Art Walks
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FLORENCECITYWALK3.pptxPlaces of worship from roman to medieval florence
WALK III
Santa felicita square is the little piazza with a grAnIte column of 1381 marking the site of the first Christian cemetery in florence.
santa felicita church is probably the oldest church in the city after san lorenzo. In the 2nd century, Syrian greek merchanTs came to settle here on a site near the river and on a busy roman consular road, and they are thought to have introduced christianity to the city.
The early christian church built at the end of the 4th century or the beginning of the 5th century was dedicated to the roman martyr St. felicity. A new church was built in the 11th century and the present church was erected in the 1736-39 by f. ruggeri. The interior takes its inspiration from late 16th century florentine architecture.
Chiesa ss. Apostoli is a romanesque-style church. It was built in the 11th century and re-modelled in the 15th and 16th centuries. It Was one of few in the city to have preserved its high-middle age features. It faces “piazza del limbo”, so-called because in medieval times it housed a cemetery for children and infants who had died before being baptized.
Interior: the plan with a nave and two aisles and a semi-circular apse, still show paleo-christian influences. It has green marble columns from prato with corinthian capitals probably coming from the roman baths existing in the area. the richly-decorated trussed wooden roof was added in the 1333. the apse area has maintained the romanesque appearance with undecorated stone visible. The side chapels are from the 16th century. The church houses “three stones of the holy sepulcher” in jerusalem. these were used to light the lamps of the tomb when jesus was buried. Tradition holds that they were acquired in 1101 by pazzino dei pazzi, who was among the first christians to conquer jerusalem during the first crusade.
Baptistery of san giovanni (st. john): the date of its foundation is still uncertain, although it is documented as 897. we know that it was re-consacrated in 1059 when for a period it served as the cathedral of florence. It is well-known for the competition which was held in 1401 to decide which of the greatest artists of the day should provide it with a second set of bronze doors. The two most influential artist of the day lorenzo ghiberti (1378-1455) and filippo brunelleschi (1377-1446) competed against each other and lorenzo ghiberti won.
Exterior: the baptistery is an octagonal building of centralizing plan derived from byzantine models; the classical geometrical decoration of the exterior was carried out in the 11-13th centuries using precious marbles, white from luni, and green from prato. The building was financed by an important medieval guild, arte di calimala-(representing cloth importers). Interior: the mosaics in the vault, the only mosaic cycle which exists in florence, is still well preserved. the earliest(c. 1225) are in the “scarsella”, above the altar. The mosaics of the main dome (c. 1271) are sub-divided into three main sections: one section, nearest the altar, is the last judgment with a huge figure of Christ in a central tondo; the remaining section of the cupola is divided into four bands: in one are scenes from genesis and creation; another band tells the story of st. joseph; the third band, the story of christ; and the last band the story of st. john the baptist.
SAN LORENZO CHURCH IN THE 4TH CENTURY AD., WHEN FLORENCE STILL PRESERVED ITS ROMAN URBAN STRUCTURE AND WAS ENCLOSED WITHIN ITS FIRST CIRCLE OF BRICK WALLS, IF WE CAME OUT THE NORTHEN GATE WE WOULD HAVE FOUND ONE OF THOSE TYPICAL SUBURBAN NEIGHBORHOODS THAT AROSE 2ND CENTURY AD. DURING THAT TIME, CHRISTIANITY THAT BY THEN HAD SPREAD TO AND WAS BECOMING MORE AND MORE INTEGRATED IN THIS PRINCIPAL CITY OF TUSCIA WAS NOT TOTALLY FAITHFUL TO THE ORTHODOXY DICTETED BY ROME. FOR THIS REASON, OMONG OTHERS, THE BISHOP OF MILAN, AMBROSE, FERVENT DEFENDER OF THE ROMAN CREED AND EDVERSARY OF ARIANISM, IN 393 CAME TO FLORENCE TO REAFFIRM THE PRIMACY OF ROME IN THOSE CROWDED, LOWER CLASS AREAS OUTSIDE THE WALLS. NEAR THE NORTHEN CARDUS, CONSACRED THE CHURCH OF SAN LORENZO. DURING THE XITH CENTURY, THE PRIMITIVE CHURCH OF SAL LORENZO WAS RESTORED, REMODELED AND ENLARGED (1060). THE CHURCH WAS BUILT ON THE USUAL BASILICA PLAN, WITH THREE NAVE, AILES DIVIDED COLUMNS, AT THE END A DOMED APSE, TRUSSED ROOF, WITH A PORCH IN FRONT OF THE FAÇADE. BEHIND THE CHURCH WAS ERECTED THE BELL TOWER (CODEX BY MARCO BARTOLOMEO RUSTICI, XIV CENTURY). ONLY IN THE XVTH CENTURY, THE ENTIRE ORGANISM WAS BEING TRASFORMED IN ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT COMPLEXES IN ITALIAN SACRED ART. IN 1415, GIOVANNI DE’ MEDICI, A RESIDENT OF SAN LORENZO QUARTER AND PATRN OF THE CHURCH, COMMISIONED FILIPPO BRUNELLESCHI (1377-1446) TO ENLARGE THE BASILICA AS A SIGN OF ECONOMIC AND POLITICAL POWER IN THE CITY. THE PROJECT INVOLVED ADDING A NEW MODERN CHOIR TO REPLACE THE OLD ROMANESQUE APSE, RAISED ABOVE THE LEVEL OF THE FLOOR OF THE PRECEDING NAVE, WITH SQUARE CHAPELS. THIS SHAPE OF THE CHAPELS (SQUARE) WOULD BECOME AN IMPORTANT CHARACTERISTIC OF ALL THE REINASSANCE RELIGIOUS ARCHITECTURE STARTING FROM BRUNELLESCHI ONWARDS. On the right: the original aspect of san lorenzo church documented in a codex by marco bartolomeo rustici, xivth century.
From 1422 to 1428 construction went on of the central plan Medici mausoleum, a sort of family pantheon, located on the left of the new choir (later it would be called Old sacristy). During the time of lorenzo “the magnificent”, a man deeply passionated about greek and roman classicism and architecture, san lorenzo church had continued its trasformation. Lorenzo de’medici appointed His favorite architect giuliano da san gallo (1443-1515). Behind the church, giuliano da sangallo begun a new medici chapel (later it would be called new sacristy). With lorenzo de’medici death(1492) works on the church were temporary interrupt. In 1515 the medici pope leo x announced a competion for the design of a façade of a church, in which the most important minds of the renaissance took part from raphael, to michelangelo including sangallo. Unfortunately, none of did projects was carried out, but in 1519 work resumed on the new sacresty by michelangelo (1533-34).
