La Crocifissione del Perugino
In the Convent of Santa Maria Maddalena dei Pazzi
via Borgo Pinti, 58
Monday–Sunday, 9am–12pm and 5pm–7pm (but hours vary; please check first)
Donation: 1.30 euro
Information: 055.24 78 420
Founded in 1321, the convent was named for a Carmelite nun from awealthy Florentine family, and run by the Carmelites from 1628 to 1888. Takenover in 1926 by an order from Nimes France known as the Augustian fathers, thechurch currently serves the French community. The chapter house crypt hosts asignificant fresco by Perugino, Crucifixion and Saints, whose strident colorsfill the entire wall. Best known for his frescoes in the Sistine Chapel,Perugino was born in Perugia, and worked Florence from 1486 to 1496. Althoughhe was Raphael’s teacher, his work displays little feeling for religioussubjects and his figures often seem to be mere copies of each other. Thismasterpiece, however, should not to be missed.
The entrance is on the southside of the church. Ring the bell at Borgo Pinti 58 or enter through the sacristy—thechapter house is located in the former convent.
Hospital of the Innocents
Spedale Degli Innocenti
Piazza Santissima Annunziata 12
Opening hours areThursday–Tuesday 8:30am–2pm.
Entrance fee: 3 euro
Built by Brunelleschi in 1419, the hospital was financed by the silkmakers’ guild and opened in 1445. As the first foundling hospital in Europe, itcared for infants for the next five centuries until the year 2000. UNICEF hasbeen housed there since 1988. On the façade, visitors can spot wonderful medallions by Andrea della Robbia depicting babies wrapped in opaque whiteswaddling clothes, resting on robin’s egg blue backgrounds. At the left end ofthe building, just under the portico, you can still see an earlysixteenth-century wheel, which looks much like a lazy-susan, where mothers abandoned their babies, leaving them in the care of hospital nurses. The customof leaving children on this ruota (wheel), ended in the late 1800s.
The Museum Gallery, located above the cloisters, is open from 8:30am to 2pm, except Wednesdays. The two separate cloisters were dedicated and reserved for the menand the women who worked on, or in, the hospital. The 24 columns located in thewomen’s section are particularly lovely, and the area is now a lending libraryfor children, of both books and toys. An early Botticelli, Domenico Ghirlandaio’s Adoration of the Magi are among the gallery’s important paintings, together with a Madonna attributed to Pontormoand a sweet terracotta Madonna by Luca della Robbia.
Cappella della Confraternita di San Luca and the Chiostro dei Morti
Chiesa SS. Annunziata
Piazza Santissima Annunziata 12
Open 7:30am–12:30pm; 4pm–6:30pm.
Vasari was a founding member of the academy and created the altarpiece; Pontormo andAlessandro Allori painted the frescoed ceiling and walls. Pontormo, Cellini, Andrea del Sarto and the Italian writer Maria Valtorta are buried in thevaults, as are various other artists. Don’t miss Andrea del Sarto’s Madonna del Sacco above the door that leads into the Chiostro dei morti (Cloister of the Dead). The Academia of Art and Design (Accademia delle Arti del Disegno) has owned this chapel since 1565. Every October 18, a special mass is offered forartists to commemorate il giorno di San Luca, as Saint Luke himself was an artist who later became the patron of artists. Enterthrough the door on the left of the portico or go through Chiesa SS. Annunziatato the Chiostro dei morti, which adjoins the chapter house.
