Florence (Firenze) Santa Maria Novella

Basilica Di Santa Maria Novella.  The first incarnation of the basilica, Santa Maria delle Vigne, was built in 1094 on the site of a c. 9th-century chapel. The property was given to the Dominicans—called Domini Canes, Hounds of the Lord, because they took a bite out of sin and corruption—in 1221, building began in 1246, and was completed by Fra’ Jacopo Talenti in the mid-14th century. He was also responsible for the bottom of the intricately crafted Romano-Gothic facade that is considered one of the greatest masterpieces of early Renaissance architecture. The top was executed in the 15th century by Leon Battista Alberti. Made from Florentine marble, this geometrically pure complex of perfectly aligned squares and painstakingly traced circles is a precursor to the Classical revival of the high Renaissance (see Life and Times). Inlaid friezes show the emblems of the Rucellai (one of the church’s benefactors) and Medici, to honor the wedding of Bernardo Rucellai and Nanni di Medici in 1461. The arcades to the right house the family vaults of Florentine nobles; they lead to the old cemetery, where Domenico Ghirlandaio is buried.

Thirteenth-century frescoes covered the interior until the Medicis commissioned Vasari to paint new ones. Vasari spared Masaccio’s powerful Fresco of the Trinity and the Virgin and St. John the Evangelist (c. 1428), the first painting to use geometric perspective. It’s on the north side of the church (left, if you’re facing the altar). The vast, vaulted ceiling is made of striated dark pietra serena. For the most part, though, the church’s notable works lie in the many family chapels.

In the Rucellai chapel are a statue of the Madonna and Child by Nino Pisano and the tomb of the Dominican Francesco Lionardo Dati by Ghiberti. The 13th-century frescoes in the Cappella dei Bardi have been attributed (tentatively) to Cimabue. The Cappella di Filippo Strozzi, to the right of the high altar, contains unusually antiquity-influenced frescoes by Filippo Lippi, including a cartoonish Adam, a woolly Abraham, and an excruciating Martyrdom of St. John the Evangelist. Lippi also designed the stained-glass windows and the trompe l’oeil frescoes of the altar wall. Filippo Strozzi’s tomb is the work of Benedetto di Maiano. Boccaccio’s Decameron features the chapel as a meeting place for some of his protagonists.

In the sanctuary are frescoes by Ghirlandaio and his assistants (including, possibly, a young Michelangelo); their Biblical scenes contain many portraits of medieval Florentines. Brunelleschi’s crucifix in the Gondi Chapel is a response to Donatello’s crucifix in Santa Croce, which Brunelleschi thought was too full of “vigorous naturalism.” The horror. The vault fresco fragments in the same chapel date from the late 13th century, depicting the Evangelists. The Cappella Strozzi (another one) houses beautiful frescoes by Nardo di Gione (mid-14th century) showing Thomas Aquinas, the Last Judgment, Paradise, and Inferno (after Dante). Nardo’s brother, Andrea, painted the altarpiece.

Outside the church, in the Chiostro Verde, are 15th-century frescoes by Paolo Uccello which, though damaged, can still be made out to depict some Genesis stories. Adjoing the cloister is the Cappella dei Spagnuoli (Spanish Chapel), used by the Spanish members of Duchess Eleonora of Toledo’s entourage, adorned with bright frescoes by Andrea di Bonauioto and assistants (14th century). Finally, the Museo di Arte Sacra houses frescoes and statues (some by Andrea Orcagna) in the old refectory. (Piazza di Santa Maria Novella. ☎055 21 59 18. Open M-Th and Sa 9am-5pm, F and Su 1-5pm. €2.50)

Chiesa Di Santa Trinità.  Hoping to spend eternity as they had lived—in elite company—the most fashionable palazzo owners commissioned family chapels in this church, built in the 11th century by Vallombrosian monks and expanded through 1405. The stone facade, designed by Bernardo Buontalenti in the 16th century, is an exquisite example of late Renaissance architecture, while the interior boasts 14th-century Gothic style. Scenes from Ghirlandaio’s Life of St. Francis (1486) decorate the Sassetti Chapel. The scene above the altar shows Pope Honorius giving St. Francis the Rule of the Order in P. della Signoria; the audience includes the figures of Lorenzo il Magnifico and Sassetti, the merchant who commissioned the cycle. In the scene of The Miracle of the Boy Brought Back to Life, you can see P. Santa Trinità and the church with its original facade. In the second chapel left of the altar is Luca della Robbia’s tomb of Benozzo Federighi, with the enameled terra cotta for which his family’s workshop was famous. (In P. di Santa Trinità. ☎055 21 69 12. Open M-Sa 7am-noon and 4-6pm, Su 7am-noon. Free.)

Chiesa Di San Salvatore Ad Ognissanti. This church was originally part of the complex founded in 1251 by the Umiliati, a monastic order devoted to physical labor rather than to alms-giving and asceticism. Frescoed with false architecture in soft grays and yellows, this peaceful church doubles as Botticelli’s final resting place. His tomb is located directly to the right of the high altar, in the right-hand chapel down the corridor behind the piano. Marked by a yellow lion on a blue shield, the small stone bears his real name, Mariano Filipepi. The church is not merely home to Botticelli’s body but also his body of work: between the third and fourth altars hangs his portrait of St. Augustine. Directly across the nave, Ghirlandaio’s St. Jerome honors another scholar of the Church. (P. Ognissanti 42. ☎055 23 96 802. Open M-Sa 7am-12:30pm and 4-8pm, Su 4-6pm. Free.)

Il Cenacolo Di ‘Fuligno.’ When it was originally rediscovered in 1843, this version of The Last Supper was believed to be a once-lost masterpiece by Raphael. The fact that Raphael himself had lauded it as a work of a genius apparently didn’t strike anyone as oddly arrogant—Raphael did, after all, spend a lot of time in Florence—and so it wasn’t until much later that historians correctly identified the artist as Pietro Perugino. Though less well-known than his fellow Umbrian, Perugino was no less influential on Renaissance art. Visitors to the Cenacolo can compare the works by his imitators and admirers to his masterpiece on the back wall. In this depiction, the traitor Judas has his purse of 30 silver coins clutched under the table, and he looks out at the viewer with a weary, unreadable expression. Above the supper itself, the Agony in the Garden plays out on a hillside. (V. Faenza 40. Open Tu, Th, Sa 9am-noon. Free.)