The Basilica di Santo Spirito is a church in Florence, Italy. Usually referred to simply as Santo Spirito, it is located in the Oltrarno quarter, facing the square with the same name. The interior of the building – internal length 97 meters – is one of the preeminent examples of Renaissance architecture.
The Tempio Malatestiano is the unfinished cathedral church of Rimini, Italy. Officially named for St. Francis, it takes the popular name from Sigismondo Pandolfo Malatesta, who commissioned its reconstruction by the famous Renaissance theorist and architect Leon Battista Alberti around 1450.
The Medici Villa of Poggio a Caiano, also called Ambra, is one of the most famous Medici villas and is located in Poggio a Caiano . Today it is state owned and it houses two museums: one of the historic apartments and the Museum of Still Life .
The villa is perhaps the best example of architecture commissioned by Lorenzo il Magnifico, in this case to Giuliano da Sangallo towards 1480. It is no coincidence that this is a private building, where there are elements that later modeled for the future developments of the type of villas: internal and external penetration through filters such as loggias, symmetrical distribution of environments around a central salon , dominant position in the landscape, conscious recovery of classical architectural elements .
The Pisa Baptistery of St. John is a Roman Catholic ecclesiastical building in Pisa, Italy. Construction started in 1152 to replace an older baptistery, and when it was completed in 1363, it became the second building, in chronological order, in the Piazza dei Miracoli, near the Duomo di Pisa and the cathedral's free-standing campanile, the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa. The baptistery was designed by Diotisalvi, whose signature can be read on two pillars inside the building, with the date 1153.
The Battistero di San Giovanni is a religious building in Siena, Italy. It is in the square with the same name, near the final spans of the choir of the city's cathedral.
It was built between 1316 and 1325 by Camaino di Crescentino, the father of Tino di Camaino. The façade, in Gothic style, is unfinished in the upper part, such as the apse of the cathedral.
In the interior, the rectangular hall, divided into a nave and two aisles by two columns, contains a hexagonal baptismal font in bronze, marble and vitreous enamel, realized in 1417-1431 by the main sculptors of the time: Donatello , Lorenzo Ghiberti, Giovanni di Turino, Goro di Neroccio and Jacopo della Quercia . The panels represent the Life of John the Baptist, and include:
"Annunciation to Zacharias" by Jacopo della Quercia
"Birth of John the Baptist" by Giovanni di Turino
"Baptist Preaching" by Giovanni di Turino
"Baptism of Christ" by Ghiberti
"Arrest of John the Baptist" by Ghiberti and Giuliano di Ser Andrea
"The Feast of Herod" by Donatello These panels are flanked on the corners by six figures, two by Donatello in 1429; three by Giovanni di Turino ; and the "Fortitude" is by Goro di Ser Neroccio .
The marble shrine on the font was designed by Jacopo della Quercia between 1427 and 1429. The five "Prophets" in the niches and the marble statuette of "John the Baptist" at the top are equally by his hand. Two of the bronze angels are by Donatello, three by Giovanni di Turino .
The frescoes are by Vecchietta and his school , Benvenuto di Giovanni, the school of Jacopo della Quercia e, perhaps, one by Piero Orioli. Vecchietta also painted two scenes on the wall of the apse, representing the Flagellation and the Road to Calvary. Michele di Matteo da Bologna painted in 1477 the frescoes on the vault of the apse.
Castelfiorentino is a city and comune in the Metropolitan City of Florence, Tuscany, central Italy, halfway between Florence , Pisa and Siena . The population is approximately 20,000 inhabitants. It is part of Valdelsa.
Castelfiorentino borders the following municipalities: Certaldo, Empoli, Gambassi Terme, Montaione, Montespertoli and San Miniato.
The Boboli Gardens is a historical park of the city of Florence that was opened to the public in 1766. Originally designed for the Medici, it represents one of the first and most important examples of the Italian garden, which later served as inspiration for many European courts. The large green area is a real open-air museum with statues of various styles and periods, ancient and Renaissance that are distributed throughout the garden. It also has large fountains and caves, among them the splendid Buontalenti grotto built by the artist, architect and sculptor Bernardo Buontalenti between 1536 and 1608.
Milan Cathedral is the cathedral church of Milan, Lombardy, Italy. Dedicated to the Nativity of St Mary , it is the seat of the Archbishop of Milan, currently Archbishop Mario Delpini.
The cathedral took nearly six centuries to complete: construction began in 1386, and the final details were completed in 1965. It is the largest church in Italy—the larger St. Peter's Basilica is in the State of Vatican City, a sovereign nation—and the second largest in Europe and the fourth largest in the world.
