Feast of Saint John 2019

Riccardo Penko makes the Saint John’s Crosses 2019

HOMAGE TO THE ARCHBISHOPRIC AND THE MUNICIPALITY OF FLORENCE ON THE DAY OF THE PATRON SAINT

On the occasion of the Feast of St John the Baptist, the Society of St John the Baptist presents the authorities of Florence with a cross reproducing the sacred symbol represented in a painting or sculpture, in one of the works produced over time by the splendid Renaissance art.

Once again this year, the St. John’s Cross, as per tradition, was entirely created by Riccardo Penko.

The work, made of silver, is shaped with the ancient technique of lost wax casting, chiselled, and worked with the penkato technique.

The tribute, which is part of the centuries-old Florentine tradition of precious craftsmanship, consists of a base representing the tiburium of one of the oldest monuments of Florentine civilisation: the Baptistery.

This gave rise to two symbols of the city, one civil and the other religious: the Florentine Lily, embellished with the coat of arms of the Society of St John the Baptist, and the Cross.

The Cross is inspired by the one depicted in the altarpiece by Andrea del Verrocchio and Lorenzo di Credi, dated between 1475 and 1486: ‘Madonna and Child between St. John the Baptist and St. Donatus of Arezzo’, known as the ‘Madonna di Piazza’. The work is on display at Palazzo Strozzi on the occasion of the exhibition ‘Verrocchio, Leonardo’s Master’.