#BaroqueBluesky
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The most #Baroque #frame in #Florence can be found in the #AnticaFarmacia di S. Maria Novella, founded in 1221 and for centuries run by the #Dominican monks of the convent. This 1658 painting of St Peter Martyr by Lorenzo Lippi was a gift of the #Medici Grand Duke Ferdinando II. #BaroqueBluesky
LORENZO LIPPI. S. PIETRO DA VERONA, 1658, AND FRAME WITH THE MEDICI EMBLEM, UNKNOWN SCULPTOR. ANTICA FARMACIA DI SANTA MARIA NOVELLA, FLORENCE The delicacy of the image of this Dominican saint raises it well above average, and is probably a portrait of Angiolo Marchissi, rector of the monastery. It shows the Caravaggesque influence of the Spanish painter Jusepe de Ribera. But the star of the show is the astonishing huge frame of the painting, which features three distressed putti holding the "palle" or balls of the Medici crest, all the while being entwined like little Laocoons by a powerful serpent who is not only eating his tail, a symbol of eternity, but also holds the lowest red Medicean "palla" in his jaws. The cherubs are gilded, the snake is in natural brown wood colour, the balls are red apart from the top one which is royal blue with gold lilies. At the top is the spiky grand-ducal crown, a sign that this was a donation of the Grand Duke Ferdinando II himself.
January 10, 2026 at 8:28 PM