Uffizi Diffusi, the predella of Filippo Lippi's Barbadori Altarpiece arrives in Montespertoli

The Uffizi Diffusi returns to Montespertoli in Valdelsa for the third consecutive year, following the exhibition on Giotto’s followers in Valdelsa and the one on the predella of the Stories of St. Peter the Martyr. This time the project comes to the Museum of Sacred Art of San Piero in Mercato in the Tuscan town with an exceptional loan from the collection of the Uffizi Galleries: it is the Predella Barbadori by Fra’ Filippo Lippi (Florence, c. 1406 - Spoleto, 1469). The third stage of the program of Fondazione CR Firenze and Gallerie degli Uffizi, within their respective projects Piccoli Grandi Musei and Uffizi Diffusi, therefore arrives from April 22 to October 29 with the exhibition Filippo Lippi in Valdesa, at the Museo d’Arte Sacra di San Piero in Mercato, which already permanently houses another work by the master of Renaissance painting, the Madonna and Child from the church of Sant’Andrea in Botinaccio. The exhibition thus becomes an unprecedented opportunity to deepen our knowledge of Filippo Lippi’s art and appreciate its different expressive register in the narrative context, as in the predella, or devotional, as in the Marian image.

The “Barbadori predella” is the tier of the altar table that originally furnished the Barbadori patronage chapel in the church of Santo Spirito in Florence, a sum work for whose execution Filippo Lippi in 1437 received the lavish fee of 40 gold florins. The three panels that comprise it, now set in a modern frame, were part of the altarpiece that surmounted the chapel named after St. Frediano in the sacristy of the Augustinian church. The altarpiece and chapel had been made by the testamentary will of Gherardo di Bartolomeo Barbadori, a wealthy and pious resident of the Florentine neighborhood of San Frediano, who died in 1429. It was the confraternity of Orsanmichele, of which Gherardo Barbadori had been a member, that completed the commission and fulfilled the deceased’s wish. The panel above the predella, now in the Louvre Museum in Paris, depicts the Virgin and Child flanked by angels and Saints Augustine and Frediano. Mary is depicted standing in front of a niche decorated in the likeness of a shell valve, a motif that Filippo Lippi adopted repeatedly and which also serves as the background for the Madonna and Child in the Montespertoli museum collection.

Fra Filippo Lippi was working on the Barbadori altarpiece in 1437, and by 1438 the work had not yet been completed. For the execution of the predella, Fra’ Filippo probably availed himself of the collaboration of his workshop, although the conception of the three lively scenes, unified by a studied luministic layout, with long dark shadows cast by the bodies and architecture, can be entirely attributed to Lippi. In the sober settings and solemn figures, wrapped in voluminous draperies, the memory of Masaccio’s lesson is discernible, reworked by Filippo Lippi with ornate accents and expressive features.

In 1810, with the suppression of religious guilds that took place under Napoleonic rule of Tuscany, the Barbadori altarpiece, with its predella, was removed from the convent of Santo Spirito and transferred to the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence. In 1814, the panel above was taken to France without ever returning to Italy. The predella was instead transferred to the Uffizi in 1919.

The three scenes that make up the predella illustrate episodes from the lives of the Virgin and Saints Frediano and Augustine. On the left, St. Frediano, a bishop of the diocese of Lucca who lived in the 6th century, is depicted using a long rake to trace a furrow in the ground, into which the Serchio River is channeled. According to Pope Gregory the Great, Saint Frediano managed to divert the river into a new riverbed, preserving the city of Lucca from flooding. The prodigy is underscored by the mimicry of the men gathered outside the city walls, expressing disbelief and wonder. In the central scene, the genuflected Angel announces the imminent death to Mary by handing her a lighted candle, according to an iconography rather rare for the Italian context but more frequently adopted by Flemish painters. However, the depiction finds correspondence in the ancient ritual of bearing a lighted candle for the dying person. Apocryphal texts narrate that Christ’s apostles prodigiously arrived from all parts of the world for a final farewell to Mary: in the scene one recognizes St. Peter, who comes up behind the Virgin followed by other apostles led by angels, while on the left kneels the evangelist John, his head bowed. The right-hand compartment depicts a scene dense with theological concepts. St. Augustine, an African bishop who lived between the fourth and fifth centuries, is depicted here as a monk, dressed in a simple cassock and a shaved skull (tonsure). Seated in his study, he is inspired by the luminous vision of the Trinity while intent on writing on a scroll. The saint has his heart pierced by three arrows, symbolizing his burning love for Christ. The depiction of the Trinity in the form of three heads side by side corresponds to an iconography quite common in 15th-century Florence. In the detailed depiction of the desk, Filippo Lippi displays a limpid descriptive ability, influenced by coeval Flemish painting, which he approached as early as the fourth decade of the 15th century, at a rather early stage with respect to the Florentine milieu.

“This is a pleasant return for Terre degli Uffizi,” says Fondazione CR Firenze President Luigi Salvadori, “which already made a stop here last year to present a predella rescued from the destruction of World War II. An exceptional loan, as is the same type of work exhibited this time, coming from the most important Italian museum with which we share this beautiful project. Once again, with these appointments we try to offer, in addition to the beauty of the place and the works on display, the opportunity to get to know and perhaps discover one of the most striking realities of our territory. Montespertoli has in fact been able to harmonize over the centuries the wisdom of its high craftsmanship, the quality of its wine production and that concentration of artistic wealth preserved in the Museum of Sacred Art.”

“The Barbadori predella,” adds Eike Schmidt, director of Le Gallerie degli Uffizi, “precedes the splendid Madonna in the Montespertoli Museum by almost three lustra. We thus have a comparison of two works by Filippo Lippi that illustrate the culmination of his activity and two aspects of his art: the more narrative and detail-oriented one in the stories of the predella, and the highly lyrical one in the Madonna. This juxtaposition offers visitors a delicacy of the Renaissance in Tuscany and an invitation to learn more about this extraordinary artist.”

“It is important,” concludes Mayor Alessio Mugnaini, “not to take for granted the strategic importance of this project, strongly supported by the Uffizi Galleries and the CR Florence Foundation, which allows for synergies, experiences and has enhanced our territory in an incredible way. I am convinced that culture represents a great opportunity for economic and tourism growth for Montespertoli. I want to thank all those who have actively participated in making this process possible.”

Uffizi Diffusi, the predella of Filippo Lippi's Barbadori Altarpiece arrives in Montespertoli

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