Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence
Basilica di San Lorenzo | ||
---|---|---|
Basilica of Saint Lawrence | ||
Style Renaissance | | |
Groundbreaking | 15th century | |
Completed | 1470 | |
Administration | ||
Archdiocese | Archdiocese of Florence |
The Basilica di San Lorenzo (
San Lorenzo was the parish church of the
History
The Basilica of San Lorenzo is considered a milestone in the development of
By the time the building was completed, aspects of its layout and detailing no longer corresponded to the original plan. The principal difference is that Brunelleschi had envisioned the chapels along the side aisles to be deeper than those built and he intended them to resemble the chapels in the transept, the only part of the building that is known to have been completed as Brunelleschi designed it.[2]
The building in Renaissance architecture
The Basilica of San Lorenzo demonstrates many innovative features of the developing style of Renaissance architecture,
- a simple mathematical proportional relationship using the square aisle bay as a module and the nave bays in a 2x1 ratio
- the use of an integrated system of column, arches, and entablatures, based on Roman Classical models
- the use of Classical proportions for the height of the columns
- a clear relationship between column and pilaster, the latter meant to be read as a type of embedded pier
- the use of spherical segments in the vaults of the side aisles
- the articulation of the structure in pietra serena (Italian: “serene stone”)
According to one scholar, features such as the interior's Corinthian arcades and ceiling's flat panels mark "a departure from the Gothic and a return to the Romanesque Proto-Renaissance."[3]
At times, the design of San Lorenzo has met with criticism, particularly when compared with
Outer and inner façades
The Medici Pope
Although the outer facade of the basilica remained unbuilt, Michelangelo's large wooden model of it remains.
Michelangelo did design and build the internal facade of the basilica that is seen from the nave looking back toward the entrances. It comprises three doors between two pilasters with garlands of oak and laurel and a balcony on two Corinthian columns.
In recent years, the association of "Friends of the Elettrice Palatina" and the Comune of Florence re-visited the question of completing the outer facade of the basilica according to Michelangelo's designs. To assist with the public debate, a computerized reconstruction was projected onto the plain brick facade in February 2007.[5] As yet, no decision has been made regarding a project use Michelangelo's design to build the outer facade following his wooden model.
The
Old Sacristy
Opening off the south transept of the basilica is the square, domed space, the Sagrestia Vecchia, or Old Sacristy, that was designed by Brunelleschi (1377–1446) and that is the oldest part of the present church and the only part completed in Brunelleschi's lifetime. It contains the tombs of several members of the Medici family. It was composed of a sphere on top of a cube; the cube acting as the human world and the sphere as the heavens.
New Sacristy
Opposite the Old Sacristy in the north transept of the basilica is the
Michelangelo completed most of the statuary for the new sacristy as well, however, the statues of the two patron saints planned to accompany the
The statues that Michelangelo had carved by the time of his departure had not been put in place and were left in disarray within the chapel. In 1545, they were installed by Niccolò Tribolo.[6] By order of Cosimo I, the remaining work was completed by 1555 by Giorgio Vasari and Bartolomeo Ammannati.[7]
In a statement in a biography of Michelangelo that was published in 1553 by his disciple, Ascanio Condivi, and reportedly is based largely on Michelangelo's own recollections, Condivi gives the following description of the sculptures that were planned for the sarcophagi:
The statues are four in number, placed in a sacristy... the sarcophagi are placed before the side walls, and on the lids of each there recline two big figures, larger than life, to wit, a man and a woman; they signify Day and Night and, in conjunction, Time which devours all things... And in order to signify Time he planned to make a mouse, having left a bit of marble upon the work (which [plan] he subsequently did not carry out because he was prevented by circumstances), because this little animal ceaselessly gnaws and consumes just as time devours everything.[8][9]
Concealed corridor discovered
In 1976, a concealed corridor with drawings by Michelangelo on its walls was discovered under the New Sacristy.[10][11]
In 1527 the citizens of Florence rebelled against the Medicis; Michelangelo supported them. After the Medicis recaptured the city in 1530, Pope Clement VII, a Medici, sentenced Michelangelo to death. It is thought that Michelangelo hid for two months in a small chamber under the Medici chapels in the Basilica of San Lorenzo with light from just a tiny window, making many charcoal and chalk drawings which remained hidden until the room was rediscovered in 1975, and opened to small numbers of visitors in 2023. Michelangelo was eventually pardoned by the Medicis and the death sentence lifted, so that he could complete work on the Sistine Chapel and the Medici family tomb. He left Florence for Rome in 1534.[12]
Cappelle Medicee
The most celebrated and grandest part of San Lorenzo is the Cappelle Medicee (Medici Chapels) in the
Cappella Corbelli
The Corbelli chapel, in the southern transept, contains a monument by the sculptor
Works of art
- Bronzino – The Martyrdom of St Lawrence, fresco, north aisle
- Desiderio da Settignano – Pala del Sacramento, tabernacle, south aisle
- Donatello – two pulpits, (his last works); bronze and marble, nave
- Donatello – frieze, reliefs, tondi, and bronze doors, (Sagrestia Vecchia)
- Rosso Fiorentino – Marriage of the Virgin, oil on canvas, in one of the south aisle chapels
- Annunciation, altarpiece, north transept chapel
- Michelangelo – Madonna and Child, main wall of new sacristy and statues among the two tombs on the side walls of the new sacristy (Sagrestis Nuova)
- Antonio del Pollaiuolo – Crucifix, wood, south transept chapel
- Verrocchio– Tomb of Giovanni and Piero de Medici, bronze, marble, (Sagrestia Vecchia)
Funerary monuments
- Bernardo Cennini (goldsmith and printer) (south transept)
- Donatello (north transept)
- Francesco Landini (south aisle)
- Niccolò Martelli (north transept)
- Cosimo de' Medici (in front of the high altar)
- Cosimo I de' Medici (Cappella dei Principi)
- Cosimo II de' Medici (Cappella dei Principi)
- Cosimo III de' Medici (Cappella dei Principi)
- Ferdinando I de' Medici (Cappella dei Principi)
- Ferdinando II de' Medici (Cappella dei Principi)
- Ferdinando III de' Medici(crypt)
- Francesco I de' Medici (Cappella dei Principi)
- Giovanni di Bicci de' Medici (Sagrestia Vecchia)
- Giovanni di Cosimo de' Medici (Sagrestia Vecchia)
- Giuliano di Lorenzo de' Medici(Sagrestia Nuova)
- Giuliano di Piero de' Medici(Sagrestia Nuova)
- Lorenzo I de' Medici(Sagrestia Nuova)
- Lorenzo II de' Medici(Sagrestia Nuova)
- Piero di Cosimo de' Medici (Sagrestia Vecchia)
- Nicolas Steno
See also
- Medici Chapel
- History of medieval Arabic and Western European domes
- History of Italian Renaissance domes
- History of early modern period domes
References
Notes
- ISBN 978-3-8480-0321-1.
- ^ Eugenio Battisti. Filippo Brunelleschi: The Complete Work. (New York: Rizzoli, 1981)
- See also: Howard Saalman. Filippo Brunelleschi: The Buildings. (London: Zwemmer, 1993).
- The Macmillan Company. p. 7.
- ^ Battisti. Ibid.
- ^ The debate to finish the facade of San Lorenzo | Arttrav.com
- ^ Avery, Charles (1970). Florentine Renaissance Sculpture. John Murray Publishing. p. 190.
- ^ Antonio Paolucci. The Museum of the Medici Chapels and the Church of San Lorenzo. Sillabe Publishing 1999.
- ^ Panofsky, Erwin (1964). "The Mouse That Michelangelo Failed to Carve" (PDF) (Essays In Memory of Karl Lehmann ed.). N.Y.: Institute of Fine Arts, New York University: 242–255.
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(help) - ^ Barenboim P. D. / Peter Barenboim (2017). "The Mouse that Michelangelo Did Carve in the Medici Chapel: An Oriental Comment to the Famous Article of Erwin Panofsky".
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(help) - ISBN 5-85050-825-2
- ISBN 5-98856-016-4
- ^ Giuffrida, Angela (31 October 2023). "Michelangelo's secret sketches under church in Florence open to public". The Guardian.
- ISBN 0-333-29315-0
- ^ Wittkower, R. p. 126
- ^ Walks in Florence and Its Environs, Volume 1, by Susan Horner, 1884, page 116.
Further reading
- Balas, Edith (1995). Michelangelo's Medici Chapel: a New Interpretation, American Philosophical Society, Philadelphia
- Barenboim, Peter (2006). Michelangelo Drawings: Key to the Medici Chapel Interpretation, Moscow, Letny Sad. ISBN 5-98856-016-4
- Barenboim, Peter, Sergey Shiyan (2006). Michelangelo: Mysteries of Medici Chapel, SLOVO, Moscow, 2006. ISBN 5-85050-825-2
- Barenboim, Peter with Arthur Heath (2019). 500 Years of the New Sacristy: Michelangelo in the Medici Chapel, LOOM, Moscow. ISBN 978-5-906072-42-9
- Beck, James, Antonio Paolucci, Bruno Santi (2000). Michelangelo: The Medici Chapel, Thames & Hudson, London and New York
- Brock, Maurice (2002). Bronzino. Paris: Flammarion. pp. 20–24.
- Luchinat, Cristina A. (2002). The Medici, Michelangelo & the Art of Late Renaissance Florence. New Haven and London: Yale University Publishing. pp. 13–14.
- Pilliod, Elizabeth (1992). "Bronzino's Household". The Burlington Magazine (134): 92–100.
- Saalman, Howard (1985). "The New Sacristy of San Lorenzo Before Michelangelo". The Art Bulletin. 67 (2). Colorado Springs: 199–228. JSTOR 3050908.
- Vasari, Giorgio. "Filippo di ser Brunelesco", in: Lives of the Most Eminent Painters, Sculptors & Architects, transl. by Gaston du C. de Vere, Macmillan and & The Medici Society, London, 1912–15, archieved online as part of Internet Medieval Sourcebook by Fordham University, New York
- Wittkower, Rudolf (1958). Art and Architecture Italy, 1600–1750. Pelican History of Art (1991? ed.). Penguin Books Ltd. p. 126.