Pala de San Bernabé

Angels draw back a canopy to reveal the Virgin and Child, while below them six saints stand on a marble floor. On the throne runs a line from Dante, the oldest Italian inscription known on a painting.

The story behind the painting

Botticelli painted this tempera altarpiece on wood, about 268 by 280 cm, around 1487. It was first mentioned in 1510 by Albertini, who saw it on the high altar of the church of San Barnaba in Florence; it was probably commissioned by the guild of doctors and apothecaries, which held the patronage of the church. In 1717 it was moved to the back wall and modernised by Giovanni Vernaccini, who added a late Baroque top. A later restoration, perhaps in the 19th century, repainted Saint Catherine's green mantle in oil, making her look clumsy. In 1919 the painting entered the Uffizi and the 18th-century additions were removed.

What to look for

The Virgin and Child sit on a high marble throne topped by a shell, under a canopy held open by two angels. Two more angels show the Child the crown of thorns and the three nails of the Passion. Below, on a floor of finely foreshortened marble slabs, six saints stand in two groups: Catherine of Alexandria with her wheel, Augustine writing, Barnabas with an olive branch and the Gospel of Matthew, a gaunt John the Baptist, Ignatius of Antioch holding a heart, and a youthful Michael in armour. The architecture recalls Roman classicism, seen by Botticelli in Rome in 1480 to 1482, and Brunelleschi's Pazzi Chapel.

Meaning and intent

Mary appears gentle and tender but slightly elongated, with sharp features giving an ascetic touch; the source sees in this the signs of the mystical crisis that gradually affected the artist after Savonarola arrived in Florence. The figures carry a subtle tension, with stronger modelling and more expression. The words on the throne come from Canto XXXIII of Dante's Paradiso, the prayer of Bernard of Clairvaux to the Virgin, mother and daughter of her son, showing Botticelli's interest in the poet. Daniel Arasse notes that the angels and saints are evenly divided but unevenly placed, breaking a rigid symmetry, while blue gives calm at the centre.

Legacy

The altarpiece once had a predella of seven panels with scenes from the saints' lives and a Pieta; separated in 1717, only four have been put back. They show the Vision of Saint Augustine with a child emptying the sea with a shell, Christ as Man of Sorrows, Salome with the head of the Baptist against a red brick wall, and the rare extraction of Saint Ignatius's heart, first identified by Herbert Horne. A study for John the Baptist with a bearded, older head survives in the Uffizi drawings room, and a version of the Virgin and Child alone is in the Carmichael collection in London. The union of concision and majesty already announces 16th-century art.