The abbey of Santa Maria in Florence, better known as Badia
Fiorentina, is an important place of Catholic worship in the
historic center of Florence, located in via del Proconsolo at the
intersection with via Ghibellina and named after the Virgin Mary.
"Badia" is a popular contraction of the word abbey. In and
around Florence there were five Benedictine abbeys, located as if at
the cardinal points of the city: to the north the Badia Fiesolana,
to the west the Badia a Settimo, to the south the abbey of San
Miniato, to the east the Badia a Ripoli and in the center the
Florentine abbey.
High Middle age
The church of Santo Stefano known as "of the
people" existed in this place very ancient, which is already mentioned
in 960, when it was sold by a private individual to Willa di Toscana,
mother of the Marquis Ugo, to build the Benedictine abbey later known as
Badia Fiorentina around it . The primitive church is located where the
Pandolfini chapel stands today, next to the main church, rebuilt in the
Renaissance.
Instead, the abbey was founded in 978. Ugo, who
became Marquis of Tuscany, increased his mother's donations with great
munificence and his memory has been perpetuated over the centuries, so
much so that every 21 December a mass is still celebrated for the noble
benefactor, known as by Dante the Great Baron: on his tomb, already in a
porphyry sarcophagus under the high altar, a cushion of white and red
flowers (the colors of his coat of arms) was placed and a solemn
suffrage mass was celebrated with the participation of the people and
authority.
Thanks to other huge donations and also to the
privileges granted by popes and emperors, the abbey bought or inherited
various properties surrounding it, where stationers, illuminators,
bookbinders and booksellers then opened their businesses, which
characterized the area with a production linked to creation of books and
parchments.
Boniface of Canossa installed the Benedictine hermit
monk San Maurilio as abbot of the abbey, who left office in 1055 to be
elected Bishop of Rouen by William I of England.
In 1071 a
hospital was attached to the monastery. Among the activities of the
monks there was also viticulture, as suggested by the name of the nearby
via della Vigna Vecchia.
Thirteenth century: Arnolfo di Cambio
In 1285 the church underwent a radical makeover in Gothic style by
Arnolfo di Cambio, who changed its orientation with the apse facing via
del Proconsolo. The orientation was more traditional, with the rear
windows facing east for sunlight each morning. The profiles of the
Gothic windows, now blind, and the external apse wall are still clearly
visible on via del Proconsolo, on which the structure of the present
church was supported, with a narrow gap.
Even a part of the
ancient Gothic facade, which survived only for the upper part with
tympanum and rose window, is visible from the Court Court courtyard in
via de' Magazzini: the insertions of decorative ceramic material can
still be seen. The church had three naves and its appearance was very
colorful: it had a floor in colored ceramic material, older than today's
one of the baptistery, of which some traces have been found during some
excavations; it was covered by trusses also covered with ornamental
motifs, which still survive beyond today's coffered ceiling;
furthermore, the historiating of its frescoed walls had begun.
The church is also linked to Dante's memories. Here, according to the
Vita Nuova, Dante Alighieri saw Beatrice Portinari for the first time,
during a mass. Boccaccio later gave the first of the famous readings of
the Divine Comedy in the hall of Santo Stefano.
Three hundred
The bell tower of the abbey marked the third and ninth hours of the day
when work began and ended, as also mentioned by Dante (Par., XV, 98). In
1307, however, it was demolished below half to punish the monks
reluctant to pay a city tax, who had barricaded themselves by ringing
the bells to attract the people, as Giovanni Villani recalls. On the
remaining quadrangular base, between 1310 and 1330, on the initiative of
Cardinal Orsini, a new bell tower with a hexagonal base was built, which
later became a famous point of the city profile that stands out between
the towers of Palazzo Vecchio and the Bargello (last restoration
completed in 2001). About 70 meters high, it has an ancient weather vane
on top with an angel, which was depicted in ancient representations such
as the Rustici Code or Dante's lunette with the Divine Comedy and which,
due to its changing rotation, had given rise to the way of saying "to be
fickle as the Angel of the Badia".
The frescoes that decorated
the walls mostly date back to the 14th century. Under the
seventeenth-century white plaster large portions of painting were found,
above all parts of a representation of the Thebaid in today's
counter-façade and in the so-called "San Bernardo chapel", which was
once at the head of the left aisle, and in the space between the
'ancient persbyterial wall on via del Proconsolo and the walls of the
seventeenth-century renovation. The names of Nardo di Cione and Maso di
Banco were given as executors of the decorations in the chapel, while
the frescoes in the interspace refer to Giotto and his workshop (the
fragments are now divided between the Pandolfini chapel and the Galleria
dell'Accademia , like the Shepherd's head), also author of the polyptych
of the main altar which is now in the Uffizi.
Renaissance
In
the following centuries, the Benedictine abbey saw alternating periods
of decline with periods of renewed splendour. In the fifteenth century
it was a center of humanistic culture supported by the Portuguese abbot
Dom Gomes Eanes (OSB) ("the blessed Gomezio"); the construction and
decoration of the orange cloister dates back to that period, the work of
Bernardo Rossellino for the architecture and the Portuguese Giovanni
Consalvo (João Gonçalves) for most of the frescoes (1432-1438). Numerous
Renaissance-style works of art embellished it: in addition to the
sculptures of Mino da Fiesole and Bernardo Rossellino, the Arte dei
Giudici e Notai which had its headquarters in the nearby building in via
del Proconsolo and sometimes used the church for meetings and public
functions, he had commissioned the great Masaccio to paint a frescoed
Saint Ivo on a pillar of the abbey, as protector of art.
It seems
that Cosimo the Elder had offered to finance the restructuring of the
church, but the refusal of the Benedictine fathers to affix his coat of
arms made him fall back on the church of San Marco. For centuries, only
the coat of arms of the Marquis Ugo di Toscana has stood out at the
abbey, visible both on the portal in via Ghibellina and above the main
altar.
Also dating back to the fifteenth century is the precious
red and gold silk hanging with the classic "S" motif, which on the most
important occasions could cover the entire internal surface of the
church, radically changing its appearance. This enormous quantity of
precious fabric has providentially reached us and it was surprising when
this apparatus, the oldest of its kind in Florence and among the most
remarkable in terms of antiquity and preciousness in Europe, was
accidentally discovered and recognized for its value during a casual
inspection in the 1980s. The fabric, which also covered the ceiling, the
altarpieces, etc., is obviously cut to the dimensions of Arnolfo's
church, and due to its uselessness it was relegated to a deposit.
In the early sixteenth century, Giovan Battista Pandolfini
commissioned Benedetto da Rovezzano to renovate the part of the
monastery on the corner between via del Proconsolo and via Dante
Alighieri: the Pandolfini chapel, formerly the church of Santo Stefano,
and the monumental entrances both on via Alighieri and and via del
Proconsolo, connected internally by a vestibule with a loggia that leads
to the actual entrance to the church.
Seventeenth-century
renovation and subsequent events
Serafino Casolani from Siena, who
became abbot in 1624, wanted to completely transform Arnolfo's church,
probably himself suggesting the renovation project to the architect
Matteo Segaloni who started the works; between 1627 and 1631 they
changed the orientation of the altar again, now placed to the south in
the direction of the Arno, creating a temple in the shape of a Greek
cross. The extraordinary wooden coffered ceiling, which is supported by
the medieval trusses above, also dates back to those works.
Suppressed in 1810, the monastery was divided up and tampered with to be
occupied by houses, shops, warehouses and offices. In 1870 the portal on
via del Proconsolo was reconfigured, replacing the elements that were
too eroded and putting a few steps in place of a two-flight staircase
with a balustrade (also from the time of Benedetto da Rovezzano), on
which there was a coat of arms of the eagle imperial, popularly called
the "Goose of Badia". The stairway hindered the traffic on the street,
which had become considerable by now, especially during the Carnival,
when a parade of masks and carriages went from Piazza Santa Croce to
Piazza Santa Trinita passing through here as well. On that occasion the
lunette in glazed polychrome terracotta attributed to Benedetto Buglioni
was also added.
In 1998 part of the complex resumed its function
as a monastery with the arrival of the religious community of the
monastic fraternities of Jerusalem.
The Arnolfo facing of the presbytery remains along Via del
Proconsolo, with four large single lancet windows that no longer
correspond to the current internal windows. The original facade can be
glimpsed from the courtyard of the former court offices in via dei
Magazzini, with a hut shape and a closed oculus.
Portals from the
time of Benedetto da Rovezzano are found on via Alighieri and on via del
Proconsolo, and give access to a vestibule with a loggia on the
courtyard of the bell tower (or cemetery), from which one can access
both the Pandolfini chapel and the actual church. own. The second of
these portals, near Vai Ghibellina, was rebuilt in 1870 on the basis of
the sixteenth-century one, but with the addition of a polychrome
terracotta lunette attributed to Benedetto Buglioni. Further up on this
side there is a large and ancient coat of arms of Hugh of Tuscany (with
three poles), crowned by a metal miter, symbolizing the abbot.
Internal
The interior of the church, further transformed also in the
eighteenth century, presents an overlapping of styles and structures.
The hall is dominated by a sumptuous carved wooden ceiling, created by
Felice Gamberai before 1631, which hides the Gothic trusses. The
presbytery, with a sixteenth-century choir by Francesco and Marco Del
Tasso, has remarkable frescoes by Gian Domenico Ferretti (1734) and the
quadraturist Pietro Anderlini.
Immediately on the left after the
entrance, the large altarpiece by Filippino Lippi Apparition of the
Virgin to Saint Bernard stands out, of very high pictorial quality
(1482-1486). Commissioned by Piero di Francesco del Pugliese, the
painting was transferred from the church of Santa Maria del Santo
Sepolcro, in the Campora monastery, to the Badia in 1530 to save it from
the damage of the siege of Florence. A curious detail is the
representation of a demon covered in fur and with menacing fangs hidden
in the rock below the saint, who is depicted in ecstasy for the Marian
vision.
Traces of fourteenth-century frescoes can be found both
on the counter-façade and in the chapel of San Bernardo, where there was
a cycle with Stories of Christ attributed to Nardo di Cione.
The
Baroque Chapel of San Mauro, on the right, formerly the second span of
the nave, was completely frescoed by Vincenzo Meucci (1717), while on
the altar there is a canvas by Onorio Marinari with San Mauro healing
the cripples. Above the chapel is a large carved and gilded wooden organ
dating back to 1717.
The two chapels next to the altar house the
paintings of the Pentecost by Mirabello Cavalori (on the right) and the
Ascent to Calvary by Giovan Battista Naldini (about 1570, on the left).
On the left wall, above the monument to Hugh of Tuscany, the
valuable canvas of the Assumption and saints by Giorgio Vasari (1568) is
kept in the choir loft.
Sculptural kit
There are numerous
sepulchral monuments, among which the most important are those from the
15th century: the sepulcher of Giannozzo Pandolfini (died 1456) from the
workshop of Bernardo Rossellino, the tomb of Bernardo Giugni di Mino da
Fiesole, a famous lawyer and diplomat who died in 1456 , placed near the
entrance, and above all, by Mino himself, the tomb of the Marquis Ugo of
Tuscany (1466-1481), remake of the burial of the first benefactor of the
Badia, who died in 1001, in marble and porphyry, surmounted by the
personification of Charity and placed under the choir of the left arm.
Also by Mino da Fiesole is the Neroni reredos with the Madonna and
Child between Saints Leonardo and Lorenzo.
Pipe organ
On the
choir loft of the right arm of the transept is the pipe organ, built in
1558 by Onofrio Zeffirini and restored between 1979 and 1981 by Pier
Paolo Donati.
The instrument has a mechanical transmission and is
enclosed inside a richly decorated wooden case. The console has a window
and has a single keyboard and pedal board with 20 notes, and has 6
registers.
The cloister of orange trees
Despite the
transformations it has undergone over the centuries, the Badia has kept
the evocative Orange Cloister built between 1432 and 1438 by Bernardo
Rossellino intact within the complex. On the upper floor of the cloister
there is a cycle of frescoes on the life of San Benedetto painted from
1436 to 1439 by an artist considered unknown for a long time, but who
has recently been finally identified as the Portuguese Giovanni Consalvo
(Joâo Gonsalves). The style of the scenes draws from the best of
contemporary innovations, such as Beato Angelico and Filippo Lippi,
while the iconography has numerous contemporary examples: one of the
closest to hand was the sacristy of San Miniato al Monte.
A
lunette was added later by the young Agnolo Bronzino, while two lunettes
(south-east corner) have a more late-Gothic style and perhaps belong to
an earlier period. The frescoes were detached in the twentieth century
and today the sinopias of the works are also visible on site.
In the abbey and its annexes, many companies or brotherhoods met over
time. Among the most important were:
Company of Sant'Omobono dei
Sarti
Congregation of Buonomini di San Martino
Giotto, Polyptych of Badia, now in the Uffizi
Giotto, Head of a
Shepherd, now in the Galleria dell'Accademia
Andrea Orcagna,
Pentecost, now in the Galleria dell'Accademia
Masaccio, Sant'Ivo, now
lost
Fra Bartolomeo, Apparition of the Virgin to Saint Bernard, now
in the Uffizi