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Gesù Pellegrino
Via San Gallo |
History
Also known as the Oratorio dei Pretoni. Formerly the church of San Salvatore and
belonging to the confraternity of that name, until in 1312 it became a
hospice for elderly priests and pilgrim clerics and was dedicated to San Jacopo. Modernised
for
the Medici 1585-88 by architect Giovanni Antonio Dosio. At this time were
painted the three altarpieces and a fresco cycle Scenes from the Life of Christ (1590) by
Giovanni Balducci. Suppressed by Grand Duke Pietro Leopoldo in 1785.
Contains the tomb of Arlotto Mainardi, the parish priest of San Cresci a Marcoli between 1426 and 1468. The subject of a famous painting
by Il Volterrano (Baldassare Franceschini) The Parson's Jest (see
below), he was famous for his sense of
humour. The inscription on the tomb reads 'Piavano Arlotto had this
sepulchre made for himself, and for anyone who wants to join him'.
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Montedomini
Via dei Malcontenti 6 |
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History
Originally the hospital of San Sebastiano, founded in 1464 for
victims of the plague on land granted to the hospital of Santa Maria Nuova.
Later used by two Franciscan orders of nuns (from Santa Maria a
Montedomini and Santa Maria a Monticelli). Following the suppression of
the two convents in 1810 they were merged and redesigned in a
neo-classical style as a hospice for the elderly in the early 19th Century
by Giuseppe del Rosso, becoming a workhouse in 1860, then being known as
the Pia Casa di Lavoro.
The church of the Monticelli was deconsecrated during the 19th Century
rebuilding, being divided into two floors and becoming a dormitory.
The other church, which had belonged to the Montedomini, which had been
consecrated in 1573, was retained. It has a vault painted with The
Virgin holding her Child out to San Francesco by Agostino Veracini in
the 18th Century, and a nun's gallery, not surprisingly. It became a
parish church in 1816. It is also said to house a large wooden Crucifix
and a copy of the Madonna of the Harpies by Andrea del Sarto.
There's also The Death of San Romualdo by Giuseppe Grifoni, from S.
Maria degli Angeli.
A wing of the hospice used as a military hospital from 1894-1938 has
painted decoration by Galileo Chini. The complex is now partly also used
by the University.
Lost art
An action-packed Martyrdom of Santo Stefano (1597) by
Ludovico Caldi (Il Cigoli) commissioned by Zaccaria Tondelli for this
church, is in the Palatine Gallery in the Pitti Palace. |
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San Basilio |
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History
Founded 1332 by Basilian monks, known as
Ermini
(Armenians). At the end of the 15th C used as a hospice by the
Congregation of the Priests of the Holy Ghost - a glazed Della Robbia
terracotta roundel with a white dove on the wall facing Via San Gallo
is a relic of this time. Various alterations until taken over in 1939 by
the Seventh Day Adventist Church. The last renovation was in 2008. |
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San
Domenico al Maglio |
From the 16th Century Buonsignori Map.
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History
A Dominican convent built around 1297 for the nuns that had come to
Florence from San Jacopo in Ripoli in 1292.
The façade was decorated with a
fresco by Fra Angelico.Suppressed in 1808, the complex became a military hospital in 1838. In
1930 the church was made into a lecture hall. The whole complex saw major
restoration work in 1982. Currently it houses the Military Centre of
Forensic Medicine and a museum Military Medicine.
The larger of the two cloisters, built between 1560 and 1580 is visible
from the via Cherubini, the wall on the fourth side of the cloister having
been pulled down in 1924 to make this possible. In the same year a
Monument to the Fallen Doctor was created by sculptor Henry Minerbi
and installed in the centre of the cloister. It commemorates the Italian
doctors who were killed in WW1, with bronze figures cast from the metal of
the Austrian guns, melted together with the medals of the medical
officers.
Lost art
Biagio D'Antonio's Madonna and Child with Saints of c.1470, now in
Budapest. Vasari attributed the altarpiece, then still in this church,
to Andrea del Verrocchio. Only with the publication of a monograph on Biagio d'Antonio by Roberta Bartoli in 1999 was the cat set amongst the
pigeons, attribution-wise.
Cosimo Rosselli's Saint Catherine with saints and nuns, now in
the National Gallery of Art of Scotland in Edinburgh is accepted as coming
from here despite hard documentary proof.
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San Francesco de'Macci |
A hospital was founded here in 1335 by
the Macri family, with an
attached convent and a church known as San Francesco al Tempio.
It was run by the Poor Clares, providing refuge for battered wives.
In
1704 the church was rebuilt with the assistance of the Medici under the
direction of Giovan Battista Foggini, and decorated with frescoes by Pier
Dandini. It lost its great altarpiece by Andrea del Sarto, The Madonna
of the Harpies, which the Grand Prince
Fedinando had moved into his private apartment in Palazzo Pitti, and which
is now in the Uffizi. Over the door of the church are the words Auxilium
christianorum (Help of Christians) i.e. the Virgin. The church is now
deconsecrated.
Lost art
Andrea del Sarto Madonna of the Harpies (see below) signed and dated 1517. Begun
on May 14 1515, the date of the contract signed with the Poor Clares of
the convent of San Francesco de'Macci, who had commissioned the painting.
Now in the Uffizi, it was in the Tribune in 1785. The painting is named
for the strange figures carved into the pedestal, which Vasari identified as
harpies but which aren't.
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San Francesco Poverino
Piazza SS Annunziata |
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History
The oratory of the Confraternity of San Gerolamo e San Francesco Poverino
in San Filippo Benizi (as it is still named) was built at the south end of
the Loggia of the Servites, opposite the Foundlings' Hospital, in 1599 for
the Company of San Filippo Benizi, an order which which was later
suppressed. In 1785 it passed to the Confraternity of Santa Maria della
Pietà which had come from the hospital of San Matteo. In 1844 the
Fellowship of San Francesco Poverino moved here too when their oratory in
via San Zanobi was destroyed. Many works of art and fitting from these
orders are said to be preserved inside. These works are said to include a
miracle-working crucifix from the late 14th Century and a terracotta
figure from 1454 of The Penitent St Jerome. The building has
recently undergone restoration work, but it's only open for services, at
10.00am on Sundays and Holy Days. This work included the restoration of
the central ceiling fresco representing San Filippo Benizi in Glory
painted by Gennaro Landi in the 18th Century. Scenes from the life of
San Filippo Benizi were also frescoed in the Chiostrino dei Voti of the
nearby church of Santissima Annunziata by Andrea del Sarto and Cosimo
Rosselli. |
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San Giuseppe
Via di San Giuseppe |
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History
The Confraternity of St
Joseph, founded in 1405, met in a small oratory near the Ospedale del
Tempio. A miracle-working painting of The Madonna and Child on the
corner of via San Giuseppe brought them in offerings on such a scale that
they paid for the present building. The church was designed, according to
Vasari, by Baccio d'Agnolo.
Building began in 1519, consecration followed in 1522 and work was
completed in 1583. In that year the complex passed from the Confraternity to the
Friars Minim of San Francesco di Paola. In 1754 the interior was frescoed by Sigismondo Betti and Pietro Anderlini and in 1759 a new façade was built.
When the order was suppressed in 1784, the convent was put to
other uses and the church was made a parish church. The doorway, possibly
based on a design by Micheangelo, was added in 1852. The oratory and
campanile were added in 1934 to designs by Baccio d'Agnolo.
Interior
Aisleless with three chapels on each side. The frescoes on the
barrel-vaulted ceiling and over the choir are by Sigismondo Betti, with
architectural perspectives by Pietro Anderlini. The flooring had to be
remade after the flood of 1966, the pavement of the first chapel on the
right (see below left) giving an idea of the flooring destroyed by
the flood. The choir and inner facade have nine canvases by Francesco
Bianchi Buonavita dated 1650. The marble high altar was made in 1930. Two
works by Santi di Tito. A damaged triptych by Taddeo Gaddi which, along
with a carved wooden Crucifix, belonged to Santa Maria della Croce al Tempio
is mentioned but I couldn't find it when I visited. The crucifix is the
one that used to be carried by the hooded 'Battuti Neri' from the nearby church of Santa
Maria della Croce al Tempio as they accompanied condemned
criminals along the Via dei Malcontenti to the scaffold outside the Porta
della Giustizia. This road, on which San Giuseppe stands, is named for the
condemned who walked down it who were first brought to a chapel which
stood near the current church.
A visit September 2012
It's a big church, with no
aisles but three deep chapels each side and a full-width choir with a
hanging crucifix over the high altar. There's an organ behind the altar,
on a balcony, all in eau de nil and gilding. Either side of the organ is
trompe l'oeil architecture rising to clouds and a scene of...something
cloud-based, going on in the dome above. The chapels on the left are
pretty plain, but the ones on the right are all not. Three stained glass
clerestory windows, one over each chapel, and another one over the door
don't let in much light. The art is solidly OK, with no big names,
especially as the Taddeo Gaddi triptych in the central chapel on the
right, mentioned in my guidebook and on the board in the church, is no
longer there. And the rectangular painting that is there looks to have
been fitted in by chipping bits out of the existing stone frame. But one
chapel does contain that rare thing - a 20th Century fresco, done in
1933-4 and very flood damaged.
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San Marco |
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The convent
Originally a house of Silvestrine monks, who moved to San Giorgio dello
Spirito Santo to make way for the Dominicans, who took
possession in 1436, after which date they rebuilt the whole complex at
the expense of Cosimo de Medici, between 1437 and 1452. Michelozzo, the
Medici's favourite architect, designed the church, cloister, library and
friars' quarters. Fra Angelico
worked with Michelozzo for eight or nine years, until he was summoned by
the Pope to Rome in 1445 to work in the Vatican.
The church was much altered in 17th Century, but the monastery remained
largely untouched. The Dominicans were expelled in 1866 and the first
cloister became a museum.
Interior
The church itself is a bit disappointing after the delights of the complex
next door - an aisleless box by Michelozzo with a very gilt-scrolly
ceiling - but it has some nice bits of uncovered fresco fragments; and the
chapel of Sant'Antonio at the end on the left has some good mannerist
stuff, including an altarpiece of The Descent into Limbo by Allori.
Ghirlandaio's Last Supper in the refectory of the foresteria (guest
quarters)
Giovanni Pico della Mirandola and Angelo Poliziano are buried here.
Lost art
Botticelli Coronation of the Virgin, an altarpiece originally in
the chapel of Sant'Alò in the church of San Marco. It was commissioned by
the Guild of Goldsmiths and was painted between 1488 and 1490. In the
Uffizi since 1796.
Fra Bartolomeo's Christ in the Temple (1516),
now in the Kunsthistorisches Museum, Vienna, was painted for San Marco. It
had been in the Uffizi but they swapped it with Vienna for Dürer's
Adoration of the Magi in 1793. Fra Bartolomeo's dark Madonna and
Child with Saints was painted for the Santa Caterina altar here, and
is now in the Palatine Gallery in the Palazzo Pitti. It was acquired by
Grand Prince Ferdinando, who deprived many Florentine churches of their
altarpieces, either by providing cash or replacement copies. Also in the
Pitti as a huge panel of San Marco by Fra Bartolomeo, acquired from
here by Napoleon in 1799. It was mounted on canvas and later returned to
Florence.
The Alte Pinakothek in Munich (4 panels), and galleries in Dublin,
Florence and Paris, have the predella panels from the Fra Angelico
altarpiece (1438-40), the main panel of which remains here.
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San
Niccolò del Ceppo
Via Pandolfini 5 |
History
An oratory belonging to the Compagnia di San Niccolò,
which was established in the 14th Century, this church was built for them in
1561.
Interior
The Crucifixion of 1610 by Francis Curradi over the high altar
replaced a Crucifixion with Saints Nicholas of Bari and Francis from around
1430 by Fra Angelico, which is now in the Museo di San Marco .
In 1734 the ceiling was painted with stories of St. Nicholas by Giovanni Domenico Ferretti
and Pietro Anderlini. Paintings by Giovanni Antonio Sogliani
depicting the Visitation and St. Nicholas with Two Members of the
Confraternity of 1521 were used as standards by the company carried at the head
of processions.
Restoration work began in 2009 and continues, as the sign is still up (May
2013).
Bibliography
Ludovica Sebregondi
La Compagnia e l'Oratorio di San Niccolò del Ceppo
Editore Salimbeni, 1985 |
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San Pier Maggiore (demolished) |
The original 14th Century church as held
by
St Peter in the Jacopo di Cione altarpiece.
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History
The site of a Benedictine convent, founded
in 1067 or 1090. The abbess traditionally welcomed each new bishop of Florence
upon his arrival in the city.
She was therefore nicknamed 'the wife of the bishop'.
The Gothic church was built in the late 13th or early 14th Century, being
completed by 1352. It was a large triple-aisled church with the high altar
(upon which would have stood the large altarpiece by Jacopo di Cione
mentioned below) in a large raised choir chapel that was rebuilt 1612-15,
around which time the altarpiece was removed.
After many minor rebuildings rebuilt in 1638 by
Matthew Nigetti as seen in the etching (below left) and plan (further
below left).
Among the artists buried here were Lorenzo di Credi, Luca della Robbia, Piero di Cosimo
and Mariotto Albertinelli.
The church was demolished in 1784 having been declared unsafe following a
partial collapse during rebuilding the year before. But only
one, non-load bearing, column had collapsed. Supposedly the real reason
for the demolition was Grand Duke Peter Leopold's desire to minimize the
dominance of religious
institutions in Florence which had been behind so many suppressions.Three arches of the portico (part of the
1638 rebuilding) of the façade
survive (see left), two being occupied by private houses. Art and fittings
from the church were transferred to
various Florentine institutions, including the Hospital
of the Innocents and the church of San Michele Visdomini.
Lost art
The majority of the late 14th Century 12-panel altarpiece, now almost
universally attributed to
Jacopo di Cione and workshop, commissioned for the church of San
Pier Maggiore, probably by the Albizzi family, is now in the National Gallery
in London. The frame is lost and the predella panels are dispersed in
other collections
The Assumption of the Virgin by Francesco Botticini, which served as
the altarpiece in the burial chapel here of Matteo Palmieri, a civil
servant, is now in the National Gallery in London. It was previously
thought to be by Botticelli, due to Vasari confusing their names.
The Visitation by Maso da San Friano, a Mannerist altarpiece of
1560 painted for the chapel of the de' Pesci in this church, is now in the
Fitzwilliam in Cambridge UK.
The church in art
The original church is visible in the background of St Zenobius Raising a Boy
from the Dead (see below) by Ridolfo Ghirlandaio. And
A Miracle of St Zenobius by
Domenico Veneziano in the Fitzwilliam, Cambridge UK.
Also Saint Zenobius Resuscitating a Dead Child by Benozzo Gozzoli
in the MET New York.
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San Pierino
Via Gino Capponi, 4 |
History
The oratory
passed to the confraternity of San Pietro Maggiore, founded in 500, in the
16th Century. In 1783 it became a parish church,
taking the name of the demolished church San Pier Maggiore,
but was deconsecrated in the next century. It is now home to the Dante
Alighieri Society, which promotes Italian culture and runs language
courses.Above the front door,
which is the entrance to the cloister, is a glazed terracotta lunette of
The Annunciation between two hooded brothers by Santi Buglioni
Inside are a series of rooms and a cloister, decorated
between 1585 and 1590 by Bernardino Poccetti, Giovanni Balducci,
Bernardino Monaldi, Andrea Boscoli , Bartholomew Traballesi and Giovan
Battista Naldini. The subjects include Martyrdoms of the Apostles
(in the cloister), The Passion of Christ and The Life of the
Virgin.
Recent renovation has benefited the previously crumbling façade and
brightened up its terracotta decoration. |
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San Procolo |
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History
There was a church here by the 13th
century. It was renovated from 1739 to 1743, when it became the seat of
the Confraternity of Sant'Antonio Abate dei Macellai, one of the
four brotherhoods known as buche, characterized by flogging, strict
discipline, and night time prayer meetings. The other three such
brotherhoods were at the churches of San Jacopo sopr'Arno, San
Girolamo and San Paolo.
From 1934 the church was used by Giorgio La Pira to celebrate a Messa
dei Poveri for the homeless poor (see photo below left). It was heavily damaged during the 1966 flood.
San Procolo heals a boy by Gaetano Piattoli is on the main altar.
Most of the other works of art previously in the church were moved or
destroyed.
Lost art
Three panels from a dismembered altarpiece by Pacino di Bonaguida,
Saint Nicholas, Saint John the Evangelist and Proculus, now in
the Accademia in Florence, may once have been located here.
Ambrogio Lorenzetti - Madonna and Child with Saints Nicholas and
Proculus, a triptych painted in 1332 for this church. The central
panel was presented as a gift to the Uffizi in 1959 by Bernard Berenson.
The wings of the altarpiece had been in the Uffizi since the previous
century. Also Four Stories from the Life of Saint Nicholas of
around 1330, also by Lorenzetti, in the Uffizi since 1919.Also a Lorenzo Monaco Annunciation,
now at the Galleria dell'Accademia.
Filippino Lippi Crucifixion with Mary and St. Francis, destroyed
during WW2 whilst in the Staatliche Museen in Berlin. Two more panels which
probably made a triptych with The Crucifixion, dismembered in the
18th Century - Mary Magdalen and St John the Baptist -
are now at the Galleria dell'Accademia
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San Remigio |
A visit (June 2011)
San Remigio is a big bare
buff-coloured gothic box. Well it's bare of chapels and altarpieces, but
full of bits of fresco and painted decoration (see photo right) and
I liked it, especially as I had it to myself for so long.
Lost art
Giottino Pietà painted between 1360 and 1365 for the church of
San Remigio. Has been at the Uffizi since 1851.
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San
(Michele a San) Salvi |
History
Built in the 11th century by the Vallombrosans as part of an abbey
complex. Partly destroyed during the 1529 Siege of Florence.
Reconstructed as it was, except for the portico, built in a 16th century style.
A single aisle, Latin-cross design with a rectangular apse.
The refectory
The attached convent's refectory
(see below right) contains a fine and famous fresco of The Last Supper by Andrea del Sarto
(see below),
painted between 1525 and 1527, along
with other works by him. The story goes that the same defenders who were
destroying everything that could be used by the besiegers, and who had
partially destroyed the church, knocked down a wall to get into the the
convent but when faced with Andrea's Last Supper were so lost in
admiration that they could not destroy it and, in fact, rebuilt the wall
that they had already knocked down, the better to secure the painting.
Apart from the refectory where the
cenacolo is, there's a long corridor and two other rooms full of
altarpieces and fresco panels from other, usually demolished, churches,
either by Andrea del Sarto or his contemporaries. There is some genuinely
worth-seeing stuff here, often by artists you've scarcely heard of, and
all hung so the you can get up close and appreciate. And then there's the
Last Supper itself, which is one of the best and said to have been
Andrea's last major work. The faces, hands and
feet are all equally, and extremely, expressive, the colours vivid and the
paint looking fresh and unworn. I got given a leaflet about the
cenacolo but there are sadly no cards or books on sale dealing with the other
works. The church of San Michele closes, as I found out at 12.15, at
12.00.
Lost art
Verrocchio's Baptism of Christ, in the Uffizi since 1914, was
probably from this church (Verrocchio's brother was abbot here
sporadically between 1468 and 1478). It was painted with the assistance of Leonardo, who
seems to have been responsible for an angel, the landscape and background, and
part of the figure of Jesus.
A Coronation of
the Virgin by Rafaellino del Garbo, now in the Petit Palais Museum in
Avignon.
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San Tommaso d'Aquino |
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History
In the via della Pergola, near an Arte della Lana
house and by the grape pergola that gave the road its name, the
Congregazione dei Contemplanti was founded by a Dominican friar from
San Marco. In 1568 the Mannerist painter Santi di Tito became a member and designed
a chapel for the Confraternity which was dedicated to St. Thomas Aquinas.
He also created the altarpiece of The Crucifixion and St. Thomas
Aquinas (see below), now in San Marco. The vestibule has
ceiling paintings from 1782 by Grix and Stagi. The oratory's ceiling
was decorated in 1710 by Rinaldo Botti, with the Glory of St Thomas
painted by Camillo Sagrestani and Ranieri del Pace. In the 17th Century the oratory
became a hospice for pilgrims but was suppressed in 1775. It was
recently reconsecrated and services
are now held there again.
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Sant'Ambrogio |
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Two frescoes by Cosimo Rosselli - an Assumption
and, in the chapel of the Blessed Sacrament, the legend of the
miraculous chalice. Also in this chapel is a marble tabernacle by Mino
da Fiesole
A visit April
2012
Sant'Ambrigio turned out to be a
little gem. Small and aisleless but with four chunky dark grey tabernacles
down each side, most containing earlier fresco fragments. There was also a
big sinopia (fresco background drawing) hung near its actual fresco, by Cosimo Rosselli (see below
right). Fascinating and impressive. The
paintings and fragments are mostly well labelled, even if these are all a
bit eccentrically translated. The noisy fountain just inside the door I
could also have done without, at this stage of the morning, bladder-wise.
And then, although it was only 11.30, we were chucked out, much to the
grumbling disgust also of the two elderly women who'd just come through
the door intent on actual religious activity.
Lost art
Filippo Lippi Coronation of the Virgin (see below) was commissioned for
Sant'Ambrogio in 1441 by Francesco Marenghi, who is painted praying on the
right under St John the B's right hand, and paid for in 1447. It remained here
until 1810, when it was stolen. It was later sold to the Galleria dell'Accademia, from which it was transferred to the Galleria degli Uffizi
in Florence in 1919. The frame is lost but a predella panel showing the
Miraculous Infancy of St Ambrose (involving bees supping honey from
his lips) is in Berlin. On the left
is supposed to be a self-portrait of Filippo Lippi in the garments of a Carmelite monk
(looking out at us under the lily pot on the left).
This painting is described at length in lines 344-389 of Robert Browning's
poem Fra Lippo Lippi, published in 1855 in his collection Men
and Women.
Masolino and Masaccio Madonna and Child with Saint Anne. Painted
probably around 1424 for this church. Masolino painted
Saint Anne and all the angels except for the top right hand one, painted
by Masaccio who is also responsible for the Madonna and Child. At the
Uffizi since 1919.
The Madonna of Sant'Ambrogio by Andrea
del Sarto, mentioned by Vasari, is long lost.
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Sant'Egidio
Via Bufalini |
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History
The origins of the church and convent of Sant'Egidio (St
Giles) are unknown, but are thought to be Romanesque. The original
complex, centred on the church of Sant'Egidio, had been run by the Frati
Saccati, an order suppressed by Pop Gregory X in 1274. The land and
buildings thereby became available and were acquired to become the Hospital of
Santa Maria Nuova, which
was founded in 1286 by Folco Portinari, the father of Dante's Beatrice.
The hospital expanded during the 14th Century, but the first rebuilding of
the church came around 1420, when it was extended and new painted decoration
added.
The present appearance of the church is the result of a 16th century
restructuring, attributed to a plan by Bernardo Buontalenti (1528-1608)
and carried out by Giulio Parigi in 1611. The 15th century frescos that
decorated the walls were covered by four classical altars in pietra serena
(two on either side). The steps in front of the high altar, partly due to
Buontalenti are of the same period. The baroque balustrade, which blends
stylistically with the altar in patterns of semi-precious stones is
later period. Facing the steps are the tomb-stones of the Portinari
family. The ceiling decoration is the result of the collaboration between
Giuseppe Tonelli who took care of the painted architecture and Matteo
Bonechi who added the figures. (First half of the 18th Century).
Lost art
Fra Angelico's Coronation of the Virgin, painted around 1435, and
mentioned by Vasari in his description of Sant'Egidio, has been in the Uffizi since
1948.
The Adoration of the Magi, an altarpiece by Ugo Van der Goes,
(see below) has been in the Uffizi Gallery since 1900. (Along with
other pictures it had for a while been in the house in via Bufalini where
Ghiberti had his workship.) It was commissioned by Tomasso
Portinari, a Medici agent working in Bruges, and was painted in 1475. He
and his wife and children are depicted in the wings of the altarpiece. It came by sea
in 1483 from Bruges to
Pisa and then up the Arno to Florence, where 16 men were employed to carry
it from the harbour to Sant'Egidio.
A great six-panel cycle of frescoes (1439-1470) of Scenes
of the Life of the Virgin, highly praised by Vasari, which
decorated the interior of the church and which Domenico Veneziano, with Piero della Francesca
and Bicci di Lorenzo as his
assistants, had begun between 1439 and 1445. They painted three scenes,
with Andrea de Castagno adding three more opposite between 1451 and 1353.
The final unfinished panel was completed, around 1461, by Alessio
Baldovinetti. All of it is now lost, with only some
unrevealing decorative panels remaining, as well as a sinopia (underdrawing)
by Domenico Veneziano of a nude woman with perspective lines, these
fragments now installed in the refectory of Sant'Appollonia. It is said
that the cycle's depiction of hospital patrons was also a celebration of
Cosimo de'Medici's flight from Florence in 1433, as many of the Medici
partisans who engineered his escape from prison were depicted.
Also lost is an
altarpiece painted between 1434 and 1439 by Zanobi Strozzi for the
Chapel of St Agnes here.
A visit April 2012
Aisleless and boxy with a pair of tall pietra serena altars either
side, the second on the left featuring a Deposition by Allori most
dark and dingy and in need of cleaning. Mannerist painters
have become more appreciated and less spurned in recent years, but their
works ain't getting the cleaning they deserve in churches here, it would
seem. Has a
double-tier nun's gallery at the back, which I'd not seen before and more
grills on the left-hand side. Much middling 17th Century art.
Bibliography
John Henderson
The Renaissance Hospital
Contains much about the hospital of
Santa Maria Nuova and
hence Sant'Egidio, especially in the chapter dealing with hospital
churches, which is Chapter 4.
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Santa Croce |
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Begun for the Franciscans in 1294 by Arnolfo
di Cambio and designed in imitation of the old Saint Peter's in Rome.
Arnolfo's interior spoilt, like the same architect's Palazzo Vecchio, by
Vasari. It is said that Arnolfo, like his contemporaries, would've
designed the interior to be covered in frescoes, and that their having not
been carried out, or having perished, results in an 'unsightly appearance,
as one old guidebook (by Edmund G. Gardner) puts it.
Giotto (Ital
b4 1400 NGall p229)
A visit (June 2011)
If you (like us) haven't been in a while you'll need to know that entry is
now a very slick process and takes place through the loggia around the
left of the church. €5 gets you in, another 5 will get you a comprehensive audioguide,
with a map giving the numbers for all the various works and some general
topics like the building of the church and why it's so typically
Franciscan, and stuff. And if you're female and showing too much flesh
there are fetching blue net-like capes to wear wrapped around shoulders or legs so
as to not give offence. Inside Santa Croce is more calming and spiritual than aesthetically impressive, and this is all very Franciscan
we're told. I got far more out this visit than previously, thanks to the audioguide partly, and the fact of more bits being accessible, I think.
The Pazzi Chapel is an old favourite space, and there are some special
tombs. I recommend the odd Corridor of the Romantic Tombs too, accessible
off the first cloister.
Lost art
A polyptych of c.1309 painted by Giotto's studio, with some
much-argued-about involvement by the man himself, in the North Carolina
Museum of Art is said, by most, to have been painted at the same time as
the Peruzzi Chapel here for placing on the altar in that chapel. Also said
to be by Giotto and commissioned for either the Peruzzi or Pulci-Baraldi
chapel here is the Madonna and Child now in the Washington National
Gallery.
Filippo Lippi Madonna and Child with Four Saints painted in the
early 1440s for the chapel of the Novitiate in Santa Croce. At the Uffizi
since 1919. Pesellino painted the predella, according to Vasari.
26 panels (c1340) by Taddeo Gaddi which
formed the doors of a sacristy cupboard here. 22 are in the Florence
Accademia, 2 are in Berlin
Staatliche Museen and 2 in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich.
An altarpiece by Ugolino di Nerio, made for the high altar here in Siena
in 1325-7, was removed in
1566 when the altar was moved forward four braccia (around 233.6cm)
and the altarpiece replaced with a ciborium. The altarpiece remained
in the friars' upper dormitory until the early 19th Century, when it was
'sold to an Englishman'. Most of it is
now in the National Gallery in London, but the three surviving main tier
panels are in the Gemäldegalerie in Berlin.
The church in art
Telemaco Signorini's Carnival in Piazza Santa Croce has the
church in the background before the addition of the 19th Century façade.
Buried here
Agnolo Gaddi
Local colour
According to tradition (and Vasari) Cimabue had his studio in the nearby
Borgo Allegri. The visit of Charles of Anjou, King of Naples and the
famous procession of the Rucellai Madonna to Santa Maria Novella began
here, hence the naming of the street, '...the Glad Borgo from that
beauteous face' as Elizabeth Barratt Browning puts it. The story is put in
doubt by the fact that when Charles of Anjou visited the first stone of
Santa Maria Novella had yet to be laid, and that the painting is actually
by Duccio. But let's not quibble with a precious legend. The procession is
depicted in a
famous painting by Frederic, Lord Leighton, now in the National
Gallery in London.
BBC video
about lost Giotto frescoes
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Santa Maria degli
Angeli
Via degli Alfani |
History
The church of a monastery that belonged to the Camaldolese branch of the
Benedictines, which was founded in 1012 by the hermit St. Romuald at
Camaldoli, near Arezzo, hence their name. This monastery was founded in
1295. Instrumental in its founding was the poet Guittone d'Arrezzo, who
Dante disparages in the Commedia. The complex was sacked in 1378
during the rising of the Ciompi. Remodelled in 1676, the church has a
ceiling vault fresco by Alessandro Gherhardini of 1700. The
dome of the Ticci Chapel off of the cloister has frescos by Bernardino Poccetti (who
also probably painted the altarpiece here) from 1599.
The former refectory contains a 1543 Last Supper by Ridolfo del
Ghirlandaio (Davide's nephew) which was restored in 2000.
Suppressed in 1808 the buildings are now used mostly by the university,
the church for lectures. Much of the rest of the complex has been absorbed
into the Santa Maria Nuova hospital.
Illumination
A major school of manuscript
illustration flourished from the 13th Century here, led by Don Simone and
Don Silvestro dei Gherarducci (see example of his work right, from
the Fitzwilliam in Cambridge). Panel painting was also carried out and it
was here that Lorenzo Monaco established himself as a manuscript
illuminator and as a painter of panels and frescoes, probably receiving at
least part of his training from Don Simone. He became a deacon in
1396, by which time he'd moved out the monastery, but he maintained links,
the monastery sold him a house and garden nearby in 1415 and when he died
(c.1423/4) he was buried here.
The rotunda
In 1434 Brunelleschi was commissioned by
Matteo and Andrea Scolari (the heirs of condottiere Filippo Scolari
aka Pippo Spano) to design another church for
the monastery. His original design was probably inspired by ancient
Roman temples and was the first centralized building of the Renaissance.
It consisted of a a domed octagon with 8 radiating chapels linked by a
narrow passageway that pierced the apses and served as an ambulatory
around the octagon, and with a sixteen-sided exterior. The altar would
have been in the centre. Construction progressed quite rapidly but was
halted due in 1437 when the Scolari funds were confiscated to help pay for the war
against Lucca. The
building had reached a height of about 7 metres. Around this time it
acquired its nickname of Il Castellacio - the broken-down castle. In
the 17th Century the
shell was finally given a simple wooden roof, but it still deteriorated rapidly.
I have a guidebook, written in 1928, which describes Brunelleschi's
building as a 'rather picturesque bit of ruin'. The
building, which had been put to various uses, was repaired and acquired its
current (and controversial) appearance after rebuilding in 1937 by Rodolfo Sabatini. It was given to the
university and, you will read elsewhere, thus became known as the Rotonda degli Scolari,
but I'd hazard a guess that it's so called because of the name of the
brothers who first built it.
Lost
art
Nardo di Cione's Coronation of the Virgin, 'almost certainly'
from here, now in the Victoria and Albert Museum in London. And the same
artist's
Virgin and Child enthroned with Saints Gregory and Job, in the
Santa Crove Museo dell'Opera. Noli mi Tangere by Jacopo di Cione, a panel from an altarpiece, now
in the National Gallery in London.
The Virgin and Child enthroned with Saints by Agnolo Gaddi,
now in Berlin Gemäldegalerie. Andrea del Castagno's fresco of the Crucifixion of
c.1453 (see right) now in the Cenacolo di Sant'Appolonia.
Lorenzo Monaco's only
signed, and most important, work is the spectacular Coronation of the
Virgin (see below right) painted for the high altar here, now in the Uffizi. Another
Coronation of the Virgin by Monaco, painted for the Alberti Chapel
here, is in the National Gallery, London. The National Gallery also has
one of four panels from a predella (the rest are in the Louvre) attributed
to Monaco. They may be matched with the Gaddi altarpiece mentioned above,
this fact being explained by Monaco probably being a pupil of Gaddi.
The Baptism of Christ, with Saints Peter and Paul and Scenes from the
Life of Saint John the Baptist by Niccolò di Pietro Gerini, now in the
National Gallery in London.
Bibliography
George R Bent - Monastic art
in Lorenzo Monaco's Florence: painting and patronage in Santa Maria degli
Angeli, 1300-1415
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Santa
Maria degli Angiolini |
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History
The church of a convent established in 1507, when a group of pious
Florentine women bought a house in Via Laura, near Borgo Pinti, to devote
themselves to the religious life and do good works. As their numbers grew
the building was enlarged and transformed into a real convent. The name
was possibly chosen to echo that of Santa Maria degli Angeli .
Well-preserved and large altarpieces supposedly survive within, by Curradi
Francesco, Matteo Rosselli and Domenico Puligo. The church organ was built
in 1793 by Louis and Benedict Tronci.
Suppressed in 1784 by Grand Duke Peter Leopold and converted into
a conservatory. The church was damaged severely by the flood of 1966 and
was closed for forty years only reopening in November 2006, restoration
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Santa Maria dei Candeli
Via dei Pilastri |
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History
Dating back at least to the 14th century, the church
and its
attached monastery belonged to the Augustinian nuns of Candeli.
The church was completely rebuilt in 1704 by Giovanni Battista Foggini in an
elegant late-baroque style. with a ceiling fresco by Niccolò Lapi. The monastery was suppressed in 1808 and rebuilt by
Giuseppe del Rosso as the Royal Lyceum. Later used as a home for poor boys
and as a Carabinieri barracks. The church is deconsecrated. |
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Santa Maria della Croce al Tempio
Via di San Giuseppe |
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History
The Brotherhood from
which the church takes its name was founded in 1343 was initially based by
the old Prato Gate where there was a gallows. There was also a hospital of the
Knights Templar, from which the order derived its name. This first church
was built in 1361 but was destroyed to clear the ground outside the walls
during the Siege of Florence. The Brotherhood moved inside the walls and in
1424 established a group called The Blacks who accompanied prisoners from the Bargello or Stinche prisons to the
gallows outside the gates. They were dressed in black and hooded, and
flagellated themselves (and were hence dubbed Battuti). At their head they
carried a crucifix now kept in the nearby church of San Giuseppe.
The Brotherhood was suppressed in 1785 by the Grand Duke Peter Leopold of
Tuscany at the same time as he abolished the death penalty. The church was
deconsecrated. It reportedly contains paintings from the 16th to the 19th
Centuries, including frescos attributed to Bicci di Lorenzo.
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Santa Maria della Neve
and The Convent of the Murate |
History
The church was part of the Convent of the Suore Murate, it has a façade dating
from the late 16th Century. Very damaged in the 1966 flood.
The Murate
Built as the Santissima Annunziata alle Murate and Santa Caterina
convent in 1424 for the Benedictine nuns moved from the cells (murate
means 'walled up') on the Rubaconte Bridge, which was where the Ponte alle
Grazie is now. The complex was renovated and expanded first in 1471,
after a fire, and again in 1571 after a flood.
Caterina de'Medici stayed here from 1528 to 1530 when Queen of France and,
after the death of Cosimo I in 1574, so did Camilla Martelli, his second wife.
Also the illegitimate daughters of Don Pietro de 'Medici.
Suppressed by the French in 1808, the convent was rebuilt by the architect Domenico Giraldi in 1845 and turned into a prison after the closing of the
Bargello in 1857,
which it remained until 1985. During World War II the prison became
notorious for the imprisonment and torture of dissidents and partisans captured by the
fascists, although not as notorious as the Villa Triste prison on via
Bolognese.
The Murate has recently been jazzily restored and transformed into housing
units, shops, and restaurants, with pedestrian spaces and a piazza named
after the chapel of Santa Maria della Neve. The plans were drawn up by
Renzo Piano in 1998 and the complex opened in 2004, although some parts remain
unfinished.
Lost art
A Filippo Lippi Annunciation (c.1450) (see right)
is now in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich (but currently (Spring 2013) away
being restored).
The Last Supper by Giorgio Vasari, moved from here to Santa Croce
after suppression, was much damaged during the 1966 flood, having remained
submerged for 12 hours, and has been undergoing restoration (funded by the
Getty Foundation) since 2010 at the Opificio delle Pietre Dure. It had
been put into storage after the flood due to a lack of funds, a situation
exposed by Marco Ferri in November 2003. The restoration is expected to be
completed by the middle of 2013.
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Santa Maria in Campo |
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Founded before 1137 and modernised in 1586.
Lost art
The National Gallery in London has The Beheading of Saint Margaret(?),
one panel from the predella of an altarpiece by Starnina which may have
come from this church and may have been commissioned by Filippo di Piero
di Ranieri.
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Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi
(de’Pazzi or di Cestello) |
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History
Founded 1257 as a convent for for
penitent women called Santa Maria Maddalena la Penitante. Transferred to Cistercian
nuns in 1321/2. When the nuns moved to San San Donato in Polveroso in 1442
the monks of Settimo acquired the complex, in a poor state, and instituted
radical rebuilding, but this didn't start until 1480. In 1481 the roof was
repaired and a new Cappella Maggiore was built, for which Ghirlandaio
painted frescos which are now lost.
Interior
A big aisleless box and too dark
to make out much painting-wise. Five deep chapels each side, variously
furnished with paintings or stained glass. I liked a Coronation of the Virgin
by Rosselli, but that was probably because what little light there was was
shining on it. Painted ceiling and clerestory level. The fresco-covered left-hand
transept chapel looked good
too, what I could see. (Should I have brought a torch?) The chapel
opposite was frescoed nicely too, in a mannerist/post-Michelangelo style.
The apse is a bit of an art and coloured-marble riot after the plainness
of the body of the church. Similarly the second chapel on the right is
looks surprisingly like an over-gilt neo-classical bedroom, with
confessionals.
Lost art
Botticelli Annunciation commissioned in 1489 by Benedetto di Ser
Giovanni Guardi for this church, in the Uffizi since 1872.
The Crucifixion, an altarpiece by Jacopo di Cione, is now in the
National Gallery in London
Pietro Perugino's The Vision of Saint Bernard,(1490/94) now in the
Alte Pinakothek in Munich, was painted for the Nasi family chapel here.
Francesco Botticini Virgin and Child in Glory, with Saint Mary
Magdalene, Saint Bernard, Angels, Cherubim, and Seraphim of c.1485 now
in the Louvre. As is Lorenzo di Credi's Virgin
and Child with SS Julian Nicholas of Myra.
Ghirlandaio's Visitation with SS Mary Jacobi and Mary Salome of
1491, now in the Louvre, was painted for the Tornobuoni Chapel here. It
looks more than a bit like a Botticelli, but is lovely nonetheless, and
the women look solid. He also
painted frescos for a new Cappella Maggiore built in 1481 which are
also now lost, destroyed in 1685 when the choir was rebuilt. Also by him
is
an altarpiece depicting SS Stephen, James and Peter painted for the
the chapel of Stefano di Jacopo Boni here, now in the Accademia Gallery in
Florence.
A pulpit carved for this church by Giovanni della Bella may be the one now
in the Museo Bardini. board!
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Santa Maria Nuova (Oblate)
Lost art
Virgin and Child Enthroned with Four Saints
by Rosso Fiorentino,
now in the Uffizi.
Santa Teresa - pic in Sant'Onofrio di
Fuligno photo 13th thurs 1344
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Santa
Teresa |
History
A monastery that was founded in 1628 by the Discalced
Carmelites. It was built to a design by John Coccapani, who also designed
the baroque church. Suppressed, it became a prison in 1866. Damaged by the
flood of 1966 it has since been used for other purposes. It is currently
being used by the University of Florence's Faculty of Architecture.
From 1765 to 1770 Santa Teresa Margaret Redi lived here, from the family
of the famous physician of Arezzo Francesco Redi, and she died here at the
age of 23.
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Santa Verdiana |
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History
A convent founded in 1400 for Vallombrosan nuns. It was
named Santa Verdiana, a nun from Castelfiorentino who lived for 34 years,
in the early 13th Century, walled up in a cell together with two snakes,
which got into her cell towards the end, but whose presence she never
revealed.
The convent was renovated in 1460 courtesy of Cosimo the Elder. Further
work during the 16th and 17th Centuries, including the acquisition of
works by Pier Dandini, Pietro Sorri, Fernando Melani and Vincenzo Meucci .
Following the suppression in 1866 their were plans to turn the complex
into a women's prison, but it is now used by the Faculty of Architecture
of the University of Florence .
Lost art
The Baptism of Christ by Andrea del Verrocchio and Leonardo da
Vinci originally in the church of San Salvi, was transferred to the church
here. In 1810 it was moved to the Accademia and passed into the Uffizi in
1959.
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Santi Jacopo e Lorenzo |
History
The church was attached to the Franciscan convent of Santa Chiara,
founded in 1363, which occupied the whole block to the via dei Conciatori. Consecrated in 1448, later damaged repeatedly by floods, it was rebuilt in
1542 by architect Antonio Lupicini and contained 'great works of art', we
are told.
The interior has a nun's gallery. After the
Napoleonic suppression in 1808 the church and convent was assigned to the
company of Librai e Stampatori (booksellers and printers), so becoming
known as the Chiesa dei Librai. The convent was used as a
laboratory and later the church was deconsecrated and used for storage,
falling into a deplorable state, it was reported. It currently still
houses a printing press.
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Santi Simone e Guida |
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History
Built as a small oratory around 1192, the church was
enlarged in
1209 and rebuilt in 1243. Renovated in 1630 by the architect Gherardo
Silvani, with funds provided by Bartolomeo Galilei, a Knight of Malta. The
interior, in pietra serena, has an aisle-less nave with a carved
green and gold wooden ceiling, dated 1670 and bearing the Maltese Cross
together with the Galilei arms.
Interior
On the side altars are paintings by Florentine artists contemporary with
the 1630 rebuilding, such as Jacopo Vignali, Francesco Curradi, and
Nicodemo Ferrucci. The two marble statues of Santi Simone e Guida
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Santissima Annunziata |
History
The mother church of the
Servite order built in the 13th Century on the site of an earlier
monastery abandoned by Franciscans when Santa Croce was built. In 1252 an
Annunciation was painted by one Bartolomeo, supposedly with the
help of an angel who completed the painting while the artist, having given
up in despair of getting it right, slept. The image's popularity led to
the church's rededication in 1314 and a need for expansion. Florence's
fascination with The Annunciation is said to date from this
painting too. Around this
time began the fad for visiting worthies leaving life-size wax effigies of
themselves hanging in the nave or the forecourt. By the 17th Century more
than 600 of these figures filled the atrium, including one of Lorenzo the
Magnificent by Verrocchio. They are all now lost, having been
melted down to make candles in 1786.
A more major rebuilding took place between 1444 and 1455 to designs by
Michelozzo who was the brother of the prior. An argument regarding his
polygonal choir, or maybe just the time he was taking, led to Michelozzo being sacked in 1455 by Lodovico Gonzaga who was providing the
funding. First Manetti and later Alberti were employed, the latter
transforming Michelozzo's polygonal choir into a rotunda with nine
radiating chapels capped by a solid concrete dome. Work finished in 1476.
The façade loggia was built 1601-4 by Giovanni Caccini echoing Sangallo's
central arch and matching the flanking loggias in the piazza.
Interior
The mostly Baroque
interior dates to late 17th Century. The sanctuary of Our Lady of the
Annunciation was built to designs by Michelozzo at the expense of Piero
the Elder to house the miraculous painting.
The inlaid 15th-century cupboards in the
sacristy came from the demolished monastery of San Pier Maggiore.
Restoration work has revealed some remains of 14th-century frescoes.
The large Choistro dei Morti mostly occupied by the
Istituto Geografico Militare, Italy's national mapping agency. Pontormo's Visitation
(see below) for which he was
paid the meagre, for Vasari, sum of 16 scudi, is in the atrium. He was
buried under it, but his body was moved to the chapel devoted to artists
by Fra Giovan Angelo Montorsoli in 1562, under the Trinity painted
by his pupil Bronzino, and Allori.
Andrea del Sarto was probably buried
here.
A visit April 2012
On to Santissima Annunziata, with its frescos as soon as you get into the
entrance cloister, by the likes of Pontormo and Andrea del Sarto, made
somewhat less of an attractive space by a posse of, pardon me, pushy gypsy
beggar women. Inside it's an impressively confusing dark and dusty space,
with added baroque-period gilding much in evidence again (see right).
It's Michelozzo's work again, originally, with connected chapels up each side and an OTT
main altar with chapels in a semi-circular choir behind. There's an unsignposted door to this choir in the left transept, and I recommend it
as there are good views from behind the altar and some superior (if unlabelled)
altarpieces around the choir, by Bronzino and Giambologna amongst others. A service started
soon after we arrived, but we weren't ushered out. But it was taking place
in the spectacular tabernacle (on the left as you enter), so I
didn't get a good look at this, or the chapel nearby with Castagno's odd
Trinity fresco. And by the time I got into the Choistro dei Morti a
monk was gently booting everyone out, so I didn't get to see the chapel of
the artists' confraternity where various late-16th Century painters are
buried. If you're interested in this period's mannerist artists, as I'm
beginning to be, then this church is an essential visit.
Lost art
The sinopia (underdrawing) of Andrea Castagna's Vision of
San Girolomo between SS Paola and Eustochio is now installed in the refectory of
Sant'Appollonia.
Christ with the Four Evangelists by Fra Bartolomeo, now in the
Galleria Palatina, with its two side panels to be found in the Galleria
dell'Accademia.
The Martyrdom of Saint Sebastian, completed by 1475, Antonio and Piero del
Pollaiuolo was originally painted for the Pucci chapel in the oratory
dedicated to Saint Sebastian here. Roberto Pucci, an ancestor, removed it
from the oratory, supposedly to be restored, but in 1857 he sold it to the
National Gallery in London, where it remains.
Two flanking saints (John and Lucy) by
Perugino (subdued in colour but still somewhat drugged looking) from an
altarpiece painted for this church are now in the Met in New York.
The church in art
Bernardo Bellotto's Piazza della Santissima Annunziata (see
below right).
Local colour
The house bought by Andrea del Sarto, now called the Casa
Zuccari, is on the corner of the former Via del Mandorlo (the present-day
Via Giuseppe Giusti) and the Via Gino Capponi. The artist famously bought
the house, according to Vasari, with money given to him by King François I
of France to buy art for the French court. This story, taken up by
Browning in his poem Andrea del Sarto, called the
Faultless Painter, is now widely though to be apocryphal.
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Spedale degli Innocenti |
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Art highlights
Adoration of the Magi by Ghirlandaio,
painted for the high altar of the church here. |
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Valdese
Holy Trinity
Via Leone X |
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History
The church of the Holy Trinity was the first Anglican church in Florence,
built between 1843 and 1846 by the architect Domenico Giraldi. In 1890 the
English ex-pat community in Florence decided to rebuild the church, . Between 1892
and 1904 the present church was built in an English Perpendicular style to
designs by the Scottish architect George Frederick Bodley, who also
designed the choir screen and stalls which were made in 1902 in Florence
by the workshop of Mariano Coppedè.
On the grey tower stand white marble statues of St John the Baptist, King
David, St Alban, St Augustine, St Stephen (by Cesare Fantacchiotti) St
George, St Andrew and St Patrick. The church was acquired by the
Waldensians in 1967.
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