Basilica of San Lorenzo

History

The earliest Christian church built on this site was consecrated in 393 AD by Saint Ambrose, who also named the first bishop of Florence. After three hundred years it lost its status as the city's cathedral to Santa Reparata (on which ground today's Santa Maria del Fiore stands). The building was replaced in the 11th century by a basilica that was outdated again, when in 1418 the wealthiest citizens in the parish decided to rebuild it.

The present basilica of San Lorenzo is considered a milestone in the development of Renaissance architecture. The building has a complicated building history and was begun around 1419, under the direction of Filippo Brunelleschi. Lack of funds slowed the construction and forced changes to the original design. By the early 1440s only its sacristy (now called the Old Sacristy) had been worked on because that was being paid for by the Medici. In 1442, the Medici stepped in to take over financial responsibility of the church as well. After Brunelleschi's death in 1446, the job was handed either to Antonio Manetti or to Michelozzo; scholars are uncertain which. Although the building was largely completed by 1459 in time for a visit to Florence by Pope Pius II, the chapels along the right-hand aisles were still under construction during the 1480s and 1490s.

By the time the building was completed, aspects of its layout and detailing no longer corresponded to the original plan. The principal difference is that Brunelleschi had envisioned the chapels along the side aisles to be deeper than those built and he intended them to resemble the chapels in the transept, the only part of the building that is known to have been completed as Brunelleschi designed it.

The building in Renaissance architecture

San Lorenzo demonstrates many innovative features of the developing style of Renaissance architecture:

a simple mathematical proportional relationship using the square aisle bay as a module and the nave bays in a 2-by-1 ratio

the use of an integrated system of columns, arches, and entablatures, based on Roman classical models

the use of classical proportions for the height of the columns

a clear relationship between column and pilaster, the latter meant to be read as a type of embedded pier

the use of spherical segments in the vaults of the side aisles

the articulation of the structure in local pietra serena stone

According to one scholar, features such as the interior's Corinthian arcades and the ceiling's flat panels mark "a departure from the Gothic and a return to the Romanesque Proto-Renaissance."

At times, the design of San Lorenzo has met with criticism, particularly when compared with Santo Spirito, also in Florence, and which is considered to have been constructed more or less in conformity with Brunelleschi's ideas, even though he died before most of it was built. By the sixteenth century, Giorgio Vasari commented that along the nave, the columns should have been elevated on plinths. The steps along the aisles, supporting the pilasters, also have been considered to deviate from classical ideals.

Outer and inner façades

The Medici pope Leo X gave Michelangelo the commission to design an outer façade of the basilica in white Carrara marble in 1518. Michelangelo made a large wooden model that shows how he adjusted the classical proportions of the façade, drawn to scale, after the ideal proportions of the human body, to the greater height of the nave.

Although the façade remained unbuilt, Michelangelo's large wooden model of it remains, held at the Casa Buonarroti in Florence.

Michelangelo did design and build the internal façade of the basilica which is seen from the nave looking back toward the entrances. It comprises three doors between two pilasters with garlands of oak and laurel and a balcony on two Corinthian columns.

In recent years, the association of "Friends of the Elettrice Palatina" and the Comune of Florence revisited the question of completing the outer façade of the basilica according to Michelangelo's designs. To assist with the public debate, a computerized reconstruction was projected onto the plain brick façade in February 2007. As yet, no decision has been made regarding a project use Michelangelo's design to build the outer façade following his wooden model.

Works of art

Counterclockwise from the east portal

Rosso Fiorentino – Marriage of the Virgin (oil on canvas) in the second of the north aisle chapels

Desiderio da Settignano – Pala del Sacramento (tabernacle): north aisle

Donatello – bronze reliefs of two pulpits (his last works): nave

Michelangelo – Medici Madonna, main wall and statues among the two tombs on the side walls of the New Sacristy

Antonio del Pollaiuolo – Crucifix (cork): south transept chapel

Donatello – frieze, reliefs, tondi, and bronze doors of the Sagrestia Vecchia

Andrea del Verrocchio – Tomb of Giovanni and Piero de' Medici (bronze, marble): Sagrestia Vecchia