Orsanmichele

The church of Orsanmichele (or Orchard of San Michele from the contraction for the word "orto"), located on the Via Calzaiuoli in Florence, was originally built as a grain market in 1337 by Francesco Talenti, Neri di Fioravante, and Benci di Cione. Between 1380 and 1404 it was converted into a church. On the ground floor of the square building are the 13th century arches that originally formed the loggia of the grain market.

Inside the church is Andrea Orcagna's bejeweled Gothic Tabernacle (1355-59) encasing a repainting by Daddi's of an older icon of the 'Madonna and Child' [1]. The faceades held 14 external niches, which were filled from 1399 to around 1430 with a treaure of masterpieces, including:

• 1) Virgin and Child (1399) by Simone di Ferrucci
• 2) Quattro Santi Coronati (Four Saints or Four Crowned Martyrs) (1408) by Nanni di Banco (for extended commentary see [2])
• 3) St. Luke (1405-10) by Giovanni Bologna (Giambologna) [3]
• 4) Saint Mark (1411) by Donatello [4]
• 5) St. Philip (1412-14) by Nanni di Banco [5]
• 6) St. Louis of Toulouse (1413) by Donatello [6]was replaced by Christ and St. Thomas (1464-83) by Andrea del Verrocchio [7]
• 7) St. Eligius (1411-15) by Nanni di Banco
• 8) St. James (1415) by Lamberti?
• 9) St. Peter (1415) by Ciuffagni
• 10) St. John the Baptist (1414-16) by Lorenzo Ghiberti[8]
• 11) St. George (1416) by Donatello [9]
• 12) St. Matthew (1419-20) by Lorenzo Ghiberti [10] (for extended commentary see [11])
• 13) St. Stephen (1428) by Lorenzo Ghiberti [12]
• 14) St. John the Evangelist by Baccio da Montelupo

The statues were requisitioned by: (numbers conforms to above list); 1) Medici e Speziali (doctors and apothecaries); 2) Maestri di Pietra e Legname (wood and stone workers); 3) Giudici e Notai (magistrates ); 4) Linaivoli e Rigattieri (linen-weavers and peddlars); 5) Calzauoli (shoemakers); 6) Tribunale di Mercanzia (merchants); 7) Maneschalchi (farriers); 8) Pellicciai (furriers); 9) Beccai (butchers); 10) Calimala (wool mechants); 11) Corazzai (armourers' ); 12) Cambio (bankers ); 13) Lana (wool manufacturers); 14) Seta (silk merchants). Observe that three richest guilds – italicized above - decided to make their figures in the far more costly bronze, which cost approximately ten times the amount of the stone figures.

Modern assessment

It can be easy today to overlook the niches at the periphery of the small Orsanmichele. Many pass over it for the airier Uffizi and the dazzling goliaths of the Bargello and Loggia dei Lanzi. But a brief walk around the church reveals some of the more obscure treasures of competitive quattrocento statuary and bespeaks the prowess of fifteenth century Florentine art. The Orsanmichele's statuary is a relic of the fierce devotion and pride of Florentine trades, and a reminder that great art often inhabits the crevices of warehouses and silos.

It is worth remembering that quattrocento Florentine art was commissioned and crafted by a population of under 100,000 citizens.

Today, all of the original sculptures have been removed and replaced with modern duplicates to protect them from the elements and vandalism [13]. The originals reside in the Bargello or the museum of Orsanmichele.

This article is licenced under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Orsanmichele".