Cappella Sassetti

The Sassetti Chapel is located in the Florentine Basilica of Santa Trinita and is considered one of the most important sacred spaces in the city. The wealthy banker Francesco Sassetti, a member of the Medici circle, acquired the chapel in 1478 after his request for a depiction of St. Francis in the Dominican church of Santa Maria Novella had been rejected. He commissioned Domenico Ghirlandaio, then a highly renowned painter, to decorate it. The frescoes themselves were created between 1483 and 1486, while the central altarpiece, the Adoration of the Shepherds, was completed in 1485. The chapel's Gothic style, with its pointed arch, forms the frame for this monumental pictorial world, which was restored in 2004.

The fresco cycle on the three walls tells the life story of St. Francis in six scenes, including the renunciation of worldly goods, the confirmation of the Franciscan Rule, the trial by fire, the miracle of the stigmata, the death of the saint, and the raising of a boy from the dead. Ghirlandaio drew on influences from the Flemish school, particularly the Portinari Altarpiece, which shows in the realistic depiction and the detailed perspective. Especially striking is the inclusion of numerous contemporaries from Florentine society, among them Lorenzo de' Medici, his son and later Pope Leo X, and the poet Angelo Poliziano. These portraits are regarded as authentic records of the 15th century, as they are neither stylized nor idealized.

Besides the wall paintings, the altarpiece impresses with its symbolic depth and its finely rendered landscape, in which Rome and Jerusalem are reflected as metaphors for the importance of Florence. On the side walls are the tombs of Francesco Sassetti and his wife Nera Corsi, who rest beneath a gilded arch by Giuliano da Sangallo. Kneeling donor portraits flank the altar and direct the viewer's gaze to the central scene. Even beyond the chapel's actual boundaries, in the upper transept, you will find further frescoes by the Ghirlandaio brothers, which were not rediscovered until the 19th century.