The basilica of Santa Croce in the homonymous square in Florence is
one of the largest Franciscan churches and one of the greatest
achievements of the Gothic in Italy, and has the rank of minor basilica.
It is an Italian national monument.
Santa Croce is a prestigious
symbol of Florence, the meeting place of the greatest artists,
theologians, religious, men of letters, humanists and politicians, who
determined, in good times and bad, the identity of the late medieval and
Renaissance city. Inside, famous personalities from the history of the
Church also found hospitality, such as Saint Bonaventure, Pietro di
Giovanni Olivi, Saint Anthony of Padua, Saint Bernardino of Siena, Saint
Ludovico d'Angiò. It was also a place of welcome for popes such as
Sixtus IV, Eugene IV, Leo X, Clement XIV.
The great neoclassical
poet Ugo Foscolo elected it in his work Dei sepolcri to national fame of
Italy. In fact, the church contains the sepulchres of the most sublimely
refined geniuses that Italy has given to the world: the "urns of the
strong", as Foscolo calls them in his poem.
St. Francis of Assisi visited Florence as early as 1211, traveling
along the Via Cassia. In 1226-1228 a group of his followers settled in
the city, choosing an inhospitable area immediately outside the walls,
in the center of a small island formed by two arms of the Arno which
separated near the current Piazza Beccaria, to reunite in front of the
walls that passed at the height of via Verdi-via de' Benci. Here they
founded an oratory which, as the community of friars grew, was first
enlarged and then, from 1252, completely restructured.
These
works caused lively controversies among the friars, between those who
wanted an essential and poor building, in line with the Rule, and those
who wanted a more extensive architecture. In any case, the new church
soon became unequivocally insufficient, so in 1294 it was decided to
rebuild the building from scratch, with a grandiose project probably
elaborated by Arnolfo di Cambio, the architect engaged in those years in
the most grandiose projects of the Common. Giovanni Villani recalled how
the church was founded on May 3 of that year, in the presence of "many
bishops and prelates and clerics and religious and the podestà and the
captain of the people and priors and all the good people of Florence,
men and women, with great celebration and solemnity". Work began from
the apse, temporarily leaving the old church in use by the friars, as
long as it was possible. The remains of the ancient building were
located in 1966, following the subsidence of the floor of the basilica
after the flood in Florence.
We have no written documents to
confirm the attribution to Arnolfo di Cambio, but critics have now
confirmed the traditional attribution, both for the high quality level
of the complex and for the similarities with other works by the great
architect. It was built at the expense of the population of the
Florentine Republic. When Arnolfo died in 1302, the part of the choir
and the transept, with the chapels, had to be completed. Proceeding
quickly, the works in 1320 made the basilica usable, but later, the
events of the crisis, the flood and the plague slowed down its
completion conspicuously. It is not known exactly when the basilica was
finished, perhaps around 1385. However, it was consecrated only during
the Epiphany of 1443 by Cardinal Bessarion, in the presence of Pope
Eugene IV. During the French occupation, Vivant Denon raked up the San
Francesco, and the Miracle of the Dying Man painted by Pesello Peselli,
coming from the convent to send it to France, object of Napoleonic
looting. The convent was born practically at the same time as the
basilica. The sacristy, dormitory, infirmary, guesthouse, refectory and
library were soon added to the initial nucleus.
The basilica has
continued to be enriched and modified in the seven centuries since its
foundation, always acquiring new symbolic connotations: from a
Franciscan church to a religious "municipality" for large families and
corporations, from a laboratory and artistic workshop to a theological
centre, from a "pantheon " of Italian glories as a point of reference
for the political history of pre- and post-unification Italy. In fact,
some transformations were the consequence of precise historical and
political vicissitudes, such as the transformations carried out by
Vasari in the mid-sixteenth century (also caused by the restorations
after a disastrous flood) or the commitment made in the nineteenth
century to transform Santa Croce into the great mausoleum of history
Italian.
In 1966 the flood of Florence inflicted serious damage
to the basilica and convent complex, located in the lower part of
Florence, so much so that it became sadly known as a symbol of the
artistic losses suffered by the city (especially with the destruction of
the Cimabue Crucifix), but also of its rebirth from the mud, through the
widespread restoration and conservation work.
The basilica is raised from the ground by eight steps.
Originally the facade was unfinished, as in many Florentine basilicas.
The exposed pietraforte wall closely resembled the one still seen in San
Lorenzo, albeit of a different shape and proportions. In the fifteenth
century, the Quaratesi family had come forward to finance the
construction of the façade, entrusting it to Simone del Pollaiolo known
as Il Cronaca. However, the condition was that the Quaratesi coat of
arms appeared clearly visible in the center of the main front, but this
request discouraged the Franciscan friars from accepting the proposal
and the wealthy family thus decided to devote themselves to the
embellishment of another Franciscan church, San Salvatore at Mt. The
appearance of the old unfinished facade is testified by prints and
paintings: in addition to the coat of arms of Christ above the rose
window (placed in 1437 during a severe plague), in a niche in the center
of the simple central portal, as the only decoration, was the gilt
bronze statue of San Ludovico di Tolosa by Donatello, transferred here
from a niche in Orsanmichele and which today can be admired in the
refectory of the convent.
The current facade was designed from
1837 and put into operation between 1853 and 1863 on a project by the
architect Niccolò Matas, who was inspired by the great Gothic cathedrals
such as the Siena cathedral and the Orvieto cathedral, revised in the
light of his era . The final result in the neo-Gothic style received
much appreciation and earned Matas, from the Tuscan Association, the
task of drawing up a project for the facade of Santa Maria del Fiore
(1842); to date it is not always judged positively; however some
scholars highlight its simplicity and humble character in comparison
with the subsequent project by Emilio De Fabris for the facade of Santa
Maria del Fiore. All in all, it was a construction site that did not
cause losses of ancient artifacts and which crowned the square
magnificently, fueling the myth of Santa Croce in Italy and abroad. The
building site was financed in large part by the wealthy English
Protestant Sir Francis Joseph Sloane. The star of David inserted in the
tympanum of the facade, while not unknown as a Christian symbol, is
generally understood as an allusion to the Jewish religious faith of the
architect Matas.
Among the works of art that appear on the
façade, the three lunettes of the portals stand out, recalling the
legend of the True Cross, to which the church is dedicated: from the
left are the Finding of the Cross by Tito Sarrocchi, the Triumph of the
Cross by Giovanni Duprè and the Vision of Constantine by Emilio Zocchi
(Santa). The central portal has wooden doors that were on the Cathedral
until 1903. In front of the portal is the burial of Matas.
The external profile of the basilica is unmistakable, with the sides
punctuated by the bare triangular tympanums of the false bays of the
nave (in fact, the roof is not vaulted, according to the early Christian
style that Arnolfo had seen in Rome). A high mullioned window opens onto
each compartment, while the facing is in simple exposed pietraforte,
decorated only with downspouts in the shape of human or lion heads,
which are much used today.
On the left side a fourteenth-century
portico, known as the Pinzochere, leans against the basilica, which was
restored and enlarged in the mid-nineteenth century. Below it, in
addition to the entrance and the ticket office for the basilica, you can
see numerous coats of arms recessed into the wall and two more
substantial funerary monuments: that of Alamanno Caviccioli, from around
1337, and, beyond the side door, that of Francesco de' Pazzi of a
follower of Tino di Camaino, with a sarcophagus resting on caryatids.
A similar portico is also found on the right-hand side, facing the
Great Cloister.
The triangular cusps also continue on the rear
side, but are visible only from the inner garden of the block, which is
private (the only way to access them is to go through the Scuola del
Cuoio or the elementary school), or from a distance, such as from
Piazzale Michelangelo .
The slender bell tower dates back only to 1842-1845, the work of Gaetano Baccani; here too, as for the facade. The vicissitudes of the bell towers for the Basilica had been very troubled over time, an original structure had collapsed in 1521 ruining the Church, the subsequent works had been partial or unfinished and even the late sixteenth-century project, entrusted to Francesco da Sangallo had remained unfinished, presented only with the base, called by the Florentines "the mass of Santa Croce", then demolished during the construction of the new facade. The nineteenth-century construction is generally judged as quite graceful due to its secluded simplicity, even if the decoration with the ring on the cusp reveals its modern eclectic inspiration. The structure reaches a total height of 78.45 m. Inside are housed 6 large bells, cast by the Pistoia foundry Third Rafanelli in 1843 (with some subsequent recasting).
The interior of Santa Croce is apparently simple and highly
monumental at the same time, with three naves divided by two rows of
large pillars with an octagonal base. The interior, large and solemn,
has the shape of an "Egyptian" cross (or commissa), i.e. a "T", typical
of other large convent churches, with a particularly large transept
(73.74 m) which cuts through the church height of the polygonal apse. In
ancient times the transept, and from the fifth bay of the longitudinal
body onwards, were intended for presbyters only, with a partition that
separated this area from that for the faithful and which was removed, as
in many other churches, after the provisions of the Council of Trent .
Giorgio Vasari took care of it in 1566, when he prepared a large
modernization project for Cosimo I to apply the directives of the
Counter-Reformation. Thus the choir of the friars was also destroyed,
and many fourteenth-century frescoes on the walls of the nave were
whitewashed (such as those by Andrea Orcagna, fragments of which have
been found today on display in the Basilica Museum), replaced by large
side altars in a classical form.
The grandiose central nave
(115.43 x 38.23 m) marks a fundamental stage in the artistic and
engineering journey that will lead to the nave of Santa Maria del Fiore.
The very thin walls, supported by pointed arches on octagonal pillars,
recall the early Christian basilicas of Rome where Arnolfo worked for a
long time, but the metric scale is infinitely larger and the structural
problems constituted a real challenge to the technical capabilities of
the time. The resolution of these problems set an important precedent
for the great challenge of building the basilican body of the city
cathedral.
In particular, the gallery that crowns the arches and
surrounds the central nave is not only a stylistic expedient to
accentuate the horizontal trend of the building and curb the Gothicism
at the time unwelcome in Florence, but constitutes a structural ligament
to hold together the slender members and the vast walls.
The
trussed ceiling, deceptively "Franciscan", required a complicated
structural device given the enormous free span and the weight that
risked overwhelming the thin walls.
Arnolfo, in some way
respecting the Franciscan spirit, designed a church with a deliberately
bare plan, with large openings intended for lighting the walls on which,
as already in other Franciscan churches, first of all that of Assisi,
large figurative cycles were to be frescoed intended to narrate the Holy
Scriptures (the so-called Bible of the Poor) to the illiterate people.
But the large church, built with the contributions of the main
Florentine families, does not have the usual three chapels at the head
of the cross, but aligns a good eleven, plus five others located at the
ends of the transept. These chapels were intended for the burials of
donors and received very rich wall decorations by the hand of the
greatest masters of the time.
The Cappella Maggiore is inspired by the purest Gothic architecture
of transalpine matrix, albeit mediated by Italian sobriety, with a
strong vertical thrust, underlined by the umbrella-shaped ribs in the
vault and by the narrow, extremely long mullioned windows. The frescoes
that decorate it are the Stories of the invention of the True Cross, a
tribute to the name of the church, painted by Agnolo Gaddi around 1380.
The designs for the stained glass windows are also by Agnolo Gaddi,
except for the highest oculi, which are older. The painted cross is by
the Maestro di Figline, while the polyptych of the main altar is the
result of a recomposition: the Madonna in the center is by Niccolò
Gerini, while the Doctors of the Church are by Giovanni del Biondo and
another unknown painter.
The scenes must be read from top to
bottom starting from the right wall. They represent:
Archangel
Michael presents Set with a branch from the tree of life
Set plants
the tree on Adam's grave
The tree grows and a bridge is made of it
where the Queen of Sheba kneels, then Solomon has that beam pulled out
and sunk in
The Israelites take that piece of wood from a river and
make the Cross with it
St. Helena has the excavations carried out and
the Holy Cross is found again.
Left wall, from top:
Saint
Helena triumphantly carries the Cross to Jerusalem
Chosroes, king of
the Persians, having conquered the city, takes away the Cross and makes
his people adore him
Dream of Heraclius (improperly called a dream,
Heraclius is actually awake, unlike the Dream of Constantine in the
Stories of the True Cross in Arrezzo by Piero della Francesca)
Heraclius has Chosroes beheaded and returns to Jerusalem where, having
laid down his royal robes, he enters bearing the Cross
But far more important are the frescoes in the next two chapels on
the right, the Peruzzi Chapel and the Bardi Chapel, both decorated by
Giotto between 1320 and 1325. The first depicts the Stories of Saint
John the Baptist and those of Saint John the Evangelist, while in that
Bardi the Stories of Saint Francis. Both cycles of frescoes were
executed late in life by the master who renewed Western art and
represent a summa of his pictorial oeuvre and an artistic testament,
which greatly influenced the next generation of Florentine painters (for
example Domenico Ghirlandaio 150 years later did it again to the schemes
of the Bardi Chapel to create the Franciscan scenes of the Sassetti
Chapel in Santa Trinita). The details that reveal the master's hand are
the extraordinary spatiality, rendered with great mastery of the
arrangement of the figures in the scene and the dramatic rendering of
the narration underlined by the expressiveness of the characters. For
example, in the scene of the Death of St. Francis, the saint's brothers
despair in front of the lying body, with incredibly realistic gestures
and expressions.
The stained glass window of the Peruzzi chapel,
designed by Jacopo del Casentino, comes from the nearby Giugni chapel.
The other three chapels on the right are: the Giugni Chapel, with
the tombs of Julie Clary (by Luigi Pampaloni) and her daughter Charlotte
Napoléone Bonaparte (with a bust by Lorenzo Bartolini); the Riccardi
Chapel, which houses the silver bust-reliquary of the Beata Umiliana de'
Cerchi and frescoes on the vault and on the lunettes by Giovanni da San
Giovanni and three paintings from the end of the 16th century/beginning
of the 17th century: on the right, the Ecstasy of St. Francis by Matteo
Rosselli, on the altar the Finding of the Cross by Giovanni Bilivert and
on the left wall the Alms of San Lorenzo by Domenico Passignano; the
Velluti Chapel, with fourteenth-century frescoes by an unknown artist
and a polyptych on the altar by Giovanni del Biondo with a predella by
Neri di Bicci.
Still on the right, at the head of the transept,
is the Baroncelli chapel, made up of two bays (one half as wide as the
other) and frescoed by Taddeo Gaddi with Stories of the Virgin
(1332-1338), where the great disciple of Giotto led his studies on light
(with the first surviving representation of a nocturnal scene in Western
art) and author also of the drawings for the stained glass window, of
the four prophets on the outside and perhaps also of the altarpiece,
attributed by some to Giotto, who in any case signs the work. On the
right wall there is a Madonna della Cintola, frescoed by Sebastiano
Mainardi. The Gothic tomb on the outside wall belonged to the Baroncelli
family, the work of Giovanni di Balduccio from 1327, the same author of
the statuettes of the Archangel Gabriel and the Annunciation on the
pillars of the arch. The sculpture of the Madonna and Child inside the
chapel is by Vincenzo Danti (1568)
The double-span Castellani
Chapel, on the other hand, was frescoed by his son Agnolo Gaddi with
assistants and presents Stories of Saints Anthony the Abbot, John the
Baptist, John the Evangelist and Nicholas of Bari. The tabernacle of the
chapel is the work of Mino da Fiesole, while the cross painted is by
Niccolò Gerini. The Della Robbia school statues represent St. Francis
and St. Dominic, while the one to Luisa Stolberg, Countess of Albany
stands out among the tombstones, a neo-Renaissance work by Luigi
Giovannozzi and Emilio Santarelli based on a design by Charles Percier
(around 1824).
As regards the chapels on the left, starting from the Cappella
Maggiore, one encounters: the Spinelli Chapel, redecorated in 1837 by
Gasparo Martellini; the Capponi Chapel, dedicated in 1926 to the mothers
of war dead and decorated with statues by Libero Andreotti; the Ricasoli
Chapel, which features early 19th-century frescoes with the Stories of
St. Anthony of Padua, the work of Luigi Sabatelli and his sons Francesco
and Giuseppe; the Pulci-Berardi Chapel, which is frescoed by Bernardo
Daddi with the Martyrdom of Saint Lawrence and the Martyrdom of Saint
Stephen (about 1330) and contains a glazed polychrome terracotta by
Giovanni della Robbia on the altar; the last of the series is the Bardi
Chapel in Vernio, frescoed by Maso di Banco with the Stories of San
Silvestro, among the absolute best works of the Giotto school (even the
stained glass windows are designed by Maso). On the altar is the
triptych by Giovanni del Biondo with San Giovanni Gualberto and stories
from his life and the left wall has two tombs within niches,
respectively frescoed with a Final Judgment with kneeling portrait of
Bettino de' Bardi, probably also by Maso di Banco (about 1367), and
Deposition and portrait of the donor by Taddeo Gaddi.
The chapel
at the head of the transept is also called "dei Bardi di Vernio", where
the Crucifix by Donatello is kept which gave rise to a dispute,
according to Vasari, between him and Filippo Brunelleschi: he judged
this Christ too rough and peasant and created as a term of comparison
the only wooden sculpture of his that has come down to us, the Crucifix
which is now in the Gondi Chapel of the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella.
The chapel has the original gate from 1335, and there are also the
ciborium and the two gilded wooden angels which, at the time of Vasari,
had been created to decorate the main altar of the church. The external
wall houses a fourteenth-century sarcophagus of the Pisan school.
Next to this chapel, still at the head of the transept, is the
Niccolini Chapel, erected by Giovanni Antonio Dosio in 1584, with a dome
frescoed by Volterrano, statues by Pietro Francavilla and two
altarpieces by Alessandro Allori. Finally, on the west side of the left
transept, there is the Machiavelli-Salviati Chapel, with the altarpiece
depicting the Martyrdom of San Lorenzo by Jacopo Ligozzi; it preserves
various tombs inside, among which that of the Countess Sofia Zamoyska by
Lorenzo Bartolini (1837-1844) stands out, in a neo-Renaissance style
updated with a touch of realism in the decomposed sheet.
A little
further on, on the floor of the transept, is the tombstone of Bartolomeo
Valori, the work of Lorenzo Ghiberti, now very worn (about 1427).
Leaving from the head of the right transept, one passes through the
portal designed by Michelozzo, the favorite architect of the Medici
family, with doors carved by Giovanni Di Michele and surmounted by a
fragment of a fresco with the Disputation of the Temple by Taddeo Gaddi.
This leads to the entrance hall of the Novitiate, which leads to the
Sacristy and the Medici Chapel.
The entrance hall and the chapel
are the work of Michelozzo for the Medici, as evidenced by the numerous
coats of arms of the family, commissioned by Cosimo the Elder around
1445. The entrance hall has a barrel vault and on the left side it has a
stone bench that recalls that of the Pazzi Chapel. On the door to the
chapel there is a frescoed lunette with the Madonna and Child and
saints, attributed to Fra Bartolomeo. The right wall is also decorated
by the large altarpiece of the Deposition by Alessandro Allori. The
floor is made up of marble tombstones and on the left wall there is a
monument to Lorenzo Bartolini (who is instead buried in the Chapel of
San Luca in the basilica of Santissima Annunziata).
The Medici
Chapel, or "of the Novitiate", has a very simple and essential
decoration, with a rectangular base covered by vaults and with a purse
that encloses the altar. The main altarpiece of the chapel is the glazed
terracotta by Andrea della Robbia with the Madonna and Child between
angels and saints, dating back to around 1480. The stained glass window
is designed by Alesso Baldovinetti. On the right wall is the monument to
Francesco Lombardi, made up of several fifteenth-century fragments,
including a Madonna with Child and angels from the school of Donatello.
On the left wall is the Dispute on the Immaculate Conception by Carlo
Portelli.
From here you can also access the large sacristy, a large room
covered with trusses and rich in frescoes. The wooden cabinets date back
to the 15th century, with inlays by Michele di Giovanni da Fiesole and
today they display reliquaries and illuminated choir books. The
fourteenth-century corner desk is older, which was perhaps one with the
cabinet with painted doors for relics, whose panels with quatrefoils
painted by Taddeo Gaddi are today in the Galleria dell'Accademia.
Above the geometric decoration of the lower part, on the south wall
there is a series of scenes from the life of Christ executed by some of
the most important painters of the Giotto school: Niccolò Gerini
(Ascension, Resurrection), Taddeo Gaddi (the Crucifixion) and Spinello
Aretino ( Ascent to Calvary). On the left, the marble sink is the work
of Pagno Portigiani, while the bust in polychrome terracotta, depicting
the Redeemer, is the work of Giovanni della Robbia.
On the east
side, in correspondence with the windows that give light to the room,
there is the large Rinuccini Chapel, with the frescoes painted between
1363 and 1366 by Giovanni da Milano (some attributed them to Spinello
Aretino). The right wall presents the Stories of the Magdalene and the
left one the Stories of the Virgin, with the lower part completed by
Matteo di Pacino. Although the fresco was not the type of painting
congenial to the great successor of Giotto's painting Giovanni da
Milano, in these works the richness of his warm and pale chromatic range
is nonetheless significantly appreciable (unlike the contemporary
Florentine painters, more faithful to the strong tones of red and blue),
smooth and delicately shaded surfaces, majestic and composed scenes. The
polyptych on the altar is by Giovanni del Biondo. The gate of the chapel
is original and dates back to 1371.
The naves are illuminated by numerous stained glass windows, often
dating back to the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries.
The
basilica houses countless tombs. On the floor alone are scattered 276
marble slabs with inlaid reliefs and coats of arms and many funerary
monuments are found on the walls between the Vasari altars (many of
illustrious men), despite a thinning out that took place in the early
sixties, which removed most of the tombs nineteenth-century aristocrats,
now arranged in a corridor under the small loggia of the Chiostro
Grande.
Although the basilica had been used as a burial place for
many illustrious personalities, like many other churches, it was only in
the nineteenth century that it became a veritable pantheon of famous
personalities linked to art, music and literature, after the definition
that Ugo Foscolo gave it as the Temple of Italian glories. In fact, in
1871 Foscolo himself was buried here with a very crowded public
ceremony, who died in 1827 at Turnham Green, in accordance with his own
desire to be buried alongside other great Tuscan personalities such as
Michelangelo, Machiavelli, Galileo.
After this episode, other
illustrious personalities were transferred and buried in the basilica,
such as Gioachino Rossini in 1887 and Leon Battista Alberti, etc., for
whom the best sculptors of the time created the monuments that line the
nave. A large tomb was also prepared for Dante, actually a cenotaph
since the city of Ravenna refused to give up the remains of the poet who
died in exile.
Santa Croce came to host fifteen thousand corpses,
with a large amount of requests from all over Italy after its fame as
custodian of the Urns of the Forts had spread. Each request was examined
by a special commission and approved by the Grand Duke himself, who also
established the size of the donation from time to time.
Among the
ancient monuments, that of the first important figure to be buried here
is Leonardo Bruni, for whom Bernardo Rossellino designed a Renaissance
arcosolium tomb (1444-45), i.e. with the sepulcher placed inside a
recess formed by a large step and a a round arch that closes it at the
top. Similarly, the tomb of his successor Carlo Marsuppini was created
by Desiderio da Settignano.
On the counter-façade are the funeral monuments to the playwright Giovan Battista Niccolini (with a personification of the Freedom of Poetry by Pio Fedi from 1883) and to Gino Capponi, with the Fame of Antonio Bortone (1884). To the right of the latter, a plaque and a bust commemorate the botanist Giovanni Targioni Tozzetti. The stained glass window of the rose window presents a Deposition, on a cartoon by Giovanni del Ponte. To the right of the entrance, in the right corner, is the funeral monument of the numismatist Domenico Sestini (1833).
The canvases on the Vasari altars were painted according to a common
theme, that of the Passion, and are the work of various artists.
Starting from the right aisle we find (in the opposite order to the
reading of the scenes) the Crucifixion by Santi di Tito (1568), the
Going to Calvary by Vasari himself, the Ecce Homo by Jacopo Coppi del
Meglio (1576), the Flagellation of Alessandro Fei, the Prayer in the
Garden by Andrea del Minga and the Entry of Christ into Jerusalem by
Cigoli (1603-1604).
The most famous tomb is perhaps that of
Michelangelo Buonarroti, between the first and second altars of the
right aisle, designed by Vasari after the remains of the great artist
arrived in Florence from Rome (1564). Above the sepulcher three
sculptures represent the personifications of Painting (by Battista
Lorenzi, also author of the artist's bust) (about 1568), of Sculpture
(by Valerio Cioli) and of Architecture (reattributed to Battista
Lorenzi, formerly referred to Giovanni Bandini ), saddened by the death
of the great master, but the whole of the tomb is a mixture of painting,
sculpture and architecture. The frescoes that decorate it are by Giovan
Battista Naldini.
In front of Michelangelo's tomb, on the pillar,
there is the sculpture of the Madonna del Latte by Antonio Rossellino
(1478) placed above the tomb of Francesco Nori, who died to save the
life of Lorenzo the Magnificent during the so-called Pazzi conspiracy.
Continuing in the right aisle you first come across Dante's
cenotaph, a huge monument from 1829; mourn the poet the figures of Italy
and of Stefano Ricci's Poetry, set on a neoclassical style like Canova,
but contaminated by the neo-medieval, romantic and celebratory spirit of
the time. The creation of this cenotaph inspired Giacomo Leopardi to
compose the song Above Dante's monument.
After the third altar is
the funeral monument to Vittorio Alfieri by Antonio Canova (1810), with
a personification of weeping Italy leaning against a classical
sarcophagus with protomes and garlands, and a soberly decorated
medallion with the profile of the deceased, crowns and allegorical
lyres.
On the next pillar rests the valuable pulpit by Benedetto
da Maiano (about 1481), with an octagonal base, admirably decorated with
five panels carved in bas-relief, with scenes from the Life of Saint
Francis with a strong effect of depth thanks to the skilful use of
perspective. Under each panel there are niches with statuettes of the
Virtues.
Next to the next altar, the fourth, is the monument to
Niccolò Machiavelli by Innocenzo Spinazzi (1787), one of the best works
of Florentine neoclassical with the famous inscription TANTO NOMINI
NULLUM PAR ELOGIUM. Particularly elegant is the urn and the figure of
Politics, with delicate drapery and a "Greek style" head.
After
the fifth altar is the monument to the historian Luigi Lanzi, by
Giuseppe Belli (1810), and shortly after the aedicule with the
Cavalcanti Annunciation by Donatello (about 1435), a masterpiece in
sandstone with gilding, made with an unusual technique . It is a high
relief set according to the anti-classicism typical of this phase of the
sculptor's work, with a contrast between the simplicity of the material
and the richness of the decoration. The characters are portrayed with a
certain restlessness and a contaminatio with antique decorative motifs.
Beyond the door to the cloisters is the aforementioned monument to
Leonardo Bruni, by Bernardo Rossellino (1444-1445), a Renaissance burial
prototype inspired by the indications of Leon Battista Alberti. The
inscription was dictated by Carlo Marsuppini, who was later buried in
the left aisle.
This is followed by the tomb of Gioachino
Rossini, by Giuseppe Cassioli (1900) and, after the sixth altar, the
tomb of Ugo Foscolo, by Antonio Berti (1939). A plaque higher up recalls
the foundation of the church, while some gravestones enclosed on the
floor indicate the burial place of some leaders in the pay of the
Florentine Republic: Milano d'Asti, Giovanni Acuto and, a little further
on, Biordo degli Ubertini.
Around the corner, on the edge of the
right transept, is the funeral monument to Prince Neri Corsini, by
Odoardo Fantacchiotti (1860).
Near the corner with the counter-facade is a series of frescoes by
Santi from the first half of the fifteenth century.
The
altarpieces of the side altars continue the series of Stories of the
Passion begun in the right aisle. The first altar has a Deposition by
Giovan Battista Naldini; the Resurrection follows at the second and the
Supper at Emmaus at the third, both works by Santi di Tito; on the
fourth altar the Incredulity of Saint Thomas by Giorgio Vasari, then the
Ascension by Giovanni Stradano and the Pietà by Agnolo Bronzino; the
Pentecost by Vasari closes the series.
Galileo Galilei is buried
at the beginning of the left aisle, after the first altar, and in the
same tomb lie his disciple Vincenzo Viviani and a woman, most likely his
daughter, Sister Maria Celeste. Galileo's tomb is decorated with a bust
by Giovan Battista Foggini and the personifications of Astronomy (by
Vincenzo Foggini) and Geometry by Girolamo Ticciati. The surrounding
frescoes are remains of the fourteenth-century decoration of the nave,
attributed to Mariotto di Nardo. The tomb, placed symmetrically to that
of Michelangelo, somewhat resembles its shape although it is more than a
century and a half later.
Among the commemorative plaques, one
commemorates Antonio Meucci, inventor of the telephone. After the fourth
altar are the tombs of the historian Giovanni Lami, the first work of
Innocenzo Spinazzi (1752-1755), and that of Eugenio Barsanti, inventor
with Felice Matteucci of the internal combustion engine, with a bronze
bust by Leone Tommasi. In front of the fifth altar is the tombstone of
Lorenzo Ghiberti with his son Vittorio.
The monument to the
statesman Vittorio Fossombroni is the work of Lorenzo Bartolini (around
1844) and is surmounted by a fresco of the Assumption of Mary attributed
to Agnolo Gaddi.
Between the fifth and sixth altars is the left
side entrance, surmounted by the organ by Onofrio Zeffirini da Cortona
(1579), integrated and enlarged in 1926.
A refined work by
Desiderio da Settignano is the fifteenth-century monument to Carlo
Marsuppini, placed symmetrically and with shapes similar to that of
Leonardo Bruni del Rossellino. Marsuppini was Leonardo Bruni's successor
at the chancellery of the Florentine Republic and his monument resumed
the arcosolium shape of the other, with elegant decorations among which
Desiderio added some delicate cherubs, typical of his production.
A little further on is a 19th-century monument and the monument to
Leon Battista Alberti, by Lorenzo Bartolini.
The nave, almost at
the entrance to the transept, is closed by the nineteenth-century
monuments to the musician Luigi Cherubini and to the engraver Raffaello
Morghen (1854), both works by Odoardo Fantacchiotti (the latter is only
a cenotaph commissioned by Morghen's students, which is instead buried
in the church of San Martino in Montughi).
During the restoration work conducted by Giorgio Vasari in the
mid-16th century, two opposing symmetrical marble choir stalls were
built in the basilica; the one on the right remained empty, while the
one on the left was equipped with a pipe organ, built by the Tuscan
organ builder Onofrio Zefferini between 1575 and 1579 (and inaugurated
on 6 June of the same year), with a case designed by Vasari himself. In
1929, the instrument, which had kept its original characteristics almost
unchanged, was demolished and the Pontifical Organ Factory Comm.
Giovanni Tamburini was commissioned to build a larger organ following
the stylistic and phonic standards of the time (opus 368). Then, on the
right chancel, which had remained empty over the centuries, a box was
built to house part of the pipes, re-proposing the scheme of that of
Vasari which, adapted, remained on its chancel and housed part of the
new phonic material. During the flood in Florence on 4 November 1966,
the console was irreparably damaged as were the electronic control
units; the damaged material was replaced with an important restoration
operation, after which the organ started playing again. Another major
restoration was carried out by the Mascioni firm in 2009-2010. Currently
(2011) the organ, with electronic transmission overhauled by the
Mascioni company, has four keyboards of 61 notes each and a
concave-radial pedalboard of 32. The pipes are placed in three distinct
bodies:
those of the Grand'Organo, of the Espressivo
(respectively II and III keyboard) and of part of the Pedale are placed
in the new case built in 1926 above the choir loft on the right;
those of the Positivo expressive (I keyboard) and of part of the Pedale
in the old case on the left choir loft;
those of the Chorale
expressive (IV keyboard) in a box without display placed behind the main
altarpiece.
The basilica corresponded to one of the largest convents in the city.
As in Santa Maria Novella, the rooms were gradually secularized starting
from the end of the eighteenth century and destined for other uses. For
example, the National Central Library of Florence stands on land that
was previously part of the convent and today, among the various
activities held in the former monastery, there are an elementary school
and a school for leather craftsmen.
The most monumental part of
the complex, consisting of the former refectory with the Last Supper,
was set up as a museum as early as November 2, 1900, under the direction
of Guido Carocci, where there already existed a deposit of works of art,
partly coming from the demolition of the historical center of the period
of the Renovation (architectural fragments that today are found in the
lapidary of the National Museum of San Marco). The museum was gradually
expanded and inaugurated with a new layout on 26 March 1959 as the Museo
dell'Opera di Santa Croce, with the two cloisters, the main refectory
and some other rooms, but the flood disaster in Florence, with the water
which here reached 4.88 meters, required a long period of closure to
prepare the necessary restorations. It was reopened only in 1975 and a
year later, on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the flood, the
battered Crucifix by Cimabue was brought back to the museum.
From
around 2000 the whole basilica complex was converted into a single large
museum with a single paid ticket, which on the one hand reduced the
impact of mass tourism on the treasures of the basilica, on the other it
triggered the typical controversies when allocates a cult building
consecrated to museum use, impoverishing the spiritual role of these
environments. Given these changes, today it no longer makes much sense
to speak of the Museo dell'Opera di Santa Croce, as the whole complex
has become a museum.
In November 2006, just after the
celebrations for the fortieth anniversary of the flood, nineteen
paintings of great value returned to their place after a meticulous and
complex restoration, now exhibited in a special setting in the
refectory.
On the occasion of the fiftieth anniversary of the
flood, the grandiose panel of the Last Supper by Giorgio Vasari, at the
time divided into large segments and in storage for forty years, was
relocated after the restoration by the Opificio delle Pietre was
completed hard.
In 2008, the museum was visited by 837,575
people.
The fourteenth-century cloister (but with replacements and additions
of the architectural elements over time) is located on the right side of
the facade of the Basilica and leads to the Pazzi Chapel. It was
originally composed of two distinct cloisters, one rectangular and one
square, which can be clearly identified in the current asymmetrical
plan. On the right side of the facade there is a recess where a series
of cypresses surrounds the statues of God the Father seated by Baccio
Bandinelli (formerly in the choir of the Cathedral) and that of the
bronze Warrior by Henry Moore.
The Pazzi Chapel is a masterpiece
by Filippo Brunelleschi and all Renaissance architecture, a wonderful
example of spatial harmony achieved in all its structural and decorative
elements. The small porch of the facade is attributed by some to the
continuation of Giuliano da Sangallo, but others instead trace it back
to the master's drawings. The frieze with medallions and cherub heads is
by Desiderio da Settignano, while the barrel vault is decorated with
roundels and rosettes by Luca della Robbia, who also designed the
lunette over the entrance; the wooden doors were carved by Giuliano da
Maiano in 1472. Inside the plastic decoration is strictly subordinated
to the architecture, with the twelve large medallions of the Apostles,
among the best creations of Luca della Robbia, the frieze with the
Cherubim and the Lamb , and the other 4 polychrome roundels with the
Evangelists, attributed to Andrea della Robbia or to Brunelleschi
himself who would have supervised the design. The stained glass window
was made to a design by Alesso Baldovinetti.
Next to the Pazzi
chapel, the crypt of the Castellani chapel hosts a permanent exhibition
on the work of the engraver Pietro Parigi.
On the north side is
the gallery of funerary monuments, mainly from the 19th century, which
crowded the first cloister and which were moved and reassembled here
from 1964 to 1986. The long passage runs under the portico with a loggia
on the north side, and is paved both on the floor than on the walls from
the funerary monuments. Among these, the one to the singer Virginia de
Blasis by Luigi Pampaloni (1839), the one to Giuseppe Sabatelli by
Ulisse Cambi (1844) and the one to the musician Giovanni Pacini by
Vincenzo Consani (1874) stand out.
On the other hand, the
monuments to Girolamo Segato, from the school of Lorenzo Bartolini, the
one to Florence Nightingale and the one to the patriot Giuseppe La
Farina (by Michele Auteri Pomar, 1877) have remained in place on the
entrance wall.
The second cloister has a square partition with a
central well, a work of 1453 of great elegance, attributed by some to a
design by Brunelleschi, although it is more probable that the
intervention was by Bernardo Rossellino. It is made entirely of
sandstone, with round arches that support an architraved loggia on the
first floor. The spandrels between the arches have a refined graffiti
decoration and roundels in relief, with coats of arms and companies. The
National Central Library of Florence overlooks the second cloister,
using the rooms on the first floor on the south and east sides.
The exhibition itinerary continues with a visit to the
fourteenth-century Refectory where important examples of sacred art are
placed, among which the Crucifix by Cimabue stands out, one of the most
important works of art of all time, key in the transition from Byzantine
painting to that modern, which became infamous as a symbol of the
destruction caused by the 1966 flood; despite the restoration, the
pictorial surface has been largely lost and to be able to fully admire
it we only have the photographs prior to the disaster.
The west
wall of the refectory is dominated by the large series of frescoes by
Taddeo Gaddi, which cover it entirely (1333). The scheme of decorations
will become typical for conventual cenacles, with a Crucifixion,
represented here as a Tree of Life (iconography taken from the Lignum
Vitae of Saint Bonaventure), surrounded by some scenes among which the
Last Supper stands out below, the first prototype of the Florentine
cenacles that will decorate the refectories of the most prestigious
convents and monasteries of the city. The other scenes that make up the
whole are all ideas on which the friars could reflect during the meal:
Saint Benedict in solitude
Jesus at dinner with the Pharisee
Saint
Francis receiving the stigmata
History of Saint Louis of Toulouse
On the walls are then exposed six fragments of frescoes by Andrea
Orcagna, found under the sixteenth-century plaster in the right aisle of
the church. They had probably been seriously damaged by the flood of
1557, so much so as to force Vasari (who certainly did not cover the
ancient work for the sake of stylistic renewal alone, being an extreme
admirer of the ancient Florentine masters) to build new altars in pietra
serena on a white plaster wall. The fragments found are however notable
for the vigorous and dramatic narration in the scenes, with a colorful
pictorial language. A Triumph of Death, a Last Judgment and a part of
Inferno are distinguished. Other fourteenth-fifteenth-century frescoes
are the mutilated lunette of the Lamentation by Taddeo Gaddi, formerly
on the door of the left aisle, and the view of the city of Florence in
the Venuta dei Francescani a Firenze, by Giovanni del Biondo, where one
can recognize the aspect of the square of the Cathedral around 1380,
with the Arnolfo facade of Santa Maria del Fiore.
The statue of
San Ludovico di Tolosa is a mighty work by Donatello, one of the very
few in gilded bronze by the great Florentine sculptor (1423-1424),
initially created for a niche in Orsanmichele, it was then ousted by the
Incredulità di San Tommaso di Verrocchio in 1487 and placed for more
than three and a half centuries at the center of the unfinished facade
of Santa Croce. Donatello's statue was one of the first large cast
bronzes since antiquity, although several pieces were assembled to
facilitate the gilding. Vibrant is the contrast between the head and the
hand, sculpted with delicate realism, and the heaviness of the drapery
that hides the whole body.
Also in the refectory, near the door
to the second room, is the detached fresco of Saints John the Baptist
and Francis, a fragment of a larger work, in the typical luminous style
of Domenico Veneziano, with influences from Andrea del Castagno (who was
also been attributed). It was originally located in the choir and then
on the wall of the right aisle of the church.
The nineteen
altarpieces (paintings on wood or canvas) damaged during the flood and
relocated only in 2006, at the end of a long and widespread restoration
work, were also exhibited here:
Madonna and Child with Saints by
Nardo di Cione,
Coronation of the Virgin by Lorenzo di Niccolò,
Polyptych of Saint John Gualbert by Giovanni del Biondo,
San Jacopo
di Lorenzo Monaco,
San Bernardino of Siena by Rossello di Jacopo
Franchi,
Saint Bonaventure by Domenico di Michelino,
Deposition
from the Cross by Francesco Salviati (which underwent an almost
miraculous recovery, after it was found torn apart),
Descent of
Christ into Limbo by Agnolo Bronzino (following the restoration "gory"
details of demons were discovered, censored in ancient times),
Trinity by Cigoli (1592).
In the other five rooms other valuable works from the church and
convent are kept.
The second room houses fragments of frescoes
and stained glass windows, with works by Neri di Bicci and, by
attribution, to Giotto and Alesso Baldovinetti. There are also
nineteenth-century models of the bell tower and the facade and some
paintings. The lunette with the dying Saint Francis distributing bread
to the friars is the work of Jacopo Ligozzi, whose sinopia can be found
in room six. During the restoration of the Baroncelli Chapel, the
Baroncelli Polyptych attributed to Giotto or Taddeo Gaddi was kept here.
Giotto is also attributed a fragment of a fresco called the Sorrowful
Madonna.
The third room, formerly the Cappella dei Cerchi, houses
detached and Della Robbia frescoes, including one by Andrea della
Robbia, two busts by Giovanni della Robbia and a Madonna and Child by
Benedetto Buglioni. The painted cross is by Lippo di Benivieni, while
the detached frescoes, already forming part of the original decoration
of the chapel, are attributed to Niccolò di Pietro Gerini (decorated
frames) and to the Master of San Martino a Mensola (Majesty with
saints).
The fourth room has frescoes and sinopias from the
fourteenth and fifteenth centuries. The fifth room shows the
reconstruction of the monument to Gastone della Torre by Tino da
Camaino, other mainly fourteenth-century sculptures (including some by
Tino di Camaiono and two panels attributed to Giambologna) and the
plaster models for the nineteenth-century statues that decorate the
facade. The sixth and last room has some detached frescoes, among which
three stand out, by Matteo Rosselli.
A series of ancient vegetable gardens correspond to the back of the church, full of trees (with some large specimens of hackberry, cedars of the Atlas and Himalayas) are today areas pertaining to the Pestalozzi and Vittorio Veneto Scuola-Città schools, the National Central Library of Florence and the Leather School.
Over time, many companies or brotherhoods met in the great basilica
and its annexes (especially in the extensive basements). Among the most
important were:
Company of Santa Maria delle Laudi of Santa Croce
Society of Jesus or of the Discipline of Santa Croce
Company of San
Francesco del Martello
Company of the Bernardino
Company of San
Francesco and Santa Maria Maddalena
Company of the Nativity of the
Virgin Mary of Booksellers
Company of Sant'Antonio Abate dei
Macellari
Company of Saint Anthony of Menders
Company of San
Bonaventura dei Carcerati
Company of Santa Maria di Loreto
Company
of San Filippo Benizi "black"
Company of Blessed Peter Pettinagnolo
Giotto and his assistants, Peruzzi Polyptych, now in the North
Carolina Museum of Art
Giotto and his assistants, Eternal and Angels,
now in the San Diego Museum of Art
Taddeo Gaddi, Panels from the
wardrobe of the sacristy of Santa Croce, now in the Galleria
dell'Accademia in Florence, in the Alte Pinakothek in Munich and in the
Gemäldegalerie in Berlin
Filippo Lippi, Novitiate Altarpiece, now in
the Uffizi
The Basilica is the burial place of some of the most illustrious
Italian personalities, such as Michelangelo Buonarroti, Galileo Galilei,
Niccolò Machiavelli, Vittorio Alfieri, Ugo Foscolo, Gioacchino Rossini.
Although it is a Catholic church, there are also burials of
non-believers, including Foscolo himself. The first illustrious
personality buried here was Leonardo Bruni in the second half of the
fifteenth century, while the last person actually buried in Santa Croce
was Giovanni Gentile in 1944, but after the war commemorative plaques
were affixed, such as the one for Enrico Fermi, whose tomb is located in
the United States where he died in 1954.
Leon Battista Alberti
Dante Alighieri (cenotaph, the poet is buried in Ravenna)
Giovanni
Acuto (commemorative plaque)
Victor Alfieri
Antonio Baldi, painter
Eugenio Barsanti
Lorenzo Bartolini (cenotaph)
Virginia de Blasis,
soprano
Ida Botti Scifoni, painter
Leonardo Bruni
Michelangelo
Buonarroti
Rosa Caiet Piattoli, painter
Luigi Canina
Gino
Capponi
Giulia Clary, wife of Joseph Bonaparte, and her daughter
Charlotte Napoléone Bonaparte
Leonardo da Vinci (commemorative
plaque)
Luigi Cherubini (cenotaph)
Bartolomeo Cristofori, inventor
of the fortepiano
Cassono della Torre, archbishop of Milan and
patriarch of Aquileia
Enrico Fermi (commemorative plaque)
Hugh
Foscolo
Galileo Galilei
John Gentile
Lorenzo Ghiberti
Victor
Ghiberti
Louis Lanzi
Mario Luzi (commemorative plaque)
Niccolo
Machiavelli
Guglielmo Marconi (commemorative plaque)
Carlo
Marsuppini
Pier Antonio Micheli
Joseph Montani
Raphael Morgan
Florence Nightingale (cenotaph)
Michał Kleofas Ogiński
Gioachino
Rossini
Giuseppe Sabatelli, painter
Girolamo Segato, scientist
Domenico Sestini, numismatist
Louise of Stolberg-Gedern, Countess of
Albany, wife of Charles Edward Stuart (companion of Vittorio Alfieri)
Fortunata Sulgher, poet
Angelo Tavanti