Pazzi Chapel
The Pazzi Chapel ( Cappella dei Pazzi ) is a legacy of the Pazzi family , also known from the Pazzi Conspiracy . The chapel was built under the direction of Filippo Brunelleschi at the Franciscan Church of Santa Croce in Florence .
Building history
After some previous agreements, construction began in 1442 . The chapel was one of the incunabula of the Renaissance - architecture , strictly and unobtrusive. It is made of gray sandstone called pietra serena and provided with white marble incrustations; apart from the tondi, it is not loosened up inside by any other colors. A hemisphere as a dome (completed after Brunelleschi's death according to his plans) covers a cube-shaped sacristy for the Franciscan church: here the Pazzi were allowed to bury their dead.
Building description
Exterior construction
At the edge of the first cloister on the south side of S. Croce is a building that was built largely according to Brunelleschi's plans, the chapter house of the former monastery, the Pazzi chapel from the years 1430 to 1461. When construction began, Brunelleschi only had four Years to live, the chapel was only completed 15 years after his death, so it is assumed that another architect must be held responsible for the design.
The Pazzi were a noble family who succumbed to the Medici in the struggle for power. Your chapel is a central building, so its floor plan follows the architectural ideal of Renaissance architecture. The Renaissance tried, if the floor plan of a church was already given as a nave - as here also with S. Croce - at least in part of the church to realize its idealized central structure. At the cathedral it was the entire east building with the huge dome. Here and at San Lorenzo there are chapels.
The Pazzi Chapel, with its dome ten years earlier, is one of the most important early Renaissance buildings . It begins with a vestibule supported by six Corinthian columns. The vault of the vestibule with its coffered ceiling repeats ancient models - according to today's view an addition by Giuliano da Maiano , 1460 (Jestaz, p. 521). This vestibule is the symbolic remnant of the cloister on which the chapter house was located in the Middle Ages. The Pazzi Chapel reached considerable proportions, so it was considerably larger than the chapter rooms of the Middle Ages.
inner space
The interior design, which apparently largely coincides with Brunelleschi's plans, is not just a further development of the ground plan and elevation of the old sacristy by S. Lorenzo from 1421. The entire room is determined by extremely refined and sensitive proportions (pilaster motif at the corners: the middle one Rectangle belongs not only as an extension and repetition to the right arch system, but also as a lower part to the inner arch design of the other wall. At the same time, together with the adjacent rectangle on the left, it belongs to the wall design of the left wall, which in turn repeats the arch motif in the area. Such geometrical interlocking obscures the traditional impression of a simple four-walled room).
Particularly in the capital zones you can see the filigree means with which Brunelleschi worked to blur the impression of the corner. Some capitals are not flat, but rather bent in such a way that they belong to both walls.
The arched forms of the main room are repeated in the three walls of the two short side rooms and also extend to the ceiling, so that the entire room is defined by the blending of these basic forms. In addition to the arch, the circular motif is repeated in different stages according to this principle. It appears first in the dome of the vestibule and then in different variations in the main room. The wall designs are not placed next to each other - as in the old sacristy by S. Lorenzo - but are partly interlaced, whereby the dome itself is also included. Already on the entrance facade it becomes clear that the connection of vertical, slender columns and the entrance arch anticipates the central design principle of the interior.
literature
- Bertrand Jestaz: The Art of the Renaissance. (= Ars antiqua. Series 3, Vol. 4). Freiburg (Breisgau) et al. 1985, ISBN 3-451-19404-X .
- Rolf Toman (ed.): The art of the Italian Renaissance. Architecture - sculpture - painting - drawing. Könemann, Cologne 1994, ISBN 3-89508-054-3 .
- Klaus Zimmermanns: Florence. A European center of art. History, monuments, collections. 6th edition. DuMont, Cologne 1990, ISBN 3-7701-1441-8 .
- Emma Micheletti: Santa Croce. Firenze 1982.
Web links
Coordinates: 43 ° 46 ′ 4.8 ″ N , 11 ° 14 ′ 46.8 ″ E