Althea Rooms
La Scartoffia
Omero Benvenuti
Tourist informations
Entrance from: Piazza San Felice.
Opening hours: Holydays: 8-11.30AM; Working days: 8AM-7PM.
Admission ticket: Free.
Opening hours: Holydays: 8-11.30AM; Working days: 8AM-7PM.
Admission ticket: Free.
The church of San Felice in Piazza, located near Palazzo Pitti, contains a notable collection of paintings and frescoes reminiscent of the rôle of "Court church" it played when the Medici lived in the nearby Pitti Palace.
History
The church with a single nave was built before 11th Century (the first records about San Felice can be dated to 1066), but the building we see today goes back to the reconstruction in 14th Century and the façade, by Michelozzo, was built in 1457.
In the interior are still visible some parts of the frescoes (13th Century) which decorated all the walls: on the right wall, in particular, a fresco depicting the baptism of Jesus is clearly recognizable. The altars on the sides were added between 15th and 16th century.
Click to enlarge pictures.
After the fire of 1926 the church was deeply restored: the trestled ceiling was discovered and the windows of the choir in the first halfth of the church (16th Century) were brought back to their original form.
In the spotlight
Right wall: at the first altar, fragments of a fresco ascribed to Niccolò Gerini; at the fifth altar is to be seen a Pietà (terracotta, first quarter of 16th Century): it is ascribed to Andrea della Robbia or to Cieco di Gambassi; at the place once occupied by the sixth altar a fresco has been rediscovered: it portraits a Madonna, the so-called Madonna della Cintola (florentine school, 13th Century);
Main Chapel: it was bult in 14th Century, but underwent a reconstruction in the following century and is now characterized by a big stone arch and the painted wooden crucifix (beginnings of 14th Century, from the school of Giotto);
Left wall: at the first altar, triptych with scenes from the life of the Saints Rocco, Antonio Abate and Caterina, ascribed to Botticelli; at the sixth altar another triptych by Neri di Bicci, characterized by the gold ground: a very old-fashioned element for a painting of 1467; at the seventh altar, Saint Massimo soccoured by Saint Felice, fresco by Giovanni da San Giovanni completed in 1636 by Volterrano (who painted the angels).
