The Piazza S. Croce. In 1250 the first popular Assembly was held here; and here, in 1342, Walter de Brienne, Duke of Athens, coming out of S. Croce, first roused the populace against the nobles. The statue of Dante, by Enrico Pazzi, was placed in the centre of the piazza on the sixth centenary of his birth, 1864, in presence of Victor Emmanuel and deputations from all parts of Italy, hungering for that independence and unity “promised by our ever-living poet.” After the flood of 1966, the statue was moved to its present location on the north side of the basilica.

The Church of Santa Croce was begun in 1297, by Franciscan monks, from the designs of Arnolfo di Lapo, on ground given them by the Altafronte family. But little remains of the original building externally; the modern façade, in the mediaeval diagonal style, of black and white marble, a work of Nicolo Matas, is due to the generosity of an Englishman, Mr. Francis Sloane, and was finished in 1863. In the north porch are some mediaeval sarcophagi. The Holy Cross is several times represented.

The somewhat tatterdemalion interior is striking from its vast width, and the blaze of rainbow glass around the choir gives some compensating richness of colour, but it is spoilt by the brown and white wash with which it is covered, and by its fine, but unbefitting, roof. It is a peculiarity of the nave that it has no side chapels. The chancel is almost entirely of the time of Arnolfo di Lapo. The patchy colour given to it by the numerous grey slabs, tombs, canopies, renaissance altars, blocked-up aisle-windows, and frescoed walls is, after all, becoming to an ancient and ill-kept abbey-church.

In 1514 S. Croce became celebrated for the extraordinary religious revival under Fra Francesco da Montepulciano, who preached sermons so awful that his vast audience would sometimes cry “Misericordia!” with one voice, at other times almost seemed as if they had lost their senses with horror and grief.

Santa Croce nave

The nave extends seven bays in length, and is followed above the arches by a corbelled gallery or passage, above which occurs the clear-storey, every alternate window being closed up. The columns are of serena and octagonal in form, and upon several are fastened painted and carven plaques, bearing old Florentine coats-of-arms. In the olden days the bare aisles were rich with votive pennons, swords, and helmets of those who had fought or fallen. It is to be feared that Vasari swept much of this attraction before him, when Duke Cosimo I. gave him orders to improve the church in 1560. He is the author of the ugly altars we now see in the aisles, and he moved the choir, as was done at S. Maria Novella, from the middle of the church, together with the pulpitum and rood. The aisle-windows (S.), filled with precious fourteenth-century glass with rich quarry borders, are a blaze of glory on bright May afternoons above the gloomy array of often very ugly tombs. The roof, though unbefitting, forms an interesting study of gabled timber work. It, moreover, interferes with the effect of the church by truncating the pediment at either end. The transepts form here the head of the letter T.

The Church is almost surrounded by monuments of the great men of Italy, though comparatively few of them possess artistic interest.

Agnolo Gaddi, Scenes on the north wall, 1385-87

On the North wall—

1. People venerating the Cross while being carried in procession.
2. The capture of the Cross by Chosroes, King of Persia, at his taking of Jerusalem.
3. The Vision of Chosroes. The King seated in his golden tower, and posing as the King of Kings. The defeat of his son by the Emperor Heraclius.
4. Heraclius carries the Cross back to Jerusalem. He occurs twice in the fresco, on horseback and on foot, having presumed to enter the Holy City on his charger, until, warned by an angel, he dismounted, and bore the Cross into the city without hindrance. Agnolo Gaddi himself is portrayed in the right-hand corner, bearded and wearing a red hood.

The beautiful glass is of the 14^th century, c. 1325.

Let us now take the successive chapels on the S. of the Choir.

(1). The Bardi (chapel), whose arms (or, a bend lozengy gules) appears in the windows here and there, owned this chapel, and were one of the leading banking firms in fourteenth-century Florence—the Villani, and Boccaccio’s father, being in their service. For them Giotto has illustrated his own favourite subject, the life of S. Francis.

Beginning on the North Wall—

On the South Wall—

(2) The next chapel, equally famous for its paintings, which were restored in 1844, is that of the Peruzzi, two of whom are here commemorated by monuments. The frescoes, also by Giotto, and his most representative works, illustrate the lives of the two SS. John.

On the North Wall—

These are much less restored than are the paintings in the Bardi Chapel. They tell their story with an almost Homeric force and simplicity, unembarrassed by learned accessories.

Luigi Pampaloni, Tomb of Giulia Clary Bonaparte, 1847

(3) The third chapel, formerly Giugni, and now Bonaparte, once likewise decorated by Giotto, has lost every trace of his work. It belonged to the ex-King of Spain, Joseph Bonaparte, hence his monument, and that of Giulia Clary, his wife, by Pampaloni. That of their daughter Charlotte, wife of Charles L. Napoleon, brother of the Emperor Napoleon III. (1839), is by Bartolini. A slab placed on the pilaster between the two last chapels commemorates the Emperor.

(4) The fourth, or Soderini-Riccardi Chapel, contains the Discovery of the Cross, by Jean Bilivert (1576–1644); S. Francis praying, by Matteo Rosselli; and S. Francis giving his goods to the Poor, by Passignano (1566–1638). The vault is painted with episodes in the life of S. Andrew by Giov. de San Giovanni. Observe the beautiful late thirteenth-century glass in these chapels.

(5) The fifth, or Morelli-Velluti, is dedicated to S. Michele, and decorated by a series of much-damaged Giottesque frescoes illustrating the story of the appearance of S. Michael to a rich shepherd on Monte Gargano, which caused that mountain promontory to become the great Apulian place of pilgrimage in the Middle Ages, to which even Canute of England found his way. The altar-piece, Assumption of the Virgin, is by C. Allori. The Velluti were important merchants, and are commemorated in the names of one or more streets.

The door in the S. Transept leads to the Sacristy, which we now enter through a door on the left. It is a square chamber, containing also the railed-off Rinuccini chapel. On application, the fine inlaid presses will be shown, together with ancient vestments, some of beauty, missals, &c., which form a museum. A number of little Giottesque paintings, which formerly adorned the panelling of the walls, were removed to the Accademia. On the S. wall are frescoes of the same school. The two crucifixes here are attributed, one to Margheritone, and the other to Giotto. There is another, by Santi di Tito; a Nativity, by Bugiardini, a scholar of Domenico Ghirlandaio; and a S. Antonio, attributed to Perugino; and near the door is a Head of Christ, by A. Della Robbia.

The walls of the Rinuccini Chapel are decorated with ill-preserved frescoes by Giovanni da Milano, the most important of Taddeo Gaddi’s pupils. On the vaulting is the Saviour in the act of Benediction, and four prophets.

The Altar-piece and the Frescoes belong to the last quarter of the fourteenth century, and the latter depict the lives of the Virgin and Mary Magdalene, both facts and legends.

Michelozzo, Medici Chapel, 1435-45 (photo via Wikimedia Commons)

We now turn to the left along the corridor, and enter the Chapel of the Medici, dedicated to their patron saints, Cosmo and Damiano, physician-martyrs, and containing some of the most beautiful objects in the church. Let us first, however, before looking at these, call to mind that the body of Galileo (1542) rested here for fifteen years before it was permitted to be interred befittingly in the nave of the church itself. Vincenzo Viviani, his disciple (1703), was likewise brought in here. The chapel was built for Cosimo by Michelozzo.

Andrea and Giovanni della Robbia, Medici Chapel Altarpiece, c. 1495 (photo via Wikimedia Commons)

Above the altar is a Della Robbia Relief, showing the Virgin and Child beneath a frieze of charming cherubim, with angels crowning her, between S. John the Baptist, S. Elizabeth, with roses falling, S. Anthony of Padua; and (L. H.) S. Lawrence, S. Francis, and S. Louis of Toulouse. Above the door is a lunette, probably by Andrea della Robbia, representing Christ between angels, with a fruit-garland around. There is a fascinating Ciborio by Mino da Fiesole (1431–84).

Giotto, Coronation of the Virgin, c. 1334

A Coronation of the Virgin, in five panels, formerly the altar-piece of the Baroncelli Chapel, is a beautiful work, with forged signature of Giotto, whose painting it, nevertheless, probably is.

The predella contains SS. Francis, the Baptist, Peter, and Paul the Hermit.

Baroncelli Chapel, 14^th century window

Baccio Bandinelli, Dead Christ and Angel, 1550s

On returning to the church, on our left is the Cappella Baroncelli, with a grand fourteenth-century window of eight panels, with arms of the Baroncelli in the crowning light, below which S. Francis is seen receiving the stigmata from a winged crucified Saviour.⁴Arms of Baroncelli: 6 bands, silver, gules. Below are SS. Peter and John Baptist, SS. Augustine and Gregory, and SS. John and Bartholomew—all set in crocketted canopies, enclosed in a gorgeous bordure of vine-leaves, green and gold, on a blue and red ground. The colossal dead Christ before it, upon the altar, is by Bandinelli.

The cross-vaulting contains four angels. At the sides next the window, in six compartments, are frescoes of Taddeo Gaddi.

On the L. wall of the chapel (E.), in five compartments, are:

Bastiano Mainardi, Assumption of the Virgin with the Gift of the Girdle

On the opposite (W.) wall, above a statue of Madonna by Vincenzio Dante (sculptor of the statue of Julius III. at Perugia) is a large fresco by S. Mainardi, showing the Madonna letting down the cintola, or girdle, to the ever-doubting Thomas, who kneels, aureoled, at her open sarcophagus, which is filled with flowers.

Next to the exit occurs a fine mid-fourteenth century Baroncelli tomb, with five-cusped canopy carried on twisted (tortellate) columns, having classic caps. It is, however, best admired from the other side the wall, where the centre is filled with an iron grille of quatre foils, within a rich sixteenth-century frame of stonework. The inscription below tells us that, in 1327, four brothers of the Baroncelli raised the chapel in honour of God and the Beata Annunziata.

We next enter the Chapel of the H. Sacrament, lit by an ugly square window. It consists of two bays with cross-vaulted ceilings. On the L. pier as we enter is a bronze plaque to Benedetto Varchi, historian of Florence, 1502–65; and within the chapel the monument of Alice, Countess of Albany (Stolberg), wife of the Pretender (1772), who later, having left him, married the poet Alfieri, and died at Florence in 1824. On pedestals in front of the pilasters dividing the chapel are two Franciscan saints by Della Robbia, of fine expression, especially that on the left. The frescoes on the walls to the right, all much damaged, represent episodes in the life of S. Nicolas of Bari; and, second bay, the life of S. John Baptist.

On the left wall, first bay, S. John the Divine; and, second bay, episodes in the life of S. Anthony.

We now descend five steps again into the transept, and in the floor, utterly neglected and unprotected, is, among others, the first-rate canopied effigy in high-relief of white marble of Biordi degli Ubertini (1353), showing that chain mail resisted the invasion of plate mail longer in Italy than in England.

Odoardo Fantacchiotti, Tomb of Prince Neri Corsini, 1860

The white marble cenotaph on the main pier of transept is that of Prince Neri Corsini who died of small-pox in London, 1859, while carrying on negotiations for the Grand-Duke Leopold II.

Let us now pass across the front of the choir to the chapels north of it.

1. The Tosinghi-Spinelli-Sloane Chapel with modern frescoes by Martellini.
2. S. Anne contains a monument to Pietro Nardini, an excellent violinist and composer of the Scarlatti school, 1725–96. On the two pilasters fronting the transept are bronze plaques commemorating Victor Emmanuel II. and Cavour, the great statesman.
3. S. Antonio, has modern frescoes by the Sabatelli family.
4. Has a fine fourteenth-century window containing SS. Mathias, Maurice, Stephen, and L . . . . ius. This is the Pulci Beraldi chapel, and contains frescoes by Daddi. A heavy stone chained to the right pilaster fell in 1698, but injured no one. Over the altar is a Madonna and Child enthroned with Angels, by one of the later Della Robbia firm. The arms depicted are, argent, gules, a barry of eight.
5. S. Silvestro, also a Bardi chapel with a fine family tomb on left to Andrea dei Bardi (1367). The frescoes here, much damaged, represent episodes in the life of S. Sylvester. The lowest on the right gives with much character the triumph over the dragon in the Foro Romano which the Mirabilia tells us killed so many people in the time of Constantine, who is seen looking on at the miracle.
6. Niccolini Chapel entered through a handsome cinquecento door with monolith columns of Sicilian jasper. The frescoes on the cupola are by Volterrano. It is quite a museum of Roman marbles, and will never look old. The statues are by Francavilla.

The spacious chapel with a long grille terminating the transept is also a (third) Bardi chapel, but is only interesting for its beautiful fourteenth-century glass, much of which is lamentably hidden by the altar, above which the Bardi shield, or and gules, is seen. The window in the left wall (W) has unfortunately been shortened at base, but it consists of two lights and a circular head, with the Bardi arms repeated. The panels contain kings and saints framed in exceptionally lovely armorial quarries of lions and popinjays, and shields with argent-gules, a barry of eight. Another fourteenth-century Bardi tomb flanks the fine grille on the W. side.

We next enter the Salviati-Borghese Chapel, containing a monument to Countess Zamoyska by Bartolini, and another to Vannucci by Pazzi. Vannucci was an ardent writer for the liberty of Italy, and librarian of the National Library. He died 1880. Against the transept pier stands Fantacchiotti’s cenotaph to the great composer Cherubini (1760–1842).

Below us, under all those handsome marble slabs, lie the Bardi, Sachetti, Taldi, Albergotti, Strozzi, and others.

Elevated portico to left, Pazzi Chapel center, begun 1441 (phot via Web Gallery of Art)

But let us now get a breath of the more open air by stepping across to the great cloisters, which are found through a door, usually open, near the fifth bay of the south aisle, formerly the chief entrance for the monastic processions here. Contrary to custom, we find ourselves standing in a long raised portico, some ten feet above the level of the cloister-garth—a device against the floods of Arno. Immediately beneath us we descend into the portico of Brunelleschi’s beautiful chapel. The cloisters, now united, were formerly two in number; the larger, built by Arnaldo di Lapo, is centred by a statue originally intended for the high altar in the Duomo which was removed thither in 1843. On our left is a marble sarcophagus of the early fourteenth century with the effigy of Gastone della Torre of Milan, Bishop of Aquileia in Dante’s time.

Filippo Brunelleschi, Pazzi Chapel, begun 1429-30 (sig photo)

The unique Cappella dei Pazzi formerly served as a chapter-house, and not merely for the friars of the convent, but for those of the entire Order. It was raised at the cost of Andrea dei Pazzi, and dedicated to his apostolic name-saint. The façade consists of a Corinthian portico of four bays divided by a noble and lofty arch leading to the door of the chapel itself. The wall above these becomes an extended frieze, or screen, which in turn supports a low loggia covered by a leaning roof. Within, the walls are decorated by twelve Della Robbia medallions in white on blue, and above them is a Della Robbia frieze of lambs and cherubim running round the entire walls. The vaulting of the portico is also panelled with rosettes, and over the door are the Pazzi arms, two dolphins addorsed between five daggers.

Taddeo Gaddi, Tree of Life and Last Supper, c. 1350, Great Refectory (photo via Web Gallery of Art)

Beyond, through a beautiful door, by Brunelleschi likewise, is entered the Great Refectory, the walls of which are covered with frescoes by the scholars of Gaddi, illustrative of the lives of Christ, S. Francis, and S. Louis. Here are collected many objects of family and archaeological interest, including a fresco from the vanished Church of S. Maria Sopra Arno, attributed to Andrea del Castagno.

The Minor Refectory is frescoed by Giovanni di San Giovanni (1590–1636): S. Francis miraculously multiplying loaves. The library was taken to enrich the “Laurenziana” in 1766. In one of the chambers toward the Piazza the Holy Inquisition used to hold its sittings; and here, in 1328, Cecco D’Ascoli, astrologer, poet, and physician, was condemned to be burned outside the Porta S. Croce. Tommaso Crudeli, likewise a physician, was also condemned here.

The Inquisition here held its tribunals from 1284 to 1782, and practised appalling cruelties. Until the end of the XVIII c. the first cloister bore the inscription—“Qui si punisce quel che in Dio non crede e l’assicura nella vera fede.” [Here are punished those who don’t believe in God and the true faith is protected.] One or two instances are memorable.

Cecco d’Ascoli with armillary sphere

Cecco d’Ascoli, while at Bologna, a university whose learned atmosphere was suspected of being full of perilous stuff, had published a commentary on “De Sphæra Mundi” by Sacrobosco (John Holiwood), for which he had been cited and reprimanded in the Convent of S. Domenico in that town. He was also a practising physician there, and it is shrewdly to be suspected that a father and son, Dino and Tommaso del Carbo, rival practitioners, undertook his ruin. He, however, escaped with his life. This was in 1324. In May 1327 we find him appointed Court astrologer-physician at Florence to Charles, Duke of Calabria, and enjoying the reputation of a vain and bitter man, a despiser of women, a clever prophet, and an open mocker of the lately deceased national poet, Dante. Unfortunately, his former rival Dino was likewise practising in this city of thorns and roses; and at Court, the Bishop of Aversa procured his dismissal on the ground of being a fatalistic philosopher; and presently appeared on the Tribunal bench at S. Croce, before which the wretched Cecco was charged with being a relapsed heretic in July: “Pieno di eresie, falsita ed inganne.” [Full of heresies, falsehood and deceit] His doom was pronounced September 15, and next day all Florence flocked to the place of execution, called “Africa,” just beyond the neighbouring walls of the city, many expecting that spirits might come down and carry off the astrologer from the flames, which were fed by the MSS. of his condemned works, including L’Acerba, his poem.

It was in the Convent of S. Croce that Sixtus V., as a monk, went stooping as if in decrepitude, “looking for the keys of S. Peter.”

The “Dormitorium” has vanished. The Second Cloister is used for barracks.⁵Although both the 6th and 9th editions of Florence note that “The Second Cloister is used for barracks,” this is no longer the case.– Ed.It was designed by Brunelleschi.

Around the pleasant Cloister are monuments of minor Tuscan celebrities.

Innocento Spinazzi, Tomb of Machiavelli, 1787 (photo via Wikimedia Commons)

In the pavement of the third bay is a stone recording the spot where lie the remains of Ugo Foscolo (1776–1827), author of I Sepolcri (1807), an officer in the army collected by Napoleon for the invasion of England. Foscolo emigrated thither in 1816, and died in Chelsea, having become a teacher of Italian and lecturer on the literature of his land.

Near by is the cenotaph to Machiavelli (1469–1527) by Spinazzi, placed here in 1787. Statesman, diplomatist, and masterly writer, Secretary of State for fourteen years; banished in 1512, when he wrote “Il Principe” in retirement, for the use of Lorenzo de’ Medici.

Giorgio Vasari, Tomb of Michelangelo, 1570

Near the First Altar of this aisle is Vasari’s monument to Michelangelo Buonarroti, the bust being by B. Lorenzo (1475–1564). Pius IV. wished the body buried in Rome, where the master had died, but the Florentines hastily carried it away by night, and brought it here.

On the pier opposite is a stoup for holy water, above which is a Mandorla, or almond-shaped glory, containing a beautiful Madonna and Child, encircled by cherubim, and placed there by the Nori in memory of their illustrious kinsman, Francesco, a Prior of the Republic, who during the murderous attack on Lorenzo dei Medici by the Pazzi in the Duomo, hurled himself between him and the assassins, and so received his death-blow. Leo X. gave Indulgence to all who prayed for Nori’s soul. The work is by Ant. Rossellino (1427–79).

Stefano Ricci, Cenotaph of Dante, 1818-29 (photo via Wikimedia Commons)

The monument to Dante will scarcely interest those who have visited Ravenna, where his remains lie in “the little cupola more neat than solemn.” [Lord Byron, Don Juan, Canto 4] It is by Ricci (1829). A bronze tablet commemorates, next, Mazzini (1805–72), the ardent and dexterous patriot, who achieved so well for the independence and unity of Italy, and met with constant encouragement in England, where he spent some years. Opposite the fifth pier of the same aisle (going toward the transept) is a medallion to Abbé Luigi Lanzi, the historian of Italian painting, a Jesuit scholar, who founded the excellent Etruscan Museum, and died in 1810. Opposite the sixth pier is a slab marking the spot where lie the remains of Rossini(1792–1867), brought from Paris in 1886.

Beyond the door of the north aisle is the tomb of Fossombroni, minister to the Grand Dukes Pietro Leopoldo and Ferdinando III., ob. 1844. Then a plaster monument, with a statue, commemorates Donatello. Lastly we reach the tomb of Angelo Tavanti, the jurist, 1781; of the learned Pompeo Signorini, 1812; of the historian, Giovanni Lamio; and the monument of Galileo by Foggini. In the centre of the nave is a flat tomb, with an incised figure and mosaic border, to John Ketterick (spelt Catrick), Bishop of Exeter, who died here in 1419, on a mission from Henry V. to Pope Martin V. Many others of the monumental slabs and incised figures let into the pavement are deserving of study, especially one in bold relief of “a Galileo of the Galilei, who in his time was head of philosophy and medicine, and who also in the highest magistracy loved the Republic marvellously.”

Left of the main entrance is the tomb of the learned Gino Capponi, author of the Storia della Repubblica di Firenze (1884).

The Via de’ Malcontenti (so called because criminals were led along it to execution), on the north of S. Croce, contains at its farther end the Pia Casa di Lavoro, or Work-house, erected on the site of two convents, the Monte Domini and the Monticelli.

No. 7 has an interesting coat-of-arms on a shield: Per pale, a demi-griffon holding a star, and in base, chequy impaling a chevron between roses, “in sublime.”

Lorenzo di Credi, Caterina Sforza, c. 1482

The next street which runs parallel to the “Malcontenti” is the Via Ghibellina, named, in 1261, after the Ghibelline victory at Monte-Aperto. Here was the Convent of S. Maria delle Murate, whither the famous Caterina Sforza, Duchess of Forli, commonly called “La Madonna di Forli,” retired in 1498, and continued to reside till her death in 1509. She had, though only in her thirty-ninth year, survived her three husbands—Girolamo Riario, nephew of Sixtus IV., murdered 1488; Giacomo Feo, murdered 1495; and Giovanni de’ Medici, by whom she was the mother of Giovanni delle Bande Neri, 1498. She had undergone numerous sieges, and been cruelly imprisoned for a year in the castle of S. Angelo.⁶She was the direct ancestress of Alfonso XII. of Spain.  She was buried in the convent chapel, but her tomb was wilfully broken up, and her remains thrown away (!) on the recent conversion of the building into a State prison (1832–1983). Here, in 1529, Catherine de’ Medici was placed under the protection of the nuns, being then only seven years old. Since 2002 the former nunnery and prison has housed the Faculty of Architecture and a museum.

In the Via Allegri, which crosses the Ghibellina, was the studio of Cimabue (1240–1300), who, says Vasari, “gave the first light to the art of painting.” His most important works remain in his native city.

Fabio Borbottoni, View of the ancient Isola delle Stinche

The Accademia Filarmonica and the Teatro Verdi (formerly the Pagliano Theatre), in the Via Ghibellina, occupy the site of the historical prisons, called the Stinche, demolished in 1838. Telemaco Bonaiuti designed the Neo-Classical theatre for Girolamo Pagliano. The new theatre opened with a performance of Verdi’s Rigoletto in September 1854. On the stairs of the Accademia is a curious fresco called the “Scimia della Natura,” attributed to Giottino: it is an allegory relating to the expulsion of the Duke of Athens. A tabernacle, on the exterior of the Accademia, of a merchant bestowing alms upon the prisoners, while the Saviour and angels look on, is by Giovanni di San Giovanni.

In the neighbouring Via del Fosso (named from its position on the moat of the early city) is the Palazzo Conte Bardi, a graceful work of Brunelleschi. Here, in an orange garden opposite the theatre (now destroyed), the handsome page, Lelio Torelli, beloved by Isabella, daughter of Cosimo I., was murdered by her jealous husband, Troilo Orsini. This story is the subject of Guerazzi’s novel Isabella Orsini.

Santi Simone e Giuda (photo via Wikimedia Commons)

Behind the Teatro Verdi is the little Church of S. Simone, founded in 1202, restored by Silvaniin 1698, where Raffaellino del Garbo is buried. Some women were burnt for heresy in its little piazza, February 14, 1551.

Casa Buonarroti (photo Casa Buonarroti Museum)

Opposite the Teatro Verdi (No. 64 Via Ghibellina) is the House of Michelangelo Buonarroti (No. 70), which, in 1858, was bequeathed to the city of Florence by Cosimo Buonarroti, a descendant of the brother of the great master.

The Casa Buonarroti contains a Battle of Hercules and the Centaurs and the Madonna of the Steps, bas-reliefs that Michelangelo executed while still a youth. Vasari highly praised both works, but Hare found the former to be “a hopelessly confused and ugly relief.”

Michelangelo Buonarroti,
Model for the façade of San Lorenzo, 1517 (photo via Web Gallery of Art)

Other works by Michelangelo include a wooden model for the façade of San Lorenzo that was never executed; a reclining river god, perhaps intended for the New Sacristy; a collection of drawings shown in rotation; and a number of small sculptural bozzetti including a wax model for the David, and some autographs of the sculptor.

Giuliano Finelli, Bust of Michelangelo Buonarroti the Younger, 1630 (photo via Web Gallery of Art)

To celebrate the life of his great uncle, Michelangelo Buonarotti the Younger commissioned the leading artists of his time then resident in Florence to decorate the ceilings and walls of a suite of four rooms. Completed between 1613-37, the artists included Artemisia Gentileschi, Jacopo da Empoli, Domenico Passignano, and Pietro da Cortona.

Oratory of SS. Procolo e Nicomede (photo via Wikimedia Commons)

In the neighbouring Via Giraldi were the houses of the historic chronicler-family, the Villani.⁷Giovanni, Matteo, and Fillippo. The Oratory of SS. Procolo e Nicomede is a relic of one of the oldest churches in Florence. At the end of the Via Ghibellina we again find ourselves at the Bargello, opposite which were the houses of the powerful Counts Gondi of the Casentino.