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Construction on the temple, one of the finest examples of pure Florentine Romanesque architecture, first started in 1018, thanks to Bishop Ildebrando, and continued until 1207. The facade was carried out in white Carrara and green Prato marble (12th-13th centuries). The spectacular facade of San Miniato was to inspire Alberti's completion of the facade of Santa Maria Novella in the 15th century and the covering of the facades of the Duomo and Santa Croce in the 19th century.

According to tradition, the martyr St Miniatus, who was suffered during the persecution of Decius in the 3rd century, was buried on the hill where the church bearing his name now stands.

San Minias by Della Robbia in the Sacresty

Linger, however, your eyes also on the step behind the first door on the left (facing the front) on which is engraved the inscription in Latin "Haec est Porta Coeli" (This is the gate of heaven).The inscription, taken from Genesis, refers to the words spoken by Jacob, after seeing the famous ladder of angels who descend and ascend to God, and reported in various Christian churches. In this case the inscription referred to the fact that this was the Holy Door, the door through which the Florentines could get in touch and make peace with Heaven.

Fresco - Annunciation

Under the Church a monumental cemetery with valuable statues, officially known as the Cimitero delle Porte Sante, was created around 1839.

Under the Church a monumental cemetery with valuable statues

Statue in the cemetery

San Miniato al Monte Cimitero Monumentale delle Porte Sante

The only tomb in the church is the

Renaissance Chapel of the

Cardinal of Portugal (1461-66) in the left-

hand nave was built by

Brunelleschi's pupil Antonio Manetti for Jacopo di

Lusitania, the Cardinal

Archbishop of Lisbon, who died

in Florence in 1459.

The five medallions on the ceiling are by Luca della Robbia (1400–1482) The Four Hinges of the Moral Life surrounding the Holy Spirit

The enameled terra-cotta ceiling (1466) of the Chapel of the Cardinal of Portugal

The cardinal virtues are the four principal moral virtues. The English word cardinal comes from the Latin word cardo, which means "hinge." All other virtues hinge on these four: prudence, justice, fortitude, and temperance

Luca della Robbia died in Florence during February of 1483, taking most of his secrets of tin based glaze with him

A white-glazed maiolica tondo with Temperance,painted in blue and manganese. The ceramic slightly concave with relief, fired as one. The front with crescent-shaped firing crack to lower third, reverse with old stapled restoration, chips.After Luca della Robbia's design for the vault of the Cappella del Cardinale del Portogallo

Alessio Baldovinetti (1425 – 1499) Annunciazione (The Annunciation)

The Cappella del Cardinale del

Portogallo, "one of the most magnificent

funerary monuments of

the Italian Renaissance“,

was built in 1473 as a memorial to Cardinal James

of Lusitania, who died in Florence, to which he was

Portuguese ambassador, in

1459.

The chapel is a collaboration of

outstanding artists of

Florence: it was designed by

Brunelleschi's associate,

Antonio Manetti, and finished after

his death by Giovanni

Rossellino. The tomb was made by Antonio and

Bernardo Rossellino. The

chapel decoration is by

Alesso Baldovinetti, Antonio and

Piero del Pollaiuolo, and

Luca della Robbia.

Antonio del Pollaiuolo, Angel (detail), 1467

Alessio Baldovinetti (1425 – 1499) Annunciazione (The Annunciation)

The chapel of the Cardinal of Portugal (Cappella del Cardinale di Portogallo), was commissioned by the Portuguese King Alfons V as a monument to his nephew, and built by Manetti between 1461 and 1466, very much on the lines of Brunelleschi's Old Sacristy for San Lorenzo. The decor brings together Christian and Classical concepts, with Antonio Rossellino's sarcophagus recalling a Roman Mithraic sacrifice, but decorated with putti and angels. The recumbent figure of the deceased is aligned with the empty judge's throne opposite as a warning of the Last Judgment. This monument, in its entirety, should be regarded a forerunner of Michelangelo's sarcophagi in the New Sacristy of San Lorenzo.

Copie of the Altarpiece of the Saints Vincent, James and Eustace, by Antonio (his students included Sandro Botticelli) and Piero del Pollaiuolo, 1468, tempera on panel, 172 x 179 cm, Florence, Galleria degli Uffizi

Copie of the Altarpiece of the Saints Vincent, James and Eustace, by Antonio and Piero del Pollaiuolo, 1468,. (Original now in Uffizi Gallery)

Sound: Cecilia Bartoli - La mort d'Ophélie (Hector Berlioz)

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Presentation: Sanda Foişoreanuwww.slideshare.net/michaelasanda