SANGALLO, Giuliano da
(b. 1445, Firenze, d. 1516, Firenze)

Interior view

1480-92
Photo
Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi, Florence

Around the year 1480 a surge of architectural and artistic activity began at the church of the Cistercian order in Florence, Santa Maria Maddalena di Cestello (now Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi). It started with relatively modest repairs on the church roof and the addition of a cappella maggiore, which had been lacking. But over the next decades this activity went on to turn the little rectangular Gothic building into a new Renaissance church with a beautiful Ionic forecourt, and to fill the church and convent with works by most of the prominent painters in late Quattrocento Florence.

The church of Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi in Florence is a major ecclesiastical building in Florence by Giuliano da Sangallo. The interior, with an aisleless flat-roofed nave and side chapels opening from semicircular arches on square piers, can be seen as a transition between SS Annunziata and San Gallo.

The interior was redecorated in the 17th and early 18th centuries, and the Quattrocento altarpieces were removed and substituted which removed the altarpieces for contemporary altarpieces by minor masters.

The photo shows the nave of the church.