Basilica of San Lorenzo, Florence, Italy

 The Renaissance architecture style emphasis on symmetry, proportion, geometry and the regularity of parts
as they are demonstrated in the architecture of Classical antiquity and in particular, the architecture of
Ancient Rome.
 Orderly arrangements of columns, pilasters and lintels, as well as the use of semicircular arches,
hemispherical domes, niches and aedicule replaced the more complex proportional systems and irregular
profiles of medieval buildings
• The church was designed by the architect Filippo Brunelleschi and was built between 1422 and
1470.
• Main body of the church is mostly built after death of Brunelleschi.
• The church is part of a larger monastic complex that contains other important architectural
works:-
 the Old Sacristy by Brunelleschi
 the New Sacristy based on Michelangelo's designs

• Plan is basilican in form.

• Central arcaded flat ceilinged space.
• Square Sail-vaulted side aisles and shallow dark side chapels(added after 1463).
• Sacristy grouped around the domed crossing and transepts.
• The nave is brightly lit from clerestory windows and oculi in the aisles.
• The structures of vertical and horizontal support columns, pilasters, arches and color differ
materially from those additional structures, walls and windows.
• The main chapel is open to the transept, and has the same height and width as the nave.
• The attempt to create a proportional relationship between nave and aisle (aisle bays are square
whereas nave bays are 2X1)
• The articulation of the structure in ‘dark stone’(grey stone column against white plaster walls).
• The use of an integrated system of column, arches, entablatures.
• A clear relationship between column and pilaster.
• The use of proper proportions for the height of the columns.
• The use of spherical segments in the vaults of the side aisles.
• The west front facade has remained in the same state since 1480, showing a naked and flat front
of coarse terracotta bricks increasingly drilled through time.
Old Sacristy or Sagrestia Vecchia

• Opening off the north transept is the square, domed space.

• Designed by Brunelleschi.
• It contains the tombs of several members of the Medici family.
• Composed of a cube, with a hemispherical umbrella dome composed of twelve vaults
supported on pendentives, and a smaller domed altar chapel with concave niches; the
cube acting as the human world and the sphere the heavens.
• A rhythmic system of pilasters, arches that emphasize the space’s geometric unity.
• The pilasters support an entablature, the only purpose of which is to divide the space
into two equal horizontal zones.
• The use of colour is restricted to grey for the stone and white for the wall. The correct
use of the Corinthian order for the capitals was also new.

New Sacristy or Sagrestia Nuova

• Opposite it in the south transept.

• Designed by Michelangelo.
• It composed of three registers, the topmost topped by a coffered pendantive dome.
• The combination of grey stone and white plaster on the lower register is carried
through to the second façade.
• In plan, it mirrors Brunelleschi’s Old Sacristy opposite.
• In strong contrast to dark stone are bizarre tomb monuments in the centre of side walls,
made of highly polished white Carrara marble.
• In the corner bay are marble doors with slab-like cornices doubling as the cills for
oversize niches above.
• Their recesses capriciously breaking upwards and outwards into their crowning
segmental pediments.
• Beneath the coffered dome, the Sacristy is illuminated by four extra windows with
exaggeratedly tapering frames.

References –
• https://en.wikiarquitectura.com/building/basilica-of-san-lorenzo/#
• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Lorenzo,_Florence
• http://www.sacred-destinations.com/italy/florence-san-lorenzo