Description
The Museo Nazionale di San Marco is a 15th-century Dominican convent turned into a museum, in Florence, in Piazza San Marco. Forty-four friars' cells, and in each one a fresco: Fra Angelico and his workshop painted an entire convent, and today that convent is a museum, with a monographic collection of his works.
The building is a Renaissance masterpiece by Michelozzo, white walls, two cloisters, everything simple and bright. The frescoes were not there to decorate: they were there to help the friars pray. That is why the scenes are restrained, without superfluous decoration.
The visit starts from the Cloister of Sant'Antonino, with Angelico's lunettes over the doors, and continues into the Sala dell'Ospizio, where his panels are gathered: the Deposition, the Annalena Altarpiece and the Last Judgment. In the Chapter House is his great Crucifixion, with a crowd of saints.
In the cloister, in the northwest corner, there is also a large Crucifixion by Angelico with Saint Dominic at the foot of the cross. All around, 17th-century lunettes tell the life and miracles of Saint Antoninus, the archbishop who was prior here.
Upstairs, on the first floor, at the top of the stairs, is the Annunciation, painted with azurite and gold. Along the corridors open the friars' cells, each with its scene from the life of Christ. Fra Bartolomeo lived here, and here is a wing with his works.
In the small refectory, meant for the convent's guests, is Ghirlandaio's Last Supper, frescoed in 1486 with the help of his workshop. In the garden behind the table, the peacock and the other animals have a symbolic meaning, and next to Judas sits a cat.
Then the library by Michelozzo, an airy space with two colonnades creating three aisles, lit by many windows so that the manuscripts could be read. Humanists such as Agnolo Poliziano and Pico della Mirandola studied here.
It all began with Cosimo de' Medici. In 1437 he entrusted Michelozzo with the crumbling convent of the Silvestrine monks and spent over 40,000 florins. The Dominicans, meanwhile, had lived for two years in damp cells and wooden huts. Cosimo kept two cells for himself, where he withdrew to pray.
In 1489 Girolamo Savonarola arrived. As prior he thundered against the luxury of the Florentines, until he made an enemy of Pope Alexander VI Borgia and ended up on the pyre in Piazza della Signoria, in 1498.
The bell paid too, the “Piagnona”: it had sounded the alarm when the crowd came to take the friar. It was carried in procession through the city, whipped, and never rang again.
Don't miss
• The Annunciation.
• The friars' cells.
• The Sala dell'Ospizio.
• Michelozzo's library.
Did you know?
• In 1922 as many of Angelico's works as possible were brought together at San Marco, having been mostly at the Uffizi and the Accademia before.
• The Crucifixion in the Chapter House had a blue background: the precious pigments have fallen away, and the gray and red remain.
The building is a Renaissance masterpiece by Michelozzo, white walls, two cloisters, everything simple and bright. The frescoes were not there to decorate: they were there to help the friars pray. That is why the scenes are restrained, without superfluous decoration.
The visit starts from the Cloister of Sant'Antonino, with Angelico's lunettes over the doors, and continues into the Sala dell'Ospizio, where his panels are gathered: the Deposition, the Annalena Altarpiece and the Last Judgment. In the Chapter House is his great Crucifixion, with a crowd of saints.
In the cloister, in the northwest corner, there is also a large Crucifixion by Angelico with Saint Dominic at the foot of the cross. All around, 17th-century lunettes tell the life and miracles of Saint Antoninus, the archbishop who was prior here.
Upstairs, on the first floor, at the top of the stairs, is the Annunciation, painted with azurite and gold. Along the corridors open the friars' cells, each with its scene from the life of Christ. Fra Bartolomeo lived here, and here is a wing with his works.
In the small refectory, meant for the convent's guests, is Ghirlandaio's Last Supper, frescoed in 1486 with the help of his workshop. In the garden behind the table, the peacock and the other animals have a symbolic meaning, and next to Judas sits a cat.
Then the library by Michelozzo, an airy space with two colonnades creating three aisles, lit by many windows so that the manuscripts could be read. Humanists such as Agnolo Poliziano and Pico della Mirandola studied here.
It all began with Cosimo de' Medici. In 1437 he entrusted Michelozzo with the crumbling convent of the Silvestrine monks and spent over 40,000 florins. The Dominicans, meanwhile, had lived for two years in damp cells and wooden huts. Cosimo kept two cells for himself, where he withdrew to pray.
In 1489 Girolamo Savonarola arrived. As prior he thundered against the luxury of the Florentines, until he made an enemy of Pope Alexander VI Borgia and ended up on the pyre in Piazza della Signoria, in 1498.
The bell paid too, the “Piagnona”: it had sounded the alarm when the crowd came to take the friar. It was carried in procession through the city, whipped, and never rang again.
Don't miss
• The Annunciation.
• The friars' cells.
• The Sala dell'Ospizio.
• Michelozzo's library.
Did you know?
• In 1922 as many of Angelico's works as possible were brought together at San Marco, having been mostly at the Uffizi and the Accademia before.
• The Crucifixion in the Chapter House had a blue background: the precious pigments have fallen away, and the gray and red remain.