Opera magazine
2024-04-29
The marble choir of the Florence Cathedral
From Brunelleschi to Bandinelli: the history, the sculptural decoration and the meanings of the marble enclosure of the choir of the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore
At the end of the naves of the Cathedral, in the center of the presbytery, exactly below the large vault of the dome, there is the large octagonal marble enclosure of the choir. The enclosure includes the main altar and is adorned on the outside by a famous series of mirrors with bas-reliefs depicting naked or old-fashioned dressed men and women. This perimeter area and the altar within it represent the architectural and liturgical heart of the Cathedral, as well as a one-of-a-kind example of 16th century art and exceptional artistic beauty.
The main altar and the choir enclosure were built by order of Grand Duke Cosimo I dei Medici in 1547-1572 as part of the renovation works of the Cathedral to update it to modern tastes and adapt it to its new role as a theater for public religious ceremonies of the court. The project was entrusted to Giuliano di Baccio d'Agnolo and the regent's trusted sculptor, Baccio Bandinelli, together with his collaborator Giovanni Bandini (who from then on took the name Giovanni "dell'Opera"). As we will say, however, the appearance with which we see the enclosure and the altar today is the result of the transformations carried out in the 19th and 20th centuries. And again: Bandinelli's was not the first choir enclosure in the Cathedral, two others had existed before.
As soon as the work on the large dome above was completed, in time to host the Council of Florence, in 1439 Filippo Brunelleschi erected a wooden enclosure, which had the same octagonal shape as Bandinelli's, but was slightly smaller in size and was adorned with a colonnade with a smooth entablature that ran above the balustrade: it had to be something simple and spectacular at the same time! Evidence of this choir remains in the famous medal minted by Bertoldo di Giovanni in memory of the bloody event that took place in the Brunelleschi choir, namely the killing of Giuliano de Medici and the attack on Lorenzo the Magnificent... the famous “Pazzi Conspiracy”. A reconstructive model of the Brunelleschi choir is exhibited in the room dedicated to the dome of our Museum.
But Brunelleschi's work was temporary and designed to be replaced with materials much more durable than wood. In 1519 it was decided to replace it with one in marble and the task was entrusted to Giuliano di Baccio d'Agnolo, Nanni d'Unghero and Domenico Baccelli and the eight columns with splendid carved capitals preserved in the room of the "Medici Theatre" perhaps belong to this moment of the Museum.
We then reached the "grand ducal" choir. The reredos and the table, decorated with motifs of beautiful old-fashioned vases and angels, were completed by Giuliano di Baccio d'Agnolo by 1552. They were enriched by important sculptural furnishings supplied by Bandinelli and consisting of the gigantic figures of a blessing God the father placed on the top, a large dead Christ among grieving angels, at his feet and his progenitors Adam and Eve behind him. After the Second Vatican Council the table was distanced from the reredos.
The choir had a longer and more complex gestation. The enclosure, also in white marble, was adorned with panels in Medici marble breccia (which in the original program were instead intended to house stories in bas-relief) and by 88 panels with figures in bas-relief of uncertain identification (prophets and sibyls? Characters from the Old Testament? Philosophers?). The latter are among the peaks of Bandinelli's art. Above, an imposing colonnade supported a large smooth cornice architrave, crowned by a balustrade made up of balustrades and interspersed in the center of the cardinal sides with large round arches. It was completed by a garland of lights which was supposed to give the entire architecture a truly evocative scenographic effect. The iconographic program is very elaborate, linked to the liturgy that takes place inside, to the number eight of its sides and to the statuary cycle by Bandinelli that adorned the altar and the enclosure. The octagonal shape of the plan echoes that of the entire presbytery area and the dome, which in turn takes up the perimeter of the Baptistery and, like that, alludes to the "Eighth day" ("Octava dies"), or to the eternal Sunday which is promised by the Christian faith to the righteous. The Christian faith teaches that this salvation is accessed through the sacrifice of Christ, repeated on the altar table in the Eucharistic Sacrament, represented precisely by Bandinelli's colossal God the Father who offered his Son as a sacrifice on the table below. Behind, symbolically opposite to this food of eternal Life, the Progenitors were then placed at the sides of the tree of the fruit of sin, food of death and perdition. In this order of meaning, the bas-relief figures of the enclosure, if we accept the hypothesis that they represent Old Testament characters and sibyls, would mean those who announced the era of salvation without being able to see it (they are in fact facing outwards).
