Publisher's Synopsis
One of the Uffizi's greatest masterpieces, the Epiphany Altarpiece (d. 1423) by Gentile da Fabriano is examined for its religious content in the dynamic intellectual and social environment of early Renaissance, Florence. The author answers many anomalies that have puzzled scholars of Gentile's greatest work. This large altarpiece was originally intended for the family burial-sacristy chapel of Onofrio and Palla Stozzi attached to the church of S. Trinita, Florence. In his lifetime, Palla became one of the wealthiest and most respected men of his time except for one jealous competitor, Cosimo de'Medici. This monument is an awakening to the beauty of the material world, to the rationalization of sight by using images of man and nature that supported Christian theology of redemption. In the form of apocryphal legends of the Magi-Kings, the liturgy of Epiphany, Three Kings Day, and the symbolism of flora and fauna, Gentile's painting becomes one of the most complex and integrated religious works of art dating from early Renaissance Florence. Among its many symbolic motifs, it collectively represents a transition from a medieval to a Renaissance world view. Symbolic uses of plants identify the patron's name, where hidden inscriptions identify other figures in the painting including the figure the artist's self-portrait Vasari (ca. 1546) claimed was included. In addition the donor Palla Strozzi and his two sons. Position and gesture reveal a traditional description of the Christian path to redemption. The author identifies plants underscoring Palla's humility by his identification with a poisonous and barbed plant (thistles) as a testimony and confession of his sins. In other plants Palla is identified with plants of faith and paradise after the legendary of the Garden of the Magi. Most significantly, the author places the viewer at the base of the altarpiece and reads it from bottom to top as Durand of Mende described as 'from earth to Trinity, ' while the secular or material Journey and Adoration of the Three Magi-Kings follows a traditional horizontal and lateral narrative flow while being part of the method of interpretation provided by Durand whose work provided a model.
