Santa Maria Novella, Florence (Part 4) – the Chapels

COVER PHOTO: Frescoes in the Tournabuoni Chapel. Can you spot Ghirlandio looking back at you? Other aspects of Santa Maria Novella have been covered in our previous posts, Parts 1, 2 and 3. When visiting the Basilica, these four posts would act as a useful guide. This post takes a look at the several chapels

Santa Maria Novella, Florence (Part 1)

Visitors to Florence who arrive by mainline train will notice the trackside signs displaying Firenze S.M.N. … If written in full, the railway signage would read ‘Firenze Santa Maria Novella‘. However, there are three Santa Maria Novellas of note in Florence. One is the Santa Maria Novella railway station, the second is the Santa Maria

Florence and the Renaissance

With the demise of the Roman Empire in the first half of the 5th century, Europe descended into what is appropriately known as “The Dark Ages”. During this time much of the intellectual, cultural, and scientific advances made in Greek and Roman antiquity (the ‘Light’) were lost, as Europe declined into a millennium of scant