A Gallerist in Florence: Santa Croce, Where the Greats Rest
Every city has a place where it keeps its heroes. In Florence, that place is Santa Croce, and walking through it feels less like visiting a church and more like reading the city's biography in marble.
First, a Surprise
The basilica was begun in 1294, but its grand marble facade is a much later addition: it was only completed in the 1850s and 60s, designed by the architect Niccolò Matas. Local legend says the prominent star at its peak was Matas's quiet nod to his Jewish heritage. It's a good reminder that in Florence, even the "medieval" can be younger than it looks.
On the day we visited, the piazza had been carpeted with temporary lawn and olive trees for the Green Florence festival, and a fitness class was stretching in front of the church. Florence has always been good at living alongside its history rather than behind glass.
Dante: Honoured, but Not Here
Guarding the corner of the piazza is Enrico Pazzi's statue of Dante, unveiled in 1865, the 600th anniversary of the poet's birth and the year Florence became the capital of newly unified Italy. The inscription reads simply "To Dante Alighieri, from Italy". Look at the lions' shields and you'll find the titles of his works carved there, including Il Convito.
The irony is that Dante isn't here. Florence exiled him in 1302, he died in Ravenna, and Ravenna has never given him back. Inside the church stands a grand tomb for him, and it has always been empty.
Inside the Temple - Santa Croce Florence
Step inside and the scale takes you by surprise: a vast open timber roof and, at the far end, the chancel painted by Agnolo Gaddi in the late 1300s, glowing behind the stained glass. Look down, too. The floor is set with tombstones, their carved figures worn almost smooth by seven centuries of footsteps. Some are now roped off to protect what remains.
The poet Ugo Foscolo called Santa Croce the "temple of Italian glories", and he's buried here too. Here are a few of the others.
Bruni: When the Muses Wept
The tomb of Leonardo Bruni, humanist scholar and Chancellor of Florence, was carved by Bernardo Rossellino around 1446 to 1450 and became the model for Renaissance wall tombs across Italy. Bruni lies holding his own History of the Florentine People. The inscription is wonderfully extravagant: since Leonardo departed this life, History mourns, Eloquence falls silent, and the Muses, Greek and Latin alike, cannot hold back their tears.
Machiavelli: No Words Needed
Compare Bruni's four lines of grief with Machiavelli's monument, which says only: Tanto nomini nullum par elogium, "No eulogy is equal to so great a name." It was made in 1787, some 260 years after his death. Florence took its time deciding how it felt about the author of The Prince.
Michelangelo: Smuggled Home
This is the tomb I came to see. Michelangelo died in Rome in 1564, aged 88, but wanted to rest in Florence. Rome had no intention of letting him go, so, as the story goes, his nephew Leonardo smuggled the body out of the city disguised as a bale of merchandise.
The tomb was designed by his friend and biographer Giorgio Vasari. Below the bust sit three grieving women: Painting, Sculpture and Architecture. Behind them, the draped canopy and cherubs are pure illusion, a flat wall painted to look three-dimensional. Even in mourning, Florence couldn't resist showing off its skill.
Galileo: Ninety-Five Years Waiting
Galileo died in 1642, condemned by the Inquisition, and was first buried quietly in a side room. It took 95 years for this monument to be permitted, paid for through the will of his devoted pupil Vincenzo Viviani, who lies with him. Galileo holds a telescope, with Astronomy and Geometry at either side. When his remains were moved in 1737, admirers took relics, and one of his fingers is still on display at the Museo Galileo nearby.
The Ones Who Aren't Here
Walk the aisles and you'll notice a pattern: Santa Croce honours as many absent greats as present ones. Dante lies in Ravenna. Enrico Fermi, the physicist, lies in Chicago. And Leonardo da Vinci, who died in France and is buried at Amboise, is remembered with a plaque of purple porphyry, the stone of emperors, placed for the 400th anniversary of his death in 1919.
After two tombs inscribed "Leonardus" that turned out to be Bruni and Michelangelo's nephew, finding the real Leonardo felt like the end of a treasure hunt, even if he isn't actually here.
Seeing the Paintings
Between the tombs hang large altarpieces from Vasari's 1560s remodelling of the church. One of them gave me a small lesson in presentation: a vast canvas in a carved gilt frame built into the architecture, with a tiny devotional Madonna in a lit case in front of it. Two paintings, two ways of framing, and two completely different experiences for the viewer. It's something we think about every time we frame a piece for a client.
What Santa Croce Teaches
Santa Croce is a monument to the idea that a life's work outlasts the life. Artists, scientists and writers are all remembered here for what they made. That's what a gallery does in its own small way: it keeps the work of artists in front of people.
Browse our artists: https://www.danemanorfineart.com/artists
Next from Florence: painting the city, from street easel to gallery wall.
Comments