Previous Chapter | Next Chapter | Table of Contents
Piazza Santa Maria Novella, near the train station, has been restored to its former glory thanks to a years-long project completed in 2009. The streets in and around the piazza have their share of architectural treasures, including some of Florence’s most tasteful palaces. Between Santa Maria Novella and the Arno is Via Tornabuoni, Florence’s finest shopping street.
Top Attractions
Fodor’s Choice |
Museo Stibbert.
A connoisseur’s favorite, this extraordinary museum captures the vogue for antiquarianism that brought many of the leading esthetes of the 19th century to Florence. In this case, Federico Stibbert (1838–1906), born in Florence to an Italian mother and an English father, began by creating a romantic castle that proved to be an interesting amalgam of neo-Gothic, Renaissance, and English eccentric. Over a lifetime of collecting, Stibbert filled it with some 50,000 objects
(specialties include porcelains, armor, and Napoleonic memorabilia) showcased in magnificent Salone degli Feste (Festival Rooms). These orgyizations of opulence use tapestries, painted leathers, lacquer furniture, and gilded chandeliers to create theatrical visions of 19th-century splendor. Stibbert had a fascination with medieval armor and also collected costumes, particularly Uzbek costumes, which are exhibited in a room called the Moresque Hall. These are mingled with an
extensive collection of swords, guns, and other devices whose sole function was to kill people. The paintings, most of which date from the 15th century, are largely second-rate but then, for this crowd, paintings were mere “decoration.” Outside is a magical park, dotted with “follies” such as the Egyptian Temple. All in all, this place is the absolute quintessence of Florentine aestheticism. To get here, take Bus 4 (across the street from the station at Santa Maria Novella)
and get off at the stop marked “Fabbroni 4.” Then follow signs to the museum. | Via Federico Stibbert 26 | 50124 | 055/475520 | www.museostibbert.it | €5 | Mon.–Wed. 10–2, Fri.–Sun. 10–6. Tours every half hr.
Meet the Medici
The Medici were the dominant family of Renaissance Florence, wielding political power and financing some of the world’s greatest art. You’ll see their names at every turn around the city. These are some of the clan’s more notable members:
Cosimo il Vecchio (1389–1464), incredibly wealthy banker to the popes, was the first in the family line to act as de facto ruler of Florence. He was a great patron of the arts and architecture, and the moving force behind the family palace and the Dominican complex of San Marco.
Lorenzo il Magnifico (1449–92), grandson of Cosimo il Vecchio, presided over a Florence largely at peace with her neighbors. A collector of cameos, a writer of sonnets, and lover of ancient texts, he was the preeminent Renaissance man.
Leo X (1475–1521), also known as Giovanni de’ Medici, became the first Medici pope, helping extend the family power base to include Rome and the Papal States. His reign was characterized by a host of problems, the biggest one being a former friar named Martin Luther.
Catherine de’ Medici (1519–89), was married by her cousin Pope Clement VII to Henry of Valois, who later became Henry II of France. Wife of one king and mother of three, she was the first Medici to marry into European royalty. Lorenzo il Magnifico, her great-grandfather, would have been thrilled.
Cosimo I (1519–74), the first grand duke of Tuscany, should not be confused with his ancestor Cosimo il Vecchio.
Fodor’s Choice |
Santa Maria Novella.
The facade of this church looks distinctly clumsy by later Renaissance standards, and with good reason: it is an architectural hybrid. The lower half was completed mostly in the 14th century; its pointed-arch niches and decorative marble patterns reflect the Gothic style of the day. About 100 years later (around 1456), architect Leon Battista Alberti was called in to complete the job. The marble decoration of his upper story clearly defers to the already existing work
below, but the architectural motifs he added evince an entirely different style. The central doorway, the four ground-floor half-columns with Corinthian capitals, the triangular pediment atop the second story, the inscribed frieze immediately below the pediment—these are borrowings from antiquity, and they reflect the new Renaissance style in architecture, born some 35 years earlier at the Spedale degli Innocenti. Alberti’s most important addition—the S-curve scrolls (called
volutes) surmounting the decorative circles on either side of the upper story—had no precedent whatsoever in antiquity. The problem was to soften the abrupt transition between wide ground floor and narrow upper story. Alberti’s solution turned out to be definitive. Once you start to look for them, you will find scrolls such as these (or sculptural variations of them) on churches all over Italy, and every one of them derives from Alberti’s example here.
The architecture of the interior is, like that of the Duomo, a dignified but somber example of Florentine Gothic. Exploration is essential, however, because the church’s store of art treasures is remarkable. Highlights include the 14th-century stained-glass rose window depicting the Coronation of the Virgin (above the central entrance); the Cappella Filippo Strozzi (to the right of the altar), containing late-15th-century frescoes and stained glass by Filippino Lippi; the cappella maggiore (the area around the high altar), displaying frescoes by Ghirlandaio; and the Cappella Gondi (to the left of the altar), containing Filippo Brunelleschi’s famous wood crucifix, carved around 1410 and said to have so stunned the great Donatello when he first saw it that he dropped a basket of eggs.
Of special interest for its great historical importance and beauty is Masaccio’s Trinity, on the left-hand wall, almost halfway down the nave. Painted around 1426–27 (at the same time he was working on his frescoes in Santa Maria del Carmine), it unequivocally announced the arrival of the Renaissance. The realism of the figure of Christ was revolutionary in itself, but what was probably even more startling to contemporary Florentines was the barrel vault in the background. The mathematical rules for employing single-point perspective in painting had just been discovered (probably by Brunelleschi), and this was one of the first works of art to employ them with utterly convincing success.
In the cloisters of the Museo di Santa Maria Novella, to the left of Santa Maria Novella, is a faded fresco cycle by Paolo Uccello depicting tales from Genesis, with a dramatic vision of the Deluge. Earlier and better-preserved frescoes painted in 1348–55 by Andrea da Firenze are in the chapter house, or the Cappellone degli Spagnoli (Spanish Chapel), off the cloister. | Piazza Santa Maria Novella 19 | 50123 | 055/210113, 055/282187 museo | www.museicivicifiorentini.it | Church €3.50, museum and chapel €2.70 | Museum: Fri.–Mon. 10–4. Church: Mon.–Thurs. 9–5:30, Fri. 11–5:30, Sat. 9–5, Sun. 12–5.
Santa Trinita.
Started in the 11th century by Vallombrosian monks and originally Romanesque in style, the church underwent a Gothic remodeling during the 14th century. (Remains of the Romanesque construction are visible on the interior front wall.) Its major works are the fresco cycle and altarpiece in the Cappella Sassetti, the second to the high altar’s right, painted by Ghirlandaio between 1480 and 1485. His work here possesses such graceful decorative appeal as well as a proud
depiction of his native city (most of the cityscapes show 15th-century Florence in all her glory). The wall frescoes illustrate scenes from the life of St. Francis, and the altarpiece, depicting the Adoration of the Shepherds, veritably glows. | Piazza Santa Trinita | 50123 | 055/216912 | Mon.–Sat. 8–noon and 4–6.
Worth Noting
Museo Salvatore Ferragamo.
If there’s such a thing as a temple for footwear, this is it. The shoes in this dramatically displayed collection were designed by Salvatore Ferragamo (1898–1960) beginning in the early 20th century. Born in southern Italy, the late master jump-started his career in Hollywood by creating shoes for the likes of Mary Pickford and Rudolph Valentino. He then returned to Florence and set up shop in the 13th-century Palazzo Spini Ferroni. The collection includes about 16,000
shoes, and those on exhibition are frequently rotated. | Via dei Tornabuoni 2 | 50123 | 055/3561 | €5 | Wed.–Mon. 10–6.
Palazzo Strozzi.
The Strozzi family built this imposing palazzo in an attempt to outshine the nearby Palazzo Medici. Based on a model by Giuliano da Sangallo (circa 1452–1516) dating from around 1489 and executed between 1489 and 1504 under il Cronaca (1457–1508) and Benedetto da Maiaino (1442–97), it was inspired by Michelozzo’s earlier Palazzo Medici-Riccardi. The palazzo’s exterior is simple, severe, and massive: it’s a testament to the wealth of a patrician, 15th-century Florentine
family. The interior courtyard, entered from the rear of the palazzo, is another matter altogether. It is here that the classical vocabulary—columns, capitals, pilasters, arches, and cornices—is given uninhibited and powerful expression. Blockbuster art shows frequently occur here. | Via Tornabuoni,
Piazza della Repubblica | 50123 | 055/2776461 | www.palazzostrozzi.org | Free, except during exhibitions | Daily 10–7.
Previous Chapter | Beginning of Chapter | Next Chapter | Table of Contents