Cultural and Religious Studies, February 2023, Vol. 11, No. 2, 51-73 doi: 10.17265/2328-2177/2023.02.001 Giorgio Vasari’s Tondo for the Madonna of the Rosary: Angels With Roses, Emblems of Love * Liana De Girolami Cheney University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, USA In 1569, Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) completed painting an altarpiece of the Madonna of the Rosary and a Tondo of angels dispersing roses. The commission was for the private chapel of the Capponi family in the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. In his Ricordanze (Book of Records), Vasari explained the commission as well as documenting the assistance of his favorite Florentine pupil, Jacopo Zucchi (1541-1590), in the completion of the commission. This essay focusses on Vasari’s design, location, and meaning of the Tondo and its emblematic symbolism of love through the rose motif. Keywords: Giorgio Vasari, Tondo, Madonna of the Rosary, cross and rose symbolism, Santa Maria Novella Introduction At the end of 1569, the Florentine artist, art historian, and writer, Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574), completed the painting the Madonna of the Rosary and an accompanying Tondo for the private chapel of the Capponi family in the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence. In his Ricordanze (a book about recorded commissions, payments received, and purchased materials), Vasari explained the commission as well as documenting the assistance of Jacopo Zucchi (1541-1590) in the completion of this altarpiece. In his Ricordo 48, Vasari noted: I remember that close to end of this year [1569] I completed a painting on the Rosary that was sent to the Church of Santa Maria Novella, it was of 7 braccia high and 4 braccia long. [The painting] was for reverend friar Angelo Malatesta of Pistoia, the prior of said convent [Santa Maria Novella]; above [the painting] there was a tondo containing putti that disperse roses. For such a commission [painting], I received payment of 200 [florins]; 100 [florins] were given to Jacopino [Jacopo Zucchi]. 1 (Frey, 1930, 2:881; Spinelli, 2017, pp. 78-92; Hall, 1979) (Figures 1 and 2) The altarpiece was praised by the Florentine art critic, novelist, and poet, Raffaello Borghini (1537-1588), * Versions on this theme were published in Liana De Girolami Cheney, Giorgio Vasari: Artistic and Emblematic Manifestations (Washington, DC: New Academia, 2012), pp. 384-403; and Liana De Girolami Cheney, “Giorgio Vasari’s Madonna of the Rosary: A Rose Garden of Blessings”, Journal of Cultural and Religious Studies, 10(1) (February 2022), 1-31; and recently presented at the Annual Virtual Conference of the Renaissance Society of America on 1 December 2022. Liana De Girolami Cheney, Ph.D., Professor of Art History (emerita), University of Massachusetts Lowell, Lowell, USA. 1 Karl Frey, Der literarische Nachlass Giorgio Vasaris, 2 Vols. (Munich: George Müller, 1930), 2:881, Ricordo 348: “Ricordo come alla fine di questo anno si fini la tavola del Rosario, che ando nella chiesa di Sant Maria Novella, alta braccia 7, largha quatro, per il reverend padre Fra Angelo Malatesti da Pistoia, priore di detto convento; con un tondo sopra; con putti che getton rose. Ebesi per pagamento di detta tavola dugento che sene da cento a Jacopino”. See also Riccardo Spinelli, Ed., Santa Maria Novella: La Basilica e Il Convento (Florence: Mandragora, 2017), pp. 78-92, Vasari’s altarpieces in this church; and Marcia B. Hall, Renovation and Counter-Reformation: Vasari and Duke Cosimo in Sta Maria Novella and Sta Croce 1565-1577 (Oxford: Warburg Studies/Clarendon Press, 1979), for a study on Vasari’s artistic interactions in the Church of Santa Maria Novella. DAVID PUBLISHING D
Giorgio Vasari’s Tondo for the Madonna of the Rosary: Angels With Roses, Emblems of Love
Apr 26, 2023
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