Florence, 3-D reconstruction of Santa Croce sacristy closet with paintings by Taddeo Gaddi

The Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence together with theOpera di Santa Croce, on the occasion of the eighth centenary of the stigmata of St. Francis, have taken part in a scientific project aimed at the virtual reconstruction of thesacristy closet of Santa Croce, originally composed of twenty-eight panel paintings by Taddeo Gaddi, depicting the Stories of Christ and Stories of St. Francis, many of which are preserved right at the Gallery. The project was illustrated in a video in which art historian Andrea Di Lorenzo and Cecilie Hollberg, director of the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence, recount the complex history of the pictorial cycle. The footage is accompanied by a faithful 3-D virtual reconstruction of the counter and its backboard with the painted tablets repositioned in their place. The video can be viewed from May 24, on the Academy Gallery’s digital channel.

In the sacristy of the Basilica of Santa Croce, the friars gathered for the reading of a chapter from the stories of St. Francis and for solemn gatherings of the convent. The lower part of the cabinet, which housed sacred objects and vestments, is still preserved in situ and features ornaments with two-tone inlays. In the back of the counter, in two parallel rows, were inserted tablets made by Taddeo Gaddi between about 1335 and 1338, where references to models from his master Giotto can be seen. Twenty-eight paintings in total, including twenty-six, enclosed within four-lobed frames, depicting the Stories of Christ and the Stories of St. Francis, divided into two distinct cycles, to be read in comparison with each other, accompanied two half-moons with the Annunciation and the Ascension of Christ into heaven. This very special decoration was intended to highlight the role played by Francis as alter Christus.

The espalier was dismantled and demolished in 1812, in order to extract the paintings, following the suppression of the convent of Santa Croce during French rule. Today at the Galleria dell’Accademia in Florence twenty-two of the panels are preserved within the original four-lobed frames, along with the two half-moons, rejoined here in 1945. The remaining four four-lobed panels are kept, however, two at the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin and two at the Alte Pinakothek in Munich. The 3-D reconstruction visible in the video makes use of comparisons with another similar piece of furniture, the one in the sacristy of San Miniato al Monte in Florence, a few years later, datable to the second half of the 14th century, which still retains its original backrest and is crowned with a concave, quarter-circle-profiled calotte, decorated on the inside with a blue sky dotted with stars.The probable presence of a similar calotte at the apex of the espalier of the Santa Croce bench makes it possible to justify the particular format of the two half-moons with theAnnunciation and the Visitation painted by Taddeo Gaddi, which must have been inserted on the sides of the espalier, at the beginning and conclusion of the two pictorial cycles, and on which the volticella must have rested.

“The study and scientific research of the respective artistic heritages,” Cecilie Hollberg emphasizes, “are part of the goals we have set with important institutions with which we have collaborated over the years. The 3-D reconstruction of the precious sacristy cupboard of the Basilica Santa Croce saw us side by side with the Opera di Santa Croce in a unique and in-depth study of an admirable 14th-century pictorial cycle that has been dismembered and divided over the years and which, now, in this context we have been able to virtually reassemble.”

Pictured: Taddeo Gaddi, panels with stories from the life of Christ and St. Francis (painting on panel; Florence, Galleria dell’Accademia).

Florence, 3-D reconstruction of Santa Croce sacristy closet with paintings by Taddeo Gaddi

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