The church of San Giorgio alla Costa, called in earlier times also dei Santi Giorgio e Massimiliano dello Spirito Santo (of Ss. George and Maximilian of the Holy Spirit) is a small historical church in the Oltrarno district of the centre of Florence, situated on the steep slope of via Costa San Giorgio which runs uphill from Ponte Vecchio to Forte di Belvedere.
In earlier times there existed at this locality three small churches of which one was dedicated to the martyr Saint George, another to Saint Sigismund and the third to Saint Mamilian. The church of San Giorgio (St George) predated the year 1000 and was one of the main priorie (priories) of medieval Florence.
It was for this church that the young Giotto painted the altarpiece Madonna di San Giorgio alla Costa (San Giorgio alla Costa Virgin) known also as Madonna col Bambino in trono e due Angeli (Virgin enthroned with Child and two angels), currently conserved in the Diocesan Museum at Santo Stefano al Ponte, Florence. [1] Not long after the completion of Giotto's commission, a convent was built on to the church, and this convent was enlarged and completely renovated in the course of the fifteenth century. The establishment belonged in turn to the Canons of Sant'Andrea a Mosciano, to the Dominicans and to the Silvestrines.
In the period when Silvestrines were in possession, around the year 1457 Alesso Baldovinetti was commissioned to paint in tempera on wood a depiction of the Annunciation now conserved in Florence's Uffizi Gallery. Giorgio Vasari mistaken attributed it to Pesellino. Some have seen in the painting's architectural background an allusion to the work of Michelozzo.
In 1520 at the behest of Lucrezia de' Medici, the daughter of Lorenzo il Magnifico, a new convent was dedicated to the Holy Spirit and entrusted to the Vallombrosan nuns. In 1705-1708 the church was renovated by the architect Giovanni Battista Foggini and the interior decorated with works in Rococo style by Alessandro Gherardini and Anton Domenico Gabbiani (Descent of the Holy Spirit in the oval over the high altar).
Along with many other religious establishments in the city and throughout Europe, the convent was seized by the civil authoritities during the upheavals stemming from the French Revolution and the expansion of the Napoleonic Empire, in 1808. In the years that followed, there was a period, between 1926 and 1998, when it served as the Caserma Vittorio Veneto (Vittorio Veneto Barracks), which was concerned in particular with the formation of trainee medical officers and pharmacists for the Military School of Medicine.
The church has been for some time in the hands of the Romanian Orthodox Church, though structural problems in the roof have made the church itself unusable and the congregation has been meeting in a nearby room.
Fra Angelico was an Italian painter of the Early Renaissance, described by Vasari in his Lives of the Artists as having "a rare and perfect talent". He earned his reputation primarily for the series of frescoes he made for his own friary, San Marco, in Florence.
The Uffizi Gallery is a prominent art museum located adjacent to the Piazza della Signoria in the Historic Centre of Florence in the region of Tuscany, Italy. One of the most important Italian museums and the most visited, it is also one of the largest and best known in the world and holds a collection of priceless works, particularly from the period of the Italian Renaissance.
Alesso or Alessio Baldovinetti was an Italian early Renaissance painter and draftsman.
Taddeo Gaddi was a medieval Italian painter and architect.
Domenico di Michelino (1417–1491) was an Italian Renaissance painter who was born and died in Florence. His real name was Domenico di Francesco. The patronymic "di Michelino" was adopted in honor of his teacher, the cassone painter Michelino di Benedetto, by whom no works have been identified. Giorgio Vasari reports that Domenico was also a pupil of Fra Angelico, whose influence is reflected in many of Domenico's paintings along with that of Filippo Lippi and Pesellino.
Benozzo Gozzoli was an Italian Renaissance painter from Florence. A pupil of Fra Angelico, Gozzoli is best known for a series of murals in the Magi Chapel of the Palazzo Medici-Riccardi, depicting festive, vibrant processions with fine attention to detail and a pronounced International Gothic influence. The chapel's fresco cycle reveals a new Renaissance interest in nature with its realistic depiction of landscapes and vivid human portraits. Gozzoli is considered one of the most prolific fresco painters of his generation. While he was mainly active in Tuscany, he also worked in Umbria and Rome.
Domenico di Pace Beccafumi was an Italian Renaissance-Mannerist painter active predominantly in Siena. He is considered one of the last undiluted representatives of the Sienese school of painting.
Lorenzo di Credi was an Italian Renaissance painter and sculptor best known for his paintings of religious subjects. He is most famous for having worked in the studio of Andrea del Verrocchio at the same time as the young Leonardo da Vinci.
Santo Stefano al Ponte is a Romanesque-style, Roman Catholic church, located in the Piazza of the same name, just off the Via Por Santa Maria, near the Ponte Vecchio, in Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy. The church is presently used as a concert hall.
Francesco Granacci was an Italian Renaissance painter active primarily in his native Florence. Though little-known today, he was regarded in his time and is featured in Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists.
The decade of the 1430s in art involved some significant events.
San Pancrazio is a church in Florence, Italy, in Piazza San Pancrazio, behind Palazzo Rucellai. With the exception of the Rucellai Chapel, it is deconsecrated and is home to the museum dedicated to the sculptor Marino Marini. The Rucellai Chapel contains the Rucellai Sepulchre or Tempietto del Santo Sepolcro. Since February 2013 it has been possible to visit the chapel from within the Marini museum.
The historic centre of Florence is part of quartiere 1 of the Italian city of Florence. This quarter was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO in 1982.
Andrea del Sarto was an Italian painter from Florence, whose career flourished during the High Renaissance and early Mannerism. He was known as an outstanding fresco decorator, painter of altar-pieces, portraitist, draughtsman, and colorist. Although highly regarded during his lifetime as an artist senza errori, his renown was eclipsed after his death by that of his contemporaries Leonardo da Vinci, Michelangelo, and Raphael.
Giotto di Bondone, known mononymously as Giotto and Latinised as Giottus, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages. He worked during the Gothic/Proto-Renaissance period. Giotto's contemporary, the banker and chronicler Giovanni Villani, wrote that Giotto was "the most sovereign master of painting in his time, who drew all his figures and their postures according to nature" and of his publicly recognized "talent and excellence". Giorgio Vasari described Giotto as making a decisive break with the prevalent Byzantine style and as initiating "the great art of painting as we know it today, introducing the technique of drawing accurately from life, which had been neglected for more than two hundred years".
The Santa Trinita Maestà is a panel painting by the Italian medieval artist Cimabue, dating to c. 1290-1300. Originally painted for the church of Santa Trinita, Florence, where it remained until 1471, it is now housed in the Uffizi Gallery of Florence, Italy. It represents the Madonna enthroned with the Baby Jesus and surrounded by eight angels and, below, four half portraits of prophets.
Sant'Agostino is a Romanesque-Gothic-style Roman Catholic church located in Via Cairoli in Rimini, Italy. It is one of the older extant church buildings in Rimini.
The Castello Roganzuolo Altarpiece, Castello Roganzuolo Polyptych or Madonna and Child with Saint Peter and Saint Paul is a painting by Titian, commissioned in 1543 by the leading citizens of Castello Roganzuolo, Province of Treviso, Veneto, Italy. It is now in the Albino Luciani Diocesan Museum in Vittorio Veneto.
