The first Gothic cloisters belong to the epoch of the foundation of
the church, and were probably designed by Arnolfo himself; the second,
early Renaissance, are Brunelleschi's. The Refectory, which is entered
from the first cloisters, contains a fresco of the Last Supper--one of
the earliest renderings of this theme for monastic dining-rooms--which
used to be assigned to Giotto, and is probably by one of his
scholars. This room had the invidious honour of being the seat of the
Inquisition, which in Florence had always--save for a very brief
period in the thirteenth century--been in the hands of the
Franciscans, and not the Dominicans. It never had any real power in
Florence--the _bel viver fiorentino_, which, even in the days of
tyranny, was always characteristic of the city, was opposed to its
influence. The beautiful chapel of the Pazzi was built by
Brunelleschi; its frieze of Angels' heads is by Donatello and
Desiderio; within are Luca della Robbia's Apostles and Evangelists.
Jacopo Pazzi had headed the conspiracy against the Medici in 1478,
and, after attempting to raise the people, had been captured in his
escape, tortured and hanged. It was said that he had cried in dying
that he gave his soul to the devil; he was certainly a notorious
gambler and blasphemer. When buried here, the peasants believed that
he brought a curse upon their crops; so the rabble dug him up, dragged
the body through the streets, and finally with every conceivable
indignity threw it into the Arno.
Behind Santa Croce two streets of very opposite names and traditions
meet, the _Via Borgo Allegri_ (which also intersects the Via
Ghibellina) and the _Via dei Malcontenti_; the former records the
legendary birthday of Italian painting, the latter the mournful
processions of poor wretches condemned to death.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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