Primary Sources of Data

For my primary source research, I will be looking at a number of works commissioned by Cosimo de’ Medici, such as the Novitiate Altarpiece, or Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints Francis, Damian, Cosmas and Anthony of Padua by Filippo Lippi and Pesellino, The Adoration of the Magi by Bennozzo Gozzoli and by Sandro Botticelli, and the cycle of frescos in the Monastery of San Marco by Fra Angelico. I will also be examiling artwork commissioned by Francesco Sassetti (Portrait of Francesco Sassetti and His Son Teodoro and the St. Francis cycle frescoes in the Sassetti Chapel at Santa Trinità by Domenico Ghirlandaio), Tommaso Portinari (The Portinari Altarpiece by Hugo van der Goes and The Last Judgment by Hans Memling), Giovanni Tornabuoni (the Tornabuoni chapel in  the church of Santa Maria Novella), and the Strozzi Family (Last Judgment by Nardo di Cione, Adoration of the Magi by Gentile da Fabriano, Deposition from the Cross by Fra Angelico).

Along with visual primary sources, I have already looked at textual sources such as the English History by Matthew Paris, anti-usury sermons by Bernardino of Siena, discourses on usury by Gerard of Siena, and exempla (religious cautionary tales) about usurers by Jacques of Vitry, Thomas of Chobham, and several others. Additionally, I am planning to examine similar works by Barnaba da Terni, Bernardino da Feltre, St. Anthony of Padua, and St. Anthony of Florence. To connect the visual and textual sources, I will look for parallels between the imagery employed in anti-usury sermons and the exempla and references to that imagery in the bankers’ art.