florence images and descriptions

7/30/2019 Florence Images and Descriptions

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Florence, cradle of the Renaissance

Florence's cathedral standstall over the city with its

magnificent Renaissancedome designed by FilippoBrunelleschi. The cathedralnamed in honor ofSantaMaria del Fiore is a vastGothic structure built on thesite of the 7thcentury church of SantaReparata, the remains ofwhich can be seen in the

crypt.

The exterior is covered in a decorative mix of pink, white and green marble.

The interior, by contrast, is quitestark and plain. The mosaicpavements are certainly its mainattraction witin.

The biggest artwork within the cathedralis Giorgio Vasari's frescoes of the LastJudgment(1572-9): they were designed byVasari but painted mostly by his less-talentedstudent Frederico Zuccari by 1579.

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Located in Piazza del Duomo, right in front of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore, is ,the Baptistery, dedicated to Florence's patron saint. It has an octagonal plan and anoctagonal lantern with a cupola. Outside it is clad in geometrically patterned coloredmarble, white Carrara marble and green Prato marble that is typical ofFlorentineRomanesque architecture. On three of the four sides there are three large doors famousfor their decorations. The golden East Doors (facing the Duomo) are also known as the

Gates of Paradise after a famous quotation by Michelangelo.

Architecturally, the Church of Santa MariaNovella is one of the most important Gothicchurches in Tuscany.The exterior is the work ofFra JacopoTalenti and Leon Battista Alberti. The interiorholds extraordinary works of artincluding Masaccio's Trinit,Ghirlandaio'sfresco cycle in the Tornabuoni Chapeland Giotto's Crucifix, among others.

The Tornabuoni Chapel is the main chapelyou see at the front of the church. Thechapel is dedicated to both the Virgin Mary,to whom the church is dedicated (scenes onthe left), and to St. John the Baptist (sceneson the right). The frescoes areby Domenico Ghirlandaio and hisworkshop, in which a very youngMichelangelo apprenticed.

Santa Croce, rebuilt for the Franciscan orderin 1294 by Arnolfo di Cambio, is the burial place forthe great and good in Florence. Michelangelo isburied in Santa Croce, as are Rossini,Machiavelli,and the Pisan-born Galileo Galilei, who was tried by

the Inquisition and was not allowed a Christian burialuntil 1737, 95 years after his death. There is alsoa memorial to Dante, but his sarcophagus is empty.

When the Medici moved from PalazzoVecchio to Palazzo Pitti, they decidedthey needed a connecting route from

the Uffizi to the Palazzo Pitti on theother side of the Arno that wouldenable them to keep out of contactwith the people they ruled. The result
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was the Corridoio Vasariano, built in 1565 by Vasari and which runs above the littlegoldsmiths' shops on the Ponte Vecchio.

There have been stores on the Ponte Vecchio since the 13th century. Initially, there were alltypes of shops, including butchers and fishmongers and later tanners, whose industrial wastecaused a pretty rank stench. In 1593, Ferdinand I decreed that only goldsmiths and jewellers

be allowed to have their stores on the bridge.

This enormous palace is one of Florence's largestarchitectural monuments. The original palazzo wasbuilt for the Pitti family in 1457, designed by FilippoBrunelleschi and built by his pupil Luca Fancelli.In 1549, the property was sold to the Medicis andbecame the primary residence of the grand ducalfamily. The palace was then enlarged and altered;from 1560, Bartolomeo Ammannati designed andadded the grandiose courtyard and two lateral wings.Today, the Pitti Palace houses some of the mostimportant museums in Florence: on the first floor isthe Palatine Gallery, containing a broad collection

16th and 17th century paintings, and theRoyal

Apartments, containing furnishings from a remodeling done in the 19th century; on the groundfloor and mezzanine the Silver Museum (Museo degli Argenti) displaying a vast collectionof Medici household treasures; and the Gallery of Modern Art is on the top floor, holding a

collection of mostly Tuscan 19th and 20th century paintings.In the separate Palazzina del Cavaliere on the upper slopes of the Boboli Gardens isthe Porcelain Museum, while the Palazzina of the Meridiana contains the Costume Gallery,a showcase of the fashions of the past 300 years.

Behind the palace lie the famous Boboli Gardens.

Designed in 1869 by Florentinearchitect Giuseppe Poggi, Piazzale Michelangelooffers panoramic views of Florence and the Arnovalley and is a popular spot with locals andtourists.Today, the piazza is filled with tourists, vendors,and a bronze replica of Michelangelo's David.


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The Piazza della Signoria has been the center of

political life in Florence since the 14th century with the

prominent Palazzo Vecchio overlooking the square.The sculptures in Piazza della Signoriabristle withpolitical connotations, many of which are fiercelycontradictory. The David (the original is in the Galleriadell'Accademia) by Michelangelowas placed outsidethe Palazzo Vecchio as a symbol of the Republic'sdefiance of the tyrannical Medici. Bandinelli's Herculesand Cacus (1534) to the right of the David wasappropriated by the Medici to show their physical powerafter their return from exile. The Nettuno (1575)byAmmannati celebrates the Medici's maritimeambitions and Giambologna's equestrian statue of

Duke Cosimo I (1595) is an elegant portrait of the man who brought all of Tuscany under Medicimilitary rule.

The graceful Loggia dei Lanzi,which functions as an open-airsculpture gallery, was designedby Orcagna in 1376. Its curvedarches foretell Renaissanceclassicism. The statueofPerseo holding Medusa'shead, by Cellini (1554), is astark reminder of what

happened to those who crossedthe Medici, and alongwith Giambologna'sRape ofthe Sabines, are two of manybeautiful sculptures foundunder the arches of the Loggia dei Lanzi.

Right behind the Loggia dei Lanzi is the Galleria degli Uffizi, also known as theUffizi Gallery,Italy's top art museum.
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