We had the morning open so we decided to walk over to the
Museum of the Medici Chapels near the Santa Maria Novella train station. In the
fresh morning air, we shared the streets with people going to work and a few
tourists. After stopping for morning
coffee, pastries, and fruit in a restaurant in the Piazza Santa Maria Novella,
we bought our tickets for the museum.
Since it is a good practice to arrive at museums at opening time to
avoid crowds, we got in without standing in a queue.
The museum is really part of a complex that includes San
Lorenzo Basilica, the Laurentian Library, and the Princes Chapel and New
Sacristy. And this complex is like
nothing else in Florence in that it owes its existence to the Medici. The basilica was the favored parish church of
the Medici family for over three hundred years.
It was here that the dukes of Florence and Tuscany held their weddings,
baptisms, and funerals, and buried their dead in the crypt. The library is filled with ancient books and
codices that started with the collections of the earliest Medici. This site
represents the perfect synthesis of Florentine artistic civilization.
San Lorenzo Basilica is a must-see to experience the purest
Renaissance interior architecture. Don’t
be fooled by the austere exterior of rough stone – the grandiose plan for the
marble façade designed by Michelangelo was never carried out. The original church was consecrated in 393 by
Saint Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, and dedicated to the martyred Saint
Lawrence. In those days Florence was
called Florentia, its inhabitants
spoke Latin and were only partly Christianized, and the church was located on
the outskirts of the Roman city. About
1000 years later Giovanni di Bicci de’Medici, the founder of the dynasty, had
the church renovated and enlarged for his family, whose house was a short walk
away.
The beauty and harmony of the interior of San Lorenzo is
breathtaking. Designed by the early 15th
century architect Filippo Brunelleschi, the interior gives the impression of a
vast, luminous, orderly expanse. The
proportions of this basilica are so pleasing the vastness is not overpowering. The eye is led from the grey and white
checkerboard marble floor, up the grey Corinthian columns supporting arches framed
in the grey granite known as pietra
serena, and the whitewashed walls, to the white and gold ceiling. Stretching out in the distance is the
neo-classical altar, and flanking the main aisle are two bronze pulpits by
Donatello elevated on Ionic columns, celebrated works of art. At the end of the left transept a door leads
to the Old Sacristy which holds Andrea del Verrocchio’s Funerary Monument to Piero il Gottoso (the Gouty) and Giovanni de’ Medici from 1472. Piero was the son of Cosimo de’ Medici,
called Pater Patriae, and was the
father of Lorenzo the Magnificent.
We moved on to the
museum entrance, which is through the crypt, after going through security. The first monument we saw was of Anna Maria
Luisa the “Last Medici,” sister of the last Grand Duke of Tuscany Gian Gastone
who died childless in 1737. Anna Maria Luisa stipulated in her will that the
immense artistic Medici patrimony was to remain in Tuscany, protected and
defended by the State, for the benefit of the people of Florence. Moving up into the Chapel of Princes, we
entered a grandiose, octagonal, domed mausoleum with the tombs of all the grand
dukes, except Gian Gastone, made of polychrome marble and semi-precious stones.
Life-sized statues of Grand Duke Cosimo II and Ferdinando I stand in two
niches, but the other six are empty.
This overwhelming monument, the product of immense wealth and artistic
genius, has to be seen to be believed.
The high-point was in the New Sacristy, entered through the
Chapel of Princes, with the world-famous Michelangelo sculptures. This relatively small space designed by
Michelangelo contains the tombs of Lorenzo the Magnificent, his murdered
brother Giuliano (the victim of the Pazzi Conspiracy of 1478), and the brother
and nephew of Pope Leo X de’ Medici. The
funerary sculptures done by Michelangelo glorifying the tombs were a marvel to
behold.
We were not allowed to enter the Laurentian Library but had
a glimpse into the vestibule, again designed by Michelangelo. Still denied me is a visit to the Reading
Room, completely conceived by Michelangelo, from the white and grey walls, the
carved wooden ceiling, to the wooden benches and reading tables, to the
terracotta floor. This is “sculptured
architecture.”
An obscure item in the complex, not accessible to the
public, is a basement room with charcoal drawings on the walls. After the discovery of this room in 1978 the
drawings were attributed to Michelangelo, done while he was in temporary hiding
from the Grand Duke Alessandro after the fall of the Florentine Republic in
1530. Michelangelo finally left Florence
for good in 1534, moving to Rome to work his genius in the Sistine Chapel.
After a wonderful lunch at the Florentine home of a work
colleague of Dr. G, we again met with our art tour guide, Maurizio Tocchione,
for a tour of the Duomo and the Museo dell’Opera del Duomo. The Duomo, officially known as Basilica di
Santa Maria del Fiore, is a landmark in Florence, a masterpiece of Gothic and
neo-Gothic architecture. The façade of
stripes of white, green and pink marble give an inkling of what the San Lorenzo
might have become. I was surprised to
learn from Maurizio that the façade was actually finished in the 19th
century, not the 15th as I had assumed for years. We spent some time outside listening to
Maurizio tell us the history of the building complex and point out the architectural
features, including a Roman sarcophagus that had been built into a wall of the
Baptistery. He gave us a careful look at
the famous doors of the Baptistery, made by Lorenzo Ghiberti and called “worthy
of the Gates of Paradise” by Michelangelo, showing us the panel with a small
self-portrait of Ghiberti himself. Of
course these were only a copy – the original doors are in the Museo dell’Opera
del Duomo, which we would be seeing shortly.
Maurizio took us inside the baptistery, explaining that this building
had eight sides to signify eternity, as in -- after the seven days of creation,
the eighth was the attainment of eternity.
One side of the octagon had been cut with a rectangular apse which held
an altar for Masses. The mosaic marble
floor still retained the octagonal pattern where the original baptismal font
was, large enough for immersion.
Maurizio told us almost all Florentines throughout history were baptized
here, including his son! The mosaic
ceiling was particularly interesting, with a huge figure of Christ Pantocrator surrounded by figures of the
Last Judgment. The frightening scenes of
the damned reminded me of something out of Hieronymus Bosch.
Inside the Duomo, Maurizio showed us the marvelous
decorations, including the 24-hour clock on the back wall, the fresco of the
English mercenary Sir John Hawkwood, the stained glass windows, and the
painting of Dante Alighieri and scenes from the Divine Comedy with the city of
Florence as it looked in 1465. We pushed through the crowds to the front of the
church to view the interior of the miraculous dome, with the frescos of Giorgio
Vasari, yet another Last Judgment.
What has not been said of the enormous dome, the largest
brick dome in the world? The crowning
achievement of the Florentine architect Filippo Brunelleschi was to complete
the original design of an octagonal dome to cover a space larger than had ever
been attempted since the Pantheon in Rome.
The story of how this was done, a task that had been judged impossible,
is absolutely fascinating, and I will not attempt to recount. There are many books and videos on how
Brunelleschi created this marvel of engineering, which impressed even Leonardo
da Vinci. When we again went outside,
Maurizio showed us the memorial statue of Brunelleschi looking up at his dome.
We were a bit disappointed that most of the Museo dell’Opera
del Duomo was closed for renovation, but Maurizio made up for it by giving a
thorough explanation of the original Gates of Paradise of Ghiberti. Also on view was a video of the terrible Arno
River flood of 1966, showing scenes of torrents of muddy water gushing through
the streets. [There are markers on a few
buildings showing the height of the water.] Maurizio took us to see the last and
most mysterious Pietà statue by Michelangelo, made when he was almost eighty
years old. Maurizio pointed out that the
top figure holding the crucified body of Jesus was Michelangelo himself,
portrayed as the figure of Nicodemus, and gave us a theory that linked this
statue to the growing Reformation sympathies Michelangelo was harboring -- sympathies
which would have put him in conflict with his patrons the Medici and the
Church.
We had run out of time to visit the crypt and climb the bell
tower, the Campanile designed by Giotto.
Too much to see, too little time.
I cannot help but think I will come back to Florence, having rubbed the
snout of the bronze boar of Florence, which is supposed to ensure my return.
Again, our native Florentine tour guide was wonderful, and I
highly recommend him to anyone visiting Florence:
Maurizio Tocchioni
Art Tours in Florence Tuscany
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