V
VOL.1.
GRANT
ALLEN
"^<^aS;>^1
"^
LIBRARY
THE UNIVERSITY
OF CALIFORNIA
SANTA BARBARA
PRESENTED BY
HILTON P. GOSS
FLORENCE
Travel Lovers^ Library
Karh in two volumes, profusely illustrated
Florence $3.00
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liy \V. I). M( <'KA( KA.N
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L. C. PAGE & COMPANY
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New England Building
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MICHAEL AMEELO,- DAVID.
\iblishers
FLORENCE
By
Grant Allen
IN TWO VOLUMES
Vol. I.
ILLUSTRATED
Boston
L. C. Page & Company
Publishers
^i< U^ro-/^
Copyright, igoi
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Ali rights reserved
Fourth Impression, July, 1906
0olon(al )^ree0
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INTRODUCTION.
THE object and plan of this book is some-
what different from that of any other
guides at present before the public. It does not
compete or clash with such existing works ; it is
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 toward 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 tour-
ist 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, sculp-
X Introduction.
ture, 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 sug-
gested 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 book
to embody the idea I had thus entertained. I
earnestly hope it 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 praise-
worthy. For such readers I shall call attention
at times to other sources of information.
The general plan pursued will be somewhat
as follows. First will come the inquiry why
a town ever gathered together at all at this
particular spot — what induced the aggregation
Introduction. xi
of human beings rather there than elsewhere.
Next, we shall consider why this 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 toward what particular arts it es-
pecially 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 deaHng with such
xii Introduction.
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 — crystalli-
sations, 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 the 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
Introduction. xiii
and monumental works of the principal art-cities.
Whatever I save from description of the Cascine
and even of the beautiful Viale dei Colli (where
explanation is needless and word-painting super-
fluous), 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 the town I endeavour to illustrate mainly
as a museum of its own history-
For this reason, too, I shall devote most at-
tention to what is locally illustrative, and less
to what is merely adventitious and foreign. I
shall deal rather with the Etruscan remains, with
Giotto and Fra Angelico, with the Duomo and
the Campanile, than with the admirable Mem-
lincks and Rubenses of the Uffizi and the Pitti,
or with the beautiful Van der Goes of the
Hospital of Santa Maria. I shall assign a due
amount of space, indeed, to the foreign collec-
tions, but I shall call attention chiefly to those
monuments or objects which are of entirely
local and typical value.
As regards the character of the information
given, it will be mainly historical, antiquarian,
and, above all, explanatory. I am not a con-
noisseur — an adept in the difficult modem
xiv Introduction.
science of distinguishing the handicraft of vari-
ous masters, in painting or sculpture, by minute
signs and delicate inferential processes. In such
matters, I shall be well content to follow the
lead of the most authoritative experts. Nor
am I an art-critic — a student versed in the
technique of the studios and the dialect of the
modelling-room. In such matters, again, I shall
attempt little more than to accept the general
opinion of the most discriminative judges. What
I aim at rather is to expound the history and
meaning of each work — to put the intelligent
reader in such a position that he may judge for
himself of the aesthetic beauty and success of
the object before him. To recognise the fact
that this is a Perseus and Andromeda, that a
St. Barbara enthroned, the other an obscure
episode in the legend of St. Philip, is not art-
criticism, but it is often an almost indispensable
prelude to the formation of a right and sound
judgment. We must know what the artist was
trying to represent before we can feel sure
what measure of success he has attained in his
representation.
For the general study of Christian art, alike
in architecture, sculpture, and painting, no trea-
Introduction. xv
tises are more useful for the tourist to carry
with him for constant reference than Mrs.
Jameson's " Sacred and Legendary Art," and
" Legends of the Madonna." For works of Ital-
ian art, both in Italy and elsewhere, Kugler's
" Italian Schools of Painting " is an invaluable
vade-mecum. These books should be carried
about by everybody everywhere. Other works
of special and local importance will occasionally
be noticed under each particular city, church,
or museum.
Wherever in the text paintings or other
objects are numbered, the numbers used are
always those of the latest official catalogue.
Individual works of merit are distinguished by
an asterisk ; those of exceptional interest and
merit have two asterisks.
CONTENTS.
CHAPTBR
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.
IX.
X.
XI.
XII.
XIII.
Introduction
Origins of Florence .
Santa Croce and the Franciscan
Quarter
The Sacristy and the Chapels .
Santa Maria Novella and the First
Dominican Quarter .
The Spanish Chapel
The Old Cathedral
The New Cathedral .
The Second Dominican Quarter: San
Marco
The Fra Angelicos of San Marco
The Belle Arti ....
The Halls of Perugino and Botti
celli
The Tuscan Galleries
The Hall of Fra Angelico
PAGB
ix
I
lO
24
38
59
73
94
I II
123
141
154
175
199
LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.
Volume I.
PAGE
Michael Angelo. — David {seepage i^i) Frontispiece
General View of Florence .... 6
Church of Santa Croce and Statue of
Dante 12
Interior of Santa Croce .... 16
Taddeo Gaddi. — Presentation of the Vir-
gin 19
Giotto. — Raising of Drusiana ... 28
Tomb of Galileo Galilei .... 34
Strozzi Palace 39
Interior of Santa Maria Novella . . 44
Filippino Lippi. — Raising of Drusiana . 48
Ghirlandajo. — Birth of John the Baptist
(Detail) 53
Green Cloister in Santa Maria Novella 61
Simone Martini. — Church Militant (Detail) 64
Taddeo Gaddi. — Glory of St. Thomas
Aquinas (Detail) ...... 68
xix
XX List of Illustrations.
PACK
The Cathedral 76
Baptistery 80
Andrea Pisano. — Bronze Doors of the
Baptistery 82
Lorenzo Ghiberti Bronze Doors of the
Baptistery 88
fagade of the cathedral .... 94
Interior of the Cathedral .... 99
The Campanile no
Piazza and Church of San Marco . .114
Fra Angelico. — Great Crucifixion . .116
Fra Angelico. — Annunciation . . .124
Fra Angelico. — Coronation of the Virgin 128
Benozzo Gozzoli. — Portrait of Lorenzo
THE Magnificent (Detail of the Journey of
the Three Kings to Bethlehem) . . .138
CiMABUE. — Madonna 144
Perugino. — Assumption of the Virgin (De-
tail) 154
FiLiPPO Lippi. — Coronation of the Virgin 160
Botticelli. — Three Graces (Detail of the
Primavera) . . . . . . .162
Botticelli. — Coronation of the Virgin . 167
FiLipPiNO Lippi and Perugino. — Descent
FROM the Cross 170
Gentile da Fabriano. — Adoration of the
Magi 176
Fra Angelico. — Descent from the Cross . 178
Giotto. — Adoration of the Magi . . 185
Lorenzetti. — Presentation in the Temple 188
List of Illustrations.
XXI
PAGB
Carlo Dolci. — Eternal Fathkr . . .197
Fra Angelico. — St. Cosimo and St. Damian 202
Fra Angelico. — Way to Calvary . . 205
Fra Angelico. — Last Judgment . . . 208
Filippo Lippi. — Annunciation . , , 212
Florence,
— • — •
CHAPTER I.
ORIGINS OF FLORENCE.
ONLY two considerable rivers flow from
the Apennines westward into the Medi-
terranean. The Tiber makes Rome ; the Arno
makes Florence.
In prehistoric and early historic times, the
mountainous region which forms the basin of
these two rivers was occupied by a gifted mil-
itary race, the Etruscans, who possessed a
singular assimilative power for Oriental and
Hellenic culture. Intellectually and artistic-
ally, they were the pick of Italy. Their blood
still runs in the veins of the people of Tuscany.
Almost every great thing done in the Peninsula,
in ancient or modern times, has been done by
I
2 Florence.
Etruscan hands or brains. The poets and
painters, in particular, with few exceptions,
have been, in the wide ethnical sense, Tuscans.
The towns of ancient Etruria were hill-top
strongholds. Florence was not one of these ;
even its neighbour, Fiesole (Faesulae), did not
rank among the twelve great cities of the
Etruscan league. But with the Roman con-
quest and the Roman peace, the towns began
to descend from their mountain peaks into the
river valleys ; roads grew important, through
internal trade ; and bridges over rivers assumed
a fresh commercial value. Florence (Florentia),
probably founded under Sulla as a Roman
municipium, upon a Roman road, guarded the
bridge across the Arno, and gradually absorbed
the population of Fiesole. Under the later
empire, it was the official residence of the
" Corrector " of Tuscany and Umbria. During
the Middle Ages, it became for all practical
purposes the intellectual and artistic capital of
Tuscany, inheriting in full the remarkable
mental and aesthetic excellences of the Etrus-
can race.
The valley of the Arno is rich and fertile,
bordered by cultivable hills, which produce the
Origins of Florence. 3
famous Chianti wine. It was thus predestined
by nature as the seat of the second city on the
west slope of Italy. Florence, however, was
not always that city. The seaport of Pisa
(now silted up and superseded by Leghorn)
first rose into importance ; possessed a powerful
fleet ; made foreign conquests ; and erected the
magnificent group of buildings just outside the
town which still form its chief claim upon
the attention of tourists. But Florence with
its bridge commanded the inland trade, and the
road to Rome from Germany. After the de-
struction of Fiesole in 1 125, it grew rapidly in
importance ; and, Pisa having sustained severe
defeats from Genoa, the inland town soon rose
to supremacy in the Amo basin. Nominally
subject to the Emperor, it became practically
an independent republic, much agitated by
internal quarrels, but capable of holding its
own against neighbouring cities. Its chief
buildings are thus an age or two later than
those of Pisa ; it did not begin to produce
splendid churches and palaces, in emulation of
those of Pisa and Siena, till about the close
of the thirteenth century. To the same period
belongs the rise of its literature, under Dante,
>^:
4 Florence.
and its painting under Giotto. This epoch of
rapid commercial, military, and artistic develop-
ment forms the main glory of early Florence.
The fourteenth century is chiefly interesting
at Florence as the period of Giottesque art,
finding its final crown in Fra Angelico. With
the beginning of the fifteenth, we get the dawn
of the Renaissance — the age when art set out
once more to recover the lost perfection of
antique workmanship. In literature, this move-
ment took the form of humanism ; in architec-
ture and sculpture, it exhibited itself in the
persons of Alberti, Ghiberti, Delia Robbia, and
Donatello ; in painting, it showed itself in Lippi,
Botticelli, Ghirlandajo, and Verrocchio. I shall
not attempt to set forth here the gradual stages
by which these arts advanced to the height at
length attained by Leonardo, Michael Angelo,
and Raphael ; I shall take it for granted that
my readers will read up such questions for
themselves in Kugler and Layard or other
high-class authorities. Nor shall I endeavour
to trace the rise of the dynasty of the Medici,
whose influence was so great upon the artistic
expression of their country ; the limits of space
which I have imposed upon myself here ren-
Origins of Florence. 5
der such treatment impossible. I will rather
proceed at once to my detailed examination of
the chief existing monuments of Florence in
roughly chronological order, leaving these other
facts to exhibit themselves piecemeal in their
proper place, in connection with the buildings
or pictures of the city. For in Florence more
than elsewhere I must beg the reader to ex-
cuse the needful brevity which the enormous
mass of noble works to be explained in this
richest of art-cities inevitably entails upon
me.
We start, then, with the fact that up to
nearly the close of the thirteenth century
(1278) Florence was a comparatively small and
uninteresting town, without any buildings of
importance, save the relatively insignificant
Baptistery ; without any great cathedral, like
Pisa and Siena ; without any splendid artistic
achievement of any kind. It consisted at that
period of a labyrinth of narrow streets, enclos-
ing huddled houses and tall towers of the
nobles, like the two to be seen to this day at
Bologna. In general aspect, it could not
greatly have differed from Albenga or San
Gimignano in our own time. But commerce
6 Florence.
was active ; wealth was increasing ; and the
population was seething with the intellectual
and artistic spirit of its Etruscan ancestry.
During the lifetime of Dante, the town began
to transform itself and to prepare for becoming
the glorious Florence of the Renaissance artists.
It then set about building two immense and
beautiful churches — Santa Croce and Santa
Maria Novella — while, shortly after, it grew
to be ashamed of its tiny San Giovanni (the
existing Baptistery), and girded itself up to
raise a superb Cathedral, which should cast
into the shade both the one long since finished
at maritime Pisa, and the one then still rising
to completion on the height of Siena.
Florence at that time extended no further
than the area known as Old Florence, extend-
ing from the Ponte Vecchio to the Cathedral in
one direction, and from the Ponte alia Carraja
to the Grazie in the other. Outside the wall
lay a belt of fields and gardens, in which one
or two monasteries had already sprung up.
But Italy at that moment was filled with relig-
ious enthusiasm by the advent of the Friars,
both great orders of whom, the Franciscans
and the Dominicans, had already established
Origins of Florence. 7
themselves in the rising commercial city of
Florence. Both orders had acquired sites for
monastic buildings in the space outside the
walls, and soon began to erect enormous
churches. The Dominicans came first, with
Santa Maria Novella, the commencement of
which dates from 1278; the Franciscans were
a little later in the field, with Santa Croce, the
first stone not being placed till 1294. Never-
theless, though the Dominican church is thus
a few years the earlier of the two, I propose to
begin my survey of the town with its Francis-
can rival, because the paintings and works of
art of Santa Croce are older on the whole than
those of Santa Maria, and because the tourist is
thus better introduced to the origins and evolu-
tion of Florentine art.
Remember, in conclusion, that Florence in
Dante's day was a small town, with little
beauty, and no good building save the (since
much embellished) Baptistery ; but that dur-
ing Dante's lifetime the foundations were laid
of Santa Maria, Santa Croce, and the great
Cathedral. We shall have to trace the sub-
sequent development of the town from these
tmAl beginnings.
8 Florence.
The Roman name Florcntia passed into Fio-
renza in mcdiajval times, and is now Firenze.
From a very early date, St. John the Baptist
(to whom the original Cathedral was dedicated)
has been the patron saint of Florence. When-
ever y®u meet him in Florentine art, he stands
for the city, as St. Mark does for Venice, or
the figure of Britannia for our own ieland.
St. Cosimo and St. Damian, the holy doc-
tors, and therefore patron saints of the Medici
family, and especially of Cosimo de' Medici,
also meet us at every turn. They represent
the ruling family, and may be recognised by
their red robes and caps, and their surgical
instruments. Saint Lawrence is also a great
Medici saint : in early works, he represents
Lorenzo de' Medici the elder, the brother of
Cosimo (i 395-1440); in later ones, he stands
for Lorenzo the Magnificent (1449-92). Ob-
serve for yourself which of the two the dates
in each case show to be intended.
Santa Reparata, the old patroness of the city,
and San Zanobi, its sainted bishop, are also
frequent objects in early painting and sculpture
in Florence.
If you visit the various objects in the order
Origins of Florence. 9
here enumerated, you will get a better idea of
the development of Florence and of Florentine
art than you could possibly do by haphazard
sightseeing. Also, you will find the eariier
steps explain the later. But there can be no
harm in examining the picture-galleries side by
side with the churches, especially if dark or wet
days confine you ; provided always you begin
with the Belle Arti, which contains the ABC
of Tuscan and Umbrian panel-painting. From
it you can go on to the Uffizi and the Pitti.
CHAPTER II.
SANTA CROCK AND THE FRANCISCAN QUARTER.
ST. FRANCIS of Assisi, the Apostle of the
Poor, died in 1226, and was promptly canon-
ised in 1 228. His followers spread at once over
every part of Italy, choosing in each town the
poorest quarters, and ministering to the spir-
itual and temporal needs of the lowest classes.
They were representatives of Works, as the
Dominicans of Faith. In 1 294, — some six-
teen years later than the Dominicans at Santa
Maria Novella, — they began to erect a church
at Florence, outside the walls, on the poorer side
of the city, close by their monastery. It was
dedicated under the name of Santa Croce, and
shortly adorned by Giotto and his pupils with
beautiful frescoes, the finest works of art yet
seen in Italy. Two things must thus be spe-
cially borne in mind about this church : it is a
church of the Holy Cross, whose image and
Santa Croce. 1 1
history meet one in it at every turn ; and it is a
Franciscan church, and therefore it is largely
occupied with the glorification of St. Francis
and of the order he founded. Their coarse
brown robes appear in many of the pictures.
Look out for their great saints, Bernardino of
Siena, Louis of Toulouse, Antony of Padua, etc.
The Franciscans were a body of popular
preachers. Hence, in their church, the im-
mense nave, which includes the pulpit, was
especially important. It was designed to ac-
commodate large numbers of hearers. But its
width and empty spaces also gave free room
for many burials ; whence Santa Croce became
one of the principal churches in Florence for
interments. In time, it grew to be the recog-
nised Pantheon or " Westminster Abbey " of
the town, where men of literary, scientific, or
political importance were laid to rest : and its
numerous monuments have thus a sentimental
interest for those who care for such memorials.
But it would be a great mistake to regard Santa
Croce entirely or even mainly from the point of
view of a national Walhalla, as is too often
done by tourists. Its real interest lies rather
in the two points noted above, and in the admi-
12 Florence.
rablc works of art with which it is so abundantly
supplied, especially in the chapels of the various
great families who favoured the order.
The general design is by Arnolfo di Cambio,
who at the same time was employed in designing
the Cathedral. Begun, 1294; finished, 1442.
It is the best museum for the Florentine art of
^^^.the fourteenth century.
See it by morning light. Choose a bright
" ' morning ; go past the Cathedral and the Signo-
ria, and then dive down the narrow Borgo de'
Greci, through the tangled streets of the Old
Town, — which note as characteristic, — till
you arrive at the Piazza Santa Croce. In the
centre of the square stands a modern statue of
Dante, turning his back on the church which
he never really saw. Its walls were only rising
a few feet high when the poet was banished
from Florence.
Proceed first to the north side of the church,
to view the exterior of the mediaeval building,
now much obscured by the later Renaissance
loggia. Little of the primitive design is at
present visible. Notice the bare brick archi-
tecture, intended to be later incased in marble.
Observe also the smallness, infrequency, and