Art imitates architecture: the Saint Philip reliquary in Renaissance Florence

The Saint Philip reliquary has certain prominent structural and decorative elements that are readily recognizable, even if they are not exact, as having been derived from Florence Cathedral and its then-incomplete dome (Fig. 8). The reliquary's ogival cupola is hexagonal, not octagonal like the cathedral's dome, but its particular shape is an unmistakable reference to Brunelleschi's high-profile vault. (49) The similarities between the Saint Philip reliquary and S. Maria del Fiore go beyond their respective domes, for the reliquary's round-arched buttresses resemble the more decorative ones on the lantern Brunelleschi designed in 1436 for the cathedral's cupola. Indeed, it is possible that, as Heinrich Klotz suggested, the reliquary reflects the architect's lost lantern design of 1418. (50) In addition, the scroll-bearing prophets that stand atop the reliquary's buttresses must have been inspired by the decorative program for the cathedral's exterior, for they recall the series of prophet figures that were to decorate the church's roofline, as well as the corners of the octagonal drum of its dome--some of which were famously commissioned from Donatello, Nanni di Banco, and Michelangelo. (51)

[FIGURE 8 OMITTED]

Brunelleschi's wooden model for Florence Cathedral's dome was probably Antonio del Vagliente's most important source for the Saint Philip reliquary, but certain elements of the reliquary's architectural and decorative vocabulary indicate that the goldsmith drew on two well-known fourteenth-century works that are also closely related to the dome of S. Maria del Fiore and the history of its design. That is, the crockets that decorate the ribs of the reliquary's cupola are derived from those on the dome of Andrea Orcagna's tabernacle for Orsanmichele, which was completed in 1359 (Fig. 9). (52) Similar crockets appear on the dome of the frescoed image of the Florentine Cathedral in Andrea di Bonaiuto's Church Triumphant (ca. 1366) in the chapterhouse of S. Maria Novella (Fig. 10). (53) The statuette of Saint Philip on the baptistery reliquary may also have been inspired by Orcagna's Orsanmichele tabernacle, where a figure of the Archangel Saint Michael serves as a large-scale finial for its dome. The Orsanmichele tabernacle, whose dome is based on the cupola of the baptistery, has both a stylistic and a functional relation to contemporary metalwork, as it, like a reliquary or monstrance, was a container for a sacred object--in this case, Bernardo Daddi's miracle-working painting of the Virgin and Child Enthroned. (54)

The Saint Philip Reliquary and Architectural Imitation

The Saint Philip reliquary's similarities to the Florentine Cathedral place it within the iconographic tradition of metalwork objects that copy particular buildings. In recent years, there has been a significant increase in scholarship that explores the symbolic and functional meaning of relics that were kept in reliquaries shaped like parts of the human body. (55) Relatively little attention, on the other hand, has been paid to the symbolic and functional meaning of relics, like the arm of Saint Philip, that were kept in ostensoria that resemble specific structures, usually the ones in which they were housed. (56) Because it recalls the form and decoration of S. Maria del Fiore, a church that was intended to stand as a symbol of Florentine civic and religious power, the Saint Philip reliquary is quite explicit in its meaning as a frame for a miracle-working relic of citywide importance. Moreover, it is telling that its commission coincided with what David Peterson has identified as the Florentine government's strategy to "resacralise the city, and to legitimate their shaky regime, by orchestrating, and identifying with, key strains of the city's religious life." (57)