1515<\/p>\n
Fresco, SS. Annunziata, Florence.<\/p>\n
Vasari, 1550, 797, in the \u201cLife\u201d of Rosso: \u201cDipinse medesimamente sopra un\u2019altra porta, l\u2019arme di Papa Leone con due fanciulli, oggi guasta.\u201d\u00a0 Vasari, 1568, 205 (Vasari-Milanesi, V, 157-158): \u201cDipinse medesimamente sopra un\u2019altra porta, che entra nel chiostro del convento de\u2019servi, l\u2019arme di Papa Leone con due fanciulli, oggi guasta.\u201d<\/p>\n
Shearman, 1960, 154, identified Vasari\u2019s statements with the following:<\/p>\n
DOCUMENTS: A.S.F., Conv. Sopp. 119 (SS. Annunziata), no. 705 (Libro del Camarlingo, Entrata e Uscita, October 1512 to 1516), c. 175 r.:<\/p>\n
20 September 1515: \u201cA muraglia ad\u00ec decto lire quaranta dua, sono che tanti ne decti a giovanni batista dipintore per dipignere l\u2019arme sopre la porta a sua ispese, port\u00f2 contanti.\u201d<\/p>\n
Carroll, 1987, 15, 16, 33, n. 20, mentioned.\u00a0 Franklin, 1994, 20, 21, 296-297, Appendix A, DOCUMENT 7.1<\/sup><\/a><\/p>\n Shearman believes that Vasari\u2019s statement can also be related to the following undated entry by Padre Eliseo Biffoli in his Notizie delle cose memorabili del Convento e Chiesa della Nunziata…<\/i> (A.S.F., Conv. Sopp. 119, No. 59, c.<\/i> 8 v.<\/i>): \u201cQuesto medesimo [Rosso] dipinse que\u20192 fanciulli che sono sopra la porta de Chiostro de\u2019 morti a\u2019 piedi dell\u2019arme del Duca.\u201d\u00a0 (Mentioned by Colnaghi, 1928, 236, without reference to Leo X, assuming the date 1513 although no date appears in the margin of Biffoli\u2019s entry.)<\/p>\n Again according to Shearman, Leo X\u2019s arms would have already deteriorated by 1550 and would have been refurbished and the arms themselves replaced with those of Francesco I who was Grand Duke when Biffoli wrote.\u00a0 The position of these arms over the door leading to the chiostro de\u2019morti was a relatively prominent one at the left of the long front of the Annunziata, and in 1515, just before Leo X\u2019s first visit to Florence, the placement of his arms here would have been most appropriate even with the Medici arms already over the arch of the porch of the main entrance to the church (see below).\u00a0 This location of Rosso\u2019s fresco seems to be what is meant by Vasari\u2019s phrase in 1568 that the arms were \u201csopra un\u2019altra porta, che entra nel chiostro del convento de\u2019Servi.\u201d\u00a0 If he had intended to specify a location in the atrium Vasari would probably have named the \u201ccortile\u201d of the church, as he does when writing of Rosso\u2019s Assumption<\/i>.\u00a0 Both Vasari and Biffoli speak of two accompanying \u201cfanciulli.\u201d\u00a0 It should also be noted that in 1568 Vasari says Leo X\u2019s arms were \u201cover another<\/i> door,\u201d which seems to refer back to his only shortly preceding reference to the arms of Cardinal Lorenzo Pucci that were executed in 1513 over the door of the Pucci Chapel (L.8<\/a>).\u00a0 When mentioning this work in 1568, Vasari adds that Pucci was made a Cardinal by Leo X.\u00a0 Hence, it is very possible that if the Pucci arms were over the exterior door to the Pucci Chapel at the far right end of the front of the church (and not over the entrance from the atrium), then the arms of Leo X would have been a kind of counterpart to them at the far left of this front.\u00a0 If this was the case then the two \u201cfanciulli,\u201d which from Biffoli\u2019s words would seem to have been supporting the arms above them, were probably designed with reference to those of Pucci\u2019s arms. According to the view of the fa\u00e7ade of the church in Ridolfo Ghirlandaio\u2019s Annunciation<\/i> in the Palazzo Vecchio, the arms of Leo X would have replaced some other decoration above the door, perhaps another coat-of-arms.<\/p>\n Rosso\u2019s work was probably destroyed when the fa\u00e7ade of the church was remodeled in 1601-1604 (Paatz, I, 1940, 68, 78, 142, n. 72).<\/p>\n For a drawing in the Louvre that Berti, 1983, 55, 56-57, Fig. 56, attributed to Rosso and identified as for the lost arms of Leo X of 1515, see RD.33<\/a>.<\/p>\n