Santa Maria del Fiore

The church Santa Maria del Fiore is the cathedral of Florence (Duomo). It is the fourth church of Europe by its size, after Saint-Pierre of Rome, Saint-Paul in London and the cathedral of Milan. It makes 153 meters length and the base of the cupola makes 90 meters broad. Its plan particular, is composed of a body of basilica with three naves welded with a bedside in trefoil arch which supports the immense cupola of Brunelleschi. It is the largest cupola out of apparatus built ever built. One can see, inside, one of the largest narrative frescos: 3.600 m of frescos, carried out between 1572 and 1579 by Giorgio Vasari and Federigo Zuccaro.

The construction, started on the old foundations of the church Santa Reparata, in 1296 by Arnolfo di Cambio, was continued by Giotto of 1334 (which will start only the construction of the bell-tower) until its death in 1337. Francesco Talenti and Giovanni di Lapo Ghini will continue construction in 1357. In 1412, its name was changed into Santa Maria del Fiore. The church was devoted on March 25th of the year 1436, at the end of work of the cupola of Brunelleschi, by the Pope Eugenio IV.

At present, it is the cathedral of the archdiocese of Florence.

Preexistent buildings

At the end of the 13th century, the " Platea Episcopalis" , the episcopal whole of Florence, presented the three buildings which still compose it, to the space relations and reports/ratios completion different. The current place San Giovanni was hardly more than one widened street making the turn of the baptistry of San Giovanni, which was then the true heart of the unit. It was just supplemented by its attic and its roof out of marble in the shape of octagonal pyramid. In the east, crossed at once the " Carry of Paradis" , which was not decorated yet its doors out of bronze made by Ghiberti, the threshold of the church of Santa Reparata appears which had at its Eastern end a true harmonic heart provided with two bell-towers.

Like crowning of this " Platea Episcopalis" draws up also the old church of San Michele Visdomini, later moved more in the north, which was on the same axis Baptistère - Dome, as well as the oldest Florentin hospital. In the south draw up the dwellings of the canons, organized around a central cloister.

The cathedral of Santa Reparata, although old and venerated, is not appropriate any more as a church of a city in strong expansion, rich person and powerful, which has just regulated its accounts with its rival, His, and imposed its hegemony on a chaotic chess-board Tuscan. Santa Reparata is described by Villani like " Well too much the coarse and small shape compared to a city if établie" and in the communal documents like " collapsing by its state extrême". As in other religious structures, the seat of the government of the Republic of Florence is held to with it, and finally, in 1294, it decides the rebuilding of the church with dimensions such as it must eclipse the cathedrals of the unfavourable cities, of which Pisa and His.

A particular stress is laid on the richness of its construction in order to use it like an icon proving the power of the city.

The new building site and criticism

The cardinal Pietro Valeriano, papal legate Boniface VIII, solemnly poses the first stone of the new basilica during the festival of the nativity of the Virgin in 1296. The construction of the building was a vast project which lasted at least 170 years (much more if one takes account of the end of the realization of the XIX century old frontage), to which will take part of many important artists. She was in the center of the collective efforts of many generations.

The construction of Santa Maria del Fiore, one of the major moments in the development of modern engineering, is thus the fruit of a building site which lasted of the centuries and which reflects various fortunes of the political and economic history of Florence, of the changes of tastes and of the personalities of the project superintendents who followed one another the head of the building site.

Problems with the studies on the building site

The studies of this building site, over all, reflect the fact that it is about one of the largest masterpieces of architecture (and that he contains absolute masterpieces of sculpture, painting, etc), and that thus he invites more to the formulation of theories valid for the whole history of the Italian art, that with an obscure work of checking. The scientists who devoted themselves there, or, did not seldom pay their attention to the scientific data and the files which research provided and which it continues to provide. It occurs thus, still today, that descriptions and theories are based on obsolete and often inaccurate facts. Plans and cuts of G.B. Nelli, which does not represent at all the real shape of the cathedral but constitute of it a standardized version, which does not record the changes of management in the axis of the cathedral compared to the axis of Santa Reparata, nor variable widths of the arcades of the body basilical, or the notable differences of width between the sectors of the cupola, are still used regularly. Thus the assumptions of Camillo Boito on the level envisaged by Arnolfo are still used today as if they were the reflection of an established fact, whereas the excavations of Franklin Toker already showed the weak correspondence between the assumptions and reality.

In spite of the sum of data which was made available these last years, the recent publications preferring to still resort to the old women but solid theories are not rare. These theories reflect, more than one real state of the things, the point of view of the 19th century and the first scientists who formulated them.

The print of Arnolfo

Work started with the digging of the foundations then by the rise in the walls of the side aisles. One proceeded thus to leave more the possible for a long time the church Santa Reparata in a position function like cathedral.

At the head of the building site, one placed Arnolfo di Cambio which had already probably worked on the large church Santa Croce (Holy Cross) in Florence and concomitantly directed the construction of Palazzo della Signoria. The debate is not still distinct to know if there were really a project of Arnolfo and if this one still shows through through the current structure. In the light of rare and incomplete excavations which were led, it is not possible to give an unquestionable answer, but as a whole it is undeniable that several characteristics of the cathedral strongly carry the mark of Arnolfo, even if the realization were ensured by it by other project superintendents. The existence of such a preliminary draft is thus probable.

It is generally allowed that in the representation of the " Triomphante" church; frescos of Andrea in the vault of the Spaniards of the church Santa Maria Novella, would be present a plausible representation of the model out of wooden presented by Arnolfo. The sources of perplexity do not miss however: The bell-tower, well too similar to that really carried out, is more classically " placé" close to the apsidal zone. The cupola, although Gothic in its ornament, is a hemispherical traditional cupola. This representation could more simply reflect, not the model of Arnolfo, but that presented by the same authors of the frescos to the Opéra del Duomo.

It is probable that Arnolfo had thought of a church equipped with a large cupola, inspired of the Romance model of Santa Maria della Rotonda (the Pantheon), and with the intention to exceed dimensions of the baptistry. In spite of some uncertainties of criticisms, the excavations confirmed that the first foundations, that it is possible to allot to Santa Maria del Fiore, are under the current frontage (the wall known as " 100") and under the side walls, spreading themselves then in the south of the frontage, thus confirming the assumption that Arnolfo had in project a church as broad as the current one, though with an axis directed a little more in the south and provided with a bell-tower separated in the south from the frontage. The low thickness of these foundations indicate a height of the project probably quite less than that which was reached. Work of the frontage started immediately, whereas the use wants that it is an element placed after the other elements of the church. That is due to the demolition of the first span of Santa Reparata, decided to leave a larger space to the baptistry, which made necessary to close the old church to allow a provisional use more the possible for a long time.

Even the large projecting gallery, although materially carried out by Francesco Talenti is an index of the style typically due to Arnolfo. Criticisms associate it with the cornice of Santa Croce (which is traditionally allotted to him) and with other work analogues like Duomo di Orvieto and that of His. In particular Angiola Maria Romanini, expert of the sculptor, underlines at which point the cornices - galleries are an unavoidable constant in architectures of Arnolfo.

With died of Arnolfo (1302), contemporary with that of the other promoters of the building site, like the Monaldeschi bishop and the cardinal Matteo d' Asquasparta, papal legate, work undergoes a deceleration and is then suspended during approximately 30 years.

The aspect of the old frontage

One tends today towards a consensus on the presence of an incomplete frontage, imagined and partially carried out by Arnolfo, but increased and integrated in the work of the successive section engineers. This point at summer the object of strong controversies in the past.

At the Museo dell' Opera del Duomo of many statues and fragments are preserved, the majority of very good quality and obviously of the hand of Arnolfo, which come probably mainly from Santa Maria del Fiore. The decision of the government of the commune of Florence to exempt Arnolfo of the payment of the taxes for him and his remains an obvious index of the appreciation related to the first work of the new cathedral: Splendid and charming beginning. As the honors of this kind were not at all in the practices of the supercilious administration of the city, it should be believed that they were really impressive constructions, although only outlined.

Some testimonys survived. Objects of recent studies, they led to a virtual rebuilding of the aspect of the frontage of the fourteenth century. The belt of the base to the ornaments of mosaic the made-to-order of the Cosmati and the extraordinary carved groups of the tympanums of the gates are allotted, without any discussion, in Arnolfo. Doubts remain on which portions of the destroyed frontage refers to the preliminary draft, since the proportions of construction were, in the interval, changed radically.

According to the rebuilding suggested in 2005, at the time of an temporary exhibition in Museo dell' Opera, by Erica Neri and Silvia Moretti, the frontage would be characterized, in the levels supported at their ends, by the large ones will prothyrons suspended overhanging the three gates, follow-ups of a cusped geminated bay stringcourse which simulated an open gallery; mosaics in the style of the Cosmati, an innovation for Florence, but a constant in the work of Arnolfo, which had been in contact in Rome with the families of the Roman monumental masons, decorated the base between the three gates, as well as a band of blind blind arcades (found partly in 1970 by removing some plates re-used for the pavement). Arnolfo installed a structure of a monumental scale, which culminated with the imposing decoration of the large tympanums which overhang the entries.

In the three tympanums, the cycle marial is represented, obviously supported by the iconography, which starts with the birth of the Virgin on the left, followed by the crowned Virgin and the saints on the central gate, where the saints florentins like Saint Zanobi and Sainte Reparata appear, finally Dormition of the Virgin, i.e. lamentations on the Virgin at the time of her death, represented about to fall asleep. On the projecting pilasters the statues of four prophets and the apostles were placed. In the gallery with the top, the protective saints of Florence were placed (at one later time, around 1390, according to a perhaps different project).

Arnolfo prints all its technical control in the realization of the sculptures, giving strong a " tridimensionnalité" with the reliefs, while filling of the layers rather limited thickness. Conceived to be observed of in bottom, they create a kind of trompe-l'oeil, which is associated with the effects required in several frescos of Giotto and other painters.

of the Virgin

The construction of the transept of the basilica

In 1330, One finds under the church Santa Reparata the relics of venerated bishop of Florence Saint Zanobi, which gives fresh impulse to construction. The Arte della Lana which had received the responsibility of supervise the building site, entrusts in 1334 the work management to Giotto, assisted by Andrea Pisano. Giotto concentrates on the Bell-tower, for which it provides a project (a drawing preserved at Duomo of His in is probably a reflection; even the iconographic program of the reliefs of the base is at least partly it his) and succeeded in launching construction, but he dies 3 years later in 1337. Andrea Pisano continues work, especially that on the bell-tower, but he dies of the epidemic of Black Death of 1348 and work was again blocked. They set out again guided by Francesco Talenti.

Construction of transept basilical must to be seen like work concerted, in which drivers of building site and workmen, which knew well that they ventured in a company ever tried before, proceeded with precaution, asking consultations, carrying out tests on the scale, deciding modifications in the course of road, preparing models alternative and dialoguing continuously throughout all construction. The other implied architects were successively Alberto Arnoldi, Pietro di Giovanni d' Ambrogio, Neri di Fioravante and Andrea Orcagna.

One waited little before resuming work, and since 1349 the project is transmitted to Francesco Talenti, to which one owes the completion of the bell-tower and a new project which changes that of Arnolfo by modifying the frontage, with a tangle (expensive) decorative of marble on the side walls. Talenti, between criticisms, the debates and the threats (the workmen will propose to put it at the fine to force it to be more present on the building site) develops the model titanic piles of the nave, by carrying out the first two crossings.

After 1359 Giovanni di Lapo Ghini (1360 - 1369) succeeds the work management, and finishes the first three spans, of which the main feature is the almost square plan instead of the very marked spans in rectangle of the French Gothic, the model dominating of the time. The immense spans florentines (hardly three meters lower than the vaults of Beauvais, highest of the French Gothic) were to cover an immense space with very little supporting. The nave is thus thought as a room in which the vacuums prevail on nevertheless the remarkable structures of architecture. The rate/rhythm of supportings is definitely different from the typical stone forest of the Gothic of beyond the Alps, or the churches faithful to this model, like the cathedral of Milan. There are no precedents from the point of view of dimensions and structure which can be quoted like former to this project. In 1375 the old church of Santa Reparata is definitively cut down. The naves will be supplemented and covered between 1378 and 1380.

The walls are covered outside a sumptuous polychrome marble decoration with Campaglia, and Carrara marble (white marble), Prato (green serpentine), His and Monsummano (Red), Lavenza and some other localities. The marble bands reproduce the decoration either of the baptistry, or of the bell-tower.

The four side doors are carried out, among them, the door of the canons southern part is pointed out by its beauty, in flowered Gothic style, and to the mandorle with dimensions north, thus named because of the element contained in the Gothic point carries it, with the high relief of the Assumption, works of Nanni di Bianco (1414-1421). The door with the mandorle is regarded as the playing field of all the florentine new generation sculptors, who marks the rebirth of the building site; Donatello, perhaps Jacopo della Quercia, which also carves the relief of the tympanum, replaced then by a mosaic of Ghirlandaio, Luca della Robbia. The six side geminated bays, at the typically Gothic drawing with fine ornaments, are placed in the center of stained glasses repeated throughout the bands of framing, the four last of the transept gives light inside. In fact the realization of the outside of the building does not respect the interior rate/rhythm of the span. It one of the reasons which will bring to the setting well off Talenti, is pointed out later to be devoted only to the gallery.

The higher windows of the central nave are on the other hand circular œils, a characteristic rising from the will not to raise too high the central nave and to ensure a good luminosity nevertheless. The circular openings, moreover, are less problematic from the structural point of view. The needs for the staticity make essential the recourse to rampant arches to discharge part of the weight from the vaults of the central nave on the external walls; such expédients, perhaps already envisaged by Arnolfo (one finds them well in sight on paintings of Andrea da Bonaiuto), was not digested by the florentins, which finally will decide to occult them by raising the side walls with a attic composed of a green stone rectangle hardly framed of white. This solution makes coincide the will to imitate the attic of the baptistry and the need for a dark color which makes less visible dispatches it. This attic (in an erroneous way) is generally shown as the proof owing to the fact that the external walls were started according to a project of Arnolfo and were spillplates by Talenti. The indisputable proof of the error of this assertion is established by the discovery which the thick bands of framing which characterize of the side aisles starting from the west were initially provided also for the major nave (they are still visible in the roofs) which we know to be a project partly set up by Talenti.

The choice to simplify the decoration of the walls external rises not so much from reasons of style where of taste but rather to contain the expenditure (it is necessary to keep at the head that the marble coating of the bell-tower of Giotto was going to cost the end almost two million guilders, a figure without precedent). Finally the octagonal drums are high with the same large circular windows. In 1421 the basilica is finished and it remains to build only the cupola.

The cupola

It remains, in the cathedral, large broad cavity a 13 meters, placed on a drum with a height of approximately 60 meters, and nobody, hitherto, still put the question to find a true solution for his cover.

In 1419 a public contest is launched for the project of the cupola, or even only of machineries ready to raise weight with heights never yet reached for a construction on vault, in which many candidates take part. This contest, generally considered as the starting point of the construction of the cupola, does not decree the official victory with anybody. The considerable concerned price will be in fact never allotted. Filippo Brunelleschi, which had returned purposely from Rome to work on the cupola, was already (as well as the files record it) building a model on behalf of the Opera del Duomo (Museum of the Work of the dome). At the end, it is decided to entrust construction to him like to Lorenzo Ghilberti, which had already torn off in Brunelleschi the contract for the door of the paradis.
In the description of work which draws up Filippo for works of the '' Arte della Lana '' (responsible for the good walk of construction) it is established that one chooses to start to build the cupola until the height of thirty bent and then, according to the behavior of the walls, to decide how to continue. The height indicated is that to which the bricks must be posed with an angle such (compared to the horizontal one) that they cannot be maintained in their place by the mortar with slow catch only known of the masons of the time (the Roman technique of cement containing pozzolanas is not any more of use) with for consequence the very great risk of slip inside the walls. Another serious problem is the difference in width on the sides of the drum, which asks for an extreme detail in the installation of the brick beds in order not to create dangerous interruption within the structure of the wall. To remember the dangers which watch for a badly adjusted construction, it is enough to look at a few lower meters to see the vast crack which opened in the wall, still fresh, of one of the half-cupolas of the bedside in trefoil arch.

The new frontage

Interior

The interior decoration of the cupola

At the beginning the cupola should have been decorated by gilded mosaics, to reflect to the maximum the light coming from the window of the drum from the cupola, as that had been suggested by Brunelleschi. Its death caused the setting on side of expensive project, and one envisaged simply to coat the interior of white.

The underground level

Under the cathedral of difficult work of excavation are realized between 1965 and 1974. During centuries, the underground zone of the cathedral was used to bury the évèques ones of Florence. The archaeological history of this zone was reconstituted recently, according to the remainders of Roman dwellings and pavements paléo-Christians until the ruins of the old cathedral Santa Reparata. One reaches the excavations by a scale in the nave of left. Close to the entry is fall it from Fillipo Brunelleschi as a new proof of the great regard which carry Florentins to the great architect of the cupola.

List principal artists having decorated Santa Maria del Fiore

Astronomy in the cathedral

The astronomer Paolo Toscanelli (who had helped Brunelleschi for calculations of the construction of the cupola) establishes, in 1468, the modern first Gnomon while making practice a circular opening on the dome of the cathedral of Florence, which, giving a large and clear image Sun on the meridian line traced by a marble band of the paving stone, is used to him to determine the solstitial points, the variations of the ecliptic, and to correct the Tables alphonsines.

Random links: