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At the end of his life Montorsoli's main interest was in the foundation of the Accademia del Disegno in Florence and the conversion of the former chapter house of his monastery church into a memorial chapel for artists, the Cappella di San Luca (Chapel of St Luke). The chapel has belonged to the artists confraternity or the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno since 1565. Many artists are buried in its vault, including Benvenuto Cellini, Pontormo, Franciabigio, Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli and Lorenzo Bartolini.
A document from the archive of Santissima Annunziata contains detailed information about the subjects of the decorations and the artists who were elected to produce them. The sculptures had to represent Abraham, David, Solomon, Melchizedek, Joshua, St Peter and the four evangelists. Together with Montorsoli's earlier Moses and St Paul, this would bring the total to twelve statues. The six figures from the Old Testament were meant for the niches to the right of the altar (for a viewer looking toward it from the entrance, in the north wall), and those from the New Testament to its left. The altarpiece had to be a painting representing the Most Holy Trinity. The two remaining large frescoes on the sidewalls had to depict unspecified scenes from the Old and the New Testament.
Presently there are ten stucco figures in the niches (two were lost in the 19th century) as follows:
Abraham (by Stoldo Lorenzi)
Moses (by Montorsoli)
St Paul (by Motorsoli)
St Peter (by Domenico Poggini)
Joshua (by Vincenzo Danti)
Melchizedek (by Francesco Camilliani)
St Luke (by Vincenzo Danti)
St John Evangelist (by Giovanni Vincenzo Casali and Valerio Cioli)
Solomon (by Giambologna and Giovanni Vincenzo Casali)
King David (attributed to Giovan Battista Foggini)
There are three large frescoes:
Most Holy Trinity (by Alessandro Allori)
St Luke Painting the Virgin (by Giorgio Vasari)
Building of the Temple of Solomon (by Santi di Tito).
The frescoes contain the portraits of various artists, who had died in the preceding period. For instance, the two figures in the right foreground of Vasari's Saint Luke Painting the Virgin have been identified as Montorsoli and his pupil Martino, who was the second artist to be buried in the chapel after Pontormo. Pontormo himself was represented together with Agnolo Bronzino in the lower corners of Allori's fresco.
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