Piazza Santo Spirito 30 (South of the historical centre)
☎ +39
055 210030, fax: +39 055 210030
abaldoni@agostiniani.it
Weekdays 9:30-12:30; 16:00-17:30; public holidays: 11:30-12:30;
16:00-17:30 closed on Wednesdays
The church of Santo Spirito is one of the main basilicas of the city
of Florence. It is located in the Oltrarno district, the southern part
of the historic centre, and with its simple façade it dominates the
homonymous square. It was built on the remains of the thirteenth-century
Augustinian convent destroyed by fire in 1371.
It has the dignity
of a minor basilica.
The foundation of the order of Augustinian hermits in Tuscany dates
back to an initiative of Innocent IV: it was a mendicant order but an
urban apostolate. In 1250 two lords, Spinello Accolti and Omodeo di
Guido, donated to the Augustinian friar Aldobrandino, residing in
Arcetri, a house and two vineyards in the Oltrarno area for the
construction of a church, which was originally dedicated, in 1252, to
the Virgin Mary, to the Holy Spirit and to all the saints. In documents
such as the "Caselline", alluding to an area still in the countryside
with modest farmhouses scattered around.
In 1269 a community of
Augustinian friars settled permanently in Florence and began building a
church on the site of the original oratory, dedicating it to the "Santo
Spirito". At that time the part of the city beyond the river, already
included in the city walls from 1173-1175, was made up of a couple of
"borghi", i.e. agglomerations of houses along the streets coming out of
the city bridges, and fields, with the two the most important monastic
complexes located in Santa Felicita and San Jacopo sopr'Arno to which
were added four other minor churches.
In the second half of the
thirteenth century Florence underwent a very strong immigration, which
affected all the areas inside and outside the walls, including the
Oltrarno, towards which the new Santa Trinita bridge was built. When the
circle of walls, that of Arnolfo di Cambio, was enlarged in the area,
the convent complex had already expanded since 1292, integrating
incisively with the urban planning, social, political and intellectual
life of the neighborhood and of the city in general.
The
Augustinians, like the other mendicant orders present in the city
(Franciscans in Santa Croce, Dominicans in Santa Maria Novella,
Carmelites in Carmine), made their headquarters an important artistic,
theological and cultural centre. Already in 1287 the Florentine convent
had hosted an important general chapter of the Augustinians and in 1284
it had been named "General Study of the Order", becoming a higher
institute of theological and philosophical studies. In 1292, the
primitive Piazza Santo Spirito was soon created to welcome the crowds
who attended their sermons.
The flagship was the rich library,
which in an inventory of 1450 came to count 577 manuscripts. The convent
was frequented by intellectuals and artists. Francesco Petrarca
established an intense relationship with Friar Dionigi of Borgo San
Sepolcro, who allowed him to study the rare texts present in the convent
and introduced the poet to Robert of Anjou: thanks to these
acquaintances Petrarch approached the figure of Saint Augustine , who he
chose as his ideal interlocutor in the Secretum (1342-1434), inspired by
the Confessions. Giovanni Boccaccio also frequented the convent forming
a close friendship with Fra' Martino da Signa: it was precisely to the
Augustinians of Santo Spirito that he bequeathed his rich personal
library. Towards the end of the fourteenth century the friar Luigi
Marsili was a friend and correspondent, as well as of Petrarch, of
Coluccio Salutati and others: the friar's cell became an important
meeting place for many first generation humanists. Even in the first
decades of the fifteenth century Santo Spirito remained the privileged
meeting place for Florentine intellectual circles, with visitors such as
Leonardo Bruni, Poggio Bracciolini, Niccolò Niccoli, Roberto de' Rossi,
Giannozzo Manetti, who formed one of the first literary academies of the
XV century.
Since 1397 the Municipality had allocated an annual sum for the
construction of a new basilica, to be completed within five years.
However, it was only from 1428, following the pressing invitations of
Francesco Mellini, that a superintendent was set up for the new works,
Stoldo Frescobaldi, belonging to one of the most important families in
the Oltrarno area.
Around 1434 the construction of a new basilica
was entrusted to Filippo Brunelleschi, who had already worked, in the
Oltrarno, at San Jacopo and Santa Felicita. After a long planning the
building was begun in 1444 and was the last great work of the master.
After his death in 1446, the yard passed in 1452 into the hands of three
followers of the master, Antonio Manetti, Giovanni da Gaiole and Salvi
d'Andrea. The successors broadly followed the master's project, but did
not fully understand its originality, making numerous modifications,
even substantial ones, which diluted the more radical elements according
to more compromise solutions, in line with the taste of the time.
In 1471 a serious fire destroyed the codes and many works of art of
the medieval church. Salvi d'Andrea built the dome from 1479 to 1481 and
the internal façade from 1483 to 1487. Consecrated in 1481, the basilica
could be considered completed in 1487. The sacristy by Giuliano da
Sangallo dates back to 1489.
After 1492 it was a shelter for the
exiled Michelangelo, who was able to study the anatomy of corpses here.
As a thank you he left the Crucifix today in the sacristy. The bell
tower, 70 meters high, is the work of Baccio d'Agnolo, begun in 1503 and
finished only in 1570.
In the 16th century, the court architect
Bartolomeo Ammannati drew up an ambitious renovation project for the
Augustinian complex, but only the second cloister was implemented, with
the collaboration of Alfonso Parigi the Elder.
Six and eighteenth
centuries
Over the centuries, the basilica has undergone numerous
other interventions, such as the showy Baroque canopy created by
Giovanni Caccini in collaboration with Gherardo Silvani (1599-1608),
placed above the high altar, which has altered the harmonic proportions
of Brunelleschi, above all regarding the perspective view of the entire
central nave. The sumptuous little temple, which was to contain the
Blessed Sacrament, imaginatively combines architecture, sculpture and
the art of the mosaic (the Florentine mosaic) in semi-precious stones.
Around 1620 Giulio and Alfonso Parigi the younger carried on Ammannati's
project by building the Chiostro dei Morti. The external façade of the
church remained bare, with exposed stones, until the eighteenth century,
when it was plastered over. During the French occupation, Vivant Denon
identified several works to be sent to France, also to the Musee
Napoleon in Paris, object of Napoleonic looting and they did not return
with the Congress of Vienna, having never been requested in return by
the Lorraines. Thus various works of art took the road to France.
According to the catalog published in the Bulletin de la Société de
l'art français of 1936, the following were requisitioned from the
basilica:
Altarpiece Barbadori, painted by Fra Filippo Lippi, now
in the Musée du Louvre, from the sacristy, brought to Paris to the Musée
Napoléon, or the Louvre, in 1814
Jesus Appearing to the Magdalene,
painted by Angelo Bronzino, now in the Musée du Louvre, from the
sacristy, brought to Paris to the Musée Napoléon in 1814
Calvary of
Christ painted by Benedetto Ghirlandaio, seized in 1813 and taken to the
Musee Napoleon in 1814, now in the Louvre
First of all, Brunelleschi wanted to orient the church with the north
facade, towards the Arno, to allow a spectacular view from the river
through the creation of a new square. The idea was immediately shelved,
however, due to the presence of important noble houses between the
church and the river, which still exist today.
Maintaining the
old orientation Brunelleschi had carte blanche, at least in the planning
phase, to set up an extremely rational building, where, as can be
clearly seen in the plan, the shape of a Latin cross is bordered along
the entire perimeter by a regular loggia which in San Lorenzo had
concerned only the central nave and which was the transposition into a
religious building of the famous external loggia of the Spedale degli
Innocenti. Here too the architectural elements are clearly marked by the
walls through the contrast between the gray sandstone and the whiteness
of the plaster.
The three naves (with the central nave twice as
wide as the lateral ones) are separated by stone columns with Corinthian
capitals and pulvinos which support round arches and ribbed vaults. They
ideally also extend into the arms of the transept and the chevet,
creating a continuous walkway along the entire perimeter (with the
exception of the counter-façade) which had the Pisa and Siena cathedrals
as precedents. But in Santo Spirito the detachment from the Gothic
tradition deepens and becomes definitive. The span module of eleven
Florentine arms comes to define every part of the church. Each span
corresponds to a lateral chapel composed of a semicircular niche, which
is as high as the lateral nave and 1/2 deep of the module, creating
overall a dynamic effect of the articulation of the volumes much more
lively than in San Lorenzo, where the side chapels are rendered
schematic by the grid of the pilasters and the upper horizontal
cornices.
At the center of the arms is the main altar, the
fulcrum of the whole architecture, surmounted by a dome. Entering the
church and walking towards the head of the cross, one can grasp the
extreme dynamism of the continuous variation of the point of view
through the rhythmic sequence of the arches and columns, which create
perspective rows even transversely, towards the niches and portals.
However, unlike the Gothic churches, the whole gives the effect of
extreme harmony and clarity of the whole, thanks to the regulation
according to unitary rational principles.
The light highlights
the airy and elegant rhythm of the spaces, entering gradually through
the different openings, wider in the clerestory of the central nave and
from the oculi of the dome. The side aisles are thus darker, inevitably
directing the eye towards the luminous node: the central altar.
Changes to the original design
"And certainly, if one did not go
beyond the model, [... the church of Santo Spirito would have been] a
beautiful thing that [...] had no equal among Christians."
(Antonio
di Tuccio Manetti, Biography of Brunelleschi)
Brunelleschi died
just two years after the start of the construction works and his
successors made some modifications, both structural and decorative, to
the initial project, setting aside some more original elements which
would have made the church an unprecedented experimentation, perhaps
less responsive to the taste of those years. The effect of the
centripetal space with the fulcrum on the altar would have been even
more effective if Brunelleschi's instructions had been followed to the
letter. For example, the mathematician and astronomer Paolo dal Pozzo
Toscanelli and the architect Giuliano da Sangallo fought for respect for
the original project, who tried to get Lorenzo the Magnificent to
intervene, without success.
One of the elements that most aroused
controversy was that of the continuation of the loggia also on the
counter-façade, which would have made it necessary to build another two
central bays, with the need, among other things, to prepare an unusual
façade with four doors, each in a niche, to resume the sequence of the
side walls. This element was set aside to create a more traditional
central portal, aligned with the altar. But the off-axis vision right
from the entrance would have highlighted the dynamic construction of
Brunelleschi's architecture, immediately creating unconventional
perspective views.
Furthermore, the great architect had planned a
barrel vault over the central nave, which was instead replaced by a flat
false ceiling, later decorated with painted coffers. The vault would
have accentuated the effect of dilation of the internal space towards
the outside, as if the church were "swelling". The dome had to be lower,
without a drum as in the Old Sacristy, with a round of oculi that could
have illuminated the table of the central altar with greater intensity,
so as to make the allusion to the divine light of the Holy Spirit more
explicit, to the which church is dedicated.
The external
appearance was also much more original, where the succession of arched
profiles of the niches of the side chapels was to appear instead of the
wall. This element, taken from the sides of the Cathedral of Orvieto,
would have modified the external surface in a plastic way, creating
chiaroscuro effects never seen in architecture, which would only come
into use with Baroque architecture.
The interior measures 97 meters, 32 wide and 58 at the cruise. The
ceiling of the central nave, with painted coffers, dates back to the
19th century. Inside the nave, the decorated capitals of the first order
of pillars are sculpted with singular mastery: some are by Andrea
Sansovino.
The internal facade preserves the fifteenth-century
stained glass window with the Pentecost made to a design by Perugino.
The high altar is covered by the ciborium with a fretwork dome and
marble enclosure by Giovanni Caccini, built between 1599 and 1607 with
the collaboration of Gherardo Silvani and Agostino Ubaldini. The
decorative apparatus is in Baroque style and is characterized by a
remarkable complexity, with inlays in hard stones, marble sculptures,
bronzes, carved and sculpted stalls. The two front candelabra are by
Cosimo Merlini (1708).
The church has 38 side altars (plus two similar apses at the entrance
to the sacristy and on the opposite side, for a total of forty),
decorated with a very rich collection of treasures and works of art.
In Brunelleschi's original project, according to what is reported in
the Book of Antonio Billi, the altars too had to be set up in an
original way, detached from the wall and without ancons (painted or
sculpted altarpieces) so that the priest could say mass facing the
faithful, according to the ancient early Christian tradition abandoned
in the Middle Ages, of which the example of the baptistery of San
Giovanni remained in Florence. This system is found in the Old Sacristy
and in the Pazzi Chapel and Filippo also proposed it for the altars of
the Cathedral, responding both to ethical principles and to the need for
synthesis and geometric purity of Renaissance architecture, as Leon
Battista Alberti also reaffirms.
However, after the consecration
in 1481, Brunelleschi's project must have been perceived as too radical,
so a new type of altar was adopted, leaning against the wall and
decorated with a rectangular altarpiece of fixed dimensions. Today the
altars, especially those in the transept, often maintain the original
fifteenth-century decoration, formed by a painted altarpiece with a
predella and classical frame integrated with a wooden apparatus that
includes the table, the frontal painted in imitation of fabrics and a
platform with steps; the whole was completed by a sliding curtain, tied
to an iron rod placed between the capitals of the pillars of the frames
of the paintings, which served to cover the sacred images outside the
religious festivities, a stained glass window above, pieces of sacred
gold and other textile furnishings. Most of the painted frontals are
attributed to the workshops of Bernardo di Stefano Rosselli, Neri di
Bicci and Jacopo del Sellaio.
Programmatically absent are the
frescoes and the tombs leaning against the walls, with some rare
exceptions such as the tomb of Neri Capponi visible from a grate that
overlooks the gap between the wall of the niche and the external wall. A
similar uniformity was also envisaged in San Lorenzo, but was not
completed. The attribution of responsibility or otherwise to
Brunelleschi in defining these parameters of the program is
controversial.
In the right aisle, from the entrance towards the transept:
Torrigiani Chapel: altar with the Dispute of the Immaculate Conception
by Pier Francesco Foschi (1544-1546), a typical work of
Counter-Reformation art, equipped with a predella where the patrons are
portrayed.
Cappella del Riccio: copy of the Vatican Pietà by Nanni di
Baccio Bigio (1545) on the altar, among marble decorations including a
bas-relief of Christ and Veronica, above, by Emilio Santarelli (1832)
Cappella Della Vacchia: polychrome wooden statue of San Nicola da
Tolentino attributed to Nanni Ungaro, perhaps based on a model by Jacopo
Sansovino; on the sides two Angels by Franciabigio, enclosed in a
structure from 1706.
Settimanni Chapel: altarpiece of Jesus driving
away the merchants from the Temple by Giovanni Stradano, signed and
dated 1572.
Altarpiece of the Coronation of Mary between Saints
Augustine and Monica by Alessandro Gherardini (1694).
Empty apsidiole
(side entrance)
Petrini-Arrighi Chapel: altarpiece of the Martyrdom
of Saint Stephen (about 1602) by Passignano.
Cappella Della
Palla-Portinari (1696): stucco and marble statue of Giovanni Baratta
with Raffaele and Tobiolo (1698).
In the left aisle, from the entrance towards the transept:
Bettoni-Covoni Chapel (1651): altarpiece of the Resurrection by Pier
Francesco Foschi (1537).
Copy of Michelangelo's Christ of Minerva by
Taddeo Landini (1579).
Blessed Giovanni da San Facondo altarpiece
saving a young man by Giuseppe Nicola Nasini (1691).
Altarpiece of
San Tommaso di Villanova distributing alms by Rutilio Manetti (1625).
Altarpiece with Madonna, Saint Anne and other saints by Michele di
Ridolfo del Ghirlandaio.
Under the organ, access to the vestibule of
the Cronaca sacristy based on a project by Giuliano da Sangallo, with
the Crucifix by Michelangelo.
Copy from Rosso Fiorentino of the
Madonna and saints, by Francesco Petrucci; above fifteenth-century
window.
Altarpiece of the Madonna enthroned with saints by the school
of Fra Bartolomeo between the busts of Giovan Battista Cavalcanti (left)
and Tommaso Cavalcanti (right) by Giovan Angelo Montorsoli.
In the right arm of the transept there are eight chapels, two on each
smaller side and four on the right side. From the short side towards the
nave, clockwise, they meet in order:
Crucifix between the Virgin
and Saint Thomas attributed to Francesco Curradi or Pier Dandini, with
frontal from the 15th century.
Capponi d'Altopascio chapel:
altarpiece of the Transfiguration by Pier Francesco Foschi (1545, from
the Bini chapel)
Velluti Chapel: panel of the Madonna del Soccorso by
Domenico di Zanobi (1475-1485).
De Rossi Chapel: decorated with an
architectural project by Bernardo Buontalenti, which includes a marble
scenography with two saints painted on two shaped tables, a rare
pictorial proof by the court architect, it has a niche in the center
which preserves one of the few testimonies of the Augustinian convent
before the fire of 1471, the wooden Crucifix of the Bianchi (of the
Compagnia dei Bianchi) from the 14th century.
Nerli Chapel: Nerli
Altarpiece (Madonna and Child with Saints Giovannino, Martino and
Caterina d'Alessandria) by Filippino Lippi, perhaps the most famous
pictorial work of the basilica (1485-1488), with a coeval wooden frame.
The patrons themselves are depicted and a view of the San Frediano
district with Porta San Frediano as it appeared at the time, near which
the Nerli family had their palace.
Altarpiece with copy of the
Apparition of the Virgin to San Bernardo di Perugino (today in Monaco)
by Felice Ficherelli (1655-1656).
Capponi Chapel: altarpiece with the
Marriage of the Virgin by Giovan Camillo Sagrestani (1713), which
replaced an altarpiece by Piero di Cosimo now in the National Gallery in
Washington; cenotaph of Cardinal Aloisio Capponi (d. 1659). Behind the
fifteenth-century bronze grate, which allows you to see how the
interspaces between the apses and the external wall are, is the marble
sarcophagus of Neri by Gino Capponi, attributed to Bernardo Rossellino
(1458).
Altarpiece of San Nicola di Bari resuscitating three children
by Giovan Gaetano Gabbiani.
At the top of the cross, again in clockwise order, are:
Panel with
Madonna between Saints Matthew and Jerome by the Master of the
Conversation of the Holy Spirit (perhaps Giovanni Cianfanini).
Vettori Chapel: polyptych of the Madonna with Child and four saints by
Maso di Banco, another testimony of the old basilica (around 1345).
Epiphany Altarpiece by Aurelio Lomi (after 1608).
Pitti Chapel:
altarpiece of the Ten Thousand Martyrs of Ararat by Alessandro Allori,
signed and dated 1574, with predella showing Luca Pitti in front of his
palace, a rare view of Palazzo Pitti before the Medici expansions;
antependium with San Luca di Neri di Bicci
Cappella Frescobaldi,
Cini, Dainelli da Bagnano: altarpiece of Christ and the Adulteress by
Alessandro Allori, signed and dated 1577, with in the predella the
Portrait of the family of Giovanni Battista Cini, who commissioned the
work; the frontal is from the 16th century and the stained glass window,
above, is from the end of the 15th century. At the top left there is
also an eighteenth-century choir thanks to which the Frescobaldi
marquises could participate in the liturgy from their private building
adjacent to the church without being seen by the people.
Altarpiece
of the Blessed Clare of Montefalco communicated by Jesus by Jacopo
Vignali (1629).
Altarpiece of the Annunciation by Pietro del
Donzello.
Altarpiece with Nativity, an early work by Giuliano
Bugiardini (about 1495).
In the left transept, always in clockwise order, are:
Sacred
conversation by the Master of Santo Spirito (late 15th century), linked
to the workshop of Donnino and Agnolo del Mazziere.
Lanfredini-Bini-Capponi Chapel: altarpiece of Santa Monica enthroned
with the Augustinian nuns by Francesco Botticini (1460-1470) in the
original frame.
Corbinelli-Suarez-Compagni-Altoviti Chapel: Madonna
and Child Enthroned between Saints Thomas and Peter by Cosimo Rosselli
(dated 1482); the wooden antependium with the Incredulity of Saint
Thomas is by Bernardo di Stefano Rosselli, cousin of Cosimo.
Corbinelli Chapel: sculptural-architectural apparatus by the young
Andrea Sansovino of 1490-1492 in the chapel which, since 1485 had the
privilege of guarding the Blessed Sacrament. The tripartition of the
altar, with elegant pilasters decorated with candelabra between three
niches, recalls the Roman triumphal arches. In the central niche a
tabernacle in the shape of an aedicule has a bas-relief of the risen
Christ on the door, while in the lateral niches there are the statues of
San Matteo and San Giacomo, surmounted by roundels with the Archangel
Gabriel and the Virgin of the Annunciation. In the predella of the Last
Supper, the Beheading of Saint Matthew and Saints James and Hermogenes;
in the pediment Coronation of the Virgin, in the antependium Christ in
piety between the mourning Virgin and Saint John. The balustrade that
encloses the chapel dates back to 1642.
Altarpiece of the Holy
Trinity adored by Saints Catherine and Magdalene, attributed to Donnino
and Agnolo del Mazziere.
Altarpiece of the Madonna Enthroned between
Saints Bartholomew and Nicholas from the workshop of Donnino and Agnolo
del Mazziere.
Segni Chapel: Madonna and Child Enthroned with Saints
by Raffaellino del Garbo (1501-1505), with original frame; the frontal
with San Lorenzo almoner is attributed to Donnino and Agnolo di Domenico
del Mazziere.
Antinori Chapel: Entrance to the Calvary attributed to
Antonio del Ceraiolo; above fifteenth-century window.
At the end of the left side you enter the vestibule, which preserves a valuable coffered ceiling made by Andrea Sansovino in 1491. The sacristy adjacent to the vestibule was begun by Giuliano da Sangallo in 1489 with an octagonal plan. It was completed by the Chronicle. It preserves the devotional painting by Alessandro Allori San Fiacre healing the sick (1596), a French saint that can be connected to the commission of Christine of Lorraine, consort of Ferdinando I de' Medici. Here is also the Crucifix, an early work by Michelangelo.
Michelangelo was hosted in the convent of Santo Spirito in 1492 at
the age of 17, where, with the complicity of the prior, he had the
opportunity to skin the corpses coming from the hospital of the convent
to study their anatomy: it was thanks to this experience that
Michelangelo became unsurpassed in representing the human body in every
smallest detail.
As a thank you for the hospitality, the young
artist carved the wooden crucifix, which today is placed in its original
location in the sacristy of Santo Spirito after having been exhibited
for about a century in the museum of Casa Buonarroti.
Two cloisters, called dei Morti and Chiostro Grande, were part of the
convent.
The Cloister of the Dead
From the vestibule of the
Sacristy, via a flight of steps, you can go down to the first cloister,
called Chiostro dei Morti due to the large number of tombstones that
crowd the walls.
It was rebuilt around 1620 by the architects
Giulio Parigi and Alfonso Parigi the younger. It is square in shape,
with seven round arches on each side, supported by massive squared
pillars, which extend to the upper floor in pilasters framing the
windows in succession. Each arch corresponds to a lunette decorated in
the eighteenth century by various artists (Cosimo Ulivelli, Pier Maria
Baldi, Atanasio Bimbacci, Paolo Gismondi, Stefano Cascetti, Giovanni
Bagnoli, etc.), some dated and signed, with Stories from the life of
Augustinian saints. The lunettes are only partially restored, others are
in a very precarious state of conservation.
Adjacent to the
sacristy is the Sala Capitolare, framed on the front of the cloister by
the figures of Faith and Hope, dated, above the door, to 1682. On the
south side is the old Refectory, today the seat of the Roman Foundation
of the Last Supper of Santo Spirito .
The Great Cloister, which has a separate entrance from Piazza Santo
Spirito, was built between 1564 and 1569 by Bartolomeo Ammannati.
Starting from the foundations of pre-existing buildings, he joined the
previous one (later rebuilt in 1620) for the same size, forming a
rectangle containing two squares with one side in common, according to a
regular plan that has no equal in Florence.
The architect was
influenced by the classicism style as evidenced by the Doric style
columns, the triple round arches (in the center of each side)
alternating with the architraves (on the sides), which imported for the
first time the serliana motif into a convent architecture, and the
corner pillars which incorporate the columns. The crossed barrel vault
was used with the cross vault at the central arches and corners. The
arched windows on the first floor are surmounted by rectangular windows
in axis and rhythmically framed by pilasters with capitals decorated
with sculpted heads. The structural elements, the frames and the
stringcourses are in pietra serena which stands out against the white
plaster creating, together with the openings of the arches, a lively
chiaroscuro effect.
The cloister served as a model for that of
Santa Trinita by Alfonso Parigi the Elder and that of San Frediano by
Gherardo Silvani.
Today, since 2007, it has been the headquarters
of the Documentary Center of Florence, a military body born from the
reconfiguration of the Military District, which was based in this
barracks (named after Francesco Ferrucci) from 1 January 1871.
On
the east side, the one in common with the Chiostro dei Morti, is the New
Refectory, from the end of the sixteenth century, preceded by an
Anti-refectory with frescoed lunettes and a Saint Augustine on the vault
by Bernardino Poccetti (1606). The Refectory was divided into two rooms
in the 19th century and is decorated on what was once the back wall,
with the Three Suppers by Poccetti, and in the bordering lunettes with
the Baptism of St. Dionysius the Aeropagite and the Baptism of St.
Augustine, also by the same author, assisted by workshop assistants.
The cloister also leads to the fourteenth-century Corsini chapel of
Santo Spirito.
A third, small square cloister is located south of the Ammannati cloister: it is paved and has Doric columns supporting round arches.
Over time, many companies or brotherhoods met in the great basilica
and its annexes. Among the most important were:
Company of
Sant'Agostino del Crocifisso dei Bianchi