Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 8 minutes):Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Requiem K 626: Dies irae
The construction of the Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella began in 1246, and was essentially complete by the start of the fourteenth century. The Strozzi Chapel at the end of the left transept, initiated by the sons of Rosso di Gerio Strozzi (died in 1316), was added between 1340 and 1348. The Strozzi were one of the Florentine families that attained considerable wealth and influence through their trading and banking businesses beginning in the early fourteenth century.
The Strozzi Chapel contains one of the most important altarpieces of the Trecento, painted by Orcagna (Andrea di Cione) between 1354 and 1357. The frescoes in the chapel were probably painted at the same time as the retable by Nardo di Cione, the brother of Orcagna.
In nearly a complete departure from earlier family chapels, the fresco program is devoted almost exclusively to a depiction of the Last Judgment, which takes up all three walls. The pictorial program of the frescoes is articulated like a triptych, with the Last Judgment on the west wall as the core of the ensemble and Paradise on the south wall as the pendant to Hell on the north wall.
|
Suggested listening (streaming mp3, 8 minutes): Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: Requiem K 626: Dies irae |
 |
| Paintings by NARDO DI CIONE |
| Frescoes in the Strozzi Chapel, Santa Maria Novella (1354-57) |
| Various paintings |
