Opera magazine
2025-06-01
The Cathedral and Its Heroes
A Journey Through Art and Memory in Florence Cathedral: Tracing the City's Glories Through Tombs and Monuments
Did you know that Florence Cathedral houses the tombs and commemorative monuments of famous artists, renowned intellectuals, valiant warriors, and eminent theologians? Amid its many masterpieces of sacred art, the Cathedral preserves a true pantheon of Florentine greatness.
This presence becomes clearer when one carefully observes the Cathedral’s architectural layout: its plan results from the fusion of two distinct bodies — the central-plan structure corresponding to the dome area, with its three tribunes and fifteen radiating chapels, and the large basilica structure with three naves. The former, with its sixteen altars, was designed for worship. The vast basilica area, however, like the ancient Roman basilicas, also served a civic purpose, functioning like a monumental covered square. It is here that we find a remarkable array of funerary and commemorative monuments, many of which are dedicated to secular figures or matters unrelated to faith.
Let’s begin our tour at the counter-façade: to the right of the central portal, in a symmetrical position to the tomb of Bishop Orso — a masterpiece by Tino di Camaino — there is a splendid marble sarcophagus on corbels, executed in the Florentine Gothic style. A mystery surrounds it, as we do not know to whom it belongs: there are no images or inscriptions, only a coat of arms with an eagle. The work is finely crafted and, according to some scholars, may have once contained the remains of Aldobrandino Ottoboni, a key figure in the Florentine Guelph Party in the 13th century. During the riots following the Battle of Montaperti (1260), his body was reportedly dragged through the streets in shame or thrown into the Arno. The sarcophagus, containing only scant remains, may have been installed on the wall of the new Cathedral during the following century.
Continuing along the second and third bays of the left nave, we encounter two towering monuments dedicated to condottieri — military leaders who commanded Florentine forces to victory during the Middle Ages. These are not sculptures, but monumental frescoes (later transferred to canvas), each over eight meters high and more than five meters wide, painted by two major masters of the early Renaissance. They are designed to resemble stone wall tombs topped by equestrian statues.
On the right, Paolo Uccello painted the monument to Giovanni Acuto (the Italianized name of John Hawkwood) in 1436. He was the most celebrated mercenary captain of 14th-century Italy and died in Florence on March 14, 1394. The city honored him with a grand funeral in the Cathedral. Uccello depicted him in a trompe-l'œil bronze monument, riding triumphantly in full armor above his own sarcophagus.
Next to it, twenty years later, Andrea del Castagno honored Captain Niccolò da Tolentino, who also led Florentine troops and died in 1436. He, too, was solemnly buried in the Cathedral. In Castagno’s work, the captain rides in eternal triumph above a sarcophagus that appears to be made of marble, rather than bronze.
The idea of funerary monuments for military captains surmounted by equestrian statues has even earlier origins. In the south nave, above the Porta del Campanile, once stood the tomb of Piero Farnese, who died in 1363 while in the service of Florence. His monument featured a marble coffin and a now-lost sculpture of him on a rearing mule — a reference to an actual wartime episode. Unfortunately, when the monument was dismantled in the mid-19th century, the sculpture disintegrated. The sarcophagus survives and is now housed in the Museum, accompanied by an engraving that shows its original appearance.
Opposite the captains’ monuments, almost as mirror images, are two more Renaissance funerary monuments — both cenotaphs — painted frescoes (now on canvas) that imitate elaborate marble tombs. Each depicts the deceased in repose atop the tomb: on the left, the Bishop of Florence, Pietro Corsini, painted by Giovanni dal Ponte in 1422; on the right, Fra’ Luigi Marsili, by Neri di Bicci in 1434. Marsili, an important humanist and friend of Petrarch, received commissions from the Florentine Signoria, which decreed his burial in the Cathedral.
In the fourth bay of the northern nave, we find a work celebrating one of Florence’s greatest figures: Dante Alighieri. This is the famous portrait of the poet between the city of Florence and the three realms of the Divine Comedy, painted in 1465 by Domenico di Michelino after a design by Alesso Baldovinetti. The large panel (232 × 290 cm), now iconic of Dante’s legacy, was commissioned by the Florentine government to mark the bicentenary of the poet’s birth. Although his remains could not be recovered, Dante — who had glorified the Virgin and her flower (Santa Maria del Fiore) in his work — is honored here alongside his beloved city and the spiritual cosmos he so vividly described.
Along the side walls, a cohesive cycle of marble monuments features portrait busts set in circular frames (clipei), each accompanied by a commemorative epigraph. Near the right entrance to the façade is the oldest, dedicated to Filippo Brunelleschi, whose tomb lies directly beneath. Commissioned upon his death in 1446 by the Opera di Santa Maria del Fiore, it was sculpted — at the family’s expense — by his adopted son and pupil Andrea di Lazzaro Cavalcanti, known as “Il Buggiano.” He based the bust on his personal memory and a funerary mask he himself had made (now in the Museum). The Latin epitaph was composed by the humanist chancellor Carlo Marsuppini.
This model was followed for later monuments. Around 1490, Lorenzo the Magnificent commissioned two such works from Benedetto da Maiano. The first, next to Brunelleschi’s, is dedicated to Giotto, the pioneering Florentine artist who designed the first plans for the Bell Tower. He died in 1337 and was buried in the Cathedral, although his actual tomb has never been identified. The monument originally stood in the corresponding left nave bay. Giotto is shown intent on creating a mosaic tablet depicting the Holy Face. The epitaph was written by Agnolo Poliziano, a leading humanist.
Across the nave is the monument to Antonio Squarcialupi, a renowned organist and composer of the 15th century. Originally placed near the organ in the presbytery, this is a commemorative monument only — Squarcialupi was actually buried at San Lorenzo. A lifelong Medici associate, he was honored by Lorenzo the Magnificent, who also composed the epitaph.
Continuing along the same wall, we find two 19th-century monuments dedicated to architects: Arnolfo di Cambio and Emilio De Fabris. The first, created by Aristodemo Costoli in 1844, is not a tomb in the strict sense — Arnolfo’s burial site is unknown — but a celebratory sculpture showing the architect studying a plan of Santa Maria del Fiore. Arnolfo was the original designer of the Cathedral and its unfinished medieval façade.
De Fabris, by contrast, completed the façade nearly five centuries later. His sepulchral monument, sculpted by Vincenzo Consani in 1887, reflects Renaissance traditions while featuring an updated bust, complete with the architect’s signature moustache and 19th-century attire. Though De Fabris died just before the façade’s completion, he was buried nearby in recognition of his achievement.
Our journey continues in the right nave, near the exit used by visitors descending from the dome. Here stands the funerary monument to Marsilio Ficino, the celebrated Neoplatonic philosopher, friend of Lorenzo the Magnificent, and founder of the Careggi Academy. Sculpted by Nicodemo Ferrucci in 1522, Ficino is portrayed inside a shrine, holding a large book that alludes to his scholarly works. He gazes in mystical contemplation toward the light streaming from the dome.
There is also a funerary monument that everyone sees but few recognize: in the second bay of the central nave, an inscription within a double circular band on the floor commemorates Salvestro de’ Medici, a distant ancestor of the Grand Dukes. He played a key role during the Ciompi Revolt of 1378. His tomb, originally located near the Porta della Mandorla, was later moved here by his descendants in a position of honor.
Finally, let us recall the monuments that no longer remain in the Cathedral: the tomb of Andrea Pisano, sculptor and architect of the Opera in the 14th century, once located near the choir but now lost; the monument to Don Pedro de Toledo, Viceroy of Naples and father of Grand Duchess Eleonora, consisting of a sarcophagus once above the "Cornacchini" Door and now vanished; and the splendid funerary monument to Giuseppe Bencivenni Pelli, Enlightenment thinker and writer. This complex marble work, created by Carradori in 1808 on commission from the French government during their rule in Tuscany, was dismantled after the restoration of the Lorraine dynasty and now lies in fragments behind the apse of Santa Croce.
