Santa Croce Basilica, the “Pantheon of the Artists”

(This is part of our series of posts from our six-week Road Scholar Independent Living and Learning in Florence trip to Italy in Spring 2025. We have an index to all the posts from that trip here.)

This week’s theme for our Road Scholar program is The Italian Renaissance. After language class and lunch at a famous market, we met back up with our classmates for a guided tour of the art and history inside the Basilica di Santa Croce, sometimes called the “Pantheon of the Artists” for all the famous painters, sculptors, authors and other luminaries who are buried within its walls.

Inside the Mercato Sant’Ambrogio, one of Florence’s oldest markets, dating back more than 150 years.

We had lunch at this tiny restaurant in the market, where tables and the kitchen are all crammed into one big stall.

Vendors sell fresh produce outside the Mercato Sant’Ambrogio.

On the steps of the Basilica di Santa Croce with some of our fellow Road Scholars before our tour.

Construction of the Basilica di Santa Croce started in 1294 and was completed around 1370. Its name means “Basilica of the Holy Cross,” for the altar decorations that depict the Legend of the True Cross. It is the largest Franciscan church in the world.

Art & history guide Nicoletta tells us about the Basilica di Santa Croce at the start of our tour.

Remnants of the frescoes that originally adorned the interior walls. They were painted over in the mid-1500s during the Reformation and later partially restored. Several altars like this one were added to the sides of the cathedral by Giorgio Vasari around the same time.

Beautiful stained glass windows in the apse of the cathedral.

The Tomb of Giovanni Battista Niccolini (1782-1861). He was an Italian poet and playwright of the Italian unification movement. The sculpture depicts Tuscany, represented as a woman, breaking the chains of ignorance as it became the first nation-state to join the new nation of Italy. French sculptor Frédéric Auguste Bartholdi, who visited the Basilica, saw this sculpture and drew inspiration from it for his design of “Liberty Enlightening the World”, better known as the Statue of Liberty in New York.

The tomb of Michelangelo Buonarroti, designed by Giorgio Vasari. The three female figures on Michelangelo’s tomb represent the three arts in which he excelled: Painting, Sculpture, and Architecture. The allegorical figures appear to be mourning the loss of the great artist. The relief sculptures of three interlocking crowns were Michelangelo’s personal crest which he used to earmark blocks of marble that he chose in a quarry.

Close up of some of the intricate detail of a robe carved out of marble that adorns one of the columns in the cathedral.

Tomb of Galileo Galilei (1564-1642). The two women represent the sciences of math and astronomy. The Inquisition condemned Galileo for his heretical theory that the Earth and other planets orbited the sun, rather than all of them orbiting the Earth. The Medici saved him from execution, and he was sentenced instead to house arrest. His condemnation for heresy wasn’t erased until 1984, by Pope John Paul II.

This empty tomb honors Italian poet Dante Alighieri. He died and was buried in Ravenna, but was born in Florence. This monument was created in the mid-1800s to encourage the unification of the country and the adoption of Italian (of which Dante is considered the father) as its national language. The figure on the left represents Italy introducing Dante to the world, while the one on the right is a poet mourning him.

Tomb of Niccolò Machiavelli, a Florentine diplomat, author, philosopher, and historian, often called the father of modern political philosophy and political science.

Donatello’s Cavalcanti Annunciation (circa 1433-1435). Donatello created this piece early in his career in the Gothic style, but it shows early indications of his genius. The Angel and the Virgin are completely moved forward on the “stage” so that they seem living in the same space of the viewer–a novel concept for the time.

Tomb of Gioachino Rossini (1792-1868), Italian composer most famous for his operas.

Two of the 16 chapels in Santa Croce Basilica.

The Sacristy, where the priests would prepare themselves for church services.

Cimabue’s Crucifix (circa 1288) is one of the oldest works of art in the Basilica. Cimabue, one of Giotto’s teachers, was one of the first artists to represent realistic bodies in paintings. The Crucifix originally hung in the cathedral but was badly damaged when it was submerged in mud during the 1966 flood of the Arno that inundated most of Florence, including Santa Croce. 10 years of painstaking work was able to restore only 30% of the painted surface. Today it hangs safely in the Sacristy as a testimony to the terrible days of the flood and the city’s recovery.

Part of the habit of St. Francis of Assisi, in the Sacristy. St. Francis is believed to be one of the founders of the Basilica.

Medici family chapel (1445) in the Basilica complex.

Altar of the Medici chapel.

The Pazzi family chapel, designed and built by Filippo Brunelleschi, is considered to be an absolute masterpiece of early Renaissance architecture for its harmony, proportions and formal elegance. It was started in 1429, and work on it continued until 1478.

In the Refectory, where the Franciscan friars shared their meals, the huge fresco Tree of Life and Last Supper by Taddeo Gaddi (circa 1350) covers one of the walls. It is one of the earliest artistic depictions of the Last Supper.

Also hanging in the Refectory is The Last Supper by Giorgio Vasari (1547). It is one of the last major Last Supper depictions of the Renaissance, coming even after the version by Leonardo da Vinci.

David studying Donatello’s St. Louis of Toulouse (1425). This was Donatello’s first bronze casting on a monumental scale, for which he had to overcome significant difficulties to get the perspective correct within the limited space of the niche.