Relief: Detail of Orsanmichele Tabernacle

myminifactory

This relief was part of the tabernacle at Orsanmichele in Florence, Italy. The tabernacle is an architectonic structure without precedent in Florence, yet it shows affinities with a series of monuments dating back to late 13th century. Its bas-reliefs offer innovative solutions to narrative sculpture while displaying a debt to art before 1348. Furthermore, its imagery is entirely positive rather than harsh and judgmental. The context of the tabernacle helps explain much of this phenomenon. Firstly, the tabernacle was built to house a thaumaturgic image of the Virgin that had been the goal of pilgrims since late 13th century. Secondly, the patrons of the tabernacle were members of a confraternity whose origins also reached far back in time to 1291. Their practices already established in 1294 seem to be reflected in some of the imagery. This was the only confraternity in the city not associated with a church, and this fact too may have affected the appearance of the monument. The tabernacle is encrusted with precious lapis, gold, and glass inlay that creates a brilliant, shining polychromy; it is especially dense in the celestial realm, rendering the area still flat. The elaborate decoration is equivalent to the rich brocades in contemporary painting, a taste which blossomed with the International Gothic style.