Giorgio Vasari's Incredulity of Saint Thomas, 1569–1572

Abstract

According to his Ricordanze, Giorgio Vasari (1511–1574) received the commission in 1569 to create a new chapel containing a painting of the Incredulity of Saint Thomas from two Florentine brothers, Tommaso and Francesco Guidacci (active 1565–1575). Records and letters between October and December 1572, to and from Vasari and Vincenzo Borghini, the leading prelate and humanist in Florence, indicate that the painting was nearly completed. Two years later, Girolami Guidacci, on behalf of his family, donated the painting to the church of Santa Croce. In this essay, I analyze the influence of Italian fifteenth‐ and sixteenth‐century imagery on Vasari's painting as well as his interpretation of the religious theme in relation to the Counter‐Reformation. The biblical narrative of the Incredulity of Thomas, also known as the Doubting of Thomas, is first reported in the Gospel of Saint John 11:16; 20:24–29; and 21:2. It is later reinterpreted in Jacopo Voragine's Golden Legend.