Santa Maria Novella in Florence - floods. Florence pharmacy Santa Maria Novella

The Church of Santa Maria Novella was conceived and built by the Dominican friars Sisto da Firenze and Ristoro da Campi. Construction began in 1246 on the site of the 10th century Dominican oratory of Santa Maria delle Vine. In 1279 the naves were completed, and in the second half of the 14th century Jacopo Talenti completed the construction of the Bell Tower and Sacristy. The beautiful facade of the church is the result of alterations undertaken by Leon Battista Alberti in 1456-1470. The talented architect created a magnificent portal and the entire upper part of the church with its clear rhythm of squares inlaid with marble.

The interior of the church is divided into three naves by pylons in the form of a bunch of columns that support huge arches with pointed vaults. The interior was renovated in the 16th century. This church houses many works of art from the 14th to 16th centuries by such masters as Vasari, Ghirlandaio, Brunelleschi, Giuliano da Sangallo, Rossellino, Ghiberti and many others.

Through the latticework gate you enter the Romanesque monastery courtyard (1350) and further into the Great Cloister, surrounded by arched walls painted by Florentine artists of the 15th and 16th centuries. The Green Courtyard got its name from the green background of Uccello's frescoes, which were badly damaged during the 1966 flood.

The Chapter Hall of the Monastery (Spanish Chapel) is the brilliant creation of Jacopo Talenti (1359). This chapel was intended for church services, which was attended by Eleanor of Toledo, wife of Cosimo I, with her retinue. The chapel is decorated with frescoes by Andrea di Buonaiuto (mid-14th century).

Name:

Location: Florence (Italy)

Creation: ~ 1246 - 1420, 1456 - 1470 (facade)

Style: Renaissance

Architect(s): Leon Battista Alberti

Customer / Founder: Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai (façade)

Church architecture

Source:
I.A. Bartenev “Architects of the Italian Renaissance”
1936; Publishing house: OGIZ

Church architecture occupied a prominent place in Alberti's work.

One of his first works in this area is considered to be the construction of the facade for the previously built Gothic church of Santa Maria Novella, the implementation of which in kind belongs to the architect Bertini, who undoubtedly invested his own knowledge and tastes in this building.

Santa Maria Novella is interesting in the sense that it allows us to establish a number of starting artistic principles of Alberti, who designed the façade of the church.

At first glance, a discrepancy between the Gothic style of the church and its front façade, which is generally designed in antique forms, is easily revealed; This discrepancy is so great that many researchers denied the participation of the great architect in this construction. In fact, the key to this problem turned out to be in those theoretical positions of the author, which he put forward repeatedly in his literary works.

Alberti believed that the main condition for any architectural structure is the “musical expressiveness” of its appearance, which determines the artistic value of the creation. Such beauty could be achieved through the means of architecture. Professing the principle of “harmony of forms,” he combined antique forms with the Gothic remains of the old facade, due to which the façade of Santa Maria Novella is to a certain extent random. The overall design of the facade resembles a combination of a four-column Greek portico (above), first used in Renaissance architecture, with the forms of a triumphal Roman arch (below), equipped with an attic that cuts the entire façade into two parts. The basic proportions are not quite consistent. The building's shortcomings also include: the unfortunate, random position of the round window, the lack of a clear architectural relationship between the elements of the upper and lower tiers. The pediment of the facade is a weak imitation of Roman antiquity and lacks any sharpness or freshness. It is likely, of course, that much of this facade remained unfinished.

However, the facade solution contains a number of positive aspects. These include the solution of the entrance portal, which uses an ancient compositional technique, dressed in the forms of the early Renaissance. Here the proportions are clear, general drawing clear, elegant details (capitals, panels, drafts, etc.).

The ornamental and decorative elements of the façade are also of unconditional interest. The inlays of colored marbles that fill the entire facade and give it a picturesque look were borrowed by the architect from old Florentine buildings - the Baptistery and the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore. The design of the frieze and volutes testifies to the author's architectural and decorative talent, comparable only to the brilliant abilities in this area of the largest architect of the high Renaissance - Bramante. By the way, these same volutes of the Church of Santa Maria Novella, as if connecting together the two tiers of the facade, were found wide application in Baroque architecture.

Sources:

Savarenskaya T.F. – Western European urban planning of the 17th-19th centuries, Moscow Stroyizdat, 1987.
P.P. Gnedich “General History of Arts. Painting. Sculpture. Architecture". Modern version Moscow “Eksmo”, 2009

We are talking about the famous Florentine pharmacy Santa Maria Novella, open in the main city of the Italian Renaissance since 1612. Here you can buy perfumes that Catherine de Medici used in her time, potions according to the recipes of Dominican monks, and just wander through the halls of the pharmacy and get acquainted with the history of Florentine pharmaceuticals - a very interesting activity.

Even her contemporaries could not call Catherine de Medici a beauty. Thin, red-haired, short. It is not surprising that her husband, the French king Henry (Henri) Second, until his tragic death at the knightly tournament, he perceived his wife as nothing more than a machine for the reproduction of numerous offspring, but the real power in the country and the heart of the king was the official favorite of King Henry, the beauty Diana de Poitiers.

It is believed (and it is difficult to argue with this fact) that the representative of the famous Florentine dynasty became a great and formidable French queen only after the death of her husband, which happened on June 10, 1559, however, even during the life of Henry II, Catherine de Medici, who seemed to have always remained in the shadow of the brilliant Diana de Poitiers influenced the lifestyle of the French aristocracy a lot.

The fact is that sixteenth-century Florence, although inferior to Paris in terms of the splendor of court life, was significantly superior to the French capital in many other aspects. For example, in matters of gastronomy. It was thanks to the Florentine chefs who went with Catherine de Medici to the French court that the famous cuisine française arose, and the gelatto that Florentine chefs prepared for the wedding of Henry II and Catherine de Medici was so liked by the French that they immediately began to invent all sorts of ice cream recipes. Secondly, Catherine de Medici taught French women to wear high heels and pantaloons as underwear. The fact is that the future queen of France was very short, and especially in honor of her wedding with the French monarch, Florentine craftsmen came up with women's shoes with high heels; previously only men wore such shoes.

"The Wedding of Catherine de' Medici", painting by Jacopo Chimenti, is kept in the Uffizi Gallery

Guy Breton mentions the invention of pantaloons by Catherine de Medici in his book “Love Stories in the History of France”: the fact is that the queen loved to ride horses and thus show off her slender legs to the public. However, the fashion of that time did not provide for the public to see only the queen’s legs and nothing more, so the inventive Italian came up with the idea of wearing pantaloons under her skirt in order to avoid embarrassment. By the way, the church approved the queen’s idea because it believed that pantaloons were an additional protection for girls’ honor from male attacks. By the way, about the legs. It was Catherine de Medici who introduced the French to ballet, which was popular at that time in Florence; not without reason, the very name of this art form comes from the Italian verb ballare - to dance.

In the photo: window display of the Parisian branch of the Santa Maria Novella pharmacy

The third gift that the young Catherine de' Medici gave to the French was the perfume known today as "Acqua della Regina" or "Acqua di Colonia Santa Maria Novella" with the aroma of one of the varieties of chamomile, which was traditionally used in Florence to obtain healing infusions and aromatize rooms. The ladies at the French court really liked the perfume, and the unscrupulous French immediately realized that they could continue to wash only in case of extreme need, and the unpleasant smell of a dirty body could be drowned out with the help of all kinds of Eau de Colognes. To listen to the aroma of that same “Acqua della Regina” aroma, you need to go to the narrow Florentine street via della Scala, which is located near the central station of Florence and the church of Santa Maria Novella, lined with white, green and pink marble. Here, in a building with a blue sign since 1612, the famous one has been open to the public.

Although today the representative offices of Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella operate in different countries world, one is open even in Moscow at Bolshaya Dmitrovka building 20/1, it’s still worth a look at the Florentine pharmacy, not only to listen to aromas invented already in the sixteenth century, and to buy yourself soap, cream, shampoo or fragrance for at home, but also to look at the ancient halls decorated with frescoes and gold medallions, which today are considered the same city landmark as, or.

In the photo: Santa Maria Novella pharmacy hall

I am not exaggerating when I compare the Florentine pharmacy and the cathedral, crowned with the dome of Filippo Brunelleschi, the fact is that for the first time the Santa Maria Novella pharmacy was included in the list of places that must be visited by guests of the city already in 1667, that is, it is mentioned in one of the first official guides to Florence. Today the pharmacy consists of several halls, where completely modern display cases with Italian cosmetics are organically integrated into the reconstructed interiors of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. If you want to find out what kind of fragrance Catherine de Medici brought with her to France, go to the counter in the first hall where aromatic essences are displayed and ask the saleswoman (they all speak English, and some even Russian) to listen "Acqua della Regina", which are now more often called the official scent of Santa Maria Novella.

In the photo: a stand with aromas at the Santa Maria Novella pharmacy

An important point - do not apply the essence to your wrist, the fact is that all the fragrances sold in the pharmacy are very persistent and last on the skin for up to three days, regardless of how many times you shower. It immediately becomes clear how perfume in ancient times could cover up the smell of a dirty body, but in our case, such longevity of the aroma has more minuses than pluses - I liked the perfume, I didn’t like it, I’ll have to live with it for at least a few days. Catherine de Medici's perfume "Acqua della Regina" turns out to be triumphant and bitter, oddly enough, but it seems very symbolic - the queen's life, indeed, was not sugar. Throughout her youth, she suffered from her husband’s inattention and the ridicule of the court, and after she gained almost absolute power over France, she was forced to see the death of her own children: of Catherine’s 10 children, only Margaret of Valois, known to us as Queen Margot, lived to be 62 years old, beloved the queen's son, Henry III of Valois, stabbed to death by the fanatic Jean Clement, died at the age of 37, and Catherine's other children did not even live to see their thirtieth birthday.

In the photo: Catherine de Medici's perfume in Santa Maria Novella

Other scents presented in the Eau de Colognes collection are no less dramatic in mood: “Tabacco Toscana” evokes associations with passionate Italian men, and the scent “Muschio” accurately conveys the church smells of melting candles and incense. However, if the imperial “Acqua della Regina” is a kind of perfume illustration of the life of Catherine de Medici, then “Muschio” and “Muschio Oro”, which surprisingly accurately convey the smells familiar to any tourist who has ever looked into an Italian church, can be called a perfume reflection of the history of the pharmacy itself . The fact is that, although the official date of opening of the pharmacy is considered to be 1612, its history begins in the thirteenth century and the monks of the Dominican order took direct part in it.

In the photo: church frescoes on the walls of the Santa Maria Novella pharmacy hall

In the thirteenth century, Florence was experiencing an economic boom, so it is not surprising that representatives of various monastic orders immediately flocked to the city. The Franciscans settled in the east of the city, and by 1385 they had built the Church of Santa Croce, which became one of the symbols of the old city; in the south were representatives of the Carmelite Order, who built the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine. and in the north-west of Florence the Dominicans settled, they erected in this part of the city the church of Santa Maria delle Vigne, later renamed Santa Maria Novella.

In the photo: Santa Maria Novella

Thus, the famous church cross arose in Florence: in the north the Baptistery of St. Giovanni, where all residents of the city were baptized, in the south - Santa Maria del Carmine, in the east Santa Croce and Santa Maria Novella lined with light marble in the west. The first mentions of a monastic infirmary and a shop where they sold healing potions date back to 1385, so it is not surprising that the vaults and ceiling in one of the pharmacy rooms are decorated with church frescoes.

In the photo: fresco on the ceiling of Santa Maria Novella with images of the evangelist apostles

True, in those days the attitude to health and personal hygiene among monks was peculiar, take, for example, the principle of alousia - depriving the body of carnal pleasures, which included washing. Moreover, it was believed that water opened the pores on the body, making the body more susceptible to fatal diseases. It was the lack of personal hygiene, coupled with the high population density in walled cities, as well as systematic malnutrition, that led to the infamous bubonic plague epidemic in Tuscany in 1348, called the Black Death. According to various sources, it wiped out more than half the population of this region of Italy.

But sometimes history is full of evil irony: the fact is that the plague was brought to Tuscany by the Genoese, famous sailors, but the inhabitants of Florence also adopted ideas about the need for personal hygiene from the sailors: according to some sources, from the same Genoese, according to others, from the Venetians . The sailors “spied” the habit of washing among the Arabs and Turks and adopted it, while the Dominican monks, who still believed that water opens the pores through which the disease enters the body, offered it to the inhabitants of Florence alternative option: Instead of bathing, wipe your body with rose water, consisting of water and lemon balm oil. They say that the oil protects the pores and you will be healthy. drug Acqua di Melissa sold in pharmacies to this day, the recipe for preparing water has not changed since 1690.

Surprisingly, after the Florentines accustomed themselves to wiping themselves with rose water at least once every two days average duration life in Florence increased from 27 to 52 years, so the water turned out to be very useful. The beginning of the flourishing of the Dominican enterprise is, of course, associated with the name of Cosimo I de' Medici, the founder of the famous Florentine dynasty. Already in 1543-1545, through his mediation, a garden appeared in Florence, where monks could cultivate medicinal plants, and in 1657, the Accademia del Cimento was founded in the city - the first academy in Europe, also dealing with pharmaceutical issues from a scientific point of view.

The garden of the pharmacy of Santa Maria Novella, located to this day in Florence at Via della Petraia 38/F

In 1612, the pharmacy of Santa Maria Novella finally received official premises and opened its doors to everyone. By the way, the pharmacist Angiolo Marchizzi, who ran the shop at that time, showed himself so well during the next plague epidemic that swept through Florence in 1628-1631 that he even received the title of pharmacist from Ferdinand II de' Medici Royal dynasty and the emblem, which has become one of the symbols of Profumo-Farmaceutica di Santa Maria Novella.

In the photo: the walls of the pharmacy hall are decorated with emblems and portraits of the founding fathers

By the way, the most effective means of combating the plague during the time of Angiolo Marchizzi was considered Vinegar of the Seven Thieves, it is still sold in pharmacies today, and is called a drug. It is a potion - vinegar based on an extract of seven different herbs, and received its unofficial name “Vinegar of the Seven Thieves” due to a Florentine urban legend. If you believe her, then during the plague epidemic, seven thieves smeared themselves with this essence, entered the infected house and took out everything they could from it without catching the infection. Moreover, each of the thieves knew only one ingredient of the magic potion, so they could only carry out the adventure together. Nowadays the essence is proposed to be used for aromatizing rooms, but in the seventeenth century it was applied to the body.

In the photo: Acento Aromatico or Seven Thieves Vinegar

By the way, if you decide to buy home fragrances at the pharmacy, of which there are a great many sold here, here’s another one for you historical fact. In the fourteenth - sixteenth centuries, aromatization of rooms was considered one of the most effective means to combat the plague: residents of infected years were instructed to scent the premises, for example, with lavender oil, to inhale the aroma of flowers as often as possible, and pieces of garlic or dry herbs were often placed in the long beak of the plague doctor’s mask in order to disinfect the contaminated air with a strong odor.

In the photo: dried herbs in the pharmacy hall

So, when buying, for example, a room fragrance Sali di Lavanda, made according to a seventeenth-century recipe, keep in mind that you are not just purchasing perfume for the home, but a serious pharmaceutical product by the standards of Florence in the Medici era.

Pharmacy address Santa Maria Novella: Via della Scala, 16, 501123, Firenze, Tel +39 055 216276, www.smnovella.com

Want to see non-touristy Florence? Go on a city tour with the locals!

Did you like the material? Join us on facebook

Yulia Malkova- Yulia Malkova - founder of the website project. In the past editor-in-chief Internet project elle.ru and editor-in-chief of the website cosmo.ru. I talk about travel for my own pleasure and the pleasure of my readers. If you are a representative of hotels or a tourism office, but we do not know each other, you can contact me by email: [email protected]

The Church of Santa Maria Novella in Florence is located in the square of the same name, next to the city's central station. This cathedral, like most other basilicas in Italy, has rich history. We will tell you about this church, architecture and interesting facts in this article.

History of the Basilica

The Cathedral of Santa Maria Novella in Florence owes its name to the 9th century oratory (Dominican house of worship) called Santa Maria del Vigne, which was previously located on this site.

In 1221, this territory was transferred into ownership, after which the monks decided to build a new cathedral here, as well as a monastery. F. S. Fiorentino and F. R. Campi developed a large-scale project, which was approved, and the builders began building the church and monastery.

In the 13th century, around 1246, construction began, and 33 years later, builders completed the construction of the naves (the main load-bearing structures shaped like a ship). In 1360, F. J. Talenti completed the construction of the sacristy (altar room in Catholicism), as well as the bell tower, which was erected in the Romanesque-Gothic style.

After 60 years, the basilica was consecrated. Such long construction times are explained by the low level of technology, lack of equipment, and irregular financing.

Cathedral in the 15th century

The Church of Santa Maria Novella, Florence, was decided to be rebuilt in 1456. This decision was made by the Florentine merchant D. P. Rucellai, who was very wealthy and at the same time very pious. He ordered a project for rebuilding the temple from the architect L. B. Alberti, which the merchant later really liked.

The same architect began rebuilding the basilica. As a result, a beautiful portal was created and the entire upper part of the cathedral was redone, on which square patterns were created, inlaid with black and white marble.

The composition, consisting of squares, was limited to the heraldic symbols of the merchant's family. Thus, he wanted to leave a mention of himself as the one who rebuilt the church.

The interior of the cathedral was originally divided into 3 naves, which were supported by pylons. It is this series of columns of large cross-section that supports large arches with pointed vaults.

The reconstruction work was completely completed in 1470, and on the frieze of the pediment an inscription in Latin was created, which refers to the builder of the basilica, D. P. Rucellai.

Cathedral interior

Inside the Church of Santa Maria Novella (Florence), the first thing you notice is the simplicity and at the same time sophistication of the decoration. The Gothic-style vaulted ceiling is inlaid with white and dark green marble. The rest of the interior is reminiscent of most classical Gothic churches. Its minimal decoration consists of long benches with backs for praying parishioners, large canvases depicting saints, and several sculptures of Jesus and St. Mary.

In the center of the main hall is Giotto's Crucifixion, as well as one of the most beautiful altars in all of Florence, striking in its magnificence.

Chapels and frescoes of the basilica

In the Cathedral of Santa Maria Novella in Florence, the altar is divided into five chapels (separate rooms) and painted with beautiful frescoes created by the best Italian painters. The chapels of the cathedral have the following names:

Strozzi of Mantua.
Strozzi.
Tornabuoni.
Della Pura.
Great Spanish.

In addition to the chapels, the basilica amazes with its magnificent frescoes, on which painters depicted biblical scenes. The skill of the painters is amazing, they worked everything so diligently that you can see even the smallest details.

In the Basilica of Santa Maria Novella (Florence), as in most Catholic churches, stained glass windows were created instead of windows. They are collected from a huge number of multi-colored glasses, and when sunlight begins to penetrate through them into the temple, its rays fascinate with their beauty.

"The Crucifixion" by Bruneleschi

Next to the main altar there is a sculpture of the Crucifixion, which was created by the great Renaissance sculptor Filippo Bruneleschi. This work is simply amazing with its realism. The most interesting thing is that this sculpture is carved from wood, but it seems as if it was created from clay or stone.

The “crucifixion” of Christ is distinguished by the thin and realistic outlines of the body. Brunelesschi observed all human proportions, taking into account the dynamics of muscle tension. Thanks to this, Christ turned out to be so realistic that he is perceived as real.

Surprisingly, this “Crucifixion” is not canonical, since the sculpture of Jesus is made without a bandage. Another interesting fact: Brunelleschi created his Crucifixion after seeing Donatello's work. He criticized the latter’s sculpture, after which he created his “Crucifixion”. Having seen Bruneleschi's work, Donatello recognized it as ideal.

In principle, it is the first one in the city that greets travelers, since next to it there is a railway station bearing the same name. But when we arrived, it was not our plan to linger near her. This time we were going to give her the attention she deserves.

Already in the middle of the 14th century, Santa Maria Novella is mentioned in the great literary work. During the terrible plague of 1348, which went down in history, it was under these arches, as Boccaccio claims, that several pleasant ladies and young men - the heroes of the immortal "Decameron" - met.

Like Santa Maria del Fiore and San Lorenzo, the current building of Santa Maria Novella also has a prehistory. Since the 9th century, when this place was still the border of the city, a small chapel existed here. In the 13th century, it was transferred to the rapidly growing Dominican order, who in 1279 began construction of a new, larger building. It was completed only in the middle of the 14th century, when the lower tier of the facade was lined with marble, but the facade was completed more than a century later - in 1478 - at the expense of the noble Rucellai family, which patronized the church.

Entrance to the church is through the courtyard

And the most interesting thing in Santa Maria Novella is inside - these are frescoes and crucifixes from the 13th - 15th centuries. Let's go in.

The altar part of the church is divided into several chapels of the most noble Florentine families, who commissioned paintings from the most famous artists of their time.

One of the main values of the church is the Crucifixion by Giotto, attributed to early period of his work, approximately to 1290 - 1300. One of the first works where the artist departs from the Byzantine canon and Christ finds living human traits, even too naturalistic in the opinion of contemporaries.
Let me remind you that, as a decent girl, I don’t take pictures of things I shouldn’t take pictures of, so sometimes here and below there will be photographs that are not mine.

In the Gondi Chapel, from which construction of the church began in 1279, Byzantine frescoes are still preserved, the oldest in Florence. There is also a Crucifixion by Brunelleschi. This is the only known wooden sculpture of the great architect, builder of the dome of the Duomo and the church of San Lorenzo. Associated with its creation is the legend of the dispute between Brunelleschi and Donatello, which states that Brunelleschi created his Crucifix in response to or in defiance of Donatello’s Crucifixion, located in the Church of Santa Croce.

Donatello's crucifix (1406 - 1408) and Brunelleschi's crucifix (1410 - 1415).

In the Bardi Chapel on the walls there are frescoes by Spinello Aretino, second half of the 14th century...

... and "Madonna and Roses" by Giorgio Vasari, two centuries younger.

The Strozzi di Mantova Chapel was painted in the mid-14th century by Nardo di Chione with scenes of the Last Judgment, Heaven and Hell, in accordance with the structure of Dante's Divine Comedy...

... and the Altar “Christ the Liberator, Our Lady and Saints” in the chapel was created in 1357 by his famous brother Andrea Orcagna.

The Strozzi Chapel houses a masterpiece of the mature Renaissance - frescoes by Filippino Lippi
from the life of Saint Philip and John the Evangelist, dating from 1497 - 1502.

But the most grandiose work in Santa Maria Novella, which we actually came to see, is the central chapel of Tornabuoni, painted by the workshop - bottega - Domenico Ghirlandaio in 1485 - 1490. The walls of the chapel are covered with frescoes of the life of the Mother of God on one side and St. John the Baptist on the other.

Picture from here

These paintings, filled with light, colors, and life, are not only an excellent example of the painting of the mature Renaissance, but in them the world of the Florentines that existed 500 years ago seems to come to life and comes out to the viewer. The chapel's paintings were commissioned by Giovanni Tornabuoni, uncle of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and among the numerous figures one can find portraits of members of the customer's family, famous people Florence, friends of Ghirlandaio, members of the Platonic Academy under Lorenzo the Magnificent, and a self-portrait of the author himself. The young Michelangelo, who studied with Ghirlandaio for some time, took part in the creation of these frescoes. Mention of the process of creating these frescoes is in Irving Stone’s wonderful book “Torments and Joys,” dedicated to the life of Michelangelo.
I suggest you just watch. Pictures from here

Life of John the Baptist. Annunciation to Zechariah.