ABSTRACT
This paper focuses on the Novitiate Altarpiece commissioned by Cosimo de’ Medici for Filippo Lippi and Francesco di Stefano (Il Pesellino) and was placed in the Medici Chapel in the Franciscan Church of Santa Croce. Its pala portrays the Virgin, baby Christ, St. Francis, Saints Cosmas and Damian, the patron saints of the Medici family, and St. Anthony of Padua, a Franciscan preacher. The predella dedicates one scene to each saint, and the one slotted for St. Anthony represents the miracle of a usurer’s heart, where St. Anthony preaches against usury. This paper suggests that facing public accusations of usury and being exposed to the Observant Franciscans’ popular sermons against it, Cosimo de’ Medici is likely to have commissioned this altarpiece for a Franciscan church as an atonement for his sin of usury both to clear his reputation in this world and to save his soul in the next.
