Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence Santa Maria Novella

One of Florence's most important churches, the Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella was built in 1246 on the site of a 10th century oratory (Santa Maria delle Vigne) and was basically completed around 1360, although it was slightly altered by various architects in the 14th/15th centuries.

Like the Franciscan church of Santa Croce, the approach to the main building is across a large square. Here too the facade is articulated by colored marble. It was added between 1456 and 1470 by Leon Battista Alberti commissioned by Giovanni Rucellai, whose family crest, the billowing sails, form the architrave halfway up. The architect gave it its distinctive shape by combining Romanesque-Gothic and Renaissance styles (portal, pillars on either side, design of the upper section with volutes).

There is an old cemetery to the right of the church.

Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella Map

Important Information:

Address: Piazza di Santa Maria Novella, I-50100 Florence, Italy

Opening hours: 9:30am-5pm; Sun: 1pm-5pm; Fri: 1pm-5pm

Always closed on: New Year's Day (Jan 1), May Day / Labor Day (May 1), Assumption Day - Christian (Aug 15), Christmas - Christian (Dec 25), Easter - Christian

Entrance fee in EUR: Adult €2.50, Child €1.50

Useful tips: Photography is allowed.

Disability Access: Full facilities for persons with disabilities.

Transit: Bus: 1, 4, 7, 9, 13, 14, 16, 17, 18, 19, 22, 23, 28, 31, 32, 36, 37.

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Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella Highlights

Interior

The church interior displays a harmonious balance between soaring Gothic forms and the broad unified nave which appears even longer than it is (99.2m/325.5ft) because the bays decrease in width from 15m/49.2ft down to 11.4m/37.4ft as they approach the altar. The width overall is 28.4m/93.2ft, and 61.4m/201.94ft in the transept.

Internal Facade

In the lunette above the portal is a fresco of the "Nativity" (possibly an early Boticelli); the rose-window, the oldest in Florence, has the "Coronation of the Virgin".

Left Aisle

Against the second pillar in the left aisle of the Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella is a marble pulpit designed by Brunelleschi in 1443 but the work of Buggiano. The fresco of the Trinity on the third altar is by Masaccio (1427) and considered one of his finest works on account of its intensity of expression and perfect perspective.

Sacristy

A door leads into the sacristy where there is a marble lavabo by Giovanni della Robbia, and, above the door, a "Crucifixion" by Giotto, an early work from about 1290.

Left Arm of the Transept

Nardo di Cione painted the frescoes (themes from Dante's Divine Comedy, 1357) in the raised Cappella Strozzi, which also contains Andrea Orcagna's altarpiece "Redeemer and Saints".

A striking feature of the Cappella Gaddi is Bronzino's painting above the altar of "Christ raising the Daughter of Jairus". In the adjacent Cappella Gondi is the celebrated wooden crucifix by Brunelleschi (1410-1425), the first representation of Christ without a loincloth, and the artist's equivalent of Donatello's realistic, peasant-like figure in Santa Croce.

Apse

The apse was completely covered in frescoes by Domenico Ghirlandaio and his assistants between 1486 and 1490 and these were commissioned by Giovanni Tornabuoni, They show scenes from the life of John the Baptist and the Virgin. Thanks to restoration at the end of the 1980s the last great cycle of 15th century frescoes can now be seen in their soft luminous colors. The bronze crucifix is by Giambologna.

Right Arm of the Transept

This also has two chapels on the left-hand side. The Cappella di Filippo Strozzi is decorated with frescoes by Filippino Lippi (1497-1502). The tomb of Filippo Strozzi is behind the altar, and is the work of Benedetto da Maiano (1491-1493). The adjoining Cappella dei Bardi contains Vasari's "Rosary Madonna" (1570).

At the end of the transept is the Cappella Rucellai with a bronze memorial marking the grave of the Dominican-General Dati by Lorenzo Ghiberti (1423) and a marble statue of "Madonna and Child" by Nini Pisano. Nearby is the tomb of Joseph, Patriarch of Constantinople, who died here in 1440 after the Council of Florence.

Right Aisle

Here a door leads into the Cappella della Pura with the miraculous picture of "Madonna and Child and St Catherine". Concerning this picture is a legend that in 1472 the Virgin, speaking from the picture, told two dirty children that they ought to have a wash, something much appreciated by Florentine mothers. The chapel leads into the old cemetery. Nearer the entrance are the tomb of the Beata Villana by Rossellino (1451) and the side altar with Macchietti's "Martyrdom of St Laurence" (1573).

Museo di Santa Maria Novella

A visit to Santa Maria Novella should include the cloisters and the chapels of the former convent of Santa Maria Novella, now the Museo di Santa Maria Novella. The entrance is on the left of the church façade.

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Green Cloister

The name "Green Cloister" refers to the green tones of frescoes by Paolo Uccello of scenes from the Old Testament, beginning with the creation of the animals and the Fall of Man (ca. 1430); the compelling representation of the Flood was carried out twenty years later.

Refectory

The liturgical vessels, the vestments embroidered with silver thread, and the golden reliquaries date from the 14th and 17th centuries.

Cappellone degli Spagnoli

The "Spanish Chapel" - its frescoes are among 14th century Italy's greatest works of art - was built after 1340 by Jacopo Talenti as the chapterhouse of the Dominican monastery and assigned in 1540 by Eleonora of Toledo, wife of Cosimo I, to her Spanish retainers (hence the name) as a place of worship.

Andrea da Firenze (Bonaiuti) was given the theme for his paintings - "the Dominican Order and the new open path to Salvation" - by Prior Jacopo Passavanti, and combined scenes from the scriptures, legends of saints and allegories of the medieval Humanities.