Art imitates architecture: the Saint Philip reliquary in Renaissance Florence

The story of the apostle's triumph over the dragon is subtly incorporated into the Florentine reliquary's design in that a gilded silver figurine of Saint Philip stands above the small dragons at the summit of its crystal cupola. This image of the apostle is stylistically related to the statue of the same saint that Nanni di Banco made for the niche of the Shoemakers' Guild at Orsanmichele; if anything, it is more animated than Nanni's relatively wooden figure (Fig. 6). (39) Both the figurine of Saint Philip on the baptistery reliquary and the statue from Orsanmichele hold books in their left hands, attributes that refer to the saint's status as an apostle. Saint Philip is also often represented holding a cross and a stone, the symbols of his martyrdom, or, occasionally, a piece or basket of bread, which recalls his participation in the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes. (40) The decision to represent the saint with a book on the baptistery reliquary is probably not solely dependent on Nanni di Banco's precedent at Orsanmichele, as it must have been inspired by the silver plaquette attached to the arm relic (Fig. 5). This embossed image shows Saint Philip with his right hand

raised in a gesture of benediction, while in his left he holds what appears to be a scroll.

Even though documentary evidence links the production of the Saint Philip reliquary to Antonio del Vagliente, its authorship, especially of the figurine that serves as its finial, has been the subject of debate, Giulia Brunetti assumed that because the style of the Saint Philip figurine is markedly different from the prophet figures on the reliquary's buttresses, it must be by an artist other than Antonio del Vagliente. (41) She was not the first to note that the statuette is reminiscent of Florentine figural sculpture of the 1410s and 1420s, as both Martin Wackernagel and Walter and Elisabeth Paatz likened its style to that of Donatello. (42) Brunetti, on the other hand, despite observing its similarities to the princess figure in Donatello's relief of Saint George and the Dragon from Orsanmichele (ca. 1417) and certain figures in the same artist's Feast of Herod for the Siena Cathedral baptismal font (1423-27), thought the reliquary's date too late to attribute the statuette to Donatello. She therefore tentatively ascribed it to the young Michelozzo and proposed that the same artist may have designed the aedicule that houses the relic and that Antonio del Vagliente subsequently carried out his design. (43)

[FIGURE 7 OMITTED]

Brunetti's attribution of the reliquary to Michelozzo, while accepted in much of the literature, is far from certain. It was contested by the author of the entry for the Saint Philip reliquary in the catalogue for the 1977 exhibition L'oreficeria nella Firenze del quattrocento. (44) The most prominent member of a family of goldsmiths, Antonio del Vagliente matriculated into the Arte di Por S. Maria, the guild of goldsmiths and silk merchants, in 1414. (45) Thanks to Alessandro Guidotti's archival work, we now know that by the time Antonio del Vagliente received the commission for the Saint Philip reliquary in the early 1420s, he had entered into a partnership with the prominent goldsmith Giovanni del Chiaro, whose workshop he inherited in 1424. Giovanni del Chiaro provided the baptistery with a number of important and expensive liturgical objects, including a basin and two silver ampullae (1419). He also made a gilded silver reliquary for the very important relic of Saint John the Baptist's right index finger (1421), which the former Pope John XXIII, Baldassare Cossa, donated to the baptistery in his testament of 1419. (46) It is possible that Antonio del Vagliente's professional relationship with Giovanni del Chiaro may have led to his commission of about 1422 for the Saint Philip reliquary. But in the 1420s he also had personal and professional ties with other leading goldsmiths in Florence, as well as with Donatello, Luca della Robbia, Lorenzo Ghiberti, and Michelozzo. (47) Thus, while it is not to be ruled out that Antonio del Vagliente executed the Saint Philip reliquary according to a design by Michelozzo or another of his more famous contemporaries, it is just as likely that the reliquary is an example of the goldsmith's own impressive standing in early quattrocento Florence and of his knowledge of current trends in sculpture and architecture. (48)