a locked gate – appears on either side of this scene in the form of two coats of arms.
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Iconography
The frontal position of the figure, combined with his iconographic attribute and emblem of his fame, matches standard representations of figures as they appeared on altarpiece designs. Although a similar approach was taken in the design of the pier panel of St. Zenobius for the nave of the Duomo, the addition of three vices under John’s feet deviates somewhat from the normal representation of saints. Pride, or “Superbia,” has been painted as a bearded soldier, complete with silver gilt wings, helmet, and sword: the metallic materials were used by artists when rendering armed invaders or militant marauders. Vanity has been represented as a royal woman in an emerald gown and gold crown, gazing at her own reflection in a gilt mirror. Between them lies Avarice, who struggles to clutch a bag of coins pregnant with sin. The combination implies a celebration of Republican virtues, for none of the personifications – neither armed marauder, privileged princess, nor female titan – were publicly embraced by Florentines steeped in their own traditions of patriarchal, non-aristocratic, mercantilism.
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Silk Guild (Por S. Maria)
The Silk Guild, or the Arte Por S. Maria (the guild at the gate of St. Mary), was one of the six major trade organizations of the city: among their ranks were priors, artists, and international financiers of tremendous influence. Along with the Wool guild, the Arte Por S. Maria specialized in the creation of elegant garments that gradually became the staple of the Florentine wardrobe. The designer fabrics they produced brought with them hefty profits into the guild, and by the fifteenth century Silk merchants accounted for a disproportionate number of the city’s highest earners. Their decision to pay Giovanni del Biondo for the panel to celebrate their patron saint in Orsanmichele was in keeping with the guild’s interest in maintaining a visual presence in the church: indeed, the guild had chosen to serve as caretakers of the building as early as 1336 and its members were keen to maintain it. The symbol of the Silk Guild – a locked gate – appears on either side of the narrative scene in the form of two coats of arms.
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Purple and Crimson Satin Lucco, Bedchamber of Lorenzo ‘il Magnifico’
Of the items in the Palazzo Medici, clothes and dressmaking materials accounted for roughly 5% of the total value of the inventory. Florence was known for its elaborate textiles, and clothes were a central facet of Florentine life. Three of the six major guilds in Florence were centered on textiles (wool, silk, and garment production) and held significant connections with prominent international trading partners such as Constantinople and England.
The materiality and color of clothes often reflected the status of the wearer. For example, more lavish materials such as satin and silk suggested the extent of one’s wealth and power, whereas linen and simple wool garments might tell a different tale.
As evident from the inventories of the Palazzo Medici, the Medici family had an extensive wardrobe. Their clothes were made of expensive materials and elaborate colors consistent with theirwealth and power.
However, the Medici would often wear more humble clothes when they were in the public eye and in many of their portraits. These ideas were combined in Giorgio Vasari’s portrait of Lorenzo ‘il Magnifico, which displays Lorenzo in unassuming outer garments but with extravagant fur lining on the sleeves. By selectively choosing what types of clothes the Medici family wore, they were able to promote their status when it would benefit them most while also maintaining their humility.
This was true even in death. Cosimo de’ Medici was buried in extravagant outer garments of crimson satin and velvet, but with modest undergarments of linen cloth. Dress was viewed as an appendage of one's civic role and responsibilities, so the choice to bury Cosimo in these garments emphasized his political and social power, but also his inherent role as a citizen of Florence.
Bibliography:
Ackerman, James S. “On Early Renaissance Color Theory and Practice.”
Memoirs of the American Academy in Rome, vol. 35, 1980, pp. 11–44.
Currie, Elizabeth. “Clothing and a Florentine Style, 1550–1620.”
Renaissance Studies, vol. 23, no. 1, 2009, pp. 33–52.
Epstein, S. R. “Town and Country: Economy and Institutions in Late Medieval Italy.”
The Economic History Review, vol. 46, no. 3, 1993, pp. 453–77.
Marcella Mercer
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Want to add anything other than text? feel free to ask Mark
Lorenzo ‘il Magnifico’ de’ Medici had an extensive collection of precious hardstone vessels made from expensive materials such as agate, jasper, and sardonyx. The vastness and grandeur of Lorenzo’s collection is evident from analyzing the Palazzo Medici inventory and from the reactions of guests who were privileged to see the vessels. Frederico da Montefeltro called it a “truly royal collection” and Bernardo Rucellai commented on its “royal splendor.”
Vessels like these were not just used as dishware but also as status symbols. Wealthy Florentines could have afforded elegant silver dishware, but bejeweled cups and precious hardstone vessels would have been reserved for the royal class. To demonstrate his possession of these objects, Lorenzo had more than a third of these vessels engraved with his initials suggesting his pride in the vessels.
The Medici collection was so expansive that it accounted for 27% of the total value of the Palazzo’s inventory, which was estimated to have been worth 79,618 florins (the modern equivalent of roughly $200,000,000). The specific jasper wine cooler itemized in the inventory of 1492 was valued at 2,000 florins.
Interestingly, Lorenzo kept this jasper wine cooler with the rest of his collection in his study which few people would have visited compared to the rest of the house. Generally only prominent visitors
of Florence would have been shown these pieces: the Medici were often concerned that the opulence of their surroundings might instill envy and outrage in the city, and they were careful about who got to see their collections. Indeed, for public events, the Medici would use silver and silver gilt dishware instead of hardstone vessels to downplay their elevated status in the Republic.
The selective use of their possessions reflects the balancing act the Medici played between being a part of the citizen class and their unofficial title as signori of Florence. They flaunted their princely power and wealth to foreign potentates and political rivals when they felt their collections might earn them the respect they craved, but they also emphasized their humility when engaging with fellow Florentines, whose envy they feared.
Bibliography:
Helfenstein, Eva. “Lorenzo de’ Medici’s Magnificent Cups: Precious Vessels as Status Symbols in Fifteenth-Century Europe”
I Tatti Studies in the Italian Renaissance, vol. 16, no. 1/2, 2013, pp. 415–44.
Stapleford, Richard.
Lorenzo de’ Medici at Home: The Inventory of the Palazzo Medici in 1492. The Pennsylvania State University Press, 2013
Marcella Mercer
