The Art, History and Architecture of Florentine Churches [1 ed.] 9781443857635, 9781443897549

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The Art, History and Architecture of Florentine Churches

The Art, History and Architecture of Florentine Churches By

Andrea M. Gáldy With plans by Sara Cecconi

The Art, History and Architecture of Florentine Churches By Andrea M. Gáldy This book first published 2016 Cambridge Scholars Publishing Lady Stephenson Library, Newcastle upon Tyne, NE6 2PA, UK British Library Cataloguing in Publication Data A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library Copyright © 2016 by Andrea M. Gáldy All rights for this book reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without the prior permission of the copyright owner. ISBN (10): 1-4438-9754-X ISBN (13): 978-1-4438-9754-9

For Susan Madocks Lister and Elena Paolucci

TABLE OF CONTENTS

List of Illustrations ..................................................................................... ix Glossary ...................................................................................................... xi Acknowledgements ................................................................................ xviii Foreword .................................................................................................. xix Introduction .............................................................................................. xxi Note on Access and Opening Hours ...................................................... xxvii Sources ................................................................................................. xxviii

Chapters 1. Baptistery................................................................................................. 1 2. Florence Cathedral, Dome and Bell Tower ........................................... 45 3. Sant’Ambrogio .................................................................................... 100 4. Santissima Annunziata ........................................................................ 109 5. Santi Apostoli ...................................................................................... 134 6. Santa Croce.......................................................................................... 144 7. San Felice in Piazza ............................................................................. 175 8. Santa Felicita ....................................................................................... 185 9. San Firenze .......................................................................................... 192 10. San Frediano in Cestello .................................................................... 197 11. San Lorenzo ....................................................................................... 203 12. San Marco.......................................................................................... 245 13. Santa Maria del Carmine ................................................................... 262 14. Santa Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi ..................................................... 277 15. Santa Maria Maggiore ....................................................................... 285 16. Santa Maria nella Badia Fiorentina ................................................... 294 17. Santa Maria Novella .......................................................................... 308 18. Santi Michele and Gaetano Bertelde ................................................. 339 19. San Miniato al Monte ........................................................................ 345

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20. San Niccolò ....................................................................................... 359 21. Ognissanti .......................................................................................... 366 22. Orsanmichele ..................................................................................... 379 23. San Remigio ...................................................................................... 395 24. Santo Spirito ...................................................................................... 402 25. Santa Trinita ...................................................................................... 419 Bibliography ............................................................................................ 430 Biographies .............................................................................................. 437 Index ........................................................................................................ 439

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

Figure 1 a: Façade of the Florentine Baptistery, the church of San Giovanni Battista (photo: Vieri Giorgetti [VG]) Figure 1 b: Plan of the Florentine Baptistery (plan: Sara Cecconi [SC]) Figure 1 c: Bronze door of the Baptistery, twentieth-century copy of Lorenzo Ghiberti’s Gates of Paradise (photo: VG) Figure 2 a: Façade of Florence Cathedral (photo: VG) Figure 2 b: Plan of the basilica of Santa Maria del Fiore (plan SC) Figure 2 c: Detail of the Porta della Mandorla, north façade of Santa Maria del Fiore, with sculptures by Nanni del Banco et al. (photo: VG) Figure 3 a: Façade of the church of Sant’Ambrogio (photo: Andrea Gáldy [AG]) Figure 3 b: Plan of the church of Sant’Ambrogio (plan: SC) Figure 3 c: Giovanni della Robbia’s Tabernacle with Saint Ambrose Blessing (photo: VG) Figure 4 a: Façade of Santissima Annunziata (photo: AG) Figure 4 b: Plan of Santissima Annunziata (plan: SC) Figure 4 c: Detail of the façade of Santissima Annunziata (photo: AG) Figure 5 a: Façade of Santi Apostoli (photo: AG) Figure 5 b: Plan of Santi Apostoli (plan: SC) Figure 6 a: Façade of Santa Croce (photo: AG) Figure 6 b: Plan of the basilica of Santa Croce (plan: SC) Figure 6 c: Bays of Brunelleschi’s Cloister in the Santa Croce complex (photo: Carolyn Murin [CM]) Figure 6 d: Santa Croce from Piazzale Michelangelo (photo: CM) Figure 7 a: Façade of San Felice (photo: AG) Figure 7 b: Plan of the church of San Felice (plan: SC) Figure 8 a: Façade of Santa Felicita (photo: CM) Figure 8 b: Plan of Santa Felicita (plan: SC) Figure 9 a: Façade of San Firenze (photo: CM) Figure 9 b: Plan of San Firenze (plan: SC) Figure 10 a: Façade of San Frediano (photo: AG) Figure 10 b: Plan of San Frediano (plan: SC) Figure 11 a: Façade of San Lorenzo (photo: AG) Figure 11 b: Plan of San Lorenzo (plan: SC) Figure 11 c: Chapel of the Princes, San Lorenzo (photo: AG)

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List of Illustrations

Figure 12 a: Façade of San Marco (photo: VG) Figure 12 b: Plan of San Marco (plan: SC) Figure 13 a: Façade of Santa Maria del Carmine (photo: AG) Figure 13 b: Plan of Santa Maria del Carmine (plan: SC) Figure 14 a: Façade of Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi (photo: VG) Figure 14 b: Plan of Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi (plan: SC) Figure 15 a: Façade of Santa Maria Maggiore (photo: AG) Figure 15 b: Plan of Santa Maria Maggiore (plan: SC) Figure 16 a: Façade of Santa Maria della Badia Fiorentina (photo: VG) Figure 16 b: Plan of Santa Maria della Badia Fiorentina (plan: SC) Figure 16 c: Detail of the doorway onto Via Proconsolo (photo: VG) Figure 17 a: Façade of the basilica of Santa Maria Novella (photo: VG) Figure 17 b: Plan of Santa Maria Novella (plan: SC) Figure 18 a: Façade of San Michele and Gaetano Bertelde (photo: AG) Figure 18 b: Plan of San Michele and Gaetano Bertelde (plan: SC) Figure 19 a: Façade of San Miniato al Monte (photo: CM) Figure 19 b: Plan of San Miniato (plan: SC) Figure 19 c: San Miniato seen from the north bank of the Arno (photo: CM) Figure 20 a: Façade of San Niccolò (photo: CM) Figure 20 b: Plan of San Niccolò (plan: SC) Figure 20 c: Campanile of San Niccolò (photo: CM) Figure 21 a: Façade of the church of Ognissanti (photo: AG) Figure 21 b: Plan of the church of Ognissanti (plan: SC) Figure 21 c: The Medici coat of arms in glazed terracotta (photo: CM) Figure 21 d: Lunette with glazed terracotta figures above the main portal of Ognissanti (photo: CM) Figure 22 a: Façade of Orsanmichele (photo: CM) Figure 22 b: Plan of the church of Orsanmichele (plan: SC) Figure 22 c: Entrance to Orsanmichele (photo: CM) Figure 23 a: Façade of San Remigio (photo: VG) Figure 23 b: Plan of San Remigio (plan: SC) Figure 23 c: Porch of San Remigio (photo: VG) Figure 24 a: Façade of Santo Spirito (photo: AG) Figure 24 b: Plan of Santo Spirito (plan: SC) Figure 25 a: Façade of Santa Trinita (photo: AG) Figure 25 b: Plan of Santa Trinita (plan: SC)

GLOSSARY

UNLESS OTHERWISE STATED THESE TERMS REFER TO USE IN CHRISTIAN CHURCHES aislesʊpathways on either side of the main nave, usually separated from it by a colonnade or arcade. ambulatoryʊa walkway, typically a pair of aisles that extend beyond and around a church apse. An ambulatory may give access to chapels or be used during processions. apseʊsemicircular or polygonal space, crowned by a hemispherical vault, used for the sanctuary or side chapels. architraveʊlintel, usually the lowermost part of an entablature resting directly on top of two or more columns. The term may also be used for an ornamented band above or framing a square window or door. archivoltsʊmoulded bands framing an arch. baldachinʊalso called ciborium, canopy of state (form of ceremonial tent roof) put over altars, thrones and other ritually important spaces, made from precious cloth or more durable material such as bronze, e.g. Bernini’s Baldacchino in Saint Peter’s Basilica, Rome. baptisteryʊbaptismal church, usually dedicated to Saint John the Baptist. Saint John is the patron saint of the city of Florence and his feastday is celebrated on 24 June. Tuscan baptisteries tend to be separate centrally planned buildings, occasionally circular in shape (exception e.g. at Siena). Baroqueʊstyle adopted from c.1600 in the figurative arts, architecture, music and theatre; often associated with the Roman Catholic Church of the Counter-reformation. basilicaʊthe original term is Greek and means meeting chamber of a king; in Roman times this type of building was a public place of business, many examples of which were located on the fora. Christian basilicas appear from the fourth century after the Edict of Milan (313) and the Edict of Thessalonica (380). An example of this architectural type built in Roman times and used from late Antiquity as a Christian church can be

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found in Trier (Aula Palatina founded under Constantine I, c.310). In mediaeval times, this church was turned into the palace of the bishop of Trier and has been used as a Lutheran church since the nineteenth century. bay(s)ʊa three-dimensional space between four supports (four free or engaged columns or pilasters or two columns and two wall brackets) and crowned by a vault or dome as is the case in aisles or the nave. Twodimensional bays can be found on façades where they are separated by engaged columns or pilasters and often form the frame of a window. cenacoloʊsee refectory. centrally plannedʊa building such as a baptistery, martyrium or other type of memorial that is built in the round, in a polygonal shape (incl. square) or in a Greek cross shape (both arms have the same length). chancelʊin church architecture, the east end of a church, the location for the high altar, near choir and vestry. chapter houseʊplace for meetings within a monastic house, with benches for all resident monks and a sanctuary with altar. Particularly beautiful examples in Florence are the Spanish chapel at Santa Maria Novella, the chapter house with Fra Angelico’s frescoes at San Marco and the Pazzi chapel at Santa Croce. chevetʊa French term used for the east end of a Gothic church consisting of an apse, ambulatory and chapels. choirʊspace reserved for monks located between the eastern end of the nave and the sanctuary of a church. clerestoryʊthe part of a church building that rises higher than nearby rooftops and whose windows admit light to the nave and choir. cloisterʊrectangular courtyard surrounded by a covered walkway, forming a quadrangle on the southern side of a church, used by monks of enclosed religious orders for exercise and prayer. columnʊstructural weight-bearing element in Greek architecture, decorative feature in Roman architecture. There are five orders (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan, Composite) expressed by capitals, base, and the treatment of the shaft. Columns were originally made from wood, then stone (marble). Engaged columns are half columns attached to a wall. crossingʊspace in churches where the nave crosses the transept, often covered by a dome (e.g. Santa Maria del Fiore, Florence). In Romanesque

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and Gothic architecture, the crossing is usually topped by the bell tower (St Sernin, Toulouse). cross vaultʊalso double barrelled or groin vault; intersection between two barrel vaults. Used by the Romans for large vaults that also required fenestration. cryptʊunderground stone chamber, in churches generally located below the choir and used for burials. di sotto in suʊrefers to illusionistic ceiling painting that uses extreme foreshortening and thereby gives the impression that the spectator looks “from below to above” and beyond. dome (cupola)ʊarchitectural element ideally shaped like a hollow halfglobe. Domes can be made in a variety of shapes and structures and from a range of materials. The most famous example from classical times was the dome of the Roman Pantheon that inspired Brunelleschi to build the elongated, slightly pointy dome of Florence Cathedral made of two shells. dormitoryʊsleeping accommodation for members of religious orders in a monastic foundation. dosseretsʊfeature of early Christian, Byzantine or Romanesque architecture: tall cubical block placed above the abacus of a column’s capital. exedraeʊapsidal space, crowned by a half-dome, adding space and structural solidity, for example to a dome, see Florence Cathedral. flying buttressesʊbuttressing used in particular in Gothic architecture to lead the outward thrust from the stone vault onto the outer walls of a building and safely down to the ground via quadrant arches and buttresses. Gothicʊstyle that has its origins in twelfth-century France and is recognisable by elements such as flying buttresses, pointed arches and ribbed vaults. Particularly popular in the north of Europe, Gothic architecture was rarely adopted without modifications in Italy. Greek Cross shapeʊused for a cruciform building with arms in the same length and meeting at right angles. high altarʊmain altar (place of sacrifice) of a church, set apart in the (raised) sanctuary and occasionally protected by a baldachin. In Catholic churches up to the time of the Council of Trent shielded from view by a rood screen.

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High Renaissanceʊstyle considered to be dominant in Italy between the 1490s and the sack of Rome in 1527. The High Renaissance is characterised by familiarity with ancient Greek and Roman architectural vocabulary. Its main exponent in architecture was Donato Bramante. intercolumniaeʊspace between the column shafts in a colonnade or peripteros. Latin Cross shapeʊused for a cruciform building with arms in a different length (long nave, short transept) and meeting at right angles. leseneʊpilaster strip, low-relief pilaster without capital or base. loggiaʊhallway (gallery or corridor) that is open only to one side. Mannerismʊstyle in art and architecture that is said to have started with the sack of Rome (1527). The (modern) term originates with the Italian word “maniera”, meaning style. martyriumʊa memorial church built over the location of martyrdom or burial of a Christian saint, for example the Tempietto at San Pietro in Montorio, Rome. naveʊpart of a Christian basilica, running from the entrance on the western end to the crossing, often flanked by aisles with a lower roof from which it is separated by a colonnade. ogivalʊpointed arch oratoryʊa place in which to hold spiritual exercises that combine sermons and music and were to become highly influential on the development of the musical oratorio. In the 1630s, the Oratory of Saint Philip Neri was built by Francesco Borromini in Rome next to the order’s mother church. ordersʊfive architectural orders of ancient architecture, see also columns. pedimentʊarchitectural element above a frame or lintel, either triangular or segmental. pendentivesʊinverted, concave, triangles inserted as connections between a square building support and the circular drum of a dome. peripterosʊrows of columns that surround an ancient temple on all four sides with a portico; also dipteros with a colonnade on two sides and pseudo-peripteros where the columns are not freestanding but engaged (half columns).

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pietra serenaʊdark grey Florentine Macigno stone from Fiesole used for architectural elements in contrast with the white stucco on the walls, for example Brunelleschi’s Old Sacristy at the church of San Lorenzo. pilasterʊclassical architectural element, like a flattened column that follows the same orders as the three-dimensional columns but has lost its structural role while being used as a purely decorative element. pinnaclesʊspiky counterweights set on top of turrets and flying buttresses that add to the height and emphasise the vertical on mainly northern Gothic church buildings. Ornamental and structural at the same time, they allow the flying buttresses to take the weight from the church roof and sidewalls safely down to the ground. predellaʊbase of an altarpiece, consisting of panels decorated with scenes that relate to the history depicted on the main panel. presbyteriumʊthe part of a church reserved for the officiating clergy. pulpitʊspeaker’s stand in a church, occasionally outside. There may be two pulpits, for the reading of the gospel and of the epistles respectively, distributed on opposite sides of the nave. In pre-Tridentine churches (i.e. churches built before the Council of Trent, 1545-1563) the ornate pulpit is usually found in the back of the nave (either on the left or the right of the congregation), since the existence of a rood screen would otherwise have cut the audience off from the delivery of the sermons. Renaissanceʊera and style in art, architecture, music and literature generally defined as a rediscovery of ancient art and knowledge, c.1250 to 1650, and subdivided into Early Renaissance, Renaissance, High Renaissance and Mannerism. This period is also often referred to as Early Modern and considered an era of many technical, medical, political and scientific innovations, for example printing with movable letters. refectoryʊlarge room that is part of monastic (later also university) architecture for the taking of meals by the monks and generally decorated with a depiction of the Last Supper. revetmentsʊgenerally a vertical structure to re-clothe or cover. In church architecture, it refers to a decorative façade made from coloured marble such as, for example, Alberti’s 1458 façade for Santa Maria Novella. rilievo schiacciatoʊ“squashed relief” as used by Donatello for the predella panel for his Saint George at Orsanmichele. A relief prepared with extremely shallow carving throughout.

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rood screen (tramezzo)ʊrichly ornamented partition between nave and choir space, separating the congregation from the monks and the high altar, also called tramezzo, choir screen or chancel screen. It was a normal feature of Christian churches up to the time of the Council of Trent when such screens were removed from Catholic churches, while often being retained in Protestant parts of Europe, when such churches were transformed according to the new liturgy and customs. sacristyʊused for keeping sacred vessels used during mass and also the vestments worn by the priest during the service, although they can also be stored in a separate vestiary/vestry. In many churches, the sacristy is a space separate from the church proper. There are examples, such as in San Lorenzo, in which the term sacristy is used for buildings that have lost their original functions to become funerary chapels, as is the case for the Old and New Sacristy. sanctuaryʊthe space around the main altar, enclosed by an altar rail, also referred to as chancel. side chapel(s)ʊchapels within a church building, for example the Lady Chapel, usually located along the transept arms or along the aisles. The simplest form of a side chapel is a side altar with altarpiece and tabernacle frame. sinopiaʊan underdrawing for a fresco executed in sinopia, a reddish brown pigment. socleʊprojecting architectural element at the foot of a wall or underneath the base of a column. tabernacleʊlocked storage vessel for the consecrated host, sometimes located in a niche (aediculum). The term is also used for a framed niche displaying painted or sculpted images of saints. transeptʊthe (shorter) arm of a church that crosses the main nave either in a Latin or Greek cross shape. The place where the two meet is called the crossing and is located between the sanctuary and nave proper; it may be crowned by a tower or vault/dome. tribunaʊoriginally a raised platform for the delivery of speeches during the Roman Republic, the tribuna became, like the basilica, an architectural type that was adopted for Christian liturgical buildings. It exists either in the form of a raised apse (San Miniato al Monte) or of a round or octagonal addition to a church building (SS Annunziata in Florence and

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Santa Maria delle Grazie in Milan). A secular variant in the form of a temple to the arts is the Tribuna of the Uffizi Gallery. Tuscan Romanesqueʊmediaeval style that refers back to classical antiquity while combining typical elements of ancient and Byzantine art and architecture. Occasionally mistaken by Renaissance architects for examples from classical times, e.g. in the case of the Florentine Baptistery or the church of San Miniato al Monte. tympanon or tympanumʊsemi-circular or triangular architectural element containing sculptural decoration on the outside of a church building. Influenced by classical architecture such as the Pantheon, tympana are generally located high up on a church’s façade and above the main door. wall bracketsʊarchitectural elements that project from a wall and give structural support to a statue, shelf or spring of an arch or vault. In a bay two of the structural columns may be substituted by two brackets if the resulting loggia is open to one side only. vaultʊarched ceiling or roof for an architectural space such as nave or aisles, for example a dome, barrel vault, groin vauilt, rib vault or fan vault.

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

First and foremost, I would like to thank my former colleagues Susan Madocks Lister and Elena Paolucci for their original suggestion that I write this book on Florentine churches in English for students of Florentine architectural history. It has been a pleasure to try to fill such an obvious gap and I hope this volume will be useful to students past and present. Once the project got underway, it became clear very quickly that I would need help and advice in many ways and in many places. I was fortunate enough to be able to impose on many friends, colleagues and former students of mine and to pick their brains. Irene Campolmi, Vieri Giorgetti and my brother Alexander Gáldy kindly helped with the search for information whenever I was kept away from the libraries by other duties. I would also like to thank Warwick Lister and Susan Madocks Lister, Rose Ann Bell, Carolyn Murin, Anne Harber and Stuart Handley for reading different versions of the manuscript of the present book. I am also deeply grateful to architect Sara Cecconi for her efforts in producing the plans used in this book. It has been our intention to provide essential plans in order to draw the readers’ eyes to shapes, forms, and spaces. As far as the photo illustrations for this book are concerned, Carolyn Murin and Vieri Giorgetti were most helpful in taking countless photos of church façades and in trying to find out when scaffolding, that very necessary but nonetheless annoying blight on an architectural historian’s life, would finally come down. Finally, I wish to thank CSP and its wonderful staff for accepting this project and for showing patience and forbearance during its completion, when work was interrupted by other projects and a number of family crises. I would like to thank in particular Amanda Millar who has been a remarkably kind and helpful editor to work with on a number of projects. I would also like to thank her and Courtney Blades for this beautifully presented book.

FOREWORD

There are forty foure Parish Churches, twelve Priories, seventie six Monasteries of men and women, and thirtie seven Hospitals. There be religious people of all sorts 24,000. so many of other as make the whole number 90,000. In the Cloisters of the Church of San Lorenzo is a very faire and beautifull Librarie, built and furnished with Bookes by the familie of Medici: the roofe is of Cedar very curiously wrought with knots and flowers, and right under each knot is the same wrought with no less Art in the pavement. —Robert Dallington 1605, 11-2

This book is a compendium of the main churches in Florence. It has been written with two distinct audiences in mind: English-speaking students of Renaissance art, architecture, literature and history and the well-read traveller to Florence who wishes to place the works of art and architecture into the wider context of Italian culture. Churches and palaces in Florence have of course been the subject matter of book-length, often multi-volume studies over the centuries, but these were written for a different kind of audience, possibly less itinerant, and with a different approach to information gathering. Recent publications on Florentine churches, moreover, tend to be coffeetable books, often translated from other languages, or they are highly specialised studies of single churches or architectural eras. This volume, while not competing in any way with guide books, is meant to be a text book that offers concise information on the history, art, and architecture of 25 of the main Florentine churches, to provide plans and photos of the façades, and to introduce the student to some of the most important vocabulary and to the main textual sources of the thirteenth to the seventeenth centuries.

For this reason, the choice of buildings and works of art has been limited to those the students will most likely encounter in their classes and projects, while the literature cited as sources and in the bibliography is mostly in English and of the kind likely to be available in their study libraries.

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Therefore, it is hoped that this book will be a valuable companion to students and teachers of Florentine history, art history, and architectural history as well as appeal to those engaged in Italian studies. Florence, November 2015

INTRODUCTION

Today’s visitors to Florence, whether they are students or tourists, foreign or Italian, are as struck by the church of Santa Maria del Fiore, also known as Florence Cathedral or the Duomo, as anyone else who approached the city during the past five centuries. Filippo Brunelleschi’s dome floating over the red-tiled roofs of the city is still as impressive as when it finally put an end to the malicious gossip of neighbouring cities such as Siena and Pisa whose citizens were clearly expecting the new cathedral never to be finished properly.1 Only a few decades later, in 1478, the Pazzi conspiracy took place within the cathedral. As the murderous attempt on the lives of Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici unfolded, those present compared the enormity of what they were witnessing to what they imagined to be the effect of the dome crashing down.2 Next to the Duomo, the beautiful Baptistery dedicated to the Florentine patron, Saint John the Baptist, was considered to be of legendary age, perhaps as old as the Roman city of Florentia.3 It might even once have been a temple of the god of war, Mars, whose equestrian statue would then have dominated the building and the skyline of the ancient castrum, the square mile of Roman Florence.4 Stories such these have been told for centuries and they raise our curiosity about the buildings, their architecture, about particular monuments inside and on the façades and about historical events that may have taken place inside or near the churches. In many cases, we can directly listen to the voices of Florentines, by birth and by choice, whose

1

On the history of the Dome see: Murray 1969 and 1986 (2004), 31-7; Schneider Adams 2001, 66-8; Hartt and Wilkins 2011, 164-8; for a narrative account, King 2000. 2 Martines 2003, 116. 3 Florentia was the name of the ancient city of Florence, founded either in the days of Julius Caesar or of the Emperor Augustus. The latter was the thesis approved under Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici (1519-1574) and displayed in the ceiling decoration of the Hall of the 500 in the Palazzo Vecchio. 4 On the Foundation panel, Gáldy 2005, 45-6 and Gáldy 2009, 16-8.

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testimonies have survived in the form of chronicles, documents, poetry, or art historical accounts over seven centuries or more.5 In fact, in Florence visual and literary evidence related to church architecture can be studied virtually in tandem from the middle of the thirteenth to the nineteenth century. A substantial number of buildings go back, at least in part, to late antiquity and to the mediaeval period. Archaeological investigation has brought to light a growing body of evidence regarding previously existing buildings and their substructures, the possible change of use, urban planning, and an impressive building boom from around the middle of the thirteenth century onwards.6 Anyone interested in the history of Florentine church architecture might expect the majority of buildings to have been erected in the fifteenth century, during the time of the Renaissance as celebrated by authors such as Giorgio Vasari or Jacob Burkhardt.7 A number of the most famous churches were indeed constructed or rebuilt and restored by renowned architects of this period, for example by Michelozzo Michelozzi and by Filippo Brunelleschi. Nonetheless, the majority of the main churches of the city go back to the first 50 or so years of the Florentine Republic and were, therefore, built in Tuscan Romanesque or Gothic style or a mixture of the two.8 Typically, Florentine church architecture has decorated façades, whether in coloured marble or golden sandstone, which were often added much later or experienced several stages of construction until completion.9 In some cases, such as the church of San Lorenzo, although commissions were given at some point in their history, the building’s bare front wall is still waiting for a beautiful set of revetments. While in the north of Europe, large Gothic cathedrals with high, narrow naves and a filigree network of supporting buttresses outside were the norm during the late mediaeval period, this style was imitated in Italy but never completely accepted by architects and masons. The Tuscan 5

See among other sources Dante Alighieri’s Divina Commedia (1308-1321), Giovanni Villani’s Nuova Cronica (c.1300 to 1348), and Giorgio Vasari’s Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects (editions of 1550 and of 1568). 6 Toker 1974, 2010, 2013 and forthcoming in 2016; Campbell and Cole 2012, 539. 7 Vasari’s Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors and Architects, Jacob Burkhardt’s Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy (1860). 8 For example Santa Maria Novella, Santa Croce, Santa Maria del Fiore: Murray 1969 and 1986 (2004), 21-7; Schneider Adams 2001, 21-2; Hartt and Wilkins 2011, 64-70. 9 For example Florence cathedral or Santa Maria Novella: Murray 1969 and 1986 (2004), 28 and 56-8; Schneider Adams 2001, 64-6, 159-60.

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Romanesque style, as used for the church of San Miniato al Monte, with its clean outside lines and coloured marble revetments that seemed to recall ancient models, was less fussy and therefore more pleasing to Italian eyes. As a result, even in cases such as the construction of Milan Cathedral, easily recognisable as Gothic through its profusion of pinnacles and buttresses, the church is essentially Gothic only up to a point as the result of the modifications to its shape and layout wrought by the masons and workmen engaged in its construction.10 Even though the Northern Gothic style progressed south, driven by the creation of new monastic orders that needed new churches, such as the Dominicans and the Franciscans,11 Gothic features were almost invariably tempered by a Romanesque simplicity of line and an emphasis of the horizontal versus the vertical. Santa Maria Novella in Florence is a good example of this early and successful fusion of different styles. The large church was erected in the mid-thirteenth century for the Dominican order; the congregation was large and the sermons of the friars drew a considerable audience. People attending mass were standing up or kneeling on the floor and we must not forget that a large and richly adorned rood screen (tramezzo) divided the main part of the church open to the laity from the choir dedicated to the clergy. The church building was in most cases attached to a monastery. Therefore, a large number of side chapels needed to be available to the monks who were supposed to celebrate mass once a day and such chapels were often distributed around the transept and on either side of the sanctuary/choir. Typically, for churches built before the Counter-reformation, the pulpit was set back in the main nave so that the congregation could follow the sermons without difficulty.12 During the Counter-reformation, rood screens were frequently removed from Catholic church buildings but stayed in place in Protestant countries. They can serve as a reminder of how much the lay audience was cut off from the sacramental events celebrated at the altar. While Romanesque and Gothic churches were built mostly in what is usually called the Latin Cross shape, combining a long nave (often but not always with aisles) with a shorter transept, Renaissance architects such as Filippo Brunelleschi and Leon Battista Alberti were introducing a greater 10

On the Milanese Duomo: Murray 1969 and 1986 (2004), 16; Kleiner 2010, 214; Campbell and Cole 2012, 54-5. 11 On the new religious orders: Murray 1969 and 1986 (2004), 16-7; Schneider Adams 2001, 13-4. 12 Hall 1979, in particular Chapter I, “Church Renovation in a CounterReformation Context”, 1-15.

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variety of forms and shapes. They also experimented with a number of innovations that were inspired by their greater familiarity with ancient Roman buildings both through Latin texts such as Vitruvius’s Ten Books on Architecture that had been rediscovered at the monastic library of Saint Gall and through the in-depth study of Roman remains.13 Even though their approach to the revival of classical architecture was not identical ʊmore practical in Brunelleschi’s case, more theoretical but also more original in Alberti’sʊboth architects and their followers changed church architecture to something more akin to what classical architecture would have been like. This endeavour was, however, not without its difficulties, since Christian liturgy required a radically different architecture for its ceremonies than had been the case for classical temples. The basilica shape mostly adopted for Christian churches from the fourth century onwards had drawn inspiration from a classical secular model, rather than classical temple architecture, even though many ancient temples were transformed into Christian churches after the Constantinian Edict of Toleration (319AD). Alberti continued this tradition and used triumphal arches, baths, and even the Colosseum as models for his (church) façades.14 Hence, an architect such as Brunelleschi could use classical orders for the column capitals and introduce the module (half the diameter of a column) as the measure of all things, even though he (like his colleagues) was building Christian churches and not pagan temples. In fact, fifteenthcentury architects, more often than not, were attempting to go back to the earliest forms of Christian church architecture from late antiquity when both religions existed side by side (if not altogether peacefully) and shared an artistic and architectural language.15 They frequently may have mistaken the Romanesque for the Roman in their quest to return to an early Christian purity of line and spirituality; it is unlikely that a strictly archaeological reconstruction or imitation of ancient buildings was ever their intention. Although Brunelleschi, Michelozzo, and Alberti were aware of the five orders of classical architecture (Doric, Ionic, Corinthian, Tuscan and Composite), it would take time for them to adopt these correctly in a

13

Poggio Bracciolini: Murray 1969 and 1986 (2004), 53; Filippo Brunelleschi and Leonbattista Alberti in Rome: Murray 1969 and 1986 (2004), 31, 44-7 and 51-2. 14 As examples may serve: the Tempio Malatestiano, Sant Andrea, San Sebastiano; Murray 1969 and 1986 (2004), 54-6 and 58-62; Schneider Adams 2001, 171-3, 256-60. 15 On early Christian visual language: Kleiner 2010, 121-39.

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classical Roman sense.16 Even Brunelleschi with his close experience of classical remains in Rome and his practical experience as an engineer was prone to introduce dosserets between his column capitals and the archivolts he tended to combine with them. Dosserets were a typical feature of Byzantine architecture and a classical Roman architect would never have crowned a row of columns with anything but a straight architrave, yet both these elements could be observed on buildings such as the Florentine Baptistery and the façade of San Miniato. In particular, the Baptistery with its already-mentioned legendary history of having been a temple of Mars sparked the imagination of Florentine historians, poets, antiquarians and architects alike, renewing the interest in centrally planned churches that had once been used in early Christian times to mark a spot of martyrdom or burial. Several examples existed in Rome, for example the Mausoleum of Santa Costanza.17 By the end of the fifteenth century this was the kind of church building that architects such as Brunelleschi (Santa Maria degli Angeli, unfinished, today the language learning centre of Florence University)18 or Bramante (Tempietto at San Pietro in Montorio, Rome, 1502)19 liked to design, even though its shape and size was not appropriate for a parish or monastic church. It may have been the challenge to devise such a building from the exciting liminal centuries of early Christianity and make it fit with the more developed liturgy and devotional practices of the growing urban population that spurred them on. The most ambitious of these projects was no doubt Bramante’s plan for a new Saint Peter’s, by which the largest church of Christendom was conceived as a huge memorial crowning the grave of Saint Peter. That depends on whether we accept that Michelangelo’s revised plans, later to be changed once again, were indeed founded on Bramante’s original ideas. Radical, ambitious, and lofty though these plans may have been, by the seventeenth century Carlo Maderno would be commissioned to add a long nave for the more conventional return to a basilica shape more appropriate to the church’s 16 On classical orders see Schneider Adams 2001, 71 and Kleiner 2010, 59 and 102-3; for example, the Tuscan order was used correctly at Bramante’s Tempietto of San Pietro in Montorio: Murray 1969 and 1986 (2004), 126-7. 17 Centrally planned churches in Rome, e.g. Pantheon and Mausoleum of Santa Costanza: Kleiner 2010, 106-10 and 127-8. 18 Santa Maria degli Angeli in Florence; Murray 1969 and 1986 (2004), 46-7; Schneider Adams 2001, 74-5. 19 On the Tempietto and Saint Peter’s: Murray 1969 and 1986 (2004), 123-7 and 131-7; Schneider Adams 2001, 330-5; Hartt and Wilkins 2011, 491-3; Campbell and Cole 2012, 575-7.

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functions. Thus, at the beginning of the Baroque era, this brave age of architectural experimentation came to an end and decoration ceased to be the side effect of structural development to become an ever richer and more dramatic, if unnecessary ornamental afterthought.20

20 Starting with Alberti and developed further with Raphael’s palazzi; see Murray 1969 and 1986 (2004), 53-4, 143-8; for Bernini: Kleiner 2010, 292-6.

NOTE ON ACCESS AND OPENING HOURS

All of the churches discussed in this book are still consecrated and most follow the customs and opening hours of working parish churches. That means that entrance is free in many cases but access is restricted to some hours on most mornings and occasionally in the afternoon. Visits are not allowed during mass and other religious services, i.e. usually on Sundays and on Saturday evening as well as on Florentine and church holidays. Opening hours may change at short notice and more than one attempt to gain access may be necessary. Visitors have to follow rules of decorum in their dress and behaviour. Photography, even without flash, is not always permitted. Florence Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore still has free access to the main church building but carries a fee for visits to the dome, the bell tower, the ramparts, the crypt of Santa Reparata as well as to the Baptistery of San Giovanni and the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo. For more information please visit http://operaduomo.firenze.it/en. Some of the churches (Ognissanti, Orsanmichele, San Marco, Santa Maria del Carmine, Santa Maria dei Pazzi) have free access but require payment of a fee to visit chapels and museums. Others (for example San Lorenzo http://www.operamedicealaurenziana.org/, San Miniato al Monte http://www.sanminiatoalmonte.it/, the basilica of Santa Croce http://www. santacroceopera.it/en/default.aspx, and Santa Maria Novella http://www. chiesasantamarianovella.it/en) may be visited for a fee but usually have a space reserved for quiet devotion. The entrance ticket sometimes also includes access to museums and chapels not freely accessible from the nave. It is possible to pre-book tickets for an extra fee to the Cappelle Medicee (San Lorenzo), the museum of Orsanmichele, the museum of San Marco and the Cenacolo of Ognissanti via the website of the Polo Museale at https://www.polomuseale.firenze.it/en/index.php. The same site also allows booking of tickets for the Uffizi and the Accademia Gallery. To visit the Brancacci chapel (Santa Maria del Carmine) it is possible to book tickets over the phone: +490552768224 and through http://museicivicifiorentini.comune.fi.it/en/index.html. Up to 30 visitors are allowed to enter the chapel at any one time. The maximum viewing period of the frescoes is 15 minutes.

SOURCES

Albertini, Francesco. Memorial of Many Statues and Paintings in the Illustrious City of Florence (1510). A critical edition with annotations by Waldemar H. de Boer. Edited by Michael W. Kwakkelstein. Florence, Centro Di, 2010. All citations with the kind permission of the editors and the publisher. Alighieri, Dante. The Vision of Hell, Purgatory, and Paradise by Dante Alighieri. Illustrated by Gustave Dore, translated by the Rev. H.F. Cary, M.A. Cassel & Company: London, Paris and Melbourne, 1892. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/8789/8789-h/8789-h.htm http://www.gutenberg.org/files/8795/8795-h/8795-h.htm http://www.gutenberg.org/files/8799/8799-h/8799-h.htm Gutenberg Project Release: #8789, #8795, #8799 Baldinucci, Filippo. Notizie dei Professori del Disegno da Cimabue in qua. Reprint of the edition Ranalli (Florence 1845-1847). Edited by Paola Barocchi with an Index by Antonio Boschetto, 7 vols. Florence: SPES, 1974. Bocchi, Francesco. The Beauties of the City of Florence. A Guidebook of 1591. Introduced, translated and annotated by Thomas Frangenberg and Robert Williams. Harvey Miller Publishers and Brepols: London and Turnhout, 2006. All citations with the kind permission of the editors and the publisher. Bocchi, Francesco and Giovanni Cinelli. Le bellezze della città di Firenze, dove a pieno di pittura, di scultura, di sacri templi, di palazzi, i più notabili artifizj, e più preziosi si contengono. Ampliate ed accresciute. Florence: Giovanni Gugliantini, 1677. https://archive.org/details/lebellezzedellac00bocc Burckhardt, Jacob. The Civilisation of the Renaissance in Italy. Authorised translation by Samuel George Chetwynd Middlemore. London and New York: George Allen & Unwin, Ltd and The Macmillan Company, 1890. https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2074/2074-h/2074-h.htm Gutenberg Project Release: #2074

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Richa, Giuseppe. Notizie istoriche delle chiese fiorentine, divise ne' suoi quartieri. Florence: P.G. Viviani, 1754-1762. Bayerische StaatsBibliothek digital: MDZ http://www.muenchenerdigitalisierungszentrum.de Santa Croce I: http://www.mdz-nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn=urn:nbn:de:bvb: 12-bsb10005510-5 II: http://www.mdz-nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn=urn:nbn:de:bvb: 12-bsb10005511-1 Santa Maria Novella III: http://www.mdz-nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn=urn:nbn:de:bvb: 12-bsb10005512-6 IV: http://www.mdz-nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn=urn:nbn:de:bvb :12-bsb10005513-1 San Giovanni V: http://www.mdz-nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn=urn:nbn:de:bvb: 12-bsb10005514-7 VI: http://www.mdz-nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn=urn:nbn:de:bvb :12-bsb10005515-2 VII: http://www.mdz-nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn=urn:nbn:de:bv b:12-bsb10005516-7 VIII: http://www.mdz-nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn=urn:nbn:de: bvb:12-bsb10005517-3 Santo Spirito IX: http://www.mdz-nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn=urn:nbn:de:bvb :12-bsb10005518-8 X: http://www.mdz-nbn-resolving.de/urn/resolver.pl?urn=urn:nbn:de:bvb: 12-bsb10005519-8 Vasari, Giorgio. Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors and Architects by Giorgio Vasari translated by Gaston du C. De Vere. This is a 10-volume translation of Vasari's biographies of Italian artists, issued in London by Macmillan and the Medici Society between 1912 and 1915. http://onlinebooks.library.upenn.edu/webbin/metabook?id=livespainters Project Gutenberg Release: #25326, #25759, #26860, #28420, #28421, #28422, #31845, #31938, #32362, #33203 Villani, Giovanni. Villani's Chronicle. Being Selections from the First Nine Books of the Croniche Fiorentine of Giovanni Villani. Archibald Constable & Co: London, 1906. Editor: Philip H. Wicksteed et al. http://www.gutenberg.org/files/33022/33022-h/33022-h.htm Project Gutenberg Release: #33022

CHAPTER ONE THE BAPTISTERY SAN GIOVANNI BATTISTA

Piazza San Giovanni. Ticket office: Centro Arte e Cultura, Piazza San Giovanni 7, opposite North Doors, for more information visit: http://conventionbureau.it/servizio/it/meeting-planner-guide/sedi-storiche-e-altrelocation/opa-centro-arte-e-cultura.shtml.

History The Florentine Baptistery (Fig. 1 a) is dedicated to Saint John the Baptist; it forms part of the religious centre of Florence in Piazza San Giovanni and Piazza Duomo, consisting of Florence Cathedral, called Santa Maria del Fiore, the Bell Tower (campanile), the Archbishop’s Palace and the Baptistery, in which all Florentine children of Christian families used to be baptised. The Baptistery is one of the oldest churches in Florence and probably goes back to late Antiquity (fourth-sixth century). Excavations conducted in the area have brought to light remains of Roman buildings that at the time would have been just inside the Roman city walls of Florentia (i.e. part of the first-century BC foundation of ancient Florence). The first Baptistery may have used part of the foundations of these buildings or the structure of a watchtower of the Roman walls that cut across the present Piazza San Giovanni. To see the remains of a watchtower one needs to walk down Via del Proconsolo and look out for the circular shape laid out in bright metal in the street. Slightly to the North, excavated remains are visible through the glass floor in a fashion boutique (at the corner with Via Dante Alighieri). The current Baptistery building underwent several stages of construction and embellishments, while maintaining for the Florentines close ties to Saint John, patron saint of Florence (feast day 24 June), and to a classical tradition that links it to the Roman world. For Renaissance Florentines the Baptistery was tangible proof of the great age and importance of their city, for not only did one have to

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descend into the Baptistery, which showed how much the ground had risen during the intervening centuries, its shape and architecture reminded antiquarians of coins from the age of Emperor Augustus. The name of ancient baths dedicated to the god of war, Mars, the balneum Martis, may have given rise to the long-lived legend of a Temple of Mars being in existence on this spot in the first century BC. A reconstruction of this centrally planned temple, with its rather unlikely statue of Mars on horseback displayed on top of a tall central column inside, was later included in the pictorial representation of the Foundation of Florence under the second Roman triumvirate. It is displayed on the raised ceiling panels of the Salone dei Cinquecento in the Palazzo Vecchio (Giorgio Vasari et al., completed 1565). The Baptistery is mentioned in many literary sources (such as chronicles and poetry) from the fourteenth-century onwards, for example in the works of Dante Alighieri and Giovanni Villani; the latter, incidentally, seems to have been responsible for the myth of the Temple of Mars. It is also discussed in the sixteenth-century antiquarian works of Pierfrancesco Gelli and Gian Battista Giambullari, both of whom wrote about the origins of Florence and the ancient history of their city. The most balanced account of Roman Florentia based on the available material culture can probably be found in the Discorsi of Vincenzo Borghini, head of the Spedale degli Innocenti, an orphanage financed by the guild of silk weavers and importers (that curiously also included goldsmiths such as Filippo Brunelleschi). Borghini was a close friend of Vasari, the painter and architect, and advised him on many of his projects, for example on the ceiling decoration in the Salone dei Cinquecento. The present Baptistery was built between 1059 and 1128 and is probably its third incarnation. Previous octagonal Christian churches on this site were erected in the fourth/fifth and in the sixth century, the latter probably commissioned by Queen Theodelinda to commemorate the conversion of her husband the Lombard king, Authari. Today’s San Giovanni is probably Florence’s second oldest Christian church, constructed after Saint Ambrose’s foundation of San Lorenzo north of the Roman city walls (chapter 11) and before the basilica of Santa Reparata on the site of the Florentine Cathedral (chapter 2). It was first mentioned in documents of the late ninth century in connection with a visit of the imperial count palatine in the year 897 (the document is mentioned by Vincenzo Borghini in his Discorsi). The particular importance of the Florentine Baptistery and of its titular saint, Saint John the Baptist, is reflected in the decorative programme

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executed between the fourteenth and sixteenth centuries, when three sets of bronze doors (Fig. 1 c) and groups of marble and bronze statues were designed and executed by the city’s leading artists.

Figure 1 a: Façade of the Florentine Baptistery, the church of San Giovanni Battista (photo: Vieri Giorgetti [VG]).

Architecture The Baptistery is octagonal in shape (Fig. 1 b) and covered by a pavilion dome with octagonal lantern (c.1150). Originally built from sandstone, the revetments were added in coloured marble: white marble from Carrara and green marble from Prato. The building is in the typical Tuscan Romanesque style with geometrical patterns. The future architect of Santa Maria del Fiore, Arnolfo di Cambio, embellished the corner pilasters with green and white stripes in 1293. Many of the marble elements consist of spolia from ancient buildings in Florence and from nearby Fiesole, conquered by Florence in the eleventh century. The octagonal shape is typical for baptistery buildings in Tuscany and beyond. Important early Christian examples still exist in Constantinople, Rome, Milan and Ravenna, e.g. the Lateran Baptistery (fourth century) next to the basilica of Saint John Lateran, Rome. The Florentine Baptistery was built during a period of economic growth and political change in the Florentine commune that witnessed the rise of the popolo and a new civic

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consciousness. San Giovanni was consecrated in 1059 by Pope Nicholas II (Gérard de Bourgogne, formerly archbishop of Florence, who died in Florence in 1061) and dedicated to the city’s patron saint. The façade is divided into three horizontal sections, containing large bronze doors and pilasters on the lowest register, three blind arches that each contain a window in the central fascia, and three small windows in the centre of a three-panel design in the upper fascia. The windows of the central band have alternating segmental and triangular pediments. The interior façade is divided into eight vertical sections by columns and pilasters, which are surmounted by a second tier with an ambulatory and crowned by the octagonal dome. The great age of this church and its alleged ancient origins as a Temple of Mars made it an important and influential architectural model for the creations of fifteenth-century architects such as Filippo Brunelleschi and Leon Battista Alberti. In particular, Brunelleschi’s first purely Renaissancestyle building, the loggia of the Foundling Hospital (Ospedale degli Innocenti, 1418-1424) owes much to the Baptistery’s rounded blind arches and dormer windows crowned with pediments.

Figure 1 b: Plan of the Florentine Baptistery (plan: Sara Cecconi [SC]).

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Art Although not an ancient temple as believed by the Florentines up to the sixteenth century and beyond, the Baptistery consists largely of Roman spolia such as granite pilasters from the Roman forum of ancient Florence (situated under today’s Piazza della Repubblica). The Baptistery was originally surrounded by a cemetery that occupied the space between San Giovanni and Santa Reparata (the predecessor of Santa Maria del Fiore) and later extended around the new Cathedral. In this cemetery, Florentine citizens were buried in re-used ancient sarcophagi, examples of which are still preserved in the Cathedral Museum (Museo dell’Opera del Duomo) near Santa Maria del Fiore. Roman sarcophagi also adorn the outside of the Baptistery together with two porphyry columns flanking the Gates of Paradise (Fig 1 c); these were loot from Majorca given as booty by the Pisans in return for help during the Balearic wars (1114). Since the building has strong symbolic ties to Florentine civic selfesteem and to the city’s government (Republic of Florence from 1250), the presence of sculpted lions (the Florentine Marzocco) is not altogether surprising, nor is the civic involvement with the artistic commissions for this building. Perhaps the most important works of art were commissioned during the fourteenth and fifteenth century, when three sets of bronze doors were ordered by the Arte di Calimala (wool refiners’ guild) that was also responsible for the building of the new, large cathedral opposite. A major, politically important assignment was a set of bronze doors for the eastern façade of the Baptistery, facing the Cathedral across a space called Paradise. In total, three sets of panels were executed by two different artists. The first were the doors commissioned from Andrea Pisano in 1329 for the eastern side of the Baptistery. Completed by 1336 they show scenes from the life of Saint John the Baptist in 20 quatrefoil panels, starting in the upper left corner and finishing in the lower right. The bottom eight panels show seated female allegories of the theological and cardinal virtues: Faith, Hope and Charity plus Humility, Fortitude, Temperance, Justice and Prudence, each with her Latin name inscribed on the panel. The casts were executed by the Venetian bronze smith Lorenzo d’Avanzano. This set of doors adorned the eastern entrance to the Baptistery as the original Gates of Paradise but was moved to the south side on completion of the third set by Lorenzo Ghiberti in 1452. The moulded door case of this first set was designed and added by Ghiberti on this occasion. An inscription states that “Andreas Ugolini Nini de Pisis me

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fecit A.D. MCCCXXX” (Andrea Pisano made me in the year of our Lord 1330).

Figure 1 c: Bronze Door, Ghiberti’s final Gates of Paradise (1425-1452). This modern copy is now in situ, while the original is displayed in the Opera del Duomo Museum (photo: VG).

Andrea Pisano was a contemporary of the painter Giotto di Bondone and worked with him on the bell tower and relief decorations of Florence Cathedral. His bronze door panels are influenced by Giotto’s new protoRenaissance style in painting. The natural rendition of the human body, including human emotions and revealing body language as well as elements of nature or architecture firmly anchor each scene in the here and now and constitute an important break with the mediaeval artistic traditions of Byzantine religious painting.

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In 1401, a contest for a second set of doors (today’s North Doors) was held by the Arte di Calimala. Filippo Brunelleschi and Lorenzo Ghiberti competed as finalists. They were asked to create trial panels on the topic of Abraham sacrificing his only legitimate son Isaac, for the new doors were supposed to depict scenes from the Old Testament in quatrefoil frames, matching Andrea Pisano’s original East Doors. Although the trial panels are displayed to this day in the National Sculpture Museum of the Bargello, there exist several versions of the trial’s outcome. Perhaps it was a tie, but it is also said that Ghiberti’s panel won, since it presented a more realistic, if less dramatic composition and managed to do so by casting the entire panel (with the exception of the figure of Isaac) in one piece, using less bronze than Brunelleschi who had cast his panel in seven pieces. From 1403 to 1424, Ghiberti went on to create 28 panels with scenes from the Life of Christ on the upper 20 panels, the narrative running from the lower left to the upper rightʊstarting with the Annunciation and ending with the Passion of Christ. The originally chosen theme of Old Testament scenes had by then been discarded. The North Door’s eight lowest panels show seated portraits of the four Evangelists (Mark, Matthew, Luke and John) and of the four Latin Fathers of the Church (Augustine, Jerome, Ambrose and Gregory). Although the panels and their composition were supposed to match Andrea Pisano’s doors, Ghiberti included on the frames highly naturalistic depictions of plants and animals as well as prophets and sibyls and human portraits, including his own. Even though Ghiberti needed to model his composition on Andrea Pisano’s door, one can easily recognise the greater freedom and natural expression, plus the influence of classical art of which the sculptor was a collector. Meanwhile Brunelleschi had left for Rome in the company of his friend Donatello to study the eternal city’s ancient architectural remains and to receive the necessary training that would eventually enable him to fulfil his most celebrated commission for Florence Cathedral. Completed in 1424, Ghiberti’s first set of gilded bronze doors replaced Andrea Pisano’s doors on the east side. These were eventually substituted by the third set (Ghiberti’s second, Fig. 1 c) commissioned in 1425. While there seems to be no doubt about Ghiberti’s winning the commission this time, he apparently was involved in another tie with Brunelleschi over the prestigious project of the Cathedral’s dome. In any case, Ghiberti and his collaborators Michelozzo and Benozzo Gozzoli worked on the East Doors for 27 years until their completion in 1452.

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The third and final set constitutes a return to earlier plans, given the choice of Old Testament scenes depicted on the square gilded bronze panels. Ghiberti made a clean break from the formal restrictions of the earlier doors: rather than 28 panels, he created ten larger ones, running from the upper left to the lower right with scenes ranging from Genesis to the Song of Songs. Nine of the ten panels show multiple events from the same narrative, while only the last one, depicting the Queen of Sheba meeting King Solomon, represents one single event. There are no artificial borders delineated by mediaeval quatrefoil frames, rather, the figures are cast in such high relief that they seem to be tumbling out of the panels. The ten panels are inserted into a doorframe decorated with plants and animals interspersed with portrait busts. On each side of the frame are statuettes of prophets. In creating these reliefs, Ghiberti could avail himself of a new technique created by his rival Brunelleschi a few years earlier and first demonstrated in an experimental depiction of the Baptistery from the Cathedral steps opposite: one point perspective. Ghiberti not only applied its rules but also took into account the respective location of each panel on the two door leaves, making each scene more or less detailed, according to its distance from the viewers’ eyes. He also moved the vanishing point so that it compensated for the angle from which one gazes at the composition. He used diverse kinds of relief that range from the almost threedimensional to squashed relief (rilievo schiacciato as used by Donatello for example in his relief panel underneath the statue of Saint George, Orsanmichele [chapter 22], and now in the Bargello). Thereby, Ghiberti managed to create an illusion of distance that matches in sculpture the haziness (or sfumato) of Masaccio’s frescoes in the contemporaneous Brancacci chapel of Santa Maria del Carmine (chapter 13). One of the most remarkable examples of this new form of sculpture is the panel illustrating the story of Joseph, who was sold into captivity by his brothers. Nonetheless, Joseph rose to power once the Egyptian Pharaoh learned of the young man’s gift for prophesy and decided to follow his advice. The relief shows the narrative, starting with the brothers’ betrayal and ending with Joseph making himself known to his brothers, who had come to Egypt to buy provisions. Each scene is embedded naturally into a multi-layered composition of landscape and architecture that allows the spectator to look into a circular building in the centre and look out beyond into the hills surrounding the city. Vasari praised this panel as the most beautiful and most difficult achievement, part of a masterwork that has attracted much praise over the centuries, perhaps most famously by

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Michelangelo Buonarroti to whom its well-known nickname has been attributed. Whether or not the doors are called Gates of Paradise since Michelangelo claimed that they were beautiful enough to mark the entrance to Paradise or because they faced the paradise, i.e. the space between the Baptistery and the Cathedral steps, may be regarded as a moot point. In any case, Ghiberti was understandably proud of his work. The damage of pollution, the constant vibration of heavy traffic (now deviated and causing damage further north towards Santissima Annunziata [chapter 4]), and the flood of 1966 that ripped the relief panels off the doorframes, meant it was time for the creation of copies. These are now in situ, while the originals are displayed in the Cathedral Museum, when they are not sent out to exhibitions worldwide. Another set of copies can be seen installed at San Francisco’s Grace Cathedral. Each door is crowned by a group of statues on the theme of Saint John the Baptist. The bronze group above the South Doors by Vincenzo Danti was finished in 1571 and shows The Beheading of Saint John, whereas the bronze sculptures above the North Doors are by Francesco Rustici, perhaps assisted by Leonardo da Vinci, and depict Saint John the Baptist Preaching to a Pharisee and a Saducee (1506-1511). The East Doors are adorned by a group depicting The Baptism of Christ begun by Andrea Sansovino and completed by Vincenzo Danti (1569-1576). The figure of an angel was added by Innocenzo Spinazzi in 1792. All three original groups of bronzes are now displayed as part of an installation in the newly reopened Cathedral Museum. The Baptistery’s interior is lit by the small windows of the ambulatory and through the lantern, thus creating a mystical atmosphere akin to that of the Roman Pantheon. The interior façade is clad in green and white marble revetments (second half of the eleventh century) in geometrical patterns with niches separated by columns of granite. The apse was decorated with mosaics in 1225. The pavement, begun in 1209, is covered in complex geometrical stone inlays. As in other churches of this period, for example at San Miniato al Monte (chapter 19), part of the pavement is decorated with the signs of the zodiac. The octagonal font, transferred from the church of Santa Reparata in 1128 (chapter 2), was removed in 1571 at the orders of Gran Principe Francesco I the Medici. A smaller font was placed near the South Doors in 1658. The dome is covered by a splendid mosaic after designs attributed to Cimabue and datable to the 1220s. It was probably completed in the fourteenth century. The mosaics, executed by Venetian craftsmen, depict

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an enormous Last Judgement (Coppo di Marcovaldo), with Christ sending the saved to Paradise and the damned to Hell to be punished in many ways, already presaging later works, for example at Santa Maria Novella (chapter 17). Horizontal tiers present among other scenes choirs of angels, Old-Testament stories from the book of Genesis and the life of Joseph, the New-Testament lives of the Virgin and Jesus as well as the life of Saint John the Baptist. Below the drum, heads of prophets, attributed to Gaddo Gaddi (a friend of Cimabue’s) can be seen. It is likely that Donatello’s wooden Saint Magdalen (Opera del Duomo Museum) was originally created for the Baptistery in c.1454-55. The sculpture, made of poplar, has been connected to the sermons on the significance of repentance after a sinful life of Saint Antoninus, abbot at San Marco (chapter 12) and a close friend of Cosimo the Elder Medici’s. The statue shows a haggard Saint Magdalen, rather different to the lush and beautiful depictions of an unrealistically well-fed and well-groomed female saint contemplating the suffering of Christ in the desert. Donatello’s Saint Magdalen is naked and barefoot, her toes are gripping the surface of the base. All that remains of her former wealth and beauty is the luxurious mass of gilt hair that covers her gaunt frame. Her eyes are sunken and her slightly opened mouth reveals that she is missing some of her teeth. Her stance and body language make her the very model of a penitent. Inserted between two columns is the tomb monument of Antipope John XXIII, Baldassare Coscia (or Cossa), probably designed by Donatello and Michelozzo Michelozzi between 1421 and 1427. John XXIII’s tomb is set against a wall of the Baptistery and consists of his deathbed, resting on two lions and protected by a canopy. Thus, it announces the design of later wall tombs, for example at Santa Croce (chapter 6). His effigy is stretched out on the bed and turned towards the audience. Coscia, who had donated relics and funds to the Baptistery, also had the support of the Medici family. Bibl: Bloch 2011, 131-60, 2013, 77-103 and 2016; Borsook 1983, 51-3 and 62-8; Boskovits and Gregori 2007; Campbell and Cole 2012, 56-64, 66, 68, 69, 73, and 90-4 and 98-9, 134, 164, 172, 244-5; Cesati 2002, 51-5; Crispino 1999, 10-5; De Boer 2010, annotations 1-15: 104-14; Goy 2015, 41-6; Hartt & Wilkins 2007, 468, 65-6, 100-1, 250-2, 302-3; Horstmann 2011, 23-9; Kleiner 2010, 229-31; Mercanti and Straffi 2001, 84-90; Murray 2004, 30-4; Nagel and Wood 2009, 5374; Paatz 1941, II, 172-271; Paolucci 1994, 2 vols. and 2006, 40-55, Schneider Adams 2001, 60-4, 202-3; Shenfield 2008; Tovey 2005, 310; Verdon, Coppellotti, Fabbri 2000, 62-9.

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Sources:1 DANTE, Divine Comedy, Inferno, Canto xix, verses 16-8: They seemed no narrower or larger, than those in my beautiful Baptistery of St John, made as places to protect those baptising, one of which I broke, not many years ago, to aid a child inside: and let this be a sign of the truth to end all speculation.

VILLANI, Chronicle: I § 42.32-3—How the Temple of Mars, which is now called the Duomo of S. Giovanni, was built in Florence. After that Cæsar and Pompey, and Macrinus and Albinus and Marcius, Roman nobles and builders of the new city of Florence, had returned to Rome, their labours being completed, the city began to increase and multiply both in Romans and Fiesolans who had settled as its inhabitants, and in a short time it became a fine city for those times; for the emperors and senate of Rome advanced it to the best of their power, much like another little Rome. Its citizens, being in prosperous state, determined to build in the said city a marvellous temple in honour of the god Mars, by reason of the victory which the Romans had had over the city of Fiesole; and they sent to the senate of Rome to send them the best and most skilful masters that were in Rome, and this was done. And they caused to be brought white and black marbles and columns from many distant places by sea, and then by the Arno; they brought stone and columns from Fiesole, and founded and built the said temple in the place anciently called Camarti, and where the Fiesolans held their market. Very noble and beautiful they built it with eight sides, and when it had been built with great diligence, they dedicated it to the god Mars, who was the god of the Romans, and they had his effigy carved in marble in the likeness of an armed cavalier on horseback; they placed him on a marble pillar in the midst of that temple, and held him in great reverence, and adored him as their god so long as paganism continued in Florence. And we find that the said temple was begun during the reign of Octavianus Augustus, and that it was built under the ascendant of such a constellation that it will continue almost to eternity; and this we find written in a certain place engraved within the space of the said temple. § 60.39-41—How the Christian faith first came to Florence. At the time that the said great Constantine became a Christian, and gave freedom and sovereignty to the Church, and S. Sylvester, the Pope, was openly established in the papacy in Rome, there spread through Tuscany, and throughout Italy, and afterwards through all the world, the true faith and belief of Jesus Christ. And in our city of Florence, the true faith began to be adopted, and paganism to be 1

See the list of source material used in this volume, xxviii-xxix.

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abolished, in the time of * * * * [sic] who was made bishop of Florence by Pope Sylvester; and from the noble and beautiful temple of the Florentines, of which mention has been made above, the Florentines removed their idol, which they called the god Mars, and placed it upon a high tower, by the river Arno, and would not break or destroy it, because in their ancient records they found that the said idol of Mars had been consecrated under the ascendant of such a planet, that if it were broken or set aside in a place of contempt, the city would suffer peril and injury, and undergo great changes. And although the Florentines had lately become Christians, they still observed many pagan customs, and long continued to observe them, and they still stood in awe of their ancient idol of Mars, so little were they perfected as yet in the holy faith; and this done, they consecrated their said temple in honour of God and of the blessed S. John the Baptist, and called it the Duomo of S. Giovanni; and they decreed that the feast on the day of his nativity should be celebrated with solemn sacrifices, and that a race should be run for a samite cloak, and this custom has been always observed by the Florentines on that day. And they had baptismal fonts erected in the middle of the temple, where people and children were and still are baptized; and on Holy Saturday, when in the said fonts the baptismal water and fire were blessed, they ordered that the said holy fire should be carried through the city after the custom of Jerusalem, so that some one should enter into every house with a lighted torch, for them to kindle their fires from. And from this solemnity came the privilege of the “great torch,” which pertained to the house of the Pazzi, from some hundred and seventy years before 1300; because one of their ancestors, named Pazzo, strong and tall in person, bore a larger torch than any other, and was the first to take the sacred fire, and then the others received it from him. The said duomo, after that it had been consecrated to Christ, was enlarged by the space where to-day is the choir, and the altar of the blessed John; but at the time that the said duomo was the temple of Mars, this addition had not been made thereto, nor the turret and ball at the summit; and indeed it was open above after the fashion of Santa Maria Ritonda of Rome, to the intent their idol, the god Mars, which was in the midst of the temple, might be open to the sky. But after the second rebuilding of Florence, in the year of Christ 1150, the cupola was built upon columns, and the ball, and the golden cross which is at the top, by the consuls of the Art of Calimala, to which the commonwealth of Florence had committed the charge of the building of the said work in honour of S. John. And by many people which have journeyed through the world it is said to be the most beautiful temple or duomo of any that may be found; and in our times has been completed the work of the histories depicted within in mosaic. And we find, from ancient records, that the figure of the sun carved in mosaic, which says: “En giro torte sol ciclos, et rotor igne,” was done by astronomy, and when the sun enters into the sign of Cancer, it shines at mid-day on that place through the opening above, where is the turret.

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II 440 a.d. § 1.46 And after that Totila had thus wasted it of inhabitants and of goods, he commanded that it should be destroyed and burnt, and laid waste, and that there should not remain one stone upon another, and this was done; save that in the west there remained one of the towers which Gneus Pompey had built, and on the north and on the south one of the gates, and within the city near to the gate the “casa” or “domo,” which we take to be the duomo of S. Giovanni, called of yore the “casa” [house] of Mars. And verily it never was entirely destroyed, nor shall be destroyed to eternity, save at the day of judgement, even as is written on the cement of the said duomo. And there were also left standing certain lofty towers or temples, indicated in the ancient chronicles by letters of the alphabet, the which we cannot interpret, to wit S, and casa P, and casa F. The city had four gates and six posterns, and there were towers marvellous strong over the gates. And the idol of the god Mars which the Florentines took from the temple and set upon a pillar, then fell into the Arno, and abode there as long as the city remained in ruins. And thus was destroyed the noble city of Florence by the infamous Totila 450 a.d. on the 28th day of June, in the year of Christ 450, to wit 520 years after its foundation; and in the said city the blessed Maurice, bishop of Florence, was put to death with great torments by the followers of Totila, and his body lies in Santa Reparata. § 21.56—How the city of Florence lay waste and in ruins for 350 years. After the destruction of the city of Florence, wrought by Totila, the scourge of God, as has afore been mentioned, it lay thus ruined and deserted about 350 years by reason of the evil state of Rome and of the Empire, which, at first by Goths and Vandals, and afterwards by Lombards and Greeks and Saracens and Hungarians, was persecuted and brought low, as has afore been related. Truly there were, where Florence had been, certain dwellings and inhabitants round about the duomo of S. Giovanni, forasmuch as the Fiesolans held market there one day in the week, and it was called the Campo Marti, as of old, for it had always been the market-place of the Fiesolans, and had borne this name before Florence was built. III § 1.59-62—It came to pass, as it pleased God, that in the time of the good Charles the Great, Emperor of Rome and king of France, of whom above we have made a long record, after that he had beaten down the tyrannical pride of the Lombards and Saracens, and of the infidels against Holy Church, and had established Rome and the Empire in good state and in its liberty, as afore we have made mention, certain gentlemen and nobles of the region round about Florence (whereof it is reported that the Giovanni, the Guineldi and the Ridolfi, descended from the ancient noble citizens of the former Florence, were the heads) assembled themselves together with all the inhabitants of the place where Florence had been, and with all other their followers dwelling in the country around Florence, and they ordained to send to Rome ambassadors from the best among them to Charles the Emperor, and to Pope Leo, and to the Romans; and this was done, praying them to

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remember their daughter, the city of Florence (the which was ruined and destroyed by Goths and Vandals in despite of the Romans), to the end it might be rebuilt, and that it might please them to give a force of men-at-arms to ward off the men of Fiesole and their followers, the enemies of the Romans, who would not let the city of Florence be rebuilt. […] and thus they began to rebuild the city of Florence, not, however, of the size that it had been at the first, but of lesser extent, as hereafter shall be mentioned, to the end it might more speedily be-61- walled and fortified, and there might be a defence like a rampart against the city of Fiesole; and this was the year of Christ 801 a.d. 801, in the beginning of the month of April. And it is said that the ancients were of opinion that it would not be possible to rebuild it, if first there were not found and drawn from the Arno the marble image, dedicated by the first pagan builders by necromancy to Mars, the which had been in the river Arno from the destruction of Florence unto that time; and being found, it was placed on a pillar by the side of the said river, where now is the head of the Ponte Vecchio. This we do not affirm nor believe, forasmuch as it seems to us the opinion of pagans and soothsayers, and not to be reasonable, but very foolish, that such a stone should have such effect; but it was commonly said by the ancients, that, if it was disturbed, the city must needs have great disturbances. And it was said also by the ancients, that the Romans, by the counsel of the wise astrologers, at the beginning of the rebuilding of Florence, took the third degree of Aries as the ascendant, the sun being at his meridian altitude, and the planet Mercury in conjunction with the sun, and the planet Mars in favourable aspect to the ascendant, to the end the city might multiply in power of arms and of chivalry, and in folk eager and enterprising in arts and in riches and in merchandise, and should bring forth many children and a great people. And in those times, so they say, the ancient Romans and all the Tuscans and Italians, albeit they were baptized Christians, still preserved certain remains of the fashions of pagans, and began their undertakings according to the constellations; albeit, this we do not affirm of ourselves, forasmuch as constellations are not of necessity, nor can they constrain the free will of man or the judgement of God, save according to the merits or sins of folk. And yet, in some effects, meseems the influence of the said constellation is revealed, for the city of Florence is ever in great disturbances and plottings and in war, and now victorious and now the contrary, and prone to merchandise and to arts. But our opinion is that the discords and changes of the Florentines are as we said at the beginning of this treatise—our city was populated by two peoples, divers in every habit of life, as were the noble Romans and the cruel and fierce Fiesolans; for the which thing it is no marvel if our city is always subject to wars and changes and dissensions and treacheries. V § 8.108-9—Of the great fires which were in the city of Florence. 1177 a.d. In the year of Christ 1177, fire broke out in the city of Florence on the 5th day of August, and spread from the foot of the Ponte Vecchio as far as the Mercato Vecchio. And afterwards, in the same year, fire broke out at San Martino del

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Vescovo, and spread as far as Santa Maria Ughi and to the Duomo of S. Giovanni, with great hurt to the city, and not without the judgment of God, forasmuch as the Florentines had become very proud by reason of the victories they had gotten over their neighbours; and some among them were very ungrateful towards God, and full of other wicked sins. And in this year, because of a great flood of the river Arno, the Ponte Vecchio fell, which also was a sign of future adversities to our city. § 13.111—How the Florentines took the cross, and went over seas to conquer Damietta, and therefore recovered their territory. 1188 a.d. In the year of Christ 1188, all Christendom being moved to go to the succour of the Holy Land, there came to Florence the archbishop of Ravenna, the Pope’s Legate, to preach the cross for the said expedition; and many good people of Florence took the cross from the said archbishop at S. Donato tra le Torri, or at S. Donato a Torri, beyond Rifredi, or the Monastery delle Donne, forasmuch as the said archbishop was of the Order of Citeaux [the Cistercian Order]; and this was on the 2nd day of the month of February in the said year, and the Florentines were in such great numbers that they made up an army in themselves over seas, and they were at the conquest of the city of Damietta, and among the first which took the city, and for an ensign they brought back thence a crimson standard which is still in the church of S. Giovanni; and because of the said devotion and aid given by the Florentines to Holy Church and to Christendom, the jurisdiction over the territory around was restored to the city of Florence by Pope Gregory and by the said Emperor Frederick, to the distance of ten miles around the city of Florence. VI 1248 a.d. § 33.145 […] Also the Ghibellines attempted a yet more impious deed, forasmuch as the Guelfs resorted much to the church of S. Giovanni, and all the good people assembled there on Sunday morning, and there they solemnized marriages; and when the Ghibellines came to destroy the towers of the Guelfs, there was one among them very great and beautiful, which was upon the piazza of S. Giovanni, at the entrance of the street of the Adimari, and it was called the tower of the Guardamorto, forasmuch as of old all the good folk which died were buried at S. Giovanni; and the Ghibellines, purposing to rase to the ground the said tower, caused it to be propped up in such wise that when the fire was applied to the props it should fall upon the church of S. Giovanni; and this was done. But as it pleased God, by reverence and miracle of the blessed John, the tower, which was 120 cubits high, showed manifestly, when it came to fall, that it would avoid the holy church, and turned and fell directly upon the piazza, wherefore all the Florentines marvelled and the popolo rejoiced greatly. And note, that since the city of Florence had been rebuilt, not one house had been destroyed, and the said accursed destruction thereof was then begun by the Ghibellines.

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§ 65.164-5—How the Popolo of Florence drove out the Ghibellines for the first time from Florence, and the reason why. 1258 a.d. In the year of Christ 1258, when Messer Jacopo Bernardi di Porco was Podestà of Florence, at the end of the month of July they of the house of the Uberti, with their Ghibelline allies, incited thereto by Manfred, purposed to break up the Popolo of Florence, forasmuch as it seemed to them to lean towards the Guelf party. When the said plot was discovered by the Popolo, and they who had made it were summoned and cited to appear before the magistrates, they would not appear nor come before them, but the staff of the Podestà were grievously wounded and smitten by them; for the which thing the people ran to arms, and ran in fury to the houses of the Uberti, where is now the piazza of the palace of the people and of the priors, and there they slew Schiattuzzo degli Uberti and many of the followers and retainers of the Uberti, and they took Uberto Caini degli Uberti and Mangia degli Infangati, which when they had confessed the conspiracy in parliament were beheaded in Orto San Michele; and the rest of the family of the Uberti, with many other Ghibelline families, left Florence. The names of the Ghibelline families of renown which left Florence were these: the Uberti, the Fifanti, the Guidi, the Amidei, the Lamberti, the Scolari, and part of the Abati, Caponsacchi, Migliorelli, Soldanieri, Infangati, Ubriachi, Tedaldini, Galigari, the della Pressa, Amieri, they of Cersino, the Razzanti, and many other houses and families of the popolari and of decayed magnates, which cannot all be named, and other families of nobles in the country; and they went to Siena, which was governed in the Ghibelline interest, and was hostile to the Florentines; and their palaces and strongholds were destroyed, whereof there were many, and with the stones thereof they built the walls of San Giorgio Oltrarno, which the Popolo of Florence caused to be begun in those times by reason of the war with the Sienese. And afterwards, in the following September of the said year, the Popolo of Florence seized the abbot of Vallombrosa, which was a gentleman of the lords of Beccheria of Pavia in Lombardy, for they had been told that at the petition of the Ghibelline refugees from Florence he was plotting treason; and this by torture they made him confess, and wickedly in the piazza of Santo Apollinare by the outcry of the people they beheaded him, not regarding his dignity nor his holy orders; for the which thing the commonwealth of Florence and the Florentines were excommunicated by the Pope; and from the commonwealth of Pavia, whence came the said abbot, and from his kinsfolk, the Florentines which passed through Lombardy received much hurt and molestation. And truly it was said that the holy man was not guilty, albeit by his lineage he was a distinguished Ghibelline. For the which sin, and for many other deeds done by the wicked people, it was said by many wise men that God by Divine judgment permitted vengeance to come upon the said people in the battle and defeat of Montaperti, as hereafter we shall make mention. The said Popolo of Florence which ruled the city in these times was very proud and of high and great enterprises, and in many things was very arrogant; but one thing their rulers had, they were very loyal and true to the commonwealth, and-166- when one which was an Ancient took and sent to his villa a grating which had belonged to the lion’s

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den, and was now lying about in the mud of the piazza of S. Giovanni, he was condemned therefor to a fine of 1,000 lire for embezzling the goods of the commonwealth. § 75.170-3—How the commonwealth and people of Florence led a great host up to the gates of Siena with the carroccio. 1260 a.d. It happened in the year of Christ 1260, in the month of May, that the people and commonwealth of Florence gathered a general host against the city of Siena and led thither the carroccio. And note, that the carroccio, which was led by the commonwealth and people of Florence, was a chariot on four wheels, all painted red, and two tall red masts stood up together thereupon, whereon was fastened and waved the great standard of the arms of the commune, which was dimidiated white and red, and still may be seen to-day in S. Giovanni. And it was drawn by a great pair of oxen covered with red cloth, which were set apart solely for this, and belonged to the Hospitallers of Pinti, and he who drove them was a freeman of the commonwealth. This carroccio was used by our forefathers in triumphs and solemnities, and when they went out with the host, the neighbouring counts and knights brought it from the armoury of S. Giovanni and conducted it to the piazza of the Mercato Nuovo, and having halted by a landmark, which is still there, in the form of a stone carved like a chariot, they committed it to the keeping of the people, and it was led by popolani in the expeditions of war, and to guard it were chosen the best and strongest and most virtuous among the foot soldiers of the popolani, and round it gathered all the force of the people. And when the host was to be assembled, a month before the time when they were to set forth, a bell was hung upon the arch of Porte Sante Marie, which was at the head of the Mercato Nuovo, and there was rung by day and by night without ceasing. And this they did in their pride, to give opportunity to the enemy, against whom the host should go forth, to prepare themselves. And some called it Martinella, and some the Asses’ Bell. And when the Florentine host went forth, they took down the bell from the arch and put it into a wooden tower upon a car, and the sound thereof guided the host. By these two pomps of the carroccio and of the bell was maintained the lordly pride of the people of old and of our forefathers in their expeditions. We will leave this and will turn to the Florentines, how they made war against the Sienese, and took the castle of Vicchio, and that of Mezzano, and Casciole, which pertained to the Sienese, and encamped themselves against Siena, hard by the entrance gate by the monastery of S. Petronella; and there they had brought to them, upon a knoll which could be seen from the city, a tower wherein they kept their bell; and in contempt of the Sienese, and as a record of their victory, they filled it with earth and planted an olive tree in it, the which, until our own days, was still there. It fell out at that siege that one day the Florentine refugees gave a feast to Manfred’s German soldiers, and having plied them with wine till they were drunk, in the uproar they incited them to arm themselves and mount on horseback to assail the host of the Florentines, promising them large gifts and double pay; and this was done craftily by the wise, in pursuance of the counsel of Farinata degli Uberti

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which he had given in Apulia. The Germans, beside themselves and hot with wine, sallied forth from Siena and vigorously assailed the camp of the Florentines, and because they were unprepared and off their guard, holding as nought the force of the enemy, the Germans, albeit they were but few folk, did great hurt to the host in that assault, and many of the people and of the horsemen made a sorry show in that sudden assault, and fled in terror, supposing that the assailants were more in number. But in the end, perceiving their error, they took to arms, and defended themselves against the Germans, and of all those who sallied forth from Siena not one escaped alive, for they were all slain and beaten down, and the standard was taken and dragged through the camp and carried to Florence; and this done, shortly afterwards the Florentine host returned to Florence.

ALBERTINI2 93-4: The Quarter of San Giovanni and its surroundings In the quarter of our patron saint John the Baptist, prophet and more than a prophet, is the most famous and embellished temple dedicated in his honour. It was built before the Incarnation of Christ and founded upon beautiful columns (as one can still see) by Julius Caesar, Gnaeus Pompeius Magnus, Macrinus, Clodius Albinus, and other very noble Romans, whom Rome’s consuls and senators had sent [to Florence] with a number of skilled architects. They dedicated this very worthy temple to Mars, whose marble statue they placed right in the centre, on top of a marble columns. Our pious Christian citizens later moved this column to the central door in front of the marble statue of Saint John by Donatello, replacing the one that can be seen today in the Mercato Vecchio supporting Donatello’s statue Wealth and Abundance. The temple was built in the ascendant sign of Mars, as is apparent in the rich, ancient and masterly pavement, decorated with various types of marble. Close to the planets and the signs of the zodiac is a palindrome that reads as follows: En giro torte sol ciclos et rotor igne [“I, the sun, make the planets spin in a circle, and I, too, spin with fire.”] This is not to mention the many worthy and admirable things added by our Christian citizens, such as the very beautiful and rich mosaics with stories from the Old and New Testaments by excellent masters, and the beautiful fonts, and the marble choir, and the gilded statues of bronze and marble. And the three very beautiful gilded bronze doors made with great skill, beyond compare in all of Italy. The first two are by the most excellent sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti, who took forty years or more to fabricate them. The frieze around the door opposite the Misericordia and its frame are by Vittorio, his son, and the door is ancient. In this temple, there is a Saint Mary Magdalene by Donatello, and the bronze tomb of Pope John by Donatello with marble ornaments by his students. In this temple there is also a fine gilded silver altar with a relief of Saint John at the centre by Antonio del Pollaiuolo, and ornate and wonderful

2

Cited in this volume by kind concession of the editors and of the publishing house.

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stories in half relief by other masters. On top of the altar there is a very tall cross made of fine silver with very beautiful figures, together with eight large silver candlesticks, the golden rose donated by the pope, and many vases and reliquiaries with figures and enamels made by very skilled artists. There is also the index finger of the precursor John the Baptist, with which he pointed towards the Saviour, saying, Ecce Agnus Dei [“Behold the Lamb of God”]. It was the only part of his entire bodyleft unharmed by the fire and it is embellished in gold, silver and pearls. I must also mention the arm of Saint Philip and other richly decorated relics of saints, in particular the very ornate reliquary that came from Constantinople with the Mysteries of the Passion of Christ and the Holy Cross, adorned with gold, precious stones and other fine materials.

VASARI I Preface to the Lives3 liii-liv: The year afterwards, 1013, it is clear that the art had regained some of its vigour from the rebuilding of that most beautiful church, S. Miniato in Sul Monte, in the time of Messer Alibrando, citizen and Bishop of Florence; for the reason that, besides the marble ornaments that are seen therein both within and without, it may be seen from the façade that the Tuscan architects strove as much as they could in the doors, the windows, the columns, the arches, and the mouldings, to imitate the good order of the ancients, having in part recovered it from the most ancient temple of S. Giovanni in their city. At the same time painting, which was little less than wholly spent, may be seen to have begun to win back something, as the mosaic shows that was made in the principal chapel of the said Church of S. Miniato. Life of Arnolfo di Cambio 20: Next, [Lapo] having given the design for draining the waters of the city, having caused the Piazza di S. Giovanni to be raised, having built, in the time of Messer Rubaconte da Mandella, a Milanese, the bridge that retains the same man’s name, and having discovered that most useful method of paving streets, which before were covered with bricks, he made the model of the Palace, to-day of the Podestà, which was then built for the Anziani. And finally, having sent the model of a tomb to Sicily, to the Abbey of Monreale, for the Emperor Frederick and by order of Manfred, he died, leaving Arnolfo, his son, heir no less to the talent than to the wealth of his father.

3

The headings refer to the prefaces or to the lives from which they are extracted. The names of artists mentioned in the citation may refer to pupils, followers, friends or rivals of the artist whose life it is.

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21-2: and a little time after he caused to be removed from round the Church of S. Giovanni, on the outer side, all the arches and tombs of marble and grey-stone that were there, and had part of them placed behind the campanile on the façade of the Canon’s house, beside the Company of S. Zanobi; and then he incrusted with black marble from Prato all the eight outer walls of the said S. Giovanni, removing the grey-stone that there had been before between these ancient marbles. The Florentines, in the meanwhile, wishing to build walls in the Valdarno di Sopra round Castello di San Giovanni and Castel Franco, for the convenience of the city and of their victualling by means of the markets, Arnolfo made the design for them in the year 1295, and satisfied them in such a manner, as well in this as he had done in the other works, that he was made citizen of Florence. Andrea Tafi 47-8: But not being in truth the most able man in the world, and having considered that mosaic, by reason of its long life, was held in estimation more than all the other forms of painting, he went from Florence to Venice, where some Greek painters were working in S. Marco in mosaic; and becoming intimate with them, with entreaties, with money, and with promises he contrived in such a manner that he brought to Florence Maestro Apollonio, a Greek painter, who taught him to fuse the glass for mosaic and to make the cement for putting it together; and in his company he wrought the upper part of the tribune of S. Giovanni, where there are the Powers, the Thrones, and the Dominions; in which place Andrea, when more practised, afterwards made, as will be said below, the Christ that is over the side of the principal chapel. But having made mention of S. Giovanni, I will not pass by in silence that this ancient temple is all wrought, both without and within, with marbles of the Corinthian Order, and that it is not only designed and executed perfectly in all its parts and with all its proportions, but also very well adorned with doors and with windows, and enriched with two columns of granite on each wallface, each eleven braccia high, in order to make the three spaces over which are the architraves, that rest on the said columns in order to support the whole mass of the double vaulted roof, which has been praised by modern architects as something remarkable, and deservedly, for the reason that it showed the good which that art already had in itself to Filippo di Ser Brunellesco, to Donatello, and to the other masters of those times, who learnt the art by means of this work and of the Church of S. Apostolo in Florence, a work so good in manner that it casts back to the true ancient goodness, having all the columns in sections, as it has been said above, measured and put together with so great diligence that much can be learnt by studying it in all its parts. 48-50: But to return to the Church of S. Giovanni; forbearing to relate its origin, by reason of its having been described by Giovanni Villani and by other writers, and having already said that from this church there came the good architecture that is to-day in use, I will add that the tribune was made later, so far as it is known, and that at the time when Alesso Baldovinetti, succeeding Lippo, a painter of Florence, restored those mosaics, it was seen that it had been in the past painted with designs in red, and all worked on stucco.

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Andrea Tafi and Apollonio the Greek, then, in order to cover this tribune with mosaics, made therein a number of compartments, which, narrow at the top beside the lantern, went on widening as far as the level of the cornice below; and they divided the upper part into circles of various scenes. In the first are all the ministers and executors of the Divine Will, namely, the Angels, the Archangels, the Cherubim, the Seraphim, the Powers, the Thrones, and the Dominions. In the second row, also in mosaic, and after the Greek manner, are the principal works done by God, from the creation of light down to the Flood. In the circle that is below these, which goes on widening with the eight sides of that tribune, are all the acts of Joseph and of his twelve brethren. Below these, then, there follow as many other spaces of the same size that circle in like manner onward, wherein there is the life of Jesus Christ, also in mosaic, from the time when He was conceived in Mary’s womb up to the Ascension into Heaven. Then, resuming the same order, under the three friezes there is the life of S. John the Baptist, beginning with the appearing of the Angel to Zacharias the priest, up to his beheading and to the burial that his disciples gave him. All these works, being rude, without design and without art, I do not absolutely praise; but of a truth, having regard to the method of working of that age and to the imperfection that the art of painting then showed, not to mention that the work is solid and that the pieces of the mosaic are very well put together, the end of this work is much better—or to speak more exactly, less bad—than is the beginning, although the whole, with respect to the work of to-day, moves us rather to laughter than to pleasure or marvel. Finally, over the side of the principal chapel in the said tribune, Andrea made by himself and without the help of Apollonio, to his own great credit, the Christ that is still seen there to-day, seven braccia high. Becoming famous for these works throughout all Italy, and being reputed in his own country as excellent, he well deserved to be largely honoured and rewarded. It was truly very great good-fortune, that of Andrea, to be born at a time when, all work being rudely done, there was great esteem even for that which deserved to be esteemed very little, or rather not at all. This same thing befell Fra Jacopo da Turrita, of the Order of S. Francis, seeing that, having made the works in mosaic that are in the recess behind the altar of the said S. Giovanni, notwithstanding that they were little worthy of praise he was remunerated for them with extraordinary rewards, and afterwards, as an excellent master, summoned to Rome, where he wrought certain things in the chapel of the high-altar of S. Giovanni Laterano, and in that of S. Maria Maggiore. Next, being summoned to Pisa, he made the Evangelists in the principal apse of the Duomo, with other works that are there, assisted by Andrea Tafi and by Gaddo Gaddi, and using the same manner wherein he had done his other works; but he left them little less than wholly imperfect, and they were afterwards finished by Vicino. Gaddo Gaddi 55-7: Whereas some, on the contrary, diabolically working with profession of friendship, and using the cloak of truth and of lovingness to conceal their envy and malice, rob them of their conceptions, in a manner that the arts do not so soon attain to that excellence which they would if love embraced the minds of the gracious spirits; as it truly bound together Gaddo and Cimabue, and in like manner.

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Andrea Tafi and Gaddo, who was taken by Andrea into company with himself in order to finish the mosaics of S. Giovanni, where that Gaddo learnt so much that afterwards he made by himself the Prophets that are seen round that church in the square spaces beneath the windows; and having wrought these by his own self and with much better manner, they brought him very great fame. Wherefore, growing in courage and being disposed to work by himself, he applied himself continually to studying the Greek manner together with that of Cimabue. […] After this Gaddo returned to Florence, in mind to rest; wherefore, undertaking to make little panels in mosaic, he executed some with egg-shells, with incredible diligence and patience, as can be seen, among others, in some that are still to-day in the Church of S. Giovanni in Florence. It is read, also, that he made two of them for King Robert, but nothing more is known of these. And let this be enough to have said of Gaddo Gaddi with regard to work in mosaic. Agostino and Agnolo of Siena 103-4: About the same time, the Guild of Calimara in Florence caused Maestro Cione, an excellent goldsmith, to make the greater part, if not the whole, of the silver altar of S. Giovanni Battista, wherein are many scenes from the life of that Saint embossed on a plate of silver, with passing good figures in half-relief; which work, both by reason of its size and of its being something new, was held marvellous by all who saw it. In the year 1330 after the body of S. Zanobi had been found beneath the vaults of S. Reparata, the same Maestro Cione made a head of silver to contain a piece of the head of that Saint, which is still preserved to-day in the same head of silver and is borne in processions; which head was then held something very beautiful and gave a great name to its craftsman, who died no long time after, rich and in great repute. Andrea Pisano 126-8: Now because, three years before, he had shown himself to his own great credit to be an able man in the casting of bronze, having sent to the Pope in Avignon, by means of Giotto, his very great friend, who was then staying at that Court, a very beautiful cross cast in bronze, he was commissioned to complete in bronze one of the doors of the Church of S. Giovanni, for which Giotto had already made a very beautiful design; this was given to him, I say, to complete, by reason of his having been judged, among so many who had worked up to then, the most able, the most practised and the most judicious master not only of Tuscany but of all Italy. Wherefore, putting his hand to this, with a mind determined not to consent to spare either time, or labour, or diligence in executing a work of so great importance, fortune was so propitious to him in the casting, for those times when the secrets were not known that are known to-day, that within the space of twentytwo years he brought it to that perfection which is seen; and what is more, he also made during that same time not only the shrine of the high-altar of S. Giovanni, with two angels, one on either side of it, that were held something very beautiful, but also, after the design of Giotto, those little figures in marble that act as adornment for the door of the Campanile of S. Maria del Fiore, and round the same Campanile, in certain mandorle, the seven planets, the seven virtues, and the seven

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works of mercy, little figures in half-relief that were then much praised. He also made during the same time the three figures, each four braccia high, that were set up in the niches of the said Campanile, beneath the windows that face the spot where the Orphans now are—that is, towards the south; which figures were thought at that time more than passing good. But to return to where I left off: I say that in the said bronze door are little scenes in low relief of the life of S. John the Baptist, that is, from his birth up to his death, wrought happily and with much diligence. And although it seems to many that in these scenes there do not appear that beautiful design and that great art which are now put into figures, yet Andrea deserves nothing but the greatest praise, in that he was the first to put his hand to the complete execution of such a work, which afterwards enabled the others who lived after him to make whatever of the beautiful, of the difficult and of the good is to be seen at the present day in the other two doors and in the external ornaments. This work was placed in the middle door of that church, and stood there until the time when Lorenzo Ghiberti made that one which is there at the present day; for then it was removed and placed opposite the Misericordia, where it still stands. I will not forbear to say that Andrea was assisted in making this door by Nino, his son, who was afterwards a much better master than his father had been, and that it was completely finished in the year 1339, that is, not only made smooth and polished all over, but also gilded by fire; and it is believed that it was cast in metal by some Venetian masters, very expert in the founding of metals, and of this there is found record in the books of the Guild of the Merchants of Calimara, Wardens of the Works of S. Giovanni. Agnolo Gaddi 219-20: And because in a certain manner there had come to Agnolo, by way of inheritance, the secret of working in mosaic, and he had at home the instruments and all the materials that his grandfather Gaddo had used in this, he would make something in mosaic when it pleased him, merely to pass time and by reason of that convenience of material, rather than for aught else. Now, seeing that time had eaten away many of those marbles that cover the eight faces of the roof of S. Giovanni, and that the damp penetrating within had therefore spoilt much of the mosaic which Andrea Tafi had wrought there at a former time, the Consuls of the Guild of Merchants determined, to the end that the rest might not be spoilt, to rebuild the greater part of that covering with marble, and in like manner to have the mosaic restored. Wherefore, the direction and commission for the whole being given to Agnolo, he, in the year 1346, had it recovered with new marbles and the pieces laid over each other at the joinings, with unexampled diligence, to the breadth of two fingers, cutting each slab to the half of its thickness; then, joining them together with cement made of mastic and wax melted together, he fitted them with so great diligence that from that time onwards neither the roof nor the vaulting has received any damage from the rains. Agnolo, having afterwards restored the mosaic, brought it about by means of his counsel and of a design very well conceived that there was rebuilt, round the said church, all the upper cornice of marble below the roof, in that form wherein it now remains; which cornice was much smaller than it is and very commonplace. Under direction of the same man

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there was also made the vaulting of the Great Hall of the Palace of the Podestà, which before was directly under the roof, to the end that, besides the adornment, fire might not again be able to do it damage, as it had done a long time before. After this, by the counsel of Agnolo, there were made round the said Palace the battlements that are there to-day, which before were in no wise there. II Life of Lippo of Florence 50: It was Lippo, likewise, who painted the folding leaves in the Church of S. Giovanni—namely, those of the shrine wherein are the angels and the S. John in relief by the hand of Andrea; and on them he wrought very diligently in distemper stories of S. John the Baptist. And because he also delighted in working in mosaic, in the said S. Giovanni, over the door that leads to the Misericordia, between the windows, he made a beginning, which was held very beautiful and the best work in mosaic which had been made in that place up to that time; and he also restored some works in that church, likewise in mosaic, which were spoilt. Preface to second Part 80-1: But, passing these men by, since for knowledge of them we must refer to others, who very often do not agree in their judgments on them, or even, what is worse, as to the dates, although in this I have followed the best authorities; let us come to our own times, wherein we have the help of the eye, a much better guide and judge than the ear. Is it not clearly seen how great improvement was acquired by architecture—to begin with one starting-point—from the time of the Greek Buschetto to that of the German Arnolfo and of Giotto? See the buildings of those times, and the pilasters, the columns, the bases, the capitals, and all the cornices, with their ill-formed members, such as there are in Florence, in S. Maria del Fiore, in the external incrustations of S. Giovanni, and in S. Miniato sul Monte; 86: But the greatest advance came from Lorenzo Ghiberti in the work of the gates of S. Giovanni, wherein he showed such invention, order, manner, and design, that his figures appear to move and to have souls. But as for Donato, although he lived in their time, I am not wholly sure whether I ought not to place him in the third age, seeing that his works challenge comparison with the good works of the ancients; but this I will say, that he can be called the pattern of the others in this second age, having united in his own self all the qualities that were divided singly among many, for he brought his figures to actual motion, giving them such vivacity and liveliness that they can stand beside the works of to-day, and, as I have said, beside the ancient as well. Jacopo della Quercia 93: Meanwhile Jacopo had heard that the Guild of the Merchants of Calimara in Florence wished to have a bronze door made for the Church of S. Giovanni, where, as it has been said, Andrea Pisano had wrought the first; and he had come to Florence in order to make himself known, above all because this work was to be

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allotted to the man who, in making one of those scenes in bronze, should give the best proof of himself and of his talent. Having therefore come to Florence, he not only made the model, but delivered one very well executed scene, completely finished and polished, which gave so great satisfaction, that, if he had not had as rivals those most excellent masters, Donatello and Filippo Brunelleschi, who in truth surpassed him in their specimens, it would have fallen to him to make this work of so great importance. Niccolo Aretino 103: In short, they are such that they can stand beside any other work of that kind; wherefore he acquired so great credit that he was thought worthy to be in the number of those who were under consideration for the making of the bronze doors of S. Giovanni, although, when the proof was made, he was left behind, and they were allotted, as it will be said in the proper place, to another. Lorenzo Ghiberti 144-50: Now, when he had been no long time out of his own country, the pestilence ceased; wherefore the Signoria of Florence and the Guild of Merchants—since at that time sculpture had many excellent craftsmen, both foreign and Florentine—determined that there should be made, as it had been already discussed many times, the other two doors of S. Giovanni, a very ancient temple, indeed, the oldest in that city; and they ordained among themselves that instructions should be sent to all the masters who were held the best in Italy, to repair to Florence in order that their powers might be tested by a specimen scene in bronze, similar to one of those which Andrea Pisano had formerly made for the first door. Word of this determination was written to Lorenzo, who was working at Pesaro, by Bartoluccio, urging him to return to Florence in order to give a proof of his powers, and saying that this was an occasion to make himself known and to demonstrate his genius, not to mention that he might gain such profit that neither the one nor the other of them would ever again need to labour at making ear-rings. The words of Bartoluccio stirred the spirit of Lorenzo so greatly, that although Signor Pandolfo, with all his Court and the other painter, kept showing him the greatest favour, Lorenzo took leave of that lord and of the painter, and they, with great unwillingness and displeasure, allowed him to go, neither promises nor increase of payment availing to detain him, since to Lorenzo every hour appeared a thousand years until he could return to Florence. Having departed, therefore, he arrived safely in his own city. Many foreigners had already assembled and presented themselves to the Consuls of the Guild, by whom seven masters were elected out of the whole number, three being Florentines and the others Tuscans; and it was ordained that they should have an allowance of money, and that within a year each man should finish a scene in bronze by way of test, of the same size as those in the first door. And for the subject they chose the story of Abraham sacrificing his son Isaac, wherein they thought that the said masters should be able to show their powers with regard to the difficulties of their art, seeing that this

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story contained landscapes, figures both nude and clothed, and animals, while the foremost figures could be made in full-relief, the second in half-relief, and the third in low-relief. The competitors for this work were Filippo di Ser Brunellesco, Donato, and Lorenzo di Bartoluccio, all Florentines; Jacopo della Quercia of Siena, and Niccolò d’Arezzo, his pupil; Francesco di Valdambrina; and Simone da Colle, called Simone de’ Bronzi. All these men promised before the Consuls that they would deliver their scenes finished within the said time; and each making a beginning with his own, with all zeal and diligence they exerted all their strength and knowledge in order to surpass one another in excellence, keeping their work hidden and most secret, lest they should copy each other’s ideas. Lorenzo alone, who had Bartoluccio to guide him and to compel him to labour at many models before they resolved to adopt any one of them—Lorenzo alone was ever inviting the citizens, and sometimes any passing stranger who had some knowledge of the art, to see his work, in order to hear what they thought and these opinions enabled him to execute a model very well wrought and without one defect. And so, when he had made the moulds and cast the work in bronze, it came out very well; whereupon, with his father Bartoluccio, he polished it with such love and patience that nothing could be executed or finished better. And when the time came for comparing the various works, his and those of the other masters were completely finished, and were given to the Guild of Merchants for judgment; but after all had been seen by the Consuls and by many other citizens, diverse opinions were expressed about them. Many foreigners had assembled in Florence, some painters, some sculptors, and others goldsmiths; and they were invited by the Consuls to give judgment on these works, together with the other men of that profession who lived in Florence. They numbered thirty-four in all, each well experienced in his own art. Now, although there were differences of opinion among them, some liking the manner of one man and some that of another, nevertheless they were agreed that Filippo di Ser Brunellesco and Lorenzo di Bartoluccio had composed and completed their scenes better and with a richer abundance of figures than Donato had done in his, although in that one, also, there was grand design. In that of Jacopo della Quercia the figures were good, but they had no delicacy, although they were made with design and diligence. The work of Francesco di Valdambrina had good heads and was well finished, but was confused in the composition. That of Simone da Colle was a beautiful casting, because the doing of this was his art, but it had not much design. The specimen of Niccolò d’Arezzo, which was made with good mastery, had the figures squat and was badly finished. Only that scene which Lorenzo made as a specimen, which is still seen in the Audience Chamber of the Guild of Merchants, was in every part wholly perfect. The whole work had design, and was very well composed. The figures had so graceful a manner, being made with grace and with very beautiful attitudes, and the whole was finished with so great diligence, that it appeared not made by casting and polished with tools of iron, but blown with the breath. Donato and Filippo, seeing the diligence that Lorenzo had used in his work, drew aside, and, conferring together, they resolved that the work should be given to Lorenzo, it appearing to them that thus both the

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public and the private interest would be best served, and that Lorenzo, being a young man not more than twenty years of age, would be able to produce by this exercise of his profession those greater fruits that were foreshadowed by the beautiful scene which he, in their judgment, had executed more excellently than the others; saying that there would have been more sign of envy in taking it from him, than there was justice in giving it to him. Beginning the work of that door, then, for that entrance which is opposite to the Office of Works of S. Giovanni, Lorenzo made for one part of it a large framework of wood, of the exact size that it was to be, with mouldings, and with the ornaments of the heads at the corners, round the various spaces wherein the scenes were to be placed, and with those borders that were to go round them. Having then made and dried the mould with all diligence, he made a very great furnace (that I remember seeing) in a room that he had hired opposite to S. Maria Nuova, where to-day there is the Hospital of the Weavers, on the spot that was called the Aia, and he cast the said framework in bronze. But, as chance would have it, it did not come out well; wherefore, having realized the mischief, without losing heart or giving way to depression, he promptly made another mould and cast it again, without telling anyone about it, and it came out very well. Whereupon he went on and continued the whole work in this manner, casting each scene by itself, and putting it, when finished, into its place. The arrangement of the scenes was similar to that which Andrea Pisano had formerly made in the first door, which Giotto designed for him. He made therein twenty scenes from the New Testament; and below, in eight spaces similar to these, after the said scenes, he made the four Evangelists, two on each side of the door, and likewise the four Doctors of the Church, in the same manner; which figures are all different in their attitudes and their draperies. One is writing, another is reading, others are in contemplation, and all, being varied one from another, appear lifelike and very well executed; not to mention that in the framework of the border surrounding the scenes in squares there is a frieze of ivy leaves and other kinds of foliage, with mouldings between each; and on every corner is the head of a man or a woman in the round, representing prophets and sibyls, which are very beautiful, and demonstrate with their variety the excellence of the genius of Lorenzo. Above the aforesaid Doctors and Evangelists, which are in the four squares below, there follows, on the side towards S. Maria del Fiore, the first scene; and here, in the first square, is the Annunciation of Our Lady, wherein, in the attitude of the Virgin, he depicted terror and a sudden alarm, as she turns away gracefully by reason of the coming of the Angel. And next to this he made the Nativity of Christ, wherein the Madonna, having given birth to Him, is lying down and taking repose; with Joseph in contemplation, the shepherds, and the Angels singing. In the scene next to this, on the other half of the door, on the same level, there follows the story of the coming of the Magi, and of their adoration of Christ, while they give Him their tribute; and their Court is following them, with horses and other equipage, wrought with great genius. And beside this, likewise, there is His Disputation with the Doctors in the Temple, wherein the admiration and the attention which the Doctors give to Christ are no less well expressed than the joy of Mary and Joseph at finding Him again. Above

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these—beginning again over the Annunciation—there follows the story of the Baptism of Christ by John in the Jordan, wherein there are seen in their gestures the reverence of the one and the faith of the other. Beside this there follows the Temptation of Christ by the Devil, who, terrified by the words of Jesus, stands in an attitude of terror, showing thereby that he knows Him to be the Son of God. Next to this, on the other side, is the scene where He is driving the traders from the Temple, overturning their money and the victims, doves, and other merchandise; wherein the figures, falling over each other, have a very beautiful and well conceived grace in their headlong flight. Next to this Lorenzo placed the shipwreck of the Apostles, wherein S. Peter is issuing from the ship and is sinking into the water, and Christ is upholding him. This scene shows an abundance of various gestures in the Apostles, who are toiling to save the ship; and the faith of S. Peter is recognized in his coming towards Christ. Beginning again above the story of the Baptism, on the other side, there is His Transfiguration on Mount Tabor, wherein Lorenzo demonstrated, in the attitudes of the three Apostles, how celestial visions dazzle the eyes of mortals; even as the Divinity of Christ is also recognized as He holds His head high and His arms outstretched, between Elias and Moses. And next to this is the Resurrection of the dead Lazarus, who, having issued from the sepulchre, is standing upright with his feet and his hands bound, to the marvel of the bystanders. Martha is there, with Mary Magdalene, who is kissing the feet of the Lord with very great humility and reverence. Beside this, on the other half of the door, there follows the scene when He rides on an ass into Jerusalem, while the children of the Hebrews, in various attitudes, are casting their garments on the ground, with the olives and palms; not to mention the Apostles, who are following the Saviour. And next to this is the Last Supper, very beautiful and well composed, the Apostles being placed at a long table, half on the near side and half on the farther side. Above the scene of the Transfiguration there is the Prayer in the Garden, wherein the three Apostles are seen asleep in various attitudes. And beside this there follows the scene when He is taken and Judas kisses Him, wherein there are many things worthy of consideration, since we see therein both the Apostles, who are flying, and the Jews, who, in taking Christ, are making most violent gestures and efforts. On the other side, next to this, is the scene when He is bound to the Column, wherein is the figure of Jesus Christ writhing not a little with the pain of the blows, in a pitiful attitude, while there are seen, in those gestures that the Jews who are scourging Him are making, terrible rage and lust of vengeance. Next to this there follows the leading of Christ before Pilate, who washes his hands and condemns Him to the Cross. Above the Prayer in the Garden, on the other side and in the last row of scenes, is Christ bearing His Cross and going to His death, led by a crowd of soldiers, who appear, with strange attitudes, to be dragging Him by force; besides the gestures of sorrow and lamentation that the Maries are making, insomuch that one who was present could not have seen them better. Beside this he made Christ on the Cross, and Our Lady and S. John the Evangelist seated on the ground, with gestures full of sorrow and wrath. Next to this, on the other side, there follows His Resurrection, wherein the guards, stunned by the thunder, are lying like dead men, while Christ is ascending on high in such an attitude that He truly appears glorified, by reason of the perfection of His beautiful

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limbs, wrought by the most ingenious industry of Lorenzo. In the last space is the coming of the Holy Spirit, wherein are very sweet expressions and attitudes in those who are receiving it. This work was brought to that completion and perfection without sparing any labour or time that could be devoted to a work in bronze, seeing that the limbs of the nudes are most beautiful in every part; and in the draperies, although they hold a little to the old manner of Giotto’s time, there is a general feeling that inclines to the manner of the moderns, and produces, in figures of that size, a certain very lovely grace. And in truth the composition of each scene is so well ordered and so finely arranged, that he rightly deserved to obtain that praise which Filippo had given him at the beginning—nay, even more. And in like manner he gained most honourable recognition among his fellow-citizens, and was consummately extolled by them and by the native and foreign craftsmen. The cost of this work, with the exterior ornaments, which are also of bronze, wrought with festoons of fruits and with animals, was 22,000 florins, and the bronze door weighed 34,000 libbre. 154-9: Florence had received so much praise by reason of the excellent works of this most ingenious craftsman that the Consuls of the Guild of Merchants determined to commission him to make the third door of S. Giovanni, likewise in bronze. Now, in the door that he had made before, he had followed their directions and had made it with that ornament which goes round the figures, and which encircles the framework of both parts of the door, as in the one of Andrea Pisano; but on seeing how greatly Lorenzo had surpassed him, the Consuls determined to remove that of Andrea from its position in the centre, and to place it in the doorway that is opposite to the Misericordia, and to commission Lorenzo to make a new door to be placed in the centre, looking to him to put forth the greatest effort of which he was capable in that art. And they placed themselves in his hands, saying that they gave him leave to make it as he pleased, and in whatsoever manner he thought it would turn out as ornate, as rich, as perfect, and as beautiful as it could be made or imagined; nor was he to spare time or expense, to the end that, even as he had surpassed all other sculptors up to his own time, he might surpass and excel all his own previous works. Lorenzo began the said work, putting therein all the knowledge that he could; wherefore he divided the said door into ten squares, five on each side, so that the spaces enclosing the scenes were one braccio and a third in extent, and round them, to adorn the framework that surrounds the scenes, there are niches—upright, in that part of the door—containing figures in almost full-relief, twenty in number and all most beautiful, such as a nude Samson, who, embracing a column, with a jawbone in his hand, displays a perfection as great as can be shown by anything made in the time of the ancients, in their figures of Hercules, whether in bronze or in marble; and to this a Joshua bears witness, who, in the act of speaking, appears to be really addressing his army; besides many prophets and sibyls, all of which he adorned with various manners of draperies over their shoulders, and with head-dresses, hair, and other adornments; not to mention twelve figures which are lying down in the niches that go horizontally along the ornament of the scenes. At the

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intersections of the corners, in certain medallions, he made heads of women, of youths, and of old men, to the number of thirty-four; among which, in the middle of the said door, near the place where he engraved his own name, is the portrait of his father Bartoluccio, who is the oldest of them, while the youngest is his son Lorenzo himself, the master of the whole work; besides an infinite quantity of foliage, mouldings, and other ornaments, made with the greatest mastery. The scenes that are in the said door are from the Old Testament; and in the first is the Creation of Adam, and of Eve, his wife, who are executed most perfectly, it being evident that Lorenzo strove to make their limbs as beautiful as he was able to do, wishing to show that, even as these figures by the hand of God were the most beautiful that were ever made, so these by his own hand should surpass all the others that had been made by him in his other works—truly a very grand intention. In the same scene, likewise, he made them eating the apple, and also being driven out of Paradise; and in these actions the figures express the effect, first of their sin, recognizing their nakedness and covering it with their hands, and then of repentance, when they are made by the Angel to go forth out of Paradise. In the second square are figures of Adam and Eve, with Cain and Abel as little children, born from them; and there, also, is Abel making a sacrifice of his firstlings, with Cain making one not so good, while in the expression of Cain there is shown envy against his brother, and in Abel love towards God. And what is singularly beautiful is to see Cain ploughing the earth with a pair of oxen, which, with their labouring to pull at the yoke of the plough, appear real and natural; and the same is shown in Abel, who is watching his flocks, and Cain puts him to death, when he is seen, in a most impious and cruel attitude, slaughtering his brother with a club, in such a manner that the very bronze shows the limpness of the dead limbs in the most beautiful person of Abel; and in the distance, likewise, there is God asking Cain what he has done with Abel. Each square contains the representation of four stories. In the third square Lorenzo made Noah issuing from the Ark, with his wife, his sons and daughters, and his sons’ wives, together with all the animals, both of the air and of the earth, which, each in its kind, are wrought with the greatest perfection wherewith art is able to imitate nature; the Ark is seen open, with the poles in perspective, in very low-relief, insomuch that their grace cannot be expressed; besides that, the figures of Noah and of his kindred could not be more lively or more vivacious, while, as he is offering sacrifice, there is seen the rainbow, a sign of peace between God and Noah. But much more excellent than all the others are the scenes where he is planting the vine, and, having been made drunk by the wine, is showing his nakedness, and his son Ham is deriding him; and in truth a man sleeping could not be imitated better, the limbs being seen outstretched in drunken abandonment, while his other two sons, with consideration and love, are covering him in very beautiful attitudes; not to mention that there are the cask, the vine-leaves, and the other features of the vintage, so carefully made and fitted into certain places, that they do not impede the story, but serve as a most beautiful adornment. In the fourth scene it pleased Lorenzo to make the apparition of the three Angels in the valley of Mamre, giving them a close likeness one to the other, while that most holy patriarch is seen adoring them, with much appropriateness and vivacity in the position of his hands and the expression of his

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countenance; and, in addition, Lorenzo showed very beautiful feeling in the figures of his servants, who, remaining at the foot of the mountain with an ass, are awaiting Abraham, who had gone to sacrifice his son. Isaac is placed naked on the altar, and his father, with uplifted arm, is about to show his obedience, but he is hindered by the Angel, who is restraining him with one hand, while with the other he is pointing to where is the ram for the sacrifice, and delivering Isaac from death. This scene is truly very beautiful, since, among other things, there is seen a very great difference between the delicate limbs of Isaac and those of the servants, which are more robust; insomuch that there appears to be no touch therein that was not given with the greatest art. In this work, also, Lorenzo showed that he surpassed his own self in the difficulties of making buildings; in the birth-scene of Isaac, Jacob, and Esau; in the scene when Esau is hunting, at the wish of his father; and in that when Jacob, instructed by Rebecca, is offering the cooked kid, with its skin wrapped round his neck, while Isaac is feeling for him and giving him his blessing. In this scene there are some dogs, very beautiful and lifelike, besides the figures, which produce the very same effect that Jacob, Isaac, and Rebecca did by their actions when they were alive. Emboldened by his study of the art, which was making it ever easier to him, he tried his genius on matters more complicated and difficult; wherefore, in the sixth square, he made Joseph cast by his brethren into the well, and the scene when they sell him to the merchants, and where he is given by them to Pharaoh, to whom he interprets the dream of the famine; together with the provision against it, and the honours given by Pharaoh to Joseph. Likewise there is Jacob sending his sons for corn into Egypt, and Joseph recognizing them and making them return for their father; in which scene Lorenzo made a round temple, drawn in perspective with great mastery, wherein are figures in diverse manners which are loading corn and flour, together with some marvellous asses. Likewise there is the feast that Joseph gives them, and the hiding of the gold cup in Benjamin’s sack, and its discovery, and how he embraces and acknowledges his brethren; which scene, by reason of the many effects and the great variety of incidents, is held the most noble, the most difficult, and the most beautiful of all his works. And in truth, having so beautiful a genius and so good a grace in this manner of statuary, when there came into his mind the compositions of beautiful scenes, Lorenzo could not but make the figures most beautiful; as it is apparent in the seventh square, where he represents Mount Sinai, and on its summit Moses, who is receiving the Laws from God. Reverently kneeling, half-way up the mountain, is Joshua, who is awaiting him, and at the foot are all the people, terrified by the thunder, lightning, and earthquakes, in diverse attitudes wrought with very great vivacity. After this, he showed diligence and great love in the eighth square, wherein he made Joshua marching against Jericho and turning back the Jordan, and placed there the twelve tents of the twelve Tribes, full of very lifelike figures; but more beautiful are some in low-relief, in the scene when, as they go with the Ark round the walls of the aforesaid city, these walls fall down at the sound of trumpets, and the Hebrews take Jericho; and here the landscape is ever diminished and made lower with great judgment, from the first figures to the mountains, from

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the mountains to the city, and from the city to the distant part of the landscape, in very low relief, the whole being executed with great perfection. And since Lorenzo became from day to day more practised in that art, there is next seen, in the ninth square, the slaying of the giant Goliath by David, who is cutting off his head in a proud and boyish attitude; and the host of the Lord is routing that of the Philistines, wherein Lorenzo made horses, chariots, and other warlike things. Next, he made David returning with the head of Goliath in his hand, and the people are meeting him, sounding instruments and singing; and these effects are all appropriate and vivacious. It now remained for Lorenzo to do all that he was able in the tenth and last scene, wherein the Queen of Sheba is visiting Solomon, with a very great train; in this part he made a very beautiful building drawn in perspective, with all the other figures similar to the aforesaid scenes; not to mention the ornaments of the architraves, which go round the said doors, wherein are fruits and festoons made with his usual excellence. In this work, both in detail and as a whole, it is seen how much the ability and the power of a craftsman in statuary can effect by means of figures, some being almost in the round, some in half-relief, some in low-relief, and some in the lowest, with invention in the grouping of the figures, and extravagance of attitude both in the males and in the females; and by variety in the buildings, by perspectives, and by having likewise shown a sense of fitness in the gracious expressions of each sex throughout the whole work, giving to the old gravity, and to the young elegance and grace. And it may be said, in truth, that this work is in every way perfect, and that it is the most beautiful work which has ever been seen in the world, whether ancient or modern. And right truly does Lorenzo deserve to be praised, seeing that one day Michelagnolo Buonarroti, having stopped to look at this work, and being asked what he thought of it, and whether these doors were beautiful, answered: “They are so beautiful that they would do well for the gates of Paradise”: praise truly appropriate, and given by an able judge. And well indeed might Lorenzo complete them, seeing that from the age of twenty, when he began them, he worked at them for forty years, with labour beyond belief. 161-2: His portrait is on the principal bronze door of the Church of S. Giovanni, on the border that is in the middle when the door is closed, in the form of a bald man, and beside him is his father Bartoluccio; and near them may be read these words: LAURENTII CIONIS DE GHIBERTIS MIRA ARTE FABRICATUM. The drawings of Lorenzo were most excellent, being made with much relief, as it is seen in our book of drawings, in an Evangelist by his hand, and in some others in chiaroscuro, which are very beautiful. Parri Spinelli 171: Parri di Spinello Spinelli, painter of Arezzo, having learnt the first principles of art from his own father, was brought to Florence by the agency of Messer Leonardo Bruni of Arezzo, and was received by Lorenzo Ghiberti into his school, where many young men were learning under his discipline: and since the doors of S. Giovanni were then being given their finish, he was put to labour on those figures, in company with many others, as it has been said above.

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Filippo Brunelleschi 198: He gave much attention to perspective, which was then in a very evil plight by reason of many errors that were made therein; and in this he spent much time, until he found by himself a method whereby it might become true and perfect— namely, that of tracing it with the ground-plan and profile and by means of intersecting lines, which was something truly most ingenious and useful to the art of design. In this he took so great delight that he drew with his own hand the Piazza di S. Giovanni, with all the compartments of black and white marble wherewith that church was incrusted, which he foreshortened with singular grace; and he drew, likewise, the building of the Misericordia, with the shops of the Wafer-Makers and the Volta de’ Pecori, and the column of S. Zanobi on the other side. 200-1: After these things, in the year 1401, now that sculpture had risen to so great a height, it was determined to reconstruct the two bronze doors of the Church and Baptistery of S. Giovanni, since, from the death of Andrea Pisano to that day, they had not had any masters capable of executing them. This intention being, therefore, communicated to those sculptors who were then in Tuscany, they were sent for, and each man was given a provision and the space of a year to make one scene; and among those called upon were Filippo and Donato, each of them being required to make one scene by himself, in competition with Lorenzo Ghiberti, Jacopo della Fonte, Simone da Colle, Francesco di Valdambrina, and Niccolò d’Arezzo. These scenes, being finished in the same year and being brought together for comparison, were all most beautiful and different one from the other; one was well designed and badly wrought, as was that of Donato; another was very well designed and diligently wrought, but the composition of the scene, with the gradual diminution of the figures, was not good, as was the case with that of Jacopo della Quercia; a third was poor in invention and in the figures, which was the manner wherein Francesco di Valdambrina had executed his; and the worst of all were those of Niccolò d’Arezzo and Simone da Colle. The best was that of Lorenzo di Cione Ghiberti, which had design, diligence, invention, art, and the figures very well wrought. Nor was that of Filippo much inferior, wherein he had represented Abraham sacrificing Isaac; and in that scene a slave who is drawing a thorn from his foot, while he is awaiting Abraham and the ass is browsing, deserves no little praise. The scenes, then, being exhibited, Filippo and Donato were not satisfied with any save with that of Lorenzo, and they judged him to be better qualified for that work than themselves and the others who had made the other scenes. And so with good reasons they persuaded the Consuls to allot the work to Lorenzo, showing that thus both the public and the private interest would be best served; and this was indeed the true goodness of friendship, excellence without envy, and a sound judgment in the knowledge of their own selves, whereby they deserved more praise than if they had executed the work to perfection. Happy spirits! who, while they were assisting one another, took delight in praising the labours of others. How unhappy are those of our own day, who, not sated with injuring each other, burst with envy while

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rending others. The Consuls besought Filippo to undertake the work in company with Lorenzo, but he refused, being minded rather to be first in an art of his own than an equal or a second in that work. Wherefore he presented the scene that he had wrought in bronze to Cosimo de’ Medici, who after a time had it placed on the dossal of the altar in the old Sacristy of S. Lorenzo, where it is to be found at present; and that of Donato was placed in the Guild of the Exchange. Donatello 241-2: In the Church of S. Giovanni in the same city Donato made a tomb for Pope Giovanni Coscia, who had been deposed from the Pontificate by the Council of Constance. This tomb he was commissioned to make by Cosimo de’ Medici, who was very much the friend of the said Coscia. He wrought therein with his own hand the figure of the dead man in gilded bronze, together with the marble statues of Hope and Charity that are there; and his pupil Michelozzo made the figure of Faith. In the same church, opposite to this work, there is a wooden figure by the hand of Donato of S. Mary Magdalene in Penitence, very beautiful and excellently wrought, showing her wasted away by her fastings and abstinence, insomuch that it displays in all its parts an admirable perfection of anatomical knowledge. On a column of granite in the Mercato Vecchio there is a figure of Abundance in hard grey-stone by the hand of Donato, standing quite by itself, so well wrought that it is consummately praised by craftsmen and by all good judges of art. The column on which this statue is placed was formerly in S. Giovanni, where there are the others of granite supporting the gallery within; it was removed and its place was taken by a fluted column, on which, in the middle of that temple, there once stood the statue of Mars which was taken away when the Florentines were converted to the faith of Jesus Christ. Michelozzo Michelozzi 259-60: Now Michelozzo applied himself in his youth to sculpture under Donatello, and also to design; and although he realized their difficulties, nevertheless he went on ever practising so diligently with clay, with wax, and with marble, that he ever showed ability and great talent in the works that he made afterwards. There was one art in which he surpassed many and even his own self, for, after Brunellesco, he was held to be the most methodical architect of his times, and the one who was best able to arrange and contrive palaces, convents, and houses for human habitation, and who designed them with the greatest judgment, as will be told in the proper place. Of this man Donatello availed himself for many years, because he was very well practised in working marble and in the business of casting in bronze; of which we have proof in a tomb in S. Giovanni at Florence (which was made by Donatello, as it has been said, for Pope Giovanni Coscia), since the greater part was executed by Michelozzo; and there we can see a very beautiful marble statue by his hand, two braccia and a half in height, representing Faith (in company with one of Hope and one of Charity made by Donatello, of the same size), which does not suffer by comparison with the others. Moreover, above the door of the sacristy and the Office of Works, opposite to S. Giovanni,

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Michelozzo made a little S. John in full-relief, wrought with diligence, which was much extolled. III Cecca, engineer of Florence 194-7: It is said that the Clouds which were borne in procession throughout Florence on the festival of S. John—things truly most ingenious and beautiful— were invented by Cecca, who was much employed in such matters at that time, when the city was greatly given to holding festivals. In truth, although such festivals and representations have now fallen almost entirely out of use, they were very beautiful spectacles, and they were celebrated not only by the Companies, or rather, Confraternities, but also in the private houses of gentlemen, who were wont to form certain associations and societies, and to meet together at certain times to make merry; and among them there were ever many courtly craftsmen, who, besides being fanciful and amusing, served to make the preparations for such festivals. Among others, four most solemn public spectacles took place almost every year, one for each quarter of the city, with the exception of that of S. Giovanni, for the festival of which a most solemn procession was held, as will be told. The quarter of S. Maria Novella kept the feast of S. Ignazio; S. Croce, that of S. Bartholomew, called S. Baccio; S. Spirito, that of the Holy Spirit; and the Carmine, those of the Ascension of Our Lord and of the Assumption of Our Lady. This festival of the Ascension—for of the others of importance an account has been or will be given—was very beautiful, seeing that Christ was uplifted on a cloud covered with angels from a Mount very well made of wood, and was borne upwards to a Heaven, leaving the Apostles on the Mount; and the whole was so well contrived that it was a marvel, above all because the said Heaven was somewhat larger than that of S. Felice in Piazza, although the machinery was almost the same. And since the said Church of the Carmine, where this representation used to take place, is no little broader and higher than that of S. Felice, in addition to the part that supported Christ another Heaven was sometimes erected, according as it was thought advisable, over the chief tribune, wherein were certain great wheels made in the shape of reels, which, from the centres to the edges, moved in most beautiful order ten circles standing for the ten Heavens, which were all full of little lights representing the stars, contained in little copper lamps hanging on pivots, so that when the wheels revolved they remained upright, in the manner of certain lanterns that are now universally used by all. From this Heaven, which was truly a very beautiful thing, there issued two stout ropes fastened to the staging or tramezzo which is in the said church, and over which the representation took place. To these ropes were attached, by each end of a so-called brace-fastening, two little bronze pulleys which supported an iron upright fixed into a level platform, on which stood two angels fastened by their girdles. These angels were kept upright by a counterpoise of lead which they had under their feet, and by another that was under the platform on which they stood; and this also served to make them balanced one with another. The whole was covered with a quantity of cotton-wool, very well arranged in the form of a cloud, which was full

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of cherubim and seraphim, and similar kinds of angels, varied in colour and very well contrived. These angels, when a little rope was unwound from the Heaven above, came down the two larger ropes on to the said tramezzo, where the representation took place, and announced to Christ that He was to ascend into Heaven, and performed their other functions. And since the iron to which they were bound by the girdle was fixed to the platform on which they stood, in such a way that they could turn round and round, they could make obeisance and turn about both when they had come forth and when they were returning, according as was necessary; wherefore in reascending they turned towards the Heaven, and were then drawn up again as they had come down. These machines and inventions are said to have been Cecca’s, for, although Filippo Brunelleschi had made similar things long before, many additions were made to them with great judgment by Cecca; and it was from these that the thought came to the same man to make those Clouds which were borne in procession through the city every year on S. John’s Eve, and the other beautiful things that were made. And this was his charge, because, as it has been said, he was a servant of the public. Now with this occasion it will not be out of place to describe some of the features of the said festival and procession, to the end that some memory of them may descend to posterity, seeing that they have now for the most part fallen into disuse. First, then, the Piazza di S. Giovanni was all covered over with blue cloth, on which were sewn many large lilies of yellow cloth; and in the middle, on certain circles also of cloth, and ten braccia in diameter, were the arms of the People and Commune of Florence, with those of the Captain of the Guelph party and others; and all around, from the borders of the said canopy, which covered the whole piazza, vast as it is, there hung great banners also of cloth, painted with various devices, with the arms of magisterial bodies and guilds, and with many lions, which form one of the emblems of the city. This canopy, or rather, awning, made thus, was about twenty braccia off the ground, and was supported by very strong ropes fastened to a number of irons, which are still to be seen round the Church of S. Giovanni, on the façade of S. Maria del Fiore, and on the houses that surround the said piazza on every side. Between one rope and another ran cords that likewise supported the awning, which was so well strengthened throughout, particularly at the edges, with ropes, cords, linings, double widths of cloth, and hems of sacking, that it is impossible to imagine anything better. What is more, everything was arranged so well and with such great diligence, that although the awning was often swelled out and shaken by the wind, which is always very powerful in that place, as everyone knows, yet it was never disturbed or damaged in any way whatever. This awning was made of five pieces, to the end that it might be easier to handle, but, when set into place, they were all joined and fastened and sewn together in such a manner that it appeared like one whole. Three pieces covered the piazza and the space that is between S. Giovanni and S. Maria del Fiore; and in the middle piece, in a straight line between the principal doors, were the aforesaid circles containing the arms of the Commune. And the remaining two

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pieces covered the sides—one towards the Misericordia, and the other towards the Canon’s house and the Office of Works of S. Giovanni. 200: The same man made a structure for the cleaning and restoration of the mosaics in the tribune of S. Giovanni, which could be turned, raised, lowered, and advanced at pleasure, and that with such ease that two men could handle it; which invention gave Cecca very great repute. Antonio and Piero Pollaiuolo 237: These men were born in the city of Florence, one no long time after the other, from a father of humble station and no great wealth, who, recognizing by many signs the good and acute intelligence of his sons, but not having the means to educate them in letters, apprenticed Antonio to the goldsmith’s art under Bartoluccio Ghiberti, a very excellent master in that calling at that time; and Piero he placed under Andrea dal Castagno, who was then the best painter in Florence, to learn painting. Antonio, then, being pushed on by Bartoluccio, not only learnt to set jewels and to fire enamels on silver, but was also held the best master of the tools of that art. Wherefore Lorenzo Ghiberti, who was then working on the doors of S. Giovanni, having observed the manner of Antonio, called him into that work in company with many other young men, and set him to labour on one of the festoons which he then had in hand. 238: There lived at the same time another goldsmith called Maso Finiguerra, who had an extraordinary fame, and deservedly, since there had never been seen any master of engraving and of niello who could make so great a number of figures as he could, whether in a small or in a large space; as is still proved by certain paxes in the Church of S. Giovanni in Florence, wrought by him with most minutely elaborated stories from the Passion of Christ. This man drew very well and in abundance, and in our book are many of his drawings of figures, both draped and nude, and scenes done in water-colour. In competition with him Antonio executed certain scenes, in which he equalled him in diligence and surpassed him in design; wherefore the Consuls of the Guild of Merchants, seeing the excellence of Antonio, and remembering that there were certain scenes in silver to be wrought for the altar of S. Giovanni, such as it had ever been the custom for various masters to make at different times, determined among themselves that Antonio also should make some. This came to pass; and his works turned out so excellent, that they are recognized as the best among them all. These were the Feast of Herod and the Dance of Herodias; but more beautiful than anything else was the S. John that is in the middle of the altar, a work wrought wholly with the chasing-tool, and much extolled. For this reason he was commissioned by the said Consuls to make the candelabra of silver, each three braccia in height, and the Cross in proportion; which work he brought to such perfection, with such an abundance of carving, that it has ever been esteemed a marvellous thing both by foreigners and by his countrymen. 239: In this calling he [Paolo] took infinite pains, both with the works that he executed in gold and with those in enamel and silver. Among these are some very

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beautiful paxes in S. Giovanni, coloured by the action of fire, which are such that they could be scarcely improved with the brush; and some of his marvellous enamels may be seen in other churches in Florence, Rome, and other parts of Italy. 244: For S. Giovanni in Florence, after the design of this man, there were made two dalmatics, a chasuble, and a cope, of double brocade, all woven in one piece without a single seam; and for these, as borders and ornaments, there were embroidered the stories of the life of S. John, with most delicate workmanship and art, by Paolo da Verona, a divine master of that profession and rare in intelligence beyond all others, who executed the figures no less well with the needle than Antonio would have done them with his brush; wherefore we owe no small obligation to the one for his design and to the other for his patience in embroidering it. This work took twenty-six years to complete; but of these embroideries, which, being made with the close stitch, are not only more durable but also seem like a real painting done with the brush, the good method is now all but lost, since we now use a more open stitch, which is less durable and less lovely to the eye. Andrea Verrocchio 267: Having given a proof of his powers in these two works, he was commissioned by the Guild of Merchants to make two scenes in silver for the ends of the altar of S. Giovanni, from which, when put into execution, he acquired very great praise and fame. IV Leonardo da Vinci 91: And among these models and designs, there was one by which he often demonstrated to many ingenious citizens, who were then governing Florence, how he proposed to raise the Temple of S. Giovanni in Florence, and place steps under it, without damaging the building; and with such strong reasons did he urge this, that it appeared possible, although each man, after he had departed, would recognize for himself the impossibility of so vast an undertaking. 105: wherefore, in truth, Florence received a very great gift in the birth of Leonardo, and an incalculable loss in his death. In the art of painting, he added to the manner of colouring in oils a certain obscurity, whereby the moderns have given great force and relief to their figures. And in statuary, he proved his worth in the three figures of bronze that are over the door of S. Giovanni, on the side towards the north, executed by Giovan Francesco Rustici, but contrived with the advice of Leonardo; which are the most beautiful pieces of casting, the best designed, and the most perfect that have as yet been seen in modern days.

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V Andrea dal Monte Sansovino 24-5: Having been nine years in Portugal, and growing weary of that service, and desirous of seeing his relatives and friends in Tuscany again, Andrea determined, now that he had put together a good sum of money, to obtain leave from the King and return home. And so, having been granted permission, although not willingly, he returned to Florence, leaving behind him one who should complete such of his works as remained unfinished. After arriving in Florence, he began in the year 1500 a marble group of S. John baptizing Christ, which was to be placed over that door of the Temple of S. Giovanni that faces the Misericordia; but he did not finish it, because he was almost forced to go to Genoa, where he made two figures of marble, Christ, or rather S. John, and a Madonna, which are truly worthy of the highest praise. And those at Florence remained unfinished, and are still to be found at the present day in the Office of Works of the said S. Giovanni. VI Tribolo 29-31: In like manner, in the year when there was born to the said Lord Duke his eldest son, the Lord Don Francesco, there was to be made in the Temple of S. Giovanni in Florence a very magnificent decoration which was to be marvellous in its grandeur, and capable of accommodating one hundred most noble young maidens, who were to accompany the Prince from the Palace as far as the said temple, where he was to receive baptism. The charge of this was given to Tribolo, who, in company with Tasso, adapting himself to the place, brought it about that the temple, which in itself is ancient and very beautiful, had the appearance of a new temple designed very well in the modern manner, with seats all round it richly adorned with pictures and gilding. In the centre, beneath the lantern, he made a great vase of carved woodwork with eight sides, the base of which rested on four steps, and at the corners of the eight sides were some large caulicoles, which, springing from the ground, where there were some lions’ paws, had at the top of them certain children of large size in various attitudes, who were holding with their hands the lip of the vase, and supporting with their shoulders some festoons which hung like a garland right round the space in the middle. Besides this, Tribolo had made in the middle of the vase a pedestal of wood with beautiful things of fancy round it, upon which, to crown the work, he placed the S. John the Baptist of marble, three braccia high, by the hand of Donatello, which was left by him in the house of Gismondo Martelli, as has been related in the Life of Donatello himself. In short, this temple was adorned both within and without as well as could possibly be imagined, and the only part neglected was the principal chapel, where there is an old tabernacle with those figures in relief that Andrea Pisano made long ago; by reason of which it appeared that, every other part being made new, that old chapel spoilt all the grace that the other things together displayed. Wherefore the Duke, going one day to see those decorations, after praising everything like a man of judgment, and recognizing how well Tribolo had adapted himself to the situation

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and to every other feature of the place, censured one thing only, but that severely— that no thought had been given to the principal chapel. And then he ordained on the spot, like a person of resolute character and beautiful judgment, that all that part should be covered with a vast canvas painted in chiaroscuro, with S. John the Baptist baptizing Christ, and the people standing all around to see them or to be baptized, some taking off their clothes, and others putting them on again, in various attitudes; and above this was to be a God the Father sending down the Holy Spirit, with two fountains in the guise of river-gods, representing the Jor and the Dan, which, pouring forth water, were to form the Jordan. Jacopo da Pontormo was requested to execute this work by Messer Pier Francesco Riccio, at that time major-domo to the Duke, and by Tribolo, but he would not do it, on the ground that he did not think that the time given, which was only six days, would be enough for him; and the same refusal was made by Ridolfo Ghirlandajo, Bronzino, and many others. VIII Giovan Francesco Rustici 114-5: By these works Giovan Francesco came into great credit, and the Consuls of the Guild of Merchants, who had caused to be removed certain clumsy figures of marble that were over the three doors of the Temple of S. Giovanni (made, as has been related, in the year 1240), after allotting to Contucci of Sansovino those that were to be set up in place of the old ones over the door that faces towards the Misericordia, allotted to Rustici those that were to be placed over the door that faces towards the canonical buildings of that temple, on the condition that he should make three figures of bronze of four braccia each, representing the same persons as the old ones—namely, S. John in the act of preaching, standing between a Pharisee and a Levite. That work was much after the heart of Giovan Francesco, because it was to be set up in a place so celebrated and of such importance, and, besides this, by reason of the competition with Andrea Contucci. Having therefore straightway set his hand to it and made a little model, which he surpassed in the excellence of the work itself, he showed all the consideration and diligence that such a labour required. When finished, the work was held to be in all its parts the best composed and best conceived of its kind that had been made up to that time, the figures being wholly perfect and wrought with great grace of aspect and also extraordinary force. In like manner, the nude arms and legs are very well conceived, and attached at the joints so excellently, that it would not be possible to do better; and, to say nothing of the hands and feet, what graceful attitudes and what heroic gravity have those heads! Giovan Francesco, while he was fashioning that work in clay, would have no one about him but Leonardo da Vinci, who, during the making of the moulds, the securing them with irons, and, in short, until the statues were cast, never left his side; wherefore some believe, but without knowing more than this, that Leonardo worked at them with his own hand, or at least assisted Giovan Francesco with his advice and good judgment. These statues, which are the most perfect and the best conceived that have ever been executed in bronze by a modern master, were cast in

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three parts and polished in the above-mentioned house in the Via de’ Martelli where Giovan Francesco lived; and so, also, the ornaments of marble that are about the S. John, with the two columns, the mouldings, and the emblem of the Guild of Merchants. In addition to the S. John, which is a spirited and lively figure, there is a bald man inclined to fatness, beautifully wrought, who, having rested the right arm on one flank, with part of a shoulder naked, and with the left hand holding a scroll before his eyes, has the left leg crossed over the right, and stands in an attitude of deep contemplation, about to answer S. John; and he is clothed in two kinds of drapery, one delicate, which floats over the nude parts of the figure, and over that a mantle of thicker texture, executed with a flow of folds full of mastery and artistry. Equal to him is the Pharisee, who, having laid his right hand on his beard, with a grave gesture, is drawing back a little, revealing astonishment at the words of John. IX Michelangelo 112: Passing by S. Giovanni in Florence, he was asked his opinion of those doors, and he answered: “They are so beautiful that they would do well at the gates of Paradise.” 113-4: A priest, his friend, said to him: “It is a pity that you have not taken a wife, so that you might have had many children and left them all your honourable labours.” And Michelagnolo replied: “I have only too much of a wife in this art of mine, who has always kept me in tribulation, and my children shall be the works that I may leave, which, even if they are naught, will live a while. Woe to Lorenzo di Bartoluccio Ghiberti, if he had not made the gates of S. Giovanni, for his children and grandchildren sold or squandered all that he left, but the gates are still standing.” Jacopo Sansovino 187: The while that Andrea Contucci, the sculptor of Monte Sansovino, having already acquired in Italy and Spain the name of the most excellent sculptor and architect that there was in art after Buonarroti, was living in Florence in order to execute the two figures of marble that were to be placed over that door of the Temple of S. Giovanni which faces towards the Misericordia, a young man was entrusted to him to be taught the art of sculpture, the son of Antonio di Jacopo Tatti, whom Nature had endowed with a great genius, so that he gave much grace to the things that he did in relief. 193-4: In the year 1514, when festive preparations of great richness were to be made in Florence for the coming of Pope Leo X, orders were given by the Signoria and by Giuliano de’ Medici that many triumphal arches of wood should be made in various parts of the city. Whereupon Sansovino not only executed the designs for many of these, but himself undertook in company with Andrea del Sarto to construct the façade of S. Maria del Fiore all of wood, with statues, scenes, and architectural orders, exactly in the manner wherein it would be well for it to be in

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order to remove all that there is in it of the German order of composition. Having therefore set his hand to this (to say nothing in this place of the awning of cloth that used to cover the Piazza of S. Maria del Fiore and that of S. Giovanni for the festival of S. John and for others of the greatest solemnity, since we have spoken sufficiently of this in another place), beneath that awning, I say, Sansovino constructed the said façade in the Corinthian Order, making it in the manner of a triumphal arch, and placing upon an immense base double columns on each side, and between them certain great niches filled with figures in the round that represented the Apostles. Above these were some large scenes in half-relief, made in the likeness of bronze, with stories from the Old Testament, some of which are still to be seen in the house of the Lanfredini on the bank of the Arno; and over them followed architraves, friezes, and cornices, projecting outwards, and then frontispieces of great beauty and variety; and in the angles of the arches, both in the wide parts and below, were stories painted in chiaroscuro by the hand of Andrea del Sarto, and very beautiful. In short, this work of Sansovino’s was such that Pope Leo, seeing it, said that it was a pity that the real façade of that temple was not so built, which was begun by the German Arnolfo. X Giorgio Vasari 187: All these pictures, although perhaps at that time they pleased me, and were made by me as best I knew, I know not how much they please me at my present age; but, since art in herself is difficult, it is necessary to take from him who paints the best that he can do. This, indeed, I will say, because I can say it with truth, that I have always executed my pictures, inventions, and designs, whatever may be their value, I do not say only with the greatest possible rapidity, but also with incredible facility and without effort; for which let me call to witness, as I have mentioned in another place, the vast canvas that I painted in six days only, for S. Giovanni in Florence, in the year 1542, for the baptism of the Lord Don Francesco de’ Medici, now Prince of Florence and Siena.

BOCCHI, 33-6: 4 33: One then arrives at the memorable church of San Giovanni Battista. In antiquity it was dedicated to Mars. When idolatry had been eradicated and the sacred faith instituted, it was transformed into the baptistery of the city and dedicated to St. John the Baptist, protector and advocate of the Florentines. This church is commendable for its workmanship and is constructed with so sound a method that it comes close to the perfection of the ancient buildings of Rome, and

4

Cited in this volume by kind concession of the editors and of the publishing house. Since square brackets were already in use by the editors in the text, omissions are marked by {…}.

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therefore it was much studied and imitated by moderns so as to improve their buildings. The Florentine painter Andrea Tafi and the Greek Apollonius executed the mosaics of the dome, in which one sees the orders of celestial spirits; also represented there are the life of Jesus Christ, and the actions of St. John the Baptist. In addition this church has three bronze doors of wonderful beauty, one made by Andrea Pisano, and the other two by the Florentine sculptor Lorenzo Ghiberti. All show sacred histories, as one sees. But the one opposite the Opera (Office of the Works) of the Church and the central one are executed with such unique and uncommon workmanship that they are regarded as miraculous rather than merely outstanding. Truly, if these two doors by Ghiberti were visible only on occasion, and not, as is the case, at any time, there is no doubt that they would rightly be counted among the most valuable wonders of the world. 34/5: Above the door of this noble church that faces the Misericordia, there are, as one sees, three very beautiful bronze figures made by Vicenzio Danti of Perugia. Similarly, over the median door one sees three marble figures showing St. John baptising Our Saviour, more than half completed, with the very greatest perfection, by Andrea Sansovino, and then finished in the rare and singular form one sees now by the same Vincenzio Danti. But the three bronze figures of singular beauty above the door facing the Opera were made by Giovan Francesco Rustici, a Florentine gentleman. Here St. John, placed in the middle, debates with a doctor of the Old Law, with gestures so apt that they seem alive. A Pharisee is next to them, his hand placed on his beard; his expression reveals his admiration for the wisdom, which comes from the mouth of the Saint. Furthermore, inside there are many figures noteworthy for their workmanship. Outstanding among them is a penitent St. Mary Magdalen, consumed by abstinence and fasting. She is carved in wood by Donatello; the design is so beautiful that she seems entirely real and alive. Then there is the tomb of Baldassar Cossa, once named Pope John XXIV, deposed during the Council of Constance. One sees Cossa’s effigy in gilt bronze, also by Donatello, as are Hope and Charity in marble, most excellent figures displaying wonderful workmanship. The figure of Faith is by Michelozzo. 35: {valuable objects and relics} On the exterior, flanking the central door, one sees two porphyry columns, considered rare because of their great width. They were given as a present by the Pisans to the Florentines, but in an envious and deceitful spirit. {…} The marble column one sees outside the door that leads to the Opera was erected to keep the memory of the miracle of St. Zenobius alive. {the miracle of the elm tree}

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BALDINUCCI S Giovanni (Baptistery): I.73-76; I.78 & 84; I.89; I.93; I.97; I.209-10; I.219 & 226; I.293; I.300; I.318 & 341; I. 351, 353-4, 370-3 & 382; I.406; I.469; I.488; I.519; I.532; I.533; I.571; II.369, 370, 381 & 508; III.421; V.394. RICHA, part III, tome V, Introduction, iii-lxix.:

CHAPTER TWO FLORENCE CATHEDRAL, DOME AND BELL TOWER

Piazza del Duomo, for more information, please visit http://operaduomo.firenze.it/.

History The Basilica of Santa Maria del Fiore is the Cathedral (Duomo) of Florence (Fig. 2 a). It was begun in c.1296 in the Gothic style after the design of Arnolfo di Cambio to replace the previous church of Santa Reparata, probably founded in the fifth century. Florence Cathedral long had to await completion by a dome set over the drum until Filippo Brunelleschi finally found a solution to this particular problem. The exterior of the basilica is covered by polychrome marble revetments in green, pink and white and bears an elaborate nineteenth-century façade designed by Emilio de Fabris (1808-1883) after he had won a competition held in 1864. Work on the façade went on from 1876 to 1887. In the Museum of the Opera del Duomo some of the original works of art as well as models and the remains of Arnolfo’s façade may be viewed. While the Cathedral is open to visitors free of charge, access to Brunelleschi’s dome as well as to the excavation area of Santa Reparata and to Giotto’s Bell Tower requires a ticket. The cathedral complex, including the Baptistery (chapter 1) and Giotto’s Campanile, has served as the religious centre of Florence at least since the fifth century. The Basilica of Santa Maria del Fiore had been built over the site of Santa Reparata, when the early-Christian building was no longer safe, as reported by Giovanni Villani (1276-1348). It had also become too small for a city that experienced considerable growth in the second half of the thirteenth century. The (now) subterranean area of Santa Reparata was excavated under the direction of Franklin Toker between 1965 and 1974. Confusingly, the new cathedral at first kept the name of Santa Reparata, which is the reason why we find it mentioned as such in the chronicles and other sources cited at the end of this chapter.

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Some of the other major Florentine churches were also built after 1250, including those of Santa Croce (chapter 6) and Santa Maria Novella (chapter 17), as well as important palazzi, among them the seat of the republican government, Palazzo dei Priori (Palazzo Vecchio). The leading architect and sculptor at this time in Florence was Arnolfo di Cambio (c.1245-1302) who brought back a sense of monumental scale in his architecture and a feeling of the natural in his all’antica sculpture. His design of a three-nave basilica probably included plans for a huge octagonal dome inspired by the Pantheon in Rome. The building work got off to a good start and Arnolfo completed several of the statues for a first polychrome façade (Museum of the Opera del Duomo). Arnolfo’s efforts were acknowledged in 1300 when he was exempted from tax by the Florentine Republic. He died two years later in 1302, not seeing his project to completion. After his death, there was a hiatus of nearly 30 years until in 1331 the Arte della Lana (Guild of Wool Merchants) assumed responsibility and appointed Giotto di Bondone (1266-1337) as architect of the Cathedral and its Bell Tower. Giotto followed Arnolfo’s design for Santa Maria del Fiore but concentrated on building the campanile, assisted by Andrea Pisano who was to continue with this project beyond Giotto’s death in 1337. Again interrupted, this time by the plague of 1348, work on the Cathedral was continued by several architects, perhaps most notably Francesco Talenti, who managed to complete the campanile. He enlarged Arnolfo’s original project for the Cathedral and thereby made the issue of the dome even more difficult to solve with traditional engineering techniques. By 1380, the nave was finished so that in 1418 only the dome remained to be built. Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446) finally won the contest of 1419 and proposed an innovative solution inspired by the dome of the Baptistery but technically rather different to ancient and mediaeval engineering models. Florence Cathedral has long played a similarly important role in Florentine public consciousness as the Baptistery. Its dome looming over the cityscape can still be seen from nearly everywhere in Florence. In this church building, some key events took place, such as the Council of Florence held in 1439 as well as the attack on the lives of Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici during high mass on Easter Sunday 1478.

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Figure 2 a: The nineteenth-century façade of Florence Cathedral by Emilio de Fabris (photo: VG).

Architecture Florence Cathedral is essentially an example of Tuscan Gothic style with some early/high Renaissance additions. This is a different kind of Gothic compared to what we know from northern France and Germany. It filtered south through the work of northern architects (Arnolfo himself was reputed to be of “German” extraction), but their designs were translated into actual buildings by the work of Italian masons. The Italian dislike for flying buttresses and pinnacles meant that solidity of the structures was achieved by an emphasis of the horizontal over the vertical, by the help of sturdy pillars, and by massive arcade walls with few windows that provided the space for monuments, wall tombs and frescoed decoration. As a three-nave church building (Fig. 2 b), Santa Maria del Fiore centres around an octagonal crossing (with a diameter of 42m), crowned by Brunelleschi’s enormous dome perched on an octagonal drum shored up by external exedrae. The interior is decorated in white and grey, while the

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exterior is covered in pink, white and green marble revetments using local Tuscan stone. Arnolfo di Cambio had designed a façade, which was partially executed by him. The Opera del Duomo Museum houses most of the remains of this first unfinished façade and a very detailed model of what it had looked like. The model is based on a drawing made in the sixteenth century by Bernardino Poccetti (1587), just before Grand Duke Francesco de’ Medici ordered Bernardo Buontalenti to take the façade down and to make a complete and up-to-date design. The same museum also displays a number of models of designs proposed during a sixteenth-century competition that, however, were never built so that Florence Cathedral went from having half a façade to having none until the nineteenth century. The interior receives light from four out of six delicate lateral windows close to the transept as well as from round windows (oculi) of the clerestory. The present marble flooring of the cathedral was laid in the sixteenth century, under Medici patronage. It led to the destruction of the original brick pavement and, because of the necessary excavations, to several discoveries such as tombs. The new flooring is attributed to Baccio d’Agnolo and Francesco da Sangallo and was commissioned by Cosimo I. Baccio Bandinelli created the octagonal choir enclosure underneath the dome. Apart from the three doors facing the Baptistery, two lateral porches, the Porta della Mandorla (Fig. 2 c) and the Porta della Canonica provide access to the cathedral. The greatest architectural feat was the creation of a dome, spanning the 42m-wide crossing of nave and transept. Arnolfo’s original design probably included plans for a dome, but the overall enlargement of his plans by Francesco Talenti meant that the opening was now even larger and could not be tackled by the traditional engineering method of “centering”. This method would have meant the construction of a wooden scaffolding, posing serious logistical demands in terms of building material (wooden planks of sufficient length), and would likely have collapsed under its own weight. Alternatives were suggested, including the creation of a large mound of earth, on which to lay the dome’s masonry. Despite Florentine ambitions to build something comparable to the dome of the Roman Pantheon, the drum, on which the projected Florentine dome was supposed to sit was large and octagonal and, therefore, impossible as the foundation of a hemispherical all’antica dome. When the Arte della Lana held a competition in 1418, the two main

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rivals were once again Lorenzo Ghiberti and Filippo Brunelleschi. The outcome may have been a tie; in any case, the two architects were supposed to work together and both were going to receive a salary for this commission for some years. While Ghiberti had previously won the competition for the bronze doors of the Baptistery and would be busy with the Gates of Paradise from 1425 to 1452, Brunelleschi had the support of the Medici as well as the more convincing solution. He also had acquired considerable experience in building a number of (smaller) domes in Florence. Brunelleschi’s solution came in the shape of an elongated octagonal dome made from two shells constructed from a cage of masonry arches and filled mostly by brickwork laid in a herringbone pattern to reduce the weight but to offer great structural solidity. To achieve this, no scaffolding was necessary, since each ring of the construction was completed and fixed in place before the next layer was begun. Not being able to use concrete as the ancient Romans would have done, Brunelleschi had huge chains slung around the inner shell to anchor it in place. Several models of this structure are preserved in the Opera del Duomo Museum as well as some of the tools invented by Brunelleschi for hoisting blocks of stone etc. The lower parts of the domes were built with stone masonry; the higher, inward leaning parts were constructed from brickwork to make the dome construction as light, and the outward thrust as little pronounced as possible. Still, the construction weighs nearly 40,000 tons. Brunelleschi started work on the dome in 1420 and finished his masterwork in 1436. On 25 March 1436 Pope Eugenius IV, another friend of Cosimo’s, consecrated the now completed Cathedral. The octagonal lantern with buttresses fixed to the arches, built to anchor the construction firmly in place and to weigh it down in its centre, was inspired by the lantern of the Baptistery and built from 1446 to 1461, following another competition won by Brunelleschi. Brunelleschi began work on the lantern shortly before his death and his friend Michelozzo Michelozzi completed it nearly 20 years later. An enormous gilt copper ball and cross were designed and executed by Andrea del Verrocchio, then master of Leonardo da Vinci, in 1469. It was struck by lightning on 17 July 1600 and fell down into the piazza where the spot of its impact on the pavement is marked to this day. The ball was replaced in 1602. Baccio d’Agnolo’s decorations for the drum’s gallery were discontinued after Michelangelo had compared them to a cricket cage.

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Figure 2 b: Plan of the basilica of Santa Maria del Fiore (plan SC). The length is 153m, the width in the nave 38m and at the crossing 90m. The distance between the pavement and the opening of the lantern in the dome amounts to 90m.

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Art The interior of Florence cathedral is sparsely decorated but nonetheless houses important monuments and several tombs of people closely connected to the history of the Florentine Republic and the (Gran) Ducato. Memorials in the left aisle refer to Arnolfo and Giotto (bust of Giotto by Benedetto da Maiano), whereas Brunelleschi was buried in the crypt out of respect for his achievement as the engineer of the famous dome. Conrad II of Italy’s tomb was placed in the first cathedral of Santa Reparata, while Don Pedro of Toledo, viceroy of Naples and father-in-law of Duke Cosimo I, was buried in Santa Maria del Fiore after his death in Florence in 1553. The memory of Saint Zenobius, the first bishop of Florence, is kept alive by an altar in the central apse with a silver shrine by Ghiberti for the saint’s relics. The mosaic The Bust of Saint Zenobius by Gherardo di Giovanni di Miniato (and/or his brother Monte di Giovanni di Miniato) is now displayed at the Opera del Duomo Museum. As already mentioned, the museum also hosts most of the remains of the cathedral’s first façade, dedicated to the Mother of Christ (as is the present de Fabris façade). Above the three main doors Arnolfo’s Nativity, Madonna Enthroned with Santa Reparata and Saint Zenobius, as well as his Dormitio Virginis (the Dormition of the Virgin Mary, a plaster cast, since the original is in Berlin) were displayed. In particular, the icy blue glass paste eyes of the Enthroned Madonna kept the Florentines in awe, while the statue of Santa Reparata has long given rise to scholarly debate whether it was an original work of art created by Arnolfo or a reused antiquity. Today the consensus favours the all’antica original alternative. Also preserved in the Museum are the fifteenth-century cantorie (choristers’ singing galleries) by Luca della Robbia and Donatello as well as the sculptural decoration of the Bell Tower, depicting church sacraments, representations of the professions organised in the Florentine guild system as well as scenes from the Old Testament and ancient mythology, including Greek and Roman gods and heroes. Hercules appears in two places, on the Bell Tower and on Nanni di Banco’s Porta della Mandorla (Fig. 2 c), whose original door frame has been in the Museum since restoration. Still in place inside the cathedral are a number of renowned works that attest to the great skills and technical progress of Florentine artists of the fifteenth century. Prominent among these are two frescoes side by side on the left arcade wall. There, Paolo Uccello and Andrea del Castagno

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created painted monuments to two condottieri (mercenary military leaders) in the service of the Florentine Republic. Both Giovanni Acuto (Sir John Hawkwood, 1436) and Niccolò da Tolentino (1456) are shown in a pictorial representation of an equestrian statue, which allowed the two artists to demonstrate their considerable talents in and enthusiasm for the then new technique of one-point perspective. The frescoes were stripped off the walls in the nineteenth century and later reattached with added decorative borders. Paolo Uccello also created the monumental clock face with frescoed decoration (1443) on the counter façade under the rose window. This is a 24 hour clock running from sunrise to sunset according to the Hora Italica (Italian hours) and was used until the eighteenth century. In 1465 Domenico di Michelino created a depiction of Dante Alighieri (1265-1321) and scenes from the Divine Comedy (on the left arcade wall), which includes a mid-fifteenth-century view of Florence (and thus too late for Dante), showing the then unfinished façade of Santa Maria del Fiore. While Brunelleschi had proposed that his dome should be decorated with mosaics, this project was never carried out. For over a hundred years the dome’s interior remained whitewashed until Cosimo I de’ Medici commissioned Giorgio Vasari (1511-1574) to fresco the vault with a Last Judgement in 1568. Federico Zuccari and other former assistants took over after Vasari’s death in 1574 and finished the lower parts of the enormous surface using secco technique over the next five years. The Last Judgement underwent fourteen years of restoration from 1981 to 1995. Florence Cathedral is famous for its stained-glass windows created by some of the most renowned artists, for example the rose window high up on the main façade and another in the drum of the dome. Both depict a Coronation of the Virgin and were designed by Gaddo Gaddi and Donatello respectively in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.

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Figure 2 c: Detail of the Porta della Mandorla, north façade of Santa Maria del Fiore, with sculptures by Nanni del Banco et al. (photo: VG). Bibl: Borsook 1983, 53-8 and 68-78; Campbell and Cole 2012, 53-8 and 64-7, 76, and 94-5, 97, and 120 and 123-5, 132, 138, 143, 146, 150, 179, 187, 216, 239, 2445; Cesati 2002, 48-51; Crispino 1999, 50-7; De Boer 2010, annotations 16-39: 11425; Goy 2015, 33-41 and 46-8; Hartt & Wilkins 2007, 68-9, 92-3, 163-6, 177-82, 192-4, 253-6, 265-6, and 278-80; Horstmann 2011, 141-7; Kleiner 2010, 213, 229, and 241-2; Martines 2003, 116; Mercanti and Straffi 2001, 74-83 and 90-3; Murray 2004, 24, 26-8, 30-41; Neri Lusanna 2005; Paatz 1952, III, 320-612; Paolucci 2006, 56-81; Poggi-Haines 1988; Schneider Adams 2001, 64-8, 89, 122-31; Toker 1974, 2010, 2013 and 2016; Tovey 2005, 308-9; Trachtenberg 1997, 27-85; Verdon, Coppellotti, Fabbri 2000, 62-9; Verdon ed. 1998, vol. 7. Sources: VILLANI II § 1.46 And thus was destroyed the noble city of Florence by the infamous Totila 450 a.d. on the 28th day of June, in the year of Christ 450, to wit 520 years after its foundation; and in the said city the blessed Maurice, bishop of Florence, was put to

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death with great torments by the followers of Totila, and his body lies in Santa Reparata. 1213 a.d. § 37.119-20—Concerning the death of the old Count Guido, and of his progeny. 120: This Count Guido Vecchio took to wife the daughter of M. Bellincione Berti of the Rovignani, which was the greatest and the most honoured knight in Florence, and his houses which were at Porta San Piero above the Old Gate descended by heritage to the Counts. This lady was named Gualdrada, and he took her for her beauty and her fair speech, beholding her in S. Reparata, with the other ladies and maidens of Florence. For when the Emperor Otho IV. came to Florence, and saw the fair ladies of the city assembled in Santa Reparata, in his honour, this maiden most pleased the Emperor; and her father saying to the Emperor that he had it in his power to bid her kiss him, the maiden made answer that there was no man living which should kiss her, save he were her husband, for the which speech, the Emperor much commended her; and the said Count Guido being taken with love of her by reason of her graciousness, and by the counsel of the said Otho, the Emperor, took her to wife, not regarding that she was of less noble lineage than he, nor regarding her dowry; VIII 1294 a.d. § 9.312—When the building of the great church of Santa Reparata was begun. [http://www.poderesantapia.com/art/nuovacronica/nuovacronica.htm] Villani describes the rebuilding of Florence after the 1293 rebellion of one Giano della Bella; he notes that by 1296 conditions were once again in a “tranquil state”. He states that the citizens of Florence were discontented with the small stature of their cathedral, one that did not fit the greatness of their city, and so agreed in 1296 to expand and renew the building. A new foundation was laid in September of that year, adding new marble and sculptural figures. Villani mentions the cardinal legate sent by the Pope in Rome who laid the first stone of the foundation, a significant event since it was the first papal legate to visit Florence. Villani relates that for the construction of the church, it was required of the Commune of Florence that a subsidy of four denari on each libra be paid out of the city treasury in addition to a head-tax of two soldi for each adult male. On July 18, 1334, work began on the new campanile (bell tower) of the cathedral, the first stone placed by the bishop of Florence in front of an audience of clergy, priors, and other magistrates. Villani notes that the commune chose “our fellow-citizen Giotto” as the designer of the tower, a man who was “the most sovereign master of painting in his time

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ALBERTINI 94-5: Santa Maria del Fiore The Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, commonly called Santa Reparata. I will not write how stupendous and wonderful this church is, because anyone who has not seen it in all its detail would not believe it; and it is being continually worked on, and has so far cost two million in gold and more than six hundred thousand florins. This sumptuous building, made from ashlar, has a perimeter of 782 2/3 braccia [456.77m]. The exterior is entirely inlaid with various marbles, richly decorated with marble and porphyry statues by noteworthy sculptors, above all the first giant by Donatello, near the door where Nanni di Banco produced a marble relief of the Assumption, above the Annunciation in mosaic by Domenico Ghirlandaio. On the façade there is a seated evangelist, a statue of a bending figure; and, in a corner, an old man all by Donatello. But to tell you the truth, I find this façade, which Lorenzo de’ Medici wanted to remove and complete to perfection, to be without order or proportion; and before I leave Florence (Deo Dante [“God willing”]), I shall show you a model of my design for it, and I believe you not be disappointed; […]. Let us return to architecture and, in particular, to Florence Cathedral, embellished with various types of marbles, mosaics and marble floor. There are two sacristies in this church, each with a pair of organs. Donatello sculpted one of their ornaments and also made the marble washbasin in the sacristy and the bronze shrine in the chapel of Saint Zenobius. The other organs were adorned by Luca della Robbia, who [also] made the door of the new sacristy. I must also mention the crucifix in the choir, the marble head of Giotto by Benedetto da Maiano, the horse in terra verde by Paolo Uccello, and the white one by Andrea del Castagnbo, the crosses and the candlesticks of silver and the beautiful vases made by excellent artists, with the four books with silver binding. The height of the testudinete and double dome is 54 braccia [31.51 m], not counting the marble ornaments that measure 36 braccia [21.01 m] and the 4 and a half braccia [2.63 m] high gilded copper ball; an amazing thing. The beautiful marble bell tower is 144 braccia [84.04 m] high and adorned with various friezes and very beautiful statues, among which the four tall ones that face the Door of the Canons are by Donatello.

VASARI I Cimabue 8: Now because, by means of these works, Cimabue had acquired a very great name, together with much profit, he was appointed as architect, in company with Arnolfo Lapi, a man then excellent in architecture, for the building of S. Maria del

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Fiore in Florence. But at length, having lived sixty years, he passed to the other life in the year 1300, having little less than resurrected painting. He left many disciples, and among others Giotto, who was afterwards an excellent painter; which Giotto dwelt, after Cimabue, in his master’s own house in the Via del Cocomero. Cimabue was buried in S. Maria del Fiore, with that epitaph made for him by one of the Nini: CREDIDIT UT CIMABOS PICTURÆ CASTRA TENERE, SIC TENUIT, VIVENS: NUNC TENET ASTRA POLI. Arnolfo di Cambio 22-3: After these works, the Florentines determined, as Giovanni Villani relates in his History, to build a principal church in their city, and to build it such that in point of greatness and magnificence there could be desired none larger or more beautiful from the industry and knowledge of men; and Arnolfo made the design and the model of the never to be sufficiently praised Church of S. Maria del Fiore, ordering that it should be all incrusted, without, with polished marbles and with the so many cornices, pilasters, columns, carved foliage, figures, and other ornaments, with which to-day it is seen brought, if not to the whole, to a great part at least of its perfection. And what was marvellous therein above everything else was this, that incorporating, besides S. Reparata, other small churches and houses that were round it, in making the site, which is most beautiful, he showed so great diligence and judgment in causing the foundations of so great a fabric to be made broad and deep, filling them with good material—namely, with gravel and lime and with great stones below—wherefore the square is still called “Lungo i Fondamenti,” that they have been very well able, as is to be seen to-day, to support the weight of the great mass of the cupola which Filippo di Ser Brunellesco raised over them. The laying of such foundations for so great a church was celebrated with much solemnity, for on the day of the Nativity of Our Lady, in 1298, the first stone was laid by the Cardinal Legate of the Pope, in the presence not only of many Bishops and of all the clergy, but of the Podestà as well, the Captains, Priors, and other magistrates of the city, nay, of the whole people of Florence, calling it S. Maria del Fiore. And because it was estimated that the expenses of this fabric must be very great, as they afterwards were, there was imposed a tax at the Chamber of the Commune of four danari in the lira on everything that was put out at interest, and two soldi per head per annum; not to mention that the Pope and the Legate granted very great indulgences to those who should make them offerings thereunto. I will not forbear to say, moreover, that besides the foundations, very broad and fifteen braccia deep, much consideration was shown in making those buttresses of masonry at every angle of the eight sides, seeing that it was these afterwards that emboldened the mind of Brunellesco to superimpose a much greater weight than that which Arnolfo, perchance, had thought to impose thereon. It is said that while the two first side-doors of S. Maria del Fiore were being begun in marble Arnolfo caused some fig-leaves to be carved on a frieze, these being the arms of himself and of Maestro Lapo, his father, and that therefore it may be believed that from him the family of the Lapi had its origin, to-day a noble family in Florence. Others

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say, likewise, that from the descendants of Arnolfo there descended Filippo di Ser Brunellesco. 25: After all these works and many more that Arnolfo made, no less convenient and useful than beautiful, he died at the age of seventy, in 1300, at the very time when Giovanni Villani began to write the Universal History of his times. And because he not only left S. Maria del Fiore founded, but its three principal tribunes, which are under the cupola, vaulted, to his own great glory, he well deserved that there should be made a memorial of him on the corner of the church opposite the Campanile, with these verses carved in marble in round letters: ANNIS · MILLENIS · CENTUM · BIS · OCTO · NOGENIS · VENIT · LEGATUS · ROMA · BONITATE · DOTATUS · QUI · LAPIDEM · FIXIT · FUNDO · SIMUL · ET · BENEDIXIT · PRÆSULE · FRANCISCO · GESTANTE · PONTIFICATUM · ISTUD · AB · ARNOLFO · TEMPLUM · FUIT · ÆDIFICATUM · HOC · OPUS · INSIGNE · DECORANS · FLORENTIA · DIGNE · REGINÆ · CŒLI · CONSTRUXIT · MENTE · FIDELI · QUAM · TU · VIRGO · PIA · SEMPER · DEFENDE · MARIA 25-6: And the picture of the Church of S. Maria del Fiore—namely, of the outer side with the cupola—by the hand of Simone Sanese, is to be seen in the Chapterhouse of S. Maria Novella, copied from the original in wood that Arnolfo made; wherein it is noticeable that he had thought to raise the dome immediately over the walls, at the edge of the first cornice, whereas Filippo di Ser Brunellesco, in order to relieve them of weight and to make it more graceful, added thereto, before he began to raise it, all that height wherein to-day are the round windows; which circumstance would be even clearer than it is, if the little care and diligence of those who have directed the Works of S. Maria del Fiore in the years past had not left the very model that Arnolfo made to go to ruin, and afterwards those of Brunellesco and of the others. Giovanni Pisano 39: But returning to Giovanni; having departed from Orvieto, he came to Florence, in order to see the fabric of S. Maria del Fiore that Arnolfo was making, and likewise to see Giotto, of whom he had heard great things spoken abroad; and no sooner had he arrived in Florence than he was charged by the Wardens of the said fabric of S. Maria del Fiore to make the Madonna which is over that door of the church that leads to the Canon’s house, between two little angels; which work was then much praised. Gaddo Gaddi 56: Wherefore, growing in courage and being disposed to work by himself, he applied himself continually to studying the Greek manner together with that of Cimabue. Whence, after no long time, having become excellent in the art, there was allotted to him by the Wardens of Works of S. Maria del Fiore the lunette over the principal door within the church, wherein he wrought in mosaic the Coronation

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of Our Lady; which work, when finished, was judged by all the masters, both foreign and native, the most beautiful that had yet been seen in all Italy in that craft, there being recognized therein more design, more judgment, and more diligence than in all the rest of the works in mosaic that were then to be found in Italy. Giotto di Bondone 87-8: After these works, in the year 1334, on July 9, he put his hand to the Campanile of S. Maria del Fiore, whereof the foundation was a platform of strong stone, in a pit sunk twenty braccia deep from which water and gravel had been removed; upon this platform he made a good mass of concrete, that reached to the height of twelve braccia above the first foundation, and the rest—namely, the other eight braccia—he caused to be made of masonry. And at this beginning and foundation there officiated the Bishop of the city, who, in the presence of all the clergy and all the magistrates, solemnly laid the first stone. This work, then, being carried on with the said model, which was in the German manner that was in use in those times, Giotto designed all the scenes that were going into the ornamentation, and marked out the model with white, black, and red colours in all those places wherein the marbles and the friezes were to go, with much diligence. The circuit round the base was one hundred braccia—that is, twenty-five braccia for each side—and the height, one hundred and forty-four braccia. And if that is true, and I hold it as of the truest, which Lorenzo di Cione Ghiberti has left in writing, Giotto made not only the model of this campanile, but also part of those scenes in marble wherein are the beginnings of all the arts, in sculpture and in relief. And the said Lorenzo declares that he saw models in relief by the hand of Giotto, and in particular those of these works; which circumstance can be easily believed, design and invention being father and mother of all these arts and not of one alone. This campanile was destined, according to the model of Giotto, to have a spire, or rather a pyramid, four-sided and fifty braccia high, as a completion to what is now seen; but, for the reason that it was a German idea and in an old manner, modern architects have never done aught but advise that it should not be made, the work seeming to be better as it is. For all these works Giotto was not only made citizen of Florence, but was given a pension of one hundred florins yearly by the Commune of Florence, which was something very great in those times; and he was made overseer over this work, which was carried on after him by Taddeo Gaddi, for he did not live so long as to be able to see it finished. 89: Giotto was buried in S. Maria del Fiore, on the left side as you enter the church, where there is a slab of white marble in memory of so great a man. And, as was told in the Life of Cimabue, a commentator of Dante, who lived at the same time as Giotto, said: “Giotto was and is the most eminent among painters in the same city of Florence, and his works bear testimony for him in Rome, in Naples, in Avignon, in Florence, in Padua, and in many other parts of the world.” 94: Finally, seeing that there remained memory of Giotto not only in the works that issued from his hands, but in those also that issued from the hand of the writers of those times, he having been the man who recovered the true method of painting,

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which had been lost for many years before him; therefore, by public decree and by the effort and particular affection of the elder Lorenzo de’ Medici, the Magnificent, in admiration of the talent of so great a man his portrait was placed in S. Maria del Fiore, carved in marble by Benedetto da Maiano, an excellent sculptor, together with the verses written below, made by that divine man, Messer Angelo Poliziano, to the end that those who should become excellent in any profession whatsoever might be able to cherish a hope of obtaining, from others, such memorials as these that Giotto deserved and obtained in liberal measure from his goodness: Ille ego sum, per quem pictura extincta revixit, Cui quam recta manus, tam fuit et facilis. Naturæ deerat nostræ quod defuit arti; Plus licuit nulli pingere, nec melius. Miraris turrim egregiam sacro ære sonantem? Hæc quoque de modulo crevit ad astra meo. Denique sum Jottus, quid opus fuit illa referre? Hoc nomen longi carminis instar erit. Agostino and Agnolo of Siena 103-4: In the year 1330 after the body of S. Zanobi had been found beneath the vaults of S. Reparata, the same Maestro Cione made a head of silver to contain a piece of the head of that Saint, which is still preserved to-day in the same head of silver and is borne in processions; which head was then held something very beautiful and gave a great name to its craftsman, who died no long time after, rich and in great repute. Andrea Pisano 124-5: Therefore, his genius and his good skill and dexterity becoming known, he was assisted by many in his country, and while still young he was commissioned to make for S. Maria a Ponte some little figures in marble, which brought him so good a name that he was sought out with very great insistence to come to work in Florence for the Office of Works of S. Maria del Fiore, which, after a beginning had been made with the façade containing the three doors, was suffering from a dearth of masters to make the scenes that Giotto had designed for the beginning of the said fabric. Andrea, then, betook himself to Florence, for the service of the said Office of Works. And because the Florentines desired at that time to gain the friendship and love of Pope Boniface VIII, who was then Supreme Pontiff of the Church of God, they wished that, before anything else, Andrea should make a portrait in marble of the said Pontiff, from the life. Wherefore, putting his hand to this work, he did not rest until he had finished the figure of the Pope, with a S. Peter and a S. Paul who are one on either side of him; which three figures were placed in the façade of S. Maria del Fiore, where they still are. Andrea then made certain little figures of prophets for the middle door of the said church, in some shrines or rather niches, from which it is seen that he had brought great betterment to the art, and that he was in advance, both in excellence and design, of all those who had worked up to then on the said fabric. Wherefore it was resolved that all

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the works of importance should be given to him to do, and not to others; and so, no long time after, he was commissioned to make the four statues of the principal Doctors of the Church, S. Jerome, S. Ambrose, S. Augustine, and S. Gregory. And these being finished and acquiring for him favour and fame with the Wardens of Works—nay, with the whole city—he was commissioned to make two other figures in marble of the same size, which were S. Stephen and S. Laurence, now standing in the said façade of S. Maria del Fiore, at the outermost corners. 127: and what is more, he also made during that same time not only the shrine of the high-altar of S. Giovanni, with two angels, one on either side of it, that were held something very beautiful, but also, after the design of Giotto, those little figures in marble that act as adornment for the door of the Campanile of S. Maria del Fiore, and round the same Campanile, in certain mandorle, the seven planets, the seven virtues, and the seven works of mercy, little figures in half-relief that were then much praised. He also made during the same time the three figures, each four braccia high, that were set up in the niches of the said Campanile, beneath the windows that face the spot where the Orphans now are—that is, towards the south; which figures were thought at that time more than passing good. 131: Andrea died at the age of seventy-five, in the year 1345, and was buried by Nino in S. Maria del Fiore, with this epitaph: INGENTI ANDREAS JACET HIC PISANUS IN URNA, MARMORE QUI POTUIT SPIRANTES DUCERE VULTUS, ET SIMULACRA DEUM MEDIIS IMPONERE TEMPLIS EX ÆRE, EX AURO CANDENTI, ET PULCRO ELEPHANTO. Simone Martini 170: [in the Chapter House, SMN] For the Universal Church he painted the Church of S. Maria del Fiore, not as it stands to-day, but as he had drawn it from the model and design that the architect Arnolfo had left in the Office of Works for the guidance of those who had to continue the building after him; of which models, by reason of the little care of the Wardens of Works of S. Maria del Fiore, as it has been said in another place, there would be no memorial for us if Simone had not left it painted in this work. Taddeo Gaddi 186: Taddeo was buried by Agnolo and Giovanni, his sons, in the first cloister of S. Croce, in that tomb which he had made for Gaddo his father, and he was much honoured with verses by the men of culture of that time, as a man who had been greatly deserving for his ways of life and for having brought to completion with beautiful design, besides his pictures, many buildings of great convenience to his city, and besides what has been mentioned, for having carried out with solicitude and diligence the construction of the Campanile of S. Maria del Fiore, from the design left by Giotto his master; which campanile was built in such a manner that stones could not be put together with more diligence, nor could a more beautiful tower be made, with regard either to ornament, or cost, or design.

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Andrea Orcagna 198: It is said, too, that the same man [his brother Jacopo] made the horse, gilded and in full relief, that is in S. Maria del Fiore, over the door that leads to the Company of S. Zanobi, which horse is believed to be there in memory of Piero Farnese, Captain of the Florentines; however, knowing nothing more about this, I could not vouch for it. Tommaso, called Giottino 206: It is found recorded by many who wrote thereon that Tommaso applied himself to sculpture and wrought a figure in marble on the Campanile of S. Maria del Fiore in Florence, four braccia high and facing the place where the Orphans now dwell. Agnolo Gaddi 220: But the best of this work—nay, all that is seen therein of the good—is the predella alone, which is all full of little figures, divided into eight stories of the Madonna and of S. Reparata. II Duccio 10: This man served in the building of S. Maria del Fiore as under-architect and as sculptor, making certain works in marble for that fabric; Lorenzo di Bicci 71: Wherefore he obtained the honour of being the first to paint in the principal church of his city—that is, in S. Maria del Fiore, where, beneath the windows of each chapel, he painted that Saint to whom it is dedicated, and then, on the pilasters and throughout the church, the twelve Apostles with the crosses of consecration; for that church had been most solemnly consecrated in that same year by Pope Eugenius IV, the Venetian. In the same church the Wardens of Works, by order of the State, caused him to paint in fresco, on one wall, a tomb in imitation of marble, in memory of Cardinal Corsini, who is portrayed there from nature on the sarcophagus; and above that he made a similar one in memory of Maestro Luigi Marsili, a very famous theologian, who went as ambassador, with Messer Luigi Guicciardini and Messer Guccio di Gino, most honourable cavaliers, to the Duke of Anjou. Preface to the Second Part 80-1: But, passing these men by, since for knowledge of them we must refer to others, who very often do not agree in their judgments on them, or even, what is worse, as to the dates, although in this I have followed the best authorities; let us come to our own times, wherein we have the help of the eye, a much better guide and judge than the ear. Is it not clearly seen how great improvement was acquired by architecture—to begin with one starting-point—from the time of the Greek

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Buschetto to that of the German Arnolfo and of Giotto? See the buildings of those times, and the pilasters, the columns, the bases, the capitals, and all the cornices, with their ill-formed members, such as there are in Florence, in S. Maria del Fiore, […].But these men certainly improved it not a little, and under their guidance it made no small progress, seeing that they reduced it to better proportion, and made their buildings not only stable and stout, but also in some measure ornate, although it is true that their ornamentation was confused and very imperfect, and, so to speak, not greatly ornamental. For they did not observe that measure and proportion in the columns that the art required, or distinguish one Order from another, whether Doric, Corinthian, Ionic, or Tuscan, but mixed them all together with a rule of their own that was no rule, making them very thick or very slender, as suited them best; and all their inventions came partly from their own brains, and partly from the relics of the antiquities that they saw; and they made their plans partly by copying the good, and partly by adding thereunto their own fancies, which, when the walls were raised, had a very different appearance. 84-5: Design grew in strength and depth; good grace was given to buildings; the excellence of that art made itself known; and the beauty and variety of capitals and cornices were recovered in such a manner, that the ground-plans of his churches and of his other edifices are seen to have been very well conceived, and the buildings themselves ornate, magnificent, and beautifully proportioned, as it may be seen in the stupendous mass of the cupola of S. Maria del Fiore in Florence, and in the beauty and grace of its lantern; […].And although there are in them some parts so miraculous that nothing better has yet been done in our own times, nor will be, peradventure, in times to come, such as, for example, the lantern of the cupola of S. Maria del Fiore, and, in point of grandeur, the cupola itself, wherein Filippo was emboldened not only to equal the ancients in the extent of their structures, but also to excel them in the height of the walls; yet we are speaking generically and universally, and we must not deduce the excellence of the whole from the goodness and perfection of one thing alone. Jacopo della Quercia 94-5: Afterwards, on Jacopo coming to Florence, the Wardens of Works of S. Maria del Fiore, by reason of the good report that they had heard of him, commissioned him to make in marble the frontal that is over that door of the church which leads to the Nunziata, wherein, in a mandorla, he made the Madonna being borne to Heaven by a choir of angels sounding instruments and singing, with the most beautiful movements and the most beautiful attitudes—seeing that they have vivacity and motion in their flight—that had ever been made up to that time. In like manner, the Madonna is draped with so great grace and dignity that nothing better can be imagined, the flow of the folds being very beautiful and soft, while the borders of the draperies are seen following closely the nude form of the figure, which, with its very covering, reveals every curve of the limbs; and below this Madonna there is a S. Thomas, who is receiving the Girdle. In short, this work was executed by Jacopo in four years with all the possible perfection that he could give to it, for the reason that, besides the natural desire that he had to do well, the

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rivalry of Donato, of Filippo, and of Lorenzo di Bartolo, from whose hands there had already issued some works that were highly praised, incited him even more in the doing of what he did; and that was so much that this work is studied even today by modern craftsmen, as something very rare. On the other side of the Madonna, opposite to S. Thomas, Jacopo made a bear that is climbing a pear-tree; and with regard to this caprice, even as many things were said then, so also there could be others said by me, but I will forbear, wishing to let everyone believe and think in his own fashion in the matter of this invention. Niccolo Aretino 101: About the same time, engaged in the same pursuit of sculpture, and almost of the same excellence in the art, lived Niccolò di Piero, a citizen of Arezzo, to whom Nature was as liberal with her gifts of intellect and vivacity of mind as Fortune was niggardly with her benefits. He, then, being a needy fellow, and having received some affront from his nearest of kin in his own country, departed, in order to come to Florence, from Arezzo, where—under the discipline of Maestro Moccio, sculptor of Siena, who, as it has been said in another place, wrought some works in Arezzo—he had applied himself to sculpture with no little fruit, although the said Maestro Moccio was not very excellent. And so, having arrived in Florence, Niccolò at first for many months wrought whatsoever work came to his hand, both because poverty and want were pressing him hard, and also out of rivalry with certain young men, who, competing together honourably with much study and labour, were occupying themselves with sculpture. Finally, after many labours, Niccolò became a creditable sculptor, and was commissioned by the Wardens of Works of S. Maria del Fiore to make two statues for the Campanile; these statues, having been placed therein on the side facing the Canon’s house, stand one on either side of those that Donato afterwards made; and since nothing better in fullrelief had been seen, they were held passing good. 102-3: Wherefore, departing from that territory, Niccolò betook himself to Florence, where[ he had worked at other times, and for the Wardens of Works of S. Maria del Fiore he made a statue of marble, four braccia high, which was afterwards placed on the left hand of the principal door of that church. In this statue, which is an Evangelist seated, Niccolò showed that he was truly an able sculptor, and he was therefore much praised, since up to then there had not been seen, as there was afterwards, any better work in wholly round relief. Nanni di Banco 117: In the façade of S. Maria del Fiore, on the left side as one enters the church by the central door, there is an Evangelist by the hand of the same man, which is a passing good figure for those times. Luca della Robbia 120-1: Luca had given an honourable proof of his knowledge in some low-reliefs in this work, which are still seen there, when he was recalled by the Wardens of Works of S. Maria del Fiore to Florence, where, for the campanile of that church,

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he made five little scenes in marble, which are on the side that faces the church, and which were wanting, according to the design of Giotto, to go with that wherein are the Sciences and Arts, formerly made, as it has been said, by Andrea Pisano. In the first Luca made Donato teaching grammar; in the second, Plato and Aristotle, standing for philosophy; in the third, a figure playing a lute, for music; in the fourth, a Ptolemy, for astrology; and in the fifth, Euclid, for geometry. These scenes, in perfection of finish, in grace, and in design, were far in advance of the two made, as it has been said, by Giotto, in one of which Apelles, standing for painting, is working with his brush, while in the other Pheidias, representing sculpture, is labouring with his chisel. Wherefore the said Wardens of Works— who, besides the merits of Luca, were persuaded thereunto by Messer Vieri de’ Medici, then a great citizen and a friend of the people, who loved Luca dearly— commissioned him, in the year 1405, to make the marble ornament for the organ which the Office of Works was then having made on a very grand scale, to be set up over the door of the sacristy of the said church. In certain scenes at the base of this work Luca made the singing choirs, chanting in various fashions; and he put so much zeal into this labour and succeeded so well therein, that, although it is sixteen braccia from the ground, one can see the swelling of the throats of the singers, the leader of the music beating with his hands on the shoulders of the smaller ones, and, in short, diverse manners of sounds, chants, dances, and other pleasing actions that make up the delight of music. Next, on the great cornice of this ornament Luca placed two figures of gilded metal—namely, two nude angels, wrought with a high finish, as is the whole work, which was held to be something very rare, although Donatello, who afterwards made the ornament of the other organ, which is opposite to the first, made his with much more judgment and mastery than Luca had shown, as will be told in the proper place; for Donatello executed that work almost wholly with bold studies and with no smoothness of finish, to the end that it might show up much better from a distance, as it does, than that of Luca, which, although it is wrought with good design and diligence, is nevertheless so smooth and highly finished that the eye, by reason of the distance, loses it and does not grasp it well, as it does that of Donatello, which is, as it were, only sketched. 123: Having then succeeded in this as much as he could desire, he resolved that his first works should be those that are in the arch over the bronze door which he had made for the sacristy, below the organ of S. Maria del Fiore; and therein he made a Resurrection of Christ, so beautiful for that time that it was admired, when placed in position, as something truly rare. Moved by this, the said Wardens of Works desired that the arch over the door of the other sacristy, where Donatello had made the ornament of the other organ, should be filled by Luca in the same manner with similar figures and works in terra-cotta; wherefore Luca made therein a very beautiful Jesus Christ ascending into Heaven. Paolo Uccello 137-8: In S. Maria del Fiore, in memory of Giovanni Acuto, an Englishman, Captain of the Florentines, who had died in the year 1393, he made in terra-verde a horse of extraordinary grandeur, which was held very beautiful, and on it the

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image of the Captain himself, in chiaroscuro and coloured with terra-verde, in a picture ten braccia high on the middle of one wall of the church; where Paolo drew in perspective a large sarcophagus, supposed to contain the corpse, and over this he placed the image of him in his Captain’s armour, on horseback. This work was and still is held to be something very beautiful for a painting of that kind, and if Paolo had not made that horse move its legs on one side only, which naturally horses do not do, or they would fall—and this perchance came about because he was not accustomed to ride, nor used to horses as he was to other animals—this work would be absolutely perfect, since the proportion of that horse, which is colossal, is very beautiful; and on the base there are these letters: PAULI UCCELLI OPUS. At the same time, and in the same church, he painted in colours the hour-dial above the principal door within the church, with four heads coloured in fresco at the corners. He wrought in terra-verde, also, the loggia that faces towards the west above the garden of the Monastery of the Angeli, painting below each arch a story of the acts of S. Benedict the Abbot, and of the most notable events of his life, up to his death. Here, among many most beautiful scenes, there is one wherein a monastery is destroyed by the agency of the Devil, while a friar is left dead below the stones and beams. No less notable is the terror of another monk, whose draperies, as he flies, cling round his nude form and flutter with most beautiful grace; whereby Paolo awakened the minds of the craftsmen so greatly, that they have ever afterwards followed that method. Very beautiful, also, is the figure of S. Benedict, the while that with dignity and devoutness, in the presence of his monks, he restores the dead friar to life. Finally, in all these stories there are features worthy of consideration, and above all in certain places where the very tiles of the roof, whether flat or round, are drawn in perspective. And in the death of S. Benedict, while his monks are performing his obsequies and bewailing him, there are some sick men and cripples, all most beautiful, who stand gazing on him; and it is noticeable, also, that among many loving and devout followers of that Saint there is an old monk with crutches under his arms, in whom there is seen a marvellous expression, with even a hope of being made whole. In this work there are no landscapes in colour, nor many buildings, nor difficult perspectives, but there is truly great design, with no little of the good. Lorenzo Ghiberti 152-3: And by reason of this work, which succeeded very nobly, there came a wish to the Wardens of Works of S. Maria del Fiore to have a sarcophagus and tomb of bronze made to contain the body of S. Zanobi, Bishop of Florence. This tomb was three braccia and a half in length, and two in height; and besides adorning it with diverse varied ornaments, he made therein on the front of the body of the sarcophagus itself a scene with S. Zanobi restoring to life a child which had been left in his charge by the mother, and which had died while she was on a pilgrimage. In a second scene is another child, who has been killed by a wagon, and also the Saint restoring to life one of the two servants sent to him by S. Ambrose, who had been left dead on the Alps; and the other is there, making lamentation in the presence of S. Zanobi, who, seized with compassion, said: “Go,

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he doth but sleep; thou wilt find him alive.” And at the back are six little angels, who are holding a garland of elm-leaves, within which are carved letters in memory and in praise of that Saint. This work he executed and finished with the utmost ingenuity and art, insomuch that it received extraordinary praise as something beautiful. 160-1: But returning to the said Lorenzo: he applied himself, while he lived, to many things, and delighted in painting and in working in glass, and for S. Maria del Fiore he made the round windows that are round the cupola, excepting one, which is by the hand of Donato—namely, the one wherein Christ is crowning Our Lady. Lorenzo likewise made the three that are over the principal door of the same S. Maria del Fiore, and all those of the chapels and of the tribunes, and also the rose-window in the façade of S. Croce. In Arezzo he made a window for the principal chapel of the Pieve, containing the Coronation of Our Lady, with two other figures, for Lazzaro di Feo di Baccio, a very rich merchant; but since they were all of Venetian glass, loaded with colour, they make the places where they were put rather dark than otherwise. Lorenzo was chosen to assist Brunellesco, when the latter was commissioned to make the Cupola of S. Maria del Fiore, but he was afterwards relieved of the task, as it will be told in the Life of Filippo. Filippo Brunelleschi 202: And he had in his mind two vast conceptions, one being to restore to light the good manner of architecture, since he believed that if he could recover it he would leave behind no less a name for himself than Cimabue and Giotto had done; and the other was to find a method, if he could, of raising the Cupola of S. Maria del Fiore in Florence, the difficulties of which were such that after the death of Arnolfo Lapi there had been no one courageous enough to think of raising it without vast expenditure for a wooden framework. Yet he did not impart this his invention to Donato or to any living soul, nor did he rest in Rome till he had considered all the difficulties connected with the Ritonda, wondering how the vaulting was raised. He had noted and drawn all the ancient vaults, and was for ever studying them; and if peradventure they had found pieces of capitals, columns, cornices, and bases of buildings buried underground, they would set to work and have them dug out, in order to examine them thoroughly. 203: In the same year a congress of architects and engineers of the country was summoned by the Wardens of Works of S. Maria del Fiore and by the Consuls of the Guild of Wool, to discuss methods for raising the cupola. Among these appeared Filippo, giving it as his advice that it was necessary, not to raise the fabric directly from the roof according to the design of Arnolfo, but to make a frieze fifteen braccia in height, with a large round window in the middle of each of its sides, since not only would this take the weight off the supports of the tribunes, but it would become easier to raise the cupola; and models were made in this way, and were put into execution. Filippo, being restored to health after some months, was standing one morning in the Piazza di S. Maria del Fiore with Donato and other craftsmen, when they began to talk of antiquities in connection with sculpture, and Donato related how, when he was returning from Rome, he had

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made the journey through Orvieto, in order to see that marble façade of the Duomo, a work greatly celebrated, wrought by the hands of diverse masters and held to be something notable in those times; 204-12: He, desiring nothing better, returned with great readiness; and the Wardens of Works of S. Maria del Fiore and the Consuls of the Guild of Wool, assembling on his arrival, explained to Filippo all the difficulties, from the greatest to the smallest, which were being raised by the masters, who were in his presence at the audience together with them. Whereupon Filippo spoke these words: “My Lords the Wardens, there is no doubt that great enterprises ever present difficulties in their execution, and if any ever did so, this of yours presents them, and even greater than perchance you are aware of, for the reason that I do not know whether even the ancients ever raised a vault so tremendous as this will be; and although I have often pondered over the framework necessary both within and without, and how it may be possible to work at it securely, I have never been able to come to any resolution, and I am aghast no less at the breadth than at the height of the edifice, for the reason that, if it could be made round, we might use the method used by the Romans in raising the dome over the Pantheon in Rome, that is, the Ritonda, whereas here we must follow the eight sides, and bind the stones together with ties and by dove-tailing them, which will be something very difficult. But remembering that this is a temple consecrated to God and to the Virgin, I am confident, since this is being done in memory of her, that she will not fail to infuse knowledge where it is lacking, and to give strength, wisdom, and genius to him who is to be the author of such a work. But how can I help you in this matter, since the task is not mine? I tell you, indeed, that if the work fell to me, I would have resolution and courage enough to find the method whereby the vault might be raised without so many difficulties; but as yet I have given no thought to it, and you would have me tell you the method! And when at last your Lordships determine to have it raised, you will be forced not only to make trial of me, for I do not think myself able to be the sole adviser in so great a matter, but also to spend money and to ordain that within a year and on a fixed day many architects shall come to Florence, not merely Tuscans and Italians, but Germans, French, and of every other nation; and to propose this work to them, to the end that, after discussing and deciding among so many masters, it may be begun, being entrusted to him who shall give the most direct proof of ability or possess the best method and judgment for such an undertaking. Nor could I give you other counsel or a better plan than this.” The plan and the counsel of Filippo pleased the Consuls and the Wardens of Works, but they would have liked him in the meanwhile to have made a model and to have given thought to the matter. But he showed that he cared nothing for it; nay, taking leave of them, he said that he had received letters soliciting him to return to Rome. Whereupon the Consuls, perceiving that their prayers and those of the Wardens did not avail to detain him, caused many of his friends to entreat him; but Filippo would not give way, and one morning (on May 26, 1417) the Wardens decreed him a present of money, which is found entered to the credit of Filippo in the books of the Office of Works; and all this was to conciliate him. But he,

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steadfast in his resolution, took his departure none the less from Florence and returned to Rome, where he studied continuously for that undertaking, making arrangements and preparing himself for the completion of the work, thinking, as was true, that no other than himself could carry it out. And as for his counsel that new architects should be summoned, Filippo had advanced it for no other reason but that they might serve to prove the greatness of his own intellect, and not because he thought that they would be able to vault that tribune or to undertake such a charge, which was too difficult for them. And thus much time was consumed before those architects arrived from their countries, whom they had caused to be summoned from afar by means of orders given to Florentine merchants who dwelt in France, in Germany, in England, and in Spain, and who were commissioned to spend any sum of money, if only they could obtain the most experienced and able intellects that there were in those regions from the Princes of those countries, and send them to Florence. By the year 1420, all these ultramontane masters were finally assembled in Florence, and likewise those of Tuscany and all the ingenious craftsmen of design in Florence; and so Filippo returned from Rome. They all assembled, therefore, in the Office of Works of S. Maria del Fiore, in the presence of the Consuls and of the Wardens, together with a select body of the most ingenious citizens, to the end that these might hear the mind of each master on the question and might decide on a method of vaulting this tribune. Having called them, then, into the audience, they heard the minds of all, one by one, and the plan that each architect had devised for that work. And a fine thing it was to hear their strange and diverse opinions about the matter, for the reason that some said that piers must be built up from the level of the ground, which should have the arches turned upon them and should uphold the wooden bridges for sustaining the weight; others said that it was best to make the cupola of sponge-stone, to the end that the weight might be less; and many were agreed that a pier should be built in the centre, and that the cupola should be raised in the shape of a pavilion, like that of S. Giovanni in Florence. Nor were there wanting men who said that it would have been a good thing to fill it with earth mingled with small coins, to the end that, when it had been raised, anyone who wanted some of that earth might be given leave to go and fetch it, and thus the people would carry it away in a moment without any expense. Filippo alone said that it could be raised without so much wood-work, without piers, without earth, without so great expenditure on so many arches, and very easily without any framework. It appeared to the Consuls, who were expecting to hear of some beautiful method, and to the Wardens of Works and to all those citizens, that Filippo had talked like a fool; and deriding him with mocking laughter, they turned away, bidding him talk of something else, seeing that this was the plan of a madman, as he was. Whereupon Filippo, feeling himself affronted, answered: “My Lords, rest assured that it is not possible to raise the cupola in any other manner than this; and although you laugh at me, you will recognize, unless you mean to be obstinate, that it neither must nor can be done in any other way. And it is necessary, if you wish to erect it in the way that I have thought of, that it should be turned with the curve

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of a quarter-acute arch, and made double, one vault within, and the other without, in such wise that a man may be able to walk between the one and the other. And over the corners of the angles of the eight sides the fabric must be bound together through its thickness by dove-tailing the stones, and its sides, likewise, must be girt round with oaken ties. And it is necessary to think of the lights, the staircases, and the conduits whereby the rain-water may be able to run off; and not one of you has remembered that you must provide for the raising of scaffoldings within, when the mosaics come to be made, together with an infinite number of difficulties. But I, who see the vaulting raised, know that there is no other method and no other way of raising it than this that I am describing.” And growing heated as he spoke, the more he sought to expound his conception, to the end that they might understand it and believe in it, the greater grew their doubts about his proposal, so that they believed in him less and less, and held him to be an ass and a babbler. Whereupon, having been dismissed several times and finally refusing to go, he was carried away bodily from the audience by their servants, being thought to be wholly mad; and this affront was the reason that Filippo could afterwards say that he did not dare to pass through any part of the city, for fear lest someone might say: “There goes that madman.” The Consuls remained in the Audience Chamber all confused, both by the difficult methods of the original masters and by this last method of Filippo’s, which they thought absurd, for it appeared to them that he would ruin the work in two ways: first, by making the vaulting double, which would have made it enormous and unwieldy in weight; and secondly, by making it without a framework. On the other hand, Filippo, who had spent so many years in study in order to obtain the commission, knew not what to do and was often tempted to leave Florence. However, wishing to prevail, he was forced to arm himself with patience, having insight enough to know that the brains of the men of that city did not abide very firmly by any one resolution. Filippo could have shown a little model that he had in his possession, but he did not wish to show it, having recognized the small intelligence of the Consuls, the envy of the craftsmen, and the instability of the citizens, who favoured now one and now another, according as it pleased each man best; and I do not marvel at this, since every man in that city professes to know as much in these matters as the experienced masters know, although those who truly understand them are but few; and let this be said without offence to those who have the knowledge. What Filippo, therefore, had not been able to achieve before the tribunal, he began to effect with individuals, talking now to a Consul, now to a Warden, and likewise to many citizens; and showing them part of his design, he induced them to determine to allot this work either to him or to one of the foreigners. Wherefore the Consuls, the Wardens of Works, and those citizens, regaining courage, assembled together, and the architects disputed concerning this matter, but all were overcome and conquered by Filippo with many arguments; and here, so it is said, there arose the dispute about the egg, in the following manner. They would have liked Filippo to speak his mind in detail, and to show his model, as they had shown theirs; but this he refused to do, proposing instead to those masters, both the foreign and the native, that whosoever could make an egg stand

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upright on a flat piece of marble should build the cupola, since thus each man’s intellect would be discerned. Taking an egg, therefore, all those masters sought to make it stand upright, but not one could find the way. Whereupon Filippo, being told to make it stand, took it graciously, and, giving one end of it a blow on the flat piece of marble, made it stand upright. The craftsmen protested that they could have done the same; but Filippo answered, laughing, that they could also have raised the cupola, if they had seen the model or the design. And so it was resolved that he should be commissioned to carry out this work, and he was told that he must give fuller information about it to the Consuls and the Wardens of Works. Going to his house, therefore, he wrote down his mind on a sheet of paper as clearly as he was able, to give to the tribunal, in the following manner: “Having considered the difficulties of this structure, Magnificent Lords Wardens, I find that it is in no way possible to raise the cupola perfectly round, seeing that the surface above, where the lantern is to go, would be so great that the laying of any weight thereupon would soon destroy it. Now it appears to me that those architects who have no regard for the durability of their structures, have no love of lasting memorials, and do not even know why they are made. Wherefore I have determined to turn the inner part of this vault in pointed sections, following the outer sides, and to give to these the proportion and the curve of the quarter-acute arch, for the reason that this curve, when turned, ever pushes upwards, so that, when it is loaded with the lantern, both will unite to make the vaulting durable. At the base it must be three braccia and three quarters in thickness, and it must rise pyramidically, narrowing from without, until it closes at the point where the lantern is to be; and at this junction the vaulting must be one braccio and a quarter in thickness. Then on the outer side there must be another vault, which must be two braccia and a half thick at the base, in order to protect the inner one from the rain. This one must also diminish pyramidically in due proportion, so that it may come together at the foot of the lantern, like the other, in such wise that at the summit it may be two-thirds of a braccio in thickness. At each angle there must be a buttress, making eight in all: and in the middle of every side there must be two buttresses, making sixteen in all: and between the said angles, on every side, both within and without, there must be two buttresses, each four braccia thick at the base. The two said vaults, built in the form of a pyramid, must rise together in equal proportion up to the height of the round window closed by the lantern. There must then be made twenty-four buttresses with the said vaults built round them, and six arches of grey-stone blocks, stout and long, and well braced with irons, which must be covered with tin; and over the said blocks there must be iron ties, binding the said vaulting to its buttresses. The first part of the masonry, up to the height of five braccia and a quarter, must be solid, leaving no vacant space, and then the buttresses must be continued and the two vaults separated. The first and second courses at the base must be strengthened throughout with long blocks of grey-stone laid horizontally across them, in such wise that both vaults of the cupola may rest on the said blocks. At the height of every nine braccia in the said vaults there must be little arches between one buttress and another, with thick ties of oak, to bind together the said buttresses, which support the inner vault; and then the said

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ties of oak must be covered with plates of iron, for the sake of the staircases. The buttresses must be all built of grey-stone and hard-stone, and all the sides of the cupola must be likewise of hard-stone and bound with the buttresses up to the height of twenty-four braccia; and from there to the top the material must be brick, or rather, spongestone, according to the decision of the builder, who must make the work as light as he is able. A passage must be made on the outside above the windows, forming a gallery below, with an open parapet two braccia in height, proportionately to those of the little tribunes below; or rather, two passages, one above the other, resting on a richly adorned cornice, with the upper passage uncovered. The rain water must flow from the cupola into a gutter of marble, a third of a braccio wide, and must run off through outlets made of hard-stone below the gutter. Eight ribs of marble must be made at the angles in the outer surface of the cupola, of such thickness as may be required, rising one braccio above the cupola, with a cornice above by way of roof, two braccia wide, to serve as gable and eaves to the whole; and these ribs must rise pyramidically from their base up to the summit. The two vaults of the cupola must be built in the manner described above, without framework, up to the height of thirty braccia, and from that point upwards in the manner recommended by those masters who will have the building of them, since practice teaches us what course to pursue.” Filippo, having finished writing all that is above, went in the morning to the tribunal and gave them that paper, which they studied from end to end. And although they could not grasp it all, yet, seeing the readiness of Filippo’s mind, and perceiving that not one of the other architects had better ground to stand on—for he showed a manifest confidence in his speech, ever repeating the same thing in such wise that it appeared certain that he had raised ten cupolas—the Consuls, drawing aside, were minded to give him the work, saying only that they would have liked to see something to show how this cupola could be raised without framework, for they approved of everything else. To this desire fortune was favourable, for Bartolommeo Barbadori having previously resolved to have a chapel built in S. Felicita and having spoken of this to Filippo, the latter had put his hand to the work and had caused that chapel to be vaulted without framework, at the right hand of the entrance into the church, where the holy-water basin is, also made by his hand. In those days, likewise, he caused another to be vaulted beside the Chapel of the High Altar in S. Jacopo sopra Arno, for Stiatta Ridolfi; and these works were the means of bringing him more credit than his words. And so the Consuls and the Wardens of Works, being assured by the writing and by the work that they had seen, gave him the commission for the cupola, making him principal superintendent by the vote with the beans. But they did not contract with him for more than twelve braccia of the whole height, saying to him that they wished to see how the work succeeded, and that if it succeeded as well as he promised they would not fail to commission him to do the rest. It appeared a strange thing to Filippo to see so great obstinacy and distrust in the Consuls and Wardens, and, if it had not been that he knew himself to be the only man capable of executing the work, he would not have put his hand to it. However, desiring to gain the glory of its construction, he undertook it, and pledged himself to bring it to perfect

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completion. His written statement was copied into a book wherein the provveditore kept the accounts of the debtors and creditors for wood and marble, together with the aforesaid pledge; and they undertook to make him the same allowance of money as they had given up to then to the other superintendents. 213-8: Now Lorenzo Ghiberti had come into great repute, by reason of having formerly given proof of his genius in the doors of S. Giovanni; and that he was beloved by certain men who were very powerful in the Government was proved clearly enough, since, seeing the glory of Filippo waxing so great, they wrought on the Consuls and the Wardens so strongly, under the pretext of love and affection towards that building, that he was united to Filippo as his colleague in the work. How great were the despair and the bitterness of Filippo, on hearing what the Wardens had done, may be seen from this, that he was minded to fly from Florence; and if it had not been for Donato and Luca della Robbia, who comforted him, he would have lost his reason. Truly impious and cruel is the rage of those who, blinded by envy, put into peril the honours and the beautiful works of others in their jealous emulation! It was no fault of theirs, in truth, that Filippo did not break his models into pieces, burn his designs, and throw away in less than half an hour all that labour which had occupied him for so many years. The Wardens at first made excuses to Filippo and exhorted him to proceed, saying that he himself and no other was the inventor and the creator of so noble a building; but at the same time they gave the same salary to Lorenzo as to Filippo. The work was pursued with little willingness on the part of Filippo, who saw that he must endure the labours that it entailed, and must then divide the honour and the fame equally with Lorenzo. Making up his mind, however, that he would find means to prevent Lorenzo from continuing very long in the work, he went on pursuing it in company with him, in the manner suggested by the writing given to the Wardens. Meanwhile, there arose in the mind of Filippo the idea of making such a model as had not yet been made; wherefore, having put his hand to this, he had it wrought by one Bartolommeo, a carpenter, who lived near the Studio. In this model, which had all the exact proportions measured to scale, he made all the difficult parts, such as staircases both lighted and dark, and every sort of window, door, tie, and buttress, together with a part of the gallery. Lorenzo, hearing of this, wished to see it, but Filippo refused to let him, whereupon he flew into a rage and ordered another model to be made for himself, to the end that he might not appear to be drawing his salary for nothing and to be of no account in the work. With regard to these models, Filippo was paid fifty lire and fifteen soldi for his, as we see from an order in the book of Migliore di Tommaso, dated October 3, 1419, whereas three hundred lire are entered as paid to Lorenzo Ghiberti for the labour and expense of his model, more in consequence of the friendship and favour that he enjoyed than of any profit or need that the building had of it. This torment lasted before the eyes of Filippo until 1426, the friends of Lorenzo calling him the inventor equally with Filippo; and this annoyance disturbed the mind of Filippo so greatly that he was living in the utmost restlessness. Now, having thought of various new devices, he determined to rid himself entirely of Lorenzo, recognizing that he was of little account in the work. Filippo had already

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raised the cupola right round, what with the one vault and the other, to the height of twelve braccia, and he had now to place upon them the ties both of stone and of wood; and as this was a difficult matter, he wished to discuss it with Lorenzo, in order to see if he had considered this difficulty. And he found Lorenzo so far from having thought of such a matter, that he replied that he referred it to Filippo as the inventor. Lorenzo’s answer pleased Filippo, since it appeared to him that this was the way to get him removed from the work, and to prove that he did not possess that intelligence which was claimed for him by his friends, and to expose the favour that had placed him in that position. Now the masons engaged on the work were at a standstill, waiting to be told to begin the part above the twelve braccia, and to make the vaults and bind them with ties. Having begun the drawing in of the cupola towards the top, it was necessary for them to make the scaffoldings, to the end that the masons and their labourers might be able to work without danger, seeing that the height was such that merely looking down brought fear and terror into the stoutest heart. The masons and the other master-builders were standing waiting for directions as to the ties and the scaffoldings; and since no decision was made either by Lorenzo or by Filippo, there arose a murmuring among the masons and the other master-builders, who saw no signs of the solicitude that had been shown before; and because, being poor people, they lived by the work of their hands, and suspected that neither one nor the other of the architects had enough courage to carry the work any further, they went about the building occupying themselves, to the best of their knowledge and power, with filling up and finishing all that had as yet been built. One morning Filippo did not appear at the work, but bound up his head and went to bed, and caused plates and cloths to be heated with great solicitude, groaning continually and pretending to be suffering from colic. The master-builders, who were standing waiting for orders as to what they were to do, on hearing this, asked Lorenzo what they were to go on with: but he replied that it was for Filippo to give orders, and that they must wait for him. There was one who said, “What, dost thou not know his mind?” “Yes,” answered Lorenzo, “but I would do nothing without him”; and this he said to excuse himself, because, not having seen the model of Filippo, and having never asked him what method he intended to follow, he would never commit himself in talking of the matter, in order not to appear ignorant, and would always make a double-edged answer, the more so as he knew that he was employed in the work against the will of Filippo. The illness of the latter having already lasted for more than two days, the provveditore and many of the mastermasons went to see him and asked him repeatedly to tell them what they were to do. And he replied, “You have Lorenzo, let him do something”; nor could they get another word out of him. Whereupon, this becoming known, there arose discussions and very adverse judgments with regard to the work: some saying that Filippo had gone to bed in his vexation at finding that he had not the courage to raise the cupola, and that he was repenting of having meddled with the matter; while his friends defended him, saying that his anger, if anger it was, came from the outrage of having been given Lorenzo as colleague, but that his real trouble was colic, caused by fatiguing himself overmuch at the work. Now, while this

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noise was going on, the building was at a standstill, and almost all the work of the masons and stone-cutters was suspended; and they murmured against Lorenzo, saying, “He is good enough at drawing the salary, but as for directing the work, not a bit of it! If we had not Filippo, or if he were ill for long, what would the other do? Is it Filippo’s fault that he is ill?” The Wardens of Works, seeing themselves disgraced by this state of things, determined to go and find Filippo; and after arriving and sympathizing with him first about his illness, they told him in how great confusion the building stood and what troubles his illness had brought upon them. Whereupon Filippo, speaking with great heat both under the cloak of illness and from love of the work, replied, “Is not that Lorenzo there? Can he do nothing? And I marvel at you as well.” Then the Wardens answered, “He will do naught without thee”; and Filippo retorted, “But I could do well without him.” This retort, so acute and double-edged, was enough for them, and they went their way, convinced that Filippo was ill from nothing but the desire to work alone. They sent his friends, therefore, to get him out of bed, with the intention of removing Lorenzo from the work. Wherefore Filippo returned to the building, but, seeing that Lorenzo was still strongly favoured and that he would have his salary without any labour whatsoever, he thought of another method whereby he might disgrace him and demonstrate conclusively his little knowledge in that profession; and he made the following discourse to the Wardens in the presence of Lorenzo: “My Lords the Wardens of Works, if the time that is lent to us to live were as surely ours as the certainty of dying, there is no doubt whatsoever that many things which are begun would be completed instead of remaining unfinished. The accident of this sickness from which I have suffered might have cut short my life and put a stop to the work; wherefore I have thought of a plan whereby, if I should ever fall sick again, or Lorenzo, which God forbid, one or the other may be able to pursue his part of the work. Even as your Lordships have divided the salary between us, let the work also be divided, to the end that each of us, being spurred to show his knowledge, may be confident of acquiring honour and profit from our Republic. Now there are two most difficult things which have to be put into execution at the present time: one is the making of the scaffoldings to enable the masons to do their work, which have to be used both within and without the building, where they must support men, stones, and lime, and sustain the crane for lifting weights, with other instruments of that kind; the other is the chain of ties which has to be placed above the twelve braccia, surrounding and binding together the eight sides of the cupola, and clamping the fabric together, so that it may bind and secure all the weight that is laid above, in such a manner that the weight may not force it out or stretch it, and that the whole structure may rest firmly on its own basis. Let Lorenzo, then, take one of these two works, whichever he may think himself best able to execute; and I will undertake to accomplish the other without difficulty, to the end that no more time may be lost.” Hearing this, Lorenzo was forced for the sake of his honour to accept one of these tasks, and, although he did it very unwillingly, he resolved to take the chain of ties, as being the easier, relying on the advice of the masons and on the remembrance that in the vaulting of S. Giovanni in Florence there was a chain of stone ties, wherefrom he might take a part of the design, if not the whole. And so one put his hand to the scaffoldings and the other

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to the ties, and each carried out his work. The scaffoldings of Filippo were made with so great ingenuity and industry, that the very opposite opinion was held in this matter to that which many had previously conceived, for the builders stood on them, working and drawing up weights, as securely as if they had been on the surface of the ground; and the models of the said scaffoldings were preserved in the Office of Works. Lorenzo had the chain of ties made on one of the eight sides with the greatest difficulty; and when it was finished, the Wardens caused Filippo to look at it. To them he said nothing, but he discoursed thereon with some of his friends, saying that it was necessary to have some form of fastening different from that one, and to apply it in a better manner than had been done, and that it was not strong enough to withstand the weight that was to be laid above, for it did not bind the masonry together firmly enough; adding that the supplies given to Lorenzo, as well as the chain that he had caused to be made, had been simply thrown away. The opinion of Filippo became known, and he was charged to show what was the best way of making such a chain. Whereupon, having already made designs and models, he immediately showed them, and when they had been seen by the Wardens and the other masters, it was recognized into what great error they had fallen by favouring Lorenzo; and wishing to atone for this error and to show that they knew what was good, they made Filippo overseer and superintendent of the whole fabric for life, saying that nothing should be done in that work without his command. And as a proof of approbation they gave him one hundred florins, decreed by the Consuls and Wardens under date of August 13, 1423, by the hand of Lorenzo Paoli, notary to the Office of Works, and under the name of Gherardo di Messer Filippo Corsini; and they voted him an allowance of one hundred florins a year as a provision for life. Wherefore, giving orders for the building to be pushed on, he pursued it with such scrupulous care and so great attention, that not a stone could be put into place without his having wished to see it. Lorenzo, on the other hand, finding himself vanquished, and, as it were, put to shame, was favoured and assisted by his friends so powerfully that he went on drawing his salary, claiming that he could not be dismissed until three years had passed. 218-20: Filippo was for ever making, on the slightest occasion, designs and models of stages for the builders and of machines for lifting weights. But this did not prevent certain malicious persons, friends of Lorenzo, from putting Filippo into despair by spending their whole time in making models in opposition to his, insomuch that some were made by one Maestro Antonio da Verzelli and other favoured masters, and were brought into notice now by one citizen and now by another, demonstrating their inconstancy, their little knowledge, and their even smaller understanding, since, having perfection in their grasp, they brought forward the imperfect and the useless. The ties were now finished right round the eight sides, and the masons, being encouraged, were labouring valiantly; but being pressed more than usual by Filippo, and resenting certain reprimands received with regard to the building and other things that were happening every day, they had conceived a grievance against him. Wherefore, moved by this and by envy, the foremen leagued themselves together into a faction and declared that the work was laborious and

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dangerous, and that they would not build the cupola without great payment— although their pay had been raised higher than usual—thinking in this way to take vengeance on Filippo and to gain profit for themselves. This affair displeased the Wardens and also Filippo, who, having pondered over it, made up his mind one Saturday evening to dismiss them all. They, seeing themselves dismissed and not knowing how the matter would end, were very evilly disposed; but on the following Monday Filippo set ten Lombards to work, and by standing ever over them and saying, “Do this here,” and, “Do that there,” he taught them so much in one day that they worked there for many weeks. The masons, on the other hand, seeing themselves dismissed, deprived of their work, and thus disgraced, and having no work as profitable as this, sent mediators to Filippo, saying that they would willingly return, and recommending themselves to him as much as they were able. Filippo kept them for many days in suspense as to his willingness to take them back; then he reinstated them at lower wages than they had before; and thus where they thought to gain they lost, and in taking vengeance on Filippo they brought harm and disgrace on themselves. The murmurings were now silenced, and meanwhile, on seeing that building being raised so readily, men had come to recognize the genius of Filippo; and it was already held by those who were not prejudiced that he had shown such courage as perchance no ancient or modern architect had shown in his works. This came to pass because he brought out his model, wherein all could see how much thought he had given to the planning of the staircases and of the lights both within and without, in order that no one might be injured in the darkness by reason of fear, and how many diverse balusters of iron he had placed where the ascent was steep, for the staircases, arranging them with much consideration. Besides this, he had even thought of the irons for fixing scaffoldings within, in case mosaics or paintings had ever to be wrought there; and in like manner, by placing the different kinds of water-conduits, some covered and some uncovered, in the least dangerous positions, and by duly accompanying these with holes and diverse apertures, to the end that the force of the winds might be broken and that neither exhalations nor the tremblings of the earth might be able to do any harm, he showed how great assistance he had received from his studies during the many years that he stayed in Rome. And in addition, when men considered what he had done in the way of dove-tailing, joining, fixing, and binding together the stones, it made them marvel and tremble to think that one single mind should have been capable of all that the mind of Filippo had proved itself able to execute. So greatly did his powers continue to increase that there was nothing, however difficult and formidable, that he did not render easy and simple; and this he showed in the lifting of weights by means of counterweights and wheels, so that one ox could raise what six pairs could scarcely have raised before. The building had now risen to such a height that it was a very great inconvenience for anyone who had climbed to the top to descend to the ground, and the builders lost much time in going to eat and drink, and suffered great discomfort in the heat of the day. Filippo therefore made arrangements for eating-houses with kitchens to be opened on the cupola, and for wine to be sold there, so that no one had to leave

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his labour until the evening, which was convenient for the men and very advantageous for the work. Seeing the work making great progress and succeeding so happily, Filippo had grown so greatly in courage that he was continually labouring, going in person to the furnaces where the bricks were being shaped and demanding to see the clay and to feel its consistency, and insisting on selecting them with his own hand when baked, with the greatest diligence. When the stonecutters were working at the stones, he would look at them to see if they showed flaws and if they were hard, and he would give the men models in wood or wax, or made simply out of turnips; and he would also make iron tools for the smiths. He invented hinges with heads, and hinge-hooks, and he did much to facilitate architecture, which was certainly brought by him to a perfection such as it probably had never enjoyed among the Tuscans. 221-3: Seeing that the two vaults were beginning to close in on the round window where the lantern was to rise, it now remained to Filippo (who had made many models of clay and of wood for both the one and the other in Rome and in Florence, without showing them) to make up his mind finally which of these he would put into execution. Wherefore, having determined to finish the gallery, he made diverse designs, which remained after his death in the Office of Works; but they have since been lost by reason of the negligence of those officials. In our own day, to the end that the whole might be completed, a part of it was made on one of the eight sides, but by the advice of Michelagnolo Buonarroti it was abandoned and not carried further, because it clashed with the original plan. Filippo also made with his own hand a model for the lantern; this was octagonal, with proportions in harmony with those of the cupola, and it turned out very beautiful in invention, variety, and adornment. He made therein the staircase for ascending to the ball, which was something divine, but, since Filippo had stopped up the entrance with a piece of wood let in below, no one save himself knew of this staircase. And although he was praised and had now overcome the envy and the arrogance of many, he could not prevent all the other masters who were in Florence from setting themselves, at the sight of this model, to make other in various fashions, and finally a lady of the house of Gaddi had the courage to compete with the one made by Filippo. But he, meanwhile, kept laughing at their presumption, and when many of his friends told him that he should not show his model to any craftsmen, lest they should learn from it, he would answer that there was but one true model and that the others were of no account. Some of the other masters had used some of the parts of Filippo’s model for their own, and Filippo, on seeing these, would say, “The next model that this man makes will be my very own.” Filippo’s model was infinitely praised by all; only, not seeing therein the staircase for ascending to the ball, they complained that it was defective. The Wardens determined, none the less, to give him the commission for the said work, but on the condition that he should show them the staircase. Whereupon Filippo, removing the small piece of wood that there was at the foot of the model, showed in a pilaster the staircase that is seen at the present day, in the form of a hollow blow-pipe, having on one side a groove with rungs of bronze, whereby one ascends to the top, putting one foot after another. And because he could not live long enough, by reason of his old age, to

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see the lantern finished, he left orders in his testament that it should be built as it stood in the model and as he had directed in writing; protesting that otherwise the structure would collapse, since it was turned with the quarter-acute arch, so that it was necessary to burden it with this weight in order to make it stronger. He was not able to see this edifice finished before his death, but he raised it to the height of several braccia, and caused almost all the marbles that were going into it to be well wrought and prepared; and the people, on seeing them prepared, were amazed that it should be possible for him to propose to lay so great a weight on that vaulting. It was the opinion of many ingenious men that it would not bear the weight, and it appeared to them great good-fortune that he had carried it so far, and a tempting of Providence to burden it so heavily. Filippo, ever laughing to himself, and having prepared all the machines and all the instruments that were to be used in building it, spent all his time and thought in foreseeing, anticipating, and providing for every detail, even to the point of guarding against the chipping of the dressed marbles as they were drawn up, insomuch that the arches of the tabernacles were built with wooden protections; while for the rest, as it has been said, there were written directions and models. How beautiful is this building it demonstrates by itself. From the level of the ground to the base of the lantern it is one hundred and fifty-four braccia in height; the body of the lantern is thirty-six braccia; the copper ball, four braccia; the cross, eight braccia; and the whole is two hundred and two braccia. And it can be said with confidence that the ancients never went so high with their buildings, and never exposed themselves to so great a risk as to try to challenge the heavens, even as this structure truly appears to challenge them, seeing that it rises to such a height that the mountains round Florence appear no higher. And it seems, in truth, that the heavens are envious of it, since the lightning keeps on striking it every day. The while that this work was in progress, Filippo made many other buildings, which we will enumerate below in their order. 234-5: Finally, having now grown very old—he was sixty-nine years of age—he passed to a better life on April 16, in the year 1446, after having exhausted himself greatly in making the works that enabled him to win an honoured name on earth and to obtain a place of repose in Heaven. His death caused infinite grief to his country, which recognized and esteemed him much more when dead than it had done when he was alive; and he was buried with the most honourable obsequies and distinctions in S. Maria del Fiore, although his burial-place was in S. Marco, […]. He had a disciple from Borgo a Buggiano, called Il Buggiano, who made the lavatory of the Sacristy of S. Reparata, with certain boys who pour out water; and he made a head of his master in marble, taken from the life, which was placed after the death of Filippo in S. Maria del Fiore, beside the door on the right hand as one enters the church, where there is also the following epitaph, placed there by public decree in order to honour him after his death, even as he had honoured his country when alive:

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D.S. QUANTUM PHILIPPUS ARCHITECTUS ARTE DÆDALEA VALUERIT, CUM HUJUS CELEBERRIMI TEMPLI MIRA TESTUDO, TUM PLURES ALIÆ DIVINO INGENIO AB EO ADINVENTÆ MACHINÆ DOCUMENTO ESSE POSSUNT; QUAPROPTER OB EXIMIAS SUI ANIMI DOTES SINGULARESQUE VIRTUTES XV KAL. MAIAS ANNO MCCCCXLVI EJUS B.M. CORPUS HAC HUMO SUPPOSITA GRATA PATRIA SEPELIRI JUSSIT. Donatello 242: The same man, while still a youth, made a figure of the Prophet Daniel in marble for the façade of S. Maria del Fiore, and afterwards one of S. John the Evangelist seated, four braccia high, and clothed in a simple garment: which figure is much extolled. On one corner of the same place, on the side that faces towards the Via del Cocomero, there is an old man between two columns, more akin to the ancient manner than any other work that there is to be seen by the hand of Donato, the head revealing the thoughts that length of years brings to those who are exhausted by time and labour. Within the said church, likewise, he made the ornament for the organ, which stands over the door of the old sacristy, with those figures so boldly sketched, as it has been said, that they appear to the eye to have actual life and movement. Wherefore it may be said of this man that he worked as much with his judgment as with his hands, seeing that many things are wrought which appear beautiful in the rooms where they are made, and afterwards, on being taken thence and set in another place, in a different light or at a greater height, present a different appearance, and turn out the contrary to what they appeared; whereas Donato made his figures in such a manner, that in the room where he was working they did not appear half as good as they turned out to be in the positions where they were placed. For the new sacristy of the same church he made the design for those boys who uphold the festoons that go round the frieze, and likewise the design for the figures that were wrought in the glass of the round window which is below the cupola, namely, that one which contains the Coronation of Our Lady; which design is greatly superior to those of the other round windows, as it is clearly evident. 243-4: For the main front of the Campanile of S. Maria del Fiore he wrought four figures in marble, five braccia in height, of which the two in the middle are portrayed from life, one being Francesco Soderini as a youth, and the other Giovanni di Barduccio Cherichini, now called Il Zuccone. The latter was held to be a very rare work and the most beautiful that Donato ever made, and when he wished to take an oath that would command belief he was wont to say, “By the faith that I place in my Zuccone”; and the while that he was working on it, he would keep gazing at it and saying, “Speak, speak, plague take thee, speak!” Over

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the door of the campanile, on the side facing the Canon’s house, he made Abraham about to sacrifice Isaac, with another Prophet: and these figures were placed between two other statues. 249: For S. Maria del Fiore he made two colossal figures of brick and stucco, which are placed by way of ornament without the church, at the corners of the chapels. Michelozzo Michelozzi 270: Above the counter where the friars sell the candles, moreover, he [Pagno di Lapo Partigiani] made a half-length Madonna of marble with the Child in her arms, in half-relief, of the size of life and very devout; and a similar work in the Office of the Wardens of Works of S. Maria del Fiore. III Giuliano da Maiano 12: But to return to Giuliano; he made the presses of the Sacristy of S. Maria del Fiore, which were held at that time to be admirable examples of tarsia and inlaidwork. Now, while Giuliano thus continued to devote himself to tarsia, to sculpture, and to architecture, Filippo di Ser Brunellesco died; whereupon, being chosen by the Wardens of Works to succeed him, he made the borders, incrusted with black and white marble, which are round the circular windows below the vault of the cupola; and at the corners he placed the marble pilasters on which Baccio d’Agnolo afterwards laid the architrave, frieze, and cornice, as will be told below. It is true that, as it appears from some designs by his hand that are in our book, he wished to make another arrangement of frieze, cornice, and gallery, with pediments on each of the eight sides of the cupola; but he had not time to put this into execution, for, being carried away by an excess of work from one day to another, he died. Fra Giovanni Beato Angelico 36: In S. Maria del Fiore are two very large books illuminated divinely well by the hand of Fra Giovanni, which are held in great veneration and richly adorned, nor are they ever seen save on days of the highest solemnity. Fra Filippo Lippi 87: While Sixtus IV was alive, Lorenzo de’ Medici became ambassador to the Florentines, and made the journey to Spoleto, in order to demand from that community the body of Fra Filippo, to the end that it might be laid in S. Maria del Fiore in Florence; but their answer to him was that they were lacking in ornaments, and above all in distinguished men, for which reason they demanded Filippo from him as a favour in order to honour themselves, adding that since there was a vast number of famous men in Florence, nay, almost a superfluity, he should consent to do without this one; and more than this he could not obtain.

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Andrea dal Castagno 100: In S. Maria del Fiore he painted the image of Niccolò da Tolentino on horseback; and while he was working at this a boy who was passing shook his ladder, whereupon he flew into such a rage, like the brutal man that he was, that he jumped down and ran after him as far as the Canto de’ Pazzi. 104-5: In the year 1478, when Giuliano de’ Medici was killed and his brother Lorenzo wounded in S. Maria del Fiore by the family of the Pazzi and their adherents and fellow-conspirators, it was ordained by the Signoria that all those who had shared in the plot should be painted as traitors on the wall of the Palace of the Podestà. This work was offered to Andrea, and he, as a servant and debtor of the house of Medici, accepted it very willingly, and, taking it in hand, executed it so beautifully that it was a miracle. It would not be possible to express how much art and judgment were to be seen in those figures, which were for the most part portraits from life, and which were hung up by the feet in strange attitudes, all varied and very beautiful. This work, which pleased the whole city and particularly all who had understanding in the art of painting, brought it about that from that time onwards he was called no longer Andrea dal Castagno but Andrea degl’ Impiccati. Gherardo 213: Wherefore, seeing that Gherardo, an illuminator of that time and a man of inquiring brain, was investigating the difficulties of that calling, he showed him great favour, as one who ever assisted those in whom he saw some germ of spirit and intellect. Placing him, therefore, in the company of Domenico del Ghirlandajo, he obtained for him from the Wardens of Works of S. Maria del Fiore a commission for decorating the chapels of the transepts, beginning with that of the Sacrament, wherein lies the body of S. Zanobi. Whereupon Gherardo, growing ever in keenness of intelligence, would have executed most marvellous works in company with Domenico, if death had not intervened, as may be judged from the beginning of that chapel, which remained unfinished. 214: For the church of the same hospital [Santa Maria Nuova] Gherardo illuminated an infinite number of books, with some for S. Maria del Fiore in Florence, and certain others for Matthias Corvinus, King of Hungary. […] Having thus developed, as has been related, from a master of illumination into a painter, in addition to the said works, he made some great figures in a large cartoon for the Evangelists that he had to make in mosaic in the Chapel of S. Zanobi. But before the Magnificent Lorenzo de’ Medici had obtained for him the commission for the said chapel, wishing to show that he understood the art of mosaic, and that he could work without a companion, he made a life-size head of S. Zanobi, which remained in S. Maria del Fiore, and on days of the highest solemnity it is set up on the altar of the said Saint, or in some other place, as a rare thing.

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Domenico Ghirlandaio 232: By the hand of Domenico is a very beautiful Annunciation in mosaic that is to be seen over that side-door of S. Maria del Fiore which leads to the Servi; and nothing better than this has yet been seen among the works of our modern masters of mosaic. Domenico used to say that painting was mere drawing, and that the true painting for eternity was mosaic. Antonio and Piero Pollaiuolo 242-3, The same man [Andrea] made some very beautiful medals; among others, one representing the conspiracy of the Pazzi, containing on one side the heads of Lorenzo and Giuliano de’ Medici, and on the reverse the choir of S. Maria del Fiore, with the whole event exactly as it happened. He also made the medals of certain Pontiffs, and many other things that are known to craftsmen. Benedetto da Maiano 257: Benedetto da Maiano, a sculptor of Florence, who was in his earliest years a wood-carver, was held the most able master of all who were then handling the tools of that profession; and he was particularly excellent as a craftsman in that form of work which, as has been said elsewhere, was introduced at the time of Filippo Brunelleschi and Paolo Uccello—namely, the inlaying of pieces of wood tinted with various colours, in order to make views in perspective, foliage, and many other diverse things of fancy. In this craft, then, Benedetto da Maiano was in his youth the best master that there was to be found, as is clearly demonstrated by many works of his that are to be seen in various parts of Florence, particularly by all the presses in the Sacristy of S. Maria del Fiore, the greater part of which he finished after the death of his uncle Giuliano; these are full of figures executed in inlaid work, foliage, and other devices, all wrought with great expense and craftsmanship. 259: The same Benedetto was commissioned by the elder Lorenzo de’ Medici to make in S. Maria del Fiore a portrait of the Florentine painter Giotto, which he placed over the epitaph, of which enough has been said above in the Life of Giotto himself. This piece of marble sculpture is held to be passing good. 260: The latter [Benedetto], having acquired enough to live upon, would do no more works in marble after those described above, save that he finished in S. Trinita the S. Mary Magdalene begun by Desiderio da Settignano, and made the Crucifix that is over the altar of S. Maria del Fiore, with certain others like it. Andrea Verrocchio 267: In his youth he applied himself to the sciences, particularly to geometry. Among many other things that he made while working at the goldsmith’s art were certain buttons for copes, which are in S. Maria del Fiore at Florence; and he also made larger works, particularly a cup, full of animals, foliage, and other bizarre fancies, which is known to all goldsmiths, and casts are taken of it; and likewise another, on which there is a very beautiful dance of little children.

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271: Afterwards, the building of the Cupola of S. Maria del Fiore having been finished, it was resolved, after much discussion, that there should be made the copper ball which, according to the instructions left by Filippo Brunelleschi, was to be placed on the summit of that edifice. Whereupon the task was given to Andrea, who made the ball four braccia high, and, placing it on a knob, secured it in such a manner that afterwards the cross could be safely erected upon it; and the whole work, when finished, was put into position with very great rejoicing and delight among the people. Truly great were the ingenuity and diligence that had to be used in making it, to the end that it might be possible, as it is, to enter it from below, and also in securing it with good fastenings, lest the winds might do it damage. V Andrea da Fiesole 5: Having come into repute by reason of the fame of these works, Andrea was commissioned by the Wardens of Works of S. Maria del Fiore, at the time when Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici was governing Florence, to make a statue of an Apostle four braccia in height; at that time, I mean, when four other similar statues were allotted at one and the same moment to four other masters—one to Benedetto da Maiano, another to Jacopo Sansovino, a third to Baccio Bandinelli, and the fourth to Michelagnolo Buonarroti; which statues were eventually to be twelve in number, and were to be placed in that part of that magnificent temple where there are the Apostles painted by the hand of Lorenzo di Bicci. Andrea, then, executed his rather with fine skill and judgment than with design; and he acquired thereby, if not as much praise as the others, at least the name of a good and practised master. Wherefore he was almost continually employed ever afterwards by the Wardens of Works of that church; and he made the head of Marsilius Ficinus that is to be seen therein, within the door that leads to the chapter-house. Benedetto da Rovezzano 36: Benedetto also executed, in competition with Jacopo Sansovino and Baccio Bandinelli, as has been related, one of the Apostles, four and a half braccia in height, for S. Maria del Fiore—namely, a S. John the Evangelist, which is a passing good figure, wrought with fine design and skill. This figure is in the Office of Works, in company with the others. 37: At which time [1530], war raging round Florence, all those labours were ruined by soldiers, the heads wrought with such diligence were impiously struck off from the little figures, and the whole work was so completely destroyed and broken to pieces, that the monks afterwards sold what was left for a mere song. If any one wishes to see a part of it, let him go to the Office of Works of S. Maria del Fiore, where there are a few pieces, bought as broken marble not many years ago by the officials of that place. And, in truth, even as everything is brought to fine completion in those monasteries and other places where peace and concord reign, so, on the contrary, nothing ever reaches perfection or an end worthy of praise in places where there is naught save rivalry and discord, because what takes a good

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and wise man a hundred years to build up can be destroyed by an ignorant and crazy boor in one day. Lorenzo di Credi 50: For the Company of S. Sebastiano, behind the Church of the Servi in Florence, he executed a panel-picture of Our Lady, S. Sebastian, and other saints; and for the altar of S. Giuseppe, in S. Maria del Fiore, he painted the first-named saint. Andrea del Sarto 97: But what was admired more than everything else was the façade of S. Maria del Fiore, made of wood, and so well decorated with various scenes in chiaroscuro by our Andrea, that nothing more could have been desired. The architecture of this work was by Jacopo Sansovino, as were some scenes in low-relief and many figures carved in the round; and it was declared by the Pope that this structure— which was designed by Lorenzo de’ Medici, father of that Pontiff, when he was alive—could not have been more beautiful, even if it had been of marble. Properzia de’ Rossi 126: There is a little picture of Our Lady in S. Giovannino, at Florence; and an altar-predella in S. Maria del Fiore, containing very beautiful scenes from the life of S. Zanobi. Morto da Feltro and Andrea di Cosimo Feltrini 231: And on the occasion of the visit of that Pontiff to Florence he [Andrea] executed many beautiful ornaments in the form of grotesques on the façade of S. Maria del Fiore, for Jacopo Sansovino, who gave him his sister for wife. VI Baccio d’Agnolo 67-9: Next, having been appointed on account of his abilities, and because he was much beloved by the citizens, as architect to S. Maria del Fiore, Baccio gave the design for constructing the gallery that encircles the cupola. This part of the work Filippo Brunelleschi, being overtaken by death, had not been able to execute; and although he had made designs even for this, they had been lost or destroyed through the negligence of those in charge of the building. Baccio, then, having made the design and model for this gallery, carried into execution all the part that is to be seen facing the Canto de’ Bischeri. But Michelagnolo Buonarroti, on his return from Rome, perceiving that in carrying out this work they were cutting away the toothings that Filippo Brunelleschi, not without a purpose, had left projecting, made such a clamour that the work was stopped; saying that it seemed to him that Baccio had made a cage for crickets, that a pile so vast required something grander and executed with more design, art, and grace than appeared to him to be displayed by Baccio’s design, and that he himself would show how it should be done. Michelagnolo having therefore made a model, the matter was disputed at great length before Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici by many craftsmen and competent

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citizens; and in the end neither the one model nor the other was carried into execution. Baccio’s design was censured in many respects, not that it was not a well-proportioned work of its kind, but because it was too insignificant in comparison with the size of the structure; and for these reasons that gallery has never been brought to completion. Baccio afterwards gave his attention to executing the pavement of S. Maria del Fiore, and to his other buildings, which were not a few, for he had under his particular charge all the principal monasteries and convents of Florence, and many houses of citizens, both within and without the city. […] Of these sons, who all gave their attention after the death of Baccio to the art of carving and working in wood, Giuliano, who was the second, was the one who applied himself with the greatest zeal to architecture both during his father’s lifetime and afterwards; wherefore, by favour of Duke Cosimo, he succeeded to his father’s place as architect to S. Maria del Fiore, and continued not only all that Baccio had begun in that temple, but also all the other buildings that had remained unfinished at his death. 70-2: Giuliano [son of Baccio], meanwhile, not neglecting his workshop, was giving his attention, together with his brothers, to the execution of many carvings and works in wood, and also to pressing on the making of the pavement of S. Maria del Fiore; and since he was superintendent and architect of that building, he was requested by the same [Baccio] Bandinelli to make designs and models of wood, after some fantasies of figures and other ornaments of his own, for the highaltar of that same S. Maria del Fiore, which was to be constructed of marble; which Giuliano did most willingly, being a good and kindly person and one who delighted in architecture as much as Bandinelli despised it, and being also won over by the lavish promises of profit and honour that Bandinelli made him. Setting to work, therefore, on that model, Giuliano made it much after the simple pattern formerly designed by Brunelleschi, save that he enriched it by doubling both the columns and the arch above. And when he had brought it to completion, and the model, together with many designs, had been carried by Bandinelli to Duke Cosimo, his most illustrious Excellency resolved in his regal mind to execute not only the altar, but also the ornament of marble that surrounds the choir, following its original octagonal shape, with all those rich adornments with which it has since been carried out, in keeping with the grandeur and magnificence of that temple. Giuliano, therefore, with the assistance of Bandinelli, made a beginning with that choir, without altering anything save the principal entrance, which is opposite to the above-mentioned altar; for which reason he wished that it should be exactly similar to that altar, with the same arch and decorations. He also made two other similar arches, which unite with the entrance and the altar in forming a cross; and these were for two pulpits, which the old choir also had, serving for music and other ceremonies of the choir and of the altar. In this choir, around the eight faces, Giuliano made an ornament of the Ionic Order, and placed at every corner a pilaster bent in the middle, and one on every face; and since each pilaster so narrowed that the extension-lines of its side-faces met in the centre of the choir, from inside it looked narrow and bent in, and from outside broad and pointed. This

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invention was not much extolled, nor can it be commended as beautiful by any man of judgment; and for a work of such cost, in a place so celebrated, Bandinelli, if he despised architecture, or had no knowledge of it, should have availed himself of someone living at that time with the knowledge and ability to do better. Giuliano deserves to be excused in the matter, because he did all that he could, which was not a little; but it is very certain that one who has not strong powers of design and invention in himself, will always be too poor in grace and judgment to bring to perfection great works of architecture. Niccolo, called Tribolo 4: Jacopo Sansovino, when Tribolo, now restored to health, went to work under him, was executing in the Office of Works of S. Maria del Fiore, in competition with Benedetto da Rovezzano, Andrea da Fiesole, and Baccio Bandinelli, the marble statue of S. James the Apostle which is still to be seen at the present day at that place together with the others. Baccio Bandinelli 61: At this same time there were being executed in the Office of Works of S. Maria del Fiore certain Apostles of marble, which were to be set up within the marble tabernacles in those very places in that church where there are the Apostles painted by the painter Lorenzo di Bicci. At the instance of the Magnificent Giuliano there was allotted to Baccio a S. Peter, four braccia and a half in height, which after a long time he brought to completion; and, although it has not the highest perfection of sculpture, nevertheless good design may be seen in it. This Apostle remained in the Office of Works from the year 1513 down to 1565, in which year Duke Cosimo, in honour of the marriage of Queen Joanna of Austria, his daughter-inlaw, was pleased to have the interior of S. Maria del Fiore whitewashed, which church had never been touched from the time of its erection down to that day, and to have four Apostles set up in their places, among which was the S. Peter mentioned above. 67-9: Baccio was sent to Carrara to see this marble, and the Overseers of the Works of S. Maria del Fiore were commissioned to transport it by water, along the River Arno, as far as Signa. The marble having been conveyed there, within a distance of eight miles from Florence, when they set about removing it from the river in order to transport it by land, the river being too low from Signa to Florence, it fell into the water, and on account of its great size sank so deep into the sand, that the Overseers, with all the contrivances that they used, were not able to drag it out. For which reason, the Pope wishing that the marble should be recovered at all costs, by order of the Wardens of Works Pietro Rosselli, an old builder of great ingenuity, went to work in such a manner that, having diverted the course of the water into another channel and cut away the bank of the river, with levers and windlasses he moved it, dragged it out of the Arno, and brought it to solid ground, for which he was greatly extolled. Tempted by this accident to the marble, certain persons wrote verses, both Tuscan and Latin, ingeniously ridiculing Baccio, who was detested for his loquacity and his evil-speaking against

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Michelagnolo and all the other craftsmen. One among them took for his verses the following subject, saying that the marble, after having been approved by the genius of Michelagnolo, learning that it was to be mangled by the hands of Baccio, had thrown itself into the river out of despair at such an evil fate. While the marble was being drawn out of the water, a difficult process which took time, Baccio found, on measuring it, that it was neither high enough nor wide enough to enable him to carve the figures of his first model. Whereupon he went to Rome, taking the measurements with him, and made known to the Pope how he was constrained by necessity to abandon his first design and make another. He then made several models, and out of their number the Pope was most pleased with one in which Hercules had Cacus between his legs, and, grasping his hair, was holding him down after the manner of a prisoner; and this one they resolved to adopt and to carry into execution. On returning to Florence, Baccio found that the marble had been conveyed into the Office of Works of S. Maria del Fiore by Pietro Rosselli, who had first placed on the ground some planks of walnut-wood planed square, and laid lengthways, which he kept changing according as the marble moved forward, under which and upon those planks he placed some round rollers well shod with iron, so that by pulling the marble with three windlasses, to which he had attached it, little by little he brought it with ease into the Office of Works. The block having been set up there, Baccio began a model in clay as large as the marble and shaped according to the last one which he had made previously in Rome; and he finished it, working with great diligence, in a few months. But with all this it appeared to many craftsmen that there was not in this model that spirited vivacity that the action required, nor that which he had given to his first model. Afterwards, beginning to work at the marble, Baccio cut it away all round as far as the navel, laying bare the limbs in front, and taking care all the time to carve the figures in such a way that they might be exactly like those of the large model in clay. 73: Death had now snatched away the goldsmith Michelagnolo, the father of Baccio, who during his lifetime had undertaken to make for the Wardens of Works of S. Maria del Fiore, by order of the Pope, a very large cross of silver, all covered with scenes in low-relief of the Passion of Christ. This cross, for which Baccio had made the figures and scenes in wax, to be afterwards cast in silver, Michelagnolo had left unfinished at his death; and Baccio, having the work in his hands, together with many libbre of silver, sought to persuade his Holiness to have it finished by Francesco dal Prato, who had gone with him to Bologna. But the Pope, perceiving that Baccio wished not only to withdraw from his father’s engagements, but also to make something out of the labours of Francesco, gave Baccio orders that the silver and the scenes, those merely begun as well as those finished, should be given to the Wardens of Works, that the account should be settled, and that the Wardens should melt all the silver of that cross, in order to make use of it for the necessities of the church, which had been stripped of its ornaments at the time of the siege; and to Baccio he caused one hundred florins of gold and letters of recommendation to be given, to the end that he might return to Florence and finish the work of the giant.

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86-7: It was a custom of Baccio’s to add pieces of marble both small and large to the statues that he executed, feeling no annoyance in doing this, and making light of it. He did this with one of the heads of Cerberus in the group of Orpheus; in the S. Peter that is in S. Maria del Fiore he let in a piece of drapery; in the case of the Giant of the Piazza, as may be seen, he joined two pieces—a shoulder and a leg— to the Cacus, and in many other works he did the same, holding to such ways as generally damn a sculptor completely. 87-8: Thus, then, having made enemies of the proveditors and of all the stonecutters in the Office of Works of S. Maria del Fiore, which was under his authority, while the statues that were destined for the audience-chamber were, after his fashion, some only blocked out and others finished and placed in position, and the ornamentation in great part built up, wishing to conceal the many defects that were in the work and little by little to abandon it, he suggested to the Duke that the Wardens of Works of S. Maria del Fiore were throwing away his money and no longer doing anything of any importance. He said that he had therefore thought that his Excellency would do well to divert all that useless expenditure of the Office of Works into making the octagonal choir of the church and the ornaments of the altar, the steps, the daïses of the Duke and the magistrates, and the stalls in the choir for the canons, chaplains, and clerks, according as was proper for so honourable a church. Of this choir Filippo di Ser Brunellesco had left the model in that simple framework of wood which previously served as the choir in the church, intending in time to have it executed in marble, in the same form, but more ornate. Baccio reflected, besides the considerations mentioned above, that in this choir he would have occasion to make many statues and scenes in marble and in bronze for the high-altar and all around the choir, and also for two pulpits of marble that were to be in the choir, and that the base of the outer side of the eight faces might be adorned with many scenes in bronze let into the marble ornamentation. Above this he thought to place a range of columns and pilasters to support the cornice right round, and four arches distributed according to the cross of the church; of which arches one was to form the principal entrance, opposite to another rising above the high-altar, and the two others were to be at the sides, one on the right hand and another on the left, and below these last two were to be placed the pulpits. Over the cornice was to be a range of balusters, curving right round above the eight sides, and over the balusters a garland of candelabra, in order, as it were, to crown the choir with lights according to the seasons, as had always been the custom while the wooden model of Brunelleschi was there. 88-92: Pointing out all this to the Duke, Baccio said that his Excellency, with the revenues of the Office of Works—namely, of S. Maria del Fiore and of its Wardens—and with that which his liberality might add, in a short time could adorn that temple and give great grandeur and magnificence to the same, and consequently to the whole city, of which it was the principal temple, and would leave an everlasting and honourable memorial of himself in such a structure; and besides all this, he said, his Excellency would be giving him an opportunity of exerting his powers and of making many good and beautiful works, and also, by displaying his ability, of acquiring for himself name and fame with posterity,

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which should be pleasing to his Excellency, since he was his servant and had been brought up by the house of the Medici. With these designs and these words Baccio so moved the Duke, that, consenting that such a structure should be erected, his Excellency commissioned him to make a model of the whole choir. Departing from the Duke, then, Baccio went to his architect, Giuliano di Baccio d’Agnolo, and discussed the whole matter with him; and, after they had gone to the place and examined everything with diligence, they resolved not to depart from the form of Filippo’s model, but to follow it, adding only other ornaments in the shape of columns and projections, and enriching it as much as they could while preserving the original design and form. But it is not the number of parts and ornaments that renders a fabric rich and beautiful, but their excellence, however few they may be, provided also that they are set in their proper places and arranged together with due proportion; it is these that give pleasure and are admired, and, having been executed with judgment by the craftsman, afterwards receive praise from all others. This Giuliano and Baccio do not seem to have considered or observed, for they chose a subject involving much labour and endless pains, but wanting in grace, as experience has proved. The design of Giuliano, as may be seen, was to place at the corners of all the eight sides pilasters bent round the angles, the whole work being composed in the Ionic Order; and these pilasters, since in the ground-plan they were made, with all the rest of the work, to diminish towards the centre of the choir and were not even, necessarily had to be broad on the outer side and narrow on the inner, which is a breach of proportionate measurement. And since each pilaster was bent according to the inner angles of the eight sides, the extension-lines towards the centre so diminished it that the two columns that were one on either side of the pilaster at the corner caused it to appear too slender, and produced an ungraceful effect both in it and in the whole work, both on the outer side and likewise on the inner, although the measurements there are correct. Giuliano also made the model of the whole altar, which stood at a distance of one braccio and a half from the ornament of the choir. For the upper part of this Baccio afterwards made in wax a Christ lying dead, with two Angels, one of whom was holding His right arm and supporting His head on one knee, and the other was holding the Mysteries of the Passion; which statue of Christ occupied almost the whole altar, so that there would scarcely have been room to celebrate Mass, and Baccio proposed to make this statue about four braccia and a half in length. He made, also, a projection in the form of a pedestal behind the altar, attached to it in the centre, with a seat upon which he afterwards placed a seated figure of God the Father, six braccia high and giving the benediction, and accompanied by two other Angels, each four braccia high, kneeling at the extreme corners of the predella of the altar, on the level on which rested the feet of God the Father. This predella was more than a braccio in height, and on it were many stories of the Passion of Jesus Christ, which were all to be in bronze, and on the corners of the predella were the Angels mentioned above, both kneeling and each holding in the hands a candelabrum; which candelabra of the Angels served to accompany eight large candelabra placed between the Angels, and three braccia and a half in height, which adorned that altar; and God the Father

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was in the midst of them all. Behind God the Father was left a space of half a braccio, in order that there might be room to ascend to kindle the lights. Under the arch that stood opposite to the principal entrance of the choir, on the base that ran right round, on the outer side, Baccio had placed, directly under the centre of that arch, the Tree of the Fall, round the trunk of which was wound the Ancient Serpent with a human face, and two nude figures were about the Tree, one being Adam and the other Eve. On the outer side of the choir, to which those figures had their faces turned, there ran lengthways along the base a space about three braccia long, which was to contain the story of their Creation, either in marble or in bronze; and this was to be pursued along the faces of the base of the whole work, to the number of twenty-one stories, all from the Old Testament. And for the further enrichment of this base he had made for each of the socles upon which stood the columns and pilasters, a figure of some Prophet, either draped or nude, to be afterwards executed in marble—a great work, truly, and a marvellous opportunity, likely to reveal all the art and genius of a perfect master, whose memory should never be extinguished by any lapse of time. This model was shown to the Duke, and also a double series of designs made by Baccio, which, both from their variety and their number, and likewise from their beauty—for the reason that Baccio worked boldly in wax and drew very well—pleased his Excellency, and he ordained that the masonry-work should be straightway taken in hand, devoting to it all the expenditure administered by the Office of Works, and giving orders that a great quantity of marble should be brought from Carrara. Baccio, on his part, also set to work to make a beginning with the statues; and among the first was an Adam who was raising one arm, and was about four braccia in height. This figure was finished by Baccio, but, since it proved to be narrow in the flanks and somewhat defective in other parts, he changed it into a Bacchus, and afterwards gave it to the Duke, who kept it in his Palace many years, in his chamber; and not long ago it was placed in a niche in the ground-floor apartments which his Excellency occupies in summer. He had also made a seated figure of Eve of the same size, which he had half finished: but it was abandoned on account of the Adam, which it was to have accompanied. For, having made a beginning with another Adam, in a different form and attitude, it became necessary for him to change also the Eve, and the original seated figure was converted by him into a Ceres, which he gave to the most illustrious Duchess Leonora, together with an Apollo, which was another nude that he had executed; and her Excellency had them placed in the ornament in front of the fish-pond, the design and architecture of which are by Giorgio Vasari, in the gardens of the Pitti Palace. Baccio worked at these two figures with very great zeal, thinking to satisfy the craftsmen and all the world as well as he had satisfied himself; and he finished and polished them with all the diligence and lovingness that were in him. He then set up these figures of Adam and Eve in their place, but, when uncovered, they experienced the same fate as his other works, and were torn to pieces with savage bitterness in sonnets and Latin verses, one going to the length of suggesting that even as Adam and Eve, having defiled Paradise by their disobedience, deserved to be driven out, so these figures, defiling the earth, deserved to be expelled from the

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church. Nevertheless the statues are well-proportioned, and beautiful in many parts; and although there is not in them that grace which has been spoken of in other places, and which he was not able to give to his works, yet they display so much art and design, that they deserve no little praise. A lady who had set herself to examine these statues, being asked by some gentlemen what she thought of these naked bodies, answered, “About the man I can give no judgment;” and, being pressed to give her opinion of the woman, she replied that in the Eve there were two good points, worthy of considerable praise, in that she was white and firm; whereby she contrived ingeniously, while seeming to praise, covertly to deal a shrewd blow to the craftsman and his art, giving to the statue the praise proper to the female body, which it is also necessary to apply to the marble, the material, and which is true of it, but not of the work or of the craftsmanship, for by such praise the craftsmanship is not praised. Thus, then, that shrewd lady hinted that in her opinion nothing could be praised in that statue save the marble. Baccio afterwards set his hand to the statue of the Dead Christ, which likewise not succeeding as he had expected, he abandoned it when it was already well advanced, and, taking another block of marble, began another Christ in an attitude different from the first, and together with that the Angel who supports the head of Christ on one leg and with one hand His arm; and he did not rest until he had finished entirely both the one figure and the other. When arrangements were made to set it up on the altar, it proved to be so large that it occupied too much space, and there was no room left for the ministrations of the priest; and although this statue was passing good, and even one of Baccio’s best, nevertheless the people— the ordinary citizens no less than the priests—could never have their fill of speaking ill of it and picking it to pieces. Recognizing that to uncover unfinished works injures the reputation of a craftsman in the eyes of all those who are not of the profession, or have no knowledge of art, or have not seen the models, Baccio resolved, in order to accompany the statue of Christ and to complete the altar, to make the statue of God the Father, for which a very beautiful block of marble had come from Carrara. And he had already carried it well forward, making it half nude after the manner of a Jove, when, since it did not please the Duke and appeared to Baccio himself to have certain defects, he left it as it was, and even so it is still to be found in the Office of Works. 96: Baccio uncovered the altar of S. Maria del Fiore, and the statue of God the Father was criticized. The altar has remained as was described above, nor has anything more been done to it since; but the work of the choir has been continued. Christofano Gherardi 119: Then, in the year 1536, the Emperor Charles V coming to Italy and to Florence, as has been related in other places, the most magnificent festive preparations were ordained, among which Vasari, by order of Duke Alessandro, received the charge of the decorations of the Porta a S. Piero Gattolini, of the façade at S. Felice in Piazza, at the head of the Via Maggio, and of the pediment that was erected over the door of S. Maria del Fiore; and, in addition, of a standard

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of cloth for the castle, fifteen braccia in depth and forty in length, into the gilding of which there went fifty thousand leaves of gold. IX Michelangelo 15-7: Letters were written to him from Florence by some of his friends, saying that he should return, because it was not unlikely that he might obtain the spoiled block of marble lying in the Office of Works, which Piero Soderini, who at that time had been made Gonfalonier of the city for life, had very often talked of having executed by Leonardo da Vinci, and was then arranging to give to Maestro Andrea Contucci of Monte Sansovino, an excellent sculptor, who was seeking to obtain it. Now, however difficult it might be to carve a complete figure out of it without adding pieces (for which work of finishing it without adding pieces none of the others, save Buonarroti alone, had courage enough), Michelagnolo had felt a desire for it for many years back; and, having come to Florence, he sought to obtain it. This block of marble was nine braccia high, and from it, unluckily, one Maestro Simone da Fiesole had begun a giant, and he had managed to work so ill, that he had hacked a hole between the legs, and it was altogether misshapen and reduced to ruin, insomuch that the Wardens of Works of S. Maria del Fiore, who had the charge of the undertaking, had placed it on one side without troubling to have it finished; and so it had remained for many years past, and was likely to remain. Michelagnolo measured it all anew, considering whether he might be able to carve a reasonable figure from that block by accommodating himself as to the attitude to the marble as it had been left all misshapen by Maestro Simone; and he resolved to ask for it from Soderini and the Wardens, by whom it was granted to him as a thing of no value, they thinking that whatever he might make of it would be better than the state in which it was at that time, seeing that neither in pieces nor in that condition could it be of any use to their building. Whereupon Michelagnolo made a model of wax, fashioning in it, as a device for the Palace, a young David with a sling in his hand, to the end that, even as he had defended his people and governed them with justice, so those governing that city might defend her valiantly and govern her justly. And he began it in the Office of Works of S. Maria del Fiore, in which he made an enclosure of planks and masonry, thus surrounding the marble; and, working at it continuously without anyone seeing it, he carried it to perfect completion. The marble had already been spoilt and distorted by Maestro Simone, and in some places it was not enough to satisfy the wishes of Michelagnolo for what he would have liked to do with it; and he therefore suffered certain of the first marks of Maestro Simone’s chisel to remain on the extremity of the marble, some of which are still to be seen. And truly it was a miracle on the part of Michelagnolo to restore to life a thing that was dead. This statue, when finished, was of such a kind that many disputes took place as to how to transport it to the Piazza della Signoria. Whereupon Giuliano da San Gallo and his brother Antonio made a very strong framework of wood and suspended the figure from it with ropes, to the end that it might not hit against the wood and break to pieces, but might rather keep rocking gently; and they drew it with

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windlasses over flat beams laid upon the ground, and then set it in place. On the rope which held the figure suspended he made a slip-knot which was very easy to undo but tightened as the weight increased, which is a most beautiful and ingenious thing; and I have in my book a drawing of it by his own hand—an admirable, secure, and strong contrivance for suspending weights. It happened at this time that Piero Soderini, having seen it in place, was well pleased with it, but said to Michelagnolo, at a moment when he was retouching it in certain parts, that it seemed to him that the nose of the figure was too thick. Michelagnolo noticed that the Gonfalonier was beneath the Giant, and that his point of view prevented him from seeing it properly; but in order to satisfy him he climbed upon the staging, which was against the shoulders, and quickly took up a chisel in his left hand, with a little of the marble-dust that lay upon the planks of the staging, and then, beginning to strike lightly with the chisel, let fall the dust little by little, nor changed the nose a whit from what it was before. Then, looking down at the Gonfalonier, who stood watching him, he said, “Look at it now.” “I like it better,” said the Gonfalonier, “you have given it life.” And so Michelagnolo came down, laughing to himself at having satisfied that lord, for he had compassion on those who, in order to appear full of knowledge, talk about things of which they know nothing. When it was built up, and all was finished, he uncovered it, and it cannot be denied that this work has carried off the palm from all other statues, modern or ancient, Greek or Latin; and it may be said that neither the Marforio at Rome, nor the Tiber and the Nile of the Belvedere, nor the Giants of Monte Cavallo, are equal to it in any respect, with such just proportion, beauty and excellence did Michelagnolo finish it. For in it may be seen most beautiful contours of legs, with attachments of limbs and slender outlines of flanks that are divine; nor has there ever been seen a pose so easy, or any grace to equal that in this work, or feet, hands and head so well in accord, one member with another, in harmony, design, and excellence of artistry. And, of a truth, whoever has seen this work need not trouble to see any other work executed in sculpture, either in our own or in other times, by no matter what craftsman. Michelagnolo received from Piero Soderini in payment for it four hundred crowns; and it was set in place in the year 1504. 18: These works were held to be admirable in their excellence; and at this same time, also, he blocked out a statue of S. Matthew in marble in the Office of Works of S. Maria del Fiore, which statue, rough as it is, reveals its full perfection and teaches sculptors in what manner figures can be carved out of marble without their coming out misshapen, so that it may be possible to go on ever improving them by removing more of the marble with judgment, and also to draw back and change some part, according as the necessity may arise. Jacopo Sansovino 190-1: But, although the work was therefore allotted to him, nevertheless so much delay was caused in procuring and conveying the marble for him, by the envious machinations of Averardo da Filicaia, who greatly favoured Bandinelli and hated

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Sansovino, that he was ordered by certain other citizens, having perceived that delay, to make one of the large Apostles in marble that were going into the Church of S. Maria del Fiore. Wherefore, having made the model of a S. James (which model, when the work was finished, came into the possession of Messer Bindo Altoviti), he began that figure and, continuing to work at it with all diligence and study, he carried it to completion so perfectly, that it is a miraculous figure and shows in all its parts that it was wrought with incredible study and care, the draperies, arms, and hands being undercut and executed with such art and such grace, that there is nothing better in marble to be seen. Thus, Sansovino showed in what way undercut draperies should be executed, having made these so delicate and so natural, that in some places he reduced the marble to the thickness that is seen in real folds and in the edges and hems of the borders of draperies; a difficult method, and one demanding much time and patience if you wish that it should so succeed as to display the perfection of art. That figure remained in the Office of Works from the time when it was finished by Sansovino until the year 1565, at which time, in the month of December, it was placed in the Church of S. Maria del Fiore to do honour to the coming of Queen Joanna of Austria, the wife of Don Francesco de’ Medici, Prince of Florence and Siena. And there it is kept as a very rare work, together with the other Apostles, likewise in marble, executed in competition by other craftsmen, as has been related in their Lives. 193-4, In the year 1514, when festive preparations of great richness were to be made in Florence for the coming of Pope Leo X, orders were given by the Signoria and by Giuliano de’ Medici that many triumphal arches of wood should be made in various parts of the city. Whereupon Sansovino not only executed the designs for many of these, but himself undertook in company with Andrea del Sarto to construct the façade of S. Maria del Fiore all of wood, with statues, scenes, and architectural orders, exactly in the manner wherein it would be well for it to be in order to remove all that there is in it of the German order of composition. Having therefore set his hand to this (to say nothing in this place of the awning of cloth that used to cover the Piazza of S. Maria del Fiore and that of S. Giovanni for the festival of S. John and for others of the greatest solemnity, since we have spoken sufficiently of this in another place), beneath that awning, I say, Sansovino constructed the said façade in the Corinthian Order, making it in the manner of a triumphal arch, and placing upon an immense base double columns on each side, and between them certain great niches filled with figures in the round that represented the Apostles. Above these were some large scenes in half-relief, made in the likeness of bronze, with stories from the Old Testament, some of which are still to be seen in the house of the Lanfredini on the bank of the Arno; and over them followed architraves, friezes, and cornices, projecting outwards, and then frontispieces of great beauty and variety; and in the angles of the arches, both in the wide parts and below, were stories painted in chiaroscuro by the hand of Andrea del Sarto, and very beautiful. In short, this work of Sansovino’s was such that Pope Leo, seeing it, said that it was a pity that the real façade of that temple was not so built, which was begun by the German Arnolfo. X

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Academicians 31-2: The second of these three figures that are to be on that sepulchre, which are to be Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, has been allotted to Giovanni di Benedetto of Castello, a disciple of Baccio Bandinelli and an Academician, who is executing for the Wardens of S. Maria del Fiore the works in low-relief that are going round the choir, which is now near completion. In these he is closely imitating his master, and acquitting himself in such a manner that an excellent result is expected of him; nor will it fall out otherwise, seeing that he is very assiduous in his work and in the studies of his profession.

BOCCHI, 36-46: 36/7: Nearby, on the left there is the very memorable and famous church, the Cathedral of Florence, which in ancient times was called Santa Reparata, but is now named Santa Maria del Fiore. This church is built with such excellence that the greatest and most powerful rulers, even when they had great riches at their disposal, have never been able to approach, let alone to match, its amazing magnificence nor its infinite beauty. Architecture is an art, which does not imitate nature, but surpasses it, as the experts know. One has in one’s mind an idea, an entirely complete notion of how a building that is perfect and excellent in all its parts has to be; therefore, as soon as a building is finished (so great is the difficulty) faults are noticed, and this happens more often in Florence than it does elsewhere. However much labour the artist may invest, and however much he may strive to arrive at so glorious a goal, the goal, that is, of constructing a building without faults, I do not think one can deny that faultless works are rare indeed. This most noble church was designed by the Florentine architect Arnolfo di Lapo with attentive diligence and incredible care, He understood that the aspirations of the main governing magistrates and likewise of the entire population were exceedingly great, and that one could not answer their lofty ambitions with a modest effort. He therefore prepared a model commensurate with the magnificent conception of those who sought his service in so grand a building. In accordance with it, he began this building, and it is said that in the entire world one does not see a more magnificent and beautiful one. 37: This most noble building was begun in 1298 on the day of the Nativity of Our Lady; a cardinal, a Papal legate, laid the foundation stone in the presence of all clerics and magistrates. It was given the name of Santa Maria del Fiore, even though it had always retained the name of Santa Reparata, as one reads in the histories of Florence. 38: But the dome, built to the design of Filippo Brunelleschi, is constructed with astonishing workmanship, exceeding all buildings on earth. The parts built by Filippo have a more noble and beautiful style and are more graceful to behold and

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robust. But this structure is so conspicuously vast that one man’s life was not long enough to bring the whole structure to completion. Filippo’s work started at [the level of] the large circular windows, and it was continued, noble and extraordinary, up to the cross. In order to bring so enormous and laborious a work to completion at some point, and to make sure that the workmen did not lose much time going down and up again at given times, Filippo wisely installed kitchens, canteens, and other useful facilities in the highest spaces of the dome. Here the workmen were served and accommodated very well without having to return home for meals. As is well known, the dome consists of two shells. The one visible from the interior of the church bears all the weight and supports the lantern. One may take it for certain that neither in [the rest of] Italy nor in Rome, which once conquered all peoples, so superb a structure has ever been erected before. Neither in Greece nor in Constantinople has any excellent artist or any emperor, however great, ever constructed a building of such excellence. The ancients never built anything beautiful and dignified enough to deserve comparison with the great aspirations of the City of Florence or the magnificence of this awe-inspiring structure. 39: The entire wonderful structure measures 154 braccia from ground level to the foot of the lantern; the lantern in the shape of a temple is 6 braccia high, the globe of gilt copper four, and the cross eight. All together the building has a height of 202 braccia. When one looks at it from afar, it inspires delight, and from nearby, amazement. But when the eye is at the foot of so lofty a work, the mind trembles with wonder at so much beauty. One feels overwhelmed at the thought of how the intellect of one single man could reach such heights, almost challenging the high mountains of nature, and without any doubt surpassing their beauty and grandeur. Nearby stands the campanile of this church; this building was begun to the design of Giotto, an architect unique in his day, and it was completed in the form one sees today according to his directions. The trench for the foundations was made very wide and was excavated to a depth of more than 20 braccia. The bottom was filled in with gravel and mortar to a height of 12 braccia, and in the remaining eight braccia up to ground level [the foundations] were then carefully laid by hand. The circumference of this high tower measures 100 braccia at ground level and its height exceeds 144 braccia. When this building was erected, in architecture the German [i.e. Gothic] style was at its height, but Giotto’s diligence and great understanding so much improved it that [this tower] is still praised today. If the tower were kept under a cover (Charles V once said that it would rightfully deserve it), people would assemble in great numbers to see this miracle, as one may indeed call it, when it was to be unveiled. But since the tower is studied by the experts, its beauty and elegance are wellknown, as is its extraordinary appropriateness to its religious function.

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39/40: On the face [of the tower] overlooking the square, there are four marble statues by Donatello, and two are above the door, namely a prophet of the Old Testament, and an Abraham about to sacrifice his son Isaac. But one of the four, called the Zuccone (Big Baldhead), is so beautiful, so true to life, and so natural, that every beholder is astounded, in a way wondering why it does not speak. Whenever Donatello wished to emphasise a statement and give credibility to it, he used to say: ‘By my faith in my Zuccone.’ When he was working on this statue (which rightfully appeared to him as a wonderful achievement), partly in jest and partly seriously he often exclaimed: ‘Talk, go on, talk, may you shit blood.’ This [statue] is judged as beautiful not only in Florence, where this most precious work is common property and everybody simply enjoys looking at it quietly, but it is famous everywhere; it is not inferior to the rarest beauties of the ancients, but it is their equal, and, as it happens, the most important experts think that it surpasses them greatly. There are on this campanile, apart from many sculptures by other artists, five small images by the Florentine sculptor Luca della Robbia, receiving the highest praise: the first shows Grammar, taught by Donatus, the second Plato and Aristotle, masters of philosophy, the third a musician as a representation of Music, the fourth Ptolemy who stands for Astrology. All display the greatest skill and are worthy of praise. 41: {inside} High up on the wall halfway down the nave one sees the equestrian portraits of Niccolò da Tolentino, a Florentine captain, executed in chiaroscuro by Andrea del Castagno, a rare and excellent Florentine painter, as one see in this painting. The other equestrian portrait, painted in green by Paolo Uccello, shows the Englishman Giovanni Acuto [John Hawkwood], a captain of the Florentine army; it is highly regarded by the experts. Then, near the last door there is [a picture of] the City of Florence with a portrait of Dante, the most extraordinary poet, famous everywhere. The Christ of wood above the high altar was carved with great care by Benedetto da Maiano, the Florentine sculptor and architect. The three over-life-size statues of Carrara marble on the high altar, God the Father and an angel supporting the dead Christ, are by the Florentine sculptor Baccio Bandinelli and display the greatest skill. The same holds, to an even greater extent, for the two statues of Adam and Eve by the same artist behind the high altar. 43-5: The marble figure of St. James placed on the left-hand crossing pier is by Jacopo Tatti called Sansovino, even though he was a Florentine of noble lineage, as is well known. {…} On the opposite pier there is a St. Matthew by the Florentine sculptor Vincenzo de’ Rossi, who was trained by Bandinelli and in this praiseworthy work attests the knowledge of his supreme teacher, as one sees. In the left cross-arm there is a St. Andrew, carved in a beautiful manner by Andrea Ferrucci of Fiesole; there is also the statue of St. Thomas by Vincenzo de’ Rossi,

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very vivid and life-like. This fine artist received so much praise for this work that his name will always flourish because of his achievement. In the cross-arm of the sacrament there is a St. Peter by the most excellent Bandinelli, felicitously rendering nature and life. It is held in high regard by those who are experienced in art. St. John the Evangelist, by Benedetto da Rovezzano, is a beautiful and very precious statue. In the cross-arm dedicated to St. Anthony, St. James Minor and St. Phillip are by Giovanni [Bandini called] dell’Opera, a very fine artist deserving much praise. The lifelikeness and the pose of both are extolled, as are their grace and beauty, and also their design, and they are deservedly commended by all for their very high degree of finish. The pavement of the central nave is by Francesco da Sangallo, and that around the choir by Michelangelo Buonarroti; they are laid with such care and so beautifully that they are exceedingly admired by the best artists. The contrast of black and white marble very greatly adorns the church, displaying unsurpassable workmanship. The figures on the [gallery of the] organ above [the entrance to] the Old Sacristy are by Luca della Robbia, a fine and marvellous sculptor. Several panels at the height of the supports show musicians singing in so lively a manner that they actually seem to be doing what they were represented as doing. The two angels in gilt bronze were executed by Luca with such neatness and elegance that one could not express it with words. The scene in the lunette above the door, showing the Ascension of Christ, was executed by Luca in glazed terracotta; it is unique for its design, diligence of execution and invention. Since he found the way of making figures durable and almost eternal in this manner, the experts have rewarded this noble artist with great praise and the highest honour. Above the door of the New Sacristy, the scene of the Resurrection of Christ, also in glazed terracotta, is another work by Luca della Robbia. Each figure shows outstanding grace, and is arranged with rare design. The bronze door of this sacristy was also created by Luca with unique skill. The two putti holding up the garlands, which run along the frieze all around [the interior] are by Donatello and admired by everyone, and in particular by the experts, since everything, which this superior artist created for this place was executed in a roughly finished manner. When these works are viewed from nearby, they have no beauty and look wild and strange, but from afar they look much more graceful than highly finished works.

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BALDINUCCI Duomo (S Maria del Fiore): I.32; I.38; I.40-1; I.77-8, 83 & 85-6; I.97; I.118-9; I.162-3; I.209; I.253; I.273-4; I.276; I.319; I.320n, 322-3 & 327; I.334-6 & 340-1; I.405; I.406-7; I.420; I.426-7; P I.440-7; I.442-4 & 496; I.453; I.502; I.519; I.537; I.564-5; II.77; II.370; II.373; II.500; III.529; II.502; II.540; II.568; III.21; III.39; III.46; III.63; III.73; III.73; III.73; III.73; III.73; III.75; III.92; III.146-7; III.239; III.297; III.431; III.431-2; III.433; III.433-4; III.463; III.473; III.485; III.497; III.529; III.534; III.639-40; III.664; III.666; IV.5; IV.320; IV.358-9; IV.359; IV.360-1; IV.361; IV.361; IV.360n; IV.370-1; IV.412; IV.416-7;V.397; V.688. Campanile di Giotto: I.40, 45-6 & 48; 220; I.452.

RICHA, part III, vol VI, lessons I-XXI, 1-263.

CHAPTER THREE SANT’AMBROGIO

Piazza Sant’ Ambrogio, 2; free entrance but no visits during religious services.

History Sant’Ambrogio is one of the older churches in Florence. Probably built in the eighth century as a chapel for a nearby convent of Benedictine nuns, it is first recorded in 988. The church was named in honour of Saint Ambrose, the patron saint of Milan. Saint Ambrose was bishop of Milan in the fourth century as well as an important Catholic doctor of the church. According to legend, Saint Ambrose is supposed to have consecrated the church of San Lorenzo in Florence in the year 393. On this occasion he also performed a number of miracles. A few years later someone staying in the same house, where Saint Ambrose had lodged while in Florence, had a vision that Saint Ambrose announced a Florentine victory over the army of Radagasius and indeed the Goths were beaten and their leader executed in 406. The then Florentine bishop, Saint Zenobius, celebrated Saint Ambrose as the saviour of Christendom. Therefore, the small church of Sant’Ambrogio (Fig. 3 a) was constructed outside the first city walls. On 30 December 1230, it became the site of a miracle, when leftover mass wine turned into blood. In the wake of this miracle, even more people started to attend and support this church and, therefore, in the fifteenth century Sant’Ambrogio was expanded to its present size.

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Figure 3 a: The white-washed eighteenth-century façade of the church of Sant’Ambrogio (photo: Andrea Gáldy [AG]).

Architecture The simple whitewashed façade (Fig. 3 a) dates to the eighteenth century, but its architecture imitates the Florentine Gothic style, while the fresco over the porch was added in the nineteenth century.

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Figure 3 b: Plan of the church of Sant’Ambrogio (plan: SC).

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The one-nave interior is shaped as a very long rectangle covered by an open timber roof with an added square choir chapel covered by a crossvaulted ceiling (Fig. 3 b). The southern arcade wall is pierced by narrow windows with pointed arches. The four side altars on each side with uniform Renaissance tabernacle frames in pietra serena display works of art from the fourteenth century onwards. The main choir is visually separated from the rest of the church by a three-part pre-choir space, crowned by long cross vaults on the sides and an elegant dome in the centre. The chapel on the left of the altar space was renovated in 1481-1483 so that it could host the tabernacle with the relic of the Miraculous Blood created by Mino da Fiesole in 1481.

Art The church still contains many frescoes and altarpieces, including among the earliest those by the school of Andrea Orcagna, by Niccolò Gerini, Lorenzo di Bicci and Agnolo Gaddi. In the apse chapel is the Baroque high altar by Giovanni Battista Foggini (1716). It is flanked by paintings executed in 1832/3 by Luigi Ademollo, which replace the previously displayed altar pieces by Masolino and Masaccio (Sant’Anna Metterza, 1424-25, at the Uffizi since 1919, N. Cat. 00285076, http://www.virtualuffizi.com/sant’anna-metterza. html) and by Filippo Lippi (Coronation of the Virgin, 1441–1447, stolen from Sant’ Ambrogio in 1818, at the Uffizi since 1919, N. Cat. 00285412, http://www.virtualuffizi.com/coronation-of-the-virgin_2.html). Sandro Botticelli’s Sant’ Ambrogio Altarpiece (c.1470-72) was removed from the church in 1808 and is now at the Uffizi (N. Cat. 00188565), whereas Andrea del Sarto’s Madonna of Sant’ Ambrogio (1515-20), which had originally been created for the Compagnia of Santa Maria della Neve behind the nunnery of Sant’Ambrogio, was acquired by and restored for the Alana collection in Newark, Delaware in 2011 (https://www.academia.edu/12774147/Andrea_del_Sarto_Madonna_di_Sa ntAmbrogio). The Cappella del Miracolo was frescoed by Cosimo Rosselli with The Legend of the Miraculous Chalice (1486) and contains portraits of Rosselli (in a black beret) and his Florentine contemporaries, for example Pico della Mirandola. Rosselli also decorated the ceiling with The Four Doctors of the Church. Mino da Fiesole made the marble tabernacle to house the miraculous relic. The relief at the base of the tabernacle shows the parish

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priest Uguccione, who had discovered the miracle, handing the chalice over to the Benedictine nuns. The church houses a number of tombs, for example those of Mino da Fiesole, of Andrea del Verrocchio, of Leonardo del Tasso and of Francesco Botticini. On the outside of the church, to the left, a tabernacle by Giovanni della Robbia shows Saint Ambrose blessing and is dated to c.1525 (Fig. 3 c).

Fig. 3 c: Giovanni della Robbia, Saint Ambrose Blessing, c.1525 (photo: VG).

Bibl: Borsook 1983, 95-6; Campbell and Cole 2012, 20, 37, 42, 45, 68, 92, 113, 118, 141-2; Cesati 2002, 86-7; De Boer 2010, annotations 163-4: 179-180; Goy 2015, 168/9; Horstmann 2011, 110-2; Paatz, 1940, I, 21-43; Tovey 2005, 305; Verdon, Coppellotti, Fabbri 2000, 76-9.

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Sources: VILLANI VI §7, 130 Of a great miracle that came to pass in S. Ambrogio in Florence, concerning the body of Christ (1230 a.d.)

ALBERTINI 99: In the convent of Sant’Ambrogio […] The church of San’Ambrogio is ancient and sacred, with paintings and an altarpiece by Fra Filippo Lippi, who also painted two very beautiful altarpieces at the Murate […].

VASARI II Masaccio 185: There is a panel by his hand, wrought in distemper, wherein is a Madonna upon the lap of S. Anne, with the Child in her arms. This panel is to-day in S. Ambrogio in Florence, in the chapel that is beside the door that leads to the parlour of the nuns. III Fra Filippo Lippi 81: After this there came upon him a desire to return to Florence, where he remained for some months. There he wrought a very beautiful panel for the highaltar of the Nuns of S. Ambrogio, which made him very dear to Cosimo de’ Medici, who became very much his friend for this reason. Mino da Fiesole 155: This he had not yet fixed into its place, when the Nuns of S. Ambrogio—who desired to have an ornament made, similar in design but richer in adornment, to contain that most holy relic, the Miracle of the Sacrament—hearing of the ability of Mino, commissioned him to execute that work, which he finished with so great diligence that those nuns, being satisfied with him, gave him all that he asked as the price of the work.

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Cosimo Rosselli 187: In his youth he painted a panel in the Church of S. Ambrogio in Florence, which is on the right hand as one enters the church; […] For the aforesaid Nuns of S. Ambrogio he painted the Chapel of the Miracle of the Sacrament, which is a passing good work, and is held the best of his in Florence; in this he counterfeited a procession on the piazza of that church, with the Bishop bearing the Tabernacle of the said Miracle, accompanied by the clergy and by an infinity of citizens and women in costumes of those times. Here, among many others, is a portrait from life of Pico della Mirandola, so excellently wrought that it appears not a portrait but a living man. Andrea Verrocchio 274: But the one whom he loved more than all the others was Lorenzo di Credi, who brought his remains from Venice and laid them in the Church of S. Ambrogio, in the tomb of Ser Michele di Cione, on the stone of which there are carved the following words: SER MICHÆLIS DE CIONIS, ET SUORUM. And beside them: HIC OSSA JACENT ANDREÆ VERROCHII, QUI OBIIT VENETIIS, MCCCCLXXXVIII. IV Simone, called il Cronaca 275: But returning to Cronaca: in the last years of his life there entered into his head such a frenzy for the cause of Fra Girolamo Savonarola, that he would talk of nothing else but that. Living thus, in the end he died after a passing long illness, at the age of fifty-five, and was buried honourably in the Church of S. Ambrogio at Florence, in the year 1509; and after no long space of time the following epitaph was written for him by Messer Giovan Battista Strozzi: CRONACA VIVO, E MILLE E MILLE ANNI E MILLE ANCORA, MERCÈ DE’ VIVI MIEI PALAZZI E TEMPI, BELLA ROMA, VIVRÀ L’ ALMA MIA FLORA. V Andrea dal Monte Sansovino 30-1: His disciples were the aforesaid Girolamo Lombardo, the Florentine Simone Cioli, Domenico dal Monte Sansovino (who died soon after him), and the

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Florentine Leonardo del Tasso, who made the S. Sebastian of wood over his own tomb in S. Ambrogio at Florence, and the marble panel of the Nuns of S. Chiara. Andrea del Sarto 93: Not long after this, he undertook to execute for the men of the Company of S. Maria della Neve, situated behind the Nunnery of S. Ambrogio, a little panel with three figures—Our Lady, S. John the Baptist, and S. Ambrogio; which work, when finished, was placed in due time on the altar of that Company. VI Francesco Granacci 61: He lived sixty-seven years, at the end of which he finished the course of his life after an ordinary malady, a kind of fever; and he was buried in the Church of S. Ambrogio at Florence, on the day of S. Andrew the Apostle, in 1544.

BOCCHI, 164-6: 164: One may then proceed to the church of Sant’Ambrogio, belonging to the nuns of the Order of St. Benedict. On the Altar of the Miracle, which is in a vaulted enclosure, one sees a very beautiful marble ornament by Mino da Fiesole. Two graceful pilasters sustain an architrave, frieze and cornice, and in the middle is a little door, {…}. 165: The two angels, kneeling in reverence and holding candelabra, are held in high esteem and much praise by the experts, and in truth they are made with consummate skill. On the wall beside the altar, one sees painted the Procession of the Miracle by Cosimo Roselli, a work of great diligence: there are a large number of citizens dressed according to the custom of the painter’s lifetime; the steps [on which] the Bishop and clerics [are placed] are represented with such skill that they seem real, and between two figures of lifelike animation one sees a still more lively portrait of Pico della Mirandola, most highly praised by everyone. Below there is a panel by Fra Filippo Lippi, beautiful beyond description, in which there is the coronation of the Madonna surrounded by choirs of male and female saints, all represented with great diligence. At the bottom are some little angels, executed with much design and fine colouring: this remarkable artist advanced so far in these qualities that these angels seem real and of flesh, and very similar to the manner of Andrea del Sarto. {…} 166 {Miracle of 30 December 1230, a priest}, named Uguccione, left consecrated wine in the chalice without noticing it. When he took up the chalice the next day and recognised his carelessness, he saw that the wine had changed into fresh blood. He brought all the people together and explained the great wonder. The blood was then put in a little vial of crystal, where it is still preserved with the greatest reverence, and every year in perpetuity a solemn feast is celebrated, at which it is shown to the congregation with the greatest devotion.

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BALDINUCCI Sant’ Ambrogio: I.474; I.508-9; I.522; I.538; II.9; III.1; III.10; III.664; IV.613.

Richa, PART I, VOL II, LESSON XXIII-XXIV, 236-50.

CHAPTER FOUR SANTISSIMA ANNUNZIATA

Piazza della Santissima Annunziata, parish address Via Cesare Battisti, 6. Free entrance, for opening hours please visit http://annunziata.xoom.it/ (only available in Italian but with many images of the works of art displayed inside).

History The Servite order (Servants of Mary) was founded by Filippo Benizzi and six other Florentines in 1233. These founding fathers instituted the basilica of the Santissima Annunziata (Basilica of the Most Holy Annunciation) as the mother church of the Servite order in c.1250. Fra Bartolomeo, the artist commissioned in 1252 for an Annunciation despaired over this task, since he felt that it would be impossible to create an appropriate image. According to legend, an angel completed the painting for him, while he slept. The miraculous Annunciation (the current image is a later version of c.1350 but much repainted) was displayed in the church and soon started to attract the veneration of Florentines as well as foreigners. Although it was veiled most of the time, its presence and succour was felt by the pilgrims who left many votive offerings made of wax and silver; many of these were life-size models dressed in splendid fabrics. In the 1440s, the church was rebuilt by Michelozzo and then completed by Alberti. Financed by the Medici, the tribuna and an atrium, the Chiostrino dei Voti, were added to house hundreds of these figures and to control the crowds of worshippers. Sadly, the wax ex-votos were melted down in 1786. The Via dei Servi (Fig. 4 a) connects SS Annunziata to Santa Maria del Fiore (chapter 2) and thus links two of the most important churches dedicated to the Madonna in Florence. In the centre of the square of SS Annunziata is Giambologna’s monumental equestrian monument to Grand Duke Ferdinand I (1608), cast from the bronze of captured Saracen guns, and two fountains by Pietro Tacca (1640).

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In the early seventeenth century the crippled daughter of Ferdinando I and Christina of Lorraine, Maria Maddalena, resided in Palazzo della Crocetta (today the seat of the Archaeological Museum), which was connected to SS Annunziata and other religious buildings nearby by corridors above street level. Thereby, Maria Maddalena managed to move around the palace’s first floor and attend mass at SS Annunziata from a small chamber overlooking the nave of the church through a window next to the organ.

Figure 4 a: The early-seventeenth-century façade of Santissima Annunziata (photo: AG).

Architecture Brunelleschi’s façade of the Foundling Hospital of the 1420s had a decisive influence on the rest of the piazza. The façade of the basilica was added in 1601 by the architect Giovanni Battista Caccini (Fig. 4 a and c), while Antonio da Sangallo the Elder had already designed a matching façade for the Servite monastery to the square’s west in the 1520s. This church is entered from the Chiostrino dei Voti, designed by Michelozzo, as was the Chiostro dei Morti on the side of the church. The interior of Santissima Annunziata consists of a three-nave Gothic basilica with choir that was turned into a hall church with a row of chapels on each side (Fig. 4 b).

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Figure 4 b: Plan of Santissima Annunziata, including the atrium, nave, aisles, cloister and tribuna (plan: SC).

The Gonzaga family from Mantua financed a special tribuna or rotunda crowned by a dome in 1444. At first Michelozzo was supposed to execute

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the commission but Ludovico II Gonzaga eventually gave it to Leon Battista Alberti in 1469. Alberti designed a centrally planned structure in the shape of a domed circular space with altar niches. The tribuna was only completed in 1481 after Alberti’s death and its interior was redecorated in the Baroque style in the seventeenth century.

Art A fresco cycle dedicated to the memory of the order’s founder, Filippo Benizzi OSM (Order of the Servants of Mary, to the left), whose cult was approved by Pope Leo X in 1516, decorates Michelozzo’s fifteenthcentury Chiostrino dei Voti (http://www.polomuseale.firenze.it/catalogo /scheda.asp?nctn=00281825&value=1) together with scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary (to the right). Alesso Baldovinetti painted the first lunette in the chiostro in c.1460 and in c.1476 Cosimo Rosselli began the cycle, which was to be completed by Andrea del Sarto (Birth of the Virgin), Jacopo Pontormo (Visitation) and Rosso Fiorentino (Assumption) in 1509-1517. The frescoes were not in the best state of conservation when the flood of 1966 hit Florence and damaged parts of the city as far north as Santissima Annunziata. Meanwhile, they have been taken off the walls, restored, and reattached. Entering the church and just to the left of the entrance is Michelozzo’s Tabernacle of the Annunciation (1448-52) paid for by the Medici to the tune of 4,000 florins “for the marble alone” as is attested by an inscription. The tabernacle contains the miraculous image (repainted many times over) and is lit by a profusion of silver votive lamps. Right next to the tabernacle is a fifteenth-century chapel patronised by the Medici and embellished with Andrea del Sarto’s painting of Christ the Redeemer (1515). The side chapels on the left display works of art, for example by Raffaellino del Garbo, as well as an Assumption (1506) by Perugino and a Trinity with Saint Jerome and Two Saints (c.1455) by Andrea Castagno. Perugino’s painting is the one piece of the double-sided Annunziata Polyptych to remain in situ. Commissioned to several artists in the early 1500s, it was once displayed at the high altar of SS Annunziata and is now divided between diverse museums, for example the Accademia in Florence and the Metropolitan Museum of New York. SS Annunziata hosts several tombs of artists. For example, the sculptor Baccio Bandinelli is buried in the small side chapel furthest along on the right, which contains his Pietà (1559). Andrea del Sarto’s tomb is near the high altar and marked by a simple marble slab. In a chapel inside the

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tribuna is the tomb of Giambologna with his Crucifix (1594-8) and statues by his students Francavilla and Pietro Tacca. Next to it, on the left, is Agnolo Bronzino’s Resurrection (1548-52).

Figure 4 c: Detail of the façade of SS Annunziata (photo: AG).

From the north transept it is possible to gain access to the Chiostro dei Morti and to del Sarto’s famous Madonna del Sacco (1525). Through the cloister one may also enter the Cappella di San Luca, which has belonged to the Accademia delle Arti del Disegno since 1565. Among the artists buried in the crypt are Benvenuto Cellini, Jacopo Pontormo and

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Franciabigio. The chapel is richly decorated with paintings and frescoes by Pontormo, Giorgio Vasari, Alessandro Allori and others and with stucco figures by, among others, Vincenzo Danti. In the seventeenth century SS Annunziata was given a Baroque makeover including a frescoed Assumption on its ceiling by Pietro Gambelli after the design by Baldassare Franceschini. Bibl: Asleson, Brenner and Pincus 2016; Baldinotti 2014, cat. I.1.1-3: 30-5; Borsook 1983, 216-9 and 251-4; Brown 1981, 59-146; Campbell and Cole 2012, 45, 87, 140, 222, 399, 564; Cesati 2002, 21-6; De Boer 2010, annotations 76-86: 141-6; Eagles 2013; Goy 2015, 208-12; Hartt & Wilkins 2007, 320-1, 328-30, 561-7, 571-3; Holmes 2009, 159-81; Horstmann 2011, 188-94; Morini 2014, 3067; Natali 2014, 21-9; Nelson 1997, 84-94; Paatz 1940, I, 62-196; Paolucci 2006, 200-13; Tovey 2005, 305-7; Verdon, Coppellotti, Fabbri 2000, 138-41; Verdon ed. 2005, vol. 4. Sources: ALBERTINI 96-7: In the Annunziata The church of the Annunziuata is very sacred and very beautiful with many vases and statues in gold and silver, votive offerings and wax statues, all made by great artists. The rich, ornate, and very holy chapel of the Madonna, whose head the devout painter discovered miraculously painted, was built by the House of Medici, who had it decorated with marbles and very beautiful sculpted columns. The ornaments of the silver cupboard were [painted] by Fra Angelico. In addition there are the cloisters with their very beautiful paintings. The chapel of Saint Nicholas is by Taddeo Gaddi, and those [chapels] towards the cloister with semicircular tabernacles, are by Andrea del Castagno, as are the ones in the chapel of Saint Mary Magdalene of the Medici and in other parts of this church, where he was buried. The freestanding altarpiece in the main chapel was started by Filippino Lippi and finished by Pietro Perugino, after the death of Filippino. In the adjacent oratory of San Sebastiano of the Pucci there is a very beautiful altarpiece by Pietro del Pollaiuolo.

VASARI II Jacopo della Quercia 94-5: Afterwards, on Jacopo coming to Florence, the Wardens of Works of S. Maria del Fiore, by reason of the good report that they had heard of him,

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commissioned him to make in marble the frontal that is over that door of the church which leads to the Nunziata, wherein, in a mandorla, he made the Madonna being borne to Heaven by a choir of angels sounding instruments and singing, with the most beautiful movements and the most beautiful attitudes—seeing that they have vivacity and motion in their flight—that had ever been made up to that time. In like manner, the Madonna is draped with so great grace and dignity that nothing better can be imagined, the flow of the folds being very beautiful and soft, while the borders of the draperies are seen following closely the nude form of the figure, which, with its very covering, reveals every curve of the limbs; and below this Madonna there is a S. Thomas, who is receiving the Girdle. In short, this work was executed by Jacopo in four years with all the possible perfection that he could give to it, for the reason that, besides the natural desire that he had to do well, the rivalry of Donato, of Filippo, and of Lorenzo di Bartolo, from whose hands there had already issued some works that were highly praised, incited him even more in the doing of what he did; and that was so much that this work is studied even today by modern craftsmen, as something very rare. On the other side of the Madonna, opposite to S. Thomas, Jacopo made a bear that is climbing a pear-tree; and with regard to this caprice, even as many things were said then, so also there could be others said by me, but I will forbear, wishing to let everyone believe and think in his own fashion in the matter of this invention. Filippo Brunelleschi 227: The builder of this palace was Luca Fancelli, an architect of Florence, who erected many buildings for Filippo, and one for Leon Batista Alberti, namely, the principal chapel of the Nunziata in Florence, by order of Lodovico Gonzaga, who took him to Mantua, where he made many works and married a wife and lived and died, leaving heirs who are still called the Luchi from his name. Michelozzo Michelozzi 268-70: After these things, the same Piero de’ Medici, intending to build the Chapel of the Nunziata, in the Church of the Servi, entirely of marble, besought Michelozzo, now an old man, to give him his advice in the matter, both because he greatly admired his talents and because he knew how faithful a friend and servant he had been to his father Cosimo. This Michelozzo did, and the charge of constructing it was given to Pagno di Lapo Partigiani, a sculptor of Fiesole, who, as one who wished to include many things in a small space, showed many ideas in this work. This chapel is supported by four marble columns about nine braccia high, made with double flutings in the Corinthian manner, with the bases and capitals variously carved and with double members. On the columns rest the architrave, frieze, and cornice, likewise with double members and carvings and wrought with various things of fancy, and particularly with foliage and the emblems and arms of the Medici. Between these and other cornices made for another range of lights, there is a large inscription, very beautifully carved in marble. Below, between the four columns, forming the ceiling of the chapel, there is a coffer-work canopy of marble all carved, full of enamels fired in a furnace and of various fanciful designs in mosaic wrought with gold colour and precious

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stones. The surface of the pavement is full of porphyry, serpentine, variegated marbles, and other very rare stones, put together and distributed with beautiful design. The said chapel is enclosed by a grille made of bronze ropes, with candelabra above fixed into an ornament of marble, which makes a very beautiful finish to the bronze and to the candelabra; and the door which closes the chapel in front is likewise of bronze and very well contrived. Piero left orders that the chapel should be lighted all round by thirty silver lamps, and this was done. Now, as these were ruined during the siege, the Lord Duke gave orders many years ago that new ones should be made, and the greater part of them are already finished, while the work still goes on; but in spite of this there has never been a moment when there has not been that full number of lamps burning, according to the instructions of Piero, although, from the time when they were destroyed, they have not been of silver. To these adornments Pagno added a very large lily of copper, issuing from a vase which rests on the corner of the gilt and painted cornice of wood which holds the lamps; but this cornice does not support so great a weight by itself, for the whole is sustained by two branches of the lily, which are of iron painted green, and are fixed with lead into the corner of the marble cornice, holding those that are of copper suspended in the air. This work was truly made with judgment and invention; wherefore it is worthy of being much extolled as something beautiful and bizarre. Beside this chapel, he made another on the side towards the cloister, which serves as a choir for the friars, with windows which take their light from the court and give it both to the said chapel and also (since they stand opposite to two similar windows) to the room containing the little organ, which is by the side of the marble chapel. On the front of this choir there is a large press, in which the silver vessels of the Nunziata are kept; and on all these ornaments and throughout the whole are the arms and emblem of the Medici. Without the Chapel of the Nunziata and opposite to it, the same man made a large chandelier of bronze, five braccia in height, as well as the marble holy-water font at the entrance of the church, and a S. John in the centre, which is a very beautiful work. Above the counter where the friars sell the candles, moreover, he made a half-length Madonna of marble with the Child in her arms, in half-relief, of the size of life and very devout; […]. III Antonio Filarete and Simone 6: He also wrought a marble tombstone for the Company of the Nunziata in the Church of the Servi, inlaying it with a figure in grey and white marble in the manner of a painting (which was much extolled), like the work already mentioned as having been done by the Sienese Duccio in the Duomo of Siena. […] In the Church of the Nunziata in Florence he made a marble tomb for Messer Orlando de’ Medici. Giuliano da Maiano 11-2: It is said that in company with Giusto and Minore, masters of tarsia, he wrought the seats of the Sacristy of the Nunziata, and likewise those of the choir that is beside the chapel,

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Fra Giovanni Beato Angelico 30: In the Chapel of the Nunziata in Florence which Piero di Cosimo de’ Medici caused to be built, he painted the doors of the press (in which the silver is kept) with little figures executed with much diligence. Leon Batista Alberti 46-7: About the same time Lodovico Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua, wished to build the tribune and the principal chapel in the Nunziata, the Church of the Servi in Florence, after the design and model of Leon Batista; and pulling down a square chapel, old, not very large, and painted in the ancient manner, which stood at the head of the church, he built the said tribune in the bizarre and difficult form of a round temple surrounded by nine chapels, all curving in a round arch, and each within in the shape of a niche. Now, since the arches of the said chapels rest on the pilasters in front, the result is that the stone dressings of the arches, inclining towards the wall, tend to draw ever backwards in order to meet the said wall, which turns in the opposite direction according to the shape of the tribune; wherefore, when the said arches of the chapels are looked at from the side, it appears that they are falling backwards, and that they are clumsy, as indeed they are, although the proportions are correct, and the difficulties of the method must be remembered. Truly it would have been better if Leon Batista had avoided this method, for, although there is some credit for the difficulty of its execution, it is clumsy both in great things and in small, and it cannot have a good result. And that this is true of great things is proved by the great arch in front, which forms the entrance to the said tribune; for, although it is very beautiful on the outer side, on the inner side, where it has to follow the curve of the chapel, which is round, it appears to be falling backwards and to be extremely clumsy. This Leon Batista would perhaps not have done, if, in addition to science and theory, he had possessed practical experience in working; for another man would have avoided this difficulty, and would have rather aimed at grace and greater beauty for the edifice. The whole work is otherwise in itself very beautiful, bizarre, and difficult; and nothing save great courage could have enabled Leon Batista to vault that tribune in those times in the manner that he did. Alesso Baldovinetti 69: In the Nunziata at Florence, in the court, exactly behind the wall where the Annunciation itself is painted, he painted a scene in fresco, retouched on the dry, in which there is a Nativity of Christ, wrought with so great labour and diligence that one could count the stalks and knots of the straw in a hut that is there; and he also counterfeited there the ruin of a house with the stones mouldering, all eaten away and consumed by rain and frost, and a thick ivy root that covers a part of the wall, wherein it is to be observed that with great patience he made the outer side of the leaves of one shade of green, and the under side of another, as Nature does, neither more nor less; and, in addition to the shepherds, he made a serpent, or rather, a grass-snake, crawling up a wall, which is most life-like.

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Domenico Ghirlandaio 219: He was apprenticed by his father to his own art of goldsmith, in which Tommaso was a master more than passing good, for it was he who made the greater part of the silver votive offerings that were formerly preserved in the press of the Nunziata, and the silver lamps of the chapel, which were all destroyed in the siege of the city in the year 1529. Andrea del Verrocchio 275-6: The second figure of the same man [Orsino, friend of Andrea] is in the lucco, the gown peculiar to the citizens of Florence; and it stands in the Servite Church of the Nunziata, over the lesser door, which is beside the counter where candles are sold. […] But to return to the images of wax: all those in the said Servite Church are by the hand of Orsino, which have a large O in the base as a mark, with an R within it and a cross above; and they are all so beautiful that there are few since his day who have equalled him. IV Filippino Lippi 9: […] and he began a Deposition from the Cross for the high-altar of the Friars of the Nunziata, but only finished the figures in the upper half of the picture, for, being overcome by a most cruel fever and by that contraction of the throat that is commonly known as quinsy, he died in a few days at the age of forty-five. Leonoardo da Vinci 99-100: He returned to Florence, where he found that the Servite Friars had entrusted to Filippino the painting of the panel for the high-altar of the Nunziata; whereupon Leonardo said that he would willingly have done such a work. Filippino, having heard this, like the amiable fellow that he was, retired from the undertaking; and the friars, to the end that Leonardo might paint it, took him into their house, meeting the expenses both of himself and of all his household; and thus he kept them in expectation for a long time, but never began anything. In the end, he made a cartoon containing a Madonna and a S. Anne, with a Christ, which not only caused all the craftsmen to marvel, but, when it was finished, men and women, young and old, continued for two days to flock for a sight of it to the room where it was, as if to a solemn festival, in order to gaze at the marvels of Leonardo, which caused all those people to be amazed; for in the face of that Madonna was seen whatever of the simple and the beautiful can by simplicity and beauty confer grace on a picture of the Mother of Christ, since he wished to show that modesty and that humility which are looked for in an image of the Virgin, supremely content with gladness at seeing the beauty of her Son, whom she was holding with tenderness in her lap, while with most chastened gaze she was looking down at S. John, as a little boy, who was playing with a lamb; not without a smile from S. Anne, who, overflowing with joy, was beholding her earthly progeny become divine—ideas truly worthy of the brain and genius of Leonardo. This cartoon, as

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will be told below, afterwards went to France. He made a portrait of Ginevra d’ Amerigo Benci, a very beautiful work; and abandoned the work for the friars, who restored it to Filippino; but he, also, failed to finish it, having been overtaken by death. Fra Bartolommeo di San Marco 159: After this, Salvadore Billi, a Florentine merchant, on his return from Naples, having heard the fame of Fra Bartolommeo, and having seen his works, caused him to paint a panel-picture of Christ the Saviour, in allusion to his own name, with the four Evangelists round Him; wherein, at the foot, are also two little boys upholding the globe of the world, whose flesh, fresh and tender, is excellently painted, as is the whole work, in which there are likewise two prophets that are much extolled. This panel stands in the Nunziata at Florence, below the great organ, according to the wish of Salvadore; it is a very beautiful work, finished by Fra Bartolommeo with much lovingness and great perfection; and it is surrounded by an ornament of marble, all carved by the hand of Pietro Rosselli. Giuliano and Antonio da San Gallo 196: Having returned to Florence, Giuliano found that his brother Antonio, who worked for him on his models, had become so excellent, that there was no one in his day who was a better master in carving, particularly for large Crucifixes of wood; to which witness is borne by the one over the high-altar of the Nunziata in Florence, […]. Domenico Puligo 280-1: This Antonio [del Ceraiuolo], then, besides many portraits, executed a number of panel-pictures in Florence; but for the sake of brevity I will make mention only of two. One of these, wherein he painted a Crucifixion, with S. Mary Magdalene and S. Francis, is in S. Jacopo tra Fossi, on the Canto degli Alberti; and in the other, which is in the Nunziata, is a S. Michael who is weighing souls. V Andrea del Sarto 88-93: There was at this same time in the Convent of the Servi, selling the candles at the counter, a friar called Fra Mariano dal Canto alla Macine, who was also sacristan; and he heard everyone extolling Andrea mightily and saying that he was by way of making marvellous proficience in painting. Whereupon he planned to fulfil a desire of his own without much expense; and so, approaching Andrea, who was a mild and guileless fellow, on the side of his honour, he began to persuade him under the cloak of friendship that he wished to help him in a matter which would bring him honour and profit and would make him known in such a manner, that he would never be poor any more. Now many years before, as has been related above, Alesso Baldovinetti had painted a Nativity of Christ in the first cloister of the Servi, on the wall that has the Annunciation behind it; and in the same cloister, on the other side, Cosimo Rosselli had begun a scene of S. Filippo, the founder of

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that Servite Order, assuming the habit. But Cosimo had not carried that scene to completion, because death came upon him at the very moment when he was working at it. The friar, then, being very eager to see the rest finished, thought of serving his own ends by making Andrea and Franciabigio, who, from being friends, had become rivals in art, compete with one another, each doing part of the work. This, besides effecting his purpose very well, would make the expense less and their efforts greater. Thereupon, revealing his mind to Andrea, he persuaded him to undertake that enterprise, by pointing out to him that since it was a public and much frequented place, he would become known on account of such a work no less by foreigners than by the Florentines; that he should not look for any payment in return, or even for an invitation to undertake it, but should rather pray to be allowed to do it; and that if he were not willing to set to work, there was Franciabigio, who, in order to make himself known, had offered to accept it and to leave the matter of payment to him. These incitements did much to make Andrea resolve to undertake the work, and the rather as he was a man of little spirit; and the last reference to Franciabigio induced him to make up his mind completely and to come to an agreement, in the form of a written contract, with regard to the whole work, on the terms that no one else should have a hand in it. The friar, then, having thus pledged him and given him money, demanded that he should begin by continuing the life of S. Filippo, without receiving more than ten ducats from him in payment of each scene; and he told Andrea that he was giving him even that out of his own pocket, and was doing it more for the benefit and advantage of the painter than through any want or need of the convent. Andrea, therefore, pursuing that work with the utmost diligence, like one who thought more of honour than of profit, after no long time completely finished the first three scenes and unveiled them. One was the scene of S. Filippo, now a friar, clothing the naked. In another he is shown rebuking certain gamesters, who blasphemed God and laughed at S. Filippo, mocking at his admonition, when suddenly there comes a lightning-flash from Heaven, which, striking a tree under the shade of which they were sheltering, kills two of them and throws the rest into an incredible panic. Some, with their hands to their heads, cast themselves forward in dismay; others, crying aloud in their terror, turn to flight; a woman, beside herself with fear at the sound of the thunder, is running away so naturally that she appears to be truly alive; and a horse, breaking loose amid this uproar and confusion, reveals with his leaps and fearsome movements what fear and terror are caused by things so sudden and so unexpected. In all this one can see how carefully Andrea looked to variety of incident in the representation of such events, with a forethought truly beautiful and most necessary for one who practises painting. In the third he painted the scene of S. Filippo delivering a woman from evil spirits, with all the most characteristic considerations that could be imagined in such an action. All these scenes brought extraordinary fame and honour to Andrea; and thus encouraged, he went on to paint two other scenes in the same cloister. On one wall is S. Filippo lying dead, with his friars about him making lamentation; and in addition there is a dead child, who, touching the bier on which S. Filippo lies, comes to life again, so that he is first seen dead, and then revived

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and restored to life, and all with a very beautiful, natural, and appropriate effect. In the last picture on that side he represented the friars placing the garments of S. Filippo on the heads of certain children; and there he made a portrait of Andrea della Robbia, the sculptor, in an old man clothed in red, who comes forward, stooping, with a staff in his hand. There, too, he portrayed Luca, his son; even as in the other scene mentioned above, in which S. Filippo lies dead, he made a portrait of another son of Andrea, named Girolamo, a sculptor and very much his friend, who died not long since in France. Having thus finished that side of the cloister, and considering that if the honour was great, the payment was small, Andrea resolved to give up the rest of the work, however much the friar might complain. But the latter would not release him from his bond without Andrea first promising that he would paint two other scenes, at his own leisure and convenience, however, and with an increase of payment; and thus they came to terms. […] Meanwhile the Servite friar had allotted to Franciabigio one of the scenes in the above-mentioned cloister; but that master had not yet finished making the screen, when Andrea, becoming apprehensive, since it seemed to him that Franciabigio was an abler and more dexterous master than himself in the handling of colours in fresco, executed, as it were out of rivalry, the cartoons for his two scenes, which he intended to paint on the angle between the side-door of S. Bastiano and the smaller door that leads from the cloister into the Nunziata. Having made the cartoons, he set to work in fresco; and in the first scene he painted the Nativity of Our Lady, a composition of figures beautifully proportioned and grouped with great grace in a room, wherein some women who are friends and relatives of the newly delivered mother, having come to visit her, are standing about her, all clothed in such garments as were customary at that time, and other women of lower degree, gathered around the fire, are washing the newborn babe, while others are preparing the swathing-bands and doing other similar services. Among them is a little boy, full of life, who is warming himself at the fire, with an old man resting in a very natural attitude on a couch, and likewise some women carrying food to the mother who is in bed, with movements truly lifelike and appropriate. And all these figures, together with some little boys who are hovering in the air and scattering flowers, are most carefully considered in their expressions, their draperies, and every other respect, and so soft in colour, that the figures appear to be of flesh and everything else rather real than painted. In the other scene Andrea painted the three Magi from the East, who, guided by the Star, went to adore the Infant Jesus Christ. He represented them dismounted, as though they were near their destination; and that because there was only the space embracing the two doors to separate them from the Nativity of Christ which may be seen there, by the hand of Alesso Baldovinetti. In this scene Andrea painted the Court of those three Kings coming behind them, with baggage, much equipment, and many people following in their train, among whom, in a corner, are three persons portrayed from life and wearing the Florentine dress, one being Jacopo Sansovino, a full-length figure looking straight at the spectator, while another, with

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an arm in foreshortening, who is leaning against him and making a sign, is Andrea, the master of the work, and a third head, seen in profile behind Jacopo, is that of Ajolle, the musician. There are, in addition, some little boys who are climbing on the walls, in order to be able to see the magnificent procession and the fantastic animals that those three Kings have brought with them. This scene is quite equal in excellence to that mentioned above; nay, in both the one and the other he surpassed himself, not to speak of Franciabigio, who also finished his. 98-9: After this Andrea executed a head of Christ, now kept by the Servite Friars on the altar of the Nunziata, of such beauty, that I for my part do not know whether any more beautiful image of the head of Christ could be conceived by the intellect of man. 110: M. Jacopo, a Servite friar, in releasing and absolving a woman from a vow, had told her that she must have a figure of Our Lady painted over the outer side of that lateral door of the Nunziata which leads into the cloister; and therefore, finding Andrea, he said to him that he had this money to spend, and that although it was not much it seemed to him right, since the other works executed by Andrea in that place had brought him such fame, that he and no other should paint this one as well. Andrea, who was nothing if not an amiable man, moved by the persuasions of the friar and by his own desire for profit and glory, answered that he would do it willingly; and shortly afterwards, putting his hand to the work, he painted in fresco a most beautiful Madonna seated with her Son in her arms, and S. Joseph leaning on a sack, with his eyes fixed upon an open book. And of such a kind was this work, in draughtsmanship, grace, and beauty of colouring, as well as in vivacity and relief, that it proved that he outstripped and surpassed by a great measure all the painters who had worked up to that time. Such, indeed, is this picture, that by its own merit and without praise from any other quarter it makes itself clearly known as amazing and most rare. 218-20: He was commissioned to execute a scene in the cloister in front of the Church of the Servites, in competition with Andrea del Sarto; and there he painted the Marriage of Our Lady, wherein may be clearly recognized the supreme faith of Joseph, who shows in his face as much awe as joy at his marriage with her. Besides this, Francia painted there one who is giving him some blows, as is the custom in our own day, in memory of the wedding; and in a nude figure he expressed very happily the rage and disappointment that drive him to break his rod, which had not blossomed, the drawing of which, with many others, is in our book. In the company of Our Lady, also, he painted some women with most beautiful expressions and head-dresses, things in which he always delighted. And in all this scene he did not paint a single thing that was not very well considered; as is, for example, a woman with a child in her arms, who, turning to go home, has cuffed another child, who has sat down in tears and refuses to go, pressing one hand against his face in a very graceful manner. Certain it is that he executed every detail in this scene, whether large or small, with much diligence and love, on account of the burning desire that he had to show therein to craftsmen and to all

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other good judges how great was his respect for the difficulties of art, and how successfully he could solve them by faithful imitation. Not long after this, on the occasion of a festival, the friars wished that the scenes of Andrea, and likewise that of Francia, should be uncovered; and the night after Francia had finished his with the exception of the base, they were so rash and presumptuous as to uncover them, not thinking, in their ignorance of art, that Francia would want to retouch or otherwise change his figures. In the morning, both the painting of Francia and those of Andrea were open to view, and the news was brought to Francia that Andrea’s works and his own had been uncovered; at which he felt such resentment, that he was like to die of it. Seized with anger against the friars on account of their presumption and the little respect that they had shown to him, he set off at his best speed and came up to the work; and then, climbing on to the staging, which had not yet been taken to pieces, although the painting had been uncovered, and seizing a mason’s hammer that was there, he beat some of the women’s heads to fragments, and destroyed that of the Madonna, and also tore almost completely away from the wall, plaster and all, a nude figure that is breaking a rod. Hearing the noise, the friars ran up, and, with the help of some laymen, seized his hands, to prevent him from destroying it completely. But, although in time they offered to give him double payment, he, on account of the hatred that he had conceived for them, would never restore it. By reason of the reverence felt by other painters both for him and for the work, they have refused to finish it; and so it remains, even in our own day, as a memorial of that event. This fresco is executed with such diligence and so much love, and it is so beautiful in its freshness, that Francia may be said to have worked better in fresco than any man of his time, and to have blended and harmonized his paintings in fresco better than any other, without needing to retouch the colours; wherefore he deserves to be much extolled both for this and for his other works. VI Baccio d’Agnolo 65-6, In carving, he executed the ornaments of that same chapel, those of the highaltar in the Nunziata, […]. 72: And, finally, a short time before his death, he [Giuliano, son of Baccio] made the rich and beautiful Ciborium of the most Holy Sacrament for the high-altar of the Nunziata, with the two Angels of wood, in full-relief, which are on either side of it. This was the last work that he executed, and he passed to a better life in the year 1555. Giovanni Antonio Lappoli 255-6: There, among the works of many that he saw, the manner of Andrea del Sarto and of Jacopo da Pontormo pleased him more than that of all the others who had worked at painting in that city. Wherefore he resolved to place himself under one of those two, and was hesitating as to which of them he should choose as his master, when there were uncovered the Faith and Charity painted by Pontormo

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over the portico of the Nunziata in Florence, and he became fully determined to go to work under Pontormo, thinking that his manner was so beautiful that it might be expected that Jacopo, who was still a young man, was destined to surpass all the young painters of his own age, as, indeed, was the firm belief of everyone at that time. VII Jacopo da Pontormo 149: In the meantime, Cardinal Giovanni de’ Medici having been elected Supreme Pontiff under the title of Leo X, there were being made all over Florence by the friends and adherents of that house many escutcheons of the Pontiff, in stone, in marble, on canvas, and in fresco. Wherefore the Servite Friars, wishing to give some sign of their service and devotion to that house and Pontiff, caused the arms of Leo to be made in stone, and placed in the centre of the arch in the first portico of the Nunziata, which is on the piazza; and shortly afterwards they arranged that it should be overlaid with gold by the painter Andrea di Cosimo, and adorned with grotesques, of which he was an excellent master, and with the devices of the house of Medici, and that, in addition, on either side of it there should be painted a Faith and a Charity. But Andrea di Cosimo, knowing that he was not able to execute all these things by himself, thought of giving the two figures to some other to do; and so, having sent for Jacopo, who was then not more than nineteen years of age, he gave him those two figures to execute, although he had no little trouble to persuade him to undertake to do it, seeing that, being a mere lad, he did not wish to expose himself at the outset to such a risk, or to work in a place of so much importance. However, having taken heart, although he was not as well practised in fresco as in oil-painting, Jacopo undertook to paint those two figures. VIII Ridolfo, David and Benedetto Ghirlandaio 64-5, After he had executed these and many other pictures, Ridolfo, happening to have in his house all the appliances for working in mosaic which had belonged to his uncle David and his father Domenico, and having also learned something of that work from the uncle, determined that he would try to do some work in mosaic with his own hand. Which having done, and finding that he was successful, he undertook to decorate the arch that is over the door of the Nunziata, wherein he made the Angel bringing the Annunciation to Our Lady. But, since he had not the patience for putting together all those little pieces, he never again did any work in that field of art. Fra Giovanno Agnolo Montorsoli 135: […] the young man, going forth from the Ingesuati, assumed the habit among the Servite Friars of the Nunziata in Florence on the seventh day of October in the year 1530, receiving the name of Fra Giovanni Agnolo. In the next year, 1531, having learned in the meanwhile the ceremonies and offices of that Order, and

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studied the works of Andrea del Sarto that are in that place, he made what they call his profession; and in the year following, to the full satisfaction of those Fathers and the contentment of his relatives, he chanted his first Mass with much pomp and honour. Then, the images in wax of Leo, Clement, and others of that most noble family, which had been placed there as votive offerings, having been destroyed during the expulsion of the Medici by some young men who were rather mad than valorous, the friars determined that these should be made again, and Fra Giovanni Agnolo, with the help of some of those men who gave their attention to the work of fashioning such images, restored some that were old and consumed by time, and made anew those of Pope Leo and Pope Clement, which are still to be seen there, and a short time afterwards those of the King of Bosnia and of the old Lord of Piombino. And in these works Fra Giovanni Agnolo made no little proficience. 137-9: But Fra Giovanni Agnolo did not go to Rome until he had finished entirely the image of Duke Alessandro for the Nunziata, which he executed in a manner different from the others, and very beautiful, in the form in which that lord may still be seen, clad in armour and kneeling on a Burgundian helmet, and with one hand to his breast, in the act of recommending himself to the Madonna there. […] Having returned with the above-named Maestro Zaccheria from Budrione to Florence, he made in his own Servite Convent, likewise of clay, and placed in two niches of the chapter-house, two figures larger than life, Moses and S. Paul, which brought him much praise. 152-4: Finally, then, having returned to Florence in the year 1561, he went off with Maestro Zaccheria to Pisa, where the Lord Duke and the Cardinal were, to do reverence to their most illustrious lordships; and after he had been received with much kindness and favour by those lords, and informed by the Duke that after his return to Florence he would be given a work of importance to execute, he went back. Then, having obtained leave from his fellow-friars of the Nunziata by means of Maestro Zaccheria, he erected in the centre of the chapter-house of that convent, where many years before he had made the Moses and S. Paul of stucco, as has been related above, a very beautiful tomb for himself and for all such men of the arts of design, painters, sculptors, and architects, as had not a place of their own in which to be buried; intending to arrange by a contract, as he did, that those friars, in return for the property that he was to leave to them, should be obliged to say Mass on some feast-days and ordinary days in that chapter-house, and that every year, on the day of the most Holy Trinity, a solemn festival should be held there, and on the following day an office of the dead for the souls of those buried in that place. This design having then been imparted by Fra Giovanni Agnolo and Maestro Zaccheria to Giorgio Vasari, who was very much their friend, they discoursed together on the affairs of the Company of Design, which had been created in the time of Giotto, and had a home in S. Maria Nuova in Florence, which it had possessed from that time down to our own, as may still be seen at the present day from a record at the high-altar of that Hospital; and they thought with this occasion

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to revive it and set it up again. For that Company had been removed from the above-mentioned high-altar, as has been related in the Life of Jacopo di Casentino, to a place under the vaulting of the same Hospital at the corner of the Via della Pergola, and finally had been removed and driven from that place also by Don Isidoro Montaguti, the Director of the Hospital, so that it was almost entirely dispersed, and no longer assembled. Now, after Fra Giovanni Agnolo, Maestro Zaccheria, and Giorgio had thus discoursed at some length of the condition of that Company, and the Frate had spoken of it with Bronzino, Francesco da San Gallo, Ammanati, Vincenzio de’ Rossi, Michele di Ridolfo, and many other sculptors and painters of the first rank, and had declared his mind to them, when the morning of the most Holy Trinity came, all the most noble and excellent craftsmen of the arts of design, to the number of forty-eight, were assembled in the above-named chapter-house, where a most beautiful festival had been prepared, and where the tomb was already finished, and the altar so far advanced that there were wanting only some figures of marble that were going into it. There, after a most solemn Mass had been said, a beautiful oration was made by one of those fathers in praise of Fra Giovanni Agnolo, and of the magnificent liberality that he was showing to the Company by presenting to them that chapter-house, that tomb, and that chapel, in order to take possession of which, he said in conclusion, it had been already arranged that the body of Pontormo, which had been placed in a vault in the first little cloister of the Nunziata, should be laid in the new tomb before any other. When, therefore, the Mass and the oration were finished, they all went into the church, where there were on a bier the remains of that Pontormo; and then, having placed the bier on the shoulders of the younger men, with a taper for each and also some torches, they passed around the Piazza and carried it into the chapter-house, which, previously draped with cloth of gold, they found all black and covered with painted corpses and other suchlike things; and thus was Pontormo laid in the new tomb. 156: And not long afterwards, in 1564, the good father himself, Fra Giovanni Agnolo, who had been so excellent a sculptor, was buried in the same tomb with most honourable obsequies, a very beautiful oration being delivered in his praise in the Temple of the Nunziata by the very reverend and most learned Maestro Michelagnolo. X Academicians 8: Not long afterwards he [Bronzino] executed another large and very beautiful altar-picture of the Resurrection of Jesus Christ, which was placed in the Chapel of Jacopo and Filippo Guadagni beside the choir in the Church of the Servites—that is, the Nunziata. 12-3: He [Alessandro Allori] has painted and executed all with his own hand the Chapel of the Montaguti in the Church of the Nunziata—namely, the altar-piece in oils, and the walls and vaulting in fresco. In the altar-piece is Christ on high, and the Madonna, in the act of judging, with many figures in various attitudes and

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executed very well, copied from the Judgment of Michelagnolo Buonarroti. About that altar-piece, on the same wall, are four large figures in the forms of Prophets, or rather, Evangelists, two above and two below; and on the vaulting are some Sibyls and Prophets executed with great pains, study, and diligence, he having sought in the nudes to imitate Michelagnolo. On the wall which is at the left hand looking towards the altar, is Christ as a boy disputing in the midst of the Doctors in the Temple; which boy is seen in a fine attitude answering their questions, and the Doctors, and others who are there listening attentively to him, are all different in features, attitudes, and vestments, and among them are portraits from life of many of Alessandro’s friends, which are good likenesses. Opposite to that, on the other wall, is Christ driving from the Temple those who with their buying and selling were making it a house of traffic and a market-place; with many things worthy of consideration and praise. Over those two scenes are some stories of the Madonna, and on the vaulting figures that are of no great size, but passing graceful; with some buildings and landscapes, which in their essence show the love that he bears to art, and how he seeks the perfection of design and invention. And opposite to the altar-piece, on high, is a story of Ezekiel, when he saw a great multitude of bones reclothe themselves with flesh and take to themselves their members; in which this young man has demonstrated how much he desires to master the anatomy of the human body, and how he has studied it and given it his attention. 22-3: Francesco di Giuliano da San Gallo, sculptor, architect, and Academician, and now a man seventy years of age, has executed many works of sculpture, […]; the tomb of Bishop de’ Marzi, which is in the Nunziata, and that of Monsignor Giovio, the writer of the history of his own times.

BOCCHI, 192-226: 192: One then arrives at the most noble church of [Santissima] Annunziata. One sees a square flanked by two beautiful arcades, in the manner of a theatre: on the right is a huge residence, in which one received and brought to the little children called Innocents, which have been abandoned by their parents either out of neglect or poverty, and who are here nourished with the greatest attentiveness. This institution was founded by the Guild of Porta Santa Maria, that is, the Silk Guild. For if it happens that people forget the care affection they owe these creatures, as can occur, this shelter is readily available, and so removes the need for any more vicious course of action. 193: But to come to [Santissima] Annunziata itself: one sees over the portal that leads to the atrium an Annunciation by Ridolfo Ghirlandaio, a mosaic, but made in such a lovely way, with sfumato and fine design, that it seems painted, and is much praised by artists. Over the arch [on the front] of the porch, however, are two stupendously painted figures, Charity and Faith, with little children, marvellously executed by Jacopo Pontormo. {…} To the right, in [the Chapel of] St. Sebastian, the Pucci Chapel, is a very beautiful panel by Antonio Pollaiuolo, showing St. Sebastian, a work of great craftsmanship, in which many figures involved in the

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martyrdom of this Saint are arranged with much care and assume graceful, unusual, yet natural poses. Atop the trunk of a tree, one sees St. Sebastian bound; the body of this youth is most beautifully posed; his limbs are well-proportioned and finely formed. 195: As one enters the famous atrium of [Santissima] Annunziata one encounters many narrative scenes by the finest painters. Several of them concern the life of San Filippo [Benizzi], greatly renowned for his sanctity, and as one of the earliest members of the Servite Order. These works, by the most excellent Andrea del Sarto, are of supreme and unequalled beauty, and we will discuss them first. Following the story of the Nativity, painted by Alessio Baldovinetti, well-known and much praised for its diligence and care, one finds a picture of the vision of St. Filippo Benizzi. During a mass on the eighth day after Easter, he hears the words, ‘Phillip, approach and yoke yourself to this chariot.’ Lifted up in spiritual contemplation and detached from his outward senses, he sees the Virgin in glory on a four-wheeled carriage drawn by a lion and a lamb, who offers him a black cloth that she holds in her hand, similar to the robe of the Servites. Giving much thought to this experience, he finally decides to join the Order and to dress himself in the habit he had seen. This picture is by Cosimo Rosselli, and in the heads of some of the monks one sees vitality and a praiseworthy manner of colouring. But the scene that follows next in time is by Andrea del Sarto, and shows how, while on a visit to the Pope, who, with his court, resided in Viterbo, St. Filippo came across a naked leper humbly asking for alms, to which the holy man replied in words once used by St. Peter: ‘Gold and silver I have none, but what I have, I give you.’ Withdrawing a little way, he took off his shirt and gave it to the unfortunate man to wear. {…} 197 {The story of the lightening bolt, by Andrea del Sarto, shows St. Filippo travelling between} Bologna and Modena toward the mountains, he encountered some [persons] who had taken refuge from the summer heat under a large tree and, given over to games and lewd conduct, insulted and viciously ridiculed the holy man. When they began disrespectfully blaspheming the name of God, however, the Saint would not endure it and heatedly scolded them, warning that His revenge was not far off. Shortly thereafter the air turned dark and a fierce bolt of lightening suddenly burst from heaven with a terrible noise, splitting the tree in the shadow of which these evil people had gathered. {…} In the scene that follows, in which St. Filippo exorcises demons from a girl, the arrangement of the various figures who witness the miracle is very beautiful. One sees the unconscious woman, her natural powers having left her, held upright by her mother and father in vivid and lifelike poses. {…} In the next scene is depicted the story of a little boy recalled from death to life when he is brought into contact with the bier of St. Filippo, also newly dead. The monks who mourn their master present an image of profoundest sorrow and some, who witness the great miracle and make gestures of wonder, are painted in such a way that they seem real and in relief. The little boy is shown both dead and miraculously revived.

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199: {Painting of a monk in liturgical} vestments before an altar, very gracefully holding some cloth, a relic of St. Filippo; there are also some kneeling women such as no human skill could surpass for life-likeness or beauty. The little children whom the women bring to the altar, so that the relic may be placed upon their heads, are of living flesh: one sees how, with masterful workmanship, this distinguished artist formed limbs of youthful delicacy so gracefully that no one, no matter how demanding, can ask for anything more in this matter. An old man, said to be [a portrait of] Luca della Robbia, who supports himself on a staff as he climbs some stairs with great difficulty, is praised by everyone for his wonderfully beautiful colouring. {…} To the left is the story of the Assumption of the Virgin by Rosso, a Florentine painter, a work much admired by artists. The Virgin is painted in a very refined manner, as are certain little angels who welcome her, linking hands and receiving the Queen of Heaven festively with fine and unusual movements. {…} The next scene, depicting the Visitation of the Virgin, is by Jacopo Pontormo: it is a very beautiful mural and endlessly praised by experts. The Virgin is of most refined appearance, and the elderly St. Elizabeth too, made with the greatest skill and draped in such a way that they seem real and in relief. One figure, who holds a book, seems to be wholly alive, and actually to want to perform the act that the artist shows it performing. 201: Next is the scene of the Marriage of the Virgin, painted with extraordinary care by Franciabigio. The St. Joseph displays great vitality as he weds the Virgin; nearby there is a figure who, with a beautiful gesture, opens his arms and is about to strike the groom on the shoulder, as is the custom, as soon as the ring is exchanged; this figure is painted with such vividness that he seems real. There is another figure that does not seem to be still, but rather to be moving, positioning his hands in a lively way. A woman with a child in her arms is a pleasing sight; she seems to have scolded a second child at her feet and weeping. {…} The scene on the other side of the door into the Chapel of St. Sebastian, the Birth of the Virgin, by Andrea del Sarto, is of stupendous colouring. This wonderful artist has placed St. Ann in bed in a very lovely room. She has been rendered with great care, and so also are the two servants bringing platefuls of food to the bed; they have lovely expressions of affection, their poses are lively and their clothing is draped in such a way that they are more like something real and alive than a painted work of art. But beautiful beyond all reckoning are the two women who, as is the custom, have come to visit the mother. 203: {Two women by the fireplace are particularly lifelike}; the clothes that real women wear are not different from the painted ones on this wall. But to the skin tones, Andrea, like another Prometheus, has given the most intense vitality. As they sit arranging the clothes and unswaddling the baby, these two women seem to be imbued with spirit, seem to talk of their concerns and, lifted from the flat surface of the wall, actually seem to do what they are shown doing. {…} Next is the story of the Magi, also by Andrea, and of equal beauty, in which one sees the three wise kings of the east who came to adore the newborn Christ, guided by the star. Andrea has shown them as they arrive, approaching reverently on foot. All three are represented with singular skill, and the scene as a whole is composed

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with subtle intelligence. The baggage train is very gracefully devised, and some agile and elegant horses that appear in the distance provide more occasion for praise the more one looks. The young king and the old king – their heads, their robes, their vestments, even their footwear – are very beautiful, but the Indian king is certainly characterised by stupendous beauty. 205/6: Entering the church itself, one sees the famous chapel on the left, built to the design if Michelozzo Michelozzi, on the wall of which is painted the miraculous face of the most holy Virgin Annunciate, recognised in every part of the world. In the year 1233, while the true faith was beset by heresies, as it pleased God, a great spiritual fervour awoke in the hearts of seven Florentine noblemen, which, because it was powerful, grew quickly and, extending itself to others, flourished remarkably, finally yielding fine and admirable fruit. The Servite Order having thus been born, a great church was begun similar to those that were dedicated to the service of the Mother of the Son of God. As soon as the walls had been erected, it was decided to depict the object of their special devotion. They turned to a painter of honest life and habits, who set about painting the scene of the Virgin receiving the angelic greeting. So that the work would more successfully reflect his intentions, the wise painter first made confession and took the Holy Sacrament. Then he painted both the figures, except for the Virgins head; trying to envision with human thought the appearance of that face – which must have borne the impress of divine thought – he more than once felt himself lost in confusion and, almost defeated in his high aim, tried to devise a means by which the heavenly face of such an exalted creature might be represented. As it pleased God, the painter was one day overtaken by sleep on the scaffolding where he worked; awakened a little later, he saw that the Madonna’s face had been finished miraculously. Bewildered by the splendour of such beauty, overwhelmed by the heavenly and immortal visage and moved by singular wonder, he began, as, indeed, such a stupendous event merited, to shout aloud. At his cry all the Servants of Mary came running, nor were any so tardy that from near and far they did not hurry to see this marvel of God, nor feel flourish in their souls a sweet and unaccustomed joy at this unheard of occurrence. 207: In the name of Piero de’ Medici, and with the design of Michelozzo, as was said, the chapel with the painting of the most holy Annunciation was enclosed in Carrara marble: on four columns of the Corinthian order, nine braccia high, are placed an architrave, frieze and cornice carved with the most refined workmanship. The ceiling of the chapel within the four columns is carved and decorated with marvellously beautiful tiles of fused glass. The pavement is very beautiful also, made up of porphyry, coloured marbles and serpentines. A bronze candlestick, made by Pagno Portigiani, who executed what Michelozzo had designed, is very beautiful, and a copper lily, mounted in the air over a frieze, supported by means of a branch that sticks up over a cornice of the chapel, is inexpressibly beautiful. Under the frieze are 30 silver lamps of wonderful workmanship, made by order of Grand Duke Cosimo. The sacred vestments of various colours are many, remarkable for their diligent execution and unique in their value. I say nothing of

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the gifts, that is, the silver votive offerings, which are very great in number, nor of chalices and crosses of the greatest value. But two silver candelabra by Salvestro Castrucci, an outstanding artist, shine with the beauty of many gems, creating a wonderful sight, and in the majesty of such a holy place it seems that no richer appearance nor more sublime ornament nor work of art more precious can be imagined. They are taller than an upright man and are a regal and pleasing sight; their shafts are devised with great care and the bases are of overwhelming beauty. Here one sees the arms of the Medici family with the cardinal’s hat, since they were made by order of Ferdinand, formerly a Cardinal and now Grand Duke of Tuscany. The image of the Saviour that is kept on the altar of this chapel is by Andrea del Sarto, and is painted with marvellous skill. Majesty and reverence breathe in His face and while one contemplates it, one is enflamed to devotion, for besides being almost in relief, it has a countenance of uncommon and divine character. 209: Nearby, in the Montaguti (Montauto) Chapel, is a panel by Alessandro Allori, painted in oils with extreme diligence, representing the Saviour’s Judgement of the living and the dead. Although it is copied from Michelangelo’s Last Judgement in Rome, it is valued and highly praised. The vault is frescoed with figures from the New and Old Testaments, and in the two larger walls are narrative scenes: in one, Our Lord drives away those who irreverently conducted business in the temple, and in everything one perceives grace, unusual skill and great care. But even more highly regarded is the other, in which is depicted the debate that the 12 year old Christ engaged in with the learned men of the Old Law. {…} Besides the pier of the chapel, one sees a portrait of Pier Vettori, famous for his great brilliance and learning, and of Don Vincenzo Borghini, formerly Prior of the Ospedale degli Innocenti; in another part of the picture is Master Baccio Baldini, Grand Duke Cosimo’s physician. All of these [portraits] are executed with such skill that they are extraordinarily highly valued by experts for the way, in which they resemble the men they depict. Next, in the Galli Chapel is a panel by Giovanni Stradano, much praised by those with judgement, depicting Christ on the Cross. With admirable insight, the artist shows the Saviour still alive, speaking with the good thief as the Sacred Scripture recounts. {…} At the Poccianti Chapel, just beneath the pulpit, there is a life-size figure of St. Roch, carved from limewood by a certain Ianni of France. As this work is executed with the most extreme patience as well as with great skill, it has much in common with the better sort of work – that is, Italian – even though made by a foreigner, and is marvellous and fine in its own way. 211/2: Beside the pier flanking the entrance to the tribune one sees the tomb of Bishop de’ Marzi, of Carrara marble, carved by Francesco da Sangallo and highly regarded by artists. Above the sarcophagus is a portrait of the Bishop made with great skill, which, just as importantly, bears a great likeness to the person it represents.

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Nearby, under the organ, in the Billi Chapel, is a panel of the very greatest beauty by Fra Bartolommeo, depicting the resurrected Christ with the four Evangelists, a work of extraordinary skill. It is as true to life as paint can be: the way, in which the body [of Christ] is visible beneath its drapery reveals very conscientious workmanship. {…} In the chapel of Alamanno de’ Pazzi is a Dead Christ in Carrara marble by the most excellent Cavalier Bandinelli. Extended horizontally, the figure is supported in the middle one a stone pedestal and held under the right shoulder by God the Father; the arrangement of the figure is very beautiful and graceful beyond all reckoning. It is extremely difficult to express beauty and majesty in the head of a dead man; indeed, such qualities are inimical to death and to the grim prerogative by which, as soon as it takes possession of a body, it steals all the splendour that might inspire reverence. {…} The Cavalier portrayed himself, and it is vivid likeness, in the head of God the Father, who with an appropriate expression seems real, so extraordinarily carefully adjusted is it to the requirements of such a subject. Some death’s-heads, placed at the corners of the altar are also praised, and among artists are unanimously regarded as remarkable and exquisite. Behind the altar is a bas-relief portraying Bandinelli and his wife; they are rendered with such sure draughtsmanship that they are endlessly praised by everybody in the highest terms. 212/3: Beside the pier at the entrance to the tribune is a very beautiful panel, in which Christ is shown being taken down from the Cross. The upper half was painted by Filipp[in]o Lippi. [The principal figure] is of exquisite colouring, as are the figures of those who remove the Saviour from the Cross and lower Him with graceful and becoming gestures. The figures at the bottom, the Virgin and the other Marys, are by Pietro Perugino, and are praised in the very highest terms. Seeing their heavenly Master dead, their faces reveal great sorrow and affecting thoughts; the Virgin faints and all seem to be transfixed with inconsolable sadness. The tribune, with its chapels, was made according to a design by Leon Battista Alberti, a Florentine gentleman, at the behest of Lodovico Gonzaga, Marquis of Mantua; just as it testifies to the magnificence of that cultivated lord, so does it also offer an enduring demonstration of the architect’s worth, and of how he excelled at devising noble and magnificent buildings. In this tribune is the Scala Chapel, where one sees above the altarpiece a semicircular panel of the Annunciation by Alessandro Allori. It is very diligently copied from one by Andrea del Sarto, [a work] about which – because it is unfortunately no longer in Florence – something needs to be said. Andrea depicted a luminous mist appropriate to the moment of the Annunciation; the Virgin, of surpassingly singular beauty, is very gracefully seated, and hears the words of the heavenly messenger with a gesture of fear. {…} Next is the Guadagni Chapel, in which is depicted Christ rising from the tomb, along with other figures relevant to the story as told in the Sacred Scriptures, by Agnolo Bronzino. Christ is represented with dignity, in colours cheerful and sweet and softly blended; and though showing Him elevated above the ground is difficult, His head, torso, arms,

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and every other part are very graceful, as they should be, and deserve to be commended. 215: The decoration of the high altar was made according to a design by Baccio d’Agnolo, and is truly a lovely and praiseworthy work of architecture. The ciborium, placed within a magnificent arch, was designed by Giuliano, Baccio’s son, and is commended in the very highest terms by experts. The Crucifix over the altar is by Antonio da Sangallo and is greatly prized by everyone. The two angels of Carrara marble before the altar are by Bartolommeo Ammannati: the remarkable care that is revealed in them is highly valued by artists and, as reason demands, enormously admired. They are indeed very true to life and are almost of flesh, demonstrating a fine and marvellous understanding of art. {…} Now because there are in the cloister of this church some pictures by the most excellent Andrea del Sarto, which stand out and shine like the sun among all others, they must not be neglected under any circumstances; and because they are provided with perfect beauty, there is good cause to try to suggest with words the stupendous workmanship for which they are amazingly famous throughout the world and without compare. 216: Above the side door that leads into the cloister one sees a Madonna with the Child in her arms and a St. Joseph who sits leaning against a sack, holding an open book and reading with a vividness wholly real and wholly alive. This is the socalled Madonna of the Sack, or rather, a wonder of the most extraordinary beauty, the most sublime and perfect colouring that is found in earthly painting; it is commended not only in Florence, but regarded as incomparable everywhere and by everyone.

BALDINUCCI SS Annunziata: I.271; I.415; I.415; I.488; I.522 & 524; I.551; I.557; I.561 ; II.17; II.74; 77-81; II.75; II.82; II.129-30; II.176; II.213; II.218; II.337; II.529; II.539; II.545; II.559; II.574-5; II.593; II.596; II.659-60; III.6; III.7; III.7; III.10; III.10; III.20; III.51; III.53; III.67; III.74; III.74; III.74; III.77; III.91; III.127-28; III.145, III.139-40; III.142; III.291; III.291; III.292; III.292-93; III.295; III.295; III.295; III.295-96; III.295; III.297; III.426-27; III.438; III.439; III.441; III.442; III.444; III.520-21; III.522; III.526; III.526; III.526; III.585; III.585; III.664; III.674; III.676; III.710; III.721; III.748; IV.97; IV.113; IV.114; IV.158; IV.161; IV.161; IV.161-62; IV.161; IV.162; IV.164-65; IV.221; IV.225-26; IV.309; IV.312; IV.321; IV.321; IV.321; IV.321; IV.321-2; IV.322; IV.322; IV.322-3; IV.323; IV.327-28; IV.348; IV.348; IV.348; IV.349; IV.353; IV.422; IV.425; IV.435; IV.440; IV.441; IV.470; IV.471; IV.471; IV.555; IV.558-59; IV.564; V.67; V.7071; V.80; V.159-60; V.162; V.174-5; V.176; V.180; V.185; V.189; V.361; V.574.

RICHA, part III, vol VIII, lesson I-VI, 1-113.

CHAPTER FIVE SANTI APOSTOLI

Piazzetta del Limbo, 1; free entrance but no visits during religious services.

History According to legend the church of the Apostle Saints was founded by Charlemagne. A marble slab on the façade bears an inscription that seems to credit the emperor with this deed in the year 805. Recent research has been able to date the inscription to the late fifteenth century when such an attribution became popular north and south of the Alps. Rather than in the ninth, it is more likely that the present Romanesque church (Fig. 5 a) was built in the very early eleventh century, even though it is first mentioned in documents of the year 1075. It was modernised in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries but essentially remains a church building of the High Middle Ages. It is situated on Piazzetta del Limbo, called after the former cemetery for unbaptised children who were not admitted to Paradise but had to remain in Limbo to atone for their original sin. In Antiquity a Roman bath was located in this area; spolia in the form of two Corinthian capitals were reused for the nave of the church. The church suffered little damage during WWII, unlike the surrounding neighbourhood, but was harmed severely by the flood of 1966 due to its low position near the river front.

Architecture The church has a simple Romanesque façade, which was reconstructed by the Livornese architect Luigi Zumkeller in the 1930s. The portal with pilasters and an entablature in white, black and green marble was commissioned by the Altoviti family from Benedetto da Rovezzano (1512). The two marble slabs integrated in the façade are the abovementioned inscription attesting to the foundation by Charlemagne (today replaced by a copy) and another one reporting the death of Prior Ugolotti

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Altoviti and the work he had undertaken on the church. In the early sixteenth century, Baccio d’Agnolo added a small bell tower.

Figure 5 a: Façade of Santi Apostoli, reconstructed in the 1930s (photo: AG).

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Figure 5 b: Plan of Santi Apostoli (plan: SC).

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Santi Apostoli has a three-nave plan with a semi-circular apse and no transepts as is typical for early Christian church architecture (Fig. 5 b). The aisles are lower than the nave, as is evident from the shape of the façade, and are separated from the nave by twelve green marble columns from Prato topped with ancient Roman spolia capitals. Together with the Baptistery (chapter 1) and San Miniato (chapter 19) the church of Santi Apostoli is said to have influenced Brunelleschi’s designs for ecclesiastical architecture. The carved wooden ceiling dates to the 1330s. The Acciaioli, Altoviti and other leading families living in the neighbourhood paid for the restoration of the mosaic pavement from the original church. While the apse still preserves its Romanesque features, the side chapels were added in the sixteenth century and decorated in the Baroque style in the eighteenth. During the eighteenth century, the walls were whitewashed, as was the façade, and the wooden ceiling covered by a barrel vault subsequently frescoed with the Holy Spirit Descending on the Apostles. These Baroque additions were removed by Luigi Zumkeller who also restored the façade. In the 1920s and 30s Italian historical buildings were often returned to what was then regarded as their authentic mediaeval appearance in an attempt to create an Italian identity and encourage Italian tourism. During this period, pseudo-mediaeval festivals were also re-invented, for example the Florentine calcio and the Sienese palio.

Art Stone splinters allegedly brought from the Holy Sepulchre by Pazzino de’ Pazzi are preserved inside the church and are used to light the fire-works for the Scoppio del Carro performed on Easter Sunday between the Baptistery and Santa Maria del Fiore. There are several tombs of members of the Altoviti family: Oddo Altoviti, a main sponsor of this church, received a monument commissioned to Benedetto da Rovezzano (1507-10), while the banker Bindo Altoviti is remembered by a tomb attributed to Giovanni Battista Fiammeri with his portrait bust by Bartolommeo Ammannati (1570). The apse contains the tomb monument of Archbishop Antonio Altoviti by Giovanni Antonio Dosio, created between 1573 and 1583, which follows the curve of the semicircular space. It consists of the sarcophagus with a small shrine containing a bronze crucifix placed above. Over the two doors flanking the sarcophagus are niches with marble busts of Antonio Altoviti and Charlemagne by Giovanni Battista Caccini (1580-83).

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The altarpiece on the high altar, a fourteenth-century Gothic polyptych depicting the Virgin Mary Enthroned with Saints and Angels, is attributed to Jacopo di Cione and workshop. The Pentecost altarpiece (tempera on wood, 1362-65) formerly on the high altar is by Andrea del Cione Orcagna and his brother Jacopo and has been preserved in the Accademia Gallery since 1939 (N. Cat. 00158543, http://www.accademia.org/it/esplora-ilmuseo/le-sale/il-gotico-fiorentino/). Giovanni della Robbia created the polychrome glazed-terracotta tabernacle of the sacrament on the left of the apse. Bibl: Borsook 1983, 164-6; Cesati 2002, 27-9; Goy 2015, 118; Horstmann 2011, 179-82; Mercanti and Straffi 2001, 54-67; Lasansky 2004; Moretti and Ricci 2001, 73-5; Murray 2004, 38 and 42; Paatz 1940, I, 226-63; Paolucci 2006, 112-9; Tovey 2005, 307; Verdon, Coppellotti, Fabbri 2000, 98-9. Sources: VILLANI III § 3.65-7—How Charles the Great came to Florence, and granted privileges to the city, and caused Santo Apostolo to be built After that the new city of Florence had been rebuilt in the small circuit and form, and at the time aforesaid, the captains which were there in the name of the emperor and the commonwealth of Rome ordained that it should be peopled; and as of old at the first building the order went forth at Rome that of the best families of Rome, both of the nobles and the people, some should dwell as citizens in Florence, so was it at the second restoration; and to each one was given rich possessions. And we find in the Chronicles of France, that after the city of Florence was rebuilt after the manner aforesaid, the Emperor Charles the Great, king of France, when he was departed from Rome, and was returning North, abode at Florence, and caused great festival and solemnity to be held on Easter Day of the Resurrection, in the year of 805 a.d. Christ 805, and made many knights in Florence, and founded the church of Santo Apostolo in the Borgo, and this he richly endowed to the honour of God and of the Holy Apostles; and on his departure from Florence he granted privileges to the city, and declared the commonwealth and citizens of Florence to be free and independent, and for three miles around, without paying any tax or impost, save twenty-six pence yearly per hearth [i.e. per family]. And in like manner he enfranchised all the citizens around which desired to return and dwell within the city, and also strangers; for which thing many returned to dwell therein; and in a short time, by reason of the good situation and convenient spot, by reason of the river and of the plain, the said little Florence was well peopled and strong in walls, and in moats full of water. And they ordained that the said city should be ruled and governed after the manner of Rome, to wit, by two Consuls and by a council of

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100 senators, and thus it was ruled long time, as hereafter shall be narrated. Verily, the citizens of Florence had for a long time much trouble and war, first from the Fiesolans, which were foes so nigh at hand, and they were ever jealous one of another, and were continually at war together; and afterwards from the coming of the Saracens into Italy in the time of the French emperors, as before has been narrated, which much afflicted the country; and last of all, from the divers disturbances which befell Rome and all Italy alike, from the discords of the Popes and of the Italian emperors, which were continually at war with the Church. For the which thing, the fame of the city of Florence and its power abode by the space of 200 years, without being able to expand or increase beyond its narrow boundaries. But notwithstanding all the war and trouble, it was continually multiplying in inhabitants and in forces, nor did they much regard the war with Fiesole, or the other adversities in Tuscany; for albeit their power and authority extended but little way beyond the city, forasmuch as the country was all full of fortresses, and occupied by nobles and powerful lords which were not under obedience to the city, and some of them held with the city of Fiesole, nevertheless, within the city the citizens were united, and it was strong in position and in walls, and in moats full of water; and within the little city there were in a short time more than 150 towers pertaining to citizens, and each one 120 cubits high, without counting those pertaining to the city; and by reason of the height of the many towers which then were in Florence, it is said, that it showed forth from afar as the most beautiful and proudest city of its small size which could be found; and in this space of time it was very well peopled, and full of palaces and of houses, and great number of inhabitants, as times went. We will now leave for a time the doings of Florence, and will briefly relate concerning the Italian emperors, which were reigning in those times after the French ceased to be emperors; for this is of necessity, seeing that by reason of their lordship many disturbances came to pass in Italy; and afterwards we shall return to our subject.

VASARI I Preface lii-lv: Later, in Florence, architecture made some little progress, and the Church of S. Apostolo, that was erected by Charlemagne, although small, was most beautiful in manner; for not to mention that the shafts of the columns, although they are of separate pieces, show much grace and are made with beautiful proportion, the capitals, also, and the arches turned to make the little vaulted roofs of the two small aisles, show that in Tuscany there had survived or in truth arisen some good craftsman. In short, the architecture of this church is such that Filippo di Ser Brunellesco did not disdain to avail himself of it as a model in building the Church of S. Spirito and that of S. Lorenzo in the same city. […] And seeing that there has been made mention above of the Church of S. Apostolo in Florence, I will not

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forbear to say that on a marble slab therein, on one side of the high-altar, there may be seen these words: VIII. V. DIE VI. APRILIS IN RESURRECTIONE DOMINI, KAROLUS FRANCORUM REX A ROMA REVERTENS, INGRESSUS FLORENTIAM, CUM MAGNO GAUDIO ET TRIPUDIO SUSCEPTUS, CIVIUM COPIAM TORQUEIS AUREIS DECORAVIT ... ECCLESIA SANCTORUM APOSTOLORUM ... IN ALTARI INCLUSA EST LAMINA PLUMBEA, IN QUA DESCRIPTA APPARET PRÆFATA FUNDATIO ET CONSECRATIO FACTA PER ARCHIEPISCOPUM TURPINUM, TESTIBUS ROLANDO ET ULIVERIO. Andrea Tafi 48: the Church of S. Apostolo in Florence, a work so good in manner that it casts back to the true ancient goodness, having all the columns in sections, as it has been said above, measured and put together with so great diligence that much can be learnt by studying it in all its parts. II Spinello Aretino 30: and in the Church of S. Apostolo, on the panel of the high-altar, he made in distemper the Holy Spirit being sent down on the Apostles in tongues of fire. Fra Filippo Lippi 82: For a chapel in S. Apostolo, in the same city, he painted a panel with some figures round a Madonna. VII Niccolò, called Tribolo 31: Now at this time Giorgio Vasari, having returned from Bologna, was executing for Messer Bindo Altoviti the altar-piece of his chapel in S. Apostolo at Florence, but he was not held in much consideration, although he had friendship with Tribolo and Tasso, because certain persons had formed a faction under the protection of the above-named Messer Pier Francesco Riccio, and whoever was not of that faction had no share in the favours of the Court, although he might be able and deserving. VIII Francesco Salviati 187: Meanwhile, moving from that inn at the entreaty of his friends, he retired to the house of M. Marco Finale, the Prior of S. Apostolo, where he executed a Pietà in colours on cloth of silver for M. Jacopo Salviati, as it were to pass the time, with the Madonna and the other Maries, which was a very beautiful work.

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X Academicians 15: In one of these altar-pieces, which is in the Church of S. Apostolo at Florence, is the Nativity of Jesus Christ, […] executed [by Maso di San Friano] with judgment and with many fine considerations, insomuch that the heads, the draperies, the attitudes, the buildings, and all the other parts are full of loveliness and grace. Giorgio Vasari 185-6: And I had scarcely finished these works when there arrived in Camaldoli Messer Bindo Altoviti, who wished to arrange a transportation of great fir-trees to Rome by way of the Tiber, for the fabric of S. Pietro, from the Cella di S. Alberigo, a place belonging to those fathers; and he, seeing all the works executed by me in that place, and by my good fortune liking them, resolved, before he departed thence, that I should paint an alter-picture for his Church of S. Apostolo in Florence. Wherefore, having finished that of Camaldoli, with the façade of the chapel in fresco (wherein I made the experiment of combining work in oil-colours with the other, and succeeded passing well), I made my way to Florence, and there executed that altar-picture. Now, having to give a proof of my powers in Florence, where I had not yet executed such a work, and having many rivals, and also a desire to acquire a name, I resolved that I would do my utmost in that work and put into it all the diligence that I might find possible. […] In October, then, of the year 1540, I began the altar-picture for Messer Bindo, proposing to paint in it a scene that should represent the Conception of Our Lady, according to the title of the chapel; which subject presenting no little difficulty to me, Messer Bindo and I took the opinions of many common friends, men of learning, and finally I executed it in the following manner. Having depicted the Tree of the Primal Sin in the middle of the picture, I painted at its roots Adam and Eve naked and bound, as the first transgressors of the commandment of God, and then one by one, bound to the other branches, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses, Aaron, Joshua, David, and the other Kings in succession, according to the order of time; all, I say, bound by both arms, excepting Samuel and John the Baptist, who are bound by one arm only, because they were blessed in the womb. I painted there, also, with the tail wound about the trunk of the Tree, the Ancient Serpent, who, having a human form from the middle upwards, has the hands bound behind; and upon his head, treading upon his horns, is one foot of the glorious Virgin, who has the other on a Moon, being herself all clothed with the Sun, and crowned with twelve stars. The Virgin, I say, is supported in the air, within a Splendour, by many nude little Angels, who are illumined by the rays that come from her; which rays, likewise, passing through the leaves of the Tree, shed light upon those bound to it, and appear to be loosing their bonds by means of the virtue and grace that they bring from her from whom they proceed. And in the heaven, at the top of the picture, are two children that are holding certain scrolls, in which are written these words: QUOS EVÆ CULPA DAMNAVIT, MARIÆ GRATIA SOLVIT. In short, so far as I can remember, I had not executed any work up to that time with more study or with more

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lovingness and labour; but all the same, while I may perhaps have satisfied others, I did not satisfy myself, although I know the time, study, and labour that I devoted to it, particularly to the nudes and heads, and, indeed, to every part.

BOCCHI, 73-5: 73: Further along, one finds the Church of Santi Apostoli, most beautiful for its architecture and for its memorable decoration of paintings and sculptures. Since the church is very old it is not known who the architect was; it is nevertheless apparent that the building is noble and rare. In spite of its small size, it affords a magnificent view, and the best architects have learnt from it how to design the largest churches in a masterly manner. The church has a central vessel and two side aisles, separated by two rows of columns, gracefully and beautifully neatly built from individual blocks of stone, to wonderful effect. The arches resting on these columns and the shape of the entire building are, when one considers them, graceful beyond belief. When Bindo Altoviti, as patron of this church, commissioned the floor level of the church to be raised, he was dissuaded by the grave words of Michelangelo Buonarroti, who pointed out that in doing so he would spoil a most beautiful gem. In the right aisle, in the Altoviti Chapel, there is a painting by Giorgio Vasari’s own hand, depicting a beautiful invention representing the Immaculate Conception. {…} Near the sacristy, in the same aisle, there is a tomb of Master Oddo Altoviti, once the Prefect of Prato; it was designed by Benedetto da Rovezzano. Two lovely pilasters frame the tomb, decorated with most diligent carvings of [symbols of] the entire mystery of the Passion [of Christ]. On the sarcophagus, some skulls are sculpted with such diligence that they appear entirely real. Above the door to the sacristy there is a Charity of marble, framed by two putti by one of Ammannati’s pupils. 75: The apse, where the high altar stands, was decorated to the design of Giovanni Antonio Dosio. Two very beautiful doors there are framed in black and coloured marble. In the pediment above the right door there is a marble bust of Antonio Altoviti, once Archbishop of Florence; it was carved by Giovanni Caccini and is highly esteemed by the experts. Above the left door there is a portrait of Charlemagne, carved by the same artist with great application. Behind the altar one sees the tomb of Archbishop Altoviti of rare marble in lovely colours. The altar is entirely made of Carrara marble; it is beautifully designed and made with very graceful workmanship. At the end of the left side aisle, there is the Chapel of the Acciaiuoli, where the altar of the sacrament is located. Here there is a lovely ornament in glazed terracotta by Luca della Robbia. Two very beautiful angels support a canopy. The

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[figure of] God the father is much praised. He is framed by two little angels full of grace and beauty. The Chapel of the Fiocchi, a recently extinct family, now belongs to the Cavaliere da San Friano, executed in precious and rare colouring. Outside one sees some letters incised in marble relating that the church was founded by Charlemagne and consecrated by Archbishop Turpino, and that Roland and Oliver were present as witnesses.

BALDINUCCI SS Apostoli: I.468; III.74.

RICHA, part II, vol IV, lesson V-VI, 44-64.

CHAPTER SIX SANTA CROCE

Piazza Santa Croce, 16; for more information on opening hours and to pre-book tickets, please visit: http://www.santacroceopera.it/en/default.aspx.

History The Basilica di Santa Croce (Basilica of the Holy Cross, Fig. 6 a) belongs to the Franciscan order, which had settled in the neighbourhood in c.1226. Work on the present church started in 1295 in a location then outside the old city walls to allow for a large enough site to host the church building with a sizeable piazza laid out before it. The Franciscans, as well as the Dominicans, were still a new order that enjoyed great popularity as preachers and mendicants. Santa Croce was constructed at a time when Florence experienced substantial growth and when some of the main palaces and churches, in addition to a new set of city walls (along today’s ring roads or viali), were erected. In Florence the period after 1250 witnessed many important political, cultural and institutional changes. By the end of the 1200s a new architectural style had filtered down from the North of Europe and several churches were built for religious orders in a regional version of Gothic architecture. One of the main sculptors and architects of the time was Arnolfo di Cambio who is credited with the design of Santa Croce. The church was financed by wealthy Florentines and by the sale of indulgences and consecrated in 1443 by Cardinal Bessarion in the presence of Pope Eugene IV. In the sixteenth century Giorgio Vasari removed the tramezzo and re-organised and renovated the interior by inserting uniform side altars in accordance with a Counter-reformatory theological programme. His work damaged and even destroyed many of the works of art previously on the rood screen. The church and monastery also suffered heavily during the flood in November 1966, when a mixture of water, mud and petrochemical substances adversely affected the fourteenth-century frescoes and Cimabue’s wooden Crucifix.

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As a result of the Risorgimento movement, most religious houses were suppressed and, in 1866, responsibility for the Santa Croce complex fell to the government. Today, the church, chapter house and museum are famous for the many important works of art they contain, in particular for the tombs of Michelangelo, Galileo and Machiavelli and for the chapels frescoed by Giotto in the right transept. Dante, next to Michelangelo perhaps the most famous Florentine, is not buried at Santa Croce but his remains are in Ravenna, where he died in exile in 1321.

Figure 6 a: The polychrome nineteenth-century façade of Santa Croce (photo: AG) with the monument to the poet Dante Alighieri.

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Architecture The Basilica of Santa Croce is the largest Franciscan church in the world. It consists of a long nave (90.5m) with side aisles and a transept in the shape of an Egyptian cross (Fig. 6 b). The aisles are separated by seven massive octagonal columns supporting pointed arches. The nave is higher than the aisles and crowned by a wooden open-beam ceiling. The pavement consists of uniform cotto tiles interrupted by 276 tomb markers in front of the chapels. The arcade walls have narrow window openings to ensure the greatest structural support without need for buttressing on the outside. The basilica contains 16 chapels, many of which were frescoed by Giotto and his followers in the early fourteenth century. The layout of the side chapels was changed in 1566 when Giorgio Vasari removed the choir screen.

Figure 6 b: Plan of the basilica of Santa Croce, including nave and aisles, sanctuary, cloisters and chapter house (plan: SC).

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Figure 6 c: Bays of Brunelleschi’s cross-vaulted cloister in the Santa Croce complex (photo: Carolyn Murin [CM]).

The monastery lay south of the basilica. The first cloister, designed by Filippo Brunelleschi (Fig. 6 c), is the site of the chapter house (or Cappella dei Pazzi), planned and built by the same architect and similar to the Old Sacristy of San Lorenzo. Brunelleschi was also responsible for the inner cloister, completed in 1453, from where it is possible to gain access to the Museum of the Opera di Santa Croce, which is located in the former

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refectory and in additional ancillary rooms. The present campanile was added in 1842 to replace an earlier bell tower and, as had happened in the case of other Florentine churches, the neo-Gothic façade in coloured marble was added centuries after the church had been built (Fig. 6 a). It was designed and executed between 1857 and 1863, by Niccolò Matas from Ancona; the project was paid for by the English Protestant Sir Francis Sloane-Stanley. It is said that according to his contract Matas should have been buried inside the basilica but that he was denied this honour when it turned out that he was of Jewish faith. Eventually, he was buried in front of the main entrance with an inscription explaining that the façade of Santa Croce should serve as his monument.

Art The wealth of works of art still displayed in the basilica and in the museum, including an unusually high number of stained glass windows, means that only a few of the foremost examples can be discussed here. Of particular importance are the frescoes in the altar chapel once patronised by the Alberti family. The walls were decorated with scenes from the Story of the True Cross by Agnolo Gaddi in 1380. The cycle illustrates the discovery of the true cross by Saint Helena, the mother of the Emperor Constantine, according to the Legenda Aurea (Golden Legend) by Jacopo della Voragine. To the right are two chapels decorated by Giotto and patronised by the Bardi and Peruzzi families; the frescoes depict the life of Saint Francis (1320-1325) and scenes from the lives of Saint John the Baptist and Saint John the Evangelist respectively. Here, as in the work for the Arena chapel in Padua, Giotto showed his full potential for innovation in painting, giving his figures weight and bulk as well as expressing credible emotions appropriate to the event represented. Noteworthy are the scenes of Saint Francis giving up all his worldly goods and the death of Saint Francis mourned by the monks of his order. Above the arch is a fresco of Saint Francis receiving the stigmata. The chapels were whitewashed in the eighteenth century and the frescoes only rediscovered and restored in the nineteenth. Their state of conservation is the result of a renewed restoration in the twentieth century when large areas of nineteenth-century repainting were taken off the walls. At the end of the right transept the Baroncelli chapel with frescoes by Taddeo Gaddi (begun in 1332) illustrates the life of the Virgin Mary. The

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Coronation of the Virgin altarpiece bears the inscription “Opus Magistri Iocti” [Work of Master Giotto] and was executed by Giotto and his workshop. In the chapel are two early examples of trompe-l’oeil painting. Among the many tombs and monuments at Santa Croce, Michelangelo’s in the second bay to the right is probably the most famous. It was designed and executed by Giorgio Vasari with sculptures representing painting, architecture and sculpture by Valerio Cioli, Giovanni Bandini and Battista Lorenzi. Perhaps more interesting are two wall tombs of the fifteenth century in the sixth bay, to the left and to the right, which are dedicated to the remembrance of two Florentine chancellors, Leonardo Bruni (by Bernardo Rossellino, 1444, right) and his successor Carlo Marsuppini (by Desiderio da Settignano, left). They attest to important changes in humanist culture under the influence of the revived interest in classical Antiquity, which made the achievements of these two men more important than their Christian piety. Bruni for example is depicted as clutching his book on Florentine history and in the inscription the Greek and Latin Muses are called as witnesses for the unbearable loss inflicted by his death. Nearly opposite Michelangelo’s tomb, affixed on the first pillar, is Antonio Rossellino’s beautiful relief of the Madonna del Latte of 1478. The Madonna and Child are shown in an almond-shaped relief held up by putti and mark the space above the grave of Francesco Nori who had been stabbed to death in Florence Cathedral during the Pazzi Conspiracy. On the second pillar of the right aisle is Benedetto da Maiano’s pulpit commissioned by Pietro Mellini with reliefs in white marble, depicting scenes of the life of Saint Francis in combination with small statues of the virtues. Donatello created several works of art for Santa Croce. Today on the right arcade wall is the relief in pietra serena of the Cavalcanti Annunciation (1435). It shows the archangel keeling in front of a rather startled Virgin Mary who expresses conflicting emotionsʊastonishment, fear and acceptance. The scene takes place in front of a closed door with little putti gambolling above the tabernacle frame. The architectural elements and the movement and corporeality of the figures attest to the influence of classical art on the work of Donatello. His Crucifix (1410-1415) in the Cappella Bardi at the end of the left transept also illustrates the essential humanity and physical suffering of Christ on the cross. Apparently it was much criticised and the figure of Christ called a “peasant” by Brunelleschi who, however, accepted

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Donatello’s challenge to create a more appropriate work of the same subject matter for Santa Maria Novella (see chapter 17). In the Museum of Santa Croce, in the former refectory, are Taddeo Gaddi’s Crucifixion and his Last Supper (1340s). Of particular interest in the Crucifixion is the Cross which is shown as the Tree of Life and thus unites Christian and Old Testamentary traditions. These frescoes were very badly damaged during the flood of 1966 and had to be stripped off the walls to be restored and saved. The flooding happened quickly in the dead of night, but even more dangerous than its powerful waves were the chemicals dissolved in the waters, which reacted with the frescoes’ colour pigments, partially removing them from the plaster. Another early work of art today at the museum is Cimabue’s wooden Crucifix of c.1290. It suffered irreparable damage in 1966 and was taken to the refectory after restoration. Originally, it was displayed on the basilica’s tramezzo. Donatello’s Saint Louis of Toulouse in gilded bronze was originally made for a niche at Orsanmichele (1423) but has been displayed at Santa Croce since the 1450s when the Guelph party sold its niche. The statue of the Franciscan saint, which had cost 449 florins not counting the gilding was taken to Santa Croce. Some remains of Andrea Orcagna’s frescoes of a Triumph of Death, which had been whitewashed during Vasari’s modernisation of the basilica, were rediscovered after the 1966 flood; they were detached from the walls and are now preserved in the refectory. Bronzino’s monumental Descent of Christ into Limbo (1552), once displayed in the Zanchini chapel on the counter façade of the basilica now forms the centrepiece of the exhibition in the refectory. Originally it was paired with Francesco Salviati’s Deposition from the Cross in the Dini chapel in the basilica until it was removed in the nineteenth century. It was created before Vasari gave the basilica its Counter-reformatory make-over and may therefore have influenced the entire renovation programme. The glazed terracotta decoration of the Cappella dei Pazzi was reputedly designed by Brunelleschi, for example the tondi with the four evangelists and twelve apostles, but executed by Luca della Robbia. Commissioned in 1429/30, the chapel was completed in c.1470 as a more complicated version of the Old Sacristy and served as the funerary chapel of the Pazzi family.

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Figure 6 d: Santa Croce from Piazzale Michelangelo (photo: CM).

Bibl: Borsook 1983, 88-94 and 104-12; Campbell and Cole 2012, 29, 34, 94, 102, 140, 146-8, 158, 169, 246, 549-50, 563; Cesati 2002, 30-35; Crispino 1999, 36-43; Kleiner 2010, 5; De Boer 2010, annotations 139-162: 170-9; Gaston 1983, 41-72; Goy 2015, 149-57; Hall 1979; Hartt & Wilkins 2007, 67-9, 88-91, 96-9, 144-5, 171-2, 256-7, 261-3, 305-6; Horstmann 2011, 114-21; Mercanti and Straffi 2001, 94-107; Morini 2010, 304-5; Murray 2004, 24-47; Paatz 1940, I, 497-701; Paolucci 2006, 134-57; Schneider Adams 2001, 13-4, 28-38, 80-2; Tovey 2005, 307-8; Verdon, Coppellotti, Fabbri 2000, 134-7; Verdon ed. 2004, vol. 3; Zeigler 2013, 81-106. Sources: VILLANI VI § 39.149-50—How the Primo Popolo was formed in Florence to be a defence against the violence and attacks of the Ghibellines. 1250 a.d. When the said host came back to Florence there was great contention amongst the citizens, inasmuch as the Ghibellines, who ruled the land, crushed the people with

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insupportable burdens, taxes, and imposts; and with little to show for it, for the Guelfs were already established up and down in the territory of Florence, holding many fortresses and making war upon the city. And besides all this, they of the house of the Uberti and all the other Ghibelline nobles tyrannized over the people with ruthless extortion and violence and outrage. Wherefore the good citizens of Florence, tumultuously gathering together, assembled themselves at the church of San Firenze; but not daring to remain there, because of the power of the Uberti, they went and took their stand at the church of the Minor Friars at Santa Croce, and remaining there under arms they dared not to return to their homes, lest when they had laid down their arms they should be broken by the Uberti and the other nobles and condemned by the magistrates. VIII § 7.309—When the foundation of the new church of Santa Croce was begun 1294 a.d. in Florence.

ALBERTINI The Quarter of Santa Croce […] 98-9: The ancient and very large church of Santa Croce is 200 braccia [116.72 m.] long. In the marble façade is a bronze [statue] of Bishop Saint Louis, by Donatello, who together with Luca della Robbia and Desiderio da Settignano made numerous works for the very beautiful Pazzi chapter house. In the second cloister, which is 92 braccia [53.69 m.] long and 70 braccia [40.85 m.] wide, there is a Flagellation of Christ by Andrea del Castagno. In the novitiate built by the House of Medici, there is an altarpiece by Fra Filippo Lippi and a predella by Francesco Pesellino. The main chapel is by Agnolo Gaddi. The large Baroncelli Chapel, where there is a painting of the Assumption by Domenico [Ghirlandaio], and that [chapel] of Saint Andrew are by Taddeo Gaddi, who also produced many other works in this church, such as Saint Francis Resuscitating a Child Fallen off the Balcony, and the Exposition of Christ above the doors, next to the tomb by Desiderio da Settignano. He also made the tabernacle outside, opposite the hospital of the Tempio [“Temple”]. Taddeo is buried in the cloister of this church. The chapel of Saint John and that of Saint Francis, between the high altar and the sacristy, are by Giotto. The large crucifix facing towards Fiesole is by Cimabue. The wooden crucifix is by Donatello, who made the stone Annunciation: next to the altarpiece by Pietro Perugino. I should also mention the very beautiful marble pulpit by Benedetto da Maiano, next to the marble stoop with the Virgin by Antonio Rossellino, opposite the figures of Saint Paulinus, Bishop of Nola, by Domenico Ghirlandaio.

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VASARI I Cimabue 4: For they, giving no thought to making any advance, had made those works in that fashion wherein they are seen to-day—that is, not in the good ancient manner of the Greeks but in that rude modern manner of those times; and because, although he imitated these Greeks, he added much perfection to the art, relieving it of a great part of their rude manner, he gave honour to his country with his name and with the works that he made, to which witness is borne in Florence by the pictures that he wrought, such as the front of the altar in S. Cecilia, and in S. Croce a panel with a Madonna, which was and still is placed against a pilaster on the right within the choir. After this, he made a S. Francis on a small panel on a gold ground, and portrayed him from nature (which was something new in those times) as best he knew, and round him all the stories of his life, in twenty small pictures full of little figures on a gold ground. 5: Cimabue, being summoned again after this work by the same Prior who had caused him to make the works in S. Croce, made him a large Crucifix on wood, which is still seen to-day in the church; Arnolfo di Lapo [di Cambio] 21: After this there was founded with his design, in the year 1294, the Church of S. Croce, where the Friars Minor have their seat. What with the middle nave and the two lesser ones Arnolfo constructed this so wide, that, being unable to make the vaulting below the roof by reason of the too great space, he, with much judgment, caused arches to be made from pier to pier, and upon these he placed the roofs on a slope, building stone gutters over the said arches in order to carry away the rainwater, and giving them so much fall as to make the roofs secure, as they are, from the danger of rotting; which device was not only new and ingenious then, but is equally useful and worthy of being considered to-day. He then gave the design for the first cloisters of the old convent of that church, […]. 25: The portrait of Arnolfo, by the hand of Giotto, is to be seen in S. Croce, beside the principal chapel, at the beginning of the story, where the friars are weeping for the death of S. Francis, in one of two men that are talking together. Gaddo Gaddi 57-8: Gaddo lived seventy-three years, and died in 1312, and was given honourable burial in S. Croce by his son Taddeo. And although he had other sons, Taddeo alone, who was held at the baptismal font by Giotto, applied himself to painting, learning at first the principles from his father and then the rest from Giotto. In the Chapel of the Baroncelli, in the same Church of S. Croce, there is a portrait of Gaddo by the hand of his son Taddeo, in a Marriage of Our Lady, and beside him is Andrea Tafi.

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Margaritone 64: Next, having made a large Crucifix on wood, painted after the Greek manner, he sent it to Florence to Messer Farinata degli Uberti, a most famous citizen, for the reason that he had, among other noble deeds, freed his country from imminent ruin and peril. This Crucifix is to-day in S. Croce, between the Chapel of the Peruzzi and that of the Giugni. Giotto di Bondone 73-4: And in S. Croce there are four chapels by the same man’s hand: three between the sacristy and the great chapel, and one on the other side. In the first of the three, which is that of Messer Ridolfo de’ Bardi, and is that wherein are the bell-ropes, is the life of S. Francis, in the death of whom a good number of friars show very naturally the expression of weeping. In the next, which is that of the family of Peruzzi, are two stories of the life of S. John the Baptist, to whom the chapel is dedicated; wherein great vivacity is seen in the dancing and leaping of Herodias, and in the promptness of some servants bustling at the service of the table. In the same are two marvellous stories of S. John the Evangelist—namely, when he brings Drusiana back to life, and when he is carried off into Heaven. In the third, which is that of the Giugni, dedicated to the Apostles, there are painted by the hand of Giotto the stories of the martyrdom of many of them. In the fourth, which is on the other side of the church, towards the north, and belongs to the Tosinghi and to the Spinelli, and is dedicated to the Assumption of Our Lady, Giotto painted her Birth, her Marriage, her Annunciation, the Adoration of the Magi, and when she presents Christ as a little Child to Simeon, which is something very beautiful, seeing that, besides a great affection that is seen in that old man as he receives Christ, the action of the child, stretching out its arms in fear of him and turning in terror towards its mother, could not be more touching or more beautiful. Next, in the death of the Madonna herself, there are the Apostles, and a good number of angels with torches in their hands, all very beautiful. In the Chapel of the Baroncelli, in the said church, is a panel in distemper by the hand of Giotto, wherein is executed with much diligence the Coronation of Our Lady, with a very great number of little figures and a choir of angels and saints, very diligently wrought. And because in that work there are written his name and the date in letters of gold, craftsmen who will consider at what time Giotto, with no glimmer of the good manner, gave a beginning to the good method of drawing and of colouring, will be forced to hold him in the highest veneration. In the same Church of S. Croce, over the marble tomb of Carlo Marsuppini of Arezzo, there is a Crucifix, with the Madonna, S. John, and Magdalene at the foot of the Cross; and on the other side of the church, exactly opposite this, over the burial-place of Lionardo Aretino, facing the high-altar, there is an Annunciation, which has been recoloured by modern painters, with small judgment on the part of him who has had this done. In the refectory, on a Tree of the Cross, are stories of S. Louis and a Last Supper by the same man’s hand; and on the wardrobes in the sacristy are scenes with little figures from the life of Christ and of S. Francis.

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Stefano and Ugolino Sanese 110-1, Next, being summoned to Milan, Stefano made a beginning for many works for Matteo Visconti, but was not able to finish them, because, having fallen sick by reason of the change of air, he was forced to return to Florence. There, having regained his health, he made in fresco, in the tramezzo of the Church of S. Croce, in the Chapel of the Asini, the story of the martyrdom of S. Mark, when he was dragged to death, with many figures that have something of the good. 113: There lived about the same time as Stefano a man of passing good repute, Ugolino, painter of Siena, very much his friend, who painted many panels and chapels throughout all Italy, although he held ever in great part to the Greek manner, as one who, grown old therein, had wished by reason of a certain obstinacy in himself to hold rather to the manner of Cimabue than to that of Giotto, which was so greatly revered. By the hand of Ugolino, then, is the panel of the high-altar of S. Croce, on a ground all of gold, […]. Finally, in the Chapel of Messer Ridolfo de’ Bardi, which is in S. Croce, where Giotto painted the life of S. Francis, he painted a Crucifix in distemper on the altar-panel, with a Magdalene and a S. John weeping, and two friars, one on either side. Pietro Laurati [Lorenzetti] 120: A disciple of Pietro was Bartolommeo Bologhini of Siena, who wrought many panels in Siena and other places in Italy, and in Florence there is one by his hand on the altar of the Chapel of S. Silvestro in S. Croce. The pictures of these men date about the year of our salvation 1350; […]. Simone Martino 172: He [Lippo, brother of Simone], although he had not the excellence of Simone, none the less followed his manner as well as he could, and made many works in fresco in his company for S. Croce in Florence; […]. 173-4, But returning to our Lippo, who drew passing well, as it may be seen in our book in a hermit who is reading with his legs crossed; he lived for twelve years after Simone, executing many works throughout all Italy, and in particular two panels in S. Croce in Florence. And seeing that the manner of these two brothers is very similar, one can distinguish the one from the other by this, that Simone used to sign his name at the foot of his works in this way: SIMONIS MEMMI SENENSIS OPUS; and Lippo, leaving out his baptismal name and caring nothing about a Latinity so rough, in this other fashion: OPUS MEMMI DE SENIS ME FECIT. Taddeo Gaddi 177-8: This Taddeo di Gaddo Gaddi, a Florentine, after the death of Giotto—who had held him at his baptism and had been his master for twenty-four years after the death of Gaddo, as it is written by Cennino di Drea Cennini, painter of Colle di Valdelsa—remained among the first in the art of painting and greater than all his fellow-disciples both in judgment and in genius; and he wrought his first works,

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with a great facility given to him by nature rather than acquired by art, in the Church of S. Croce in Florence, in the chapel of the sacristy, where, together with his companions, disciples of the dead Giotto, he made some stories of S. Mary Magdalene, with beautiful figures and with most beautiful and extravagant costumes of those times. And in the Chapel of the Baroncelli and Bandini, where Giotto had formerly wrought the panel in distemper, he made by himself in fresco, on one wall, some stories of Our Lady which were held very beautiful. He also painted over the door of the said sacristy the story of Christ disputing with the Doctors in the Temple, which was afterwards half ruined when the elder Cosimo de’ Medici, in making the noviciate, the chapel, and the antechamber in front of the sacristy, placed a cornice of stone over the said door. In the same church he painted in fresco the Chapel of the Bellacci, and also that of S. Andrea by the side of one of the three of Giotto, wherein he made the scene of Jesus Christ taking Andrew and Peter from their nets, and the crucifixion of the former Apostle, a work greatly commended and extolled both then when it was finished and still at the present day. Over the side-door, below the burial-place of Carlo Marsuppini of Arezzo, he made a Dead Christ with the Maries, wrought in fresco, which was very much praised; and below the tramezzo that divides the church, on the left hand, above the Crucifix of Donato, he painted in fresco a story of S. Francis, representing a miracle that he wrought in restoring to life a boy who was killed by falling from a terrace, together with his apparition in the air. And in this story he portrayed Giotto his master, Dante the poet, Guido Cavalcanti, and, some say, himself. Throughout the said church, also, in diverse places, he made many figures which are known by painters from the manner. 185-6: After the death of Taddeo this Giovanni [his son], besides many other works, made a panel which was placed on the altar of S. Gherardo da Villamagna in S. Croce, fourteen years after he had been left without his master, […].Taddeo was buried by Agnolo and Giovanni, his sons, in the first cloister of S. Croce, in that tomb which he had made for Gaddo his father, and he was much honoured with verses by the men of culture of that time, as a man who had been greatly deserving for his ways of life and for having brought to completion with beautiful design, besides his pictures, many buildings of great convenience to his city, and besides what has been mentioned, for having carried out with solicitude and diligence the construction of the Campanile of S. Maria del Fiore, from the design left by Giotto his master; which campanile was built in such a manner that stones could not be put together with more diligence, nor could a more beautiful tower be made, with regard either to ornament, or cost, or design. The epitaph that was made for Taddeo was this that is to be read here: HOC UNO DICI POTERAT FLORENTIA FELIX VIVENTE; AT CERTA EST NON POTUISSE MORI. Taddeo was very resolute in draughtsmanship, as it may be seen in our book, wherein is drawn by his hand the scene that he wrought in the Chapel of S. Andrea, in S. Croce at Florence.

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Andrea Orcagna 193: […] and he returned to Florence, where, in the middle of the Church of S. Croce, on a very great wall on the right, he painted in fresco the same subjects that he painted in the Campo Santo of Pisa, in three similar pictures, excepting, however, the scene where S. Macarius is showing to three Kings the misery of man, and the life of the hermits who are serving God on that mountain. Making, then, all the rest of that work, he laboured therein with better design and more diligence than he had done in Pisa, holding, nevertheless, to almost the same plan in the invention, the manner, the scrolls, and the rest, without changing anything save the portraits from life, for those in this work were partly of his dearest friends, whom he placed in Paradise, and partly of men little his friends, who were put by him in Hell. Among the good is seen portrayed from life in profile, with the Triple Crown on his head, Pope Clement VI, who changed the Jubilee in his reign from every hundred to every fifty years, and was a friend of the Florentines, and had some of Orcagna’s pictures, which were very dear to him. Among the same is Maestro Dino del Garbo, a most excellent physician of that time, dressed as was then the wont of doctors, with a red bonnet lined with miniver on his head, and held by the hand by an angel; with many other portraits that are not recognized. Among the damned he portrayed Guardi, serjeant of the Commune of Florence, being dragged along by the Devil with a hook, and he is known by three red lilies that he has on his white bonnet, such as were then wont to be worn by the serjeants and other similar officials; and this he did because Guardi once made distraint on his property. He also portrayed there the notary and the judge who had been opposed to him in that action. Near to Guardi is Ceccho d’Ascoli, a famous wizard of those times; and a little above—namely, in the middle—is a hypocrite friar, who, having issued from a tomb, is seeking furtively to put himself among the good, while an angel discovers him and thrusts him among the damned. Tommaso, called Giottino 204: In like manner he wrought the stories of Constantine with much diligence in the Chapel of S. Silvestro in S. Croce, showing very beautiful ideas in the gestures of the figures; and then, behind an ornament of marble made for the tomb of Messer Bertino de’ Bardi, a man who at that time had held honourable military rank, he made this Messer Bertino in armour, after the life, issuing from a sepulchre on his knees, being summoned with the sound of the trumpets of the Judgment by two angels, who are in the air accompanying a beautifully-wrought Christ in the clouds. Agnolo Gaddi 218-9: For the noble family of the Alberti, likewise, he painted in fresco the principal chapel of the Church of S. Croce, making therein all that came to pass in the discovery of the Cross, and he executed that work with much mastery of handling but not with much design, for only the colouring is beautiful and good enough.

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223: The portrait of Agnolo, made by himself, is seen in the Chapel of the Alberti, in S. Croce, beside a door in the scene wherein, the Emperor Heraclius is bearing the Cross; it is painted in profile, with a little beard, and with a rose-coloured cap on his head according to the use of those times. II Jacopo di Casentino 25: The paintings of Bernardo [Daddi] were many and in much esteem, and above all the Chapel of S. Lorenzo and of S. Stefano, belonging to the Pulci and Berardi, in S. Croce, and many other paintings in diverse places in the said church. Spinello Aretino 30: In S. Lucia de’ Bardi, likewise, he painted a little panel, and another in S. Croce, larger, for the Chapel of S. Giovanni Battista, which was painted by Giotto. 38: […]; but seeing the city all in confusion and uproar by reason of Messer Pietro Gambacorti having been slain by the Lanfranchi, citizens of Pisa, he returned once again with all his family, being now old, to Florence, where, in the one year and no more that he stayed there, he made many stories of the lives and deaths of S. Philip and S. James in the Chapel of the Macchiavelli in S. Croce, dedicated to those Saints; and as for the panel for the said chapel, being desirous to return to Arezzo, his native city, or, to speak more exactly, held by him as his native city, he wrought it in Arezzo, and from there sent it finished in the year 1400. Gherardo Starnina 43-4: Gherardo was born in Florence in the year 1354, and growing up, as one who had an intellect inclined by nature to design, he was placed with Antonio Viniziano in order to learn to draw and to paint; and having in the course of many years not only learnt drawing and the practice of colouring, but also given proof of himself in certain works wrought with beautiful manner, he took his leave of Antonio, and beginning to work by himself he made in S. Croce, in the Chapel of the Castellani (which was given him to paint by Michele di Vanni, an honoured citizen of that family), many stories in fresco of S. Anthony the Abbot, and also some of S. Nicholas the Bishop, with so great diligence and with so beautiful a manner that they caused him to become known to certain Spaniards, who were then staying in Florence on some business of their own, as an excellent painter, and what is more, caused them to take him into Spain to their King, who saw him and received him very willingly, and above all because there was then a dearth of good painters in that land. Lorenzo di Bicci 68-9: And afterwards, in the year 1418, for Ricciardo di Messer Niccolò Spinelli, on the façade of the Convent of S. Croce facing the square, he painted a large scene in fresco of S. Thomas looking for the wound in the side of Jesus Christ, and beside him and round him all the other Apostles, who, kneeling reverently, are

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watching this event. And beside the said scene he made, likewise in fresco, a S. Christopher twelve braccia and a half high, which is something rare, because up to then, excepting the S. Christopher of Buffalmacco, there had not been seen a greater figure, nor, for something so large, any image more creditable or better proportioned in all its parts than that one, although it is not in a good manner; not to mention that these pictures, both the one and the other, were wrought with so much mastery, that, although they have been exposed to the air for many years and buffeted by the rains and tempests, being turned to the North, yet they have never lost their vividness of colouring, nor have they been injured in any part. Within the door, moreover, which is between these figures, called the Martello door, the same Lorenzo, at the request of the said Ricciardo and of the Prior of the convent, made a Crucifixion with many figures, and, on the walls around, the confirmation of the Rule of S. Francis by Pope Honorius, and beside it the martyrdom of certain friars of that Order, who went to preach the Faith among the Saracens. On the arches and on the vaulting he made certain Kings of France, friars and devout followers of S. Francis, and he portrayed them from nature; and likewise many learned men of that Order, and men distinguished for dignity of rank, such as Bishops, Cardinals, and Popes, among whom are portraits from nature, in two medallions on the vaulting, of Pope Nicholas IV and Pope Alexander V. In all these figures, although Lorenzo made their garments grey, he varied them, nevertheless, by reason of the good practice that he had in working, in a manner that they are all different one from the other; some incline to reddish, others to bluish, while some are dark and others lighter, and in short, all are varied and worthy of consideration; and what is more, it is said that he wrought this work with so great facility and readiness, that being called once by the Prior, who was bearing his expenses, to his dinner, at the very moment when he had made the intonaco for a figure and had begun it, he answered: “Pour out the soup. Let me finish this figure, and I’m with you.” Wherefore it is with good reason that men say that Lorenzo had so great rapidity of hand, so great practice in colouring, and so great resolution, that no other man ever had more. 72: Having returned to his country and being restored to health, Lorenzo painted, on the same wall of the Convent of S. Croce whereon he had made the S. Christopher, the Assumption into Heaven of Our Lady, surrounded by a choir of angels, and below her a S. Thomas, who is receiving the Girdle. In the execution of this work, being indisposed, Lorenzo caused Donatello, then a youth, to help him; wherefore, with assistance so able, it was finished in the year 1450, in such wise that I believe that it is the best work, both in design and in colouring, that was ever made by Lorenzo, who, no long time after, being old and worn out, died at the age of about sixty, leaving two sons who applied themselves to painting; […]. Luca della Robbia 124: And in the Chapter-house of S. Croce, likewise, built by the family of the Pazzi under the direction of Pippo di Ser Brunellesco, he made all the glazed figures that are seen therein both within and without.

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Lorenzo Ghiberti 152: The General of the Preaching Friars at that time, Maestro Lionardo Dati, wishing to leave a memorial of himself to his country in S. Maria Novella, where he had taken his vows, caused Lorenzo to construct a tomb of bronze, with himself lying dead thereon, portrayed from nature; and this tomb, which was admired and extolled, led to another being erected by Lodovico degli Albizzi and Niccolò Valori in S. Croce. 161: Lorenzo likewise made the three that are over the principal door of the same S. Maria del Fiore, and all those of the chapels and of the tribunes, and also the rose-window in the façade of S. Croce. […] Finally, having come to the sixtyfourth year of his age, and being assailed by a grievous and continuous fever, he died, leaving immortal fame for himself by reason of the works that he made, and through the pens of writers; and he was honourably buried in S. Croce. Filippo Brunelleschi 199: Now in those days Donato had finished a Crucifix of wood, which was placed in S. Croce in Florence, below the scene of the child being restored to life by S. Francis, painted by Taddeo Gaddi, and he wished to have the opinion of Filippo about this work; […]. 223: With his own hand he made the model of the Chapter-house of S. Croce in Florence, a varied and very beautiful work, for the family of the Pazzi; […]. Donatello 239-41: As a youth he wrought many things, which were not held in great account, by reason of their number; but what made him known for what he was and gave him a name was an Annunciation in grey-stone, which was placed close to the altar of the Chapel of the Cavalcanti, in the Church of S. Croce in Florence. For this he made an ornament composed in the grotesque manner, with a base of varied intertwined work and a decoration of quadrantal shape, adding six boys bearing certain festoons, who appear to be holding one another securely with their arms in their fear of the height. But the greatest genius and art that he showed was in the figure of the Virgin, who, alarmed by the unexpected apparition of the Angel, is making a most becoming reverence with a sweet and timid movement of her person, turning with most beautiful grace towards him who is saluting her, in a manner that there are seen in her countenance that humility and gratitude which are due to one who presents an unexpected gift, and the more when the gift is a great one. Besides this, Donato showed a masterly flow of curves and folds in the draperies of that Madonna and of the Angel, demonstrating with the suggestion of the nude forms below how he was seeking to recover the beauty of the ancients, which had lain hidden for so many years; and he displayed so great facility and art in this work, that nothing more could be desired, in fact, with regard to design, judgment, and mastery in handling the chisel.

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In the same church, below the tramezzo, and beside the scene painted by Taddeo Gaddi, he made a Crucifix of wood with extraordinary care; and when he had finished this, thinking that he had made a very rare work, he showed it to Filippo di Ser Brunellesco, who was very much his friend, wishing to have his opinion. Filippo, whom the words of Donato had led to expect something much better, smiled slightly on seeing it. Donato, perceiving this, besought him by all the friendship between them to tell him his opinion; whereupon Filippo, who was most obliging, replied that it appeared to him that Donato had placed a ploughman on the Cross, and not a body like that of Jesus Christ, which was most delicate and in all its parts the most perfect human form that was ever born. Donato, hearing himself censured, and that more sharply than he expected, whereas he was hoping to be praised, replied, “If it were as easy to make this figure as to judge it, my Christ would appear to thee to be Christ and not a ploughman; take wood, therefore, and try to make one thyself.” Filippo, without another word, returned home and set to work to make a Crucifix, without letting anyone know; and seeking to surpass Donato in order not to confound his own judgment, after many months he brought it to the height of perfection. This] done, he invited Donato one morning to dine with him, and Donato accepted the invitation. Whereupon, as they were going together to the house of Filippo, they came to the Mercato Vecchio, where Filippo bought some things and gave them to Donato, saying, “Do thou go with these things to the house and wait for me there, I am coming in a moment.” Donato, therefore, entering the house and going into the hall, saw the Crucifix of Filippo, placed in a good light; and stopping short to study it, he found it so perfectly finished, that, being overcome and full of amazement, like one distraught, he spread out his hands, which were holding up his apron; whereupon the eggs, the cheese, and all the other things fell to the ground, and everything was broken to pieces. But he was still marvelling and standing like one possessed, when Filippo came up and said with a laugh, “What is thy intention, Donato, and what are we to have for dinner, now that thou hast upset everything?” “For my part,” answered Donato, “I have had my share for this morning: if thou must have thine, take it. But enough; it is thy work to make Christ and mine to make ploughmen.” 249: Over the door of S. Croce there is still to be seen a S. Louis wrought by him in bronze, five braccia high; for this someone criticized him, saying that it was stupid and perhaps the least excellent work that he had ever made, and he answered that he had made it so of set purpose, seeing that the Saint had been stupid to give up his throne and become a monk. Michelozzo Michelozzi 267: In like manner, Cosimo erected from the design of Michelozzo the noviciate of S. Croce in Florence, with the chapel of the same, and the entrance that leads from the church to the sacristy, to the said noviciate, and to the staircase of the dormitory. These works are not inferior in beauty, convenience, and adornment to any building whatsoever of all those which the truly magnificent Cosimo de’ Medici caused to be erected, or which Michelozzo carried into execution; and besides other parts, the door that leads from the church to the said places, which he

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made of grey-stone, was much extolled in those times by reason of its novelty and of its beautifully made frontal, for it was then very little the custom to imitate the good manner of antique work, as this door does. III Fra Filippo Lippi 81: He also painted a panel for the Chapter-house of S. Croce, and another that was placed in the chapel of the house of the Medici, on which he painted the Nativity of Christ. Andrea dal Castagno 100: In the Chapel of the Cavalcanti in S. Croce he painted a S. John the Baptist and a S. Francis, which are held to be very good figures. But what caused all the craftsmen to marvel was a very beautiful picture in fresco that he made at the head of the new cloister of the said convent, opposite to the door, of Christ being scourged at the Column, wherein he painted a loggia with columns in perspective, and groined vaulting with diminishing lines, and walls inlaid in a pattern of mandorle, with so much art and so much diligence, that he showed that he had no less knowledge of the difficulties of perspective than he had of design in painting. In the same scene there are beautiful and most animated attitudes in those who are scourging Christ, showing hatred and rage in their faces as clearly as Jesus Christ is showing patience and humility. In the body of Christ, which is bound tightly with ropes to the Column, it appears that Andrea tried to demonstrate the suffering of the flesh, while the Divinity concealed in that body maintains a certain noble splendour, which seems to be moving Pilate, who is seated among his councillors, to seek to find some means of liberating Him. In short, this picture is such that, if the little care that has been taken of it had not allowed it to be scratched and spoilt by children and simpletons, who have scratched all the heads and the arms and almost the entire persons of the Jews, as though they would thus take vengeance on them for the wrongs of Our Lord, it would certainly be the most beautiful of all the works of Andrea. And if Nature had given grace of colouring to this craftsman, even as she gave him invention and design, he would have been held truly marvellous. Pesello and Francesco Peselli 117-8: In S. Croce, also, in the Chapel of the Cavalcanti, below the Annunciation of Donato, he painted a predella with little figures, containing stories of S. Nicholas. […] In the Chapel of the Noviciate in S. Croce, below the panel by Fra Filippo, there is still seen a most marvellous predella with little figures, which appear to be by the hand of Fra Filippo. Antonio Rossellino and Bernardo, his Brother 139: In the Church of S. Croce, near the holy-water basin, he made a tomb for Francesco Nori, with a Madonna in low-relief above it; […].

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140-1, Antonio finally died in Florence at the age of forty-six, leaving a brother called Bernardo, an architect and sculptor, who made a marble tomb in S. Croce for Messer Lionardo Bruni of Arezzo, who wrote the History of Florence and was a very learned man as all the world knows. Desiderio da Settignano 148-9: In S. Croce he made a tomb for Messer Carlo Marsuppini of Arezzo, which not only amazed the craftsmen and the people of understanding who saw it at that time, but still fills with marvel all who see it at the present day; for on the sarcophagus he wrought some foliage, which, although somewhat stiff and dry, was held—since but few antiquities had been discovered up to that time—to be something very beautiful. Among other parts of the said work are seen certain wings, acting as ornaments for a shell at the foot of the sarcophagus, which seem to be made not of marble but of feathers—difficult things to imitate in marble, seeing that the chisel is not able to counterfeit hair and feathers. There is a large shell of marble, more real than if it were an actual shell. There are also some children and some angels, executed with a beautiful and lively manner; and consummate excellence and art are likewise seen in the figure of the dead, portrayed from nature on the sarcophagus, and in a Madonna in low-relief on a medallion, wrought after the manner of Donato with judgment and most admirable grace; as are many other works that he made in low-relief on marble, some of which are in the guardaroba of the Lord Duke Cosimo, and in particular a medallion with the head of Our Lord Jesus Christ and with that of John the Baptist as a boy. At the foot of the tomb of the said Messer Carlo he laid a large stone in memory of Messer Giorgio, a famous Doctor, and Secretary to the Signoria of Florence, with a very beautiful portrait in low-relief of Messer Giorgio, clad in his Doctor’s robes according to the use of those times. If death had not snatched so prematurely from the world a spirit which worked so nobly, he would have done so much later on by means of experience and study, that he would have outstripped in art all those whom he had surpassed in grace. Death cut the thread of his life at the age of twenty-eight, which caused great grief to those who were looking forward to seeing so great an intellect attain to perfection in old age; and they were left in the deepest dismay at such a loss. He was followed by his relatives and by many friends to the Church of the Servi; and a vast number of epigrams and sonnets continued for a long time to be placed on his tomb, of which I have contented myself with including only the following: COME VIDE NATURA DAR DESIDERIO AI FREDDI MARMI VITA, E POTER LA SCULTURA AGGUAGLIAR SUA BELLEZZA ALMA E INFINITA, SI FERMÒ SBIGOTTITA E DISSE; OMAI SARÀ MIA GLORIA OSCURA. E PIENA D’ALTO SDEGNO TRONCÒ LA VITA A COSÌ BELL’ INGEGNO. MA IN VAN; CHE SE COSTUI

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DIÈ VITA ETERNA AI MARMI, E I MARMI A LUI. Cosimo Rosselli 189: Afterwards, returning to Florence with some money, he set himself to work as usual, living much at his ease, and having as his companion that Piero, his disciple, who was ever called Piero di Cosimo, and who assisted him in his labours in the Sistine Chapel at Rome, and painted there, besides other things, a landscape in the picture of the Preaching of Christ, which landscape is held to be the best thing there. Andrea di Cosimo also worked with him, occupying himself much with grotesques. Finally, having reached the age of sixty-eight, Cosimo died in the year 1484, wasted away by a long infirmity; and he was buried in S. Croce by the Company of Bernardino. Domenico Ghirlandaio 220: In S. Croce, on the right hand of the entrance into the church, he painted the Story of S. Paulino; […]. 232: Domenico caused the said Bastiano [Mainardi, student of Domenico] to paint a Madonna ascending into Heaven in the Chapel of the Baroncelli and Bandini in S. Croce (although he made the cartoon himself), with S. Thomas below receiving the Girdle—a beautiful work in fresco. Benedetto da Maiano 259-60: Having finally returned to Florence, he made in S. Croce, for Pietro Mellini, a citizen of Florence and a very rich merchant at that time, the marble pulpit that is seen there, which is held to be a very rare thing and more beautiful than any other that has ever been executed in that manner, since the marble figures that are to be seen therein, in the stories of S. Francis, are wrought with so great excellence and diligence that nothing more could be looked for in marble. For with great art Benedetto carved there trees, rocks, houses, views in perspective, and certain things in marvellously bold relief; not to mention a projection on the ground below the said pulpit, which serves as a tombstone, wrought with so much design that it is not possible to praise it enough. It is said that in making this work he had some difficulty with the Wardens of Works of S. Croce, because, while he wished to erect the said pulpit against a column that sustains some of the arches which support the roof, and to perforate that column in order to accommodate the steps and the entrance to the pulpit, they would not consent, fearing lest it might be so weakened by the hollow required for the steps as to collapse under the weight above, with great damage to a part of that church. But Mellini having guaranteed that the work would be finished without any injury to the church, they finally consented. Having, therefore, bound the outer side of the column with bands of bronze (the part, namely, from the pulpit downwards, which is covered with hard stone), Benedetto made within it the steps for ascending to the pulpit, and in proportion as he hollowed it out within, so did he strengthen the outer side with the said hard stone, in the manner that is still to be seen. And he brought this work to

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perfection to the amazement of all who see it, showing in each part and in the whole together the utmost excellence that could be desired in such a work. Andrea Verrocchio 268: The while that he was executing the said statue, he also made that Madonna of marble which is over the tomb of Messer Lionardo Bruni of Arezzo in S. Croce; this he wrought, when still quite young, for Bernardo Rossellino, architect and sculptor, who executed the whole of that work in marble, as has been said. IV Pietro Perugino 40: In S. Croce, in the same city, he made a Pietà—that is, Our Lady with the Dead Christ in her arms—and two figures, which are marvellous to behold, not so much for their excellence, as for the fact that they have remained so fresh and vivid in colouring, painted as they are in fresco. V Giovanni Antonio Sogliani 161: And likewise another, in which was the Beheading of S. John the Baptist, with a building in perspective for which he had copied the exterior of the Chapterhouse of the Pazzi, which is in the first cloister of S. Croce, was sent as a most beautiful work to Naples by Paolo da Terrarossa, who had given the commission for it. Morto da Feltro and Andrea di Cosimo Feltrini 229-30: The painting of grotesques was continued in Florence by Andrea Feltrini, called Di Cosimo, because he was a disciple of Cosimo Rosselli in the study of figures (which he executed passing well), as he was afterwards of Morto in that of grotesques, of which we have spoken. In this kind of painting Andrea had from nature such power of invention and such grace that he was the first to make ornaments of greater grandeur, abundance, and richness than the ancient, and quite different in manner; and he gave them better order and cohesion, and enriched them with figures, such as are not seen in Rome or in any other place but Florence, where he executed a great number. In this respect there has never been any man who has surpassed him in excellence, as may be seen from the ornament and the predella painted with little grotesques in colour round the Pietà that Pietro Perugino executed for the altar of the Serristori in S. Croce at Florence. These are heightened with various colours on a ground of red and black mixed together, and are wrought with much facility and with extraordinary boldness and grace.

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VII Pierino da Vinci 46: There had arrived from Rome an intimate friend of Michelagnolo Buonarroti, Francesco Bandini, who, having come to know Vinci by means of Luca Martini, and having praised him highly, caused him to make a model of wax for a tomb of marble that he wished to erect in his chapel in S. Croce; and shortly afterwards, on returning to Rome, Vinci having spoken his mind to Luca Martini, Bandini took him in his company. There Vinci remained a year, studying all the time, and executed some works worthy of remembrance. Baccio Bandinelli 100: While these masters were engaged in making their models [for the Neptune], after having made fast their enclosures in such a manner that neither the one nor the other could see what his rival was doing, although these enclosures were attached to each other, there rose up the Flemish sculptor Maestro Giovan Bologna, a young man not inferior in ability or in spirit to either of the others. This master, being in the service of the Lord Don Francesco, Prince of Florence, asked his Excellency to enable him to make a giant which might serve as a model, of the same size as the marble; and the Prince granted him this favour. Maestro Giovan Bologna had as yet no thought of having the giant to execute in marble, but he wished at least to display his ability and to make himself known for what he was worth; and, having received permission from the Prince, he, also, began a model in the Convent of S. Croce. VIII Francesco Salviati 179-80: Giovanni and Piero d’Agostino Dini had erected in S. Croce, on the right hand as one enters by the central door, a very rich chapel of grey sandstone and a tomb for Agostino and others of their family; and they gave the commission for the altar-piece of that chapel to Francesco, who painted in it Christ taken down from the Cross by Joseph of Arimathæa and Nicodemus, and at the foot the Madonna in a swoon, with Mary Magdalene, S. John, and the other Maries. That altar-piece was executed by Francesco with so much art and study, that not only the nude Christ is very beautiful, but all the other figures likewise are well disposed and coloured with relief and force; and although at first the picture was censured by Francesco’s adversaries, nevertheless it won him a great name with men in general, and those who have painted others after him out of emulation have not surpassed him. IX Michelagnolo Buonarroti 123-5: The sight of a certain number of persons assembled about S. Pietro had caused, as always happens in such cases, many others to stop there, and the rather

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as it had been trumpeted abroad that the body of Michelagnolo had arrived, and was to be carried to S. Croce. And although, as I have said, every precaution had been taken that the matter should not become known, lest the report might spread through the city, and there might flock thither such a multitude that it would not be possible to avoid a certain degree of tumult and confusion, and also because they desired that the little which they wished to do at that time should be done with more quiet than pomp, reserving the rest for a more convenient time with greater leisure; nevertheless, both the one thing and the other took a contrary course, for with regard to the multitude, the news, as has been related, passing from lip to lip, in the twinkling of an eye the church was so filled, that in the end it was with the greatest difficulty that the body was carried from the church to the sacristy, in order to take it out of the bale and then place it in the sepulchre. With regard to the question of honour, although it cannot be denied that to see in funeral pomps a great show of priests, a large quantity of wax tapers, and a great number of mourners dressed in black, is a thing of grand and magnificent appearance, it does not follow that it was not also a great thing to see thus assembled in a small company, without preparation, all those eminent men who are now in such repute, and who will be even more in the future, honouring that body with such loving and affectionate offices. And, in truth, the number of such craftsmen in Florence—and they were all there—has always been very great, for the reason that these arts have always flourished in Florence in such a manner, that I believe that it may be said without prejudice to other cities that their principal and true nest and domicile is Florence, not otherwise than Athens once was of the sciences. In addition to that number of craftsmen, there were so many citizens following them, and so many at the sides of the streets where the procession passed, that there was no place for any more; and, what is an even greater thing, there was nothing heard but praises in every man’s mouth of the merits of Michelagnolo, all saying that true genius has such force that, after all expectation of such honour and profit as can be obtained from a gifted man has failed, nevertheless, by its own nature and peculiar merits, it remains honoured and beloved. For these reasons that demonstration was more vivid in effect and more precious than any pomp of gold and trappings that could have been contrived. The body having been carried with so beautiful a train into S. Croce, after the friars had finished the ceremonies that were customary for the dead, it was borne—not without very great difficulty, as has been related, by reason of the concourse of people—into the sacristy, where the above-named Lieutenant, who had been present in virtue of his office, thinking to do a thing pleasing to many, and also (as he afterwards confessed) desiring to see in death one whom he had not seen in life, or had seen at such an early age that he had lost all memory of him, then resolved to have the coffin opened. This done, when he and all the rest of us present thought to find the body already marred and putrefied, because Michelagnolo had been dead twenty-five days and twenty-two in the coffin, we found it so perfect in every part, and so free from any noisome odour, that we were ready to believe that it was rather at rest in a sweet and most peaceful sleep; and, besides that the features of the face were exactly as in life (except that there was something of the colour of

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death), it had no member that was marred or revealed any corruption, and the head and cheeks were not otherwise to the touch than as if he had passed away but a few hours before. When the tumult of the people had abated, arrangements were made to place the body in a sepulchre in the church, beside the altar of the Cavalcanti, by the door that leads into the cloister of the chapter-house. Meanwhile the news had spread through the city, and such a multitude of young people flocked thither to see the corpse, that there was great difficulty in contriving to close the tomb; and if it had been day, instead of night, we would have been forced to leave it open many hours in order to satisfy the public. The following morning, while the painters and sculptors were commencing to make arrangements for the memorial of honour, many choice spirits, such as have always abounded in Florence, began to attach above the aforesaid sepulchre verses both Latin and in the vulgar tongue, and so it was continued for some time; but those compositions that were printed at that time were but a small part with respect to the many that were written. 140-1: But I will not omit to say in this last part, that after all the honours described above the Duke ordained that an honourable place should be given to Michelagnolo for his tomb in S. Croce, in which church he had purposed in his lifetime to be buried, because the sepulchre of his ancestors was there. And to Leonardo, the nephew of Michelagnolo, his Excellency gave all the marbles, both white and variegated, for that tomb, which was allotted to Battista Lorenzi, an able sculptor, to execute after the design of Giorgio Vasari, together with the head of Michelagnolo. And since there are to be three statues there, Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture, one of these was allotted to the above-named Battista, one to Giovanni dell’Opera, and the last to Valerio Cioli, Florentine sculptors; which statues are in process of being fashioned together with the tomb, and soon they will be seen finished and set in their places. The cost, over and above the marbles received from the Duke, has been borne by the same Leonardo Buonarroti. But his Excellency, in order not to fail in any respect in doing honour to that great man, will cause to be placed in the Duomo, as he has previously thought to do, a memorial with his name, besides the head, even as there are to be seen there the names and images of the other eminent Florentines. X Academicians 7-8: Now Giovanni Zanchini had built a chapel very rich in carved stone, with his family tombs in marble, opposite to the Chapel of the Dini in S. Croce at Florence, on the front wall, on the left hand as one enters the church by the central door; and he allotted the altar-piece to Bronzino, to the end that he might paint in it Christ descended into the Limbo of Hell in order to deliver the Holy Fathers. Agnolo, then, having set his hand to it, executed that work with the utmost possible diligence that one can use who desires to acquire glory by such a labour; wherefore there are in it most beautiful nudes, men, women, and children, young and old, with different features and attitudes, and portraits of men that are very natural,

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among which are Jacopo da Pontormo, Giovan Battista Gello, a passing famous Academician of Florence, and the painter Bacchiacca, of whom we have spoken above. And among the women he portrayed there two noble and truly most beautiful young women of Florence, worthy of eternal praise and memory for their incredible beauty and virtue, Madonna Costanza da Sommaia, wife of Giovan Battista Doni, who is still living, and Madonna Camilla Tedaldi del Corno, who has now passed to a better life. Giorgio Vasari 219-20: And a similar work our great Duke has desired to have done in the immense Church of S. Croce in Florence;—namely, that the tramezzo should be removed and that the choir should be made behind the high-altar, bringing that altar somewhat forward and placing upon it a new and rich tabernacle for the most holy Sacrament, all adorned with gold, figures, and scenes; and, in addition, that in the same manner that has been told of S. Maria Novella there should be made there fourteen chapels against the walls, with greater expense and ornamentation than those described above, because that church is much larger than the other. In the altar-pieces, to accompany the two by Salviati and Bronzino, are to be all the principal Mysteries of the Saviour, from the beginning of His Passion to the Sending of the Holy Spirit upon the Apostles; which picture of the Sending of the Holy Spirit, having made the design of the chapels and ornaments of stone, I have in hand for M. Agnolo Biffoli, Treasurer-General to our Lords, and my particular friend, and I finished, not long since, two large pictures that are in the Magistracy of the Nine Conservadori, beside S. Piero Scheraggio; in one is the head of Christ, and in the other a Madonna.

BOCCHI, 141-62: 141/2: The church of Santa Croce is a magnificent sight due to its size; raised by the ardour of Florentine faith, its grandeur is certainly incomparable. The design of this superb church was provided by Arnolfo Lapi in the year 1294. The nave is so broad that over the clerestory, carried on piers, a gabled roof had to be made of wood, as one sees. The church is 240 braccia wide. The monastery, with its novitiate and dormitory for the brothers of the Order of St. Francis, is of a more beautiful and refined architectur[al style]; one sees two cloisters, arranged with wonderful magnificence, but the larger of the two is surpassingly beautiful for the vaults that surround it, and for the columns on both levels, made with fine understanding. There are many castles famous for their architecture which do not approach the grandeur and magnificence of this church and monastery. The paintings and sculptures, and the chapels with their wonderful architectur[al forms], are fine as well, and we will begin our discussion of them on the exterior, where, over the central portal, one sees the bronze figure of St. Louis by Donatello. The artist did not think very highly of this figure because he made it with little care, and he did not number it among his best works; still, it is valued in our own

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day because it was made by a man of supreme greatness and because in it one can see vitality and great understanding. Entering the church, one encounters a wonderful series of very beautiful chapels against the walls of the two side aisles; these were made for various gentlemen, and it would be impossible to say how they enrich with their splendour the beauty of this church. [In each one], two large columns of pietra del fossato. Worked with refined skill, and in the Corinthian order, are gracefully set on pedestals; their capitals are cut with subtle workmanship. In each case, they support an architrave and, at the top, a pediment which is unmatched in creating exquisite beauty. Giorgio Vasari designed these chapels, and some of the altarpieces [they contain] were painted by him as well. As one heads up the centre of the nave toward the high altar one sees [to the right], on the third pier, a pulpit of marvellous workmanship by Benedetto da Maiano. {…} The pulpit was made for Pier Mellini, who had the noble idea of furnishing the church in this way; he spared no expense, however great, nor any inconvenience which this work created. The architectur[al elements], the cornices and columns framing scenes from the life of St. Francis, are beautiful, but most beautiful of all are the narratives themselves: {…}. 144: On the first side [of the pulpit], the bas-relief shows how the Order of St. Francis was confirmed by Pope Honorius; this narrative is composed with unique skill, as one sees. The second shows how, with saintly zeal, and in the presence of the Sultan, St. Francis passed through fire unharmed. One sees the prince marvelling at such an extraordinary event and his courtiers who, watching the Saint, are intent on the outcome and make a very beautiful sight. The third shows how he received the stigmata on Mount Averna; this excellent artist has described the harsh and desolate landscape with great skill, and St. Francis himself with lovely grace, expressive of consummate devotion. In the fourth, the death of St. Francis, one sees how, in order to confirm the stigmata, a gentleman steps forward and touches the wound in the Saint’s chest with such lovely vitality that he seems completely alive. The very beautiful building enclosing these figures is arranged with great understanding. The fifth panel represents the story of the five friars of the order of St. Francis who were martyred in a city in Mauretania; one sees the willingness and humility with which they go to their deaths and how full of saintly emotions they are, dismissing disdainfully what the human mind finds so horrific. {Artistry and craftsmanship of Benedetto da Maiano} 144/5: Walking straight ahead, one comes to the tribune, the construction of which was due to the liberality of the Alberti family. Today it serves as the monks’ choir, the old wooden choir in the middle of the church having been taken down. On the walls of the tribune is the story of the discovery of Our Saviour’s Cross, painted with exquisite and lovely colouring by Agnolo Gaddi. On the high altar, belonging to the Alamanni family, one sees a most beautiful gilded ciborium. This work was made with consummate care by Dionigio Nigetti after a design by Giorgio Vasari; it is regarded as marvellous for its sculpted

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columns, friezes, cornices and other ornaments. But the undertaking was ordered and paid for by Grand Duke Cosimo, who, having first seen to the removal of the wooden choir and some chapels in the centre of the nave, so as to give the entire church a most beautiful arrangement, better suited to the sacred ceremonies, added such splendour with this ciborium, 13 braccia high, that its great beauty enhances the majesty of the church and seems to enhance devotion as well. 145/6: The chapels [along the walls of the side aisles] contain pictures representing events in the Passion of Our Lord and are arranged with great judgement so that each scene follows chronologically the one in the preceding chapel. We must follow this order in describing them, beginning at the end of the right aisle [nearest the high altar]. Next to this [chapel] is the marble tomb of Leonardo Bruni of Arezzo, made with marvellous craftsmanship by Bernardo Rossellino, though the Madonna at the top, esteemed and much admired by artists, is by Andrea del Verrocchio. Over the side door leading to the cloister is a panel by Cimabue; though of little value when compared to modern pictures, it still deserves remembrance and consideration as a reminder of that artist who initiated the wonderful manner of painting in use today. In the Cavalcanti Chapel one sees the very beautiful Annunciation in macigno by Donatello. The skill revealed in this work is stupendous; words could not express the marvellous beauty of the Madonna, or how her bearing is divine rather than human, or how nobly her countenance breathes devotion and reverence. 146: The two figures in fresco, St. John the Baptist and St. Francis, are by Andrea del Castagno, and as one sees, the colours are deployed in a beautiful manner. These figures are so highly valued that in 1566, when all the walls [of the old rood screen] in the middle of the nave, were taken down, the entire [section of] wall on which these figures were painted was saved, and, with effort and expense, moved to its present location. Following the narrative sequence of the Passion to the Pazzi Chapel, one encounters a panel of beautiful colouring by Andrea del Minga depicting Christ’s prayer in the garden and the sleeping Apostles; this picture receives particular praise for its lovely greenery and trees. In the Corsi Chapel one sees Christ’s Flagellation at the column; the panel is by Alessandro del Barbiere, and was truly made with great judgement; the figures are few in number but are arranged with consummate grace, so that the scene aptly recalls what is written in the Sacred Scriptures. Christ is conceived with great understanding, humble in countenance, yet full of majesty. Pilate’s minsters are ferocious, and the architecture is carefully planned; moreover, the colouring is appropriate to the theme presented, so that the whole thing is excellent and highly prized.

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149/50: Next in the Zati Chapel, is an altarpiece by Jacopo del Meglio, in which is painted the episode known by the words of the Gospel as the ‘Ecce Homo’. This scene requires the painter to array many figures, and his diligence [in this respect] is commendable. Next, in the Chapel of Leonardo Buonarroti, is an altarpiece by Giorgio Vasari himself, in which Christ is shown being led to death, carrying the Cross. {…} Next one sees the tomb of Michelangelo Buonarroti, of the greatest interest for more than its craftsmanship, as it contains the bones of the most sovereign artist who ever practised the three noble arts. Michelangelo had intended to do with his own hand what was finally done by others after his death; while he lived, he repeatedly asked the building supervisors of Santa Croce for a space in the church where, with his own hands and to his own design, he could make a tomb for himself and his family, with many marble figures. {…} The tomb one sees today is beautiful anyway, both for its fine architecture and for its figures of remarkable workmanship. {Followed by descriptions of the three statues and the portrait bust: Painting by Battista Lorenzi, Sculpture by Valerio Cioli, Architecture Giovanni dell’Opera, and the bust by Battista Lorenzi, painted decoration above by Battista Naldini.} 151: On the pier opposite is a Virgin in bas-relief by Antonio Rossellino, much admired by artists. It is framed by a fine curtain, also of marble, and is carved with care, delicacy and most beautifully; one recognises it as the work of a distinguished artist, doubtlessly worthy of much praise. Next follows the Alamanneschi Chapel, where there is a painting of Christ on the Cross between two thieves by Santi di Tito. 153: In the Dini Chapel one sees a very beautiful altarpiece by Francesco Salviati, marvellous for its design and of the most extraordinary colouring, which, following the story of the Passion of Our Lord, represents the deposition of the Saviours body from the Cross. The appearance of Christ’s body is admired by artists. His torso is painted with wonderful care, and it is easier to contemplate the arms, legs and head in their extreme beauty than to praise them as they deserve. One sees a figure, almost entirely nude, on a ladder, holding Christ while lowering Him, which is greatly admired by artists and endlessly praised. {…} Above the central door is a glazed oculus, 14 braccia in diameter, by Lorenzo Ghiberti, much prized by the experts, representing Christ taken down from the Cross. The figures are made with great skill and with very astute design, and the entire scene is masterfully devised, so that it deserves to be valued and praised. The figures are knowingly adapted to the almost measureless height at which they are placed, so that from below they seem to be of proper size, though in fact they are huge. Beyond the central door, one comes to the Zanchini Chapel, with an altarpiece of most beautiful colouring by Agnolo Bronzino, depicting Our Saviour’s descent into limbo after His death to liberate the souls of the Patriarchs. There are many figures of rare beauty, but so gracefully arranged that, even in such a crowd, every gesture represented by this admirable artist becomes clear. {…, 156 Adam and Eve and St. John the Baptist, portrait of Jacopo Pontormo as well as of Giovam Battista

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Giambullari plus portraits of the wife of Giovam Battista Doni and lady of Tedaldi family}. 156: At the beginning of the left aisle is the Chapel of Lodovico da Verrazzano, with a very beautiful panel by Battista Naldini, representing the moment when Christ, having been taken from the Cross, must be placed in the tomb. {…} The panel in the next chapel, which belongs to the Medici family, is by Santi di Tito and represents Christ’s Resurrection from the tomb. The saviour is beautiful and made with great skill; the unusual and fierce poses of Pilate’s henchmen are greatly admired by artists. One sees fear in their faces and how, caught off-guard by the extraordinary event, some try to flee; others, unable to withstand the dazzling splendour, fall to the ground, so that one is almost able to read in the picture what is described in Sacred Scripture. In the Berti Chapel, next along, is another panel by Santi di Tito, representing Christ at the table of Cleophas and Lucas. All three of these figures are beautiful and depicted with great skill; down in front there is a little boy who seems to be alive and, turning his head upwards, addresses a little girl who is offering him some cherries on a place. Both of them are devised with extreme grace and marvellous skill. 159: Further along, in the Guidacci Chapel, is a panel by Giorgio Vasari, in which Christ appears to the Apostles after His Resurrection. One sees St. Thomas who, out of incredulity, reaches to touch the Saviour’s chest with a very lifelike gesture. {…} In the Asini Chapel is a panel by Giovanni Stradano, depicting the Ascension of the Saviour into heaven. The figure of Christ is very graceful and of praiseworthy design; the Madonna is shown to be full of devout thoughts and emotions, as are the Apostles. The chorus of angels joyously gathered around the Saviour is much commended; in them there is not only the beauty of graceful motion, but also of design, and for these qualities the work is greatly prized. There follows the altar of the [Immaculate] Conception of the Madonna, which is held in the very greatest reverence and frequented every second Sunday of the month, as has already been said. And therefore so many people assemble in this church, enflamed with devotion, that one cannot come near with words to describing it; instead the eye must, and easily cam, bear witness to the truth of what is said here. After the side entrance one sees the tomb of Carlo Marsuppini, a work of extraordinary skill by Desiderio da Settignano. The figure of the deceased, portrayed from life with great diligence, is lying on the marble sarcophagus, and there is a Madonna in a circular bas-relief, most highly praised by the artists, in which this distinguished mind so sought to outdo itself that the result is very similar to the style of Donatello, and would be thought to be a work of that most distinguished artist if the truth were not clearly documented. {…} Next, at the head of the nave, in the Biffoli Chapel, is a panel by Giorgio Vasari, which depicts the time when Our Lord sent the Holy Spirit down to the Apostles. {…} In the Chapel of the Bardi, Lords of Vernio, at the head of the transept, one sees the wooden

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crucifix by Donatello, so famous for its workmanship and beauty. For, as we said, as much as the architect of the Cathedral dome faulted it for being rough-fleshed, with limbs not very refined, it is nonetheless very beautiful in every part {…made for Bernardo or Niccolò del Barbigia 161}. 161: Just outside the door that leads to the cloister, one sees the chapel of the Pazzi family, built according to the design of Filippo Brunelleschi: the very beautiful Corinthian columns in front bespeak magnificence, and inside too, each architectural element is of great worth, architecture being the art form in which this remarkable artist excelled all others. And because one does not want to neglect any notable thing in this marvellous church, one may see under the altarpiece just beside the entrance to the Novitiate, a predella by Francesco Pesellino, with little figures, wonderfully beautiful, depicting the story of Saints Cosmas and Damian with such skill that craftsmen cannot get enough of praising it and hold it in the very highest esteem. {relics}

BALDINUCCI S Croce: I.28, 32 & 56; I.84; I.91; I.99; I.107; I.214; I.217; I.219 & 225; I.251; I.263; I.272; I.321-22 & 327; I.331; I.348-9; I.406; I.410; I.412; I.455; I.457n; I.488n; I.493; I.496; I.512; I.524; I.540; I.567; II.116; II.534, 535 & 538; II.538 ES; II.593; II.650; III.66; III.241 & 278; III.439; III.502; III.503; III.506; III.514; III.523; III.527; III.529; IV.224; IV.303-4; IV.316; IV.352; V.165-7, 169-70 & 180. RICHA, part I, vol I, lesson IV-VIII, 35-123.

CHAPTER SEVEN SAN FELICE IN PIAZZA

Piazza San Felice, 5; for a map and phone number of the parish, please visit http://www.parrocchiemap.it/parrocchiemap/consultazione/parrocchie/scheda.jsp?i csc=2550021 (only available in Italian). Free entrance but no visits during religious services.

History The church of San Felice in Piazza (Fig. 7 a) was first mentioned in a document dated to 1066. It was named after Saint Felix of Nola, a Christian priest active in the third century who managed to save the old bishop of Nola (hiding in a cave) by feeding him the juice of grapes growing on a thorn bush. Giovanni da San Giovanni depicted this particular moment of the saint’s life in a fresco (completed by Volterrano in c.1636) above the last altar on the left arcade wall. Felix I was elected as pope in 269. An important theologian and author, he apparently insisted that holy mass should be celebrated in locations where the martyrdom of a saint had taken place. While this story may be apocryphal, it was nevertheless a custom observed by the Roman church until the fourth century. Saint Felix may have become a martyr himself and the available sources suggest that he commissioned a basilica on the Via Aurelia. He was buried in the catacombs of Saint Callixtus in Rome. Built on the south bank of the Arno, the church was situated outside the city walls in the less populated part of Florence where later Palazzo Pitti and the Boboli gardens would be located. In fact, “piazza” in the building’s full name, refers to a place outside the city centre, such as a suburb growing along a main street leading out of the city. Founded before 1066, San Felice was acquired by Benedictines from the monastery of San Silvestro in Nonantola in 1153. The building underwent several changes and was eventually re-consecrated in November 1221. The expansion in the mid-fourteenth-century resulted in

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the insertion of five ogive one-light windows high on the church’s outer wall. Under the influence of the Medici family during the fifteenth century, the church and convent were handed over to the Camaldolese order in 1414. In the years between c.1457 and 1460, the church was largely rebuilt by Michelozzo di Bartolommeo. In 1557, San Felice was handed over to strictly cloistered Dominican nuns whose convent of San Pietro Martire in Via dei Serragli had been destroyed during the Sienese war in 1553-1554 to make way for additional fortifications. The nuns changed San Felice’s titular saint to Saint Peter Martyr and had the sacristy and a nuns’ gallery built so that they could attend mass without being seen by lay people. Outside the church a column was installed at the orders of Cosimo I de’ Medici to remember the Florentine victory over the Sienese army at the battle of Marciano in 1554. The planned statue of Peace was, however, never installed. San Felice was repeatedly used as a venue for theatrical performances, since its architectural separation into choir and nave made it a particularly suitable space for such events. Apparently, one of the most famous spectacles was Brunelleschi’s production of the Annunciation performed in 1439 with sets designed by the architect. In 1591, Francesco Bocchi still praised the church’s suitability for theatrical performances.

Architecture Most of the church’s architecture is in the Gothic style with some additions and changes carried out in later centuries and under the influence of diverse orders. San Felice has a fifteenth-century façade (with nineteenth-century modifications) added by Michelozzo or by a follower of either Brunelleschi or Michelozzo in c.1457. It is decorated with lesene with coats of arms on either side and is crowned by a tympanum with an entablature or frieze resting on small brackets and embellished with an all’antica tooth cut pattern. A monumental porch capped by a semicircular pediment gives access to the large three-nave vestibule, the crossvaulted ceiling of which dates to the sixteenth century. It is supported by columns and topped by the nuns’ gallery. The vestibule hosts three side altars on the left and four on the right with sixteenth-century tabernacle frames in pietra serena.

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Figure 7 a: Façade of San Felice (photo: AG).

The single nave of the main part of the church (Fig. 7 b) is covered by an open-beam roof. The arcade walls bear three side altars each with pietra serena frames and end in the raised choir space composed of the main sanctuary (added in c.1457) and two smaller side chapels. In 1742, a bell tower was erected over the main chapel.

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Figure 7 b: Plan of the church of San Felice (plan: SC).

Art Only few remains of the frescoed decoration survive on the inner façade. These frescoes are attributed to the Master of Signa (1470-1480). They were damaged when funerary monuments for Antonio Domenico Gabbiani by Girolamo Ticciati (1726-1727) and for Giuseppe del Papa by Giuseppe Piamontini (after 1735) were attached to the wall. The rest of the interior was whitewashed as part of Counter-reformatory measures when the side altars were installed.

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Among the notable works of art is the large crucifix (c.1308) above the high altar, which has been attributed to Giotto or his school. The left side chapel contains a Madonna col Bambino attributed to Gherardo Starnina (1409-13). The side altars on the left arcade wall (counting from the entrance towards the sanctuary) display among other works of art: 1. Saint Rochus with Saint Anthony Abbot and Saint Catherine attributed to a follower of Sandro Botticelli (1480). 5. The Apparition of the Virgin to Saint Hyacinth and Saint Peter Martyr by Jacopo Chimenti, called Empoli (1595). 6. A gold-back triptych by Neri di Bicci (1467 with sixteenth-century additions) shows Saint Augustine with John the Baptist and Saints Julian and Sigismund. The fresco above depicts The Madonna and Child with Saints James Major, Pope Sylvester and the Abbot of Nonantola attributed to the Master of the Bargello (c.1365). On the right (again counting from the entrance towards the sanctuary): 5. Ridolfo Ghirlandaio’s altarpiece of The Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints (c.1520). Above, in the lunette, a fresco of God the Father. 6. The Madonna of the Girdle by Bicci di Lorenzo (c.1430). In the refectory (entrance to the left of the church’s porch) is a wellpreserved Last Supper by Matteo Rosselli (1614). San Felice contains the graves of Francesco di Pesello (d. after 1457), of Giulio Parigi (d. 1635) in the family tomb, of Giovanni Biliverti (d. 1644) and of Justus Sustermans (d. 1681). Bibl: Borsook 1983, 287 and 302; Cesati 2002, 95-7; Goy 2015, 280; Horstmann 2011, 48-51; Paatz 1941, II, 41-56; Verdon, Coppellotti, Fabbri 2000, 92-7. Sources: VASARI II Lorenzo di Bicci 72: In like manner, he [Neri, son of Lorenzo] made some panels for the Abbey of S. Felice in Piazza at Florence, belonging to the Order of Camaldoli, and one for the high-altar of S. Michele in Arezzo, a church of the same Order.

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Filippo Brunelleschi 229-32: It is also said that the machinery for the “Paradise” of S. Felice in Piazza, in the said city, was invented by Filippo in order to hold the Representation, or rather, the Festival of the Annunciation, in the manner wherein the Florentines were wont to hold it in that place in olden times. This was truly something marvellous, demonstrating the genius and the industry of him who was its inventor, for the reason that there was seen on high a Heaven full of living figures in motion, with aninfinity of lights appearing and disappearing almost in a flash. Now I do not wish to grudge the labour of giving an exact description of the machinery of that engine, seeing that it has all disappeared and that the men who could speak of it from personal knowledge are dead, so that there is no hope of its being reconstructed, that place being inhabited no longer by the Monks of Camaldoli, but by the Nuns of S. Pier Martire; and above all since the one in the Carmine has been destroyed, because it was pulling down the rafters that support the roof. For this purpose, then, Filippo had suspended, between two of the beams that supported the roof of the church, the half of a globe in the shape of an empty bowl, or rather, of a barber’s basin, with the rim downwards; this half-globe was made of thin and light planks fastened to a star of iron which radiated round the curve of the said half-globe, and these planks narrowed towards the point of equilibrium in the centre, where there was a great ring of iron round which there radiated the iron star that secured the planks of the half-globe. The whole mass was upheld by a stout beam of pine-wood, well shod with iron, which layacross the timbers of the roof; and to this beam was fastened the ring that sustained and balanced the half-globe, which from the ground truly appeared like a Heaven. At the foot of the inner edge it had certain wooden brackets, large enough for one person to stand on and no more, and at the height of one braccio there was also an iron fastening, likewise on the inner edge; on each of these brackets there was placed a boy about twelve years old, who was girt round with the iron fastening one braccio and a half high, in such wise that he could not have fallen down even if he had wanted to. These boys, who were twelve in all, were placed on the brackets, as it has been said, and dressed like angels, with gilded wings and hair made of gold thread; and when it was time they took one another by the hand and waved their arms, so that they appeared to be dancing, and the rather as the half-globe was ever moving and turning round. Within it, above the heads of the angels, were three circles or garlands of lights, contained in certain little lamps that could not be overturned. From the ground these lights appeared like stars, and the brackets, being covered with cotton-wool, appeared like clouds. From the aforesaid ring there issued a very stout bar of iron, which had at the end another ring, to which there was fastened a thin rope reaching to the ground, as it will be told later. The said stout bar of iron had eight arms, spreading out in an arc large enough to fill the space within the hollow half-globe, and at the end of each arm there was a stand about the size of a trencher; on each stand was a boy about nine years old, well secured by an iron soldered on to the upper part of the arm, but loosely enough to allow him to turn in every direction.

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These eight angels, supported by the said iron, were lowered from the space within the half-globe by means of a small windlass that was unwound little by little, to a depth of eight braccia below the level of the square beams that support the roof, in such a manner that they were seen without concealing the view of the angels who were round the inner edge of the half-globe. In the midst of this cluster of eight angels--for so was it rightly called--was a mandorla of copper, hollow within, wherein were many holes showing certain little lamps fixed on iron bars in the form of tubes; which lamps, on the touching of a spring which could be pressed down, were all hidden within the mandorla of copper, whereas, when the spring was not pressed down, all the lamps could be seen alight through some holes therein. When the cluster of angels had reached its place, this mandorla, which was fastened to the aforesaid little rope, was lowered very gradually by the unwinding of the rope with another little windlass, and arrived at the platform where the Representation took place; and on this platform, precisely on the spot where the mandorla was to rest, there was a raised place in the shape of a throne with four steps, in the centre of which there was a hole wherein the iron point of the mandorla stood upright. Below the said throne was a man who, when the mandorla had reached its place, made it fast with a bolt without being seen, so that it stood firmly on its base. Within the mandorla was a youth about fifteen years of age in the guise of an angel, girt round the middle with an iron, and secured by a bolt to the foot of the mandorla in a manner that he could not fall; and to the end that he might be able to kneel, the said iron was divided into three parts, whereof one part entered readily into another as he knelt. Thus, when the cluster of angels had descended and the mandorla was resting on the throne, the man who fixed the mandorla with the bolt also unbolted the iron that supported the angel; whereupon he issued forth and walked across the platform, and, having come to where the Virgin was, saluted her and made the Annunciation. He then returned into the mandorla, and the lights, which had gone out on his issuing forth, being rekindled, the iron that supported him was once more bolted by the man who was concealed below, the bolt that held the mandorla firm was removed, and it was drawn up again; while the singing of the angels in the cluster, and of those in the Heaven, who kept circling round, made it appear truly a Paradise, and the rather because, in addition to the said choir of angels and to the cluster, there was a God the Father on the outer edge of the globe, surrounded by angels similar to those named above and supported by irons, in such wise that the Heaven, the God the Father, the cluster, and the mandorla, with innumerable lights and very sweet music, truly represented Paradise. In addition to this, in order to be able to open and close that Heaven, Filippo had made two great doors, each five braccia both in length and breadth, which had rollers of iron, or rather, of copper, in certain grooves running horizontally; and these grooves were oiled in a manner that when a thin rope, which was on either side, was pulled by means of a little windlass, any one could open or close the Heaven at his pleasure, the two parts of the door coming together or drawing apart horizontally along the grooves. And these two doors, made thus, served for two purposes: when they were moved, being heavy, they made a noise like thunder; and when they were closed, they

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formed a platform for the apparelling of the angels and for the making of the other preparations which it was necessary to carry out within. These engines, made thus, together with many others, were invented by Filippo, although others maintain that they had been invented long before. However this may be, it was well to speak of them, seeing that they have gone completely out of use. III Fra Giovanni Beato Angelico 31: This work is in the aforesaid church, on the right hand as one goes towards the high-altar, where the priest sits when Mass is sung. For the Nuns of S. Piero Martire—who now live in the Monastery of S. Felice in Piazza, which used to belong to the Order of Camaldoli—he painted a panel with Our Lady, S. John the Baptist, S. Dominic, S. Thomas, and S. Peter Martyr, and a number of little figures. Cecca 194-5: This festival of the Ascension—for of the others of importance an account has been or will be given—was very beautiful, seeing that Christ was uplifted on a cloud covered with angels from a Mount very well made of wood, and was borne upwards to a Heaven, leaving the Apostles on the Mount; and the whole was so well contrived that it was a marvel, above all because the said Heaven was somewhat larger than that of S. Felice in Piazza, although the machinery was almost the same. And since the said Church of the Carmine, where this representation used to take place, is no little broader and higher than that of S. Felice, in addition to the part that supported Christ another Heaven was sometimes erected, according as it was thought advisable, over the chief tribune, wherein were certain great wheels made in the shape of reels, which, from the centres to the edges, moved in most beautiful order ten circles standing for the ten Heavens, which were all full of little lights representing the stars, contained in little copper lamps hanging on pivots, so that when the wheels revolved they remained upright, in the manner of certain lanterns that are now universally used by all. VII Christofano Gherardi, called Doceno 119: Then, in the year 1536, the Emperor Charles V coming to Italy and to Florence, as has been related in other places, the most magnificent festive preparations were ordained, among which Vasari, by order of Duke Alessandro, received the charge of the decorations of the Porta a S. Piero Gattolini, of the façade at S. Felice in Piazza, at the head of the Via Maggio, and of the pediment that was erected over the door of S. Maria del Fiore; and, in addition, of a standard of cloth for the castle, fifteen braccia in depth and forty in length, into the gilding of which there went fifty thousand leaves of gold.

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VIII Bastiano da San Gallo 17-8: For the festival of S. Felice in Piazza—that is, the representation of the Annunciation of the Madonna, of which there has been an account in another place—which was held by the Company of the Orciuolo in the year 1525, Jacone [contemporary of Aristotile da San Gallo] made among the outer decorations, according to the custom of those times, a most beautiful triumphal arch standing by itself, large, double, and very high, with eight columns, pilasters, and pediments; all of which he caused to be carried to completion by Piero da Sesto, a wellpractised master in woodwork. On this arch, then, were painted nine scenes, part of which, the best, he executed himself, and the rest Francesco Ubertini, Il Bacchiacca; and these scenes were all from the Old Testament, and for the greater part from the life of Moses. Ridolfo, David and Benedetto Ghirlandaio 66: First, for the Church of S. Felice in Piazza, a place then belonging to the Monks of Camaldoli, they [Ridolfo and Michele di Ridolfo] painted in an altarpiece Christ and Our Lady in the air, who are praying to God the Father for the people below, where some Saints are kneeling. X Academicians 177: Which done, there was allotted to me [Vasari] for my benefit, besides the great banners of the castle and fortress, as has been told, the façade in the manner of a triumphal arch that was constructed at S. Felice in Piazza, forty braccia high and twenty wide, and then the ornamentation of the Porta a S. Piero Gattolini; works all great and beyond my strength. 214: In addition, it was also my task to cause to be reconstructed and increased for the same nuptials [Francesco I and Giovanna], in the great tribune of S. Spirito, the new machinery for the festival that used to be held in S. Felice in Piazza; which was all reduced to the greatest possible perfection, so that there are no longer any of those dangers that used to be incurred in that festival.

BOCCHI, 77: Proceeding further, one finds a church called San Felice in Piazza. This church is beautiful since it is very wide and spacious, as one sees. Once the devout rulers of Florence used to hold certain ceremonies here, and had sacred theatre performed most beautifully.

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BALDINUCCI San Felice in Piazza: I.541; IV.145; IV.145; IV.161; IV.253; IV.253; IV.278; IV.310; IV.437; IV.510; V.56; V.460.

RICHA, part IV, vol X, lesson XVI, 192-214.

CHAPTER EIGHT SANTA FELICITA

Piazza Santa Felicita, 3; free entrance but no visits during religious services.

History A church of Santa Felicita in the Oltrarno is already mentioned in documents dating to the late tenth century but the first church in this location may well be older and go back to the fourth or to the fifth century. Its titular saint, Saint Felicity was a Christian of the second century who was martyred after having to watch her seven sons, including Saint Alexander, being put to death for their faith. The present church (Fig. 8 a) was built in the eleventh century but almost completely transformed by Ferdinando Ruggieri (1691-1741) in 1736-1739. In the sixteenth century the convent was occupied by Benedictine nuns who discovered archaeological remains from late Antiquity, including tomb stones with Greek and Latin inscriptions. The convent was dissolved in the early nineteenth century and Santa Felicita is now a parish church. The Vasari Corridor has cut through this church since 1565, connecting Palazzo Vecchio, the Uffizi and the Palazzo Pitti. It was commissioned by Cosimo I in time for the wedding of his son Francesco to Archduchess Joanna of Austria. The corridor crosses Ponte Vecchio before entering the church and allows access to religious services without being seen.

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Figure 8 a: Façade of Santa Felicita (photo: CM) with a section of the Vasari Corridor.

Architecture The loggia, which carries part of the Vasari Corridor, extends across the width of the façade. On the inside, the existing gallery was extended into a box during the eighteenth century, when the dome on Brunelleschi’s Barbadori (Capponi) Chapel (c.1420) to the right was flattened. The chapel’s combination of geometrical shapes is similar to that in the Old Sacristy and in the Pazzi Chapel. The Canigiani Chapel opposite was decorated by Bernardino Poccetti in 1589-90. The present eighteenth-century church is a one-nave building crossed by a transept and covered with a barrel-vaulted ceiling (Fig. 8 b), which replaced the pre-existing wooden structure. It has three altar niches on each arcade wall with uniform frames in coloured marble. The interior is structured by grey pietra serena membering on white stucco. Despite a series of invasive changes to the church since the sixteenth century, the building still recalls its Romanesque origins. Ruggieri respected the geometrical clarity of the remains in his own design and also kept to the typical Florentine colour scheme of grey and white. The chapterhouse of the former convent has kept its Romanesque

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architecture and still displays some original frescoes of c.1400. The Brunelleschian sacristy dates to c.1473 and was under the patronage of the Canigiani family.

Figure 8 b: Plan of Santa Felicita with nave, side chapels and sacristy (plan: SC).

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Art The most famous artistic ensemble in the church today is the chapel decoration and altarpiece in the Barbadori Chapel. The patronage passed to the Capponi family in the sixteenth century, when Jacopo Pontormo received the commission by Lodovico Capponi in the mid-1520s. It consists of four tondi (oil on panel) with depictions of the four evangelists for the chapel’s pendentives, two of which are by Pontormo and two by his pupil Bronzino. The frescoes in the dome of God the Father and the four patriarchs were destroyed when the ceiling had to make way for the corridor. Pontormo also painted the Annunciation fresco in c.1526 and the Entombment of Christ (or Deposition from the Cross) above the altar. The altarpiece is an important example of early mannerism and contains portraits of contemporary Florentines, including one of the artist himself. The Canigiani Chapel opposite also had its vault flattened to allow for more space in the corridor above and the frescoes in the dome by Tommaso Gherardini were destroyed. The fresco in the lunette of the Miracle of the Snow is by Bernardo Poccetti, the altarpiece of an Assumption by Andrea del Minga (1589). The sacristy displays a panel painting by Neri di Bicci (1464), which shows Saint Felicity seated on a throne and surrounded by her sons. The palm leaf symbolises their victory over death and the entrance to Paradise. On the predella the diverse types of martyrdom inflicted on her sons are illustrated. Also in the sacristy is a fourteenth-century Madonna and Child by Taddeo Gaddi. In the fourth chapel to the right is a depiction on canvas by Antonio Ciseri showing the mother of the seven Maccabeans, i.e. of Jewish martyrs of the second century BC, whose mother was killed after all her sons had been put to death (1853-1863). In the second chapel to the right is the painting by Giorgio Berti (1822-1824) of Saint Felicity, in which she is shown as encouraging her sons to follow the example of the Maccabeans. The high altar was commissioned from Lodovico Cigoli, who also designed the choir space, in 1610. No longer at the church of Santa Felicita is a Coronation of the Virgin with Saints commissioned from Spinello Aretino, Niccolò di Pietro Gerini, and Lorenzo di Niccolò for the high altar and completed in 1401. It is displayed at the Accademia in the main hall on the first floor.

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Bibl: Baldinotti 2010, cats. I.3-6: 60-5; Borsook 1983, 264-6; Cesati 2002, 98-100; Crispino 1999, 44-5; Hartt & Wilkins 2007, 569-71; Horstmann 2011, 122-5; Natali 2014, 231-9; Paatz 1941, II, 57-96; Paolucci 2006, 286-301; Tovey 2005, 309-10; Verdon, Coppellotti, Fabbri 2000, 54-7. Sources: VASARI II Jacopo di Casentino 25: Finally, having made some pictures over the gates of the city of Florence on the inner side, he [Bernardo Daddi] died, laden with years, and was given honourable burial in S. Felicita, in the year 1380. Filippo Brunelleschi 211: To this desire fortune was favourable, for Bartolommeo Barbadori having previously resolved to have a chapel built in S. Felicita and having spoken of this to Filippo, the latter had put his hand to the work and had caused that chapel to be vaulted without framework, at the right hand of the entrance into the church, where the holy-water basin is, also made by his hand. III Antonio Filarete and Simone 6: In S. Felicita he [Simone, brother of Donatello] made a terra-cotta figure of S. Mary Magdalene in Penitence, three braccia and a half in height and beautifully proportioned, and revealing the muscles in such a manner as to show that he had a very good knowledge of anatomy. IV Guglielmo da Marcilla 260-1: He sent some [stained-glass windows], also, to various places, such as Castiglione del Lago, and one to Florence for Lodovico Capponi, to be set up in S. Felicita, where there is the panel by Jacopo da Pontormo, a most excellent painter, and the chapel adorned by him with mural paintings in oils and in fresco and with panel-pictures; which window came into the hands of the Frati Ingesuati in Florence, who worked at that craft, and they took it all to pieces in order to learn how it was made, removing many pieces as specimens and replacing them with new ones, so that in the end they made quite a different window.

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V Andrea da Fiesole 5: To Volterra Andrea sent two Angels of marble in the round; and for Marco del Nero, a Florentine, he made a lifesize Crucifix of wood, which is now in the Church of S. Felicita at Florence. VII Jacopo da Pontormo 167-9: Not long afterwards there returned from Rome Lodovico di Gino Capponi, who had bought that chapel in S. Felicita, on the right hand of the entrance into the church, which the Barbadori had formerly caused to be built by Filippo di Ser Brunellesco; and he resolved to have all the vaulting painted, and then to have an altar-piece executed for it, with a rich ornament. Having therefore consulted in the matter with M. Niccolò Vespucci, knight of Rhodes, who was much his friend, the knight, who was also much the friend of Jacopo, and knew, into the bargain, the talent and worth of that able man, did and said so much that Lodovico allotted that work to Pontormo. And so, having erected an enclosure, which kept that chapel closed for three years, he set his hand to the work. On the vaulted ceiling he painted a God the Father, who has about Him four very beautiful Patriarchs; and in the four medallions at the angles he depicted the four Evangelists, or rather, he executed three of them with his own hand, and Bronzino one all by himself. And with this occasion I must mention that Pontormo used scarcely ever to allow himself to be helped by his assistants, or to suffer them to lay a hand on that which he intended to execute with his own hand; and when he did wish to avail himself of one of them, chiefly in order that they might learn, he allowed them to do the whole work by themselves, as he allowed Bronzino to do here. In the works that Jacopo executed in the said chapel up to this point, it seemed almost as if he had returned to his first manner; but he did not follow the same method in painting the altar-piece, for, thinking always of new things, he executed it without shadows, and with a colouring so bright and so uniform, that one can scarcely distinguish the lights from the middle tints, and the middle tints from the darks. In this altar-piece is a Dead Christ taken down from the Cross and being carried to the Sepulchre. There is the Madonna who is swooning, and the Maries, all executed in a fashion so different from his first work, that it is clearly evident that his brain was always busy investigating new conceptions and fantastic methods of painting, not being content with, and not fixing on, any single method. In a word, the composition of this altar-piece is altogether different from the figures on the vaulting, and likewise the colouring; and the four Evangelists, which are in the medallions on the spandrels of the vaulting, are much better and in a different manner. On the wall where the window is are two figures in fresco, on one side the Virgin, and on the other the Angel, who is bringing her the Annunciation, but so distorted, both the one and the other, that it is evident that, as I have said, that bizarre and

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fantastic brain was never content with anything. And in order to be able to do as he pleased in this, and to avoid having his attention distracted by anyone, all the time that he was executing this work he would never allow even the owner of the chapel himself to see it, insomuch that, having painted it after his own fancy, without any of his friends having been able to give him a single hint, when it was finally uncovered and seen, it amazed all Florence. For the same Lodovico he executed a picture of Our Lady in that same manner for his chamber, and in the head of a S. Mary Magdalene he made the portrait of a daughter of Lodovico, who was a very beautiful young woman. VIII Ridolfo, David and Benedetto Ghirlandaio 66-7: In S. Felicita they painted two chapels in fresco, despatching them in an able manner; in one is the Dead Christ with the Maries, and in the other the Assumption of Our Lady, with some Saints. 69: A disciple of Ridolfo, also, was Carlo Portelli of Loro in the Valdarno di Sopra, by whose hand are some altar-pieces and innumerable pictures in Florence; as in S. Maria Maggiore, in S. Felicita, […]. X Academicians 4: In the Chapel of Lodovico Capponi, in S. Felicita at Florence, Bronzino, as has been said in another place, painted two Evangelists in two round pictures in oils, and on the vaulting he executed some figures in colour.

BOCCHI-CINELLI, 117-9.

BALDINUCCI S Felicita (Nuns): I.516; II.370; II.425 & 427; III.139; III.258; III.275; III.645; IV.328; IV.368; V.65; V.179-80.

RICHA, part IV, vol IX, lesson XXIV-XXX, 252-340.

CHAPTER NINE SAN FIRENZE (CHURCH AND ORATORY OF SAN FILIPPO NERI)

Piazza San Firenze, contact the Oratorio of San Filippo Neri at Via dell’Anguillara, 25 or visit http://www.oratoriosanfilippo.it/Home.html (in Italian).

History In the 1600s, the Oratorians of Saint Philip Neri acquired a plot of land in Piazza San Firenze, situated behind and in close proximity to Piazza Signoria. Opposite the later church, Palazzo Gondi had been built by Giuliano and Antonio da San Gallo in the early 1490s. The towers of the Magalotti and Mancini families were demolished to make sufficient room for the new buildings. Pietro da Cortona created designs for a monumental monastic complex, which however turned out to be too costly and timeconsuming to build. Nonetheless, San Firenze (Fig. 9 a) is a splendid example of Baroque art and architecture in Florence. It was named after a small previously existing church (1147) dedicated to Saint Florentius who lived in the sixth century AD but has no direct connection with the name of the city of Florence. The new ecclesiastical complex housed two churches, San Firenze or Saint Philip Neri on the left and a second, possibly Saint Apollinaire (deconsecrated), on the right. From 1865 until the Courts of Justice moved to the new court house in the Novoli suburb in 2012, the San Firenze complex was used as the seat of the Florentine tribunal as well as of other administrative bodies. Saint Philip Neri (1515-1595), the founder of the Congregation of the Oratory, was born in Florence and left for Rome as a young man. He had visions that told him to look after the poor. He became particularly important for the history of music, since the form of an oratory goes back to religious meetings and recreational activities held in a chamber (“oratorio”) added to the church nave of San Girolamo della Carità in Rome. In this context the composer Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina

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(1525-1594) contributed to the preservation of polyphonic music as part of church services in the wake of reforms implemented by the council of Trent (1545-1563).

Figure 9 a: Façade of San Firenze with the entrance to the church of San Filippo Neri (photo: CM).

The papal nephew Charles Borromeo (1538-1584) helped the Oratorians to be recognised in 1575. Philip Neri was beatified in 1606 and canonised in 1622. The new order established itself in Florence in the seventeenth century. Its great attraction and equally ambitious plans were only held back by lack of funds until an inheritance allowed for the continuation of the building work.

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Architecture After a first design by Pietro da Cortona (1645), Gherardo and Pier Francesco Silvani built the new church dedicated to San Filippo Neri between 1668 and 1672. The façade was completed in 1715 after designs by Ferdinando Ruggieri. The Oratory to the right of the church (Fig. 9 b) has long been used as the hall of the tribunal. It is furnished with singing chancels and originally functioned as an auditorium for sacred music. On the outside, the oratory was later embellished with allegorical statues of Faith, Hope and Charity by Gioacchino Fontini, who was also responsible for the interior, which consists of a low rectangular hall with a carved and gilded coffered ceiling. The single nave displays Baroque ornaments made from the grey pietra serena typically used in Florence to frame windows, doors and altars. The church has no aisles but is furnished with three large side altars on each arcade wall. The semi-circular apse has a painted half-dome. On the right, between the second and third side altar, is the entrance to the Chapel of the Sacrament by Zanobi del Rosso (1776). In this chapel is the tomb of Piero Bini, who established the Florentine congregation of the Oratorians.

Art Most of the interior decoration and the works of art date to the early eighteenth century. In the centre of the ceiling is an Apotheosis of Saint Philip Neri by Giovanni Camillo Sagrestani (1715). Gioacchino Fortini created reliefs with scenes of the life of Saint Philip Neri and also sculpted the statues of Charity and Purity in the main sanctuary. The half-dome bears the Holy Trinity with Apostles and Florentine Saints in fresco by Niccolò Lapi. The high altar is the work of Zanobi del Rosso, whereas two of the side altars are by Antonio Montauti. The altarpieces were painted by Giuseppe Pinzani, Alessandro Gherardini, Antonio Puglieschi, Matteo Bonechi and Anton Domenico Gabbiani.

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Figure 9 b: Plan of San Firenze with the church dedicated to San Filippo Neri on the left and the oratory on the right (plan: SC).

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A polyptych by Pacino di Bonaguida of The Crucifixion with Saints (c.1315-20) was commissioned by a priest for the high altar of the previously existing church of San Firenze (“Symon p(res)b(i)ter S(ancti) Flor(entii) fecit pi(n)gi h(oc) op(us) a Pacino Bonaguide a(n)no D(omi)ni MCCCX[…]”). It was sold by the order and taken to the Florentine Accademia Gallery in the middle of the nineteenth century (N. Cat. 00282047, http://www.tripadvisor.co.uk/LocationPhotoDirectLink-g18789 5-d195556-i158096099-Accademia_Gallery-Florence_Tuscany.html). On the altar of the Chapel of the Virgin is a Madonna by Carlo Maratta and an altarpiece, depicting the story of the eleven-thousand martyrs, attributed to Giovanni Stradano. The small dome displays frescoes by Luigi Sabatelli. The chapel houses a carved altarpiece as well as several devotionalia, including the death mask of Saint Philip Neri displayed together with his portrait bust. Bibl: Borsook 1983, 86; Cesati 2002, 101-2; Goy 2015, 77-8; Horstmann 2011, 51-5; Paatz 1941, II, 101-19; Tovey 2005, 310; Verdon, Coppellotti, Fabbri 2000, 180-1. Sources: VASARI IV Giuliano and Antonio da San Gallo 195: At this time there took place the death of the King of Naples, whereupon Giuliano Gondi, a very rich Florentine merchant, returned from that city to Florence, and commissioned Giuliano da San Gallo, with whom he had become very intimate on account of his visit to Naples, to build him a palace in rustic work, opposite to S. Firenze, above the place where the lions used to be.

BOCCHI-CINELLI, 342

BALDINUCCI San Firenze (church and convent of the fathers of Saint Filippo Neri): III.438; IV.309; IV.369; V.397-99; V.533.

RICHA, part I, vol II, lesson XXV, 251-62.

CHAPTER TEN SAN FREDIANO IN CESTELLO

Via di Cestello, 4; for a timetable of religious services, please visit http://sanfredianoincestello.blogspot.de/p/blog-page.html (available in Italian). Free entrance but no visits during religious services.

History San Frediano in Cestello (Fig. 10 a) is a Baroque church in the Oltrarno. The name “cestello” derives from the Cistercian order who occupied the church from 1628. In the vicinity, a parish church called San Frediano had existed from c.1065 onwards and, according to Albertini, was under the patronage of the Soderini family during the fifteenth century. When this parish church was deconsecrated, its name of San Frediano passed to the Cistercian church next door. From 1450 a Carmelite convent had existed in this place, which was then called Santa Maria degli Angeli. By 1626 two nieces of pope Urban VIII who lived in the convent, successfully petitioned the pope to allow the nuns to exchange homes with the monastery of Cistercians in Borgo Pinti. When the move happened, the relics of Saint Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi were transferred to the new place as well. Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi (1566-1607) was born to a noble Florentine family and had joined the Carmelites in 1582; soon she began having visions. Inspired by the examples of Saint Caterina of Siena and Girolamo Savonarola, Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi gave important impulses to the reformatory movement within the Catholic Church. The exchange with the Cistercians meant that a new name had to be found for San Frediano, so from this moment the church was called Cestello Nuovo in remembrance of the order’s place of origin in France. In 1782, it became part of the parish of San Frediano, and only then the present name of San Frediano in Cestello was established. The titular Irish Saint Frigidianus (San Frediano) had died in 588 as bishop of Lucca. According to legend, he created a canal with a hoe to avert the flooding of the river Serchio.

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Figure 10 a: The unfinished façade of San Frediano with its prominent dome seen from the opposite river front (photo: AG).

In 1680-1689, the church was rebuilt in accordance with the designs of Gherardo Silvani and Giulio Cerutti. The imposing cupola and bell tower were added in 1689 by Antonio Maria Ferri (also the architect of Palazzo Corsini across the Arno). At the time of the rebuilding the church’s orientation was changed from facing west to facing north towards the river. Grand Duke Leopold’s suppression of monastic foundations in 1808 led to the Cistercians’ leaving San Frediano and subsequently the building was turned back into a parish church.

Architecture San Frediano in Cestello presents a simple church façade towards the Arno, with a large dome that was completed in the late seventeenth century. The dome rests on a drum and is crowned by a lantern. It was built around the same time that a small campanile with a Baroque cap was erected. The interior consists of a hall with single nave and transept (Fig. 10 b) in grey and white; the choir is covered by a barrel vault. Three

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interconnected chapels on each side of the nave substitute for aisles. The chapels on the left are artificially lit, while the chapels on the right receive light from the windows of the clerestory. The transept contains only two pairs of wooden confessionals at each end and is embellished by murals in the dome and in the pendentives.

Art The interior is decorated chiefly in white and grey, but the domes, lunettes and pendentives were frescoed by some of the foremost artists of the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, including Gabbiani, Bonechi and Dandini. The church is dedicated to Saint Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi: behind the railings is a splendid high altar with pietre dure incrustations, a wooden crucifix dated to the sixteenth century and two marble busts of Saint Mary Magdalen and of Saint Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi. The inscription at the altar attests to the veneration of the Carmelite saint by the Cistercians. The altarpiece by Giovanni Sagrestani depicts the ecstasy and apotheosis of the saint. The fresco in the dome of the crossing is by Antonio Domenico Gabbiani and depicts the Glory of the Magdalen (1702-1718) and Virtues by Matteo Bonechi. The first side chapel on the right is also dedicated to Saint Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi. The third chapel on the left is decorated in memory of Saint Bernard of Clairvaux; it contains the Madonna del Sorriso, i.e. a polychrome wooden Madonna and Child (1350) by a follower of Nino, the son of Andrea Pisano, and frescoes of scenes from the life of the founder of the Cistercian order (1688-1689) by Pier Dandini.

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Figure 10 b: Plan of San Frediano (plan: SC).

The first cloister contains a statue of Saint Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi (1726) by Antonio Montauti; a Saint Bernard of Clairvaux Defeating the Devil (1702) is by Giuseppe Piamontini. The second cloister was designed by Gherardo and Pier Francesco Silvani. The refectory has a Last Supper painted by Bernardino Poccetti. In the transept is a Madonna in Glory with Saints by Francesco Curradi and the sacristy displays a painting of a Crucifixion with Saints and the

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Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence (c.1490) by Jacopo del Sellaio, which may once have been the altarpiece of the former parish church of San Frediano. Bibl: Borsook 1983, 285; De Boer 2010, annotation 210: 198-9; Cesati 2002, 36-8; Goy 2015, 262/3; Horstmann 2011, 56-8; Paatz 1941, II, 145-58, Tovey 2005, 310; Verdon, Coppellotti, Fabbri 2000, 112-3. Sources: ALBERTINI 100: In the Carmine and San Frediano […] The Church of San Frediano with its annexes, built from its foundations by the aforementioned House of Soderini, contains a number of good paintings.

VASARI III Filippo Lippi 86: Sandro Botticelli, Pesello, and Jacopo del Sellaio of Florence worked with Fra Filippo in their youth (the last-named painted two panels in S. Friano, and one wrought in distemper in the Carmine), with a great number of other masters, to whom he ever taught the art with great friendliness. Benozzo Gozzoli 121-2: In his youth he painted a panel for the altar of the Company of S. Marco in Florence, and, in S. Friano, a picture of the passing of S. Jerome, which has been spoilt in restoring the façade of the church along the street. In the Chapel of the Palace of the Medici he painted the Story of the Magi in fresco. IV Piero di Cosimo 132: He undertook to paint a panel for a chapel in the Church of S. Piero Gattolini, and in this he represented Our Lady seated, with four figures round her, and two angels in the sky, who are crowning her; which work, executed with such diligence that it brought him praise and honour, is now to be seen in S. Friano, the other church having been ruined.

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V Lorenzo di Credi 52: For S. Friano he painted a panel; and he executed some figures in S. Matteo at the Hospital of Lelmo.

BOCCHI-CINELLI, 162

BALDINUCCI S Frediano: I.490; I.551; III.88; III.439; IV.326; IV.355; IV.355; IV.355; IV.355; V.263; V.398-9.

RICHA, part IV, vol IX, lesson XIX-XX, 164-79.

CHAPTER ELEVEN SAN LORENZO

Piazza San Lorenzo, 9; free but restricted entrance for prayer, entrance fees apply for visits to the Basilica, the Laurentian Library, and the Medici Chapels. For more information, e.g. on opening hours and to book tickets, please visit: http://www.operamedicealaurenziana.org/en/ and http://www.polomuseale.firenze.it/en/musei/?m=cappellemedicee.

History San Lorenzo was founded, allegedly by Saint Ambrose, outside the Roman city walls in the late fourth century and is thus considered one of the oldest Christian churches in Florence. Florence’s first bishop, Saint Zenobius, is said to have been present during its consecration. The titular saint is Saint Lawrence, martyred under Emperor Valerian in the third century. The church’s early origins in the fourth century seem confirmed since it was mentioned in Emperor Constantine’s Edict of Tolerance of 313. San Lorenzo was the first bishopric of Florence, located on a hill next to the northern city gate, and remained the city’s most important church until 1191. The present church (Fig. 11 a) is the third in this location, replacing buildings of the fourth and the eleventh century. The second, TuscanRomanesque church was started as an extension of the first in 1045 and completed by 1060. In the early fifteenth century the city government allowed a further extension financed by Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici who commissioned Filippo Brunelleschi to build the Old Sacristy in 1419. The way the architect handled the combination of architectural and geometrical elements was such a success for Brunelleschi that he gained the commission for rebuilding the entire basilica. The foundation stone was laid in 1421 and the main church completed after 50 years of construction in time for a visit by Pius II to Florence. The work on other parts of the construction went on for most of the fifteenth and even well into the sixteenth century. The project was financed by indulgences sold to pilgrims as well as by the interest accrued through loans by Cosimo the

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Elder Medici to the city government. In return for their financial aid the Medici gained the right to put up their coat of arms and to use the church and the sacristy as their family parish church and mausoleum. The sale of patronage rights over some of the side chapels to other wealthy families contributed to financing this building project. Since Brunelleschi also worked on the cathedral dome project at the same time (1425 until his death in 1446), construction was delayed and only completed (unsatisfactorily according to Vasari in particular as regards the side chapels) by his pupil and biographer Antonio Manetti. Between 1515 and 1517, some of the main artists and architects submitted designs for the outer façade. Michelangelo’s proposal won against those of Giuliano da Sangallo, Jacopo Sansovino and Baccio d’Agnolo and he subsequently also submitted plans for the inner façade, for the Laurentian Library and for the New Sacristy located opposite the Old Sacristy on the other end of the transept. Michelangelo started work by creating a wooden model (now at the Casa Buonarroti) and he made a number of trips to the marble quarries to buy the raw material. However in the end, Pope Leo X cancelled the order in 1519. Periodically, there have been modern attempts to revive the project; e.g. in 2007 Michelangelo’s design was projected onto San Lorenzo’s brick façade: http://www. telegraph.co.uk/news/worldnews/europe/italy/8687266/Michelangelos-SanLorenzo-Basilica-exterior-could-be-revived.html. His counter façade, the Laurentian Library and the New Sacristy were built, although they also remained unfinished. From the early seventeenth century Matteo Nigetti worked on a further addition to the complex by adding the Chapel of the Princes based on designs made by Cosimo I’s natural (illegitimate) son Giovanni (1602). In the eighteenth century, several more projects in and outside the basilica were undertaken. The church was restored, for example the wooden coffered ceiling was repaired and decorated in colour and the campanile was added by Ferdinando Ruggieri in 1740. Shortly after, the dome over the crossing was decorated by Vincenzo Meucci. The pavement dates to the nineteenth century.

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Figure 11 a: The unfinished façade of San Lorenzo (photo: AG).

Architecture San Lorenzo is one of the largest churches in Florence with a three-nave interior (Fig. 11 b). In typical Florentine fashion the interior is decorated in white stucco combined with grey pietra serena. Tall Corinthian columns in pietra serena separate the main nave from the aisles filled with side chapels. The nave, transept and sanctuary are covered by a wooden coffered ceiling. The interior receives light through oculi over the side chapels and through tall windows at the height of the clerestory. San Lorenzo, for all its potential shortcomings (e.g. the dosserets or pulvins above the main columns), is an important example of a new, elegant and rational architecture, a new style invented by Brunelleschi who based all measurements within his building on the module, which corresponds to half the diameter of the main columns. Nonetheless, Vasari, among others, criticised the tall columns of the nave for not being elevated on plinths and the floors of the side aisles for being higher than the floor of the nave. The interior is unusually harmonious, for the proportions are all based on multiples or fractions of the module. This was applied to the relationship of the nave to aisle bays with vaults crowned by hemispherical domes as well as to that of columns to pilasters and by the structural system of columns, arches and entablatures. The balanced effect

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was further reinforced by the contrast of white and grey. Off the left transept lies the Old Sacristy dedicated to Saint John the Evangelist and decorated with sculpted tondi in the pendentives of the dome by Donatello as well as with figures over the bronze doors, and with the doors themselves, leading to ancillary rooms on either side of the sanctuary. In the liminal space between the Old Sacristy and the Chapel of Relics is the bust of Saint Lawrence by Desiderio da Settignano. The Old Sacristy’s main architectural feature consists of the then unique combination of cubic and global shapes. Crowned by an umbrella dome, its interior is illuminated by oculi on the twelve segments of dome and lantern. The square sanctuary is covered by a small dome decorated with a frescoed depiction of the astronomical situation as observed on 4 July 1442 when the titular King of Jerusalem (1438–80), Rene of Anjou (14091480), visited Florence. The Old Sacristy is used as Medici Mausoleum whose centre is taken up by the tomb marker of the burial of its patron, Giovanni di Bicci, and his wife. It is covered by a table decorated with a circular slab of porphyry, a reused antiquity. On the left, as one enters the Old Sacristy, is Andrea del Verrocchio’s tomb for Giovanni and Piero de’ Medici, which was commissioned by Lorenzo il Magnifico in 1472. On the other side of the transept is Michelangelo’s New Sacristy, which can now be accessed solely through the entrance on Piazza Santa Madonna degli Aldobrandini (Fig. 11 c). It was created by Michelangelo between 1520 and 1534 after Pope Leo X had decided not to continue work on the main façade. The New Sacristy uses the Old Sacristy in conjunction with the Roman Pantheon as architectural inspiration, although the interior is not dominated by straightforward structural elements such as those Brunelleschi would have used. Rather, one can feel the influence of mannerist architecture at a period in Michelangelo’s oeuvre when he sought inspiration from imperial Roman architecture (first century AD and later). Such influence can be gleaned in his project for the San Lorenzo façade as well as in elements such as negative emphasis employed to draw attention to a particular place by not embellishing it further. In the case of the New Sacristy, examples of negative emphasis can be found in the central niches of the wall tombs of the Medici captains, Lorenzo and Giuliano. Mannerist in style as well, are the eight doors distributed on either side of the four corners, of which only four will open. All eight are adorned with blind tabernacles resting on console brackets and crowned with complicated overlarge segmental pediments as well as other decoration that serves no structural purpose.

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The polygonal shape of the Cappella dei Principi (Fig. 11 c) constructed after the design of Don Giovanni de’ Medici (1602) and completed by Nigetti and Buontalenti was inspired by the Florentine Baptistery. It is decorated with pietre dure revetments and contains the tomb monuments of the Medici grand dukes of Tuscany, starting with Cosimo I de’ Medici. The pietre dure pavement bears the coats of arms of 16 cities of the Grand Duchy of Tuscany. The treasury contains relics donated by Clement VII to San Lorenzo in their richly decorated reliquaries, often made from reused antiquities in semi-precious stones. The centrepiece of the chapel was supposed to be the altar of the Holy Sepulchre, which Grand Duke Ferdinand I de’ Medici tried to have brought to Tuscany with the help of Captain-General Inghirami and the Tuscan fleet. Ferdinand also sent a number of gifts to the church of the Holy Sepulchre, among these was a screen with bronze reliefs cast after clay models by Giambologna. Through the cloisters on the left of the basilica, visitors gain access to Michelangelo’s Laurentian Library, commissioned in late 1523 or early 1524. The library, consisting of vestibule and reading room, rests on top of pre-existing buildings; its construction had to take into account how best to provide sources of light. Therefore, the ricetto (vestibule) had to be very tall and the reading room had to be placed on a higher floor to allow for fenestration on both sides. Most of the vestibule is taken up by the famous staircase, which was built by Vasari after Michelangelo’s design sent from Rome. Here again the unsettling effects of mannerist architecture are evident in a structure that seems to flow down from the upper floor and to be in constant motion. The walls are decorated with empty tabernacles as well as with sunken double columns that seem to rest solely on consoles, which barely look as if they can offer sufficient support, and merge in the four corners. The reading room by contrast is more conventional in that its space houses benches to which the books were chained; lists of books on the sides of the benches gave information about where to sit in order to consult the reading material needed. Decoration is concentrated on the stained-glass windows, prominently displaying the name and device of Pope Clement VII (“Semper”), on the red and white cotto floor and on the richly-carved wooden ceiling whose decoration echoes that of the pavement.

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Figure 11 b: Plan of San Lorenzo with nave and aisles, cloister, two sacristies and the Chapel of the Princes (plan: SC).

Art The basilica of San Lorenzo houses many important works of art, of which only some of the main examples shall be discussed here.

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Marked in front of the altar steps is the tomb of Cosimo the Elder. This commission was given to Andrea Verrocchio in 1465. The marker is arranged in a circle and decorated with green, white and red stone (the colours symbolising faith, hope and charity). It bears the inscription Pater Patriae bestowed by the Florentine Republic. Cosimo was buried in the crypt belowʊnear another treasury full of relicsʊnext to the tomb of his preferred artist and friend Donatello, who died two years after him in 1466. Two late works by Donatello had by then been created for display at San Lorenzo’s crossing: the Pulpit of the Passion of Christ and the Pulpit of the Resurrection. Both are decorated with bronze panels in Donatello’s famous rilievo schiacciato, also using the new technique of one-pointperspective. Having been displayed in situ, dismantled, and then remounted several times, the pulpits recently underwent restoration but are now again on display in the basilica. A prime example of the influence of one-point-perspective on the work of fifteenth century artists is the sculpted Tabernacle of the Sacrament by Desiderio da Settignano (1430-1464), otherwise famous for his wall tomb for Carlo Marsuppini at Santa Croce (chapter 6). The tabernacle was executed in 1461 and may now be found in the aisle to the right. Architectural elements such as a coffered barrel vaulted ceiling and all’antica decoration in combination with the figures of God-the-father and angels executed in bas-relief, lead the eye to the door opening in the centre. The rilievo schiacciato contrasts with the fully three-dimensional gambolling and candle-holding putti above and on either side. The so-called Martelli Annunciation by Filippo Lippi (c.1440) is located in the Martelli chapel in the left transept and combines traditional elements such as the division of the altarpiece by a painted column in the centre with more up-to-date trends (no Gothic pinnacles, geometric perspective) and even foreign, i.e. Flemish influences. Also on the left is Agnolo Bronzino’s large fresco depicting the martyrdom of Saint Lawrence, a monumental work of 1565-1569. In the foreground, Saint Lawrence is being roasted alive, while the background depicts a largely imaginary Roman cityscape decorated with statuary of ancient gods and heroes (e.g. Mercury and Hercules). The many nudes of heroic proportions depicted in dramatic contortions are considered to be a reference to Michelangelo’s Last Judgement (1534-1541) on the altar wall of the Sistine Chapel.

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Perhaps the most famous as well as controversial work of art once in the basilica of San Lorenzo is one that is no longer extant, having been destroyed in the eighteenth century. In 1545, Duke Cosimo I commissioned Jacopo Pontormo to execute a monumental Last Judgement for the choir of the church. Pontormo created a mass of preliminary drawings (Florence, Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi), which are all that remain today together with some contemporary descriptions and an engraving of 1598. The lost frescoes were heavily criticised by Vasari and have been discussed ever since as a possible expression of either Pontormo’s or even Cosimo I’s religious heterodoxy. The frescoes were destroyed in 1742, since the chapel walls had collapsed as a result of restoration work. The interior of the New Sacristy underwent diverse planning phases and remained unfinished after the death of Pope Clement VII in 1534, when Michelangelo left for Rome. It contains four tombs for Medici scions in total. The burials of the captains Giovanni and Lorenzo are said to represent the active and contemplative life. These wall tombs are incomplete; each monument is missing two more statues at floor level, which would have given the arrangement a triangular shape and counteracted the unfortunate impression that the statues of Night and Day and Dusk and Dawn are sliding off the sarcophagus lids. The tomb monument of the magnificent Lorenzo and Giovanni, opposite the altar space, is decorated with statues of a Madonna and child as well as with those of Saint Cosmas and Damian, medical doctors and Medici saints. Originally, further tombs had been planned for the centre of the chapel. The ensemble of sculptures is best appreciated from a point of view behind the altar looking towards Michelangelo’s Madonna and Child.

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Figure 11 c: Entrance to the Chapel of the Princes, San Lorenzo, which today also offers access to the New Sacristy (photo: AG).

Bibl: Borsook 1983, 203-9 and 250-9; Butters 1996, I, 41-65, 2000, 138, 2002, 6775 and 2007, 243-354; Campbell and Cole 2012, 97 and 132-4, 149, 158, 170, 172, 216, 421, 447-50, 552; Cesati 2002, 39-44; Costamagna 1992, 239-48; Costamagna 1994, 252-65; Crispino 1999, 22-7; Daminaki 2009, 77-118; De Boer 2010, annotations 40-57: 125-32; Falciani 1996, 163-77; Falciani and Natali 2014;

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Firpo 1997, 3-63; Gaston and Waldman 2016 in press; Goy 2015, 193-202; Hartt & Wilkins 2007, 167-70, 550-58; Horstmann 2011, 73-9; Murray 2004, 39-50 and 171-8; Paatz 1941, II, 464-593; Paolucci 2006, 82-101; Pilliod 2001, 32-42 and forthcoming 2017; Tovey 2005, 311-2; Verdon, Coppellotti, Fabbri 2000, 58-61; Verdon ed. 2007, vol. 5. Sources: VILLANI III § 2. 62-3—Of the form and size in which the city of Florence was rebuilt. The rebuilding of the new city of Florence was begun by the Romans, as aforesaid, on a small site and circuit, after the same fashion as Rome, allowing for the smallness of the undertaking; and it began on the side of the sunrise at the gate of S. Piero, which was where were after the houses of M. Bellincione Berti, of the Rovignani, a noble and powerful citizen, albeit to-day they have disappeared; the which houses by inheritance of the Countess Gualdrada, his daughter, and wife to the first Count Guido, passed to the Counts Guidi, her descendants, when they became citizens of Florence, and afterwards they sold them to the Black Cerchi, a Florentine family; and from the said gate ran a borgo as far as S. Piero Maggiore, after the fashion of Rome, and from that gate the walls proceeded as far as the Duomo, on the site where now runs the great road leading to San Giovanni, as far as the Bishop’s Palace. And here was another gate, which was called the gate of the Duomo, but there were who called it the Bishop’s Gate; and without this gate was built the church of S. Lorenzo, just as in Rome there is S. Lorenzo without the walls; VI § 33.141-6—How the Guelf party was first driven from Florence by the Ghibellines and the forces of the Emperor Frederick. 1248 a.d. In the said times when Frederick was in Lombardy, having been deposed from the title of Emperor by Pope Innocent, as we have said, in so far as he could he sought to destroy in Tuscany and in Lombardy the faithful followers of Holy Church, in all the cities where he had power. And first he began to demand hostages from all the cities of Tuscany, and took them from both Ghibellines and Guelfs, and sent them to Samminiato del Tedesco; but when this was done, he released the Ghibellines and retained the Guelfs, which were afterwards abandoned as poor prisoners, and abode long time in Samminiato as beggars. And forasmuch as our city of Florence in those times was not among the least notable and powerful of Italy, he desired especially to vent his spleen against it, and to increase the accursed parties of the Guelfs and Ghibellines, which had begun long time before through the death of M. Bondelmonte, and before, as we have already shown. But albeit ever since this the said parties had continued among the nobles of Florence

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(who were also ever and again at war among themselves by reason of their private enmities), and albeit they were divided into the said parties, each holding with his own, they which were called the Guelfs loving the side of the Pope and of Holy Church, and they which were called the Ghibellines loving and favouring the Emperor and his allies, nevertheless, the people and commonwealth had been maintained in unity to the well-being and honour, and good estate of the republic. But now the said Emperor sent ambassadors and letters to the family of the Uberti, which were heads of his party, and their allies which were called Ghibellines, inviting them to drive their enemies, which were called Guelfs, from the city, and offering them aid of his horsemen; and this caused the Uberti to begin dissension and civil strife in Florence, whence the city began to be disordered, and the nobles and all the people to be divided, some holding to one party, and some to the other; and in divers parts of the city there was fighting long time. Among the other places, the chief was at the houses of the Uberti, which were where the great palace of the people now is. They gathered there with their allies, and fought against the Guelfs of the sesto of San Piero Scheraggio, whereof were leaders the family dal Bagno, called Bagnesi, and the Pulci, and the Guidalotti, and all the allies of the Guelfs of that sesto; and also the Guelfs of Oltrarno passing over the mill-dams, came to succour them when they were attacked by the Uberti. The second place of combat was in the Porte San Piero, where the leaders of the Ghibellines were the Tedaldini, forasmuch as they had the strongest dwellings in palaces and towers, and with them held the Caponsacchi, the Lisei, the Giuochi and Abati, and Galigari, and the fighting was against the house of the Donati, and the Visdomini, and Pazzi, and Adimari. And the third place of combat was in Porte del Duomo, at the tower of Messer Lancia of the Cattani of Castiglione, and of Cersino, to whom belonged the heads of the Ghibellines, with the Agolanti and Brunelleschi, and many popolari of their party, against the Tosinghi, Agli and Arrigucci. And the fourth combat and battle was in San Brancazio, whereof the leaders for the Ghibellines were the Lamberti, and Toschi, Amieri, Cipriani, and Migliorelli, with many followers of the Popolo, against the Tornaquinci, and Vecchietti, and Pigli, albeit part of the Pigli were Ghibellines. And the Ghibellines drew up in San Brancazio at the tower of the Scarafaggio [Scarabæus] of the Soldanieri, and from that tower an arrow struck M. Rustico Marignolli in the face (who was bearing the Guelf standard, to wit, a crimson lily on a white field), whence he died; and the very day that the Guelfs were expelled, and before they departed, they came in arms to bury him in San Lorenzo; and when the Guelfs were departed, the canons of San Lorenzo carried away the body, to the end that the Ghibellines might not unbury it and do it outrage, forasmuch as he was a great leader of the Guelf party. And the next force of the Ghibellines was in the Borgo, whereof the leaders were the Scolari, and Soldanieri, and Guidi, against the Bondelmonti, Giandonati, Bostichi and Cavalcanti, Scali and Gianfigliazzi. In Oltrarno it was the Ubbriachi and the Mannelli (and there were no other nobles of renown, but families of the popolari) against the Rossi and the Nerli. Thus it came to pass that the said frays endured long time, and there was fighting at barricades from street to street, and from one tower to another (for there were many in Florence in these times, 100 cubits and more in height), and with mangonels and

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other engines they fought together by day and by night. And in the midst of this strife and fighting the Emperor Frederick sent into Florence King Frederick, his bastard son, with 1,600 horsemen of his German followers. When the Ghibellines heard that they were nigh unto Florence, they took courage fighting with more force and boldness against the Guelfs, which had no allies, nor were expecting any succour, forasmuch as the Church was at Lyons on the Rhone beyond the mountains, and the power of Frederick was beyond measure great in all parts of Italy. And on this occasion the Ghibellines used a device of war; for at the house of the Uberti the greater part of the Ghibelline forces assembled, and when the fight began at the places of battle set forth above, they went in a mass to oppose the Guelfs, and in this wise they overcame them well nigh in every part of the city, save in their own neighbourhood against the barricades of the Guidalotti and the Bagnesi, which endured more stoutly; and to that place the Guelfs repaired, and all the forces of the Ghibellines against them. At last, the Guelfs saw themselves to be hard pressed, and heard that Frederick’s knights were already in Florence (King Frederick having already entered with his followers on Sunday morning), yet they held out until the following Wednesday. Then, not being able longer to resist the forces of the Ghibellines, they abandoned the defence, and departed from the city on the night of S. Mary Candlemas in the year of Christ 1248. When the Guelf party were driven from Florence, the nobles of that party withdrew, some of them to the fortress of Montevarchi in Valdarno, and some to the fortress of Capraia; and Pelago, and Ristonchio, and Magnale, up to Cascia, were held by the Guelfs, and were called the League; and therein they made war against the city and the territory around Florence. Other popolani of that party repaired to their farms and to their friends in the country. The Ghibellines which remained masters in Florence, with the forces and the horsemen of the Emperor Frederick, changed the ruling of the city after their mind, and caused thirty-six fortresses of the Guelfs to be destroyed, palaces and great towers, among the which the most noble was that of the Tosinghi upon the Mercato Vecchio, called the Palace, 90 cubits high, built with marble columns, and a tower thereto 130 cubits. Also the Ghibellines attempted a yet more impious deed, forasmuch as the Guelfs resorted much to the church of S. Giovanni, and all the good people assembled there on Sunday morning, and there they solemnized marriages; and when the Ghibellines came to destroy the towers of the Guelfs, there was one among them very great and beautiful, which was upon the piazza of S. Giovanni, at the entrance of the street of the Adimari, and it was called the tower of the Guardamorto, forasmuch as of old all the good folk which died were buried at S. Giovanni; and the Ghibellines, purposing to rase to the ground the said tower, caused it to be propped up in such wise that when the fire was applied to the props it should fall upon the church of S. Giovanni; and this was done. But as it pleased God, by reverence and miracle of the blessed John, the tower, which was 120 cubits high, showed manifestly, when it came to fall, that it would avoid the holy church, and turned and fell directly upon the piazza, wherefore all the Florentines marvelled and the popolo rejoiced greatly. And note, that since the city of Florence had been rebuilt, not one house had been destroyed, and the said accursed destruction thereof was then begun by the Ghibellines. And they ordained that of the Emperor Frederick’s followers there

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should remain 1,800 German horsemen in their pay, whereof Count Giordano was captain. It came to pass that in the same year when the Guelfs were driven from Florence, they which were at Montevarchi were attacked by the German troops which were in garrison in the fortress of Gangareta in the market place of the said Montevarchi, and there was a fierce battle of but few people, as far as the Arno, between the Guelf refugees from Florence, and the Germans. In the end the Germans were discomfited, and a great part thereof slain and taken prisoners, and this was in the year of Christ 1248.

ALBERTINI 95-6: In the Church of San Lorenzo was known as Ambrosiana in ancient times because Saint Zenobius received Saint Ambrose as a guest there. The renowned and nboble House of Medici had this beautiful church entirely renovated from the foundations up by the architect Filippo Brunelleschi. It is 144 braccia [84.04m] long and in it are countless inlaid stones with large, tall, single-stone columns, a coffered ceiling in a variety of columns adorned in fine gold, and a very beautiful two-story cloister, 104 braccia [60.69m] long, with very beautiful rooms for the canons and the chaplains. I must mention the fact that underneath this church is another church whose length and width are similar to the one above it, with chapels, a choir, and beautiful tombs, in particular that of Cosimo de’ Medici and ones of other noble citizens. In this church there is a large standard that the Florentine people commissioned from Taddeo Gaddi and it hangs high in the dome. In the chapel of the operai, there is an altarpiece by the Carmelite Fra Filippo Lippi, and a design for one [altarpiece] in the chapel of Saint Andrew. The four great saints high up in the tabernacles are by Donatello, who also made the two bronze pulpits for the Gospel and the Epistles. The marble altarpiece of the sacrament and its ornaments are by Desiderio da Settignano, except for the Christ above the chalice, which you [Baccio da Montelupo] made together with the crucifix and the angels of the high altar, at the time I was a sacristan of this church. […] In the sacristy, which is very beautiful and richly decorated, there are the stories of the four evangelists and other saints in half relief and two bronze doors, all by Donatello. I must also mention the other marbles, tombs, the marble putto by Desiderio da Settignano, the sculpted altar with Abraham by Filippo Brunelleschi, and the washbasin by Rossellino. This sacristy contains Andrea del Verrocchio’s freestanding bronze tomb of Piero and Giovanni de’ Medici, adorned with various types of marbles and porphyrie. This is not to mention the great silver cross, the one of fine jasper, the various vases and reliquaries and the angels’ vestments, all expertly executed by great masters.

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VASARI I Preface lii: Later, in Florence, architecture made some little progress, and the Church of S. Apostolo, that was erected by Charlemagne, although small, was most beautiful in manner; for not to mention that the shafts of the columns, although they are of separate pieces, show much grace and are made with beautiful proportion, the capitals, also, and the arches turned to make the little vaulted roofs of the two small aisles, show that in Tuscany there had survived or in truth arisen some good craftsman. In short, the architecture of this church is such that Filippo di Ser Brunellesco did not disdain to avail himself of it as a model in building the Church of S. Spirito and that of S. Lorenzo in the same city. II Preface to Second Part 84-5: It was ordained that all works should proceed by rule, should be pursued with better ordering, and should be distributed with due measure. Design grew in strength and depth; good grace was given to buildings; the excellence of that art made itself known; and the beauty and variety of capitals and cornices were recovered in such a manner, that the ground-plans of his churches and of his other edifices are seen to have been very well conceived, and the buildings themselves ornate, magnificent, and beautifully proportioned, as it may be seen in the stupendous mass of the cupola of S. Maria del Fiore in Florence, and in the beauty and grace of its lantern; in the ornate, varied, and graceful Church of S. Spirito, and in the no less beautiful edifice of S. Lorenzo; in the most bizarre invention of the octagonal Temple of the Angeli; in the most fanciful Church and Convent of the Abbey of Fiesole, and in the magnificent and vast beginning of the Pitti Palace; besides the great and commodious edifice that Francesco di Giorgio made in the Palace and Church of the Duomo at Urbino, and the very strong and rich Castle of Naples, and the impregnable Castle of Milan, not to mention many other notable buildings of that time. Filippo Brunelleschi 201: Wherefore he presented the scene that he had wrought in bronze to Cosimo de’ Medici, who after a time had it placed on the dossal of the altar in the old Sacristy of S. Lorenzo, where it is to be found at present; and that of Donato was placed in the Guild of the Exchange. 224-6: The Church of S. Lorenzo had been begun in Florence at this time by order of the people of that quarter, who had made the Prior superintendent of that building. This person made profession of much knowledge in architecture, and was ever amusing himself therewith by way of pastime. And they had already begun the building by making piers of brick, when Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici, who had promised the people of that quarter and the Prior to have the sacristy and a

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chapel made at his own expense, invited Filippo one morning to dine with him, and after much discourse asked him what he thought of the beginning of S. Lorenzo. Filippo was constrained by the entreaties of Giovanni to say what he thought, and being compelled to speak the truth, he criticized it in many respects, as something designed by a person who had perchance more learning than experience of buildings of that sort. Whereupon Giovanni asked Filippo if something better and more beautiful could be made: to which Filippo replied, “Without a doubt, and I marvel that you, being the chief in the enterprise, do not devote a few thousand crowns to building a body of a church with all its parts worthy of the place and of so many noble owners of tombs, who, seeing it begun, will proceed with their chapels to the best of their power; above all, because there remains no memorial of us save walls, which bear testimony for hundreds and thousands of years to those who built them.” Giovanni, encouraged by the words of Filippo, determined to build the sacristy and the principal chapel, together with the whole body of the church, although only seven families were willing to co-operate, since the others had not the means: these seven were the Rondinelli, Ginori, Dalla Stufa, Neroni, Ciai, Marignolli, Martelli, and Marco di Luca, and these chapels were to be made in the cross. The sacristy was the first part to be undertaken, and afterwards the church, little by little. The other chapels along the length of the church came to be granted afterwards, one by one, to other citizens of the quarter. The roofing of the sacristy was not finished when Giovanni de’ Medici passed to the other life, leaving behind him his son Cosimo, who, having a greater spirit than his father and delighting in memorials, caused this one to be carried on. It was the first edifice that he erected, and he took so great delight therein that from that time onwards up to his death he was for ever building. Cosimo pressed this work forward with greater ardour, and while one part was being begun, he would have another finished. Looking on the work as a pastime, he was almost always there, and it was his solicitude that caused Filippo to finish the sacristy, and Donato to make the stucco-work, with the stone ornaments for those little doors and the doors of bronze. In the middle of the sacristy, where the priests don their vestments, he had a tomb made for his father Giovanni, under a great slab of marble supported by four little columns; and in the same place he made a tomb for his own family, separating that of the women from that of the men. In one of the two little rooms that are on either side of the altar in the said sacristy he made a well in one corner, with a place for a lavatory. In short, everything in this fabric is seen to have been built with much judgment. Giovanni and the others had arranged to make the choir in the middle, below the tribune; but Cosimo changed this at the wish of Filippo, who made the principal chapel—which had been designed at first as a smaller recess—so much greater, that he was able to make the choir therein, as it is at present. This being finished, there remained to be made the central tribune and the rest of the church; but this tribune, with the rest, was not vaulted until after the death of Filippo. This church is one hundred and forty-four braccia in length, and many errors are seen therein, one being that the columns are placed on the level of the ground instead of being raised on a dado, which should have been as high as the level of the bases of the pilasters which stand on the steps, so that, as one sees the pilasters shorter than the columns, the whole of that work appears badly

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proportioned. All this was caused by the counsels of his successors, who were jealous of his name and had made models in opposition to his during his lifetime. For these they had been put to shame with sonnets written by Filippo, and after his death they took vengeance on him in this manner, not only in this work but in all those that remained to be carried out by them. He left the model for the presbytery of the priests of S. Lorenzo, and part of the building finished, wherein he made the cloister one hundred and forty-four braccia in length. Donatello 248-9: Afterwards, having returned to Tuscany, he made a marble tomb, with a very beautiful scene, in the Pieve of Montepulciano, and a lavatory of marble, on which Andrea Verrocchio also worked, in the Sacristy of S. Lorenzo in Florence; […].Having returned to Florence, therefore, he wrought the Sacristy of S. Lorenzo in stucco for Cosimo de’ Medici, making four medallions on the pendentives of the vault containing stories of the Evangelists, with grounds in perspective, partly painted and partly in low-relief. And in the said place he made two very beautiful little doors of bronze in low-relief, with the Apostles, Martyrs, and Confessors; and above these he made some flat niches, one containing a S. Laurence and a S. Stephen, and the other S. Cosimo and S. Damiano. In the transept of the church he executed four saints in stucco, each five braccia high, which are wrought in a masterly manner. He also designed the bronze pulpits that contain the Passion of Christ, a work displaying design, force, invention, and an abundance of figures and buildings; but these his old age prevented him from executing, and his pupil Bertoldo finished them and brought them to the utmost perfection. 250-1: For the family of the Martelli, moreover, he made a coffin in the form of a cradle wrought of wicker-work, to serve for a tomb; but it is beneath the Church of S. Lorenzo, because no tombs of any kind are to be seen above, save only the epitaph of the tomb of Cosimo de’ Medici, and even that one has its entrance below, like the others. 252: When he had reached the age of eighty-three, however, he was so palsied that he could no longer work in any fashion, and took to spending all his time in bed in a poor little house that he had in the Via del Cocomero, near the Nunnery of S. Niccolò; where, growing worse from day to day and wasting away little by little, he died on December 13, 1466. He was buried in the Church of S. Lorenzo, near the tomb of Cosimo, as he had himself directed, to the end that his dead body might be near him, even as he had been ever near him in spirit when alive. 254: He left all his work to be completed by his pupil Bertoldo, and particularly the bronze pulpits of S. Lorenzo, which were afterwards finished in great part by him, and brought to the state in which they are seen in the said church.

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III Fra Filippo Lippi 82: In the Chapel of the Wardens of Works in S. Lorenzo he wrought a panel with another Annunciation; with one for the Della Stufa Chapel, which he did not finish. Desiderio da Settignano 147-8: For the Chapel of the Brancacci in the Carmine he made an angel of wood; and he finished with marble the Chapel of the Sacrament in S. Lorenzo, carrying it to complete perfection with much diligence. There was in it a child of marble in the round, which was removed and is now set up on the altar at the festivals of the Nativity of Christ, as an admirable work; and in place of this Baccio da Montelupo made another, also of marble, which stands permanently over the Tabernacle of the Sacrament. Mino da Fiesole 155-6: And a little after this he undertook, at the instance of Messer Dietisalvi Neroni, to make a little panel with figures of Our Lady with the Child in her arms, and S. Laurence on one side and S. Leonard on the other, in half-relief, which was intended for the priests or chapter of S. Lorenzo; but it has remained in the Sacristy of the Badia of Florence. Benedetto da Maiano 263: At his death he left in his house many things begun both in clay and in marble. Benedetto was a very good draughtsman, as may be seen in certain drawings in our book. Finally he died in 1498, at the age of fifty-four, and was honourably buried in S. Lorenzo; and he left directions that all his property, after the death of certain of his relatives, should go to the Company of the Bigallo. Andrea Verrocchio 269: Having acquired the name of an excellent master by means of these works, above all through many works in metal, in which he took much delight, he made a tomb of bronze in S. Lorenzo, wholly in the round, for Giovanni and Pietro di Cosimo de’ Medici, with a sarcophagus of porphyry supported by four cornerpieces of bronze, with twisted foliage very well wrought and finished with the greatest diligence. This tomb stands between the Chapel of the Sacrament and the Sacristy, and no work could be better done, whether wrought in bronze or cast; above all since at the same time he showed therein his talent in architecture, for he placed the said tomb within the embrasure of a window which is about five braccia in breadth and ten in height, and set it on a base that divides the said Chapel of the Sacrament from the old Sacristy. And over the sarcophagus, to fill up the embrasure right up to the vaulting, he made a grating of bronze ropes in a pattern of mandorle, most natural, and adorned in certain places with festoons and other

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beautiful things of fancy, all remarkable and executed with much mastery, judgment, and invention. IV Leonardo da Vinci 104: There was very great disdain between Michelagnolo Buonarroti and him, on account of which Michelagnolo departed from Florence, with the excuse of Duke Giuliano, having been summoned by the Pope to the competition for the façade of S. Lorenzo. Fra Bartolommeo di San Marco 162: From Piero Soderini he received the commission for the panel of the Council Chamber, which he began in such a manner, drawing it in chiaroscuro, that it seemed destined to do him very great credit; and, unfinished as it is, it now has a place of honour in the Chapel of the Magnificent Ottaviano de’ Medici, in S. Lorenzo. In it are all the Patron Saints of the city of Florence, and those saints on whose days that city has gained her victories; and there is also the portrait of Fra Bartolommeo himself, made by him with a mirror. He had begun this picture, and had drawn the whole design, when it happened that, from working continually under a window, with the light from it beating on his back, he became completely paralyzed on that side of his body, and quite unable to move. V Baccio da Montelupo and Raffaello, his son 43: He had finished this work, when Michelagnolo, by order of Pope Clement VII, proceeded to finish the new sacristy and the library of S. Lorenzo in Florence; and that master, having recognized the talent of Raffaello, made use of him in that work, and caused him to execute, among other things, after the model that he himself had made, the S. Damiano of marble which is now in that sacristy—a very beautiful statue, very highly extolled by all men. Andrea del Sarto 111: There was wanting only one scene in the cloister of the Scalzo for it to be completely finished; wherefore Andrea, who had added grandeur to his manner after having seen the figures that Michelagnolo had begun and partly finished for the Sacristy of S. Lorenzo, set his hand to executing this last scene. Giovanni Antonio Sogliani 160: but that monastery was taken on account of the siege of Florence from those Eremite Fathers, who used devoutly to celebrate the Divine offices in the church, and was afterwards given to the Nuns of S. Giovannino, of the Order of the Knights of Jerusalem, and finally destroyed; and the picture, being one which may be numbered among the best works that Sogliani painted, was placed by order of the Lord Duke Cosimo in one of the chapels of the Medici family in S. Lorenzo.

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Il Rosso 192: For S. Lorenzo, at the commission of Carlo Ginori, he painted a panel-picture of the Marriage of Our Lady, which is held to be a most beautiful work. And, in truth, with regard to his facility of method, there has never been anyone who has been able to surpass him in masterly skill and dexterity, or even to approach within any distance of him; and he was so sweet in colouring, and varied his draperies with such grace, and took such delight in his art, that he was always held to be marvellous and worthy of the highest praise. Whosoever shall observe this work must recognize that all that I have written is most true, above all as he studies the nudes, which are very well conceived, with all the requirements of anatomy. His women are full of grace, and the draperies that adorn them fanciful and bizarre. He showed, also, the sense of fitness that is necessary in the heads of the old, with their harshness of features, and in those of women and children, with expressions sweet and pleasing. He was so rich in invention, that he never had any space left over in his pictures, and he executed all his work with such facility and grace, that it was a marvel. Morto da Feltro and Andrea di Cosimo Feltrini 231: He executed the baldachin under which the Pope walked, covering the upper part with most beautiful grotesques, and the hangings round it with the arms of that Pope and other devices of the Church; and this baldachin was afterwards presented to the Church of S. Lorenzo in Florence, where it is still to be seen. VI Baccio d’Agnolo 68: Finally, when near the age of eighty-three, but still of good and sound judgment, he passed to a better life in 1543, leaving three sons, Giuliano, Filippo, and Domenico, who had him buried in S. Lorenzo. Valerio Vicentino, Giovanni da Castel Bolognese, Matteo dal Nassaro of Verona, and other excellent engravers of Cameos and Gems 75-6: So far as is known, it is not found that anyone began to do good work or to attain to excellence until the time of Pope Martin V and Pope Paul II; after which the art continued to grow little by little down to the time of Lorenzo de’ Medici, the Magnificent, who greatly delighted in the engraved cameos of the ancients. Lorenzo and his son Piero collected a great quantity of these, particularly chalcedonies, cornelians, and other kinds of the choicest engraved stones, which contained various fanciful designs; and in consequence of this, wishing to establish the art in their own city, they summoned thither masters from various countries, who, besides restoring those stones, brought to them other works which were at that time rare. 83: He [Valerio] also fashioned many vases of crystal for Pope Clement, who presented some to various Princes, and others were placed in the Church of S. Lorenzo at Florence, together with many vases that were formerly in the Palace of

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the Medici and had belonged to the elder Lorenzo, the Magnificent, and to other members of that most illustrious family, that they might serve to contain the relics of many Saints, which that Pontiff presented to that church in memory of himself. It would not be possible to find anything more varied than the curves of those vases, some of which are of sardonyx, agate, amethyst, and lapis-lazuli, and some of plasma, heliotrope, jasper, crystal, and cornelian, so that in point of value or beauty nothing more could be desired. Sebastiano del Piombo 183: Now, when Michelagnolo was in Florence in the time of Pope Clement, engaged in the work of the new Sacristy of S. Lorenzo, Giuliano Bugiardini wished to paint for Baccio Valori a picture with the head of Pope Clement and that of Baccio himself, and another for Messer Ottaviano de’ Medici of the same Pontiff and the Archbishop of Capua. Giovanni Antonio Lappoli 257: Giovanni Antonio, then, in order that he might be looked after, had gone to live in the house of one Ser Raffaello di Sandro, a lame chaplain, in S. Lorenzo, to whom he paid so much a year, and he abandoned in great measure the study of painting, for the reason that the priest was a man of the world, delighting in pictures, music, and other diversions, and many persons of talent frequented the rooms that he had at S. Lorenzo; among others, M. Antonio da Lucca, a most excellent musician and performer on the lute, at that time a very young man, from whom Giovanni learned to play the lute. VII Niccolo, called Tribolo 10-2: Which work finished, and also that of the others, with great perfection, Tribolo had already made many models of wax with a view to executing some of those Prophets that were to go in the niches of that chapel, which was now built and completely finished, when Pope Clement, after seeing those works and praising them much, and particularly that of Tribolo, determined that they should all return without loss of time to Florence, in order to finish under the discipline of Michelagnolo Buonarroti all those figures that were wanting in the sacristy and library of S. Lorenzo, and the rest of the work, after the models of Michelagnolo and with his assistance, with the greatest possible speed, to the end that, having finished the sacristy, they might all together be able, thanks to the proficience made under the discipline of so great a man, also to finish the façade of S. Lorenzo. […]Wherefore Tribolo, having regained a little courage, occupied himself, while measures were being taken to assist him, with copying in clay all the figures of marble in the Sacristy of S. Lorenzo which Michelagnolo had executed—namely, Dawn, Twilight, Day, and Night. And he succeeded in doing them so well, that M. Giovan Battista Figiovanni, the Prior of S. Lorenzo, to whom he presented the Night in return for having the sacristy opened for him, judging it to be a rare work, presented it to Duke Alessandro, who afterwards gave it to

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Giorgio Vasari, who was living with his Excellency, knowing that Giorgio gave his attention to such studies; which figure is now in his house at Arezzo, with other works of art. Having afterwards copied, likewise in clay, the Madonna made by Michelagnolo for the same sacristy, Tribolo presented it to the above-named M. Ottaviano de’ Medici, who had a most beautiful ornament in squared work made for it by Battista del Cinque, with columns, cornices, brackets, and other carvings very well executed. 32: Tribolo then set his hand, at the command of his Excellency, to attempting to finish the staircase of the library of S. Lorenzo—that, namely, which is in the vestibule before the door; but after he had placed four steps in position, not finding either the plan or the measurements of Michelagnolo, by order of the Duke he went to Rome, not only to hear the opinion of Michelagnolo with regard to that staircase, but also to make an effort to bring him to Florence. Baccio Bandinelli 65-7: This work brought great fame to Baccio, who, after finishing the Laocoon, set himself to draw a scene on a sheet of royal folio laid open, in order to carry out a design of the Pope, who wished to have the Martyrdom of S. Cosimo and S. Damiano painted on one wall of the principal chapel of S. Lorenzo in Florence, and on the other that of S. Laurence, when he was put to death by Decius on the gridiron. Baccio then drew with great subtlety the story of S. Laurence, in which he counterfeited with much judgment and art figures both clothed and nude, different attitudes and gestures in the bodies and limbs, and various movements in those who are standing about S. Laurence, engaged in their dreadful office, and in particular the cruel Decius, who with threatening brow is urging on the fiery death of the innocent Martyr, who, raising one arm to Heaven, recommends his spirit to God. With this scene Baccio so satisfied the Pope, that he took steps to have it engraved on copper by Marc’Antonio Bolognese, which was done by Marc’Antonio with great diligence; and his Holiness created Baccio, in order to do honour to his talents, a Chevalier of S. Pietro. […] As far back as the time of Leo X there had been quarried at Carrara, together with the marbles for the façade of S. Lorenzo in Florence, another block of marble nine braccia and a half high and five braccia wide at the foot. With this block of marble Michelagnolo Buonarroti had thought of making a giant in the person of Hercules slaying Cacus, intending to place it in the Piazza beside the colossal figure of David formerly made by him, since both the one and the other, David and Hercules, were emblems of the Palace. He had made several designs and various models for it, and had sought to gain the favour of Pope Leo and of Cardinal Giulio de’ Medici, saying that the David had many defects caused by the sculptor Maestro Andrea, who had first blocked it out and spoiled it. But by reason of the death of Leo the façade of S. Lorenzo was for a time abandoned, and also this block of marble. Now afterwards, Pope Clement having conceived a desire to avail himself of Michelagnolo for the tombs of the heroes of the house of Medici, which he wished to have constructed in the Sacristy of S. Lorenzo, it became once more necessary to quarry marbles; and the head of these works, keeping the accounts of the expenses, was Domenico Buoninsegni.

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This man tried to tempt Michelagnolo to make a secret partnership with him in the matter of the stone-work for the façade of S. Lorenzo; but Michelagnolo refused, not consenting that his genius should be employed in defrauding the Pope, and Domenico conceived such hatred against him that he went about ever afterwards opposing his undertakings, in order to annoy and humiliate him, but this he did covertly. He thus contrived to have the façade discontinued and the sacristy pushed forward, which two works, he said, were enough to keep Michelagnolo occupied for many years. And as for the marble for the making of the giant, he urged the Pope that it should be given to Baccio, who at that time had nothing to do; saying that through the emulation of two men so eminent his Holiness would be served better and with more diligence and promptitude, rivalry stimulating both the one and the other in his work. 72: Afterwards, the war being finished and peace made, Pope Clement caused Michelagnolo to return to Florence in order to finish the Sacristy of S. Lorenzo, and sent Baccio to see to the completion of the giant. 81-2: Arriving in Florence, Baccio found that the Duke had sent the sculptor Tribolo to Carrara to quarry the marble for the fountains of Castello and the tomb of Signor Giovanni; and he so wrought upon the Duke that he wrested the tomb of Signor Giovanni from the hands of Tribolo, demonstrating to his Excellency that the marbles for such a work were already in great measure in Florence. Thus, little by little, he penetrated into the confidence of the Duke, insomuch that both for this reason and for his arrogance everyone was afraid of him. He then proposed to the Duke that the tomb of Signor Giovanni should be erected in the Chapel of the Neroni, a narrow, confined, and mean place, in S. Lorenzo, being too ignorant or not wishing to suggest that for so great a Prince it was proper that a new chapel should be built on purpose. He also prevailed on the Duke to demand from Michelagnolo, on Baccio’s behalf, many pieces of marble that he had in Florence; and when the Duke had obtained them from Michelagnolo, and Baccio from the Duke, among those marbles being some blocked out figures and a statue carried well on towards completion by Michelagnolo, Bandinelli, taking them all over, hacked and broke to pieces everything that he could find, thinking that by so doing he was avenging himself on Michelagnolo and causing him displeasure. He found, moreover, in the same room in S. Lorenzo wherein Michelagnolo worked, two statues in one block of marble, representing Hercules crushing Antæus, which the Duke was having executed by the sculptor Fra Giovanni Agnolo. These were well advanced; but Baccio, saying to the Duke that the friar had spoilt that marble, broke it into many pieces. Giuliano Bugiardini 112: On the doors of that tabernacle [commission for Spain], in order to depict the darkness that fell at the death of the Saviour, he painted a Night on a black ground, copied from the one by the hand of Michelagnolo which is in the Sacristy of S. Lorenzo.

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Christofano Gerardi, called Doceno 130: In the year 1550, not long before this, Giorgio [Vasari] had just executed the story of the Marriage of Esther in the Black Friars’ Abbey of S. Fiore, that is, in the refectory, at Arezzo, and also, at Florence, for the Chapel of the Martelli in the Church of S. Lorenzo, the altar-piece of S. Gismondo, when, Julius III having been elected Pope, he was summoned to Rome to enter the service of his Holiness. Jacopo da Pontormo 178-82: Now his Excellency, following in the footsteps of his ancestors, has always sought to embellish and adorn his city; and he resolved, the necessity having come to his notice, to cause to be painted all the principal chapel of the magnificent Temple of S. Lorenzo, formerly built by the great Cosimo de’ Medici, the elder. Whereupon he gave the charge of this to Jacopo da Pontormo, either of his own accord, or, as was said, at the instance of Messer Pier Francesco Ricci, his major-domo; and Jacopo was very glad of that favour, for the reason that, although the greatness of the work, he being well advanced in years, gave him food for thought and perhaps dismayed him, on the other hand he reflected how, in a work of such magnitude, he had a fair field to show his ability and worth. […] Having then closed up that chapel with walls, screens of planks, and curtains, and having given himself over to complete solitude, he kept it for a period of eleven years so well sealed up, that excepting himself not a living soul entered it, neither friend nor any other. It is true, indeed, that certain lads who were drawing in the sacristy of Michelagnolo, as young men will do, climbed by its spiral staircase on to the roof of the church, and, removing some tiles and the plank of one of the gilded rosettes that are there, saw everything. Of which having heard, Jacopo took it very ill, but took no further notice beyond closing up everything with greater care; although some say that he persecuted those young men sorely, and sought to make them regret it. Imagining, then, that in this work he would surpass all other painters, and perchance, so it was said, even Michelagnolo, he painted in the upper part, in a number of scenes, the Creation of Adam and Eve, the Eating of the Forbidden Fruit, their Expulsion from Paradise, the Tilling of the Earth, the Sacrifice of Abel, the Death of Cain, the Blessing of the Seed of Noah, and the same Noah designing the plan and the measurements of the Ark. Next, on one of the lower walls, each of which is fifteen braccia in each direction, he painted the inundation of the Deluge, in which is a mass of dead and drowned bodies, and Noah speaking with God. On the other wall is painted the Universal Resurrection of the Dead, which has to take place on the last and final day; with such variety and confusion, that the real resurrection will perhaps not be more confused, or more full of movement, in a manner of speaking, than Pontormo painted it. Opposite to the altar and between the windows—that is, on the central wall—there is on either side a row of nude figures, who, clinging to each other’s bodies with hands and legs, form a ladder wherewith to ascend to Paradise, rising from the earth, where there are many dead in company with them, and at the end, on either side, are two dead bodies clothed with the exception of the legs and also the arms, with which they are holding two

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lighted torches. At the top, in the centre of the wall, above the windows, he painted in the middle Christ on high in His Majesty, who, surrounded by many Angels all nude, is raising those dead in order to judge them. But I have never been able to understand the significance of this scene, although I know that Jacopo had wit enough for himself, and also associated with learned and lettered persons; I mean, what he could have intended to signify in that part where there is Christ on high, raising the dead, and below His feet is God the Father, who is creating Adam and Eve. Besides this, in one of the corners, where are the four Evangelists, nude, with books in their hands, it does not seem to me that in a single place did he give a thought to any order of composition, or measurement, or time, or variety in the heads, or diversity in the flesh-colours, or, in a word, to any rule, proportion, or law of perspective; for the whole work is full of nude figures with an order, design, invention, composition, colouring, and painting contrived after his own fashion, and with such melancholy and so little satisfaction for him who beholds the work, that I am determined, since I myself do not understand it, although I am a painter, to leave all who may see it to form their own judgment, for the reason that I believe that I would drive myself mad with it and would bury myself alive, even as it appears to me that Jacopo in the period of eleven years that he spent upon it sought to bury himself and all who might see the painting, among all those extraordinary figures. And although there may be seen in this work some bit of a torso with the back turned or facing to the front and some attachments of flanks, executed with marvellous care and great labour by Jacopo, who made finished models of clay in the round for almost all the figures, nevertheless the work as a whole is foreign to his manner, and, as it appears to almost every man, without proportion, the torsi for the most part being large and the legs and arms small, to say nothing of the heads, in which there is not a trace to be seen of that singular excellence and grace that he used to give to them, so greatly to the satisfaction of those who examine his other pictures. Wherefore it appears that in this work he paid no attention to anything save certain parts, and of the other more important parts he took no account whatever. In a word, whereas he had thought in this work to surpass all the paintings in the world of art, he failed by a great measure to equal his own works that he had executed in the past; whence it is evident that he who seeks to strive beyond his strength and, as it were, to force nature, ruins the good qualities with which he may have been liberally endowed by her. But what can we or ought we to do save have compassion upon him, seeing that the men of our arts are as much liable to error as others? And the good Homer, so it is said, even he sometimes nods; nor shall it ever be said that there is a single work of Jacopo’s, however he may have striven to force his nature, in which there is not something good and worthy of praise. […] Pontormo had very beautiful manners, and he was so afraid of death, that he would not even hear it spoken of, and avoided having to meet dead bodies. He never went to festivals or to any other places where people gathered together, so as not to be caught in the press; and he was solitary beyond all belief. At times, going out to work, he set himself to think so profoundly on what he was to do, that he went away without having done any other thing all day but stand thinking. And that this happened to him times without

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number in the work of S. Lorenzo may readily be believed, for the reason that when he was determined, like an able and well-practised craftsman, he had no difficulty in doing what he desired and had resolved to put into execution. VIII Bastiano da San Gallo 19-20: Francesco Ubertini, called Il Bacchiacca, was a diligent painter, and, although he was the friend of Jacone, he always lived decently enough and like an honest man. He was likewise a friend of Andrea del Sarto, and much assisted and favoured by him in matters of art. Francesco, I say, was a diligent painter, and particularly in painting little figures, which he executed to perfection, with much patience, as may be seen from a predella with the story of the Martyrs, below the altar-piece of Giovanni Antonio Sogliani, in S. Lorenzo at Florence, and from another predella, executed very well, in the Chapel of the Crocifisso. Ridolfo, David and Benedetto Ghirlandaio 62: Ridolfo, then, carried the two pictures to completion with great satisfaction to the men of that Company, painting in one S. Zanobi restoring a boy to life in the Borgo degli Albizzi in Florence, which is a very lively and spirited scene, for there are in it many heads portrayed from life, and some women who show very vividly their joy and astonishment at seeing the boy reviving and the spirit returning to him. In the other is the scene of the same S. Zanobi being carried dead by six Bishops from S. Lorenzo, where he was first buried, to S. Maria del Fiore, when, passing through the Piazza di S. Giovanni, an elm that was there, all withered, on the spot where there is now a column of marble, with a cross upon it in memory of the miracle, was no sooner touched (through the will of God) by the coffin wherein was the holy corpse, than it put forth leaves again and burst into bloom; which picture was no less beautiful than the others by Ridolfo mentioned above. Giovanni da Udine 82-3: Then, after the troubles of the Pontiff had in great measure ceased and affairs in Rome had grown quiet, Giovanni was sent by his Holiness with many promises to Florence, to execute in the new sacristy of S. Lorenzo, which had been adorned with most excellent sculptures by Michelagnolo, the ornaments of the tribune, which is full of sunk squares that diminish little by little towards the central point. Setting his hand to this, then, Giovanni carried it excellently well to completion with the aid of many assistants, with most beautiful foliage, rosettes, and other ornaments of stucco and gold; but in one thing he failed in judgment, for the reason that on the flat friezes that form the ribs of the vaulting, and on those that run crossways, so as to enclose the squares, he made foliage, birds, masks, and figures that cannot be seen at all from the ground, although they are very beautiful, by reason of the distance, and also because they are divided up by other colours, whereas, if he had painted them in colours without any other elaboration, they would have been visible, and the whole work would have been brighter and richer. There remained no more of the work to be executed than he would have been able

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to finish in a fortnight, going over it again in certain places, when there came the news of the death of Pope Clement, and Giovanni was robbed of all his hopes, particularly of that which he expected from that Pontiff as the reward and guerdon of this work. Battista Franco 91-2: These festivities finished, Battista set himself to draw with the greatest industry the statues of Michelagnolo that are in the new Sacristy of S. Lorenzo, to which at that time all the painters and sculptors of Florence had flocked to draw and to work in relief; and among these Battista made no little proficience, but, nevertheless, it was recognized that he had committed an error in never consenting to draw from the life and to use colours, or to do anything but imitate statues and little else besides, which had given his manner a hardness and dryness that he was not able to shake off, nor could he prevent his works from having a hard and angular quality, as may be seen from a canvas in which he depicted with much pains and labour the Roman Lucretia violated by Tarquinius. Consorting thus with the others and frequenting that sacristy, Battista formed a friendship with the sculptor Bartolommeo Ammanati, who was studying the works of Buonarroti there in company with many others. And of such a kind was that friendship, that Ammanati took Battista into his house, as well as Genga of Urbino, and they lived thus in company for some time, attending with much profit to the studies of art. Giovanni Agnolo Montorsoli 134: Which labour finished, hearing that Michelagnolo Buonarroti was setting to work at that time on the buildings of the sacristy and library of S. Lorenzo the best carvers and stone-cutters that could be found, he went off to Florence; where, having been likewise set to work, among the first things that he did were some ornaments from which Michelagnolo recognized that he was a young man of most beautiful and resolute genius, and that, moreover, he could do more in one day by himself alone than the oldest and best practised masters could do in two. Wherefore he caused to be given to him, boy as he was, the same salary as the older men were drawing. 135-8: Meanwhile, Michelagnolo being in Rome with Pope Clement, who desired that the work of S. Lorenzo should be continued, and had therefore had him summoned, his Holiness asked him to find a young man who might restore some ancient statues in the Belvedere, which were broken. Whereupon Buonarroti, remembering Fra Giovanni Agnolo, proposed him to the Pope, and his Holiness demanded him in a brief from the General of the Servite Order, who gave him up because he could not do otherwise, and very unwillingly. […] During that time, a canonicate having fallen vacant at S. Lorenzo, a church in Florence built and endowed by the House of Medici, Fra Giovanni Agnolo, who by that time had laid aside the friar’s habit, obtained it for M. Giovanni Norchiati, his uncle, who was chaplain in the above-named church. Finally, Pope Clement, having determined that Buonarroti should return to Florence to finish the works of the sacristy and library of S. Lorenzo, gave him orders, since many statues were wanting there, as

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will be told in the Life of Michelagnolo himself, that he should avail himself of the most able men that could be found, and particularly of Fra Giovanni Agnolo, employing the same methods as had been adopted by Antonio da San Gallo in order to finish the works of the Madonna di Loreto. Having therefore made his way with the Frate to Florence, Michelagnolo, in executing the statues of Duke Lorenzo and Duke Giuliano, employed the Frate much in polishing them and in executing certain difficult undercuttings; with which occasion Fra Giovanni Agnolo learned many things from that truly divine man, standing with attention to watch him at work, and observing every least thing. Now among other statues that were wanting to the completion of that work, there were lacking a S. Cosimo and a S. Damiano that were to be one on either side of the Madonna, and Michelagnolo gave the S. Damiano to Raffaello da Montelupo to execute, and to the Frate the S. Cosimo, commanding the latter that he should work in the same rooms where he himself had worked and was still working. Having therefore set his hand with the greatest zeal to that work, the Frate made a large model of the figure, which was retouched by Buonarroti in many parts; indeed, Michelagnolo made with his own hand the head and the arms of clay, which are now at Arezzo, held by Vasari among his dearest treasures in memory of that great man. There were not wanting many envious persons who blamed Michelagnolo for his action, saying that in allotting that statue he had shown little judgment, and had made a bad choice; but the result afterwards proved, as will be related, that Michelagnolo had shown excellent judgment, and that the Frate was an able man. When Michelagnolo, with the assistance of Fra Giovanni Agnolo, had finished and placed in position the statues of Duke Giuliano and Duke Lorenzo, being summoned by the Pope, who wished that arrangements should be made for executing in marble the façade of S. Lorenzo, he went to Rome; but he had not made a long stay there, when, Pope Clement dying, everything was left unfinished. At Florence the statue of the Frate, unfinished as it was, together with the other works, was thrown open to view, and was very highly extolled; and in truth, whether it was his own study and diligence, or the assistance of Michelagnolo, it proved in the end to be an excellent figure, and the best that Fra Giovanni Agnolo ever made among all that he executed in the whole of his life, so that it was truly worthy to be placed where it was. Buonarroti, being freed by the death of the Pope from his engagements at S. Lorenzo, turned his attention to discharging his obligations in connection with the tomb of Pope Julius II; but, since he had need of assistance for this, he sent for the Frate. But Fra Giovanni Agnolo did not go to Rome until he had finished entirely the image of Duke Alessandro for the Nunziata, which he executed in a manner different from the others, and very beautiful, in the form in which that lord may still be seen, clad in armour and kneeling on a Burgundian helmet, and with one hand to his breast, in the act of recommending himself to the Madonna there. That image finished, he then went to Rome, and was of great assistance to Michelagnolo in the work of the above-mentioned tomb of Julius II. 156-7: Truly great is the debt that our arts for many reasons owe to Fra Giovanni Agnolo, in that he bore infinite love to them and likewise to their craftsmen; and of what great service has been and still is that Academy, which may be said to have

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received its origin from him in the manner that has been described, and which is now under the protection of the Lord Duke Cosimo, and assembles by his command in the new sacristy of S. Lorenzo, where there are so many works in sculpture by Michelagnolo, may be recognized from this, that not only in the obsequies of that Buonarroti (which, thanks to our craftsmen and to the assistance of the Prince, were not merely magnificent, but little less than regal, and which will be described in his Life), but also in many other undertakings, the same men, from emulation, and from a desire not to be unworthy of their Academy, have achieved marvellous things, and particularly in the nuptials of the most illustrious Lord, Don Francesco de’ Medici, Prince of Florence and Siena, and of her Serene Highness, Queen Joanna of Austria, which have been described fully and in due order by others, and will be described again by us at great length in a more convenient place. Francesco Salviati 163: When Vasari had been some months with Michelagnolo, that excellent man was summoned to Rome by Pope Clement, to receive instructions for beginning the Library of S. Lorenzo; and he was placed by him, before he departed, with Andrea del Sarto. 180: During that time, which was in the year 1548, Giorgio Vasari being at Rimini in order to execute in fresco and in oils the works of which we have spoken in another place, Francesco wrote him a long letter, informing him in exact detail how his affairs were passing in Florence, and, in particular, that he had made a design for the principal chapel of S. Lorenzo, which was to be painted by order of the Lord Duke, but that with regard to that work infinite mischief had been done against him with his Excellency, and, among other things, that he held it almost as certain that M. Pier Francesco, the majordomo, had not presented his design, so that the work had been allotted to Pontormo. And finally he said that for these reasons he was returning to Rome, much dissatisfied with the men and the craftsmen of his native country. Daniello Ricciarelli 206: Daniello stayed all that summer in Florence, where Giorgio lodged him in the house of Simon Botti, who was much his friend. There, during that time, he cast in gesso nearly all the figures of marble by the hand of Michelagnolo that are in the new sacristy of S. Lorenzo; and for the Fleming Michael Fugger he made a Leda, which was a very beautiful figure. IX Michelagnolo Buonarroti 40: Thus, when he had returned to the tomb, and was working at it continually, and also at times preparing designs from which he might be able to execute the façades of the chapel, envious Fortune decreed that that memorial, which had been begun with such perfection, should be left unfinished. For at that time there took place the

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death of Pope Julius, and the work was abandoned on account of the election of Pope Leo X, who, being no less splendid than Julius in mind and spirit, had a desire to leave in his native city (of which he was the first Pope), in memory of himself and of a divine craftsman who was his fellow-citizen, such marvels as only a mighty Prince like himself could undertake. Wherefore he gave orders that the façade of S. Lorenzo, a church built by the Medici family in Florence, should be erected for him, which was the reason that the work of the tomb of Julius was left unfinished; and he demanded advice and designs from Michelagnolo, and desired that he should be the head of that work. Michelagnolo made all the resistance that he could, pleading that he was pledged in the matter of the tomb to Santiquattro and Aginense, but the Pope answered him that he was not to think of that, and that he himself had already seen to it and contrived that Michelagnolo should be released by them; promising, also, that he should be able to work in Florence, as he had already begun to do, at the figures for that tomb. All this was displeasing to the Cardinals, and also to Michelagnolo, who went off in tears. 41-4: While Michelagnolo was at Carrara and was having marble quarried for the tomb of Julius, thinking at length to finish it, no less than for the façade, a letter was written to him saying that Pope Leo had heard that in the mountains of Pietrasanta near Seravezza, in the Florentine dominion, at the summit of the highest mountain, which is called Monte Altissimo, there were marbles of the same excellence and beauty as those of Carrara. This Michelagnolo already knew, but it seems that he would not take advantage of it because of his friendship with the Marchese Alberigo, Lord of Carrara, and, in order to do him a good service, chose to quarry those of Carrara rather than those of Seravezza; or it may have been that he judged it to be a long undertaking and likely to waste much time, as indeed it did. However, he was forced to go to Seravezza, although he pleaded in protest that it would be more difficult and costly, as in truth it was, especially at the beginning, and, moreover, that the report about the marble was perhaps not true; but for all that the Pope would not hear a word of objection. Thereupon it was decided to make a road for several miles through the mountains, breaking down rocks with hammers and pickaxes to obtain a level, and sinking piles in the marshy places; and there Michelagnolo spent many years in executing the wishes of the Pope. Finally five columns of the proper size were excavated, one of which is on the Piazza di S. Lorenzo in Florence, and the others are on the sea-shore. And for this reason the Marchese Alberigo, who saw his business ruined, became the bitter enemy of Michelagnolo, who was not to blame. Michelagnolo, in addition to these columns, excavated many other marbles there, which are still in the quarries, abandoned there for more than thirty years. But at the present day Duke Cosimo has given orders for the road to be finished, of which there are still two miles to make over very difficult ground, for the transportation of these marbles, and also a road from another quarry of excellent marble that was discovered at that time by Michelagnolo, in order to be able to finish many beautiful undertakings. […] Michelagnolo consumed many years in quarrying marbles, although it is true that while they were being excavated he made models of wax and other things for the work. But this undertaking was delayed so long, that the money assigned by the

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Pope for the purpose was spent on the war in Lombardy; and at the death of Leo the work was left unfinished, nothing being accomplished save the laying of a foundation in front to support it, and the transportation of a large column of marble from Carrara to the Piazza di S. Lorenzo. The death of Leo completely dismayed the craftsmen and the arts both in Rome and in Florence; and while Adrian VI was alive Michelagnolo gave his attention in Florence to the tomb of Julius. But after the death of Adrian Clement VII was elected, who was no less desirous than Leo and his other predecessors to leave his fame established by the arts of architecture, sculpture, and painting. At this time, which was the year 1525, Giorgio Vasari was taken as a little boy to Florence by the Cardinal of Cortona, and placed with Michelagnolo to learn art. But Michelagnolo was then summoned to Rome by Pope Clement VII, who had made a beginning with the library of S. Lorenzo and also the new sacristy, in which he proposed to place the marble tombs that he was having made for his forefathers; and he resolved that Vasari should go to work with Andrea del Sarto until he should himself be free again, and went in person to Andrea’s workshop to present him. […] After discussing many things together, they resolved to finish completely the library and new sacristy of S. Lorenzo in Florence. Michelagnolo therefore departed from Rome, and raised the cupola that is now to be seen, causing it to be wrought in various orders of composition; and he had a ball with seventy-two faces made by the goldsmith Piloto, which is very beautiful. It happened, while Michelagnolo was raising the cupola, that he was asked by some friends, “Should you not make your lantern very different from that of Filippo Brunelleschi?” And he answered them, “Different it can be made with ease, but better, no.” He made four tombs in that sacristy, to adorn the walls and to contain the bodies of the fathers of the two Popes, the elder Lorenzo and his brother Giuliano, and those of Giuliano, the brother of Leo, and of Duke Lorenzo, his nephew. And since he wished to execute the work in imitation of the old sacristy that Filippo Brunelleschi had built, but with another manner of ornamentation, he made in it an ornamentation in a composite order, in a more varied and more original manner than any other master at any time, whether ancient or modern, had been able to achieve, for in the novelty of the beautiful cornices, capitals, bases, doors, tabernacles, and tombs, he departed not a little from the work regulated by measure, order, and rule, which other men did according to a common use and after Vitruvius and the antiquities, to which he would not conform. That licence has done much to give courage to those who have seen his methods to set themselves to imitate him, and new fantasies have since been seen which have more of the grotesque than of reason or rule in their ornamentation. Wherefore the craftsmen owe him an infinite and everlasting obligation, he having broken the bonds and chains by reason of which they had always followed a beaten path in the execution of their works. And even more did he demonstrate and seek to make known such a method afterwards in the library of S. Lorenzo, at the same place; in the beautiful distribution of the windows, in the pattern of the ceiling, and in the marvellous entrance of the vestibule. Nor was there ever seen a more resolute grace, both in the whole and in the parts, as in the consoles, tabernacles, and

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cornices, nor any staircase more commodious; in which last he made such bizarre breaks in the outlines of the steps, and departed so much from the common use of others, that everyone was amazed. 49-50: When peace had been made, Baccio Valori, the Pope’s Commissioner, received orders to have some of the most partisan citizens arrested and imprisoned in the Bargello, and the same tribunal sought out Michelagnolo at his house; but he, fearing that, had fled secretly to the house of one who was much his friend, where he remained hidden many days. Finally, when the first fury had abated, Pope Clement, remembering the ability of Michelagnolo, caused a diligent search to be made for him, with orders that nothing should be said to him, but rather that his former appointments should be restored to him, and that he should attend to the work of S. Lorenzo, over which he placed as proveditor M. Giovan Battista Figiovanni, the old servant of the Medici family and Prior of S. Lorenzo. 51: It became necessary for Michelagnolo to go to Rome to see Pope Clement, who, although angry with him, yet, as the friend of every talent, forgave him everything, and gave him orders that he should return to Florence and have the library and sacristy of S. Lorenzo completely finished; and, in order to shorten that work, a vast number of statues that were to be included in it were distributed among other masters. Two he allotted to Tribolo, one to Raffaello da Montelupo, and one to Fra Giovanni Agnolo, the Servite friar, all sculptors; and he gave them assistance in these, making rough models in clay for each of them. Whereupon they all worked valiantly, and he, also, caused work to be pursued on the library, and thus the ceiling was finished in carved woodwork, which was executed after his models by the hands of the Florentines Carota and Tasso, excellent carvers and also masters of carpentry; and likewise the shelves for the books, which were executed at that time by Battista del Cinque and his friend Ciappino, good masters in that profession. And in order to give the work its final perfection there was summoned to Florence the divine Giovanni da Udine, who, together with others his assistants and also some Florentine masters, decorated the tribune with stucco; and they all sought with great solicitude to give completion to that vast undertaking. 77-8: Already, in the time of Paul III, Duke Cosimo had sent Tribolo to Rome to see if he might be able to persuade Michelagnolo to return to Florence, in order to give completion to the Sacristy of S. Lorenzo. But Michelagnolo excused himself because, having grown old, he could not support the burden of such fatigues, and demonstrated to him with many reasons that he could not leave Rome. Whereupon Tribolo finally asked him about the staircase of the library of S. Lorenzo, for which Michelagnolo had caused many stones to be prepared, but there was no model of it nor any certainty as to the exact form, and, although there were some marks on a pavement and some other sketches in clay, the true and final design could not be found. However, no matter how much Tribolo might beseech him and invoke the name of the Duke, Michelagnolo would never answer a word save that he remembered nothing of it. Orders were given to Vasari by Duke Cosimo that he should write to Michelagnolo, requesting him to write saying what final form that staircase was to have; in the hope that through the friendship and love that he bore

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to Vasari, he would say something that might lead to some solution and to the completion of the work. Vasari wrote to Michelagnolo the mind of the Duke, saying that the execution of all that was to be done would fall to him; which he would do with that fidelity and care with which, as Michelagnolo knew, he was wont to treat such of his works as he had in charge. Wherefore Michelagnolo sent the directions for making the above-named staircase in a letter by his own hand on the 28th of September, 1555. 102-3: But to return to Michelagnolo: I must relate that about a year before his death, Vasari secretly prevailed upon Duke Cosimo de’ Medici to persuade the Pope by means of Messer Averardo Serristori, his Ambassador, that, since Michelagnolo was much reduced, a diligent watch should be kept on those who were about him to take care of him, or who visited him at his house, and that, in the event of some sudden accident happening to him, such as might well happen to an old man, he should make arrangements for his property, designs, cartoons, models, money, and all his other possessions at the time of his death, to be set down in an inventory and placed in security, for the sake of the fabric of S. Pietro, so that, if there were things pertaining to that fabric, and also to the sacristy, library, and façade of S. Lorenzo, they might not be taken away, as is often wont to happen; and in the end, all this being duly carried out, such diligence had its reward. Leonardo, the nephew of Michelagnolo, was desirous to go during the coming Lent to Rome, as one who guessed that he was now come to the end of his life; and at this Michelagnolo was content. 118: They then ordained that the Lieutenant, in pursuance of his office, and the Consuls, in the name of the Company and Academy, should lay the whole matter before the Lord Duke, and beseech him for all the aids and favours that might be necessary, and especially for permission to have those obsequies held in S. Lorenzo, the church of the most illustrious House of Medici; wherein are the greater part of the works by the hand of Michelagnolo that there are to be seen in Florence; and, in addition, that his Excellency should allow Messer Benedetto Varchi to compose and deliver the funeral oration, to the end that the excellent genius of Michelagnolo might be extolled by the rare eloquence of a man so great as was Varchi, who, being in the particular service of his Excellency, would not have undertaken such a charge without a word from him, although they were very certain that, as one most loving by nature and deeply affected to the memory of Michelagnolo, of himself he would never have refused. 125: Finally, then, it was arranged that in the central nave of S. Lorenzo, between the two lateral doors, of which one leads out of the church and the other into the cloister, there should be erected, as was done, a catafalque of a rectangular form, twenty-eight braccia high, eleven braccia long, and nine broad, with a figure of Fame on the summit. [the full description of the funerary apparatus continues to 139]

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Jacopo Sansovino 194-5: His Holiness having then determined that the façade of S. Lorenzo should be executed in marble, the while that Raffaello da Urbino and Buonarroti were expected from Rome, Sansovino, by order of the Pope, made a design for it; which giving much satisfaction, Baccio d’Agnolo was commissioned to make a model of it in wood, which proved very beautiful. Meanwhile, Buonarroti had made another, and he and Sansovino were ordered to go to Pietrasanta; where, finding much marble, but difficult to transport, they lost so much time, that when they returned to Florence they found the Pope departed for Rome. Whereupon, both following after him with their models, each by himself, Jacopo arrived at the very moment when Buonarroti’s model was being shown to his Holiness in the Torre Borgia; but he did not succeed in obtaining what he hoped, because, whereas he believed that he would at least make under Michelagnolo part of the statues that were going into that work, the Pope having spoken of it to him and Michelagnolo having given him so to understand, he perceived on arriving in Rome that Buonarroti wished to be alone in the work. Nevertheless, having made his way to Rome and not wishing to return to Florence without any result, he resolved to remain in Rome and there give his attention to sculpture and architecture. Leone Leoni 233: Which may be seen clearly in twelve reverses—besides many others—that Pietro Paolo Galeotto has executed recently in the medals of Duke Cosimo, and they are these; Pisa restored almost to her pristine condition by means of the Duke, he having drained the country round and dried the marshy places, and having made many other improvements; the waters conducted to Florence from various places, the ornate and magnificent building of the Magistrates erected for the public convenience, the union of the States of Florence and Siena, the building of a city and two fortresses in Elba, the column conveyed from Rome and placed on the Piazza di S. Trinita in Florence, the preservation, completion and enlargement of the Library of S. Lorenzo for the public good, the foundation of the Order of the Knights of S. Stephen, the resignation of the government to the Prince, the fortifying of the State, the militia or trained companies of his dominion, and the Pitti Palace with its gardens, waters, and buildings, a work of such regal magnificence; of which reverses I do not give here either the lettering that they have around them, or their explanation, having to treat of them in another place. X Academicians 9-10: Jacopo da Pontormo having left unfinished at his death the chapel in S. Lorenzo, and the Lord Duke having ordained that Bronzino should complete it, he finished in the part where the Deluge is many nudes that were wanting at the foot, and gave perfection to that part, and in the other, where at the foot of the Resurrection of the Dead many figures were wanting over a space about one braccio in height and as wide as the whole wall, he painted them all in the manner wherein they are to be seen, very beautiful; and between the windows, at the foot,

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in a space that remained there unpainted, he depicted a nude S. Laurence upon a gridiron, with some little Angels about him. In that whole work he demonstrated that he had executed his paintings in that place with much better judgment than his master Pontormo had shown in his pictures in the work; the portrait of which Pontormo Bronzino painted with his own hand in a corner of that chapel, on the right hand of the S. Laurence. 11: For the same Lord Prince he painted a few months ago a small picture with little figures which has no equal, and it may be said that it is truly a miniature. And since at this his present age of sixty-five he is no less enamoured of the matters of art than he was as a young man, he has undertaken recently, according to the wishes of the Duke, to execute two scenes in fresco on the wall beside the organ in the Church of S. Lorenzo, in which there is not a doubt that he will prove the excellent Bronzino that he has always been. 19-20: In like manner, among other young painters of the Academy, Santi Titi may be called ingenious and able, who, as has been told in other places, after having practised for many years in Rome, has returned finally to enjoy Florence, which he regards as his country, although his elders are of Borgo a San Sepolcro and of a passing good family in that city. This Santi acquitted himself truly excellently in the works that he executed for the obsequies of Buonarroti and the abovementioned nuptials of the most illustrious Princess, but even more, after great and almost incredible labours, in the scenes that he painted in the theatre which he made for the same nuptials on the Piazza di S. Lorenzo, for the most illustrious Lord Paolo Giordano Orsino, Duke of Bracciano; wherein he painted in chiaroscuro, on several immense pieces of canvas, stories of the actions of various illustrious men of the Orsini family. Academicians Description of the Preparations for the Nuptials of Francesco I to Giovanna 104: In the seventh, within a great door, were seen many books arranged in various manners, with a motto in the scroll, saying, PUBLICÆ UTILITATI; intended to signify the glorious solicitude shown by many of the Medici family, and particularly by our most liberal Duke, in collecting and preserving with such diligence a marvellous quantity of the rarest books in every tongue, recently placed in the beautiful Library of S. Lorenzo, which was begun by Clement VII and finished by his Excellency. Giorgio Vasari 175-6: Finally, however, being well again, about the 10th of the following December I came to Florence, where I was received by the above-named Duke [Alessandro] with kindly mien, and shortly afterwards given into the charge of the magnificent M. Ottaviano de’ Medici, who so took me under his protection, that as long as he lived he treated me always as a son; and his blessed memory I shall always remember and revere, as of a most affectionate father. Returning then to my usual studies, I received facilities by means of that lord to enter at my pleasure into the new sacristy of S. Lorenzo, where are the works of Michelagnolo, he

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having gone in those days to Rome; and so I studied them for some time with much diligence, just as they were on the ground. 203-5: In those days, Gismondo Martelli having died in Florence, and having left instructions in his testament that an altar-picture with Our Lady and some Saints should be painted for the chapel of that noble family in S. Lorenzo, Luigi and Pandolfo Martelli, together with M. Cosimo Bartoli, all very much my friends, besought me that I should execute that picture. Having obtained leave from the Lord Duke Cosimo, the Patron and first Warden of Works of that church, I consented to do it, but on condition that I should be allowed to paint in it something after my own fancy from the life of S. Gismondo, in allusion to the name of the testator. Which agreement concluded, I remembered to have heard that Filippo di Ser Brunellesco, the architect of that church, had given a particular form to all the chapels to the end that there might be made for each not some little altarpiece, but some large scene or picture which might fill the whole space. Wherefore, being disposed to follow in that respect the wishes and directions of Brunelleschi, and paying regard rather to honour than to the little profit that I could obtain from that commission, which contemplated the painting of a small altarpicture with few figures, I painted in an altar-piece ten braccia in breadth, and thirteen in height, the story, or rather, martyrdom, of the King S. Gismondo, when he, his wife, and his two sons were cast into a well by another King, or rather, Tyrant. I contrived that the ornamental border of that chapel, which is a semicircle, should serve as the opening of the gate of a great palace in the Rustic Order, through which there should be a view of a square court supported by pilasters and columns of the Doric Order; and I arranged that through that opening there should be seen in the centre an octagonal well with an ascent of steps around it, by which the executioners might ascend, carrying the two sons nude in order to cast them into the well. In the loggie around I painted on one side people gazing upon that horrid spectacle, and on the other side, which is the left, I made some soldiers who, having seized by force the wife of the King, are carrying her towards the well in order to put her to death. And at the principal door I made a group of soldiers that are binding S. Gismondo, who with his relaxed and patient attitude shows that he is suffering most willingly that death and martyrdom, and he stands gazing on four Angels in the air, who are showing to him palms and crowns of martyrdom for himself, his wife, and his sons, which appears to give him complete comfort and consolation. I strove, likewise, to demonstrate the cruelty and fierce anger of the impious Tyrant, who stands on the upper level of the court to behold his vengeance and the death of S. Gismondo. In short, so far as in me lay, I made every effort to give to all the figures, to the best of my ability, the proper expressions and the appropriate attitudes and spirited movements, and all that was required. How far I succeeded, that I shall leave to be judged by others; but this I must say, that I gave to it all the study, labour, and diligence in my power and knowledge. 220: But since I should take too long if I sought to recount in detail the many other pictures, designs without number, models, and masquerades that I have executed, and because this much is enough and more than enough, I shall say nothing more of myself, save that however great and important have been the things that I have

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continually suggested to Duke Cosimo, I have never been able to equal, much less to surpass, the greatness of his mind. And this will be seen clearly in a third sacristy that he wishes to build beside S. Lorenzo, large and similar to that which Michelagnolo built in the past, but all of variegated marbles and mosaics, in order to deposit there, in tombs most honourable and worthy of his power and grandeur, the remains of his dead children, of his father and mother, of the magnanimous Duchess Leonora, his consort, and of himself; for which I have already made a model after his taste and according to the orders received from him by me, which, when carried into execution, will cause it to be a novel, most magnificent, and truly regal Mausoleum.

BOCCHI, 228-54: 228: Now it is time to speak of the church of San Lorenzo, which in my opinion is the most singular and noble of all places. The architect of this building was Filippo Brunelleschi, who began it at the behest of Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici. This church, like a lovely vase, contains the most precious jewels to be found in all Europe or, indeed in any part of the world, and that human eyes have ever seen. Who could more rightly be the architect of such a noble building than a person who surpassed everyone in nobility of mind? {Brunelleschi sent to Rome} 229: Following the method we have used elsewhere, we will speak first of what we see first. The façade of this church was left unfinished by Filippo, the original architect, and later by Michelangelo, whom Clement VII had commissioned to provide one. When one enters the church by the central portal one sees above it [on the interior wall] a Medici coat of arms, simple, but the summit of exquisite beauty, made after a design by Michelangelo. There is no artist with any sense who does not recognise, even in the simplicity of this work, the very greatest beauty and a thousand ornaments. Above it is a balcony, also made with extraordinary grace after a design by Michelangelo, where, every year on Easter Sunday, many relics and [parts of] saints’ bodies kept in the church are displayed. The church is 144 braccia in length and made with marvellous architecture in the Corinthian order; it is divided into three aisles, and has a noble and magnificent aspect. One’s gaze is filled with the consummate beauty of all the parts of the building, which, luminous by virtue of the windows, placed where necessary, is singularly ornate in the columns, the vaults, and the ceiling. All made with fine workmanship. 230-2: Proceeding up the nave toward the high altar, one finds two pulpits of rectangular shape beside the piers at the crossing; each set upon four very beautiful columns of variously coloured marble. On the sides of these pulpits are low reliefs in bronze by Donatello, depicting the Passion of Christ and other events, regarded by everyone as most extraordinary objects on account of their design and careful execution.

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On the end [away from the high altar] of the pulpit on the right are the Apostles receiving the Holy Spirit, the figures draped with wonderful care. Among the others, the Madonna, who has a shawl over her head, is very beautiful. Also much praised is a figure who adopts an extraordinary unusual pose: blinded by the overwhelming splendour of the light, he lowers his face to the ground, and in him one recognises stupendous workmanship. On the back is the Martyrdom of St. Lawrence, done in an inspired and grand manner. Beside the Saint, who is very beautiful, there is a figure on the ground who has caught fire, which could not be more alive or more beautiful; in it experts recognise overwhelming workmanship. On the long side, Donatello has shown the Saviour’s Descent into Limbo to liberate the Patriarchs. In their faces one sees their desire for this divine assistance; there is a woman who moves toward her rescuer, her figure posed with the most desirous eagerness one could imagine, and St. John the Baptist comes to meet Christ as well with a most exquisite effect of movement. In the next scene on this side one sees Christ rising from the tomb; the design is extraordinary and the invention marvellous, and, like the other scene, it features singular draperies and poses. In the other relief one sees the Marys going to the sepulchre: they have sad expressions, yet are graceful in their sorrow; the one who has wrapped herself in her robe as a sign of sadness is made with wonderful and stupendous workmanship. On the other pulpit, on the left side [of the church], are scenes that precede [the others] chronologically; however, we will describe them in the following way. On the back, facing the Sacrament, and also by Donatello, is the Saviour praying in the Garden; near him are some sleeping Disciples, depicted with great care. Beneath them, the other Disciples are also asleep, and to an amazing extent one sees the languidness of their bodies. They are dressed in cloth that falls in very beautiful folds, formed with supreme understanding and testifying to the great merit of this distinguished artist. On the other end [away from the high altar] is the scene of Christ being brought before Pilate. The figure of the Saviour is majesty itself, and Pilate, in his footwear and robes is very impressive and beautiful. The soldiers who have brought Christ before the judge are alert; with lively readiness they await the outcome of the proceedings. Beside this scene, in a loggia, one sees Christ before Caiaphas: with a silent countenance he looks at the ground. These figures are made with such skill that one easily understands in them what is written in the Scriptures. Very beautiful is a group of figures who try to persuade the high priest that Christ should be crucified; just as one sees rage and fury in their faces, so in the Son of God one perceives meekness ad humility. There is a half-nude figure of such vitality that it seems wholly alive. On the main side follows the scene of Christ on the Cross, placed between two thieves. Here one readily sees how well this artist understood the structure of the

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human body, not only in the figure of the Saviour, but also in the limbs of the thieves, for all are made with fine workmanship. There is a St. John the Evangelist, whose hair is shown falling over his face in a way that shows graceful execution; holding his right hand to his face, he seems to be overcome with sorrow. The draperies are arranged over his body with the most extraordinary skill. Much admired by experts is one of the Marys, seated on the ground. Made with studious understanding and dishevelled, she expresses inconsolable sadness. The next scene on this side depicts Christ’s Deposition from the Cross. One sees the Virgin moved with inexpressible sorrow as she holds the Saviour’s body, which, in its design and the rare understanding which it shows, is wonderful in every way. As an expression of grief, one Mary holds her hands clasped together, and Nicodemus, who holds Christ, is also very beautiful. On the end facing the choir is a scene of the Saviour’s body being put in the tomb. 232/3: All the figures in the choir are painted in fresco by Jacopo Pontormo. To the right is the Last Judgement: at the bottom, many figures of the resurrected assume various and very unusual poses; each is wonderful for design, colouring and relief. In the air are many angels delicately and softly painted, with very bold and unusual bodily movements, and painters who understand their craft well recognise the great workmanship here and therefore admire them highly. On the opposite wall, one sees the Deluge. There are a great many dead bodies, and above, on a mountain, some figures who have fled the waters, painted with much care. In the company of Noah are others in beautiful poses; their great design shows very clearly how this excellent artist understood the essence of his art. The angels in the air are made with overwhelmingly fine workmanship. Many figures in the lower portions of these frescoes were painted by Agnolo Bronzino, and are deservedly praised by everyone. The nude St. Lawrence on the gridiron with some angels is also by him; nearby is a portrait of Pontormo that is very true to life. Above, one sees Adam and Eve by Pontormo, the eating of the forbidden fruit, [a work of] beautiful colouring, as well as the Expulsion from Paradise and how they must till the earth in the sweat of their brows. Very beautiful too is the figure of Abraham, shown as he is about to sacrifice his son; the pose of Isaac is much praised, and, indeed, artists cannot get enough of praising the design of both these figures. One sees the fierceness of Cain as he kills his brother in a scene of most beautiful workmanship. The figure of Abel, who tries to flee his [brother’s] fury could not be finer or more outstanding. In short, this painting of Jacopo’s is admirable for its colouring and the nobility of its design, and fine also for its relief; and if, to these qualities, which make figures more wonderful than others, were added also the best kind of imitation, this work would be truly without equals. 234: Now proceeding to the right, one comes to the Old Sacristy, built according to the design of Brunelleschi, as are the other parts of the church. By the entrance to this space, in line with the wall that divides the Sacristy from the Chapel of the Sacrament, is an opening in which is placed a tomb of the most supreme beauty, made according to the design of Andrea del Verrocchio, in which are buried

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Giovanni and Piero, the sons of Cosimo [the Elder] de’ Medici. One sees a very beautiful casket of porphyry, adorned at the corners with the most exquisite foliage in bronze; the rest of the opening is filled with very beautiful ropes, also of bronze and there are festoons and various fantasies devised with great judgement and the utmost grace that is suitable in such a thing. The sacristy is square in shape, 20 braccia long on each side; the fluted Corinthian pilasters in each corner support a very graceful architrave, frieze and cornice. Overhead there is a vault made up of individual sections [divided by ribs] and finally a very graceful lantern that makes a beautiful sight. In the four circular frames in the pendentives of the vault are stucco bas-reliefs by Donatello representing the four Evangelists. The two [sets of] bronze doors below, also with bas-reliefs by Donatello are very highly prized by all artists: they depict Apostles, Martyrs, and Confessors in the most beautiful and graceful poses that human intelligence can conceive. {…} In some niches [over the doors] are St. Lawrence and St. Stephen, and Sts. Cosmas and Damian, all of beautiful appearance, also by Donatello. {…} Besides all this, there is a Christ Child in Carrara marble by Desiderio da Settignano, which, for the softness of its flesh and its design is held by all to be of incomparable craftsmanship. {…]} Next on the wall [of the left side aisle of the church] beside the door that leads to the Canons’ cloister is a fresco by Agnolo Bronzino, representing the Martyrdom of St. Lawrence. Those who administer the torture are energetic: some carry pieces of wood, others fan the flame; their diverse and varied poses demonstrate the merit of this excellent artist. Much praised is a building of superb appearance with columns that diminishes in size very beautifully as they recede into the distance, and all the parts depicted with great intelligence, so that it makes a rich and splendid sight. Proceeding along this left side aisle down to the Medici Chapel, one finds a panel by Giovan Antonio Sogliani, depicting St. Arcadius on the Cross, {…}. 237: In the right side-aisle, opposite, in the Ginori Chapel, there is a panel by Rosso, depicting the Betrothal of the Madonna. Before the High Priest is the Virgin, of noble bearing yet very modest, and in her beauty one recognises how worthy she is of reverence. The youthful St. Joseph is of graceful appearance, and indeed, in design and in the way they are painted both these figures are held to be most extraordinary. {…} The panel in the Martelli Chapel is by Giorgio Vasari and represents the story of St. Sigismund. With fierce and unusual gestures, some figures strain to throw the Saint into a well. Fierce too are some surrounding the wife and children; their magnificent clothing, be it robes or footwear, afford a truly rich and beautiful sight. {…} Then, in the Medici Chapel one sees a very beautiful panel by Fra Bartolommeo, painted in monochrome: it is only sketched out, yet held to be wonderful anyway. There is a Madonna with the Christ Child in her arms, and above them, St. Ann, who looks towards heaven with her hands clasped

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and seems to thank God and to express touching and holy thoughts. The Virgin is lovely, as is the Child. 239: The side door, which leads out onto the square, was made to a design by Michelangelo. The pediment is of consummate grace, set over an architrave supported by pilaster strips. In the simplicity of the parts one recognises such an elegant and refined understanding that all other work, no matter how exquisite, is surpassed by it. In the transept, in the Della Stufa Chapel, is a panel by Girolamo Macchietti., depicting the Magi offering gifts to the Saviour. 240: Nearby is the New Sacristy, which, for the workmanship displayed in its architecture and sculpture is rightly to be considered pre-eminent among all places. Painting can do much to embellish a city, but sculpture and buildings have something more of the virile, thus defending themselves better against the injuries of time. Statues of the finest workmanship are highly prized, and buildings at one glance rekindle the fame of those worthy persons who are their authors. For this reason, the name of Clement VII, who commissioned this most extraordinary Sacristy, will be remembered with the very highest praise. But it is no little credit to Florence, too, that within its circuit of walls there is a container full, not of works of art, but rather of unique jewels, and which, as a result of their brilliant splendour, is so radiant that its fame reaches everywhere. They were produced by one of its citizens, that is, by Michelangelo, in whom the power of the three arts reached its highest point, showing the limits of their potential and how far human effort can raise itself. The great city of Rome prides itself on many works of art of greatest worth; Venice glories in its superb buildings; but Florence admits no inferiority in this respect, indeed, it is justifiably valued more highly than either. {Glory of Florence is established by its architecture} 241-2: As was said of the other Sacristy, this one too is square in plan, 20 braccia along each side. In the corners, very beautiful Corinthian pilasters rise from the floor, supporting an architrave, frieze and cornice with projections of consummate grace. In one of these sides is a tribune, seven braccia deep, and it is difficult to describe how beautiful it is in its majesty and how graceful in its highly finished workmanship. Below, the altar, all of marble, stands detached, projecting a little beyond the line of the wall [into the larger space], and is elevated on four steps: this altar is supported on four balusters and ornamental frames, all of the most beautiful grace that the human mind could possibly devise. Before it, placed with exquisite grace on top of two little piers at either corner, which rise to the same height as the altar and have the same decorative elements at top and bottom, are two very beautiful marble candelabra, carved with festoons, grotesques and other ornaments, so exquisitely fanciful that they overwhelm the faculty of speech and all thought. Indeed, Michelangelo’s marvellously fine execution has given this holy place such majesty that the soul is gladdened, enjoying the sight of such exalted workmanship and the contemplation of this most refined labour.

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In each of the other three walls above the cornice are blind arches that correspond to the arch of the tribune. Directly above the pilasters that support the cornice is another Corinthian order, similar to the one beneath, but not as high: it supports another cornice that goes the whole way around with fine workmanship and wonderful beauty. Above this cornice, on each of the four walls, is an arch made of pietra serena like the cornice, which offers a rich and noble sight set against the white areas. In the centre of each arch is a large window, framed with pietra serena also, most gracefully adorned with a wonderful pediment; because they are a little wider at the bottom than at the top, they make a still more magnificent and beautiful sight. Over these arches circles another stone cornice, supporting the dome: its vault was decorated with various plaster ornaments by Giovanni da Udine. There are coffers that gradually diminish in size as they rise toward the centre, showing fine workmanship, and foliage, rosettes, birds, masks, and various other fanciful things, gilded and of consummate execution. On the lower section of two walls in this very noble place, Michelangelo wanted to show the world what the supreme beauty of architecture is, and, in truth, his ideas could not be of more graceful elegance, of more exalted majesty, or of more ornate and pleasing order. On these walls, facing and corresponding to one another, are two large chests serving as tombs, arranged with profound intelligence. Each wall is surfaced with white marble and decorated with lovely pilasters, above which is placed a cornice: on top of this cornice are three niches of most extraordinary grace, or rather, they are made in such a way that it does not seem possible for the human mind to imagine greater beauty. The central niche is flanked by sets of double pilasters, which feature capitals, cornices, and exquisite decorative carvings, all made with perfect beauty, so that no one, no matter how demanding, could ask for ornament more sublime, or for more spirited elegance. In the lower part of each wall are two doors, decorated with ornamental supports and consoles so that they make a wonderfully ornate sight. Over each of them is a niche rich in decoration and with very graceful carvings. The pediment that surmounts them with extraordinary beauty could not be more wonderful or more magnificent. Directly above these niches, beyond the cornice in macigno, one sees a window, framed in the same material, which, with its architrave, frieze cornice, and pediment, is beautiful beyond all reckoning and wonderful beyond imagining. Truly, it seems that all the best understanding, all refined workmanship, all supreme diligence, are united in this noble place, and that all the elegance, all the ornament, all the nobility that can make human works incomparable and stupendous has rained down from the Graces. {description of the tombs up to 254} {library 254-7} {relics: 257-260}

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BALDINUCCI S Lorenzo: I.406; I.412; I.487n; I.512; I.536 & 537; I.589; II.203; II.221; II.226; II.356-7; II.536; III.500-1; II.367; II.398; II.407-8; III.409-10; II.510; III.8; III.12; III.17; III.214, 215, 220 & 256; III.235-6; III.525; III.508; III.533-4; III.645; III.670-6; IV.91-2; IV.105; IV.135; IV.222; IV.224 & 305; IV.355-6; IV.380; IV.425; IV.590; IV.616; IV.616.

RICHA, part III, vol V, lesson I-VII, 1-107.

CHAPTER TWELVE SAN MARCO

Piazza San Marco, 1; for more information on opening hours and to prebook tickets, visit http://www.polomuseale.firenze.it/sanmarco.html (only in Italian until the websites of the former Polomuseale Fiorentino are re-organised). Information in English may be found on http://www.museumsinflorence.com/musei/museum_of_san_marco.html.

History According to Christian legend, Saint Mark was converted by Saint Peter and founded the Coptic Church in Alexandria before his martyrdom in 67 AD. His relics were taken to Venice in the ninth century, where Saint Mark became patron saint of the city, and are preserved in the church of San Marco. His symbol is the winged lion, which is also part of the Venetian coat of arms. In c.1300, the Silvestrine monks, distinguished by their blue habit and, therefore, called blue Benedictines, built their monastery next to the small church of Saint Mark’s in Florence on a site that had previously been occupied by Vallombrosans. They were ousted by the Dominican Observants in 1436, when they moved from Fiesole to Florence. A new church and monastery financed by Cosimo the Elder Medici were built for them after designs by Michelozzo (Fig. 12 a). The church was consecrated in the presence of Pope Eugene IV on 6 January 1443. The new monastery, which included cloisters, dormitories, refectories and a library, was ready in 1452. Cosimo the Elder had his own suite of cells as a place for retreat, contemplation and prayer. Antoninus Pierozzi became prior of the new San Marco and archbishop of Florence. He was important for the reorganisation of the diocese and was well connected with the Medici family, in particular Cosimo the Elder. His sermons are said to have inspired Donatello’s humble and lifelike statue of Saint Magdalen, now at the Museum of the Opera del Duomo. Allegedly, it was Abbot Antoninus who asked Fra Angelico to decorate (together with Benozzo Gozzoli) the cloisters, the chapter house

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and the dormitories at San Marco. Antoninus died in 1459 and was canonised as Saint Antoninus in 1526. In 1589, his relics were brought from the sacristy to the church of San Marco where they rest in the Salviati Chapel commissioned from Giambologna and decorated with works of art by Passignano, Allori, Naldini and Poppi. Two other burials in the church are those of Agnolo Poliziano and Pico della Mirandola, both of whom died in 1494. They are buried between the second and third chapel to the left of the main nave of San Marco. Their corpses were exhumed in 2007 and the results of forensic tests conducted at the time show an elevated trace of arsenic and lead among other dangerous substances, which seems to confirm long-standing rumours that they had been poisoned, possibly at the orders of Piero de’ Medici. These days, the convent of San Marco is a museum, which preserves the memory of the above-mentioned Dominican artist Fra Angelico and the Dominican preacher Girolamo Savonarola. It is also famous for its collection of manuscripts displayed in Michelozzo’s three-nave library. In the late fifteenth century the Dominican friar, Girolamo Savonarola, started a religious reform and theocratic government. His followers were called “piagnoni” (wailers) and they spied on wealthy Florentines enjoying life to the full. For a time, Savonarola’s sermons held some of the leading Florentines in awe and even inspired some of the foremost artists to destroy their works of art in the Bonfires of the Vanities. It was Savonarola’s political reform, which opened the city government to wider participation of Florentine citizens, that made the extension of the Palazzo dei Priori (Palazzo Vecchio) necessary. From 1494 the Salone dei Cinquecento, in imitation of the Venetian Salone del Maggior Consiglio, was built next to the republican city hall by Antonio da Sangallo and Simone del Pollaiuolo, called il Cronaca. Baccio d’Agnolo later connected this building to Arnolfo’s original palazzo. Soon, however, the Florentines tired of the friar’s relentless exhortations and of the blameless life he expected them to lead so near to the end of the world foretold for the year 1500. Fra Girolamo was arrested at San Marco in 1498 and taken to a small cell at the city hall. Interrogated under torture, Savonarola finally admitted his guilt. Together with two other friars he was executed on Piazza della Signoria. The monastery was still being regarded as a hotbed of anti-Medicean sentiment by the mid-sixteenth century. The behaviour of the monks sparked a controversy which led to their being expelled by Duke Cosimo I in 1545. It was only the papal threat of excommunication that made the

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duke reconsider his decision and allowed the monks to come back to and continue their comfortable lives in the convent of San Marco. After having been suppressed in the early nineteenth century, the convent is now state-owned and hosts the National Museum of San Marco. Access to the museum may be gained through the ticket office on the right of the church and via the cloister of Saint Antoninus.

Figure 12 a: The eighteenth-century façade of San Marco with statues of Saint Dominic and Saint Vincent Ferrer (photo: AG).

Architecture The church of San Marco is yet another example of a Florentine church clad in a later façade. In this case, the style is Neo-Classical and the façade was added in 1777-1778. The niches display statues of Saint Dominic and Saint Vincent Ferrer, whereas a relief depicts the deeds of Saint Antoninus. After extensions had been carried out by Michelozzo (polygonal apse with half dome vault, 1437-1443, and a cross-vaulted ceiling), the basilica was re-designed by Giambologna in the late sixteenth

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century (Fig. 12 b). The church has a single nave with side chapels and houses works of art mainly datable to the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Porches next to the choir lead to the sacristy on the right and to the Sacrament Chapel of the Serragli on the left. The richly carved wooden ceiling was added in the seventeenth century before the entire church was renovated in 1678 by Pier Francesco Silvani.

Figure 12 b: Plan of San Marco with nave, sanctuary, cloisters and chapels (plan: SC).

For the convent, Michelozzo designed a sober, comfortable as well as elegant building in the new Renaissance style. In particular, the cloister and the library’s reading room attest to the influence of Brunelleschian

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architecture on Michelozzo, also discernible in the courtyard of the nearby Medici palace. In the days of Lorenzo the Magnificent, the library, wellstocked with ancient Greek and Latin texts, became the preferred working place for Florentine humanists, including Poliziano and Pico della Mirandola, probably much to the annoyance of the monks obliged to care for the library and its books. On the ground floor of the convent are the cloister, the chapter house, the refectory and the pilgrims’ hospital (now the paintings gallery), while on the upper floor the monks’ cells and the library are to be found. In several of the cells, holes in the pavement offer views of pre-existing structures, in some cases it is still possible to see the remains of colourful wall decorations. In the library, once painted green, some of the erstwhile depictions have also come to light. They had been executed in the belief that the colour green and propinquity to nature were conducive to study and intellectual exercise.

Art Inside the church we find works of art ranging from a late antique mosaic of the eighth century to frescoes and paintings of the eighteenth century. On the counter façade is a fourteenth-century crucifix, while the Crucifix (1425-1428) on the high altar is by Fra Beato Angelico. On the altar of the first side chapel to the right is the Saint Thomas Praying by Santi di Tito (1593). Next to it is an altarpiece by Fra Bartolommeo di San Marco (1590) of a Madonna with saints. The dome over the choir shows a Madonna in Glory with the Holy Trinity and Additional Saints (1717). Giambologna’s Salviati Chapel (1579-1589) off the left transept includes frescoes depicting the translation of Saint Antoninus’s relics under Grand Duke Ferdinand I de’ Medici. The relics are preserved under the altar together with those of Saint Zenobius. There is also a monument to Girolamo Savonarola who resided in the monastery from 1489 until his execution in 1498. In the museum, visits start in the cloister where scenes of the life of Saint Antoninus were painted by Fra Angelico, who also executed the Passion of Christ with Saint Dominic and Additional Saints in the Chapter House (completed in 1442). The refectory displays a Last Supper by Domenico Ghirlandaio, which is a smaller version of the Cenacolo at the Ognissanti church. In the paintings gallery, many of the existing works by Fra Angelico

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have been gathered for display. Perhaps the most important of these is the San Marco Altarpiece commissioned by the Medici in 1440 for the high altar of the church. Long since removed and not in the best state of conservation, the altarpiece shows the Madonna and Christ surrounded by saints, including Saint Mark and the Medici saints and physicians Cosmas and Damian. Their deeds also feature on the predella, for example in a scene in which Cosmas and Damian perform a miraculous leg transplant. Both altarpiece and predella paintings were executed by Fra Angelico in accordance with the then new technique of one-point perspective. Northern influences are noticeable in the naturalistic depiction of a walled garden in the background. At the top of the stairs leading to the dormitories, Fra Angelico’s famous Annunciation is displayed, which combines all’antica architecture reminiscent of Michelozzo’s cloister with jewel-like colours and beautifully embroidered clothing worn by the Virgin Mary and by the archangel. The artist’s use of light in the fresco follows reality in observing the architectural location and the sources of light in the vicinity. Even though the two figures are too tall for the painted architecture in the fresco, the Virgin casts a shadow, while the angel does not. Each of the 43 cells as well as the corridors of the second floor were decorated by Fra Angelico with frescoes depicting scenes of the New Testament, often shown in the presence of Saint Dominic or with Thomas Aquinas and Peter Martyr acting as an imaginary audience. The seven adjacent cells reserved for novices in the corridor leading to the prior’s cells each contain a fresco of Saint Dominic contemplating the Holy Cross with only minimal variations. Fra Angelico, who was a Dominican himself and who may have taken his name “Angelico” from that of the Doctor Angelicus, Thomas Aquinas, seems not only to have been familiar with the theological texts and their interpretation but managed to express them in his works of art. The aim was to help the novices and monks to contemplate, meditate and pray as reflected in the teachings of the Dominican prayer manual De Modo Orandi. At the end of the novices’ corridor are the cells once offering accommodation to the prior of the convent. They, as well as a nearby cell, have been turned into a small museum dedicated to Girolamo Savonarola and display his cloak and standard as well as other devotionalia, including his hair shirt, a portrait by the Dominican artist Bartolommeo di San Marco of Savonarola in the guise of Saint Peter Martyr and the scene of his execution in Piazza Signoria in 1498.

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Another corridor leads to the double cell reserved for Cosimo the Elder Medici. While the outer chamber of his accommodation displays a Passion of Christ, the inner room was decorated with an Adoration of the Magi that not only recalls the Council of Ferrara and Florence (1438) and the date of the consecration of San Marco on Epiphany 1443, but also announces the procession of the three kings to worship the new-born Son of God soon to grace the private chapel of the Medici palace nearby. While the San Marco Adoration was a collaborative effort executed by Fra Angelico and Benozzo Gozzoli, Benozzo alone went on to fill the commission for the palace chapel, inspired by Gentile da Fabriano’s Strozzi altarpiece (1423, now at the Uffizi). Bibl: Borsook 1983, 251-4 and 259-60; Campbell and Cole 2012, 134-40, 145, 164, 181, 396-8; Cesati 2002, 45-7; Crispino 1999, 28-9; De Boer 2010, annotations 69-75: 139-41; Goy 2015, 214-8; Hartt & Wilkins 2007, 222-9; Horstmann 2011, 79-84; Paatz 1952, III, 8-83; Paolucci 2006, 182-99; Schneider Adams 2001, 106-15; Sebregondi and Parks 2011; Tovey 2005, 312; Verdon, Coppellotti, Fabbri 2000, 166-9. Sources: ALBERTINI 96: In San Marco The great convent and church of San Marco, built mainly by the House of Medici, contain many noteworthy things. The high altarpiece, the chapter house and the figures in the first cloister are by the Dominican Fra Angelico. I must also mention the altarpiece by the Dominican Fra Bartolommeo, the one by Sandro Botticelli, and the crucifix by Piero del Pollaiuolo, above the Blessed Antoninus. I know that you [Baccio da Montelupo] made the wooden one.

VASARI I Giotto di Bondone 85: Having next returned to Florence with very great honour and ample means, he painted a Crucifix on wood and in distemper for S. Marco, larger than life and on a ground of gold, which was placed on the right hand in the church. Pietro Cavallini 162-3: After these works Pietro went to Tuscany, in order to see the works of the other disciples of his master Giotto and those of Giotto himself; and with this

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occasion he painted many figures in S. Marco in Florence, which are not seen today, the church having been whitewashed, except the Annunciation, which stands covered beside the principal door of the church. […] Among the figures that he made in the said S. Marco in Florence was the portrait of Pope Urban V from the life, with the heads of S. Peter and S. Paul; from which portrait Fra Giovanni da Fiesole copied that one which is in a panel in S. Domenico, also of Fiesole; and that was no small good-fortune, seeing that the portrait which was in S. Marco and many other figures that were about the church in fresco were covered with whitewash, as it has been said, when that convent was taken from the monks who occupied it before and given to the Preaching Friars, the whole being whitewashed with little attention and consideration. II Lorenzo di Bicci 68: Next, being commissioned by the family of the Martini to paint a chapel in S. Marco in Florence, he wrought in fresco on the walls many stories of the Madonna, and on the panel the Virgin herself in the midst of many saints; and in the same church, over the Chapel of S. Giovanni Evangelista, belonging to the family of the Landi, he painted in fresco an Angel Raphael with Tobias. Luca della Robbia 126: But to return to Luca; he was buried, with the rest of his family, in their ancestral tomb in S. Piero Maggiore, and in the same tomb there was afterwards buried Andrea, who left two sons, friars in S. Marco, where they received the habit from the Reverend Fra Girolamo Savonarola, to whom that Della Robbia family was ever devoted, portraying him in that manner which is still seen to-day in the medals. Filippo Brunelleschi 234-5: Filippo was very humorous in his discourse and very acute in repartee, as he showed when he wished to hit at Lorenzo Ghiberti, who had bought a farm on Monte Morello, called Lepriano, on which he spent twice as much as he gained by way of income, so that he grew weary of this and sold it. Some one asked Filippo what was the best thing that Lorenzo had ever done, thinking perchance, by reason of the enmity between them, that he would criticize Lorenzo; and he replied, “The selling of Lepriano.” Finally, having now grown very old—he was sixty-nine years of age—he passed to a better life on April 16, in the year 1446, after having exhausted himself greatly in making the works that enabled him to win an honoured name on earth and to obtain a place of repose in Heaven. His death caused infinite grief to his country, which recognized and esteemed him much more when dead than it had done when he was alive; and he was buried with the most honourable obsequies and distinctions in S. Maria del Fiore, although his burial-place was in S. Marco, under the pulpit opposite to the door, where there is a coat of arms with two fig-leaves and certain green waves on a field of gold, because his family came from the district of Ferrara, that is, from Ficaruolo, a

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township on the Po, as it is shown by the leaves, which denote the place, and by the waves, which signify the river. Michelozzo Michelozzi 265-6: But let us now return to Michelozzo; the Church of S. Giorgio had just been given to the Friars of S. Domenico da Fiesole, but they only remained there from about the middle of July to the end of January, for Cosimo de’ Medici and his brother Lorenzo obtained for them from Pope Eugenius the Church and Convent of S. Marco, which was previously the seat of Silvestrine Monks, to whom the said S. Giorgio was given in exchange. And Cosimo and Lorenzo, being very devoted to religion and to divine service and worship, ordained that the said Convent of S. Marco should be rebuilt entirely anew after the design and model of Michelozzo, and should be made very vast and magnificent, with all the conveniences that the said friars could possibly desire. This work was begun in the year 1437, and the first part to be built was that opening out above the old refectory, opposite to the ducal stables, which Duke Lorenzo de’ Medici formerly caused to be built. In this place twenty cells were built, the roof was put on, and the wooden furniture was made for the refectory, the whole being finished in the manner wherein it still stands to-day. But for some time the work was carried no further, for they had to wait to see what would be the end of a law-suit that one Maestro Stefano, General of the said Silvestrines, had brought against the Friars of S. Marco with regard to that convent. This suit having concluded in favour of the said Friars of S. Marco, the building was once more continued. But since the principal chapel, which had been built by Ser Pino Bonaccorsi, had afterwards come into the hands of a lady of the Caponsacchi family, and from her to Mariotto Banchi, some law-suit was fought out over this, and Mariotto, having upheld his rights and having taken the said chapel from Agnolo della Casa, to whom the said Silvestrines had given or sold it, presented it to Cosimo de’ Medici, who gave Mariotto 500 crowns in return for it. Later, after Cosimo had likewise bought from the Company of the Spirito Santo the site where the choir now stands, the chapel, the tribune, and the choir were built under the direction of Michelozzo, and completely furnished in the year 1439. Afterwards the library was made, eighty braccia in length and eighteen in breadth, and vaulted both above and below, with sixty-four shelves of cypress wood filled with most beautiful books. After this the dormitory was finished, being brought to a square shape; and finally the cloister was completed, together with all the truly commodious apartments of that convent, which is believed to be the best designed, the most beautiful, and the most commodious that there is in Italy, thanks to the talent and industry of Michelozzo, who delivered it completely finished in the year 1452. It is said that Cosimo spent 36,000 ducats on this fabric, and that while it was building he gave the monks 366 ducats every year for their maintenance. Of the construction and consecration of this holy place we read in an inscription on marble over the door that leads into the sacristy, in the following words: CUM HOC TEMPLUM MARCO EVANGELISTÆ DICATUM MAGNIFICIS SUMPTIBUS

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CL. V. COSMI MEDICIS TANDEM ABSOLUTUM ESSET, EUGENIUS QUARTUS ROMANUS PONTIFEX MAXIMA CARDINALIUM, ARCHIEPISCOPORUM, EPISCOPORUM, ALIORUMQUE SACERDOTUM FREQUENTIA COMITATUS, ID CELEBERRIMO EPIPHANIÆ DIE, SOLEMNI MORE SERVATO, CONSECRAVIT. TUM ETIAM QUOTANNIS OMNIBUS, QUI EODEM DIE FESTO ANNUAS STATASQUE CONSECRATIONIS CEREMONIAS CASTE PIEQUE CELEBRARINT VISERINTVE, TEMPORIS LUENDIS PECCATIS SUIS DEBITI SEPTEM ANNOS TOTIDEMQUE QUADRAGESIMAS APOSTOLICA REMISIT AUCTORITATE, A. MCCCCXLII. 271: It is recorded that the money that Cosimo spent in the restoration of this palace was paid by Pigello Portinari, a citizen of Florence, who then directed the bank and the accounts of Cosimo in Milan and lived in the said palace. There are some works in marble and bronze by the hand of Michelozzo in Genoa, and many others in other places, which are all known by the manner; but what we have already said about him must suffice. He died at the age of sixty-eight, and he was buried in his own tomb in S. Marco at Florence. III Giuliano da Maiano 11-2: It is said that in company with Giusto and Minore, masters of tarsia, he wrought the seats of the Sacristy of the Nunziata, and likewise those of the choir that is beside the chapel, and many things in the Badia of Florence and in S. Marco; Fra Giovanni Beato Angelico 27: There are some choral books illuminated by the hand of Fra Giovanni in his Convent of S. Marco in Florence, so beautiful that words are not able to describe them; and similar to these are some others that he left in S. Domenico da Fiesole, wrought with incredible diligence. It is true, indeed, that in making these he was assisted by an elder brother, who was likewise an illuminator and well practised in painting. 28-9: This father was so greatly beloved for his merits by Cosimo de’ Medici, that, after completing the construction of the Church and Convent of S. Marco, he caused him to paint the whole Passion of Jesus Christ on a wall in the chapterhouse; and on one side all the Saints who have been heads and founders of religious bodies, mourning and weeping at the foot of the Cross, and on the other side S. Mark the Evangelist beside the Mother of the Son of God, who has

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swooned at the sight of the Saviour of the world Crucified, while round her are the Maries, all grieving and supporting her, with S. Cosimo and S. Damiano. It is said that in the figure of S. Cosimo Fra Giovanni portrayed from the life Nanni d’ Antonio di Banco, a sculptor and his friend. Below this work, in a frieze above the panelling, he made a tree with S. Dominic at the foot of it, and, in certain medallions encircled by the branches, all the Popes, Cardinals, Bishops, Saints, and Masters of Theology whom his Order of Preaching Friars had produced up to that time. In this work he made many portraits from nature, being assisted by the friars, who sent for them to various places; and they were the following: S. Dominic in the middle, grasping the branches of the tree; Pope Innocent V, a Frenchman; the Blessed Ugone, first Cardinal of that Order; the Blessed Paolo, Florentine and Patriarch; S. Antonino, Archbishop of Florence; the Blessed Giordano, a German, and the second General of that Order; the Blessed Niccolò; the Blessed Remigio, a Florentine; and the martyr Boninsegno, a Florentine; all these are on the right hand. On the left are Benedict II of Treviso; Giandomenico, a Florentine Cardinal; Pietro da Palude, Patriarch of Jerusalem; Alberto Magno, a German; the Blessed Raimondo di Catalonia, third General of the Order; the Blessed Chiaro, a Florentine, and Provincial of Rome; S. Vincenzio di Valenza; and the Blessed Bernardo, a Florentine. All these heads are truly gracious and very beautiful. Then, over certain lunettes in the first cloister, he made many very beautiful figures in fresco, and a Crucifix with S. Dominic at the foot, which is much extolled; and in the dormitory, besides many other things throughout the cells and on the surface of the walls, he painted a story from the New Testament, of a beauty beyond the power of words to describe. Particularly beautiful and marvellous is the panel of the high-altar of that church; for, besides the fact that the Madonna rouses all who see her to devotion by her simplicity, and that the Saints that surround her are like her in this, the predella, in which there are stories of the martyrdom of S. Cosimo, S. Damiano, and others, is so well painted, that one cannot imagine it possible ever to see a work executed with greater diligence, or little figures more delicate or better conceived than these are. Benozzo Gozzoli 121-2: In his youth he painted a panel for the altar of the Company of S. Marco in Florence, and, in S. Friano, a picture of the passing of S. Jerome, which has been spoilt in restoring the façade of the church along the street. Cosimo Rosselli 188: In S. Marco at Florence, in the Chapel of the Cloth Weavers, he painted a panel with the Holy Cross in the middle, and, at the sides, S. Mark, S. John the Evangelist, S. Antonino, Archbishop of Florence, and other figures. Gherardo 215: And in S. Marco at Florence, over the table of Pardons, he painted a lunette full of very graceful figures. Domenico Ghirlandaio

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222: On the tramezzo of the Church of S. Marco there is another panel, with a Last Supper in the guest-room, both executed with diligence; IV Piero di Cosimo 126: In the Noviciate of S. Marco is a picture by his hand of Our Lady, standing, with the Child in her arms, coloured in oils. Fra Bartolommeo di San Marco 153-4: For there was living in S. Marco, at this time, Fra Girolamo Savonarola of Ferrara, of the Order of Preaching Friars, a very famous theologian; and Baccio [Fra Bartolommeo], going continually to hear his preaching, on account of the devotion that he felt for him, contracted a very strait intimacy with him, and passed almost all his time in the convent, having also become the friend of the other friars. Now it happened that Fra Girolamo, continuing his preaching, and crying out every day from the pulpit that lascivious pictures, music, and amorous books often lead the mind to evil, became convinced that it was not right to keep in houses where there were young girls painted figures of naked men and women. And at the next Carnival—when it was the custom in the city to make little huts of faggots and other kinds of wood on the public squares, and on the Tuesday evening, according to ancient use, to burn these, with amorous dances, in which men and women, joining hands, danced round these fires, singing certain airs—the people were so inflamed by Fra Girolamo, and he wrought upon them so strongly with his words, that on that day they brought to the place a vast quantity of nude figures, both in painting and in sculpture, many by the hand of excellent masters, and likewise books, lutes, and volumes of songs, which was a most grievous loss, particularly for painting. Thither Baccio carried all the drawings of nudes that he had made by way of studies, and he was followed by Lorenzo di Credi and by many others, who had the name of Piagnoni. And it was not long before Baccio, on account of the affection that he bore to Fra Girolamo, made a very beautiful portrait of him in a picture, which was then taken to Ferrara; but not long ago it came back to Florence, and it is now in the house of Filippo di Alamanno Salviati, who, since it is by the hand of Baccio, holds it very dear. It happened, after this, that one day the opponents of Fra Girolamo rose against him, in order to take him and deliver him over to the hands of justice, on account of the disturbances that he had caused in the city; and his friends, seeing this, also banded themselves together, to the number of more than five hundred, and shut themselves up in S. Marco, and Baccio with them, on account of the great affection that he had for their party. It is true that, being a person of little courage, nay, even timorous and mean-spirited, and hearing an attack being made a little time after this on the convent, and men being wounded and killed, he began to have serious doubts about himself. For which reason he made a vow that if he were to escape from that turmoil, he would straightway assume the habit of that Order; which vow he carried out afterwards most faithfully, for when the uproar had ceased, and Fra Girolamo had been taken and condemned to death, as the writers of history relate

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with more detail, Baccio betook himself to Prato and became a monk in S. Domenico, in that city, on July 26, in the year 1500, as is found written in the chronicles of that same convent in which he assumed the habit; to the great displeasure of all his friends, who were grieved beyond measure at having lost him, and particularly because they heard that he had taken it into his head to forsake his painting. 155-7: When Fra Bartolommeo had been many months in Prato, he was sent by his superiors to take up his abode in S. Marco at Florence, and on account of his virtues he was received very warmly by the friars of that convent. […] At this time the painter Raffaello da Urbino came to Florence to study his art, and taught the best principles of perspective to Fra Bartolommeo; and desiring to acquire the friar’s manner of colouring, and being pleased with his handling of colours and his method of harmonizing them, Raffaello was always in his company. Fra Bartolommeo painted about the same time, in S. Marco at Florence, a panel with an infinite number of figures, which is now in the possession of the King of France, having been presented to him after being exposed to view for many months in S. Marco. Afterwards, he painted another in that convent, containing an endless number of figures, in place of the one that was sent into France; in which picture are some children who are flying in the air and holding open a canopy, executed with such good drawing and art, and with such strong relief, that they appear to stand out from the panel, while the colouring of the flesh reveals that beauty and excellence which every able craftsman seeks to give to his pictures; and this work is still considered at the present day to be most excellent. In it are many figures surrounding a Madonna, all most admirable, and executed with grace, feeling, boldness, spirit, and vivacity; and coloured, moreover, in so striking a manner, that they seem to be in relief, since he wished to show that he was able not only to draw, but also to give his figures force and make them stand out by means of the darkness of the shadows, as may be seen in some children who are round a canopy, upholding it, who, as they fly through the air, almost project from the panel. Besides this, there is an Infant Christ who is marrying S. Catherine the Nun, than which it would not be possible to paint anything more lifelike with the dark colouring that he used. There is a circle of saints on one side diminishing in perspective, round the depth of a great recess, who are distributed with such fine design that they seem to be real; and the same may be seen on the other side. And in truth, in this manner of colouring, he imitated to a great extent the works of Leonardo; particularly in the darks, for which he used printer’s smoke-black and the black of burnt ivory. This panel has now become much darker than it was when he painted it, on account of those blacks, which have kept growing heavier and darker. In the foreground, among the principal figures, he made a S. George in armour, who has a standard in his hand, a bold, spirited, and vivacious figure, in a beautiful attitude. There is also a S. Bartholomew, standing, a figure that deserves the highest praise; with two children who are playing, one on a lute, and the other on a lyre, one of whom he made with a leg drawn up and his instrument resting upon it, and with the hands touching the strings in the act of running over them, an ear intent on the harmony, the head upraised, and the mouth slightly open, in such

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a way that whoever beholds him cannot persuade himself that he should not also hear the voice. No less lifelike is the other, who, leaning on one side, and bending over with one ear to the lyre, appears to be listening to learn how far it is in accord with the sound of the lute and the voice, while, with his eyes fixed on the ground, and his ear turned intently towards his companion, who is playing and singing, he seeks to follow in harmony with the air. These conceptions and expressions are truly ingenious; the children, who are seated, and clothed in veiling, are marvellous and executed with great industry by the practised hand of Fra Bartolommeo; and the whole work is brought out into strong relief by a fine gradation of dark shadows. A little time afterwards he painted another panel, to stand opposite to the former, and containing a Madonna surrounded by some saints, which is held to be a good work. He won extraordinary praise for having introduced a method of blending the colouring of his figures in such a way as to add a marvellous degree of harmony to art, making them appear to be in relief and alive, and executing them with supreme perfection of manner. 161: In the chapel of the Noviciate of S. Marco there is a panel-picture of the Purification, very lovely, which he executed with good draughtsmanship and high finish. […] In like manner, he wrought in fresco an arch over the strangers’ apartment in S. Marco, in which he painted Christ with Cleophas and Luke, and made a portrait of Fra Niccolò della Magna, who was then a young man, and who afterwards became Archbishop of Capua, and finally a Cardinal. 162: His death grieved his friends, and particularly the friars, who gave him honourable sepulture in their burial-place in S. Marco, on October 8, in the year 1517. He had a dispensation from attending any of the offices in the choir with the other friars, and the gains from his works went to the convent, enough money being left in his hands to pay for colours and other materials necessary for his painting. V Baccio da Montelupo and Raffaello, his son 42: Setting himself also to work in wood, he carved lifesize Crucifixes, of which he made an endless number for all parts of Italy, and among them one that is over the door of the choir of the Monks of S. Marco at Florence. Lorenzo di Credi 52: […] and, finally, having reached the age of seventy or more, he died in the year 1564, and was buried in S. Marco, to which he was followed by an honourable train of the Academy of Design. Giovanni Antonio Sogliani 164-5: Being summoned by the Friars of S. Marco in Florence to paint a work in fresco at the head of their refectory, at the expense of one of their number, a lay-

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brother of the Molletti family, who had possessed a rich patrimony when in the world, Giovanni Antonio wished to paint there the scene of Jesus Christ feeding five thousand persons with five loaves and two fishes, in order to make the most of his powers; and he had already made the design for it, with many women and children and a great multitude of other people, when the friars refused to have that story, saying that they wanted something definite, simple, and familiar. Whereupon, to please them, he painted the scene when S. Dominic, being in the refectory with his friars and having no bread, made a prayer to God, when the table was miraculously covered with bread, brought by two angels in human form. In this work he made portraits of many friars who were then in the convent, which have the appearance of life, and particularly that of the lay-brother of the Molletti family, who is serving at table. Then, in the lunette above the table, he painted S. Dominic at the foot of a Crucifix, with Our Lady and S. John the Evangelist, who are weeping, and at the sides S. Catherine of Siena and S. Antonino, Archbishop of Florence, a brother of their Order. All this, for a work in fresco, was executed with much diligence and a high finish; but Sogliani would have been much more successful if he had executed what he had designed, because painters express the conceptions of their own minds better than those of others. On the other hand, it is only right that he who pays the piper should call the tune. The design for the Miracle of the Loaves and Fishes is in the hands of Bartolommeo Gondi, who, in addition to a large picture that he has by the hand of Sogliani, also possesses many drawings and heads painted from life on tinted paper, which he received from the wife of the painter, who had been very much his friend, after his death. And we, also, have in our book some drawings by the same hand, which are beautiful to a marvel. VII Giuliano Bugiardini 108-9: These and other works of Giuliano’s having been seen by Mariotto Albertinelli, he recognized how careful Giuliano was in following the designs that were put before him, without departing from them by a hair’s breadth, and, since he was preparing in those days to abandon art, he gave him to finish a panelpicture that Fra Bartolommeo di San Marco, his friend and companion, had formerly left only designed and shaded with water-colours on the gesso of the panel, as was his custom. Giuliano, then, setting his hand to this work, executed it with supreme diligence and labour, and it was placed at that time in the Church of S. Gallo, without the gate of that name. The church and convent were afterwards pulled down on account of the siege, and the picture was carried into the city and placed in the Priests’ Hospital in the Via di S. Gallo, and then from there into the Convent of S. Marco, and finally into S. Jacopo tra Fossi on the Canto degli Alberti, where it stands at the present day on the high-altar. In this picture is the Dead Christ, with the Magdalene, who is embracing His feet, and S. John the Evangelist, who is holding His head and supporting it on one knee. There, likewise, are S. Peter, who is weeping, and S. Paul, who, stretching out his arms, is contemplating his Dead Master; and, to tell the truth, Giuliano executed this

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picture with so much lovingness and so much consideration and judgment, that he will be always very highly extolled for it, even as he was at that time, and that rightly. And after this he finished for Cristofano Rinieri a picture with the Rape of Dina that had been likewise left incomplete by the same Fra Bartolommeo; and he painted another picture like it, which was sent to France. 113: Finally, after having always been that kind of man, Giuliano died at the age of seventy-five, and was buried in the Church of S. Marco at Florence, in the year 1556. VIII Ridolfo, David and Benedetto Ghirlandaio 64: In the Palace that is now the Duke’s he painted the chapel where the Signori used to hear Mass, executing in the centre of the vaulting the most Holy Trinity, and in the other compartments some little Angels who are holding the Mysteries of the Passion, with some heads representing the twelve Apostles. In the four corners he painted the four Evangelists in whole-length figures, and at the head the Angel Gabriel bringing the Annunciation to the Virgin, depicting in a kind of landscape the Piazza della Nunziata in Florence as far as the Church of S. Marco; and all this work is executed excellently well, with many beautiful ornaments. Giovanni da Udine 81: He also executed four square banners when the Blessed Antonino, Archbishop of Florence, and S. Hubert, once Bishop of I know not what city of Flanders, were canonized as Saints by the above-mentioned Pope Adrian; of which banners, one, wherein is the figure of that S. Antonino, was given to the Church of S. Marco in Florence, where the body of the Saint lies, another, wherein is the figure of S. Hubert, was placed in S. Maria de Anima, the church of the Germans in Rome, and the other two were sent to Flanders.

BOCCHI, 28-30: 28-29: On the left there is the Church of San Marco where a large number of Dominican monks live. Noteworthy confraternities are attached to this church, such as the Company of the Most Holy Rosary of Our Lady, and of the Name of God. There are paintings by excellent masters, such as a St. Mark, more than lifesize and singularly beautiful, and two other panels, also painted in oil, all three by Fra Bartolommeo of the order of St. Dominic. In one there are two little angels playing musical instruments, so natural that they appear to be alive; they are considered more wonderful than any other painting. There are also many paintings by Fra Giovanni [Angelico], a member of the same order, such as the [one on] the high altar. In the monastery there are so many works by this friar that they can satisfy for a long while every urgent need of those who delight in nourishing themselves with

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sacred thoughts. Because he lived a saintly life, he portrayed himself in expressing holy characters and heavenly thoughts. Indeed, all his paintings breathe sanctity and devotion. The monastery was built by Cosimo [the Elder] de’ Medici at great expense to a design of Michelozzo Michelozzi. In the church there is an Annunciation by Pietro Cavallini, a painter of saintly character, which is kept covered and is not shown but on certain rare occasions and with the greatest devotion. 30: Furthermore, the chapel, where the body of the St. Antoninus will be placed, was erected at enormous cost by Averardo and Antonio Salviati; it is a structure fit rather for a king than for a private citizen. {…} In this chapel one sees panels painted by excellent masters, statues of very fine marble and of bronze, and reliefs; the latter and the statues were executed by the most excellent sculptor Giambologna, who designed the entire work.

BALDINUCCI S Marco (of Fratri Predicatori): I.115; I.168; I.325-6; I.416-7; I.422; I.490; I.523; I.582; I.585 & 587-9; II.204; II.370; II.538; II.545; II.571-2; II.572; II.582; III.9; III.45; III.62-3; III.80; III.81; III.93; III.139; III.139; III.247-8; III.258; III.435-6; III.437; III.439; III.445; III.512-3; III.514; III.532; III.640; III.646; IV.165; IV.165; IV.167; IV.184-5; IV.309; IV.362; IV.415; IV.436; IV.543; IV.543-4; V.69; V.400.

RICHA, part III, vol VII, lesson XII-XVI, 113-170.

CHAPTER THIRTEEN SANTA MARIA DEL CARMINE

Piazza del Carmine, 14; for opening hours of the church please visit http://www.firenzeturismo.it/en/vivi-firenze-2/luoghi-di-interesse-2/luoghi-diinteresse-dettaglio-2.html?step=scheda&provenienza=e&id_risorsa=22056. Information on visits to the Brancacci Chapel may be found on http://museicivicifiorentini.comune.fi.it/en/brancacci/informazioni.html. Access to the chapel is through the door to the right of the church and via the bookshop. Visitors may book a screening of the introductory film before viewing the chapel. Access to the chapel is for 15 minutes maximum.

History Santa Maria del Carmine is a church of the Carmelite Order; it was built together with a monastery in the Oltrarno district from 1268 onwards and dedicated to the Beata Virgo Maria de Monte Carmelo. The church, in the Romanesque-Gothic style, was financed by the city of Florence with funds raised by the taxation on salt. It was enlarged in 1328 and then again in 1464, when the chapter house and the refectory were added. Nonetheless, it took until 1422 until the Carmine was completed and consecrated. Today, the church is famous as the location of the Brancacci Chapel, which was frescoed in the early fifteenth century by Masaccio and Masolino da Panicale and later finished by Filippino Lippi. As happened so often in Florence, the façade remained unfinished, while Vasari’s modifications inside the church in the late 1550s provided some degree of uniformity as well as conformity to the tenets of the Counter-reformation. The church was destroyed by fire during the night of 28/29 January 1771 and was later rebuilt in the Baroque style by Giuseppe Ruggieri (Fig. 13 a). As if by miracle, the Brancacci Chapel and the sacristy survived as well as a few other works of art, for example the monument to Piero Soderini (d.1522) by Benedetto da Rovezzano (15111513). The frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel were the last instance of collaboration between Masolino and his pupil Masaccio. They had started

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work by the mid-1420s but stopped when Masolino left for Hungary with Pippo Spano a few years later. Masaccio continued on his own but eventually left for Rome where he was murdered aged 27 in 1428. The flood of 1966 considerably damaged the church and chapels. The Brancacci Chapel was restored between 1981 and 1990; during this campaign two portrait medallions of Masolino and Masaccio were rediscovered in the chapel.

Figure 13 a: Façade of Santa Maria del Carmine (photo: AG).

Architecture The façade is unfinished and quite in contrast with the exuberant Baroque interior. The church of Santa Maria del Carmine is a single-nave hall church in the Latin cross shape with long transepts and a dome over the crossing (Fig. 13 b). The Brancacci Chapel is at the end of the transept to the right. There are five shallow apsidal side chapels on each side of the nave. The barrel-vaulted ceiling over the main nave substituted the openbeam roof, which was destroyed by fire in 1771. Domenico Stagi and Giuseppe Romei collaborated on the fresco decoration, for example on the

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Ascension of Christ and, in the dome, on The Trinity and the Virgin in Glory with Saints.

Figure 13 b: Plan of Santa Maria del Carmine (plan: SC).

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Art The Byzantine Madonna del Popolo, now displayed in the Brancacci Chapel, goes back to the earliest history of the Carmine, which quickly became a centre of worship of the Virgin Mary. The Brancacci chapel was commissioned as a monument for Piero Brancacci by his descendant Felice. Building work started in 1386 and Masolino da Panicale was hired to execute the decorative scheme in 1423. The walls were divided into diverse fields and Masolino started with the frescoes depicting scenes from the Old Testament (The Fall of Adam and Eve) as well as scenes from the Life of Saint Peter. In this project he was assisted by his young pupil Massaccio who introduced a new style and technique. One-point perspective allowed him to place his figures into a believable three-dimensional pictorial space; through the depiction of strong emotions, for example in the Expulsion from Eden, he succeeds in affecting the chapel’s audience to this day. Whereas Masolino was particularly gifted in the rendition of rich materials appropriate for the chapel of a merchant engaged in the silk trade, Masaccio adopted a more realistic style, which presents the sick and poor as dirty and unkempt and which strives for a highly natural portrayal of landscapes. To achieve this effect he used foreshortening, a technique that changes the real shape of an object or human body in such a way that it seems to be placed squarely on the imaginary pictorial plane. He also employed sfumato, i.e. haziness, to make hills and mountains in the background look even further away. The Temptation of Adam and Eve and the Expulsion from Paradise placed on opposite walls may serve as impressive examples for the respective work of the two artists. In Masolino’s Temptation, Adam and Eve stand composed and poised next to the forbidden tree. The snake has the head and hair of a woman and altogether looks like Eve who thereby becomes less of a victim and turns into the eternal temptress. The forbidden tree bears figs in keeping with the vegetation of the Holy Land rather than apples as was going to become the norm in the art of northern European countries. The contrast to Masaccio’s Expulsion could not be greater: in this scene, Adam and Eve have become aware of their sin, they are trying to cover their naked bodies, and they are howling in their raw despair. The viewer is conscious of their physical as well as emotional presence. Here, as well as in Saint Peter Baptising the Neophytes, Masaccio created credible naked human bodies in whose statures and poses the influence of ancient statuary (for example of the type of the Venus Pudica) may be recognised.

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Since the chapel remained incomplete and the family of the patrons was exiled in 1436, work did not resume until the 1480s. In the meantime, parts of the completed frescoes may have been destroyed as an act of political damnatio memoriae. In c.1485 Filippino Lippi was commissioned to complete the frescoes. One of the scenes he worked on was Masaccio’s half-finished Raising of the Son of Theophilus, in which he inserted a group of bystanders on the left as well as the Carmelites surrounding an enthroned Saint Peter on the right. Furthest to the right is another group of four with portrait heads of Masolino, Masaccio, Leon Battista Alberti and Filippo Brunelleschi. The frescoes in the chapel were much admired during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries and they served as models to be studied and copied by young artists, for example by Michelangelo Buonarroti. Allegedly it was in the Brancacci Chapel that Michaelangelo was beaten up by Pietro Torrigiani who broke his nose. The decoration of the Brancacci Chapel may be read in a religious, artistic as well as a political key. The same is the case with the Corsini Chapel at the end of the left transept, built and decorated in memory of a fourteenth-century Carmelite saint, Andrea Corsini, who was canonised in 1629. Four of the foremost architects and artists of the late seventeenth century, i.e. Pier Francesco Silvani, Luca Giordano, Giovanni Domenico Ferretti and Giovanni Battista Foggini collaborated on this project. In this funerary chapel in the Roman Baroque style the Corsini family presented itself as wealthy, influential and important for the history of Florence, since it was with Saint Andrew Corsini’s assistance that Florentine troops won the Battle of Anghiari against Milan in 1440. Bibl: Ahl 2002; Borsook 1983, 283-5 and 295-7; Campbell and Cole 2012, 100-3; Carniani 1991; Cesati 2002, 15-7; Crispino 1999, 46-9; De Boer 2010, annotations 201-9: 195-8; Eckstein 2007 and 2014; Goy 2015, 263-6; Hartt & Wilkins 2007, 206-14; Horstmann 2011, 134-41; Paatz 1952, III, 188-303; Paolucci 2006, 24865; Tovey 2005, 313; Verdon, Coppellotti, Fabbri 2000, 152-9. Sources: ALBERTINI 100: In the Carmine […] The ancient and holy Santa Maria del Carmine is 143 braccia [83.45 m.] long. In it are paintings by ancient masters, especially the ones by Masaccio, and those in the Brancacci Chapel, half by Masaccio and the other half by Masolino, with the exception of the Crucifixion of Saint Peter by Filippino Lippi. The Saint Peter next

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to the chapel decorated by Starnina is by Masolino, and the Saint Paul is by Masaccio. The main chapel was decorated by the noble House of Soderini, especially by the most reverend Francesco, cardinal of Volterra, and his brother, the most illustrious Piero, first gonfaloniere and duce perpetuo [“leader for life”], both extremely educated men. It contains paintings and an ornate black chalcedony tomb with various works in marble sculpted by Benedetto da Rovezzano, who is now working on another one for Saint John Gualbert. I shall not even begin to list the many works in this church by Fra Filippo [Lippi].

VASARI I Giotto di Bondone 74: He wrought, also, in the Church of the Carmine, in the Chapel of S. Giovanni Battista, all the life of that Saint, divided into a number of pictures; […]. Agnolo Gaddi 218: Having given so great a proof of his talent, he was commissioned by the family of Soderini, who had great hopes of him, to paint the principal chapel of the Carmine, and he painted therein all the life of Our Lady, so much less well than he had done the resurrection of Lazarus, that he gave every man to know that he had little wish to attend with every effort to the art of painting; for the reason that in all that great work there is nothing else of the good save one scene, wherein, round Our Lady, in a room, are many maidens who are wearing diverse costumes and head-dresses, according to the diversity of the use of those times, and are engaged in diverse exercises: this one is spinning, that one is sewing, that other is winding thread, one is weaving, and others working in other ways, all passing well conceived and executed by Agnolo. II Spinello Aretino 30: This chapel finished, Spinello painted in fresco, in the Church of the Carmine, the Chapel of S. James and S. John, the Apostles, wherein, among other things, there is wrought with much diligence the scene when the wife of Zebedee, mother of James, is demanding of Jesus Christ that He should cause one of her sons to sit on the right hand of the Father in the Kingdom of Heaven, and the other on the left; and a little beyond are seen Zebedee, James, and John abandoning their nets and following Christ, with liveliness and admirable manner. In another chapel of the same church, which is beside the principal chapel, Spinello made, also in fresco, some stories of the Madonna, and the Apostles appearing to her miraculously before her death, and likewise the moment when she dies and is then borne to Heaven by the Angels. And because the scene was large and the diminutive chapel, which was not longer than ten braccia and not higher than five, would not contain

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the whole, and above all the Assumption of Our Lady herself, Spinello, with beautiful judgment, caused it to curve round within the length of the picture, on to a part where Christ and the Angels are receiving her. Gherardo Starnina 44-5: Nor was it long before he was commissioned to paint the Chapel of S. Girolamo in the Carmine, where, making many stories of that Saint, he painted, in the story of Paola and Eustachio and Jerome, certain costumes that the Spaniards wore at that time, with very characteristic invention, and with an abundance of manners and conceptions in the attitudes of the figures. Among other things, painting a scene of S. Jerome learning his first letters, he made a master who has caused a boy to climb on the back of another and is beating him with his rod, in a manner that the poor lad, kicking out with his legs by reason of the great pain, appears to be howling and trying to bite the ear of the one who is holding him; and all this Gherardo expressed gracefully and very charmingly, as one who was going on investigating on every side the things of nature. Likewise, in the scene where S. Jerome, at the point of death, is making his testament, he counterfeited some friars with beautiful and very ready manner; for while some are writing and others earnestly listening and gazing on him, they are all hanging with great affection on the words of their master. Taddeo Bartoli 63: His works date about the year of our Lord 1436, and the last were a panel containing an Annunciation in S. Trinita in Florence, and the panel of the highaltar in the Church of the Carmine. Lorenzo di Bicci 69-70: And because these pictures gave universal pleasure to the whole city, after he had finished them he was commissioned by the family of the Salvestrini— which to-day is almost extinct, there being to my knowledge none left save a friar of the Angeli in Florence, called Fra Nemesio, a good and worthy churchman—to paint a wall of the Church of the Carmine, whereon he made the scene when the martyrs, being condemned to death, are stripped naked and made to walk barefoot over spikes strewn by ministers of the tyrants, while they were going to be placed on the cross; and higher up they are seen placed thereon, in various extravagant attitudes. In this work, which was the largest that had ever been made up to that time, everything is seen to have been done, according to the knowledge of those times, with much mastery and design, for it is all full of those various emotions that nature arouses in those who are made to die a violent death; wherefore I do not marvel that many able men have contrived to avail themselves of certain things that are seen in this picture. After these he made many other figures in the same church, and particularly in two chapels in the tramezzo.

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Preface to the Second Part 86: This I can also say of painting and sculpture, wherein very rare works of the masters of that second age may still be seen to-day, such as those in the Carmine by Masaccio, who made a naked man shivering with cold, and lively and spirited figures in other pictures; but in general they did not attain to the perfection of the third, whereof we will speak at the proper time, it being necessary now to discourse of the second, whose craftsmen, to speak first of the sculptors, advanced so far beyond the manner of the first and improved it so greatly, that they left little to be done by the third. Paolo Uccello 134: After this, he painted the dossal of S. Cosimo and S. Damiano in the Carmine, in the Chapel of S. Girolamo (of the Pugliesi). Masolino da Panicale 165-6: And having gone to Rome in order to study, the while that he dwelt there he painted the hall of the old house of the Orsini on Monte Giordano; and then, having returned to Florence by reason of a pain in the head that the air was causing him, he made in the Carmine, beside the Chapel of the Crucifixion, that figure of S. Peter which is still seen there. This figure, being praised by the craftsmen, brought it about that he was commissioned to adorn the Chapel of the Brancacci, in the said church, with the stories of S. Peter; of which chapel, with great diligence, he brought a part to completion, as on the vaulting, where there are the four Evangelists, with Christ taking Andrew and Peter from the nets and then Peter weeping for the sin committed in denying Him, and next to that his preaching in order to convert the Gentiles. He painted there the shipwreck of the Apostles in the tempest, and the scene when S. Peter is delivering his daughter Petronilla from sickness; and in the same scene he made him going with S. John to the Temple, where, in front of the portico, there is the lame beggar asking him for alms, and S. Peter, not being able to give him either gold or silver, is delivering him with the sign of the Cross. Throughout all that work the figures are made with very good grace, and they show grandeur in the manner, softness and harmony in the colouring, and relief and force in the draughtsmanship; the work was much esteemed by reason of its novelty and of the methods used in many parts, which were totally different from the manner of Giotto; but, being overtaken by death, he left these scenes unfinished. Masaccio 185: He began painting at the time when Masolino da Panicale was working on the Chapel of the Brancacci in the Carmine, in Florence, ever following, in so far as he was able, in the steps of Filippo and Donato, although their branch of art was different, and seeking continually in his work to make his figures very lifelike and with a beautiful liveliness in the likeness of nature.

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187-91: To him, while Pisanello and Gentile da Fabriano were labouring in Rome for Pope Martin on the walls of the Church of S. Gianni, these masters had allotted a part of the work, when he returned to Florence, having had news that Cosimo de’ Medici, by whom he was much assisted and favoured, had been recalled from exile; and there he was commissioned to paint the Chapel of the Brancacci in the Carmine, by reason of the death of Masolino da Panicale, who had begun it; but before putting his hand to this, he made, by way of specimen, the S. Paul that is near the bell-ropes, in order to show the improvement that he had made in his art. And he demonstrated truly infinite excellence in this picture, for in the head of that Saint, who is Bartolo di Angiolino Angiolini portrayed from life, there is seen an expression so awful that there appears to be nothing lacking in that figure save speech; and he who has not known S. Paul will see, by looking at this picture, his honourable Roman culture, together with the unconquerable strength of that most divine spirit, all intent on the work of the faith. In this same picture, likewise, he showed a power of foreshortening things viewed from below upwards which was truly marvellous, as may still be seen to-day in the feet of the said Apostle, for this was a difficulty that he solved completely, in contrast with the old rude manner, which, as I said a little before, used to make all the figures on tip-toe; which manner lasted up to his day, without any other man correcting it, and he, by himself and before any other, brought it to the excellence of our own day. It came to pass, the while that he was labouring at this work, that the said Church of the Carmine was consecrated; and Masaccio, in memory of this, painted the consecration just as it took place, with terra-verde and in chiaroscuro, over the door that leads into the convent, within the cloister. And he portrayed therein an infinite number of citizens in mantles and hoods, who are following the procession, among whom he painted Filippo di Ser Brunellesco in wooden shoes, Donatello, Masolino da Panicale, who had been his master, Antonio Brancacci, who caused him to paint the chapel, Niccolò da Uzzano, Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici, and Bartolommeo Valori, who are all also portrayed by the hand of the same man in the house of Simon Corsi, a gentleman of Florence. He also painted there Lorenzo Ridolfi, who was at that time the ambassador of the Florentine Republic in Venice; and not only did he portray there the aforesaid gentlemen from the life, but also the door of the convent and the porter with the keys in his hand. This work, truly, shows great perfection, for Masaccio was so successful in placing these people, five or six to a file, on the level of that piazza, and in making them diminish to the eye with proportion and judgment, that it is indeed a marvel, and above all because we can recognize there the wisdom that he showed in making those men, as if they were alive, not all of one size, but with a certain discretion which distinguishes those who are short and stout from those who are tall and slender; while they are all standing with their feet firmly on one level, and so well foreshortened along the files that they would not be otherwise in nature. After this, returning to the work of the Chapel of the Brancacci, and continuing the stories of S. Peter begun by Masolino, he finished a part of them—namely, the story of the Chair, the healing of the sick, the raising of the dead, and the restoring of the cripples with his shadow as he was going to the Temple with S. John. But

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the most notable among them all is that one wherein S. Peter, at Christ’s command, is taking the money from the belly of the fish, in order to pay the tribute, since (besides the fact that we see there in an Apostle, the last of the group, the portrait of Masaccio himself, made by his own hand with the help of a mirror, so well that it appears absolutely alive) we can recognize there the ardour of S. Peter in his questioning and the attentiveness of the Apostles, who are standing in various attitudes round Christ, awaiting his determination, with gestures so vivid that they truly appear alive. Wonderful, above all, is the S. Peter who, while he is labouring to draw the money from the belly of the fish, has his head suffused with blood by reason of bending down; and he is even more wonderful as he pays the tribute, for here we see his expression as he counts it, and the eagerness of him who is receiving it and looking at the money in his hand with the greatest pleasure. There, also, he painted the resurrection of the King’s son, wrought by S. Peter and S. Paul; although by reason of the death of Masaccio the work remained unfinished, and was afterwards completed by Filippino. In the scene wherein S. Peter is baptizing, a naked man, who is trembling and shivering with cold among the others who are being baptized, is greatly esteemed, having been wrought with very beautiful relief and sweet manner; which figure has ever been held in reverence and admiration by all craftsmen, both ancient and modern. For this reason that chapel has been frequented continually up to our own day by innumerable draughtsmen and masters; and there still are therein some heads so lifelike and so beautiful, that it may truly be said that no master of that age approached so nearly as this man did to the moderns. His labours therefore deserve infinite praise, and above all because he gave form in his art to the beautiful manner of our times. And that this is true is proved by the fact that all the most celebrated sculptors and painters, who have lived from his day to our own, have become excellent and famous by exercising themselves and studying in this chapel—namely, Fra Giovanni da Fiesole, Fra Filippo, Filippino, who finished it, Alesso Baldovinetti, Andrea dal Castagno, Andrea del Verrocchio, Domenico del Ghirlandajo, Sandro di Botticello, Leonardo da Vinci, Pietro Perugino, Fra Bartolommeo di San Marco, Mariotto Albertinelli, and the most divine Michelagnolo Buonarroti; likewise Raffaello da Urbino, who owed to this chapel the beginning of his beautiful manner, Granaccio, Lorenzo di Credi, Ridolfo del Ghirlandajo, Andrea del Sarto, Rosso, Franciabigio, Baccio Bandinelli, Alonso Spagnuolo, Jacopo da Pontormo, Pierino del Vaga, and Toto del Nunziata; and in short, all those who have sought to learn that art have ever gone to this chapel to learn and to grasp the precepts and the rules for good work from the figures of Masaccio. And if I have not named many foreigners and many Florentines who have gone to that chapel for the sake of study, let it suffice to say that where the heads of art go, the members also follow. […] It is said that Filippo di Ser Brunellesco, hearing of his death, exclaimed, “We have suffered a very great loss in Masaccio,” and that it grieved him infinitely, for he had spent much time in demonstrating to Masaccio many rules of perspective and of architecture. He was buried in the same Church of the Carmine in the year 1443, and although, since he had been little esteemed when alive, no memorial was

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then placed over his tomb, yet after his death there were not wanting men to honour him with […] epitaphs. Filippo Brunelleschi 229: […] and above all since the one [stage machinery] in the Carmine has been destroyed, because it was pulling down the rafters that support the roof. III Fra Filippo Lippi 79-80: Fra Filippo di Tommaso Lippi, a Carmelite, was born in Florence in a street called Ardiglione, below the Canto alla Cuculia and behind the Convent of the Carmelites. By the death of his father Tommaso he was left a poor little orphan at the age of two, with no one to take care of him, for his mother had also died not long after giving him birth. He was left, therefore, in the charge of one Mona Lapaccia, his aunt, sister of his father, who brought him up with very great inconvenience to herself; and when he was eight years of age and she could no longer support him, she made him a friar in the aforesaid Convent of the Carmine. […] There was then in the Carmine a chapel that had been newly painted by Masaccio, which, being very beautiful, pleased Fra Filippo so greatly that he would haunt it every day for his recreation; and continually practising there in company with many young men, who were ever drawing in it, he surpassed the others by a great measure in dexterity and knowledge, insomuch that it was held certain that in time he would do something marvellous. Nay, not merely in his maturity, but even in his early childhood, he executed so many works worthy of praise that it was a miracle. It was no long time before he wrought in terra-verde in the cloister, close to the Consecration painted by Masaccio, a Pope confirming the Rule of the Carmelites; and he painted pictures in fresco on various walls in many parts of the church, particularly a S. John the Baptist with some scenes from his life. And thus, making progress every day, he had learnt the manner of Masaccio very well, so that he made his works so similar to those of the other that many said that the spirit of Masaccio had entered into the body of Fra Filippo. On a pilaster in the church, close to the organ, he made a figure of S. Marziale which brought him infinite fame, for it could bear comparison with the works that Masaccio had painted. Wherefore, hearing himself so greatly praised by the voices of all, at the age of seventeen he boldly threw off his monastic habit. Desiderio da Settignano 147-8: For the Chapel of the Brancacci in the Carmine he made an angel of wood; Sandro Botticelli 247: Now in that age there was a very close connection—nay, almost a constant intercourse—between the goldsmiths and the painters; wherefore Sandro, who was a ready fellow and had devoted himself wholly to design, became enamoured of painting, and determined to devote himself to that. For this reason he spoke out his mind freely to his father, who, recognizing the inclination of his brain, took him to

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Fra Filippo of the Carmine, a most excellent painter of that time, with whom he placed him to learn the art, according to Sandro’s own desire. Thereupon, devoting himself heart and soul to that art, Sandro followed and imitated his master so well that Fra Filippo, growing to love him, taught him very thoroughly, so that he soon rose to such a rank as none would have expected for him. IV Filippino Lippi 3-4: There was at this same time in Florence a painter of most beautiful intelligence and most lovely invention, namely, Filippo, son of Fra Filippo of the Carmine, who, following in the steps of his dead father in the art of painting, was brought up and instructed, being still very young, by Sandro Botticelli, notwithstanding that his father had commended him on his death-bed to Fra Diamante, who was much his friend—nay, almost his brother. Such was the intelligence of Filippo, and so abundant his invention in painting, and so bizarre and new were his ornaments, that he was the first who showed to the moderns the new method of giving variety to vestments, and embellished and adorned his figures with the girt-up garments of antiquity. He was also the first to bring to light grotesques, in imitation of the antique, and he executed them on friezes in terretta or in colours, with more design and grace than the men before him had shown; wherefore it was a marvellous thing to see the strange fancies that he expressed in painting. What is more, he never executed a single work in which he did not avail himself with great diligence of Roman antiquities, such as vases, buskins, trophies, banners, helmet-crests, adornments of temples, ornamental head-dresses, strange kinds of draperies, armour, scimitars, swords, togas, mantles, and such a variety of other beautiful things, that we owe him a very great and perpetual obligation, seeing that he added beauty and adornment to art in this respect. In his earliest youth he completed the Chapel of the Brancacci in the Carmine at Florence, begun by Masolino, and left not wholly finished by Masaccio on account of his death. Filippo, therefore, gave it its final perfection with his own hand, and executed what was lacking in one scene, wherein S. Peter and S. Paul are restoring to life the nephew of the Emperor. In the nude figure of this boy he portrayed the painter Francesco Granacci, then a youth; and he also made portraits of the Chevalier, Messer Tommaso Soderini, Piero Guicciardini, father of Messer Francesco the historian, Piero del Pugliese, and the poet Luigi Pulci; likewise Antonio Pollaiuolo, and himself as a youth, as he then was, which he never did again throughout the whole of his life, so that it has not been possible to find a portrait of him at a more mature age. In the scene following this he portrayed Sandro Botticelli, his master, and many other friends and people of importance; among others, the broker Raggio, a man of great intelligence and wit, who executed in relief on a conch the whole Inferno of Dante, with all the circles and divisions of the pits and the nethermost well in their exact proportions, and all the figures and details that were most ingeniously imagined and described by that great poet; which conch was held in those times to be a marvellous thing.

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V Benedetto da Rovezzano 36: Next, in the year 1512, Benedetto received the commission for a tomb of marble, with rich ornaments, in the principal chapel of the Carmine in Florence, for Piero Soderini, who had been Gonfalonier in that city; and that work was executed by him with incredible diligence, seeing that, besides foliage, carved emblems of death, and figures, he made therein with basanite, in low-relief, a canopy in imitation of black cloth, with so much grace and such beautiful finish and lustre, that the stone appears to be exquisite black satin rather than basanite. And, to put it in a few words, for all that the hand of Benedetto did in this work there is no praise that would not seem too little. VI Perino del Vaga 202: It happened one day that many craftsmen having assembled in his presence to do him honour, painters, sculptors, architects, goldsmiths, and carvers in wood and marble, who had gathered together according to the ancient custom, some to see Perino, to keep him company, and to hear what he had to say, many to learn what difference in practice there might be between the craftsmen of Rome and those of Florence, but most of them to hear the praise and censure that craftsmen are wont often to give to one another; it happened, I say, that thus discoursing together of one thing and another, and examining the works, both ancient and modern, in the various churches, they came to that of the Carmine, in order to see the chapel of Masaccio. There everyone gazed attentively at the paintings, and many various opinions were uttered in praise of that master, all declaring that they marvelled that he should have possessed so much judgment as to be able in those days, without seeing anything but the work of Giotto, to work with so much of the modern manner in the design, in the colouring, and in the imitation of Nature, and that he should have solved the difficulties of his art in a manner so facile; not to mention that among all those who had worked at painting, there had not as yet been one who had equalled him in strength of relief, in resoluteness, and in mastery of execution. IX Michelagnolo Buonarroti 10: Michelagnolo always had the keys, and he was much more earnest than the others in his every action, and showed himself always alert, bold, and resolute. He drew for many months from the pictures of Masaccio in the Carmine, where he copied those works with so much judgment, that the craftsmen and all other men were astonished, in such sort that envy grew against him together with his fame. It is said that Torrigiano, after contracting a friendship with him, mocked him, being moved by envy at seeing him more honoured than himself and more able in art, and struck him a blow of the fist on the nose with such force, that he broke and

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crushed it very grievously and marked him for life; on which account Torrigiano was banished from Florence, as has been related in another place.

BOCCHI, 88-91: 88/9: Not far from the Church of Santo Spirito is the Church of Santa Maria, called the Carmine, where a large number of Carmelite monks are living. As one sees the church is ample and very old. Even though it is not constructed in the praiseworthy architectural manner, which is in use today, it is still commendable, and full of rare and precious things. On the right, in the Botti Chapel, there is a panel by Giorgio Vasari, painted with masterly skill and praised by all. The Madonna is depicted with a sweet and noble expression, and with an elegant and tender body as the highest beauty appears to require. Her countenance is admirable. Grieving at the death of her son, whom she sees on the Cross, with her beautiful pose she expresses inconsolable pain. Similarly, at the foot of the Cross the Magdalen fully expresses with her vivid pose, her grieving countenance, and her effortless colouring, what the knowing artist wanted her to express, namely a soul afflicted by sorrow and anguish beyond measure. Christ on the Cross is rendered in a soft manner; in this deeply devout and serious panel, His body hangs down limply, as the flesh of the dead does. In the Chapel of St. Agnes opposite the aforementioned one, one sees a panel by Battista Naldini, lovely in its colouring, and rare in every respect. Naldini rendered the air softly tinted with darkness by a cloud, which surrounds the Saviour ascending to heaven. {…} The marble portrait one sees next to this chapel represents Maestro Giuliano of the Carmelite Order. In his day he excelled in religious studies and in the mathematical disciplines. Then, in the Chapel of Matteo Bruneschi, there is a panel by Girolamo Macchietti. This painter has always practised his art judiciously, as one sees in these figures representing the Assumption of Our Lady. The heads and the lively poses of the Apostles are beautiful, the Madonna is likewise rendered with beautiful grace, and the whole shows soft colouring, and a design so firm and precious that there is no artist who does not praise and commend this [painter]. Also on the right, in the Chapel of Girolamo Michelozzi, Knight of the Order of St. Stephen, there is the panel by Santi di Tito depicting the Nativity of Our Lord. This work is very skilfully executed and very well drawn. 89: In the corresponding position on the other side [of the church], there is another panel by Battista Naldini {Christ resuscitating the son of the widow of Nain, 91}, placed in the Chapel of Iacopo Carucci, and much praised by the artists. 91: On the side where the sacristy is located, in the Brancacci Chapel, there are many paintings by the most rare painter Masaccio, much esteemed by artists and experts. These works opened the path to excellence for all painters who came after him.

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With extreme diligence and infinite beauty this remarkable artist has represented many miracles worked by St. Peter. One sees him engaged in resuscitating the dead, and healing the afflicted, natural in his gestures and poses. Artists cannot praise enough the liveliness of the Saint in the scene where he takes the coin out of the stomach of a fish to pay the tribute money, as Christ had ordered. The tax collector is equally vivid; he fixes his glance on the money he holds in his hand, and his features express an exceedingly intense lust for this gold. In the scene where this Saint is baptising, there are many remarkable figures, but in particular there is a nude youth, who truly seems to shiver in so live-like a manner that a living person could not move in a more lively way in a similar situation. This figure is admired by artists, by experts, and by art lovers, and it has been copied very many times. 93: In addition, in the first cloister Masaccio painted the ceremony of the consecration of the church, employing green earth as pigment. One sees the citizens who follow the procession in beautiful order, in rows of five or six. Many noblemen are portrayed here, such as Antonio Brancacci, the patron of the chapel, Niccolò da Uzzano, Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici, and Bartolomeo Valori. Then there is a portrait of Filippo Brunelleschi, wearing clogs, and Donatello, all painted in a beautiful manner, with lively features, and displaying marvellous and rare art. {use of perspective and foreshortening …}. On the right of the chancel there is the marble tomb of Pier Soderini, executed to the design of Benedetto da Rovezzano. It reveals great judgement and is of rare beauty. The ornaments are rich, elegant and graceful throughout, but in particular a drapery of black stone, forming a canopy and framing a frieze of white marble, demonstrates the quality of the work, for it appears to be made of black velvet or satin. Admirably, the beautiful folds seems to consist of fabric rather than stone. {relics}

BALDINUCCI S Maria del Carmine: I.107; I.225; I.248; I.327; I.331; I.457; I.476-7; I.477-80; I.485; I.507-8; I.509-11; II.538-39; III.42; III.66; III.144; III.154-55; III.437 & 446; III.438; III.508; III.513; III.513; III.513; III.513; III.595-6; IV.436; IV.542 & 544; V.87; V.358; V.399.

RICHA, part IV, vol X, lesson I-VII, 1-98.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN SANTA MARIA MADDALENA DE’ PAZZI

Borgo Pinti, 78. Free entrance to the church but no visits permitted during religious services. Donation expected for visits to the chapter house with Perugino’s frescoed Crucifixion; access through Via della Colonna, 9. Visits to the GiglioNeri Chapel only by appointment.

History The church and convent were founded in 1257 as a place for converted Magdalens, i.e. former prostitutes, and called Santa Maria Magdalena delle Convertite or la Penitente. Less than 100 years later, in 1321, the church was handed over to the Cistercian order and changed its name to Santa Maria di Cestello. The monks moved to Borgo Pinti in 1442 and embarked on a building and redecorating campaign in the late fifteenth century when the church and chapter house were rebuilt and the cloister added by Giuliano da Sangallo (Fig. 14 a). Pope Urban VIII decided in 1628 that the monks ought to swap with the Carmelite nuns of San Frediano (chapter 10). It was only in 1710 that the convent was dedicated to Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi, a Carmelite nun whose family had traditionally played an important, if not always altogether positive role in Florence. Saint Mary Magdalen had been canonised in 1669. The Carmelites left the convent with the saint’s relics in the late nineteenth century. Today, Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi is the official church of the French community in Florence and hosts an order of Augustinian monks.

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Figure 14 a: Façade of Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi (photo: VG). .

Architecture Originally a single-nave Gothic hall church, the building was transformed in the second half of the fifteenth century as part of a programme that also saw the building of the large portico with Ionian columns by Giuliano da Sangallo. Allegedly, the Cistercians owned an ancient Ionian capital from the ruins of Fiesole, which may have served as architectural inspiration. In contrast to other Florentine cloisters, the columns are topped by a straight architrave with the exception of a single arch in the centre on each of the four sides. In this portico da Sangallo found a solution to the “trouble with corners” that had beset other courtyards in the past, starting with Michelozzo’s design for Palazzo Medici (1444), in which the corner column on which the range turns seems to be shorter than the rest and the windows above appear too close together. Da Sangallo substituted the corner column by a double square pillar, which allows for extra space and cancels the unfortunate optical illusion. The nave of the church preserves the dimensions of the Gothic foundation of the thirteenth century but has six deep side chapels added on each side (Fig. 14 b). Around the date of the canonisation of Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi the roof of the nave was covered with a flat ceiling and frescoed by Jacopo Chiavistelli with Saint Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi in Glory. The main altar chapel was reconstructed in 1677 after designs by

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Ciro Ferri, a student of Pietro da Cortona, in Roman Baroque style. It was used as a mausoleum for the saint as long as the Carmelites resided in Borgo Pinti. The altarpiece (Ciro Ferri) and dome (Piero Dandini) as well as two lateral paintings on canvas (Luca Giordano, 1685) depict scenes from the life of the titular saint. Access to the chapter house is gained via the sacristy, while the GiglioNeri Chapel is situated on the right of the entrance to the church.

Figure 14 b: Plan of Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi (plan: SC).

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Art Originally, the fifteenth-century side chapels, patronised by some important Florentine families such as the Tornabuoni, were decorated with works of art by Sandro Botticelli, Perugino, Domenico and Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio, Raffaelino del Garbo etc. (see sources below). Most of these were removed when the church was redecorated in the seventeenth century with much of the new decoration dedicated to the memory of the new titular saint. At that point the upper register of the nave was also redecorated with ten paintings on canvas that show scenes of the life of Saint Maria Magdalena dei Pazzi by Cosimo Ulivelli and the ceiling was frescoed by Jacopo Chiavistelli. The Cappella del Giglio (Chapel of St. Mary of the Lily usually referred to as the Giglio-Neri Chapel) was built in 1505. The interior was frescoed with depictions of Saints Filippo Neri, Bernard, Nereo, and Achilleo by the workshop of Bernardo Poccetti and hosts an altarpiece by Domenico Passignano. The false dome is embellished with a Coronation of the Virgin among Saints from the Old and New Testament by Bernardo Poccetti. The chapel had been constructed as a place for female worship, since women would not have been allowed into a Cistercian monastic church. The first side chapel on the right was commissioned by Francesco Filippo Pugliese and displays a 1557 altarpiece of the martyrdom of San Romolo by Carlo Portelli and a Sant’Angelo Carmelitano by Francesco Curradi (1610). The second chapel once held Botticelli’s beautiful Annunciation, commissioned by Benedetto di Ser Giovanni Guardi and now on view at the Uffizi (1489, N. Cat. 00188560, tempera on wood, https://www.virtualuffizi.com/annunciation.html). Still inside the chapel is a canvas by Giuseppe Piattoli showing the Archangel Raphael with Saint Louis Gonzaga and Saint Antonius of Padua. The third chapel contains a Coronation of the Virgin attributed to Matteo Rosselli. The fourth chapel displays an altarpiece of the Virgin and child with saints by Domenico Puligo from 1526. This chapel was dedicated to Saint Joan of Arc after the flood of 1966. In the fifth chapel a sixteenth-century stained-glass window with a depiction of Saint Francis receiving the stigmata is preserved. The sixth chapel contains eighteenth-century frescoes by Luigi Catani. The choir chapel contained a fresco by Domenico del Ghirlandaio until it was rebuilt in 1685-1701 by Ciro Ferri and Pier Francesco Silvani. Ferri also painted the altarpiece of the Virgin with Saint Maria Magdalena dei Pazzi, while Luca Giordano did the Mystical Marriage of Saint Maria

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Magdalen and the Virgin who presents the Christ child to Saint Mary Magdalen on each side. Piero Dandini excuted the frescoes of the dome. The statues of Penitence and Faith on the right are by Innocenzo Spinazzi, Innocence and Religion on the left are by Giovanni Montauti. Massimiliano Soldani-Benzi created the bronze reliefs on the altar. The first chapel on the left preserves an altarpiece of the Adoration by Cosimo Gamberucci (1618) with a predella by Lorenzo di Credi. In the second chapel, the entrance arch is noteworthy for its decoration with sculpted plants, flowers and jewels. Near the captitals of the pilasters of the third chapel can still be found the polychrome coats of arms of Lorenzo Tornabuoni and his wife Giovanna degli Albizzi. Inside the chapel was located Domenico del Ghirlandaio’s Visitation, now at the Louvre. The altarpiece of the fourth chapel is by Raffaelino del Garbo and depicts Saint Rochus and Saint Ignatius. There is also a statue of Saint Sebastian attributed to Leonardo del Tasso. The fifth chapel was commissioned by Jacopo d’Alamanno Salviati in 1492 whose coat of arms appears on the arch. A panel painting by Giovanni Bizzelli depicts the martyrdom of Saint Joachim. The sixth or Nasi chapel was dedicated to Saint Bernardus of Chiaravalle. The altarpiece with the vision of Saint Bernard was commissioned by the Nasi family to Perugino and is now displayed at the Alte Pinakothek, Munich. The present altarpiece of the Ecstasy of the Blessed Maria Bartolommea Bagnesi dates to 1807 and is the work of Giuseppe Colignon. In the chapter house is a fresco divided into three lunettes of the Crucifixion with Saints (1493-96) by Pietro Perugino. It was commissioned by Dionisio and Giovanna Pucci. The background shows scenes of Perugino’s typical Umbrian landscape with feathery trees, which runs over the entire three-part composition. In the foreground of the centrepiece is a Crucifixion with a Kneeling Saint Mary Magdalen. The flanking lunettes show the Madonna with Saint Bernard on the left and Saint John Evangelist and Saint Benedict on the right. Bibl: Borsook 1983, 220; Campbell and Cole 2012, 82-7; Cesati 2002, 123-5; Eiche 2006, Goy 2015, 170-2; Horstmann 2011, 152-5; Mercanti and Straffi 2001, 8-17; Paatz 1952, IV, 90-121; Tovey 2005, 313-4; Verdon, Coppellotti, Fabbri 2000, 172-7. Sources: ALBERTINI 97: In Santa Maria Maddalena dei Cisterciensi

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In the beautiful and ornate convent of the Cistercians, there are many paintings by renowned and excellent masters, in particular Domenico Ghirlandaio, Lorenzo di Credi and Pietro Perugino, who painted the chapter house in the first cloister.

VASARI III Cosimo Rosselli 187: For the Monks of Cestello he painted the panel of their high-altar, with another in a chapel in the same church; and likewise that one which is in a little church above the Bernardino, beside the entrance to Cestello. Domenico Ghirlandajo 222. In the Church of Cestello he painted a panel—afterwards finished by his brothers David and Benedetto—containing the Visitation of Our Lady, with certain most charming and beautiful heads of women. Sandro Botticelli 249: For a chapel in the Monastery of Cestello he painted an Annunciation on a panel. IV Pietro Perugino 43: After this, returning to Florence, he painted a S. Bernard on a panel for the Monks of Cestello, and in the chapter-house a Crucifix, the Madonna, S. Benedict, S. Bernard, and S. John. Raffaelino di Garbo 177-8: For the Monks of Cestello, on the wall of their refectory, he painted a large scene coloured in fresco, in which he depicted the miracle wrought by Jesus Christ with the five loaves and two fishes, with which he satisfied five thousand people. […] He also made two figures in distemper for the Monks of Cestello, a S. Rocco and a S. Ignazio, which are in the Chapel of S. Sebastiano. Giuliano and Antonio da Sangallo 192: Having meanwhile given his attention to architecture, he began the first cloister of the Monastery of Cestello, and executed that part of it that is seen to be of the Ionic Order; placing capitals on the columns with volutes curving downwards to the collarino, where the shaft of the column ends, and making, below the ovoli and the fusarole, a frieze, one-third in height of the diameter of the column. This capital was copied from a very ancient one of marble, found at Fiesole by Messer Leonardo Salutati, Bishop of that place, who kept it for some time, together with other antiquities, in a house and garden that he occupied in the

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Via di S. Gallo, opposite to S. Agata; and it is now in the possession of Messer Giovan Battista da Ricasoli, Bishop of Pistoia, and is prized for its beauty and variety, since among the ancient capitals there has not been seen another like it. But that cloister remained unfinished, because those monks were not then able to bear such an expense. Domenico Puligo 282-3: In the Church of Cestello, round the Tabernacle of the Sacrament, he painted two angels in fresco, and on the panel of a chapel in the same church he made a Madonna with her Son in her arms, S. John the Baptist, S. Bernard, and other saints. And since it appeared to the monks of that place that he had acquitted himself very well in those works, they caused him to paint in a cloister of their Abbey of Settimo, without Florence, the Visions of Count Ugo, who built seven abbeys. V Lorenzo di Credi 50-1: But the best work that Lorenzo ever executed, and that to which he devoted the greatest care and zeal, in order to surpass himself, was the one that is in a chapel at Cestello, a panel containing Our Lady, S. Julian, and S. Nicholas; and whoever wishes to know how necessary it is for a painter to work with a high finish in oils if he desires that his pictures should remain fresh, must look at this panel, which is painted with such a finish as could not be excelled. VIII Ridolfo, David, and Benedetto Ghirlandajo 62: But to return to Ridolfo. Having been commissioned to paint the Nativity of Christ in an altar-piece for the Monastery of Cestello, he exerted himself much, in order to surpass his rivals, and executed that work with the greatest diligence and labour at his command, painting therein the Madonna, who is adoring the Infant Christ, S. Joseph, and two figures, S. Francis and S. Jerome, kneeling. He also made there a most beautiful landscape, very like the Sasso della Vernia, where S. Francis received the Stigmata, and above the hut some Angels that are singing; and the whole work was very beautiful in colouring, and passing good in relief. 69: A disciple of Ridolfo, also, was Carlo Portelli of Loro in the Valdarno di Sopra, by whose hand are some altar-pieces and innumerable pictures in Florence; as in S. Maria Maggiore, in S. Felicita, in the Nunnery of Monticelli, and, at Cestello, the altar-piece of the Chapel of the Baldesi on the right hand of the entrance into the church, wherein is the Martyrdom of S. Romolo, Bishop of Fiesole.

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BOCCHI-CINELLI, 483-8

BALDINUCCI S Maria Maddalena de’ Pazzi (Cestello; known as S Maria degli Angioli until 1699; Carmelite nuns from 1628): I.123; III.141; III.437; III.676; IV.161; IV.335-6 & IV.355; IV.535-6; V.228; V.400-19.

RICHA, part I, lesson XXIV-XXV, 300-32.

CHAPTER FIFTEEN SANTA MARIA MAGGIORE

Via de’ Vecchietti/Via de’ Cerretani, parish office in Vicolo di S. Maria Maggiore 1. Free entrance but no visits permitted during religious services.

History According to legend, Santa Maria Maggiore was founded in the sixth century. Nonetheless, the church is first documented in the tenth and eleventh centuries. Then, it was the most important church in Florence dedicated to Our Lady and, therefore, called Santa Maria Maggiore. The Cistercians moved in during the thirteenth century and renovated the late antique building as much as possible at a time when newly founded monastic orders, such as the Franciscans and the Dominicans (Santa Croce, chapter 6 and Santa Maria Novella, chapter 17), usually built large new churches outside the city walls. The renovation of a centuries-old building within the walls must have been a challenge. Arnolfo di Cambio, who was engaged in the rebuilding of Florence Cathedral nearby towards the end of the thirteenth century, may possibly also have been the architect responsible for Santa Maria Maggiore (Fig. 15 a). In 1521 Carmelite monks arrived from Milan and transformed the Cistercian foundation into a monastery. During the seventeenth century the bell tower was shortened and the interior redecorated with altar tabernacles. Today the church belongs to a parish, while the former monastery is used as a cultural centre of creativity and hosts exhibitions.

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Figure 15 a: Façade of Santa Maria Maggiore (photo: AG).

Architecture The façade was part of the renovation undertaken during the thirteenth century. The architecture of the inner façade is by Bernardo Buontalenti, executed in 1596. The truncated bell tower now looks as if it were part of the façade; it is decorated with the late-antique marble head of a woman called “la Berta”, who allegedly was turned into stone by the curse of a criminal on the way to his execution outside the city centre.

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Figure 15 b: Plan of Santa Maria Maggiore (plan: SC).

Originally, Santa Maria Maggiore was a low hall church with a separate bell tower situated near the first circle of city walls. It was expanded into a three-nave church with an integrated campanile on the left aisle in the

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thirteenth century (Fig. 15 b). The main nave and two aisles have the same height. Sturdy square pillars bear the heightened vaults. Slim square pillars bear the weight of arches and of the high cross vaults fixed by iron rods. What remains visible of the thirteenth-century Gothic style was attributed by Vasari to a Maestro Buono, perhaps of northern origins and training (e.g. Arnolfo di Cambio, see above).

Art Santa Maria Maggiore is renowned for its frescoes in the vaults and on the pillars, for example on the first pillar on the right. Its decoration, dated to the fourteenth century, shows Old and New Testament scenes, among these Jonah and the Whale as well as a Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian. In 1880 part of the fresco cycle in the main choir chapel was rediscovered. It was painted by Spinello Aretino in the fourteenth century and shows scenes from the lives of the Virgin and of Saint Anthony Abbot. The altar panel is by Lodovico Cigoli, painted in c.1596, and depicts Saint Albertus Siculus saving two drowning heathen. Albertus Siculus originated from Florence but had become the principal of the Carmelite order in Sicily, where he had been particularly successful in converting many inhabitants to the Christian faith. As might be expected, most of the works of religious art in Santa Maria Maggiore depict the Madonna, for example a Madonna and Child by the workshop of Ghirlandaio in the former monastery. The main work is kept in the left secondary choir and consists of an altarpiece showing Coppo da Marcovaldo’s Madonna and Child Enthroned with Angels and Apostles in tempera on wood dated to the mid-thirteenth century. The work was worshipped as the Madonna del Carmine to celebrate the appearance of the Madonna to the Carmelite saint Simon Stock (d. 1265) in 1251. Two smaller scenes below the enthroned Madonna depict the Annunciation next to the Three Marys in Conversation with an Angel Guarding Christ’s Empty Tomb. The Florentine artist Coppo is said to have contributed to the mosaics of the Baptistery dome, in particular to the Last Judgement. His works are in the same tradition as the creations by Cimabue, by Giotto and by the Gaddis. Orcagna’s Madonna and Child with Saints Mary Magdalene and Ansanus was probably commissioned for the Baronci Chapel at Santa Maria Maggiore in 1350 but is now at the Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam (https://www.rijksmuseum.nl/en/search/objects?f=1&p=1&ps=12&maker=An

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drea+di+Cione+Orcagna&ii=0#/SK-C-1608,0). A triptych by Masolino and Masaccio, the Carnesecchi altarpiece (1423), was dismembered in the seventeenth century and survives now in two fragments in the Florentine Museo Horne and in the Diocesan Museum of Santo Stefano al Ponte. Sandro Botticelli’s Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian (c.1473) and his Pietà (c.1495) are now in the Gemäldegalerie Berlin and at the Museum Poldi Pezzoli in Milan. Santa Maria Maggiore also hosts the remains of a tomb for Brunetto Latini that were rediscovered on a column during the eighteenth century. Latini died in 1294 and was an important writer, poet, politician and notary. He was a teacher of Dante who, nonetheless, sent him to hell in his Divina Commedia for the sin of sodomy. Bibl: Borsook 1983, 171; Cesati 2002, 56-7; De Boer 2010, annotations 62-4: 1357; Goy 2015, 108; Horstmann 2011, 156-9; Paatz 1952, III, 615-54; Tovey 2005, 314; Verdon, Coppellotti, Fabbri 2000, 170-1. Sources: VILLANI III § 2. 62-3 —Of the form and size in which the city of Florence was rebuilt. The rebuilding of the new city of Florence was begun by the Romans, as aforesaid, on a small site and circuit, after the same fashion as Rome, allowing for the smallness of the undertaking; and it began on the side of the sunrise at the gate of S. Piero, which was where were after the houses of M. Bellincione Berti, of the Rovignani, a noble and powerful citizen, albeit to-day they have disappeared; the which houses by inheritance of the Countess Gualdrada, his daughter, and wife to the first Count Guido, passed to the Counts Guidi, her descendants, when they became citizens of Florence, and afterwards they sold them to the Black Cerchi, a Florentine family; and from the said gate ran a borgo as far as S. Piero Maggiore, after the fashion of Rome, and from that gate the walls proceeded as far as the Duomo, on the site where now runs the great road leading to San Giovanni, as far as the Bishop’s Palace. And here was another gate, which was called the gate of the Duomo, but there were who called it the Bishop’s Gate; and without this gate was built the church of S. Lorenzo, just as in Rome there is S. Lorenzo without the walls; and within that gate is S. Giovanni, like as in Rome, S. Giovanni Laterano. And then proceeding, as at Rome, on that side they made Santa Maria Maggiore;

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IV § 10. 79-80—Of the nobles which were in the city of Florence in the time of the said Emperor Conrad, and first of those about the Duomo. 1015 a.d. As before has been narrated, the first rebuilding of the smaller Florence was according to the division of four quarters, after the four gates; and to the end we may the better describe the noble families and houses which in the said times, after Fiesole had been destroyed, were great and powerful in Florence, we will recount them according to the quarters where they dwelt. And first, they of the Porta del Duomo, which was the first fold and abiding place of the rebuilt Florence, and where all the noble citizens of Florence on Sundays gathered and held civil converse around the Duomo, and where were celebrated all the marriages, and peacemakings, and every festival and solemnity of the commonwealth; and next, the Porta San Piero, and then Porta San Brancazio, and Porta Sante Marie. And the Porta del Duomo was inhabited by the family of the Giovanni, and of the Guineldi which were the first to rebuild the city of Florence, whence afterwards were descended many families of nobles in Mugello, and in Valdarno, and in many cities, which now are popolari and almost come to an end. There were the Barucci which dwelt near Santa Maria Maggiore, which are now extinct; the Scali and Palermini were of their lineage. V § 30.116—How the Florentines destroyed the strongholds of Simifonti and of Combiata. 1202 a.d. In the year of Christ 1202, when Aldobrandino, of the Barucci of Santa Maria Maggiore (a very ancient family), and his colleagues were consuls in Florence, the Florentines took the stronghold of Simifonti, and destroyed it, and took the hill into possession of the commonwealth, forasmuch as it had been long time at war with the Florentines. And the Florentines gained it by the treachery of a certain man of Sandonato in Poci, which surrendered a tower, and claimed for this cause that he and his descendants should be free in Florence from all taxes; and this was granted, albeit the said traitor was first slain, in the said tower, by the inhabitants, as it was being attacked. And in the said year the Florentines went with their army against the fortress of Combiata, which was very strong, at the head of the river Marina, towards Mugello, which pertained to Cattani of the country which would not obey the commonwealth and made war against it. And when the said strongholds were destroyed, they made a decree that they should never be rebuilt.

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ALBERTINI 96: In Santa Maria Maggiore The ancient church of Santa Maria Maggiore was consecrated by Pope Pelagius II, who also consecrated Santa Maria Ughi. It contains an altarpiece by Masaccio, and the predella and the arch above are by Paolo Uccello. Near to it is a tabernacle by Andrea.

VASARI I Arnolfo di Lapo [di Cambio] 15: Next, being summoned to Florence, he gave the design for enlarging, as was done, the Church of S. Maria Maggiore, which was then without the city, and held in great veneration for the reason that Pope Pelagius had consecrated it many years before, and because, as to size and manner, it was a very fair body of a church. Agnolo Gaddi 220: Next, in 1348, he painted the panel of the high-altar of S. Maria Maggiore, also in Florence, for Barone Cappelli, making therein a passing good dance of angels round a Coronation of Our Lady. II Spinello Aretino 29-30: Attracted by the fame of this work, Messer Barone Capelli, citizen of Florence, caused Spinello to paint in fresco, in the principal chapel of S. Maria Maggiore, many stories of the Madonna and some of S. Anthony the Abbot, and near these the consecration of that very ancient church, consecrated by Pope Paschal, second of that name; and all this Spinello wrought so well that it appears made all in one day, and not in many months, as it was. Beside the said Pope is the portrait of Messer Barone himself from the life, in the dress of those times, made very well and with very good judgment. Lippo 50: Having afterwards wrought many works in Bologna, and a panel in Pistoia which was passing good, he returned to Florence, where, in the year 1383, he painted the stories of S. John the Evangelist in the Chapel of the Beccuti, in S. Maria Maggiore. On the wall of the church beside this chapel, which is on the left hand of the principal chapel, there follow six stories of the same Saint by the same man’s hand, very well composed and ingeniously ordered, wherein, among other things, there is very vividly depicted a S. John who is causing his own garment to be placed by S. Dionysius the Areopagite over some corpses, which are returning to life in the name of Jesus Christ, to the great marvel of some who, being present

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at this deed, can scarce believe their own eyes. In the figures of the dead, likewise, there is seen very great mastery in some foreshortenings, whereby it is clearly demonstrated that Lippo knew, and in part grappled with, certain difficulties of the art of painting. Paolo Uccello 133: In S. Maria Maggiore, also, in a chapel near the side-door which leads to S. Giovanni, where there are the panel and predella of Masaccio, he wrought an Annunciation in fresco, wherein he made a building worthy of consideration, which was something new and difficult in those times, seeing that it was the first possessing any beauty of manner which was seen by craftsmen, showing them with grace and proportion how to manage the receding of lines, and how to give so great an extent to a level space which is small and confined, that it appears far distant and large; and when to this, with judgment and grace, men can add shadows and lights by means of colours in their proper places, there is no doubt that they cause an illusion to the eye, so that it appears that the painting is real and in relief. And not being satisfied with this, he wished to demonstrate even greater difficulties in some columns, which, foreshortened in perspective, curve round and break the salient angle of the vaulting wherein are the four Evangelists; which was held something beautiful and difficult, and, in truth, in that branch of his profession Paolo was ingenious and able. Masaccio 186: In S. Maria Maggiore, also, near the side-door that leads to S. Giovanni, on the panel of a chapel, he painted a Madonna, with S. Catherine and S. Julian. On the predella he made some little figures, connected with the life of S. Catherine, with S. Julian murdering his father and mother; and in the middle he made the Nativity of Christ, with that simplicity and vividness which were characteristic of his work. III Pesello and Francesco Peselli 118: In S. Maria Maggiore in the same city of Florence, in the Chapel of the Orlandini, he [Pesello] made a Madonna and two other very beautiful figures. Sandro Botticelli 248: In S. Maria Maggiore in Florence, beside the Chapel of the Panciatichi, there is a very beautiful Pietà with little figures. VII Giuliano Bugiardini 108: Then, having made his growth and become a passing good master, he betook himself to work in company with Mariotto Albertinelli in Gualfonda; in which place he finished a panel-picture that is now at the door of entrance of S. Maria

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Maggiore in Florence, containing S. Alberto, a Carmelite friar, who has under his feet the Devil in the form of a woman, a work that was much extolled. VIII Ridolfo, David and Benedetto Ghirlandaio 69: A disciple of Ridolfo, also, was Carlo Portelli of Loro in the Valdarno di Sopra, by whose hand are some altar-pieces and innumerable pictures in Florence; as in S. Maria Maggiore, […].

BOCCHI-CINELLI, 212-4.

BALDINUCCI S Maria Maggiore (Carmelites): I.225; I.248; I.300; I.447; I.474; II.501; III.249; III.289; III.437; III.446; IV.166; IV.166; IV.309; IV.416; IV.436 ES; V.158; V.158-9.

RICHA, part II, vol III, lesson XXIII-XXV, 262-91.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN SANTA MARIA NELLA BADIA FIORENTINA

Via del Proconsolo, 8; free entrance but no visits permitted during religious services.

History The Badia (abbey), consisting of church and monastery, is dedicated to the Virgin Mary and to Saint Stephen. Usually referred to as La Badia, it started as a very rich Benedictine monastery in 978, when this Romanesque monastic foundation was sponsored by Hugo Margrave of Tuscia (953-1001) and his mother. In 1071 a hospital was opened as part of the abbey complex. La Badia (Fig. 16 a) is situated in the very centre of Florence, between the Cathedral (chapter 2) and the church of San Firenze (chapter 9) and just inside the Roman city walls. During the second half of the thirteenth century the city underwent great political and urban changes with the institution of the Florentine Republic in 1250 and a growth of the population by one fifth. In 1284, the city walls needed to be enlarged for the third time. Towards the end of the century some of the main churches and palaces were constructed or modernised and, as happened in the case of Santa Maria del Fiore or Santa Croce (chapter 6), Arnolfo di Cambio was the architect then building on an innovative monumental scale. Arnolfo is also credited with modernising La Badia from 1284 in the Gothic style and with constructing a new bell tower, which was completed in 1307, in part demolished due to fiscal problems, but then rebuilt once again in 1330. During the seventeenth century, the church was redecorated in the Baroque style. In the early nineteenth century, the monastery was closed and mostly turned into accommodation. Today, the Badia is a parish church and the seat of the French community of Jerusalem.

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Figure 16 a: Façade of Santa Maria della Badia Fiorentina onto Via Proconsolo (photo: VG).

Architecture The Badia’s bell tower remains an important landmark in the Florentine city centre. Visible from Via del Proconsolo is the Gothic choir façade as well as the entrance in the Renaissance style by Benedetto da Rovezzano and dated to 1495. The glazed terracotta Madonna and Angels above the porch is by Benedetto Buglioni (Fig. 16 c). Above the window is the coat of arms of Margrave Hugo. The atrium of the church was built by Benedetto da Rovezzano between 1503 and 1511 with domed bays and round arches, which are supported by slim columns with Corinthian and composite capitals. The chapel dedicated to Saint Stephen dates to the same period: it has a square plan covered by a dome. In the courtyard to the left it is possible to view the foundations of the previous campanile.

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In the seventeenth century the Badia’s plan was changed to one based on the shape of the Greek Cross (Fig. 16 b). At this point the choir was extended towards the South. In the left transept of the church is the tomb of Margrave Hugo who lived during the period before the long wars between the Guelf and Ghibelline parties. The tomb was created by Mino da Fiesole in 1481.

Figure 16 b: Plan of Santa Maria della Badia Fiorentina (plan: SC).

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The simple interior of the church is held in the typical Florentine colour scheme consisting of white stucco and grey pietra serena membering. It has a splendid coffered ceiling by Felice Gamberai of c.1631 and a marble pavement by Pier Francesco Silvani (1663). The frescoes in the choir date to the eighteenth century. To the right of the altar is the entry to the two-storey Cloister of Oranges (https://www.architecture.com/image-library/ribapix/image-infor mation/poster/badia-fiorentina-florence-cloister-of-the-oranges/posterid/ RIBA60955.html?Action=Cookie), which was built between 1432 and 1438 by Bernardo Rossellino et al.

Art Giotto’s Badia Polyptych of c.1302 (tempera on wood), once on the Badia’s high altar, is now at the Uffizi (N. Cat. 00284544, https://www. virtualuffizi.com/the-badia-polyptych.html), but Filippino Lippi’s Apparition of the Virgin Mary to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (oil on wood, 1482-86) is still housed at the Badia. It was transferred to the Badia for safety during the siege of Florence in 1530 when its original location in the family chapel of the Del Pugliese at the monastery of the Campora outside Porta Romana was destroyed. Piero Del Pugliese, who commissioned the altarpiece, is depicted as donor in the lower right corner. In the Badia are two tomb monuments, both attributed to Mino da Fiesole. Margrave Hugo’s (1481) bears the inscription “Comiti Marchioni Andeburgensi”, which probably refers to Hugo’s origins in Magdeburg or Brandenburg. The tomb consists of a sarcophagus with the gisant (recumbent) representation of the margrave. There are putti and an allegory of Charity above. Located opposite is the tomb for the Florentine jurist Bernardo Giugni (d. 1466). The Cloister of Oranges, called after the orange trees that still grow there, was decorated on the upper storey between c.1436 and 1439 by the “master of the Cloister of Oranges” (Giovanni da Consalvo, a follower of Fra Angelico). The fresco cycle depicts legends from the life of Saint Benedict. The scene of Saint Benedict throwing himself onto a thorn bush was perhaps painted c.100 years later in 1526-28 by the young Agnolo Bronzino.

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Figure 16 c: Detail of the doorway onto Via Proconsolo (photo: VG).

Bibl: Borsook 1983, 81-3; Cesati 2002, 10-4; Crispino 1999, 8-9; Hartt & Wilkins 2007, 352-4; Horstmann 2011, 19-23; Leader 2011; Murray 2004, 26-27; Paatz 1940, I, 264-318; Paolucci. 2006, 102-11; Schneider Adams 2001, 238-9; Tovey 2005, 313; Verdon, Coppellotti, Fabbri 2000, 100-3. Sources: VILLANI IV § 2.69-71—Of the Emperor Otho III, and the Marquis Hugh, which built the Badia at Florence. 979 a.d. After the death of Otho II., his son, Otho III., was elected Emperor, and crowned by Pope Gregory V., in the year of Christ 979, and this Otho reigned twenty-four years. After that he was crowned, he went into Apulia on pilgrimage to Mount S. Angelo, and afterwards returned by way of France into Germany, leaving Italy in

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good and peaceful estate. But when he was returned to Germany, Crescentius, the consul and lord of Rome, drave away the said Gregory from the papacy, and set a Greek therein, which was bishop of Piacenza, and very wise; but when the Emperor Otho heard this he was very wrath, and with his army returned to Italy, and besieged in Rome the said Crescentius and his Pope in the castle of S. Angelo, for therein had they taken refuge; and he took the said castle by siege, and caused Crescentius to be beheaded, and Pope John XVI. to have his eyes put out, and his hands cut off; and he restored his Pope Gregory to his chair, which was his kinsman by race; and leaving Rome and Italy in good estate, he returned to his country of Germany, and there died in prosperity. With the said Otho III. there came into Italy the Marquis Hugh; I take it this must have been the marquis of Brandenburg, forasmuch as there is no other marquisate in Germany. His sojourn in Tuscany liked him so well, and especially our city of Florence, that he caused his wife to come thither, and took up his abode in Florence, as vicar of Otho, the Emperor. It came to pass, as it pleased God, that when he was riding to the chase in the country of Bonsollazzo, he lost sight, in the wood, of all his followers, and came out, as he supposed, at a workshop where iron was wont to be wrought. Here he found men, black and deformed, who, in place of iron, seemed to be tormenting men with fire and with hammer, and he asked what this might be: and they answered and said that these were damned souls, and that to similar pains was condemned the soul of the Marquis Hugh by reason of his worldly life, unless he should repent: who, with great fear, commended himself to the Virgin Mary, and when the vision was ended, he remained so pricked in the spirit, that after his return to Florence, he sold all his patrimony in Germany, and commanded that seven monasteries should be founded: the first was the Badia of Florence, to the honour of S. Mary; the second, that of Bonsollazzo, where he beheld the vision; the third was founded at Arezzo; the fourth at Poggibonizzi; the fifth at the Verruca of Pisa; the sixth at the city of Castello; the last was the one at Settimo; and all these abbeys he richly endowed, and lived afterwards with his wife in holy life, and had no son, and died in the city of Florence, on S. Thomas’ Day, in the year of Christ 1006, and was buried with great honour in the Badia of Florence. And whilst the said Hugh was living, he made in Florence many knights of the family of the Giandonati, of the Pulci, of the Nerli, of the counts of Gangalandi, and of the family della Bella, which all for love of him, retained and bore his arms, barry, white and red, with divers charges. § 13.82—Concerning them of the great quarter of Porta Santa Maria and of San Piero Scheraggio. In the quarter of Porta Santa Maria, which is now included in the sesto of San Piero Scheraggio and in that of Borgo, there were many powerful and ancient families. The chief were the Uberti, whose ancestor was born in Germany and came thence, which dwelt where is now the Piazza of the Priors, and the Palace of the People; the Fifanti, called Bogolesi, dwelt at the side of Porta Santa Maria; and the Galli, Cappiardi, Guidi; and the Filippi, which now have come to nought, were then great and powerful, and dwelt in the Mercato Nuovo. And likewise the Greci, whereto pertained all the Borgo dei Greci, are now come to an end and extinct,

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save that there are in Bologna of their lineage; the Ormanni which dwelt where is now the said Palace of the People, and who are now called Foraboschi. And behind San Piero Scheraggio where are now the houses of the family of the Petri, dwelt they of Pera or Peruzza; and from their name the postern which was there was called the Peruzza Gate. Some say that the Peruzzi of to-day were descended from this lineage, but this I do not affirm. The Sacchetti which dwell in the Garbo were very ancient; around the New Market the Bostichi were of note, and the della Sannella, and the Giandonati, and the Infangati. In the Borgo Santo Apostolo the Gualterotti, and the Importuni, which are now popolani, were then magnates. The Bondelmonti were noble and ancient citizens in the country, and Montebuoni was their fortress, and many others in Valdigrieve; first they settled in Oltrarno, and then they betook themselves to the Borgo. The Pulci, and the Counts of Gangalandi, Ciuffagni, and Nerli of Oltrarno, were at one time great and powerful, together with the Giandonati, and the della Bella named above; and from the Marquis Hugh which built the Badia of Florence, they took their arms and knighthood, for they were of great account with him. VII § 56. 266—How the Cardinal Latino, by the Pope’s command, made peace between the Guelfs and Ghibellines of Florence, and composed all the other feuds in the city. 1278 a.d. And the said legate gave and ordained, for the general government of the city, fourteen good men, magnates and popolani, whereof eight were Guelfs and six Ghibellines, and their term of office endured for two months, and there was a certain order in their election; and they assembled in the house of the Badia of Florence, over the gate which goes to Santa Margherita, and returned to their homes to eat and to sleep. And this done, the said Cardinal Latino returned to Romagna to his legation with great honour. § 79. 269-70—How the Office of Priors was first created in Florence. 1282 a.d. In the year of Christ 1282, the city of Florence being under government of the order of the fourteen good men as the Cardinal Latino had left it, to wit eight Guelfs and six Ghibellines, as we afore made mention, it seemed to the citizens that this government of fourteen was too numerous and confused; and to the end so many divided hearts might be at one, and, above all, because it was not pleasing to the Guelfs to have the Ghibellines as partners in the government by reason of the events which were come to pass (such as the loss which King Charles had already sustained of the island of Sicily, and the coming into Tuscany of the imperial vicar, and likewise the wars begun in Romagna by the count of Montefeltro on the Ghibelline side), for the safety and welfare of the city of Florence they annulled the said office of the fourteen and created and made a new office and lordship for the government of the said city of Florence, to wit, the Priors of the Arts; the which

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name, Priors of the Arts, means to say “the first,” chosen over the others; and it was taken from the Holy Gospel, where Christ says to His disciples, “Vos estis priores.” […] And their office began in the middle of June of the said year, and lasted for two months, unto the middle of August, and thus three priors were to succeed every two months, for the three greater Arts. And they were shut up to give audience (sleeping and eating at the charges of the commonwealth), in the house of the Badia where formerly, as we have aforesaid, the Ancients were wont to assemble in the time of the old Popolo, and afterwards the fourteen.

VASARI I Preface Liii: In the same Greek manner and about the same time were the seven abbeys that Count Ugo, Marquis of Brandenburg, caused to be built in Tuscany, as can be seen in the Badia of Florence, in that of Settimo, and in the others; which buildings, with the remains of those that are no longer standing, bear testimony that architecture was still in a measure holding its ground, although greatly corrupted and far removed from the good manner of the ancients. Arnolfo di Lapo 21: In the next year, 1285, he founded the Loggia and Piazza de’ Priori, and built the principal chapel of the Badia of Florence, and the two that are on either side of it, renovating the church and the choir, which at first had been made much smaller by Count Ugo, founder of that abbey; and for Cardinal Giovanni degli Orsini, Legate of the Pope in Tuscany, he built the campanile of the said church, which, according to the works of those times, was much praised, although it did not have its completion of grey-stone until afterwards, in the year 1330.

Giotto di Bondone 72-3: The first pictures of Giotto were in the chapel of the high-altar in the Badia of Florence, wherein he made many works held beautiful, but in particular a Madonna receiving the Annunciation, for the reason that in her he expressed vividly the fear and the terror that the salutation of Gabriel inspired in Mary the Virgin, who appears, all full of the greatest alarm, to be wishing almost to turn to flight. By the hand of Giotto, likewise, is the panel on the high-altar of the said chapel, which has been preserved there to our own day, and is still preserved there, more because of a certain reverence that is felt for the work of so great a man than for any other reason. 88: Now, while this work continued to be carried forward, he made a panel for the Nuns of S. Giorgio, and three half-length figures in an arch over the inner side of

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the door of the Badia in Florence, now covered with whitewash in order to give more light to the church. 90: In the Badia of Florence he [Puccio Campanna, disciple of Giotto] painted the Chapel of S. Giovanni Evangelista, belonging to the family of Covoni, beside the sacristry; […]. Buonamico Buffalmacco 140-1: He painted in fresco the Chapel of the Giochi and Bastari in the Badia of Florence, beside the principal chapel; which chapel, although afterwards it was conceded to the family of the Boscoli, retains the said pictures of Buffalmacco up to our own day. In these he made the Passion of Christ, with effects ingenious and beautiful, showing very great humility and sweetness in Christ, who is washing the feet of His Disciples, and ferocity and cruelty in the Jews, who are leading Him to Herod. But he showed talent and facility more particularly in a Pilate, whom he painted in prison, and in Judas hanging from a tree; wherefore it is easy to believe what is told about this gay painter—namely, that when he thought fit to use diligence and to take pains, which rarely came to pass, he was not inferior to any painter whatsoever of his times. II Masaccio 186: In the Badia of Florence, on a pilaster opposite to one of those that support the arch of the high-altar, he painted in fresco S. Ivo of Brittany, representing him within a niche, in order that the feet might appear foreshortened to the eye below; which device, not having been used so well by others, acquired for him no small praise. And below the said Saint, over another cornice, he made a throng of widows, orphans, and beggars, who receive assistance from that Saint in their needs. III Giuliano da Maiano 11-2: It is said that in company with Giusto and Minore, masters of tarsia, he wrought the seats of the Sacristy of the Nunziata, and likewise those of the choir that is beside the chapel, and many things in the Badia of Florence and in S. Marco; […]. Fra Giovanni Beato Angelico 31: Over a door of the cloister of the Badia in the same city he painted a S. Benedict, who is making a sign enjoining silence. Mino da Fiesole 155-7: And a little after this he undertook, at the instance of Messer Dietisalvi Neroni, to make a little panel with figures of Our Lady with the Child in her arms, and S. Laurence on one side and S. Leonard on the other, in half-relief, which was

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intended for the priests or chapter of S. Lorenzo; but it has remained in the Sacristy of the Badia of Florence. For those monks he made a marble medallion containing a Madonna in relief with the Child in her arms, which they placed over the principal door of entrance into the church; and since it gave great satisfaction to all, he received a commission for a tomb for the Magnificent Chevalier, Messer Bernardo de’ Giugni, who, having been an honourable man of high repute, rightly received this memorial from his brothers. On this tomb, besides the sarcophagus and the portrait from nature of the dead man, Mino executed a figure of Justice, which resembles the manner of Desiderio closely, save only that its draperies are a little too full of detail in the carving. This work induced the Abbot and Monks of the Badia of Florence, in which place the said tomb was erected, to entrust Mino with the making of one for Count Ugo, son of the Marquis Uberto of Magdeburg, who bequeathed great wealth and many privileges to that abbey. And so, desiring to honour him as much as they could, they caused Mino to make a tomb of Carrara marble, which was the most beautiful work that Mino ever made; for in it there are some boys, upholding the arms of that Count, who are standing in very spirited attitudes, with a childish grace; and besides the figure of the dead Count, with his likeness, which he made on the sarcophagus, in the middle of the wall above the bier there is a figure of Charity, with certain children, wrought with much diligence and very well in harmony with the whole. The same is seen in a Madonna with the Child in her arms, in a lunette, which Mino made as much like the manner of Desiderio as he could; and if he had assisted his methods of work by studying from the life, there is no doubt that he would have made very great progress in his art. This tomb, with all its expenses, cost 1,600 lire, and he finished it in 1481, thereby acquiring much honour, and obtaining a commission to make a tomb for Lionardo Salutati, Bishop of Fiesole, in the Vescovado of that place, in a chapel near the principal chapel, on the right hand as one goes up; on which tomb he portrayed him in his episcopal robes, as lifelike as possible. Gherardo 215-6: Some declare that Attavante, otherwise Vante, an illuminator of Florence, of whom we have spoken above in more than one place, was a disciple of Gherardo, as was Stefano, likewise a Florentine illuminator; but I hold it as certain, considering that both lived at the same time, that Attavante was rather the friend, companion, and contemporary of Gherardo than his disciple. Gherardo died well advanced in years, leaving everything that he used in his art to his disciple Stefano, who, devoting himself no long time after to architecture, abandoned the art of illuminating, and handed over all his appliances in connection with that profession to the elder Boccardino, who illuminated the greater part of the books that are in the Badia of Florence. Gherardo died at the age of sixty-three, and his works date about the year of our salvation 1470. Antonio and Piero Pollaiuolo 239: He taught this art to the Florentine Mazzingo and to Giuliano del Facchino, both passing good masters, and to Giovanni Turini of Siena, who surpassed these his companions considerably in that profession, in which, from Antonio di Salvi—

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who made many good works, such as a large silver Cross for the Badia of Florence, and other things—to our own day, there has been nothing done than can be held in particular account. But of his works and of those of the Pollaiuoli many have been destroyed and melted down to meet the necessities of the city in times of war. IV Filippino Lippi 4: Next, in the Chapel of Francesco del Pugliese at Campora, a seat of the Monks of the Badia, without Florence, he painted a panel in distemper of S. Bernard, to whom Our Lady is appearing with certain angels, while he is writing in a wood; which picture is held to be admirable in certain respects, such as rocks, books, herbage, and similar things, that he painted therein, besides the portrait from life of Francesco himself, so excellent that he seems to lack nothing save speech. This panel was removed from that place on account of the siege, and placed for safety in the Sacristy of the Badia of Florence. 9: For the Church of the Badia of Florence he made a very beautiful S. Jerome; […]. Fra Bartolommeo di San Marco 155: When Fra Bartolommeo had been many months in Prato, he was sent by his superiors to take up his abode in S. Marco at Florence, and on account of his virtues he was received very warmly by the friars of that convent. In those days Bernardo del Bianco had caused to be erected, in the Badia of Florence, a chapel of grey-stone, full of carving, and very rich and beautiful, from the design of Benedetto da Rovezzano: which chapel was and still is much esteemed on account of some ornamental work of great variety, wherein Benedetto Buglioni placed, in some niches, angels and other figures made of glazed terra-cotta, in the round, to adorn it the more, with friezes containing cherubs and the devices of Bianco. And Bernardo, wishing to set up in the chapel a panel-picture that should be worthy of that adornment, and conceiving the idea that Fra Bartolommeo would be the right man for the work, sought in every possible way, through the intervention of his friends, to persuade him. Fra Bartolommeo was living in his convent, giving his attention to nothing save the divine offices and the duties of his Rule, although often besought by the Prior and by his dearest friends that he should work again at his painting; and for more than four years he had refused to touch a brush. But on this occasion, being pressed by Bernardo del Bianco, at length he began the panelpicture of S. Bernard, in which the Saint is writing, and gazing with such deep contemplation at the Madonna, with the Child in her arms, being borne by many angels and children, all coloured with great delicacy, that there is clearly perceived in him a certain celestial quality, I know not what, which seems, to him who studies it with attention, to shine out over that work, into which Baccio put much diligence and love; not to mention an arch executed in fresco, which is above it. V

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Benedetto da Rovezzano 38: By the same architect were designed the door and vestibule of the Badia of Florence, and likewise some chapels, among them that of S. Stefano, erected by the family of the Pandolfini. VIII Francesco Salviati 164: For the Black Friars of the Badia Francesco painted three little scenes on a Tabernacle of the Sacrament made by the carver Tasso in the manner of a triumphal arch. In one of these is the Sacrifice of Abraham, in the second the Manna, and in the third the Hebrews eating the Paschal Lamb on their departure from Egypt; and the work was such that it gave an earnest of the success that he has since achieved. X Giorgio Vasari 218: For the Black Friars of the Badia of Florence, likewise, I am painting an altarpiece of the Assumption of Our Lady, which is near completion, with the Apostles in figures larger than life, and other figures at the sides, and around it stories and ornaments accommodated in a novel manner.

BOCCHI, 181-5: 181: Not far from here is the church of the Badia, where the monks of the black habit of the Benedictine Order live, very famous as a centre of devotion, and noteworthy too for the circumstances of its foundation. Like a number of other institutions, it was established by the truly magnanimous and regal generosity of Hugo, Count of Brandenburg. [At that time] it was the custom of the emperors to maintain representation in those parts of Italy that had placed themselves under their control. Thus, in the year 989, this Hugo, Count and Marquis of Brandenburg, was vicar of Otto III in Tuscany. Going out one day to hunt, as it pleased God, he had a terrible vision, strange and monstrous; it appeared, not as illusions in a dream, but to his very eyes while he was awake {… miraculous vision}. 182: Having searched for him in vain all night, his people finally arrived and did him the usual reverence; he, without saying a word, returned immediately to Florence and no sooner had he arrived than he sent for the Bishop of the city and a cardinal who was a relative, resident there at the time. To them, as well as to the hermit who had offered him hospitality, he recounted everything he had seen, both while awake and while asleep, and he most fervently appealed to them for their advice concerning his salvation. The three were amazed by what had happened, and the Cardinal, as the highest ranking of them – but in agreement with the Bishop and the hermit – declared that he should commission the building of seven monasteries dedicated to St. Benedict, explaining how both visions were divinely

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inspired and referred to his salvation. The Count gave orders to this effect with great enthusiasm, and so seven monasteries dedicated to St. Benedict were built in Tuscany, and were endowed with so much land that the monks who were to live there in order to praise God would be able to do so comfortably. The first monastery was this one in Florence, and the last, which belongs to the Cistercians, was called Settimo (Seventh). 184/5: One sees some things in this church that are highly prized by artists. In the chapel with the high altar is a panel eight braccia high and five braccia wide by Giorgio Vasari, in which, because the altar is dedicated to the Virgin and the feast of the Assumption celebrated here, one sees the Assumption with many figures full of holy emotions and beautifully painted. {…} Below, Vasari has painted the story of Count Hugo, and how it came about that he changed his life and ways and bettered himself so much that he became as generous and magnanimous toward the servants of God as has been described. 185: In addition, on the right side of the main chapel, is the tomb of the Count by Mino da Fiesole, made of Carrara marble, and held in great esteem by experts. The monks took great care to honour the memory of such a remarkable man; they spare no expense and, as one can plainly see, they fully succeeded. {…} Below, in front of the very beautiful pilasters at either side of the tomb, are two little angels with extraordinarily beautiful heads, hands and feet, who stand holding the Count’s coat of arms; below them are two more in low relief who hold the epitaph regarding the Count, and these too are highly esteemed. Indeed, this entire work is wonderful for its praiseworthy architectu[ral elements], the refinement of the carving, and the grace of the figures. The tomb of Bernardo Giugni, a Knight of the Golden Spur, is also by Mino; it is made with great care and is admired beyond measure by artists. Nearby is the chapel of Bernardo del Bianco, much praised by experts. Its architecture is by Benedetto da Rovezzano, and consists of columns, friezes, cornices and other noble and rich ornaments, and the whole is a work of such grace that one could not desire a finer beauty or more lovely order. There are many figures of glazed terracotta, highly finished, by Benedetto Buglioni; they are not only skilful, but very lustrous and their blue colour is like the pietra serena, of which the entire chapel is made, so that they afford a truly lovely and marvellous sight. The panel, representing the Virgin with the Child in her arms appearing to St. Bernard, is by Fra Bartolommeo, and is wonderful for its colouring and design. One sees this Saint in a beautiful pose, thinking holy thoughts. While he is intent upon them, this sublime vision appears before him; one recognises in him a godly character and a radiance of sanctity. This figure is rightly held to be wonderful in design and in relief, and the Madonna, supported by many little angels, is no less precious and extraordinary. Their pure faces alight with joy, these angels awaken holy thoughts and devotion in whoever looks at them.

Santa Maria nella Badia Fiorentina BALDINUCCI S Maria Assunta (Badia): I.84; I.106; I.234; I.475; I.587; V.30.

RICHA, part I, vol I, lesson XIV, 189-206.

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Piazza Santa Maria Novella, 18; for more information on opening hours and to prebook please visit: http://www.chiesasantamarianovella.it/en

History The Dominican church and monastery of Santa Maria Novella were founded after c.1219 and eventually replaced a previous church called Santa Maria della Vigna (of the vineyard). In the early thirteenth century, the area was still located outside the city walls and so the monks who arrived in Florence found enough space for a church facing a large square that would provide the necessary room for the large audiences regularly attracted by their sermons. In 1279 the new Gothic church was started; it was consecrated by Pope Martin V in 1420 (Fig. 17 a). At that point, the façade was still unfinished but a wealthy merchant, Giovanni Rucellai, commissioned Leon Battista Alberti with the design for a coloured marble façade (1458) that was also going to bear the name and device of the sponsor and the date of completion (1470). Between 1572 and 1574, Egnazio Danti fixed two astronomical instruments, an armillary sphere and a gnomon, to the façade in order to ascertain the equinox as well as the length of the year. As in the case of Santa Croce, Santo Spirito and other churches in Florence, the leading families of the neighbourhood helped finance the building of the church by their patronage of the chapels inside. On the way to the church, visitors today move through a cemetery whose arcade contains the funerary vaults, called avelli, of Florentine aristocrats. To the left of the church is the monastic complex with the Chiostro dei Morti and the Green Cloister, the chapterhouse or Cappellone degli Spagnoli (Spanish Chapel) called by that name after the Spanish wife of Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici, Eleonora of Toledo, who used it for prayer in the company of her Spanish courtiers and ladies-in-waiting. The order’s founder, Saint Dominic de Guzmán, was from Caleruega and thus from

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the same region as the duchess’s family, whose hometown was Villafranca del Bierzo. The square outside the church was used by Cosimo I for a yearly chariot race, the Palio dei Cocchi, from 1563. Until the race was discontinued in the late nineteenth century, the two obelisks marked the start and finish in imitation of the practice in the ancient Roman circus. The obelisks were placed on bronze tortoises, created by Giambologna in 1608.

Figure 17 a: Façade of the basilica of Santa Maria Novella (photo: VG). Alberti’s design is one of the very few fifteenth-century examples in Florence but incorporates remains of an earlier façade in its lower part.

Architecture This church replaced an oratory of the ninth century and, according to tradition, was designed by two Dominican friars, Fra Sisto Fiorentino and Fra Ristoro da Campi. Construction started in the mid-thirteenth century. The elongated Romanesque-Gothic bell tower was completed by c.1330 under the supervision of Friar Iacopo Talenti; the sacristy was built before c.1360.

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By the time the church was consecrated in 1420, only the lower part of the Tuscan Gothic façade had been completed: the three portals are surrounded by round arches, while the rest is spanned by blind arches and separated by pilasters (not unlike San Miniato al Monte, chapter 19). Gothic pointed arches, striped in green and white, cover avelli tombs. In 1458, Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai commissioned Leon Battista Alberti, the architect of his palace, to deliver a design for the façade’s upper part. Previously, Alberti had designed the casing for Rimini’s Tempio Malatestiano. He was going to develop an all’antica scheme for Santa Maria Novella that was able to mask the difference in height between nave and aisles by inserting low segmental screening walls on the sides and a tympanum on top. Despite the solar emblem in the tympanum or the Latin inscription with Roman majuscules, the effect is not altogether that of an ancient temple front or even that of a triumphal arch but it incorporated the pre-existing revetments and turned them into a mathematically proportioned façade made up of geometrical fields. The interior of the church is in the Latin cross shape of a basilica divided into a long nave and two aisles and a shorter transept (Fig. 17 b). Slender compound piers carry and define the relatively wide arches that, however, become narrower the further one moves towards the crossing to balance the weight of the cross-vaulted stone roof. The overall colour scheme in the church of Santa Maria Novella corresponds to the traditional Florentine combination of grey pietra serena against white stucco and contributes to a general impression of open spaciousness. Santa Maria Novella has seven side chapels clustered together between the far ends of the transepts and along the sanctuary end. The largest is for the main choir, flanked by two smaller chapels on either side, and one raised chapel at the far end of each transept arm. In the 1560s, after Giorgio Vasari had remodelled the church in accordance with the Counter-reformation tenets endorsed by Duke Cosimo I, the rood screen dividing the nave was removed and six side altars were added between the columns (similar to Santa Croce, chapter 6) and filled with fifteenth-century works of art.

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Figure 17 b: Plan of Santa Maria Novella with nave and aisles, side chapels, sanctuary, cloister and chapter house (plan: SC).

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Art The fourteenth- and fifteenth-century stained-glass windows in the choir chapel, in the Strozzi Chapel and on the façade are a special feature of Santa Maria Novella, although not all of them are original. The pulpit, commissioned by the Rucellai from Filippo Brunelleschi in 1443 and executed by Andrea Cavalcanti, stands far back towards the left in the nave (similar to Santa Croce, chapter 6) so that the congregation would be able to follow the sermons from behind the rood screen. On the arcade wall nearby, Masaccio had frescoed a Holy Trinity for the Lenzi family in c.1425-1428. The donors are kneeling left and right of the very naturalistic depiction of Christ on the cross with God-the-father and the Holy Ghost set in a chapel architecture that is reminiscent of ancient as well as Brunelleschian designs. The fresco was saved since it had been covered by an altarpiece of Vasari’s (Madonna del Rosario, 1568, now in the Bardi Chapel). It was rediscovered when the sixteenthcentury work of art was removed and after being restored it was returned to its original location. Masaccio’s Trinity is a milestone in the artist’s masterful use of one-point perspective, which creates the realistic illusion of depth. At the approximate location, where the rood screen stood until the sixteenth century, is today Giotto’s famous Crucifix of c.1300. It shows Christ as suffering with closed eyes, long-stretched arms and the abdomen pressed upwards by the effect of crucifixion. Blood trickles from the wounds. The new humanity of Christ is combined with traditional features such as the images of the Virgin Mary and of John the Apostle at the far ends of the crossbeam and with the so-called apron, a patterned field setting off the body of Christ. Beyond that point, the chapels open into the transept. Among these, the Cappella Strozzi di Mantova at the end of the left transept includes frescoes by Nardo di Cione (1350-1357), inspired by Dante’s Divine Comedy: the Last Judgement, Paradise and Inferno. Tommaso Strozzi, a scion of one of the leading banking families, also commissioned Nardo’s brother, Andrea Orcagna, for the main altarpiece of the Redeemer with the Madonna and saints. In the Last Judgement Saint Michael leads Tommaso and his wife into Paradise. Giuliano da Sangallo redesigned the Gondi chapel to the left of the choir chapel with polychrome marble decoration but it still bears remains of an earlier, thirteenth-century decoration from the time of Cimabue. On

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the wall at the back hangs Brunelleschi’s wooden Crucifix, which the artist sculpted in response to Donatello’s “rustic” Crucifix at the church of Santa Croce (chapter 6). In the main chapel with the high altar Giambologna’s sixteenth-century bronze Crucifix is displayed. Domenico Ghirlandaio and his apprentice Michelangelo Buonarroti decorated the Cappella Tornabuoni in the choir space behind with two fresco cycles between 1485 and 1490. Here, scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary and of John the Baptist are shown as if they happened in and outside Florentine buildings and were watched by onlookers dressed in the Florentine fashions of the late fifteenth century. The donor and his wife are portrayed on the end wall but many other family members are also included. The theme of childbirth is introduced by depictions of the Birth of the Virgin, the Birth of John the Baptist, and the Visitation and may have been meant to allude to the early deaths of Ludovica Tornabuoni and Giovanna degli Albizzi who are both represented in the frescoes. A female figure in the Birth of John the Baptist clearly shows the influence of rediscovered antiquities on the art of the period, since she looks and moves with flowing robes like a maenad from a Roman sarcophagus. The Filippo Strozzi Chapel on the right allegedly witnessed the start of Boccaccio’s Decamerone. It was here that the young people wishing to escape the plague gathered before leaving for the countryside. In 1502, Filippino Lippi completed a series of frescoes from the lives of Apostles Philip and James. Filippo Strozzi’s tomb is situated behind the altar and decorated with the sculpture of Benedetto da Maiano (1441). At the far end of the right transept is the Rucellai Chapel from the 1300s. Paolo Rucellai is buried there in a tomb of 1425 created by Lorenzo Ghiberti. The chapel once hosted Duccio di Buoninsegna’s Rucellai Madonna of 1285, which had been commissioned by the Laudesi confraternity but was transported to the chapel of the Rucellai; today the altarpiece is at the Uffizi (N. Cat. 00284543, tempera on panel, https:// www.virtualuffizi.com/de/rucellai-madonna.html). Although still traditional with a gold background and angels that seem to float near the throne, the Madonna is seated at a three-quarters angle towards the spectator. Her body’s dimension is visible through the drapery and the Christ child is placed firmly on her lap. The pattern of the flowered cloth of honour in the back takes the drapery folds into account and the fabric seems to reflect the light as if it were made of very fine wool.

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The Spanish Chapel (Cappellone degli Spagnoli), the former chapterhouse, is situated at the north side of the Chiostro Verde. The Green Cloister was decorated in 1425 to 1430 with frescoes by Paolo Uccello and his workshop with scenes from Genesis in terra verde. Buonamico (Mico) Guidalotti ordered that the chapterhouse be turned into his funerary chapel (1343-1355). Andrea Bonaiuti decorated the Spanish Chapel, as it was called from the mid-sixteenth century, from c.1365 to 1367 with scenes referring to the work of the Dominican order. The Allegory of the Active and Triumphant Church possibly includes information about Arnolfo’s design for Florence Cathedral (chapter 2) as well as a number of portraits, for example that of Pope Benedict IX. In one of the scenes depicted, Saint Dominic unleashes the domini canes, the hounds of the Lord. Bibl: Acidini and Morolli 2006; Aniz Iriarte and Díaz Martín 1994, 174-86; Borsook 1983, 115-32; Campbell and Cole 2012, 94, 103 and 118-9, 134, 146, 197 and 199-201, 223 and 291-2 and 300-5, 548-50; Cesati 2002, 58-64; Crispino 1999, 58-65; De Boer 2010, annotations 103-12: 154-9; Goy 2015, 238-46; Hall 1979; Hartt & Wilkins 2007, 66-7, 74-5, 102-4, 138-9, 217-8, 243-4, 266-8, 338-9, 354-6, 360-2; Horstmann 2011, 160-6; Kleiner 2010, 244-5; Mercanti and Straffi 2001, 120-9; Murray 2004, 20-30 and 56-8; Paatz 1952, III, 662-845; Paolucci 2006, 158-81; Schneider Adams 2001, 24 and 90-1; Tovey 2005, 314-5; Verdon, Coppellotti, Fabbri 2000, 116-29; Verdon ed. 2003, vol. 2. Sources: VILLANI VII § 56. 264-5 and 334-5—How the Cardinal Latino, by the Pope’s command, made peace between the Guelfs and Ghibellines of Florence, and composed all the other feuds in the city. […] For the foregoing reasons the said Pope put forth and confirmed the said treaty, and ordained a mediator and legate, and committed the said questions to the Cardinal Frate Latino which represented the Church in Romagna; a man of great authority and learning, and highly considered by the Pope, who, by command of the Pope, departed from Romagna, and came to Florence with 300 horsemen, in service of the Church, on the eighth day of the month of October, in the year of Christ 1278, and by the Florentines and the clergy was received with great honour and with a procession, the carroccio coming out to meet him, with many jousters; and afterwards the said legate on the day of S. Luke the Evangelist in that same year and month, founded and blest the first stone of the new church of Santa Maria Novella, which pertained to the Order of Preaching Friars, whereof he was a friar; and in that place of the friars he dealt with and ordained generally the treaties of

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peace between all the Guelf citizens, and between the Guelfs and Ghibellines. And the first was between the Uberti and the Bondelmonti (and it was the third peace between them), save only that the sons of M. Rinieri Zingane de’ Bondelmonte would not consent thereto, and were excommunicated by the legate and banished by the commonwealth. But the peace was not set aside on their account; for afterwards the legate very happily concluded it in the month of February following, when the people of Florence were assembled in parliament on the old piazza of the said church, which was all covered with cloths and with great wooden scaffolds, whereon were the said cardinal, and many bishops, and prelates, and clergy, and monks, and the Podestà, and the Captain, and all the counsellors, and the orders of Florence. […] And thus, on the day of All Saints, 1301, M. Charles entered into Florence with. his followers unarmed, and the Florentines did him great honour, coming to meet him in procession with many jousters bearing standards, and horses draped in silk. And when he had reposed himself and sojourned some days in Florence, he craved from the commonwealth the lordship and charge of the city, and authority to make peace among the Guelfs. And this was assented to by the commonwealth, on the 5th day of November, in the church of Santa Maria Novella, where were assembled the Podestà, and captain, and priors, and all the councillors and the bishop, and all the good people of Florence; and when his demand had been made, counsel and deliberation were held thereupon, and the lordship and charge of the city was remitted to him. And M. Charles, after his secretary had set the matter forth, with his own mouth accepted it and swore to it, and, as the king’s son, promised to preserve the city in peaceful and good state; and I, the writer, was present at these things.

ALBERTINI 97: The Quarter of Santa Maria Novella […] The church of Santa Maria Novella is very beautiful. It is 168 braccia [98.04 m.] long and embellished with many types of marble and paintings. In the first cloister there are ancient stories: the first of Adam and Eve and the one of Noah are by Paolo Uccello. In the second cloister, which is 120 braccia [70.03 m.] long, there is a very beautiful chapel near the Hall of the Pope, which contains drawings by Leonardo da Vinci. This church has a very large altarpiece by Cimabue next to the beautiful crucifix by Filippo Brunelleschi, and the Trinity by Masaccio. The main chapel with the freestanding altarpiece is by Domenico Ghirlandaio, whereas the Strozzi Chapel is by Filippino Lippi; both are beautiful. In addition to these, there is the altarpiece of the Magi between the doors by Sandro Botticelli with Saints Cosmas and Damian by Giottino in the chapel of Saint Lawrence.

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VASARI I Cimabue 3-4: He, while growing up, being judged by his father and by others to have a beautiful and acute intelligence, was sent, to the end that he might exercise himself in letters, to a master in S. Maria Novella, his relative, who was then teaching grammar to the novices of that convent; but Cimabue, in place of attending to his letters, would spend the whole day, as one who felt himself led thereto by nature, in drawing, on books and other papers, men, horses, houses, and diverse other things of fancy; to which natural inclination fortune was favourable, for certain Greek painters had been summoned to Florence by those who then governed the city, for nothing else but to restore to Florence the art of painting, which was rather out of mind than out of fashion, and they began, among the other works undertaken in the city, the Chapel of the Gondi, whereof to-day the vaulting and the walls are little less than eaten away by time, as may be seen in S. Maria Novella beside the principal chapel, where it stands. Wherefore Cimabue, having begun to take his first steps in this art which pleased him, playing truant often from school, would stand the livelong day watching these masters at work, in a manner that, being judged by his father and by these painters to be in such wise fitted for painting that there could be hoped for him, applying himself to this profession, an honourable success, to his own no small satisfaction he was apprenticed by the said father to these men; whereupon, exercising himself without ceasing, in a short time nature assisted him so greatly that he surpassed by a long way, both in drawing and in colouring, the manner of the masters who were teaching him. 7-8: Next, he made for the Church of S. Maria Novella the panel of Our Lady that is set on high between the Chapel of the Rucellai and that of the Bardi da Vernia; which work was of greater size than any figure that had been made up to that time. And certain angels that are round it show that, although he still had the Greek manner, he was going on approaching in part to the line and method of the modern. Wherefore this work caused so great marvel to the people of that age, by reason of there not having been seen up to then anything better, that it was borne in most solemn procession from the house of Cimabue to the church, with much rejoicing and with trumpets, and he was thereby much rewarded and honoured. It is said, and it may be read in certain records of old painters, that while Cimabue was painting the said panel in certain gardens close to the Porta S. Pietro, there passed through Florence King Charles the Elder of Anjou, and that, among the many signs of welcome made to him by the men of this city, they brought him to see Cimabue’s panel; whereupon, for the reason that it had not yet been seen by anyone, in the showing it to the King there flocked together to it all the men and all the women of Florence, with the utmost rejoicing and in the greatest crowd in the world. 9: The portrait of Cimabue, by the hand of Simone Sanese, is to be seen in the Chapter-house of S. Maria Novella, made in profile in the story of the Faith, in a

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figure that has the face thin, the beard small, reddish, and pointed, with a cap according to the use of those times—that is, wound round and round and under the throat in lovely fashion. He who is beside him is Simone himself, the author of that work, who portrayed himself with two mirrors in order to make his head in profile, placing the one opposite to the other. And that soldier clad in armour who is between them is said to be Count Guido Novello, then Lord of Poppi. Arnolfo di Lapo di Cambio 25-6: And the picture of the Church of S. Maria del Fiore—namely, of the outer side with the cupola—by the hand of Simone Sanese, is to be seen in the Chapterhouse of S. Maria Novella, copied from the original in wood that Arnolfo made; wherein it is noticeable that he had thought to raise the dome immediately over the walls, at the edge of the first cornice, whereas Filippo di Ser Brunellesco, in order to relieve them of weight and to make it more graceful, added thereto, before he began to raise it, all that height wherein to-day are the round windows; which circumstance would be even clearer than it is, if the little care and diligence of those who have directed the Works of S. Maria del Fiore in the years past had not left the very model that Arnolfo made to go to ruin, and afterwards those of Brunellesco and of the others. Gaddo Gaddi 57: In painting he made many panels, and among others that which is in S. Maria Novella, in the tramezzo of the church, in the Chapel of the Minerbetti, and many others that were sent into diverse parts of Tuscany. And working thus, now in mosaic and now in painting, he made both in the one and in the other exercise many passing good works, which maintained him ever in good credit and reputation. 58-9: Now, seeing that in an old book, from which I have drawn these few facts that have been related about Gaddo Gaddi, there is also an account of the building of S. Maria Novella, the Church of the Preaching Friars in Florence, a building truly magnificent and highly honoured, I will not pass by in silence by whom and at what time it was built. I say, then, that the Blessed Dominic being in Bologna, and there being conceded to him the property of Ripoli without Florence, he sent thither twelve friars under the care of the Blessed Giovanni da Salerno; and not many years afterwards these friars came to Florence to occupy the church and precincts of S. Pancrazio, and they were settled there, when Dominic himself came to Florence, whereupon they left that place and went to settle in the Church of S. Paolo, according to his pleasure. Later, there being conceded to the said Blessed Giovanni the precincts of S. Maria Novella, with all its wealth, by the Legate of the Pope and by the Bishop of the city, they were put in possession and began to occupy the said precincts on the last day of October, 1221. And because the said church was passing small and faced westward, with its entrance on the Piazza Vecchia, the friars, being now grown to a good number and having great repute in the city, began to think of increasing the said church and convent. Wherefore, having got together a very great sum of money, and having many in the city who

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were promising every assistance, they began the building of the new church on St. Luke’s Day, in 1278; the first stone of the foundations being most solemnly laid by Cardinal Latino degli Orsini, Legate of Pope Nicholas III to the Florentines. The architects of the said church were Fra Giovanni, a Florentine, and Fra Ristoro da Campi, lay-brothers of the same Order, who rebuilt the Ponte alla Carraja and that of S. Trinita, destroyed by the flood of 1264 on October 1. The greater part of the site of the said church and convent was presented to the friars by the heirs of Messer Jacopo, Cavaliere de’ Tornaquinci. The cost, as has been said, was met partly by alms and partly by the money of diverse persons who assisted gallantly, and in particular with the assistance of Frate Aldobrandino Cavalcanti, who was afterwards Bishop of Arezzo and is buried over the door of the Virgin. Some say that, besides everything else, he got together by his own industry all the labour and material that went into the said church, which was finished when the Prior of this convent was Fra Jacopo Passavanti, who was therefore deemed worthy of a marble tomb in front of the principal chapel, on the left hand. This church was consecrated in the year 1420, by Pope Martin V, as is seen in an inscription on marble on the righthand pillar of the principal chapel, which runs thus: A.D. 1420. DIE SEPTIMA SEPTEMBRIS, DOMINUS MARTINUS DIVINA PROVIDENTIA PAPA V. PERSONALITER HANC ECCLESIAM CONSECRAVIT, ET MAGNAS INDULGENTIAS CONTULIT VISITANTIBUS EANDEM. Giotto di Bondone 85: And he made another like it in S. Maria Novella, whereon Puccio Capanna, his pupil, worked in company with him; and this is still to-day over the principal door, on the right as you enter the church, over the tomb of the Gaddi. And in the same church, over the tramezzo, he made a S. Louis for Paolo di Lotto Ardinghelli, and at the foot thereof the portrait of him and of his wife, from the life. Stefano and Ugolino Sanese 110: After this he painted a S. Thomas Aquinas beside a door in the first cloister of S. Maria Novella, where he also made a Crucifix, which was afterwards executed in a bad manner by other painters in restoring it. In like manner he left a chapel in the church begun and not finished, which has been much eaten away by time, wherein the angels are seen raining down in diverse forms by reason of the pride of Lucifer; where it is to be noticed that the figures, with the arms, trunks, and legs foreshortened much better than any foreshortenings that had been made before, give us to know that Stefano began to understand and to demonstrate in part the difficulties that those men had to reduce to excellence, who afterwards, with greater science, showed them to us, as they have done, in perfection; wherefore the surname of “The Ape of Nature” was given him by the other craftsmen. 113: By the hand of Ugolino, then, is the panel of the high-altar of S. Croce, on a ground all of gold, and also a panel which stood many years on the high-altar of S. Maria Novella and is to-day in the Chapter-house, where the Spanish nation every

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year holds most solemn festival on the day of S. James, with other offices and funeral ceremonies of its own. Andrea Pisano 130: Andrea was survived by Nino, his son, who applied himself to sculpture; and his first work was in S. Maria Novella, where he finished a Madonna in marble begun by his father, which is within the side door, beside the Chapel of the Minerbetti. Buonamico Buffalmacco 147-8: Meanwhile there had been entrusted to Bruno, his great friend (who had returned with him from Pisa, where they had squandered everything), some works in S. Maria Novella, and seeing that Bruno had not much design or invention, Buonamico designed for him all that he afterwards put into execution on a wall in the said church, opposite to the pulpit and as long as the space between column and column, and that was the story of S. Maurice and his companions, who were beheaded for the faith of Jesus Christ. This work Bruno made for Guido Campese, then Constable of the Florentines, whose portrait he had made before he died in the year 1312; in that work he painted him in his armour, as was the custom in those times, and behind him he made a line of men-at-arms, armed in ancient fashion, who make a beautiful effect, while Guido himself is kneeling before a Madonna who has the Child Jesus in her arms, and is appearing to be recommended to her by S. Dominic and S. Agnes, who are on either side of him. Although this picture is not very beautiful, yet, considering the design and invention of Buonamico, it is worthy to be in part praised, and above all by reason of the costumes, helmets, and other armour of those times. And I have availed myself of it in some scenes that I have made for the Lord Duke Cosimo, wherein it was necessary to represent men armed in ancient fashion, and other similar things of that age; which work has greatly pleased his most Illustrious Excellency and others who have seen it. And from this it can be seen how much benefit may be gained from the inventions and works made by these ancients, although they may not be very perfect, and in what fashion profit and advantage can be drawn from their performances, since they opened the way for us to the marvels that have been made up to our day and are being made continually. Simone Martini 169-70: About the same time Simone painted a Madonna and a S. Luke, with some other Saints, on a panel in distemper, which is to-day in the Chapel of the Gondi in S. Maria Novella, with his name. Next, Simone painted three walls of the Chapter-house of the said S. Maria Novella, very happily. On the first, which is over the door whereby one enters, he made the life of S. Dominic; and on that which follows in the direction of the church, he represented the Religious Order of the same Saint fighting against the heretics, represented by wolves, which are attacking some sheep, which are defended by many dogs spotted with black and white, and the wolves are beaten

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back and slain. There are also certain heretics, who, being convinced in disputation, are tearing their books and penitently confessing themselves, and so their souls are passing through the gate of Paradise, wherein are many little figures that are doing diverse things. In Heaven is seen the glory of the Saints, and Jesus Christ; and in the world below remain the vain pleasures and delights, in human figures, and above all in the shape of women who are seated, among whom is the Madonna Laura of Petrarca, portrayed from life and clothed in green, with a little flame of fire between her breast and her throat. There is also the Church of Christ, and, as a guard for her, the Pope, the Emperor, the Kings, the Cardinals, the Bishops, and all the Christian Princes; and among them, beside a Knight of Rhodes, is Messer Francesco Petrarca, also portrayed from the life, which Simone did in order to enhance by his works the fame of the man who had made him immortal. For the Universal Church he painted the Church of S. Maria del Fiore, not as it stands to-day, but as he had drawn it from the model and design that the architect Arnolfo had left in the Office of Works for the guidance of those who had to continue the building after him; of which models, by reason of the little care of the Wardens of Works of S. Maria del Fiore, as it has been said in another place, there would be no memorial for us if Simone had not left it painted in this work. On the third wall, which is that of the altar, he made the Passion of Christ, who, issuing from Jerusalem with the Cross on His shoulder, is going to Mount Calvary, followed by a very great multitude. Arriving there, He is seen raised on the Cross between the Thieves, with the other circumstances that accompany this story. I will say nothing of there being therein a good number of horses, of the casting of lots by the servants of the court for the garments of Christ, of the raising of the Holy Fathers from the Limbo of Hell, and of all the other well-conceived inventions, which belong not so much to a master of that age as to the most excellent of the moderns; inasmuch as, taking up the whole walls, with very diligent judgment he made in each wall diverse scenes on the slope of a mountain, and did not divide scene from scene with ornamental borders, as the old painters were wont to do, and many moderns, who put the earth over the sky four or five times, as it is seen in the principal chapel of this same church, […]. 174: On the wall of the Chapter-house of S. Maria Novella—besides Petrarca and Madonna Laura, as it has been said above—Simone portrayed Cimabue, the architect Lapo, his son Arnolfo, and himself, and in the person of that Pope who is in the scene he painted Benedetto XI of Treviso, one of the Preaching Friars, the likeness of which Pope had been brought to Simone long before by Giotto, his master, when he returned from the Court of the said Pope, who had his seat in Avignon. In the same place, also, beside the said Pope, he portrayed Cardinal Niccola da Prato, who had come to Florence at that time as Legate of the said Pontiff, as Giovanni Villani relates in his History. Taddeo Gaddi 183-5: He also painted the Chapter-house in S. Maria Novella, being commissioned by the Prior of the place, who suggested the subject to him. It is true, indeed, that by reason of the work being large and of there being unveiled, at

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that time when the bridges were being made, the Chapter-house of S. Spirito, to the very great fame of Simone Memmi, who had painted it, there came to the said Prior a desire to call Simone to the half of this work; wherefore, having discussed the whole matter with Taddeo, he found him well contented therewith, for the reason that he had a surpassing love for Simone, because he had been his fellowdisciple under Giotto and ever his loving friend and companion. Oh! minds truly noble! seeing that without emulation, ambition, or envy, ye loved one another like brothers, each rejoicing as much in the honour and profit of his friend as in his own! The work was divided, therefore, and three walls were given to Simone, as I said in his Life, and Taddeo had the left-hand wall and the whole vaulting, which was divided by him into four sections or quarters in accordance with the form of the vaulting itself. In the first he made the Resurrection of Christ, wherein it appears that he wished to attempt to make the splendour of the Glorified Body give forth light, as we perceive in a city and in some mountainous crags; but he did not follow this up in the figures and in the rest, doubting, perchance, that he was not able to carry it out by reason of the difficulty that he recognized therein. In the second section he made Jesus Christ delivering S. Peter from shipwreck, wherein the Apostles who are manning the boat are certainly very beautiful; and among other things, one who is fishing with a line on the shore of the sea (a subject already used by Giotto in the mosaics of the Navicella in S. Pietro) is depicted with very great and vivid feeling. In the third he painted the Ascension of Christ, and in the fourth the coming of the Holy Spirit, where there are seen many beautiful attitudes in the figures of the Jews who are seeking to gain entrance through the door. On the wall below are the Seven Sciences, with their names and with those figures below them that are appropriate to each. Grammar, in the guise of a woman, with a door, teaching a child, has the writer Donato seated below her. After Grammar follows Rhetoric, and at her feet is a figure that has two hands on books, while it draws a third hand from below its mantle and holds it to its mouth. Logic has the serpent in her hand below a veil, and at her feet Zeno of Elea, who is reading. Arithmetic is holding the tables of the abacus, and below her is sitting Abraham, its inventor. Music has the musical instruments, and below her is sitting Tubal-Cain, who is beating with two hammers on an anvil and is standing with his ears intent on that sound. Geometry has the square and the compasses, and below, Euclid. Astrology has the celestial globe in her hands, and below her feet, Atlas. In the other part are sitting seven Theological Sciences, and each has below her that estate or condition of man that is most appropriate to her—Pope, Emperor, King, Cardinals, Dukes, Bishops, Marquises, and others; and in the face of the Pope is the portrait of Clement V. In the middle and highest place is S. Thomas Aquinas, who was adorned with all the said sciences, holding below his feet some heretics— Arius, Sabellius, and Averroes; and round him are Moses, Paul, John the Evangelist, and some other figures, that have above them the four Cardinal Virtues and the three Theological, with an infinity of other details depicted by Taddeo with no little design and grace, insomuch that it can be said to have been the best conceived as well as the best preserved of all his works.

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In the same S. Maria Novella, over the tramezzo of the church, he also made a S. Jerome robed as a Cardinal, having such a devotion for that Saint that he chose him as the protector of his house; and below this, after the death of Taddeo, his son caused a tomb to be made for their descendants, covered with a slab of marble bearing the arms of the Gaddi. For these descendants, by reason of the excellence of Taddeo and of their merits, Cardinal Jerome has obtained from God most honourable offices in the Church—Clerkships of the Chamber, Bishoprics, Cardinalates, Provostships, and Knighthoods, all most honourable; and all these descendants of Taddeo, of whatsoever degree, have ever esteemed and favoured the beautiful intellects inclined to the matters of sculpture and painting, and have given them assistance with every effort. Andrea Orcagna 189-90: then, being desirous to become abundant in invention in order to make lovely historical compositions, he applied himself with so great study to drawing, assisted by nature, who wished to make him universal, that having tried his hand at painting with colours both in distemper and in fresco, even as one thing leads to another, he succeeded so well with the assistance of Bernardo Orcagna, his brother, that this Bernardo took him in company with himself to paint the life of Our Lady in the principal chapel of S. Maria Novella, which then belonged to the family of the Ricci. This work, when finished, was held very beautiful, although, by reason of the neglect of those who afterwards had charge of it, not many years passed before, the roof becoming ruined, it was spoilt by the rains and thereby brought to the condition wherein it is to-day, as it will be told in the proper place. It is enough for the present to say that Domenico Ghirlandajo, who repainted it, availed himself greatly of the invention put into it by Orcagna, who also painted in fresco in the same church the Chapel of the Strozzi, which is near to the door of the sacristy and of the belfry, in company with Bernardo, his brother. In this chapel, to which one ascends by a staircase of stone, he painted on one wall the glory of Paradise, with all the Saints and with various costumes and head-dresses of those times. On the other wall he made Hell, with the abysses, centres, and other things described by Dante, of whom Andrea was an ardent student. Tommaso, called Giottino 205: In S. Maria Novella, in the Chapel of S. Lorenzo de’ Giuochi, as one enters by the door on the left, on the front wall, he wrought in fresco a S. Cosimo and a S. Damiano, […]. Agnolo Gaddi 222-3: All these disciples of Agnolo did him very great honour, and he was buried by his sons, to whom it is said that he left the sum of fifty thousand florins or more, in S. Maria Novella, in the tomb that he himself had made for himself and for his descendants, in the year of our salvation 1387.

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II Dello 110: Dello was no very good draughtsman, but was well among the first who began to show judgment in revealing the muscles in nude bodies, as it is seen from some drawings in our book, made by him in chiaroscuro. He was portrayed in chiaroscuro by Paolo Uccello in S. Maria Novella, in the story wherein Noah is made drunk by his son Ham. Paolo Uccello 135-7, Afterwards he was commissioned to paint some scenes in the cloister of S. Maria Novella; and the first, which are at the entrance from the church into the cloister, represent the Creation of the animals, with an infinite number and variety of kinds belonging to water, earth, and air. And since he was very fanciful and took great delight, as it has been said, in painting animals to perfection, he showed in certain lions, who are seeking to bite each other, the great ferocity that is in them, and swiftness and fear in some stags and fallow-deer; not to mention that the birds and fishes, with their feathers and scales, are most lifelike. He made there the Creation of man and of woman, and their Fall, with a beautiful manner and with good and careful execution. And in this work he took delight in making the trees with colours, which the painters of those times were not wont to do very well; and in the landscapes, likewise, he was the first among the old painters to make a name for himself by his work, executing them well and with greater perfection than the painters before him had done; although afterwards there came men who made them more perfect, for with all his labour he was never able to give them that softness and harmony which have been given to them in our own day by painting them in oil-colours. It was enough for Paolo to go on, according to the rules of perspective, drawing and foreshortening them exactly as they are, making in them all that he saw—namely, ploughed fields, ditches, and other minutenesses of nature—with that dry and hard manner of his; whereas, if he had picked out the best from everything and had made use of those parts only that come out well in painting, they would have been absolutely perfect. This labour finished, he worked in the same cloister below two stories by the hand of others; and lower down he painted the Flood, with Noah’s Ark, wherein he put so great pains and so great art and diligence into the painting of the dead bodies, the tempest, the fury of the winds, the flashes of the lightning, the shattering of trees, and the terror of men, that it is beyond all description. And he made, foreshortened in perspective, a corpse from which a raven is picking out the eyes, and a drowned boy, whose body, being full of water, is swollen out into the shape of a very great arch. He also represented various human emotions, such as the little fear of the water shown by two men who are fighting on horseback, and the extreme terror of death seen in a woman and a man who are mounted on a buffalo, which is filling with water from behind, so that they are losing all hope of being able to save themselves; and the whole work is so good and so excellent, that it brought him very great fame. He diminished the figures, moreover, by means of lines in perspective, and made mazzocchi and other things, truly very beautiful in such a work. Below this story,

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likewise, he painted the drunkenness of Noah, with the contemptuous action of his son Ham—in whom he portrayed Dello, the Florentine painter and sculptor, his friend—with Shem and Japhet, his other sons, who are covering him up as he lies showing his nakedness. Here, likewise, he made in perspective a cask that curves on every side, which was held something very beautiful, and also a pergola covered with grapes, the wood-work of which, composed of squared planks, goes on diminishing to a point; but here he was in error, since the diminishing of the plane below, on which the figures are standing, follows the lines of the pergola, and the cask does not follow these same receding lines; wherefore I marvel greatly that a man so accurate and diligent could make an error so notable. He made there also the Sacrifice, with the Ark open and drawn in perspective, with the rows of perches in the upper part, distributed row by row; these were the resting-places of the birds, many kinds of which are seen issuing and flying forth in foreshortening, while in the sky there is seen God the Father, who is appearing over the sacrifice that Noah and his sons are making; and this figure, of all those that Paolo made in this work, is the most difficult, for it is flying, with the head foreshortened, towards the wall, and has such force and relief that it seems to be piercing and breaking through it. Besides this, Noah has round him an infinite number of diverse animals, all most beautiful. In short, he gave to all this work so great softness and grace, that it is beyond comparison superior to all his others; wherefore it has been greatly praised from that time up to our own. 140: And so, growing very old, and having but little contentment in his old age, he died in the eighty-third year of his life, in 1432, and was buried in S. Maria Novella. Lorenzo Ghiberti 152: The General of the Preaching Friars at that time, Maestro Lionardo Dati, wishing to leave a memorial of himself to his country in S. Maria Novella, where he had taken his vows, caused Lorenzo to construct a tomb of bronze, with himself lying dead thereon, portrayed from nature; and this tomb, which was admired and extolled, led to another being erected by Lodovico degli Albizzi and Niccolò Valori in S. Croce. Masaccio 186: In S. Maria Novella, also, below the tramezzo of the church, he painted a Trinity in fresco, which is placed over the altar of S. Ignazio, with Our Lady on one side and S. John the Evangelist on the other contemplating Christ Crucified. On the sides are two figures on their knees, which, in so far as it can be determined, are portraits of the men who had the picture painted; but little is seen of them, for they have been covered with a gilt ornament. But the most beautiful thing, apart from the figures, is a barrel-shaped vaulting, drawn in perspective and divided into squares filled with rosettes, which are foreshortened and made to diminish so well that the wall appears to be pierced.

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Filippo Brunelleschi 199-200: Whereupon Filippo, who would never get angry, whatever might be said to him, although he might have reason for anger, stayed in seclusion for many months until he had finished a Crucifix of wood of the same size, so excellent, and wrought with so much art, design, and diligence, that Donato—whom he had sent to his house ahead of himself, as it were to surprise him, for he did not know that Filippo had made such a work—having an apron full of eggs and other things for their common dinner, let it fall as he gazed at the work, beside himself with marvel at the ingenious and masterly manner that Filippo had shown in the legs, the trunk, and the arms of the said figure, which was so well composed and united together that Donato, besides admitting himself beaten, proclaimed it a miracle. This work is placed to-day in S. Maria Novella, between the Chapel of the Strozzi and that of the Bardi da Vernia, and it is still very greatly extolled by the moderns. III Fra Giovanno Beato Angelico 28-31: Afterwards, in the tramezzo of S. Maria Novella, beside the door opposite to the choir, he painted in fresco S. Dominic, S. Catherine of Siena, and S. Peter Martyr; and some little scenes in the Chapel of the Coronation of Our Lady in the said tramezzo. On canvas, fixed to the doors that closed the old organ, he painted an Annunciation, which is now in the convent, opposite to the door of the lower dormitory, between one cloister and the other. […], and in S. Maria Novella, besides the works already named, he painted with little scenes the Paschal candle and some Reliquaries which are placed on the altar in the most solemn ceremonies. 35: He died in 1455 at the age of sixty-eight, and left disciples in Benozzo, a Florentine, who ever imitated his manner, and Zanobi Strozzi, who painted pictures and panels throughout all Florence for the houses of citizens, and particularly a panel that is now in the tramezzo of S. Maria Novella, beside that by Fra Giovanni, […]. Leon Batista Alberti 45: In Leon Batista’s time Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai wished to build the principal façade of S. Maria Novella entirely of marble at his own expense, and he spoke of this to Leon Batista, who was very much his friend; and having received from him not only counsel, but the actual model, Giovanni resolved to have the work executed at all costs, in order to leave it behind him as a memorial of himself. A beginning having been made, therefore, it was finished in the year 1477, to the great satisfaction of all the city, which was pleased with the whole work, but particularly with the door, from which it is seen that Leon Batista took more than ordinary pains. Alesso Baldovinetti 69-70: Alesso taught the craft of mosaic to Domenico Ghirlandajo, who portrayed him afterwards near himself in the Chapel of the Tornabuoni in S. Maria Novella,

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in the scene where Joachim is driven from the Temple, in the form of a cleanshaven old man with a red cap on his head. Desiderio da Settignano 148: In S. Maria Novella he made a marble tomb for the Blessed Villana, with certain graceful little angels, and portrayed her there from nature in such a manner that she appears not dead but asleep; […]. Domenico Ghirlandaio 223-9: Now it chanced that the principal chapel of S. Maria Novella (a convent of Preaching Friars), formerly painted by Andrea Orcagna, was injured in many parts by rain in consequence of the roof of the vaulting being badly covered. For this reason many citizens had wished to restore it, or rather, to have it painted anew; but the owners, who belonged to the family of the Ricci, had never consented to this, being unable to bear so great an expense themselves, and unwilling to allow others to do so, lest they should lose the rights of ownership and the distinction of the arms handed down to them by their ancestors. Giovanni, then, being desirous that Domenico should make him his memorial there, set to work in this matter, trying various ways; and finally he promised the Ricci to bear the whole expense himself, to give them some sort of recompense, and to have their arms placed in the most conspicuous and honourable place in that chapel. And so they came to an agreement, making a contract in the form of a very precise instrument according to the terms described above. Giovanni allotted this work to Domenico, with the same subjects as were painted there before; and they agreed that the price should be 1,200 gold ducats of full weight, with 200 more in the event of the work giving satisfaction to Giovanni. Thereupon Domenico put his hand to the work and laboured without ceasing for four years until he had finished it—which was in 1485—to the very great satisfaction and contentment of Giovanni, who, while admitting that he had been well served, and confessing ingenuously that Domenico had earned the additional 200 ducats, said that he would be pleased if he would be satisfied with the original price. And Domenico, who esteemed glory and honour much more than riches, immediately let him off all the rest, declaring that he set much greater store on having given him satisfaction than on the matter of complete payment. Giovanni afterwards caused two large coats of arms to be made of stone—one for the Tornaquinci and the other for the Tornabuoni—and placed on the pilasters without the chapel, and in the arch he placed other arms belonging to that family, which is divided into various names and various arms—namely, in addition to the two already mentioned, those of the Ghiachinotti, Popoleschi, Marabottini, and Cardinali. And afterwards, when Domenico painted the altar-panel, he caused to be placed in the gilt ornament, under an arch, as a finishing touch to that panel, a very beautiful Tabernacle of the Sacrament, on the frontal of which he made a little shield a quarter of a braccio in length, containing the arms of the said owners—that is, the Ricci. And a fine jest it was at the opening of the chapel, for these Ricci looked for their arms with much ado, and finally, not being able to find them, went

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off to the Tribunal of Eight, contract in hand. Whereupon the Tornabuoni showed that these arms had been placed in the most conspicuous and most honourable part of the work; and although the others exclaimed that they were invisible, they were told that they were in the wrong, and that they must be content, since the Tornabuoni had caused them to be placed in so honourable a position as the neighbourhood of the most Holy Sacrament. And so it was decided by that tribunal that they should be left untouched, as they may be seen to-day. Now, if this should appear to anyone to be outside the scope of the Life that I have to write, let him not be vexed, for it all flowed naturally from the tip of my pen. And it should serve, if for nothing else, at least to show how easily poverty falls a prey to riches, and how riches, if accompanied by discretion, achieve without censure anything that a man desires. But to return to the beautiful works of Domenico; in that chapel, first of all, are the four Evangelists on the vaulting, larger than life; and, on the window-wall, stories of S. Dominic, S. Peter Martyr, S. John going into the Desert, the Madonna receiving the Annunciation from the Angel, and many patron saints of Florence on their knees above the window; while at the foot, on the right hand, is a portrait from life of Giovanni Tornabuoni, with one of his wife on the left, which are both said to be very lifelike. On the right-hand wall are seven scenes—six below, in compartments as large as the wall allows, and the last above, twice as broad as any of the others and bounded by the arch of the vaulting; and on the left-hand wall are also seven scenes from the life of S. John the Baptist. The first on the right-hand wall is the Expulsion of Joachim from the Temple, wherein patience is depicted in his countenance, with that contempt and hatred in the faces of the others, which the Jews felt for those who came to the Temple without having children. In this scene, in the part near the window, are four men portrayed from life, one of whom, old, shaven, and wearing a red cap, is Alesso Baldovinetti, Domenico’s master in painting and in mosaic. Another, bareheaded, who is holding one hand on his side and is wearing a red mantle, with a blue garment below, is Domenico himself, the master of the work, who portrayed himself in a mirror. The one who has long black locks and thick lips is Bastiano da San Gimignano, his disciple and brother-in-law; and the last, who has his back turned, with a little cap on his head, is the painter David Ghirlandajo, his brother. All these are said, by those who knew them, to be truly vivid and lifelike portraits. In the second scene is the Nativity of Our Lady, executed with great diligence, and, among other notable things that he painted therein, there is in the building (drawn in perspective) a window that gives light to the room, which deceives all who see it. Besides this, while S. Anna is in bed, and certain ladies are visiting her, he painted some women washing the Madonna with great care—one is getting ready the water, another is preparing the swaddlingclothes, a third is busy with some service, a fourth with another, and, while each is attending to her own duty, another woman is holding the little child in her arms and making her laugh by smiling at her, with a womanly grace truly worthy of such a work; besides many other expressions that are in each figure. In the third, which is above the first, is the Madonna ascending the steps of the Temple, with a building, which recedes from the eye correctly enough, in addition to a nude figure

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that brought him praise at that time, when few were to be seen, although it had not that complete perfection, which is shown by those painted in our own day, for those masters were not as excellent as ours. Next to this is the Marriage of Our Lady, wherein he represented the unbridled rage of those who are breaking their rods because they do not blossom like that of Joseph; and this scene has an abundance of figures in an appropriate building. In the fifth are seen the Magi arriving in Bethlehem with a great number of men, horses, and dromedaries, and a variety of other things—a scene truly well composed. Next to this is the sixth, showing the impious cruelty practised by Herod against the Innocents, wherein there is seen a most beautiful combat between women and soldiers, with horses that are striking and driving them about; and in truth this is the best of all the stories that are to be seen by his hand, for it is executed with judgment, intelligence, and great art. There may be seen therein the impious resolution of those who, at the command of Herod, without regard for the mothers, are slaying those poor infants, among which is one, still clinging to the breast, that is dying from wounds received in its throat, so that it is sucking, not to say drinking, as much blood as milk from that breast—an effect truly natural, and, being wrought in such a manner as it is, able to kindle a spark of pity in the coldest heart. There is also a soldier who has seized a child by force, and while he runs off with it, pressing it against his breast to kill it, the mother is seen hanging from his hair in the utmost fury, and forcing him to bend his back in the form of an arch, so that three very beautiful effects are shown among them—one in the death of the child, which is seen expiring; the second in the impious rage of the soldier, who, feeling himself drawn backwards so strangely, is shown in the act of avenging himself on the child; and the third is that the mother, seeing the death of her babe, is seeking with fury, grief, and disdain to prevent the villain from going off scathless; and the whole is truly more the work of a philosopher admirable in judgment than of a painter. There are many other emotions depicted, which will demonstrate to him who studies them that this man was without doubt an excellent master in his time. Above this, in the seventh scene, which embraces the space of two, and is bounded by the arch of the vaulting, are the Death and the Assumption of Our Lady, with an infinite number of angels, and innumerable figures, landscapes, and other ornaments, of which he used to paint an abundance in his facile and practised manner. On the other wall are stories of S. John, and in the first is Zacharias sacrificing in the Temple, when the Angel appears to him and makes him dumb for his unbelief. In this scene, showing how sacrifices in temples are ever attended by a throng of the most distinguished men, and wishing to make it as honourable as he was able, he portrayed a good number of the Florentine citizens who then governed that State, particularly all those of the house of Tornabuoni, both young and old. Besides this, in order to show that his age was rich in every sort of talent, above all in learning, he made a group of four half-length figures conversing together at the foot of the scene, representing the most learned men then to be found in Florence. The first of these, who is wearing the dress of a Canon, is Messer Marsilio Ficino; the second, in a red mantle, with a black band round his neck, is Cristofano

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Landino; the figure turning towards him is Demetrius the Greek; and he who is standing between them, with one hand slightly raised, is Messer Angelo Poliziano; and all are very lifelike and vivacious. In the second scene, next to this, there follows the Visitation of Our Lady to S. Elizabeth, with a company of many women dressed in costumes of those times, among whom is a portrait of Ginevra de’ Benci, then a most beautiful maiden. In the third, above the first, is the birth of S. John, wherein there is a very beautiful scene, for while S. Elizabeth is lying in bed, and certain neighbours come to see her, and the nurse is seated suckling the infant, one woman is joyfully demanding it from her, that she may show to the others what an unexampled feat the mistress of the house has performed in her old age. Finally, there is a woman, who is very beautiful, bringing fruits and flasks from the country, according to the Florentine custom. In the fourth scene, next to this, is Zacharias, still dumb, marvelling—but with undaunted heart—that this child should have been born to him; and while they keep asking him about the name, he is writing on his knee, with his eyes fixed on his son, whom a woman who has knelt down before him is holding reverently in her arms, and he is tracing with his pen on the paper, “John shall be his name,” to the no little marvel of many other figures, who appear to be in doubt whether the thing be true or not. There follows in the fifth his preaching to the multitude, in which scene there is shown that attention, which the populace ever gives when hearing new things, particularly in the heads of the Scribes, who, while listening to John, appear from a certain expression of countenance to be deriding his law, and even to hate it; and there are seen many men and women, variously attired, both standing and seated. In the sixth S. John is seen baptizing Christ, in whose reverent expression Domenico showed very clearly the faith that should be placed in such a Sacrament. And since this did not fail to achieve a very great effect, he depicted many already naked and barefooted, waiting to be baptized, and revealing faith and willingness carved in their faces; and one among them, who is taking off his shoe, personifies readiness itself. In the last, which is in the arch next to the vaulting, are the sumptuous Feast of Herod and the Dance of Herodias, with an infinite number of servants performing various services in that scene; not to mention the grandeur of an edifice drawn in perspective, which proves the talent of Domenico no less clearly than do the other pictures. The panel, which stands by itself, he executed in distemper, as he did the other figures in the six pictures. Besides the Madonna, who is seated in the sky with the Child in her arms, and the other saints who are round her, there are S. Laurence and S. Stephen, who are absolutely alive, with S. Vincent and S. Peter Martyr, who lack nothing save speech. It is true that a part of this panel remained unfinished in consequence of his death; but he had carried it so far on that there was nothing left to complete save certain figures on the back, where there is the Resurrection of Christ, with three figures in the other pictures, and the whole was afterwards finished by Benedetto and David Ghirlandajo, his brothers. This chapel was held to be a very beautiful work, grand, ornate, and lovely, through the vivacity of the colours, through the masterly finish in their application on the walls, and because very little retouching was done on the dry, not to mention the invention and the

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composition of the subjects. And in truth Domenico deserves the greatest praise on all accounts, particularly for the liveliness of the heads, which, being portrayed from nature, present to every eye most lifelike effigies of many distinguished persons. 233: Domenico lived forty-four years, and he was buried with beautiful obsequies in S. Maria Novella by his brothers David and Benedetto and his son Ridolfo, amid much weeping and sorrowful regrets. Sandro Botticelli 249-50: At this time Sandro was commissioned to paint a little panel with figures three-quarters of a braccio in length, which was placed between two doors in the principal façade of S. Maria Novella, on the left as one enters the church by the door in the centre. It contains the Adoration of the Magi, and wonderful feeling is seen in the first old man, who, kissing the foot of Our Lord, and melting with tenderness, shows very clearly that he has achieved the end of his long journey. The figure of this King is an actual portrait of the elder Cosimo de’ Medici, the most lifelike and most natural that is to be found of him in our own day. The second, who is Giuliano de’ Medici, father of Pope Clement VII, is seen devoutly doing reverence to the Child with a most intent expression, and presenting Him with his offering. The third, also on his knees, appears to be adoring Him and giving Him thanks, while confessing that He is the true Messiah; this is Giovanni, son of Cosimo. It is not possible to describe the beauty that Sandro depicted in the heads that are therein seen, which are drawn in various attitudes, some in full face, some in profile, some in three-quarter face, others bending down, and others, again, in various manners; with different expressions for the young and the old, and with all the bizarre effects that reveal to us the perfection of his skill; and he distinguished the Courts of the three Kings one from another, insomuch that one can see which are the retainers of each. This is truly a most admirable work, and executed so beautifully, whether in colouring, drawing, or composition, that every craftsman at the present day stands in a marvel thereat. 254: Sandro’s drawings were extraordinarily good, and so many, that for some time after his death all the craftsmen strove to obtain some of them; and we have some in our book, made with great mastery and judgment. His scenes abounded with figures, as may be seen from the embroidered border of the Cross that the Friars of S. Maria Novella carry in processions, all made from his design. Great was the praise, then, that Sandro deserved for all the pictures that he chose to make with diligence and love, as he did the aforesaid panel of the Magi in S. Maria Novella, which is marvellous. Benedetto da Maiano 259: In S. Maria Novella at Florence, where Filippino painted the chapel, Benedetto afterwards made a tomb of black marble, with a Madonna and certain

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angels in a medallion, with much diligence, for the elder Filippo Strozzi, whose portrait, which he made there in marble, is now in the Strozzi Palace. IV Filippino Lippi 6: Having returned to Florence, Filippo undertook to paint at his leisure the Chapel of the elder Filippo Strozzi in S. Maria Novella, and he actually began it; but, having finished the ceiling, he was compelled to return to Rome, […]. Giuliano and Antonio da San Gallo 204: In the end, having become old, he [Antonio] took no pleasure in anything save agriculture, of which he had an excellent knowledge. And then, when on account of old age he was no longer able to bear the discomforts of this world, he rendered up his soul to God, in the year 1534, and was laid to rest by the side of his brother Giuliano in the tomb of the Giamberti, in the Church of S. Maria Novella. V Andrea da Fiesole [Ferrucci] 6: Silvio [Cosini, disciple of Andrea] executed a tomb for the Minerbetti in their chapel in the tramezzo of the Church of S. Maria Novella, as well as any man could, since, in addition to the beautiful shape of the sarcophagus, there are carved upon it various shields, helmet-crests, and other fanciful things, and all with as much design as could be desired in such a work. Franciabigio 221: He then painted in the Convent of S. Maria Novella, in the lunette over the door of the library, a S. Thomas confuting the heretics with his learning, a work which is executed with diligence and a good manner. There, among other details, are two children who serve to uphold an escutcheon in the ornamental border; and these are very fine, full of the greatest beauty and grace, and painted in a most lovely manner. VI Francesco Granacci 57-8: Then, after they had been companions together in the workshop of Domenico Ghirlandajo, it came to pass that Granacci, because he was held to be the best of Ghirlandajo’s young men, the strongest draughtsman, and the one who had most grace in painting in distemper, assisted David and Benedetto Ghirlandajo, the brothers of Domenico, to finish the altar-piece of the high-altar in S. Maria Novella, which had been left unfinished at the death of the same Domenico. By this work Granacci gained much experience, and afterwards he executed in the same manner as that altar-piece many pictures that are in the houses of citizens, and others which were sent abroad.

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Baccio d’Agnolo 65-6: Working in his youth excellently well at wood-inlaying, Baccio executed the backs of the stalls in the choir of S. Maria Novella, in the principal chapel, wherein are most beautiful figures of S. John the Baptist and S. Laurence. In carving, he executed the ornaments of that same chapel, […], the decorations of the organ in S. Maria Novella, and a vast number of other works, both public and private, in his native city of Florence. VII Giuliano Bugiardini 108-10: After Giuliano had studied design for some time in the above-named garden, he worked, together with Buonarroti and Granacci, under Domenico Ghirlandajo, at the time when he was painting the chapel in S. Maria Novella. […] Messer Palla Rucellai having commissioned him to execute an altar-piece that was to be placed on his altar in S. Maria Novella, Giuliano began to paint in it the Martyrdom of S. Catharine the Virgin. Mountains in labour! He had it in hand for twelve years, but never carried it to completion after all that time, because he had no invention and knew not how to paint the many various things that had a part in that martyrdom; and, although he was always racking his brain as to how those wheels should be made, and how he should paint the lightning and the fire that consumed them, constantly changing one day what he had done the day before, in all that time he was never able to finish it. VIII Rodolfo, David and Benedetto Ghirlandaio 59-60: David and Benedetto Ghirlandajo, although they had very good parts and could have followed their brother Domenico in the matters of art, yet did not do so, for the reason that after the death of that same brother they strayed away from the path of good work, one of them, Benedetto, spending a long time as a wanderer, and the other distilling his brains away vainly in the study of mosaic. David, who had been much beloved by Domenico, and who loved him equally, both living and dead, finished after his death, in company with his brother Benedetto, many works begun by Domenico, and in particular the altar-piece of the high-altar in S. Maria Novella, that is, the part at the back, which now faces the choir; and some pupils of the same Domenico finished the predella in little figures, Niccolaio painting with great diligence, below the figure of S. Stephen, a disputation of that Saint, while Francesco Granacci, Jacopo del Tedesco, and Benedetto executed the figures of S. Antonino, Archbishop of Florence, and S. Catharine of Siena. And they painted an altar-picture of S. Lucia that is in that place, with the head of a friar, near the centre of the church; and many other paintings and pictures that are in the houses of various individuals. 63: Now those works were executed by that painter while his uncle David was still alive, and that good old man took the greatest pleasure in them, thanking God that

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he had lived so long as to see the art of Domenico come to life again, as it were, in Ridolfo. But finally, being seventy-four years of age, while he was preparing, old as he was, to go to Rome to take part in the holy Jubilee, he fell ill and died in the year 1525, and received burial from Ridolfo in S. Maria Novella, where the others of the Ghirlandajo family lie. 68: Ridolfo lived seventy-five years, and died in the year 1560; and he was buried with his forefathers in S. Maria Novella. IX Michelagnolo Buonarroti 7: Now it happened that when Domenico was at work on the great chapel of S. Maria Novella, one day that he was out Michelagnolo set himself to draw the staging from the reality, with some desks and all the appliances of art, and some of the young men who were working there. Whereupon, when Domenico had returned and seen Michelagnolo’s drawing, he said, “This boy knows more about it than I do;” and he was struck with amazement at the novel manner and the novel method of imitation that a mere boy of such tender age displayed by reason of the judgment bestowed upon him by Heaven, for these, in truth, were as marvellous as could have been looked for in the workmanship of a craftsman who had laboured for many years. X Giorgio Vasari 218-9: And since the Lord Duke, so truly excellent in everything, takes pleasure not only in the building of palaces, cities, fortresses, harbours, loggie, public squares, gardens, fountains, villas, and other suchlike things, beautiful, magnificent, and most useful, for the benefit of his people, but also particularly in building anew and reducing to better form and greater beauty, as a truly Catholic Prince, the temples and sacred churches of God, in imitation of the great King Solomon, recently he has caused me to remove the tramezzo of the Church of S. Maria Novella, which had robbed it of all its beauty, and a new and very rich choir was made behind the high-altar, in order to remove that occupying a great part of the centre of that church; which makes it appear a new church and most beautiful, as indeed it is. And because things that have not order and proportion among themselves can never be entirely beautiful, he has ordained that there shall be made in the side-aisles, between column and column, in such a manner as to correspond to the centres of the arches, rich ornaments of stone in a novel form, which are to serve as chapels with altars in the centre, and are all to be in one of two manners; and that then in the altar-pictures that are to go within these ornaments, seven braccia in height and five in breadth, there shall be executed paintings after the will and pleasure of the patrons of the chapels. Within one of those ornaments of stone, made from my design, I have executed for the very reverend Monsignor Alessandro Strozzi, Bishop of Volterra, my old and most loving patron, a Christ Crucified according to the Vision of S. Anselm—namely, with the Seven Virtues,

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without which we cannot ascend the Seven Steps to Jesus Christ—and with other considerations by the same Saint. And in the same church, within another of those ornaments, I have painted for the excellent Maestro Andrea Pasquali, physician to the Lord Duke, a Resurrection of Jesus Christ in the manner that God has inspired me, to please that Maestro Andrea, who is much my friend.

BOCCHI, 112-23: 112: Since so far the noteworthy things in the Via del Corso up to the Strozzi Palace have been discussed, we shall now mention what needs to be said about the most noble church of Santa Maria Novella, because it is nearby. Time, it is commonly said, is a fair judge of everything; it tells the truth directly, and without allowing an appeal. About 400 years have passed since this church was built, and it has always been ennobled by fame. Begun at a time when beautiful architecture had been lost to the German [i.e. Gothic] manner, the church is nonetheless admirable in its own terms, as is clearly apparent, and it is still considered praiseworthy and valuable today, even though the ancient beauties of Rome and Greece have now been resurrected, and the most unique works of art have been created. The design of this most beautiful church was provided by two friars, the Florentines Giovanni and Ristoro, lay brothers of the order of St. Dominic; the friars who reside here belong to the same order. These [two lay brothers] were experienced in large scale tasks, and erected a large portion of [the building in accordance with] this plan. After its completion, the experts have always considered it as amazing and excellent. 114: The building fulfils its purpose in that it conforms with the requirements of its users. The aisles and the central vessel of this church are very aptly laid out, and the piers with their [engaged half -] columns are so distant from one another that liturgical needs are well met. Often on feast days large numbers of people assemble here, and they go back and forth easily, since the plan of this building provides wonderfully effortless comfort. The vaults and arches resting on the piers are very wide, and the air is illuminated by conveniently placed windows. This light not only shows the beauty of the church, but also makes the interior so luminous that it does not seem possible for the eye to desire more comfortable grace, or more graceful comfort. The particular form of the transept and the tribune at the end are praised by the artists, and they are so exquisitely beautiful that the experts cannot satiate themselves in admiring and praising this building in every respect. The façade of this church, designed by Leon Battista Alberti, is beautiful, as one sees; it is constructed of white and black marble, and its lovely ornamentation conforms with the magnificence of the entire building. Giovanni Rucellai paid for the façade, whereas the rest was paid at enormous expense many years before through the generosity of private individuals and the piety of the Florentine people.

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On entering the church we find on the right the Chapel of Girolamo Giuochi, where there is a panel by Girolamo Macchietti depicting the martyrdom of St. Lawrence. One recognises that this painter possesses amazing skill, and in his beautifully graceful arrangement of figures he is felicitous and outstanding. {…} In the following chapel, belonging to Jacopo Mazzinghi, there is a panel by Battista Naldini representing the Nativity of Our Lord. Night engulfs everything, as the story requires, but with beautiful consideration the wise artist lets light shine forth in a marvellous manner both from the new-born Christ and from the choir of angels in the air. 116: Further on, the panel of the Purification of the Virgin in the Chapel of Giovanni da Sommaia is also by Naldini, and is painted in a noble manner. {…} Another chapel belongs to the Minerbetti. Here one finds yet another panel by Naldini, still more beautiful and rare than the other two. One sees Christ taken from the Cross, painted with much dedication. The limbs fall as befits a dead body. The great judgement of this outstanding artist is also revealed in the colouring and the design. The expression of suffering of the Marys, all most knowledgeably depicted, conveys their affectionate thoughts. {…} In the next panel, which one finds in the Pellegrino-del Tempio Chapel, there is a depiction of the story of Lazarus by Santi di Tito. The experts admire this panel for its design, and among the other figures Lazarus is represented with fine judgement. He has already miraculously returned from death to life. {…} Above this chapel, and beside the entrance leading to the Ricasoli Madonna, there is the tomb of the Blessed Villana de’ Botti by Desiderio da Maiano. On it one sees some angels of beautiful workmanship, and the figure of the holy woman is most gracefully portrayed in bas-relief. 118: In the nearby Rucellai Chapel, situated several steps up at the end of the transept, there is a panel by Giuliano Bugiardini representing St. Catherine martyred on the wheels. {…} In the lower part of the image there are many figures of extreme beauty, designed by Michelangelo Buonarroti. Some of them are foreshortened with amazing skill, and they are valued very highly by the experts. The panel, which one sees high up, depicting an over-life-size Madonna holding her child in her arm and framed by some angels, is by Cimabue. Even though this work is not outstanding in its design, it is nonetheless the object of veneration. Then, in the Strozzi Chapel, there are two very beautiful histories by Filippo Lippi. One represents how St. John the Evangelist resuscitates Drusiana; it is admirable for the poses of the men and women, the latter depicted with unique grace, and it is much praised by the experts. Among other things, one admires a little boy who seeks refuge under the cloaks of his mother for fear of a dog. {…} On the other wall there is the story of St. Phillip calling forth a dreadful serpent from underneath the altar of the temple of Mars. It kills the son of the king with its

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poisonous odours. The stone of the step from which it emerges looks so convincingly broken that it seems real and natural. {…} The main chapel belongs to the Ricci family, but was painted by Domenico Ghirlandaio for Giovanni Tornabuoni. The Ricci, the owners of the chapel, did not want anybody else to gain possession of so honourable a place, but Giovanni promised that all his expenditure would not affect their worship and honour. Thus it was contractually agreed that after the completion of the work the coat of arms of the Ricci should be located in the most noble and honoured place. The considerably large coats of arms of the Tornabuoni and of the Tornaquinci, who form one family, were installed on the piers of this chapel, as one sees. That of the Ricci, however, was minute, and was put under the arch of the high altar, where the Holy Sacrament is kept {description of the lawsuit goes on to 119}. 119-21: This chancel is most beautiful, and held in the highest esteem by all. On the vault, four over-life-size evangelists are depicted, graceful and majestic. On the wall on the right as one enters the choir, six narratives are depicted in six large scenes. Another is above these, taking up the space defined by the curve of the vault and the width of two narratives below. Here episodes from the life of St. John the Baptist are represented. The first depicts the apparition of the angel to Zacharias during the sacrifice. The event is visualised very successfully. One sees his astonishment, not being able to believe what the angel tells him, and one perceives that he was struck dumb. In this narrative, in one corner of the scene, many very important and wise men of letters are portrayed in a very lively manner. There are Angelo Poliziano; Marsilio Ficino, most expert in the doctrine of Plato; Demetrios the Greek, and Cristofano Landino. The second scene shows the Visitation of the Madonna and St. Elizabeth. In the third one sees the birth of St. John very well depicted, with the women’s gestures and garments painted with beautiful grace. Most beautiful is the fourth scene, in which Zacharias is to give a name to his son. Since he cannot speak, he writes the desired name on a sheet of paper, A woman who holds up the little child in front of him, so that he can see and delight in him, truly affords a rare and marvellous sight. In the fifth are depicted the doctors of the law and many other people, both men and women, listening to St. John’s sermon. {…} In the sixth St. John is shown baptising the Saviour. Both of these figures are painted in poses that correspond to the great solemnity of the occasion. {…} In the seventh picture the dinner of Herod is laid out, and the dance of the daughter of Herodias is painted with beautiful skill and felicitous intelligence. {…} The first narrative on the other wall depicts Joachim as he is expelled from the temple because he does not have any children. {…} In this episode Domenico [Ghirlandaio] portrayed himself in the figure resting one hand on his side, and wearing a red cloak over a blue garment.

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The second represents the Birth of the Madonna. Here a building is ingeniously and skilfully laid out. The Madonna is held by some women. {…} The third shows the Virgin climbing up the stairs of the temple. Since the steps are painted with great understanding, she seems to move and really to go up. The fourth scene contains her betrothal. All figures are painted with great liveliness, but wonderfully beautiful are the poses of those who angrily break their rods because they had not blossomed as Joseph’s had done. They are highly esteemed by all painters. The fifth painting shows the Magi coming to adore the Saviour, and even though one sees a great number of men and horses, the poses and clothes nevertheless display a clear, lovely, and magnificent order. In the sixth scene the cruel deed of the ungodly Herod is depicted, as he orders the massacre of all innocent young boys up to the age of two. {…} In the seventh scene one sees the Dormition of the Virgin, and then her Assumption, surrounded by a large number of angels, painted with commendable workmanship. {…} The choir stalls were made to the design of Giovanni Gargiolli, and they are esteemed to this day, and the comfort they provide for those who use them reveals the great knowledge of this rare artist. The decoration of the high altar was very judiciously devised by Baccio d’Agnolo, and attests to his great and noble workmanship. On the left, beyond a most beautiful marble tomb by Andrea da Fiesole, there is the Bracci Chapel with a panel by Alessandro Allori displaying distinguished colouring. It depicts the Saviour talking to the Samaritan woman at the well. The Apostles appear smaller according to their distance, just as occurs in vision and as reason requires. {…} Following this panel, there are two by Giorgio Vasari, skilfully painted, as one sees. One, located in the Capponi Chapel, shows many figures representing the mystery of the rosary. In the other, belonging to Andrea Pasquali, Christ’s Resurrection from the Tomb is depicted. 122: Between the altar of St. Catherine of Siena and the Strozzi Chapel is preserved the much revered body of the Blessed Giovanni of Salerno of the Dominican Order. Nearby, opposite the sacristy, one sees the most beautiful Gaddi Chapel. Because of its superb workmanship, its various kinds of marble and rare or precious stones, the two tombs of cardinals of the Gaddi family, and the narrative scenes in basrelief, it is considered by everybody most rare and wonderful. The altarpiece of this chapel is by Agnolo Bronzino. It depicts the story of the Saviour resuscitating the daughter of the Jewish official. {…} Then, in another chapel belonging to the Gondi, richly encrusted with most beautiful black, red, and white marble, there is the very famous and much esteemed crucifix by Filippo Brunelleschi. {…} The reader may not be displeased to learn about this event. Donatello, a marvellous artist, as is well known, and a contemporary of Filippo’s, had created a crucifix of wood, which was eventually displayed in Santa Croce. {…} Filippo smiled at it, and without hiding his opinion, told him that he had put a peasant on the Cross,

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since the roughness of the flesh was not in accord with the outstanding delicacy of the limbs of Jesus Christ, the most perfect of all men in every respect. 123: Then, in the sacristy, there is a lavabo, that is a washing basin, adorned with beautifully graceful figures in glazed terracotta. There one sees a Madonna with the child in her arm, framed by two angels, and a festoon of frit and leaves with putti over an arch, executed with great charm. This work is a joyous sight, as one sees. At the end wall of the sacristy there is a very large reliquary made of lime wood to the design of Bernardo Buontalenti; it is considered marvellous by the experts. Here there are preserved many sacred things, and many relics of the bodies of saints, such as a piece of the wood of the Cross; some of the wood of the superscription of the Cross; some thorns of Our Lord; relics of the body of St. Luke the Evangelist; a leg of one of the Holy Innocents; bones of the head of St. Ignatius the Martyr and of St. Grazioso, each placed in a silver bust. There is a finger of St. Thomas Aquinas, namely his index finger with which he wrote so sublimely; the head of the Blessed Villana de’ Botti, and, apart from many other relics, another head, that of the Blessed Giovanni of Salerno. They are all treated with the greatest reverence. In addition, there is a very large and most beautiful cloister adjacent to the friars’ quarters. It measures 90 braccia in width and 110 in length. In our own day various painters have painted fresco scenes on all of the sections of the walls corresponding to the intercolumniations. These scenes have the most beautiful and lovely inventions, which one can imagine, and represent the actions of St. Dominic and St. Antoninus, Archbishop of Florence. So far, there are 44 of these.

BALDINUCCI S Maria Novella: I.26; I.26; I.26; I.26-27; I.59, 60 & 87; I.88; I.92 & 99; I.115; I.162; I.198; I.214; I.217; I.248; I.2544-5; I.260; I.271; I.293; I.381; I.412; I.447-9; I.475; I.488; I.501; I.562-3; I.567 & 568; II.501; II.537; II.538-9; II.593; II.650; II.651; III.7; III.7; III.9; III.38; III.74; III.92; III.92; III.139; III.240; III.249; III.297; III.420; III.420; III.421; III.500 583-4; III.500-1; III.502-3; III.505; III.508-9; III.513; III.518; III.521; III.522; III.584; III.729; IV.594; V.273.

RICHA, part II, vol III, lesson 1-VII, 1-109.

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN SANTI MICHELE AND GAETANO BERTELDE

Piazza Antinori. Information (in Italian) and images may be found on http://www.chiesasangaetanofirenze.it/. Free entrance but no visits during religious services.

History The Baroque church dedicated to saints Michael and Cajetan was built on the site of an eleventh-century Romanesque church dedicated to the Archangel Saint Michael and called San Michele Bertelde (de’ Bertelli?). The present church (Fig. 18 a) was constructed from 1604 onwards and is usually referred to as San Gaetano (Saint Cajetan). At first connected to a religious house of Lombard monks, i.e. the Abbey of Nonantola, the building was later entrusted to the Olivetan monks of San Miniato and finally to the Theatine Benedictines. The Theatine order was founded by San Gaetano dei Conti di Thiene (canonised in 1671) from Lombardy. In Florence, the Theatines received the patronage of the Medici, in particular of Cardinal Carlo, and of other leading families in Florence from the later sixteenth century. The church building was probably designed by one of the main Medici court architects, Bernardo Buontalenti, in 1597. His designs were executed at least in part by Matteo Nigetti and Gherardo Silvani. The façade by Gherardo and Pier Francesco Silvani bears the Medici coat of arms and an inscription with the name of Cardinal Carlo de’ Medici in whose presence the unfinished church was consecrated in August 1649. The chapels inside were taken under the patronage of the Antinori, the Martelli, the Mazzei, the Del Rosso, the Franceschi, and the Ardinghelli families, many of whom had their palaces nearby.

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Figure 18 a: The Baroque façade of San Michele and Gaetano Bertelde (photo: AG).

Architecture This building is an example of Baroque church architecture in Florence whose façade in pietra forte is reminiscent of flamboyant Roman examples but also recalls some of the late sixteenth-century designs by Buontalenti and his contemporaries, for example Don Giovanni de’ Medici, for Florence Cathedral (Museum of the Opera del Duomo) as well as the façade of Santa Trinita.

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Figure 18 b: Plan of San Michele and Gaetano Bertelde with a long nave and interconnecting side chapels on each side instead of aisles (plan: SC).

The interior of the church is in the shape of a Latin cross with a long single nave and a short transept with chapels at each end (called Bonsi of the Cross and Bonsi of the Nativity), typical of the preferred layout of ecclesiastical architecture of the Counter-reformation (Fig. 18 b). The aisles consist of three interconnecting chapels on either side. The Antinori chapel to the north of the church was added in the seventeenth-century and replaced the previously existing chapel built for Niccolò Antinori. It

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houses the tomb of Alessandro Antinori and its façade is to the left of San Gaetano. The inside of the church is characterised by the typical Florentine combination of white stucco with grey pietra serena; here, however, the grey of the stone is more dominant due to the proscenium-type architecture of the walls, separating the side chapels from the nave. Colour is added by the polychrome pavement and intarsiae. The nave is covered by a barrel-vaulted ceiling and lit by large windows on either side. The transept bears a simpler barrel-vaulted ceiling. The crossing is dominated by a Medici coat of arms.

Art The pietra forte façade (completed in 1683) is divided into two orders separated horizontally by a cornice and structured vertically by double pilasters with composite capitals. Three portals crowned with triangular pediments give access to the church’s interior. Niches set into the lower part of the façade display white marble statues of the founder of the Theatine order, Saint Cajetan, by Balthasar Permoser and of Saint Andrea Avellino by Anton Francesco Andreozzi. Above the main door, the coat of arms and personifications of Hope and Poverty, also sculpted by Permoser, draw attention to two of the main tenets of the Theatine order. A particular feature of the interior is provided by the cycle of apostles and evangelists, executed by, among others, Giovan Battista Foggini (Saint Peter and Paul) and displayed in niches on the upper part of the nave. Below the statues, sculpted between c.1640 and 1700, reliefs depict scenes of the apostles’ lives and deeds. Underneath, on the left, the side chapels were under the patronage of the Tornaquinci, the Franceschi and the Ardinghelli, whereas on the right the chapels belonged to the Del Rosso, the Mazzei and the Martelli families. They employed the leading artists of the early seventeenth century to embellish the chapels’ interiors. The Cappella Franceschi, for example, contains a Martyrdom of San Lorenzo (1637-1653) by Pietro da Cortona as well as a Madonna and Child with Saint Francis of Assisi by Jacopo Chimenti called Empoli (c.1636) and a Saint Lawrence Distributing the Wealth of the Church to the Poor by Matteo Rosselli (1643). The choir behind the high altar is crowned by a dome (1630) frescoed by Filippo Maria Galletti with Saint Cajetan in Glory and with four

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allegories of Abundance, Charity, Fortitude and Victory. It also houses a bronze crucifix by Giovanni Francesco Susini that depicts a living Christ without the wound inflicted by the lance of the Roman soldier Longinus. Bibl: Borsook 1983, 171 and 194; Cesati 2002, 104-107; Crispino 1999, 18-9; Goy 2015, 136-7; Horstmann 2011, 185-8; Paatz 1952, IV, 165-91; Piccirillo s.d.; Tovey 2005, 315; Verdon, Coppellotti, Fabbri 2000, 80-3. Sources: VILLANI III § 2.62-3—Of the form and size in which the city of Florence was rebuilt. The rebuilding of the new city of Florence was begun by the Romans, as aforesaid, on a small site and circuit, after the same fashion as Rome, allowing for the smallness of the undertaking; and it began on the side of the sunrise at the gate of S. Piero, […]; and from the said gate ran a borgo as far as S. Piero Maggiore, after the fashion of Rome, and from that gate the walls proceeded as far as the Duomo, on the site where now runs the great road leading to San Giovanni, as far as the Bishop’s Palace. And here was another gate, which was called the gate of the Duomo, but there were who called it the Bishop’s Gate; and without this gate was built the church of S. Lorenzo, just as in Rome there is S. Lorenzo without the walls; and within that gate is S. Giovanni, like as in Rome, S. Giovanni Laterano. And then proceeding, as at Rome, on that side they made Santa Maria Maggiore; and then from S. Michele Berteldi, as far as the third gate of S. Brancazio [St. Pancras], where are now the houses of the Tornaquinci, and S. Brancazio was without the city and near S. Paolo, just as in Rome, on the other side of the city over against S. Piero, as at Rome.

VASARI I Preface Lviii: Of sculptures, likewise, they [Greek/Byzantine craftsmen] made an infinity, as may still be seen in low-relief over the door of S. Michele in the Piazza Padella of Florence, […]. Arnolfo di Lapo [di Cambio] 20: And in the year 1221 he [Maestro Jacopo Tedesco, father of Arnolfo] gave the design for the Church of S. Salvadore del Vescovado, which was begun under his direction, and that of S. Michele in Piazza Padella, where there are certain sculptures in the manner of those times.

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VIII Daniello Ricciarelli 207: And when it [portrait] was finished, he placed it with an epitaph in the Church of S. Michele Berteldi on the Piazza degli Antinori; in which Daniello proved himself, by that truly loving office, to be a man of rare goodness, and a different sort of friend to his friends from the kind that is generally seen at the present day, when there are very few to be found who value anything in friendship beyond their own profit and convenience. V Morto da Feltro and Andrea di Cosimo Feltrini 230-231: He [Andrea] also decorated in sgraffito the house of Andrea and Tommaso Sertini, near S. Michele in Piazza Padella, making it more varied and grander in manner than the two others.

BOCCHI-CINELLI, 208-11

BALDINUCCI S Michele degli Antinori (Theatines; otherwise known as S Michele Berteldi and as S Michele and Gaetano): I.83; III.675; III.676; IV.119; 8 IV.119; IV.119; IV.163; IV.165-6; IV. 167-8; IV.167-68; IV.309-10; IV.353; IV.403; IV.415; IV.439; IV.444-5; IV.542; IV.590; V.69; V.69; V.227; V.227; V.263; V.396; V.396-7.

RICHA, part II, vol III, lesson XVI-XIX, 191-230.

CHAPTER NINETEEN SAN MINIATO AL MONTE

Monte alle Croci, via delle Porte Sante 34. For images and information, for example on opening hours and on how to arrive, please visit http://www.museumsinflorence.com/musei/san_miniato.html as well as http://www.sanminiatoalmonte.it/ (only in Italian).

History The Tuscan Romanesque church of San Miniato (Fig. 19 c) is located on a hill on the south side of the Arno. Together with the Baptistery and the Badia (chapters 1 and 16), it is also one of three churches already mentioned by Dante. The church is named after Saint Minias, a Christian from Armenia who died as martyr in Florence in c.250 AD. Condemned to a violent death in the Florentine amphitheatre (Via Torta, near today’s Santa Croce, chapter 6), Minias was immune to the tortures planned, even to the attacks of wild animals. Finally, Minias was beheaded; he took his head under his arm, crossed the Arno and walked up the hill (Mons Fiorentinus) in the company of angels to await judgement day. A shrine was set up to commemorate the event. In c.1013 the construction of the basilica was undertaken, which took c.200 years to complete. Despite the extensions of the fifteenth century, e.g. the burial chapel for the cardinal of Portugal, the Romanesque plan has been preserved. A Gothic bell tower collapsed in 1499, after which a new campanile was designed by Baccio d’Agnolo. This campanile remained unfinished but nonetheless served the Florentine Republic in their defence of the city during the siege by imperial troops in 1529-1530. Michelangelo designed a set of fortifications to defend Florence and allegedly ordered the bell tower to be protected with mattresses from hits by the enemy artillery. In subsequent centuries the San Miniato complex (basilica, bishop’s palace, bell tower and cemetery) fell into neglect and served for a range of

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purposes, among them as a hospital during the plague and as a home for the poor and homeless. Diverse orders resided there, including Cluniac Benedictines and Olivetans until the Jesuits settled at San Miniato under Cosimo III. It was not until the nineteenth century though that a restoration campaign got underway. In 1824 Olivetan Benedictines once more took possession of the buildings.

Figure 19 a: The Tuscan Romanesque façade of San Miniato al Monte (photo: CM).

Architecture Of particular renown and importance is the green and white façade to the West (Fig. 19 a): divided into two storeys and crowned with a tympanum, it is clad in white and green marble revetments. On the left threshold is an

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inscription stating “Haec Est Porta Coeli” which marks the place where Saint Minias is supposed to have been buried. The revetments on the ground floor date to the eleventh century and display round arches, while the upper floor, built c.100 years later, contains further geometrical decoration. A mosaic in the centre depicts Christ with the Madonna and Saint Minias (restored in 1907). The tabernacle window below is flanked by columns with lion brackets. A bronze eagle on top of the tympanum holds a bale of cloth in his claws and represents the Calimala guild responsible for the building during the twelfth century. The three-nave basilica (Fig. 19 b) is also covered in marble revetments inside, in particular within the raised choir and the apse. The aisles are separated from the nave by large columns with all’antica and reused ancient capitals. The roof is an open beam construction of the fourteenth century, whose painted decoration was restored in the nineteenth century. The marble pavement in the central nave nearest to the entrance is richly decorated with geometrical, botanical and figurative intarsiae, in particular with a large depiction of the twelve signs of the zodiac. On the right aisle is the entry to the cloister and to the sacristy with frescoes dating to the fourteenth century. The marble choir screens are richly decorated with geometrical patterns and with depictions of humans fighting dragons. Beneath the apse is a vaulted crypt combining Romanesque and ancient architectural elements: five blind arches rest on 36 ancient columns with spolia capitals from ancient buildings. The windows are filled with alabaster panes said to have come from ancient Roman baths in the city centre. The marble sarcophagus below the altar is dated to the eleventh century and allegedly contains relics of Christians discovered when the basilica was built. The Chapel of the Cardinal of Portugal was added in the 1460s for the young cardinal and archbishop of Lisbon who died at Florence during his travels. Since he had expressed the wish to be buried at San Miniato, the Portuguese royal family respected their relative’s last will and funded most of the project. The beautiful cloister, financed by the Arte della Mercantia, was designed by Bernardo and Antonio Rosselino in 1426 and built between 1443 and the mid-1450s, whereas the fortified bishop’s palace goes back to the end of the thirteenth century. The entire complex was turned into a fortress by Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici in 1553. The cemetery, called the Porte Sante, was laid out in 1854.

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Figure 19 b: Plan of San Miniato (plan: SC).

Art The mosaic in the dome of the apse is dated to 1297 by its inscription. It was largely restored to its presumed original state in the mid-nineteenth century and shows Minias as an Armenian king who stands on the right of Christ blessing. The high altar was made of coloured marble at the time

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the basilica was built and is embellished by a Christ on the Cross in glazed terracotta, a work attributed to Luca della Robbia (1470). The ciborium in front of the choir was donated by Piero di Cosimo de’ Medici in 1448. It is dedicated to the church’s titular saint, Giovanni Gualberto, who lived in the eleventh century and founded the order of Vallombrosan monks. The tabernacle is decorated with key scenes from the life of this saint; in particular it shows Gualberto praying in front of a crucifix (now at Santa Trinita, chapter 25), which according to legend bowed to him for not persecuting the murderer of a relative. On top of the Capella del Crocefisso is the coat of arms of the Calimala guild, a bronze eagle made by Michelozzo. The device of Piero de’ Medici, a falcon with a diamond ring and three feathers, attests to who actually paid for this tabernacle. Also on the back, are panel paintings by Agnolo Gaddi from the 1390s with scenes of the lives of San Miniato and Gualberto as well as an Annunciation and a Passion of Christ. The glazed terracotta roof and ceiling were made by Luca della Robbia. The fourteenth-century altar panel in the left transept shows eight scenes of the martyrdom of Saint Minias. The frescoes in the left and right aisles date to the late fourteenth century and show saints’ legends and biblical scenes. Some have been stripped from the wall so that the sinopia under-drawings have come to light. The sacristy, off the right aisle, is decorated with scenes from the life of Saint Benedict by Spinello Aretino (1387). Perhaps the most outstanding monument on the left of the nave is the chapel for Cardinal James of Lusitania, the nephew of King Alfonso V of Portugal, who had come to Florence on a diplomatic mission at the age of 25 in 1459. The cardinal occupies the only burial chapel in San Miniato, which was designed after his death by Antonio Manetti and completed by Giovanni Rossellino. The tomb itself is the work of Antonio and Bernardo Rossellino, while the decoration was created in collaboration between Alesso Baldovinetti, Antonio and Piero del Pollaiuolo (frescoes on the back wall and the altarpiece of 1466-68, showing Saint James, Saint Vincent and Saint Eustace, now at the Uffizi) and Luca della Robbia (five medallions on the ceiling). The oil painting technique employed by the Pollaiuolo brothers attests to the Burgundian influence on the Portuguese court culture.

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Figure 19 c: San Miniato seen from the north bank of the Arno (photo: CM).

Bibl: Borsook 1983, 288-90 and 305-7; Cesati 2002, 68-71; De Boer 2010, annotations 219-25: 201-4; Crispino 1999, 30-3; Goy 2015, 302-6; Hartt & Wilkins 2007, 308-11, 319-20; Horstmann 2011, 86-90; Mercanti and Straffi 2001, 40-7; Murray 2004, 16-7; Paatz 1952, IV, 211-94; Paolucci 2006, 302-19; Tovey 2005, 316; Verdon, Coppellotti, Fabbri 2000, 108-11. Sources: DANTE Purgatorio, xii, 100-5 He led us on to where the rock was cleft; There smote upon my forehead with his wings, Then a safe passage promised unto me. As on the right hand, to ascend the mount Where seated is the church that lordeth it O’er the well-guided, above Rubaconte, The bold abruptness of the ascent is broken By stairways that were made there in the age When still were safe the ledger and the stave, E’en thus attempered is the bank which falls Sheer downward from the second circle there; But on this, side and that the high rock graze. As we were turning thitherward our persons, “Beati pauperes spiritu,” voices Sang in such wise that speech could tell it not. Ah me! how different are these entrances From the Infernal! for with anthems here One enters, and below with wild laments.

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We now were hunting up the sacred stairs, And it appeared to me by far more easy Than on the plain it had appeared before.

VILLANI I § 57. 35-7—The story returns to the doings of the city of Florence, and how S. Miniato there suffered martyrdom under Decius, the Emperor. 270 a.d.- 1013 a.d. Now that we have briefly made some mention of our neighbouring cities in Tuscany, we will return to our subject and tell of our city of Florence. As we recounted before, the said city was ruled long time under the government and lordship of the emperors of Rome, and ofttimes the emperors came to sojourn in Florence when they were journeying into Lombardy, and into Germany, and into France to conquer provinces. And we find that Decius, the Emperor, in the first year of his reign, which was in the year of Christ 270, was in Florence, the treasure-house and chancelry of the Empire, sojourning there for his pleasure; and the said Decius cruelly persecuted the Christians wheresoever he could hear of them or find them, and he heard tell how the blessed Saint Miniato was living as a hermit near to Florence, with his disciples and companions, in a wood which was called Arisbotto of Florence, behind the place where now stands his church, above the city of Florence. This blessed Miniato was first-born son to the king of Armenia, and having left his kingdom for the faith of Christ, to do penance and to be far away from his kingdom, he went over seas to gain pardon at Rome, and then betook himself to the said wood, which was in those days wild and solitary, forasmuch as the city of Florence did not extend and was not settled beyond Arno, but was all on this side; save only there was one bridge across the Arno, not however where the bridges now are. And it is said by many that it was the ancient bridge of the Fiesolans which led from Girone to Candegghi, and this was the ancient and direct road and way from Rome to Fiesole, and to go into Lombardy and across the mountains. The said Emperor Decius caused the said blessed Miniato to be taken, as his story narrates. Great gifts and rewards were offered him as to a king’s son, to the end he should deny Christ; and he, constant and firm in the faith, would have none of his gifts, but endured divers martyrdoms: in the end the said Decius caused him to be beheaded where now stands the church of Santa Candida alla Croce al Gorgo; and many faithful followers of Christ received martyrdom at that place. And when the head of the blessed Miniato had been cut off, by a miracle of Christ, with his hands he set it again upon his trunk, and on his feet passed over Arno, and went up to the hill where now stands his church, where at that time was a little oratory in the name of the blessed Peter the Apostle, where many bodies of holy martyrs were buried; and when S. Miniato was come to that place, he gave up soul to Christ, and his body was there secretly buried by the Christians; the which place, by reason of the merits of the blessed S. Miniato, was devoutly venerated by the Florentines after that they were become Christians, and a little church was built there in his honour. But the great and noble church of

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marble which is there now in our times, we find to have been built later by the zeal of the venerable Father Alibrando, bishop and citizen of Florence, in the year of Christ 1013, begun on the 26th day of the month of April by the commandment and authority of the catholic and holy Emperor Henry II. of Bavaria, and of his wife the holy Empress Gunegonda, which was reigning in those times; and they presented and endowed the said church with many rich possessions in Florence and in the country, for the good of their souls, and caused the said church to be repaired and rebuilt of marbles, as it is now; and they caused the body of the blessed Miniato to be translated to the altar which is beneath the vaulting of the said church, with much reverence and solemnity by the said bishop and the clergy of Florence, with all the people, both men and women, of the city of Florence; but afterwards the said church was completed by the commonwealth of Florence, and the stone steps were made which lead down by the hill; and the consuls of the art of the Calimala were put in charge of the said work of S. Miniato, and were to protect it.

ALBERTINI 100-1: In […] San Miniato The lovely Church of San Miniato al Monte is so well situated and embellished that it would be impossible to describe given all the various types of marble, mosaics, inlaid stones and alabaster windows with many marble columns, also the sumptuous marble Medici Chapel with opposite a lavishly decorated chapel containing a marble tomb of the Portuguese cardinal, adorned with precious stones, and a very beautiful seat, all by Antonio Rossellino. The altarpiece is by Piero del Pollaiuolo. The other figures are by Alesso Baldovinetti, and those in half relief are by Luca della Robbia. I should also mention the very beautiful choir, below which there is a marble altar full of the corpses of saints, and the beautiful sacristy decorated by excellent painters. In the first cloister above are twelve paintings by Paolo Uccello.

VASARI I Preface liii-liv: The year afterwards, 1013, it is clear that the art had regained some of its vigour from the rebuilding of that most beautiful church, S. Miniato in Sul Monte, in the time of Messer Alibrando, citizen and Bishop of Florence; for the reason that, besides the marble ornaments that are seen therein both within and without, it may be seen from the façade that the Tuscan architects strove as much as they could in the doors, the windows, the columns, the arches, and the mouldings, to imitate the good order of the ancients, having in part recovered it from the most ancient temple of S. Giovanni in their city. At the same time painting, which was

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little less than wholly spent, may be seen to have begun to win back something, as the mosaic shows that was made in the principal chapel of the said Church of S. Miniato. lviii-lix: For since the excellent early craftsmen had been killed in these wars, as has been said, to the remainder of these Greeks, old but not ancient, there had been left nothing but elementary outlines on a ground of colour; and to this at the present day witness is borne by an infinity of mosaics, which, wrought throughout all Italy by these Greeks, are to be seen in every old church in any city whatsoever of Italy, and above all in the Duomo of Pisa, in S. Marco at Venice, and in other places as well; and so, too, they kept making many pictures in that manner, with eyes staring, hands outstretched, and standing on tiptoe, as may still be seen in S. Miniato without Florence, between the door that leads into the sacristy and that which leads into the convent; and in S. Spirito in the said city, the whole side of the cloister opposite the church; and in like manner at Arezzo, in S. Giuliano and S. Bartolommeo and in other churches; and in Rome, in the old Church of S. Pietro, scenes right round between the windows—works that have more of the monstrous in their lineaments than of likeness to whatsoever they represent. Andrea Tafi 48: But to be silent about many things that could be said about the good architecture of this church, I will say only that there was a great departure from this example and from this good method of working when the façade of S. Miniato sul Monte without Florence was rebuilt in marble, in honour of the conversion of the Blessed S. Giovanni Gualberto, citizen of Florence and founder of the Order of the Monks of Vallombrosa; because that and many other works that were made later were in no way similar in beauty to those mentioned. II Spinello Aretino 32-3: Summoned thence to Florence by Don Jacopo d’Arezzo, Abbot of S. Miniato sul Monte, of the Order of Monte Oliveto, Spinello painted on the vaulting and on the four walls of the sacristy of that monastery, besides the panel in distemper for the altar, many scenes in fresco of the life of S. Benedict, with great mastery and with much vivacity of colouring, learnt by him by means of long practice and of labouring continually with zeal and diligence, even as in truth all must do who wish to acquire any art perfectly. Preface to the Second Part 80-81: But, passing these men by, since for knowledge of them we must refer to others, who very often do not agree in their judgments on them, or even, what is worse, as to the dates, although in this I have followed the best authorities; let us come to our own times, wherein we have the help of the eye, a much better guide and judge than the ear. Is it not clearly seen how great improvement was acquired by architecture—to begin with one starting-point—from the time of the Greek

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Buschetto to that of the German Arnolfo and of Giotto? See the buildings of those times, and the pilasters, the columns, the bases, the capitals, and all the cornices, with their ill-formed members, such as there are in Florence, in S. Maria del Fiore, in the external incrustations of S. Giovanni, and in S. Miniato sul Monte; in the Vescovado of Fiesole, in the Duomo of Milan, in S. Vitale at Ravenna, in S. Maria Maggiore at Rome, and in the Duomo Vecchio without Arezzo; wherein, excepting that little of the good which survived in the ancient fragments, there is nothing that has good order or form. Luca della Robbia 123-4: And because he could not supply the whole, he took his brothers, Ottaviano and Agostino, away from the chisel, and set them to work on these labours, wherein the three of them together gained much more than they had done up to then with the chisel, for the reason that, besides those of their works that were sent to France and Spain, they also wrought many things in Tuscany; and in particular, for the said Piero de’ Medici, in the Church of S. Miniato al Monte, the vaulting of the marble chapel, which rests on four columns in the middle of the church, and which they divided most beautifully into octagons. But the most notable work of this kind that ever issued from their hands was the vaulting of the Chapel of S. Jacopo, where the Cardinal of Portugal is buried, in the same church. In this, although it has no salient angles, they made the four Evangelists in four medallions at the corners, and the Holy Spirit in a medallion in the middle of the vaulting, filling the other spaces with scales which follow the curve of the vaulting and diminish little by little till they reach the centre, insomuch that there is nothing better of that kind to be seen, nor anything built and put together with more diligence. Paolo Uccello 133-4: In a cloister of S. Miniato without Florence, also, he wrought the lives of the Holy Fathers, chiefly in terra-verde, and partly in colour; wherein he paid little regard to effecting harmony by painting with one colour, as should be done in painting stories, for he made the fields blue, the cities red, and the buildings varied according to his pleasure; and in this he was at fault, for something which is meant to represent stone cannot and should not be tinted with another colour. It is said that while Paolo was labouring at this work, the Abbot who was then head of that place gave him scarcely anything to eat but cheese. Wherefore Paolo, having grown weary of this, determined, like the shy fellow that he was, to go no more to work there; whereupon the Abbot sent to look for him, and Paolo, when he heard friars asking for him, would never be at home, and if peradventure he met any couples of that Order in the streets of Florence, he would start running and flying from them with all his might. Now two of them, more curious than the rest and younger than Paolo, caught him up one day and asked him for what reason he did not return to finish the work that he had begun, and why he fled at the sight of a friar; and Paolo answered: “You have murdered me in a manner that I not only fly from you, but cannot show myself near any carpenter’s shop or pass by one, and all because of the thoughtlessness of your Abbot, who, what with pies and with

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soups always made of cheese, has crammed so much cheese into me that I am in terror lest, being nothing but cheese, they may use me for making glue. And if it were to go on any longer, I would probably be no more Paolo, but cheese.” The friars, leaving him with peals of laughter, told everything to the Abbot, who made him return to his work, and ordered him some other fare than cheese. Michelozzo Michelozzi 268-70: After the death of Cosimo, by whom Michelozzo had been loved as much as a dear friend can be loved, his son Piero caused him to build the marble Chapel of the Crucifix in S. Miniato sul Monte; and in the half-circle of the arch at the back of the said chapel Michelozzo carved in low-relief a Falcon with the Diamond (the emblem of Cosimo, father of Piero), which was truly a very beautiful work. After these things, the same Piero de’ Medici, intending to build the Chapel of the Nunziata, in the Church of the Servi, entirely of marble, besought Michelozzo, now an old man, to give him his advice in the matter, both because he greatly admired his talents and because he knew how faithful a friend and servant he had been to his father Cosimo. This Michelozzo did, and the charge of constructing it was given to Pagno di Lapo Partigiani, a sculptor of Fiesole, who, as one who wished to include many things in a small space, showed many ideas in this work. This chapel is supported by four marble columns about nine braccia high, made with double flutings in the Corinthian manner, with the bases and capitals variously carved and with double members. On the columns rest the architrave, frieze, and cornice, likewise with double members and carvings and wrought with various things of fancy, and particularly with foliage and the emblems and arms of the Medici. Between these and other cornices made for another range of lights, there is a large inscription, very beautifully carved in marble. Below, between the four columns, forming the ceiling of the chapel, there is a coffer-work canopy of marble all carved, full of enamels fired in a furnace and of various fanciful designs in mosaic wrought with gold colour and precious stones. The surface of the pavement is full of porphyry, serpentine, variegated marbles, and other very rare stones, put together and distributed with beautiful design. The said chapel is enclosed by a grille made of bronze ropes, with candelabra above fixed into an ornament of marble, which makes a very beautiful finish to the bronze and to the candelabra; and the door which closes the chapel in front is likewise of bronze and very well contrived. Piero left orders that the chapel should be lighted all round by thirty silver lamps, and this was done. Now, as these were ruined during the siege, the Lord Duke gave orders many years ago that new ones should be made, and the greater part of them are already finished, while the work still goes on; but in spite of this there has never been a moment when there has not been that full number of lamps burning, according to the instructions of Piero, although, from the time when they were destroyed, they have not been of silver. To these adornments Pagno added a very large lily of copper, issuing from a vase which rests on the corner of the gilt and painted cornice of wood which holds the lamps; but this cornice does not support so great a weight by itself, for the whole is sustained by two branches of the lily, which are of iron painted green, and are fixed with lead into the corner of the marble cornice, holding those that are of

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copper suspended in the air. This work was truly made with judgment and invention; wherefore it is worthy of being much extolled as something beautiful and bizarre. Beside this chapel, he made another on the side towards the cloister, which serves as a choir for the friars, with windows which take their light from the court and give it both to the said chapel and also (since they stand opposite to two similar windows) to the room containing the little organ, which is by the side of the marble chapel. On the front of this choir there is a large press, in which the silver vessels of the Nunziata are kept; and on all these ornaments and throughout the whole are the arms and emblem of the Medici. Without the Chapel of the Nunziata and opposite to it, the same man made a large chandelier of bronze, five braccia in height, as well as the marble holy-water font at the entrance of the church, and a S. John in the centre, which is a very beautiful work. Above the counter where the friars sell the candles, moreover, he made a half-length Madonna of marble with the Child in her arms, in half-relief, of the size of life and very devout; and a similar work in the Office of the Wardens of Works of S. Maria del Fiore. III Andrea dal Castagno and Daniele Veneziano 99: There are works coloured in fresco, painted by his hand in his early youth, in the cloister of S. Miniato al Monte as one descends from the church to go into the convent, including a story of S. Miniato and S. Cresci leaving their father and mother. Antonio Rossellino and Bernardo, his Brother 139-40: At S. Miniato al Monte, a monastery of White Friars without the walls of Florence, he was commissioned to make the tomb of the Cardinal of Portugal, which was executed by him so marvellously and with such great diligence and art, that no craftsman can ever expect to be able to see any work likely to surpass it in any respect whatsoever with regard to finish or grace. And in truth, if one examines it, it appears not merely difficult but impossible for it to have been executed so well; for certain angels in the work reveal such grace, beauty, and art in their expressions and their draperies, that they appear not merely made of marble but absolutely alive. One of these is holding the crown of chastity of that Cardinal, who is said to have died celibate; the other bears the palm of victory, which he had won from the world. Among the many most masterly things that are there, one is an arch of grey-stone supporting a looped-back curtain of marble, which is so highly-finished that, what with the white of the marble and the grey of the stone, it appears more like real cloth than like marble. On the sarcophagus are some truly very beautiful boys and the dead man himself, with a Madonna, very well wrought, in a medallion. The sarcophagus has the shape of that one made of porphyry which is in the Piazza della Ritonda in Rome. This tomb of the Cardinal was erected in 1459; and its form, with the architecture of the chapel, gave so much satisfaction to the Duke of Malfi, nephew of Pope Pius II, that he had another made in Naples by the hand of the same master for his wife, similar to the other in every respect save in the figure of the dead. For this, moreover, Antonio

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made a panel containing the Nativity of Christ and the Manger, with a choir of angels over the hut, dancing and singing with open mouths, in such a manner, that he truly seems to have given them all possible movement and expression short of breath itself, and that with so much grace and so high a finish, that iron tools and man’s intelligence could effect nothing more in marble. Wherefore his works have been much esteemed by Michelagnolo and by all the rest of the supremely excellent craftsmen. In the Pieve of Empoli he made a S. Sebastian of marble, which is held to be a very beautiful work; and of this we have a drawing by his hand in our book, together with others of all the architecture and the figures in the said chapel in S. Miniato al Monte, and likewise his own portrait. Antonio and Piero Pollaiuolo 239: He associated himself entirely with Piero, and they made many pictures in company; among others, since they took great delight in colour, a panel in oil in S. Miniato al Monte without Florence, for the Cardinal of Portugal. On this panel, which was placed on the altar of his chapel, they painted S. James the Apostle, S. Eustace, and S. Vincent, which have been much extolled. VI Baccio d’Agnolo 67: He also caused to be built of masonry the campanile of S. Spirito in Florence, which was left unfinished, and is now being completed by order of Duke Cosimo after the original design of Baccio; and he likewise erected the campanile of S. Miniato sul Monte, which was battered by the artillery of the camp, but never destroyed, on which account it gained no less fame for the affront that it offered to the enemy than for the beauty and excellence with which Baccio had caused it to be built and carried to completion. VII Girolamo and Bartolommeo Genga and Giovan Battista San Marino, Son in Law of Girolamo 212: Wherefore, his method of work pleasing the Duke, his Excellency caused him to construct—where, as has been related, there had been built on the hill of S. Miniato, without Florence, the wall that curves from the Porta S. Niccolò to the Porta S. Miniato—the fortification that encloses a gate by means of two bastions, and guards the Church and Monastery of S. Miniato; making on the summit of that hill a fortress that dominates the whole city and looks on the outer side towards the east and the south, a work that was vastly extolled. IX Michelagnolo Buonarroti 47-9: While Michelagnolo was labouring with the greatest solicitude and love at these works, there came in 1529 the siege of Florence, which hindered their completion only too effectually, and was the reason that he did little or no more

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work upon them, the citizens having laid upon him the charge of fortifying not only the hill of S. Miniato, but also the city, as we have related. And thus, having lent a thousand crowns to that Republic, and being elected one of the Nine, a military Council appointed for the war, he turned all his mind and soul to perfecting those fortifications. But in the end, when the enemy had closed round the city, and all hope of assistance was failing little by little, and the difficulties of maintaining the defence were increasing, and it appeared to Michelagnolo that he was in a sorry pass with regard to his personal safety, he determined to leave Florence and make his way to Venice, without making himself known to anyone on the road. He set out secretly, therefore, by way of the hill of S. Miniato, without anyone knowing of it, taking with him Antonio Mini, his disciple, and the goldsmith Piloto, his faithful friend; and each of them carried a number of crowns on his person, sewn into his quilted doublet. […] Michelagnolo was invited with great insistence to go back to his native country, being urgently requested not to abandon his undertaking there, and receiving a safe-conduct; and finally, vanquished by love of her, he returned, but not without danger to his life. At this time he finished the Leda that he was painting, as has been related, at the request of Duke Alfonso; and it was afterwards taken to France by Antonio Mini, his disciple. And at this same time he saved the campanile of S. Miniato, a tower which sorely harassed the enemy’s forces with its two pieces of artillery, so that their artillerists, having set to work to batter it with heavy cannon, had half ruined it, and were like to destroy it completely, when Michelagnolo protected it so well with bales of wool and stout mattresses suspended by cords, that it is still standing. 62: Pope Paul had made a beginning with the fortifying of the Borgo, and had summoned many gentlemen, together with Antonio da San Gallo, to a conference; but he wished that Michelagnolo also should have a part in this, knowing that the fortifications about the hill of S. Miniato in Florence had been constructed under his direction. After much discussion, Michelagnolo was asked what he thought; and he, having opinions contrary to San Gallo and many others, declared them freely. Whereupon San Gallo said to him that his arts were sculpture and painting, and not fortification. Michelagnolo replied that of sculpture and painting he knew little, but of fortification, what with the thought that he had devoted to it for a long time, and his experience in what he had done, it appeared to him that he knew more than either Antonio or any of his family; showing him in the presence of the company that he had made many errors in that art.

BALDINUCCI S Miniato al Monte: I.45 & 403; I.410; I.447; I.453; I.535; II.367.

CHAPTER TWENTY SAN NICCOLÒ

Via San Niccolò, 48; for tourist information please visit http://www.firenzeoltrarno.net/english/arte/sanniccolo.php. Free entrance but no visits during religious services.

History Underneath this small church in the Oltrarno (Fig. 20 a) there is a simple Romanesque crypt dating to the eleventh century. The church belongs to one of the twelve original parishes of Florence. It is dedicated to Saint Nicholas of Myra who is famous for his good deeds towards the poor and towards children. They are remembered on his feast day by the exchange of gifts. Apart from the material remains of the crypt, the longevity of San Niccolò is attested by a document of the twelfth century, i.e. a papal bull written in 1184. In the fifteenth century, Bernardo di Castello Quaratesi ordered the complete renewal of San Niccolò, which also contains his tomb. He commissioned from Gentile da Fabriano the so-called Quaratesi Polyptych (1425), the diverse parts of which are today distributed between the Uffizi and museums in the Vatican, the UK and North America (see below). Michelangelo is said to have hidden in the campanile after the siege of Florence in 1530 (Fig. 20 c). An inscription on the façade refers to the flood of 13 September 1557. As in other Florentine churches, Vasari intervened by adding modern altars with uniform monumental frames for altarpieces painted by Francesco Poppi, Jacopo Chimenti da Empoli and Francesco Curradi. According to Filippo Baldinucci, Bernardo Buontalenti received burial at San Niccolò in 1608. After the flood of 1966, fragments of frescoes, depicting Saint Ansanus and attributed to Francesco D’Antonio, were rediscovered.

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Figure 20 a: Façade of San Niccolò (photo: CM).

Architecture The Romanesque church has a simple façade with an oculus window (Fig. 20 a). The entrance is crowned by a triangular pediment. The interior consists of a rectangular hall with a single nave and three apsidal choir chapels (Fig. 20 b). It is covered by an open beam roof, which was restored at the end of the sixteenth century, following the original design. Vasari’s tabernacle side altars can be dated to c.1567, when the rood screen was removed; they comply with high Renaissance and Counter-reformatory theories about order, uniformity and beauty.

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An altar niche decorated with columns and an arch, both located in the sacristy, have been attributed to Michelozzo and are dated to c.1450.

Figure 20 b: Plan of San Niccolò (plan: SC).

Art Now at the National Gallery of Washington, the panel of the Annunciation by Masolino da Panicale (1423-24) was originally commissioned for the Guardini Chapel on the left of the rood screen and later transferred to another Guardini chapel at San Niccolò. It was probably sold together with parts of the Quaratesi Polyptych to a British collector in the eighteenth century (http://www.nga.gov/collection/gallery/gg4/gg4-18.html).

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Gentile da Fabriano’s Four Saints from the Quaratesi Polyptych (1422/25) have been at the Uffizi since 1863. The polyptych was originally painted for the Quaratesi chapel in San Niccolò. Its other remains are distributed among the National Gallery in London, the Pinacoteca Vaticana and the National Gallery of Washington. The central Quaratesi Madonna (London, http://www.nationalgallery.org.uk/paintings /gentileda-fabriano-the-quaratesi-madonna) belongs to the Royal Collection. The predella shows scenes from the life of Saint Nicholas. The Nasi chapel contains an altar decorated with the family’s coat of arms (three silver wheels) on the base of the columns. Francesco Poppi created the altarpiece depicting the story of the widow of Nain. Batista Naldini painted the panel of the Purification of the Virgin for the chapel of Amerigo da Verrazzano (c.1577). A preparatory drawing in red and black chalk is preserved at the Art Institute Chicago (http://www .artic.edu/aic/collections/artwork/122098?search_no=1&index=0). In the sacristy is a fresco of The Madonna of the Girdle attributed to Alesso Baldovinetti. In the same location can be found Gentile da Fabriano’s Polyptych of the Intercession (1420-23) which was restored from 2003 to 2006 before being returned to San Niccolò.

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Figure 20 c: Campanile of San Niccolò (photo: CM).

Bibl: Borsook 1983, 288 and 304-5; Cesati 2002, 129; Ciatti and Frosinini 2006; Goy 2015, 294; Horstmann 2011, 90-2; Paatz 1952, IV, 358-86; Tovey 2005, 316; Verdon, Coppellotti, Fabbri 2000, 130-3.

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Sources: VASARI II Masaccio 185-6: And in the tramezzo of the Church of S. Niccolò, on the other side of the Arno, there is a panel by the hand of Masaccio, painted in distemper, wherein, besides the Madonna, who is receiving the Annunciation from the Angel, there is a building with many columns, drawn in perspective and very beautiful, seeing that, besides the drawing of the lines, which is perfect, he made it recede by means of the colouring, in a manner that little by little, almost imperceptibly, it is lost to view; thus showing clearly his knowledge of perspective. III Gentile da Fabriano and Vittore Pisanello of Verona 110: In S. Niccolò, near the Porta a S. Miniato, for the family of the Quaratesi, he painted the panel of the high-altar, which appears to me without a doubt the best of all the works that I have seen by his hand, for, not to mention the Madonna surrounded by many saints, all well wrought, the predella of the said panel, full of scenes with little figures from the life of S. Nicholas, could not be more beautiful or executed better than it is.

BOCCHI, 125-6: 125: The traveller coming from Arezzo arrives at this gate, and then at San Niccolò after which the gate is named. On entering this church, in the Chapel of Giovanni Francesco Falconi on the right one sees a panel by Alessandro Allori. It represents Abraham, as he is about to sacrifice his son Isaac. The father, pained with beautiful colouring, is ready to act, and displays a fierce posture. His son looks humble and meek. Rather than contradict, he would suffer death. Both of these figures are well drawn and beautifully positioned. Nearby, in the chapel of Amerigo of Verrazzano, there is a panel of the Purification of the Madonna by Battista Naldini, executed with most beautiful colouring. {…} St. Dominic and St. Catherine of Siena, depicted with great care, stand out among the figures. The whole of this narrative displays masterful understanding. In the following chapel, belonging to Luigi Pieri, there is a panel by Jacopo [Coppi] del Meglio, depicting the Apostles receiving the Holy Spirit; it displays well thought-out colouring. The next panel, showing the Marriage of the Madonna, is painted by Francesco Poppi, and is found in the chapel belonging to Andrea Bianchi. {…}

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On the left, in the chapel of Michele Guardini, there is a panel depicting the Annunciation to the Madonna by Alessandro del Barbiere. {…} Then, in the chapel of Lutozzo di Francesco Nasi, the story of the widow of Nain is depicted on a panel by Francesco Poppi. Her son is called back from death to life by Our Lord. {…} 126: Next towards the main entrance with its beautiful architecture, in the chapel of Antonio Parenti there is a most beautiful panel by Alessandro Allori depicting the martyrdom of St. Catherine on the wheels.

BALDINUCCI San Niccolò oltr’Arno: I.514; II.532; III.7; III.514; III.532.

RICHA, part II, vol X, lesson XXII, 268-71.

CHAPTER TWENTY ONE OGNISSANTI

Piazza Borgo Ognissanti, 42; for additional information please visit http://www.chiesaognissanti.it/index.php/it/articoli (at present only available in Italian).

History Although parts of the building go back to the tenth century, the first sanctuary of Ognissanti on the bank of the Arno was founded by the Umiliati order in 1239 and dedicated to all saints and martyrs. The Umiliati were a lay order whose charitable work and industry gained the respect of the Florentine population and attracted numerous donations in the form of works of art. The first church was built in 1251 during the Republic’s first building boom. It was situated within the extended city walls and in easy reach of the river, important as a means of transport and source of water needed in great quantities for the textile industry introduced to Florence by the Umiliati. Its bell tower (thirteenth to fourteenth century) stands separate from the church and is situated on the right of the main building. With the persecution of the Umiliati order during the Counterreformation and after the failed attack on (Saint) Charles Borromaeus by a monk of this order, in 1561 the Franciscan Observants of San Salvatore al Monte were invited to take over the church of Ognissanti with papal approval. They brought important relics, for example the robe of Saint Francis, to Florence. Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici ordered the relic to be housed in the pediment of a bronze crucifix displayed on the church’s high altar. As a result, the church’s name changed to San Salvatore di Ognissanti. Before the Medici, the Vespucci family who lived in the neighbourhood acted as major patrons of the Ognissanti church. Three chapels were set aside for their burials, including the tombs of Simonetta and Amerigo Vespucci.

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Today, the Ognissanti church (Fig. 21 a) is still used by the Franciscan order.

Figure 21 a: Façade of the church of Ognissanti (photo: AG).

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Architecture The church presents itself today in sumptuous Baroque style. It has a single nave with a stone ceiling and a row of side altars on each arcade wall (Fig. 21 b). The transept on the right is surrounded by three chapels, whereas the left transept leads past the chapel of Saint Francis’s habit and the entrance to the sacristy to the inner cloister and to Ghirlandaio’s Last Supper in the refectory. Bartolomeo Pettirossi was the architect responsible for the new church built in the 1620s in the Baroque style (1627), while Matteo Nigetti designed the new façade (1637), which conserved the brightly-coloured glazed terracotta lunette over the main entrance (attributed to Benedetto Buglioni, c.1515, Fig. 21 c). The façade of the Ognissanti churchʊ actually a nineteenth century copyʊis embellished with two orders of pilasters, with half columns and with three large niches (Fig. 21 a). Few architectural traces of the thirteenth-century church remain visible. The interior was remodelled from the sixteenth century, as happened to other Florentine churches—most notably Santa Croce and Santa Maria Novellaʊin the wake of new rules ratified at the Council of Trent (1545-1563). From 1559, Giorgio Vasari, on Duke Cosimo I’s orders, implemented Counter-reformatory tenets regarding ecclesiastical architecture in Florentine churches. The duke intended to further his amicable relationship with the Holy See and, thereby, to increase his chances of a rise in rank. After the Franciscan Observants had moved into Ognissanti, the rood screen (tramezzo), separating the space allocated for the laity from the monks’ choir, was demolished (1564). The monks’ choir was replaced by a new apse with a pietre dure high altar made to a design by Jacopo Ligozzi. The vaulted nave was decorated with a fresco of “di sotto in su perspective” (1770). Important works of art threatened by destruction as a result of the construction work, such as two frescoes by Ghirlandaio and Botticelli, were temporarily removed and later re-attached on the arcade walls of the nave. Under the Franciscan Observants two cloisters were added, one of these replacing an earlier exemplar of the thirteenth century. The sixteenth-century building campaign was completed by the end of the century. In 1627, the decoration of the interior was begun.

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Figure 21 b: Plan of the church of Ognissanti (plan: SC).

Art Among the celebrated works of art donated to the Umiliati order was Giotto’s altarpiece of the Ognissanti Madonna (c.1305-10), formerly adorning the high altar and now displayed at the Uffizi (N. Cat. 00284545, http://www.virtualuffizi.com/ognissanti-madonna.html).5 The Madonna and Child Enthroned with Angels is famous as an early example of a more naturalistic style in painting, which gave gravity to the single figures depicted and introduced a natural perspective. It offers some illusion of space and depth, for example by stacking the angels and saints behind one another on both sides of the throne. 5

Works of art now in the museums of the Polo Museale Fiorentino, for example the Uffizi, Accademia or Galleria Palatina, may also be found through the on-line catalogue at http://www.polomuseale.firenze.it/catalogo/avanzata.asp with the help of the catalogue number or by searching for the artists’ names.

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Little of the artistic decoration of the former Gothic church building remains in situ: a recent restoration campaign has established the famous Ognissanti Crucifix, long attributed to the school of Giotto, as an original work by Giotto (c.1315). The fresco of a crucifixion with saints (1350), attributed to Taddeo Gaddi, still adorns the sacristy over whose entrance hangs a wooden crucifix by Veit Stoss, commissioned in c.1500. A number of important Quattrocento frescoes survive, which are displayed in the side chapels. For the Vespucci chapel, for example, Domenico Ghirlandaio and his brother David painted a Madonna della Misericordia in the act of protecting members of the Vespucci family (c.1472). Allegedly, it contains a portrait of the young Amerigo Vespucci. Ghirlandaio and Sandro Botticelli (buried in Ognissanti) created frescoes of Saint Jerome and of Saint Augustine in their studies (1480), which have been displayed in opposite side chapels ever since the destruction of the rood screen during the sixteenth century. Perhaps the most important fifteenth-century work at Ognissanti is Ghirlandaio’s frescoed Last Supper in the former refectory (1480).

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Figure 21 c: The Medici coat of arms in glazed terracotta (photo: CM).

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Figure 21 d: Benedetto Buglioni (attr.), glazed terracotta lunette with a Coronation of the Virgin above the main portal of Ognissanti (photo: CM).

Bibl: Andrews 1999; Borsook 1983, 122 and 129-32; De Boer 2010, annotations 122-3: 162-3; Cesati 2002, 18-20; Crispino 1999, 14-5; Di Cagno and Pegazzano 1996, 93-104; Goy 2015, 252/3; Hartt & Wilkins 2007, 86-7, 356-8; Horstmann 2011, 101-6; Miller and Taylor-Mitchell 2010, 129-54; Paatz 1952, IV, 406-67; Paolucci 2006, 234-47; Pomella 2013; Tovey 2005, 316; Verdon, Coppellotti, Fabbri 2000, 160-5. Sources: VILLANI VII § 16.226—How, after the Ghibellines had been driven from Florence, the ordinances and councils of the city were reorganized. When the Guelf party had returned to Florence, and the vicar or Podestà was come from King Charles (the first of them being M. . . .), and after twelve good men had been appointed, as of old the Ancients, to rule the republic, the council was remade of 100 good men of the people, without whose deliberation no great thing or cost could be carried out; and after any measure had been passed in this council, it was put to the vote in the council of the colleges of consuls of the greater Arts, and the council of the credenza [privy council of the Captain of the People] of eighty. These councillors, which, when united with the general council, numbered 300,

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were all popolani and Guelfs. After measures had been passed in the said councils, the following day the same proposals were brought before the councils of the Podestà, first before the council of ninety, including both magnates and popolani (and with them associated yet again the colleges of consuls of the Arts), and then before the general council, which was of 300 men of every condition; and these were called the occasional councils; and they had in their gift governorships of fortresses, and dignities, and small and great offices. And this ordered, they appointed revisors, and corrected all statutes and ordinances, and ordered that they should be issued each year. In this manner was ordered the state and course of the commonwealth and of the people of Florence at the return of the Guelfs; and the chancellors of finance were the monks of Settimo and of Ognissanti on alternate half-years. IX 1310 a.d. § 10.397-8—How the Florentines enclosed the new circle of the city with moats. In the said year, on S. Andrew’s Day, the Florentines, through fear of the coming of the Emperor, took counsel to enclose the city with moats from the Porta San Gallo as far as the Porta Santo Ambrogio, which is called La Croce a Gorgo, and then as far as the river Arno; and-398- then from the Porta San Gallo to the Porta dal Prato d’Ognissanti, where the walls were already founded, they were raised eight cubits higher. And this work was done quickly and in short time, which thing was assuredly afterwards the salvation of the city of Florence, as hereafter shall be narrated; inasmuch as theretofore the city had been all exposed and the old walls in great measure pulled down and sold to the neighbouring inhabitants, to enlarge the old city, and to enclose the suburbs and the new additions.

ALBERTINI 98: In the church of Ognissanti are ancient paintings as well as a Saint Augustine by Domenico Ghirlandaio and a Saint Jerome by Sandro Botticelli.

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VASARI I Preface Lviii: Of sculptures, likewise, they [the Greeks, i.e. Byzantine artists] made an infinity, as may still be seen in low-relief over the door of S. Michele in the Piazza Padella of Florence, and in Ognissanti; and tombs and adornments in many places for the doors of churches, wherein they have certain figures for corbels to support the roof, so rude and vile, so misshapen, and of such a grossness of manner, that it appears impossible that worse could be imagined. Giotto 86-7: For the Frati Umiliati of Ognissanti in Florence, Giotto painted a chapel and four panels, in one of which there was the Madonna, with many angels round her and the Child in her arms, and a large Crucifix on wood, whereof Puccio Capanna took the design and wrought many of them afterwards throughout all Italy, having much practice in the manner of In the tramezzo of the said church, when this book of the Lives of the Painters, Sculptors, and Architects was printed the first time, there was a little panel in distemper painted by Giotto with infinite diligence, wherein was the death of Our Lady, with the Apostles round her and with a Christ who is receiving her soul into His arms. This work was much praised by the craftsmen of painting, and in particular by Michelagnolo Buonarroti, who declared, as was said another time, that the quality of this painted story could not be more like to the truth than it is. This little panel, I say, having come into notice from the time when the book of these Lives was first published, was afterwards carried off by someone unknown, who, perhaps out of love for art and out of piety, it seeming to him that it was little esteemed, became, as said our poet, impious. And truly it was a miracle in those times that Giotto had so great loveliness in his painting, considering, above all, that he learnt the art in a certain measure without a master. Andrea Pisano 123-4: This is seen in Andrea Pisano, who, practising sculpture in the time of Giotto, made so great improvement in this art, that both in practice and in theory he was esteemed the greatest man that the Tuscans had had up to his times in this profession, and above all in casting in bronze. Wherefore his works were honoured and rewarded in such a manner by all who knew him, and above all by the Florentines, that it was no hardship to him to change country, relatives, property and friends. He received much assistance from the difficulties experienced in sculpture by the masters who had lived before him, whose sculptures were so uncouth and worthless that whosoever saw them in comparison with those of this man judged the last a miracle. And that these early works were rude, witness is borne, as it has been said elsewhere, by some that are over the principal door of S. Paolo in Florence and some in stone that are in the Church of Ognissanti, which

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are so made that they move those who view them rather to laughter than to any marvel or pleasure. Buffalmacco 141: And to show that this is true, the works in fresco that he [Buonamico] made in Ognissanti, where to-day there is the cemetery, were wrought with so much diligence and with so many precautions, that the water which has rained over them for so many years has not been able to spoil them or to prevent their excellence from being recognized, and that they have been preserved very well, because they were wrought purely on the fresh plaster. On the walls, then, are the Nativity of Jesus Christ and the Adoration of the Magi--that is, over the tomb of the Aliotti. After this work Buonamico, having gone to Bologna, wrought some scenes in fresco in S. Petronio, in the Chapel of the Bolognini--that is, on the vaulting; but by reason of some accident, I know not what, supervening, he did not finish them. Taddeo Gaddi 185: After the death of Taddeo this Giovanni, besides many other works, made a panel which was placed on the altar of S. Gherardo da Villamagna in S. Croce, fourteen years after he had been left without his master, and likewise the panel of the high-altar of Ognissanti, where the Frati Umiliati had their seat, which was held very beautiful, and the tribune of the high-altar at Assisi, wherein he made a Crucifix, with Our Lady and S. Chiara, and stories of Our Lady on the walls and sides. Tommaso, called Giottino 205: In S. Maria Novella, in the Chapel of S. Lorenzo de’ Giuochi, as one enters by the door on the left, on the front wall, he wrought in fresco a S. Cosimo and a S. Damiano, and, in Ognissanti, a S. Christopher and a S. George, which were spoilt by the malice of time, and then restored by other painters by reason of the ignorance of a Provost little conversant with such matters. In the said church there has remained whole the arch that is over the door of the sacristy, wherein there is in fresco a Madonna with the Child in her arms by the hand of Tommaso, which is a good work, by reason of his having wrought it with diligence. II Lorenzo di Bicci 72: [He] died at the age of about sixty, leaving two sons who applied themselves to painting; one of whom, named Bicci, gave him assistance in making many works, while the other, who was called Neri, portrayed his father and himself in the Chapel of the Lenzi in Ognissanti, in two medallions with letters round them, which give the name of both one and the other. In this chapel the same man, in painting some stories of the Madonna, strove to counterfeit many costumes of those times, both of men and of women; and he made the panel in distemper for the chapel.

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III Domenico Ghirlandaio 220: His first pictures were in the Chapel of the Vespucci in Ognissanti, where there is a Dead Christ with some saints, and a Misericordia over an arch, in which is the portrait of Amerigo Vespucci, who made the voyages to the Indies; and in the refectory of that place he painted a Last Supper in fresco. 222: And in the Church of Ognissanti in Florence, in competition with Sandro di Botticello, he painted a S. Jerome in fresco (which is now beside the door that leads to the choir), surrounding him with an infinite number of instruments and books, such as are used by the learned. The friars having occasion to remove the choir from the place where it stood, this picture, together with that of Sandro di Botticello, has been bound round with irons and transported without injury into the middle of the church, at the very time when these Lives are being printed for the second time. He also painted the arch over the door of S. Maria Ughi, and a little shrine for the Guild of Linen-Manufacturers, and likewise a very beautiful S. George, slaying the Dragon, in the same Church of Ognissanti. And in truth he had a very good knowledge of the method of painting on walls, which he did with very great facility, although he was scrupulously careful in the composition of his works. Sandro Botticelli 248: In the tramezzo of the Ognissanti, by the door that leads into the choir, he painted for the Vespucci a S. Augustine in fresco, with which he took very great pains, seeking to surpass all the painters of his time, and particularly Domenico Ghirlandajo, who had made a S. Jerome on the other side; and this work won very great praise, for in the head of that Saint he depicted the profound meditation and acute subtlety that are found in men of wisdom who are ever concentrated on the investigation of the highest and most difficult matters. This picture, as was said in the Life of Ghirlandajo, has this year (1564) been removed safe and sound from its original position. 253: It is also said that he had a surpassing love for all whom he saw to be zealous students of art; and that he earned much, but wasted everything through negligence and lack of management. Finally, having grown old and useless, and being forced to walk with crutches, without which he could not stand upright, he died, infirm and decrepit, at the age of seventy-eight, and was buried in Ognissanti at Florence in the year 1515. X Accademicians 19-20: But how able he [Santi Titi] is can be perceived best from two altar-pieces by his hand that are to be seen, one of which is in Ognissanti, or rather, S. Salvadore di Fiorenza (as it is now called), once the church of the Padri Umiliati, and now of the Zoccolanti, and contains the Madonna on high and at the foot S.

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John, S. Jerome, and other Saints; and in the other, which is in S. Giuseppe, behind S. Croce, in the Chapel of the Guardi, is a Nativity of Our Lord executed with much diligence, with many portraits from life.

BOCCHI, 106-7: 106/7: Coming from the aforementioned gate, and walking along the street used as a race course, one finds on the left the Church of Ognissanti (All Saints), where a very large number of Observant Franciscan Friars live. On entering the church, between the second and the third chapel on the right, one sees a St. Augustine by Sandro Botticelli, painted in fresco with the greatest diligence.The face of this Saint reveals his noble thoughts; it turns upwards, and his mind impresses dignity on his appearance. He seems to be free from earthly concerns, and to concentrate on divine matters alone. This figure used to be situated on the rood screen of this church, next to the entrance to the choir. In 1566, by order of Grand Duke Cosimo this screen was removed, as was done in Santa Croce and Santa Maria Novella, so as to make the church more luminous and comfortable, and to free it of obstacles. [The image] with the wall behind it was skilfully removed, first with iron tools, and then with ropes, and was brought to the place where one sees it now, a very great sign of esteem for this rare artist. The wonderfully beautiful St. Jerome painted by Domenico Ghirlandaio, once on the other side of the choir screen, was moved, for the same reason and in the same way, to a place opposite the St. Augustine. Experts can deduce from this how marvellous and valuable both paintings are. In the grave appearance [of St. Jerome] one perceives dignity, and since his pose is very lively, and he concentrates on Divine thoughts, he doubtlessly inspires reverence in the viewer. In a lunette representing Our Lady of Mercy, painted by the same Domenico [Ghirlandaio], there is a lively portrait of Amerigo Vespucci, executed with good judgement. He put such effort into travelling the seas in the New World that one of the largest parts of the once unknown territories was called America to honour the supreme valour of his noble intellect. Nearby there is a panel by Santi di Tito depicting the Madonna with the child in her arm, St. Jerome, St. John the Baptist, and St. Francis, painted in a beautiful and praiseworthy manner. In the Refectory there is a Last Supper by Domenico Ghirlandaio, which is esteemed and admired by the artists. {relics}

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BALDINUCCI Ognissanti (Osservanti): I.51 & 115; I.251; I.431; I.562; I.567; II.536; II.537; III.80; III.80; III.421; III.539; III.645-6; III.675; IV.164; IV.202; IV.202; IV.2023; IV.203; V.221 V.227; V.356; I.51; I.431n.

RICHA, part II, vol IV, lesson XXV-XXVIII, 252-292.

CHAPTER TWENTY TWO ORSANMICHELE

Via de’ Calzaiuoli, 13; for opening hours of the church and museum please visit http://www.polomuseale.firenze.it/cappelle.html (at present only available in Italian).

History The church of Orsanmichele (Fig. 22 a) is located on Via dei Calzaiuoli, a main street, halfway between Piazza Signoria and the Duomo. It looks like a typical Florentine market building and was indeed constructed as a granary (original design attributed to Arnolfo di Cambio, 1284). The “Or” in the church’s name is short for orto or orchard and the full name translates as Orchard of Saint Michael. A church dedicated to Saint Michael existed on this site during the ninth century, surrounded by an orchard. Originally, the city of Florence bought the plot of land to build a grain store. The image of the Blessed Virgin on one of the ten pillars soon attracted worship for the miracles it performed. The lay confraternity of the Laudesi started to look after the donations and bequests endowed as ex votos whenever the miraculous image caused the sick to be healed. A fire in 1304 destroyed the image and tabernacle together with the grain market, while a provisional new building was ruined by the flood of 1333. Eventually the city commissioned a new image and plans by Francesco Talenti, Neri di Fioravante and Benci di Cione who rebuilt the market together with secure storage space on two upper floors (1337-1350). Bernardo Daddi created a new image of the Madonna (1346) that was soon credited with miraculous healing powers during the plague of 1348. The Florentine guilds were obliged to commission and dedicate statues of their patron saints for the niches outside the new building (Fig. 22 a). Most of the statues visible today are copies, while the originals are displayed in a number of Florentine museums. The majority are now in the Museum of Orsanmichele on the church’s upper floor. Donatello’s Saint George is in the Bargello, while his Saint Louis of Toulouse is in the

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Museum of Santa Croce. The statues were created in a climate of fierce competition between the diverse guilds, whose members were elected into the republican city government, under the auspices of the Arte della Seta or silk traders’ guild and of the Laudesi confraternity. The importance of the artists chosen, as well as the costly material used for many of the sculptures, attests to the value attributed to this opportunity for the public display of faith, wealth, industry and power.

Figure 22 a: Façade of Orsanmichele (photo: CM).

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Architecture The square building (Fig. 22 b) is divided into three floors. On the ground floor are the thirteenth-century arches typical for the loggia of a (grain) market. On the first floor were the offices, while on the top floor the municipal grain store was located as a vital precaution against famine or war. The pillars on the left are hollow to facilitate funnelling grain from the top of the building to the sales floor. In 1404, the external arches of the loggia were closed to safeguard Daddi’s image of the Virgin and the tabernacle. By then, the market had been moved elsewhere but the grain reserve of Florence was still maintained on the second floor.

Figure 22 b: Plan of church of Orsanmichele (plan: SC).

The church has two naves divided by the pillars running down the centre (Fig. 22 b): the right nave is dedicated to the Madonna, while the left nave is dedicated to her mother, Saint Anne. The left altar was consecrated after the Duke of Athens, Walter VI de Brienne, was expelled from Florence on the feast day of Saint Anne (26 July) in 1343. The façade of the building holds fourteen ornamental niches, which were filled with statues of the guilds’ patron saints from 1399 to c.1430. The present entrance (Fig. 22 c) is through one of two porches on Via dell’Arte della Lana embellished by Niccolò di Pietro Lamberti in c.1410.

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Figure 22 c: Entrance to Orsanmichele (photo: CM).

Art Outside, in the niches on the façade, are fourteen statues or groups of statues of the guilds’ patron saints in bronze or marble as well as their coats of arms. With the exception of the Madonna of the Rose, the Saint John the Baptist and the Saint Luke, the sculptures were commissioned in the early fifteenth century by the foremost artists then active in Florence: Donatello, Brunelleschi, Verrocchio and Ghiberti. The statues are listed in

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their actual sequence on the façade, starting on the NW corner from left to right: 1. Saint Matthew, 1419-20: Lorenzo Ghiberti, Arte del Cambio (bankers). 2. Saint Stephen, 1428: Lorenzo Ghiberti, Arte della Lana, (wool manufacturers). 3. Saint Eligius, 1411-15: Nanni di Banco, Arte dei Maniscalchi (farriers/blacksmiths). 4. Saint Mark, 1411: Donatello, Arte dei Linaiuoli e Rigattieri (linenweavers and peddlers). 5. Saint James, c.1415: Niccolò di Piero Lamberti (?), Arte dei Pellicciai (furriers). 6. Madonna of the Rose, 1399: Pietro di Giovanni Tedesco, Medici e Speziali (doctors and apothecaries). 7. Saint John the Evangelist, 1513-1515: Baccio da Montelupo, Arte della Seta (silk merchants). 8. Saint John the Baptist, 1414-16: Lorenzo Ghiberti, Arte di Calimala (The Guild of Merchants of Calimala). 9. Christ and Saint Thomas, 1467-83: Andrea del Verrocchio, Tribunale di Mercanzia (merchants), replaced the Saint Louis of Toulouse, 1413 by Donatello. 10. Saint Luke, 1601: Giambologna, Giudici e Notai (magistrates and notaries). 11. Saint Peter, 1415: Filippo Brunelleschi, Arte dei Beccai (butchers). 12. Saint Philip, 1412-14: Nanni di Banco, Arte dei Calzaiuoli (shoemakers). 13. Quattro Santi Coronati (Four Crowned Martyrs or Four Saints), 1408: Nanni di Banco, Maestri di Pietra e Legname (stone and woodworkers). 14. Saint George, 1416: Donatello, Arte dei Corazzai (armourers). Inside the church, on the right, is Andrea Orcagna’s splendid Gothic tabernacle (1355-59) for Bernardo Daddi’s version of a lost older image of the miraculous Madonna and Child. The commission for the tabernacle (completed in 1359) was given to Orcagna, for the lay confraternity of the Laudesi attracted rich funds during the years after the plague. It is shaped like a miniature basilica crowned by a dome and gable with turrets, arches and columns. The exterior walls are decorated with intarsiae of stone and coloured glass. Reliefs on the base depict scenes from the life of the

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Virgin Mary together with allegories of the virtues and images of the prophets. Each corner displays three of the apostles. On the gable is a large hexagram. Perhaps Orcagna’s tabernacle is to be understood as a miniature model of one of the large Gothic basilicas of Florence: Santa Croce, Santa Maria Novella or Florence Cathedral. The nave on the left is decorated with Francesco da Sangallo’s Saint Anne with Madonna and Child (1526). Some of the main artists active in the early fifteenth century and sponsored by the guilds created frescoes following a programme with scenes from the Old and New Testament on the walls, vaults and pillars. Some of these were whitewashed in the eighteenth century and later uncovered and restored. Stained-glass windows from the early fifteenth century show scenes of the life of the Virgin Mary and legends referring to the original miraculous image (recreated by Daddi). Several altarpieces once at Ognissanti have been preserved in Florentine museums since the nineteenth century; among these, in the Uffizi, Bernardo Daddi’s triptych of the Virgin and Child with Saints Matthew and Nicholas (1328, N. Cat. 00284922, http://www. virtualuffizi.com/madonna-andchild-with-saints-matthew-and-nicholas.html) and Andrea di Cione’s (Orcagna’s) Saint Matthew triptych for the Arte del Cambio (bankers and moneychangers), which he finished together with his brother Jacopo (c.1367-1368, N. Cat. 00281125, http://www.virtualuffizi.com/st-matthewtriptych-and-stories-from-his-life-.html). Giovanni del Biondo’s Saint John the Evangelist (1380-1385), painted for the Arte della Seta (the silkworkers guild), is now in the Accademia (N. Cat. 00191301). Bibl: Borsook 1983, 172-4 and 178-83; Campbell and Cole 2012, 46-7 and 72-82, 84, 87, and 98, 103, 112, 246; Cesati 2002, 65-7; Crispino 1999, 16-7; De Boer 2010, annotations 127-38: 165-9; Goy 2015, 64-8; Hartt & Wilkins 2007, 139-41, 182-92; Horstmann 2011, 36-40; Kleiner 2010, 233; Paatz 1952, IV, 480-558; Paolucci 2006, 120-33; Tovey 2005, 316; Verdon, Coppellotti, Fabbri 2000, 72-5. Sources: VILLANI VII § 155.300—Of the miracles which were manifested in Florence by S. Maria d’Orto San Michele. 1292 AD. VIII

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§ 71.362-3.—How Florence was set on fire, and a great part of the city burnt.1304 AD, Ser Neri Abati, a clerk and prior of San Piero Scheraggio, a worldly and dissolute man, and a rebel against and enemy of his associates, of purpose set fire first to the house of his associates in Orto San Michele, and then to the Florentine Calimala at the house of the Caponsacchi, near to the entrance of the Mercato Vecchio. And the accursed fire was so furious. and impetuous, fanned by the north wind, which was blowing strongly, that on that day were burnt the houses of the Abati, and of the Macci, and all the loggia of Orto San Michele, and the houses of the Amieri, and Toschi, and Cipriani, and Lamberti, and Bachini, and Buiamonti, and all Calimala, and the houses of the Cavalcanti, and all around the Mercato Nuovo and S. Cecilia, and all the street of Porte Sante Marie as far as the Ponte Vecchio, and Vacchereccia, and behind San Piero Scheraggio, and the houses of the Gherardini, and of the Pulci and Amidei and Lucardesi, and all the neighbourhood of the said places, almost to the Arno;

ALBERTINI 98: In Orsanmichele The ancient, very tall, freestanding building of the oratory of Orsanmichele is made of ashlar and adorned with many bronze and marble statues, with a very beautiful tabernacle decorated with precious stones, which cost more than 20,000 ducats. Originally, the ancient building was a public granary that cost more than 86,000 Ducats. The saints Peter, Mark and George are by Donatello, who also made the marble niche containing the bronze statues of Christ and Saint Thomas by Andrea del Verrocchio. The bronze statues of Saints John the Baptist, Matthew and Stephen are by Lorenzo Ghiberti. The group of four statues and the Saint James are by Nanni del Banco. Inside the church there is a Saint Bartholomew by Lorenzo di Credi and [works] by other modern artists.

VASARI I Stefano and Ugolino da Siena 113: The same man [Ugolino] made, on a brick-pier in the Loggia that Lapo had built on the Piazza d’Orsanmichele, that Madonna which worked so many miracles, not many years later, that the Loggia was for a long time full of images, and is still held in the greatest veneration. Taddeo Gaddi 178: In S. Stefano del Ponte Vecchio he painted the panel and the predella of the high-altar with great diligence; and on a panel in the Oratory of S. Michele in Orto he made a very good picture of a Dead Christ being lamented by the Maries and laid to rest very devoutly by Nicodemus in the Sepulchre.

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180: Next, having returned to Florence, Taddeo continued for the Commune the work of Orsanmichele and refounded the piers of the Loggia, building them with stone dressed and well shaped, whereas before they had been made of bricks, without, however, altering the design that Arnolfo left, with directions that there should be made over the Loggia a palace with two vaults for storing the provisions of grain that the people and Commune of Florence used to make. To the end that this work might be finished, the Guild of Porta S. Maria, to which the charge of the fabric had been given, ordained that there should be paid thereunto the tax of the square of the grain-market and some other taxes of very small importance. But what was far more important, it was well ordained with the best counsel that each of the Guilds of Florence should make one pier by itself, with the Patron Saint of the Guild in a niche therein, and that every year, on the festival of each Saint the Consuls of that Guild should go to church to make offering, and should hold there the whole of that day the standard with their insignia, but that the offering, none the less, should be to the Madonna for the succour of the needy poor. Andrea Orcagna 195-6: A little while afterwards the men of the Company of Orsanmichele, having collected large sums of money from offerings and donations given to their Madonna by reason of the mortality of 1348, resolved to make round her a chapel, or rather shrine, not only very ornate and rich with marbles carved in every way and with other stones of price, but also with mosaic and ornaments of bronze, as much as could possibly be desired, in a manner that both in workmanship and in material it might surpass every other work of so great a size wrought up to that day. Wherefore, the charge of the whole being given to Orcagna as the most excellent of that age, he made so many designs that finally one of them pleased the authorities, as being better than all the others. The work, therefore, being allotted to him, they put complete reliance in his judgment and counsel; wherefore, giving the making of all the rest to diverse master-carvers brought from several districts, he applied himself with his brother to executing all the figures of the work, and, the whole being finished, he had them built in and put together very thoughtfully without mortar, with clamps of copper fixed with lead, to the end that the shining and polished marbles might not become discoloured; and in this he succeeded so well, with profit and honour from those who came after him, that to one who studies that work it appears, by reason of such union and methods of joining discovered by Orcagna, that the whole chapel has been shaped out of one single piece of marble. And although it is in a German manner, for that style it has so great grace and proportion that it holds the first place among the works of those times, above all because its composition of figures great and small, and of angels and prophets in half-relief round the Madonna, is very well executed. Marvellous, also, is the casting of the bands of bronze, diligently polished, which, encircling the whole work, enclose and bind it together in a manner that it is therefore as stout and strong as it is beautiful in all other respects. But how much he laboured in order to show the subtlety of his intellect in that gross age is seen in a large scene in half-relief on the back part of the said shrine, wherein, with figures of one braccio and a half each, he made the twelve Apostles gazing on high at the

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Madonna, while she, in a mandorla, surrounded by angels, is ascending to Heaven. In one of these Apostles he portrayed himself in marble, old, as he was, with the beard shaven, with the cap wound round the head, and with the face flat and round, as it is seen above in his portrait, drawn from that one. Besides this, he inscribed these words in the marble below: ANDREAS CIONIS, PICTOR FLORENTINUS, ORATORII ARCHIMAGISTER EXTITIT HUJUS, MCCCLIX. It is known that the building of this Loggia and of the marble shrine, with all the master-work, cost ninety-six thousand florins of gold, which were very well spent, for the reason that it is, both in the architecture and in the sculptures and other ornaments, as beautiful as any other work whatsoever of those times, and is such that, by reason of the parts made therein by him, the name of Andrea Orcagna has been and will be ever living and great. Agnolo Gaddi 220: In Florence, next, he painted the arch over the door of S. Romeo; and in Orto S. Michele he wrought in distemper a Disputation of the Doctors with Christ in the Temple. II Jacopo di Casentino 23-4: In the meanwhile, the vaults of Orsanmichele over the twelve piers having been brought to a finish, a low rustic roof was placed upon them, in order to pursue as soon as might be possible the building of that palace, which was to be the granary of the Commune; and it was given to Jacopo di Casentino, as a person then much practised, to paint these vaults, with instructions that he should make there, as he did, together with the patriarchs, some prophets and the chiefs of the tribes, which were in all sixteen figures on a ground of ultramarine, to-day half spoilt, not to mention the other ornaments. Next, on the walls below and on the piers, he made many miracles of the Madonna, and other works that are recognized by the manner. Niccolo Aretino 103: On returning to Florence, he made two little figures in marble for the Masters of the Mint, on that corner of Orsanmichele that faces the Guild of Wool, in the pilaster, above the niche wherein there is now the S. Matthew, which was made afterwards; and these figures were so well made and so well placed on the summit of that shrine that they were then much extolled, as they have been ever afterwards, and in them Niccolò appears to have surpassed himself, for he never did anything better.

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Nanni di Banco 113-5: There is by his hand, in Florence, the S. Philip of marble which is on a pilaster on the outside of the Oratory of Orsanmichele. This work was at first allotted to Donato by the Guild of Shoemakers, and then, since they could not agree with him about the price, it was transferred, as though in despite of Donato, to Nanni, who promised that he would take whatsoever payment they might give him, and would ask no other. But the business fell out otherwise, for, when the statue was finished and set in its place, he asked a much greater price for his work than Donato had done at the beginning; wherefore the valuation of it was referred by both parties to Donato, the Consuls of that Guild believing firmly that he, out of envy at not having made it, would value it at much less than if it were his own work; but they were disappointed in their belief, for Donato judged that much more should be paid to Nanni for his statue than he had demanded. Being in no way willing to abide by this judgment, the Consuls made an outcry and said to Donato: “Why dost thou, after undertaking to make this work at a smaller price, value it higher when made by the hand of another, and constrain us to give him more for it than he himself demands? For thou knowest, even as we do also, that from thy hands it would have come out much better.” Donato answered, laughing: “This good man is not my equal in the art, and endures much more fatigue than I do in working; wherefore, if you wish to give him satisfaction, like the just men that I take you for, you are bound to pay him for the time that he has spent.” And thus the award of Donato was carried into effect, both parties having agreed to abide by it. This work stands well enough, and has good grace and liveliness in the head; the draperies are not hard, and are in no wise badly arranged about the figure. In another niche below this one there are four saints in marble, which the same Nanni was commissioned to make by the Guild of Smiths, Carpenters, and Masons; and it is said that, having finished them all in the round and detached one from another, and having prepared the niche, it was with great difficulty that he could get even three of them into it, for he had made some of them in attitudes with the arms outstretched; and that he besought Donato, in grief and despair, to consent with his counsel to repair his own misfortune and lack of foresight. And Donato, laughing over the mischance, answered: “If thou wilt promise to pay for a supper for me and all my apprentices, I will undertake to get the saints into the niche without any trouble.” This Nanni promised to do right willingly, and Donato sent him to Prato, to take certain measurements and to do some other business that would take him some days. Whereupon, Nanni having departed, Donato, with all his disciples and apprentices, set to work and cut some of the statues down in the shoulders and some in the arms, in such wise that he contrived to group them close together, each making place for the other, while he made a hand appear over the shoulders of one of them. And thus the judgment of Donato, having joined them harmoniously together, concealed the error of Nanni so well that they still show, in that place where they were fixed, most manifest signs of concord and brotherhood; and anyone who does not know the circumstance sees nothing of the error. Nanni, finding on his return that Donato had corrected everything and put all his disorder

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to rights, rendered him infinite thanks, and with great goodwill paid for the supper for him and his pupils. Under the feet of these four saints, in the ornament of the shrine, there is a scene in marble and in half-relief, wherein a sculptor is carving a boy with great animation, and a master is building, with two men assisting him; and all these little figures are seen to be very well grouped and intent on what they are doing. 117: It is also reputed that the S. Lo which is without the said Oratory of Orsanmichele, and which was made for the Guild of Farriers, is by the hand of the same Nanni, and likewise the marble shrine, in the base of which, at the foot, there is a scene wherein S. Lo, the Farrier, is shoeing a frenzied horse, so well made that Nanni deserved much praise for it; and he would have deserved and obtained much greater praise with other works, if he had not died, as he did, while still young. None the less, by reason of these few works Nanni was held a passing good sculptor; and being a citizen, he obtained many offices in his native city of Florence, and because he bore himself like a just and reasonable man both in these and in all his other affairs, he was greatly beloved. Luca della Robbia 124-5: After these works, Luca sought to find a way of painting figures and scenes on a level surface of terra-cotta, in order to give long life to pictures, and made an experiment in a medallion which is above the shrine of the four saints without Orsanmichele, on the level surface of which, in five parts, he made the instruments and insignia of the Guilds of the Masters in Wood and Stone, with very beautiful ornaments. And he made two other medallions in the same place, in relief, in one of which, for the Guild of Apothecaries, he made a Madonna, and in the other, for the Mercatanzia, a lily on a bale, which has round it a festoon of fruits and foliage of various sorts, so well made, that they appear to be real and not of painted terracotta. Lorenzo Ghiberti 150-1: This work finished, it appeared to the Consuls of the Guild of Merchants that they had been very well served, and by reason of the praises given by all to Lorenzo they determined that he should make a statue of bronze, four braccia and a half high, in memory of S. John the Baptist, on a pilaster without Orsanmichele, in one of the niches there—namely, the one facing the Cloth-dressers. This he began, nor did he ever leave it until he delivered it finished. It was and still is a work highly praised, and in it, on the mantle, he made a border of letters, wherein he wrote his own name. In this work, which was placed in position in the year 1414, there is seen the beginning of the good modern manner, in the head, in an arm which appears to be living flesh, in the hands, and in the whole attitude of the figure. He was thus the first who began to imitate the works of the ancient Romans, whereof he was an ardent student, as all must be who desire to do good work. And in the frontal of that shrine he tried his hand at mosaic, making therein a half-length prophet.

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151-2: The Masters of the Mint in Florence had a statue to make for one of those niches that are round Orsanmichele, opposite to the Guild of Wool, and it was to be a S. Matthew, of the same height as the aforesaid S. John. Wherefore they allotted it to Lorenzo, who executed it to perfection; and it was much more praised than the S. John, for he made it more in the modern manner. This statue brought it about that the Consuls of the Guild of Wool determined that he should make in the same place, for the niche next to that, a statue likewise in bronze, which should be of the same proportions as the other two, representing S. Stephen, their Patron Saint. And he brought it to completion, giving a very beautiful varnish to the bronze; and this statue gave no less satisfaction than the other works already wrought by him. Filippo Brunelleschi 200: Wherefore, the talent of these truly excellent masters being recognized, they received a commission from the Guild of Butchers and from the Guild of LinenManufacturers for two figures in marble, to be made for their niches, which are on the outside of Orsanmichele. Having undertaken other work, Filippo left these figures to Donato to make by himself, and Donato executed them to perfection. 236: Other disciples of Filippo were Domenico dal Lago di Lugano; Geremia da Cremona, who worked very well in bronze, together with a Sclavonian who made many works in Venice; Simone, who died at Vicovaro while executing a great work for the Count of Tagliacozzo, after having made the Madonna in Orsanmichele for the Guild of the Apothecaries; Donatello 242-3: For S. Michele in Orto in the said city he wrought the marble statue of S. Peter which is to be seen there, a most masterly and admirable figure, for the Guild of Butchers; and for the Guild of Linen-manufacturers he wrought the figure of S. Mark the Evangelist, which, after being commissioned to make it in company with Filippo Brunelleschi, he finished by himself with the consent of Filippo. This figure was wrought by Donato with so great judgment that its excellence was not recognized, while it stood on the ground, by those who had no judgment, and the Consuls of that Guild were inclined to refuse to have it put into place; whereupon Donato besought them to let him set it on high, saying that he wished to work on it and to show them a different figure as the result. His request being granted, he covered it up for a fortnight, and then uncovered it without having otherwise touched it, filling everyone with wonder. III Sandro Botticelli 253-4: He was among the first to discover the method of decorating standards and other sorts of hangings with the so-called inlaid work, to the end that the colours might not fade and might show the tint of the cloth on either side. By his hand, and made thus, is the baldacchino of Orsanmichele, covered with beautiful and varied

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figures of Our Lady; which proves how much better such a method preserves the cloth than does the use of mordants, which eat it away and make its life but short although, being less costly, mordants are now used more than anything else. Andrea Verrocchio 269-70: Now Donatello had made for the Tribunal of Six of the Mercanzia that marble shrine which is now opposite to S. Michael, in the Oratory of Orsanmichele, and for this there was to have been made a S. Thomas in bronze, feeling for the wound in the side of Christ; but at that time nothing more was done, for some of the men who had the charge of this wished to have it made by Donatello, and others favoured Lorenzo Ghiberti. Matters stood thus as long as Donatello and Ghiberti were alive; but finally the said two statues were entrusted to Andrea, who, having made the models and moulds, cast them; and they came out so solid, complete, and well made, that it was a most beautiful casting. Thereupon, setting himself to polish and finish them, he brought them to that perfection which is seen at the present day, which could not be greater than it is, for in S. Thomas we see incredulity and a too great anxiety to assure himself of the truth, and at the same time the love that makes him lay his hand in a most beautiful manner on the side of Christ; and in Christ Himself, who is raising one arm and opening His raiment with a most spontaneous gesture, and dispelling the doubts of His incredulous disciple, there are all the grace and divinity, so to speak, that art can give to any figure. Andrea clothed both these figures in most beautiful and well-arranged draperies, which give us to know that he understood that art no less than did Donato, Lorenzo, and the others who had lived before him; wherefore this work well deserved to be set up in a shrine made by Donatello, and to be ever afterwards held in the greatest price and esteem. IV Giuliano and Antonio da San Gallo 203: By his departure he left a heavy burden of sorrow to his brother Antonio, who loved him tenderly, and to a son of his own named Francesco, who was engaged in sculpture, although he was still quite young. This Francesco, who has preserved up to our own day all the treasures of his elders, and holds them in veneration, executed many works at Florence and elsewhere, both in sculpture and in architecture, and by his hand is the Madonna of marble, with the Child in her arms, and lying in the lap of S. Anne, that is in Orsanmichele; which work, with the figures carved in the round out of one single block, was held, as it still is, to be very beautiful. He has also executed the tomb that Pope Clement caused to be made for Piero de’ Medici at Monte Cassino, besides many other works, of which no mention is here made because the said Francesco is still alive.

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V Lorenzo di Credi 51: While still a young man, Lorenzo painted a S. Bartholomew on a pilaster in Orsanmichele, and for the Nuns of S. Chiara, in Florence, a panel-picture of the Nativity of Christ, with some shepherds and angels; in which picture, besides other things, he took great pains with the imitation of some herbage, painting it so well that it appears to be real. Andrea del Sarto 91: Whereupon he was commissioned at the instance of Baccio d’ Agnolo to paint in fresco, in a close on the steep path of Orsanmichele, which leads to the Mercato Nuovo, the Annunciation still to be seen there, executed on a minute scale, which brought him but little praise; and this may have been because Andrea, who worked well without over-exerting himself or forcing his powers, is believed to have tried in this work to force himself and to paint with too much care. IX Michelangelo 111: To a citizen who found him by Orsanmichele in Florence, where he had stopped to gaze at Donato’s statue of S. Mark, and who asked him what he thought of that figure, Michelagnolo answered that he had never seen a figure that had more of the air of a good man than that one, and that, if S. Mark was like that, one could give credence to what he had written. Jacopo Sansovino 188: And that this is true a proof is that in the altar-piece of S. Francesco, belonging to the Nuns of the Via Pentolini, there is a S. John the Evangelist which was copied from a most beautiful model in clay that Sansovino made in those days in competition with Baccio da Montelupo; for the Guild of Por Santa Maria wished to have a bronze statue of four braccia made for a niche at the corner of Orsanmichele, opposite to the Wool-Shearers, for which Jacopo made a more beautiful model in clay than Baccio, but nevertheless it was allotted to Montelupo, from his being an older master, rather than to Sansovino, although his work, young as he was, was the better. X Francesco da San Gallo 22: Francesco di Giuliano da San Gallo, sculptor, architect, and Academician, and now a man seventy years of age, has executed many works of sculpture, as has been related in the Life of his father and elsewhere; the three figures of marble, somewhat larger than life, which are over the altar of the Church of Orsanmichele, S. Anne, the Virgin, and the Child Christ, figures which are much extolled;

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BOCCHI, 46-9: 46/7: One then arrives {…} at the Church of San Michele where one encounters many memorable things. This building is called Orsanmichele because the city once stored grain here; when the Latin term [for granary], horreum, was corrupted, the word was truncated and thus became Orsan Michele, since the church of that Saint is nearby. The building was laid out to the design of Arnolfo, the architect of the dome {sic}, and, as one sees, was executed with great magnificence. By order of Grand Duke Cosimo the upper rooms today serve as storerooms for official documents, called archive after the Greek word. Here legal documents on paper are most reliably preserved. Below, on ground level, masses are said and various services are held. Outside there are marvellous and most beautiful statues, such as a St. Matthew by Lorenzo Ghiberti, the master of the doors of San Giovanni, displaying a beautiful and praiseworthy manner. The two little figures above by Niccolò Aretino are extraordinarily beautiful. St. Stephen and St. John the Baptist are also by Lorenzo Ghiberti, and all three of these statues are marvellous and excellent. The Madonna in marble is by Simone of Fiesole, a pupil of Filippo Brunelleschi. [This work] is of excellent design and remarkable workmanship. {description of the miracle in 1443}. 47: The St. John the Evangelist in bronze, placed near the corner, is by Baccio da Montelupo. Experts consider this figure as very beautiful. In it one recognises an extreme and felicitous diligence, and one discerns in the external beauty of the limbs and of the very dignified face that the soul within is similarly very beautiful, sincere, and saintly. In addition there are three statues by Donatello, a famous sculptor, as has been pointed out. One of them represents St. Peter. It is very fine and much esteemed by the artists. 48: The figure of St. Mark the Evangelist is truly executed with so much knowledge, and such profound judgement that the more one contemplates it, the more one discerns its astounding excellence. 48/9: Undoubtedly marvellous beyond comparison is the St. George, regarded as equal to the finest sculptures in Rome, and in the opinion of the experts their superior for its exceeding liveliness. This figure is most famous; it makes one tremble with wonder, and the most quick-witted intellects and the best artists wonder how it can be that marble almost contains movement and spirit, and acts as this great artist originally had wanted it to act. It has rightly been celebrated by many in verse and in prose, and not long ago, in a substantial treatise such praise appeared in print as everybody believes was due to so sovereign an art work. The Apostle Thomas in bronze placing his hand on Christ’s side, facing the main street, is by Andrea del Verrocchio, a fine and highly regarded artist. The facial

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expression of this Saint fully conforms with his inquisitive gesture, the result of his excessive incredulity. Christ’s expression, on the other hand, is full of benign affection, and he raises His arm, so that His disciple may act as he wishes. The folds, art fully arranged over the limbs with outstanding care, are wonderful, as one sees.

BALDINUCCI Orsanmichele: I.45; I.99; I.218; I.225; I.229; I.262 & 266-8; I.341; I.354-63; I.4056; I.409; I.424-7 & 429; I.455; I.515; I.537; I.569; I.582; II.567; III.66; IV.110; IV.163.

RICHA, part I, vol I, lesson I-III, 1-34.

CHAPTER TWENTY THREE SAN REMIGIO

Via San Remigio, 4; free entrance but no visits during religious services.

History The church of San Remigio (Fig. 23 a) is situated halfway between Palazzo Vecchio and Santa Croce, just outside the first circle of the city walls. In its place was a hospice and oratory called San Romeo (probably ninth century), which offered shelter to French pilgrims on their way to Rome along the Via Romea (Via Francigena) and, therefore, called “Romei”. The name of San Remigio was first mentioned in documents on the occasion of a donation in the year 1040. San Remigio also maintained a connection to France through a tradition that tied the conversion of King Clovis to his son’s illness and miraculous healing. According to legend the king was baptised by Saint Remigius, who was bishop of Reims in 496. The present church was built in the eleventh century and restored in the Gothic style in the thirteenth century. The important musician and composer Gherardello da Firenze, a representative of the Italian Ars Nova was its prior during the last years of his life (d. 1362/63). During the early fourteenth century, Gherardo Alighieri donated his house and part of an orchard to the church so that the piazza (1303) as well as the church building itself might be enlarged. Florence and Reims were twinned in 1995 when an architectural element was taken from the cathedral of Reims to San Remigio. It is preserved in a small room at the base of the former campanile that is decorated with frescoes discovered during the 1966 flood.

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Figure 23 a: Façade of San Remigio (photo: CM).

Architecture The Romanesque gabled façade of the church in pietra forte (Fig. 23 a) includes the main porch with architrave and pointed arch (Fig. 23 c) as well as an arched window and hanging arches along the roof line. On the right of the main entrance is another door with rounded arch, gable and architrave, which may have been part of the earlier Romanesque building. The portals in pietra serena bear the name and coat of arms of the Falconcini family.

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The Gothic style of the conversion carried out during the thirteenth and fourteenth century is most obvious in the interior with two-coloured pointed arches. San Remigio is a rectangular three-nave hall church (Fig. 23 b) and a stone cross-vaulted ceiling supported by octagonal pillars. The pillars are crowned by ornate capitals with acanthus leaves and masks. The aisles have the same height as the main nave, in accordance with the northern Gothic style. Nave and aisles terminate in a rectangular chapel. In the right aisle, over the entrance to the sacristy, is the late-sixteenthcentury pipe organ, originally constructed by Giovanni Pietro Contini.

Figure 23 b: Plan of San Remigio (plan: SC).

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Figure 23 c: Porch of San Remigio (photo: VG).

Art The vaults are decorated with frescoed tondi of the fourteenth century (attributed by Vasari to Agnolo Gaddi). The (slightly raised) main sanctuary houses the choir, the main altar (Leopoldo Pasqui, 1818) and a wooden crucifix of the sixteenth century. The aisle chapel on the right displays the late-thirteenth-century altarpiece of a Madonna and Child (by the so-called Master of San Remigio, sometimes attributed to Gaddo Gaddi), while in the aisle chapel on the left is the Immaculate Conception by Jacopo Chimenti of 1591 (http://www. scalarchives.com/web/dettaglio_immagine.asp?idImmagine=0072976&po

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sizione=1&numImmagini=1&prmset=on&ANDOR=and&xesearch=0072 976&ricerca_s=0072976&SC_PROV=RR&SC_Lang=ita&Sort=8). The Pietà di San Remigio by Giottino (Tommaso or Maso di Stefano, 1360-65) was probably originally displayed on the church’s high altar or on the tramezzo. It was removed in 1851 and taken to the Uffizi (N. Cat. 00284901, http://www.virtualuffizi.com/piet%C3%A0.html). Another work of art no longer in situ at the church is the Annunciation by Nardo or Mariotto di Cione, today at the Galleria dell’Accademia. The aisle on the right has two side altars with altarpieces of Saint Remigius baptising King Clovis by Giuseppe Bezzuoli (1821) and the remains of a fresco depicting Saint Sigismund of the second half of the fourteenth century. The aisle on the left is frescoed with scenes of the life of Saint Christopher (sixteenth century). The counter façade of the central nave is decorated with the half figure of Saint Remigius. The frescoes discovered during the flood of 1966 show scenes of courtly life, such as hunting and jousting and the life of a hermit. On the walls of the loggia in the inner cloister are frescoes attributed to Paolo Uccello. Bibl: Cesati 2002, 136-137; Goy 2015, 146; Horstmann 2011, 96-7; Mercanti and Straffi 2001, 68-73; Paatz 1953, V, 5-18; Tovey 2005, 317; Verdon, Coppellotti, Fabbri 2000, 88-91. Sources: VILLANI VII § 14. 220-3—How the second Popolo rose in Florence, for the which cause Count Guido Novello, with the Ghibelline leaders, left Florence. 1266 a.d. Then the same was asked concerning the Pisans, and likewise concerning all the cities of the league; and when he knew that all were there, he gave orders to his standard-bearer to advance with banners, and this was done; and they took the wide road of San Firenze, and behind San Pietro Scheraggio and San Romeo to the old Ox Gate, and when this was opened, the Count, with all his horsemen, sallied forth, and held on by the moats behind San Jacopo, and by the piazza of Santa Croce, where as yet there were no houses, and along the Borgo di Pinti; and there stones were cast upon them; and they turned by Cafaggio, and in the evening went

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to Prato; and this was on S. Martin’s Day, the 11th day of November, in the year of Christ 1266. VASARI I Andrea Orcagna 190: In the Church of the Servites in the same city he painted in fresco, also with Bernardo, the Chapel of the family of Cresci; with a Coronation of Our Lady on a very large panel in S. Pietro Maggiore, and a panel in S. Romeo, close to the sidedoor. 196-7: He used to write in his pictures: FECE ANDREA DI CIONE, SCULTORE; and in his sculptures: FECE ANDREA DI CIONE, PITTORE; wishing that his painting should be known by his sculpture, and his sculpture by his painting. There are throughout all Florence many panels made by him, which are partly known by the name, such as a panel in S. Romeo, and partly by the manner, such as one that is in the Chapter-house of the Monastery of the Angeli. Tommaso, called Giottino 207: It is said that Tommaso was melancholic in temperament and very solitary, but with respect to art devoted and very studious, as it is clearly seen from a panel in the Church of S. Romeo in Florence, wrought by him in distemper with so great diligence and love that there has never been seen a better work on wood by his hand. In this panel, which is placed in the tramezzo of the church, on the right hand, is a Dead Christ with the Maries and Nicodemus, accompanied by other figures, who are bewailing His death with bitterness and with very sweet and affectionate movements, wringing their hands with diverse gestures, and beating themselves in a manner that in the air of the faces there is shown very clearly their sharp sorrow at the so great cost of our sins. And it is something marvellous to consider, not that he penetrated with his genius to such a height of imagination, but that he could express it so well with the brush. Wherefore this work is consummately worthy of praise, not so much by reason of the subject and of the invention, as because in it the craftsman has shown, in some heads that are weeping, that although the lineaments of those that are weeping are distorted in the brows, in the eyes, in the nose, and in the mouth, this, however, neither spoils nor alters a certain beauty which is wont to suffer much in weeping when the painters do not know well how to avail themselves of the good methods of art. But it is no great thing that Giottino should have executed this panel with so much consideration, since in his labours he ever aimed rather at fame and glory than at any other reward, being free from the greed of gain, that makes our present masters less diligent and good. And even as he did not seek to have great riches, so he did not trouble himself much about the comforts of life—nay, living poorly, he sought to satisfy others rather than himself; wherefore, taking little care of himself and enduring fatigue, he died of consumption at the age of thirty-two, and was given

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burial by his relatives at the Martello Gate without S. Maria Novella, beside the tomb of Bontura. Agnolo Gaddi 220: In Florence, next, he painted the arch over the door of S. Romeo; and in Orto S. Michele he wrought in distemper a Disputation of the Doctors with Christ in the Temple. III Fra Giovanni Beato Angelico 35: There is also a panel in the Chapel of the Nasi in S. Lucia, and another in S. Romeo; and in the guardaroba of the Duke there is the portrait of Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici, with that of Bartolommeo Valori, in one and the same picture by the hand of the same man. VIII Bastiano da San Gallo, called Aristotile 16: For S. Romeo, in an altar-piece, he painted Our Lady and two Saints.

BALDINUCCI S Remigio detto S Romeo: I.253 & 502; I.567; II.370; IV.316.

RICHA, part I, vol I, lesson XX, 254-60.

CHAPTER TWENTY FOUR SANTO SPIRITO

Piazza Santo Spirito, 30; free entry, for opening hours, images and a free downloadable guide (for now only available in Italian) please visit http://www.basilicasantospirito.it/.

History The Basilica of Santa Maria del Santo Spirito (of the Holy Spirit) was originally founded as the church of an Augustinian convent in the Oltrarno in c.1250. In the late 1420s/early 1430s Brunelleschi was commissioned to design a new building. In 1434, he delivered a model, which was approved, but he did not see his church completed. Work continued under his followers, for example Antonio Manetti and Giovanni da Gaiole. Salvi d’Andrea constructed the large dome over the crossing. Brunelleschi had envisaged the basilica to be turned towards the Arno and facing a large square by the river front. The leading families with palazzi in the neighbourhood, such as the Frescobaldi and Capponi, opposed these plans because of the high cost involved in demolishing existing buildings between the church and the river. The previous church nearby, which was still used while construction work went on, burnt down in 1471 and so the monks lost their library as well as many thirteenth-century works of art by Cimabue and the Gaddi family. As a result most of the decoration inside was created during a very limited time in the late fifteenth century, which contributes to its harmony. Together with the enforcement of modules and proportional measurements with a special focus on the number four (the Trinity plus the World), such harmony may have prompted Bernini’s dictum that Santo Spirito is “the most beautiful church in the world.” The plain, whitewashed façade (Fig. 24 a) was decorated with architectural paintings at the end of the eighteenth century. The decoration was removed during restoration work during the 1970s. In accordance with the intended focus on the number four, there ought to have been four

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portals giving access into the church. Here as in other instances, for example in the case of apsidal arcade walls, Brunelleschi’s plans were not carried out exactly as intended.

Figure 24 a: Façade of Santo Spirito (photo: AG).

Architecture On the left of the basilica stands the bell tower, which was designed by Baccio d’Agnolo in 1503. The basilica itself was built in a Latin cross shape consisting of a nave and transept (Fig. 24 b). Here, the proportions were observed at the time of construction so that the long nave, shorter transept, crossing and choir are

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all made up of squares and the grid is easily legible: nave 8:4, transept (across) 8:4; crossing 4:4, choir 4:2.

Figure 24 b: The Latin-cross plan of Santo Spirito, with nave, transept and a high number of uniform side chapels, cloister and sacristy (plan: SC).

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The 38 apsidal side chapels are uniform in size and ought to have been visible as convex curves on the outside walls that were, however, straightened contrary to Brunelleschi’s design. Tall pietra serena columns divide the main nave from the domed aisles and side chapels. Even though the height of nave and aisles is on the same level (different to the situation in San Lorenzo, chapter 11), the columns bearing the arches are crowned by dosserets above their Corinthian capitals. Brunelleschi had intended the nave to be covered by a barrel-vaulted ceiling but it was given a flat, richly carved roof instead. The unfrescoed dome above the crossing (completed 1482) is borne by twelve columns and has twelve segments and twelve oculus windows. The sacristy and its vestibule with a coffered barrel vault by Simone del Pollaiuolo (il Cronaca) to the left of the nave were added in 1489-1493 after the design of Giuliano da Sangallo in imitation of Brunelleschi’s Pazzi Chapel. The sacristy is octagonal in shape and like the church interior combines the Brunelleschian/Florentine scheme of white stucco with grey pietra serena membering. Shortly after the sacristy had been completed, it collapsed and thus needed to be rebuilt. The two cloisters of the convent, the Chiostro dei Morti and the Chiostro Grande were added in the later sixteenth and early seventeenth century. The so-called “great cloister” was built by Bartolomeo Ammannati between 1564 and 1569, while the “cloister of the dead” is socalled after the many tombstones on its walls; Alfonso Parigi built it in c.1600.

Art The church’s inner façade is by Salvi d’Andrea, who also accomplished the construction of the dome. It still bears the original stained-glass window of the Pentecost after a design by Pietro Perugino. The 38 side chapels contain many important works of art commissioned by the city’s leading families, although with few exceptions permission was not granted to have tomb monuments attached to the walls nor to have fresco decoration. Among the most important are the Bini-Capponi Chapel with Francesco Botticini’s (or Andrea del Verrocchio’s) St. Monica with Augustinian Nuns, the works by Andrea Sansovino, Cosimo Rosselli and Donnino and Agnolo del Mazziere in two of the Corbinelli chapels of the left transept, Filippino Lippi’s Nerli Altarpiece in the Nerli Chapel, and Pier Francesco di Jacopo Foschi’s Dispute over the Immaculate Conception in the Torrigiani Chapel as well his Resurrection across the

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nave. In the choir behind the high altar Alessandro Allori created the Christ and the Adulteress and the Ten Thousand Martyrs of Ararat for the Frescobaldi and Pitti chapels respectively in 1577 and 1574. The predella of the altarpiece for the Pitti chapel shows Luca Pitti outside his palace before its later enlargements. Filippo Lippi’s 1437 Barbadori Altarpiece of the Virgin and Child with angels and Saints Frediano and Augustine was looted by the French army in 1810 and is displayed at the Louvre. Its predella is at the Uffizi (N. Cat. 00281153, https://www.virtualuffizi.com/predella-of-the-barbad ori-altarpiece.html). Rosso Fiorentino’s Madonna and Child with Ten Saints was painted for the chapel of the Dei family in 1522 but was acquired by Prince Ferdinando in the late seventeenth century and is exhibited in the Galleria Palatina at Palazzo Pitti (N. Cat. 00295266). The refectory of the former convent is preserved and still displays parts of the fourteenth-century fresco of the Crucifixion above an almost destroyed Last Supper, possibly by Andrea Orcagna. In the refectory are also some examples of works of sculpture by Donatello, Jacopo della Quercia and others, part of the collection of the Fondazione Salvatore Romano. In the sacristy is a wooden Crucifix said to be by the young Michelangelo who after the death of his patron Lorenzo il Magnifico found refuge and the opportunity to conduct anatomical studies at the convent; allegedly he repaid the monks with this work of art. The Crucifix was rediscovered in 1963 but has not yet been universally accepted by art historians as Michelangelo’s Christ Crucified. Inside the church, few attempts have been made to give the interior a Baroque appearance. An exception is the polychrome marble baldachin by Giovanni Battista Caccini and Gherardo Silvani, which was placed over the high altar between 1599 and 1607. The tempietto contains the Blessed Sacrament. Bibl: Borsook 1983, 279-83; Cesati 2002, 72-6; Crispino 1999, 66-7; De Boer 2010, annotations 195-200: 193-4; Goy 2015, 269-72; Hartt & Wilkins 2007, 16871, 471-2; Horstmann 2011, 194-9; Kleiner 2010, 242-4 and 248; Lisner 1963, 1-2 and 2000, 31-68; Mozzati 2014, 217-23; Murray 2004, 9, 42-4, and 47-9; Paatz 1953, V, 117-208; Paolucci 2006, 266-85; Tovey 2005, 318; Verdon, Coppellotti, Fabbri 2000, 142-51. Sources:

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ALBERTINI 99: The Quarter of Santo Spirito […] Filippo Brunelleschi’s beautiful Church of Santo Spirito is 161 braccia [93. 96 m.] long, supported by large stone columns and a testudinate dome made of carved stone, with a lavishly decorated sacristy, in which there are six paintings by Taddeo Gaddi and the crucifix with its figures above the door. This church contains numerous works by modern masters who have nothing to be ashamed of when compared to the ancient masters. In addition, there is the marble altarpiece by Andrea Sansovino and the crucifix in the choir by Michelangelo. The tabernacle outside in the square is by Giottino.

VASARI I Preface Lii: In short, the architecture of this church [of S. Apostolo] is such that Filippo di Ser Brunellesco did not disdain to avail himself of it as a model in building the Church of S. Spirito and that of S. Lorenzo in the same city. Lvii-lviii: […] and in other places as well; and so, too, they kept making many pictures in that [Byzantine] manner, with eyes staring, hands outstretched, and standing on tiptoe, as may still be seen in S. Miniato without Florence, between the door that leads into the sacristy and that which leads into the convent; and in S. Spirito in the said city, the whole side of the cloister opposite the church; […]. Cimabue 7: Having returned, then, to Florence, Cimabue painted in the cloister of S. Spirito (wherein there is painted in the Greek manner, by other masters, the whole side facing the church) three small arches by his own hand, from the life of Christ, and truly with much design. Stefano and Ugolino Sanese 109: and in Florence, in the cloister of S. Spirito, he painted three little arches in fresco. In the first of these, wherein is the Transfiguration of Christ with Moses and Elias, imagining how great must have been the splendour that dazzled them, he fashioned the three Disciples with extraordinary and beautiful attitudes, and enveloped in draperies in a manner that it is seen that he went on trying to do something that had never been done before—namely, to suggest the nude form of the figures below new kinds of folds, which, as I have said, had not been thought of even by Giotto. Under this arch, wherein he made a Christ delivering the woman possessed, he drew a building in perspective, perfectly and in a manner then little known, executing it in good form and with better knowledge; and in it, working with very great judgment in modern fashion, he showed so great art and so great

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invention and proportion in the columns, in the doors, in the windows, and in the cornices, and so great diversity from the other masters in his method of working, that it appears that there was beginning to be seen a certain glimmer of the good and perfect manner of the moderns. 114: But returning to Stefano, of whom they say that he was also a good architect, which is proved by what has been said above, he died, so it is said, in the year when there began the jubilee, 1350, at the age of forty-nine, and was laid to rest in the tomb of his fathers, in S. Spirito, with this epitaph: STEPHANO FLORENTINO PICTORI, FACIUNDIS IMAGINIBUS AC COLORANDIS FIGURIS NULLI UNQUAM INFERIORI, AFFINES MOESTISS. POS. VIX. AN. XXXXIX. Simone Martini 168-9: This done, Simone was brought by the General of the Augustinians to Florence, where he painted the Chapter-house of S. Spirito, showing invention and admirable judgment in the figures and the horses that he made, as is proved in that place by the story of the Passion of Christ, wherein everything is seen to have been made by him with ingenuity, with discretion, and with most beautiful grace. There are seen the Thieves on the Cross yielding up their breath, and the soul of the good one being carried to Heaven by the angels, and that of the wicked one going, accompanied by devils and all harassed, to the torments of Hell. Simone likewise showed invention and judgment in the attitudes and in the very bitter weeping of some angels round the Crucifix. But what is most worthy of consideration, above everything else, is to see those spirits visibly cleaving the air with their shoulders, almost whirling right round and yet sustaining the motion of their flight. This work would bear much stronger witness to the excellence of Simone, if, besides the fact that time has eaten it away, it had not been spoilt by those Fathers in the year 1560, when they, being unable to use the Chapter-house, because it was in bad condition from damp, made a vaulted roof to replace a worm-eaten ceiling, and threw down the little that was left of the pictures of this man. 173: Lippo [his brother] afterwards finished many works that Simone had left imperfect, and among these was a Passion of Jesus Christ over the high-altar of S. Niccola in Ancona, wherein Lippo finished what Simone had begun, imitating that which the said Simone had made and finished in the Chapter-house of S. Spirito in Florence. This work would be worthy of a longer life than peradventure will be granted to it, there being in it many horses and soldiers in beautiful attitudes, which they are striking with various animated movements, doubting and marvelling whether they have crucified or not the Son of God. Taddeo Gaddi 178: In the cloister of S. Spirito he wrought two scenes in the little arches beside the Chapter-house, in one of which he made Judas selling Christ, and in the other

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the Last Supper that He held with the Apostles. And in the same convent, over the door of the refectory, he painted a Crucifix and some Saints, which give us to know that among the others who worked here he was truly an imitator of the manner of Giotto, which he held ever in the greatest veneration. Tommaso, called Giottino 204: And he wrought in fresco a chapel in the old S. Spirito in that city, which was afterwards ruined in the burning of that church; and in fresco, over the principal door of the church, the story of the Sending of the Holy Spirit; […]. Agnolo Gaddi 219: And because he used to work by caprice, now with more zeal and now with less, working in S. Spirito, also in Florence, within the door that leads from the square into the convent, he made in fresco, over another door, a Madonna with the Child in her arms, and S. Augustine and S. Nicholas, so well that the said figures appear as if made only yesterday. 221: A disciple of Agnolo, also, was Michele da Milano, as was Giovanni Gaddi, his brother, who made, in the cloister of S. Spirito where are the little arches of Gaddo and of Taddeo, the Disputation of Christ in the Temple with the Doctors, the Purification of the Virgin, the Temptation of Christ in the Wilderness, and the Baptism of John; and finally, having created very great expectation, he died. II Berna 4-5: This same story [of Marino the swindler], says Lorenzo Ghiberti, by the hand of the same man, was in a chapel of the Capponi, dedicated to S. Nicholas, in S. Spirito at Florence, before that church was burnt down. […] Returning after these works to his own country, he made on wood many pictures both small and great; but he made no long stay there, because, being summoned to Florence, he painted in S. Spirito the Chapel of S. Niccolò, which we have mentioned above, and which was much extolled, and other works that were consumed in the miserable burning of that church. Antonio Viniziano 15-6: Wherefore the poor Antonio, finding himself thus crushed and overborne, took the wiser part and returned to Florence, with the intention never again to consent to return to Venice, and determined once and for all that his country should be Florence. Establishing himself, then, in that city, he painted in the cloister of S. Spirito, in a little arch, a Christ who is calling Peter and Andrew from their nets, and Zebedee and his sons; and below the three little arches of Stefano he painted the story of the miracle of Christ with the loaves and fishes, wherein he showed infinite diligence and lovingness, as it is clearly seen in the figure of Christ Himself, who, in the air of His countenance and in His aspect, is showing the compassion that He has for the multitude, and the ardour of the love wherewith He

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is causing the bread to be dispensed. Great affection, likewise, is seen in the very beautiful action of an Apostle, who is exerting himself greatly in dispensing the bread from a basket. From this work all who belong to art learn ever to paint their figures in a manner that they may appear to be speaking, for otherwise they are not prized. Antonio demonstrated the same thing on the outer frontal in a little scene of the Manna, wrought with so great diligence, and finished with so fine grace, that it can be truly called excellent. 19-20: Finally, falling sick from disease of the stomach, or, as others say, from plague caught while acting as physician, he finished the course of his life at the age of seventy-four, in the year 1384, when there was a very great plague in Florence, having been no less expert as physician than he was diligent as painter; wherefore, having made infinite experiments in medicine by means of those who had availed themselves of him in their necessities, he left to the world a very good name for himself in both one and the other of these arts. Antonio drew very graciously with the pen, and so well in chiaroscuro, that some drawings by him which are in our book, wherein he made the little arch of S. Spirito, are the best of those times. Lorenzo di Bicci 70: And about the same time he painted the shrine of the Canto alla Cuculia, and that which is on the house-front in the Via de’ Martelli; and, over the Martello door in S. Spirito, a S. Augustine in fresco presenting the Rule to his friars. Preface to the Second Part 85: Design grew in strength and depth; good grace was given to buildings; the excellence of that art made itself known; and the beauty and variety of capitals and cornices were recovered in such a manner, that the ground-plans of his churches and of his other edifices are seen to have been very well conceived, and the buildings themselves ornate, magnificent, and beautifully proportioned, […]; in the ornate, varied, and graceful Church of S. Spirito, Filippo Brunelleschi 197-8: In Florence, a little later, there was a statue of lime-wood to be made for the Friars of S. Spirito, representing S. Mary Magdalene in Penitence, to be placed in a chapel; and Filippo, who had wrought many little things in sculpture, desiring to show that he was able to succeed in large works as well, undertook to make the said figure, which, when put into execution and finished, was held something very beautiful; but it was destroyed afterwards, together with many other notable works, in the year 1471, when that church was burnt down. 233-4: One year the Lenten sermons in S. Spirito had been preached by Maestro Francesco Zoppo, who was then very dear to the people of Florence, and he had strongly recommended the claims of that convent, of the school for youths, and particularly of the church, which had been burnt down about that time. Whereupon the chief men of that quarter, Lorenzo Ridolfi, Bartolommeo Corbinelli, Neri di Gino Capponi, and Goro di Stagio Dati, with very many other citizens, obtained an

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order from the Signoria for the rebuilding of the Church of S. Spirito, and made Stoldo Frescobaldi provveditore. This man, by reason of the interest that he had in the old church, the principal chapel and the high-altar of which belonged to his house, took very great pains therewith; nay, at the beginning, before the money had been collected from the taxes imposed on the owners of burial-places and chapels, he spent many thousands of crowns of his own, for which he was repaid. Now, after the matter had been discussed, Filippo was sent for and asked to make a model with all the features, both useful and honourable, that might be possible and suitable to a Christian church. Whereupon he urged strongly that the ground-plan of that edifice should be turned right round, because he greatly desired that the square should extend to the bank of the Arno, to the end that all those who passed that way from Genoa, from the Riviera, from the Lunigiana, and from the districts of Pisa and Lucca, might see the magnificence of that building. But since certain citizens objected, refusing to have their houses pulled down, the desire of Filippo did not take effect. He made the model of the church, therefore, with that of the habitation of the monks, in the form wherein it stands to-day. The length of the church was one hundred and sixty-one braccia, and the width fifty-four braccia, and it was so well planned, both in the ordering of the columns and in the rest of the ornaments, that it would be impossible to make a work richer, more lovely, or more graceful than that one. And in truth, but for the malevolence of those who are ever spoiling the beautiful beginnings of any work in order to appear to have more understanding than others, this would now be the most perfect church in Christendom; and even as it stands it is more lovely and better designed than any other, although it has not been carried out according to the model, as may be seen from certain parts begun on the outside, wherein the design observed within has not been followed, as it appears from the model that the doors and the borders round the windows were meant to do. There are some errors, attributed to him, about which I will be silent, for it is believed that if he had completed the building he would not have endured them, seeing that he had brought all his work to perfection with so much judgment, discrimination, intellect, and art; and this work likewise established him as a genius truly divine. III Fra Filippo Lippi 82: For the Sacristy of S. Spirito in Florence he executed a panel with the Madonna surrounded by angels, and with saints on either side—a rare work, which has ever been held in the greatest veneration by the masters of these our arts. 88: Fra Filippo was a very good draughtsman, as may be seen in our book of drawings by the most famous painters, particularly in some wherein the panel of S. Spirito is drawn, with others showing the chapel in Prato.

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Sandro Botticelli 248: For the Chapel of the Bardi in S. Spirito at Florence he painted a panel, wrought with diligence and brought to a fine completion, which contains certain olive-trees and palms executed with consummate lovingness. IV Filippino Lippi 4: In S. Spirito in the same city, for Tanai de’ Nerli, he painted a panel with Our Lady, S. Martin, S. Nicholas, and S. Catherine; […]. Piero di Cosimo 126: And for the Chapel of Gino Capponi, in the Church of S. Spirito at Florence, he painted a panel wherein is the Visitation of Our Lady, with S. Nicholas, and a S. Anthony who is reading with a pair of spectacles on his nose, a very spirited figure. Here he counterfeited a book bound in parchment, somewhat old, which seems to be real, and also some balls that he gave to the S. Nicholas, shining and casting gleams of light and reflections from one to another; from which even by that time men could perceive the strangeness of his brain, and his constant seeking after difficulties. Raffaellino del Garbo 177: In the Church of S. Spirito at Florence, in a panel over that of the Nerli, which his master Filippo had executed, he painted a Pietà, which is held to be a very good and praiseworthy work; but in another, representing S. Bernard, he fell short of that standard. Below the door of the sacristy are two panel-pictures by his hand; one showing S. Gregory the Pope saying Mass, when Christ appears to him, naked, with the Cross on His shoulder, and shedding blood from His side, with the deacon and sub-deacon, in their vestments, serving the Mass, and two angels swinging censers over the body of Christ. For another chapel, lower down, he executed a panel-picture containing Our Lady, S. Jerome, and S. Bartholomew. On these two works he bestowed no little labour; but he went on deteriorating from day to day. I do not know to what I should attribute his misfortune, for poor Raffaellino was not wanting in industry, diligence, and application; yet they availed him little. It is believed, indeed, that, becoming overburdened and impoverished by the cares of a family, and being compelled to use for his daily needs whatever he earned, not to mention that he was a man of no great spirit and undertook to do work for small prices, in this way he went on growing worse little by little; although there is always something of the good to be seen in his works. Raffaello da Urbino 216: This work finished, he returned to Florence, where he received from the Dei, citizens of that city, the commission for an altar-panel that was to be placed in their chapel in S. Spirito; and he began it, and brought the sketch very nearly to completion.

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Simone del Polliuolo, called il Cronaca 270: The same master built the Sacristy of S. Spirito in Florence, which is in the form of an octagonal temple, beautiful in proportions, and executed with a high finish; and among other things to be seen in this work are some capitals fashioned by the happy hand of Andrea dal Monte Sansovino, which are wrought with supreme perfection; and such, likewise, is the antechamber of that sacristy, which is held to be very beautiful in invention, although the coffered ceiling, as will be described, is not well distributed over the columns. V Andrea dal Monte Sansovino 22-4: Then, pursuing the art of sculpture, he made in his youth for Simone del Pollaiuolo, otherwise called Il Cronaca, two capitals for pilasters in the Sacristy of S. Spirito, which brought him very great fame, and led to his receiving a commission to execute the antechamber that is between the said sacristy and the church; and since the space was very small, Andrea was forced to use great ingenuity. He made, therefore, a structure of grey-stone in the Corinthian Order, with twelve round columns, six on either side; and having laid architrave, frieze, and cornice over these columns, he then raised a barrel-shaped vault, all of the same stone, with a coffer-work surface full of carvings, which was something novel, rich and varied, and much extolled. It is true, indeed, that if the mouldings of that coffer-work ceiling, which serve to divide the square and round panels by which it is adorned, had been contrived so as to fall in a straight line with the columns, with truer proportion and harmony, this work would be wholly perfect in every part; and it would have been an easy thing to do this. But, according to what I once heard from certain old friends of Andrea, he used to defend himself by saying that he had adhered in his vault to the method of the coffering in the Ritonda at Rome, wherein the ribs that radiate from the round window in the centre above, from which that temple gets its light, serve to enclose the square sunk panels containing the rosettes, which diminish little by little, as likewise do the ribs; and for that reason they do not fall in a straight line with the columns. Andrea used to add that if he who built the Temple of the Ritonda, which is the best designed and proportioned that there is, and made with more harmony than any other, paid no attention to this in a vault of such size and importance, much less should he do so in a coffered ceiling with far smaller panels. Nevertheless many craftsmen, and Michelagnolo in particular, have been of the opinion that the Ritonda was built by three architects, of whom the first carried it as far as the cornice that is above the columns, and the second from the cornice upwards, the part, namely, that contains those windows of more graceful workmanship, for in truth this second part is very different in manner from the part below, since the vaulting was carried out without any relation between the coffering and the straight lines of what is below. The third is believed to have made the portico, which was a very rare work. And for these reasons the masters who practise this art at the present day should not fall into such an error and then make excuses, as did Andrea.

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After that work, having received from the family of the Corbinelli the commission for the Chapel of the Sacrament in the same church, he carried it out with much diligence, imitating in the low-reliefs Donato and other excellent craftsmen, and sparing no labour in his desire to do himself credit, as, indeed, he did. In two niches, one on either side of a very beautiful tabernacle, he placed two saints somewhat more than one braccio in height, S. James and S. Matthew, executed with such spirit and excellence, that every sort of merit is revealed in them and not one fault. Equally good, also, are two Angels in the round that are the crowning glory of this work, with the most beautiful draperies—for they are in the act of flying—that are anywhere to be seen; and in the centre is a little naked Christ full of grace. There are also some scenes with little figures in the predella and over the tabernacle, all so well executed that the point of a brush could scarcely do what Andrea did with his chisel. But whosoever wishes to be amazed by the diligence of this extraordinary man should look at the architecture of this work as a whole, for it is so well executed and joined together in its small proportions that it appears to have been chiselled out of one single stone. Much extolled, also, is a large Pietà of marble that he made in half-relief on the front of the altar, with the Madonna and S. John weeping. Nor could one imagine any more beautiful pieces of casting than are the bronze gratings that enclose that chapel, with their ornaments of marble, and with stags, the device, or rather the arms, of the Corbinelli, which serve as adornments for the bronze candelabra. In short, this work was executed without any sparing of labour, and with all the best considerations that could possibly be imagined. Andrea del Sarto 118-9: Among his disciples, then, were Jacopo da Pontormo; Andrea Sguazzella, […]; Solosmeo; Pier Francesco di Jacopo di Sandro, who has painted three panels that are in S. Spirito; Rosso Fiorentino 191-2: Having therefore grown in credit and fame, he executed for S. Spirito, in Florence, the panel-picture of the Dei family, which they had formerly entrusted to Raffaello da Urbino, who abandoned it because of the cares of the work that he had undertaken in Rome. This picture Rosso painted with marvellous grace, draughtsmanship, and vivacity of colouring. Let no one imagine that any work can display greater force or show more beautifully from a distance than this one, which, on account of the boldness of the figures and the extravagance of the attitudes, no longer employed by any of the other painters, was held to be an extraordinary work. And although it did not bring him much credit at that time, the world has since come little by little to recognize its excellence and has given it abundant praise; for with regard to the blending of colour it would be impossible to excel it, seeing that the lights which are in the brightest parts unite with the lower lights little by little as they merge into the darks, with such sweetness and harmony, and with such masterly skill in the projection of the shadows, that the figures stand out from one another and bring each other into relief by means of the lights and shades. Such vigour, indeed, has this work, that it may be said to have

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been conceived and executed with more judgment and mastery than any that has ever been painted by any other master, however superior his judgment. Franciabigio 218: There was built at that time, in S. Spirito at Florence, the Chapel of S. Niccola, in which was placed a figure of that Saint in the round, carved in wood from the model by Jacopo Sansovino; and Francia painted two little angels in two square pictures in oils, one on either side of that figure, which were much extolled, and also depicted the Annunciation in two round pictures; and the predella he adorned with little figures representing the miracles of S. Nicholas, executed with such diligence that he deserves much praise for them. VI Baccio d’Agnolo 67: He also caused to be built of masonry the campanile of S. Spirito in Florence, which was left unfinished, and is now being completed by order of Duke Cosimo after the original design of Baccio; […]. VIII Ridolfo, David and Benedetto Ghirlandaio 67: For the Chapel of the Segni, below the organ in the Church of S. Spirito, they [Ridolfo and Michele] painted, likewise in an altar-piece, Our Lady, S. Anne, and many other Saints; […]. IX Michelagnolo Buonarroti 11: For the Church of S. Spirito in the city of Florence Michelagnolo made a Crucifix of wood, which was placed, as it still is, above the lunette of the highaltar; doing this to please the Prior, who placed rooms at his disposal, in which he was constantly flaying dead bodies, in order to study the secrets of anatomy, thus beginning to give perfection to the great knowledge of design that he afterwards acquired. Jacopo Sansovino 188: for which Nanni [Unghero], being then his friend, Sansovino made some models of large boys in clay, and the model for a figure of S. Nicholas of Tolentino, which were all executed of the size of life in wood, with the assistance of Sansovino, and placed in the Chapel of that Saint in the Church of S. Spirito. Leone Leoni 239: Another [Pieta] like it he [Nanni di Baccio Bigio] made not long afterwards for Luigi del Riccio, a Florentine merchant, which is now in S. Spirito at Florence,

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in a chapel of that Luigi, who is no less extolled for such piety towards his native city than is Nanni for having executed the statue with much diligence and love. X Academicians 9: After Giovan Battista Cavalcanti had caused a chapel to be built in S. Spirito, at Florence, with most beautiful variegated marbles conveyed from beyond the sea at very great cost, and had laid there the remains of his father Tommaso, he had the head and bust of the father executed by Fra Giovanni Agnolo Montorsoli, and the altar-piece Bronzino painted, depicting in it Christ appearing to Mary Magdalene in the form of a gardener, and more distant two other Maries, all figures executed with incredible diligence. 166-7: But this time, besides that which their Excellencies, our Lords, themselves deigned to do, it was represented at the pains and expense of four of the principal and most ingenious gentlemen of the city in the Church of S. Spirito, as a place more capacious and more beautiful, with a vast apparatus of machinery and all the old instruments and not a few newly added. In it, besides many Prophets and Sibyls who, singing in the simple ancient manner, announced the coming of Our Lord Jesus Christ, very notable—nay, marvellous, stupendous, and incomparable, from its having been contrived in those ignorant ages—was the Paradise, which, opening in an instant, was seen filled with all the hierarchies of the Angels and of the Saints both male and female, and with various movements representing its different spheres, and as it were sending down to earth the Divine Gabriel shining with infinite splendour, in the midst of eight other little Angels, to bring the Annunciation to the Glorious Virgin, who was seen waiting in her chamber, all humble and devout; all being let down (and reascending afterwards), to the rare marvel of everyone, from the highest part of the cupola of that church, where the above-described Paradise was figured, down to the floor of the chamber of the Virgin, which was not raised any great height from the ground, and all with such security and by methods so beautiful, so facile, and so ingenious, that it appeared scarcely possible that the human brain was able to go so far. And with this the festivities all arranged by our most excellent Lords for those most royal nuptials had a conclusion not only renowned and splendid, but also, as was right fitting for true Christian Princes, religious and devout. Giorgio Vasari 214: In addition, it was also my task to cause to be reconstructed and increased for the same nuptials, in the great tribune of S. Spirito, the new machinery for the festival that used to be held in S. Felice in Piazza; which was all reduced to the greatest possible perfection, so that there are no longer any of those dangers that used to be incurred in that festival.

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BOCCHI, 84-8: 84: Since the wonderful church of Santo Spirito is nearby and within easy reach from the Pitti Palace, it seems reasonable to divert one’s path somewhat. This most noble building is due to the liberality and devotion of Florence. Without any regards to cost. The inhabitants of this quarter of the city assembled the entire sum of money with such eagerness that within little time the work was brought to the desired completion. When one beholds the result, there is really no need to point out how beautiful and praiseworthy it is. Filippo Brunelleschi, the architect of this church, wanted to place the square in front of it differently, that is, he wanted the main entrance to face the bank of the Arno. But his wise plan was fought by those who were too stubborn to hand over the plots of their houses, which needed to be torn down to make room for the square and the church, even though they were offered compensation. In this marvellous building the Corinthian order is employed, and it always has been rightly perceived as magnificent, noble, and very appropriate for the needs of liturgy. The body of the church measures 54 braccia in width and 160 braccia in length. Most beautiful and most gracefully designed are the columns in pietra serena, and {…} the magnificent central vessel and aisles are constructed for sacred use, {...}. 86: Halfway down the church, under the organ, one sees [the entrance to] a most beautiful sacristy, built to the design of Simone Pollaiuolo, called Cronaca. It is considered as a rare work, and is exceedingly much admired by the experts. Here one sees a panel by Filippo Lippi, displaying excellent colouring, much praised by the artists. It represents the Madonna holding her child in her arm, surrounded by angels and very natural and lively saints. The bell tower of this church was erected to the design of Baccio d’Agnolo. Despite the fact that he had left it incomplete, it was still acknowledged as extremely beautiful. By order of Grand Duke Cosimo it was recently finished according to Baccio’s design. Inside the church, above the arch over the main altar, one sees a crucifix in wood by Michelangelo, most highly esteemed by the artists. Even though the artist carved it in his youth, it is nonetheless beautiful and admirable, and its accomplished design attests to the amazing ability of this noble mind even in his early years. In the Cini Chapel behind the choir one sees a most beautiful panel by Alessandro Allori, representing Christ pronouncing judgement over the woman taken in adultery, brought before him by the Jews. {…} In the Cavalcanti Chapel near the Sacristy there is a panel by Agnolo Bronzino, painted with great skill. He depicted the Magdalen approaching the Saviour with an eager gesture full of sacred affection, when He, appearing to her as a gardener, told her: ‘Noli me tangere’ (‘Do not touch me’), as the Gospel recounts. {…} Next to it, in the Dei Chapel, there is the wonderful panel by Rosso, the Florentine painter; it is not only lovely

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and of supreme workmanship, but since it was painted by an admirable artist, its beauty is considered absolutely outstanding. 87/8: Near the exit to the square, in the Chapel of Guglielmo del Riccio, one sees a nude Christ of marble, holding the Cross. This work was carved by the Florentine, Taddeo Landini, or rather it was copied by him after Michelangelo’s work in Rome, which is found in the [church of Santa Maria sopra] Minerva, at the short end of the right-hand side wall flanking the chancel. Landini was 21 years old when he executed this figure with unique effort. Since it was copied after [a work by] so supreme an artist, it was certainly commendable to imitate the arms, the head, and the joints of the other limbs with such delicacy, and with such a degree of similarity to the original that visitors to Florence today get the impression of beholding the very same work, which they have so often seen in Rome. In the opposite aisle, in the Chapel of Giovanbattista del Riccio, there is a marble sculpture of the Madonna holding her dead son, copied after another work by Michelangelo, which is today placed in the Chapel of the Virgin of the Fever in St. Peter’s in Rome, an extremely famous and widely praised work. This work, executed, as one sees, with the greatest diligence and much effort, is by Giovanni di Cecco Bigio, an experienced and intelligent artist. Whoever has not been to Rome, and beholds this work in Florence, recognises what wonderful workmanship there must be in Michelangelo’s two figures. {…} In order not to make this text too long, I shall pass over many works in this church painted by unique artists. Since every knowledgeable visitor can take in with his own eyes what is not described here (and this is said without any prejudice about the abilities of others), we shall pass on to mention some further things. In this church one preserves a small coin of half a Giulio with the image of the Madonna. In Empoli, a castle 16 miles distant from Florence, a soldier was once desperately and hotly blaspheming during a game and pierced the coin with a dagger. At this point it bled miraculously, and the Archbishop of Florence, a monk of the order of St. Augustine like those who reside here, brought the coin to this church, where it is very much revered. There is also a leg of St. Barnabas. Moreover, one sees a crucifix, brought here from a foreign land by the Company of the Bianchi in the year 1335. When most of them died of the plague, it was left in Florence, and has been very greatly revered by all.

BALDINUCCI S Spirito (Augustianian friars): I.162; I.212; I.246; I.316; I.333; I.512; I.550; I.567; II.24; II.129; II.357; II.501; II.506; II.509; II.593; III.19; III.150; III.290; III.438; III.522; III.522; III.710; IV.138-9; IV.138-9; IV.327; IV.343; IV.347-8; IV.349; IV.565.

RICHA, part IV, vol IX, lesson I-VII, 1-67.

CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE SANTA TRINITA

Piazza Santa Trinita and corner of Via del Parione, 3; free entrance but no visits during religious services.

History Santa Trinita is a church of the order of Vallombrosan monks. Founded according to legend in 1092 by a member of the Florentine nobility, documents of 1070 describe the church of the Holy Trinity as a Romanesque foundation outside the Porta Rossa of the then city walls. The Vallombrosans moved in after 1100 and the building was incorporated into the new ring of city walls between 1172 and 1174. The nearby Ponte Santa Trinita connects with the Oltrarno area across the river. The present church was built between 1258 and 1280. Santa Trinita played an important role in the history of Florence, when in 1289 a military council took place inside the church to prepare for the battle of Campaldino against Arezzo. The Guelf Florentine army was victorious against their Ghibelline enemy. The devastating flood of 1333 must have affected Santa Trinita, due to its location near the Arno, and eventually the Romanesque church was transformed into a Gothic building. The church’s renovation was interrupted by the plague in 1348 and continued until the fifteenth century. The current Mannerist façade was added by Bernardo Buontalenti in 15931594 (Fig. 25 a). The Column of Justice outside in the Piazza was a gift of Pope Pius IV to Duke Cosimo I de’ Medici. It was taken from the Baths of Caracalla and sent to Florence after the 1560 ducal visit to Rome. The column was part of an urban project supposed to recall similar monuments in lateantique Constantinople. A second column stands outside San Felice (chapter 7) and a third was planned to be erected outside San Marco (chapter 12). The column of Justice is the only one of the three to have

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received the (porphyry) statue supposed to have crowned it in accordance with the decorative programme. Francesco Ferrucci, called il Tadda, sculpted the figure from several pieces of ancient porphyry also sent from Rome. The stone is notably hard to carve but Duke Cosimo and his son Francesco rediscovered the recipe to temper steel sufficiently, which had been lost since Antiquity.

Figure 25 a: Façade of Santa Trinita with the shadow of Tadda’s statue of Justice (photo: AG).

Architecture Bernardo Buontalenti executed the mannerist façade between 1593 and 1594. It bears the heads of angels on the capitals and above the oculus window on the upper floor as well as bizarre masks on the gable columns. The relief over the central door was sculpted by Giovanni Battista Caccini and probably by Gianlorenzo Bernini’s father Pietro in 1594-1595 and depicts the Holy Trinity. The interior façade was revealed in the nineteenth century and shows how the original Gothic façade had looked, before it was covered by Buontalenti’s design.

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Figure 25 b: Plan of Santa Trinita (plan: SC).

The Gothic church has a clear structure with a strong foreign influence. Designed presumably by Neri di Fioravanti, it consists of a long main nave and aisles with square bays in contrast to other, contemporaneous Florentine churches (Fig. 25 b). Round pillars bear the presbytery of the

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previous Romanesque church, which was extended between the thirteenth and fifteenth century to a size beyond the original choir. The greatest innovation was the introduction of side chapels in an enlarged aisle and transept. Santa Trinita hosts about 20 chapels patronised by the leading families of the neighbourhood as burial chapels, representing a steady and considerable source of income for the Vallombrosans. Among these families were the Sassetti and the BartoliniSalimbeni who also owned palazzi nearby. The Republic of Florence financed the bell tower and the choir chapels.

Art On the façade inside is another, earlier depiction of the Holy Trinity, in which the three half figures of Father, Son and Holy Spirit symbolise the essential sameness of all three. Originally, the altarpiece on the main altar was Cimabue’s monumental Madonna Enthroned with Angels and Prophets, painted in c.1280. The gold back painting was removed to a side chapel in the fifteenth century and is now displayed in the Uffizi (N. Cat. 00134049, tempera on wood, https://www.virtualuffizi.com/santa-trinita-madonna.html). Mariotto di Nardo painted the replacement panel, which was dedicated to the Holy Trinity: the altar panel displays God-the-father blessing and the Holy Spirit flying from the Father towards Christ on the Cross. The crossvaulted main choir was frescoed by Alesso Baldovinetti. The tondo on the front of the altar mensa in the main choir chapel is by Desiderio da Settignano. It dates to c.1470-1480 and depicts the Trinity as a three-faced head. The chapel to the right of the main choir was for some time patronised by the mathematician Paolo Dagomari (d. 1374) and later by the Doni family. In 1671, it was dedicated to the memory of Saint John Gualbertus, the founder of the Vallombrosan Order. At that time the Crucifix, which had taken part in a miracle (allegedly Christ had bowed to the saint in acknowledgment of his generosity shown to a murderer on Good Friday), was taken from San Miniato (chapter 19) to Santa Trinita. In the chapel at the end of the left transept is a reliquary with the saint’s jawbone transported from the Badia of Passignano to Florence in the sixteenth century. Among the most important chapels are the ones of the Sassetti on the far right and of the Bartolini-Salimbeni families with frescoes by

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Domenico Ghirlandaio and by Lorenzo Monaco (frescoes and altarpiece of an Annunciation, 1422). Francesco Sassetti had been a manager of the Medici bank until he was exiled for his involvement in bankrupting the branch at Bruges. The Ghirlandaio frescoes offer Florentine neighbourhood views of c.1480 and portraits of the Medici. The theme is the life of Saint Francis, Sassetti’s patron saint, but some of the scenes take place on Piazza della Signoria and on Via Tornabuoni among people dressed richly in the fashions of the late fifteenth century. Ghirlandaio’s Adoration of the Shepherds (1485) for the altar of the chapel includes portraits of the donors. From the right transept, it is possible to gain access to the Strozzi funerary chapel in the sacristy, which was commissioned by Palla Strozzi and his father Onofrio from Lorenzo Ghiberti in 1418. There is his sarcophagus in white marble; winged putti bear the coat of arms of the Strozzi with three crescent moons. Palla Strozzi ordered the altarpiece for the chapel from Gentile da Fabriano who executed his Adoration of the Magi (tempera on wood, N. Cat. 00281139, at the Uffizi, https:// www.virtualuffizi.com/adoration-of-the-magi_4.html) in 1423. The Strozzi sided with the Albizzi family against the Medici and Palla was eventually exiled to Padua. The Medici went on to commission a monumental fresco cycle of the Adoration from Benozzo Gozzoli for the private chapel of their new palace on Via Larga (now Via Cavour) in 1459. Bibl: Acidini 2011, 103-17; Borsook 1983, 166-70 and 191-2; Butters 1996, I, 6770 and 72-9; Campbell and Cole 2012, 92-3; Cesati 2002, 77-80; Crispino 1999, 64-5; De Boer 2010, annotations 116-21: 160-2; De Roover 1943, 65-80; Franceschi 2011, 37-45; Goy 2015, 124-8; Hartt & Wilkins 2007, 48-51, 201-4, 324, 356-60; Horstmann 2011, 171-8; Mercanti and Straffi 2001, 161; Murin 2013; Murray 2004, 24-6; Ostrow 2010, 352-77; Paatz 1953, V, 257-391; Paolucci 2006, 214-33; Schneider Adams 2001, 85-7 and 240-4; Tovey 2005, 318-9; Verdon, Coppellotti, Fabbri 2000, 104-7; Verdon ed. 2009, vol. 6. Sources: VILLANI VIII § 42. 330-1—Of the same. [§ 41.—Concerning the evils and dangers which followed afterwards to our city.] 1300 a.d.

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The city of Florence, being in such heat and dangers from strifes and enmities, whence very often the city was in uproar and at arms, M. Corso Donati, the Spini, the Pazzi, and some of the Tosinghi and Cavicciuli, and their followers, both magnates and popolani of their faction of the Black party, with the captains of the Guelf party, which were then of their mind and purpose, assembled in the church of Santa Trinita, and there took counsel and oath together to send ambassadors to the court to Pope Boniface, to the end he might invite some prince of the house of France, which should restore them to their estate, and abase the Popolo and the White party, and for this end to spend to their utmost power; and thus they did, wherefore the news spreading through the city through some report, the commonwealth and the people were much troubled, and inquisition was made by the magistrates; wherefore M. Corso Donati, which was leader in the matter, was condemned in goods and in person; and the other leaders thereof, in more than 20,000 pounds; and they paid them.

ALBERTINI 97-8: In Santa Trinita The church of Santa Trinita is completely vaulted, with ancient mosaics and excellent paintings. The Sassetti Chapel has an altarpiece by Domenico Ghirlandaio. Next to this is the sacristy with an altarpiece by Fra Filippo Lippi and one by Gentile da Fabriano. I should also mention Paolo Uccello’s paintings between the doors next to the Saint Mary Magdalene, which was started by Desiderio da Settignano.

VASARI I Cimabue 4: Having next undertaken to make a large panel for the monks of Vallombrosa, in the Abbey of S. Trinita in Florence, he showed in that work (using therein great diligence, so as to rise equal to the esteem which had already been conceived of him) better inventions and a beautiful method in the attitude of a Madonna, whom he made with the Child in her arms and with many angels round her in adoration, on a gold ground; which panel, being finished, was placed by these monks over the high-altar of the said church, and being afterwards removed, in order to give that place to the panel by Alesso Baldovinetti which is there to-day, it was placed in a smaller chapel in the left-hand aisle of the said church. Niccola and Giovanni Pisano 34: […] then, [Niccola] having returned to Florence in the same year that the Guelphs returned, he designed the Church of S. Trinita, and the Convent of the Nuns of Faenza, destroyed in our day in order to make the citadel.

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Giotto di Bondone 89-90: The same man [Puccio Capanna] painted many works after the death of Giotto in the Church of S. Francesco at Assisi, and in the Church of S. Trinita in Florence, near the side-door towards the river, he painted the Chapel of the Strozzi, wherein is the Coronation of the Madonna in fresco, with a choir of angels which draw very much to the manner of Giotto; and on the sides are stories of S. Lucia, very well wrought. Buonamico Buffalmacco 212: Giovanni [disciple of Buffalmacco] also painted the Chapel of the Scali in S. Trinita in Florence, with another that is beside it, and one of the stories of S. Paul by the side of the principal chapel, where is the tomb of Maestro Paolo, the astrologer. II Duccio 10: He made, likewise, many panels on grounds of gold throughout Siena, and one in Florence, in S. Trinita, wherein there is an Annunciation. Spinello Aretino 30: In a chapel in S. Trinita he made in fresco a very beautiful Annunciation; […]. Don Lorenzo Monaco 56: About the same time, or perchance before, in S. Trinita at Florence, he painted in fresco the Chapel of the Ardinghelli, with its panel, which was much praised at that time; and there he made from nature the portraits of Dante and of Petrarca. […] and in the said Church of S. Trinita he painted the Chapel of the Bartolini. Taddeo Bartoli 63: His works date about the year of our Lord 1436, and the last were a panel containing an Annunciation in S. Trinita in Florence, Lorenzo di Bicci 70: In S. Trinita, in the Chapel of Neri Compagni, he painted in fresco the life of S. Giovanni Gualberto; […]. 72-3: and in S. Trinita, in the Chapel of the Spini, he [Neri, son of Lorenzo] painted in fresco the life of S. Giovanni Gualberto, and in distemper the panel that is over the altar. Paolo Uccello 133: and within the Church of S. Trinita, over the left-hand door, he painted stories of S. Francis in fresco—namely, the receiving of the Stigmata; the supporting of

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the Church, which he is upholding with his shoulders; and his conference with S. Dominic. Michelozzo Michelozzi 271: He died at the age of sixty-eight, and he was buried in his own tomb in S. Marco at Florence. His portrait, by the hand of Fra Giovanni, is in the Sacristy of S. Trinita, in the figure of an old man with a cap on his head, representing Nicodemus, who is taking Christ down from the Cross. III Fra Giovanni Beato Angelico 31: and in the Sacristy of S. Trinita there is a panel containing a Deposition from the Cross, into which he put so great diligence, that it can be numbered among the best works that he ever made. Alesso Baldovinetto 67-8: In like manner, he painted in S. Trinita the chapel in fresco and the chief panel in distemper, for Messer Gherardo and Messer Bongianni Gianfigliazzi, most honourable and wealthy gentlemen of Florence. In this chapel Alesso painted some scenes from the Old Testament, which he first sketched in fresco and then finished on the dry, tempering his colours with yolk of egg mingled with a liquid varnish prepared over a fire. This vehicle, he thought, would preserve the paintings from damp; but it was so strong that where it was laid on too thickly the work has peeled off in many places; and thus, whereas he thought he had found a rare and very beautiful secret, he was deceived in his hopes. He drew many portraits from nature, and in the scene of the Queen of Sheba going to hear the wisdom of Solomon, which he painted in the aforesaid chapel, he portrayed the Magnificent Lorenzo de’ Medici, father of Pope Leo X, and Lorenzo della Volpaia, a most excellent maker of clocks and a very fine astrologer, who was the man who made for the said Lorenzo de’ Medici the very beautiful clock that the Lord Duke Cosimo now has in his Palace; in which clock all the wheels of the planets are perpetually moving, which is a rare thing, and the first that was ever made in this manner. In the scene opposite to that one Alesso portrayed Luigi Guicciardini the elder, Luca Pitti, Diotisalvi Neroni, and Giuliano de’ Medici, father of Pope Clement VII; and beside the stone pilaster he painted Gherardo Gianfigliazzi the elder, the Chevalier Messer Bongianni, who is wearing a blue robe, with a chain round his neck, and Jacopo and Giovanni, both of the same family. Near these are Filippo Strozzi the elder and the astrologer Messer Paolo dal Pozzo Toscanelli. On the vaulting are four patriarchs, and on the panel is the Trinity, with S. Giovanni Gualberto kneeling, and another Saint. All these portraits are very easily recognized from their similarity to those that are seen in other works, particularly in the houses of their descendants, whether in gesso or in painting. Alesso gave much time to this work, because he was very patient and liked to execute his works at his ease and convenience.

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Andrea dal Castagno 99: In S. Trinita, beside the Chapel of Maestro Luca, he painted a S. Andrew. Gentile da Fabriano and Vittore Pisanello of Verona 110: and in the Sacristy of S. Trinita in Florence he [Gentile] painted the Story of the Magi on a panel, wherein he portrayed himself from the life. Desiderio da Settignano 150: The sculptures of Desiderio date about 1485. He left unfinished a figure of S. Mary Magdalene in Penitence, which was afterwards completed by Benedetto da Maiano, and is now in S. Trinita in Florence, on the right hand as one enters the church; and the beauty of this figure is beyond the power of words to express. Domenico Ghirlandaio 220-1: […] wherefore, having acquired very great fame and coming into much credit, he painted a chapel in S. Trinita for Francesco Sassetti, with stories of S. Francis. This work was admirably executed by him, and wrought with grace, lovingness, and a high finish; and he counterfeited and portrayed therein the Ponte a S. Trinita, with the Palace of the Spini. On the first wall he depicted the story of S. Francis appearing in the air and restoring the child to life; and here, in those women who see him being restored to life—after their sorrow for his death as they bear him to the grave—there are seen gladness and marvel at his resurrection. He also counterfeited the friars issuing from the church behind the Cross, together with some grave-diggers, to bury him, all wrought very naturally; and there are likewise other figures marvelling at that event which give no little pleasure to the eye, among which are portraits of Maso degli Albizzi, Messer Agnolo Acciaiuoli, and Messer Palla Strozzi, eminent citizens often cited in the history of the city. On another wall he painted S. Francis, in the presence of the vicar, renouncing his inheritance from his father, Pietro Bernardone, and assuming the habit of sackcloth, which he is girding round him with the cord. On the middle wall he is shown going to Rome and having his Rule confirmed by Pope Honorius, and presenting roses in January to that Pontiff. In this scene he depicted the Hall of the Consistory, with Cardinals seated around, and certain steps ascending to it, furnishing the flight of steps with a balustrade, and painting there some half-length figures portrayed from the life, among which is the portrait of the elder Lorenzo de’ Medici, the Magnificent; and there he also painted S. Francis receiving the Stigmata. In the last he made the Saint dead, with his friars mourning for him, among whom is one friar kissing his hands—an effect that could not be rendered better in painting; not to mention that a Bishop in full robes, with spectacles on his nose, is chanting the prayers for the dead so vividly, that only the lack of sound shows him to be painted. In one of two pictures that are on either side of the panel he portrayed Francesco Sassetti on his knees, and in the other his wife, Monna Nera, with their children (but these last are in the aforesaid scene of the child being restored to life), and with certain beautiful maidens of the same family, whose names I have not been able to discover, all in the costumes and fashions of that

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age, which gives no little pleasure. Besides this, he made four Sibyls on the vaulting, and an ornament above the arch on the front wall without the chapel, containing the scene of the Tiburtine Sibyl making the Emperor Octavian adore Christ, which is executed in a masterly manner for a work in fresco, with much vivacity and loveliness in the colours. To this work he added a panel wrought in distemper, also by his hand, containing a Nativity of Christ that should amaze any person of understanding, wherein he portrayed himself and made certain heads of shepherds, which are held to be something divine. Of this Sibyl and of other parts of this work there are some very beautiful drawings in our book, made in chiaroscuro, and in particular the view in perspective of the Ponte a S. Trinita. Benedetto da Maiano 260: The latter, having acquired enough to live upon, would do no more works in marble after those described above, save that he finished in S. Trinita the S. Mary Magdalene begun by Desiderio da Settignano, […]. VII Michele San Michele 237: Not inferior to him will be his son Felice, who, although still young, has proved himself a painter out of the ordinary in an altar-piece that he has executed for the Church of the Trinita, in which are the Madonna and six other Saints, all of the size of life. Nor is this any marvel, for the young man learned his art in Florence, living in the house of Bernardo Canigiani, a Florentine gentleman and a crony of his father Domenico [del Riccio]. X Academicians 4: And in S. Trinita, likewise in Florence, may be seen a picture in oils by the same hand [Bronzino], on the first pilaster at the right hand, of the Dead Christ, Our Lady, S. John, and S. Mary Magdalene, executed with much diligence and in a beautiful manner.

BOCCHI, 98-101: 98: Then follows the Church of Santa Trìnita. The design of this church was provided by Nicola Pisano in 1250, and it was aptly executed, as one sees. This building looks very graceful, and even though its layout was dictated by its liturgical functions in an age that was very unrefined, it is nevertheless not worthless today, and is in fact highly regarded by the experts. The Doric and Corinthian styles had already been forgotten by the architects working in these old times. 99: When Michelangelo, who had the best knowledge of the best of buildings, was in Florence, he used to look carefully at this church for his pastime. And since he

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did so quite often, recognising the greatest beauty here, he habitually called this building his Lady, when he was among his friends. By its grace and beauty, it was able to stimulate admiration and love in him. The best artists in great buildings copy the groundplan of this church, and the disposition of its parts, and they thus tacitly reveal how much esteem and praise it rightfully deserves. On entering this church, next to the door on the right one sees a penitent Magdalen of rare beauty, carved in wood partly by Desiderio da Settignano, and then completed by Benedetto da Maiano. 100: In addition, there are in this church many paintings by praiseworthy artists, such as a St. Andrew by Andrea del Castagno, and in the Sassetti Chapel a panel by Domenico Ghirlandaio, receiving the highest praise from the experts. In the sacristy there is a panel depicting the [Adoration of the] Magi by Gentile da Fabriano. A panel by Cimabue is treated with reverence, since it is an ancient work, and since it was created by the painter who originated the beautiful manner [of painting], which flourishes today. It shows an over life-size Madonna, and is placed in the second chapel of the right aisle. Those who are knowledgeable, perceive very well how much modern painters owe to this old one, since [because of him] the extremely unrefined and clumsy manner of the Greeks fell into oblivion. In front of the high altar there is a row of balusters, most judiciously designed by Bernardo Buontalenti; it supports a graceful railing, which surrounds the area with beautiful artifice and is very convenient for those who celebrate at the altar. In the centre there is an escutcheon with an inscription, and on either side Buontalenti subtly and skilfully devised two small flights of steps in two recesses leading from the floor of the church to the level of the high altar.

BALDINUCCI S Trinita (Vallombrosan): I.28; I.56; I.96; I.233; I.234; I.248; I.252; I.315; I.327; I.413; I.422; I.431; I.447; I.485; I.487; I.514; I.562; II.356; II.500; III.8-9; III.19; III.139; III.258; III.267; III.439; III.489-90; III.492-3; II.500-1; III.539-40; III.641; III.737; IV.245; IV.245-6; IV.245.

RICHA, part II, vol III, lesson XI-XIV, 140-181.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Printed Secondary Literature Acidini, Cristina. “Cosimo Piero and Lorenzo. From Money to Maestri.” In Money and Beauty. Bankers, Botticelli and the Bonfire of the Vanities, edited by Ludovica Sebregondi and Tim Parks, 103-17. Florence: Giunti and Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, 2011. Acidini, Cristina and Gabriele Morolli, eds. L’Uomo del Rinascimento. Leon Battista Alberti e le arti a Firenze tra ragione e bellezza. Florence: Mandragora, 2006. Ahl, Diane Cole, ed. The Cambridge Companion to Masaccio. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 2002. Andrews, Frances. The Early Humiliati. Cambridge and New York: Cambridge University Press, 1999. Aniz Iriarte, Cándido and Luis Vicente Díaz Martín. Santo Domingo de Caleruega, en su contexto socio-político, 1170-1221. Salamanca: Editorial San Esteban, 1994. Baldinotti, Andrea. “Cats. I.3-6: Pontormo/Bronzino (attr.), St John the Evangelist, St Matthew the Evangelist, St Luke the Evangelist, St Mark the Evangelist.” In Bronzino. Artist and Poet at the Court of the Medici, edited by Carlo Falciani and Antonio Natali, 60-5. Florence: Mandragora and Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, 2010. ʊ. “Cat. I.1.1: Andrea del Sarto. Journey of the Magi.” In Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino. Diverging Paths of Mannerism, edited by Carlo Falciani and Antonio Natali, 30-1. Florence: Mandragora and Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, 2014. ʊ. “Cat. I.1.2: Rosso Fiorentino. Assumption of the Virgin.” In Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino. Diverging Paths of Mannerism, edited by Carlo Falciani and Antonio Natali, 32-3. Florence: Mandragora and Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, 2014. ʊ. “Cat. I.1.3: Pontormo. Visitation.” In Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino. Diverging Paths of Mannerism, edited by Carlo Falciani and Antonio Natali, 34-5. Florence: Mandragora and Fondazione Palazzo Strozzi, 2014. Borsook, Eve. The Companion Guide to Florence (1966). Englewood Cliffs, N.J. and London: Prentice Hall, Inc. and Collins, 1983.

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Brown, Beverly Louise. “The Patronage and Building History of the Tribuna of SS. Annunziata in Florence: a Reappraisal in Light of New Documentation.” Mitteilungen Kunsthistorisches Institut Florenz 25, 1 (1981): 59-146. Butters, Suzanne B. The Triumph of Vulcan: Sculptors’ Tools, Porphyry, and the Prince in Ducal Florence. Florence: L.S. Olschki (I Tatti Series 14), 1996. ʊ. “‘Una pietra eppure non una pietra’. Pietre dure e botteghe medicee nella Firenze del Cinquecento.” In La grande storia dell’Artigianato, edited by Franco Franceschi and Gloria Fossi, 133-84. Florence: Giunti, 2000. ʊ. “Ferdinando de’Medici and the Art of the Possible” (The Medici, Michelangelo, and the Art of Late Renaissance Florence, edited by Cristina Acidini Luchinat, 67-75. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2002). ʊ. “The Uses and Abuses of Gifts in the World of Ferdinando de’ Medici (1549-1609),” I Tatti Studies: Essays in the Renaissance, vol. 11. 2007, 243-354 Campbell, Stephen J. and Michael W. Cole. A New History of Italian Renaissance Art. London: Thames and Hudson, 2012. Carniani, Mario. Santa Maria del Carmine e la Cappella Brancacci. Florence: Edizioni Becocci, 1991. Cesati, Franco. Le chiese di Firenze. La storia artistica, architettonica, civile e spiritual che si tramanda su questi straordinari testimoni della vita fiorentina. Rome: Newton & Compton Editori, 2002. Ciatti, Marco and Cecilia Frosinini, eds. Il Gentile risorto. Il polittico dell’Intercessione di Gentile da Fabriano. Florence: Edifir, 2006. Costamagna, Philippe. Pontormo. Catalogue raisonné de l’oeuvre peint. Paris and Milan: Gallimard, 1994. Cox-Rearick, Janet. “Pontormo, Bronzino, Allori and the lost Deluge at S. Lorenzo.” Burlington Magazine 134 (1992): 239-48. Crispino, Enrica. Le chiese di Firenze. Florence: Giunti Editore, 1999. Dallington, Robert. A Survey of the Great Dukes State of Tuscany in the Yeare of our Lord 1596. London: Blount, 1605. De Boer, Waldemar H. and Michael W. Kwakkelstein, eds. Memorial of Many Statues and Paintings in the Illustrious City of Florence by Francesco Albertini (1510). A Booklet Devoted to Florentine Art. Florence: Centro Di, 2010. De Roover, Florence Edler. “Francesco Sassetti and the Downfall of the Medici Banking House.” Bulletin of the Business Historical Society 17, 4 (1943): 65-80.

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BIOGRAPHIES

Andrea M. Gáldy Andrea Gáldy received her Ph.D. from the School of Art History and Archaeology at the University of Manchester in 2002. She has held fellowships from the Henry Moore Foundation and from the Harvard University Center for Italian Renaissance Studies at Villa I Tatti. She taught Renaissance history of art and architecture for diverse university programmes in Florence until 2012. In 2004 she founded the working group Collecting & Display (100BC to AD1700) with Adriana Turpin and Susan Bracken as an international forum of discussion for the history of collecting. The author of numerous articles and reviews, Andrea Gáldy published Cosimo I de’ Medici as Collector: Antiquities and Archaeology in Sixteenth-century Florence with CSP in 2009. The conference proceedings from events organised by Collecting & Display form the core of CSP’s special series Collecting Histories.

Sara Cecconi Sara Cecconi graduated from the University of Florence at the Department of Architecture, with a specialisation in Urban Design. She has also been both studying and working in Paris during prolonged and repeated periods and has conducted in-depth studies on the urban design and architectural future of the French capital. Her particular research interests focus on the Ceinture Verte Parisienne’s role as an intermediary between the historical centre and the production zones surrounding it. Having gained work experience in urban design and public construction projects in Italy, and in particular Tuscany, she started to work in the field of restoration, including historical sites such as Poggio alle Croci, near Volterra, a village in the heart of the Tuscan countryside. Spurred on by her interest in architecture, history and French culture, she permanently moved to France and now works in Paris as a specialist in the architectural restoration of listed buildings and in the conservation of historical monuments.

438

Biographies

Vieri Giorgetti Vieri Giorgetti graduated from the University of Florence with a BA in Art History at the Department of Medieval and Renaissance Studies with a thesis on the Badia a Passignano, storia e vicende nel Medioevo. Subsequently, he gained an MA with a thesis regarding Il paesaggio italiano nei pittori della Hudson River School. Vieri Giorgetti currently works at the Basilica of Santa Croce, Florence. He also is completing a post-graduate specialisation degree at the University of Florence, which he expects to gain in 2016 with a thesis on stained-glass windows in the public buildings of early modern Florence.

Carolyn Murin Carolyn studied in Florence during the summer of 2009 when she took two seminars on Florentine art and Italian Renaissance architecture with Andrea Gáldy. In addition to a degree in the history of art and architecture, Carolyn graduated from the University of Pittsburgh in 2011 with degrees in psychology and journalism. Her love for Florence and passion for art history, however, led her back to Italy where she completed a Master’s degree in Italian Renaissance art history at Syracuse University in Florence. After teaching art history in Florence for a year, Carolyn moved back to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania where she now works as a senior analyst for Google. She still gives frequent art history lectures for a local Italian school, teaches art at two after-school programmes and also works part-time as an art therapist.

INDEX1 A Abbey of Nonantola 339 Abundance 343 Accademia (Gallery) 112, 113, 138, 188, 196, 369, 384, 399 Accademia delle Arti del Disegno 113 Acciaioli (family) 137 Ademollo, Luigi 103 Adoration of the Magi 251, 281, 423 Adoration of the Shepherds 423 aisle(s) 51, 111, 137, 146, 149, 194, 199, 205, 208, 209, 287, 288, 310, 311, 341, 347, 349, 397, 398, 399, 405, 421, 422 Alana collection in Newark, Delaware 103 Alberti (family) 148 Alberti, Leon Battista 4, 109, 112, 266, 308, 309, 310 ALBERTINI (source) 18, 55, 105, 114, 152, 197, 201, 215, 251, 266, 281, 291, 315, 352, 373, 385, 407, 424 Albizzi (family) 423 Albizzi, Giovanna degli 281, 313 Alighieri, Dante 2, 52, 145 Alighieri, Gherardo 395 all’antica 46, 48, 51, 176, 209, 250, 310, 347 allegories 5, 343, 384 Allegory of the Active and Triumphant Church 314 Allori, Alessandro 114, 246, 406 1

altar mensa 422 altar niche(s) 112, 186, 361 altarpiece(s) 103, 138, 149, 179, 188, 194, 196, 199, 201, 209, 249, 250, 279, 280, 281, 288, 297, 312, 313, 349, 359, 362, 369, 384, 398, 399, 406, 422, 423 Alte Pinakothek, Munich 281 Altoviti (family) 134, 137 Altoviti, Archbishop Antonio 137 Altoviti, Bindo 137 Altoviti, Oddo 137 ambulatory 4, 9 Ammannati, Bartolommeo 137, 405 ancient mythology 51 ancient porphyry 420 ancient Roman baths 347 ancient sarcophagi 5 Ancona 148 Andreozzi, Anton Francesco 342 animals 7, 8 Annunciation 7, 109, 112, 188, 250, 280, 288, 349, 361, 399, 423 Annunziata Polyptych 112 anti-Medicean sentiment 246 Antinori (family) 339 Antinori chapel 341 Antinori, Alessandro 342 Antinori, Niccolò 341 Antipope John XXIII (Coscia, Baldassare) 10 antiquarians 2 Antiquity 1, 134, 149, 185, 420

For clarity and uniformity, I treated anything that looks like a last name as a last name in this index, even though I am fully aware that in many cases we are dealing with nicknames (Botticelli), place names (da Vinci) or patronyms (di Cione).

440 apostles 342, 384 Apostles Philip and James 313 Apotheosis of Saint Philip Neri 194 Apparition of the Virgin Mary to Saint Bernard of Clairvaux 297 Apparition of the Virgin to Saint Hyacinth and Saint Peter Martyr 179 apron 312 apse 9, 51, 103, 137, 138, 194, 247, 347, 348, 368 apsidal 263, 360, 403, 405 apsidal side chapels 263 arcade wall(s) 47, 51, 52, 103, 146, 149, 175, 177, 179, 186, 194, 312, 368, 403 Archaeological Museum (Florence) 110 Archangel Raphael with Saint Louis Gonzaga and Saint Antonius 280 Archbishop’s Palace 1 Archduchess Joanna of Austria 185 architectural paintings 402 architrave 396 Ardinghelli (family) 339, 342 Arena chapel (Padua) 148 armillary sphere 308 Arno 175, 198, 345, 350, 366, 402, 419 Ars Nova 395 Art Institute (Chicago) 362 Arte dei Beccai 383 Arte dei Calzaiuoli 383 Arte dei Corazzai 383 Arte dei Linaiuoli e Rigattieri 383 Arte dei Maniscalchi 383 Arte dei Pellicciai 383 Arte del Cambio 383, 384 Arte della Lana 46, 48, 383 Arte della Mercantia 347 Arte della Seta 380, 383, 384 Arte di Calimala 5, 7, 383 Ascension of Christ 264 Assumption 112, 114, 188 atrium 109, 111, 295

Index Augustinian convent 402 Augustinian monks 277 authentic mediaeval appearance 137 avelli 308, 310

B Badia of Passignano 422 Badia Polyptych 297 Badia see Santa Maria nella Badia Fiorentina BALDINUCCI (source) 44, 99, 108, 133, 143, 174, 184, 191, 196, 202, 244, 261, 276, 284, 293, 307, 338, 344, 358, 359, 365, 378, 394, 401, 418, 429 Baldovinetti, Alesso 112, 349, 362, 422 balneum Martis 2 Bandinelli, Baccio 48, 112 Bandini, Giovanni 149 Baptistery (-ies) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 8, 9, 10, 45, 46, 48, 49, 137, 207, 288, 345 Barbadori (Capponi) Chapel 186, 188 Barbadori Altarpiece 406 Bardi (family) 148 Bardi Chapel 312 Bargello 7, 8, 379 Baroncelli Chapel 148 Baronci Chapel 288 Baroque 103, 112, 114, 137, 192, 194, 197, 198, 262, 263, 266, 279, 294, 339, 340, 368, 406 barrel-vaulted ceiling 137, 186, 198, 263, 342, 405 Bartolini-Salimbeni Chapel 422 basilica 2, 3, 45, 46, 50, 109, 110, 144, 146, 147, 148, 150, 175, 203, 204, 207, 208, 209, 210, 247, 309, 310, 345, 347, 349, 383, 402, 403 bas-relief 209 Baths of Caracalla 419

The Art, History and Architecture of Florentine Churches Battle of Anghiari 266 Battle of Campaldino 419 Battle of Marciano 176 Beata Virgo Maria de Monte Carmelo 262 bell tower (campanile) 1, 6, 45, 46, 51, 135, 148, 177, 198, 204, 285, 286, 287, 294, 295, 309, 345, 359, 366, 395, 403, 422 benches 207 Benedictine order of nuns 100, 104, 185, 294 Benizzi, Filippo 109, 112 Bernini, Pietro 402, 420 Berti, Giorgio 188 Bezzuoli, Giuseppe 399 Biliverti, Giovanni 179 Bini, Piero 194 Bini-Capponi Chapel 405 Birth of John the Baptist 313 Birth of the Virgin 112, 313 bishop’s palace 345, 347 Bizzelli, Giovanni 281 blind arches 4, 310, 347 blind tabernacles 206 Boboli gardens 175 Boccaccio, Giovanni 313 BOCCHI (source) 42, 95, 107, 127, 142, 169, 176, 183, 238, 260, 275, 305, 334, 364, 377, 393, 417, 428 BOCCHI-CINELLI (source) 191, 196, 202, 284, 293, 344 Bonaiuti, Andrea 314 Bonechi, Matteo 194, 199 Bonfires of the Vanities 246 Bonsi of the Cross 341 Bonsi of the Nativity 341 Borghini, Vincenzo 2 Borgo Pinti 277, 279 Botticelli, Sandro 103, 179, 280, 289, 368, 370 Botticini, Francesco 104, 405 Brancacci Chapel 8, 262, 263, 265, 266

441

Brancacci, Felice 265 Brancacci, Piero 265 brickwork 49 bronze 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 49, 109, 137, 150, 206, 207, 209, 281, 309, 313, 343, 347, 349, 366, 382 bronze doors 3, 4, 5, 7, 49, 206 Bronzino, Agnolo 113, 150, 188, 209, 297 Brunelleschi, Filippo 2, 4, 7, 8, 45, 46, 47, 49, 51, 52, 110, 137, 147, 149, 150, 176, 186, 203, 204, 205, 206, 266, 312, 313, 382, 383, 402, 403, 405 Brunelleschian architecture 249 Bruni, Leonardo 149 Buglioni, Benedetto 295, 368, 372 Buonarroti, Michelangelo 9, 49, 145, 149, 151, 204, 206, 207, 209, 210, 266, 313, 345, 359, 406 Buontalenti, Bernardo 48, 207, 286, 339, 340, 359, 419, 420 burial chapel for the cardinal of Portugal 345, 349 burial chapel(s) 345, 349, 422 burials 210, 246, 366 bust of Saint Lawrence 206 buttresses 49, 146 Byzantine 6, 265, 374

C Caccini, Giovanni Battista 110, 137, 406, 420 Caleruega 308 Calimala guild 347, 349 Camaldolese order 176 Canigiani (family) 187 Canigiani Chapel 186, 188 cantorie 51 Capella del Crocefisso 349 Cappella Bardi 149 Cappella dei Pazzi 147, 150 Cappella dei Principi 207

442 Cappella del Giglio 280 Cappella del Miracolo 103 Cappella di San Luca 113 Cappella Franceschi 342 Cappella Strozzi di Mantova 312 Cappella Tornabuoni 313 Cappellone degli Spagnoli 308, 314 Capponi (family) 186, 188, 402 Capponi, Lodovico 188 Cardinal Bessarion 144 Cardinal James of Lusitania 349 Carmelite convent 197 Carmelite order 197, 199, 262, 266, 277, 279, 285, 288 Carnesecchi altarpiece 289 Carrara 3 carved wooden ceiling 137, 207, 248 Casa Buonarroti 204 Catacombs of Saint Callixtus 175 Catani, Luigi 280 Cathedral 5, 7, 8, 9, 45, 46, 49, 294 Cathedral dome project 204 Cathedral/Duomo 6, 10, 45, 48, 49, 51, 379 Cathedral Museum 5, 9 Cavalcanti Annunciation 149 Cavalcanti, Andrea 312 Cellini, Benvenuto 113 cells 249, 250 cemetery 5, 134, 308, 345, 347 centering 48 Cerutti, Giulio 198 Cestello Nuovo 197 chains 49 Chapel of Amerigo da Verrazzano 362 Chapel of Relics 206 Chapel of Saint Francis’s Habit 368 Chapel of the Cardinal of Portugal 347 Chapel of the Princes 204, 208, 211 Chapel of the Sacrament 194 Chapel of the Virgin 196 chapel patronised by the Medici 112

Index chapel(s) 100, 103, 110, 112, 114, 137, 145, 146, 148, 149, 150, 177, 179, 186, 187, 188, 194, 196, 199, 205, 207, 210, 246, 248, 249, 251, 262, 263, 265, 266, 278, 280, 281, 288, 295, 297, 308, 310, 311, 312, 313, 339, 341, 342, 349, 360, 361, 362, 366, 368, 397, 398, 404, 405, 406, 422, 423 chapter house 186, 308, 314 chariot race, the Palio dei Cocchi 309 Charity 194, 297, 343 Charity and Purity 194 Charlemagne 134, 137 Charles Borromaeus 193 Chiavistelli, Jacopo 278, 280 Chimenti, Jacopo called Empoli 179, 342, 359, 398 Chiostrino dei Voti 109, 110, 112 Chiostro dei Morti 110, 113, 308, 405 Chiostro Grande 405 Chiostro Verde 314 choir 48, 103, 110, 176, 177, 188, 198, 210, 248, 249, 280, 288, 295, 296, 297, 310, 312, 313, 342, 347, 349, 360, 368, 398, 403, 406, 422 choir chapels 422 choir screen 146 Christ and Saint Thomas 383 Christ and the Adulteress 406 Christ Crucified 406 Christ on the Cross 349 Christ the Redeemer 112 Christina of Lorraine 110 church sacraments 51 ciborium 349 Cigoli, Lodovico 188, 288 Cimabue, Cenni di Pepi 9, 144, 150, 288, 312, 402, 422 Cioli, Valerio 149 circular 1, 8, 112, 137, 176, 206 Ciseri, Antonio 188

The Art, History and Architecture of Florentine Churches Cistercian order 197, 198, 199, 277, 278, 285 city walls 100, 144, 175, 285, 287, 294, 308, 366, 395, 419 classical art 7, 149 clay models 207 clerestory 48, 199, 205 clock face 52 cloister(s) (chiostro, -i) 111, 113, 146, 147, 200, 207, 208, 245, 247, 248, 249, 250, 277, 278, 311, 347, 368, 399, 404, 405 Cloister of Oranges 297 Cluniac Benedictines 346 coat(s) of arms 176, 204, 207, 245, 281, 295, 339, 342, 349, 362, 371, 382, 396, 423 coffered ceiling 194, 204, 205, 297 Colignon, Giuseppe 281 collection of manuscripts 246 coloured glass 383 coloured marble 3, 148, 186, 308, 348 Column of Justice 419 (porphyry) statue 420 Compagnia of Santa Maria della Neve 103 competition(s) 45, 48, 49 concrete 49 condottieri 52 confraternity of the Laudesi 379, 383 Conrad II of Italy’s tomb 51 console brackets 206 Contini, Giovanni Pietro 397 convex curves 405 Coptic Church in Alexandria 245 Corbinelli chapels 405 Corinthian order 134, 205, 295, 405 corner column 278 Coronation of the Virgin 52, 103, 149, 188, 280, 372 Corsini, Andrea 266 Corsini Chapel 266

443

Cosimo I de' Medici 48, 51, 52, 176, 185, 204, 207, 210, 246, 308, 309, 310, 347, 366, 368, 419 his (illegitimate) son Don Giovanni 204, 207, 340 Cosimo III 346 cotto floor (red and white) 207 cotto tiles 146 Council of Ferrara and Florence 251 Council of Trent 193, 368 counter façade 150, 204 Counter-reformation 144, 150, 178, 262, 310, 341, 360, 366, 368 cross vaults 103, 147, 176, 247, 288, 310, 397, 422 crossing 47, 48, 50, 199, 204, 209, 263, 310, 342, 402, 403, 405 crucifix 137, 179, 199, 249, 343, 349, 366, 370, 398 Crucifixion 113, 144, 149, 150, 196, 200, 249, 277, 281, 312, 313, 406, 422 Crucifixion with a Kneeling Saint Mary Magdalen 281 crypt 51, 113, 209, 347, 359 Curradi, Francesco 200, 280, 359

D d’Agnolo, Baccio 48, 49, 135, 204, 246, 345, 403 d’Antonio, Francesco 359 d’Avanzano, Lorenzo 5 da Cortona, Pietro 192, 194, 279, 342 da Fabriano, Gentile 251, 359, 362, 423 da Fiesole, Mino 103, 104, 296, 297 da Firenze, Gherardello 395 da Gaiole, Giovanni 402 da Maiano, Benedetto 51, 149, 313 da Montelupo, Baccio 383

444 da Palestrina, Giovanni Pierluigi 192 da Panicale, Masolino 103, 262, 263, 265, 266, 289, 361 da Rovezzano Benedetto 134, 137, 262, 295 da San Giovanni, Giovanni 175 da Sangallo, Antonio 110, 246 da Sangallo, Francesco 48, 384 da Sangallo, Giuliano 204, 277, 278, 312, 405 da Settignano, Desiderio 149, 206, 209, 422 da Tolentino, Niccolò 52 da Vinci, Leonardo 9, 49 Daddi, Bernardo 379, 381, 383, 384 Dagomari, Paolo 422 damage during WWII 134 damnatio memoriae 266 Dandini, Pier 199, 279, 281 d’Andrea, Salvi 402, 405 DANTE (source) 1, 2, 11, 52, 145, 289, 312, 345, 350 Danti, Egnazio 308 Danti, Vincenzo 9, 114 de Fabris, Emilio 45, 47 Decamerone 313 degli Scolari, Filippo Buondelmonti (Pippo Spano) 263 Dei (family) 406 del Biondo, Giovanni 384 del Castagno, Andrea 112 del Ghirlandaio 288, 368, 370, 423 del Ghirlandaio, David 370 del Ghirlandaio, Domenico 249, 280, 281, 313, 370, 423 del Ghirlandaio, Domenico and Ridolfo 280 del Ghirlandaio, Ridolfo 179 del Mazziere, Donnino and Agnolo 405 del Minga, Andrea 188 del Papa, Giuseppe 178 del Pollaiuolo, Antonio and Piero 349

Index del Pollaiuolo, Simone (il Cronaca) 246, 405 del Pugliese (family) 297 del Pugliese, Piero 297 del Rosso (family) 339, 342 del Rosso, Zanobi 194 del Sarto, Andrea 103, 112, 113 del Sellaio, Jacopo 201 del Tasso, Leonardo 104, 281 del Verrocchio, Andrea 49, 104, 206, 209, 382, 383, 405 della Mirandola, Pico 103, 246, 249 della Quercia, Jacopo 406 della Robbia, Giovanni 104, 138 della Robbia, Luca 51, 150, 349 della Voragine, Jacopo 148 Deposition from the Cross 150, 188 Descent of Christ into Limbo 150 devotionalia 196, 250 di Banco, Nanni 51, 383 di Bicci, Lorenzo 103 di Bicci, Neri 179, 188 di Bonaguida, Pacino 196 di Buoninsegna, Duccio 313 di Cambio, Arnolfo 3, 45, 46, 47, 48, 51, 144, 246, 285, 288, 294, 314, 379 di Cione, Andrea 138 di Cione, Benci 379 di Cione, Jacopo 138, 384 di Cione, Nardo 312 di Cione, Nardo or Mariotto (his son) 399 di Credi, Lorenzo 281 di Fioravante, Neri 379, 421 di Lorenzo, Bicci 179 di Marcovaldo, Coppo 10, 288 di Michelino, Domenico 52 di Miniato, Gherardo di Giovanni 51 di Nardo, Mariotto 422 di Niccolò, Lorenzo 188 di Pesello, Francesco 179 di Piero Lamberti, Niccolò 381 di sotto in su perspective 368 Dini chapel 150

The Art, History and Architecture of Florentine Churches Diocesan Museum of Santo Stefano al Ponte 289 Dispute over the Immaculate Conception 405 Divina Commedia (Divine Comedy) 52, 289, 312 Doctor Angelicus (Thomas Aquinas) 250 dome 3, 4, 7, 9, 45, 46, 47, 48, 49, 50, 51, 52, 103, 111, 186, 188, 194, 196, 198, 199, 204, 206, 249, 263, 264, 279, 280, 281, 288, 295, 342, 348, 383, 402, 405 Dominican nuns 176 Dominican Observants 245 Dominican order 144, 176, 245, 246, 250, 285, 308, 309, 314 Dominican prayer manual De Modo Orandi 250 Don Pedro of Toledo, tomb 51 Donatello (Donato di Niccolò di Betto Bardi) 7, 8, 10, 51, 52, 149, 150, 206, 209, 245, 313, 379, 382, 383, 406 Doni (family) 422 donor(s) 297, 312, 313, 423 dormer windows 4 Dormitio Virginis 51 dormitories 245, 246, 250 Dosio, Giovanni Antonio 137 dosserets 205, 405 drum 10, 45, 47, 48, 49, 52, 198 Dusk and Dawn 210

E eagle 347, 349 Ecstasy of the Blessed Maria Bartolommea Bagnesi 281 Edict of Tolerance 203 Egyptian cross shape 146 Egyptian Pharaoh 8 eighteenth century 52, 101, 137, 148, 186, 194, 204, 210, 249, 289, 297, 361, 384, 402

445

Eleonora of Toledo 308 Emperor Augustus 2 Emperor Constantine 148, 203 Emperor Valerian 203 empty tabernacles 207 entablature 134, 176 Entombment of Christ 188 Epiphany 251 equestrian monument 109 evangelists 7, 342 ex votos 379 exedrae 47 Expulsion from Paradise 265

F façade 4, 5, 9, 45, 46, 47, 48, 51, 52, 53, 101, 110, 113, 134, 137, 145, 148, 176, 178, 186, 194, 198, 204, 205, 206, 247, 249, 262, 263, 286, 295, 308, 309, 310, 312, 339, 340, 342, 346, 359, 360, 368, 381, 382, 396, 399, 402, 405, 419, 420, 422 Faith, Hope and Charity 5, 194, 209 falcon 349 Falconcini (family) 396 fascia 4 fenestration 207 Ferdinando I de' Medici 110 Ferretti, Giovanni Domenico 266 Ferri, Antonio Maria 198 Ferri, Ciro 279, 280 Ferrucci, Francesco, called il Tadda 420 Fiammeri, Giovanni Battista 137 Fiesole 3, 245, 278 fifteenth century 5, 51, 100, 134, 149, 176, 197, 203, 209, 246, 262, 277, 278, 313, 345, 359, 382, 384, 402, 419, 422, 423 Fiorentino, Rosso 112, 406 fire in 1304 379 flat ceiling 278 Flemish influences 209

446 flood of 1333 379, 419 flood of 1966 9, 112, 134, 150, 263, 280, 359, 399 Florence Cathedral 1, 2, 6, 7, 45, 46, 47, 48, 52, 149, 285, 314, 340, 384 Florentia, ancient Florence 1, 2 Florentine amphitheatre 345 Florentine calcio 137 Florentine chancellors 149 Florentine guilds 379 Florentine Republic 5, 46, 51, 52, 209, 294, 345, 422 flying buttresses 47 Foggini, Giovanni Battista 103, 266, 342 Fondazione Salvatore Romano 406 foreshortening 265 Fortitude 5, 343 Foschi, Pier Francesco di Jacopo 405 Foundling Hospital (Ospedale degli Innocenti) 4, 110 Four Evangelists 150, 188 Four Patriarchs 188 Four Saints 362, 383 fourteenth century 2, 9, 103, 138, 144, 146, 175, 188, 249, 266, 288, 347, 349, 366, 395, 397, 398, 399, 406 Fra Angelico 245, 246, 249, 250, 251, 297 Fra Bartolommeo di San Marco 249, 250 Fra Lorenzo Monaco 423 Fra Sisto Fiorentino and Fra Ristoro da Campi 309 Francavilla, Pietro 113 France 47, 197, 395 Franceschi (family) 339, 342 Franceschini, Baldassare 114 Francesco I (de' Medici) 9, 185 Franciabigio (Giudici, Francesco) 114 Franciscan order (Observants) 144, 285, 366, 367, 368

Index French community of Jerusalem 294 French pilgrims 395 Frescobaldi (family) 402 Frescobaldi Chapel 406 frescoe(s) 8, 51, 52, 101, 103, 112, 114, 144, 148, 150, 175, 178, 179, 187, 188, 194, 196, 199, 209, 210, 249, 250, 262, 263, 265, 266, 280, 281, 288, 297, 312, 313, 314, 347, 349, 359, 362, 368, 370, 384, 395, 399, 405, 406, 422, 423 funerary chapel 150, 266, 314

G Gabbiani, Anton(io) Domenico 178, 194, 199 Gabinetto Disegni e Stampe degli Uffizi 210 gable roof 383, 396, 420 Gaddi 402 Gaddi, Agnolo 103, 148, 349, 398 Gaddi, Gaddo 10, 52, 398 Gaddi, Taddeo 148, 150, 188, 370 Galilei, Galileo 145 Galleria Palatina 369, 406 Galletti, Filippo Maria 342 Gambelli, Pietro 114 Gamberai, Felice 297 Gamberucci, Cosimo 281 Gates of Paradise 5, 6, 9, 49 Gelli, Pierfrancesco 2 Gemäldegalerie Berlin 289 Genesis 8, 10, 314 geometrical patterns 3, 9, 347 geometrical stone inlays 9 Gérard de Bourgogne, Pope Nicholas II 4 Gerini, Niccolò di Pietro 103, 188 Gherardini, Alessandro 194 Gherardini, Tommaso 188 Ghiberti, Lorenzo 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 49, 51, 313, 382, 383, 423

The Art, History and Architecture of Florentine Churches Giambologna 109, 113, 207, 246, 247, 249, 309, 313, 383 Giambullari, Gian Battista 2 Giglio-Neri Chapel 277, 279, 280 Giordano, Luca 266, 279, 280 Giottino (Tommaso or Maso di Stefano) 399 Giotto di Bondone 6, 45, 46, 51, 145, 146, 148, 149, 179, 288, 297, 312, 369, 370 Giovacchino Fortini 194 Giovanni Gualberto see Saint John Gualbertus gisant 297 Giudici e Notai (guild) 383 Giuliano and Antonio da Sangallo 192 glazed terracotta 138, 150, 295, 349, 368, 371, 372 Glory of the Magdalen 199 gnomon 308 God the Father 179, 188 Gondi Chapel 312 Gonzaga (family) 111 Gothic 45, 47, 101, 110, 138, 144, 148, 176, 209, 262, 278, 288, 294, 295, 308, 309, 310, 345, 370, 383, 395, 397, 419, 420, 421 Goths 100 Gozzoli, Benozzo 7, 245, 251, 423 grain market 379 Grand Duchy of Tuscany 207 Grand Duke Ferdinand I (de' Medici) 109, 207, 249 Grand Duke Francesco I (de' Medici) 48 Grand Duke Leopold (of HabsburgLorraine) 198 granite 5, 9 graves 179 Greek and Latin inscriptions 185 Greek and Latin texts 249 Greek Cross shape 296 Green Cloister 308, 314 green, white and red stone 209

447

Guardi, Benedetto di Ser Giovanni 280 Guardini Chapel 361 Guelf and Ghibelline parties 296 Guelf Florentine army 419 Guelf party 150 Guidalotti, Buonamico (Mico) 314 guild of silk weavers and importers 2 guild of wool merchants 46 guilds’ patron saints 381, 382

H half-dome vault 194, 247 hall church 110, 263, 278, 397 hanging arches 396 haziness 8, 265 hemispherical 48, 205 Hercules 51, 209 herringbone pattern 49 high altar 103, 112, 138, 179, 188, 194, 196, 199, 249, 250, 297, 313, 342, 348, 366, 368, 369, 399, 406 high relief 8 Holy See 368 Holy Sepulchre 137, 207 Holy Spirit Descending on the Apostles 137 Holy Trinity: Lenzi 312 Holy Trinity with Apostles and Florentine Saints 194 Hope and Poverty 342 Hora Italica 52 hospital 294, 346, 395 Hugo, Margrave of Tuscia 294

I Image of the Blessed Virgin 379 Immaculate Conception 398 Imperial Roman architecture 206 indulgences 144, 203 Inferno 312 Innocence and Religion 281

448 intarsiae 342, 347, 383 interconnecting (side) chapels 199, 341 Ionian capital(s) 278

J Jesuit order 346 Jonah and the Whale 288

K King Alfonso V of Portugal 349 King Authari 2 King Clovis 395, 399 King Solomon 8

L landscapes 265 lantern 3, 9, 49, 50, 198, 206 Lapi, Niccolò 194 Last Judgement 10, 52, 209, 210, 288, 312 Last Supper 150, 179, 200, 249, 368, 370, 406 late-antique marble head of a woman 286 Lateran, Saint John 3 Latin cross (shape) 263, 310, 341, 403 Latin Fathers of the Church 7 Latini, Brunetto 289 Laudesi confraternity 313, 380 Laurentian Library 203, 204, 207 Legenda Aurea 148 Lenzi (family) 312 lesene 176 library 207, 245, 246, 248, 249, 402 Life of Christ 7 Life of Saint Christopher 399 Life of Saint Peter 265 Life of the Virgin Mary 112, 148, 313, 384 Ligozzi, Jacopo 368

Index Lippi, Filippino 262, 266, 297, 313, 405 Lippi, Filippo 103, 209, 406 Lisbon 347 Lombard 2, 339 Lorenzi, Battista 149 Louvre 281, 406 low hall church 287 Lucca 197 Ludovico II Gonzaga 112 lunette(s) 112, 179, 188, 199, 281, 368, 372

M Machiavelli, Niccolò 145 Madonna 51, 103, 109, 113, 149, 179, 188, 196, 288, 347, 379, 381 Madonna and Angels 295 Madonna and Child 149, 179, 188, 199, 210, 250, 288, 383, 398 Madonna and Child Enthroned with Angels 288, 369 Madonna and Child Enthroned with Angels and Apostles 288 Madonna and Child with Saint Francis of Assisi 342 Madonna and Child with Saints Mary Magdalene and Ansanus 288 Madonna and Child with Ten Saints 406 Madonna col Bambino 179 Madonna del Carmine 288 Madonna del Latte 149 Madonna del Popolo 265 Madonna del Rosario 312 Madonna del Sacco 113 Madonna del Sorriso 199 Madonna della Misericordia 370 Madonna Enthroned for Santa Reparata 51 Madonna Enthroned with Angels and Prophets 422 Madonna in Glory with Saints 200

The Art, History and Architecture of Florentine Churches Madonna in Glory with the Holy Trinity and Additional Saints 249 Madonna of Sant’ Ambrogio 103 Madonna of the Rose 382, 383 Madonna with Saint Bernard 281 Madonna with Saints 249 Maenad 313 Maestri di Pietra e Legname 383 Maestro Buono 288 Magalotti (family) 192 main altar 278, 398, 422 main choir 422 main sanctuary 177, 194, 398 Majorca 5 Mancini (family) 192 Manetti, Antonio 204, 349, 402 Mannerism 206, 419 mannerist architecture 206, 207 Mantua 111 Maratta, Carlo 196 marble 3, 9, 45, 48, 103, 112, 134, 137, 149, 199, 204, 286, 297, 312, 342, 346, 347, 382, 423 marble baldachin 406 marble busts 137, 199 marble flooring 48 Margrave Hugo 295, 296, 297 Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi 278 Mars 2, 4 Marsuppini, Carlo 149, 209 Martelli (family) 209, 339, 342 Martelli Annunciation 209 Martelli Chapel 209 Martyrdom of Saint Joachim 281 Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence 201, 209, 342 Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian 288, 289 Martyrdom of San Romolo 280 Mary Enthroned with Saints and Angels 138 Marzocco 5 Masaccio, Tommaso 8, 103, 262, 263, 265, 266, 289, 312 masonry 48, 49

449

Master of San Remigio 398 Master of Signa 178 Master of the Bargello 179 Master of the Cloister of Oranges (Giovanni da Consalvo) 297 Matas, Niccolò 148 Mausoleum 204, 206, 279 Mazzei (family) 339, 342 Medici (family) 10, 46, 48, 49, 109, 112, 176, 206, 210, 245, 250, 251, 339, 342, 366, 371, 423 Medici bank 423 Medici Chapels 203 Medici, device of Piero de’ Medici 349 Medici, Giovanni and Lorenzo (captains) 210 Medici, Carlo de’ Medici (cardinal) 339 Medici, Lorenzo and Giovanni (magnifici) 210 Medici e Speziali guild 383 Medici grand dukes of Tuscany 207 Medici, Lorenzo the Magnificent 206, 249, 406 Medici, Maria Maddalena 110 Medici palace 249, 251 Medici Piero (di Cosimo) de’ Medici 246, 349 Medici Prince Ferdinando 406 Medici, Cosimo the Elder 10, 204, 209, 245, 251 Medici, Giovanni di Bicci de’ 203, 206 Mellini, Pietro 149 Mercury 209 Metropolitan Museum of New York 112 Meucci, Vincenzo 204 Michelozzi, Michelozzo 7, 10, 49, 109, 110, 111, 112, 176, 245, 246, 247, 248, 250, 278, 349, 361 Milan 3, 100, 266, 285, 289 Miracle of the Snow 188 Miraculous Blood 103

450 model(s) 4, 7, 10, 45, 46, 48, 49, 204, 384, 402 module(s) 205, 402 Monastery of Cistercians in Borgo Pinti 197 Monastery of the Campora outside Porta Romana 297 monks’ cells 249 Mons Fiorentinus 345 Montauti, Antonio 194, 200 Montauti, Giovanni 281 monuments 47, 51, 52, 149, 178, 207, 405, 419 mosaic 9, 51, 137, 249, 347, 348 Museo Horne 289 museum 48, 51, 145, 148, 150, 245, 246, 247, 249, 250, 379 Museum of Orsanmichele 379 Museum of Santa Croce 150, 380 Museum of the Opera del Duomo 5, 45, 46, 245, 340 Museum of the Opera di Santa Croce 147 Museum Poldi Pezzoli 289 Mystical Marriage of Saint Maria Magdalen 281

N Naldini, Battista 246, 362 Nasi (family) 281 Nasi chapel 281, 362 National Gallery in London 362 National Gallery of Washington 361, 362 Nativity 51 natural perspective 369 nave 46, 48, 50, 110, 111, 134, 137, 146, 176, 177, 187, 192, 198, 205, 208, 246, 248, 263, 278, 280, 288, 310, 311, 312, 341, 342, 347, 349, 368, 381, 384, 397, 399, 403, 404, 405, 406, 421 negative emphasis 206 neighbourhood 134, 137, 144, 308, 366, 402, 422, 423

Index Neo-Classical 247 Neri, Filippo 280 Nerli Altarpiece 405 Nerli Chapel 405 New Sacristy 204, 206, 210, 211 new set of city walls 144 New Testament 10, 250, 288, 384 Nigetti, Matteo 204, 339, 368 Night and Day 210 nineteenth century 45, 47, 48, 52, 101, 145, 148, 150, 176, 185, 196, 204, 247, 277, 294, 309, 346, 347, 348, 368, 384, 420 Nola 175 Nori, Francesco 149 Northern influences 250 nuns’ gallery 176

O obelisks 309 octagonal 2, 3, 4, 9, 46, 47, 48, 49, 146, 397, 405 oculus (-i) 48, 205, 206, 360, 405, 420 Ognissanti 366, 367, 368, 369, 370, 372, 384 Ognissanti Crucifix 370 Ognissanti Madonna 369 Old Sacristy 147, 150, 186, 203, 204, 206 Old Testament 7, 8, 10, 51, 147, 150, 186, 203, 204, 206, 265, 280, 288, 384 Olivetan Benedictines 346 Oltrarno 185, 197, 262, 359, 402, 419 one-light windows 176 one-nave [church] 103, 186 one-point perspective 8, 52, 209, 250, 312 open beam/timber roof or ceiling 103, 146, 177, 263, 347, 360 Opera del Duomo Museum 6, 10, 48, 49, 51 Oratorians 192, 193, 194

The Art, History and Architecture of Florentine Churches oratory 192, 309, 395 orchard 379, 395 Orchard of Saint Michael (see Orsanmichele) original sin 134 Orsanmichele 8, 150, 379, 380, 381, 382

P Padua 148, 280, 423 paintings gallery 249 Palazzo Corsini 198 Palazzo dei Priori 46, 246 Palazzo della Crocetta 110 Palazzo Gondi 192 Palazzo Medici 278 Palazzo Pitti 175, 185, 406 Palazzo Vecchio 2, 46, 185, 246, 395 Pantheon (Rome) 9, 46, 48, 206 Paradise 5, 9, 10, 134, 188, 312 Parigi, Alfonso 405 Parigi, Giulio 179 parish church 185, 197, 198, 201, 204, 294 Pasqui, Leopoldo 398 Passignano 246, 280 Passion of Christ 7, 249, 251, 349 Passion of Christ with Saint Dominic and Additional Saints 249 patronage rights 204 pavement 9, 48, 49, 50, 137, 146, 204, 207, 249, 297, 342, 347 Pazzi (family) 150 Pazzi Chapel 186, 405 Pazzi Conspiracy 149 Pazzi, Pazzino de’ 137 pediment(s) 4, 176, 206, 342, 360, 366 pendentives 188, 199, 206 Penitence and Faith 281 Pentecost altarpiece 138, 405 Permoser, Balthasar 342

451

Perugino, Pietro 112, 277, 280, 281, 405 Peruzzi (family) 148 Pettirossi, Bartolomeo 368 Piamontini, Giuseppe 178, 200 Piattoli, Giuseppe 280 Piazza della Repubblica 5 Piazza della Signoria 246, 423 Piazza Duomo 1 Piazza San Firenze 192 Piazza San Giovanni 1 Piazza Santa Madonna degli Aldobrandini 206 Piazza Signoria 192, 250, 379 Piazzetta del Limbo 134 pictorial plane 265 Pietà 112, 289 Pietà di San Remigio 399 pietra forte 340, 342, 396 pietra serena 103, 149, 176, 177, 186, 194, 205, 297, 310, 342, 396, 405 pietre dure 199, 207, 368 pietre dure pavement 207 pilasters 3, 4, 5, 134, 205, 281, 310, 342, 368 pilgrims’ hospital 249 Pinacoteca Vaticana 362 pinnacles 47, 209 Pinzani, Giuseppe 194 pipe organ 397 Pisano, Andrea 5, 6, 7, 46 Pisano, Nino, the son of Andrea Pisano 199 Pitti Chapels 406 Pitti, Luca 406 Pius II 203 plague of 1348 46, 379, 419 plants 7, 8, 281 plinths 205 Poccetti, Bernardo 48, 186, 188, 200, 280 pointed arch(es) 103, 146, 310, 396, 397 Poliziano, Agnolo 246, 249 Pollaiuolo brothers 349

452 polychrome 45, 46, 138, 145, 199, 281, 312, 342, 406 polygonal 207, 247 polyptych 138, 196, 297, 362 Polyptych of the Intercession 362 Ponte Santa Trinita 419 Ponte Vecchio 185 Pontormo, Jacopo 112, 113, 114, 188, 210 Pope Benedict IX 314 Pope Clement VII 207, 210 Pope Eugenius IV 49, 144, 245 Pope Felix I 175 Pope Gregory 7 Pope Leo X 112, 204, 206 Pope Martin V 308 Pope Nicholas II 4 Pope Pius IV 419 Pope Urban VIII 197 poplar 10 Poppi, Francesco 246, 359, 362 porphyry 5, 206 Porta della Canonica 48 Porta della Mandorla 48, 51, 53 Porte Sante 345, 347 portico with Ionian columns 278 portrait medallions 263 Prato 3, 137 predella 188, 250, 281, 362, 406 Prior Ugolotti Altoviti 135 professions 51 Prophets 7, 8, 10, 384 proportional measurements 402 proscenium-type architecture 342 Pucci, Dionisio and Giovanna 281 Puglieschi, Antonio 194 Pugliese, Francesco Filippo 280 Puligo, Domenico 280 pulpit 149, 312 Pulpit of the Passion of Christ 209 Pulpit of the Resurrection 209 Purification of the Virgin 362

Index

Q Quaratesi Madonna see Quaratesi Polyptych Quaratesi Polyptych 359, 361, 362 Quaratesi, Bernardo di Castello 359 Quattro Santi Coronati 383 Queen of Sheba 8 Queen Theodelinda 2

R Radagasius 100 Raffaellino del Garbo 280, 281 Raising of the Son of Theophilus 266 Ravenna 3, 145 reading room 207, 248 realistic style 265 rectangular hall 194, 360 Redeemer with the Madonna and Saints 312 rediscovered antiquities 313 refectory (-ies) 148, 150, 179, 200, 245, 249, 262, 368, 370, 406 Reims 395 relic(s) 10, 51, 103, 197, 207, 209, 245, 246, 249, 277, 347, 366 relief(s) 6, 8, 9, 103, 149, 194, 207, 247, 281, 342, 420 reliquary (-ies) 207, 422 Renaissance 1, 4, 6, 47, 103, 248, 295, 360 Rene of Anjou 206 repentance 10 Resurrection 113, 405 revetments 3, 9, 45, 48, 207, 310, 346, 347 ricetto see vestibule RICHA (source) 44, 99, 108, 133, 143, 174, 184, 191, 196, 202, 244, 261, 276, 284, 293, 307, 338, 344, 365, 378, 394, 401, 418, 429 Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam 288 rilievo schiacciato (squashed relief) 8, 51, 209

The Art, History and Architecture of Florentine Churches Rimini 310 ring roads (viali) 144 Risorgimento 145 Roman city walls 1, 2, 203, 294 Roman forum 5 Romanesque 3, 134, 137, 186, 262, 294, 309, 339, 345, 346, 347, 359, 360, 396, 419, 422 Rome 3, 7, 46, 175, 192, 207, 210, 263, 395, 419 Romei, Giuseppe 263 rood screen 144, 150, 310, 312, 360, 361, 368, 370, 399 rose window 52 Rosselli, Cosimo 103, 112, 405 Rosselli, Matteo 179, 280, 342 Rossellino, Antonio 149 Rossellino, Bernardo 149, 297, 349 Rossellino, Bernardo and Antonio 347 Rossellino, Giovanni 347 round arche(s) 295, 310, 347, 396 Royal Collection 362 Rucellai (family) 312 Rucellai Chapel 313 Rucellai Madonna 313 Rucellai, Giovanni 308, 310 Rucellai, Paolo 313 Ruggieri, Ferdinando 185, 186, 194, 204 Ruggieri, Giuseppe 262 Rustici, Francesco 9

S Sabatelli, Luigi 196 sacristy 176, 187, 188, 200, 204, 246, 248, 262, 279, 309, 347, 349, 361, 362, 368, 370, 397, 404, 405, 406, 423 Sagrestani, Giovanni 194, 199 Saint Albertus Siculus 288 Saint Alexander 185 Saint Ambrose 2, 7, 100, 104, 203 Saint Andrea Avellino 342 Saint Andrew Corsini 266

453

Saint Anne 381 Saint Anne with Madonna and Child 384 Saint Ansanus 359 Saint Anthony Abbot 179, 288 Saint Antoninus (Pierozzi) 10, 245, 246, 247, 249 Saint Apollinaire 192 Saint Augustine 7, 179, 370 Saint Augustine with John the Baptist and Saints Julian and Sigismund 179 Saint Benedict 297, 349 Saint Bernard of Clairvaux (Chiaravalle) 199, 200, 280, 281 Saint Bernard of Clairvaux 199, 200, 280 Saint Bernard of Clairvaux Defeating the Devil 200 Saint Cajetan 339, 342 Saint Cajetan in Glory 342 Saint Caterina of Siena 197 Saint Dominic 247, 249, 250, 308, 314 Saint Dominic and Saint Vincent Ferrer 247 Saint Eligius 383 Saint Eustace 349 Saint Felicity 185, 188 Saint Felix of Nola 175 Saint Florentius 192 Saint Francis 148, 149, 280, 366, 423 Saint Frigidianus 197 Saint George 8, 379, 383 Saint Helena 148 Saint Ignatius 281 Saint James 349, 383 Saint Jerome 7, 112, 370 Saint Joan of Arc 280 Saint John Evangelist and Saint Benedict 281 Saint John Gualbertus 349, 422 Saint John the Apostle 312 Saint John the Baptist 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 9, 10, 148, 179, 313, 382, 383

454 Saint John the Baptist Preaching 9 Saint John the Evangelist 148, 206, 383, 384 Saint Joseph 8, 10 Saint Lawrence 203 Saint Lawrence Distributing the Wealth of the Church to the Poor 342 Saint Louis of Toulouse 150, 379, 383 Saint Luke 7, 382, 383 Saint Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi 197, 199, 200, 277, 278 Saint Mark 7, 245, 250, 383 Saint Mary Magdalen 199, 277 Saint Mary Magdalen 10, 245 Saint Matthew 7, 383 Saint Matthew triptych 384 Saint Michael 312, 339, 379 Saint Minias 345, 347, 348, 349 Saint Monica 405 Saint Nicholas of Myra 359, 362 Saint Peter 176, 179, 245, 266, 383 Saint Peter and Paul 342 Saint Peter Baptising the Neophytes 265 Saint Peter Martyr 176, 250 Saint Philip 192, 194, 196, 383 Saint Philip Neri 192, 193, 194, 195, 196 Saint Remigius, bishop of Reims 395, 399 Saint Rochus 179, 281 Saint Rochus with Saint Anthony Abbot and Saint Catherine 179 Saint Sebastian 281 Saint Sigismund 399 Saint Stephen 294, 295, 383 Saint Thomas Aquinas 250 Saint Thomas Praying 249 Saint Vincent 247, 349 Saint Zenobius 51, 100, 203, 249 Saints Cosmas and Damian 210, 250 Salone dei Cinquecento 2, 246 Salone del Maggior Consiglio 246

Index Salviati Chapel 246, 249 Salviati, Francesco 150 Salviati, Jacopo d’Alamanno 281 San Felice in Piazza 175, 176, 177, 178, 179, 419 San Firenze 192, 193, 195, 196, 294 San Francisco, Grace Cathedral 9 San Frediano in Cestello 197, 198, 200, 201, 277 San Gaetano [dei Conti di Thiene] 339, 342 San Giovanni Battista (see Saint John the Baptist) 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 San Girolamo della Carità 192 San Lorenzo 2, 100, 147, 203, 204, 205, 207, 208, 209, 210, 211, 405 San Lorenzo, façade 206 San Marco 10, 245, 246, 247, 248, 251, 419 San Marco Adoration 251 San Marco Altarpiece 250 San Michele Bertelde 339 San Miniato al Monte 9, 137, 310, 339, 345, 346, 347, 348, 349, 350, 422 San Niccolò 359, 360, 361, 362, 363 San Pietro Martire 176 San Remigio 395, 396, 397, 398 San Romeo 395 San Salvatore al Monte 366 San Salvatore di Ognissanti 366 San Silvestro in Nonantola 175 Sansovino, Andrea 9, 405 Sansovino, Jacopo 204 Sant’ Ambrogio Altarpiece 103 Sant’Ambrogio 100, 101, 102, 103 Sant’Angelo Carmelitano 280 Sant’Anna Metterza 103 Santa Croce 10, 46, 144, 145, 146, 147, 148, 149, 150, 151, 209, 285, 294, 308, 310, 312, 313, 345, 368, 384, 395 Santa Felicita 185, 186, 187, 188

The Art, History and Architecture of Florentine Churches Santa Maria degli Angeli 197 Santa Maria del Carmine 8,180, 262, 263, 264, 265 Santa Maria del Fiore 1, 3, 5, 45, 46, 47, 50, 51, 52, 53, 109, 137, 294 Santa Maria della Vigna 308 Santa Maria di Cestello 277 Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi 277, 278, 279 Santa Maria Magdalena delle Convertite 277 Santa Maria Maggiore 285, 286, 287, 288, 289 Santa Maria nella Badia Fiorentina 294, 295, 296, 297, 345 Santa Maria Novella 10, 46, 150, 285, 308, 309, 310, 311, 312, 368, 384 Santa Reparata 2, 5, 9, 45, 51 Santa Trinita 340, 349, 419, 420, 421, 422 Santi Apostoli 134, 135, 136, 137 Santi di Tito 249 Santi Michele and Gaetano Bertelde 339 Santissima Annunziata 9, 109, 110, 111, 112, 113, 114 Santo Spirito 308, 402, 403, 404 Saracen guns 109 sarcophagus 137, 210, 297, 313, 347, 423 Sassetti Chapel 422 Sassetti, Francesco 423 Savonarola, Girolamo 197, 246, 249, 250 scaffolding 48, 49 scenes of the life of Saint Maria Magdalena dei Pazzi 280 Scoppio del Carro 137 segmental screening walls 310 semi-circular 194 Serchio 197 Serragli Sacrament Chapel 248 Servite monastery 110 Servite order 109

455

Seven Maccabeans 188 seventeenth century 110, 112, 114, 193, 198, 204, 248, 266, 280, 285, 289, 294, 296, 342, 405, 406 sfumato 8, 265 shell 49 shrine 51, 137, 345 Sibyls 7 Sicily 288 side altars 103, 144, 176, 177, 178, 179, 194, 310, 360, 368, 399 side chapel(s) 146, 204, 205, 342, 370, 405, 422 Sienese palio 137 silk trade 265 Silvani, Gherardo 198, 339, 406 Silvani, Gherardo and Pier Francesco 194, 200, 339 Silvani, Pier Francesco 248, 266, 280, 297 silver votive lamps 112 Silvestrine monks, blue Benedictines 245 Simon Stock 288 singing galleries (see cantorie) single nave 194, 248, 278, 360, 368 sinopia 349 Sir Francis Sloane-Stanley 148 Sir John Hawkwood 52 Sistine Chapel 209 sixteenth century 5, 48, 135, 137, 144, 176, 185, 186, 188, 199, 203, 246, 248, 312, 314, 339, 360, 368, 370, 398, 399, 422 Soderini (family) 197 Soderini, Piero 262 Soldani-Benzi, Massimiliano 281 Song of Songs 8 Sources 11, 53, 105, 114, 138, 151, 179, 189, 196, 201, 212, 251, 266, 281, 289, 298, 314, 343, 350, 364, 372, 384, 399, 406, 423 Spedale degli Innocenti 2 Spinazzi, Innocenzo 9, 281

456 Spinello Aretino 188, 288, 349 spolia 3, 5, 134, 137, 347 square bays 421 squashed relief 8 (see rilievo schiacciato) Stagi, Domenico 263 stained-glass window(s) 52, 148, 207, 280, 312, 384, 405 staircase 207 Starnina, Gherardo 179 stigmata 148, 280 stone ceiling or roof 310, 368 story of Joseph 8 Story of the True Cross 148 Stoss, Veit 370 Stradano, Giovanni 196 straight architrave 278 Strozzi (family) 251, 312, 313, 423 Strozzi Altarpiece 251 Strozzi Chapel 312, 313 Strozzi funerary chapel 423 Strozzi Tommaso 312 Strozzi, Filippo 313 Strozzi, Palla (and his father Onofrio) 423 sunken double columns 207 Susini, Giovanni Francesco 343 Sustermans, Justus 179

T tabernacle 103, 104, 112, 138, 149, 176, 209, 347, 349, 360, 379, 381, 383 tabernacle frames 103, 176 Tabernacle of the Sacrament 209 Tacca, Pietro 109, 113 Talenti, Francesco 46, 48, 379 taxation on salt 262 Tedesco, Pietro di Giovanni 383 tempera 138, 280, 288, 297, 313, 422, 423 tempietto 406 Tempio Malatestiano 310 Temple of Mars 2 Temptation of Adam and Eve 265

Index Ten Thousand Martyrs of Ararat 406 terra verde 314 The Baptism of Christ 9 The Beheading 9 The Fall of Adam and Eve 265 The Four Doctors of the Church 103 The Legend of the Miraculous Chalice 103 The Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints 179 The Madonna and Child with Saints James Major, Pope Sylvester and the Abbot of Nonantola 179 The Madonna of the Girdle 179, 362 The Oratory 194, 195 The Trinity and the Virgin in Glory with Saints 264 Theatine Benedictines (Theatines) 339 theological and cardinal virtues 5 thirteenth century 45, 278, 285, 286, 288, 294, 308, 309, 312, 347, 368, 381, 395, 398, 402 Three Marys in Conversation with an Angel Guarding Christ’s Empty Tomb 288 three-nave 46, 47, 110, 137, 176, 205, 246, 287, 347, 397 thrust 49 Ticciati, Girolamo 178 Toker, Franklin 45 tomb for Giovanni and Piero de’ Medici 206 tomb markers 146 tomb(s) 10, 48, 51, 104, 112, 137, 145, 146, 149, 179, 185, 194, 206, 207, 209, 210, 289, 296, 297, 310, 313, 342, 349, 359, 366, 405 tombs of artists 112 tondo (-i) 150, 188, 206, 398, 422 tooth cut pattern 176 Tornabuoni, Lorenzo 281

The Art, History and Architecture of Florentine Churches Tornabuoni, Ludovica 313 Tornaquinci (family) 342 Torrigiani Chapel 405 Torrigiani, Pietro 266 tortoises 309 tramezzo (see rood screen) transept(s) 48, 113, 137, 145, 146, 148, 149, 186, 198, 200, 204, 205, 206, 209, 249, 263, 266, 296, 310, 312, 313, 341, 342, 349, 368, 403, 404, 405, 422, 423 Tree of Life 150 tribuna 109, 111, 113 Tribunale di Mercanzia 383 Trinity 112, 194, 249, 264, 312, 402, 419, 420, 422 Trinity as a three-faced head 422 Trinity with Saint Jerome and Two Saints 112 triptych 179, 289, 384 Triumph of Death 150 trompe-l’oeil 149 Tuscan Gothic 47 Tuscan Romanesque 3, 203, 345 twelfth century 347, 359 Twelve Apostles 150 twelve segments 206, 405 twentieth century 148 two-nave 381 tympanum 176, 310, 346

U Uccello, Paolo 51, 52, 314, 399 Uffizi Gallery 103, 185, 251, 280, 297, 313, 349, 359, 362, 369, 384, 399, 406, 422, 423 Uguccione (parish priest) 104 Ulivelli, Cosimo 280 umbrella dome 206 Umiliati order 366, 369 unbaptised children 134 urban project 419

457

V Vallombrosan(s) 245, 349, 419, 422 vanishing point 8 Vasari, Giorgio (incl. source) 2, 8, 19, 52, 55, 105, 114, 139, 144, 146, 149, 150, 153, 179, 189, 196, 201, 204, 205, 207, 210, 216, 251, 262, 267, 282, 288, 291, 301, 310, 312, 316, 343, 352, 359, 360, 364, 368, 374, 385, 398, 400, 407, 424 Vasari Corridor 185, 186 vaults 205, 288, 308, 384, 398 Venetian 5, 9, 245, 246 Venice 245 Venus Pudica 265 Vespucci (family) 366, 370 Vespucci Chapel 370 Vespucci, Amerigo 370 Vespucci, Simonetta and Amerigo 366 vestibule 176, 207, 405 Via Aurelia 175 Via Dante Alighieri 1 Via dei Calzaiuoli 379 Via dei Serragli 176 Via dei Servi 109 Via del Proconsolo 1, 294, 295 Via dell’Arte della Lana 381 Via Francigena 395 Via Proconsolo 298 Via Romea Via Tornabuoni 423 Via Torta 345 Victory 343 Villafranca del Bierzo 309 VILLANI (source) 11, 53, 105, 138, 151, 212, 289, 298, 314, 343, 351, 372, 384, 399, 423 Villani, Giovanni 2, 45 Virgin and Child with angels and Saints Frediano and Augustine 406 Virgin and Child with Saints 280

458 Virgin and Child with Saints Matthew and Nicholas 384 Virgin Mary 10, 51, 52, 103, 112, 138, 149, 188, 250, 265, 288, 294, 312, 372, 381 Virgin who presents the Christ Child to Saint Mary Magdalen 281 Virgin with Saint Maria Magdalena dei Pazzi 280 Virtues 149, 199, 384 Vision of Saint Bernard 281 Visitation 112, 281, 313 Volterrano, Daniele 175 votive offerings 109

W wall tombs 10, 47, 149, 206, 210

Index Walter VI de Brienne, Duke of Athens, 381 watchtower 1 wax ex-votos 109 white stucco 186, 205, 297, 310, 342, 405 Widow of Nain 362 winged lion 245 wool refiners’ guild 5 workshop 138, 149, 280, 288, 314

Z Zanchini chapel 150 zodiac 9, 347 Zuccari, Federico 52 Zumkeller Luigi 134, 137