The baptistery of San Giovanni Battista is a famous religious
building in Florence, located in the homonymous Piazza San Giovanni,
opposite the cathedral of Santa Maria del
Fiore and with the Archbishop's palace behind it. Dedicated to
the patron saint of the city, it was for centuries the place where
the Florentines obtained baptism and was the place of investiture of
knights and poets, as Dante Alighieri (who was also baptized here)
recalls in Paradise (XXV, 7-9): "with another voice now, with
another fleece / I will return as a poet, and at the font / of my
baptism I will take my hat". It was the designated seat for solemn
oaths, as well as for the celebration in honor of the city's patron
saint with the gift of precious fabrics (the palii) by the
magistrates of the Municipality on the anniversary of the Baptist
(June 24). It has the dignity of a minor basilica.
«To me
less ample seemed they not, nor greater
Than those that in my beautiful Saint John
Are
fashioned for the place of the baptisers,"
(Dante Alighieri -
Divine Comedy, Inferno, Canto XIX, lines 16-18)
The origins of the monument constitute one of the most obscure and
discussed themes in the history of architecture. Up until the sixteenth
century, the Florentine tradition according to which it was originally
an ancient Roman temple of the god Mars, modified in the Middle Ages
only in the apse and in the lantern, was considered credible. In the
following centuries this idea met with gradual skepticism, until it was
completely abandoned at the end of the 19th century, when excavations
under the building revealed the remains of Roman domus, probably from
the 1st century AD, with mosaic floors with geometric motifs. It was
believed that this demonstrated the medieval origin of the monument, and
most of the current theories are based on this assumption.
However, today scholars remain divided between those who, basing
themselves on the classical characteristics of the architecture, think
of a building from the early Christian era (4th-5th century AD), and
those who instead date it around the year 1000 for the archaeological
finds that have been mentioned and also for a document certifying its
consecration by Pope Nicholas II on November 6, 1059; and there are also
those who hypothesize successive alterations between the 7th and 11th
centuries and even beyond, even up to the threshold of the Renaissance.
These very different explanations make it clear how much the problem
is still open, and it should be added that in recent years the
hypothesis has also been put forward that the Florentine traditions were
essentially telling the truth when they said that the monument had been
a 'Temple of Mars' (of which no trace has ever been found), in the sense
not of a pagan temple, but of a building commemorating the victory of
Stilicho over Radagaisus, which took place in Florence in 406 and
remembered by all the historians of the time as an extraordinary fact,
so much so that the same Sant 'Agostino brought it as an argument
against the pagans demonstrating the power of God. Only later, then,
would the building be consecrated for Christian use, as happened for
many other ancient monuments. In this hypothesis, the Roman finds from
the excavations should be explained not as remains of barbarian
devastation in the 6th century, but as demolitions carried out in the
5th century before construction and precisely to make way for the
building. The quality of its architecture should therefore be referred
not to the Florentine Romanesque but to the late Roman era.
In
written documents, the first mention of the monument dates back to the
year 897, when it is known that the emperor's envoy administered justice
under the portico "in front of the church of San Giovanni Battista". The
term "church" suggests that at that date the building was officiated,
even if it is not clear whether it already had the functions of a
baptistery. Be that as it may, the consecration by Pope Nicholas II
probably took place after various restoration works.
In 1128 the
building officially became the city's baptistery and around the middle
of the same century an external marble cladding was carried out,
subsequently completed also inside; the floor in marble inlays was built
in 1209. According to some, the dome would have been built in the second
half of the 13th century, but there is no document of this, and
technically the hypothesis is highly questionable. The mosaics of the
scarsella date back to around 1220 and the complex mosaic of the dome
with octagonal segments was subsequently executed, which was worked on
between 1270 and 1300, with the intervention of Friar Jacopo and the
participation of Coppo di Marcovaldo and Cimabue.
Between 1330
and 1336 the first of the three bronze doors was made, with the use of
28 panels, commissioned to Andrea Pisano by the Calimala Art, the most
ancient art from which all the others descend, under whose protection it
was the baptistery: it was in fact in competition with the Arte della
Lana which patronized the nearby cathedral. The door, perhaps initially
placed on the east side, the most important, facing the Cathedral, was
moved to the south side to place the second door in the place of honour:
this news, reported by Vasari and taken up a bit from all the sources to
date, it has recently been questioned due to discrepancies in the
measurements between the two openings. Around 1320, Tino di Camaino had
also carved three sculptural groups in niches to decorate the part above
the portals of each entrance: worn out by the weather, they were then
gradually replaced from the end of the fifteenth century onwards: most
of the fragments are now in the Museo dell' Cathedral work.
The
current north gate was built between 1403 and 1424, by Lorenzo Ghiberti,
winner of a competition promoted in 1401 by the Arte di Calimala, which
was also attended by Filippo Brunelleschi, Jacopo della Quercia, Simone
da Colle Val d'Elsa, Niccolò di Luca Spinelli, Francesco di Valdambrino
and Niccolò di Pietro Lamberti. Initially located on the eastern side,
it was in turn then moved to the north side. During the restoration that
began in 2013, while cleaning the panels, it was discovered that the
figures of the bas-reliefs are gilded, using mercury amalgam gilding on
a bronze base.
The third door, with panels entirely covered in
gold, also made by Ghiberti between 1425 and 1452 and called by
Michelangelo "Porta del Paradiso", was placed on the eastern side. For
the construction of the two doors, Ghiberti created a veritable
bronzesmith's workshop, in which artists such as Donatello, Luca della
Robbia, Michelozzo, Masolino, Paolo Uccello and Benozzo Gozzoli trained.
In 1576, on the occasion of the baptism of the awaited male heir of
the Grand Duke Francesco I de' Medici, Bernardo Buontalenti rebuilt the
baptismal font, destroying the medieval baptizers mentioned by Dante
Alighieri (Inf. XIX vv. 16-20), as well as the choir which was in the
apse. The shape of the ancient baptismal font is uncertain and the
inlaid marble fragments of the font and enclosure are now kept in the
Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence and in the church of San
Francesco in Sarteano.
The baptistery has an octagonal plan, with a diameter of 25.60 m,
almost half that of the dome of the cathedral. The typology of
Baptistery with an octagonal shape of the plan is very widespread. The
central plan derives from ancient Greek and Roman architecture, but in
Christian architecture it assumed a symbolic meaning related to the
number eight of the sides. The reference would be "to the eighth day",
the first beyond the seven of creation. The "Octava dies" is an
eschatological concept: it is the time of eternity that will open at the
end of time and to which the resurrected destined for salvation will
have access. For Christians, in fact, the sacrament of Baptism is
necessary to be able to access this new life of beatitude at the end of
time. Once this saving meaning of the sacrament was made more explicit
by the fact that the Baptistery was located in a cemetery area
characterized by many burials. The great Christ the judge, depicted in
the west sail of the mosaics of the vault, has the uncovered sepulchres
beneath him from which the resurrected emerge.
The need for a
large building can be explained by the need to accommodate the crowd who
received baptism only on two pre-established dates a year. In ancient
times it was raised by a few steps, which disappeared with the gradual
raising of the floor level, which Leonardo da Vinci had thought of
recreating by studying a way to lift the building en bloc and recreate a
new platform.
The building is covered by a dome with eight
segments, masked from the outside by the attic and covered by an
octagonal pyramid. On the side opposite the entrance, the body of the
rectangular apse (scarsella) protrudes.
The external ornament, in
white Carrara and green Prato marble, is marked by three horizontal
bands, decorated with geometric squares, the middle one occupied by
three arches on each side, in which windows with tympanums are inserted
above. The green marble pillars of the lower register correspond to
polygonal columns in black and white stripes in the upper one,
supporting the round arches. The corner pillars, originally in pietra
serena, were later covered with marble as well. It is a score of
classical taste, already used in other Romanesque monuments such as the
facade of San Miniato al Monte, which bears witness to the persistence
in Florence of the architectural tradition of ancient Rome.
Although the baptistery is considered the matrix of the "Florentine
Romanesque", some features of its architecture are not found elsewhere.
The arrangement of columns and capitals - differentiated by type and
color of marble - is neither uniform nor random, but as in the
architecture of Late Antiquity it is aimed at indicating precise spatial
hierarchies. Inside, the main east-west axis is indicated by the
contrasting arch and the pair of columns with composite capitals on the
sides of the Porta del Paradiso (in all the other cases we have
Corinthian capitals, except one probable result of restoration); a
second southeast-northwest oblique axis of symmetry is instead indicated
by the flowers of the abacus of the Corinthian pillar capitals, which
are of three different types. Outside, the aedicule windows differ in
shape, type of capitals and columns, and color of the marbles used,
according to a very complex arrangement which distinguishes the oblique
sides from those facing the cardinal points and between these the east
side, with the main entrance, completely different from the others. The
symmetrical arrangement of different types of capitals is also found on
the three south-facing sides of the attic, probably executed first
because they face the city.
The three bronze doors, built according to a unitary figurative program over more than a century, show the history of humanity and of the Redemption, as in a gigantic illustrated Bible. The narrative order, disrupted by the change of position of the individual doors, goes from the Stories of the Old Testament in the east door, to those of the Baptist in the south door, up to those of the New Testament (Stories of Christ) in the north door. The three doors are now kept in the Sala del Paradiso of the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo and were replaced on site by copies.
The door has been restored and is now in the Museo dell'Opera del
Duomo. The two doors are divided into 28 panels, arranged in seven rows
of four, with scenes framed by a lobed lozenge frame (also known as
«Gothic compass»). The first 20 panels narrate episodes from the life of
Saint John the Baptist, starting with those on the left wing and then
continuing on the right wing, while the other 8 bear personifications of
the three theological virtues with the addition of Humility (24), in the
penultimate row on the two doors, and of the four cardinal virtues, in
the last row of panels below.
Made from 1330 to 1336, with this
work the sculptor updated the typology of Romanesque portals by
inserting mixtilinear frames (the so-called "quatrefoil"), typical of
Gothic art, in the twenty-eight square panels, enclosed in turn by other
square frames. The result is a continuous tension, between straight and
broken lines.
As for the actual images, the artist created single
figures or groups with a sober and refined style, reminiscent of
Giotto's taste, his master. Each composition represents a work in
itself, in which the characters stand out from a smooth background.
In particular, the figure of Hope fully responds to the iconography
established so far: she is seen in profile and her body is stretched out
towards the sky, as are her arms and her gaze; even if you can't see it,
you understand that an angel is placing her crown on her; she is also
winged, but unlike the momentum that pervaded Giotto's Virtue (present
in the Scrovegni chapel in Padua), she appears seated, although her
dress full of drapery suggests a slight shift towards the angel.
The frame was completed, based on a design by Lorenzo Ghiberti by his
son Vittorio Ghiberti, and by his workshop. It hides a very complex
theological message that can be linked to the scenes in life (right leaf
for those coming out) and in death (left leaf) of John the Baptist.
The door is crowned by a sculptural group, with the Baptist with the
executioner during the execution and Salomè, by Vincenzo Danti (1571),
restored in 2008 and since then kept in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo
and replaced by copies on the outside.
On the columns on the
sides of the south door two rectangles are carved in light bas-relief:
they are two measures of length in use in the early Middle Ages: the
Lombard foot ("Liutprand's foot") and the Florentine one. A little
further on, on the south side near the apse, a carved sarcophagus can be
seen embedded in the base, perhaps from the Roman era, with a scene of
ships and people, probably the representation of the grape harvest and
the loading of barrels on a ship.
Similarly to the door by Andrea Pisano, this too is divided into 28
panels, with scenes framed by the same lobed lozenge frame. The first 20
upper panels narrate stories from the New Testament, and follow one
another in the rows on both doors and starting from the lower row; the
last two rows show the four evangelists (penultimate row) and four
Doctors of the Church (back row). This door was originally located to
the east and was then moved to the north due to the beauty of the last
door executed, the door of Paradise.
On the north door is the
group with the Preaching of the Baptist, by Giovanni Francesco Rustici
(1506-1511), a work in which the artist demonstrated all his
appreciation for the soft and chiaroscuro effects derived from his
master Leonardo da Vinci: the sweet pointing to the top of the Baptist
has, for example, been related to the Saint John in the Louvre.
On the central window is the emblem of the Arte di Calimala, i.e. the
eagle holding a bale of merchandise (the "torsello") in its claws.
The door is divided into 10 large rectangular squares, arranged in
five rows, each of which, with frames decorated with roundels with heads
of prophets, occupies the entire width of a leaf. The panels present
scenes from the Old Testament, which follow one another on both doors
from left to right and from top to bottom.
The door was damaged
by the flood of 1966 and the reliefs are currently replaced by copies,
while the originals, restored, are located in the Museo dell'Opera del
Duomo.
The door is surmounted by the sculptural group of the
Baptism of Jesus by Andrea Sansovino (1502) with added angel by
Innocenzo Spinazzi (1792).
At the east gate (gate of Paradise)
there are two porphyry columns, currently broken, which were donated by
Pisa as thanks for the help that Florence had lent it against the
infidels in an expedition to the Balearic Islands in 1115.
On the baptistery there are some elements which, regardless of the religious and historical-artistic significance of the monument, tell of the episodes of minor Florentine history. Leaning against the Porta del Paradiso, in front of the cathedral, there are two porphyry columns, which were donated by Pisa to Florence as thanks for the help offered against the Lucchesi in 1117, when they had tried to conquer the port city while the bulk of the his army was busy taking the Balearic Islands from the Saracens. These columns, also called "Saracen", were chosen from the spoils of war taken from the Arabs and placed free in the square for a long time, but following a ruinous fall, which partially scratched them (and required the numerous reinforcement rings that are still see), were placed in their current position. A popular legend wanted that with their reflection the columns were able to unmask thieves, counterfeiters and traitors; but the Pisans, in order not to give too much advantage to the friendly but also rival city, smoked the surface of the columns, depriving them of their power. Hence the saying "blind Florentines and traitor Pisans" was born.
On the south side, however, there are two rectangles in light bas-relief on the columns on the sides of the south door. There are two measures of length used in the early Middle Ages: the Lombard foot ("liutprand's foot") and the so-called "Florentine" foot.
A little further on, on the south side near the apse, a carved Roman sarcophagus can be seen recessed at the base, with a scene of ships and people, probably the representation of the grape harvest and the loading of barrels onto a ship: it belong to a wine merchant who also exported it by sea.
The interior has an octagonal plan, with a diameter of 25.6 metres.
The internal decoration is inspired by Roman buildings, such as the
Pantheon, with extensive use of polychrome marble mirrors. It is
divided, as on the outside, into three horizontal bands, the highest
however covered by the dome, while the middle band is occupied by the
women's galleries. Below, the walls are vertically divided into three
zones by means of pilasters and monolithic columns in granite and bare
cipollino marble (like most of the marble cladding), with gilded
capitals that support the architrave. The walls, tripartite by columns
and connected at the corners by double fluted marble pillars, have a
marble cladding in two colors alternating in bands and other shapes,
white from Carrara and green from Prato. Above the mullioned windows
there are geometric inlays, datable to before 1113, judging by the
inscription on the sarcophagus of Bishop Ranieri.
The baptismal
font originally occupied the center of the floor, where there is an
octagon in cocciopesto. The floor features marble inlays of great value,
with an Orientalizing taste, with geometric, phytomorphic and zoomorphic
motifs often linked to fantasy animals, inspired by fabrics from the
southern and eastern Mediterranean. They were probably made by the same
craftsmen who also worked, until 1207, in San Miniato al Monte.
From 1048, on the initiative of Strozzo Strozzi, there was a sundial in
the baptistery: through a hole made in the dome, the sun's rays struck
the signs of the zodiac over the course of the year on a marble slab
placed near the north door, the zodiacal panel which today is in
correspondence with the east gate, following the reconstruction of the
thirteenth century. On the slab is the palindrome verse "en giro torte
sol ciclos et rotor igne".
Another feature of the baptistery that
has no parallels in Romanesque-Gothic architecture is the architectural
relationship between the facades, which - both inside and outside - are
not connected by structural nodes (the current external two-tone pillars
are a remake : originally they were in sandstone and separated the
adjoining facades encrusted with marble), but are instead intended as
independent two-dimensional units and only juxtaposed - inside even
separated by an angular void - so as to enhance the architecture of the
baptistery as a pure solid geometric.
Dante mentions the
baptistery in his Divine Comedy: in the XIX canto of the Inferno:
They do not seem to me [the holes] less large or greater / than
those that are in my beautiful San Giovanni, / made for the place of the
baptizers (verses 16-18). He also says that once, to save a boy who was
in danger of drowning, he was forced to overturn one of the pools where
children were baptized, breaking the rim. This fracture, according to
the Florentine chroniclers, was still visible when the baptismal fonts
were destroyed in 1576.
The high altar is in neo-Romanesque style and
was created by Giuseppe Castellucci in the early 20th century by
recovering original fragments and replacing the previous Baroque altar
by Girolamo Ticciati with a sculptural group depicting the Baptism of
Christ and angels (1732, now exhibited in the Museo dell' Opera del
Duomo). In front of the altar a grate allows a glimpse of the basement,
where the excavations of the Roman domus with geometric mosaic floors
are found, which came to light during the excavations of 1912-1915.
The oldest mosaics are those in the vault of the apse: they were made
starting from 1225 by the Franciscan friar Jacopo. In the centre, within
a wheel structure decorated with plant elements, the Agnus Dei is
depicted surrounded by the Madonna and by the Apostles and Prophets; on
both sides, St. John the Baptist enthroned (left) and the Madonna and
Child enthroned (right).
The mosaic covering of the dome was a
difficult and expensive undertaking; the works perhaps began around 1270
and ended at the beginning of the following century. It has eight
segments and is covered with a mosaic on a golden background. The
angelic Hierarchies are depicted on an upper band; on three of the
segments the Last Judgment is depicted, dominated by the great figure of
Christ the judge: under his feet the resurrection of the dead takes
place, on his right the righteous are welcomed into heaven by the
biblical patriarchs, while on his left is hell with his devils.
The other five segments are divided into four other horizontal
registers, where the following are depicted starting from the top:
Stories of Genesis, Stories of Joseph, Stories of Mary and Christ and
Stories of St. John the Baptist. According to some, Venetian workers
were employed, certainly assisted by important local artists who
supplied the cartoons, such as Coppo di Marcovaldo, author of the
Inferno, Meliore for some parts of Paradise, the Maestro della Maddalena
and Cimabue, to whom the first Histories are attributed of the Baptist.
The mosaics of the women's galleries were executed between 1300 and
1330 and depict Angels and Saints on the walls and vault. Above the
mullioned windows of the women's gallery, in the hall, within the
relative squares, there are mosaics with Saints (attributed to Lippo di
Corso, end of the 14th century) and Prophets and Patriarchs (Gaddo
Gaddi, end of the 13th century).
Inside there are two Roman sarcophagi: one called "of the flower
girl", from a subject of the bas-relief, where the bishop Giovanni da
Velletri was buried, and one with a wild boar hunting scene, with a
sixteenth-century lid with the Medici coat of arms added when reused as
a tomb for Guccio de' Medici, gonfalonier of Justice in 1299. Among
these sarcophagi is a statue of the Baptist by Giovanni Piamontini
(about 1688) donated by Cosimo III de' Medici. On the right wall of the
apse is the funeral monument of Bishop Ranieri, consisting of a
sarcophagus with an inscription of 1113 in Leonine hexameters.
To
the right of the apse is the funerary monument dedicated to Baldassarre
Cossa, the antipope John XXIII, who died in Florence in 1419, executed
by Donatello and Michelozzo between 1422 and 1428. The candle holder
angel to the right of the altar, placed on a column with lion base, is
by Agostino di Jacopo and dates back to 1320. The candelabrum for the
paschal candle is also attributed to the same author. On the sides of
the doors are three pairs of stoups on twisted columns. The baptismal
font, made mainly of a single block of marble, is attributed to a
follower of Andrea Pisano (1371) and shows six bas-reliefs with scenes
of baptism.
The penitent Magdalene, sculpted in wood by
Donatello, was also on display. Damaged in the 1966 flood, the work is
currently exhibited in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo. The fresco with
San Giovanni above the south door, a work of 1453 by Alesso
Baldovinetti, is lost. The silver altar and Parato di San Giovanni
(designed by Antonio del Pollaiolo) were also made for the baptistery,
all works in the Museo dell'Opera.
The chronicler Giovanni Villani in the fourteenth century, based on
"ancient recollections" handed down that the floor zodiac in the
baptistery of San Giovanni had been a sundial designed at the turn of
the tenth and eleventh centuries by the Florentine Strozzo Strozzi.
However, he is a legendary figure, as was already discovered by Follini
in the 19th century. According to Villani, on the day of the summer
solstice, near solar noon in Florence, a ray of sunlight penetrated
through a hole at the top of the dome of the architectural complex and
went on to illuminate the central portion of the marble zodiac on the
floor for a few minutes. .
The ancient solstice sundial would
have remained in operation for only a couple of centuries, given that
during the renovation works carried out during the thirteenth century,
the entrance hole for the solar ray was completely covered with the
construction of the lantern at the apex of the dome .
This is
unverifiable news, although in the almost coeval floor of the Basilica
of San Miniato al Monte, there is a "twin" zodiac that still functions
as a sundial, marking the summer solstice on June 21st.
Various authors, Silver altar of San Giovanni, now in the Museo
dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence
Donatello, Penitent Magdalene, now
in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence
Vat of Camaino
Charity, now in the Bardini Museum
Hope, today in the Museo
dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence
Faith, now in the Museo dell'Opera
del Duomo in Florence
Charity, now in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo
in Florence
Baptism of Christ, now in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo
in Florence
Head of the Baptist, now in the Museo dell'Opera del
Duomo in Florence
Girolamo Ticciati, Baptism of Christ and angels,
now in the Museo dell'Opera del Duomo in Florence