Domenico Ghirlandaio - St Jerome in his study

The chiesa di San Salvatore di Ognissanti or more simply chiesa di Ognissanti (; "Church of All Saints"), is a

Franciscan , image = FrancescoCoA PioM.svg , image_size = 200px , caption = A cross, Christ's arm and Saint Francis's arm, a universal symbol of the Franciscans , abbreviation = OFM , predecessor = , ...

church located on the piazza of the same name in central

Florence Florence ( ; it, Firenze ) is a city in Central Italy and the capital city of the Tuscany region. It is the most populated city in Tuscany, with 383,083 inhabitants in 2016, and over 1,520,000 in its metropolitan area.Bilancio demografico ...

, region of Tuscany,

Italy Italy ( it, Italia ), officially the Italian Republic, ) or the Republic of Italy, is a country in Southern Europe. It is located in the middle of the Mediterranean Sea, and its territory largely coincides with the homonymous geographical ...

. Founded by the lay order of the

Umiliati The Humiliati (Italian ''Umiliati'') were an Italian religious order of men formed probably in the 12th century. It was suppressed by a papal bull in 1571 though an associated order of women continued into the 20th century. Origin The origin of ...

, the church was dedicated to all the

saints In religious belief, a saint is a person who is recognized as having an exceptional degree of holiness, likeness, or closeness to God. However, the use of the term ''saint'' depends on the context and denomination. In Catholic, Eastern Orth ...

and

martyrs A martyr (, ''mártys'', "witness", or , ''marturia'', stem , ''martyr-'') is someone who suffers persecution and death for advocating, renouncing, or refusing to renounce or advocate, a religious belief or other cause as demanded by an external ...

, known and unknown. It is the burial place of the famous Early Renaissance painter,

Sandro Botticelli Alessandro di Mariano di Vanni Filipepi ( – May 17, 1510), known as Sandro Botticelli (, ), was an Italian Renaissance painting, Italian painter of the Early Renaissance. Botticelli's posthumous reputation suffered until the late 19th cent ...

History

It was completed originally during the 1250s, but almost completely rebuilt around 1627 in

Baroque The Baroque (, ; ) is a style of architecture, music, dance, painting, sculpture, poetry, and other arts that flourished in Europe from the early 17th century until the 1750s. In the territories of the Spanish and Portuguese empires including ...

-style by the architect Bartolomeo Pettirossi. Soon after, a new façade (1637) was erected using designs by Matteo Nigetti, that conserved the glazed terracotta lunette over the doorway, which while resembling the work of Della Robbia, is now attributed to

Benedetto Buglioni Benedetto Buglioni (1459/1460–1521) was an Italian Renaissance sculptor. Buglioni was born in Florence, son of another sculptor Giovanni di Bernardo. In the early 1480s Buglioni and his brother opened their own studio, and jointly worked o ...

. Ognissanti was among the first examples of

Baroque architecture Baroque architecture is a highly decorative and theatrical style which appeared in Italy in the early 17th century and gradually spread across Europe. It was originally introduced by the Catholic Church, particularly by the Jesuits, as a means ...

to penetrate this Renaissance city. Its three reversed orders of pilasters enclose niches and windows with elaborate cornices. To the left of the façade is a

campanile A bell tower is a tower that contains one or more bells, or that is designed to hold bells even if it has none. Such a tower commonly serves as part of a Christian church, and will contain church bells, but there are also many secular bell tow ...

of 13th and 14th century construction. The Umiliati, by the dedication and probity of the lay brothers and sisters, gained a reputation in Florence, and dedicated works of art began to accumulate in their severely simple church. For example,

Giotto Giotto di Bondone (; – January 8, 1337), known mononymously as Giotto ( , ) and Latinised as Giottus, was an Italian painter and architect from Florence during the Late Middle Ages. He worked during the Gothic/ Proto-Renaissance period. G ...

's celebrated ''Madonna and Child with angels'' (c. 1310) was painted for the high altar. Recent cleaning of the ''Crucifix'' in the left transept has led this work to be attributed also to Giotto. During the sixteenth century, the Umiliati declined in power, and in 1571 the

Franciscan order The Franciscans are a group of related Mendicant orders, mendicant Christianity, Christian Catholic religious order, religious orders within the Catholic Church. Founded in 1209 by Italian Catholic friar Francis of Assisi, these orders include t ...

assumed control of the church, and were able to bring to the church precious relics, such as a robe of

St Francis of Assisi Giovanni di Pietro di Bernardone, better known as Saint Francis of Assisi ( it, Francesco d'Assisi; – 3 October 1226), was a mystic Italian Catholic friar, founder of the Franciscans, and one of the most venerated figures in Christianit ...

. In the early 17th-century, the interior was remodeled in Baroque style, with the

apse In architecture, an apse (plural apses; from Latin 'arch, vault' from Ancient Greek 'arch'; sometimes written apsis, plural apsides) is a semicircular recess covered with a hemispherical vault or semi-dome, also known as an '' exedra''. ...

rebuilt with a

pietre dure ''Pietra dura'' () or ''pietre dure'' () ( see below), called parchin kari or parchinkari ( fa, ) in the Indian Subcontinent, is a term for the inlay technique of using cut and fitted, highly polished colored stones to create images. It is ...

high altar and a '' sotto in su'' perspective painting (1770) on the vaulted nave ceiling. Fifteenth-century frescoes by

Domenico Ghirlandaio Domenico di Tommaso Curradi di Doffo Bigordi (, , ; 2 June 1448 – 11 January 1494), professionally known as Domenico Ghirlandaio, also spelled as Ghirlandajo, was an Italian Renaissance painter born in Florence. Ghirlandaio was part of t ...

and

were preserved in the nave; Botticelli is buried in the church near his beloved

Simonetta Vespucci Simonetta Vespucci (née Cattaneo; 1453 – 26 April 1476), nicknamed ''la bella Simonetta'', was an Italian noblewoman from Genoa, the wife of Marco Vespucci of Florence and the cousin-in-law of Amerigo Vespucci. She was known as the grea ...

. Botticelli's fresco of '' St Augustine in His Study'' faces across the nave the chapel with Ghirlandaio's '' St Jerome in His Study''; both were executed contemporaneously in 1480. Ghirlandaio also frescoed a version of the ''Last Supper'' in the

refectory A refectory (also frater, frater house, fratery) is a dining room, especially in monasteries, boarding schools and academic institutions. One of the places the term is most often used today is in graduate seminaries. The name derives from the Lat ...

, now a museum, located between the two cloisters, a work which likely influenced Leonardo da Vinci's later work in Milan. In the Vespucci chapel, a fresco by

with his brother David, depicting the '' Madonna della Misericordia protecting members of the Vespucci family'' (c. 1472), is reputed to include the portrait of Amerigo Vespucci as a child. When Amerigo found a bay in the actual

Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin America. At and with over 217 million people, Brazil is the world's fifth-largest country by area ...

, he named to "San Salvatore di Ognissanti", in Portuguese "San Salvador de Todos os Santos": this is the origin of the name of the city of

Salvador Salvador, meaning " salvation" (or "saviour") in Catalan, Spanish, and Portuguese may refer to: * Salvador (name) Arts, entertainment, and media Music *Salvador (band), a Christian band that plays both English and Spanish music ** ''Salvador'' ( ...

and Bahia de Todos os Santos. Over the door to the

sacristy A sacristy, also known as a vestry or preparation room, is a room in Christian churches for the keeping of vestments (such as the alb and chasuble) and other church furnishings, sacred vessels, and parish records. The sacristy is usually locate ...

is a crucifix in wood by

Veit Stoss Veit Stoss (also: ''Veit Stoß'' and ''Stuoss''; pl, Wit Stwosz; before 1450about 20 September 1533) was a leading German sculptor, mostly working with wood, whose career covered the transition between the late Gothic and the Northern Renaiss ...

Notes

References

Citations

Bibliography

* . * , republished 1964. * .

External links

*
Photos of Ognissanti Church and Last Supper Fresco
* ttp://www.gcatholic.org/churches/italia/50704.htm Chiesa di Ognissantiat GCatholic.org {{Coord, 43.77252410, 11.24566970, format=dms, type:landmark_region:IT-52_source:wikidata, display=title 17th-century Roman Catholic church buildings in Italy Baroque architecture in Florence Franciscan churches in Italy Roman Catholic churches in Florence