Santissima Annunziata (Florence)
| Basilica of Santissima Annunziata | |
|---|---|
.JPG) View from the Piazza SS. Annunziata |
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| Data | |
| place | Florence |
| builder | Michelozzo di Bartolommeo, Leon Battista Alberti and Giovanni Battista Caccini |
| Construction year | 1250-1857 |
| Coordinates | 43 ° 46 '38.5 " N , 11 ° 15' 39.5" E |
Santissima Annunziata is a Roman Catholic church of the rank of minor basilica in Florence and the founding and monastery church of the Servite Order . The church, which was founded in the 13th century and, especially in the first half of the 15th century, was rebuilt to its present form, gave its name to the adjacent piazza and houses one of the city's most important and most revered shrines . It got its name and its patronage after the Annunciation , Italian : Santissima Annunziata .
history
According to legend, the later mendicant order of the Servites was founded in 1233 by seven merchants in Florence. After the lay brotherhood had developed into a religious community with fixed rules around 1245/46, it was granted the right to build a church in February 1250. The building site was then outside the city walls of Florence . With the last wall ring, built between 1280 and 1333, the church of Santissima Annunziata, which was expanded in 1254, became part of the urban area. The constantly enlarged and decorated church building and the social activity of the order shaped the urban development and design of the square, later known as Piazza dell'Annunziata, as well as the street connecting the cathedral, known as Via dei Servi (also: Via de 'Servi ) of Florence and the Church of the Servites.
The veneration of the Annunciation fresco by Santissima Annunziata, which can already be proven from the middle of the 14th century , led to an unusually strong practice of the faithful leaving wax votive offerings . The large number of these wax objects, including some life-size statues and even portraits of riders in actual size, shaped the appearance of the church well into the 18th century, but also the shops of traders in Via dei Servi . This cultural practice was extensively examined and appreciated , especially by Julius von Schlosser .
Exterior view
Courtyard ( Chiostrino dei Voti )
inner space
Tabernacle of the Annunciation
Apse rotunda ( Tribuna )
Great cloister ( Chiostro dei Morti )
architecture
.JPG)
Santissima Annunziata is a north-facing, single-nave hall church on a cross-shaped floor plan. The core of the current building goes back to the fourth extension, which was carried out by Michelozzo from around 1440 . The nave, which was redesigned in the Baroque style by Pier Francesco Silvani's alterations in the 1660s and 1670s, is flanked by five chapels each, which are largely connected by passages. To the north of the transverse arm, the nave ends with an enormous rotunda , which is enclosed by a ring of nine chapels. To the left of this so-called tribuna is the sacristy .
In front of the church is the so-called Chiostrino dei Voti , which was originally covered by a loggia supported by two columns. From 1601 onwards, the Pucci family from Florence expanded it into an imposing seven-arched loggia. With this shape, her architect Giovanni Battista Caccini takes up the older facade of the adjoining Ospedale degli Innocenti , which was designed by Filippo Brunelleschi , as well as the arched fields of the Loggiato dei Servi opposite the Ospedale, designed by Antonio da Sangallo the Elder from 1516 . To the west of the church building of the Santissima Annunziata is the convent building with two large cloisters , a library and numerous functional rooms. More than half of these building wings are now used by the Istituto Geografico Militare and the University of Florence and are accessible via Piazza di San Marco or Via Cesare Battisti.
Furnishing
Chiostrino dei Voti (or dei Bóti )
The forecourt, which owes its name to the votive offerings (Italian: voti , in the dialect bóti ) that were moved here in the late 17th and 18th centuries for aesthetic and structural reasons , is surrounded by fourteen cross-vaulted bays. Under Grand Duke Leopold II , the courtyard was provided with a glass roof in order to protect the significant frescoes from climatic influences.
After the first two frescoes by Alesso Baldovinetti and Cosimo Rosselli , created in 1463 and 1475 respectively, in the lunettes, one of the most important picture cycles of the High Renaissance was created from 1509 onwards . The depictions of Andrea del Sarto and his two most important students, Jacopo da Pontormo and Rosso Fiorentino , show the life of Mary and the legend of the religious saint Filipp Benizi . Another representation of the series, which was not completed until 1517, comes from Franciabigio .
To the east of the forecourt is the Oratorio di San Sebastiano, to the west, as a counterpart, is a passage from the piazza to the large cloister.
Annunciation fresco and tabernacle
Santissima Annunziata achieved its special significance primarily through a fresco of the Annunciation to Mary , which is now on the left side of the opposite facade when entering the church. The large-format miraculous picture, which was probably made by a Florentine painter around 1350, quickly became a legend that it was started around 1250 by an alleged "Master Bartolommeo" and completed by an angel . The actual authorship is disputed. In the 16th century the fresco was attributed to Saint Luke and Pietro Cavallini , among others . An attribution to Matteo di Pacino or Orcagna is discussed from the more recent research . The oldest known copy is dated 1369.
In 1447, on behalf of Piero de 'Medici , Michelozzo di Bartolommeo made the now visible, more than five meter high tabernacle, which was supposed to frame the picture protectively and at the same time form a kind of chapel room. The consecration took place in 1452. The tabernacle was later supplemented by baroque structures. Piero also had a private oratory set up in the immediately adjacent nave chapel, accessible through a separate door from the courtyard, with which he created exclusive access to the miraculous image.
Eastern chapels and right cross arm (selection)
Cappella dell'Addolorata (di Santa Maria Maddalena)
On the northern wall of the fifth chapel on the right side of the longitudinal house there is a marble grave of Orlando di Guccio de 'Medicis , which was probably created after 1456 and is attributed to Bernardo Rossellino .
Cappella di Santa Barbara e San Quirico
The chapel served the German and Flemish compatriots in Florence ( Compagnia dei Tedeschi e Fiamminghi ), primarily merchants, for prayers and masses. The painter Giovanni Stradano , among others , is buried here in a grave designed by his son Scipio.
Cappella della Pietà
In the chapel immediately to the right of the choir area, the sculptor Baccio Bandinelli represented himself in the figure of Nicodemus . The white marble Pietà, dated 1559, was created just before the artist's death in 1560.
Western chapels and left transverse arm (selection)
Cappella Montauto
The Cappella di San Girolamo, which was furnished by Alessandro Allori on behalf of the Montauto family in the 1560s , paraphrases the main Roman works of Michelangelo , especially from the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel and his Last Judgment . During later restorations, an important Quattrocento fresco by Andrea del Castagno was rediscovered under the Alloris altarpiece .
Apse rotunda ( Tribuna )
The rotunda, begun in 1444 and executed by Michelozzo , which extended the church by about a third, is traditionally attributed to Leon Battista Alberti . Under the enormous span of the dome is the choir area, whose current appearance dates from the 17th century. It was painted between 1680 and 1683 by Baldassarre Franceschini , known as Il Volterrano .
Between the tribuna and the nave is the also baroque altar, which replaces an older system from the early 16th century: after a contract awarded to Leonardo da Vinci for the high altar failed, it was made by Filippino Lippi and after Lippi's death by Pietro Perugino completed. This plaque is now in the Florentine Galleria dell'Accademia .
Cappella della Natività
There are important panels by Alessandro and Cristofano Allori as well as Jacopo Ligozzi and Domenico Cresti .
Cappella della Risurrezione
In the chapel to the left of the main chapel (the Cappella della Madonna del Soccorso ) there is a major work by Agnolo Bronzino with the Resurrection of Christ . On the left side wall of this chapel there is also a Saint Rochus by the northern Alpine sculptor Veit Stoss, who was particularly praised by Giorgio Vasari .
Cappella della Madonna del Soccorso
After Bandinelli failed to acquire the main chapel, his sculptor colleague Giambologna succeeded in doing so in 1594. In the following years, he lavishly furnished the chapel and designed it as a personal burial place, but also as a possible burial place for other Flemish artists who had no relatives in the city had. The sculptural jewelry in the chapel comes from Giambologna, his students and colleagues Pietro Francavilla and Pietro Tacca , who is also buried here. The painting comes primarily from Ligozzi and Giovanni Battista Paggi .
Further equipment
Great cloister ( Chiostro dei Morti )
In the so-called Chiostro dei Morti , the largest cloister of the convent, shortly after 1600 the saints of the Servites were depicted in 24 fields . The painters are Bernardino Poccetti , Ventura Salimbeni , Arsenio Mascagni and Matteo Rosselli .
Andrea del Sarto's Madonna del Sacco from 1525 is also one of the main works of the church. The fresco is located above the connecting door of the western cross arm to the large cloister and was admired and copied many times by travelers interested in art , especially during the European Grand Tour .
The chapter house in the north-west wing, which is mainly decorated with decorations made after 1722, and the refectory with a large fresco by Santi di Tito can also be reached from the large cloister .
Cappella di San Luca
The former chapter house on the northern arm of the large cloister was given to the newly formed artists' association of the Accademia del Disegno in 1561 at the instigation of Giovanni Angelo Montorsoli . Its members, in addition to Montorsoli above all Giorgio Vasari , Alessandro Allori and Santi di Tito , refurbished the chapel in the following years up to around 1575. In addition to other artists, Jacopo da Pontormo and Benvenuto Cellini are buried here. The chapel was consecrated to the Holy Trinity until the building was realigned in the early 19th century, and later it was named after Saint Luke .
In the chapel there is a functioning organ from 1702. In addition, the room is now used to store other works of art, including an early work by Pontormo ( Madonna with Saints , dated 1514) and a crucifix attributed to Antonio di Francesco da Sangallo , which was 1500.
literature
- Elisabeth Paatz, Walter Paatz: The churches of Florence. An art history manual. 6 vol. Klostermann, Frankfurt am Main 1940–1954, vol. 1, pp. 62–196.
- Francesca Petrucci: Santissima Annunziata. Palombi, Rome 1992.
- Sabine Hoffmann: One saint and seven founders. The cycle of frescoes on the origins of the Servite Order in the Chiostro dei Morti of the Santissima Annunziata in Florence (1604–1618). Deutscher Kunstverlag, Berlin / Munich 2013.
- Gabriele Alessandrini, Carlo Sisi: La Basilica della Santissima Annunziata. 2 vols. Edifir, Florence 2013–2014.
Individual evidence
- ^ Giorgio Vasari : The life of Cimabue, Giotto and Pietro Cavallini. Newly translated into German by Victoria Lorini. Edited, commented by introduced by Fabian Jonietz and Anna Magnago Lampugnani. Wagenbach, Berlin 2015, pp. 42–43 and p. 109.
- ↑ Wolfgang Liebenwein: The "privatization" of the miracle. Piero de 'Medici in SS. Annunziata and San Miniato , in: Piero de' Medici “il Gottoso” (1416–1469). Edited by Andreas Beyer and Bruce Boucher. Berlin 1993, pp. 251-290.
- ^ Anne Markham Schulz: The Sculpture of Bernardo Rossellino and his Workshop. Princeton 1977.
- ↑ See in detail Hoffmann 2013.
