CHAPTER ON E • 'S BRO NZ E

PULPITS IN SAN LOREN Z O AND TH E

EARLY CHRISTIAN REVIVAL

T he pair of bronze pulpirs by Donarello in San a remarkable unity of functi on, meaning. and style." .i _Lorenzo in , togeth er one of the seminal Functionally, the unity involved a return to the long works of ea rly Renaissance narrati ve scul pture, have obsolete custom of reading the Epistle and Gospel suffered a tragic farc, histori cally as well as histori ­ of the Mass from a pair of ambos, except that these ographica lly (Figs. 1-3). There is no conremporary were no rmally placed toward the mi ddle of the documentati on about them. We kn ow only from nave; rh e tradition is best exe mplified in the early Vespas iano da Bisricc i and Vasari that Cosima de' basi licas of such as the Fl orenti ne church's Medici commissioned chern for San Lorenzo, whi ch own namesake, San Lorenzo fuori Ie mura ( Fig. 4 ). Brunelleschi had rebuilt for him into th e first new Themati call y, the un ity li es in a Christological nar­ basili ca of the Renaissance. The pulpits were Dona­ rative in whi ch the events of th e Pass ion-except rell o's lasr work, lefr unfinished ar his dea rh in 1466 the Last Supper-are pomayed on the left (facing and complered by ass isranrs. They were assembled th e ), whil e the pos tpPass ion mi racles appear by the early sixteenth century and later attached to on the righe, In thi s pass ing fmm death to resurrec­ the pi ers at th e meeting of nave and transept, very ti on through the operation of th e Eucharist at the likely the location for which they wete ori ginally altar, Donatello's cycle is unique.2 In its bilateral intended. Early in the seventeenth ccowry they were confrontation of promise and fulfillment, however, moved to th eir present pos itio ns in the adj oining the ptogram tecalls the decorati ons of Eatly Chris­ nave arches. [ cian bas ilicas, in which Old Tesrament and New The pulpirs had been (as they conrinue to be) Tes ram enr narrarives Rank rh e nave. or rh e mosa ics the subject of a good deal of discussion about attri­ of Sanc'ApoUinare N uovo ar Ravenn a. where pre­ bution and dating-who did what when-until. Pass ion miracles confronr rhe Passio n. Fo rm ally. rh e in an article published nearly thirty years ago, I uniry consists in rh e sys remari c adoprion and adap­ argued that th ey are, after all, a coherent work of ration of more or less anti quared fea tures in th e art. Foclising primarily on th e pulpics' sources, my overall des ign of the pulpits as well as in the indi­ stud y "revealed, underlying their apparent di ve rsit ies , vidual scenes. Donatello rejected the polygo nal Fig. I. View in the crossing. San Lorenzo, Florence (photo: Soprintendenza per i Bcni Arcistici e Storici, Florence 27).

Fig. 2. Donatello, left pulpit. San Lorenzo, Florence (photo: B

Fig. 5. Pulpit. San Leonardo in Atcetri, Florence (photo: Alinari JJ4I).

shape currently in vogue for pulpirs in favor of the imagine San Lorenzo as the embodiment of a collective oblong format that had been neglecred for at least a ideal to recreate, in architecture, furnishings, as well as century (Fig. 5); and the design of the right pulpit, liturgy, a pristine Christianity.3 for example, clearly evokes early fourteenth-century sarcophagi like one by Tino di Camaino in Santa Since that article was published, it has become Croce (Fig. 6), where the Resurrection also occupies clear to me that while my eyesight was sharper in the center panel and is flanked by post-Passion mir­ those days, my mindsight was more myopic. In rhis acles. A striking case among the individual scenes egregiously belated postscript I shall rry to fit is the Three Marys at the Tomb (Fig. 7); for the together what I now see as the pieces of a large portrayal of the event as taking place within an and complex, indeed a cosmic, jigsaw puzzle. architectural setting, the nearest antecedents in The largest piece in the puzzle appeared in an are found on the Tuscan Romanesque painted illuminaring talk entitled, significantly in our con­ crosses (Fig. 8). text, "Early Christian Topography in Florentine I concluded that Chronicles," given at the annual meeting of the College Art Association in 1985 by the historian the unity is essentially one of intent, which may be Charles Davis of Tulane University' Davis greatly defined as a concerted effort to resurrect the past and expanded our view of the late medieval history and relate it to the present in a new and meaningful way. self-image of what he called the "pushy" Tuscan The past is therefore both an end in itself and the metropolis of Florence. Italian city-states commonly means to convey a more effective spiritual message. The message may have been entirely Donatello's invention; magnified their own images by emphasizing real or or it may have been a joint product of the humanist imagined claims to the glories of ancient Rome. group surrounding Cosimo de' Medici, especially dur­ Studying the early chronicles, Davis found that in ing his later years, of which a leading goal was to rec­ Florence this history rhetoric acquired a special oncile antiquity with Christianity by returning to the dimension, topographical as well as figurative. Flor­ "early" phases of the Church. One is even tempted to ence was assimilated to the early Christian notion-

2 DonateLloJs 8ron{! Pulpits r

ic was invenced by che early Chucch Fach ers-of a New Rome under ChciS[ superseding che old Rome of paganism. This grand religio-hiscorical idea emerges first in the anonymous Chroniea de origine civi­ tatis, wri tten about 1200. H ere Fl orence is said co have been founded originally as a miniature Rome wich capicol, am p h ic h ea c e ~ aq ueducrs, and the reS[, only co be destroyed five hundred years lacer by Tocila, King of che Ostrogochs. The cicy was chen rebuilc by Charlemagne in ch e im age of che New Rome, and this relacionship was specifically defin ed in the dedications and locations of the main churches . "JuS[ as che church of Sc. Pecer's is on one side of the city of Rome, so it is in the city o f Florence. And juS[ as che chucch of Sc. Paul is on che ocher side of che cicy of Rome, so ic is in che cicy of Flor­ ence. And just as the church of Sc. Lawrence che Martyr is on one side of che cicy of Rome and on the opposice side che chucch of Sc. Sce phen, so ic is in ch e cicy of Florence. And juS[ as on one side of che cicy of Rome is che church of Sc. John Lace ran, so is che main church of che cicy of Florence" ( Fig. 9). 5 Davis observed chac chis parall elis m wich Early Christian Rome was brought into even cl earer focus coward ch e middle of ch e fourteench ce ntury by Fig. 6. Tino di Camaino, tomb of Gasrone della Torre. Santa Cmce, Florence (photo: Bragi 3142).

Fig. 7. Donatello, Marys al 11K Tomb, right pulpit. San Lorenzo, Florence (photo: Alinari 2216a).

4 Donattllo's Bron{! Pulpits ®

+ '000. N '"

Fig. 9. Map of Florence showing. at c~ nte r, the Roman walls and locations of the churches: (1) San Pier Maggiore, (2) San Paolo (now San Paolino), (3) San Lorenzo, (4) Santo Stefano, (5) San Giovanni (after Braunfels, 1976, fig. 21 opp. p. 49; redrawn by Susanne Philippson Curcic).

Fig. 8. Maryl at tlx 1Dmb, Cross no. 15. Museo Civico, Pisa (photo: Brogi 21350).

Giovanni Vi llan i, whose Historia nova of Florence was "wested," that is, the high altar is at the west end of the historiographit al herald of the Renaissance. the building rather than at the east, as is usual for Villani gives an elaborate account of the layout of Christian churches. San Lorenzo shares this abnor­ the city as modeled on that of Rome, and once mality above all with the prototypical of again the churches are the chief points of reference, Rome, including St. Peter's and San Lorenzo fuori including again the analogy between the two San Ie mura itself in its original form, attributed to Lorenzos Juon it mura. 6 The theme recurs in Gore Constantine the Great. Closely related to this direc­ Dati's lstoria di FirenZ! of about 1410,7 and the strength tional peculiarity is an eq ually distinctive liturgical and persistence of the tradition may be gauged by a orientation that Brunell eschi introduced in his plan passage in Del Migliore's mid-seventee nth-century for San Lorenzo. It is well known that in des igning guide to Florence. The whole theme of Florentine Santo Spirito, Brunelleschi had [he radi cal notion of emulation of the succession of paganism by Chris­ separating the altars from the chapel walls so that tianity at Rome is focused on San Lorenzo. Accord­ the officiating priest would fa ce, rather than turn his ing to Del Migliore, "it would not be amiss to say back to, the congregation. 9 This orientation versus that the Florentines, as imitators of the actions of populum} a radical departure from custom, was an the Romans, especially in matters of religious rites, early practice that had been retained in a variety of permitted the construction of San Lorenzo corre­ contexts, notably in churches of the Ambrosian rite sponding to the church built by Constantine out­ in Milan - a precedent relevant to San Lorenzo, as side the walls of Rome; nor is the opinion vain of we shall see -and most conspicuously in Rome,1O those who give as a second motive its construction in the Lateran and St. Peter's, where the pope offici­ on the ruins of one of those three-naved buildings ates, but in other churches as well, including San called basi li cas."s Lorenzo fuori Ie mura. In all these cases the altar A second piece of the puzzle may be discerned in was associated with a martyr's tomb (confessio) two peculiar and co mplementary features of Brunel­ visible below or immedi ately in front. The arrange­ leschi 's conception of the building. San Lorenzo is ment was never put into effect at Santo Spirito, but

DonateLMs Brol1.{! Pulpits 5 l ~ t \ ' Ic, 1 ~ : .IT 0) . ["

Fig. 10. Anonymous, plan of San Lorenzo, Florence. Archivio Fig. II. Detail of Fig. 10. di Stato, Venice.

we now know that at San Lorenzo it was. Some the altar (Fig. 12) points insistently toward Old St. years ago Loreclana O livato and H oward Burns Peter's. There, in the sixth century, independently discovered a plan of San Lorenzo, dat­ had given the Constantin ian presbytery essentially ing from around 1500, that shows what must have the same disposition, including the high alrar versus been the original layout (Figs. 10, II ). " The high populurn (Fig. 13).14 It was Gregory's installarion that altar is at the edge of the raised presbytery on a occupied the chancel of St. Peter's in rhe Renais­ platform reached from behind, so that the celebrant sance. The purpose of this particular design at St. must have faced the congregation in the nave. This Peter's is evident: the stairways framed the confessio remained the orientation of San Lorenzo's high altar and focused on the tomb of the apostles in the until it was reversed in the early seventeenth century. l2 crypt below. The function was surely analogous at The plan confirms, and helps partly to explain, one San Lorenzo, where Cosimo de' Medici was given of the most novel fearures of Brunelleschi 's rebuild­ the rare privilege of being buried immediately in ing of the church. It had been the custom to install front of the high alrar. The three salient features of the choir in the crossing or nave before the high San Lorenzo - the choir in the apse, the high altar altar, especially in monastic churches where the versus populurn, and rhe tomb at the foot of rhe altar liturgical devotions were the building's raison d}ltre. - were thus interdependent innovations, all of At Cosimo's behest, Brunelleschi shifted the choir which, like the paired pulpits, reBected Early Chris­ to the apse behind the altar-precisely as in the tian usage. Roman basilicas, where pilgrims were thus given Cosima's tomb, which has also been the subject unobstructed access to the tomb of the martyr. 13 In of some controversy, is the third piece in the puzzle. the Roman basilicas, such as San Lorenzo fuori Ie The burial is marked in the pavement before rhe mura (see Fig. 4), the confessio might be Banked by high altar by a square geometric design of inlaid stairs leading up from the nave to the presbytery. marble with red and green porphyry; at the sides However, Burns's reconstruction of the arrangement bronze gratings, which recall the grille of the early at San Lorenzo with flanking transverse stairs before confessio, transmit light to the tomb contained in

6 Donatello}s Bron~ Pulpits Fig. 12. Reconstruction of the crossi ng of San Lorenzo with Donatello's pulpits, Verrocchio's tomb marker of Cosimo, Desiderio's tabernacle, and the high altar arrangement shown in Fig. II (drawing by Susanne Philippson Curcic).

Dcnattl",', Bron

Fig. 13- Plan of medieval presbytery. Old Sr. Peter's, Rome (from Apollonj Ghetti tl aL, 1951, fig. '36c).

the supporting piet in the crypt below (Figs. 14-15; wealthy men - coofooned to Cosima's own wishes Plate I). This curious arrangement was completed as they were reported by Piero at the time of Cosimo's by Piero de' Medici in 1467 after his father's death funeral. l6 The duali ty corresponds to the subtle bal­ in 1464. The basic explanation, often ove rlooked, ance of Cosima's own character and to the nature of was provided by Del Migliore, who referted to a his hegemony in Florence, based not on military concil iar proscription against bu rials in bas ili cas of power. as with other rulers of Itali an city states, but the martyrs;15 San Lorenzo, in fa ct, has the sobri ­ on finan cial and political acumen, wh ich included quet Ambrosiana, owing to its venerable careful deference to the republica n traditions of the antiquity and its having been originally dedicated by commune. 17 St. Ambrose himself o n a visit to Florence from his Clearfield's argument supports an earlier theory episcopal see in Milan. In a fine essay publi shed in of H oward SaaLnan's that Cosimo and Brunell eschi the Ru tgers Ar/ Review in 1981, Janis Clearfield showed may have been led to install the choir in the apse to that the boldly conceived burial in front of the high make room fot the patron's tomb before the high altar, as well as the pavement marker-modesdy altar, under the dome. 18 The resulting disposition was conceived in comparison with the el aborately sculp­ surely meant to echo the privileged but discrete tured monuments erected for other im portant and butial of Cosima's own parents in Brunelleschi's Old

8 Dona/tile's B"'n~ Pulpits Fig. [4. Andrea del Verrocch io, tomb marker of Cosimo de' Medici. San Lorenzo, Florence (phoro: Silvestri, Florence).

Donattlk/s BronZ! Pulpits 9 Fig. 15. Tomb of Cosimo de' Medici. San Lorenzo, Florence (photo, Brogi 20408).

Sacristy at San Lorenzo (Figs. 16--(7); the tomb, ment at San Lorenzo in that the earlier canon's choir often attributed to Donatello, is also placed in front in the nave had been removed by Martin V, making of the altar and directly under the cupola.!9 The way fot his own tomb, "as he himself ordered while inlaid marble design of Cosima's slab - the first alive."2! Reference to the Lateran, the cathedral of documented work executed by Verrocchio - has no Rome, would have been appropriate at San Lorenzo, paraUel as a tomb marker, but the location in front which had been the original cathedral of Florence.22 of the high altar of a major basilica has one obvious Another piece of the puzzle was supplied by precedent: the bronze relief effigy of Pope Martin James Beck in an article dealing in part with the V. another work often arrributed to DonateUo, situ­ Sacrament tabernacle by D esiderio cia Serrignano, ated before the high altar in San Giovanni in Late­ now in the north ais le but formerly in the Medici rano. It was this project, according to Vasari, that chapel of Sain ts Cosmas and Damian in the south occasioned DonateUo's trip to Rome in the 1430S, transept of San Lorenzo (Fig. (8).2.1 Parronchi had and hence he would already have participated in a suspected that the tabernacle was not intended for modern re-enactment of the early Christian practice the Medici chapel, and he noted that the wings of of burial near the grave of a martyr.20 The situation the twO standing angels have been clipped, indicat­ at the Lateran also anticipated the innovative arrange- ing that they were once wholly in the round.24 Beck

10 Donaullo's Bron~ Pulpits Fig . •6 (!tJt). , Old Sacristy. San Lorenzo, Florence (photo: Alinari 4436t).

Fig. 17 (above). Tomb of Giovanni and Piccarda de' Medici, Old Sacristy. San Lorenzo, Florence (photo: Brogi 8664).

DonaulloJs BronZ! Pu.lpits II Fig. 18. Desiderio da Settignano (pusumably follow ing a design by Donatello). Sacrament tabernacle. San Lorenzo. Flounce (photo: Soprintendenza per i ~ni Artistici e Storici. Florence 119478).

12 Donaltllo~ Bro"{! Pulpits looked again at the original records concerning rhe dedication of the altar and tabernacle in the sum­ tabernacle and the new high altar at San Lorenzo. mer of 146I. Having returned from Padua in 1454, The notices had long since been published sepa­ Donatello left Florence for Siena in October 1457. rately, but Beck put them back together and realized He petitioned the Balia to let him live and die there that they succeeded each other in a single document, in order to embellish the cathedtal, and he is subse­ referring to successive steps in a single enterprise. quently recorded as working on a set of bronze In July 1461 the altar was built, on August 1 the doors. H e remained in Siena until March 1461, Sacrament tabernacle was completely installed, and when at the urging of a compatriot, he abtuptly on August 9 the altat was consecraeed. 25 The taber­ abandoned the project and went back to Florence. nacle and the high altar must have been conceived This voltejaa is puzzling-one of the most intrigu ing 29 and execueed together. The decision [0 install the mysteries of his entire career, according to }anson choir in the apse, tather than the crossing. thus also . - unless one assumes that Donatello was enticed made it possible to relaee the Sacrament directly to home by some urgent cask. The task is unlikely to the high altar and to the congregation as a whole­ have been the San Lorenzo pulpits alone: they were an early instance on a monumental scale in Italy of not essential to the liturgy; they were unfinished the disposition that became a hallmark of Counter­ when Donatello died five years later; and a ce nrury Reformation church architecture in the sixteenth passed before they were inscalled. century. The tabernacle may have been placed I would relate Donatello's return to Florence to directly on the altar, as Beck imagined, although it a long-neglected passage in Vasari's Ragionamtnti, in would have been awkward for .• ,e1ebrant to say the which he attributes to Donatello "the model of the Mass facing the congregation; indeed, this may high altar and the tomb of Cosimo at its foot."3O explain why it was moved [0 the side chapel only a The completion of the high alrar was essential, and few decades laeer.26 It is much more likely that the the whole episode would make perfect sense if tabernacle was placed behind the altar, allowing Donatello went home to supervise the installati on, space for the celebrant between. Indeed, a disposi­ participate in the dedication, and oversee the re­ tion of this kind seems indicaeed by a series of maining work on a project he had designed for his drawings rhar incorporate tabernacles inspired by friend and patron.31 Luisa Becherucci took a first Desiderio in freestanding altars (Fig. 19)' and by a bold step in the right direction by reviving an particular detail of the altar installation shown in eighteenth-century attribution of the design of the early plan of San Lorenzo: the narrow rectangle Cosima's tomb to Donatello.32 I would futther behind the raised plarform for the officiating priest, suggest that the high altar which formed parr of which must represent the parapet that supporred the Donatella's model may also have included the taber­ tabernacle (c£ Figs. II, I2) .27 The situation must nacle executed by Desiderio and install ed at th e have been precisely the same at Old St. Peter's, same time, six months after Donatello's return to where the Seefaneschi triptych attributed to Giotto the ciry. H ere too, it is possible that one of the is reported to have stood on (super) the high altar, early writers knew the truth, for Del Migliore in which was also oriented v",us populum. Comparable the mid-seventeenth century already ascribed parts arrangements involving monumental altarpi eces of the work to Donatello.33 Besides explaining the placed behind the altar were creared elsewhere importance and urgency of Donatellds retu rn, the around the middle of the fourteenth century, doubt­ hypothesis gives special meaning to the many simi­ less also fo llowing the example of St. Peter's: the lari ties that have been noted between the tabernacle Pala d'Oro in San Marco ar Venice, and the reli­ and works by Donatello, especially the Padua altar. quary altar rabernacle of the H oly Corporal in the Most important, the extraordinary addition to the cathedral of Orvieto. Each was a particularly pre­ high altar of the tabernacle containing the Sacra­ cious and imporrant work, devoted, like both the ment is consonant with the extraord inary omission St. Peter's altarpiece and the San Lorenzo Sacra­ of the Last Supper /Torn the passion cycle of the ment rabernacle, to Chrisr and hence charged wi th pulpits, indi cating that this event was conceived as eucharistic content.28 taking place at the altar itself3' The last piece in the puzzle is the coincidence This mutual, inner reciprocity between the pul­ of two facts concerning Donatello himself with the pits and the altar completes our picture of what

Donattlk,'s B71ln

14 Donaullo's BronZ! Pulpits Fig. 2. 0. View o ( dome. San Lorenzo. Florence (photo: Silvestri. Florence).

might best be called the Early Christian Renaissance plan at Santo Spiri to to ori ent all the altars versus at San Lorenzo. The picture shows rh e whole - of populum) the centralizing tend enc), often observed in wh ich Charl es Seymour, Luisa Becheru cci, James the development of Brun eUeschi and of Renaissance Beck and others (including myself) have glim psed archi tecture generall y. parts - a coherent and unified conception that in­ The implications of this poinl ar San Lorenzo cluded the choir, the high altar, the tomb of Cosima, begin to emerge when one considers that the circu­ and the pair of bronze pulpits.3S The arrangement lar des ign of the tomb slab mirrors the dome above. would have bee n a powerful evocation of the early I noted earlier th e analogy with th e unusual disposi­ basi li cas of Rome, St. Peter's itself, and San Lorenza's tion of the tomb of Cosima's parents in the Old ow n symbolic prototype outside the walls, where all Sacristy (Figs. [6-(7). The installation there is also th e same features occur. The pi cture has anoth er notewo rthy in that the sarcophagus is placed under dimension, as well . One must add to it the dome the sacristy table, whi ch is not made of wood, as over the crossing (Fig. 20), with the pulpits placed usual, but of marbl e; the tabl e thus acts as a monu­ at the corners, Donatello's four gigantic stucco mental tomb slab, inlaid with a porphyry disk in the o f th e evangelists, now lost, that stood ce nter. Covered with pri es tly vestments and li turgi­ in ni ches at the transept ends (Fig. 2 1) , and the cal utensils used in the Mass, th e table provided a coffered ceilings.36 The emphasis on plastic decora­ sacramental blanket for those buried beneath. The tion and the powerfully centralized focus would porphyry disk, wh ose diameter precisely eq uals that have been downright Pantheon-like. The conception of the lantern opening in the dome above, is a con­ would also have reflected, especia lly in view of the spi cuous emblem of universal dominion; it may also

DenQullols Brofl~ Pu lpits 15 Fig. 21. View of north transept. San Lorenzo, Florence (photo: Brogi 26240).

16 Donatello's Bro~ Pulpits Fig. 2j. Leonardo, ground plan of a cenm.lized church, draw­ ing. MS B. fot 57v, Bibliotheque de l'Insticut de France. Paris (from R;,h,,,. '939. n. 39)· Fig. 22. pavement, detail. South Basilica, AquiIeia (photo: Isticuto Cenrrale per i1 CataIego e la Documentazione, Rome CI0251).

have carried sacramental, indeed liturgical, meaning, with cerrain projects for centralized churches de­ as was the case with a similar disk that had a cere­ signed later in the century by Leonardo (Fig. 23), monial function in the pavement of St. Peter's at who was Verrocchio's pupil and cenainly well aware Rome. 37 of Cosima's tomb and its meaning. 41 The compari­ I also noted that Cosimo's slab of marble has no son indicates that Leonardo both recalled Cosima's precedent as a tomb marker. but it is imbued with comb marker and evidently associated it with one pointed references to antiquity. The austere simpli c­ of the noblest Early Christian churches in ltaly, ity of the design; the use of inlay rather than the San Lorenzo in Milan (Fig. 24), whose layout the usual medieval techniques of incrustation, inscribed sketch plans clearly resemble." Quite possibly, marble or mosaic;38 and the use of porphyry, a pre­ Cosimo's tomb itself alludes to the famous Milanese rogative of the emperor in ancient times - all evoke shrine; the invocation would have been doubly ap­ the mystique of imperial Rome and intimate Cosima's propriate, apart from the dedication to St. Lawrence, sense of his own and his family's destiny. Similarly, since the church was also closely associated with I have not found an exact parallel for the design, Ambrose. whose special devotion to the martyr was whose centrality is reinforced by the inscriptions well known." The basic configuration of a circle that face each other. Various elements are suggestive. containing a cruciform design of intersecting curves The innermost pattern, which might be described as recalls a particular class of medieval geometric dia­ a right-angled intersection of two rectangles with grams whose significance is televant here (Fig. 25). rounded ends, seems like a Battened version of The diagrams, based on the Christian cosmology of Solomon's knot, a common motif in Early Christian Isidore of Seville. relate the human microcosm to mosaic pavements, where it often serves as a sign of the macrocosm of the universe through tetradic the Cross.39 A similar scheme with circles in the divisions of Man, Time, and the World.44 A com­ corners, including Solomon's knots as filler motifs, plementary sense is conveyed by diagran1s remarka­ occurs in the early fourth-century south basi lica at bly like that on Cosimo's tomb marker illustrating Aquileia (Fig. 22).40 Equally striking is the analogy in geometrical form the numerical relationships

Donateilo's Btw'

defined in Boethius's De institutione arithmetica (Fig. a geometric design of intersecting circles is actually 26).45 Through this work and his treatise on music accompanied by surrounding inscriptions that ex­ Boethius was a key figure in the development of plain it as a portrayal of the primum mobile through Platonic theories of proportion, the music of the the convergence of the archetypal sphere and the spheres, and mathematical cosmology. Musical har­ globe of the macrocosm. There is good reason to monies have actually been discerned in the propor­ suppose that the mosaic was made to cover the tions of the marker's geometric scheme. 46 In this tomb of Henry, who had himself buried in the way, the marker seems to fulfill Alberti's require­ sepulcher of his venerated predecessor, St. Edward ments in the De re atdificatoria: that in churches there the Confessor, having earli er moved the saint's body be nothing on the wall and pavement that is not to its present location behind the high altar. The informed by philosophy alone and that the pave­ pavement was made in the manner of the Italian ment refer to musical and geometrical subjects, so Cosmati fl oors by an artist who acrually came from we may be incited from every direction to the cult Rome, where the design is fairl y common-occur­ of the spirit.'7 ing, for example, in the choir and nave of San Eloquent testimony to th e meaning such a dia­ Lorenzo fuori Ie mura.<9 Although not a tomb gram might embody in a tomb occurs in a pavement marker, a striking precedent is offered by the pave­ laid by King H enry m in the thirteenth century at ment of the chapel in the Vatican Palace decorated the entrance to the choir and before the high altar toward the middle of the fifteenth century by Fra of Westminster Abbey in London (Fig. 27).48 H ere Angelico-whose included "remodeled"

18 Donatelle', Bra",! Pulpits Fig. 25. Isidore of Seville, microcosm·macrocosm (from Heninger, 1977, fig. 66).

Fig. 26. Boethius, diagram illustrating the nature of odd and even numbers. MS H. J. IV 12, fol. 1Sr. Swtsliche Bibliothek, Bamberg. ,

o I ~ I-

Donattllo's RIO",! Pulpits '9 Fig. 27. Plan of the pavement befo re the high altar. Westmin­ ster Abbey. London (from RDyal, 1924. 26).

views of Old St. Peter's - for Cosimo de' Medici's logical Cosima commissioned for the cupola good friend Pope Nicholas V (Fig. 28).50 The over the alrar ni che of rhe Old Sacristy at San pope's name is inscribed in the four carner medal­ Lorenzo (Fig. 29). The arrangement of the con­ lions, and a large emblem of the sun, its rays alter­ stellations corresponds to July 4-5, 1442, only a nating with the initial letters of the months, appears month before Cosima and the canons of the church in the center. A tomb marker with associations of formally agreed that he would underwrite the con­ this kind would be consonant with Cos imo's well­ struction of the choir and crossing, including the known philosophical and astrological interests, espe­ high altar, in exchange for the exclusive right to be cially considering the resonant and frequently invoked buried and display his arms there. The precise signifi­ cosmic pun on his name, Cosima = cosmos.51 The cance of the date, if any, is not clear, but extremely depth of these interests is evident from the astro- significant in our context is the recent hypothesis

20 Donatello's Branz:! Pulpits Fig. 2.8. Pavement of the Chapel of Nicholas V. Vatican Palace, Rome (photo: Musei Vaticani V-I-22.).

that the constell ations also conform to the auspi­ tion at Santo Spiri to, a drum with windows above cious horoscope cast at the re-foundation of Flor­ to provide truly celes ti al illumination (Fig. 30).53 ence in 802. Cosima identifie s himself and his fam­ T he full scope and import of the enterprise become ily with the Chtistian fortune of the city ordained apparent from the fact that the circle-in-square in the heavens from the outset. 52 scheme of the marker mirrors that of the crossing The sources give no hint of what Cosimo and with the dome inscribed directly above, and fro m Brunelleschi might have planned for the dome of Brunelleschi's use of the crossing square as the San Lorenzo, except that Cosimo complained that modular unit from which he derived the elevation whar had been built after Brunelleschi's death was of the crossing itself and the plan of the entire too heavy and dark. Doubtless the original project building.54 Cosima's burial in the center of the would have anticipated Brunelleschi's great innova- crossing thus linked him, through the tomb marker,

Donatellc/s Brol1.z! Pulpits 2 1 Fig. 29. Cupola of altar niche, Old Sacristy. San Lorenzo, Flor­ ence (photo: Silvestri, Florence).

to the widest reaches of the Christian cosmos. reason and eros. The former, the principle of order Cosimo's interest in philosophy began in the in the universe, was expressed by the motto reputedly period when he assumed responsibility for San inscribed over the entrance to Plato's Academy in Lorenzo and became a veritable passion toward the Athens, "Let no one enter who is not a geometer";57 end of his life. The Council of Florence, which the latter, the principle of union in the universe, was Cosimo fervently supported, in 1439 formally pro­ expressed by as the perpetual knot claimed the reunification of the Eastern and West­ Cnodus p"p

22 Donaullo's Bron{! Pu.lpits Fig. 30, View of the dome. Santo Sp irito. Florence (pho[o: Fig. 31. ''Academia Leonardi Vinci," engraving. British Museum, Alina ri 62653). London. understanding of these works must have been inAu­ for the subse quent development of antiphonal enced by the criti cal discussion in the RepubLic, Books music in the liturgy6S Could it be that the pulpits VI-VII, of the idea of the good and the world were intended from the beginning both for the soul, the universal principle of harmony, expressed reading of the lessons and for giving vo ice, as it in the theory of numbers. geometry. and astronomy; were. to th e venerable Ambrosian antiphons? at one point Plato even remarks that "we must use It is clear that Cosimo, BruneUeschi , and Donatello the blazonry of the heavens as patterns to aid in the devel oped a collective vision of the crossing of San study of those realities, just as one would do who Lorenzo that was remarkably retrospective. W hile it chanced upon diagrams drawn with special care and entailed a sophisticated kn owledge and choice of elaboration by Daedalus or some oth er craftsman or sources, it was not purely antiquarian. Rather, it painter."62 Ficino's very next, closing, sentence urges facili tated a radically new and self-consc iously holis­ Lorenzo to model himself on the idea of Cosimo, tic vi ew of th e building, its furnishings, and its "just as God formed Cosimo on the id ea of the functi ons. Cosimo was interred in a setting that world." related him to a redi scovered heritage and an ausp i­ T he pulpits may have expressed the idea of hat­ cious future in the Christian universe. mony li terall y, si nce we know that they might be The new vision was also remarkably prophetic. used for singing. 6J The singers' tribunes. or canrorie, however. The porphyry in the memori als of Cosim o of Donatello and Luca della Robbi. had similarly and his parents established. tradition for Medici fo nned a pair in the crossing of F10tence cathedral, funerary art at San Lorenzo that continued a decade above the sacristy doors fl anking the choit64 At San later in Verrocchio's second tomb. for Cosimo's sons Lo renzo, however, it is well to recall the traditional Piero and Giovanni, in wh ich Piero's sons Lorenzo link to St. Ambrose, mentioned earli er. In the Con ­ the Magnificent and Giuliano were later also interred. jtSsiom, S[. Augustine attributes to Ambrose the After the wh ite marble hiatus of 's introduction into the service of responsorial singing, Medici chapel the tradition culminated in the 1560's wh ich became the model- the Ambrosian chant - with Vasari's grandiose riposu to Michelangelo, th e

DOllaullo's BranZ! Pulpits 23 •

.)

Fig. F. Leonardo, project for a church with a central plan, drawing. detail. MS Ashburnham I, fol. 5Y, Bibliothe'1ue de !'Institut de Fran ce, Paris.

24 DOllatello's Brnl1{! Pulpits Fig. 33- Michelangelo, Medici Chapel. San Lorenzo. Florence (photo: AJinari 22.35).

Cappella de' Principi memorial for Grand Duke cially close if Julius also in tended to be buried Cosimo I and his family, complerely encrusred with under the main cupola.68 Howard Burns observed colored stones .66 T he imperial associations of such that the disposition of the stairs and the orientation lavish polychromy reflected a tendency in the politi­ of the high altat veTSUS populum were echoed in cal ambitions of the family that became ex plicit in Michelangelo's design of the altar precinct of the the 1530's with the establishment of dynastic rule over Medici chapel in the New Sacrisry of San Lorenzo Florence under Cosimo T, who invo ked the memory (Fig. 33).69 (Indeed, in the wake of Vatican II all of his revered ancestor in more than name only. church altars have been given this orientation.) Plac­ Paired pulpi ts had a notable history well into the ing the cho ir in the apse to provide an unobstructed next century, including projects by Michelangelo, view of the high altar became the norm in the six­ perhaps, as well as Baccio Bandinelli and Benvenuto teenth century, as did the custom of placing the Cellini for the Florence cathedralP Christoph Sacrament on the high altar.70 Essentially th e same Frommel has defined Cosimo's burial near the high spirit prevailed in the 1520'S with a project by altar as inaugurating a traditi on in Italy that culmi­ Michelangelo that would have replaced the Sacra­ nated in Michelangelo's project for the tomb of ment tabern acle by a reliquary cihorium with four Julius II at St. Peter's; the analogy would be espe- columns over th e high altar, retaini ng the orienta-

Dorlautlo's Brorl.(! Pulpits 25 ~ ...... : .-:- ...... •.. • . •

.. ",,'• .,', '!I ,. . ".' '. • ,". ,.. , ... ..) ... l 'h z· • . ~ •~ .l .

----- , . , -;J" f) .- ~J

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tion .,,,us populum and recalling the fourteenth­ Reformation historian Cardinal Baronio?2 century arrangement at San Giovanni in Laterano in Above all. however, the vision was prophetic in Rome (Fig. 34),71 The whole system, complete with its very unity and in its innovative recollection of a paired ambos, confessio, flanking lateral stairs and long, increasingly self-conscious, tradition of Floren­

altar ad populumJ was revived again with quasi­ tine historicism- the tradition that defined the archaeological exactitude at the end of the sixteenth city's religious, political, and cultural nature through century in the "restorations" of the early Roman what can only be described as a mystical transfer of basilicas San Cesareo and Santi Nereo e Achilleo identity from the past to the present, (Fig. 35), sponsored by the great Counter-

26 Thmattllo's Bnm,! Pulpits Fig. 34 (oppoJiu). Michelangelo, project for the high altar of San Lorenzo, drawing. , Florence (photo: Soprinten­ denza per i Beni Artistici e Storici, Florence I17145).

Fig. 35. View in the nave. Santi Nereo e Achilleo. Rome (photo: Anderson 5202).

Donatello's 8mn" Pulpits 27