LOCATION: Window sVII - Jacopi Chapel; the chapel, begun in 1489, was acquired in 1503 by Giovanni di Bernardo Jacopi. The arms of Jacopi and those of his wife (of the Serristori family) are sculpted on the capitals of the chapel.

DIMENSIONS: c. 270 x 200 cm.

PROVENANCE: original location

CHRONOLOGY: c. 1503

AUTHOR: not documented

PATRON: Giovanni di Bernardo Jacopi

SUBJECT/S: Stained glass windows composed of bull’s eyes of colorless glass linked by rhomboid, colored glass pieces which are decorated with painted flowers. At the center is Giovanni Jacopi’s coat of arms - a black wild boar on a gold shield.

CRITICAL NOTES: This type of window belongs to a what was apparently a Renaissance liking for displaying heraldry in Tuscan stained glass windows. Actually, though this window bears some resemblance to the one in the Riccialbani window on the north side of the church (see Firenze S. Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi 4), it differs from it considerably due to its unusual border: it is composed of small hexagons painted with animated animals. This type of repertory is not usual in stained glass practice. Rather, it is typical of illuminated manuscripts. (Such animal motifs appear, for example, in Zanobi Strozzi’s "libri d’ore"). The glazier’s familiarity with the miniaturist’s art seems to indicate that he was active in a multi-purpose workshop, such as that of the Gesuati.

CONDITION: in good condition

BIBLIOGRAPHY:

• A. LUCHS Cestello. A Cistercian Church of the Florentine Renaissance, New York, 1977, pp. 116-118;

• ID Stained Glass above Renaissance Altars: figural Windows in Architecture from Brunelleschi to Bramante, in "Zeitschrift für Kunstgeschichte", 48, 1985, pp.177-224;

• ID The Convent of Santa Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi and its Works of Art, Florence, 1990, pp. 12, 15;

• R.K. BURNAM Le vetrate del Duomo di Pisa, Pisa, Scuola Normale Superiore, 2003.

PHOTOGRAPHIC REFERENCE: CVMA-Italia archives

EDITOR: Renée K. Burnam February 2003