Carrara Burials in the Baptistery of Padua

Abstract

The S. Lorenzo Sacristy is often compared to the Baptistery of Padua. Recent scholars have suggested a similarity in the way Francesco il Vecchio di Carrara (d. 1393) is believed to have been buried in the Paduan Baptistery and Giovanni de' Medici's burial in the center of the Old Sacristy. This paper reexamines the assumptions about the Carrara burials and the written and physical evidence. It concludes that the baptismal font in Padua was never removed to make way for Francesco's tomb, and that Francesco was probably buried somewhere between the font and the altar chapel. Removal of the Carrara tombs was due to a change in patronage to the Fraglia of S. Giovanni, not to a damnatio memoriae.

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Howard Saalman

Widely published on Florentine Renaissance architecture, including books on the church of Sta. Trinita, the cupola of Sta. Maria del Fiore, and the Bigallo, Howard Saalman now is preparing monographic studies of the buildings of Brunelleschi and Alberti. [Department of Architecture, Carnegie-Mellon University, Pittsburgh, PA 15213]