Event

DUOMO OF FLORENCE - Now the masterpiece of the Reinassance is pedestrians only !!!
From 27 January 2010 to 31 December 2012

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Entering the Cathedral, one is struck by the building's vastness and the sobriety of its furnishings. The color and rich patterning of the exterior, which serve to relate the mass of the structure to the smaller scale of surrounding buildings, here give way to a simplicity that underscores the titanic dimensions of this church (the largest in Europe when it was completed in the 15th century; 153 meters long, 90 wide at the crossing, and 90 meters high from pavement to the opening of the lantern). The relative bareness of the interior of Santa Maria del Fiore corresponds to the austere spiritual ideal of Florence in the Middle Ages and early Renaissance; it suggests, in architectural terms, the spirituality of the great reformers of Florentine religious life, from Saint John Gualbert to Saint Antoninus and Fra Girolamo Savonarola. The formal matrix is two-fold: on the one hand, the rude strength of Romanesque country churches, and, on the other, an elegant simplicity typical of Mendicant basilicas like Santa Croce (also designed by Arnolfo di Cambio). The enrichment of the interior with splendid pavements in colored marble, and temple-niches on the walls, in fact belongs to a later period, under the patronage of the Grand Dukes in the 16th century. Santa Maria del Fiore was built with public funds as a "state church", and important works of art in the side aisles constitute a "civic program" honoring illustrious men. This program includes: frescoed equestrian monuments to the military leaders, Sir John Hawkwood (by Paolo Uccello, 1436) and Niccolò da Tolentino (by Andrea del Castagno, 1456) and the painting by Domenico di Michelino showing Dante, dated 1465 sculptural portraits of Giotto (3) Brunelleschi, Marsilio Ficino, and Antonio Squarcialupi, Cathedral organist, all works of the 15th and early 16th century. The portrait reliefs of Arnolfo and Emilio De Fabris,and are 19th-century creations. Besides this civic iconography, there is a religious program as well, occupying the area of the Cathedral meant for worship. Two large images at opposite ends of the central nave suggest the religious emphasis: a mosaic over the principal entrance, by Gaddo Gaddi in the early 1300s, and the circular, stained-glass window high above the main altar (the only one of the eight "eyes" of the drum visible from the nave), designed by Donatello between 1434 and 1437. Both these works depict the coronation of the Virgin - Mary's elevation to glory after her death, that is.

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