Architectural Geology of Florence, Part 10: In Praise of Geologically Driven Evolution | Santa Maria Novella Basilica (14th century AD; current facade completed in 1470), Tuscany, Italy
Taken in the Piazza Santa Maria Novella and facing westward.
This building suffers from a severe excess of symmetry. Its facade's designer, Leon Battista Alberti, was obviously a madman, demonically possessed by a geometry that filled his head with boxes, scrolls, spinning wheels, and solar symbols.
For that reason and several others I love this church dearly. In fact I consider it one of the handful of The World's Greatest Buildings, along with the Hagia Sofia, Chicago's John Hancock Center, the Pantheon, the Milwaukee Art Museum, and a few more I could mention.
Having done my duty by reading several books on Italian architecture before I ever stepped foot in Italy, I had seen more than one black-and-white illustration of Santa Maria Novella's famous front side. They had little if any effect on me.
But on the day I first stood in front of this basilica in all of its nonvirtuality, I was transported into the state I call holy-shmolitude. This term is derived from the minced oath "Holy Shmoly!" and signifies the kind of jaw-dropping awe produced by suddenly finding oneself in the presence of something that works perfectly.
To get this facade to work perfectly, Alberti had to somehow make his mania for roundness and right angles conformable to the preexisting Gothic arches at the base. And he pulled it off.
And I think he pulled it off by being geologically rather than geometrically consistent: by not downplaying the alternating white (Carrara Marble) and green (Prato Serpentinite) of the Gothic arches' voussoirs. Instead, he expanded the scheme upward. It makes a medieval style flow into its successor in an act of seamless evolution. I would dare say that the design would not have been half as viscerally powerful if Alberti had removed the Gothic-ness altogether. But then I tend to be biased toward mixed forms and functions.
But getting back to my original point about excess, just look at those grand volutes flanking the oculus box. I mean, really look at them. Their huge size is simultaneously perfect and preposterous. And their two Tuscan metamorphic rock types are set in such elaborate and harmonious detail, which more than a little presages the botanically inspired ornament of American architect Louis Sullivan. They prove that mania and a clear eye for reason and harmony can coexist in the same mind.
- - - - - - - -
Many years after experiencing holy-shmolitude during the hours I spent in this church and its cloister, I researched its architectural geology in my own manic way, in my own manic land. So far I have verified the following rock types used in Santa Maria Novella. In the list below, (e) = verified for church exterior; (i) = verified church interior; (c) = verified for cloister; (s) = verified as a structural material.
1. Carrara Marble. White, (e), (i), (c). Its protolith (original rock type) was a limestone or dolostone formed on a carbonate platform in an arm of the Tethys Ocean from late Triassic to early Jurassic time. Later, it was metamorphosed into true, calcitic to dolomitic marble when it was buried deep under nappes (thrust sheets) of other rock during crustal compression in the late Oligocene and early Miocene epochs. Quarried since Roman times in the Apuan Alps north of Pisa, in and near Carrara.
2. Prato Serpentinite. Green, (e), (i), (c). An exotic metamorphic type derived from dunite, an ultramafic mantle rock. It dates to the Jurassic period. Quarried in the vicinity of Prato.
3. Montagnola Senese Marble. Yellow to butterscotch, (i). Its origin and ages are the same as the Carrara Marble's. As its name indicates, this gorgeous, premium-quality ornamental selection is quarried on a hill near Siena.
4. Scaglia Toscana Limestone. Red, (i). Deposited in the long span from the Cretaceous period to the Oligocene epoch. In its unweathered form this marly limestone is more solidly red, though it can develop white zones as it ages. Quarried in Monsummano and other places in Tuscany.
5. Pietraforte Sandstone. Buff to a rich brown, (s). (e), (i), (c). An Upper Cretaceous turbiditic sandstone. This workhorse of Florentine architecture is best seen on the apse exterior facing the train station, or in the nave's columns. Quarried locally, in the hills on the southern side of the Arno River.
You'll find the other photos and descriptions of this series in my Architectural Geology of Florence album.
Architectural Geology of Florence, Part 10: In Praise of Geologically Driven Evolution | Santa Maria Novella Basilica (14th century AD; current facade completed in 1470), Tuscany, Italy
Taken in the Piazza Santa Maria Novella and facing westward.
This building suffers from a severe excess of symmetry. Its facade's designer, Leon Battista Alberti, was obviously a madman, demonically possessed by a geometry that filled his head with boxes, scrolls, spinning wheels, and solar symbols.
For that reason and several others I love this church dearly. In fact I consider it one of the handful of The World's Greatest Buildings, along with the Hagia Sofia, Chicago's John Hancock Center, the Pantheon, the Milwaukee Art Museum, and a few more I could mention.
Having done my duty by reading several books on Italian architecture before I ever stepped foot in Italy, I had seen more than one black-and-white illustration of Santa Maria Novella's famous front side. They had little if any effect on me.
But on the day I first stood in front of this basilica in all of its nonvirtuality, I was transported into the state I call holy-shmolitude. This term is derived from the minced oath "Holy Shmoly!" and signifies the kind of jaw-dropping awe produced by suddenly finding oneself in the presence of something that works perfectly.
To get this facade to work perfectly, Alberti had to somehow make his mania for roundness and right angles conformable to the preexisting Gothic arches at the base. And he pulled it off.
And I think he pulled it off by being geologically rather than geometrically consistent: by not downplaying the alternating white (Carrara Marble) and green (Prato Serpentinite) of the Gothic arches' voussoirs. Instead, he expanded the scheme upward. It makes a medieval style flow into its successor in an act of seamless evolution. I would dare say that the design would not have been half as viscerally powerful if Alberti had removed the Gothic-ness altogether. But then I tend to be biased toward mixed forms and functions.
But getting back to my original point about excess, just look at those grand volutes flanking the oculus box. I mean, really look at them. Their huge size is simultaneously perfect and preposterous. And their two Tuscan metamorphic rock types are set in such elaborate and harmonious detail, which more than a little presages the botanically inspired ornament of American architect Louis Sullivan. They prove that mania and a clear eye for reason and harmony can coexist in the same mind.
- - - - - - - -
Many years after experiencing holy-shmolitude during the hours I spent in this church and its cloister, I researched its architectural geology in my own manic way, in my own manic land. So far I have verified the following rock types used in Santa Maria Novella. In the list below, (e) = verified for church exterior; (i) = verified church interior; (c) = verified for cloister; (s) = verified as a structural material.
1. Carrara Marble. White, (e), (i), (c). Its protolith (original rock type) was a limestone or dolostone formed on a carbonate platform in an arm of the Tethys Ocean from late Triassic to early Jurassic time. Later, it was metamorphosed into true, calcitic to dolomitic marble when it was buried deep under nappes (thrust sheets) of other rock during crustal compression in the late Oligocene and early Miocene epochs. Quarried since Roman times in the Apuan Alps north of Pisa, in and near Carrara.
2. Prato Serpentinite. Green, (e), (i), (c). An exotic metamorphic type derived from dunite, an ultramafic mantle rock. It dates to the Jurassic period. Quarried in the vicinity of Prato.
3. Montagnola Senese Marble. Yellow to butterscotch, (i). Its origin and ages are the same as the Carrara Marble's. As its name indicates, this gorgeous, premium-quality ornamental selection is quarried on a hill near Siena.
4. Scaglia Toscana Limestone. Red, (i). Deposited in the long span from the Cretaceous period to the Oligocene epoch. In its unweathered form this marly limestone is more solidly red, though it can develop white zones as it ages. Quarried in Monsummano and other places in Tuscany.
5. Pietraforte Sandstone. Buff to a rich brown, (s). (e), (i), (c). An Upper Cretaceous turbiditic sandstone. This workhorse of Florentine architecture is best seen on the apse exterior facing the train station, or in the nave's columns. Quarried locally, in the hills on the southern side of the Arno River.
You'll find the other photos and descriptions of this series in my Architectural Geology of Florence album.