Santo Spirito in Florence: Brunelleschi, the Opera, the Quartiere and the Cantiere Submitted by Rocky Ruggiero to the University of Exeter as a thesis for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in Art History and Visual Culture In March 2017. This thesis is available for Library use on the understanding that it is copyright material and that no quotation from the thesis may be published without proper acknowledgement. I certify that all material in this thesis which is not my own work has been identified and that no material has previously been submitted and approved for the award of a degree by this or any other University. (Signature)…………………………………………………………………………….. 1 Abstract The church of Santo Spirito in Florence is universally accepted as one of the architectural works of Filippo Brunelleschi (1377-1446). It is nevertheless surprising that contrary to such buildings as San Lorenzo or the Old Sacristy, the church has received relatively little scholarly attention. Most scholarship continues to rely upon the testimony of Brunelleschi’s earliest biographer, Antonio di Tuccio Manetti, to establish an administrative and artistic initiation date for the project in the middle of Brunelleschi’s career, around 1428. Through an exhaustive analysis of the biographer’s account, and subsequent comparison to the extant documentary evidence from the period, I have been able to establish that construction actually began at a considerably later date, around 1440. It is specifically during the two and half decades after Brunelleschi’s death in 1446 that very little is known about the proceedings of the project. A largely unpublished archival source which records the machinations of the Opera (works committee) of Santo Spirito from 1446-1461, sheds considerable light on the progress of construction during this period, as well as on the role of the Opera in the realization of the church. In addition to collecting outstanding debts, the Opera also began to sell the rights of patronage over many of the church’s crossing chapels. The patrons of these chapels were members of the city’s republican elite. Much of the quarter’s social hierarchy is manifest in the church by the quantity of chapels owned by single families, rather than by chapel location. This is because Brunelleschi’s “centralized basilica” plan made traditional altar proximity less exclusive. Moreover, chapel patrons were surprisingly almost all exclusively residents of only three of the quarter’s four gonfaloni. The controversies concerning the completion of the church between 1471 and 1487, including the construction of an enclosing wall around Brunelleschi’s intended extruding semi-circular chapels, the hypothesis of barrel vaulting over the church, and the debate over the number of façade doors, suggest a general uncertainty about the architect’s original plan. My research into this post-Brunelleschian history of Santo Spirito focuses on the role of the cantiere (work site) as heir to Brunelleschi’s architectural inheritance; this also provides a means by which to insert the church into the wider context of the building tradition of fifteenth-century Florence. Like most cantieri of the time, 2 the one at Santo Spirito was quite fluid in structure, with a panoply of laborers and suppliers providing the building site with various services and materials. The significant amount of unpublished documentation presented in this thesis concerning the cantiere also provides a succinct case study of the finances of ecclesiastical construction, and a revealing comparative analysis of the building costs of labor and materials at Santo Spirito in relation to other fifteenth-century building projects in Florence such as the hospitals of San Paolo and the Innocenti, as well as the Strozzi Palace. 3 List of Contents List of Illustrations…………..................................................................................5 Note on Abbreviations, Dates, Names, Citations, Translations, Measures and Currency…………………………………………………………...............................9 Dedication……………………………………………………………………………..10 Acknowledgements ……………………..............................................................11 Introduction........................................................................................................12 1.) Literature Review 2.) Themes and Structure Chapter I: “Initiation Date and Attribution (1428-1446).”....................................35 1.) The Old Church of Santo Spirito 2.) The New Church of Santo Spirito 3.) Building History Chapter II: “The Opera, the Quartiere and Brunelleschi’s Architectural Inheritance (1446-1471)” …..……………………................................................82 1.) The Opera 2.) Chapels 3.) Patterns of Patronage at Santo Spirito 4.) Building History Chapter III: “Finances, the Cantiere and ‘… the errors made and consented to by others’ (1471-1487)”…..…………..……………………………………………176 1.) Finances and the Cantiere 2.) Building History Conclusion……………………………………..……………………………………253 Appendix…………………………………………………………………………….265 Bibliography…………………………………………………………………………318 Illustrations……………...……………………………. …………..following page 325 4 List of Illustrations 1.) Floor plan of the church and convent of Santo Spirito, Florence (F. Quinterio, 1996, 40.) 2.) “Chain Map” of Florence, c. 1471 (www.oneonta.edu) 3.) Aerial view of Florence (photo: www.theeyetravels.com) 4.) Interior view of the Old Sacristy in San Lorenzo, Florence (photo: Wikipedia Commons) 5.) Interior view of the Pazzi Chapel in Santa Croce, Florence (photo: Wikipedia Commons) 6.) Exterior view and loor plan of Santa Maria degli Angeli, Florence (photo and plan: H. Saalman, 1993, 382, 404.) 7.) Interior nave view of San Lorenzo, Florence (photo: Wikipedia Commons) 8.) Floor plan of Santo Spirito, Florence (Author with Graduate School of Architecture, Kent State University in Florence) 9.) Interior nave view of Santo Spirito, Florence (photo: Wikipedia Commons) 10.) P. Sanpaolesi’s Hypothetical Reconstruction of Santo Spirito (P. Sanpaolesi, 1962, Illustration D) 11.) F. Quinterio’s Hypothetical Reconstruction of Santo Spirito (F. Quinterio, 1996, 96.) 12.) Exterior view of the Orvieto cathedral with detail of extruding chapels (photo: Wikipedia Commons) 13.) Floor plan of the Basilica of St. Mark, Venice (E.Vito, 2001, 116.) 14.) Floor plan of Florence cathedral (F. Gurrieri, 1994, 46.) 15.) Detail of exterior moldings on rear chapels of Santo Spirito (photos: L. Benevolo, 1968, 60.) 16.) Interior nave view towards façade of Santo Spirito, Florence (photo: F. Quinterio, 1996, 99.) 17.) Giuliano da Sangallo’s floor plan of Santo Spirito, Florence, c. 1486 (H. Saalman. 1993, 375.) 18.) Floor plan of Santo Spirito, Florence, indicating names of later chapel patrons (Author with Graduate School of Kent State University in Florence) 5 19.) Interior and exterior views of the Frescobaldi chapel in Santo Spirito, Florence, with detail of private palace window (D. Frescobaldi and F. Solinas, 2004, 96 and 88.) 20.) Exterior coats of arms of the Nerli and Torrigiani families on Santo Spirito, Florence (photos: Wikipedia Commons) 21.) Reconstruction of Santa Reparata, Florence (www.gonews.it) 22.) Section of the nave of Santo Spirito, Florence, with shaded “hidden wall”, and section of the cloister of Santo Spirito from 1659 (F. Quinterio, 1996, 40.) 23.) Floor plans of Santa Croce (above) and Santa Maria Novella (below), Florence, indicating main chapels (J. Paoletti and G. Radke, 1997, 55, 56.) 24.) Schematic layout of the urban site of old Santo Spirito with a perpendicular position in relation to the new church (scale of old church speculative) (Author with Graduate School of Architecture, Kent State University in Florence) 25.) Schematic layout of the urban site of old Santo Spirito with a parallel position in relation to the new church (scale of old church speculative) (Author with Graduate School of Architecture, Kent State University in Florence) 26.) F. Quinterio’s hypothetical plan of the old and new church superimposition (F. Quinterio, 1996, 36.) 27.) Schematic layout of the urban site of old Santo Spirito with two hypothetical anterior positions in relation to the new church (scale of old church speculative) (Author with Graduate School of Architecture, Kent State University in Florence) 28.) Urban plan of Santo Spirito area with Frescobaldi and Capponi properties around church (F. Quinterio, 1996, 38.) 29.) Floor plan of Santo Spirito, Florence, indicating chapels with exterior cornices (Author with Graduate School of Architecture, Syracuse University in Florence) 30.) Benevolo’s proposed chapel types in Santo Spirito, Florence (L. Benevolo, 1968, 78.) 31.) Floor plan with locations of chapel types in Santo Spirito, Florence (L. Benevolo, 1968, 77.) 6 32.) Interior view of the Capponi chapel in Santo Spirito, Florence, with detail of wall tomb of Neri di Gino Capponi (photo: E. Capretti, 1996, 281.) 33.) Floorplan of Santo Spirito, Florence, with chapels sold between 1455 and 1460 (Author with Graduate School of Architecture, Kent State University in Florence) 34.) Standard of the Quarter of Santo Spirito (V. Orgera, G. Balzanetti, L. Artusi and J. Poli, 2000, front cover.) 35.) Urban plan of the Quarter of Santo Spirito demarcating the four gonfaloni (Wikimapia.org) 36.) Axonometric rendering by F. Quinterio of crossing of Santo Spirito, Florence, with first raised column (F. Quinterio, 1996, 97.) 37.) Axonometric rendering of Santo Spirito, Florence, with five raised columns in eastern arm of church (Author with Graduate