Italy Travel And Hotel Guide

More remarkable paintings are on display in the spacious Romanesque conventual buildings to the left of the church, entered through a separate door into the Museo di Santa Maria Novella (Mon-Thurs, Sat & Sun 9am-2pm; L5000/2.58). The cloisters, just beyond the ticket desk, are more richly decorated than any others in Florence. The first set, the Romanesque Chiostro Verde , features frescoes of Stories from Genesis by Paolo Uccello and his workshop. Look out for Uccello’s windswept image of The Flood , on the right as you enter, rendered almost unintelligible by the telescoping appearance and the double appearance of the ark (before and after the flood), the flanks of which form a receding corridor in the centre of the image. On the left, the ark is rising on the deluge; on the right it has come to rest as the waters subside. In the foreground, two men fight apiece other in their desperation to stay alive (the chequered lifebelt that one of them is wearing is a favourite Uccello device for demonstrating a mastery of perspective). In the right foreground there’s a preview of the universal devastation, with a crow gobbling an eyeball from one of the drowned. Off the cloister opens what was once the chapter-house of the immensely rich convent, the Cappellone degli Spagnuoli (Spanish Chapel), which received its new study after Eleanor of Toledo reserved it for the use of her Spanish entourage. Its fresco cycle by Andrea di Firenze, an extended depiction of the triumph of the Catholic Church, was described by Ruskin as “the most noble piece of pictorial philosophy in Italy”. The left surround depicts the Triumph of Divine Wisdom : Thomas Aquinas is enthroned below the Virgin and Apostles amidst winged Virtues and biblical notables. The more spectacular right surround depicts the Triumph of the Church , and includes at the bottom a building supposed to be Florence’s cathedral, a pinky-purple creation imagined eighty years before its actual completion. Before it stand the pope and the Holy Roman Emperor, society’s eventual spiritual and temporal rulers. To the right is a group of pilgrims; the saved are shown being marshalled towards a friar who hears their confession (which removes the taint of mortal sin) before dispatch towards St Peter and the Gate of Paradise.