Basilica di San Marco | |
---|---|
Denomination | Roman Catholic |
Religious order | Dominican |
History | |
Status | Conventual church |
Dedication | Mark the Evangelist |
Relics held | Antoninus of Florence |
Architecture | |
Architectural type | Neoclassical |
Years built | 12th – 18th century |
San Marco is a Catholic religious complex in Florence, Italy. It comprises a church and a convent. The convent, which is now the Museo Nazionale di San Marco, has three claims to fame. During the 15th century it was home to two famous Dominicans, the painter Fra Angelico and the preacher Girolamo Savonarola. The church houses the relics of St Antoninus of Florence and the tomb of Pico Della Mirandola, a Renaissance philosopher known as the "Father of Humanism."
The present convent occupies the site where a Vallombrosian monastery existed in the 13th century, which later passed to the Sylvestrine monks. The church was used both for monastic liturgical functions and as a parish church.
From this initial period there have recently been rediscovered some traces of frescoes below floor level. In 1418 the Sylvestrines, accused of laxity in their observance of the Rule, were pressured to leave, but it took a direct intervention of Pope Eugene IV and the Council of Basel before finally in 1437 the San Marco buildings were vacated, the displaced Sylvestrines moved to the smaller monastery of San Giorgio alla Costa.
A decisive element in securing the move was the intervention of Cosimo de' Medici the Elder, who since 1420 had already shown his support for the reformed Franciscan convent of Bosco ai Frati. From his return from exile in 1434, he had made clear his desire to see an observant community of Dominicans established in Florence. This was achieved when a group arrived from the Convent of San Domenico, Fiesole, not far from the city. On their arrival, the new residents found the San Marco buildings in poor condition, so much so that for two years or so they were obliged to live in damp cells or wooden huts. For funds to renovate the entire complex, they appealed to Cosimo. According to Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Most Excellent Painters, Sculptors, and Architects , Cosimo in fact invested in the new convent a notable amount of finance, amounting to some 40,000 florins.
In 1437 Cosimo commissioned Michelozzo, the Medici family's favourite architect, to rebuild the San Marco convent on Renaissance lines. He worked on San Marco from 1439 to 1444. By 1438 the work was well underway and the final dedication took place on Epiphany night 1443 in the presence of Pope Eugene IV and the Archbishop of Capua, cardinal Niccolò d'Acciapaccio. San Marco became one of the main elements in the new configuration of the area to the North of the centre of Florence (the so-called “Medici quarter”), along with the Medici family palazzo and the basilica of San Lorenzo. These years marked the height of the Medici family's artistic patronage, above all in connection with the transfer to Florence of the Ecumenical Council from Ferrara to Florence in 1439. Michelozzo succeeded in developing an architectural model for the renaissance library. It included a long narrow hall, divided into three parts by two rows of plain columns. [1]
The church has a single nave with side chapels designed in the late 16th century by Giambologna, and housing paintings from the 16th–17th centuries. In the late 17th century the tribune and the carved ceiling were also realized. A further renovation was carried on in 1678 by Pier Francesco Silvani. The façade, in Neo-Classical style, was built in 1777–1778.
It houses the relics of Antoninus of Florence, a founder of the San Marco, and later Archbishop of Florence; Cosimo de’ Medici used to say that the safety of Florence depended entirely on his prayers. Pico Della Mirandola and other notables of Florentine society are also buried in the church.
Among the artworks, the most ancient is a 14th-century crucifix in the counter-façade. The crucifix on the high altar (1425–1428) is by Fra Angelico. Over the first altar to the right is St. Thomas Praying by Santi di Tito from 1593, while over the second altar is a Madonna with Saints by Fra Bartolomeo.
Giambologna completed the Cappella di Sant'Antonino (also known as Salviati Chapel) in May 1589. The Salviati family had been linked by marriage to the Medici (Pope Leo XI was the son of Francesca Salviati, the daughter of Giacomo Salviati and Lucrezia de' Medici). The interior was decorated in fresco with a Translation and Funeral of St. Antonino Perozzi by Domenico Passignano. The dome of the chapel is by Bernardino Poccetti, also author of frescoes in the Sacrament Chapel. The latter also has canvases by Santi di Tito, Crespi, Francesco Morandini, Jacopo da Empoli, and Francesco Curradi.
The work was planned according to arrangements that took account of simplicity and practicality, but were of great elegance: a sober, though comfortable, Renaissance edifice. The internal walls were covered in whitewashed plaster, layout centred on two cloisters (named after Saint Antoninus and Saint Dominic), with the usual conventual features of a chapter house, two refectories and guest quarters on the ground level. On the upper floor were the friars' cells, small walled enclosures overarched by a single trussed roof. The cloisters, chapter house and dorters (or dormitories), in the form described, must have been finished by 1440–1441. The South dormitory, which overlooks Piazza San Marco, was completed in 1442. Work on the rest of the convent went on until 1452.
Cosimo de' Medici had a cell in the convent, in the corridor with cells dedicated to guests (adjacent to those of the friars), for his personal retreat. These cells of the friars' dorter or dormitory, including that of Cosimo, and many other walls were decorated by Fra Angelico in collaboration with others, including Benozzo Gozzoli.
An outstanding feature of the convent is the library on the first floor.
In addition to Fra Angelico, Antonino Pierozzi and Fra Bartolomeo, San Marco was the home from 1489 onwards of the friar Girolamo Savonarola, who represents a major event in the history of the house, and a drama on a European scale.
Having become prior of the convent, Savonarolo unleashed a fierce campaign against the Florentines’ morals and their ostentation of luxury. He was to fall foul of the court of Pope Alexander VI Borgia and ended his life burnt at the stake in front of the Palazzo della Signoria in 1498.
The convent was confiscated from the Dominicans in 1808, during the Napoleonic Wars, and again in 1866, when it was seized by the new Kingdom of Italy, whose temporary capital was Florence.
Until recently San Marco still housed a community of Dominican friars, who occupied the Western part of the complex adjacent to the larger cloister. In 2014 the few friars remaining were transferred to join the community at Santa Maria Novella in the city.
The convent is now constituted as the Museo Nazionale di San Marco . The entrance to the museum is from the so-called Cloister of St. Antoninus, decorated with frescoes by Bernardino Poccetti in the 16th–17th century.
Fra Angelico, O.P. was a Dominican friar and Italian Renaissance painter of the Early Renaissance, described by Giorgio 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, then worked in Rome and other cities. All his known work is of religious subjects.
Fra Bartolomeo or Bartolommeo, also known as Bartolommeo di Pagholo, Bartolommeo di San Marco, Paolo di Jacopo del Fattorino, and his original nickname Baccio della Porta, was an Italian Renaissance painter of religious subjects. He spent all his career in Florence until his mid-forties, when he travelled to work in various cities, as far south as Rome. He trained with Cosimo Rosselli and in the 1490s fell under the influence of Savonarola, which led him to become a Dominican friar in 1500, renouncing painting for several years. Typically his paintings are of static groups of figures in subjects such as the Virgin and Child with Saints.
Cosimo di Giovanni de' Medici was an Italian banker and politician who established the Medici family as effective rulers of Florence during much of the Italian Renaissance. His power derived from his wealth as a banker and intermarriage with other rich and powerful families. He was a patron of arts, learning, and architecture. He spent over 600,000 gold florins on art and culture, including Donatello's David, the first freestanding nude male sculpture since antiquity.
Santa Maria Novella is a church in Florence, Italy, situated opposite, and lending its name to, the city's main railway station. Chronologically, it is the first great basilica in Florence, and is the city's principal Dominican church.
The Basilica della Santissima Annunziata is a Renaissance-style, Catholic minor basilica in Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy. This is considered the mother church of the Servite Order. It is located at the northeastern side of the Piazza Santissima Annunziata near the city center.
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.
Michelozzo di Bartolomeo Michelozzi was an Italian architect and sculptor. Considered one of the great pioneers of architecture during the Renaissance, Michelozzo was a favored Medici architect who was extensively employed by Cosimo de' Medici. He was a pupil of Lorenzo Ghiberti in his early years, and later collaborated with Donatello.
Santa Maria sopra Minerva is one of the major churches of the Order of Preachers in Rome, Italy. The church's name derives from the fact that the first Christian church structure on the site was built directly over the ruins or foundations of a temple dedicated to the Egyptian goddess Isis, which had been erroneously ascribed to the Greco-Roman goddess Minerva.
The Palazzo Vecchio is the town hall of Florence, Italy. It overlooks the Piazza della Signoria, which holds a copy of Michelangelo's David statue, and the gallery of statues in the adjacent Loggia dei Lanzi.
Antoninus of Florence, was an Italian Dominican friar who served as Archbishop of Florence in the 15th century. He is venerated as a saint in the Catholic Church.
Museo Nazionale di San Marco is an art museum housed in the monumental section of the medieval Dominican convent of San Marco dedicated to St Mark, situated on the present-day Piazza San Marco, in Florence, a region of Tuscany, Italy.
The San Marco Altarpiece is a painting by the Italian early Renaissance painter Fra Angelico, housed in the San Marco Museum of Florence, Italy. It was commissioned by Cosimo de' Medici the Elder, and was completed sometime between 1438 and 1443.
The Stories of Saint Stephen and Saint John the Baptist is a fresco cycle by the Italian Renaissance painter Filippo Lippi and his assistants, executed between 1452 and 1465. It is located in the Great Chapel of the Cathedral of Prato, Italy.
Zanobi di Benedetto di Caroccio degli Strozzi, normally referred to more simply as Zanobi Strozzi, was an Italian Renaissance painter and manuscript illuminator active in Florence and nearby Fiesole. He was closely associated with Fra Angelico, probably as his pupil, as told by Vasari. He is the same painter as the Master of the Buckingham Palace Madonna. Most of his surviving works are manuscript illuminations but a number of panel paintings have also been attributed to him, including seven altarpieces and six panels with the Virgin and Child, along with some designs for metalwork.
Presentazione di Gesù al Tempio is a fresco by Fra Angelico made for the then Dominican Convent of Saint Mark in Florence, Italy. It depicts the dedication of Jesus in the Temple in Jerusalem as the first-born son of His family, as related in the Gospel of St. Luke, 2:23–24. Saint Joseph carries a basket containing two doves as Mary witnesses the Infant Jesus being held by Simeon. This event, the fourth Joyful Mystery of the Rosary, a devotion particularly promoted by the Dominicans, is depicted as being anachronistically witnessed by the Dominican saints Peter of Verona and Blessed Villana de' Botti.
The Annunciation is an Early Renaissance fresco by Fra Angelico in the Convent of San Marco in Florence, Italy. When Cosimo de' Medici rebuilt the convent, he commissioned Fra Angelico to decorate the walls with intricate frescos. This included the altarpiece, the inside of the monk's cells, the friar's cloister, the chapter house, and inside the corridors; around fifty pieces in total. All of the paintings were done by Angelico himself or under his direct supervision. Out of all of the frescos at the convent, the Annunciation is the most well known in the art world.
San Paolo Apostolo, more commonly known as San Paolino, is a Romanesque-style, Roman Catholic church and convent located in Via di S. Paolino #8, in central Florence, region of Tuscany, Italy. The church is near the Church of the Ognissanti.
The Convent of Bosco ai Frati is located in the comune (municipality) of Scarperia e San Piero, in the midst of Turkey oak woods. The area is in the province of Florence in the Italian region Tuscany, and is situated about 25 kilometres northeast of Florence.
Cosimo de' Medici had two friar's cells reserved for him in the Dominican convent of San Marco in Florence. This was intended as a place for personal retreat and was used as a guest room for other important guests.
The Adoration of the Magi in San Marco is a fresco by Fra Angelico in a double cell used by Cosimo de' Medici, created c. 1441-1442.
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