Sight and Touch in the Noli Me Tangere

Chapter 1 Sight and Touch in the Noli me tangere Andrea del Sarto painted his Noli me tangere (Fig. 1) at the age of twenty-four.1 He was young, ambitious, and grappling for the first time with the demands of producing an altarpiece. He had his reputation to consider. He had the spiri- tual function of his picture to think about. And he had his patron’s wishes to address. I begin this chapter by discussing this last category of concern, the complex realities of artistic patronage, as a means of emphasizing the broad- er arguments of my book: the altarpiece commissions that Andrea received were learning opportunities, and his artistic decisions serve as indices of the religious knowledge he acquired in the course of completing his professional endeavors. Throughout this particular endeavor—from his first client consultation to the moment he delivered the Noli me tangere to the Augustinian convent located just outside the San Gallo gate of Florence—Andrea worked closely with other members of his community. We are able to identify those individuals only in a general sense. Andrea received his commission from the Morelli family, silk merchants who lived in the Santa Croce quarter of the city and who frequently served in the civic government. They owned the rights to one of the most prestigious chapels in the San Gallo church. It was located close to the chancel, second to the left of the apse.2 This was prime real estate. Renaissance churches were communal structures—always visible, frequently visited. They had a natural hierarchy, dominated by the high altar. Because of these facts, the allocation of chapel spaces within the building’s layout was a carefully managed affair, with the wealthiest and most important citizens claiming the most prized areas.3 A chapel located close to the apse would mark a family as being of considerable 1 The fact that he was sharing a workshop with Franciabigio in 1510 makes it necessary to jus- tify assigning the Noli me tangere to Andrea alone. Thankfully, there are a few important pieces of evidence that allow us to make a compelling attribution. Vasari discusses this paint- ing only in the life of Andrea del Sarto. The Magdalene’s features are based on one of Andrea’s drawings, a figure study made in preparation for this panel. And Christ’s physiognomy is even more particular in its correspondence to Andrea’s figure type, as will be discussed below. See Natali, Andrea del Sarto, 32; Shearman, Andrea del Sarto, vol. 1, 131–35 and vol. 2, 327; Shearman, “Leonardo’s Colour and Chiaroscuro,” 13–47. 2 Alessandro Cecchi, “Profili di amici e committenti,” in Andrea del Sarto, 1486–1530: dipinti e disegni a Firenze (Florence: Palazzo Pitti, 1986), 45. Bocchi, Beauties, 138 n. 443. 3 Burke, Changing Patrons, 63–83. © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2020 | doi:10.1163/9789004431935_003 Sight and Touch in the Noli me tangere 29 influence, means, and piety. Its visibility awarded them pride of place within the community and its sacred spaces. For the Morelli family at San Gallo, these concerns were paramount, but the stakes may have been higher still. The Augustinian convent was a stronghold of Medici cultural influence, even after the family’s exile in 1494.4 This fact did not escape the notice of Piero Soderini, the de facto leader of the anti-Medici government. During the first decade of the sixteenth century, as Soderini was trying to chip away at the lingering evidence of Medici power, he made overtures to the San Gallo convent with the aim of co-opting chapel spaces for his family.5 These overtures might have been conceived in tandem with separate proposals from his amici: Soderini and the Morelli family both belonged to the Arte della Seta, one of the city’s major guilds and an organization that wielded significant influence in Soderini’s government.6 With these pieces of infor- mation in mind, the location of the Morelli chapel and, especially, the timing of the Noli me tangere commission, take on a particular civic inflection. This space and its altarpiece project now speak—or maybe “whisper” is the better word—to the Morelli family’s political clout, perhaps even to their republican or anti-Medici sentiments.7 From Andrea del Sarto’s perspective, the commission for this panel points to an advantageous social relationship, one that potentially afforded the young painter access to an elite, government clientele at a very early stage in his career. And in fact, Leonardo di Lorenzo Morelli was a prime player in Andrea’s early career. The features of this prominent Florentine silk merchant emerge from Andrea’s San Benizzi cycle of 1510.8 They appear again in the slightly later St. Tobias Altarpiece (Fig. 7), where the kneeling Leonardo Morelli turns his intelligent gaze toward the archangel Raphael.9 Andrea probably captured 4 Francis W. Kent, “New Light on Lorenzo de’ Medici’s Convent at Porta San Gallo,” Burlington Magazine 124 (1982): 292–94. 5 K. J. P. Lowe, “Patronage and Territoriality in Early Sixteenth-Century Florence,” Renaissance Studies 7.3 (1993): 258–71. 6 Lowe, “Patronage and Territoriality,” 267–68. 7 For a discussion of Andrea’s republican sympathies, see Wellen, “Andrea del Sarto,” 168–80; Bayer et al., “Borgherini Holy Family and Charity,” 35–55. 8 The figure Shearman identified as Leonardo Morelli appears in the Miracle of the Relics of San Filippo from the San Benizzi cycle. He stands, wrapped in a blue cloak, just to the right of the painted altar. See Shearman, Andrea del Sarto, vol. 1, 16. The Miracle of the Relics of San Filippo is reproduced in Natali, Andrea del Sarto, 49. 9 John Kent Lydecker, “The Patron, Date, and Original Location of Andrea del Sarto’s Tobias Altar-Piece,” Burlington Magazine 127 (1985): 349–53. Significantly, the figure identified in as Leonardo Morelli in the San Benizzi cycle has already been connected to the Noli me tangere. See Shearman, Andrea del Sarto, vol. 1, 16..

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