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Architectural Presentation

The Church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, Italy began construction in the mid-13th century and took around 80 years to complete. It was designed by Dominican friars in a Gothic-Renaissance style and features important artworks from that period. Notable features include its green and white marble facade designed by Leon Battista Alberti, as well as frescoes by Masaccio inside. The vast interior follows a basilica plan and was designed to accommodate large congregations.

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Kushagra Chawla
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122 views9 pages

Architectural Presentation

The Church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, Italy began construction in the mid-13th century and took around 80 years to complete. It was designed by Dominican friars in a Gothic-Renaissance style and features important artworks from that period. Notable features include its green and white marble facade designed by Leon Battista Alberti, as well as frescoes by Masaccio inside. The vast interior follows a basilica plan and was designed to accommodate large congregations.

Uploaded by

Kushagra Chawla
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
We take content rights seriously. If you suspect this is your content, claim it here.
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Download as PPTX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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The Church of Santa

Maria Novella

TOPIC – ARCHITECTURAL PRESENTATION

Submitted To – Submitted By –
Ar. Anjali Jain Kushagra Chawla
(3rd year)
Location : Florence,Tuscany,
Italy

Construction : began in the


mid-13th century (about
1276)
Completed : early 14th
century (around 80 years)

Consecration : in 1420

Style : Gothic –Renaissance

Affiliation : Catholic

Architect : Georgio Vasari

Status : Minor Basilica

 Santa Maria Novella


HISTORY
• Santa Maria Novella is a church in Florence, Italy, situated opposite, and lending its name to, the city's
main railway station. Chronologically, it is the first great basilica in Florence, and is the city's principal
Dominican church.
• The church, the adjoining cloister, and chapter house contain a multiplicity of art treasures and funerary
monuments. Especially famous are frescoes by masters of Gothic and early Renaissance. They were
financed by the most important Florentine families, who ensured themselves funerary chapels on
consecrated ground.
• This church was called S. Maria Novella ('New') because it was built on the site of the 9th-century
oratory of Santa Maria delle Vigne. When the site was assigned to the Dominican Order in 1221, they
decided to build a new church and adjoining cloister. The church was designed by two Dominican friars,
Fra Sisto Fiorentino and Fra Ristoro da Campi. Building began in the mid-13th century (about 1276), and
lasted 80 years, ending under the supervision of Friar Iacopo Talenti with the completion of the
Romanesque-Gothic bell tower and sacristy. In 1360, a series of Gothic arcades were added to the
façade; these were intended to contain sarcophagi. The church was consecrated in 1420.
FLOOR PLANS

                                                                                                                                                             
                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                                           
                                                                                                                    
                                                                                                                                  
                                                                                                                                 
                                                                                                  
                                                                                                               
                                                                                                                                   
                                                                                                                              
                                                                                                                                                             
                                                                                                                                                             
                                                             
                                                                                                                                     
                                                                                                                                 
                                                                                                                      F.
8. Cappella della Pura 23. Chapel Bardi
(Wooden crucifix by Baccio
da Montelupo)   

11. The Holy Trinity 24. Chapel Rucellai


(Masaccio)                     
  
  12. Madonna of the 26. Way to the Cloisters
Rosary ((Giorgio
Vasari) 

15. Pulpit (Filippo A. Green Cloister


Brunelleschi /
Buggiano)

16. Sacristy B. Spanish Chapel

18. Chapel del C. Refectorium


Campanile
19. Chapel Gaddi D. Grand Cloister

20. Chapel Gondi E. Chiostrino dei Morti   

21. Chapel F. Burial Ground 


Maggiore(Tornabuoni)
 
22. Chapel of Filippo
Strozzi
Basilica                                                                                           
                                                                      
• Holding some of the world’s most important Gothic and
early Renaissance masterpieces, the Basilica of Santa Maria
Novella is a true treasure trove and a wonderful example of
wealthy Renaissance patronage of the arts.
• Façade: The green and white marble facade of Santa Maria
Novella is one of the most important examples of the
Florentine Renaissance, despite having been initiated in
previous periods.
• The entire facade was paid for by the wealthy textile
merchant and banker, Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai, Leon
Battista Alberti’s best patron, who included a Latin
inscription of large letters advertising his name and the date
across the top of the church with the repeated design of
billowing sails of a ship, the Rucellai family coat of
arms.                                              
•                                                                                                  
• The lower section had been built in 1365 and Alberti
added the frieze of 15 squares and the temple-front
with scrolls above. The work, including the doorway,
was completed 1470 by Giovanni di Bertino, using
Alberti’s designs. (Before Alberti the facade of Santa
Maria Novella was bare like many other Florentine
churches including Santa Maria del Fiore, Santa Croce
and San Lorenzo.)  
•    Alberti’s greatness proved the glue necessary for a
“modern" solution using a rigid Gothic structure, i.e.
the ability to harmonize nobly the existing elements
with the new style. Triangles, circles, squares,
rectangles and attached geometrical figures cover the
architectural landscaped designed by the brilliant
architect to form a wonderful series of harmonic
relationships.       
INTERIOR
 Santa Maria Novella’s interior was designed to fit large
congregations to allow the Dominicans to preach to as
many people as possible.

The interior, with a 100-meter long central nave and two side
aisles scanned by Gothic piers, was originally divided into two
parts by a huge stone screed separating the body of the church,
for the faithful, from the crossing and choir which were reserved
for use by the friars. Giorgio Vasari removed the screen in 1565
after Cosimo I ordered him to restructure the church and its altars.
It also resulted here in the bricking-up of the much-used old side
door, frescoes being covered and the windows made more
Renaissance classical in style.

 The distances between the pillars  are arranged closer together as


they reach the altar in a tromp-l’oeil effect that makes the nave seem
even longer when viewed from the bottom of the nave. The vaults
and arches are emphasized by two-toned marble. Between 1857 and
1861 further alteration, by Enrico Romoli, in a neo-Gothic style, saw
new stained glass windows and the floor relayed in gray and white.
• The vast interior is based on a basilica plan, designed as
an Egyptian cross (T-shaped) and is divided into a nave,
two aisles set with windows and a short transept. The
large nave is 100 metres long and gives an impression of
austerity. The piers are of compound form and have
Corinthian columns supporting pointed Gothic arches
above which is a clerestory of ocular windows above
which rises a ribbed, pointed quadripartite vault. The ribs
and arches are all black and white polychrome.
• Many of the windows have stained glass dating from the
14th and 15th century, such as 15th century Madonna
and Child and St. John and St. Philip (designed by
Filippino Lippi), both in the Filippo Strozzi Chapel. Some
stained glass windows have been damaged in the course
of centuries and have been replaced. The one at the west
end, a depiction of the Coronation of Mary, dates from
the 14th century, and is based on a design of Andrea di
Bonaiuto da Firenze.

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