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Spatial Conflicts: Unfinished Church Facades in Fifteenth Century Florence

Spatial Conflicts: Unfinished Church Facades in Fifteenth Century Florence. Roslyn Halliday , Monash University. San Lorenzo.

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Spatial Conflicts: Unfinished Church Facades in Fifteenth Century Florence

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  1. Spatial Conflicts: Unfinished Church Facades in Fifteenth Century Florence Roslyn Halliday, Monash University

  2. San Lorenzo San Lorenzo was consecrated in 393 CE. Was the city’s cathedral for 300 years. In 1419 Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici offered to finance new building. Brunelleschi was commissioned and work was mostly completed by 1459. Michelangelo comissioned by Pope Leo X to design new façade with marble in 1518. Façade remains incomplete to this day.

  3. Santa Maria Novella Dominican church built between around 1246 and 1360. Façade completed around 1470, probably designed by Leon Battista Alberti. Giovanni Rucellai was the patron.

  4. Santo Spirito Augustinian church situated in the Oltrarno (across the river). Building began in early 15th century on site of a 13th century church probably destroyed by fire. Brunelleschi designed the church. Façade remains incomplete to this day.

  5. Santa Maria del Fiore – the Duomo 1296 - Arnolfo di Cambio charged with design for the new cathedral including façade. Construction of façade was begun but torn down in 1587. Remained incomplete until 1887, when it was finished according to the design of Emilio de’ Fabris.

  6. 1. The Classical architectural style that was held as an ideal during the Renaissance posed problems for the completion of church facades as few clear models existed of how architects were to attain this ideal, especially with regard to pre-existing churches.

  7. Pazzi Chapel Designed by Brunelleschi around 1430. Commissioned by the Pazzi family, completed in the1460s.

  8. Santa Croce Franciscan church, consecrated in 1443. Remained without a façade until 1853-1863.

  9. Santa Maria Novella Dominican church built between around 1246 and 1360. Façade completed around 1470, probably designed by Leon Battista Alberti. Giovanni Rucellai was the patron.

  10. 2. Humanist perceptions of built space led to architecture and urban design becoming a means for conveying messages about the power, wealth and importance of the city as well as that if its patrons. This posed problems for completing church facades, especially ones that overlooked small piazzas as the façade needed to be clearly visible for these messages to be effectively conveyed.

  11. Santo Spirito Augustinian church situated in the Oltrarno (across the river). Building began in early 15th century on site of a 13th century church probably destroyed by fire. Brunelleschi designed the church. Façade remains incomplete to this day.

  12. Spatial arrangement of Santo Spirito, Piazza Santo Spirito and the Arno River

  13. San Lorenzo San Lorenzo was consecrated in 393 CE. Was the city’s cathedral for 300 years. In 1419 Giovanni di Bicci de’ Medici offered to finance new building. Brunelleschi was commissioned and work was mostly completed by 1459. Michelangelo comissioned by Pope Leo X to design new façade with marble in 1518. Façade remains incomplete to this day.

  14. Note the size of piazzas in the city

  15. Spatial arrangement of San Lorenzo and Palazzo Medici. Note also small piazza size when compared with Santa Maria Novella (far left).

  16. San Lorenzo façade 18 February 2007

  17. Michelangelo’s design 1515-1519

  18.  3. Contestation unfolded at the level of the building committee or opera which oversaw the commissions. Conflicts between committee members, which were able to rage over centuries, directly contributed to the incomplete state of Florence’s church facades.

  19. Santo Spirito Augustinian church situated in the Oltrarno (across the river). Building began in early 15th century on site of a 13th century church probably destroyed by fire. Brunelleschi designed the church. Façade remains incomplete to this day.

  20. The incomplete façade of the Duomo.

  21. Fresco 1342. The original façade of the Duomo by Arnolfo di Cambio is visible (to the right).

  22. Some of the surviving models of a façade for Santa Maria del Fiore (Duomo) made between 15-16th century. From top left clockwise: Giovanni de’ Medici (1566-1621) Giovanni Antonio Dosio (but some have attributed it to Medici due to coat of arms) Cigoli Academy of Design – this model won a competition and construction of it actually began in 1636. Only one month later construction was called to a halt.

  23. Construction of the façade of Santa Maria del Fiore. 1887.

  24. For further reading: Alexandra Carroll and Roslyn Halliday, Reading Renaissance Florence, Monash Publications in History, 2005 Roger Crum and John Paoletti (eds), Renaissance Florence: A Social History, Cambridge University Press, 2006 Marvin Trachtenberg, Dominion of the Eye: Urbanism, Art and Power in Early Modern Florence, Cambridge University Press,1998

  25. What has this got to do with Unit 3 & 4 Renaissance Italy? • Consider the following questions with the person sitting next to you: • How has your understanding of fifteenth-century Florence been enhanced? • What connections can you make between this presentation and the content of the Year 12 course? • Eg. Unit 3, Area of Study 1 – The impact of humanist ideas on the built environment

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