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| Tabernacle for the Crucifix of St John Gualberto 1448 marble Basilica di San Miniato al Monte, Florence commissioned by Piero de' Medici (1416-1489) probably designed by Michelozzo (1396-1472) |
"For the same year of 1448 we can at last point to a surviving monument which testifies to the same love of splendour: the marble tabernacle over the miraculous crucifix in San Miniato al Monte. The documents show that there was the familiar tug-of-war over the Medici arms: in June 1447 the Guild of the Calimala reports that a 'great citizen' (cittadino grande) has offered to build such a tabernacle with great splendour and cost and that permission would be granted provided no other coats of arms were shown except those of the guild. A year later the great citizen had his way. Piero was granted the express permission to add his own coat of arms to those of the guild. He did not choose the offensive palle but rather his private impressa, the three feathers and the diamond ring with the device semper. This type of private heraldry was in itself in tune with the taste for chivalrous display, which Piero may well have acquired in his contacts with his Burgundian customers."
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| Tabernacle of the Annunciation ca. 1450 marble Basilica della Santissima Annunziata, Florence commissioned by Piero de' Medici (1416-1489) probably designed by Michelozzo (1396-1472) |
"It was probably in the same year, or soon after that he commissioned another tabernacle over a miraculous image, this time in SS. Annunziata. Its sumptuous structure, no doubt originally gilt, carries the truly astounding inscription Costò fior 4 mila el marmo solo; the marble alone cost 4,000 florins. This is worthy of remark by those who still believe that this type of announcement was invented by American tycoons. If the general assumption is right, that the two tabernacles were designed for the Medici by Michelozzo, who was also Cosimo's right-hand man, it becomes even clearer how far in works of these kinds the patron rather than the artist expressed himself."
– E.H. Gombrich, from the essay The Early Medici as Patrons of Art, originally published in 1960, reprinted in the author's essay collection Norm and Form (London: Phaidon Press, 1966)