Basilica di Santa Maria Novella

The flesh and bones of this Dominican church, completed in 1346, may be medieval, but the finishing touches include some of the most seminal works of the Renaissance. Leon Battista Alberti’s super-refined facade influenced generations of church architects with its classic motives and balanced geometry. Inside, Masaccio’s fresco Trínita (Trinity, 1427), on the nave’s left flank, is considered the first Renaissance painting, with its distinctly Roman setting and almost perfectly realised, three-dimensional perspective. Note the ominous words of the fresco’s skeleton, which translate as ‘I was as you are, and you will become as I am.’ Its fresco cycles – in particular Filipino Lippi’s Cappella Strozzi just right of the altar and Ghirlandaio’s Capella Tornabuoni – are also extraordinary. Completed with the help of Michelangelo, Ghirlandaio’s cycle depicts the Virgin Maria as a Florentine patrician during the Renaissance, and feature portraits of members of the Tornabuoni family who commissioned it.