Museo/Chiesa di San Marco

Endowed generously by Cosimo il Vecchio, this former Dominican monastery was an important font of early Renaissance art thanks mostly to its most famous resident, Fra Angelico. The attention to perspective and realistic portrayal of nature have lead critics to call Fra Angelico’s Deposizione di Cristo (Deposition of Christ; 1432) one of the first true paintings of the Renaissance. Fra Angelico was commissioned to produce this painting only because the original painter died. The early-Renaissance architecture of Michelozzo, especially his Chiostro di Sant’Antonio (1440), is also impressive. However, it is the monks’ cells that are most haunting. At the top of the stairs lies Fra Angelico’s most famous work, the exquisitely pastoral Annunciazione (c 1440). A stroll around each of the cells reveals snippets of many more fine frescoes, most executed by Fra Angelico. You can also visit the three-room suite that Savonarola called home from 1489.