After a long journey to Florence and a night of jet lag, today we visited the Basilica of Santa Croce and the Basilica of San Miniato al Monte. I was greatly surprised by the extreme differences between the two, down to small details such as the number of chapels and tombs within the building, and especially the architecture of the interior of each. Santa Croce was built in the Gothic style with high ceilings and pointed archways. In comparison San Miniato al Monte was built in the Romanesque design with round archways. The Romanesque style did not allow for many windows on the tops of the walls because the arches were unable to hold a lot of weight, unlike the Gothic style, and thus the interiors are very dim, even if it was the brightest day of the year. Due to the lack of light, the Basilica as beautiful as it is has a more private feel. A thought that never leaves my mind is how detailed every part of the Basilica was. For instance, the ceilings even had small portraits on the wider planks as though the saints painted on them were looking down on you while you worshiped, or in our case embraced the beauty of the Santa Croce.
We began with visiting Santa Croce. The construction of this beautiful Franciscan Basilica began in 1294 and was to be placed outside the city walls. Because Franciscan ideology was based on poverty, they wanted to place Santa Croce on the outside of the city walls as a way to give the poor a place for sanctuary. Their reverence of poverty also emphasized how strange it was that visitors of the magnificent art have to pay admission to the church so that some profit is made. It is very interesting when you look at the outside of the church; you know the layout of the inside. The structure has three doors, each door representing an aisle in the church. In addition, there is an alter at the end of the church and a dome on the right. The façade of the basilica was added on later in the 19th century.
The Basilica di Santa Croce
Once inside Santa Croce it is impossible to ignore the tombs within. To have a tomb in such a sacred place was an honor, and a large expense for the family. The tomb of Michelangelo and the history behind it was quite interesting. Michelangelo was so revered by the Florentines that after he passed, his body was brought to Florence against his wishes. A stunning tomb was created for him with frescoes as a background, a bust of him at the center and the three virtues of his paintings surrounding the bottom. Each statue demonstrates a distinct expression.
The Tomb of Michelangelo
Venturing into Santa Croce there is a distinct large spacing between two pillars, demonstrating the placement of the rood screen that separated the public from the holy people. The rood screen also gave the Franciscans a platform to preach from if they did not want to do so from the pulpit, a raised speaker stand, which was closer towards the entrance of the Basilica. From the readings of Paoletti and Radke, it can be concluded that the screen also helped demonstrate the layout of the modified cruciform plan with a shallow apse.
The artist Giotto painted the majority of the frescoes seen within Santa Croce. The main altarpiece within the Baroncelli Chapel is a palptic centerpiece created with several pieces of wood. The Bardi Chapel was decorated with depictions of the scenes of Saint Francis’s life. Within the chapel is a depiction of Saint Francis and his stigmata. He was the first to have the wounds of Christ. In addition, major saints of the Franciscan order surrounded the stained glass on the back wall. Unfortunately, it was sad to see how some of the frescoes were unable to be fully restored because they were so destroyed from white washing. The Peruzzi Chapel was similar to the Bardi except Giotto was to paint one side of the chapel a fresco cycle of John the Baptist and the other side of John the Evangelist. Because Giotto painted the fresco a secco (when the fresco was dry, extra pigment was placed on top), many pieces have flaked off.
Viewing the double chapel painted by Taddeo Gaddi, a pupil of Giotto, demonstrated innovative techniques. As Canon as well as Paoletti and Radke mentioned, Giotto used architecture to help create more dimension into his work. For example, in the double chapel on the bottom of the left wall, Gaddi created paintings of small cabinets that seemed to be attainable. In addition, Gaddi portrayed halos by adding extra plaster on top of them, making them more three-dimensional. When viewed at an angle the halos would protrude out, which allowed them to catch light and draw attention to the holy people. Another common feature that became popular was the painting of natural marble. This was used for theological reasons. Artists used painted the marble to create what cannot be represented, such as the presence of God. The painting of marble demonstrates skill and minimizes the complexity of nature.
From Gaddi’s frescoes on chapel walls arriving to the sacristy, seeing the fresco of the death, passion, resurrection and ascension of Christ demonstrated both the meaning of gestures and the hierarchy of portraits within the fresco. For example, when looking at the Passion, Mary Magdalene’s gesture is one of shock and grief. The angels collecting the blood of Christ demonstrate lament as they turn their heads away from Christ’s suffering. Saint Francis is to the left demonstrating a gesture of prayer and meditation with the placement of his hands. The layers of hierarchy, also shown within the passion scene, demonstrate how the portraits closer to the top of the scene are more heavenly. In comparison the closer the portraits are to the ground, the more earthly. Christ in the center demonstrates a middle ground, as he is both human and divine. However, it was difficult for artists to portray Christ in this way without making him either more divine or more human. Artists often portrayed this combination of humanity and divinity by using the mandorla, an almond shape consisting of two combined spheres, one symbolizing earth and the other heaven, behind Christ as seen in the resurrection scene.
The Death, Passion, Resurrection, and Ascension of Christ
Farther into the Santa Croce was the Medici Chapel in which the alter piece was one of the crowning of the Madonna and Child. One can tell it belonged to the Medici because of the coat of arms, decorated with red balls, on the top of the wall. The altarpiece was unique because it was of glazed terracotta, a thing that was typically a Florentine style. The della Robbia family had a monopoly on this technique in which glass was melted with pigment and then used to glaze the stone.
I was quite surprised the use of the zodiac in the chapel across from the courtyard, as well as the floor on the Basilica. Even though the zodiac seems like such a pagan aspect, the artist used it as a way to demonstrate celestial life versus divine life. The use of the zodiac also was used as a way of depicting heavenly time to earth.
After one last painting, Christ's Descent into Limbo by Bronzino, which was removed from its altar due to scantily clad women, and the fragmentation of bodies and many, many stairs later we arrived at the Basilica of San Miniato al Monte. This Basilica had a concentration of frescoes associated with Saint Benedict and the foundation, which lies on Saint Miniato. The facade of the building is actually two separate pieces, one added on top of the other much later in time. On top of the Basilica is a statue of an eagle holding a basket of textiles to allude to the patrons, wool manufacturers.
The Facade of The Basilica di San Miniato al Monte
Within San Miniato al Monte, the two works that immediately caught my attention were the tabernacle and the large golden mosaic. The tabernacle was from the Medici, which was constructed to from a relic cross to enhance its beauty. However, the intention of the Medici was to leave their stamp within the Church, which they managed to do by placing a personal symbol (impresa) of three feathers in a diamond ring. The more astonishing mosaic was within the dome. Decorated with gold tesserae, the circular shape demonstrates it is in the direction of heaven. The mosaic was considered to be the most important symbol to demonstrate the gospel, as the stones from which it was made represent the bones of the saints that make the foundation of the Church. The significance of the placement of the Madonna and the Saint between Christ as well as their gesture show that they are reaching towards your perspective to help being you closer to God. Mosaics were used for this because it was used as a reference to the earth and heaven.
Finally on the left hand side of the Basilica was the Chapel of the Cardinal of Portugal and also holds the intricate tomb of the Lusitanian clergyman. Four different artists constructed the Chapel at once. The high ceiling of the chapel was done dell Robbia with the pigmented glazed finish. The tomb was designed and sculpted by Rossellino with the Madonna and child looking over James of Lusitania. In addition there is a depiction of marble just under the Madonna to represent the presence of God like Giotto had done so many times with his frescoes. The altarpiece of Saints James, Vincent, and Eustace show how James’s sight is on the tomb. As Wright states, the angels behind the saints depicts a question of whether or not the painting is within our realm or the divine realm due to them holding curtains demonstrating a stage like effect. Finally the floors of the chapel are of the cosmatesque style, which was very decorative with a pattern of circles continuously intertwined. This style of decoration used different types of stone pillars spoliated from the Roman Empire that were chopped for material. Using the Roman Empire pillars demonstrated how Christianity wanted to replace the Pagan ideology with the word of Christ (superlatio). They also used the stone of the Romans to show how superior they were by incorporating the weakening Roman Empire into Christian valence.
The Tomb of James of Lusitania, Cardinal of Portugal
-Jackie Trivero
