La dissidenza di Bindo Altoviti e il Trionfo della Vergine Immacolata di Giorgio Vasari per la chiesa dei Santi Apostoli a Firenze

The altarpiece known by the title of Allegory of the Immaculate Conception, painted in 1541 by Giorgio Vasari for the chapel of the Altoviti family in the church of Santi Apostoli e Biagio, was the Vasari’s first commission for a church in Florence. Historiography has largely highlighted the excep- tional nature of this work for the evolution of the iconography of the Im- maculate Conception, a historically much debated theological theme. In this essay, it is proposed to read this altarpiece with the iconographically more correct title of Triumph of the Immaculate Virgin. The Sienese Domin- ican friar Lancillotto Politi, a theologian of the Conception, close to the Roman cultural circle of Vittoria Colonna, who in turn was a friend of the altarpiece’s famous patron, the banker Bindo Altoviti, is proposed as the iconographer who conceived the complex project of this altarpiece. The iconographic peculiarities of the Triumph of the Immaculate Virgin in this essay are related to the political propaganda of Bindo Altoviti, bitter rival of the Duke of Florence, Cosimo I de’ Medici. To provide a glimpse into the cultural, theological-spiritual, and political landscape underlying this work, this essay it also illustrates the difficult relations between Giorgio Vasari and Cosimo I, highlighting how, in those years, the painter’s decision to accept Altoviti’s commission was not only a valuable professional opportunity for Vasari, but also a thoughtful politic stance.