This vast vision of heaven and earth was created for the funeral chapel of Florentine apothecary, writer, and politician Matteo Palmieri, who died in 1475. Palmieri and his wife, Niccolosa de’ Serragli, are depicted kneeling in prayer, gazing towards a heavenly scene that illustrates three hierarchies and nine orders of angels, each with distinct characteristics.
The Heavenly Realm
At the center of a gilded dome, Christ sits blessing those below. The Virgin Mary, crowned as Queen of Heaven, kneels before him. Below, angelic beings, saints, and prophets are arranged in three concentric circles—a design possibly inspired by Brunelleschi’s dome for Florence Cathedral, Santa Maria del Fiore, recently completed at the time. This circular arrangement also reflects the dome-shaped stage sets Brunelleschi created for religious plays in fifteenth-century Florence, representing the vault of heaven.
Surrounding Christ and the Virgin are the six-winged red seraphim, the four-winged blue cherubim, and beneath them, the bust-length cherubic Thrones, so named as the carriers of God’s throne. The middle sphere includes the Dominions, Virtues, and Powers, who govern the lower angels, the planets, and humankind, respectively. Below them are the angelic beings most closely associated with the earth: the Principalities; the Archangels, responsible for military and commercial affairs; and the angels, God’s messengers to humanity. Scattered among them are saints and Old Testament figures. Adam and Eve appear as an elderly couple dressed in animal skins, while beneath them sits King David, known for his musicianship, holding a lyre. On the lower left, Saint George, the warrior saint, is dressed in gold armour and a blue mantle.
The Earthly Realm
On a grassy plateau, the apostles gather around the Virgin’s empty tomb, which, according to legend, was miraculously filled with lilies following her assumption into heaven. Equally significant in the painting is the panorama of Florence and its surrounding towns and countryside. The Arno River winds toward the city, where the dome of Santa Maria del Fiore is visible. To Palmieri’s left is Fiesole, the hillside retreat of Florence’s wealthy residents. Halfway up the slope, his own farm and country villa can be seen. At the summit is the Badia Fiesolana, a former convent where Cosimo de’ Medici granted Palmieri the patronage of a chapel. Just to the right of Palmieri’s gaze stands the spire of San Pier Maggiore, the church where he was buried and where this painting was originally installed.
The Painting’s Origins and Controversy
According to Giorgio Vasari, Palmieri played a role in designing the composition. Vasari attributed the work to Botticelli, but it is now known to be by his contemporary, Botticini, who had previously illustrated Palmieri’s 1465 manuscript Città di Vita (City of Life).
Inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy, Palmieri’s poem presents an inverted journey: instead of a soul ascending from hell to heaven, it descends from the heavenly realm to earth, taking human form at birth and freely choosing whether to ascend to paradise or fall into damnation. The idea of the soul’s pre-existence and its potential to reach heaven without reference to God or Christ was deemed heretical by the Church. In the decades following Palmieri’s death, as suspicion over his poem grew, the faces of Palmieri and his wife were scratched out (later restored), and access to the painting was temporarily restricted.
