Speculum Fratrum Ordinis de Mercede. Ritratto su sfondo di una infanzia, in Incorrupta Monumenta Ecclesiam defendunt. Studi offerti a mons. Sergio Pagano, Prefetto dell'Archivio Segreto Vaticano (Collectanea Archivi Vaticani, 106), Città del Vaticano 2018, I/1, pp. 371-388. (original) (raw)
Related papers
L'articolo analizza il lungo testamento del grande mercante fiorentino messer Niccolò degli Alberti, datato 24 settembre 1376, con il quale esso fonda l'oratorio di Santa Maria Annunziata in "Cafaggiolo" insieme alle "case dei poveri", una delle più originali opere assistenziali della Firenze del secondo Trecento, che sarà poi nota come l'ospedale dell'Orbatello.
This contribution focuses on the use of gold in the wall decorations of 4th to 6th-c. churches, with an interdisciplinary approach: the literary sources describing these decorations is combined with the studies of the preserved artistic evidence and with quantitative archaeometrical analyses. Four themes are investigated to demonstrate that the use of gold was a favored medium for a customer to display his power. Firstly, the chronology of the diffusion of gold in walls and ceilings, as well as its different supports; secondly, the sources of gold and the possible relation between mosaic tesserae’s gold leaves and monetary gold, demonstrated with a wide range of archaeometrical analyses; then the economic impact of this type of decoration; finally, the relation of gold with artificial or natural light and its religious significance.