Santa Felicita is a church in Florence

Florence

Florence is the capital city of the Italian region of Tuscany and of the province of Florence. It is the most populous city in Tuscany, with approximately 370,000 inhabitants, expanding to over 1.5 million in the metropolitan area....

, Italy

Italy

Italy , officially the Italian Republic languages]] under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages. In each of these, Italy's official name is as follows:;;;;;;;;), is a unitary parliamentary republic in South-Central Europe. To the north it borders France, Switzerland, Austria and...

, probably the oldest in the city after San Lorenzo

Basilica di San Lorenzo di Firenze

The Basilica di San Lorenzo is one of the largest churches of Florence, Italy, situated at the centre of the city’s main market district, and the burial place of all the principal members of the Medici family from Cosimo il Vecchio to Cosimo III...

. In the 2nd century, Syrian Greek merchants settled in the area south of the Arno

Arno

The Arno is a river in the Tuscany region of Italy. It is the most important river of central Italy after the Tiber.- Source and route :The river originates on Mount Falterona in the Casentino area of the Apennines, and initially takes a southward curve...

 and are thought to have brought Christianity

Christianity

Christianity is a monotheistic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus as presented in canonical gospels and other New Testament writings...

 to the region. The first church on the site was probably built in the late 4th century or early 5th century and was dedicated to Saint Felicity of Rome. A new church was built in the 11th century and the current church largely dates from 1736–1739, under design by Ferdinando Ruggieri

Ferdinando Ruggieri

Ferdinando Ruggeri was an Italian architect....

, who turned it into a one nave edifice. The monastery was suppressed under the Napoleonic occupation of 1808-1810.

The Vasari Corridor

Vasari Corridor

The Vasari Corridor is an elevated enclosed passageway in Florence, central Italy, which connects the Palazzo Vecchio with the Palazzo Pitti. Beginning on the south side of the Palazzo Vecchio, it then joins the Uffizi Gallery and leaves on its south side, crossing the Lungarno dei Archibusieri...

 passes through the façade of this church and on the inside there is large window, covered by a thick gate, where the Grand Dukes of the Medici family used to listen to the mass without being seen by the people staying at ground level.

Description

Only the 14th century Chapter House survives from the Romanesque with fragmentary frescoes (1387) by Niccolò di Pietro Gerini

Niccolò di Pietro Gerini

Niccolò di Pietro Gerini was an Italian painter of the late Gothic period, active mainly in his native Florence. Niccolo di Pietro Gerini's works can be found in major art galleries in Rome, the Vatican, Florence, London, Milan, New York, Los Angeles, Amsterdam, Berlin, Paris, St Petersburg,...

 (Crucifixion and in the ceiling, roundels with the Redeemer and the Seven Virtues).

The Brunelleschian sacristy dates from 1473 and was under the patronage of the Canigiani family. There are the 14th century Madonna with Child and Saints by Taddeo Gaddi

Taddeo Gaddi

Taddeo Gaddi was a medieval Italian painter and architect.-Biography:He was the son of Gaddo di Zanobi, called Gaddo Gaddi. He was a member of Giotto's workshop from 1313 to 1337, when his master died...

, the 15th century Adoration of the Magi by Francesco d'Antonio and St. Felicity with Her Seven Sons by Neri di Bicci

Neri di Bicci

Neri di Bicci was an Italian painter of the Renaissance. A prolific painter of mainly religious themes, he was active mainly in Florence and in the medium of tempera. His father was Bicci di Lorenzo. His grandfather, Lorenzo di Bicci was also a painter in Florence, a pupil of Spinello...

.

The Barbadori (or Capponi) chapel

Barbadori Chapel

The Barbadori Chapel, later Capponi Chapel, is a chapel in the church of Santa Felicita in Florence, central Italy. It was designed by Filippo Brunelleschi, and was later decorated by a cycle of works by the Mannerist painter Pontormo.-History:...

 dates also to the 15th century (1419-1423); it was designed by Filippo Brunelleschi

Filippo Brunelleschi

Filippo Brunelleschi was one of the foremost architects and engineers of the Italian Renaissance. He is perhaps most famous for inventing linear perspective and designing the dome of the Florence Cathedral, but his accomplishments also included bronze artwork, architecture , mathematics,...

 and when the patronage passed to Lodovico di Gino Capponi the decoration was entrusted to Pontormo

Pontormo

Jacopo Carucci , usually known as Jacopo da Pontormo, Jacopo Pontormo or simply Pontormo, was an Italian Mannerist painter and portraitist from the Florentine school. His work represents a profound stylistic shift from the calm perspectival regularity that characterized the art of the Florentine...

, who worked on it from 1525 until 1528. The painting of the vault has disappeared but in the chapel can still be seen the Four Evangelists in the pendentives and two of the greatest masterpieces by Pontormo: the Virgin and the Angel Gabriel on the side wall and the altarpiece of the Deposition above the end altar. The latter, enclosed in its beautiful gilded fame, with its surrealistic dimensions of elongated and entangled bodies and its range of iridescent colours, constitutes one of the most important works of Early Mannerism. The stained glass window depicting the Journey to the Sepulchre is a copy of the one done by Guglielmo da Marcillat in 1526.

The desire to create a complementary space to this led to the decoration of the opposite Canigiani chapel by Bernardino Poccetti

Bernardino Poccetti

Bernardino Poccetti , also known as Barbatelli, was an Italian Mannerist painter and printmaker in etching ....

 (Miracle of Our Lady of the Snow, 1589-1590). In 1565, as recorded by Vasari himself, Grand Duke Cosimo I de' Medici decided to build the long corridor

Hall

In architecture, a hall is fundamentally a relatively large space enclosed by a roof and walls. In the Iron Age, a mead hall was such a simple building and was the residence of a lord and his retainers...

 which would connect the old Priors’ Palace in Piazza della Signoria

Piazza della Signoria

Piazza della Signoria is an L-shaped square in front of the Palazzo Vecchio in Florence, Italy. It was named after the Palazzo della Signoria, also called Palazzo Vecchio....

 with the new Medici residence, previously property of the Pitti family; as this would pass through the church of Santa Felicita, the church began to play a very important role in the life of the Medici court. Cigoli

Cigoli

Lodovico Cardi , also known as Cigoli, was an Italian painter and architect of the late Mannerist and early Baroque period, trained and active in his early career in Florence, and spending the last nine years of his life in Rome.Lodovico Cardi was born at Villa Castelvecchio di Cigoli, in Tuscany,...

 was responsible for the design of the chancel whose patrons were the Guicciardini family (and where the famous historian Francesco

Francesco Guicciardini

Francesco Guicciardini was an Italian historian and statesman. A friend and critic of Niccolò Machiavelli, he is considered one of the major political writers of the Italian Renaissance...

 was buried in 1540). The work continued until the vault was decorated by Cinganelli (ca. 1620); on the altar is the Adoration of the Shepherds attributed to Francesco Brina (1587).

In the church there are also the Martyrdom of the Maccabees (1863) by Antonio Ciseri

Antonio Ciseri

Antonio Ciseri was an Italian painter of religious subjects....

 in the 3rd chapel on the right, the Meeting of St. Anne and St. Joachim, attributed to Michele Tosini

Michele Tosini

Michele Tosini was an Italian painter of the Renaissance and Mannerist period, who worked in Florence.He apprenticed initially with Lorenzo di Credi and Antonio del Ceraiolo, but then moved into the studio of Ridolfo Ghirlandaio, from whom he acquired the name Michele di Ridolfi or Michele...

, at the end of the right transept, the Assumption of the Virgin with Saints (1677), attributed to Baldassare Franceschini

Baldassare Franceschini

thumb|Portrait of Cardinal [[Gian Carlo de' Medici]].Baldassare Franceschini was an Italian late Baroque painter active mainly around Florence...

, at the end of the left transept.