extensive repaintings that spared only the body of Christ, to make the image conform to the Counter-Reformation religious climate. The Cross – like the 1 thcentury Madonna and Child by the socalled Master of the Bigallo, completely repainted and awaiting restoration at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure – bears witness to a mystical kind of religiosity making use of small-sized works, suited to a strict cloistral religiosity. Medieval painting is also seen in the Painted Cross (circa 1 th century) by Lippo di Benivieni, still of uncertain provenance and discovered about twenty years ago in the small chapel belonging to the Villa La Quiete near San Cresci in Valcava, an old farm of the Gondi family which the Montalve inherited in 1 0. The monumental cross, in all probability intended for an illustrious Florentine church, after the restoration by the Opificio delle Pietre Dure has been put in the storeroom of the Villa La Quiete, like many other paintings awaiting a final collocation. As is the case with the group of works attesting to the commissions by the Dominican nuns of important panels and glazed terracotta works for the church of the Monastery of San Jacopo di Ripoli in Via della Scala, which was renovated at the beginning of the 16th century thanks to the generosity of the Antinori family. On the left altar of the single nave of the church was the Mystic Wedding of Saint Catherine and Saints (1 06 circa) by Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio, a monumental altar-piece originally flanked by two pietra serena sandstone pillars and surmounted by a glazed terracotta lunette depicting the Incredulity of Saint Thomas by Giovanni della Robbia (1 0 -1 10 circa), to-
day kept on the ground floor of the Villa La Quiete. The right altar, in the 1 th century, was embellished with the most fascinating work among those coming from San Jacopo di Ripoli: the Coronation of the Virgin (post-1 0) by Sandro Botticelli and his workshop, surmounted by a glazed terracotta work by Marco della Robbia depicting a Noli me tangere (1 0 -1 10 circa), also kept on the ground floor of the villa. The painting substituted another altar-piece of the same subject by Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio, which was taken from the Ripoli monastery following the Napoleonic suppressions and was present in the 181 Louvre catalogue. The panel by Botticelli – obviously requested by the Dominican nuns for the bare altar and today identified as the ancient altar-piece of the main altar in the Church of San Francesco, known as San Ludovico, in Montevarchi, also removed from its original place at the time of the Napoleonic suppressions – underwent heavy cuts to be adjusted to its new collocation. Other paintings by Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio belonging to the Dominican nuns are the panels with Saints Onuphrius, Cosmas, Damian, Sebastian (1 0 circa), probably double-faced panels of the organ, and another Mystic Wedding of Saint Catherine and Saints (1 2 circa), carried out in collaboration with Michele di Ridolfo, intended for the monastic premises and today displayed in the seat of the Rectorate. Particularly attractive is the painting depicting The Magdalene and a Dominican Nun (1 2 circa), also by Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio and Michele di Ridolfo, carried out for the altar of the nuns’ choir to english version
281