Works of Grant Allen, page 929
The door to the left, in the portico, outside the church, gives access to the cloisters of the Servite Monastery, with many tombs of the order and others. In a lunette opposite you as you enter, under glass, is a * *fresco of the Holy Family, by Andrea del Sarto, known as the Madonna del Sacco, and very charming. It represents the Repose on the Flight into Egypt, and takes its name from the sack of hay on which St. Joseph is seated.
At Santa Trinità the exterior is uninteresting. The interior is good and impressive Gothic; about 1250; attributed to Niccolò Pisano. In the left aisle, second chapel, is a copy of Raphael’s (Dresden) Madonna di San Sisto. In the third chapel is an Annunciation, probably by Neri di Bicci. In the fourth chapel is an altar-piece, Coronation of the Virgin, Giottesque; the saints are named on their haloes. In the fifth chapel is a lean wooden penitent Magdalen in the desert, by Desiderio da Settignano, completed by Benedetto da Majano. In the right aisle, beginning at the bottom with the first chapel, St. Maximin brings the Eucharist to St. Mary Magdalen in the Sainte Baume or cave. In the third chapel is a Giottesque Madonna and Child, with St. Andrew and St. Catherine on the left; on the right are St. Nicholas and St. Lucy. The fourth chapel, closed by a screen, contains excellent frescoes, much restored, probably by Don Lorenzo Monaco, the usual series of the History of the Virgin. On the left wall, above, is Joachim expelled from the Temple; below, Joachim and Anna at the Golden Gate; on the altar wall, to the left, is the Birth of the Virgin; on the right, her Presentation in the Temple; and an altar-piece, certainly by Don Lorenzo, *Annunciation; on the right wall, below, is the Marriage of the Virgin; above, her Death. Note also the frescoes on the vaulting. This is a good place to study Don Lorenzo; compare these with the two similar earlier series by Taddeo Gaddi and Giovanni da Milano at Santa Croce. In the fifth chapel is a *marble altar by Benedetto da Rovezzano. In the transept, or, rather, the second chapel to the right, the High Altar (at the time of writing, cut off for restoration) known as the Chapel of the Sassetti, are * *frescoes from the life of St. Francis, by Domenico Ghirlandajo, 1485; subjects and grouping nearly the same as those of the Giottos in Santa Croce, with which compare these Renaissance adaptations. Begin at the upper left compartment, and read round. In the first, St. Francis quits his father’s house, and renounces his inheritance. In the second, Pope Honorius approves the Rules of the Order. In the third, St. Francis offers to undergo the Ordeal of Fire before the Sultan. The fourth represents St. Francis receiving the Stigmata; Pisa and its Campanile in the background. The fifth is a local Florentine subject; St. Francis restores to life a child of the Spini family, who had fallen from a window. The scene is in front of this very church; in the background, the Palazzo Spini (now Vieusseux’s library), and the (old) Ponte Santa Trinità. The sixth shows the death of St. Francis. Compare this fresco in particular with the Giotto, the composition of which it closely follows. As usual, Ghirlandajo introduces numerous portraits of contemporaries; if you wish to identify them, see Lafenestre. Before the altar are the donors, Francesco Sassetti and his wife, also by Ghirlandajo; note that Francis is the donor’s name-saint. On the ceiling are Sibyls. (The Adoration of the Shepherds, in the Belle Arti, by Ghirlandajo, was originally the altar-piece of this chapel.) The *tombs of the Sassetti are by Giuliano da Sangallo.
Florence is so inexhaustible that for the other churches I can only give a few brief hints, which the reader who has followed me so far will now, I hope, be in a position to fill in for himself.
Santo Spirito is an Augustinian church, attached to a monastery. It has thirty-eight chapels, almost all with good altar-pieces; the interior is vast and impressive; mainly by Brunelleschi. St. Nicholas is here a locally important saint. (A neighbouring parish is San Niccolò.) The most remarkable pictures among many are, the fifth chapel (beginning from the right aisle), for a *Madonna with St. Nicholas and St. Catherine, by Filippino Lippi; and the twenty-ninth chapel, for a * *masterpiece of an unknown artist, the Trinity with St. Catherine and the penitent Magdalen, — a most striking work, remarkable for its ascetic and morbid beauty. For the rest, you must be content with Baedeker, or follow Lafenestre. Notice the good cloisters.
FILIPPINO LIPPI. — MADONNA APPEARING TO ST. BERNARD.
The Ognissanti is a Franciscan church, also attached to a monastery. It is dedicated to All Saints; hence the character of the group in the Giovanni della Robbia which fills the lunette over the doorway. Its best pictures are a *St. Augustine by Botticelli, and a *St. Jerome by Domenico Ghirlandajo, — two doctors of the Church, the other two never finished, — on the right and left of the nave. The cloisters have frescoes from the life of St. Francis and Franciscan saints. The Refectory I will notice later.
The Badia, opposite the Bargello, should be visited, by those who have time, for the sake of the glorious Filippino Lippi of the * *Madonna appearing to St. Bernard, one of his earliest works, and perhaps his finest. It has also some beautiful tombs by Mino da Fiesole; St. Leonard with the fetters in one of them will by this time be familiar.
San Felice, San Niccolò, etc., you need only visit when you have thoroughly seen everything else in Florence.
Among minor sights I must lump not a few works of very high value.
A comparative study of the various representations of the Cenacolo (or Last Supper), usually in Refectories of suppressed monasteries, is very interesting. We have already seen those at Santa Croce (Giottesque) and at San Marco (Ghirlandajo). There is a second Ghirlandajo, almost a replica, in the Refectory of the Ognissanti; a notice marks the door, just beyond the church. The Franciscans wanted to have as good a picture as their Dominican brethren. The room contains several other interesting works both in painting and sculpture. A far more lovely Last Supper is that known as the *Cenacolo di Fuligno, in the Via Faenza; notice on the door. It occupies the end wall of the Refectory of the old monastery of Sant’Onofrio, and belongs to the School of Perugino. It was once attributed to Raphael, and more lately has been assigned to Gerino da Pistoja; if so, it is by many stages his finest work. Whoever painted it, however, it is one of the most beautiful things in Florence. Yet another Last Supper is to be found in the Refectory of the old Convent of Sant’Apollonia in the street of the same name; it is by Andrea del Castagno, a large number of whose other works have lately been transferred hither, so that this little museum offers the best opportunity of studying that able and vigorous but harsh and soulless master. See also the *Andrea del Sarto at San Salvi. I advise a visit to these four little shows in close succession. Read Mrs. Jameson on the subject beforehand, or take her with you.
If possible walk one day through the Hospital of Santa Maria Nuova, founded by Folco Portinari (father of Dante’s Beatrice), and full of memories of the Portinari family. Then, visit the little picture gallery of the Hospital. It contains many objects of interest, and two masterpieces. One is a * *triptych by Hugo van der Goes, the Flemish painter, produced for Tommaso Portinari, agent of the Medici at Bruges, and brought by him to Florence; it is doubtless the finest Flemish work in the city. In the centre is the Nativity, with St. Joseph (?) and adoring shepherds, as well as charming angels, and some exquisite irises. Every straw, every columbine, every vase in his admirable work should be minutely noticed. In the left wing, are the donor’s wife and daughter, presented by their patron saints, St. Mary Magdalen, with her alabaster box, and St. Margaret, with her dragon; on the right wing, the donor and his two sons, presented by St. Matthew (?) and St. Anthony Abbot. This work deserves long and attentive study. In the next room is a *Last Judgment, by Fra Bartolommeo and Mariotto Albertinelli, much damaged, but important as a link in a long chain of similar subjects. See in this connection the great fresco in the Campo Santo at Pisa, the one at Santa Maria Novella, by Orcagna, the panel here, to collate with it, and finally Michael Angelo’s marvellous modernisation in the Sistine Chapel of the Vatican, which takes many points from this and the earlier representations. The rooms also contain several other interesting pictures.
ANDREA DELLA ROBBIA. — A BABY.
The Chapter-house of the Convent of Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi (a local saint, belonging to the Pazzi family; see Santa Croce), contains a noble * *Crucifixion by Perugino, one of the finest single pictures in Florence. It is in three compartments. In the centre is a Crucifixion, with Mary Magdalen, kneeling; left and right are the Madonna and St. John, standing; and St. Bernard and St. Benedict kneeling. The remarkable abstractness and isolation of Perugino’s figures is nowhere more observable; it comes out even in the three trees of the left background.
The Spedale degli Innocenti, or Foundling Hospital, near the Annunziata, should be visited both for its charming babies, by Andrea della Robbia, and for its beautiful * *altar-piece of the Adoration of the Magi, with St. John the Baptist of Florence presenting two of the massacred Innocents, by Domenico Ghirlandajo. This is a lovely and appropriate picture, the full meaning of which you will now be in a position to understand. (The church is dedicated to the Holy Innocents.) The lovely landscape and accessories need no bush. In the background, the Massacre of the Innocents, the Announcement to the Shepherds, etc. A masterpiece to study.
For everything else within the town, I must hand you over to Baedeker, Hare, Miss Horner, and Lafenestre.
A stray afternoon may well be devoted to the queer little church of San Leonardo in Arcetri, outside the town, on the south side of the Arno. To reach it, cross the Ponte Vecchio, and take the second turn on your left, under an arch that spans the roadway. Then follow the steep paved way of the Via della Costa San Giorgio (which will probably reveal to you an unexpected side of Florence). The Porta San Giorgio, which pierces the old walls at the top, has a fresco of the Madonna, between St. George and St. Leonard, the latter bearing the fetters which are his usual symbol; on its outer face is a good relief of St. George and the Dragon. (Note relevancy to the parishes of San Giorgio, below, and San Leonardo, above it.) Follow the road straight to the little church of San Leonardo on your left. (If closed, ring at the door of the cottage in the garden to the right of its façade.)
The chief object of interest within is the pulpit, with rude reliefs of the twelfth century, said to be the oldest surviving pulpit carvings, brought hither from San Pietro Scheraggio, near the Palazzo Vecchio. It has been suggested that these quaint old works gave hints to Niccolò Pisano for his famous and beautiful pulpit in the Baptistery at Pisa. But it must also be remembered, first, that these subjects already show every trace of being conventionalised, so that in all probability many such pulpits once existed, of which Niccolò’s is only the finest artistic outcome; and, second, that the figure here which most suggests (or rather foreshadows) Niccolò (the recumbent Madonna in the Nativity) is the analogue of the very one in which that extraordinary genius most closely imitated an antique model in the Campo Santo at Pisa. We may, therefore, conclude that Niccolò merely adopted a conventional series, common at this time, of which this is an early and inferior example, but that he marvellously vivified it by quasi-antique treatment of the faces, figures, draperies, and attitudes, at the same time that he immensely enriched the composition after the example of the antique sarcophagi. The series as it at present exists on this pulpit is out of chronological order, doubtless owing to incorrect putting together at the transference hither. The scenes are, from left to right, the Presentation in the Temple; the Baptism of Christ; the Adoration of the Magi; the Madonna rising from the stem of Jesse; the Deposition from the Cross; and the Nativity. All should be closely observed as early embodiments of the scenes they represent.
Among the older pictures in the church, the most interesting are, on the same wall, the Madonna dropping the Sacra Cintola to St. Thomas, attended by St. Peter, St. Jerome, etc.; and, on the opposite wall, Madonna with St. Leonard (holding the fetters) and other saints readily recognised.
You can vary the walk, on your return, by diverging just outside the gate and following the path which leads along the old walls, with delicious glimpses across the ravine toward the Piazzale, and reëntering the town at Porta San Miniato.
I am always grateful to a book, however inadequate, which has taught me something. Nobody could be more aware than its author of the shortcomings of this one. I shall be content if my readers find, among many faults, that it has helped to teach them how to see Florence. Others may know Florence more intimately: no one could love it better.
THE END
Paris
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
I. THE ÎLE DE LA CITÉ
II. THE LEFT OR SOUTH BANK
III. RENAISSANCE PARIS (THE LOUVRE)
III. THE SMALLER COLLECTIONS.
IV. THE NORTH BANK (RIVE DROITE)
V. THE FAUBOURG ST. GERMAIN (Luxembourg, etc.)
VI. ST. DENIS
VII. THE OUTER RING, ETC.
INTRODUCTION
THE object and plan of these Historical Handbooks is somewhat different from that of any other guides at present before the public. They do not compete or clash with such existing works; they are rather intended to supplement than to supplant them. My purpose is not to direct the stranger through the streets and squares of an unknown town towards the buildings or sights which he may desire to visit; still less is it my design to give him practical information about hotels, cab fares, omnibuses, tramways, and other every-day material conveniences. For such details, the traveller must still have recourse to the trusty pages of his Baedeker, his Joanne, or his Murray. I desire rather to supply the tourist who wishes to use his travel as a means of culture with such historical and antiquarian information as will enable him to understand, and therefore to enjoy, the architecture, sculpture, painting, and minor arts of the towns he visits. In one word, it is my object to give the reader in a very compendious form the result of all those inquiries which have naturally suggested themselves to my own mind during thirty-five years of foreign travel, the solution of which has cost myself a good deal of research, thought, and labour, beyond the facts which I could find in the ordinary handbooks.
For several years past I have devoted myself to collecting and arranging material for a set of books to embody the idea I had thus entertained. I earnestly hope they may meet a want on the part of tourists, especially Americans, who, so far as my experience goes, usually come to Europe with an honest and reverent desire to learn from the Old World whatever of value it has to teach them, and who are prepared to take an amount of pains in turning their trip to good account which is both rare and praiseworthy. For such readers I shall call attention at times to other sources of information.
These guide-books will deal more particularly with the Great Towns where objects of art and antiquity are numerous. In every one of them, the general plan pursued will be somewhat as follows. First will come the inquiry why a town ever gathered together at all at that particular spot — what induced the aggregation of human beings rather there than elsewhere. Next, we shall consider why that town grew to social or political importance and what were the stages by which it assumed its present shape. Thirdly, we shall ask why it gave rise to that higher form of handicraft which we know as Art, and towards what particular arts it especially gravitated. After that, we shall take in detail the various strata of its growth or development, examining the buildings and works of art which they contain in historical order, and, as far as possible, tracing the causes which led to their evolution. In particular, we shall lay stress upon the origin and meaning of each structure as an organic whole, and upon the allusions or symbols which its fabric embodies.
A single instance will show the method upon which I intend to proceed better than any amount of general description. A church, as a rule, is built over the body or relics of a particular saint, in whose special honour it was originally erected. That saint was usually one of great local importance at the moment of its erection, or was peculiarly implored against plague, foreign enemies, or some other pressing and dreaded misfortune. In dealing with such a church, then, I endeavour to show what were the circumstances which led to its erection, and what memorials of these circumstances it still retains. In other cases it may derive its origin from some special monastic body — Benedictine, Dominican, Franciscan — and may therefore be full of the peculiar symbolism and historical allusion of the order who founded it. Wherever I have to deal with such a church, I try as far as possible to exhibit the effect which its origin had upon its architecture and decoration; to trace the image of the patron saint in sculpture or stained glass throughout the fabric; and to set forth the connection of the whole design with time and place, with order and purpose. In short, instead of looking upon monuments of the sort mainly as the product of this or that architect, I look upon them rather as material embodiments of the spirit of the age — crystallizations, as it were, in stone and bronze, in form and colour, of great popular enthusiasms.
By thus concentrating attention on what is essential and important in a town, I hope to give in a comparatively short space, though with inevitable conciseness, a fuller account than is usually given of the chief architectural and monumental works of the principal art-cities. In dealing with Paris, for example, I shall have little to say about such modern constructions as the Champs Elysées or the Eiffel Tower; still less, of course, about the Morgue, the Catacombs, the waxworks of the Musée Grévin, and the celebrated Excursion in the Paris Sewers. The space thus saved from vulgar wonders I shall hope to devote to fuller explanation of Notre-Dame and the Sainte Chapelle, of the mediæval carvings or tapestries of Cluny, and of the pictures or sculptures in the galleries of the Louvre. Similarly in Florence, whatever I save from description of the Cascine and even of the beautiful Viale dei Colli (where explanation is needless and word-painting superfluous), I shall give up to the Bargello, the Uffizi, and the Pitti Palace. The passing life of the moment does not enter into my plan; I regard each town I endeavour to illustrate mainly as a museum of its own history.
