Santa Fina in San Gimignano.

One of my favorite films is Tea with Mussolini with the late Maggie Smith. It is a true masterpiece the follows the life of the Anglo-American colony in Florence, the most beloved home to the English-speaking community since Victorian times because of its Renaissance marvels and their utter beauty. The movie follows the adventures of a group of ladies known as the Scorpione who find themselves trapped in WWII Fascist Italy, without actually being terrified by rather annoyed. I am not going to say more, you have to watch the scene. My favorite scene, perhaps the most moving, is Judi Dench fighting to preserve a fresco in a small church in the Florentine countryside.

What I find moving about it is the idea that art is what makes us human and distinct from any other animal. That is the reason why the Allies had dedicated departments that had the mission of protecting our cultural heritage. The Scorpione succeed in saving Santa Fina and like in the movie, the saint is still resting.

If you are ever in Florence, it is almost a requirement to visit the beautiful Tuscan countryside and the Medieval village of San Gimignano, a Medieval Manhattan, with all of its towers is the perfect location where to spend some times having a wonderful steak and some amazing local wine. The main church in town is the Collegiate church of San Gimignano which houses the relics of the local Saint Fina. Here is one of the most stunning works of the Florentine Renaissance; the chapel of Saint Fina was designed by Giuliano and Benedetto da Maiano in 1468 and it was beautifully decorated by Domenico Ghirlandaio in 1475, one of the greatest masters of the Florentine Renaissance.

The building of the chapel was completed around 1472 and it inspired by the chapel of the Cardinal of Portugal at San Miniato al Monte in Florence. The space is not very large at all. The saint is buried beneath the altar which was also beautifully designed by Benedetto da Maiano in 1475 and is decorated with reliefs representing scenes from the life of the saint. The tabernacle by Senese Manno di Bandino goes back to the early 1300s. Above it is a lunette with the Virgin and Child. 

The two opposite walls to the two sides of the altar were decorated by Domenico Ghirlandaio around 1475 who worked here at the same time as Benedetto da Maiano. This is one of the most significant works by Ghirlandaio as it is his first main commission in which he beings to refine his own particular style. It is an intimate and simple style for what concerns the Announcement of the Death of Saint Fina, while it is a triumphant, glorious, solemn style in the Funeral of Saint Fina. The vault is decorated with the traditional iconography of the four evangelists.

Let us start from the first scene in this cycle, Saint Gregory the Great is announcing the death of Saint Fine, in the lunette above the scene the saint is shown in a roundel where she is being taken up into heaven by two angels. According to Saint Fina’s hagiography, she followed a severe ascetic lifestyle which caused her to not being able to walk anymore. One day, she had a vision of Saint Gregory the Great who foretold her liberation, in the form of her passing as the promise of eternal life. He also imparted her with the last rites. Saint Gregory the Great, in full papal regalia, his traditional iconography is shown within a mandorla made out of red-winged seraphim. Saint Fina is under the caring watch of Beldia and Bonaventura, and is laying flat on her wooden cot while saying her final prayers. Upon her passing the wooden cot was miraculously covered in violets, they are still the flowers that grow around San Gimignano in springtime. It is fascinating that our quintessential English friends sheltered this artwork dedicated to a saint who had a vision of Gregory the Great, the same Gregory the Great who sent Augustine of Canterbury to evangelize England!

This particular scene takes place inside of an intimate space with bright colors, it somehow resembles the shape of a monastic cell. Yet, we still find that Ghirlandaio completely followed those Renaissance rules on linear perspective. An inscription in golden letters in the back reads: “be ye ready, my daughter, because you shall ascend to heaven on my feast days where you shall live with your heavenly groom, the Christ” which are the words that Saint Gregory uttered to him.

Ghirlandaio and the Italian Renaissance in general was never about gore, you have to thank the Spanish for that, therefore the only sign of her martyrdom is a little mouse hiding under the bench which is remindful of her agony, being still while being eaten by worms and mice. The objects located on the bench are reminders of her domestic life, some do have a symbolic meaning, such as the pomegranate which reminds us of the original sin, or indeed the wine which becomes Christ’s own blood at the eucharist. The brass plate is probably a testament to Ghirlandaio’s father, Domenico, who was an able goldsmith and it also reminds us of how the Flemish influenced the Florentine Renaissance with their love for detail. The whole scene takes place within a classical frame that is extremely common in the Renaissance, the grotesques go back to the decorations of Ancient Rome.

Opposite to this scene is the chapel’s and perhaps one of Ghirlandaio’s greatest masterpieces; the funeral of Saint Fina. She has now been laid on a richly decorated catafalque, with her head gently resting on a pillow. The embroideries seem to be remindful of the violets that started flowering after her passing. The scene takes place before a high altar with a classical Renaissance reredos as a background, beyond this we can see the many spires of San Gimignano, looking fine as they do today. It is a sacred scene which is taking place in our time and in our space. The cross with the two candlesticks on the altar is the focal point of the whole sense of linear perspective of the scene.

Kneeling and tending towards the saints’ body is the old nurse Beldia, her hands are holding those of Fina as she is freed from her bodily restriction in the first miracle of the scene. The second miracle is that of a young boy who regains his sense of sight by touching Fina’s feet. The third and last miracle is when all the bellowers of all San Gimignano start ringing thanks to many angels who visit the town and Fina is being taken up into heaven. One such angel can indeed be seen.

This fresco is incredibly significant in the life of Domenico Ghirlandaio and that of Italian art, because it is the first time he engages himself in that detailed portraiture which would become his trademark sign and which came to be loved by Florentine philanthropists when it first came from the Flanders.

Many attendants are dressed in contemporary Quattrocento clothing and could be members of any of Florence’s greatest families of the Renaissance. The acolytes and clergy are dressed in pre-Trent albs.

Despite the strong sense of pathos and drama seen in every single portrait what is perhaps my favorite scene is the younger altar boys having fun while playing with the cross and candles which is something which goes on in virtually any sacristy. The scene does not seem too tense and it indeed gives off a certain sense of peace and calm, perhaps because it is a joyful moment for the delivered saint. Great solemnity is given by the bishop taking the funeral and the only altar boy, the thurifer, who is not being distracted!

It is thought that Ghirlandaio was inspired by the Funeral of Saint Stephen by Filippo Lippi in Prato or Giotto’s Funeral of Saint Francis in Santa Croce. Indeed, Ghirlandaio himself would take this his own work as his model for his masterpiece in the Sassetti Chapel at Santa Trinita in Florence.

What is perhaps the most touching detail is the serene face of Saint Fina, finally delivered from her painful plague, resting peacefully while already in the presence of the Throne of Glory, it is a scene of stoic triumph. A beautiful example of Renaissance pathos. Let us not disturb her though, as Judi Dench says in the movie’s final scene: “shh, she’s still sleeping!”.