The striking green-and-white marble facade of 13th-to-15th-century Basilica di Santa Maria Novella fronts an entire monastical complex, comprising romantic church cloisters and a frescoed chapel. The basilica itself is a treasure chest of artistic masterpieces, climaxing with frescoes by Domenico Ghirlandaio. The lower section of the basilica’s striped marbled facade is transitional from Romanesque to Gothic; the upper section and the main doorway (1456-70) were designed by Leon Battista Alberti.
Entering the church, we look straight ahead to see Massaccio’s superb fresco Trinita (Holy Trinity – 1424-25), one of the first artworks to use the then newly discovered techniques of perspective and proportion.
Hanging in the central nave is a luminous painted Crucifix by Giotto (1290)
The monumental main altar, Altare Maggiore (1858-61), sits within the Cappella Maggiore, which is decorated with frescoes by Domenico Chirlandaio. Those on the right depict the life of John the Baptist; those on the left illustrates scenes from the life of the Virgin Mary. The frescoes were painted between 1485 and 1490, and are notable for their depiction of Florence life during the Renaissance. Spot portraits of Ghirlandaio’s contemporaries and members of the Tornabuoni family, who commissioned them.
The first chapel to the right of the altar is the Cappella di Filippo Strozzi. It features a spirited late-15th-century frescoes by Filippino Lippi (son of Fra’ Filippo Lippi) depicting the lives of St John the Evangelist and St Philip the Apostle.
To the far left of the altar, up a short flight of stairs in the western transept, is the Cappella Strozzi di Mantova, covered in 14th-century frescoes by Niccolo’ di Tommaso and Nardo di Cione depicting paradise, purgatory and hell. The altarpiece (1354-57) here was painted by the latter’s brother Andrea, better known as Andrea Orcagna.
Leaving the church, you walk through a side door into the serene Chiostro Verde (Green Cloister; 1332-62), part of the vast monastical complex occupied by Dominican friars who arrived in Florence in 1219 and settled in Santa Maria Novella two years later. The tranquil cloister takes its name from the green earth base used for the frescoes on three of the cloister’s four walls.
On its north side is the spectacular Cappellone degli Spagnoli (Spanish Chapel), originally the friar’s chapter house and named as such in 1566 when it was given to the Spanish colony by Andrea di Bonaiuto. The vault features depictions of the Resurrection, Ascension and Pentecost, and on the altar wall are scenes of the Via Dolorosa, Crucifixion and Descent into Limbo.
By the side of the chapel, a passage leads into the Chiostro dei Morti (Cloister of the Dead), an atmospheric vaulted-cloister cemetery existent well before the arrival of the Dominicans to Santa Maria Novella. The tombstones embedded in the walls and floor date to the 13th and 14th centuries, a period when wealthy Florentine families assumed patronage of the series of tiny chapels here.
Our pictures here do not do this magnificent complex justice. One gets lost in the enormous frescoes… and the camera lens just can’t capture the details. Make sure you add the Church of Santa Maria Novella to your Florence Itinerary.