A monumental altarpiece by Fra Angelico, hailed as representing a critical turning point in Western art, has been returned to its original glory after a two-year restoration project. The work on the Santa Trinita Altarpiece (Deposition from the Cross) (1429-32) was completed ahead of a major exhibition on the Italian painter, due to open at Florence’s Palazzo Strozzi in September, and has provided fresh insight into his innovations.
The altarpiece, now back on display in Florence’s Museo di San Marco, was originally commissioned by the Italian banker and politician Palla Strozzi for his family chapel, the church of Santa Trinita. It depicts Christ being taken down from the cross by four men, with a large crowd gathered around them and an undulating landscape in the background. Mary Magdalene is shown kissing Christ’s feet, while in the foreground a kneeling figure—possibly the Blessed Alessio Strozzi—stretches a hand out to the viewer. Scenes of Christ’s life, painted by Fra Angelico’s mentor Lorenzo Monaco, and depictions of saints surround the central image.
The work is unique, says Angelo Tartuferi, the former director of Florence institutions including the Uffizi Gallery, who supervised the project, because “for the first time in Western art, the death of Christ is seen not only as a simple visual translation of the sacred scriptures, but as an event to be commented on and interpreted in the context of Christian humanism of the early 15th century”—which emphasised Jesus’s connection to humanity and the real world. In Fra Angelico’s practice, he continues, it marks a critical break from his early, late-Gothic style.
