ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the themes of conflict, triumph, and bodily sacrifice as Cosimo’s knights are addressed by the architecture, spectacle, painting, and, most importantly, spoils taken by the Knighthood of Santo Stefano in their battles with Barbary corsairs and Ottoman Turks. Cosimo headquartered the Order of Santo Stefano in the city of Pisa, which enjoyed an illustrious maritime history in the early Middle Ages. Ewa Karwacka Codini rightly asserts that Vasari’s design also responded to the changes in liturgical practice dictated by the Council of Trent, whose sessions ended in 1563, coinciding with the planning of the church. But some of the most visually and symbolically charged objects in the church were the trophies taken in victory by the knights from their defeated Muslim enemies. Fontana’s visceral description with its emphasis on blood underscores the deeper significance of the trophies. Vasari painted the most dramatic scene in the life of Saint Stephen: the moment before his death.
