Santa Maria Novella

The next morning, with just minutes left on our Florence Cards, we made it to the Santa Maria Novella, another large church and cloister, near the bus station.

S. Maria Novella from the piazza

In the cloisters, one of the many 1430 frescoes, here,

Creation, Temptation, Expulsion, et cetera, by Ucello and

students; quite weathered, but a few still recognizable

But the big draw, outside the church itself, is the Spanish

Chapel (so-called because Spanish courtiers used to hang

out there), three vast walls and a ceiling of frescoes by

Andrea di Bonaiuti, all celebrating the Dominicans; above,

a Crucifixion plus cast of hundreds

Including cute devils

The left wall, my personal favorite, showing the Triumph of

Divine Wisdom and Glorification of St. Thomas Aquinas,

there, center/front, stomping on Nestor, Averroes, and some

other intellectual competitor

The right-hand wall glorifies the Dominicans more generally;

as ecclesiatical leaders, teachers, and as "God's dogs," at the

bottom, devouring the non-Christian wolves

In the detail here, lower register, center, allegedly, are pictured

Cimabue, Giotto, Boccaccio, Petrarch, and Dante

Up on the ceiling, the Church as ship

Church interior: a very large, austere,

preaching church for the Dominicans

Very nice, very old windows in the chancel

And enormous frescoes by Ghirlandiao and

Lippi

But the great treasure in this church is

Masaccio's Trinity, said to be the first painting

to employ Brunelleschi's new mathematics of

linear perspective

Brancacci Chapel, 2011

But the day was redeemed entirely when we made our way to the church of Santa Maria del Carmine and its Brancacci Chapel, one of the greatest sites of early Renaissance work, the frescoes of Masaccio (and his pal Masolino and much later Lippi). According to Vasari, every great Renaissance painter came to Brancacci to study what Masaccio had achieved. Masaccio traveled in the very fast company of Donatello and Brunelleschi, but died very young, at age 28. I seem to remember reading that Leonardo had said that the Renaissance had two fathers: Giotto and Masaccio. Or maybe it was Norman Rockwell that said that. Anyhow, it's all here, and all new: perspective, volume, realism, emotion, and great color.

Brancacci Chapel

You can stand that close; and take photos!

Masolino's Temptation

Masaccio's Expulsion

Most of the Brancacci is about St. Peter: here, his Healing the

Son of Theophilus

St Peter healing by the power of his shadow

alone (it's a long story)

Raising Tabitha from death

A detail from one of the Masoccio' frescoes: one of the most

reproduced of all Renaissance images

St. Peter condemned by the proconsul

One entire wall

The other

Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens

Next day we began with the Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens. These were the Medici's out-of-town, i.e., across the river, estate.

Facade of Pitti Palace, typically imposing but not well adorned

Interior courtyard

View of Boboli Gardens from Palace

The one painting we really liked, Rubens' Effects of War

Palace from gardens

Ditto, higher up, with Florence in the distance; the gardens are OK but no 
comparison with others we have seen in Italy; not to mention France, the UK, 
etc.

The Medicis, like other nobility of the age, liked to 
surround themselves with wonders and curiosities, 
among them dwarfs, who evidently ate pretty well 
and got to ride around on turtles

The Pitti Palace also has a museum of modern art, which 
we skipped; we hoped the treasury would rival Dresden's 
Green Rooms; not; but they did have this Arcimboldo-esque 
figure

The Palace also has a fashion/costume museum, which we 
hoped would rival that in the Victoria and Albert; not even 
close; but Vicki said to take a picture of this

Overall, we were not so impressed with the Pitti Palace and Boboli Gardens.

Palazzo Vecchia

The old palace was originally an administrative building. The Duomo--Brunelleschi's great cathedral dome--overshadows all of Florence. But among the city's other buildings, the Palazzo Vecchia is a significant (if distant) second, towering over the square, the Piazza della Signorio, that everyone who comes to Florence visits. It was the last stop on our five-sight day. After Savanarola's attempted coup, the Medici quickly moved in, making it their headquarters.

Palazzo Vecchio

The Hall of 500, where Savanarola's 1500 "citizenss" met; the

enormity and age of such spaces is overwhelming

Ceiling

Second floor view, with painted tapestries

But the room that was of special interest to us,

in the women's chambers, was the Penelope

Room, Penelope spinning away on the ceiling

With Ulysses doing some optical surgery on the Cyclops in

one of the side panels

Mask of Dante

And a surpassing masterpiece, Donatello's

Judith and Holofernes

The 17th century map room, with its Charlie Chaplin/Hitler-

sized globe (view The Great Dictator)

Medici coat of arms

Original floor

San Marcos

The Convent of St. Mark was built in 1436 on the order of Cosimo the Elder, to house Dominicans. There are two reasons to visit it nowadays: the very abundant frescoes and other works by Fra Angelica (and later Fra Bartolomeo) and the effects of Savanarola, prior at San Marcos, who led the anti-Medici uprising in 1496-97. Those years featured the "Bonfire of the Vanities," in which unnumbered works of secular art and literature were consigned to the flames. The reactionary demagogue Savanarola eventually offended the pope and himself was consigned to the flames in 1498. Sic semper demagogues, I say.

The bell that was rung to convene the uprisings

Fra Angelica's Crucifixion

Throughout, the cells are decorated with Fra Angelica frescoes,

many of them very well-known masterpieces; here, his

Annunciation

Fra Angelica's Linaioli Madonna (for the linen

merchants), 1433, his first public work; much

under the influence of Masaccio (whom we'll

see a bit later)

According to our 1896 Michelin Guide, Savanrola's cell

was the one with the Juda Kiss, above; the museum

designated his room otherwise

Last Supper; note the guy on the lower right with the

black halo: unusual treatment of Judas

Crucifixion

Some of Savanarola's personal effects; apparently he still

was venerated here; the signage mentions his "martyrdom"

Famous portrait of the demagogue

Artsy-fartsy shot out the window, the Duomo

Torment

The Last Supper was always a popular treatment for, you

guessed it, the refectory; this one, in what is now the gift-store,

is by Ghirlandaio, one of three he did in Florence

Jesus seems to be saying "From now on, his limit is two"; note
the guy sitting nearest does not have a halo; nor does the cat; I
regard this as rather seriously bad news for cats

Of course I'd take any Fra Angelica fresco in my bed-chamber,

but this one seems particularly appropriate

Galleria dell'Accademia

Another sight we saw that day was the Academy, right up there with the Uffizi in popularity (and price), but, in my humble estimation, a one-trick pony. Oh, there are a variety of strays from various masters, but nothing of huge importance. Except that one trick...

The real thing, too

Rare behind-the-scenes view

Oh, M's Prisoners are there too, but really not

much to look at; here, another of his Pieta,

unfnished