Description
The church of Santa Felicita is a small church in the Oltrarno, in Florence, between Ponte Vecchio and Palazzo Pitti. It looks like one of many, but it holds a masterpiece of Mannerism and a story that begins in Roman times.
For three years Pontormo worked hidden behind a wooden screen, letting no one see anything. When in 1528 he took down the boards, Vasari writes, his Deposition was unveiled "to the wonder of all Florence."
It is still there, in the little Capponi Chapel, to the right of the entrance: suspended bodies, bright, unnatural colors. In the figure looking out toward the viewer, at the far right, the painter perhaps portrayed himself.
Santa Felicita is also one of the oldest churches in Florence.
The first basilica was destroyed, and in the 11th century another one, Romanesque, was consecrated by Pope Nicholas II in 1059, with a monastery of Benedictine nuns. After the plague of 1348 the nuns built the Gothic one.
As early as the 2nd century Syrian merchants lived here and brought Christianity to the city. Under the floor you can still see the early Christian tombs, and some tombstones are written in Greek.
Above the portico runs the Vasari Corridor, and inside the church there is still the box from which the grand dukes followed Mass without mixing with the faithful. The priest went up to them with communion.
In the sacristy, inspired in miniature by Brunelleschi's Pazzi Chapel, is displayed the Nerli Madonna from the workshop of Filippino Lippi. In the fourteenth-century chapter house are frescoes from 1387. The historian Francesco Guicciardini was buried in the church, at the foot of the high altar.
Its look today dates from the 1700s, when the architect Mario Ruggieri rebuilt the church from 1735, sparing only two chapels near the entrance. The bell tower is the old Fifanti tower, and the gabled facade has a three-arched portico, above which the corridor passes.
For three years Pontormo worked hidden behind a wooden screen, letting no one see anything. When in 1528 he took down the boards, Vasari writes, his Deposition was unveiled "to the wonder of all Florence."
It is still there, in the little Capponi Chapel, to the right of the entrance: suspended bodies, bright, unnatural colors. In the figure looking out toward the viewer, at the far right, the painter perhaps portrayed himself.
Santa Felicita is also one of the oldest churches in Florence.
The first basilica was destroyed, and in the 11th century another one, Romanesque, was consecrated by Pope Nicholas II in 1059, with a monastery of Benedictine nuns. After the plague of 1348 the nuns built the Gothic one.
As early as the 2nd century Syrian merchants lived here and brought Christianity to the city. Under the floor you can still see the early Christian tombs, and some tombstones are written in Greek.
Above the portico runs the Vasari Corridor, and inside the church there is still the box from which the grand dukes followed Mass without mixing with the faithful. The priest went up to them with communion.
In the sacristy, inspired in miniature by Brunelleschi's Pazzi Chapel, is displayed the Nerli Madonna from the workshop of Filippino Lippi. In the fourteenth-century chapter house are frescoes from 1387. The historian Francesco Guicciardini was buried in the church, at the foot of the high altar.
Its look today dates from the 1700s, when the architect Mario Ruggieri rebuilt the church from 1735, sparing only two chapels near the entrance. The bell tower is the old Fifanti tower, and the gabled facade has a three-arched portico, above which the corridor passes.