Sienna 4

Assisi, Church of San Francesco, 1228-53 San Franceso, nave of the Upper Church, looking west to the entrance There are no aisles and no gallery or triforium. The walls are covered with paintings. San Francesco, nave looking east Cathedral of Beauvais, choir looking east ( the horizontal versus the vertical!) Cisterican Abbey at Fossanova, begun 1187, consecrated 1208 Florence, Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella, 1246ff East end exterior view; and view from the nave to the choir (west to east) The nave was begun in 1279. Florence, Franciscan Church of Santa Croce, 1294/5ff Probably designed by Arnolfo di Cambio Above: west façade (19th century, not medieval) Right: south flank and cloister The history of Gothic architecture in Tuscany ultimately concludes with the Cathedral of Santa Maria del Fiore (Our Lady of the Flowers), which was begun by Arnolfo di Cambio in 1294 and completed (except for part of the façade) by Filippo Brunelleschi in the 15th century. Arnolfo was trained by Nicola Pisano, one of the most important Italian artists of the 13th century, and became the architect of the cathedral around the same time he was building (apparently) the Franciscan Church of Santa Croce (1294/95). In the cathedral design, Arnolfo set the stage for the ultimate reconciliation of the imported French Gothic with the inherited Romanesque tradition of Tuscany. Peter Murray clearly describes this reconciliation in the first chapter of his book The Architecture of the Italian Renaissance. You should be familiar with his argument and understand how he explains the importance of this architectural development for the birth of Renaissance architecture.