The Strozzi Altarpiece

1354-57
Tempera on wood, 274 x 296 cm
Cappella Strozzi, Santa Maria Novella, Florence

Orcagna produced this monumental architectural tabernacle, the Strozzi Altarpiece, signed Anni Dni MCCCLVII Andreas Cionis de Florentia me pinxit and commissioned in 1354 by Tommaso di Rosello Strozzi for the altar of the family chapel in Santa Maria Novella.

Orcagna unifies the picture plane with the pictorial space; also new is the incorporation of the frame as an integral element of the pictorial space. Christ is depicted as if an apparition.

The work makes use of the Early Christian motif of the Traditio legis et clavium, whereby Christ entrusts St Paul with the doctrine of the Church and St Peter with its authority, although here St Thomas Aquinas takes the place of St Paul. The message conveyed by the Strozzi Altarpiece is that grace can be obtained only through the Church; this links it to Nardo’s frescoes in the same chapel, with which it forms a unified programme.