Description
The Pazzi Chapel is one of the most harmonious pieces of Renaissance architecture, and is considered Filippo Brunelleschi's masterpiece. It stands in the first cloister of the basilica of Santa Croce, in Florence: it was the friars' chapter house, but in fact it was the private chapel of the Pazzi family, who paid for its construction.
The portico recalls a Roman triumphal arch, with six Corinthian columns and an arch in the center. Beneath it, the small dome is covered in colored glazed terracotta, the work of Luca della Robbia, who also made the roundel of Saint Andrew above the door.
Inside, everything rests on one measure: twenty Florentine braccia, almost twelve meters, which is the width of the room, the height of the walls and the diameter of the dome. It is an imaginary cube topped by a hemisphere, in gray pietra serena on white plaster. Light pours in from the lantern and the twelve oculi of the dome, which recall the twelve apostles.
The decorations, by Luca della Robbia, stay in their place without stealing the scene from the architecture: twelve glazed terracotta medallions with the apostles on the walls and the four evangelists in the pendentives of the dome. A pietra serena bench runs all around, so the monks could sit for their meetings.
No altarpiece: according to Brunelleschi the stained-glass windows were enough, designed by Alesso Baldovinetti. If you look up above the altar you find the little starry dome, with the sky of Florence as it was on the night of July 4, 1442, the same date as the Old Sacristy of San Lorenzo.
The patron died before it was finished. So did the architect. In 1423 a fire destroyed part of the convent and Andrea de' Pazzi offered to rebuild the chapter house, in exchange for a family tomb at the back. In 1443 Pope Eugene IV dined here, when the walls only reached the entablature.
Brunelleschi died in 1446, the dome was closed in 1459 and the portico in 1461. In 1478 the Pazzi were wiped out after the conspiracy against the Medici. How much of it is truly Brunelleschi's, scholars still debate: some attribute the portico to Giuliano da Maiano.
Don't miss
• The portico.
• Luca della Robbia's twelve apostles.
• The little starry dome.
Did you know?
• Brunelleschi called on his friend Luca della Robbia and not Donatello, with whom he had clashed over the decoration of the Old Sacristy.
• The chapel's austerity is also a statement: Brunelleschi did not want overly expressive decoration, which at San Lorenzo seemed to him to invade the architecture.
The portico recalls a Roman triumphal arch, with six Corinthian columns and an arch in the center. Beneath it, the small dome is covered in colored glazed terracotta, the work of Luca della Robbia, who also made the roundel of Saint Andrew above the door.
Inside, everything rests on one measure: twenty Florentine braccia, almost twelve meters, which is the width of the room, the height of the walls and the diameter of the dome. It is an imaginary cube topped by a hemisphere, in gray pietra serena on white plaster. Light pours in from the lantern and the twelve oculi of the dome, which recall the twelve apostles.
The decorations, by Luca della Robbia, stay in their place without stealing the scene from the architecture: twelve glazed terracotta medallions with the apostles on the walls and the four evangelists in the pendentives of the dome. A pietra serena bench runs all around, so the monks could sit for their meetings.
No altarpiece: according to Brunelleschi the stained-glass windows were enough, designed by Alesso Baldovinetti. If you look up above the altar you find the little starry dome, with the sky of Florence as it was on the night of July 4, 1442, the same date as the Old Sacristy of San Lorenzo.
The patron died before it was finished. So did the architect. In 1423 a fire destroyed part of the convent and Andrea de' Pazzi offered to rebuild the chapter house, in exchange for a family tomb at the back. In 1443 Pope Eugene IV dined here, when the walls only reached the entablature.
Brunelleschi died in 1446, the dome was closed in 1459 and the portico in 1461. In 1478 the Pazzi were wiped out after the conspiracy against the Medici. How much of it is truly Brunelleschi's, scholars still debate: some attribute the portico to Giuliano da Maiano.
Don't miss
• The portico.
• Luca della Robbia's twelve apostles.
• The little starry dome.
Did you know?
• Brunelleschi called on his friend Luca della Robbia and not Donatello, with whom he had clashed over the decoration of the Old Sacristy.
• The chapel's austerity is also a statement: Brunelleschi did not want overly expressive decoration, which at San Lorenzo seemed to him to invade the architecture.