Santa Maria del Carmine is a church of the Carmelite Order, in the Oltrarno

Oltrarno

The Oltrarno is a quarter of Florence, Italy. The name means beyond the Arno ; it is located south of the River Arno. It contains part of the historic center of Florence and many notable sites such as the church Santo Spirito di Firenze, Palazzo Pitti, Belvedere, and Piazzale Michelangelo.-...

 district of 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....

, in Tuscany

Tuscany

Tuscany is a region in Italy. It has an area of about 23,000 square kilometres and a population of about 3.75 million inhabitants. The regional capital is Florence ....

, 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...

. It is famous as the location of the Brancacci Chapel

Brancacci Chapel

The Brancacci Chapel is a chapel in the Church of Santa Maria del Carmine in Florence, central Italy. It is sometimes called the "Sistine Chapel of the early Renaissance" for its painting cycle, among the most famous and influential of the period. Construction of the chapel was commissioned by...

 housing outstanding Renaissance fresco

Fresco

Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...

es by Masaccio

Masaccio

Masaccio , born Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, was the first great painter of the Quattrocento period of the Italian Renaissance. According to Vasari, Masaccio was the best painter of his generation because of his skill at recreating lifelike figures and movements as well as a convincing sense...

 and Masolino da Panicale

Masolino da Panicale

Masolino da Panicale was an Italian painter. His best known works are probably his collaborations with Masaccio: Madonna with Child and St. Anne and the frescoes in the Brancacci Chapel .-Biography:Masolino was born in Panicale...

, later finished by Filippino Lippi

Filippino Lippi

Filippino Lippi was an Italian painter working during the High Renaissance in Florence, Italy.-Biography:...

.

History

The church, dedicated to the Beatæ Virginis Mariæ de monte Carmelo

Our Lady of Mount Carmel

Our Lady of Mount Carmel is the title given to the Blessed Virgin Mary in her role as patroness of the Carmelite Order. The first Carmelites were Christian hermits living on Mount Carmel in the Holy Land during the late 12th and early to mid 13th centuries...

, was built from 1268 as part of Carmelite convent, which is still existing today. Of the original edifice only some Romanesque

Romanesque architecture

Romanesque architecture is an architectural style of Medieval Europe characterised by semi-circular arches. There is no consensus for the beginning date of the Romanesque architecture, with proposals ranging from the 6th to the 10th century. It developed in the 12th century into the Gothic style,...

-Gothic

Gothic architecture

Gothic architecture is a style of architecture that flourished during the high and late medieval period. It evolved from Romanesque architecture and was succeeded by Renaissance architecture....

 remains can be seen on the sides. The complex was enlarged a first time in 1328 and again in 1464, when the capitular hall and the refectory added, though the church maintained the Latin Cross, one nave pan.

Renovated in the Baroque style

Baroque architecture

Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...

 in the 16th-17th centuries, it was damaged by a fire in 1771 and rebuilt internally in the Rococo style in 1782. The façade

Facade

A facade or façade is generally one exterior side of a building, usually, but not always, the front. The word comes from the French language, literally meaning "frontage" or "face"....

, like in many Florentine churches, remained unfinished. The fire did not touch the sacristy

Sacristy

A sacristy is a room for keeping vestments and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records.The sacristy is usually located inside the church, but in some cases it is an annex or separate building...

: therefore have survived the Stories of St. Cecilia attributed to Lippo d'Andrea (c. 1400) and the marble monument of Pier Soderini by Benedetto da Rovezzano (1511-1513). The vault of the nave has a trompe-l'oeil fresco by Domenico Stagi.

Brancacci Chapel

Also the Brancacci Chapel survived the fire, and was also saved by the subsequent restoration by the intervention of a Florentine noblewoman who firmly opposed to the covering of the fresco

Fresco

Fresco is any of several related mural painting types, executed on plaster on walls or ceilings. The word fresco comes from the Greek word affresca which derives from the Latin word for "fresh". Frescoes first developed in the ancient world and continued to be popular through the Renaissance...

es. The Chapel is home to the famous frescoes by Masaccio and Masolino, considered the first masterwork of the Italian Renaissance

Italian Renaissance

The Italian Renaissance began the opening phase of the Renaissance, a period of great cultural change and achievement in Europe that spanned the period from the end of the 13th century to about 1600, marking the transition between Medieval and Early Modern Europe...

. Masaccio

Masaccio

Masaccio , born Tommaso di Ser Giovanni di Simone, was the first great painter of the Quattrocento period of the Italian Renaissance. According to Vasari, Masaccio was the best painter of his generation because of his skill at recreating lifelike figures and movements as well as a convincing sense...

's master, Masolino commissioned by a wealthy merchant, Felice Brancacci, began work on the chapel in 1425 but the project was soon taken over by his pupil whose treatment of figures in believable space made the frescoes among the most important to have come out of the Early Renaissance. The scenes by Masaccio are the Expulsion from Paradise, The Tribute Money St Peter Healing a Lame-Man , and St Peter Raising Tabitha from the dead. The cycle was finished by Filippino Lippi

Corsini Chapel

The Corsini

Corsini

Corsini is the name of a Florentine princely family.-History:The founder is said to be Neri Corsini, who came to prominence circa 1170. The family are likely to have originated from Corsica, during the time when the Republic of Pisa was ruling the island. Initially the family was known as Corso ...

, probably the richest family in Florence during the 17th-18th centuries, had this chapel built in 1675, entitled to St. Andrew Corsini

Andrew Corsini

Andrew Corsini was an Italian Carmelite, and bishop of Fiesole.-Biography:He was born in Florence, November 30, 1302, as member of the illustrious Corsini family...

 (1301-1374), Carmelite bishop of Fiesole, who had been canonized in 1629. The architect Pier Francesco Silvani

Pier Francesco Silvani

Pier Francesco Silvani was an Italian architect and designer, active during the Baroque period, in Florence and other sites in Tuscany.He is the son of the architect Gherardo Silvani...

 choose for it the Baroque style

Baroque architecture

Baroque architecture is a term used to describe the building style of the Baroque era, begun in late sixteenth century Italy, that took the Roman vocabulary of Renaissance architecture and used it in a new rhetorical and theatrical fashion, often to express the triumph of the Catholic Church and...

 then popular in Rome

Rome

Rome is the capital of Italy and the country's largest and most populated city and comune, with over 2.7 million residents in . The city is located in the central-western portion of the Italian Peninsula, on the Tiber River within the Lazio region of Italy.Rome's history spans two and a half...

. The small dome was frescoed by Luca Giordano

Luca Giordano

Luca Giordano was an Italian late Baroque painter and printmaker in etching. Fluent and decorative, he worked successfully in Naples and Rome, Florence and Venice, before spending a decade in Spain....

 in 1682. The elaborated Italian Rococo

Italian Rococo art

Italian Rococo art refers to painting and the plastic arts in Italy during the Rococo period, which went from about the early/mid-18th to the late 18th century.-History and background:...

 ceiling is from one of the most important 18th century artists in the city, Giovanni Domenico Ferretti

Giovanni Domenico Ferretti

Giovanni Domenico Ferretti , also called Giandomenico d'Imola was an Italian Rococo style painter from Florence. According to the contemporary Giovanni Camillo Sagrestani, Ferretti was a pupil of the Bolognese painter Giuseppe Maria Crespi...

.

The convent

The convent suffered in its history from numerous disasters, from the 1771 fire to the 1966 River Arno flood. Most of the artworks are therefore fragmentary: these include the Bestowal of the Carmelite Rule by Filippo Lippi

Filippo Lippi

Fra' Filippo Lippi , also called Lippo Lippi, was an Italian painter of the Italian Quattrocento .-Biography and works:...

 and the Last Supper by Alessandro Allori

Alessandro Allori

Alessandro di Cristofano di Lorenzo del Bronzino Allori was an Italian portrait painter of the late Mannerist Florentine school....

, and remains of works from other chapels by Pietro Nelli

Pietro Nelli

Pietro Nelli was an Italian painter of the late-Baroque period.He was born in Massa, where he had been a pupil of Giovanni Maria Morandi in Rome...

 and Gherardo Starnina

Gherardo Starnina

Gherardo Starnina was an Italian painter from Florence.According to the biographer Giorgio Vasari, Starnina initially trained with Antonio Veneziano, then with Agnolo Gaddi. He is claimed to have participated in the painting of the frescos in the Castellani Chapel in Santa Croce, Florence...

.

The second refectory is decorated with the Supper in Simon the Pharisee

Simon the Leper

Simon the Leper is a biblical figure mentioned by the Gospels according to Matthew and Mark . These two books narrate how Jesus made a visit to the house of Simon the Leper at Bethany during the course of which a woman anoints the head of Jesus with costly ointment. Bethany was the home of Simon...

's house by Giovanni Battista Vanni

Giovanni Battista Vanni

Giovanni Battista Vanni was an Italian painter and engraver of the Baroque period.He was born in either Pisa or Florence in 1599 ; he studied successively under Jacopo da Empoli, Aurelio Lomi, and Matteo Rosselli, and then became a disciple of Cristofano Allori. He is better known as an engraver...

 (c. 1645); it also houses fragments of frescoes by Lippo d'Andrea.

External links

• Holy Places in Tuscany (Italian and English)