LIPPI, Filippino
(b. ca. 1457, Prato, d. 1504, Firenze)

View of the Strozzi Chapel (detail)

1487-1502
Fresco
Strozzi Chapel, Santa Maria Novella, Florence

The picture shows a detail from the allegorical program of the window wall.

The painted columns on either side of the pointed-arched window stand atop high pedestals that flank the round arch above the tomb. The spandrels above that arch are filled with puzzling paintings in grisaille: in each one a winged youth stands with one foot on a skull and holds out another skull in his hand. Although it is impossible to know exactly what these mean, there is no doubt that they have to do with the presence of the donor's tomb directly below them.

The theological virtues Fides and Caritas adorn the pedestals beneath the projecting columns on either side of the window. There is a pair of women with masks of tragedy and comedy next to the right pilaster and above the inscription DEO MAX. They can be identified as Muses.