Museo di San Marco

Lonely Planet review

In the centre of the university area, this museum is housed in the now-deconsecrated Dominican convent and the Chiesa di San Marco. The church was founded in 1299, rebuilt by Michelozzo in 1437, and again remodelled by Giambologna some years later. It features several paintings, but they pale in comparison with the treasures in the adjoining convent.

Famous Florentines who called the convent home include the painters Fra (or Beato) Angelico and Fra Bartolommeo. Fra Angelico, who painted the radiant frescoes on the convent walls, was of the Dominican order. The convent now serves as a museum of Fra Angelico's works, many of which were moved there in the 1860s, and should be up there on every art lover's top-priority list. Almost 30 years after Fra Angelico's death in 1455, the rather ugly and intense little Dominican friar Girolamo Savonarola turned up in Florence with a post as lector at the Chiesa di San Marco. You find yourself in the Chiostro di Sant'Antonio (St Anthony's Cloisters), designed by Michelozzo in 1440, when you first enter the museum. Turn immediately to the right and enter the Sala dell'Ospizio. Paintings by Fra Angelico that once hung in the Galleria dell'Accademia and the Uffizi have been brought together here. Among the better-known works are La Deposizione di Cristo (Deposition of Christ) and the Pala di San Marco, an altarpiece for the church paid for by the Medici family. It did not fare well as a result of 19th-century restoration. More of Angelico's works, including a Crocifissione (Crucifixion), are on display in the Sala del Capitolo (Chapter House) on the opposite side of the cloister. In here is also La Piagnona, the bell rung the night Savonarola was arrested on 8 April 1498. The east wing of the cloister, formerly the monks' rectory, contains works by various artists from the 14th to the 17th centuries. Paintings by Fra Bartolommeo are on display in a small annexe off the refectory rooms. Among them is a celebrated portrait of Savonarola. You reach the upper floor by passing through the bookshop. This is, in a sense, the real treat. Fra Angelico was invited to decorate the monks' cells with devotional frescoes aimed as a guide to the friars' meditation. Some were done by Fra Angelico, others by aides under his supervision including Bennozo Gozzoli. You can peer into them today and wonder what sort of thoughts would swim through the minds of the monks as they prayed before these images. However, the true masterpieces up here are on the walls in the corridors. Already at the top of the stairs you climbed to the 1st floor is an Annunciazione (Annunciation), faced on the opposite wall with a crocifisso (crucifix) featuring St Dominic (San Domenico). One of Fra Angelico's most famous works is the Madonna delle Ombre (Madonna of the Shadows), to the right of cell No 25.