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Primary sourcePainting1354–1357

Strozzi Altarpiece

Andrea di Cione (Orcagna) · 1354–1357

A gilded Gothic altarpiece by Andrea Orcagna in Florence, painted in the years after the Black Death and linked by historians to the mortality's impact on art.

Painted in Florence just after the Black Death, it has been used by historians to argue the plague changed the city's art.

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Gilded Gothic multi-panel altarpiece with pointed arches. Central figure of Christ in a dark robe with an arched halo, flanked by saints and angels, with predella scenes of narrative below.
Andrea di Cione (Orcagna), Strozzi Altarpiece, 1354–1357. Santa Maria Novella, Florence.

About this source

What it is

This gilded multi-panel altarpiece was painted by Andrea di Cione, known as Orcagna, between 1354 and 1357. It stands in the Strozzi Chapel of the church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence.

At its centre is a stern figure of Christ flanked by saints including Michael, Catherine of Alexandria, the Virgin Mary, Thomas Aquinas, Peter, John the Baptist, Lawrence and Paul, with narrative scenes below.

Why it matters

The altarpiece was painted in Florence in the years immediately following the devastating plague outbreak of 1348. The art historian Millard Meiss famously argued that the severity and mortality of the plague changed the style of Florentine painting, making it more rigid, hierarchical and solemn — and this altarpiece became a central example in that argument.

Look closer

  • What mood does the stern, formal style of the figures create compared to earlier, softer painting styles?
  • Why might an artist's style change after a community lives through a mass-death event?
  • What do the predella scenes below the main panel show, and how might they relate to death and suffering?

This painting is part of the curated material that grounds the AI version of The Black Death on Humy.ai — when students ask about related events, the AI can quote it and cite it.

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