Domenico Ghirlandaio

Francesco Sassetti and Ghirlandaio at Santa Trinita, Florence (Book Review). By: Covi, Dario A.. Art Bulletin, Mar1983, Vol. 65 Issue 1, p151, 3p; (AN 5315854)


Francesco Sassetti (general manager of the Medici

bank) acquired chapel between 1470 and 1479, to be

renovated as a family burial chapel dedicated to his

patron saint and the Nativity.

two learned friends of Sassetti - Bartolomeo Fonzio

and Agnolo Poliziano, as advisers to the project.

"Sassetti through his chapel wanted to be remmembered

as a pious Christian and s Patriotic Florentine

confidently awayting the return of a golden age."


Before 1470 the Sassetti had no connection with S.

Trinita, a Vallombrosan abbey church of S. Maria

Novella, where they had embellished the high altar,

donated vestments for the officiating clergy, and had

burial sites (though not chapel chambers inside the

church proper).

For reasons not entirely clear, Francesco quarreled

with the Dominicans and sought patronage and burial

rights elsewhere. (footnote= The authors are

inclined to reject the traditional explanation that

the quarrel was over Sassetti's wish to have the life

of his patron saint painted on the walls of the

church's chancel, a story that is first mentioned in

a late 16th-century chronicle and repeated in a

biography of Francesco written by a descendant in

1600(p.13) The authors suggest that it was perhaps an

underfined relationship with another family, the

Scali, who had a chapel to the rear of the one that

became the Sassetti Chapel, along with lay

participation in the Vallombrosans' special

veneration of Saint Francis of Assisi, that eased the

way for Francesco to establish a chapel in honor of

his patron saint in S. Trinita. They also speculate

taht through Sassetti the Vallombrosans of S. Trinita

may have looked to the Medici regime for support

against a dissident faction within the order which

had taken over several abbeys in Tuscany. Sassetti

was still negotiating for rights to the chapel in

April, 1478, but by early 1480 its renovation was

inder way and by Christmas day 1485, the decoration

was evidently completed. Regular masses began in the

chapel on January 1, 1486.