Catholic Reform and Bernardino Poccetti's Chiostro dei Morti at the church of SS Annunziata in Florence

Apollo, Sept, 2003 by Gauvin Alexander Bailey

Poccetti's frescoes fit the bill exactly. Their descriptive clarity is enhanced by rich, detailed settings with recognisable buildings such as the Baptistery and Duomo of Florence (Figs. 2, 4, 5), and genre details executed with photographic accuracy. As stated above, they recall late quattrocento cycles such as Ghirlandaio's Franciscan cycle in the Sassetti Chapel at S Trinita (begun 1483), which also gives us detailed depictions of familiar sights such as the Loggia dei Lanzi and the Palazzo Vecchio and which Poccetti would have seen when he frescoed one of the chapel vaults on the other side of the church in 1603. Although Poccetti is guilty of some anachronisms, as when he allows Brunelleschi's dome to soar over a scene set two centuries before it was built, in general the costumes and settings demonstrate a keen historical awareness. The scenes gain a sense of epic grandeur through a spaciousness and depth inspired by high renaissance models such as Sarto's lunettes at the Chiostrino dei Voti in the same church and, ultimately, Raphael's Vatican Stanze.

The didactic message of the episodes in the Chiostro dei Morti emerges through repeated references to the same basic themes. One of the most important is the Eucharist, which is given pride of place in several of the scenes, many of them set inside churches (Figs. 2, 4). Another is divine approbation, communicated through heavenly apparitions of angels, the Trinity, and the Madonna, who manifest themselves at key moments in the histories of the seven protagonists (Figs. 2, 4, 7). As in all the Florentine lunette cycles of the period, popes or sovereigns play an important role, whether the in the form of the King of France or the Austrian Emperor, emphasising the legitimacy and orthodoxy of the Servite Order (Fig. 8). Finally, Poccetti gives considerable attention to charitable acts of mercy and to confraternities, in reference to the pious life of the laity and to serve as an exhortation to the viewer. The didactic purpose of the scenes is underscored by the captions, which describe the episodes being depicted above in two lines of Italian text. Their use of the vernacular makes it clear that they were addressing the general public, and not just members of the Servite Order, who would have been conversant with Latin.

Poccetti's narrative style also recalls the presence of a Florentine institution with a close connection with this very cloister: the Accademia del Disegno. (49) Several of the most prominent members of this organisation were concerned with reform in sacred art, most notably the sculptor and architect Bartolommeo Ammannati and Santi di Tito. Their capitolo, or ceremonial headquarters, which was the focus of their religious ceremonies, was located off the north wing of the cloister, just under Poccetti's Seven Founders Begin Construction of the Monastery of Montesenario in 1234 (Fig. 6). Poccetti's cycle reflects a profound awareness of Florentine artistic tradition which would have resonated with the concerns of the Academy, as would its didactic religious message. Last but not least, the Chiostro dei Morti fresco series is like a grand procession, with panoramic scenes of the city of Florence and its countryside, bustling crowds of onlookers, and the church hierarchy in all its finery--a permanent version of the sort of pageantry and ephemeral decorations which Academy members organised at state funerals and other official ceremonies of the Grand Duchy.