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Church of Santa Maria Novella
Leon Battista Alberti • Architecture, XV century
Description of the artwork «Church of Santa Maria Novella»
The church of Santa Maria Novella, famous for its unique facade, is called the visiting card of Florence. With it, as a rule, the acquaintance of tourists with the old city begins, since Santa Maria Novella is located just a few minutes walk from the railway station of the same name.
They built the church for a long time, rebuilt many times. Her story, according to legend, begins in the 9th century, when among the vineyards located on the site of the present Santa Maria Novella, a small chapel Santa Maria delle Vigne (St. Mary on the Vineyards) was set up. At the beginning of the 13th century, Dominican monks who came to Florence from Bologna received it from the city authorities. They decided to establish a monastery on this site and build a new church. In 1332, the 68-meter bell tower in the Romanesque style was erected. The architecture of the church combined both Romanesque and Gothic traditions, and its facade is an example of an already new, Renaissance style.
The church of Santa Maria Novella gained its present appearance by the middle of the 15th century, when the Florentine businessman and philanthropist Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai decided to renew the appearance of the church and invited the famous humanist scientist, writer and architect Leon Battista Alberti to design the facade.
Facade of the church designed by Alberti
Here's how it is told in Biographies Giorgio Vasari: “When Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai, during the life of Leon Battista, wished to make the facade of the church of Santa Maria Novella at his own expense and entirely made of marble, he talked about this with Leon Battista, his best friend, and received not only advice from him, but also project, he decided to carry out this business at all costs in order to leave a memory of himself. So, we started work, and it was finished in 1477 to the great satisfaction of the whole city, which liked the whole work as a whole, especially the portal, testifying to the considerable work Leon-Battista spent on it. "
The architectural solution proposed by Alberti was bold and innovative. He brought elements of ancient architecture into the Gothic look of the medieval church: a triangular pediment, columns, pilasters, cornices and arches. The most unexpected of architectural decisions is the use of voluts (inverted curls), designed to smooth the transition from a high central nave to a much lower side.
Church of Santa Maria Novella: what's inside?
Throughout its long history, Santa Maria Novella has collected many masterpieces under her lancet vaults. Renaissance-related names are associated with this church. Here you can see the fresco "The Holy Trinity" great reformer of medieval painting Masacciomurals Paolo Uccello "The Creation of Animals and the Creation of Adam" and "Global flood"work Filippino Lippi and Jacopo Pontormo.
Chapel Tornabuoni
From a historical point of view, perhaps the most interesting painting Domenico Ghirlandaio in the chapel of Tornabuoni of the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella. In the biblical narrative of his fresco cycle, the artist masterfully weaves the figures of contemporaries, prominent residents of Florence. The frescoes of Ghirlandaio captured the head of the Florentine Platonic Academy, Marsilio Ficino, the humanist thinker Cristoforo Landino, the poet and playwright Angelo Poliziano. There are frescoes portraits of members of the influential Florentine family Tornabuoni, self-portrait of Ghirlandaio himself and portraits of his father and brother. And also, according to legend, here, under the vaults of Santa Maria Novella, his obstinate student - Michelangelo Buonarroti came to take the experience of Ghirlandaio. Domenico Ghirlandaio, whose name is firmly connected with the basilica, died of a sudden fever at the age of 44 and was buried in Santa Maria Novella.
Pharmacy Museum of the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella
In the complex of buildings of Santa Maria Novella, one cannot fail to mention The Officina Profumo - Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella - one of the oldest operating pharmacies and perfumery companies in the world. It was founded in the Renaissance by Dominican monks who made herbs, flowers, and minerals from medicinal potions, incense, rubbing, and magical mixtures. You can see retorts, distillation cubes for receiving alchemical substances, mysterious elixirs in the carved wooden cabinets of the pharmacy museum. But you can simply purchase a unique soap or fragrant water. Medieval monks believed that concentrated rose water was able to protect even from black death - the plague. It is no coincidence that seven girls and three young men from The Decameron Boccaccio before leaving the plagued Florence gather in the church of Santa Maria Novella.
They built the church for a long time, rebuilt many times. Her story, according to legend, begins in the 9th century, when among the vineyards located on the site of the present Santa Maria Novella, a small chapel Santa Maria delle Vigne (St. Mary on the Vineyards) was set up. At the beginning of the 13th century, Dominican monks who came to Florence from Bologna received it from the city authorities. They decided to establish a monastery on this site and build a new church. In 1332, the 68-meter bell tower in the Romanesque style was erected. The architecture of the church combined both Romanesque and Gothic traditions, and its facade is an example of an already new, Renaissance style.
The church of Santa Maria Novella gained its present appearance by the middle of the 15th century, when the Florentine businessman and philanthropist Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai decided to renew the appearance of the church and invited the famous humanist scientist, writer and architect Leon Battista Alberti to design the facade.
Facade of the church designed by Alberti
Here's how it is told in Biographies Giorgio Vasari: “When Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai, during the life of Leon Battista, wished to make the facade of the church of Santa Maria Novella at his own expense and entirely made of marble, he talked about this with Leon Battista, his best friend, and received not only advice from him, but also project, he decided to carry out this business at all costs in order to leave a memory of himself. So, we started work, and it was finished in 1477 to the great satisfaction of the whole city, which liked the whole work as a whole, especially the portal, testifying to the considerable work Leon-Battista spent on it. "
The architectural solution proposed by Alberti was bold and innovative. He brought elements of ancient architecture into the Gothic look of the medieval church: a triangular pediment, columns, pilasters, cornices and arches. The most unexpected of architectural decisions is the use of voluts (inverted curls), designed to smooth the transition from a high central nave to a much lower side.
Church of Santa Maria Novella: what's inside?
Throughout its long history, Santa Maria Novella has collected many masterpieces under her lancet vaults. Renaissance-related names are associated with this church. Here you can see the fresco "The Holy Trinity" great reformer of medieval painting Masacciomurals Paolo Uccello "The Creation of Animals and the Creation of Adam" and "Global flood"work Filippino Lippi and Jacopo Pontormo.
Chapel Tornabuoni
From a historical point of view, perhaps the most interesting painting Domenico Ghirlandaio in the chapel of Tornabuoni of the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella. In the biblical narrative of his fresco cycle, the artist masterfully weaves the figures of contemporaries, prominent residents of Florence. The frescoes of Ghirlandaio captured the head of the Florentine Platonic Academy, Marsilio Ficino, the humanist thinker Cristoforo Landino, the poet and playwright Angelo Poliziano. There are frescoes portraits of members of the influential Florentine family Tornabuoni, self-portrait of Ghirlandaio himself and portraits of his father and brother. And also, according to legend, here, under the vaults of Santa Maria Novella, his obstinate student - Michelangelo Buonarroti came to take the experience of Ghirlandaio. Domenico Ghirlandaio, whose name is firmly connected with the basilica, died of a sudden fever at the age of 44 and was buried in Santa Maria Novella.
Pharmacy Museum of the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella
In the complex of buildings of Santa Maria Novella, one cannot fail to mention The Officina Profumo - Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella - one of the oldest operating pharmacies and perfumery companies in the world. It was founded in the Renaissance by Dominican monks who made herbs, flowers, and minerals from medicinal potions, incense, rubbing, and magical mixtures. You can see retorts, distillation cubes for receiving alchemical substances, mysterious elixirs in the carved wooden cabinets of the pharmacy museum. But you can simply purchase a unique soap or fragrant water. Medieval monks believed that concentrated rose water was able to protect even from black death - the plague. It is no coincidence that seven girls and three young men from The Decameron Boccaccio before leaving the plagued Florence gather in the church of Santa Maria Novella.
