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Marie Novella (cloister): *
The cloister complex, an example of Italian Gothic architecture, was begun around 1340. The Green Cloister employs strong yet harmonious proportions; its name comes from the frescoes originally painted in "green clay" by artists of early 15th century including Paolo Uccello (1397-1475), one of the greatest Florentine Renaissance masters who painted some of his best work here. The cloister gives access to the Refectory (and from here to the Large Cloister decorated at the end of the 16th century) and to the Cappellone degli Spagnoli. This large section of the building preserves the complex frescoes by Andrea di Bonaiuto (mid-14th century), which exalt the work of the Dominicans, to whom the church belonged. The Green Cloister also gives access to the Cloister of the Dead and the Strozzi Chapel, decorated with 14th century frescoes.
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Large Cloister Green Clositer Cloister of the Dead
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palazzo Strozzi, Florence (facade): *
The palazzo has mullioned paired windows (bifore); the radating voussoirs of the arches increase in length as they rise to the keystone, a detail that was much copied for arched windows set in rustication in the Renaissance revival. Its dominating cornice is typical of the Florentine palaces of the time.
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Siena (monument to counter-Renaissance): *
The Maestà of Duccio is an altarpiece composed of many individual paintings commissioned by Siena in 1308 from Duccio The front panels make up a large enthroned Madonna and Child with saints & angels, and a predella of the Childhood of Christ with prophets. The reverse has the rest of a combined cycle of the Life of the Virgin and the Life of Christ in a total of 40-three small scenes; several panels are now dispersed or lost. The base of the panel has an inscription that reads: "Holy Mother of God, be thou the cause of peace for Siena and life to Duccio because he painted thee thus." This work set Italian painting on a course leading away from the hieratic representations of Byzantine art towards more direct presentations of reality.
