The Oratory of Santa Caterina all'Antella and Their Painters

Project Description:
"The City of the Uffizi". "The Oratory of Santa Caterina All'Antella and Their Painters" represents the second event of the big project "The City of the Uffizi", aimed at promoting an exhibition system centered on quality, diffused in the Florentine area, having its point of reference in the invaluably preserved estate deposits of the Uffizi and of other Florentine museum institutions. The promotion foreseeing the exhibition of 12 prestigious works connects historically and artistically to the splendid location of the same show: the Thirteenth century Oratory of Santa Caterina, already exhibition headquarters without exception, on which there are preserved frescoes from the Maestro of Barberino, Pietro Nelli and Spinello Aretino and where, in the past, one could find the multi-based masterpiece (trittico) of Agnolo Gaddi's, "Madonna col Bambino in trono fra I santi Filippo e Lorenze", preserved today in the Uffizi Gallery and currently in the phase of restoration, as well as Spinello Aretino's work, "Madonna col Bambino e due angeli".
On the occasion of "The City of the Uffizi". "The Oratory of Santa Caterina All'Antella and Their Painters" will expose the remembrance shows of Gaddi's work - the return/date of the show to be determined - and, between the other masterpieces, the archways and sinopia of Spinello Aretino that will definitively re-enter into the Oratory, together with another two works from the painters Maestro di Barberino ("Madonna col Bambino in trono") and Pietro Nelli ("Crocifosso sagomato"), that work towards the frescoes of the remembered buildings. The project foresees the achievement of the collaborated events: conventions and seminars; extraordinary openings on occasion of concerts and shows; guided visits; activities dictated in collaboration with the academic complexes of the municipal territory and intercommunications.
The two arched stuccoes on the fresco and the relative sinopia of Spinello Aretino (Deposits of the Uffizi); masterpieces of Agnolo Gaddi is in (the Uffizi archives); the works of Spinello Aretino of the Pinacoteco of Lucca; table of the Church of San Frediano at Lucca represents Santa Caterina of Alessandria, the work of Giuliano di Simone, main follower of Spinello; Madonna col Bambino, un Santa Vescovo e San Michele che pesa le anime , table of the Maestro di Barberino (in a private collection); Bambino della Chiesa , table of the Maestro of Barberino with the Madonna (San Lorenzo a Cappiano di Incisa Valderno); Madonna col Bambino e due santi , table of the Maestro of Barberino (private collection); stucco fresco of Pietro Nelli from the Santa Croce Museum at Florence, represents the Madonna dell'Umilità with a donor; Crucifix on the carved table, works by Pietro Nelli of the church of San Pietro at Ripoli, two round stucco frescoes, respectively representing the Saints Antonio Abate and San Domenico, works by Pietro Nelli, belonging to the Santa Croce Museum of Florence.

Location
The Oratory of Santa Caterina of the Ruote is considered an artistically jeweled zone, reported at the original splendor in 1998 after two years of restoration. The oratory, flown from Alberto degli Alberti and constructed from the sons to leave from 1354, presents with the façade of the hut, typical of the architectural style of the time. The internal characteristics of the only nave that finishes in an apse ("scarsella"), which is the semicircular vault at the top part of the head and raised up on two steps, is subdivided into two compartments with crossing faces.
The visitor entrance remains in amazing abundance of frescoes that adorn the partitions and the faces of the speace nearest to the apse. The paintings, works by Maestro di Barberino, of his young helper Pietro Nelli, and of the famous Spinello Aretino and the inspirations of the narrations present in the Aurea Legend ("Legenda Aurea") of Jacopo da Varazze, tell the life of Santa Caterina of Alessandria who was persecuted by the Emperor Massenzio for her Christian faith. The legend narrates that not more than fifty unmarried oratories, invited by the Emperor to convert the beautiful and young Caterina to paganism, set out on their mission; in contrast, they were finished for already knowing that Catholicism is like their religion, and for this they were burnt alive by Massenzio.
The name of the Oratory, Santa Caterina of the Wheels, refers to the torture inflicted by the Emperor on the young woman by means of a mechanism that stretched her body across four-wheels with teeth. One sees the grand fresco on the wall to the right of the apse with Caterina instead being saved by the angels that distract the big wheels by blocking the gears with their swords. After the one-hundredth time refuting the controversies, Caterina was imprisoned and left without food. She was fed from the pigeons sent by God and cured by the angels. The Emperor, fed up, sent her to die: the body of the girl was decapitated and bled out milk rather than blood (for this motive the holy water is the protector of those who are pregnant, because she's also the protector of academians). The angles brought the body to Mount Sinai and buried it. And today the Oratory is the suggestive location of the concerts and the art exhibitions.

Sponsors: