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WALKS IN FLORENCE: CHURCHES, STREETS AND PALACES

SUSAN AND JOANNA HORNER

Chapter XXXI:  Sta. Maria Novella

The Dominican Convent of Sta. Maria Novella was at one time, with the exception of the other Dominican Convent of San Marco, the most important religious institution in Florence.  A small church, built in the ninth century by the family of Tornaquinci, stood on the ground occupied by the transepts of the present beautiful edifice.  The principal entrance was in the Piazza Vecchia, beyond the Bacchiera gate, or postern, in the second circuit of walls, which was situated where the Via de' Banchi and the Via Panzani meet – a corner since known as the Canto de' Carnesecchi.  This church was called Sta. Maria tra le Vigne – Sta. Maria among the Vines – until the tenth century, when it was enlarged by the canons of the Florentine Cathedral, and the name was changed to Sta. Maria Novella.  It was about the year 1219 that St. Dominick sent a certain Giovanni da Salerno, or, as he was afterwards called, the Beato Giovanni, with twelve other Dominican friars, to introduce his order into Florence.  They first lodged in the Hospital for pilgrims outside the Porta San Gallo; but when St. Dominick himself arrived there in 1221, the Papal Legate and the Bishop of Florence assigned the Church of Sta. Maria Novella, as well as the adjacent land, to the Dominicans, on which they raised their monastery.  They immediately commenced building, and the first stone of the new church was laid by the Legate, Cardinal Latino degli Orsini.244  After a lapse of seventy years, two of the brothers, aided by contributions from several of the principal families of Florence, finished the church, which, from the elegance of its form and proportions, Michael Angelo called La Sposa, the Bride.

Sta. Maria Novella is one of the few churches in Florence whose façade is nearly complete.  The base was begun in the middle of the fourteenth century, but the whole was only finished as we now see it in 1470.  The architect, Leon Battista Alberti, ignoring all rules, has produced a mixture of German, Gothic, Greek, and Roman architecture, incrusted with black and white marbles, in the manner of the Baptistery and Cathedral, and the result is a composition of so much beauty and refinement, that though peculiar, it is impossible to deny its charm.

The inflated sails of the Rucellai forming the ornament in the frieze, and the decorations round the principal gate, are especially beautiful.  Tall columns of black marble, with composite capitals, are on either side; within the lunettes over each of the three doors are frescos by Ulisse Ciocchi.245 That in the central lunette represents the ceremony of the Holy Sacrament at the Feast of the Corpus Domini, when the Host was carried in procession to the Church of Sta. Maria Novella.  In the foreground St. Dominick is kneeling, and is ministered to by angels.  The lunettes over the other doors contain figures of Aaron with the manna, and the Melchisedek with the shew-bred, and are both very mediocre paintings.

On either corner of the façade are wheel-like patterns of great elegance, one of which is only half finished; below these, are astronomical instruments attached to the building.  One is a marble gnomon, or dial; the other, armillas for the observation of the solstices.  Both were made by Ignazio Danti (1537 – 1586).  Ignazio was a Dominican monk from Perugia, who was employed by the Grand-Duke Cosimo I. for geographical as well as astronomical researches, and was the author of the maps in the Stanza della Guardaroba of the Palazzo Vecchio.

Cosimo proposed to draw a meridian line within this church, but his project was frustrated by his death.  He had, however, already caused a hole to be pierced through the wall to allow the sun's ray to pass into the nave, and placed this gnomon, or marble quadrant, and the bronze equinoctial and meridian armillas, with an inscription in honour of himself, as well as a stone with a small line which marks the edge of the solar solstice in the winter of 1575.  The first armilla was to indicate the moment of midday; the second that of the equinox; and they are so constructed, that when the sun is at midday or at the equator, the light strikes the concave of both armillas, leaving two thin threads of light on either side, and when these two threads are equal, it is exactly noon.

To the right, a small oblong-shaped cloister flanks the whole side of the church, as far as the Piazza Vecchia, and the external walls of two sides are formed by the succession of white marble monuments under pointed arches, which contain the coats of arms of the families to whom they belonged.  These tombs have been recently repaired, and placed somewhat farther back than their original position, so as to widen the Via Degli Avelli, which connects the Piazza Nuova and the Piazza Vecchia of Sta. Maria Novella.

The interior of the church is in the form of a Latin cross, and, although not one of the largest, is one of the most beautiful buildings in Florence.  The nave and aisles are divided by clustered columns of excellent proportions.  In order to give an appearance of greater magnitude, Fra. Ristori and Fra Sisto allowed wider intervals between the three first columns nearest the principal entrance, and raised the pavement two steps towards the choir, the whole width of the nave and aisles.  Until the year 1568 a marble screen, with frescos and monuments attached to it, divided the church in half, and separated the male from the female worshippers.246  By order of Cosimo I., Vasari destroyed this screen, and added the chapels along the aisles.  The so-called Italian-Gothic style of the interior of Sta. Maria Novella is not correct according to architectural rules, but is nevertheless extremely beautiful.

On either side of the central door are frescos, transferred to their present position from the former screen.  That to the right, facing the spectator, is an early Florentine representation of the Annunciation.247   Beneath, in three  compartments, are the Nativity, the Baptism of our Lord, and the Adoration of the Magi.  The fresco to the left is a very remarkable painting by Masaccio.  The subject is the Holy Trinity, but it has been much injured.  The Saviour on the cross is supported in the arms of the Eternal, who is seen beneath an arch resting on Ionic columns and pilasters; the dove hovers over the head of the Saviour.  The Virgin, who is represented advanced in life, points to her Son; St. John, on the other side, stands with his hands clasped; in front is the donor, in a red cap and Florentine mantle, and his wife dressed in black.  The expression of these four heads, and the arrangement of their drapery, which falls in large folds, is very grand.248

Above the central door is a large wooden Crucifix, attributed to Giotto and his pupil Puccio Capanna, but Giotto is in reality supposed to have had very little, if any, hand in it.  Below is a mosaic representing the Holy Family in the Stable of Bethlehem; above the Crucifix is the rose-window of stained glass, which has a Coronation of the Virgin, surrounded by a garland of angels.

Beside the door to the left is a large marble slab, the monument of one of the Vecchietti family, whose mansions were near the Mercato Vecchio.  The first altar proceeding up the church has a picture of the Martyrdom of St. Lawrence, by Girolamo Macchietti, a pupil of Ridolfo Ghirlandaio.  The modern monuments on either side to the Senator Ippolito Venturi and his wife, are by the sculptor Stefano Ricci.  The four altars which follow contain pictures by Giovanni Battista Naldini (1544-1600), who was a pupil of Pontormo and of Angiolo Bronzino.  The subjects are – The Nativity, the Presentation at the Temple, the Deposition from the Cross, and St. Francis preaching, with our Saviour in the clouds above.  Both these last are highly praised by Borghini for composition and design.  The chapel containing the Deposition from the Cross is dedicated to St. Thomas à Becket, and near it are two old monuments transferred here from the former screen, and which were erected to the memory of Tommaso and Ruggieri Minerbetti, liberal benefactors to the church, and whose family claimed kindred with the celebrated archbishop of Canterbury.  The archbishop's family is supposed to have been so cruelly persecuted in England that they had to fly their country, and about the end of the twelfth century to have established themselves in Lucca, from whence they removed to Florence.  The name of Minerbetti is supposed to be a corruption of that of Becket.  Messer Ruggero Minerbetti fought on the Guelphic side in the battle of Montaperti, 1260, and thirty members of the family filled the office of priors of the Republic between the years 1283 and 1531.

These monuments were made by Silvio da Fiesole, a pupil of Andrea da Fiesole, who lived towards the end of the fifteenth century:  they are sarcophagi of white marble, beneath an architrave resting on Corinthian pilasters, and decorated with the arms of the family – three daggers on a shield – and with four very lovely cherubs' heads.  Four doorways succeed one another along the wall of this aisle; they are decorated with carved stone cornices of similar design, and one of these opens on the Chiostro degli Avelli; the two which follow are built up, and the last leads to the Capella della Purità.  Two marble busts above these doors are to the memory of Josephus Zenobi del Rosso, Professor, 1760; and Cosmæ Raynor Rossio Melocchio, Knight of St. Stephen, 1820.  In the Capella della Purità is the Crucifix before which a celebrated Dominican nun, the Beata Villana, always prayed.  There is nothing otherwise worthy of note in this plain square room.  The next chapel has an altar-piece by Jacopo Ligozzi, a native of Verona, and pupil of Paolo Veronese (1543 – 1627), who lived long in Florence, where he was much employed by the Grand-Duke Ferdinand II.  The subject of this picture is St. Raymond de Penâforte, a Spanish saint, raising a dead child to life.  The groups, though not free from affectation, are graceful and well placed.  The stone decorations on either side of the altar are extremely beautiful.  One of these is the monument to a member of the Ricasoli family, and is the work of Romolo di Taddeo da Fiesole.  Giovanni Battista Ricasoli, whose profile is represented in relief on this monument, was the counsellor and confidential friend of the Grand-Duke Cosimo I.  Born in 1504, the godson of Pope Leo X., Ricasoli was educated for the Church, and was the fast friend of the Medici.  He became chamberlain to Clement VII., and accompanied that pope to Bologna for the coronation of the Emperor Charles V.  In 1533 he escorted Catherine de' Medici to Marseilles, when she went to marry Henry, the son of Francis I.  The same year he was appointed by the Pope military commissioner, and was sent to Hungary against the Sultan Soliman.  After the death of Clement VII. He attached himself to Ippolito de' Medici, and on his death by poison, he followed his cousin, Duke Alexander.  When Alexander was murdered, in 1537, he attended the court of Cosimo I., and was created Bishop of Cortona, and sent on various missions to Charles V. at Madrid, and to Rome.  In 1548 he accompanied Prince Francis (afterwards the Grand-Duke Francis I.) to Genoa, to do homage to Philip II., the son of Charles V., and was then sent to Flanders to demand succour from Charles against the French, who were coming to the aid of the Siennese, then besieged by Cosimo.  From Flanders Ricasoli proceeded to England, and was present at the marriage of Philip to Queen Mary.  He was afterwards employed at Rome, on the death of Pope Paul III., to procure the election of a pontiff favourable to Medicean interests.  In 1557, Cosimo sent him to Henry II. of France, charged to administer a poison, prepared by the grand-duke himself, for his enemy, Piero Strozzi.  This design was frustrated by Catherine de' Medici, and Ricasoli had to take flight; but from that time forth he was known as the "Vescovo dell' Ampollina" – the Bishop of the Poison-cup.  The correspondence between Cosimo and Ricasoli, when at the court of Naples, still exists among the archives of the Strozzi family.  Ricasoli fulfilled several other missions for Cosimo, but finding himself advanced in years, he thought it best to provide for his soul; and in 1561 took up his abode in Pistoia, to which See he had been appointed the previous year, and devoted himself to his episcopal duties.  He died in 1572, and was buried in Sta. Maria Novella at Florence, where his nephews raised a monument to his memory.  He was a patron of letters, and contributed to the foundation of the Florentine Academy:  his manners were so attractive that he gained the affections of all connected with him, and had friends amongst the most illustrious personages of the day.  When Charles V. bade him farewell, he not only embraced him, but – a rare honour – kissed his cheek.249

Turning into the eastern transept, there is a very interesting portrait-bust of the Archbishop Antonino in terra-cotta.  A very ancient monument above this bust is to the memory of Tedice Aliotti, a bishop of Fiesole, who died in 1336; the monument is attributed to Lino or Tino of Sienna.  The bishop reclines on a sarcophagus, which rests on three crouching lions, and has a relief of our Saviour rising from the tomb, with the Virgin and St. John on either side; a canopy above is supported on twisted columns and pilasters; still higher is an arch with the shield of the deceased, a lion rampant.

A large fresco much damaged, beyond the monument, and lower down, was painted in memory of Joseph, the Patriarch of Constantinople, who died in Florence in 1440, during the Œcumenical Council which was summoned by Pope Eugenius IV. in the hope of reconciling the Latin and Greek Churches.  The patriarch is represented in his robes, with an image in his hand.  Over this fresco is a monument to Fra Aldobrandini Cavalcanti of Florence, who died in 1229, and contributed largely to the restoration of the church:  the friar, clothed in a bishop's robes,  is represented in relief.  The statuette of the Virgin and Child above, beneath an arch of black and white marble, is of the school of Nicolò Pisano.  A flight of stone steps leads to the chapel belonging to the Rucellai family, and at the head of the steps is a marble sarcophagus, containing the bones of Paolo Rucellai, the father of Giovanni Rucellai, at whose expense the facciata of Sta. Maria Novella was constructed.

In this chapel is the celebrated Madonna of Cimabue, painted in 1240, and born hither from his workshop in the Borgo Allegri in a festive procession.  The Virgin, above life-size, is seated; she is clothed in a red tunic and blue mantle, which is drawn over her head as a hood; her feet rest on the step of the throne, which is carved in a rich pattern and gilt; over the back of the chair is a drapery, equally rich in gold and embroidery; the throne itself is supported by six angels kneeling, three above each other, on either side.  The infant Saviour is clothed in white, with a gold mantle over his knees.250  It is from this picture we may date the impulse given to art, which developed the Florentine school of painting under Giotto.  The features of the Virgin are straight and regular; her eyes are long and almond-shaped, but more open that is usual with masters of that period; her head is slightly inclined on one side towards her child, as she looks up with a soft and dignified expression; the mouth is peculiarly sweet, the hands and fingers are exaggerated in form and length, the head is too large; but she sits gracefully, her elbow resting lightly on the arm of the throne.  The child's head is too small and his arms too long, but the expression of his countenance, as well as his attitude, possess dignity and power.  The faces of the angels are singularly lovely.

In the right-hand corner of this chapel is the old monument to the Beata Villana, removed hither from a chapel near that of the Purità.  Villana was a Florentine lady of peculiar sanctity, who died in 1360.  The daughter of a certain Andrea di Messer Lapo, a wealthy merchant who had his dwelling near the Piazza di San Felice, Oltr' Arno, she was devoted from her childhood to a life of religious contemplation, fasting, wearing a hair shirt, and spending day and night in prayer.  Her parents insisted on her marrying a youth of the noble family of Benintendi, and after her marriage she was surrounded by all the temptations and pleasures of this life, in the midst of which she forgot her religious aspirations.  One day, when dressed with unusual splendour, turning to look at herself in a mirror, she beheld, to her horror, a demon in her clothes.  She called for another mirror, and a third, but in each, she saw herself more hideous.  She accordingly changed her gay garments for her hair shirt, and hastened to the Church of Sta. Maria Novella, where, confessing her sins to one of the friars, she thenceforth returned to a life of penitence and prayer, assisting the poor, and seeing visions, until, worn out by abstemiousness, she died at the early age of twenty-eight.  Many marvellous stories are told of the Beata Villana.  Her son was buried in the tomb afterwards used by the Minerbetti family, and her grandson erected this monument to her memory.  Vasari attributes it to Desiderio da Settignano; but more recent writers on art give it to Bernardo Rossellino, also known as Gambarelli.  The saint appears as in sleep, reposing beneath a tent-like drapery, the folds of which are held back by graceful angels.  In the centre are hands holding a crown, which radiates light.  There are several pictures in this chapel, though none of transcendent merit.  One of Sta. Lucia is by Benedetto Ghirlandaio, a brother of Domenico, but very inferior as a painter.  This picture was executed for a Dominican monk, Fra Tommaso Cortesi, who is represented adoring the saint.  The Martyrdom of St. Catherine is by Giuliano Bugiardini, a Florentine (1471 – 1554), an assistant of Mariotto Albertinelli, and pupil of Domenico Ghirlandaio.  He never became very eminent, and this is his best performance.  The idea for the composition was taken from a design by Michael Angelo, for whom Bugiardini had the profoundest admiration; and a group standing apart on a terrazza is supposed to be by the hand of the great master himself.  The saint is represented as a fair young girl, whose joy and thankfulness at being saved from a torturing death is well expressed.  An early picture of an Annunciation has a lovely angel; and another painting, representing the Virgin appearing to St. Dominick, is treated almost precisely as in another picture in the Church of San Felice in Florence.

The first chapel to the left of the transept, and on a line with the high altar, is dedicated to the Holy Sacrament.  A rude bas-relief on the pilaster supporting the arch, which is kept closed by an iron grating, represents St. Gregory blessing the founder of this chapel.  The adjoining chapel belongs to the Strozzi family.  At the back is the monument to Filippo Strozzi (the elder), who built the splendid palace in the Via Tornabuoni; he died in 1491, and Benedetto da Majano (1442 – 1498) was the artist employed to execute his monument.  This sarcophagus is of black marble, and above it is a most beautiful relief in white marble of the Madonna and Child with four angels, surmounted by an exquisitely carved garland of roses and heads of cherubim.  The arch beyond is also delicately carved in arabesques.  There was formerly here the bust of Filippo Strozzi, which is now in the Strozzi Palace.  The frescos on the walls of this chapel have been exceedingly injured by repainting; they were originally by Filippino Lippi, of whom Filippo Strozzi was the patron, but were not executed until after Strozzi's death.  The subjects chosen by Filippino were incidents in the lives of St. Philip and St. John the Evangelist.  St. Philip is represented exorcising a dragon, which had been worshipped as the god Mars by the inhabitants of Hieropolis, in Phrygia.  The dragon has crept from beneath the altar, and emits such a poisonous breath that the son of the king has fallen dead in the arms of his attendants.  Philip, aided by Divine power, is restoring him to life.  The priests of the dragon, incensed against the apostle, crucify him, as represented in the lunette above; the moment chosen by the painter is when St. Philip, already nailed to the cross, is raised by cords.  The action of the men who are pulling the cords is much praised by Vasari.251  On the opposite wall St. John restores Drusiana to life.  The saint is supposed to have passed a year and a day on the island of Patmos, and was returning to Ephesus amidst the rejoicings of the inhabitants, when he met a funeral procession issuing from the gates, and was told that Drusiana, in whose house he had formerly lodged, was dead.  She was a woman much esteemed for her good works, and St. John, desiring the bearers to set down the bier, prayed earnestly for her restoration to life.  His prayer was granted, and the apostle went home with her, and dwelt again under her roof.252  Drusiana is represented in this fresco, rising from the trestle on which she is carried; St. John is looking at her with a serious countenance.  The group to the right, of a child startled by a dog, is full of nature and truth, and the women and children here, as well as in the beautiful little group of Charity in the corner, are very lovely.  The Lunette has the Martyrdom of St. John in the cauldron of boiling oil.  The monochrome imitation of architecture round these is not in very good taste.  On the ceiling are the Patriarchs and their symbols.  The painted glass of the window, with the Madonna and Child, St. John, and St. Philip, is very finely executed.

There was formerly a high altar here, the work of Baccio d' Agnolo, which was removed for the present altar, rich in mosaic work, but out of keeping with the rest of the building.  Beneath it are the remains of the Beato Giovanni da Salerno, the Dominican who founded the church.  On the pavement before this altar there was also at one time a slab in bronze with the effigy of Fra Leonardo di Stagio Dati, Prior of the Convent and Grand-Master of the Dominicans.  This monument was executed in 1426 by Lorenzo Ghiberti, when part of the church was included in the choir, but, as it was much worn from the feet of visitors, it has been removed behind the altar and within the present choir, where it is placed in an upright position.  This prior was a man of exemplary conduct, and was distinguished in letters; he was present at the Council of Constance, and was sent by Pope Martin V to the Council of Pavia; the monument was decreed to him at the public expense, in recognition of his important diplomatic services.

The choir of Sta. Maria Novella, in the apse behind the high altar, was originally a chapel belonging to the Ricci family; at their expense it was decorated with frescos by Andrea Orcagna, to whom may perhaps also be attributed the elegant architecture of the roof.  These early frescos were much damaged by a storm in 1458, when the Ricci, unable to bear the expense of the repairs, yielded their rights to Giovanni Tornabuoni, who some time afterwards employed Domenico Ghirlandaio, then a young man, to repaint the walls in fresco with scenes from the lives of the Virgin and St. John the Baptist.  Ghirlandaio had already gained a reputation by his beautiful frescos in the Sassetti Chapel of the SS. Trinità, and Tornabuoni offered to pay him one thousand two hundred gold florins for this new work, with two hundred florins more, if he was satisfied with the performance when finished.  Ghirlandaio devoted four years to the undertaking, but although Tornabuoni expressed his satisfaction, he refused to pay him the two hundred additional florins; and Ghirlandaio, who esteemed his art more than money, declared that to have succeeded in pleasing his employer was to him of higher value than any payment.

The subjects on either wall are divided into six compartments, in three parallel lines, with a lunette above.  Separating each space, are painted architectural decorations executed with great elegance and richness of detail.  In the lower compartments, on the side which contains the life of St. John the Baptist, are the Angel appearing to Zacharias at the altar, and the Salutation of Elizabeth and Mary; above, the Birth of john the Baptist, and Zacharias naming his child; still higher up, the Preaching in the wilderness, and the Baptism of Christ.  In the lunette is the Daughter of Herodias dancing before Herod; among the spectators, in the fresco of the Angel appearing to Zacharias, are portraits of several of the Tornabuoni family; Giovanni, at whose expense the frescos were painted, is next the angel.  The four half-length figures at the left-hand corner are all portraits of distinguished literary men inhabiting Florence:  the first, attired as a canon, is Marsilio Ficino; the second, with a red cloak, and black scarf round his neck, is Cristofano Landino, the commentator on Dante; the third, outside the group, is Messer Gentile, a bishop of Arezzo; and the fourth, standing in the centre and raising his hands, is Angelo Poliziano.  The three half-length figures of youths, on the right, are Federigo Sassetti, Andrea de' Medici, and Gian Françesco Ridolfi, who all belonged to the Medici Bank.  The lady in a gold brocade dress in the group of the Salutation was a celebrated, was Ginevra de' Benci, whose portrait Ghirlandaio also introduces in his frescos of the life of the Virgin.  The small figures in the distance, standing on a terrazza overlooking the town, are said to have been drawn by Michael Angelo, who was a boy studying under Ghirlandaio when this fresco was painted.

In the lower compartment on the opposite wall, which contains the life of the Virgin, are Joachim's Expulsion from the Temple, and the Birth of the Virgin; above, the Virgin's Presentation in the Temple and her Marriage; and on the line, still higher up, the Adoration of the Magi, and the Massacre of the Innocents.  In the lunette are the Death and the Ascension of the Virgin; but this last painting has been much damaged.  In the compartment where Joachim is driven from the Temple there is a group of four men in the corner nearest the window; the old man behind with a bald head and a red cap is Alessio Baldovinetti, Domenico's master in his art; the artist has taken his own portrait in the man wearing a red cloak over a grey dress, with his hand resting on his hip; the third figure, with long black hair and thick lips, is the pupil of Domenico, Sebastian Mainardi of San Gemignano;  and the fourth, seen in profile and wearing a cap is the artist's brother, David Ghirlandaio.  Ginevra de Benci, in her gold brocade dress, appears a second time, in the Birth of the Virgin.

Ghirlandaio accomplished a great work by covering so large a space with a design so rich, and executed with so much boldness.  The men have all the character of portraits, and have the quiet dignity and sobriety of demeanour appropriate to citizens of a free Republic; the women are very lovely, pure, and refined, and have a modest grace and dignity which is extremely fascinating.  The drawing of the figures and the grandiose arrangement of the drapery show the stride forward Ghirlandaio had made in art.  The landscape, architectural reliefs, sculpture, and perspective of the pavement are all excellent, and kept in due subordination, as mere accessories to the principal subject.  On either side of the windows are the portraits, life-size, of Giovanni Tornabuoni and his wife, in the costume of the day.  Giovanni has taken care that his share in the decoration of the apse should not be forgotten, for he not only sat for his portrait in the frescos, but he has blazoned his coat of arms in the most conspicuous places, although the Ricci appended one condition to their cession of the chapel, that their coat of arms should be retained in its place.  They sued him at law for the nonfulfilment of this compact; but Tornabuoni gained the suit by proving he had inserted the arms of the Ricci in an obscure corner behind the altar.

Above the portraits of Giovanni and of his wife are St. John the Baptist departing for the Wilderness, and an Annunciation; St. Francis before the Soldan, and the Death of Peter Martyr.  Over the window is the Coronation of the Virgin.  The window itself is in three divisions of richly coloured glass, the work of Alessandro Fiorentino, an expert master in his craft.  In one division are six saints; in another, the Presentation in the Temple; and in the last, the Virgin in Glory.  It was completed the year after the frescos.  In the vaulted ceiling are the Evangelists.

The wood-carving of the stalls is by Giovanni Gargiolli.
 

Santa Maria Novella

_______________

CHRONOLOGY.
 

Aliotti, Tedice d. 1336
Andrea da Fiesole 1465 - 1526
Baccio d' Agnolo 1462 – 1543
Baldovinetti Alessio 1427 - 1499
Benedetto da Majano 1442 – 1498
Bugiardini 1471 – 1554
Cavalcante, Fra Aldobrandi d. 1229
Cimabue, his Madonna painted 1240 [sic]
Council of Florence 1440
Danti, Ignazio 1537 – 1586
Ghirlandaio, Benedetto 1458 – 1497
Ghirlandaio, David 1452 – 1525
Ghirlandaio, Domenico 1449 – 1494
Ghirlandaio, Ridolfo 1483 – 1561
Giovanni da Salerno came to Florence 1219
Giotto 1276 – 1337
Landino Cristoforo 1424 – 1504
Ligozzi, Jacopo 1543 – 1627
Lippi, Filippino 1457 – 1504
Macchietti, Girolamo, pupil of R. Ghirlandaio 1534 – 1592
Masaccio 1401 – 1428
Marsilio Ficino 1433 – 1499
Naldini, Giovan Battista 1537 – 1592
Poliziano, Angelo 1454 – 1494
Sta. Maria Novella finished 1470
Villana, Beata d. 1360
 
 
 

Notes
 

244 The Pope then reigning was Nicholas III.
245 Possibly the son of Giovan Maria Ciocchi, a Florentine painter of the seventeenth century.
246 This is still usual in the church of San Zenone at Verona, where the ascent to the choir is by a numerous flight of steps.
247 Ellen Orton's comment:  "A picture which I took a great liking for."
248 See "Crowe and Cavalcaselle," vol. i. p. 543.
249 "Genealogia e Storia della Famiglia Ricasoli" – Luigi Passerini, 1860.
250 See "Crowe and Cavalcaselle," vol. i. p. 204.
251 See also "Crowe and Cavalcaselle," vol. ii. p. 448.
252 See "Sacred and Legendary Art," by Mrs. Jameson, p. 150.
 
 

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Chapter XXXII:  Sta. Maria Novella – (Continuation)
 
 

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