Mercatale Tabernacle

In 1498, a precious frescoed tabernacle was commissioned to Filippino in front of the female monastery of Santa Margherita, the same convent where his parents, Fra Filippo Lippi and the nun Lucrezia Buti, had first met.

The artwork was planned as a continuous scene spread over panels. The central image is dedicated to the Madonna with Child, whose coronation by the angels is contemplated by a choir of seraphim; these are leaning on the clouds of a sunset which turns into an enchanting mauve theatre box, perfectly colour-matched with Mary’s robe. At the sides, two pairs of saints: on the left Anthony Abbot and Margaret; on the right Stephen, the patron saint of Prato, and Catherine of Alexandria. In the background two books shown with an everyday freshness hang down from an ancient-style altar, with a scroll bearing the motto of the historian philosopher Epictetus, “SUBSTINE ET ABSTINE (“bear and abstain”). At the bottom of the central group, the coat-of-arms of the Tieri family from Prato is held up by two mermen. This family owned a house near the tabernacle, and as the presence of St. Anthony Abbot in the position of honour seems to suggest, Antonio Tieri may have been the donor of the work.

Thanks to the extraordinary restoration of the fresco by the famous Prato restorer Leonetto Tintori after the ruinous bombing of 7th March 1944, the original softness of the paint texture has been recuperated, including the restless antiquarian taste Filippino developed during his stay in Rome, where he went in 1488. In the museum’s permanent collection other two works by this Prato artist can be admired: the famous Altarpiece of the Audience and the precious Crucifix.