The Rucellai Sepulchre is a small funerary chapel built inside the Rucellai Chapel of the church of

San Pancrazio, Florence San Pancrazio is a church in Florence, Italy, in Piazza San Pancrazio, behind Palazzo Rucellai. With the exception of the Rucellai Chapel, it is deconsecrated and is home to the museum dedicated to the sculptor Marino Marini. The Rucellai Cha ...

. It was commissioned by

Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai Giovanni Rucellai (26 December 1403 – 1481), known by his name with the patronymic Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai, was a member of a wealthy family of wool merchants in Renaissance Florence, in Tuscany, Italy. He held political posts under Cosimo ...

and built to designs by

Leon Battista Alberti Leon Battista Alberti (; 14 February 1404 – 25 April 1472) was an Italian Renaissance humanist author, artist, architect, poet, Catholic priest, priest, linguistics, linguist, philosopher, and cryptography, cryptographer; he epitomised the natu ...

in imitation or emulation of the Holy Sepulchre in the Anastasis in

Jerusalem Jerusalem is a city in the Southern Levant, on a plateau in the Judaean Mountains between the Mediterranean Sea, Mediterranean and the Dead Sea. It is one of the List of oldest continuously inhabited cities, oldest cities in the world, and ...

. It contains the tombs of Giovanni Rucellai and members of his family.

Names

The Rucellai sepulchre is known by various names, including Sacellum of the Holy Sepulchre, Chapel of the Holy Sepulchre, , and .

History

probably began work on the Rucellai Chapel and on the sepulchre within it in about 1458; the origins of the chapel date to 1417, when the walls of the nave of San Pancrazio were built. According to the inscription above the door, the Sepulchre was completed in 1467. The Rucellai Chapel was closed for many years for restoration. Since 16 February 2013 it has been re-opened to the public. Access is through the Marino Marini Museum, which occupies the deconsecrated part of the church of San Pancrazio.

Description

Exterior

Inscriptions

The sepulchre has two inscriptions: one, on a square panel above the door, reads: meaning approximately "Giovanni di Paolo Rucellai, in order that his salvation might be prayed for from where, through Christ, the resurrection of all was achieved, had this temple built in the shape of the tomb in Jerusalem n1467". The other inscription runs round the top of the building and reads: or approximately "you seek Jesus of Nazareth who was crucified; he rose, he is not here; this is the place where they put him".

Decorative panels

The exterior walls are decorated with 30 square panels of marble

inlay Inlay covers a range of techniques in sculpture and the decorative arts for inserting pieces of contrasting, often colored materials into depressions in a base object to form Ornament (art), ornament or pictures that normally are flush with the ...

work, with mainly vegetal and geometrical patterns.The Marino Marini Museum in Florence: Half and Half
Donna Scharnagl for "visit Florence". Retrieved 29 October 2024.

Gallery

Interior

The burial chamber takes the entire interior space of the sacellum, with a marble slab placed against its southern wall. The inner walls and vault of the sepulchre are entirely

fresco Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

ed, work that one author has attributed to Giovanni da Piamonte.

References

{{Authority control, state=collapsed Tombs in Italy Monuments and memorials in Florence Renaissance architecture in Florence Chapels in Florence Funerary art Leon Battista Alberti buildings