The Saint Phillip Cycle at Strozzi

Filippino Lippi's narrative frescoes on the side walls of Santa Maria Novella in Florence are thought to "astound and shock" as described by J. Russell Sale in his dissertation entitled, Lippi's Strozzi Chapel.  It is said that the frescoes depict pagan antiquity with extreme detail on the "verge of excess baggage."  This was a critical label occasionally put on Filippino Lippi's work.  (Sale)  Are these narrative frescoes purely decorative, iconographical or both?

When Filippino Lippi signed his commission contract with Filippo Strozzi, instructions for the side walls were simply, "on each (side) wall of the chapel there shall be two narratives (storie), according as they shall be given by Filippo Strozzi."  On the left, or west, wall are frescoes of San Giovanni Evangelist, to whom the chapel is dedicated.  On the right, or east, wall are frescoes of two events from the life of Saint Phillip, Filippo Strozzi's patron saint. Although rare, Filipino Lippi could have seen, on his way back from Venice in Padua in 1489, two narrative scenes that depict the life of Saint Phillip.  Sale suggests that Filippino Lippi was influenced by Giotto's frescoes in the Scrovegni Chapel and, mostly, by Andrea Montegna's frescoes in the Ovetari Chapel.  Montagna's influence may have precipitated Fillippino's interest in settings of antiquity, or all' antica.

Giotto Lamentation, Scrovegni Chapel, 1304-1306

Montegna Stories of Saint James, Ovetari Chapel, 1448-1457

We will start with the east wall and the scenes of the life of Saint Phillip.  When Filippo Strozzi bought the chapel in Santa Maria Novella it was agreed that a celebration of the Mass in honor of Saint Phillip the apostle would take place on May 1 each year.  Although there are very few paintings of the life of Saint Phillip, the gospels and Jacobus de Voragine's Legende Aurea provide the source of the detail of the legends of Saint Phillip and make them more available.

The name Phillip means "mouth of lamp" (brilliant teaching), "mouth of hands" (continual good works), and "love of superior things" (celestial contemplation).  (Sale)  The two scenes from the life of Saint Peter are depicted from bottom to top and are divided by a frieze.  The lower-most fresco shows Phillip, after being a preacher for 20 years in Scythia, having been taken by heathens and forced to observe sacrifices before a statue of the pagan god, Mars.  A dragon emerges and kills the priests and tribunal with his breath.  Phillip announces that if the statue of Mars is broken up he would bring the dead to life.  The  statue was broken and Phillip healed the sick and raised the dead.

We see Mars elevated in the center.  The dragon has emerged from a hole at the base of the statue.  Heathens protect themselves by holding their noses.    Phillip, with an exaggerated gesture, commands the dragon to leave.  The scene has thoroughly classical drapery on the figures.  In his thoroughness, Sale shows us some of the all' antica approaches.  On the right, the candelabra held by a pagan is an adaptation of the seven-part minorah in the interior of the Arch of Titus.  The lower pedestal that supports Mars is influenced by a four-footed Roman base now in the Vatican.  The slumped figure of the priest's son on the right is thought to have been taken from the Column of Trajan.  Perhaps the complex superstructure of the altar of Mars was inspired by the sacellum (a small shrine or chapel) of Bacchus on a medal of Antonius Pius.  Clearly we see, however, that Filippino Lippi was not concerned with a strict adherence to the originals.  He made these scenes his own.

The elaborate detail, and let's not use "excess baggage" here, of armor and spoils of war on the altar were suggested in the Thebaid writing by Statius on Mars:

All around were spoils of every land, and

captures peoples adorned the temple's high

front, and fragments of iron-wrought gates

and ships of war and empty chariots and

faces ground by chariot-wheels, ay, almost

even their groans.

Above the frieze, in the lunette, we see a scene which is said to have taken place one year after the scene with Mars and the dragon.  

After preaching for one year, Phillip went to Hierapolis in Asia to eliminate heresy among the Ebionites.  At the age of 87, he was crucified in the manner of Christ, about whom he preached.  The scene shows the martyrdom of Saint Peter as the pagans arduously raise his cross.

We see Filippino's interpretations of these narratives as dramatic, exaggerated, and not realistic.  They are, however, probably the best of Quattrocento Italy.