Extension and renovation of the Santa Maria del Fiore Cathedral Museum in Florence Natalini Architects with Guicciardini Magni Architects.

Project Description | Adolfo Natalini

The museum is situated in a complex of buildings which have been owned by the Cathedral since 1296. Over the centuries this was used as storage for materials and statues removed from various Florentine monuments, (in one of the courtyards Michelangelo carved the statue of David). In 1778 the space available was halved following the sale of the northern court which was subsequently transformed into the Teatro degli Intrepidi. At the beginning of the twentieth century this was ripped out and converted into a garage.

The Museum was inaugurated in 1891 to house statues and artefacts belonging to the Cathedral, the Baptistery and Giotto’s Bell Tower. In 1997 the building containing the garage was repurchased in order to extend the existing museum.

Our brief was to renovate and unify the old museum with the new extension, a total floor area of more than 5000 sq.m. The artworks were to be arranged in accordance with central themes reconnecting them with their original settings in an evocative exhibition strategy. It was posited that each work of art would thus reveal the reasons for it’s conception in the context of worship and faith.

In 1296 Arnolfo di Cambio embarked on the construction of the new facade of the Cathedral where architecture and sculpture were to be united in a way unseen since classical antiquity. The result was the greatest monument in Florence. The facade was demolished around 1587 “because it was no longer fashionable”. Not until 1887 was a new facade completed following numerous proposals and competitions.

In the new museum we have recreated Arnolfo di Cambio’s original facade with a full-scale model based on a drawing by Bernardino Poccetti, in depth research and analysis of architectural text, an archeological study of remaining stone fragments and comparisons with buildings from the same period.

The enormous model is constructed up to the first order with architectural components in a resin and alabaster powder composite on a steel structure assembled on the north wall of the ex Teatro degli Intrepidi. Now called the Sala del Paradiso the space has been transformed into a theatre of architecture that forms a permanent stage from which the original sculptures can recite their parts from their original positions creating the perfect setting to accommodate their shifting relationships and dialogue with the visitor.

Contrary to today’s practice of placing copies of statues in the original monument, here the original statues are placed in a reproduction. The whole composition is bathed in natural light from above and replicates the remarkable insight displayed by Brunelleschi’s panel paintings demonstrating the geometry which regulates linear perspective with the Baptistery reproduced as seen from the central door of Arnolfo di Cambio’s Cathedral.

The facade facing the model is dressed in white marble and contains thirty “windows” and three massive vitrines, two of which contain the doors from the baptistery by Lorenzo Ghiberti. The third will contain the door by Andrea Pisano which will be installed in 2018. Housed behind this facade are three longitudinal galleries on three levels which are home to the ancient statues from the Bell Tower and historical wooden models of the cathedral facade. Through the “windows” the statues connect visually with those of the reconstructed facade thus visitors become paticipants in an epic architectural spectacle that presents the artworks from the Cathedral and Bell Tower in an engaging and intelligible way.

Brunelleschi dome can be seen from it’s own two-story gallery space which is dedicated to the whole history and technology of the Cupola.

The Museum has many more exhibition halls and rooms, a total of twenty eight.

The Tribuna di Michelangelo contains the great sculptors magnificent Pietà.

The Pietà has had a tormented history: battered with a hammer in frustration by Michelangelo himself it was subsequently restored and, after being transferred from one place to another, finally reached the museum where we have provided a final safe haven offering the space and light for which it was created.

The museum concludes with an unexpected exit at the top of the building where a terrace opens to the drum of the dome and the whole city of Florence as far as the hills that surround it.

Adolfo Natalini, February 2016

Text and Images courtesy of Natalini Architects – www.nataliniarchitetti.com

Photographs by Mario Ciampi