Florentine Gothic

by Caroline Bruzelius, appearing in Volume 45

When we step into Santa Maria Novella, we step into a space that reflects the stunning achievements of the Dominican Order. The basilica is a testament to the impact of the order, not only as the embodiment of the spiritual reform and renewal that it represented, but also for its introduction of innovative spatial and structural ideas to Italy in the thirteenth century. Through their broad network in all major political and intellectual centers of Europe, Dominican friars disseminated a model of urban monasticism in churches that featured spatial divisions articulated by a differentiation of ceiling types (vaults rather than a wooden truss) and high enclosure walls that separated the religious community (the internal church, or ecclesia fratrum) from that of the laity in the nave (the ecclesia laicorum).

Stylistically related to San Domenico in Bologna, where Saint Dominic is buried, Santa Maria Novella retains far more of its medieval fabric, and is one of the most important and best-preserved medieval monuments in Florence and one of the largest Dominican friaries in Europe. With the notable exception of Frithjof Schwartz’s Bel Cimitero: Santa Maria Novella in Florenz 1279-1348, published in 2009, the church received little scholarly attention after James Wood Brown’s distant monograph of 1902: The Dominican Church of Santa Maria Novella at Florence: A Historical, Architectural, and Artistic Study.

Elizabeth Bradford Smith, Professor Emerita at Pennsylvania State University, has dedicated some thirty years to the study of this church. Blessed with historical documentation, which is unusual for buildings before the late fourteenth century, she has reconstructed its history from the inception of construction in 1279 to its completion in 1355. Much of that historical documentation is included in a valuable appendix at the end of the present volume. Professor Smith’s narrative begins with the arrival of the first Dominican friars in Florence in 1219. Known for their eloquent preaching in outdoor spaces, they were seen by the commune and the bishop of Florence as effective instruments against the heretical movements that flourished in the city. So the friars were offered the old church of Santa Maria delle Vigne outside the eastern walls of the city and in 1244 a piazza for preaching.

A new and much larger church was begun in 1279 north of the old structure. After 1305, however, civil disturbances and financial exigencies slowed or interrupted construction until 1317, when work recommenced and the church was completed. One of Bradford Smith’s many important observations is that the construction of Santa Maria Novella was integrally related to other Florentine projects: the redesign of the city plan and the construction of a much larger preaching piazza in front of the new façade. The commune and distinguished citizens of the city had great interest in helping the Dominican community take a central role in the spiritual and intellectual life of Florence.

Long-term financial support by lay donors was ensured by offering tomb niches (avelli) along the east flank of the nave, its adjacent cloister, and the façade.Indeed, the importance of these exterior burial niches was such that the lower perimeter wall of the nave with its many tombs was constructed long before the interior of the nave was completed.

Although this book is of particular interest to art and architectural historians, the beauty and importance of Santa Maria Novella are such that any lover of Florence and its monuments will be deeply interested in what Professor Smith has to tell us.

Several points are especially noteworthy. After completing the choir, construction of the nave, the ecclesia laicorum, was slow and episodic, conditioned by external events and a shortage of funds. Bradford Smith observes that the nave was originally intended to be covered with a wooden ceiling rather than vaulted, as was typical of Dominican architectural practice. However, with the relaxation of the order’s architectural legislation and new financing, the nave interior was filled in with piers and vaults, constructed by a new and different building crew from northern Italy. These workers had their own vaulting methods that imposed wider bays below in the nave. So even if architecture is (of course!) built from bottom up, the spacing of the nave piers was generated from “top-down” in accordance with the available technology.

Smith has written a splendid and important book, a vital contribution to our understanding of Dominican architecture and Italian Gothic more generally. Since the friars entrusted with the design and construction of Santa Maria Novella went on to engage in other projects in Florence and elsewhere, this convent had a pivotal role in the history of Italian medieval architecture and influenced other buildings not only in Florence and Tuscany, but also throughout Italy, with echoes at the great Dominican churches of Santa Maria Minerva in Rome and San Domenico in Naples.