San Marco Museum
San Marco Museum
museums
Piazza San Marco, 50121 Firenze, Italia
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The name Museo di San Marco is practically a synonym for Fra’ Beato Angelico. It was inside this Dominican complex, redesigned by Michelozzo around 1440 under the Medici patronage that the great Renaissance painter lived and worked, forever linking his name to the place. Beyond the Cloister of St. Antoninus that is frescoed with scenes from the life of the Dominican saint who was prior of the monastery and archbishop of Florence, we can visit the former Pilgrims’ Hospice that houses a gallery dedicated to Angelico: from the early Linaiuoli Altarpiece painted for the linen merchants’ guild to the Deposition from the Cross painted later in life for the church of Santa Trinita. After admiring the extraordinary fresco of the Crucifixion in the Chapter Room and viewing the section dedicated to Fra’ Bartolomeo and his contemporaries we go upstairs. Here, we are greeted by the famous Annunciation set against a serene Renaissance background. It is the prelude to the 43 monks’ cells frescoed by Angelico and his pupils (a vast repertory of essential images and mystical impetuses for mediation). The cell inhabited by Fra’ Girolamo Savonarola contains various items related to the great man’s life. In fact, it was here, opposite Michelozzi’s beautiful library that he was seized in 1498 and then executed in Piazza della Signoria on 23 May of the same year. We now go back downstairs, to the small refectory – as opposed to the large one which was frescoed by Sogliani – to see Ghirlandaio’s Last Supper, the “twin” of the painting in Ognissanti. Not far from here, in the former infirmary, is a collection of items that were saved when the area
museums
Piazza San Marco, 50121 Firenze, Italia
Show on map
The name Museo di San Marco is practically a synonym for Fra’ Beato Angelico. It was inside this Dominican complex, redesigned by Michelozzo around 1440 under the Medici patronage that the great Renaissance painter lived and worked, forever linking his name to the place. Beyond the Cloister of St. Antoninus that is frescoed with scenes from the life of the Dominican saint who was prior of the monastery and archbishop of Florence, we can visit the former Pilgrims’ Hospice that houses a gallery dedicated to Angelico: from the early Linaiuoli Altarpiece painted for the linen merchants’ guild to the Deposition from the Cross painted later in life for the church of Santa Trinita. After admiring the extraordinary fresco of the Crucifixion in the Chapter Room and viewing the section dedicated to Fra’ Bartolomeo and his contemporaries we go upstairs. Here, we are greeted by the famous Annunciation set against a serene Renaissance background. It is the prelude to the 43 monks’ cells frescoed by Angelico and his pupils (a vast repertory of essential images and mystical impetuses for mediation). The cell inhabited by Fra’ Girolamo Savonarola contains various items related to the great man’s life. In fact, it was here, opposite Michelozzi’s beautiful library that he was seized in 1498 and then executed in Piazza della Signoria on 23 May of the same year. We now go back downstairs, to the small refectory – as opposed to the large one which was frescoed by Sogliani – to see Ghirlandaio’s Last Supper, the “twin” of the painting in Ognissanti. Not far from here, in the former infirmary, is a collection of items that were saved when the area