The basilica of Santa Maria Novella is one of the most important
churches in Florence and stands on the homonymous square. If Santa
Croce was and is a very ancient center of Franciscan culture and
Santo Spirito hosted the Augustinian order, Santa Maria Novella was
the point of reference for Florence for another important mendicant
order, the Dominicans.
«In the venerable church of Santa
Maria Novella, one Tuesday morning, as there were almost no other
people, […] seven young women met…»
(Giovanni Boccaccio,
Decameron, First day, introduction)
1219, twelve Dominicans arrived in Florence from Bologna, followed by
Friar Giovanni from Salerno. In 1221, they obtained the small church of
Santa Maria delle Vigne, so called for the agricultural land that
surrounded it (outside the walls at the time). This little church, owned
by the canons of the Cathedral, was consecrated in 1049 or, according to
other sources, in 1094, although this second hypothesis is more
probable, since a document mentioning this date is kept in the
Capitulary Archive of the Florentine cathedral. In any case, some
remains of the ancient church have been found under the current
sacristy, in particular the bases of some Romanesque pillars.
In
1242 the Florentine Dominican community decided to begin work on a new
and larger building, obtaining from the pope the concession of
indulgences for those who had contributed financially to the work as
early as 1246. On 18 October 1279, during the feast of San Luca , the
ceremony of Laying the Foundation Stone was celebrated in the Gondi
Chapel with the blessing of Cardinal Latino Malabranca Orsini, even
though the works had in fact already begun some time ago. The new church
had a facade oriented towards the south. The construction was completed
in the mid-14th century. The project, according to very controversial
documentary sources, is due to two Dominican friars, fra' Sisto da
Firenze and fra Ristoro da Campi, but fra' Jacopo Passavanti also
participated in the construction, while the bell tower and a good part
of the convent are due to the intervention immediately following by fra'
Jacopo Talenti and Benci di Cione Dami. The church, although already
completed in the mid-14th century with the construction of the adjacent
convent, was nonetheless officially consecrated only in 1420 by Pope
Martin V who resided in the city.
Commissioned by the Rucellai
family, Leon Battista Alberti designed the large central portal, the
entablature and the upper completion of the facade, in white and dark
green marble from Prato (serpentine), completed in 1470. After the
Council of Trent, between 1565 and In 1571 the church was remodeled by
Giorgio Vasari, with the removal of the enclosure of the choir and the
reconstruction of the side altars, which involved the shortening of the
Gothic windows. Between 1575 and 1577 the Gaddi chapel was built by
Giovanni Antonio Dosio. A further remodeling took place between 1858 and
1860 by the architect Enrico Romoli.
In October 1919, Pope
Benedict XV elevated it to the rank of minor basilica.
A major
restoration was carried out in 1999 in preparation for the 2000 jubilee,
while a subsequent restoration of the facade was carried out from April
2006 to March 2008.
Since March 2001, an entrance fee must be
paid for a visit.
Gothic pre-existences
The marble facade of Santa Maria Novella is
among the most important works of the Florentine Renaissance, despite
having been begun in previous periods and definitively completed only in
1920.
The first intervention took place around 1350, when the
lower register was covered with white and green marble thanks to funds
from a certain Turino del Baldese who had died two years earlier. In
that circumstance the six avelli or tomb arks were made, the two Gothic
side portals and, perhaps, also the marble ornamentation with squares
and blind round arches up to the first cornice, which resemble those of
the baptistery of San Giovanni.
The uppermost oculus has been
open since 1367.
The works were later interrupted and during the
Council of Florence, which was also held in the convent from 1439, the
need to complete the façade was reaffirmed. Only twenty years later the
rich merchant Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai offered the project, who
entrusted the project to his trusted architect, Leon Battista Alberti.
Alberti's intervention
Between 1458 and 1478 the remaining part
was covered with polychrome marble, harmonizing with the already
existing part. The lower part was left almost intact in its medieval
layout, adding only the classical portal, inspired by that of the
Pantheon, framed by the column-pillar motif, which recurs, albeit with a
different relationship, also at the ends on the sides. Beyond a
classical entablature there is a wide band decorated with square inlays,
inspired by the attics of ancient architecture, which separates and
connects the lower and upper areas.
The upper part was influenced
by the pre-existence of the large oculus, around which Alberti
installed, in an out-of-phase position, a large tripartite rectangle,
linked by geometric relationships of multiples and submultiples with the
rest of the elements of the facade. It is surmounted by a tympanum with
the face of the Child Jesus in the center inserted in the flaming solar
disk, emblem of the Santa Maria Novella district. The two upside-down
volutes on the sides, with very fine inlays, have the function of
connecting with the lower part and mask the difference in height between
the central nave and the side naves, considerably lower. This is the
first example of this architectural motif in the history of art, which
was subsequently widely used. The volute on the right was covered with
marble only in 1920.
On the upper architrave there is an
inscription that commemorates the benefactor and a symbolic year of
completion, 1470: IOHA(N) NES ORICELLARIUS PAV(LI) F(ILIUS) AN(NO)
SAL(VTIS) MCDLXX (Giovanni Rucellai, son of Paul, year 1470). The
elegant marble frieze of the entablature with the "sails with the
shrouds in the wind" is none other than the heraldic emblem of Giovanni
di Paolo Rucellai. The same symbol, which can be seen on the facade of
the palace and the Rucellai loggia, as well as on the small temple of
the Holy Sepulcher in San Pancrazio, also appears on the corner pillars.
Alberti's intervention was therefore grafted onto the previous
Gothic structures, but he was able to unify the new and old parts
through the use of marble inlay, derived from the Florentine Romanesque
style (Baptistery of San Giovanni, San Miniato al Monte, Badia
Fiesolana). This traditional heritage was reworked according to the
classical lesson and the principles of modular geometry, enhancing the
history of the building and the local context.
However, the
scheme is mitigated by some slight asymmetries, perhaps planned by
Alberti, perhaps due to the local workforce. In fact, the previously
pre-set scheme was not modulated on mathematical correspondences, so it
is probable that Alberti had to mask the lack of correspondence between
the vertical elements of the lower and upper part, precisely with the
addition of the attic fascia, whose inlays are not aligned with the
other items.
Some of the main modular reports:
The baseline of
the church is equal to the height of the facade, with which it forms a
square;
If the lower part is exactly half the area of this square,
the upper one, with respect to the square between the volutes, equals
one quarter;
Dividing this surface into four again, sixteenths of a
surface are obtained which precisely inscribe the lateral volutes;
The central portal is high one and a half times its width (ratio of
2/3);
The height of the central hinged band is equal to the width of
the lateral portals and of the avelli, and is seven times the height of
the lower order;
The sides of the squares inlaid on the central band
are one third of the height of the band itself and double the diameter
of the columns in the lower part.
The Sol Invictus represented on the
tympanum is the coat of arms of the Santa Maria Novella district, but
also a symbol of strength and reason; the triumph of light over
darkness, the diameter of the tondo of the Sun is exactly half the
diameter of the rose window (including the frame) and is equal to that
of the circles in the volutes.
The portals
The lunettes above
the doors were painted by Ulisse Ciocchi between 1616 and 1618. The
central one represents Saint Thomas Aquinas in prayer in front of the
crucifix (in the background the Rucellai coat of arms and the Corpus
Domini procession which began in Santa Maria Novella) . The side ones
portray two characters from the Old Testament traditionally linked to
the Eucharistic allegory: Aaron with the manna, on the right, and
Melchisedech with the loaves, on the left.
Scientific instruments
On the façade there are also some scientific instruments added in
1572-1574: on the left a bronze equinoctial armilla, on the right an
astronomical dial in marble with a gnomon, works by the Dominican friar
Ignazio Danti from Perugia (1555-1586), astronomer and cartographer of
the grand duke . Thanks to these instruments, the astronomer friar was
able to calculate exactly the discrepancy between the true solar year
and the Julian calendar, then still in use since its promulgation in 46
BC. By demonstrating his studies with a commission of other scholars in
Rome to Pope Gregory XIII, the realignment of the days and the
promulgation of the new Gregorian calendar were obtained, jumping in one
night of 1582 from 4 October to 15 October.
The church was the first basilica where elements of Gothic
architecture were used in Florence, in particular the typical
characteristics of Cistercian Gothic architecture. The interpretation of
the new style was very original and served as an example for a large
number of subsequent religious buildings. It is 99.20 meters long, 28.20
wide, while the transept measures a maximum of 61.54 m. It has a
commissa cross plan (i.e. T), divided into three naves with six large
bays that get smaller towards the altar (11.50 m towards the altar
against 15 towards the facade), giving the sensation of a longer greater
than the real one. The roof is entrusted to cross vaults with ribs with
pointed arches, decorated with two-tone white-green wall paintings,
supported by polystyle pillars, i.e. with mixed sections. The breadth of
the central nave and its height at the limit of the static possibilities
for a building of this kind mean that the lateral naves seem
harmoniously merged into a single very large hall.
A large
iconostasis formerly separated the presbytery, the area reserved for
religious, from the longitudinal aisles where the faithful took their
seats, but it was demolished between 1565 and 1571, when Vasari worked
there on commission from Cosimo I. In the same period, the single lancet
windows along the nave, so as to leave space for new side altars below.
In ancient times, the floor housed numerous tombstones, which were
selected in the restoration of 1857-1861 and partly placed between the
side pillars. Also in the 19th century, the high altar was rebuilt, in
neo-Gothic style, and the windows and side altars were reassembled,
giving the church its current appearance.
At the end of the main
nave, at a height of 4.5 meters, Giotto's Crucifix (datable to around
1290) was relocated in 2001, after twelve years of restoration, in the
position where it probably should have been until 1421 connected to the
division iconostatics. Slightly inclined forward, it is supported by a
suspended metal structure, anchored to a winch which allows it to be
lowered to the ground.
The stained glass windows were made between the 14th and 15th
centuries and among them the Madonna and Child or St. John and St.
Philip stand out, both designed by Filippino Lippi, placed in the
Strozzi Chapel. The rose window that opens onto the facade, which
depicts the Coronation of the Virgin with hosts of dancing angels and a
frame of Prophets, was painted on cardboard attributed to Andrea di
Bonaiuto, between 1365 and 1367. The scene also depicts the client,
Tebaldino de' Ricci.
The counter facade
On the counter-facade,
the lunette of the central portal is interesting, with a Nativity, a
detached fresco from the circle of Sandro Botticelli. In that of the
left portal there is an Annunciation on canvas, the last work by Santi
di Tito. Finally, in the one on the right there is a fourteenth-century
fresco by an unknown author, with an Annunciation surmounting the
Nativity, Adoration of the Magi and Baptism of Christ.
Altars in
the left aisle
The works of art are numerous and of very high
profile, among which the Trinità by Masaccio stands out, an experimental
work on the use of perspective, about which Vasari said: "It seems that
that wall is pierced". It represents one of the most important
masterpieces of Renaissance art, the implementation of the new stylistic
canons in painting, on a par with the architectural goals of
Brunelleschi and the sculptural achievements of Donatello. The sacred
scene is set in monumental classical architecture, designed with a
realistic vanishing point to be viewed from below, while the figure of
God holds up the Cross of Christ, with a majestic, eloquent and solemn
attitude. A recent restoration has highlighted the possible
collaboration of Filippo Brunelleschi in the design of the background
perspective. Even the figures of the patrons, the Lenzi spouses,
kneeling on the sides of the scene, represent a very important novelty,
painted for the first time in natural size, not small outline figurines,
and with a very remarkable realism beyond which their sense also shines
through of religiosity and devotion. The inscription on the sarcophagus
is a memento mori.
The first altar is decorated by the altarpiece
with the Resurrection of Lazarus by Santi di Tito, while on the right
there is the monument to the jurisconsult Antonio Strozzi, from 1524,
characterized by a black marble sarcophagus with sculptural decorations
designed by Andrea Ferrucci but executed by pupils Silvio Cosini (for
the Madonna and Child) and Maso Boscoli (author of the angels).
The second altar presents the Samaritan woman at the well by Alessandro
Allori (1575), next to the Annunciation on wood from the circle of Bicci
di Lorenzo, while the third altar was removed to shed light on the
Masaccio Trinity. A little further to the left is the Saint Lucia and
donor of David Ghirlandaio, formerly located in the Rucellai Chapel.
Nearby is the pulpit, on the penultimate pillar, commissioned by the
Rucellai family in 1443 and designed by Filippo Brunelleschi. The
creation of the 4 bas-relief panels was the responsibility of his
adopted son and pupil Andrea Cavalcanti known as il Buggiano
(1443-1448). There are carved the Stories of Mary in bas-relief,
highlighted with gold in the eighteenth century.
On the fourth
altar is the Resurrection and four saints by Giorgio Vasari and a little
further on is the organ dating back to the 19th century, at the sides of
which are the funeral memoirs for the architects Giuseppe del Rosso il
Vecchio (died 1731) and by Zanobi del Rosso (died 1731).
The
fifth altar has a sixteenth-century wooden altarpiece with small panels
of Saints and Stories of Saint Catherine of Siena, by Bernardino
Poccetti, and a modern statue of the saint, while the sixth altar is
decorated by San Giacinto and other saints by Alessandro Allori (1596).
. At the corner with the transept is a stoup from the school of
Benvenuto Cellini.
Near the first pillar near the counter-façade is the marble stoup, on
a red mix column, a French work of 1412. On the altar that corresponds
to the first bay is the canvas with the Martyrdom of San Lorenzo, the
work of Girolamo Macchietti of 1573.
On the second is placed a
Nativity by Giovan Battista Naldini, from 1577, while nearby is the tomb
of Beata Villana (died in 1381), an important work of Renaissance
sculpture (1451): the face of the blessed was sculpted by Bernardo
Rossellino, the angel on the left by Antonio Rossellino and the one on
the right by Desiderio da Settignano.
The third altar presents
the canvas of the Presentation in the temple, also by Naldini (1577),
and nearby is the tomb of Blessed Giovanni da Salerno, a
fifteenth-century work, however the effigy was lost during the
rearrangement of the church in 1570, so one new sculpture was sculpted
by Vincenzo Danti following a fifteenth-century style.
In the
fourth span, another altarpiece by Naldini, the Deposition, stands out
on the altar. On the sides are the monument to Ruggero Minerbetti, by
Silvio Cosini (about 1528-1530) on the left and the one to Tommaso and
Francesco Minerbetti de Medici (archbishop of Sassari) on the right,
renovated in the second half of the sixteenth century.
The fifth
altar was used by the Pellegrino and the Temple companies and is
decorated with the Preaching of San Vincenzo Ferrer and the Redeemer by
Jacopo Coppi known as il del Meglio.
Between the fifth and sixth
altars is the door that leads to the Cappella della Pura (today
accessible from the enclosure of the avelli, see below), above which is
the Crucifix from the aforementioned chapel, which we know to have been
the object of devotion of the Beata Villana, fruit of the union, which
took place within the first quarter of the fourteenth century, of a
thirteenth-century cross and a wooden statue of Christ on the cross of
expressionistic Rhenish iconography.
The sixth and last altar,
which follows, is decorated with San Raimondo resurrecting a child, by
Jacopo Ligozzi (1620-1623), while near the corner is the funeral
monument of Giovan Battista Ricasoli (died 1572), in marble , attributed
to Romolo del Tadda.
The transept is crossed by a short stairway which leads to the altars
and to the rear chapels and which replaces the partition of the
presbytery from Vasari's restructuring of 1565-1571. It is composed of
three bays with a square base, a large central chapel, almost as large
as the entire central bay, and two pairs of rear chapels of half the
width. There are also two raised chapels at the ends, which also give
access to the sacristy (on the left) and the Cappella Della Pura (on the
right). In the keystones of the cross vaults there are symbolic figures
in stone, carved and gilded in the fourteenth century.
On the
right side there are three wall burials of considerable interest:
The tomb of Tedice Aliotti, bishop of Fiesole who died in 1336,
attributed to Maso di Banco (top).
The tomb of fra' Aldobrandino
Cavalcanti, bishop of Orvieto who died in Florence in 1279 (on the
left).
The tomb of Joseph, patriarch of Constantinople who died in
Florence during the council in 1440, with a wall painting by an
anonymous Florentine artist depicting the deceased between two angels
(below).
Near the steps leading to the Rucellai Chapel is the
tombstone of Corrado della Penna, bishop of Fiesole who died in 1312,
the work of the circle of Arnolfo di Cambio.
Major Chapel
The Cappella Maggiore or Cappella Tornabuoni is
located in the center of the church behind the main altar. The central
Crucifix is a work by Giambologna. The choir preserves a very important
cycle of frescoes by Domenico Ghirlandaio, on which a very young
Michelangelo Buonarroti probably also worked, then in his workshop.
Episodes from the Life of the Virgin and Saint John are represented, set
in contemporary Florence and with numerous portraits of the patrons and
Florentine personalities of the time, a typical feature of Ghirlandaio.
The back wall depicts the scenes of St. Dominic burning the heretical
books, the martyrdom of St. Peter, the Annunciation and St. John in the
desert. The Evangelists are represented on the segments of the vault.
The polychrome stained glass windows were made in 1492 by Alessandro
Agolanti based on a design by Ghirlandaio.
The Filippo Strozzi Chapel is located to the right of the central
chapel and preserves an extraordinary cycle of frescoes by Filippino
Lippi, with stories from the lives of St. Philip the Apostle and St.
John the Evangelist (finished before 1502). On the right side St. Philip
chases the dragon from the temple of Hierapolis and on the lunette The
crucifixion of St. Philip; on the left St. John resurrects Drusiana and
above the martyrdom of St. John; in the lunettes of the vault Adam,
Noah, Abraham and Jacob. Particularly important are the central scenes
of the frescoes, set in some imaginative classical architectures, in
which scenes a clash between Christian culture and paganism is fought, a
topic of burning relevance at the time as it was the period of
government of Savonarola. Behind the altar is the tomb of Filippo
Strozzi, sculpted by Benedetto da Maiano (1491-1495).
The Bardi
Chapel, dedicated to Saint Gregory, is the second on the right and
belonged to the Compagnia della Laudi of Santa Maria Novella. In 1335
the patronage passed to the Bardi di Vernio family. The relief on the
right pillar with San Gregorio blessing Riccardo Bardi and the frescoes
with Stories of San Gregorio Papa, recently attributed to the anonymous
Bolognese painter Pseudo Dalmasio, belong to this period. A second layer
of frescoes emerges from the numerous gaps that interrupt the pictorial
surface: it is an older decoration that was created together with the
lunettes already attributed to Duccio di Buoninsegna. The Madonna of the
Rosary on the altar is the work of Giorgio Vasari (1568).
The
Rucellai Chapel is located in a raised position at the end of the right
arm of the transept and dates back to the fourteenth century. There is a
marble statue of the Madonna with child by Nino Pisano, from the
mid-14th century. The frescoes are badly damaged and only fragments
remain attributed to the Maestro della Santa Cecilia (restored in 1989).
The panel on the left wall (Martyrdom of Saint Catherine of Alexandria)
was painted by Giuliano Bugiardini between 1530 and 1540, with the
partial use of drawings by Michelangelo. Once the Rucellai Madonna was
located there, now in the Uffizi, which in fact takes its name from this
chapel, even if this was not its original location. In front of the
chapel the sarcophagus of Paolo Rucellai and the sepulchral slab of Fra'
Leonardo Dati by Lorenzo Ghiberti (1425)
To the left of the main chapel is the Gondi Chapel, designed by
Giuliano da Sangallo (1503), where the Crucifix by Filippo Brunelleschi
is kept, the only known wooden sculpture by the great Florentine
architect. According to a story reported by Vasari, Brunelleschi would
have sculpted it in response to Donatello's Crucifix preserved in Santa
Croce and defined by him as primitive. The vaults contain a series of
frescoes among the oldest in the church, from the fourteenth century,
attributed to Greek-Byzantine masters. The stained glass window is
recent and dates back to the last century.
This is followed by
the Gaddi Chapel, by Giovanni Antonio Dosio (1575-1577), admired by
contemporaries as the first Florentine chapel encrusted with marble and
semi-precious stones. There are paintings and frescoes by Bronzino and
his pupil Alessandro Allori, as well as bas-reliefs by Giovanni Bandini.
At the end of the left arm of the transept, in a raised position
symmetrically to the Rucellai Chapel, is the Strozzi Chapel of Mantua,
to distinguish it from that of Filippo Strozzi. This too is covered with
valuable frescoes, which date back to 1350-57, among the best works by
Nardo di Cione (brother of Andrea Orcagna), and represent the kingdoms
of heaven structured according to Dante's Divine Comedy: on the back
wall the Judgment Universal, where there is also a portrait of Dante,
Hell on the right and Paradise on the left. On the main altar the
Redeemer with Madonna and saints by Orcagna. Nardo di Cione also
prepared the cartoon for the stained glass window of the chapel.
On the external wall of the chapel there is a frescoed clock, where you
can also read a couplet by Agnolo Poliziano. Not far away on the right
is the bell tower chapel, with remains of fourteenth-century fresco
decorations, a Coronation of Mary on the outside and a Saint Christopher
on the inside. On the left wall of the transept, above the two doors, an
elegant room designed by Fabrizio Boschi in 1616 houses a Cavalcanti
tomb.
Major organ
In the first half of the fourteenth century, two small
positive organs were built by fra' Simone de' Saltarelli to accompany
the singing of the religious during the functions. The first large pipe
organ was built in 1457 by Fra Giovanni Tedesco over a special choir
loft located in the penultimate bay of the left aisle. The instrument
was replaced in 1532 with a new organ and a new choir loft in place of
the previous ones. The instrument, whose body was entrusted to Baccio
d'Agnolo, while the phonic part was entrusted to Fra' Bernardo
d'Argenta, reused some pipes of the previous organ and was of the order
of 12'. The organ, which remained almost unchanged for more than two
centuries, was considerably enlarged and modified in 1821 by Giosuè
Agati and rebuilt by Michelangelo Paoli for Christmas 1839. In
anticipation of the reconstruction works of the church conducted by
Gaetano Baccani, the organ it was dismantled in 1855 and was not
reinstalled until 1868. Its chest, however, was sold to Napoleon III of
France, who donated it to the church of Saints Peter and Paul of
Rueil-Malmaison, while the original choir loft, acquired by Albert of
Saxe-Coburg-Gotha, is currently exhibited at the Victoria and Albert
Museum in London. Today's instrument is the result of a makeover carried
out in 1920 by Daniele Paoli and is housed within a neo-Gothic
architectural complex. It has pneumatic transmission and has two
keyboards of 61 notes each and a pedal of 30, and is not functional.
Organ of the Pura chapel
In the Pura chapel there is a positive
processional organ built in 1772 by Luigi Tronci. With mechanical
transmission, it has a single keyboard of 45 notes with a rough first
octave and a rough pedal of 9 constantly joined to the manual and
without its own registers.
The sacristy
The Sacristy opens
into the left wall of the left transept and was initially built around
1380 as the Chapel of the Annunciation in honor of Mainardo Cavalcanti.
It was largely restructured from the sixteenth to the eighteenth
century. The Gothic structure with the cross vaults dates back to the
oldest layout (although their decoration largely dates back to
nineteenth-century renovations) and the stained glass windows in the
trifora made by Leonardo di Simone based on a design by Niccolò di
Pietro Gerini (1386-1390) .
The marble and glazed terracotta sink
placed on the counter-façade on the left is a work by Giovanni della
Robbia from 1498-1499, while the one placed symmetrically on the right,
in polychrome marble, is the work of the artist of the Foggini school,
Gioacchino Fortini. The wardrobes with doors on the back wall were
designed by Bernardo Buontalenti and made by Maestro Lessandro di Luca
Bracci da Pelago in 1582-1584, with the seventeenth-century canvases of
Gabriele, the Annunziata and the Saints Dominic and Thomas Aquinas. On
the counter-facade, above the entrance, we find a wooden Crucifix by
Maso di Bartolomeo (1425-1450).
The avelli are niches in the shape of an arcosolium used as
sepulchral arks, which are found both in the lower part of the facade
and, subsequently, in the enclosure of the small cemetery on the right,
along the street that takes its name from them, via degli Avelli.
In one of these tombs Giovanni Boccaccio set a short story of the
Decameron (VIII 9). In the third tomb along the right wall of the
church, starting from the facade, the famous painter Domenico
Ghirlandaio was buried, and under the arch a portrait of him was once
painted from life. The other rooms of the arches also often housed
paintings, often of figures of saints, but these decorations have almost
all been lost. At the base of the tombs we can distinguish the coats of
arms of some of the most important families in the city with the cross
of the "people" of Florence in the centre, carved in shields of equal
size in pairs for each tomb, with a small replica in the keystone of the
arch acute sixth. Among the families represented here we recognize the
Medici, the Alberti, the Corsini, the Acciaiuoli, the Gondi, the
Panciatichi, etc.
The avelli were real burial places, for which,
since they weren't buried, sometimes smells were released from the
cracks of the tombs, for which the via degli Avelli was badly known:
there is the Tuscan saying that says "stink like a tomb" . The road was
originally very narrow and only with the rehabilitation works in 1867
did it take on its current layout, then paved and pedestrianized in the
nineties of the twentieth century.
The small cemetery, with
cypresses that were only planted in the 19th century, opens to the right
of the basilica, in land used as a burial place until the end of the
19th century (entrance is free). In the internal enclosure we find the
motif of tombs with carved coats of arms, even if here the slabs used
are in pietraforte and in less good condition than in the external arks.
The Chapel of Pura
The Cappella Della Pura can now be accessed
from this small enclosure, and is used as a place solely intended for
worship when the basilica is open for tourist visits. The chapel dates
back to 1474, when it was rebuilt by the Ricasolis to house an image
considered miraculous, the Madonna with Child and Saint Catherine, a
fourteenth-century work once frescoed in the Della Luna tomb. Since then
it has been located in the chapel within an elegant marble temple.
However, the current appearance of the chapel today is neoclassical,
after the nineteenth-century renovation by Gaetano Baccani, who
partially maintained the original columns of the Renaissance period,
adding others symmetrically and some stucco pilasters, which created two
tribunes inside at the two ends.
On the altar, the wooden
crucifix is the same venerated by Blessed Villana, and is made up of a
Lebanese cedar cross, with quatrefoils painted with scenes from the Life
of Christ: this older part was restored in 1980 and proved to be a
precious artefact 13th century English. The sculpted wooden Christ, on
the other hand, is later and according to some sources it was the work
of a Florentine influenced by Rhenish art around 1320-1340.
The bell tower can be seen clearly from Piazza della Stazione. It was built between 1332 and 1333 by Jacopo Talenti, however using the older foundations, from the mid-13th century. The style is typically Romanesque, with three-light windows and hanging arches, even if the very steep cuspidate roof is a Gothic element. It reaches a height of over 68 meters. Inside it houses 5 bells cast in 1764 by the Florentine founder Alessandro Tognozzi Moreni (with the exception of the small one which is the work of the Pistoia founder Rafanelli).
Attached to the church are the buildings of the convent, with three monumental cloisters. Chiostro Verde, Cappellone degli Spagnoli and refectory are now part of the Museum of Santa Maria Novella. In the internal chapel of the convent, there is an interesting panel of Dominican Effigies, the work of an anonymous master from the first half of the 14th century.
The Green Cloister (part of the Museum) built after 1350 by Fra' Jacopo Talenti with frescoes by Paolo Uccello "on green ground", hence the name of the cloister, in the first half of the 15th century: on three walls frescoes with "Stories della Genesi" by Paolo Uccello and his circle (eastern side, of particular artistic value the scenes of the Universal Flood and Noah's Drunkenness, with an unnatural use of perspective and colour) and other artists (Stories of Abraham on the southern side and Stories of Jacob on the western side, from 1440-1450); restored in 1859, it was damaged and partially restored after the 1966 flood.
On the northern side of the Green Cloister opens the Chapter House or chapel of the Spaniards, again by Fra' Talenti (1343-1345), entirely frescoed by Andrea Bonaiuti around 1367-1369; the cycle, in excellent condition thanks to a widespread restoration work, depicts the role of the Dominicans in the fight against heresy in various scenes. In particular there are some scenes, iconographically similar to paintings with a hunting theme, with hunting dogs representing the brothers of the order also called domini canes. In 1566 the Grand Duke Cosimo I assigned the room to the religious functions of the Spaniards, hence the name of him, following his wife Eleonora di Toledo.
From the Green Cloister one enters a passage, which is called the
four doors, because it has a door on each side: in addition to the door
towards the Green Cloister, it has one for the Great Cloister, one for
the upper floors at the bottom of a stairway and one for the
anti-refectory.
The room in the ante-refectory has an almost
square plan and features fourteenth-century architecture. Various works
of art are preserved here: a synopsis of Paolo Uccello's frescoes, 35
figures of Prophets from the Orcagna workshop, once inserted along the
pillars of the Tornabuoni Chapel, the polyptych by Bernardo Daddi,
formerly in the Spanish Chapel, and various precious objects contained
in showcases, such as reliquary busts of the Sienese schools of the
fourteenth century (including that of Sant'Orsola and one of her virgin
companions) and the Paliotto of the Assumption, a precious embroidered
brocade velvet fabric on a canvas background gold, with fourteen Stories
of the Virgin, perhaps based on a design by Paolo Schiavo (1446-1466).
The following room is the actual refectory, built with four bays of
ribbed cross vaults by Jacopo Talenti around 1353. Curious is the
presence of the fresco of the Enthroned Madonna and Dominican Saints by
a pupil of Agnolo Gaddi surrounded by a glittering array of characters
in unmistakable Mannerist style (Miracles of Exodus), by Alessandro
Allori of 1597. In reality Allori had painted the fresco as a frame for
one of his tables with the Last Supper (1584), displayed on the wall
nearby, which had covered the fourteenth-century fresco while preserving
it. Other works conserved here are the two canvases with the Miracles of
San Domenico by Ranieri Del Pace from 1716 and, in the showcases, sacred
vestments, liturgical clothes, sacred jewelery and reliquaries, among
which the busts of Saints Anastasia and Magdalene, from the workshop by
Matteo Civitali from Lucca. Important is the vestment of San Domenico
(1859-1860), exhibited here in a small part, an enormous quantity of
white embroidered fabric used to cover the internal walls of the church
for the feast of the saint, on August 8th.
The Cloister of the Dead, a former cemetery already built around 1270
by the Dominicans, probably reusing a previous cloister of the canons
that we know existed in 1179, was remodeled to its current size in
1337-1350. Closed to the public for many years, it has been open to
visitors since 2012. It has arches on two sides with cross vaults
lowered on octagonal pillars (typically from the fourteenth century)
with a gallery above, supported by very projecting corbels, which leads
from the ancient dormitory to the sacristy of the church . A part of the
premises of the former dormitory of the friars now houses the Dominican
Library of Santa Maria Novella Jacopo Passavanti, regularly open to
scholars, rich in over 40,000 volumes (including incunabula, sixteenth
century, ancient and modern editions, journals) and current headquarters
of the journal scientific Memorie Domenicane founded by the Dominican
fathers in 1884 with the name Il Rosario. Four windows of the library
rooms overlook the cloister.
Here is the Strozzi funerary chapel
with two frescoed walls with the Nativity and the Crucifixion, frescoes
attributed to Andrea Orcagna or his school; a third wall featured the
Annunciation, but was demolished at the end of the 19th century. These
frescoes, like almost all those in the church and convent, were detached
and restored in the 1950s and a second time in the 1960s, following the
damage caused by the flood in Florence (1966).
The large cloister, the largest in the city, remodeled in the years 1562-1592 by the architect Giulio Parigi commissioned by Eleonora da Toledo, was frescoed by Florentine artists of the 16th and 17th centuries (Poccetti, Santi di Tito, Cigoli, Alessandro Allori, etc.) with Stories of Christ and Dominican saints; since 1920 it had been part of the Scuola Marescialli e Brigadieri dei Carabinieri, so being a military area it was not open to the public. Since 2012 it has been made accessible to the public and has become part of the museum complex of Santa Maria Novella. The ancient library, the former papal apartments, of which only the chapel of the Popes remains, and the majestic former dormitory, with three long naves supported by monolithic pillars.
On the first floor of the large cloister there were the apartments
used by the popes visiting Florence. For example, Eugene IV lived there
during the Council of Florence, or Leo X. It was precisely on the
latter's impulse that the only surviving room of the papal complex was
built, the Chapel of the Popes, frescoed by Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio
(Assumption of the Virgin) and by the young Pontormo (1515), who created
an eloquent figure of Veronica lifting the drape with the face of
Christ, with a composition and use of color that are already typically
Mannerist. Furthermore, the ceiling is painted with very original
grotesque motifs on a dark background, with nine paintings where angels,
other figures and Medici coats of arms are portrayed.
Other
environments
From the south side of the cloister one entered the
ancient perfumery and pharmaceutical workshop known as the Pharmacy of
Santa Maria Novella, which still exists today but which can now be
accessed from via della Scala. It is the oldest pharmacy in Europe, open
continuously since the seventeenth century.
The same cloister
also leads to the Palestra Ginnastica Fiorentina Libertas, an
association founded in 1877, which from 1880 found space for its
gymnasts in the former refectory of the convent. Its first headquarters
had been the former complex of San Firenze, later transformed into the
Regia Corte di Assise.