Monastic "Imitatio Christi": Andrea del Castagno's "Cenacolo di S. Apollonia"

Abstract

This article proposes an interpretation of the choice, placement and rendering of the scenes painted for the female Florentine convent (c. 1447) in its religious context. The Last Supper is read as an imago that presented the nuns with important exemplars-the apostles, who were the model of a communal life in imitatio Christi. Castagno encourages their contemplation rather than that of the event by the depiction of gestures that characterize them as individuals. In the Crucifixion, Entombment and Resurrection Castagno emphasizes the narrative, concentrating on the bystanders' grief. While the apostles were models for monks and nuns alike, here Castagno provided the nuns of S. Apollonia with suitable female models.