NARDO DI CIONE
(b. ca. 1320, Firenze, d. ca. 1365, Firenze)

View of the chapel from the east

1354-57
Fresco
Cappella Strozzi di Mantova, Santa Maria Novella, Florence

The Strozzi Chapel contains one of the most important altarpieces of the Trecento, painted by Orcagna (Andrea di Cione) between 1354 and 1357. The frescoes in the chapel were probably painted at the same time as the retable by Nardo di Cione, the brother of Orcagna.

In nearly a complete departure from earlier family chapels, the fresco program is devoted almost exclusively to a depiction of the Last Judgment, which takes up all three walls. The pictorial program of the frescoes is articulated like a triptych, with the Last Judgment on the west wall as the core of the ensemble and Paradise on the south wall as the pendant to Hell on the north wall.

The picture shows the Strozzi Chapel from the east. On the west wall is the Last Judgment, on the south wall (left) the Paradise, on the north wall (right) the Hell can be seen.

The figures in the stained glass window are the Madonna and Child, and the Dominican Saint Thomas Aquinas.