San Fiorenzo
(rebuilt in 1471-1519, remodelled in 1763-70)
View of the apse, cupola and campanile from the
covered market in Piazza Matteotti (see Walk II)
The squat tower with the terracotta roof belongs to a nearby house
Local tradition identifies this as the site of an 8th century oratory that was dedicated to St Florentius. In the 11th century, the Camaldolesian Abbazia di San Salvatore di Monte Acuto built a church and convent here, again dedicated to St Florentius, and their ownership was confirmed by Pope Nicholas II in 1059 and by Pope Gregory VII in 1075.
St Florentius was believed to have been buried in Santa Maria di Monterone (later Santa Maria delle Grazie - see the Detour II, Walk VI), outside Perugia. This church was characterised as dependent upon San Fiorenzo in a bull of Pope Eugenius III in 1145. At some point, the relics of St Florentius seem to have been translated
from Santa Maria di Monterone to San Fiorenzo (presumably for greater
safety). Both churches, like their mother house, passed to the Cistercians in 1234.
In ca. 1260, the hermit Raniero Fasani miraculously entered the locked church after the vision that inspired him to devote his life to promoting penance and self-flagellation.
In 1312, the civic statutes imposed the local celebration of the feast of St Florentius in an effort to revive his cult. In 1348, at the height of the Black Death, the Cistercians of found the headless body of St Florentius beneath the high altar and paraded it through the city. St Florentius became an important plague saint in Perugia from this point: a similar procession was held, for example, during the plague of 1400.
The monastery had passed in commendum to Cardinal Enrico Minutoli by 1394, the year in which he transferred it to a community of monks of the who had been forced to leave their monastery in Bosco di Bacco. They belonged to Congregation of Corpus Christi, a group of eight mostly Umbrian monasteries that had its headquarters at Santa Maria in Campis, Foligno and was under the jurisdiction of the Camaldolesian Abbazia di San Salvatore di Monte Acuto, Umbertide. The cohesion of the group was not particularly strong and two of the monsteries, San Fiorenzo and Santa Maria in Campis, transfered to the jurisdiction of the Cistercian Abbazia di San Galgano in 1395.
In 1444, Pope Eugenius IV
removed the Cistercians at the behest of the reforming Cardinal Domenico Capranica, and gave San Fiorenzo to the Servite
Observants. They began the protracted rebuilding of the church and convent. It seems that the cult of St Florentius as a plague saint
had declined by this time, perhaps overtaken by the cults that had grown up around processional banners such as:
the Gonfalone di Santa Maria della Pace (1464), which the Commune had commissioned during the outbreak of plague and housed at San Francesco al Prato; and
the Gonfalone di Santa Maria Nuova (1471), which the Confraternita di San Benedetto commissioned for their altar in Santa Maria Nuova.
The Servites therefore commissioned the Gonfalone di
San Fiorenzo (see below) during an outbreak of plague in 1476, and housed it in a tabernacle (1480) on an altar in the church. The Commune made a contribution towards the cost of this tabernacle.
The bones of Galeazzo Alessi were interred in a monument on the left wall of the left transept in ca. 1572. The epitaph asserts that Galeazzo was a friend of Michelangelo and Antonio da Sangallo, and esteemed by Pope Paul III, Pope Pius V, King Philip II of Spain and the Republic of Genoa. It was presumably Philip II who gave him the title recorded on the epitaph of Cavaliere di Portogallo (Knight of Portugal).
The church, which is in the shape of a Latin cross with a single nave, was rebuilt in 1763-70 according to a design by Pietro Carattoli. The present portal replaced the original double doors at that time.
The convent was suppressed in 1863 and is now put to secular use. The door by the column on the left side of the church leads to what is now the University of the Third Age: if it is open, you can see the 15th century cloister of what was the monastery attached to the church.
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Interior
The appearance of the church was trasnformed in 1763-70 according to a design by Pietro Carattoli. The originally rectilinear apse and transept chapels were reduced in
size and given semi-circular floor plans, and two Gothic chapels off
the left side of the nave were walled up.
A document produced early in the 18th century for Cardinal Marcantonio Ansidei related to the two Ansidei chapels in the church:
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Filippo di Ansideo di Simone de Catrano, who lived at the nearby palazzo Ansidei (see Walk VI) endowed the Cappella di San Nicolò in 1483. This was on a pilaster in the nave at the junction with the left transept.
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Antonio and the heirs of Bernardino di Piergiovanni de Catrano (who belonged to a cadet Benincasa branch of the Ansidei family) endowed the Cappella del Beato Filippo Benizi on the right wall of the nave in 1515.
These chapels were dismantled when the church was re-modelled in 1763. The Cappella di San Nicolò was later re-assembled further down the left side of the nave and now contains a 19th century copy of its original altarpiece, the Pala Ansidei by Raphael (see below).
The church is usually closed, although access is sometimes possible when it is in use for secular activities.
Madonna and Child (14th century)
This detached fresco in the niche in the presbytery was originally in a tabernacle in the nearby Vicolo della Madonna. It became a cult object after it performed a miracle in 1617, was detached in 1646 and installed here in 1770.
Scenes from the life of San Fiorenzo (1612-30)
These seven frescoes by Matteucci Salvucci in the lunettes of the sacristy (reached from the right transept) form part of a cycle that covers all four walls. Salvucci worked on them until his death in 1827, after which Antonio Maria Fabrizi completed them.
Works removed from the Church
Gonfalone di San Fiorenzo (1476)
The friars commissioned this banner, which is attributed to Benedetto Bonfigli and dated by inscription, during an outbreak of plague, using money left to them in the will of one Petrus Galiotti Gregorii Cantagallina. It was kept in a tabernacle (1480) on an altar in the church that was paid for by the Commune.In the 16th century, the Confraternita di SS Simone e Fiorenzo had the right to carry the
banner when it was taken in procession during times of plague. The brothers still
performed this function as late as the 17th century, notwithstanding
the poor condition of the banner. By the early 19th century, they had become the official custodians of the banner, and
in 1807 they moved it to a new altar that they had constructed in the right
transept of the church. The banner was moved from this altar to the Museo Capitolare (Room 18) in 2006.
The
banner depicts the Madonna with an extraordinary image of the naked
baby Jesus standing in a basket of red roses with his arms
outstretched, already carrying the marks of the Crucifixion. An angel
below carries a scroll with a long poem that exhorts the citizens of
Perugia to mend their evil ways. SS Sebastian and Florentius intercede
for the city alongside two of the seven founders of the Servite order,
both of whom were later canonised:
St Philip Benizi, who was Prior General of the Servites from 1267 until his death in 1285 and was the first Servite to be canonised (in 1671); and
St Peregrine Laziosi. As a young man, he slapped Philip Benizi during an affray in ca. 1290, and was converted when his victim turned the other cheek. He became a Servite and later cured himself of cancer of the foot by prayer. He died (from other causes) in 1345 and was canonised in 1726.
Pala Ansidei (1505)
Giorgio Vasari recorded the presence of this altarpiece by Raphael, which is dated by inscription, in the "Cappella dei Ansidei". As noted above, this family had two chapels in the church: however, only the Cappella di San Nicolò existed in 1505. Filippo di Ansideo di Simone de Catrano, who had endowed it in 1483, had also left
money in his will in 1490 for an altarpiece. It
seems likely that Nicolò, his eldest surviving son commissioned this altarpiece for that purpose.
The altarpiece depicts the Madonna and Child enthroned with SS John the
Baptist and Nicholas of Bari (the name saints, respectively, of Nicolò and his son Giovanni Battista).
These figures are set in a fictive chapel that seems to have been
inserted (albeit seamlessly) into the composition at a late stage
because the real "chapel" for which the altarpiece was destined was in
fact (as noted above) on a pilaster in the nave. The fictive architecture
would have asserted the importance of the location in the context of
the grander recessed chapels further down the left side of the nave.
The altarpiece probably remained in its original location until the re-modelling of the church in 1763. The Servites sold the main panel and
a predella panel of St John the Baptist preaching
to the family of the 3rd Duke of Marlborough in the following year. Unfortunately, the other predella panel showing St Nicholas
of Bari saving a sinking ship, has been lost. The surviving panels
were displayed at Blenheim Palace, Oxfordshire until 1883, when they were "saved for
the nation". They are now in the National Gallery, London.
Madonna and Child with saints (1515)
Antonio and the heirs of Bernardino di
Piergiovanni de Catrano (who belonged to a cadet Benincasa branch of
the Ansidei family) commissioned this altarpiece from Sinibaldo Ibi for the Cappella del Beato Filippo Benizi, which they endowed in 1515.
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The main panel, which depicts the Madonna and Child enthroned with SS John the Baptist, Philip Benizi, Florentius and Joseph, passed to the Accademia di Belle Arti in 1810. It is now in the deposit of the Galleria Nazionale.
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The predella, which seems to have included a panel of the Marriage of the Virgin, has been lost.
St Florentius (ca. 1630)
This altarpiece by Antonio Maria Fabrizi is now in the deposit of the Galleria Nazionale.Return to Walk VI.