Sacred Florence: Art and Architecture

All over the world and for a very long time Florence has been regarded as the cradle of Western Civilization between the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Its churches, rather than its museums, are Florence's natural historical containers. Notwithstanding expropriations and confiscations in the modern era, the artistic heritage has been preserved in its churches. "Sacred Florence" is outside the museums and inside the museums. Together they form an inseparable whole. Sometimes the museum is physically located in all or part of a religious building, as in the cases of San Marco, the Medici Chapels in San Lorenzo and the former monasteries (San Salvi where Andrea del Sarto's absolute masterpiece is located, and Ognissanti, home of Ghirlandaio's Last Supper). At every turn, Florence bears witness to the decisive role that religious inspiration has played in the artistic history of a city that has been a flower and model for the whole of the Christian West. Antonio Paolucci