Art and mercy at Ospedale del Ceppo

Ospedale del Ceppo, in Pistoia, tells a great story of art and of evangelic mercy. The authors of this story are the artists, such as Santi Buglioni and the Della Robbia brothers, who in the 16th century decorated with glazed terracotta friezes the Renaissance arcade – built in the early 1500s after the famous Ospedale degli Innocenti in Florence.

Art and Gospel merge in the panels that Buglioni started working on in 1525, representing the seven corporal works of mercy (Matthew 25:34-40): “To clothe the naked”, “To harbor the harborless”, “To visit the sick”, “To visit the imprisoned”, “To bury the dead”, “To feed the hungry”, and “To give drink to the thirsty”. Obviously, the scenes also portray the ‘spedalinghi’ (that is, the rectors or directors of the hospital) who commissioned the work.

Giovanni della Robbia is instead thought to be the author of the tondos – also started in 1525 – representing the Annunciation, Visitation and Glory of the Virgin Mary (as well as the Medicean emblem, after Pistoia was conquered by Florence in the early 15th century).

Founded in the 13th century, Ospedale del Ceppo was probably named after the story of one of the miracles of the Madonna, who made flowers grow from a dead tree stump (‘ceppo’ in Italian) to mark the location where she wanted this charitable institution built.

To this day, that stump blooms with art and beauty.